A study on activities to motivate first year, non english major students in english speaking lessons at HAUI

In fact, there a many problems for teachers and students in applying these communicative activities to enhance speaking skills for first year students at Non- major English Division- Fac

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

HANOI – 2017

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisior: Dr Đỗ Tuấn Minh

HANOI – 2017

DECLARATION

I, Quang Thi Bich Ngoc, hereby certify that my thesis submitted for the Faculty of Post- Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, apart from the help recognized, is my own work The substance of this thesis has not, wholly or in part, been summited for a degree to any other formal course of study

Hanoi, 2017

Signature

Quang Thi Bich Ngoc

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my special and sincere thanks to

my supervisors, Dr Do Tuan Minh, who gave me enthusiastic instructions, precious support and critical feedback on the construction of the study This has always been one of decisive factors in the completion of this thesis

Second, I also express my profound gratitude to all doctors, lectures and staff members of the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable lectures and useful advice that are a great help to fulfill the study

Next, I would like to send my deep sense of thanks to the teachers and the first- year students of Non- major English Division- Faculty of Foreign Language- Hanoi University of Industry for their cooperation and the valuable information they provided in my research field

Furthermore, I would like to send my heartfelt gratitude to my family and all

of my friends who have great source of endless care and support

Last but not least, I am also thankful to many writers whose important ideas and notions are exploited and developed in the study

ABSTRACT

Modern teaching methods of foreign languages count on involving the use

of different organizational forms of activities which support such a development The way teachers organize these activities and perceive the individual steps connected with the organization of activities may essentially influence the eventual efficiency of the activity and the consequent development of speaking skills In other words, motivated activities are essentially provided to for the needs of teaching English to communicate successfully

In fact, there a many problems for teachers and students in applying these communicative activities to enhance speaking skills for first year students at Non- major English Division- Faculty of Foreign Language of Hanoi University of Industry Therefore, the research approach undertaken by this study combined between qualitative and quantitative methods To seek answers for the issue, data elicited through survey questionnaires and classroom observation from 150 first-year, non-major English students and 30 teachers at NED were collected and 15 English lessons are observed and analyzed in the forms of frequency, percentage, charts and tables Findings from the research show the real situation of teaching and learning speaking skill as well indicate the most frequent, effective activities are applied at NED According to the basic findings, some suggested communicative activities are presented with appropriate samples in the part of recommendation of this study Then some suggestions for teachers while using the activities are also given

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II ABSTRACT III TABLE OF CONTENTS IV LIST OF TABLE AND FIGURES VII

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1, Rationale 1

2 Aims of study and research questions 2

3 Significance of the study 2

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Method of the study 3

6 Design of the study 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.0 Background of speaking 5

1.1 Relation between activities and communicative activities 5

1.1.1 Communicative language teaching approach 6

1.1.2 Communicative activities 8

1.1.2.1 Definition of communicative activities 8

1.1.2.2 Features of communicative activities 9

1.1.2.3 Purposes of communicative activities 10

1.1.2.4 Sample communicative activities 11

1.2 Motivation 16

1.2.1 Definition of motivation 16

1.2.2 Dornyei's (1994a) extended framework 16

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 20

2.1 Research method 20

2.1.1 Research setting 20

2.1.2 Subjects 21

2.1.3 Participants 22

2.2 Research instruments 23

2.3 Data collection 23

2.4 Data analysis 23

2.5 Summary 24

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 25

3.1 Data analysis 25

3.1.1 Results of teachers and students‘ survey questionnaire 25

3.2 Findings and discussion 35

3.2.1 Findings from classroom observation 35

3.2.2 Findings from questionnaire survey 36

3.3 Conclusion 38

CHAPTER 4 39

IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMENDATION 39

4.1 Some kinds of effective communicative activities 39

4.1.1 Using songs 39

4.1.2 Communicative games 40

4.1.3 Question and answer 42

4.1.4 Role play 43

4.1.5 Class discussion 44

4.2 Some considerations and suggestions on using communicative activities 45 4.3 Limitations and suggestions for further research 47

4.4 Conclusion 47

REFERENCES 49 APPENDIX I I SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE (FOR TEACHERS) I APPENDIX II IV SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE (FOR STUDENTS) IV APPENDIX III VII CLASSROOM OBSERVATION CHECKLISTS VII APPENDIX IV IX RESULT FROM CLASSROOM OBSERVATION CHECKLIST IX APPENDIX V XI SAMPLE 1 XI APPENDIX VI XIII SAMPLE 2 XIII

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT: Communicative language teaching

