Strategies of learning speaking skill by second year English majors at Thuongmai University

Strategies of learning speaking skill by second year English majors at Thuongmai University Strategies of learning speaking skill by second year English majors at Thuongmai University Strategies of learning speaking skill by second year English majors at Thuongmai University Strategies of learning speaking skill by second year English majors at Thuongmai University Strategies of learning speaking skill by second year English majors at Thuongmai University Strategies of learning speaking skill by second year English majors at Thuongmai University Strategies of learning speaking skill by second year English majors at Thuongmai University

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY

-GRADUATION PAPER STRATEGIES OF LEARNING SPEAKING SKILL BY SECOND YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY

HA NOI - 2021

HÀ NỘI - 2015

Therefore, more and more people are learning English with the desire to keep

up with the advances of science and technology and globalization trends English ismost widely taught not only at schools and universities but also at many languagecenters Among the 4 basic skills of English: listening, speaking, reading andwriting, speaking skills are considered to have the greatest impact on learners Most

of them agree that speaking is always on the top of demand because it is thenecessary tool which help them pass the oral examination at schools or have a goodposition in a foreign company Therefore, it is important for them to be able tospeak English fluently

Speaking is one of the important subjects for students majoring in English ingeneral and students of the English Faculty, Thuongmai University in particular.However, students studying at the Faculty often encounter some speaking problemswhich directly impact on their learning achievement Therefore, I decided toconduct a survey to identify common difficulties in learning speaking skill in order

to find effective strategies to help students learn better in this module Research islimited to the area and research object within the second year students of EnglishFaculty, Thuongmai University

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This is the researcher’s proposal, has not been specifically applied in practice.

I would like to be given the steps to conduct the research, and at the same timepredict the results of the research Due to the limited implementation time, there areunavoidable errors in the implementation process, the researcher sincerely hopes toreceive the sympathy of the teachers

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No one can make their success without the help of others, no matter how small

or big is it In the process of completing this graduation paper, I have received agreat deal of help, guidance, and encouragement from many teachers, friends and

my family I have faced to many difficulties, but thank to your help, I overcame alltroubles and completed my graduation paper

First of all, I would like to express my grateful thanks to Mrs Hoang Thu BaM.A – my supervisor – for her constant and tireless support throughout this study.During my studying process, she has willingly and readily, suggested and given mevaluable advice and detailed comments about my study

Furthermore, my sincere thanks also go to other teachers in English Facultywho have taught me subjects in the English major in the past semesters Theknowledge and experience I learned from the teachers during the time at school play

an important role in completing this essay Especially, I am profoundly grateful toall the members in my family and friends, who have always been by my side andbeen a positive encouragement to help me complete this essay

Finally, I would like to thank all those who have kindly given their advice andhelped me with source material during the writing of this graduation paper

Sincerely,Nguyen Thi Thuy

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vii

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Previous studies 1

1.3 Aims of the study 4

1.4 Research Subjects 4

1.5 Scope of the study 5

1.6 Research methodology 5

1.7 Organization of the study 6

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 7

2.1 Theoretical background of speaking skill 7

2.1.1 Definition of speaking skill 7

2.1.2 Elements of speaking skill 8

2.1.3 The importance of speaking skill 9

2.2 Factors affecting speaking process 10

2.2.1 Subjective factors 10

2.2.2 Objective factors 12

2.3 Strategies in learning speaking skill 13

2.3.1 The definition of speaking learning strategies 13

2.3.2 The taxonomy of speaking skill strategies 14

CHAP 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 17

3.1 Findings 17

3.1.1 Student’s awareness of speaking learning strategies 17

3.1.2 The common difficulties of students 20

3.1.3 The common strategies used in learning speaking skill 22

iv

3.1.3.1 Memory strategies 23

3.1.3.2 Cognitive strategies 24

3.1.3.3 Compensation strategies 26

3.1.3.4 Metacognitive strategies 27

3.1.3.5 Affective strategies 29

3.1.3.6 Social strategies 30

3.1.4 Students' use of speaking learning strategies is based on individual competencies 32

3.2 Discussion 33

CHAP 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 35

4.1 Suggestions 35

4.2 Recommendation for future researches 35

CONCLUSION 37 REFERENCES I APPENDIX III

v

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

No Abbreviatio

Language

Tiếng Anh như ngôn ngữ bổ sung

vi

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 2.1: Oxford’s language learning strategy scheme (1990, pp 18-21) 14

