Graduation thesis major english language improving speaking skills for students in class 7

Trang 2 Ho Chi Minh City – 2019GRADUATION THESISMajorEnglish LanguageTopicIMPROVING SPEAKING SKILLS FORSTUDENTS IN CLASS 7/29 AND 7/30 –THE ASIAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL Trang 3 CERTIFICAT

Ho Chi Minh City – 2019

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I certify my authorship of the Bachelor’s Thesis submitted entitled:

“IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILLS FOR STUDENTS IN CLASS 7/29 AND 7/30 – THE ASIAN INTERNATIONAL

SCHOOL (AHS – CAO THANG CAMPUS)”

In terms of the statement of requirements for Thesis in Bachelor’s programs issued by The Saigon International University (SIU)

Ho Chi Minh City, July 2019

NGUYEN THI TUYET CHI

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I am NGUYEN THI TUYET CHI, hereby asseverate that this presented GraduationThesis is exclusively prepared by me without any copies from other works

I also verify that the thesis is only prepared for my academic requirement not for any other purposes It might not be used with the interest of the opposite party of the corporation

Ho Chi Minh City, July 2019

NGUYEN THI TUYET CHI

I had received many helps when I completed my Graduation Thesis

Keeping in mind, I would like to express my deepest sense of gratitude and specialthanks to Mr Nguyen Thanh Tuan, M.A, whose encouragement, guidance and willingnessmotivated me from the beginning to the end and supported me to finish this work On theone hand, I am using this opportunity to express my gratitude towards The SaigonInternational University (SIU) for providing me a professional learning environment andfacilities On the other hand, I would like to give the appreciation from the bottom of myheart to all professors in the English Language major for giving enthusiasm andsympathies to teach and lift me to be a better student as I am today Moreover, my limitedknowledge, shortcomings and mistakes cannot avoid so I expect to receive helpful advicesfrom professors to make this study more perfect

Besides, I am very grateful for the helps and supports from the managers andteachers at The Asian International Schools (AHS) By giving favorable conditions, I had alot of opportunities to work, experience and investigate my study Last but not least, I alsoextend my special thanks to students of class 7/29 and 7/30 for joining in my research andgiving me a great deal of valuable information which contribute the study

In conclusion, I truly hope this study will make senses to the secondary school students/ teachers at AHS in general, and to the class 7/29, 7/30 in specific in improving English Speaking skills

INSTRUCTOR’S COMMENTS

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Speaking fluently is one of the ambitions that English learners desire to achieve.For learners who learn English as a foreign language (EFL) or learn English as a secondlanguage (ESL), this aim is not that easy, they might have to face with a lot of difficultiesand need to find appropriate learning methods to make them enjoy their learning process.The objectives of this study are investigating the English speaking difficulties, troubles thatsecondary school students (grade 7) at The Asian International School (AHS) – Cao ThangCampus have; then, the researcher will reveal some effective teaching methods andpractical solutions for teachers to solve these problems and support students improvingtheir speaking abilities

Using the descriptive and analytic methods, the population in this study is 38students from two classes 7/29 and 7/30 at The Asian International School (AHS) – CaoThang Campus in the year 2019

Keywords: English Speaking skills, EFL, ESL, difficulties, solutions.

Major in English Language

The Saigon International University (SIU)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES 2

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 3

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 4

1 Statement of the Problem 4

2 Purpose of the Research 5

3 Significance of the Research 5

4 Research Questions 5

5 Limitation 6

6 The Scope of the Research 6

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 7

1 Definitions of Key Terms 7

1.1 What is English Speaking skill? 7

2 Review Previous Work 9

1.3 Some Difficulties of Secondary School Students in English Speaking skills 10

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 18

1 Research Design 18

2 Research Procedures 18

3 Participants 19

4 Sample Selection 21

5 Material Techniques 21

6 Data Selection 22

7 Reliability and Validity 22

8 Summary 23

CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 24

1 Results from the questionnaire 24

1.1 Research question 1 24

1.2 Research question 2 25

1.3 Research question 3: 26

1.4 Research question 4 28

1.5 Research question 5 29

1.6 Research question 6 30

1.7 Research question 7 32

1.8 Research question 8 33

2 Summary 35

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 36

1 Conclusion 36

2 Recommendations for Further Research 37

3 Summary 37

REFERENCES 38

APPENDIX 41

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1: Students’ perceived the most difficult skills in English subject p.25

