How to improve the teaching and learning of spoken english to preintermediate english learners at afu foreign language centre

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES HOW TO IMPROVE THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF SPOKEN ENGLISH TO PRE-INTERMEDIATE ENGLISH LEAR

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

HOW TO IMPROVE THE TEACHING AND

LEARNING OF SPOKEN ENGLISH TO

PRE-INTERMEDIATE ENGLISH LEARNERS AT

AFU FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTRE

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL)

Supervisor : ĐẶNG THỊ HƯỞNG, EdD Student : VÕ THỊ PHƯƠNG OANH

Ho Chi Minh, 2005

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that this thesis entitled “How to improve the teaching and learning

of spoken English to pre-intermediate English learners at AFU foreign language centre” is my own work

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institution

Ho Chi Minh City, September 10, 2005

Vo Thi Phuong Oanh

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would first like to express my deep gratitude to my thesis supervisor,

Dr Dang Thi Huong, who provided valuable comments and support in the preparation and completion of this thesis Without her encouragement and constant guidance, I could not have finished it She was always there to meet and talk about my ideas, and to ask me good questions to help me think through my problems

I am greatly indebted to all my teachers for their dedication and helpful instruction during the course

I would take this opportunity to send my special thanks to all those who helped in the study, in particular, Ms Do Chau Cuc Phuong, Ms Vo Thi

Nu Anh, Ms Le Thi Ngan Vang and Mr Le Hoang Dung for their help with the data collection for the study; all the learners participating in the study for their cooperation; and all my colleagues and my friends for their unfailing support, friendship and enjoyable company

Last, but not least, thanks go to my family; to my parents who continue

to give of themselves so that their children will prosper; to my brother and sister for their love, understanding and support

ii

ABSTRACT

This thesis aims 1) to investigate the EFL speaking problems and activities of the pre-intermediate learners at one of the foreign language centres, Agriculture and Forestry University in Ho Chi Minh City; 2) to examine factors affecting their communicative competence in the target language; and 3) to suggest a way in which speaking may be more effectively taught and learnt Both quantitive and qualitive research methods were employed in this study 114 questionnaires were delivered to the learners at one of the foreign language centres to get their ideas about learning spoken English Interviews were also conducted with eight teachers working at AFU foreign language centre so that their experiences as well as recommendations

in conducting oral English class can be obtained to improve the learners’ English speaking ability The results of the study revealed that (1) the learners’ previous language learning experience and affective factors such as anxiety, shyness, self-esteem; their fear of making mistakes; and their shortage of vocabulary prevent them from taking part in speaking activities in the classroom; (2) the learners lack learning environment to practise spoken English, and (3) the learners are still unfamiliar with communication skills or strategies in the target language The study also emphasizes the importance of communicative approach in teaching speaking skill

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page Certificate of originality i

1.1 Background to the study 1

1.2 The aims of the study 4

1.3 Overview of the study 5

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 The role of speaking in the four language skills 6

2.2 The differences between spoken language and written language10

2.5 Teaching methods often used in Vietnam 28

2.4.1 The Grammar-translation method 28

2.4.2 The Communicative Approach 29

2.6 The roles of teachers and learners 30

4.1.1 Learners’ responses to the questionnaire 45

4.1.2 Teachers’ responses to interviews 56

APPENDIX 2 Interview with Vietnamese teachers of English at

AFU foreign language centers 84

v

LIST OF TABLES

Page 2.1: Classification of Communication Strategies 19

3.1: Summary of the questionnaire informants’ characteristics 38

3.2: Summary of the interview informants’ characteristics 39

4.1: Learners’ frequency of practising English skills in classroom 46

4.2: Learners’ frequency of practising spoken English outside classroom48

4.3: Learners’ difficulties in English-speaking class 50

4.4: Learners’ difficulties in speaking with foreigners 51

4.5: Learners’ obstacles in managing conversations with foreigners 52

4.6: Learners’ favourite classroom activities 55

vi

LIST OF FIGURES

Page 4.1: Learners’ enjoyment of English speaking 46

4.2: Learners’ feeling about English speaking 49

4.3: Learners’ favourite group activities 54

vii

ABBREVIATIONS

CUP: Cambridge University Press

OUP: Oxford University Press

EFL: English as a Second Language

AFU: Agriculture and Forestry University

L2: Second Language

CSs: Communication Strategies

TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

Viii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This study investigates the speaking problems and activities of Vietnamese learners of English at one of the foreign language centres at Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU), Ho Chi Minh City and examines factors influencing their communicative competence It is hoped that the findings will help to improve the learners’ speaking ability in the target language This chapter presents the background to the study, the aims and the overview of the thesis

