Luận văn a study on motivational strategies in teaching speaking skills to the first year english major students at ha nam teachers’ training college

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND ENTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES, -~ & on -- BUI THE NGQC HUE A STUDY ON MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND ENTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES,

-~ & on

BUI THE NGQC HUE

A STUDY ON MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES

IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS

TO THE FIRST-YEAR ENGLISIT MAJOR STUDENTS

AT HANAM TEACHERS’ TRAINING COLLEGE

(Nghiên cứu vê các chién thuật thúc đấy dạy kỹ năng nói

cho sinh viên năm nhất chuyên ngành tỗng Ảnh

tại trường Cao đẳng Sư phạm Hà Na)

MIROR M.A THESIS

English Teaching Methodology 60.14.10

Hanoi, 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND ENTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES,

-~ & on

BUI TH] NGQC HUE

A STUDY ON MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES

IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS

TO THE FIRST-YEAR ENGLISIT MAJOR STUDENTS

AT HANAM TEACHERS’ TRAINING COLLEGE

(Nghiên cứu về các chiến thuật thúc đấy dạy kỹ năng nói

cho sinh viên năm nhất chuyên ngành tiếng Anh

tại trường Cao đẳng Sư phạm Hà Na)

MINOR MLA THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methailology Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Neuyén Van D6

Hanoi, 2013

DECLARATION

T cerlify that this mimor thesis submitted im partial fulfitlmer of the

requirements for the degree of the Master of Arts is the result of my own work ‘The data and findings in the thesis are true and have not been published elsewhere

Signature Biti Thi Ngoc (ud

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

‘Yo accomplish this study, 1 am indebted to many people for their meaningful help

First of all, T would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor,

Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Van Do for his valuable guidance, enthusiastic support,

critical feedback, and especially, his enormous encouragement for the completion of

the study

I am also grateful to all the lecturers of Post-graduate Department, Ianci,

University of Languages and Intemational Studies, Vietnam National University for

their cnthusiaslic guidance and valuable lectures during Ihe course

1 would like to express my sincere thanks to all my colleagues and my

students al Haren Teachers’ Trainings College for their helpful participation in my

questionnaires and my interviews, without which my thesis could not have been accomplished

Finally, T am indebted to my friends and my lamily, especially my husband for his love, his care, his help and his enormous encouragement during the process

of writing this thesis, and my little baby, who gave me great inspiration and spiritual

support for the completion of this study.

ABSTRACT

Motivalion is considered one of the most important faclors in helping teaching and leaming gain success The majority of the first-year English major

students al Hanam Teachers’ Traming College need motivating to gel effective

communication in English speaking skills because of the fact that at high school they almost only focus on other skills such as reading, writing, grammatical

competence fo pass the cnlrance exam Therefore, this study aims al, investigating

kinds of motivation the first-vear English major students are having, strategies and techniques teachers of speaking are applying to motivate their students, as well as

secking difficulties the students are facing Then, some suggestions on molivatioral

strategies and techniques are provided for teachers and students to help them to succeed in speaking lessons The instruments employed in this study were surveyed

questionnaires for teachers and first-year English major students, direct mterviews

and classroom observation The data collected were calculated, analyzed and the results were also drawn out

ii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

‘Table 3: Students’ goal for learning speaking

Table 4: Necessity to motivate students in stages of a speaking lesson

Table 5: Activilics Loachers do before a speaking task

Table 6: Ways of organizing speaking activities

Table 7: Ways of grouping

Table 8: Activilics Loachers do while students practice speaking

‘Table 9 Activities teachers do when students show low motivation in speaking

aclivilies

Table 10; Activiues teachers do to encourage students to speak

‘Table 11: Activities teachers do after students finish practicing

Table 12: The motivational stratogics used by the teachers by [requency

Table 13: Level of difficulty of speaking Hnglish well

Table 14: Difficulties students encounter when participating in speaking activities

Table 15: Students’ preference of being grouped

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION

Rationale of the study

Ww Aus of the study

Research questions

Melhiods of the study -

Scope of the study

Significance of the study

“4 Design of the study

PART TI: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Theoretical background of motivation

