HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

NGUYEN LAN HUONG

USING INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES
TO PROMOTE GRADE 10 STUDENTS’
PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING LESSONS
AT VIET TRI TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL
(Sử dụng hoạt động “Điền thông tin” nhằm tăng cường sự tham gia của
học sinh lớp 10 trong giờ học nói ở trường THPT Kỹ Thuật Việt Trì)

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
PEDAGOGYY CLASS

Phu Tho, 2022


HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

NGUYEN LAN HUONG

USING INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES
TO PROMOTE GRADE 10 STUDENTS’
PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING LESSONS
AT VIET TRI TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL
(Sử dụng hoạt động “Điền thông tin” nhằm tăng cường sự tham gia của
học sinh lớp 10 trong giờ học nói ở trường THPT Kỹ Thuật Việt Trì)

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

PEDAGOGY CLASS

SUPERVISOR: MA. NGUYEN THI THU HANG

Phu Tho, 2022

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost, I would like to Express my deepest thanks to Ms Nguyen
Thi Thu Hang – my supervisor, for her invaluable guidance, great support, and
patience. The present study would not have been possible without her assistance.
I would also acknowledge my great gratitude to all the lecturers and the
organizers of the Foreign Language Department, Hung Vuong University for their
support during my study at the college.
My special thanks are expressed to my friends for their great help and comments.
Also, my gratefullness goes to teachers and thirty-six students taking part in my
research.
Finally, I also wish to express my sincere thanks to my family and friends who
have given me so much encouragement and support in conducting this research paper.

ii


Table of Content
PART A: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1
1.

Rationale ......................................................................................................................... 1


2.

Previous study ............................................................................................................. 2

3.

Purpose and significance of the study ..................................................................... 4

4.

Research questions .................................................................................................. 4

5.

Scope of the study ................................................................................................... 5

6.

Methods of the study ............................................................................................... 5

7.

Hypothesis of the study ........................................................................................... 5

8.

Structure of the study .............................................................................................. 5

PART B: CONTENT ............................................................................................................. 7

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ............................................................... 7
1.1 Teaching speaking ........................................................................................................... 7
1.1.1 Definitions of speaking ................................................................................................. 7
1.1.2 Importance of teaching speaking .................................................................................. 8
1.1.3 Teaching speaking in CLT ............................................................................................ 8
1.1.4 Characteristic of successful speaking activities .......................................................... 10
1.2

Information gap activities (IGA) ........................................................................... 11

1.2.1 Definition of IGA........................................................................................................ 11
1.2.2. Types of IGA ............................................................................................................. 12
1.2.3

Benefits of implementing IGA in teaching speaking ............................................ 15

Some previous researchers confirmed that: nobody can deny the helpfulness of IGA brings
for speaking lessons ............................................................................................................. 15
1.2.4 Principle and steps in using information gap activities .............................................. 18
1.3 Students’ participation in speaking activities ................................................................ 20
1.3.1 Definition of students’ participation ........................................................................... 20
1.3.3 Benefits of students’ participation .............................................................................. 21
1.3.4 Factors affecting students’ participation ..................................................................... 22
1.3.4.1 Students’ factors ...................................................................................................... 22
1.3.4.2 Teacher’s factors ...................................................................................................... 22
1.3.4.3 Classroom factors .................................................................................................... 23
1.4 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 24
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................... 25
2.1 The research methods .................................................................................................... 25
2.2 Participants of the study ................................................................................................. 26