Table 2.2: Dornyei and Scott’ (1995) taxonomy of speaking strategies 15

Table 2.3 The framework of speaking strategies used in this study 16

Table 3.1: Self-assessment of the students about their level of English proficiency 18

Table 3.2 :Strategy inventory language learning results 33

Chart 3.1: Years of learning English 17

Chart 3.2: Frequency of applying speaking strategies in learning English 19

Chart 3.3: Time students spend in practicing speaking per week 20

Chart 3.4: The common difficulties in learning speaking 21

Chart 3.5: Student’s use of Memory strategies 23

Chart 3.6: Student’s use of Cognitive strategies 24

Chart 3.7: Student’s use of Compensation strategies 26

Chart 3.8: Student’s use of Metacognitive strategies 28

Chart 3.9: Student’s use of Affective strategies 29

Chart 3.10: Student’s use of Social strategies 31

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CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale

Speaking skill is one of the most important factors in evaluating an

individual's English proficiency Samuel Johnson once said: Language is the dress

of thought In international relationships, good English communication ability is a

valuable key which can open the door of working advancement Language is thedirect means of showing education level as well as personal behaviour A studentmastered English, in any case,will have quick reflexes, good brainstorming to solvethe problem This fact makes parents ask their children to study English harder.But in fact, it is not easy to learn well a foreign language like English, becauseeach individual's level of cultural absorption is different Most students find itdifficult to learn a new language, including linguistic students Culture originatesfrom sound, and language is the prerequisite for human civilization When writingwas not created, humans used voice to transmit information Indeed, learningEnglish should also start from improving speaking skills - the most basic skill,which forms the background of communication Although learning Englishcommunication has gradually become saturated, but how to learn well still is adifficult problem Most of the first and second year students are still quite shy whenspeaking English because they have many mistakes such as: incorrect grammar,stuttering, squash, wrong pronunciation, etc These errors often come from weakcommunication skills and some external environmental impacts It has become thepsychological barrier of language students in general and students of EnglishFaculty at Thuongmai University in particular

From the above reasons, I decided to choose the topic: Strategies of learning

speaking skill by second year English majors at Thuongmai University Through

this research, I want to find out the difficulties that students are facing and proposemany effective strategies to help students overcome that situation From there,students will have a solid foundation of knowledge to prepare them for the future

1.2 Previous studies

To complete this research, the researcher has consulted a lot of articles,scientific reports, dissertations, which are related documents to the thesis topic, in

order to identify the basic knowledge, study the hypotheses as well as reinforce theargument for this content.

Over time, there have been quite a few different studies focusing on aspects ofspeaking skills Samer Al Zoubi, Abdel Rahman Al Eiadeh, Mahmoud A Al.Sobh,Fadi Al Khasawneh (2016) conducted a survey about oral communication skillwhich aimed to enhance the speaking skill of Ajloun National University students.The results also showed that the most frequent problems were the limited amount ofvocabulary among students, while the least frequent problems were the difficulty inunderstanding questions This study also presented some of appropriate solutions toovercome the weakness in speaking skill, such as practicing speaking English insideand outside the classroom effectively, using the modern social media tocommunicate in English and to express the student’s feelings and needs

Backlund, (1990) also assigns three aspects of knowledge that influencedirectly oral communication effectiveness: social knowledge, self-knowledge, andcontent knowledge If any one of these areas is weak, the communicative result will

be decreased Besides, there are some other problems that hinder oralcommunication are: dominating the conversation, using inappropriate volume andpitch, using excessive small talk ignoring someone and constantly interruptingpeople He emphasized that only when students overcome these barriers will theproblem be solved

