Factors influencing students speaking skills a case study at tuy phuoc 3 high school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ TRÚC LY FACTORS INFLUENCING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS: A CASE STUDY AT TUY PHUOC 3 HIGH SCHOOL Field: Theory and Met

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ TRÚC LY

FACTORS INFLUENCING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS: A CASE STUDY AT

TUY PHUOC 3 HIGH SCHOOL

Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching

Code: 8140111

Supervisor: Dr VO DUY DUC

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

NGUYỄN THỊ TRÚC LY

NHỮNG YẾU TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN KỸ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH - MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU ĐIỂN HÌNH TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT TUY PHƯỚC 3

Ngành: Lý luận và phương pháp dạy học bộ môn tiếng Anh

Mã số: 8140111

Người hướng dẫn: TS VÕ DUY ĐỨC

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Without the assistance of many people, this thesis could not have been completed I would like to express my profound gratitude and respect to those who provide me with advice and assistance when I carry out this research

First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Dr Vo Duy Duc, my supervisor, who kindly provides me with appropriate direction, useful suggestions and critical comments so that I can have a suitable topic to pursue and finish in time

I would also give my special thanks to all the lecturers of the Department of Foreign Languages and the Department of Pedagogy in specific and to Quy Nhon Univesity in general who have provided me with precious education, not only in English major but also in other fields of knowledge Without such knowledge, I cannot make such a far progress in my academic career

I would also like to say thanks to some of the teachers and students at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School who participated in my study for their support incompleting the survey questionaires and helping me in recording the speaking classes

Last but not least, I am particularly indebted to my parents for their greatest encouragement and support that motivated me to complete this study even in the hardest period I feel extremely lucky to have their sympathy and backup

ABSTRACT

The current study aimed at investigating major problems that Tuy Phuoc 3 high school students have in the process of learning English speaking skills as well as the reasons behind the frequency of making common mistakes in speaking English A descriptive research design was employed for the study The participants of this study were 120 students of three grades: 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade and 8 English teachers at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School The data was gathered through online surveys and audio recordings The results showed two kinds of problems that students encounter including linguistic problems and psychological problems From the findings, most of the students always have difficulties in using grammar (59,2%), vocabulary (54,2%) and pronunciation ( 42,5%) correctly In addition, up to 60,2 % of the participants always feel anxious or shy when they perform a speaking task Besides, the results also revealed that affective factors impacting students’ performance in speaking skills are shyness, peer pressure, anxiety, and fear of making mistakes Other factors that hinder speaking performance are time for preparation, pressure to perform well, teachers’ support, motivation to speak, topical knowledge, listening ability Among these factors, time for preparation is the most influential factor, which accounts for 87,5% of the respondents The study has significant contributions

to teaching and learning speaking skills

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF FIGURES viii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 RATIONALE 1

1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 2

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 3

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 3

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 3

1.6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY 3

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORICAL BACKGROUND 5

2.1 DEFINITION OF SPEAKING SKILLS 5

2.2 MAJOR PROBLEMS STUDENTS FACE IN LEARNING TO SPEAK ENGLISH 7

2.2.1 Linguistic problems 7

2.2.2 Psychology 12

2.3 FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING

PERFORMANCE 14

2.3.1 Performance Conditions 14

2.3.2 Affective Factors 15

2.3.3 Listening Ability 19

2.3.4 Topical Knowledge 20

2.3.5 Teacher’s Feedback 21

2.4 SUMMARY 23

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 24

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN AND PROCEDURE 24

3.1.1 Research Design 24

3.1.2 Procedure 24

3.2 DATA COLLECTION 25

3.2.1 Participants 25

3.2.2 Biographic information of the participants 26

3.2.3 Data-collecting Instruments 28

3.3 DATA ANALYSIS 30

3.4 SUMMARY 30

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 31

4.1 STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS SPEAKING ENGLISH IN THE CLASS 31

4.2 COMMON PROBLEMS STUDENTS MAKE WHEN SPEAKING ENGLISH 34

4.2.1 Students’ perception of common speaking problems 34

4.2.2 Teachers’ responses to students’ speaking mistakes 38

4.2.3 Observation during actual teaching 39

4.3 FACTORS INFLUENCING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS 40

4.3.1 Students’ self-evaluation 40

4.3.2 Factors affecting students’ speaking performance 42

4.3.3 Teachers’ evaluation of performance conditions 50

4.3.4 Observation 51

4.4 CHAPTER SUMMARY 57

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 59

5.1 CONCLUSIONS 59

5.1.1 Common problems Tuy Phuoc 3 high school students encounter when they learn to speak English 59

5.1.2 Factors influencing the students’ speaking skills 60

5.2 IMLICATIONS 61

5.3 LIMITATIONS 63

5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES 64

REFERENCES 65 APPENDICES

LIST OF TABLES Table

number

number

4.1 Students’ perception of common problems 34

4.3 Factors influencing students’ speaking skills 51

LIST OF FIGURES Figure

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE

It is undeniable that English has an important role in global communication, so the number of English language learners has been increasing However, to become a mastered or just successful language learner, they must have the ability to speak in this language In this case, Nunan stated that for most people, mastering speaking skills is the single most important aspect of learning a second or foreign language (Nunan,

