Ứng dụng hoạt động khoảng trống thông tin nhằm tăng việc tham gia nói – nghiên cứu cải tiến đối với sinh viên chuyên anh năm nhất tại Đại học Hải Phòng

93TẠP CHÍ KHOA HỌC, Số 35, tháng 07 năm 2019
APPLYING INFORMATION-GAP ACTIVITIES TO AN EFL 
SPEAKING CLASS TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING 
PARTICIPATION - AN ACTION RESEARCH ON 1ST YEAR ENGLISH 
MAJORS AT HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY
Phan Thành Nam 
Khoa Ngoại ngữ 
Email: nampt@dhhp.edu.vn
Ngày nhận bài: 09/4/2019
Ngày PB đánh giá: 14/6/2019
Ngày duyệt đăng: 31/6/2019
ABSTRACT
The objective of this research was to improve the speaking participation and performance of the 
students in class English Major 5 – K17 (EM 5 – K17) - Foreign Language Department (FLD) - Hai 
Phong University (HPU) by using information gap activities.
The research was divided into two cycles: Cycle 1 included four meetings and Cycle 2 included two 
meetings. The data were quantitative and qualitative. The qualitative data were obtained through 
classroom observations and interviews with the teachers and the students. The quantitative data were 
obtained from observation checklists and tests (the pre-test, the progress test, and the post-test). The 
actions implemented in this research were described as information gap activities which included 
implementing classroom English in the teaching learning process, improving students’ vocabulary, 
retelling a story in front of the class, and rewarding students or groups who gave the best performance. 
The result of the research showed that the implementation of information gap activities could improve 
the students’ speaking participation and performance. 
Key words: Information Gap activities, Speaking participation, Speaking performance, Action research.
ỨNG DỤNG HOẠT ĐỘNG KHOẢNG TRỐNG THÔNG TIN NHẰM TĂNG VIỆC 
THAM GIA NÓI – NGHIÊN CỨU CẢI TIẾN ĐỐI VỚI SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN ANH 
NĂM NHẤT TẠI ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG
TÓM TẮT
Mục tiêu của nghiên cứu này là cải thiện sự tham gia và hiệu suất nói của sinh viên lớp Ngôn ngữ Anh 
5 - K17 (EM 5 - K17) - Khoa Ngoại ngữ (FLD) - Đại học Hải Phòng (HPU) bằng cách sử dụng các 
hoạt động khoảng trống thông tin.
Nghiên cứu được chia thành hai vòng: Vòng 1 bao gồm bốn cuộc gặp và Vòng 2 bao gồm hai cuộc gặp. Các 
dữ liệu đã được định lượng và định tính. Dữ liệu định tính thu được thông qua quan sát trong lớp và phỏng 
vấn giáo viên và học sinh. Dữ liệu định lượng được lấy từ và danh sách kiểm tra quan sát và kiểm tra (thử 
nghiệm trước, thử nghiệm tiến độ và sau thử nghiệm). Các hành động được thực hiện trong nghiên cứu này 
được mô tả là các hoạt động khoảng trống thông tin bao gồm triển khai thực hành tiếng Anh trên lớp trong 
94 TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG
I. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
English is becoming more and 
more essential in many fields such as 
business, education, politic, and social 
communication. As a result, more and 
more non-native English speakers, 
including Vietnamese people, are trying 
to master this language in order to meet 
the demand at work and in everyday life. 
The emphasis on learning English can be 
seen from the education curriculums of 
both general and tertiary education where 
English is a core subject and is given 
considerable time and efforts.
The mastery of speaking is the first 
concern for most of foreign language 
students. Consequently, the success of 
foreign language learners sometimes 
bases on their improvement in speaking 
(Richards, 2008).
However, the importance of speaking 
is not generally backed up by the speaking 
participation of students in reality. This 
condition also occurs in Foreign Language 
Department (FLD) at Haiphong University 
(HPU). By observing and interviewing 
the English teachers and some students 
that the researcher had worked with, 
he discovered many problems related 
to students’ psychological factors, the 
English teachers’ teaching techniques 
and the teaching/learning media. Many 
students are unable to express their ideas 
and opinions in English. They usually find 
help from notes, memorize the texts or 
read them in front of the class. They are 
hesitant, worried, nervous and anxious 
when they have to present in English with 
teacher or in front of the class. Because 
of insufficient vocabulary and lack of 
practice in pronunciation, they can not 
express what they want to say in English 
or even pronounce words correctly. As 
a result, they were lack of confident to 
speak English, especially in front of the 
class and get stuck with the low speaking 
performance. 
Moreover, during the observation 
in class English Major 5 – K17, the 
researcher saw that many students did not 
seem attentive to and enthusiastic enough 
with the teacher’s instructions in the class. 
