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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the researcher will provide the background as well as the rationale of the research in detail followed by the objectives, the research questions, the scope and the organization of the study. 1.1. Background In the context of teaching and learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL), students’ participation in learning activities is very important to successful language learning. EFL teachers can base on the amount and quality of students’ contribution to classroom work in order to evaluate whether they have carried out a good lesson to elicit sufficient responses from students (Goh, 2013). Fassinger (1995) notes that not only teachers but learners can also share the benefits of their participation. According to Cohen (1991, p.699), students’ personal participation or engagement is considered as a means that brings “students actively into the educational process’’ and supports in “enhancing our teaching and bringing life to the classroom”. Furthermore, when students actively engage with what they are studying, they tend to learn better (Daggett, 1997; Weaver & Qi, 2005), enjoy their study more (Junn, 1994) and make an improvement in their communication skills as well as group interactions (Dancer & Kamvounias, 2005). In spite of the benefits of students’ participation in class and the fact that a lot of students are aware of the importance of taking part in class activities, many teachers still experience a great deal of students’ quietness and passiveness in the classroom. Karp and Yoels (1976) find that in any given classroom, only a handful of students commonly participate in classroom tasks, which is known as the phenomenon called “consolidation of responsibility”. According to the research carried out by Howard and Henney (1998), about 90% of interactions in classroom were made by a few students and around one-third were regular participants while a half of the students were observed not to participate at all. It is supposed that the students’ passiveness is one of the common classroom problems facing most of the EFL teachers. The problem of EFL students’ passiveness in classroom has been found in recent studies, especially in Asian English learning environment (Tsui, 1996; Jackson, 2003; Chen, 2003; Zou, 2004; Thompson, 2009). Many students from Confucian heritage culture countries in Asia have often been observed to be quiet in language classrooms, unwilling to speak up and often tend to wait until they are called upon by their teachers instead of volunteering to share their ideas (Tran Thi Tuyet, 2013). The students who were found to be passive learners chose not to use the target language most of the time and rarely actively took part in classroom discussions (Liu, 2005). Such a behavior reflects students’ passive role and their unwillingness to contribute to the classroom work. For EFL teachers, the passiveness of students is a kind of uncomfortable feeling because it negatively reflects on their instructional practice. Furthermore, the act of being passive in class has always been regarded as the main cause of frustration for both teachers and students (Flowerdew & Miller, 1995). Many EFL teachers have felt the frustration after trying their best to activate their students but receive very little or no response (Le Phuong Nga, 2002). It is also clear that EFL classroom will become a frustrating and boring place if most of the students are passive. The passiveness of students not only causes a sense of failure for EFL teachers but also makes them difficult with gaining the goal of communicative language teaching. In particular, the frustration caused by students’ passiveness can be seen more clearly in speaking lessons in which the activities are designed for students’ discussion. Even though everyone seems to realize the significance of participation and teachers always want to boost the activeness in classroom, many students seem to be unwilling to participate in activities due to many different aspects. As a result, to encourage students to fully contribute in the classroom discourse, it is important for EFL teachers to discover causes of their students’ passiveness in class so that they can employ some practical techniques and strategies in order to make their students more active in English speaking lessons.

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

-LE THI THANH HUYEN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO EFL TEACHERS’ STRATEGIES TO DEAL WITH

STUDENTS’ PASSIVENESS IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS

AT SOME HIGH SCHOOLS IN QUANG TRI PROVINCE

MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY

OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts,

Hue University of Foreign Languages

HUE, 2016

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

-LE THI THANH HUYEN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO EFL TEACHERS’ STRATEGIES TO DEAL WITH

STUDENTS’ PASSIVENESS IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS

AT SOME HIGH SCHOOLS IN QUANG TRI PROVINCE

MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY

OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

CODE: 60.14.01.11

SUPERVISOR: HOANG TINH BAO, Ph.D

HUE, 2016

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ

-LÊ THỊ THANH HUYỀN

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC CỦA

GIÁO VIÊN TIẾNG ANH ĐỂ GIẢI QUYẾT TÌNH TRẠNG THỤ ĐỘNG CỦA HỌC SINH TRONG GIỜ HỌC NÓI TẠI MỘT SỐ TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG Ở QUẢNG TRỊ

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP

DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH

MÃ SỐ: 60.14.01.11

NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC

TS HOÀNG TỊNH BẢO

HUE, 2016 STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP

The work contained in this thesis has not previously been submitted for adegree or diploma in any university I certify that, to the best of my knowledge andbelief, my thesis contains no material previously published or written by anotherperson except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.

Signed:………

Le Thi Thanh Huyen

Date: ………

This research aims to investigate EFL teachers’ strategies to deal withstudents’ passiveness in speaking lessons at some high schools in Quang TriProvince The research’s subjects are the EFL teachers and the students from VinhLinh, Gio Linh, Nguyen Hue and Bui Duc Tai High School To fulfill the purpose

of the study, the relevant theories of the previous researchers on teaching strategy,speaking skill and students’ passiveness were chosen and cited appropriately for thecontent of the research

Both quantitative and qualitative metthods were used for the researrch Thedata were collected from questionnaires and interviews Questionnaire weredelivered to 160 students and 32 teachers Additionally, five teachers were invited

to participate in the interviews

The findings of the research demonstrated that there were a lot of strategiesemployed by the teachers to deal with students’ passiveness but the frequency ofusing them varied among teachers In addition, there are still some difficulties incarrying out their strategies effectively because of some problems such as students’shyness, lack of confidence or anxiety.Based on these findings, implications forteachers and students were also presented to increase students’ participation inspeaking lessons as well as enhance the efficiency of English teaching and learning

This study would not be done without the encouragement and assistance ofmany people Therefore, I wish to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation totheir support during the time of doing this research

First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr HoangTinh Bao for his professional guidance and support His guidance helped me in allthe time of studying and writing this thesis

