INVESTIGATION INTO THE TEACHING OF SPEAKING SKILLS TO SECOND-DEGREE FRESHMEN AT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI

ix LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: Students’ attitudes towards English speaking and their effort in Figure 2: Students’ participation in their English speaking lessons Figure 3: P

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-*** -

NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE TEACHING OF SPEAKING SKILLS TO SECOND-DEGREE FRESHMEN AT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI

NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG DẠY KĨ NĂNG NÓI CHO

SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT LOẠI HÌNH ĐÀO TẠO VĂN BẰNG 2 TẠI

ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ - ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

HANOI, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-*** - NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE TEACHING OF SPEAKING SKILLS TO SECOND-DEGREE FRESHMEN AT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI

NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG DẠY KĨ NĂNG NÓI CHO

SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT LOẠI HÌNH ĐÀO TẠO VĂN BẰNG 2 TẠI

ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ - ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Trần Xuân Điệp

HANOI, 2014

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DECLARATION

I hereby certify that this minor thesis entitled “An Investigation into the Teaching

of Speaking Skills to Second-degree Freshmen at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi” is the result of my own

work in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English Teaching Methodology at Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University Hanoi The research has not been submitted to any other universities or institutions wholly and partially Hanoi, 2014

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Trần Xuân Điệp, for his considerable encouragement, clear and constructive advice and especially for his valuable corrections throughout this study There is no doubt that without his comprehensive instructions, this thesis would never have been accomplished

I also wish to give my big thank you to the lecturers at Post Graduate Studies who have delivered lectures with knowledge being of great significance to the completion

of this study

I am very thankful to the teachers and students at In-Service Department, University of Languages and International Studies for their active participation in the survey questionnaire and their acceptance of my classroom observations

My thanks also go to a large number of researchers whose important ideas and notions are exploited and developed in the study

Last but not least, I would like to send my heartfelt gratitude to my family and friends who are forever a great source of endless love, care and support

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ABSTRACT

This study examines the current situation of teaching speaking skills to the second-degree freshmen at the In-Service Department, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University Hanoi It also aims at exploring the mismatches between learners’ expectations and teachers’ assumptions in this context

In order to seek the answers to these questions, survey research was employed in this study Data was collected through two instruments being questionnaires and classroom observations, and then analyzed by descriptive statistics After all, some recommendations for teachers were made so that they can deliver a more successful speaking lesson in which learners are motivated to occupy much of the talking time with an acceptable level of language It is expected that the findings of the research is a reliable source of reference for the teachers in the department as well as teachers of similar teaching contexts

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF APPENDICES viii

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ix

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Objectives of the study and research questions 1

3 Significance of the study 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Method of the study 2

6 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Theoretical background of speaking skills in language learning 4

1.1.1 Definition of speaking 4

1.1.2 Factors affecting English speaking abilities 4

1.1.3 Some problems in learners’ speaking performance 5

1.2 Theoretical background of speaking skills in language teaching 6

1.2.1 Accuracy or fluency in the teaching of speaking 6

1.2.2 Phases in teaching speaking 7

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1.2.3 Teachers’ characteristics 7

1.3 Characteristics of a successful speaking lesson 8

1.4 Review of previous studies related to the research area of the thesis 10

Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY 13

2.1 Research settings 13

2.1.1 Time allocation and the textbooks 13

2.1.2 Learning and teaching environment 13

2.1.3 The teachers 14

2.1.4 The students 14

2.2 The study 15

2.2.1 Research method 15

2.2.2 Subjects 16

2.2.3 Data Collection Instruments 16

2.2.4 Data collection procedures 17

2.2.5 Data analysis method 17

2.2.6 Data Analysis 18

Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 34

3.1 Findings and Discussions 34

3.1.1 Research Question 1 34

3.1.2 Research Question 2 35

3.1.3 Research Question 3 37

3.2 Recommendations 38

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3.2.1 Managing speaking turns to ensure even participation 38

3.2.2 Creating a cooperative atmosphere 38

3.2.3 Establishing good rapport with students 39

3.2.4 Combining the textbook with other authentic relevant materials 39

3.2.5 Varying speaking activities 39

PART C: CONCLUSION 44

1 Recapitulation of main ideas 44

2 Limitations of the study 45

3 Suggestions for further studies 46

REFERENCES 47 APPENDICES I

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

viii

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire for students

Appendix 2: Survey questionnaire for teachers

Appendix 3: Classroom observation checklist

Appendix 4: Sample of the speaking activity: Song

Appendix 5: Sample of the communicative game: Spot the difference

Appendix 6: Sample of the communicative game: What is the word?

