Luận văn a study on the problems faced by teachers and students at nhi chieu upper secondary school in kinh mon district hai duong province in teaching and learning english speaking skills and solutions

The findings revealed that both teachors and students at Nhi Chicu Upper Secondary school are facing the problems in teachmg and leaning speaking ors, skills., From the findings, some s

.A STUDY ON THE PROBLEMS FACED BY TEACHERS AND

STUDENTS AT NII CIMEU UPPER SECONDARY SCIIOOL, IN

KINII MON DISTRICT, ITAI DUONG PROVINCE IN TEACTIING

AND LEARNING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILT AND SOLUTIONS

(NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮRG KHỎ KHĂN CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH TRƯỜNG

"T.H.P'T NHỊ CHIẾU, HƯYỆK HINH MON, TINH HAT DUONG TROKG VIEC DAY

VÀ HỌC KĨ NẴNG NÓI TIÊNG ANH CUNG BIRN PRHAP KHAG PHUC)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

A STUDY ON THE PROBLEMS FACED BY TEACHERS AND

STUDENTS AT NII CIMEU UPPER SECONDARY SCIIOOL, IN

KINII MON DISTRICT, ITAI DUONG PROVINCE IN TEACTIING

AND LEARNING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILT AND SOLUTIONS

(NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮRG KHỎ KHĂN CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH TRƯỜNG

"T.H.P'T NHỊ CHIẾU, HƯYỆK HINH MON, TINH HAT DUONG TROKG VIEC DAY

VÀ HỌC KĨ NẴNG NÓI TIÊNG ANH CUNG BIRN PRHAP KHAG PHUC)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Assoc.Prof Nguyễn Văn Độ

DECLARATION

Lhereby state that L Vu Thi Thuy, being a candidate for the Degree of Master

of Arts (TEFL), accept the requirements of the University relatng to the retention and use of M.A Thesis deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, | agree that the origin of my thesis deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan

or reproduction of the thesis

Hanoi, October 2014

Va Thi Thuy

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

First of all, I would ke to express my deep gratitude to Prof Nguyen Van

Do, my supervisor, for thorough reading, critical comments, invaluable suggestions, various sources of reference and precious corrections on my writing, Furthermore, I

am grateful to his close guidance and generous help, which have been great

encouragement to me during the process of writing up the thesis

I, hereby, would like to express my sincere thanks to lecturers of Faculty of Post Graduate Studies at University of Languages and Intemational Studies of Victrenn Natiomal Universily, Hanoi for thoiv intarcating Jessons and saygestions, which

aroused the thesis for this study to be realized

T also owe my sincere thasiks to teachers of English al Nhi Chieu Upper Secondary who have enthusiastically participated in my study

Finally, my heart-felt thanks go to my beloved family who have encouraged

and supported me in every stage of this study.

Data, was collsvleil via sunvey questionnaire for 106 school pupils and for 5 teacl

of English The findings revealed that both teachors and students at Nhi Chicu Upper Secondary school are facing the problems in teachmg and leaning speaking

ors,

skills., From the findings, some suggestions were given with the liope that they might be a reliable source of reference tor teachers of English at Nhi Chieu Upper Secondary school to improve their teaching skills

iii

4, Scope of the study

4.2 Slages of tenching and learning English spouking skills 14

2.3, Data collection procedures

2.4, Data analysis

CHAPTER 3 DATA ANALYSIS

3.1 Data mwiysis of eachers’ survey questionaire

CITAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS

4.1 Filing, chat tereirrriareirrrerrree.42)

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1: Difficulties of teachers

Chart 2: Difficulties of students

Chart 3: Typical causes of the problems

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Description of teachers” experience in teaching English

Table 2: Teachers’ attitudes towards spsaking skills

Table 3: Teachers’ CLT training background

Table 4 Teachers’ perception of CLT

Table 5 Number of teachers applying, CLT in teaching speaking skills

Table 6 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching English speaking skills