Lopez (2011) research aimed to find out which speaking strategies are mostlyused by students of five Mexican public universities, which used a self-designedquestionnaire with 14 speaking strategies The results showed that the threespeaking strategies were most used by students in their language learning, including

a complementary strategy (using paraphrasing or a synonym for unknown words) inthe direct strategy and two social strategies (requiring for repetition andclarification) in the indirect strategies His research also emphasized the position ofstrategic training and encouraged teachers to apply and impart predeterminedstrategies in communication classes This implies that the more strategies studentsuse, the more successful they got in learning to speak

To explore the use of students' learning strategies in developing their speech,Gani, Fajrina, and Hanifa (2015) conducted a survey on 16 students who hasspeaking performance being low and high at a high school in Indonesia Data wascollected through a 53-item questionnaire and interviews The results acknowledgethat the high-performing speaking students are more likely to balance in using allkinds of learning strategies developed by Oxford (1990) to enhance their speakingskills The low ow-performing students focus on only two learning strategies:compensation and social strategies In contrast, high performing students knew how

to use more appropriate learning strategies than low achievers

Besides, there are few domestic studies that are remarkable Dinh Thuy Linh( 2011) discovered the reason why existing student’s laziness in speaking period.Then she pointed out that motivation is considered to be one of the key factors tosuccess on mastering foreign language Without sufficient motivation, evenindividuals with the most remarkable abilities cannot accomplish long- term goals,and there are no appropriate curriculum and good teaching to ensure studentachievements Each student needs to know how to motivate themselves to learnEnglish

Tran Thi Thuy (2013) proposed using role play activities to improve speakingskills of the students because this action can help learners enhance reflex ability.Role playing is something which can be included in language teaching to help makeclasses the dynamic, energetic, harmonious, speaking focus – experiences Theseactivities are effective methods to create a vibrant learning atmosphere, as well asexploiting the potential of each student

Moreover, Truong Minh Hoa, Phan Thi Mien Thao (2020) study a researchaimed at exploring speaking learning strategies employed by 82 English-majoredsophomores at College of Foreign Economic Relations (COFER), Ho Chi MinhCity, Vietnam The most frequently used learning strategy in each strategy consisted

of structuring or planning of ideas and language input, using dictionary forvocabulary learning, compensating for linguistic limitations by code-switching,non-verbal forms, synonyms, paying attention, deeply breathing, and asking forclarification However, activating prior knowledge, self-training language input,

self-evaluating speaking performance were less frequently used among manystudents Overall, it is a positive signal that the majority of the participants, in theirEFL oral acquisition, usually employed a diversity of speaking learning strategies tofacilitate their learning process, improve their speaking performance in terms offluency, accuracy and appropriacy, and nourish their motivation and self-confidence

in oral production

Every study is valuable material Although the time and scope of research aredifferent, they do not negate each other, but complement defects in harmony.Previous studies in this field have provided a huge amount of information to helpauthors complete this essay Taking ideas from prior works, the author decided toapply and analyze the way to learn speaking skills at Thuongmai University

1.3 Aims of the study

With the hope of helping the second year students of the English Faculty atThuongmai University find better strategies in learning speaking skill, this thesiswill point out problems and expectations in learning foreign languages In addition,

I also give many useful suggestions to improve your communication skills.Hopefully the students will be more and more excited about learning to speakEnglish

The research paper has three main purposes as follows:

 Investigating the current learning situation of speaking skills of Englishsophomores at Thuongmai University

 Exploring the most commonly used speaking strategies for second- yearEnglish majors at Thuongmai University

 Proposing some suggestions to improving teaching and learning Englishspeaking skill at Thuongmai University

1.4 Research Subjects

Speaking is a practical subject that not only requires learners to understandtheory but also apply in practice In fact, there are lots of various techniques tostudy English communication However, not everyone can find an effective way tolearn and get good results Therefore, the object of research that the researcher aims

to develop the topic is difficulties in learning English speaking and useful strategies

of second year English majors at Thuongmai University

1.5 Scope of the study

The research idea comes from the time studying in the Speaking Skills module

of the Practice of Language Department As an experienced person, I found that thefreshmen and the sophomores often encounter many problems in learningspecialized English High school programs usually provides students with livingtopics, not majoring in economics like university Due to the environment changing,many language students have difficulty in acquiring new knowledge Therefore, thisstudy focuses on how to enhance English speaking of the second year Englishmajors at Thuongmai University

