A STUDY ON ONE TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE CONVERSATIONAL SKILL FOR OPERATIONAL STAFF AT SOMERSET GRAND HANOI

thạc sỹ, luận văn, ngoại ngữ, tiếng anh, khóa luận, chuyên đề

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

PHAN THI HONG DUNG

A STUDY ON ONE TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE CONVERSATIONAL SKILL FOR

OPERATIONAL STAFF AT SOMERSET GRAND HANOI

NGHIÊN CỨU MỘT THỦ THUẬT NHẰM NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO NHÂN VIÊN THUỘC BỘ PHẬN VẬN HÀNH TẠI

SOMERSET GRAND HÀ NỘI

M A MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410

SUPERVISOR: TO THI THU HUONG, Ph.D

HANOI - 2008

DECLARATION

I certify that this essay is entirely my work I have provided fully documented references to thework of others The material in this essay has not been submitted for assessment in any otherformal course of study

Phan Thi Hong Dung

I would like to express my deepest thanks to my beloved supervisor Dr To Thi Thu Huong forthe invaluable support, guidance, and timely encouragement she gave me while I was doing thisresearch I am truly grateful to her for her advice and suggestions right from the beginningwhen this study was only in its formative stage

I would also like to send my sincere thanks to my colleagues in Somerset Serviced Residences,Hanoi who have helped me in providing the teaching materials, answering the surveyquestionnaire and making constructive and insightful comments as well as suggestions for thispaper My sincere thanks also go to all the teachers of the Department of Post graduate Studies

at Hanoi College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University for their profoundknowledge, useful materials which have inspired and facilitated me much throughout thecourse

I also own an enormous debt of gratitude to Ms Ngo Thanh Thuy for her invaluableenthusiasm and encouragement during my course

Last but not least, I owe mother and my husband for their continuous support, they covered allthe housework and looked after my child for me to contribute totally my time on this research

Conversational English is crucial in office communication at Somerset Grand Hanoi and it’s still a big concern of Somerset Management Board On the way to find solutions for English training in the company, one technique has been approved to be very effective to improve conversational skill for operational staff in using “Practical Situations” This study focuses on how researcher uses “Practical Situations” effectively in English training And what are the most frequently happening practical situations at Somerset Grand Hanoi? The subjects involved

in the study were 23 operational staff from three departments: Housekeeping, Engineering, Security, 12 heads of departments were invited to join survey, to answer the questionnaires, to participate in the interview, and to provide the source for observation

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

SGH: Somerset Grand Hanoi

HOD: Head of department

ESL: English second language

ESP: English for specific purpose

CBI: Content-based instruction

OJT: On job training

BCS: Basic conversational standard

CLT: Communicative language teaching

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration ………

Acknowledgements ………

Abstract ………

List of abbreviation ………

Table of content ………

PART I: INTRODUCTION ………

1 Rationale ………

2 Aims of the study ………

3 Research questions ………

4 Methods of the study ………

5 Scope of the study ………

6 Design of the study ………

PART II: DEVELOPMENT ………

Chapter 1: Literature review ………

1 Conversation theory ………

2 Communicative language teaching ………

2.1 Content-based instruction (CBI) ………

2.2 Principles of teaching oral skill ………

2.3 Techniques to teach oral skill ………

3 Adult learning theory ………

4 Current English training programs for operational staff at Somerset Grand Hanoi ………

4.1 The training program ………

42 The required English standards ………

Chapter 2: Methodology ………

1 Rational for choosing action research ………

2 Steps of action ………

3 Participants ………

4 Instruments ………

5 Procedure of data collection ………

5.1 Questionnaire survey ……… ………

5.2 Interviews ………… ………

5.3 Observation ……….………

6 Data analysis ……… ……

Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion ……….……

1 How do trainers use the practical situations in improving conversational skill for operational staff at SGH? ………

2 Effectiveness of using Practical situations in improving Conversational skill for Operational staff ………

3 Discussions: How to use these practical situations effectively for training staff? ………

PART III: CONCLUSION ………

1 Summary of main findings ………

2 Limitation of the study ……… ……

3 Suggestions for further research ………

REFERENCES ………

APPENDIX 1 ………

APPENDIX 2 ………

APPENDIX 3 ………

APPENDIX 4 ………

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

No one can deny the universality of English Outside English-speaking countries, Englishhas become a compulsory component of office communication in many countries Thistrend also applies in Vietnam At Somerset Grand Hanoi, English is a MUST for all staff as