Table 7 Teachers’ attitudes towards reluctant speakers

Table 8 Techriques to minimize the ch fficultics

Tahle 9 Methads applied in teaching speaking

Table 10, Students’ rcasons for leaming English neo

Table 11 Students’ attitudes towards spzaking skilis con sec

Table 12 Students" opinions ơn spealing lơpis no coeceereo

'Table 13 Factors that make students reluctant to speak

Table 14, Teachers’ reaction to students’ mistakes

‘Table 15, Students’ opportunities to speak English outside classroom

Table 16 Teachers’ current techniques to encourage students to speak

PART L INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Nowadays it is not daring to say that the ability to speak at least one foreign

language 1s a necessity “Language is arguably the defining characteristic of the

human species and knowledge of language in general, as well as ability to use one's (first and, at least one other language, should be one of the defining characteristics of the educated individual” (sunan, 1999: 71) Leaming English is becoming a need

that most students are aware of and that the society demands, especially in the

ss of industrialivation and modernization in conection to the open door policy

of Viet Nam We are living in the time of immense (ectmological inventions where communication among people has cxpanded way beyond their lecal specch communities Therefore learning a second language has become a means ot keeping

up with the pace of the rapidly changing world,

Speaking seems to be the most important skill that should be paid attention to

in the process of teaching and leaming It is true for the students at Nhi Chieu High School where leamers are future citizens who leam English in order to be able to communicate with the foreigners and to work as a good worker or staff’ But in fact

igtish, When chỉ

there are a large mumiber of students who find it difficult to speak in

most of [ho students are required to talk in English, they often stand spo

or

they have to dink for a loug Gime about what they mitend lo say

This has given me the desire to conduct “A stadv on the problems faced by

teachers und siudenty at Nhi Chieu Upper Secondary School in Kinh Mun district, Hai Duong provinee in teaching and learning English speaking skills and

solutions”

2 Aims of the study

The sludy is couducled to find out the most lypical difficultics faced by teachers and students at Nhi Chieu Upper Secondary School in teaching and Jeaming English speaking skills and some recommendations including coping

strategics and classroom teclmiques and activities far the to minimize those

difficultics Specifically, this rcscarch trics to investigate the potential sourecs

causing the difficulties in teaching the skill of speaking and smmultaneously identity

the specific problems of those sources respectively Furthermore, some

recommendations are made with the anticipation of helping English Language teachers improve the quality of their teaching the speaking skill

3 Research questions

The above aims can be realized through the following rescarch questions:

1 What are the difficuliies of the teachers and stadenis in teaching und

learning English speaking skills at Nhi Chieu Upper Secondary School?

2 What are the most typical causes of these problems?

3 What should be done to help teachers and students at Nhi Chieu upper

Secondary School ta overcome the problems?

4 Scope of the study

Though problems in teaching speaking exist in the four macro-skills, the researcher has chosen to focus on difficulties in teaching spealang skill to students

at for the fact that mastering speaking is so central to language learning that when

we refer to speaking a language, we often mean knowing a language In addition,

some recommendations for the teachers of English at the school to decrease those

difficulties are also proposed

The study of difficulties, recommendations of other skills to ameliorate the

quality of teachmg English skills would be beyond the scope of the study Also, due to

the researcher's limited ability, time constraints and narrow-scaled study, this study only involves the students and five teachers of English at Nhi Chieu Upper Secondary School

5 Design of the study

The study consists of thros parts

Part 1, Introduetion (resents basic infermation such as : the rationale , the aims, the roscarch questions, the scope of the study )

Part 2 Development (may consist of three chapters)

- Chapter 1 (deal with literature review of English peaking skills together with teaching and leaming, English speaking skills)

- Chapter 2 ( deal with the methodclogy research of the study}

- Chapter 3 (presents findings of the study and suggest some sclutions to the problems that have been found)

Part 3 Conclusion

- Summarize the key issues

- Limitation

PART I DEVELOPMENT CTTAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

Language teaching in general and English Iaguage teaching in particular

have undergone a process of development for many ccnturics And over the

centuries, this process has seen many changes as a result of vanous influences The

evolution of second and foreign language teaching from the history until now has

marked so many ‘rise and fall’ of language theories proposed by researchers,

theorists and language teaching professionals Those are continuous attempts to

renew language teaching

Within the framework of this thesis, it is difficult to cover all aspects as well as detailed theories during the history of language teaching However, some major approaches and methods will be overviewed in the following part But first, some terms in language tcaching should be clazified,