1.1 Background to the study

Vietnamese economy system has changed dramatically after the door” policy was implemented in 1986 These changes have not only invited many foreign investors and visitors to Vietnam but also provided Vietnamese with opportunities to go abroad As a result, the number of Vietnamese who needs English for employment, education, and especially for international communication has sharply increased That’s why in recent years, English has been taught not only in schools, universities, but also in most foreign language centres “English has undergone explosive growth, hundreds of language centres have been established all over the country with an overwhelming majority of Vietnamese learners studying English” (Nguyen Ngoc Quang, cited in

“open-Do Huy Thinh, 1996: 4)

Along with the changes in the consideration of English, the needs and requirements of Vietnamese learners when learning English have changed In the past, they wanted to be good at grammar, to acquire as much vocabulary as possible so that they could read, understand and even write written documents in English Nowadays, because of getting more opportunities for direct interaction with foreigners, they need English for daily communication more than before At present, Vietnamese learners really want to improve their English speaking ability

In almost all cases English speaking environment for EFL learners in Vietnam now is classroom There is almost no place better than the classroom where the learners can practise spoken language Dang Thi Huong (2000) shows that even learners majoring in English at the University of Social Sciences & Humanities, Ho Chi Minh City used 80% English and 20% Vietnamese inside the classroom while they were likely to use only 20% or 30% English and 80% or 70% Vietnamese outside the classroom The problem is more serious when speaking classes at foreign language centres in Ho Chi Minh City are usually big ones, with the total number of learners about 50 or more

AFU foreign language centre is regarded as one of the popular foreign language centres in Ho Chi Minh City, which mainly prepares learners for the TOEFL It usually offers basic courses in five areas: speaking, listening, reading, writing and grammar Besides the four main language

skills which are often taught in other foreign language centres, grammar

is added because of the requirement of the TOEFL These courses are conducted at different levels (labeled as 100A & B, 200A & B, 300A &

B, 400A & B, 500A & B, and 600) which we consider elementary (100A

& B), intermediate (200A & B), intermediate (300A & B), advanced (400A & B), and advanced (500A & B, 600) Each course lasts

pre-12 weeks, including 108 periods Learners usually take a placement test before learning at the centre, which may help to confirm that the learners’ English competence in each class, to some extent, is even

The school facilities of AFU foreign language centre doesn’t contribute

to an ideal environment for practising spoken English Although the classrooms are large, spacious, bright and equipped with cassette players, the fixed tables and chairs in the classrooms prevent learners from mingling and engaging group discussion, thus limiting their oral interaction

Most of the pre-intermdiate learners at the centre are aging from 20 to

39, two thirds of whom are female They all have studied English for at least one year Their speaking lesson at AFU foreign language centre consists of three periods a week, about 25 % of the total amount of learning time In this study I chose the pre-intermediate learners as my target group because after teaching English at the centre for nearly three years, I notice that a great number of the learners of this level have problems in speaking English and there are accordingly quite a lot

of errors in their oral communication in the target language I am aware that their speaking problems stem from their poor communicative competence including grammatical competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence They usually undergo communication breakdowns because of missing grammar, missing vocabulary, or having pronunciation problems; they don’t know why and when to use formal, informal or neutral styles; they find it difficult in opening, closing or maintaining a conversation; and they lack the abilities of managing a conversation, etc This is a puffling question for EFL teachers What should we do to help our learners? I think it is necessary to examine the factors affecting learners’ oral communication, components underlying speaking proficiency, and specific skills or strategies used in communication in order to provide effective guidance

in developing competent Vietnamese speakers of English While a lot of researches study the speaking abilities of the English-majors, the problem of non-English majors who really want to improve their English speaking proficiency is not paid enough attention So it is hoped that this thesis will bring about benefits to both teachers and learners in their teaching and learning English as an important subject

1.2 The aims of the study

The aims of this study are:

1 to investigate the pre-intermediates’ problems in studying spoken English at one of the foreign language centres, Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU), Ho Chi Minh City;

2 to examine factors influencing the AFU learners’ communicative competence; and

3 to give recommendations to improve the teaching and learning of the speaking skill at foreign language centres at AFU

1.3 Overview of the study

This study consists of five chapters Chapter One is the introduction providing background information to the study Chapter Two presents the literature review to the study which consists of theoretical background and related studies Chapter Three mentions the methodology employed including research questions, research design, characteristics of the subjects, instruments and implementation of the study Chapter Four reports the results of the study and discussion of the findings Chapter Five presents suggestions to the improvement of teaching and learning of spoken English and the teaching materials used

at the foreign language centre of Agriculture and Forestry University

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

In Chapter One, the background information to the study has been presented This chapter reviews prominent studies to support the study, with the following main areas: (1) the role of speaking in the four language skills, (2) the differences between spoken language and written language (3) communicative competence, (4) the factors influencing learner’s communication, (5) the teaching methods often used in Vietnam, (6) the roles of teachers and learners and (7) teaching materials

