An investigation into the effects of English new on Speaking skill of junior majoring in English at Tay Do University

This method might have good effects on students speaking skill which could link the factors of vocabulary, grammar, knowledge, confidence and other skills all together.. It showed the ef

ABSTRACT

Speaking plays a great role in developing English proficiency Therefore, students should apply some effective methods to build this skill and one of them is listening to English news This method might have good effects on students speaking skill which could link the factors of vocabulary, grammar, knowledge, confidence and other skills all together This study “An investigation into the effects of English news on speaking skill of juniors majoring in English at Tay Do University” aimed to investigate the effects of English news on speaking skill Data were collected from 34 juniors majoring in English course 7 at Tay Do University and 3 teachers teaching speaking at the same school The instruments of this research included questionnaire and interview The findings revealed that listening to English news resulted in positive influences on developing students’ speaking ability It showed the effects on students’ abilities such

as background knowledge, vocabulary, pronunciation, logically thinking and listening skill which would help students improve their speaking skill

Then, I would like to gratefully thank 3 experienced teachers who spent priceless time giving truthful and helpful information to providing this study Additionally, many thanks to students of English class course 7 for supporting helpful information to finish

my research

Finally, my heartfelt gratitude goes to my beloved family and dear friends, without whose encouragement, inspiration and consolation support over time and distance, I could not complete this report

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT……….……….i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……… ……….….……ii

COMMENTS……….……….…….…………iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS……….… iv

LIST OF FIGURES……… ….….… vii

LIST OF TABLES……….viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.Rationale: 1

2.Research aims - Research questions: 2

2.1.Research aim: 2

2.2.Research questions: 3

3.Significance: 3

4.Organization: 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.Definitions of the term speaking: 4

2.The importance of speaking skill: 5

3.Factors affecting speaking: 6

3.1.Pronunciation: 7

3.2.Vocabulary: 8

3.3.Grammatical structures: 10

3.4.Accent and interpretation: 11

3.5.Confidence: 13

3.6.Speaking environment: 14

4.The effects of English news on speaking skill: 15

4.1.Widening knowledge: 15

4.2.Enriching vocabulary: 16

4.3.Learning pronunciation: 17

4.4.Thinking logically: 18

4.5.Improving listening skill: 18

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 20

1.Design: 20

2.Participants: 20

3.Instruments: 21

3.1.Questionnaire: 21

3.2.Interview: 21

4.Procedure: 22

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 23

1.Result: 23

1.1.Result of the questionnaire: 23

1.1.1.The participants’ learning and practicing time: 23

1.1.2.Environment: 25

1.1.3.Attitude and motivation: 26

1.1.4.Factors affecting students’ speaking ability: 28

1.1.4.1.Pronunciation: 28

1.1.4.2.Vocabulary: 30

1.1.4.3.Grammatical structures: 31

1.1.4.4.Accent and interpretation: 32

1.1.4.5.Confidence: 33

1.1.4.6.Environment: 34

1.1.5.The awareness about the benefits of English news: 35

1.1.5.1.Widening knowledge: 35

1.1.5.2.Enriching vocabulary: 37

1.1.5.3.Learning pronunciation: 38

1.1.5.4.Thinking logically: 40

1.1.5.5.Improving listening skill: 40

1.2.Result of the interview: 42

1.2.1.Students’ interview: 42

1.2.2.Teachers’ interview: 43

2.Discussion: 44

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 47

1.Conclusions: 47

2.Limitations: 48

3.Implications: 48

4.Recommendations: 49

REFERENCES……….….…….ix

APPENDIES……….…… …….…….xiii

APPENDIX 1……….……….…….….….xiii

APPENDIX 2……….…….……… …xxi

APPENDIX 3……….……….…… … xxiii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Percentage of participants’ English learning years 24

Figure 2 The juniors’ self-evaluation on speaking level 25

Figure 4 Students’ thinking about English speaking 27

Figure 6 Participants’ problem in producing sounds 29

Figure 7 Participants’ attitude toward English grammar in speaking English 32 Figure 8 Participants’ thinking about the affection of environment 35

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 The amount of time students spend on practicing speaking everyday 24

Table 2 Some methods chosen to improve their speaking skill 29

Table 3 The results of statements about students’ pronunciation 28

Table 5 Participants’ attitude toward English grammar in speaking English 31

Table 6 Participants’ thinking about accent and interpretation 33

Table 7 Participants’ feeling about confidence in speaking English 34

Table 8 The effect of English news on widening knowledge 36

Table 9 The effect of English news on enriching vocabulary 37

Table 10 The effect of English news on learning pronunciation 38

Table 11 The effect of English news on improving students’ thinking 40

Table 12 The effect of English news on improving listening skill 41

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1 mentions the rationale, the research aim and research questions, the

significance and the organization of the research

1 Rationale:

English may not be the most spoken language all over the world However, it is the official language in a large number of countries It is estimated that the number of people in the world that use in English to communicate on a regular basis is 2 billion It helps people communicate with the citizens in most of countries without confusing in expressing their thinking, feelings when they know English If students have good English knowledge, it could help them find a good job with high salary Notwithstanding, learning English is not easy In communication, speaking is an important part and the main tool for human to communicate with others

