Applying english drama project to foster naturally speaking skill and individuals involvement in grop work activities of students at school of foreign languages.pdf

1. VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
*********************
VŨ THỊ QUYÊN
APPLYING ENGLISH DRAMA PROJECT TO FOSTER NATURALLY
SPEAKING SKILL AND INDIVIDUAL’S INVOLVEMENT IN GROUP
WORK ACTIVITIES OF STUDENTS AT SCHOOL OF FOREIGN
LANGUAGES, THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
Sử dụng đề án Kịch nhằm thúc đẩy kỹ năng nói tự nhiên và sự tham gia hoạt
động nhóm của sinh viên Khoa Ngoại Ngữ, Đại Học Thái Nguyên
M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60140111
Hanoi, 2014

2. VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
*********************
VŨ THỊ QUYÊN
APPLYING ENGLISH DRAMA PROJECT TO FOSTER NATURALLY
SPEAKING SKILL AND INDIVIDUAL’S INVOLVEMENT IN GROUP
WORK ACTIVITIES OF STUDENTS AT SCHOOL OF FOREIGN
LANGUAGES, THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
Sử dụng đề án Kịch nhằm thúc đẩy kỹ năng nói tự nhiên và sự tham gia hoạt
động nhóm của sinh viên Khoa Ngoại Ngữ, Đại Học Thái Nguyên
M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60140111
SUPERVISOR: DƯƠNG ĐỨC MINH, Ph.D.
Hanoi, 2014

3. i
DECLARATION
This thesis is a presentation of my original research work. Wherever contributions
of others are involved, every effort is made to indicate this clearly, with due reference to
the literature, and acknowledgement of collaborative research and discussions. The work
was done under the guidance of my supervisor, Dr. Duong Duc Minh, at the University of
Languages and International Studies, VNU.
Student‟s name
Vu Thi Quyen

4. ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to give my cordial thanks to Dr. Duong Duc Minh for his kind
guidance that he provided me as my supervisor. I particularly appreciate his helpful
advice, insightful comments and most of all his endless patience.
My thanks also go to all my lecturers from Vietnam National University for their
valuable lectures which help me to orient the research.
I am most thankful to all my colleagues and undergraduate students at Thai Nguyen
School of Foreign Languages for their support in data collection.
Finally my special thanks go to my parents, my husband and my son, for their love
and support throughout this study. Without their encouragement I could not have
completed this thesis.

5. iii
ABSTRACT
During a long time, implement of English Drama Project in English Language
Teaching classes has been increased all over the world. Many researches have been carried
out to investigate its benefits on students‟ learning English. However, very little empirical
research has been conducted to evaluate advantages that the Project brings to students. The
aims of the study were therefore investigating the ways that English Drama Project impacts
on students‟ natural speaking skill and their contribution to their team work. Two groups of
students were taught speaking by two different methods: one group was taught in a
traditional way and the other was taught with a company of English Drama Project. Two
groups were assessed in the same way after a five-week experiment. Results of the
assessment showed significant differences in the two groups: the group taught with English
Drama Project got better results for the speaking test and better involvement in their
teamwork. It is suggested that English Drama Project should be taught to all students
whose major is English at Thai Nguyen School of Foreign Languages.
Key words: English Drama Project, natural speaking skill, teamwork.

6. iv
TABLES OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION………………………………………………………………………….I
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT............................................................................................................. iii
TABLES OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................... iv
LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS .............................................................................. vi
LISTS OF CHARTS AND TABLES.................................................................... vii
PART A: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................1
1. Rationale for the Study.....................................................................................1
2. Aims of the Study ..............................................................................................2
3. Research Questions ...........................................................................................2
4. Scope of the Study .............................................................................................2
5. Methods..............................................................................................................2
6. Design of the Study............................................................................................3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT.....................................................................................4
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................4
2.1. Drama Project ................................................................................................4
2.2. Drama Benefits in English Language Teaching..........................................5
2.2.1 Motivation.................................................................................................5
2.2.2 Meaning in Context..................................................................................6
2.2.3 Psychological Benefits..............................................................................7
2.3 Drama and Naturally Speaking Skill ............................................................8
2.3.1 Naturally Speaking Skill..........................................................................8
2.3.2 Roles of Drama in Speaking Skill...........................................................8
2.4. English Drama Project and Students’ Group Working Ability ..........11
2.5. Previous Studies in the world and in Vietnam ......................................11

7. v
CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY........................................................................14
3.1. Participants...................................................................................................14
3.2. Setting of the Study......................................................................................14
3.3. Data Collection .............................................................................................16
3.3.1. Data collection instruments..................................................................16
3.3.2. Data Collection Procedures..................................................................18
3.3.3. Data analysis procedure .......................................................................19
CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ................................................20
4.1. Findings.........................................................................................................20
4.1.1. Influence of English Drama Project to Students‟ Speaking Skill...........20
4.1.2. English Drama Project and Students‟ Involvement in Group Working .24
4.1.3. More Findings on the Impacts of English Drama Project.......................27
4.2. Discussion......................................................................................................28
4.2.1. English Drama Project and Students‟ Speaking .....................................28
4.3. Pedagogical Implication...............................................................................31
PART C: CONCLUSION.......................................................................................33
5.1 Conclusion......................................................................................................33
5.2 Limitation of the Study.................................................................................33
5.3 Suggestions for Further Study.....................................................................34
REFERENCES........................................................................................................35
APPENDIX………………………………………………………………………...I

8. vi
LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS
TNSFL: Thai Nguyen School of Foreign Languages
ELT: English Language Teaching
EDP: English Drama Project
EFL: English as a Foreign Language
ESL: English as a Second Language
L1: English as the First Language

9. vii
LISTS OF CHARTS AND TABLES
Chart 1: Students‟ Scores for Fluency and Coherence
Chart 2: Students‟ Scores for Lexical Resource
Chart 3: Students' Speaking Overall Scores
Chart 4: Students‟ Contributing Positive Ideas in Team Discussions
Chart 5: Students‟ Sharing Positive Ideas and Feedbacks in Team Discussions
Table 1: Students‟ Scores for Grammar Range and Accuracy
Table 2: Students‟ Scores for Pronunciation
Table 3: Students‟ Scores for Non-verbal Language
Table 4: Students‟ Self Assessment on Teamwork Contribution
Table 5: Students‟ Contribution to Their Teamwork from the Observations
Table 6: Students‟ Co-operation through Classroom Observations
Table 7: Students‟ Quality of Work from the Observations

