Strategies for increasing students' participation in oral activities, Hanoi = Những chiến lược tăng cường sự tham gia của học sinh trong các giờ học kỹ năng nói

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Lists of Figures Figure 1: Degrees of students' participation in oral activities Figure 2: Current methods applied to teaching speaking Figure 3: students' ex

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

NGUYỄN THÙY DƯƠNG

STRATEGIES FOR INCREASING STUDENTS’

PARTICIPATION IN ORAL ACTIVITIES: A CASE OF

DONG DO HIGH SCHOOL, HA NOI

(Những chiến lược tăng cường sự tham gia của học sinh trong các giờ học kỹ năng nói: trường hợp Trường THPT Đông Đô, Hà Nội)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Methodology Code: 601410

Hanoi – 2010

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

NGUYỄN THÙY DƯƠNG

STRATEGIES FOR INCREASING STUDENTS’

PARTICIPATION IN ORAL ACTIVITIES: A CASE OF

DONG DO HIGH SCHOOL, HA NOI

(Những chiến lược tăng cường sự tham gia của học sinh trong các giờ học kỹ năng nói: trường hợp Trường THPT Đông Đô, Hà Nội)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Methodology

Code: 601410

Supervisor: NGUYỄN THỊ VƯỢNG , M.A

Hanoi – 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of abbreviations iv

List of tables and figures v

Table of content vi

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research question 2

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Significance of the study 3

6 Methods of the study 3

7 Design of the study 3

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT 5

Chapter I - LITERATURE REVIEW 5

I.1 Teaching Strategies 5

I.1.1 Definition of strategy 5

I.1.2 What is teaching strategy 5

I.2 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 6

I.2.1 Definition of CLT 6

I.2.2 Communicative activities 6

I.3 Nature of speaking skill and principles of teaching speaking 7

I.3.1 Nature of speaking skill 7

I.3.1.1 Definition of speaking 8

I.3.1.2 Characteristics of speaking 8

I.3.2 Principles of teaching speaking 9

I.3.2.1 Beginning level 9

I.3.2.2.Intermediate level………10

I.3.2.3 Advanced level 10

I.3.3 Teacher’s roles in teaching speaking……….11

I.4 Students’ participation in oral activities……… .12

I.4.1 Concept of students’ participation……….12

I.4.2 Factors affecting students’ participation in oral activities……….13

I.4.2.1 Students’ style………13

I.4.2.2 Students’ motivation……… 14

I.4.2.3 Teacher’s teaching techniques and methods……… 14

I.4.2.4 Teacher’s personal qualities……… 15

Chapter II – THE STUDY……….16

II.1 Current situation of teaching and learning speaking at DDHS……….16

II.2 Methodology……… 17

II.3 The subjects of the study……… 17

II.4 Data collection instruments……… 17

II.5 Data collection procedures……… 17

Chapter III - STATISTICS AND ANALYSIS OF DATA……….18

III.1 Statistical results of questionnaires for students………18

III.1.1 Students’ attitude towards speaking skill………18

III.1.2 Students degree of participation in classroom speaking activities………… 19

III.1.3 Reasons that make students hesitant to participate in oral activities……… 20

III.1.4 Current methods applied to teach speaking……….21

III.1.5 Students’ desires……… 21

III.2 Statistical results of questionnaires for teachers………23

III.2.1.Teachers’ view of CLT……….23

III.2.2 Teachers’ attitude towards unwilling speakers and mistake makers…………24

III.2.3 Difficulties that teachers have confronted in teaching speaking……… 26

III.2.4 Techniques and activities applied in teaching English speaking……….26

III.3 Classroom Observations……… 27

Chapter IV - FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ……….29

IV.1 Findings……… 29

IV.1.1 Levels of students’ participation in speaking lessons………29

IV.1.2 Learners’ reasons affecting participation in oral activities……….30

IV.1.2.1 Poor background knowledge……… 30

IV.1.2.2 Lack of confidence……….30

IV.1.2.3 Lack of motivation……….30

IV.1.2.4 Passive learning style……….31

IV.1.3 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking in speaking ……….31

IV.1.4 Current methods……… 32

IV.2 Recommendations for teachers to improve students’ talking time………… 33

IV.2.1 Recommendation for the learners………33

IV.2.2 Recommendation for the teachers………34

IV.2.2.1 Suggested teaching speaking strategies……… 34

IV.2.2.2 Suggested activities to increase students’ participation in oral activities……… 36

