skkn tiếng anh thpt USING MEANINGFUL ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPOKEN COMPETENCE (năm 2020)

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................3
1. Backgound/context..................................................................................................3
2. The scope of the research.......................................................................................3
3. Rationale/ reasons for choosing the topic............................................................3
4. Research aims (Purposes)......................................................................................3
CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................3
I. REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING SPEAKING............................3
II. RESEARCH CONTENTS....................................................................................3
1. Research procedures/ definitions of terms.........................................................3
2. Advantages and disadvantages of meaningful activities...................................3
3. Evaluation of the research....................................................................................3
a. Novelty of the research ( Innovations)............................................................3
b. Effectiveness........................................................................................................3
c. Applicability of the research.............................................................................3
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................3
APPENDIX..........................................................................................................................3
Appendix 1: RESEARCH DESIGN.................................................................................3
Appendix 2...........................................................................................................................3
Appendix 3


ABBREVIATION LIST
1. TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
2. IELTS : International English Language Testing System
3. TOEFL : Test of English as a Foreign Language
4. TOEIC: Test of English for International Communication
,

THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ SÁNG KIẾN
1. Tên sáng kiến : Using meaningful activities to improve high school
students’ spoken competence
2. Lĩnh vực áp dụng sáng kiến: Phương pháp dạy tiếng Anh
3. Tác giả:
- Họ và tên: Trần Văn Nghĩa

Nam (nữ): Nam

- Trình độ chuyên môn: Thạc sĩ chuyên ngành giảng dạy tiếng Anh
- Chức vụ, đơn vị công tác: Tổ trưởng tổ tiếng Anh, THPT Ngô Quyền
–Biên Hoà - Đồng Nai
- Điện thoại: 0913130131

Email:

- Tỷ lệ đóng góp tạo ra sáng kiến (%): 100%


1

USING MEANINGFUL ACTIVITIES
TO IMPROVE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SPOKEN COMPETENCE
INTRODUCTION
My interest in the improvement of high school students’ spoken competence started
when I attended a conference in Ho Chi Minh City on TESOL methodology in 2016.
As an attempt to improve high school students’ competence, I do my best to carry
out this mini-research with empirical methods, and I hold the belief that I can make
an innovation in English language teaching and learning at Ngo Quyen High School,
where there are over 1000 students wanting to become competent English speakers.

This research focuses on the expected effectiveness of using meaningful activities in
improving high school students’ spoken competence.
1. Background /context
Dong Nai is an industrial province in the South of Viet Nam, where many foreign
businessmen and visitors come to work in industrial zones, to do business and to be
on holiday. These foreigners need to use English to communicate with their
colleagues, office workers, local residents. That is why English has been considered
to be the most popular and important language for adults at work and young people
at school or university.
The province has over 50 high schools, and Ngo Quyen High School is the most
famous one in the province. Each year, the school has over one thousand students
who are good at many subjects including mathematics, chemistry, physics and
biology, but their English communicative competence must be carefully taken into
consideration to some extent.
In informal discussions with students and teachers in the school, I have recognized
that problems facing the reality of teaching and learning speaking are that real
communication is not always achieved. Most form is focused and display questions
are often exploited. The teachers make questions available in the textbooks in order
to complete their lesson plan. Therefore, the students meet difficulty achieving good
results in IELTS, TOEFL and TOEIC tests .
2. The scope of the research
The research consists of an introduction, a review of worthwhile literature related to
the independent variable: “meaningful activities” and their benefits, a description of
students’ learning styles, learning habits, preferences and their views of these
speaking activities. The final parts of the research paper are sections about research


