SKKN SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILL IN THE NEW TEXT BOOK “TIENG ANH 10” TO ENCOURAGE STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING ACTIVITIES

Justification of the study In process of teaching and learning English, it is acknowledge that one of the most important skills in learning English as well as another language is speak

NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

LE VIET THUAT HIGH SCHOOL

Co-authors: Nguyen Thi Hien- Le Viet Thuat High School

Le Thi Viet-Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School No.2

Specialized Team: Literature- English Phone: 0981275777- 0987515100

Vinh, 2022

NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

LE VIET THUAT HIGH SCHOOL

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

II PART II: INVESTIGATION

3.2 Principles and techniques for adapting textbooks 9

CHAPTER 2: PRACTICAL BACKGROUND

2 Real situations of learning and teaching speaking at high 12

3 Students‟ survey results 12

CHAPTER 3: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR

IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILL IN ENGLISH

3.1 Suggested adaptations for some Speaking tasks in the

III PART III: CONCLUSION AND

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Justification of the study

In process of teaching and learning English, it is acknowledge that one of the most important skills in learning English as well as another language is speaking skill Speaking not only helps students improve their communicative competence but also enables them to develop language skills such as: listening, writing, and reading Thus, it is extremely important in teaching language, especially teaching communicative English

Besides, in teaching reality, many teachers find it difficult to teach students with speaking skill for the reason that they have chance to practice a lot of interesting topics But students have many mistakes that make incorrect intonation and pronunciation This fact is true at Le Viet Thuat High School in the progress of helping students with accessing to direct communication and improving their communicative competence at the first year stage at High School

To some extends, we try to conduct the study entitle: “Suggestions for

improving speaking skill in the new textbook “Tieng Anh 10” to encourage students’ participation in speaking activities” We hope that our study will be a

useful material that helps teachers improve their students with speaking skill

2 Aims and Objectives of the study

- To investigate these factors affecting speaking skill of the 10th grade students at Le Viet Thuat High School

- To explore some difficulties in speaking skill of the 10th grade students at Le Viet Thuat High School

- To provide some suggestions and implications in English learning and make a contribution to teaching materials

3 Scope of the study

The study deals with the problem that students of the 10th grade at Le Viet Thuat High School usually have when they have speaking lesson in classrooms These problems are caused by some factors Some solutions and implications will be given for students in speaking skill

4 Methods

There are two approach methods: qualitative and quantitative The authors use qualitative method to explore attitudes, feeling and experiences of the students through

Action researches help us a lot in communications and agreement between the authors and students Quantitative methods are also used to generate statistics through the use

of handout and question list paper Students must fill in the question lists and the authors will get the figure to find out the good result

4.1 Qualitative

Using questionnaires is one of the most commonly used by the researchers In this way, teachers or researchers use a questionnaire including a number of questions relating to the information they are looking for It is always a list of questions, teachers deliver it to students, ask them to fulfill the requirements of the questionnaire The biggest advantage of this method is that it can assess the rate of difference factors that influences individuals However, this way of research is more complicated than observation

There are two types of questionnaires: choosing and giving detail The answerers can choose one or more answers from the list suggested or give their own ideas about certain circumstances

Today more and more researchers apply this method to collect information because it is cheap and convenient It is more trustful when you collect the data

5 Study and experimental time

The topic was studied and conducted extensive pedagogical experiments at schools from the 2020-2021 school year The process of completing data and the project is in the school year 2021 – 2022

PART II: INVESTIGATION CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 Skill definition

Skill is common term that is mentioned regularly in people's daily life Many researchers have tried to find out the definition of the term There are a number of definitions for this technical word therefore

However the most commonly used one is stated in the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, according to the writer, "a skill is the learned capacity to carry out predetermined results often with the minimum outlay of time, energy, or both In other words the abilities that one possesses Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills For example, in the domain of work, some general skills would include time management, team work and leadership, self-motivation and others, whereas domain-specific skills would be useful only for a certain job Skill usually requires certain environment stimulation and situations to assess the level of skill being shown and used"

1.2 Speaking skill definition

Speaking is a basic skill that language learners should master with the other language skills It is defined as a complex process of sending and receiving messages through the use of verbal expressions, but it also involves non-verbal symbols such as gestures and facial expressions Hedge (2000: 261) defines speaking as “skill which people are judged while first impressions are being form”

Speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal or non-verbal symbol, in a variety of context (Chaney, 1998, p13) It is said that speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching According to Carol, speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode Like other skills, it is more complicated than it seems at first and involves more than pronouncing words For this skill, pronunciation is only a component among which make the success of the conversation The essential components ensuring the process of the communication probably are pronunciation, intonation, accent, etc

2.1 Characteristics of speaking skill

Bygate is one of the researchers who has paid much attention on the oral skill He investigates the characteristic of spoken language In his point of view, speaking is not completely accepted as a separative area, speech is more commonly unplanned, contextualized, informal and reciprocal than writing It can be clearly seen that

"Oral language can be identified by certain features which are more prototypical of speech than of writing

Among these features, one of the most typical one is that speech is organized by clauses, phrases and spoken utterances while writing is generally organized according

to whole sentences In addition, spoken language is less formal in relation to vocabulary and grammar than writing language, characterized by repetition of utterances, close relation to the context in question and features of correcting speech Since speaking skill is the ability to start and to maintain a conversation, it closely relates to the performance of the participants in a conversation In classroom, teacher may explain the items for the students and then the teacher may ask the students to implement some certain tasks to illustrate the items just explain This is a mono-dialogue when the speaker has no interaction with the listeners, for instance the radio speaker speak on the cassette

2.2 Speaking sub skills

Speaking skill is a complicated skill that contains a set of micro skill that people should master A lot of subordinate skills need to the speaker's oral skill

Firstly, speakers should distinctive sounds clearly in order to make others distinguish them They can be tonal distinctions, pronunciation express the meaning of the sentence So that it is the best way to understand making sound by easy to recognize

Secondly, to help the learners speak better, they also should stress and rhythmic patterns, intonation patterns of language that is clearly enough to understand

Besides, using the correct form of words is also a good way to improve English speaking skill For instance, you want to say something you did yesterday, you must use past tense In present tense, you must use the correct form of word with singular forms of the noun

Additionally, syntax and vocabulary are essential and important to transmit speaker's ideas Remember to put the words in the order to make the utterances grammatically correct Using a wide range of vocabulary shows that you have good word sources making the meaning flexible and expressive

However, speakers should use the vocabulary in an appropriate way Before speaking, speakers should determine the style of the conversation: formal or informal

to use acceptable words in the circumstance

The conversation is like a river, it should have to follow to connect the ideas so that listeners can follow the conversation The connectors in this case are very useful

means to make the separated utterances linked and to make the logical conversation and easy to recognize the main contents

2.3 Learning speaking skill

Speaking skill is a complicated process that combines many different aspects such as pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, syntax, phonetic, etc… so that not many students are good at this skill The fact of teaching shows that it is very important in daily communication especially with native person According to Jo Mac Donough (1995, p151) "Speaking is often thought of as colloquial , which helps to account for its lower priority in some teaching context" In many countries, students always focus

on other skills while using a little time on oral skill or even ignore it Agree with him, Grace Stovall Burkat (1998) claims that it is necessary to supply students with the basic aspects of the skill In his opinion, language learners need to recognize that speaking involves three areas of knowledge: they are Mechanics, Function and Social, and Cultural rules and Norms

Mechanics including pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary is the basic aspect

of speaking skill that gives the basements to develop the skill This aspect helps students use the right words in the right order with the correct pronunciation

The second aspect requires the recognitions of the functions It includes transaction, interaction and performance This aspect helps students recognize the type

of talk with certain criteria and purposes

Another aspect that is last but not least than others is the social and cultural rules and norms such as turn-taking, rate of speech, length of pauses between speakers, relative roles of participants This is background knowledge that helps them to understand how to take into account who is talking to whom, in what circumstance Teacher should help students use English in real life such as communicate with foreigners to develop the ability to produce grammatically correct, logically connected sentences

2.4 Teaching speaking skill

Speaking skill is an important skill that many people agree with Many of us consider speaking skill is much more essential than the ability to read, write, or comprehend oral language

According to Hayirie Kaki, "Teaching speaking is a technical term that requires learners set of items to study” As his theory, teaching speaking skill is to teach learners to:

- Produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns: Pronunciation is a very

- Use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and rhythm of the second language

- Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter

- Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence

- Use language as a mean of expressing values and judgments

- Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called as fluency

2.5 Speaking skill motivation

Despite the obstacles, there are some surefire ways to get students to speak English, including:

In this situation, they can talk about anything They can try new words or phrases, and perhaps most importantly, they can make mistakes These times of practice will get them used to speaking in a foreign language without any barriers This will allow them to problem solve and figure out how to communicate in English

2.5.2 Build up the competition

There is nothing good like „old fashioned competition‟ to motivate reluctant speakers Games or reward-based speaking activities are very useful tools that allow students of all ages to practice valuable skills And you don‟t have to teach students to incorporate games into your ESL class, adults love games too! If you really want to up the ante, you can always offer the winner a point of extra credit on the next test

There are plenty of games to choose from, such as 20 Questions, Catchphrase or Two Truths and a Lie Look for games that require students to say a lot

in order to accomplish the objective, especially games that encourage students to ask questions or describe things in English Plus, having fun is motivation in and of itself

2.5.3 Write first, speak later

For students who struggle to speak English, it can be very helpful to write out a script first and then practice speaking it Writing gives students the time to think through what they will say, check their grammar and look up any words or phrases

they don‟t know This is especially helpful for beginners who simply haven‟t learned enough English to carry on a conversation off the top of their head

You can give them scripted speaking activities by having them write out a conversation with a partner based on a specific conversational topic, such as what they would say if they ran into a friend on the street, how they would interact with a waiter

in a restaurant or how they would ask a stranger for directions This will help with their confidence when they find themselves in these scenarios in a real English-speaking setting

2.5.4 Find relevant topics

Students will be more motivated to speak about something that they care about Tap into students‟ passion by having classroom debates and discussing current topics so that students have a lot to say Did something important happen in the world this week? Then talk about it in English Is there a new song or movie that everyone is talking about?

You can also ask students to write down a few themes that they would be interested in speaking about and then build an activity based on those When students have something important to say, they will find a way to say it in any language

2.5.5 Normalize speaking

Speaking in English doesn‟t need to be a rare, dreaded occurrence When students expect to practice speaking each lesson, they‟ll get used to speaking English, making it less intimidating Sometimes the best way to eliminate barriers to speaking

is to just speak If students know that each class they will be expected to come in and spend at least five minutes speaking English, they will adjust to this and gradually

be more inclined to do so

For more advanced students, you can even make a rule that they are only allowed

to speak English in your class While it may be necessary for students to speak in their native tongue on occasion, having regular English-only times or English-only lessons can be very helpful

2.5.6 Mix it up

Sometimes students might simply lose interest in a certain speaking activity To avoid this, use different methods to motivate students by challenging them You can have them record their conversations, sing along to songs or present material to the class Finding new ways to incorporate speaking will keep lessons fresh and interesting, which will help students stay engaged

You can even use authentic content to model conversations and encourage shadowing Alternatively, students can act out a scene they view in video, trying to mimic the tone and pronunciation as best as they can

Another good way to change pace is to have students research a topic of interest, such as a country they would like to visit or an activity they would like to try Then they present it to the class in English with a PowerPoint presentation You can even have a class discussion about each presentation

2.5.7 Create opportunities

Of course, sometimes lessons need to focus on aspects of English besides speaking When this is the case, you can set aside specific lessons or even have an after-school club for English cultural activities These are a great way to help English come to life by incorporating the English language with English-speaking culture You could watch a movie or TV show in English and then have a discussion about it You could celebrate a holiday from an English-speaking country the way it is traditionally celebrated You could even hold a mock presidential debate during an election period Make use of specific aspects of English-speaking cultures to create relevant speaking opportunities

2.5.8 Set goals

When it comes to motivation, the best kind comes from within Ultimately, students will speak when it is important to them Have students decided what they want to get out of the class and why they want to speak English At the beginning of the year, you can have students write down some specific skills they hope to gain from the class and why those are important to them

For example, if they want to get a job that uses English, they will need to speak it fluently When students are self-motivated by a personal goal, this will serve as encouragement to participate in the activities that will help them to reach their goal

No arm-twisting required

(retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydsCANtzVuY Teaching in

Education)

3 Adapting Textbooks

3.1 Definition

Adapting textbook activities is not just something teachers should do as the need

arises but also for appealing to the lower, middle and strong student levels Textbook adaptation is performed to make textbook lessons more communicative and incorporate authentic textbook into the lessons Adapting is the ability to create the textbook that introduces and integrates skills in a lively, enjoyable and productive format

