A STUDY ON THE INFLUENCES OF SOME FIRST CULTURAL FACTORS ON FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENT’S PARTICIPATION IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LEARNING AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* ĐỖ THỊ HẠNH A STUDY ON THE INFLUENCES OF SO

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

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

ĐỖ THỊ HẠNH

A STUDY ON THE INFLUENCES OF SOME FIRST CULTURAL FACTORS ON FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENT’S PARTICIPATION IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LEARNING AT

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ SỰ ẢNH HƯỞNG CỦA MỘT SỐ NHÂN TỐ VĂN HÓA MẸ ĐẺ LÊN VIỆC THAM GIA HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN

NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60140111

HA NOI - 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

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

ĐỖ THỊ HẠNH

A STUDY ON THE INFLUENCES OF SOME FIRST CULTURAL FACTORS ON FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENT’S PARTICIPATION IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LEARNING AT

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ SỰ ẢNH HƯỞNG CỦA MỘT SỐ NHÂN TỐ VĂN HÓA MẸ ĐẺ LÊN VIỆC THAM GIA HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN

NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Dr Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa

HA NOI - 2014

i

DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled

A study on the influences of some first cultural factors on first year non-English major students’ participation in English speaking learning at Hanoi University of Industry

is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and that it has not been previously submitted to this University or to any other institutions in application for admission to a degree, diploma or other qualifications

Signature

Đỗ Thị Hạnh Date: August 10th, 2014

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my academic supervisor Dr Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa for her conscientious guidance, helpful suggestions, invaluable critical feedback and encouragement in the writing of this study Without invaluable assistance, my study would not have been completed

I also wish to acknowledge my great gratitude to all my lecturers at University of Languages and International Studies during my MA course, to the whole staff of the Post Graduate Department as well as the organizers for this Master Course

I would like to sincerely thank 60 first year students at Hanoi University of Industry who participated in the study My appreciation is also extended to my colleagues at HaUI for their warm concern and assistance in the process of collecting the data Without their participant and support, this study could not be conducted

Last but not least, my heartfelt thanks go to my family and my friends for their love, understanding, encouragement and support to help me complete this study

Hanoi, August, 2014

Đỗ Thị Hạnh

iii

ABSTRACT

This research is implemented to investigate the first cultural factors that influence students’ participation in English speaking learning activities at Hanoi University of Industry The research’s subjects are the first year non-English major students from HaUI The results from the questionnaires and the class observations show that the factors coming from cultural factors such as the different traditional learning style, collectivism rather than individualism and the fear of losing face have been regarded as important factors affecting remarkably students’ participation in speaking lessons The findings of the research indicate that teachers should help students to be confident, not

to be shy, passive, or afraid of making mistake; improve students’ knowledge of grammar and enrich their vocabulary; build a cooperative atmosphere in class as well

as create variety of interesting and appropriate activities to increase students’ involvement in teaching speaking English Implications and suggestions for further research are made with the hope for better methods to help the teachers reduce their students’ negative effect of these factors during the process of learning speaking English

iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATION AND SYMBOLS

HaUI : Hanoi University of Industry CLT

SLA ESL EFL E.g

UK

US

: Communicative Language Teaching : Second Language Acquisition : English as a Second Language : English as a Foreign Language : Example

: United Kingdom : United State

L2 : Second Language

v

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure 1: The frequency of students’ speaking English in class

Figure 2: Students’ questioning or interrupting the teacher

Figure 3: Students’ frequency of expressing their own opinions

Table 1: Teachers’ current teaching activities to increase students’ participation Table 2: The frequency of teachers’ current teaching activities

Table 3: Students’ participation in speaking activities

Table 4: Activities motivate students to take part in speaking lessons

Table 5: Students’ comfort when speaking English

Table 6: Factors influence on students’ participation in speaking learning

Table 7: What teacher should do to help students overcome the difficulties

vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION……… i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……… ii

ABSTRACT……… iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS……… iv

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES……… vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS……… vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION……… 1

1 Rationale for the study……… 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study ……… 2

3 Scope of the study ………… ……… 3

4 Significance of the study ……… 3

5 Methods of the study….……… 3

6 Research questions of the study ………

7 Organization of the study………

3 4 PART B: DEVELOPMENT……… 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW……… 5