A total of 50 students participated in the study They were second-yearstudents in the 2021 academic year at the English Faculty, Thuongmai University.The reason why researcher selected the second-year students is that they hadlearned Speaking Skill subject in previous year so that they had enough knowledgeand experiences to answer the questionnaire

1.6 Research methodology

The main research methods are mainly qualitative, statistical methods, andsemi- constructed interviews The researcher created a form, consisting of singlequestions and questionnaires, and then surveyed 50 random second- year students ofthe English department to find out difficulties in speaking that they encountered inlearning process At the same time, investigating their speaking learning strategies.The data were collected from multiple choice, rating scale, open-ended, …questions In analyzing the data, the researcher conducted four steps: 1) collectingstudents’ survey results, 2) Identifying the difficulties and strategies, 3) analyzingthe strategies, and 4) Explaining and evaluating the strategies The author usesqualitative methods to analyze the number of problems and statistical methods tocalculate the rate of problems as well as solutions The researcher then uses asynthetic method to select the most common problems, remove minor problems,and sort problems into groups Then the author constructed the chart according tothe data found to show the correlation between the errors After giving the researchresults, continue to interview each student in depth to find out more clearly thecauses and difficulties that they often encounter to propose solutions

1.7 Organization of the study

The researcher focuses on four main following chapters, including:

The first chapter is Overview of the study In this chapter, the researcher will

show the most basic information for choosing this topic to give the reader anoverview of the research, including rationale, previous studies, aims of the study,research subjects, scope of the study, research methodology, and organization of thestudy

The second chapter is Literature review The researcher will cover the basic

theory about speaking skills, factors affecting speaking process and the importance

of speaking learning strategies This chapter is considered as the primarybackground for the next chapters of the study

The third chapter is Research findings The researcher divided this chapter

into two main parts In the first part, the researcher focuses on taking the results ofsurvey questionnaires which given by second year English majors In the secondone, the researcher discovers which strategies are mostly use by sophomores

The last chapter is about Recommendations and Suggestions From the issues

that the survey has pointed out above, the researcher would like to give effectivestrategies for sophomores got better results during their studies as well as proposesome recommendations for teacher to help their students get better

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Theoretical background of speaking skill

2.1.1 Definition of speaking skill

In language learning, we often talk about the four main language skills(speaking, listening, reading, and writing) in terms of their direction and modality.There are many ways to define speaking skills which depend on scholar’s view

Firstly, we need to answer the question: “What is speaking?”

In terms of physical perspective, speaking is the delivery of languagethrough the mouth To speak, we create sounds using many parts of our body,including the lungs, vocal tract, vocal chords, tongue, teeth and lips We can saythat speaking means to converse, or expressing one's thoughts and feelings inspoken language This vocalized form of language usually requires at least onelistener When two or more people speak or talk to each other, the conversation iscalled a "dialogue" Speech can flow naturally from one person to another in theform of dialogue It can also be planned and rehearsed, as in the delivery of aspeech or presentation Of course, some people talk to themselves

From the perspective of linguistic theory, speaking is defined as an interactiveprocess of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processinginformation Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs,the participants, and the purposes of speaking (Burns & Joyce, 1997) Speakingconsists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning (Utterancesare simply things people say.) Speaking is “an interactive process of constructingmeaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information”(Florez, 1999) It is “often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving”, but it is notcompletely unpredictable

Therefore, speaking skills are the skills that give us the ability to communicateeffectively These skills allow the speaker, to convey his message in a passionate,thoughtful, and convincing manner Speaking skills also help to assure that onewon't be misunderstood by those who are listening

2.1.2 Elements of speaking skill

Each researcher has made different arguments, based on research perspectiveand personal opinion Therefore, each study has its own unique and complementeach other According to Harris (1974) there are five elements of speaking skill

concerned with comprehension, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, fluency