1991, cited as in Hendra Heriansyah, 2012) In the same way, Richards and Renandya (2002) assert: "A large percentage of the world's language learners study English in order to develop proficiency in speaking" (p.201) They argue that speaking is the most important language skills that need to be controlled, and they assess learning achievement based on mastery of speaking skills (Burnkart, 1998, cited as in Hendra Heriansyah, 2012)

Moreover, it can be said with certainly that English provides us with numerous benefits and advantages People from Europe, Africa, and Asia speak English, so instead of learning their challenging language, we may converse with them in English That is the reason why speaking English is often believed

to be one of the most important subjects that we should not miss, as David Crystal (2003) in his book- “English as global language” stated that "Out of 360 persons, around 330 speak English as their mother tongue"

Many students, however, struggle to express themselves due to a lack

of vocabulary, poor grammatical structure, psychological influence, mother language tendencies, and inaccurate pronunciation Listeners can understand but not very well when students speak English words incorrectly

In Vietnam, a recent study (Quyen, V.P., et al., 2018) showed that

most high school students faced both internal and external challenges For example, those difficulties were the lack of vocabulary to express ideas in speaking English and the limitation of English speaking strategies; or teachers did not create interesting speaking activities and correct mistakes of speaking with few responses

At schools, English is also a compulsory subject which most Vietnamese students have learned since they were in grade 3 After graduating from high school, students with a great passion for this foreign language choose English as

a major for their higher education When learning this language, learners have to master four main skills: listening, reading, speaking and writing Of these four skills, speaking is considered to be the most difficult skill that requires a huge amount of time to practice and promote

Being one of the English teachers at Tuy Phuoc 3 high school, I recognize that the majority of the students cannot speak English fluently or pronounce correctly, even most of the other excellent students cannot communicate well with each other or with the teachers in English I desire to help students at my school improve their English speaking skills

For those reasons, with a view to looking into the factors that influence their ability to communicate in English at Tuy Phuoc 3 high school, I am so

inspired to conduct a study on “Factors influencing students’ speaking skills - A case study at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School” as my master thesis 1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The major aim of this study is to investigate some major problems the students encounter when they learn to speak English and find out the factors affecting the students' speaking performance In order to achieve this aim, some objectives are posed:

- To identify major problems that high school students have in the

process of learning speaking skills

- To point out the factors influencing students’ speaking skills

2 What are the factors affecting their speaking performance?

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Due to the research conditions, it was impossible for the research to be carried out in a large-scale investigation of all classes at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School Instead, it focused on 120 students and 6 English teachers at Tuy Phuoc 3 high school to find out common problems that students encounter when they learn to speak English and it also focused on factors affecting their speaking performance

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

It is obvious that English is an international language which is spoken widely around the globe As a result, speaking is one of the basic competencies which should be mastered by students in the process of learning English as a foreign language The study sheds light on speaking issues of high school students, which could point out the factors causing major problems that students make during English speaking classes at school and some feasible solutions to deal with such difficulties

1.6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

The study is structured as follows:

Chapter 1, Introduction: announces the rationale, aims, research

questions, scope, methods and design of the study

Chapter 2, Literature Review and Theoretical Background: shows some

previous relevant studies and relevant theoretical background for the study

Chapter 3, Research Methodology: introduces the methods of research,

procedures of the study and the research design

Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion: deals with the data gathered,

presents the author's finding and discusses

Chapter 5, Conclusion and Implications: summarizes the main findings

which gives answers to research questions as well as suggestions for further researches

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORICAL BACKGROUND

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an extensive review of literature on speaking skills First, an overview of speaking skills including definitions of speaking skills is presented This chapter is also designed to present some major problems that high school students encounter when they learn to speak English Then, factors influencing students’ speaking skills are pointed out

2.1 DEFINITION OF SPEAKING SKILLS

The definition of speaking, just like other abstract terms, varies from scholar to scholar The variety of its definition can be explained as the result

of the difference in the mentality of people from different periods as well as the difference in the perspective from which speaking is considered However, they all believe that speaking involves speech and through speech speakers express their opinions, attitudes, feelings, etc

Burns & Joyce (1997) defined speaking as an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves the production, reception, and processing

of information Its form and meaning are determined by the context in which

it takes place, which includes the participants themselves, their shared experiences, the physical surroundings, and the purposes for speaking It means that speaking is learners’ ability to express their opinions, feelings, and ideas orally, coherently, logically, and appropriately in a given meaningful context Moreover, speaking is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving Nevertheless, speech is not always unpredictable Speaking requires that learners not only understand how to provide specific points of language like grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary (linguistic competence), but also that they understand when, why, and in what ways to provide language

(sociolinguistic competence) Finally, unlike written language, speech has its own abilities, structures, and traditions To achieve a specific speech act, a good speaker combines a variety of abilities and knowledge

According to Chaney and Burke (1998, p.13), speaking is defined as

“ the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts." This skill is critical in the teaching and learning of second languages, but it has been neglected for years, particularly in high schools It demands as much attention as reading skills because it is the vehicle that carries many of the most basic transactions

In terms of language teaching and learning, speaking is taken into account as one of the four important language skills (listening, reading, speaking, and writing) to practice and master Nunan (2003, p.48) claimed that "Speaking is the productive oral skill It consists of producing systematic

verbal utterance to convey meanings."