Appendix 7: Sample of the speaking activity: Question and answer

Appendix 8: Table of contents of Interactions Listening and Speaking textbook

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LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: Students’ attitudes towards English speaking and their effort in

Figure 2: Students’ participation in their English speaking lessons

Figure 3: Psychological reasons for students’ reluctance to speak English

Figure 4: Students’ linguistic difficulties in learning to speak English

Figure 5: Students’ assessment of the core English speaking textbook

Figure 6: Students’ talking time in the English speaking lessons and their

expectations of their teachers’ talking time

Figure 7: Students’ feedbacks on their teachers’ corrections

Figure 8: Students’ evaluation of their English speaking class

Figure 9: Students’ suggestions for ways to encourage them in the English

Figure 13: Teachers’ opinion in Communicative Language Teaching

Table 1: Students’ feedbacks on their teachers’ activities in the presentation,

practice and production phases

Table 2: Students’ learning preferences

Table 3: Teachers’ difficulties in their English speaking lessons

Table 4: Results of classroom observations

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

English, as an international language, has become increasingly important in the age

of globalization and economic integration A good command of English helps learners substantially in finding good jobs in Vietnam; however, Vietnamese learners of English are often described as having no ability to communicate in the target language This is possibly the most important reason why a huge number of non-English-majored graduates decide to come back to school to obtain another degree majored in English For these part-time students, the ability to communicate fluently and effectively in the target language has been of great significance A large number of studies have been conducted

to help full-time undergraduates improve their English ability yet only a small amount of research caters for the needs of part-time adult English learners Simultaneously, in the author’s opinion, this type of learners has some different characteristics from other subjects One of those is that these students are highly motivated and willing to devote time, energy and financial resources to their study of English, yet a considerable number

do not know how to transform motivation into action; therefore, feel stuck in their study This research is done with the great expectation to provide a closer look at English speaking teaching and learning in everyday classroom and assist teachers and learners with better teaching and learning decisions Generally, all these gaps have encouraged the

researcher to conduct the research “An Investigation into the Teaching of Speaking Skills

to Second-Degree Freshmen at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University Hanoi”

2 Objectives of the study and research questions

This study targets at addressing the following issues

 To investigate the current situation of teaching speaking skills to the second-degree freshmen in the In-Service Department, ULIS, VNU

 To explore the mismatches between learners’ expectations and teachers’ assumptions

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 To suggest measures to help teachers improve their teaching of English speaking skills

The above objectives can be realized through these research questions:

1 What is the situation of teaching speaking skills to second-degree freshmen at the In-Service Department, ULIS VNU?

2 What are the mismatches between second-degree learners’ expectations and their teachers’ assumptions?

3 What should teachers do to improve their students’ learning of English speaking skills?

3 Significance of the study

English is now an indispensable instrument of communication and it is being learnt

by diverse types of learners Thus, the English teaching methods should vary in order to satisfy and suit each type’s needs It requires the ability to be sensitive to the educational, institutional and social contexts in which foreign language learning and teaching take place In such a circumstance, it is desirable that English language teachers at In-Service Department, ULIS VNU should put a strong emphasis on working out the way to improve their students’ English speaking ability As such, this study will serve as a reference material not only for teachers of In-Service Department, ULIS VNU but also for teachers

of similar situations elsewhere who wish to improve their English speaking lessons

4 Scope of the study

Concerning the scope of the study, some of the following things should be taken into consideration Firstly, this study focuses on developing learners’ fluency rather than accuracy in their English speaking Secondly, the study involves the second-degree freshmen at the In-Service Department, ULIS VNU who are highly motivated in learning English yet desperately need some instructions to go the right way

5 Method of the study

This is a survey research with the use of two instruments: questionnaires and observations All comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusions were based on the data analysis Survey research has proved to be the best choice for this study as the

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study was aimed at investigating the current situation of teaching speaking skills to freshmen within a certain context The combination of different instruments used in this research would help to gain reliable data and help the researcher have a deep insight into the circumstance

This study employed qualitative data collection instruments including questionnaires with open-ended questions and classroom observations There were survey questionnaires for both teachers and students, each one contained carefully designed questions and could provide comprehensive understanding of the situation

Class observations were used to provide triangulated data (teachers, students and the researcher) The class observations may identify gaps between what the teachers said

in the questionnaires and what they actually did in their classroom

6 Design of the study

The study consists of 3 parts

Part A: Introduction is a brief description of the research including the rationale, scope,

subjective, research questions, method, and design of the study

Part B: Development is the main part of the study, which is divided into 3 chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature Review presents theoretical background of the study and

review of the previous related studies

Chapter 2: Methodology provides background information on the participants,

instruments, procedures of data collection, and method of data analysis

Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion presents the findings on the current situation

of teaching speaking skills at In-service Department, ULIS, VNU After that, some recommendations are made on the basis of these findings

