Investigating some factors affecting english speaking skill of k9 english students foreign language department hung vuong university and suggesting some solutions

---&---NGUYEN THI DUNG K6 ENGLISH CLASS SUMMARY OF GRADUATION PAPER INVESTIGATING SOME FACTORS AFFECTING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL OF K9 ENGLISH STUDENTS – FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT – HUN

-& -NGUYEN THI DUNG K6 ENGLISH CLASS

SUMMARY OF GRADUATION PAPER

INVESTIGATING SOME FACTORS AFFECTING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL OF K9 ENGLISH STUDENTS – FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT – HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY AND SUGGESTING

SOME SOLUTIONS.

Field: Linguistics Code:

Mentor: Nguyen Thi Thu Hang, MA_Foreign Language Department –Hung Vuong University

Phu Tho, May 2012

This research has been developing for almost seven months with the responsibility of researcher and great help from other people.

First of all, I wish to express my deep gratefulness to my

supervisor, Mrs Nguyô‹?s⁄ÿ?s⁄·?gÙ‹£, MA_Foreign Language

Department –Hung Vuong University She is the person who has been

my trusted guide through the completion of the thesis.

My acknowledgement is also sent to Dean and Leading Board of English faculty, who gave me opportunities to study and do my graduation paper.

My deepest gratitude also goes to all the lectures of English faculty at Hùng Vư ơ ng University for their enthusiastic teaching during my four_ year study They gave me not only knowledge but also the precious experience in life.

Great acknowledgement is made to all authors of the books listed

in the biography, whose ideas have inspired and stimulated my thinking and my writing of this paper.

Many thanks are also sent to my dear friends who have shared with me a lot during my studies and my research work as well.

Last but not least, the whole- hearted thanks to my parents, siblings, especially my beloved who have loved, cared and stood by my side through any joyful and depressing moments in my life.

Phu Tho, May, 2012m£·„¡‹?s⁄ c·‹£

For some recent years, English plays an important role in Viet nam,therefore, it had been taught in schools as a compulsory subject ` ⁄›·£⁄

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Firstly, the theoretical background of speaking skill in Englishlearning Then the survey questionnaire is delivered the students to find outthe current situation of learning and teaching as well as some factorsaffecting on English speaking skill of the first year English students.Besides, other method employed includes classroom observations

From the collected findings, some suggested solutions have beenrecommended with aiming at improving students’ speaking skill

At the end of this study, those activities have applied with the hope tohelp k9 English students to learn speaking skill effectively

ABSTRACT

A INRODUCTION 1

I Background for the study ……… … 1

II Research purpose ……… 2

III Hypothesis……… 2

IV Research procedure……… 3

V Scope of the study……… 3

VI The significance of the research……… 3

VII Organization of the study……… 3

B THE STUDY……… 6

b⁄\fi ¡‒? Y iterature ‒eview………

6 1.1 Speaking skills in English learning……… 6

1.1.1 An overview of speaking skills……… 6

1.1.2 The importance of speaking skills in English learning……… 7

1.1.3 Principles for teaching speaking……… 8

1.2 Factors affecting learning English speaking skills……… 11

1.2.1 Listening comprehension……… 11

1.2.2 Grammatical accuracy……… 11

1.2.3 Pronunciation……… 12

1.2.4 Vocabulary……… 13

1.2.5 Appropriateness of answers……… 14

1.2.6 Organization of ideas……… 14

1.2.7 Fluency……… 15

1.2.8 Enthusiasm and Self-confidence……… 16

1.2.9 Length of answers……… 17

1.3 Strategies to speak English well……… 17

II Limitations of the study……… 52

III Suggestions for further studies……… 53

References

Appendixes

?  ·¦ ›‹

I Background for the study

All developing nations are aware of the fact that learning a foreignlanguage is very important in order to adopt the latest scientific andtechnological innovations in the world Undoubtedly, English has become aworld language rather than the language of only the English speaking countriessuch as the UK and the US because the number of the people who use English as

a means of communication exceeds much more than the number of the peoplewho speak it as their mother tongue Hence, English is used as a commonforeign language to contact the people in other countries, and thousands ofpeople belonging to various professional groups are going abroad (either withthe support of some institutions or not)

English has become one of the most important languages in the world Ithas trickled even into lesser known countries as something that is needed tocommunicate with others English is used in politics, business dealings, andeveryday life Many people are finding it hard to get by without knowingEnglish The global language of English is found in popular music, televisionprograms and even on the internet As a whole, there are more websites made inEnglish than anywhere Realizing the importance of English, many people havetaken it on as a second language

Being able to speak English accurately and fluently is a big desire foranyone studying English and this seems to be the most challenging task for EFLlearners This task can be fulfilled if students live up to some basic requirementsand one of them is the English speaking skill and good English speaking skill isconsidered as the key to successful communication

Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching.Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervaluedand English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a

5 repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues However, today's worldrequires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students'communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can expressthemselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriately ineach communicative circumstance.

