NGHIÊN cứu về VIỆC sử DỤNG các cụm từ VỰNG cố ĐỊNH TRONG GIỜ học nói của SINH VIÊN năm THỨ 3 hệ CHÍNH QUY KHOA sư PHẠM TIẾNG ANH, TRƯỜNG đại học NGOẠI NGỮ, đại học QUỐC GIA hà nội

Lexical phrases are unanalysed chunks that play a significant role in language acquisition. However, it is believed that the use of lexical phrases by learners of English as a foreign language like Vietnamese students is limited and ineffective, and there is a lack of studies on lexical phrases in Vietnam. Therefore, this paper is expected to shed light on typical categories of lexical phrases used by the third year mainstream students in speaking classes at Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and their attitudes towards using them. Additionally, the paper also offers several pedagogical suggestions for more effective and diverse use of lexical phrases in speaking classes. In order to accomplish these purposes, 114 thirdyear mainstream students were chosen as study samples. By employing class observation, questionnaire, interview as tools for data collection, this study revealed fifteen typical categories of lexical phrases used by the students in their speaking classes in which signals for their presentations are the most frequently used. It was also indicated that the more important the phrases were, the more frequently the students used them. However, the range of lexical phrases used by the surveyed students was restricted, and the students did not grasp the functions of these phrases. Therefore, based on the findings, teachers and students will be more aware of students’ limited use of lexical phrases. Lastly, with pedagogical suggestions of teaching lexical phrases in this research, teachers can take their own initiatives to effectively exploit lexical phrases speaking lessons.

Lexical phrases are unanalysed chunks that play a significant role inlanguage acquisition However, it is believed that the use of lexical phrases bylearners of English as a foreign language like Vietnamese students is limited andineffective, and there is a lack of studies on lexical phrases in Vietnam Therefore,this paper is expected to shed light on typical categories of lexical phrases used bythe third -year mainstream students in speaking classes at Faculty of EnglishLanguage Teacher Education, University of Languages and International Studies,Vietnam National University, Hanoi and their attitudes towards using them.Additionally, the paper also offers several pedagogical suggestions for moreeffective and diverse use of lexical phrases in speaking classes In order toaccomplish these purposes, 114 third-year mainstream students were chosen asstudy samples By employing class observation, questionnaire, interview as toolsfor data collection, this study revealed fifteen typical categories of lexical phrasesused by the students in their speaking classes in which signals for theirpresentations are the most frequently used It was also indicated that the moreimportant the phrases were, the more frequently the students used them However,the range of lexical phrases used by the surveyed students was restricted, and thestudents did not grasp the functions of these phrases Therefore, based on thefindings, teachers and students will be more aware of students’ limited use oflexical phrases Lastly, with pedagogical suggestions of teaching lexical phrases inthis research, teachers can take their own initiatives to effectively exploit lexicalphrases speaking lessons

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1 1 Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study 1

1.6 Organization of the study

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Lexical phrases in language description 5 2.2 The importance of lexical phrases in language learning 12

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Research question 1 – Typical categories of lexical phrases

used by the third- year mainstream students in speaking class

18

4.2 Research question 2 – The third-year mainstream students’

attitudes towards using lexical phrases in speaking classes

32

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION

5.2 Pedagogical suggestions for more effective use of lexical

phrases

405.3 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 41

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1 The frequency of using typical categories of lexical phrases in

speaking classes from the class observation

50

Table 2 The frequency of using lexical phrases in speaking classes

from the questionnaire

52

Table 3 Categories of lexical phrases frequently used by native

speakers but rarely used by the third- year mainstream students in

speaking classes

29

phrases in speaking classes

Table 5 The frequency of using lexical phrases by 18 students

majoring in business in their speaking classes

56

Table 6 The attitudes of 18 students majoring in business towards the

importance of using lexical phrases in their speaking classes

58

Figure 1 The frequency of using "I think X / I think that X" 20

Figure 2 The frequency of using " Another thing is X;…; the final thing

is X"

21

Figure 3 The frequency of using " Not only X, but also Y; ; in fact" 22

Figure 4 The frequency of using " Today, I would like to talk about

Figure 6 The frequency of using " Do you X; is/ are there it/ they/ X" 25

Figure 7 The frequency of using “yes/yeah (there/it they is/are) X; no,

(there/it they is/are not) ( X)

25

Figure 8 The frequency of using “you know; ; you can see that X " 25

Figure 9 The frequency of using " in short; that's all of X" 26

Figure 10 The frequency of using " OK, now" 27

Figure 11 The frequency of using " ( OK), so" 27

Figure 12 The frequency of using " Thanks/ Thank you ( very much/ a

Figure 15 The frequency of using " good bye; see you ( later)" 28

Figure 16 The students’ attitudes towards the importance of “I think

X; I think that X", “Another thing is X; ; the final thing is X", " Not only

X, but also Y; ; in fact", " Today, I would like to talk about X; ; first of

all", " , something like that; for instance"

33

Figure 17 The students’ attitudes towards the importance of “Do you

X?; is/are there/it/they X?”,“ Yes/yeah (there/it they is/are) X; no,

(there/it they is/are not) ( X)”, “you know,…, as you can see”, “In

short;…; that’s all of X”, “ OK, now”, “ OK, so”

34

Figure 18 The students’ attitude towards the importance of

“Thanks/Thank you (very much/ a lot) (for X)”, “I’m (really) sorry for

X; …; sorry for X”, Hi/ hello, everyone/everybody My name is…)?