L2: Second language

ESL: English as a second language

ELT: English language teaching

NED: Non- major English Division

FFL: Faculty of Foreign Language

HaUI: Hanoi University of Industry

LIST OF TABLE AND FIGURES

Figure 1: Teachers‘ attitude towards the role of English speaking skills 25 Figure 2: Students‘ attitudes and their feelings towards learning speaking skills 26 Figure 3: Teacher‘s assessment towards students‘ speaking ability 27 Figure 4: Possible factors to motivate students speaking in classroom 28 Figure 5: Teacher‘s viewpoints about the reason why students afraid of

speaking and student‘s actual difficulties in speaking English 29 Figure 6: Teachers' attitudes towards activities in the textbook 30 Figure 7: Teachers‘ time to use communicative activities and the frequent forms that they usually organize 31 Figure 8: Teachers' kinds of communicate activity applied in lesson and students‘ activity favorites 32 Table 0: Components of foreign language learning motivation (Dornyei, 1994a: 280)……… 17 Table 1: Teachers‘ difficulties in applying communicative activities 32 Table 2: Students‘ difficulties in practicing communicative activities 33

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1, Rationale

As for Vietnamese, English communicative skill is important because Vietnam is one of the members of many international organizations such as ASEAN, WTO and UNESCO Besides, Vietnam currently has welcomed a number

of foreign visitors and businessmen to investigate develop a lot of big companies and create great working opportunities for thousands of Vietnamese workers Furthermore, the needs of studying abroad and working in another country also increase for years Briefly, ―speaking skill is an essential process for learning English Performances through speaking are an indicator of success in career and finally in life‖ (Nunan, 1991) Thus, it is essential to renovate and adapt the suitable teaching English methods in every classroom

Admittedly, as regards to the development of speaking skills during a teaching- learning process, ―most lessons of English are carried out through teacher- centered approaches, some teacher have been found to focus on language teaching based on grammar instead of exposing the learners to language teaching‖ (Nunan, 2004) ―Teacher‘s teaching of grammar only and involving the learners in communicative English often give a negative impression to students‖ (Ruso, 2007) Thus, ―there are recommended activities to aid the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information which have been proved to make learning easier, faster, enjoyable, self- directed, effective and transferable to new situations‖ (Oxford, 1990) Therefore, teachers should benefit from some approaches by using their techniques and some good activities to help students master their speaking skills In fact, to motivate student effectively, there are a number of factors for instance, the number of interlocutors, designing activities, interaction patterns, an amount of information processed, time span, teacher and student, but it is impossible to discuss all the factors related to this process in the thesis; therefore, a concentration will be focused only on the effective organization of some communicative activities This

study, therefore, tries to find out applicability of some potential activities in teaching speaking skills and some suggestions used to create English speaking lessons with full of energy and a great deal of motivation for first-year, non-English major students at Hanoi University of Industry

Briefly, all of the problems mentioned above have studied further on ―A

study on activities to motivate first- year, non- English major students in English speaking lessons at HaUI”

2 Aims of study and research questions

This study aimed to address the following issues:

 Investigating the importance of and the difficulties in applying activities in teaching speaking process to non- English major students in Vietnam in general

 Discovering the applicability of some useful activities to improve English speaking skills for first year, non-English major students in Hanoi University

of Industry

In order to fulfil these aims, the study focuses on answering the research questions

1, What are the most frequently used activities to motivate students at FFL-

HaUI in speaking lessons?

2, To what extent, are these activities effective in motivating students at

FFL- HaUI?

3 Significance of the study

As studying on the effective activities and motivation for students in

speaking skills, this work would be benefit for the target population, their English

teacher and other interested in the field

In the first place, as the first- year student, most of them have to face with the new lifestyle in their universities, and then their unconfident feelings of studying with new teachers and friends are expected to be concerned This study is conducted with a hope to provide the friendly study environment for them and help students can speak English naturally and confidently

As for English teachers, the problems which teachers frequently concern about are exploring the effective activities to motivate their students in speaking English lessons Several activities are used during lessons to help and guide students in speaking skills such as role play, storytelling, reporting, and interview Each activity will have various impacts on developing speaking skills for a group of particular students, but not for everyone Hence, it is very difficult to clarify the best activities applied for the first- year, non-English major students in FFL to attain the best result in a long-term studying However, they could base on the results of this work to further understand their students‘ difficulties and it is more compatible and constructive for their students‘ motivation by improve better teaching methods

Last but not least, regarding the researchers who are interested in the same or related field, the researcher hope this paper could work as a reliable source of reference and a basis for them to develop their works from

4 Scope of the study

It would be too ambitious for this minor thesis to cover all aspects of all factors in teaching and learning English speaking Thus, this study only focused on some useful activities that motivate non- English major students of HaUI and how well the teachers of FFL apply them in their English lessons

5 Method of the study

The methods conducted in this study to find out the answers to the aim of research questions are both qualitative and quantitative analyses