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2.2.1 Samples for the experimental class ............................................................................. 26
2.2.2 Samples for the interviews .......................................................................................... 26
2.3 Setting of the study ........................................................................................................ 26
2.4 Data collection instruments ........................................................................................... 27
2.4.1 Students' participation self-checklist (Appendix A) ................................................... 27
2.4.2 Questionnaire (Appendix B) ....................................................................................... 28
2.4.3 Teaching videos .......................................................................................................... 28
2.4.4 Interview (Appendix C) .............................................................................................. 29
2.5 Study procedure ............................................................................................................. 29
CHAPTER 3: EXPERIMENT OF USING INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES IN
SPEAKING LESSONS FOR GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT VIET TRI TECHNICAL
HIGH SCHOOL .................................................................................................................. 31
3.1 Description of experiment ............................................................................................. 31
3.1.1 Objectives ................................................................................................................... 31
3.1.2 Estimated time ............................................................................................................ 31
3.1.3 Lesson plans and activities design .............................................................................. 31
3.1.4 Resources and teaching aids ....................................................................................... 32
3.1.5 Procedures ................................................................................................................... 33
3.2 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 37
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ............................... 38
4.1 Data analysis .................................................................................................................. 38
4.1.1 Students' participation before the experiment ............................................................ 38
4.1.2 Students' participation at the experimental stage ........................................................ 41
4.1.3 Comparison of participation levels of the students in experimental class before and
during the experiment. ......................................................................................................... 45
4.1.4 Teachers' and students’ attitudes towards the implementation of IGA in speaking

lessons………….. ................................................................................................................ 46
4.2 Major findings and discussion ....................................................................................... 49
PART C: CONCLUSION .................................................................................................... 53
1. Summary of the study ...................................................................................................... 53
2. Implications ..................................................................................................................... 54
3. The limitations of the study ............................................................................................. 57
4. Suggestions for further studies ........................................................................................ 57
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................... 59

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ABSTRACT
A lesson in general, an English-speaking lesson in particular can not be said
to be successful without students’ active particular. And foreign language learners
should be offered the opportunity to get involved in the lessons and fulfill their
learning orientations. The aim of carrying out this research was to promote students
participating in speaking lesson by using information gap activities.
The thesis, therefore, examines the students’ level of participation in speaking
lessons at Viet Tri technical high school. In order to achieve the aim, the experimental
research was carried out in six weeks which questionnaires, interview, students’
participation self-check and teaching videos as data correction instruments. The
sample of the study consisted of 36 grade 10 students from class 10A4. The
experimental group joined 3 first speaking lessons without the use of information gap
activities and 3 last speaking lessons with the intervention of information gap
activities. The results indicated that experimental group’s participation level
increased significantly.
Hopefully, this study can raise teachers and students’ awareness of using
information gap activities in teaching speaking to enhance learners’ involvement.


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ABBREVIATION

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching
L2: Second language
IGA: Information Gap Activities

vi


LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS
Table 2.1: The result of English on average in the first semester
Table 3.1: The content of the non - experimental lessons
Table 3.2: The content of the experimental lessons
Table 4.1: Students' participation self-checklist before experiment
Chart 4.1: Times of students’ participation before experiment
Table 4.3: Students' participation self-checklist during experiment
Chart 4.2: Times of students’ participation during experiment
Chart 4.3: Numbers of students’ participation times before and during experiment
Table 4.3 Summary table of results from survey questionnaire

vii


PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
This study is being conducted for the following reasons: the growing
importance of English in our daily lives, students' lack of speaking skills, the reality

of low student involvement, and the motivation provided by information gap
activities (IGA) in speaking sessions.
To begin with, it is obvious that English has played an important part in our
modern lives. With a dramatic increase in the number of users, it is the most
effective way of global communication. It also exhibits progressive impacts in a
variety of areas. Anyone, regardless of where they live, is likely to be aware that
having a good command of English facilitates access to the most up-to-date science
and technology knowledge. As a result, English allows him to improve his studies
and work, as well as his current life.
Second, Viet Tri technical high school’s students appear to be weaker at
speaking than other English skills, although being strong at it allows them to earn a
good career in the community. Viet Tri technical high school is a newly established
school in Viet Tri city which is home to a variety of firms and businesses, many of
which require employers to have a good command of the English language. Young
people in the local province receive first priority for job offers if they meet certain
criteria, one of which being English proficiency. However, despite graduating from
high school or even a university, most of Phu Tho students find it difficult to
communicate in English.
In fact, students’ poor participation is one of the factors responsible for their
low speaking proficiency. Many students keep silent or chat in speaking lessons while
others make noise using their mother tongue. Thus, teachers need to provide students
motivation to use English in class. It’s considered that one of the best solutions to
improve the quality of students’ participation in oral lessons is the use of information
gap activities in speaking lessons.
In certain ways, using information gap activities in an English speaking class
promotes students to use the target language in class. To begin, in this activity, one
person possesses specific information that must be communicated with others in
order to solve an issue, gather data, or make judgments. This allows pupils to

