Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS an investigation into students’ willingness to communicate english in speaking lessons of first year students at an institute of education management in vietnam

DECLARATION I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “An investigation into students‟ willingness to speak English in speaking lessons of first-year students at an Institute of Educati

NGUYỄN THỊ HOAN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS’ WILLINGNESS TO SPEAK ENGLISH IN SPEAKING LESSONS OF FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT

AN INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION MANAGEMENT IN VIETNAM

(Nghiên cứu sự sẵn sàng trong các giờ học nói tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm thứ nhất tại một Học viện Quản lí Giáo dục – Việt Nam)

M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 814023101

HA NOI – 2019

NGUYỄN THỊ HOAN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS’ WILLINGNESS TO SPEAK ENGLISH IN SPEAKING LESSONS OF FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT

AN INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION MANAGEMENT IN VIETNAM

(Nghiên cứu sự sẵn sàng trong các giờ học nói tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm thứ nhất tại một Học viện Quản lí Giáo dục – Việt Nam)

M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 814023101

Supervisor: Dr Dương Thu Mai

HA NOI – 2019

DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “An investigation into

students‟ willingness to speak English in speaking lessons of first-year students at an Institute of Education Management in Vietnam” is my own

research for the Minor Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, VNU – Hanoi The thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library can be accessible for the purposes of study

Hanoi, 2019

Nguyen Thi Hoan

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Dr

Duong Thu Mai for the invaluable support, guidance, and timely encouragement she gave me while I was doing this research I am truly grateful to her for her advice and suggestions right from the beginning when this study was only in its formative stage

My special thanks also go to teachers of English and students of National Institute of Education Management for their participation to the study as the subjects of the study Without them, this project could not have been so successful

I am particularly grateful to my close friends for their helping me with valuable reference documents and data for my research

Last but not least, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my family who have constantly inspired and encouraged me to complete this research

ABSTRACT

This study is an attempt to investigate to the current willingness to communicate (WTC) in English of freshmen at a university in Vietnam

This cross-sectional survey research primarily focuses on students‟ level

of WTC and factors affecting WTC in the classroom by means of a questionnaire survey and a semi-structured interview In order to accomplish this thesis, a mixed method design was employed in order to explore the construct of WTC

The results revealed that students‟ willingness to communicate was nearly “sometimes willing to communicate”, mean is 1.9 in the four-value scale The factors to encourage and discourage their willingness to communicate range from social setting, self-perceived communicative competence, motivation, personality, teacher‟s role to language anxiety

The results of the study contribute to an understanding of WTC in the higher education context in Vietnam

Keywords: Willingness to communicate, social setting, communicative

competence, motivation, communicative competence

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF FIGURES vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Statements of the problem and the rationale of the study 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Objectives of the study 2

1.4 Significance of the study 2

1.5 Scope of the study 3

1.6 Methods of the study 3

1.7 Design of the thesis 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Willingness to communicate 5

2.2 Factors Influencing WTC 9

2.3 Previous Studies into Willingness to Communicate 12

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 18

3.1 The Context 18

3.2 Research Design 19

3.3 Participants 20

3.4 Instrumentations 20

3.4.1 Questionnaires 20

3.4.2 Interviews 21

3.5 Data collection procedures 23

3.6 Data analysis procedures 23

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 25

4.1 Results of the research question 1 25

4.2 Results of the research question 2 29

4.2.1 Social settings 29

4.2.2 Self-perceived communicative competence 30

4.2.3 Motivation 31

4.2.4 Personality 32

4.2.5 Teacher‟s role 33

4.2.6 Language anxiety 33

4.2.7 Speaking activities 34

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 36

5.1 Summary of the study 36

5.2 Limitations of the study 37

5.3 Contribution of the research and pedagogical implications 37

5.4 Recommendations for further study 38

REFERENCES 40 APPENDIXES I Appendix 1: I Appendix 2: III Appendix 3: V Appendix 4: VI Appendix 5: VII

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Statements of the problem and the rationale of the study

English used to be studied merely for passing paper exams, which leads

to students‟ major focus on grammar However, the demand of studying English as an international means of communication has been escalating during the last few decades in Vietnam The awareness that studying a foreign language as a means of communication has been raised for the public via many policies of the Ministry of Education and Training As a result, more students have special interest in learning English, particularly speaking skills, when they enter university

In fact, college students in Vietnam, especially freshmen, have some problems in English speaking performance They want to practice speaking but they still encounter big obstacles to raise their voice They maintain some studying habits of focusing on grammar and vocabulary rather than on speaking skills This is why they often find it hard to present their ideas or they feel too shy to speak in front of others

In the field of second or foreign language acquisition, that students feel shy in speaking can be defined as “willingness to speak” Willingness to communicate has been seen as a crucial factor to boost the communicative competence and communication apprehension (MacIntyre, 2007) There have been studies on this theme, however, there are various variables affecting a successful model of willingness to communicate Students‟ level of willingness to communicate may vary and be conditioned by communication variables (Galajda, 2017)

