DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE SPEAKING SKILLS AT THE UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL LEVEL IN LARGE CLASSES: CHALLENGES AND FUNCTIONAL ACTIVITIES AS WAYS TO COPE

DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGESPEAKING SKILLS AT THE UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL LEVEL IN LARGECLASSES: CHALLENGES AND FUNCTIONALACTIVITIES AS WAYS TO COPE

Master’s Thesis

MARIA VIRUNEN

Aims

to describe and classify difficulties that both teachersand students have in large classes where speakingskills are practiced

to suggest principles and activities for thedevelopment of speaking skills and conversationalcompetence in the classroom with the focus beingplaced on big in the number of students classes.

to examine the effectiveness of certain activities andtechniques in helping students shed their complexesand diffidence and become more fluentcommunicators.

Hypotheses

The present research hypotheses that:

1.development of speaking skills in large classes can beeffective and productive in terms of communicativecompetence and language mastery

2. implementation of functional speaking activities, such asrole-plays, group work and discussions is the best way toachieve results and eliminate most of the problemsteachers have while teaching speaking in large languageclasses

3. it is possible to study in big classes at the upper-secondary school level and be prepared for the Nationalexam.

The structure of the research :

Introduction of the topic and a survey ofrelevant theoretical background sources topresent the hypotheses ( in Introduction andChapter I of the paper)

Empirical research to analyse students’ andteachers’ opinions and suggestions regarding“large classes’ and the development ofspeaking skills in them (in Chapter II)

Practical recommendations to develop aprogramme for teachers to cope with difficulties(in Chapter III)

Theoretical part

Outcomes:

According to the analysis of works of suchresearchers as Skeffington, Doff, F. Lawtie, Hayes,M. Richard, Felder, etc students’ not so activeparticipation in class depends on:

low quality of teaching

inappropriate for productive learningclass atmosphere

 the lack of teacher’s support and advice

 wrongly chosen speaking activities.

Theoretical part

Outcomes:

It was recommended to improve the situation with:

more effective speaking tasks which seem to bemore appropriate for certain class atmosphere,

supportive and reliable teachers and theirprofessionalism.

some recommendations were suggested toimprove the situation when students do notspeak English or use their mother tongue.

Empirical Part

The I questionnaire was distributed among 25 English andGerman language teachers from Narva, Tallinn and Kiviõlisecondary and upper-secondary schools who work in 10-12th forms and the average number of students they havein a language group is 20.

Aims:

to reveal problems of teaching spoken language in largeclasses and challengers that teachers face while teachingspeaking

what functional speaking activities are considered to be thebest way to achieve results in terms of speaking

Questionnaire for Teachers

1. What classes are you working in?

2. What is an approximate number ofstudents studying in languagegroups?

3. What are the main activities used atyour lessons?

4. I should devote more than 50% of myteaching to promoting oral skills.

5. At least 20% of time at lesson is tobe set to speaking.

6. I want my students to speak muchmore English at lesson.

7. My students have few or noopportunities to practice spokenEnglish outside the classroom.

8. It is a good point in teaching practiceif students do not hesitate to askquestions in English.

9.Students should be allowed to usemother tongue during speakingactivities.

10. All my students got used to work ingroups

11. Group work as a ‘time eater’ andthere is no use in practicing it.

12. Speaking activities may causediscipline problems, and they areimpossible to be done with activeand noisy students

13. I know what favourite speakingactivities of my students are.

14. My aim is merely to ensure that mystudents will pass the Nationalexam.

15. Do you manage to speak with allstudents during a lesson period?

16. What do you understand by thephrase ‘a good language class”?

Questionnaire for Teachers

Questionnaire for Teachers

Outcomes:

speaking activities as dialogues, role-plays andspeaking practice organised in groups are widelyused by teachers and considered to be the mostproductive ones for successful practice of speakingEnglish.

speaking is the most important skill for languageacquisition.

teachers wished to have lessons where 50 % of timewould be devoted to speaking activities, though theNational Exam in English, at the end of the 12th formstill remains one of the most important requirementsfor perspective graduation.