1



practice their English for a longer amount of time. Furthermore, conversing with a
peer is less scary than giving a presentation in front of the class and being graded.
Another benefit of information gap activities is that they help students to negotiate
meaning since they must make what they say understandable to others in order to
complete the task.
The above reasons have inspired the author to conduct the research entitled
“Using information gap activities to promote grade 10 students’ participation in
speaking lessons”. Hopefully, this research will make a minor contribution to the
implementation of Information gap activities in improving speaking skills for the
students at Viet Tri technical high school.
2. Previous study
In the last decades, we have recognized substantial research on application
of additional activities in teaching and learning speaking skill in both Viet Nam and
others countries in the world
a. In the world
The role of speaking skill in language teaching has always caused a bitter
controversy around teachers, researchers, or educators. Traditionally, speaking
skill was not considered as important in grade system, that is by telling people what
rules they should know and how they should speak, and this includes many aspects
of linguistic knowledge. But the teaching of speaking skill for the past decades has
undergone a substantial change in people’s attitudes and approaches. Some
teachers only taught other skills like writing, reading and grammar but other insists
that knowing speaking skill is completely unnecessary. However, most researchers
and educators support the importance and the way to improve teaching speaking
skill.
Defrioka (2009) did a research on "Improving Students' Interaction In
Speaking class Through Information Gap Activities". The study aimed to test to
what extent applying information gap activities could improve students' interaction

in speaking class. Classroom action research procedures (plan, act, observe and
reflection) were used to study the process and participant outcomes. The
participants of this research were the third year students of Building Department
of SMKN 1 Padang, consisted of (22) students. The study was conducted in two

2


cycles with four meetings for each. The information gap activities were applied at
each meeting with different topic of the lesson. The results of the research
indicated that the use of IGA can promote students interaction in speaking class.
The students had more opportunities to speak during the English lesson. Besides,
the classroom action research itself helped students and 17 teacher reflect on their
successes and failure of the teaching and learning process. Then, the researcher
suggested that all language teachers should employ information gap activities in
their teaching process to promote student learning. When adopting this type of
activity, language teachers should provide their students with a variety of
enjoyable tasks.
Sari (2008) did an action research on "Improving Students' speaking Mastery
Using Information Gap at the Second Year of SMP N3Kebakramat Karangany".
The study aimed to find out whether using IGA can improve students' speaking
mastery and describe the students' response on the information gap in speaking
class. The participants were 40 second-year students in the SMP N3 Kebakkramat
Karanganyar school. The researcher taught IGA in the speaking class. The data
was collected from students' answers on oral test in the form of pre test and post
test. The result of the study indicated that by implementing IGA in teaching
speaking, students seemed to be more active and cooperative in speaking lesson.
The students' motivation to speak, to practice speaking, and students' achievement
of speaking were improved. The mean of the pre test was (68.7), the post test was
(71.6), and the improvement result of the implementation was (2.9). Most of the

students said that they loved this technique. Thus, the study proved that
information gap method can make the students more confident, easy to understand,
to cooperate with others, and to practice speaking. They can improve their
vocabulary, pronunciation and express their idea or opinion. The researcher
suggested that the teacher should find the effective way to teach speaking skill in
class.
b.

In Viet Nam

In Vietnam, there are many studies on the real situation of using information
gap activities to improve speaking skills for the students. A study on "Using IGA
to enhance speaking skills for the first-year students in ED-University of Language

