The Exploitation of TBL in Teaching Speaking Skills to 11th Graders in Hanoi High Schools, Suburb...

Vietnam national university, Hanoi

University of languages and International Studies

Faculty of English Language Teacher Education

Le Thi Lan Huong

The exploitation of task-based learning

in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders

in Hanoi high schools, suburb area

A Case Study

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

degree of bachelor of arts (TEFL)

Hanoi, May-2010

Vietnam national university, Hanoi

University of languages and International Studies

Faculty of English Language Teacher Education

Le Thi Lan Huong

The exploitation of task-based learning

in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders

in Hanoi high schools, suburb area

A Case Study

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

degree of bachelor of arts (TEFL)

Supervisor: tran quynh le, M.A

The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study

Acknowledgement

Most importantly, I wish to give my special acknowledgement to Ms. Tran

Quynh Le, my supervisor, who has made a significant contribution to the

success of this research. I appreciate her wonderful being, her patience with

my mistakes and the great care that she has given to me.

I would also like to thank Ms. Hoang Thi Kim Que, the teacher involved in

my case-study in Cao Ba Quat High school, who has played an important part

in data collection process. Her critical comments on the task design and

teaching profession are believed to be valuable for the case-study success.

Without her passionate devotion, the case-study could not have been done

successfully.

Besides, my heartfelt thanks would be given to Mr. Roger Bresnihan, Teacher

of English at British Council Hanoi, for his considerable support and

constructive comments on my lesson design.

It would not be a complete acknowledgement if I forgot thanking 11A1

students in Cao Ba Quat High school, five teachers involved in the interview

and other Grader students from Ly Thuong Kiet, Duong Xa, Yen Vien High

school for their valuable ideas and suggestions as well as their cooperation.

No acknowledgement would be complete without thanking my parents who

always encourage and take care about me. Their love and encouragement is

priceless, which inspired me so much in finishing this research.

I also want to give acknowledgement to the readers, who will spend their time

analyzing my paper and providing insightful comments.

Le Thi Lan Huong-06.1.E7 i


Abstract “The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to

11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study” is a research

paper that focuses on measuring the effectiveness of task-based

implementation in Grade 11 speaking lessons. It is aimed at assessing the

feasibility of task-based employment in speaking lessons under basic teaching

conditions for Grade 11 students (mainstream English course book).

The study is carried out as a qualitative research which is undertaken in

three main phases. Other data instruments namely survey questionnaire,

classroom observation and interview are used to support the case-study. The

study completion is reached by answering three research questions. The study

is expected to give significant contribution to the English teaching

development with regard to the effectiveness of task-based method. The study

figures out the current situation of teaching speaking skills in Hanoi high

schools, suburb area, under basic conditions. More importantly, it also

presents the students’ development in speaking skills at perception level after

getting four consecutive task-based learning lessons. The findings are

supposed to be the sound foundation to develop task-based learning in

speaking skills. By this, it is hoped that more tangible benefits will be gained

in terms of speaking skill improvement.

All in all, the research is carried out with a view to providing broader

and more insightful view into the task-based method and its feasibility of

application to teaching speaking skills in high school.

Le Thi Lan Huong-06.1.E7 ii


Acceptance page I hereby state that I: Le Thi Lan Huong, 06.1.E7, being a candidate for the

degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College

relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in

the library.

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in

the library should be accessible for the purpose of study and research, in

accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care,

loan or reproduction of the paper.

Signature

Date

Le Thi Lan Huong-06.1.E7 iii


List of tables, figures and abbreviations Table and figures

Figure 1: Steps involved in the development of a pedagogic task 19

Figure 2: A framework for designing task-based lessons 19

Table 1. A classification of the five interviewed teachers according to their

schools and years of experience 26

Table 2: A description of the group participating in the case-study 27 Table 3. A classification the 84 surveyed students according to their schools

and level of English specialization 28

Graph 4.1: Students’ preference for A option as a characteristic of an

interesting classroom speaking activity. 42

Graph 4.2: Students’ preference for B option as a characteristic of an


Graph 4.3: Students’ preference for C option as a characteristic of an


Graph 4.4: Students’ preference for D option as a characteristic of an


Graph 4.5: Students’ preference for E option as a characteristic of an


Graph 5: Students’ preferences for consecutive TBL employment in speaking lessons 49 Abbreviations TBL: Task-based learning

TB: Task-based

Le Thi Lan Huong-06.1.E7 iv

The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study Table of contents

Acknowledgement i

Abstract ii

Acceptance page iii

Chapter 1: Introduction 7

1.1. Statement of the problem 7

1.2. Aims of the study 8

1.3. Significance of the study 9

1.4. Scope of the study 9

1.5. Methods of the study 10

1.5.1. Data collection methods 10

1.5.2.Data analysis methods 11

1.6. Overview of the study 11

Chapter 2: Theoretical Background 12

2.1. Task 12

2.1.1.Definitions of task 12

2.1.2. Types of tasks 14

2.2. Task-based learning 16

2.2.1. Definitions of task-based learning 16

2.2.2. Design of task-based learning 16

2.3. Definitions of speaking skill 20

2.4. Case-study 22

Chapter 3: Methodology 24

3.1. Participants 25

3.1.1. Teachers of English 25

3.1.2. Grade 11 students 27

3.2. Data instrument 29

3.2.1. Questionnaires 29

3.2.2. Interviews 30

3.2.3. Classroom observation 32

Le Thi Lan Huong-06.1.E7 5


3.2.4. The case-study 33

3.3. Procedures of data collection 34

Chapter 4: Results and discussion 37

4.1. Research question 1: Kind(s) of activities teachers often implement and

level of TBL implementation when teaching speaking in class 37

4.1.1. Kind(s) of activities teachers often implement in speaking lessons 37

4.1.2. The level of TBL implementation in speaking lessons 40

4.2. Research question 2: How students’ attitude changes over a period of

four-week case-study 42

4.3. Research question 3: What difficulties faced by students when applying

TBL and what should be done to overcome these challenges 50

Chapter 5: Conclusion 56

5.1. Summary of findings 56

5.2. Limitations 57

5.3. Suggestions for further research 58

REFERENCES 60

APPENDICES 63

Appendix 1 Task-based lesson survey (Vietnamese and English versions)

Appendix 2 Students' questionnaire on TBL awareness (Vietnamese and

English version)

Appendix 3 Interview with teachers (Vietnamese and English versions)

Appendix 4 Interview with students (Vietnamese and English versions)

Appendix 5 Sample lesson plans in the case-study



Chapter 1: Introduction

This opening chapter is written with the view to presenting the overview of the

whole study. The statement of the problem and the rationale of the study

together with the aims and the scope are stated here in order to show the

researcher’s intention of conducting the study. Most of all, that the research

questions are addressed in this chapter is to work as the fundamental principle

for the author to carry out this study.

1.1. Statement of the problem Speaking is regarded as one of the key outputs for English learners.

“of the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems

intuitively the most important: people who know a language are referred to as

speakers’ of that language, as if speaking included all other kinds of

knowing….Classroom activities that develop learners’ ability to express

themselves trough speech would therefore seem an important component of a

language course.” (Ur, cited in Nguyen (2004:3)). People are not able to

communicate in English if they cannot deliver their messages and make

themselves understood.

That the great proportion of Vietnamese high school students learning

English as their second language is not in proportion with their motivation and

opportunities to practice communicating in the target language was identified

by Hoang et al., (2006) and Nguyen (2007, cited in Nguyen, 2007:1). In other

words, Vietnamese high school students have hardly learnt English as a tool of

communication but a school subject. In Vietnam, English is normally taught

for students to help them deal with tests, exams rather than for

communication. Grammar-oriented teaching methods seem to be prevalent in

most language classes. Therefore, English skills, particularly speaking and

listening, though scheduled in the textbooks, are not paid much attention to.

Students are supposed to learn English by exercise completion, but not gaining

much for using English as a tool of communication. It is the disturbing fact Le Thi Lan Huong-06.1.E7 7

The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study that has enlarged the gap mentioned above. As a matter of fact, solutions to

the problem are expected to be found out.

In an attempt to grapple with the problem, the use of task-based

method has been recommended and applied in some areas. Although study on

implementation of TBL activities in teaching has been conducted in Hanoi

University of Languages and International Studies; it is not the case with

speaking. Thus, seemingly, the fear or boredom of speaking is still common

among high school students, especially in mainstream classes. It is very likely

that students will gradually lose motivation in learning this skill, which is one

of the big teachers’ concerns for their students’ English acquisition. All of the

mentioned conditions, henceforward, have paved the way for the author to

carry out a research on “the exploitation of task-based learning in teaching

speaking skill to 11th graders in high schools in Hanoi – a case-study”

1.2. Aims of the study First and foremost, the research is expected to investigate the current

situation of teaching speaking to 11th graders in high schools in Hanoi in order

to make out the teachers’ and learners’ roles in speaking lessons. Taking it

into careful consideration, the research would like to find out whether task-

based learning has been implemented in teaching speaking to 11th graders or

not. If already, a closer look would be taken at the ways task-based activities

are exploited in the lessons. The results of the implementation would be drawn

out to find the connection between task-based activities and English speaking

improvement. All in all, the study is projected to highlight the importance and

feasibility of applying TBL activities to teaching speaking to 11th graders. To

make a long story short, the objectives could be recapped into three following

research questions

1. What kind(s) of activities do teachers often implement when teaching

speaking in class and effects of the implementation on students’

perception of TBL?



2. How does students’ attitude change over a period of four-week case-

study?

3. What difficulties are faced by the students when learning with TBL

method and what should be done (by the teacher) to overcome these

challenges?

1.3. Significance of the study The completion of the study is likely to make positive contribution to the

utilization of task-based method in speaking lessons. Up to this point, it is

believed that few studies have been conducted on this specific area up to this

point. As a result, the paper might be useful for a wide range of users,

particularly students, teachers as well as researchers who share the same

interest with this issue.

1.4. Scope of the study Although TBL is not limited to any skills, this paper puts greater

emphasis on the techniques that the teacher could apply to speaking lessons in

their classroom without any changes in the unit aims and objectives and the

according effects. In other words, the ways to employ task-based activities in

speaking lessons on the basis of the unit aims and objectives would be shown

to level up the effects. As a result, the matter of textbook assessment is not

discussed in details in this paper.

In the second place, a case-study in Cao Ba Quat High School was

conducted during the data collection process in order to maximize the validity.

All of the collected data from that case-study is to show the feasibility of task-

based learning in 11th grade speaking lessons to high schools in Hanoi which

share the similar learning and teaching environment with Cao Ba Quat’s. In

other cases, the results would be changeable due to the differences from place

to place; however, the principal effects might be lasting for the similarities

among high schools in Hanoi.


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study 1.5. Methods of the study

1.5.1. Data collection methods Observation, interviews, questionnaires were all employed during the

process of data collection for the study. In particular, two sets of

questionnaires were utilized for 11th graders for different ways of employment.

One set was delivered to 47 students who experienced a case-study in task-

based lessons. The questionnaire is given out right after each lesson in order to

get their fresh feedbacks on each of the four lessons. The other one was

delivered to 84 students who did not involve in the case-study. The purpose of

this set is to reveal the state of the use of task-based in 11th grade speaking

lessons. Besides, two sets of structured interview questions were made to

gather more detailed information on the task-based exploitation. One set was

applied to five teachers to do the investigation into current situation of task-

based exploitation in their speaking lessons. One set was applied to five

students who involved in the case-study to get further information after they

had completed the questionnaire. Last but not least, the observation during the

lesson in TBL was also of vital importance for the author to collect the

students’ responses to each of the applied lessons.

As for the procedure, the research was undertaken in three main

phases. First, a questionnaire was sent out to 84 students from five different

high schools in the same area to find out their level of task-based lesson

exposure. In the same stage, an interview was made with five teachers from

the four high schools to investigate the current employment of task-based in

11th grader speaking lessons as well as obstacles preventing them from further

exploitation (if any). Second, the author carried out a case-study in a 11th

grader group in Cao Ba Quat High School. The author designed four speaking

lessons for the teacher to teach her students. A questionnaire, afterwards, was

distributed to students to collect the students’ feedbacks on each lesson. When

four lessons had been completed, an interview was made with five out of the

47 students to obtain further information from their responds in the


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study questionnaire. The participants were asked to explain for their interest in

application of the lessons. All in all, the procedure was carried out as carefully

as possible with a view of maximizing the validity and credibility of the study.

1.5.2. Data analysis methods In the first place, the data were collected to answer the three research

questions. Specifically, all of the data gathered from interviews with five

teachers and a questionnaire for 84 Grade 11 students were used to answer the

first research question. The second and the third question were expected to be

replied to by making analysis of the questionnaire after each lesson, the

interviews with the teacher and five students involved in the case-study. The

synthesis of all findings were helpful to the implications of the study.

In the second place, the collected data were synthesized and

summarized into tables and charts in order to enable the broad and valid

comparison and generalization of the data. Tables are used to facilitate the

synthesis; whereas, the graphs are used to see changes in students’

development from time to time of the case-study. Last but not least, the most

critical data from interviews are repeatedly cited when necessary to support

the author’s implication during the data analysis process.

1.6. Overview of the study The basic structure of the study

Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Theoretical background

- Definitions of tasks - Task-based learning - Definitions of speaking - Case-study

Chapter 3: Methodology - Participants - Data instruments - Procedures

Chapter 4: Results and discussion Chapter 5: Conclusion



Chapter 2: Theoretical Background 2.1. Task

2.1.1. Definitions of task “Tasks” seem not to be a soft word in daily life if people view it as a

thing needed to be done. It is, however, not as serious as thought. Tasks are

activities which may be so close to our daily life that people forget to think

about its definition. According to Long (1985a, cited in Nunan, 2006), “a task

is nothing more or less than the things people do in everyday life”. Seeking

help from the dictionary, people may get a brief answer. For example, in

teaching, task is defined as : “an activity which is designed to help achieve a

particular learning goal” (Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and

Applied Linguistic, 2002). In another dictionary, task is pinpointed with more

details as “a piece of work imposed, exacted, or undertaken as a duty or the

like, or, portion of study imposed by a teacher.) (Oxford English dictionary,

1989)

Going further, linguists have suggested a wide range of task

definitions. A task has been defined and seen from various perspectives in

language teaching literature for years. Notably, a number of experts are in

favour of viewing language acquisition as a procedure which consists of

various stages such as Prabhu. Identifying the “acquisition of a linguistic

structure is not an instant, one-step procedure”, he gave a definition of task as

follows:

An activity which required learners to arrive at an outcome from given

information through some process of thought, and which allowed teachers to

control and regulate that process, was regarded as a “task” (cited in Michael

& Graham, 2009)

That point of view is followed by a sub-division of a task which

comprises of pre-task and task proper. The former was “to let the language

relevant to it come into play” (Prabhu, 1984 cited in Michael & Graham,


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study 2009) and the latter was “for the pupils to work on, usually individually”.

(Michael & Graham, 2009, p.35)

On the other hand, quite a few other experts tend not to give attention

to language acquisition itself, but its subjects and its participants, called

language learners. It is Candlin that gave his focus on the “learner and learning

processes and preferences, not the language or language teaching processes”.

He showed his opinion in a definition of task along those lines. A task is

regarded as:

One of a set of differentiated, sequenceable, problem-posing activities

involving learners and teachers in some joint selection from a range of

varied cognitive and communicative procedures applied to existing and new

knowledge in the collective exploration and pursuance of foreseen or

emergent goals within a social milieu. (Candlin, 1987, p. 10 cited in Michael

and Graham, 2009)

The above mentioned definition is said to be attached to “a view of

teaching as the transmission of preselected and predigested knowledge.”

