Luận văn teaching speaking skills for the first year students at thai nguyen college of economics and technology

TAST OF ABBREVIATIONS, TNC-ET: Thai Nguyen College of Economies and Technology GE: General English PPP: Proseniation, Practice and Production ESP; English for Specific Purposes TTT:

(DẠY KỸ NẴNG NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỦ NHẬT TRƯỜNG CAO RANG

KINH TR KỸ THUẬT THÁI NGUYÊN : CÁC VĂN ĐỀ VÀ GỚI Ý GIẢI QUYẾT)

M.A MINOR THESES:

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410

Thai Nguyen - 2012

4 Scope of the stuủy

5, Organization of the study

1.3 The roles of speaking skills

1.3.1, Teaching speaking skills on Vietmamese teachers’ view 1

Chapter 2: RESEARCH METHODS

2.1 The reality of teaching and learning English speaking skills al

‘Thai Nguyen College of Economics and ‘Technology

2.1.1, Overview of the English course and iis objectives 14

2.1.3 Description of the teachers

2.2 The research methods

2.3 Data analysis

2.31 Procedure of ihe survey 18 2.3.2 Presentation of the statistical resutts - .19

Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

3.2 Recommendations

3.2.1 Overview veces cosets tis cie cesses 34 3.2.2 Suggested solutions for the situation at the college 35 3.2.3 Some teaching strategies for the teaohes 36 3.2.4, Some suggested activities in speaking loss0ns 38

PART C: CONCLUSION

TAST OF ABBREVIATIONS,

TNC-ET: Thai Nguyen College of Economies and Technology

GE: General English

PPP: Proseniation, Practice and Production

ESP; English for Specific Purposes

TTT: Teacher talking time

STT: Student talking time

LT: English language teaching

No of students: Number of students

No of teachers: Number of teachers

MA: Master of Arts

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Speaking activities and topics designed for New Headway Elementary

‘Table 2: Students’ opinion on learning English

Table 3: The reasons that make students unwilling to speak in English class

Table 4: Students’ assessment of speaking activities given by teachers

Table 5: Teachers’ English communicative competence

Table 6: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking at TNC-ET

Table 7: What teachers do to motivale sinderds Lo speak in Frglish class

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationales of the study

The main reason for choosing this topic for my thesis was realizing how important speaking Jinglish is in every day situations Speaking a foreign language represents one of the essential requirements of today's saciety No one can deny the universality of Hnglish Outside English-speaking countries, Knglish has become a compulsory component of education in many countries This trend also applies in

Viemam At many schools and universities, English is chosen as a compulsory subject for students as English is considered to be a useful tool to access the world

imowledge It is considered as one of the most influencing factors while applying

for a job or sustaimmg in a particular work position under the condition of

advancing the language level However, though the importance of English has been recognized, how it is taught can often be questioned

When we were sludents before, we learnt in traditional ways-tcachers read, explained grammar units and students copied, took notes ‘The teaching of oral English was especially neglected with my former teachers I had very little cmphasis in schools at secondary level on teaching oral English In the uppor grades, even at my university, educators tended to particularly focus on reading, writing, and academic content, and diminish the importance of helping students to speak Fnglish better And now we become teachers, standing in front of new students and transmit a foreign language to them We really want to make a better effect In my college, Thai Nguyen College of Ecanomics and Technology (TNC- RT), students accumulaie 6 credits of English out of total credits for ant undergraduate degree The proportion of English compared to other subjects, then,

is velatively small The requirement, however, aller they graduate, is equal to level

B in language cducation Those people are required to reach a sufficient level in a foreign language in order to accomplish communication in their jobs ‘hat means the coviculums must emphasize on oral communication How we can do it when it

is is surprising to learn that many of the students are incapable of using their English to talk, even in class We now mainly spend time talking with students

about a particular topic and making sure they know vocabulary words connected

wilh thal Lopic as a preview to reading a passage or a slory We consider thal is all

about teaching oral English We have had numerous studies on this situation and

various solutions, recommendations and suggestions, including changing teaching

methods, changing syllabus or textbooks, upgrading teachers’ qualifications,

changing formats of speaking tests and sa on But what is the main difficulty and

where we can find suitable solutions for the silualion we cncourilcr everyday are the questions that urge me to make my writing about this matter My research is conducted on Teaching speaking skills to first- year students at Thai Nguyen

