Luận văn a study on difficulties in learning speaking skill faced by non english major students at hanoi university of industry

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Information about students participating in the survey Table 2: Toachers’ years of teaching English and students’ years of learning ‘Table 6: ‘Leachers’ and stude

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST — GRADUATE STUDIES

AN AA RRA Ki Ki Ki K

NGUYEN TH] XOAN

A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING SPEAKING SKILL

FACED BY NON-ENGLISH-MAJOR STUDENTS AT

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

Nghiên cứu về những khó khăn trong việc học kĩ năng nói của sinh viên không

chuyên Tiêng Anh tại trường Dại học Công Nghiệp Hà Nội

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, IIANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST —- GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN THI XOAN

A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING SPEAKING SKILL

FACED BY NON-ENGLISH-MAJOR STUDENTS AT

IIANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

Nghién ci vé nhiing khó khăn trong việc bục kĩ năng nói câu vinh riên không

chuyên Tiêng Anh tại trường Đại học Công Nghiệp Hà Nội

M.A MINOR TIIESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410

Superviser: Pham Lan Anh, M.A

Hanoi — 2012

k Aims of the study

3 Scope of the study

4 Significance of the study

5 Methodology

6 Design of the study

Chapter 1: Literature Review

1.1, Theoretical backgraund of Communicative language teaching

1.2.2 Characteristics of speaking

1.3 Teaching Speaking Skills in CLT approach

1.3.1 Teaching Speaking Skills in CLT approach

1.3.2 The techniques in teaching speaking skills

1.4 Difficutties in learning speaking skill

1.4.1, Difficulties from teachers

1.4.2, Difficulties from students

1.4.3, Difficulties from objective factors

Chapter 2: ‘The study

2.1 The context

2.1.1 Description of the Enelish course and its objectives at HaUI

2.1.2, Description of the students at LlaUL

2.1.3 Descriplion of the teachers al, HAUT

2 Some suggestions to overcome students’ difficulties

2.1, Suggestions for teachers

2.2 Suggestions for students

3 Limitations of the study

4, Suggestions for further studies

REFERENCE

APPENDIX 1: Questionnaire for students (English version)

APPENDIX 2; Questionnaire for students (Vietnamese version)

APPENDIX 3; Questionnaire for teachers

APPENDIX 4: Transcription of semi-structured group interview with

HaUL:

CLT

LI

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Lanoi University of Industry

Communicalive Language Teaching First language

Second language

a

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Information about students participating in the survey

Table 2: Toachers’ years of teaching English and students’ years of learning

‘Table 6: ‘Leachers’ and students’ judgment about students’ speaking competence

‘Table 7; Students’ reasons for learning Hnglish speaking sldll

Table 8: Teachers’ belief aboul CLT

Table 9: Students’ common difficulties in learning speaking skill

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

Nowadays, in the trend of globalization, English has become an international language and has been widely used in many parts of the world With the development of modem scicuce and technology along with the integration policy, the need of learning English in Vietnam has been increasing day by day With the purpose of finding a good job with high salary or to study abroad, learners of English nowadays not only wish to master the grammar of the language to pass the exam at school but they also wish to develop their communication competence However, they oflen get info a lot of difficulties on the way mastering it The reasons may be that to speak a foreign language fluently is not easy and it takes a lot

of time and effort There are many factors such as: students’ motivation, students’ characteristics, leaming materials, teachers’ teaching methods, etc which affect students’ achievement in leaming Linglish speaking skill

The topic of difficulues in leaning English speaking has also altracted me since I began teaching English at [lanoi University of Industry (laUI) In the hope

of helping students master English well to get a good job after graduation, the Faculty of English aL HaU has applied the communicative language (caching approach in teaching and leaming for both English-major and non-English-major studenls Among four language skills (lislening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking is paid special attention, However, throughout my teaching for non- Unglish major students at this university, 1 realize that the speaking lessons are usually not really success(ul as expected because students have a lol of difficulties

in leaming this skill Although students can do the grammar exercises very well, can master quite many new words and structures, they still cannot apply them in learning speaking skill very well Thal is one of Ibe reasons why T wish {o carry oul

a research to find out the common difficulties in learning speaking skill and some suggested solutions to the problem

Thore are quite many rescarches on Iearning English speaking skill and

difficulties in learning this skill; however, there are still few researches about

dilficullics in learning speaking skill by sludents al Hal, especially by non-Fnglish major students although it is a quite big university in Vietnam and the number of non-English major students is also quite large Being an Inglish teacher for non-

English major students at this university, I would like to carry out a research to find

out the common difficulties in learning this skill by those students in order to help them ta imprave the situation in the next semesters as well as to help me and my

colleagues lo improve our teaching

These above facts have provoked me to conduct a research with the title: “A study on difficulties in learning speaking skill faced by non- English major studeriis

at Hanoi University of Industry”

2 AIMS OF THE STUDY

The study is carried out to find out non-English major students’ difficulties

in leaming English speaking skill al Haro: University of Tudustry rom students and lecturers’ points of views Then, some solutions will be generated from the lecturers

at this university to overcome the problems All these above aims can be realized by

answering three [ollewing research questions

1 What arc the ifficultics cricountered by non-Euglish iajor students in

learning English speaking skill trom lecturers’ opinions?