(Michael and Graham, 2009, p.38) Sharing similar viewpoint, Breen (1987,

cited in Nunan, 1991) suggested that

A task is any structured language learning endeavour which has a

particular objective, appropriate content, a specified working procedure, and

a range of outcomes for those who undertake the task. ‘Task’ is therefore

assumed to refer to a range of workplans which have the overall purposes of

facilitating language learning – from the simple and brief exercise type, to

more complex and lengthy activities such as group problem-solving or

simulations and decision-making. (para. 8)

In spite of quite a few differences and various approaches, they all

share some criteria in common namely having a(n) goal/objective and being

“concerned with communicative language use in which the user’s attention is


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study focused on meaning rather than grammatical form.” (Nunan, 2006). In the

final place, the research would like to borrow a Nunan’s definition of task as

an indication of her agreement with his stance. It is, henceforth, the Nunan’s

definition of task that this paper refers to that term:

A task is a piece of classroom work that involves learners in

comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target

language while their attention is focused on mobilizing their grammatical

knowledge in order to express meaning, and in which the intention is to

convey meaning rather than to manipulate form. The task should also have a

sense of completeness, being able to stand alone as a communicative act in

its own right with a beginning, a middle and an end. (p.17)

2.1.2. Types of tasks On the basis of different approaches, experts have suggested various

ways of classifying a task . According to Nunan, there are two main types of

task called “real-world (or target) tasks” and “pedagogical tasks”. Specifically,

the former mentions everyday language which is used in real life, outside the

classroom environment. Meanwhile, the latter refers to the tasks undertaken in

the classroom.

In the light of Long’s definition (1.1), tasks are far from language

exercises for the natures of tasks and their “non-linguistic outcome”. Nunan,

meanwhile, in one of his articles, supposed that when being converted from

the real world into classrooms, tasks became “pedagogical in nature”. Making

that point more clearly, he cited a definition of pedagogical task along these

lines:

…an activity or action which is carried out as the result of processing or

understanding language (i.e. as a response). For example, drawing a map while

listening to a tape, listening to an instruction and performing a

command may be referred to as tasks. Tasks may or may not involve the



production of language. A task usually requires the teacher to specify

what will be regarded as successful completion of the task. The use of a

variety of different kinds of tasks in language teaching is said to make

language teaching more communicative … since it provides a purpose

for a classroom activity which goes beyond the practice of language for its own

sake. (Richards, Platt & Weber, 1986, p. 289).

Looking from another perspective, Estaire and Zanon with regard to

broad task definition on the basis (1994, cited in Littlewood, 2004) put tasks

into two main categories called “communication tasks” and “enabling tasks”.

The previous term refers to the fact that learner’s attention is drawn to

meaning rather than form. On the other hand, the latter points out that the

focus is shifted to linguistics aspects namely grammar, vocabulary,

pronunciation, functions, and discourse.

In addition, Willis also gave out another way of classification. She

provided a number of specific kinds of tasks which can be helpful for teachers

to design and follow. According to Willis (1996), there are six main types of

task as follows: listing tasks, ordering and sorting, comparing tasks, problem

solving tasks, sharing personal experience tasks, creative tasks. (cited in To,

2006)

In her study, Nguyen (2007) pointed out that Willis had sorted these

types of tasks on the basis of difficulty level, that is from the easiest to the

most challenging, listing tasks and creative tasks, respectively. On the other

hand, To (2006) supposed that the six types of tasks could be divided into two

main types namely pedagogical and real-world tasks. For the sake of cohesion

and clarity, the research has agreement with Nunan on his classification of two

main categories, namely pedagogical and real-world tasks. Thus, she will

adopt his viewpoint with some alternation suggested by To to design all of the

tasks in the case-study as pedagogical ones.


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study 2.2. Task-based learning

2.2.1. Definitions of task-based learning Task-based learning has been mentioned in various research papers as

well as articles on English language teaching as a practical-oriented method.

According to Frost, it is stated that

In a task-based lesson the teacher does not pre-determine what language will

be studied, the lesson is based around the completion of a central task and the

language studied is determined by what happens as the students complete it.

(para. 4)

The method is defined as the one in which “learning is fostered through

performing a series of activities as steps towards successful task realization”

(T-kit Methodology, cited in Nguyen, 2007). That is to say, students are

empowered to develop their English specialization. They acquire English

skills by having closer relation between the study and real situations. In

particular, students are placed to communicate successfully by completing

everyday tasks, even if the simulation.

2.2.2. Design of task-based learning In this part, the author would like to present other researchers’

viewpoints in task-based lessons design including learner and teacher roles, as

well as sequence of tasks.

2.2.2.1. Teacher’s roles and learner’s roles

Regarding the learner and teacher roles, they are summarized in the

table below as the work contributed by Richards and Rodgers (2001),

Scarcella, Honeyfield (1993), Nunan (1989) and Oxford (1992).



Teacher’s roles Learner’s roles

- selector/sequencer of tasks

- preparer of learners for

tasks

- pre-task consciousness

raiser about form, guide,

nurturer, strategy-

instructor

- provider of assistance

- Group participant

- Monitor

- Risk-taker/innovator

- Strategy-user

- Goal-setter

- Self-evaluator

- Task-analyzer

The case-study conducted in the research is expected to empower the

students the role of a group participant, monitor, risk-taker/innovator, task-

analyzer and self-evaluator. Meanwhile, the teacher is supposed to take all the

four roles above.

2.2.2.2. Sequence of tasks

Researchers on task-based learning and related aspects have worked

hard on this issue and achieve different outcomes. According to Richard and

Rodgers (2001) and Willis (1996a, 1996b, 1998), the sequence is comprised of

“a natural series of stages, such as preparation for the task (pre-task), the task

itself, and follow-up (post-task).” (cited in Oxford, 2006). Going further,

Willis offers a more detailed sequence in this way

- Pre task: introduction to the topic and task

- Task cycle

• Task planning

• Doing the task

• Preparing to report on the task

• Presenting the task report

• Language focus-analysis and practice (focus on form) Le Thi Lan Huong-06.1.E7 17

The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study In Nunan’s model (2004), however, he points out that a task-based syllabus

contains six stages as follows

- Schema building

- Controlled practice embedded in a context (unlike traditional

controlled practice)

- Authentic receptive skills work

- A focus on form (lexical and/or grammatical)

- Freer practice (communicative activities)

- The (communicative) task itself (p.111)

The two approaches above may be different in details; however, they

seem to share the three- phase procedure which are pre-task, while-task and

post-task.

On the other hand, some other researchers suppose that if the syllabus

is designed in Nunan’s model, it should be task-supported learning rather than

task-based learning. Specifically, Long and Crookes said that task-based

learning was expected to include “tasks in a syllabus where elements of

linguistics form were not specified, where tasks were not seeded with

language for students to notice, and where language form was opportunistic

rather than part of task design. Concerning that viewpoint, the author believes

that if language form is opportunistic rather than part of task design, the

achievement will not be obtained systematically, which may be not effective

in long-term syllabus. Particularly, the class size in Hanoi’s high schools is

very big (for a language class), 45 students or more, the teachers could hardly

have good classroom management to deliver such kind of TBL lessons.

Furthermore, the selected students tend to be reliant significantly on the

teacher in the traditional method from the specific language areas to the

structures of speaking performance. Consequently, if the students are given

much freedom to deal with their tasks-a sudden change-they seem not to have

clear direction, which is said to have negative motivation on them at the


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study beginning. That is the reason why the author is in favour of Nunan’s model

and Rod Ellis’ as follows:

Procedure Example Rationale

1. Identify target task

Giving personal information in a job interview

To give learners the opportunity to develop language skills relevant to their real world needs

2. Provide model Students listen to and extract key information from authentic/ simulated interview

To provide learners the opportunity to listen to and analyse ways in which native speakers or users of the target language carry out the target task

3. Identify enabling skill

Manipulation drill to practice wh-questions with do-insertion

To provide learners with explicit instruction and guided practice in these grammatical elements needed to perform the target task

4. Devise pedagogic task

Interview simulation using role cards

To provide learners the opportunity to mobilize their emerging language skills through rehearsal

Figure 1: Steps involved in the development of a pedagogic task (Nunan, 2006) Phases Examples of options A. Pre-task o Framing the activity (e.g.

establishing the outcome of the task) o Planning time o Doing a similar task

B. During task o Time pressure o Number of participants

C. Post-task o Learner report o Consciousness-raising o Repeat task

Figure 2: A framework for designing task-based lessons (R. Ellis, The Asian EFL Journal Quarterly September 2006, 8(3), p.20) Le Thi Lan Huong-06.1.E7 19


The researcher is in favour of Nunan in terms of supplying language

input before taking the task. That is to say, she also finds it reasonable to teach

language first, then use it to perform a task later. The language can be viewed

as one kind of data inputs for learners in the first step. By providing a model

before undertaking the task, the teacher presents not only useful language but

also a task structure. However, Nunan did not provide separate phases as

clearly as Ellis did. That is the reason why the researcher takes the framework

suggested by Ellis as the model to design task-based speaking lesson in her

case-study. The clear division of three main phases is helpful to the teacher to

teach and the author to keep track of the lesson. The author, hence, has

followed the two frames to design her lessons, which will be presented later in

the data collection part.

2.3. Definitions of speaking skill

Almost all of people speak to communicate with one another in our

daily life. Seemingly, the popularity of speaking tends to make us forget the

concept that we often call the definition of speaking. This ignorance ended in

the unawareness of speaking skill definition. Many of them may view

speaking as the natural ability without much practice or training; however, it

turns out to be different from the thought, particularly in the second language

acquisition. Therefore, the author is likely to have a discussion on speaking

skill definition instead of only speaking itself. In this study, speaking is

viewed as a skill rather the speaking itself.

In the first place, the notion of speaking skill should be reviewed in

different methods of second language teaching under a variety of theories and

viewpoints. In Grammar-translation method, the concept of speaking skill

seems to be absent for the theory is that “students acquire a foreign language

by learning and explaining grammar rules” and the method is on the basis of

language study and written exercises rather than real life communication and

speech (To, 2009). Meanwhile, in Audio-lingual method, speaking concept


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study tends to have a so-called important change when the communicative

competence and focus on aural/ oral skills are at top priority of overall goal.

However, speaking skill in this method is formed by a process of habit

formation and overlearning, not naturally. In Communicative Language

Teaching (CLT), there has witnessed a dramatic change in the concept and

importance of speaking skill. It is said that the foreign-language teaching is to

“prepare learners to be able to use the language” (Bygate, 1987). As a result,

speaking skill is said to receive consideration as adequate as other skills due to

the fact that it serves for the communicative purpose to achieve an outcome.

In the second place, back to the definitions of speaking, Bygate (1987)

said that

Speaking is often thought of as a “popular” form of expression which uses the

colloquial register: Literary skills are on the whole more prized. This relative

neglect may perhaps also be due to the fact that speaking is transient and

improvised, and can therefore be viewed as facile, superficial or glib. And

could it be that the negative aspects of behaviorist teaching techniques….

On the other hand, Mackey (1965) supposed that

Oral expression involves not only [….] the use of the right sounds in the

right patterns of rhythm and intonation, but also the choice of words and

inflections in the right order to convey the right meaning.” In conclusion,

they had common in the following concept that speaking is the expression by

sounds and involves the choice of words and reflection.

As a matter of fact, the definition of speaking skill is based on the one

of speaking. In “Speaking” (Bygate, 1997), the author continued to give his

concept about speaking skill. From his point of view



Speaking is, however, as skill which deserves attention every bit as

much as literary skills, in both first and second languages. Our learners often

need to be able to speak with confidence in order to carry out many of their

most basic transactions. It is the skill by which they are most frequently

judged, and through which they make or lose friends. It is the vehicle par

excellence of social solidarity, of social ranking, of professional advancement

and of business. It also a medium through which much language is learnt and

which for many is particularly conducive for learning. (p.3)

Briefly speaking, it can be said that speaking skill is vital in learning

one language. It is formed in the long time, with basic ability condition of

learners and should be used for communication rather than study. In this

research, speaking skill is viewed from the CLT method’s viewpoints for task-

based learning is part of CLT.

2.4. Case-study

Believed to be an effective instrument in qualitative research, case-

study has been used in various fields, to a wide range of participants. It is said

that case-study “allows you to see theoretical ideas working in the real world”

(Hutchinson, 2005). Specifically, in this paper, the case-study will be

approached from the linguistics viewpoint.

According to Duff (2008), “most definitions of case study highlight the

“bounded,” singular nature of the case, the importance of context, the

availability of multiple sources of information or perspectives on observations,

and the in-depth nature of analysis.” In spite of sharing similar understanding

of including the in-depth nature of analysis, several other researchers did give

different explanation on case-study research. It is regarded as “the in-depth

study of instances of a phenomenon in its natural context and from the

perspective of the participants involved in the phenomenon” by Gall et al.

(2003). Meanwhile, Creswell (1998) defined that “a case study is an

exploration of a “bounded system” or a case (or multiple cases) over time


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of

information rich in context.” The researchers gave different details in their

definitions, but it seems to be that the key principles are boundedness or

singularity, in-depth study, multiple perspectives or triangulation,

particularity, contextualization, and interpretation (Duff, 2008, p. 23). In

short, the author conducted the case-study on the basis of the key principles

and in favour of Creswell’s definition, particularly with reference to in-depth

data collection involving multiple sources of information rich in context.

Specifically, in this research, the subject of the case-study is limited to only

one group of 47 grader 11 students and their teacher of English. Afterwards,

the results are discussed as thoroughly by various data instruments

(questionnaire, classroom observation and interview), with the insiders and

outsiders. The outcomes are practical to a specific group of participants, but

can be applied to other subjects sharing the similar conditions. Lastly, the

interpretation on the basis of the previous stages is given.

The procedure to conduct a case-study, especially a linguistic case-

study, is shown in the below figure. In general, the author followed Duff’s

model when conducting the case-study (with some adaptation to match the

real situation).



Figure 3: How to conduct a case study:

crucial components, steps, and interactions.



Chapter 3: Methodology In the last chapter, the literature review was undertaken as a theoretical

background for the researcher to conduct the whole study. Regarding the

practical aspect, this research was carried out as an action research on the basis

of practical methods of data collection and analysis so that the validity and

reliability would not be questioned.

3.1. Participants

3.1.1. Teachers of English ““The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to

11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area” is set as the title for the

whole study, thus the teachers are undeniably important in the data collection

process. The study involves the participation of one teacher in the role of

giving the lesson in TBL approach. Yet, other teachers of English are called

for sharing of experience and contributing to the lesson in some way. Given

that, the author could have closer view to the current situation, which is

helpful to the answer the first research question.

In spite of the fact that the number of teachers involved in the data

collection process was restricted caused by time-limitation and the author’s

inability to approach more participants, the teachers were picked up as

representatives for a specific case-study. There are six teachers taking part in

this part in total. One teacher took part in the case-study, adopting the new

method in her speaking lessons for one group of students. The other five

participated in the interview with a view to clarifying and assessing the current

situation of teaching speaking in their schools. The five teachers gain similar

qualification with the teacher engaged in the case-study, but have difference in

teaching experience and the students’ quality. Personal experience of the

teachers is taken into careful consideration as a crucial factor in the project.

The selected teacher under investigation is an experienced teacher with eleven

years of teaching English. Considered to be a respected teacher (she got the


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study first prize of Good Teacher of English Contest in 2009), she is always

concerned with how to improve her students’ speaking skills. Undoubtedly,

she had strong commitment in getting involved in the case-study.

The selection of teachers was on purpose in terms of the teaching

experience with a view of presenting a wide range of views on the same issue.

The young teachers were assumed to reflect the level of new and updated

knowledge (after graduation) applied to teaching job in reality. The older ones

would reveal their experience gained from a number of years in teaching job.

The oldest one was engaged to show their long experience in teaching;

however, she tends to be restricted in the way of teaching with few updates

and little adaptation. In short, the variety of the teachers’ working experience

is to present alternative viewpoints on the current situation of teaching

speaking in their schools and the feasibility of task-based learning

implementation there.

Years of

experience

Number of

surveyed teachers

Name of

schools

Location (District in

Hanoi)

3 1 Cao Ba Quat Gia Lam

4, 14 2 Duong Xa Gia Lam

8 1 Ly Thuong Kiet Long Bien

5 1 Yen Vien Gia Lam

Total 5

Table 1. A classification of the five interviewed teachers according to their schools and years of experience


Furthermore, location and working conditions are also of high

importance to the project development. The two factors are assumed to have

strong impacts on the ways of teaching, specifically their methods. The five

teachers come from high schools in suburb districts in Hanoi. They share

similar teaching environment such as basic facilities provided, moderate

attention to English specialization, to name a few. The teachers were selected

under the similar conditions to examine the issue to a specific subject.