I sincerely thank the teachers and students at Vinh Linh, Gio Linh, NguyenHue, Bui Duc Tai High School who participated in this project

My special thanks would also go to my family and friends for all theirunderstanding, faith, and involvement during the time I was conducting this project

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP iii

ABSTRACT iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ix

CHAPTER I -INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background 1

1.2 Rationale 3

1.4 Research questions 4

1.5 Research scope 5

1.6 Organization 5

CHAPTER II- LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Teaching strategy 6

2.1.1 Definition of teaching strategy 6

2.1.2 What is an effective teaching strategy? 7

2.2 Theoretical background of speaking skill 8

2.2.1 Concepts of speaking 8

2.2.2 Components of Speaking 9

2.2.2.1 Pronunciation 9

2.2.2.2 Grammar 10

2.2.2.3 Vocabulary 10

2.2.2.4 Fluency 10

2.2.2.5 Comprehension 10

2.2.3 The importance of speaking skill 10

2.2.4 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity 11

2.2.5 Speaking activities in classroom 12

2.3 Students’ passiveness in learning 14

2.3.1 Definition of passive learners 14

2.3.2 Characteristics of passive learners 15

2.3.2.1 Personality 15

2.3.2.2 Involvement 16

2.3.2.3 Energy 16

2.3.3 Causes of students’ passiveness in learning 17

CHAPTER III-METHODOLOGY 22

3.1 Research approach 22

3.2 Subjects of study 23

3.3 Data collection instruments 23

3.3.1 Questionnaire 23

3.3.2 Interviews 25

3.4 Data Analysis 25

3.5 Chapter summary 26

CHAPTER IV-FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS 27

4.1 Introduction 27

4.2 EFL teachers’ strategies to deal with students’ passiveness in English speaking lessons 27

4.2.1 Teachers’ strategies in using speaking tasks to deal with students’ passiveness 27

4.2.2 Teachers’ behavioral strategies to deal with students ‘passiveness in speaking lessons 29

4.2.3 Questioning strategies used by EFL teachers to deal with students’ passiveness 30

4.2.4 Using motivational strategies to deal with students ‘passiveness in speaking lessons 32

4.2.5 Using outside classroom strategies to deal with students’ passiveness in speaking lessons 32

4.3 Teachers’ view on the current strategies in dealing with students’ passiveness 37

4.3.1 The current situation of students’ participation in speaking lessons 37

4.3.1.1 Students’ view on participating in English speaking lessons 38

4.3.1.2 Students’ problems with participating in speaking lessons 39

4.3.2 Teachers’ evaluation of the effectiveness of their current strategies in dealing with students’ passiveness 41

4.4 Suggestions given by students 42

4.5 Conclusion 44

CHAPTER V-IMPLICATIONS 45

5.1 Summary of the study 45

5.2 Implications 45

5.2.1 For teachers 45

5.2.2 For students 46

5.3 Limitations of the study 47

5.4 Recommendations for further research 47

REFERENCES 48

APPENDICES 56

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure 4.9: The number of students taking part in speaking lessons 41

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the researcher will provide the background as well as therationale of the research in detail followed by the objectives, the research questions, thescope and the organization of the study

1.1 Background

In the context of teaching and learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL),students’ participation in learning activities is very important to successful languagelearning EFL teachers can base on the amount and quality of students’ contribution toclassroom work in order to evaluate whether they have carried out a good lesson toelicit sufficient responses from students (Goh, 2013) Fassinger (1995) notes that notonly teachers but learners can also share the benefits of their participation According

to Cohen (1991, p.699), students’ personal participation or engagement is considered

as a means that brings “students actively into the educational process’’ and supports in

“enhancing our teaching and bringing life to the classroom” Furthermore, whenstudents actively engage with what they are studying, they tend to learn better(Daggett, 1997; Weaver & Qi, 2005), enjoy their study more (Junn, 1994) and make animprovement in their communication skills as well as group interactions (Dancer &Kamvounias, 2005) In spite of the benefits of students’ participation in class and thefact that a lot of students are aware of the importance of taking part in class activities,many teachers still experience a great deal of students’ quietness and passiveness in theclassroom Karp and Yoels (1976) find that in any given classroom, only a handful ofstudents commonly participate in classroom tasks, which is known as the phenomenoncalled “consolidation of responsibility” According to the research carried out byHoward and Henney (1998), about 90% of interactions in classroom were made by afew students and around one-third were regular participants while a half of the studentswere observed not to participate at all

It is supposed that the students’ passiveness is one of the common classroomproblems facing most of the EFL teachers The problem of EFL students’ passiveness

in classroom has been found in recent studies, especially in Asian English learningenvironment (Tsui, 1996; Jackson, 2003; Chen, 2003; Zou, 2004; Thompson, 2009).Many students from Confucian heritage culture countries in Asia have often beenobserved to be quiet in language classrooms, unwilling to speak up and often tend towait until they are called upon by their teachers instead of volunteering to share theirideas (Tran Thi Tuyet, 2013) The students who were found to be passive learnerschose not to use the target language most of the time and rarely actively took part inclassroom discussions (Liu, 2005) Such a behavior reflects students’ passive role andtheir unwillingness to contribute to the classroom work

For EFL teachers, the passiveness of students is a kind of uncomfortable feelingbecause it negatively reflects on their instructional practice Furthermore, the act ofbeing passive in class has always been regarded as the main cause of frustration forboth teachers and students (Flowerdew & Miller, 1995) Many EFL teachers have feltthe frustration after trying their best to activate their students but receive very little or

no response (Le Phuong Nga, 2002) It is also clear that EFL classroom will become afrustrating and boring place if most of the students are passive The passiveness ofstudents not only causes a sense of failure for EFL teachers but also makes themdifficult with gaining the goal of communicative language teaching

In particular, the frustration caused by students’ passiveness can be seen moreclearly in speaking lessons in which the activities are designed for students’ discussion.Even though everyone seems to realize the significance of participation and teachersalways want to boost the activeness in classroom, many students seem to be unwilling

to participate in activities due to many different aspects As a result, to encouragestudents to fully contribute in the classroom discourse, it is important for EFL teachers

to discover causes of their students’ passiveness in class so that they can employ some

practical techniques and strategies in order to make their students more active inEnglish speaking lessons.