2 What are the difficulties encountered by non-linglish major students in learning English speaking skill from students’ opinions?

3 What are suggested as solutions by lecturers for non-English major students

to overcome those difficulties?

3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study aims al finding out the difficulties in learning speaking skill faced by non-English major students at HaUl ‘there are many types of difficulties that learners can meet when they study a foreign language Ilowever, due to the

limitation of time and the narrow scale, the study only focuses on the most common

difficulties in learning speaking skill faced by non-English major students at Hanoi University of Industry from the perspectives of students and teachers Then, this

study will also give out some suggested solulions generated from the teachers in the

interview for students to overcome those difficulties and umprove their speaking

shall

4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Tn finding oul the difficulties of non-English major students in learning speaking Hnglish and some suggested solutions, it is hoped that the result of the

study will somehow be used as reference to help students to Jean speaking skill

better in the next semesters In addition, the result of this study is also strongly believed to help me and my colleagues to better our own teaching at LlaUL, as well

az those who are in charge of teaching English speaking skill to non-English major

students at other universities and colleges in Vietnam with the same situation as at

TIaUI

Last but not least, this study is also hoped to contribute to recent

Imowledge about difficulties in leaming speaking skill of non-English major

students at IlaUL

5 METHODOLOGY

With the aims of investigating difficulties of non-English major students

in learning speaking skill af, HaUJI, T decide lo choose survey research melhodology

Based on the aims of this study, it is clear that this is a descriptive research

To collect data for this study, 526 non-English major students and 15

lecturers are invited to take part in ‘he students are from different classes, different

faculties and all chosen at random The lecturers participating in the survey are

direcily teaching English to non-English major studenls or lave had some

experience in teaching non-Lnglish major students so that they can understand the students’ difficulties in leaming speaking skill Those lecturers are also selected randomly

In this study, questionnaires for non-English major students and lecturers,

semi-structured group-interview with teachers will be used to collect data to

guaranice the accuravy of the data

6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

‘The minor thesis is composed of three parts:

Part A Ttroduction preserits the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the

scape, the methodology, the limitations and the design of the study

Part B: Development consists of threc following chapters

1 Chapter 1: Literature Review presents the concepls relevant lo (he indy

2 Chapter 2: The Study presents an overview of the context of investigation, summarizes non-English major most common difficulties and gives same

suggesled solutions for them to overcome those difficulties

Part C: Conclusion addresses the key issues, limitations of the study and suggestions for further researches

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CILAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 1 briefly prosents the overview of CLT and speaking skill: concep!

of CLI, characteristics of CLI, concept of speaking, characteristics of speaking, teaching speaking skills in CLT approach, the techniques in teaching speaking skills and difficulties in leaming speaking skill

1.1 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

1.11 Concept of CLT

There are many different definitions about CLT

Llymes (1972) promotes the theory about language as communication with the target to develop “communicative competence” for students, which is later

considered lo be the goal of language leaching, Ux: backbone of the cormmunicalive

language teaching approach

CLT was expanded with the developruent of the notional- functional syllabus (Wilkins, 1976) and a communicative syllabus (Munby, 1978) The former was an attempt to organize second language curriculum based on communicative principles Both were based on the theory that the basic categorics of language were notions and functions rather than grammatical categories such as nouns, verbs, or adjectives Widdowson (1978) further added to the field when he praposed a model

of language in which he made a distinction between usage and use, which usage referring to grammatical aspects of language and use referring to communicative aspects of language

Canale and Swain (1980) expands the thearetical basis of CLT far both leaching and testing They are agains! the trend of over emphasis on fumelion and a lack of emphasis on form grammatical complexity They insist that teaching in CLT approach need to develop communicative competence for students In their views, communicative compelence consists of grammatical, sociolinguistic ard strategic

compotenee Later Canalc (1983) separated sociolinguistic competence into two different components: sociolinguistic and discourse competence

According Lo Nunan (1989, p.194) CTT is defined as adapted below:

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

involve oral communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which

is meaningful to the learners Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they

include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives The learner’s role is as a negatiator and integrator The teacher’s vole is as a facilitator of the

communication process Materials promote communicative language use; they are

task-based and authentic”

Nunan states that in communication process, learners are negotiators and

integralors whereas Icachers arc lacililalors Nunan’s definition of CLT represents a particular view of understanding and explaining language acquisition

According to Bock (2000) CLT is tailored to get at meaning and learners

negoliale moaning in class Meaning is considered as what is communicated The

negotiation of meaning can be implicated through pair work, group work in

problem-solving tasks He also states: “Authentic materials, functional tasks, and

group and pair work are significant aspects of CLT”

The definition above represents a particular view of understanding and explainng language acquisition It is socially constructed and must be seen as a

product of social, cultural, economic, and political forces

1.1.2, Characteristics of CLT

‘Nunan (1991) points out five features of CLT: 1) An emphasis on learning to commuricale through interaction in the lirgel language 2) The introduction of authentic texts into the leaming situation, 3) the provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on the learning process itself 4) An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as important conlribuling

elements to classroom leaming 5) An attempt to link classroom Janguage learning

M

with language activitics outside the classroom These five features are claimed by practitioners of CLT to show that they are very interested in the needs and desires of their leamers as well as the conection between the Ianguage as il is taught in their class and as it used outside the classroom In the CLY classroom, pair work and group work are made used of to practice the fluency-based activities