Also, regarding speaking as a skill, Bygate (1987, p.3) looked into the difference between knowledge and skill in a speaking session, which he thought to be a critical aspect of speaking instruction He argued that speaking

is considered as a skill that deserves attention as much as literary skills in both first and second language

In addition, Ur in his book titled "A course in language teaching" indicated:

( ) of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and

writing), speaking seems intuitively the most important: people who

know a language are referred to as 'speakers' of that language, as if

speaking included all other kinds of knowing; and many if not most

foreign languages learners are primarily interested in learning to speak

(Ur, 1996, p.120)

The author emphasized the importance of speaking and he realized that learning speaking involves quite a vast knowledge of different language aspects so speaking may be perceived as a complicated process

According to Byrne (1986), he stated that speaking skill is one of two ways of the oral communication process, and is the productive skill The speaker must encode (or interpret) the message he desires to express in proper language, while the listener must decode (or interpret) it

To sum up, each researcher has a different way to describe speaking In general, their definitions are different in the form; however, they seem to be the same in the content, i.e speaking as an action, a process, and a skill In this study, the term "speaking" was used as a skill related to language teaching and learning

2.2 MAJOR PROBLEMS STUDENTS FACE IN LEARNING TO SPEAK ENGLISH

Obviously, anyone learning a new language is supposed to make mistakes Even if the students are disappointed, we must accept this as a fact

of learning a language It is not simple to be a great learner in four basic skills when learning English as a foreign language, especially speaking Hetrakul (1995) said that “they? Who? use English more frequently only inside the class and less frequently outside the class” Whereas students have limited time to learn English in class, and they still do not have enough encouragement to practice English outside the class in order to get familiar with English” This section highlights some common problems that high school students may encounter when they practise speaking English

2.2.1 Linguistic problems

Speaking problems are factors that caused someone to be unable to communicate Language difficulties, according to Doris and Jessica (2007),

are one of the major causes of poor academic achievement These issues may obstruct students' ability to enhance and improve their speaking skills The students' weak grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation are the main reasons for their speaking difficulties Those problems belong to linguistic problems

Linguistics is the scientific study of language, including the structure of language (grammar), words, and phonology Spolsky and Hult (2008) define linguistics as the study of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation in detail Linguistic problems are those problems which make students’ speaking ability become poor Some linguistic problems can influence someone's ability to talk, such as bad grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation According to Richards (2008), some typical learners have difficulty in speaking because (1) they are poor at grammar, (2) lack vocabulary needed to talk, and (3) poor at pronunciation

2.2.1.1 Grammar

Grammar is a field of linguistics concerned with the structure of words, their relationships with one another, and their agreement in phrases, clauses, and sentences in order to communicate meaning The researcher would like to quote certain opinions in order to better comprehend the concept of grammar Chomsky (1986) said, "Grammar is a set of rules that would generate all the possible sentences of a language and none of the possible sentences," Chomsky said (p.236) Grammar, then, is a set of rules for generating both logical and

illogical phrases Grammar is one of the methods for constructing a sentence

Grammar deals with how sentences are built and written so it may be considered a bit boring to study correct grammar since it really is worth the time and effort Learners who do not understand the rules of grammar will never be able to speak effectively in English Grammar becomes tough, according to Celce-murcia (2001s), since learners do not learn structures one

at a time Even when learners appear to have mastered a particular structure, backsliding is not uncommon when new forms are introduced to the learners' interlanguage For example, a learner who has mastered the third singular person marker on a present tense verb may over-generalize the rules and apply it to newly developing model verbs, resulting in errors like "She can speak English." Because the students have not understood English grammar, these errors may arise when they speak

Regardless of the fact that many students learn English from primary school to college or university, their vocabulary remains limited Students learn basic English at university, but native speakers use slang, idioms, and phrasal verbs in everyday conversation In fact, while speaking English with only simple words, high school students still have a lot of communication limitations Another source of difficulties in English speaking classes is a lack

of vocabulary, which makes speaking uninteresting and inefficient

In addition, it confuses students too much in using correct vocabulary in speaking Schewertly (2012) indicated that choosing appropriate vocabulary is

an important aspect of any presentation It means that lacking of knowledge vocabulary will become a challenge to choose the correct words If the words used to be not in rules, they will make a misunderstanding to the audiences