1 Some major trends and approaches of language teaching

The Grammar Translation Method is considered as the oldest method of teaching

foreign language fs focus was on grarmmatical rules, the memorization of

vocabulary and of various declonsions, conjugations, translations of texts and wiitten cxerciscs Although this method is occasionally uscd by some language

teachers today, it is often looked upon as ineffective and old fashioned by most linguistic and educational theorists because students who learn languages through

this method usually lack communicative competence in the target language

The emergence and dying away of some language teaching approaches and methods have been continued over many centuries with Direct Method, Audio-Lingual Method, Situational Language Teaching, etc And the latest method that has been come along with the trend of developing the communicative competence is Connmunicative Language Teaching (CLT)

te

Unlike other approaches, the primary focus of CLT is on helping le

meaning rather than helping them develop perfcetly grammatical structures or

acquire native-like promuuciation This means that successtully leaming a foreign

language is assessed in terms of how well leamers have developed their

communicative competence Despite such outstanding features, many writers such

as Michael Swan (1985) and more recently Bax (2003) have critiqued CLT for paying insufficient attention to the context in which teaching and leaming take place However, in a broad sense, CLT has been still the most influenced approach

and continued to be adopted worldwide

From the brief history review of the teaching methodology, we may see that none of the teaching approaches and methods is extremely perfect Therziine, as

practitioners engaged in classioom teaching we must not follow onc method or anotha The decision of which method uscd in Victnum should be considered im Many aspects such as sources of materials, teachers’ proficiency, learners’ needs,

and facilities for teaching and learning

2 CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) approach

2.1 Concept of CLT

There are varictics of definitions about CLT Nunan (1989:194) overvicws

the methods, which are adapted below, certain aspects that are common to many

definitions of CLT

CLT views language as a system for the expression of meaning Activities

invalve oral cammunication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which

is meaningfid to the learners Objectives reflect the needs of the leamers; they inelude functional stalls as weil as linguistic objectives The learner's role is as a

negotiator and integrator The teacher's role is as a facilitator of the

communication process Materials promote communicative language use; they are tash-bused and authentic.

Numan also asserls thal in commumication process, learners are negoliators

and integrators whercas teachers arc facilitators

The definition above, as with any definition of the language teaching method,

Tepresents a particular view of understanding and explaining language acquisition It

is socially constructed and must be seen as a product of social, cultural, economic,

and political farces

Canale and Swain (1980) expanded on the theoretical basis of CLT for both

teaching and testing In their reaction against an over emphasis on function and a Jack of emphasis on grammatical complexity, they pointed out that extemally

oriental commmnication is not necessarily more essential than other proposes of

language such as “self-expression, verbal thinking, problem solving, and creative writing”

2.2, Characteristics of CLT

Language is not simply a system of rules It is now generally seen “as a dynamic resource for the creation of meaning” (Numan, 1989), This point of view is really supports CLT

- CLT is aimed at (a) making communicative competence the goat of langage teaching and (1) developing procedures for the teaching of Che four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication (Le Van Canh, 2004)

= The goal of CLT is to orcate a realistic context for language acquisition in the

classroom to develop Hymes’ notion of communicative competenec

- CTL is also associated with leamer-centered and experienced based tasks

~ The focus of CLT is on functional language usage and learners’ ability to express

themselves In other words, for CLT, developing leamers’ skills is more important

than the content of the teaching and learning ( Johnson, 1982)

= There are three major principles of CLT

(1) communication principle: crmplasives activities that tmvolve teal

ceomounivation prowole learning

(2) task principle: parposcs that activitics in which is uscd for carrying out

meaningful tasks promote leaming

(3) meaningfidness principle: claims that language that is meaningful to the

leamers supports the learning process, (Le Van Canh, 2004)