Part C: Conclusion gives some concluding remarks, presents the limitations and gives

suggestions for further studies

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical background of speaking skills in language learning

1.1.1 Definition of speaking

In this part, the definition of speaking would be clarified In language teaching, we often talk about four macro language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) in terms of their direction and mode Language generated by the learners (speaking and writing) is considered productive while language directed at the learners (reading and listening) is known as receptive language (Savignon: 1991) Mode refers to the medium

of language (whether it is aural/oral or written) For this classification, “speaking is the productive, oral skill” (Bailey and Savage 1994: 2)

According to Florez (1999: 1), speaking is “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information” (cited in Bailey and Savage 1994) It is “often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving”

To sum up, speaking is an oral skill which requires learners to make much effort to produce the language without too much time planning

1.1.2 Factors affecting English speaking abilities

There are many factors that influence the success or failure in learning English speaking However, the two most important factors are motivation and attitude (Gardner

1962) Motivation not only plays an important role in learners’ learning but it also helps

the teacher Lile (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

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are often familiar with two basic types of motivation: extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation Harmer (2001) states that extrinsic motivation is caused by external factors such as the need to pass an exam or the hope of possibility for future travel, etc In contrast, intrinsic motivation is caused by internal factors like the enjoyment of the learning process itself or by a desire to make them 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 try tirelessly and have a positive attitude towards language learning

Attitude is the second factor which has an influence on language learning Gardner

and Lambert (1972) defined attitude as the persistence that a learner has to follow an object Language learning attitude has a relationship to motivation Language learners who have more extrinsic or intrinsic motivation will have the more positive attitude than those without motivation or who consider language learning a compulsory subject

Another factor frequently mentioned is learning strategies Within second or

foreign language education, a number of definitions of language learning strategies have

been used by key figures in the field Tarone (1983:67) defined a language learning strategy as “an attempt to develop linguistic and sociolinguistic competence in the target language to incorporate these into one’s interlanguage competence” Rubin (1987:22), later, wrote that language learning strategies “are strategies which contribute to the development of the language system which the learner constructs and affect learning directly” In their seminal study, O’Malley and Chamot (1990:1) defined language learning strategies as “the special thoughts or behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn, or retain new information”

1.1.3 Some problems in learners’ speaking performance

According to Ur (1996), there are a number of problems in learners’ speaking performance as follows

Inhibition: Learners are often inhibited from trying to say things in foreign

language because they are worried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism, or losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts

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Nothing to say: Teachers often hear learners complain they cannot think out

anything to say They may have no motivation to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should be speaking

Mother-tongue use: In a foreign language class, a number of the learners share

the same mother tongue; therefore, they tend to use their mother tongue instead of trying

to speak in the target language for many reasons: firstly, it is easier to use Secondly, they fell unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language Lastly, they feel less

“exposed” if they are speaking their mother tongue

1.2 Theoretical background of speaking skills in language teaching

1.2.1 Accuracy or fluency in the teaching of speaking

Nunan (1999) emphasizes that accuracy in language speaking teaching involves

the correct use of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation In controlled and guided activities, accuracy is usually the focus and the teacher makes it clear from feedback that accuracy is important Ongoing correction is often appropriate during accuracy activities

Harmer (2001) noted down that fluency can be considered to be “the ability to

keep the talk going when speaking spontaneously” (pp.104-109) When speaking fluently, students should be able to get the message across with whatever resources and abilities they have, regardless of grammatical and other mistakes

According to Bailey (2005), an important concept for teachers to understand is that fluency and accuracy often work against each other while students are still developing their proficiency at beginning or pre-intermediate levels Before grammar rules become automatic and while learners are still acquiring essential vocabulary items, simultaneously applying the rules and searching one’s memory for the right words can be a laborious mental process, which slow down the learners’ speech and make them seem awkward and embarrassed Likewise, language learners can sometimes speak more quickly, without much care of applying the rules they have learnt, but doing so may decrease their accuracy

In short, students should be encouraged during fluency activities In feedback afterwards, on the other hand, favorable comments are needed to increase their accuracy

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1.2.2 Phases in teaching speaking

Byrne (1988) distinguishes three following phases to develop learners’ oral ability: the presentation phase, the practice phase and the production phase

In presentation phase, teachers are the center of learning and teaching activities