Brovm (2001), in describing the key principles of CLT, promotes six

‘he first one is that the goals of CLY are emphasized in all

characteristics of CLT

of the components of communicative competence including: grammatical,

discourse, functional, sociolinguislic, and stralegic The second one is that language

techniques are designed to motivate learners to use the pragmatic, authentic,

functional use of language for meaningful purposes (communicative purposes) The mastering of grammar rules is nol the central goal of CLT The ihird one is that teaching techniques and avtivities are designed and organized to develop students”

fluency and accuracy Fluency is sometime considered more important than

aveuracy The fourth one is that in the classroom students have Lo use the language

in the communicative activities The fifth one is that students can develop their self-

sludy ability during learning process Last but net feast, ihe role of the teacher im

the class is recognized as a facilitator and guide, not the person who knows

everything and forces students to lear and study what she knows

Richard (2006) suggests six following, principles of CLT today: 1) teachers need to make real communication the focus of language learning 2) Teachers

should provide opportunities for learners to experiment and try out what they know 3) Teachers ought to be tolerant of learners’ ervors as they indicate dat the learner is,

building up his or her communicative competence 4) Teachers should provide

opportunities for leammers lo develop both accuracy and fluency 5) Teachers had

better link the different skills such as speaking, reading, and listening together, since

they usually occur so in the real world 6) Teachers should let students induce or

discover grammar Tules theruselves In applying these principles in the classroom,

new classroom teclmiques and activities were needed, and the new roles for teachers

15

and lamers in the classroom appear Instead of making use of activitics that demanded accurate repetition and memorization of sentences and grammatical gallems, activilics thal require leariers to negoliale meaning and to interact meaning-fully are required (Richards, 2006, p 13),

According to Larsen- Freeman (2003, p.131) the most obvious characteristics

of CLI is that, almost everything that is done is done with a communicative intent The focus of CLT is therefore on leamers’ ability to express their own ideas,

feclings, atiludes, desires and needs The focus of the lesson 1s on Mlucricy, nol on

accuracy

Richards & Rodgers (2001, p.167) alsa affirm that CLT is associated with its

learner- centred and experienced-based tasks view of second language leaching Tn

CLI context, leamers are seen as active participants in the construction of

knowledge, rather than passive recipients of information provided by the teacher or

the loxtbouk In contrast, language icachers are no longer viewed as he aulhority of the knowledge, playing a dominant role Rather, they share different roles such as communication facilitator, independent participant, needs analyst, counsellor, and group process manager to create more fascinating experiences for the learners Besides the above features, Richards & Rodgers (2001) also describe other

significant characteristics of this approach including its efforts to make tasks and

language relevant to a target group of learners through an analysis of genuine,

realistic situations, its emphasis on the use of authentic, from-life materials, and its

attempt to create a secure, nonthreatening atmosphere

Tatewood (1981) describes the CLT approach that one of the most

characteristic features of communicative language teaching is that it pays systematic

allention Lo functional as well as structural aspects of language In reaction lo the

grammar-translation and audio-lingual methods, the CLT approach emphasizes the

communicative activities that involve the real use of language in daily life situation

1.2 Speaking Skill

Speaking skill plays an important role in leamers’ learning process It is considered an imporlant criterion to judge learters’ achievernonl in learning a language ‘They often evaluate their success in language learning by how well they can speak that language Therefore, if they cannot leam how to speak or do not get

any opportunities to speak in the language classroom, they may soon get

demotivated and bored with learning On the contrary, if the teachers can apply interesting activities in the class, speaking lessons can become very funny and

interesting

1.2.1 Concepts of Speaking

There are many different concepts of speaking by many different linguistics,

however, most of them agree thai speaking is very imporiamL le human

communication Bygate (1997) states that speaking is a skill which is very

important and requires as much attention as other skills, in both first and second

languages In order to carry out most of their basic interactions and transactions, learners need to be able to speak, and express their ideas to other people Lle slso emphasizes that “interaction is the use of language far maintaining communication

between participants” and ‘interaction skilly are skills of deciding what to say,

when to say it and how to say it clearly” (Bygate, 1997, p.115) ‘Therefore, in

learning speaking skill, leamers are required to know not only how to produce

specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary (linguistic competence or grammatical competence), but also when, why and in

what ways language is produced (sociolinguistic competence)

According to Brown, Burns & Juyce, speaking is an ineractive process of

constructing meaning concerning three periods: producing and receiving and

processing information (Brown, 1994; Bums & Joyce, 1997).

