QUY NHON UNIVERSITY HO THI DIEM ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS BY RURAL 9th GRADERS VERSUS URBAN ONES IN BINH DINH... ABSTRACT This research was conducted with the aim to investigate similarit
INTRODUCTION
Rationale
According to Eaton (2010, p 16), learning English as a foreign language in the 21 st century is emphasized not only on grammar, but also on communicative skills and the skills are applied as a means for communicating and connecting to others over the world In English language learning, speaking is considered as one of the most key skills to be progressed and enhanced continually communication The speaking skill is also one of the essential elements to evaluate someone‟s English abilities
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching and assessment was created for the unification of directives in the learning and education of the languages, proposes orientations by means of linguistic guidelines to achieve the communication in the teaching- learning process of a language by The Council of Europe In the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages the acquisition of a language is contextualized with specific aims of communication, it is needed to learn in classrooms beyond linguistic contents At present, we are requested to be able to communicate in English during English learning process in general and in the life in participate, especially English speaking skills According to Clark and Clark (1997, p 233), “speaking is fundamentally an instrumental act” Widdowson (1984, p 58) says that “speaking is the active or productive skill” According to above two definitions, it can be referred that speaking is an interaction progression between two people or more A good speaking activity is when the people interacting can understand each other For example, speaking activities in classrooms are interaction between a teacher and a student or more students In the interaction, the teacher should have a good speaking ability because through his or her speech, he or she has to help his students understand the material
Today, with economic integration and globalization in Vietnam, speaking English well is necessary in life in general and at work in particular
It is in recognition of the need to be good at English speaking skill and achieve efficiency in communication focally emphasized on speaking skills in the Vietnamese school system The curriculum which guides the study of this subject is planned available by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) in Vietnam for both rural and urban schools The scheme of work guiding the teachers of this subject is also made available in the same way to all schools Lately, the MOET in Vietnam has issued guidelines for the piloting of teaching and learning English as a foreign language (EFL) and English is taught in schools as a compulsory subject from Grade 3 In the context of Binh Dinh - a province belonging to Coastal Southern Central Vietnam consisting of Quy Nhon City and ten rural and mountainous districts, there has been a difference in using types of textbook series in curriculum from Grade 3 to Grade 9 between schools in Quy Nhon City and schools in districts Therefore, at the time the study was carried out, I chose the urban low- secondary schools and the rural ones which have applied pilot English curriculum of the MOET for Grade 9 to investigate It also means that investigated 9 th graders used the same type of textbook, and curriculum distributed by the MOET
In the context of Vietnam, English language called and known as the foreign language (EFL) is acquired This implies that most speakers acquire English in addition to their mother tongue, called and known as the first language (L1) And this may lead to mother tongue interference problem Observably, Vietnamese learners have difficulties in English pronunciation It is obviously seen that both the teachers and the learners must exert effort in this aspect of the English language to achieve fluency, whether in the Urban or Rural areas But it is disappointing to understand that people pass positive results in favor of the students in the urban areas to be better in the knowledge and understanding of the subject than the ones in the rural areas
Because of the above reasons, this study, entitled “English Speaking
Skills By Rural 9 th rader er rba e i h i h ro i ce”, wishes to assess English speaking skills amongst 9 th graders at three urban lower-secondary schools and three rural ones in Binh Dinh Province and examine differences and similarities in speaking English among them.
Research aim and objectives
The general aim of the study is to investigate similarities and differences in speaking English between rural 9 th graders and urban ones in Binh Dinh Province
The objectives of the study are:
To examine how well rural 9 th graders in Binh Dinh Province speak
To examine how well urban 9 th graders in Binh Dinh Province speak
To discuss similarities and differences in speaking English between rural 9 th graders and urban ones in Binh Dinh Province.
Research questions
The study is carried out to answer the following questions:
1 How well do rural 9 th graders in Binh Dinh Province speak English?
2 How well do urban 9 th graders in Binh Dinh Province speak English?
3 What are similarities and differences in speaking English between rural 9 th graders and urban ones in Binh Dinh Province?