10. 1
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale for the Study
In learning a language, speaking is one of the most important language skills since
it is the most common and important means of providing communication among human
beings. The key to successful communication is speaking nicely, efficiently and
articulately, as well as using effective voice projection, speaking is linked to success in
life, as it occupies an important position both individually and socially (Ulas, 2008).
When learners are engaged in group work, they can learn by exchanging
information with other group mates in a socially structured way. Learners will be not only
responsible for their own learning but also able to learn from each other (Olsen & Kagan,
1992, Breen & Littlejohn, 2000). Littlewood also shows that most learners favor “learning
contexts in which they work together with others towards common goals and in which their
success also benefits others” (Littlewood, 2002, p.38).
Many investigations on the advantages and benefits that educational drama
activities bring to students in English Language Teaching (ELT) classes have been
conducted over the world for a few last decades. In 1969, Hoetker stated that drama
increases creativity, orginality, sensitivity, fluency, flexibility, emotional stability,
cooperation and examination of mortal attitudes while developing communication skills
(Hoetker, 1969). Ratliff (2001) indicates that Drama enhances students‟ reading, writing
and listening skills. Davies and Pearse (2002) agree with Hoetker by stating that drama is a
way of encouraging students to improve their communication skills. It can not be denied
that drama brings students chances to improve not only their language skills namely
listening, speaking, reading and writing but also their creativity, sensitivity, flexibility,
emotional stability, cooperation. In other words, drama activities can help students to learn
language well (Bas, 2008).
Even though English Drama Project (EDP) has been applied in EFL classes over
the world for quite a long time, it seems to be pretty new in Vietnam. Thai Nguyen School
of Foreign Languages (TNSFL) is one of the leading institutions in Vietnam who has been
implementing EDP as one of the studying projects in the curriculum and the project is
likely highly interested in by most of students since the Project helps them much in
building speaking skill and group working. However, there is little empirical research on

11. 2
applying EDP in teaching has been conducted to help students‟ speaking skill and team
working increased at Thai Nguyen University.
With all the reasons above, it is necessary to conduct this study to investigate the
ways that EDP impacts on students‟ speaking skill and team working in EFL classes at
TNSFL.
2. Aims of the Study
The study is conducted with two aims:
First, the study aims at investigating how EDP benefits students speaking skill.
Second, the study aims at investigating the way that EDP benefits their contribution
in their teamwork.
3. Research Questions
The research is going to find the answers to the research question “How can EDP
help French-English students at TNSFL foster their speaking skill and team working?”
4. Scope of the Study
As mentioned above, EDP can have students‟ all four language skills and soft skills
improved. However, the main aims of EDP at TNSFL are to provide students with chances
of promoting their speaking skill and group working ability; hence, in this study, the
researcher mainly focuses on students‟ natural speaking skill and their contribution in team
working in the Project. The study is also conducted on second year students majoring at
French-English at TNSFL.
5. Methods
The researcher borrows the experimental method to conduct the study due to the
reason that “the experiment involves control and careful observation and measurement, this
research method provides the most convincing evidence of the effect that one variable has
on another.” The previous researchers also defined the experimental research as “a
scientific investigation in which the researcher manipulates one or more independent
variables, controls any other relevant variables, and observes the effect of the
manipulations on the dependent variable(s). An experimenter deliberately and
systematically introduces change and then observes the consequences of that change” and
“the goal of experimental research is to determine whether a causal relationship exists
between two or more variables. (Ary, Jacobs, Razavieh, & Sorensen, 2009, p.265)

12. 3
Zimney also defines an experiment as “an objective observation of phenomena
which are made to occur in a strictly controlled situation in which one or more factors are
varied and the others are kept constant.” Zimney (1961, p.18). In the current study,
“phenomena” is the changing in students‟ speaking skill and team working. The
“variables” or “varied factor” is applying EDP instead of the traditional way of teaching
speaking while the number of students and their gender are kept constant.
In other words, in this study, EDP is the “independent variable” while speaking and
team working abilities of thirty two second year French-English students are “dependent
variables”. The goal of the study is determining whether EDP can improve the students‟
speaking skill and their teamwork skill.
6. Design of the Study
The study is divided into 3 parts
Part A: Introduction presents rationale, aims, research hypothesis, the scope, the
study method, and the design of the study.
Part B: Development in which literature review with brief and most remarkable
issues on EDP, its values on students‟ speaking and group working are presented. The
chapter also performs details in methodology, findings and discussion.
Part C: Conclusion gives a brief review of the whole study and some limitations
of the study and suggestions for further study.

13. 4
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter is going to present definition of EDP and EDP at TNSFL, its values in
EFL classes, its influence on speaking skill and team working.
2.1. Drama Project
Drama is defined by many different authors in many ways. Holden defines drama
as "any kind of activity where learners are asked either to portray themselves or to portray
someone else in an imaginary situation". In other words, drama is concerned with the
world of "let's pretend"; it asks the learner to project himself imaginatively into another
situation, outside the classroom, or into the skin and person of another person" (Holden,
1982, p.14). Merriam-Webster also shares the same idea with Holden in defining drama as
a composition in verse or prose intended to portray life or character or to tell a story
usually involving conflicts and emotions through action and dialogue and typically
designed for theatrical performance.
Drama defined by Bolton and Neelands as an activity in which teacher and students
invent and enact dramatic situations for themselves rather than for an outside audience.
This activity, perhaps most widely known as drama education, has also been called
classroom drama (Bolton, 1992, 1998, 2007; Neelands, 2008).
By definition, a drama is a story enacted on stage for a live audience,
Wessels distinguishes drama from theatre as “drama in education uses the same tools
employed by actors in the theatre. But while in the theatre, everything is contrived for the
benefit of the audience, in classroom drama, everything is contrived for the benefit of the
learners.” (Wessels, 1987, p.8). The distinction between drama and theatre is also made by
Dervishaj when he states that in the classroom, drama is often referred to creative
dramatics and focuses on the process of dramatic enactment for the sake of the learner,
while theatre arts mainly focus on entertaining and relaxing audience. In classroom drama,
students do not learn about drama, but they learn through drama combs” (Dervishaj, 2009).
It can be inferred from all above that theater is performed on stages in cinema and
theaters and it functions as a means of entertainment, however, drama in language
classroom is often found to promote students‟ learning. No mater how drama is defined,
drama is a helpful and educational activity in which students play the roles of actors or

14. 5
actresses to portray dramatic characters under the teachers‟ guide. Moreover, besides
taking roles of actors and actresses, students are also required to do many other works of
playwrights, editors and directors in EDP. In other words, they are ordered to do many
things including writing the scenarios, editing them and rehearsing as well as performing
the play in groups. These tasks result them in improving all their language skills and group
working ability.
Regarding types of drama, Dervishaj states some kinds of educational drama
namely mining, role play (which includes dramatic plays, story dramatization and socio-
drama, seminar style presentation, debates and interview), simulation and improvisation
(Dervishaj, 2009). Basing on the classification, EDP at TNSFL may be classified either
dramatic plays or story dramatization since students are allowed either to write plays based
on available stories or create their own stories.
At TNSFL, EDP which accounts for two credits, is a dependent subject and is
taught for students majoring at English Language or English Education. In the Project,
students work in groups of four or five and they are responsible for writing a play,
practicing it and performing it at the end of the term. In EDP, students are required to
reveal all their four language skills, yet their speaking skill and team working ability are
mainly focused on.
2.2. Drama Benefits in English Language Teaching
Recently, educators have started to explore the use of drama as an integrated
way of learning the curriculum. According to Fleming, “drama is a learner-centered
approach” (Fleming, 2006, pp.54-64), so it allows learners to become active
participants in the learning and teaching process. It should be emphasized that “drama is
a communicative language-learning technique because it is student-centered and meaning-
based and it is “fun but not unstructured” (Sarah, 2000, p.133). It can not be denied that
there are many researches showing the values of EDP in ELT. Below, the present
researcher is going to show some of the most remarkable benefits of EDP in EFL classes.
2.2.1 Motivation
EDP is said to inspirit students to learn English. Good motivation is one of the
necessary factors for efficient learning. Harmer defines motivation as “some kind of
internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something.” (Harmer,