1 Culture……… ……… 5

1.1 Definitions of culture…….……… 5

1.2 Elements of culture……… 6

1.3 Some cultural factors in the teaching and learning of speaking skills in classrooms ………

1.4 The role of culture in language teaching and learning………

7 9 2 Speaking skills……… 10

2.1 Definitions of speaking skills……… 10

2.2 Types of classroom speaking performance………

2.3 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity………

3 Learners’ participation………

11

13

14

vii

4 Review of previous studies……… 15

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY……… 17

1 Setting of the study……… ……… 17

1.1 Brief introduction of Hanoi University of Industry …… ……… 17

1.2 Students and their background ……… 17

1.3 The course book ……… 18

2 The instruments……… 18

3 Subjects……… 19

4 Data collection procedures….………

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS ………

1 Situation of students’ participation in learning speaking in classroom lessons 1.1 Speaking activities used by teachers………

1.2 The frequency of teachers’ current teaching activities ………

1.3 Students’ participation in speaking activities ………

1.4 Activities motivate students to take part in speaking lessons ………

1.5 Students’ comfort when speaking English ………

1.6 The frequency of students’ speaking English in class ………

1.7 Students’ questioning or interrupting the teachers ………

1.8 Students’ frequency of expressing their own opinions ………

2 The influence of some first cultural factors on students’ participation while learning speaking English in the classroom ………

3 Students’ desire in order to overcome those difficulties ………

20 22 22 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS……… 35

1 Major findings and discussion ………

1.1 The situation of students’ participation in class oral activities…………

1.2 Factors influence students’ participation in speaking activities…………

35 35 35 2 Recommendations for increasing students’ participation in speaking activities……… 37

viii

2.1 Teachers should be enthusiastic, friendly, helpful and tolerant…………

2.2 Teachers need to help our students to improve their knowledge of

grammar and enrich their vocabulary ……… 2.3 Teachers should build a cooperative atmosphere in class ……… 2.4 Teachers need to create variety of interesting and appropriate activities

2.5 Students should take risks ………

1

PART A: INTRODUCTION

In this study, there are six sections After the introduction, the second section presents

a rationale based on theoretical, pedagogical and contextual grounds, which serve as a foundation for the study The third section gives the methodology of the research The focus of the study is lined in the fourth and fifth sections The final section describes

the conclusion of the study

1 Rationale

Culture plays a significant role in language teaching and learning It may decrease learners’ involvement in classrooms Being aware of cultural differences and knowing how to deal with related differences are critical for the success of teaching and learning

in general, and learning participation in particular According to Wright (2010), participation is central to second language acquisition (SLA) and therefore, language proficiency When students lack proficiency and do poorly on tests, their self-confidence and motivation in school may be impacted Students, who are actively involved, in contrast, report higher satisfaction and higher persistence rates

With the recognition of the importance of proficiency, especially proficiency of students’ speaking skills, Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) has implemented a program which lasts five semesters and focuses on teaching English extensively for communication Experiencing two-years teaching, the researcher found out that many students could write and read English well but they could not speak fluently and correctly Most of the students found speaking difficult, even uninteresting Therefore, they were quite passive in speaking English They did not actively participate in speaking activities Their low participation may be due to a variety of factors in which first cultural factors such as the different traditional learning style, collectivism rather than individualism, the fear of losing face, etc play a significant role

2

This has given the researcher the desire to conduct a research namely “The influences

of some first cultural factors on first year non-English major students’ participation in English speaking learning at HaUI” to identify the first cultural factors that influence students’ participation as well as to find out the techniques and activities to increase students’ involvement in speaking activities at HaUI I hope that this research can give

a few benefits to teachers, students and people concerned about this field

2 Aims and objectives of the Study

This study aims at finding out some first cultural factors influencing first year English major student’s participation in English speaking learning, specifically in English speaking lessons

non-The main objectives of this study are as follows:

1 To investigate the present situation of participation in English speaking learning activities of first year non-English major students at HaUI This includes what activities teachers use in speaking lessons, how often they organize those activities and how students take part in those speaking activities

2 To find out how some first cultural factors influence students’ participation in the classroom while learning English speaking, such as the traditional learning style, collectivism rather than individualism and the fear of losing face

