Sử dụng các trò chơi giao tiếp để tăng cường sự tham gia của học sinh trong các giờ học kỹ năng nói tại trường THPT Hoành Bồ, Quảng Ninh (Luận văn thạc sĩ)

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

NGUYỄN HỒNG THẮM

USING COMMUNICATIVE GAMES TO ENHANCE
STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN ORAL ACTIVITIES AT
HOANH BO HIGH SCHOOL, QUANG NINH PROVINCE

SỬ DỤNG CÁC TRÒ CHƠI GIAO TIẾP ĐỂ TĂNG CƯỜNG
SỰ THAM GIA CỦA HỌC SINH TRONG CÁC GIỜ HỌC KỸ NĂNG
NÓI TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT HOÀNH BỒ, QUẢNG NINH

M.A THESIS
Field: English Linguistics
Code: 8220201

THAI NGUYEN – 2019


THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

NGUYỄN HỒNG THẮM

USING COMMUNICATIVE GAMES TO ENHANCE
STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN ORAL ACTIVITIES AT
HOANH BO HIGH SCHOOL, QUANG NINH PROVINCE

Sử dụng các trò chơi giao tiếp để tăng cường sự tham gia của học sinh
trong các giờ học kỹ năng nói tại trường THPT Hoành Bồ, QuảngNinh

M.A THESIS
Field: English Linguistics
Code: 8220201
Supervisor 1: Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Mai Huong
Supervisor 2: Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Que

THAI NGUYEN – 2019


CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I hereby declare that this submission of the minor thesis entitled “Using
Communicative Games to enhance Students’ Participation in Oral Activities at
Hoanh Bo High School, QuangNinh Province” is my own work. To the best of
my knowledge, it contains no materials previously published or written by another
person, or substantial of material which have been accepted for the award of any
other degree or diploma at SFL or any other educational institutions. The thesis has
not been submitted to any other examining body and has not been published. Any
contribution made to research by others is explicily acknowledged in the thesis.
Thai Nguyen, July 2019

Nguyen Hong Tham

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Supervisor 1: Dr. Nguyen Thi Mai Huong

Supervisor 2: Dr. Nguyen Thi Que

Date: July, 2019

i


DEDICATION

To my parents who taught me to be more patient,
My siblings,
My husband, Nguyen Ngoc Binh
My two sons, Nguyen Duy Phuong, Nguyen Hai Nam

And my friends
For their endless support
And being my constant sources of inspiration.

ii


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The researcher has succeeded in finishing this study, which has been greatly
improved by comments, corrections, guidance and ideas of many people. It is hard
to even begin to acknowledge personally all those who have had an impact on her
life and study during that making of this study.
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest thanks to Dr.Nguyen
Thi Mai Huong and Dr. Nguyen Thi Que, advisers, for their invaluable assistance,
encouragement as well as her guidance they gave me while I was doing my research
and for their constructive comments and suggestions in perfecting this thesis;
I am indebted to all the teachers at School of Foreign Languages, Thai
Nguyen University for their invaluable lessons, suggestions, moral support and
prayers for the completion of this study;

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Mrs Dang Thi
Hien, the Headmaster of Hoanh Bo High School for her permission to conduct the
study.
Thanks are due to all the teachers of English at Hoanh Bo High School for
their suggestions and validation of the test items and questionnaires.
Last but not least, I would like to send my sincere thanks to all the students
in 10A5 class at Hoanh Bo High School, the respondents of the study, for their
willingness in joining the experimental learning period and answering follow-up
questionnaires.

iii


ABSTRACT
The goal of this study was to evaluate the impacts of communicative games
and activities on students’ participation in oral lessons as validated through
teachers’ classroom observations and perceived by students participating in the
program. The respondents of the study include 30 grade 10A5 students and two
teacher observers at Hoanh Bo High School in Quang Ninh province during their
second semester of the school year 2018-2019.
The study was conducted during 8 weeks in which different communicative
games and activities were introduced to teach speaking skill. Students’ participation
was evaluated through 8 classroom observation sheets marked by two teacher
observers during class visits. In addition, a set of questionnaire was delivered to
students upon the accomplishment of the experimental teaching period regarding
their perception on level of participation in speaking as well as their evaluation of
the whole learning period after being exposed to communicative activities and
games.
The result of the study has shown that Communicative Games used in the pilot
teaching enhanced students’ participation in oral activities and students’ attitudes

towards Communicative Games used in the experimental teaching period were
positive. Therefore, Communicative Games are recommended in classroom
teaching to enhance students’ participation in oral activities.

