Vietnam National University, Hanoi

University of Languages and International Studies

Faculty of English Language Teacher Education

***

NguyỄN THU THỦY

An investigation into teacher’s instructions

in speaking lessons at viet Duc Upper-secondary
school

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE

DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS (TEFL)

SUPERVISOR: CAO THÚY HỒNG, M.A.

Hanoi, May 2010

ACCEPTANCE

1
 I hereby state that I: Nguyễn Thu Thủy from 061E11, 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 purposes 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:................

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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 In order to finish the graduation paper, I owe profound indebtedness
to so many people whose great contribution and support I would never
forget.

My deepest gratitude goes to Ms. Cao Thuy Hong, my supervisor,

for her willingness to help me with the early phases and revisions of this
thesis. Without her selflessness, and great encouragement, I would not have
been able to finish the paper.

My gratitude should also be for all of my classmates, Mr. Mai Ngoc

Khoi and other academic staff of English Department, College of Foreign
Languages, Vietnam National University who I turned to for valuable
advice and useful materials.

It is a fault if I forget to thank Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy as well as

students and other teachers from Viet Duc upper- secondary schools.
Without their patient and willing participation in doing my survey
questionnaires, the study could not be accomplished.

I also want to thank my family and friends for all their love and
support during the time I carried out the research.

Without timely support from the listed characters, this paper could
not have been completed.

ABSTRACT

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 Although giving and checking instructions is not a strange
conception to the teachers of English in Vietnam, it is till causing a lot of
difficulties in their teaching, due to teacher’s low English proficiency, class
size, facilities schedules, using it in class is not a simple duty to the
teachers.
This study is conducted in an attempt to investigate the current
situation of giving and checking instructions in speaking lessons in Viet
Duc Upper-secondary School in Hanoi. In order to achieve the desired
aims, the researcher has conducted a survey research using questionnaire,
interviews and classroom observation.
The findings from survey questionnaire, interviews and classroom
observation provide the researcher with a comprehensive understanding of
the current situation of giving and checking instructions in speaking lessons
in Viet Duc Upper-secondary School in Hanoi. After the data analysis
procedure, the researcher could work out important findings as follows, i.e.
all the techniques including step-by-step, demonstrate it, say-do-check,
student recall were reported to be employed with the first one being the
most frequently used. The hindrances of giving and checking instructions
reported were time constraint, students’ low concentration, finding
appropriate vocabulary and structures and insufficient teaching conditions.
Solutions were also identified to deal with each problem. The results are a
good reflection of the researched issue and have implications to immediate
participants and contexts.
With careful and detailed investigations, hopefully this study will
serve as a useful source of reference for teachers, students and those who
concern about this subject matter.

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 LIST OF FIGURES

1. Figure 1: Student’s self-evaluation their English proficiency.......p.45

2. Figure 2: Level of students’ activeness in speaking lessons..........p.46
3. Figure 3: Student's attitude towards teacher's instructions...........p.47
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4. Figure 4: Teachers' attitudes towards teachers' instructions..........p.48
5. Figure 5: Giving and checking instructions techniques and their
frequency (students’ opinions) ......................................................p.49
6. Figure 6: Giving and checking instructions techniques and their
frequency (teachers’ opinions) ......................................................p.51
7. Figure 7: Languages used in giving and checking instructions
(students’ opinions) .......................................................................p.54
8. Figure 8: Language used to give and check instructions (teachers’
opinions)........................................................................................p.54
9. Figure 9: Types of sentences used to give and check instructions
(students’ opinions) .......................................................................p.55
10. Figure 10: Types of sentences used to give and check instructions
(teachers’ opinions)........................................................................p.56
11. Figure 11: Level of students’ understanding teacher’s
instructions.....................................................................................p.58
12. Figure 12: Reasons why students don’t understand teacher’s
instructions.....................................................................................p.59
13. Figure 13: Hindrances to giving and checking instructions...........p.60

LIST OF TABLES

1. Table 1: A framework for designing speaking lessons..................p.25

2. Table 2: Background of the target population...............................p.34

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3. Table 3: Summary of average English scores of surveyed
students..........................................................................................p.35
4. Table 4: Summary of selected teachers........................................p.36

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

1. CAI: Computer Assisted Instruction

2. CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

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 3. ED, ULIS, VNU: English Department, University of Languages and
International Studies, Vietnam National University
4. EFL: English as a Foreign Language
5. ELT: English Language Teaching
6. TEFL: Teaching English as a Foreign Language
7. TESOL: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
Association

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements…............……………………………………………………i
Abstract………………………............………………………………………….ii
List of figures..................……………..........………………………………….iii
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List of tables..........................................................................................................iv
List of abbreviations ..............................................................................................v

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION..............................................................1

1.1. Rationale of the study....................................................................1

1.2. Aims and objectives ......................................................................2
1.3. Scope of the study..........................................................................3
1.4. Methods of the study......................................................................4
1.5. Design of the study........................................................................5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW..................................................6

2.1. An overview of teacher’s instructions................................................6

2.1.1. Definition..................................................................................6
2.1.1.1. Definition of instructions.............................................6
2.1.1.2. Teacher’s instructions..................................................7
2.1.2. Some techniques to give and check instructions......................9
2.1.3. Principles of effective instructions..........................................11
2.1.4. Teacher’s instructions in the modern technology era.............15
2.1.5. The importance of teacher’s instructions................................16
2.2. An overview of a speaking lesson...................................................18
2.2.1. An overview of speaking skill................................................18
2.2.1.1. Definition...................................................................18
2.2.1.2. Components of speaking skill....................................19
2.2.2. An overview of a speaking lesson..........................................23
2.2.2.1. Stages of a speaking lesson........................................23
2.2.2.2. Characteristics of a successful speaking lesson.........27

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 2.3. Related studies...................................................................................29

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY...........................................................32

3.1. Research settings...............................................................................32

3.2. Participants..........................................................................................33
3.2.1. Students...................................................................................33
3.2.2. Teachers..................................................................................36
3.3. Data collection instruments..................................................................37
3.3.1. Questionnaire.........................................................................37
3.3.2. Teacher interview....................................................................39
3.3.3. Classroom observation............................................................40
3.4. Data collection procedure.................................................................41
3.4.1. Phase 1: Preparation...............................................................41
3.4.2. Phase 2: Implementation........................................................41
3.4.3. Phase 3: Grouping the data.....................................................43

3.5. Data analysis method and procedure....................................................43

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION........................................45

4.1. The current situation of speaking lessons at Viet Duc high school,
Hanoi..................................................................................................45
4.2. Teachers’ perception and students’ attitude towards teacher’s
instructions.........................................................................................47
4.3. Techniques employed to give and check instructions........................49
4.4. Languages used to give and check instructions.................................53
4.5. The hindrances teacher might have when giving and checking
instructions.........................................................................................57
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 4.6 Implications...........................................................................................61

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION.....................................................................64

5.1. Summary of the findings......................................................................64

5.2. Limitation............................................................................................65
5.3. Suggestions for further research...........................................................66
REFERENCES
APPENDICES

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Rationale of the study

In the globalization context, English is playing a more and more

significant role. It is the most commonly used language in computers and
the Internet. It is also the dominant international language in
communications, science, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy. In
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certain fields and professions in society, English proficiency is obligatory.
English is so widely spoken that it is referred to as the "lingua franca" of
this era. In Vietnam, since the government pursued the economic open-
door policy in 1986, the demand for communicating in English has been
growing. Vietnam has witnessed a rapid development of English in
technological advancement acquisition, international trading, international
affairs and many other areas. As the demand to learn English grows,
English has been made a compulsory subject in Vietnam secondary school.
Moreover, it has been made one of the six national examinations that
students have to pass in order to get the Secondary School Education
Certificate.

In spite of the great significance of English in the new social context,

English teaching, in many ways, failed to help learners communicate
effectively. The old textbook used in schools put much concentration on
grammar and vocabulary while neglecting the role of communicating
English. Fortunately, the situation has changed since the new English
textbook for secondary school was recomposed in 2006. The new English
textbook has brought about a new teaching approach - the communicative
approach to secondary school. The new one covers all four English skills:
listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Among those, speaking lesson is
a new element compared to the older textbook. However, not all teachers
are familiar with teaching speaking skill. From the researcher’s experience
and observation, this has caused them a lot of troubles, including
techniques for giving and checking instructions in class. Nevertheless,
giving and checking good instructions is still an essential element to obtain
a successful lesson. Once students are clear about what they are expected to
12
do, they will be able to perform the tasks successfully. However, little
research has been done on this topic: teacher’s giving and checking
instructions.

The above-mentioned factors lead the author to conduct the research:

“Teacher's instructions in speaking lessons at Viet Duc upper - secondary
school”

1.2 . Aims and objectives

The study is written with the following objectives:

Firstly, this research is carried out to find out the teacher’s attitude
towards giving and checking instructions and students’ towards teacher’s
instructions in speaking lessons at Viet Duc Secondary School.

Additionally, the study aims at investigating the techniques teachers

use to give and check instructions in speaking lessons.

Finally, based on the difficulties that teacher might encounter when

giving and checking instructions, the study proposes some possible
suggestions to help teacher deal with the difficulties in giving and checking
instruction.

In order to achieve the above mentioned aims, the study has been
conducted to answer four research questions as follows:

• What is teachers' attitude towards giving and checking

instructions in speaking lessons?

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 • What is students' attitude towards teachers' instructions in
speaking lessons?
• What are the techniques that teacher employed in giving and
checking instructions in speaking lessons?
• What might be the difficulties teachers had when giving and
checking instructions?

1.3. Scope of the study

In every class, a teacher’s instruction is an indispensable part of

teaching and learning four skills including listening, speaking, reading, and
writing. However, within limitation of a graduation paper, the research
only concentrated on teacher’s instructions in speaking lesson. Moreover,
within the small scale of the study, the researcher only chose 100 students
from grade 10th and 11th and 7 teachers in Viet Duc upper - secondary
school. Hopefully, this number of participants is sufficient to provide
valuable and reliable information, which is a great contribution to the
success of the study.

1.4. Methods of the study

In order to attain the aims of the study, the researcher applied the
following methods:

As for data collection methods, questionnaires, interview and

classroom observation were employed to collect information about
teacher’s giving and checking instructions. Specifically, survey
questionnaires were completed by 100 students and 7 teachers at Viet Duc
high school. Following this, teachers who were teaching English at grade
14
tenth and eleventh took part in an interview about giving instructions in
speaking lessons. Two classes were observed as representative sample to
help the author confirm the data collected from the other two methods.

As for data analysis methods, descriptive statistics were used to analyze

data from questionnaires. Initially, the author transferred collected data to
numerical forms. These numbers were put in charts and tables for better
comparison and generalization. Answers to open-ended questions were
summarized and classified. Data from interview would be converted into
numerical forms and then summarized in tables or charts. The researcher
then compiled the data for analysis from class observation by taking data
from observation checklists, transcribing data from tape recordings. This
data could be analyzed by counting frequency. In the frequency, each type
of behavior was arranged in tabular form.

Last but not least, other methods as reading reference and resource
books, along with mathematical calculation were also employed.