15. 6
2001, p.51). In 2007, he also emphasized that “Drama gives students the chance to learn by
doing because EDP‟s stage is a place “where students are involved in experimentation in
order to arrive at knowledge” (Harmer, 2007, p.20).
In a study in 1990, Gaudart asserts that drama techniques help teachers to organize
the class well and to engage all the students more actively in the English learning process
(Gaudart, 1990, p.235). In 2008, Schiller (2008) also claimed that drama games or drama
activities could encourage some at-risk students who were at low level to communicate
with others and express themselves bravely.
The use of drama undoubtedly represents one of the methods of work used by
teachers to provoke intrinsic motivation. Not only does it help to build a good teacher-
student relationship, but it also actively engages all the students at all the time, therefore
“in a sense, motivation is not needed when working through drama, because the enjoyment
comes from imaginative personal involvement.” The researchers further explain that
“drama activities also help students to get rid of the diffidence and boredom that come
from being forced to stay passive most of the time”. (Maley & Duff, 2005, p.13).
EDP can provide students with internal motivation which helps them to increase
their love for English and it also makes their studying results improved even they are at
risk level.
2.2.2 Meaning in Context
Drama brings students into real contexts; as a result, they can acquire the language
faster in an active way. Desiatova indicates that drama is an ideal way to encourage
learners to guess the meaning of unknown language in a context. Learners will need to use
a mixture of language structures and functions if they want to communicate successfully
(Desiatova, 2009).
Harmer (2007) also claims “meaning of language depends on where it occurs
within a larger stretch of discourse, and thus the relationship that the different language
elements have with what comes before and after them. In other words, speakers and writers
have to be able to operate with more than just words and grammar; they have to be able to
string utterances together” (Harmer, 2007, p.59). He also emphasizes his statement by
claiming that drama represents an ideal method of work if teachers want to put the
meaning for students into a sizeable context. Unlike in guided practice, students are

16. 7
involved in real communication while they “activate language to communicate real
meaning, rather than just practicing language” (Harmer, 2007, p.270). Wheeler also
suggests that drama is an effective tool to help teachers create more experiential learning
tasks and offer “purposeful and contextualized activities” (Wheeler, 2001, p.24).
To sum up, context is very important in communication. Utterances may have no
meaning without context and context is created in EDP, as a result, it may be concluded
that EDP is one of channels that make speakers‟ utterances understandable and
meaningful.
2.2.3 Psychological Benefits
Drama can help students to overcome the psychological barrier from speaking in a
foreign language because it is a kind of stress-free, fun teaching that encourages pupils to
participate without embarrassment” (Hamilton & McLeod, 1993, p.4).
Hamilton and McLeod describe drama as a process of social learning by
getting student to be involved in relations with others, it promotes social and adaptive
skills in the process of learning a foreign language. Learners are encouraged to explore
themselves and their reactions in relation to the outside world in a way which can be both
strengthening and enriching. (Hamilton and McLeod, 1993, p.5)
Additionally, Sam (1990) indicates that drama activities can be used to provide
opportunities for the students to be involved actively. Davies (1990) agrees that when
students dramatize, they use all the channels (sight, hearing, and physical bodies) and each
student will draw to the one that suits them best. In other words, students will all be
actively involved in the activity and the language will "enter" through the channel most
appropriate for them. Via, Stern, Kao & O'Neill (1998) agree with Davies by stating that
drama increases in students‟ self-esteem, self-confidence because “by taking a role,
students can escape from their everyday identity and "hide behind" another character.
When students are given special roles, they are encouraged to abandon their shyness”.
Davies (1990) also shows other psychological and social benefits including developing
problem-solving skills, working well in groups, and taking more risks.
Generally speaking, the most important aim of education drama is the overall
development of a personal and social aspect of learner‟s personality. Drama stimulates
creativity, imagination and also critical thinking as students are often asked to find

17. 8
solutions to diverse problems. It also improves students‟ self-esteem and self-confidence
because they are capable of performing in front of the audience, although the audiences are
their classmates. Moreover, education drama forms students‟ learning autonomy.
2.3 Drama and Naturally Speaking Skill
2.3.1 Naturally Speaking Skill
In the last century, naturally speaking was believed to be “accompanied by greater
overt motor activity that occurs in several non-speaking activities. The increase is
especially marked for gestures (Kimura, 1973, p.43). Whitear (1998) also states that
speaking is not only about words, structure and pronunciation, but also feelings.
Nunan suggests that in language lessons-especially at the beginning and
intermediate levels – learners must be given opportunities to develop both their fluency and
accuracy. He also defines the terms “accuracy” and “fluency” in speaking skill. Accuracy
is the extent to which students‟ speech matches what people actually say when they use the
target language. Fluency is the extent to which speakers use the language quickly and
confidently, with few hesitations or unnatural pauses, false starts, word researches, etc
(Nunan, 2003, p.55).
In 2009, the definition of naturally speaking was defined again by Heidegger as
“Natural speaking means speaking as it always takes place initially and for the most part,
and where other mode of speaking with the world is at hand, namely the scientific mode”
(Heidegger, 2009, p.18).
From these definitions of speaking, a definition of naturally speaking should be
made for this research only. Although speaking naturally does not necessarily mean
speaking like a native speaker, naturally speaking should be accompanied with accuracy,
fluency and feelings (or emotion) with the help of non-verbal expression. In other words,
naturally speaking is the ability of making quick, accurate and confident verbal reaction in
a certain context with good non-verbal language.
2.3.2 Roles of Drama in Speaking Skill
Smith noted that although drama has existed as a potential language teaching tool
for hundreds of years, its applicability as a language learning technique to improve oral
skills has come to the forefront (Smith, 1984, p.51). Bas (2008) claimed that drama
activities can help students to communicate well. It offers great opportunities for them to