How/ What about you?” , “ goodbye; see you ( later)”

35

LIST OF ABRRIVIATIONS

ESL: English as a Second Language

FELTE: Faculty of English Language Teacher Education

ULIS: University of Languages and International Studies

VNUH: Vietnam National University, Hanoi

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1 1 Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study

Over the past few decades, the pedagogical values of lexical phrases havebeen asserted in lexical theory, corpus statistics, and psycholinguistic research.Lexical phrases are ideal units for language learning and teaching because theycharacterize language acquisition and language performance (Nattinger andDeCarrico, 1992) Most researchers now agree that learners use a large number ofprefabricated expressions including lexical phrases in acquiring language Wong-Fillmore (1976) claims that “the strategy of acquiring formulaic speech is central tothe learning of language”

In particular, lexical phrases play an important role in speaking becauseusing them helps learners speak with fluency, as Becker (1975) concludes in hisstudy Speakers of a language gain substantial benefits from lexical phrases such asincreased fluency (when speaking and writing), faster comprehension (whenreading and listening) especially in fast speech (Lindstromberg, 2000)

However, corpus studies have shown that lexical phrases appear in very lowfrequency in second language student writing, and when they do appear, they areoften used inaccurately ( Li and Schimitt, 2009) Okamura and Shaw (2000) havealso pointed out that the native non-professionals controlled some appropriatephrases, and were able to use appropriate vocabulary, but had very little idea of therhetoric Meanwhile, the non-native non-professionals produced grammaticallycompetent letters that were inappropriate in both rhetoric and language Therefore,the teaching approach for writing depends crucially on the status of the learners, andlexical phrases are particularly important for non-natives Moreover, Nattinger andDeCarrico (1992) emphasize that lexical phrases play a crucial role in the process oflearning and teaching speaking for second language learners

The fact that there is a lack of studies on lexical phrases in Vietnam has led

the researcher to the study entitled The use of lexical phrases by the third year mainstream students in speaking classes at Faculty of English Language

Teacher Education, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University Hanoi

1.2 Aims of the study

The research paper is expected to find out typical categories of lexicalphrases used by the third year mainstream students in speaking classes at FELTE,ULIS, VNUH and their attitudes towards using these lexical phrases The aims arepresented in two questions below:

1 What are typical categories of lexical phrases used by the third year mainstreamstudents in speaking classes at FELTE, ULIS, VNUH?

2 What are the third year mainstream students’ attitudes towards using lexicalphrases in speaking classes at FELTE, ULIS, VNUH?

1.3 Scope of the study

Speaking classes at FELTE, ULIS, VNUH include academic lectures,teacher and student conferences, presentations which are non-social discourses.According to Nattinger and DeCarrico (1992), these non-social discourses aretypical of basically transactional spoken discourses, with interactional discoursesinterspersed Therefore, this paper will focus on both discourse devices organizersand social interactional markers In addition, it is noteworthy that the samples of thestudy are limited to 114 third - year mainstream students at FELT, ULIS, VNUHwho are carefully chosen to represent total population

1.4 Methodology of the study

The triangulation method of class observation, interviews and questionnaireswere employed during the process of data collection Class observation was firstused as the primary tool to collect information, and then a questionnaire wasdistributed to sampling students to compare and contrast with the findings fromclass observation Thirdly, interviews were conducted on a group of 12 students to

questionnaire, and interviews would be analyzed to draw discussions andimplications

1.5 Significance of the study

Before this research, there are some research on vocabulary learning,collocations, idioms and slang in the practical case of FELTE students However,this study sheds the first light on the use of lexical phrases at FELTE, ULIS, VNUHand provides essential storage of information for third year mainstream students,teachers, and researchers working on the related studies

As for the third-year mainstream students, this study reveals insights intotheir own use of lexical phrases, which will raise their awareness of using andlearning lexical phrases It also suggests ways for the students to exploit lexicalphrases in the process of learning speaking

As regards teachers, the study explores a lexical approach to assist students

in assimilating real language Therefore, the paper first and foremost helps teachers

to become more aware of teaching lexical phrases as a worthy trying method.Secondly, the study provides teachers with some suggestions and ideas so that theycould take their own initiatives to effectively exploit lexical phrases in speakinglessons

Finally, as for researchers, this research could offer useful references forthose happen to develop an interest in this topic or language teaching and learning

of ESL

1.6 Organization of the study

There are five chapters in this paper as follows:

Chapter I: Introduction describes statement of the problem and the rationale for thestudy, aims, scope, methodology, and significance of the study

Chapter II: Literature review provides the background of the study, including thenature, the importance and the use of lexical phrases in speaking as well asdiscussions of related studies

Chapter III: Methodology explains in detail the participants and instruments of thestudy and the procedure employed to carry out the research

Chapter IV: Data analysis and discussion presents and discusses the findingscollected according to the two research questions

Chapter V: Conclusion summarizes the main points, states the limitations of theresearch, several pedagogical recommendations concerning the research topic, andsome suggestions for further studies

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

2 1 Lexical phrases in language description

2 1.1 The nature and description of lexical phrases

The term “lexical phrase” has been recently invented by linguists and researchers, so the term “lexical” rather than the term “lexical phrase” appears in

the dictionaries In Cambridge Advanced Learners dictionary 3rd edition, “lexical”

is defined as “relating to words” Oxford Advanced Learners dictionary 7th edition

describes “lexical” as “relating to the words or vocabulary of a language and relating to the nature of a lexicon or dictionary”

Although Becker (1975) has first mentioned this term in his study, but acomplete definition of lexical phrase has not been developed until 1992 byNattinger and DeCarrico In their view, lexical phrases are preliminary described as

‘chunks’ of language of varying length, conventionalized structures that occur morefrequently and have more idiomatically determined meaning than language that isput together each time These phrases include both short, relatively fixed phrases

such as a ago, and longer phrases or clauses such as if I X, then I Y, the er

X, the er Y, each with a fixed, basic frame, with slots for various fillers Each phrase is associated with a particular discourse function, such as expressing time, a month ago, or relationships among ideas, the higher X, the higher Y.

In another study, lexical phrases are multi-word lexical items or ‘chunks’;that is, vocabulary consisting of a sequence of two or more words whichsemantically (e.g kick the bucket, take a picture, vicious rumor) or syntactically(e.g of course, due to, apart from) form a meaningful or inseparable unit (Moon1997)

Li and Schmitt (2009) consider lexical phrases as sequences of words thatcollocate, are often idiomatic, have a high-frequency of occurrence, and performspecific rhetorical functions that can be applied across multiple disciplines anddiscourse types Some examples of common lexical phrases (italic):

All life needs iron in order to breathe.