Scope of the study
The study mainly bases on the framework of the 2018 high school English target program of the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam to analyze and compare speaking skills in English of the 9 th graders of the lower-secondary schools However, with the restricted time and geographical conditions, I was not ambitious to conduct a total research on the 9 th graders of all lower-secondary schools in Binh Dinh Province Instead, I conducted my study on 130 ninth graders of six lower-secondary schools including 69 ninth graders of three rural schools and 61 ninth graders of three urban ones And the English teachers of the 9 th graders were asked to give help on my interview.
Significance of the study
The findings of the study are expected to help people have a more accurate point of view of speaking skills in English of the 9 th students, whether in rural areas or urban areas The findings of the research seem to make both theoretical and practical contributions It can enrich the comparative studies of English speaking skills and contribute to the process of teaching and learning English language Furthermore, the research results wish to expose that it is suggested for the government to recruit teachers of Oral English who are professional to teach the subject in schools and it is also suggested for the schools in the rural areas to be made conducive like those in the urban areas - electrification, water, quarters, library, laboratory etc In addition, the recommendations have also been put in place that the students should learn and practice all English speaking skills including speaking, listening, writing, reading and uses of the language.
Structure of the thesis
The study is organized in 5 chapters:
Chapter 1, Introduction, introduces the rationale, aim and objectives, research questions, scope, significance of the study and structure of the thesis
Chapter 2, Literature Review, is put within its theoretical framework, by presenting the major theories that support it First of all, I present literature on Oral Communication and the Speaking skill in a Foreign Language including Definitions of Oral communication and the Speaking skill; Oral proficiency; Necessity of Speaking Assessment; Test specifications; and Speaking Component Assessment using the Components of English Language Development Assessment (ELDA) Secondly, English speaking skills of the 9th graders in Viet Nam is also shown Thirdly, External factors and speaking in English are discussed, which consisting of Family factor, Socio-economic Factor, Facilities and Resources, and Teachers‟ qualification Fourthly, related studies are shown
Chapter 3, Methodology, supplies comments on research design, participants, instruments and procedure
In chapter 4, Results and discussion, presents similarities and differences in speaking skills of the investigated 9 th graders in rural schools versus urban schools and the external factors influencing the similarities and differences in Oral English are reported
Chapter 5, Conclusion and Implications, composes of the main findings resulting in the conclusions and discussion of its limits and a few recommendations.
REVIEW
Oral communication and the Speaking skill in a Foreign Language
2.1.1 Definitions of Oral communication and the Speaking skill
The definitions of the terms “Oral communication” and “Speaking skill” have been suggested by a lot of researchers in language learning
Paltridge (2001) states that oral communication is a two-way progression embracing the speaker and listener and it relates the productive skill in speaking and the receptive one in understanding or listening to understand ( cited in Palmero, 2019)
Rixon (2011) declares that oral communication skill concerns a communicative ability of conveying and receiving information Oral communication refers to the meaning‟s negotiation between two or more persons; therefore, it is always related to the context occurring speaking communication which both speaker and listener play important roles
Palu (2016) and Akinola (2014) proclaim that oral communication is a unique and learned oratorical skill that expects to understand what to be said and how to say it Speech in more formal circumstances is not sent out naturally What should be learned is how to think and show oneself as a speaker in all occasions
Asubiojo et al (2005) professes that „oral communication skill is a highly sought skill compared to writing and reading‟ (cited in Palmero, 2019) This is reason why learning to speak is an important aim It provides learns with a set of communication skills so that they can employ in the rest of the life Besides, oral communication is employed to send out thought, debate or discuss, suggest explanations, send out information, and make attention or impressions on others
Palu (2016) and Olatunji (2012) said that oral communication is a dynamic interactive progression that relates to the effectual spread of realities, opinions, thoughts, feeling and worth Speakers are actively and are consciously absorbed in communication so that they may grow information and understanding entailed for effective group function
Gass (2013) asserts that oral communication is the spoken contact between two or more people (cited in Palmero, 2019)
Richards and Renandya (2002, p 204) reports that an effective oral communication require the skills to use the language competently in real-life interactions involving not only verbal communication but also paralinguistic factors of speech like pitch, stress and intonation Brown (2007, p 237) declares that social contact in interactive role of language is important and in which it is not only what you say but also how you say it
