An investigation into the use of communicative activities in teaching english speaking to 10th graders at upper secondary schools in nghe an luận văn thạc sĩ giáo dục học

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I here acknowledge that this study is mine. The data and findings discussed in
the thesis are true, used with permission from associates, and have not been published
elsewhere.
Author

Nguyen Thanh Tra

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ACKNOWLEDEMENTS
First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Assoc.
Prof. Dr. Luu Quy Khuong for all the friendly support and assistance at all stages of
this thesis. I would like to acknowledge humbly that his constant guidance inspired
me all through the study. Without his help and careful guidance, this thesis would not
have been possible.
I would also like to express my sincerest gratitude to all teachers at some
upper secondary schools in Nghe An where the investigation was carried out for their
endless enthusiasm, valuable advice and great cooperation.
At the same time, I would like to send my special thanks to all the 10 th graders
at some upper secondary schools for their willingness to participate in my study and
their valuable input.
Also, I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to all of the friends in my group for
their support and encouragement during the time this paper was written.
Last but not least, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my beloved family who
support me in various ways from time to time of my work.

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ABSTRACT
This research investigates the students’ and teachers’ awareness of using
communicative activities in teaching English speaking skills to the 10th graders at some
upper secondary schools . The research addresses some issues of students’ attitude
towards learning speaking skills, the frequency of communicative activities teachers
used in speaking classes, difficulties confronted students and teachers. Also some
useful implications are recommended to the teaching of speaking skills to the 10th
graders at upper secondary schools in Nghe An and similar teaching contexts.
The methods for empirical investigation in the study includes students’ and
teachers’ questionnaire survey, teachers’ interview, classroom observation and pilot
teaching. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to create a realistic
and detailed description of the real teaching context and the attitudes, assessments of
teachers and students involved. It also presents an evaluation of the pilot teaching as an
evidence of effective use of communicative activities in teaching speaking skills to the
10th graders at upper secondary schools in Nghe An.
The results of the study show that most of the teachers and students had positive
attitudes and motivation to the uses of communicative activities in learning and
teaching speaking skills, yet the scope was still limited. It also indicates that some of
difficulties and objective causes hindered them from extreme benefits which directly
impacted on the use of communicative approach in teaching English speaking skills.
After students attended pilot teaching class, there was an obvious interest in learning
English. The participants not only improved their English speaking skills but also
overcame some problems resulted from their personal characteristics.
The author, therefore, hopes that the study is a small contribution to learning
and teaching English speaking skills at upper secondary schools in Vietnam in general
and in Nghe An in particular.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Content

Page

SUB COVER PAGE .......................................................................................i
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP............................................................................................ii
ACKNOWLEDEMENTS.........................................................................................................iii
ABSTRACT...............................................................................................................................iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................................................1
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.....................................................................................................4
LISTS OF TABLES....................................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................6
1.1. RATIONALE.......................................................................................................................6
1.2. AIMS OF THE STUDY......................................................................................................7
1.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS.................................................................................................7
1.4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY....................................................................................................8
1.5. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY.................................................................................8
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................................10
2.1. OVERVIEW......................................................................................................................10
2.2. PRIOR RESEARCHES RELATED TO THE STUDY....................................................10
2.3. THE NATURE OF SPEAKING.......................................................................................11
2.3.1. Definitions of Speaking..................................................................................................11
2.3.2. Types and Elements of Speaking...................................................................................12
2.3.3. Functions of Speaking....................................................................................................14
2.3.4. Principles for Teaching Speaking Skill .........................................................................17
2.3.5. Steps of Teaching Speaking Skills.................................................................................19
2.3.6. Stages for Teaching Speaking Skills..............................................................................20

2.3.7. Problems with Speaking and Speaking Activities.........................................................21
2.4. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT)................................................23
2.4.1. Definitions of CLT.........................................................................................................23
2.4.2. Characteristics of CLT....................................................................................................24
2.4.3. Teacher’s and Learner’s Roles in CLT..........................................................................24
2.5. COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES (CAs).......................................................................25
2.5.1. Definitions of CAs..........................................................................................................26
2.5.2. Characteristics of CAs....................................................................................................27
2.5.3. Types of Classroom CAs................................................................................................27
2.5.4. Purposes of CAs..............................................................................................................31
2.6. INTERACTION IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOM........................................32
CHAPTER 3
REASEARCH METHODOLOGY..........................................................................................35
3.1. OVERVIEW......................................................................................................................35
3.2. PARTICIPANTS...............................................................................................................35
3.3. DATA COLLECTION......................................................................................................36
3.3.1. The Questionnaires.........................................................................................................36
3.3.2. Pilot Teaching.................................................................................................................37