1.5. Design of the study

The study contains five chapters

 Chapter 1: Introduction
 Chapter 2: Literature Review
This chapter provided a review on key concepts relating to the research
topic such as giving and checking instructions, and speaking skill. It also
briefly discussed related studies on teacher’s instructions.
 Chapter 3: Methodology

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 This chapter covers the research design, the participants of the research,
the data collection instruments, the sampling and data collection
procedures; and the data analysis method employed in the study.
 Chapter 4: Result and Discussion
In this chapter, the data received from the survey questionnaires,
interviews and class observation were critically analyzed to obtain a result
which would be used in the next chapter
 Chapter 5: Recommendation and Conclusion
This chapter summarized the major findings, stated some contributions
as well as pointed out the limitation of the study. Suggestions for further
study are also put forward.

In a nutshell, the first chapter presented the research problems and the
rationale for the study. Afterwards, the aims, scope and methods of the
study are discussed. This chapter ends with an overview of the rest of the
paper. The first chapter acts as a clear outline for the whole paper.

Chapter 2: Literature review

2.1. An overview of teacher’s instructions

2.1.1. Definition

2.1.1.1. Definition of instructions

Instruction is a very broad term which can be used in a wide variety

of fields such as information technology, law, medical, etc. Oxford

16
Advanced Dictionary defined “instruction” as detail information about how
to do or use something (p.774). The second definition clarified by The
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), instruction
is “an order or an authoritative direction to be obeyed”. In Collins English
Dictionary (2003), instruction is defined as “the process or act of imparting
knowledge”.

In computer science, instruction is a sequence of bits that tells a

central processing unit to perform a particular operation and can contain
data to be used in the operation (The American Heritage Dictionary of the
English Language, 2000).

In medical, instruction is a set of characters, together with one or

more addresses, that defines a computer operation and, as a unit, causes the
computer to operate accordingly on the indicated quantities; a term
associated with software operation (Mosby's Dental Dictionary, 2008)

In law, instruction is an explanation of the law governing a case

which the judge gives orally to the jury after the attorneys have presented
all the evidence and have made final arguments, but before the jury begins
deliberations (Hill, 2005).

All of these definitions share a common characteristic. They all

imply that instruction means information imparted to another thing or
person in order to do something.

2.1.1.2. Teacher’s instructions

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 Although the critical role of teacher’s instructions in learning and
teaching a language is fully recognized, there is no fixed definition of this
term. Different experts offer their own different views about defining
teacher’s instructions.

In pedagogy, some dictionaries also offer the definition for

“instruction”. In Oxford Advanced Dictionary, “instruction” is the act of
teaching something to somebody. In terms of education, the Babylon
Dictionary offers a quite similar definition of instruction, which is the
activity that imparts knowledge or skill. Dictionaries usually provide the
definition of this term in a general and broad way. In a very rare number of
papers carried out to define what instruction is in education, educators and
pedagogues have offered their own definitions.

Štalmašková et al (2006) provided two definitions of instructions.

First of all, instruction is the teaching, education performed by a teacher.
The second, instruction is the action, practice, or profession of teaching.

In addition, instruction was defined by Huitt, W. (2003) as "the

purposeful direction of the learning process" and is one of the major
teacher class activities (along with planning and management). According
to this definition, it can be understood that instruction is the important
activity performed by teacher in class to give out a focused direction for the
learning process of students and the lesson for teacher.

Penny Ur (1996) in her book A Course in Language Teaching

devoted a unit in part I to explanations and instructions. She defined
instructions as "the directions that are given to introduce a learning task

18
which entails some measure of independent student activity" (p.l6). She
also proposed some guidelines for giving effective explanations and
instructions. In her definition, two features of instructions are figured out.
Firstly, instruction is the direction given by teacher to students and
secondly, instruction is given when teacher explains a learning task to
students.

From the definitions above, instruction can be understood in two

senses. In a broad sense, instruction is the common teaching performed by
a teacher throughout the whole lesson. In a narrower sense, instruction is
the guide the teacher gives to explain an activity or a learning task. With
the limited time, ability and experience of the research, the focus of this
research is only on the instruction in the narrow sense. General speaking,
instructions require a great contribution from the teacher. The teacher
should be the active one to give and check instructions in class. Moreover,
instructions act as a direction for the whole lesson as well as the learning
process.

2.1.2. Some techniques to give and check instructions

Nguyen et al. (2003), as cited in To et al, (2008, p.16) suggested

there were four different techniques that teachers could employ to instruct
their students.

“Step – by – step” or “feed – in” approach: Teacher gives the

students one instruction at a time, not a list of instructions all together.
Breaking down instructions into small, separate steps to help students to
understand them completely especially when there is a lot of information in

19
instructions or if the activity requires a series of steps and the teacher wants
students to understand every word.

Demonstrate it, “model” it or “show – don’t – tell”: Good

instructions use simple language and are often supported by clear gestures
or demonstrations. Teacher does not talk about what students must do,
instead, he/she shows them what to do by giving demonstration. With
elementary learners, even simple, clear familiar language is not always
sufficient to get complex messages across, the learners may need a
demonstration of the activity. A demonstration is easier to understand than
an explanation and reduce teacher talking time. Frequently, showing what
to do is more effective than telling what to do. For instance, the teacher can
demonstrate a speaking activity by playing both parts herself or himself, by
playing one part and choosing a competent student, to play the other part,
or by asking two competent students to do (part of) the activity in front of
the class.

Say – do – check: The teacher follows 3 steps for each instruction.

First, he/she says the instruction, then he/she gets students to do it, then
he/she checks that the students have done it correctly before going on to the
next instruction. Using say – do – check, the teacher can tell straight away
if students have not understood something and can take action to make sure
that they understand it. For example, where a change of seating
arrangement is required before a role play, it is better to give the
instructions and make the change before going to do next.

Students recall: If necessary, the teacher can even get learners to

translate the instructions into their first language after giving instructions in
20
English, saying “Tell me what you have to do in Vietnamese” or “say it
again in Vietnamese”. Asking students to recall what they will do in
Vietnamese is helpful at lower levels as they may not fully understand the
instructions. The general recommendation is to avoid the use of first
language as much as possible. Nevertheless, there may be occasions when
it is best to explain some complicated or new words and structures for the
learners in their first language. It is a more accessible and cost-effective
alternative to the sometimes lengthy and difficult target-language
explanation.

It is crucial that when the teacher has finished explaining, she check
the class that they have understood. It is not enough just to ask ‘do you
understand?’; learners will sometimes say they do even if they in fact do
not, out of politeness or unwillingness to lose face, or because they think
they know what they have to do, but have in fact completely misunderstood.
It is better to ask them to do something that will show their understanding:
to paraphrase in their own words, or to provide further illustration of their
own.

2.1.3. Principles of effective instructions

Another important point is that the different methods of instruction

have been developed based on specific interpretations of concepts and
principles of teaching and learning. While it is important to learn and
practice the approaches developed by others, it is even more important to
understand the concepts and principles upon which they are based.

21
 If you learn only methods, you'll be tied to your methods, but if you
learn principles you can devise your own methods. - Ralph Waldo
Emerson1

From the view of Penny Ur (1996), the principles to give and check
instructions effectively are: careful preparation, having the class’s
attention, presenting information more than once, being brief, illustrating
with examples and getting feedback.

Gower et al. (1995, p.40) believed that there are seven factors
contributing to the principles of giving and checking instructions. As
Gower suggested, they are attracting students’ attention, using simple
language and short expressions, being consistent, using visual or written
clues, demonstrating, breaking instructions down and targeting the
instructions.

Huitt, W. (1996) in his book: Educational Psychology Interactive

considered several principles in giving and checking instructions:

1. Active presentation of information (could be by teacher, computer,

another student).
2. Clear organization of instructions.
3. Step-by-step progression from subtopic to subtopic (based on task
analysis).
4. Use many examples, visual prompts, and demonstrations (to mediate
between concrete and abstract concepts).

1
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist,
philosopher, and poet, best remembered for leading the new literature movement of the mid-
19th century.
22
 5. Constant assessment of student understanding (before, during and
after the lesson).
6. Alter pace of instruction based on assessment of student
understanding (you're teaching students, not content).
7. Effective use of time and maintaining students' attention (appropriate
use of classroom management techniques).

Among many different principles proposed by different authors, the

researcher has found four elements which get the attention of all of these
experts. These elements are:

Firstly, attract students’ attention

Make sure everyone is listening and watching. In ongoing language

practice, learner’s attention may sometimes wander away. But if the
teacher is explaining something essential, they must attend. This may be
the only chance they have to get some vital information. If they miss
something, they may find themselves in difficulties later. It can be inferred
that, when giving instructions for a group work task, it is advisable to give
the instructions before you divide the class into groups or give out
materials, not after. Once they are in groups, learner’s attention will be
naturally directed to each other rather than to the teacher; and if they have
written or pictorial material in their hands, the temptation will be to look at
it, which may also distract their concentration in the lesson.

Secondly, try to make the instructions easy to understand

This principle is much concerning the content of the instructions.

This can be achieved by using simple language and short expressions, or
23
using language at a lower level then the language being “taught”.
Furthermore, formal language often wastes time as well as slows the lesson
down. Thus, it involves teacher in more complicated language than the
students can easily understand. On the other hand, short instructions are
entirely appropriate where the students accept the teacher’s authority. A
firm and directive manner is necessary in order to make language practice
efficient and to avoid confusion and uncertainty. Another way to make the
instructions understandable is presenting the instructions more than once.
That is because a repetition or paraphrase of the necessary information may
make the instructions more comprehensive. Besides, as learners’ attention
wanders occasionally, it is important to give them more than one chance to
understand what they have to do. In addition, it helps to represent the
information in a different mode. For example, say it and write it up on the
board.

Thirdly, illustrate the instructions with examples, visual or written

clues

This principle is much concerning to the form, or appearance of the

instructions. Very often a careful theoretical explanation only comes to an
audience when made real through an example, or preferably several. The
teacher may explain, for instance, the meaning of a word; illustrate the
explanation with examples of its use in various contexts; relate these as far
as possible to the learners’ own lives and experiences. Similarly, when
giving instructions for an activity, it often helps to do a ‘dry run’: teacher
actually does the demonstration of the activity with the whole class or a
volunteer student will do the demonstration before inviting learners to

24
tackle the task on their own. Support instructions with visual clues
wherever possible, real objects, pictures, gestures and mime. It is often
easier to give instructions written on cards or piece of paper that the teacher
has prepared, especially if the teacher wants the students to do different
things (as in role play) or if it is important that the students don’t know the
instructions given to their partner.

Lastly, assure students’ understanding

When teachers give instructions, it is important for them to check

that the students have understood what they are being asked to do. This can
be achieved either by asking a student to explain the activity after the
teacher has given the instruction or by getting someone to show the other
people in the class how to exercise the work. When students all share the
same mother tongue (which the teacher also understands), a member of the
class can be asked to translate the instructions as a check that they have
understood them.

2.1.4. Teacher’s instructions in the modern technology era

Now in the day of modern advanced technology, a wide range of

tools for presenting instructional content are available digitally, thus
teachers may manipulate size, color contrasts, and other features to develop
examples in multiple media and formats. These can be saved for future use
and flexibly accessed by different students, depending on their needs and
preferences. Digital materials make it possible for the same material to be
flexibly presented and accessed—even adapted on a student-to-student
basis.