- In communicative classes, learners communicate with each other and learning

tasks are completed by means of interaction between leamers It is clear that Jeamers’ completing a task is fore-grounded and communicating with each other is lack-grounded This way lead 1o considerable use of pair work, group work and

mingling activiliss

- IN ESL classes, teachers arc facilitators and monitors, usually, without interruption

and then to provide feedback on the s1

2.3 Using CLT in Teaching Speaking Skills

When using comuounicative aclivilics, itis important Lo make sludents fool

comfertable und confident, feel free to take risks and have oppurlumitics to speak

According to Pica, Young and Doughty (1987), there arc two kinds of classroom available to second language learners:

Input has been modified or simplificd such as a traditional “tcacher-fronted” classroom; and authentic students-to-student interaction 1s emphasized It provides the leamers more opportunities for speaking since the leamers try to achieve mutual understanding and modify their language according to the demand of the situation,

Objectives for speaking are often given by the particular program in which the teacher must work In some cases, the syllabus will consist of a list of grammar structures to be taught The teacher needs to be flexible in making best use of what

is available for teaching purpose In other words, the teacher must have some

ñeedom in deciding what objeutives to meet, what content te cover, and what activitics to usc In this case, the teacher can go beyond the more specific goals and objectives of the partiedlar program to the speaking needs that the students have in the “real world”

There are many speaking activities can be used in classroom such as

scrambled sentence, language games, role-plays, problem-solving, discussion, cued story, picture story etc

3 Speaking skills

3.1 Nature of language skills and oral communication

3.1.1 Language skills

For the purpose of analysis and instruction, language has been divided into

ditferent skill areas These can be discussed in the framework of how we leamed our

first language A child first leams to practice language through the skill of listening

Later, a child uses language by speaking combined with listening Then, when

school begins, children leam the skills of reading and writing The first two skills,

listening and speaking, are called the oral skills due to the manners by which they

are formed (they are related to articulator organs) The last two, reading and writing,

are called the litcracy skills as comet with manual script Al four are

represented in Figure 1 (Figure 1 is extracted ftom the book “Methodology Handbook for English Teachers in Vietnwon" by Forscth, R., Forscth, C., Ta, TH & Nguyễn, V.D, p.34)

As learners prow in their language ability and use, the different skills are most

often integrated with each other so that they are being used in coordination with each other In conversation, when one person is speaking another is listening After listening and understanding, the hearer responds by speaking In an academic setting, while stndents are listening, they may be also writing notes or reading a

handout As a teacher, you will be reading your lesson plans and then speaking to

your students All of the skill areas are related to cach ofher and used in

coordination with each other

However, for the purpose of teaching language, we may divide language into

the various skill areas and concentrate on one at a time We are first interested im

speaking because second (or foreign) language learners often neglect or have difficulty with oral production (speaking) Some leamers have memorized hundreds

of words and many grammar voles, but they still can not speak well Many learners can read better than they speak This is very much unlike a child who learns to listen

and speak long before leaming to read or write

So, we bogin with speaking, hecause after learning Io speak, if is casicr to develup

Teading and writing skills m the foreign language classroom However, language

teachers have found it is difficult to develop their students’ speaking skills after reading and writing.

3.1.2 Oral communication

TL is obvious thal speaking is the key lo human communication Though

speaking takes many definitions, following are some of the definitions by the mpst

famous researchers According to Byme (1976:8), “speaking is a fvo-way process

betveen the speaker(s) und the listener(s) involving the productive skill of speaking aud the receptive shill of understanding.” Both the listener and the speaker have a

positive function to perform: the speaker has to encode the message to be conveyed

in appropriate language, while the listener has to decode the message The message itself in normal speech usually contains a great deal of information that the listener

needs And at the same time, the listener is helped by the speakers’ prosodic features such as stress and intonation which accompany the spoken ufterances and fort park

of ils meaning, and also by his facial and body movements,

Brown (1983) also stales that “speaking is an witeractive process of

construchng meaning that involves producing, reveivmig and processing

information.” Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in whicli it ocows, including the particrpants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical

environment, and the purposes for speaking It is often spontaneous, open ended and evolving However, speech is not always unpredictable Language fimoticns that

tent to recur in certain discourse situations (declining and invitation, requesting time

off from work) can be identified and charted Speaking tequires not only that

leamers know how to produce specific points of language, such as grammar,

pronunciation, vocabulary (linguistic competenec), but also thal they understand when, why and in what way to produce language (sociolinguistic competence)