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3.3.3. Interviews........................................................................................................................37
3.4. DATA ANALYSIS............................................................................................................37
3.5. RESEARCH PROCEDURES...........................................................................................37
CHAPTER 4
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.............................................................................................39
4.1. OVERVIEW......................................................................................................................39
4.2. FINDINGS.........................................................................................................................39
4.2.1. Students’ Awareness towards Four Skills and Speaking Skills in Learning English...39

4.2.2. Factors Related to Students’ Interest in Speaking Lessons...........................................42
4.2.3. Students’ Difficulties in Speaking Lessons....................................................................44
4.2.4. Students’ Opinion about Teachers’ Design of CAs.......................................................45
4.2.5. Students’ Attitude towards CAs.....................................................................................46
4.2.6. Students’ Feedbacks to the Implementation of CAs......................................................48
4.2.7. Teachers’ Opinion about Speaking Skills......................................................................52
4.2.8. Teachers’ Perception about the Use of CAs in Teaching Speaking Skills....................54
4.2.9. Teachers’ Implementation of CAs.................................................................................57
4.2.10. Teachers’ Assessments on the Contribution of CAs....................................................58
4.2.11. Teachers’ Role in Designing and Managing CAs in Classrooms................................60
4.2.12. Difficulties the Teachers Encounter When Conducting CAs in Teaching Speaking
Skills..........................................................................................................................................62
4.3. DISCUSSION....................................................................................................................63
4.4. SUMMARY.......................................................................................................................73
4.5. PILOT TEACHING...........................................................................................................73
4.5.1. Activities and Procedures...............................................................................................73
4.5.2. Students’ Feedback ........................................................................................................83
4.5.3. Teachers’ Evaluation on the Lesson ..............................................................................84
4.5.4. The Researcher’s Comment............................................................................................86
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS.................................................................................88
5.1. CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................88
5.2. TEACHING IMPLICATIONS..........................................................................................89
5.2.1. Implication for CAs Application....................................................................................90
5.2.2. Suggested Teaching Techniques....................................................................................90
5.3. LIMITATION ...................................................................................................................91
5.4. SUGGESTED FURTHER RESEARCH...........................................................................92
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................93

APPENDICES

Appendix 1

: Questionnaire for Teachers

Appendix 2a : Questionnaire for Students (English version)
Appendix 2b : Questionnaire for Students (Vietnamese version)
Appendix 3

: Questions for Teachers Interview

Appendix 4

: Observation Sheet

Appendix 5a : Students’ Feedback to Pilot Teaching (English version)

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Appendix 5b : Students’ Feedback to Pilot Teaching (Vietnamese version)
Appendix6

: Teachers’ Feedback to Pilot Teaching

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CAs

: Communicative Activities

CLT : Communicative Language Teaching
C1

: Class 1

C2

: Class 2

N

: Number of Informants

Q1

: Questionnaire Number One

Q2

: Questionnaire Number Two

S

: Student

SS

: Students

T

: Teacher

%

: percent

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LISTS OF TABLES
Page
Table 3.1: Teachers’ Background Information........................................................................35
Table 3.2: Students’ Background Information.........................................................................36
Figure 4.1: Students' Opinions on the Four Skills in Learning English..................................40
Figure 4.2: Students’ Attitude towards Speaking Skill............................................................40
Figure 4.3: Students' Response towards Speaking Activities .................................................41
Figure 4.4: Students’ Attitude towards Speaking Lessons at School......................................42
Figure 4.5: Factors Motivating Students in Speaking Classes.................................................42
Figure 4.6: Factors De-motivating Students in Speaking Classes...........................................43
Figure 4.7: Students’ Difficulties in Speaking Lessons...........................................................44
Figure 4.8: Students’ Opinion about the Ways Teachers Started a Lesson.............................45
Table 4.1: Frequency of Using CAs in Speaking Lessons.......................................................46
Figure 4.9: Students’ Favorite CAs..........................................................................................47
Table 4.2: Benefits that Communication Activities Bring to Students
in Speaking Classes...................................................................................................................48
Table 4.3: Students’ Opinion on Interaction Patterns Used by Teachers
in Classrooms............................................................................................................................50