- Pair work………36

- Group work………36

- Role play………37

- Games……….38

PART THREE: CONCLUSION……… 39

III.1 Conclusion………39

III.2 Limitations and suggestions for further study……… 40

REFERENCES……… 41 APPENDIX 1……….I APPENDIX 2 ……… V APPENDIX 3 VIII

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT refers to Communicative Language Teaching

DDHS refers to Dong Do High School

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Lists of Figures

Figure 1: Degrees of students' participation in oral activities

Figure 2: Current methods applied to teaching speaking

Figure 3: students' expectant activities from teachers

Figure 4: Teaching methods currently used in teaching speaking

Figure 5: Difficulties that teacher have encountered when teaching speaking

List of Tables

Table1: Students’ attitude towards speaking skill

Table 2: Factors that make students hesitant to participate in oral activities

Table 3: Students’ desires for speaking activities

Table 4: Teachers’ opinion of CLT

Table 5: Teacher’s attitude towards unwilling speakers and mistake makers

Table 6: Techniques to make students more interested in speaking lessons

Table 7: Activities to motivate students to participate more in oral activities

Table 8: Time on-task, off-task for students in speaking activities

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

I Rationale

Undeniably, English is a global language crossing many international boundaries In fact, the English language is so popular; it is spoken in more than a hundred countries and has more than a million words English is considered as the medium of communication in the fields of science, technology, diplomacy, and business, and so on English has an inherent simplicity and flexibility allowing it to be learnt quickly, cementing English as a global language

Since 1971, the teaching and learning of English has become of a great concern in Vietnam It is because that English is also seen as a means to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between Vietnam and other countries As a result, there are more and more people desiring to know and master English with the hope of keeping up to date with the latest development in technology in the world Therefore, English in Vietnam has become part of the general education It is a compulsory subject not only in tertiary

institutions but also in most secondary schools

In learning English at high schools, English speaking skill is one of the four skills that students must be taught as separately and equally as the others However, due to some differently objective and subjective reasons, teaching and learning of this skill is often integrated with other skills such as listening skill, or is even neglected It leads to the cause that students do not often enjoy speaking period as well as find it difficult to participate in speaking activities

Furthermore, there are a lot of elements of speaking affecting the ability to speak fluently such as language features (connected speech, expressive device, lexis and grammar, negotiation language) and the ability to process information and language “on the spot” such as language processing, interacting with others…However, in a period of 45minutes,

it seems to be impossible for both teachers and students to control them Therefore, if teaching and learning oral communication skill takes place within 45 minutes every week and only in classroom settings, its effect is limited

In terms of my experiences of teaching English and teaching speaking skill at Dong Do high school (DDHS) I found that most of my students are unwilling to participate in oral

activities Most of them only passively sit and take notes, rarely contribute the lesson and even do not ask for the teacher‟s help when they have any problems Reasons or this are various including large classes, psycho logical or cultural differences, teaching methods, teacher‟s knowledge, student‟s lack of idea or language devices, such as grammatical structures or vocabulary, etc Whatever reasons they may be, it is the first target of the teachers to help their learners get out of the always silent moment in class, and thereby, improve their speaking skills

For such reasons I choose “Strategies for Increasing Students' Participation in Oral

Activities: A case of Dong Do High School, Hanoi” as a theme for my thesis

II Aims of the study

This research is designed to break a new ground in looking for new strategies to enhance the participation of the students at DDHS in speaking activities

In order to obtain this aim, some purposes are as follows:

- To investigate theories concerning teaching and learning English as a foreign language

in general and English oral communication skill in particular

- To review some real situations about teaching and learning English and English speaking skill at DDHS

- To search for some factors that affect the students‟ participation in oral activities at DDHS

- To suggest some realistic and appropriate class teaching strategies with the hope they can maximize their learner‟s involvement in oral activities

III Research questions

To reach the aims of the study, the three research question addressed:

1.What is the reality of teaching and learning English speaking skill at DDHS?

2 What are reasons for students‟ hesitation of taking part in speaking activities at Dong

Do high school?