it is considered to be the most useful and effective tool to communicate with customers So,the company always invests time and money in improving conversational skills for its staff.However large the investment is, in fact, the conversational skills of operational staff still

do not meet the job requirements It is a big problem for the company, because the staffconversational competence directly and seriously affects the service Manymisunderstanding happens at work For example, once a guest ordered to change one queenbed into twin beds for their two children When the task was transferred to a housekeepingstaff, she immediately brought the bed sheets to the room to change for the guest Thatguest was very angry because his order was misunderstood and thus, wasted his time.Another example is, when a guest wanted to borrow an “adapter”, a receptionist quicklycalled “a doctor” for him These mistakes seem to be funny but they badly affect theprofessionalism of the company which is famous for leading international standard service

in hospitality industry As a person in charge of staff training the researcher finds it a bigproblem How to improve conversational skills for operational staff? How to confirm thattheir English speaking skills meet the job requirement to satisfy guests’ expectations, needsand wants? These questions whirl in her mind all the time

After 2 years of conducting English training for the staff, she has used many textbookswhich are available in the market such as: New Interchange, New Headway, Be My Guest(Francis O’Hara) but the final results still have not met her expectations as well as the jobrequirements Many pilot courses have been conducted with the help of many experts as

well as data surveyed from staff and customers After all, one technique has been found to

be more effective in improving conversational skills for her operational staff That is usingpractical situations from their daily work to help them develop the necessary Englishconversational skills for their very work Thus, this current study is conducted to shed light

on the effectiveness of this technique in the training and development of Englishconversational skills for operational staff at Somerset Grand Hanoi (SGH) and other similarinstitutions in Vietnam or elsewhere

2 Aims of the study

The study explores the effectiveness of using practical situations to improve Englishconversational skills for operational staff at Somerset Grand Hanoi (SGH) The major aims

of the study are to:

- Conduct an analysis of the current situation of training English conversational skills foroperational staff at SGH with particular reference to the technique of using practicalsituations

- Pilot the use of practical situations (that are essential for communication in English byoperational staff at SGH) for training conversational skills for these staff to find outhow effective the technique is

- Finalize a package of 10 most applicable practical situations with suggestions foreffective use of these practical situations in training operational staff to improve theirEnglish conversational skills

3 Research questions

In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims, the following research questions wereformulated for investigation:

1 How do trainers use the technique of practical situations for improving conversationalskills of operational staff at SGH? What are the 10 most applicable practical situations?

2 How effective is the use of these practical situations for improving conversational skillsfor SGH operational staff?

4 Method of the study

The method used in the study is action research According to Wallace (1998, quoted inMackey & Gass 2005: 216) action research is “basically a way of reflecting upon yourteaching by systematically collecting data on your everyday practice and analyzing it in order

to come to some decisions about what your future practice should be” The goal of this is toimprove teaching and learning In this study, the goal of the action is to improve conversationalskills for SGH operational staff

Five steps for the action were identified and implemented They are:

1 Identify problems/concerns: for this study, it is how to improve English conversationalskills for SGH operational staff;

2 Conduct a preliminary investigation to gather information on how trainers use thetechnique of practical situations for improving conversational skills of operational staff

at SGH and what practical situations can be used in training conversational skills for thetarget staff;

3 Pilot the use of the technique and form assumptions about the effectiveness of thetechnique and identify 10 most applicable practical situations for dissemination;

4 Evaluate the effects of the practice; i.e the effectiveness of the technique of usingpractical situations for improvement of conversational skills for SGH operational staff;

5 Disseminate the results of the process in the form of a Training Handbook containingthe 10 most applicable work situations with practical guidelines for trainer.

