A survey on internal and external factors influencing students’ english fluency development at grade 11 in an upper secondary school in vinh phuc province

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES ------ KHỔNG THỊ THẢO A SURVEY ON INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FACTORS INF

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

- -

KHỔNG THỊ THẢO

A SURVEY ON INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FACTORS INFLUENCING STUDENTS’ ENGLISH FLUENCY DEVELOPMENT AT GRADE 11 IN AN UPPER

SECONDARY SCHOOL IN VINH PHUC PROVINCE

Một nghiên cứu khảo sát những yếu tố nội tại và ngoại tại ảnh hưởng đến sự phát triển độ trôi chảy tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 11 tại một trường THPT ở Vĩnh Phúc

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field : English teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01

Hanoi, 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

- -

KHỔNG THỊ THẢO

A SURVEY ON INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FACTORS INFLUENCING STUDENTS’ ENGLISH FLUENCY DEVELOPMENT AT GRADE 11 IN AN UPPER

SECONDARY SCHOOL IN VINH PHUC PROVINCE

Một nghiên cứu khảo sát những yếu tố nội tại và ngoại tại ảnh hưởng đến sự phát triển độ trôi chảy tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 11 tại một trường THPT ở Vĩnh Phúc

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Prof Hoang Van Van

Hanoi, 2019

DECLARATION

I hereby state that I, Khong Thi Thao, being a candidate for the Degree of Master of Arts (TEFL) accepted the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of M.A Thesis deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my thesis deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan

or reproduction of the thesis

Hanoi, January 2019

Signature

Khong Thi Thao

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor Prof Hoang Van Van, for his invaluable instructions, helpful suggestions, critical comments, various sources of reference and precious corrections on my writing

I also want to would like to express my sincere thanks to lecturers of Faculty

of Post Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International studies of Vietnam Nation University, Hanoi for their wonderful and meaningful lectures and suggestions which played an important role in my completion of this thesis

I am very grateful to all teachers and students at Tran Phu Upper Secondary School who have enthusiastically participated in my research

Finally, I wish to thank all my beloved family and all my close friends who always encouraged and supported me in the process of doing this thesis

ABSTRACT

This research aims to investigate the internal and external factors that affect students’ fluency development for grade 11th at Tran Phu Upper Secondary School – Vinh Phuc province and suggest some solutions to the problems The data of the research was collected from both students’ and teachers’ questionnaires and classroom observation before and after treatment The findings revealed that both teachers and students at Tran Phu Upper Secondary School are facing many problems in improving fluency for students, specifically speaking skill Through this research, many factors have been listed such as learning styles, students’ habit

of using mother tongue, students’ low motivation and low English level accounting for poor vocabulary, structure, and poor pronunciation Some factors from teachers are teaching large and mixed level classes, references, resources and time pressure From the findings, suggestions are given with hope that they may be a reliable and useful source of reference for not only teachers but also students at Tran Phu Upper Secondary School to develop students’ fluency in a cooperative learning environment

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF TABLES vii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Theoretical background of speaking 4

1.1.1 Speaking 4

1.1.2 Theories of speaking 4

1.1.3 Concepts of speaking fluency 5

1.1.4 Concepts of fluency development 5

1.2 CLT in teaching speaking 6

1.2.1 Concept of CLT 6

1.2.2 Characteristics of CLT 6

1.3 Internal and external factors influencing students’ fluency development 7

1.3.1 Internal factors 7

1.3.2 External factors 11

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 14

2.1 Research context 14

2.1.1 Description for facilities at Tran Phu Upper Secondary School 14

2.1.2 Description of the teachers at Tran Phu Upper Secondary School 14

2.1.3 Description of the students at Tran Phu Upper Secondary School 15

2.1.4 Description of the English textbook 15

2.2 The study 16

2.2.1 Kind of the research 16

2.2.2 Participants 17

2.2.3 Data collection instruments 18

2.3.4 Data collection procedures 18

2.3.5 Data analysis 19

2.3.6 Data analysis procedure 19

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS 20

3.1 Results of the survey questionnaires 20

3.1.1 Questionnaires for teachers 20

3.1.2 Questionnaire for students 28

3.2 Results from classroom observations 34

CHAPTER 4: MAJOR FINDINGS, DISCUSSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 36