3


and International Studies -Vietnam National University." by Nguyen Thi Thu
Trang in 2009 is one of the examples. The result from the study showed that IGA
have been exploited widely and gained some certain achievements at ULIS, VNU.
However, there still remains some problems facing teacher and students. As for
teacher, there are some difficulties in adapting activities, organizing the crowded
classes or involving students. To students, the lack of confidence, the discomfort
when working in groups or pairs, and the poor language practice are their major
differences. Then, some suggestions were made to improve the method of
implementing IGA.
In conclusion, with regard to the literature review, using IGA in teaching
speaking is quite familiar with teachers in many countries in the world and also in
Vietnam. Many studies were conducted in this issue to clarify the benefit and
problems in using this type of activities. However, in Vietnam, not many studies

investigated the specific effect of IGA in promoting students' motivation and
participation in speaking class. Thus, it could be said that the conduct of the present
study meets the practicality of the issue. The research was described in detail in
the following sections.
3. Purpose and significance of the study
The study aims at investigating the positive and negative impact

of

information gap activities on students’ participation level in English speaking
lessons and raising teachers’ awareness of exploiting these activities .
The study was carried out with the hope to provide teachers of English at
Viet Tri technical high school with a deeper understanding about using information
gap activities in teaching speaking skill. The use of Information Gap Activities can
motivate the students to learn English especially. It may help the students to have a
description and comprehension about the real situation they face according to the
speaking material given in an active and communicative way. In addition, it is hoped
that the study will be a great use in helping teachers find an effective way to increase
their students’ participation as well as motivate them to use English in speaking
lessons.
4. Research questions

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To achieve the aims mentioned above, the following two research questions
are addressed:
Does the implementation of information gap activities really increase 10th
grade students’ participation in speaking lessons?
What are students and teachers’ attitudes towards information gap

activities?
5. Scope of the study
This study is concerned to access the using of information gap activities to
promote 36 students’ participation of class 10A4 in speaking lessons in 6 weeks with
3 lessons without applying information gap activities and 3 lessons practicing with
information gap activities at Viet Tri technical high school.
This paper, therefore, placed strong emphasis on the grade 10 students’
involvement and the techniques to improve students’ participation in speaking
classes. In addition, it is noteworthy that students’ participation is easily affected by
the students’ factors (attitudes, motivation, language levels,..), teachers’ factor (
characteristics, methodology,..) and classroom factors.
6. Methods of the study
This study is quantitative research with Information gap activities independent variable and students’ participation - dependent variable. The study was
carried out using quasi - experimental research method with the use of some data
collection instruments:
Interview
Teaching videos
Questionnaire
Students’ self – checklist
7. Hypothesis of the study
The hypothesis for this research is “ If teachers use information gap activities
effectively, grade 10 students’ participation in speaking lessons at Viet Tri technical
high school can be promoted”.
8. Structure of the study
The thesis covers three main parts as follows:

5


Part A is the introduction providing readers with overall information about

the research including the rationale for the study, aims and significant, research
questions, methods, scope as well as the structure of the study.
Part B is the study which comprises five chapters:
Chapter 1: Provides essential literature review relevant to the study
including teaching speaking, IGA, students’ participation.
Chapter 2: Presents the methodology for the research. It deals with the
research method, the participants of the study, the settings, the data collection
instruments and procedure of the study.
Chapter 3: Describes the experiment
Chapter 4: Indicates the findings of the study, the discussions about the
study results and present the implications of the study.
Part C is the conclusion of the study, summarizing the findings, providing
the limitation of the research, offering recommendations and suggestions for further
research.

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PART B: CONTENT
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
This chapter aims at exploring the theoretical background for the thesis,
focusing on the following points: an overview of teaching skills, information gap
activities and students’ participation.
1.1 Teaching speaking
1.1.1 Definitions of speaking
There are a variety of definitions for the term “speaking” presented by different
authors. Speaking is a productive language skill (Siahaan, 2008: 95). It means that
speaking is a person's skills to produce sounds that exists the meaning and be
understood by other people, so that able to create of good communication.
Furthermore, speaking is the use of language to communicate with other (Fulcher,