25
 Computer-assisted instruction is generally defined as an instructional
process that uses a computer to assist giving instructions, monitor student
growth, and adjust to needed advancements accordingly. Computer-
assisted instruction (CAI) is an excellent choice for skills practice in any
subject. Quality programs are available, and when they are aligned to the
needs of students and the curriculum, students can benefit greatly from
them. Such programs are generally designed to test for mastery, and
therefore allow the teacher greater freedom to give the more abstract,
difficult concepts. An additional advantage of CAI is that, because students
generally enjoy computer activities, they come to the computer with a
positive attitude. In addition, CAI offers immediate feedback. Moreover,
CAI is a timesaving strategy for teachers, which provides valuable
instruction for the students if quality programs are available. There is the
added benefit that while some students are using the computer, others can
be receiving personalized instruction from the teacher. Hence, with the help
of modern technologies, giving and checking instructions could be easier to
do, more effective and attractive to the students.

2.1.5. The importance of teacher’s instructions

The instructions take an important role in improving the teacher's

control of the classroom and help with achieving lesson planning aims and
objectives. They will help to specifically and precisely describe what the
learner will or should be able to do, think or say at the end of the lesson.
From that, teacher can draw upon previous plans and activities and set the
stage for preparing students for future activities and further knowledge
acquisition.

26
 The best activity in the world is a waste of time if the students don’t understand
what it is they are supposed to do. (Harmer, 1998, p.4)

As quoted above, it is very important to make students understand what

they are required to do. However, sometimes, even though the teachers try
to make their words and expressions full of meaning and uncomplicated
before a new activity in a lesson, the students do not understand or do the
opposite. When teachers can give clear instructions, learners feel more
secure in the lesson. It also means learners can begin tasks more quickly,
which increases time for learning. Therefore, teacher’s instructions must be
precise and clear in order to avoid wasting time and uncertainty (Gower &
Walters, 1983). The ultimate goal of instruction is to help people’s learning
become easier, quicker, and more enjoyable.

Effective instructions are vital for activities to go well, especially

activities involving changes of interaction, for example, from individual to
pair work. A communicative approach to language teaching requires some
quite complicated activities and interactions, and this means the teacher
needs to have all the learners’ attention when giving instructions. Students
need to be trained to be quiet and listen very carefully. This is especially
the case if the teacher is giving instructions in English.

Besides, adequate instructions will help teacher a lot when dealing

with problem classes such as very large classes, mixed ability classes, etc.
Young learners tend to 'mess about' if they are not sure about what they are
supposed to be doing. Slow learners especially may need reminding about
methods of presentation and ways of tackling problems. In addition, as a
matter of fact, more trouble arises from confusion over what to do, rather
27
than over blank refusal to do it. The given instructions which are clear,
explicit and frequent enough can make sure that all the children know
exactly what is required of them. As Lovitt (1977) points out, once students
know what we want them to do, they usually do it.

In summary, the importance of instructions is shown in four major

aspects: achieving the lesson objectives, assisting people to learn more,
getting the activities in the lesson go smoothly, and dealing with
problematic classes. Instruction is complex and can take many forms. It is a
vitally important classroom activity. Under the best conditions it takes
many years of experience for most teachers to meet the ideals of
instructional practice that they set for themselves.

2.2. An overview of a speaking lesson

2.2.1. An overview of speaking skill

2.2.1.1. Definition

There are four key skills when people learn a language: listening,
speaking, reading and writing. In language teaching, the four skills are
described in terms of their direction. Language generated by the learners
(in speech or writing) is referred to as productive. Language directed at the
learner (in reading or listening) is called receptive. Speaking is a crucial
part of second language learning and teaching. However, many people feel
that speaking in a new language is harder than reading, writing, or listening
for two reasons. First, unlike reading or writing, speaking happens in real –
time: usually the person the speaker is talking to is waiting to speak right

28
then. Second, when speaking, people cannot edit and revise what they wish
to say, as this can be done if they are writing.

Oxford Advanced Dictionary (2006) defined “speaking” as the

action of conveying information or expressing one's thoughts and feelings
in spoken language.

According to Florez (1999), speaking is an interactive process of

constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving, and processing
information. Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it
occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences,
the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking. It is often
spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving.

Chaney (1998, p. 13), as cited in Kayi (2006) suggested speaking is

"the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and
non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts".

To sum up, speaking is the most effective way for people to

communicate with each other. Speaking is also regarded as the most
important skill learners have to acquire.

2.2.1.2. Components of speaking skill

According to Florez (1999), speaking requires that learners not only

know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar,
pronunciation, or vocabulary ("linguistic competence"), but also they can
communicate ideas effectively and fluently. Through this statements,

29
Florez mentioned about two components of speaking skill including
accuracy and fluency.

To be more specific, accuracy is the ability to produce correct

sentences using correct grammar and vocabulary. Teachers who
concentrate on accuracy help their students to produce grammatically
correct written and spoken English. On the other hand, fluency is the ability
to read, speak, or write easily, smoothly, and expressively so as to produce
continuous speech without causing comprehension difficulties or a
breakdown of communication. Language teachers who concentrate on
fluency help their students to express themselves in fluent English. They
pay more attention to meaning and context and are less concerned with
grammatical errors (Lingualinks Library, 1999).

Accuracy and fluency have had a great impact on the choice of

teaching method. Prioritizing which one among two components has been
always a big question to educators. In the light of Communicative
Language Teaching, it is now very clear that both accuracy and fluency are
the goals to pursue in teaching and learning oral communication skills.
Therefore, teachers must balance issues of fluency and accuracy depending
on the specific needs of learners and the resources of time and materials for
instruction.

Apart from analyzing speaking skill under accuracy and fluency,

different experts offer their own point of view about what speaking skill
involves. Hymes (1971) assumes that second language learners need to
know not only the linguistic knowledge but also the culturally acceptable
ways of interacting with others in different situations and relationships. His
30
theory of communicative competence (1971) consists of the interaction of
grammatical, psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic, and probabilistic language
components. According to Syakur there are at least five components of
speaking skill concerned with comprehension, grammar, vocabulary,
pronunciation, and fluency (1987, p.3). According to Harmer (2001) in his
book: The practice of language teaching, the elements necessary for
spoken production are language features (including connected speech,
expressive devices, lexis and grammar, negotiation language) and
mental/social processing (including language processing, interacting with
others, information processing)

As summarized by To (2008), components of speaking skill are as

followed:

Lexis and grammar: spontaneous speech is marked by the use of a

number of common lexical, especially to perform certain language function
such as agreeing, disagreeing, expressing surprised, approval, etc.

Connected speech: i.e. common phenomenon in spoken interactions

in which sounds are modified (assimilation), omitted (elision), added
(linking r) or weakened (through contractions and stress patterning).
Effective speakers thus need to be able not only produce individual
phonemes (as I would have gone) but also to use connected speech.

Expressive devices: native speakers of English change pitch and

stress of particular parts of utterances, or vary volume and speech to
convey meanings beyond their words, especially in face-to-face
communication. Students need to recognize and deploy some of such

31
features and devices in the same way if they are to be effective
communicators.

Compensating language: Effective speaking benefits from the

language of negotiation that we use to seek clarification and to show the
structure of what we are saying. Speakers also need to know when and how
to take the floor, how to keep a conversation going, how to terminate the
conversation, and how to clear up communication breakdown as well as
comprehension problems.

Language processing: effective speakers need to be able to process

language in their own heads and put it into coherent order so that it comes
out in forms that are not only comprehensible but also convey the meaning
that are intended. One of the main reasons for including speaking activities
in language lessons is to help students develop habits of rapid language
processing in English.

Interacting with others: Most speaking involves interaction with

one or more participants. This means that effective speaking involves a
good deal of listening and understanding of how the other participants are
feeling and a knowledge of how linguistically to take turns or allow others
to do so.

Real-time information processing: the ability to process the

information often tells us the moment we get it. The longer it takes, the less
efficient we are.

Sociolinguistic knowledge: knowledge of language alone does not

adequately prepare learners for effective and appropriate use of the target
32
language. Learners must have competence which involves knowing what is
expected socially and culturally by users of the target language.
Understanding the sociolinguistic side of language helps learners know
what comments are appropriate, know how to ask questions during
interaction, and know how to respond nonverbally according to the purpose
of the talk. For instance, in some Asian cultures, paying a compliment to
someone obligates that person to give a negative answer such as “No. It is
not so good.” And so on in order to show “modesty”, whereas in North
America culture such a response might be both inappropriate and
embarrassing.

2.2.2. An overview of a speaking lesson

2.2.2.1. Stages of a speaking lesson

A speaking lesson is a kind of bridge for learners between the

classroom and the world outside. However, there are many kinds of
speaking lesson stages that a teacher can follow.

As teachers often design in a lesson plan, speaking lesson often

includes three stages:

• Pre speaking: Set a scene (lead in), pre teaching vocabulary and
structures, developing guessing skills
• While speaking: teacher and students perform speaking task
• Post- speaking: consolidate, expand speaking skill, and go beyond
the speaking lesson

Website of TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other

33
Languages Association) in Algeria offered a framework for designing
speaking lessons. The stages of a speaking lesson organized in this way
are:

Stage Rationale Sample activities

Present Students need to be • Brainstorming/eliciting vocabulary
exposed to new • Analyzing/noticing language in a
language and skills in text
an authentic way by • Using people and things in the
the teacher, their classroom
peers, or a listening or • Learning a dialogue
reading text. • Watch and follow a model
• Elicitation from students of
vocabulary they already know

Practice Students need time • Gapfill

and practice to • Matching
remember the new • Cloze
language or skill and • Selecting the correct answer
to explore the limits of
• Substitution or transformation drills
its form, meaning, and
• Listening/Reading and
use.
repeating/saying
• Finding and correcting errors
• Question and Answer (Q&A)

34
 • Completing a sentence or question
starter
• Sorting
• Word prompts

• Information gap
Use Students need a • Guessing
chance to personalize • Categorizing
and use the new • Ranking
language or skill, to • Comparing/Making Connections
do something they are
• Interpreting
likely to do outside
• Problem-solving
class; fluency tasks
• Ordering
also help Ss remember
• Sharing Personal Information
the language or skill,
• Sharing General Information
and give the teacher a
• Creative project
chance to assess
• Role-play
students’ learning.
• Retell

• Structured Discussion

Table 1: A framework for designing speaking lessons

According to this framework, a speaking lesson will go through three

stages from present, practice to use. The initial stage, as it is named,
presents new language and skills to students. In the second stage, students
have chance to practice with the purpose of remembering the language or
skills. Lastly, students possibly personalize the new language by doing
35
tasks modeling what might happen in real situation. Each stage are
accompanied by plenty of suggested activities.

C. Terry (2008) offers her own way to conduct a speaking lesson

which includes three stages: pre-communicative stage, practice stage,
communicative interaction or production stage. During the pre-
communicative stage, the teacher will introduce the communicative
function, point out the target structure, and provide students with the
necessary vocabulary. On the next stage - practice stage, teacher will do
some activities as followed: correct or prompt students if necessary. During
the communicative interaction, teacher should take note of any aspects that
may hinder communication (pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar). The
major drawback of Terry’s theory is this method is quite teacher-centered.
It can be ambiguous as students’ activities during the three stages are not
mentioned.

In summary, in order to help create a lesson which is organized,

coherent, and lead to a clear lesson objective, a speaking lesson can include
three main stages:

1. Stage 1: Firstly, student can be motivated and attracted to the

lesson by a small warm up or lead in part. Then the teacher will
explain the new language patterns to help students understand
necessary vocabulary and structures.
2. Stage 2: During this phase, the main speaking tasks of the
lesson will be performed by the students while teacher can correct or
prompt students if necessary.

36
 3. Stage 3: Teacher can help students to consolidate and
remember the language or skill they acquired during the lesson by
correcting some mistakes that might happen in the earlier stages.