4.1 Major findings and discussions 36

4.1.1 Students’ level of fluency development 36

4.1.2 Factors influencing students’ fluency development 36

4.2 Recommendations 39

4.2.1 For teachers 39

4.2.2 For students 40

4.2.3 Finding motivation for improving fluency and taking risks 40

PART C: CONCLUSION 41

REFERENCES 43 APPENDICES I

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Teachers’ experience 17

Table 2: Students’ gender 17

Table 3: Teachers’ attitudes toward speaking skill and teaching this skill 20

Table 4: Teachers’ opinion on students’ participation and interest in speaking lesson 21

Table 5: Factors influencing students’ English fluency development 21

Table 6: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking skill 22

Table 7: Teachers’ teaching English method 23

Table 8: Teachers’ using equipment in teaching speaking skill 24

Table 9: Solution for students’ low motivation in speaking activities 24

Table 10: Teachers’ improvement for students’ low level of spoken English 25

Table 11: Teachers’ current teaching techniques and activities 26

Table 12: Teachers’ solutions to improve students’ English fluency development 27

Table 13: Students’ attitudes toward speaking skill 28

Table 14: Students’ willing ness in developing English fluency 29

Table 15: Students’ evaluation in speaking activities 30

Table 16: Students’ opinion to encourage participation in speaking lesson 31

Table 17: Internal factors influencing students’ fluency development 32

Table 18: Internal factors influencing students’ fluency development 33

Table 19: The level of students’ fluency development before and after having native teacher teaching 35

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

With the development of English all over the world, to keep up with the speed of modernization of society we need to learn from other countries as well as other cultures, so the requirement is that people must use one language to exchange their thoughts, feelings, experiences, and so on through languages The most popular language we use nowadays is English; however, to use English skillfully learners must master at four skills including speaking, reading, writing and listening skills They often find lots of difficulties in using English fluently and effectively,

as well as, taking the time and making the effort to master speaking skills

Similar to other learners, students at Tran Phu Upper Secondary School are quite good at grammar, reading and writing skills, but their exposure to English speaking is very limited They meet many difficulties to communicate in English, sometimes they feel scared when they have speaking tests Several students are so worried that they even burst into tears or can not say anything or express their ideas Therefore, in the hope of helping students improve English speaking skill, we need

to find out the reasons why students face with these problems That is why I have

chosen the topic entitled A survey on internal and external factors influencing students’ English fluency development at grade 11 in an upper secondary school in Vinh Phuc province

2 Aims of the study

This study is to analyze some factors influencing students’ English speaking development at Tran Phu Upper Secondary School in Vinh Phuc province Besides,

it also tries to offer some solutions to improving students’ speaking ability The specific objectives of the study include:

1 Investigating the importance of speaking skills in learning foreign language especially in a high school

2 Finding out internal and external factors affecting to the students’ fluency development

3 Offering some solutions to improving students’ fluency development

3 What should be done to improve students’ fluency development?

4 Methods of the study

To answer the questions, both quantitative and qualitative methods are used The data of this research was collected through the survey questionaire and classroom obsevation First, the author carried out the survey questionaires for students at Tran Phu Upper Secondary School to gather information and evidence for the study Second, classroom observation was enployed to make the study more reliable Finally, comments, recomendation and conclusion were given based on the results of the study

5 Scope of the study

The study is confined to finding internal and external problems/factors affecting Tran Phu Upper Secondary School 11 graders’ English speaking development Specifically, the internal factors include motivation, learning styles, learners’ level and L1 interference while external factors may be the roles of teacher and the learning environment Then author offers some solutions to solving the problems

6 Significance of the study

It is expected that this study will uncover some internal and external factors influencing upper secondary school students’ English speaking ability and will make useful suggestions on how to improve this most difficult language skill

