The influence of students' beliefs on their speaking performance = tác động của niềm tin đối với khả năng nói của sinh viên.PDF

Scope and Significance of the study This paper concentrates on finding beliefs of students in language learning, especially in learning English speaking.. The second part gives an overv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Candidate’s statement i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of abbreviations vi

List of tables vii

Part one: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale 1

2 The aim of the study 1

3 Scope and Significance of the study 2

4 Methods of the study 2

5 Organization of the study 2

Part two: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature Review 1.1 Concepts of Beliefs 4

1.1.1 The origin of Beliefs 4

1.1.2 Beliefs in Language Learning Study 5

1.1.3 Beliefs about Language Learning 6

1.2 Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) by Horwitz 7

1.3 Speaking Skill Assessment Criteria 11

1.4 Review of Previous Studies 12

Chapter 2: The Study 2.1 Research Questions 14

2.2 Subjects 14

2.3 Data Collection Instruments 14

2.3.1 Questionnaire 14

2.3.2 Observation and Note Taking 16

2.4 Data Collection Procedure 16

2.4.1 Questionnaire 16

2.4.2 Observation 16

2.4.3 Records of Learning Results 17

2.5 Data Analysis and Discussions 17

2.5.1 The Students’ Beliefs in Speaking Skill 17

2.5.2 The Effect of the Students’ Beliefs on their Speaking Performance 23

Part three: CONCLUSION 1 Conclusion 29

2 Limitations and Implications 30

3 Recommendation for further studies 31

References Appendix A 33

Appendix B 38

Appendix C 40

Appendix D 42

Appendix E 44

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LL: Language Learning

L & C: Learning and Communication

HUI: Ho Chi Minh University of Industry

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Descriptive Statistics of Inventory Questionnaire

Table 2: Descriptive Statistics of Theme A

Table 3: Descriptive Statistics of Theme B

Table 4: Descriptive Statistics of Theme C

Table 5: Descriptive Statistics of Theme D

Table 6: Descriptive Statistics of Theme E

Table 7: Descriptive Statistics of Beliefs by Students’ Grades

Table 8: The Learning Records of Excellent and Average Students

Table 9: Comparison of Learning Records and Presentation Assessments

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Vietnamese students have studied English at the early classes since English is chosen as a compulsory subject at schools by the Minister of Education after a consequence of the „open door‟ policy Moreover, English is seen as a means of access to scientific, technological development and to the world knowledge, as the language for international communication, and as an instrument for receiving grants and aid For young people, English is an effective tool for further study as well as a way to better job opportunities Unfortunately, teaching and learning English is still a matter of much concern due to inappropriate teaching method to develop all skills of students The fact is that graduate students even English-major students and non-English major students can not communicate verbally in English because of shyness, inadequate vocabulary, or simply lacking the necessary knowledge There are many reasons for this; for example, during lectures, Vietnamese rather than English is mostly spoken by both teachers and students Besides, students at colleges and universities are mainly just taught by traditional approach grammar translation method which only concentrates on the ability of using grammar rules precisely Listening and speaking skills are ignored As the results, lots of students rush to English Language Centers to improve their speaking skill Also, many students of mine have come up to me and ask for help in their speaking skill This main motivation has urged me to conduct the research

Another motivation which the study is carried on results from interest of teaching speaking By doing this study, I can understand my students‟ beliefs in speaking skill so that I can have proper methods to orientate them in learning English speaking skill effectively All of above factors and reasons have inspired me to do the research on “the influence of students‟ beliefs on their speaking performance.”