3 What should teachers do to increase students‟ participation in oral activities at Dong Do high school?

IV Scope of the study

A study on the ways to enhance the involvement of all students in learning oral skill is quite broad, therefore the author would like to pay much attention to a brief of current situation of teaching and learning speaking at DDHS and to identify the reasons why the students are not ready to speak and suggest some possible strategies to increase them to speak more This is also the limitation of the thesis

V Significance of the study

In the past time, the students learned English with the main focus on grammatical issues;

however, four English skills in general and English speaking skill in particular are concentrated as much as grammar Despite that, most of the teachers at high schools do not realize the importance of oral communication skill in the full development of the four English skills In the textbook, English speaking skill is designed separately, and each oral skill lesson is taught within 45 minutes every week However, practicing English activities does not still end after speaking lessons It is because that both reading lessons and listening ones often contain some post-reading and post-listening activities relating to speaking skill Therefore, the enhancement of students‟ contribution in English oral activities is very important There is much hope that this would be useful and practical for both the teachers and learners of English

VI Methods of the study

To obtain the aims of the study both quantitative and qualitative methods are used

The data serving the research analysis and discussion were collected by means of:

+ Questionnaires for students

+ Questionnaires for teachers

+ Classroom observation

VII Design of the study

This minor thesis is divided into three main parts

Part one, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale, the aims, scope, significance, methods,

design of the study The research questions are also mentioned in this part

Part two, DEVELOPMENT, consists of three following chapters:

 Chapter one, Literature Review, presents various concepts most relevant to the research

topic such as definition of strategies, teaching strategies; concepts of communicative language teaching (CLT); nature of speaking skill and principles of teaching speaking Furthermore, the following are also included in this chapter: definition of students‟ participation, and" factors affecting students‟ participation as well

 Chapter two, namely “The Study” describes the overall picture of the research was

carried out from the first step of determining the research design to the last step of gathering the results Moreover, presentation of statistical results are describes in this chapter

 Chapter three, “Statistics and Analysis of data” analyses the collected data to answer

the three research questions

 Chapter four, namely “Findings and Recommendations” presents the findings with conclusion and comment after the experiment was finished and suggests what teachers of

English at DDHS should do to enlarge the students‟ participation in speaking activities

 Part three, CONCLUSION, addresses the key issues in the study, summaries some shortcomings revealed during the process of the completing this study

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter consists of four sections Section one concerns the issue of teaching strategies which includes the definition of strategy and teaching strategy Section two deals with the issues of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Next, section three focuses on nature

of speaking and principles of teaching speaking which covers many matters such as the definition of speaking, characteristics of speaking, principles of teaching speaking for all levels as well as teachers‟ roles of teaching speaking The last section, section four presents some concepts related to students‟ participation and some factors affecting students‟ participation in oral activities

I.1 Teaching strategies

I.1.1 Definition of strategy

To understand teaching strategies, let me begin with the definition of strategy According

to Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman (1995:1244), strategy means a “well planned series of action for achieving an aim” Another definition of strategy is that

“Strategy are specific methods of approaching a problem or task, modes of operation for achieving a particular end, planned designs for controlling and manipulating certain information” (Brown, 1994) Sharing this point of view, in terms of language teaching, Chamot (2005, p.112) defines strategy as “procedures that facilitate a learning task…Strategies are most often conscious and goal driven”

I.1.2 What is teaching strategy?

Basing on the definitions of strategy discussed above, we can view teaching strategies as a well-prepared plan or a conscious plan that consists of various selected skills, techniques, approaches which teachers take in order to facilitate their teaching in the classroom Also, teaching strategies may be ways of presenting instructional materials or conducting instructional activities Because of this reason, we can assume that an appropriate teaching strategy play an important role in improving learning as well as in encouraging students to activate their own learning style (Dunn & Griggs, 1990)

I.2 Communicative language teaching (CLT)

According Mackey (1965) most teaching methods still exist both advantages and disadvantages, and it is difficult to say which method is the most appropriate without considering the background in which it is applied Because of the limitation in my thesis, I only spotlight on CLT which is considered as one of the most effective method to teach speaking skill in second language

I.2.1 Definition of CLT

Perhaps the majority of language teachers today, when asked to identify the methodology They employ in the classroom, identify “communicative” as the methodology of choice However, when pressed to give a detailed account of what they mean by “communicative”, explanations vary widely Does communicative language teaching (or CLT) mean teaching conversations, an absence of grammar in a course, or an emphasis on open-ended discussion activities as the main features of a course?