1.1.1 Definitions of motivation

1.1.2 Motivation in L2 learning

1.1.3 Type of motivation in 1.2 learning

1.1.4 The importance of motivation in L2 learning

1.1.5 Main de-motivating factors affecting motivation in L2 learning

1.1.6 Motivational strategies in teaching and learning L2

1.2.2 The importanee of speaking skills

1.3.3 Communicative language teaching approach

1.2.4 Approaches to eaching speaking skills

1.2.4.1 Teaching interactional skills

1.2.4.2 Integrating pronunciation teaching

1.2.43 Accuracy and fluney

1.2.5 Principles of teaching speaking

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 Context of the study

2.2 Participants of the study

2.3 Instruments of the study

2.3.1 Survey questionnaires

2.3.2 Interviews

2.3.3 Classroom observation

2.4 Data collection procedures cece eens

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

3.1 Kinds of motivation in learning speaking skills

1 Summary of the findings

2 Limitations of the slady

3 Suggestions for further researches

CES APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1

APPLINDIX 2

APPENDIX 3

vii

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Today, English has become an intemational language It is spoken as a second language and an official language in many countries, and as a foreign

language by a greal number of people in the global world as well Besides, it is also

a medium of communication in many fields such as aviation, technology, politics,

science, commerce, internet, and so on Therefore, competence of using English

accurately and fucntly 18 of great imporlance 10 a lot of people

Because English has become so important, many non-native Hnalish

speaking countries including Vietnam pay more and more attention to teaching and

learning English Tu fact, in Vietnam English is a compulsory subject in schools,

colleges and universities, ‘The number of people using English to communicate is on

the rise Most of the English textbooks are republished im the fonus of communicative ones to mect Icarners’ need Also, instead of traditional methods in

which grammatical competence is much more paid attention to, communicative language teaching approach has been widely applied

However, there is a fact that a large number of students, even English major

students cannot communicate in oral English although they are the first-year

students at a college or a university, ne of the reasons for this issue is that most of

the students only focus on grammatical competence to sit for the entrance exams, and distract communicative competence Indeed, much more attention is paid to

reading skill, writing skill and language focus, Whereas, speaking skill is

considered as one of the most important skills to help leamers to gain

communicative competence As researchers and educators, what we should do to

help learncrs achieve communicalive goals lo mecl their necds in using oral

language effectively ‘Iherefore, with the study “1 study on motivational strategies

in teaching speaking skills to the first-year English major students at Hanam

Teachers’ Training College”, the researcher of this study docs hope that the sludy

will help teachers of speaking skill in some ways to find appropriately motivational strategies in speaking lessons to respond to their students’ need for effective communication

2 Aims af the study

The study aims at investigating the motivational strategies in teaching speaking skills to the firsl-year nglish major sludents al Hanam Teachers’ Training College ‘To be more specific, the aims of the study are:

& To itwestigate kinds of motivation the fasi-year Fnglish major studenls at Hanam ‘Teachers’ ‘trainmg College possess

« To investigate strategies and techniques teachers of speaking skill apply to motivate their students in speaking lessons

« To investigate main factors de-motivating students in learning speaking skill

« To suggest strategies and techniques teachers of speaking can apply to motivate the students in English speaking lessons

3 Research questions

‘The following research questions are raised to answer to the aims of the study:

1 What kinds of motivation are possessed by the first-year English majar atuderis in learning speaking skill?

t9 What strategies and techniques are applied by the teachers of speaking to motivate the students in speaking lessons?

3 What are main faciors de-motivating the students it learning speaking skill?

4 What motivational strategies and techniques can be applied in teaching speaking skill lo help the students achieve effective communication?

4 Methods of the study

Both quantitative and qualitative methods are employed to carry out the study The data are collected by means of survey questionnaires, interviews and classroom observation.

5 Scope of the study

‘To succeed in teaching and learning a foreign language, many factors are

paid aftention to Among these factors, motivational strategies are the foval point of

the study as a main factor in teaching speaking skills Due to the time constraints, this study only involves teachers of English speaking skills and the first-year

Faglish major students al Hanam Teachers’ Training College

6 Significance of the study

The study hopes to contribute a part to help teachers find out more

tnoivalional strategies 10 give a preat assistance to (heir students to improve their

speaking skills and achieve communicative competence

7 Design of the study

This study consists of three main parts

Part I, Introduction presents the rationale of the study, the aims of the study,

research questions, scope of the study, significance of the study, methods of the

study, and design of the study

Part LL, Development includes three following chapters

Chapter 71, Viterature Review displays the theoretical background of ainotivation and the theoretical background of teaching speaking skills