Scott (1978) reveals that “speaking can be typified as un aviivity involving

two or more people in which the participants are both hearers and speakers having

te react to what they hear and make their contribution.” Each has an intention ot a set of intentions that he wants to achieve in the interaction and an ability to interpret

10

wiml is said to him which he can not predict exactly cithor in terms of form or in terms of meaning

Chaney (1988:13) detined that “speaking ix the process of dnuilding and sharing meaning through the use verbal and non-verbal symbols in a variety of

contexts”

Different researchers have different concepts of speaking but they all agree with one very important feature of speaking, that is a two way process between the speaker and listener

3.2 Types of speaking skills

There are two major types of speaking: monologue and dialogue

3.2.1 Monologue

In Brown snd Vule’s opinion (1983), a monologue invalves the ability to

give an uninleupted oral presentation such as when a broad caster reads news in radio or television programs, a teacher or professor gives a formal lecture, an

announcer gives the mstruction or changes in the airport, ete This type comesponds with non-reciprocal listening where the transfer of intormation is in one-direction

only from the speaker to the listener and is used like the written form with no reaction and response from the listener These types take place when the speaker

wants to talk with a large number of listeners about the same issue

11

3.3 Characteristics of speaking

Aceuravy and flucney me very important aspects of speaking Tf the lcarner

dovs uot know the coneet use of the language then he should be given enough

opportunity to improve his speaking proficiency During students’ speaking, the

teacher should not intexrupt them to point out an error Because this may make

students arzdous and affect fluency

3.3.1 Accuracy

Accuracy means the correct use of the language im terms of grammar,

vocabulary and pronunciation According to Hamner : “ accuracy involves the

correct use of vocabulary, granunar and pronunciation” In speaking, accuracy is

very important and the teacher should make them clear about the correct use

Teacher should encourage students for the correct use of the language According to

Numan : “ accuracy is the extent to which students’ speech matches what people

actually say when they use the target language” [Lowever, teacher should not be too focused on accuracy Because, if they are very particular aboul producing cơirceL

their fluency and accuracy According to Numan : “ fluency if te extent to which

speakers use the largei language quickly and confidently with few hesitation or

uuuitural pauses, false starts, word searches” When students get used to the

language and Jeam to communicate properly then the fluency comes We cannot expect from the beginners to speak fluently For improving fluency, the leamers should be give the chance to speak spontaneously without worrying mnch about accuracy

12

3.4 Characteristics of a good speaker

A good learner always organize his thoughts in a meamngful and logival sequence amd uses language as a means of expression A good Izaner should know

the usc of right words in the night order with the comect pronunciation, different

language function and social and cultural nonns “ Speakers must be able to

eniticivate and then produce the expected patterns specific discourse situation They

must also manage the discrete elements such as turn-taking, rephrasing, providing

feedback or redirecting” ( Bum and Joyce 1997) Leamers have to take part in communication and have to choose correct vocabulary, use facial expression so that other people can easily understand what he or she is trying to say Accarding to Brown, a good speaker does the fallowing things:

- use the grammar structures accurately

- selecting vocabulary that is urulerstandable aud appropriate for the audience

- using gestures and body language

- paying attention the the success of the interaction and adjusting components of speech such as vocabulary, rate of speech and complexity of grammar structures to maximize the listeners comprehension and involvement

4 Teaching and learning English speaking skills

4.1 The role and status of speaking in language teaching and learning,

The development of speaking skill, in terms of its importance in language teaching, can be illustrated by the position ascribed to this skill in different

grauunar-translation or audio-lngual method In these approaches the skill of

speaking was rarely emphasized in connection to its purpose, i.e the ability to use a

Janguage in real-life situations, the ability to communicate If it was addressed, then