Another mistake students make when speaking English is failing to pay

attention to word stress, phrase stress (rhythm), and not using intonation Vietnamese is a tonal language, which means that each word has a mark to differentiate it from other words like "be," "bé," and " bẻ" Meanwhile, English is a toneless language Students must use rhythm or intonation to express their meaning, attitude, and feelings when speaking Misuse or omission of rhythm/intonation might cause the audience to misunderstand what the speaker is trying to say It will also make it difficult for us to listen to what others have to say

Besides, a vocabulary item is a single word or a group of words with a specified meaning According to Kamil and Hiebert (2005), vocabulary is the knowledge of word meanings There are at least two types of words: oral and written The set of terms for which we know the meanings when we talk or read verbally is known as oral vocabulary When we write or read silently, our print vocabulary comprises of words for which the meaning is known

Language problems occur when someone lacks the necessary vocabulary to communicate and does not know how to put the vocabulary together into a meaningful phrase Khan (2005) claims that a large majority of students learning English as a foreign language have difficulty using words and expressions in conversation Furthermore, Doris and Jessica (2007) claim that in real-life conversation, no one paid attention to correct grammar expressions, but instead focused on the content and how to respond Students know exactly what they want to say in the source language, but when they have to transfer to the target language, such as English, they frequently struggle to combine and apply the necessary vocabularies

2.2.1.3 Pronunciation

English has developed into a language that brings people from all over the world together Learners of a second or foreign language are also expected

to speak English fluently, as if they were native speakers A second language learner, according to Hinkel (2005, p.491), must master the individual characteristics of a new language's sound Furthermore, it will be good for the students to be able to speak naturally like the native-speaker itself

According to Burns (2003), it is more important that the English speakers can achieve:

- Intelligibility (the speakers produce sound patterns that are recognisable as English),

- Comprehensibility (the listener is able to understand the meaning of what is said),

- Interpretability (the listener is able to understand the purpose of what

is said)

"It's hot today" for example, could be pronounced "Is ho day." Because

of the inaccuracy of the noises, tension, and patterns, this is unlikely to be understood As a result, the speaker is incomprehensible to the listener because the meaning is unavailable In communication, clear communication

is critical The following are the numerous characteristics that make up the generation of sounds in English:

- Supresegmental features: linking, intonation, and word stress

- Segmental features: phonemes; consonant and vowel sounds

Pronunciation is just as important as syntax and vocabulary in learning

a new language Correct pronunciation is essential for improving speaking ability Pronunciation is connected with other fields such as listening and even grammar Once a person can pronounce correctly the endings of the words, for example, he can, at the same time give grammatical information

In brief, grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation are considered to be common linguistic problems faced by students in speaking English language

In the following part, psychology will be explored as another aspect It includes shyness, lack of confidence and anxiety

2.2.2 Psychology

2.2.2.1 Shyness

The most difficult problem of most students is that they are afraid to speak and to communicate in English because of shyness Gebhard (2000) believed that in the classroom, particularly in the speaking class, students' shyness may cause issues with their ability to learn In addition, Baldwin (2011) stated that one of the most frequent phobias that students experience is speaking in front of others, and they frequently worry that they would forget what to say or that their mind will go blank out of shyness

Besides, according to Wikipedia, “Shyness (also called diffidence) is the feeling of apprehension, lack of comfort, or awkwardness especially when

a person is around other people” This commonly occurs in new situations or with unfamiliar people Shyness can be a characteristic of people who have low self-esteem Stronger forms of shyness are usually referred to as social anxiety or social phobia Many students suffer when they are required to speak in English class because they are afraid of negative reactions, being laughed at, a lack of ability, lack of self-confidence, lack of motivation, humiliation, criticism, or rejection, particularly in the speaking class When learning foreign languages, these people usually feel uncomfortable, unpleasant, restless, and difficult to control themselves

2.2.2.2 Lack of Confidence

Self-confidence means that we have the capacity to something good and being positive thinking According to Elliot (1998, p.29), the concept of self-confidence refers to one's self-assurance in one's own personal judgment, ability, power, and so on, which might be exaggerated A focus on the self

leads to good self-confidence (self-consciousness) Lack of self-confidence can happen in a variety of ways, including shame, interior shyness, unrealistic expectations of perfection, a false sense of humility, fear of change or making

a mistake, depression, and so on Depression can actually be a result of a lack

of self-confidence

Here are some of the characteristics of lack self-confidence (Lucinda, 2018):

- Comparing self negatively to others

- Avoiding of social situations

- Feelings of inadequacy

- Having difficulty in accepting compliments

- Neglecting of own needs, particularly emotional ones

- Putting the needs of others before self

- Having difficulty in trusting own judgement

Lack of self-confidence may lead students to believe that they will not

be able to communicate effectively in English This lack of self-confidence is also a major issue that affects students' speaking abilities If students are unsure about their own speaking abilities, it is difficult for them to master English speaking

