The application of communicative activities to develop speaking skills for 10th graders in Son Tay High school-Hanoi.pdf

1. VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
LÊ PHƯƠNG LAN
THE APPLICATION OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES
TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS FOR 10TH
GRADERS
IN SON TAY HIGH SCHOOL-HANOI
(ỨNG DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG GIAO TIẾP ĐỂ PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI
CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT SƠN TÂY-HÀ NỘI)
M.A MINOR THESIS
Field : ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
Code : 601410
HANOI, 2011

2. VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
LÊ PHƯƠNG LAN
THE APPLICATION OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES
TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS FOR 10TH
GRADERS
IN SON TAY HIGH SCHOOL-HANOI
(ỨNG DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG GIAO TIẾP ĐỂ PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI
CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT SƠN TÂY-HÀ NỘI)
M.A MINOR THESIS
Field : ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
Code : 601410
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Hoàng Văn Vân
HANOI, 2011

3. iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACCEPTANCE PAGE i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv
LIST OF TABLES vii
ABBREVIATIONS viii
INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale of the study 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Research questions 2
4. Scope of the study 2
5. Design of the study 2
DEVELOPMENT 4
Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4
1.1. UNDERSTANDING SPEAKING 4
1.1.1. Spoken language versus written language 4
1.1.2. Implications for teaching 5
1.2. TEACHING SPEAKING 6
1.2.1. The speaking needs and goals of language students 7
1.2.2. Approaches to teaching speaking 8
1.2.3. Principles for teaching speaking 10
1.3. COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES 12
1.3.1. What are communicative activities? 12
1.3.2. Purposes of communicative activities 13
1.3.3. Types of oral communicative activities 14
1.3.3.1. Communication games 14
1.3.3.2. Songs 15
1.3.3.3. Discussion 15

4. v
1.3.3.4. Problem solving 16
1.3.3.5. Simulation and role-play 17
Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY 18
2.1. RESEARCH SETTING 18
2.1.1. An overview of Son Tay High School 18
2.1.2. The teachers of English in Son Tay High School 18
2.1.3. The students in Son Tay High School 18
2.1.4. The current situation of English teaching and learning in Son Tay
High School
19
2.2. RESEARCH METHODS 20
2.2.1. Description of the subjects 20
2.2.2. Data collection instruments 20
2.2.3. Procedures 21
2.2.4. Methods of data analysis 21
Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 22
3.1. DATA ANALYSIS 22
3.1.1. Results of teachers’ survey questionnaire 22
3.1.2. Results of students’ survey questionnaire 26
3.2. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 29
3.2.1. Findings from classroom observation 29
3.2.2. Findings from survey questionnaire 29
3.3. SUMMARY 30
Chapter 4: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 32
4.1 Some kinds of effective communicative activities 32
4.2 Some considerations and suggestions on using
communicative activities
35
CONCLUSION 37
REFERENCES 39
APPENDIX 1 I
APPENDIX 2 III
APPENDIX 3 V

5. vi
LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1 Information about Teachers’ CLT training 22
Table 2 The teachers’ time of using communicative activities. 22
Table 3 Kinds of communicative activities teachers usually use in
their English teaching process.
23
Table 4 Major obstacles teachers encounter when they apply
communicative activities in their English teaching.
24
Table 5 Some strategies the teachers have applied to overcome these
obstacles.
25
Table 6 The reasons for speaking of students in classroom 26
Table 7 Kinds of communicative activities that students were fond of
participating in.
26
Table 8 Reasons discourage students from speaking English in class 27
Table 9 Some strategies the teachers have applied in order to
overcome these obstacles.
28

6. vii
ABBREVIATIONS
TEFL : Teaching English as a Foreign Language
CLT : Communicative Language Teaching
EFL : English as a Foreign Language
M.A : Master of Art

7. 1
INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
The introduction of the new textbook “English 10” into teaching at Son Tay High
School in 2006 has marked real renovation in language teaching and learning from the
traditional approach-grammar translation method, which only concentrates on the ability of
using grammar rules precisely, to communicative approach, which focuses on
communication ability. Nonetheless, the teachers of English at Son Tay High School find it
difficult to teach speaking successfully because of the class size, the students’ language
level, and additionally, students are not acquainted with CLT. Moreover, the majority of
the teachers were trained under the strong influence of the Grammar-Translation method,
which impedes them from teaching speaking successfully even the new textbook follows
the communicative approach.
As a teacher of English at Son Tay High School in Hanoi, I often receive similar
questions from many students. For example, “I can understand grammar and sentence
structures well, but I feel embarrassed to talk in English” or “What should I do to speak
English well?” In my reality of teaching, there are a lot of students who have perfect
knowledge of grammar that works wonderfully for reading and writing but cannot express
themselves to the teachers. On the other hand, I often hear a lot of complaints from the
colleagues: “Students seem so quiet and lazy during speaking lessons. It is very difficult to
make them participate in speaking activities”. Therefore, the idea of doing something
useful for my colleagues and students has urged me to conduct the research.
Another reason why the study was carried out lies in my love for teaching
speaking. By doing the study, I can know more about the challenges in teaching and
learning speaking skills so that I can find relevant techniques along with activities to
improve my teaching speaking at Son Tay High School.
The above reasons have inspired me to conduct a study on “The application of
communicative activities to develop speaking skills for 10th
graders at Son Tay High
School-Hanoi” with the hope to make a little contribution to the quality of teaching and
learning speaking skills for Grade 10th at Son Tay High School.