 Vocabulary

Vocabulary means the appropriate diction which is used in communication.Without having a sufficient vocabulary, one cannot communicative effectively orexpress their ideas both oral and written form Having limited vocabulary is also abarrier that precludes learners from learning a language Without grammar verylittle can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed So, based onthis explanation, the researcher 6 concluded that without mastering vocabularysufficiently is English learners will not be able to speak English or write Englishproperly

 Pronunciation

Pronunciation is the way for students‟ to produce clearer language when theyspeak It deals with the phonological process that refers to the component of agrammar made up of the elements and principles that determine how sounds varyand pattern in a language There are two features of pronunciation; phonemes andsupra segmental features From the statement above, the researcher concluded thatpronunciation is the knowledge of studying about how the words in a particular

language are produced clearly when people speak In speaking, pronunciation plays

a vital role in order to make the process of communication easy to understand

 Fluency

Fluency is the ability to read, speak, or write easily, smoothly andexpressively In other words, the speaker can read, understand and respond in alanguage clearly and concisely while relating meaning and context Fluency can bedefined as the ability to speak fluently and accurately Fluency in speaking is theaim of many language learners Signs of fluency include a reasonably fast speed ofspeaking and only a small number of pauses and “ums” or “ers” These signsindicate that the speaker does not have spent a lot of time searching for the languageitems needed to express the message From the ideas above, the researcherconcluded that another important component is fluency Fluency means thecapability of someone speaks fluently and accurately with little using pauses like

“ums, ers, and” and so on

2.1.3 The importance of speaking skill

Speaking skills are one of the most important skills we learn, as they allow us

to communicate with others and express our thoughts and feelings Speaking skillscan be separated into formal and informal speaking skills, and we use both types ofspeaking skills in a variety of contexts throughout life Informal speaking skills areimportant for conversations with friends and family, helping us to form emotionalconnections Formal speech, on the other hand, is necessary for workplaces, inpresentations or for conversations with people you don’t know Formal language isimportant as it helps us to make a good impression on people and communicatepolitely

The significance of speaking is indicated with the integration of the otherlanguage skills Speaking helps learners develop their vocabulary and grammarskills and then better their writing skill Students can express their emotions, ideas;say stories; request; talk, discuss, and show the various functions of language.Speaking is of vital importance outside the classroom Therefore, language speakershave more opportunities to find jobs in different organizations and companies.These statements have been supported by Baker and Westrup (2003) who said that

learners who speak English very well can have greater chance for better education,finding good jobs, and getting promotion

Previous researches approve that persons cannot learn a language withoutmany opportunities for meaningful repetition Oral language interactions and theopportunity to produce the language in meaningful tasks provide the practice that isvery important to internalizing the language (L-M Leong,2016)

As an ESL or EAL student, speaking skills are considered the most importantpart of learning a language In fact, many language learners measure theirperformance by how well they can speak it As most effective foreign languagelearning takes place through interaction, it's a skill that can be honed to really build

an understanding of the language and culture of English-speaking countries

2.2 Factors affecting speaking process

If we want to help students overcome their difficulties in learning speakingskill, we should identify some factors that influence their speaking performance.Learners’ speaking performance are influenced by factors like performanceconditions, affective factors, listening skill, and feedback during speaking tasks

(Tuan & Mai, 2015)

 Listening comprehension

Listening ability is the second factor Doff (1998) says that learners cannotimprove their speaking ability unless they develop listening ability Learners shouldcomprehend what is uttered to them in order to have a successful dialogue Shumin(1997) represented that when students talk, the other students answer through thelistening process Speakers have the role of both listeners and speakers It can beconcluded that students are not able to reply if they cannot comprehend what is told.That is to say, speaking is very closely related to listening

Some ESLs actually know grammar rules pretty well and can constructeven complex sentences Surprisingly, just when you thought they can communicatewell in English, they suddenly come to a halt when asked questions Some non-native speakers cannot understand the questions, because the one asking speaks toofast or because of the speaker’s accent (in case of an Australian or a British speakerfor example) They would often ask the speaker to repeat the question several times

or request the speaker to speak more slowly, before they finally understand thequestion Some, on the other hand, answer the questions impressively (with notmany mistakes in grammar and pronunciation; good explanations and examples;amazing fluency) just to find out in the end that he or she misunderstood thequestion, and therefore gave an inappropriate answer

