CHIẾN LƯỢC HỌC, NỖI LO LẮNG VÀ NHỮNG ẢNH HƯỞNG LÊN CHẤT LƯỢNG BÀI NÓI CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM NHẤT NHIỆM VỤ CHIẾN LƯỢC

International Standard Program, ULIS, VNU is working as an organization in which students from other faculties of VNU attends a language training course run by ULIS teachers. Since the students are all nonEnglish major ones, they encounter a vast amount of difficulty in language skills, especially speaking. That is the reason why this research was conducted with the aim of reviewing ISP students’ perception of their favorite learning strategies, their anxious feeling in speaking classes and the effects of those two factors on their inclass speaking performance. The study involved 89 students from 3 classes from ISP. To answer the research questions, both quantitative (questionnaires) and qualitative (semistructured interview) were employed. After 3 months of collecting and analyzing data, the findings were figured out with the great effort of the researcher as well as supports from the participants. The research result recorded that indirect strategies, specifically metacognitive, were preferred the most by the respondents. Besides, 90% of participants admitted having experienced apprehension while making a speech. Low English proficiency captured the majority of participants’ vote for leading to speaking anxiety. Being surveyed about impacts of their preferred learning strategies on inclass speaking performance 58% of participants announced the satisfying results while 42% among them complained that they make no change in further presentations. Simultaneously, a majority of participants claimed that their apprehensive feeling affects their speaking performance negatively while another number of them stated their positive viewpoint on the influence of speaking anxious and few of targeted learners recognized both of positive and negative impacts of apprehension on oral practice quality. In the conclusion part of the study, the researcher pointed out some personal implication and suggestion for further studies as well as for teaching speaking methods

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

LEARNING STRATEGIES, ANXIETY AND THEIR IMPACTS ON IN-CLASS SPEAKING PERFORMANCE OF FRESHMEN IN

INTERNATIONAL STANDARD PROGRAMS

SUPERVISOR: HOANG THI HONG HAI, M.ASTUDENT : PHAM PHUONG CHI

YEAR OF ENROLMENT: QH2010

HANOI, MAY 2014

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮKHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

CHIẾN LƯỢC HỌC, NỖI LO LẮNG VÀ NHỮNG ẢNH HƯỞNG LÊN CHẤT LƯỢNG BÀI NÓI CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM NHẤT NHIỆM VỤ CHIẾN LƯỢC

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Hoàng Thị Hồng Hải, Ths Sinh viên: Phạm Phương Chi

Khoá: QH2010

HÀ NỘI - NĂM 2014

I hereby state that I - Pham Phuong Chi, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library.

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

Signature

Pham Phuong Chi

First of all, I would like to express my genuine appreciation of my supervisor,

Ms Hoang Thi Hong Hai, whose helpful consultancy, positive encouragement andtouching faith in me despite my language weakness and procrastination She hasplayed an indispensible factor contributing to successful story of this paper

Secondly, I also want to take this chance to send my grateful thanks to Mr LeVan Canh, who offered me a vast reservoir of reference materials and Ms Vu BaoChau, who provided me a lot of valuable advice on research methodology Also I want

to send my best regards to Ms Le Huong Ly for her enthusiastic support in my datacollection procedure

Furthermore, I sincerely appreciate the supportive ISP students who are fromclass ISP2, ISP9 and ISP17 for finishing the questionnaires, particular that ofInterviewee 1, Interviewee 2 and Interviewee 3 for their enthusiasm as well as seriousparticipation during the interview

Last but not least, I want to thank all of my beloveds including my familymembers for their unconditional care and all of my classmates, particularly DuongHoang Linh, Nguyen Lan Phuong for their timely helps and sympathy as well asknowledgeable suggestions and inspiring consolation

International Standard Program, ULIS, VNU is working as an organization inwhich students from other faculties of VNU attends a language training course run byULIS teachers Since the students are all non-English major ones, they encounter avast amount of difficulty in language skills, especially speaking That is the reasonwhy this research was conducted with the aim of reviewing ISP students’ perception oftheir favorite learning strategies, their anxious feeling in speaking classes and theeffects of those two factors on their in-class speaking performance

The study involved 89 students from 3 classes from ISP To answer the researchquestions, both quantitative (questionnaires) and qualitative (semi-structuredinterview) were employed After 3 months of collecting and analyzing data, thefindings were figured out with the great effort of the researcher as well as supportsfrom the participants The research result recorded that indirect strategies, specificallymetacognitive, were preferred the most by the respondents Besides, 90% ofparticipants admitted having experienced apprehension while making a speech LowEnglish proficiency captured the majority of participants’ vote for leading to speakinganxiety Being surveyed about impacts of their preferred learning strategies on in-classspeaking performance 58% of participants announced the satisfying results while 42%among them complained that they make no change in further presentations.Simultaneously, a majority of participants claimed that their apprehensive feelingaffects their speaking performance negatively while another number of them statedtheir positive viewpoint on the influence of speaking anxious and few of targetedlearners recognized both of positive and negative impacts of apprehension on oralpractice quality

In the conclusion part of the study, the researcher pointed out some personalimplication and suggestion for further studies as well as for teaching speakingmethods

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Table 2: Mean of speaking learning strategies preference 23

Figure 4 - Proportion of students experiencing anxiety while speaking 30

Figure 5 - Votes for physiological manifestations of speaking anxiety 32

Figure 6 - Votes for self-criticism manifestations of speaking anxiety 34

Figure 7 - Votes for psychological manifestations of speaking anxiety 35

Figure 9 - Effect of preferred learning strategies on speaking performance 42

Figure 10 - Effect of apprehension on speaking performance 44

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ULIS University of languages and International Studies