There are many definitions of CLT by different methodologists According Richards (1998) CLT can be understood as a set of principles about the goal of language teaching, how learners learn language, the kind of classroom activities that best facilitate learning, and the roles of teachers and learners in the classroom

Also, Nunan (1989; 194) defines CLT as “a system for the expression of meaning Activities involve oral communication, carry out meaning tasks and using language, which

is meaningful to the learners…… The learner‟s role is as a negotiator and integrator The teachers‟ role is a facilitator of the communication process

I.2.2 Communicative activities

CLT is usually characterized as a broad approach to teaching, rather than as teaching

method with a clearly defined set of classroom practices As such, it is most often defined

as a list of general principles of features that Nunan (1991) remarked:

- An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language

- The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation

- The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on the Learning Management process

- An enhancement of the learner‟s own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning

- An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activities outside the classroom

These five features are claimed by practitioners of CLT to show that they are very interested in the needs and desires of their learners as well as the connection between the language as it is taught in their class and as it is used outside the classroom Under this broad umbrella definition, any teaching practice that helps students develop their communicative competence in an authentic context is deemed an acceptable and beneficial form of instruction Thus, in the classroom CLT often takes the form of pair and group work requiring negotiation and cooperation between learners, fluency-based activities that encourage learners to develop their confidence, role-plays in which students practice and develop language functions, as well as judicious use of grammar and pronunciation focused activities

I.3 Nature of speaking skill and principles in teaching speaking

I.3.1 Nature of speaking skill

It is known that language skills consist of four macro inter-related skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing In those four skills, listening and reading relate together in the aspect of receptive skill, whereas speaking and writing are considered to be productive skills (Byrne, 1991)

However, Byrne (1991: 8) also proves that the nature of oral communication is “a two way process between speaker and listener From a communicative, pragmatic view of the language classroom, listening and speaking skill are closely intertwined because “speaking always necessitates at least two participants: speaker(s) and listener(s) When the speaker starts message, the listener decodes, and responds to the message in turns Hence, that is why teaching listening is always associated with teaching speaking

Of the four skills, speaking plays an important role as it is the first step to identify who knows or does not know a language In order to find the strategies to get better at speaking skill, we must be aware of what speaking is and how it characterizes?

I.3.1.1 Definition of speaking

Speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode It, like the other skills, is more complicated than it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing words Bygate

defines “Oral expression involves not only the use of right sounds in the patterns of rhythm

and intonation, but also the choice of words and inflections in the right to convey the right meaning” (cited in Mackey, 1965:266)

Speaking consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning According to Brown and Yule (1983), spoken language consists of short, fragmentary utterances in a range of pronunciation Therefore, speaking is “an inter-active process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and process information (Florez, 1999 as cited in Bailey, Kathleen M, (2005) It is “often spontaneous, open-ended,

and evolving” but it is not completely unpredictable

Furthermore, speaking is known with two main types of conversation called dialogue and monologue Brown ad Yule (1983) indicates there is a difference between them In monologue, you give uninterrupted oral presentation while in dialogue you interact with one or more other speakers for transactional and international purposes

I.3.1.2 Characteristics of speaking

Bygate (1987) suggests that conversation can be analyzed in terms of routines which are

“conventional ways of presenting information because they are conventional, they are

predictable and help ensure clarity There are two main kinds of routines: information

routines and interaction routines

With regards to information routines, we mean frequently recurring types of information

structures, including stories; descriptions of places and people; presentation of facts, comparison, and instruction Broadly speaking, information routines can be defined as

“expository and evaluative” Expository routines involve factual information hinging on questions of sequencing or identity of the subject Brown and Yule (1983) suggest that the principal types of expository routines are narration, description, and instruction Meanwhile, evaluative routines involve the drawing of conclusion, usually requiring the expression of reasoning

Concerning interaction routines, they are routines based not so much on sequences of kinds

of terms occurring in typical kinds of interactions Thus, these routines can be characterized

in broad terms including the kinds of turns typically occurring in given situations and the order in which the components are likely to occur So telephone conversations, interview conversations, casual encounters, conversations at parties, conversations around a table at a dinner party, lessons, radio or television interviews, all tend to be organized in characteristic

a way (Bygate, 1987)

The learners can be much more confident in speaking with clear understanding and governing these skills Moreover, the oral skill depends much on knowledge of language they can learn such as grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary parallel with language environment To be better at teaching speaking, teachers need understand and exploit the principles of teaching speaking fluently This is the topic to be considered next

I.3.2 Principles of teaching speaking

The single most important reason for teaching speaking is to develop oral fluency, that is,

the ability to express oneself intelligibly, reasonably accurately and without undue hesitation Byrne (1976) argues that to meet this objective learners will have to be brought from the stage where they merely imitate a model or respond to cues to the point where they can use the language to express their own ideas and feelings (processes that must to a large extent be in simultaneous operation) For oral fluency to be attained, learners will need complementary levels of training in which teachers also need to have certain principles of teaching speaking According to Bailey, Kathleen M (2005), those principles

are divided into three groups: Beginning levels, Intermediate levels, and Advanced levels