18. 9
communicate with others even when they have limited vocabulary. Phillips encourages
teachers using drama in second language teaching because “it encourages children to speak
and gives them the chance to communicate, even with limited language, using non-verbal
communication, such as body movements and facial expressions” (Phillips, 2003, p.6). In
short, drama can help students improve their both verbal and nonverbal communication.
Benefits that drama brings to students are presented in detail below.
It is believed that drama motivates students to speak. Maley & Duff shows the
reasons why learners are not willing to speak “the problem of not wanting to speak or,
more often, not knowing what to say is practically resolved because the activity
makes it necessary to talk” (Maley & Duff, 2005, pp.13-14). Students with low proficiency
and low confidence can be benefited from drama, just like “good” students. Hamilton &
McLeod also state that drama provides students with a broad range of opportunities in
learning English and drama motivates them to learn speaking English and gives them more
confidence to speak English (Hamilton & McLeod, 1993, p.23). Drama can also bring
motivation to less confident students to speak up before the class “even some students who
do not have confidence to speak up in public are willing to join in the drama activities.
They have a lot of fun and become creative and often able to speak naturally.” (Guida,
1995, p.33). Before Guida, Pietro (1987) says that students who are not naturally talkative
often appear more willing to join in the discourse in drama activity when they realize that
they are not dominated by a teacher. Additionally, Desiatova (2009) discusses “drama
gives learners an experience of using the language for genuine communication and real
life purposes; and by generating a need to speak. In short, drama provides students
need and good chances to speak. It is drama that pushes students to speak even they are not
confident or not naturally talkative.
Drama helps students‟ speaking more emotional and fluent. Gomez finds that steps
by steps, drama can help students enhance their speaking skill more emotional, accurate
and fluent by learning syntax and fundamentals then sounds and idioms (Gomez, 2010,
p.30). Whitear (1998) believed that speaking is not only about words, structure and
pronunciation, but also feelings, motivations and meanings that are valuable benefits for
bringing drama to the language learner. Moreover, it is known that one of the requirements
of naturally speaking is emotion which is expressed by gestures, facial expressions which

19. 10
really matches with Wagner‟s idea when he indicates that drama requires students to
produce appropriate words emotionally by using gestures and facial expressions. Students
can be free to act and create the character that they want to be (Wagner, 2002).
Furthermore, drama activities can provide students with an opportunity to use language to
express various emotions. Drama activities are also useful in the development of oral
communication skills, and reading and writing as well. These ideas also were discussed by
Barbu (2007) when he claims that using drama to teach English results in real
communication, involving ideas, emotions, feelings, appropriateness and adaptability.
Verriour says “as pedagogical process, drama can provide the means for connection
student‟s emotions and cognition” (Verriour, 1985, p.150). O‟Gara (2008) also shares the
same ideas with Verriour by stating that drama motivates students to be involved in the
language class emotionally and cognitively. Moreover, Vernon also supports the view that
this conversational use of language also promotes fluency. He states that while learning a
play, students are encouraged to listen to, potentially read and then repeat their lines over a
period of time. By repeating the words and phrases they become familiar with them and are
able to say them with increasing fluency by encouraging self-expression, drama motivates
students to use language confidently and creatively. (Vernon, 2009, p.2)
Drama is a good methodology to increase students‟ pronunciation. Goodwin (2001)
states that drama is a particularly effective tool for pronunciation teaching because various
components of communicative competence (discourse, intonation, pragmatic awareness,
non-verbal communication) can be practiced in an integrated way. Gomez (2010) showed
that drama activity combines action and entertainment for students while achieving the
teaching goals. Students don‟t only have fun but also learn a variety of components from
acting the story, like how to make an English accent or imitate voices and intonations. Mok
believes that drama, which “integrates language use in a meaningful way”, can give
“students the opportunity to use the language to perform tasks and to integrate their
knowledge of form and function, as well as their ability to express themselves using
appropriate stress, intonation and pronunciation”. (Mok, 2001, p.26)
In summary, Drama brings many benefits to speaking skill. Students are motivated
to speak and provided chances of promoting their speaking accuracy, fluency,
pronunciation (including intonation, stress) and emotion through Drama.

20. 11
2.4. English Drama Project and Students’ Group Working Ability
Larson and LaFasto (1989) define a team as a unit of two or more people who
interact and co-ordinate their work to accomplish a specific goal. Northouse defines team
as “organizational groups composed of members who are independent, who share common
goals, and who must co-ordinate their activities to accomplish these goals” (Northouse,
2001, p.161).
Individuals‟ team working ability is also taken concern in EDP besides speaking
skill. However, there has been a little empirical research that investigates the impacts of
EDP on students‟ involvement in their team working. Sam (1990) indicates that group
work is an effective form in drama activities, which takes every student‟s initiative to
process the learning. Students who have strong linguistic aptitude can take important roles
while the low level students also can be engaged in by taking the subsidiary role. He
concluded that group work is encouraged by drama activity. Davies & Pearse (2002) also
admit that drama can increase the individual practice and develop students‟ autonomy
because they will become more engaged in communication and interaction through group
work. O‟Gara (2008) shares his agreement with the two researchers by stating that drama
is essential for students to work together and interact with others. It offers a good
opportunity to carry out task-based learning.
In short, although researches on drama‟s influence on students‟ ability of working
in team are limited, all authours share same ideas by indicatinting that drama encourages
students to develop their creativity, strengthen their confidences, as well as improve the
ability to cooperate with others.
2.5. Previous Studies in the world and in Vietnam
The early, Heathcote (collected writings, 1984) and Bolton (collected writings, 1984)
encouraged teachers to integrate the theatre into L1 classroom. Bolton, in particular,
championed the use of drama in classes for all subjects, making it "the centre of the
curriculum”. These ideas soon transferred to ESL practitioners and gained many proponents.
As early as 1973, in fact, Hines commented that drama, and especially role play,
has long been recognized as a valuable and valid means of mastering a language. Pioneers
in the field of ESL/EFL include Via (1976), Maley & Duff (1982), and Smith (1984), who
all published books based on their experiences as language teachers who have used drama