Despite some research into this issue of students‟ willingness to communicate, most of the studies have been conducted in different contexts

In Vietnam, there have been two studies about willingness to communicate in

2012 and 2014 with limitations in research design and data All these

conditions have motivated the researcher to conduct “An investigation into

students‟ willingness to speak English in speaking lessons of first year students at an Institute of Education Management in Vietnam” This present

study hopes to provide an update of the literature, more in-depth data and a close look at this issue from the students‟ perception of WTC

1.2 Aims of the study

The research is designed to investigate the level of the willingness to communicate (WTC) of the first-year students at the National Institute of Education Management (NIEM) First, this research investigates the current levels of WTC in English speaking lessons; its second objective is to find out about factors affecting WTC basing on the results obtained from survey questionnaires and interview Finally, some solutions that encourage students from participating in speaking lessons will be suggested

1.3 Objectives of the study

The objectives can be guided by two research questions as follows:

1 What is the level of willingness to communicate in English of NIEM first-year students?

2 What factors affect their willingness to communicate in English in speaking lessons?

1.4 Significance of the study

Once having been completed, this research would make a useful contribution to the existing literature on the issue of willingness to communicate in Vietnam This study seeks to help language teachers at NIEM

in particular and higher education teachers in Vietnam in general stay aware

of the need for the factors affecting WTC in the local contexts Especially, for

teachers who have the same interest in the topic, this would become a helpful source of references

1.5 Scope of the study

This present research is concerned with the students‟ level of WTC and factors affecting their WTC This study misses out the teacher‟s perceptions and other institutional factors regarding this issue

The study targets at first year students, and in English speaking lessons

They have general knowledge of English but they still have sluggish reactions

to English – speaking environment Furthermore, having just left high schools, they still kept some habits of studying of high school: grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation to pass the national exam which may need time and environment to change

1.6 Methods of the study

This is a cross-sectional survey research There are two instruments to collect the data: questionnaires and interviews Firstly, questionnaires help to collect a considerable amount of information in a short period of time and it can be used with many people in various situations (Foddy, 1994) The interviews were taken place in a natural context and were recorded for later transcriptions (Foddy, 1994)

1.7 Design of the thesis

The thesis includes 3 parts:

Part one, “Introduction” presents the rationale, the objectives, the scope, the tasks, the methods, the significance and the design of the study

Part two, “Development” has three chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature review provides the background of the study, including

definition of key concepts such as willingness to communicate in second language (L2), roles of teachers and students, speaking competence, speaking

in second language learning and teaching and a critical review of contemporary related studies

Chapter 2: Methodology describes the participants and instruments of the

study, as well as the process employed to carry out the research

Chapter 3: Findings and discussion from the collected data are represented and

in connection with the research questions and previous studies

Part three: Conclusion summarizes the main issues discussed in the paper, the limitations of the research, recommendations related to research topic as well

as suggestions for further research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

The simplest format of a literature review is a summary of the relevant literature (Jesson, Matheson, & Lacey, 2011) This format consists of two main sections The first section reviews definition of key terms includes the concept of willingness, communication, willingness to communicate The second section presents WTC in history and some related studies According

to Jesson et al (2011, p 92), “it is not necessary to copy out all the methodological details of each study – you have given a reference so the reader can do that if it is relevant – but what we need to know are the key points and that depends on the framework and focus of your research questions” In so doing, Appendix 5 shows a table of research instruments which links the research questions to research objectives, methods, research tools and to literature review

2.1 Willingness to communicate

This section reviews key concepts in Willingness to Communicate (WTC) and it seeks to provide the overall literature of Willingness to Communicate It first discusses the term willingness and goes on to present communication In WTC, there are four central things we must take into consideration (Galajda, 2017): the situation of communication; who we communicate with (interpersonal communication); how much we can communicate (communicative competence); and the chances that we communicate (opportunities to communicate)

Oxford Learner Dictionary (Hornby, 2015, p 1764) defines

“willingness” as the quality or state of being prepared to do something or

emphasizes readiness to act or the quality of being happy and ready to do something For example, success in studying depends on a willingness to

learn It is also believed to be a communicative behavior to contribute to interaction as well as to speak and write in the classroom (Mystkowska-Wiertelak & Pawlak, 2017)

“The word communication has quite a different root meaning” (Barker,

2010, p 1) but there is an assumption that “communication is about moving something: about conveying, or sending, or delivering some commodity called „information‟” (Barker, 2010, p 1) First and foremost, Take communication in English as an example Speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode (Lazaraton, 2001) It is not simply pronouncing words but it includes many other skills In order to make listeners understand what is being said, speaker should follow certain rules in terms of content and pronunciation Firstly, in terms of pronunciation, speakers have to pronounce clearly, use stress, rhythm and intonation patterns Secondly, to make meaningful utterance, appropriate vocabulary, word orders and word forms should be paid attention to In addition, the idea of speaking should be comprehensible thanks to the close relationship of main idea and supporting ones (Peck, 2001)