2.2.2.2. Characteristics of a successful speaking lesson

Just a few pedagogues have mentioned the characteristics of a

successful speaking lesson except for Penny Ur and Jack Richards.

Ur (1996) lists the characteristics of a successful speaking activity:

learners talk a lot, participation of students is even, motivation is high, and
language is of an acceptable level.

Richards (2003) believes that goals for a successful speaking lesson

are among others: balance of accuracy and fluency activities, students
participating actively in lessons, activities suitable for students of different
proficiency levels, addressing grammar and pronunciation errors
appropriately, suitable activities and tasks for students of different
proficiency levels. Students should have ample talking time and
opportunities for personalization. Very important is also the pleasure
factor, all the students have to experience success. In addition, a
progression from controlled practice to freer practice is essential.

Although Ur’s and Richard’s attitude toward successful speaking

lesson is different but characteristics of a successful speaking lesson can be
summarized as follow:

 Appropriate and sufficient language input and other supports: Input

is the language to which students are exposed: teacher talk, listening
37
 activities, reading passages, and the language heard and read outside
of class. This will give learners the material they need to develop
their ability to use the language on their own. Language input and
other supports should be matched to learners’ current comprehension
level and connected to what they already know. It can be used in the
presentation stage of a lesson

 Balance of accuracy and fluency activities: Balancing fluency and

accuracy is a tricky business though. Students emphasizing fluency
still need to keep grammar in mind, and students improving their
accuracy dare not become so concerned about accuracy that they can
no longer speak easily. During speaking lesson, teacher will
sometimes correct students a lot, for example during grammar
practice. On other occasions, for example in a role play, students
won’t be corrected as the teacher will want them to focus more on
fluency and communicating ideas. A balance of accuracy and
fluency in speaking will help students to become successful language
learners.

 Activities are suitable for students of different proficiency levels:

Students can perform most speaking tasks and participate effectively.
Moreover, learners can express themselves in utterances that are
relevant, easily comprehensible to each other, and of an acceptable
level of language accuracy.

 Students participate actively and evenly in lessons: Motivating

students to actively participate in class is a challenge even for the
most experienced educators. Classroom discussion is not dominated
38
 by a minority of talkative participants. All get a chance to speak, and
contributions are fairly evenly distributed. If only a few students
participate by volunteering answers, asking questions, or
contributing to discussions, class sessions become to some extent a
lost opportunity to assess and promote learning. It is important to
create an environment in which all participants have the opportunity
to learn and in which the class explores issues and ideas in depth,
from a variety of viewpoints. Some students will raise their voices
more than others; this variation is a result of differences in learning
styles as well as differences in personalities.
2.3. Related studies

Giving and checking instructions are not a new topic but it is still not
paid enough attention to. Because teacher’s instruction is a small field in
ELT methodology, it is often involved in classroom management or
teacher’s talk research. In her book “A course in language teaching”,
Penny Ur devoted one unit in a chapter to introduce a long-term strategy to
improve teacher’s instructions followed by a guideline on giving effective
explanations and instructions. This strategy includes two phases. At first,
teacher notes down immediately after the lesson how he/she gives
instructions and discusses with colleagues. Then teacher revises the
instructions to make it more effective. In the guideline, Penny Ur identified
six points to give and check instructions successfully, which are preparing,
assuring the class’s attention, presenting information more than once, being
brief, illustrating with example and getting feedback.

Author Fredric H. Jones (1999) in Positive Classroom Instruction

begins with an analysis of the classroom social system that profoundly yet
39
invisibly link instructional practice with discipline management. The
outcomes of the analysis are: student motivation clarifies the teacher’s
options and actions and empowers them to produce learning;
implementation to give corrective feedback to stuck students; teacher
training and staff development. All the fundamentals of instruction that
apply to students in the classroom apply to teachers within the context of
teacher training. Positive Classroom Instruction is a guide to effective
classroom practice, as well a guide to effective teacher training.

In a research namely “Giving Oral Instructions to EFL Young

Learners” by Susana María Liruso and Elba Villanueva de Debat from
Argentina (2003), the authors addressed when delivering oral classroom
instructions to EFL young learners, it is essential for teachers to develop an
awareness of the importance of clear oral instructions for good class
management. Then, they found in teacher talk an important feature for
classroom management and some developmental characteristics of
children.

As can be seen, many authors conducted research on this matter

concentrating on practical tips to give and checking instructions without
providing a theoretical framework or the real difficulties of teachers when
giving and checking instructions. Moreover, they talk a lot about
instructions in a general lesson, which may create confusion between
different lessons such as grammar lessons, vocabulary lessons or lessons to
teach four skills in English. This research aims at providing a theoretical
background for giving and checking instructions as well as giving and
checking instructions in a specific kind of lessons as speaking lessons. The
40
study on a smaller scale aims at exploring the current situation of utilizing
teacher’s instructions in the context of Vietnamese high schools,
specifically Viet Duc high school in Hanoi. The findings and suggestions
will be useful for teacher and those who are interested in the subject.

To sum up, in this chapter, the researcher has briefly defined important
terms and reviewed relevant background theory before investigating deeply
into the subject matter in reality.

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter is intended to cover the methodology of the research

including research settings, descriptions of the participants, research
instruments, data collection and data analysis procedure.

41
 The research was carried out in order to find information on:

• The teacher’s attitude towards giving and checking

instructions and students’ towards teacher’s instruction in speaking lessons
• Techniques teachers use to give and check instructions in
speaking lessons
• The possible difficulties teachers might have when giving and
checking instructions in speaking lessons

3.1. Research settings

The study was conducted at Viet Duc upper-secondary school, Hanoi.

In this academic year, Viet Duc high school has approximately 2200
students. In each grade, there are 15 classes which are divided into four
groups: TN, CB, XH and D. The TN classes belong to Nature Science
department, CB classes belong to Basis department, XH classes belong to
the Social department and D classes belong to Foreign Language
Specializing Department. In each department, classes are numbered from 1
to 9. In general, students in Foreign Language Specializing Department are
better at English than the others.

Like the majority of upper-secondary schools all over Vietnam and in

Hanoi, English has been made a compulsory subject at Viet Duc school,
along with German as a free-chosen subject. Viet Duc is also among top
quality schools in Hanoi with much investment put in the teaching and
learning facilities as well as teacher training every year. For the past few
years, with the economic open-door policy pursued by the Government, the

42
demand for communicating in English increasing results in the fact that the
Communicating Language Teaching (CLT) approach has been
implemented in Vietnam upper-secondary schools. The introduction of the
reformed textbook in 2006 to grade-10 students nationwide as well as in
Hanoi is a typical example. Nowadays, grammar, vocabulary and
pronunciation are put much concentration on because the two most
important English examinations in Vietnam, the school final examination
and the university entrance examination, still focus on them. Despite this,
with CLT approach, Viet Duc students can gradually develop all four skills
including speaking, reading, listening and writing.

3.2. Participants

The target population of this study was students and teachers who
teach English at Viet Duc upper-secondary school.

3.2.2. Students

3.2.1.1. Description

Although the focus of the research is on teacher’s giving and

checking instructions, which is much concerning teacher’s job, students
still play a very important role as the observers, evaluators, commentators
and beneficiaries of the process. In total, 100 students from three classes
joined in this study and did the survey questionnaire. Because this was a
small-scale study, this number seemed to be reasonable and manageable.
Students randomly taken from various classes can show their diverse

43
perspectives on the same issue.

About their background, all of the students had passed an entrance

examination to Viet Duc high school and now they are in the second
semester of the academic year 2009-2010 at this school. Most of them have
learned English for at least 5 years since secondary school; therefore, they
have quite a good background of English. Level of their English
proficiency is pre-intermediate though in reality, some are above or below
this level. In addition, the respondents’ background information including
their group name, their gender, and their years of learning English also
made their significant contribution to the maximization of the diversity of
the targeted subjects. The wide diversity of the sampling population could
be illustrated in detailed in this table below.

Gender Average years of

learning English
Male Female 0-4 5-10
10D6 28 4 24 2 26
11C2 40 7 33 2 38
11C3 32 5 27 1 31

Table 2: Background of the target population

Besides that, as can be clearly seen in the table 2 below, the average
scores of the previous semester of the students reflects the difference in
their English competence. Their English score ranged from good (grade
over 8.0), fairly good (grade from 7.0 to 7.9), average (grade from 6.0 to
6.9) and weak (grade below 6.0).

Group name Average English score

44
 10D6 7 7 9 5
11C2 9 15 13 3
11C3 12 5 7 6

Table 3: Summary of average English scores of surveyed students

3.2.1.2. Sampling method

The selection of students taking part in the survey was based on the
principle of random sampling. The name of each class will be written in a
piece of folded paper. Then they were put in a box altogether. The
researcher randomly picked up three pieces of paper to choose three classes
as the participants for her study. Finally, three classes namely 10D6,
11CB2 and 11CB3 with about 50 students each class were chosen as
informants for the research.

Thanks to this sampling strategy, each member of the target

population has an equal and independent chance of being selected. The
selection of one would not eliminate the probability of the others. As cited
in Research methods in education, this sampling method will be “useful if
the researcher wishes to be able to make generalization, because it seeks
representativeness of the wider population” (Cohen et al, 2000, p.100).
Therefore, this random choice will lead to an objective result with reliable
and sufficient information for the researcher to carry out the study. In other
words, this sampling method could guarantee high diversity and, thus
reliability as well as the validity for the study.

3.2.2. Teachers

Because teachers are core subjects of this research, seven teachers

45
were invited to share their opinion and experience on the investigated issue.
Firstly they did the survey questionnaire and then, they took part in the
interview with researcher to clarify some points in the questionnaire.
Although seven was not a very big number, this quantity could definitely
provide accurate and rich information. The detailed information about
surveyed teachers could be referred to in the following table:

Teacher Gender Age Years of teaching

1 Female 32 8
2 Female 24 2
3 Female 35 14
4 Female 52 25
5 Female 42 19
6 Female 40 16
7 Female 30 7

Table 4: Summary of selected teachers

As can be seen from the table, all of the teachers were female, which
was commonly seen in high schools. Their ages are at the middle between
24 and 52 years old. The number of years of teaching English ranged from
2 to 25 years. As a result, their valuable experience and knowledge could
make major contribution to the research.

3.3. Data collection instruments

3.3.1. Questionnaire

Questionnaire was chosen as the first data collection method, which

was delivered to both students and teachers due to its great effectiveness.
As Wilson and Mc Lean (1994, as cited in Cohen, Manion and Morrison,
46
2000: 245) stated, a questionnaire can provide “structured, numerical data,
being able to be administered without the presence of the researcher, and
often straightforward to be analyzed.” Moreover, with three types of data:
behavioral, factual and attitudinal, the researcher could collect a huge
amount of information in a limited amount of time. Also, from reality, the
researcher found it economical and practical to conduct questionnaire
among a large number of students and teachers.

3.3.1.1. Piloting

Firstly, five tenth-grade students from 11CB2 and one teacher of

English in Viet Duc high school volunteered to participate in the piloting
stage. When students and teacher did the first version of the survey
questionnaire, the researcher observed their reactions, and consider their
answers. Along with it, their direct suggestions for the questionnaire
improvement contributed to help the researcher to add some explanation
for some important or uncommon terms for the respondents to avoid
misunderstanding. Moreover, with the feedback from the supervisor, the
researcher removed two unnecessary items in teacher questionnaires, two
in student questionnaires, and edited the overall format and organization of
the survey questionnaires. After the piloting of the questionnaire, the
researcher created the final version of the survey questionnaires.