For collection of data, questionnaire survey was used to explore current use of practicalsituations in training English conversational skills for operational staff at SGH as well as toidentify work related topics/situations and appropriate learning tasks and activities

Interviews with 10 loyal customers, who have stayed at Somerset Grand Hanoi for more than 1year, were also conducted to find out the required conversational skills and typicalcommunication situations for SGH operational staff at work (pre-training) as well as guests’level of satisfaction with target staff’s conversational skills after the pilot training

On the basis of the collected data, the researcher comes to a conclusion about the applicabilityand effectiveness of using practical situations in improving conversational skills for operationalstaff A training course employing the identified practical situations for improvement oftargeted staff is designed on the basis of the existing course and piloted She then finalized apackage of highly work-related situations and suggested methods to use these situations intraining conversational skills for operational staff at SGH

Observations by the Heads of departments, immediate supervisors and the co-trainer after thepilot course were sources of information on the evidence of improvement in Englishconversational skills of SGH operational staff, indicators of the effectiveness of the technique

5 Scope of the study

This research aims to explore the effectiveness of using practical situations in improvingEnglish conversational skills for operational staff at Somerset Grand Hanoi These staffincludes people working at Front Office, Security, Engineering, and Housekeeping

Within the limited framework of a minor thesis, the present study can only focus on theSecurity, Engineering, and Housekeeping staff as, for them; English conversational skills arethe most critical for maintaining an excellent image and success for the company Besides, theirEnglish proficiency level is still very low, that is seriously hampers their work performance.

6 Design of the study

The study comprised three parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion

Part 1 (Introduction) presents the rationale, aims, scope, methodology and design of the study Part 2 (Development) consists of four chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature review on Conversation theory; Communicative languageteaching (Practical situations); Adult learning; Current English training programs foroperational staff at SGH

Chapter 2: Methodology detailing rationale for choosing Qualitative research approach,Participants, Questionnaire survey, Interviews, Observations, and Data Analysis procedures.Chapter 3: Findings and discussion of the results

Part 3 (Conclusion) provides conclusions on the research and makes suggestions for further

study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: Literature review

In this chapter, relevant literature and theoretical framework of this study are presented, whichinclude (1) Conversation theory, (2) Communicative language teaching with focus on:Communicative competence, Principles of teaching speaking, Techniques of teaching speakingand using practical situations (3) Adult learning, (4) Current English training programs foroperational staff at Somerset Grand Hanoi

1 Conversation theory

There are many definitions of conversation theory Some of the commonly cited are:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Conversation Theory regards social systems assymbolic, language-oriented systems where responses depend on one person's interpretation ofanother person's behavior, and where meanings are agreed through conversations But sincemeanings are agreed, and the agreements can be illusory and transient, scientific research

requires stable reference points in human transactions to allow for reproducible results Paskfound these points to be the understandings which arise in the conversations between twoparticipating individuals, and which he defined rigorously

Conversation Theory describes interaction between two or more cognitive systems, such as ateacher and a student or distinct perspectives within one individual, and how they engage in adialog over a given concept and identify differences in how they understand it

Conversation Theory came out of the work of Gordon Pask on instructional design and models

of individual learning styles In regard to learning styles, he identified conditions required forconcept sharing and described the learning styles holist, serialist, and their optimal mixture

versatile He proposed a rigorous model of analogy relations.