Questionnaires and classroom observations are utilized to collect data for the whole paper A survey is done by delivering a questionnaire to 30 teachers of FFL and another questionnaire to 150 first-year, non- English major students at HaUI who are being taught speaking skills under the process-based approach After completing questionnaires, 15 speaking lessons will be observed to build a stable reliability for this study in term of effectiveness of activities applied in English lessons Briefly, all the collected information and data are then analyzed and discussed, for quantitative analysis, frequency, charts, percentage, tables were

published On the other hand, qualitative data were produced from class observation checklist

6 Design of the study

The thesis comprises of two main parts, part A provides a general introduction, including the rationale for the research and its aim, significance, scope, research questions and the design of the thesis And part B is the development sector

including four chapters as follows:

Chapter 1 is an attempt to review some theoretical background for the study

Several underlying theories: communicative approach, the background and some frequently activities, the roles of teacher, some motivation factors are discussed as well In addition, the theory of teaching speaking and some point of views on

activities are also presented

Chapter 2 presents the methodology of the study, including the background

information of the context where the study is conducted, the subjects, the

instruments used to collect data, and the procedures of data collection Furthermore,

a detailed description of data analysis is presented; and some explanations and interpretations of the findings of the study are given in this chapter

Chapter 3 is the conclusion of the study, providing some pedagogical implications

The limitations of the study as well as some suggestions for further research are also discussed in this chapter

To sum up, in the first chapter, the following elements have been presented:

(a) The rationale for the study

(b) Aims of the study

(c) Significance of the study

(d) Scope of the study

(e) Methods of the study

(f) Design of the study

These issues have not only justified the major contents and structures of the study but will also work as the guidelines for the rest of the paper

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.0 Background of speaking

The well-paid attention to the theoretical background of speaking will determine the position of speaking skill among the other skills and to analyze the elements that speaking as a skill includes The following part will present the theory of communicative language teaching approach and communicative activities will be focused in this part Finally, some activities in which speaking skills can be developed wi ll be shown

Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts‖ based on Chaney (1998, 13) In other words, speaking means conveying the message through the words of mouth This skill is also called ―Oral Skill‖ or ―Communicative Skill‖ Harmer (2001) Gower et al (1995, 99-100) indicated that from the communicative point of view, speaking has many different aspects including two principal categories as accuracy

and fluency while Martin Bygate, Speaking (1987), whose theoretical inputs

concerning the elements of speaking will be analyzed into two aspects- knowledge

of the language, and skill in using this knowledge He views the skill as including two elements: production skills and interaction skills, both of which can be affected

by two conditions: firstly, processing conditions, taking into consideration the fact that ‗a speech takes place under the pressure of time‘; secondly, reciprocity conditions connected with a mutual relationship between the interlocutors (Bygate

1987, 7)

Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues However, today's world requires that the goal

of teaching speaking should improve students' communicative skills, because, only

in that way, students can express themselves and proficient at social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance

1.1 Relation between activities and communicative activities

1.1.1 Communicative language teaching approach

With the importance of English currently, teachers need to seek a significant method to meet the demand of learners in using this language for communication The communicative approach or (CLT) is considered as the best approach for such purpose It has attempted to describe theories of language learning processes that are compatible with the communicative approach It is interesting to note that

―Language learning will take care of itself‖ (Harmer, 2001:70) Today, it is not considered as a method but as an approach for teaching based on the idea that language learning means learning how to master the language to achieve a better communication outside the classroom CLT developed because of the limitations of the previous methods, it primarily focuses on the ability to communicate and interact which was absent in the other methods It is mainly based on the theory of communicative competence that comprises grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competence

Communicative language teaching (CLT) begins with Chomsky (as cited in Manner 1985) mentions that native speakers know all the rules With this knowledge, the native speaker can create an infinite number of sentences This is called grammatical knowledge competence However, Dell Hymes (as cited in Harmer 1984) disagrees with him He argues that Chomsky misses some important points Native speaker knowing all the rules is not enough because it cannot explain all that native speakers‘ knowledge; they need to know the functions of language as well Hymes coined the concept called communicative competence

Hymes (as cited in Harmer, 1984, 13-14) separates native speakers‘ knowledge on language into four parts First, systematic potential, this is a lot similar to Chomsky‘s original competence The native speaker has system that can produce unlimited language; second, appropriacy- the native speaker knows the appropriateness of using language in a given situation; third, occurrence- the native speaker knows what language is commonly used If the native speakers use a

common piece of language, it will be clear and understandable The last one is feasibility, the native speaker knows if something is possible to use in a language For example, native speakers know that using too many adjectives does not make sense when producing language even though there is no rule to limit how many adjectives can be used before a noun