Table 4.4: Classroom Interaction Patterns Students Favor......................................................51
Figure 4.10: Teachers’ Opinion about the Speaking Skill.......................................................52
Figure 4.11: Teachers’ Opinion about Teaching Speaking Skills...........................................54
Figure 4.12. Teachers’ Perception about the Use of CAs........................................................54
Figure 4.13: The Frequency of CAs Teachers Used................................................................55
Figure 4.14: Teacher’s Assessment towards Speaking Activities in Textbook......................56
Table 4.5: Teachers’ Perception towards the Aims of CAs.....................................................57
Table 4.6: Teachers’ Feedbacks on the Lessons without CAs.................................................58
Figure 4.17: Teachers’ Opinions about the Benefits of CAs...................................................60
Table 4.7: Roles of the Teachers during the CAs....................................................................61
Table 4.8: Teacher Informants’ Opinion Ways to Promote CAs.............................................61
Figure 4.18: Teachers’ Difficulties in Implementing CAs......................................................62
Table 4.9: Teachers’ Comment on the Effectiveness of Activities.........................................86

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
1.1. RATIONALE
In the process of industrialization and modernization, learning English is
becoming the most concern of students in Viet Nam. With more opportunities to use
English in the future jobs, students, especially, at upper secondary schools find that
the need to enhance their language skills is becoming a matter of great urgency.
In order to meet the need of the learners, teachers are constantly challenged by the
matter how to make English teaching and learning more communicative and
effective. For students at upper secondary level in Viet Nam, a general English course
has been implemented which offers them different language skills including reading,
listening, speaking and writing skills. Among these skills, both teachers and learners

find it hard to use an effective way in teaching and learning speaking skill. According
to Nunan (1995) “the single important aspect to learn English successfully is by
mastering the art of speaking”. Gaining communicative competence is the last main
goal of teaching and learning English at upper secondary schools. However, this aim
is not always achieved. There is a fact that when students at upper secondary schools
are required to talk in English, they seem to get stuck or find it difficult to express
themselves. Normally, when the poor speaking competence is reported, students tend
to be blamed for having poor ability or making insufficient effort. Nevertheless, some
other factors should be taken in consideration. They could be objective problems such
as unsuitable teaching material, insufficient class time allocated to speaking or some
subjective reasons such as inappropriate attitude of the teachers the subject and
students toward the subject, teachers’ inappropriate teaching method. In addition,
teachers also find it difficult to teach speaking skill. They seem to find it hard to make
their student communicate much in English. They do not know how to improve the
motivation of students in speaking English.

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A number of methods and techniques have been implemented in order to
improve the quality of teaching speaking skill. However, the Communicative
Approach to language teaching as well as the use of Communicative Activities (CAs)
has shown its enormous advantages in teaching and learning. They, therefore, will be
discussed in this research in order to improve the quality of teaching speaking skill
for students at upper secondary schools.
Being a teacher of English at an upper secondary school, the researcher finds it
necessary to make an investigation of the reality of teaching and learning speaking
skill. Besides, the reasons that lead teaching to difficulties in speaking teaching will
be figured out and discussed as well as to seek an effective way to enhance the
teaching and learning speaking process.

Personally, the researcher hopes the study could be useful source for teacher in
their teaching process.
1.2. AIMS OF THE STUDY
How to teach students communicatively speaking skill seems to be a challenge
to teachers of English not only in my school but also at the other upper secondary
schools. Therefore this paper is written to investigate the reality of teaching speaking
skill at some upper secondary schools in Nghe An. Also, this study intends to explore
the application of CAs to develop the quality of teaching and learning English as well
as to improve the language interaction of students in speaking lessons. Finally, it
seeks to find out, to what extent, these CAs have influence on students’ study
achievements.
Hopefully, the author, through the study, can provide some suggestions to
apply CAs effectively which would be beneficial for teachers in teaching speaking
skills at upper secondary schools.
1.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
In order to reach afore aims, the research attempts to answer the following
questions:

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1. What is the teachers’ and students’ awareness of using CAs to teach speaking
skills to the 10th graders at Upper secondary schools in Nghe An?
2. What are the CAs teachers often use to teach speaking skills to10th graders at
Upper Secondary Schools in Nghe An?
3. What difficulties do the teachers encounter in using CAs to teach speaking
skills to the 10th graders at Upper secondary schools in Nghe An?
4. What suggestions could be made to promote the application of CAs to the 10th
graders at Upper secondary schools in Nghe An?
1.4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has now improved its advantages
in teaching and learning English. In order to help students to communicate effectively
in speaking class, teachers can conduct various CAs. Many researchers as well as
teachers have drawn their attention to the role of CAs in teaching speaking skills.
However, due to the limitation of time and knowledge, the researcher does not have
the ambition to cover all the aspects related to CLT in teaching and learning speaking
such as the difficulties when adapting CLT to speaking classes at Upper secondary
schools, teaching material design and adaptation. The study is restricted to
investigating the CAs used to motivate the 10th graders in speaking classes at Nghe
An.
1.5. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
Beside the abstract, bibliography and appendices, the study is organized into 5
chapters as follows.
Chapter 1, The Introduction presents the rationales for the research, defines the
specific focuses, objectives, research questions and organization of the study.
In chapter 2, “Literature Review”, a brief summary of previous studies related
to the research is offered as a basis for the study. The main theoretical background of
this paper is based on the opinions of researchers like Canale and Swain (1980),
Swain (1985), Brown (1994), Ur (1996), Harmer (2001), and Richards (2006),

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dealing with the nature of teaching speaking in foreign language such as the
definitions of speaking, principles of teaching speaking, and the significance of
teaching speaking. Also, concepts related to CLT, types of CAs used in teaching
speaking, and the roles of teachers and students in speaking classes, interactions in
language classrooms are clarified. Furthermore, factors influencing students’ success
in foreign language learning such as motivations, attitudes are mentioned.
Chapter 3, “Research Methodology”, addresses the subjects, and presents the

methods and procedures used to implement the study.
Chapter 4, “Findings and Discussion”, shows the reality of using CAs in
teaching speaking at some Upper secondary schools in Nghe An, difficulties the
students and teachers encounter in speaking classes, as well as the discussion of
research questions and the solutions to the teaching speaking at Upper secondary
schools in Nghe An. The data collected from the survey are quantitatively and
qualitatively analyzed.
Chapter 5, “Conclusion and Implication” conveys an overall conclusion. It
also suggests some solutions of using CAs effectively to the teachers for overcoming
the existing difficulties and improving the quality of teaching speaking at upper
secondary schools. Limitations of the study and the suggested further studies are also
included in this section.

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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. OVERVIEW
In this chapter, the author will address issues related to teaching English
speaking as a foreign language, CLT and CAs used in teaching speaking. Firstly, a
brief summary of prior studies related to the research is presented as a basis for the
study.
Secondly, based on the opinions of researchers like Canale and Swain (1980),
Brown and Yule(1983), Nunan (1995), Burkart (1998), Brown (1994), Harmer
(2001), etc, concepts concerned with the nature of teaching speaking in a foreign
language, CLT, CAs, interactions in language classrooms would be examined and
clarified.
2.2. PRIOR RESEARCHES RELATED TO THE STUDY

Many researchers have written famous books about CLT and the use of CAs in
teaching English. Littlewood (1981) in “Communicative Language Teaching” give
the readers a detail view of CAs and functions of CAs. The purpose of this book is
“to help teachers broaden their repertoire of techniques, so that they can enable
learners to communicate more effectively in a foreign language” (Littlewwood, 1981:
ix). In the same view, Richards (2006) helps readers have a deep understanding of
background of CLT, CAs in CLT and current trends in CLT. Along with them,
Harmer (2001) supplies a clear distinction between CAs and non-CAs. Their studies,
somehow, inspire the author of this research the wish to investigate the use of CAs in
teaching English speaking at upper secondary level.
Many graduation papers and M.A. theses in Vietnam have also discussed the
importance of speaking skill in English Language Teaching (CLT) and the difficulties
in teaching and learning speaking skill.
Nguyen Thi Huong Giang (2008) addressed her study to the reality of teaching
speaking at upper secondary school. In the study, the author discovered some factors