Chapter 2, Methodology presents the context of the study, participants,

research imstruments and dala collection procedures and methods

Chapter 3, Data Analysis and Findings focuses on analysis about kinds of motivation possessed by the first-year English major students, strategies and

techniques used by teachers of speaking, factors de-motivating students in leaning

speaking skills, and motivational strategies and techniques can be applied

Part YI, Conclusion summarizes the findings, limitations of the study and

suggestions for further study are provided in (his part

References and Appendices are presented in the last pages of the study

PART I: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical background of motivation

i.L.1 Definitions of motivation

‘There have been a great number of different theories of motivation

thronghout many researches in years Motivation is considered to be hard to define

As Gardner (2006, p.242) slales “motivation is a very complex phenomenon with

amany facets Thus, it is not possible to give a simple definition” This is because the term motivation has been viewed differently by different schools of thought

From the behaviorislic perspective, molivalion is “quite simply the articipalion of reward” (Brown, 2000, p.160) However, according to cognitivists, the term

motivation as being more related to the leamers’ decisions as Keller (1983, p.389), quoted by Brown (ibid, p.160), stated, “lhe choices people make as to what experiences or goals they will approach or avoid, and the degree of effort they exert

in that respect” In the constructivist’ definition of motivation, they place “further

emphasis on social contexts as well as the individuals’ decisions” (ibid) Despite the

differences, in all the definitions of motivation given by the three schools of thought the concept of “needs” is emphasized, that is, “the fulfillment of needs is rewarding, xequires choices, and in many cases must be interpreted in a social context” (ibid,

I6)

Domyei (2001, p.613) defined motivation as “a general way of referring to

the anlecedents (ic the causes and the origins” He also stated thal “motivation

explains why people decide to do something, how hard they are going to pursue it

and how long they are willing to sustain the activities” (2001, p.7) The author

amentioned two dimensions of human behavior: direction and magnitude (intensity)

which motivation concems

1.1.2, Motivation in second language learning

Recently, motivation in second language learning has become educators’

greal interes!

Lightbown and Spada (1999, p.56) note that motivation in second language learning is quite complicate to study which can be explained in terms of two factors learners’ commumicalive needs and their altitudes towards the second language

Also, according to Lillis (1994) and Mcdonough (1983), leamers’ motivation

has been widely accepted as a key factor which influences the rate and success of

second foreign language learning

Holt (2001, p.1), referring to Cookes and Schmidt (1991), defmes motivation

as “.the leamers’ orientation with regard to the goal of Ïeaming as a second language”

Domyei (19942) developed a general framework of second language (12) motivalion that allempted to syrilhesive various lines of research by offering an

extensive list of motivational components categorized into three main dimensions

the Language Level, the Learner Level, and the Learning Situation Level, presented

in table 1 below:

Table 1: Components of foreign language learning motivation (Dornyet, 1994a: 280)

Instrumental Motivational Subsystem

Aotivational Components Relevance

Expeelancy Satisfaction

Teacher-Specific Allifiative Motive

Motivationed Camporeats Authority Type

Direct Socialization of Motivation

Besides, the motivational components that are relevant to L2 instruction have

been recenlly summarized by Williams and Burden: (1997) as part of a larger overview of psychology for language teachers, pointed out in table 2 below:

Table 2: Williams and Burden’s (1997) framework of motivation in language learning

Tnternal factors Intrinsic interost of activity

ity + optinsal degree of challenge

© arousal of cui

Perceived value of activity

+ personal relevance

+ anticipated vatne of outcomes

+ intrinsic vatue attributed to the activity

Sense of agency

* locus of causality

+ locus of control RE process and outcomes

© ability Lo sel appropriate goals

+ realistic awareness of personat

strengths and weaknesses in skills required

© personal definitions and judgments of success and

faihwe + seffsworth concem learned helplessness

Attitndes language leaming in general

+ tothe target fangnage

+ tothe target fangnage community and culture

Other affective states

* class ad school ethos The broader context

wider family networks

# the local education system

* conflicting interests

© cultural norms

* — socictal atlutudes

expectations and

From the views above, motivation, one of the main factors combining with

other factors has great intuences to learners’ success or (failure

1.1.3 Types of motivation in secand language learning

Motivation can be classified into two main categories: intrinsic and extrinsic

qnotivalion

The word “intrinsic” means “innate” or “within”, therefore intrinsic

motivation originates in the individual itself, Leamers willingly and voluntarily try