There is a fact that k9 English students, they are the first year students

so their ability to speak English is not very good The reasons mentioned abovehave inspired the author of this paper to conduct the study entitled “Investigatingsome factors affecting speaking skill of K9 English students of the ForeignLanguage Department – Hung Vuong University and suggesting somesolutions” And hopefully, this study will contribute to the goal of enhancingstudents’ performances in learning foreign languages in general and English inparticular

II Research purpose

The study aims at the following goals:

Researching on the theoretical background of the issues of Englishspeaking skill

Investigating some factors affecting English speaking skill of K9English students at the Foreign Language Department – Hung VuongUniversity

Suggesting some solutions to improve students’ English speakingskill

Conducting experiment to test the effectiveness of the suggestedsolutions

III Hypothesis

By investigating some factors affecting English speaking skill ofK9 English students at the Foreign Language Department – Hung VuongUniversity and suggesting some solutions to improve students’ English speaking

skill, the students’ performances of speaking will be better, more interesting andtheir English competence in general will be improved.

IV Research procedure

The study based on some theoretical background on aspects involvingspeaking skill By theoretical method the researcher reviewed in the literaturereview section to get the basis for the research

Classroom observation and questionnaires were administered to get theinformation about situation of learning English speaking at the university Thenthe results collected were analyzed to identify some factors and some feasiblesolutions will be provided

In order to test the effectiveness of suggested solutions, the researchercarried out an experiment After the experiment, there were results to help theresearcher make further comments on the procedure

V Scope of the study

The study focused on investigating some factors affecting Englishspeaking skill made by the first year English students at the Foreign LanguageDepartment – Hung Vuong University, working out the causes for these factorsand proposing some solutions to solve the problem

VI The significance of the research

This research is carried out with the hope that it can help find out factorsaffecting English speaking skill made by the first year English students atForeign Language Department – Hung Vuong University This study is alsobeneficial to students themselves because once they have realized their ownfactors, they can avoid confusing when communicating Besides, this researchalso lays the foundation for further studies on this topic

VII Organization of the study

The study consists of three main parts:

Part A: Introduction.

This chapter introduces an overall view of the research

Part B: The study: consists of 5 chapters

Chapter I: Literature review

Literature review of English speaking, factors affecting learning Englishspeaking, strategies to speak English well, and some useful activities in learningspeaking are provided in this chapter

Chapter II: Methodology

This chapter contains two sections The first section provides detailedinformation about the subjects of the study, and then focuses on some reasonsfor choosing the data collections The second section provides some findingsabout the real situation of teaching and learning speaking, some factors affectingEnglish speaking skill of the first year English students – foreign languagedepartment- Hung Vuong University

Chapter III: Suggested solutions

The researcher will provide some feasible solutions to improve students’English speaking skill

Chapter V: The experiment

The researcher would like to conduct an experiment to help studentsimprove their speaking skill

Chapter IV: Results and discussion

The researcher will give the results and discussion after conducting anexperiment

Part C: Conclusion

This concludes summary, implications, limitations of the research, and providessuggestions for further studies

Appendix

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In this chapter, the researcher reviews the literature of speaking skill,factors affecting learning English speaking, strategies to speak English well andsome useful activities in learning speaking Those are important factors whichhelp the researcher resolve problems in the study

1.1 Speaking skills in English learning

1.1.1 An overview of speaking skills

Speaking is among the four skills which learners take interest in whenlearning a language It is one of the most used skill, and need to be paid muchattention to both foreign teachers and learners

Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use ofverbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” (Chaney, 1998: P 13).Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching Despite itsimportance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued andEnglish language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition

of drills or memorization of dialogues

In addition, Brown (1994b) and Burns & Joyce (1997) also share the sameview They considered speaking as an interaction process of constructing thatinvolves producing, receiving and processing information Its form and meaningare dependent on the content in which it occurs, including the participantsthemselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and thepurposes for speaking, which is often spontaneous, open-ended, and involving.However, speech is not always unpredictable Language functions or languagepatterns tend to recur in curtain discourse situations (for example: accepting aninvitation or ordering food and drink) Burns & Joyce, 1997) In other words,speaking is the activity which helps speakers transfer information and maintain

the relationship Speaking requires learners to not only learn how to producespecific points of language such as grammar and vocabulary (linguisticcompetence), but also when, why and in what ways language is produced(linguistic competence).