2.1 The role of speaking in the four language skills

Speaking is in many ways an undervalued skill (Bygate, 1997: vii) Perhaps this is because we can almost all speak, and so take the skill too much for granted The role of speaking or oral output in second language acquisition is also de-emphasized Krashen (cited in Mc Laughlin, 1991: 50) argues that speaking is unnecessary for acquiring a second language, since in fact someone who is not able to speak for physical reasons can still acquire the full ability to understand language

However, Swain (1985) and other researchers such as Brown (1994), Ur (1996), Byrne (1991), Bygate (1997), and Brumfit et al (1980), etc provide evidences to prove the important role of speaking skill, not only

in society but also in the four language skills Bygate (1997: viii) states that in society speaking is the skill by which people are most frequently

judged and through which they make or lose friends It is the vehicle par

excellente of social solidarity, of social ranking, of professional

advancement and of business Brown and Levinson (cited in Hudson, 1991: 115) show their agreement on the importance of speech as one of the ways in which one presents a personal image for others to evaluate, both through what one says and the way one says it In Berkeley survey (cited in Huckin and Olsen, 1994: 4) asking about the effect of good oral communication, 60% of the respondents said that speaking skills had aided their career advancement

In second or foreign language learning, speaking skill and other language skills are intricately intertwined Ability in writing, reading and listening correlates significantly with development in speaking and vice versa, good oral communication seems to enable learners to write, read and listen better in the target language The relation of these four language skills first of all is illustrated by Byrne’s diagram (1991:8) as below:

Spoken language

Receptive Listening / understandin Speaking Productive

Written language

(cited in Bryne, 1991: 8)

Also, Brown (1994: 219) describes production and reception as two sides

of the same coins, one can not split the coin in two She adds that written and spoken language often (but not always) bear a relationship to each other and that one skill will reinforce another We learn to speak in part

by modeling what we hear, and we learn to write by examining what we can read

Meanwhile, Rivers and Temperley (1978: 6) point out the correlation between speaking skill and other language skills According to them, the ability to speak the language derives from the systematic study of grammar, phonology and lexicon They assume that accuracy in expressing oneself orally dependent on prior study of language forms through reading and written exercises Similarly, listening has an important impact on learners’ speaking ability Brumfit et al (1980: 65) argue that “it is impossible to expect a student to produce a sound which does not exist in his mother tongue or a natural sentence using the stress, rhythms and intonation of a native speaker of the foreign language without first of all providing him with a model of the form he is to produce It is not possible to produce satisfactorily what one has not heard” Therefore, it can be said that reading, writing and listening will contribute to achieve the improvement in oral fluency and accuracy

On the other hand, speaking or comprehensible output has a decisive impact on learners’ language learning Swain (cited in Ellis, 2003: 49) suggests a number of specific ways in which learners can learn from

their own output Output can serve to help learners to notice their language knowledge gaps That is, by trying to speak in the target language, they can realize what they lack in their communication Second, output provides learners with opportunities to experiment with language forms and structures And third, learners can obtain feedback from others about their language use

Long and Porter (cited in Mc Laughlin, 1991: 50) provide evidence for the usefulness of speaking or conversation between non-native speakers Long and Porter find out that speaking can increase the communicative abilities of the learners in group and motivate learners to study

In addition, speaking exercises seem very relevant and necessary, not only in speaking classes but also in classes teaching other language skills When mentioning techniques used in training writing, reading or listening skills, Brumfit et al (1980) explicate that preceding oral discussion in the classroom is always needed to achieve the success in other skills

Also, Rivers and Temperley (1978: 3) claim that “… being able to understand a language but not speak it can have specialized utility (for the employment of foreign language films, broadcasts, plays and songs,

or for professional monitoring purposes) but is very frustrating in normal communication situations”

In a word, the role of speaking in the four language skills can be

concluded by Ur’ s statement:

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 “speaker” of that language, as if

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

foreign language learners are primarily interested in learning to

speak

2.2 The differences between spoken language and written language

As Brown and Yule (1989: 1) define, “The written language is the

language of literature and scholarship It is language which is admired,

studied and rich in excellent exemplification” Whereas, it is difficult to

give spoken language an accurate definition because “it is a vast subject,

and little is known in hard statistical terms of the distribution of different

types of speech in people’s everyday lives” (McCarthy, 1991: 118)

For most of its history, language teaching has been concerned with the

study of the written language The serious consideration of the spoken

language as a subject for teaching also has a long history, but only made

a decisive impact on foreign language teaching in general after the

second World War (Brown and Yule, 1989: 1- 2)