1o lear what they suppose iL is worlh and important lo them There are no external

factors affecting their study On the other hand, their study completely comes from

within them, from the inner desire to learn and depends on their own will, without

any rewards as well as without the need for extemal outcomes Therefore, teachers

do not have many influences on students’ intrinsic motivation

In contrast to intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation depends much on

extemal factors 1 is based on external outcomes such as rewards or purristinent to

persuade learners to take part in learning activities This extrinsic motivation brings

a negative impact to the students because they do not learn with their strong

iatention or will but because of the rewards or the purishment Thus, if the goal of

an intrinsic motivated student can last a long time because of their mer desire and

their own will to fulGi a positive learning oulcome, the goal of an extrinsic anotivated student perhaps cxists ia a short period of tume when the rewards or the

punishment no longer interest them

Motivation in second language learning is divided into lwo types by Harmer

(1991, p.3) as follows:

Short-term goal refers to students’ wish or desire to do something in near

future such as passing their examination, or getting good marks or high scares

Long-term goal refers to students’ or leamers’ wish or desire to get a better job in the future, or to be able to communicate with other people or native speakers

in the target language they learn

In addition, motivation in second language learning is more broadly

categorized inta two categories: integrative and instrumental motivation

Saville-Troike (2006, p.86) defines integrative motivation as the desire to be

a part of recognized important members of the community or that society that speak

the sceand language Tt is based on inforest in learning the second language because

of their need to learn about, associate or socialize with the people who use it or because of purpose or intention to participate or integrate in the second language

using the same language in thal community, bul sometimes i involves emotion or

affective factors a great deal

Also, according to Saville-Troike (2006, p.86), instrumental motivation

involves the convepls of purely practical value in learning the second language in

order to increase leamers’ careers or business opportunities, giving them more prestige and power, accessing scientific and technical information, or just passing a

course of ther study in school

1.1.4 The importance of motivation in second language learning

The importance of motivation in enhancing second or foreign language

learning is undenmable Liltieri (2005, p.4) points out “when asked about the factors

which influence individual levels of success in any activity such as language

learning, most people would certainly mention motivation among Lhem”

Brown (2000, p.160) states that “it is casy in second language leaming to

claim that a leamer will be successful with the proper motivation”

Gardner (2006, p.241) posits thal “students with higher levels of motivation

will do better than students with lower levels” He further adds that “if one is

motivated, he/she has reasons (motives) for engaging in the relevant activities,

expends effort, persists in the activities, attends to the tasks, shows desire to achieve the goal, enjoys the activities, ete” (Gardner, 2006, p.243)

Spolsky (1990, p.157) stated that motivated students are likely to lear more

and leam more quickly dan less-motivated students, Tn a particular learning

situation, students who are less motivated are likely to lose their attention, misbehave and cause discipline problems On the other hand, students who are more

highly motivated will participate actively and pay more attention to a certain learning task or activity

Motivalion is one of some imporlant factors that may inllucrice students’

English achievement (Yu-mei, 2009)

Li & Pan (2009) state that among the factors influencing students’ learning,

motivalion is considered as an imporlanl reason for different achievernent It

determines the sucvess or failure in second language leaming because it can directly influence the frequency of using learning strategies, willpower of leaming, goal

selling, and the achievement in learning

1.15 Main de-motivating factors affecting motivation in L2 learning

1.1.5.1 Definitions of de-motivation

According lo Demyei (2061, p.143), demotivation is defined ax “specific

external forces that reduce or diminish the motivational basis of a behavioral

intention or an ongoing action”

Trang and Baldaul (2007, p.100) stated: “demolivation has a negalive impact

on students, preventing them from gaining expected leaning outcomes”

1.1.5.2 Main de-motivating factors affecting motivation in L2 learning

Some studics have investigated the factors influencing demotivation at

different levels of education

Kikuchi and Sakai (2009) lisled five demotivating factors among Fapancac

leamers including learning contents and materials, teachers’ teaching styles,

inadequate school facilities, lack of intrinsic motivation, test scores

Besides, in order to investigate the sources of demotivation, Domyei (2001)

listed the following, nine demotivating factors:

« Teachers’ personalities, commitments, competence, teaching methods

« Inadequate school facilities (large class sizes, unsuitable level of classes or

frequent change of teachers)