They work as an information provider What students usually do in this phase is to observe and listen to the teacher, i.e they passively receive information Normally, they are only asked to practice a role-play, dramatize a dialogue or do other speaking activities

at the end of this phase

Unlike the presentation phase, at practice phase learners have to do most of the

talking as they are provided maximum amount of practice in the form of controlled and guided activities to improve vocabulary and grammar knowledge as well as fluency of speaking The learners, at this phase, answer the teacher’s guided questions, discuss with their partners to find new ideas related to the topic At the end of the practice phase, Ur (1996) suggested what the teacher should do is to enhance the learners’ fluency of speaking First, the learners must pay their full attention to the speaking activity Second, the target language must be clearly heard or repeated Third, learners understand the meaning of new materials and finally, short-term memory of the material must be created for later use in the lesson

At the last phase of learning speaking, production phase, learners are given

chances to speak English freely Learners are provided with opportunities to speak English by themselves in a real situation Uncontrolled activities are also in the form of individual work, pair work and group work However, pair work and group work are of great importance and effectiveness as all learners can have chance to participate in talks, and they seem more confident and more motivated working with their peers Moreover, this can save a great deal of time

1.2.3 Teachers’ characteristics

Though “the perfect set of personal qualities and characteristics for an effective teacher has not been found” (Barry, 1993:94), it would be definitely true to say that in order to involve students in classroom’s activities; teacher firstly should be one that

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students respect and lay their trust on The teacher’s prestige will make students feel safe

in the lesson and willing to participate in the activities To support this point, Barry

(1993) mentions a number of characteristics that a teacher should have:

- Being natural: The teacher should present himself as a real person such as the feeling

of happiness, sympathy, annoyance or humor

- Being warm: The teacher regards students as his fellow people, respects their personal characteristics and is happy to have them around

- Being pleasant: The teacher’s attitude towards students expresses his relaxation, friendliness in the relationship with his students

- Being approachable: An approachable teacher is the one who makes students feel good about being with him and the one that students can come to see if they have problems

- Being tolerant: In learning a foreign language, students’ mistakes are inevitable The teacher needs to be tolerant with those mistakes instead of criticizing them tactlessly

To establish a good relationship, it is vital that teachers should be cordial, acceptant and tolerant; otherwise it can make students scared and afraid of speaking in the class Tsui (1996) found out that teachers’ intolerance of silence is one of five principal factors affecting students’ reluctance in speaking (cited in Nunan, 1999:234) Furthermore, in his investigation, Oxford (1998) also stated that the teacher’s relationships with the students, the teacher’s attitude or the style conflicts between them are major factors demotivating students’ participation

It should be noted that not every teacher can have all the above characteristics, but

it can help improve a good rapport between the teacher and students With such good interaction during the lesson, it both creates a positive environment for learning and enhances students’ participation in the activities

1.3 Characteristics of a successful speaking lesson

Different people have defined a successful lesson in different ways Ur, P (1996) provides characteristics of a successful speaking lesson as follows:

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High learner’s talking time

Ur states that in a successful lesson: “as much as possible of the period of time allotted the activity is in fact occupied by learner talk” Thus, the main thing for teachers

is that they must accept the purposeful, useful noise An increase in the volume of noise may indicate that the activities are being enjoyed and students are interested in these speaking activities What teachers should do is to keep student’s communicative noise at

an acceptable level so that it does not disturb other classes Moreover, the teacher should give clear instructions for speaking activities in order to avoid uncommunicative negative noise as they misunderstand the instructions

High motivation

In every successful speaking lesson, students always have a strong desire for participating in it It can be seen clearly in Haycraft’s point of view (1978): “Motivation is summed up briefly as the learners’ desire and need to speak – driving force that makes them work hard, pay attention and so on”

Motivation is the combination of many external factors such as the atmosphere in the classroom, topics and speaking activities Therefore, in order to create motivation for students, the teacher should apply as many kinds of activities as possible which should be interesting and familiar to them Another point to bear in mind is that the activities and the topics must be suitable to learners’ level since it creates a good condition for students

to take part in communication As such, students are no longer afraid of being laughed at

by their friends when they make mistakes Instead, they participate in the lesson so eagerly that their task objective is achieved

Even participation

Apart from high learners’ talking time and high motivation, even participation is needed in a successful lesson It means that everyone has chances to speak, not only the minority of talkative excellent students and contributions are fairly evenly distributed It

is said that a good teacher is someone asking students who do not always speak to put their hands up for speaking tasks All in all, a good speaking lesson is a place where all students have opportunities to express themselves in the language they are learning and

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the teacher knows the ability of each student and tries to find out suitable teaching

methods and techniques to encourage every student to express their ideas

An acceptable level of language

The last characteristic of a successful language lesson that teachers should take into consideration is an acceptable level of language from students That is students express themselves in utterances that are relevant and easily comprehensible In other words, the language must be at an acceptable level of accuracy Simple language is suitable for beginners meanwhile the language should be rich in vocabulary, sentence structures and relevant linguistic means for intermediate or advanced students