The notion of Willingness to Communicate itself was originally

investigated in a study from the perspective of communication in the first language (L1) (Burgoon, 1976), MacIntyre, Clement, Dornyei, and Noels (1998) were coined for its first introduction and application of the WTC concept into L2 communication They view WTC as the “readiness to enter into discourse at a particular time with a specific person or persons, using a L2” (MacIntyre et al., 1998, p 547)

Willingness to communicate can be understood as the probability of

engaging in communication when the students are free to choose to do so In simple words, WTC just means an individual‟s intention to the behaviors of communication

Willing to Communicate was first used to measure the speaker‟s

tendency to approach or avoid starting communication because it was defined

as an individual‟s general personality orientation towards talking according to McCroskey and Richmond (1987) McCroskey and Richmond (1990) latter

communication apprehension, and cultural diversity as antecedents that lead

to differences in L1 WTC To further specify the conceptualization of WTC, Levine and McCroskey (1990) restated and defined that the WTC trait is an individual‟s predisposition to initiate communication with others Therefore, WTC was initially treated as a personality-based or trait-like predisposition which showed stable individual differences over time and across varied situations

The situation of communication is also crucial; speaker have to take

credit of the relationship with listeners It is in this sense, the personal needs are taken into account Every time people communicate with each other, they need

to realize their aims and needs (Galajda, 2017) Personal goals can be the drive

of self-presentation, therefore, when people communicate, they need to have a shared feelings, norms, respect or the desire to keep the relationship going Thus, interpersonal communication is formed and “serves as an instrument to manipulate others and accomplish personal goals” (Galajda, 2017, p 2)

Interpersonal communication is defined as “communication between and

among members of a task group who meet for a common purpose or goal” (West

& Turner, 2011, p 5 as cited in Galajda, 2017, p2) In this sense, to have a successful communication in a group, group members should have common goals, and the language used in the group, or in a narrower sense, in the classroom should represent the society A variety of communicative activities are needed at this point of time to bond the group members together and to help

them realize their personal goals by sharing meaning with the others in the group and searching for common ground (Galajda, 2017) At this point, in order to understand the whole communication process, one need to consider all non-verbal signals beside verbal ones In the context of a classroom, non-verbal communication even plays a more vital role when it is used for dealing with situations in which verbal communication is hesitated

Communicative competence (CC) is a difficult concept to define From

an unambitious definition, CC can come close to the construct of an effective communication (McCroskey & Richmond, 1990) From the historical point of view, Hymes (1972) discusses the notion of “an ideal speaker-listener with perfect linguistic knowledge” (Chomsky, 1965, 2014) as not the nature of CC

He defines CC as practical needs and natural communication or the ability for performance (Hymes, 1972) From a more modern perspective, Rodriques (2000, as cited in Galajda, 2017) looks at language proficiency as both competence and performance since it is the actual realization of the competence

Opportunities to communicate in the classroom has become a central

part of communicative language teaching (CLT) and it is a core principle in the post method era, as well as contemporary approaches to instructed language learning (Ellis, 2014) Even when there are opportunities for meaningful oral practice in the teaching material, most teachers have experienced their careful lesson preparations with not much fruitfulness for their students and there seem to have willingness to engage in the speaking activities in an English classroom context This may find the explanations in various underlying reasons such as speaking anxiety (Jackson, 2002; Liu &

Jackson, 2008; Roach, 2009), the time assigned to in-class communicative activities (MacIntyre, Burns, & Jessome, 2011), class size (Sun, 2012), out-of-class language learning opportunities (Lai, Zhu, & Gong, 2015) or a lack

of learning community (Reid & Trofimovich, 2018), the students‟ neglect in research on computer-mediated foreign language learning (Buckingham &

Alpaslan, 2017); student‟s motivation (Hashimoto, 2002; Joe, Hiver, & Hoorie, 2017; Yoko, 2016) and so on

Al-In conclusion, this section helps to form the theoretical framework for the present studies and it also present an awareness on four important conditions of WTC

2.2 Factors Influencing WTC

This section reviews the factors affecting Willingness to Communicate

in English These factors are not all but they are the most relevant and crucial

to WTC (MacIntyre et al., 1998)

Noticeably, there are various researchers who have investigated the

teacher’s roles on WTC (Frymier, 2009; Gol, Zand-Moghadam, & Karrabi,

2014; Joe et al., 2017; Khodarahmia & Nia, 2014; Kuutila, 2014; Sari, 2016;

Skinner & Belmont, 1993) The role of a teacher as an interlocutor in the process of facilitating a group is crucial and a teacher who wants to become successful in this process should be well-aware of the different leadership styles (Galajda, 2017) What a teacher say or do can have an intermediate influence on students‟ WTC (Frymier, 2009)