ISP International Standard Program

L1/L2 First language/ Second Language

FLCAS Foreign language classroom anxiety scale

SILL Strategy inventory for language learning

TABLE OF CONTENT

ACKNOWLEDGMENT i

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Problem statement and rationale for the study 1

1.2 Aims of the study 3

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Scope of the study 4

1.5 Significance of the study 4

1.6 Methodology 5

CHAPTER 2 – LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Overview of learning strategies 6

2.1.1 Definition of language leaning strategies 6

2.1.2 Overview of speaking learning strategies 6

2.1.3 Classification of speaking learning strategies 7

2.2 Overview of anxiety 10

2.2.1 Theories of anxiety in language learning 10

2.2.2 Overview of speaking anxiety in language learning 10

2.3 Review of previous studies 12

CHAPTER 3 - METHODOLOGY 15

3.1 Research design 15

3.2 Participants and sampling method 16

3.2.1 Participants 16

3.2.2 Sampling methods 17

3.3 Data collection method and procedure 17

3.3.1 Data collection method 17

3.3.2 Data collection instruments 19

3.3.3 Data collection procedure 21

3.4 Data analysis procedure 22

CHAPTER 4 – FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 23

4.1 Research question 1 23

4.2 Research question 2 29

4.2.1 Physiological manifestations 32

4.2.2 Self-criticism manifestation 34

4.2.3 Psychological manifestations 35

4.3 Research question 3 38

4.4 Research question 4 42

4.4.1 Effects of learning strategies on participants’ in-class speaking performance 42

4.4.2 Effect of anxiety on in-class speaking performance 44

CHAPTER 5 – CONCLUSION 46

5.1 Summary of findings 46

5.2 Implications 47

5.2.1 Implication for speaking learning strategies 47

5.2.2 Implication for speaking anxiety 48

5.3 Limitations of the study 49

5.4 Suggestion for further studies 50

APPENDICES 52

REFERENCES 72

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION

1.1 Problem statement and rationale for the study

With the growing concern of the globalization process, it is obvious that thedemand for communication among nations has always been given a greater priority

As a result, second language acquisition has become more essential and advantageousthan ever Therefore, a number of researchers have also mentioned the situation ofincreasing attention paid to language teaching and learning (Liu, 2006)

Unfortunately, learning a second language has never been an easy task forlearners In his article, Liu (2006) also highlighted that:

“Language educators have long recognized that learning a second/foreignlanguage is not an abstract exercise of memorizing vocabulary and applyinggrammatical rules The learner must also face the stress and ambiguities ofcommunicating within the parameters of an unfamiliar culture”

Liu (2005) also stated that English students , especially non-English-majorones, often find it hard to carry out their speaking practice, therefore their speakingperformance does not live up to their expectations

According to the aforementioned arguments, EFL learners, when learning thespeaking skill, have to cope with many difficulties concerning both language andpsychology Difficult as it is, the speaking skill plays a vital role in enabling thelearners to communicate successfully “Among language skills, speaking skill is themost substantial in language accomplishment” (Naraza, 2011) On the grounds of that,linguists, educators, researchers and teachers have been trying to facilitate the process

of learning the speaking skill There is previous research into students’ perception onEFL learning speaking development, in which the speaking skill was evidenced tohave received such great attention that (1) an enormous number of methods andapproaches on verbal communication in the classroom have been explored through

various conferences and studies (2) thousands of articles on speaking skill learningsuch as books, audios, videos are incessantly brought out (Naraza, 2011) It wasclaimed in a previous study that in comparison to writing, reading or even listeningskills, a number of students have regarded fluent verbal communication among people

as more essential (Burnkart, 1998)

In order to establish the communication effectively, it is necessary for thelearners to build up their own learning strategies which help them to acquire thecommunicative purposes It is assumed by Haron, Ahmad, Mamat and Mohamed(2012) that scaffolding certain strategies in their oral practice in class may likely bebeneficial for the learners’ speaking skill acquisition Besides, there also exists anotion that “learners of the English language often express a feeling of stress,nervousness or anxiety while learning to speak English Language and claim to have a

‘mental block’ against learning English” (Tanveer, 2007) It can be drawn from theabove mentioned assumptions that learners’ learning strategies and anxiety in verbalactivities have significant impacts on their speaking performance

In the faculties of English language training in the University of Language andInternational Studies (ULIS), Vietnam National University (VNU), speaking skill isregarded as one of the four necessary skills for language learning accuracy, especially

in the International Standard Program (ISP), where students from internationaldivisions of other university members in VNU are trained to perceive higher Englishproficiency level During the course, ISP students have opportunities to practice notonly IELTS speaking format but presentation skill in foreign language as well.Speaking in English, however, is still a serious challenge for the learners, especiallyfreshmen, to define their learning strategies and reduce anxiety while making oralpractice It has been reported and observed by the researcher as well as her classmatesthrough the Tutoring Program 2013 (organized by the students in Fast-Track Division,

in which the students in International Standard Program were regarded as the targetedobjects and trained about language learning strategies) that the students in the

International Standard Programs always ranked speaking as the most difficult subject

in which they had encountered a numerous challenges

For all the above-mentioned reasons, the researcher wishes to conduct a study

entitled: “Learning strategies, anxiety and their impacts on in-class speaking performance of freshmen in International Standard Programs”

1.2 Aims of the study

Generally, through the present thesis, the author aims to delve into three main aspects First, she will find out the preferential strategies which havebeen employed by the participants to acquire their speaking purposes inclassroom oral practice Second, she will explore the anxious emotion andprobable causes for this situation Third, she will study the impacts of these twoaspects on the learners’ speaking learning acquisition and fourth, she willrecommend some probably usable solutions so that the attitude of learnerstowards speaking skill will be improved and their speaking practice will befostered to reach the best results

1.3 Research questions

In order to perceive all the purposes stated above, the study revolves around thefollowing questions:

1 What are the learning strategies preferred in in-class speaking activities by students

of International Standard Program, ULIS, VNU?