Based on the findings, the researcher gives some suggestions for teachers to stimulate students in speaking English and overcome the difficulties they have to face with in teaching speaking English for university students

3 Scope of the Study

There are so many aspects relating to English speaking learning including strategies, methods, ways of learning (learning in class, or learning at home), etc The above aspects can be influenced by learners’ first culture In this study, for the limitation of

3

time, conditions, and materials, this study only focuses on participation of students with two main issues: the present situation of HaUI first year non-English major students’ participation in learning speaking and the influence of some first cultural factors on their classroom involvement while learning speaking English including the traditional learning style, collectivism and the fear of losing face

The study involves the participation of 60 first year non-English major students at HaUI They have experienced one semester studying English at this university

4 Significance of the Study

The significance of the present study would be to contribute some useful information which teachers can consider in their real English speaking classrooms so as to help students have more effective speaking lessons

5 Methods of the Study

In the study, both qualitative and quantitative methods are used The data will be collected by means of classroom observations and questionnaires After the data is collected, analyzed and discussed, some conclusions will be drawn and some suggestions will be made in the thesis

6 Research Questions

In the thesis, the following questions will be answered

1 What is the present situation of participation in English speaking learning of first year non-English major students at HaUI?

2 How do some first cultural factors influence students’ participation when learning English speaking in the classroom?

7 Organization of the Study

This study is going to be divided into three parts, as follows:

4

 Part A, Introduction, deals with the reason for the research and the aims, scope and methodology of the study The research questions are also raised in this part

 Part B, Development, consists of the four following chapters:

* Chapter 1 is intended to give some theoretical background related to culture, speaking skills and learners’ participation In addition, some cultural factors in the teaching and learning of speaking skills in classrooms will be discussed

* Chapter 2 provides the current situation of participation in learning speaking skills at HaUI Information about teachers, students, materials and problems, is mentioned

* Chapter 3 gives the analysis on the situation and the influence of some first cultural factors on students’ involvement in English speaking learning in the classroom

* Chapter 4 focuses on the findings and recommendations about using some activities

to get over cultural difficulties and improving students’ participation in speaking skills

in the classroom

 Part C, Conclusion, addresses the key issues in the study, summarizing some shortcomings revealed during the process of completing this research paper

“iceberg” The visible part of an iceberg or culture consists of appearance, food, language, tradition and customs… and the invisible part includes values, beliefs, attitudes and communicative styles, perceptions, etc The visible part of culture is a small part of a much bigger whole Therefore, people cannot see the significant influence of culture on an individual behavior and interaction with others

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary (1995: 285), culture is “art, literature, music and other intellectual expressions of a particular society or time” (1995) This concept mentions general culture relating to the exposed parts of culture, which are easily recognized such as language, food, clothes, etc

Ferrando (1996, cited in Quang, Nguyen 2006:16) asserted that “Culture is everything that people have, think and do as a member of a society” (2006) The concept of culture, therefore, involves the way people from a particular cultural background think, feel, act, make friends, worship and behave in a community Culture distinguishes one human group from others It also distinguishes human being from animals Culture is shared, learned symbolic system of values, beliefs and attitudes that shapes and affects

1.2 Elements of Culture

Because of different ways of defining the culture, there are different classifications of its elements In this part, only some classifications of cultural elements from some famous authors such as Stephen Moore and Stephen Dahl are listed

According to Stephen Moore (1985:4 as cited by Mai Thanh, Do & Thu Trang, Dao 2006: 5-6) culture consists of the following elements: Beliefs, values, norms, roles, role conflict, and status

 Beliefs: are general, vague opinions about the world and about the nature of society They vary by society and sometimes by subcultures E.g God created the earth in seven days, or that Jesus was the son of God

 Values: are vague beliefs about what is right and correct in the world They imply that there are certain appropriate forms of action which ought to be taken For example, life is precious; thus, it is wrong to kill anybody

 Norms: are socially expected patterns of behavior (Actions that are regarded as normal) E.g Not talking out loud during a play, wearing black clothes to a funeral

 Roles: Social roles are patterns of behavior expected of certain people according

to the occupation or position they hold in society E.g Clergyman’ role is to be sympathetic, well-mannered, well-spoken, religious, and charitable A heavy-drinking clergyman would be regarded with astonishment by most people

