Teaching speaking to the first year students at the faculty of economics of vietnam national university hochiminh city problems and solutions

Nevertheless, most of them have the general idea that CLT emphasizes communication in a foreign language and improves the learner’s communicative competence through communicative activit

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE

*** ***

NGUYEN HOA NGUYEN

TEACHING SPEAKING TO THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS

AT THE FACULTY OF ECONOMICS OF VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HOCHIMINH CITY:

PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE OF

MASTER IN TESOL

SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN TIEN HUNG, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY

PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

in terms of the statement of Requirements for Theses

in Master’s Programmes issued by Higher Degree Committee

NGUYEN HOA NGUYEN

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, NGUYEN HOA NGUYEN, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and the use of Master’s Theses deposited in Library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research,

in accordance with the normal conditions established by Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses

NGUYEN HOA NGUYEN

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr NGUYEN TIEN HUNG, who provides me with his precious knowledge, assistance, consideration, and encouragement so that I can finish this thesis report

I must be grateful to the teachers of Department of Post- Graduate Studies

of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities of Ho Chi Minh City who supply me with the good conditions to conduct this thesis and finish this M.A course

Language Department of the Faculty of Economics of the Vietnam National University- HoChiMinh City, and my colleagues for their assistance, encouragement during the time I participate in M.A course Last but not least, I owe a debt to my colleagues who are the subjects of my thesis for their willingness to permit me observing their classes and to answer my questionnaires

ABSTRACT

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) attracts a variety of experts’ consideration; however, no explicit definitions about it has been invented It is seen that CLT requires the teachers much, especially communicative competence, flexibility, and creativity It must be flexibly implemented in a particular context The main objective of this thesis is to help the teachers overcome the constraints as CLT is adopted to teach to the first year students at the Faculty of Economics of Vietnam National University-HoChiMinh City In detail, the researcher tries to (1) find out the difficulties that the teachers perceive; (2) collect the solutions that the teachers suggest in relation to his suggestions with a view to improving the situation

The procedures of data collection were accomplished thanks to the instruments as classroom observation and two questionnaires The former adapted from Brown (1994) included 25 categories, which were divided into 5 parts as Preparation, Execution/ Method, Personal Characteristics, and Teacher/ Student Interaction to assess which categories the teacher applied in his/ her class The latter consisted of one for yielding the difficulties and another for

composed of four items to gain the subjects’ ethnographic data and 4 questions to

literature review It contained 9 questions to collect the solutions suggested by the teachers The procedures consist of 3 stages: firstly, the 1st questionnaire was

delivered to the subjects and handed in; secondly, the classroom observations

The findings of this investigation classified into the two main sections are the difficulties and the solutions, of which the former include difficulties caused

by the teachers, difficulties caused by the students, and difficulties caused by the educational system, and the latter consist of remedies The situation can, however, get better unless the solutions suggested by the teachers are accomplished

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originally i

Retention and use the thesis ii

Acknowledgements iii

Abstract iv

Table of contents vi

List of abbreviations ix

List of figures and tables ix

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background to the study 1

1.2 Statement of purpose 2

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Significance of the thesis 3

1.5 Overview of thesis chapters 3

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Communicative Language Teaching 4

2.1.1 Theory of language 4

2.1.2 Theories of language learning 5

2.1.3 Concept of CLT .5

2.1.4 Characteristics of CLT 6

2.1.5 Communicative competence 15

2.1.5.1 Linguistic competence 16

2.1.5.2 Pragmatic competence 16

2.1.5.3 Discourse competence 16

2.1.5.4 Strategic competence 17

2.1.5.5 Fluency 17

2.1.6 Conditions related to applying CLT ` 18

2.2 The role of CLT in teaching speaking 22

2.2.1 The nature of communication 22

2.2.2 Oral communicative practice 24

2.2.3 Oral communicative activities 26

2.2.3.1 Role-play and simulation 26

2.2.3.2 Discussion 27

2.2.3.3 Communicative games 28

2.2.3.4 Problem-solving activities 28

2.2.3.5 Talking about yourself 29

2.3 Summary 30

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 31

3.1 Introduction 31

3.2 Subjects 31

3.3 Instrumentation 32

3.4 Procedures 35

Chapter 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 37

4.1 The findings 37

4.1.1 Classroom observation 37

4.1.2 The 1st questionnaire 41

4.1.2.1 Difficulties caused by the teachers 41

4.1.2.1.1 Limited training in CLT 41

4.1.2.1.2 Misunderstanding of CLT 42

4.1.2.2 Difficulties caused by the students 44

4.1.2.3 Difficulties caused by the educational system 45

4.1.3 The 2nd questionnaire 47

4.1.3.1 Solutions to the difficulties caused by the teachers 47

4.1.3.2 Solutions to the difficulties caused by the students .48

4.1.3.3 Solutions to the difficulties caused by the educational system 51

4.2 Discussion 53

4.2.1 Difficulties from the teachers and solutions 53

4.2.2 Difficulties from the students and solutions 55

4.2.3 Difficulties from the educational system and solutions 63

4.3 Conclusion 65

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION 67

5.1 The summary of the main findings 67

5.2 Conclusion 69

Bibliography 70

Appendices 73

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

8: Solutions to the teachers’ diificulties: Misunderstanding of CLT 48

10: Teachers’ solutions to the lack of authentic materials from the Faculty 52

Table Page

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

Learning English is becoming a need that most learners are aware of and that the society demands, especially in the trend of Vietnam’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and in the process of national industrialization and modernization Therefore, the conception that only English–major students have priority to enhancing their skills becomes backward In fact, every learner must be taken care of so that they can be beneficial to the modern educational opportunities Especially for the students in the Faculty of Economics of the Vietnam National University- HoChiMinh City, the four skills as speaking, listening, reading, and writing should be integratedly taught

