a study on the problems in teaching english speaking skills to the minority students at sonla ethnic boarding high school and so

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

Hä vµ tªn : NguyÔn ThÞ H¬ng Giang

Ngµy sinh : 7/10/1976

N¬i sinh : Phóc Hµ - §ång Hû – Th¸i Nguyªn

§èi tîng: HVCH –K14 K2005 – 2008

M· thÎ th viÖn: M4070339

vietnam national university, hanoi

college of foreign languages

department of post-graduate studies

Nguyễn Thị Hương Giang

a study on the problems in teaching english speaking skills to the minority students at sonla ethnic boarding

high school and some suggested solutions

(T×m hiÓu nh÷ng khã kh¨n trong d¹y kü n¨ng nãi

cho häc sinh d©n téc thiÓu sè ë trêng THPT D©n téc néi tró

I, Nguyen Thi Huong Giang, certify that this thesis is entirely my own work and contains

no material which has been submitted for the examination in any other course or accepted for the award of a degree in any other university or institution The thesis also contains no material previously published or written by other person, except where due reference is made in the text

Sonla, November 2008

Signature

Nguyen Thi Huong Giang

I am also grateful to all lecturers and the staff of the Department of Post-GraduateDepartment, College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for theiruseful lectures and guidance during my study at the Institution.

ii

I truly wish to thank all the colleagues and the students at Son La Ethnic Boarding HighSchool for their assistance and co-operation in giving me valuable information.

Last but not least, I would like to acknowledge my debt to my family, whose patient loveenabled me to complete this work

Abstract

The importance of speaking is undeniable in language teaching and learning Therefore, understanding the teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking skills is apparently necessary

to gain effective teaching and learning

This minor thesis was carried out with an attempt to investigate the areas of difficulties andobstacles that the teachers have encountered when teaching speaking skills to the minority students at Son La Ethnic Boarding High School (SEBH) The Thesis is organized in 3 parts:

First, the Introduction presents the rationale, aims and significance of the study, research questions, scope, method and design of the study

The Development is divided into 3 chapters

Chapter one provides some theoretical background of related issues concerning the

definition of CLT, characteristics of CLT as well as the teacher’s and student’s role in CLT Moreover, there is a presentation of the language skills, the nature of speaking skills, the characteristics, the role of speaking in language teaching and learning, the approaches

to teaching speaking and some problems in teaching speaking

Chapter two carries out about the research setting, the methodology, the instrument, and the subjects of the study There also presents the results of the two survey questionares

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designed to find out the problems that teachers and students at SEBH have encountered in teaching and learning speaking skills

Chapter three provides researcher’s findings of the problems in teaching and learning speaking skills Another very important part of this chapter is the suggested solutions which help overcome the major problems as well as improve the quality of teaching and learning speaking skills at SEBH

Finally, the Conclusion summaries the study and offers some suggestions for further study

List of abbreviations

Clt: Communicative Language Teaching

Sll: Second Language Learning

Elt: English Language Teaching

Sebhs: Son La Ethnic Boarding High School

Moet: Ministry of Education and Training

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List of tables

Table 1: Description of teachers’ experience

Table 2: Teachers’ attitudes towards speaking skills and teaching

English speaking in the text book

Table 3: Teachers’ CLT training background

Table 4: Teachers’ perception of CLT

Table 5: Number of teachers who have applied CLT in teaching speaking skills Table 6: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking skills to the minority students Table 7: The teachers’ attitudes towards reluctant speakers

Table 8: Techniques to minimize the difficulties in teaching speaking

Table 9: Methods applied in teaching speaking

Table 10: Students’ reason for learning English

Table 12: Students’ opinions on the speaking topics

Table 13: Factors that make the students reluctant to speak

Table 14: Teachers’ reactions to students’ mistakes

Table 15: Students’ opportunities to speak English outside classroom

Table 16: Teachers’ current techniques to encourage students to speak English

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Table of contents Declaration………i

Acknowledgements……… ……….ii

ABSTRACT……… iii

List of abbreviations……….……… iv

List of tables……….………… v

Part A: Introduction ……… 1

1 Rationale……… 1

2 Aims and Significance of the study……….2

3 Research questions……… ……… 2

4 Scope of the study………3

5 Method of the study……….3

6 Design of the study……… 3

Part b: development ……… ………… 4

Chapter one: literature review……….… ………4

1.1 Communicative Language Teaching……… ………4

1.1.1 Definitions of Communicative Language Teaching ……… …… 4

1.1.2 Characteristics of Communicative Language Teaching………… ………….5

1.1.3 The teachers and students’ role in Communicative Language Teaching…….6

1.2 Language skills……… 7

1.2.1 Oral communication……… ……7

1.2.2 Oral skills……….……… …… 8

1.3 Speaking skills……… 9

1.3.1 Definitions of speaking……… …… 9

1.3.2 The characteristics of speaking……… …… 9

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1.3.3.The role of speaking in language teaching and learning……… ……10

