HA NOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

FACULTY OF ENGLISH

STUDENT RESEARCH PROPOSAL

A STUDY ON USING DIALOGUES

TO TEACH SPEAKING ENGLISH SKILL
AT HIEP HOA No 2 HIGH SCHOOL, BAC GIANG

Student: Nguyen Thi Hoa

Class: K66A

Hanoi, 3/2018

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 Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................2

PART 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................ 3

1. Rationale ............................................................................................... 3

2. Objectives ............................................................................................. 4

3. Research questions ............................................................................... 4

4. Scope of the study ................................................................................ 4

5. Outline of the proposal ......................................................................... 4

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT ........................................................................ 6

Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................... 6

1. Theoretical background of dialogue .................................................. 6

2. Review on previous studies ............................................................... 7

Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY ................................................................. 9

1. Data collection instruments ............................................................... 9

2. The procedure ..................................................................................11

Chapter 3: EXPECTED RESULT ..........................................................12

REFERENCES ..........................................................................................13

APPENDIX 1: ...........................................................................................14

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 PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale
It is obvious that English is becoming an important part of our life.
It is now a compulsory subject at all schools in Vietnam. The Ministry of
Education and Training has issued new decisions of developing students’
English abilities including listening and speaking skill.

Using dialogues can improve the students’ speaking skill because it

gives students a good chance to practice saying target language without
any hesitation and within a variety of contexts (Ur, 1996). Additionally,
dialogues are considered as popular activities through which students can
practice using key structures and learn some cultural aspects of the target
language (Rogers, 2001). It means that students can acquire new grammar
and new vocabulary in context, and learn how to deal with some different
situations in the real life via solving problems in specific dialogues.

However, as a matter of fact, students usually have problems with

speaking. Therefore, the choice of appropriate method in general and
dialogue activities in specific is a great significance in the developing
students’ speaking skill.

The main reasons above lead me to the choice of the topic: “A

Study on Using Dialogues to Teach Speaking Skill at Hiep Hoa No 2
High School”. In this research, the author will investigate the
effectiveness of using dialogues in improving speaking skill under the
direction of the textbook for the eleventh grade students.

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2. Objectives

The aims of the study are:

- First, to examine the real situation of using dialogues in speaking

lessons.

- Second, to discover the effectiveness of dialogues activities in

developing students’ speaking skill.

3. Research questions
To achieve the above aims, these research questions are given out:

- What is the current situation of using dialogues in teaching and

learning speaking skill at class 11A2, Hiep Hoa no 2 high school?

- How effective is teaching and learning speaking through

dialogues?

4. Scope of the study

Within the scope of the study, emphasis is laid on teaching and
learning in speaking sessions in the textbook “Tiếng Anh 11”. The study
also focuses on speaking tasks using dialogues such as role play activities.
The population of the study is limited to the teacher of English and 44
non-English major students at class 11A2, Hiep Hoa no 2 high school,
Bac Giang province, in the academic year of 2017-2018.

5. Outline of the proposal

This paper is divided into two main parts:

Part 1: Introduction - mentioning the reason why the researcher

chooses to carry out this study, the aims, the research questions, the scope
and the outline of the study.

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 Part 2: Development – consisting of three chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature Review- presenting a review of

related works that provide the theoretical background of teaching
speaking and some techniques of using pair work and group work in
teaching and learning dialogues.

Chapter 2: Methodology- providing information about the

subject of the study and describing the data collection instruments and
data collection procedures.

Chapter 3: Expected result- analyzing and discussing about

research approach, population, data collection tools and data analysis.

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 PART 2: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Theoretical background of dialogue

1.1. Definition of dialogue

Dialogue is “the conversation written for and spoken by actor on a
stage” or “a conversation carried on between two or more person”
(Oxford English Dictionary). In a dialogue, participants exchange their
ideas or opinions on a particular issue, with a view to reaching an
amicable agreement or settlement. Everything in dialogue, therefore, must
be meaningful in real life.

