The study was limited to teach English language textbook Tieng Anh 11 which is now in use in the high schools

 1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study.
In Viet Nam , since the development of market economy, English is not only a great interest but also an increasing demand for most people. English now is therefore a compulsory school subject in many schools and universities. In all the four skills of learning English, speaking obviously plays the most vital part in communication. However, most Vietnamese learners find it hard to be able to use English in the real life. The reasons may come from the fact that traditional language teaching method like the Grammar- Translation one which has been applied to teach English in our country for ages. In many English classes, teacher and student exchanges have little communicative value because there is no real information being exchanged. Teachers often spend a large of proportion of class time asking “display” questions for which they and their students already know the answers. Here are three examples of typical display questions:
When presenting the new word “book” , the teacher holds up a book and says: this is a book. What is it?”
When teaching the sentence pattern for habitual actions, the teacher asks a student,” Do you go to school everyday?”
When demonstrating the present continuous tense, the teacher performs the activity, such as walking to the door, and while doing so says “ I am walking to the door. What am I doing now?”
These display questions serve only to elicit inauthentic language practice to: present a new word( example 1), elicit a sentence pattern( example 2) or practice a grammatical structure (example 3). They are not communicative. They demonstrate usage rather than use of the target language. 
In contrast, by using information gap activities, the teacher will motivate students to speak English and will create like-real situations where one of them has some information and other does not; thus, they must use the target language to share that information. The students must speak in order to be able to finish the task. In other words, information gap activities give students opportunities to manipulate English appropriately not only inside but also outside the classroom.
There have been a number of previous studies on how to exploit information gap activities in the speaking class. Nevertheless, no researchers have examined the practice of using information gap activities to improve speaking skill for the grader 11th in Chu Van An high school. This has given the researcher desire to carry out a research study on this issue.
1.2.Objectives of the study 
Doing this research , the researcher expected that the results are useful for the English teacher of Chu Van An high school in teaching speaking, so that the English teacher can create more communicative and active activities for the students by using information gap activities. The researcher also hope to help students have a better atmosphere in an English speaking class in which they are encouraged to speak or to state their ideas, thoughts orally in English. Furthermore, using information gap activities can motivate them to speak English as often as possible, so that they can improve their ability in speaking skills.
1.3 The scope of the study
Due to limited time and experience, this study focuses on how the students’ speaking skills can be improved by using information gap activities.
The study was limited to teach English language textbook Tieng Anh 11 which is now in use in the high schools.
The study was applied in the school year 2017/2018, 2018-2019, by implementing information gap activities 
1.4 Research Methodology.
This research is a classroom action research which is intended to make a contribution to the improvement of teaching and learning process by using information gap activities
 2. CONTENTS OF THE EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE
2.1.THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.1.1. Information Gap Activities
An information gap activity, in class terms, means that one student must be in a position to tell another something that the second student does not already know. 
The two following examples offered by Brown and Yule (1983) will distinguish information gap activity with other ones. 
Activity 1: The teacher gives the student an object to describe.
Activity 2: The student A is provided with a simple drawing of a line, a square and a triangle with a pen and a sheet of blank paper. The student A’s task is to instruct the student B to produce, as accurately as possible, the drawing which the student A can see but the student B can not.
In activity 1, the student has to create, for himself, an artificial information gap between his knowledge and the teacher’s. He has to behave as if the teacher does not know what the object looks like. This behavior is regarded as being additional and highly artificial. There is no information gap because both the teacher and the student can see the object clearly and then this is not genuinely communicative.
Differently, activity 2 is more interesting partly because it creates a reasonable purpose for the students to perform the task. In other words, one person has the information that the other does not know, so there is a need to communicate.
This definition reflects the nature of information gap activities. In information gap activities, there is always an information gap among participants which causes a need to communicate. This characteristic of information gap activities is similar to the nature of a conversation in real life. In fact, the need to communicate is created when one of the participants want to find out something they don’t know. Therefore, Information gap activities can be considered as a bridge to bring features of real life communication into classroom context
2.1.2. Factors affecting the choice of information gap activities
In order to select the most effective and appropriate information gap activities, teachers must take many factors affecting their choice into consideration. Among them, the four following criteria need to be paid most attention to: students’ language level, topics and objectives of each lesson, time allowance, and teaching aids.
First and foremost, students’ language level is the most significant factor affecting the choice of an information gap activity. The reason is that the activity is under or above the students’ language level; the students may lose their interest when they find out that the activity is too easy or too difficult to be accomplished. The activity then is just a waste of time and effort.
Secondly, the information gap activity which is chosen must suit the particular objectives of each lesson. The teacher should not let his students perform an information gap activity which is claimed to develop students’ ability of using common expression in making small talks whereas the topic of the lesson is about technology and the lesson is targeted at developing students’ capacity of talking about the uses of mordent invention in daily life. Therefore, in order to pick out suitable information gap activities, the topic and objectives of each lesson need to be clarified right from the start.