The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study 3.1.2. Grade 11 students

Not only are the students the subject of the project, but they also play

an essential role as project participants in the case-study. A group of students

at Cao Ba Quat High School took part in the project as the subject. They

represent for mainstream students whose English study is mainly aimed at

passing graduation exam. They participated in four task-based learning

speaking lessons in four consecutive weeks at the beginning of the 2nd

semester. All of the lessons (from unit 10 to unit 13, Tieng Anh 11 course

book, p.114-p.153) were designed by the author. In general, the selection of

the tasks is said to be anchored in the common ground of feasibility. That is to

say, the tasks must be aligned with the English syllabus predetermined by the

Ministry of Education and fulfill the fundamental aims and objectives in each

unit in terms of the themes and topics. Also, they should be suitable for and of

interest of 11th grade students. After four lessons, five of students were invited

to attend a face-face interview with the researcher to allow her to evaluate the

lesson as well as to have their feedback on it. The students were selected on

the basis of their performance to have better critical reflection on the method

employment. One of them could hardly use English in the lessons, the other

four exploited English to the full.

Level of English specialization: Pre-intermediate (upper)

Number of students: 47

Class description: a group of best selected students learning advanced

science textbooks: 20% of the students had average scores of English from

8.0 to 10.0, 70% from 6.5 to nearly 8.0 and 10% from 5.0 to nearly 6.5.

They are expected to achieve around 250-400 words and expressions

related to 25 themes they learnt. Besides, they have completed present

tenses, all types of conditional sentences and a number of sentence

structures in grammar section.

Table 2. A description of the group participating in the case-study



Furthermore, 84 students from other classes (and schools) were

involved in the project through doing a survey. They come from Cao Ba Quat

and three other schools (Ly Thuong Kiet, Duong Xa and Yen Vien) which

share the similar learning conditions. The students undertook the survey in

order to be of assistance to answer the question of current situation of studying

speaking in class and the fact of task-based learning (TBL) implementation

there. In short, the students play a vital role to help the author answer all of

three research questions.

For a number of reasons, all the students taking part in this project are

11th graders using mainstream English textbook. First, to some extent, they

have gained some receptive as well as productive skills in the high school

learning environment after one year, which is not the case of 10th graders. In

other words, they are expected to have some basic knowledge of learning

English skills instead of dominated-grammar English in secondary schools.

Second, the students are from mainstream classes, not advanced program as

the project is expected to increase the scale of application. In addition, the

method is supposed to be proven to be applicable even in the fundamental

curriculum, wide-ranging program, not only in specialised classes. In

conclusion, the selection was made with a view to maximizing the project

validity and reliability.

Level of English specialization

Number of schools

Name of school Number of students

Pre-intermediate (upper)

2 Cao Ba Quat Duong Xa

20 17

Pre-intermediate (lower)

2 Yen Vien Duong Xa

19 12

Elementary 1 Ly Thuong Kiet 16 Total 4 84

Table 3. A classification the 84 surveyed students according to their schools and level of English specialization

The classification is based on the students’ English result last semester.

As for the pre-intermediate level (upper), the student gain similar Le Thi Lan Huong-06.1.E7 28

The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study achievements as stated above. Regarding the pre-intermediate level (lower),

the percentages are lower as follows: 15% of the students had average scores

of English from 8.0 to 10.0, 75% from 6.5 to nearly 8.0 and 10% from 5.0 to

nearly 6.5. With regard to the Elementary level, the results are 8% of the

students had average scores of English from 8.0 to 10.0, 65% from 6.5 to

nearly 8.0, 20 % from 5.0 to nearly 6.5 and 7% below 5.0.

3.2. Data instrument In order to limit the invalidity and unreliability of the case study,

interviews, questionnaire, class observation were employed as means for

collecting data.

3.2.1. Questionnaires

Viewed as one of the most suitable ways to investigate a considerable

number of participants, questionnaire tends to be of advantage (due to several

drawbacks in terms of validity). In the whole study, two questionnaires were

employed for 11th grade students. The first one was delivered to students who

did not participate in the case-study. It was aimed at collecting students’

opinion on ways of learning speaking in class so that the author could

investigate the current situation in the surveyed schools. The second one was

used after every lesson within the case-study project with a view to collecting

students’ feedbacks on the lesson, which was useful for the next lesson’s

adaptation. As a result, the subject of this set was students involved in the

case-study, or the participants students.

With regard to the first questionnaire, which consists of five closed-

ended questions, the questions are heading for students’ understanding of and

experience in task-based learning method. In the questionnaire, the first four

questions were used for all 84 participants without any classification; whereas,

the two last questions were used for students who had experienced the method


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study more or less. The questionnaire design is simple so as to collect additional

information to answer the first research question.

The second questionnaire is comprised of seven questions including

both closed-ended and open-ended questions. All the questions focused on the

students’ reaction to each task-based lesson. Especially, the open-ended

questions ask them to write down their own opinions for further adaptation. In

this questionnaire, one question about the stability of project development was

included to consider the long-term implementation of task-based learning in

speaking lessons. The questionnaire design is aimed at full exploitation of

information collection from the participants.

In spite of the obvious differences, the two questionnaires do support

each other as the study progresses. The large-scale questionnaire was carried

out to investigate the current situation of learning speaking and use of task-

based learning in the surveyed high schools, giving answer to the first research

question (what kind(s) of activities do teachers often implement and the level

of TBL employment in speaking lessons?) The results were used to support the

case-study in Cao Ba Quat High school for further application. As a result, the

feedback survey was designed with regard to the other’s outcomes in order to

have practical and valuable contribution. Accordingly, the second set was

helpful to answer the third research question for better development (What

difficulties faced by students when applying TBL and what should be done to

overcome these challenges?) All in all, the two questionnaires are believed to

be the strong connection throughout the two research questions.

3.2.2. Interviews

Interviews played a crucial role in the study completion, especially

data collection process. In this research, not only was it used as part of the

survey completion, but according to Johnston (1985) it also was used to “seek


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study data on stages and processes of acquisition” (cited in Pham and Luong, 2008,

p.51).

There are also two sets of interviews, one for teachers and one for

students. The first set was used to get five teachers’ opinions on task-based

learning as well as their ideas about speaking activities in class. The second

set was employed to collect students’ ideas about the four lessons and

preferences for the use of the method in the case-study. Thus, the subject of

the set was students involved in that case-study. Unlike the questionnaire with

mixture of open-ended and close-ended questions, the interviews were carried

out with just open-ended questions. It was heading for a variety of ideas from

the participants to provide different perspectives on the same issues. The

interviews were structured in advance to keep the research aims and direction,

for example the author’s intention of making an interview to clarify a unclear

problems. The structured interview might be of disadvantage to some extent;

however, the interviewees were kept separately from one another to minimize

the weakness as much as possible. In this way, the instrument was employed

to maximize the effectiveness.

With regard to the first set, the participants were teachers from four

schools (stated in Table 1, 3.1.1) with different years of teaching experience.

As mentioned above, the aim of the first set was to collect teachers’

viewpoints on the task-based learning employment and get information about

their roles in speaking lessons in general. As a matter of fact, the questions of

the interview could be divided into two main parts, namely the description of

their methods and their comments about task-based learning. Concerning the

description part, the teachers were asked to clarify and explain their

organization of the speaking activities in class. They were expected to talk

about how they structured a speaking lesson, specifically by what sorts of

activities. As for the comment part, the teachers were entitled to show their

understanding of and have the conception of the task-based learning in general


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study and its practicality in class exploitation. They were assumed to give their

personal opinions on the use of task-based learning in speaking lessons under

their working conditions. To recap it, the first set of interviews in combination

with the questionnaire for students (3.2.1.) was utilized to answer the first

research question.

The second set was carried out with a group of five students after they

participated in the lessons using TBL. They were involved in the interview to

give more detailed feedbacks on the method employed. The questions were

given to encourage the students to speak out their own ideas about the lesson

effectiveness and to help the researcher know more about their perceptions of

the method. The informal talking environment was established in order to

create a comfortable feelings for the students, which encourage them to

produce, the most sincere and truthful responses . Together with the second

questionnaire (3.2.1), the interview was conducted to answer the second and

third research questions about the results of TBL implementation in speaking

lessons.

3.2.3. Classroom observation

“Classroom observation helps to make educational research more

accessible and practical” (Hoang & Nguyen, p.55, 2006 cited in Nguyen, p.38,

2007). In particular, the classroom observation was done by the researcher in

four lessons in this project. In spite of the modest number of observer (only

the author), the observation was taken seriously on the basis of note-taking

form, which includes the task goals, the task, the teacher’s activity, the

students’, particularly the students’ reaction to the task and their interaction

were taken note carefully. That is to say, the observation was helpful to not

only the lesson adaptation but also the measurement of the implementation

results.


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study 3.2.4. The case-study

Hutchinson (p.26, 2005) stated that case study “allows you to see

theoretical ideas working in the real world”. Additionally, the author would

like to evaluate the outcomes of TBL employment in real classroom

environment in high school in Hanoi, so she decided to conduct a case-study

as main part of the data collection.

The case-study was carried out in a group of grade 11 students at Cao

Ba Quat High school. It is in the suburb of Hanoi, around 14 kilometers far

from the city center. The learning environment is at the basic level in terms of

facilities. Apart from the fundamental necessities, they are equipped with

screen and a projector. The group taking part in the case-study is in the same

trend with advanced science subjects curriculum students who do not pay

much attention to English study.

The case-study was conducted on with great efforts and careful

consideration to the TBL framework in lesson and task design. It was done in

four consecutive weeks right at the beginning of the second semester . All the

tasks included in the case-study was pedagogical tasks classified by Nunan

(2006).

Taking place uninterruptedly in four weeks, the case-study did produce

some outcomes that would be gathered and analysed in the next chapter. Other

data instruments were used along with the case-study namely the feedback

form (the first questionnaire set), the classroom observation and the interview

with the engaged teacher and students to gave more comprehensive analysis.

The selection of case-study as the major data collection instrument was

done for a few reasons. Originally, it was rooted from the researcher’s interest

in applied TBL as the Duff’s viewpoint (2008, p.17). Besides, the author

would like to investigate the current situation of speaking skills acquisition in


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study Hanoi high schools, but the area provided with fundamental facilities, to know

how effective it is. Therefore, it was expected to build up the program from

the basic conditions to measure the feasibility of TBL employment in such

environment. The author suppose that TBL implementation is not impossible

to do in the high schools in Hanoi provided that the teacher is aware of the

feasibility and contribute efforts to take on the so-called new method.

3.3. Procedures of data collection

Broadly speaking, the whole process of data collection could be divided

into three main phases as follows:

• Phase 1

The first phase was the background for data collection process. It was

carried out to address the current issue before starting the case-study.

A pilot questionnaire was distributed to get participants’ responses to

the survey effectiveness, then a the final draft was formed and delivered. In

the meantime, the structure of the interview for the five teachers was created.

Afterwards, it was held with five teachers, keeping a separate slot for each. On

the basis of this phase, the author would get data and have understanding of

the issue to design lesson plans for the case-study in the next phase.

• Phase 2

The phase started with the first lesson plan designed for Unit 10,

Speaking section (English course book, p.118). During the design period, the

knowledge and theory of TBL, types of tasks, sequence of tasks were acquired

to help the author be well-equipped in dealing with the issue. A number of

sample lessons planned by Willis (2006), examples illustrated by Nunan

(1998, 2005) and Branden (2006) were taken into careful consideration when

the author designed the lesson plan. Owing to the teacher’s cooperation, the

author could have suitable adaptation in terms of the difficulty level, and ways

to provide achievable language inputs. The final draft was discussed with the



Unit 10 deliver

Unit 10 revision

Unit 10 Lesson plan design

Classroom observation

Ss’ feedback form

teacher before being taught in class. After each lesson, a feedback form was

distributed to the students to get their responses so that the author could make

revision to the next lesson. Subsequently, the next lesson was designed with

the teacher’ constructive comments . The process was repeated for all of four

lessons, which is shown in the following diagram:

…….

The T’s comments

Repeatedly

Unit 13 revision

classroom results and discussion

Diagram 1: Procedures of the case-study

Phase 3

The third phase was conducted with five students selected from the group of students involved in the case-study. After the case-study had been delivered, the feedbacks and classroom observations were synthesized so that the author could detect unexpected outcomes (if any). In fact, several blurred answers were collected in the feedback form, requiring the research to justify by holding an interview with five students.


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study Lastly all the data capture was synthesized and discussed in details. In a nutshell, the whole procedures of data collection could be summarised in the diagram below:

Students’ questionnaire design Expected structure to the Teachers’ interview

Data collection and short answer to Research question 1

The teachers’ interview conduct

Pilot questionnaire

Students’ questionnaire

Lesson planning to the case-study design

A case-study conduct and revision: 4 lessons taught

Ss’ questionnaire to get feedbacks after each lesson

Classroom observation

Diagram 2: Procedures of data collection

Ss’ interview conduct

Expected structure to the Ss’ interview’s preparation

Data analysis and full answers to the three Research questions



Chapter 4: Results and discussion In the previous chapter, the methodology applied in this study was elucidated

in details. In particular, the choice of the instruments, participants and the

process of data collection and analysis was described and justified clearly and

rationally there. In this chapter, the data will be summed up and analyzed,

which is needed for the further results discussion. It is aimed at providing the

answers to three stated research questions. It should be noted that all the

analysis will be used to establish the connection between previous studies

and/or work in the same field and this study. By this way, the significance of

the research will be grasped.

4.1. Research question 1: Kind(s) of activities teachers often implement

when teaching speaking in class and effects of the implementation on

students’ perception of TBL

4.1.1. Kind(s) of activities teachers often implement in speaking lessons

Because of various reasons, especially the unfavourable conditions and

demanding and strict requirements in terms of curriculum progress and rate of

students passing the graduation exam , the teachers are inclined not to give a

variety of activities, but the provided or suggested ones from the textbook.

Nevertheless, several sorts of activities, some called tasks, have been

undertaken by the teachers in surveyed schools to have appealing lessons. The

types of activities were summed up based on the frequency of employment in

the following graph.



Ways of learning speaking in class

9

18

3639

8

1714

1115

32

1814

45

13

1

8

05

101520253035404550

1 2 3 4

Ways of learning speaking

Num

ber o

f opn

ions

Neverrarelysometimesusually

Graph 1: Ways of learning speaking in class

1: Do exactly what is designed in the textbook

2: Do activities in the textbook, have a little adaptation occasionally

3: Just keep the topics, do newly designed activities from other sources

4: Not sure for not concerning about the speaking lessons

The graph depicted how speaking lessons had been taught in class

from the students’ point of view. Clearly, it could be seen from the graph that

the most preferably used way was reliance upon the textbooks whatever the

kind of an activity is and however effective it is. A large number of students

thought that they had learnt speaking by doing exactly what was designed in

the textbook. In particular, the frequency was very high, with 45 opinions of

Usually, the greatest number; whereas only nine opinions were of Never. On

the contrary, few students were in agreement with the idea of Usually being

provided with supplementary and extra activities in the lesson (based on the

topics from the textbook) (1 opinion), meanwhile, 36 opinions of Never. The

statistics tend to reveal that the students are bounded by the textbook for most

of the time from their viewpoint. In other words, the teachers followed the

textbook so closely that little adaptation to satisfy the students’ tastes is

adopted. The fact could be supported by the results shown in the second way

of learning speaking in class, Do activities in the textbook, have a little Le Thi Lan Huong-06.1.E7 38

The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study adaptation occasionally. Quite a few students told that they normally carried

out the activities in the textbook and received the adaptation for a couple of

times. Specifically, nearly half of opinions (32 out of 80) are of Sometimes

with regard to the frequency. That is to say, they are not absolutely isolated

from the adaptation, but it is not on regular basis. It can be said that textbook

activities are dominant in speaking lessons.

In conclusion, according to students, the frequency of speaking lessons

filled with textbook activities is relatively high. They might get adapted

lessons with extra activities occasionally. That fact will not be in line with the

idea of needs for textbook adaptation, either for the better or not, for it is not

the case of this study. The fact is used to figure out types of activities students

do in speaking lessons to prove that students will get more benefits in TBL

speaking lessons.