2003: 23). It means that this activity involves two or more people in whom the
participants are both hearers and speakers having to react to whatever they hear and
make their contribution a high speed, so each participant has intention or a set of
intention that he wants. So, the English teacher should active the students speaking
ability by providing communicative language activities and interesting media in the
classroom and then giving them the opportunities to practice their speaking skill as
much as possible.
However, most of them agree that speaking is a verbal exchange between
communicators including receptive and productive skills which require them to
transfer information through language. Byrne (1998: 8) claims that speaking is "a
two-way process between speaker and listener, involving the productive skill of
speaking and the receptive skill of understanding". While the speaker encodes the
message in appropriate language, the listener has to decode it. Sharing the same view,
Scott (1981: 3, cited in Johnson & Morrow) states that speaking is "an activity
involving two (or more) people in which the participants are both hearers and
speakers having to react to what they hear and make their contributions at high
speed". Through the interaction, each participant will achieve his communicative
goals and fulfill his ability of interpreting what is said to him. In short, speaking skill
can be considered as the ability to use language as a means of communication. A

7


person who has a highest level of speaking skill is the one who can speak fluently,
accurately and understandably every time, everywhere and in every situation. That is
what every learner wants to master. This is the reason why Bygate (1987: 2) considers
speaking as "a skill which deserves attention every bit as much as literary skills in
both first and second language".
It can be deduced from the preceding definitions that speaking is the
productive skill used to convey meaning in actual communication. It is the most

important ability in the teaching and learning.
1.1.2 Importance of teaching speaking
It is difficult to say which skill is the most important among four language
skills. However, speaking seems the most important and the closest to the goal of
language teaching: communicative competence. Pattison (1992) confirms that when
people know or learn a language, they mean being able to speak the language. Nunan
(1998: 39) considers "mastering the art of speaking" as the most importance aspect
of learning a language. Furthermore, Lawtie (2004: 35) considered the ability to carry
out a conversation is the target language as the success of learning a language.
Therefore, in reality, most foreign language learners are primary interested in learning
speaking. Besides that, Ur (1996) indicates that people who know a language are
referred to "speakers" of that language, as if speaking is the umbrella term that covers
all other skills and Ur (1996: 120) states, “of all the four skills (listening, speaking,
reading and writing), speaking seems intuitively the most important."
1.1.3 Teaching speaking in CLT
1.1.3.1 Purposes of CLT
The habit of asking and answering questions is overemphasized in typical
speaking classes. There is usually only one accurate prepared answer because the
solution and the question are structured and predictable. CLT, on the other hand, aims
to strengthen the ability to communicate effectively in the target language.
The aims and principles of CLT alternate the content, strategies and methods
of language teaching and learning, and also change the roles of language teachers as
well as learners. Compared with its previous approaches, CLT has greatly reformed

8


language teaching and made a huge contribution to the language learners, but in its
application the problems also occur.
Different from the traditional approach, the aim of CLT emphasizes language

learners’ “communicative proficiency” rather than “a mere mastery of grammar and
structures” (Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 161), which caters to the learner’s actual
communicative needs and thus allows more efficient interaction for learners. Learners
do not learn the language for the purpose of acquiring the grammars and vocabularies;
rather, they use the language to communicate with others or to comprehend the
information others send to them (Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 160). Moreover, with
a clear instrumental purpose, learners tend to have a stronger motivation for learning
language.
1.1.3.2 Characteristics of CLT
Rather than being a teaching method, the communicative approach might be
described as a wide approach to teaching. As a result, it is frequently misunderstood
as a set of general principles. One of the most recognized of these lists is five features
of CLT pointed out by Nunan (1998):
An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target
language.
The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation. The provision
of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language, but also on the Learning
Management process.
An enhancement of the learner's own personal experiences as important
contributing elements to classroom learning.
An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activities
outside the classroom.
Richards and Rodgers (1986: 71) also points some main features of CLT as
follows:
Language is a system for the expression of meaning.
The primary function of language is for interaction and communication. the
structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses.

