THE IMPACTS OF THE TEACHER STUDENT INTERACTION ON STUDENTS WILLINGNESS TO SPEAK DURING ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASSES

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIESFACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES CAO VĂN TUYÊN THE IMPACTS OF THE TEACHER-STUDENT INTERACTION ON STUDE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

CAO VĂN TUYÊN

THE IMPACTS OF THE TEACHER-STUDENT INTERACTION

ON STUDENTS’ WILLINGNESS TO SPEAK DURING ENGLISH

SPEAKING CLASSES

NHỮNG ẢNH HƯỞNG CỦA MỐI TƯƠNG TÁC GIỮA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH ĐỐI VỚI SỰ THAM GIA CỦA HỌC SINH TRONG CÁC TIẾT HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH

M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

HANOI – 2015

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

CAO VĂN TUYÊN

THE IMPACTS OF THE TEACHER-STUDENT INTERACTION

ON STUDENTS’ WILLINGNESS TO SPEAK DURING ENGLISH

SPEAKING CLASSES

NHỮNG ẢNH HƯỞNG CỦA MỐI TƯƠNG TÁC GIỮA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH ĐỐI VỚI SỰ THAM GIA CỦA HỌC SINH TRONG CÁC TIẾT HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH

M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Dr Lê Văn Canh

HANOI – 2015

Hanoi, 2015

Cao Văn Tuyên

First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to mysupervisor, Dr Lê Văn Canh, who allowed me to draw fully on his wisdom andexperience in implementing this study His guidance, encouragement and invaluabledetailed critical feedback have been most generous

Secondly, I would like to convey my special thanks to all my teachers ofthe Post graduate course 20, whose fundamental knowledge about languageteaching and learning has been greatly important to the achievement of my minorthesis

And am in debt to the Board of Management of Post Graduate for theirsupports and the favorable conditions they have granted me during my study andthesis

I am also thankful to the teachers and students at Kim Son A High School,whose cooperation has been of great significance to the completion of the thesis

Last but not least, I would like to thank my family, who supported meduring the thesis training and have supplied me with great encouragement Withouttheir love and thoughtful understanding, I would not have completed this thesissuccessfully

A common problem for teachers of English is dealing with a passive class,where students are unresponsive and avoid interaction with the teacher This isespecially true when a teacher seeks interaction in a teacher-class dialog, such asasking questions to the class as a whole, expecting at least one student to respond.This can be a frustrating experience for both parties Obviously, there will be timeswhen no student can answer a teacher's question, but often students do not answereven if they understand the question, know the answer, and are able to produce theanswer Furthermore, students can often be very reluctant to give feedback or askthe teacher a question in front of the class One of the reasons is claimed to be thepoor teacher-student interaction My study attempted to explore this problem andsought to create a more interactive teacher-class interchange in one class of Englishlearners

This study was therefore conducted with the hope to find out if the student interaction may affect students’ willingness to speak in speaking lessons andhow it affects students' interest In this study, the data was collected at Kim Son AHigh School By doing this, I can know the attitude of students towards teacher-student interaction in speaking lessons and its effects on their willingness to speak.The researcher also gives some suggestions to help teachers at Kim Son A HighSchool enhance students' interest in speaking lessons

teacher-TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vii

Table 1: The importance of speaking skill vii

Table 2: The students’ speaking competence vii

Table 3: The students’ willingness to speak vii

Table 4: Factors that impact the students’ willingness to speak vii

Table 5: What teachers often did to encourage students to speak vii

Table 6: Willingness to Speak English vii

Table 7: The teacher-student interaction’s impacts on students’ willingness to speak vii

Table 8: Students participation in speaking classes (cycle 1) vii

Table 9: The students’ survey questionnaires (cycle 2) vii

Table 10: Students’ participation in speaking classes (cycle 2) vii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale for the study 1

2 Aims of the research 1

3 Questions of the research 2

4 Scope of the research 2

5 Methods of the research 2

6 Organization of the study 3

PART B – DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1 Speaking skill overview 5