Many students were caught chatting with 
their classmates or doing personal business 
instead of paying attention to their lessons. 
In other words, these students showed their 
physical participation but not their oral 
and mental involvement in their lessons.
In addition, sometimes communicative 
situations were not created by the  ... . 
The researcher used this program to find 
out the average scores of each speaking 
aspect. Then, the result of the analysis 
was used to identify the improvement of 
the students’ speaking skills.
IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.1. Findings from observations and 
interviews
Table 1 below presents the students’ self-
evaluation on the 16 biggest problems 
they had in their speaking lessons. The 
information revealed that almost all of 
the students shared such psychological 
problems as hesitance, shyness, 
nervousness, fears and unconfidence in 
speaking English and their dislikes of the 
boring topics and of being corrected and 
evaluated by the teacher in class. This was 
101TẠP CHÍ KHOA HỌC, Số 35, tháng 07 năm 2019
proved by the number of students with 
yes-answers to these problems varying 
between 13 to 26 equivalent to 43.3% 
to 86.6% among the total number of 30. 
Nineteen students (63.3%) reported that 
they had limited vocabulary, which led 
to their attempt to speak Vietnamese in 
English speaking lessons. Between 17 and 
23 students (56.6 % – 83.3%) mentioned 
the ineffective ways the learning activities 
were carried out in their speaking lessons.
Table 1: The students’ self - evaluation of their problems in English speaking lessons
N0 ITEMS FOR SELF-EVALUATION N0 of students got problems
1 Be hesitant to speak English 25 (83.6%)
2 Be too shy to speak in front of the class 21 (70%)
3 Be unconfident to speak 22 (73.3%)
4 Be nervous when speaking English 18 (60%)
5 Be afraid of making mistakes in speaking English 20 (66.6%)
6 Be uninterested in the topics 19 (63.3%)
7 Disliked being corrected by teacher when speaking 19 (63.3%)
8 Being afraid of being evaluated by teacher 20 (66.6%)
9 Speak Vietnamese 18 (60%)
10 Have limited vocabulary 19 (63.3%)
Table 2: The students’ self - evaluation on the way the teaching activities 
were carried out in their class
N0 ITEMS FOR SELF-EVALUATION N0 of students got problems
(Total: 30)
Let students work individually 17 (56.6%)
Call on individual students to speak 23 (76.6%)
Correct students’ mistake when they are speaking 25 (83.3%)
Not organize pair work 22 (73.3%)
Not organize group work 21 (70%)
Not use visual aids: pictures, video clips 30 (100%)
This information was coincident 
with that from the interviews with the 
teacher and the students before IGA were 
employed. First, the teacher reported 
that she had the difficulties with the 
students who had limited vocabulary, 
low competence in grammar and poor 
pronunciation, insufficient confidence 
in speaking English in class and that she 
occasionally designed pair or group work 
speaking activities in speaking lessons 
because they were time-consuming (See 
Transcript 1A). Second, the interviews 
with five students also revealed that they 
had the aforementioned problems. 
This information seemed to have given 
the satisfactory account for the results from 
Checklist II taken noted of during the first 
two observations on the student’s level of 
participation. As can be seen from Table 
6 below, only 6-10 students (20-33.3%) 
were on task while the others failed to take 
part in the lessons or did their own things 
during the lessons. These data showed the 
102 TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG
students’ low participation in class and the 
ineffectiveness of the speaking lessons.
In short, the information from 
Checklist 1 and from the first interviews 
with the teacher and the students gave 
the answer to the first research question: 
“What factors prevented students of EM 
5 – K17 majors at HPU from participating 
in speaking activities?” This led the 
researcher to the decision to choose the 
most suitable and effective solution to the 
problems.
Therefore, information gap activities 
were chosen as a practical solution to 
tackle the negative psychological factors 
and to ease the language difficulties 
which prevented the students from 
participating in speaking activities in 
class. Applied in speaking lessons in class 
EM – K17, information gap activities 
namely storytelling and retelling activities 
organized in pairs and groups proved their 
beneficial role in increasing the students’ 
oral participation in speaking classes. The 
gradual increase in the number of students 
taking part in the speaking activities in 
speaking lessons can be seen from the 
data in Table 6 below.
Table 3: The improvement on the students’ oral participation during 
 the six meetings using IGA
State
Number of students on/off task – Percentages
Meeting 1 Meeting 2 Meeting 3 Meeting 4 Meeting 5 Meeting 6
On task 11 (36.6%) 13 (43.3%) 15 (50%) 19 (63.3%) 22 (73.3%) 25 (83.3%)
Off task 19 (63.4%) 17 (56.7%) 15 (50%) 11 (26.7%) 8 (26.7%) 5 (16.7%)
As can be seen from Table 3, the 
number of students taking part in the 
speaking activities increased from 11 
(36.6%) in Meeting 1 to 19 (63.3%) in 
Meeting 4 and interestingly up to 25 
(83.3%) in Meeting 6. These results 
showed that the implementation of IGA 
has proved to be effective in enhancing the 
students’ participation in speaking classes. 