2

methodology, anticipated outcomes and possible problems which may come up

during the research together with a short conclusion.
The application of meaningful activities will be carried out among a class of thirtyfive 10-graders at Ngo Quyen High School. The students will be tested on orally
communicative ability before and after the techniques called “meaningful activities”
are applied in the classroom in order to see how much improvement the students
gain. Both teachers’ attitudes and students’ feelings towards meaningful activities as
teaching and learning tools will be reflected through interviews and questionnaires
respectively. This will prove, to some extent, the usefulness and the feasibility of
these activities in English classrooms.
3. Rationale
Students acquire a foreign language through the four fundamental skills including
listening, speaking, reading and writing. Proficiency in each of these skills makes a
great contribution to becoming a competent language user, but the ability to speak
clearly and fluently can help learners to inform, express feelings, persuade and
interact with others. Therefore, teaching speaking plays a very important role in
helping learners master the target language.
As a language teacher, I have recognized that real communication occurs in real-life
contexts. By using meaningful tasks, activities and practice in classes, students will
have opportunities to communicate with each other in the target language. It is the
teacher’s job to create classroom environments where real-life communication takes
place and meaningful tasks are exploited.
● Research Focus
The following diagram illustrates the relationship between the key variables of the
study which serve as the research focus with the title: “Using meaningful activities
to improve high school students’ spoken competence at Ngo Quyen High School”.
● Research Questions and Variables


3

The use of meaningful activities

Independent Variable
Teachers use meaningful activities
to help students with speaking

High school students’ spoken
Communication
(Problems)

Dependent Variable
Students’ enhanced spoken discourse
This dependent variable is measured through speaking tests.

- What is the effect of meaningful activities on the development of Grade 10
students’ spoken communication?
- How will meaningful activities be effectively used in speaking classes ?
- What are students’ opinions on meaningful activities: referential questions,
discussions and simulations ?
4. Research aims (Purposes)
The study aims at finding out about the effects of using meaningful activities on the
development of high school students’ spoken discourse at the school. The research
also aims to identify students’ speaking problems with the hope that meaningful
activities can help promote their spoken competence.

CONTENTS OF THE RESEARCH


4

I. REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING SPEAKING

As a teacher of English for over 25 years, I usually have discussions with a number
of students, I have learned that most of them really want to study English for
communication. However, they do not have strategies for developing their oral
communication. The speaking problems that the teacher frequently deals with are
students’ difficulty in expressing ideas and opinions. Also, students are not often,
during the lesson, encouraged to respond to questions for real information from their
teachers and friends.
In my teaching experience, I have learnt that teaching speaking, a productive skill, is
particularly vital because my students’ achievements in speaking will increase their
intrinsic motivation to learn other language skills.
I also hold the belief that speaking is one of the most important parts of English
language learning and teaching. However, its significance is underevaluated by some
students and teachers in the school. They teach speaking just as a repetition drill for
memorizing dialogues, useful expressions or language functions. In fact, the goal of
our teaching speaking is to improve students' communication skills, and through
speaking with meaningful activities students can learn how to follow the social and
cultural aspects appropriate for any situational context
II. RESEARCH CONTENTS
1. Research procedures/ definitions of terms
● The Subject
The sample includes two groups of year 15 students belonging to two different
classes. Each group has 35 students. The group engaged in meaningful activity
lesson will form the experimental group, while the other, which carries on with
normal lessons will form the control group. A speaking pre-test will be carried out so
as to show that the two groups have the same level of proficiency. I will teach both
groups for the second term of the school year 2020, using meaningful activities with
the experimental group and the control group will be taught as usual. The two groups
will be orally tested at the end of the second term so that I can get the scores for each
student. The test scores will be analyzed and considered as useful data for the
findings. The three teachers and I will make comparisons between the control group

and the experimental group on their learning achievements in order to see the effect
of meaningful activities on students’ development of spoken English. Finally, data
collection will be shared and discussed with the school administrators.
DATA COLLECTION