USA Today covers national news The Bay Guardian, on the other hand, mostly

covers local news

These multi-word items have been studied under different terms such as

fixed expressions (Moon, 1998; Moon, 2000), pre-fabs, ready-made units

(Cowie, 1992) The researchers use different criteria to define and identify word items and thus throw light on different aspects of structures and functions

multi-of multi-word items in discourse Another term “lexical bundles” is first

introduced as a sequence of three to four words that recur frequently in

corpus-based discourse, both written and verbal in The Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad, & Finegan, 1999)

2.1.2 Characteristics of lexical phrases

Nattinger and DeCarrico (1992) argue that as forms in the lexicon, lexicalphrases are parts of grammatical competence, but their particular functions incontext are a matter of pragmatic competence Therefore, lexical phrases not onlyhave syntactic shapes but also are capable of perform pragmatics acts as described

in the table below

Lexicon: Pragmatic component:

Syntax:

A lexical phrase is

Lexical phrases are a group of words which forms a grammatical unit andexhibits a degree of ‘inflexibility’ Some lexical phrases are totally 'frozen'(unchangeable) while others are rather variable:

function in contextlexical phrase

unanalyzed chunk

rules of grammar

- Invariable phrases: by and large, as well, let alone, so be it

- Somewhat variable phrases: Don’t rock the boat! , She’s rocking the boat

Some lexical phrases are highly idiomatic or unpredictable from component

words like by and large (generally) while others are not idiomatic phrases whose

meaning can easily be guessed by a learner who knows a common meaning of each

word in the phrase such as pick up a bad habit.

2.1.3 Lexical phrases, collocations, and syntactic strings

Nattinger and DeCarrico (1992) clearly distinguish among lexical phrases,collocations and ordinary syntactic strings that do not count as lexical phrases

2.1.3.1 Syntactic strings are strings of category symbols, such as “Noun Phrase+

Auxiliary+ Verb Phrase”, which are generated by syntactic competence and whichunderline all grammatical (canonical) structures of the language

2.1.3.2 Collocations are strings of specific lexical items, such as “rancid butter” and “curry favor” that co-occur with a mutual expectancy greater than chance.

These strings have not been assigned particular pragmatic functions by pragmaticcompetence

2.1.3.3 Lexical phrases are collocations, such as “how do you do?”, and “for example”, have been assigned pragmatic functions, and consist of two main types:

a strings of specific ( non-productive) lexical items

b generalized ( productive) frames

Prefabricated phrases are collocations if they are chunked sets of lexicalitems with no particular pragmatic functions; they are lexical phrases if they havesuch pragmatics functions

2.1.4 Categories of lexical phrases

There are different criteria to categorize lexical phrases Biber (1999), forexample, divides lexical phrases into three functional categories, including stanceexpressions, discourse organizers, and referential expressions However, in this

study, lexical phrases are classified by Nattinger and DeCarrio’s hypothesis to give

a comprehensive and detailed classification as follows:

2.1.4.1 Structural criteria

Structural

criteria

Examples

Poly words Canonical for the most part, in a nutshell, by the way, I’ll

say, hold your horses, at any rate, what onearth?

Non-canonical as it were, so far so good, all in all, by and large,

not on your life, once and for all, in partInstitutionalized

expressions Canonical a watched pot never boils, the public seldomforgive twice, how do you do?, nice meeting

youNon-canonical what, me worry?, be that as it my, long time no

seePhrasal

constraints Canonical a _ago, to _this up, as I was _, in _, seeyou _ , dear , as well as

Non-canonical Adv[ direction] with , the er the er, for

better or ( for worse ), what with _( and all)Sentence

builders Canonical I think( that) X, not only X, but also Y, mypoint is that X, I’m great believer in X

Non-canonical the er X, the er Y

Summoning excuse/pardon me, hey/hi/hello, how are you

doing?, look it, I didn’t catch your nameResponding to

summons

hi/hello, how are you?, what’s goingon/happening, hello, I’m+ NAME, ( I’m) fine,thanks, ( and you)

Nominating a what’s X, (by the way) do you remember X?,

Clarifyingaudience andspeaker

excuse/ pardon me?, what did you mean by X/when you said X , what I mean/ I’m trying tosay is X, how shall I put it?, let me repeat allright?

Checkingcomprehension

all right?, (do you) understand ( me)?

Shifting a topic ( say,) by the way, this is ( a bit) off the subject/

track, but X, where were/was I, oh that reminds

me of X Shifting turns (well,) so OK, excuse/ pardon me, could I say

something here?

Closing well, that’s about it, I must be going, ( it’s been)

nice talking to you/meeting you, I’ve got to run/go/do X

Parting good bye, see you later, ( well) so long ( for

now)

Conversationa

l purpose Expressingpoliteness thanks ( very much), (please, ) if you don’tmind

Questioning do you X?, is/ are there/ it/they X?

Answering yes, ( there/ it/ they is/are) ( X); no, ( there/ it/

they is/are not) ( X);

Requesting Modal+ Pro+ VP ( e.g would you mind X?,

may I X)Offering Modal+ Pro+ VP ( e.g.may/ can I help you?,

would you like X)Complying of course, sure( thing), I’d be happy/ glad toRefusing of course not, no way, I’d rather you X, I’m

sorry butComplimenting NP+ BE/LOOK+ ( intensifier) Adj, I +

( intensifier)+ LIKE/LOVE+ NPAsserting it is ( a fact/ the case that) X, I think/ believe

that X, Responding (and then) what happened ( next/ then/ after

Expressingsympathy I’m ( very) sorry about/to hear ( about) X,( wow), that’s/ how terrible/ awful, what a

shame/pity thing

2.1.3.2.2 Necessary topics

Necessary

Autobiography my name is _, I’m from _, I’m ( a) _(years old )

Language do you speak _?, how do you say/ spell ?, I don’t speak very

wellQuantity how much/big is _?, ( not) a great deal, lots of

Time when is X?, what time X?, for a long time/ years, a ago

Location where is ?, what part of the ?, across from , next to

Weather is it going to X?, it’s ( very) ( today)

Likes I like/enjoy ( a lot), I don’t like/enjoy ( at all), I’d like to XFood I’d like (to have) _/ to make a reservation( for ), a table for _Shopping how much is ?, I want to buy/see, it ( doesn’t) fit(s)