According to Byrne (1997) there are some kinds of dialogue:

a. Mini-dialogues

Mini-dialogues preceded by a motivation and a discussion of the

function and situation-people, roles, setting, topic and the informality or
formality of the language which the function and situation demand.

Mini-dialogues are presented through pictures sets, cue words and

single object picture cards.

b. Mapped dialogues

The students are given a chart which tells them which functions
they must use when they are interacting.

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1.2. Advantages of using dialogues in teaching speaking
In Kuehn’s view (2017), the following are five reasons why
teachers use dialogues in order to help develop listening and speaking
skills.

- Dialogues represent real-life speech.

- They teach culture in different social situations.

- Students love to role-play.

- They are springboards for learning new vocabulary and

sentence structure.

- Scaffolding learning loads to improved conversation ability.

Besides, Kuehn (2017) lists 3 advantages of using dialogue in

teaching speaking. First, it creates characterization. While acting out, the
participant learns much about a character through his speech. Secondly,
dialogue helps students raise their voice more purposively. Last but not
least, dialogue between students brings real life into class; therefore, they
will be more relaxed while learning.

2. Review on previous studies

Wells and Arauz (2006) carried out an collaborative action research

in which teachers attempted to create the conditions for such dialogue by
adopting an inquiry approach to the curriculum. They claimed that it was
possible to engage students in productive dialogue in relation to topics
arising from the curriculum, and the preceding extracts gave an idea of
the range of forms such dialogue may take.

Besides, Lyle (2008) published an article, Dialogue Teaching:

discussing Theoretical Contexts and Reviewing Evidence from Classroom

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Practice, which shows out that “the recognition of the important of
dialogue approaches to teaching and learning and their potential for
raising standards appear to be permeating the literature”. However, she
also stated that the establishment of dialogue approaches to classroom
discourse will not be easy.

In 2011, Dewi, R. K. conducted an action research into the value of

using dialogue to improve students’ speaking skill. The research finding
proves that using dialogue is an effective way to improve students’
speaking skill, which includes students’ accuracy, fluency, vocabulary
and many other factors in class.

From the literature review, to the best of my knowledge, speaking

is the first need to learn a language. Since dialogues represent real-life
speech, the more authentic a speaking lesson is, the more excited the
students are while learning new knowledge. Besides, in three studies
above, using dialogue in speaking lessons is absolutely important in
English lessons that brings a lot of effectiveness in improving students’
speaking skill. Giving the teacher and the students a chance to have their
voice heard about the effectiveness of using dialogue in speaking lessons
is one way of making the speaking lessons more exciting and interesting.
This is the aim behind this study.

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Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY

1. Data collection instruments

The study will be carried out in 2 weeks with the following data
collection instruments: survey questionnaires, classroom observations and
interviews.

1.1. Survey questionnaires

1.1.1. Reasons for choosing the questionnaires

This instrument is chosen because the author needs a plenty of
information in a very short time. In addition, it is believed that
questionnaire is easy to do and does not cost much money, time and
effort. Therefore, it will be the most effective way to take information
from 44 students in the class.

1.1.2. Description of the questionnaires

A survey of multiple choice questions will be conducted to see the
current situation of teaching speaking in the class, how students think
about speaking lessons and how they deal with speaking tasks. All the
questions are translated into Vietnamese to avoid students’
misunderstanding.

1.2. Interviews

1.2.1. Reasons for using interviews

To gather more information for the study, interview is also used as
an instrument of data collection. This is a very useful instrument because
while asking questions, the interviewer can be provided with many

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practical non-verbal behaviors like attitudes or feelings. Moreover, only
some willing interviewees are asked, so that the most reliable information
can be collected.

1.2.2. Description of interview

Six interviews will be conducted with five students and their
teacher of English. There are two sets of interview questions conducted
during the process of the study:

- Interview questions for students: whether students find speaking

activities interesting or not; the difficulties they have to deal with
while learning.

- Interview questions for the teacher: whether the teacher thinks

speaking acitivities interesting or not; the difficulties she has to
deal with while teaching.