According to Nunan (1989, p 32), effective oral communication comprises: the skill to articulate phonological features of the language comprehensibly; mastery of stress, rhythm, intonation patterns; an acceptable extent of fluency; skills in transactional and interpersonal; skills in taking short and long speaking turns; management skills of interaction; negotiating skills of meaning; conversational listening skills (successful conversations require good listeners as well as good speakers); skills in being aware of negotiating purposes for conversations; using correct conversational formulae and fillers
Besides, from Webster‟s New Dictionary (1994, p 932), we learn that speaking is an act to express one‟s ideas, feeling, purpose and thought orally It is also called oral communication Speaking needs the performance, expression, intonation, stressing, pronunciation, grammar, and confidence to explore the idea or opinion Thus, speaking is a complex skill because at least it is concerned with components of pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and fluency (Syakur, 1987, p.5)
Moreover, Widdowson (1996, p 56) says that speaking as a case in point of use, is a part of reciprocal exchange in which both reception and production play a significant role In this sense, skill of speaking involves both receptive and productive participation In fact, speaking is productive rather than receptive skill because it is as a way language system is manifested through the use of organs of speech and operates through the aural rather than the visual medium Therefore, speaking can be considered as productive and receptive skill through both aural and visual as it is used in communicative activity
Siahaan (2008, p 95) suggests that “speaking is a productive language skill” It refers that speaking is a person's skill to create sounds that are meaningful and understood by others so that good communication can be made According to Bygate (1987, p 7), speaking is an undervalued skill in many ways Speaking is a skill which deserves attention every bit as much as literary skills
Thornbury (2005, p 20) states that speaking is an activity in real life performed by speaker to carry out his/ her ideas for interacting with listeners The activities are unintended and their continuousness is based on situations
Ladouse (in Nunan, 1991, p.23) reports that speaking is expressed as the activity as the capability to articulate oneself in the circumstance, or the activity to describe acts, or situation in accurate words or the capability to converse or to express a sequence of ideas fluently Furthermore, according to Wilson (1983, p
5), speaking as progress of the connection between speaker and listener
Another definition of speaking comes from Cameron (2001, p 40), she presents that speaking is about making hearers understand utterer‟s feeling and ideas by carrying out an act of communication which uses language At the time people give utterances, they express their meanings, feelings, ideas and desires
Besides, Caroline (2005, p 45) defines that speaking is an essential oral communication among people in humanity Speaking serves as natural means of communication of the participants of the community for both expression of thinking and form a social behaviour
Additionally, according to Chaney (in Kayi, 2006, p.1), speaking is a building and sharing meaning process through the use of verbal and non- verbal in various contexts Mackey in Bygate (1987, p 5) summarizes that oral expression involves the use of right sounds in the right patterns of rhythm and intonation, and the choice of words and inflections in the right order to convey meaning That is the reason why speaking can be understood as an oral expression because it is used to express the idea by saying words and sentences, even though many other things are included in it In our daily life, according to Thornbury (2005, p 1), speaking is interactive and requires the ability to co-operate in the management of speaking turns It also typically takes place in real time, with little time for detailed planning Hence, speaking represents a real challenge to most language learners
Speaking skills of the 9 th graders in Vietnam
According to Curriculum framework and goals for English of universal education in 2018 of the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam, after studying English at the lower secondary level, students can achieve English level 2 of the 6-level Foreign Language Competency Framework for Vietnam Specifically, they can understand frequently used sentences and structures related to basic communication needs (such as information about family, self, shopping, asking for directions, employment, etc.); can exchange information on simple, familiar everyday topics; can simply describe himself, his surroundings, and matters of basic need Through English, students have general knowledge about the country, people, culture of English-speaking countries and other countries in the world; have a positive attitude towards the subject and learning English; at the same time have understanding and pride in the values of their national culture; develop qualities such as compassion, family love, pride in the homeland, environmental protection, a sense of self- study and responsibility for self and family
About language knowledge for 9 th graders, topics are about Living environment, Urban life, Vietnam - past and present, Life in the past, Healthy living, Natural wonders, Travel, Future job, English in the world
For 9 th graders, their speaking skills have to achieve the following criterions:
- Clear pronunciation, relatively accurate sound, accent, intonation, rhythm of phrases and the sentences
