Strategies for coping with face to face oral communication problems employed by english major students at tay do university

i TAY DO UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE Logo Đại Học Tây Đô STRATEGIES FOR COPING WITH FACE-TO-FACE ORAL COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS EMPLOYED BY ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS A

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TAY DO UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE

(Logo Đại Học Tây Đô)

STRATEGIES FOR COPING WITH

FACE-TO-FACE ORAL COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS EMPLOYED BY ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY

Student’s name:NGUYEN THI NGOC TRAM

Student’s code: 1652220201072

Class: Bachelor of English 11B

Supervisor: PHAN THI MINH UYEN, MA

May 2020

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

My research could not be finished without the help of a lot of people I would like to give my profound gratitude to all those who helped me to complete this research

First of all, I would like to express my honest gratitude to my supervisor, MA Phan Thi Minh Uyen She was very friendly and enthusiastic, showed me good directions and gave me helpful advice for me during the busy time Thanks to her instructions and advice, I could prepare the proposal more easily and quickly Moreover, she was very whole-hearted when she helped me to disentangle the difficulties that I could not resolve during the progress of the study

Secondly, I would like to send my sincere thanks to the University of Tay Do, especially, the teachers of Faculty of Linguistics and Literature for bringing me opportunities to study and conduct the research

Finally, I want to give my deep gratefulness to my family and friends for supporting

me the best condition and encouraging me throughout the years of studying

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COMMENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i

COMMENTS ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

ABSTRACT iv

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 The significance of study 2

1.3 The organization of the study 2

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 3

2.1 What is communication ? 3

2.2 Definition of communication strategies 3

2.3 Difficulties in Communication in English 4

2.4 Four websites to improve English communication skills 5

2.5 Strategies for coping with face to face oral communication 6

CHAPTER III: RESEACH AIM - RESEACH QUESTION - HYPOTHESIS 7

3.1 Reseach aims 7

3.2 Reseach questions 7

CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 8

4.1 Design 8

4.2 Participants 8

4.3 Instruments 8

4.3.1 Questionare 8

4.4 Procedure 9

CHAPTER V: EXPECTED OUTCOME 10

REFERENCE 11

QUESTIONNAIRE 12

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ABSTRACT

Nowadays, English is considered to be the most popular communication language Good command of English is an important goal of English teaching.Language learners can significantly improve their communicative competence by developing their ability

to use communication strategies or strategies for coping with face-to-face oral communication problems The current exploratively study focused much in natural investigation,which lead Tay Do students majoring in English cope with their face to face oral communication problems Therefore, the researcher decides to carry out the study about "Strategies for coping with face to face oral communication Problems employed by English major students at Tay Do university" The participants of this research are students of class Bachelor of English 12 (2017-2021) This study helps

students improve their communication skills, confident and communicate better

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the research would like to present the rationale, significance and the organization of the study

1.1 Rationale

Nowadays, society is more and more developing Vietnam is in the process of

integrating with other countries around the world In general, together with Vietnam’s joining the WTO in 2006 and the opening attitude towards foreign investors, the demand for employees who are good at communication in English is increasing English is considered as a tool for communication among people in the the world

Especially, communication in English is more and more important in life In addition,

Aladdin's study (2012) “found that communication strategies can be used to convey

messages and therefore, can improve students' communication in the target language”

English language students in general and English language students of Tay Do University in particular, they often have difficulty in face-to-face communication At Tay Do University, students' fluency in English communication skills is more and more important as the training aims of Bachelor of English major (2010) including:

"The ability to communicate confidently and fluently in multi-cultural communicative

environment"

However, many students of Tay Do University still have problems in English communication after they graduation from university Especially for English majored

at Tay Do university, they do not have opportunities to practice Speaking at high school That is the reason why students always feel worried, uncomfortable and unconfident when speaking English Listening and speaking play an important role in better communication Therefor, the researcher decides to study about " Strategies for coping with face to face oral communication problems employed by English major students at Taydo university"

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1.2 The significance of study

This research is designed in order to provide some coping strategies in students communicative skill The finding of the research is expected to help students communicate face to face better

1.3 The organization of the study

The research consists of five chapters

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Literature review

Chapter 3: Research Aim - Research Questions – Hypotheses

Chapter 4: Research Methodology

Chapter 5: Expected outcome

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents definitions of communication and communication difficulties Moreover, researchers provide methods and strategies to improve communication skills

2.1 What is communication ?

Communication is the act of conveying the information and massage of an object ( an individual or a group ) to another subject through the use of language, body language and communication rule that both parties understand The term "communication" has long been discussed by many researchers According to Karl (2000), the word

"communication" has its origin from the Latin verb communicare with the meaning "to share", "to make common" Merriam Webster dictionary defines it "a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior as communication" On the basis of information acquisition, the two parties will develop and adjust their goals and behaviors through mutual interaction to understand the same situation, have the same voice and get the most benefits be As defined in Tubbs (2003) 's book Human Communication:

Principles and Contexts, "communication is the process in which meaning is created

among two or more people" Communication is the activity of exchanging information

Communication achieve a certain purpose ,to establish awareness and interact with each other in the relationship between people and people