Speaking is the means through which learners can communicate with others to achieve certain goals or to express their thinking and feelings When speakers want to express their thinking, they should do that by oral communication Therefore, the frequency of using speaking skill is very high As Rivers (1981) argues, speaking is used twice as much as reading and writing in our communication Speaking is also classified to monologue and dialogue The former focuses on giving an interrupted oral presentation and the latter on interacting with other speakers (Nunan, 1989) Speaking can also serve one of two main functions: transactional (transfer of information) and interactional (maintenance of social relationships) (Brown & Yule, 1983)

In fact, transfer of information is an activity which does not lack in human’s everyday life It also causes some problems and students have to face a lot The main reasons are

confidence in expressing ideas, mistakes in pronunciation, lack of knowledge and vocabulary in speaking In addition, when learning, students just keep silence and only sit in their seats, they do not move around to exchange ideas or say anything This becomes the obstacles for them to find the words to say out On one hand, a large number of students who come from the countryside were familiar with the traditional methods From that, students become nervous about speaking when turning to university for learning English major Their speaking background knowledge is not enough for them to receive other knowledge in the new environment This is also the problem for most of all students majoring in English at Tay Do University They did not have to stand in front of many people to talk about any topic, show their ideas, or discuss and argue their thinking with other people They will feel so hard with new teaching methods at university

Therefore, improving speaking skill as well as communication skill plays an important role in English learning However, how can students improve their speaking skill? And who could help them practice it? From the viewpoint of the researcher, listening to the news in English is a good way to improve their speaking skill They need to focus on a lot of things such as the interpretation, intonation, spelling, vocabulary, grammatical structure when listening to English news Through this study, the researcher would like

to make an investigation into the effects of English news which may help students overcome difficulties in speaking and also develop their speaking ability The researcher hopes that the research will be useful with juniors majoring in English in learning speaking and become a foundation for them to build their other skills as well

2 Research aims - Research questions:

2.1 Research aim:

The research aimed at investigating the students' attitude toward the effects of news in

English on speaking This study showed the relationship between listening to English

news and its benefits in building speaking skill Thanks to this study, students could have a chance to apply this effective method to develop their speaking skill

2.2 Research questions:

To possess a good speaking skill is a challenge to almost learners, especially people who do not have enough time to practice speaking skill regularly Spending a little time each day listening to the English news may help students improve their skill invidiously This research was expected to figure out the benefits of news in English

The research was carried out to answer these following main research questions:

1) Does news in English help juniors majoring in English at Tay Do University improve their speaking skill?

2) How does news in English help juniors majoring in English at Tay Do University improve their speaking skill?

3 Significance:

This study is expected to provide the way to improve speaking skill of students at Tay

Do University Particularly, by investigating the application of listening to English news of juniors majoring in English, it will shed some benefits on the effectiveness of this method The researcher hopes that students can improve their speaking with the news as well as the previous method which they have applied

4 Organization:

This study includes five chapters consisting of

Chapter 1 – Introduction

Chapter 2 – Literature Review

Chapter 3 – Research Methodology

Chapter 4 – Result and Discussion

Chapter 5 – Conclusions and Recommendations

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 2 is about the definitions of the term speaking This section also mentions the importance of speaking, the factors affecting speakers, effects of English news on

speaking skill

1 Definitions of the term speaking:

Nowadays, English is known as the most popular language all over the world People use it to learn, communicate, exchange goods, etc It is also an important subject at school Students were taught four main skills including speaking, listening, reading and writing through the time of studying at school In which, speaking is the skill which is learned in the oral mode This skill is not only the way of speaking words but also the way of pressing idea

According to Brown, 1994, Burns & Joyce, 1997, “speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information.” Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving

Richards and Renandya (2002: 204) stated that “effective oral communication requires the ability to use the language appropriately in social interactions that involves not only verbal communication but also paralinguistic elements of speech such as pitch, stress, and intonation.” Moreover, nonlinguistic elements such as gestures, body language, and expressions are needed in conveying messages directly without any accompanying

speech Besides that, another definition of speaking is “the action of conveying information or expressing one’s thought and feeling in spoken language” (Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English 2009) Similarly, in Oxford Learners’ Dictionary (1995), speaking is to express or communicate opinions, feelings, ideas, etc by or as talking and it involves the activities in the part of the speaker as psychological, physiological (articulator) and physical (acoustic) stages In fact, speaking is a skill used by someone in daily life communication whether at school or outside The skill is acquired by much repetition; it primarily a neuromuscular and not an intellectual process It consists of competence in sending and receiving messages (Cambridge University Press, 1960: 5) According to Roger Grower and Steve Walters (1995),