- Participate in short, simple conversations about familiar issues related to work and daily life
- Short, well-prepared project presentation on familiar topics; give reasons and a brief explanation of the personal opinions
- Exchange ideas and information on simple topics
External factors and speaking in English
In the case of English language learning, opportunities to contact with supportive and suitable environment affect learners‟ speaking skills It can be said that some reasons for the variations in second language learners‟ attainments are family, geographical location, resources of materials, facilities, available technology and also the teachers‟ qualification
It is understood that urban area is the one surrounded by cities and has dense population while rural area which is farmland or countryside one and is sparsely populated area Lately, differences in foreign language learners‟ achievements between rural students and urban ones have been investigated by some educational researchers Rural learners are widely supposed they are given an education having less quality than the urban ones by a large number of experts from the lots of fields in particular like education, research, society and so on and most of people in the community in general
A lot of factors cause the students‟ differences in students‟ English speaking skills in rural areas versus urban ones (UKEssays, 2018)
The factor of family is determined by many researchers that it is very important in the students‟ achievement Rural students‟ English speaking ability is not as good as urban students‟ one, this is believed that it is affected by their parents‟ education Moreover, adolescents‟ choices to pursue higher learning are also affected by parents‟ prospect (UKEssays, 2018)
The socio-economic factor affects their academic performance Most of the rural students don‟t have enough conditions to get more academic resources because they are often from poor families Conversely, most of urban students are usually from wealthier families, they have enough conditions to join tuition classes and get more resources of materials for references It means that this affects the students‟ ability of language (UKEssays, 2018)
Learners‟ achievement is also thought that it is affected by facilities and resources factors For rural schools, some of them are downgraded and lack facilities applied to support in learning and teaching The problem of uneven spreading of facilities and resources between provinces, rural and urban areas remains intact It is important to have enough facilities supporting and being helpful in effective language teaching and learning Since rural students are not provided enough facilities, they have fewer opportunities to access to technology Urban students‟ learning progression has a large number of advantages and the advent and development of technology make their learning easier and their comprehension in learning process will also be better through the facilities provided (UKEssays, 2018)
It is important for students to receive both support from teachers in language teaching and learning process and good knowledge and good teaching and imparting skills from qualified teachers to obtain students‟ good performance Teaching in rural schools has certain difficulties; therefore, most of the teachers don‟t want to work in rural areas It means that most of teachers sent to the rural areas to teach are the novice teachers having less experience in teaching (UKEssays, 2018).
Related studies
Many studies explored the urban and rural students‟ English proficiency Some of those examined the students‟ English proficiency in schools which didn‟t have enough facilities and apprised that students‟ proficiency in English especially oral proficiency in particular is low or limited
Basa, Asrida, & Fadli (2018) examined factors contributing to the students‟ speaking ability and asserted that there were several contributing factors to the students‟ speaking development Some of all factors suggested by him in the research include Teacher, Family Support, Classroom Environment, Learning Materials This research was a case study based on qualitative approach To get the data, Basa, Asrida, & Fadli investigated eight students of the twelfth-grade students of SMAN 3 Batusangkar in 2017-2018 school year The data was collected by an unstructured interview The author concluded that there were many contributing factors to the students' speaking ability consisting of internal factors and external factors and he listed many external factors comprising social class, teachers, family support and classroom environment
Karunaratne (2003) executed the research to investigate several aspects of the sociology in English teaching and learning in Sri Lanka and it attempted to discover the ability to apply of the communicative approach in English teaching and learning in the context of Sri Lanka He examined the efficiency of the teaching approach in teaching English in four public schools in Colombo The results of the study raised considerable doubt about the communicativeness in an English lesson at the schools where social conditions, teaching conditions and physical facilities were claimed to be insufficient and it was expected that teachers should be well qualified