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which came from teachers, students and learning conditions. She also suggested some
solutions to teach speaking effectively and communicatively. However, the concern
of CAs in teaching is a small part in her study and it lacked the influence of these
activities on the learners.
Tran Trung Dung (2009) suggested the way to improve the quality of teaching
speaking at his Junior High School (Thuan Chau Junior High School). Role play is
the activity that he studied and supplied in this study. The benefit of role play can be
seen clearly in this research. However, this concern is not cover other CAs in
communicative approach.
Nguyen Thi Hoai Ly (2010) presented the effectiveness of using information
gap activities in teaching speaking for students at her college. Yet, this work only

focused on one kind of CAs. And this study was carried out at college; therefore it
cannot be adapted to teaching speaking at upper secondary schools completely.
From the aforementioned studies, difficulties in teaching speaking have been
discussed. In addition, teaching techniques, some useful activities have been dealt
with. They are really significant for the speaking class. However, some aspects
related to the use of CAs in teaching speaking at upper secondary schools have not
been fully and systematically explored. This thesis, therefore, focuses on the studying
the use of CAs in teaching speaking for students at upper secondary school.
2.3. THE NATURE OF SPEAKING
2.3.1. Definitions of Speaking
Speaking can be seen as the key to human communication. It is a crucial part
of second language learning and teaching. There are many definitions of speaking.
Speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal
and non-verbal symbols, in a variety contexts” (Chaney, 1998: 13). Another
definition is proposed by Nunan (1995) which states that speaking is the ability in
using oral language to explore ideas, intentions, thoughts and feelings to other people
as a way to make the message clearly delivered and well understood by the hearer.

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Byrne (1976:8) describes speaking as “a two-way process between the
speaker(s) and the listener(s) involving the productive skill of speaking and the
receptive skill of understanding.” It can be transferred from his idea that both speaker
and listener have the function in the interaction. The message has to be encoded by
the speaker in order to convey it in appropriate language, while the listener has to
decode the message.
Sharing this point of view Thornbury (2005) reveals that “speaking can be
typified as an activity involving two or more people, in which the participants are
both hearers and speakers having to react to what they hear and make their

contribution.” The communication purpose can be broken when both participant do
not have intention to make their contribution to the conversation.
In short, speaking can be seen as the way people interact and share
information. By mastering speaking skills, students can improve the communicative
competence which helps them much in the process of language acquisition.
2.3.2. Types and Elements of Speaking
a. Types of Speaking
The oral communication helps people convey their ideas. Brown (2001) states
that oral communication skills have two types namely monologues and dialogues.
According to Brown and Yule (1983), the monologue involves the ability to
perform an interrupted oral presentation such as speeches of a politician; a reporter
reads news on the radio or TV. This type corresponds with one-direction of
transferring the information from the speaker to the listeners. It is used as a written
form which suggests no reaction and response from the listeners.
The dialogue involves two or more speakers for transactional and in
interactive purpose. Turn taking happens in order to change the roles of speakers and
listeners in this type. Participants exchange ideas directly and quickly. Using dialogue
to teaching speaking skill for students seems to be a good choice for educators and
teachers as Byrne (1986) says: “Dialogues seem to be best suited to the teaching of
the spoken language.” This technique will be discussed more in next chapters.

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b. Elements of Speaking
According to Harmer (2001), in spoken language some elements should be
included: the first one is being connected speech. This means that a good speaker
should have ability to sound words correctly and connect the sounds to words to each
other. The second element is an expressive device. We can use pitch change,
intonation, and stress to convey different meanings. The third is Lexis and grammar.