In the current movement of reforming the teaching method, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is the approach which has made a great variety of experts and teachers involved in CLT is not a method, but an approach which supplies the teachers with orientation and “without many detailed specifications

of what and how to teach” (Davies & Pearse, 2000, p.186) Thompson (1996, p.9) draws out the common agreement of experts: “CLT involves an emphasis on communicating by means of the foreign language” The aim of the implementation of CLT in teaching is to help the learners gain the communicative competence However, when CLT is adopted in EFL countries, many troubles appear There should be research on the application of CLT in particular contexts so that the situation can be improved In that light, what is expected from CLT can be gained

At the Faculty of Economics of the Vietnam National HoChiMinh City, the administrators always support CLT to stimulate the learners’ activeness and creativity in the class as well as to help them communicate in English Although they are non-English major students who have

University-a goUniversity-al of becoming businessmUniversity-an University-at compUniversity-anies University-after four yeUniversity-ar study, they University-are always demanded to be good at English in which speaking is one of necessary

skills The syllabus, Business Basics by David Grant and Robert McLarty (New

Edition, 2001), used for the first year students at the Faculty of Economics of the Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City meets the demand to develop their oral communicative ability and written ability as the aim of this syllabus is stated by these authors Although all the teachers at the Faculty of Economics of the Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City who teach the first year students have made effort to adopt CLT in teaching English to improve their students’ oral ability over the past few years, it is supposed that CLT is not adopted completely and successfully

1.2 Statement of purpose

In communication, it is impossible to accomplish a skill without another, so

“integrating skills” is a notion that the teachers should pay attention to Although CLT refers to the 4 skills, it is appropriate to focus on one skill more than the rest (Harmer, 1991) This research study is limited to only speaking skill That does not mean that CLT cannot be applied to the other skills, or the Faculty is not concerned about them Indeed, according to the situation of the Faculty, the learners’ oral ability is one prominent problem that makes the administrators and teachers take into consideration Thus, this thesis is limited in investigating the constraints that the teachers meet when they apply CLT in teaching speaking to the students in the first year course

1.3 Research questions

Although all the teachers at the Faculty who teach the first year students have made effort to adopt CLT in teaching English to improve their students’ oral ability over the past few years, it is supposed that CLT is not adopted completely and successfully Hence, the researcher plans to study the reasons why the implementation of CLT in teaching English to students in the first year course is not successful The solutions which aim at improving the situation will

be found, as well In other words, the aims of the study are to answer the following questions:

1 What prevents the application of CLT in teaching speaking to first year students from effectiveness and success?

2 What solutions should be implemented to improve the situation?

1.4 Significance of the thesis

English teaching of speaking for the first year students at the Faculty of Economics of the Vietnam National University – HoChiMinh City

1.5 Overview of thesis chapters

This thesis consists of five chapters Chapter 1 introduces the background and purposes of the study Chapter 2 reviews the literature dealing with language learning strategies Chapter 3 introduces methodology Chapter 4 presents results, discussions and conclusions Chapter 5 presents conclusion

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review consists of 3 parts as follows: (1) Communicative Language Teaching; (2) Role of CLT in Teaching Speaking; and (3) a Summary

of the Chapter

2.1 Communicative Language Teaching

CLT is built up on both the language theory and the language learning theories In order to further understand CLT, the theory of language and of language learning relevant to CLT will be discussed as follows:

2.1.1 Theory of language

CLT was developed on the basis of the theory of language as communication Richards and Rodgers (1986) point out some of the characteristics of the communicative view of language:

-Language is a system for the expression of meaning

-The primary function of language is for interaction and

communication

-The structures of language reflect its functional and

communicative uses

-The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical

and structure features, but categories of functional and

communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse (p.71)

According to the viewpoint above, language is considered as a means of communication Learning a language must focus on the meaning and function rather than on its form so that the learners will be able to communicate in the language

2.1.2 Theories of language learning

CLT was also set up on the foundation of the theories of language learning Richards and Rodgers (1986) indicate that the three elements attached to the theory of language learning in establishing CLT are the communicative principle, the task principle, and the meaningfulness principle Of which the communicative principle consists of the activities related to "real communication" in order to enhance learning The task principle includes activities with emphasis on meaningful tasks to improve learning And the rest contains the learning activities which are chosen on the foundation of how well these activities attract the learners in meaningful and authentic language with a help to supporting the learning process In short, the principles above aim at promoting learning