5

The research will be carried out with three different methods for data collection. The
first tool is to prepare open-ended questions for the survey that the researcher is
going to carry out. A questionnaire which will find out about students’ attitudes to
meaningful activities, their views of their speaking abilities and awareness of what
meaningful activities will be about.
Then , I will interview the four teachers in my school. The second thing I will do is
that I get my students to fill the questionnaire I have made to find a better way to
teach and learn speaking. The next thing I will do is that I make a lesson plan in
which meaningful activities are made effective use of. The purpose of the
questionnaire and the interview and classroom observation will be clearly explained
to the students before the research starts
● Questionnaire
As a questionnaire may play a central role in the data collection process, a welldesigned questionnaire is needed. To do this, I have to make a draft plan, then
consult my colleagues for some questions on the topic. I want the questionnaire to be
informative and appropriate for the subjects. Before conducting the questionnaire, I
will pilot it in another group that shares the same similarities to the sample. The
designed questionnaire is anonymous so that the students do not conceal their
feelings when they give comments on their teachers and their teaching. The
questionnaire which uses closed-and open-ended questions covers different kinds of
students, their views on meaningful activities.
● Interview
Interviewing is chosen as one of the three main methods of data collection. By

asking 4 teachers questions about views or opinions on using referential questions,
discussions and simulations, and the approaches of teaching speaking. It will take an
hour for each interview. In order to make the interviewees comfortable, the place for
the interview and the purpose of the interview will be made clear to the four
interviewees .The main part of the interview includes asking teachers 13 questions
and recording their answers by a good Sony recorder. Each teacher will be
interviewed once at the beginning of the study. Open-ended questions are designed
for the teacher’s interviews.
● Classroom Observation
I have designed 16 statements which describe the students’ learning styles, views
and the teacher’s methods of teaching. The observer will observe and record
concrete details of what the teacher does in the lesson, methods of teaching and
meaningful activities will be utilized in the classroom.
DATA ANALYSIS


6

All the data will be analyzed by the four teachers. The findings will be shared with
the teaching group leader and the school administrators. A workshop will soon be
held in order to widely disseminate the findings of the research.
● Questionnaire Analysis
There are five items in the student survey, I will do a tally count, then change it into
percentages, using the tables about the students’ learning styles and views on
meaningful activities. The data will be carefully analyzed.
● Class Observation Data Analysis
Observations will be used to gain in-depth understanding and to avoid
misinterpretation. I will double read to gain the teacher’s views or beliefs about
meaningful activities in teaching speaking, and the relationships among views and
practices.

● Interview Data Analysis
Each interview will be recorded, coded and then transcribed and analyzed critically.
In looking across cases, I will look for themes and patterns which emerge from the
data and code for the emerging themes. Each teacher’s data analysis includes
classifying, categorizing, labeling and organizing the emerging classifications.


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REVIEWS OF LITERATURE
The study aims to investigate the effects of meaningful activities on the development
of students’ speaking skill. The first thing that will be discussed is a brief review of
literature related to the definition of meaningful activities: referential questions,
discussions and simulations. The second part will look at the advantages of
meaningful activities to teaching speaking.
● Referential questions
In my experience, I often make referential questions in order to get students to
communicate. We should consider the question: “ What do you think will happen to
Everglades National Park if more chemicals are released into the water?”( English
10- page 114). In fact, this referential question encourages students to have personal
ideas on a serious problem of pollution nowadays.
In defining referential questions, Brown (1983) explains that referential questions
are questions you ask someone because you don't know the answer. He also adds
that this can mean questions teachers ask learners and learners ask each other.
Referential questions can be compared with display questions, for which the answer
is already known by the asker. Teachers make display questions to see if the students
know the answer and to ask for language manipulation. Brown (1983) states that
“display questions” seek answers in which the information is already known by the
teacher. This type of elicitation has been criticised for its lack of authenticity since it
is not commonly used in conversation outside the classroom. In explaining the

benefits of referential questions, Brock (1986) points out that referential questions
are commonly used in regular conversation outside the classroom, so they are used
to encourage students’ higher-order thinking skills and authentic use of the second
language in the classroom. Many researchers (Nunan, 1987; Suter, 2001; Morell,
2007) also emphasize that teachers’ use of referential questions can stimulate
students to provide much longer and more complex responses than the use of display
questions.
● Discussions
Davis (1993) says that using discussions as a main teaching technique allows us to
stimulate critical thinking. As we establish a rapport with our students, we can
demonstrate that we appreciate their contributions, at the same time that we
challenge them to think more deeply and to articulate their ideas more clearly.
Frequent questions, whether asked by the teacher or by the students, provide a
means of measuring learning and exploring in-depth the key concepts of the course.
After the input or contents are delivered, a discussion should be organized for
various reasons. First, the students aim to come to a conclusion, share ideas about an