The fundamental function common to most uses of the written

language is the transmission of information or the transactional function

Spoken language may also have the transactional function, but its

overriding function is the interactional one, which is to establish and maintain social relations (Brown and Yule, 1989: 11- 12)

One major difference between spoken language and written language is the density of packing of information Brown and Yule (1989) conclude:

It will be obvious from our discussion that information may be

packed densely in the written language, using heavily premodified

noun phrases with accompanying post-modification, heavy adverbial

modification and complex subordinating syntax It is rare to find

spoken language produced like this, with this dense packing of

information…

(Brown and Yule, 1989: 7) The fact that spoken language consists of less densely packed information than written language has some implications both on syntactic structure and vocabulary selection The syntax used in spoken language is much simpler than the one in written language Brown and Yule (1989: 4) observe:

Most speakers of English produce spoken language which is

syntactically very much simpler than written language… Most spoken

language consists of paratactic ( unsubordinated) phrases which are

marked as related to each other, not so much by the syntax as by the

way the speaker says them The speaker uses the resources of

pausing and rhythm and, to a lesser extent, intonation, to mark out for

listener which parts of his speech need to be co-interpreted

For example, instead of using a complex grammatical noun phrase like:

“a small read equal-sided square”, speakers tend to use their pausing, intonation to convey their meaning: “draw a square – a red square – red square – equal sided – quite small side – quite a small square.” (cited in

Brown and Yule, 1989: 7) So if foreign learners are aware of the syntactic difference between written and spoken English, they will be able to select the right language for each situation

As well, spoken language tends towards less specific vocabulary and more general use of items like “this one”, “like this”, “they”, “over there”, etc which can only decoded in relation to context and by people getting involved in the speech or the conversation

In addition, spoken language has a number of special characteristics which can not be found in written language (Brown, 1994: 239-240) While in written language, sentence is considered as a basic unit of organization, in spoken language, the basic one is group of words or

“clustering” Written text is fixed and stable so that a person can do his/ her reading at whatever time and speed he/ she wants Speaking, on the other hand, is faster than writing (Ur, 1996: 161) Because of its quick rate of delivery, together with the stress pattern and intonation, spoken English can make listening become difficult to learners (Brown, 1994: 240) According to Brown and her colleagues (cited in Nunan, 1999: 237), prior experience as a listener helps speakers improve their performance as a speaker So, it can be inferred that if one can not understand what is said, one is certainly unable to respond, which may lead to communication breakdowns Also, as Bruns and Joyce (cited in Nunan, 1999: 232) conclude, the learners may have difficulties in transferring from their first language to the sounds, rhythms and stress patterns of English Moreover, writing normally uses standard variety of the language; whereas, speech may consists of colloquial language,

idioms, slang words, conversational routines, reduced forms and redundancy Learners who have been familiar with standard written language may find it difficult to deal with all the characteristics mentioned above of spoken language

In the light of discourse analysis, spoken language is concerned with turns, adjacency pairs, turn-takings and topics A turn is seen as everything one speaker says before another speaker begins to speak (Sacks et al, in M Tsui, 1995) And two turns made by two different speakers will form a pair or an adjacency pair “Question- Answer”,

“Greeting- Greeting” and “Complaint – Apology” are some examples of adjacency pairs So in some cases, we can predict the second part of a pair from the first For example, a greeting “hello” is normally followed

by a greeting “hi”; a complaint “Your music is too loud I can’t study” might expect an apology “Oh, sorry I didn’t realize that it bothered you” On the one hand, the expectation of the second pair part from the first pair part can prepare learners a good response On the other hand, it might prevent foreign learners from getting opportunities to practice other real-life options, as native-speakers usually do

In order for a conversation which basically organized by adjacency pairs

to go on well, the participants involved must follow the rule of taking a turn Sacks, Schefloff & Jefferson (1974) state that the most general principle governing a conversation is that only one person speaks at a time and one person usually starts talking soon after another has stopped Also, Nolasco and Arthur (1992) add:

In order for conversation to work smoothly, all participants have to

be alert to signals that a speaker is about to finish his or her turn, and

be able to come in with a contribution which fits the direction in

which the conversation moving

(Nolasco & Arthur, 1992: 8) Pauses, noticeable relaxation, or lower pitch of the last syllable can signal a turn-completion Whereas, the desire of taking a turn of a speaker is indicated by the body movements, the eye signals or a series

of remarks like “Hang on”, “Wait a minute” or “By the way” And once acquiring the turn to speak, the participant has a strong right to continue speaking until he/she is interrupted or voluntarily give up the turn (Wardhaugh, 1991: 150) While taking a turn, or finishing a turn seems relatively easy and natural for native speakers, it is really a big problem for second language learners As Slade (cited in Richards, 1997: 69) observes:

Turn-taking and turn assignment in conversation can be difficult for a

second language speaker A learner who mistimes his entry into

conversation or who is unfamiliar with the correct formulae can give

the impression of being “pushy” or, conversely, over-reticent

Topics are not easy to define McMacthy (1991: 132) says that “ topics are strings of utterances perceived as relevant to one another by participants in talk… and topics end when chains of lexical cohesion peter out” Whereas, Wardhaugh (1991: 139) concludes “ a topic is something talked about” Also, according to Wardhaugh(1991: 139), a conversation usually covers a number of topics and involves shifts from one topic to

another, and sometimes also a mix of topics In order to nominate and maintain a topic of conversation, Grice ( cited in Brown, 1994: 236) suggests that speaker should apply certain conversational maxims such

as (1) quantity: say only as much as is necessary for understanding the communication; (2) quality: say only what is true; (3) relevance: say only what is relevant; (4) manner: be clear In another word, these maxims

specify what participants have to do in order to converse in a maximally efficient, rational, co-operative way: they should speak sincerely, relevantly and clearly, while providing sufficient information (Levinson, 1995: 102)

However, these maxims are often broken, or we can say, they are adhered to at some deeper level When the violation of the maxims happens, even native speakers have to work harder to figure out the underlying meaning, let alone foreign learners Learners, therefore, may have a lot of problems in conversational situations in the target language where the maxims are not observed

2.3 Communicative competence

According to Ellis (2000: 696), communicative competence is “the knowledge that users of a language have internalized to enable them to understand and produce messages in language”

Several models of communicative competence have been proposed Chomsky (cited in Brown, 1994) proposed the concept of grammatical or

linguistic competence and highlighted cognitive aspects of human language acquisition and learning He distinguished between competence (one’s underlying knowledge of the language) and performance (the realization of language in specific situations) Meanwhile, Hymes (cited in Brown, 1994), who coined the term

“communicative competence” emphasized social, interactive, and negotiating process of language Hymes expanded Chomsky’s notion of communicative competence by including both grammatical rules and rules of language use

Canale and Swain (1980) identified three distinctive components of communicative competence: grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence This model was updated by Canale (1983) He proposed a four-dimensional model of communicative competence: grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic competence

Bachman (cited in Brown, 1983) suggested a theoretical framework for communicative language ability It includes knowledge structures, strategic competence, psychophysical mechanisms, context of situation, and language competence Language competence is divided into organizational competence (grammatical and textual competences) and pragmatic competence (illocutionary and sociolinguistic competences)

In spite of many disputes over what components should be included in a model of communicative competence by applied linguistics, it is believed that communicative competence determines speaking proficiency (Scarcella and Oxford, 1992) According to Scarcella and Oxford (1992), abilities underlying speaking proficiency are grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic competences

circumlocation, topic selection) when wordsare unknown; use of conversation

management strategies SPEAKING

PROFICIENCY

Sociolinguistic competence

Appropriate use of language

(including register, speech

acts, intonation)

Discourse competence Coherence in speech Cohesion in speech (Scarcella and Oxford, 1992: 154) Grammatical competence is a concept that includes increasing expertise

in grammar (morphology, syntax), vocabulary, and mechanics With regards to speaking, good grammatical competence enables speakers to use and understand grammatical structures accurately and unhesitatingly, and thus, it contributes to the speakers’ fluency

Sociolinguistic competence is concerned with intersentential relationships based on the rules of cohesion and coherence EFL learners must develop discourse competence to be able to vary their speech appropriately according to the purpose of the talk It means that they are able to use conversation for interactional purposes (to establish social relations) and transactional purposes (to convey information or complete tasks) They also know when to use formal styles and when to use informal or neutral ones so that they can vary their language appropriately

Discourse competence is the competence with which speakers can manage turn-taking in conversation (which entails taking a turn of talk, holding a turn, and relinquishing a turn), to open and close a conversation, to keep a conversation going, and to repair trouble spots in conversation Also, speakers are required to achieve a large repertoire

of discourse markers

Tarone and Yule (1989: 91) believe that strategic competence includes

“the ability to select an effective means of performing a communicative act…strategic competence is gauged, not by degree of correctness…but rather by degree of success, or effectiveness” In a word, strategic competence refers to the individual’s ability to use “communicative strategies”, e.g paraphrase, circumlocution, lexical approximation, mime, to allow them to communicate effectively in the new language in spite of their limited or imperfect knowledge of the target language

Defining communication strategies:

It is difficult to find a rigorous definition of communication strategies So far, there have been many definitions raised by Tarone, Faerch and Kasper, Stern, Bialaystok, Poulisse, and Brown (cited in Rababah, 2003) Although researchers develop and propose new taxonomies of communication strategies from time to time, Tarone’s taxonomy of communication strategies (1983) is considered the basic of all proposed taxonomies

(Tarone, 1983: 62-63) All of the communication strategies are presented in Table 2.1

Table 2.1 Classification of communication strategies (Tarone, cited in Brown, 1994:119)

PARAPHRASE

Approximation Use of a single target language vocabulary item or

Communication Avoidance

Paraphrase Borrowing/ Conscious transfer

Mime

structure, which the learner knows is not correct, but which shares enough semantic features in common with the desired item to satisfy the speaker (e.g., pipe for waterpipe)

Word coinage The learner makes up new word in order to

communicate a desired concept (e.g., airball for balloon)

Circumlocution The learner describes the characteristics or elements of

the object or action instead of using the appropriate target language (TL) item or structure (“she is smoking something I don’t know what’s its name That’s, uh, Persian, and we use in Turkey, a lot of.”

Language switch The learner uses the native language (NL) term without

bothering to translate (e.g., balon for balloon, tirtil for caterpillar)

Appeal for

assistance

The learner asks for the correct term (“What is this? What

Is it called?)

Mine The learner uses nonverbal strategies in place for a

Lexical item or action (e.g., clapping one’s hands to Illustrate applause)

AVOIDANCE

Topic avoidance The learner simply tries to talk about concepts for which

The TL item or structure is not known

Message

abandonment

The learner begins to talk about a concept but is unable

to continue and stops in mid-utterance

2.4 Factors influencing EFL learners’ oral communication

2.4.1 Personality factors

There have been a great number of studies mentioning the correlation between the personality factors and learners’ language proficiency (Freemen, 1991) Stevick (1976: 61) argues that existing personality of

one person has an impact on his / her oral interaction Brown (1994: 134) adds that personality factors within a person including self-esteem, anxiety, inhibition, attitude and motivation, etc can contribute in some way to the success of language learning

Self-esteem is defined by Coppersmith (1967: 4-5) as a personal judgement of worthiness that is expressed in the attitudes that the individual holds towards himself There would be no successful cognitive or affective activity that can be carried out without some degree of self – esteem, self-confidence, knowledge of yourself and belief in your own capabilities for that activity (Brown, 1994: 136) If someone always tells himself or herself “I’m good at language” or “I feel comfortable when I have to speak to a native speaker”, he or she will be able to take advantages of opportunities available for language learning On the contrary, a student who sees himself or herself as “the strongly passive type” will have less verbal interaction in the target language Success in speaking a foreign language, therefore, is out of reach

Anxiety or “the feeling of uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, apprehension or worry” (Brown, 1994: 141) is also considered to affect learners’ communication According to Scovel (cited in Freeman, 1991: 3) moderate anxiety can be facilitating; whereas Krasen (cited in Phillips, 1999: 126) says that learners with low self-esteem are more likely to be concerned with what their classmates think about them and

this fear of making a mistake or appearing foolish heightens their anxiety And the anxiety make them less willing to speak out, or to practice speaking Shumin (1997) concludes that speaking a foreign language in public, especially in front of native-speakers, is often anxiety-provoking And sometimes when EFL learners become tongue-tied or lost for words, their extreme anxiety will occur and lead to communication failure She also adds that adults in some cultures, like in China, are usually afraid of “losing face” due to errors made when speaking a foreign language It may become a barrier preventing adult EFL learners from improving their oral communication

Another major aspect of personality that has been studied with regard to second language acquisition is inhibition Guiora can be said to carry out

a great number of studies to investigate the relationship between inhibition and EFL learners’ speaking skill Though results from some of Guiora et al’s experiments (cited in Ellis, 1996: 121) are not so convincing, inhibition can be concluded to have a negative impact on second language pronunciation Such findings have given a rise to a number of steps that should be taken in foreign language teaching practices to create techniques that reduce inhibition in the classroom

Attitude is the persistence shown by the learner in striving for a goal (Garder and Lambert, cited in Ellis, 1996: 117) Whereas, motivation is commonly thought of as an “inner drive, impulse, emotion, or desire that moves one to a particular action” (Brown, 1994: 152) Gardner and