I.3.2.1 Beginning levels

This is the first step for the learners who start getting to know a foreign language Many factors will influence their goal of development of language skills Therefore, the teacher should try to understand and analyze the learners‟ psychology as well as their characteristics In teaching process the teacher should follow the principles:

- Provide something for learners to talk about: This doesn‟t mean that only teachers can nominate topics Teachers should be open to those topics that learners want to talk about, and incorporate them into lessons whenever possible But it does mean that teachers should

go into their speaking lessons prepared with interesting topics or ideas to stimulate conversations and discussions

- Create opportunities for students to interact by using groupwork or pairwork: Sometime students – perhaps especially those at the lower levels – can be anxious about speaking in class Bailey, Kathleen M (2005) assumes that one way to overcome their reticence and increase their opportunities to speak is to use pairwork and groupwork According to Pennington (1995), using pairwork and groupwork can improve learners‟ motivation and promote choice, independence, creativity, and realism Pairwork and groupwork also provide feedback to the learner from sources other than the teacher

- Manipulate physical arrangements to promote speaking practice: It can be difficult to get students to talk with one another in a new language but that difficulty is often exacerbated

by the traditional classroom arrangement of desks facing forward toward the teacher‟s zone Changing physical environment can encourage speaking activities, partly because it partially alters the power structure of the traditional English classroom

I.3.2.2 Intermediate levels

For the Intermediate levels, the teacher could feel more comfortable and confident in teaching However, the teacher also tries to remember the followings:

Firstly, the teacher should focus on and work toward real, spontaneous speech to avoid form-based drills (repetitious or grammar-based exercises) Secondly, the teacher tries to design activities, which encourage natural interaction between speakers because human speech most often involves interaction, and interaction integrates speaking and listening Lastly, like principles for beginning learners, the teacher should place them in pairs, triads

or small groups in order to create an exciting speaking environment

I.3.2.3 Advanced levels

For the advanced learners, especially in free production, the teacher allows only speech in the target language

- This greatly increases the amount of English spoken

- Having a clear guideline reduces the temptation of learners to hide in their native language

- The learners may dislike this but should be discouraged from using their own

language without the teacher‟s permission

I.3.3 Teacher’s roles in teaching speaking

As with any type of classroom procedure, teachers need to play a number of different roles during the speaking activities However, all the roles have the same purpose is “to create the best conditions for learning In a sense, then, teachers are a means to an end: an instrument to see that learning take place” (Byrne, 1991)

Teachers also have specific roles to play at different stages of the learning process Byrne (1991: 2) points out three different teachers‟ roles at the three stages: presentation, practice, production; that is an informant, a conductor or a monitor, and a manager respectively

Besides, as for Harmer (2001) teachers of English speaking play other roles if they are trying to get students to speak fluently:

 Organizer: Organizing students to do various activities in one of the most important

roles of a teacher He/She needs to provide students with information, tell them how to carry out the activities they are given put them in groups and finally end the activities If he/she does not carry out this role in a sensitive way, students will not know what and how to do, and even chaos may happen On the other hand, if the teacher carries out the

role well, it will help encourage students‟ participation in classroom activities

 Prompter: Students sometimes get lost, can not think of what to say next, or in some

other way lose the fluency the teacher expects of them The teacher can leave them to struggle out of such situation on their own, and indeed sometimes this may be the best

option

 Participant: Harmer suggests that teachers should be good animators when asking

students to produce language Sometimes this can be achieved by setting up an activity clearly and with enthusiasm At other times, however, teachers may want to participate in discussion or role-plays themselves That way they can prompt covertly, introduce new information to help the activity along, ensure continuing student engagement, and

generally maintain a creative atmosphere

 Resource: During the proceedings students may ask the teacher the meaning of the

word or phrase, the information about the topic they are given When the teacher responds to their questions, he acts as a resource The teacher should bear in mind that he

should not spoon-feed the students otherwise they will be over-reliant on the teacher

 Feedback provider: When students are in the middle of a speaking activity,

over-correction may inhibit them and take the communicativeness out of the activity On the other hand, helpful and gentle correction may get student out of difficult

misunderstanding and hesitations

 Assessor: After performing one kind of activity, students expect their teacher to give

his comments on how they perform their work It can be an important factor encouraging their participation in classroom activities if the teacher knows how to assess their work