9



The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural
features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in
discourse.
Nunan's five principles demonstrate that the communicative approach is
centered on the learners' needs and wants. When students acquire a foreign language,
they have numerous opportunities to practice it outside of the classroom. As a result,
bringing authentic materials into the classroom is critical, and CLT addresses this
desire by providing dally student activities that are closely related to real
conversation. While characteristics followed Richarts and Rodger are prerequisite to
concluding that CLT is rich or combining whatever appears to be the best almost in
for items from a variety of fields are systems at the level of language theory.
1.1.4 Characteristic of successful speaking activities
Sometimes spoken language is easy to perform, but in some cases it is difficult
(Brown, 2000: 2700). A successful speaking activity has to fulfill characteristics such
as giving much time or opportunity to the students to speak as often as possible;
allocating as much time as possible to students talking can help create the best
environment for oral activities.
Ur (1996: 120) explains some characteristics of successful speaking activities
which 5 include learners talk a lot, participant is even, motivation is high, and
language is of an acceptable level. Each characteristic is explained as follows:
1. Learners talk a lot. As much as possible of the period of time allocated
to the activity is in fact occupied by learner talk. This may be obvious, but often most
time is taken up with teacher's talk or pauses.
2. Participation is even. Classroom discussion is not dominated by a
minority of talkative participants. It means that all students get a chance to speak and
contributions are fairly evenly distributed.
3. Motivation is high. Learners are eager to speak because they are
interested in the topic and have something new to say about it, or because they want
to contribute to achieving a task objective.

4. Language is of an acceptable level. Learners express themselves in
utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other, and of an acceptable
level of language accuracy.

10


Friederike Klippel has some points in common with Ur. His point of view
about an effective speaking lesson is: message oriented communication which
indicates the moments in foreign language when target language is used as a vehicle
of communication; learner – centered activities in which students' feelings, purposes
and ideas are the focus; active learning, cooperation and empathy emphasize the
students' active participation in the speaking process.
From their ideas, we can see that the most prominent features of a successful
speaking activity are that the learners' speaking time is maximized and every student
has equal opportunities to express themselves.
1.2 Information gap activities (IGA)
1.2.1 Definition of IGA
One of the most essential principles in communicative language education is the
information gap. IGA has been discussed and debated by several methodologists.
They provided several definitions of IGA. “Information gap is considered as a
situation where information is known by only some of those present” (Richards, John
& Heidi, 1992). Morrow (1981) defines IGA as an activity in which one pupil must
be in the position to tell another pupil something that he/she does not have. According
to Harmer (2002: 88), IGA are those in which students are given different bits of
information. By sharing this separate information, they can complete a task. Besides,
Doff (1988: 211) stated about the nature of IGA "one person has information which
another does not have", so it creates a need to communicate. According to Neu &
Reeser (1997: 72) also said that: "In information gap activity, one person has certain
information that must be shared with others in order to solve a problem, gather

information or make decisions." And Prabhu (1987) confirms that these activities
closely involve the process of sharing. He considers this kind of activities problem
solving tasks requiring participants deliver the information they have to those who do
not have it.
Finally while the definitions range in terms, they all agree that an information
gap activity is one in which learners are missing information needed to perform a task
and must communicate with one another to overcome it. It cultivates students’
curiosity and desire to speak; as result, they are determined to be highly
communicative activities in language teaching and learning.

11


1.2.2. Types of IGA
Different researchers have offered different ways to classify information gap
activities
1.2.2.1 Doff's classification
According to Doff (1988), there are three main kinds of information gap
activities: guessing games, information gap exercises for pair work, and activities in
which students exchange personal information.
In the real process of language teaching, Doffs way to classify IGA seems
to be quite specific and useful for language teachers. Each type of IGA is described
quite clear and easy to understand. Teachers can choose one suitable IGA type to
apply in teaching students in class.
a. Guessing games
Guess the picture:
The teacher has a set of flashcards with simple pictures (e.g clothes, food,
places, actions). He or she chooses one card, but does not show it to the class. The
students must guess by asking questions, e.g.
T: Guess how I went to X

Ss: Did you go by car? Did you go by bus? Did you walk?
Guess the sentence
The teacher writes a sentence on a piece of paper or card. He or she does
not show the sentence, but writes the basic structure on the board,
e.g.: I went (somewhere) to (do something).
Students must guess the exact sentence by asking questions,
e.g: Did you go to the park? Did you go to school? Did you play
football?
Mime
The teacher calls a student to the front and secretly gives her a sentence
written on a piece of paper, which describes a simple activity, e.g. go fishing. The
student mimes this activity. The other students try to guess the situation.
e.g. You are mending a puncture. You are mending a plug.
Guess famous people