College of Economivs and Technology problems and recommendations

2 Aims of the study

The study is aimed at:

Investigating the current Linglish speaking teaching and leaming situations of the first-year students at TNC-ET on the basis of finding out rolevanl difficul

© Suggesting some realistic and appropriate class leaching techniques wilh the hope that they can enhance the leamers in speaking skills

3 Research questions

‘The above aims can be realized through the following, research questions

1 What are the problems in teaching and learning speaking skills for the first-

year students at TNC-ET?

2 How can teachers and students minimise these difficulties?

4, Scope of the study

Although problems in teaching practices in my college exist in the four macro-skills, we have chosen to focus on difficulties in teaching speaking skills to

first-year students at TNC-LT for the fact that mastering speaking is so central to

language leaming that when we refer to speaking a language, we olen mean

Jmowing a language In addition, some recommendations for the teachers of Lnglish

to decrease those difficulties are also proposed Also, due to the researcher’s limited

ability, time constrains and marrow-scaled study, this stusly only involves a small

number of TNC-ET non-English students in their first academic year (1e., 50 first-

year students of 24 semester)

5 Organization of the study

The study consists of three parts Part A, Introduction, deals with peneral

rationales of the study, anus of the study, roscarch questions, seope of the study, and the

outline of the stady Part B, Development, is composed of three chapters Chapter One,

Theoretical Background, reviews the theoretical literature involving the difficulties in

teaching speaking skill to non-English major students in three relating arcas: mature of oral communication; the difficulties in teaching and leaming English speaking skills, and

the roles of speaking skills in the views of teachers and students Chapter Two, Research

Methods, mentions the concrete reality of teaching and lcaming speaking skills at TNC-

HI, methods of the study and data analysis Chapter ‘Ihree, Findings and

Recommendations, presents and discusses the problems just [ound oul m teaching the

skill of speaking to first-year students of English at TNC-ET including the difficulties caused by ‘teachers themselves, students and objective factors It also gives the

recommendations and activities in reducing those difficulties suggested by the

patticipants of the study ‘the last part is the conclusion of the study, which presents the

overview of the study Besides, the limitations of the thesis are pointed out and the areas for further study are also proposed

According to Bum & Joyce, 1997, "speaking" is the delivery of language

through the mouth To speak, we create sounds using many parts of our body,

including the lungs, vocal tract, vocal chords, tongue, teeth and lips In the framework of how we leam our first language language has been divided into dilfercul shall areas A child first leans to practice language through the skill of listening Later, a child uses language by speaking combined with listening ‘hen, wher scoot begins, children learn the skills of reading and wriling Se speaking is usually the second of the four language skills that we learn This vocalized form of, language usually requires at least one listener When two or more people speak or talk to each other, the conversation is called a "dialogue" Speech can flow naturally from one person te another in the form of dialogue it can also be planned and rehearsed, as in the delivery of a speech or presentation

Speaking can be formal or informal

+ Informal speaking is typically used with family and friends, or people you know well

» Formal speaking occws in business or academic situations, or when meeting people for the first time.

Speaking is probably the language skill that most language learners wish to perfect as soon as possible

1.1.2 Characteri:

cs of speaking

According to Bygale (1987), speakimg has the following characicristies:

Firstly, its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it ocours, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical

environment, and the purposes for speaking It is often spontaneous, open-ended,

and evolving

Secondly, the leamers must know how to produce specific points of language

such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary, bul also they understannl when,

why, and in what ways to produce language

Thirdly, speech has its own features, structures, and conventions different

from written language

Lastly, Bygate (1987) considers speaking as an undervalued skill in many

ways The reason is that almast all people can speak, and so take speaking skill too

tmuch for granted Bygate alsa highly appreciates speaking skill by stating that speaking is the medium through which much language is learnt

To sum up, it is undeniable that speaking is the key to communication Ry

considering what good speakers do, what speaking tasks can be uscd in class, and what specific needs learners report, teachers can help leamers improve their speaking and overall oral competency