13

iL usually was only in terms of accoracy That es/be seen in the following quotalian

by Mackey: “Oral expression involves not ondy [ ] the use of the right sounds im

the right patterns of rhythm and intonation, lui also the choice of words and

inflections in the right order to convey the right meaning” {Bygate: 5) The

quotation reflects the conception of speaking at that time The emphasis on the

formal part, ie the correct sounds, the correct choice of words and inflections etc ,

Jed to the accuracy oriented practice Types of activities such as oral drills, model dialogue practice and pattem practice (“The Audio-lingual method”) were widely

used in teaching speaking The result was thal, although learners knew the patterns

and memorized the res, they were nol able to use their knowledge in practive

They were not capable of exploiting the miles and patterns in real interaction One of

the possible causes of their “inability” could be the lack of opportunities to use their

theoretical knowledge in purposeful communication They were not exposed to

situations when they would be made to use whatever language they had at their

disposal to convey their message or to try to understand their interlocutor’s message

There was not much prominence given to the fact that there was a difference

between “knowledge about a language” and “skill in using it’ in communication

GBygate: 3)

4.2 Stages of teaching English speaking skills

Aceording to Methodulogy course 1-

thing the skills (Ha Noi 2002; 42- 43) a speaking lesson should have three stages: pre-speaking, while- speaking, and post- speaking Obviously, each stage has it own characteristics

42.2.2, The Pre-speaking stage

‘This stage plays an essential role in the whole process of a speaking lesson because it is difficult to ask students to speak without preparation which involves such activities as pre-speaking questions, brain storming, discussion tasks or vocabulary tasks It is commanty found in every course book that oral materials are written inte different forms: dialogue and prose Byrne introdneed the procadurs

in which the k

cps fo present dialogue arc included

14

- Establish the selling: Piches are made usc of and drawn if simple Use

English as much as possible at this stage

- Arouse students interests and experience related to the situation

- Explain some selective words

Set a listening task by asking key questions of the dialogue

Ask the stndents to listen without looking at their books

Ask the stndents to look at their books while they are listening

Ask the students to listen and repeat

Deal with any difficulties in the dialogue

Ask the studlerts to practice the dialogue

Ask the students to dramatize the dialogue

What's more, the presentation of prose massage suggested by Byme (1991: 26) includes the nine steps

dislogne and pr

Introduce the topic by asking the students to have a guick look at the picture

or by asking them about a related book, film, or TV programme they have seen,

Introduce the text including new words or new structures Ilowever, there is

my need 1o explain all things in the text

Provide relevant language practice, for cxample, train the students with

pronunciation dill so that the

can speak English easily, fucully and also help them remember the new words

Set the reading task by makmg queshons

Ask the students to read the silently

Read the passage aloud

Explain any difficulties faced by the sindents

Do silent reading again

Get the students to talk about what they have leamed

some of the sicps can be Teft out In aidilion, before delivering avlivitics for this

stage, the teacher necds to pay careful attention to the object of cach lesson, the

situation of teaching and learnmg and the student’ needs as well

42.2.2, The while- speaking stage

Unlike the pre-speaking stage, it is the student’s tum to do most of the talking

The teacher, at this stage, lets students wark with each other without interfering or correcting any mistakes in order not to stop students from speaking fluently The

teacher only gives assistance if necessary The specific aim of the while- speaking

stage is to develop students’ speaking skill so the teacher does the minimum amommt

of

hing and talking since the students wilt be working on the while speaking task by themselves, individually or in groups Instead, the teacher will have to do a lot of monitoring and assisting weaker students who have difficulty completing the task

42.2.3, The post speaking stage

It is the last phase of a speaking lesson so it is the time for the students’ production What they produce will reflect their speaking skill, interests or views A real show of English speaking takes place when the students are able to use English for themselves Also, when they reflect upon then performance, they can recognize wile they have done well and where they require improverncnt