In addition, Perera (2001) also suggested the complex factors affecting the English teaching and learning The study was implemented to inquire into classroom interaction‟s role in acquiring second language in Sri Lanka Some of the objectives of the research were to explore how the learning materials provided opportunities for second language learning and how oral interactions between teacher and students in the classrooms promoted probability to develop second language In the study, Perera selected four schools from different sociocultural backgrounds to examine and used the approach based on observational case studies On the other hand, the learning materials used in the classrooms were based on Communicative Language Teaching approach which focuses on oral interaction and was used to complement the qualitative data He indicated that the oral interactions were the results of a complex relationship including the teachers who differed in terms of their experiences The purpose of learning English differed between schools, between students, and was related to the schools‟ culture and the students‟ socio-economic background As a result, the opportunities to develop foreign language performance were different in each of context
McLoyd‟s (1989) examined how poverty and low socio-ecomomic status (SES) concerns with insufficient learning outcomes Parental education being an essential standard of SES involves children‟s educational outcomes Nevertheless, McLoyd stated that the different conditions of family SES, including parental education, income, and parents‟ occupation status might be predicted as the stronger affecting factors of children‟s academic outcomes
Odigbo (1990) studied on teachers‟ accomplishment and effectiveness in teaching He employed a sample size including two hundred and forty (240) teachers with an investigation inferential research design Using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Analysis, he found that the proper approach to safety in the languages is through training He stressed that such training involves acquiring more knowledge and higher qualification According to him, it was not safe to assume that a teacher in front of the English Language class was qualified to teach the subject He proposed that teaching diploma referred to the teacher‟s qualification which has to be obviously shown by the teacher‟s teaching of the subject to understand it effectively (as cited in Idoli
& Ummanah, 2011) Besides, Sunday & Kola (2014) explored involvement of teachers in the students‟ learning outcome The study emphasized teachers‟ position conquering important resource in the educational system of Nigerian
It noticed that teachers‟ pedagogical content knowledge is very important for the teachers to teach effectively and to be able to improve students‟ academic learning Moreover, Mittapalli et al (2021) studied on various development of speaking skills in English language learning The research emphasized the value of communication skills in all aspects of life, especially English speaking skills It also stressed on improving students' English speaking skills in an EFL/ESL classroom environment Besides, it emphasized that a teacher played an important role in improving students' English speaking skills in English language classrooms by using various methods, techniques, and approaches since skills of communication were essential for in any fields of the life
Similarly, Lan Nguyen et al (2021) explored factors influencing English proficiency This study attempted to examine how the Vietnamese students are distinctive or not in learning English, and investigated factors influencing Vietnamese students‟ language proficiency The study hypothesized the significance of intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors in determining Vietnamese people‟s English proficiency The intrinsic factors were individual ability, thought, hard-working and motivation; conversely, extrinsic factors included student demographic, home environment, and school environment In this study, the authors stated lightly how students studied a second language and how their language proficiency could be developed The participants of the study were more than 2500 students of eight famous universities in Vietnam The researchers sent to them online questionnaires to collect data The researchers employed SPSS and EVIEW to analyze collected data Research results asserted that: Under parents‟ perspective, parents‟ education greatly affected the formation of their children's thinking and language preferences The higher the educational achievement parent was, the better the child learnt a foreign language The study also suggested that high-income families were able to provide their children with opportunities to have better language skills than low-income families Parents‟ investment in education was key to help their children enhance their foreign language skills; furthermore, under educators‟ perspectives, the higher English exposure‟s level the students were equipped at school, the higher their language was proficient and students had learning programs that use English as the main language in learning and teaching often had better foreign language proficiency than students had traditional training systems
On the contrary, Kosgei et al (2013) implemented the study on influence of teacher characteristics on students‟ academic achievement among secondary schools The aim of this study was to explore the involvement between teacher characteristics and students‟ learning achievement The objectives of this study were to identify the relation between qualification and experience of the teachers to student academic achievement The target population of the study was teachers of 26 public secondary schools in Nandi District, Kenya A causal comparative research design was employed in the study The instrument of the study was a questionnaire used to collect data Collected data was analyzed applied descriptive and inferential statistical techniques The results of the research reported that teacher qualification doesn‟t influence student‟s achievement in learning
