A STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CONTEXTUAL TEACHING AND LEARNING IN MOTIVATING HONG QUANG 11th FORM STUDENTS TO SPEAK ENGLISH

Abstract

Despite the awareness of the speaking skill’s dominant role in using English, the majority of Vietnamese high school students still do not pay much attention to this skill due to the lack of interest in speaking English. In this study, Contextual Teaching and Learning is put forward as an effective teaching method in motivating them to speak English. The study was implemented in 11th form classes at Hong Quang High School in Hai Duong City with the participation of two English teachers and ninety-six students. The key aim of this study is to discover whether Contextual Teaching and Learning can motivate the students to speak English better than Audio-Lingual Method which is the most prevalent teaching method at this high school. To achieve this aim, a quasi-experimental research design was applied with three research instruments namely teacher interview, questionnaire and classroom observation. After each of the three speaking lessons which were observed by the researcher, the two teachers were interviewed about their teaching method’s effects on the students’ motivation to speak and the questionnaires were also completed by the students. The result of data analysis showed that in all three lessons, students’ cognition was higher appreciated by their teachers and the researcher when learning with Contextual Teaching and Learning rather than Audio-Lingual Method. Additionally, the number of students who felt interested and confident in speaking English and behaved ardently in class with Contextual Teaching and Learning was always much larger than that one in class with Audio-Lingual Method. The findings enable the researcher to conclude that Contextual Teaching and Learning is an effective teaching method in motivating Hong Quang 11th form students to speak English.