1.3.4 Approaches to the teaching of speaking……… ……11

1.3.5 Problems with speaking activities……… …… 12

1.4 Summary……… … 13

Chapter two: the study ……… ……… 14

2.1 Research setting……….……… 14

2.1.1 An overview of the research site……….……… … 14

2.1.2 Description of the teachers of English in SEBH……….……….14

2.1.3 The students at Son la Ethnic Boarding High School……….………….15

2.1.4 The current situation of English teaching and learning at SEBH…… …… 15

2.1.4.1 The materials of teaching and learning……… …….…15

2.1.4.2 The teaching and learning English speaking skills……… … 16

2.2 Methodology study……….………16

2.2.1.Participants……….… ….16

2.2.2 Research instruments……….……… 17

2.2.3 Data analysis……… …… 17

2.3 Presentation of the statistical results……… ………17

2.3.1 Data analysis of teachers’ survey questionaire……….……… 17

2.3.1.1 Methodology……… 17

2.3.1.2 The findings ……… … 18

2.3.2 Data analysis of students’ survey questionare……… …… 24

2.3.2.1.Methodology………24

2.3.2.2 The finding……… ………25

2.4 Summary……… 32

Chapter three: findings and suggestions……… ……… 33

3.1 Findings……… ………….33

3.1.1 Problems from the teachers……… 33

3.1.1.1 Lack of training in CLT……… 33

3.1.1.2 Teaching method is not satisfactory……… 34

3.1.2 Problems from the students……… 35

3.1.2.1 Low English proficiency………35

3.1.2.2 Lack of motivation……….………35

3.1.2.3 Lack of confidence……….36

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3.1.2.4 Use of the mother- tongue during group work………… ………36

3.1.3 Other Problems……….36

3.1.3.1 Classes are of big size………36

3.1.3.2 Lack of necessary facilities……….…… 37

3.2 Possible solutions……….……….37

3.2.1 Improving CLT knowledge for the teachers……….………37

3.2.2 Using suitable techniques for error correction in English speaking lessons.38 3.2.3 Implementing of some kinds of communicative activities………….…… 38

3.2.4 Providing more interesting topics to encourage students’ participation …40

3.2.5 Providing more opportunities to practise speaking English……… 40

3.2.6 Helping students to be confident……….… 40

3.2.7 Building a habit of speaking English for students in class……… ……… 41

3.2.8 Training students to become efficient speakers……… 41

3.2.9 Making good use of emotional factors……….….41

3.2.10 Equipping teaching facilities……….……… ……42

3.3 Summary……… …42

part c: conclusion ……… 43

1 Summary of the study……… ………43

2 Limitations of the study………44

3 Suggestion for further study……… 44

References ……… ………45

Appendices ……… ………i

Appendix a (A questionnaire completed by the teachers)……….i

Appendix b ( A questionnaire completed by the students)……… iii

Part a: introduction

1 Rationale

In Vietnam, in the recent years, the teaching and learning of English have been gaining significance firstly because it is an international language; secondly it is also

seen as a means to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between Vietnamand other countries, especially since Vietnam became an official member of WTO.There have been an increasing number of people desiring to know English with thehope of keeping up with the latest modern technology in the world English has nowbeen taught not only at all universities and colleges, but also at almost every seniorhigh school and it is considered as a compulsory subject at secondary school.

To meet the demand of learners of English, teachers of English in Vietnam havebeen trying to find out the most suitable and effective method of teaching English.Theyhave always tried to catch up with the world’s latest frameworks of English LanguageTeaching As in other countries, teachers of English in Vietnam are now usingCommunicative Approach to teach English to learners of all levels They hope toprovide learners with a means of communication, namely English which is vital forthem to be successful in their job and to fulfill their social demands in the time ofglobalization

At Son la Ethnic Boarding High School, where the author studies, English is acompulsory subject in the curriculum and it is considered as a major subject for thehigh school examination It is taught with the purpose that students have some basicknowledge of English in order to communicate and to use it as a key to science andtechnology However, there still exist many difficulties facing English languageteachers in Vietnam in general and English language teachers at Son La EthnicBoarding High School in particular in teaching speaking skills to students The teachers

of English at Son La Ethnic Boarding High School find it difficult to teach speakingsuccessfully

In the teaching situations, the students usually keep quiet in speaking lessons;they mind speaking English There are many students who have good knowledge ofgrammar which works wonderfully at reading and writing exercises but they can notexpress themselves in English What is more, in real-life situations, students find ithard to communicate with English speaking people; it is hard for them to responsespontaneously and naturally

Certainly, there are many reasons for this If those difficulties are not found outand no solutions can be given, the speaking classes cannot be successful and studentswill be fed up with learning English if they find it worthless to study the subject All of the above reasons have inspired the author to do the research on “Theproblems in Teaching English Speaking Skills to the Minority students at Son LaEthnic Boarding High School and some Suggested Solutions” with the hope to make asmall contribution to the quality of teaching and learning speaking skills at Son LaEthnic Boarding High School.

