Improve the first-year students’ English speaking performance at Thai Nguyen University of agriculture and forestry through language games

ISSN: 1859-2171 TNU Journal of Science and Technology 199(06): 51 - 55 
 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 51 
IMPROVE THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS’ ENGLISH SPEAKING 
PERFORMANCE AT THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE 
AND FORESTRY THROUGH LANGUAGE GAMES 
 Nguyen Lan Huong
*
, Van Thi Quynh Hoa 
TNU University of Agriculture and Forestry 
ABSTRACT 
Speaking seems to be the most important skills of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading 
and writing). Nowadays, it is not easy for learners to speak English well, so the purpose of this 
study was to find out the effectiveness of using language games to improve the first - year 
students’ speaking performance at Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry (TUAF). 
The quasi-experimental design was used in the study, using questionnaire, pre-test and post-test as 
the main data collection instruments. The subjects of the study were sixty first-year students at 
TUAF. The results of the study showed that there is no significant difference between the mean 
pre-test scores of the experimental and control group. But there is significant difference between 
the mean post-test scores of the experimental and the control group. Based on the research 
findings, some recommendations were made. The current study was expected to help first-year 
students improve their performance in speaking classes. 
Key words: speaking performance; English language; first-year; language; language games 
Received: 29/3/2019; Revised: 23/5/2019; Approved: 29/5/2019 
SỬ DỤNG TRÕ CHƠI NGÔN NGỮ ĐỂ NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG 
NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT 
TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NÔNG LÂM – ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN 
 Nguyễn Lan Hƣơng*, Văn Thị Quỳnh Hoa 
 Trường Đại học Nông Lâm - ĐH Thái Nguyên 
TÓM TẮT 
Kĩ năng nói thường được coi là một trong những kĩ năng khó nhất của việc học ngôn ngữ. Thật 
không dễ dàng để người học ngoại ngữ có thể nói tốt vì vậy mục đích của nghiên cứu này là để tìm 
ra hiệu quả của việc sử dụng trò chơi ngôn ngữ để nâng cao khả năng nói tiếng Anh của sinh viên 
năm thứ nhất tại trường Đại học Nông Lâm – Đại học Thái Nguyên. Đối tượng nghiên cứu là 60 
sinh viên thuộc trường Đại học Nông Lâm. Nghiên cứu sử dụng phương pháp thực nghiệm, câu 
hỏi điều tra, bài kiểm tra trước và bài kiểm tra sau là công cụ chính để thu thập dữ liệu. Kết quả 
cho thấy không có sự khác biệt giữa điểm số trung bình của sinh viên của 2 nhóm trong bài kiểm 
tra trước khi bắt đầu khoá học. Kết quả của bài kiểm tra cuối khoá học chứng minh rằng sinh viên 
của nhóm sử dụng trò chơi ngôn ngữ trong học kĩ năng nói có điểm số cao hơn những sinh viên ở 
nhóm giảng dạy theo phương pháp truyền thống. Dựa trên kết quả nghiên cứu, tác giả đã đưa ra 
một số kiến nghị và tác giả cũng hi vọng rằng nghiên cứu này sẽ giúp sinh viên năm thứ nhất 
trường Đại học Nông Lâm – Đại học Thái Nguyên nâng cao khả năng nói tiếng Anh. 
Từ khóa: khả năng nói; tiếng Anh; năm thứ nhất; ngôn ngữ; trò chơi ngôn ngữ 
Ngày nhận bài: 29/3/2019; Ngày hoàn thiện: 23/5/2019; Ngày duyệt đăng: 29/5/2019 
* Corresponding author. Email: nguyenlanhuong@tuaf.edu.vn 
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34238/tnu-jst.2019.06.445 
Nguyen Lan Huong et al TNU Journal of Science and Technology 199(06): 51 - 55 
 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 52 
1. Introduction 
Speaking is a crucial part of second language 
learning and teaching. Despite its importance, 
for many years, teaching speaking has been 
undervalued and English language teachers 
have continued to teach speaking just as a 
repetition of drills or memorization of 
dialogues. However, today's world requires 
that the goal of teaching speaking should 
improve students' communicative skills 
because students can express themselves and 
learn how to follow the social and cultural 
rules appropriate in each communicative 
circumstance [1]. Nowadays, in order to teach 
English speaking effectively, teachers have 
applied communicative language teaching 
(CLT). It is an approach that helps students be 
more active in real life situation through the 
means of individual, pair and group work 
activities. It encourages students to practice 
the language they learn in meaningful way. In 
a CLT classroom, playing games is one 
activity, which requires students to actively 
communicate with classmates, using their 
own language. With the use of games, the 
teacher can create various contexts in which 
students have to use the language to 
communicate, exchange information and 
express their own opinions. 