 Topical knowledge

Topical knowledge is the third factor Bachman and Palmer (1996) defined it

as the knowledge structures in long term memory That is, topical knowledge is thespeakers’ knowledge of related topical information It enables students to applylanguage with respect to the world in which they live Bachman and Palmer (1996)assert that topical knowledge has a great impact on the learners’ speakingperformance Speaking without understanding the problem clearly will make thepresentation fall out of topic, resulted in listener’s misunderstanding Nobody ispatient enough to sit down and listen to you say “ums, oh, ers” whole time

 Grammatical accuracy

Some people wonder why there is a need to have grammatical accuracy inEnglish, when even some native English speakers commit grammatical mistakes

themselves I used to ask that myself too, but as I listened more carefully to howboth (native English speakers and non-native English speakers) express theirthoughts, the reason dawned on me Native English speakers can say what theywant without much difficulty due to their familiarity of the language If they havedifficulty expressing a certain concept/thought in a certain way, they can just useother ways of saying those things They may commit some mistakes in grammar,but the mistakes do not distort or change the meaning of the sentences they want toconvey, thus, it doesn’t give the listener much of a problem understanding them Onthe other hand, the mistakes many non-native speakers of English commit are thosethat often change the meaning of sentences they want to express, and thus create amisunderstanding That’s exactly the reason why non-native speakers have to studygrammar more than native speakers.

 Linguistic components

According to Mahripah (2014), EFL learners’ speaking skill is affected bysome linguistic components of language like phonology, syntax, vocabulary, andsemantics and psychological factors such as motivation and personality Phonology

is a difficult aspect of language learning for EFL learners As we know, English isnot a phonetic language That is, pronunciation of English words is not similar totheir spellings Words with similar spellings are sometimes pronounced differentlybecause of their surrounding contexts like tenses and phonemes that come afterthem This can cause a lot of problems for non-native speakers of English and theysometimes get confused in producing the English words

2.2.2 Objective factors

 Surroundings

The first factor is pertinent to performance conditions Learners carry out aspeaking activity under different conditions Performance conditions impactspeaking performance and these conditions involve time pressure, planning, thequality of performance, and the amount of support (Nation & Newton, 2009) Thesurroundings greatly influenced the results of the speech Audience enthusiasm willstrongly affect the speaker's mood For example, in case you're giving apresentation, it's frustrating when you ask the class "who can answer this question?"

and no one will reply you Too noisy environments will also drown out thespeaker's voice, resulting in limited listening comprehension.

 The length of answers

How long should one's answers be? The length of one’s answers depends onthe situation If it’s just a conversation between friends, where you are tellingsomeone a story which is very interesting for him/ her, going into details and a longanswer is okay However, when one is in a job interview or an English examination,wherein the interviewer does not have much time to speak with you, you ought togive answers that are brief and detailed Make sure you have already answered whathas been asked, before moving on to elaborate on the details of your answer

 Appropriateness of answers

This factor is related to the feedback during speaking activities A lot oflearners expect their teachers to give them the necessary feedback on their speakingperformance According to Harmer (1991), the decisions that instructors adopttowards their learners’ performance depend on the stages of the lesson, the tasks,and the kinds of mistakes they make Harmer (1991) also continued that ifinstructors directly correct their students’ problems, the flow of the dialogue and theaim of the speaking task will be spoiled Baker and Westrup (2003) supported theabove statement and said that if learners are always corrected, they will bedemotivated and afraid of talking It has been suggested that instructors shouldalways correct their learners’ mistakes positively and give them more support andpersuasion while speaking

2.3 Strategies in learning speaking skill

2.3.1 The definition of speaking learning strategies

Speaking strategies are defined by O’Malley and Chamot (1990) as “the toolsfor active, self- directed involvement needed for developing second languagecommunicative ability” (cited in Susie, 2011) Another definition by Larenas(2011:87) of speaking strategies is “actions and/or procedures that students apply inorder to complete an oral communicative task successfully.” According to Faerchand Kasper (1983), speaking strategies defined as “potentially conscious plans forsolving what to an individual present itself as a problem in reaching a particularcommunicative goal” (cited in Brown 2000)