This reflects the speaker’s ability of using phrases in appropriate way depending on
the language function. The last is negotiation language. It means that the speaker can
make clarification and display good talking structure by creating effective speaking.
Brown (2001) also indicates that rhythm and intonation, fluency, and accuracy
are three aspects of speaking. The speaker’s ability to articulate the words clearly
shows his or her fluency while accuracy reflects the speaker’s ability in using the
word naturally.
Along with Brown, Burkart (1998) mentions three knowledge areas of
speaking: mechanics, function, social and cultural rules and norms. He claims that
language learners need to recognize these three aspects in speaking.
- Mechanics involves pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary which show the ability
of using of right words in the right order with the correct pronunciation.
- Functions involve transaction and interaction which shows the ability of knowing
when clarity of message is essential (transaction/ information exchange) and when
precise understanding is not required (interaction/ relationship building).
- Social and cultural rules and norms involves turn-taking, rate of speech, length of
pauses between speakers and relative roles of participants which shows the ability of
understanding how to take into account who is speaking to whom, in what
circumstances, about what, and for what reason.
Finally, Burkat (1998) states that in the communicative model of teaching
speaking, teachers need help their students raise their awareness of this knowledge by
providing authentic practice that prepares students for real-life communication
situations and help their students develop the ability to produce grammatically

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correct, logically connected sentences that are appropriate to specific contexts, and to
do so using acceptable pronunciation.
2.3.3. Functions of Speaking

Many researchers have attempted to classify the functions of speaking in human
interaction. Brown and Yule (1983) first created the framework with three-part
version: talk as interaction; talk as transaction; talk as performance. Richards (2006:
2) later develop these framework and claims that “Each of these speech activities is
quite distinct in term of form and function and required different teaching
approaches”
a. Talk as Interaction
According to Richards (2006), Talk as interaction refers to what we normally
mean “conversation” and describes interaction that servers a primarily social
function. In our daily life, people meet each other then exchange greetings, engaging
small talks or sharing their experience and so on in order to maintain the social
relationship with other people. Depending on the circumstances, these exchanges can
be casual or more formal. Brown and Yule (1983) describe the main features of talk
as interaction as follows:
 Having a primarily social function
 Reflecting role relationship
 Reflecting speaker’s identity
 Having formal or casual
 Using conversational convention
 Reflecting degree of politeness
 Employing many generic words
 Using conversational register
 Being jointly constructed
Talking as interaction is a priority for students at upper secondary schools.
The material for them to practice, therefore, is designed as conversations. Some skills
are required when students talk as interaction:
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- Opening and closing the conversation

- Choosing topics
- Making small talk
- Recounting personal incidents and experiences
- Turn-taking
- Using adjacency pairs
- Interrupting
- Reacting to other
b. Talk as Transaction
What is said or done is the main focus of this type. Here the participants and
how they interact socially are not as important as the message.
Burns (1998) offers two different types of talk as transaction. One is the
situations where giving and receiving the information is the most important and the
participants focus on what is said or achieved. Information successful communicated
or understood is more important than accuracy. The second type is transactions which
focus on obtaining goods or services such as booking for a room in a hotel.
The main features of talk as transaction are well described again by Richards
(2006):
 It has a primarily information focus.
 The main focus is the information and not the participants.
 Participants employ communication strategies to make them
understood.
 There may be frequent questions, repetitions, and comprehension
checks.
 There may be negotiation and digression.
 Linguistic accuracy is not always important.
Speakers also need some of the skills for this type of talk as follows:
-

Explaining a need or intention

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-

Describing something

-

Asking questioning

-

Confirming information

-

Justifying an opinion

-

Making suggestions

-

Clarifying understanding

-

Making comparisons

-

Agreeing and disagreeing

c. Talk as Performance
Richards (2006: 4) stated that “Talk as performance refers to public talk, that
is, talk which transmits information before an audience such as morning talks, public
announcements, and speeches”. This type of talk seems to be in form of monologues
rather than dialogues. It often follows a recognizable format such as a speech of thank
you and is closer to the form of written language than conversational language. Talk
of performance focuses on its effectiveness and the impact on the listeners.
The main features of Talk as performance are:
 There is a main focus on both message and audience.
 It reflects organization and sequencing.
 Form and accuracy is important.
 Language is more like written language.
 It is often monologic.
Some of the skills involved in talking as performance are:
-

Using an appropriate format.

-

Presenting information in an appropriate sequence.

-

Maintaining audience engagement.

-

Using correct pronunciation and grammar.

-

Creating an effect on the audience.

-

Using appropriate vocabulary.

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-

Using appropriate opening and closing.