Although the concept of “speaking skill” was mentioned a lot, it seems to

be too difficult to give an exact definition Among which Mackey (cited inBygate, 2000) summarized oral expressions as follows:

Oral expression involves not only the use of the right sounds in the right patterns of rhythm and intonation but also the choice of words and inflections in the right order to convey the right meaning.

In another research, Brown and Yule (cited in Richard, 1983) havepointed out the functions of speaking which are classified into two mainfunctions known as international functions of speaking and the transactionalfunctions

1.1.2 The importance of speaking skills in English learning

Speaking, along with other three skills including reading, listening andwriting helps learners learn a language most effective Good speaking skills helppeople communicate the fastest and the most effective Therefore, “some sort ofdynamic individual and meaningful oral practice should be included in Englishlessons right from the beginning” (Hypel & Richard 198:13) There are thereasons why speaking skill is important

According to Flohr and Paesler (2006), speaking skills are the mostimportant ones in learning a foreign language, they also emphasized that “thefocus in learning a foreign language is on communication activities andexpressive abilities and the global is to become a fluent speaker”

Some others considered speaking as a meaningful source of motivation.According to Lawtiew, ELT teacher of British Council:

If students do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom they may soon get de-motivated and lose interests in learning On the hand, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking

is in the class can be a lot of fun and dynamic place to be (2002)

According to As Hornby (2010, P.129):

Speaking helps us express or communicate opinions, feelings, ideas, etc,

by or as talking and it involves the activities in the part of the speaker as psychological, physiological and physical stage Teaching speaking skill makes lessons more interesting Teaching speaking skill brings about a distinguished classroom atmosphere It attracts all learners’ interests Moreover, it urges them

to be more active in the classroom activities, and it makes the lesson more interesting.

Moreover, when discussing on the approach to teaching speaking, it wascited in Bygate (2000) that “Approaches to the teaching of speaking in a foreignlanguage reflect the understanding of at least two phenomena: the nature ofspeaking in a second language, and how people learn”

To sum up, speaking is really important in English teaching and learning.First of all, it is not only a helpful teaching medium for teacher to motivate andinterest students in learning English, but also a catalyst to impose them in otherskills and make them better communicators Moreover, speaking is a significantpass in students’ learning since it is considered an instrument to measurestudents’ knowledge and ability of using English naturally and fluently in dailylife

In general, speaking serves as an indispensable skill of any learners inlearning a foreign language

1.1.3 Principles for teaching speaking.

According to Nunan (2003) teaching speaking is described as thefollowings:

Produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns

Use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the 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 means of expressing values and judgments.

• Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which are called as fluency.

One of assessments of their learners’ learning progress particularly

is the levels of speaking effectively Such a case rushes linguistics and teachers

to get suggest some principles for teaching speaking

In the book “Focus on speaking” published in 1997, Burns and Joyceshowed six following principles:

• “Learners need to understand the cultural and social purposes of spoken interaction, which maybe classified broadly as transactional or internal.

• Speaking in evolves an understanding that spoken texts differ from written texts in their grammatical construction and discourse strategies.

• Speaking activities should focus on whole texts in context rather than in the sentence level grammatical constructions in isolation.

• Speaking involves an understanding of the ways in which context influences the choices of language made.

• Learning and practicing vocabulary, grammatical structures and pronunciation should be related to context and lead to the use of the whole texts.

• Spoken discourse types or texts can be analyzed with learners for their typical structures and grammatical patterns”

(Burns and Joyce, 1997)

In Burns and Joyce’s viewpoint, the principles of teaching speaking relate

to the cultural and social purposes of spoken interaction, understanding of thedifferences spoken and written texts, understanding of context influencing thechoices of language, and so on Obviously, Burns and Joyce are very interested

in the learner’s understanding of purposes and context of spokencommunication

Similarly, Forseth takes care of principles of teaching He however, paysattention to more details as the followings:

• “Limit the objectives to avoid to overwhelming the students by providing them with enough structures practice.

• Mix the speaking activities with comprehensive work.

• provide activities, which involve dialogues and functional use of language.

• Do not emphasize the significance of mistakes.

• State and work toward real and spontaneous speech.

• Design activities, which encourage natural interaction between speakers.

• Place students in pairs, or small groups

• Provide topics of interest to the students: interesting topics increase students’ motivation.

• Use the target language This greatly increases the amount of English spoken and reduces the temptations of students to hide in their native language”.