The students’ self-evaluation of their 
problems in the English speaking classes 
after Cycle 1 and 2 also provided the good 
feedback about the use of IGA. From the 
data in Table 8 below, we can see that the 
number of the students having negative 
psychological problems decreased from 
the maximum 18 - 25 60% - (83.3%) 
before the intervention down to 8 
(20.3%) – 14 (30.6%) after Cycle 2. The 
figure of the students describing their 
ineffective learning style also reduced 
from 18 (60%) – 20 (60.6%) to 8 (20.6%) 
– 13 (40.3%) after the second cycle. We 
can also see the sharp fall of the number 
of the students with the yes responses 
to the statements describing the way the 
learning activities were took place in 
their speaking classes from 21 (70%) – 
30 (100%) to 0 (0% - 12 (40%) at the end 
of Cycle 2. These data proved that the 
use of IGA helped to ease the students’ 
difficulties in their learning and they also 
showed the great improvement in the 
teacher’s teaching techniques, which in 
turn improved the students’ involvement 
in speaking classes.
103TẠP CHÍ KHOA HỌC, Số 35, tháng 07 năm 2019
Table 4: Students’ self – evaluation on the their problems after Cycle 1 and 2
N0 ITEMS FOR SELF-EVALUATION
N0 of students 
got problems
Before the 
intervention
N0 of 
students got 
problems
After Cycle 1
N0 of 
students got 
problems
After Cycle 2
1 Be hesitant to speak English 25 (83.6%) 18 (60%) 14 (46.6%)
2 Be too shy to speak in front of the class 21 (70%) 16 (50.3%) 12 (40%)
3 Be unconfident to speak 22 (73.3%) 17 (56.6%) 13 (43.4%)
4 Be nervous when speaking English 18 (60%) 12 (40%) 8 (20.6%)
5 Be afraid of making mistakes in speaking 
English
20 (66.6%) 17 (56.6%) 14 (46.6%)
6 Be uninterested in the topics 19 (63.3%) 14 (46.6%) 11 (30.6%)
7 Disliked being corrected by teacher 
when speaking
19 (63.3%) 12 (40%) 9 (30%)
8 Being afraid of being evaluated by teacher 20 (66.6%) 14 (46.6%) 9 (30%)
9 Speak Vietnamese 18 (60%) 14 (46.6%) 8 (20.7%)
10 Have limited vocabulary 19 (63.3%) 15 (50%) 13 (43.4%)
Table 5: Students’ self – evaluation on the way the teaching activities 
were carried out in their class after Cycle 1 and 2
N0 ITEMS FOR SELF-
EVALUATION
N0 of students 
got problems
Before the 
intervention
N0 of 
students got 
problems
After Cycle 1
N0 of students 
got problems
After Cycle 2
11 Let students work individually 17 (56.6%) 9 (30%) 6 (20%)
12 Call on individual students to speak 23 (76.6%) 16 (50.3%) 10 (30.3%)
13 Correct students’ mistake when they 
are speaking
25 (83.3%) 18 (60%) 12 (40%)
14 Not organize pair work 22 (73.3%) 3 (10%) 1 (3.3%)
15 Not organize group work 21 (70%) 2 (6.3%) 1 (3.3%)
16 Not use visual aids: pictures, video 
clips
30 (100%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
It is clear that the students showed 
the great improvement on both the amount 
of participation they had in the speaking 
lessons and their language performance. 
As can be seen from Table 9, in the first 
3 meetings it was observed that the 
students still experienced such negative 
psychological problems as hesitance, 
unconfidence, nervousness and fears; but 
in the next three meetings these problems 
did not seem to be the obstacles according 
to the observers’ opinions (3A/1D and 4 
D). The other difficulties related to the 
students’ language skill were reported to be 
minimized in the last three meetings. Three 
among the four observers reported that 
the students’ speaking time was longer in 
Meeting 4 and 5 and especially all of them 
agreed that the students had the longer 
speaking time in the sixth meeting, which 
once more revealed the great effectiveness 
of using IGA in the speaking lessons.
104 TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG
4.2. Findings from tests
In addition to the findings from the 
classroom observation and interviews with 
the teacher of English and the students in 
Class EM K17, to evaluate the students’ 
progress in speaking performance to 
confirm the effectiveness of applying 
Information Gap Activities, the researcher 
also conducted tests including the pre-
test, the progress test, and the post-test to 
assess the students’ speaking performance. 