Understanding of the functions of speaking helps teacher design speaking
activities appropriately. Talk as interaction seems to be the most difficult to master
for students and to teach for teachers. However, students at upper secondary schools
are required to achieve the skill of this type. This demands teachers in identifying
strategies to provide opportunities for learners to acquire skills.
2.3.4. Principles for Teaching Speaking Skill
The goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency. However,
teacher should have a consideration to the students’ level to apply or combine
appropriate activities in teaching. According to Forseth et al (1995: 35-38), some
principles should be taken in teaching speaking skill as follows

a. For the beginning level
- Limit the objectives to avoid overwhelming the learners. Provide the students with
enough structured practice so they can begin interacting at a basic level. This will
reduce students’ fear and encourage more speaking. More free production can come
after structured practice.
- Mix the speaking activities with comprehension work; have students listen to the
teacher or each other before they speak. Comprehension work fosters an interaction
between speaking and listening.
- Provide activities which involve dialogues and functional use of the language. Focus
on language use rather than knowledge about language. Functions involve a focus on
meaning.
- Do not emphasize the significance of mistakes. This encourages students to speak
without fear of correction. This increases focus on meaning and communication
rather than grammatical correctness. Corrections should especially focus on problems
affecting clear communication or language already taught to the students.
- State the purpose / goal of the activities to the students. This provides a context or
focuses to help comprehension and allows the learners to concentrate on the task and
understand why they are doing it.

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b. For the intermediate and advanced levels
- Focus on and work toward real, spontaneous speech. Avoid from based drills
( repetitive or grammar-based exercises).
- Design activities which encourage natural interaction between speakers.
- Place students in pairs, triads or small groups. Smaller groups and pairs are studentscentered. This increases the quantity of speech spoken by the students and lowers
their anxiety.
- Provide topics of interest to the students. Interesting topics increase students’
motivation. This fosters a focus on meaning.

At the advanced level, especially in free production, allow only speech in the
target language.
For students at upper secondary school, they are normally at intermediate level.
Therefore, teachers should create appropriate activities which involve students in
speaking naturally.
Brown (1994) also offers 7 principles for teaching speaking skill.
• Principle 1: Focus on both fluency and accuracy depending on your objective.
This principle suggests that teachers should be sure about their tasks which
have linguistic objective and always create opportunities to help students perceive
and use the building blocks of language.
• Principle 2: Providing intrinsically motivating techniques.
According to Brown, teachers have to appeal to students’ ultimate goals and
interests to their need for knowledge, for status, for achieving competence and
autonomy and help them to see how the activity will benefit them.
• Principle 3: Encourage the use of authentic language in meaningful
contexts.
Authentic contexts and meaningful interaction may require teachers a lot
energy and creativity. However, with the help of a storehouse of teacher resource
materials it can be done.

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• Principle 4: Provide appropriate feedback and correction.
Teachers have responsibility to make the decision about how to react and
when to react to the students’ performance and inject kinds of corrective feedback
that are appropriate for the moment.
• Principle 5: Capitalize on the natural link between speaking and listening.
Speaking and Listening are skills which reinforce each other. In other words,
they are closely intertwined. Skills in producing language are often initiated through

comprehension.
• Principle 6: Give students opportunities to initiate oral communication.
Students are given opportunities to show oral communicative competence which
reflects their ability to initiate conversations, to nominate topics, to ask questions, to
control the conversations, and to change the subject.
• Principle 7: Encourage the development of speaking strategy.
This strategy is shown through students’ communicative competence such as
asking for clarification, asking someone to repeat something.
2.3.5. Steps of Teaching Speaking Skills
Many researchers such as Florez (1999), Brown (1994), Burns & Joyce (1997),
Carter & Mc Carthy (1995) have the same view on the set of procedures for teaching
speaking skills. A speaking lesson will follow the common paradigm of preparation,
presentation, practice, evaluation, and extension.
a. Step one: Preparation
The teacher establishes a context for the speaking task (where, when, why, and
with whom it will occur) and set the objective of the speaking skill to be targeted
( asking for clarification, stressing key words, using reduced forms of words).
b. Step two: Presentation
The teacher provides learners with a preproduction model that furthers them
comprehension and helps them become more attention observers of language use.
c. Step three: Practice