2 What manifestation of anxiety do students of International Standard Program, ULIS,VNU encounter the most often in their speaking classes?

3 What are the probable causes for the anxious feeling that students of InternationalStandard Program, ULIS, VNU often encounter in their speaking classes?

4 How do ISP students self-report on the influence of those learning strategies andanxious feeling on their in-class speaking performance?

1.4 Scope of the study

The focused participants of the current thesis are the students in theInternational Standard Program 2013, ULIS, VNU They are the freshmen,mostly from Hanoi University of Science, who are attending a compulsorycourse of English language training in ULIS The strategic methods, as well asthe apprehension in verbal communication, are the matter of concern not only inlanguage learning field, but in serving different speaking purposes such asinterview for a job However, because of the time constraint and inadequateexperience in research methodology, the researcher only centers on the influence

of learning strategies and anxiety on in-class speaking performance

1.5 Significance of the study

As for teachers and students at International Standard Program, ULIS, thestudy, once completed, is expected to raise their awareness of current situation ofspeaking classrooms including the strategies preferred by ISP students, their anxiousfeeling while making presentations Moreover, the present thesis is significant forrespect to the advantages as well as negative effects of them on participants’ in-classspeaking performance Furthermore, through the findings perceived from the researchprocess, the researcher also intends to implicate some suggested solutions in theconclusion part of the study for the purpose of encouraging the students to improvetheir speaking skill Consequently, teachers can adjust their teaching in order to help

students develop their favorite learning strategies, reduce the negative effects ofanxiety and enhance students’ engagement and performance in class Also, ISPstudents, once being aware of their anxiety level and fortes in language using, will beable to recognize as well as develop strategies to advance their speaking performance,and lessen the debility of speaking apprehension.

1.6 Methodology

In this research, both of the quantitative and qualitative approaches are utilized

as complementary methods in order to achieve the depth of collected data Thequestionnaires and interview questions are adapted based on the Strategy Inventory forLanguage Learning (Oxford, 1990) and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale(Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope; 1986) After being collected, the information was analyzedand discussed with the reference to the literature review in order to answer the researchquestions

CHAPTER 2 – LITERATURE REVIEW2.1 Overview of learning strategies

2.1.1 Definition of language leaning strategies

Being one of the most concerning fields of education, language learningstrategies have been researched and defined in a number of previous papers

In the research into second language acquisition, learning strategies weredefined by Weden and Rubin (1987) as any “sets of operations, plans, routines”applied by the students to alleviate the acquiring, memorizing, recovering and utilizinginformation Being of similar thoughts about learning strategies in language learning,especially second language acquisition, Cohen (1990) also claimed that learningstrategies were the procedures in which include actions to enhance language abilitythrough reserving, maintaining, reminiscenting and information applying intentionallychosen by learners In several others’ opinions, language learning strategies werebelieved to be conscious “behaviors and thoughts” that influence learners’ learningstrategic competence They were praised in the research works of Richards, Platt andPlatt (1992) and O’Malley and Chamot (1990) for enhancing new informationcomprehension, acquisition and storage

However, the definition which is agreed and appreciated the most by the currentresearcher was discovered in the Oxford (1990)’s research on language learningstrategies that learning strategies are specific actions taken by the learner to makelearning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and moretransferable to new situations

2.1.2 Overview of speaking learning strategies

Speaking has always been included in any language learning course since it isone of the crucial components to establish language abilities As a result, the strategies

to enhance speaking results become a matter of concern A number of definitions ontechniques that different learners adopt to master this language skill have been pointedout by several researchers accordingly

Literally, oral strategies refer to communicative techniques, conversation skills

or oral communication schemes applied by learners in order to resolve any difficultyencountered while speaking in the second language (Lopez, 2011) Placing moreemphasis on communicative goal, speaking strategies are also regarded by Faerch andKasper (1983) as “conscious plans” for the purpose of attaining the destination ofexchanging information in second language learning Being of the similar point ofview with the above researchers, O’Malley and Chamot (1990, p.43) simplified themeaning of oral learning strategies for enabling foreign language learners “to negotiatemeaning where either linguistic structures or sociolinguistic rules are not sharedbetween a second language learner and a speaker of the target language”

2.1.3 Classification of speaking learning strategies

(Azarnoosh, n.d.)  a linguistic basis

 a cognitive/psychological basis(Bou-Franch, 1994;

Dornyei & Scott, 1997;