Chart 2: Students’ interests in learning English Speaking lessons p.26

Chart 3: Students’ frequency of English speaking at school p.27

Chart 4: Students identified the most difficulty in English speaking p.28

Chart 5: Students’ opinion whether environment is the most important factors helping themimprove speaking skills p.29

Chart 6: Students’ views about the integration of listening skills and speaking skills p.30Chart 7: Students indicated the best way to develop English Speaking skills p.32

Chart 8: Students indicated the most effective teaching aids to enhance their speaking abilities p.34

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AHS: The Asian International School

SIU: The Saigon International University

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ESL: English as a Second Language

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Statement of the Problem

It is the fact that English is the global language or the international language According to a quick Google search, there are 1.5 billion people reported to speak English – make up 20% of the Earth’s population However, just about 360 million people around the world speaking English as their first or mother language (Lyon, 2017) In addition to being globally spoken, English is by far the most commonly studied foreign language all over the world

Speaking is the second of the four language skills which are Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing They said that speaking is one of the most challenging, exciting, and positive learning experiences that English learner may ever have Moreover, through speaking skills learners will have a lot of opportunities to improve knowledge, self-

confidence, critical-thinking skills, listening skills, organization thoughts, use of posture and voice, and improvement in giving and accepting constructive criticism In addition, people have more changes and able to success in many careers in many fields when they have good or excellent English speaking skills

It might be difficult for people who learn English as a second language (ESL) to speak naturally and fluently They may find it is their greatest fears to communicate or talking in English As the secondary students learning in International environment, class 7/29 and 7/30 of The Asian International School (AHS) – Cao Thang Campus have been told to have better opportunities and environment in learning English After 12-week internship being English teacher, working, researching and investigating with students in

these classes, this study proposes some difficulties of class 7/29 and 7/30 - AHS in

Speaking skills and some specific solutions to solve these problems

2 Purpose of the Research

With the important of speaking skills mentioned above, this study is researching thefactors behind common speaking difficulties that face secondary school students at class 7/29 and 7/30 - The Asian International School (AHS) – Cao Thang Campus Besides that,

it seeks to investigate some effective solutions and teaching methods that teacher can apply

in the lectures to solve students’ speaking difficulties, as well as improving theirs abilities

in speaking English

3 Significance of the Research

Considering as one of the productive skills that studiers should improve, speaking

is very important and very challenging skill As secondary school students who learn English as a second language, communicate fluently in English might hard to a large number of students in class 7/29 and 7/30 - The Asian International School (AHS) – Cao Thang Campus This is my recent research, which indicates some difficulties of these students in speaking process and some specific solutions to solve these problems

4 Research Questions

Based on the problem statement mentioned above, this study is an attempt to find

1 What are the difficulties that the students of class 7/29 and 7/30 – The Asian

International School (AHS) – Cao Thang Campus have in English Speaking skills?

2 Why do they have these problems?

3 What are effective solutions that help these students improve their abilities in English Speaking skills?

5 Limitation

This study is a result of 12-week internship and research at The Asian International School (AHS) – Cao Thang Campus The present work will not cover all of the secondary students of AHS, due to time limit and other factors This research is just focuses on two classes 7/29 and 7/30

6 The Scope of the Research

This work focuses on students in two classes 7/29 and 7/30 – The Asian

International School (AHS) – Cao Thang Campus, which includes 38 students This study

is using useful techniques and procedures to find out the difficulties and solutions for the students of class 7/29 and 7/30 – AHS in English Speaking skills To obtain correct results,descriptive analytical methodology and a questionnaire are used

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the researcher will present the theoretical backgrounds which relevant to the core and objectives of the study In addition, the definitions, theories and significances of English Speaking skills are first described Thus, following some relating studies and resources from many reliable authors, the factors causing difficulties and specific solutions in English speaking will be shown This chapter ends with the conceptualframework of the study

1.1 What is English Speaking skill?

1.1.1 What is Speaking?

According to Oxford learner’s dictionaries, the definition of speak includes talking

to somebody about something, having a conversation with somebody In another

definition, speak is to describe or mention, people speaking of/about something/somebody

Mohammed (2015) defined speaking is the delivery of language through the mouth.The author stated in his study: “To speak a particular language, people make sounds or voices by many parts of the body, which consist of the lungs, vocal tract, vocal chords, tongue, teeth and lips” Beside that, speaking language is also supported by non-verbal communication such as body language (gestures, eye-contact or facial expressions)

At least one listener can be required in this vocalized form of language The

conversation is called a “dialogue” when two or more people talk or speak to each other Inthis form of dialogue, the speech can transfer naturally from one person to another In

addition, in a presentation or speech, people can also plan, prepare or rehearse On the other hand, people can even speak to themselves without partners/ listeners.