1.1.3 Development approach in teaching speaking skills

Speaking 1m traditional methodologies usually meant repeating after the

teachers, memorizing a dialogue, or responding to drills.The emergence of

communication language teaching in the 1980s led to changed views of syllabuses and methodology, which are contimiing to shape approaches to teaching, speaking

skills today Grammar-based syllabuses were replaced by communicative ones built around notions, functions, skills, lasks, and other non-gramunatical urns of

organization Fluency became a goal for speaking courses and this could be

developed through the phases in teaching speaking skills thal required learners to

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attempt real communication, despite limited proficiency in English Therefore, it is

essential that language teachers pay great attention to teaching speaking Rather

than leading students to pure memorization, providing a rich environment where

meaningful counnunication lakes place is desired Wilh Uhis aim, the following part will search the three main phases for an effective speaking lesson: Presentation

phase, Produce phase and Production phase

In the Presentation phase, the teacher is a model, when students are aiming,

for accuracy The teacher says new language and asks students to repeat until they

are correel and conlident wilh their pronungiation of the new language

‘The teacher is a prompt during the Practice phase, encouraging students to think about how to use the new language they are learning

During the Production phase, the teacher is organizer, oncourager and

monitor as students work in pairs or groups to practice fluency He needs to

organize the groups, encourages students who may be afraid of making mistakes or may not know what to say, and be a mountor to keep the noise at an acceptable level and to make sure that everyone is doing what they are supposed to do

Baker and Westrup (2003) denote some important features of the Presentation

phase ofa PPP lessor

- This phase should only last about 5 or 10 minutes

- The information the teacher gives is for students to use later in the lesson

- The teacher should try to involve sladents in (his slage as much as possible When presenting new language, it is important to inolude four things:

© What the new language means,

* When the new language is normally used:

+ ‘the grammatical form;

«The pronungialion of the new language, that is, the sounds and stress and the

Students need a lot of practice in using the new language they have leamt in the Presentation phase The Practice phase is a main part of a lesson, which can also

include practice in listening, reading and writing During the Practice phase of a

lesson, teacher will work with the students to praclive speaking in different ways at different stages’

* Controlled practice stage

* Guided or less controlled practice stage

At the beginning, the teacher controls everything students say and corrects the

yronuncialion, senlonice construction and use of the language Later, slndents should

do activities with less help and control from the teacher They practice the language

in pairs or groups, but now the teacher only guides the activities The teacher still monitor the work, walking quiclly around the paizs or groups, listening, sometimes correcting and making sure students know what they have to do At the end, students should be able to use the new language reasonably well, and to speak mare fluontly using the language they have leamt

Once students have had an opportunity to practice speaking during the Practice

phase, they should be ready to concentrate on speaking fluently with little direction

from the teacher This is the Production phase of the lessor During this phase, students focus on becoming more fluent The teacher's task is to prepare the

students well during the Presentation and Practice phases and to set up interesting

and motivaling activities, followed by useful [cedhack and correction, for the

Production phase

To build students‘ confidence, the teacher can suggest thal they can use their

first language for a group discussion about the activity Thon, they can toll the class

or other groups about their ideas in inglish hey can gather their ideas easily and

quickly im their first language, and (hen cormmusicate Lem in English to the test ol”

need good preparation and support before the Production phase to help them to do this successfully

1.2 Difficulties in teaching and learning speaking skills

Basing on Larsen-Frecman’s views, dillicullics im language teaching in general and difficulties in teaching English speaking skills in particular are

exammed from (eachers, students together with objective factors affecting the

teaching process

1.2.1 Difficulties from teachers' view

- Inappropriate teacher pedaugagical practices

As Nunan (1991) points out: ‘Teacher talk is of crucial importance, not only for the organization of the classroom but also for the processes of acquisition It is important for the organization and management of the classroom because il is through language that teachers either succeed or fail in implementing their teaching plans In terms of acquisition, teacher talk is important as it is probably the major source of comprehensible target language input the leamer is likely to reccive