1.2 Rationale

Among the four skills for language proficiency, speaking is often considered asthe center and the most important skill (Bailey & Savage, 1994; Zaremba, 2006) As aresult, EFL teachers in Vietnam have tried their best to encourage students toparticipate in English speaking activities so that students can improve their speakingcompetence and confidence However, the oral outcomes are not very satisfactorywhen a lot of Vietnamese students still find it very difficult to speak English fluentlydue to lack of both confidence and competence despite their seven years or morelearning English at school (Trung Hieu, 2011)

One of the reasons for this problem is students’ passiveness or theirunwillingness to participate in speaking activities Based on my teaching experience athigh school, I have observed that many students are indeed reticent and passive inEnglish speaking activities Some of them know the answers or want to take part inclass activities but they rarely volunteer to do that until being called by the teachers.Stephen and his colleagues (2006) described the learning process of Vietnamesestudents as passive and it consists of more listening to teachers, taking notes andshortening memorized contents in the examinations Some recent studies (e.g.Thompson, 2009; Stephen et al., 2006; Nguyen Tuong Hung, 2002) have also statedthat many Vietnamese students still regard the teacher as the powerful source ofknowledge and rarely take part in classroom activities in an active way This evidenceshows the students’ passiveness as well as the dependent learning style is still popular

in the educational system in Vietnam In the EFL pedagogy environment, therefore,how to deal with the passive learning style adopted by many students in the educationalsystem in Vietnam tends to be a compelling question among EFL teachers

Students’ passiveness has been a common problem facing most of the Englishteachers in Vietnam in general and Quang Tri Province in particular For this reason,this study on EFL teachers’ strategies to cope with students’ passiveness in speakinglessons has an important meaning to both English teachers and students who alwaysconsider speaking as a difficult skill In addition, a better understanding of this problemwill certainly help to improve the quality and effectiveness of teaching speaking skill athigh schools in Quang Tri Province Consequently, this research is conducted toinvestigate further about the passivity of EFL students in English speaking classes withthe hope that this research finding will collect a variety of teachers ‘strategies andexperience to deal with this problem in oral lessons Finally, this study’s outcome canmake a small contribution towards boosting the efficiency the English teaching andlearning, which will be helpful for the researcher as well as counterparts in Englishteaching job.

1.3 Research objectives

The general objective of this study is to investigate the strategies that are used

by EFL teachers to deal with students ‘passiveness in English speaking lessons at somehigh schools in Quang Tri Province Through this research, the researcher hoped to getdeeper insight into the current situation of teaching and learning speaking English atsome high schools in Quang Tri The research is expected to elicit a variety ofteachers’ strategies and techniques to deal with this common problem in most of thespeaking classes The findings and implications of this study would hopefully be useful

in the improvement of teaching and learning speaking English at high schools inQuang Tri Province

1.4 Research questions

In order to fulfill the objectives mentioned above, the researcher makes anenormous effort to seek the answers to the following questions:

(1) What strategies are commonly used by EFL teachers to deal with students’passiveness in speaking lessons?

(2) What are teachers’ views on the current strategies in dealing with students’passiveness?

(3) What suggestions should be highlighted?

1.5 Research scope

This research mainly focuses on EFL teachers’ strategies to deal with students’passiveness in speaking lessons at four high schools: Gio Linh, Vinh Linh, NguyenHue and Bui Duc Tai High School The investigation does not cover the scope ofteachers’ strategies in other lessons It involves the participants of 32 English teachersand 160 students from those four high schools

- Chapter 2 reviews the literature of the frameworks for the study

- Chapter 3 gives the research methodology

- Chapter 4 presents the findings and discussions

- Chapter 5 provides the conclusions, the implications for English teaching andlearning as well as the suggestions for further studies

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

It can be said that students’ passiveness in learning is a common problem faced

by most of the EFL teachers This problem has also been increasingly concerned andinvestigated by many researchers The present study aims at exploring some practicalstrategies employed by teachers to cope with the passivity of students in Englishspeaking lessons In order to have a clear idea of the main concepts related to the study,

in this chapter, the researcher will focus on the basic concepts involving this topic from

a variety of sources with the aim of supplying the foundations and valuable data for theinvestigation

2.1 Teaching strategy

2.1.1 Definition of teaching strategy

Strategy in general is usually known as a suitable or systematic plan which aims

at achieving the goal In education, strategy is the way often used by teachers in order

to deliver contents of the subject in the classroom Everyday teachers work withstudents in a variety of conditions so they have to use different strategies to designcurriculum, manage the classroom environment or give lectures For this reason,teaching strategy is also considered as the ability to select proper approach in teaching

by means of using appropriate methods and techniques (“Strategy and method,” 2009).Therefore, the aim of a teaching strategy is to assist the progress of students’ learning,stimulate as well as engage them in learning activities Strasser (1964), as cited inTorskars (2011) assumed that teaching strategy means “a generalized plan for a lessonwhich includes structure, desired learner behavior, in terms of the goals of theinstruction and an outline of tactics necessary to implement the strategy” It can beseen that teaching strategy is regarded as a pattern of teaching acts carried out by theteachers to make sure that students have understood the lessons well and it also refers

to a plan or a program that is extensively used to ensure that a certain message or

lesson is passed from the teacher to the student (Miressa, 2014) Furthermore, teachingstrategies also represent “a complex approach to teaching which often contains amixture of teaching methods, utilizing a number of techniques with each method”(Henson, 1980) From the definitions above, it can be concluded that a teachingstrategy consists of the principles and methods used for different objectives of teachingand learning