Chancy and Burk (1998, p.13) states that spcaking is the provess of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in many different contexts

Brown (199) affirms that interaction is the heart of communication; it is what communication is all about, for example in the cases of sending messages; receiving them; interpreting them in a specific context; negotiating meanings; and

collaborating to accomplish certain purposes And interaction is the collaborative

oxchange of thoughls, [celings, or ideas between two or more people resulling in a

reciprocal effect on each other

In Byme’s view (1986), speaking skill is one of two ways of oral communication process, and is the productive skill The speaker lens to envode the message he wishes to convey in appropriate language, while the listener has to decode (or interpret) the message

According to Florez (1999) speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information It is often spontaneous, open-ended and evolving

Tn short, there are quite many different definitions of speaking, each of them

has their own goad points and strong points Howover, in this study the researcher decided to follow the concept of speaking by Bygate (1997 which means that speaking nol only involves grammatical compslence but also sociolinguistic

competence

1.2.2 Characteristics of Speaking

According to Bypate (2997), speaking involves two kinds of routines in the process of communicating, They are information routines and interactional ones Information routines may be described to involve two sub-routines: expository and evaluation The former includes description, narration, comparison and instruction The latter consists of explanation, prediction, justification, preference and decision,

Interaction routines are routines based not so much on sequences of kinds of term

18

oecurrine in typical kinds of interactions such as telephone conversation, interview conversations casual encounters, conversations at parties, lessons, radio ot

television interviews, all tend La be organized iu characterishe ways

In Brown’s opinion (1983) speaking has three characteristics: the first one is

that its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including

the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving

However, specch is not always unpredictable The second one is thal speaking

requires that leaers not ouly know how to produce specific points of language

such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary (“linguistic competence”), but also

that Ihey understand when, why, and in whal ways lo produce language (sociolinguistic competence”) Last but not least, speech has its own skills,

structures, and conventions different from written language

Bygale (1987) considers speaking as an undervalued skill in many ways The reason is that almost all people can speak therefore they just take speaking skill too much for granted He also asserts that speaking skill deserves attention every bit as

much as literacy skills Leamers often need to be able to speak with confidence in

order to carry out many of their most basic interactions and transactions Bygate

also highly appreciates speaking by stating that speaking is the medium through

which much language is leamt

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

communication By considering what good speakers do, what speaking tasks can be

used in cla

and whal specific needs Ikarners require, tcachors can help learners to

improve their speaking, skill

1.3 Teaching Speaking Skills in CLT approach

LBL Teaching Speaking Shits in CLT approach

According lo Harmer (2001) teachers should be aware thal teaching spoakimg

closely relates to receptive skill work Teachers should pay attention to: Output and

18

input, Texts, Reception and production Output and input output is the language the students produce; input is the feedback or prompters from students’ interlocutor

(leacher) Teach

can modify lheir students’ output Texés: offer students a model

to follow, especially when working on specific functions (agreeing, disagreeing, expressing surprise, approval ), also act as stimuli which then help create language production: discussion (from controversial reading passage) response (after listening to a tape about a story or opinion Keception is a part of production: conversation between two people is a blend of listening and speaking: comprehend wha’s said is necessary for what’s said next Production enables reception: oral production works in a way that helps $s with their listening comprehension as when they try to speak, they better adjust to understanding other people speaking in the

same context

Brown & Nation (1997) think that teachers should give students practice

with both [lueney and avcuracy: teachers should provide sludents with form-Lovused and meaning-fooused speaking activities that aim at fluency and accuracy

development

Nunan (2003) believes that teachers had better provide students opportunities

to talk (by using group work or pair work and limiting teacher talk), plan tasks

involving negotialiom of meaning, design classroom activities involving guidance, practice for both transactional and interactional speaking Interactional speaking is

to both establish and maintain social relationship while (ransaclional speaking is Lo

exchange goods or services Interactional speech is much more unpredictable than the other as it ranges over many topics with participants taking tum and commenting freely while the latler encounters of a fairly restrieled kind (c.g telephoning for a taxi), Students should be taught and guided to speak the targeted language in both interactional and transactional settings.

1.3.2 The techniques in teaching speaking skills

Communicative drill is “one in which the type of response is controlled but

the studenls provides his or her own content or information” (Richard & Platt, 1992,

p.223) There are four kinds of activities that teachers can organize for their students The first one is practical situations: Students practice requesting and providing

information and situations i.e asking for information ina city and ordering meals in

a restaurant ‘he second one is guessing games: Students do the games in pairs or groups: Ask yes-no question until figure out a person/thing chosen, Teacher

provides short, incomplete story plot, only one student knows the real end, other

students guess by asking questions etc the third one is information gathering activity: involves conducting surveys, interviews and searches in which students wore required lo use their language to collect information The last one is jigsaw activity each partner has one or a few pieces of the “puzzle”, and the partners must

cooperate to fit all the pieces into a whole picture

Harmer (2005) suggests the following activities im the classroom: 1 role- play: Teacher gives role cards ta students for pair work to do certain task such as producing, speech with some requirements A discussion activity: Students arc asked

to give opinion in front of the class, share ideas within small group before speaking

in public An opinion sharing activity may require using factual information, formulating arguments and justifying one’s opinion For some topics, there may be

no right or wrong responses from different individuals or groups 4 reasoning gap activity: involving deriving some new information from given info through the

process of mference or deduetion and the perception of relationships or pallerns,

involving comprehending and conveying information, ie work out teacher's

LiRlewood (1981) also suggests some kinds of activitiœs for tcachers to apply

in CLY speaking classroom Le classifies them into two main kinds: Functional

communication activities and social interaction activities

In terms of Functional Communication Activities, two main uses of

language are mentioned: using language to share information and using language to

process information They are then separated into four main groups:

a Sharing information with restricted co-operation: /dentifying a picture

from a set, Discovering identical pairs, Discovering sequence of location,

Discovering missmg information;Discovering missing features, Discovering

secrets

b Sharing information with unrestricted co-operation: Communicating

patterns and pictures, Communicating models, Discovering differences,

Following directions

c Sharing and processing information: Reconstructing story sequence, Pooling information to solve a problem

d Processing information: Problem solving tasks

Ta terms of Sacial Interaction Activities, Lilewoud’s (1981) promotes

other set of activities with two different types They are the classroom as a social context and, simulation and role playing

a Considering the classroom as a social context, he suggests the following

activities: Using the language being thought to establish the classroom management; Using the language being thought as teaching medium,