“speaking is also a productive skill which consists of two main aspects: accuracy and fluency” From these above definitions, it can be concluded that speaking skill has the relationship with communication It also seems like the skill to use the words to express human’s meaning accurately and fluently

2 The importance of speaking skill:

In the modern world, to adapt to the demand of work, each person should have enough abilities of communicating fluently in English because English is used as a common language in this global village For this reason, a lot of educational systems in the world consider speaking English the most important subject They bring speaking to the students and help the students improve their speaking skill in many ways Gerald Gillis stated that “speaking skills are important for career success, but certainly not limited to one’s professional aspirations Speaking skills can enhance one’s personal life, thereby bringing about the well-rounded growth we should all seek” In fact, it is

like a big deal which brings a lot of profit, if human can speak English fluently

According to Exforsys – a team of IT Consulting and Training team led by Chandra Vennapoosa (2010), they stated that we have established the importance of communication skills in any and all aspects of our lives What one needs to remember

is that communication is a two-way process involving the speaker and the listener Communication can only be considered effective if both aspects are achieved successfully Actually, every single day, people are given opportunities to speak At home, they interact with family members and neighbors They ask for driving directions from passersby or converse with the waitress at the local pub At work, people can talk to colleagues and superiors They discuss business issues and concerns during business meetings They educate customers on products and services being offered Indeed, such skill is being utilized anywhere and everywhere

Now imagine if a person does not possess good speaking skills It would be very difficult to express thoughts and ideas to others; it would be almost impossible to gain understanding from these people if human cannot even convey their message clearly and accurately People with below average communication skills, particularly speaking skills, will have difficulties in presentation over gatherings, whether social, personal, or business-related It is either that he does not know how to put his thoughts and ideas into words or he simply does not have enough confidence to speak in the presence of other people Regardless of what may be the reason for this, it leads to one thing: ineffective communication And a person who cannot communicate effectively would find it difficult to strike a good impression on others, especially on their superiors

3 Factors affecting speaking:

English is a common language in the modern life However, in our country, the applying of this foreign language is still not spread widely It limits the development of English and other language as well In learning a second language, students have

already faced difficulties of communicating in a new language The speakers’ perfect speaking is affected by many different aspects such as pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, etc In this study, the researcher presents some common factors that students often meet in learning English

3.1 Pronunciation:

In almost all languages, the communication between human and human is the first factor that people have to focus on It is the beginning of all things like exchange goods, expressing ideas or points of view, etc Thus, to have a good communication with other people, a person should pronounce exactly the sounds of the words that he wants to say

In a high or low level, pronunciation has the connection with other language skills and sub-skills For that, trying to separate these skills is impossible Pronunciation is considered as “an integral part of oral communication” (Morley, 1991, p 496) since

“good pronunciation facilities communication and enhance intelligibility” (Varasarin, 2007) Linking pronunciation with grammar and vocabulary, Underhill (2011) maintain that while the two cerebral activities (i.e., grammar and vocabulary) give language its structures and meaning, pronunciation is its embodiment through speaking and writing According to Peodjosoedarmo (1995), the features of pronunciation which can cause confusion include: using the wrong words, leaving sounds out, adding sounds, putting stress on the wrong syllable in a words, putting stress on the wrong words in a sentence, using the wrong intonation pattern, combination of these problems On one hand, Coulthard & Johns (1980) said that “intonation in English might also convey a speaker’s involvement in a conversation as well as a desire to take a turn of talk of talk

or leave a conversation Intonation is a significant feature in English.” Gilbert (1994)

also stated that the purpose of intonation is to help the listener to follow Although intonation is a remarkable part in speaking English, not many people pay attention to it

As these above reasons, the importance of speaking needs to concentrate much However, to develop pronunciation skill, people should spend a lot of time to learning and practicing day by day because in some countries, learning a foreign language is not easy They do not have experience when listening to a foreigner’s language, of having great difficulty in understanding what they are going to say The main obstacle here is the sounds which they produce seem peculiar and the voice rises and falls in unexpected places, not because of their lack of knowledge of vocabulary or grammatical structures Therefore, foreign language learners should pay attention to the significance of producing the sounds accurately and fluently