8

event in their discussion groups. Before the discussion, it is essential that the
purpose of the discussion is clearly stated to the students. In this way, the discussion
points are relevant to the purpose. Each group works on their topic for a given time
period, and then presents their opinions to the class. It is essential that the talking
time should be equally divided among group members. Finally, the class decides on
the winning group that can express the idea in the best way. This activity fosters
critical thinking and quick decision making.
● Simulations
By definition, role plays and simulations are forms of experiential learning (Russell:
2009). Learners take on different roles, assuming a profile of a character or

personality, and interact and participate in diverse and complex settings. He also
defines that simulations are similar to role-plays, but what makes simulations
different from role-plays is that they are more elaborate. In simulations, students can
bring items to the class to create a realistic environment. For example, if a student is
allowed to act as a journalist, he or she can bring a microphone to interview people.
Simulations bring benefits to the teacher and students. They are entertaining and
motivate the students to learn
Harmer (1984) stresses that simulation activities increase the self-confidence of
hesitant students, because in simulation activities, they will have a different role and
do not have to speak for themselves, which means they do not have to take the same
responsibility.
● Lessons with meaningful activities (Adaptation)
The following questions and activities are redesigned to help students make good
use of referential questions in helping students exchange real information. These
referential questions make the learning of speaking more meaningful for high school
students.

Display questions

Referential questions

1. Which lower-secondary school did
you go to? (Students fill in the blank
with the right question for the
answer already printed )-English 10,
Page 47.

→ What was the name of the lowersecondary school did you go to? (To
ask for personal opinions-real
information)

2. What did Hanh like best about her → Who was your favourite teacher?
school then?( Students fill in the Why did you like him/her? ( A more
blank with the right question for the


9

answer already printed )-English 10, specific question to ask for personal
Page 47.
opinions-real information)
3. You are Nga. Work with a partner.
Tell him/her about your class’
excursion to Huong Pagoda and
express your regrets about what you
did or what you did not do during the
excursion- English 10, Page 115.

4. Read the paragraphs and answer
the questions: For what purpose are
zoos of the new kind opened?/ What
are their main features? ( Display
questions for reading)- English 10,
Page 106.

→ Tell your class members about
your recent excursion to a tourist
place. In your presentation, you are
free to express your regrets about
what you did or what you did not do

during your excursion.( Students
love talking about their own
experience -real communication
does occur)
→ What are the important role of
zoos in conservation, in your
opinions?
(Using
referential
questions to stimulate students’
critical thinking and personal
opinions)

2. Advantages and disadvantages of meaningful activities.
Meaningful activities are used to encourage students to concentrate on meaning,
understanding, not memorization. Therefore, meaningful activities or practice can
increase active learning, such as problem-solving, collaborative learning and
decision making. However, meaningful activities can have some problems that
should be considered. Students who lack prior knowlegde will get very little active
learning and meaningful activities are not very appropriate for test or exam
preparation. Therefore, we should help our students get familiar with these active
learning activities by using clear instructions and scaffolding. It is the teacher job to
decide on when meaningful activities should be exploited and when they are relevant
to the students’ needs.