Moreover, Kimani, Kara, & Njagi (2013) carried out the investigation into teacher influencing factors on students' achievement in learning in secondary schools in Nyandarua County, Kenya The focal objective of the study was to examine how selected teachers‟ demographic characteristics related to instructional practices and academic performance in secondary schools in Nyandarua County Data were collected from one hundred and fifty three teachers selected randomly from eighteen schools in three districts in the County participated in the study using a validated questionnaire Kimani, Kara, & Njagi (2013) concluded that “teachers‟ age, gender, professional qualifications and professional experience did not have significant effect on academic achievement in secondary schools”
In addition, Dahar et al (2011) studied on impact of the prior school environment on performance in learning of students at the secondary stage in Punjab (Pakistan) The aim of the study was to explore the impact of the quality of the teachers on the learning achievement of the students at the secondary stage The random sample size of the study included a total of 288 schools, 20 students and 10 teachers of each school The instruments to collect data of the study were a questionnaire for teachers to identify the quality of the teachers and a result sheet used to collect the data of students‟ academic achievement Dahar et al (2011) found that there was not “much difference in the quality of teachers of schools with higher academic achievement and that of the schools with lower academic achievement” The study concluded that the indicators of teacher quality in the research were
“not effective but instead the prior achievement is the most effective” This was the reason why the researchers implicated that “only the quantity of academic and professional degrees/certificates or trainings or years of service or amount of salary was not important but it was the attitude of teachers towards teaching and the extent of the use of their skills, expertise and abilities in teaching that is important” Even though the research had limitation owing to limited time and resources as well as limitation of conversation of teacher quality, it had significance to guide for developing the education standards, educational managers and the policy makers
In general, many researches were implemented to investigate into English speaking skills as well as factors influencing English speaking skills Nevertheless, as far as I know, no studies examined differences and similarities in students‟ English speaking performance in rural areas versus urban ones And this creates a research gap for this current study Therefore, I carried out the research to explore English speaking skills by the rural 9 th graders versus urban ones in Binh Dinh Province to identify what differences and similarities there might be among them and how some external factors might influence English speaking skills.
METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURE
Research design
In this regard I chose a quantitative and qualitative combination According to Muijs (2004, p 1), “quantitative research is explaining phenomena by collecting numerical data that are analyze using mathematically based methods (cited in particular statistic)” It means that quantitative research methods dealing with numbers and anything that is measurable in systematic way of investigation of phenomena and their relationships Patton & Cocharn
(2002) reports that qualitative research is characterized by its aims, which relate to comprehending some aspects of social life, and its methods generating words, rather than numbers, as data for analysis whereas quantitative methods aim to measure something (cited in Bricki & Green,
2008) According to Patton & Cocharn (2002), qualitative methods generally aspire to respond questions about the „how‟, „what‟ or „why‟ of a phenomenon rather than „how much‟ or „how many‟ answered by quantitative methods If the aim is to know how individuals or a community within it perceive a particular issue, then qualitative methods are often suitable (cited in Bricki & Green, 2008)
In an effort to capture how the 9 th graders in Binh Dinh Province speak English well, I used qualitative methods and on the other hand, to investigate into similarities and differences in speaking English between rural 9th graders and urban ones in Binh Dinh Province, I used quantitative ones.
Participants
The population of the study was 69 rural 9 th graders, 61 urban ones and 6 their English teachers having the same years of teaching experience at 6 lower secondary schools chosen to investigate in Binh Dinh Province consisting of 3 lower secondary schools in an urban area and 3 ones in a rural area The investigated 9 th graders followed the same curriculum and used the same textbook series from grade 6 to grade 9 and the surveyed English teachers had similar teaching experience and qualification The selected students to investigate were in the classes including students with good academic ability.
Instruments
The instruments were tests including a Sample Test, the first test (Test 1) and the second test (Test 2) The purposes of a test are several, for example to diagnose a student‟s strengths, weaknesses and difficulties, to measure achievement, to measure aptitude and potential, to assess personality attributes or types, to identify readiness for a programme Gronlund and Linn (1990) term this
„placement testing‟, normally designed to discover whether students have the essential prerequisites to begin a programme, e.g knowledge, skills, understandings (cited in Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2018, p.570).