(Forseth, 1955)Thus, Burns, Joyce and Forseth presented some principles of teachingspeaking in which teachers need to pay attention to the purposes ofcommunication, culture aspects, and functional language design In addition,teacher should take consider to how to organize and lead a lesson interestinglyand effectively In order to reach above purposes, teachers’ knowledge and skills

in material adaptation as well as teachers’ classroom management are necessary

to be taken into account

1.2 Factors affecting learning English speaking skills

How does one acquire good English speaking skills? A lot of people aim

to have an American or British accent in order to impress other people, and forothers to say that they are indeed good in English However, is this really thetrue measure of being a good English speaker? Kenworthy (1987) observed thatthere are many factors affecting English speaking skills

1.2.1 Listening comprehension.

In Kenworthy’s opinion, listening comprehension is a very basic skillone must have in order to be a good English speaker Why? One of the mostcommon and critical mistakes non-native speakers of English make is focusingtheir time and effort in improving their English speaking skills without firstassessing and practicing their English listening comprehension skills A lot ofthem actually know grammar rules pretty well and can construct even complexsentences Surprisingly, just when you thought they can communicate well inEnglish, they suddenly come to a halt when being asked questions

He affirmed that: Some non-native speakers cannot understand thequestion/s, because the one asking speaks too fast or because of the speaker’saccent (in case of an Australian or a British speaker for example) They wouldoften ask the speaker to repeat the question several times or request the speaker

to speak more slowly, before they finally understand the question Some, on theother hand, answer the question/s impressively (with not many mistakes ingrammar and pronunciation; good explanations and examples; amazing fluency)just to find out in the end that he or she misunderstood the question, andtherefore gave an inappropriate answer

1.2.2 Grammatical accuracy.

According Kenworthy (1987), some people wondered why there is aneed to have grammatical accuracy in English, when even some native Englishspeakers commit grammatical mistakes themselves I used to ask that myselftoo, but as I listened more carefully to how both (native English speakers and

non-native English speakers) express their thoughts, the reason dawned on me.Native English speakers can say what they want without much difficulty due totheir familiarity of the language If they have difficulty expressing a certainconcept/thought in a certain way, they can just use other ways of saying thosethings They may commit some mistakes in grammar, but the mistakes do notdistort or change the meaning of the sentences they want to convey, thus, itdoesn’t give the listener much of a problem understanding them On the otherhand, the mistakes many non-native speakers of English commit are those thatoften change the meaning of sentences they want to express, and thus create amisunderstanding That’s exactly the reason why non-native speakers have tostudy grammar more than native speakers.

He also showed the common mistakes in grammar

• Adjectives

Ex She is the most fairest girl I have ever seen

(“Fairest” is already in the superlative degree of comparison, so using “most”before it makes the meaning redundant.)

Ex He is worst than my ex-husband

(If only two things/people are being compared, “worse” should be used instead

of “worst”.)

• Verbs

Ex Few is expected to fail the test

(The indefinite pronouns both, many, several and few take a plural verb.)

Ex They hanged the old fiddle in the woodshed

(Some are confused with hanged and hung “Hanged” means to kill somebody

or yourself by fastening a rope around the neck and removing any other supportfor the body “Hung”, on the other hand, means to suspend or fasten something

so that it is held up from above In this sentence, it seems as if the old fiddle waskilled, which of course doesn’t make any sense.)

1.2.3 Pronunciation

Unlike other languages, English is not phonetic What does that mean? Itmeans we don’t always say English words the way we spell them Let’s comparetwo languages as an example

Ex The Japanese word “honto” (really) is pronounced the way it isspelled

The English word “really” is not pronounced as "re-a-li" or "re-a-lai", nor is theword “really” spelled as “rili”

That’s one of the main reasons non-native speakers of English getconfused in pronouncing many English words, especially if their native tongue

is phonetic

The Sounds of –ed

The past simple tense and past participle of all regular English verbs ends

in “ed” However, the “ed” added to the verbs may have different sounds whichdepends if the base verb’s sound is voiceless or voiced

What is the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds?

VOICED -A consonant is voiced when it makes the vocal cords vibrate

VOICELESS -When a consonant is pronounced without vibrating the vocalcords,

it’s voiceless

1.2.4 Vocabulary

Chaney & Burk (1998) observed that: we have already neutralized ouraccent So does that mean we can already convey our messages clearly? We stillneed to work on our vocabulary Many people are misunderstood because ofusing words or expressions inappropriately Below are some examples of themost commonly misused words in the English language I hope you’ll find themhelpful

“Accept” versus “Except”

Accept is a verb which means “to receive”

Ex I accept your proposal

Except is usually a preposition which means not included.