From Conversation Theory – Gordon Pask at http://web.cortland.edu/andersmd/learning/Pask.htm: Conversation Theory as developed byPask originated from this cybernetics framework and attempts to explain learning in both livingorganisms and machines The fundamental idea of the theory was that learning occurs throughconversations about a subject matter which serves to make knowledge explicit Conversationscan be conducted at a number of different levels:

 Natural language (general discussion)

 Object languages (for discussing the subject matter)

 Metalanguages (for talking about learning/language)

Along this vein, the conversational skills for operational staff at SGH (a full-serviced apartmenthotel) comprise not only English but also hospitality-related skills So in this study, theresearcher intends to use elements of both Natural language and Object language to improveconversation skills for the targeted staff

In order to facilitate learning, Pask argued that the subject matter should be represented in theform of structures which show what is to be learned These structures exist in a variety ofdifferent levels depending upon the extent of the relationships displayed The critical method

of learning, according to Conversation Theory, is "teachback" in which one person teachesanother what they have learned

Pask identified two different types of learning strategies:

 Serialists – Progress through a structure in a sequential fashion

 Holists - Look for higher order relations

For students to learn a subject matter, they must learn the relationships among the concepts.For teachers, the explicit explanation of the subject matter facilitates student understanding(e.g., use of teachback technique) However, students differ in their preferred manner oflearning relationships (serialists versus holists), so a thorough understanding ofstudents/trainees is essential to teaching/training success.

Given its relevance and effective application, “Teachback” will be applied to develop theprogram for improving conversational skills for SGH operational staff At the completion of thestudy, a training guideline for trainers will be published based on the findings so that a Trainthe Trainer model could be used

2 Communicative language teaching

Communicative language teaching began in Britain in the 1960s as a replacement to the earlierstructural method, called Situational Language Teaching This was partly in response toChomsky's criticisms of structural theories of language and partly based on the theories ofBritish functional linguistic, such as Firth and Halliday, as well as American sociolinguists,such as Hymes, Gumperz and Labov and the writings of Austin and Searle on speech acts

Communicative language teaching (CLT) has become the accepted orthodoxy theory of TEFLover the past ten years or more, and many, but not all, general courses include communicativegoals, communicative practice or communicative methodology Its theoretical base, according

to Richards and Rodgers (1986/2000:71), includes these characteristics:

1 Language is a system for the expression of meaning

2 The primary function of language is for interaction and communication

3 The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses

4 The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, butcategories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse

Communicative language teaching makes use of real-life situations that necessitatecommunication The teacher sets up a situation that learners are likely to encounter in real life.Unlike the audiolingual method of language teaching, which relies on repetition and drills,communicative approach can leave learners in suspense as to the outcome of a class exercise,which will vary according to their reactions and responses The real-life simulations changefrom day to day Learners’ motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate inmeaningful ways about meaningful topics.

Berns (1984) explains Firth’s view that “language is interaction; it is interpersonal activity andhas a clear relationship with society In this light, language study has to look at the use(function) of language in context, both its linguistic context (what is uttered before and after agiven piece of discourse) and its social, or situational, context (who is speaking, what theirsocial roles are, why they have come together to speak)”(Berns,1984:5)

2.1 Content-based instruction (CBI)

From Wikipedia, CBI approach is comparable to English for Specific Purposes (ESP) The goal

of CBI is to prepare students to acquire the languages while using the context of any subjectmatter so that students learn the language by using it within the specific context Rather thanlearning a language out of context, it is learned within the context of a specific subject

2.2 Principles of teaching oral skill

1 Take account of the student as a person

 be sensitive, sympathetic and encouraging

 select material that is motivating and within their ability

2 Reduce anxiety by moving from easy to less easy

 help students take short turns

 provide a familiar, private environment

 use information-gap activities

 try the activity yourself first!

3 Maintain a careful balance between accuracy and fluency

 provide practice in pronunciation, words stress, sentence stress, intonation andpause

 provide opportunities for fluent use of speech

4 Provide a good model for students to imitate

 learn to speak English acceptably yourself!