1.4 Review of previous studies related to the research area of the thesis

A relatively large number of researchers have conducted empirical studies to examine the actual situation of learning and teaching English speaking skills and then how to improve students’ speaking skills Some of these studies are as follows

Tsui A (1996) carried out a study to find out the challenges facing the teaching and learning of speaking skills The result of their research shows that learners’ low motivation is the big problem In the study, they also suggest some actions that teachers should take to improve their learners’ motivation Some very effective solutions may be cited as follows: making instructional goals explicit to learners; breaking learning down into different achievable steps; linking learning to the needs and interests of learners; allowing learners to bring their own knowledge and perspectives into the learning process

Other studies were concerned about techniques of teaching speaking, for example Hamzah & Ting (2009) conducted a qualitative and action research study on success of using group work in teaching speaking in English classroom in a school called “SMK Damai Jaya” in Malaysia The participants in this study were 33 students and 3 English teachers Questionnaires, observations and interviews were used as data collection instruments The researchers carried out a series of questionnaires in Malay language where students could provide their opinions about the group work activities to improve speech skills and their consciousness of participation in those activities The

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observations were analyzed to understand the participation and the behavior of students during the lessons, and the interviews were carried out with three English teachers The findings were that the participants expressed enthusiasm in group work activities and proficiency in spoken language because they were secure of expressing themselves in small groups which avoided anxiety to speak in another language Also, Hamzah & Ting (2009) suggested that “In order to get every student participating in the group work, it is essential that the activities should be appropriate to students’ level and could interest them to participate Therefore, making the students interested in the activity was the first step to conduct a successful language learning activity

Another technique named language games was mentioned in Urrutia & Vega (2006) research study The data suggested that speaking was the most difficult skill to develop because students usually presented lack of vocabulary, shyness and fear of being humiliated Besides, the authors explained that students showed evidence about the importance of implementing games in classroom for improving the speaking skills

In Rama, Ying, lee & Luei Luei’s (2007) study, the participants expressed that games allowed more than a half of students to improve communication in the second language

Other techniques to improve students’ English speaking skills can be seen in a great deal of research Some outstanding examples are Nugroho (2011) with animated video, Khomah (2009) with jigsaw, Hanim (2011) with U-shape seating arrangement, Awaliaturrahmawati (2012) with outdoor activities, Hartati (2012) with games, Ristyawati (2012) with telling short story, Wijayani (2012) with stimulation, Salam (2011) with Role Play and Sulistyatini (2011) with semantic mapping

In Vietnam, a study entitled Teaching Speaking Skill(s) to non-majored MA Students at VNUH was carried out by Nguyen Thi Thu Huong (2010) with the purposes

of finding out the current situations of learning and teaching of speaking skills to English-majored MA students at Vietnam National University Hanoi and the reasons for students’ unwillingness to speak English as well as teachers’ problems in teaching

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speaking skill The subjects of the study were non-English-majored MA students at School of Graduate Studies and their teachers The data collection instruments were questionnaires and interviews The findings showed that due to various reasons such as variety in students’ level of language proficiency, lack of interesting topics, prior experience in learning speaking, and fear of losing face, more than two thirds of the students remained reluctant to respond to the teacher and kept quiet until they were singled out to answer questions

From the above studies, several conclusions can be drawn out Firstly, these studies were implemented with a view to having better insight into the teaching and learning of English speaking skills Secondly, students and teachers’ difficulties were investigated and recommendations were made to improve learners’ speaking skills Lastly, the instruments employed in these studies were mainly questionnaires, observations and interviews; therefore, the author also takes advantage of two of these instruments to obtain data

Summary

In conclusion, chapter 1 has presented some theoretical background knowledge related to the topic of the study It has discussed a definition of speaking skills, theory of speaking skills in learning and teaching and presented a review of previous studies related

to the research area The following chapter will display the detailed description of the methodology, the procedures and the results of the study in the light of the above discussed theories

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Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Research settings

2.1.1 Time allocation and the textbooks

The subjects of the study were second-degree freshmen at ULIS, VNU There were two options of class time for students to choose One was from 18.00 to 20.30 every weekday (five lessons a week) and the other was the combination of two evening weekday lessons (18.00 – 20.30) and two afternoon weekend lessons (13.00 – 17.30) Whatever the class time, one semester covered 180 periods (divided into 60 or 45 lessons respectively)

The course, at the beginning level, aimed at providing students with general knowledge of English grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation as well as developing students’ four language skills with equal time allocation on these skills At this stage, the

two sets of textbook Interaction Access and Interaction 1 (Silver Edition) published by

Mc Graw-Hill Companies were adopted In each set there were four separate books for

individual skills named: Interaction Listening and Speaking, Interaction Reading, Interaction Writing, and Interaction Grammar