3.2 Vocabulary:

In the way of learning a new language, learners have to learn vocabulary which will help them to convey their messages or ideas So, the more they study, the more easily they can speak or write out the thinking because in the learning time, they will meet a lot of types of words with a lot of meanings Hence, vocabulary is very important when learning a language It needs time to develop and remember In many cases, even native speakers of the language could not know all of the words of their mother tongue Sometimes, students themselves may surprise because their vocabulary is not enough for them to communicate with other people This is the most difficult of learning vocabulary that students have to face

Stahl and Fairbanks (1986) said that “vocabulary knowledge has been identified as the most indicator of oral language proficiency, which is particular important for comprehension of both spoken and written language" Besides that, Loews et al (2004,

p.127) confirmed that “you want your audience to understand you as easily as possible,

so always choose vocabulary you think they will know or explain specialist terms to them when you use them” In this point, he wants to mention that the speakers should choose the words carefully when they would like to say something in front of the audiences It will help the listeners understand what speakers mean easily and correctly

According to Lehr et al, 2004, vocabulary is broadly defined as knowledge of words and word meanings However, Lehr and his colleagues state that vocabulary is more complex than this definition suggests First, words come not only in oral forms including those words that can be recognized and used in listening and speaking but also in print forms to be recognized and used in reading and writing Second, word knowledge also comes in two forms: receptive and productive Receptive vocabulary is words that can be recognized in reading and listening Productive vocabulary refers to words that can be used in speaking and writing (Lehr et al., 2004) Besides that, vocabulary is understood as knowledge of word spelling, pronunciation, collocations (i.e words it co-occurs with), and appropriateness (Nation, 1990) However, Pyles (1970) confirmed that vocabulary is the focus of language with its sounds and meaning, which interlock to allow us to communicate with one another

As discussed above, vocabulary can be known in many ways It plays an important role

to learners because it is an instrument to help them to convey and perceive messages Students should acquire a large number of words to communicate well and need to know how to use the words exactly Good vocabulary knowledge and mastering the ways to use it skillfully will help students be more confident when speaking and writing

3.3 Grammatical structures:

Whenever people want to speak from the simple sentences to the complex ones, they must use right grammatical structures It represents language abilities of each person From that, grammar can be seen as one element that needs accuracy To have a good ability in using grammar structures, it needs time and diligence to develop because even some native speakers usually find it hard to speak or write a sentence grammatically They sometimes make some mistakes which often cause the changing

of the meaning of sentences, especially in the paragraphs Therefore, speakers may

sometimes create the misunderstandings in expressing their ideas or meanings

According to Wikipedia website - the free encyclopedia, “English grammar is the body

of rules that describe the structure of expressions in the English language This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses and sentences.” Anh and Hung (2012, p.1) claimed that “grammar is a vital language component, without which communication is impossible Indeed, misuse of structures can obstruct the conveyance

of messages, which consequently leads to confusion and sometimes communication breakdown An advanced knowledge of grammar, however, may enable the pronunciation of concise, witty and elegant utterances.” Additionally, grammar plays

an important role in foreign language teaching (Marianne - Celle Murcia, 1991) No one can deny the importance of grammar in learning language Thus, improving grammar helps the students know how to use grammar structures exactly in speaking English It is the basic element that students have to acquired in speaking English because when students are good at grammar, they will have more advantageous than other who are not in learning speaking English They could avoid from using wrong grammatical functions to have appropriate sentences in speaking It is a good idea for learners to combine good grammar with suitable words, so it will affect directly students’ communication as well as their speaking ability

In fact, Richards and Schimidt confirmed that spoken languages as “language that has been spoken, as compared to written language” (2002, 41) In addition, Brown and Yule (1983) pointed out that regarding sentence structures, spoken language is much simpler than written language In spoken language, sentences are usually shorter and possibly incomplete or ungrammatical form may often occur Indeed, students just learn English in some years in high school They do not have enough time to focus on sentence structures and using tenses On one hand, teachers just introduce them some simple grammar forms It makes a hole in the grammar skill which affects their study abilities when going to university For example, using Vietnamese style for English grammar, confusing in meeting some complex grammatical structures, mistaking when identification the types of grammar sentences, these obstacles will hind the reception knowledge from teachers, friends, books or other sources Hence, possessing a large knowledge of grammar is the first step in learning every type of languages

3.4 Accent and interpretation:

When we listen to the news or watch the media, we can see that the editors or MC use the accent and interpretation to transmit to the listeners or viewers If their accents and interpretation have the inspiration, they will make the audiences want to be eager follow their program in the next time or more In fact, accent and interpretation are the two important elements in speaking skill In the conversation of two people or the group of people, if the one cannot attract others, the conversation will fail because of boring atmosphere There are no connections and attractions between the two or the group of human There are many reasons causing that problem such as lacking ideas, boring accent, lacking interpretation