The theory of communicative competence has gone through a serious development so far Brown (1994), He refers to several theories of communicative competence as they developed through periods of time It has been the philosophy

of communicative language teaching (CLT) for many years to teach foreign languages through communicative approach which focuses ‗on speaking and listening skills, on writing for specific communicative purposes, and on authentic reading texts‘ (p.226)

The most important features of CLT then Brown defines by means of four characteristics:

a) Classroom goals are focused on all of the components of communicative competence and not restricted to grammatical or linguistic competence; b) Language techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic, authentic, functional use of language for meaningful purposes Organizational language forms are not the central focus but rather aspects of language that enable the learners to accomplish those purposes

c) Fluency and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlying communicative techniques At times fluency may have to take on more importance than accuracy in order to keep learners meaningfully engaged in language use

d) In the communicative classroom, students ultimately have to use the language, productively and receptively, in unrehearsed context (Brown

1994, 245)

Nevertheless, as Brown suggests, the newest views are probably best captured by Lyle F Bachman (1990) in his schematization of what Bachman calls

‗language competence‘ (Brown 1994, 227-229) According to Bachman (1994, 84), communicative competence, ‗communicative language ability‘ (CLA), includes two basic aspects - firstly, knowledge, competence in the language, and, secondly, the capacity for implementing or using the competence Bachman proposes three components that in his view ‗communicative language ability‘ framework includes, they are: language competence, strategic competence, and psychological mechanisms

Bachman divides language competence into two categories: organizational and pragmatic competence Organizational competence, further splitting into grammatical and textual competence, presents those abilities involved in controlling the formal structure of language for producing or recognizing grammatically correct sentences, comprehending their propositional content, and ordering them to form texts (Bachman 1994, 87)

In a nutshell, communicative language teaching has based on different characteristics, most researchers agree on the need for the communicative competence to support learning and make the classroom interaction successful A classroom communicative competence- the philosophy of communicative language teaching as Brown stated is essential in order for the second language students to participate in and learn from their classroom experience

Briefly, in present day, many linguistics and teachers agree on that students learn to speak in the second language by "interacting" Communicative language teaching and collaborative learning serve best for this aim Communicative language teaching is based on real-life situations that require communication By using this method in classes, students will have the opportunity of communicating with each other in the target language

1.1.2 Communicative activities

1.1.2.1 Definition of communicative activities

Communicative activities refers to the classroom activities that provide a genuine information gap and make it possible for language learners to communicate

with target language in Communicative Language Teaching Approaches (Liao, 2000) In other words, communicative activities are activities that give students both a desire to communicate and a purpose which involve them in a varied use of language They have real purposes: to find information, to break down barriers, to talk about oneself, and to learn about the culture Even when a lesson is focused on developing reading or writing skills, communicative activities should be integrated

into the lesson

Communicative activities are fluency-based activities (Tait, S., 2001) While such activities may involve students to practice a particular grammatical form, they are likely to do more than this The key element is that the activity is based on a realistic situation This could be anything from an encounter in a department store,

to a group of friends discussing holiday plans, etc Within this kind of context, students should be required to negotiate for meaning This is likely to require multiple turn taking

1.1.2.2 Features of communicative activities

Savignon (2001) claims that ―the problem at present is that some of the activities being introduced as communicative activities are not communicative at all but structure drills in disguise‖ Thus many teachers may think that the activities they design and use in class are communicative, but actually they are not Therefore the features that make a real communicative activity should be focused on Based

on related views about communicative activities, Sun & Cheng (2000) summarizes three common features as follows:

- Communicative activities are task-based Task-based English teaching concentrates on communicative tasks that learners need to engage in outside the classroom

- Communicative activities are learner-centered The emphasis of teaching activity is on students‘ initiation and interaction Students are expected to participate in the activities as real people and take responsibility for their learning

- Communicative activities emphasize the use of authentic language input and the teacher‘s native or near native language competence in order to produce communication in the classroom We can represent the distinguishing features between the two types of activities in the following ways:

Communicative activities Non-communicative activities

1.1.2.3 Purposes of communicative activities

The aim of communicative activities is to encourage purposeful and meaningful interaction between learners Communicative tasks are created so learners will have a goal or reason for speaking: they can bridge an information and opinion gap and can ask for or provide real information, or find out about their friends‘ opinions Communicative activities can motivate the classroom and prepare the learners for real- life interaction (Gower Phillips & Walters 2005) Harmer (2007) has the same opinion that the characteristics of truly communicative activities encourage learners to use language Learners are motivated to communicate to achieve a goal Their aim is to focus on what to say not the form being used, and they will have to deal with a variety of language structures not just one language structure

Littlewood (1991) concludes the purpose of communicative activities as follows:

- Communicative activities provide whole-task practice through many kinds of communicative activities in order to suit the learners‘ levels of ability

- Communicative activities improve motivation The learner‘s ultimate objective is to take part in communication with others The more students see