1.1 Definition of speaking 5

1.2 Features of speaking skill 6

1.3 Speaking lessons 7

1.3.1 Preparation 7

1.3.2 Presentation 7

1.3.3 Practice 7

1.3.4 Evaluation: 7

1.3.5 Extension 7

1.4 The teacher’s roles in the stages of teaching speaking 8

1.5 Difficulties encountered in teaching and learning speaking 9

1.5.1 Difficulties in teaching speaking 9

1.5.2 Difficulties in learning speaking 10

1.5.3 Methods of teaching speaking 10

1.5.4 A successful speaking lesson in classroom 12

1.6 Willingness to Communicate – Willingness to speak 13

1.7 Teacher-student interaction 14

1.7.1 Interaction 14

1.7.2 Teacher-student interaction 15

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 18

1 Description of the subjects 18

2 Settings and subjects of the study 18

3 Current situation of teaching and learning speaking skill at Kim Son A High School19 3.1 Questions of the research 19

3.2 Research methods 19

4 Justification for data collection instruments 20

4.1 Questionnaires 20

4.2 Interviews 21

4.3 Observations 21

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 23

1 Data analysis and findings 23

1.1 Data analysis and findings of cycle 1 23

1.1.1 Data analysis and findings of teachers’ questionnaire survey (Pre-questionnaires) 23

1.1.2 Data analysis and findings of teachers’ interviews 26

1.1.3 Data analysis and findings of students’ questionnaire survey (Pre-questionnaires) 30

1.1.4 Data analysis and findings of the researcher’s observation on students’

participation in speaking class 34

1.2 Data analysis and findings of cycle 2 35

1.2.1 Data analysis and findings of students’ questionnaire survey (Post-questionnaires) 35

1.2.2 Data analysis and findings of the researcher’s observations on students’ participation in speaking classes 36

1.2.3 Data analysis and findings of teachers’ questionnaire survey (Post-questionnaires) 38

PART C: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 40

1 Conclusion and implications 40

1.1 For the teachers 41

1.1.1 Making corrections in constructive ways 41

1.1.2 Caring about students 41

1.1.3 Creating equality among students 42

1.1.4 Encouraging students to speak up 42

1.2 For the students 42

2 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 43

REFERENCES 45 APPENDIX I

Appendix 1: I Appendix 2: II Appendix 3: III Appendix 4: IV Appendix 5: V Appendix 6: VI Appendix 7: VII

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: The importance of speaking skill

Table 2: The students’ speaking competence

Table 3: The students’ willingness to speak

Table 4: Factors that impact the students’ willingness to speak

Table 5: What teachers often did to encourage students to speak

Table 6: Willingness to speak English

Table 7: The teacher-student interaction’s impacts on students’ willingness to speakTable 8: Students participation in speaking classes (cycle 1)

Table 9: The students’ survey questionnaires (cycle 2)

Table 10: Students’ participation in speaking classes (cycle 2)

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

The teacher-student interaction is of significant importance in foreignlanguage teaching and learning It is argued that interactions between teachers andstudents facilitate language development and lead to better language learning Thepresent study is an attempt to investigate the impacts of the teacher-studentinteraction on students' willingness to speak during English speaking classes

In the school where I work as a teacher of English, speaking skill receives theattention from both teachers and students However, the result of students in learningspeaking skill has fallen short of expectations Amazingly, among the four skills of thelanguage, speaking skill seems to be the worst one Students can hardly use thelanguage in their oral communication This has resulted in our shock that a student withyears of studying the English language even cannot make an oral self introduction It isthe result of students’ unwillingness to speak during English speaking classes

In the last 7 years of my experience as an English teacher at a high school, ithas been clear to me that there are many factors causing such an unwillingness toparticipate in English classes of students, one of which is the poor teacher-studentinteraction

This was the reason why I decided to study the impacts of teacher-studentinteraction in students’ willingness to speak during English speaking classes Thesuccess of my plan is supposed to contribute to motivating students’ participation inEnglish speaking activities together with improving their speaking skill.Consequently, this may be useful when applied in other schools with the quitesimilar situation of teaching and learning English speaking skill

2 Aims of the research

The research was conducted to identify how the teacher-student interactionaffects students’ willingness to speak during their English classes Furthermore, theresearcher tried to find out the factors that can help contribute to the good teacher-

student interaction in order to enhance students’ participation in English speakingclasses and their speaking ability.