 Functional reduction

 Achievement strategies

Bialystok (1983)  L1-based strategies

 L2-based strategies

 Non-linguistic strategiesParibakht (1985)  Linguistic approaches

 Contextual approaches

 Conceptual approaches

 MimeWillems (1987)  Reduction strategies

 Achievement strategiesBialystok (1990)  Analysis-based strategies

 Control-based strategiesPoulisse (1993)  Substitution strategies

 Substitution plus strategies

 Reconceptualization strategiesDÖrnyei & Scott (1995a,

Table 1: Taxonomies of communicating strategies

It can be observed from the taxonomy list above that there are a variety ofauthors who have conducted researches on strategies of oral communication onlanguage classes Some of them had similar viewpoints on techniques utilized bylearners while presenting their verbal outcome For instance, Azarnoosh (n.d.),Paribakht (1985) and Bialystok (1983) pointed out the linguistic approach in whichlearners will learn to communicate in second language through its semantic contiguity;Faerch & Kasper (1983b) and Willems (1987) also agreed on “reduction strategies” or

“avoidance” on Tarone (1977)’s research, Dornyei & Scott (1995a, 1995b) alsomentioned “message abandonment” and “message reduction” in which studentsnormally prefer “play it safe” or avoid to convey some sorts of information; besides,

Faerch & Kasper (1983b) and Willems (1987) also witnessed the “achievementstrategies” in which learners themselves enhance their fluency by practicing somemore-challenging activities such as paraphrase or literal translation, implicitness,foreignization Especially, Bou-Franch (1994); Dornyei & Scott (1997) and Jordá(1997) all agree with the above researchers’ respect; however, they divided thosestrategies into 2 main types: “process-oriented” and “product-oriented” The product-oriented typology consists of three strategy types: “avoidance or reduction,achievement or compensatory, and stalling or time-gaining strategies” Besides,process-oriented taxonomies including conceptual strategies and linguistic/codestrategies were presented Also based on relationship between L1 and L2, Poulisse(1993) clarified his taxonomy:

1 Substitution: substitution of one lexical item for another, whether it be an L1for L2 item (for example, the use of the L2 word ‘animal’ for ‘rabbit’)

2 Substitution plus type: substitutions which require phonological and/ormorphological adaptation before they are articulated, (e.g foreignizing,morphological creativity, such as the creation of the verb ‘ironize’ on the basis

of the noun ‘iron’)

3 Reconceptualization: a change in the preverbal message which involvesmore than a single chunk, (e.g paraphrases, such as ‘it’s green and you eat itwith potatoes’ for ‘spinach’)

(cited in Azarnoosh (n.d.))

From another perception, Oxford (1990) divided the oral practice strategies intotwo main groups which were direct ones including memory strategy, cognitivestrategy, compensation strategy and indirect ones including metacognitive strategy,affective strategy and social strategy After comparing and contrasting, the currentresearcher believes that this is the most basic way to classify the speaking strategiesand it will be applied in designing the instruments and analyze the data in the currentpaper

2.2 Overview of anxiety

2.2.1 Theories of anxiety in language learning

Anxiety is one of the psychological phenomena documented in a number ofresearches It was defined by Chastain (1998) as “a state of uneasiness andapprehension or fear caused by the anticipation of something threatening”

In the educational situation, it is commonsense that learners suffer from anamount of apprehension while getting access to a new language Especially, inspeaking classes, there was a research demonstration that more than sixty-eight percent

of targeted subjects reported feeling more comfortable when they did not have to get infront of the class to speak (Young, 1990)

In his paper on language learning anxiety, MacIntyre (1998) explained anxiousfeeling of learners to be “worry” and “emotional reaction” arose while they approachget close to a foreign language With the same argument, Horwitz et al (1986) alsodetermined that apprehension in speaking class is a mixture of “feeling, beliefs andbehaviors, related to the uniqueness of the process of foreign language learning”

2.2.2 Overview of speaking anxiety in language learning

2.2.2.1 Manifestation of speaking anxiety in language learning

Students’ demonstration of anxious feeling arisen while compulsorily making aspeech can apparently be witnessed in language classes, particularly speaking skill

Psychologically and physically, “the speech of anxious students is oftenaccompanied by blushing, trembling hands, a pounding heart, and headaches” (Cohen

& Norst, 1995) Moreoever, Tobias (1979) also highlighted that learners encountering

a high level of apprehension are likely to protract a “mental block”

The above mental manifestation of uneasiness in orally presenting an outcome

number of investigators in language learning field such as Cortazzi and Jin (1996);Jackson (1999, 2001); Li (1998); Tsui (1996), (Zou, 2004), to name a few, havearrived at a conclusion that a number of second language or first language learners,especially Asian ones, are so inactive in their speaking classes that they normallyrefrain to apply the targeted language most of the time, especially while answeringteachers’ questions With the same thought, Ely (1986) also argued that the studentswith anxious feeling communicating in second language rarely volunteer to answer thequestions or participating in oral activities of whole class Even more serious actionscan be displayed by anxious students are “avoidance behaviors” such as playing truantfrom classes and procrastinating in finishing their works at home (Argaman & Abu-Rabia, 2002)

2.2.2.2 Causes of speaking anxiety in language learning

The discovery on why reticence of oral activities in ESL/EFL classrooms arisen

is apparently an essence in order to reduce the burden of learning for students

Most of the below researches found by the current author reached an agreementthat “low English proficiency” is the core reason why students usually meet withanxiety while speaking in front of the classes Besides, Dwyer and Heller-Mupphy(1996) also added several derivations of apprehension of learners in speaking in aforeign language such as fear of public failure, fear of making mistakes, lack ofconfidence, and inability to keep up with native speakers, incompetence in the rule ofnorms of English conversation, disorientation, to name a few Meanwhile, Liu (2005)believed that learners’ personalities and cultural beliefs are the other two componentswhich directly contribute to their anxiety in producing outcomes in first language orsecond language classrooms What is more, teachers’ judgment also exerts a powerfuleffect on learners’ reticence when making a speech at classes It was emphasized byFlowerder & Li (2000) that