The Interaction Listening and Speaking was the speaking course book for first year

students It was structured with a priority towards theme-based or topic-based approach,

including 10 chapters Semester 1 dealt with Interaction Access (Elementary) and semester 2 dealt with 6 chapters of Interaction 1 (Pre-Intermediate) The content of the

book was designed with topics related to social life, sports, work and leisure, eating

habits, education etc which were familiar with students The books’ table of contents can

be seen in Appendix 8 For each topic, the related vocabulary was presented communicatively Apart from the textbooks, teachers were strongly encouraged to provide students with other relevant materials

2.1.2 Learning and teaching environment

The learning and teaching of English took place at the main building of Foreign- Language-Specialized High School which is located inside the campus of ULIS, VNU Proper facilities are an important factor for improving learning and teaching English yet

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English classes here were equipped with basic facilities such as cassette players and blackboard whereas modern equipment such as projectors and computers was not available

On the positive side, the number of students in each class was around 30, which is considered to be relatively favorable to the process of teaching and learning of English especially speaking skills The adequate number of students was advantageous for teachers to design and conduct speaking activities and these speaking activities were more personalized to the needs of students

2.1.3 The teachers

At In-service Department ULIS VNU, there were totally 14 teachers of English aged from 24 to 43 who were responsible for teaching freshmen The oldest teacher had more than twenty years of teaching experience and the youngest just had nearly two years Teachers could be divided into two groups: the first group was the teachers who were currently teaching English at this university; the other was the teachers who were currently teaching English at other institutions No matter what group they belonged to, all of them graduated from the Faculty of English Language Teaching Education, ULIS VNU, and roughly 70% of them had obtained or were learning to obtain the MA Degree

at Faculty of Post Graduate Studies at the university These descriptions reflected the fact that some of the teachers were so young and not experienced enough, which could cause certain methodological difficulties in terms of the knowledge as well as the way to apply communicative speaking activities in their teaching process However, all the teachers were energetic and well aware of the importance of the ability to communicate in English and the teachers played a significant role in forming students’ ability of speaking

2.1.4 The students

The total number of second-degree freshmen at In-service Department was approximately 120 divided into four classes This population had the following features

 an individual who was above the age of 22

 an individual who had already had a university degree, which was a requirement for them to enroll in the course

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 an individual whose language learning was not financed by his/her workplace These features reflected the fact that a large number of second-degree freshmen had learnt English for approximately 10 years (at high school as well as at university) They came from different personal backgrounds and most of them were working people with some being unemployed They were mainly working in private companies or government organizations They worked during daytime and came to English classes in the evenings or at weekends Other newly graduates attended two courses simultaneously: one was this English degree; the other was an MA degree in their major

Although all of the students passed an entrance test, they were at different levels of English Some of them could speak English quite well but the remaining students were only good at grammar and reading; therefore, they did not feel self-confident or even a bit frightened in communicating in English

In addition, students came to study with different purposes Most of them desired

to use English in their life As a result, they studied very hard and attended all the lessons They were willing and excited to take part in speaking activities and shared their ideas or discussed in speaking lessons However, some of them wanted to study to obtain the degree just because it was compulsory for their promotion in their work at some government organizations, so they were reluctant in class and came to the class to have their attendance marked

2.2 The study

2.2.1 Research method

This has been a survey research with the use of two instruments: questionnaires with open-ended questions and observations All comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusions were based on the data analysis

Survey research has proved to be the best choice for this study as the study was aimed at investigating the current situation of teaching speaking skills to freshmen within

a certain context The combination of different instruments used in this study would help

to gain reliable data and help the researcher have a deep insight into the circumstance

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2.2.2 Subjects

The subjects in this study comprised 10 teachers and 84 students The teachers were chosen randomly In terms of the students, survey questionnaires were delivered to all the four classes (around 120 students) yet the number of respondents was 84 because of some absentees and some leaving the questionnaires blank

The target learners were first-year students (part-time) and had been learning English for such a long time that was enough for them to be aware of the language and their language learning As for freshmen participating in this study, they were still affected by the traditional teaching method, with their reading skills and grammar being better than speaking and listening skills The teachers of English were mostly females In teachers’ informal discussions at break time, most of them showed their concern about teaching English speaking especially about how to apply a variety of communicative activities to improve oral skills for their students

Information on the subjects can be found in the table below

The questionnaire for students consisted of four main parts with 15 questions Part

I was about the students’ attitudes towards the learning of English speaking skills Part II aimed to find out their psychological as well as linguistic difficulties in learning to speak the language Part 3 asked for their feedback on their own speaking lessons and the last part was concerned about their English learning preferences