3 Questions of the research

To achieve the aims mentioned above, the following research questions wereraised for exploration:

1 How can teacher-student interaction impact students’ willingness to speakduring English speaking classes?

2 What can help form a good teacher-student interaction to enhance students’participation in their speaking activities?

4 Scope of the research

In this individual research, the researcher focused only on the impacts of theteacher-student interaction on students' willingness to speak during Englishspeaking classes to the students of class 10B1 of Kim Son A High School, which islocated in Ninh Binh Province There were 40 students, 25 male and 15 female inthat class Most of them were between 15 and 16 years old who were in their firstyear at the high school The data collected from classroom observations, informalinterviews and questionnaires were then analyzed by the researcher himself

Besides, three teachers were involved in the research All of them werefemale and had at least three-year experience of teaching English at the school.Interviews were conducted with those teachers as participants before the researcherperformed his teaching of speaking in the class 10B1 so that he could have a briefunderstanding on how the teacher-student interaction affected students’ willingness

to take part in speaking activities

5 Methods of the research

In this research, a qualitative approach was used to the question of theimpacts of teacher-student interaction on students’ willingness to speak duringEnglish speaking classes The researcher conducted a survey of high school studentsand teachers In addition, the researcher made an observation when he was invited

to observe class 10B1 addressed by Ms Lan, one of the three teachers interviewed

in the research Then, other observations were made by the researcher during thetime he conducted his teaching of speaking lessons in that class Also, the threeteachers involved were invited to observe the speaking classes of the researcher.

The teachers were chosen purposefully because the researcher knew viableparticipants who were available in the time allotted The interviews were conducted

at a mutual place, to avoid the feeling of control on the part of the researcher Theintention was to make each respondent comfortable and able to answer questionsfreely The interviews were recorded and transcribed, so the researcher was nottempted to filter or alter the responses After the interviews of all three participantswere conducted and transcribed, the results were coded and themed throughanalysis These themes, weaved together, formed the foundation of the findings andresults of this study

The survey aspect of the study was given out to all 40 students of class 10B1

at Kim Son A High School These students were all surveyed in order to reach validand authentic results Age, gender, and religion subjects were completelydisregarded The answer choices of questions were assigned a point value whichwas then analyzed All of those questions revolved around the teacher-studentinteraction and the students’ feelings about its impacts on their learning of speaking

at their high school The results of the survey were coded, analyzed and mergedwith the results from the interviews and those of class observations to contribute tothe conclusions of this study

6 Organization of the study

The study is divided into three main parts The contents covered in each partare as follows:

- Part A is the introduction which gives the rationale of the study, the aims of the

research, the research questions, the scope of the research, methods of the researchand organization of the study

- Part B is the development of the study which comprises 3 chapters:

 Chapter 1 presents the literature reviews of the study

 Chapter 2 describes the process of implementation of the study.

 Chapter 3 involves data analysis, findings and discussions

- Part C is the conclusion and implications of the study.

PART B – DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Speaking skill overview

1.1 Definition of speaking

According to Oxford Dictionary of Current English (2009:414), speaking is

“the action of conveying information or expressing ones’ thoughts and feelings inspoken languages”

Chaney and Burke (1998:13) stated that speaking is “the process of buildingand sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety

of context.”

According to Zuraidah Ali (2008), speaking is a productive skill whichrequires a lot of back-up factors like knowledge, confidence, self esteem andenthusiasm Speaking a second language, particularly, brings about its ownprerequisites: exposure, consolidation, motivation as well as acknowledgment.These determinant factors can be made to exist in a supportive learningenvironment of English as a Second Language classroom

In terms of language teaching and learning, speaking is considered as one ofthe four important language skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing) topractice and master According to Nunan (2003:48), “speaking is the productiveoral skill It consists of producing systematic verbal utterance to convey meaning.”Also regarding speaking as a skill, Bygate (1987:3) investigates the distinctionbetween knowledge and skill in a speaking lesson, which he considers as crucial inthe teaching of speaking He argues that speaking is considered as a skill whichdeserves attention every bit as much as literary skills in both first and secondlanguage (Bygate, 1987:2) Indeed, to be a good learner of speaking, studyinggrammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc is not enough but the skill to use thisknowledge to communicate successfully is indispensable

In general, there are various ways definitions of speaking skill It may beconsidered as an action, a process and a skill as well In this research, the term

“speaking” is regarded as a skill which is related to language teaching and learning

1.2 Features of speaking skill

Speaking is recognized as critical for functioning in an English languagecontext, both by teachers and by learners This skill is also a logical instructionalstarting point when learners have low literacy levels or limited formal education Sofar, speaking has been considered to be the top priority as it is probably the mostimportant aspect of the language for communication and students enjoy it.Moreover, speaking activities improve the atmosphere in the classroom and groupdynamics In general, speaking may involve:

 Producing the sounds, stress patterns, rhythmic structures, and

intonations of the language;