The students were rated as passive and reticent learners in theclassroom by their lecturers who attributed student reticence to such factors aslow English proficiency, fear of being embarrassed in front of their peers, theirinability to understand concepts, incomprehensible input, lack of preparation,and the passive learning styles acquired during the secondary schooling

After reflecting and summarizing, the causes leading to apprehensive feeling instudents will be grouped into several categories: (1) low English proficiency, (2)students’ character and low self-esteem, (3) fear of negative criticism, (4) unfamiliarwith the practice framework, (5) working with superior members, (6) monotonousatmosphere, (7) unprepared activities, (8) lack of support or sympathy and favoritism,and (9) competitiveness

2.3 Review of previous studies

As above-mentioned, oral learning strategies, apprehensive feeling whilemaking a speech as well as factors leading to that psychological phenomenon havebeen investigated in a diversity of papers The researcher has collected several studiesthat research on the similar aspects with the similar frameworks to the current one

For a start, studying the language learning strategies of first year students in asecret institution, Sioson (2011) also based himself on the strategy classificationconstructed by Oxford (1990) to divide their subjects’ learning strategies into six maincategories: Memory strategy, Cognitive strategy, Compensation strategy,Metacognitive strategy, Affective strategy and Social strategy The findings of thatstudy showed that the metacognitive strategy captured the greatest preference of theparticipants Following respectively in the favoritism level of participants werecognitive, social, compensatory and affective ones The memory one was the leastused by the respondents

Secondly, Nguyen (2012) chose to delve into the anxiety of first-yearmainstream English majors, the leading causes of that feeling and its effects on theparticipants’ oral practice performance in speaking class Firstly, to investigate howspeaking anxiety manifested in the students from their perception, she designed 25survey questions of anxiety manifestations selected mainly from the FLCAS (Horwitz,Horwitz & Cope, 1986) and divided them into several categories: “Physiological”,

“psychological”, “behaviorally” and “self-criticism” Besides, this author utilized thesame framework of factors leading to students’ speaking apprehension as the currentpaper However, grouping those factors into personal factors and instructional factors,Nguyen found out that her targeted learners regarded low English proficiency as themost direct cause and unfamiliarity with the practice as the least apparent cause oftheir reticence while making a speech Moreover, a majority of Nguyen’s respondentscomplained about the negative effects as well as discouragement that anxiety caused totheir speaking performance Another number of the participants also claimed on themotivation achieved from that feeling

Unfortunately, despite the great effort that the present author had spent to seekfor the previous studies on impacts of learning strategies on speaking performance, shefailed to find any specific influence framework for this Therefore, the researchercould only finalize this issue according to the current participants’ perception and self-reports

The above listed definitions as well as comparisons among previous researchershave clarified the terms mentioned in the current paper However, while such studiesare useful illustrations, no one addressed problems encountered by the first yearstudents at International Standard Program, ULIS Therefore, the current researcher isencouraged to explore the unprecedented aspects: strategies and anxious feeling thatlearners are facing in reality

CHAPTER 3 - METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research design

One of the requirements of any research is triangulation Triangulationapproach is achieved by “the combination of two or more theories, data sources,methods or investigators in one study of a single phenomenon to converge on a singleconstruct, and can be employed in both quantitative (validation) and qualitative

(inquiry) studies ” (Yeasmin & Rahman, 2012) According to Mike, Herman, & Arnel(2011), triangulation can help (1) increase comprehensiveness and completeness (2)confirm trends and identify inconsistencies (3) improve reliability and validity In thisresearch, both qualitative and quantitative approaches were applied as the researcherwould divide the whole research procedure into 2 stages: firstly, a list of surveyquestions was provided for the population to examine the different learning strategiespreferred and applied by the informants, the anxiety they encounter during in-classspeaking activities and how these two aspects affect their speaking performance;secondly, a number of samples were randomly picked from the above population andrequired to participate in an interview in order to clarify points that the informationobtained from the questionnaire failed to do

There is no doubt that quantitative research demands a random selection of thesamples from the study population and the random assignment of the samples to thevarious study groups (Duffy, 1985) In another words, it “attempts to maximizeobjectivity, reliability, and generalizibility of findings, and typically interested inprediction” (Harwell, 2011) In this research, quantitative approach is a helpful toolwhich is assumed to help the researchers figure out the learning strategies that areutilized the most often by the targeted participants, the percentage among themencounter the anxiety while making a speech and the level of apprehension arises inoral practice and the resulted consequences on the performance during speakinglessons

Qualitative approach was also applied as one of the main methods in thisresearch Qualitative research, because of the in-depth nature of studies and theanalysis of the data required, usually relates to a small, selective sample (Cormack,1991) As a well-known research design, it “focuses on discovering and understandingthe experiences, perspectives, and thoughts of participants” (Harwell, 2011) In thisresearch, the researcher intended to intensely study the techniques that the studentsfavor in oral practice and the factors affecting such selections as personalities, habits,

teachers’ influence, to name a few; whether they are suffering from any reticence, howanxious they are about speaking, and whether the nervous emotion affects theirspeaking performance in positive and negative ways

