english language macro-skills of freshman vietnamese students in selected colleges in bacgiang city input to intervention measures (sum)

As a college instructor teaching Basic English Course at Bac Giang College, I am interested to investigate the English Language Macro Skills of Freshmen students with the end view of pro

Thai Nguyen University Batangas State University

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of Philippines

NGO THI THU HUONG

ENGLISH LANGUAGE MACRO SKILLS

OF FRESHMAN VIETNAMESE STUDENTS

IN SELECTED COLLEGES IN BAC GIANG CITY:

INPUT TO INTERVENTION MEASURES

Speciality: English language and literature

Ph.D DISSERTATION SUMMARY

OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

THAI NGUYEN, 2014

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

Advisor: Matilda H Dimaano, PhD

At: hour date month year 2014

Dissertation can be found at the libraries:

- National library of Vietnam;

- Learning Resource Center - Thai Nguyen University;

- Library of International Training and Development Center;

- Library of Batangas State University, Philippines

a wide variety of materials which help them to meet their study and job requirements

Studying at colleges or universities can be well regarded as a preparatory period when students accumulate enough basic knowledge and skills to get ready to their later work At Bacgiang colleges, more and more attention has been paid to English language leaning, especially general English language for first year students However, there are difficulties of second language learners in macro-skills Among the difficulties second language learners experience in learning are having difficulties with reading, writing and spelling; pronouncing or reading multi-syllabic words; having reduced or limited vocabulary and word knowledge in comparison to their peers; having poor retrieval of information due to problems with meaning; and having poor literacy in their first language The behaviours manifested relative to these deficiencies learners are easily destructed include: poor organizational skill; show reluctance

to learn or get involved in classroom activities, work slowly or too

quickly and inaccurately; demonstrate lack of motivation and have poor self- esteem

On the part of the teacher, mastery of the elements or features of a language is significant in the second language situation since it helps assess the needs of the learners on the aspect of communication skills

As a college instructor teaching Basic English Course at Bac Giang College, I am interested to investigate the English Language Macro Skills of Freshmen students with the end view of proposing

an Intervention measures to enhance the Macro skills of freshmen students

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

In learning, there are five macro skills that are needed by learners

to communicate effectively and these are listening, speaking, reading, writing and viewing In communication process these skills are very essential These skills may approach or solve future problems in communication most especially in our day to day tasks such as in learning or gaining information, presenting, or holding a successful meeting

The knowledge regarding the use of these five macro skills is of vital importance Consistently seeking improvement along these macro skills will contribute to the self-development, effective communication and success in many different environments and contexts of the learners Absence of these macro skills to a person pose difficulties on his movement through life and to thrive in the varied areas such as education and career

Attaining the language skills on the part of the learners need mastery of the language which takes years to learn But, it can be attained for teachers are required to note the oral and written difficulties encountered by learners and address the difficulties by energizing students to varied learning activities gearing towards enhancing language proficiency

It is of vital importance for teachers to determine the needs and difficulties of students for her to design appropriate instructional materials for the enhancement of learner’s language proficiency

Fully aware of the fact, the researcher is encouraged to investigate the English Language Macro Skills of Freshmen students with the end view of proposing an Intervention measures to enhance the Macro skills of freshmen students

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study focuses on the Freshmen Vietnamese students’ English Language Macro Skills among selected Colleges in Bacgiang City Specifically, it seeks to answer the following questions:

1 What are the learning contents of a general English course offered

1.3 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

This study was focused on the English Language Macro skills of First Year College students among selected Colleges in Bac Giang City It covered the learning contents of a general English course offered to Freshmen students as well as the level of students’ performance in the macro-skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening This also determined the significant differences among the

macro-skills in English language and the proposed intervention measures to enhance the macro-skills of the First year students among the selected colleges in Bac Giang Province

The study covered the three (3) colleges in Bac Giang City namely: Vocational College, College of Technology and Bac Giang Ngo Gia Tu College This study is limited on the results of the gathered data Fifty one 51 faculty members who were presently teaching Basic English and 299 students from the three (3) colleges were part of this study Results of the study was limited on the information from the respondents in the Academic year 2013-2014 1.4 SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY

Administrators of Bac Giang College This study can guide them in the Curriculum development by evaluating the different English proficiency enhancing activities This study will serve as a guide for the realignment of the existing curriculum of Basic English

to meet their institutional goals and objectives

Faculty of Basic English This study will serve as a guide to the faculty teaching Basic English as they may be aware of the present level of students’ performance in macro-skills This study will provide them insights on what classroom learning activities will be appropriate to enhance the Language proficiency of their students First Year Students The findings of this study will make them aware of their present level of macro skills This would give them a challenge to improve their weak points and enhance their over all performance in Basic English

Parents Through this study, parents of the first year students

will become aware of the English performance of their children

which will make them more supportive and cooperative in school

activities specifically on the improvement of the skills in the Basic

English of their children

Future researchers This study will serve as reference for their

undertaking

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDY

2.1 REVIEW OF RELATED STUDY

This section presents of some literatures related to the topic

2.2 RESEARCH PARADIM

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

Figure 1: Research Paradigm

Proposed Intervention Measures

Assessment made through:

Documentary Analysis

Teacher Made Test

The research paradigm explains the relationship of the process-output of the study The input covers the learning contents of the general English course, level of students’ performance in the macro-skills and the difficulties of the students in the macro-skills; the process is assessment through documentary analysis and teacher made test; while the output is the proposed intervention measures for first year students in Bacgiang colleges

input-CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY 3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN

The study made used of the descriptive method of research It will

be deemed appropriate for this study in determining the required information through analysis and interpretation of the information which will be gathered

To accomplish the objectives of the study, information were gathered pertinent to the present undertaking through teacher made test for the student respondents

3 2 SUBJECTS OF THE STUDY

The subjects of the study are composed of 299 first year college students taking up Basic English course in the three colleges in Bacgiang namely Ngo Gia Tu College, Industry and Technology College and Vocational College

Table 1 shows the distribution of student respondents in the three colleges

Table 1: Distribution of student respondents in the three colleges

(n) Bacgiang Ngo Gia Tu

Of the 299 recovered answer sheets, one was not included in the analysis due to incomplete answers Thus only 298 answer sheets were subjected to statistical analysis

3.3 DATA GATHERING INSTRUMENT

This study made used of the following data gathering instruments Documentary Analysis This was used to gather information regarding the learning contents of the subject Basic English course I

In Bac Giang Ngo Gia Tu Colleges, this was used through the Detailed Outline of General English I for Diploma Degree Program with English Language as field issued by the Ministry of Education and Training of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Teacher Made Test This instrument is designed to determine the English language macro-skills of Freshman Vietnamese students Macro-skills pertain to the four macro-skills in communication which are listening, speaking, reading and writing These macro-skills are the basic skills required to communicate effectively in the English language The macro-skills of the students are evaluated based on the component skills of each macro-skill One test question

is formulated corresponding to the subcomponent items of each component skill or macro-skill The component skills in reading include word recognition skills with six subcomponent items such as context clues, phonetic analysis, root words, contractions, compound words, ands syllabication, In comprehension skills the six subcomponent items are finding the main idea, sequence, finding details, predicting outcome, recognizing cause and effect, and distinguishing between fact and opinion and utilization skills with

five subcomponent items namely: skimming for information, using titles in lessons, using index, classification, and outlining

In writing, the skills involve are sharpening of writing skills with five subcomponent items such as spelling, using words effectively, making smooth transition, sentence, paragraphs and messages, and structuring phrases and clauses and sentence correction As for listening skill, this includes five subcomponent items namely; comprehension one, homonym, comprehension two, correct stress of the word, and the use of words

In speaking three subcomponent items are included These are pronunciation, comprehension, and grammatical accuracy A total of

32 test items are included in the test for reading, writing and listening Three scoring areas are listed as additional items to capture the rating of the students in the speaking test Their audio-recorded speech is rated based on the three scoring areas as they answer the three given questions: The Likert scale followed for these three scoring areas

Numerical Scale Description:

4- Few errors (1-3 errors): Proficient

3- Moderate errors (4-6 errors): Moderately proficient;

2 - Several errors (7-10 errors): Less proficient;

1 - Plenty of errors (>10 errors): Not proficient

3.4 DATA GATHERING PROCEDURES

A test questionnaire for students was constructed and submitted to the adviser for review and comments Through the help of the

adviser, the final drafts were produced The teacher made test was pilot tested to college students of Batangas State University to test the strength and weaknesses of the said test

In validating the instruments, letters of requests were then sent to the members of the panel and expert on the field to go over the research instruments, to give their comments and suggestions for the improvement of the questionnaire After incorporating all the suggestions, final copies of validated test were produced for administration

Another set of letters of request was written for the administration

of Bacgiang Colleges for permission to administer the teacher made test to students With the approved letter of the administrators, the questionnaires were administered to the 299 student respondents After the administration of the test, test papers were retrieved, checked, tallied and analyzed The speaking test was conducted last with each participant taken to a separate room where they were asked

to answer the questions one by one with their replies audio-recorded The recorded data were later scored following the scale above 3.5 STATISTICAL TREATMENT OF DATA

The study applied the following statistical treatment:

Cronbach alpha This was used to measure internal consistency

of the scores of the respondents

Frequency Distribution and Percentage This was used to provide meaningful description of the respondents’ performance in macro skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening

Weighted Mean This was used to quantify the student’s

performance in the macro skills of reading, writing, speaking and

listening Standard Deviation This was utilized to determine the level of

students’ performance in the macro skills of reading, writing,

speaking and listening

Student’s T- test This was used to test the significant difference

among the macro skills in English Language

CHAPTER IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents the results of the data gathering process from the respondents of the study, the data analysis and its interpretation

Learning Contents of a General English Course Offered to

Freshman Students

Level of Students’ Performance in the Macro-Skills of the English Language: Performance of student respondents in the different skill areas of the Reading test, Writing test, Listening test and Speaking test

Performance of student respondents in the different skill areas of the Significant Differences in the Students’ Performance among the Macro-Skills in English Language: Student's t-test comparison of the mean % scores for each test group shown as p-values

Difficulties Students have in the Macro-Skills of the English Language: difficult item for student respondents in the teacher-made tests on macro-skills in English language Rank of 1- Most Difficult (MD), Mean % of < 50% - Difficult (D), Mean % > 50% - Not Difficult (ND)

Difficulties in Macro-Skills that appear to be relatively more serious: Most difficult items for student respondents in the teacher-made tests on macro-skills in English language

Intervention Measures that may be proposed to Enhance the Macro-Skills of students