iv


TABLE OF CONTENTS
STT

CONTENT

PAGE

1

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

i

2

DEDICATION

ii

3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

iii

4

ABSTRACT

iv

5

TABLE OF CONTENTS

v

6

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

vii

7

LIST OF TABLES

viii

8

LIST OF FIGURES

ix

9

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1

10

1.1. Introduction and rationale for the stud

1

11

1.2. Aims of the study

2

12

1.3. Scope of the study

2

13

1.4. Conceptual framework

3

14

1.5. Significance on of the study

4

15

1.6. Definition of terms

5

16

1.7. Structure of the thesis

5

17

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATUREAND

7

STUDIES
18
19

2.1. Related literature

7

2.1.1.Overview about speaking

7

20

2.1.1.1. Definitions of speaking

7

21

2.1.1.2. Characteristics of successful oral activities

8

22

2.1.1.3. Students’ participation in oral activities

10

23

2.1.2. Factors impacting on students’ participation in oral

11

activitie
24

2.1.2.1 Students’ factors

11

25

2.1.2.2. Teachers’ factors

11

v


26
27

2.1.2.3. Classroom’s factors

12

2.1.3. Using Communicative Language Games in teaching

12

speaking

28

2.1.3.1. The nature of communicative language games

12

29

2.1.3.2. The benefits of communicative language games

13

30

2.1.3.3. Types of games

14

31

2.2. Related studies

16

32

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

18

33

3.1. Research Design

18

34

3.2.The population and sampling

19

35

3.3. Data collection íntrument

19

36

3.4. Research Procedures

19

37

3.4.1. Results of classroom observations

19

38

3.4.2. Results from students’ questionaire

20

39

3.4.2.1 General information of the student respondents

20

40

3.4.2.2 Students’ perceptions on communicative activities

21

41

3.4.2.3 Students’ evaluation towards the experimental

21

learning period being exposed to the use of communicative
games
42

CHAPTER IV

22

43

4.1. Results of Classroom observations

24

44

4.2. Results from Students’ questionnaire

24

45

4.2.1. General information of the student respondents

24

46

4.2.2. Students’ perceptions on communicative activities

25

47

4.2.3. Students’ evaluation towards the experimental learning

27

period being exposed to the use of communicative games
48

CHAPTER V: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS

33

AND RECOMMENDATIONS
49

5.1. Summary of finding

33

vi


50

5.1.1. Results of the classroom observations

33

51

5.1.2. Results of the students’ questionnaire.

34

52

5.2. Conclusion

35

53

5.3. Recommendations

35

54

REFERENCES

35

55

APPENDICES

I

56

APPENDIX A: A LETTER OF REQUEST

I

57

APPENDIX B: A LETTER TO THE RESPONDENTS

II

58

APPENDIX C: A LETTER TO TEACHER OBSERVERS

III

59

APPENDIX D: OBSERVATION SHEET

IV

60

APPENDIX E: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS

VI

61

APPENDIX F: THE RESULTS OF QUESTIONNAIRE FOR

IX

STUDENTS
62

APPENDIX G: LESSON PLANS

XII

vii


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ABBREVIATION

FULL WORD

CGA

Communicative games

CLT

Communicative Language Teaching

CAR

Classroom Action Research

viii

LIST OF TABLES
TABLE

PAGE

1. Table 1.Classroom observation results

38

2. Table 2. General information of the student respondents

41

3. Table 3. Kinds of communicative games used by English teachers

45

4. Table 4. Participation due to speaking activities and games used.

46

5. Table 5. Participation due to Teacher’s teaching methodology.

48

6. Table 6. Participation due to Learners’ factors

50

7. Table 7. Students’ evaluation on the experimental learning period

52

ix


LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE
1. Figure 1. Students’ attitude towards playing games in English speaking
lessons
2. Figure 2. Frequency of teachers’ using communicative games

x

PAGE

42

44


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Introduction and rationale for the study
With the trend of globalization, English has been asserting its significant and
dominant role as a lingua franca, an international language, and a tool for
integration and development among all countries in all fields ranging from politics,
diplomacy, economy, education, travel to culture etc. And Vietnam is not an