Both quantitative and qualitative approaches are advantageous and essential forthis research in solving the research questions That is the reason why the researcherdecided to implement the triangulation approach for the research design

3.2 Participants and sampling method

3.2.1 Participants

With the aim of addressing the influence of learning strategies and the anxiousfeeling on in-class speaking performance, the researcher intentionally chooses thefreshmen from International Standard Program, ULIS as the targeted population togather the data Among the total number of 18 classes, 3 classes with 89 students will

be selected randomly to carry out the survey

As mentioned above, besides the questionnaires, the interviews will also beconducted in order to study on the aspects adverted above in depth For the latterinstrument, there will be three individuals picked out from each class to answer theinterview questions

3.2.2 Sampling methods

Although the participants will be selected randomly, there are several reasonswhy the researcher chose the freshmen in International Standard Program, ULIS, VNU

as the targeted population

Firstly, they are the first-year students who have just entered the universityenvironment Hence, there might be a great deal of confusion that they have beenencountering in structuring their own strategies in language studies What is more,

they are also the non-English-major students whose forte is not English language.Hence, the apprehension in learning a second language is inevitable, especially inspeaking skill which requires a lot of individual progress

Secondly, students in International Standard Program are the targeted students

in the researcher’ teaching practicum As a result, not only will she have time toobserve their strong points as well as the weak points in the targeted skill, but thereliability of the collected data can be more firmly ensured since the support from herfamiliar students are probably more apparent than that from the strange ones

3.3 Data collection method and procedure

3.3.1 Data collection method

As mentioned above, the current research will be conducted through thecombination between survey questionnaire (quantitative method) and interview(qualitative method) Compounding these two methods will be one of the key leading

to the reasonability

Questionnaire

In this research, the questionnaire will be designed for self-completion with 35questions in both “close” and “open” ended question frameworks Those questionswere halved into prompted learning strategies and anxiety manifestation In the firsthalf, based mainly on SILL (Oxford, 1989), the researcher selected several techniquesnormally applied by language learners in speaking activities and put them in 15 firstclose-ended questions while the other two open-ended questions were for participants

to add their further techniques if any and to point out the impacts of their preferredstrategies on their speaking result The other half of the questionnaire included 17close-ended questions of manifestations of apprehension in speaking class adaptedfrom FLCAS (Horwitz et al., 1986), 1 open-ended question of causes leading to

anxious feeling and the other open-ended question to ask about the effect of anxiety ontheir oral practice performance (Look at Appendix 1)

Firstly, the close-ended questions are undeniably valuable to this paper sincethey “can give clues to the respondent on how to interpret the researcher’s intendedmeaning of a question.” (Chestnut & Woodward, 2006) Because of the largepopulation and time constraint, the researcher will not be able to deal with all of theinquiries from the participants As a result, the accurate and notorious close-endedformat will be an efficient tool to clarify all the questions that appeared in the surveywithout explanation from the author Additionally, this question type can also providethe participants with needed clues to answer the questions Because of the confusionthat the freshmen encountered due to their inexperience of completing a questionnaire,prompting them with several recommended answers is quite crucial

Secondly, besides the close-ended questions, it is obvious that open-endedquestions are irreplaceable in the present research It was stated in the research ofcomparison between close-ended and open-ended questions, Chestnut and Woodward(2006) also highlighted that the open-ended questions in theory allow the respondents

to provide a more “precise” response Despite the advantages that they bring, it is alsoapparent that close-ended questions to some extent limit the response from participantssince it is normally under multiple choice question type while the open-ended one donot The informants almost will not have the opportunities to expand as well as clarifytheir answers with the closed-ended questions, whereas the open-ended one opens thechance to express in depth their opinions

In the current research, the survey questionnaire is advantageous andindispensable since it plays an essential role in figuring out the quantitative answersfor all four research questions

In order to enhance the validity of the present research, the researcher decided

to utilize the interview as a complementary method to the questionnaire “The purpose

of the research interview is to explore the views, experiences, beliefs and/ormotivations of individuals on specific matters” (Gill, Steward, Treasure & Chadwick;2008) Upon conducting the interview, the author intended to delve into whichlearning strategies are chosen and applied by the participants, how anxious they areduring the oral practice and how those techniques and apprehension feelings affecttheir in-class speaking performance Despite the survey questionnaire’s utility, it isinadequate to investigate thoroughly on the issues with only it Accordingly, theinterview questions will be adapted and expanded from the questionnaire version so as

to elucidate the perspective, the attitude as well as the regards of the informants,especially in the research question 4

3.3.2 Data collection instruments

There appear a variety of data collection instruments The present researcher,based on the situation in the target institution as well as her own level ofunderstanding, finalizes with the face-to-face questionnaires and semi-structureinterview

Face-to-face questionnaire

Face-to-face questionnaires explicitly refer to the situation that researchersphysically travel to the participants’ location and directly deliver the questionnaires byhand to participants and arrange the completed form to be picked up later According

to Doyle (n.d.), in comparison to mail and telephone survey, face-to-face surveys offersignificant advantages in terms of the amount and complexity of the data that can becollected With face-to-face questionnaires, the researcher could apply a number of

complex questions without having to modify them since she can directly convey orexplain the questions whenever the participants met any difficulties Moreover, due tothe fact that the researcher was not able to collect all of participants’ email addressesand telephone numbers, it is reasonable and essential to meet them face-to-face