7

 Role conflict: There are innumerable social roles - father, mother, child, shopkeeper, etc All of us occupy a number of roles, which are generally complementary, but sometimes they may conflict, for instance

 Status: refers to the position of a person or a social role in society according to the amount prestige received from others In different societies or cultures, status varies In Britain, those with the highest status are the best educated and the rich, although this will obviously vary within subcultures

In Stephen Dahl’s description (cited by Mai Thanh, Do & Thu Trang, Dao 2006:6), culture is “ordered into” three layers, like an onion, where one peel has to be taken off

in order to see the following inner

 The outer layer, artifacts and products, is the most explicit part including language and food, architecture and style etc

 The second layer is norms and values

 The inner most layer, basic assumptions, represents the core assumptions of what life is, assumptions about how to handle everyday problems that have become self-evident, that is communication

1.3 Some cultural factors in the teaching and learning of speaking skills

in classrooms

Today, educators have become aware of not only the importance of cultural factors in the teaching of speaking skills but also the great influence of inferences between two cultures-target and learner’s cultures-on the way of teaching and learning speaking skills

Firstly, “influenced by their traditional learning style, Vietnamese students are quiet and attentive in class” whereas “teachers are considered the complete source of knowledge” “The students wait until called upon to answer the questions asked by the teachers, instead of volunteering” They are also “good at memorizing and following

8

directions, reluctant to participate (though knowing the answers), meticulous in taking, shy away from oral skills (being more comfortable with grammar and writing exercises) and from group interaction” (Hung Tuong, Nguyen 2002) In addition,

note-“students often regard the teachers as information providers or knowledge givers They pay a lot of respect to teachers by keeping silent and asking no questions in the classroom Students, as well as society keep the belief that teaching is the noblest profession, and therefore, teachers need to be highly respected” (Thuy Duong, Nguyen 2010) Thus, “being talkative, interrupting, questioning, bragging, or challenging the teachers are not typical of Vietnamese culture Such behavior is strongly criticized and avoided” “Americans, in contrast, regard silence as no communication, non-cooperative attitude, and often try to fill the emptiness Silence is treated as passive or negative reaction” (Hung Tuong, Nguyen 2002) Furthermore, Vietnamese students really “lock into the classroom structure and the things teachers say is absolutely right

in their minds As a result, these lead to silence during speaking lessons Teachers’ talk

is occupied more than that of the learners’ This teacher-centered methodology has long been used at schools in Vietnam” (Thuy Duong, Nguyen 2010)

Secondly, “in Vietnam, students are affected by Confucianism, which respects collectivism more than individualism, in contrast to Western countries These countries highly appreciate personal independence, and fierce competition; that is, individualism” “In Vietnam, the U.S person’s individualism may be perceived as being selfish or egotistical” “This may be one of the major problems for learners during speaking activities in classrooms, especially in group work They prefer listening to the ideas of others to expressing their own opinions” “In their view, a quiet student learns more and he is more respectful than the one who speaks up, and takes time away from the teacher’s lesson” (Thuy Duong, Nguyen 2010)

Moreover, the Vietnamese prefer “beating around the bush instead of getting directly

to the main point” and usually avoid stating their opinions (Thuy Duong, Nguyen 2010) When the Vietnamese refuse an invitation, for example, they use more

9

avoidable strategies and sometimes give insufficient answers Americans, in contrast, use more direct requests and refusals Therefore, “indirect communication is considered to be an important way in helping others avoids losing face in Vietnam” In class and group activities, “the belief that losing face is a shame affects students’ participation during speaking activities Learners would rather be considered passive ones than lose face in front of the class This is the reason why some keep silent in class even when they know the answer Or why, they never raise ideas in discussions They are afraid of making mistakes”, so “they hesitate to express their opinions freely because they are concerned about how others will see them and because they have been brought up in the collectivistic cultural mode” “This is quite different from English cultures, in which students tend to learn from mistakes” (Thuy Duong, Nguyen 2010)

1.4 The role of culture in language teaching and learning

To emphasize the importance of culture in learning and teaching foreign languages, Eli Hinkel (1999) said: “Applied linguists and language teachers have become increasingly aware that the second or foreign language can rarely be learnt, or taught, without addressing the culture of the community in which it is used This can be with the idea that culture plays an important role in teaching and learning language”