«) Reduced sell-confidence duc to thea expenence of failure or lack of success

« Negative attitude toward the foreign language studied

10

Compulsory nature of the foreign language study

Interference of another foreign language that pupils are studying

Negative attitude toward the community of the foreign language spoken

Alfiludes of group members

Course books used in class

Basing on Domyei’s study, the researcher of this study will focus on main factors such as: teachers, learners, teaching and learning conditions

1.1.5.2.1 Learners’ factors

Faielligence: Many studies using TQ tests and different methods of assessing

language learners have found that [Q scores are a good means of predicting how successful a leamer is Measures of intelligence may be more strongly

telated to verlain kinds of T.2 abilities than others

Personality: It is said that introverted or anxious leaners usually make slower

progress, particularly in the development of oral skills They arc less likely to

take advantage of opportunities to speak, or to seek out such opportunities More outgoing students will not worry about the inevitability of making

unsiakes They will take risks, and dhus will give themselves much more practice

Age: Second language acquisition is influenced by the age of the learner Children, already having solid Hteracy skills in their own language appear ta

be in the best position to acquire a new language efficiently Motivated, older

leamers can be very successful too, but usually struggle to achieve native- speaker-equivalent pronunciation and intonation

Learners’ beliefs: All learners have strong beliefs and opinions about how

instruction should be delivered Learners’ preferences for leaming influence

the kinds of strategies they choose to leam new materials

Cognition: Tn genoral, il scoms thal, students wilh grealer cugnilive abilitics

will make the faster progress Some linguists believe that there is a specific,

11

innate language learning ability that is stronger in some students than in

others,

« Experiences: Leamers who have acquired general knowledge and experience are ina stronger position to develop a new language than those who haven't

The student, for example, who has already lived in three difTerert countries

and been exposed to various languages and cultures has a stronger base for

learning a fiwther language than the student who hasn't had such

experiences

« Motivation: Intrinsic motivation has been found to correlate strongly with

educational achievement Clearly, students who enjoy language learning and take pride in their progress will do better than those who don’t Extrinsic

molivalion is also a significant factor For example, students who need to

jean Lnglish in order to take a place at an American university or to communicate with people who speak English are likely to make greater efforts and thus groater progress

1.15.2.2 Teachers’ factors

‘Many researchers concluded that teachers are one of the most determinant

factors of 1.2 learners’ motivation (Domyci, 1994; Tanaka, 2005) Many empirical studies of teachers’ motivation were conducted to identify how teachers influence

learners’ motivation

Domyei and Csizer (1998) pomt out ten commandments for teachers to motivate language learners: teachers should set a personal behavior example, make sure that the class atmosphere is relaxed and pleasant, present task properly to the leamers, have good teacher-student relationships, work on increasing leamers’ self- confidence, ensure that the language olass is interesting to the students, promote as

much as possible learners’ autnomy, personalize the leaning process, increase

leamers’ goals, and make sure that leamers are familiar with the target language

culture.

However, this study only focuses on factors such as teachers’ behavior, relationship between teachers and students and teachers’ enthusiasm basing on

Dornyei's theory

« Teachers’ behavior is considered as a powerful tool of motivation in

classroom Teachers’ behavior can influcned the students’ engagement in

class (Dornyei & Csizer, 1998)

« Relationship between teachers and students \t is crucial to establish a class atmosphere of mutual trust and respect with the leamers (Alison & Halliwell,

2002) Teachers can promote such respect and trust through interacting with

students on a personal level and show that they care about their students” personal issues or challenges that they face in the classroom or even outside

« Enthusiasm is contagious in classroom; therefore, if students recognize their

leachers’ enthusiasm to the task, they, too, will be enthusiaslic (Domyei &

Ushioda, 2011)

1.1.5.2.3 Teaching and learning conditions

Tn addition to physical conditions in the classroom such as the classroom

size, chaus, desks, tables, boards, and bulletin boards, classroom atmosphere is one

of the most important motivational conditions affecting teaching and leaning L2 Students’ anxiety is one of the most recognized factors that undermine learning effectiveness and second language motivation (Domnyei, 2007, Macintyre, 2002,

Young, 1999) In safe classroom environments, students are encouraged to express

their opinions and perspectives on different issues because they feel safe and

protected from embarrassment and sarcasm Liumor is a very potential factor to improve the classroom atmosphere The use of hnmor helps students feel at ease

wilhoul tension m the air

1.1.6 Motivational strategies in teaching and learning second language

With motivation being one of the key factors that determine success in

second language leaming, strategies im molivaling kmguage learners should be scon

as an important aspect of the theoretical analysis of L2 motivation Interestingly, the