2.1.2 What is an effective teaching strategy?

A teaching strategy is considered to be effective if it can “activate students'curiosity about the lesson topic, engage students in learning, develop critical thinkingskills, keep students on task, engender sustained and useful classroom interaction, and,

in general, enable and enhance the learning of course content”(“Effective teachingstrategies”, 2015) In order to engage students in learning, teachers should base onseveral factors such as learning style, aptitude, skills, and enthusiasm of the students tochoose suitable teaching strategies for their class As a result, it can be seen clearly thatthere is no best teaching strategy but teachers can base on concrete settings in order todecide the most appropriate one However, to make sure that teachers’ strategies cansupport the learning and teaching process effectively, there are some common features

of the teaching strategy that have been suggested for teachers as follows:

1) Stands for a generalized plan, way and means for carrying out thetask of teaching i.e more specifically for teaching a particularlesson

2) Directed towards the realization of the set teaching learningobjectives

3) Devised and employed for helping the learners in the realization ofthe set teaching learning objectives

4) Brings out a scheme, programme or teaching learning structure,which if followed may help in the better realization of the setteaching learning objectives

5) Requires a number of well planned tactics (those behaviors andactivities of a teacher which he/she works out and makes use of forthe development of a particular teaching strategy) for its effectiveimplementation.

(“Strategy and method,” 2009)

2.2 Theoretical background of speaking skill

2.2.1 Concepts of speaking

In language learning contexts, speaking is one of the vital skills that studentsshould gain well because of its important role for effective communication Byproducing ordinary sound, speaking is considered as the use of language in the simplestway Some experts in language learning and teaching have suggested many concepts ofspeaking Tarigan (1985, p.15) defined speaking as “a skill of conveying words orsounds of articulation to express or to deliver ideas, opinion, and feeling” It can beseen that through speaking, people can express their feelings, needs and opinions aswell as set up or maintain social relationships Tarigan (1990) pointed out that speaking

is the learned language skill which is produced by listening skill and developed in childlife With speaking skill, individuals are able to produce utterances during theircommunication to gain a particular end (Donough and Shaw, 1993)

Hadfield (1999, p.7) considered speaking as a type of bridge for studentsbetween classroom and the world outside Bygate (1997) agreed that a lot of language

is learnt through speaking which is viewed as a medium skill The “bridge” inHadfield’s concept also means that speaking is “vehicle par excellence of socialsolidarity, of social ranking, of professional advancement and business” (Fajariyah,2009) For this reason, speaking is a means to link individuals to society

Speaking is also a productive skill It has a connection with components ofpronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and fluency which could not be separated(Syakur, 1987, p.5) Brown (2001, p.267) saw that a person can keep going on a talk

properly competently when he speaks a language Chaney(1998, p.13) definedspeaking as “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal andnon – verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” In second or foreign language,speaking is viewed as “the most demanding of the four skills yet for many people,speaking is seen as the central skill (Bailey & Savage, 1994) According to Brown &Yule (1983), spoken language production is often regarded as one of the most difficultaspects of language learning As a result, Nunan (1991) assumed that speaking wassuccessful or not, it depended on the ability to carry out a conversation in the language.

2.2.2 Components of Speaking

Speaking is regarded as one of the language arts most regularly used by people

in the world Like other skills, speaking also needs many components in order toperform its functions These components play an important role to support students’success in learning speaking foreign language According to Haris (1969) and Syakur(1987), there are five components of speaking skill including pronunciation, grammar,vocabulary, fluency and comprehension In this study, the researcher would like tomention about these five elements as follows:

2.2.2.1 Pronunciation

Pramujunarta (2007) argued that pronunciation is one of the components that arevery helpful in comprehending speaking skill Furthermore, it also plays a significantrole to make the communication process easy to understand Pronunciation is thecomponent that studies about the ways by which words are produced clearlywhen people speak It aims at getting the learners to pronounce exactly so that otherspeakers can be comprehensible and understand easily Gerard (2007) stated that if aspeaker continually mispronounces, it can be extremely difficult for another speakerfrom another language community to understand

2.2.2.2 Grammar

In spite of not being the most important component of speaking, grammar maysupport learners with understanding phrases or sentences correctly so that they are able

to produce utterances fluently and exactly in the right form of language (Ur, 1996).Moreover, another benefit of grammar is to help learners get the right method to mastercompetence in oral as well as written form of a language

2.2.2.3 Vocabulary

Learning vocabulary is very significant for learners to be able to speak or write

a language properly Wilkins (1972, p.110-111) stated that “without grammar verylittle can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” As a result ofthis, it is difficult for individuals to communicate efficiently as well as express theirthoughts in both oral and written form if they do not have enough vocabulary Also,learners have to learn large and many vocabularies to make their speech fluent

2.2.2.4 Fluency

Fluency is not only an important element of speaking but it is also the aim of alot of language learners It can be defined as an individual’s capability to speak fluentlyand accurately with little pauses like “ums” or “ers” According to Brown (1997, cited

in Mohammad, Reza and Mohammad, 2013,) these signs like “ums” or “ers” revealthat the speaker does not spend much time on finding the necessary language itemsneeded to express their ideas

2.2.2.5 Comprehension

Comprehension is also another necessary component of speaking It is agreed bythe researchers that “oral communication certainly requires a subject to respond tospeech as well as to initiate it”

2.2.3 The importance of speaking skill

As we all know, there are four kinds of skill in English: listening, speaking,reading and writing These skills cannot be separated each other Therefore, it isdifficult to decide which skill is the most important among four language skills.However, Huebner (1960, p.5) confirmed that “language is essentially speech, and

speech is the most used skill by people rather than the three other skills” Furthermore,