Speaking can be formal or informal:

- Formal speaking is typical used in academic or business situations, or in talking with people for the first time

- Informal speaking often occurs in daily/ normal situations when talking with family, friends and people who the speakers know well

1.1.2 What is English Speaking skill?

Brown (1994) pointed out that speaking is an interactive process of conducting meaning, which involves producing, receiving and processing information

Mohammed (2015) defined in his research that speaking is considered as one of themost important and challenging skill as well as the most common way to building and creating interpersonal relations

Nadir (2016) stated that besides knowing well some specific points of language likevocabulary, pronunciation, grammars or structures, English learners need to improve their speaking skills abilities as far as speech habits to gain success of any exchange

Speaking skills are the ability to talk at any time and in any situation To have goodspeaking skills, speakers need to use public techniques and practices As a result of having good speaking skills and verbal power, people are able to express or transfer their means, ideas, opinions or wishes Thus, they are able to establish, gain good connection with others, and become sociable

1.2 Difficulty definition

Difficulty is generally not being easy, or being hard to do, overcome or understand (definitions from Cambridge Dictionary) A difficulty is also a problem, a thing that is hard

to accomplish, deal with

1.3 Solution definition

According to Business Dictionary, solution can be understood as ways to solve problems or deal with difficult situations A solution can be either simple or complex and may require few resources or many resources

2 Review Previous Work

It is the fact that speaking skills are very essential For people who speak English astheir mother language or as their second language, speaking skills might be the most challenging skills they might ever experience

Following these facts, this research conducts common difficulties that secondary school students (class 7/29 and 7/30 – The Asian International School – Cao Thang

Campus) have in English Speaking skills and specific solutions to solve these problems, which be shown in the following paragraphs

2.1 The Importance of English Speaking skills

According to Mohammed (2015), speaking skills are considered as a fundamental skill which essential for people success in life Additionally, learners can figure out their improvements in language learning by judging how better they feel in their spoken Englishabilities As Wilson (1979) claimed students who good at transfer their opinions, ideas or thoughts into words have been found to be more successful in school The author also

stated that as a result of fluency speaking skills, students can enhance their abilities in otherlanguage skills such as listening, reading and writing skills because when learners listen, read or write, they apply what they have already known about the language orally

Moreover, Wilson (1979) said that through speaking/ talking, students are able to explore knowledge and reveal themselves

Speaking plays an important role for people to explore their own selves and clarify their identity Taking part in conversations, presentations or speech, learners are able to express their points of views, speak up their own thoughts or opinions confidently

Moreover, speaking also help people accomplish the challengeable situations through develop range of skills, strategies, attitudes, agencies, self-worth, learning management and personalizing learning (Jehan, 2014)

Mohammed (2015) explained that mastering in English speaking is required for professional purpose such as doing international business, diplomatic jobs and for higher studies Jehan (2014) said that good speaking skills assist people in their life a lot; for example: travel, career success, promotion, scholarships, international meetings/ events/ conferences

2.2 Some Difficulties of Secondary School Students in English Speaking skills

2.2.1 Lack of environments

Hiphiphurahura (2017) defined that the environment is the very first reason that causes difficulty for students in speaking English Bad environment does not support the students speak frequently The environment here means any places and people around students, such as schools, families, teachers, parents, friends, or the people outside the

class Making this more clearly, students practice speaking English not only at English classes, but also at anytime and at anywhere like outside the classes, at home or in daily life.

Shiva (2018) stated that: “The environment plays a huge role while learning English” In non-English environment, learners may learn bad habits if they speak

regularly with speakers who cannot speak English really well, so that they ought to be careful and find a good environment to learn English

2.2.2 Lack of confidence

According to Berger (2015), the degree of confidence, called self-confidence, is thetrust or faith that people have in themselves and their abilities Self-esteem is the opinion people have in themselves

Dornyei (2011) stated that student’s lack of confidence usually occurs when they realize that people they talk to cannot get their means or when they do not understand others speakers Building student’s confidence is an important part, so teachers should alsolearn both theories and practical experiences on how to build the student’s confidence