As for this issue, Harmer emphasizes teacher‟s sensitivity and fairness during his assessment The teacher should tell the students at what degree they have come up to our expectation and point out their mistakes so that they can avoid in the next time However,

he should not criticize too much on their mistakes as it can demotivate them from

participating in classroom activities

It is clear that teachers‟ roles in teaching speaking have a great effect on students‟ participation in oral activities However, it is not only factors affecting the involvement of students The next part will describe other factors as well as clarify concepts of students‟

participation in classroom activities

I.4 Students’ participation in oral activities

I.4.1.Concept of students’ participation

Students‟ participation can be understood as students‟ involvement in classroom activities and in this case, oral activities In teachers‟ opinion, students‟ participation can be divided into two kinds of interaction, namely, students to their teacher; students to students Concerning the interaction between students to their teacher, students who are considered

to maintain a good interaction with their teacher always take part in the class discussion as well as contact the teacher by coming to see him/her outside the classroom They become involved in what is happening in the classroom by asking information or explanation, sharing personal experience in relationship to the topics, or volunteering to perform an activity Therefore, participation takes place not only inside the classroom but also outside the classroom However, the interaction between students themselves is different from the first kind of interaction It is built when students are working in small groups When working in groups, students‟ participation can be measured by student‟s sense of responsibility and cooperation

I.4.2 Factors affecting students’ participation in oral activities

Students‟ participation in classroom oral activities can be affected by a variety of factors

In the following sections, some of the major factors will be discussed

I.4.2.1 Students’ learning styles

Learning style, as Nunan (1991) defines, refer to “any individual‟s preferred ways of going about learning, It is generally considered that one‟s learning style will result from personality variables, including psychological and cognitive make up, socio-cultural background, and educational experience” For Willing (1988), an individual perception of his/her own strength and weaknesses will also have an effect He also suggests that some aspects of an individual‟s learning style may be alterable while others may not

Learners may have their own learning styles which help classify them into certain learner groups Willing (1988; cited in Nunan: 1991) categorizes learners into the following groups based on their preferences:

 Concrete learners: These learners tend to like games, pictures, films, video, using

cassettes, talking in pairs and practicing English outside class

 Analytical learners: These learners like studying grammar, studying English books and

reading newspapers, studying alone, finding their own mistakes and working on problems set by the teacher

 Communicative learners: These students like to learn by watching, listening to native

speakers, talking to friends in English and watching television in English, using English out of class, in shops, trains, etc., learning new words by hearing them, and learning by conversation

 Authority-oriented learners: These learners prefer the teacher to explain everything,

like to have their own textbook, to write everything in a notebook, to study grammar, learn

by reading, and learn new words by seeing them

As can be seen from Willing‟s classification, if the majority in one class belong to the two former groups, the degree of participation in oral activities in this class will be low Harmer (2001) suggests that we should balance the interests between individuals and groups, pay attention to individual traits when putting them into groups

I.4.2.2 Students’ motivation

Motivation is seen as “a key consideration in determining the preparedness of learners to

communicate, (Gardner, 1985: 10) while Harmer (2001) defines motivation simply as

“some kind of internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve

something” According to Carol (1962), motivation decides the amount of time a learner

will spend on the task of language learning She claims: “The more motivation a learner

has, the more time he or she will spend on learning an aspect of a second language”

(Carol, 1962)

Motivation not only plays an important role in learning, it helps the teacher as well Lite

(2002) confirms that “Motivation is the backbone of any classroom When the students are

motivated, the teacher can perform his/her job the best.”

Teachers are often familiar with two basic types of motivation: extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation Harmer (2001) states that extrinsic motivation is caused by such outside factors as the need to pass an exam, the hope of possibility for future travel, etc In contrast, intrinsic motivation is caused by inside factors like the enjoyment of the learning process itself or by a desire to make themselves feel better

It can be concluded that motivation is significant in foreign language learning because when learners set the goal of learning a foreign language, motivation helps them produce effort and have a positive attitude to obtain the goal Therefore, in order to be successful, language learners really need motivation to continue their learning

I.4.2.3 Teacher’s teaching techniques and methods

For each teacher, the good choice of teaching methods as well as techniques is very

important to increase students‟ participation in every lesson When deciding what teaching

method to use, a teacher needs to consider students' background knowledge, environment,

learning goals, learning time and material resources We also know that different teachers exploit different methods and techniques in their teaching As a result, different degrees of student‟s participation are created by different teachers Teacher-centered methods such as the Grammar-translation method or the Direct method always cause teachers to choose the techniques which mostly limit students‟ participation and put them in the passive settings

On the contrary, learner-centered methods like CLT bring the teacher various techniques that motivate students in participating in the lesson since they are the main characters of all

activities The examples of these techniques can be named as pair-work, group-work, role play, or games