3.2 Principles and techniques for adapting textbooks

Despite the great effort that textbook writers make to meet the needs of the intended users, textbooks are subject to adaptation when they are actually used in the classroom McDonough and Shaw (1993:83) propose that textbooks are internally coherent although they may be, they may not be entirely applicable Although most classroom teachers will not be involved in the production of textbooks, all teachers have the responsibility for textbook evaluation, selection and adaptation It is undeniable that adapting textbook allows teachers to achieve more compatibility and fitness between the textbook and the teaching environment, and therefore maximize the value of the book for the benefit of their particular learners and for the most effective teaching outcomes to achieve Maley (1998:281) suggested the following techniques to adapt textbook:

- Omission: the teacher leaves out things seemed inappropriate, offensive, unproductive, etc., for the particular group

- Addition: where there seems to be inadequate coverage, teachers may decide to add to textbooks, either in the form of texts or exercise material

- Reduction: where the teacher shortens an activity to give it less weight or emphasis

- Extension: where an activity is lengthened in order to give it an additional dimension (For example, a vocabulary activity is extended to draw attention to some syntactic patterning.)

- Rewriting/modification: teacher may occasionally decide to rewrite material, especially exercise material, to make it more appropriate, more “communicative”, more demanding, more accessible to their students, etc

- Replacement: text or exercise material which is considered inadequate, for whatever reason, may be replaced by more suitable material This is often culled from other resource textbook

- Re-ordering: teachers may decide that the order in which the textbooks are presented is not suitable for their students They can then decide to plot a different course through the textbooks from the one the writer has laid down

- Branching: teachers may decide to add options to the existing activity or to suggest alternative pathways through the activities

Textbook adaptation can be done at three levels The first level is macro adaptation, which is ideally done before the language program begins After comparing what is covered in a textbook and what is required by the syllabus or examination, the teacher may find that certain areas or even whole units of the book can be omitted, and certain contents need to be supplemented

The second level of adaptation is adapting a unit This could be done by reordering the activities, combining activities, omitting activities, rewriting or supplementing exercise material, etc Unit adaptation helps to make the classroom

teaching more smooth and cohesive It also helps the teacher to better fulfill the aims

of a unit

The third level is adaptation of specific activities in a unit Occasionally an activity is regarded as valuable, but it is not well-designed or it is not suitable in a particular class If the teacher does not want to give up the activity, he or she needs to

adapt it

3.3 Instructions for adapting textbooks

When adapting the textbooks, teachers should follow the following steps:

1 You have to decide what content or which topics need adapting in light of the reading texts and activities Activities can relate to any one of the four basic skills: reading, listening, writing and speaking Can the text be exploited because of it thematic, lexical and structural elements in order to appeal and engage all three levels

of students? If not, you will need to adapt your textbook activities to suit the levels This may appear as a ton of work, but the key is to think better, not to work harder

2 Before you go ahead and change some of the activities particularly the reading activities, consider rewriting parts or all of the texts The reason for doing this is to simplify some of the vocabulary items and other concepts that might be difficult for some of your low-performing ESL students to understand You might also consider glossing the difficult vocabulary items or writing the meanings in another language if you are teaching in a bilingual context

3 Take a look at those textbook activities in your textbooks and redesign them in light of the amount of the activity itself Redesigning the activity in light 7 of

"amount" is about the obligatory and optional tasks ESL students can be required to

complete a specific amount of questions For example, low performing ESL students can list four answers, while the stronger students can list more than four answers

4 Cater to the level of difficulty of the task The teacher can adapt the task to suit all three levels: lower, middle and stronger This gives the student a choice of activities Most ESL students will want to choose first the activity that they feel they can comfortably do before deciding if the topic is motivating enough Again, adapt the language of the activity and the instructions of the activity itself to suit the level of the student's linguistic ability

5 Decide how you want to engage your students If you are working with groups, then maybe you should adapt a few textbook activities to engage students in group or pair work Once you have decided how you want to actively engage your students, you will need to make sure students understand the procedures of group and pair work you intend to use Leave enough time in the lesson to do both or you will find yourself struggling with time

(retrieved from

http://www.ehow.com/how_4481192_adapt-textbook-activitiesesl-class.html)