 Using grammar structures accurately;

 Assessing characteristics of the target audience, including shared

knowledge or shared points of reference, status and power relations

of participants, interest levels, or differences in perspectives;

 Selecting vocabulary that is understandable and appropriate for the

audience, the topic being discussed, and the setting in which thespeech act occurs;

 Applying strategies to enhance comprehensibility, such as

emphasizing key words, rephrasing, or checking for listenercomprehension;

 Using gestures or body language;

 Paying attention to the success of the interaction and adjusting

components of speech such as vocabulary, rate of speech, andcomplexity of grammar structures to maximize listenercomprehension and involvement (Brown, 1994:75)

1.3 Speaking lessons

Speaking lessons may follow the usual patterns below:

1.3.1 Preparation is step to establish a context for the speaking task (where, when,

why, and with whom it will occur) and to initiate awareness of the speaking skill to

be targeted (asking for clarification, stressing key words, using reduced forms ofwords)

1.3.2 Presentation involves the teacher supplying learners with a preproduction

model that furthers learner comprehension and helps them become more attentiveobservers of language use

1.3.3 Practice involves learners in reproducing the targeted structure, usually in a

controlled or highly supported manner

1.3.4 Evaluation involves directing attention to the skill being examined and

asking learners to monitor and assess their own progress

1.3.5 Extension consists of activities that ask learners to use the strategy or skill in

a different context or authentic communicative situation, or to integrate use of thenew skill or strategy with previously acquired ones (Brown, 1994:75)

Below is an example of a speaking lesson (Carter & McCarthy, 1995:141-158)

(Choosing appropriate topics for small talk)

* Preparation Show the learners a picture of two people conversing in a familiar

casual setting (The setting will be determined by a prior needs assessment.) Askthem to brainstorm what the people might be discussing (i.e., what topics,vocabulary, typical phrases)

* Presentation Present several video clips of small talk in casual situations Have

learners complete a worksheet in which they describe or list the topics discussed,the context in which the speech is occurring, and any phrases that seem to typifysmall talk Follow up with a discussion of the kinds of topics that are appropriate forsmall talk, the factors in the specific situations that affect topic selection (e.g.,relationships of participants, physical setting), and typical phrases used in smalltalk Chart this information

* Practice Give learners specific information about the participants and the setting

of a scenario where small talk will take place In pairs, have them list topics thatmight be discussed by the participants and simple phrases they might use Learnersthen engage in improvised dialogues based on these simple phrases

* Evaluation Give pairs a teacher-prepared dialogue Ask them to compare their

improvised dialogues with the prepared dialogue, analyzing the similarities,differences, and reasons for both

* Extension Have learners go individually or in small groups into various contexts

in the community (work, school, church, bus stop) and record the conversationsthey hear Ask them to report their findings back to the class, and then have theclass discuss these findings

1.4 The teacher’s roles in the stages of teaching speaking

According to Byrne (1986), there are three stages of teaching speaking: thepresentation stage, the practice stage and the production one In each stage, the role

of the teacher is different

At the presentation stage, the teacher is considered an informant role The

teacher introduces something new to be learned and present it in such a way that themeaning of the new language is as clear and memorable as possible The studentslisten and try to understand It means that the teacher is at the centre of the stage.Therefore, teacher’s time spending should be sensible so that the students getenough time to practice themselves

At the practice stage, it is the students’ turn to do most of the talking while

teacher’s main task is to devise and provide the maximum amount of practice,which must the same time be both meaningful and memorable The teacher’s role,then, is completely different from that at the presentation one The teacher is likethe skillful conductor of an orchestra, giving each of the performers a chance toparticipate, observing and monitoring their performance to see that it is satisfactory

At the final stage, the production one, the teacher takes on the role of

manager and guide Students are given opportunities to use language freely

Sometimes students can make mistakes at this stage, but mistakes are unimportant.What is more important is that students have chance to use language as they wish,

to try to express their own ideas

In addition, they become aware that they have learnt something useful tothem personally, and are encouraged to go on learning It will not be so easy for theteacher to measure students’ performance as it was at the practice stage, nor is thereany easy recipe for success So, what is needed is flexibility, tolerance, patience onteacher’s part- and, above all, an understanding of the learners’ difficulties

To summarize, the teacher through speaking lesson should work as aninstructor His/ her roles closely relate to the three stages of learning Whatever theteacher is doing in the classroom, his/ her ability to enhance the students’ interest, tocreate motivation and involve them in what they are doing, will be crucial