13,

past decade has witnessed an increasing mumber of L2 scholars designing and summarizing motivational techniques for classroom application (e.g Alison &

Halliwell, 2002: Brown, 2001, Chambers, 1999; Williams & Burden, 1997), with

one book being particularly relevant to this topic: Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom by Domyei (20016), in which a list of more than 100 concrete amotivalional lechiques, divided into the pre-aclional, avtional and post-actional phases was presented within a comprehensive theoretical framework ‘leachers can

employ to generate, sustain, and promote learners’ motivation

However, in this study, the researcher only mentions stralsgies pointed out

by Candlin and Mercer (p.34) and teachers can employ them to motivate their

learners These could be described as general strategies that could be said to work in

most cducalional sellings:

* Motivaling students mio the lesson by keeping them informed about

forthcoming activities

© Varying the activities, tasks and materials to avoid boredom and stimulalc

attention

« Using cooperative rather than competitive goals [his helps to increase self-

confidence and make weaker participants feel needed

‘As mentioned above, successful learning can increase motivation, just a8

high motivation can bring about successful learning The teacher can bring this process under control by creating successful learning As Cook puts it (Cook,

p.100), short4enn inofivalion towards the day-to-day activilies im the classroom can

also have an effect In this way, the teacher can improve motivation by providing effectivencss of instruction, including classroom management, structuring, tasks and

grouping

* Classroom management good organization and management of leamers

increases motivation and raises expectations of success

© Structuring or making one’s teaching intentions clear and giving clear

instructions unproves students’ attention rate

14

« Tasks: appropriateness for learners, order, pacing, grading {so that different

learners are expected to produce different results) and materials are all

factors to be considered in designing and implementing tasks to increase the

Speaking 1s crucially important for the whole leaming process The term

“speaking” has interesled many linguists

According to the Oxford Dictionary of Curent Unglish (2009, p.414),

speaking is “the action of conveying information or expressing ones’ thoughts and foclings in spoken languages.”

Speaking is “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves

producing and receiving and processing information” (Brown, 1994, Bums &

Toycc, 1997)

Chaney (1998, p.13) stated that speaking is the process of building and

sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols in a variety of

contexts

In general, there are different concepts of speaking, however, in this study the term

“speaking” will be used to refer to secand language teaching and leaming

1.2.2 The importance of speaking skills

Speaking skill plays a significance role in teaching and leaming a foreign

language It not only helps learners know how to read, to write, to listen but also

know how to communicate with Hnglish speaking people It is undeniable that the speaking ability is a good source of motivation for most students Nunan (1991)

affirms that success is measured in term of the ability to carry out a conversation in the target Janguage

1.2.3 Communicative language teaching (CLT) approach

Communicative Language Teaching (CL) is a prominent theoretical model

in English language teaching and accepted by many applied linguists and teachers

as one of the ellective approaches

According to Richards and Rodgers (2001), CLY stats with a theory of

language as commumication, and its goal is to develop learners’ communicative

competence

CLI views language as system for the expression of meaning where the main function of language is to permit interaction and communication (Richard,

2001)

CLT wants to involve students in real or realistic communication through

different activities In this case, the accuracy of target language is less important (har: successful achicvesnent of the communicative task (Harmer, 2001)

Jn “approaches and methods in language teaching”, Richards and Rodgers (2001) surmnarived the communicalive view of Tanguage as:

« Language is a system for the expression of meaning

‘The primary function of language is to allow interaction and communication

‘The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses

©) The primary units of language are nol merely its grammatical and structural

features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning

In general, the main function of CLT is to perm interachon and

communication Therefore, the primary clomonts of language arc not only

grammatical and structural features but also the functional and communicative

meaning,

16

1.2.4 Approaches to Leaching speaking skills

1.2.4.1 Teaching interactional skills

Teaching micrachional skills means leach students how to talk as mleraction

‘The main features of talk as interaction can be summarized as follows:

© Has a primarily social funclion

«Reflects role relationships

« Reflects speaker’s identity

«May be formal or casual

«Uses conversational conventions

¢ Reflocts degrees of politeness

«© Employs many generic words

© Uses conversational register

(cited from Brown and Yule, 1983)

Jn brief, teaching interactional skills involves teaching students know how to open and close conversations, choose topics, make stnall-lalk, joke, recount personal incidents and experiences, use adjacency pairs, react to others, interrupt,