exception.
Since Vietnam’s participation in WTO in 2007 and particularly the launch of
ASEAN community in 2015, the global and regional integration has necessarily led
to the arising requirement of fostering English teaching and learning across the
country so as to prepare for future generations of Vietnamese citizens who can
possess good English communication skills to be able to work cooperatively and
competitively in global markets. Therefore, English has been made a compulsory
subject in most of public schools in Vietnam. In addition to that, much attention has
also been paid into the improvement of English teaching methods to upgrade the
quality of teaching English in the entire educational system. As a result, the
teaching and learning of English have also been changing from the traditional
grammar-centered approach focusing on students’ ability to use correct grammatical
rules into communicative approach emphasizing communicative competences in
four main skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Of all the mentioned skills, speaking seems to play the core function in a
foreign language and also the main purpose that most of English learners desire to
achieve. According to Pattison (1992), a majority of language learners in the world
study English with the target of attaining good English-oral competence. In this
regard, the mastery of English speaking requires the learners to be good at both
linguistic knowledge and communicative competence to deal with each specific
situation. Due to these requirements, teaching and learning English in Vietnamese
high schools has often encountered with a lot of challenges and difficulties.
As an English teacher at Hoanh Bo High School in Quang Ninh province for
over ten years, the researcher has identified one of the challenges deterring the

I


development of communication skills, that is, the students here are reluctant to
participate in oral activities, which has led to their poor speaking performance. The

result of which may cause students a lack of confidence in learning English at
higher education or, even worse, a fear in communicating with foreigners in their
future workplace, which is extremely counterproductive in the context of
globalization. Hence, it is essential to find out the factors affecting students’
participation in classroom speaking lessons so that appropriate solutions will be
offered to tackle the problem.
Of all aforementioned observations, together with the researcher’s own
interest in helping her students to become competent global citizens in the future, a
study on “Using Communicative Games to enhance students’ participation in oral
activities at Hoanh Bo High School, Quang Ninh province” was chosen as a topic of
her research.

1.2. Aims of the study
The main purpose of this research is to improve students’ participation in oral
activities through the use of Communicative Games (CGA) in Hoanh Bo High
School, Quang Ninh province.
More specifically, the study aims to find the answers to the following
questions:
1. How does Communicative Games enhance students’ participation in oral
activities?
2. What are the students’ attitudes towards Communicative Games?

1.3. Scope of the study
The research is concerned with the strategies to enhance students’
participation in oral activities to the students in the author’ own teaching context.
Accordingly, the research scope included a total of thirty students in class 10A5 of
Hoanh Bo High School, Quang Ninh province. They were selected as the

II

respondents of the study who were taught with their preferable CLT activities in
speaking lessons to see if there are any positive feedbacks.

1.4. Conceptual framework
English has become a compulsory subject that must be taught in junior high
school. The students were expected to master the all standard competences based on
each grade and the curriculum that is applied. In fact, though in high school, student
has got English subject, they still have low Standard English competency especially
in speaking skill. Speaking skill is the productive skill of English teaching and
learning goal but the result of the teaching and learning process was not maximal.
Most of the students found difficulties in speaking such as they could not use
English based on the target language. The monotonous activities and their failure in
mastering the skill causes them had low motivation, so they sometimes get bored or
uninterested in the lesson.
In the teaching of speaking, both teachers and students are influenced each
other in that process. The teacher is a facilitator learning personal and social change
by assisting the developing person at those points where help is requested. Teacher
should have a set of exercises, tasks or other activities for the students in their
classes. It is really beneficial and positive experience to try various classroom
activities in CLT approach. By using the communicative games and activities, the
teacher will easily motivate students to communicate in English in classrooms.
She/he has to be creative to prevent student’s boredom because of decreasing
interest and motivation.
Any solutions must be acquired to solve problem appeared in the teaching and
learning process. Communicative language games are the good way to solve the
problems that have been discussed in this case in which teachers can use effective
communicative games to teach students while these were having fun. In addition, by
using communicative language games, students will have more opportunities to
practice their speaking ability. They also will be more creative in improving their

III


ideas to speak up. Consequently, the speaking class activities will better enhance
students participation in class.