2.2.2.3 Anxiety

According by Bourne (2010, p.6) anxiety is physiological, behavioral, and also psychological reaction all in one On a physiological case, anxiety may include bodily reactions such as rapid heartbeat, muscle tension, queasiness, dry mouth, or sweating On a behavioral case, it can sabotage the ability to act Psychologically, anxiety is a subjective state of apprehension and uneasiness In its most extreme form, it can cause people to feel detached

from themselves and even fearful of dying or going crazy

Rochelle et al (2011) looked into the reasons of anxiety among foreign students learning English in the Philippines It has been discovered that using this technique allows learners to take care of their own learning because it acts as a foundation for acquiring other macro abilities in the target language

In this circumstance, the students may find themselves speechless in front of their interlocutors or audiences They may experience nervousness, anxiety, worry, shyness, dread of something worse happening while attempting to improve their communication skills Students must recognize and address their own psychological issues, as well as deal with their own anxious states As a result, students will be able to speak English more fluently in the future

2.3 FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCE

With the view to helping students overcome problems in learning speaking, it is necessary for the teachers to figure out factors that affect their speaking performance Performance conditions (time pressure, planning, standard of performance, and amount of assistance), affective elements (such

as motivation, confidence, and anxiety), listening capacity, topical knowledge and feedback during speaking activities can all affect students' speaking performance

2.3.1 Performance Conditions

With regards to factors influencing students’ speaking skills, performance conditions in speaking class also affect them negatively when speaking Learners carry out a speaking activity under different conditions Time pressure, planning, the quality of the performance, and the level of support are all factors that influence speaking performance (Nation & Newton, 2009)

Patanasorn (2010) believed that giving students extra planning time before performing a task can help them develop more fluent and complicated English Moreover, as Ellis (2009) reported, it is a fair conclusion to write that

“strategic planning can assist learners to speak more fluently and that this is evident in both the temporal and repair dimensions of fluency” (p 493)

In addition, it cannot be denied that time pressure is a decisive factor affecting speaking performance Time pressure, in the form of both final deadlines (i.e., a set time limit indicating the finish of an activity, such as the end of a football match) and time costs (the fact that whatever task one is doing currently is time that could be spent doing something else), often impairs solitary performance (Ariely & Zakay, 2001; Payne, Bettman, & Johnson, 1988; Payne, Bettman, & Luce, 1996) Moreover, time pressure refers to the urgency with which students must complete their speaking tasks, which might make it more difficult (Thornbury, 2005)

2.3.2 Affective Factors

Students’ speaking performance can be affected by the factors that come from affective factors (such as anxiety, shyness, self- consciousness or confidence, fear of making mistakes)

Horwitz (1986) identified three key causes of anxiety in students based

on the outcomes of their study: communication apprehension, exam anxiety, and fear of unfavorable evaluation The ability of students to communicate in the target language is referred to as communication apprehension Many students experience anxiety as a result of their lack of ability in this subject The second cause is test anxiety, which is caused by students' fear of being tested The final reason has to do with the opinions of other students As previously stated, other students' "assessment" frequently causes anxiety among students themselves Furthermore, students' anxiety is influenced by

their fear of being judged by their teachers All of this implies that teachers should be concerned with better understanding students and controlling classrooms According to Harmer (2007), in order to relieve this anxiety, teachers must pay attention to each student's strengths and weaknesses in order to design a learning technique that accommodates all students in the classroom

Moreover, anxiety can be caused by a student speaking a foreign language (FL) or second language (L2) in public It stands out among the affective variables as the most essential and potentially dangerous factor that might obstruct language learning Anxiety obstructs the learning process because most of the students are afraid of appearing "wrong, stupid, or incomprehensible" (Brown, 2001, p.9), which will diminish their speaking abilities This feeling has become such a mental obstacle for them that they are unable to communicate effectively in the target language The students’ speaking anxiety is caused by many factors such as fear of making mistakes, lack in vocabulary, and lack in pronunciation, which make students may become tongue-tied or wordless in an unexpected situation leading to depression and a sense of failure

By focusing on the factor of “anxiety”, Horwitz stated that

“researchers, language teachers, and even language learners themselves have been interested in the possibility that anxiety inhibits language learning for quite some time” (Horwitz, 2001, p.112) In his research, he claimed that

“anxiety is indeed a cause of poor language learning in some individuals”

Besides, some research on language anxiety in Indonesian context reported similar findings Students in a speaking class, according to Padmadewi (1998), are frequently anxious owing to the pressure of the speaking activities, which force them to speak individually and spontaneously

within a set amount of time In the same year, Kim who carried out a study on affective experiences of Korean college students in different instructional contexts In her work, she pointed out that students in a conversation class experienced higher anxiety levels than students in a reading class