‘the amount and type of teacher talk is even regarded as a decisive factor of

success of failure in classroom teaching Besides, the ways the teacher corrects

sludonis’ mistakes influence on their mentality a Jot Morcover, lo make the process

of teaching and leaming effective, it is very essential to build a friendly, non-

threatening classroom atmosphere which is created on the basis of a close teacher-

learner relalionship Therefore, inappropriale teacher pedagogical practices, (trough

not only classroom teacher talk but also classrcom teacher-learner relationship have

also been seen as a major coulributor lo the difficulties in teaching speaking skills

The first point is that teacher talks too much in an English class Researches in language classrooms have established that teachers tend to do most of the classroom

talk Teagher talk makes up over 70 pereerit of the lolal talk (Cook, 2000, Chaudron,

1988), It is evident that if teachers devote large amounts of time to explanations or management instructions, student talk will be indeed severely restricted In order to

avoid the overuse of teacher talk, many scholars tend Lo macrmize sludert talkmg ime

(SI'L) and minimize teacher talking time (

Teacher’s corrections are sometimes unsuitable Inevitably leamers will make

mistakes in the process of learning “A learner’s errors are significant in (that) they

provide to the researcher evidence of how language is learned or acquired, what

strategies or procedures the learner is employing in the discovery of the language” (Grown, 2002: 205) It is a vital part of the teachers role ta point out students’

mistakes and provide correction Correclion helps sludents to clarify their

understanding of meaning and construction of the language However, if teachers do

it in an insensitive way, the students will fee! upset and lose their confidence

The next important thing is teachor and learner relationship Sometimes

teacher does not build good relations with his learners as he thinks he need not care about it No student's name in teacher’s head and no talks outside classroom are

becoming common The teacher docs aot kuow thal nogloction can cause problems

in teaching in general a lot, especially in speaking classes In fact, the relationship between the teacher and students plays a part in evoking problems in teaching speaking skill One of the possible ways of pursuing this aim is to talk with students about their feelings and help them rationalize their anxiety about speaking, which

results in difficulties in teaching speaking skills (Tsui, 1996)

- Teachers" deficiency in English communicative compelence

This can be another constraint in teaching speaking skills which is related to

teachers’ deficiency in English communicative competence For many years,

language leaching was seen as helping Icarners to develop linguislic competence- that is, helping students master the sounds, words, and grammar patterns of English

The idea was thal by studying bits and pieces of a language, students could

eventually put them all together and communicate

rom the Lledge’s description of communicative competence, to teach leaching speaking skill, loachers might have becn required to have language teaching competence inchiding five interrelated fields, that is, linguistic

competence, pragmatic competence or sociolinguistic competence, discourse

competence, strategic competence and fluency This can be understood that

linguistic competence (syntactic structures, vocabulary, and pronunciation) is not

TÔ

the only requirement of teaching speaking skill However, in Hnglish oral classes teachers only spend teaching time in providing the Imowledge of linguistic

competence, which causes students’ failure to unsuccessfully communicate

However, every difficulty as well as problem mixes lo cach other as a chain The core may be unactive teachers The teachers produce syllabuses and tests at the

end of each semester, students are assessed based on a written dest of reading and

writing skills only As a result, many students and even teachers are 'examination-

oriented They spend time developing reading and writing skills while ‘ignoring’

listening and speaking skills This is likely lo happort nol al a single school in Vietnam, but across the whole spectrum

1.2.2, Difficulties from non-native students in studying speuking skill

There exisl many siudentrelated problems in teaching speaking skill in

Lnglish classes Many learners, as reported by studies into speaking (e.g I'sui:

“Reticence and anxiety in second language learning"), are unprepared or unwilling

to speak Their reluctance and reticence in English oral classes pose a big challenge for teaching speaking skills