7 Design of the thesis

The study is divided into three parts as follows:

Part A – Introduction – presents rationale, aim, objectives, the research questions,

the scope, significance and design of the study

Part B – Development – consists of three chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature review – presents the concepts relevant to the speaking skill and factors influencing students’ fluency in English

Chapter 2: Research methodology – presents situation analysis, participants and research questions

Chapter 3: Data analysis – describes the data of the questionnaires and classroom observation

Chapter 4: Finding, discussions and recommendation – presents data analysis and discusses internal and external factors affecting Tran Phu Upper Secondary School 11 graders’ English speaking development and suggests solutions to the problems

Part C – Conclusion – provides the conclusion of the thesis, points out limitations and makes recommendations for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

Fluency in speaking English is one of the most important skills in learning as well as teaching English Most of the learners desire to master this skill because they want to communicate with others in the English language fluently Thus, one problem that seems to obsess most EFL teachers is what factors influence students’ English fluency development and how to deal with these problems In what follows,

we will present some major approaches related to the subject of the thesis

1.1 Theoretical background of speaking

1.1.1 Speaking

It cannot be undeniable that speaking plays a vital role in communication besides reading, listening and writing skills In the past, people also knew how to exchange attitudes, thoughts, perchases, etc Therefore, using English fluently has become an important purpose in teaching and learning English from now to then People often assess their development in learning English by how well they use language especially in speaking skill As a result, speaking is one of the productive skills in communication

1.1.2 Theories of speaking

Basically, all of us speak every day to each other, using language but many

of us still do not know exactly what it is According to Brown (1994) and Bruns and Joyce (1997), speaking is understood as an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information Obviously, the speaking process consists of participants, their collective experience, environment factors and the purposes of speaking which is to have deep relationships and support together

In addition, Hedge defines speaking as “a skill by which they [people] are judged while first impressions are being formed.” That is to say, speaking is an important skill which deserves more attention in both first and second language because it reflects people's thoughts and personalities

According to Byrne’s, speaking skills are one of a two – way process including oral communication and productive process Both listener and speaker must encode the message of each other to convey and interpret in appropriate language

Besides that, Bygate (1983) argues: “Speaking skill is the ability in using oral language to explore ideas, intentions, thoughts and feelings to other people as a way to make the message clearly delivered and well understood by the hearer” It means that speaking is a process of grammatical competence and sociolinguistic competence

Thus, speaking is a complex and essential skill of language which is a way for humans to communicate with others and express their ideas, opinions and feelings To be master speaking English, students should make sure of their collective experience, physical environment as well as purpose of speaking

1.1.3 Concepts of speaking fluency

The term “speaking fluency” is linked to the meaning of “communication” (Harmer, 2007, p 142) For example, in a conversation, a learner can make a

grammatical error, such as Maria live in Cazenga [live vs lives]), but the learner

can still speak the sentence with some fluency (Crowther et al., 2015) The learner can speak without searching for words, so that his or her speech is quickly

understood In fact, speaking fluency has been defined as the “automaticity and speed of speech production” (Brand & Götz, 2011, p 256) However, automaticity and speed of speech production may not always make a speech comprehensible, comprehensibility being “a measure of listeners’ perceived ease or difficulty of understanding L2 speech” (Crowther et al., 2015, p 81)

1.1.4 Concepts of fluency development

Fluency means being able to 14 communicate your ideas without having to stop and think too much about what you are saying” (British Broadcasting Corporation, 2003) Additionally, Fluency development is important at all levels of proficiency, and even beginners need to become fluent with the few items of language that they know (Nation and Newton, 2009) This aspect is important

because students can express themselves following a continuous and rich language pattern In the teaching of speaking, to get the most possible fluent speech must be one of the principal efforts of the English teachers