Meanwhile, from the teachers’ point of view, they shared a few similar

ideas with the students in that aspect such as often doing the designed

activities in the textbook. In the interview with five teachers, the author did

gain more information about this aspect.

Among five interviewed teachers, only one teacher usually followed

the textbook closely, doing exactly designed activities in the textbook,

whereas, the other four teachers often use the activities in the textbook with

some adaptation occasionally. That is to say, the interviewed teachers and

surveyed students share the idea of being reliant on the textbook for most of

the activities in common. Regarding the adaptation, all the four teachers did it

with the view to giving the students more motivation and more chances to

speak. From the teachers’ viewpoint, they, however, did not succeed in

reaching that goal for the reasons caused by the students namely their fear of

speaking, their passiveness. At this point, the concern is about the teachers’

and students’ roles affecting the lesson effectiveness rather than the activities


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study themselves. In short, the key to improving the effectiveness of a speaking

lesson (by measuring the students’ engagement and progress) is not only the

activities but also how the teachers and the students undertake them.

4.1.2. Students’ perception of TBL in speaking lessons

Students' level of TBL exposure

3947%

3946%

56%

11%

1234

Graph 2: Students’ level of TBL exposure 1 Number of students not knowing about TBL yet

2 Number of students knowing about TBL, but not learning yet

3 Number of students learning TBL in an extra-English class

4 Other ideas

The chart gives an overview of how much students have experienced

TBL in their English study process. Noticeably, according to surveyed

students, they had few chances to approach TBL.

The four levels of TBL exposure could be separated into two main

divisions namely students without TBL practice and students with TBL

practice. Evidently, there is a big gap between the two main big divisions.

From the chart, it is clear that students found TBL employment new in their

speaking lessons. It is shown that the number of students who had known

nothing about TBL and the number of students who had known about TBL,


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study but not learnt it, are very high, being on the top with 46%. On the other hand,

a small number of surveyed students (only 6%) had English lessons with TBL

design. In fact, five out of six experienced TBL in their extra-English class

and only one student assumed that he/she had learnt it in speaking lessons in

class. That is to say, among 11th grade students, TBL implementation has not

been popular, especially in the academic curriculum at their schools. The

opportunity to access TBL in class is very poor among surveyed students even

though they are provided with basic facilities such as projectors, standard

classroom equipment. Generally speaking, it might happen in schools which

share similar teaching and learning conditions with the surveyed ones.

To recap, TBL employment is not popular among grade 11 students in

suburb area high schools in Hanoi. Although TBL was established in the

world dozens of years ago (with an early proposal of task-based approaches by

Prabhu 1987) and has been used popularly in Asian countries for years, it has

not been widely used, even known, in Vietnam context, specifically in Hanoi.

That several couples of reasons could account for that fact will be discussed in

details in the next part with the teachers’ involvement in an interview.

From the teachers’ viewpoint, they supposed that they did implement

TBL in their speaking lessons. Notwithstanding, there might be some

misunderstanding or misconception of the term TBL. In reality, the teachers

are dominant in the classroom instead of the students, which is not a feature of

TBL lessons. In the interview, teacher A assumed that the textbook was

designed in TB methods. Thus, that she follows the textbook closely means

she applies TBL in her lessons, from her viewpoint. That is not the case of

TBL lessons. Similarly, other teachers believed that they did apply TBL in

their lessons, particularly, teacher D shared a lot of ideas in common with A,

particularly the exploitation of the textbook. Nevertheless, the other teachers

did adopt some adaptation in their lessons, which may be close to TBL such as

providing language inputs before taking on a task, then the students do on


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study their own (cited from the interview with teacher E, Appendix…..) Teacher B

did provide a good understanding of the TBL concept when evaluating the

effectiveness. In fact, her way of teaching is somehow similar to TBL with

pre-task, the task itself and post-task stages, but what she did in the first part

was not of TBL methods. For example, she taught them the specific

pronunciation or lists a number of useful expressions first instead of let them

practicing on their own and providing help if necessary.

To recap, the teacher showed their high awareness of TBL in teaching

speaking, but some of them tend to have misunderstanding of the concept and

its application. As a result, TB speaking lessons have not been exploited

significantly by the teachers in its real sense. Also, the major of students do

not know anything about TBL.

4.2. Research question 2: How students’ attitude changes over a period of

four-week case-study

First of all, it can be said that the students’ preferences for and

opinions about speaking activities could account for their attitude towards the

lessons. The results (collected from the feedback form after each lesson) were

summarised in the below graphs

05

1015202530

1 2 3 4

No.

of o

pini

ons

Week

Students’ preference for A option as a characteristic of an interesting classroom speaking activity

Line A

Graph 4.1: Students’ preference for A option as a characteristic of an interesting classroom speaking activity. A: Have fun to create encouraging atmosphere



It is shown from the graph that students have great interest in the

activities which create encouraging atmosphere in classroom conditions. The

number of students chose that option as a feature of an interesting classroom

speaking activity is increased gradually from 17 to 25. The fact can be resulted

from the growing attention to speaking activities in class, which might be

affected from consecutive TB speaking lessons.

Students’ preference for B option as a characteristic of an interesting classroom speaking activity

2323,5

2424,5

2525,5

2626,5

1 2 3 4

Week

No.

of o

pini

ons

Line B

Graph 4.2: Students’ preference for B option as a characteristic of an interesting classroom speaking activity.

B: Simulate daily life activities Graph 4.2 depicts that the students tend to view the practicality of a

classroom speaking activity as the first priority among provided

characteristics. The number of students in favour of the characteristic of daily

life activity simulation is at the top for four weeks, with the highest number at

26. It seems to imply that the uninterrupted TBL speaking lessons have

positive impacts on the students’ interest. Besides, the interest is maintained

during the period of the

case-study conduct.



Students’ preference for C option as a characteristic of an interesting classroom speaking activity

0

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1

1,2

1 2 3 4

Week

No.

of o

pini

ons

Line C

Graph 4.3: Students’ preference for C option as a characteristic of an interesting classroom speaking activity.

C: Copy the same as activities in textbook in order to get theory about Speaking skills

On the contrary with the graph 4.1 and 4.2, graph 4.3 shows another

fact of the students’ preferences. They tend not to be fond of activities copied

from the textbook which is supposed to provide theory about speaking skills.

Few students assume that an activity will be exciting if it supplies theory, only

one opinion (if any). That feature is definitely not their first choice to an

interesting speaking activity. It seems to imply that students pay more

attention to use English as a tool rather than the impractical knowledge.

Students’ preference for D option as a characteristic of an interesting classroom speaking activity

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

2,5

1 2 3 4

Week

No.

of o

pini

ons

Line D

Graph 4.4: Students’ preference for D option as a characteristic of an interesting

classroom speaking activity.

D: Do not care much for Speaking skill is not part of University Entrance Exam



It is illustrated in graph 4.4 that students not many students ignore

English, just learn English to pass the exam. The number of opinions for that

choice ranges from 0 to 2, which is a very small number compared with 25 or

26 opinions above (graph 4.1 and 4.2). That is to say, the case-study might

help students find new interest.

Students’ preference for E option as a characteristic of an interesting classroom speaking activity

012345678

1 2 3 4

Week

No.

of o

pini

ons

Line E

Graph 4.5: Students’ preference for E option as a characteristic of an interesting classroom speaking activity.

E: Other ideas

The students show further ideas on the characteristics of an interesting

speaking activity. Stating in Other ideas, they suppose that an exciting

speaking activity will create pleasant atmosphere and provide useful

knowledge about speaking skills. That the number varied from two to seven

during the case-study period might be affected by the case-study

achievements. It is believed to be the change for better in their attitude towards

speaking skills.

Undoubtedly, the results from the table presented the fact that the

students had strong preferences for the activities for fun, creating stimulating

environment and the ones that simulated daily life activities. The preferences

were kept in the whole process of the case-study. Seemingly, the implication

under the fact is that students are likely to learn practical English which they


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study can use as a tool of communication and with specific goals under little

pressure of right or wrong assessment. For instance, their involvement in the

four lessons was also supportive to the implication. Based on the note-taking

documents, the author noticed that the students were highly motivated after

the warm-up and lead-in activities, especially the one they could speak and do

actions, and were likely to make significant contribution to the task

afterwards. Normally, when the first part of the lesson was homework

checking or answering questions from the teacher, the classroom atmosphere

was about to be tense. Back to the theory of tasks which was mentioned in 2.2.

in Theoretical background (p.8-p.11), it can be seen that the favourite

characteristics above are close to features of a task namely the practicality and

specific goals. That is to say, the students’ valuable feedbacks collected and

discussed in details in the next parts are not groundless. In short, the students’

participation was likely to be rooted from their preferences to characteristics

of an interesting classroom speaking activity.

In the second place, changes in the students’ attitude were shown in

their level of confidence and interest in speaking lessons. First, the students

indicated that their confidence in speaking was growing through the four

lessons. They found it much more comfortable to speak in English.

….I feel confident in pronunciation and comfortable to communicate with

my other friends in my class. In particular, I can use English to talk to foreigners

who I meet by chance on streets. (Student 4)

It might not be a very big achievement compared with other tangible

ones such as frequency, speed of speaking, but it is helpful to students of

English to some extent, particularly to whom speaking skill has been paid not

much attention to (extracted from the interview with Student 2, Appendix 4).

In fact, facilitating and fostering the development is that the students

could convey their ideas without much concern about and focus on the forms.

From the students’ point of view, they share the same idea that the speaking


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study skills and the meaning in their speaking are taken into more consideration than

the forms, the structures they use. Conspicuously, they tend to have the feeling

of controlling their speaking.

The students may speak correctly or with some mistakes; however, the

most important thing is that we know how to convey our ideas and express

our thoughts. (Student 2)

In my opinion, the tasks (the meaning of action) are more important than

the grammatical structures. It requires the speakers to use English well,

helping them practice speaking skills. (Student 4)

I suppose that the way of speaking is focused more than the grammatical

structures. I think that I can speak naturally without much worry about the

grammatical structures in general. (Student 5)

Taking the development into careful consideration, the author finds that

it fits closely the Nunan’s definition of task (p.10, 2.1., Theoretical

background) which is stated that “A task is a piece of classroom work…. in

which the intention is to convey meaning rather than to manipulate form…”

Moreover, the teacher in charge of the group in the case-study also

shared her feelings of the students’ positive progress. In her viewpoint, the

students were more flexible in English use. In particular, they tended to know

how to convey their ideas in different ways, not treading a well-worn path and

getting stuck as they did before. They were confident to speak in group

discussions as well as in front of the class, which was really valuable in their

achievements.

In other words, the reason why the students had a feeling of comfort

and confidence towards speaking was that they were taking a task instead of

an exercise in which the speaking opportunity in class was more favourable.

Also, they have more chance to use the real language. They, therefore, find it

worthy taking part in the four provided lessons, which made the case-study

valuable. All in all, the confidence growth can be seen as one of the very first

steps in formulating speaking skills.



Second, the students also showed that they have more interest in

speaking lessons than before as Student 2 said in the interview that she is more

interested in speaking lessons than usual

Normally, the speaking lessons, especially in basic English textbooks,

are different from reading, writing or language focus in that students do not

have to do any speaking task in the exam. For example, they are not provided

with extra class time or various types of activities for speaking skills as

grammar exercises. Consequently, the students tend to lose interest in

speaking lessons in general and speaking skills in particular. On the other

hand, experiencing the case-study, they were provided with a variety of

speaking tasks and activities. In particular, when taking charge of main roles

in speaking lessons, they were more active in the lessons. Talking about the

reasons for their favour with the tasks, the students suppose that designed

tasks tended to meet their demands and satisfy their interests. For instance, the

students could work in pairs to make an interview with a famous person or

work in groups to make a forum simulation. Such kind of tasks give students

more freedom to make required products, which tends to be satisfactory to the

students. The data acquired from the feedback collected after each lesson in

the case-study showed that the students were attracted by activities which

created encouraging atmosphere and were similar to daily life. It is said to be

the way the tasks meet their interest for “a task is nothing more or less than the

things people do in everyday life”. (Long, 1985a, cited in Nunan, 1989). The

idea was further supported by the following results. The graph below depicts

how interested the students were in TBL lessons.



44

30

42

22

39

32

40

21

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

No. of students

1 2 3 4

Week

Students' preferences for TBL

Other ideas

No

Yes

Graph 5: Students’ preferences for consecutive TBL employment in speaking lessons

It can be clearly seen that the students’ interest in TBL speaking

lessons was burning at the beginning and sustained over a period of four

consecutive weeks. It is shown in the number of students having desire to

continue TBL speaking lessons as follows 94%, 91%, 89% and 93% in week

1, 2, 3, 4 respectively. The outcome would be explained more in details with

five interviewed students’ feedbacks. The students all agreed to have

continued TBL speaking lessons since they found it helpful and interesting.

The lessons were very helpful, so it would be more effective if the

program continued in the future. Thus, I would like to join more TBL

speaking lessons similar to the four lessons recently. (Student 2)

I was fascinated with such interesting and helpful lessons. I could also

practice further speaking skills in such lessons. In addition, we often worked

in groups, so we suggested a lot of exciting possibilities to each task. And we

can join some games, too. That is the reason why I find it interesting, not

boring, as usual speaking lessons. (Student 3)



Well, I find it helpful for sure. It is much much better if we can

continue to learn this way in the future. Generally, I think, speaking skills in

English are extremely important. And, the program has fulfilled our aims in

English study. (Student 5)

In short, the tasks were of the students’ interest, which changed their

attitude positively towards English study in general, and speaking lessons in

particular.

4.3. Research question 3: What difficulties faced by students when

applying TBL and what should be done to overcome these challenges

From the students’ viewpoint, the difficulty is how to acquire the

knowledge in each lesson and how to tackle the tasks.

In the first place, the first obstacle for the students is the vocabulary. In

the feedback form, the difficulty of tasks is the major reason for adaptation of

any activity or task in the lesson (if any). That reason was reported repeatedly,

accounting for 74% in the feedback from in four weeks. Additionally, the

difficulty is the main reason to decide whether the students would like to

continue to learn TBL speaking lessons. In Graph 5, the number of students

wanted to maintain TBL speaking lessons in week 3 was suddenly lower than

usual.



44

30

42

22

39

32

40

21

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

No. of students

1 2 3 4

Week

Students' preferences for TBL

Other ideas

No

Yes

It was clarified that the students found the tasks in week 3 very hard for them

to carry out. In that lesson, they were required to complete a gap information

task by filling in the Table of Sports Final Results (Asian Games). The

missing information challenged them to find suitable expressions to get

needed information, so they were confused with a lot of missing parts.

Consequently, the latter task named Making reports could not be completed

successfully because they did not have enough materials before. In particular,

the students found that they still lacked vocabulary to convey their ideas. They

did try to use their own words to express, but sometimes, it was around the

bush, which demotivated them a couple of times. The reason was explained

more in details in the interview with five students. Specifically, student 5 said

that

Sometimes, I get stuck to the expressions. I mean I could not get the

words or expressions to convey my ideas. However, receiving help from the

teacher and support from visual aids, I do not think the tasks are hard.

(Student 5, line…. Appendix…)

Almost all of them thought that they would need more language inputs to

perform the tasks better. It was the lack of vocabulary that hindered them from

exploiting the tasks fully.



When learning in this method, I suppose that vocabulary, new words

can support me strongly to carry the tasks better, getting improvements in

speaking skills. (Student 2)

Such kind of lessons are not really hard for me. Although we used

English for almost all of the time, the language was simple with everyday

language and structures. In addition, the teacher (and the textbook) also

provided us with some language inputs before taking on the tasks. However, I

still believed that the vocabulary and pronunciation, especially the former,

were the biggest hindrance. That is the reason why I assume that the teacher

had better explain new words to us instead of just giving us the explanation in

written form. By this way, the application would be more beneficial. (Student

4)

In short, the language input is the top reason to prevent the students

from making use of TBL speaking lessons.

Furthermore, the students believed that their background of the topics

and the task types also was their obstacle. That reason accounted for seven

times (out of 27), accounting for 26% in the feedback form for four weeks.

They did not know what to speak and how to perform the task as an forum

discussion, an interview or making a report. However, this feelings only

appeared during the first time of exposure.