According to Bun and Joyce (1997), reasons for Vietnamese learners’

unwillingness to speak ean be crumerated Bul the foremost one is of course the

cultural factors Cultwral factors follow from students’ prior leaming experiences

and consequently from the expectations that are formed on their basis Anolher

reason originates in linguistic factors Linguistic factorstimiting speaking may be, according to Bums and Joyce, difficulties in the phonetics and phonology of the target language, poor kmowledge of prammatical patierns or low awareness of cultural background and social conventions that are necessary for processing meaning in the target language From the fact that a large number of teachers are

limited in English proficiency, they cannot provide enough curricculum

emphasizing on speaking skills Furthermore, examination system does not emphasize oral skills, too A low motivation level, timidity or anxiety in class,

negalive social experiences, and culture shock are ranked among possible affective factors In other words, the reasons for students' poor speaking skills determining

leamers’ hesitancy to speak in class are: students’ fear of making mistakes and losing face in front of their peers, students’ law opinion of their own proficiency

level, limited opportunities outside of class to practice, uneven participationand

incomprehensible input

1.2.3 Difficulties from external factors

The

Iormal factors like large and inuliievel classes, ime consiraint, class

condition and text book also result in the difficulties in teaching speaking skills

Large and multilevel classes are very common in Vietnam Multilevel classes

can present challenges to teachers, as it is very difficult to design or organize

speaking activities for many leamers with different levels and interests Even though they may be common, large classes challenge even well-trained and

experienced leachers The task of teaching oral skills in large classes can be

daunting

Many Vietnamese teachers feel that their circumstances oppose to attempts

to use commurnentive praclives For example, they have lo prepare sludenis for a

grammar-based examination, and have to finish certain content in the textbook in a

certain amount of time They may have classes of 60 students, many of whom are

more concerned about the immediate goal — Lo pass exams, to get a degree, rather than the long term goal to develop communicative competence Moreover,

texthooks with the allocated syllabus in the time allowed are also the obstacle Lo the

implementation of the communicative approach If teachors are commutted to communicative methods, pre-determined syllabus worries them all the time

To conclude, we have just reviewed a theoretical framework of difficulties in

teaching English speaking skills inchading nature of language skills and oral communication, the skills of speaking and difficulties in teaching English speaking

skills In the following part the real situations at TNC-ET will be discovered

1.3 The roles of speaking skills

1.3.1 'Tcaching speaking skills on Victnamese teachers’ view

The poor quality of teaching speaking skills al a umnversily im Vielam

results in a large number of graduates who have difficulty in communicating in

English All the teachers know the importance of teaching oral skill, however, it is very hard to change the whole situation in a short time Furthermore, speaking is

really a difficult skill to teach well Therefore, for many of English teachers,

recognizing their role clearly or making a lesson better day by day is an [lective

solution And the active teachers always want to find the ways to diminish obstacles

in speaking periods For example, a speaking period can go smoothly if the teacher avoids the following errors: Oral skills in the text books by Hutchinson are facilitated by three main activities: pronunciation, situational conversation and

argument When dealing with pronunciation, teachers simply lum or (he tape Lo tet

students listen and repeat Few teachers stop to explain to students the mechanism

of producing sounds Consequently, students easily forget the correct pronunciation

of words (Bui, 2004, p 31, banslaled) Situational conversations are practiced with

little motivation from teachers, creating modest cooperation between students (Bui,

2004, p 35, translated) When the cooperation is poor, many teachers tend to ignore developing argumentation because they often fail when they try Teachers, themselves, argue that they should spend time teaching writing and reading, as these

skills help students get high marks in their exams (Bui, 2004, p 19, translated)

Tl is hard (or the teachers io pay alicntion to speaking skill oflen The situation appears to constitute a vicious circle The more they (both teachers and

students) focus on reading and writing exercises the less they can communicate verbally in English, To be fair, it is not the teacl

" fault bul the fault of syllabus

designers They are not aware of the significance of speaking skills, about which an

English teacher stales: "Speaking is extremely importatil: il's 2 voice inlo pupils’

writing, it helps them to develop and make sense of their reading, and it also docs

wonders for their self esteem, building confidence for the outside world" (Liowe,

2003, p 12) Tf asacsamonl is based on four skills equally, the situation may be different However, it costs a lot of money and time to organize oral exams, which, according to many education managers, are not economical Their point of view is beiry challenged by the cusrent development af English within the country and in a

world where technology develops rapidly, reducing global divides With the

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development of technology as well as English as global language, humans across the world now can communicate easily with ane another

It is widely accepted that one of the main purposes of studying English is to use it for communications; spcaking skill is labeled oral production and is one of the skills students are to learn in their language development Although teachers often find it

a skill that is hard to develop, they are always enthusiastic to go aboul promoting this development

