ENHANCING STUDENTS PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING LESSONS THROUGH ADAPTING SOME SPEAKING ACTIVITIES IN ENGLISH 10 AT TINH GIA

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Although the English 10,11,12 textbooks to school curriculum have
shown a great deal of improvement as compared with the old series of
grammar-based, it seems that not all activities or tasks in the books are
suitable to the different teaching and learning contexts of different
localities within Vietnam.
When teaching English 10, 11, 12 at Tinh Gia 2 high school, I find that not all
activities or tasks in the textbooks are suitable to the different teaching
and learning contexts of different localities within Vietnam, especially
there are some problems with some activities in the textbook. Some are too
difficult for students, some are not real communicative, some are too long. All
these reasons greatly contribute to the de-motivation of

students from

participating in the lessons at Tinh Gia 2 high school. In this case, it is
necessary for teachers to adapt the content of the core books to make each
activity and unit more suitable and interesting for learners. The above
mentioned reasons have inspired me to conduct a research titled
“ENHANCING

STUDENTS'

PARTICIPATION

IN

SPEAKING

LESSONS THROUGH ADAPTING SOME SPEAKING ACTIVITIES

IN ENGLISH 10 AT TINH GIA 2 HIGH SCHOOL"
2. Aims of the research
 To investigate the reasons why teachers at Tinh Gia 2 high school
should adapt some speaking activities in Tieng Anh 10 from both teachers
and students’ viewpoints.
 To determine the effect of the adapted activities in inducing students’
participation in speaking lessons. Basing on the findings, some
implications will finally be proposed by the writer.
3. Scope of the research

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Adapting some speaking activities in Tieng Anh 10 is focused on and
tested in classes at Tinh Gia 2 high school. As the result, the samples of the
research were restricted 87 students at 10 form at Tinh Gia 2 high school.
4. Methods of the research
This research adopts both quantitative and qualitative approaches to
identify the reasons why teachers should adapt some activities in Tieng Anh
10 to increase students’ participation at Tinh Gia 2 high school.
Data were collected by means of textbook analysis, experiment and
observations.

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PART B : MAIN CONTENTS
1. An overview of adaptation
1.1. What is adaptation?
There are several definitions of adaptations by different scholars: Madsen

and Bowen (1978: ix) claimed adaptation is an action of employing “one or
more of a number of techniques: supplementing, expanding, personalizing,
simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or modifying cultural/ situational
content”. Tomlinson (1998b: xi) refers to “reducing, adding, omitting,
modifying and supplementing”.
1.2. The purpose of adaptation
1. to make the material more suitable for the circumstances or as Mc
Donough and Shaw (1993:85) put it: “to maximize the appropriacy of
teaching materials in context, by changing some of the internal
characteristics of a coursebook to better suit our particular
circumstances”
2. to compensate for any intrinsic deficiencies in the materials, such as
linguistic inaccuracies, out-of-datedness, lack of authenticity (Madsen
and Bowen 1978) or lack of variety.
1.3. Techniques for adaptation
 Adding
 Deleting: subtracting and abridging
 Simplifying
 Reordering
 Replacing materials
1.4. Levels of adaptation
Textbook adaptation can be done at three levels: The first level is
macro adaptation. The second level of adaptation is adapting a unit. The third
level is adaptation of specific activities in a unit.

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2. Research methodology
2.1. Research setting

2.1.1. The setting of the research
The research was conducted at Tinh Gia 2 high school. The school has
36 classes with over 76 teachers of all subjects. Currently there are 8 teachers
of English and 1458 students ranged from grade 10 to grade 12.
Although most students are aware of the importance of learning,
English is not paid much attention by most of the students in school. Few
students choose English as a subject to take Group A1, D exam. Teaching
English, especially teaching English speaking has met some difficulties. The
first is the large size classes. There are about 44 students in each class. It is
difficult for teachers to set up communicative activities, monitor class and
give feedback. The second is that most students are not familiar with teaching
in English. They cannot understand lessons if teachers speak English all the
time.
Normally, students have three or four periods of studying English every
week. It is a limited time for students to practice and develop skills as well as
enrich their vocabulary and structure capacity. Moreover, English is hardly
used to talk outside the classroom. All these factors have great effect on the
students’ results in learning English especially in learning speaking.
2.1.2 Speaking materials
For speaking skill, its aim is to develop students’ speaking competence
beginning with a range of the specific information to a complete theme. A
speaking lesson often consists of 3-4 tasks. The first task provide learners
with language input and help learners develop language specific functions
such as expressing opinions, agreements and disagreements, soon. The next
tasks (task 3 or task 4) require students to connect the first two tasks, add