….in the first exposure to that method, some tasks were difficult for me. But

following the method gradually, I will feel more active and not feel hard any

more. (Student 2).

At first, it was new and strange to us, causing us some troubles.

However, experiencing a number of lessons, we got used to it and it become

easier to us. (Student 3)

The teacher in charge of this group shared a similar idea about it. She

said that it would take her much time to explain how to carry out the task

before showing a model. Many of the students found the tasks new. For


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study example, they have heard a lot about various types of reports, listened to quite

a few reports on the TA everyday; however, it turned to be a different story

when they had to simulate the task. Talking about a sports event, they might

find it not easy to use what sort of information, kind of knowledge to make a

report. In brief, the background knowledge is said to be another trouble for the

students.

In order to tackle the mentioned problems, several solutions were

adopted in the case-study and some others would be proposed in the next

chapter. In this chapter, the author would like to discuss the worked out

solutions. To begin with, it was the providing model that took effects in terms

of language inputs and background information. In almost all of the lessons, a

video clip (with subtitle provided) related to the topic and with suitable

content was shown to the students. The students watched the clip, taking notes

before taking on the tasks. Afterwards, they were asked to give general

information, about the clip, for example the structure of an interview, a forum

discussion. Subsequently, the students could give questions to the teacher

about vocabulary, structure or the teacher elicited the information from the

students. By that way, the students could learn a number of expressions about

the topic and get basic understanding of the task model. That is the reason why

Student 5 said that the teacher’s help and visual aids did help her to carry out

the tasks better and easier. Furthermore, another solution was done to be of

assistance to the students. The teacher did prepare a pre-task activity before

the main task with the aim of getting the students involved in the task better

with language preparation. It should be noted that the preparation was done by

carrying out the similar tasks and/or copying, making use of the provided

models. In pre-task stage, the students could learn expressions from the model

and pre-task activity (see lesson plan Unit 11) . When moving to the main

tasks, they could apply what they had learnt to perform the tasks more

effectively. As the author had followed the Nunan’s task-based learning


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study model, the design did not break the principles and the case-study was not on

the basis task-support learning. In reality, it was the Pre-task phase (in Ellis’

framework) and Provide model and Identify enabling skill stages (in Nunan’s

steps) that the author followed to design the tasks and conduct the case-study.

Procedure Example Rationale

1. Identify

target task

Giving personal

information in a job

interview

To give learners the opportunity

to develop language skills

relevant to their real world

needs

2. Provide

model

Students listen to and

extract key information

from authentic/ simulated

interview

To provide learners the

opportunity to listen to and

analyse ways in which native

speakers or users of the target

language carry out the target

task

3. Identify

enabling skill

Manipulation drill to

practice wh-questions with

do-insertion

To provide learners with explicit

instruction and guided practice

in these grammatical elements

needed to perform the target

task

4. Devise

pedagogic task

Interview simulation using

role cards

To provide learners the

opportunity to mobilize their

emerging language skills

through rehearsal

Figure 1: Steps Involved in the Development of a Pedagogic Task (Nunan, 2006)



Phase Examples of options

A. Pre-task o Framing the activity (e.g.

establishing the outcome of the

task)

o Planning time

o Doing a similar task

B. During task o Time pressure

o Number of participants

C. Post-task o Learner report

o Consciousness-raising

o Repeat task

Figure 2: A framework for designing task-based lessons

(R. Ellis, 2006, The Asian EFL Journal Quarterly September 2006, 8(3), p.20)

Generally speaking, the two solutions did have positive impact on the

students’ preparation, which was helpful to them to undertake the tasks, to

some extent. In spite of it, the students still have difficulty in achieving fully

the goals that is being more flexible to use English to speak. Therefore, the

author would like to propose further solutions in the next chapter titled

Recommendations.

In conclusion, this chapter mainly presents the results collected in the

case-study. The survey was done in four high schools with the aim of

investigating into the current situation of study speaking skills, which was

believed to be supportive to the case-study in advance. The case-study seems

to be successful in terms of building up the awareness and better

understanding of TBL employment in speaking lessons among teachers and

11th grade student. The results did reflect that TBL implementation was not

impossible to do, yet it required great efforts from the teachers and more

adaptation in specific environment. The existing drawbacks of the case-study

would be discussed further in the next chapter so that the significance and

validity of the research are enhanced.



Chapter 5: Conclusion 5.1. Summary of findings

The study completion has presented a number of findings, which is

believed to be valuable in language teaching improvement. In the first place,

the current situation of TBL employment in high school was examined in a

specific suburb area of Hanoi. It is proved that in mainstream classes where

English is treated as an “additional subject”, TBL seems to be a new method

to students in speaking lessons. They have little exposure to TBL, especially

before taking part in the case-study. Almost all of them found it a new

concept; whereas, a number of them are supposed to grasp the concept, but

have no experience in TBL employment. Besides, the conception was

misinterpreted among the teachers. They assumed that they knew what the

method was and how to implement it; however, it was not so true as stated. It

was believed that the teachers understood the concept of TBL; nevertheless,

they seemed to have misunderstandings of a TBL lesson development or a

framework for TBL lesson design. To recap, the knowledge of TBL method

was not fully and widely perceived, not to mention the appropriate.

In the second place, after a four-week case-study, the author has gained

a few worthy results and the according implications. The case-study proved

that TBL implementation had favourable impacts on the students’ attitude

towards speaking skills in English lessons. To begin with, the students were

more motivated to give positive contribution to the lessons. They found it

encouraging to speak out their own ideas, to use English for practical

purposes. The fear of speaking and making mistakes was likely to be

overcome gradually when the students desired to use English as a tool of

communication in daily life. It was shown in their confidence and interest

enhancement which could be classified as perception change, the inner and

metal side. In reality, the change was said to be at the first level of the long-

term English development. It has not been proved that students are more


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study knowledgeable or could produce smoother English speaking. In spite of it,

their study started to change for better. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that

TBL lessons gave students more freedom to gain their English achievements.

The students were willing to take more responsibilities of the task assignment.

From the provided materials and inputs, they were more independent to

develop and make the required products, just asking for help if necessary.

Also, almost all of the students showed great efforts to complete the tasks

instead of neglecting attitudes. Again, the case-study produced another

positive effect on the students’ inner development. All in all, students seemed

to obtain intangible benefits from perception changes.

In conclusion, the research contributes to the pool of English teaching

studies as a qualitative research. Its values to TBL employment are shown in

the case-study results and the situation investigation. It is believed that TBL

implementation is not impossible to achieve; however, it requires a careful

plan and adaptation to have long-term development and gain the aims of

speaking skill improvement, tangible effects.

5.2. Limitations

Due to the author’s limited ability and under limited time, the study

cannot be completed without any confines. First of all, in spite of knowing the

facts of the current situation of TBL employment in the five selected schools

(Cao Ba Quat, Yen Vien, Duong Xa, Ly Thuong Kiet), the author could not

implement TBL speaking lessons there. It is resulted from the fact that the

author was not allowed to conduct the case-study there. Consequently, the

author could not see the effectiveness of TBL employment in speaking lessons

could not be seen in perspective, in various environment. In brief, the bigger

scale implementation is expected to provide various viewpoints to assess the

feasibility of the method. Seemingly, the to answer the first question, the

researcher failed to collect data on bigger scale, especially the number of

teachers involved in the interview. Consequently, the researcher could not


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study assess the current situation more thoroughly, which seems to reduce the study

reliability to some extent.

Second, there exist considerable limitations in the case-study conduct

process. To begin with, it was the matter of textbook adaptation towards TB

method. The textbook is declared to be written on the basis of theme-based

and expected to supply practical language. However, quite a few of the so-

called tasks in speaking section fail to meet the expectations. During the case-

study conduct process, a considerable number of tasks were changed to TBL

format. In fact, there exist a few activities alike tasks in TBL method, which

can be used for further textbook adaptation; nevertheless, it is beyond the

author’s capacity in this study. Therefore, for the sake of full exploitation of

the textbook towards the practical use, the author wishes to have a project on

that issue. In addition to the textbook matter, it is the problem of the length of

the case-study and its effects on the study effectiveness. Ideally, the case-study

would be conducted in eight consecutive weeks, half of the semester, for the

least. Such long duration (or more) would be helpful to observe the method

development and examine the sustainable implementation. Besides, the author

could draw fairer comparison between the old method and the new one,

particularly in terms of the students’ progress. Accordingly, the feasibility of

TBL employment would be evaluated more thoroughly. To recap, the confines

in the case-study are presented with a view to giving suggestions to further

research, even case-study on the same issue.

In conclusion, the limitations are unexpected and beyond the

researcher’s ability in this study. It is suggested that further research should be

done to examine the existent issues.

5.3. Suggestions for further research

The limitations of the study are likely to suggest a number of fields for

further research. This research failed to measure the tangible improvements in

students’ speaking skills. The next research, hence, could be carried out in


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study longer duration, with another case-study to focus on the students’ progress in

speaking skills on the basis of TBL method. It is expected to show more

clearly the feasibility and effectiveness of TBL implementation in speaking

lessons.

In addition, the teacher involved in the case-study is expected to have

either a training session or an introduction to TBL method in advance to

perform more effectively. Besides, further research could be carried out on

textbook adaptation towards TBL method. It is assumed to bring about more

benefits for TBL implementation in speaking lessons due to the convenience

in the use of materials. To recap, the suggestions are given to further research

with a view to maximizing the effectiveness of a series of studies on the same

issue, making positive contribution to the English teaching improvement in

Vietnam context.



References Bachman, L.F. (2002). Some reflections on task-based language performance

assessment. Language Testing, 19(4). 453-476.

Branden, K. (Eds). (2007). Task-Based Language Education, From theory to

practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bygate, M. 1987. Speaking. Great Britain: Oxford University Press.

Duff, P.A (2008). Case Study Research in Applied Linguistics. New York:

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Ellis, R. (2006). The methodology of Task-based learning. Asian EFL journal,

8(3), Retrieved February 22nd , 2010 from http://www.asian-efl-

journal.com/Sept_06_re.php

Foster, P. & Skehan, P. (1999). The influence of source of planning and focus

of planning on task-based performance. Language Teaching Research, 3(3),

215-247.

Frost, R. (2004) . A task-based approach. British Council. Retrieved February

22nd, 2010 from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/a-task-

based-approach

Harmer, J. (2005). How to teach English. Malaysia: Longman

Harmer, J. (2009). Reviews of the book Doing Task-Based Teaching and

Tasks in Second Language Learning, ELT journal, 63(2), 173-175.

Hutchinson, H. (2005). Teach yourself: writing essays and dissertations. Great

Britain: Hodder Education.

Lingley, D. (2006). A Task-based Approach to Teaching a Content-based

Canadian Studies Course in an EFL Context, Asian EFL journal, 8(3), 122-

139.

Littlewood, W. (1998). Communicative Language teaching. The U.K:

Cambridge University Press

Littlewood. W. (2004). The task-based approach: some questions and

suggestions. ELT journal, 58(4), 319-326.


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study Long, M.H. & Crookes, G. (1992). Three Approaches to Task-based Syllabus

Design. TESOL Quarterly, 26(1). 27-56

Nguyen, T.B.D. (2007). The exploitation of task-based learning in reading

activities for grade 10 students in Hanoi. Hanoi: BA thesis submitted to the

University of Languages and International Studies. Unpublished

Nguyen, T.T.L. (2004). Techniques to enhance High school students’

motivation in speaking activities. Hanoi: BA thesis submitted to the University

of Languages and International Studies. Unpublished

Nunan, D. (1989). Designing tasks for the communicative classroom. Great

Britain: Cambridge University Press.

Nunan, D. (1991). Communicative tasks and the language curriculum. TESOL

Quarterly, 25(2):279-296. Retrieved from December 3rd, 2009 from

http://www.iei.uiuc.edu/TESOLonline/texts/nunan/index.html

Nunan, D. (1998). Task-based Syllabus Design: Selecting, Grading and

Sequencing Tasks. Retrieved December 3rd, 2009 from

http://www.iei.uiuc.edu/TESOLOnline/texts/nunan2/

Nunan, D. (2001). Aspect of task-based syllabus design. Retrieved December

3rd. 2009 from http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/syllabusdesign.html

Nunan, D. (2005). Important tasks of English Education: Asia-wide and

beyond. Asian EFL journal, 7(3). Retrieved December 3rd, 2009 from

http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/September_05_dn.php

Nunan, D. (2006). Task-based language teaching in the Asia context: Defining

“task”. Asian EFL journal, 8(3), 12-18.

Nunan, D. (2007). The Learner-Centered Curriculum. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Oxford, R. (2006). Task-based Language Teaching and Learning: An

overview, Asian EFL journal, 8(3), 94-121.

Richards, J.C & Schmidt, R. (2002). Longman Dictionary of Language

Teaching and Applied Linguistic. Malaysia: Longman


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study Scrivener, J. (2005). Learning teaching (2nd ed.). Great Britain: Macmillan

Publisher.

Thornbury, S. (2005). How to Teach Speaking. Malaysia: Longman Publisher.

To, T.T.H. (Ed). (2009). ELT methodology I-Course book. Hanoi: Publisher of

Vietnam National University

To, T.T.H. (Ed). (2009). ELT methodology II-Course book. Hanoi: Publisher

of Vietnam National University

Vu, H.H. (2007). The exploitation of task authenticity in reading activities for

grade 10 students in Hanoi. Hanoi: BA thesis submitted to the University of

Languages and International Studies. Unpublished

Wright, T. (1997). Roles of Teachers and Learners (5th ed). Hong Kong:

Oxford University Press.



APPENDICES Appendix 1

Bản thăm dò ý kiến học sinh sau giờ học TBL

Tôi tên là Lê Thị Lan Hương, sinh viên năm thứ tư, lớp 06.1.E7. Tôi đang thực hiện một nghiên cứu có tên “Áp dụng phương pháp học dựa trên các hoạt động thực tế trong kĩ năng Nói của học sinh lớp 11” . Đây là nghiên cứu về phương pháp dạy học Tiếng Anh trong các trường cấp 3 tại Hà Nội. Bản khảo sát dưới đây được thực hiện với mục đích tìm hiểu phản hồi của học sinh sau mỗi giờ học Nói được áp dụng phương pháp trên. Mong các bạn tham gia bản khảo sát này bằng cách trả lời các câu hỏi được đưa ra. Các bạn trả lời bằng cách khoanh tròn đáp án mình chọn. Tôi xin chân thành cám ơn các bạn. 1/ Bạn đã bao giờ được trải nghiệm các hoạt động như vừa rồi ở một giờ học Nói trên lớp chưa? (Xin nêu rõ câu trả lời Rồi hoặc Chưa cho hoạt động nào. Ví dụ: Rồi: đã từng chơi trò chơi như trong bài học vừa rồi)

A. Rồi ………………………………………………………………………………. B. Chưa ……………………………………………………………………………….

2/ Bạn thích hoạt động nào nhất trong giờ học? Vì sao? (Có thể chọn một hoặc nhiều mục với mức độ 1 thích nhấ , 2 thích vừa …v..v.)

A. Games ………………………………………………………………………………. B. Hoạt động 1 ………………………………………………………………………………. C. Hoạt động 2 ………………………………………………………………………………. D. Không cái nào cả ……………………………………………………………………………….

3/ Bạn có dùng Tiếng Anh trong bất kì hoạt động nào trong giờ học này không? Vì sao?

A. Có Le Thi Lan Huong-06.1.E7 63


………………………………………………………………………………. B. Không ……………………………………………………………………………….

4/ Theo bạn, một hoạt động nói thú vị cần có tính chất nào trong số sau? Vì sao? (Chọn một hoặc nhiều đáp án)

A. Vui vẻ, tạo không khí là chính B. Giống các hoạt động trong cuộc sống hàng ngày C. Giống hệt trong sách giáo khoa, miễn là cung cấp cách thức Nói D. Không quan tâm mấy vì không phải thi học kì hay thi Đại học kĩ năng

Nói. E. Ý kiến khác ……………………………………………………………………………….

5/ Bạn có muốn tiếp tục học những giờ học như thế này nữa không? Vì sao A. Có ………………………………………………………………………………. B. Không ………………………………………………………………………………. C. Ý kiến khác ……………………………………………………………………………….