Ex I eat all kinds of fruits except that one

Also, except is a verb meaning to exclude

Ex If your shoelaces are too loose, you might trip and lose your balance

Quiet versus Quite

Quiet is an adjective that means silence, and quite is an adverb that means to agreat extent

Ex It’s very quiet in the library The students are quite busy studying

Raise versus Rise

They are both verbs Raise means to cause something to move upward Risemeans to move upward or to get out of bed

Appropriateness of answers

When talking about appropriateness of answers Ken Worthy (1987) gaveexamples:

Question: What is today’s date?

Their Answer: It’s Tuesday

(The question was about the date not the day.)

Question: What company are you working for?

Their Answer: I am a Graphic Artist in the Advertising Department I makelayouts for brochures, print ads and other advertising materials the companyneeds

(The question was asking about the name of the company The person’s answerwas about his job and his duties.)

These examples clearly tell us that good pronunciation, accent and grammar arenot enough to measure one’s abilities in speaking English We have tounderstand the questions really well and answer them accordingly

1.2.6 Organization of ideas

Celce-Murcia said: “When you read a news article, do you read the firstparagraph (also called the “lead”) first or do you read the last paragraph of the

article first? I think it is safe to say that almost everyone reads the lead firstbefore the other paragraphs in the news article If ever there are cases where theperson reads the last paragraph first, the question is, why?”

News articles are structured in a way that the readers would be able to graspthe gist of the news right away even if they don’t have enough time to read thewhole article The most important pieces of information are already in the firsttwo paragraphs of the article So, if the readers are in a hurry, they can stillunderstand the main idea and get the most important information about thearticle If we could only air our thoughts the same way, the people we’re talking

to would understand us more easily Also, they would not get bored with ourresponses

What are the common problems about organizing ideas when responding toquestions? If you do not understand the question you can say: “Sorry, I don’tunderstand the question Can you repeat again please?” If you weren’t able toidentify what’s wrong with the latter sentence, you probably have the sameproblem The word “again” is the same as “repeat”, so it’s redundant to say

“repeat again” Now, the problem with some speakers is that they repeat notonly the words, but also the content of their responses At times, they have avery long response but the content is just the same as what they’ve already saidbefore

1.2.7 Fluency

According to Brown &Yule (1983): English fluency means being able touse the language with ease How can we assess our English fluency then? Beloware questions that we ought to ask ourselves to gauge our English fluency

Do I pause a lot when I speak?

Do I say “ahh” or “uuhmm” many times because I can’t remember the rightwords that would be suitable for my sentences?

Do I often say “you know” to replace the phrases I can’t remember or explainmyself?

Do I speak so slowly, because I’m too careful not to make mistakes in mysentences that my listeners already tend to look drowsy?

Do I make the pronunciation of certain words indistinguishable intentionally,because I am not sure how those words should be pronounced?

If you answered “yes” to these questions, then you do have a problem inEnglish fluency In order to be more fluent in the said language, he suggests youpractice speaking English as often as possible However, it’s not enough topractice all the time You have to make sure you practice speaking English theright way You can do this by practicing with a buddy who can speak Englishwell, so that he/she can correct your mistakes if you commit any

1.2.8 Enthusiasm and Self-confidence

Pintrinch & Schunk (2002) pointed out that speaking well does not onlyinvolve the right grammar, pronunciation, accent and proper use of words Aperson might be good in all these aspects yet not many people would like tolisten to what he has to say Why? A good English speaker (or speaker for thatmatter), can catch and hold the attention of his/her listeners How can he/she dothis?

Did you already know how to ride a bike the moment you were born?.You had to study it (by yourself or someone teaching you how to do it), practice,

fall down at times and learn from your mistakes, until you finally got it right Ifyou just studied about how to ride a bike and did not even try it, would youlearn? No Learning the English language is the same thing It’s not enough thatyou study about it You should practice it! In addition, speaking well does notonly involve the right grammar, pronunciation, accent and proper use of words,but it also requires the enthusiasm and self-confidence of speakers So, do not beafraid to make mistakes, speak English eve time and everywhere you can It’s apart of the learning process.

1.2.9 Length of answers

When talking about length of answer, Chaney & Burk (1998) pointed out:The length of one’s answers depends on the situation If it’s just a conversationbetween friends, where you are telling someone a story which is very interestingfor him/her, going into details and a long answer is okay However, when one is

in a job interview or an English examination, wherein the interviewer does nothave much time to speak with you, you ought to give answers that are brief anddetailed Make sure you have already answered what has been asked, beforemoving on to elaborate on the details of your answer

1.3 Strategies to speak English well.

We have seen that a number of communicative factors affect the quality

of speaking, even in a practice situation The more complete the criteria are, thebetter the students can understand what constitutes good English speaking, andthe fairer they can be graded Teachers and learners need to keep in mind thatthe purpose of language is communication, so Hypel & Richard (1983) showedthat speaking is accountable to communicative criteria at every stage

Firstly, Eye contact is very important You can look above the people's headbecause it looks like your looking right at them, but your really not! Don't

over do it because then you'll look like your nodding your head, or you'll getmajor whiplash.