1.5 Difficulties encountered in teaching and learning speaking

1.5.1 Difficulties in teaching speaking

Classroom activities that develop learners’ ability to express themselvesthrough speech is an important component of a language course However, it ismore difficult to design and administer such activities than to do so for listening,reading or writing Ur (1996:121) states four problems in teaching speaking skillsthat teachers often come across They are:

 Nothing to say

Even if the learners are not inhibited, teachers often hear learners complainthat they cannot think of anything to say

 Low or uneven participation

Only one participant talks at time if he or she is to be heard, and in largegroup, this means that each one will have only little talking time This problem iscompounded by the tendency of some learners to dominate the activity, while othersspeak very little or not at all

 Mother tongue use

In classes where all, or a number or the learners share the mother language,they may tend to use the mother tongue because it is easier, and because they feelless ‘exposed’ if they are speaking their mother tongue

1.5.2 Difficulties in learning speaking

Based on a survey of EFL teachers, the main challenges in the EFLclassroom are to be lack of motivation, students’ reluctance to speak, and the use ofthe first language (Nunan, 1993 in Celce-Murcia, 2001) It implies that in speakingclass, it is not easy to make students speak Students’ reluctance to speak, according

to Burns and Joyce’s survey (in Nunan, 1999) may be caused by some factors:cultural factors, linguistic factors and /or psychological factors As a result of theselimitations, there may be also affective factors such as lack of confidence of self-consciousness, which might inhibit fluency

When the students don’t feel confident to speak, teachers are supposed tohelp them build their self-confidence, teachers are called on to sustain self-confidence where it already exists and to build it where it does not In sum, asteachers, they need to be aware of any problems that students might face inspeaking class

1.5.3 Methods of teaching speaking

Now many linguists and English as a second language (ESL) teachers agreewith creating a classroom environment where students have real-lifecommunication, authentic activities and meaningful tasks that promote orallanguage This can occur when students collaborate in groups or pairs to achieve agoal or to complete a task Byrne (1991:22-31) points out that there are three phases

in the teaching of a speaking lesson to develop learners’ oral ability, which arepresented as follows:

 The presentation phase

In this phase, teachers are the centre It means that they work as informationprovider So far, oral materials are written mainly in two forms in every course-book They are dialogues and prose And obviously these two forms must bepresented in different ways

According to Byrne (1991:22) ten different steps are used to present adialogue They are the following:

- Establish setting by using pictures At this phase English should be used asmuch as possible

- Draw out learners’ experience related to situation

- Explain some key words

- Set listening task by asking key information of the dialogue

- Ask learners listen without looking at the books

- Allow learners to have a look at their book when necessary for them

- Ask the learners to listen and repeat

- Ask learners to pick up difficulties (good chance for them to speak) andexplain difficulties

- Ask them to practice (role-play)

- Ask them to dramatize the dialogue

It is known that this procedure is perfectly and logically arranged However,

it is dependent on learner’s competence so some steps can be left out It is quitehard for Vietnamese learners to conduct the ten steps because they are generallyshy and time is limited

 The practice phase

Unlike in the presentation phase, in this phase learners have to do most of talking.Teachers provide maximum amount of practice Practice is usually in the forms ofactivities to improve fluency of speaking At this phase, pair work or group work is used

 The production phase

Learners need chances to speak English freely at this phase A real chance tospeak English takes place when the learner is able to use English naturally forthemselves, not for their teachers

Byrne (1991:22) concludes that in order to improve speaking ability oflearners, these three phases above should be followed orderly But in fact, theymight not be applied as expected due to time limitation, types of learners andmaterials in use The teachers should pay attention to what has been spoken by thestudents during the Practice and Production phases so that they can see how farstudents have improved their speaking skills and what mistakes they might produce

A speaking lesson is successful or not depends on many factors such as learners’participation, the use of language, etc

1.5.4 A successful speaking lesson in classroom

Ur (1996:120) explains four elements of a successful speaking lesson They are:

 Learners talk a lot

A speaking class indicated by most of the period time allotted the activity is in factoccupied by learner’s talk It seems obvious, but most time is taken up withteacher’s talk or pause

 Participation is even

A monitoring of talkative participants doesn’t dominate classroom discussion here

It is hinted that all get a chance to speak and are fairly evenly distributed

It means that learners need to express themselves in utterances that arerelevant, easy to comprehend each other and can be acceptable level languageaccuracy According to Nunan (1996: 32) successful oral communication shouldinvolve developing:

 The ability to articulate phonological features of the languagecomprehensibly;

 Mastery of stress, rhythm, intonation patterns; an acceptable degree offluency;

 Transactional and interactional skills;

 Skills in talking short and long speaking in turns, in the management of theinteraction, and in negotiating meaning;

 Conversational listening skills (successful conversations require goodlisteners as well as speakers);

 Skills in knowing about and negotiating purposes for conversations;

 Using appropriate conversational formulate and fillers

In summary, there are many factors of a successful speaking lesson

However, it is not easy at all to implement such a speaking activity thatsatisfies all above mentioned criteria, but it is necessary to remind language teachers

of them as they design and administer such activities

1.6 Willingness to Communicate – Willingness to speak

Recent studies investigating affective variables have focused on the attributewillingness to communicat These studies have been conducted with immersionstudents from middle school to those in university settings (Baker & MacIntyre,

2003, Donovan & McIntyre, 2004; MacIntyre, Baker, Clément, & Conrod, 2001;MacIntyre, Baker, Clément, & Donovan, 2003; Peng, 2007)

Willingness to communicate conceptualizes a speaker’s intention to engage

in communication when given a choice Some individuals may be very hesitant toinitiate or respond in the target language, and this hesitance may affect theirlanguage outcomes in negative ways This variable may have particular significance

in contexts that differ in the amount of participation and communication required ofstudents such as that in immersion and non-immersion contexts To date,willingness to communicate has not been studied in primary school children Thewillingness to communicate construct was initially adapted for an second languagecon-text by McIntyre (1994) who developed a path model which suggests thatwillingness to communicate has two key antecedents: communication apprehensionand perceived communication competence Both of these affective variables wereexamined in the current study.

1.7 Teacher-student interaction

1.7.1 Interaction

Human interaction, according to Abarca (2004), is a process whereby two ormore people engage in reciprocal action This action may be verbal or non-verbal.Thus for the purpose of teaching a language, teachers mainly focus on the verbalinteraction or communicative interaction (Cummins, 1994) without separating thenonverbal interaction that is present at an early phase and which has been called thesilent period

In the educational context, interaction can be regarded as taking place atvarious levels Ordinal interaction is unidirectional and consists of the ordering orselection of pre-structural elements Reciprocal interaction (or tutorial interaction)involves the presenting system accepting student input and actively shaping theinteraction in response to it (www Imuaut Demon.co.uk/trc/edissues/ptgloss.htm)

Elsewhere Abarca (2004) believes that interaction can be described asdepending on the dominant type of interaction that is taking place in the Englishclassroom In other words, we have teacher-dominated classroom where the teacher

is most of the time talking and students’ participation is limited; teacher-centeredclassroom where the teacher is controlling the students’ participation through someclassroom activities and the students have the chance to participate Finally, thestudent-centered classroom is the one where the students can participate moreactively

According to Lyster (2006: 270) interaction plays a key role in "derivingsecond language development forward because learners rely on semanticallycontingent speech as a primary source of positive and negative second languagedata" Seedhouse (1999) mentions three characteristics of task-oriented interaction.These characteristics are:

 that there is a reflexive relationship between the nature of the task

and the turn-taking system,

 that there is a tendency to minimalization and indexicality, and

 that tasks tend to generate many instances of clarification

requests, confirmation checks, comprehension checks, and

self-repetitions

Long (1996) and Gass (2003) have claimed that second language interactionfacilitates learning because, while focusing on communicating, learners can receivefeedback and receive opportunities to make use of that feedback by modifying theiroutput

1.7.2 Teacher-student interaction

Wubbels and his colleagues (Wubbels, Brekelmans, van Tartwijk, &Admiral, 1999; Wubbels & Levy, 1993) identify appropriate dominance as animportant characteristic of effective teacher-student relationships They definedominance as the teacher's ability to provide clear purpose and strong guidanceregarding both academics and student behavior Teachers can exhibit appropriatedominance by establishing clear behavior expectations and learning goals and byexhibiting assertive behavior

According to Eschenmann (1991), teachers can motivate their students tolearn if they take the time to build relationships Further research (Whitaker, 2004)also suggests that teachers need to have a strong belief that building relationshipsare important to the motivation process It is important that educators recognize theimpact they have on their students, and consider strongly their students’ perceptions

of them (Eschenmann, 1991) Teachers have to ensure that they are meeting student

needs, both academically and emotionally Creating classroom environments thatpromote positive cultures with healthy interactions can motivate students to channeltheir energies and desires to reach their goals According to Whitaker (2004), themain variable in the classroom is not the student, but the teacher Great teachershave high expectations for their students, but even higher expectations forthemselves (2004) These teachers recognize the importance of connecting withtheir students, that if they are unable to connect with them emotionally theninfluencing their minds may be impossible (2004)

