The use of pictures to engage young learners in speaking activities at New Oriental English School

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

THE USE OF PICTURES TO ENGAGE YOUNG LEARNERS IN

SPEAKING ACTIVITIES AT NEW ORIENTAL ENGLISH SCHOOL

Major: TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES

Major code: 60140111

MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL

Supervisor: HO THANH MY PHUONG, Ph.D.

HO CHI MINH City, 2015

i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled, “The use of

pictures to engage young learners in speaking activities at New Oriental English

School” as the statement of requirements for thesis in Master’s Programs at Ho Chi

Minh City Open University, issued by the Higher Degree Committee.

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis does not

contain material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by

which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma.

No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the

main text of the thesis.

This thesis has not been submitted for any degree in any other tertiary

institution.

Ho Chi Minh City, October 2015

NGUYEN VU ANH DUY

ii

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, Nguyen Vu Anh Duy, being the candidate for the degree

of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the

retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library.

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in

the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance

with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan, or

reproduction of theses.

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ABSTRACT

Pictures can move people, stir up curiosity, provide inspiration and motivation

for speaking, and generally enhance learners’ classroom experience (Keddie, 2009:7).

With the use of pictures in speaking activities, the current research aims at (1)

investigating to what extent young learners can improve their speaking skill, and (2)

exploring their attitudes towards the use of pictures in the activities.

To achieve the first purpose of the study, the author conducted an experimental

research at New Oriental English School with the use of pictures in speaking activities

for the Experimental group (EG) consisting of sixteen students, and without the use of

pictures in speaking activities for the Control group (CG) consisting of sixteen

students. To measure the development of learners’ speaking skill before and after the

treatment, the researcher used a pre-test and a post-post to compare the mean scores of

the two groups. As a result, although there was no statistically significant difference

between the two groups before and after the treatment, the mean scores of the post-test

showed that the EG outperformed the CG. In addition, observations, questionnaires,

and interviews were employed to explore learners’ attitudes towards the use of

pictures in speaking activities. The results revealed that learners in the EG showed

their great interests and motivation, and responded positively towards the application

of pictures in learning speaking.

Finally, basing on the findings, the research offered some recommendations for

teachers and school administrators and suggestions for further research relating to the

use of pictures in teaching and learning English, especially for teaching and learning

English speaking skill.

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TABLES OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP..................................................................................i

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS….. .............................................................ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...............................................................................................iii

ABSTRACT….. ................................................................................................................iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................. v

LIST OF FIGURES, CHARTS AND TABLES….. ....................................................... x

ABBREVIATIONS..........................................................................................................xii

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................... 1

1.1. Statement of the problem.............................................................................................. 2

1.2. Statements of the purpose............................................................................................. 3

1.3. Research questions ....................................................................................................... 3

1.4. Significance of the study .............................................................................................. 4

1.5. Limitation of the Study................................................................................................. 4

1.6. The Organization of the Study ..................................................................................... 4

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................. 6

2.1. Communicative competence ....................................................................................... 6

2.1.1. Communicative language teaching ................................................................. 7

2.1.2 The practice of teaching and learning speaking skill in classroom.................. 8

2.1.3. The teaching of spoken language functions in classroom activities ................ 9

2.1.4. Children proficiency of learning spoken language......................................... 12

2.1.5. Children’s ability for meaning negotiation and demands for more complex

tasks................................................................................................................ 13

2.1.5.1. Children’s ability for meaning negotiation .................................................. 13

2.1.5.2. Children’s demands for more complex tasks............................................... 13

2.2. The use of visual aids in language teaching ............................................................... 14

2.2.1. Definitions of pictures................................................................................... 15

2.2.2. Types of pictures ........................................................................................... 16

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2.2.3. Activities used with pictures to teach oral skills for children ....................... 17

2.3. The importance of motivation in language teaching and learning activities.............. 18

2.3.1. Types of motivation....................................................................................... 18

2.3.2. Factors and elements of motivation............................................................... 19

2.3.3. Maintaining learners’ motivation .................................................................. 20

2.4. Previous studies and articles related to the current research ...................................... 21

Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY….. ......................................................... 24

