prove, 12 cadets (48%) express their interest in language games employed by the teachers in the class. Even 44% cadets showed their high excitement with language games when saying that they like language games, 2 cadets (8%) keep the neutral position when feeling normal when language games done. It can be drawn out that language games helps cadets feel relaxed and interested in the lesson. Cadets can join the activities and enjoy it, which is very important to create a language learning environment.
The second part, the writer discussed the result of the cadet’s vocabulary mastery. The data that has been analyzed above can be discussed as follows:
The result of data analysis showed that there was significance different between pre-test and post-test. It was based on the fact that the average scores of cadets in the pre-test and post-test were different. Post-test was greater than pre-test. For pre-test acquired means score 6.07. In the post-test increased to 7.11. Then, the improvement is 1.104 The result was proved. The treatment that is given was successful. It can be concluded that the application of LG can improve the cadets’ vocabulary mastery.
The mean score of the cadets obtain had high achievement in learning vocabulary by using language games. Thus, based the mean score, it can be inferred that LG was effective to improve the cadets’ vocabulary mastery of the first year of PA.
In the matter of improving the cadets’ vocabulary mastery of the first year of PA, by using LG, it can be inferred that LG was effective to use to improve the cadets’ vocabulary mastery of the first year of PA. This was proved by that that LG was given to the cadets were interested in learning vocabulary by using LG.
this study as many as 50 participant or more, since in this study only used 25 participant as the sample. Lastly, the study is in form of an action research, which cannot control effects from factors on participants' improvement. With a view to get more valid data, another study in form of an experimental research should be of interest. Hopefully, the suggestions from the research results will be of interest to teachers of English, and then more researches will be done on the application of language games in teaching the English language.
References
Hadfield, J. (1996). Elementary Communication Games. Longman: Addison Wesley Longman Ltd.
Hornby, A. S. (1995). Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford university press.
Kemmis, S. M. (1988). The Action Research Reader. Geelong. Victoria: Deakin University Press.
Lewis, M. (1993). The Lexical Approach. Hove: Language teaching publications.
Nga, V. T. (2017). Using Active Learning Techniques to Engage the Second-Year Studentsat Tran Quoc Tuan University in Vocabulary Learning. Hanoi: Military Science Academy.
Richard-Amato, P. (1996). Making It Happen. New York.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Group .
Soi, N. T. (2018). Using Active Learning Techniques To Improve Vocabulary For The Grade Five Pupils At Nhan Thang Primary School. Hanoi: Hanoi University Of Business And Technology.
Stahl, S. A. (2005). Four problems with teaching word meanings. Trong M. Kamil, & E.
Hiebert, Teaching and learning vocabulary: Bringing research to practice (trang 95).
Standford: Standford University.
Trung, N. D. (2015). A Study On The Effects Of Using Language Games To Consolidate Vocabulary For First-Year Cadets At The Political University . Hanoi:
Military Science Academy . Tóm tắt
Nghiên cứu này nhằm mục đích “Sử dụng trò chơi ngôn ngữ để nâng cao khả năng làm chủ vốn từ vựng của học viên năm thứ nhất tại Học viện Chính trị”. Mục tiêu của nghiên cứu là: (1) Tìm hiểu hiệu quả của việc sử dụng trò chơi ngôn ngữ trong việc dạy từ vựng cho học viên năm nhất tại Học viện Chính trị. (2) Điều tra thái độ của học viên đối với việc học từ vựng thông qua trò chơi ngôn ngữ tại Học viện Chính trị. Nghiên cứu này được thực hiện bằng cách sử dụng nghiên cứu hành động với bốn bước: lập kế hoạch, hành động, quan sát và phản ánh. Những người tham gia nghiên cứu này là 25 học viên lớp 56K.
Người viết lấy dữ liệu từ bài kiểm tra, bảng câu hỏi và phỏng vấn. Kết quả của nghiên cứu cho thấy có sự khác biệt đáng kể giữa điểm trung bình của bài kiểm tra trước và sau khi kiểm tra. Điểm trung bình của bài kiểm tra sau lớn hơn điểm trung bình của bài kiểm tra trước. Kết quả nghiên cứu cho thấy rằng có một sự cải thiện về khả năng làm chủ vốn từ vựng của học viên so với bài kiểm tra trước (pre-test), sau khi được dạy bằng các trò chơi ngôn ngữ. Một sự cải thiện khác là động lực và sự tham gia học tiếng Anh của họ được thể hiện qua bảng câu hỏi và phỏng vấn, các học viên cảm thấy thoải mái, thư giãn và tham gia nhiều hơn khi học từ mới bằng các trò chơi ngôn ngữ. Dựa vào những kết quả này, có thể kết luận rằng việc áp dụng các trò chơi ngôn ngữ có thể cải thiện khả năng làm chủ vốn từ vựng của học viên năm nhất tại Học viện Chính trị. Tôi hy vọng rằng nghiên cứu này sẽ có giá trị đối với những ai quan tâm đến việc sử dụng trò chơi ngôn ngữ để nâng cao khả năng làm chủ vốn từ vựng cho học viên.