To emphasize the influence of cultural factors on the teaching and learning of speaking skills in classroom, Kramsch (1993) asserted that “culture in language learning is not

an expendable fifth skill tacked on, so to speak, to the teaching of speaking, listening, reading and writing It is always in the background, right from day one, ready to unsettle the good language learners when they expect it least, making evident the limitations of their hard-won communicative competence, challenging their ability to make sense of the world around them” (1993:1)

In conclusion, language teaching and learning require much more than words and grammatical structures It goes without saying that culture is regarded “as mere

10

information conveyed by the language, not as a feature of language itself, culture awareness becomes an educational objective in social practice, and culture becomes the very core of language teaching” (Kramsch, 1993:8)

2 Speaking skills

2.1 Definitions of speaking skills

According to Chaney (1998), speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” (1998) Speaking in a foreign language has been viewed as the most demanding of the four skills It plays a vital role because it is the step to identify who knows or does not know

a language When attempting to speak, learners must muster their thoughts and encode those ideas in the vocabulary and syntactic structures of the target language

Speaking is not spoken writing It is different from other skills in the teaching and learning of language It needs limited time in response, for example, and it is not easy

to correct when an utterance is made The speakers must be responsible for their utterances in a limited time and make sense with what they are saying as Bygate, Martin (1987) said “It is different from others in its time pressure, which allow limited time for deciding what to say, deciding how to say it Saying it and checking that the main intensions are being realized”, and then adjust their speech based on reaction from listeners “the words are being spoken as they are being decided and as they are being understood” (1987)

In conclusion, speaking is the central skill, for many people The desire to communicate with others, often face-to-face and in real time, drives us to attempt to speak fluently and correctly Speaking is also one of necessary skills that students have

to acquire in learning a foreign language It helps people to communicate and exchange information and culture with other countries

2.2 Types of classroom speaking performance

11

Brown (2001: 266-268) indentifies six categories apply to the kinds of oral production that students are expected to carry out in classroom, namely imitative, intensive, responsive, transactional, interpersonal and extensive

 Imitation is carried out not for the purpose of meaningful interaction, but for focusing on some particular element of language form (e.g., learners practicing

an intonation pattern a certain vowel sound)

 Unlike imitative speaking which is designed to practice some phonological or grammatical aspect of language, intensive speaking provides learners the opportunity to “go over” and uses certain forms of language through controlled speech production Intensive tasks may be directed response, read-aloud, oral sentence completion or dialogue completion

 A good deal of student speech in the classroom is responsive: short replies to teacher- or student-initiated questions or comments Question & answer, question elicitation, elicitation for instructions and paraphrasing are responsive tasks

 Transactional language, carried out for the purpose of conveying or exchanging specific information, is an extended form of responsive language Tasks are oral

interviews, discussions and conversations

 Interpersonal, like in the transactional, also carried out in a dialogue It is purposed for maintaining social relationships than for the transmission of facts and information

 Extensive usually occurs when students are asked to give oral reports, summaries or short speeches The kind of register is more formal and speaking performance is carefully produced Oral presentations, storytelling, retelling a story or news event and reporting information are some types of monologue Nakamura (2006) suggested a framework of three-dimensional constructs: monologue, dialogue and multilogue

12

 Monologue encompasses a range of one-way speaking proficiencies from a simple phonetic level check (Pre-Monologue) to advanced oral presentation skills (Creative Monologue)

 Dialogue, of course, refers to two-way, reciprocal speaking ability, but in this framework two sub-types are distinguished: Transactional, the ability to exchange information in situations where the context is well defined and with fixed conventions of speech e.g classroom situation; and Interpersonal, the ability to perform in consideration of deeper or less predictable social relationships

 Multilogue refers to a speaker’s discussion ability among multiple participants, not only as a participant but also in such more formalized roles as chairperson

2.3 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity

Classroom activities would be an important component of a language course Successful speaking activities in class can result in great improvement of students’ speaking skills According to Ur (1996: 120), there are four characteristics for a successful speaking activity

For the most part, learners talk a lot As much as possible of the period of time allocated to the activity is in fact occupied by learners’ talk This may be obvious, but often most time is taken up with teacher’s talk or pauses