In the previous paragraph, there is a big obstacle in speaking if human cannot express their ideas or meanings to others However, that obstacle is in the daily life, what are

the problems in learning a second language? According to Alison (2011) “professional interpreting is best done by native or near-native speakers with an intimate knowledge

of the cultural and linguistic quirks of the languages they work with” She means that accent and interpretation could be arrived in the near-perfect if it is expressed by the native speaker The reason is the native speakers who have the time to practice with that language when they were the children So, they themselves accumulated their own experiences, knowledge, vocabulary, etc for the accent and interpretation in communication, presentation, and so far

On the other hand, a researcher from the Hong Kong Institute of Education suggested that students may do better learning a language from a teacher whose accent mirrors their own – that is, not a native accent It confirmed that learners did not need to mimic like a native tongue They just needed to study that second (or third or fourth) language

in the easy ways Alison (2011) also stated that “striving for a “perfect accent” is a little nonsensical anyway, unless you’re taking lessons from a newscaster - virtually every language has a multitude of acceptable native accents” It is an opposite idea in her article She pointed out that people should express their accent and interpretation in the appropriate and comfortable way of them Since, in a conversation, the expression has the implication for other people to understand the meaning of the speaker

Therefore, if a person can possess both good accent and good interpretation even the native or near-native accent, they can communicate easily, express ideas and meaning better Especially, making other people know what he says easily However, to do that, practice is a very important Try to read English out loud every day for at least 30 minutes if you have the time This will help get you used to pronouncing common expressions and phrases If you have a recording device, try recording yourself and listen back to focus on the improvements you can make (San Diego Lasik)

3.5 Confidence:

In the purest sense, confidence is known as what people are good at, the value they provide, and the acting in a way that conveys that to others Conversely, with the arrogance which typically involves believing they are better in a particular area than they are, or low self-esteem which involves believing they are less valuable than they think The closer of their self-assessment is to that reality in the middle Besides, if people behave accordingly, they will need to the healthy confidence

Kelly Lin stated that (from the Sokai Gakkai Site), “self-confidence is very important

If you have low self-esteem, you will not dream up goals because you will think that it

is impossible to reach them Without goals, however, life would be meaningless and boring Having a goal is like putting an apple in front of a horse, to make it more forward Each time you reach your goal, your self-confidence grows stronger and you are encouraged to set a new goal Each time you accomplish something you set out to

do, you get a good feeling This feeling cannot be taken away from you”

Actually, confidence is the factor which plays an important role in every aspect in life such as business, education, communication, etc Especially in learning foreign languages, it will help learners improve their language abilities In specific words, confidence will improve learners’ speaking skill (one of the four main skills) because they need to point out their own thinking to express their ideas Moreover, they have to make some questions to their teachers, friends and colleagues to develop their ideas Furthermore, self-confidence is more important than other factors such as skills, knowledge, and experience For example, if a person has all factors as well as skills, but not confidence, it will become the biggest obstacle for his future job because on the interview day, he will meet the interviewers If he does not have enough confidence to answer all of the questions of this company, how can he pass that job interview?

Almost all people state that confidence creates trust, and this trust will be the first step

in business or making friends Therefore, a person can get others’ trustworthiness if he knows how to trust himself as well as project his confidence by project others’ trustworthiness

3.6 Speaking environment:

Speaking could be seen as the complicated skill of four main skills in English Students

need to practice it for a long time to get a certain degree A good speaking learner is the one who can express ideas by many words in a short time They should speak loudly

and fluently when communicating, and be confident when speaking However, to become good speakers, they should become people who could transmit the information

to the listeners quickly and clearly That the reason why students should learn speaking skill by listening to English news In the news, MCs will present the information by their native voice It is very useful for students to learn because if they can speak like native speakers their pronunciation and skills (listening and speaking) could be improve and it also help them understand more about English language (about grammar structures, idioms, slang words, choosing suitable words in specific context, etc) Actually, it is advised to study English effectively Since, they can listen to English news everyday like a daily activity After time, they are able to widen their knowledge which is useful for their English studying

On the other hand, Saharudin Setapa confirmed that environmental factors such as noise, temperature and uncomfortable seating can cause us to focus our attention on other factors besides what the speaker is saying They should try to control environment factors whenever possible, try adjusting the thermostat, find another seat,

or move to a quiet place to continue the conversation It is hard to focus attention when

we are constantly distracted by outside forces

4 The effects of English news on speaking skill:

There are a variety of methods students can use to improve their English speaking skill, including listening to the English news Many students think that if they want to improve their speaking skill, talking with the foreigners or native speakers is the best choice It is a great way However, how could they convey their ideas when they do not have enough background knowledge as well as vocabulary knowledge, listening ability, etc? As a result, listening to the English news could be an effective method to help them develop their abilities before practicing with other people