Besides, self-perceived communicative competence is believed to be

another crucial factor in the way students behave as a self-reported trait-based construct Donovan and MacIntyre (2005) focused on self-perceived communicative competence of junior high school and university students and concluded that university females have more negative perception while the males self-perceived CC as a good predictor to WTC Dilbeck, McCroskey,

communication competence in relation with WTC and concluded that people

with high self-perceived CC are more likely to be willing to communicate

While, Covin, Donovan, and MacIntyre (2003) looked into the relationship between self-esteem and performance and concluded that student‟s perception

of one‟s self-esteem might have a strong influence on WTC

Language anxiety, in WTC as a third factor, may well lead to both

personal and social issues, especially in the context of second or foreign language education The relationship between language anxiety and WTC has also been of interest to many scholars (Gregersen, Meza, & MacIntyre, 2014; Jackson, 2002; Liu & Jackson, 2008; MacIntyre, 1995; MacIntyre, Baker, Clement, & Donovan, 2003; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1989; Roach, 2009) Communication apprehension (CA), the term itself is a part of language anxiety, was coined by McCrosky (1970) and this has been a crucial interest to scholars, which is the level of anxiety triggered by the real

or anticipated communication act This issue has been investigated in correlation with WTC by a number of scholars (Burgoon, 1976; Donovan &

MacIntyre, 2005; Levine & McCroskey, 1990; Sallinen-Kuparinen, McCroskey, & Richmond, 1991)

The fourth factor affecting WTC is social setting of a classroom,

various interaction processes take place, which decide the interpersonal relationship of the group (Clement, Baker, & MacIntyre, 2003) The central aims of group dynamics are to maintain positive classroom climate, disciplines and norms, which has a strong influence on WTC (Ark, 1981; Cao

& Philp, 2006; Clement et al., 2003; Clement, Dornyei, & Noels, 1994 ; Dornyei & Kormos, 2000; Khodarahmia & Nia, 2014)

Personality, the fifth factor, is seen essentially as a trait because WTC

reflects that stable conditions that makes someone likely to talk in various situations (MacIntyre et al., 1998) Personality is also „the basis or platform

on which the rest of the influences operate, the foundation on which the pyramid is built‟ (MacIntyre et al., 1998, p 546) In a more recent study, Zeng (2010) explored factors influencing WTC and he concluded that the familiarity with the environment, the effect of the relaxing classroom, teacher support, personality, self-confidence, fear of making mistakes and being embarrassed or having bad impressions were top factors In a most recent work into WTC, Reid and Trofimovich (2018) found out that the extent of communicative interactions, and various speaker personality variables such as shyness, nervousness or extraversion resulting in varying levels of L2 WTC MacIntyre et al (1998, p 548) conclude that “at the center of our model of Willingness to Communicate is an individual who has some control over his or her actions and is behaving in a reasoned manner to achieve his or her goals.”

Motivation, the sixth factor, has its root in the amount of interest in

establishing a relationship with the other speakers or with the interlocutor (MacIntyre et at., 1998) In a another study, Liu and Park (2012) found out that the motivation of students for English language learning is the key in WTC and there is a path between motivation and WTC It is also the desire to communicate with a person in the classroom Motivation can be understood as

if a teacher asks his or her students a question, several students may raise their hands to show their desire to answer the question Even if only one student among many has the opportunity to answer the question in L2, all of the students raising their hands can be considered as expressing L2 WTC and regarded as a communicative behavior in the L2 (MacIntyre et al., 1998)

In conclusion, this section recognizes six crucial factors affecting WTC and we will take these factors for granted that they will occur in WTC and it becomes the goals of our research

2.3 Previous Studies into Willingness to Communicate

The section reviews the previous studies into WTC, in which various aspects of previous research are described such as methods, research designs

or approaches and their findings Then, it focuses on previous studies in Asian context so that we can have a clear picture of WTC in the local context

In the past decade, a number of studies into L2 WTC have been carried out in order to explore the relationships between L2 WTC and various variables, such as personality, self-confidence, attitudes, and motivation (Lialikhova, 2018; MacIntyre & Charos, 1996) Among a number of individual variables, self-confidence has been frequently, by many researchers found to be the most immediate antecedent of L2 WTC (Clement et al., 2003;

MacIntyre & Charos, 1996) A number of factors have also been identified as directly or indirectly a predictive of WTC, including personality (Cetinkaya, 2005; Lim, 1994; MacIntyre & Charos, 1996; McCroskey & Richmond, 1987), gender and age, and social support and learning contexts (Asmali, 2016; Bergil, 2016; Clement et al., 2003; MacIntyre et al., 2003) Some other factors such as security, excitement, responsibility, and classroom environment have also been discovered to have an influence on WTC (Joe et al., 2017; Kang, 2005; Khodarahmia & Nia, 2014)

Besides, there have been several studies that still based on the literature

of the MacIntyre et al.‟s (1998) model but uncovered additional significant variables not included in the MacIntyre‟s heuristic model Compton (2007) qualitatively examined how content and context affects the WTC of the international teaching assistants at U.S universities, and their participation in the classroom The study partially supported MacIntyre et al.‟s (1998) model

in their claim that perceived confidence increases WTC in L2 However, depth exploration of the results found that international posture and cultural

in-factors were identified as important content variables influencing the participant‟s WTC In a study of L2 learners‟ own perceptions of factors contributing to WTC, House (2004) suggests other factors such as perceived politeness, the role of physical locality, the presence of the opposite sex, mood and the topic under discussion were also found to be minor influences affecting WTC in different contexts