8. 2
2. Aims of the study
The aims of the study are to address the following issues:
 The difficulties that teachers and students face in the process of teaching
and learning speaking skills;
 The application of some useful communicative activities to improve
English speaking ability for 10th
graders.
3. Research questions
To achieve these aims, the following two research questions are addressed:
1. What communicative activities can make the speaking lessons more effective?
2. What obstacles have the teachers and students faced in their speaking lessons?
4. Scope of the study
This study is concerned with the application of communicative activities to develop
speaking skills to the students in grade 10th
at Son Tay High School. The researcher is not
planning on studying a larger population of the whole students at Son Tay High School,
just on the students in grade 10th
in order to find out what communicative activities are
applied and the obstacles experienced by these students and teachers of English then offer
some recommendations with the hope that teaching and learning speaking skills will be
improved.
5. Design of the study
Apart from acknowledgement, abstract, table of contents and appendices, this thesis
is structured in three main parts namely: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion.
The first part “Introduction” presents the rationale, aims, research questions, scope of the
study and its design.
The second part “Development” includes four chapters.
Chapter 1, Theoretical Background, begins with the literature on understanding speaking,
including the comparison of spoken language with written language and implication for
teaching. Then comes the literature on teaching speaking with the speaking needs and
goals of language students, some approaches to teaching speaking and principles for
teaching speaking. The rest of the chapter is on communicative activities, its purposes and
its different types.
Chapter 2 is composed of two sections. The first section presents the local situation in Son
Tay High School. The second section provides the research methods that involve

9. 3
information about the subjects, data collection instruments and procedures. Also, the
methods of data analysis are mentioned.
Chapter 3 presents major findings and discussion
Chapter 4 gives recommendations for more effective application of Communicative
Activities in developing students’ speaking skills.
The third part is the conclusions of the study.

10. 4
DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. UNDERSTANDING SPEAKING
1.1.1. Spoken language versus written language
Communication between humans has its own characteristics. The speaker speaks
and the writer writes because they want to say something and they have a communicative
purpose. For example they may want to give information about some special events, they
may want to make a claim or they may want to argue. In addition, both the speaker and the
writer select the language they think is appropriate for their purpose of communication.
However, there are significant differences between spoken language and written language.
Understanding the different characteristics between the two modes of communication is
very important for educators, in order to design an appropriate curriculum in teaching
integrating skills and thus to promote learners' language acquisition.
Spoken and written language serve different social purposes, therefore they have
different characteristics and have their own systematic patterns and language forms.
Harmer (1996), Burns (1997) and many other scholars have distinguished the different
features between spoken and written language. The first and perhaps the most obvious
difference between spoken and written language is that “speech and writing are typically
used in different kinds of situations” (Burns: 8). When we speak, we are usually interacting
directly with others such as talking on the phone or chatting with friends in the cafe. The
language produced during talk is spontaneous and relatively unplanned. Speakers have less
time to plan than writers do and they often have to produce what they want to say on the
run. As a consequence, speakers tend to hesitate, use more informal or everyday language,
make mistakes or change the topic in the middle of the conversation. Speakers use a
number of linguistic devices, which are called: parataxis and hypo taxis formulaic
expressions and ellipsis (Burns: 18).
Harmer (1996) states that the significant different feature between spoken and
written language concerns the need for accuracy and the level of accuracy. Writers are
usually alone and not in direct contact with the audience. As a result, they do not receive
immediate feedback from the reader and sometimes get no feedback at all. Native speakers
constantly make “mistakes” when they are speaking. They hesitate and say the same thing