2 Aims and Significance of the study

This study is aimed at finding out the areas of difficulties in teaching Englishspeaking skills to the minority students at SEBH Also, it is expected that somesolutions to overcome difficulties encountered will be suggested

To be more specific, in realizing this study, the objectives are:

- Investigating the current situation of teaching and learning of speaking skills at Son

La Ethnic Boarding High School

- Investigating the areas of difficulties and obstacles that the teachers at SEBH haveencountered when teaching the speaking skills

- Suggesting some solutions with the hope of helping English language teachers atSEBH improve the quality of their teaching, this later helps improve students’learning quality

3 Research questions:

In order to achieve the above aims, the research questions are as follows:

(i) What are the current methods and techniques of teaching speaking skills used at

Son La Ethnic Boarding High School?

(ii) What are problems experienced by the teachers in teaching English speaking

skills at Son La Ethnic Boarding High School?

(iii) What are feasible solutions to overcome those difficulties?

4 Scope of the study

The study focuses on the difficulties that the English language teachers have met whenteaching speaking skills to the minority students at SEBH and some suggestedsolutions which help them improve the quality of their teaching.

The study of difficulties, some suggested solutions to other skills and levels would bebeyond the scope of the study

5 Method of the study

In order to realize the aims of the study, quantitative method was used Twosurvey questionnaires were used to collect information and evidence for the study:

- The first survey questionnaire is carried out on 140 students at SEBH

- The second survey questionnaire is carried out on 4 English language teachers ofSEBH

All comments, remarks and recommendations given in the study were based on thedata analysis

6 Design of the study

This study consists of three parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion.

Part A: Introduction

Part B: Development

The development comprises three chapters:

+ Chapter I : Literature Review

+ Chapter II : The study

+ Chapter III : Data analysis and Discussion of the findings

Part C: Conclusion

Part b development Chapter 1: literature review

1.1 Communicative Language Teaching.

1.1.1 Definition of Communicative Language Teaching

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) appears in the 1960s and 1970s and wasthought as a resolution against the Audio- lingual Method It is an outcome of moreattention to learners’ effective and appropriate use of language learnt It is pointed out by

Brindley (1986: 11) that “The 1970’s and 1980’s could be regarded as the era of

Communicative Language Teaching” Communicative Language Teaching also marks the

beginning of a major innovation within language teaching because of its superior principleswhich are widely accepted nowadays So far, several researchers have done the work onCLT and different authors view CLT differently

However, it is difficult to define it in a satisfactory way There is a variety of definitionsabout CLT and each of them developed her / his own ideas regarding CLT

As for Nunan (1989: 194), Communicative Language Teaching means:

CLT views language as a system for the expression of meaning Activities

involve oral communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which is meaningful to the learners Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives.The learner’s role is as a negotiator and integrator The teacher’s role is as a facilitator of the communication process Materials promote communicative language use; they are task- based and authentic.

It is thought that the definition contains aspects that are common to many other definitions.The definition above, as with any definitions of the language teaching method ( PennyCook, 1989), represents a particular view of understanding and explaining languageacquisition It is socially constructed and must be seen as a product of social, cultural,economic, and political forces

Williams (1995) summarizes the CLT classroom as one in which there is anemphasis on the use of authentic language and unpredictable input Negotiation of meaningbetween students and teachers should be essential in the implementation of tasks withresulting comprehensible input Risk talking which leads to successful communication isalso very important In his viewpoint, Williams emphasizes the lack of focus on the directinstruction of language rules and error correction A major emphasis is on learnerautonomy

According to Bock (2000) CLT is tailored to get at meaning and leaners negotiatemeaning in class Meaning is considered as what is communicated The negotiation ofmeaning can be implicated through pair work, group work in problem- solving tasks He

also states: “Authentic materials, functional tasks, and groups and pair work are

significant aspects of CLT”.

1.1.2 Characteristics of Communicative Language Teaching.

The theory of language in CLT shows that language is used as a means of communication.Characteristics of CLT are given by Richards and Rodgers( 2001) as follows:

 Language is a system for the expression of meaning

 The primary function of language is to allow interaction and communication

 The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses

 The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structuralfeatures, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified indiscourse

Thus, the objective of language teaching is to develop “communicative competence”

Richards and Rodgers (2001 : 155) show that CLT aims to “ make communicative

competence the goal of language teaching” And communicative competence is defined by

Hymes( 1972 : 7): “ Communicative competence as speaker needs to know to communicate

effectively in culturally significant setting.”

Another characteristic of CLT is the introduction of authentic material (Dublin, 1995;Larsen- Freeman, 1986; Long and Crooks, 1992; Nunan, 1990; Widdwson, 1996) In CLT,

it is considered desirable to give learners the opportunity to response to genuinecommunicative needs in realistic L2 situations so that they develop strategies forunderstanding language as actually used by native speakers (Canale and Swain, 1980)

1.1.3 The Teachers’ and Students’ roles in Communicative Language Teaching.

As Communicative Language Teaching is learner- centered, the teachers, though, are stillthe people to set up activities and give instructions to students, they step back to listen andmonitor the class rather than talking much

Breen and Candlin (1980) describe teacher roles in CLT in the following terms:

The teacher has two main roles: the first role is to facililate the communication

process between all participants in the classroom, and between these participants and the various activities and texts The second role is to act as an independent participant within the learning- teaching group The latter role is closely related to the objectives of the first role and arises from it These roles imply a set of secondary roles for the teacher; first, as

an organizer of resources and as a resource himself, second as a guide within the classroom procedures and activities…A third role for the teacher is that of researcher and learner, with much to contribute in terms of appropriate knowledge and abilities, actual and observed experience of the nature of learning and organizational capacities

It is clear that teachers have many roles; however, they need to try hard and to besupported to fulfill these roles They should have adequate knowledge of CLT, they shouldhave chances to access the authentic materials, etc For those who never or rarely attendany courses on CLT, training and retraining in CLT is necessary as teachers’ competencedecides the success or failure of applying CLT in ELT

 Student roles:

On their part, learners in CLT classes, far different from those found in traditional secondlanguage classrooms Breen and Candlin (1980) state that:

The role of learner as negotiator- between the self, the learning process, and the

object of learning- emerges from and interacts with the role of joint negotiator within the group and within the classroom procedures and activities which the group undertakes The implication for the learner is that she/ he should contribute as much as she / he gains, and thereby learn in an interdependent way.

From the description above, it could be seen that the learners find themselves talking moreand frequently moving around to accomplish the tasks That is the reason why classroom is

no longer the scene of order and quiet classes The excessive noise is sometimesunavoidable That makes some teachers feel reluctant to carry out communicative activitiesdue to the fear of losing control over their classes

CLT methodologists consequently recommend that learners learn to see that failedcommunication is a joint responsibility and not the fault of speaker or listener Similarly,successful communication is an accomplishment jointly achieved and acknowledged

1.2 Language skills.

It is understood that language communication involves several language skills On theteaching points of views, language skills consist mainly of four- macro skills ( listening,speaking, reading and writing) which are inter- related That is why students of English arerequired to have an adequate mastery of the four – macro skills However, the degree offluency of each skill, which a learner requires, depends on the purpose of the course she/hetakes

Among the four – macro skills, listening and reading are believed to be receptive skills;speaking and writing are productive skills (Byrne, 1991) They are also divided according

to the manners by which they are formed The skills which are related to articulatoryorgans are called oral skills namely listening and speaking The ones in connection withmanual script named literacy skills consist of reading and writing

Of the four skills, speaking plays a very important role since it is the step to identify whoknows and does not know a language Anyone who knows a foreign language can speakthat language

1.2.1 Oral communication

Without communication, teaching and learning could not occur Teachers, therefore, areintimately involved in the communication process as they interact with students on a dailybasis Teachers continually send messages to students and receive messages from them.Oral communication is the spoken interaction between two or more people, when themessage is made by the speaker(s); it is decoded and responded by the listener(s)

According to Byrne (1991:9), the nature of oral communication is comprehended atwo- way process between the speaker and the listener In oral communication process, theroles of speaker and listener are interchanged; information gaps between them are createdand then closed with the effort from both sides In organizing classroom oral practice,teachers should create as much information gaps as possible and teachers’ vital duty is toencourage communication which yields information gaps Teachers should also bear inmind the differences between real-life oral communication and classroom oralcommunication

Nunan (1989) describes the list of characteristics of successful oral communication asfollows:

 Comprehensible pronunciation of the target language

 Good use of stress, rhythm, intonation patterns

 Fluency

 Good transactional and interpersonal skills

 Skills in talking short and long speaking in turns

 Skills in the management of interactions

 Skills in negotiating meaning

 Conversational listening skills

 Skills in knowing about and negotiating purposes for the conversation

 Using appropriate conversational formulas and filters

However, not all people are good communicators How to conduct oneself effectively in avariety of personal, professional, and academic environments with confidence, a speakerneed arming with necessary oral skills

1.2.2 Oral skills

Oral skills, as divided by Bygate, M (1991: 22), includes negotiation skills and production

skills.

The first types of oral skills, negotiation skills, is a term referring to skills which can be

seen from two different aspects: management of interaction and negotiation of meaning

Management of interaction means the freedom that participants can enjoy when taking

part in the conversation without any intervention and it consists of two sub- skills named

Agenda management and Turn- taking The former refers to the participants’ choice of

topics, the way in which the topics are developed and the length of time for which theconversations are prolonged And, Turn- taking refers to the matter of when one speakertakes the floor and when to step back for other to take turns It requires speakers someabilities to take turns effectively First of all, they must be aware of the way to signal theirwant of speaking by using gestures, sounds or phrases…Also, they must be able torecognize other’s signals to speak and know how to let others take their turns The abilities

to recognize the right moment to take turn and use appropriate turn structure are also veryimportant to be an effective speaker

Negotiation of meaning refers to speakers’ ability to communicate clearly This means

they know what, how and how much to say to be suitable with their listeners Thus,knowing who they are talking to is obviously of decisive importance

The second type of oral skills is production skills It is divided into two sub- skills:

Facilitation skills and Compensation skills

Facilitation skills refers to the ability to simplify language by using simple structures, ellipsis, halting devices…And, Compensation skills refers to the ability of self- correction,

recitation and rephrasing, improvising, discarding, avoiding, foreignizing, paraphrasing,mining of a word, and clarifying…in order to express oneself and comprehend others