‘use an appropriate style of speaking

1.2.4.2 Integrating pronunciation teaching

‘Yo communicate a foreign language in general, English language in particular, pronunciation is extremely important It is teachers’ responsibility to

decide when to focus on pronunciation, and on which aspects, Lo help their sludeniis

avoid mother tongue interfere, embarrassment, fear or losing face, and help them

become like-native speakers Besides, teachers also need to help their students with

individual sounds, word stress, senlonec stress, types of liking, ellipsis, inLonation,

and rhythm

1.2.43 Accuracy and fluency

« Accuracy: Lim (1994, p.23) defined acouracy as “the ability to use correct

forms in which utterances do not contain errors affecting phonological,

synlactic and discourse (ealures of the language.”

¢ Fluency is natural language use occurring when a speaker engages in meaningful interaction and mainlains comprehensible and ongoing

communication despite limitations in his or her communicative competence

1.2.5 Principtes of teaching speaking skis

Here are some suggestions for teachers in teaching speaking

Bo aware of the dilfercnces belween second language and [oreign

language learning contexts

Provide maximum opportunity to studenis to speak

Try lo involve cach student in every speaking aclivily

Give students practice with both fluency and accuracy

Provide opportunities for students to talk by using group work or pair work, and reduge teacher speaking time in class

Plan speaking tasks that involve negotiation for meaning

Design classroom activities that involve guidance and practice in both lransactional and interactional speaking

Indicate positive signs when commenting on a student’s response

Ask eliciting questions

Provide written feedback in some cases

De not correct students’ pronunciation mistakes very often while they are speaking

Involve speaking activities not only in class but also out of class

Circulate around classroom Provide the vocabulary beforehand

Diagnose problems faced by studenis and provide more opporlunilics to

practice the spoken language

18

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 Context of the study

Being, an educational unit of Ianam Department of Education and Training,

Hanan Teachers’ Training College lakes responsibility of training majority of

teachers toaching at kindergartens, primary schools, sccondary schools in province, and in some other provinces linglish is a compulsory subject to all students in our onllege Up lo now, there are ton Fingtish classes Unlike universities, colleges in big

cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, ow college attracts the minor number of

students to study here To most students, leaming here is nearly their last choice

because of their health, fimanctal conditions, or their ability Their English marks im

the entrance exam range from 3 to 8 only, and the total marks of three subjects are various, but not high Most English students come from rural areas of the province

where the ways of teaching and learning mostly focus on grammatical competence

with comprehensible reading, writing, and language focus to get high marks in the exams, or simply to pass the exams rather than communicative competence

Moreover, majority of the students leam passively, only bry lo chlain knowledge

from their teachers As a result of these facts, as the first year students, they have

many difficulties with new ways of English leaming basing on CLT approach

Besides, they lack learning motivation lo achieve communicative competence Tn fact, they often keep silent in class, or hardly understand what their teachers are

talking, or even feel stressed, frustrated to listen to or talk in English Therefore it is

English loachers’ duly to onovurage Ler to find good new ways of learning lo gain communicative competence ‘Ihe fact is that our college has invited two Hnglish

teaching assistants from Fultbright organization in Hanoi working full-time both in

class and out of class in order to help English students in their communicative competence in two recent years Nevertheless, only the second or third-year

students take these advantages The first-year students seem not to get 4 lọt because

of their low ability when entering the college and Jack of learning motivation In

19

addition, the sources of books in English in our college library are very limited Most course books our students use are photocopies introduced or delivered by icachors, The course book of speaking skills the first-year English major students

use is Let’s Talk 1, second edition (by Leo Jones, Cambridge University Press)

Furthermore, students do not also have a lot of encouragement as well as

competilive learning environment (o practice speaking English when the number of

English classes each year is only one or two classes with 30 or 70 students in each

course

Being a minor unit of Hanam Teachers’ Training College, Department of

foreign languages and information technology consists of 12 teachers of linglish with 6 teachers having master degree of English, 6 teachers studying post-graduate

program al Vielnam National University, Hanoi All of them have experienced it

teaching English more than 3 years Some teachers who have experienced in

teaching speaking skill said that teaching this skill for the first-year students is the

amost challenging to them They ofien have dilliculties motivating their students to

take part in class activities actively and enthusiastically

From the facts above, i is very important to find oul effective ways and strategics to help teachers and students haye success im speaking teaching and