11. 5
in different ways and they often change the subject of what they are saying in mid-
sentence. A piece of writing, however, with mistakes and half-finished sentence, etc.
would be judged by many native speakers as illiterate since it is expected that writing
should be “correct”. From the point of view of language teaching, therefore, there is often
far greater pressure for written accuracy than there is accuracy in speaking. Apart from
this, writers can not use intonation, stress or body language. They also often feel under an
obligation to achieve accuracy and precisions, because written language is more permanent
than spoken language.
Another different characteristic of written and spoken language is in the overall
structures of spoken and written texts (Burns, 1997). Written texts are usually logically
organized with a distinct beginning, middle and end structures. It is generally possible for
readers to predict quite easily how the text is likely to be structured. Spoken texts, on the
other hand, are more open-ended and dynamic with one utterance leading to another.
Speakers also tend to change their topic of conversation during the talk. Therefore it is
difficult for the speakers and listeners to predict the exact direction the interaction will
take.
Finally, spoken and written languages are grammatically different. According to
Halliday (1989) in Burns (1997), written language is more lexically dense while spoken
language is more grammatically complicated. Writers tend to use lexical words such as
nouns or noun groups, speakers tend to use verbs and grammatical words such as pronouns
and conjunctions or linking words such as "and", "but" and "because" to produce clauses.
1.1.2. Implications for teaching
Understanding the characteristics of spoken and written language, the linguistic
similarities and differences is very important for language teachers to have an appropriate
approach to teaching reproductive and receptive skills. The followings are factors that EFL
teachers should take into account in order to assist EFL students’ speaking skills.
The primary need of EFL learners is the need to hear and practice with samples of
natural speech of native speakers and to be aware of the language typically used in spoken
communication. This results from the fact that EFL learners lack opportunity to be exposed
to natural speaking environment, therefore they cannot have the chance to pick up the
sounds and vocabulary of spoken language. Burns (1997) asserts that the teachers in order
to prepare students to use spoken language effectively in social situation need to present

12. 6
students with authentic spoken texts in the classroom. However, the materials chosen for
teaching should be relevant to the level of the students; otherwise, they would lose
motivation if they could not understand the language input.
In addition, students should be introduced to the language they are going to learn
such as certain words, certain verbs or certain patterns. This encourages students’
concentration as it enables them to know what they are going to deal with in the lesson.
Also, students need to be taught what the language means and how it is used so that they
can effectively use appropriate language in appropriate situations. In other words, students
need to be equipped with not only the grammatical structures but also of how language is
used in social context.
Moreover, according to Nunan (1991), it is very important for the teacher to
encourage students to speak and motivate students before they listen. Speakers speak
because they want to speak and have a communicative purpose and people listen because
they want to know what the speakers say as well as to find out what the purpose is.
However, in the formal classroom context, especially in EFL classrooms, students tend to
feel unsure and embarrassed to speak because they are afraid of being “wrong”. Nunan
(1991) states that if students are actively engaged in attempting to communicate, learning
to speak a second or foreign language will be facilitated. If students do not want to be
involved in the speaking lesson, the lesson will not be effective. Therefore, the teacher
should choose the topic that reflects students’ needs or that is related to student background
and interest. In addition, while students speak, the teacher should be a participant or
listener rather than an instructor who tends to stop them to correct mistakes. By intervening
students for correction, the teacher may discourage students from attempting to express
their ideas in English. Since one of the features of spoken language is speech does not
require a high level of accuracy like writing, learner mistakes should be tolerated until they
are given feedback at the end of the activity. This helps bring about the concept of self-
confidence, which is very important in promoting learners’ speaking skills.
1.2. TEACHING SPEAKING
1.2.1. The speaking needs and goals of language students
One of the aims of most of the language programs used by teachers today is to
develop spoken language skills, and most programs aim to integrate both spoken and

13. 7
written language. However, the emphasis given to speaking in a language program varies
according to the needs and goals of the students and the focus of the course.
According to Burns (1997), decisions about teaching speaking will inevitably
depend on the learners’ goal and their needs in developing speaking skills. The most
important starting point when deciding how to teach speaking is to gather background data
about students such as age, language background and previous language learning, their
goals, needs and the contexts in which they will need to use English. It also involves
assessing their current level of spoken language competency or proficiency. Sheils (1993)
has suggested that the development of communicative ability has to be related to the needs
of learners. They have both immediate and potential communicative needs. They need to
know how to express their own meanings in the here-and-now of the classroom as they
share knowledge, experiences, interests, opinions and feelings. Learners also need to be
prepared to use the language for real communication outside the classroom.
Burns (1997) has also shown that in deciding what spoken language to include
in a program, it is valuable to investigate the students’ purposes and goals for improving
their speaking skills. This can be done through interviews, individual and class discussions
and through class surveys.
Harmer (1996) has shown that students may have “short-term goals” and “long-
term goals” in learning a language. Long-term goals might have something to do with a
wish to get a better job at some future date, or a desire to be able to communicate with
members of a target language community. Short-term goals might include such things as
wanting to pass an end-of-semester test or wanting to finish a unit in a book. Some
students may simply consider that learning a language involves learning to speak and may
believe that it is up to the teacher to decide what they should learn.
In considering students’ speaking needs, we should also consider the role of spoken
language in the classroom. Spoken language is central to the management of the classroom
and we should be aware of the levels and types of language we, as teachers, use to manage
the classroom. If we ask students participate in classroom activities, we need to make sure
that we use spoken instructions which they can understand. We also need to familiarize
students with types of texts which we use to manage the classroom and the texts which
develop classroom social interactions.