Most recently, scholars have continued to investigated WTC from different perspectives and different variables (Buckingham & Alpaslan, 2017; Galajda, 2017; Joe et al., 2017; Lialikhova, 2018; MacIntyre, Gregersen, & Mercer, 2019; Reid & Trofimovich, 2018; Zhang, Beckmann,

& Beckmann, 2018) Joe et al (2017) investigate classroom social climate, self-determined motivation, WTC and achievement in the structural relationship with instructed second language learning in a school setting in Korea The study sought to test the hypothesis of WTC to motivation and classroom social climate

Figure 1: The hypothesized mode (Joe et al., 2017, p 136)

The results show that the classroom social climate would exert an effect

on the satisfaction of learners‟ basic needs, and influence the development of the intrinsic forms of motivation, which would boost higher levels of WTC and achievement

In a true experimental study in 2017 in a Turkish context, Buckingham and Alpaslan (2017) investigated whether the provision of out-of-class speaking practice could contribute to improving speaking proficiency and have positive impact on WTC The study shows that the integration of out-of-class activities is “potentially particularly useful in contexts where parents lack sufficient English skills to support children with their English-language homework tasks” (Buckingham & Alpaslan, 2017, p 25)

WTC Studies in Asian Context

In most Asia countries, a foreign language is learned in a place where that language is not typically used as a means of daily communication because foreign language learners are surrounded by their own native language, and they receive stimulation in the target language only within the language classroom (Baker & MacIntyre, 2003) Therefore, a great deal of research on WTC in the foreign language context focused on the English language In the past few years, research on English WTC has become particularly productive in East Asia

Kim (2004) applied the MacIntyre et al.‟s (1998) model to the Korean context The findings of this research proved the reliability of the MacIntyre

et al.‟s model in the Korean context Thus, Kim suggested WTC is more likely to be a trait-like, rather than a situational variable He also indicated that Korean students‟ low WTC in English probably explains why they are not so successful in English learning In contrast, Kang‟s (2005) study adopted a qualitative approach in order to examine how situational L2 WTC could dynamically emerge and fluctuate during a conversation situation

between non-native speaking learners and native speaking tutors In this study, L2 WTC was described as a dynamic situational concept rather than a trait-like predisposition

In a Chinese EFL context, Wen and Clement (2003) examined Chinese indigenous cultural influence on learners‟ WTC According to Wen and Clement (2003), Chinese Confucian heritage with elements such as other-directed self, face concerns, and a submissive way of learning is the driving force shaping Chinese students‟ perceptions and learning behaviors in class

In addition, Peng (2014) identified eight factors that influence WTC:

communication competence, language anxiety, risk-taking, and learners‟

beliefs, classroom climate, group cohesiveness, teacher support, and classroom organization Asker (1998) compared the WTC of Hong Kong students with students from western countries and discovered that the WTC is lower in the former than in their western counterparts

The study on WTC in English as a foreign language in the Japanese context was conducted by Yashima (2002) The study investigated variables underlying the WTC using MacIntyre‟s (1998) model and Gardner‟s socio-educational model She discovered that WTC is directly and indirectly influenced by an attitude related construct called “international posture”

International posture was also an important predictor of WTC in EFL in Matsuoka‟s (2005) study, together with other factors, including motivation,

extroversion/introversion Hashimoto (2002) conducted a study with Japanese ESL students to investigate the effects of WTC and motivation on actual L2 use Matsubara (2005) investigated WTC and L2 motivation in relation to classroom group dynamics, and revealed that student-centered approach and intergroup approach tendency had significant influences on WTC in EFL

From the studies about L2 WTC carried out in different contexts, it can

be seen that rapid progress in WTC conceptualization and its measurement have been made, and many influencing factors such as self-confidence, international posture, personality, gender and age have been identified through empirical researches Studies on WTC in an EFL context have also been carried out in a number of countries, including Japan, Korea, China and Thailand (Dilbeck et al., 2009; Hashimoto, 2002; Kim, 2004; Liu & Jackson, 2008; Peng, 2014; Wen & Clement, 2003; Yashima, 2002)

In a more recent study in the context of New Zealand, Vongsila and Reinders (2016a) concluded that there were ten factors affecting WTC in their context: group size, cultural backgrounds, self-perceived speaking ability, class atmosphere, selection of task type, reducing shyness, self-confidence, familiarity with the interlocutor, reducing anxiety, and topic familiarity