2.2.3 Lack of vocabulary

It is the fact that vocabulary plays an important role in learning language and is one

of factors that support students for mastering language, these statements are supported by Hornby (1953) in Yuniarti (2011), “vocabulary is the vital aspect of the language”

Moreover, River (1970:462) believes that “it would be impossible to learn a language without vocabulary”

Without vocabulary, students cannot communicate well, or cannot understand the conversation clearly In addition, vocabulary is an essential element of language for

learners to build up communications, expand their ideas or send their messages to people they talk to It proves that more vocabulary learners have, the better speaking skills they attain

In contrast with the explanations above, there are many secondary school students who still have troubles with vocabulary Lacking of vocabulary, some students could not understand the tasks/ exercises, they still ask their teachers to translate the tasks/ questions into their first language (Vietnamese) On the other hand, some students could understand what others say but they could not respond to them by speaking English In the recent study, Eva (2017) said that: “When the students try to speaking English in a good way theymust master the vocabulary as much as they can They have to memorize it and to

memorize the vocabulary is not easy”

Asking the students from two classes 7/29 and 7/30 of The Asian International School (AHS) about learning vocabulary, they responded that they feel lazy and quite difficult to memorize the words A numerous students reported that they were interested in English speaking, but their vocabulary was limited

2.2.4 Fear of making mistakes

According to American Psychological Association, shyness is the tendency to feel awkward, worried or tense during social encounters, especially with unfamiliar people Normally, shy people may have negative feelings about themselves and worries about how others view or judge them

With regard to the fear of making mistakes, Borwen (2005) stated that some shy students are caused by their personalities that they are very quiet As a result, the learners often feel shy and tend to scare or nervous when making conversation in English because most of them find it very threatening

In other study, Saurik (2011) identified that some English learners feel scare when practice speaking, they afraid that they will make lot of mistakes when they talk These students are also afraid of being laughed or being misunderstood by friends or people they talk to due to low abilities and bad speaking skills

2.2.5 Pronunciation mistakes

Following up a study by Tien Dung (2014), he stated that: “Vietnamese speakers come across various difficulties in learning English pronunciation” There are a lot of difficulties that Vietnamese students could face with In his study, he said that: “The complications of vowels, particularly between tense and lax vowels in English can be tough to learn On the other hand, the differences between consonant positions, consonant clusters, word and tones lead Vietnamese students of English to meet a large number of difficulties” Therefore, pronunciation is a huge problem for Vietnamese students in learning and communicating in English

According to Trung Hieu (2011), most of Vietnamese students know English grammar very well, and even get high marks in examinations In contrast, their speaking or

communication skills are not very good They tend to avoid speaking in English because they are afraid of making pronunciation mistakes

2.3 Solutions to Improve English Speaking skills

2.3.1 Improve Speaking skills through Listening skills

“Listening” includes recognizing the sounds of speeches (stress, letters, rhythm, pauses or intonations) and converting them into words and sentences that mean something through the ears In any language, people need to pay attention and concentrate to listen Relating to this statement, people are required to focus more than ever when adapting a second/ foreign language

It is the fact that listening skill and speaking skill have a strict connection Like a baby, before we can speak, we listen to other people who already know speaking the language Not only do people learn how to speak just only one language (their mother/ firstlanguage), but also do they learn two to three languages at the same time through listening.They call these people are bilinguals To successfully adapt new languages, listening to a diversity of accents and voices is very important

Saci (2013) defined the integration between listening and speaking:

“communication will occur when both a speaker and a listener must take parts in it throughinteracting and negotiating verbally”

Mohammed (2015) said learners need improving strong listening skills if they want

to speak English fluently On the one hand, listening helps people understand what others say On the other hand, this skill also assists learners speak clearly to others While

developing listening skills, students have opportunities to study how to pronounce words correctly, learn the using of intonation and stress in individual words and sentences

2.3.2 Improve the environments to enhance English Speaking skills

Sukhneet (2017), stated that people who living or learning in the English-speaking environment have better opportunities to enhance better or native-like accent, as well as

improve vocabulary Communicating in English-speaking environment is a practical way

to acquire the perfection to the level of the mother tongue Moreover, it provides learners changes to confirm pronunciation and grammar, improves motivations