14. 8
When making realistic judgments about how quickly students will develop spoken
language, it is important to consider the opportunities they have to practice spoken
language outside the classroom, and their willingness to take advantage of these
opportunities. Knowing how often students are likely to engage in spoken interactions
outside the classroom will influence decisions about what spoken language texts to
introduce into the program. It will also influence the types of out-of-class tasks set to
encourage the students to interact outside the classroom.
1.2.2. Approaches to teaching speaking
In this section we will consider some theoretical approaches which have informed
language teaching in· the twentieth century and which have had various implications for
the teaching of speaking.
The first approach we would like to mention here is the grammar-translation
approach. The grammar-translation approach emerged in response to a growing interest in
the learning of foreign, generally European, languages in the nineteenth century. The focus
of this approach in language learning is on the knowledge of grammar and on applying this
knowledge in the process of translating from one language to another. One of the central
features of the approach was the presentation of the new language through individual
sentences which exemplified grammatical points. A typical lesson would include the
presentation of a new grammatical point, a list of new vocabulary items to be learned and
practice sentences for students to translate.
The grammar-translation approach placed considerable emphasis on accuracy and
stressed the production of complete sentences. As the approach was based on written
grammatical sources, the teaching of speaking was, in effect, neglected and teaching itself
took place through the medium of the learner’s first language. This approach also
encouraged a word-by-word construction of sentences, which ignored meaning and often
produced unnatural sound in sentences. One of the main goals of this approach was to
develop skills that would allow learner to read the works of great literature or to experience
the intellectual discipline of studying and analyzing grammatical structure.
Richards and Rodgers (1986) has shown that in the first half of the twentieth
century, the theories of American structural linguists such as Bloomfield (1993) and Fries
(1945) gradually replaced the more traditional approaches of classical humanism and the
structural approach became influential in language teaching. And it was considered one of

15. 9
the most common approaches to teaching speaking and listening. This approach was based
on the view that language is acquired by stimuli and imitation. It was an approach which
gave a much greater emphasis to speaking than the previous grammar-translation approach.
This approach to teaching focuses on audio-lingual method of imitation, repetition and
response. Burns (1997) has also shown that, on the one hand, this approach to teaching
speaking and listening forms habits of speaking with good intonation and correct grammar.
Learners were trained in correct speech-patterns and expected to practice them. There was
a strong emphasis on repetition and on building up of linguistic items through drills and
exercises which focused on grammatical structures and patterns. On the other hand, this
approach places little interest in the context for speaking. Learners’ activities involved
intense practice in aural-oral skills and focused on activities such as drills and substitution
exercises taken from a graded syllabus. There was little interest in the contexts for
speaking, which were used merely as a situational vehicle for the more important practice
of grammatical structure. Learners may find it difficult to perform in a context different
from what they have been taught. However, in the EFL context where students lack
opportunity to be exposed to the natural speaking environment for self correction, imitation
of sounds, intonation and vocabulary plays a great importance in the early developmental
stage of language acquisition.
Another approach to teaching speaking and listening is communicative approach.
This approach based on the view that language must be seen in a social context rather than
as grammatical structures. According to Burns et al. (1997), this approach emphasizes the
idea about linguistic competence by taking up the issue of the speakers’ performance or
language use. Communicative competence includes not only linguistic knowledge, but also
knowledge of the cultural and communicative systems available to the speakers, and their
relationship with the setting, participant, purpose, channel of communication and topic.
Communicative approach of teaching focuses on teaching how to use language for
communicative purposes.
The main features of the communicative approach are the followings:
♣ First, language is viewed within social context rather than as a system of
grammatical patterns;