12


One student pretends to be a famous person (alive or dead) who is known
to the others. The rest of the class try to ask yes-no questions to find out who the
person is.
For example: Are you still alive or dead? Are you English? Are you a
singer?
“What's my line?"
One student chooses a job, and mimes a typical activity that it involves.
The other try to guess the job by asking questions either about the activity or the job,
e.g: "Were you mending something?", "Were you digging?" or “Do you
work outside?"
What and where
The teacher sends two students out of the room. The other students hide

an object. The two students come back and guess what the object is and where it is
hidden, by asking questions, e.g. “Is it made of wood?", “Is it a pencil?", “Is it high
or low?" or “Is it on this side of the room?"
b. Information gap exercises
According to Doff, information gap exercises are usually designed for pair
work. They can be done in various ways:
- One student has some information, and the others have to find out by
asking questions.
- One student has information and tells it to the other student.
- Both students have different information, and they tell each other.
Then, Doff describes some models of those information-gap exercises:
- Completing the grid: Students sit in pairs. In each pair, one student has
an empty grid and the other has the text, which is not shown to each other. Students
with empty grid completes the grid by asking questions. e.g What's he going to do
tomorrow afternoon?
-

Detecting differences: Two students in each pair are given two versions

of a picture which are identical except for some differences. Without looking at each
other's pictures, they have to try to find all the differences by describing picture or
asking to compare.

13


- Shopping list: Students sit in pairs. In each pair, Students X is a
customer and has a shopping list .Student Y is a shop assistant with a list of items in
the shop and their prices. They don’t look at each other’s list. They will try to buy
and sell things.

The author stated the advantages and problems of using these activities in
class. On the one hand, students will be provided with intensive and interesting
language practice while being involved in these activities. On the other hand, the
teachers will find hard to organize these activities in a large class. It's difficult for
them to prevent students from looking at each other's information.
c. Exchanging personal information activities
According to Doff (1988), these activities are one of the easiest and most
interesting forms of communicative classroom activity in which students exchange
information about their own lives, hobbies and experiences, etc. Students will feel
more natural and comfortable to talk about the fact in their life and share with their
friends. Thus, there is a natural "information gap". For example, students work in
pairs and ask their partner about his or her daily routine such as When do you get up?/
When do you have breakfast?/ What do you have for breakfast? / When do you go to
school?/ How do you go to school? etc.
1.2.2.2 Ellis (1999)’s classification
According to Ellis (1999), there are two types of information gap: oneway and-two way. One- way occurs when one person holds information that other
group 8 member(s) do not have. An example of a one-way information exchange is
one in which one person has a picture and describes it to his/her partners who tries to
draw it. On the contrary, a two- way information gap activity, both learners have
information to share to complete a task. For example, both have the information about
directions to a location but they have to share the information they have to complete
the directions. (Ellis, 1999: 95). Both one- way and two- way information exchange
activities involve an information gap that information must flow between group
members in order for the activity to be accomplished. It seems that two- way IGA
have been shown to facilitate more interaction than one –way IGA.

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1.2.2.3 Littlewood (1991)’s classification

Littlewood (1991) assumed that information gap activities are functional
communicative activities. He divided IGA into two main types:
Sharing information with restricted cooperation.
According to Littlewood, this type of communicative activities produces
the simplest patterns of interaction. The situation is always that one learner (or group)
focuses information which another learner (or group) must discover. And the knower
is not allowed to cooperate fully; he provides information only in respond to
appropriate cues. There are usually questions of specified kind. (e.g. Yes/ No
questions).
Sharing information with unrestricted cooperation.
These activities are based on visual information. That is, information gap
is maintained by the physical fact that the participants can not see each other's picture.
Across this physical gap, the learners' communicative relationship may be allowed to
become fully cooperative.
1.2.3