2.1.3.2.3 Discourse devices

Logical connectors as a result (of X), nevertheless, because (of), in spite of

Temporal

connectors the day/ month/year before/after , and then, after Xthen/ the next is YSpatial connectors around here, over there, at/on the corner

Fluency devices you know, it seems (to me) that X, by and large, at any rate, if

you see what I mean, and so on, so to speakExemplifiers in other words, it’s like X, for example, to give you an

exampleRelators the (other) thing X is Y, X has (a lot)/doesn’t have much to

do with Y, not only X but also YQualifiers it depends on X, the catch is X, it’s only in X that Y

Evaluators as far as I know/can tell, there’s no doubt that X, I’m (not)

absolutely sure/positive/certain (but) ,I guess, at least, atall

Summarizers to make a long story short; my point (here) is that X; OK

shifters intonation); on back to…; lot more to talk about, but on to…

Summarizers OK, so ( level intonation); so then ( level intonation); so the theory

goes (then); (so) (there) what we’ve got is X Exemplifiers …, something like that; for example; see if X clears this up; maybe

if I show you, that’ll/ this’ll clear it upRelators Not only X, but also Y; now ( of course) ( level intonation); you

might say that X; this ties in with X; it/ this has to do with XEvaluators I think; I think that; in my opinion; as X would have us believe; X is

fine/ OK with me; no problem with that; but it……, let me tell you Qualifiers The catch here is X; it turns out that X; in the sense that/of … ,

there’s more here than meets the eyeAside

markers ( I ) guess I got off the track here; where was I; ( well), forget aboutX; X doesn’t ( really) concern is here ( at the moment)

2.2 The importance of lexical phrases in language learning

2.2.1 The importance of lexical phrases in language learning

Lexical phrases play an important role in language learning First of all,lexical phrases help learners promote motivation and fluency Nattinger andDeCarrico (1992) have done their research on lexical phrases and have pointed outthat fluency is based precisely on lexical phrases It is lexical phrases that offerready access to social interactions and provide an easily retrievable frame for actualcommunication More specifically, they provide “an efficient means of interactingwith other speakers” about self-selected topics, which engenders social motivation

for learning the language Moreover, Ying (2006) has emphasized that teaching

lexical phrases is “a method worth trying” It is because this method can assiststudents in “assimilating real language” and provide “the momentum to reachEnglish fluency” It is also concluded in recent research on native speakers’ fluency

by computer –driven analysis that “fluency is the acquisition of the large store offixed or semi-fixed prefabricated items” (Lewis, 1997) He suggests a lexicalapproach and argues that “fluency is achieved largely by combining chunks,reducing processing difficulty” Reasonably assuming, fluent English can beassisted by “better use of lexical phrases or chunks”

Lexical phrases secondly provide raw materials itself for languageacquisition Nattinger and DeCarrico (1992) suggest that anyone who learns a

language in a relatively natural environment, adults as well as children, seems topass through a stage in which they string memorized chunks of speech togetherincluding in certain frequent and predictable social situations Schmitt (2000) sharesthe view with Nattinger and DeCarrrico He asserts that lexical phrases favor aquick assimilation into the target language as they are easy to “store’ and “ready togo” and require little or no additional processing Clearly, lexical phrases canreduce time spent in learning individual work and in piecing them together while inuse

2.2.2 The importance of lexical phrases in speaking

Learning to speak means learning to converse, and lexical phrases prove veryuseful for language learners in learning and teaching conversation (Nattinger andDeCarrico, 1992) Lexical phrases provide support and social motivation forlearning the language for communication as they help in phatic communication For

instance, an expression like “How do you do?” is learned by a learner, as a way to

begin a conversation Another function of this phrase is to inquire about health

Lexical phrases are very easy to retrieve because they are stored as wholechunks, and not as individual words which should ease frustration and promotemotivation and fluency at the same time (Nattinger and Decarrico, 1992) Phrases

like “what are you doing”, “hope you are fine” are stored in the memory as single

units and can be used for any situation as they are readily available and retrievable.Apparently, they offer learners a way of expressing the same function in differentways, and form a basis for increasing the complexity of the earlier utterance byadding more words, which helps learners in enhancing their knowledge of

structures (Nattinger and Decarrico, 1992) For instance, “I am terribly sorry” is

used by a basic proficiency level learner He/she then adds the adverbial phrases

like “I am (terribly/ very/ awfully) sorry” due to her increased proficiency of the

learner

As mentioned above, lexical phrases characterize language acquisition byproviding raw material itself for this process Many linguists now believe that social

interactions come before the syntactic structures and provide the basis for them.One learns how to do conversation, one learns how to interact verbally, and out ofthis interaction syntactic structures are developed (Hatch, 1978) Like first languagelearners, second language learners apparently learn the rules of conversationalinteraction before they learn the rule of sentence structure They also learn thelexical phrases that codify the function associated with these rules, such asappropriate greetings and partings, expressing politeness, complimenting foracquiring this pragmatic competence is a basic part of language learning From theabove discussion, it is clear that lexical phrases are helpful to learners in speaking

2.3 The use of lexical phrases in speaking

Wilkins (1976) has given an approach namely notional-functional syllabus inlearning and teaching conversation with lexical phrases On the other hand,functional syllabus is emphasized rather than notional one in another study byNattinger and DeCarrico (1992) because lexical phrases are integral parts of socialinteractions

Social conversation is mainly interactional, so it requires mainly socialinteractional lexical phrases Meanwhile other sorts of non-social discourse such asacademic lectures, teacher/student conferences, and committee meetings are mainlytransactional Therefore, these mainly require discourse devices because theparticular function of discourse devices is to indicate the overall direction andorganization of the informational content of the discourse

Lexical phrases are termed as organizers” rather than markers” because they grab learners’ attention by helping them organizespoken information mentally as the lecture goes along Similarly, macro-organizers help in channeling the angle of listening perception of lectureorganization (Nattinger and Decarrico, 1992)

“macro-In presentations in classroom, presenters mainly read from detailed notes orspeak as if such notes were committed to memory, and there is little interaction with

the audiences Therefore, a predominance of formal, more literal discourseorganizers has been found