The post-spoaking stage is like the follow up stages Afler students have

practiced speaking skill in the while- speaking stage, they do an extension speaking

activity This helps students take the information ftom other groups or whatever they have produced in the while- speaking stage and do somethmg meaningful with

it Accordingly, getting the students to report their work and the whole class may be

invited to comment can be recommended to be the most effective at this stage Thus, the teacher in this stage must take on the role of a manager or a guide in order to

give feed back, correct serious mistakes, give students marks and set personal goals

for improving thuir speaking abilities

16

Byme (1988:2) comes to a conclusion that to develop oral ability, the three

- speaking and post- speaking should be followed orderly Nevertheless, due to time constraint, purposes of a speaking lesson, types of

stages: pre-spealing, while

students and materials in use, this sequence might not always be applied

mechanically on every occasion However, teachers ought to pay attention to what

has been spoken by the students during the while and post speaking stages so that they can see how far students improves their speaking ability, what mistakes they might produce, what problems they encounter Then appropriate techniques,

particularly technique to deal with students’ mistakes and problems would be

study

mapped oul, These questions arc explained clearly int

CHAPTER 2 REASEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Research context

2.1.1 Description of the English textbook and its objectives at Nhi Chieu High School

English textbooks is compiled with theme-based approach Each unit

Mentions one theme relating to everyday life, which is very useful, practical to

students’ needs The name of each unit is also the main theme of the entire unit And

those themes are exploited and practiced from different skills that are allocated in

different periods of forty-five minutes including Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing

Besides the skill-focused periods, Language focus is also an important part of each unit This part is designed to summarize all focused language like vocabulary,

grammar and functions of the unit Therefore, students will catch an overview of the

2.1.1.1 Objectives of the texthoak

If for the old textbooks, students were required to master basic grammar niles of the target language and to acquize a certain bulk of vocabulary far translating texts, the new textbook is designed with more practical objectives as follows:

© Providing the fundamental bul systematic knowledge of Pnglish at a suitable

level with high schools students

* Developing language skills comprehensively in the target language, including listening, speaking, reading and writng

18

» Improving communicative competence of students

© Roriching students’ understanding af their own culture and ather cultures, especially cultures of English speaking comlrios

® Helping students to be aware of the leaming process, in which linguistic knowledge is the means of leaming, not the ultimate target of language mastery

Obviously, the objectives of the new English textbook have proved to be more realistic, relevant and appropriate to the context of teaching and leaming English at high schools in Vietnam The four skills namely speaking, listening, reading and writing are developed in a good buhmec, which em avoid the dominance of grammar and reading of the old textbooks Therefore, sludents can improve their

English in a more comprchensive approach

Tn short, the objectives of the new English textbouk have overvame the

shortage of the old onzs and have becn suitable with the global trend of learning English

2.1.1.2 Student-centered activities as the main strength af the new textbuok

One of the wain distinetive features of the textbook over the old one is the

focus on students rather than on teachers In olher words, the new Lexivouk las highlighted students as center of leaning process and teachvrs are only facilitators

that help and instruct students with their learning In this case, students play the role both as the subject and as the goal of language learning process They will join im

activities directly and actively acquire the target language Those are quite different

from teacher-centered approach used in the old one, in which teacher played the role

as the main subject and provide students with a lot of grammar rules, and then

students practiced those miles passively

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By cmploying student-cestered approach, the new textbook offers a variety of

activitics that well reflect the centered role of students For example, in a speaking

lesson, topics are mtroduced to students by pictures, charts or maps which activate the imagination of students, Then, they will have chances to work in pairs or groups

to express their own opinions and ideas about the topics By that way, students have

participated in the lesson as an active subject

2.1.2 Description of the teachers at Nhi Chieu High School

Nhu Chieu High School is a small high school with 21 classes located in a mountainous district of Hai Duong province and 80 kilometers far ftom Ha Noi capital, There are $ teachers of English at the school, More than half of them are experienced but resistant to change the traditional methodology that they used to teach for a long time The application of the English textbook with a new teaching method may be a big challenge for those teachers This also affects the usage of the

for many reasons

2.1.3 Description of the students at Nhi Chieu High School

Students at Nhi Chieu High Schools have come fiom difierent lower secondary schools in the districts In fact, all of them have studied the new sets of English textbooks for secondary schools from grade 6", Therefore, their English competences are various Such a mixed-ability problem is also the concem of most

teachers at high schools, as well as the textbook writers

Inside the classroom, students sit in long rows with 4 students being in one row, thus becoming very immobile for communicative activities while the teacher is under

pressure to cover the allocated syllabus in the time allowed

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Moreover, their proficiency in Bnglish limguage is very low since afler four yours of leaming English at the lower sccandary schools, many students find themsclves unable to use English tor communicative purposes even in the simplest ways