In Vietnam, this concept of WTC has become an academic interest to a number of researches since 2012 (Anh, 2012; Bùi & Dương, 2017; Hương, 2014) Bùi and Dương (2017) conducted a study into WTC in the context of a university in the south of Vietnam The data were from questionnaires, students‟ diaries, teacher‟s diaries and an interview of the students The study shows that students experienced a number of factors affecting WTC such as language proficiency, inferiority, fixed setting, limited partners and an uninteresting forum In the north of Vietnam, Anh (2012) and Hương (2014) investigated into WTC at higher education level Anh (2012) looked into student‟s perception of WTC, she gathered the data from student interviews and diaries and she concluded that in-group peer influence, topics of discussion, knowledge and communicative proficiency as well as teacher‟s support played an important role in affecting WTC

Hương (2014) conducted a study into factors affecting students‟ WTC using the data from questionnaires and interviews and she found out that self-confidence, language attitude, self-perceived L2 proficiency, motivation and personality were the main factors affecting WTC

In conclusion, this study is based on MacIntyre and his associates‟

notion of Willingness to Communicate, which is the theoretical background for the first research question into the level of WTC Besides, this critical review shows crucial factors affecting WTC, which becomes the backbones for the research questions 2 (See Appendix 4 for the links between the literature review and the research questions)

In this chapter, willingness to communicate has been recognized as of critical importance and interests to scholars around the world However, this present study seek to contribute an update of WTC in the local context and raise the awareness of WTC among language teachers, especially teachers at higher education where they may need to focus their students to a more communicative approach so that their students can work and meet the demand

of the dynamic development and integration of Vietnamese economy

The present study also seek to fill the gap of data In this present project, the data are both qualitative and quantitative which prove to overcome the weaknesses of the previous studies

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter was designed in detail the methodology applied in conducting this research, including research methods, research design, the selection of subjects, the data collection instruments as well as the procedures

of data collection and analysis

3.1 The Context

This study took place in December, 2018 at the beginning of the new academic year At this time, rapport and positive relations between the students, the teachers and the researcher began to build over time, the subjects and the researcher did not know each other well, the general classroom climate was tense since the relations between students were strained, all of which was a good chance for the researcher to capture the classroom dynamics and the researched variables

The high school students in Vietnam have few opportunities to speak English in the classroom as there is almost no chance to contact with foreigners or a person with a willingness to communicate in English Besides, the national entrance exam in Vietnam is only to test lexical-grammar, reading and some writings However, guided by the National Language Project 2020, one present goal of Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training

is to develop an all-round ability to use English, that is to develop their skills

in listening, speaking, reading and writing (Nhân, 2008) We would like to see the current state level of WTC when they are still freshmen

MacIntyre et al (1998) indicate, the aim of language teaching should ultimately be to foster learners‟ willingness to engage in communication and their willingness to talk in order to learn Therefore, communicative interaction is increasingly justifying its place in the Vietnamese classroom

There are various types of group work and pair work in classroom management Teachers are encouraged to boost students‟ communicative competence The target population at NIEM, therefore, is appropriate for the goal of this study

perception towards WTC A qualitative approach focuses on the structured interview to gather in-depth data to elaborate responses in a more detailed manner Gregersen et al (2014, p 574) emphasize “the strong relationship observed among the various converging data sources demonstrates the strength of considering language learners on an individual level using triangulated quantitative and qualitative approaches.”

semi-This present study employed a mixed method approach and according

to Boswell and Cannon (2011), this present study achieves three types of triangulation: (1) theory triangulation, as the analysis and discussion of the findings are tested by various previous studies; (2) the use of different data sources (Questionnaires and Interviews); (3) methodological triangulation, as both qualitative and quantitative are employed to collect the data

Specifically, this research was conducted in three main steps Firstly, a critical review of the literature and previous studies was carefully analyzed to update the local literature and explain the goals of the study Secondly, a discussion

of the method, the data and the analytical framework were conducted to produce the research instruments – the questionnaires and interview

questions Finally, data were collected and the analysis processes were carried

out and discussed in relation to the research questions

3.3 Participants

The study was carried out with the population of all 115 non-majored first-year students at NIEM for questionnaires and 6 students for interviews because in the study, we conducted a semi-structured interview which seek

to have deep understanding of the research problem They were in three classes and they had one three-hour English session a week in the curriculum All of them studied English as a secondary school subject for

at least 3 years and all of them spoke Vietnamese as their first language

3.4 Instrumentations

3.4.1 Questionnaires

Survey questionnaires were employed as the main instrument to gather the current situation of students‟ willingness to communicate Using survey questionnaires enabled the researcher to collect a large amount of information without consuming time The questionnaires give students more time to consider carefully their opinion; therefore, their answer can be more precise

In this research, the questionnaire targeted at students consists of 25 items (See Appendix 1) It was used to answer the first question of the study, that is to measure the participants‟ self-reported WTC and provided and overall picture of students‟ WTC The questionnaire is “A recently developed self-report instrument, known as WTC scale, appears to be a valid operationalization of the construct” (McCroskey & Richmond, 1991, p 21)

This scale was used by Cao and Philp‟s (2006) and Weaver‟s (2005) studies, and was used to measure WTC level and have demonstrated that the questionnaire tool provides a high level of reliability (Asker, 1998) and validity (McCroskey, 1992)