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The questionnaire for teachers consisted of three main parts with 7 questions In part I, teachers’ attitudes towards their students’ learning of English speaking skills were described Part 2 was designed to find out teachers’ opinion in their teaching methodology while the last part provided teachers with opportunities to speak out loud their difficulties

in teaching English speaking skills

2.2.3.2 Classroom observations

Besides survey questionnaires, the researcher also used classroom observations to confirm the reliability and validity of the information provided by teachers and students The researcher observed 4 English speaking lessons In each lesson, the information of teachers’ activities, teaching techniques and students’ involvement, attitudes towards the speaking activities was mentioned in the checklist

2.2.4 Data collection procedures

The data of the research was collected by means of questionnaires and classroom observations The procedure of data collection could be divided into 4 major phases as

Phase 3: After collecting the information from the questionnaires, the author started observing some classes to confirm the validity and reliability of the data collected

Phase 4: The data after being collected was analyzed, synthesized and interpreted

2.2.5 Data analysis method

Data from the questionnaire was synthesized and analyzed by means of descriptive statistics to answer the research questions Results of the survey were put into Microsoft Office Excel software to illustrate the results by means of tables and charts

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2.2.6 Data Analysis

2.2.6.1 Results of students’ survey questionnaire

2.2.6.1.1 Students’ attitudes towards the learning of English speaking skills

Questions 1 to 3 concerned students’ attitudes towards learning the speaking skills The first two questions were about the students’ attitudes towards the importance of speaking skills and their effort in learning to speak English The result was illustrated in the following chart (Figure 1)

Most of the students said that they fully realized the importance of English speaking; therefore, they make effort to master the skills To be more specific, 71% of the surveyed students believed that English speaking was very important to them and another 28% also thought that an ability to speak the language was important This figure was totally in the expectation as the learners in this context were working adult learners and they desperately desired to communicate in the target language to climb high in their career ladder However, it was not beyond expectations to find out that English speaking was a little important or even unimportant to 6 out of 84 students Two of them even noted down in their survey paper that their job as a researcher or scientist just required them to write reports and read the materials in English Being fully aware of the edge of speaking English in their job, 51% of the students stated that they made high effort in learning to speak English, 17 out of 84 students even said that they made their best endeavor in learning with a view to speaking English well Meanwhile, the number of

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students putting quite high effort was not so small, accounting for 25% Not surprisingly, only 7% of the students admitted that they did not attempt to learn the spoken communicative skills

Question 3 was concerned with students’ frequency of speaking English in their class and Figure 2 was shown below to illustrate the result

When answering the question “Do you often speak English in class?”, 35 out of 84 students (42%) said “Yes” with the topics they were interested in Only 14% of the students answered that they were always willing and happy to speak English in class 29%

of the students were still quite passive; they reported that they raised their voice only when being appointed by the teacher More surprisingly, the number of students who never spoke English and often kept silent in class was not small (15%) This also showed

a big question about the reasons why students did not participate much in the activities Therefore, part 2 was designed to ask about students’ difficulties when trying to master English speaking

2.2.6.1.2 Students’ difficulties in the learning of English speaking skills

Question 4 cared about some common psychological problems of second-degree freshmen at ULIS, VNU when they spoke in the target language A large number of students (42%) felt reluctant and unwilling to speak in the English class because the topics were unsuitable for them (either being too easy or too difficult for their level)

C: No, I only speak when the teacher oders me D: No, I never speak and often keep silent

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Roughly one third (28%) answered that they were really nervous due to the fact that they were not accustomed to speaking English in front of others Only one fifth (20%) of the students were afraid of losing face when making mistakes and being laughed by their classmates This is probably because students, at their age of adulthood, were mature and brave enough to be not influenced by peer pressure 4% of the students said that they were indifferent in the English speaking class as their learning goal was not to communicate orally The results are shown in Figure 3 below

Question 5 aimed to find out students’ difficulties in terms of linguistic aspects when they tried to speak English Figure 4 presents the results

20%

33%

5%

42%

Figure 3: Psychological reasons for students'

reluctance to speak English

A: Being afraid of losing face

B: Being not used to speaking English C: Learning goal is not to communicate

D: Feeling bored because of unsuitable topics

A: Lack of vocabulary B: Not enough time to prepare

C: Lack of ideas for the topic

D: Poor pronunciation E: Poor grammar

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It is clearly shown in the chart that the lack of vocabulary inhibited most students from speaking English More than half of the students (57%) confessed that they found it difficult to express their ideas because of limited vocabulary The percentages for the problems of limited ideas, inaccurate grammar and poor pronunciation were pretty similar, 36%, 33% and 30% respectively The remainder (14%) reported that they did not have enough time to prepare before speaking English in the class