2 The aim of the study

The purpose of this study is to see how students‟ beliefs affect their speaking skill

by using the BALLI (Horwitz, 1988) survey instruments Identification of these beliefs is

to examine whether students‟ speaking beliefs could be linked to their speaking

performance Moreover, the study recommends some implications for teaching English speaking skill

3 Scope and Significance of the study

This paper concentrates on finding beliefs of students in language learning, especially in learning English speaking Hence, it examines how students‟ beliefs affected their speaking performance

Furthermore, the research may be potential in equipping for modifying speaking activities in the course book in a more flexible and creative way By doing survey of students‟ beliefs, the study might give teachers a profound insight into how to help students studying English speaking skill effectively

4 Methods of the study:

The present study was designed to use both quantitative and qualitative research methods for the analysis According to Patton (2002), each method has different advantages and disadvantages A quantitative research method can obtain broad, generalizable findings while a qualitative research method can yield in-depth, detailed information

Two major complementary sources of data were used in the current study The distributions of a questionnaire of Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) (Horwitz, 1988) provided quantitative data The presentations of the students about given topic were used to elicit the qualitative data

After collecting the distributions, the questionnaire data will be analyzed in order of five themes of BALLI (Horwitz, 1988) so as to find out the beliefs of the students in achieving a good speaking skill The influence of students‟ beliefs on speaking performance was examined via students‟ academic marks and their presentations

5 Organization of the study

The study is organized as follows:

Part one: Introduction presents the rationale, the aim, the scope and significance, the

method and organization of the study

Part two: consists of three chapters

Chapter 1 “Literature review” deals with basic theoretical backgrounds related to the

study It starts with the concepts of beliefs in language learning It also presents related model research of Horwitz (1987, 1988, and 1990) and speaking skill assessment criteria Finally, it states previous studies of beliefs about language learning

Chapter 2 “The study” section 2.1 to 2.4 present the research questions, the information of

subjects, data collection instruments and procedure Section 2.5 deals with data analysis and discussions of the students‟ beliefs and its relationship with students‟ speaking performance

Part three: “Conclusion” summarizing all the issues in the research contains major

findings, limitations, implications and recommendation for further research

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides the theoretical background related to the study The first part of the chapter evidences the existence of beliefs in language learning from origin of beliefs to beliefs in language study; particularly beliefs about language learning The second part gives an overview of Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory Model (Horwitz, 1984,

1985, and 1988) which instrument was used to identify students‟ beliefs in many previous studies Either was it also used in this study The third part presents speaking skill assessment criteria in which the criteria suggested by Hughes (1996) were utilized in this study Finally, the last part of the chapter reviews previous studies of beliefs about language learning

1.1 Concepts of Beliefs

1.1.1 The origin of Beliefs

Early psychological studies into learner perceptions and beliefs about learning

"opened a whole new Aladdin's cave of personal beliefs, myths, understandings, and superstitions as they were revealed by the persons' thoughts and feelings about their learning" (Thomas & Harri-Augustein, 1983, p 338) They concluded that beliefs about learner capacity and personal models of their own processes were more central to understanding the individuals' learning performances than universally accepted theories of learning; these personal "myths" explained more about individual differences in learning than such psychometric measures as intelligence or aptitude (Thomas & Harri-Augustein, 1983)

In cognitive psychology, learner beliefs about the nature of knowledge and learning, or epistemological beliefs, have been investigated with the idea that they are part

of the underlying mechanisms of metacognition (Flavell, 1987; Ryan, 1984), form the building blocks of epistemology (Goldman, 1986), and are a driving force in intellectual performance Psychologists have begun to acknowledge the pervasive influence of personal and social epistemologies on academic learning, thinking, reasoning, and problem solving (Schommer, 1993), persistence (Dweck & Leggett, 1988), and interpretation of information (Ryan, 1984; Schommer, 1990)

From this perspective, beliefs about language learning are viewed as a component

of metacognitive knowledge (Flavell, 1987), which include all that individuals understand about themselves as learners and thinkers, including their goals and needs Flavell (1979, 1981) emphasizes the study of meta-cognitive knowledge in second language learning and focuses on the person He calls this "person knowledge." Person knowledge is knowledge learners have acquired about how cognitive and affective factors such as learner aptitude, personality, and motivation may influence learning In addition, it includes specific knowledge about how the above factors apply in their experience

1.1.2 Beliefs in language learning study

In a number of studies, the definition of beliefs is provided Elaine Horwitz (1985), one of the pioneer researchers of the studies on beliefs about language learning, refers to