Conversations or discussion sessions; Basing dialogues and role plays on school

1.4, Difficulties in learning speaking skill

Different scholars have different ideas about the difficulties im learning

speaking skill, Hymes (1974) staled thai speaking skill includes linguistics competence, socio-linguistics competence and discourse competence therefore, students’ psychology, linguistics, culture, leaning materials, teachers’ characters,

class size, learming environment can affect students’ leaning to master

communicative competence According to Larsen (1986), difficulties in language

teaching in general and difficulties in teaching speaking skill in particular may stem

from teachers, students together wilh objective factors affecting the teaching

process, And the researcher decided to follow this idea of Larsen in her study,

1.4.1 Difficulties from teachers

1.4.1.1, Inappropriate teacher teaching methods

a Teachers’ misconceptions about CLT

According to Thompson (1994), teachers are often confused about CLT in four following aspects: the fins one is (hat CLT means not teaching grammar, the second one is CLT means teaching speaking only, the third one is CLT means pair work, which means role play, the last one is CLT means expecting too much from the twachers These misconceptions lead io teacher’ inappropriate leaching methods

b Inappropriate teacher teaching methods

Inappropriate teachers’ talking time

Nunan (1991) suggested an inappropriate teaching method in terms of

teacher’s talk He claimed: “Teacher talk is of crucial importance, not ouly 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 it is through Jariguage thal teachers cither succeed or [ail in impkanenting their caching

23

plans In terms of acquisition, teacher talk is important because it is probably the major source of comprehensible target language input the leamer is likely to

Teccive.”

It is, however, proved ina lot of research that teachers tend to make up over

70% of the total talk in the classroom (Legarretta, 1977; Chaudron, 1988, Zhao,

1998, Cook, 2000) When teacher talk dominates the classroom, students will have

less opportunity to further practice the language and therefore they cannot develop their language proficiency as expected

Inappropriate teacher's correction

According to Brown (2002, p 205) students’ errors are vital evidence to

show how they acquire the language through certain strategies or procedures

Teachers therefore, have duly 10 correct students’ errors to elarily students’

understanding of meaning and construction of the language to master language in

their conversation It is argued that how correction should be expressed Some

prefer mee, gentle and tactful conection while the others are in favor of 2

{nappropriate teacher's roles

The roles of teachers in the classroom have been changing lot However, in CLT approach, it is agreed that students are the centre of the language classroom, nol leachers Sill, teachers play important roles in (he classroom Teachers’ roles

can affect the success or failure of the classroom

Hanmer (1999, p 37} suggests one of the cleares| classifications of leachers’

roles in the CL1 classroom is that the teacher can play a role as: a controller, an

organizer, au assessor, a prompter, a participant, a resource, a tutor and an

observer

Byzner (1986, p.2) points out the roles of teachers according to three stages

of teaching speaking: the presentation stage, the practice stage and the production

stage At the first stage, teachers play a role as an informant who prepares materials

and presents the language to the students At this stage, teachers should be careful ahout time management so that students can have enough time for the other

important aclivilics At the second slage, teachers act as a conductor who should try

to give all students as much time as possible to practice the presented language At

the last stage, teachers play a role as a manager and a guide Students are

encouraged lo use language frecly even though they may ake many mistakes

Teachers should make sure that students use the language for their free talk

Teachers are expected to comment their students’ speaking activities performance at

the cnd of their presentation

In shert, regardless of different roles of teachers, the most important one is supposedly that of a motivator to motivate students” interests of learning, otherwise

all speaking activities will not be able to be successful

1.4.2 Difficulties from students

There are

ny different ideas about difficulties from siudents mm learning a

foreign language in general and in learning speaking skill in particular

Nunan (1999) pointed out that students’ immotivation is one of the factors

that causes difficulties in learning speaking skill Unmotivation is caused by lack of perception of progress, unspired teaching, boredom, lack of relevant materials, lack

of knowledge about the goals of the instructional program, lack of appropriate feedback ‘Teachers often find that it is very hard to motivate students in leaming

communicative competence

Tsui (1996) suggests five factors to determine leamers' diñculics in leaning speaking in class: “students” fear of making mistakes and losing face in front of their peers, students’ low opinion of their own proficiency level, teachers’

intolerance of silence, uneven participation and incomprehensive input.”