4


some more information and change it into a complete topic, then talk out with

or without the guide of the teacher.
The textbook also provides students with the language background
relating to habit, custom, culture etc that is easy and helpful for students to
practise. The book has shown a great deal of improvement as compared
with the old book of grammar-based textbook; however, it also bears
several limitations. For example, many of their speaking activities are
found non-communicative.
2.1.3. Research design
This research was a quasi-experimental study, using observations
“before” and “at the end” of the experiment, questionnaires for students.
For this study, two classes of 87 10th grade students at Tinh Gia 2 high
school were asked to participate in this experiment. One class was employed
as an experimental group. The other was employed as a control group. Each
class consisted of 43 students. The researcher taught each group 3 lessons
using the current textbook Tieng Anh 10. The teacher instructed the control
group in the usual fashion. The same lessons were taught to the experimental
group with adapted activities.
After the experiment, the degrees of participation of the two groups
were compared and then some conclusions were drawn out about the
relationship between the use of the adapted speaking activities and the level of
the students’ participation in the speaking lessons.
2.1.4. Participants
The participants in this research were 87 10th grade students from two
classes: 10A5 and 10A9 at Tinh Gia2 high school. All students must attend 3
English classes a week. The control group, group 10A9 included 44 students
with 37 student girls and 7 student boys while the experimental group, group
10A5 had 43 students with 29 females and 14 males. The two groups seemed
to have a relatively similar level of proficiency in English as determined by
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their previous term exam on English grammar, reading and writing. In the
researcher’ observation, the levels of participation of the two group in
learning English in general and in learning speaking in particular were
relatively equal. This initial assumption was later justified by the pre-activity
observation.
2.1.5. Data collection instruments
Classroom observations
Before the experiment
The three other English teachers observed the two classes in 3 speaking
periods to be aware of the degrees of the students’ participation before the
experiment. The degrees of participation were measured in term of their
talking time. The before experiment classroom observations are vitally
important. The result decided whether we would have the following research.
If the present level of participation was unsatisfactory, we would have to find
out the way to improve their involvement. The data collected from the before
experiment classroom observations would be used to compare with the
degrees of participation of the control group and experimental group before
the interventions.
2.1.6. Data collection procedure
First, the three other English teachers observed the two classes in three
lessons to know the degrees of students’ participation before the experiment.
After collecting information from the observations, the researcher
taught two groups the three same lessons. For the control group the three
lessons were conducted using intact activities in the textbook. For the
experimental group, adapted activities were applied. During the treatment, the
three other English teachers observed and measured the talking time in both
groups to get the data for the research.
3. Results
3.1. Results from before-experiment-observations

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Table 1: STT and TTT in control and experimental group before the
experiment.
Control group (10A9)
Experimental group (10A5)
TTT
STT
Silence
TTT
STT
Silence
20
14
11
21
14
10
44 %
31%
24 %
47%
31%
22%
TTT: Teacher talking time; STT: Student talking time
From the all four lessons, it can be seen clearly that the level of
participation in classroom speaking activities of two classes was almost the
same and quite low. Students talking time made up approximately nearly one
third of the total time in each class.

In conclusion, the students’ participation in classroom speaking
activities was very poor. So it is urgent that teachers find out teaching
techniques to increase students’ participation. However, in order to have
suitable teaching techniques we must understand the reasons of the students’
low involvement.
3.2. Results from the end of experiment observations
3.2.1. Observations in control group
There was no change in the teacher’ teaching, all original activities in
Tieng Anh 10 were applied as usual. As a result, the amount of students
talking time and teacher talking time was almost the same as that of the
observations before the experiment.
3.2.2. Observations in experimental group
Adaptation
 Adapted lesson: Unit 14: THE WORLD CUP: Part B-Speaking:
 Adapted activity: Task 2. (Tieng Anh 10, page 145: 146).
 Time: This adaptation was delivered on March 13 th, 2018 in class 10A5
at Tinh Gia 2 high school.
 Reasons for adaptation:

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The writer of this paper finds that two activities in Unit 14- part



B- speaking aren’t real communicative activities. Task 2 was supposed to
be an information-gap activity but there is no gap in this activity at all.
Task 2 looked like a role-play activity, however, in fact, all students have
the same information. What they have to do is to make sentences using

the provided information. None of them provide a chance for genuine
exchange of information or opinions. In these two activities, students
listen to one another talking about things they already know. Students
possess the same information. Thus there is no reason for asking the
questions.
 Technique of adaptation: modifying
Activity (Task 2- page 146):