3.3.1.2. The design of the questionnaire

The questionnaire had to be carefully designed. It began with a brief

overview of the research title, the purpose of carrying out the questionnaire
survey and a desire for cooperation from respondents. The researcher also
47
put emphasis on the confidentiality of the shared information.

The questionnaire included two main sections:

• Section 1: This section sought for their personal information.

The teacher questionnaire included their gender, age and the number of
year that they have been teaching English. The student questionnaire
included their class name, gender, the English score of the last semester
and the time that they have been learning English.
• Section 2: questions used in this section were mainly multiple
choice and table grading questions. At some points open-ended questions
were used to minimize the fatigue effect among students and teachers’
answers. This section would deliberately find the answers to the research
questions.

To make it easy for students to understand, the questionnaire was

translated into Vietnamese and did not consist of too specialized terms.

3.3.2. Teacher interview

In order to obtain more reliable and practical information and have an

insightful look into the answers collected in the questionnaires, the
interview was designed for the teachers. Unlike the questionnaires which
included both the close- ended and open- ended questions, the interviews
comprised of only open-ended ones. The interview was created in semi-
structured type. The advantages of semi-structure interview are enormous.
In the book Second language research: Methodology and design, Mackey
and Gass (2005, p.173) believed that “because interviews are interactive,
48
researchers can elicit additional data if initial answers are vague,
incomplete, off-topic or not specific enough”. This idea agrees with that of
Mackey and Gass (2005, p.96), interviews can balance some “potential
problems related to the analysis of questionnaires such as inaccurate or
incomplete responses”. This type of interview was supposed to give the
interviewee a degree of authority and control and give the interviewer a
greater deal of flexibility. Then finally it helped to work out the satisfactory
answers to the research questions.

The interview consisted of two parts. In the first part, the interview
found out answers to the first three research questions which were later
compared with students’ opinions. In the other part, the interview helped
the researcher find out problems and solutions to the employment of giving
and checking instructions techniques.

3.3.3. Classroom observation

Classroom observation was also employed in this research as a data

collection instrument to consolidate the results obtained through
questionnaires and interviews. In many cases, the answers of
questionnaires are inaccurate and incomplete whereas interviews may
involve “selective recall, self- delusion, perceptual distortions, memory
loss from the respondents and subjectivity in the researcher’s recording and
interpreting the data” (Mackey and Gass, 2005, p.174). In their book,
Mackey and Gass (2005: 176) claimed that the researcher can gain a deeper
and more multilayered understanding of the participants and their content
with the use of “over time and repeated observation. Sharing the same

49
viewpoints, Cohen et al (2000, p.305) believed that observational data are
attractive as they afford the researcher the opportunity to gather ‘live’ data
from ‘live’ situations.

During the researcher’s teacher-training period, observation

checklists were carefully completed to achieve more practical data. These
checklists included two main sections: teacher’s activities focusing on
giving and checking instructions and students’ activities focusing on
students’ reactions to teacher’s instructions.

In a nutshell, the combination of the three most common data

collection tools namely questionnaire, interview and classroom observation
brought about a rich amount of valid and reliable data, which would be
analyzed in the next chapter.

3.5. Data collection procedure

To collect data for the study, the process of data collection had to be
put in three phases as follows.

3.4.1. Phase 1: Preparation

During this stage, after finishing designing the final version of the
survey questionnaires, the researcher prepared for the official questionnaire
administration. This phrase is essential because it lays the foundation for
the whole process of data collection. Moreover the researcher understands
that a well-prepared administration situation in advance can help the
50
researcher achieve good results.

3.4.2. Phase 2: Implementation

First and foremost, the researcher came to meet the informants one
week before the official day to deliver the survey questionnaire to give
advance notice about the purpose of the study and the importance of their
cooperation to the study as well as the specific time of delivering the
survey.

During the break time, the researcher went to each class and
distributed survey questionnaires to the students personally. Before asking
the students to do the survey questionnaire, the researcher briefly explained
the format, the length of the questionnaire along with emphasizing
confidentiality and the significance of the results. Besides the written
instructions on the handout with the presence of the researcher when
respondents were giving the answers, oral Vietnamese instructions and
explanations were also available to avoid any misunderstanding and
ambiguity. After fifteen minutes, the respondents finished completing all
questionnaires. 120 questionnaires were returned. Finally, the researcher
thanked the respondents for their help.

Then, at the meeting of the Foreign Language Group, the researcher

had the opportunity to directly interact with all the teachers and distribute
the questionnaire to them. Eight questionnaires were delivered to the
teachers at the end of the meeting. After twenty minutes, the questionnaires
were completed and seven papers were returned. The researcher thanked
the respondents for their help.
51
 Afterwards, three semi-structured interviews were conducted face to
face with selected teachers. One week before the interview, the researcher
asked for permission from the interviewed teachers as well as noticed them
about the topic, the purpose and the importance of the research. After
permission was given, an appointment was made at the teachers’
convenience. Like the questionnaires, two main parts of the interview
included the personal information and the core content. While
interviewing, the researcher tried the best to take notes and tape-record the
content under the interviewees’ permission. All the main questions in the
interview question list were covered. Besides, the researcher tried to be
flexible by asking some extra questions to obtain deeper information
relating to the research.

Lastly, classroom observation was conducted after the questionnaires

and interviews had been done. After asking for permission from the
teachers of the classes observed, the researcher observed two different
classes which were taught by two different teachers at different lessons:
One speaking lesson at Group 11CB3 (Unit 12: The Asian Games) and one
speaking lesson at 11CB1 (Unit 13: Hobbies). During these lessons,
observation checklists were completed and some other observation notes
were taken by the researcher.

3.4.3. Phase 3: Grouping the data

After collecting data from questionnaires, interviews, and class

observations, a plan for synthesizing and analyzing these data was quickly
designed by the researcher.

52
 3.5. Data analysis method and procedure

Initially, descriptive statistics method was used to process the data got
from the survey questionnaire, interviews and classroom observation.
Based on the results of returned questionnaires, the researcher began to
classify and synthesize data. Semi-structured interviews were transcribed,
and analyzed. Regarding classroom observation, the researcher made a
careful analysis on the observation details recorded from the two lessons.
The results then were compared with those of questionnaires and
interviews.

For better illustration, comparison and explanations, all the data from
close- ended questions were presented in bar charts and pie charts in a
reader-friendly way. Next, the charts were followed by detailed
explanation. For the open-ended questions, the researcher created
categories from the statements made by the respondents. The categories
were grouped together according to research questions. Besides, the most
typical quotations from the interviews and useful classroom observations
were regularly cited when necessary to illustrate the analysis of data. That
is, all of the data gathered from the survey questionnaire was to find out the
appropriate answers for the research questions

In conclusion, the chapter has identified the major characteristics of

participants and settings of the research. Descriptions of data collection
instruments, procedure and data analysis method and procedure have also
been provided.

53
 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter is going to present and discuss the data obtained from
the three employed instruments namely survey questionnaire, interview and
classroom observation. After being analyzed seriously, some results were
revealed as below:

4.1. The current situation of speaking lessons at Viet Duc high

school, Hanoi

To begin with, in this section some data concerning the student’s

English proficiency are discovered. This chart below represents their self-
evaluation of their English proficiency.

54
 5%
8%

42% Good
Fairly Good
Average
Weak
45%

Figure 1: Student’s self-evaluation of their English proficiency

(Question 1, Appendix 1)

Inevitably less than 5% of the selected students were confident to say

that their English proficiency is good. Most of the students thought of their
English proficiency as average (45%) or weak (42%). This result seemed to
contradict to their real result when both average and weak score accounted
for only 56%. However, their teacher’s opinions were quite different from
them while most of them, 72% believed that the students’ proficiency was
average while the rest thought that it was good. The low proficiency
English level could indirectly lead to students’ misunderstanding and not
following the teacher’s instructions. Moreover, it can be inferred from the
results that students are too shy and unconfident to actively participate in
the class’s activities.

In speaking lesson, the level of activeness in taking part in activities

can be displayed as followed:

55
 3% 10%

9%
Always
38% Usually
Often
Rarely
Never

40%

Figure 2: Level of students’ activeness in speaking lessons

(Question 2, Appendix 1)

Discovered from this data, most of the students, were often or rarely
participating in activities in speaking lessons, which accounts for 40% and
38% respectively. Only 10% always actively joined in speaking activities.
Particularly 3 students (3%) claimed that they never took part in speaking
activities. The classroom observation supported this finding. In the
speaking lessons observed in class 11CB3, nearly half of the students
enthusiastically took part in the activities. Their enthusiasm seemed to
reduce by the end of the lesson. Generally speaking, students at Viet Duc
high school were not fully involving in the speaking lessons.

4.2. Teachers’ perception and students’ attitude towards

teacher’s instructions

This part of the questionnaire is intended to reveal teachers’

perceptions and students’ attitudes towards the significant roles of teacher’s

56
instructions as well as the reasons for their choices. The data collected is
displayed as follows.

0%
1%
29% 1 Point
36%
2 Points
3 Points
4 Points
5 Points
34%

Figure 3: Student's attitude towards teacher's instructions

(Question 3, Appendix 1)

In the graph, 1 point represents “instructions are not important” while

5 points represent “instructions are very important”.

As can be seen, a large proportion of students seem to have realized

the significance of teacher’s instructions, without which they hardly
become competent English users. Specifically, as many as 34% of the
surveyed students decided on “important” and 36% of the whole population
even judged the role of teacher’s instructions beyond the word “very
important”. However, a small percentage of students (1%) have not been
enlightened about the contribution of the teacher’s instructions to their
learning speaking process.

57
 6
5

Number of teachers
5
4
3
2 Important
2
Very Important
1
0

Figure 4: Teachers' attitudes towards teachers' instructions

(Question 2, Appendix 2)

From the chart above, 5 out of 7 surveyed teachers made no hesitation

to say that the instructions are very important while the other two decided
that they are important.

Some students when being asked why they just gave 1 point or 2
points for the importance of teacher’s instructions, they said that they could
do the tasks or activities without teacher’s instructions by themselves
through reading books or asking friends. As the largest percentage of
students and all teachers share the same attitude, students cannot learn
everything on their own but need the instructions from the teachers.
Teachers both have many years of teaching experiences and know the
ability of students clearly, so they can give the right instructions which are
suitable for students’ level. From listening to the teacher’s instructions,
students have chance to experience the English vocabulary and structures
in real situation. Most importantly, according to some teachers, instructions
act as a guideline and help students go through the lessons in the right way
and avoid any misunderstanding of the teacher’s intention. This result
seemed to correspond with the experts’ opinion on the importance of
58
teacher’s instructions in literature review chapter.

4.3. Techniques employed to give and check instructions

The researcher investigated techniques teachers use to give and check

instructions and the frequency of using each technique. As revealed from
the data, students’ opinions varied from that of teacher’s. The results can be
seen as follows.

Number of students 60
50
5 points 40
4 points 30
3 points 20
2 points 10
1 point 0
Step-by-step Demonstrate it Say-do-check Student recall
Techniques

Figure 5: Giving and checking instructions techniques and their frequency

(students’ opinions) (Questions 4,5, Appendix 1)

(The points from 1 to 5 respectively indicate the ascending degree of

frequency).