Both teachers and students have to value their contribution A student has tofeel worthwhile and appreciated A teacher needs to recognize that he or she canhave a positive effect on their students Wiseman and Hunt (2001) refer to this as

“teacher efficacy” and note that the more the teacher believes in this, the more theywill cause it to happen (p.11) Research acknowledges (Whitaker, 2004; Tyler &Boelter, 2008) teacher expectations as strong and reliable predictors of performanceamong elementary, middle and high school students

A student wants to feel connected to people and to feel as though he or shedeserves to be loved and respected (Stipek, 2002) According to Stipek many of thechildren who are not doing well academically, are the same ones who have a poorrelationship with their teachers Typically, the more they fall behind academically,often, the more this relationship is weakened If they are constantly reprimanded inclass, the environment and the teacher-student relationship begin to hold negativeassociations Stipek found that students who perceived a more nurturing relationshipwith their teachers tended to have better attitudes towards academics and often didbetter than their peers who lacked the same support system Stipek also referenced aBelmont and Skinner study conducted in 1993, which supported the idea that a goodteacher-student relationship positively influenced learning “The more connected achild feels, the more they are willing to attempt tasks and to seek help whennecessary The student who feels this sense of connectedness may want to maintain

it or please the teacher by doing well in class (2002)”

According to Tyler and Boelter (2008), positive teacher expectations wereassociated with high academic performance or academic gains; whereas negativeteacher expectations resulted in decrease in academic performance The significance

of knowing teachers’ beliefs regarding their roles in student motivation is crucialdue to the accepted correlation between this perception and actions (2008).Whitaker (2004) argues that it is better to create the relationship that will motivatethe student to behave versus advertising the consequences School climate andculture will enable or restrict classroom instruction and student learning (Stewart,2008), since students adapt to their environment If educators create a culture wherestudents are expected to succeed, many often conform Researchers van derWesthuizen, Mosoge, Swanepoel, and Coetsee, (2005) suggest that an effectiveorganizational culture can enhance academic achievement and lead to reducedstudent drop out and failure rates, effective discipline, and regular attendance

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY

This chapter provided information about students’ interest in learningspeaking English and their willingness to speak during English speaking classes Inthis chapter, the justification for data collection instruments is presented Theresearcher paid good attention to the subjects and the procedure of the study Hence,the preliminary results of how teacher-student interaction influences students’willingness to speak at Kim Son A High School are reported The researcher alsogives some suggestions to help teachers at Kim Son A High School enhancestudents' interest in speaking lessons

1 Description of the subjects

In this study, two groups of subjects were involved: the first group consisted

of 40 10th grade students of Kim Son A High School and the other consisted of 3teachers of English of Kim Son A High School The researcher observed onespeaking lesson in class 10B1 to understand the current teacher-student interaction

of this class

The questionnaires were distributed to 40 students mentioned above beforethe researcher conducted his research After he finished his teaching of speaking inthe class 10B1, he would deliver a set of questionnaires to the students again

Interviews were conducted with the participation of 3 teachers of English.All answers were recorded as the evidence for the analysis

2 Settings and subjects of the study

This study was conducted at Kim Son A High School, situated in Phat DiemTown, Kim Son district, Ninh Binh In order to serve the purposes of the study and,

at the same time, to facilitate data collection and analysis, 40 students were chosen

to participate in the action research All of them were 10th grade students, from 15 to

16 years old, and both male and female They could do paper tests very well, buttheir participations in English speaking lessons were short of expectations Also,most of them did not feel confident when communicating in English The authoralso invited 3 teachers of English to participate in this study These teachers had

taught English for at least 3 years They had not only the knowledge of English butalso knowledge of the subject matter Thus, the author believed that from theseteachers’ experience he would get information about the real situation of learning ofEnglish speaking of the 10th grade students Besides, he could take a look at how theteacher-student interaction could impact the students’ willingness for speaking.Thereby, he could find an effective solution to improve the students’ speakingskills.