6/ Bạn muốn thay đổi hoạt động nào trong giờ học này? Vì sao A. Games ………………………………………………………………………………. B. Hoạt động 1 ………………………………………………………………………………. C. Hoạt động 2 ………………………………………………………………………………. D. Không cái nào cả ……………………………………………………………………………….

7/ Bạn muốn thay đổi nào thêm cho bài học Nói ngày hôm nay ………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………………………………….

Cám ơn các bạn rất nhiều ☺



TBL lesson survey My name is Le Thi Lan Huong. I am a fourth-year student at Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies, VNU. This questionnaire is designed for my graduation paper on “Exploitation of task-based teaching in speaking lessons for 11th graders in high schools in Hanoi. I would be grateful for your assistance in completing this questionnaire. Thank you very much in advance. Choose one answer for each question by circling your preferred letter. Please write down the reasons for your answers if asked. 1/ Bạn thích hoạt động nào nhất trong giờ học? Vì sao? Which activity do you like most in the lesson? Why? You can choose A: like most, B: so so for example.

A. Games ………………………………………………………………………………. B. Task 1 ………………………………………………………………………………. C. Task 2 ………………………………………………………………………………. D. None of them ……………………………………………………………………………….

2/ Bạn có tham gia Nói Tiếng Anh vào bất kì hoạt động nào trong giờ học này không? Vì sao? Did you speaking English when taking part in the activities in the lesson? Why so?

A. Yes ………………………………………………………………………………. B. No ……………………………………………………………………………….

3/ Which part of the lesson do you want to change? Why so? A. Games ………………………………………………………………………………. B. Task 1 ………………………………………………………………………………. C. Task 2



………………………………………………………………………………. D. None of them ……………………………………………………………………………….

4/ Which kind of activities do you want to have in Speaking lessons? Why so? You can choose more than one option.

A. Have fun to create encouraging atmosphere B. Similar to activities in daily life C. The same as activities in textbook in order to get theory about Speaking

skills D. Do not care much for Speaking skill is not part of University Entrance

Exam E. Others ……………………………………………………………………………….

5/ Do you want to have another lesson similar to this one? Why so? A. Yes ………………………………………………………………………………. B. No ……………………………………………………………………………….

6/ Which part of the lesson do you want to change? Why so? E. Games ………………………………………………………………………………. F. Task 1 ………………………………………………………………………………. G. Task 2 ………………………………………………………………………………. H. None of them ……………………………………………………………………………….

7/ How do you want to change the activities in the lesson today?

………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………………………………….

Thank you very much for your cooperation ☺



APPENDIX 2 Bản thăm dò ý kiến học sinh về phương pháp TBL

Tôi tên là Lê Thị Lan Hương, sinh viên năm thứ tư, lớp 06.1.E7, trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ, ĐHQG Hà Nội. Tôi đang thực hiện một nghiên cứu có tên “Áp dụng phương pháp học dựa trên các nhiệm vụ thực tế trong kĩ năng Nói của học sinh lớp 11” . Đây là nghiên cứu về phương pháp dạy học Tiếng Anh trong các trường cấp 3 tại Hà Nội. Bản khảo sát dưới đây được thực hiện với mục đích tìm hiểu việc học Nói của học sinh trên lớp và hiểu biết của các bạn về phương pháp trên. Mong các em tham gia bản khảo sát này bằng cách trả lời các câu hỏi được đưa ra. Tôi xin chân thành cám ơn sự hợp tác của các bạn.

1/ Từ trước đến nay, bạn học giờ Nói ở trên lớp theo cách nào?

Khoanh các cách từ cách không bao giờ sử dụng (0), hiếm khi (1),

thỉnh thoảng (2), đến cách được sử dụng thường xuyên (3)

A. Theo giống hệt sách giáo khoa 0 1 2 3

B. Về cơ bản là theo sách giáo khoa (SGK), thỉnh thoảng có sự thay đổi

0 1 2 3

C. Ít giống SGK, trừ chủ đề, chỉ làm các hoạt động ngoài sách

0 1 2 3

D. Không rõ vì không quan tâm mấy đến giờ học Nói

0 1 2 3

E. Ý kiến khác…………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………... 0 1 2 3

2/ Trong giờ học Nói, với cách học nói trên, bạn tham gia như thế nào?

A. Chẳng nói gì, chỉ ngồi chép các cấu trúc vào vở

B. Thi thoảng nói (không đáng kể, thích thì nói), còn lại làm việc riêng

C. Thầy/cô giáo bắt làm gì thì làm cho xong

D. Tham gia nhiệt tình, tích cực vào bài học

E. Ý kiến khác



………………………………………………………………………………

3/ Bạn đã bao giờ nghe nói hoặc học Nói theo phương pháp dựa vào

các nhiệm vụ thực tế chưa? (task-based learning)

• Task-based là phương pháp học dựa trên việc thực hiện các nhiệm vụ

mô phỏng nhiệm vụ thực tế hàng ngày. Ví dụ như: học sinh sẽ học

Tiếng Anh qua hoạt động mô phỏng chọn nơi đi du lịch. Học sinh có thể

tham gia thảo luận với nhau về việc chọn đi đâu dựa trên những thông

tin, dữ liệu được cung cấp (hoặc tự tìm). Trong khi thảo luận, học sinh

dùng Tiếng Anh để đưa ra quyết định về nơi đi. Qua đó, trình độ Tiếng

Anh sẽ tiến bộ. Giáo viên chỉ đóng vai trò cố vấn viên, đưa ra trợ giúp

khi rất cần. Trước khi thực hiện nhiệm vụ, học sinh sẽ được cung cấp

ngôn ngữ đầu vào thông qua các hình thức khác nhau ví dụ như mô hình

mẫu để làm quen.

A. Chưa từng biết đến phương pháp đó

B. Nghe nói rồi, nhưng chưa học bao giờ

C. Đã học phương pháp đó tại lớp ngoại khóa

D. Ý kiến khác

………………………………………………………………………………

Những học sinh đã học phương pháp đó rồi, xin mời trả lời tiếp

4/ Bạn thấy phương pháp đó như thế nào? Khoanh mức độ ưu thích của

bạn từ Rất chán (0), Chán (1), Bình thường (2), Hay (3), Rất hay (4)

0 1 2 3 4

5/ Bạn có muốn thường xuyên được học phương pháp đó trên lớp học

chính khóa không? Vì sao?

A. Có

B. Không

C. Ý kiến khác

………………………………………………………………………………

Cám ơn các bạn rất nhiều ☺


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study Students’ questionnaire My name is Le Thi Lan Huong. I am a fourth-year student at Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies, VNU. This questionnaire is designed for my graduation paper on “Exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking for 11th graders in high schools in Hanoi, suburb area”. The questionnaire is carried out to investigate your understanding of TBL. I would be grateful for your assistance in completing this questionnaire. Thank you very much in advance. Choose one answer for each question by circling your preferred letter. Please write down the reasons for your answers if asked.

1. How have you learnt speaking skills in class? Circle your choice.

The number indicate the degree of frequency: Never (0), rarely (1),

sometimes (2) and usually (3).

A. Do exactly what is designed in the textbook 0 1 2 3

B. Do activities in the textbook, have a little adaptation occasionally

0 1 2 3

C. Just keep the topics, do newly designed activities from other sources

0 1 2 3

D. Not sure for not concerning about speaking lessons

0 1 2 3

E.Other

ideas…………………………………………………………………………

….…………………………………………………… 0 1 2 3

2. In the speaking lessons, how do you participate in the activities?

A. Say nothing, just copy the provided structures into the notebook.

B. Speak for a couple of times (not much), and do private stuff.

C. Do what the teacher asks to do

D. Take part in the lessons enthusiastically

E. Other ideas



………………………………………………………………………………

……….

3. Have you ever heard or learnt TBL method in speaking lessons?

• The method is based on everyday tasks. For example: students are asked

to choose a place to to for a picnic. They have to complet the tasks in

English. Based on the provided materials (or suggested materials), they

will learn English from the discussion in groups to decide which place

to go. Their English will be improved from time to time by such kind of

tasks. The students are provided with language inputs or models before

undertaking the tasks. The teacher will work as a facilitator during the

lesson.

A. No, I haven not heard about that method.Chưa từng biết đến phương

pháp đó

B. Yes, I have heard about it, but have not experiences it before

C. Yes, I have experienced that method in my extra class

D. Other ideas

For students who have experienced TBL method, continue with the next

questions

4. What do you think about TBL method? Circle you level of interest from

(0) very boring, (1) boring, (2) So so, (3) interesting to (4) very interesting

0 1 2 3 4

5. Do you want to learn speaking skills frequently in class? Why?

A. Yes

C. No

D. Other ideas

………………………………………………………………………………

Thank you very much for your cooperation ☺



APPENDIX 3

Interview with teachers

Interviewee’s code:

Interview questions Interviewee’s answers

1/ In the speaking lessons, how do you deliver

your lessons? Do you often make use of the

activities designed in the textbook or not? Do

you make any adaptation? If yes, how do you

adapt the activities? Give specific examples

please.

2/ Do you feel satisfied with your speaking

lessons? Why or Why not?

3/ How do you guide your students to

implement the tasks/activities in speaking

lessons?

4/ Have you ever heard about task-based

learning/teaching method? If not, go to explain

the theory of TBL to the interviewees.

5/ Have you ever apply that method to your

speaking lessons?

If not, why? If yes, what do you think about its

effectiveness?

6/ Are you satisfied with your application?

If not, why? If yes, how?

7/ Do you usually apply it to your speaking

lessons in class? Why or why not?



Phỏng vấn với giáo viên

Mã số người phỏng vấn:

Câu hỏi phỏng vấn Câu trả lời

1. Trong giờ dạy Nói, anh/chị thường tổ chức

bài học như thế nào? Anh/chị sử dụng các hoạt

động đã được thiết kế trong sách giáo khoa,

không sử dụng mấy hay sử dụng và có thay đổi?

2. Anh/chị có cảm thấy hài lòng với những bài

dạy Nói của mình trên lớp chưa? Vì sao Rồi hay

vì sao Chưa?

3. Trong giờ học Nói, anh/chị thường hướng dẫn

học sinh cách thực hiện hoạt động như thế nào?

4. Anh/chị đã nghe nói về phương pháp dạy học

task-based chưa?

- Nếu có: trả lời tiếp câu hỏi 5

- Nếu chưa: đưa ra giải thích sau rồi tiếp tục

tiếp câu 5

5. Anh/chị đã bao giờ áp dụng phương pháp này

chưa?

Chưa: vì sao chưa?

Rồi: anh chị thấy hiệu quả của nó như thế nào?

6. Anh/chị có hài lòng với phương pháp đó

không?

7. anh/chị có thường xuyên áp dụng phương

pháp này vào giờ học Nói trên lớp không? Vì

sao có hoặc vì sao không?



Interview’s tape script

1. Vietnamese version

Giáo viên A: 14 năm kinh nghiệm

1/ Trong giờ dạy Nói thì tôi thường sử dụng các hoạt động đã đc thiết kế

trong SGK.

2/ Tôi chưa cảm thấy hài lòng lắm với giờ dạy Nói của mình. Vì học sinh vẫn

lười nói và thiếu kiến thức, thậm chí là kiến thức thực tế.

3/ Trong giờ dạy nói thì tôi thường hướng dẫn học sinh theo 3 bước. B1: tôi sẽ

hd nd của bài; B2: các em sẽ nói theo mẫu trong SGK. B3: học sinh sẽ nói

theo ý mình dựa vào những mẫu đó. Và theo SGK của chtr 10, 11, 12 mới thì

nói chung là các em học theo pp dạy học TB và tôi sử dụng luôn pp này.

4/ Hiệu quả: nói chung phương pháp này cũng k đc hiệu quả lắm vì học sinh

sẽ bị phụ thuộc vào SGK và tức là các em ít sáng tạo

Giáo viên B: 8 năm kinh nghiệm

1/ Trong giờ dạy nói tôi thường thực hiện theo như tiến trình trong SGK, với

đôi khi tôi cũng có thay đổi 1 chút nhằm khuyến khích học sinh, tự sáng tạo ra

các tình huống của mình.

2/ Tôi thực sự chưa cảm thấy hài lòng với bài dạy Nói của mình ở trên lớp.

Bởi vì thực ra học sinh thật ra vẫn chưa thực sự sáng tạo và năng động trong

các hoạt động nói.

3/ Trong giờ dạy Nói thì tôi cũng thường hd học sinh theo 3 bước. B1: hướng

dẫn học sinh tìm hiểu bài mẫu, hướng các e đến cách phát âm từ cũng như là

nội dung ngữ pháp, sau đó cho các e hoạt động, nhóm cái bài hội thoại mẫu

đó. Và cuối cùng là cũng cho các em làm việc theo cặp nhóm, để các em tự tạo

ra cái tình huống cho mình.

4/ Tôi cũng nghe nói về pp dạy học TB và thực tế là tôi cũng đang áp dụng

phương pháp này. Và tất nhiên nếu đc trang bị kiến thức về phương pháp này

và theo cái đường hướng tốt hơn thì chắc chắn là tôi cũng vẫn áp dụng. Bởi vì

dựa trên thực tế, cái phương pháp này nó dựa trên các nhiệm vụ thực tế hàng


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study ngày, nó sẽ tạo ra đc cái hứng khởi cho hs bởi vì các e nó thấy rằng là các tình

huống giao tiếp đó là nó thật với cuộc sống. Thực ra là tôi nghĩ là hiệu quả sẽ

tốt hơn nếu mà ngoài các giờ trên lớp, mà chúng ta có đăng kí để tổ chức các

hoạt động ngoại khóa cho các em để các em nó tự mình thực hiện các tình

huống giao tiếp đó thì các em sẽ thấy hứng thú hơn nhiều. Và nếu đc như vậy

thì tôi nghĩ là hiệu quả của nó sẽ tốt hơn và chúng tôi sẽ áp dụng phương pháp

này ở trên lớp.

Giáo viên C: 3 năm kinh nghiệm

1/ Trong giờ dạy Nói thì hầu hết là tôi sử dụng các hoạt động được thiết kế

trong SGK, thỉnh thoảng thì có đưa thêm 1 số chủ đề mới và 1 vài hoạt động

mới để làm cho giờ học Nói nó trở nên thú vị hơn, lôi cuốn học sinh hơn.

2/ Tôi chưa thực sự hài lòng với bài dạy Nói trên lớp của mình vì học sinh

chưa thực sự tham gia nhiệt tình vào việc học Nói. Học sinh còn ngại nói, giao

tiếp.

3/ Trong giờ học Nói thì tôi hướng dẫn học sinh thực hiện các hoạt động thứ

nhất là hoạt động chủ đề, cái thứ 2 là cung cấp vốn từ vựng cần thiết, nói theo

mẫu và cuối cùng là free talk.

4. Hiện tại thì tôi đang áp dụng pp dạy học TB và hđ của SGK là chủ yếu dựa

vào phương pháp này. Tôi có áp dụng phương pháp này vì như thế sẽ tạo được

hứng thú cho học sinh trong 1 giờ dạy Nói.

Giáo viên D: 5 năm kinh nghiệm

1/ Trong giờ dạy nói thì tôi thường tổ chức các hoạt động dạy nói theo như 3

bước là: Pre-, while-, post-, và tôi khai thác triệt để trong SGK, đôi khi có thể

thay đổi cho phù hợp với từng nội dung, từng trình độ, tùy từng bài dạy.

2/ Riêng về giờ dạy Nói thì tôi thực sự chưa hài lòng lắm với bài dạy nói của

mình trên lớp. Có rất nhiều lí do. Một trong những lí do, có lẽ là lí do chính là

khả năng của học sinh, khả năng nói của hs còn kém, và hs rất sợ nói.

3/ Trong giờ dạy Nói thì tôi thường hướng dẫn học sinh các hoạt động nói chủ

yếu ở bước Pre-speaking ví dụ như cung cấp từ vựng xoay quanh chủ đề nói,


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study hướng dẫn học sinh đọc, nói, phát âm cho chính xác; và sau đó hướng dẫn học

sinh làm các cái bài, hoặc các cái yêu cầu của 1 phần bài Nói.