Empirical Part (Questionnaire for students)

The II questionnaire was distributed among 50students from the 10th , the 11th and the 12thforms, who study in large groups (20 studentsand more)

Aims:

to find out if students like or dislike speakingactivities in a class and which ones are their favorite.

To find out their attitude towards big class.

to prove the hypothesis that it is possible to studyin big classes at the upper-secondary schoollevel and be prepared for the National exam.

Questionnaire for students

What class are you studying in?

How often is English a week?

What is your favourite speaking activity at lesson (Why?

How often do you have a chance for two-way communicationwith the teacher while speaking practicing?

What is your favourite seating place in the class and why?

How can you describe the atmosphere, the so called‘learning environment”, while speaking task is given in theclass?

Do you like studying in a large class? Why?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of studying in alarge class?

Questionnaire for students: what is your favourite speakingactivity in the lesson?

such speaking activities as dialogues, role-plays andspeaking practice organised in groups are accepted bystudents and considered to be the most productive ones forsuccessful practice of speaking English.

Questionnaire for students:Do you like studying in a largeclass? Why?

the most number of students (70% of the respondents) caneasily accept the studying atmosphere in the large class anddo not see any serious problems in it. Students know how tocope with studying in a large language group and achievesuccessful results in speaking.

The outcomes of both surveys provehypotheses of the research that:

implementation of functional speaking activities,such as role-plays, group work and discussionsis the best way to achieve results and eliminatemost of the problems teachers have whileteaching speaking in large language classes

it is possible to study in big classes at the upper-secondary school level and be prepared for theNational exam.

Programme for teachers to cope withdifficulties in large class

There was also a special programme suggested for teacherswith some recommendations and steps for speaking skillsdevelopment. It was organised with the help of such speakingactivities as dialogues, role-plays and group discussions

a special check list with squares to tick recommended forteachers to follow while group and pair work activitypreparation. It has been worked out in order to help teacherscope with challengers during group or pair work in largeclasses.

 Questions for teachers’ self reflection after role play activity

There were also some challenging practical activitiessuggested for teachers to use.

The following check list can be recommended to teachers tofollow while group and pair work activity preparation. Teachershould tick the circle if he/she agrees with the statement.

My group/pair work activity follows the lesson goals.

I can easily explain the value of the proposed activity.

I am ready to give certain instructions to my students

I know the relations between students within the group or pair

My speaking activity let me organize groups of different abilities.

There is always time left for group/pairs organization.

There is time left for students to reflect on their speakingprogress and results.

I see the student who is:

 a non-participant

a leader

a curious student

a discipline breaker

After role play the teacher can make a kind of self-reflection with the help of the following questions

What was the atmosphere in the class during a role playactivity?

Who started the activity first? Were there any volunteers?

Were the instructions clearly presented?

How much time was given to students to prepare?

How many conversational topics had each pair practiced?

Were the role play topics close to real life situations?

Was a sample model given to students to follow?

Did students share their ideas and opinions after the activity?

Programme for teachers to cope withdifficulties in large class

Outcomes:

As for functional speaking activities, role-plays are interesting,memorable and engaging, and students retain the material theyhave learned. In their assumed role, students drop their shynessand other personality and cultural restrains, which makes roleplays one of the best tools available for teaching a secondlanguage communicatively.

the most successful activities for school leavers are considered tobe group work, role play and monologues as they are widely usedand accepted by teachers and students. What is more, theseactivities can be organised in classes with a big number ofstudents and finally they are very similar to oral exam tasks thatlet students be well prepared for the Exam procedure and give theopportunity to express them clearly and effectively later in life.

Finally, teaching a large class effectively is hardwork, but it is possible to do it if teacher is not a ‘big-league entertainer’. If teacher makes the necessarylogistical arrangements far enough in advance,provides plenty of active learning experiences in theclassroom instead of relying on straight lecturing,and takes full advantage of the power of groups andpairs in- work, large classes can come close to beingas educationally rewarding as small ones.

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