This activity was redesigned to be an information-gap one. The teacher
prepared some pairs of cards and asked students to work in pairs to find out
the missing information about the World Cup:
Set 1:
Card 1A:
Times
2
Year
1934
Host country
Italy
Winner
Italy
Score
2 -1
Runner-up Czechoslovakia

3
1938
France

Italy
4-2
Hungary

4
1950
Brazil
Uruguay
2 -1
Brazil

3
1938

4
1950

5
1954
Switzeland
West Germany
3 -2
Hungary

Card 1B:
Times
Year
Host country
Winner
Score

Runner-up

2
1934

8

5
1954


Set 2:
Card 2A:
Times
Year
Host
country
Winner
Score
Runner-up

6
1958
Sweden

7
1962
Chile

8

1966
England

9
1970
Mexico

Brazil
5-2
Sweden

Brazil
3-1
Czech

England
4-2
West
Germany

Brazil
4-1
Italy

6
1958

7
1962

8
1966

9
1970

10
1974
West
Germany
West
Germany
4-1
Netherlands

11
1978
Argentina

12
1982
Spain

13
1986
Mexico

Argentina

Italy

Argentina

3-1
Netherlands

3-1
West
Germany

3-2
West Germany

10
1974

11
1978

Card 2B:
Times
Year
Host
country
Winner
Score
Runner-up
Set 3:
Card 3A:
Times

Year
Host
country
Winner
Score
Runner-up

Card 3B:
Times
Year
Host
country

9

12
1982

13
1986


Winner
Score
Runner-up
Set 4:
Card 4A:
Times
Year
Host country

14
1990
Italy

15
1994
The USA

16
1998
France

Winner

West
Germany
1-0
Argentina

Brazil

France

17
2002
South Korea &
Japan
Brazil

3-2
Italy

3-0
Brazil

2-0
Germany

Times
Year
Host country
Winner
Score
Runner-up
Set 5:
Card 5A:

140
1990

15
1994

16
1998

17
2002

Times
Year
Host country

18
2006
Germany

Score
Runner-up
Card 4B:

19
20
2010
2014
South
Brazil
Africa
Winner
Italy
Spain
Germany
Score
1-1
1-0
1-0
Runner-up
France
Netherlands Argentina

In 2006 Italy won the game 5 - 3 in a penalty shoot-out

21
2018
Russia
France
4-2
Croatia

Card 5B:
Times
Year
Host country
Winner
Score
Runner-up

18
2006

19
2010

10

20
2014

21
2018



Observation of adaptation: Class description:
Class
10A5

Number of students
43

Time
45

Unit
Unit14: B Speaking

Lesson objective: By the end of the lesson, students will be able



to use the required language to ask and answer about the World Cup.
Procedure:


Warm-up:

The teacher put students in groups of 3-4, gave each group a paper in
which there were ten pictures of ten different sports. In 5 minute time,
students had to put right names of sports in pictures. The group had the right

answers in the shortest time would be the winners. The students in the class
participated excitedly in this competitive game. Teacher right after introduced
the new lesson: Unit 14- Speaking.
Task 2: Students were asked to work in pairs, the teacher gave each member
of one pair a card she had prepared at home. Students were told to find out
their missing information about the Asian Games in their card. Teacher made
model interactions with two good students in the class then students worked
in pairs. They were asked to practise speaking and write down all their
missing information. Students seemed to be eager to take part in this task.
They asked their partner and listened carefully to the answers to write down
the information they needed. After 5 minutes of pair work, teacher called
some volunteers to practice their speaking in front of the class. At first about
ten students raised their hands. The teacher gave them another pair of cards to
make sure that they did not read again what they had done. She created a
competitive atmosphere in the pair by promising to give two more marks to

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the person who could found out his or her all missing information in the
shorter time. Students became more excited with the task. More students
raised hands to practice speaking in front of the class. Teacher called four
pairs to speak and then she got other students to comment on their friends’
speaking. He corrected some wrong pronunciation and gave them marks.
At the end of the lesson, the teacher played the CD/ video for students
to listen to a very popular song. He asked students the name of the song. All
students knew it was “The cup of life” by Luis Gómez Escolar, Desmond
Child, Draco Rosa. It was the official song of the 1998 FIFA World Cup in
France. The lesson finished in a very warm and exciting atmosphere. The
experiment result can be illustrated as follow:

Table 2
Adaptation

Experimental group (minutes)
TTT
14
31%
STT
22
49%
Silence 9
20%

3.3. Students’ participation in experimental and control group in the
lesson at the end of the intervention.
Table 3: Results of experimental group’s participation:
Control group
Adaptation