Lambert (cited in Littlewood, 1991: 57) identify two types of motivation: intergrative motivation and instrumental motivation A learner with intergrative motivation has a genuine interest in the second lnaguage in order to communicate with them more satisfactorily and to gain closer contact with them and their culture A learner with instrumental motivation, on the other hand, is more interested in how the second language can be useful instrument towards furthering other goals, such

as gaining a necessary qualification or improving employment prospect Lalonde and Gardner (cited in Spolsky, 1998: 156-157) conduct studies

to investigate the directness of relationship between attitudes, motivation and second language acquisition Attitudes are pointed out not to have direct influence on learning, but they lead to motivation which does Gardner’s findings seem to commensurate with Els’ conclusion: “attitudes are directly related to motivation, which in turn affects second language acquisition” (Els, 1984: 117) Ellis confirms the positive impact of motivation on learners’ learning According to him (1996: 11), learners with lillte interest in the way of life of native speakers of the L2 or with low instrumental motivation can be expected

to learn slowly and to stop learning some way short of native speaker competence Conversely, when learners have a strong instrumental motivation to learn a L2, they will probably prosper Intergrative motivation is also proved to help learners get higher scores in their foreign language proficiency tests (Brown, 1994: 154) Rababah’s study (2003) points out that Arab learners of English encounter problems in both speaking and writing partly because of their lack of motivation

I would also like to consider a number of other affective factors influencing learners’ L2 proficiency The discussion will be restricted to the three variables which have received the most attention in second language acquisition (SLA) research: social status, age and gender

Social status

Social status refers to higher, lower or equal position, particularly in regard to prestige, power, and social class The status of people, when they are communicating in speech or writing, may affect the speech style they use to each other (Richards at al., 1992: 353) When dealing with the relationship between social status and people’s communication, Trugill (1983: 34) concludes that social class differences can be reflected in grammar, pronunciation as well as accents From the results

of Labov’s and Holmes’ studies (cited in Rickford, 1997: 167-169), it can

be said that higher-status people tend to use more standard language than people of lower status Also, Gamble and Gamble (1999: 113-114) point out that the language can reflect the power or authority of people who use it Powerful speakers make definite statements, direct the action, and assume control; whereas, powerless people speak indirectly and hesitantly due to their lack of self-confidence

Age

Age is thought as an important factor to determine the success or failure

of foreign language learners Scovel (cited in Freeman, 1991) argues

that only children, not adults, can attain native-like pronunciation in the L2 Oyama’s study (1976) also shows that many adults fail to reach native-like proficiency in a second language Wahba (cited in Rababah, 2003: 16) summarizes the problems facing EFL Egyptian learners in oral communication:

Egyptian learners face certain problems related to pronunciation

Some of these problems are related to stress, others are related to

intonation However, most of these problems can be attributed to the

differences in pronunciation between English and Arabic

It seems that it is because of the phenomenon called “fossilization”-the permanent cessation of second language development- that adult learners can not reach perfect pronunciation in L2 or a foreign language They also have problems such as intonation, stress and other phonological nuisances which may lead to misunderstandings or communication breakdown As Nolasco and Arthur (1992) observe:

Good conversationalists use stress and intonation to keep

conversation going…A wide voice range is also more likely to keep a

listener to interested than a monotone…Learners also need to realize

that wrong intonation can lead to misunderstanding

(Nolasco and Arthur, 1992:12)

Gender

The effect of one’s sex on his/ her production of language has attracted many researchers’ concern Bonvillain (1993: 242) argues that women and men behave differently in several communicative domains Women are long prejudiced to talk more than men, but empirical studies of a number of social situations have shown the opposite to be true (Spolsky,

1998: 37) Female speakers have been found not only to produce more standard pronunciation but also to use “better” or more “correct” forms than men (Trudgill, 1983: 87)

When investigating the impact of gender on communication, Brown (1994: 240) finds that women seem to have less confidence in what they say than men Men employ stronger expletives and tend to interrupt more than women; whereas, women are likely to use more polite language It can explain why women’s speech is socially better than men’s speech (Trudgill, 1983: 88) The differences in the language of men and women can also be found in the topics they choose to discuss Spolsky (1998: 37) concludes that women like to select more personal topics such as their home, their family, their domestic activities Men’s talk, on the other hand, is associated with the outside world and economic activities

of that language in order to successfully learn a language (Brown, 1994) Thus, to speak a language, one must know not only how the language is

used in a social context but also its own rules of usage as when, how, and what to say Due to the lack of understanding of the target culture, it is hard for non-native speakers to choose the forms appropriate to certain situation As Scollon and Scollon (2001: 21) put it: “When two people have very similar histories, backgrounds, and experiences, their communication works fairly easily because the inferences each make about what the other means will be based on common experience and knowledge Two people from the same village and the same family are likely to make fewer mistakes in drawing inferences about what the other means than two people from different cities on the different sides

of the earth”