1.5. Significance of the study
The findings of this study would be beneficial and of great help to the
following:
In the past time, the students learned English with the main focus on
grammatical issues; however, four English skills in general and English speaking
skill in particular are concentrated as much as grammar. So most of the teachers at
high schools do not realize the importance of oral communication skill in the full
development of the four English skills. In the textbook, English speaking skill is
designed separately, and each oral skill lesson is taught within 45 minutes every
week. However, practicing English activities does not still end after speaking
lessons. It is because that both reading lessons and listening ones often contain
some post-reading and post-listening activities relating to speaking skill. Therefore,
the enhancement of students’ contribution in English oral activities is very
important. There is much hope that this would be useful and practical for both the
teachers and learners of English.
For teachers at Hoanh Bo high school in particular and teachers of English in
Vietnam in particular, this study will shed light on common communicative games
and activities that are interesting, effective and appropriate to students’ level of
English to motivate students to communicate in English and enhance their
participation in speaking lessons.
For high school students, the research will benefit them directly as the center
of learning process as they will be experiencing different games and activities in
learning speaking. As a result, it is expected that they will find motivation to

improve their speaking ability.
For administrators, it is obvious that the results of the study will evoke
possible policies from authorities to encourage teachers of English to try various

IV


innovative teaching strategies in their classrooms and to offer favorable conditions
for these new learning experiences to take place in their educational institutions.

1.6. Definition of Terms
In order to have a clear understanding of the study, the following terms are
defined operationally.
Communicative games refers to a set of well fun-design activities can be
stimulated students’ interaction in the classroom..
Students’ participation refer to students’ involvement in classroom activities,
which emphasizes on the interaction between teachers and students, students and
students, and students to the materials.
Speaking is defined as the productive skill in the oral mode.

1.7. Structure of the thesis
This minor thesis is divided into five main parts.
Chapter 1: Introduction
This part aims to provide an introduction about the dissertation, which
includes the rationale of the study, aims of the study, research questions,
significance of the research, research scope and definition of terms.
Chapter 2 is the Literature review. The purpose of this chapter is to present a
theoretical framework for the research. It consists of the related literature to the
research problem, including overview of speaking, students’ participation in oral
activities, the influencing factors and the CLT method to enhance the students’

involvement in communicative activities.
Chapter 3 is Research Methodology. Accordingly, the chapter aims to deal
with the suitability of methods, the characteristics of respondents, the sample size,
data collection instruments and data analytical methods.
Chapter 4 is Analysis and interpretation of data. In this chapter, data
collected will be analyzed to draw related findings, along with the discussion on
these findings will be also presented to fulfill the research objectives.

V


Chapter 5 includes summary of findings, conclusion and Recommendations.
Based on the above analysis, this part aims to propose the recommendations to
enhance the students’ participation in the Hoanh Bo High School. A conclusion is
also presented to generalize all the findings in the study.

VI


CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter aims at presenting a theoretical framework for the research,
which consists of related literature to the research problems. Accordingly, its
contents can be structured into three main parts. The first part will discuss the
aspects of speaking such as the definitions of speaking, characteristics of successful
oral activities and students’ participation in oral activities. The second section deals
with factors impacting the students’ involvement into oral activities that consists of
students’ factors, teachers’ factors and classroom environment. Last but not least,
the final part presents the issues of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), and
strategies used in the trial teaching to enhance the students’ participation in oral

classes.

2.1. Related literature
2.1.1. Overview about speaking
2.1.1.1. Definitions of speaking
Speaking is defined as the process of expressing ideas through the use of
verbal and non-verbal symbols (Nunan, 1999). In common with Nunan’s view,
Burn & Joyce (1997) also define speaking as an interactive process of constructing
meaning, which consists of building, sending and receiving information. In this
regard, Peter (2002) also stated that speaking is called social skill due to the
interaction between more than one people who sends a message in one side and
receives it in another side.
According to Widdowson (1978), speaking can be understood in two ways: in
terms of usage, and in terms of use. In terms of its usage, speaking is producing bits
of language such as words and sentences that are grammatically correct by means of
the vocal organs. Here, speaking is simply a productive skill that is expressed
through the aural medium. However, in terms of its use, speaking is both productive
and receptive. In this sense, it is a communicative activity which occurs in natural

VII


communication, and which can be considered as a part of a dialogue or any other
type of oral communication.
Being a primary means of communication among different people in different
situations, speaking is influenced by many surrounding factors. That is to say, the
act of speaking is affected by the person who speaks to whom, when, where, and for
what purpose. Florez (1999) claimed that the form and the meaning of speech is
determined by the situation where it takes place, the participants who exchange the
speech, and their shared experience, as well as the speakers’ intention or the

purpose they aim to attain. Rather, speaking is “interactive and requires the ability
to co-operate in the management of turns. It also typically takes place in real time”.
This idea was also supported by J. Harmer (2001: 269) who claimed that in order
for a learner to speak fluently, he or she has not only to have linguistic knowledge,
but also to have the ability to communicate appropriately.
The ability to speak in a foreign language is a very difficult and hard task. It is
so because, as Pawlak, Kimczak, and Majer (2011) argued, it requires the learner to
have a good mastery of language subsystems, and to use them automatically and
without much thinking in a natural communication focusing on both producing and
understanding others’ speech. Speaking also requires the learner to have a sufficient
knowledge about the purpose, the manner, and the time to communicate, and to be
skilled in manipulating and controlling interaction (Pawlak et.al, 2011). Therefore,
speaking skill should be given much focus in the language classroom.