Shumin (2002) emphasizes that if students are overly nervous, they feel tongue-tied or unable to find words, which negatively impacts their performance in foreign language classes Because the ability to take risks is considered essential for "successful learning of a second language," EFL students should be encouraged to speak bravely in order to gradually improve their speaking competence, as motivation is thought to be the most important factor that educators can target in order to facilitate learning

In terms of the cause of shyness, Bowen (2005) and Robby (2010) believe that some shy students are naturally quiet In this situation, the students are not very confident and tend to be shy because speaking English

in front of their peers and teacher is quite daunting to them Furthermore, Saurik (2011) identifies that most English students are nervous when speaking the language because they are afraid of making mistakes They also fear being made fun of by their peers Students' shyness is their view of their own abilities, according to the findings of this study

From another perspective, according to He and Chen (2010), the main cause of students' lack of confidence is their inability to communicate in English As they pointed out, many students believe their English is poor and that they are unable to communicate effectively in English The lack of encouragement from the teacher is another reason of students' lack of confidence Many teachers believe that convincing students that they can speak English is not crucial in this situation As a result, students find studying demotivating rather than stimulating, as Brown (2001) points out

This implies that, in order to boost students' confidence, encouragement is essential As a result, encouraging students and showing that they will be able

to communicate effectively in English is important for their learning achievement

With concern to the causes of lack of motivation, Nunan (1999) elaborated on the causes of students' "lack of motivation" including uninspired teaching, boredom, a lack of perceived relevance of materials, and

a lack of awareness about the instructional program's aims Furthermore, he believed that uninspired teaching has an impact on students' enthusiasm to learn In this setting, boring teaching sometimes reduces students' motivation owing to boredom In addition, Babu (2010) claimed that a lack of motivation

in the classroom causes students to be hesitant to speak English According to him, the basis of this problem is that teachers do not inspire students to communicate in English Good instruction results in motivation After that, he goes on to say that teachers must have enthusiasm, originality, and interest in their students in order to motivate them to learn better and actively communicate in English In other words, teachers' teaching ability has a significant impact on students' motivation As a result, it is critical that teachers express enthusiasm in their teaching

Last but not least, people all throughout the world are trying to improve their English today Although not everyone who learns English wants to be successful, many students stop halfway through despite their average ability Fear of making a mistake is the key cause One of the main reasons why students struggle to speak English in class is their fear of making a mistake Furthermore, some students desire to be language perfectionists so that they can easily blame themselves if they make a mistake in front of others Low self-esteem or a lack of comprehension of the listener are the origins of this

issue People who are faced with this form of fear are unable to speak They only communicate and practice by themselves in this situation

The main reason for fear of mistake is that “students are afraid of looking foolish in front of other people and they are concerned about how other will see them” (Kurtus, 2001) Students were concerned that if they made an English error, their friends would laugh at them and they would receive bad feedback from their peers In other situations, individuals are concerned about how they will sound and are afraid of sounding silly, among other things

Moreover, according to Hieu (2011), fear of making a mistake is one of the key reasons why students are hesitant to speak in English in the classroom He goes on to say that the fear of making a mistake is linked to the fear of being corrected and receiving negative feedback Furthermore, the fear

of being laughed at by other students or criticized by the teacher has a significant impact on this As a result, students sometimes avoid the speaking activity As a result, teachers must persuade their students that making mistakes is neither wrong nor harmful because students can learn from their experiences

unable to respond It indicates that listening and speaking are closely linked

Besides, we can't improve our speaking abilities unless we improve our listening abilities To have an effective conversation, students must understand what is being spoken to them When one person speaks, the other responds by attending and employing the listening process In reality, every speaker simultaneously serves as a listener and a speaker As a result, if you don't understand what's being said, you'll probably be unable to answer (Tuan

& Mai, 2015) It indicates that listening and speaking are inextricably linked Moreover, by investigating the effects of listening on speaking for Chinese college students, Zhang (2009) claimed that listening does has a positive effect on improving the participants’ oral skills Besides, Azizah (2014) also investigated the relationship between listening comprehension and speaking ability, believing that speaking is the cream of language teaching and that exposing EFL and ESL learners to authentic listening texts can improve their speaking skills

2.3.4 Topical Knowledge

Topical knowledge, according to Bachman and Palmer (1989), is defined as long-term memory knowledge structures In other words, topical knowledge refers to a speaker's understanding of current events Learners can use language with reference to the world in which they live thanks to the information provided by topical knowledge They claim that certain exam tasks are easier for people with relevant topical knowledge and more difficult for those without They also feel that speaking performance is influenced by topical knowledge

Besides, Lewkowicz (1997, p.121) define that topical knowledge as

“the intersection between one’s prior knowledge and the content of a specific passage or discourse”

Topical knowledge, as defined above, is one of the factors that affects speaking performance, and it can be challenging for students who do not have topical knowledge about a topic or theme, because topical knowledge is the speaker's knowledge of relevant topical material So, topics could affect students’ speaking performance when they do not have topical knowledge, for example speaking anxiety