Dwyer and Murphy (1996) listed the following factors: fear of public failure, fear of making mistakes, lack of confidence, low Unglish proficiency, and inability to keep up with native speakers, incompetence in the rules and norms of

English conversation, disorientation, ol

other scholars such as Jones (1999), Cortazzi & Jim (1996), Jackson (1999, 2001,

2002); Li (1998), Zou (2004)

This conclusion was supported by many

According to Burns and Joyce (1997), cultwal, linguistic and affective factors are the three main causes of students’ difficulties in learning a foreign language

Cultural factors: Cultural factors are those that emerge from students’ prior

learning experiences as well as from the expectations thal arc formed on (heir basis The American linguist Sapir (192, p.60) maintains that language and culture are

dual entities: Culture representing what a society thinks and does, while its language

expresses and embodies the ideas of dhat sovicty In other words, if'a leamer expects

to speak a language well, he must appreciate the way it is used in social contexts

Cultural factors can creale students’ Iearning style They can have affect on

students’ learning results Kecfe (1979) defines leaning style as “cognitive, affective and physiological traits that are relatively stable indicators of how leamers perceive, inlerael with and respond lo the learning envirorment.” Williry (1987) divides learners mto four groups basing, on their behaviors: the first one 1s concrete learners who are interested in social aspects of language learning The second one

is analytical learners who would rather work individually on reading and grammar

‘The third one is communicative learners are willing to communicate with other

speakers The fourth one is authority-oriented learners: tond to be independent and prefer to work in non-communicative classroom

Ellis (1985, p.120) classifies learners’ learning styles into two main types:

extrovert and introvert Extrovert learners are more willing to interact with others

than the introvert ones, and so they are usually more successful in oral

communication than the rest

Lightbown and Spada (1995, p.53) listed a number of persomalily characteristics that greatly affects the success of second language leamers extroversion, inhibition, self-esteem, empathy, dominance, talkativeness and

Tesponsivericss

It is important for teachers to take into consideration students’ different

Icaming styles to improve their students’ performance in learning speaking,

Linguistic factor: According to Scarcella and Oxford (1992), linguistic factor (grammar competence) consists of grammar structures (morphology, synlax), vocabulary and mechanics (basic sounds of letters, syllables; the appropriate

pronunciation of words, intonation and stress elements)

Another thing related to linguistic factor should be taken into consideration

is thal affection of learners’ firsl language into the largot language in terns of the

sounds, rhythms, and stress pattems

Affective factors: Affective factors that cause difficulties for students in

learning a foreign language may be low motivation, anxiety in class, negative social

experiences and culture shock

According to Melton (1990), motivation is an important aspect which can determine the failure or success in any learning situation In Domyei’s view (2001), 1nolivaliơn consists of three sets of components: cours

specific motivational

components, lecturer-specific motivational components and group-specific

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motivational components To get students really motivated, teachers need to ensure all the three sets of components, which is very hard, Nunan (1999) pomted out some main reasons for studems’ demotivation as [Dllows: Lack of success over time/lack

of perception of progress, uninspired teaching, boredom, lack of perceived relevance of materials, lack of knowledge about the goals of the instructional program, lack of appropriate feedback

According to Shank & Terril (1995), anxiety is “the subjective feeling of

tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the

autonomic nervous system” Zhang (2006) listed out six main causes of language

anxiety: low proficient English, students’ fear of mistakes and derision, large class

sive, unwilling to lake risks, low tolerance of ambiguity, competiliveriess Schumann (1998) claims that the causes of anxiety are students’ forgetfulness,

avoidance of speaking the language, less interaction with people, low self-esteem,

low-confidence, and [eeling unsure of one’s abilities

As presented above, difficulties from students are varied and defined in different ways However, in this study, the researcher follows the ideas that these difficulties from the studems are: students’ passive leaming style, students’ low motivation, students’ anxiety and students’ lack of background knowledge and

ideas

1.4.3 Difficulties from objective factors

Difficulties from objective factors are usually identified by students’ Jearning in Targe and inultilevel classes, uninicresting lextbock, lack of material and

facilities for language teaching and learning,

According to Le (2002) in large classes, stuslents have different, learning styles, preferences and levels of Linglish proficiency ‘'herefore, teachers cannot pay equal attention to all students in a large class and it is also very difficult for teachers

to organize suitable activities for all students in the class Ur (1993, p 303) has the

28

similar ideas that teachers of large classes gct into a lot of difficultics in maintaining disciplines, choosing suitable materials and activating students Dalle and ‘Thrush

(2003) clumed that: “large classes challenge even well-tramed and experienced

teachers.” ‘Thus, large class size not only causes difficulties for teachers in their

teaching but also causes difficulties for students in their learning

Mathews (2006) said that multilevel classes can cause a lot of difficulties

to teachers in organizing the activities in speaking classes Dalle (2003) also had the

same idea aboul this issuc

In short, to create good language leaming environment, school and universities should organize small size classes with the equivatel students’ English

level However, it is quite hard to achieve this condition in most cases in Vietnam.