2.1.1.2. Characteristics of successful oral activities
Having explained the term of speaking from the linguistic point of view,
another step to present the principles of a good lesson is devoted to interaction
between students. Needless to say, the key to a successful speaking lesson is a
successful speaking activity. Nonetheless, it might not be easy to design and that is
why teachers should be familiar with the basic characteristics of a profitable oral
exercise.

VIII


According to Ur (1996), the successful oral activities have common the
following characteristics. First of all, learners talk a lot as much as possible, in
which a majority of time allocation is taken up with learner’s participation. Second,
participation is fairly distributed among the learners, meaning that all of them have
the chance to practice speaking equally. Third, motivation is high. It means that

learners are interested in the speaking lesson and willing to contribute to complete
an oral task. Fourth, language is of an acceptable level. The language expressed
among the speakers is easily understood to each other, in an acceptable level of
accuracy and validity.
Another feature of a successful speaking activity, pointed by Brown (2001) is
even participation. All students should get a chance to speak; moreover,
contributions ought to be fairly evenly distributed. Therefore, teachers’ task is to
strive towards engaging the less active learners and make sure that all students are
involved in an equal way. Additionally, a task ought not to be dominated by a few
students who like to take control over an exercise. Dobson (1989) suggests that in
order to make sure that every learner has a possibility to practise the target
language; the teacher can appoint a group representative responsible for equal
participation among peers. Motivation also plays an important role in a successful
lesson devoted to speaking. Without showing a genuine concentration on
performing a task, the class faces no efficiency. To meet learners‟ eagerness in a
lesson, the teacher ought to choose topics that are of genuine interest among the
suitable group of students. Topics which appeal to teenagers, however, may not
appeal to adult learners and thus they may not willingly take part in an activity.
There are two main kinds of motivation: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic
motivation. According to Harmer (2001), “extrinsical motivation is caused by any
number of outside factors, for example, the need to pass an exam, the hope of
financial reward, or the possibility of future travel.” A student feels obliged to
acquire a language because outside factors motivate him or her to learning. The
second kind of motivation − intrinsic motivation, on the contrary, stands in total
contrast to extrinsic one since it comes from within the person (Harmer, 2001). The

IX


last but not least important principle, mentioned by Ur (1996), is the acceptable

level of the language used. An educator can achieve it by selecting activities whose
language level is similar to students‟ linguistic level. Such oral tasks empower
students and give learners the possibility to clearly express their ideas and opinions
through fluent speech
2.1.1.3. Students’ participation in oral activities
According to Lee (2005), participation usually means students speaking in
class which consists of answer and asks questions, make comments, and join in
discussions. Students who do not participate in those ways mentioned above are
often considered to be passive in the

classroom.

Besides

that, according to

Zolten and Long (2006), paying attention, being on task, responding to questions,
participating in group discussions, asking questions, seeking help and making good
use of class time also considered as classroom participation. This is also similar
with O’Brien (2007) who stated that participation means completing the assigned
readings, asking questions about anything in the readings or discussion that needs
clarification or expansion, offering ideas and responses, listening to the ideas and
responses of others, and paying attention and showing respect in the classroom to
the teacher and to other students.
Accordingly, students’ participation refers to students’ involvement in
classroom activities, which emphasizes on the interaction between teachers and
students, students and students, and students to the materials. In case of oral
activities, teachers interact with students through instructing, supporting and cooperation, in which students become the self-centered in the class activities.
Students also interact with other students in the form of group discussion, cooperation and contribution to the task given. In the interaction between students and
materials, good, interesting and clear materials will promote students to participate

in the speaking lessons. From these interactions, it can be said that students’
participation in oral activities is influenced by the factors sourced from teachers,
students and classroom (Ellis, 1994).