Benefits of implementing IGA in teaching speaking

Some previous researchers confirmed that: nobody can deny the
helpfulness of IGA brings for speaking lessons
1.2.3.1 Develop student’s fluency and accuracy
Delima found that information gap can help students in increasing their
capability in speaking. Her research was focused at finding solutions to problems
experienced by almost all students in learning speaking skills, such as lack of selfconfidence, limited vocabulary, or often incorrect pronunciation of words. In this
point we know that information gap provides more activities to stimulate students to
speak the target language. Besides, it can enhance students’ confidence, enrich
students’ vocabularies, and correct students’ pronunciation
Neu & Reeser (1997) also stated that in IGA, students are forced to
negotiate meaning because they must make what they are saying comprehensible to
others in order to accomplish the task. So, the students keep talking to maintain the

exchange of information. They try to avoid the pause in the middle of the
conversation. In this way, students' fluency can also be improved.

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Raptou (2012) asserted that IGA help students to apply the focused
grammatical structures in order to exchange information and negotiate meaning.
Thus, students involved in the speaking task will keep asking and answering
questions. Through this kind of practice, their fluency and accuracy can be improved
gradually.
1.2.3.2 Promote students’ equal participation
IGA also provides equal learning chances for mixed-ability classes.
Students frequently work in pairs or groups in IGA, and each participant has a specific
role to play. For example, in the speaking task “Shopping list" suggested by Doff
(1988), students A is a customer, student B is a shop assistant. They have to ask
questions to buy and sell things. Therefore, the speaking task is not dominated by a
minority of talkative participants. All students have a chance to speak, and contribute
fairly evenly to the discussion.
1.2.3.3 Increase students’ talking time in class
These types of activities are extremely effective in the L2 classroom. Neu
& Reeeser (1997) stated that IGA gives every student the opportunity to speak in the
target language for an extended period of time and students naturally produce more
speech than they would otherwise. Doughty and Pica (1986: 25) also shared the same
idea that "learners tend to produce longer sentences and negotiate meaning more often
in interactive tasks than they do in teacher-fronted instruction, where the teacher
stands at the front of the room and leads the discussion." IGA, in general gives the
pupils the opportunity to express themselves in a certain setting. To finish the job,
students tend to talk more in order to exchange ideas with the partners.
1.2.3.4 Promote students’ motivation

Bajrami instructed the students to do information gap activities in form of
telling about experiences, making an explanation about a place, or making a
description about person in 3 minutes. The result of those activities showed that there
is a difference in the mean scores of the two groups. From this study, we conclude
that information gap can add variety of lesson and enable students to work
collaboratively with their friends to create a good atmosphere in learning process. We

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can also conclude that this technique is also appropriate not only for Indonesian
students but also for foreign country students just like in Bajrani study in Macedonia.
Astuti showed that in her finding there are several improvements in students’
speaking skill. Her students are able to gain their confidence and interest in doing
activities during the learning process. Therefore, be sides being a good impact for
speaking, we may conclude that information gap is also able to enhance students’
motivation in learning process. Information gap activities are expected to help student
become an active learner so that they can obtain better result in the learning process.
Littlewood explains that there are several steps in applying information gap activities.
First, the teacher needs to give clear explanation related to the activity which is going
to be conducted. Second, the teacher instructs the students to do the task in pair or
group.
Because the IGA creates a communication gap between participants, pupils
have an incentive to communicate. Harmer (1993: 90) asserted that “information gap
is an ingredient in most real-life communication." Thus, IGA creates a real purpose
for the communication to take place. Students will be involved more in these activities
because they have a real reason for completing the task, not just to practice the new
structure or vocabulary. Moreover, information gap activities are often designed in
form of games. Thus, it can stir and maintain students’ interest and motivation more
because they like the game. The challenge is one of the essential of every game, which

can create competition among learners and maintain eagerness in the learning
process. Besides, Raptou (2001) also stated that IGA give students a chance to
practice what they've learned. Students have opportunities to put the theory into real
daily conversation. Thus, they will understand the lesson more and be attracted to the
task.
1.2.3.5 Build students’ confidence
Because most IGA are designed for pair or group work, students are often
forced to face each other while participating in them. Neu & Reeser (1997) make a
comment that speaking with peers is less intimidating than presenting in front of the
entire class and being evaluated. Hess (2001) also stated that IGA creates a secure,
nonthreatening atmosphere.

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