4.1 Widening knowledge:

The news is the program transmitting the new information, hot news in the social life, etc Therefore, listening to the news brings the hearers a lot of types of knowledge in many majors or factors in the world Besides, when human listen to the news, they will receive a lot of information that will become human’s knowledge Since, the information will be clarified to save the main information in human’s brain It may become useful knowledge if people could use it in some necessary cases Actually, Anthony Liew, Walden University (2007) claimed that “the key to understanding the relationship between information and knowledge is to know where the information resides Recall that information is at its essence a message that is generated from activities and situations However, information resides in storage media (database, print, video tapes, etc.) in the form of data, or in the human mind as knowledge (in its simplest form of know-what or the higher forms of know-how and know-why) If this

is the case, then the overlap between data and information in relation to information and knowledge becomes obvious, i.e they occupy different spaces at the same time This also explains why many people can perceive data and information, as well as information and knowledge as interchangeable.” Similarly, James T Mangan stated that “you have a pair of ears — use them! When the other man talks, give him a

chance Pay attention If you listen you may hear something useful to you If you listen you may receive a warning that is worth following.”

The previous saying mentions the importance of listening In every angle in life, human can get many benefits or correct their mistakes For example, in business, before doing something, a staff must focus on the saying of the director who will steer exactly what

he needs to do If he does not listen to the supervisor, the mission may not be completed On one hand, listening to the news is also like listening to the steer or advice of other people When human focus on the news, they can get some useful knowledge that they have never known before That knowledge will be accumulated day by day People could use it in some cases Especially, it is useful in discussing, expropriating and explaining their ideas in English speaking topics

4.2 Enriching vocabulary:

Vocabulary is known as the important factor which helps human express what he or she wants to say However, it needs time to practice a lot to remember thousands of words They should also spend time in a long process to take note the meaning, structure, word forms, etc Nation (2001) said that “second language learners need to know very large numbers of words While this may be useful in the long term, it is not

an essential short term goal” Besides, Stahl and Fairbanks (1986) confirmed that

“vocabulary knowledge has been identified as the most indicator of oral language proficiency, which is particular important for comprehension of both spoken and written language”

Similarly, Beck and McKeown stated that “the goal for vocabulary development is to ensure that students are able to apply their knowledge of words to appropriate situation and are able to increase and enrich their knowledge through independent encounters

with words” These statements prove that vocabulary plays an important role in learning a new language Listening to the English news is one of many effective ways since people focus on the saying of the program editors, their mind will receive a lot of information in which including vocabulary

4.3 Learning pronunciation:

Having prefect English pronunciation is the big wishes of most English students English is not an easy language to study It includes many different sounds in the spelling system If students do not make some effort, how can they improve their accent at learning English? They may write a grammatically correct letter, but the listeners cannot hear and understand what words they spoke To improve their accent, spend time listening and carefully imitating words that are difficult to pronounce

There are human’s general listening skills, like when they listen to someone tell them about something or other Their general listening skill of course depends upon their own interests If they are not really interested in something, then they are unlikely to listen closely to a friend relating to his experiences about it However, even if they were interested, some of them would listen well to what is being related and would not superimpose their own experiences as a filter over what they listen to Then there are those who do just that and end up being generally poor listeners These general listening skills are critical for language learning

(http://www.strategiesinlanguagelearning.com/improving-listening-skills)

When people talk to someone, they have to pronounce the sounds exactly to avoid the misunderstanding of other people The reason is that there are a lot of similar sounds in English Therefore, wrong pronunciation can cause the confusion in some cases To possess great pronunciation ability, learners should practice a lot Before pronouncing a

sound, learners must know how to pronounce that sound English news can help them

do that In the news, editors will speak out the words fluently, clearly Especially the sounds that they speak out are similar to the sound of the native speakers Learners will recognize their mistakes in pronouncing the sounds Those mistakes maybe begin when they are still study in high school because teachers just pay attention in grammar in high school They do not spend much time for students practicing speaking skill Therefore, it becomes a gap in speaking skill and drags on the bad pronunciation Therefore, listening to the English news, learners could improve their pronunciation skill by repeating them Time after time, their pronunciation could satisfy invisibly

4.4 Thinking logically:

One more benefit of listening to the English news is logical thinking When listening to the news, we can see that the information is arranged in the logical way Each section has the connection between them Hence, students will learn how to arrange the information in their mind to express ideas effectively

According to Luke Muehlhauser, “some people never learn to think because they cannot admit they are not good at it” In the time of study, students should point out what they have and do not have It will help them realize their weak points, so they can find the best way to improve it This thing is also like learning by the news Students can get a lot of benefits from it if they take a focus on it

4.5 Improving listening skill:

To improve four main skills of English, human should practice a lot According to a website “the best way to improve your English listening is to listen a lot There is no way around it; you have to spend hours and hours listening to people speaking English

Listen to things that interest you If you don't enjoy something, it is going to be hard for you to continue You will get bored and stop.”