21. 12
in their classrooms. In these books, both theory and practice are performed. Via's students
have acted in plays during his whole career as an ESL teacher. Smith speaks to practicing
teachers and develops an analogy between L1 actors and ESL students as well as provides
many communicative theatrical activities. Maley & Duff also collect myriad activities and
offer advice on how to use them. These authors are followed by more and more others who
also encourage the use of drama in the language classroom. Wessels' Drama (1987) is a
very practical book that provides rationale for using drama as well as a number of
activities. She also offers suggestions of how a class might go about staging a play in the
target language and describes one such experience that she had with a class. Porter
Ladousse (1987) published a similarly useful book, hers devoted to role plays, with
justification and many examples. Some professional books also discuss the theories behind
theatre techniques and language learning. Half of the volume edited by Byram and Fleming
(1998) is devoted to describing how teachers have used drama to promote cultural
understanding and awareness among their students. In a different vein, Kao & O'Neill
(1998) explain the technique and the merits of process drama, an extended role play
activity that uses integrated skills to involve the whole class. Brauer has edited a volume
about the connections among language, writing, and drama. Books with practical drama
activities for teachers continue to emerge as well. Another book by Hess - All the World's
a Stage will offer more suggestions of activities. Other general books for teachers also
include suggestions for theatrical activities, like Woodward's Fun With Grammar (1996),
written to accompany the Azar ESL/EFL grammar books.
In recent years, drama also has been encouraged to be used in ELT classes by many
researchers namely Wheeler (2001), Wagner (2002), Sun, (2003), Littlewood (2002),
Maley and Duff (2005), Harmer (2007), Ulas (2008), Dervishaj (2009), Desiatova (2009),
and Gomez (2010). All of them use drama technique in their language classroom and in
their scientific products, they admit the benefits that drama beings to students and they also
guide readers the way to apply drama in teaching and learning English.
Despite of the booming of education drama activities in ELT classes over the
world, in Vietnam EDP seems to be quite unpopular since it is highly likely that there are
not so many researches on applying Drama Project for EFL classes. The researcher could
find only one master thesis named “Using a drama project to give students opportunities to

22. 13
be communicative” by Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã from College of Social and Humanities- VNU in
2005. In the research paper, she made an experiment to investigate the way that students
are encourage to orally communicate. The result shows that EDP can motivate students to
speak before the public.
In summary, EDP has been used as a teaching methodology in ELT classes by
many teachers over the world. Drama is also admitted to be able to motivate students‟ to
speak naturally with accuracy, fluency and good gestures. Moreover, EDP also provides
students with chances to sharpening their ability of working with other people in teams.

23. 14
CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY
3.1. Participants
The participants of the study were thirty-two second year students who are studying
both French and English at TNSFL as their majors. They were selected due to two reasons.
First, EDP has been applied for students of English Education and English Language while
French-English, Russian-English and Chinese-English students always desire to embody
the Project. Second, although both French and English are Latin language and they may
have a lot of similarities, their pronunciations are much different. However, when studying
English, students of French and English classes may get many difficulties in speaking
English while EDP is expected to help students‟ speaking skill more advanced.
Accidently, all participants of the study are females between 18 to 20 years old and
they have just finished their first year at TNSFL. As the number of second-year students in
the French-English class is limited, all of them were invited to the research. They were
assigned randomly into group A as the control group and Group B as the experimental
group with 16 participants in each group. Furthermore, in this research, there was a
homogeny of gender because all subjects shared the same gender.
3.2. Setting of the Study
The study was conducted at TNSFL in the summer holiday 2014 in five weeks
from 23rd
Jun to 2nd
August with nine meetings. (Appendix 1)
In the first meeting on Monday 23rd
Jun 2014, all students were invited to
the room A201 at TNSFL and they were randomly selected into Group A and B. After that,
Groups A and B were also randomly divided into eight smaller groups numbered from 1 to
4 in Group A and from 5 to 8 in Group B. Due to the subdivision, in the following parts,
the researcher would like to replace the term “small group” by “team” to avoid confusion
with Group A and Group B. In other words, Group A consisted of teams 1, 2, 3 and 4
while the teams 5, 6, 7, and 8 belonged to Group B. When this step was accomplished, the
students in Group A were allowed to go home. Group B were informed the Project, after
that they were as asked to read stories or novels at home to select the one they were most
interested in and to write a draft for the first scene of the play after they had been guided
the way to write a drama scene. In the meeting, the researcher also informed them the way
to work together. Because of the time limitation in the meetings, the researcher did not

24. 15
have time to check their writing at class, as a result, after each meeting, the teams had to
accomplish the assigned work before the next meeting and they were required to email the
researcher their work before the following meeting. The researcher checked their scenario
and gave the teams comments and guided them to do next steps in the homework checking
section which usually lasted for about 30 minutes at the beginning of each meeting. In turn,
they did not have homework as Group A. In other words, students in Group A were
required to practice speaking with some IELTS speaking tests as homework. In the
homework checking section, the students in Group A were called out to perform the
homework while Group B were guided to do the next parts of the Project.
In the experiment, the book “Direct to IELTS” by Sam Mc Carter was
implemented as the textbook for the both groups because of two main reasons. Firstly,
according to the National Foreign Language Project 2020, students graduating from
University should have reached C1, and IELTS seems to be very common to students at
TNSFL. Secondly, in the second year, students at TNSFL are taught IELTS strategies for
listening in listening lessons. Hence, teaching them with IELTS speaking does not bring
challenges to them, yet does bring them good preparation for C1 target before their
graduation.
It should be made clear that meetings with Group A and Group B happened
separately in the same room and same days but different time. The meetings were hold in
room A201 at TNSFL on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays; however, the lessons for
Group A began at 7:30 am and finished at 9:00 am while those for Group B lasted from
9:30 am to 11:00 am. The experiment lasted for three weeks and was divided into two
stages. The first stage consisted of four meetings in which Groups shared the same
contents in each lesson but different homework. In the second stage, the four other
meetings were held and there were some small differences in contents and homework
between the two groups. The posttest taken on the 2nd
August 2014 marked the end of the
experiment.

25. 16
3.3. Data Collection
3.3.1. Data collection instruments
The researcher used the post-test to measure changes in the students‟ speaking skill.
Additionally, a self-peer assessment form and sixteen observations were utilized to
investigate their involvement in group work.
3.3.1.1 Post-test
Campbell & Stanley (1963, pp.171-246) gives two advantages of pre-test and post-
test. First, it provides tight scientific control over threats to internal validity, thus allowing
it to be classified as a "true experimental design." Second, it is a versatile design. While it
is often used to compare just two groups (an experimental and a control group), it can
easily be extended to accommodate additional comparison groups.
In the study, the students had just taken the final test for the first year; and there
was no big gap in their scores. Additionally, the students were randomly selected into the
control group and experimental one. All the above reasons resulted in no pre-test in the
study. There was only post-test implemented in order to measure changes in students‟
speaking ability after the experiment. It is believed that the students‟ speaking skill may be
affected by many other factors; it is not only affected by one or two factors. However,
because the study lasted in only 5 weeks, the post-test seemed to be the most suitable in the
situation. Since the participants were taught IELTS speaking, the researcher borrowed the
IELTS speaking tests to evaluate their speaking. The students‟ speaking ability was
assessed by two visiting teachers at TNSFL who come from the Unites States. One of them
was the examiner and the other played role as the proctor. In the test, each student had at
most ten minutes to show their speaking ability. In the first part, students answered some
questions related to their free times, their hobbies, their studying, their family, festivals,
sports, etc. In the second part, they were offered one card on which there was one topic and
they spent one minute preparing the topic and showed their opinion in two minutes. Before
finishing their test, in the third part, they had about 3 minutes to state their ideas on some
extra questions. As regard the topics and cards in the two tests, totally there were eight
speaking test questions taken from an IELTS book by Guy (Guy, 2008, pp.118-121).
Consequently, to keep the cards in secret, students were not allowed to leave the exam