Ur (1996, p.120) said: “of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing),speaking seems intuitively the most important.” Zaremba (2006) also agreed that of allthe four macro English skills, speaking seems to be the most important skill forcommunication Consequently, it seems that speaking is a basic skill which is used as ameans of communication in people’s daily life and this skill seems to be the mostimportant and the closest to the goal of language teaching: communicative competence

2.2.4 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity

It can be seen that the key to a successful speaking lesson is a successfulspeaking activity According to Munjayanah (2004, p.16), it is not always easy forpeople to perform spoken language fluently People sometimes have difficulty inproducing utterances because of different reasons As a result, it might not be simplefor teachers to design a successful speaking task and that is why they should fulfillsome basic characteristics of a speaking activity

In order to make a speaking lesson successful, Ur (1996, p.122) suggested that

“most of the time allotted for the activity is occupied by learner talk not by teacher talk

or pause” Furthermore, this researcher agreed that it would be a good chance forstudents to talk a lot by using the target language Teachers can encourage learners totalk by means of dividing them into small groups because students can practice moreand increase their talking time when working in groups It is also proposed by Ur thateach group had better choose one representative who is responsible for monitoring theothers in group and making them remember to use only the target language forspeaking

Besides learners talk a lot, even participation suggested by Brown (2001, p.270)

is also an important characteristic of a successful speaking task He argued that alllearners in class ought to have equal opportunity to speak; moreover, classroomdiscussion should not be dominated by a few talkative students

Another feature of a successful speaking activity is students’ motivation Thereare two popular kinds of motivation: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation.Intrinsic motivation can be referred to the pleasure or value connected with the activityitself (Leavitt, Pondy & Boje, 1989) This kind of motivation comes from inside anindividual rather than from external or outside factors Extrinsic motivation, incontrast, is the motivation which comes from the external environment of a person.Learners will be interested in a lesson if the topics which they are talking about aresuitable with them and involve real life On the other hand, they will feel obliged tolearn a language if outside factors promote him or her to study (Anna, 2015)

The last principle that is mentioned by Ur (1996, p.120) is the acceptable level

of the language used It means that teacher can attain good outcome in teachingspeaking through choosing tasks whose language level is equivalent to students’ level.Furthermore, these kinds of speaking activity should enable learners to express theirideas in a fluent way and make others comprehensible

2.2.5 Speaking activities in classroom

In the age of communication, the aim of language teaching and learning hasbeen changed in order to motivate learners to use the language for meaningful andeffective communication For this reason, teaching speaking activities should also bedesigned and taught in an interesting and communicative way Therefore, it is vital to

be aware of as well as clarify the activities in order that the teachers can take advantage

of them The researchers have listed many different kinds of speaking activityaccording to their various features Harmer (2001, p.348-352) proposes six classroomspeaking activities including acting from script, communication games, discussion,prepared talks, questionnaires, simulation and role play

1) Acting from script

Acting from script is both a learning and language producing activity Inteaching speaking, recognizing two types of acting from script is necessary for

teachers With the first type known as playing scripts, the lines learners speak will have

real meaning and the teacher is regarded as a theatre director who concentrates on

suitable stress, intonation, and speed In the second one, acting the dialogue, if studentshave time to rehearse their dialogues before performing, they will be helped a lot.Through acting from script, students will get much experience during the process

2) Communication games

Another type of speaking activities in classroom suggested by Harmer (2001) iscommunication games According to this author, the games should not only consist offunny factors but they are also designed to stimulate communication between studentsand base on the principle of the information gap

3) Discussion

Discussion seems to be the most popular activity in speaking lessons Throughdiscussion, students have chance to express their real ideas about the given problemthat is introduced by the teacher (cited by Anna, 2015) Harmer divided discussionrange into several stages including highly formal, whole-group staged events andinformal small-group interactions

4) Prepared talks

According to Harmer, prepared talks are formal conversations since they areprepared by students and more “writing like” In this speaking activity, learners areoften required to give a presentation on the topic that they choose to talk about.Additionally, it is possible for students to speak by using a note card instead of a script

5) Questionnaires

If questionnaires are well-prepared and it ensures that both the questioner andthe respondents have something to say to each other, this kind of speaking task canstimulate learners to use language patterns repeatedly in a natural way Furthermore,thanks to the results attained from questionnaires, the basis for written work,discussions, or prepared talks can be formed Consequently, to make this activity more

effective, the teacher should act as a resource to help learners design questionnaires onthe suitable topic

6) Simulation and Role play

Simulation and role play are considered as the chance for students to practice inspecific contexts and also the way to encourage oral fluency Through simulation androle play, learners can act out to show the characters’ thoughts and feelings as in thereal life

2.3 Students’ passiveness in learning

2.3.1 Definition of passive learners

Passiveness is defined in Oxford Dictionary as “the state of accepting whathappens without reacting or trying to fight against it” This term is not a new aspect ineducation Good, Slavings, Harel & Emerson (1987, p 183, cited in Carolyn, 1999)considered the passiveness of students as “retentive behavior in the sense that thestudent is withholding consciously or unconsciously a response” The behaviors heremay consist of not volunteering in class activities, answering only when called upon byteachers, usually asking fewer questions and infrequently approaching teachers forhelp In the 1990s, the term “witness learner” was created by Helmut Fritsch throughthe assessment of participation in an online conference Helmut argued that passiveparticipants were those who considered witnessing the interactions among the activeparticipants as the way for them to learn (Beaudoin, 2002)

David Nunan based on learners’ creativity in order to describe passive learnersbecause of the reason that creativity is a basic characteristic of competence (Chomsky,