Littlewood (1984) maintains learning theory concerning a model of learning

in CLT that are a cognitive aspect and a behavioral aspect, as well Of which the

cognitive aspect helps to internalize plans in order to form compatible behavior

"these plans derive mainly from the language system - they include grammatical rules, procedures for selecting vocabulary, and social conventions governing speech” (p.74) The behavioral aspect involves the formation of habits through the frequent reinforcement of a stimulus-response sequence so that the learners are able to improve communicative competence in real situations In other words, these theories setting up CLT focus on practice to develop communicative skills

2.1.3 Concept of CLT

Based on the theoretical foundation of language, and of language

learning, CLT was born Although many researchers (Brown, 1994; Davis

others discuss CLT, no explicit definition is made Nevertheless, most of them have the general idea that CLT emphasizes communication in a foreign language and improves the learner’s communicative competence through communicative activities as role-plays, problem-solving tasks and

games

That, the theoretical foundation of language, and of language learning and the concept of CLT are discussed above aims at drawing out a general notion about CLT To make further sense of CLT, however, characteristics

of CLT should be concerned about

2.1.4 Characteristics of CLT

It is believed that the characteristics of CLT help the teacher and the learners understand what is happening in a CLT classroom Accordingly, the teacher can take advantage of this approach and improve her/his students' learning

Many researchers (Bock, 2000; Larsen-Freeman, 1986; Richards & Rodgers, 1986; Thompson, 1996) and others are interested in CLT, but they only discuss CLT partially Li (1998) collects the opinions from many linguists and reviews the characteristics of CLT as the following:

- a focus on communicative function;

- a focus on meaningful tasks rather than on language per

se (e.g grammar and vocabulary study);

- efforts to make tasks and language relevant to a target group of learners through an analysis of genuine, realistic situations;

- the use of authentic, from life materials;

- the use of group activities; and

- the attempt to create a secure, non- threatening atmosphere (p.679)

In the following section, the characteristics above will be analyzed one by one as well as the implementation of each characteristic in the real classroom will be described so that the mismatch between the theory and the practice can

be seen

- A focus on communicative function:

The communicative function is considered as the most important characteristic of CLT because the goal of CLT is to help the learners gain the communicative competence (see 2.1.5, p.15) CLT concentrates on the communicative function since it was created on the foundation of the language theory as communication in connection with of the language learning theory as communicative principle The communicative function is the way we use language to accomplish some function as arguing, persuading,

or promising, etc The communication in the class must be a novice stage for the learners so that they will be able to communicate with the others in the real communication Richards and Lockhart (1994) affirm that the classroom

is the primary environment for the learners to use the target language and that the kind of the language which the learners are exposed to have an important influence on their language development Accordingly, English should be used in the class as much as possible, and the use of the language should be focused on The teacher should take advantage of the interaction between the teacher and students, and among the students in the class such as producing the instructions to the students (e.g asking the students to turn to page, to perform some task, etc.), using real communications in the class on the basis of language which the students have learnt (e.g making an activity

of warm-up), encouraging the interaction among the students (e.g the

students communicate in the target language as much as possible) Freeman (1986) states that everything is done in the class and is done with a communicative intent

Larsen-In communication, different forms of language can be used to express one function as well as one form can be used to refer to different functions That engages the students in a flexible use of language in real situations For instance, when a person wants to open the door, he can say: “Do you mind if I open the door?”, “May I open the door?”, or “Can I open the door?” The three forms are used to express one request Conversely, one form is referred

to different functions Modal verb “Can”, for example, can be used to indicate an ability: “He can speak English”, a request: “Can you help me with this box?”, or a permission: “You can use this book if you like.” The teacher should be flexible to use language in the class so that the learners can recognize a variety of language forms in communication

The communicative function is related to “integrating skills”, also Harmer (1991) shows that integrating skills must mention in teaching language because of the two reasons Firstly, a skill cannot be performed without another For example, in a conversation, one person speaks, the other must listen; or writing a letter, one person writes, and then reads it Secondly, the same subject can be dealt with different skills Based on a passage, for example, many tasks can be designed such as reading the passage to answer the questions, working in pairs to discuss the topic, or summarizing the passage, etc Obviously, the communicative functions can involve in the four skills

Practically, the majority of the teachers think of communication in the class incompletely They use the mother tongue much to interact with the learners As a result, the learners are not exposed much to the target language in context Moreover, many teachers suppose that CLT is applied in teaching only speaking In that view, the teachers assume that pair work and group work are the activities focusing on communicative function They usually arrange the students into pair work or group work

- A focus on meaningful tasks rather than on language per se:

This characteristic was founded on the basis of the theory of language learning as task principle to enhance learning process Nunan (1990) defines that a meaningful task is a piece of meaning-focus work involving learners in comprehending, producing, and/or interacting in the target language The teacher gives the students meaningful tasks in order to improve the students’ communicative competence For instance, when the learners study the Simple Present tense, the teacher had better give them the meaningful tasks such as writing a paragraph to describe your daily activities; working in pairs to ask about your partners’ works; or listening to a conversation, taking notes and telling your friend about the man’ s company; and the like These kinds of tasks interest the learners in the meaning in relation to the form Hedge (2000) claims that the learners acquire the knowledge through practice so that what they have learnt is automatized and available for production The meaningful tasks create opportunities for the learners to use the language and

to improve their communicative competence

A focus on meaningful tasks does not mean that grammar is excluded in CLT The way to teach grammar in CLT is discrepant from that in the

traditional methods Thompson (1996) states: “The focus has now moved away from the teacher covering grammar to the learners discovering grammar.” The learners are exposed to new language in context; it is they who work with guidance from the teacher to draw out the new forms CLT concentrates on meaningful tasks rather than on language itself in order to engage the learners in understanding the meaning and function of the new items in context Accordingly, the learners know how to use the language to communicate appropriately and effectively