Games are found out to be an effective 
technique to teach English because they can 
incorporate reading, listening and speaking. It 
gives students a chance to get out of their 
seats and learn in a hands-on environment. 
Though games can be effective for all ages, it 
seems that English games are most effective 
for elementary to middle-school-aged 
children, because at this age, they do not think 
it is childish to play games. 
Games in the language classroom can help to 
involve learners actively in the learning 
process, provide a challenge which 
encourages learners to stretch themselves, 
help learners to forget they are studying: they 
lose themselves in the fun of the game and the 
activity motivates them, encourage 
collaborative learning, provide variety of 
pace, give extra practice without inducing 
boredom [2]. 
Using games, the students became more 
interested, actively involved and motivated in 
the learning activities. Games also help the 
students in building a good relationship with 
their friends as well as increasing their 
achievement in learning English [3]. Games 
can be a very useful teaching technique for 
the effective and joyful learning. Games are 
also believed to give the positive effect on the 
students’ interest and motivation in studying 
English as well as to increase their speaking 
ability. Games are viable method to achieve 
many educational objectives such as 
reinforcement, review, reward, relax, 
inhibition, reduction, attentiveness, retention 
and motivation [4]. The value of language 
games lies not only in the great number of 
games that have been invented or in the 
variety of levels they serve but in the useful 
and purposeful language practice they 
provide. That is why teachers should make 
optimal use of games in their language 
teaching to increase students’ work and 
motivation and to offer them meaningful 
practice. Provided that teachers can select or 
design and organize good games in terms of 
language and type of participation, they will 
achieve these worthy aims. This study 
therefore was conducted to find out the 
effectiveness of using language games in 
developing speaking skills for first-year 
students at Thai Nguyen University of 
Agriculture and Forestry (TUAF). 
2. Subjects and research methodology 
This study utilizes the quasi experimental 
design. Two groups composed of 60 students 
were used as the respondents of this study. 
They were purposively selected based on their 
mental ability, age and gender. They are 
divided into two groups: experimental and 
control groups of 30 students each. The 
Nguyen Lan Huong et al TNU Journal of Science and Technology 199(06): 51 - 55 
 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 53 
control group was taught with traditional 
method while the experimental group was 
given lessons using language games 
approach. The two groups were evaluated at 
the beginning (pre-test) and at the end (post-
test) of the lessons to find out the significant 
difference of two methods on the 
achievements of the students. The difference 
between the mean score of the two groups 
was then computed and tested for 
significance. 
The data collection instruments of this study 
were questionnaires and observation. During 
the process of working on the research, the 
researchers spent time on observing the 
students’ attitudes towards learning. The 
questionnaires were designed for distribution 
to students for the research. In combination 
with the ones mentioned above, the pre-test 
and post- tests were administered to measure 
the ability of the students before and after the 
lessons. Tests are categorized into five areas: 
grammar, vocabulary, intonation, stress as 
well as pronunciation. 
Legend: 
Marks Description (VI) 
9-10 Excellent 
7-8 Good 
5-6 Fair 
1-4 Poor 
3. Findings and discussion 
3.1. Mean performance in pre-test & post-
test mean scores of the control and the 
experimental groups 
As shown in table 1, the pre-test mean scores 
of 1.43, SD= 0.41 and 1.30, SD= 0.45, 
indicates that the grammar and pronunciation 
with verbal interpretation of good, while the 
pre- test mean scores of 1.06, SD=0.40, 0.82, 
SD= 0.28 and 0.89, SD= 0.25, reveals that the 
vocabulary, intonation and stress has rated as 
fair. The mean post-test scores of 1.65, 
SD=0.31 and 1.55, SD= 0.40 reveals that the 
grammar and pronunciation was rated as 
excellent and the post-test mean score of 1.42, 
SD= .35 respectively was “good”. 
With regard to the control group, pre-test and 
post-test it revealed that the mean scores of 
1.3, SD=0.35 and 1.16, SD= 0.34 
respectively was “good” while the mean 
scores of 1.35, SD= 0.28, .75, SD= 0.21 and 
0.81, SD= 0.24, .36 was rated as “fair” 
while the post-test, the mean of 1.38, SD= 
0.39, - 1.27, SD= 0.37, 1.06, SD=0.27 
respectively as good and the mean of 0.97, 
SD=0.21 rated as the stress as “fair”. 
The average mean of 1.098, SD= 0.35 and 
1.4, SD= 0.35 reveals that the mean 
performance in the pre-test and the post-test 
mean scores of the experimental group was 
good while the average are 0.944, SD= 0.284 
and 1.24, SD= 0.294 reveals that the pre-test 
and the post-test mean scores was good. 