3.1. Research context......................................................................................................... 24

3.1.1. Research site ................................................................................................. 24

3.1.2. Teaching materials........................................................................................ 25

3.1.3. The main teaching staff ................................................................................ 25

3.1.4. The current teaching and learning English speaking skill at NOES ............ 25

3.2. The population of the research ................................................................................... 26

3.2.1. Research samples.......................................................................................... 26

3.3. Research design .......................................................................................................... 30

3.4. Design of lesson plans for CG and EG....................................................................... 32

3.4.1 A description of the lesson plan for the CG .................................................. 32

3.4.2. A description of the lesson plan for the EG ................................................. 34

3.5. Research Instruments.................................................................................................. 36

3.5.1. The pre-test and post-test design .................................................................. 37

3.5.1.1. The pre-test contents ................................................................................. 40

3.5.1.2. The post-test contents................................................................................ 40

3.5.2. Observation................................................................................................... 41

3.5.3. Survey Questionnaire ................................................................................... 43

3.5.4. Interview....................................................................................................... 47

3.6. Procedures of data collection...................................................................................... 48

3.7. Analytical framework ................................................................................................ 49

3.7.1. Experimental data analysis........................................................................... 50

3.7.1.1. Mean (X) ................................................................................................... 50

3.7.1.2 Standard Deviation (S.D.) .......................................................................... 50

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3.7.1.3. Independent samples T-test....................................................................... 50

3.7.1.4. Pair samples T-test .................................................................................... 50

3.7.2. Descriptive data analysis.............................................................................. 51

3.7.2.1. Frequencies (f)........................................................................................... 51

3.7.2.2. Percentages (%)......................................................................................... 51

3.7.3. Content analysis............................................................................................ 51

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS OF THE STUDY ................................................................ 53

4.1. Participants’ performance at pre-test and post-test .................................................... 53

4.1.1. Comparisons of Mean scores and Independent Samples T-test of CG and

EG in Pre-test........................................................................................................... 54

4.1.2. Comparisons of paired samples T-test of CG and EG after treatment .......... 54

4.1.2.1. Paired samples T-test of CG on Pre-test and Post-test ............................... 54

4.1.2.2. Paired samples T-test of EG on Pre-test and Post-test ............................... 55

4.1.2.3 An Independent Samples T-test of CG and EG on Post-test....................... 56

4.2. Learners’ attitudes toward the use of pictures in speaking activities......................... 57

4.2.1. Analysis of observations for EG.................................................................... 57

4.2.2. Results of the research questionnaires........................................................... 59

4.2.2.1. Learners’ opinions about the use of pictures in speaking English ............. 59

4.2.2.2. Levels of learners’ interest in speaking activities through pictures............ 62

4.2.2.3. Learners’ evaluation on the levels of difficulty for each activity with the

use of pictures in speaking....................................................................................... 65

4.2.2.4.Learners’ recommendations or suggestions................................................. 68

4.2.3. Results of the interviews................................................................................ 59

4.2.3.1. Learners' opinions about the use of pictures in speaking ........................... 59

4.2.3.2. Learners’ opinions about speaking activities through pictures .................. 70

4.2.3.3. Learners’ perspectives on the helpfulness of pictures in speaking

activities................................................................................................................... 73

4.2.3.4. Learners’ suggestions about the use of pictures in speaking activities ...... 74

Chapter 5: Discussions of the findings.......................................................................... 76

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5.1. To what extent the use of pictures affects the development of the learners’

speaking skill ..................................................................................................................... 76

5.2. Learners’ attitudes toward the use of pictures in speaking activities......................... 77

5.2.1. Learners’ interest and motivation about the use of pictures in English

speaking ................................................................................................................... 77

5.2.2. Learners’ opinions about the usefulness of pictures in speaking English ..... 78

5.2.3. Learners’ responses to specific speaking activity through pictures .............. 79

5.2.3.1. Talk as transaction (Information exchanging)............................................ 79

5.2.3.2. Talk as performance (Information presenting)........................................... 80

5.2.4. Learners’ recommendations or suggestions................................................... 82

5.3. Chapter Conclusion .................................................................................................... 82

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................................. 84