1965, cited in Richards, Platt & Platt, 1992) This author presented that passivelearners are those who “spend most learning time copying and reproducing languagewritten down by others instead of learning how to use language creatively themselves”(Nunan, 1999, p.69) According to him, passive individuals “learn how tocommunicate in model and predictable situations, but they don’t learn how to respond

appropriately in novel and authentic communicative situations” (p.69) Therefore, itcan be seen that learners who are passive in class often focus on writing down what theteachers say, reading the textbook assignments and doing only what is expected to get

a good grade These learners only practice patterns provided by teachers, textbooks andtapes They learn facts about language rather than how to use it communicatively toexpress ideas, to talk and write to other people, to read and listen to real language, and

to learn how to cooperate with others As a result of these things, passive learners fail

to show their creativity

McManus (2001, p.424) defined passive learners as individuals who “areassumed to enter the course with minds like empty vessels or sponges to be filled withknowledge” They always regard teachers as people who have total knowledge andtherefore they think that anyone with total knowledge can teach others (James, 2014)

In short, passive learner is one of two distinct types of learners that teachersusually identify in their classes They are also students who are unwilling to take part

in the learning activities as well as avoid interacting with the teacher and raisingquestions, or tend to listen and take notes Erica (2013) illustrated the passive learningenvironment in a vivid way:

Students’ forearms prop heavy heads and eye lids become fatigued andweighty Information fills the room, but the restless audience remainsimpervious as attention is stolen by fleeting thoughts and boredom If this is acommon scene at your school, most likely the learning environment is passive

2.3.2 Characteristics of passive learners

2.3.2.1 Personality

It is very easy for teachers to identify two types of students in class, activeand passive The personality of a passive learner varies distinctly from that of anactive one Most of the teachers all know a student with a passive personality Theyseem to be more easygoing and often feel calm and not anxious or worried about what

happens in class Many teachers found that passive learners are quiet, shy and usuallykeep their distance of physical contact from others (“Martial arts for the passivepersonality”, 2008) Furthermore, they are known to be anti-social, usually hesitate toexpress themselves in front of the class and do as much as possible to avoid theattention of their teachers or other students One of the most common signs of a passivestudent’s behavior is avoiding eye contact By the reason of their lack of confidence,passive learners often try to look away and find it difficult to look into the eyes of otherpeople (Chance, 2013) Passive individuals are also patient and habitually lack adominant sense of pressure.

2.3.2.2 Involvement

While an active student is frequently enthusiastic about learning and activelyinvolves in answering questions and discussions in lessons, a passive student on theother hand is most likely to engage wholly in his or her own thinking, without muchattention to what is taking place in class The students who are passive tend to studyconstantly, finish tasks on time and take time to relax They do not activelyparticipate in learning activities This is also the type of student who regularly takes abackseat in most discussions or activities in which they have to involve They wouldnot take the initiative to study on their own if it is not an assignment (Petty, 2004) Apassive learner will do his or her assignments in an involuntary way, and apparentlyhand in them a short while before the deadline or after the deadline for submission haspassed (McWhorter, 2003) In a harmful manner, these students often miss classes,take a number of short cuts to get through school without applying themselves andprobably drop out

2.3.2.3 Energy

Passive students seem to take everything lightly and make a minimum effort

at their school work They exert minimal possible energy into completing theirassignments, giving ideas in discussions or working with other students Therefore,

passive students are usually considered to rather chill out and relax (“Differencebetween active student and passive student”, 2013) It might be suggested that thepassive student stresses out more easily than the active student and needs time torefresh.

2.3.3 Causes of students’ passiveness in learning

Students’ passiveness is a common problem which exists in foreign languageclassrooms causing frustration for the teachers and affecting the quality of languagelearning All language teachers want to take students out of the passive role and placethem in an active role in learning Consequently, teachers need to identify negativefactors influencing students’ learning process in order to help them overcome theirdifficulties Therefore, most teachers would agree that it is necessary to carry out someresearch to discover why some language learners choose to remain passive in languageclassrooms By using different ways such as questionnaires, interviews andobservations, researchers have tried to explore students’ reasons of being passive inclass

Flowerdew et al (2000) conducted a study on the issue of students’ reticenceand passiveness in a university in Hong Kong by the way of interviewing fifteenlectures They gave the conclusion that students were passive and reticent in languageclassrooms because of their fear of being embarrassed in front of their peers, theirinability to understand concepts, the lack of preparation before coming to class, andtheir perceived linguistic ability In particular, the passive learning style seems to beadopted by many students during their secondary schooling

In 2011, Fang-yu Chang coming from Tungnan University in Taiwan carriedout an investigation in order to identify the reasons why Taiwanese students of Englishlanguage behave passively in the classroom participation According to this researcher,learners’ reticence and passivity in Taiwanese English classrooms can be explained by

a variety of reasons caused by both teachers and students These causes are as follows:

 Maintaining Group Harmony

According to many researchers (Cheng, 2000; Jackson,2002; Kennedy, 2002), one ofthe reasons which have influence on the way students speak and respond in languageclassrooms is maintaining group harmony Some students often feel the pressure whenaccommodating and performing in the interests of the group (Bond, 1992, cited inKennedy, 2002)

 The Fear of “Face Losing”

Fang-yu showed that many students were easily sensitive about making errors in front

of other students They considered making mistakes in class as a chance of “losingface” Without any doubt, students’ anxieties about others’ opinions and the fear of

“losing face” made them hold back from classroom conversation

 The Fear of ‘Showing Off’

By interviewing students in Tungnan University, the researcher discovered that thesubject students really concerned about how their classmates would think about them ifthey took part in regularly in class He also found that when a student managed toactively participate in classroom activities, he or she would be viewed as being showedoff by the rest of the class

 Teachers’ Uneven Allocation of Turns

From the interview data, the researcher indicated that because many teachers wanted toavoid failing to get responses from students and be sure of getting right answers, theytended to call on the brighter students to provide ideas As a result, teachers’ unevenallocation of turns might be considered as one of the causes of students’ passiveness inlearning

 Insufficient Wait-time after Teacher Questioning

The data of Fang-yu Chang’s research revealed that some teachers had a habit ofgiving a lot of questions at the same time and did not wait for enough time for students

to respond Therefore, insufficient wait-time after questions might be another possiblereason why the students keep quiet in class.