The primary goal for any language learners is that they are able to use thetarget language for their oral communication, and finally become a competentspeaker Accordingly, Hedge (2000) convinces that a competent speaker is theperson who can use speaking strategies effectively to compensate for speakingproblems and to maintain his stream of verbal messages Alternatively stating,knowing and utilizing speaking learning strategies is of utmost importance tostudents for their oral language development

In brief, speaking strategies are essential because they sufficiently provideforeign language learners with valuable tools to communicate in the target language

in diverse contextual situations and help them to survive a multiplicity of speakingproblems Put it differently, speaking learning strategies become vital to developstudent’s language ability in order for them to be more self-sufficient and active intheir own learning process

2.3.2 The taxonomy of speaking skill strategies

In principle, Oxford (1990) differentiates language learning strategies into sixgroups, namely: memory strategies, cognitive strategies, compensation strategies,affective strategies, metacognitive strategies, and social strategies

Cognitive strategies “Practicing, reviewing and sending messages, analyzing

and reasoning, creating structure for input and output”Compensation

Affective strategies “Lowering one’s anxiety, encouraging oneself, and taking

one’s emotional temperature”

Social strategies “Asking questions, cooperating with others and

empathizing with others”

Table 2.1: Oxford’s language learning strategy scheme (1990, pp 18-21)

Besides, Dornyei and Scott (1995) has divided strategic behaviors into 3 maincategories which are: direct strategies, indirect strategies and interactionalstrategies.

Direct strategies Message abandonment; reduction; replacement;

circumlocution; restructuring; code switching; repair; rephrasing

Table 2.2: Dornyei and Scott’ (1995) taxonomy of speaking strategies

The current research is based on the language learning strategy framework ofOxford (1990) and the specific strategic speaking behaviors proposed by Dornyeiand Scott (1995) However, the Oxford classification is aimed at overall languagelearning, but this study focuses only on learning speaking So far, the taxonomy ofDornyei and Scott (1995) is considered more problem-oriented and process-basedwith specific strategic behaviors Table 3 below presents the framework of speakingstrategies used in this study

Categories Description Speaking strategies

Memory

strategies

Structuring the process

of reviewing; building mental links;

 Practicing listening and pronunciation through formal exercise

 Structuring some ideas in mind before speaking

 Using the dictionary to prepare vocabulary for speaking activityCompensatio

n strategies

Overcoming limitations; guessing based on clues

 Making prediction from contextual and linguistic clues

 Switching to mother tongue

 Using mime and gestures

 Using a synonymMetacognitiv

e strategies

Managing learning by planning, organizing, evaluating, monitoring

 Setting a goal or objective for a communicative task

 Paying attention while speaking

 Evaluating learning outcomesAffective

strategies

Reducing anxiety;

making positive statement; viewing risk

 Taking deep breath or using laughter

 Asking someone for mistake correction

 Asking for clarification

 Practicing English with peers or proficient users

 Becoming aware of other’s thoughts andfeelings

Table 2.3 The framework of speaking strategies used in this study

CHAP 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Findings

3.1.1 Student’s awareness of speaking learning strategies

In order to survey students' perception in using speaking learning strategies,the researcher conducted a number of survey questions about competence as well asindividual consciousness

The first question is: How long have you been learning English?

72.00%

less than 8 years

8 -10 yearsover 10 years

Chart 3.1: Years of learning English

From the table above we can see that among 50 students participating in thesurvey, up to 72% of students (equivalent to 36 students) have been learningEnglish for over 10 years 24% of respondents admitted that they have beenexposed to English for about 8 to 10 years In contrast, only 4% of participants havestudied English for less than 8 years In general, this is a quite long time, whichenough for students to realize the role and importance of English in life and futurework From these conditions they will have their own orientation on how to learnEnglish

When asked about the importance of being fluent in English speaking, allstudents agreed that speaking English is extremely important Speaking is one of thefour fundamental skills of learning foreign language, as an ELS student you mustunderstand this better than anyone This proves that participants have extremelycorrect awareness of the importance of speaking skills