26. 17
room until the test finished. In terms of speaking rubric, the IELTS Speaking band
descriptors added with non-verbal language in order to evaluate students‟ naturally
speaking. (Appendix 2)
3.3.1.2. Self-Peer Assessment
It is said to be challenging to assess team working due to the fact that team working
is believed as a soft skill that is difficult to measure directly. All students tend to overrate
their own performance if the student grades depend on the ratings. Indeed, a significant
concern in peer evaluation of team performance is that students seem to inflate the
achievement of their own team members due to peer pressure, or friendship. In addition,
students are usually reluctant to participate in peer evaluations because they are concerned
that revenge and jealousy will play a role in ratings (Taggar & Brown, 2006). Another
concern with self and peer evaluations is psychometric reliability of student ratings.
Mathews (1994) argues that peer evaluation results are not robust enough to assess the
contribution of individuals group work. Brannick et al study the psychometric qualities of
teamwork measurement metrics (Brannick, 1993, pp.287-308). Their study indicates that
the team members were not consistent.
Despite the drawbacks of the self-peer assessment mentioned above, self-peer
evaluations have several advantages that make them be an indispensable part of the overall
assessment of teamwork. First, the use of peer evaluations to determine a part of the grade
in a project work reduces social loafing (Willey & Freeman, 2006, Brooks & Ammons,
2003, pp.268–272). Peer evaluations can also be used as a diagnostic tool to identify and
remedy dysfunctions in a team (Dyrud, 2001, Smith & Smarkusky, 2005). More
importantly, self and peer evaluations provide students with invaluable feedback about
their own teamwork skills with respect to what is expected from them in real-life teams.
Thereby, self and peer evaluations may promote positive changes in students‟ attitudes
towards overall professional skills attainment.
The study employed one assessment form with 8 attributes in which students can
evaluate themselves and their group members on their involvement to their group work.
The assessment form which has been used in EDP at TNSFL focused on three categories
namely contribution, co-operation and quality of work. This form was adopted from two
peer evaluation forms by Main (2012) (Appendix 3).

27. 18
3.3.1.3 Observation
In order to reduce the drawbacks of the Self-Peer Assessment in the evaluating the
students‟ involvement in group working and in order to make the result of the study more
persuasive, eight observations were made in the experiment. The observation was
employed to record the involvement of the participants in their teamwork. According to
Lofland & Lofland (1994), and Atkinson & Hammersly (2003), classroom observation is
an important tool for researchers in the field of social sciences. Throughout the experiment;
the researcher was the only observer who collected data about students‟ team working.
Without other observers, the data collected might tend to be partial (Agar, 1996). However,
the main focus of the observation was to collect data on students‟ group working. Although
Burns points out that “observation allows us to see in a relatively unobtrusive way what it
is that people actually do compared with what they say they do”, the students may not
behave naturally if there were other observers (Burns, 1999, pp.81-82). Labov (1972)
argues the “observer‟s paradox” which refers to sociolinguistic researchers could collect
data about how people behave when they are not systematically observed only through
systematic observations. In other words, his suggestion implies that people may not behave
naturally when they know that they are being observed. Because the researcher was the
participants‟ teacher, they would not be aware that they were being observed
systematically, thereby, the researcher could obtain more genuine data about their
involvement in their group.
The observations recorded everything students did when they did the tasks both in
the homework checking section and during the new lessons. The observation form was
used eight times in each group from the second meeting to the eighth one. In other words,
totally, there were sixteen observations in the study. (Appendix 4)
3.3.2. Data Collection Procedures
The data of the study was carefully carried out through three main phrases.
Phrase 1: Meeting the participants and group dividing: students were invited to the
first meeting and they were divided into teams in the two groups.
Phrase 2: Applying a five-week experiment: Each week, the researcher met the two
groups three one-and- a-half-hour times. To Group A, in the eight lessons, the researcher
taught them speaking skill in the book “Direct to IELTS” by McCarter (2008). At the end

28. 19
of each lesson, some speaking topics which were taken from the books “Cambridge
Practice Tests for IELTS 1” and “Cambridge Practice Tests for IELTS 2” were given to
them as homework. In the next lesson, in the first thirty minutes, some teams were called
to verbally present their homework before the class. To Group B, the current researcher
also applied the lessons as Group A; however, in the homework checking section, the
researcher gave them some feedback on the steps they had finished and guided them to do
the next steps of the Project. In this phrase, the observations were also carried out secretly.
Phrase 3: Holding the post-test and the self-peer assessment: After the experiment,
in order to see the effectiveness of EDP on the participants, the students were required to
take the post-test on the 2nd
of August, 2014.
3.3.3. Data analysis procedure
The students‟ scores getting from the post-test were analyzed quantitatively on the
five categories of Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and
Accuracy, Pronunciation and Non-verbal Language.
Even thought the data of students‟ involvement in their group work had been
collected with a qualitative method by utilizing the self-peer assessment and eight
observations, the data then were analyzed basing on the numbers of students‟ responses to
the self-peer assessment and the observation analysis. All of these data were analyzed into
tables or charts with the help of Microsoft Excels.
To sum up, research methodology is very important in conducting a research.
Participants, data collecting procedure, and data analysis procedure are key factors of a
successful study. Hence, the researcher who would like to make proper and valuable
results should be very careful in selecting the research methodology. It is also the reason
why the study was conducted very carefully with three kinds of data collecting
instruments, and a long period of time for collecting the data as well as analyzing the data.

29. 20
CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The research‟s results answering to the thesis question “How can EDP help French-
English students at TNSFL foster their speaking skill and team working?” are presented in
this chapter. When the experiment finished, the four teams in Group B wrote four scenarios
for four different plays namely “Tam Cam in the modern life”, “Cinderella”, “Tao Quan
Comedy” and “Little Red Ridding Hood”. They and their fellows in Group A also took the
post course test from which their speaking ability was revealed. In this part of the study,
the results that EDP made on students‟ speaking ability as well as their contribution in their
team work are going to be shown.
4.1. Findings
4.1.1. Influence of English Drama Project to Students’ Speaking Skill
4.1.1.1. Impacts of English Drama Project on Students’ Speaking Fluency and
Coherence
Chart 1 shows two trends of EDP‟s effects on students‟ speaking fluency. First, it
can be easily to see that Group A had two more students who got band 3 than Group B.
Second, the number of students who were scored band 4 and 5 are same in Group A and B
with 5 people and 2 respectively. Typically, the fingure of students getting band 6 in Group
A is be much dominated by students in Group B because two students in Group B but no
one in Group A got band 6 for Fluency and Cohesion section.
Futhermore, when the researcher caculated the mean of scores that students in the
both groups got, the research recognized that the mean score for this speaking category in
Group B is higher than it in Group A with 3.93 and 3.56 respectively.