2.2.6.1.3 Students’ feedbacks on their speaking class

The main part in the survey questionnaire consisting of 8 questions asked students to give feedbacks on their speaking lesson with the aim to look into the real situation of

teaching English speaking skills

Question 6 focused on students’ opinion of the activities in the speaking course book Following is the pie chart to show the results

As the chart illustrates, approximately 33% of the students thought that the activities for speaking practice in the textbook were suitable and interesting The vast majority of the students considered the textbook boring because the communicative activities were easy or difficult or being unsuitable for their needs

Question 7 and 8 were to find out the allocation of the amount of talking time between students and teachers in the class and students’ opinion of their teachers’ talking time The bar chart below shows the result

Figure 5: Students' assessment of the core

speaking textbook

A: Interesting and suitable B: Difficult and boring C: Easy and boring D: Unsuitable for their needs and boring

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Figure 6: Students’ talking time in the English speaking lessons and their

expectations of their teachers’ talking time

Approximately half of the students (49%) supposed their talking time only accounted for less than 30% of a speaking lesson 37% was the figure for the number of students who said that their talking time fluctuated from 30% to 50% of the lesson Only 14% of the respondents reported that they talked for more than half (50%- 70%) of the lesson time It is also notable that no teacher was reported to talk for less than 30% of the lesson time However, it is surprising to find out that more than half of the students (57%) were satisfied with their teachers’ talking time and only 5% believed that their teachers talked too much The number of students who thought that their teachers talked much was nearly one fourth (24%) This rate falls to 14% of respondents who supposed that their teachers talked little or too little These numbers probably point out the fact that these freshmen were still passive in their learning in part because they had been familiar to the traditional teaching methods where teachers were the center of the class and talked much Question 9, 10 and 11 were designed to find out teachers’ activities in the presentation, practice and production phases For questions 9, the students could choose

no more than two options and could express their own ideas beside the prescribed options

As we can see from the table, roughly half of the teachers (49%) often let students discuss

in pairs or groups This rate falls to nearly one third of the teachers who provided students with relevant new words, structures and ideas Surprisingly, 28% of the students said that their teachers asked them to discuss the topics without preparation

B:

much

C: all right

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For question 10, 65% of the participants said that their teachers often moved around the class to assist students with new words or were willing to help them while they practiced their speaking 35% of the students reported that their teachers either stayed at their seat relaxing or took time to do other things

For question 11, 38% of the surveyed students believed that their teachers gave them good comments although their performance was not really good 39 % of the participants said that their teachers showed and corrected their mistakes after their presentation while only 20% stated that their teachers pointed out their mistakes and encouraged them to correct the mistakes by themselves Only 6% of the surveyed students stated that their teachers criticized their mistakes It is notable here that many teachers encouraged their learners to speak by giving good comments This action can be considered to be a good way of promoting students’ involvement in speaking lessons Another point to note is that students were supposed, again, to be still a little passive in their learning The results can be seen in the following table

Table 1: Students’ feedbacks of their teachers’ activities in the presentation,

practice and production phases Option

9 After giving topic, your teachers often

A Provide new words and structures relating to

a given topic

B Provide main ideas of the topic

C Let students discuss the topic in pairs or groups

D Immediately ask you to discuss the topics

E Others………

B Stay at their seat and relax

C Take time to do other things

D Others (please specify)………

B Point out your mistakes and encourage you

to correct your mistakes by yourself

C Point out and correct your mistakes

D Criticize your mistakes

C: Point out your mistakes and encourage you to correct by yourself

at the end of the performance D: Listen until you finish and no correction

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A large number of the students (44%) said that their teachers did not interrupt them when they made mistakes Alternatively, the teachers encouraged them to continue speaking until they finished 17% of the surveyed students answered that their teachers often interrupted them and corrected their mistakes while they were talking Only 8% of the students reflected that their teachers just listened to them until they finished and no correction was given

The last question of this part asked students about their overall evaluation of their speaking lessons The results are shown in the following pie chart

As we can see from this chart, only 4 out of 84 students (5%) had very positive assessment of their speaking lessons Another 18% of the students believed that many of their classmates were active, happy and willing to speak In the meantime, approximately one third (30%) of the students supposed that their speaking class was quite boring because many or even all the students were reluctant to speak Nearly one half (48%) of the students reported that some students were active and others were passive

In general, part 3 of the survey showed that the teachers knew the basic ways to motivate students to talk in speaking lessons such as they gave good comments to encourage their students, did not interrupt them when they made mistakes and moved around to help students in the class However, the speaking class was still teacher-centered and could not be considered to be successful since the teachers talked too much

C: Many students are reluctant to speak and the class is quite boring D: All students are reluctant

to speak and the class is very boring