1.3.2 Learning speaking skills in Vietuam

In general, it is said that English is very difficult to learn, of which, the oral skill is the hardest skill to obtain Although the ability to converse is highly valued

by students, they find it hard to go ahead because they often feel a great deal of amdety around speaking However, because of the need of English communication nowadays, leamers’ thinking is changing towards active way ‘hey want to leam more, to achieve improvement with obvious objectives

For the students laking in-service English courses, they ty to do varions activities to have a better command of Knglish Hach one's aim is to do something different from the other students It is because of their understanding of leaming Fnglish Now students are eager lo learn and they always wonder everything about English since they love this language In my point of view, this is the most significant aspect of leaning The young know that a good ability of speaking English will bring a person invisible chances in life

Vor students who do not like Linglish because they see it as something which

is compulsory, they are still aware of its benefits If they accept doing homework or practicing just because of their teachers or parents, many of them like finding websites which include interesting and meaningful content that is related to Dnglish

The most cruczal thing is that students regard learning English, especially oral skills necessary, and they will learn better when they are not afraid of making mistakes and they should be risk takers to get progress

Chapter 2: RESEARCH METHODS 2.1 The reality of teaching and learning English speaking skills at TNC-ET

2.1.1 Description of the English course and its objectives at INC-ET

‘the study was conducted at Thai Nguyen College of Lconomies and Technology All students at this college are required to complete two semesters of English as part of their general education requirements during the first year Students have to finish the General English (GE) program, which accounts for 108 periods There is no Fnglish for Specific Purposes (ESP) program after thal

The main course book used is New Headway Elementary by Liz & Tohn Soars, to fit students’ Jevel of English and educational goals of the college The total number of units is 14, however, the designed syllabus covers only 10 units for 2

semesters Aller studying these Let umits, the students are intended to be “quite

communicative oriented and inclusive of the 2 language skills: listening and speaking” There are only 10 units, each contains a topic that is not really familiar to learners and includes a variety of paris as grarumar, vooabuliry, exererses and communicative skills, However, this can be seen on the very first page of the book, which presents each mit with a topic and all prammar items it is about, activities for speaking skills, for example, arc not emphasized and somotimos their contents appear unrelated to the main topic ‘lo be more detailed, main activities and topics

or drills designed by English teachers group in terms of speaking skills in the course book are prosenled as the following

Unit | Speaking activities; Content Topics

4 | Answering questions; Taking Toisure

7 | Answering questions, Famous firsis | Pasi life

& | Answering questions; Love Daling

9 | Answering questions; Polite requests | Food

TÔ | Answering questions; Describing Cities & towns

able 1: Speaking activities and topics designed for New Leadway (Llementary)

It can be learned from the table that the variety of speaking activitics is very limited, with answering questions as the mast common It therefore depends very mush on teachers’ experience and enthusiasm to design speaking activities thai motivate students and improve their speaking ability

The textbook New Headway Elementary is used to aim at providing students with general knowledge of English grammar, vocabulary, phonology as well as developing students’ (our language skills with more focus on the speaking skill

‘Therefore, after each semester two forms of tests are employed: an oral test making

up 30% of the total score and a written test for 70% of the entire score

Although the oval test accounts for only a small part, a lot of studetis are loo

nervous to pass it

The objectives of the English course are quite impractical At the end of the

course which includes 108 periods, students are required to obtaite

« General knowledge of everyday English and a relatively big amount of vocabulary in use

« The capsbilily to communicate in English in common situations

2.1.2, Description of the students

Students of TNC-ET come from 3 main faculties: the Faculty of Economics

and Business Administration, the Faculty of Industrial Technology and the Faculty

of Agriculture and l’orestry New students of INC-LT' do not have the same level of

English language proficiency Some of them have learned Enplish for 7 years at junior and senior high schools; some have only learned English for 3 years while a few have never learned Inglish because nearly one fourth of the students are minorities fram high provinces Although some of them study English rather well,