1.3. Classroom observation

1.3.1. Reasons for classroom observation

It is obvious that not everything is easily expressed by words.
While observing the class, the researcher can evaluate most activities in
class much more subjectively. The way the teacher organizes activities or
gives instructions is one of the crucial data that can only be evaluated by
observation.

1.3.2. Description of classroom observation

Classroom observation is aimed at investigating teacher’s and
students’ performance in speaking section at Hiep Hoa no 2 high school.
The researcher will take note mainly about teaching stage, dialogue
activity in class, atmosphere and students’ attitudes in the speaking class.

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2. The procedure

The questionnaires will be delivered to the students while they are

in their classroom. The researcher explains the reasons and purpose of the
study, then guides students how to write the answers appropriately. The
students will spend about 15 minutes writing the answers. After that, all
the questionnaires are collected, data will be analyzed mainly by hand and
Excel, and results are then interpreted.

Besides, two speaking lessons in the textbook “Tiếng Anh 11” that
includes role play activities will be observed and filmed.

Lastly, six interviews will be conducted with five students and their
teacher of English at six different points of time. The researcher raises the
questions to the teacher and students and records all the answers. Each
interview will take about 8 minutes. All the answers will be recorded and
analyzed by one teacher in Faculty of English, Hanoi National University
of Education.

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Chapter 3: EXPECTED RESULT

The objectives of this research are to investigate the effectiveness of

using dialogue in teaching and learning speaking English skill in class
11A2, Hiep Hoa no 2 high school, Bac Giang.

Below are some expected results of the research:

First, teaching dialogue will be an effective way to teach students

speaking skills whereby students’ accuracy, fluency and accuracy will be
improved significantly.

Second, students will be interested in learning speaking English and

confidently involved in all activities in all speaking lessons.

Final, students’ ability in solving problems will also be improved.

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 REFERENCES

1. Byrne, D. (1997). Teaching Oral English. Harlow England: Longman

Group.

2. Dewi, R. K. (2011). Improving students’ speaking skill through

dialogue. Unpublished MA thesis, Sebelas Maret University.

3. Kuehn, P. R (2017) Retrieved [March 2018] from the World Wide

Web, https://owlcation.com/academia/Use-of-Dialogues-in-Developing-
Listening-And-Speaking-Skills

4. Lyle, S. (2008). Dialogue Teaching: discussing Theoretical Contexts

and Reviewing Evidence from Classroom Practice. Journal Language and
Education.

5. Ur, P. (1996). A Course in Language Teaching: practice and theory.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

6. Wells, G. and Arauz, R. M. (2006). Dialogue in the classroom. Journal

of The Learning Sciences.

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APPENDIX 1:

Phiếu điều tra

Tôi là sinh viên năm thứ ba khoa Tiếng Anh trường Đại học Sư
phạm Hà Nội. Tôi đang làm đề tài nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng phương
pháp đóng vai trong việc dạy các bài hội thoại nhằm phát triển kĩ năng
nói của họ csinh ở trường THPT Hiệp Hòa số 2, tỉnh Bắc Giang. Sự giúp
đỡ của các bạn là sự đóng góp to lớn cho sự thành công của đề tài này.

Xin vui lòng chọn một đáp án phù hợp với bạn nhất.

Bạn đã học Tiếng Anh được...........năm.

1. Bạn nghĩ gì về việc học kĩ năng nói trong lớp của bạn?
A. Rất thú vị C. Buồn chán
B. Thú vị D. Rất chán
2. Bạn dành bao nhiêu thời gian để nói Tiếng Anh trong lớp?
A. Rất nhiều
B. Nhiều
C. Bình thường
D. Ít
E. Hầu như không
3. Bạn học được gì qua các bài hội thoại?
A. Học từ vựng
B. Học cấu trúc
C. Học từ vựng, cấu trúc mới, và làm các bài hội thoại tương tự
D. Gần như không học được kiến thức mới

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Xin vui lòng đánh dấu X vào ô phù hợp với bạn nhất.

Không
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