One language item Teacher intervention Materials control

their classroom learning related to their objective, the more their motivation increase

- Communicative activities allow natural learning Many aspects of language learning can happen only through natural processes which work when the learner is involved in using the language for communication That is why communicative activities are a vital part of the total learning process

In a nutshell, communicative activities can create a context which

supports learning, create positive personal relationships among the learners and between learners and the teacher, which encourages individuals to learn better

1.1.2.4 Sample communicative activities

Communicative activities are dealt with a large number of methodology books and their classification is distinguished according to each author‘s point of view

However, all of them mention the same or similar communicative tasks but in

different extent Here are some types of typical communicative activities

1.1.2.4.1 Information gap activities

Information gap activities are described by Thornbury (2005) who claims that in these kinds of tasks there is a knowledge gap among learners and it can be bridged

by using the language So, in order to obtain the information, the interactants have

to communicate Littlewood (1994) labels these activities as functional

communication activities He emphasizes sharing the information among learners and its processing The most common information gap activity is spotting the

differences in the pictures, exchanging personal information, guessing games and also creating the story based on flashcards shown to the students in random order, for a few seconds and one flashcard per group only This makes the students

cooperate and communicate with each other to find the lacking information

1.1.2.4.2 Discussions

Discussions are commonly used activities in speaking lessons A topic is introduced

to the students via a reading or a listening passage and then they are asked to

discuss a related topic in order to come up with a solution or a response

Celce-Murcia (2001) mentions that students need to be reminded that each person within a group should have a specific responsibility in the discussion – either keeping time, taking notes or reporting the results made by the group members

motivation

1.1.2.4.4 Class surveys

A class survey is an activity where all the learners in the group need to ask each other questions to find information, which they then need to analyze and report back

to the class Doing surveys can be a useful way of getting students to interact,

produce question forms, collect and analyze real information In the classroom, class surveys can have various aims and functions: as warmers, as ice-breakers for new classes, as pre-reading activities, to provide freer practice of target language, as tasks etc The key qualities of surveys are that they are communicative and

dynamic

1.1.3 Teacher and students’ role in communicative activities

Before understanding the role of teacher and student in communicative activities lessons, it is very important to inspect the relationship between teacher- students and vice versa Scrivener (2005: 85) made the following diagram to show clearly how the interaction happens between the teacher and the students

During teacher-learner interaction, the students seek to demonstrate their speaking and listening skills in front of their teachers that is why latter should consider his way of interacting which is very crucial in learning and teaching According to Harmer (2009) teachers should focus on three things when they talk with their students Firstly, they must pay attention to the kind of the language the students are able to understand, first, teachers should provide an output that is comprehensible for the level of all the students Secondly, the teachers must think about what they will say to their students, hence the teacher speech is as a resource for learners Finally, teachers also have to identify the ways in which they will speak such as the voice, tone and intonation

On the other hand, many theories of learning maintain that knowledge is actively constructed and skills improved through interactions between learners as it

is shown in the diagram in figure 2 done by Scrivener (2005: 86) Johnson (1995) supports that if learner-learner interaction is well-structured and managed, then it can be an important factor of cognitive development, educational achievement of

students and emerging social competencies It can also develop the learners‘ capacities through collaborative works Thus, learners will establish social relationship through this kind of interaction, where the sense of learning community

is promoted and isolation is reduced in the classroom Naegle Paula (2002: 128) adds also that ―talking students with their peers about the content of the course is a

powerful way for them to reinforce what they have learned.‖ The teachers then must

encourage such type of interaction between learners because it is the fastest and the best way, it makes learners active rather than passive participants

By knowing the teacher- learner and learner- learner interaction, the roles of the teacher can be categorized from several points of view, for example, according

to the type of the activity, stage of the activity, or the interaction pattern selected for the particular activity

Byrne (1991, 13) divides the roles of the teacher according to the type of interaction activity distinguishing between fluency and accuracy activities On the one hand, during fluency activities, the teacher frequently adopts the roles of stimulator, manager and consultant, reminding that the main reason for taking part

in such activities is to get students to interact, build the activities and to be available for help and advice if students need and ask for it On the other hand, the roles that the teacher carries out during accuracy activities will primarily include the roles of conductor, organizer and monitor Teacher‘s main task will therefore be to make sure that the students know what to practice, and that they practice effectively, together with organizing the activities and checking while students are performing

In relation to fluency speaking activities, Harmer (2001, 275-276) mentions three basic roles that teachers take on including: prompter, participant, and feedback provider