“beliefs” using the terms such as preconceptions (1985), preconceived ideas (1987), and preconceived notions (1988) without giving specific descriptions about the construct In the important statement used to introduce her instrument, the Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI), which has become one of the most widely used instruments

in studies on beliefs about language learning, she used the word opinions to refer to beliefs, the construct that the inventory is aimed for Nevertheless, researchers do not seem to have reached the same consensus about the meaning of beliefs Because of its complexity, it may be difficult to generate a fixed set of meaning or to be defined precisely Pajares (1992) stated that, “defining beliefs is at best a game of player‟s choice” (p 309) Further,

he provided that an extensive list of words like the one below can be found in the literature

as a reference of beliefs “attitude, values, judgments, axioms, opinions, ideology, perceptions, conceptions, conceptual systems, preconceptions, dispositions, implicit theories, explicit theories, personal theories, internal mental processes, action strategies, rules of practice, practical principles, perspectives, repertories of understanding, and social strategy (Pajares, 1992, p.309)

Followings are some definitions of beliefs used in previous studies Cabaroglu and Roberts (2000), drawing from Harvey (1986), defined beliefs as “a set of conceptual representations which signify to its holder a reality or given state of affairs of sufficient validity, truth or trustworthiness to warrant reliance upon it as a guide to personal thought and action” (p 388) Peacock‟s (2001) operational definition of beliefs, adopted from Richardson (1996), is “psychologically held understandings, premises, or propositions about the world that are felt to be true” (p 178) Huang (1997) viewed beliefs about

language learning as “preconceptions language learners have about the task of learning the target language” (p 29) Kunt (1997) and Wang (1996) used the terms “opinions” and

“ideas” or “views” to refer to “beliefs.” The definitions of beliefs used in these studies project some level of subjective, judgmental value, as suggested by Pajares (1992)

While Michaela Borg (2001) states that belief is related to knowledge and behavior and affirms that “a belief is a mental sate which has as its content a proposition that is accepted as true by the individual holding it, although the individual may recognize that alternative beliefs may be held by others.” But “one of the key differences between belief and knowledge is that knowledge must actually be true in some external sense.” In relation

to behaviour “most definitions of belief propose that beliefs dispose or guide people‟s thinking and action.”

Personally, beliefs are preconceptions which people have and believe in to study or work better To learn a language, students also have their own beliefs which are formed differently Some beliefs are influenced by students‟ previous (positive or negative) experiences as language learners (Gaoyin & Alvermann, 1995), while other beliefs are shaped by students‟ cultural background (Alexander & Dochy, 1995), family/home background (Dias, 2001), and individual differences such as personality (Langston & Sykes, 1997; Abraham & Vann, 1987; Furnham, Johnson & Rawles, 2002) Regardless of their origin, attitudes to learning and the perceptions and beliefs which determine them may have a profound influence on learning behavior (Cotterall, 1995), and may directly influence or even determine a learner‟s attitude and motivation when learning the language in (Riley 1996)

1.1.3 Beliefs about language learning

Some researchers viewed beliefs about language learning as a part of metacognitive knowledge; however, Wenden (1998) claimed that in second and foreign language literature, these two terms are used interchangeably to refer to the same construct The term, beliefs about language learning, were not clearly defined by researchers in previous studies It seems either that the researchers assumed that the term can be understood intuitively or that the construct is too complex to be operationalized In most studies, the term, beliefs about language learning, is used as a known construct without providing further explanation

Second language researchers believed that EFL/ESL learners bring their norms, attitudes, perception and experiences into the learning task process and learning strategies (Sakui, & Gaies, 1999) Language experts identified that during the process of learning English as a second/ foreign language, students bring complex issues such as beliefs, attitudes, norms and expectation into the course syllabus Based on the related research, each second language learner has his/her beliefs and thought about language learning and many factors will have opportunity to affects students beliefs and they can be considered

as affective factors (Hortwitz, 1987) Aptitude, attitude, norms and perceptions have the potential to affect learners‟ language learning process, their motivation and their ability to cope with English as a foreign language Consequently, they can be considered

as push or pull factor to help learners‟ ultimate success in attainment of new language in shorter time (Bernat & Gvozdenko, 2005) Rod Ellis (2003) indicated that a learner has a belief about language learning when:

 S/he has identified different attributes about language learning and their ability to learn language, for example, the language they are learning; how best to learn a language; the importance of learning about the culture of the second language; whether they expect to be successful

 S/he has evaluated these attributes as positive or negative

1.2 Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) by Horwitz

In the early 1980s, Horwitz (1985) developed an instrument for identifying beliefs about foreign language learning As Patricia S Kuntz (1996a) maintains, Horwitz‟s BALLI evolved as a result of a brain-storming session that she had with 25 language teachers Horwitz (1988) then compiled a teacher-generated list of beliefs that students might have about language learning and developed an instrument for her study, which she called Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) after consulting specialists in cognitive science and psychology Three distinct BALLIs are in use today: (1) BALLI to measure the beliefs of the students of English as a second language (ESL BALLI - 1984, 1987); (2) BALLI to explore beliefs held by foreign language teachers (teachers BALLI - 1985); and (3) BALLI to assess beliefs of students learning foreign languages (foreign language BALLI – 1988, 1990) The first BALLI consisted of 27 statements and was used

to assess beliefs of immigrants learning English as a second language in Texas The second BALLI focused on the beliefs held by teachers of foreign languages; it consisted of 27

statements The third BALLI comprised 34 statements and was employed by Horwitz to gather the opinions of students learning French, German and Spanish at the University of Texas at Austin All the different versions of BALLIs employed a 5-point Likert scale ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”

Questions in the BALLI were divided into groups according to their theme or topic Initially, Horwitz‟s BALLIs (1981, cited in Kuntz 1996a) comprised four themes, i.e (1) foreign language aptitude, (2) difficulty of language learning, (3) nature of language learning, and (4) language learning strategies Then Horwitz (1987) modified the fourth theme to “learning and communication strategies” and added “motivation and expectation”

to her instrument The final BALLI (1988) to assess beliefs about foreign language learning had this structure The first category of the BALLI „Foreign Language Aptitude‟ concerns the general existence of special ability for language learning The second category „Difficulty of language learning‟ concerns the general difficulty of learning a foreign language The third one „Nature of language learning‟ refers to relevant issues related to the nature of language learning process The forth theme of BALLI „Learning and Communication Strategies‟ refers to various strategies learners use to master a foreign language The last category „Motivation and Expectation‟ concerns the desire and expectation for language learning opportunities

The concepts of the five themes of BALLI (Horwitz, 1988) were given generally in the above paragraph since Horwitz did not develop the inventory to be used for EFL students in particular Most studies that were conducted in an EFL context, then, used the ESL version of the inventory and modified it for their particular group of students The concepts of these themes could be elaborated more in some previous studies which also presented the influences of these beliefs on language learning

(A) Beliefs about Foreign Language Aptitude

The belief that some people have a special ability to learn foreign languages has been discussed in a few studies as possibly having negative effects on learners‟ language learning However, little empirical evidence has been revealed For instance, Horwitz constantly discussed the negative effects of beliefs about foreign language aptitude in her three studies (1985, 1987, and 1988) She argued that learners who believe in the existence

of foreign language aptitude but do not think that they themselves have it risk negative effects on their own language learning She further explained that “Students who feel that

they lack some capacity necessity to language learning - by virtue of personal make-up or group membership - probably doubt their own ability as language learners and expect to do poorly in language study” (p 288) In her study of learners of Japanese, she found that the learners who believed that a foreign language learning ability was an innate ability and could not be improved tended to achieve less in language learning than those who

“perceive their own ability as a controllable, increasable entity” (p 408)

(B) Beliefs about the Difficulty of Language Learning

Beliefs about the difficulty of language learning were found to associate with language achievement Mori (1999) found that learners who perceived the target language that they were learning as an easy language tended to do better than those who believed that they were dealing with a difficult task On the other hand, Horwitz (1989) and Truitt (1995) found that beliefs about language difficulty of the target language were associated with anxiety Learners who perceive that they are dealing with an easy task may not be confronted with discomfort caused by anxiety They can make efforts in their learning up

to their potential, and thus attain ultimate success in their learning In contrast, learners who are confronted with anxiety, though they have the potential to be successful in language learning, may avoid performing language tasks and lose opportunity to improve their language skills Consequently, these learners may not perform well in language classes