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

The process of data collection involved the participation of 114 third-yearstudents from five classes at FELTE, ULIS, VNUH, including 09E5, 09E8, 09E12,09E17, and 09E24 Among 114 students, there were 82 students majoring inteaching, 14 students majoring in translating, and 18 ones majoring in business.These students came from different mainstream classes and had different Englishlevels, so the findings of the survey were likely more accurate and comprehensive.The students also had got access to the target language after two years of learningEnglish communicatively, so they were expected to establish some awareness ofusing lexical phrases in speaking class

3.2 Data collection instrument and procedure

3.2.1 Class observation

Class observation was employed as the primary data collection instrument to

make this research more accessible and practical During five weeks, five

observation remarks were completed As for the structure, the observation was tofind out typical categories of lexical phrases used by the third-year mainstreamstudents in speaking classes The date, period of lesson, profile of students, and themain part for taking notes of categories of students’ lexical phrases were includedand transcribed in detail

Calls and emails for the teachers’ permission at five classes were first made,and then the observation would be conducted in their classrooms during five weeks

A brief introduction about the researcher, the topic and the purpose of theobservation were clearly shown to the teacher and students in each class All theselessons would be recorded for more precise and comprehensive analysis

3.2.2 Questionnaire

A questionnaire was carried out to collect the opinions and attitudes of thethird-year mainstream students about their lexical phrases’ usage in speakingclasses All of the questions were close-ended with two parts to find out the answersfor two research questions To be specific, the first part was to explore typical

categories of lexical phrases and the frequency of using them In the meantime, thesecond part was to examine the surveyed students’ attitudes towards the importance

of using these lexical phrases This findings collected from the questionnaire werecompared with those revealed from the class observation in order to seek the linkbetween the students’ attitudes and their use of lexical phrases in reality

After the teachers’ permission, the questionnaire was shown to surveyedclasses at the sixth week Before the participants filled in the questionnaire, a briefintroduction about the topic and the questionnaire’s structure had been directlyshown During that time, every question was immediately dealt with to gain a betterresult from participants

3.2.3 Interview

Interviews for the students were also utilized Open-ended questions weremostly included to clarify the findings collected from the questionnaire, and allinterviews would be semi-constructed Specifically, interviews were conducted with

a group of 12 students among 114 students doing questionnaire to gain moreinformation about their perceptions of lexical phrases In particular, the interviewsinitially pointed out the surveyed students’ perceptions of the functions of typicallexical phrases which had not been incorporated in the class observation andquestionnaire

A notice had been made in advance to each interviewed student via

telephone and emails to concisely explain the purpose, the nature of the researchtopic and to invite them After that, the appointments were made and began with abrief explanation of the format, the length of the interview and any relevantquestions from interviewees During the interviews at the sixth week, questionswere asked one at a time and neutrally Both extra questions and reorientation weremade to gain information in depth as well as to help the respondents focus on themain questions Meanwhile, note-taking would be used carefully over the course ofthe interviews, and the interviews would be recorded for better analysis later on

3 4 Data analysis

Firstly, collected data from the class observation was analyzed to find outtypical categories of lexical phrases used by the third-year main stream students inspeaking class The number of these categories was counted and presented in a table

to examine their frequency of occurring in two periods of a speaking lesson Based

on these findings, a list of lexical phrases frequently used by native speakers butrarely used by the surveyed students was built as a basis for enriching the students’lexical phrases later In the meantime, findings from questionnaire were comparedand contrasted with the findings from class observation to seek the connectionbetween how often the students used lexical phrases in reality and that in theirperception The data was summarized in tables and charts to make comparison andgeneralization clearly

Moreover, findings from the questionnaire and the interviews were analyzed

to survey the students’ attitudes towards using lexical phrases The important datafrom the interviews would be also citied to illustrate data analysis

CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In English business classes, time for speaking and listening was notdistributed clearly, so it was difficult to get the correct and comprehensive findings.Moreover, the students preferred using Vietnamese to using English in theirdiscussions because this subject focused mainly on the content of the language.Therefore, the statistics collected from 18 students majoring in business from group

09 E17 were considered as references for the research This paper primarily dealtwith the use of lexical phrases by 96 students from four groups majoring in teachingand translating, including 09E5, 09E8, 09E12, 09E24

4.1 Research question 1 – Typical categories of lexical phrases used by the third- year mainstream students in speaking class

Conversations are social events rather than grammar exercises, and peoplelearn language as a part of social interactions in which they have something theywant to say Therefore, functional criteria were used to classify lexical phrases inthis research rather than structural criteria

Speaking classes in FELTE, ULIS include academic lectures, teacher/studentconferences, presentations which are non-social discourses According to Nattingerand DeCarrico (1992), these non-social discourses are typical of basicallytransactional spoken discourses, with interactional discourse interspersed.Therefore, this paper focused on both discourse devices organizers and socialinteractional markers

As cited in Lexical phrases and Language Teaching, there are special cases for some lexical phrases like “however, nevertheless”, together with “moreover, notwithstanding”, and all linking devices (or ‘relators’) in discourse They are

members of special class of poly words, which were formerly poly words phrases,but over time have become written as single lexemes, and are now so perceived by

English speakers The common formula for parting, “goodbye”, shares a similar

phrasal history However, Nattinger & DeCarrio (1992) have not pointed out all the

linking devices which have the same story with “however, moreover, notwithstanding, nevertheless, and goodbye” Therefore, the researcher only

considered these five words as lexical phrases in this paper due to the timelimitation and the limited resources concerning this issue.

4.1.1 Typical categories of lexical phrases used by the third- year mainstream students in speaking class

Although a more exhaustive and systematic study would be needed for adetailed answer, several initial but significant findings could be obtained from theresearcher’s classroom observation, survey questionnaire and interviews asdescribed in Table 1 and Table 2 in the appendices

From five-week observation, it was believed that all the lexical phrases inTable 1 were familiar with the third- year mainstream students This assumptionwas more affirmed by 12 interviewed students when all of them thought all of theselisted phrases in Table 1 were familiar to them and even used as a habit

With a closer look at each categories of these lexical phrases, it was clear

from the Table 1 that the most frequently used phrases were “I think X and I think that X” which appeared from 14 to 27 times in two periods of a speaking class.