I.4.2.4 Teacher personal qualities

Teachers are important and make a difference The quality of teaching is a crucial factor

in promoting effective learning in schools Effective teaching requires individuals who are academically able and who care about the well-being of students

Some people may think that it is quite hard to specify the qualities of good English teachers If we look around, we can see that the teachers loved by the students are of rather different personalities Some are very charismatic, lively, and easy-going Others are quiet, slightly introvert and not very sociable Parker Palmer (1999) also observes that good teaching isn‟t about technique either He has asked students around his country to describe their good teachers to him Some of the students describe people who lecture all the time, some of them describe people who do little other than facilitate group process, and others describe everything in between However, he does notice that despite the different teaching methods employed by different good teachers, these teachers do share some characteristics

Palmer summarizes that good teachers are “people who have some sort of connective

capacity, who connect themselves to their students, their students to each other, and everyone to the subject being studied” The interpretation of this is that good teachers let

the students know that they care for the students They help the students communicate with each other among themselves so that they find themselves in a nice learning environment They also motivate the students to learn the subject they‟re teaching

We may not think that Palmer‟s list of qualities of good teachers is exhaustive, but it does show that the relationship between teachers and students has a great value in making his class an interesting place where students can enjoy learning In other words, the teacher‟s personal qualities may have a remarkable effect on his/her students‟ participation

CHAPTER TWO: THE STUDY

This chapter gives an absolute description of how the research was carried out, including some steps as follows:

II.1 Current situation of teaching and learning English speaking skill at DDHS

Dong Do High School is situated at 8 Vong Thi, Lac Long Quan Street, Tay Ho district, Hanoi city - the suburb of Hanoi Like other private schools in Hanoi, Dong Do School have three levels of educating and training which are primary school, lower secondary school, and upper secondary school However, the majority of students of this school are students at high school which consists of 6 classes at grade 10, 7 classes at grade 11, and 7 classes at grade12 In addition, each class consists of over 35 students English is the only foreign language taught and learnt at the school

The students at DDHS are mostly aged from 15 to 18 years old, and they finished lower secondary school in the suburb of Hanoi capital Moreover, a large number of students at DDHS are the students who can not enter public schools which demand higher grades Therefore, their English proficiency is not good

The total number of English teachers at DDHS is 9, 6 out of whom were trained at Hanoi Foreign language Teacher Training University; two teacher graduated from Hanoi Foreign Language University; and one graduated from the department of English - Hanoi University of Education Most teachers of English at this school are from 27 to 40 years old, and have at least 5 years of teaching English at school However, the teaching method, which is mainly applied at this school, is Grammar-Translation method - a very traditional method Other methods are seldom exploited

The main English textbook used in teaching English at this school are Tieng Anh 10,

Tieng Anh 11, and Tieng Anh 12 (basic stream) The staff of this school is also aware

of the importance of English, so there are from 6 to 8 periods of English in each week

It means that teachers of English have so much time to let their students practice and

revise Speaking skill is one of the five parts designed in each unit: (reading, speaking,

listening, writing, and language focus); hence, it is often taught and learned within one

period - 45 minutes The other periods are spent on teaching and learning other skills, pronunciation and grammatical issues

II.2 Methodology

To conduct the research, two methods were applied: qualitative method and quantitative method

All considerations, comments, assumptions, suggestions and conclusions provided in the study are based on the analysis of the statistic data collected from Questionnaires Survey and Observation

II.3 The subjects of the study

There are two groups of subjects in the study

- The first group contains 100 students chosen randomly from over 200 students at the eleventh grade at DDHS They are the subjects for the first questionnaire All of them have learned English for 4 years at lower secondary schools in the suburb area in Hanoi capital

- The second group includes 9 teachers of English: 1 male and 8 female They were selected to be the subjects of the second questionnaire to help find out what teaching methods and techniques were currently exploited in their teaching

II.4 Data collecting instrument

The instrument used in this study is two questionnaires The first survey questionnaire was used for students to clarify their English competence as well the ways of learning speaking skill The second one was used for teachers to find out what teaching methods and techniques were currently exploited in their teaching In addition, observation, at the same time will be also carried out by the researcher at DDHS to make the study more reliable

II.5 Data collection procedure

The data for such a research are collected through the procedure of analyzing and

synthesizing theoretical issues of the nature of language skills and communication Some principles in teaching speaking are also mentioned Then, two questionnaires are aimed at finding out the students‟ problems in speaking English, the reasons, as well as some activity that teacher often carry out in their teaching speaking lessons The result will be analyzed under statistic method After that, some solutions to these problems will be suggested