The questionnaire consisted of 25 items related to students‟ willingness

to engage in communicate The 25-item WTC scale was administered with the instructions that asked students to indicate how willing they would be to initiate communication on numerical scale (1-4) in four communication situations (public, meeting, group, or dyad), and with three types of receivers (stranger, acquaintance, or friend)

In order to spread the responses from the participants out (Likert, 1932), the item statements were categorized into positively phrased statements, using a 4-point Likert-type scale (for positive statements, from 1 = never willing to 4 = always) For the better convenience and understanding of the participants, these questionnaires were translated into Vietnamese (See Appendix 2) Students‟ answers were analyzed to identify those students with lowest and highest level of WTC

3.4.2 Interviews

Probability sampling, also known as simple random sampling, is regarded as „the most basic ways of calculating statistics about samples assume that a single random sample was drawn‟ (Floyd & Fowler, 2014, p

18) In this sense, the whole population of 115 participants were labelled from

001 to 115, then a table of random numbers was used to decide six individuals

to include In so doing, each participant had a chance to take part in the interview and the sampling error could be reduced

These interviews were formulated from the purpose of the investigation into six factors, as variables, affecting WTC including teacher‟s role, self-perceived communicative competence, language anxiety, classroom social setting, personality and motivation (See Appendix 5)

These factors were elicited through the semi-structured interviews which “typically reflects variation in its use of questions, prompts, and

accompanying tools and resources to draw the participant more fully into the topic under study” (Galletta, 2013, p 45) Thus, the interviews contained the prompts after each variable to see if the variable was very influential, sometimes influential or not influential at all and the open-ended question why to gather deep data for each variable (See Appendices 3 & 4)

Moreover, these interviews also compensated for the weaknesses of questionnaires Because almost all items in the questionnaires were quantitative, the survey did not allow the researcher to investigate deeply into the research problems

However, there were two problems which may emerge in the interviews (Kvale, 2009, p.814) First, the interviewees might be not familiar with such kind of interviews and somehow, they would feel unwilling to give long and detail responses or find it difficult to express their thoughts Therefore, researchers tried to make the interviewees as comfortable as possible by conducting the interviews in the most convenient place for the students and teachers, beginning with small talk to relax the interviewees, keeping encouraging open-ended questions and using Vietnamese during the interviews (See Appendix 4) Secondly, the interviews were conducted at the end of the research project, so the interviewees found it hard to recall some parts of the study, so every effort was made to increase the reliability of the data by encouraging accurate recalls and giving hints on the conditions of the related problems asked in the interview

The interviews containing open-ended questions were conducted in the form of informal recorded talks Before the interviews, the researcher started with a small talk introducing the topic, explaining key terms The guidance for the semi-structured interviews were presented in the Appendices 3 &4

3.5 Data collection procedures

The data collection procedures consist of the following stages Firstly, the researcher informed the classes of the research – time, place and method, and presented the key concepts in WTC to the students Secondly, at the end

of the research project, the questionnaires were dispersed to the students

Before the students responded to the questionnaires, they had been given sufficient time to read it carefully and afterwards, during the time of questionnaire responding, when any confusion was emerged or any questions were raised, intermediate help and explanations would be available Finally, the interviews were conducted to get in-depth data into the students‟ WTC

3.6 Data analysis procedures

The data from the questionnaires were analyzed, illustrated and systematized into SPSS format and run by SPSS Premium V26

The interview data were examined and analyzed by means of thematic content analysis, which is defined as “a research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from texts (or other meaningful matter) to the contexts of their use” (Krippendorff, 2004, p 36) The analysis process includes open coding, creating categories and abstraction Open coding means that when reading, the researcher took notes and wrote headings in the text

The written data were read through again, and all the headings were written down in the margins to describe all aspects of the content (Burnard, 1991, 1996; Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) The headings were collected from the margins on to coding sheets (Cole, 1988; Dey, 2003), and categories were generated at this stage (Burnard, 1991) When formulating categories, the researcher came to a decision, through interpretation, as to which things to put

in the same categories (Dey, 2003) Finally, the process of data abstraction was employed to find out the factors affecting WTC, Abstraction means

generating a general description of the research topic through categories (Burnard, 1996), and such categories were named and grouped as abstraction (Dey, 2003) In order to validate the reliability of the findings, the analysis was carried out cyclically (Saldaña, 2015)

Figure 2: Cyclical thematic content analysis

These data were audio-taped and then transcribed in order for the analysis process

In the findings chapter, data will be presented in tables Then they would be described by comparing and contrasting to find out the most distinguished features of students‟ reasons for hesitation to communicate in

English and the factors affecting WTC in the Vietnamese context

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

This chapter presents the findings and discussions of the results after being analyzed All the data collected from questionnaires and interviews will

be discussed in detail to support answering two research questions

4.1 Results of the research question 1

What is the level of the students‟ willingness to communicate in

English in speaking lessons at NIEM?