They were more used in classes with discussions dominating rather than in classeswith almost presentations It underlined one of the major difficulties betweendiscussions which were more interactional and presentations which were mainlytransactional (stated by Nattinger and DeCarrio, 1992) Likewise, from thequestionnaire, almost the surveyed students also believed that they often used thesephrases as described in the chart below

Figure 1 The frequency of using "I think X / I think

From the chart, nearly three quarters of the surveyed students very often used

the phrases “I think X and I think that X” and nearly one-fifth of them often did.

Meanwhile, a very small percentage of 7% of respondents sometimes used them,

and no one never used them in their speaking class Clearly, a strong agreement

existed between the students’ perception of how often they used these phrases andtheir practice in class

Topic shifters “Another thing/ another thing is that X; the next point is X; the second X is Y; the final thing is X; one important thing is (that) X; one more thing is that X; (I’ll/ we’ll) move to X; and then; after that” were found out in a speaking

class at the second most frequency of fourteen to twenty - two times These topicshifters were considered as formal macro organizers to mark topic shifts Therefore,they should have occurred in the student’s presentations rather than in theirdiscussion, but the students in fact used these ones in both their discussions andtheir presentations This finding partly indicated that the respondents lacked more

informal topic shifters the native speakers often use such as “On back to…; lot more to talk about, but on to…; that bring us to X; more to the point; enough on that” Similarly, from the questionnaire, all the respondents admitted using these

tokens in their speaking class To be specific, as much as 80% of respondents very

often or often used these topic shifters in their speaking class while a quarter of them sometimes used as represented in the following chart.

Figure 2 The frequency of using " Another thing is X;…;

the final thing is X"

class Although these lexical phrases were considered formal, the surveyed studentstended to use them for discourses in both conversational and reading style Thissomehow pointed out the limited range of more informal and idiomatic relators

frequently used by native speakers such as “Now ( of course) ( level intonation); you might say that X; this ties in with X; it/ this has to do with X; that would go/ goes not only for X but ( also) for Y; any time X; there’s Y; X, so you would expect

to find Y; if you look at X, here’s Y; along the same lines” The questionnaire once

again affirmed this observation as presented in the chart below

Figure 3 The frequency of using " Not only X, but also Y; ;

never used these phrases They perhaps preferred single- word relators like “and, but…” in their speaking

Fourthly, topic markers “I’d like to talk about X; what I’d like to present (today) is X now I would like to give you X; today I would like to (talk about) X; today I’d like to introduce you X; today I will give/ tell/ share with you X; my topic today is X, the first thing is X; first and foremost; first of all;” were also frequently

used in a speaking class They on average occurred between nine and fifteen timesper two periods of speaking One clear illustration for this considerable number wasthat there were often three to five presentations in a speaking class, and eachpresenter on average spoke from three to five these topic markers This findingseemed to be compatible with the other found from the questionnaire which could

be demonstrated in the following pie- chart

Figure 4 The frequency of using " Today, I would like to

talk about X…; first of all"

example, “see if X clears this up; maybe if I show you, that’ll/ this’ll clear it up; if you/we look at/ see/ go to X, you’ll see/ we’ll see Y; if you’ve seen X, then you’ve seen/ known Y; same way here; here’s one” Regarding the findings from the

questionnaire, there were nearly three- fourth of the students frequently using thesephrases while a quarter of them used these ones at a lower frequency and aninconsiderable percentage of 2% of them never did

Figure 5 The frequency of using" , something like that ; ;

Questioning phrases “(rising intonation), do you X?; is/are there/it/they X?” and answering phrases “ yes/yeah ( there/it they is/are) X; no, ( there/it they is/are not)( X)” were also considered as typical categories of lexical phrases in this

research This was because the former occurred between three and eight times andthe latter occurred from five to twelve times in a speaking class Particularly, thesurveyed students tended to use these two categories in their discussions orinformal, mini presentations due to the fact that these ones were clearly used withinteractional purposes between speakers and listeners In contrast, the findings fromthe questionnaire made the researcher fairly surprised as described in the two charts

as follows:

Figure 6 The frequency of

using " Do you X; is/ are

there it/ they/ X"

25%

36%

33%

6%

Figure 7 The frequency of using

"yes/yeah (there/it they is/are) X; no,

(there/it they is/are not) ( X)

From two charts, it was clear that up to approximately 40% of the studentstaking the questionnaire thought that they sometimes or never used questioninglexical phrases, and 13% of them never used answering tokens in their speakingclass It seemed that the students actually did put these two categories into practicemore than they assumed.

Eighthly, fluency devices “you know, as you know, as you can see, you can see (that) X” appeared five times at least and eleven times at most in both presentations and discussions Although questioning and answering lexical phrases

appeared as frequently as this category, but the surveyed students in this case tended

to use less lexical phrases in reality than they thought as follows:

Figure 8 The frequency of using " you know; ;

you can see that X "

Apparently, as much as 96% of them believed that they very often or oftenused this category of lexical phrase while only 4% of them sometimes used and noone said no with these fluency devices

Another typical category of lexical phrases, summarizers “in short, in other words, in summary/ conclusion, to sum up, the main point is (that) X, that’s the end

of X; that’s all of X” were found about three or five times in a speaking class It did

not cost much effort to understand this because the students normally had to givethree to five formal presentations in a class The findings from the questionnairealso agreed with these numbers found in class observation because the percentages

of the students very often, often, some times, and never used these summarizers

were respectively 35%, 45%, 19%, and 1%

Figure 9 The frequency of using " in short; that's all of X"

35%

45%

Very often Often Sometimes Never

Interestingly, Nattinger and DeCarrico (1992) believe that topic shifter

“OK, now” with falling intonation and pause and summarizer “OK, so” with level intonation are especially difficult for non-native speakers to distinguish the

differences in function However, the surveyed students seemed to understand andused these phrases fairly frequently since the first appeared from two to four timesand the second appeared from four to ten times in a speaking lesson Theresearcher’s assumption was once again supported by the findings collected fromthe questionnaire as follows

Figure 10 The frequency of using

Figure 11 The frequency of

using " ( OK), so"