2.3.5 Teacher’s Feedback

Regarding teachers’ feedback during speaking activities as a factor influencing students’ speaking skills, there are many researchers who have investigated its effects on the students’ development Most of them believed that the feedback that teachers provide to their students on their spoken performance is a critical aspect in helping them improve their communication skills Dornyei, Z (2001, p.123) stated that “feedback is not just a decoration

on the cake 45 or an additional asset that's worth having It is an essential ingredient of learning” Thus, teacher feedback is more than simply a few words and expressions that teachers usually offer on their students' achievements; it is a fundamental aspect and a very important instructional tool that strives to improve the students' communication abilities

In general, teacher feedback is a combination of the instructor's correction and reaction, and it is not a pure correction as most people see it This teacher's role is sensitive, especially with high school students who consider feedback as criticism As a result, teachers should be aware of the right moment for providing feedback, as well as the fact that they should not provide feedback throughout the performance, as this will disrupt the performance and produce inhibition in the students Furthermore, teachers must provide their students with positive feedback as well as negative criticism when they perform well in an activity Positive feedback stimulates students and boosts their self-confidence

The majority of students want and expect their teachers to provide comments on their work However, not all spoken production should be treated the same According to Harmer (1991), teachers' decisions about how

to respond to students' performance are influenced by the phases of the lesson, the activities, the sorts of mistakes made, and the specific student who is making the error The conversational flow as well as the aim of the speaking exercise will be destroyed if teachers correct anytime there is a fault If students are often corrected, they may become discouraged and fearful of speaking up They suggest that the teachers should always correct the students’ mistakes positively and with encouragement

Furthermore, having a lot of peers and teachers support makes things easier to practice speaking tasks since presenting a topic with others is easier than doing it alone (Thornbury, 2005)

In conclusion, this section reviewed the factors that affect students’ English speaking performance The factors discussed in this study play a crucial influence in the development of learners' speaking abilities

Nevertheless, as these researches focussed on students who are less proficient in English and did not include proficient speakers of English, we are unable to provide empirical evidence as to the authentic language use of proficient speakers in non-native English environments, apart from relying on descriptions of features of students in the literature Moreover, nowadays the availability of English has been increasing in urban areas, but still the students

in rural areas face many difficulties in learning English at their schools in speaking English The rural students still do not have enough encouragement

to practice English and students at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School are no exception

2.4 SUMMARY

Overall, learning a foreign language means learning how to apply that language in real-life situations As a result, speaking ability is regarded as the most important of all language abilities, as it reflects the way through which individuals communicate with one another This chapter shaded light on the significant of speaking skill, its definition, as well as, in addition to the students’ common mistakes in speaking English including grammatical mistakes and pronunciation mistakes, and it ended with the factors influencing students’ speaking performance

The following chapter will deal with the research design employed, variables under study, the study locale, target population, sampling procedures and sample size, research instruments, piloting, data collection techniques, data analysis and lastly ethical and logistical considerations

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN AND PROCEDURE

3.1.1 Research Design

The design of this research is a qualitative research Gay et al.(2011) state that qualitative research is the collection, analysis, and interpretation of comprehensive narrative and visual (i.e., nonnumerical) data to gain insights into a particular phenomenon of interest Qualitative research methods are based on different beliefs and designed for different purposes

Besides, the method applied in this study is quantitative in nature Quantitative method in this research was a descriptive statistic using numbers and percentages that used to investigate factors influencing students’ speaking performance and problems found among students in speaking Aliaga and Gunderson (2002) have described the quantitative research methods as an investigation into a social issue, acquire numerical data, and analyze phenomena using mathematically based methodologies, particularly statistics

3.1.2 Procedure

First of all, the researcher designed questionnaires and distributed it to high school students to find out their current situation as well as their common problems when speaking English In addition, it also investigated the factors influencing their speaking skills

After that, the researcher visited speaking classes and recorded some students’ talks about various topics in classes The audio records were then brought to home, transcribed into text to be analyzed

At the same time, the researcher engaged with observation and participant observation to take notes on students’ common problems during

speaking classes and causes of these problems that are relevant to her evaluation during her actual research

Next, descriptive, contrastive and comparative methods were employed

to process, examine and report the data after it was collected from the questionnaires as well as audio records

Finally, the researcher applied the qualitive and quantitative methods in order to find out common problems of high school students when speaking English at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School as well as factors affecting their speaking performance

3.2 DATA COLLECTION

3.2.1 Participants

The participants of this research were 120 high school students of three grades at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School: 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade and 8 English teachers who had been working as English teachers at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School as well About students, there are both females and males selected randomly Most of them are at the age of from 16 to 18 Their English level is intermediate They come from different areas, both rural and urban ones They speak Vietnamese as their mother tongue and English as a foreign language In addition, they have learned English for above 7 years since primary school The participants have been learning English as their major subject at school About the teachers, there are 8 female English teachers at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School Among them, there are 6 teachers with bachelor’s degrees and 2 teachers with master’s degrees All the teachers have

a lot of expericence in teaching English at high schools and they also claims that high school students are facing with many problems when they learn speaking skills and the teachers will try to find out the causes of these problems