leaming

2.2 Participants of the study

With the limitation of the number of the first-year students in a school year at our college, all the 50 first-year students (including 1 male and 19 female students)

from K16A and K16B were taken part in the study All of them have studied

English at least three years

Our department is composed of 12 teachers of English (all are female) All of

them having taught English speak skills were inviled to participate in the study

2.3 Instruments of the study

Tostruments are Lwo questionnaires, ilerviews and classroom observation

20

2.3.1 Survey Questionnaires

With their proved advantages, questionnaires are always the first tool used in

researches in many different fields This study used twa survey questionnaires

including one designed for students to explore types of motivation they are possessing in speaking lessons and their opinions about English speaking as well as

the molivational strategies their teachers apply Another survey queslionnaire was

designed for teachers in order to investigate what they have done and need to do to motivate their students in speaking classes All the questions and the choices in the

two questionnaires were writlen in English

2.3.2 Interviews

To get more in-deep information for the study, interviews were employed

afler the classroom observation and the administration of the swvey questionnaires

Because only after several months of leaming at our college, the first-year students

are not really good at listening and speaking in English, to get more benefits

interviews were carried oul 1m Vicinamese with iwo students chosen randomly front

two classes K16A and K168 ‘Lhen, all the interviews were transcribed into English

Five teachers who have experienced in teaching speaking skill for the first-year students were invited to participate m the interviews to give more information for

open-ended questions in the questionnaires

2.3.3 Classroom observation

In this study, classroom observation was employed before the survey questionnaires and the interviews After observing two classes in speaking lessons, I

realized that teachers seem not to get their objectives in the lessons as many

students hardly meet teacher’s requirements in speaking avtivities the teacher assigned Naturally, I observed two classes four times, each twice with 120 minutes

for each time, and with a lot of nole-lakings, some audio-laping 1a analyye more

carefully at home ‘To make teachers and students fee) free, 1 just sat at the back row

as a non-participant observer

2.4 Data collection procedures

21

To collect data with validity and reality, firstly the researcher asked for two teachers’ permission to take part in two speaking lessons in two classes During the

lesson-steps, the researcher observed carefully and took notes Leacher and studeuts’

activities as well as types of motvation taking place All notes were kept and

interpreted carefully, and then the drawn-out-conclusions were the bases for designing survey questionnaires and structured merviews

Next, 50 survey questionnaires for students were delivered to 50 students with clearly written explanations and structures At the same time, 12 survey

questionnaires were also delivered to 12 teachers The Lime for both students and

teachers to complete the questionmaires was 3 days so that they could answer all the questions carefully basing on their experience The purpose and the importance of

these questionmaires wore explamed clearly Aller that, the rescarcher collected alt

the questionnaires delivered to calculate and analyze

Finally, 5 teachers experiencing in teaching speaking for the first-year

students were imviled to jom 1m the one-one interviews The content of the

interviews was extracted from the questionnaires so that the researcher could get

more information for resulls of the study The inlerviews were informed in advance

for the teacher and were cairicd out at case between the researcher and the teacher

at comfortable places and appropriate time ‘Then, two interviews were implemented

with two students randomly chosen from two classes To be easy for the [first-year

students, and to get effectiveness, these two interviews were camied out in

Vietnamese and in the break time, at comfortable places Lach interview lasted for

10 to 15 minutes The data were recorded, transcribed, and then translated in

English

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINGDINGS

in this chapter, the researcher interprets the results from the feedback of the

questionnaires, the interviews

As presented in chapler 2, classroom observation is just the basis [or the

researcher to design the questionnaires and the interview questions for research

purposes Therefore, all the notes from observing would not be analyzed in this part

3.1 Kinds of motivation in learning speaking skills

Investigating kinds of motivation in leaming speaking, skills the first-year

Faglish major students are having is one of the aims of the study The answer can

be [ound throughout the analysis of the question 1 in the questionnaire for sludents

‘Students’ goals for learning Englisk speaking skills

Integrative | ‘To study about the people, culture of English 0%

speaking countries Intrinsic _| To be interested in spealsing lessons 8%

Tnstrumental | To pass the exams and gel igh marks 0%

Tnlegralive | To walch TV programs, lislen lo music, read 8%

newspapers, stories, or books, in Eng sh

Table 3: Students’ goal for learning speaking

‘Table 3 indicates that most of the surveyed students (80%) lear English speaking for their future career This is easily understandable that they identify

exactly the importance of English speaking skills in their fulure career Tn fact,

23