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they are only good at grammar, not speaking ‘hey are likely to do grammatical exercises quite quickly and well at their level but they cannot speak some sentences

about some common topics, and most of them do not feel confident or even a bit

Irightoned in communicating in English Moreover, motivation to learning English

in these non-Lnglish language classes is generally low since English, for most of the

students, is only understood as an obligatory subject in the college curriculum,

Hence, it is very important that the staff at the English session of TNC-ET find out

effective ways to help these students overcome their difficulties in speaking classes

2.1.3 Description of the teachers

Obviously, if students are the most important factor in the learning process, teachers are the most significant factor in the teaching process In TNC-BT, there

are seven leachers of English aged [rom 27 te 35 bul none of them have ever been,

tơ any English-speaking countries Of seven teachers, one was trained at Hanoi

College of Foreign Languages - Vietnam National University, one was from IIue

Univesity and other five were trained from Thai Nguyon College of Education At present, over half of the teaching staff at the Division of Foreign Languages in TNC-LT has been taking MA courses in Hanoi College of Foreign Languages- Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Foreign Studies and some foreign organizations of education and training in Ilanoi Six out of seven teachers

have been teaching English from 6 years to over 10 years and have acquired

considerable pedagogical competence However, the method of (caching, which is applied by most of the teachers at this college, is a very traditional one — the

Grammar Translation method Other methods are rarely used To addition, as the

results of a recent study carried out by the rescarchor show, the teachers of English

at INC-LIT confront a lot of difficulties in teaching English, especially speaking skill lo non-English major students They claimed aboul many inadequate problems

in teaching speaking skills in English classes According to them, these problems were originated from themselves-teachers of Iinglish, students and objective factors

Therclore, it is very ne

sary for the stall at the Division of Foreign Tanguages of

‘TINC-ET to find out effective ways to minimize the difficulties in teaching Knglish and from then, to improve the quality of English speaking lessons

2.2 Rescarch methods

‘Lo collect information concerning the current situation of teaching and

learning speaking skills al TNC-RT, T conducted a survey in the form of

questionnaire under the heading of “The position of speaking from students and teachers’ point of view” ‘Lhere were two types of questionnaires One was designed

for students and the other for the teachers of English al, TNC-ET To answer the

questions in the survey questionnaires, informants may have more than one choice,

so the total percentage of the answers to a certain question may not equal 100

percent

The first questionnaire was administered to 07 teachers who teach English to

non-English language tmajor students a, TNC-RT The researcher selected them as the subjects of the study with the hope to find out the difficulties they confront in

teaching English speakmg skills to students al TNC-ET There is 1 male teacher and

6 female teachers Most of them range trom 25 to over 30 years of age In general, the majority of the teaching staff is still young and active in their jobs In terms of

qualifications, they were trained from full-time trainiys courses in English kmguage

teaching at different colleges and universities such as Hanoi College of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen College of Iidueation The teachers always try to improve

their own expertise by firstly tiking English MA courses and now the manber of

started learning Enghst at grade 6, some slarted at grade 10 and some had never

leamt this foreign language Because a large nuraber of students are minorities, they

đo not have an equal cultural standard Most of them are from 18 to 20 years old and

they are first-year students Only first-year students of 2" term were chosen because

they were leaming English at the time of delivering questionnaires I delivered the questionnaire to those studemts in order to investigate the problems facing them in

learning English speaking skills

The first questionnaire was designed for the students with four questions:

Question 1: Why are you learning English?

Question 2: How is spcaking skill important to you?

Question 3: What makes you reluctant to speak in English class?

Question 4: Do yon olen find your speaking lessons interesting?

The sceond questionnaire is designed for the teachers and consists of thee questions Question 1: How confident do you feel aboul teaching speaking?

Question 2: According 10 you, whal are the reasons for ineffective speaking lessons’?

Question 3: What do you do to motivate students to speak in class?