 repeatedly use target speech patterns

 consciously teach correct pronunciation, etc

5 Vary classroom interaction modes

 individual to whole class

 pair work

 group work

6 Give clear instructions

 speak loudly, slowly and clearly

 demonstrate the proposed task

7 Monitor student activity continuously

 encourage those who find the activity difficult

 note down common and recurring errors

 praise students who perform well or try hard

8 Prepare well for class

 make a checklist of things to obtain

 make a checklist of things to do

9 Handle errors sensitively and effectively

 ignore performance errors

 ignore errors that are repeated

 correct errors in language areas that you recently taught

 correct errors that might shock listeners (e.g children)

 correct errors in structures that need to be used frequently by the student (e.g

*‘What means this?’ instead of ‘What does this mean?’)

 correct errors through modeling (S: *M’s mother was died T: M’s mother was

dead.)

 correct errors through flooding to ‘wash them out’!

 correct errors through explanation

2.3 Techniques to teach oral skill

It is very important for teachers to adopt as many techniques as possible to let students topractice English in class Here are some possible techniques (compiled by To et al, 2006):

Simulations

Simulations are very similar to role-plays but what makes simulations different than role plays

is that they are more elaborate In simulations, students can bring items to the class to create arealistic environment For instance, if a student is acting as a singer, she brings a microphone tosing and so on Role plays and simulations have many advantages First, since they areentertaining, they motivate the students Second, as Harmer (1984) suggests, they increase theself-confidence of hesitant students, because in role play and simulation activities, they willhave a different role and do not have to speak for themselves, which means they do not have totake the same responsibility

Information Gap

In this activity, students are supposed to be working in pairs One student will have theinformation that other partner does not have and the partners will share their information.Information gap activities serve many purposes such as solving a problem or collectinginformation Also, each partner plays an important role because the task cannot be completed

if the partners do not provide the information the others need These activities are effectivebecause everybody has the opportunity to talk extensively in the target language

Brainstorming

On a given topic, students can produce ideas in a limited time Depending on the context, eitherindividual or group brainstorming is effective and learners generate ideas quickly and freely.The good characteristics of brainstorming is that the students are not criticized for their ideas sostudents will be open to sharing new ideas

Storytelling

Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from somebody beforehand, or theymay create their own stories to tell their classmates Story telling fosters creative thinking Italso helps students express ideas in the format of beginning, development, and ending,including the characters and setting a story has to have Students also can tell riddles or jokes

Practical situations

Learners can practice conversational skill in situations such as asking and giving directions in acity and ordering the services in hotel For example, after mechanically drilling the question-answer pattern asking for directions to a specific location and the other giving directionsaccording to a map

3 Adult learning theory

Speck (1996) notes that the following important points of adult learning theory should beconsidered when designing learning activities for adults:

 "Adults will commit to learning when the goals and objectives are considered realisticand important to them Application in the 'real world' is important and relevant to theadult learner's personal and professional needs

 Adults want to be the origin of their own learning and will resist learning activities theybelieve are an attack on their competence Thus, professional development needs to giveparticipants some control over the what, who, how, why, when, and where of theirlearning

 Adult learners need to see that the professional development learning and their day activities are related and relevant

day-to- Adult learners need direct, concrete experiences in which they apply the learning in realwork

 Adult learning has ego involved Professional development must be structured toprovide support from peers and to reduce the fear of judgment during learning

 Adults need to receive feedback on how they are doing and the results of their efforts.Opportunities must be built into professional development activities that allow thelearner to practice the learning and receive structured, helpful feedback

 Adults need to participate in small-group activities during the learning to move thembeyond understanding to application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation Small-groupactivities provide an opportunity to share, reflect, and generalize their learningexperiences

 Adult learners come to learning with a wide range of previous experiences, knowledge,self-direction, interests, and competencies This diversity must be accommodated in theprofessional development planning

 Transfer of learning for adults is not automatic and must be facilitated Coaching andother kinds of follow-up support are needed to help adult learners transfer learning intodaily practice so that it is sustained." (pp 36-37)

4 Current English training programs for operational staff at Somerset Grand Hanoi

4.1 The training program

Somerset Grand Hanoi has been operated since 1994, since then English also has beenconsidered as first priority in company’s people development policy Many textbook hadbeen used such as: Streamline, Headway, New Headway, New Interchange, Be My Guest.Many trainers also have been hired to take responsibility for this duty; however, thetargeted results are still not obtained

Currently, an in-house designed program called: English for communication at SomersetGrand Hanoi is in use The material for this course is collected from many sources such as:BBC learning English, Be My Guest (O’hara), learningenglish.com etc.