CHAPTER THREE: STATISTICS AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

III.1 Statistical results of questionnaires for students

The first survey questionnaire was planned for 100 students at DDHS to make sure the reliability and validity of the data collection It consists of 10 questions which are related to the five main issues presented in the following tables and charts

III.1.1 Students’ attitude towards speaking skill

Table1: Students’ attitude towards speaking skill

Table one presents the information about students‟ attitude towards speaking skill As can

be seen 79 % of the students claim that speaking skill is important to them while 16% suppose speaking skill is little important and it is not important at all for 5% Moreover, the statistics from table 1 show a surprising fact that only 24 % of all students feel interested in speaking lessons while 51% feel little interested and 25% of them respond that they do not feel interested at all

The responses to questions 3 from table 1 seem to explain suitably why a lot of students are not interested in speaking lesson It is because that nearly 77% of informants think that the topic in each speaking lesson is difficult or boring and only 13% of them regard it to be

easy The minority (10%) say it is interesting

It can be concluded that the majority of the students agree that English speaking skill is really significant However, the number of students who feel interested in speaking in class is contrary The reason for it may concern the speaking topic - they may be difficult, easy or boring The question raised here is how students get involved in speaking activities in a classroom

III.1.2 Students’ degrees of participation in classroom speaking activities

From the results shown in the chart, a conclusion can be drawn that levels of students‟ participation in oral activities are very different; the most remarkable fact is the number of students has little their involvement in speaking lessons Hence, the teachers should know what factors affecting student‟s participation

Figure 1: Degrees of students' participation in oral activities

A

15%

C 8%

D 9%

E 63%

III.1.3 Reasons that make students hesitant to participate in oral activities

Q 1

Which factors make you reluctant to speak English in speaking lessons?

B not being accustomed to speaking in front of other people 17

C boring teaching method 22

E teachers talk too much in class 13

Table 2: Factors that make students hesitant to participate in oral activities

Statistics provided in Table 2 show that 43% of students feel reluctant to speak English because the lessons are uninteresting 22% assume that boring teaching method discourages them from speaking and 17 % are not accustomed to speaking in front of other people Others (10%) feel shy and blame the learning goal (8%)

In Table 2 it can also be realized that 33% of students think that nothing to say for the given topic is one of big trouble preventing them from participating in oral activities; 35%

of them state that limited vocabulary and grammatical structures seem to be an obstacle for them to express their ideas 28% 0f them suppose that they cannot speak because they pronounce words badly, and their teachers talk too much in class Only 4% of them say that it is due to lack of time to prepare

In summary, through the data collected from Table 1 it can be easily concluded that there

is a variety of reasons that make students hesitant to participate in oral activities such as: inappropriate teaching method, poor language proficiency, prior learning experience…

III.1.4 Current methods applied to teach speaking

The statistics provided from Figure 2 is about current methods applied in teaching speaking, consist of two issues

35% of students say that their teacher often provide them with new words and structures relating to given topics after giving speaking topics, and the same number supposes that their teacher only provide with main ideas for given topics 25% think that their teachers encourage them to plan the given topics, and 5% of them said they are made to discuss the topics themselves

According to the statistics 76% revealed that their teacher stop them immediately whenever they make mistakes to correct them while only a few of learners said that their teacher wait until they finish their speech, point out their mistakes and encourage them to correct themselves These seem to be an inappropriate way of correcting mistakes which may discourage students from taking part in oral activities

III.1.5 Students’ desires

In which:

A Not interrupt you when you make mistakes B: Accept a variety of your answer

C Give you speaking tasks suitable to your ability D Encourage you with grades and gifts

teacher's mistake correction

Figure 2: Current methods applied to teaching speaking

From the result collected in Figure 3, it can be recognized that 100% of the participants want their teacher to give them speaking tasks suitable to their ability in order to maximize their involvement in speaking lessons In addition, from 90% to 95% of them desire that their teacher should accept a variety of their answers and should not interrupt them whenever they make mistakes However, only 67% of them like their teacher to motivate them in taking part in oral activities by encouraging them with grades and gifts

Other students‟ desires are presented in the tables as follows:

Q: What do you think about these activities below?

Games for speaking 33 66 1 0 0

Table 3: Students’ desires for speaking activities

It can be seen from Table 3 that 70% of informants say that they do not like working individually Instead, they are fond of working with other because 85% of them like working with their friends in pairs or in groups Also, the number of students like games for speaking is very high with 99% while only 1% do not mind at all