When implementing CLT in teaching, the majority of teachers still get used to teaching grammar in the traditional methods The teachers draw out a new form and explain it in isolation instead of putting it in a comprehensive context Then, they give the students a set of exercises to practise what the students have just learnt in written forms The students can know the usage of language, but cannot know how to use the language to communicate in real contexts

This characteristic of CLT involves the teacher in focusing on meaning more than on language so that the learners’ communicative competence can

be improved

-Efforts to make tasks and language relevant to a target group of learners

through an analysis of genuine, realistic situations:

By virtue of the language learning theory as the meaningfulness principle, this characteristic was built up It is assumed that the genuine, realistic situations are essential in the class Through performing tasks relevant to those situations, the students learn the meaning and functions in

the context As a result, this is one of the important stages for the learners to develop communicative competence Some situations in the class are genuine and realistic such as greetings, farewells, warm-ups, instructions, etc Apart from those, tasks relevant to daily situations can also enhance the learners’ learning; for example, telling directions, making a conversation in a shop, writing to your family, making a phone to your friend, and the like Those situations are familiar to the learners Nevertheless, based on the genuine, realistic contexts, the teacher must invest time in designing tasks suitable for the learners The learners can be motivated to participate in the tasks when they are interested in genuine, realistic situations Therefore, the students’ learning is improved

In fact, tasks and language relevant to genuine, realistic situations are not used much in the class For example, the teachers use Vietnamese instructions instead of English ones; the teachers speak much the mother tongue It would be better if the teachers exploited those situations through speaking English so that the learners got chances to be exposed to the language in context Furthermore, the teacher does not take advantage of the situations in the class She/he does not base on them to design meaningful tasks for her/his own students so that they are motivated to use the language

in context

- The use of authentic, from life materials:

In the light of the language theory considering language as a means of communication, this characteristic was formed Authentic, from life materials are one of the good ways to create opportunities for the students to be exposed to the real language because this kind of materials contains the

language used by native speakers It is assumed that the more the learners are exposed to the real language, the more they understand the use of language to communicate in real life Authentic materials can be selected from newspapers, magazines, stories, video clips, etc which are used by native speakers It is obliged that the teacher must choose kinds of extracts to interest the learners, and that she/he should design activities suitable for her/his learners’ level, and her/his teaching objectives

Practically, the majority of teachers do not concentrate their attention on using the authentic materials in teaching for they may not recognize the usefulness of using authentic materials in the class, or for they may not make effort to select the authentic materials It is popular that most teachers use the materials contrived for learners of English Consequently, the learners are not exposed to the real language They can meet difficulties in producing the language in real context

- The use of group activities:

This characteristic was built on the basis of the language theory as communication and the three principles of language learning theory According to Brown (1994) group activities are related to a multiplicity of techniques in which two or more students are assigned a task It is understandable that pair work is “simple group work” in a group of two

The use of group activities is popular in the CLT class because of the important role of group work Li (1998) states: “CLT favors interaction among small numbers of students in order to maximize the time each student has to learn to negotiate meaning” (p.679) This means that the students have opportunities to freely communicate, and to improve their communicative

competence Brown (1994) discovers the four advantages of group work in the class Firstly, group work produces interactive language since the learners have more opportunities to talk in the class, and to practise in negotiating of meaning Secondly, group work offers the learners a feeling of security They feel easier to discuss with classmates than to speak in public, or in front of the teacher Thirdly, group work raises the learners’ responsibility and self-governing Each member of group must be responsible for the progress of group, so they recognize that they should participate in group Lastly, group work gives the learners with different proficiency opportunities to perform a variety of tasks According to the advantages of group work it can be drawn out that the use of group activities in the class encourages the learners to cooperate with the classmates to communicate, and to negotiate meaning

In order to help the learners improve their communicative competence, the teacher should design the group activities which contain three features such as: information gap, choice, and feedback (Johnson & Morrow, 1981) Information gap is when one speaker knows information, the other speaker does not For choice, there must be different choices of forms and content for

a question Based upon the information supplied by the listener, the speaker can get feedback to evaluate whether the listener has understood the question

or not The three traits above ensure the communication of group work

Moreover, the teacher must know the stages of managing group work Davies and Pearse (2000) present the four useful stages in the arrangement of group work They are pre-task, task, post-task, and follow-up In the pre-task stage, the teacher shows the situation and gives the learners clear instructions

so that the learners understand what they are expected to accomplish Next,

the learners work in group; the teacher monitors, notes the problems, and helps the learners if necessary When the learners finish the task, the teacher signals to stop the task and does a post-task In the last stage, the teacher deals with error-correction if necessary