16. 10
♣ Second, the teaching content is developed on the basis of student needs; a
concern with all the four macro skills of language, rather than primarily with
reading and writing.
♣ Third, there is tolerance of learner errors as an inevitable aspect of language
acquisition.
♣ Finally, this approach to teaching encourages students to learn independently and
emphasizes the role of the teacher as a facilitator of the learning process.
Since the 1970s, communicative approach has had a major influence on teaching
and learning in many parts of the world. One of the major benefits of communicative
language teaching (CLT) is that it has brought about a more comprehensive view of
teaching and learning. CLT emphasizes the development of learners’ ability and
willingness to use the target language appropriately and accurately for the purposes of
effective communication (Shei1s, 1993). However, this is not to imply that the
communicative approach has been universally accepted and practiced.
Methodologies based on communicative approach to teaching speaking tend to
focus on spoken language use rather than the form of the language. This has meant that in
the classroom the teacher has been encouraged to focus on activities which will get
students speaking and attention has been paid to providing them with the means to interact.
As a result, there was often little guidance given to teachers on how to integrate a focus on
the form of spoken language.
1.2.3. Principles for teaching speaking
Attitudes toward teaching have changed somewhat since the nineteenth century.
This is particularly true of the last twenty-five years which have seen a change of focus
from “language structure” to “language use”. In the area of speaking, researchers have put
increasing emphasis on “natural speech”. That is to say there has been a shift in focus from
the product of speaking to the process involved.
The governing principle for the processes involved is to give students more and
more opportunities “to use language as they wish, to express their own ideas so that they
become aware that they have learnt something useful to them personally, and thus they are
encouraged to go on learning” (Byrne, 1987:2). However, teachers may help students
progress through several steps. First the teachers present new language to the students, then
they must practice the new language in a controlled way. Finally students can try to use the

17. 11
language they have learnt in free or creative speech. For this purpose, teaching spoken
language should start from the early stage of learning.
Learner training for speaking aims to raise students’ ability to use language they are
learning as much as possible to help them “to make the best use of the little they know”
(Byrne, 1987). It is generally accepted that for the beginners we should limit the objectives
to avoid overwhelming them, provide them with enough structured practice so they can
begin interacting at a basic level. This encourages more speaking as well as reduces
students’ fear. Later, more free production can come after structure practice. In order to
raise beginner students’ ability to use language, we should provide them with activities
which involve dialogues and functional use of the language, stating the goal of the
activities to the students. Byrne highlights the meaning of the dialogues and concludes that
dialogue is the best way to begin learning speaking because they present the spoken
language directly in situations in which it is most common used, they permit and
encourage learners to practice the language in the same way and they encourage active
participation in the lesson.
Burns (1997) has suggested some general principles for the teaching speaking,
namely:
♣ Speaking involves an understanding of the way in which context influences the
choices of language made.
♣ Speaking involves understanding that spoken texts differ from written texts in
their grammatical patterns and discourse strategies.
♣ Speaking activities should focus on whole texts in contexts, rather than on
sentence level grammatical constructions in isolation.
♣ Speaking activities aim to develop the confidence, desire and ability to use the
target language not only accurately but also appropriately and effectively for the
purposes of communication.
♣ Learning and practicing vocabulary, grammatical structures, pronunciation
should be related to contexts and lead to the use of whole texts.
♣ Spoken discourse types or texts can be analyzed with learners for their typical
structures and grammatical patterns.

18. 12
1.3. COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES
1.3.1. What are communicative activities?
According to Harmer (1991), whatever activity the students are involved in, if it is
to be genuinely communicative and if it is really promoting language use, the students
should have a desire to communicate. If they do not want to be involved in communication
then that communication will probably not be effective. The students should have some
kind of communicative purpose, in other words they should be using language in some
way to achieve an objective. Then their attention should be centered on the content of what
is being said or written and not the language form that is being used. So, communicative
activities are the ones which involve learning through using language for a communicative
purpose.
In communicative activities, the students will have to deal with a variety of
language (either receptively or productively) rather than just one grammatical construction.
While the students are engaged in the communicative activity the teacher should not
intervene, which means he/she should not correct mistakes. This would undermine the
communicative purpose of the activity. The teacher may of course be involved in the
activity as a participant, and will also be watching and listening very carefully in order to
be able to conduct feedback.
Thus for non-communicative activities there will be no desire to communicate on
the part of the students and they will have no communicative purpose. In other words,
where the students are involved in a drill or in repetition, they will be motivated not by a
desire to reach a communicative objective, but by the need to reach the objective of
accuracy.
Harmer (1991) has summarized those points in a figure called “The communicative
continuum”:
NON-COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES
* no communicative desire
* no communicative purpose
* form not content
* one language item
* a desire to communicate
* a communicative purpose
* content not form
* variety of language