2.2 Definition of communication strategies

Communication is a tool for exchanging and receiving information Although,there are still many existing problems ,communication strategy is considered as a supportive method for better communication Strategy comes from the ancient Greek term " strategia " , used to refer to the tactics employed to defeat the enemy In the field of education, strategy is a tool to cope when problems arise Færch and Kasper (1983a,

p.36) define communication strategies as "potentially conscious plans for solving what

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to an individual presents itself as a problem in reaching a particular communicative goal." Besides, the communication strategies is defined by many researcher in different

perspectives Further, Canale (1983, p.10) sees communication strategies as "verbal

and non-verbal strategies that may be called into action to compensate for breakdowns

in communication due to limiting conditions in actual communication or to insufficient competence in one or more other areas of communicative competence, and to enhance the effectiveness of communication " Communication strategies are heavily used to

achieve better results In dialogue, communication strategies can bridge the language gap and knowledge between the talkers

2.3 Difficulties in Communication in English

Even people whose English is their mother tongue sometimes have difficulty communicating For English major students at Tay Do University, they often have difficulties in communicating

o English sounds : Vietnamese who learn English often make basic mistakes such

as swallowing sounds, having no stress, and speaking without intonation They are also easily confused when they do not understand what we are saying There are even some cases that are misleading due to our "Vietnamese" pronunciation

o English translation : Listening to English, translating into Vietnamese, moving backwards before speaking will take too much time This is the main reason why you sometimes can't keep up with the speaker's speed It is difficult to

express yourself fluently and fluently in your thoughts

o Vocabulary : the key requirement for good communication is vocabulary If the students vocabulary is too low, they cannot hear and speak well According to

Rubin and Thompson (1994) "vocabulary learning is at the heart of mastering a

foreign language" Besides, it is supported by Ur (1996) that "vocabulary is one

of the important thing to be taught in learning a foreign language because it

will be impossible to speak up without a variety of words".Students often lack

the necessary vocabulary when they are engaged in authentic communicative situations (Rabab'ah, 2003) In addition, vocabulary is very important when improving speaking skill If speakers do not have vocabulary, they cannot speak anything and do not understand what people say

o Pronunciation : Pronunciation skills are said to be difficult to learn due to the language barrier, Vietnamese inherent pronunciation other than English However, this is also a good decision which is important for whether you are good at English conversations or not A person who speaks well needs to pronounce the word clearly and knows how to use intonation in communication

suitably Celce Maurica (1996) also agrees that "there is a close link between

pronunciation and listening comprehension since the ability to perceive and produce speech requires the knowledge of the sound, intonation, stress pattern and how speech is organized" They think that pronunciation is not as important

as vocabulary If people do not pronunce correctly, people will not understand what the speaker says In addition, improving and developing pronunciation require a lot of time Therefore, if students want to be good English speaker, students should practice pronunciation regularly

o Speaking speed : You are more likely to swallow words the listener does not understand or cannot keep up If you speak too slowly, it will cause distraction

to the listener

2.4 Four websites to improve English communication skills

o www.spotlightenglish.com

o www.busuu.com

o www.voaspecialenglish.blogspot.com

o www.envid.com

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2.5 Strategies for coping with face to face oral communication

o Always remember and call your name noi

o Be confident

o Speak slowly and clearly

o Get straight to the point

o Please encouraged

o Always smile

o Listen to details

o Predict the content

o Use body language

CHAPTER III: RESEACH AIM - RESEACH QUESTION - HYPOTHESIS

In this chapter, the researcher would like present research aims, research questions and hypotheses

3.1 Reseach aims

The most important purpose of this study is to help English students of Tay Do University improve their face-to-face communication skills

3.2 Reseach questions

This research is required to answer the following researched questions:

1 Do English – major juniors at Tay Do university have problems in communication

in English?

2 What are common problems encountered by them in oral communication?

3 What do they do to deal with these difficulties?

3.3 Hypotheses

According to the literature and the research question, it is hypothesized that English studens of Tay Do University's communication skills will improve and develop from the benefits of coping strategies in communication It mean that they can find out and

solve their own problems to communicate English better

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CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the method of doing the study is presented It consists of the design, participants, instruments and the procedure

4.1 Design

The research is conducted to answer the research question and to test the hypotheses The researcher also wants to find out the difficult to communication of English language students at Tay Do university In this study, the researcher uses questionnaire

as tools to find the answers of the research question Besides, learners who are selected randomly as the participants to survey are required to take the questionnaire and interview

4.2 Participants

The participants of this research are students of class Bachelor of English 12 (2017-2021) at Tay Do university They come from different areas , both rural and urban They all speak Vietnamese as their first language and English is considered as their foreign language The students are equal level Most of them have not had much chance to communicate with native speakers

4.3 Instruments

The instruments of this study are the questionaire which is collected from students The researcher uses the questionaire as an instrument because it has more advantages

In this study, the information needs to be reliable Therefore, the researcher needs many instruments for the study Besides, these help the researcher get a lot of

information about the participants

4.3.1 Questionare

The questionaire includes 18 questions and is designed based on the research aims and research questions Strategies for coping with face to face oral communication Problems employed by English major students at Tay Do university