Từ khóa: Trò chơi ngôn ngữ, làm chủ vốn từ vựng, nghiên cứu hành động
USING COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES TO DEVELOP SPEAKING ABILITY FOR FIRST-YEAR AIR DEFENSE ARTILLERY CADETS AT AIR DEFENSE
AND AIR FORCE ACADEMY
SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG GIAO TIẾP ĐỂ PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO HỌC VIÊN NĂM NHẤT CHUYÊN NGÀNH PHÁO PHÒNG KHÔNG TẠI HV
PHÒNG KHÔNG-KHÔNG QUÂN
Ton Hoang Duc, MA Air Defence and Air Force Academy
Abstract
This study aimed to use communicative activities to develop the speaking ability of the first-year air defense artillery (ADA) cadets at Air defense and Air force Academy. The number of participants was 33 cadets from the class of ADA. In a 10-week classroom action research, many communicative activities such as role-play, information gap, conversations, and think-pair-share activities were used to teach the first-year ADA cadets.
The research instruments were speaking pre-test and post-test, questionnaire, observation, and interview. The speaking pre-test and post-test were used to measure the cadets’
speaking ability before and after implementation. The questionnaire and observation were also employed to assess the participants’ speaking ability development and their attitudes toward the communicative activities. The post-test results revealed that the participants developed their speaking ability dramatically through using communicative activities in more than two months. The data from the questionnaire and observation showed that cadets had positive attitudes towards the communicative activities because they found them interesting, comfortable, and more relaxed. They also wished for more types of communicative activities in the future. Besides, this research is expected to help cadets develop their speaking ability, and teachers may have another valuable method to make their speaking lessons more engaging.
Keywords: communicative activities, speaking ability, action research
1. Introduction
Teaching and learning English plays an essential role in many other core areas of people’s lives, such as research, business, and commerce. In the past, a proper, standard medium of international communication has become critically needed for the countries of the modern world (Aiken, 1934). So far, to immigrate with the world, English is not only one of the compulsory subjects, but also a graduated exam in higher education. But there is
the fact that the ability to use foreign languages is not fluent, especially in students’
speaking skills.
Although English was included as a graduation exam in military academies and schools, speaking skill has revealed many problems because of the limitation of cadets in using words and expressing ideas. They seem to show their uncertainty and become withdrawn while communicating with foreigners or people who speak English. Military academies and schools (hereafter referred collectively to as schools) are no exception. The concentration in language classrooms is on grammar structures, vocabulary memorization, writing exercises and, text translation when there is little emphasis on communication practice.
Based on all the information discussed above, the researcher decided to choose this study for the reasons such as the practice of speaking skills at the Air Defense and Air Force Academy (ADAFA) needs to be improved, and creating an environment for practice plays an important role. According to Moss & Ross-Feldman (2003), second language acquisition (SLA) research shows that more learning occurs when learners are interested in relevant activities in a dynamic learning environment rather than in traditional ways. Therefore, it is necessary to have a strategy, and what the researcher chose for this study is to use communicative activities to improve cadets’ speaking ability.
In order to achieve the above aim, the study attempts to get the answers to the following questions:
Question 1: To what extent do communicative activities contribute to the improvements of ADAFA cadets’ speaking ability?
Question 2: What attitudes do the cadets have in using communicative activities to improve their speaking ability at ADAFA?
2. Literature review
Arsjad and Mukti (1988) described speaking skill as the ability to create the enunciation of sound and produce sentences, convey, state, and provide thought, concept, and feeling.
According to Harmer (2001), speaking skills have four special language features: (i) Connected speech is the sounds that change as people speak when making the utterance.
(ii) In communicating by such means, some native speakers of English use expressive devices, such as adjusting the pitch and stress of specific sections of utterances, varying volume and speed, and using facial expressions. (iii) When performing such language functions, the use of common lexical and grammatical characteristics can be found in accidental expression. And (iv) negotiation is the use of language to express and illustrate what a speaker means.
Communicative Activities
Communicative activities communicate meaning effectively by enabling a learner to talk to and listen to other participants. There are many types of communicative activities such as
information gap activities, questions, and answers, role play, games, telling stories, think-pair-share.
3. Methodology
Action research has been carried out to analyze a particular problem or procedure in a teacher’s field, where the teacher in charge would like to find a solution. It was performed with students in a class by the teacher-researcher. The researcher claims, for these reasons, that action research designed by Kemmis and McTaggart (1998) is acceptable.
This study is conducted on first-year ADA at ADAFA. A series of lectures are currently being used in the GE program of the subjects of the study. Cadets can practice all skills, particularly by speaking with their current content, as a GE-level for ADA officials and staff. To comply with the GE program, the cadets have to attend 12 lessons.
The research subject is the first-year cadets in the class of ADA at ADAFA, which consists of 33 male cadets. Because every year, there are more than 200 cadets enrolled in the Academy, and none of them are female. The class’s members were chosen by taking the entrance examination of group A1 (Mathematics, Physic, and English). All 33 cadets were in the academic year of 2020-2021, and they are from 18 to 23 years of age. Almost all of them feel unfamiliar with the military environment, which is very strict and challenging because they were high-school students from mountainous to suburban areas in Vietnam. Besides, their discrepancies in locations and forms of entry exam somehow contributed to dramatically different levels of their English. Their English ability level in the Common European Reference System is equivalent to A2 - B1 when they finish the GE program. There are various characteristics of cadets in military institutes as a whole and ADAFA. Twice a day, the cadets attend the ADAFA class. They have six periods each morning, depending on their schedule, for two or three different subjects. The afternoon provides four self-study periods in classrooms under the guidance of a platoon commander, a newly graduated officer. After that, they have to do other military duties as planned.
Four instruments, such as speaking tests, questionnaires, interviews, and observation, were deployed to address the problems.