IMPROVING STUDENTS’ ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLudTHROUGH CONTENT-BASED INSTRUCTIONud(A Classroom Action Research in the Second Grade Students of Business EnglishudDepartment of CsVTC, China in the Academic Year of 2010/2011)

摘要

The research is aimed at (1) finding whether and to what extent content-basedudinstruction improved the students’ speaking skill; and (2) describing the teaching andudlearning situation when content-based instruction was applied in the speaking class.udThis study applied action research technique to conduct the research to improveudstudents’ speaking ability through Content-based Instruction (CBI). Hopkins mentionsudthat action research is a research which combines as substantive act with a researchudprocedure; it is an action disciplined by enquiry, a personal attempt at understandingudwhile engaged in process of improvement and reform. This research consisted of twoudcycles, with four meetings in each cycle; while each cycle consists planning, action,udobservation, and reflection. The research was conducted at CsV&TC, China; the subjectsudof the research were the students of second grade in the academic year of 2010-2011. Inudthis research, there were two types of data: quantitative data and qualitative data. Theudquantitative data were collected through test, namely pre-test and post-test. Theudqualitative data were collected through observation, questionnaire, and interview to theudstudents. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics; find out theudmean of the scores in the test and the significant improvement of the scores using t-test ofudnon-independent variable. The qualitative data were analyzed usingudConstant-Comparative Method suggested by Glaser and Strauss consisting of theudfollowing steps: (1) comparing incidents applicable to each category; (2) integratingudcategories and their properties; (3) delimiting the theory; and (4) writing the theory.udThe research findings indicated that CBI was effective in two aspects: (1) inudimproving students’ speaking ability: students’ speaking level increased; students couldudanswer the teacher’s questions; students could fluently communicate with their friends byudusing correct grammatical forms and appropriate vocabulary with good pronunciation;udthe use of mother tongue was reduced; (2) in improving class situation: the atmosphere inudthe whole class became alive; students enjoyed the speaking activities; there were manyudchances for students to practice their speaking skill; students had great motivation toudlearn speaking; speaking became easy and fun to the students.udThe results of this study showed that CBI was effective and beneficial to improve theudstudents’ speaking competency and the classroom situation.udKey words: Content-based Instruction, Speaking Skill