1.2 CLT in teaching speaking

1.2.1 Concept of CLT

There are numerous definitions about CLT; but Nunan (1989: 194)’s definition seems to be widely accepted According to Nunan, CLT is a system for the expression of meaning Oral communication means activities, carrying out meaningful tasks and using language, which is a real benefit for learners Objectives play an important role in the students’ need for functional skills as well as linguistic objectives The learners’ role is as a negotiator and integrator The teachers’ role is

as a facilitator of the communication process Materials that promote communicative language use are task-based and authentic According to Brown (1994), CLT reflects a social relationship between the teacher and learner This learner-centered approach gives students a sense of ownership of their learning and enhances their motivation Therefore, CLT emphasizes the process of communication

The definition mentioned above expresses a specific opinion of understanding and explaining language acquisition Thus, learners can improve their language skills through communicative activities

2) Learning situation is introduced in authentic texts

3) CLT is also involved in learner-centered and experience based tasks

4) CLT focuses on functional language usage and learners’ ability to express themselves

5) There is a connection between classroom language and outside classroom language

Moreover, Brown & Nation (1997) states that students should be trained in both fluency and accuracy including form-focus and meaning-focus speaking activities Nunan (2003) confirms that teachers should give students more chances to speak; students should be guided to express the targeted language in both interactional and transactional setting

Besides, according to Le Van Canh (2004) CLT aims at making communicative competence the goal of language teaching and developing procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication

Richards (2006) suggests six principles of CLT for language teachers:

1) Teachers need to make real communication the focus of language learning 2) Teachers should provide opportunities for learners to experiment and try out what they know

3) Teachers ought to be tolerant of learners’ errors as they indicate that the learner is building up his or her communicative competence

4) Teachers should provide opportunities for learners to develop both accuracy and fluency

5) Teachers should better link the different skills such as speaking, reading and listening together, since they usually occur so in the real world

6) Teachers should let students deduce or discover grammar rules themselves When teaching language, teachers should apply new classroom techniques and activities Thus, demand of accurate repetition and memorization of sentences and grammatical patterns, activities are needed

To sum up, there are various opinions about the characteristics of CLT, but the main purpose of CLT is to focus on learners Thus, learners should be taught by cooperative competence such as pair and group work, fluency-based activities and so on

1.3 Internal and external factors influencing students’ fluency development

1.3.1 Internal factors

Internal factors are factors that come from inside the individual Brown (2007) states that these factors are specified by the individual students like

motivation, attitude, personal practice and study habits Each of these factors is an individual element of learners’ ability to acquire a foreign language but each component also interacts with another

1.3.1.1 Learners’ motivation

Dornyei (1994a)’s framework

The relationship between students’ fluency development and motivation is

deep because students will learn better and develop the ability to use language if they have motivation to improve their language skill especially speaking skill In many studies, researchers focused mainly on factors which affect motivation Typical examples are Williams and Burdens’s (1997), Schumann’s neurobiological model, Tremblay and Gardner’s (1995) or descriptive studies of motivation in particular socio cultural contexts However, in this part, I only mention a framework proposed Dornier’s (1994a) extended framework, which is more suitable for my study Moreover, their research was rather detailed in factors affecting students’ fluency development and its structure was quite clear and easy to understand

The instruction has been recently made by Williams and Burden (1997) as part of a larger overview of psychology for language teachers The authors are among the few L2 motivation researchers who provide an elaborate definition of motivation (Williams & Burden, 1997: 120): Motivation may be construed as a state

of cognitive and emotional arousal, which leads to a conscious decision to act, and which gives rise to a period of sustained intellectual and/or physical effort in order

to attain a previously set goal (or goals) Having discussed the inherent conflict of the static and process-oriented conceptualizations of motivation earlier, we can appreciate the care with which this definition has been formulated in order to achieve a compromise This is similar to Dornyei's (1994a) list in that it does not offer any directional relationships between the listed items, but some aspects of it (e.g external, contextual factors) represent the most detailed treatment of the particular issue in the L2 literature It is also clear when looking at the framework that the authors used primarily main stream rather than L2 motivational theories as their sources, which places their work very much in line with the 'paradigm seeking spirit' of the reform movements in the 1990s