(C) Beliefs about the Nature of Language Learning

Two beliefs in this category have been discussed in studies on beliefs about language learning about their negative effects on learners‟ success in language learning These beliefs are beliefs about vocabulary learning and beliefs about grammar instruction Horwitz (1987) claimed that learners who reported beliefs about the importance of vocabulary and grammar in language learning risk negative effects She claimed that learners who possess these beliefs may spend a lot of time “memorizing vocabulary lists and grammar rules at the expense of other language learning practices” (p.124) Peacock (1999) found supporting evidence for Horwitz‟ claims about the effect of beliefs about grammar instruction and vocabulary learning Learners who agreed that learning a foreign language is a matter of learning grammar rules were found to be less proficient in English than those who believed otherwise In another study (Peacock, 2001), he found significant

negative relationships between not only beliefs about learning grammar rules but also beliefs about learning vocabulary and English proficiency

(D) Beliefs about Learning and Communication Strategies

In this fourth category of the BALLI, several beliefs were found to be associated with the use of several learning and communication strategies (Huang, 1997; Yang, 1999) However, some beliefs have been discussed in terms of their negative influence on learner‟s learning These beliefs include beliefs about correct pronunciation and beliefs about one‟s own self-confidence in speaking English For beliefs about correct pronunciation, Horwitz (1987) claimed that learners who reported these beliefs may not be receptive to concepts of communicative approaches to language learning However, no empirical study has been conducted to explore the effect of these beliefs In another study (Horwitz, 1989) asserted that learners who are concerned about correctness in their performance in language learning but do not have an ability to meet their own expectation are likely to experience anxiety Oh (1996) and Truitt (1995) did not find any significant relationship

Beliefs about self confidence in speaking, on the contrary, have been found to have negative effects on learners‟ language learning Horwitz and Cope (1986) found that anxious foreign language students were not confident enough to speak the target language Similarly, Oh (1996) found a significant relationship between these beliefs and anxiety in her study of Japanese learners Kunt (1997) and Truitt (1995) also found similar relationships in their EFL students In these studies, the learners who reported lacking confidence in speaking the target language tended to have high foreign language anxiety, suggesting that these learners may not want to engage in practice activities because of their high anxiety level and would not be able to develop their language skills fully

(E) Beliefs about Motivation and Expectation

The last category of “Beliefs about Motivations and Expectations” expressed desire

of opportunities and motivations to achieve the language There are not many findings showed the effects of these beliefs on language learners However, Altan (2003) in his study of beliefs about language learning of foreign language – major university students showed that a great majority of participants associated language skills with better job

opportunities and many opportunities” to use their new language and the participants has strong level of instrumental motivation to be successful language learners

1.3 Speaking Skill Assessment Criteria

Two methods are used for assessing speaking skills In the observational approach, the student's behavior is observed and assessed unobtrusively In the structured approach, the student is asked to perform one or more specific oral communication tasks His or her performance on the task is then evaluated The task can be administered in a one-on-one setting with the test administrator and one student or in a group or class setting In either setting, students should feel that they are communicating meaningful content to a real audience Tasks are focus on topics that all students can easily talk about, or, if they do not include such a focus, students should be given an opportunity to collect information on the topic

There are many sets of criteria used in oral tests For example, the Cambridge Certificate in English Language Speaking Skills (CELS) (Thornbury S., 2005) uses analytic scoring based on four assessment criteria: 1) Grammar and Vocabulary (accurate and appropriate use of syntactic forms and vocabulary to meet the task requirements), 2) Discourse management (ability to express ideas and opinions in coherent and connected speech), 3) Pronunciation (ability to produce comprehensive utterances to fulfill the task requirements), 4) Interactive Communication (ability to interact with other interlocutors by initiating and responding appropriately and at the required speed and rhythm) Another example is the criteria suggested by Underhill N (1987), which consists of 1) Fluency and Naturalness, 2) Vocabulary, 3) Connecting sentences (the ease of speaking several sentences together in a connected way Finally, the criteria suggested by the Royal Society

of Art (RSA) (Hughes A., 1989) include:

 Accuracy: Pronunciation still obviously influenced by L1 though clearly

intelligible Grammatical/lexical accuracy is general high, though some errors which do not destroy communication are acceptable

 Appropriacy: Use of language generally appropriate to function The overall

intention of the speaker is always clear

 Range: A fair range of language is available to the candidate He is able to express

himself without overtly having to search words

 Flexibility: Is able to take the initiative in a conversation and to adapt to new topics

or changes of direction – though neither of these may be consistently manifested

 Size: Most contributions may be short, but some evidence of ability to produce

more complex utterances and to develop these into discourse should be manifested

1.4 Review of Previous Studies

Research on the beliefs about language learning since Horwitz‟s pioneering study

in 1985 has shown that some of these beliefs held by learners have damaging effects on their learning Empirical evidence has been found in support of the assumptions about the effects of beliefs about language learning on language learning success discussed earlier Low proficient and high proficient second and foreign language learners were found to possess different beliefs about language learning in some aspects To begin with, in her study of American college students studying Japanese, Mori (1999) found significant correlations between three beliefs and achievement (indicated by daily quizzes, achievement exams, proficiency test, and course achievement) The findings reveal that learners who performed well in the learning of Japanese are likely to 1) consider that Japanese is not a difficult language 2) tolerate multiple, ambiguous answers and 3) believe that learning ability is not innately fixed, but can be improved

Similarly, Samimy and Lee (1997) found a relationship between some beliefs about language learning and Chinese proficiency in their study on beliefs about language learning and language performance (final grades) of American college students studying Chinese In particular, they found that students who had higher grades in Chinese were more likely to agree with the following statements in the BALLI:

1) It is best to learn Chinese in a Chinese speaking country

2) I enjoy practicing Chinese with native Chinese speakers

3) I have a special ability in learning foreign languages

4) Everyone can learn to speak a foreign language

5) I would like to have Chinese friends

6) If I learn Chinese very well, I will have better opportunities for a good job 7) I want to learn to speak Chinese very well

8) It is easier to speak than understand a foreign language

Consistently with the two foreign language learners‟ studies, Peacock (1999, 2001) found relationships between some beliefs and English proficiency in an EFL context He investigated beliefs about language learning of university EFL students (1999) and pre-service EFL teachers in Hong Kong (2001) and found significant relationships between English proficiency and beliefs about the role of grammar and vocabulary The data reveal that learners with high proficiency tended to disagree that English learning was a matter of learning vocabulary and grammar while low proficiency students tended to agree

In brief, the above mentioned studies reveal empirical evidence of relationships between some beliefs about language learning and learners‟ success in second or foreign language learning

CHAPTER 2 THE STUDY

The first section presents the research questions of the thesis The second section describes the subjects who are selected to do the research The third part presents the instruments used to collect the students‟ beliefs with description of the questionnaire and the students‟ presentations The last part of the chapter deals with the findings of the students‟ beliefs and the influence of their beliefs on their speaking performance

2.1 Research Questions:

This study was set up to answer the following questions:

1 What are the students‟ beliefs in speaking English?

2 How do their beliefs affect their speaking performance?

2.2 Subjects

The study involved in 40 English – major students of DHAV5 from Faculty of Foreign Language at Ho Chi Minh University of Industry (HUI) Of the 40 students, 5 are male and 35 are female aged from twenty to twenty - three They all have finished their second academic year and have been in the third year at university Their English proficiency was considered to be qualified as intermediate

2.3 Data Collection Instruments

(A) The Foreign Language Aptitude (item 1, 6, 10 and 20)

(B) The Difficulty of Language Learning (item 2, 16)

(C) The Nature of Language Learning (item 4, 7, 11, 14 and 17)

(D) Learning and Communication Strategies (item 3, 5, 8, 9, 12, and 13)

(E) Motivation and Expectation (item 15, 18, and19)

The subjects were asked to read statements and decide if they: (5) Strongly agree; (4) Agree; (3) Neither agree nor disagree; (2) Disagree; (1) strongly disagree Statements were followed by a 5-point Likert scale ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” The following was the sample of the questionnaire The completed questionnaire was shown in Appendix A

Questionnaire The questionnaire was adopted from the questionnaire of Horwitz (1988) about Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI)

Your answer to these statements will be highly appreciated and will be valuable help in examining students‟ beliefs in English speaking skill and suggesting some solutions to improve speaking performance to second – year students at Ho Chi Minh University of Industry (HUI) You can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of the

data Thank you very much for your help!