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The teacher involves learners in reproducing the targeted structure in a controlled
or highly supported manner.
d. Step four: Evaluation
The teacher involves directing attention to the skill being examined and asking
learners to monitor and assess their own progress.

e. Final step: Extension
The teacher gives activities that require learners to use the strategy or skill in a
different context or authentic communicative situation. At this stage the learner must
integrate the use of new skill or strategy with previously acquired ones.
2.3.6. Stages for Teaching Speaking Skills
In “Methodology course 1-Teaching the skills” (Hanoi 2002: 42-43) it is
suggested that a speaking lesson should have three stages: pre-speaking, whilespeaking, and post-speaking.
a. The Pre-speaking Stage
This stage can be seen as the preparation for the students. With some activities such
as brainstorming, discussion tasks, vocabulary tasks or pre-speaking questions,
students will find it familiar to the topics they are going to speak. Moreover, this is
the step which teachers motivate students and raise the interest in the lesson. In
addition, before delivering the activities for this stage, the teacher needs to identify
the objective of the lesson, the situation of teaching and learning, and the students’
need as well.
b. The While-speaking Stage:
This stage is often called controlled speaking. Teachers can design the activities
basing on the tasks in the textbook or adapt some more activities to increase the
communicative factor at this stage. Students are supposed to do the tasks in pair or
group work. This stage aims to develop students’ speaking skill by doing the
controlled tasks and activities themselves. The tasks and activities also supply
opportunity for students to practice the accuracy and fluency. Teacher needs to

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monitor the activities and provide help for the weak students who have difficulty
completing the task at this stage.
c. The Post-speaking Stage:
This is the freer speaking stage. Students are required to use the target language

which they have learnt and practiced, and their language knowledge to produce their
speaking communicatively. What they produce reflects the result of their practice
stage, their interests or views. At this stage, the teacher plays the role as observer,
assessor who provides appropriate feedback to students.
Basically, a speaking lesson should follow these stages orderly. Nevertheless, the
procedure of a speaking lesson may flexible due to each lesson, time constraint,
objectives of the lesson, types of students and materials in use. However, teacher
needs to have an overview of the lesson to assess how far their students achieve after
the lesson.
2.3.7. Problems with Speaking and Speaking Activities
a. Problems with Speaking
Speaking is considered to be similar to oral communication skill. Brown
(2000) states that, some characteristics of spoken language can make oral
performance easy as well as, in some cases, difficult.
• Clustering
Fluency in speech requires the use of phrases, not word by word. Clustering
somehow can prevent learners from producing their conversation fluently.
• Redundancy
Brown claims that the speaker has an opportunity to make meaning clearer
through the redundancy of language. However, this also causes confusing to the
learners when they use target language.
• Reduced Forms
The way of contractions, elisions, reduced vowels, etc., can be seen as
problems in teaching spoken English. Because of this problem, students sometimes
develop an unnatural and bookish quality of speaking.

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• Performance Variables

This can be an advance of spoken language which allows learners to manifest a
wide range of performance such as hesitations, pauses, backtracking, and corrections.
However, learners should be taught how to pause and hesitate, the way of using fillers
such as uh, well, you know, I mean, like, etc., in English which makes their
conversations smoothly.
• Colloquial Language
Words, idioms, and phrases of colloquial language are often used when we use
oral communication skill. Therefore, students should be equipped the knowledge of
this characteristic when they produce the conversations.
b. Problems with Speaking Activities
Ur (1996: 121) suggests some problems teachers and students may have in the
process of teaching and learning with speaking activities
Inhibition: Learners are often inhibition about trying to say things in a foreign
language. They are often worried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism or
losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts.
Nothing to say: Learners often complain that they cannot think of anything to say,
or that they have no motive to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling.
Low or uneven participation: In a large group, students may have only very little
talking time which leads to the tendency of some learners dominant, while others
speak very little or not at all.
Mother-tongue use: In classes students tend to use mother tongue because it is
easier. Moreover, they feel unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language
and because they feel less “exposed” if they are speaking their mother tongue.
These problems face the teachers and students in mastering the art of speaking.
Basing on this view, the research is therefore written in order to investigate the
difficulties at some upper secondary schools in Nghe An and suggest the application
of CAs to improve the quality of teaching and leaning speaking skill.

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