(http://www.phrasemix.com/blog/how-to-improve-your-english-listening-comprehension)

Indeed, listening to the news in English brings many effects on students’ listening ability because the editors in the news use a lot of types of sentences to transmit the information to the hearers From that, students can learn many different sentence structures to apply for communication In addition, the news’ vocabulary is used by the

simple words which are easy to understand These words are pronounced differently

when the editors say them individually This is called "connected speech" This thing is not taught a lot in classroom It is based on the ability of each person Therefore, in the news, words have a connected speech in each time Listening to news for a long time, the hearers can get their own experience for speaking like that or hear easily when they talk with the native speakers

Additionally, people use different words and phrases by spoken English in the news than they do in writing, especially using slang words They say "hmm", "ah", "uh", etc The word “that” is also skipped when using relative clauses Almost schools, books and English center teach proper English, which is used in writing and in formal speech Here students will learn casual English for everyday speaking

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Chapter 3 presents the design, participants, instruments and procedure of the research

1 Design:

The design of the study was based on the research questions mentioned in the previous section The main object in this research was participants This is a combination of quantitative research and qualitative research The participants were juniors majoring

in English at Tay Do University The researcher used questionnaire to collect the information After that, to check the correctness of the answers, about 10 students were asked to complete the interview papers After all, the researcher analyzed the data from the questionnaire and the interview to get the last result

2 Participants:

The participants of this study consisted of 34 juniors majoring in English of English 7

at Tay Do University There were 5 males of the total of 34 students Their ages were

from 21 to 22 They did not focus on speaking at high school because many of them

come from rural areas or small towns In these places, almost teachers just taught grammar (one of four main skills in English) Therefore, students did not have a chance

to acquaint with speaking before going to university For that reason, after learning speaking at school with teachers and some foreign volunteers, students have to spend a lot of time on applying some methods to improve speaking ability “Listening to English news” was presented as a good method They had chances to use this method

in class, so it may not be strange with them However, they admitted that they hardly used this method when learning speaking English and most of them also found that their speaking was not good Additionally, three teachers who have been teaching

speaking were invited to take the interview about improving speaking skill by the news and other method as well

3 Instruments:

The instruments of this research were questionnaires and interviews instruments The questionnaire was only done by students, but interview questions were to get information from teachers and students With the research aim, the questionnaires and the interview questions checked if students found that English news could help them speak fluently Indeed, the questionnaires intended to find out the factors affecting students’ speaking ability Then, there is a table which shows what the English news could bring to learners Besides, the interview for students was used to compare the information in the questionnaires and to get more details

3.1 Questionnaire:

The research’s questionnaire seemed to be the main instrument The questionnaire consisted of 9 questions and 2 tables Students’ background would be investigated by questions 1, 2 and 9 They mentioned the participants’ years of learning English Questions 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 aimed to survey their attitude toward speaking skill, thoughts

as well as the motivation of students toward their English speaking Additionally, Questions 6 would show some methods that they often used in improving speaking skill On the other hand, the first table was about factors affecting students’ speaking ability The second table mentioned the effects of the English news on speaking skill

3.2 Interview:

After completing the questionnaire, the researcher invited randomly 10 students from

34 students of Bachelor in English 7 class at Tay Do University to join the interviews There were 5 males and 5 females The researcher prepared 4 questions in order to

confirm the information whether what the students answered in the questionnaire was correct or not These interview questions also followed up the attitude, methods, thinking of students in improving their speaking skill by listening to English news It helped the researcher understand students’ answers more clearly Similarly, the researcher also designed some interview questions for teachers who have been teaching speaking skill at Tay Do University The questions focused on investigating teachers’ attitude and their thinking about speaking skill Moreover, the researcher wanted to know what types of methods that the teachers would like to introduce to students, especially the researcher would like to investigate teachers’ thinking about improving

speaking skill with English news

- Designing questionnaire and interview questions

- Contacting and asking teachers and students for the permission

of delivering questionnaire and interview

- Delivering the questionnaire and interviews to students and teachers

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter indicates the results of the research based on the information in the questionnaires and interviews The results show reliable statistical data evidence on the factor affecting speaking and effects of English news on speaking skill

1 Result:

This part shows the results of the questionnaire and the interview The final results are drawn from analyzing the data that the research collected from 34 English majored juniors and 03 teachers mentioned in chapter 4 The results are divided into 2 sections: the results of the questionnaire and the results of the interview