The result from the charts reflects the real situation that all the giving
and checking instructions techniques were employed in speaking lessons.
However, the frequency of using each differed dramatically. The most
distinguishing feature of the charts is that say-do-check was most
frequently employed by teachers, followed by the use of student recall and
demonstrate it technique. The utilization of step-by-step was noticed to be
59
rarely used. This finding was made on the basis of the rating scale from 1
to 5 in terms of frequency degree.

Regarding say-do-check, it was assessed at 5 points by 56.25% of

students. The second largest number is 20% of the students chose number
4. The lowest points of the rating scale were hardly circled by students.
Following closely to the top was the use of student recall when there were
more than 46% of the students choosing number 4 and 5. Therefore, the use
of this technique could be said to be relatively frequent. The use of
demonstrate it techniques ranked the third in terms of frequency. With
regards to step-by-step, they were not regularly exploited in speaking
lessons when more students ticked at column 1 and 2 than all the others. In
short, say-do-check was used with a greatly high frequency. Student recall
and demonstrate it were also greatly employed, but less regularly. Step-by-
step was believed to be least frequently exploited.

5
4
3 Number of 5 points
4 points
2 teachers
3 points
1
2 points
0 1 point
Step-by-stepDemonstrateSay-do-check Student
it recall
Techniques

Figure 6: Giving and checking instructions techniques and their frequency

(teachers’ opinions)
(Questions 3,4, Appendix 2)

60
 (The points from 1 to 5 respectively indicate the ascending degree of
frequency).

From this figure it can be seen that teachers seemed to reach

agreements on their use of techniques. Most of the interviewed teachers
gave step-by-step the highest ranking: 5 points. To clarify their choice
about step-by-step, one teacher said that “It takes a lot of time to use the
other techniques, so it will be a waste of time. Moreover, when with step-
by-step, teacher give and check instructions gradually at a low pace. And it
fits to students’ ability.” The figure above illustrates great diversity in their
choices. It meant that they were fully aware of the importance of those
techniques. Step-by-step is usually applied because it is not only easy to do
but also appears quite effective. “Demonstrate it” is sometimes used to
attract the students’ attention and motivate them to involve in the lesson.
Because usually instructions are given orally, which may cause the
boredom to the students. Also, say-do-check is used when teachers want
students to have more chances to practice English as much as possible. In
this situation, listening and speaking are integrated. Moreover, it is very
important to check whether students understand what they are required to
do or not. Teachers admitted that except for step-by-step, the other
techniques can’t be employed more frequently because of the limited time.

Classroom observation conducted in speaking lessons at two classes:

11CB1 and 11CB3 and could support the results gathered from survey
questionnaires and interviews. During 45 minutes of a lesson, a wide
variety of techniques was used. When a game was utilized as the warm-up,
the teacher used say-do-check because at the beginning of the lesson there
61
was much time left. After that, when asking students to do the task in
textbook, specifically task 3: work with a partner in unit 13: Hobbies
(English 11), teacher gave and checked instructions using step-by-step.

Teachers’ opinions can be summarized into two main points. Firstly,

step-by-step was picked most with highest frequency, followed by other
techniques. Secondly, no techniques are ignored in speaking lessons. These
findings were well-supported by the literature on the same field.
Techniques to give and check instructions can be diversified but the
principles to give and check instructions have to be guaranteed, that is
instructions are made to be attractive to students and easy to understand
and follow.

Apart from step-by-step, say-do-check, demonstrate it, student recall,

other techniques teachers employed is repeating the instructions more than
one time and paraphrasing the instructions by using other vocabulary and
structures.

4.4. Languages used to give and check instructions

As shown in these chart, both teachers and their students stated that
among English and Vietnamese, English was used more often to give and
check instructions. The below chart shows that 84%, which equals to the
largest percentage of the students said their teachers used English more
often to give and check instructions. 16 is the percentage of students who
considered both languages are used by their teachers. At the same time no
student says that Vietnamese was used more often. It can be realized from
the chart 8 that the teachers hardly ever used Vietnamese more often to
62
give and check instructions in their speaking lessons. The minority of the
teachers (1 out of 7 teachers asked) said they used both Vietnamese and
English. It should also be noted that with the largest proportions of teachers
agreed (more than 85%), English is the favorite language of teachers when
giving and checking instructions. The observation of class 11CB1 and
11CB3 showed that teacher gave and checked instructions in English
completely.

The results collected are not beyond the researcher’s prediction.

English is used more often on the aim of maximizing students' exposure to
the second language. Teachers insisted on creating opportunities in which
their students could speak and listen exclusively in the target language.
Vietnamese, the first language, can be used sometimes, but conditionally.
For instance, an interviewed teacher stated that first language needed to be
used when teachers attempted to give the ideas that are abstract or a new
concept. All in all, whether it is English or Vietnamese, instructions need to
be comprehensible.

100 84
Number of students

80
60
40
16
20
0
0 Language
English Vietnamese Both

Figure 7: Languages used in giving and checking instructions

(students’ opinions)
(Question 6, Appendix 1)
63
 7

Number of teachers
6
5
4
3 6
2
1
0 Language
English Vietnamese Both

Figure 8: Language used to give and check instructions (teachers’

opinions)
(Question 5, Appendix 2)

Relating to the conception of classification of sentences, there are

three types of sentences namely declarative, interrogative, imperative
sentences. A brief explanation of each type of sentence can be seen as
follow. A declarative sentence makes a statement and ends with a period.
An interrogative sentence asks a question and ends with a question mark.
An imperative sentence gives a command. The frequency of using each
type of sentences is clarified as in the following figures.
Percentage of students

100%
80%
60%
1 point
40%
2 points
20%
0% 3 points
e
ive

t iv
tiv
t

ra
ra

ga
la

pe
ro
c

Im
r
De

te
In

Types of sentences

Figure 9: Types of sentences used to give and check instructions

64
 (Students’ opinions)
(Question 7, Appendix 1)

(The points from 1 to 3 respectively indicate the ascending degree of

frequency)

As shown in this chart, among three types of sentences, none of them

are ignored. According to students’ opinions, teachers used all three types
of sentences but their frequency differed from each other considerably.
According to the chart, declaratives are among the sentence types which
are most frequently utilized, followed by interrogative sentences.
Imperative sentences were noticed to rarely be used to give and check
instructions in speaking lessons. To be more precise, declarative sentences
ranked the first with 11% students who circled point 3 and 57% circled
point 2. As many as 45% chose point 3 and 15% chose point 2 for
interrogative sentences. Half of the students chose point 1 for imperative
sentences.

The teacher’s idea can be listed as follows:

100%
90%
Percentage of students

80% 1 point
70% 2 points
60%
50% 3 points
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Types of sentences
e

e
e

tiv
tiv

tiv
ga
ra

ra
pe
cla

rro

Im
De

te
In

65
 Figure 10: Types of sentences used to give and check instructions
(Teachers’ opinions)
(Question 6, Appendix 2)

(The points from 1 to 3 respectively indicate the ascending degree of

frequency)

Teacher’s opinions are slightly different from that of students’. The

leading and also the equal percentage of 70% of teachers circled point 2 is
shared by declarative and imperative sentences. The frequency of using
interrogative sentences is lesser than that of two other kinds, which is
illustrated by nearly 30% teachers decided to choose point 1, meaning the
least frequency for interrogative sentences. This result corresponded with
that of the observation in the speaking lesson at class 11CB3 and 11CB1,
the researcher recognized when giving instructions for the warm-up
activity, teachers first gave the instructions in declarative sentences. Then
she put stress on each step of the instructions by saying an imperative
sentence.

From the teachers’ interviews, a good explanation for this statistics is

imperative sentences are often applied when teachers wanted to put more
emphasis on this part or this idea. But teachers didn’t use them too much
because it made students feel like being imposed and teachers are the
controller that they had to obey. On the other hand, interrogatives are
employed to check students’ comprehension more often.

4.5. The hindrances teacher might have when giving and checking
instructions

4.5.1 The level of students’ understanding teacher’s instructions

66
 Because the effectiveness of teachers’ instructions can be reflected
through students’ understanding, the researcher decided to conduct the
questions on how students evaluate their understanding of teachers’
instructions.

The current situation inferred from the result of the research does live
up to the researcher’s expectations. When being asked to self-assess the
level of their understanding the teacher’s instructions, most of them gave
out a high number, which is from 3 points to 5 points. To be more specific,
the largest target population (33%) gave 3 points which indicates that they
understand nearly all the instructions. Nearly the same percentage (32%)
claims that they quite understand the instructions. 15% of the students said
they can understand all the teacher’s instructions, which is a satisfactory
fact. Just a small proportion of students claimed that they don’t understand
the teacher’s instructions, occupying 5%, the smallest percentage. It can be
seen that the difficulties teachers had when giving and checking
instructions came from both student factor and teacher factor.

5% 15%
15%

5 points
4 points
3 points
33% 2 points
1 point
32%

Figure 11: Level of students’ understanding teacher’s instructions

67
 (Question 8, Appendix 1)

(The points from 1 to 5 respectively indicate the ascending degree of

frequency)

The causes that lead to some students’ misunderstanding are also the
actual difficulties that teachers have when giving and checking instructions.
The answer for this problem is revealed when the researcher carried out the
deeper investigation.

4.5 2. Possible difficulties when giving and checking instructions

The answer to this also helps to justify why some techniques were
used at rather low frequency and the effectiveness of teacher’s instructions
was assessed by some students to be still vague. In an attempt to investigate
what are the troubles teacher might have when giving and checking
instructions, the researcher gained the following figures.

Teacher's unclear voice

10% 11%
7% High speed of the lesson

New vocabulary and

structures
36%
Students' concentration
36%
Others

Figure 12: Reasons why students don’t understand teacher’s

instructions
(Question 9, Appendix 1)

From the statistics, the highest percentage of new vocabulary and

68
structures and students’ concentration piece was 36%. It can be inferred
that new vocabulary and structures with students’ low concentration along
were two most serious obstacles to giving and checking instructions. Many
students stated that the teacher used complex structures which they
couldn’t understand. Students confessed that they didn’t fully concentrate
to hear the teacher’s instructions. Sometimes they would prefer talking
with peers or learning the subjects for the next periods if they have test.
Besides, teacher’s voice and high speed of the lessons were also
dramatically causing troubles. Students who chose this complained that
their teacher’s voice is so soft and not easy to listen to and even sometimes
their teacher spoke so fast that they couldn’t keep up the pace. Teacher’s
voice and lesson moving on a high speed accounted for 11% and 7%
respectively. 10% chose “others”. Students also gave out the reasons to
clarify their points. Firstly, their low English proficiency level especially
their basic-leveled listening skill is caused them a lot of trouble. Some
admitted that they are lazy and forgetful and even don’t like learning
English. Some claimed that the learning environment was not good when
the whole class was too noisy and they don’t have a partner or a team to do
the tasks and follow the teacher’s instructions. Some students put the blame
on teacher’s incorrect pronunciation, boring voice tone and the instructions
are not necessary.

The difficulties that lead to ineffectiveness of the instructions are

proposed from the researcher’s own observation. The findings from
teachers’ opinions about hindrances they met when giving and checking
instructions are displayed in the following figure.