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY

The study begins with the description of the cwrent situation where the study was conducted ‘Ihe next part is an overview of participants and instruments of the study Finally, it is the presentation of statistics and data analysis

2.1 The context

2.1.1 Description of the English course and its objectives at HaUL

The study was conducted with non-English-major students at Hanoi

University of Industry (Hal), where English is the forcign language taught as a non-major subject

The English courses at HaUT are chvided into two stages: The first stage is

General English and the sccond stage is English for Specific Purposes The first stage aims at providing students with general knowledge of vocabulary, phonology, English prammar as well as developing students’ integrated four language skills with the focus on speaking skill At this stage, students learn Knglish during five semesters Each semester lasts 90 periods (45 minutes per period) and students leam

6 periods in a week However, before leaming this foreign language students can

take part in the replacement test If students pass this test, they can skip the first

semester of English which is called English | With, the third semester — English 3-

students only lea 65 periods in class and 25 periods online During the Girst four

semesters, the scries of textbooks New-headway by Liz, John Soars & Sylvia Wheeldon (Elementary and Pre-intermediate) — third edition published by Oxford

Universily Press are used for four firsk semesters For the fiflh semester, the

textbook “Intemational Express” pre-intermediate published by Oxford University

Tress is used By using these textbooks, we can improve our students’

communicalive competence and our students can learn the real things from daily topic conversations Students are asked to work individually, in pairs, in groups to practice English in situational contexts During leaming process, in each semester,

students are required to complete two progress tests, onc mid-term test and a final

30

test After finishing 5 Genoral English semesters, students moves to the second stage the stage for Linglish for Specific Purposes which lasts 60 periods in one semester Al this slage, our students are provided with the knowledge af terms and structures related to the future job The materials used during this stage vary depending on the majors of the students These materials are collected and designed

by teachers at HaUl themselves mainly focus on students’ specific vocabulary, reading and translation

2.1.2 Description af the students at HatT

The students al Hal come from differen provinces such as: Ha Noi, Ha Nam, Nam Dinh, Hai Phong, Hai Duong, Thanh Hoa, Most of them have

studied English before, however, they are not good at English When they took the

cnirance exam lo (hs university, they had fo lake the tesL in math, physics and

chemistry; therefore, they only paid attention to these subjects to pass the exam English was considered to be unimportant; they did not study it thoroughly Their Rnglish level is usually vory low and their English levels are very different Some students can be quite good at grammar but not good at speaking,

Non-English major students belong to different faculties such as: economics, mechanical engineering, automobile, chemistry, electronic and computer science

Their motiv: ion for learning English is nol the same Usually, students from

economics faculties, and computer science faculties are interested and more hard-

working in leaming English more than students from other faculties

2.1.3 Description of English teachers at Hai

There are 117 English teachers at HaUI (62 of them are permanent staff and the rest are temporary ores) Most of them are fenvale (111 female teachers), only 6

of them are male, ‘Their age is from 22 to 45 Most of them are still very young, some teachers have just only graduated from university, and they do not have much experience in teaching However, the boards of admimstrators always have some

al

workshops at the beginning and at the end of the school year to find out the things achieved and the things not achieved during the previous course, to train teachers in teaching methods (CLT approach is selected for all the teachers Lo apply in their teaching) and to give chance for good teachers to share their teaching experience, managing classroom with their colleagues About 60% of the teachers at [laUI used

to be students at Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Languages and

International Studies (HLLIS), 24% teachers come from Hanoi University, and the

others are from Hanoi National University of Education or other universities 18

leachers have Gnished their MA courses and there are many teachers are pursuing

The second questionnaire was administered to 15 teachers who are currently

teaching English for now-Fnglishanajor students al Hall so that they can

understand the students’ difficultics in learning speaking skill Those lecturers are

also selected randomly ‘These teachers include 2 male teachers, and 13 female

teachers, aged from 23 to 45 Three of them graduated from Hanoi Unversity, 12 of

them graduated from Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies (EIULIS) Two of them get MA in English language

leaching, and two mure leachers arc learning a Post-graduate course al HULTS

Besides, tho resoarchor also carrios out the grơup-intervicw with 7 tcachors

participating in answering the questionnaires to generate some solutions to students’

mosl common difficulties in learning Englisti speaking skill

2.2.2 Sampling

The sample of 526 non-English-major students, aged from 18 to 22, from different classes of different faculties at HaUL are randomly selected to take part in answering the questionnaires

The sample of 15 teachers who are curently teaching English for uon- Unglish-major students at LlaUl are also selected randomly to take part in answering the questionnaires, then? out of these 15 teachers are invited at random to join in the

group inlerviews

2.2.3, Research Methodology

The aims of this study is to investigate the common difficulties of non-

English major students in learning speaking skill at HaUT, therefore the researcher decided to choose survey research methodology Based on the aims of this study, it

is clear that this is a descriptive research It is suitable with this study because the

researcher jusl wants to collect the information from the students and teachers in

their own current situations to find out the most common difficulties that non-

English-major students get into in the process of learning English speaking skill

2.2.4 The Data Collection Methods

In this study, quostiomaires for non-English major students and lecturers, sroup-interviews with teachers will be used to collect data to guarantee the accuracy

of the data

2.2.5 Procedures

2.2.5.1 Questionnaires

The questionnaires are delivered to both students and teachers to find out the

most common difficulties in learning Hnglish speaking skill from the perspectives