30. 21
From the result obtained from the scores for Fulency and Coherence, it might be
concluded that EDP is able to make students more fluent and corrent when they speak.
4.1.1.2 Impacts of English Drama Project on Students’ Lexical Resource
The students‟ capacity of using lexical in the two groups is clearly shown in the
following chart:
It can be seen in Chart 2 that students getting high scores for Lexical Resource
seem to focus most in Group A and the only band 7 was assigned for a student in Group.
Moreover, the number of students getting low bands including band 3 and band 4 in Group
A is lower than in Group B. In contrast, the proportion of students with band 5 in Group A
is higher than in Group B and both the two groups have one student scored with band 6.
Additionally, the mean obtained from students‟ Lexical Resource in Group A and
Group B shows the dominance for students in Group A compared to Group B with the
mean scores of 4.43 and 4.0 respectively.
4.1.1.3. Impacts of English Drama Project on students’ Grammar Range and
Accuracy
Students‟ Grammar Range and Accuracy are illustrated in the table 1.
Table 1: Students’ Scores for Grammar Range and Accuracy
Band Score Group A Group B
Band 4 2 1
Band 5 7 5
Band 6 6 6
Band 7 1 4
Mean 5.37 5.8

31. 22
Table 1 shows a small amount of students in both groups getting low marks for
grammar section. There are three students getting band 4 in the both groups, there is also
an unremarkable gap in the proportion of students owning band 5 for grammar in Group A
and B. Furthermore, the two groups share the same figure of students who were scored
with band 6. Totally, there are twelve six marks equally divided for the two groups.
However, there is a significant gap in the number of students owning band 7 in the two
groups because the ratio between them in Groups A and B is 1:4.
The mean of students‟ marks in Group B is 0.43 point higher than in Group A. It is
the mean score that readers realize the benefits that EDP helps students promote their
grammar.
4.1.1.4. Impacts of English Drama Project on Students’ Pronunciation
Besides helping students‟ improve their fluency and grammar, EDP also makes
their pronunciation much improved.
Table 2: Students’ Scores for Pronunciation
Band Score Group A Group B
Band 4 5 2
Band 5 7 7
Band 6 4 5
Band 7 0 2
Mean 4.93 5.43
It is undoubted to conclude that students in Group B earned higher marks for
pronunciation than students in Group A. There are three remarkable trends shown in the
table. Group A had two more students owing band 4 for pronunciation than Group B, and
then the number of students with band 5 is the same in the two groups. However, for band
6 and band 7, fewer students in Group A than Group B could reach the two bands. The
ratios of students getting the two bands in the two groups are 4:5 and 0:2 respectively. The
mean score of Group B is also much higher than group A‟s.
To sum up, with all the above proofs, it cannot be denied that EDP can foster
students‟ fluency, grammar and pronunciation. The means for the grades that students got
in the test for the three categories in Group B are higher than Group A, thus, the fact that
the overall marks for students in Group B are higher than Group A cannot be doubted. This
is clearly shown in the flowing chart.

32. 23
4.1.1.5. Impacts of English Drama Project on Students’ Non-verbal Language
Besides the benefits EDP brings to students‟ ability of expressing their ideas
verbally, EDP also can help students improve their ability of using non-verbal language so
that their expressions are natural and emotional. The differences between using non-verbal
language in the test of students are shown in the following table.
Table 3: Students’ Scores for Non-verbal Language
Group A Group B
1 Point 5 1
2 Points 6 4
3 Points 3 5
4 Points 2 6
Mean 2.38 3.0
The table shows that the number of students who got 1 point and two points in
Group A is double than in Group B while the figure of those owning 3 points and 4 points
is double smaller than Group B. It can be inferred from the mean of the two groups that
students in Group A reached nearly 51% of the highest mark, in contrary, students in
Group B could obtain 75% of the target mark. (The highest or target mark is 4 points).
The study clearly shows that students can sharpen not only their verbal language
performed by their fluency, grammar and pronunciation but also their non-verbal language
revealed by their body language, their eye contact, their facial expression, etc. In other
words, students taught with EDP can speak more fluently, exactly, naturally and
emotionally.

33. 24
4.1.2. English Drama Project and Students’ Involvement in Group Working
The individuals‟ contribution to Group working was estimated in three categories
including Contribution, Co-operation and Quality of work which were investigated with
the help of the self-peer assessment form and the sixteen classroom observations.
4.1.2.1 Students’ Contribution in their Group Working
The data from the self-peer assessment form shows 100% of the participants
believed themselves that they had a very high frequency of involving in their team
working. All of them thought they “always contributed in their group discussions”.
Similarly, most of them considered themselves to frequently shared ideas and feedback in
the process of the course. The table below very clearly shows the result from self-
assessment on this attribute.
Table 4: Students’ Self Assessment on Teamwork Contribution
Rate No. of students in Group A No. of students in Group B
Always 2/16 = 12.5% 4/16 = 25%
Usually 14/16 = 87.5% 12/16 = 75%
Furthermore, it can be seen in the table 4 that the number of students in Group B
who themselves thought that they “always” joined their team discussions, contributed ideas
and gave constructive feedback, is double than in Group A.
In the process of peer assessing, a student was evaluated by the other three team
members, as a result, each group had 48 times of assignment for one attribute totally, and it
is the reason why the percentage that students did each attribute was calculated with the
formula:
Where:
P: percentage of students assigned for each attribute
N: The total number of students‟ names written in each scale (the Appendix 3)
All students in Group A and B admitted that their team members had full
participation in team discussions. The charts below indicate students‟ frequency of
contributing ideas and sharing feedback in their group discussions.
P = N x100%
48

34. 25
Even though the results getting from the Peer-assessment on the atribute
“contributed positive ideas for group discussion” is much lower than the results gotten
from the Self-assessment, the chart also clearly shows that students in Group B seemed to
more often contributed ideas than their fellows in Group A. All students in Group B while
93.7% of students in Group A always or usually contributed ideas in their group
discussions. In addition, the number of students considered as “always” contributed the
ideas for the roup discussion in Group A was 20.4% lower than in Group B.
The chart 5 shows that students in Group B seemed to dominate students in Group
A. 89.5% of students in group B always and usually shared positive ideas and feedback in
their group discussions while the number in Group A for the attribute was 66.5%.
Moreover, the figure of students who always and usually shared ideas and feedback in
Group B were also higher than in Group A.