In short, speakers are required to incorporate so many skills to be considered acompetent speaker Thus, teaching speaking effectively means helping students to develop

a whole range of oral communication skills

1.3 Speaking Skills

1.3.1 Definitions of speaking

Of the four skills ( listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking plays a vital rolesince it is the step to identify who knows or does not know a language Pattison (1992)confirms that when people know or learn a language, they mean being able to speak thelanguage The nature of speaking has been discussed by many scholars

According to Brown, G and Yule, G (1983), spoken language consists of short,fragmentary utterances in a range of pronunciation There is often a great deal of repetitionand overlap between one speaker and another, and speakers usually use non- specificreferences They also point out that in speaking the loosely- organized syntax, and non-specific words and phrases are used Spoken language is, therefore, made to feel lessconceptually dense than written language.

Brown, G and Yule, G (1983) point out that the ability to give uninterrupted oralpresentation (monologue) is rather different from interacting with one or more otherspeakers for transactional and international purposes It is much more difficult toextemporize on a given subject to a group of listeners That explains why speaking skillsgenerally have to be learnt and practiced carefully before giving a presentation

Another author examining the nature of speaking is Bygate, M ( 1987), who showsthat in order to be able to speak a foreign language, it is obviously necessary to havemicro- linguistic skills, that is, to understand some grammar, vocabulary and the rulesgoverning how words are put together to form sentences However, these motor-perceptive skills, as Bygate, M calls them, are not sufficient since while producingsentences, we often have to adapt them to the circumstances He then presents the secondset of speaking skills: the interaction skills, which involve using knowledge and basicmotor- perception skills in deciding what to say and how to say it, while maintaining theintended relation with others

1.3.2 The characteristics of speaking

According to Bygate, M (1985), in almost speaking, the person to whom we are speaking

is in front of us and able to put us right if we make mistakes He or she can generally showagreement and understanding or incomprehension and disagreement as well Unlikereaders or writers, speakers may need patience and imagination, too While talking,speakers need to take notice of the other and allow listeners chance to speak It means that

we often take turns to speak

To be more specific, Bygate (1987) assumes that conversation can be analyzed interms of routines, which are conventional ways of presenting information

In Bygate’s opinion, there are two kinds of routines They are information routines andinteraction ones

Information routines may be described to involve two sub- routines: expository and

evaluation The former includes description, narration, comparison and instruction Thelatter consists of explanation, prediction, justification, preference and decision

Interaction routines are routines based not so much on sequences of kinds of terms

occurring in typical kinds of interactions These routines, thus, can be characterized inbroad terms including the kinds of turns typically occurring in given situations and theorder in which the components are likely to occur So, telephone conversation, interviewconversations casual encounters, conversations at parties, lessons, radio or televisioninterviews, all tend to be organized in characteristic ways

To sum up, in learning speaking skills, the learners can be much more confident with clearunderstanding and governing these skills Moreover, the oral skill depends much onknowledge of language they can learn such as grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary.

In addition, learners rely on common conventional expression of communicating specificmeanings, particularly on the language environment It is clear that practice in classroommight not be similar to oral communication outside classroom In a foreign languageclassroom, practice is rather simple and far from real life

And it is undeniable that speaking is a key to communication By considering what goodspeakers do, what speaking tasks can be used in class, and what specific needs learnersreport, teachers can help learners improve their speaking and overall oral competency

1.3.3 The role of speaking in language teaching and learning

Speaking in a second or foreign language has often viewed as the play most demanding ofthe four skills On the other hand, speaking plays an utmost important role among the fourlanguage skills since it helps identify who knows or does not know a language

According to Pattison (1992), when people mention knowing or learning a language,they mean being able to speak the language

It can not be denied that in our daily lives most of us speak more than we write Speakingwhen compared with writing according to Wilkin (1979; cited in Nabiar 1985), is theessential form of language and writing is ranked second after it and derived from it

When talking about the role of speaking, Bygate (1987: 7) claims that: “It is the vehicle ofsocial solidarity, of social ranking, of professional advancement and of business”

In language teaching and learning, speaking is a medium through which muchlanguage is learnt, and which is particularly useful for learning.The ability to communicate

in a second language clearly and efficiently contributes to the success of the learners inschool and success later in every phase of life (Kayi, 2006)

More than this, speaking is regarded as the first step to confirm who knows or does notknow a language Ur, P( 1996) shows that people who know a language are referred to as “speakers” of that language as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing

Too many language learners “mastering the art of speaking is the single most importantaspect of learning a second language or foreign language, and success is measured in term

of ability to carry out a conversation in the language” (Nunan,1991: 39)

It can be inferred from Nunan’s viewpoint that speaking is a very important skill amongthe four basic ones Therefore, having dealt with the importance of oral skills in languageteaching and learning it is essential that language teachers should pay more attention toteaching speaking skills In order to carry out many of the most basic transactions, it isnecessary for learners to speak with confidence

1.3.4 Approaches to the teaching of speaking

According to Byrne (1991:23- 24), there are three phases to develop learners’ oral ability:

 Phase 1: The presentation phase

In this phase, teachers play a centre role in learning and teaching process They work as aninformation provider as they know English, select teaching materials and the ways topresent the materials And in this first phase, students usually observe and listen to theteacher, i.e they passively receive information As we know, oral materials are writtenmainly in two forms, which are dialogues and prose Thus, it is obviously that these twodifferent forms need presenting in different ways

Byrne, D (1991) summaries ten different steps to present a dialogue as follows:

1 Establish setting by using pictures At this step, English is used as much aspossible

2 Draw out learners’ experience related to situation

3 Explain some key words

4 Set the listening task by asking key information of the dialogue

5 Ask learners to listen without looking at the dialogue

6 Allow learners to have a look at their book when necessary

7 Ask learners to listen and repeat

8 Ask learners to pick up difficulties and explain them

9 Ask them to practice ( role- play)

10 Ask them to dramatize the dialogue

From the steps above, we can see that they are perfectly and logically arranged However,not all of them need to use for presenting a dialogue, it depends on the learners’ Englishcompetence

To present a prose, Byrne (1991:26) suggests that teachers should use the following ninesteps:

1 Introduce the topic by asking learners to look at the pictures or asking them aboutrelated things

2 Introduce the text New words and structures are given

3 Provide relevant practice

4 Set the reading task: make questions

5 Ask the learners to read the passage in silence and find the answers

6 Ask learners to read again aloud and ask for the answer

7 Explain difficulties they still have

8 Do silent reading again because learners need to go on with step nine

9 Get the learners to talk about what they have to learn based on the previousanswers

To increase the learners’ motivation, these steps should also be used suitably

 Phase 2: The practice phase

This phase is the time for learners to do most of talking as they are provided maximumamount of practice in the form of controlled and guided activities to improve vocabularyand grammar knowledge as well as fluency of speaking The learners, at this phase, answerthe teacher’s guided questions, discuss with their partners to find new ideas related to thetopic.

 Phase 3: The production phase

This is the phase in which learners are given chances to speak English freely Being in areal situation, learners use English by themselves, not depend on the teacher They candevelop their own ideas and their friends’ ideas A real chance to speak English takes placewhen the learners can use English naturally for themselves, not for their teacher Pair workand group work are of great importance and effectiveness at this phase as all learners havechance to participate in talks: Moreover, this can save a great deal of time and learnersseem to be more confident

In short, to improve speaking ability for learners in the process of teaching speaking,teachers should follow these phases orderly However, the practical application muchdepends on such factors as the time available, the target learners’ level and the materialused, etc…

1.3.5 Problems with speaking activities

Whether or not the success performance of speaking activity depends on a number offactors There are a lot of factors affecting the degree of success of speaking activities.Some factors which have negative effects on the speaking activities and therefore impedethe success are usually referred to as problems facing teachers and learners in their attempt

to promoting speaking skills

We strongly agree with Ur, P (1996: 82) when she points out four characteristics of asuccessful speaking activity: learners talk a lot, even participation among the students,student strong motivation to speak and comprehensibility of the students’ language Shealso points out the following common problems that tend to occur in a speaking class:

 The students are inhibited about trying to say things in the classroom

 Students can not think of anything to say

 Some students dominate while others speak very little or not at all

 Students tend to use their mother tongue instead of the foreign language

From Ur’s viewpoint above, for a successful speaking lesson, the teachers and learnersshould be aware of these problems in order to have appropriate and effective solutions tohelp learners develop speaking skills

1.4 Summary

The chapter so far discussed issues and aspects concerning to the topic of the study It hasdiscussed the concepts and ideas relating to CLT Such issues include definitions of CLT,characteristics of CLT as well as teacher’s and student’s roles in CLT Given the purpose

of the study, it was mainly focused on the discussion of language skills and speaking skills

It includes the definitions, the characteristics of speaking, and the role of speaking inlanguage teaching and learning

Besides, the problems with speaking activities, and approaches to teaching speaking havebeen presented as well

The following chapters will present the investigation, the findings and suggested solutions

to the problems under the light of the above mentioned theories

Chapter two: the study

This chapter discusses the context that determines the study of the difficulties experienced

by the teachers in teaching English speaking skills to the minority students at SEBH.The researcher starts by describing the situation where the study was conducted and theinformants involved in the study It includes an overview of Son La Ethnic Boarding HighSchool, the teachers of English, the students, the textbooks, the current teaching and

learning situation The subjects and the method of data collection are also discussed indetail At the end of the chapter there will be the analysis of the data collected from thesurvey questionnaires and it is expressed as a percentage in the form of tables.