While taking the role of a prompter, the teacher offers discrete suggestions or lets students struggle out of a difficult situation (when students get lost, cannot think

of what to say next, lose fluency), which can stop the sense of frustration when coming to a ‗dead end‘ of language ideas A teacher acting as a participant prompts covertly, introduces new information to help the activity along, ensures continuing students‘ engagement, and generally maintains a creative atmosphere Harmer warns that when acting as a participant, the teacher should be careful not to participate too much, thus dominating the speaking and drawing all the attention to him or herself Finally, feedback provider, Harmer says, may inhibit students and take the communicativeness out of the activity by over-correction; therefore, the correction should be helpful and get students out of difficult misunderstanding and hesitations

1.2 Motivation

1.2.1 Definition of motivation

Many researchers have been conducted and there is much in the research literature regarding the definition of motivation All the motivation theories in general want to explain the fundamental question of why humans behave as they do, and therefore we cannot assume any simple and straightforward answer

Motivation is described as the impetus to create and sustain intentions and goal seeking acts (Ames & Ames, 1989) Burden (1997:119) assumed that ―from a cognitive perspective, motivation is concerned with such issues as why people decide to act in certain ways and what factors influence the choice they make It also involves decisions as to the amount of effect people are prepared to expand in attempting to achieve their goals The role of the teacher thus becomes one of helping and enabling learners to make suitable decisions"

Dornei (2001:613) defined motivation as ―a general ways of referring to the antecedents (i.e the causes and the origins' He also stated that ―motivation explains why people decide to do something, how hard they are going to pursue it and how long they are willing to sustain the activities‖ (2001:7) The author mentioned two

dimensions of human behavior: direction and magnitude (intensity) which

motivation concerns Motivation is ―the process whereby goal-directed activity is instigated and sustained‖ (Pintrich& Schunk, 2002)

From the above, it can be deduced that motivation is a psychological trait which leads people to achieve a goal Motivation is what drives you to ―behave‖ in

a certain way or to take a particular action

1.2.2 Dornyei's (1994a) extended framework

L2 motivation (Dornyei, 1994a) that attempted to synthesize various lines of research by offering an extensive list of motivational components categorized into three main dimensions, the Language Level, the Learner Level, and the Learning Situation Level (see Table 1)

The most elaborate part of the framework is the learning situation level, which is associated with situ-action-specific motives rooted in various aspects of language learning in a classroom setting Course- specific motivational components are related to the syllabus, the teaching materials, the teaching method and the learning tasks Teacher- specific motivational components concern the teacher‘s behavior, personality and teaching style, and include the affiliate motive to please the teacher,

Table 0: Components of foreign language learning motivation (Dornyei, 1994a: 280)

Language Level Integrative Motivational Subsystem

Instrumental Motivational Subsystem Learner Level *Need for Achievement Self Confidence

*Language Use Anxiety

Teacher-Specific Affiliative Motive

Motivational Components Authority Type

Direct Socialization of Motivation

*Modelling *Task Presentation

*Feedback

Croup-Specific Goal-orientedness

Motivational Components Norm & Reward System Group

Cohesion Classroom Goal Structure

authority type (authoritarian or democratic teaching style), and direct socialization

of student motivation (modelling, task presentation, and feedback) Finally, specific motivational components are related to the group dynamics of the learner group (for an overview, see Dornyei and Malderez, 1997, in press; Ehrman and Dornyei, 1998) and include goal-orientedness, the norm and reward system and classroom goal structure (competitive, cooperative or individualistic)

group-In other words, motivation bases on some factors but in this thesis, learner level will be discovered in detail Therefore, in order to create motivation for student improvement, the teacher should apply as many kinds of activities as possible which should be interesting and familiar to them Another point to bear in mind is that the activities and the topics used must be suitable to learners‘ level since it creates a good condition for students to take part in communication As such, students are no longer afraid of being laughed at by their friends when they make mistakes and they have a self- study achievement Instead, they participate in the lesson so eagerly that their task objective is achieved

According to Byrne (1991, 11-12), the development of speaking skill is good source of motivation for most learners and some important points for teacher are stated to be paid attention to:

 Try to find ways of demonstrating to the learners that they are making progress in the language all the time You can do this, for example, by repeating an activity from time to time (such as a game or a discussion), so that they can see for themselves how much more language they can use

 Ensure that controlled practice, when you will monitor and want to correct the leaners‘ performance, is matched by opportunities for free expression when the learners should not be discouraged by correction

 Show the learner how to make the use of the little they know Sometimes they cannot express an idea because they do not have the precise language they have in mind They need to be shown how to get round these difficulties through paraphrase and alternative expression

 We should accept that some learners will never achieve a high level of oral proficiency We should be satisfied if the students reach a high level of comprehension (since this is essential for oral communication) and an adequate level of production By placing more emphasis on comprehension

we are also identifying a goal is attainable with large classes (especially if you expose your students to a good deal of language e.g by talking to them yourself, using recorded material, etc.) and will therefore motivate the majority of the students (Byrne (1991, 11-12),