From two charts, “OK, so” was apparently used more frequently than “OK, now” Nearly 80% of the respondents said they very often and often used “OK, so” compared to just above 70% of them in the case of “OK, now”

The twelfth phrases “Thanks/ Thank you (very much/ a lot) (for X) were used from four to eight times while the thirteenth ones “Sorry for that; sorry for doing X”

rarely occurred, perhaps one time if they did in a speaking class It was because atthe end of their presentations, the surveyed students wanted to show gratitude for

audiences’ listening or for their teacher and friends’ questions in Question and Answer part

Figure 12 The frequency

of using " Thanks/ Thank

you ( very much/ a lot) for X

59%

25%

Figure13 The frequency of using

" I am ( really) sorry for that; ;

sorry for that"

From two figures, there was no doubt that “Thanks/ Thank you (very much/a lot) for X” outweighed “I am (really) sorry for that; sorry for that; sorry for X” in

frequency of using by the surveyed students 84% of the respondents thought that

they very often or often used ““Thanks/ Thank you (very much/a lot) for X” Meanwhile, as for “I am (really) sorry for that; sorry for that; sorry for X”, this

percentage reduced to 30%

While the fourteenth phrases for summoning and responding to summons

“Hi/ hello, everyone/everybody My name is…./ I’m…; Good afternoon/ good morning everyone/everybody My name is…/I’m… How are you (today)? (I’m) fine, thanks, (and you)?/ How/ What about you?” were used from three to six times in a speaking class, the fifteenth phrases “goodbye; see you (later)” were not found out

there At first, there was an assumption that the researcher only observed twoperiods of speaking class when the students did not finish all their lessons to saygood bye to each other However, it then appeared that the surveyed students

preferred using Vietnamese to using English for parting To have a closer look athow often the surveyed students use these two categories, the findings from thequestionnaire could be presented in the two following pie-charts.

Figure 14 The frequency of

using " Hi/ hello My name

is ; how/what about you"

70%

22%

8% 0%

Figure 15 The frequency of using

" good bye; see you ( later)"

From the figure 14,“Hi, hello My name is…; how/ what about you” were

frequently used because the proportions of students who very often, often,sometimes, and never used them were respectively as follows: 70%, 22%, 8%, and0% These findings seemed to match with those found out through the class

observation With respect to “goodbye, see you (later)” in figure 15, there were fewer respondents perceived that they very often or often used these phrases.

However, this percentage still remained relatively big, accounted for 76% As aresult, there was something incompatible between how the students perceived andhow they used this category of lexical phrases

Lastly, the other categories of lexical phrases listed in the Table 1 onlyappeared one to two times or even did not appear in a speaking class, and theproportions of respondents sometimes and never used these phrases were from 30%

to 40% Therefore, they were not of course discussed in detail and but presented inthe Table 1 and 2 in the appendices

4.1.2 Categories of lexical phrases frequently used by native speakers but rarely used by the third- year mainstream students in speaking classes

While many lexical phrases were often used by native speakers, these tokensrarely or even never appeared in the surveyed students’ speaking classes assummarized in the table below

Table 3: Categories of lexical phrases frequently used by native speakers but rarely used by the third- year mainstream students in speaking classes

What’s up; What’s going on/ happening

Clarifying How shall I put it; let me repeat

Could I say something here?

Closing Well, that’s about it; I must be going; I’ve got to run/ go/ do X; I

mustn’t keep you any longerParting ( well) so long ( for now)

Expressing

politeness

( please) if you don’t mind

Questioning ( and then) what happened ( next) then/ after that?

devices By and large, at any rate, so to speak, as a matter of fact

Summarizers To make a long story short

Topic

markers We’ll be taking a look at X; maybe we should start with X; what I’dlike to do is X; we’ll be looking at X; let me start with X; let me talk

about X, then we’ll go to Y; let first deal with X; let me suggestsome ways ( that) X

Topic

shifters

On back to………; lot more to talk about, but on to………;

that bring us to X; more to the point; enough on that; as to what is,end of quote; this leads to X; so let’s turn to X; we get/ move on to

X; let me talk a little bit about X; let me go to X; let me go from X

to Y;

Summarizers so then ( level intonation); so the theory goes (then); (so) (there)

what we’ve got is X; so there you’ve/ we’ve got X, …… , so muchfor that; ……., that’s about it; to tie this up; all this says is X; so thisseems, that points the way to X; and that’s the X;

Exemplifiers See if X clears this up; maybe if I show you, that’ll/ this’ll clear it

up; if you/we look at/ see/ go to X, you’ll see/ we’ll see Y; if you’veseen X, then you’ve seen/ known Y; same way here; here’s one; one

of the ways this can be seen/ takes form is X; we can see this if welook at X and that is X; the easiest way to think about X is Y; weshould se this in X; on one occasion; one way is X; one of them isX; one of the most common………is X; to give ( you) an example;take ( something like) ( say) X; as we’ll see (that) X; X is what Imeant by Y

Relators Now ( of course) ( level intonation); you might say that X; this ties

in with X; it/ this has to do with X; that would go/ goes not only for

X but ( also) for Y; any time X; there’s Y; X, so you would expect

to find Y; if you look at X, here’s Y; along the same lines; keep inmind that X;…… ,like we just talked about, recognize that X,although Y, are also Z; we should think of this not so much as X but

as X; we would think that X; but in fact Y; we should be careful not

to think of X as Y; the next X also comes from Y; in connectionwith X, Y

Evaluators As X would have us believe; X is fine/ OK with me; no problem

with that; but it……, let me tell you; look what’s going on here;( look how) X is ( very) important; X might not ( always) work( that way); which seems ( rather) odd/ curious ( to me); I’m a greatbeliever in X; X is worth noting/ mentioning; I guarantee ( you) thatX; and this is really the key to X; we should be careful not toassume that X; The X I would (like to) offer is Y; but as a matter offact; I prefer the explanation that X; the critical thing is X

Qualifiers The catch here is X; it turns out that X; in the sense that/of … ,

there’s more here than meets the eye; whether you want to say X isanother Y; but X does not mean that Y, ( by any means); ( well) X

is not even/ really Y; it’s sort of like X; but not really; it’s only in Xthat Y; that’s true but X; we don’t want to just accept X at facevalue; that’s not really what we mean by X; I should say/add that X;you would think that X is Y, but in fact it’s ( really) Z ; it depends

on how you define X; do not assume, however, that X; be carefulnot to X; at least in……

about X ( right now); I’d like to pass over X; I won’t trouble youwith X; but I’m getting a little ahead of my self; let me just make aparenthesis

From the interviews, some lexical phrases were familiar or even veryfamiliar with the third- year mainstream students, but they had never seen most ofthem before

Some of these phrases are familiar with me, but some of them I have not seen before, and even some of them I don’t know the meanings

Well, I think there are a lot of phrases I don’t know, yeah, but there are still some phrases I know.