Another important factor must be considered carefully is time allowance for the activity. For instance, an information gap activity set for warming up the class should be spent just below ten minutes while fifteen to twenty minutes can be spent on an information gap activity used in order to practice newly presented language items.
Last but not least, teaching aids (cards, pictures, flashcards, etc.) for the information gap activities should also take a great deal of attention. Sketchy or illegible cards or pictures surely depress students’ interest for the activity. An information gap activity that is interesting but hard to find the materials to be carried out also should be eliminated. That is why, during the preparation, the teacher should assure that the aids are available, visible and attractively presented so he can motive his students to learn best.
2.1.3. Strategies of implementing information gap activities
Information gap activities should be implemented via some strategies. The following are some techniques used to implement information gap activities.
2.1.3.1 Pair work or group work: In order to elicit information and opinions, the learners need to interact among themselves. They should spend most of their time working in pairs or groups, finding out their peers’ points of view, transmitting their own conceptions, exchanging ideas, and questing for clues for solutions. Thus, dividing the learners into pairs and groups is an inevitable and important strategy to implement information gap activities. This ensures the successful function of the information gap activities in teaching speaking in which group work can help achieve the goals of anxiety reduction and meaningful communication (Sato,2003). However, effective group work in the classroom does not occur automatically and thus the teacher’s careful involvement is required as in the following steps:
Firstly, the teacher should plan and prepare for the group work activities ahead of the speaking lesson ( Sato,2003) because the good designs of the activities will result in “ more negotiation of meaning, more feedback and faster acquisition” ( Skehan,2007,p.291)
Secondly, the engagement of the teacher in the group work is important (Ellis,2003.p.70).
Thirdly, the teacher should allot roles to each member within group reasonably (Sato,2003). As, Ellis(2003,p.271) suggests that mixed groups including different proficient members can work better than “ homogeneous group”. Additionally, Jacobs( 1998, as cited in Ellis,2003) suggests that “ the students ate seated in a way that they can talk together easily, keep eye contact , share materials and talk in a lower voice”. 
In fact, information gap activities assist students to achieve their goals of meaningful communication. Through pair and group work they can get more opportunities to speak and feel more confident about speaking after cooperating to practice. Furthermore, they get enjoyment from learning language, which motivates them to reach a higher level. But teachers should take into consideration that group work in speaking also has its negative effects. For instance, students may overuse the first language or “ engage in off task talk”( Ellis,2003,p.168).
2.1.3.2. Personalization and individualization: according to Zhang (2004) as quoted in Defrioka (2009,p.40) information gap activities collect views not only from others but also from one’s own contributions as well. It is both speakers’ conceptions that close the gap between them. 
2.1.3.3. Interest: interest is particular important for the implementation of information gap activities. To stimulate learners’ involvement, interest requires that the activities be designed with some essential characteristics, such as those in games, role playing, curiosity arousing activities, imagination involving activities, real life touching experiencing activities, visual or auditory attracting activities, in addition to a clear goal and a meaningful problem solving process. Making the information gap activities interesting will ensure a high involvement of learners and keeps the motivation on going.
2.1.3.4. Variety: a variety of information gap activities and techniques are always essential in all teaching and learning. They will accommodate varieties of learning styles and individuals. 
2.1.3.5. Open ending: this means “ the provision of cues or learning tasks which do not have single predetermine “right” answers, but a prospectively unlimited number of acceptable responses” ( Ur,1996,p.309). Open ended cues in information gap activities supply possibilities at various levels and dimensions. Thus activate an increase in number of learners’ responses from elementary to advanced, from simple to sophisticated, and from textbooks to personal experiences. Open ended strategy allow learners opportunities for choosing appropriate languages, topics and paces, which promotes a significant rise in the proportion of learners’ participation
2.2.THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING SPEAKING PART.
2.2.1. An overview of Chu Van An high school
Teacher 
 Most of the English teachers think the aims of teaching speaking English is how to make students communicate effectively and naturally in real life. However they found some problems in getting students’ attention and participations in speaking class. Furthermore, the students are so active and noisy. They are hesitant and unconfident when they speak in front of class. Thus, when asking English teacher about what causes these problem most of them thought that the cause may be because of the teacher’s teaching method. Students are not motivated enough in learning English. The English teacher often use the same method in every speaking lesson . They often give a sample dialogue to students, ask them to read and practice with their partner . After that, the teachers ask students to make a similar dialogue with the teacher’s help by providing words, structures. Whenever students do not understand their instruction, the teacher uses Vietnamese to explain. Then, teachers asks them to memorize and perform in front of the class. 