2.2 Methods of the study

This study is conducizd as a qualitative and quantitative sturly, in which

interview, information collection and amalysis as well as questionnaire to collcet

data is used As Bouma has stated “hath qualitative and quantitative approaches ure

essentials tu the research process in social sciences” (1996: 173); furthermore, each methodology has 1ts strengths and weaknesses, thus could not alone help to find out

satisfactory and sufficient information That is the reason why I choose to make full use of both approaches rather than employ ane and dispose the other so as to

achieve the reliable results

Onc of the outstanding features of the quantitative methodology is its

ity Acuording to Burs (1999), the quantitative approach is ommployed whan

archer aitns al attaining objectivity and control as il is held that it can Soffer

ways of testing hypothesis thai ure widely accepted or standardised” (199922)

Hence, to obtain an overview of difficulties in teachmg and leaming speaking skill

in English classes experienced by teachers and students at Nhi Chieu High School,

surveys will be conducted among the teachers and students

However, according to Burns (1999), qualilative research is the methodology

of studying the participants’ opinion, actions and experiences through interview,

observation and published information Correspondingly, this method will be made

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finding out the answers to tescarch questions There are two types of research

questionnaires, one for students is designed in Vietnamese, the other for teachers is

designed in English To make the research more exact, the research also carried out

some semi-interviews with representatives of students and all the teachers to talk

more about the problems

With the data collected, experiences and observation during teaching process, the researcher contimed the analysis It is necessary for the researcher to apply bath methods qualitative and quantitative because the research requires not only the

analysis on the data but also from the practical experince pf the participants and the

sescareher

2.3 Data collection

In the first phase, questionnaires were administered to 10U students at different

grades and 5 teachers of English of the school The participants were asked to

complete the questionaire al home and returned their espouses three days later so

that they would have as much time as they needed

After the collected data were analyzed, in the second phase, teachers

informants and representatives of student informants with most problems in teaching and leaming English speaking skill were contacted for semi-structured

interviews with the researcher in locations where they felt at ease and at a time they suggested The interviews were all lapeaecmded to free the inlerviewer lo

participate naturally in the discussion and to allow the content to be reviewed in

details In addition, in order to capture the complexities of the student respondent's individual perceplions and experience, the students tterviews were conducted in

Vietnamese while three teacher mterviews were conducled in maimly English bul

were sometimes camricd out in both Victnamesc and English At the beginning of

each interview, the teachers and students were explained clealy, explicitly and

ambiguously about the nature of the study Duwing the interview, the researcher

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modified the questions and procedures according to the snbjevls* responses The length of cach intervicw was fiom 10 to 15 minutes,

2.4, Data analysis

Data analysis is not simply a single description of the collected data and information In fact, it is the process by which the researcher interprets the data and information collected from the survey questionnaires and interviews The scheme and coding categories in this research emerged from an examination of the data and information than pre-determined and imposed on the data and information The information from the interviews was transcribed and tajor themes were identified with a view to clarifying and supplementing the statistical results,

Specifically, data to be taken in questionnaires and from interviews were analyzed in three directions with major themes; difficulties tiom teachers (namely, inappropriate teacher pedagogical practices, teachers’ deficiency in English spoken

or English communicative competence), difficulties from students (that is, past educational experiences, lack of background ot lack of cultural and social imowledge, low motivation to leaming English, low English level of proficiency, negative personal traits and traditional cultural belief), difficulties fom objective

CILIAPTER 3 DATA ANALYSIS

3.1 Data analysis of teachers’ survey questionnaire

$ copies of the first questionnaire distributed to 5 teachers werg responded and the data is analyzed in this part of the study in the following tales

Teachers’ experience in teaching Fnglish

experience m teaching English

teachers

(as important as other skills $ 100%

skills