Regarding familiar phrases such as “What’s up; What’s going on/ happening”, “(and then) what happened (next) then/ after that?; no kidding; there you go; (please), if you don’t mind; I (really) appreciate your thoughtfulness/kindness doing X”, they had not been fount out in speaking classes.

The surveyed students believed that these lexical phrases were quite informal andwere not suitable to use in an academic environment like a speaking class as stated

by some students as follows:

As far as I’m concerned, these phrases are quite informal, so I often use them in conversations with my friends, not in presentations

Another reason for no or little using these familiar phrases in their speakingclasses was that they had just met some other familiar phrases in authentic materialslike reading texts or audio-lectures, but had not tried to put them into practice:

I have read some authentic texts, and I think I can make it out, but actually

I haven’t ever used

I think that some phrases I can find in some books to improve my listening like IELTS or FCE

I mean some phrases I’ve heard on TV, radios, but it’s a little bit hard for

me to adopt these phrases, so I rarely use them in my speaking class.”

We’ve just listened to these phrases; we don’t know how to practise in our speaking classes

Meanwhile, they had never seen some lexical phrases before In particular,

aside markers listed in the table above had not ever appeared in class observations’data although they were regarded as important discourse organizers especially inpresentations and in academic lecturers

One reason for the limited range of lexical phrases used by the surveyedthird- year mainstream students was partly indicated by Nattinger and DeCarrio(1992) ESL reading texts, for instance, focus on presenting the formal discoursedevices needed for the comprehension of reading, and writing texts, likewise, focus

on those needed for production There are, however, no correspondingconversational devices presented in any systematic way for spoken discourse

4.2 Research question 2 – The third-year mainstream students’ attitudes towards using lexical phrases in speaking classes

4.2.1 The importance of typical lexical phrases used by the third-year mainstream students in speaking classes

There is a common sense that if people consider something important, theywill often use it By carrying out the questionnaire, the researcher would like toachieve insights into the connection between how important the surveyed studentsthought about the lexical phrases and how often they used these tokens

As mentioned above, the five categories of lexical phrases “I think X; I think

that X", “Another thing is X; ; the final thing is X", " Not only X, but also Y; ; in fact", " Today, I would like to talk about X; ; first of all", " , something like that; for instance" were the most frequently used by the survey students While the phrases “I think X, I think that X” occurred with the highest frequency, the topic makers

“Today, I would like to talk about; ; first of all” were believed the most important

to the students in their speaking classes as demonstrated in the following chart

Not very important Not important

Figure 16 The students’ attitudes towards the importance of “I think X; I

think that X" , “Another thing is X; ; the final thing is X" , " Not only X, but also Y; ; in fact" , " Today, I would like to talk about X; ; first of all" , " ,

something like that; for instance"

One clear illustration for the importance of the topic markers above was thatmore than 90% of the respondents said these phrases were very important andimportant to them, whereas less than 10% of them undervalued the importance of

these ones With respect to “I think X; I think that X”, topic shifters “Another thing

is X; ; the final thing is X", relators " Not only X, but also Y; ; in fact", around 80% of the respondents perceived these phrases as very important and important, whereas

about 20% of the rest did not In these five most frequently used groups of lexicalphrases, only exemplifiers were less valued compared to the four others It wasbecause nearly three- thirds of the surveyed students thought that these exemplifiersimportant while the others did not

27

35 38

Not very important Not important

Figure 17 The students’ attitudes towards the importance of “Do you X?;

is/are there/it/they X?”,“ Yes/yeah (there/it they is/are) X; no,(there/it they is/are not) ( X)”, “you know,…, as you can see”, “In short;…; that’s all of X”,

“ OK, now”, “ OK, so”

It was indicated from the chart that summarizers “in short; …; that’s all of X”, another summarizer “OK, so” pronounced with level intonation, and fluency devices “you know;…; you can see that X” were highly appreciated by the majority

of respondents Clearly, as perceived by 85% of the students, “in short; …; that’s all of X” were very important and important to them, and these proportions for

“OK, so” were respectively 79% and 76% This preference gradually decreased for

topic shifter “OK, now”, answering phrases “Yes/yeah (there/it they is/are) X; no,

(there/it they is/are not) ( X)”, and questioning phrases “Do you X?; Is/Are there/it/

they X?”.

41

50 40

9 25

38

32 40

Figure 18 The students’ attitude towards the importance of “Thanks/Thank

you (very much/ a lot) (for X)”, “I’m (really) sorry for X; …; sorry for X”, Hi/ hello, everyone/everybody My name is…)? How/ What about you?” ,

“ goodbye; see you ( later)”

The phrase “Thanks/ Thank you (very much/ a lot) for X “Hi/ hello everyone/ everybody” were perceived as vital phrases because approximately 90% of the

respondents answered in the questionnaire that these two categories were very

important and important to them The phrases “goodbye; see you (later)” were not

considered as important because of the relative larger percentage of 43% of thesurveyed students undervalued these ones In comparison with the findings on thefrequency of using these lexical phrases, there was probably a strong connectionbetween the importance and the frequency However, more than 80% of therespondents believed that the phrases to give apology were also believed crucial butnot frequently used by the third- year mainstream students Subsequently, theconnection or common sense did not work in this case

In addition, from the interview, topic markers “today, I’d like to talk about;

…; first of all; OK, so” , topic shifters “another thing is X;…; the final thing is X”,