Secondly, Have a point and stick to it In some settings you must speak on acertain subject Even in casual conversation, though, it is important to focus

on a limited set of related ideas If you drift from one tangentially relatedidea to the next your speech becomes a sort of bad poetry or misplacedfilibuster that may quickly bore the listener

Thirdly, Speak clearly It may be tempting to say, "El whooziwhatsitfonctionne bien in thinger teh other day." It may also not be worth thelistener's time to try to figure out what you mean

Fourthly, adjust your speech for your audience A technical audience willappreciate your use of jargon and acronyms If your audience has troublegrasping the concepts you are relating, it may be necessary to speak slowlyand offer generally familiar examples

Fifthly, Don't use one tone the entire speech It makes you sound very dry,dull, and boring as a speaker and personality wise It makes you a muchbetter speaker when you raise your voice a bit here and there Make it sort oflike a debate almost, and it's on something you really care for that's reallyimportant! Study Martin Luther King He is one of the most well-knownspeakers in history His tone goes up and down

In teaching and evaluating speaking skills, Harmer (2001) gave variouscriteria discussed following need to be kept in mind for a balanced perspective.Learning of these criteria from the teachers, the students might aim for them intheir regular practice of speaking, while the teachers watch and listen for thesequalities whenever the students speak:

Don't patronize When people are treated like idiots or little children they

may become hostile and ignore what you're saying You soundpatronizing when you use sing-song tones in your speech or sigh loudly

Speak up People have to hear what you are saying even if they are sitting

in the back row or there is a lot of noise

Organize what you're saying If there are several ideas or details related

to your main point, speak about each one in a deliberate fashion If youare trying to convey large amounts of information, you may need tooutline what you will say at the outset and then summarize what you'vesaid at the conclusion

Be an important person Have a lot of initials after your name Be

famous Be beautiful Work in a job where you wear a uniform and peopleare expected to listen to you

Be polite, follow social conventions and be rational Obviously there

are many speakers that do not follow this step and yet have large anddoting audiences You probably aren't one of those speakers

Use your hands! Nothing is worse than a speaker with his hands in his

pocket or his hands just sitting by his side

See English in chunks People who are not fluent will read or speak word

by word Fluent English speakers will see words in groups that expressone idea For example, to an English learner "on the train" is three words:

"on"; "the"; and "train" Each word is a challenge to them What is "the"?Why is it not "in"? To a fluent speaker, "on the train" is one idea: "on-the-train"

Develop the ability to predict — fluent speakers can see what is coming.

For example, a fluent speaker can complete these phrases: "It's right there

in black and _"; "There is somebody at the d _"; "He's feelingunder the w "; and so on They can also read between the lines

Think in English A fluent speaker will think to themselves in English

just as they do in Japanese When they speak or write English, they willnot need to make a sentence in Japanese first, and then translate it

React in English A person who is not yet fluent in English will react first

(either in their mind, or out loud) in Japanese Fluent English speakerswill react in English first (if they are with English speakers), withoutthinking

Understand from context When a fluent speaker listens to, or reads,

English, if they find a word they do not know, they can understand fromthe context two things: (1) if it is important to the meaning of thesentence; (2) what that word probably means Fluent speakers are good atguessing and are more confident with words and phrases they don't know,whereas people who are not fluent will get stuck

Listen in the present A fluent speaker understands English as they hear

it When someone who is not fluent listens to English, there is a delaybetween the words entering their ears and their understanding of whatthey mean They need time to think about it and process the words If youread a simple sentence in English, I am sure that you can understand itwithout thinking in Japanese However, the true test is if you can have aconversation, or read more difficult English, and not need to use Japanese

to understand it

Avoid monotony Monotony is really a form of disorganization where the

important information is not distinguished in any way from theunimportant information

No first or last If making a presentation, try not to go first or last First is

hardest, because you set the tone, but if think you're going set it high Gofor it

Use hang gestures But don't over do it flying your arms all over the

place Just occasionally move your hands

Don’t stutter: Stuttering is normal, and most people do it Your brain

back tracks itself, because you're very nervous, and blood rushes to thebrain You're thinking too hard Just relax, and go with the flow If you dostutter, just stop for a second, and keep going