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Research method

in ELT and research Also, it is keen on developing its teaching and research capacity and on offering a dynamic learning environment for prospective students

Therefore, becoming a member of this Department is the dream of many teachers and students At the FFL, teachers in NED deal with first year students — main stream Currently, teachers are in charge of teaching totally over 10 majors including mechanical engineering technology, chemical technology, electrical engineering technology, accounting, business administration, software technology, thermal engineering technology, car technology, etc Their age ranges from 18 to 20 years old, and obviously, they had to pass the very hard entrance exam to become one of the members at HaUI However, admittedly, English is not their strength Thus, they have to try their best to study both social subjects as well as English English is studied with 90 lessons during 15 weeks for each semester Particularly, speaking skill is taught in combination with other skills during 45 minutes multiple with six lessons per week The number of students in each class is around 30, which considers being the advantage for the teachers to carry out speaking activities effectively

2.1.1.2 Current situation of teaching and learning English speaking at FFL

At high school, students are taught to primarily focus on grammar, sentence rules and reading skills while speaking and listening were not paid much attention

to The students automatically remembered what the teachers had written on the blackboard with indistinguishable meanings and uses and they are merely taught by teacher- centered teaching procedures Their learning, therefore, is centered on accuracy rather than fluency

At university, speaking skills find its own place and is taught separately and

in combination with other skills Since then, teacher-centered approach has been replaced by learner-centered approach gradually The role of the teacher in class is a guide for the students Thus, it is necessary to create suitable study environment for students to actively participate in classroom activities by organizing groups work and pairs work However, having some problems that prevent students from taking part in these speaking activities, perhaps, the reason is that they are still affected by the traditional teaching and learning methods that are used at high schools Therefore, they remain being passive learners in class and do not have high interest

or great motivation to participate in the classroom activities

In summary, a brief overview about actual situations at NED where the data were collected has been presented Some issues related to students, teachers, learning requirement, speaking teaching situation have been investigated, which provides the context for the research to be undertaken The next part will focus on the methodology applied in the study

2.1.2 Subjects

New Head Way (elementary level) is the speaking course book for non- English major freshmen (main stream) It is structured with a priority towards theme-based or topic-based approach, including 14 units, each semester deals with 7

of them The course book aims at providing students with a profound knowledge of numerous fields, a favorable attitude towards English and four skills proficiency in English (Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing) In order to achieve these

objectives, the content of the book is designed based on topics related to social life,

sports, work and leisure, which are familiar with students For each topic, related vocabulary and word study are presented communicatively In addition, new

methods of language teaching and learning such as learner-centered approach, communicative approach and task-based teaching are extensively employed However, this course book is chosen for speaking skills so that the activities related

to writing or reading are sometimes redundant meanwhile those for speaking are not enough

2.1.3 Participants

2.1.3.1 Students

Most of the students at NED have been learning English since they were 3rdform students During their time of learning English, their chance of practicing speaking is few The reason is basically in the fact that at high school, the students merely centered upon English reading and grammar while speaking and listening were not paid much attention to because these two macro skills are not tested in Year 12 Graduation Exam and University Entrance Exam Their learning, therefore,

is concentrated on accuracy rather than fluency Moreover, the entrance examination is mainly focused on reading and grammar As a result, there are still many students whose communicative ability in English stands at or even below the acceptable level

2.1.3.2 Teachers of Non- major English Division (NED)

At NED, there are totally 30 teachers of English aged from 23 to 31 The oldest teacher has more than 9 years of teaching experience and the youngest just has nearly one year All of them graduated from different universities who are trained into English teachers such as University of Languages and International Studies, Hanoi University and Hanoi University of Industry This real situation of teachers at NED reflects the fact that some of the teachers are so young and not experienced enough, which can cause certain methodological difficulties in terms of the knowledge of as well as the way to apply communicative activities in their teaching process However, all the teachers at this division are so energetic and well- aware of the important role of the ability to communicate in English and the teachers play a very crucial part in the forming student‘s ability of speaking

2.2 Research instruments

Two sets of questionnaires were used in this study, one for teachers including

11 questions and the other for students which consist of 10 questions The questions are both close-ended and open-ended

In addition, the researcher‘s classroom observation was taken at NED, which was noted down, analyzed then synthesized for further use in the study Classroom observation helped the researcher survey the motivated factors in classroom when teacher apply CLT activities, so that it will help to answer the research question Moreover, reliability and validity of the data collected for this study could be achieved

2.3 Data collection

At the beginning of the second semester of the academic year 2015-2016, two sets of questionnaires were sent to those teachers and students at NED who

agreed to take part in the research

After one week, these questionnaires were collected Information from these questionnaires were then summarized and presented in the form of statistic information (charts and tables) for analysis to make implications and recommendations on the most applicable communicative activities to enhance speaking skills for first year students