Semi-structured interview

Semi-structured interview is an interview method using some pre-set questionsbut allowing some questions that have been chosen by the interviewer as well Part ofthe interview consists of structured questionnaire, but another part is unstructured.This type of interview is believed to “consist of several key questions that help todefine the areas to be explored, but also allows the interviewer or interviewee todiverge in order to pursue an idea or response in more detail.” (Gill, Steward, Treasure

& Chadwick; 2008) Semi-structured interview including 7 in-depth questions wasvaluable to this research because it can not only be adapted from the questionnaire, but

it can also be conducted unintentionally because of several needed information thatcould not be anticipated (Look at Appendix 2)

The researcher believes that the combination of face-to-face questionnaires andsemi-structured interview are apparently beneficial and appropriate to acquire theresearch aims

3.3.3 Data collection procedure

The data collection procedure was carried out through three main phases:designing the instruments, delivering face-to-face questionnaires and holding the semi-structure interviews The specific procedure will be clarified below:

PHASE 1: DESIGNING INSTRUMENTS

The questionnaires were designed according to the format of both close-endedquestions and open-ended one Having finished the first draft of questionnaire, the

researcher sent it to the supervisor to get some further comments After receivingresponses from the supervisor, the questionnaire was revised properly and piloted withsome researcher’s classmates

The pre-set interview questions for semi-structured interview were constructedright after the questionnaires are finalized The researcher anticipated a number ofquestions which could satisfactorily answer the research questions and serve theresearch aims

PHASE 2: DELIVERING FACE-TO-FACE QUESTIONAIRE

Having investigated the schedule as well as the location of the participants inadvance, the researcher made contact and got the permission from their teachers toconduct the face-to-face questionnaire Before delivering the questionnaire, theresearcher introduced the important information about this research project such as theresearcher’s brief biography, the purposes of the project, to name a few After around

20 minutes, all of the questionnaires were collected

PHASE 3: HOLDING SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW

Three students from each class of participants were invited to have someinformal conversations after their classes The researcher tended to record theconversations under the permission and agreement of the three subjects On the basis

of the pre-set interview questions and some of the unintentionally questions bouncingmidway, the interview was completed in approximately 15 minutes for eachinterviewee

3.4 Data analysis procedure

Firstly, the collected data was examined, reorganized and classified in order tofigure out the appropriate answers for the research questions

For questionnaires, the process of data collection was put into three majorphases:

 Phase 1: Checking the completeness of the questionnaires, the consistence ofthe given answers with each question and the understandability as well

as validity of the answers

 Phase 2: Gathering statistics by mechanically calculating the mean, mode andstandard deviation

 Phase 3: Visualizing the collected data in the form of tables, charts and graphsfor better illustration and explanations

For the interview part, researchers transcribed from oral form to writtenform, and after that the researcher verified the data in order to ensure thereliability of the interview findings Throughout the completion of the interview,the data were categorized and grouped together as well as quickly synthesizedwith the aims of drawing the conclusion of the study

CHAPTER 4 – FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION4.1 Research question 1: What are the learning strategies preferred in in-class speaking activities by students of International Standard Program, ULIS, VNU?

As mentioned above, the classification on speaking strategies of the currenttargeted participants is based on Oxford (1990)’s taxonomy which includes directstrategies and indirect strategies Hence, the questionnaire to answer this researchquestion was also designed in accordance with the above division

As can be seen from the Appendix 1, the questionnaire was designed underLikert scale framework in order to investigate on the frequency in which the oralpractice strategies were applied by the participants The current researcher assumed

that each Always answer scored 5, Usually answer scored 4, Sometimes answer scored

3, Rarely sometimes answer scored 2 and Never answer scored 1 Thence, Table 2

below indicates the mean or the average score by which the highest ranked strategycould be inferred from students’ scoring for each strategy

Indirect strategies

2 Speak English whenever you get the opportunity 3.31

3 Try to take risk even when don’t have enough confidence to speak in

English

3.01

9 Avoid interference of mother tongue while speaking in English 3.22

10 Use synonym or describe the idea or object in other words when

trying to say them in English but lack of necessary vocabulary

3.63

11 Use fillers (e.g well, right, anyway, now let me see, as a matter of

fact) to have time in conversation when facing difficulty in thinking of

appropriate reply

3.19

12 Use expressions that call for cultural knowledge, such as

requesting, apologizing, or complaining in English

3.09

Direct strategies

4 Try to use new English vocabulary in speaking 3.14

5 Plan out in advance what you are going to say in English 3.15

6 Try to pick up some nice surrounding phrases or words while

watching/ listening to some program or music on television/radio in

2.94

English to use it later in English conversation.

7 Practice newly learnt grammatical structures in speaking to check

confidence level with structures

2.88

8 Connect the sound of a new English word and an image or picture of

the word to help remember the word

2.36

13 Try to correct pronunciation errors to improve speaking skill 3.76

14 Try to correct lexical errors in speaking 3.59

15 Try to correct expression errors in speaking 3.57

Table 2 – Mean of the variables

Generally, all strategies listed had all been applied by the targeted participants

It can be transcribed from the table above about the frequency that the strategies wereapplied; the targeted students offer a strong preference for correcting their mistakes inspeaking, in another word, compensation strategy Specifically, the strategies number

13, which is trying to correct pronunciation errors was the highest ranked by the

informants with 17 Always votes, 38 Usually votes, 30 Sometimes votes, 1 Rarely

sometimes vote and 2 Never votes Besides, the lexical and expression errors

correction were also focused by the respondents; it can be counted respectively from

the chart below: 15 and 16 Always votes, 31 and 27 Usually votes, 34 and 37 Sometimes votes, 7 Rarely sometimes votes of both and the other 1 Never vote of both.