As reported by The Asian International School (AHS), students have an

environment to study with self-awareness and without inhibition Students are encouraged

to reflect independently and confidently to develop both their knowledge and personalities effectively As a result, students studying at this school have been provided better facilities,educational systems and training programs Learning at international environment, AHS students have greater opportunities to practice English speaking, not only in the English lessons, but also at anywhere and anytime, students are boosted to speak in English

because they have motivations when everyone use English in this school

2.3.3 Use games as teaching aid to improve English Speaking skills

Game is an activity that gives entertainment and amusements In teaching

procedures, there are a lots of games designed with the purposes that provide students knowledge as well as amusements There are a classification of games for teaching

materials: picture games, psychology games, magic tricks, sound games, card and board games, word games, true-false games, memory games, caring and sharing games, guessing and speculating games, story games, etc (Novia, Machdalena & Zuranda (2016)

Games are considered effective methods to support students learn better by giving amusements; thus, enhance students’ abilities in language skills Contributing to this, Poulsen (2010) defined: “playing a game is an activity that enhancing skill use to solve the obstacle and playing a game is also basically a learning experience” Games also give a lot

of benefits such as motivating students to win the game, giving encouragement to be confident, optimistic According to Smith (2008), “Games can also help students master the skills useful throughout life, such as: teamwork, competition, strategy, problem

solving, victory, and retention”

2.3.4 Use videos, films, movies to develop English Speaking skills

According to Canning (2000), “video is at best defined as the selection and

sequence of messages in an audio-visual context”

Videos, firms or movies give very great advantages to both students and teachers With the modern life people living nowadays, education systems encourage teachers to usevideos as a teaching aid due to its positive benefits

Following to this, videos motivate students to take part in the lesson; students can learn and entertain at the same time, and they will enjoy their study process Especially, showing moving images supports learners who cannot read or write well

Thus, this method is convenient and can be control such as pausing and rewinding Harmer (2001) said that “to same people videotape is merely a glorified version of

audiotape, and the use of video in class is just listening with pictures”

2.3.5 Create speaking habits

It is necessary to create speaking habits if learners want to be eloquent in English speaking Practicing speaking as much as people can both inside and outside classrooms is

needed to helps students improve their abilities, skills then they are able to express

themselves in a second/ foreign language

Following Jehan (2014), there are some aspects of speaking: speaking face-to-face, interactive speaking, speaking in real time Learner can choose any kinds of those to practice speaking Besides, practicing speaking frequently helps students enhance their speaking skills by teacher correction, student-to-student correction and self-correction

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides an overview of the research design, as well as full description

of research tools/ implements that were used to collect the data and conduct the entire research The researcher will discuss on the subject, instruments of the data collection Besides, the procedures of analyzing and collecting the data are given Finally, the chapter concludes with the validity and the reliability and the ethical issues

1 Research Design

This research followed the quantitative method for data collection and analysis To direct investigation towards research objectives, the using of both quantitative research andquestionnaires were implied to find out the difficulties and specific solutions in English Speaking skills among the target population (class 7/29 and 7/30 – The Asian International School (AHS) – Cao Thang Campus in English Speaking skills)

According to Labaree (2009), quantitative research gives priority to objective measurements and the mathematical, statistical, or numerical analysis of data collected This method concentrates on gathering information and data by questionnaires, polls or surveys The advantages of quantitative method include reliable/ validity and accuracy results, quick data collection, wider scope of data analysis and eliminating bias (Adi (2010)

2 Research Procedures

The research began on February 27th, 2019, when the researcher knew theinstructors who will support and guide she to complete thesis paper Meeting up theinstructor, Mr Nguyen Thanh Tuan, M.A, the schedule was designed:

- Week 1, 2 and 3: Finished writing Chapter 1, 2 and Correction

- Week 4 and 5: Finished writing Chapter 3, 4 and Correction

- Week 6: Finished Chapter 5 and Correction

- Week 7 and 8: Meetings

The study’s goals are: identifying the difficulties and finding specific solutions inEnglish Speaking skills among the target population (class 7/29 and 7/30 – The AsianInternational School (AHS) – Cao Thang Campus in English Speaking skills) To achievethese aims, the researcher followed these steps:

- The first step, the researcher determined the study’s target, found the questions ofthe study Thus, the participants who should be on the list of questioning werechosen

- Secondly, the researcher worked on the content (Chapter two: Literature Review) ofthe thesis by collecting many relevant studies from reliable researchers and othervalidity resources combine with her experiences and investigations when working

at AHS as English teacher

- Thirdly, the questionnaires were designed in other to collect information and datafrom chosen participants that contribute the study