4/ Tôi đã được nghe nói đến phương pháp dạy học TB và tôi nghĩ đó là 1

phương pháp rất hữu hiệu trong việc dạy ngoại ngữ. Và SGK hiện nay dùng

cho học sinh THPT là được thiết kế theo phương pháp này và tôi thấy rất phù

hợp với học sinh mặc dù là khai thác cũng chưa đc triệt để.

Giáo viên 5: 4 năm kinh nghiệm

1-3/ Giờ dạy Nói, trước tiên tôi thường cung cấp cho học sinh dữ liệu đó là từ

mới và cấu trúc, sau đó có thể giới thiệu cho các e 1 đoạn hội thoại mẫu, và

sau đó tôi có thể làm mẫu cho các em với 1 học sinh khá, giỏi trong lớp, sau

đó tôi có thể gọi 1 cặp khá giỏi lên làm mẫu trước lớp, và sau đó lớp phải thực

hành theo cặp, theo nhóm. Sau khi đã làm xong theo cặp, theo nhóm trôi chảy,

tôi mới để các em tiến hành nói theo chủ đề hoặc là có các cuộc hội thoại theo

chủ đề tự do. Tôi thấy cái cách như thế thì sẽ kiểm soát được học sinh và

hướng học sinh đi theo đúng hướng mà tôi định làm. Tuy nhiên là tôi thấy là,

học sinh vẫn còn rất là khó khăn khi trong giai đoạn thứ 3, tôi cho học sinh nói

tự do. Bởi vì học sinh khó về từ vựng, và đôi khi cả kiến thức về ngôn ngữ

hoặc về kiến thức nền các em còn thiếu.

4/ Còn về phương pháp TB thì tôi cũng thấy đây là một phương pháp rất hay

và tôi có áp dụng. Tuy nhiên, đối với học sinh hs phổ thông của tôi thì tôi thấy

các em vẫn còn khó khăn. Và tôi cũng đã thay đổi và giúp đỡ các e bằng cách

là tôi có cung cấp cho các em một chút kiến thức ngôn ngữ với những chủ đề

mà như ở trong SGK đã cung cấp ví dụ như là shopping, hoặc là về sports,

hoặc là về văn hóa. Tôi cũng đã áp dụng và tôi thấy nó cũng hiệu quả, và tôi

cũng thấy học sinh rất là hào hứng. Tuy nhiên, để đạt đựoc độ lưu loát và độ

trôi chảy thì tôi nghĩ là phải cần cho học sinh làm nhiều hơn, để cho nó thành

quen đi. Và tôi nghĩ là cái này có thể áp dụng thường xuyên bởi vì nó rất là tốt

cho học sinh sau này ra giao tiếp cho cuộc sống hàng ngày.


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study 2. English version

Teacher A:

In the speaking lessons, I usually make use of activities and tasks designed in

the textbook.

I don’t feel satisfied with my speaking lessons. Because the students are not

willing to speak, lacking in knowledge, even the practical and background

knowledge.

I often divide my speaking lessons into three main stages. In the first stage, I

provide the students with the lesson guideline. In the second stage, I ask them

to practise the models in the textbook. In the last stage, I allow them to have

free talks based on the models. In fact, the new English course books 10, 11,

12 are designed in TBL method, so I apply it. Regarding the effectiveness, I

suppose that it’s not effective. Because the students are dependent on the

textbook, I mean they are not creative.

Teacher B:

In the speaking lessons, I follow the procedures suggested in the textbook.

Sometimes, I have some adaptation to encourage my students to create their

own situations, and practise them.

In fact, I don’t feel pleased with my speaking lessons in class because the

students are not really active and creative.

In the speaking lessons, I usually have three-stage lessons. First, I help the

students to work on the models. Then, I show them how to have correct

pronunciation, good grammar, and practise the provided models in the

textbook. Lastly, I separate them to work in pairs or in works to make their

conversations.

Well, I’ve heard about TBL method. And. I myself apply it to my teaching

job, in fact. Certainly, if provided with better knowledge about TBL and skills

in the method application, I will continue to implement it. Because the method

is based on everyday tasks, which creates encouraging atmosphere for the

students. They find that what they practise in class speaking activities is


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study similar to what happens in the daily life. In fact, I think that it will be much

better if we have extra-class time, we can provide the students with more

freedom to communicate in English by completing everyday tasks, which

makes the students more interested in the study. If so, I suppose that the

effectiveness will be higher, we will apply it to the lessons in classroom

environment.

Teacher C:

In the speaking lessons, I use the activities and tasks designed in the textbook

for most of the time. Sometimes, I make some adaptation to get the students’

attention and make the lessons more interesting.

I don’t feel happy with my lessons because the students don’t participate

enthusiastically and they are afraid of speaking English or communicating in

English.

In the speaking lessons, I help the students with the lesson guideline. Then, I

teach them a number of vocabulary which is essential for the students and ask

them to praticse the provided models . Lastly, I let them have free talks.

Now I apply TBL method to my speaking lessons and the textbook is designed

on the basis of that method, I suppose. I implement TBL to speaking lessons

for it will improve the students’ motivation in speaking.

Teacher D:

I usually separate my speaking lessons into three main stages namely Pre-

speaking, while-speaking and post-speaking. I make full exploitation of the

textbook with some adaptation which is suitable for different contents, levels

and lessons.

Regarding the speaking lessons, I’m not happy with them. There are various

reasons for that fact. One of them, maybe the main reason, is the students’

ability. Their speaking ability is not good and they have the fear of speaking.

In the lessons, I often provide help in Pre-speaking stage by giving them a

number of expressions related to the topic, leading them to correct


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study pronunciation. Afterwards, I ask them to undertake the tasks or finish some

requirements in Speaking section.

I’ve heard about TBL method. In my opinion, it is an effective method,

especially in language teaching. In fact, the new textbooks are designed on the

basis of TBL method, which is suitable for the students, even though the

method has been not fully exploited.

Teacher E:

In the speaking lessons, I often provide my students with some material. It

includes new words, expressions related to the topic. Next, I introduce a model

to them, then pratise with a student good at English. I might call one pair to

perform in front of the whole class as an example. Then, I ask them to work in

pairs, in groups to practise the tasks in the textbook. When the students could

speaking fluently, I let them have free talks in their favourite topics. I think, by

this, I could have enough control over the students and the lesson direction.

Well, to be honest, I find that the students have difficulty in the last stage, free

talk time. Because they have trouble with vocabulary to convey their ideas,

sometimes they lack linguistics and background knowledge.

As for TBL, I find it an interesting method and I apply it already. However, it

seems to be difficult for my students. Thus, I make some alteration in the

lessons and provide help to the students. I supply them with language inputs

related to the textbook topics such as shopping, sports or culture. I implement

TBL method already, and I find it effective. My students are likely to feel

highly enthusiastic with TBL lessons. Nevertheless, in order to acquire better

fluency the students need to practise much more until they get used to it. In

my opinion, the method can be applied usually for it’s good for students to

communicate in English in daily life activities.



APPENDIX 4

Interview with students

Interviewee’s code:

Interview questions Interviewee’s answers

1/ Have you ever experienced TBL lessons

before participating the case-study?

2/ In your opinion, which is paid more attention

in TBL lessons (in the case-study)? Grammar

and structures (forms) or meaning?

3/ Did you use English to complete the tasks?

4/ Do you find it difficult to complete the tasks

in English? If yes, which can help you to

overcome the difficulties?

5/ Do you want to continue to learn TBL

method in speaking lessons?

6/ Do you have any extra English class? Which

type of this class? Grammar, communicative

English or what else?

7/ Could you tell me what improvement you

have got after taking part in the case-study?


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study Mã số người tham gia phỏng vấn:

Câu hỏi phỏng vấn Trả lời

1/ Have you ever experienced TBL lessons

before participating the case-study?

2/ In your opinion, which is paid more attention

in TBL lessons (in the case-study)? Grammar

and structures (forms) or meaning?

3/ Did you use English to complete the tasks?

4/ Do you find it difficult to complete the tasks

in English? If yes, which can help you to

overcome the difficulties?

5/ Do you want to continue to learn TBL method

in speaking lessons?

6/ Do you have any extra English class? Which

type of this class? Grammar, communicative

English or what else?

7/ Could you tell me what improvement you

have got after taking part in the case-study?


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study The interview’s tape script

1. Vietnamese version

Học sinh 1:

1/ Thực ra thì ngoài 4 bài học nói gần đây, tớ chưa bao giờ học những tiết học

như vậy. Thực sự rất là hay.

2/ Theo tớ thì ở phương pháp này chú trọng đến việc rèn luyện học sinh kĩ

năng Nói hơn là cấu trúc ngữ pháp. Chúng ta có thể được nói sai nhưng mà

việc đó không quan trọng bằng việc chúng ta mạnh dạn nói lên những ý kiến

của mình.

3. Tất nhiên, tớ sử dụng TA trong bất kì nhiệm vụ nào của bài học.

4. Có khó, nhất là lúc đầu ý. Tớ thấy chưa quen và hơi nhanh. Về sau, khi học

sang buổi thứ hai, tớ đã chú tâm hơn và tận dụng những gì cô giáo cung cấp

ban đầu. Ví dụ như cái clips này, hay là các hoạt động bổ trợ này. Thế nên về

sau tớ thấy quen dần, không khó quá nữa.

5. Tiếp tục chứ, nó thú vị mà. Tớ được tự do đưa ra ý kiến khi tham gia nhóm

này.

6. Có, tớ có đi học thêm ngữ pháp của cô giáo trong trường. Chủ yếu chỉ làm

bài tập ngữ pháp thôi.

7. Tiến bộ rõ nhất là tớ thấy thích học Nói hơn. Tớ thấy tớ biết nhiều từ mới

hơn, và có vẻ tớ nói lưu loát hơn.

Học sinh 2:

1. Đây là lần đầu tiên tớ được tiếp cận với phương pháp học Nói như thế này.

Trước đây, tớ chưa bao giờ được học tiết học như thế.

2. Theo tớ nghĩ thì phương pháp học mới này rất bổ ích và hiệu quả. Vì nó chú

trọng hơn về phương pháp nói chứ không phải về cấu trúc ngữ pháp. Học sinh

có thể nói đúng hay nói sai. Điều quan trọng hơn là học sinh biết nói lên suy

nghĩ của mình.

3. Tất nhiên sử dụng TA trong các hoạt động của bài học


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study 4. Từ trước đến nay thì việc học TA trên lớp thường coi nhẹ kĩ năng Nói cho

học sinh. Vì vậy, khi mới tiếp cận phương pháp học này, một số hoạt động có

thể là hơi khó so với khả năng của tớ. Nhưng khi dần khi làm quen với

phương pháp này, mình sẽ chủ động hơn và không cảm thấy khó nữa.

Khi học theo phương pháp học mới này, có lẽ điều hỗ trợ tớ để thực hiện kĩ

năng nói dễ dàng hơn là các từ mới

5. Những tiết học như thế rất bổ ích, vì phương pháp của nó cũng rất hiệu quả

nếu tiết tục duy trì những tiết học như thế. Vì vậy, tớ sẽ tiếp tục học những giờ

học như 4 bài vừa qua.

6. Tớ có học TA ngoài, nhưng chủ yếu tớ học ngữ pháp để phục vụ cho việc

thi đại học sau này. TA giao tiếp, tpứ nghĩ rằng tớ sẽ học khi nào tớ có thời

gian.

7. Khả năng nói của tớ sau khi học 4 giờ học này, tớ cảm thấy thích học hơn

những tiết học về kĩ năng nói. Còn khả năng thì có lẽ là cần phải rèn luyện

nhiều hơn để có 1 khả năng nói tốt trong TA.

Học sinh 3:

1. Thỉnh thoảng cũng được trải nghiệm nhưng rất là ít.

2. Theo tớ là chú trọng ngôn ngữ. Bài học này thường là rèn cho học sinh

những kĩ năng nói, không nên chú trọng về cấu trúc ngữ pháp.

3/ Tớ có sử dụng TA, nhưng hầu như do vốn TA có hạn nên chưa thể sử dụng

đc hết nên là tớ đang cố gắng.

4/ Ban đầu, bọn tớ có thể gặp 1 số bỡ ngỡ trong sử dụng TA. Nhưng về sau,

qua nhiều giờ học, nói chung là nó đã trở nên dễ dàng hơn so với bọn t rồi.

Theo tớ là cần vốn từ ngữ và ngoài ra là cần kĩ năng để nói

5/ Tớ rất là thích bởi vì những giờ học này rất là vui và rất bổ ích. Đồng thời

tớ rèn luyện được nhiều kĩ năng nói hơn sau giờ học này.

Trong giờ học này, thường thường, bọn tớ được hoạt động nhóm cùng với

nhau, sẽ có nhiều trường hợp rất thú vị được bọn tớ đặt ra. Ngoài ra, bọn tớ


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study còn đc tham gia các trò chơi. Thế nên tớ thấy nó rất là phong phú chứ không

cứng nhắc như các giờ học bình thường.

6/ Hiện tại thì tớ chưa, nhưng sau này nhất định tớ sẽ học

7/ Tớ thấy hiện tại thì khả năng Nói của tớ là bình thường. Sau 4 giờ học thì

chắc chắn là khả năng nói của tớ là tốt hơn rồi.

Học sinh 4:

1/ Ngoài 4 giờ học gần đây, thì mình chưa bao giờ trải nghiệm pp như vậy cả.

2/ Theo tớ thì ở phương pháp này, nhiệm vụ được chú trọng hơn cấu trúc ngữ

pháp. Và đòi hỏi phải sử dụng ngôn ngữ nói thật là tốt, tức là nên cho ng` học

rèn luyện tốt phương pháp nói.

3/ Mình đã cố gắng sử dụng TA một cách tối đa nhất trong giờ học để trau dồi

thêm kĩ năng nói bằng TA.

4/ Những bài học này mình thấy là cũng không đến nỗi khó lắm. Bởi vì là

trong bài học cũng nói TA nhưng thường sử dụng những cấu trúc, ngôn ngữ

nói hàng ngày và kèm thêm một số từ mới trong bài học mà đã được các thầy

cô cung cấp và SGK cung cấp.

Khó ở điểm gì : điều tớ cảm thấy khó khi thực hiện nhiệm vụ này là : vốn từ

và khả năng phát âm. Ngoài ra thì còn.... Tớ nghĩ trở ngại nhiều nhất là vốn từ.

Theo tớ thì là từ mới. Về vấn đề từ mới, tớ cần đc các thầy các cô giải thích,

và ngoài ra còn 1 số các cấu trúc ngữ pháp. Thay vì giảng giải một cách máy

móc bằng chữ thì các thầy các cô có thể nói trực tiếp bằng lời để bọn tớ có thể

áp dụng một cách nhanh hơn, và có hiệu quả hơn.

5/ Mình thấy các giờ học theo phương pháp này rất thú vị, còn bổ ích nữa. Vì

thông qua giờ học này, mình có thể trau dồi khả năng nói TA và rèn một số

các kĩ năng khác.

6/ Ngoài học TA ở trên lớp, tớ không tham gia 1 khóa học nào ở bên ngoài.

7/ Theo mình thấy sau 4 giờ học vừa qua là khả năng nói TA của mình đã

được cải thiện rõ rệt. Mình nói có phần lưu loát hơn, cảm thấy tự tin hơn khi


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study phát âm, khi giao tiếp với các bạn khác trong lớp bằng TA, và mình có thể sử

dụng nó khi tiếp xúc với người nước ngoài khi gặp trên đường phố.

Học sinh 5 :

1/ Tớ chưa bao giờ tham gia. Ngoài 4 hoạt động ý, thì chưa có hoạt động nào

tớ tham gia.

2/ Tớ nghĩ là những bài này chú trọng cách nói hơn là cấu trúc ngữ pháp. Tớ

thấy là tớ nói rất là tự nhiên và nói chung là cấu trúc ngữ pháp không quan

trọng lắm.

3/ Có, tớ sử dụng hầu hết ở các nhiệm vụ.

4/ Tớ nghĩ là với sự giúp đỡ của giáo viên và trang thiết bị thì nó không phải là

khó.