Besides, the method of observation was carried out during the second semester, two weeks after the administration of the questionnaires Fifteen speaking lessons were observed All implemented communicative activities were noted down

to see how they were organized and how effective they were to ensure validity and reliability of the collected data

2.4 Data analysis

In the data analysis stage, the researcher categorized the collected data from the two questionnaires of teachers and students then divide the data analysis into two phases to have parallel comparisons between teachers and students‘ attitudes as follows:

a Teachers and students‘ attitudes towards teaching and learning speaking skills

b Teachers and students‘ attitudes towards methods of using communicative activities

For qualitative analysis, observation checklist based on the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL)Version for Speakers of Other Languages Learning EnglishVersion 7.0 (ESL/EFL) R.L.Oxford, 1989 For quantitative analysis, frequency, percentage, charts were calculated Interpretations were then made with regards to the two research questions

2.5 Summary

The approach of research in this study is both quantitative and qualitative In order to collect information on the situation of teaching and learning English speaking at NED of FFL, on the applicability of effective communicative activities for teaching English speaking, a questionnaire survey was conducted Two sets of questionnaire were designed for teachers and students NED to seek the following information on:

- Some effective activities which can be applied in the teaching and learning

of speaking skills

- The most frequent activities used in speaking skills

- Students and teachers‘ problems in the learning and teaching of speaking skills through communicative activities

This study is of practical importance because the data and result collected from it as the vital evidence to the theoretical knowledge in the previous chapter and as the practical basic for suggestions to effective way of improving speaking skills for students through communicative activities

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Data analysis

3.1.1 Results of teachers and students’ survey questionnaire

As previously mentioned, the survey questionnaire for teachers consists of three parts with 11 questions including open-ended and close-ended questions Part one is constituted by 4 questions conveying teachers‘ attitudes towards teaching

speaking Part two asks about teachers‘ attitudes towards communicative‘ activities,

which includes four questions The final 3 questions elicit data on the teacher‘s difficulties in using communicative activities to teach English speaking skill

The students‘ questionnaire is constructed with 10 questions divided into three parts The first five questions asking about student‘s attitudes towards learning English speaking skill Eliciting student‘s attitudes towards communicative activities is the content of part two, which consists of four next questions The students‘ difficulties in practicing communicative activities are discovered in the part three with one open question

These are some difficulties that the surveyed teachers have encountered in their use of communicative activities A careful study in the attitude of students towards speaking skill as well as communicative activities can tell whether teacher really have those obstacles or not The next section presents information collected from students

3.1.1.1 The role of speaking skills

The first, four questions were designed to find out the teachers‘ attitudes towards teaching English speaking skills, at the same time, five questions in

students‘ questionnaire figure out their attitude towards speaking skills

Figure 1: Teachers’ attitude towards the role of English speaking skills

It is apparent from the chart in figure 1 that all of the teachers considered that speaking skills are important or even very important compared to other skills in the English curriculum None of them think that speaking skills are not important at all This result depicted that teachers at NED are all fully aware of the crucial role of speaking skill in foreign language teaching and learning

As regards to question 3 for teachers about teaching the speaking skill in combination with other skills, all teachers (100%) agreed that they often taught speaking in combination with other macro skills of reading, writing and listening because they thought that those skills could support each other, which brought effectiveness to the learning process of the students

Figure 2: Students’ attitudes and their feelings towards learning speaking skills

In figure 2, a large percentage of the students (60%) said that they were

certainly interested in speaking skill and they fully realized the importance of

communicative competence In comparison with three other macro language skills,

24% of the students considered speaking skills more important than writing,

listening and reading skills while the rest (16%) agreed on the idea that speaking is

as important as other skills In students‘ feelings, there is a surprise that even they

are not really interested in speaking skills (35%), they cannot deny the fact that

speaking skills are equally important to other skills

In the survey for students, the result of the question 3 ―How often do you

speak English in class?‖ 68% students said ―Sometimes‖ Merely 12% the students

answer that they usually speak English in class More surprisingly, the writer found

that the number of students who rarely speak English in class is not small (20%)

This also shows a big question for the teachers of English and the reasons why they

do not participate much in the activities

c less important/ uninterested

students' viewpoints Students' feelings

Figure 3: Teacher’s assessment towards students’ speaking ability

The statistics shows how students‘ speaking ability is judged by their teachers None of the teachers asserted that their English learners‘ oral skills are either very good or bad Most of them (95%) agreed that the students‘ speaking ability was just acceptable and a very tiny proportion of the teachers which accounts for 5% had the thought that it was good

Figure 4: Possible factors to motivate students speaking in classroom

a They talk with your friends.

b Their teacher asks them.

c They are interested in the topic and activities.