50 copies of the questionnaire delivered to the students and 07 copies of the questionnaire delivered to the teachers have been all responded

2.3 Data analysis

2.3.1 Procedure of the survey

‘the respondents were contacted in their respective classrooms and information about the purpose of the study was provided to them After obtaining their consent, the research questionnaire was given to them with request to complete

it at a sitting by selecting appropriate respond category which they considered more appropriate regarding their learning and teaching in English language The questionnaire for the teachers was easily carried out Seven copies were given to seven teachers and a time-limit was made for the questionnaire to be given back

For the students, lo ensure that hey have right understanding of the questions, the

researcher carried on translating the questions into Vietuamese one by one After each question translated three minutes were given so that the students could choose

their answers

The information collected from two sources was first read through for a sense of overall data Thon it was analyzed both descriptively and interpretatively

‘The information from the questionnaire was displayed in the form of tables

2.3.2 Presentation of the statistical results

a - Teaching and learning speaking skills at TNC-ET as scen from students’

To communicate with foreign people 9 Speaking English has prestige 9

Table 2: Students’ apinion on learning English

The low percentages in Table 2 reveal the fact that there is hardly special

reason for studerits al TNC-RT to study English seriously

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There is only a small mumber, 20% of the students like Hnglish it is understandable because many of them have never leamt any foreign language The

same number studies for the reason that English is an international language Other reasons for students’ attention im English lessons are to cam somelhing about the

target culture and to get a good job, which respectively receive responses from 30%

and 32% of the studeris Subjective causes like Lo communicate with foreign people

and speaking English has prestige make up ouly 9% of the number of students

coming to English classes The biggest number of students chooses the last and unarguable reason: have to lean il (32%)

However, when being asked about the importance of English speaking skills most students confirm that speaking skills are very important to them It takes 85% 15% says that it is quite important and the percentage defying it is little important or

nol important at all is very smuall, which takes only 2%

‘My teacher hardly ever pays attention to me $6

“My teacher and other students speak almost all the time $6

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My loacher never explains requirements m Vicluamese 5

so | don’t understand what she/he is talking about

Table 3: The reasons that make students unwilling lo speak in English class

Statistics provided in Table 3 prove to be well-matched with those in Table

2 I scoms Uhal many students share the same reasons for their being uninterested in classroom English speaking

It can be seen from Table 3 above that 59% of the students in the survey

reveal thal their (cavhers offen kept a distance from them in oral English lessons,

which led to a stressful classroom atmosphere This suggested that the relationship between teachers and students might be another potential source of difficulty in leaching and leaning speaking skill in English classes IC the teacher rarely smiles al students, they may consider he is too strict and hard to access Hence, the classroom

atmosphere is quite tense

Many students (60%) blame boring topics for discouraging them to speak in

class and a similar number (59%) say thal Uhey are not interested in speaking as

they cannot find exact words to express their ideas

Students who are not active in class make up the rate of 39% They are passive and only speak when they are asked to, especially 28% of them who are never complained by the teachers [or their nol speaking in class

Another factor thal should be taker into consideralion is: students? wislr to save face Although they are adult leamers, 35% of them are afraid of making

mistakes and do not want to be laughed at For this reason, 31% do not like it when

teachers inlerrup! them to correet their mistakes This discourages thern a lol

Psychological factors also play a role in getting students speak Fnglish 56%

of the students get discouraged when they receive little or no attention from teachers or when teachers and other students speak most of the time Same of them

slate thal their shytiess also affects their willingness to speak in class

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We are surprised to gain 53% of the students stating that they do not know what they have to do in speaking activities because their teacher uses English all the time This is really a hig problem because it is impossible for the first-year students

te kcep up with full English requirements

4.Do you | Yes, sometimes T like the activities 25

often find | Yes, sometimes But the activitics arc not interesting 15

your and varied enough

Speaking Yes, very often | like the activities 0

Table 4: Students’ assessment of speaking activities given by teachers

The data in Table 4 show that all teachers design classroom speaking

activities but none of them do it very often A large proportion of the studems, 54%,

show interest in classroom speaking activities but those activities are not introduced

very often by their teachers Not many students (15%) complain that activities their

teachers use da not appear la be interesting to them Tt can be drawn oul that

students are motivated by speaking activitics The question is whether or not and

how often teachers make use of activities in their teaching 25% of the students state

that their teachers sometimes make use of classroom activities in raising sludents*

interest in speaking and these students find the sometimes-provided activities

interesting

b - Teaching and learning speaking skills at TNC-ET as scen from teachers’ perspective

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