19. 13
* teacher intervention
* materials control
* no teacher intervention
* no materials control
Of course not all classroom activities are either “communicative” or “non-
communicative”. There are techniques that fall somewhere between the two extremes.
Harmer has also divided work on the productive skills into three major stages:
introducing new language, practice and communicative activities. The introduction of new
language is frequently an activity that falls at the “non-communicative” end of the
continuum. Often here the teacher will work with controlled techniques, asking students to
repeat and perform in drills. At the same time the teacher will insist on accuracy,
correcting when the students make mistake. Practice activities are those which fall
somewhere between the two extremes the continuum. While students perform them they
may have a communicative purpose, and while they may be working in pairs, there may
also be a lack language variety, and the materials may determine what the students do or
say. Practice activities, then, often have some features of both non-communicative and
communicative activities. Communicative activities are those which exhibit the
characteristics at the “communicative” end of the continuum. Students are somehow
involved in activities that give them both the desire to communicate and a purpose which
involves them in a varied use of language.
1.3.2. Purposes of communicative activities
According to Littlewood (1990), communicative activities have been designed to
provide an opportunity for learners to produce language that they have recently learnt. The
followings are some contributions that communicative activities can make to language
learning:
They provide “whole-task practice”: While non-communicative activities provide
training in the part-skills, communicative activities provide practice in the total skills,
sometimes called “whole-task practice”. Learning to swim, for example, usually involves
not only separate practice of individual movements (part-skills), but also actual attempts to
swim short distances (whole- task practice). In foreign language learning, our means for
providing learners with whole- task practice in the classroom is through various kinds of
communicative activity structured in order to suit the learners’ level of ability.

20. 14
They improve the motivation: The learners’ ultimate objective is to take part in
communication with others. Their motivation to learn is more likely to be sustained if they
can see how their classroom learning is related to this objective and help them to achieve it
with increasing success.
They allow natural learning: Many aspects of language learning can take place
only through natural processes, which operate when a person is involved in using the
language for communication. If this is so, communicative activity (inside or outside the
classroom) is an important part of the total learning process.
They can create a context which supports learning: Communicative activity
provides opportunities for positive personal relationship to develop among learners and
between learners and teachers. These relationships can help to “humanize” the classroom
and to create an environment that supports the individual in his efforts to learn.
1.3.3. Types of oral communicative activities
Different linguists have had different ideas on the distinction of communicative
activities. Littlewood (1990) distinguishes them into two main categories, which he calls
“functional communication activities” and “social interaction activities”. Harmer (1991)
looks at the communicative activities with oral and written focuses. So he distinguishes
them into “oral communicative activities” and “written communicative activities”.
Harmer's idea seems clearer to the researcher of this thesis when studying the types of
communicative activities.
In this section we will look at those types of activities with a largely oral focus
(although we should not forget the points about skill integration). Those activities are all
designed to provoke spoken communication between students and/or between the teacher
and the students.
1.3.3.1. Communication games
Harmer (1991) has suggested that in communication games activities students are
put into a situation in which they have to use all or any of the language they possess to
complete a game-like task. This type of communicative activities produces the simplest
patterns of interaction. The situation is always that one student (or group) possesses
information which another student (or group) must discover.
Communication games activities include finding the differences (or similarities);
describe and arrange; story reconstruction and/or poem reconstruction (Bygate, 1987). In

21. 15
each case of this type of activities it is the overcoming of the information gap rather than
the production of correct language that signals the success of the performance. In this
respect, the focus of the activity is on “meanings to be communicated” rather than
“linguistic form to be learnt” (Harmer, 1991). The activities of this type provide the teacher
with a convenient bridge between pre-communicative and communicative language use,
students are engaged in communicating meaning for a purpose, but they are not yet made
to dispense entirely with the “structure crutches” provided by the teacher.
1.3.3.2. Songs
There are many good rationales for using songs in English classroom. They are
“authentic material”. They enhance student’s sense of achievement in that, for example,
they can sing a song later by themselves. Music creates a relaxing atmosphere because the
whole class sings together. Songs allows maximum participation by every student in both
listening and speaking. Additionally, music makes a nice change from standard textbook
and it is good for developing students’ instincts about intonation and rhythm. Eken (1996:
46) states that songs can be used:
• to present a topic, a language point, lexis, etc;
• to practice a language point, lexis, etc;
• to encourage extensive and intensive listening;
• to stimulate discussion of attitudes and feelings;
• to encourage creativity and use of imagination;
• to provide a relaxed classroom atmosphere and
• to bring variety and fun to learning.
In order to choose a suitable song, the teacher should keep in mind that (1) Songs
must be a reasonable length, range, and rhythm. (2) Song should have repetitive lyrics or
chorus which is easy to learn. This allows slower students to follow. (3) The emotional and
conceptual content of a song should be appropriate to the age and maturity of your
students. (4) Songs must be pedagogically appropriate to the lesson. (Quan: 2004).
As demonstrated, songs are valuable in language teaching and learning. The teacher is
obliged to successfully integrate songs into a language lesson.
1.3.3.3. Discussion
In this type of activity students “have to pool the information in the discussion”
(Littlewood, 1990: 27). The discussion may be about a proper problem, addiction, for