69
 0% 10%
30%
Teacher's unclear voice
Time constraint
Finding vocablary and structures
Student's concentration
40% Others

20%

Figure 13: Hindrances to giving and checking instructions

(Question 7, Appendix 2)

From this chart, it is notable 40%, the largest number of teachers

claimed that they had difficulties in time constraint. Thus, the biggest
challenge was time constraint, which was agreed upon by most of the
interviewees. Giving and checking instructions is quite time-consuming. A
teacher answered in the interviews: “Forty five minutes per period are not
sufficient for the teachers to put too much attention to give and check very
careful instructions while the core content had to be fully covered.” The
effectiveness was limited by the student factor itself. Students here lack of
confidence and self discipline, which leads to their low concentration.
Teachers also put a stress on the difficulties related to finding appropriate
words and structures to use in their instructions. Some teachers who chose
“others” make their ideas clear by stating about the teaching and learning
conditions. The teaching condition is not supportive enough. Viet Duc
upper-secondary school, despite being put lots of investment in, is still in
need of modern classroom facilities. At the current situation, each class in
Viet Duc high school has about 50 students. This number is hard for the
teachers to organize such large-sized classes. Even the difficulties come
from the curriculum. Although the content in the textbook had to be

70
followed, the task is not attractive enough and not appropriate for the
students’ demand. Some teacher stated that some students’ English
proficiency is not good as well as they didn’t have the background
knowledge about the topic.

4.6 Implications

The reported findings are hoped to have significant pedagogical

suggestions which can assist the involved parties in solving problems for
giving and checking instructions.

Firstly, to solve the problems relating to students’ unsupportive

attitudes, boredom and incomprehensibility, a positive attitude towards the
teaching career is necessary. A competent teacher with a love of teaching
can win students’ respect and support. That is the prerequisite for teachers
to be successful in everything they do, including the task of giving and
checking instructions. Secondly, it will be much effective to have an
appropriate giving and checking instructions manners such as varying the
intonation, putting the rhythm in the instructions, giving more stress on
important words and phrases in the instructions with correct pronunciation.
More than that, the instructions need to be given clearly and slow enough
with familiar words and structures so that it is comprehensible for students.
In some case, teacher can say the instructions in English first then translate
into Vietnamese. Students at Viet Duc high school often learn the lessons
beforehand at home or at a language center, thus, they may feel bored and
inactive at schools. Teachers are advised to invest much of their
creativeness in making the lessons in general and instructions specifically

71
more interesting and attractive. Some activities can be applied is games
which require more talking, role play, English songs, using vivid visual
aids and demonstration.

In dealing with time constraint, and unfavorable teaching conditions

when forming small-sized class is impossible, teachers should prepare for
the lesson carefully. Also, being flexible in using giving and checking
instructions techniques can help teachers use the time budget more
efficiently. In schools where teaching and learning conditions are not
adequate for the demands, teachers should try to exploit available resources
very creatively. Without hi-tech facilities, they can use substitute tools such
as realia, flashcards, and so on to support their giving and checking
instructions. However, the inadequate teaching conditions create a need for
infrastructure upgrading which educational administrators should take into
consideration.

For the overall success of the lesson, beside teachers’ effort, students
should also be well aware of their responsibilities, i.e try to be supportive
to teachers’ instructions, putting more concentration and hard working at
class.

To sum up, this research has found out a number of significant

results, some of which corresponded to those of the previous studies and
the theory presented in the literature review. The finding analysis chapter
serves as a accurate account of the situation surveyed, based on which the
researcher can work out pedagogical implications for involved parties.

72
 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION

Four previous chapters namely introduction, literature review,

methodology, results and discussion have discussed all the concepts and
viewpoints around this topic as well as presented results achieved from
conducting this research. The final chapter aims to summarize findings,
notable limitations of the research and give some suggestions for further
study as well.

5.1. Summary of the findings

On the whole, this research was carried out among the students and
teachers at Viet Duc upper-secondary school to find out the situation of
teachers’ giving and checking instructions in this school. The investigation
was implemented by three data collection instruments namely
questionnaire, interview and classroom observation with 100 students and
73
seven teachers as the targeted population. The results can be noted as
follows.

Firstly, concerning the attitude towards teachers’ instructions, most of

the students and all the teachers highly appreciated the role of teachers’
instructions in learning speaking English. This finding seemed to be similar
to the opinions of Gower and Walters (1983) and Harmer (1998).

Regarding the techniques, all four techniques: step-by-step,

demonstrate it, say-do-check, student recall were reported to be employed
to give and check instructions. However, the frequency of using each was
discovered to be different. Say-do-check is used with the highest frequency
as acknowledged by students. Whereas, step-by-step was the most favorite
choice among teachers themselves.

About the language teachers at Viet Duc School applied to give and
check instructions, both teachers and students agreed that English was used
more often than Vietnamese. It was due to the fact that teachers desired to
maximize students' exposure to the second language usage. Moreover,
relating to preference of using sentence types, teachers and students
seemed to prefer declarative and imperative sentences to interrogative
sentences.

Talking about the obstacles to the employment of teachers’

instructions, the major difficulties are pointed out. The rating descended
from time constraint, students’ concentration, finding appropriate words
and structures to quality of teachers’ voice. Besides that, the other
difficulties stated in the survey were: lack of modern teaching facilities,
74
large-sized class, English ability of students and boredom from the
textbook tasks. The identified problems would be partly solved by the
attempt of all parties involved. They were the efforts to self-improving of
both teachers and students along with the assistance of the school and other
authorities.

5.2. Limitation

Due to the restrictions of time, scope of the study and the author’s
limited knowledge and experience, the shortcomings of the research are
unavoidable. Firstly, 100 students directly get involved in this research is
still a limited number. As a result, the representativeness of this study is not
as high as the researcher’s expectation. Secondly, due to time constraint
and difficulty in approaching participants, the interview was conducted
among only three teachers; and observation was just carried out with two
lessons. Thus the survey scope was not as broad as expected. The research
partly reflected the actual situation of teachers’ instructions at Viet Duc
upper-secondary school. In order to compensate these weaknesses, the
researcher did make a thorough data collecting and analyzing procedure in
order to obtain validity and reliability for the research. The limitation of the
study, little or much, may pose harm to the result of the study and should
be taken into account in future research of the same field. Hopefully, the
author could receive both enthusiastic and critical review from the readers.

5.3. Suggestions for further research

As stated in the previous part, the present study restricted the survey
scope to teachers and students at Viet Duc high school with a certain
75
number of participants. Therefore, if time, finance and energy allow,
researchers can expand the scope to a large number of upper-secondary
schools in Hanoi. By expanding and varying sampling participants, these
researches can have better representativeness. In addition, the writer of this
study mainly focuses on instructions in speaking lessons. Therefore, other
researchers can shift this topic to other skills rather than speaking areas.
This is because tasks and activities in speaking lessons are much different
from those of writing, reading, or listening lessons, which might lead to the
requirement of different techniques to give and check instructions. Finally,
those who are interested in this topic can choose to do the research among
trainee teachers. Because as observed by the researcher, the research on
giving and checking instructions can greatly contribute to the success of
novice and inexperienced teachers who have difficulties in giving and
checking instructions more frequently than experienced teachers. To sum
up, there are many alternatives for other researchers to choose from to do
further studies relating to this topic.

In a nutshell, like Glickman (2002) has said, each teacher in each

classroom is unique with talent, energy, thought, and knowledge. This
explanation is meant to convey that working with teachers to improve
instruction is always an experiment, a trial-and-error research cycle of
finding out what structures, formats, and observations best support the
growth of individual competence, improved student learning, and overall
school success. Therefore, hopefully this research can help involved parties
find a reliable referential source to improve their own situation as well as to
carry out further exploitation into the same field.

76
 REFERENCES

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Brown, K. Douglas. (1994). Teaching by principle. Prentice Hall Regents.

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Celce-Murcia, M. (1995). Communicative competence: A pedagogically

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Cohen, L., Manion, L. and Morrison, K. (2000). Research methods in

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Doff, A. (1988). Teach English: A training course for teachers.
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Richard, J.C. (2005). Communicative Language Teaching Today. New
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 APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students (English version)

Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students (Vietnamese version)

Appendix 3: Questionnaire for teachers

Appendix 4: Interview question list (for teachers)

Appendix 5: Observation checklist

Appendix 6: Interview extraction

80
 APPENDIX 1
STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE
(English version)
Teacher’s giving instructions and checking in speaking lessons
My name is Nguyen Thu Thuy, from Class 061E11, University of
Languages and International Studies – Hanoi National University. I am
doing the research for my graduation paper, which is about teacher’s giving
and checking instructions and this questionnaire is an essential part of the
research. This questionnaire was designed to investigate how the
instructions are given in speaking lessons. This is not a test, so there is no
“right” or “wrong” answer. I would highly appreciate if you could read the
questions carefully and answer all the questions honestly and completely.

Your personal information will not be disclosed under any

circumstances. Your answer to all or any questions will be treated with
strictest confidence.

A. PERSONAL INFORMATION
1. Class:
2. You are: Male or Female
81
3. Age:
4. English score of the last semester:
B. QUESTIONS
Please give out your choice which you think the most suitable for you.
For some questions, more than one answer is acceptable.
1. Self evaluate your speaking English proficiency:
a. Good c. Average
b. Fairly good d. Weak
2. How often do you participate in activities in speaking lessons?
a. Always
b. Usually
c. Often
d. Rarely
e. Never
3. What do you think about the importance of teacher’s instructions in
class?
1 2 3 4 5 (1: not important, 5: very
important)
Reasons for your choice:................................................................................
........................................................................................................................
4. What techniques does your teacher use to give and check instructions in
speaking lesson?
a. Step-by-step c. Say-do-check
b. Demonstrate it d. Student recall

Step-by-step: teacher gives Ss one instruction at a time, not a list of

instructions all together. Breaking down instructions into small,
separate steps to help Ss to understand these completely.
82
 Demonstrate it: teacher doesn’t talk about what Ss must do, instead,
he/she shows them what to do by giving demonstration.

Say- do – check: teacher follow 3 steps for each instruction. First:

says the instruction, second: gets Ss to do it, third: check that they’ve
done it correctly before going on to the next instruction.

Student recall: after giving instructions in English, teacher checks

that SS understand everything by asking ss to recall what they will
do in VNese “say it again in Vnese”,”tell me what you have to do in
VNese”

5. How often does your teacher use each type of techniques in speaking
lesson?
Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never
Step-by-step
Demonstrate it
Say-do-check
Student recall

6. Between English and Vietnamese, which one does your teacher use
more often to give and check instructions?
a. Vietnamese
b. English
c. Both
7. What kind of sentences your teacher use in her instructions? (there may
be more than 1 choice).
a. Declarative .....
b. Interrogative .....
c. Imperative ....
Number from 1 to 3 to demonstrate the frequency of using each kind
of sentences (1: most, 3: least)

83
8. Self assess your understanding of teacher’s instructions in speaking
lesson
1 2 3 4 5 (1: do not understand, 5:
understand fully)
9. If you don’t understand, or understand just a little, in your opinion, what
are the reasons for it?
a. Teacher’s voice is not clear
b. Teacher speaks too fast
c. Some words in the instruction you don’t understand
d. You don’t concentrate
e. Others (please specify):.........................................................................
10. What do you suggest to improve the teacher’s instructions in
speaking
lesson? ..................................................................................................
....................................................................................................................
..................

In case you want to ask me anything about the questionnaire, please contact
me via
phone: 098 2927 233 or email: thuy.nguyenthu9@gmail.com

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR HELP!

84
 APPENDIX 2

PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA

Dành cho học sinh

(Phiên bản tiếng Việt)

Lời hướng dẫn của giáo viên trong các giờ học nói

Chào các bạn!