Moreover, participant is even As we know, classroom discussion is not dominated by

a minority of talkative participants It means that all students get a chance to speak and contributions are fairly evenly distributed

Furthermore, motivation is high Learners are eager to speak because they are interested in the topic and have something new to say about it, or they want to contribute to achieve a task objective

13

The last but not least, language is of an acceptable level Learners express themselves

in utterances that are relevant, easy comprehensible to teach others and of acceptable level of language accuracy If the learners do not have speaking skills, do not understand the English words that are said by the speaker, do not acknowledge the language, they cannot grasp meaning of what the speaker means In that condition, they cannot be said successful in learning English, because they do not have a meaningful interaction of English conversation Through this feature, students who want to speak English well need to learn and practice it as much as possible

In short, if we want to have a successful speaking activity or if we want to get students talking, we need to meet all the above criteria

3 Learners’ participation

“Students’ participation can be understood as students’ involvement in classroom activities and in this case, oral activities It consists of interaction between students and students; students and the teacher The interaction between students themselves arises

in pair work and group work When they work together, students’ participation can be measured by their sense of responsibility and cooperation As for the interaction with the teacher, students express themselves in class discussion or show their ability to answer the questions raised by teacher or share their knowledge or personal experiences” (Thi Thao, Tran 2010)

In order to have a successful lesson, students’ participation must be active and even There are varieties of factors relating to the quality of students’ involvement in classroom oral activities

One of the factors is teacher’s role in language teaching and learning With an increasing concern about the CLT approach, in which learners are the centre of the lesson, the teachers act as controllers, prompters, participants, resources, tutors,

14

organizers, assessors or observers (Harmer 1999:57-62) In a lesson, he/she not only plays the role of the organizer of classroom activities, the prompter to students’ questions but also works as the participant to engage in the communicative activities along with the students

Unlike Harmer, Byrner (1986:2) stated the roles of the teacher according to the stages

of teaching speaking: the presentation stage, the practice stage and the production one

At the first stage, the teacher acts as an informant He/she prepares the materials and presents the language as clearly as possible and the students listen and try to understand At the practice stage, it is time for students did most of the talking and the teacher’s role is a skillful conductor of an orchestra giving each of the performers a chance to participate and monitoring the performance At the final stage, the production one, the teacher takes on the role of manager and guide.Above all, the most important role of the teacher through stages of speaking lesson is a motivator Whatever the teacher does in the classroom, the ability of motivating the students to arouse their interests and to involve in what they are doing will be crucial

In addition, teacher’s characteristics are also very important to students’ engagement The teacher should be natural, warm, pleasant, approachable and tolerant (Barry 1993) These characteristics can help students feel more comfortable, so they could better participate in speaking activities

Furthermore, learners’ learning style indicates different ways they perceive information, as Keefe (1979) defined: learning style is “cognitive, affective and physiological traits that are relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with and respond to the learning environment” (as cited in Brown, H Douglas 2007:120)

It is certain that classroom atmosphere affects students’ success in language learning Lightbown and Spada (1999) pointed out that students seem to feel anxious and less

15

constrained but more secured to take part in learning activities in supportive, cooperative and encouraging atmosphere

4 Review of previous studies

An investigation into factors that hinder the participation of university students in English speaking lessons at Ba Ria – Vung Tau University, which was carried out by Thi Mai, Le (2011) took this matter into consideration The study mentioned the factors that hindered the participation of the second-year English major students at Ba Ria – Vung Tau University in English speaking lessons due to the teacher’s factors, students’ factors and learning and teaching conditions The researcher analyzed activities and techniques often used by teachers to increase students’ participation Furthermore, she gave some suggestions for teachers to stimulate students in speaking English and overcome the difficulties they have to face with in teaching speaking English

Faizah Mohamad Nor & Liew Hui Choo’s study (2010) also concentrated on the factors affecting second language learners’ classroom participation The study mentioned the factors that affected the participation of students at a Malaysian University in the classroom due to students’ fear, anxiety, learning strategies, lecturers’ teaching practices, personality, perceptions of the lecturers as the authority and perceptions of their roles as universities students The researcher also suggested some techniques taken to encourage students’ involvement in classrooms