(minutes)
TTT
20
44%
STT
14
31%
Silence 11
24%

Experimental group

14
22
9

(minutes)
31%
49%
20%

The data from the table shows that students’ talking time in
experimental class considerably increased compared to that figure of control
group. Students in experimental group spoke 8, 7 and 7 more minutes than
students in control class during adaptation 1, 2 and 3 respectively. In contrast,
teacher’s talking time in trial group was significantly reduced in comparison

12


with that number of the control group. We can see that in the adapted lesson 1,
teacher spoke 20 minutes in control group but in experimental group she just
decreased to only 14 minutes and the similar situation also happened in the
two following lessons. Meanwhile silence did not change much in these two
groups. This implies that a good impact of adapting activities on students’
participation.
The observation also reveals that the way the teacher adapted several
speaking activities in the textbook in class attracted a large number of
students. Students were really interested in the games, pictures teachers gave
them. They were excited in finding missing information which they did not
know from their friends to prove to their teacher and friends that they could
speak and understand English. When adapting task 2 in unit 14 into

information-gap activities the teacher gave his students a reason to speak.
Moreover, he had done it better when creating a real competitive atmosphere
between students. he rewarded marks for any students who could find out
their missing information in the shortest time. In this case, marks and praises
or positive comment were really useful means for the teacher to encourage
students to speak. Besides, he was supportive and friendly, which made the
students comfortable to join their voice in the lessons. This fact implies that
there was a high level of students’ participation in this experimental class.

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PART C: CONCLUSION
1. Summary of the research:
To bring out the most effective outcomes for the teaching and learning
process of speaking skill for grade 10 at Tinh Gia 2 high school the research
was carried out. It aimed at investigating the reasons why teachers at Tinh Gia
2 high should adapt speaking activities in the textbook English 10 from both
teachers and students’ viewpoints.
The research was carried out at two classes 10A5 and 10A9 at Tinh Gia
2 high school. The control group and the experimental group were chosen to
carry out the research of adapting speaking activities in English 10 to improve
students’ participation in speaking class. With the use of instruments such as
observation sheets, the researcher has found out three main reasons teachers at
Tinh Gia 2 highs school should adapt speaking activities in English 10. The
first reason is the requirements of some textbook activities are too challenging
compared to low proficiency levels of students at this rural school. Second,
some activities in the textbook lack of communicativeness and the language
used in some model dialogues are not authentic. The last cause is that
activities in the book are not diversified enough. Three reasons above greatly

lead to students’ low participation in the speaking class. This situation
requires teachers at Tinh Gia 2 high school to find out the solutions to
improve it. One of solutions is adapting inappropriate activities. The adapted
activities can increase students’ participation at Tinh Gia 2 high school. The
results of the experiment obtained through observations after each trial lesson
confirm the efficiency of the adapting technique in encouraging more students
to take part in class activities. To be more concrete, by applying games, songs
in various communicative speaking activities with proper procedures in the
class with teachers’ friendliness and supportiveness, the teacher could activate

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the students in speaking class to interact more with other students and teacher.
The teacher talking time reduced and the students talking time increased.
2. Implications
As shown in this research, the application of adapted activities can be
effective in improving students’ participation in English speaking class. In the
section below, I would like to give a description of some speaking activities
used appropriately in adaptations in the three lessons for this research and
propose a number of other types of speaking activities that can be used in
adaptation process to promote students’ participation in speaking class. The
researcher believes that these activities will create a communicative and
exciting learning environment where students will be motivated to involve in
speaking activities in English class.
2.1. Information gap
Each student has limited information which the other needs. They must
ask each other question to get the information. To be more communicative,
the answers should have some degree of ambiguity that needs to be cleaned
up with more questions. Information gaps can be done with street maps,

telling time and events, daily schedule, job interview, spelling, etc.
2.2. Problem-solving
This works best with small group. Present a problem and give groups
some time to discuss the best approaches or solutions and come to agreement
on a course of action. The problem should require a decision with pros and
cons and necessitate creative collaborative effort. It can be something like
deciding upon seven items to take along for a week in the wilderness, or
choosing between living in a model hotel in the city or in a cottage by a
mountain stream. Press learners to explain why they choose their answers.
2.3. Role play
Role plays are for more communicative than pre-written dialogues, but
they are often challenging and may be too difficult for students with low level
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of proficiency or shy students because they must come up with their own
language to fit a particular situation. To make a role- play less intimidating,
students may be allowed 5-10 minutes to think it first. Teachers may allow
students to write down their scripts, which is often necessary at lower levels.
2.4. Games
Students always want to play games. Speaking activities become more
interesting when they are designed in form of games.

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