Some good points in the current program have been found; they are:

- The program is designed close to the context of using English in the company

- Incorporating many work related situations that help participants to learn easilyand find learning practical to their work

- Applying functional English training, that is English is learned as a mean tohandle their work

Besides the above strengths, the current English training program still have many weaknesses,they are:

- The curriculum is still subjective which base much on the designer’s experience

- The practical situations used during the lesson are not abundant and not totallyrelated to specific operational functions at Somerset Grand Hanoi

- The training methodology is still intuitive, not base on the result of an academicresearch

- There is no consistent training package for the program so that trainersubstitution can be easily made

4.2 The required English standards

English standards for operational staff in Somerset are divided into two main levels (1)Basic conversational English and (2) Advanced conversational English

Basic conversational English, for all operational staff, is the minimum work requirement.

It means that they must be able to make simple conversations with guests using thefunctions of greeting, giving directions, introducing services and facilities in company,local famous places etc In this stage, the company does not expect the staff to show theirprofessional conversational skills The most important thing is their service-oriented

attitude plus their confidence to talk to the guests to let the guest know that they arecommunicating with an enthusiastic service provider In the case that they do notunderstand what the guest is saying, they can refer that person to their supervisor to handlethe situation by saying: “Sorry, I can not understand English well One moment, please! Iwill call my supervisor to attend to you”.

Advanced conversational English is the minimum work requirement for the Front Office

and Sales Team However, for the other operational staff when they are good at basicconversational English they can keep going on with the training program to get advancedlevel

In conclusion, there is a real need to further improve the current program so that it can helpenhance conversational skills for SGH operational staff and be sustainable The presentstudy is also an attempt for this and, therefore, is justified in this respect Due to the limitedscope of a minor thesis, the research will only focus on the technique level However, whenpossible, other aspects of training such as syllabus, training approach will be dealt with.The next chapter reports on the methodology employed in this study to help address theproblem

Chapter 2: Methodology

1 Rationale for choosing action research

In order to find answers to the two research questions, namely:

1 How do trainers use the technique of practical situations for improving conversationalskills of operational staff at SGH? What are the 10 most applicable practical situations?

2 How effective is the use of these practical situations for improving conversational skillsfor SGH operational staff?

The researcher adopted action research approach It is because action research lends itself to

use in work/teaching situations hence it is the most relevant method for this study, given the

aim of this study is to find solution to overcome difficulty in improving conversational skill foroperational staff at SGH As such, most of the research came from the researcher’s practicalwork, that, in the context of the present study, is to employ the technique of using practicalsituations to improve the conversational skills of SGH operational staff and find out howeffective the technique is

2 Steps of action

Following the common steps in the practice of action research suggested by Mackey & Gass(2005), the researcher set up 5 steps for her current study:

1 Identify problems/concerns: for this study, it is how to improve English

conversational skills for SGH operational staff;

2 Conduct a preliminary investigation to gather information on how trainers use the

technique of practical situations for improving conversational skills of operational staff

at SGH and what practical situations can be used in training conversational skills for thetarget staff;

3 Pilot the use of the technique and form assumptions about the effectiveness of the

technique and identify 10 most applicable practical situations for dissemination;

4 Evaluate the effects of the practice; i.e the effectiveness of the technique of using

practical situations for improvement of conversational skills for SGH operational staff;

5 Disseminate the results of the process in the form of a Training Handbook containing

the 10 most applicable work situations with practical guidelines for trainer

In Step 3, the researcher had to make use of some hospitality-related models or On JobTraining (OJT) model to pilot the technique because the OJT have the following advantages:

• Learning is immediately relevant to the work of the unit, whether it deals withmaterials, information or services