Tôi tên là Nguyễn Thu Thủy, sinh viên lớp 061E11, trường Đại học Ngoại
ngữ, Đại học quốc gia Hà Nội. Tôi đang tiến hành một nghiên cứu cho bài
khóa luận tốt nghiệp của tôi về việc đưa ra và kiểm tra lời hướng dẫn của
giáo viên trong các giờ học nói tại trường THPT Việt Đức. Phiếu điều tra
này là một phần quan trọng không thể thiếu được của nghiên cứu. Vì vậy
tôi rất mong nhận được những ý kiến trung thực nhất từ phía các bạn để
nghiên cứu này thu được những kết quả tốt nhất. Cám ơn các bạn rất nhiều.

Nội dung của bản điều tra này là hoàn toàn tuyệt mật. Thông tin cá
nhân về các đối tượng điều tra sẽ được bảo đảm tuyệt đối.

A. Thông tin cá nhân

1. Lớp:
2. Giới tính:
3. Tuổi:
4. Điểm tiếng Anh của học kì trước:

B. Câu hỏi

Hãy đưa ra câu trả lời mà bạn nghĩ rằng phù hợp nhất với mình. Một
số câu hỏi có thể lựa chọn nhiều đáp án
1. Bạn tự đánh giá năng lực tiếng Anh của mình là:
a. Tốt b. Khá
85
 c. Trung bình d. Kém
2. Bạn có hay tham gia vào các hoạt động (phát biểu, làm nhóm, làm
đôi, làm các tasks trong sách...) trong giờ học nói không?
a. Luôn luôn
b. Thường xuyên
c. Thỉnh thoảng
d. Hiếm khi
e. Không bao giờ
3. Bạn nghĩ tầm quan trọng của lời hướng dẫn của giáo viên là như thế
nào?
1 2 3 4 5 (1: không quan trọng, 5: rất quan
trọng)
Lý do cho lựa chọn của mình:
……………………………………………………………………….............
.........................................................................................................................
4. Giáo viên của bạn dùng cách gì để đưa ra và kiểm tra lời hướng dẫn?
a. Từng bước một c. Nói-làm- kiểm tra
b. Minh họa d. Học sinh nhắc lại
Từng bước một: Giáo viên nói từng lời hướng dẫn một thành những
bước nhỏ riêng lẻ mà không nói liền mạch
Minh họa: Giáo viên không nói học sinh phải làm gì, thay vì vậy,
giáo viên minh họa cho học sinh thấy.
Nói-làm-kiểm tra: Giáo viên đi theo ba bước sau. Thứ 1: Nói lời
hướng dẫn, thứ 2: bảo học sinh làm, thứ 3: kiểm tra xem học sinh đã
làm đúng chưa trước khi đi đến phần tiếp theo
Học sinh nhắc lại: sau khi đưa ra lời hướng dẫn bằng tiếng Anh,
giáo viên kiểm tra học sinh đã hiểu đến đâu bằng cách bảo học sinh
nhắc lại những việc HS cần phải làm bằng tiếng Việt

86
 5. Cho biết mức độ thường xuyên trong việc sử dụng các cách để đưa
ra và kiểm tra lời hướng dẫn?

Luôn luôn Thỉnh Đôi khi Hiếm khi Không

thoảng bao giờ
Từng bước một
Minh họa
Nói-làm-kiểm tra
Học sinh nhắc lại
6. Giữa tiếng Việt và tiếng Anh, giáo viên của bạn thường dùng tiếng
gì để đưa và kiểm tra lời hướng dẫn?
a. Tiếng Việt
b. Tiếng Anh
c. Cả hai
7. Loại câu nào sau đây giáo viên của bạn thường dùng trong lời hướng
dẫn? (có thể có nhiều lựa chọn)
a. Câu trần thuật .....
b. Câu nghi vấn .....
c. Câu mệnh lệnh ....
Đánh số từ 1 đến 3 để biểu thị tần xuất của việc sử dụng những mẫu câu
trên (3: nhiều nhất, 1: ít nhất)
8. Tự đánh giá mức độ hiểu lời giáo viên hướng dẫn của bạn?
1 2 3 4 5 (1: không hiểu, 5:hiểu hết)
9. Nếu bạn không hiểu hoặc chỉ hiểu ít, theo bạn lí do là gì?
a. Giọng của giáo viên không rõ và không dễ nghe
b. Bạn không tập trung
c. Có từ và cấu trúc mới mà bạn không biết
87
 d. Khác:...........................................................................................
...........
10. Bạn có đề nghị gì để nâng cao hiệu quả của lời hướng dẫn của giáo
viên? .....................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
..........

Trong trường hợp bạn muốn hỏi tôi bất kì điều gì về phiếu điều tra, xin hãy
liên lạc với tôi theo số điện thoại: 098 2927 233 hoặc email:
thuy.nguyenthu9@gmail.com

XIN CHÂN THÀNH CẢM ƠN!

88
 APPENDIX 3
TEACHER QUESTIONNAIRE
Teacher’s giving and checking instructions in speaking lessons
My name is Nguyen Thu Thuy, from Class 061E11, University of
Languages and International Studies – Hanoi National University. I am
doing the research for my graduation paper, which is about teacher’s giving
instructions and this questionnaire is an essential part of the research. This
questionnaire was designed to investigate how the instructions are given in
speaking lessons. This is not a test, so there is no “right” or “wrong”
answer. I would highly appreciate if you could read the questions carefully
and answer all the questions honestly and completely.

Your personal information will not be disclosed under any

circumstances. Your answer to all or any questions will be treated with
strictest confidence.

Please give out your choice which you think the most suitable for you.
For some questions, more than one answer is acceptable.
A. PERSONAL INFORMATION
1. You are: Male or Female
2. Age:
3. You have been teaching English for:
B. QUESTIONS
1. Specify the level of your student’s speaking English
a. Good c. Average
b. Fairly good d. Weak
89
2. What do you think about the importance of giving and checking
instructions?
1 2 3 4 5
(1: not important, 5: very important)
Reasons for your choice:.................................................................................
……………………………………………………………………................
3. What techniques do you use to give and check instructions in speaking
lesson?
a. Step-by-step c. Say-do-check
b. Demonstrate it d. Student recall
(There may be more than 1 choice)
Step-by-step: teacher gives Ss one instruction at a time, not a list of
instructions all together. Breaking down instructions into small, separate
steps to help Ss to understand these completely.
Demonstrate it: teacher doesn’t talk about what Ss must do, instead,
he/she shows them what to do by giving demonstration.
Say- do – check: teacher follow 3 steps for each instruction. First: says the
instruction, second: gets Ss to do it, third: check that they’ve done it
correctly before going on to the next instruction.
Student recall: after giving instructions in English, teacher checks that SS
understand everything by asking ss to recall what they will do in VNese
“say it again in Vnese”,”tell me what you have to do in VNese”

4. How often do you use each type of techniques in speaking lesson?

Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never
Step-by-step
Demonstrate it
Say-do-check
Student recall

5. Between English and Vietnamese, which do you use more often to give
and check instructions? Why?
....................................................................................................................
90
6. What kind of sentences do you use to in your instructions? (There may
be more than 1 choice).
a. Declarative .....
b. Interrogative .....
c. Imperative ....
Number from 1 to 3 to demonstrate the frequency of using each kind
of sentences (1: least, 3: most)
7. What are difficulties that you have when giving and checking
instructions?
a. Your voice is unclear
b. Time constraint
c. Finding appropriate words and structures
d. Students don’t concentrate
e. Others:...................................................................................................
8. What do you suggest to improve the teacher’s instructions in speaking
lesson? ......................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................
............
In case you want to ask me anything about the questionnaire, please contact
me via
phone: 098 2927 233 or email: thuy.nguyenthu9@gmail.com

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR HELP

APPENDIX 4
Interview questions
(For teachers)

91
A. Personal information:

Age:

Year of teaching experience:

B. Interview questions

1. What do you think about the importance of teacher’s instructions?

Give reasons for your choice
2. Among the listed techniques (Step-by-step, Demonstrate it, Say-
do-check, Student recall), how frequently do you use them?
3. For those you rarely use and those you use most often, can you
explain why?
4. Between English and Vietnamese, which do you use more often
to give and check instructions? Why?
5. What kind of sentences do you use to in your instructions? What
is the most frequently used and why?
6. What are the difficulties that you have when giving instructions?
7. What do you suggest to improve the teacher’s instructions in
speaking lesson?

APPENDIX 5
Observation checklist

92
Date:
Time:
Location:
Unit:
Participants:
Teacher Student
1. Techniques to give and check 1. Student’s
instructions participation
• What techniques are used, how often - What are the
and when? responses?
+ step by step - Confident and
+ demonstrate it active in doing
+ say- do - check what is required?
+ Student recall
2. Language to give and check instructions
• When and how often
+ English
+ Vietnamese
3. Types of sentences to give and check
instructions
• When and how often
+ Declarative
+ Imperative
+ Interrogative

APPENDIX 6
INTERVIEW EXTRACTION
93
1. What do you think about the importance of teacher’s instructions?
Give reasons for your choice
- Teacher 1: Teacher’s instructions is very important because
teachers know the ability of students clearly, so they can give the
right instructions which are suitable for students’ level.
- Teacher 2: instructions can act as a guideline and help students
go through the lessons in the right way
- Teacher 3: To avoid any misunderstanding of the teacher’s
intention
2. Among the listed techniques (Step-by-step, Demonstrate it, Say-
do-check, Student recall), how frequently do you use them?
-Teacher 1: I use all the techniques
3. For those you rarely use and those you use most often, can you
explain why?
- Teacher 1: It takes a lot of time to use the other techniques, so it
will be a waste of time. Moreover, with step-by-step, I give and
check instructions gradually at a low pace. And it fits to students’
ability.
- Teacher 2: Step-by-step is usually applied because it is not only
easy to do but also appear quite effective. “Demonstrate it” is
sometimes used to attract the students’ attention and motivate them
to involve in the lesson.
- Teacher 3: Other techniques can’t be employed more frequently
because of the limited time. Say-do-check is used when listening and
speaking are integrated.

94
 4. Between English and Vietnamese, which do you use more often
to give and check instructions? Why?
- Teacher 1: First language needed to be used when I attempt to
give the ideas that are abstract or a new concept.
- Teacher 3: whether it is English or Vietnamese, instructions need to
be comprehensible.
5. What kind of sentences do you use to in your instructions? What
is the most frequently used and why?
- Teacher 1: I use imperative sentences to put more emphasis on a
part or an idea. But I don’t use it too much because it made
students feel like being imposed.
- Teacher 2: On the other hand, interrogatives are used to check
students’ comprehension more often.
6. What are the difficulties that you have when giving instructions?
- Teacher 1: The teaching condition is not supportive enough.
Each class in Viet Duc high school is very large with about 50
students. Also, some students’ English proficiency is not good.
- Teacher 2: Students here lack of confidence and self discipline,
which leads to their low concentration.
- Teacher 3: Giving and checking instructions is quite time-
consuming. Forty five minutes per period are not sufficient.
7. What do you suggest to improve the teacher’s instructions in
speaking lesson?
- Teacher 1: Teacher can say the instructions in English first then
translate into Vietnamese.

95
- Teacher 2: Teacher should invest more time in preparation to
make the lessons and the instructions more interesting and
attractive.
- Teacher 3: being flexible in using the time budget as well as
trying to exploit available resources.

96