2.4.3 Language environment

“The language environment encompasses everything the language learner hears and sees in the new language It may include a wide variety of situations – exchanges in restaurants and stores, conversations with friends, watching television, reading street signs and newspaper as well as classroom activities – or it may be very sparse, including only language classroom activities and a few books and records” (Dalay, 1982: 13) Spolsky (1998: 171) presents a general distinction between natural language environment and educational settings or instructed learning In natural language learning, the language is being used for communication, the learner is surrounded by fluent speakers of the target language, the context is the real outside world, open and stimulating and the language used is free and normal In formal

classroom, the language is used to teach, only the teacher is fluent, the context is inside the classroom with the closed four walls and language used is carefully controlled and simplified It is therefore assumed that natural settings lead to higher level of L2 proficiency than educational settings (Schinke-Llano, 1990: 216) However, there is evidence to suggest that learners who receive formal instruction (educational settings) become more grammatically accurate than those who do not (Ellis, 2000: 216) Similarly, Carroll’s survey (cited in Dalay, 1982: 15) proves that a natural language environment can enhance the development of communication skills in a second or foreign language

On the contrary, if students are just exposed to a list of words together with a few readings in a new language, they may attain some improvement in reading skill, but listening and speaking skills will remain fallow

So, it is ideal that the natural language setting and educational treatment should complement each other (Stern, 1991: 393) But in practice, the conditions are often far from ideal In case that learners don’t live and study in the natural language environment, the entire responsibility for creating the language environment falls on the teachers who are teaching that language Therefore, the teachers are supposed to accelerate language learning by choosing suitable teaching methods, techniques and materials to increase the effectiveness of the language classroom

2.5 Teaching methods often used in Vietnam

2.5.1 The Grammar-translation method

The Grammar-translation method has proved to be extremely tenacious Through most of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth, it dominated classrooms in large parts of the world Until now, when it has become unsuited to the practical needs of learners, it still can be found in classrooms here and there As its name suggests, this method focuses on teaching grammar The grammar, with a great number of its paradigms and rules which learners must memorize, understand and apply them in written exercises Accompanied with the large area of grammar are usually long lists of vocabulary to be learnt,

so learners are always required to be able to achieve complex new material The main activity of this method is translation, either from the mother tongue into the foreign language or vice versa, which is supplemented by grammar exercises such as changing the tenses of verbs, dictation, or essay-writing With all the characteristics described here, it can be said that the greatest achievement of the grammar-translation is that it helps learners to develop the intellectual skills and to lay out the foundations for further study of the foreign language, culture, and literature It clearly explains the dominance of this method all over the world in such a long time However, it is obvious that the method has little place for foreign language communication The main means for classroom interaction is mother tongue In addition, since all the sentences made out in a grammar-translation class are artificial ones, which are used to illustrate some grammar point, it is very difficult to

apply them in real-life communication situations As a result, learners often have a lot of difficulties whenever they get involved in oral interchanges To sum up, the grammar-translation method seem to have very little contribution in improving learners’ speaking proficiency As Krasen (1987: 129) concludes: “the Grammar-translation makes no attempt, explicitly or implicitly, to help students manage conversations with native-speakers”

2.5.2 The Communicative Approach

The early 1970s begins with the Communicative Approach or Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) CLT is believed to be found

in order to meet “the language needs of a rapidly increasing group of immigrants and guest workers, and a rich British linguistic tradition of language behavior…” (Savignon, 1991:263) According to Richards and Rodgers (1992) CLT starts with a theory of language as communication when British applied linguists see the need to focus in language teaching

on communication proficiency rather than on mere mastery of structures

Objectives and principles of the Communicative Approach

Different from other earlier traditional approaches which did not deal properly with meaning (Swan, 1990), the basic doctrine of the Communicative Approach is to focus on the various levels of meaning in language: “usage” and “use”, or “signification” and “value” In another word, the approach raises the complex relationship that exists between

structure and meaning For example, a declarative sentence such as

“The door is open” can mean as a request “Close it, please” or may function as an explanation “That’s why it is so cold” or might have some other meanings, depending on the situation So, according to the standard argument based on the approach, it is not enough just to learn what is in the grammar and dictionary Understanding and knowing when and how to use language in the appropriate context is more important

In addition, as the emphasis in CLT is on the processes of communication, rather than mastery of language forms, a leading function of this language teaching method is therefore to provide opportunities for learners to engage in interaction with the teachers and each other It also requires a supportive classroom environment in which learners feel free and eager to get involved in these oral activities

2.6 The roles of teachers and learners

The objectives and principles for teaching and learning a foreign language which underlines the communicative approach has an important implication for the roles of teachers and learners Teachers play a variety of roles in the Communicative Approach To begin with, teachers are responsible for facilitating the learners’ learning through the organization of tasks and activities that really motivate them to communicate in foreign language On the other hand, teachers need to