Simultaneously with the questionnaire and interviewing techniques were used inhis study, Fang-yu Chang discovered five elements causing to students’ passiveness inTaiwanese classroom contexts Among the reasons mentioned above, the last two onesare caused by the instructional behaviors of teachers On the other hand, the otherelements including “losing face”, “group harmony and “showing off” may all haveinfluence on Taiwanese students’ performance in class due to their thought that theyare members in a community This revealed that these students often concern aboutwhat others think, manage to perform in good order as well as follow the principles ofbehavior in their own classroom community

In Vietnam, students’ passiveness has been a common problem facing most ofthe English teachers An explanation for this problem is the Confucian heritage culturewhich is considered to shape this passivity of students (Thompson, 2009) Studentsfrom Confucian heritage culture countries in Asia such as Mainland China, Malaysia,Taiwan, Japan, Korea or Vietnam are often thought to be passive Furthermore, there is

a common stereotype of Asian students that they are very reluctant to discuss, criticizereading as well as express their ideas, tend to look on teachers as close to gods andwant to rote learn material rather than think (Samuelowicz, 1987) Ramburuth andMcCormick (2001) explained this problem that in these countries, young people areexpected to be obedient and respectful of the older and people who have higherposition For this reason, they always keep their thought that teacher is the source ofknowledge Bond (1996) also added to this assumption that because Confucian heritageculture is regarded as “the face saving culture”, a person will be selfish and seems tomisbehave if he or she makes someone lose face As a result, Subramaniam (2008)concluded that students from these countries usually try to maintain group harmony,

rarely give their opinion as well as ask questions to teachers in order that they canexpress their respect to the teachers.

Responding to the above explanation about the passive learning style of Asiastudents in general as well as Vietnamese students in particular, Tran Thi Tuyet (2013)argued that even though there are proofs of cultural factors influencing students’participation in the classroom, the decisive factors causing students’ passiveness comefrom the educational system She also clearly confirmed that: “this kind of assumption

is too simplistic and no longer appropriate, and that it is really dangerous if someassumptions are taken for granted and are considered just like unchanged facts overtime” Through considering some important elements affecting students’ learningprocess such as students themselves, family expectation, the educational managementsystem as well as lecturers, she pointed out the main factors causing students’passiveness in learning It is concluded that the outdated educational managementsystem, heavy learning curriculum, rote teaching, learning and testing styles, limitedaccess to other academic resources apart from textbooks and lecturers, familytraditional thoughts, the study condition of students, and common perception of studentlearning all lead students to be passive and reluctant to participate in learning activities

With the topic students’ passiveness in learning, Le Phuong Nga (2002)investigated causes of this problem in English classrooms at Ho Chi Minh CityUniversity of Economics by attempting to explore some factors that hinder students’engagement in classroom activities It was found that students ‘lack of communicativecompetence, their lack of motivation, their anxiety, along with the inappropriatenessbetween learning and teaching styles are the factors which hinder their contribution toclassroom work as well as lead to language learners’ passiveness

Actually, in the Vietnamese context of teaching and learning English as aforeign language, the problem of students ‘passiveness has been considerably paidattention to and explored by some researchers Nevertheless, most of the studies have

been carried out to focus mainly on causes of the problem As a result of this, solutions

or teachers’ strategies to deal with students ‘passiveness in class have not been takeninto account in great depth Hence, the researcher of the thesis finds it quite essential

to conduct the study in order to fill the gap

2.4 Summary

In this chapter, a brief theoretical background of teaching strategy is presentedincluding its definition and some opinions about what an effective teaching strategy is.Some basic concepts related to speaking skills such as its definition, components,importance, activities in classroom as well as characteristics of a successful speakingactivity are also introduced In addition, the definition and characteristics of passivelearners are reviewed to set up the theoretical framework for the investigation.Furthermore, this chapter attempted to review some studies about causes of students’passiveness in learning to point out the gap among the available studies

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

This chapter clarifies the choice of the methodological approach in the research

to investigate the strategies that are used by EFL teachers to deal with students’passiveness in English speaking lessons This chapter will present an overalldescription of the research approach, the subjects of study, the instruments for datacollection and analysis

3.1 Research approach

In order to achieve the research’s aims, this study were carried out applyingboth qualitative and quantitative method Quantitative method helps to collectnumerical data and statistics for the purpose of better understanding of how to carry outprogrammatic work (Creswell, 2003) Conducting the research by quantitative method

is an effective way to have a general picture of a situation (Schumacher & McMillan,1993) Also, collecting numerical data and statistics makes this method become moreobjective However, in order to have a more comprehensive picture, it is necessary tocombine two methods including quantitative and qualitative Qualitative research is themethodology of studying the participants’ opinion, actions and experiences throughinterview, and published information (Burns, 1999) Through this method, theresearcher can have a deep understanding about facts and figures Furthermore, it isalso the way that supplies researcher with “real”, “rich” and “deep” data (LarsenFreeman & Long, 1991) For these reasons, both quantitative and qualitative methodswere used in this research instead of using one and dispose the other so that theresearcher can gain valid and reliable findings According to Brown (1989, cited inBrown & Rodgers, 2002, p.249), “both quantitative and qualitative types of evaluationcan be used with a view to defining a program” and that “using quantitative andqualitative approaches may provide alternative views of the same classroom

phenomena” Bouma (1996) also put forth the idea that “both qualitative andquantitative approaches are essential to the research process in social sciences”