Having switched their studies into higher education may result in the motivation forself-perfection instead of relying on feedback from teachers and remaining the samelevel This result was similar to that in the study of Sioson (2011)

Always Usually Sometimes Rarely sometimes

Never

17 38 30 1

2

15

31 34 7

1

16

27 37 7

1

Figure 1 - Number of votes by participants for metacognitive strategies

Correct pronunciation errors Correct lexical errors Correct expression errors

Following the above-mentioned strategies, the strategy #10 in which synonyms and simpler expressions were commonly utilized or compensation strategy when the participants met with inadequate of needed vocabulary Particularly, there

were 15 learners Always, 37 ones Usually, 26 ones Sometimes, 8 ones Rarely sometimes and the other 2 ones Never utilized this strategy in their speaking classes.

Vocabulary has been one of the most challenging aspects in language learning as itrequires a tremendous amount of time and effort It could be even more difficult forthe targeted students since they were simultaneously learning their major; hence, theheavy workload may have blocked them from attaining more English vocabulary As aresult, the above-mentioned strategy may enhance their ability to deal with theunexpected problems and get used to communicating in a foreign language

Always Usually Sometimes Rarely sometimes Never

Figure 2 - Votes of participants for compensation strategy

Subsequently, there also appears remarkable preference given to some other

learning strategies A considerable number of participants appreciated practicing English orally at anytime that is appropriate as their constant strategy in oral language learning; particularly, it was stated by the informants that 7.95% of them

Always, 31.8% Usually, 43.2% Sometimes, 17% Rarely sometimes and 0% stated thatthis strategy was applied in their speech They can speak English not only in aspeaking class but outside the classrooms as well They may, for example, start aconversation in English or speaking English to the foreigners whenever they haveopportunities

Next, analyzing the data given by the targeted learners helped point out the

proportion that 11.4%, 35.2%, 25%, 20.5%, 7.95% of the respondents Always,

Usually, Sometimes, Rarely sometimes and Never respectively avoid the interference

of mother tongue Observing English classes during teaching practicum, the current

researcher witnessed a variety of ways of reaction to English speaking Part of thoseparticipants always thought of Vietnamese answers before translating them intoEnglish However, this was not an efficient strategy for them because of the culturalunawareness and low English proficiency There are a vast number of dissimilarities in

grammar structures of 2 separated languages; hence, it may be impossible sometimes

to translate an utterance from Vietnamese to English Another part of the participants

believed in brainstorming ideas in English right from beginning and this strategy

may help develop their fluency in using English Besides, the respondents alsoappreciated utilizing fillers such as “well”, “how can I say” in order to bridge the gapand to expand time to think of the subsequent sayings It might be effective since itwould make the speech more natural and fluent

A nearly equal share of preference was offered to using new English vocabulary in speaking and planning out in advance what are going to be presented

in English For the first one, the students normally made a list of new vocabularyselected from the other language class such as reading lessons And then they learntnew words and phrases by heart, made sentences with them and try to put them in thespeech That would be an intelligent strategy since there might be a wide range ofvocabulary at the academic level in reading passages or listening transcripts; thus, itwould be much more convenient for the students to collect new words and phrases into

a valuable source Meanwhile, the author also witnessed cases that students writing along script before their presentation After gathering information, they compile them,and then learn them by heart This could be a safe way, yet at the same time reducestudents’ ability of coping with the sudden situation as well as violate the naturalism ofthe speech

Suggested the strategy in which participants were questioned whether they had

tried to take risk despite their low level of English proficiency, the author implied

to ask about their reaction when they encountered the situations requiring speaking inEnglish, for example facing a foreigner or applying for a job requiring working with agood command of English language Being asked about this aspect, over a half of thetargeted students confessed that they did not dare to do that One of the probablereasons explaining such situation could be the fact that they were in nerve of

embarrassment and sloth They may not be willing to present their shortcomings aswell as challenge themselves in approaching a new language

Continuing the research in capturing the less preference from the respondents

are the two strategies which named speaking English in everyday interaction and trying to pick up some nice surrounding phrases or words while watching/ listening to some program or music on television/radio in English to use it later in English conversation There are a number of probable interpretations for this

situation Firstly, the learners might feel weird talking to each other in foreignlanguage instead of their mother tongue Secondly, they may believe that watching TV

or listening to music were sorts of entertaining, not studying; hence, they may not want

to waste their relaxing time paying attention to English vocabulary any more

By contrast, the students demonstrate their least preference to the memory

strategy in question #8 in which the sounds of new English words are visualized to activate the memory of those words English pronunciation is an undeniable matter

of concern of any language learners English learning beginners are normally unsureabout their L2 pronunciation; thus, the participants refused to learn vocabulary withpronunciation visualization This finding also displayed a similarity to that of Sioson(2011) (See Figure 3)

Interestingly enough, being asked in question number 16 in which theparticipants were encouraged to point out some other strategies that they usually applywhen practicing speaking skill, some of them suggested some creative ideas such aslistening to English songs and imitating the singers to practice pronunciation;recording their speech and listening to double check; listening to Englishconversations to imitate native intonation

4.2 Research question 2: What anxiety do students of International Standard Program, ULIS, VNU encounter the most in their speaking classes?

To answer the above research questions, questions number 18-34 were included

in the survey