Another study is by Thi Thao, Tran in 2010 concentrating on factors affecting the participation in speaking activities of 10th grade students at Doson high school and some possible solutions In the study, the researcher found out the students’ level of participation in class oral activities, their attitudes towards the applied teaching techniques, as well as the factors affecting students’ participation such as teacher’s factors, students’ factors, classroom factors and materials factors Then she gave some

16

recommendations for improvement in teaching and learning speaking skills in classrooms

17

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter mentions materials under investigation, the context of the study, research methods and data collection procedures

1 Setting of the study

1.1 Brief introduction of HaUI

At HaUI, the teaching of English consists of two stages During the first stage, students study general English with four micro skills namely: speaking, listening, reading and writing Basic English lasts 5 terms with the aims at providing students with general knowledge of English grammar, vocabulary as well as developing students’ four

language skills At this very first stage, the textbook New Headway by John and Liz

Soars is used with the hope that we can develop the students’ communicative competence and the students can learn the real things from daily life The second stage lasts one term in which students learn English related to their field in order to improve the professional knowledge of English to adapt their future job requirement

1.2 Students and their background

Students of HaUI come from all parts of Vietnam (cities, towns, districts and mountainous areas) The students who live in cities and towns seem better at English than those who come from districts and mountainous areas Some of them have learned English for 10 years at primary, secondary and high school whereas others have only learned English for 3 years Specifically, some other students have never learned English before Lots of students who learned English at school experienced traditional method of English teaching (the Grammar-Translation method), the emphasis of which is on the learning of the rules of the language, not on the acquisition

of language skills and cultural contents Furthermore, the majority of the students does not have appropriate learning strategies and have passive learning styles Therefore,

18

their general English skills, especially speaking skill, are supposed to be at lower levels

1.3 The course book

New Headway Elementary, the second level of the six ones (beginner, elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate, upper-intermediate and advanced) written by Liz and John Soars with 14 units, may satisfy the demands of the communicative approach of HaUI to language teaching with four major skills of listening, reading, writing and speaking The textbook has clear approaches to grammar Each unit has a language review section at the back of the book, which gives a short summary of the target structure and its uses Moreover, the authors of these course books also try to mention and emphasize to cultural topics in every text, activity and conversation in each unit For these reasons, the course book becomes a pleasure to use at the author’s university

Furthermore, the course book has a useful teacher’s book, which supports comprehensive help with useful suggestions for setting up pair work, group work and lesson planning The teachers at HaUI have taken the advantage of those to create suitable activities with the aim at making students participate in lessons more actively, specially speaking activities

(1) Situation of students’ participation in learning speaking in classroom lessons (questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

(2) The influence of some of Vietnamese cultural factors on students’ participation while learning speaking English in the classroom (question 9)

(3) Some suggested solutions in order to overcome those difficulties (question 10) The questionnaire took approximately fifteen minutes to complete

3 Subjects

Subjects of the study were 60 first year non-English major students at HaUI aged over

18 who were currently studying at HaUI and selected randomly in the research They come from different provinces, so their English proficiency is various There are big differences among the students in the city and the countryside A large number of the students have said they have spent nearly 10 years studying English The students living in the cities have more chances to meet native speakers at, for example, Language Centers or in the travel Some have been a little bit aware of the cultural knowledge in speaking English However, the students from countryside mainly focus

on grammar and vocabulary when they learn English at primary, secondary and high

All comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion provided in the study are based on the data analysis

4 Data collection procedures

The data of the research was collected by means of classroom observations and questionnaires Firstly, the researcher observed some English lessons in order to develop questionnaires, and then delivered the questionnaires to students who were selected randomly Based on the findings, a hypothesis was formulated about the techniques and activities to be treated with a view to increase the student’s participation

Class observations

The researcher observed 9 speaking periods lasting 405 minutes from 3 classes During the lessons, the researcher focused on the teachers’ activities, students’ behaviors in speaking activities, students’ participation in teachers’ activities, and then noted down the information on the observation sheet From the observations, the researcher found that although the teachers used different kinds of activities including role-play, interview, conversation, discussion, debate, game, response, reporting, retelling…, the students were not very interested in speaking activities Thus, students’ degree of participation was low During the class, the students did not volunteer to participate in the given activities They were not willing to work with the teachers and other members in the group They seldom gave their opinions about the topics but listened to other students’ ideas This might be due to unexciting, uncreative, uninteresting