Table 1. Mean Performance in the Pre-test and Post-test of the Experimental and Control Groups 
Speaking Skills 
Experimental Group Control Group 
Pre-test Post-test Pre-test Post-test 
X SD VI X SD VI X SD VI X SD VI 
Grammar 1.43 0.41 G 1.65 0.31 E 1.3 0.35 G 1.52 0.36 E 
Pronunciation 1.30 0.45 G 1.55 0.40 E 1.16 0.34 G 1.38 0.39 G 
Vocabulary 1.06 0.40 F 1.42 0.35 G 0.95 0.28 F 1.27 0.32 G 
Intonation 0.82 0.28 F 1.20 0.35 G 0.75 0.21 F 1.06 0.27 G 
Stress 0.89 0.25 F 1.18 0.34 G 0.81 0.24 F 0.97 0.21 F 
Average X 1.098 0.35 F 1.4 0.35 G 0.944 0.284 G 1.24 0.294 G 
Nguyen Lan Huong et al TNU Journal of Science and Technology 199(06): 51 - 55 
 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 54 
Legend: 
Mark Description 
2.0 Excellent 
1.5 Good 
1.0 Fair 
0.5 and below Fair 
3.2. Significance of the Difference in the Performance on the Pre-test 
Table 2. Test of difference between the Mean of Pre-test Scores 
of the Language Games and the Control Group 
Group Mean Var Df Q- stat P-Value VI 
Experimental 1.10 0.07 
9 0.41 0.54 Not Significant 
Controlled 1.002 0.05 
p>.05-not significant p< .05-significant 
Table 2 reveals the result of the one-way analysis of variance rendered to test the significance of 
the difference in the subjects’ performance on the pre-test. 
Results obtained show a computed t- value of 0.41 and a p-value of 0.54 which is greater than α= 
0.05 which led to the acceptance of the null hypothesis that there is no significant difference in 
the subjects’ performance on the pre-test. This implies that as far as the pre-test results are 
concerned, there is no marked difference in the performance exhibited by the experimental and 
controlled groups. 
3.3. Significance of the Difference between the Mean Post-test Scores of the Language Games 
(experimental) and Control Group 
Table 3. Significant Difference between the mean Post test scores of the Experimental and Control group 
Group Mean Mean diff t-value P-Value VI 
Experimental 7 
8 2.08898 0.47 Significant 
Controlled 6.2 
p>.05-not significant p< .05-significant 
It can be seen from the table that the 
experimental and the control group have a 
mean score of 7 and 6.2 with a mean 
difference of .8. the computed t- value of -
2.08898 had p- value = 0.47 which is 
significant at .05 alpha level of significance 
The computed t- value of 2.08 and p-value of 
.047 which is less than α=0.05 led to the 
acceptance of the null hypothesis that there is 
a significant difference in the subjects’ 
performance on the post –test. This implies 
that as far as the post–test results are 
concerned, there is marked difference in the 
performance exhibited by the experimental 
and controlled group. It implies that the 
language game approach is better than the 
traditional approach in developing the 
speaking skills of the students. 
4. Conclusion and recommendations 
The results of the study indicate that the mean 
performance in the pre-test and post-test 
scores of both experimental and control group 
were “good”. There is no significant 
difference between the mean pre-test scores 
of the experimental and control group. But 
there is significant difference between the 
mean post-test scores of the experimental and 
the control group. 
Based on the results of the study, some 
recommendations are suggested. Firstly, the 
perceptions of the two groups of subjects did 
Nguyen Lan Huong et al TNU Journal of Science and Technology 199(06): 51 - 55 
 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 55 
not differ significantly on the speaking 
lessons given them. Studies of this kind in the 
future are encouraged to exhaust the 
possibility of utilizing a syndicated 
instrument if there is any or to make use of 
standardized forms. Secondly, the 
performance of the two groups of subjects did 
not differ significantly for both the pre-test and 
the post-test. This may be due to the fact that 
the approach was used only in the motivational 
strategy. Results would have been different if 
the lessons were designed to be totally 
different in a way that the experimental 
approach was used in all parts of the lesson 
and not just in a single phase. Studies of this 
kind are encouraged to take up this limitation 
in order to improve the results. Finally, more 
researches on using language games should be 
conducted to teach four skills (listening, 
speaking, reading and writing). 
REFERENCES 
[1]. Hayriye Kayi, “Activities to Promote 
Speaking in a Second Language”, the Internet 
TESL Journal, Vol. XII, No. 11, November 
2006. 
[2]. Clare Lavery, Language Assistant, British 
Council ELT, 2001. 
[3]. Hoang Tat Truong, Basic English lexicology, 
National University Publisher, Viet Nam, 2
nd
ed., 2000. 
[4]. Wright, Andrew et al., Games for Language 
Learning, Cambridge University Press, 4th, 
2004. 
Nguyen Lan Huong et al TNU Journal of Science and Technology 199(06): 51 - 55 
 Email: jst@tnu.edu.vn 56