In addition, English teachers see that most of their students speaking ability is low. They are shy and hesitant when they speak English even inside or outside classroom. They can not express idea or give opinion in real communication well.
 The English teacher teaching method is boring, unmotivated and uncreative. They rarely facilitate the students in communicative activities
Students
 Most of students want to learn English well, they like it but they are not motivated in learning because English is very boring and difficult. The students meet some problems in speaking English . They do not understand what their teacher explains. There are so many new words and structures. They do not brave to speak English. The causes for these problem may be because they are lack of confidence , lack of motivation and lack of vocabulary, etc.. 
From the above fact, the researcher see that He should use an active and creative activity to motivate students’ speaking skills. Information gap is very useful for organizing these such activities. The teacher is able to improve the students’ speaking ability because information gap activities increase student talk and promote interaction among students for communicative purposes rather than the students become comfortable to speak everything. 
2.2.2. The English Language syllabus
Our school’s 11th Grade English Language textbook “ Tieng Anh 11” . It is a traditional textbook structured with a priority towards theme-based or topic-based learning models. The textbook has desirable aims of providing students with a foundational knowledge of numerous fields, a favorable attitude towards the English Language, and the four skills generally recognized as building proficiency in language study: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. 
 For each topic, related vocabulary and word studies are presented communicatively. The book contains sixteen units, with each unit presenting five lessons with four different skills and a language focus. Speaking is the second unit in each lesson.Some tasks in the text book are difficult while some others are not really challenging. This disparity requires teachers to creatively motivate students by adapting exercises to their interest levels. Being effective at this adaptive skill is what sets teachers apart (average from excellent) worldwide.
2.3. METHODOLOGY
2.3.1 Research design.
This research is a Classroom Action Research (CAR) . Action research is an action that is done by the teachers to improve the teaching and learning process in their classes. This research consisted of 2 cycles and each cycles consisted of 4 elements. The researcher used the scheme of action research designed by Kemmis and McTaggart as follow:
Figure Action research cycles by Kemmis and McTaggart
Based on the model above, the first step is planning. In this step, the researcher found some problems in classes. Then, after planning the actions, the researcher took actions to solve the problems. While taking actions, the researcher also observed the teaching learning process to know the effect of the actions. This is also the stage where the researcher collected information as much as possible related to the implementation of the actions. The last step was reflection where the researcher evaluated and reflected on what he had done. In this research , the researcher used information gap activities to improve the speaking skills of grade 11 students in Chu Van An high school 
2.3.2. The implementation of information gap activities in teaching speaking. 
 In this implementation, the researcher arranged the pre-test and post-test orally. The pre-test was administered to the students under study before the treatment was given to know the students’ pre-existing ability in speaking. Besides, the post-test were administered to know the students’ progress after the treatments were given.
In the pre-test, the students under study were asked to construct and perform the descriptive monologue. The students could choose the topics which were provided by the researcher. They could describe their best friend, daily activity, family or school in front of the class within 2 until 3 minutes. The researcher scored the students’ performance by using the rubric which had three categories . The categories were grammar , fluencies and comprehension ( see appendix 3).
After knowing that the students’ speaking ability is low, that can be seen in the result of pre-test score, the researcher prepared 2 cycles. Each cycle consists of four steps. They were planning, action, observation and reflection. After each cycle was done, the researcher conducted post-test to know the improvement of speaking ability. The description of each cycle can be explained as follow
2.3.2.1 Cycle 1
a. Planning
 Planning was focused on preparing the lesson plan , teaching aids for doing an action in the classroom. The lesson plans were suitable with the 11th grade and the information gap activities that is sharing information with unrestricted cooperation. It was divided into two meeting, 45 minute for the first meeting and 45 minute for the second meeting. The researcher prepared some pictures and the activities related to the topic. This cycle was carried out to solve the problem in the pre-test, which was students still low in speaking ability. To avoid the students’ boredom, the researcher designed different activities in each meeting. 
b. Action
Action means the activities that the researcher really did in the classroom . There were two meetings in this cycle. In this phase, the researcher taught and the teacher sat down, observed and monitored all the activities that happened in the classroom.
 First meeting.
Date: March, 25th, 2018
Topic: Sources of energy.
The researcher began the lesson with a warm up activity by watching a video of sources of energy and answer questions about it. The researcher also supplied new words and structures. Then, the researcher gave a student one picture of sources of energy while he had six ones. His duty was to ask and describe about the advantage and disadvantage of these sources of energy in order to find out which one is student’s energy picture. This activity was a sample activity to help student practice later. 
After giving the sample activity, the researcher asked students to work in pairs with their partner. This time, the partner given 6 pictures of sources of energy and the other was given a picture. The student had to practice with their partner the activity which had been performed before. The teacher called the students to go in front of the class with their partner. The teacher gave six pictures to the