The typical group activities consist of games, role-play and simulations, interviews, brainstorming, information gap, problem-solving and decision-making, and opinion-exchange (Brown, 1994) All of these activities require the learners’ activeness and creativity The students must be communicators, and the teacher must be a facilitator

In practice, although the teacher tries to apply these activities in teaching, the tasks are not truly communicative It is common that the participants know the questions and answers Consequently, no information exchange happens, and no real communication occurs

- The attempt to create a secure, non-threatening atmosphere:

This characteristic aims to encourage the learners to participate in the lesson The interaction between the teacher and the students, and among the students must create a secure and cooperative atmosphere so that the learners are motivated to communicate The teacher’s behavior toward the students plays a crucial role in creating a comfortable atmosphere in the class The way the teacher uses to motivate the learners such as compliments, grades, or comfort, etc can influence positively the classroom atmosphere When the learners are respected, they are stimulated to involve themselves in taking part in the class

The teacher has many roles to accomplish in the class Littlewood (1981) assumes that the teacher must be a facilitator of the learners’ learning, a manager of classroom activities, an advisor to answer the students’ questions and to control their performance, and a “co-communicator” to engage in the communicative activities along with the students Therefore, the students are given opportunities to express their opinions

In fact, many teachers do not pay attention to this feature They get used

to being a teacher-centred method Since they dominate the class, the learners are discouraged to participate in the lesson Besides, negative feedback from the teacher as “Nonsense”, “It sounds silly”, “Wrong”, or the like which is given to the students can demotivate the learners

A discussion on the characteristics of CLT indicates that although CLT possesses many good points by its nature, the application of CLT still have many defects The investigator should be aware of those troubles so that she has a theoretical background to conduct the study

2.1.5 Communicative competence

The purpose of the CLT application in teaching is to help the students gain communicative competence since communicative competence ensures successful communication to take place Thus, the content of communicative competence must be concerned about Communicative competence refers to all the knowledge of language one person possesses According to Bachman (1990), communicative competence includes five kinds, such as linguistic competence, pragmatic competence, discourse competence, strategic competence and fluency which are clarified as follows:

2.1.5.1 Linguistic Competence

Linguistic competence is related to knowledge of the language, its form and meaning In detail, it includes a comprehension of spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, word formation, grammatical structure, sentence structure, and linguistic semantics Linguistic competence is considered as an important component of communicative competence (Hedge, 2000)

2.1.5.2 Pragmatic Competence

According to Hedge (2000), pragmatic competence includes two kinds of ability which are illocutionary competence and sociolinguistic competence Of which illocutionary competence involves ability to use language for communicative goals or intentions and for situational accuracy in the social context and in the social conventions Sociolinguistic competence shows properly social knowledge to use the correct language forms in various contexts and with people in different status and roles It refers to non-verbal and verbal communication (Bachman, 1990) In short, pragmatic competence helps the communicators well respond in a variety of contexts

2.1.5.3 Discourse Competence

Discourse competence involves the speaker’s ability to take turns in conversation, to keep on the conversation, and to develop the topic It is essential for the learners to acquire useful language for strategies such as initiating, entering, interrupting, checking and confirming in conversation The same kind

of competence is necessary for written texts, as well (Hedge, 2000) The learner needs the competence to make the conversation or texts coherent and cohesive

as well as it is a means to help her/him make sense of the conversation or texts This competence is called “textual competence” (Bachman, 1990)

2.1.5.4 Strategic Competence

Strategic competence consists of communicative strategies, achievement strategies, and reduction strategies Hedge (2000) states that communication strategies are used when the speaker does not have enough knowledge of language to express successfully what she/he wants to show Thus, she/he balances this by altering her/his original intention or by finding out other expressions Achievement strategies are those used to request cooperation from partners in the conversation as “you know”, or “I mean”, paraphrases or gestures when the speaker meets difficulties at expressing herself/himself so that help from the listener can be gained

Reduction strategies are used to avoid the forms that the speaker is unsure and chooses the structures that the speaker knows In other words, strategic competence including verbal and non-verbal strategies in ability that the speaker can keep the conversation going and get the listener involved in the conversation

linguistic competence, pragmatic competence, discourse competence, strategic competence, and fluency

2.1.6 Conditions related to applying CLT

In the light of characteristics of CLT and communicative competence, it is agreeable that the implementation of CLT is related to some conditions Firstly, CLT enquires the teachers with high English proficiency and with mastering the concept of CLT so that they can take advantages of the communicative approach and manage the class They should be flexible to adapt themselves in a particular context Besides, the teachers must spend much time in preparing the lessons and designing additional materials

For the students, their motivation is one of the important factors which connects with the successful application of CLT Harmer (1991, p.3) defines motivation as “some kind of internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a course of action” Also, he distinguishes motivation into the two kinds which the students possess: extrinsic motivation, and intrinsic motivation The former related to the factors outside the classroom includes integrative motivation and instrumental motivation The latter related to those inside the classroom is affected by factors as physical conditions, method, the teacher and success