This question examined the extent to which National Institute of Education Management freshmen are willing to communicate in English by means of WTC questionnaire The WTC questionnaire consisted of 25 items, which were scored in such a way that the answer indicating the highest L2 WTC received 4 points, whereas the answer indicating the lowest L2 WTC received 1 point A score of 4 is taken to mean that students are always willing to communicate in English A score of 1 signifies that students are never willing to communicate in English A score of 2 signifies means that students are sometimes willing to communicate in English, while a score of 3 implies that students are usually willing to communicate in English

The general assumption, as described in chapter 2 Literature Review, is that the WTC construct is personality-based (interpersonal communication) and situations of communication Thus, we assume that the level of WTC is correlated with certain types of receivers (like stranger, acquaintance, friend)

The level of WTC in one communication context (such as public) is correlated with the other contexts (such as meeting, group, dyad, and classroom) We also assume that among participants, if participant A is more willing to communicate in a dyad than participant B, then participant B is more willing to communicate than A in a different context The same

assumptions are applied to a participant‟s WCT towards different receivers

Descriptive statistical analyses were performed on the data collected from WTC questionnaires Normative means, standard deviations, significance, and internal reliability estimates for the scores, based on a sample of 115 freshmen, are as follows:

Table 1: Descriptive statistics of each degree of willingness (N=115)

The table above shows that the WTC scale consists of five communication contexts – public speaking, talking in a meeting, talking in a small group, and talking in a dyad – and three types of receiver – stranger, acquaintance, and friend Each scale for context consists of 4 items and each scale for receivers consists of five items (See Appendix 1)

The available data we had on the instrument are acceptable (McCroskey & Richmond, 1987; McCroskey & Richmond, 1991) The internal reliability of the total WTC score is 76 The internal reliability for the subscores for types of contexts range from 63 to 86 The internal reliability for subscores of types of receivers range from 74 to 8.1 The total WTC internal reliability is just acceptable due to different reasons in which

we admit that the total number of participants is one reason

The above correlations and reliabilities suggest that a participant‟s WTC in a context or with a receiver type is related to his/her WTC in other contexts or receiver types However, these findings do not mean that the participants are equally willing to communicate in all contexts and with all types of receivers In fact, the mean differences show us that the contexts participants are willing to communicate in the classroom was 2.4 For dyad was 2.2 and 1.9, 1.7, 1.5 for group, meeting and public contexts respectively

The major mean differences in types of receivers range from 2.2 for friend to 1.6 for stranger and 2.0 for acquaintance in between

From these findings we may first discuss that freshmen at NIEM are willing to communicate more often in the classroom and in dyad and they seem to be less willing to communicate in bigger contexts such as group, meeting or public This may conclude that the NLP2020 has some influences

on the use of English in the classroom and we may find the explanations in Vietnamese culture in which people hesitate to speak in public or lend their voice to group of people Secondly, freshmen at NIEM tend to be more willing to communicate with friends rather than acquaintance or strangers, which is a pattern of Vietnamese culture as well The total WTC mean was 1.9 which suggests that in general freshmen‟s WTC at NIEM was „Nearly sometimes willing‟ to communicate in English This might be explained in terms of Vietnamese culture that is influenced by Asian culture As observed

by Liu and Littlewood (1997), overseas Asian students typically take a low profile, rarely asking questions or volunteering answers, let alone making public observations or criticisms of course content This finding is also similar

to Cortazzi and Jin‟s (1996) research in the context of China, under the influence of Confucian philosophy, the majority of students tend to respect their elders and seniors by looking up to teachers as authority figures and not challenging or interrupting them in public domains

The findings also suggest that the validity of the WTC construct seems

to be high and the scale items clearly represent the WTC Early results have been encouraging in the Asian context (Liu & Jackson, 2008; Peng, 2014;

Vongsila & Reinders, 2016b; Zeng, 2010) Besides, the significance

differences in WTC scale was sig <.001 which suggests a strong association

between the contexts and the types of receivers

This finding is generally consistent with the results of previous research conducted in Asian EFL contexts In a Korean EFL context, Kim (2004) collected data from 191 Korean university students by using survey instruments As a result, he found that Korean students‟ L2 WTC was generally low and he argued that the students‟ low L2 WTC was responsible for their less successful results in achieving English proficiency In a Japanese EFL context, Weaver‟s (2005) study demonstrated that the level of Japanese college students‟ WTC was at the levels of moving from “probably not willing” to “probably willing” In a Chinese EFL context, Asker (1998) indicated that compared to their Western counterparts, Hong Kong students exhibit a lower level of L2 WTC

Although these studies used different instruments, they achieved similar results, that is, the students‟ levels of L2 WTC were generally low Further analysis reveals that all these studies share the same learning context and similar culture, that is, an EFL context in Asian culture In foreign language settings, L2 learners learn the L2 primarily in the classroom They may have access to authentic materials in the classroom, but they have little opportunity to communicate with native speakers That is to say, L2 plays only a minor role in their daily communication In terms of culture, in recent EFL literature, Asian English learners have been normally described as reserved and quiet in class by researchers They are reluctant to participate in classroom activities; they hardly