22. 16
example or about a given controversial proposition such as “People who buy fur coats
should pay a 100% tax”. Students have to prepare arguments either in favor of the
proposition or against the proposition.
Sheils (1993) has indicated the value of discussion activities as follows:
“Discussion activities involve learners in personal and fluent use of the target
language. They require them to reflect, to evaluate data or arguments, to listen
carefully to others, to have an open mind and to develop the skills and expressions
necessary for a real discussion. The exchange of opinion or feelings should assist
learners in getting to know themselves and their classmates better”.
Harmer (1991) has said that many teachers can be heard complaining that their
students have nothing to say or that they have no opinions and are not prepared to discuss
anything. Part of the problem here is the way in which some teachers approach discussion
as an activity. If students are asked to express themselves fluently on a difficult topic in
front of their peers in a foreign language (often with no warning), they may find
themselves reluctant to do so. So before asking students to discuss as a whole class, teacher
should put them in groups to try out the topic. This will allow them to give opinion in a
less threatening environment than in front of the whole class. It will also give the teacher a
chance to see if the topic is interesting for the students.
Discussion activities are an important part of many lessons. The main thing to
remember is that “proper organization can ensure their success. Lack of it can provoke
their failure” (Harmer, 1991: 125).
1.3.3.4. Problem solving
Problem solving activities encourage students to talk together to find a solution to
(a set of) problems or tasks. According to Littlewood (1990), this type of activity dispenses
completely with the need to share information. Students now have access to all the relevant
facts. The stimulus for communication comes from the need to discuss and evaluate these
facts, in pairs or groups, in order to solve a problem or reach a decision.
Problem solving activities need not be based only on everyday situations that arise
inside or outside the classroom. The teacher may also present more unusual situations, in
order to stimulate the students’ ingenuity. In these activities students must not only analyze
information, but also argue, justify and persuade, in order to reach a common decision.
They therefore provide a context for a still wider range of communicative functions. They

23. 17
also make it still more necessary for students to develop skills in managing the interaction
at the interpersonal level. This fact often produces a high degree of personal involvement
among the participants.
1.3.3.5. Simulation and role-play
According to Harmer (1991), the idea of a simulation is to create the pretence of a
real-life situation in the classroom: students “simulate” the real-world. Thus we might ask
them to pretend that they are at an airport, or we might organize them to get together to
plan an imaginary reunion. What we are trying to do artificially of course is to give
students practice in real-world English. Students are asked to adopt a specific role in this
situation. In some cases, they may simply have to act as themselves. In others, they may
have to adopt a· simulated identity.
There is some controversy about the usefulness of simulations, particularly where
students are asked to play roles, but many teachers feel that they have certain advantages
because students do not have to take responsibility for their own actions and words. In
other words, it is the character who speaks, not themselves. It has certainly been noticed
that some shy students are more talkative when playing roles.
Littlewood (1992: 49) says: “... simulation and role-play are well-established as
techniques for organizing controlled, pre-communicative language practice, which
prepares students later to take part in fully spontaneous interaction”.
Bygate (1987) states that role-play may be allocated in several ways:
Role-play controlled through cued dialogues.
Role-play controlled through cued situations and goal.
Role-play controlled through cues and information.
Role-play in the form of debate or discussion.
This type of activity could be used for students at different levels of proficiency in
term of complexity of activities. Ladousse (1987: 7) has shown: “Role-play is one of
communicative techniques which develops fluency in language students, which promotes
interaction in the classroom, and which increases motivation”.

24. 18
Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1. RESEARCH SETTING
2.1.1. An overview of Son Tay High School
Son Tay High School is located in the West of Hanoi. Founded in 1959, Son Tay
High School is one of the oldest as well as biggest schools in the area. At present, there are
45 classes with over 2000 students placed into three different grades: grade 10th, 11th and
12th. The teaching staff composes of more than 120 teachers of 12 compulsory subjects, of
whom two-thirds are young, creative and well trained whereas the others are experienced
and enthusiastic. In 2007, with the innovation in educational policy, Son Tay High School
is one of the schools in Hanoi which has high percentages of high school graduated
students
2.1.2. The teachers of English in Son Tay High School
There are twelve teachers of English currently working in Son Tay High School.
Nearly all of them are female whose age ranks from 28 to 50. Among them, one half
studied at Hanoi Foreign Language Teachers Training College. One-fifth was former
teachers of Russian and French who graduated from the same college. Another quarter that
was trained from in-service training programs has experienced teaching for many years.
However, their communication ability as well as new teaching methods should be
improved.
Obviously, the age of the English teacher staff reveals the fact that many of them
were trained in the traditional method-the grammar-translation one. Few of them have
taken retraining courses to improve their English and their teaching methods. This
constrains them from teaching speaking effectively. Nevertheless, most of them are severe,
enthusiastic in working. Of the 12 teachers, two teachers are going to get M.A degree. At
the present, each teacher has to teach fifteen periods divided into 5 classes per week
excluding the burden of marking examinations and time for a lot of different school work.
Apparently, the teachers in Son Tay High School have to deal with a heavy workload in
order to fulfill their task.
2.1.3. The students in Son Tay High School
The majority of students in the study at Son Tay High School are aged from 15 to
18. Most of them come from urban areas and they have learnt English since they were at