Đôi khi thì mình không tìm ra đc những từ ngữ mà mình muốn diễn đạt được,

nên mình thấy rất là khó khăn

Điều gì khiến bạn thực hiện nó tốt hơn

Đơn giản là tớ thích nói TA thôi nên là tớ muốn nói càng nhiều càng tốt

5. /Tất nhiên là tớ thấy rất là bổ ích rồi. Được học nữa thì càng tốt. Nói chung

là tớ thấy, TA ý, cái việc nói rất là quan trọng. Và chương trình này đã nhắm

vào đúng mục đích của việc học TA rồi.

6/ Có. Các cô dạy cả cấu trúc ngữ pháp và giao tiếp. Nhưng mà tớ nghĩ là ngữ

pháp các cô dạy kĩ hơn.

7/ Có á. Tớ thấy là là khả năng của tớ tốt hơn và tớ có thể giao tiếp với người

nước ngoài đc nhiều hơn.



English version

Student 1:

1/ Actually, apart from the 4 lessons in the case-study, I have never

experienced such kind of speaking lessons. It is really interesting.

2/ I think it paid more attention to speaking skills rather than the structures.

We could speak with some mistakes, but it is not so important as speaking out

our ideas.

3/ Of course, I used English in any tasks.

4/ Well, it was difficult at the beginning, especially for the first time. At first, I

found it strange, rather fast. Gradually, from the 2nd lesson, I paid more

attention to keep up with the lesson speed. I made use of the provided

materials such as the clips or pre-task activities. Thus, I found it not too

difficult any more.

5. Sure, it’s very interesting. I could give out my own ideas in groupwork.

6. Yes, I take an extra class in grammar. I just do grammar exercises there.

7. The most noticeable progress is that I like speaking lessons than before. I

have gained more useful vocabulary and seemingly I could speak more

frequently.

Student 2:

1/ It is the first time I have experienced this method. I have done it before.

2/ In my opinion, the new method is very helpful and effective. When learning

in this method, I suppose that vocabulary, new words can support me strongly

to carry the tasks better, getting improvements in speaking skills. The students

may speak correctly or with some mistakes; however, the most important

thing is that we know how to convey our ideas and express our thoughts.

3/ Certainly, I used English in all tasks.

4. The lessons were very helpful, so it would be more effective if the program

continued in the future. Thus, I would like to join more TBL speaking lessons

similar to the four lessons recently.


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study 5. Normally, Speaking skill is not paid much attention. Thus, in the first

exposure to that method, some tasks were difficult for me. But following the

method gradually, I will feel more active and not feel hard any more.

6. Yes, I have an extra class. But I just do grammar exericese there to pass the

university entrance exam. Regarding the commucative English, I will learn it

later, when I have time.

7. Well, my speaking ability. I just feel that I want to study speaking skills

much more than usual. As for the skills, I have to pratice much more.

Student 3:

1. Yes, I have, but rarely.

2. I think it paid more attention to the language, the meaning. The lessons

often provided us with speaking skills. It is more important than

grammar, I think.

3. I used English as much as possible. But becaused of limited vocabulary,

I couldn’t use English in all tasks. I will try to do it in the future.

4. At first, it was new and strange to us, causing us some troubles.

However, experiencing a number of lessons, we got used to it and it

become easier to us. I think I need more vocabulary and skills to

support my participation.

5. I was fascinated with such interesting and helpful lessons. I could also

practice further speaking skills in such lessons. In addition, we often

worked in works, so we suggested a lot of exciting possibilities to each

task. And we can join some games, too. That is the reason why I find it

interesting, not boring, as usual speaking lessons.

6. I don’t have any extra class now, but I will do it in the future for sure.

7. My speaking ability is so so now, I think. But, I think now it is much

better than before.



Student 4

1. Except for the four lessons in the case-study, I haven’t experienced that

method before.

2. In my opinion, the tasks (the meaning of action) are more important

than the grammatical structures. It requires the speakers to use English

well, helping them practice speaking skills.

3. I did try to use English as much as possible to learn English better.

4. Such kind of lessons are not really hard for me. Although we used

English for almost all of the time, the language was simple with

everyday language and structures. In addition, the teacher (and the

textbook) also provided us with some language inputs before taking on

the tasks. However, I still believed that the vocabulary and

pronunciation, especially the former, were the biggest hindrance. That is

the reason why I assume that the teacher had better explain new words

to us instead of just giving us the explanation in written form. By this

way, the application would be more beneficial.

5. Sure, I’m willing to continue to learn speaking in that method because it

is very helpfuland interesting. In such kind of lessons, I can learn not

only English but other skills.

6. No, I don’t join any extra class.

7. After four lessons, I feel confident in pronunciation and comfortable to

communicate with my other friends in my class. In particular, I can use

English to talk to foreigners meeting by chance on streets.

Student 5 :

1. Apart from the four lessons, I have never experienced such kind of

speaking lessons.

2. I suppose that the way of speaking is focused more than the

grammatical structures. I think that I can speak naturally without much

worry about the grammatical structures in general.

3. Yes, I used English in almost all of the tasks.



4. Sometimes, I get stuck to the expressions. I mean I could not get the

words or expressions to convey my ideas. However, receiving help from

the teacher and support from visual aids, I do not think the tasks are

hard. Regarding what can help me to perform better, I assume it was my

interest. I just did it because I liked it.

5. Well, I find it helpful for sure. It is much much better if we can continue

to learn this way in the future. Generally, I think, speaking skills in

English are extremely important. And, the program has fulfilled our

aims in English study.

6. Yes, I have an extra class. My teacher teachers both grammar and

communicative English, but I think she pays much more attention to the

grammar.

7. Yes, for sure. I find that my English ability is much better, and I can

communicate with foreigners in English better.



APPENDIX 5

Lesson plans

Unit 11: Sources of Energy

Speaking

I. Description of class:

47 students II. Objectives:

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to: - T use the expressions and words about sources of energy - Know how to make an interview: make questions and answer

them accordingly

III. TEACHING AIDS:

Textbook, handouts, pictures, overhead projector, computer. IV. TEACHING METHOD:

Task-based Learning V. Assumed Knowledge

Students may know some expressions and words about sources of energy from the Reading section

VI. Anticipated problems:

Students may get difficulty in making an interview. Thus, the teacher had better give them a model before they do the task Students may not use language of clarification. Therefore, the teacher gives some suggestions to students about when going around the class. If possible, the T supplies the Ss with a listening sample (with script) to get to know some expressions. The teacher may not have enough time to do all activities. In this case, the number of called students to make presentation may be reduced.


The exploitation of task-based learning in teaching speaking skills to 11th graders in Hanoi high schools, suburb area – a case-study VII. Procedures:

STAGES TEACHER’S ACTIVITIES STUDENTS’ ACTIVITIES

Before you

SPeaking (9 min)

Warm-up (6’ min) Game: Word description (5’)

- Divide the whole class into 4 groups.

- Each group will choose one representative standing at the front of the room and one writing score on the board

• The rest of each group will receive a set of 10 pictures about sources of energy. Ss in each group will describe the pictures (without saying the expressed word) to the representative

• The representative is required to guess the word

• The winning group will have the most correct words

Lead In the new Unit (3m) - Show a video on sources of energy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_fvbO2VXjcAlternative sources of energy - Ask the Ss to pay attention to the video, taking note if they want for it might be helpful to them in later tasks.

• Note downs all types of mentioned energy

• Note down what they talk about those types

Students: - Form the groups - Listen to the teacher’s instructions - Choose 2 representatives - Play the game - Congratulate on winner Students: Answer the questions



- Ask Ss about what they are going to learn in the lesson

While you

Speak (35mins)

Task 1: Sorting out types of energy (15’) Teacher: Ask students to form groups of three. Teacher: Give them the following task

- Experts from International Energy Agency (IEA) is conducting a survey of energy use in daily life. They would like to know why people use some specific types of energy in order to give suggestions on better use of friendly environment energy

- Imagine that each group is a household talking about why you use that sort of energy in daily life to the experts.

• Think of advantages and disadvantages as reasons for your choice.

- Sort of energy will be drawn randomly from the T’s list

- Using the pictures in the games might be helpful to you.

- Ss will work in 5’ Teacher: Go around the class room and provide help (in terms of language use, knowledge, etc) if necessary. Teacher: Call 2 representatives/ two groups to perform in front of the class. 3’ for each performance. The T asks the

Students: Form the groups Students: Listen to the instructions Students: Work in groups of three in 5’. Ask the T for help if necessary Students: Watch the performance and note down



rest to note down the information, use of language when listening to their friends Teacher: Provide some language in use for clarification in speaking; draw out from the Ss’ performance and ask the rest for more Teacher: Draw out a lesson: what information should be included when considering the use of a source of energy Task 2: Making an interview talking about sources of energy (20’) Teacher: Show the following video twice and ask the Ss to note down kinds of questions, information given in the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYsRl9Mh6yE&feature=related How to connect wind farms to the grid Teacher: Ask students to work in pair Give them the following task

- Ss A: Imagine that one of you are a scientist of energy who has been successful in an invention of using a new source of alternative energy. You are going to have an interview with a broadcaster.

- Ss B: Imagine that you are going to make an interview with a scientist of energy who has been successful in an invention of using a new source of alternative energy. You are a broadcaster

Students: Answer the T’s questions and write down the useful language (if necessary) Students: Watch the video and note down Students: Form the pairs Students: Listen to the T’s instructions



(CNN, BBC, ABC, etc) - They will work in pairs in 5

minutes Teacher: Ask Ss to use information from previous task to think about different sources of energy and their features, which may be useful for their interviews Teacher: Go around the class room and provide help (in terms of language use, knowledge, etc) if necessary. Teacher: Call 2 pairs to perform in front of the class, 4’ for each performance. The T asks the rest to note down the pair’s use of language and given information. Teacher: Draw out a lesson on structure of an interview and useful language of clarification

Students: Work in pairs and ask the T for help if necessary.

Students: Watch the performance and note down Students: Answer the T’s questions and write down the useful language (if necessary)

Homework

FORUM SIMULATION Make up a situation as follows: UNDP hold a conference on climate change affected by use of energy. In the conference, we have representatives from different sides such as: IEA, citizens, scientist of energy, government officials/policy makers. They will give their opinions on and solutions to climate change and use of energy issue. Teacher: Divide the class into groups of five. Teacher: Give instruction about their task in group work

Students: Form the groups under the T’s guidance. Students: Listen to the



- Each group will represent for one side and discuss how the climate change affected by use of energy

- Each group will choose one representative to speak in front of class.

Teacher: Ask the Ss to do the task at home and give the performance next lesson. Use the provided information and language as a source of reference.

instruction carefully and give questions if they feel confused.

Pre-task 1: Write S for expressions related to features of Solar energy, W for Wind energy and H for Hydro power. You can have more than one answer for each expression. The Sun Solar panels Expensive Simple Gather Massively used Turbine Landscape Ugly Alternative energy Street lights

Without harming the environment Dam Generators Stunning site Water Converted Small area Fossil fuels Reservoirs




Task 2: input Fill in the blank to complete the task below. You can make up your own questions to fill in the blank. We’ve been looking to the consumer market research at JD Power.com for input for all of these alternative fuels and technologies. It’s finally time to find out who they chose as their topic. Interviewee: We did J.D. Power.com and created several awards. We create awards for the healthiest, for the green vehicle, also the fastest for the green vehicle and we have overall innovative for particular vehicle Interviewer: I bet I know who is the healthiest. Interviewee: It shouldn’t be very hard to figure out. Obviously the power human vehicle is healthy in a number of ways……………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………… Interviewer: Can you imagine if everyone in L.A rode a bicycle. How’s great it would be out here? Interviewee: well, you know L.A is pretty out, but a lot of cities could be fine………….. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Interviewer: What about the fastest? Interviewee: Well you know it certainly………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Interviewer: and what about the most innovative? Interviewee: Overall, we took all different attributes to our alternative fuels, reasons that people are considering………………………………………….. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Interviewer: What do you think about the application of the vehicle? Interviewee: Well, it depends.......................……………………………………………… ………………………………………… Question 6: Where did you get ideas for these things? Answer 6:……………………………………………………………………....................... Question 7: …………….…………………………………………………………………… Answer 7: …….…………………………………………………………………………….. Now, we’ve heard abt JD Power.com. It’s time for you to view the site. Go to the website J.D.Power.com, watch the video of any segment that you may miss….



Unit 13: HObbies

Speaking

I. Description of class:

47 students II. Objectives:

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to: - T use the expressions and words about hobbies - Know how to make an interview: make questions and answer

them accordingly III. TEACHING AIDS:

Textbook, handouts, pictures, overhead projector, computer.

IV. TEACHING METHOD:

Task-based Learning V. Assumed Knowledge

Students may know some expressions and words about hobbies from the Reading section

VI. Anticipated problems:

Students may get difficulty in making an interview. Thus, the teacher had better give them a model before they do the task The teacher may not have enough time to do all activities. In this case, the number of called students to make presentation may be reduced.

VII. Procedures:

STAGES TEACHER’S ACTIVITIES STUDENTS’ ACTIVITIES

Before you Speak (9 min)

Warm-up (6’ min) Game: Giving opinions about types of hobbies (5’)

- Divide the whole class into 4 groups. (4 columns)

- Each group will choose one representative to collect all sentences for her/his team.

Students: - Form the groups - Listen to the teacher’s instructions - Choose 4 representatives - Play the game



- The rest of each group will receive a set of expressions about hobbies.

- Each member will get a word, then she/he has to make a sentence including that word.

• Students take turn to make sentences including the picked word.

• Students have to speak to the T their sentences

- Two teams will play at the same time.

- The team has the most acceptable answers will be the winners.

(in reality- ppt) Lead In the new Unit (3m)

- Show series of pictures about type of hobbies

Ask Ss about what they are going to learn in the lesson.

- Congratulate on winner Students: Answer the questions

While you

Speak (35mins)

Task 1: Information gap (15’) Teacher: Ask students to form groups of 4. Teacher: Give them the following task

- Complete the task about your friends’ hobbies including type of the hobby, when, why. The table below

No Name Hobby When Why 1 2 3 4

Students: Form the groups Students: Listen to the instructions



- Ss will work in 5’ Teacher: Go around the class room and provide help (in terms of language use, knowledge, etc) if necessary. Teacher: Call some Ss to report what they have in their worksheet. The T asks the rest to note down the information, use of language when listening to their friends Task 2: Making an interview to find out a famous person’ hobby (20’) Teacher: Show the following video twice and ask the Ss to note down useful language and pay attention to the structure of the model in the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzPvQhtwgAg Teacher: Ask students to work in pairs Give them the following task

- Imagine that you are going to make an interview with a famous person. It would be a informal conversation. You are expected to find out his/her hobbies during free time. You are a broadcaster or a journalist (CNN, BBC, ABC, Reuters, etc)

- You are a famous person. You have an interview with a broadcaster or a journalist. You will talk about your hobbies during free time. Give them as much interesting information as

Students: Work in pairs in 5’. Ask the T for help if necessary Students: Watch the performance and note down Students: Watch the video and note down Students: Form the pairs Students: Listen to the T’s instructions



possible for it’s a good way to show your personalities in public.

- Make use of the provided language in the video and the last task.

- After the preparation, release your performance in front of class

Teacher: Go around the class room and provide help (in terms of language use, knowledge, etc) if necessary. Teacher: Call at least 2 pairs to perform in front of the class. The T asks the rest to note down the use of language and given information. Teacher: Draw out a lesson on structure of a talk about hobbies.

Students: Work in groups and ask the T for help if necessary.

Students: Watch the performance and note down Students: Answer the T’s questions and write down the useful language (if necessary)

Homewor

k

Make a individual presentation about your own hobbies with the basis of the group preparation in class. Teacher: Ask the Ss to do the task at home and give the performance next lesson. Use the provided information and language as a source of reference.

Students: Listen to the instruction carefully and give questions if they feel confused.



Pre-task activity Watch the clip and complete the table below with information from the clip

No Name Hobby What does he/she often

do?

Why does he/she like it?

1

2

3

The Exploitation of TBL in Teaching Speaking Skills to 11th Graders in Hanoi High Schools, Suburb...

Documents

Transcript of The Exploitation of TBL in Teaching Speaking Skills to 11th Graders in Hanoi High Schools, Suburb...