3. Evaluation of the research


10

a. Novelty of the research ( Innovations)
I expect that after the experimental process, lessons with meaningful activities will
enable the experimental group to produce better developed spoken English than the
control group in the post-test, in terms of the following features: real information,
fluency, language function, organization of the spoken discourse. I am in the hope
that the teaching of speaking with referential questions, discussions and simulations
can really increase the experimental group’s self-awareness through observing and
clarifying feelings and thoughts. Besides, some low-motivated students may also get
benefits from the approach of speaking with the above-mentioned activities.
b. Effectiveness
The study of the effects of meaningful activities on the development of high school
students’ speaking are of great importance for several reasons. First, understanding
relationship between the students’ speaking problems and the use of meaningful
activities can help to improve their orally communicative competence. Second, the
researcher has opportunities to set up members of reflective teachers who can help
other teachers to solve the speaking problems of students at the same levels from
other schools. Finally, the research findings will also help the administrators to have
new policy in teaching and learning English in the school. The research on
meaningful activities in teaching speaking is manageable and will support all the
teachers’ professional development .
c. Applicability of the research
The results of the research will provide high school teachers in Viet Nam with
valuable suggestions in English teaching and learning. More importantly, students’
spoken competence can assist other language skills, such as writing and listening.
Meaningful activities are expected to use for all students from secondary students to
high school ones. The research will bring about improvements in my teaching
practices and implement some changes in all high schools and secondary schools in
Dong Nai Province.
CONCLUSION
The ability to communicate effectively in second or language learning contributes to

the success of the students at school and the success later in their reality of life.
Therefore, it is essential that language teachers focus on helping students to make
good use of spoken English rather than getting them to memorize grammatical rules.
It is the teacher’s responsibility for providing a rich environment where meaningful
activities and meaningful practice take place. In consideration of this aim, various
meaningful speaking activities including discussions, simulations and referential


11

questions are able to make a contribution to the development of students’
communicative competence necessary for life.
Meaningful activities are really worthwhile learning tools for both students and
teachers. Students not only have more opportunities to interact with their partners
who try their best to make use of English communicatively, but students' English
speaking, listening, and understanding will also improve. Meaningful activities
lighten up the atmospheres and brings dynamic climate to the classroom. Students
learn to use the language in a more realistic and natural way. A a result, they can
become more aware of the usefulness and practicality of English, especially spoken
English. Meaningful activities would be, in fact, useful teaching techniques which
should be applied by most teachers in the classrooms where English is spoken as a
foreign language in the Vietnamese environments.
REFERENCES
- Brock, C. A. 1986. The effects of referential questions on ESL classroom
discourse. TESOL Quarterly 20-1: 47-59
- Brown, G. and G. Yule. 1983. Teaching the Spoken Language. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
- Davis, Barbara Gross. Tools for Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993.
- Harmer, J. 1984. The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman.
- McDonough, J. and C. Shaw. 2003. Materials and Methods in ELT: a teacher’s

guide. Malden, MA; Oxford: Blackwell.
- Nunan, D., 2003. Practical English Language Teaching.NY:McGraw-Hill..
- Russell, C. 2009. A systemic framework for managing e-learning adoption in
campus universities: individual strategies in an institutional context. ALT-J Research
in Learning Technology, 17, 1, 3–19.

HỘI ĐỒNG CÔNG NHẬN SÁNG
KIẾN-THPT NGÔ QUYỀN

Biên Hòa, ngày 10 tháng 6 năm
2020
TÁC GIẢ SÁNG KIẾN

TRẦN VĂN NGHĨA


12


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APPENDIX: RESEARCH DESIGN
Appendix 1: Research Question

Research Questions

Research
Instruments

1. What is the effect of -Oral Pretest

meaningful activities on -Oral Post-test
the development of
Grade 10 students’ -Observation
spoken communication?
2. How will meaningful
activities be effectively
used in speaking classes
?

Subjects

Tools of
Analysis

- Grade 10 -Frequency
students
count
-Age:15-16

-Percentage

English
- Transcription
proficiency:
PreintermediateSite : Ngo
Quyen High
School, Dong
Nai Province
-Sample size:
70 (2 groups)

3.What are students’
opinions on meaningful
activities:
referential
questions, discussions
and simulations ?