35. 26
However, the data from the observations shows the contribution that team members
in the two groups made is not as high as the contribution students thought themselves in
the self-peer assessment. In the following table, proofs are going to be performed.
Table 5: Students’ Contribution to their Teamwork from the Observations
Group A Group B
Going out when discussing 2 times 2 times
Sleeping in discussion 1 time 0
Chatting 4 times 5 times
Playing games in discussion 2 times 0
Doing nothing, just looking at the others 3 times 2 times
No homework 3 times 1 time
Total 15 times 10 times
Table 5 shows that students in Group A contributed to their teamwork less frequently
than students in Group B. The times that students in Group A did not join in their teamwork
were much higher than students in Group B with 15 times and 10 times respectively.
Even though students in both groups seemed to over estimate their contribution to the
teamwork, all students in two groups got much involvement in their teamwork. Additionally,
the results getting from the data collecting instruments show that students in Group B sounded
to have more frequent contribution to their teamwork than students in Group A.
4.1.2.2. English Drama Project and Students’ Co-operation in Group Work
Amazingly, all students in Group A and group B insisted in the self-peer
assessment form that all their team members were willing with their assignment, always
supported and helped other members as well as worked well with each other.
Truthfully, during the analysis of the class observations, the researcher realized that
students were always happy together; they always smiled and chatted with each other after
they finished their tasks. Additionally, they were usually aware of helping their team
members to easily finish the tasks and improve their pronunciation:
Table 6: Students’ Co-operation through Classroom Observations
Group A Group B
Correcting pronunciation 3 times 4 times
Speaking simply and slowly when the others do not understand 3 times 5 times
Repeating when necessary 5 times 8 times
Paraphrasing questions or ideas when necessary 7 times 3 times
Total 18 times 20 times

36. 27
The table 6 indicates the times that students showed their co-operation are nearly
same in the two groups. The times that students in the two groups helped to check
pronunciation and spoke slowly are nearly equal in the both groups. However, while the
students in Group A used the technique of paraphrasing their ideas more, students in group
B had a trend of adoring repeating them more.
No mater what way students applied to support their team members in the process
of helping keep the tasks on, all of them seemed to make a big co-operation in order to
finish the tasks.
4.1.2.3. English Drama Project and Students’ Group Work Quality
Students in Group A stated that they finished the tasks punctually and their
performances were always accurate all the time while students in Group B believed that
they usually got the tasks finished on time and their works were usually got good
comments from the researcher. The quality of work is shown in the observations with the
data in the table 7.
Table 7: Students’ Quality of Work gotten from the Observations
Group A Group B
Unfinished tasks 5 times 3 times
Good performance (good fluency, vocabulary,
grammar, pronunciation, and written structures…)
10 times 10 times
Discussing & giving feedback in Vietnamese All the time All the time
Surprisingly, students in the control and experimental groups were aware of making
the tasks as prefect as they could. Even though students in Group A had two times of task
incompletion more than students in Group B, they seemed to have same good
performances at class. However, all of them shared the same problems by speaking a lot of
Vietnamese when sharing and exchanging their ideas and giving feedback. In general,
students in the both groups tried best to qualifying their tasks.
4.1.3. More Findings on the Impacts of English Drama Project
In the rehearsing and performing the plays, many talents of students were revealed.
It is necessary to admit that students‟ creativities were well performed in the Project. They
changed the sad ending of the fairy tale named Tam and Cam into a happy one. This is also
same to Sun‟s indication that drama gives students chances to create a new plot and
characters for the story (Sun, 2003). Furthermore, they did their home-made instruments
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37. 28
including hammers, pictures, skirts which were suitable to their scenarios with many easy-
to-find and cheap materials namely thick pieces of paper and nylon bags. EDP is also the
place where students can show their talents in dancing and singing. There were two of the
four teams in which characters showed their ability of dancing, for example Tam, Cam, the
Prince or But in “Tam and Cam in the modern life”, Taos and the King in “Tao Quan
drama”. It can be also easy to see that students in Group B were very eager and happy
when they were doing the Project. As a result, EDP might promote students‟ motivation in
studying, which was ever stated by Gomez‟s in 2003.
4.2. Discussion
4.2.1. English Drama Project and Students’ Speaking
EDP can make students‟ speaking fluent and coherent because the fact that in the
process of making the Project, students were guided some strategies to face up with the
situation when they forget the scenario. They were required to quickly react in such
situation so that the play was not interrupted. Days by days, they practiced and they could
learn the way to control the situation when they forget something they had prepared. They
were told to give up what they prepare but they have to understand the situation and what
they had to say, but they had to express the ideas in a different way rather than trying to
remember ever words they had prepared. In other words, students in Group B seemed to
have skill of making their ideas logical, understandable and flowing. This finding reminds
us to Whitear (1998) and Gomez (2003).
It can be easily understood the reason why more students in group A got higher
scores for Lexical Resource through Appendix 1. It is known that in the process of the
Project, students in both groups studied a lot of vocabulary but in different methods. Group
B could enrich their vocabulary by reading stories, novels and plays while Group A could
improve their vocabulary through lessons. It is true that the vocabulary in IELTS is
sometimes far different from vocabulary in stories and novels and it might be the fact that
students in group A were taught more IELTS vocabulary in lessons than students in Group
B made them have much academic vocabulary for the topics than students in Group B. As
a result, they might not have repetition as much as students in Group B who did not study
much vocabulary in lessons, and they could have enough vocabulary to paraphrasing their
ideas and their questions in their team discussions and in the post-test.
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38. 29
EDP also helps students‟ grammar promoted. The fact that a few students got band
4 and band 5 in the both groups does not make many people surprised because grammar is
said to be the strength of Vietnamese students. However, the result of the study also
indicates that more students in the experimental group earned higher marks for the
grammar item than students in the control group. It can be explained that in the process of
writing the scenarios, students‟ grammatical errors were revealed and carefully guided to
correct by the researcher. It is this work that had the experimental group‟s students‟
grammar fostered.
The reasons why students in Group B got better marks for pronunciation than those
in Group A are explained by the several reasons. Even though students in the both groups
were guided to correct mispronunciation in the case they had. However, the frequency of
this work was different in the two groups. The researcher did not stop students in Group A
whenever they had mispronunciation to protect their fluency; she only showed the mistakes
after they finished their talk, which might make them forget early after they went out of the
class. Nevertheless, as mentioned in the appendix 1, each team in Group B was required to
read the scenario under the control of the researcher, hence, the researcher could stop them
immediately if they wrongly pronounced the sounds, words, phrases and sentences and
helped them to correct these mistakes. Moreover, in the process of rehearsing the play,
their pronunciation mistakes were corrected again by the researcher. Additionally, the
teams‟ members also helped each other to correct their pronunciation through their
rehearing meetings at home. It is all the above chances to correct pronunciation mistakes
EDP brings to students that help them to promote their sounds. This helps readers to
remind to Mok (2001), Goodwin (2001) and Gomez (2003).
The lessons that students in Group B spent practicing reading the scenario might
result in the fact that they could express their thoughts more naturally and emotionally. The
meetings when students were required to read the scenarios before the researcher and their
classmates could help them to foster both pronunciation and speaking confidence.
Furthermore, when students practiced the plays and when they rehearsed their plays, the
researcher always asked them to think of the characters‟ feelings as well as guided them to
have the most relevant tone of voice, body language or facial expression. Moreover, when
students rehearsed and performed their plays, they were ordered to stand and move on
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