1.1 Result of the questionnaire:

After analyzing the information in the questionnaire, the researcher got the results about students’ learning and practicing time, environment, attitude and motivation, factors affecting students’ speaking ability, and the awareness about the benefits of English news in improving knowledge, vocabulary, pronunciation, thinking, and listening skills of students

1.1.1 The participants’ learning and practicing time:

Investigating the time students spent on practicing and learning English speaking will

be helpful in confirming the level and knowledge of students in speaking The following figure shows the participants’ English learning years calculated from this year (2015)

Figure 1: Percentage of participants’ English learning years

Taking a quick look on figure 1, the highest rate was 82.36%, equivalent to 28 students

in the total of 34 students The number of students who have learnt English from 7 to 9 years was displayed with the rate of 5.88% Besides, with 2 students in all 34 juniors have studied over 10 years, this part got 5.88%, a drop out of about 76.48% with the highest rate This figure also meant that they had more than 4 years of learning English

in both secondary and high schools before joining in university However, more than 4 years of learning English might not be enough to possess a good speaking skill because they had to learn a lot of subjects in these schools As a result, they did not have time for practicing speaking English much Another thing, many teachers in high school or secondary schools usually focus on teaching grammar skill because it is important for tests and examination as well

How many hours a day do you spend on practicing speaking skill? Percentage

Table 1: The amount of time students spend on practicing speaking everyday

Up to now, when learning English major in university as juniors, they might not practice speaking a lot There were only 7 students (20.58%) spending more than 1

hour a day practicing English speaking ability On one hand, almost students in English

7 class spent less than 30 minutes a day with the highest rate 23 students (67.66%) The rest was 11.76% of students who spent from 30 minutes to 1 hour From that, it could state that both learning and practicing time was not enough for students to become good speakers

1.1.2 Environment:

When learning a new language, it will be great if students have good environment to practice Finding a suitable place to practice what they studied might help them know which aspects they are not good From that, they can avoid making mistakes; even get experience to solve their problems Therefore, getting to know about students’ learning environment is very necessary Let’s take a look at the figure below to see where participants come from

Figure 2: Participants’ residences

The percentage of where juniors majoring in English at Tay Do University come from was showed clearly More than 50% students of English 7 class come from rural areas (61.78%) and only 38.23% come from urban areas In addition, taking a look on question number 9, the data showed that the percentage of students who spent more than 1 hour a day was about 20.58% It was less than 79.42% for those who learned

less than 30 minutes and from 30 minutes to 1 hour a day Hence, this proved a fact that students living in the city had more opportunities in learning speaking than those

in the countryside Obviously, 38.23% of students in the city learnt speaking English

subject at high school On contrary, students in the countryside did not learn much

1.1.3 Attitude and motivation:

Speaking is always needed because it is not only a means of communication but also the result of the process in learning new language Students need to have a positive attitude and motivation so that they could overcome difficulties and learn better and if

they were not, it might bring them obstacles in learning languages, especially English

The following figure indicates how studying English is important according to students’ opinion

Figure 3: Students’ attitude toward English speaking

Basing on the participants’ response in figure 3, they had a positive attitude toward this skill It could be seen that 100% of the respondents realized the importance of speaking skill (figure 3) Additionally, in question number 3 “in your opinion, which skill is the most important?” 94.12% of students said that speaking was the most important, 5.88% said listening was the most important

However, when being asked about their English speaking ability, 24 (70.6%) students answered that their speaking ability was average; and there were 5 (14.7%) students who thought their English speaking ability was good The last 14.7% of students thought that their ability was bad; and no one thought their speaking skill was very good or very bad

Figure 4: The juniors’ self-evaluation on speaking level

Moreover, according to the data from the questionnaire, 79.42% of students thought that English speaking skill was the most difficult; and 14.7% of students shared that writing skill was the most difficult There was only 5.88% of students thought listening skill was the biggest obstacle

Figure 5: Students’ favorite subject

On the other hand, taking a quick look on figure 5, more than one-seconds of students

Speaking

Reading

Writing

14.7% chose writing skill Only 5.88% chose listening as their favorite subject From the two questions (number 4 and 5), students needed to choose some way to improve the skill that they like best and more different than other skills The following table will show some methods that students have applied to improve their speaking skill

Others…(Listening to music, watching English channels) 2/34 students

Table 2: Some methods chosen to improve their speaking skill

There were three methods which got the highest rate: watching films in English (30/34), listening to English news (27/34) and communicating with foreigners (15/34)

It means that they think these methods are the effective things helping them improve their speaking skill

1.1.4 Factors affecting students’ speaking ability:

1.1.4.1 Pronunciation:

It is said that English is an important part in this modern life It becomes more and more popular That is the reason why many people choose English to study as a second language or foreign language However, English phonetics is not easy to study Therefore, the students often get difficulties in pronouncing the words in English