The scoring process was conducted by 
the researcher and the collaborator. The 
results of the pre-test, the progress test, 
and the post-test are presented below.
Table 6: The result ofthePre-test in each aspect
Rater Fluency Accuracy Vocabulary
Rater1 1.17 1.3 1.37
Rater2 1.3 1.4 1.4
Mean Score 1.24 1.35 1.39
Table 7: The result oftheProgress test in eachaspect
Rater Fluency Accuracy Vocabulary
Rater1 2.14 2.05 2.11
Rater2 2.26 2.11 2.17
Mean Score 2.20 2.08 2.14
Table 8: The result ofthePost-test in each aspect
Rater Fluency Accuracy Vocabulary
Rater1 3.13 3.03 3.13
Rater2 3.13 3.00 3.03
Mean Score 3.13 3.01 3.08
In the Pre-test, the students’ speaking 
performance was a little poor. They could not 
speak English fluently when they exchanged 
the information about the assigned topics. 
Most of them seemed afraid of speaking 
English. They showed their limited 
vocabulary and their poor pronunciation. 
After information gap activities 
were conducted in the four meetings of 
speaking classes in Cycle 1, there could be 
seen certain improvement in the students’ 
speaking performance. 
In Cycle 2, the application of 
information gap activities in the second 
cycle proved to successfully achieve 
the goal of improving the students’ 
participation in speaking classes, which 
can be seen from the result of the 
performance of students in the post-test. 
The following table presents the 
comparison of the students’ mean scores in 
the pre-test, the progress test, and the post-
test with the gain score of each aspect.
Table 9:TheComparison oftheStudents’Mean Scores intheTests
Test Fluency Accuracy Vocabulary
Pre-test 1.24 1.35 1.39
Progress test 2.20 2.08 2.14
Post-test 3.13 3.01 3.08
Gain score 1.86 1.66 1.69
105TẠP CHÍ KHOA HỌC, Số 35, tháng 07 năm 2019
As can be seen from the table above, 
the students’ mean scores in the speaking 
aspects increased after the information 
gap activities were applied in the teaching 
- learning process. The students’ mean 
scores in fluency increased 1.86 from 
1.24 in the pre- test to 3.13 in the post-
test. The accuracy aspect increased from 
1.35 in the pre-test to 3.01 in the post-test. 
The students’ mean scores in vocabulary 
aspect also increased 1.69 from 1.39 in 
the pre-test to 3.08 in the post-test. The 
general findings of the students’ mean 
scores in the pre-test, the progress test, 
and the post-test are presented in the 
following table.
Table 10:Thegeneral findings ofthestudents’mean scores inthetests
Pre-test Progress test Post-test Gain score
Mean 
Scores
1.33 2.14 3.07 1.74
According to the information presented 
in thetable, it can be seen that there was 
great improvement in the students’ mean 
scores from the pre-test, the progress test, 
and finally the post-test. The table also 
revealed that the students’ mean scores in 
the post-test was higher than those in the 
pre-test and in the progress test. The gain 
score was 1.74. In conclusion, the results 
from the three tests once more confirmed 
the students’ improvement in speaking 
performance in pairs and groups which 
resulted from the effectiveness of using 
information gap activities.
V. CONCLUSION
The research was conducted on 
April 2017 with a view to improving the 
speaking participation of the first year 
English majors at Foreign Language 
Department of Hai Phong University by 
using information gap activities. From the 
analysis of the findings of the research 
in the previous chapter, it can be stated 
that the use of information gap activities 
successfully enhanced the students’ 
speaking participation. In other words, 
the progress of the students’ speaking 
participation was greatly attributed 
to the implementation of information 
gap activities in the teaching - learning 
process. This can be seen in the following 
analysis.
Firstly, being conducted in pairs and/
or in groups, the information gap activities 
created more chances for the students to 
practice their speaking by enabling them 
to interact with the other friends. 
Secondly, the improvement could be 
seen from the teaching learning process. 
Thirdly, the students’ vocabulary 
became much richer than it used to be. 
One more conclusion is that during the 
application of Information Gap Activities, 
the teachers had many difficulties in time 
management and class management. As 
discussed in the previous chapter, while 
the students working in pairs and groups 
they were making a lot of unexpected 
noise and it was not easy to overcome 
this problem. Another difficulty for the 
teachers is that these activities are very 
time-consuming, so the teacher hardly 
meets the time requirements. Instead of 
carrying everything in class, the teachers 
have to set the final part of the lesson as 
homework.
106 TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG
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2. Li, Y. (2005). Speaking Activities: Five 
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and methods in language teaching, 2.
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