SKKN Using student-created video to improve students’ interest in speaking English at high school

PART I: INTRODUCTION 

1.  Rationale 

Nowadays, learning a foreign language, especially English, is becoming more and more essential in cross-cultural environments. However, learning a foreign language is never a smooth process. Speaking skill is one of the four major language skills that most language learners desire to master to communicate effectively in different contexts. In general, Vietnamese students face many challenges in learning speaking English as a second language. Especially for students in remote areas like Anh Son, despite studying English for years, speaking is the most challenging skill to master. Students mainly focus on vocabulary and grammar points for proposing to pass exams. They have few opportunities to practice speaking English inside or outside the classroom and in social context. Therefore, creating real situations for students to practice speaking is becoming an efficient method to promote the spirit of learning English among them. 

The advances and innovations in educational technology have brought about significant changes to the way people interact and learn such as ease of access to the Internet, media technology and hand-held devices. Many linguists emphasized a systematic and comprehensive overview of the current use of technology to support English teaching and learning. One of the emerging strategies in English teaching is the use of videos to support and engage student learning as well as increase their participation in the lesson. In this digital era, the use of video-based materials in English language teaching has attracted more attention from English language teaching practitioners worldwide. Both teachers and students can now have wide access to technological tools for use in learning activities such as Android-based smartphones, tablets, iPads, and digital cameras. 

It is widely accepted that student interest is a key element within the learning process. The extant educational literature has proven the positive effect of using new technologies as a support tool for enhancing learning efficacy. These technologies capture students’ attention and increase their interest because students are familiarized with them, and they can easily use these tools. 

For these reasons, I conduct this research “Using student-created video to improve students’ interest in speaking English at high school” 2. Aims of the study 

• To investigate student-created video as an active learning approach to inform instructional practices of student-created video and develop high school students’ digital competences in learning foreign languages. 
• Adapt speaking tasks in the textbook into practical situations where every student can take part in speaking duties by making speaking videos themselves. 
• Research, draw the advantages of a project using videos created by students to upgrade their interest in learning speaking English. 

3. Scope of study 

Firstly, the study was designed to find the best way to improve student’s performance and increase student’s interest in learning speaking English through using student-created videos. Secondly, in the academic year 2021-2022, the researcher was in charge of teaching English for grade 11 students whose speaking ability was not good and their interest in speaking lessons was not high. Therefore, student-created video is a new method applied to speaking lessons and brought outstanding effectiveness than other methods. This study was action research conducted from September 2021 to April 2022 and 42 participants coming class 11D at Anh Son 2 high school took part in this research.  

4. Significance of the study 

The findings of this study would be significant to the teachers, the students as well as the researchers. First, for English teachers, this research may provide more insights on how to improve the students’ performance and raise their interest in English speaking. Second, the study would serve as input for the students at Anh Son 2 high school to be aware of their speaking performance. Third, for other researchers who conduct the same research, the result of the research would be expected to be a reference and contribute more information to solve the same problem. In addition, the use of student-created video would enable students to improve their English-speaking performance and to communicate in English orally confidently. Moreover, the students would enjoy the speaking lessons more and feel comfortable to express themselves. Finally, this study might provide recommendations for English teachers at Anh Son 2 high school to prepare more effective English-speaking lessons so that learners’ speaking performance would be improved not only in classrooms but also in social situations. 

PART II: MAIN CONTENT 

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BACKGROUND I. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1. Students’ interest in learning 

1.1. Definition of interest 

According to Mangal (2007) interest is the central force that drives the whole machinery   of   the teaching learning process. It means, with an interest, students will focus more and easily understand the material that is given by the teacher. Big   interest will influence students’ activity, because the students’ interest will be doing something that interests them, in this case it is an interest in learning. In addition, interest helps in overcoming unusual or early arrival or frequent repetition of plateaus in learning. They also give enough strength to an individual to resist fatigue and avoid failure. 

1.2. The importance of interest 

Learning can be considered as a process of getting knowledge. Student’s interest is important in learning and interests also play an important role in developing a student’s thinking ability. Interests powerfully influence student’s academic and professional choices. That is of course the teacher’s responsibility to establish the relations between a student’s interest and new knowledge. When students are interested in what they are learning, hopefully they will pay closer attention, they will also process the information more efficiently, and employ more effective learning strategies, such as engaging in critical thinking, making connections between old and new knowledge, and attending to deep structure instead of surface features. Further, when the students are interested in a task, they will work harder and persist longer, bringing more of their self-regulatory skills into play. 

1.3. Indicators of students’ interest 

According to Slameto (2003) indicators of students’ interest are: a. Attention  

• Asking the teacher about the material.  
• Looking    for other sources about the material or the lesson.     
• Concentration while learning.   
• Focus While the teacher explains the material. 

b.  The willingness 

• Try to do the task as difficult as possible. 
• Still learning although the teacher did not go to class ❖ Enthusiastic to follow the lesson.   
• Diligently Read the English book. 

c. Needs   

• Needs is a condition in the person of a student who drives him to certain activities to achieve a goal. For examples:   
• Learn English to succeed in a career.   
• The Awareness to make their own notes while learning. 

d. Feelings happy or joyful feelings   

• Enjoy doing the task or exercise given by the teacher at school.   
• Always enthusiastic to follow the lessons.  
• Take notes from the material. 

e. Teaching materials and teacher’s good attitudes 

• Teachers’ attention makes the students motivated in learning English ❖ Students feel that learning English is fun.   
• Have a high enthusiasm for the lesson and the teacher.  
• Teachers’ explanations     make     the     students understand the lesson. f. Participation  
• Ask   if you do not   understand   the material.    
• Always   do   the   task given by the teacher.   
• Answer the question from the teacher 

2.  The use of video in English language teaching and learning 

The importance of the use of video in the language learning setting has been widely argued as a potential locus to bring a significant contribution to the improvement of students’ pragma linguistic competence (Kelly, 1985). She also emphasized the use of video as a modeling device, input for viewing and stimulus for discussion. Today, however, with the advancement and development of technology in the last few decades, the use of video has been transformed into