25. 19
primary schools. Therefore, their English proficiency is some how better than students
from rural parts due to the availability of opportunities to attend part-time English courses.
Among them, there are a large number of students who are really interested in learning
English and want to develop their ability in using English. In contrast, the other part of
students is lowly motivated. They tend to regard English as less important than other
subjects and they study English only in order to pass the examinations.
2.1.4. The situation of English teaching and learning in Son Tay High School
2.1.4.1. The syllabus of teaching and learning
At Son Tay High School, English is one of the compulsory subjects in the
curriculum. The syllabus and the textbooks for English including “Tieng Anh 10”, “Tieng
Anh 11”, “Tieng Anh 12” are prescribed by the Ministry of Education and Training.
English curriculum for grade 10th students is divided into two semesters with a
total of 105 periods, 3 periods per week. Each period is 45 minutes long.
The textbook which is currently used for teaching and learning English for grade
10th at Son Tay high school is “Tieng Anh 10” which was designed following
communicative approach. The textbook consists of 16 units with 5 parts in each unit
arranging as follows: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus in which a
variety of exercises and tasks was compiled for practice. Also, there exists a consolidate
unit after every 3 units. The objective of these units is to examine how well the students
have achieved in the previous units.
2.1.4.2. The teaching and learning English speaking skills
It has been accepted that students’ communicative ability is the proper aim for
language teaching. This makes teaching and learning speaking skills seem to be an
important part in any English course. Like many other high schools in Vietnam, teaching
and learning speaking skills at Son Tay High School are affected by some constraints such
as large class size, students’ unfamiliarity with CLT, students’ low English proficiency,
students’ low participation in class time. Normally, in a class at Son Tay High school, a
number of students who have a good knowledge of English are eager and active during the
class while a majority of those with low English proficiency are very passive. Besides, lack
of training in teaching methods, especially CLT makes it difficult for the teachers to access
to new approach, which makes the teaching and learning speaking skills more challenging.
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26. 20
2.2. RESEARCH METHODS
2.2.1. Description of the subjects
The participants in this study are 10 English teachers of Son Tay High School and
one hundred tenth-graders of the school.
Participants in the questionnaire survey for teachers are 10 English teachers, ranged
from 28 to 50 years in age and have a long time of teaching experience, which varied from
5 to 25 years. Among them two are taking the MA course in TEFL and some of them have
had chances to go abroad for further studies.
The participants in the questionnaire survey for students are one hundred of two
English classes 10A1, 10A2 in Son Tay High School. They are all at the age of fifteen.
They have learned English for four years at different secondary schools in Son Tay. Most
of them are good at English, because they had to take a difficult examination to be
admitted into the school. In that examination, there is only English written test. The
problem here is that all of them are good at reading and writing English but not all of them
are good at listening and speaking since there is not any oral test for them.
2.2.2. Data collection instruments
2.2.2.1. Questionnaire
A questionnaire is considered the most appropriate research instrument for gathering
information concerning the attitudes of the respondents. Three reasons for this have been
found out. First, a questionnaire is confidential and the respondents can remain
anonymous. Second, a questionnaire is easy to administer enabling the researcher to survey
a large number of respondents. Third, the respondents can complete the questionnaire
when it suits them. Two sets of questionnaires were employed in this study: one for
teachers including 7 questions and one for students which consists of 8 questions. The
questions are both close-ended and open-ended.
2.2.2.2. Classroom observation
The researcher’s classroom observation was taken during her teaching to help the
researcher survey the real situation for triangulation purposes so that reliability and validity
of the data collected for this study could be achieved.
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27. 21
2.2.3. Procedures
At the beginning of the second semester of the academic year 2010-2011, two sets of
questionnaires were sent to those teachers and students at Son Tay High School who
agreed to take part in the research.
After one week, these questionnaires were collected. Information from these
questionnaires were then summarized and presented in the form of statistic information
(tables) for analysis to make implications and recommendations on the application of
communicative activities to develop speaking skills for 10th
graders.
Besides, the method of observation was carried out during the second semester. Ten
speaking lessons were observed. All implemented communicative activities were noted
down to see how effective they were
2.2.4. Methods of data analysis
In the data analysis stage, the researcher categorized the collected data from the two
questionnaires into two groups, one for the teachers and the other for the students. Two
themes were established from the two set of questions:
- Questions for teachers
* Teachers’ attitudes towards communicative activities
* Teachers’ difficulties in using communicative activities to teach speaking skill.
- Questions for students
* Learners’ attitude towards communicative activities.
* Learners’ difficulties in taking part in communicative activities.
The data was selected statistically in the form of percentages.
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