2.1 Research setting

2.1.1 An overview of the research site

Son La is a mountainous province in the North- West of Vietnam Over 80% people herebelong to ethnic groups There have been many difficulties in life as well as in educationaldevelopment, especially in the development of teaching a foreign language like English.Son La Ethnic Boarding High School which is situated in the centre of Son La town, Son

La province, was established in 1996 It has for many years been the reliable address forminority students of all the districts in Son La province At present, there are 12 classeswith over 400 students placed into three different grades: grade 10th, 11th and 12th.The23teaching staff composes of 30 teachers of 14 compulsory subjects, of who one- third

is young and creative whereas the others are experienced and enthusiastic English istaught here as a compulsory subject

2.1.2 Description of the teachers of English in Son La Ethnic Boarding High School

If students are the most important factor in the learning process, teachers are the mostimportant factor in the teaching process In SEBH there are 4 teachers of English currentlyworking All of them are female ranking from 31 to 48 Their experience in teachingEnglish varies from 5 to 12 years All of them were trained from in- service Trainingcourses at Hanoi Foreign Language Teacher’s Training College Of the four teachers, twoteachers used to be teachers of Russian but now Russian is no longer taught here So,having attended an English- Training course for more than two years, they became teachers

of English

Obviously, the age of the English teachers reveals the fact that all of them were trained inthe traditional method- the Grammar- Translation One Few of them have taken retrainingcourses to improve their English and their teaching method

2.1.3 The students at Son La Ethnic Boarding High School

The school has 12 classes with over 400 students ranged from grade 10 to grade 12; most

of them are aged from 15 to 20 Most of them have been learning English since they were

at 6th form

The students at SEBH come from every part of the province and belong to different ethnicgroups of Thai, Muong, Mong, Dao, K Mu, Khang, S Mun, La ha, Lao They are brought

up by scholarships from national and provincial budgest The Ethnic students are often lack

of proper teaching and learning materials when they were at primary and secondaryschools Teachers of the schools have to work harder than their colleagues at other uppersecondary school in the province to help their students study effectively Because theirstudents are struggling to cach up with general knowledge of most subjects and they have

to learn about the ethnic language in order to help students understand the lessons

English here is considered as one of the compulsory subjects The students study English

in order to pass the examinations In the reality, teaching of English in general, andteaching speaking English in particular have encountered a great deal of difficulties Thestudents are good at grammar but not speaking They can do grammar exercises veryquickly and well but they can not speak it fluently and most of them do not feel confident

in communicating in English

2.1.4 The current situation of English teaching and learning at Son La Ethnic Boarding High School

2.1.4.1 The materials of teaching and learning

At Son La Ethnic Boarding High School, English is one of the compulsory subjects in thecurriculum and students have to pass at the national examination by the end of grade 12to

be qualified for the secondary school diploma

The text books currently used to teach English to the students are: “ Tieng Anh 10”, “Tieng Anh 11”, “ Tieng Anh 12” published by Ministry of Education and Training(MOET) Students who have finished senior high school are supposed to widen and enrichtheir knowledge with the basic, modern and systematic English language Moreover, thestudents are supposed to acquire the general knowledge of the people and cultures ofseveral English- speaking countries The textbooks cover four skills: speaking, listening,reading and writing And at the end of each semester, students are assessed based on a test

of reading, writing, speaking and listening skills

2.1.4.2 The teaching and learning English speaking skills

It can be seen that communication is the goal of English language teaching The properpurpose of English language teaching is to help students develop their communicativeability This makes teaching and learning speaking skills seem to be an important part inany English course At the secondary school level, and especially in senior years, thestudents will be provided with the real opportunities for developing their four languageskills at their classroom equally Like many other high schools inVietnam, teaching andlearning speaking skills at SEBH are affected by some constraints such as large class size,students’ unfamiliarity with CLT, students’ low English proficiency, students’ lowparticipation in class Besides, lack of training in new teaching methods, especially CLTmakes it difficult for the teachers to teach English speaking skills All the above factorsmake the teaching and learning speaking skills more challenging.

2.2 Methodology study

2.2.1 Participants

In order to get information to fulfill the aims of the study, two survey questionaires havebeen designed The first questionaire was administered to 4 teachers who have beenteaching English to the minority students at Son La Ethnic Boarding High School Theywere invited to join the study with the hope of finding out the teaching techniques theyhave currently applied in teaching English speaking skills and the difficulties they haveencountered when teaching the speaking skills

The second questionaire was administered to 140 minority students of grade 11 at theschool Their ages varied from 17 to 21 They are 94 males and 46 females Their timelength of English learning is different: 90% started learning English at grade 6; only 10%started at grade 10 The researcher delivered the questionaire to those students in order toinvestigate the problems facing the learning of English speaking skills at Son La EthnicBoarding High School The reason for the choice of grade 11 is that they have beenlearning English here for at least nearly two years so they are accustomed to theenvironment, teachers and friends, method of teaching and learning at high school

Moreover, the textbook that is currently used for them is “Tiếng Anh 11” which has justbeen in use for the first time

2.2.2 Research instruments

The instrument used to collect data was two questionaires for both students and teachers.The researcher only used survey questionaire as the instrument because of its convenienceand the limitation of scope of this study.

2.2.3 Data analysis

This part of the thesis is the analysis of all the data collected from the survey questionairesconducted on 4 teachers and 140 minority students of Son La Ethnic Boarding HighSchool The scheme and coding categories in this research emerged from an examination

of data rather than being pre- determined and imposed on the data

2.3 Presentation of the statistical results

2.3.1 Data analysis of teachers’ survey questionnaire

2.3.1.1 Methodology

The questionaire for the teachers (see appendix A) includes 13 open- ended questionswritten in English was delivered to 4 English teachers at the research site The purpose ofthis questionaire was to find out the teachers’ perception of CLT, the difficulties they haveencountered in their teaching of speaking skills and their techniques and methods indealing with these difficulties The questions focused on the following categories:

 Teachers’ experience.