X


Thus, in general, classroom participation requires students to interact in the
classrooms to indicate that they are learning and paying attention. Hence this study
defines students’ participation in English language classroom as interacting with
teacher or peers in form of answering and asking questions, making comments, and
join in discussion by giving opinions and responds. Besides that, it also emphasis
students’ attention to the teacher and peers to make sure they understand their
questions or opinions so that they can express their thoughts and feeling to make
sure their active participation in the classroom and also in the lesson.
2.1.2. Factors impacting on students’ participation in oral activities
2.1.2.1. Students’ factors
Students’ learning styles, which can be categorized into four groups: concrete,
analytical, communicative and authority-oriented learners. With each learning style,
students contribute different degree of participation into oral activities. Among the
styles, communicative learners show much more willingness to take part in
speaking tasks, while authority-oriented learners tend to work independently and
prefer non-communicative activities (Willing, K. (1988); Ellis, 1985; Brown, 1994).
Students’ language level. It is common that students get lower English
proficiency will express more fear of errors and as a consequence, they become
unconfident and reluctant with participating oral activities (Tsui, 1996). Similarly,
students’ anxiety also causes negative impacts on the students’ participation in
speaking lessons, which results from their self-doubt and unwillingness (Scovel,
1978).
Students’ motivation. Ur (1996) stated that the degree of motivation influence

directly on the learners’ involvement in speaking activities, meaning that more
motivated students feel, more actively they participate in these tasks.
2.1.2.2. Teachers’ factors
In the teachers’ interaction, the factors that can influence students’
involvement include teachers’ methods, roles and characteristics. First of all, a

XI


teacher can play the roles as a controller, organizer, assessor, leader, motivator,
instructors and observer (Harmer, 1999); or depend on the stages of speaking
process: the presentation, the practice and the production (Byrne, 1986). In specific,
the most important teachers’ role is a motivator in the practice stage with the
purpose to facilitate students’ participation in oral activities. Second, teachers’
method, which refers to the techniques used in teaching English lessons. Obviously,
applying appropriate teaching methods helps promote students to be more actively
involved with the given tasks. And third, the teachers’ characteristics. It means that
in order to motivate students’ participation, the teachers first need to be one that
students can trust and respect, which also create a good relationship between
teachers and students (Barry, 1993).
2.1.2.3. Classroom’s factors
Regarding to oral activities, classroom’s factors can consist of classroom
atmosphere and size. Underwood (1987) states that a good learning and teaching
environment can encourage learners to be more willing and motivated into the
lessons. Besides, Ur (1993) also adds that a classroom with smaller size will
decrease their fears or reluctance to participate in the oral activities, hence facilitate
their contribution into speaking lessons.

2.1.3. Using Communicative Language Games in teaching speaking
2.1.3.1. The nature of communicative language games

Communicative game is a set of well fun-design activities can stimulate
students’ interaction in the classroom. These games require them to take part
actively in classroom by speaking and writing in order to express their own point of
view or give information. More than that, students’ confidence will be automatically
formed due to its concept in building habits of interaction. Game means “an activity
with rules, a goal and an element of fun” (Hadfield, 1996). In addition, game is “an
activity in which the learners play and usually interact with others” (Wright et al.,
2006). They added that in order to express their own point of view or give

XII


information, the learners must speak or write as in getting the meaning from others,
they have to understand what people are saying or have written (Gate, 2003).
Communicative Games can be an alternative way to overcome students’
difficulties in learning how to speak English. In fact, they can improve their
speaking skills. However, talking about communicative games cannot be separated
from those two terms” communicative” and “game”. The word communicative
refers to the communicative approach in which teaching-learning activity avoids the
concentration towards grammar and vocabulary but emphasizes on the significance
of language function (Harmer, 200). In other words, these activities will involve
students in real communication, where the achievement of their communicative task
is more important than the accuracy of language they use. Therefore, it can give
positive impact towards students’ motivation and classroom atmosphere which in
line with Michael J Wallace (1987), language games are used for increasing
emphasis on the importance of motivation and the appropriate kind of positive
effective atmosphere in the classroom.

2.1.3.2. The benefits of communicative language games
There are some advantages that student may get from the use of

communicative language games:
1) Motivating students‟ learning with fun, enjoyment and excitement. Games
are highly motivating (Wright et.al, 1984). Enjoyment, excitement and passion are
naturally generated from playing games. As Haldfield (1990) indicates, games are
enjoyable activates with a set of rules or terms against each other. Lavery (2001)
adds that learner forget they are studying. They lose themselves in the fun of the
game and the activity that motivates them. When pupils are enjoying playing
games, at the same time, they are learning language unconsciously.
2) Giving chances to use language in authentic contexts. In game situations,
learners are exposing themselves to the target language environment. It is supported
by Littlewood (1981) who says that games provide learners with chances and

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