Being a good speaker requires planning, clarity of thought and a wellconstructed beginning, middle and end to your speech It is important to avoidcreating confusion or leaving your listeners feeling that you have wasted their

1.4 Useful activities in learning English speaking skill.

Discussions

According to Hamper (1984):

In communicative classrooms, face-to-face tools like pair work, group work or dramas seem the most obvious ways to practice speaking Most of the teachers at my school have always refused to use CALL laboratories because it takes away the flexible classroom structure of a traditional room that allows pair work and whole class group work They claim students are glued to their screens when they enter the class, and find it so difficult to unglue them I sympathize with that view, and avoid classrooms with fixed computer screens dominating the movement of students in the room I get the feeling that the author, Jeff Stanford, agrees with this view as he does not suggest model should replace a communicative classroom with lots of computer exercises Instead, he offers activities.

After a content-based lesson, a discussion can be held for various reasons.The students may aim to arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event, orfind solutions in their discussion groups Before the discussion, it is essentialthat the purpose of the discussion activity is set by the teacher In this way, thediscussion points are relevant to this purpose, so that students do not spend theirtime chatting with each other about irrelevant things For example, students can

become involved in agree/disagree discussions This activity fosters criticalthinking and quick decision making, and students learn how to express andjustify themselves in polite ways while disagreeing with the others For efficientgroup discussions, it is always better not to form large groups, because quietstudents may avoid contributing in large groups The group members can beeither assigned by the teacher or the students may determine it by themselves,but groups should be rearranged in every discussion activity so that students canwork with various people and learn to be open to different ideas Lastly, in class

or group discussions, whatever the aim is, the students should always be

encouraged to ask questions, paraphrase ideas, express support, check for

clarification, and so on

Role Play

According to Johnson & Morror (1982): “Role playing activities are anengaging way to start learning, particularly if the students are at the advanced orintermediate level If a class is lively and willing to take risks, then have thestudents simulate a common life situation like a customer and a grocery storeclerk conversing at the checkout aisle Manipulate the situation so that they talkabout a wide variety of things, in different tenses and in culturally appropriateways If your class takes place in an English-speaking country, take them to agrocery store to try it out them”

In Cambridge International Dictionary of English, role defined as theperson whom an actor represents in a film or play, while role play is a method ofacting out particular ways of behaving or pretending to be other people who dealwith new situations It is used in training courses language learning and

psychotherapy Role play is one of the activities to promote speaking Throughrole play activities the students learn how to express ideas, opinions, or feeling

to others by using words or sounds of articulation

Larsen Freeman explained that role plays are important in the communicativeapproach because they give learners an opportunity to practice communicating

in different social contexts and different social roles

Role play can improve learner’s speaking skills in any situation, and helpslearners to interact As for the shy learners, role play helps by providing a mask,where learners with difficulty in conversation are liberated In addition, it is funand most learners will agree that enjoyment leads to better learning Severalreasons for using role play in teaching speaking quoted from Ladousse (1995) asfollows:

a A very wide variety of experience can be brought into the classroom and wecan train our students in speaking skill in any situations through role play

b Role play puts students in situation in which they are required to use anddevelop those phatic forms of language which are so necessary in oiling theworks of social relationships, but which are so often neglected by our languageteaching syllabuses

c Some people are learning English to prepare for specific roles in their lives It

is helpful for these students to have tried out and experimented with thelanguage they will require in the friendly and safe environment of a classroom

d Role play helps many shy students by providing them with a mask

e Perhaps the most important reason for using role play is that it is fun

Simulations

Simulations are very similar to role-plays but what makes simulationsdifferent than role plays is that they are more elaborate In simulations, studentscan bring items to the class to create a realistic environment For instance, if astudent is acting as a singer, she brings a microphone to sing and so on Roleplays and simulations have many advantages First, since they are entertaining,they motivate the students Second, as Harmer (1984) suggests, they increase theself-confidence of hesitant students, because in role play and simulation

activities, they will have a different role and do not have to speak for

themselves, which means they do not have to take the same responsibility

(Harmer, 1984)

Information Gap

In this activity, students are supposed to be working in pairs One studentwill have the information that other partner does not have and the partners willshare their information Information gap activities serve many purposes such assolving a problem or collecting information Also, each partner plays an

important role because the task cannot be completed if the partners do not

provide the information the others need These activities are effective becauseeverybody has the opportunity to talk extensively in the target language

(Harmer, 1984)