6.1. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 84

6.1.1. Effectiveness of using pictures to enhance learners’ speaking skill ............... 84

6.1.2. Learners’ attitudes towards the use of pictures in speaking activities............ 84

6.2. Limitations of the research ......................................................................................... 84

6.3. Recommendations ...................................................................................................... 86

6.3.1. Recommendations for teachers and the school administrators....................... 86

6.3.2. Recommendations for further research ........................................................... 88

6.4. Contribution of the study............................................................................................ 88

REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 89

APPENDIXES.................................................................................................................. 95

Appendix A: A sample of a lesson plan for the Control Group ....................................... 95

Appendix B: A sample of the lesson plan for the Experimental Group............................ 97

Appendix C: A description of speaking assessment criteria ............................................. 89

Appendix D: Pre-test handout ......................................................................................... 100

Appendix E: Post-test handout ........................................................................................ 103

Appendix F: The Observation Checklist ......................................................................... 106

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Appendix G: Pre-survey questionnaire for teachers........................................................ 107

Appendix I: Questionnaire for students........................................................................... 109

Appendix H: Interview questions for learner participants .............................................. 112

Appendix J: Sample Transcripts of students’ performance in Speaking Pre-test ........... 114

Appendix J1: Sample Transcripts of CG in Speaking Pre-test ........................... 114

Appendix J2: Sample Transcripts of EG in Speaking Pre-test............................. 121

Appendix K: Sample Transcripts of CG and EG in Speaking Post-test ......................... 128

Appendix K1: Sample Transcripts of CG in Speaking Post-test ......................... 128

Appendix K2: Sample Transcripts of EG in Speaking Post-test.......................... 135

Appendix L: Results of CG Pre-test and Post-test .......................................................... 141

Appendix M: Results of EG Pre-test and Post-test ......................................................... 142

Appendix N: Results of Observation Checklists............................................................. 143

Appendix O: Results of Pre-survey Questionnaire for teachers...................................... 144

Appendix P: Results of questionnaire for students.......................................................... 145

Appendix Q: Results of interviews with students ........................................................... 149

x

LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS AND FIGURES

TABLES

Table 3.1.: Criterion to rank students................................................................................ 24

Table 3.2: The learner population of the research............................................................. 27

Table 3.3: Summary of five Teen 5 classes...................................................................... 28

Table 3.4: The Homogeneity and Distinctions between the Two Classes........................... 30

Table 3.5: Structure of Experimental Design .................................................................... 31

Table 3.6: Description of lesson plans for the CG ............................................................ 33

Table 3.7: Description of the lesson plan for the EG ........................................................ 35

Table 3.8: Summary of the speaking-test design............................................................... 37

Table 3.9: The description of the pre-test contents ........................................................... 39

Table 3.10: The description of the post-test contents........................................................ 41

Table 3.11: Summary of the content of the observation checklist for EG ........................ 42

Table 3.12: Summary of class visits for EG...................................................................... 43

Table 3.13: Summary of the content of the questionnaires for EG................................... 44

Table 3.14: Summary of participants in the piloting stage................................................ 45

Table 3.15: Items reserved, changed, and deleted in the piloting questionnaire............... 45

Table 3.16. Procedure and duration of conducting questionnaires for EG ....................... 47

Table 3.17: Procedure of conducting interviews for EG................................................... 48

Table 3.18: Procedures of data collection ......................................................................... 49

Table 4.1: Group Statistics on Pre-test of CG and EG...................................................... 53

Table 4.2: Results of Independent Samples T-test on Pre-test of CG and EG................. 53

Table 4.3: Paired Samples Group Statistics of Control Group Pre-test and Post-test....... 54

Table 4.4: Results of paired samples test of Control Group Pre-test and Post-test.......... 55

Table 4.5: Paired Samples Group Statistics of Experimental Group Pre-test and Post￾test...................................................................................................................................... 55

Table 4.6: Results of Paired Samples T-Test for Experimental Group Pre-test and

Post-test ............................................................................................................................. 56

Table 4.7: Group Statistics on the post-test of CG and EG............................................... 56

Table 4.8: Results of independent samples T-test on the post-test of CG and EG .......... 57