3 Current situation of teaching and learning speaking skill at Kim Son A High School

The teaching and learning of English speaking skill at Kim Son A HighSchool have shared problems with most other high schools in Ninh Binh province.The levels of proficiency of the students are mixed, which makes it extremelydifficult for teachers to carry out so many teaching plans simultaneously Moststudents enrolled the school with relatively poor knowledge of English It is thecommon matter of schools in such a rural area To makes the matter worse, moststudents seem to have little interest in learning to speak in the language since alltheir exams involve paper multiple choice types consisting of grammar andvocabulary only Last but not least, the poor teacher-student interaction maynegatively affect their willingness for their participations in speaking activities

3.1 Questions of the research.

To achieve the aims mentioned above, the following research questions wereraised for exploration:

1 How can teacher-student interaction impact students’ willingness to speakduring English speaking classes?

2 What can help form the good teacher-student interaction to enhance students’participation in their speaking activities?

3.2 Research methods

Qualitative method was employed to analyze the data collected throughclassroom observations, questionnaires and informal interviews

4 Justification for data collection instruments

In this study, three main data collection instruments were used:questionnaires for teachers and students, class observations and interviews forteachers They were the effective tools to help the author gather the information forthe study

4.1 Questionnaires

A questionnaire was employed in this study because of the followingreasons According to Saphier (Saphier,1993:411), there are a lot of advantages for

using a questionnaire If carefully planned, it is a useful method for gathering a

large number of general data and opinions from a large number of people relativelyquickly Questionnaires are easy to analyze Another good point is thatquestionnaires are familiar to most people Nearly everyone has had someexperiences completing questionnaires and they generally do not make peopleapprehensive As a result, it will be easier to carry out an investigation usingquestionnaires In addition, questionnaires can reduce bias There is uniformquestion presentation and no middle-man bias The researcher's own opinions willnot influence the respondents to answer questions in a certain manner There are noverbal or visual clues to influence the respondents And one more advantage ofusing questionnaire method is that questionnaires are less intrusive than telephone

or face-to-face surveys When a respondent receives a questionnaire, he or she isfree to complete the questionnaire on his/her own time-table Unlike other datacollection instruments, questionnaires can help the respondents to avoid beinginterrupted by the research instrument

The questionnaires delivered to the students and the teachers contained bothclosed and open questions They enabled the researcher to get a lot of informationwithin a short timescale Moreover, it was easy for him to analyze the informationgathered and to present the results gotten

The researcher conducted tow cycles of questionnaires Pre-questionnaireswere delivered to the students before the study to find out their real situation of

learning speaking skill and how they sensed their current teacher-student interaction

as well as how that interaction impacted their willingness for their speakingactivities Whereas, the students received the second set of questionnaires calledpost-questionnaires after the researcher had completed his teaching of speakinglessons in class 10B1

The researcher’s aim was to see how the teacher-student interaction he hadtried to form impacted his students’ willingness for speaking and then he couldmake some changes for more motivated students in classes of speaking

4.2 Interviews

Interviewing is a basic research tool in social science In this study, interview

was used for teachers to obtain information about teachers' attitudes toward howteacher-student interaction impact students’ willingness to speak Furthermore, theresearcher would like to know the teachers’ suggestions for a good teacher-studentinteraction

In this type of interviewing, most of the questions are open-ended designed

to elicit the participants’ perspectives without sensitizing the participants to anyhypotheses of the researcher

For the study to be detailed, the researcher interviewed three teachers – hiscolleagues at the same school Such interviews were provided before the study and

at the same time with the survey questionnaires he delivered to the teachersmentioned above

4.3 Observations

Observation is a way of gathering data by watching behaviors, events, or

noting physical characteristics in their natural setting Observations can be overt

(everyone knows they are being observed) or covert (none knows they are beingobserved and the observer is concealed) The benefit of covert observation is thatpeople are more likely to behave naturally if they do not know they are beingobserved However, you will typically need to conduct overt observations because

of ethical problems related to concealing your observation

The researcher conducted the observation of one speaking lesson of class10B1 Then he made observations of his own speaking lessons of the same class Hewould like to make a comparison between the teacher-student interaction before andduring his study Also, the differences in how those interactions on the students’participations for speaking lessons could be seen.

During the researcher’s teaching of speaking in that class, it would not befair and completely correct if he himself judged the process of his work In otherwords, it would be easy for him to be conservative Therefore, three teachers wereinvited to observe his speaking classes After their observations, they were asked tocomplete survey questionnaires so that the researcher could make out all the matterscovered in the process of his doing the research