-Student
questionnaire
-Teacher
interview

Appendix 2:
Students’ Survey
(QUESTIONNAIRE)
The purpose of this questionnaire is to investigate students’ opinions on meaningful
activities in the classroom. Your responses will provide important information that
helps the school have better ways to teach speaking. Altogether there are 35 items in
the questionnaire.


14

Do not write your name on the questionnaire
Please indicate your views /attitudes to the following areas by circling the
appropriate number.
How often would you like the following teaching methods in your class ?
1. Never
2. Occasionally

3. Sometimes
4. Usually
5. Always
1. Doing exercises

1

2

3

4

5

2. Making questions

1

2

3

4

5

3. Translation

1

2

3

4

5

4. Giving a presentation

1

2

3

4

5

5. Playing a role

1

2

3

4

5

6. Pretending to be a singer

1

2

3

4

5

7. Others (please specify)………………………………………
B. What would you feel about meaningful activities: referential questions,
discussions and simulations?
Put a tick in the box to describe your views on Meaningful activities .
1. Meaningful activities are useless

Yes

No

2. Meaningful activities help us with real information Yes

No

3. Meaningful activities are interesting

Yes

No

4. Meaningful activities help us co-operate with others Yes

No

5. Meaningful activities help me speak fluently

No

Yes

6. Others (please specify)…………………………………………………..
C. How would you like to study speaking English ?
1. I do not like it at all


15

2. I do not like it very much
3. This is O.K
4. I quite like it
5. I like it very much
1. Working only by myself

1

2

3

4

5

2. Working in one large group

1

2

3

4

5

3. Working on exercises

1

2

3

4

5

4. Working on meaningful activities

1

2

3

4

5

5. Discussing with others

1

2

3

4

5

6. Others (please specify)……………………………………………
D. What topics would you like to discuss in a speaking class ?
Put a tick in the box that describes what you like.
1. Jobs

2. Friends
3. The environment
4. Fashion
5. Diseases
6. Sports
7. Students’ life
8. Others (please specify)………………………………………………
E. To what extent would you like the following areas in your speaking lesson ?
Please indicate your attitudes to the following areas by circling the appropriate
number.
1. I do not like it at all
2. I do not like it very much
3. This is O.K
4. I quite like it
5. I like it very much


16

1.Vocabulary

1

2

3

4

5

2. Grammar

1

2

3

4

5

3. Discussion

1

2

3

4

5

4. Dialogue

1

2

3

4

5

5. Monologue

1

2

3

4

5

6. Presentation

1

2

3

4

5

7. Referential questions

1

2

3

4

5

8. Display questions

1

2

3

4

5

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Thank you very much for your co-operation


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Appendix 3
Teacher’s Survey
( Interview Questions)
The purpose of this survey is to find out about how you use meaningful
activities in the speaking class. Your responses will help us to improve our
teaching of speaking English.
Please feel free to answer the questions.
1. What language skill do you think is the most important in English teaching?
Why ?
………………………………………………………………………………
2. What do you think some of speaking strategies of the students are?
………………………………………………………………………………
3.What techniques and activities would you use to improve students’
interactional skill and transactional skill ?
………………………………………………………………………………
4. In your opinion, what is the purpose of meaningful activities: referential
questions/ discussions and simulations?
………………………………………………………………………………
5. What difficulties would you encounter when carrying out meaningful
activities?
………………………………………………………………………………
6. Do you know how your students feel when they conduct meaningful
activities?
………………………………………………………………………………
7. How often would you use meaningful activities in class?
.………………………………………………………………………………
8. How would you know whether meaningful activities work or not?
………………………………………………………………………………
9. What kind of preparation do you usually need for using meaningful activities
in speaking classes?

………………………………………………………………………………


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10. How can you make students involved in meaningful activities?
………………………………………………………………………………
11. To what extent would meaningful activities help increase students’
exchanging real information?
………………………………………………………………………………
12. What would you do to make meaningful activities: referential questions/
discussions and simulations interesting?
………………………………………………………………………………
13. Do you find meaningful activities easy or difficult to carry out? Why?
………………………………………………………………………………
Thank you very much for your co-operation