I also used interview which Cohen, Manion & Morrison (2011) states it is the one of the most widely used qualitative data collection instruments (in Gozcu & Caganaga, 2016) There are lots of types of interviews, including: structured interviews, semi-structured interviews, unstructured interviews, and non-directive interview The study used semi-structured interviews Semi- structured interviews are non-standardized and are frequently used in qualitative analysis (cited in Koskei & Simiyu, 2015) In the semi-structured interview, the questions and topics are given; however, the questions are open- ended and the wording and sequence may be tailored to each individual interviewee and the responses given, with prompts and probes (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2018, p.511) „Prompts enable the interviewer to clarify topics or questions, particularly if the interviewee seems not to have understood, or to have misunderstood, or wishes to ask for clarification or more guidance from the interviewer The interviewer can, for example, rephrase or repeat the question, or give an example‟ (Denscombe, 2014, p.193, cited in Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2018, p.513) „Probes enable the interviewer to ask respondents to extend, elaborate, add to, exemplify, provide detail for, clarify or qualify their response, thereby addressing richness, depth of response, comprehensiveness and honesty that are some of the hallmarks of successful interviewin‟ (Patton,
1980, p.238; Wellington, 2015, p.147, cited in Cohen, Manion and Morrison,
2018, p.514) The purposes of the interview are many and varied, for example: to understand, evaluate or assess a person, situation or event in some respect; to test or develop hypotheses; to develop a research instrument such as a survey, as in cognitive interviews (Priede et al., 2014); to gather data, as in surveys, experimental situations and case studies; to sample respondents‟ opinion (in Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2018, p.508)
In addressing the first and the second research questions, I used tests Besides, semi-structured interviews were used to collect information in order to confirm more the information collected from the 9 th graders and their English teachers and elicit the factors influencing the 9 th graders‟ English speaking skills for the purpose of the answering the third research question
I used tests based on Speaking Component Assessment using ELDA The questions of the tests were designed according to Ferrara‟s theoretical framework and according to the criteria for accessing the English speaking skills by 9 th grade students based on the framework of the 2018 high school English target program of the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam The component of ELDA assessment consists of four speaking functions For each function, input, scaffolding, provides the prompt, and finally repeats the prompt were given to encourage the students to demonstrate their speaking abilities I took the pictures and questions for the test which relate to the topics from the books of English for 9 th grade Ti ng nh Th i m edited by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) in Vietnam (2021)
A Sample Test was designed based on Speaking Component Assessment using ELDA with the content that matches the criteria of the Ministry of
Education and Training of Vietnam for 9 th grade students The intention of the sample test was to familiarize students with the format and structure of the test as well as to guide students on how to answer the questions and the criteria for assessing students‟ responses
Test 1 and Test 2 forms were also designed similarly to the sample test The purpose of the use of the two tests was to increase the accuracy of the results of the study
One interview was used for ten 9 th graders, five of whom were from urban schools and the other five from rural schools Another one was applied to six English teachers including three from urban schools and the other three from rural schools.
Procedure
My data collection included various methods to obtain information from the research sites To respond to the first and the second research questions, I used the data collected from Test 1 and Test 2 which were conducted two weeks apart For the third research question, semi-structured interviews were scheduled The tests and the interviews were tape-recorded, with full permission and consent from the participants, to ensure that important information was not omitted
First of all, I conducted a pilot study A pilot test of five 9 th graders in an urban area and five ones in a rural area was conducted Interviews of three urban 9 th graders and three rural ones were carried out Interviews of three the students‟ English teachers were also executed The pilot study is a way to determine if the given testing fields are good enough for collecting the required data or if there are some more additional needs to be made for making testing more efficient (Sarangam, 2020) The pilot study of the present research was to examine the feasibility of the study and time of the tests and the interviews In fact, I faced initial difficulties in obtaining the consent of the participants, especially English teachers They were willing to give me opportunities to connect with their students to conduct my pilot test and interview for students, but they refused to be interviewed; however, I tried my best to convince them, as a result, they agreed to let me do the interviews Furthermore, the time when I implemented the pilot study was when the locals were doing social distancing due to the Covid-19 pandemic, so I conducted the pilot test and interviewed the students online through Google Meets and interviewed teachers by phoning them Fortunately, I ended up doing a completed pilot study with a pilot test of ten 9 th graders as well as pilot interviews of three English teachers and six students
With the successful data collection from the pilot study, I conducted a formal study with the first test (Test 1) and the second test (Test 2) I also designed a Sample Test, and before conducting Test 1 and Test 2, I introduced the format and structure of the tests as well as how to answer and evaluate the test results to students According to the original plan, I was going to conduct the research with each class with more than 30 students, but when implementing the research, some students of the selected classes had to be isolated from other people due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, so the number of participants in the study was less than the planned participants And the fact was therefore over twenty 9 th graders from each selected school were taken the first test which took each of them about ten minutes to answer the questions of the test After implementing the first test (Test 1) about 2 weeks, I continued to carry out the second test (Test 2), designed with the same form as the first test
To conduct an interview of students, I randomly chose to interview five
9 th graders from urban schools and five ones from rural schools immediately after they finished Test 2 I also interviewed all English teachers of the 9 th graders (six teachers) It took each student and each English teacher of them about 5 minutes to reply the questions of the interviews I and my friends who are English teachers at schools or English Centers in Binh Dinh Province were examiners for the tests and I conducted interviews by myself The results of the English speaking tests were scored live The students‟ and teachers‟ answers to the tests and the interviews were tape-recorded for data analysis
I selected content analysis as a technique to analyze individual interviews because content analysis can be used to analyze interviews (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2007, p.475; Merriam, 2009, p.205) Researchers use content analysis to describe the phenomena of interest for a particular purpose (Downe-Wamboldt, 1992) and gain insights into a particular phenomenon (Steenkamp & Northcott, 2008)
To explore the similarities and differences between students‟ scores in urban schools and rural schools, analyses in SPSS like Scale Tests, Descriptive Statistic Tests and Independent Sample T Test were used
To ensure the validity and reliability of the research, I chose the appropriate research methods: quantitative and qualitative methods; used the appropriate research instruments: test and interview; designed of the tests based on the theoretical framework and the criteria set; test-retest; clearly defined the sample size and checked reliability of the test by means in SPSS.