CHAPTER 2: PRACTICAL BACKGROUND

1 An overview of the new textbook 10

In the textbook “Tieng Anh 10”, it has 10 units with different topics for two semesters Each of them refers to a particular theme, are divided into 6 sections: Getting started, Language, Skills, Communication and Culture, Looking back and Project Each section is designed with different kinds of activities with a view to help students follow the lessons easily and attain basic knowledge related to the theme of the unit as well as improve their skills in terms of Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing

Normally, each skill lesson is taught and learnt in a 45-minute period Like other skill lessons presented in the textbook, speaking lesson consists of many activities from the easier to more complicated ones for students to fulfill The topics of speaking part are quite interesting and diversity They are familiar with some circumstances that related to real life situations

2 Real situation of learning and teaching speaking at high school

As far as I know, most high schools in Nghe An province allot 45 minutes for each skill lesson However, many tasks in Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing lessons cannot be fully given out due to the limitation of time as well as the ability of students Many students are not able to actively take part in pair or group discussions Their levels of proficiency are not the same The requirements of some tasks in the text book also affect the quality of the speaking lesson Taken these factors into consideration, it is undeniable that the objective of the lesson is not always reached

To some extends, we would like to give out some suggestions for improving speaking skill in the new textbook “Tieng Anh 10” to encourage students‟

participation in speaking activities and to make speaking activities easier for students

to fulfill so that the lesson objective is fully gained The authors hope that our study

will be a useful material that helps teachers improve their students with speaking skill

3 Students’ survey results (appendix 1)

3.1 Timing

The students asked the question: "How many years have you been learning

English?"

- Only 8 of them answer 6 years The percentage of studying English in 6 years is 9.5%

- 16 students said they have learned English for 8 years It gets 19.5% of all

- 58 students left who said that 9 years is the right figure for the time they study English This is the biggest percentage of students with 71% in all

3.2 Skills

Teacher gives out a question:" According to you, which skill is the most

important in learning English?"

Gathering the number and we have a table

Question Choice Number of

Table 1: Student’s the most important skill in English

It is clearly seen from the chart that most student pay their attention into speaking( 46.3%), the minority of the class have interest in writing with only 10 students counting for 12.2%

All skills are so necessary to students that can ensure the fluency and success of a conversation There are some students who think that they need to spend more time on practicing speaking skill They have priority over how to apply speaking skill in English It is really helpful for them to communicate with others successfully It is really a vital factor for students in many examinations, workshop, especially when studying or living abroad

3.3 Students’ interest in speaking lessons

After gathering the number, they show that 71% students say yes (about 58 students) whereas only 29% (24 students) of them say no

When say “yes”, they give out some nice reasons

3.4 Speaking topic

After the survey, we have a chart about it

Question Choices Number of

students Percentage

How do you think about

the speaking topics that

new textbook give to

you?

Interested and motivated 22 26.8%

Excited and ready to talk 42 51.2%

Bored and uncomfortable 0 0%

Embarrassed and nervous 18 21.9%

Table 2: Students' opinions about speaking topic

As we can see clearly from the chart, the number of students who think the topics that the new textbook given in speaking class are interested and motivated is 26.8% while the people who say that topic are excited and ready to talk is 51.2% Actually, the speaking topics that the teacher has given are various However, they have already been up to date and attractive to the students

3.5 Language knowledge

The question is given out to find out difficulties when having a conversation:

"When you have conversation, do you understand your partners 'idea?"

The majority of class says usually get trouble with understanding (60%) Many

of them have studied English for 9 years, they get a lot of background knowledge but sometimes it is difficult to see what others mean or they cannot make it clear (30$) Only 10% easily understand although they sometimes express inappropriately when communicating with others with their ideas

Questions Choices Number of

24 30 %

Usually get trouble with understanding 50 60 %

Table 3: Language knowledge

The language knowledge is the basic basement to help them build up the grammatically correct sentences, that use of variety of vocabulary and each words are pronounced correctly Grammatically have a lot of priorities to be successful in communicating

3.6 Personal ability in speaking

The next question asks students‟ thought about their personal ability in English speaking skill What do they feel when having a speaking task? The answer is variety according to their abilities There are some opinions of students about it

3.7 Students’ impact factors

Collecting the opinions from students, they say that their speaking abilities related to some main factors below:

1 Motivation is one of the most important factors to help students speak better Having a particular goal for learning English, leaners can try their best to achieve the goal they set

2 Self-confidence affects students' result in English in general and speaking skill in particular Most of students do not feel confidents to speak English because they are afraid of making mistake

3 Personal problem such as shyness or embarrassing

4 The content of the speaking lesson, the intonation and pronunciation of the speakers, teachers

5 Lack of confidence, scare to make mistakes

6 The instruction of the task is difficult to understand

7 The requirement of speaking task is quite hard for them

8 They cannot get good marks from teachers

3.8 Students’ suggestions for improving speaking skill

Gathering students‟ opinions and we have some interesting ideas

- Watching movies with English subtitles, listening to US- UK music and practice listening exercises to improve vocabulary and grammar, which can help us speak English more fluently ( Student Nguyen Quynh Anh)

- Watching television and reading book in English ( Student Nguyen Thu Giang)

- I think the tasks should be made into projects then presented with pictures, videos Learning and playing at the same time help us to be interested in learning English in general and practice speaking English every time you are free at home (Student Nguyen Thi Yen Nhi)

- Using some technique in learning tasks: Information gap, role play and simulation, storytelling, interview and survey, speaking cards, vocabulary tests,…( Student Nguyen Le Nguyen)

- Studying hard, watching movie, communicating with foreigners (Student Tran Thi Phuong Hoa)

- I think the best way to improve English speaking skill is to watch English movies, videos, films They can both entertain and train your speaking skill ( Student Pham Thi Yen Ngoc)

- Practice speaking step by step, starting from basic start and try to remember words and apply English in everyday activities Write and learn new words on sticky notes Find a good teacher to learn ( Student Nguyen Hong Van)

- Learning more vocabulary and try to communicate more and more (Student Le Van Cuong)

- I will practice speaking English and listening to English songs ( Student Le Thi Hong Anh)

- Learn more vocabularies (Student Hoang Thi Thu Hoai)

- I can learn more new words and grammar in use ( Student Vo Ha Thuong)

- Listening songs in English ( Student Ho Phuong Linh)

- Listening and watching videos in English and saying follow then record what you say Listening to your own voice and try to imitate native speakers as much as possible ( Student Ngo Linh Chi)

- Record yourself reading some sections of the book Compare the sound of your English with that of the person reading the book on the tape (student Xuan Dat)

- Make a list of frequently used words that you find difficult to pronounce and ask someone who speaks the language well to pronounce them for you ( student The Huy)

CHAPTER 3: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILL

IN ENGLISH

1 Methodology

1.1 Participants

The participants of the research consist of 82 students of 10th form from classes

10T and 10D6 at Le Viet Thuat high school Almost of the informants have the same time of learning English of nine years; and they have already completed the syllabus of English with the new series of English textbook from grade 6 to grade 9 at secondary

school

1.2 Instrumentation

There is a questionnaire designed to investigate the opinions and some factors relating to speaking skill for 10th students at Le Viet Thuat High School The questionnaire is also designed for students to find out the ideas about how to improve English speaking skill

The questionnaire is designed for the students including 8 questions through students' background and ideas will be made clear Question 1 is the study about the time (how many years) each student spends on learning English The next question is a small survey about students‟ thoughts about English skills (which skill is the most important); whether students choose which skill necessary for their study Meanwhile, their interests in speaking skill are given out on questions 3 and note down their reasons for the answer they choose Questions 4 will show us students' attitudes to top given speaking topics Question 5 is the thinking about their own speaking skill, can they understand their partners‟ idea or not Additionally, question 7 is asking about the factors that motivate students‟ interest in speaking skill Last question investigates about the suggestions to improve English speaking skill

2 Findings of the study

The results from the survey show that the amount of students who have learned English for 9 years is the biggest (with 71%) A majority of the participants (46.3%) regard speaking as the most important skill in learning English The second position is listening skill, which accounts for 21.9% of the informants Reading skill holds the third most important place with 19.5% Meanwhile, only 12.2% of students evaluate writing skill important However, despite this evaluation many students do not like speaking skill 24 out of 82 respondents reveal that they are not interested in speaking lessons they have in class This is explained through their comments on the factors that affect their interest in learning speaking skills 29% of the students who do not like speaking claim that their disinterests in learning speaking skills lie in the requirements

of the textbook and the teacher These students think that the instructions of the tasks