Brainstorming

On a given topic, students can produce ideas in a limited time Depending

on the context, either individual or group brainstorming is effective and learnersgenerate ideas quickly and freely The good characteristics of brainstorming isthat the students are not criticized for their ideas so students will be open tosharing new ideas

Johnson & Morror (1982)

Storytelling

Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from somebodybeforehand, or they may create their own stories to tell their classmates Storytelling fosters creative thinking It also helps students express ideas in the format

of beginning, development, and ending, including the characters and setting astory has to have Students also can tell riddles or jokes For instance, at the verybeginning of each class session, the teacher may call a few students to tell shortriddles or jokes as an opening In this way, not only will the teacher addressstudents’ speaking ability, but also get the attention of the class

(Harmer, 1984)

Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people It

is a good idea that the teacher provides a rubric to students so that they knowwhat type of questions they can ask or what path to follow, but students shouldprepare their own interview questions Conducting interviews with people givesstudents a chance to practice their speaking ability not only in class but alsooutside and helps them becoming socialized After interviews, each student canpresent his or her study to the class Moreover, students can interview each otherand "introduce" his or her partner to the class

Johnson & Morror (1982)

Story Completion

This is a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activity for whichstudents sit in a circle For this activity, a teacher starts to tell a story, but after afew sentences he or she stops narrating Then, each student starts to narrate fromthe point where the previous one stopped Each student is supposed to add fromfour to ten sentences Students can add new characters, events, descriptions and

so on

Johnson & Morror (1982)

Reporting

Before coming to class, students are asked to read a newspaper or

magazine and, in class, they report to their friends what they find as the mostinteresting news Students can also talk about whether they have experiencedanything worth telling their friends in their daily lives before class

(Harmer, 1984)

Playing Cards

In this game, students should form groups of four Each suit will represent

a topic For instance:

Diamonds: Earning money

Hearts: Love and relationships

Spades: An unforgettable memory

Clubs: Best teacher

Each student in a group will choose a card Then, each student will write 4-5questions about that topic to ask the other people in the group For example:

If the topic "Diamonds: Earning Money" is selected, here are some possiblequestions:

Is money important in your life? Why?

What is the easiest way of earning money?

What do you think about lottery? Etc

However, the teacher should state at the very beginning of the activity that

students are not allowed to prepare yes-no questions, because by saying yes or

no students get little practice in spoken language production Rather, studentsask open-ended questions to each other so that they reply in complete sentences

(Harmer, 1984)

Picture Narrating

This activity is based on several sequential pictures Students are asked totell the story taking place in the sequential pictures by paying attention to thecriteria provided by the teacher as a rubric Rubrics can include the vocabulary

or structures they need to use while narrating

Johnson & Morror (1982)

Picture Describing

According to Baruah(1991), P 322), Picture is painting, drawing, thatshows a scene, a person or thing It is impossible for the teacher or the tutor tobring real object in the class when it covers a large thing such as building, field,mountain etc By using picture, he writer hopes that it can stimulate the learners

to deliver the idea

Picture can be drawn on the white board or on paper as flash cards Theimportant thing to remember in choosing or drawing pictures is that they should

large enough to be seen by the learners and also not be ambiguous meaning thateach picture indicates a clear idea.

Picture is divided into three types They are; individual picture, serialpicture, and composite picture

Individual picture are single pictures of subjects, person or activities Suchpictures vary in size from small newspaper pictures and full-page magazine Sets

of categories of individual picture should include object such as animal,

occupation, sport, fruit, etc

A picture series is a number of related composite pictures linked to form aseries or sequence Therefore its main function is to tell a story or sequencepicture series

By using picture series, the learners will be able to say what they think thepictures are about and they can create numerous statements

A wide picture series are available in textbook, and comics Pictures

series are helpful for the learners to develop their idea widely These are largesingle pictures which show a scene (hospital, beach, canteen, railway station,etc) in which a number of people can be seen doing things, they enable learner

to see because of factors such as distance, time or cost

Due to their size, composite pictures are most appropriate for whole classteaching rather than individualized learning or group work, although there istendency on the part of the teacher to overuse such pictures in their effort to usethe context to the maximum

A composite picture is appropriate to use to develop learner’s idea

because it can stimulate learner’s mind by seeing the picture

For this activity students can form groups and each group is given a

different picture Students discuss the picture with their groups, then a

spokesperson for each group describes the picture to the whole class This

activity fosters the creativity and imagination of the learners as well as theirpublic speaking skills

(Harmer, 1984)

In brief, the researcher has reviewed the theoretical background of

speaking skill, factors affecting English speaking skill, strategies to speak

English well and useful activities in learning English speaking skill This is thebasic for the researcher to solve the problems in this study