Harmer (1991) indicates that the integrative motivation creates the learners

a wish to integrate themselves into the target language community for a stronger form of the motivation or to know as much as possible about the culture of the target language community for a weaker form Instrumental motivation refers to the learner who desires to gain the language in order to get a better job, position,

or status The teachers cannot create extrinsic motivation as it comes into the classroom from outside

According to Harmer (1991), intrinsic motivation gains a crucial role in most learners’ success or failure as language learners For the learners who have extrinsic motivation, what takes place in the classroom will have an important effect For the learners who have no extrinsic motivation, the factors that exist in the classroom affect their motivation to learning language, as well Physical conditions which include the classroom atmosphere, number of learners, light in the classroom, the board, etc can increase or decrease the learners’ motivation The method in the classroom refers to which method is used in the classroom Moreover, whether the students like the teacher or not affects their motivation The rest factor affecting intrinsic motivation is success Harmer (1991, p.7) determines: “Success or lack of it plays a vital part in the motivational drive of a student” In short, the teachers can increase their learners’ intrinsic motivation to reach success in teaching language Apart from those, when the learners determine their studying purpose, or when they are encouraged in study, it proves that they will concentrate participating in the class

In addition, authentic materials which refer to the language used in real situations should be added in the classroom so that the students can transfer what they acquire in the classroom to the outside world and to introduce them to the natural language in different situations (Larsen-Freeman, 1986) It is obvious that authentic materials help the learners to enhance their receptive skill as they can understand native speakers Melvin and Stout (1987) introduce some kinds

of authentic materials as transport information (e.g transport guides, maps); cultural publications (e.g catalogues, brochures for museums, theatres, galleries); recreation information (e.g sport, movies, restaurants); media

information (e.g newspapers, magazines, radio broadcasts, television show); and general information (e.g currency, songs, games)

Furthermore, administrators play a crucial role on launching CLT Bock (2000) suggests that administrators must have necessary supports such as installation of facilities in the classroom, application of efficient and effective assessment instrument in CLT, elimination of outside noise, etc

Last but not least, the cultural factor should be mentioned when CLT is implemented It is agreed that CLT came into existence in the 1960s and in the 1970s in Britain, the USA and elsewhere, and that its scope has been expanded

up to now The application of CLT in Britain, North American, or Australia has been successful However, the adoption of CLT in tertiary, secondary, and primary English language education, in the rest of the world has met constraints

of which “the notion of culture takes on an important role” (Holliday, 1994, p.5)

In respect of culture, there must be an innovation in people’s understanding which the teacher is “a knowledge-transmitter” and learners are “passive receivers” so that EFL countries can adapt rather than adopt CLT into their English teaching (Li, 1998)

Vietnamese learners are influenced by the Confucian ideal which creates some cultural constraints in adopting CLT in teaching speaking Since the learners get used to respecting their teacher in view of not interrupting her/him, not asking her/him or not discussing with her/him, and since they always think everything the teacher says is correct, they are unwilling to participate in the class They only show their opinion in case they are asked Also, the teacher is expected to correct any mistakes that the students make unless they think he does not have good competence

Sullivan (1996) discovers that Vietnamese learners get used to a style interaction in which “overlapping and simultaneous talk are norm” (p.34) Thus, they are frightened of the rule “one–person–speak–at–a-time” Understandably, the learners’ participation in the class is influenced by the habit above Moreover, according to Smith (2001, p.29) “keeping face” is also another factor which prevents the learners from expressing their opinions in the class They get accustomed to ensuring what they give out must be correct; consequently, fear of making mistakes hinder them from making oral contribution to class discussions Flowerdew and Miller (1995) mention another element of the cultural identity impacting on the students’ participation is self-effacing The students are influenced by the Confucian ideal that they should not appear more intelligent than their classmates Therefore, they are reticent to ask or to answer a question

In a nutshell, the problems stated must be taken into consideration so that the teacher will not be shocked in her/ his teaching process as well as s/he is required to be flexible to create the appropriate solutions to her/his particular context

In summary, factors including teacher, students, materials, administrators, and culture are the conditions which should be paid attention to as the application

of CLT is done Of which it seems that the teacher plays a crucial role in the process Johnson (1995) maintains:

To understand the communicative demands placed on their second language students, teachers must recognize that the dynamics of classroom communication are shaped by the classroom context and the norms for participation in that context (p.6)

2.2 The role of CLT in teaching Speaking

What discussed in the previous part refers to implement CLT in teaching the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) It is true that the integration of the four language skills in teaching a language is necessary since teaching a particular skill is concerned with the use of other skills Although integrated skills are used in teaching English, a particular skill is usually concentrated on much more than the other skills Harmer (1991, p.52) affirms:

“Often our activities will have a focus on one particular skill.” Accordingly, it is appropriate that only speaking skill is studied in this thesis Pattison (1987) states that oral communication must include Speaking and Listening It means that there exist a speaker and a listener in a conversation Byrne (1988) also confirms that oral ability involves speaking-listening responding Hereafter oral communication mentioned refers to only speaking skill to facilitate the research

2.2.1 The nature of communication

Communication is a complicated phenomenon and plays a crucial role in the teaching process due to communication as a theoretical basis to build up CLT Harmer (1991) declares:

To understand further the nature of communication, an analysis should be done Oral communication happens because of the three main reasons derived from the speakers which Davies and Pearse (2000) and Harmer (1991) draw out

Communication between human is an extremely complex

and ever-changing phenomenon… But there are certain

generalizations that we can make about the majority of

communicative for the learning and teaching of language

(p.46)

Firstly, they (people engaged in talking) want to say something “Want” means that the speakers make definite decisions to talk to other people Harmer claims that in the case the speakers are forced to speak, it is also right because they feel

they need to speak; otherwise, they would say nothing Secondly, they have

some communicative purpose The speakers concentrate on “what” they are communicating in order to gain communicative purpose that is something to happen as a result of what they express Thirdly, they select sentences from their language store Speakers have ability to create new sentences from their knowledge stored in their mind so that they can achieve communicative purpose

Oral communication must include speakers and listeners Hence, listeners who get involved in the conversation must possess the three traits such as wanting to listen to “something”, being interested in the communication purpose

of what is being said, and processing a variety of language To start with, “Want”

is an element to make the listeners pay attention to the others and try to understand what the speakers are expressing In addition, the listeners expect to find out information that the communication is to bring Lastly, even when the listeners guess exactly what the speakers are going to display, the listeners must

be prepared to process a good deal of grammar, of vocabulary to make sense of what is mentioned

Harmer (1991) goes on to claim that the six characteristics above build up a foundation to design oral communicative activities in the classroom (see 2.2.3)

He summarizes the generalizations about the nature of communication as shown

in figure 1

SPEAKER

LISTENER

wants to say something has a communicative purpose selects from language store

wants to listen to something interested in communicative purpose processes a variety of language

Figure 1: The nature of communication (adapted from Harmer, 1991)

2.2.2 Oral communication practice

According to the nature of communication above, in order to raise the learners’ communicative competence, English should be used in real communication in the classroom as much as possible (Davies & Pearse, 2000) Indeed, there exist differencies between oral practice in the classroom and oral communicative practice outside the classroom Pattison (1987) points out the characteristics of typical oral practice which the teacher and the learners use inside the classroom and which foreign and native speakers communicate outside the classroom (figure 2) The differences produce necessary information to make sense of oral practice in the classroom

List 1 FL (oral) practice

in the classroom

List 2 FL (oral) communication outside the classroom WHAT: Content of communication

Content or topic is decided by teacher,

textbook, tape, etc The content is highly

predictable

Speakers express freely They are aware

of the meaning conveyed The exact content is unpredictable

WHY 1: Reason for communication

Learners speak because the teacher asks Speakers want to enhance their social or

them to do, because they want to practise

English, because they hope to get good

mark, etc

personal relationship, to fill an information gap, or the information mentioned is interesting and useful to the participants

WHY 2: Result for communication

The “extrinsic motivation” is achieved as

the FL is practiced; the teacher corrects

or accepts, etc

The “intrinsic motivation” is satisfied when the aims are reached, when a social contact is created, when a gap is filled, etc

WHO: Participants in communication

Not everyone pays attention to what is

expressed except for the teacher who is

concerned about how well the learners

are speaking

Several people face each other, are interested in the conversation, respond to what is said rather than how well the participant are speaking

HOW: Means of communication

Language is adapted to learners’ level

All speech is accurate as possible and

completed sentences Learners are

controlled to use standard forms

Problems in communicating meaning are

solved by translation

Native-speaker output is adjusted to foreigners’ level Meaning is made by any means at the speakers’ command Errors not affecting communication are usually ignored Problems are dealt with

by negotiation and exchange of feedback between speakers

Figure 2 Oral communication practice (adapted from Pattison, 1987)

An overview of the nature of communication and of oral communicative practice draws a theoretical background to help the teachers design appropriate oral activities in the classroom Therefore, the learners have chances to practise speaking in the teacher’s controlled way in order to reach naturally purposeful communication Hedge (2000, p.57) believes: “If the development of communicative language ability is the goal of classroom learning, communicative practice must be part of the process”

In the next section, a review of oral communicative activities helps the

readers understand speaking in a communicative classroom

2.2.3 Oral communicative activities

Many theorists discuss classroom activities and design some kinds of activities Nolasco and Arthur (1988) state that oral communicative activities are developed according to the characteristics of oral communicative activities, as follows:

In the light of the characteristics above, researchers (Davies, 2000; Hedge, 2000; Johnson, 1995; Larsen–Freeman, 1986; Littlewood, 1992; Pattison, 1987; Richards & Rodger, 1986) and the others suggest some kinds of activities They include role-play and simulation, discussion, communicative games, problem-solving activities, and talking about yourself

2.2.3.1 Role–play and simulation

The students are asked to pretend to be another role in real life situations such as a customer in a shop, an accountant in a company, a tourist at a travel agency, an interviewer or an interviewee in an interview for a job, etc so that they get accustomed to the situations Hedge (2000) proposes:

_ They (communicative activities) involve using language for a

purpose

_ They create a desire to communicate This means there must be

some kind of ‘gap’ which may be information, opinion, affect or

reason which students seek to bridge

_ They encourage students to be creative and contribute their ideas

_ They focus on the message and students concentrate on ‘what’ they

are saying rather than ‘how’ they are saying it

_ The students work independently of the teacher

_ The students determine what they want to say or write The activity

is not designed to control what the students will say (p.59)

The idea of a simulation is to create the pretence of a real–life

situation in the classroom: students ‘simulate’ the real

world…what we are trying to do artificially of course – is to give

Role-play and simulation give the learners chances to improve skill and creativity for they have to try to express themselves in the most efficient and practical way in order to achieve the goal Moreover, the students, even timid students, become talkative because they are not corrected directly by the teacher and because it is easier to talk to friends or to act the others’ roles than to be themselves in front of the teacher As Sasse (1999) affirms:

The greatness behind role-playing is that it masks the person

It unlocks creative doors and provides an out-let for

expression without asking for embarrassing personal

revelations (p.4)

In fact, role-play and simulation make the classroom active and interesting Nevertheless, the teacher must be sufficient at English and have experience to manage the class

2.2.3.2 Discussion

In a discussion activity, the learners are usually arranged in groups Hedge (2000) states that before discussions take place, the teacher must spend the three stages like put students in group first, give students a chance to prepare, give students a task In the first stage, the students should be divided into groups so that they work in “a less threatening environment than in front of the class” Besides, the teacher has a chance to evaluate whether the topic makes the students interesting Then, the teacher should give the students a chance to prepare The students need time to prepare what they are going to talk and to discuss And the last stage is to give the students a task It is a good way to show the students a task which is thought to be part of the discussion process

The discussion gets successful only when the teacher knows how to manage the class Discussion activities give the students opportunities to improve their fluency and strategies which are required in interpersonal communication (Hedge, 2000) This activity usually gets the students involved in, so the teacher must recognize when the activity should stop

2.2.3.3 Communicative Games

Communicative Games play a crucial role to enhance communicative competence They are designed according to the principle of information gap When a conversation takes place, the speaker usually has a communicative purpose and the listener is involved in discovering what the purpose is Communicative games give the learners chances to put themselves in situations

so that they have to use their language to finish a “game-like task” (Hedge, 2000)

In order to process games, the teacher must understand rules and produce the clear instructions She/he should choose the games suitable for the students’ level so that they are motivated to use their English in games According to Rivers (1983), communicative games make the classroom enjoyable and natural, and encourage the learners to focus on meaning rather than on form of utterance

2.2.3.4 Problem-solving activities

Games as well as problem-solving activities are used in the class to facilitate communicative skills The students are arranged in pairs or in groups; then, they talk together to find out a solution for a problem or task given These activities concentrate on communication, not on pattern or structure Problem-solving tasks can be easily adapted to learners at different levels of language

Nation (1991) divides steps in making problem-solving tasks into four ones as focusing on a learning goal and a topic; deciding on the problem and its type of outcome; specifying the context; and splitting the information and assigning roles

In Nation’s (1991) opinion, a very important feature of problem-solving tasks which gets the students involved in is to reach a number of language learning goals The problem-solving activities stimulate the students to talk and

to listen to the others As a result, the interaction among students increases and communicative purpose is gained

2.2.3.5 Talking about yourself

Harmer (1991) affirms that the student is a “whole person”; therefore, teaching including teaching language and helping students to “develop themselves as people” leads to a number of teaching methodologies and techniques The “talking about yourself” task is made on the basis of the students’ lives and feelings in order to get “interpersonal exchanges” This activity should start at the beginning of the class as a way to warm up or to make the class atmosphere exciting and positive

It is concluded that “talking about yourself” activity is a kind of information gap Using English to seek information from the others’ lives and feelings is also

a way to motivate the students

In brief, the oral communicative activities above do not cover all activities used in the classroom; they are mainly concentrated on the activities suitable for stimulating the learners' natural communication The implementation of CLT in teaching speaking which encourages the learners to develop their communication in the classroom creates a foundation for communication in the

real communication outside Nevertheless, when adapting CLT in the classroom, the teacher must recognize the factors to make CLT flexible to fit the context Larsen-Freeman (2000, p.65) declares: “It questions the assumption that a method that is suitable in one part of the world is appropriate for all parts of the world.”

2 3 Summary

CLT is such a “prominent phenomenon” in language teaching that many linguists and researchers have been involved in for several decades A great number of studies, and articles concentrate on this event However, the literature cited in this review consists of what is related to the thesis The review indicates the language theory, language learning theories in relation to the foundation of CLT The mastery of theories helps the readers achieve further comprehension

of CLT

Many aspects of CLT are referred to so that further understanding of CLT is gained Firstly, a general concept of CLT is displayed Next, the characteristics

of CLT are analyzed, and communicative competence is presented On the basis

of the literature concerning CLT, the necessary conditions for implementing CLT

in a classroom is analyzed with a view to helping appropriate evaluation of CLT

in a context

In addition, through the presentation of the nature of communication, oral communication practice and activities, the role of CLT in teaching speaking is clarified It is maintained that the CLT should be taught in integrated skills This thesis, however, only focuses on speaking skill since it is right that one particular skill can be emphasized more than the rest