3.2.2 Biographic information of the participants

3.2.2.1 Students’ background information

Table 3.1 Students' background information

Years of learning English

As seen from Table 4.1, the majority of participants joining the survey were females, which accounts for 63,3% while the number of male participants constitutes only 31,7% However, it can be seen that this survey consists of opinions from both gender, which would properly lead to an objective result In addition, the number of years they have spent on English ranging from 5 to above 7 years In details, 19,2% of participants have learnt English for 5-7 years, which means they started learning English since they were in the grade 6 The year numbers students experiencing English over 7 years are 80,8%, which means they started learning English since they were in the grade 3 This indicates the fact that all survey-takers have studied English for a quite long time and their level of English is good enough to communicate in English fluently to express their idea

3.2.2.2 Teachers’ background information

Table 3.2 Teachers' background information

12,5 %

0 % 12,5 %

25 %

As seen from Table 4.2, all of participants joining the survey were females from different ages As a result, the researcher can acquire various perspectives among many generations of teachers Besides, the number of years they have spent teaching English ranges from 1 to over 16 years In details, 37,5 % of participants have taught English for 1-5 years, and the year numbers of teachers who have taught English for at least 6 years are 62,5 % percent Furthermore, at least a bachelor's degree is compulsory for teachers

at high schools In details, 75 % of teachers have bachelor’s degree and the rest have a master’s degree Therefore, their experiences in teaching English speaking skills are good enough to help the researcher conduct this study

3.2.3 Data-collecting Instruments

3.2.3.1 Survey Questionnaires

The researcher used semi-structured questionnaires for teachers and students which were administered to teachers of English and students at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School The questionnaires for teachers and students were preferred in the study because they were the best instruments to gather information about peoples‟ opinions and attitudes and also efficient in collecting facts and easy to administer” (Baker and Westrup, 2003)

Questions were prepared in advanced and answered in online form The reason why this method was implemented because the online method helps to gather information faster than the tradional method The large amount

of information could be collected from a huge number of people in a short period of time In addition, the outcomes of the questionnaires can be quickly and easily quantified by the use of the software package As a result, the questionnaires was considered as one of the common tools to collect the data for the research

The survey questionnaires include 3 sections:

Section 1 consists of questions that were asked to find out teachers and students’ background information

Section 2 provides a thorough insight into the common mistakes that students make while speaking English In this section, there are questions designed using the Five-Likert Scale

Section 3 focuses factors influencing the students’ speaking skills

These questions are designed for following purposes:

- To find out students' attitudes toward English speaking skills

- To identify students' mistakes in communicating with others and the frequency of making these mistakes

- To analyze some reasons behind these mistakes in speaking English

3.2.3.2 Audio Recording

Tape recording is one of the techniques that is used for collecting data The recording of audio data through devices such as tape recorders has been a significant development within qualitative research, replacing the researcher's handwritten notes One of the key advantages of recording (audio or visual)

an interview is that it allows the interviewer to focus on the conversation rather than writing notes, which can be distracting to both the interviewee and the person(s) asking the questions This frequently results in a disconnected interview in which important material is neglected, forgotten, or missed (CSR- Center for Strategy Research Boston, 2006) Furthermore, taped interviews have been demonstrated to assist the interviewee and interviewer

to create and foster a better relationship and rapport during the procedures, resulting in the interviewee providing more extensive and in-depth information (Mary, 2008)

The researcher recorded randomly the speech of 20 students in her classes The speech could be an individual talk, pair or group discussion with the topic ranging widely from picture description to ambition in the future The topics were chosen because these topics were appropriated to students' level and interest and that they are in the students' curriculum The students were asked to prepare for the topic at home and give their speech presentation

in class to avoid some careless mistakes

3.2.3.3 Observation

The researcher observed the students ability in speaking to identify the problems in the actual technique learning process This type of instrument was to get more reliable information than others The researcher used observation to check the existing situation in the class, which may come in handy for investigating factors influencing students' speaking skills During classroom observation, the researcher observed how much students are willing to deliver speech in the class

3.3 DATA ANALYSIS

In order to answer the research questions and meet the goal of research aim, data analysis has been done using both qualitative and quantitative data The survey questionnaires were collected, sorted out, and then the answers in each question were counted and noted carefully The raw figures were calculated, summarized in tables in order to be discussed and illustrated using comparative and contrastive techniques Besides, each record was presented

in written scripts and then was examined carefully to find out common grammatical errors students' made when speaking English Frequency and percentages of the analysis were also highlighted and taken note to provide essential proofs for the statistics analysis

3.4 SUMMARY

In short, this chapter has provided the research design and methodology involved in the thesis It has presented the participants’ background information, data-gathering instruments of the research, research procedure, and methods

The next chapter will present how the researher answered the research questions and provide the product of the researcher’s analytic process