I Student’s personal information:

2 Age: ………

II Beliefs in Speaking English:

Students are asked to read each statement and indicate by (√)

(1) Strongly disagree

5 4 3 2 1

1 Some people are born with a special ability which helps them learn a foreign language

3 It is important to speak a foreign language with an excellent accent

2.3.2 Observation and Note Taking

Observation and note taking were also applied in this study Students were asked to talk about a topic titled “Advantages and Disadvantages of Mobile Phone” Their presentations were taken notes for further assessment based on the criteria set of RSA (Authur Hughes, 1989)

2.4 Data collection procedure

2.4.1 Questionnaire

The survey extracted from BALLI (Horwitz, 1988) was distributed to 98 subjects

of DHAV5 (including DHAV5A, DHAV5B, and DHAV5C) at the beginning of the classes and with the author‟s attendance so that their needs for clarification of some words

as self-conscious or ultimately or accent could be met It was carried in the mid of

September, 2011 as the student began their first semester of third-year university All the data were collected at DHAV5 right after the students spent five minutes completing at classes

However, due to some excuses of the students‟ lateness and absence and carelessness in answering all items of the questionnaire, only forty completed responses were collected Therefore, the data of the students‟ beliefs were analyzed on only these forty questionnaires

2.4.2 Observation

Observation was administrated to ten students (two excellent students, three average and five good students) were asked to raise their opinions about “Advantages and Disadvantages of Mobile Phone The presentations were implemented on only ten students since the time was partly not allowed to do with all forty students The students partly did not seem cooperated with the author

Ten students were gathered in a group after their class and asked to take turn to raise their voice about the topic while the author was observing and taking notes The presentations were taken down to assess based on criteria of fluency, accuracy, range and size and re-typed for evidences in this paper (Appendix E)

2.4.3 Records of Learning Results

The study results of speaking for the second semester of forty students who filled in the questionnaire were collected from their teacher of speaking in order to assess how their beliefs impact on their speaking performance as shown in their study results

2.5 Data Analysis and Discussions

The data analysis will be presented in two sections Section 2.5.1 discusses the findings of the students‟ beliefs in speaking skill to answer the first research question

“what are the students‟ beliefs in speaking English?” Results of students‟ beliefs will be presented in terms of the five themes mentioned earlier and will be presented in the following order: (A) Foreign Language Aptitude; (B) The Difficulty of Language Learning: (C) The Nature of Language Learning; (D) Learning and Communication Strategies; (E) Motivation and Expectation Section 2.5.2 discusses the relationship of the students‟ beliefs and their speaking performances

2.5.1 The Students’ Beliefs in Speaking Skill

The following table summarizes the results of all questionnaire items

Table 1 Descriptive Statistics of Inventory Questionnaire

Themes Statements 5 4 3 2 1 Mean

5= strongly agree; 4= agree; 3= neither agree nor disagree; 2= disagree; 1= strongly disagree (For more details see Appendix C)

As can be seen in the above table, the students scored the theme of Motivation and

Expectation to learning speaking skill with the highest mean score 4.38 This revealed that

the students of DHAV5 have very high motivation and expectation The beliefs about The

Nature of Language Learning were considered as the second important factor to contribute

to the speaking proficiency as mean scored at 3.77 In addition, the students also believed

that Learning and Communicative Strategies partly helped them to gain a good performance Furthermore, the students did not believe in The Difficulty of Language

Learning in their learning process compared to other categories since the mean was at

neutral of 3.34 Besides, table 1 revealed that the students strongly agree with item 18 as