The purpose of the chapter is to report the results of the study from the data collected by the speaking skills tests and the semi-structured interviews The chapter begins with the students’ speaking skills in the first test ( Test 1) and the second test (Test 2) The findings from participants’ results of the tests and interviews are concluded in the chapter
4.1 t de t ’ English speaking test results
As mentioned in chapter 3, the English speaking tests were used as the first test (Test 1) and the second test (Test 2) to measure English speaking skills of the participants in both groups in urban area and rural one The scores of the English speaking tests were ranged from 0 to 10 points Scale Tests were run through SPSS to check the reliability of the tests Table 4.1 and Table 4.2 display the results of the Scale Tests of Test 1 and Test 2, respectively
Table 4.1: Reliability Statistics for Test 1
From Table 4.1, it can be seen that the reliability of Test 1 was acceptable (Cronbach's Alpha =0.87, Corrected Item-Total Correlation >0.3, ronbach's Alpha if Item eleted ≤ 0.87) Accordingly, the test was reliable enough to be used as an instrument in this research.
Table 4.2: Reliability Statistics for Test 2
Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted
It can be seen from Table 4.2 that the reliability of Test 2 was also acceptable (Cronbach's Alpha =0.91, Corrected Item-Total Correlation >0.3, ronbach's Alpha if Item eleted ≤ 0.91) Therefore, the test was also reliable enough to be used as an instrument in this research
4.1.1 Participants’ English speaking test results within the two groups
Firstly, the results of the rural group‟s Test 1 and Test 2 were collected and analyzed With p< 0.01 (p= 0.00), it was confident enough to conclude that the mean score of Test 1 and the mean score of Test 2 were different Then, the Descriptive Statistic Test was performed to identify mean score of each test These scores are illustrated in Table 4.3
Table 4.3 ea differe ce of t de t ’ eaki g te t re t in the rural group
The results showed the difference of means in Test 1 and Test 2 of the rural group (M Test1=5.53; SD Test1=1.25, M Test2=5.93; SD Test2=1.27) The mean score of Test 2 was higher than that of Test 1 It can be concluded that after conducting Test 1 for two weeks, the rural 9 th graders‟ speaking test scores increased
Afterward, the results of the urban group from Test 1 and Test 2 were also collected and analyzed to identify the difference of mean scores of the group‟s Test 1 and Test 2 With p< 0.01 (p=0.00), it was fully confident to conclude that the English speaking test scores of the urban group were different at Test 1 and Test 2 Later, the mean scores of Test 1 and Test 2 were clarified by Descriptive Statistic Test and are illustrated in Table 4.4
Table 4.4 ea differe ce of t de t ’ eaki g te t re t i the rba gro
The mean score of the Test 1 was different from the one of Test 2 (M Test1=6.84; SD Test1=0.88, M Test2=7.24; SD Test2=0.88) The result indicates that the mean of Test 2 was higher than that of Test 1 After conducting Test 1 for two weeks; therefore, it can be reported that, the urban
9 th graders‟ English speaking test scores were remarkably increased