33

of them, The resoarehor dclivors 550 survoy quostionnaires, howovcr, she just acts back 526 questionnaires and she analyzed the information from the sample of 526

fully-answered questionmaires

‘he questionnaires for students consist of the questions asking about their personal information, for example age, gender, major, their attitudes towards

learning English speaking skill, and the questions about the difficulties that they

meet in leaming this skill

The researcher asks for permission from other teachers of the class at the time

of their lesson for 10 minules for the studenls to complete answering the

questionnaires with the researcher's guidance in case they do not understand the question thoroughly Luckily, most of the other teachers agreed to help me, therefore, T could complete collecting dala or the thesis quickly

‘The questiomnaires for the teachers were delivered at the time of the recess in the teacher’s room, and all of them could finish the questionnaire during the recess

Aller these questionnaires are collected, wmiformalion from thesc

questionnaires are then summarized and presented in the form of statistic

imformation tables for data analysis to find oul ihe answers for the research

questions and to make some implications if possible

2.2.5.2 Interviews

‘The semi-structured group-interviews are used in this study Using this kind of interview, the researcher can be flexible in collecting data and it is also time-saving instead of interviewing one by one teacher The content of the interview is recorded and transcribed into texts for data analysis ‘fhe information from the interviews is analyzed in qualitative methods

2.3 Data analysis

A Results from survey questionnaircs for students and teachers

Part I: General information

Question 1: General information about participants

The information about the students participating in the survey is presented in

the following lable:

Table 1: Information about students participating in the survey

‘As can be seen from the above table, the number of teachers participating, in this study is 15 Among them, 2 teachers are male, which only makes up for about 13.3% The rest of about 13 teachers (86.7%) are female There are $26 students participating in answering the survey questionnaires Among them, 250 students

(47.5%) are male, and 276 students (52

) are female The munbers of students according to gonder are quite cqual The number of female students is just a bit higher than the number of male students about 5%

Question 2; Teachers’ years of teaching English and students’ years of

learning English,

Teachers’ years of leaching | Teachers | Students’ years of learning | Students

English English

A Less than 3 years 2— TA Les than 1 year 1

B 3-6 years 7 |B 1-3 years 0

© more than 6-9 years 5 | C more than 3-7 years 6

TD nore than 9 years 1 D more than 7 years 319

Table 2: Teachers’ years of teaching English and students’ years of learning English

The mlormation from table 2 indicates that most of the teachers al HalJT

have had at least several years of teaching English Only two teachers have the

shortest periods of time working as a teacher.7 out of 15 teachers (46.7%) teachers have worked as an English teacher for 3-6 years 5 teachers (33.3%) have

experience of working as a teacher for more than 6-9 years Only one teachers has

worked in this university for more than 9 years

‘The next column in table 2 also shows that most of the students at LIaL!I have

learnt English for quile a long time 98.67% of the students (S19 out of 526

students) have studied English for more than 7 years ‘They had to learn Hnghsh as

at secondary school and high school The other number of students claiming that they have learnt Fnglish for less than | year to 7 years is quite small The number of these students is only 10, which makes up for 1.339 in total

Part 2: Teachers’ and students’ opinions about learning speaking skill

Question 3: Teachers’ and students’ opinion about the importance of English

The resull of the survey shows hat most of the students (99.43%) think thal English

speaking skill is important, The situation is also true for teachers There are 13 out

of 15 teachers (86.7%) think that English speaking skill is important There is only a

small number of students and teachers consider English speaking skill not very important or not important at all

Question 4: Teachers’ and students’ opinion about the imporLance of English

speaking skill in comparison with other skills

‘Yable 4: ‘Teachers’ and students’ opinion about the importance of English

speaking skill in comparison with other skills

a7

This question is used to investigate teachers’ and students’ opinion about the importance of Unglish speaking skill in comparison with other skills (reading, listening and writing) 13.3% of the leachors think thal English speaking skill is more important than other skills ‘The other (86.7%) assume that it is as important as other skills No teachers think that it is less important than others In student group, only 4.18% of the students consider English speaking skill more important than other skills while 92.21% consider it as important as other skills ‘The number of students who think that English speaking skill is less important than other skills is very small (only 19 out af 526 students), which only makes up for 3.61%

Question 5: Teachers’ and students’ opinions about students’ favor of learning

English speaking skill

A Vay |B Quite € D Not | E Not at | Mean (M) much (3) | much (4) Normal |really | all (1)

Teachers 0 4 5 4 2 273

Tuble 5: Teachers’ and siudents’ opinions about students’ favor

of learning English speaking skill

As can be seen from the above table, leachers think that ther siudenis tke

learning English speaking a lot (M=2.73) However, the level of their favor is much

lower than fact that the students promote In the students’ opmion, most of therm

like leaming English speaking a lot(M- 3.65)

Question 6: Teachers’ and students’ judgment about students’ speaking

competence

A Very |R Quile [C Good [D Rad [BE Quite F Very

The figure from the table shows that very few students judge their English

speaking competence lo be good The percentage of these students only takes up fur

3.23%, In contrast, the number of students judging their speaking, competence to be

bad is very high (509 out of 526 students which takes up for 96.77

information should only be used as reference because some students do nol tell the truth about their English competence in teachers’ opinion, 33.3% teachers say that their students have good and quite good speaking competence 10 out af 15 teachers (66.7%) think that their students’ speaking competence is bad, quite bad and very

bad

Question 7 (survey questionnaires for students): Students’ reasons for learning

English speaking skill