27 out of 40 chose scale 5 and strongly disagree with item 5 as 14 of them answered disagreement

The detailed results according to five themes of the BALLI are presented as below:

(A) Foreign Language Learning

The first category of BALLI (Horwitz, 1988) deals with the aptitude of students‟

foreign language The four statements of beliefs about Foreign Language Aptitude address

the issues of individual potential for achievement in language learning of the students Table 2 showed the highest mean of item 20 was 4.2 In this statement, the findings revealed that 35 out of 40 students occupied 87.5% agreed with it The statement 1 was the second highest mean This meant that the students also thought that special ability in

language helped students learn a language better when a high number of 35 students occupied 87.5% indicated scale 5 and 4 of strongly agreement and agreement However, the students did not think that they have English language aptitude (Item 10) which might constrain their ability in language performance since the mean was shown at the lowest at 2.5 compared to other statements Seventeen students, accounting for 42.5%, kept their neutral opinions Moreover, they did not approve that someone who learnt a foreign language will study another one easily (item 6) as half of the students neither agreed nor disagreed

Table 2 Descriptive Statistics of Theme A

1 Some people are born with a special ability which

helps them learn a foreign language better

15 20 2 3 0 4.1

6 It is easier for someone who already speaks a foreign

language to learn another one

0 6 20 14 0 2.8

10 I have a foreign language aptitude 0 5 17 11 7 2.5

20 Everyone can learn to speak a foreign language 15 20 3 2 0 4.2 5= strongly agree; 4= agree; 3= neither agree nor disagree; 2= disagree; 1= strongly disagree All statements of category A deal with beliefs concerning the positive beliefs of good language learners The students had beliefs in learning ability of people

(B) The Difficulty of Language Learning

The second theme of BALLI (Horwitz, 1988) concerns the specific difficulty of the students‟ particular target language Item 16 assesses the relative difficulty of different English skills, and item 2 surveys students expectation for learning success The findings

in table 3 presented the neutral opinions about this belief category for the means are 3.32 and 3.35 respectively Nearly half of the students (37.5%) stated their neutral idea in these items However, there were another 18 students, accounting for 45%, agreed with item 2 This also showed that the students were confident of successfully learning this language Another 13 students occupied 32.5% thought that speaking is easier than understanding a foreign language In brief, the statistics of this theme did not show any evidences of students‟ beliefs about speaking skill here

Table 3 Descriptive Statistics of Theme B

2 I believe that I will ultimately learn to speak this

16 It is easier to speak than understand a foreign language

4 13 15 8 0 3.32

5= strongly agree; 4= agree; 3= neither agree nor disagree; 2= disagree; 1= strongly disagree

(C) The Nature of Language Learning

The third category of The Nature of Language Learning includes issues related to

English learning which influence on students‟ speaking skill Item 4 and item 7 concern the role of cultural contact and language immersion in language achievement Item 11, 14 and

17 assesses the students‟ conception of the focus of the language learning task The students highly valued the role of cultural role and language immersion when they showed their strongest beliefs in studying a foreign language in the foreign country with the highest mean of 4.4 and in necessarily knowing the foreign culture to speak the foreign language (4.2) In statement 4, almost students 38 out of 40 occupied 95% showed their strong agreement and agreement Most of 36 students agreed with the item 7

In contrast, the students disagreed with learning a language by translating (item 17) since the mean score was below 3 Nearly half of students, accounting for 37.5%, answered scale of 2

Table 4 Descriptive Statistics of Theme C

4 It is necessary to know the foreign culture in order

to speak the foreign language

13 25 0 1 1 4.2

7 It is better to learn a foreign language in the foreign

country

26 10 1 3 0 4.4

11 Learning a foreign language mostly a matter of

learning many new vocabulary words 1 21 10 8 0 3.3

14 Learning a foreign language is mostly a matter of

learning a many of grammar rules

10 19 8 3 0 3.9

17 Learning a foreign language is mostly a matter of

translating from English

2 7 16 15 0 2.9 5= strongly agree; 4= agree; 3= neither agree nor disagree; 2= disagree; 1= strongly disagree