 Teachers’ attitudes towards speaking skills

 Teachers’ attitudes towards teaching English speaking skills in the textbook

“Tieng Anh 11”

 Teachers’ opinions on the Communicative Language Teaching

 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking skills to the minority students at Son LaEthnic Boarding High School

 Teachers’ attitudes towards reluctant speakers

 Techniques in minimizing the difficulties encountered in teaching speaking

 Techniques applied currently in teaching speaking

 Teachers’ attitudes

2.3.1.2 The findings

4 copies of the first questionaire distributed to 4 teachers were responded and the data isanalyzed in this part of the study in the following tables.

 Teachers’ experience in teaching English

Year of teaching Number of teachers Percentage ( %)

1 – 5 1 25%

6- 10 2 50%

11 - 15 1 25%

Table 1: Description of teachers’ experience in teaching English

Question 1 in the questionnaire was designed to measure the teachers’ experience inteaching English The result of Question 1 is presented in Table 1 The table shows thatEnglish language teachers at Son La Ethnic Boarding High School have good experience

in teaching English Two out of four teachers (50 %) have been teaching foreign languagefor more than twenty years However, they began with teaching Russian That explainswhy there is only one teacher (25%) with more than 10 years of teaching English although

2 of them are over 45 years old

 Teachers’ attitudes towards speaking skills and Teaching English speaking skill inthe textbook “Tieng Anh 11”

Questions Options No of

teachers

%

Question 2

 as important as other skills 4 100%

 no so important as other skills 0 0

Question 3

as other skills (reading, listening and writing)

The purpose of the question 3 in the questionaire for the teachers was to find out theteachers’ opinions on the new English textbook for grade 11th As presented in table 2,three out of four teachers (75%) agree that “Tieng Anh 11”is a good book but difficult forthe high school students, none of the teachers think that the book is good and appropriateand even 25% of the respondents affirm that the textbook which was designed in the light

of CLT was not totally appropriate for the examination which just focused on accuracy,

not on fluency Thus, the statistical results above show that the textbook may become anobstacle in teaching speaking skills.

Teachers’ opinions of Communicative Language Teaching

As we know that, Communicative Language Teaching is an approach that aims to makecommunicative competence the goal of language teaching and it is now the dominantEnglish language teaching approaches; however, not all teachers at SEBH have beentrained in CLT The result is presented in Table 3 belows:

Question 4 Options N of

teachers

%

 no, I have never been trained in CLT 2 50%

 yes, in English Teaching- Training course 0 0

 yes, in English Languge Teaching workshops 2 50%

Table 3: Teachers’ CLT training background.

The result from table 3 shows that only two teachers at Son La Ethnic Boarding Highschool have been trained in CLT in ELT workshops, and the rest 2 (50%) have neverreceived any kind of training in CLT However, they still have improved the knowledge ofCLT by self-study.This could be one of the difficulties which influenced the CLTapplication in teaching speaking skills

Question 5 Options N of

teachers

%

 always emphasizes on fluency more than accuracy 2 50%

 focuses on meaningful tasks rather on language themselves

 is used only for teaching speaking skills, not other skills 2 50

 considers the teacher as a facilitator 1 25%

 gives students opportunities to communicate with each others

Table 4: Teachers’ perception of CLT.

Question 5 aims at finding out the teachers’ perception of Communicative LanguageTeaching The results indicate that 100% of the teachers asked think that CLT is learner-centered and they all agree that CLT gives students opportunities to communicate witheach others Some of the respondents (25%) assume that CLT does not teach grammar Ahalf of the teachers (50%) believe that CLT focuses on fluency rather than on accuracy.There are still 2 teachers (50%) to put it that CLT only concentrates on speaking skills, not

on other skills In many of the teachers’ opinions (75%), CLT focuses on meaningful tasksrather than on language itself Only one of them (25%) think that in CLT the role of theteacher is to facilitate students’ learning process

From the statistics above, we can see that the teachers at Son La Ethnic Boarding Highschool have some knowledge of CLT However, their understanding of this approach is notsufficient enough, which is a hindrance to their adopting CLT in teaching speaking skills

Table 5: Number of teachers who have applied CLT in teaching speaking skills.

The responses in Table 5 show that most of the teachers (75%) have applied CLT in theirteaching Only one teacher (25%) has used the traditional method This fact indicates thegradual change in English language teaching techniques by teachers under the guideline ofthe MOET However, they also assert that sometimes they find it very hard to apply CLT

in their teaching In other words, the teachers at Son La Ethnic Boarding High school haveencountered many difficulties when teaching speaking skills in the light of CLT

The next question (Question 7) attempts to find out the difficulties experienced by theteachers in teaching speaking skills to the minority students at SEBH

 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching English speaking skills

Question 7 Options N of teachers %

 students’ low level of English 4 100%

 students’ shyness 4 100%

 students’ lack of motivation 3 75%

 lack of time 2 50%