3.2 Subjects of study

In order to retrieve data for the study, 160 students and 32 English teachers werechosen to answer the questionnaires Furthermore, five teachers (among those 32participants) were selected for the interviews The students were randomly chosen fromfour high schools The teachers were all non-native English and their English teachingexperience varied between 5-15 years

3.3 Data collection instruments

The tools for data collection consist of the questionnaires and the interviews sothat the researchers can collect valuable and reliable information concerning EFLteachers’ strategies to deal with students’ passiveness in English speaking lessons atsome high schools in Quang Tri Province

3.3.1 Questionnaire

According to John (1999) “The responses are gathered in a standardized way,are more objective, certainly more than interview Generally, it is relatively quick tocollect information from large portion of a group” Bell (1993, p.76) argues thatquestionnaire is very useful tool for gathering wide range of data cheaply and quickly.Questionnaire has advantages over some other types of survey because they are socheap and convenient Besides, they don’t require a lot of effort from the researcher

To some extent, this method is really useful due to the fact that participants haveenough time to think and write down their answers

For this reason, the researcher designed two sets of questionnaires with thepurpose of collecting useful data for the study The questionnaires were used for twogroups: one for students and the other for teachers of English at four high schools Thequestionnaires were delivered to 160 students and 32 teachers

The first questionnaire for teachers consists of 4 close-ended questions and 2open-ended questions Question 1 and question 2 were set in order to get someinformation from the teachers about students’ speaking skill and their participation inspeaking activities In the third question, teachers were asked about their strategies todeal with students’ passiveness in speaking lessons There are twenty statements ofstrategies categorized into five groups related to speaking tasks, teachers’ behaviour,questions, motivation and outside the classroom.

Group 1consists of seven strategies (strategy 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

Group 2 consists of five strategies (strategy 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)

Group 3 consists of three (strategy 13, 14, 15)

Group 4 consists of three strategies (strategy 16, 17, 18)

Group 5 consists of two strategies (strategy 19, 20)

Teachers were asked to decide how often they used these strategies to deal withstudents’ passiveness in speaking lessons The findings provide useful informationabout the frequency of employing the strategies by teachers to deal with passivestudents To explore teachers’views on the current strategies to deal with students’passiveness, question 4 was used to gather teachers’ opinion Besides, there are twoopen-ended questions They were set to invite teachers to provide any other strategiesnot introduced in the questionnaire and their suggestions for dealing with passivestudents

The second questionnaire designed for students consists of four close-endedquestions and one open-ended question Three questions were used to get informationabout students’ view on the role of participating in speaking class and their frequency

of doing that The results of three questions are used to clarify the current situation ofstudents’ participation in speaking lessons Question 4 was designed with multiplechoices to find out reasons for students’ passiveness in speaking lessons The lastquestion aims to invite students to suggest some changes that make them more active

in speaking lessons The findings of question 4 and 5 help the researcher provideimplications for teachers and students to boost the efficiency the English speakingteaching and learning.

3.3.2 Interviews

Besides the questionnaires, the qualitative data of this study were collected byinterviews as well Interview is important means of data collection because “in-depthinterviews are useful to obtain detail information about personal feelings, perceptionand opinions and achieve high response rate” (Cardiff, 2006) According to Best andKahn (1986), “the use of interview yields the advantage in which by building rapportwith the interviewees, the interviewer will be able to get some confidential informationwhich they might be reluctant to express through writing” Therefore, to clarify thereliability of questionnaire, five EFL teacher participants were invited for interviews.The teacher interview was conducted to get more explanation for choosing differentstrategies to deal with students’ passiveness Teachers were interviewed in Vietnameseand the interviews were recorded The teacher interview included five questions At thebeginning of each interview, its purpose was explained clearly and explicitly Duringthe interview, the researcher could modify the questions and the procedures according

to the subjects’ responses The length of each interview was from 10 to 15 minutes

3.4 Data Analysis

The data gathered through the questionnaire were coded for statistical analysis byusing Microsoft Office Excel and SPSS 16.0.The answers to questions were analyzedquantitatively according to statistical frequency and percentage

The interviews provided qualitative information for the study The teacherinterviews were transcribed and coded into three themes: view of teachers aboutstudents’ passiveness, teachers’ self-evaluation on their strategies and teachers’suggestions

All the results were presented in tables and charts and then discussed to find outthe answers for three research questions.

3.5 Chapter summary

In conclusion, this research was implemented based on both quantitative andqualitative methods for more reliable and more valid results The questionnaires andinterviews were employed The data were converted into percentage and statisticfrequency, illustrated in tables, charts so that readers could follow the study easily

CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION4.1 Introduction

This chapter aims to present the findings concerning EFL teachers ‘strategies todeal with students’ passiveness in speaking lessons at some high schools in Quang Triprovince Those findings were presented in tables and charts, then analyzed anddiscussed to answer the three research questions

4.2 EFL teachers’ strategies to deal with students’ passiveness in English speaking lessons

In this section, the data gathered through the questionnaire were coded for

statistical analysis to address the research question: What strategies are commonly

used by EFL teachers to deal with students’ passiveness in speaking lessons? The

strategies employed by EFL teachers to deal with students’ passiveness in thequestionnaire were analyzed one by one in groups by counting its percentage and meanvalue The researcher also used the data from the interviews and the observations tojustify the answer to the first research question

4.2.1 Teachers’ strategies in using speaking tasks to deal with students’ passiveness

As discussed in the literature review, the key to a successful speaking lesson is avivid speaking activity According to Ur (1996, p.122), to make a speaking lessonsuccessful, most of the time allotted for the activity is occupied by learner talk not byteacher talk or pause Therefore, how to take students out of their passive role dependsmuch on teachers’ strategies in using speaking tasks

Figure 4.1 below demonstrates the frequency of employing strategies in usingspeaking tasks in order to deal with students’ passiveness in speaking lessons at four