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

The most general level of the construct is the Language Level where the focus is on orientations and motives related to various aspects of the L2, such as the culture it conveys, the community in which it is spoken, and the potential usefulness

of proficiency in it These general motives determine basic learning goals and explain language choice In accordance with the Gardnerian approach, this general motivational dimension can be described by two broad motivational subsystems, an integrative and an instrumental motivational subsystem, which, as has been argued before, consist of loosely related, context-dependent motives The integrative motivational subsystem is centered on the individual's L2-related affective predispositions, including social, cultural, and ethno- linguistic components, as well as

a general interest in foreignness and foreign languages The instrumental motivational subsystem consists of well-internalized extrinsic motives (identified and integrated regulation) centered on the individual's future career endeavors (cf., 26)

The third level of L2 motivation is the Learning Situation Level, made up of intrinsic and extrinsic motives and motivational conditions concerning three areas: (1) Course-specific motivational components are related to the syllabus, the teaching materials, the teaching method, and the learning tasks These are best described by the framework of four motivational conditions proposed by Crookes and Schmidt: interest, relevance, expectancy, and satisfaction; (2) Teacher-specific motivational components include the affinitive drive to please the teacher, authority type, and direct socialization of student motivation (modeling, task presentation, and feedback); and (3) Group-specific motivational components are made up of four main components: goal-orientedness, norm and reward system, group cohesion, and classroom goal structure

1.3.1.2 Students’ learning style

Learning style belongs to each individual in an educational context to get new information According to Keefe (1979), learning style is seen as “cognitive, affective and physiological traits that are relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with and respond to the learning environment

There are four groups following Willing (1987) division based on learners’ behaviors:

- Concrete learners are interested in social aspects of language learning

- Analytical learners would rather work individually on reading and grammar

- Communicative learners are willing to communicate with other speakers

- Authority-oriented learners tend to be independent and prefer to work in non- communicative classroom

We can conclude that the teacher should pay attention to all kinds of learners because most of the students participate passively in the activities

1.3.1.3 Learners’ level

A Learner Level involves complex affects and cognitions that form fairly stable personality traits We can identify two motivational components underlying the motivational processes at this level, a need for achievement and self-confidence, the latter encompassing various aspects of language anxiety, perceived L2 competence, attributions about past experiences, and self-efficacy

a Language use anxiety: Anxiety makes students feel pressure, nervousness when they learn a second language It affects to the quality of oral production leading to learners speaking less fluently than they want (Ellis, 1998: 121) According to Robby (2010), fear of making a mistake is one of the main factors that makes students do not want to speak in the classroom Aftat (2008) stated that learners feel worried when they receive correction and negative evaluation Moreover, learners also are afraid of being laughed at or mocked by other learners and teachers (Kutus, 2001)

b Perceived L2 competence: According to Clement, Baker and MacIntyre (2003), higher perceived L2 competence and low anxiety increase willingness to communicate Therefore, past proficiency level is motivation for learners to speak fluently

c Attribution about past experiences: Failures and successes in the past have a massive effect on the goal and expectancy of language learning in the future

d Self-efficacy: it is the individual’s judgment of their ability to perform specific actions, which can express both past accomplishments and observation of peers, persuasion, reinforcement and evaluation

1.3.1.4 Habit of using mother-tongue

Harmer (1991) suggests some reasons why students use mother-tongue in class First, at the point when students have gotten information about a subject they are not linguistically armed for discussing in the outside language Another reason

is that the utilization of native language is a characteristic thing to do In addition, some students may resort to the first language to disclose something to others if there is no support from instructors to stick to utilizing the target language Finally,

at the point when teachers every now and again use the students’ first tongue, students will consequently feel that it is good to utilize it

1.3.2 External factors

External factors are factors that come from outside the individual Based on Browns′ (2007) definition, external factors can be different for each individual, but their common attribute is that they are based solely on the circumstances outside of the control and influence of the learner

1.3.2.1 Teachers’ factors

Teachers play an important part in improving students’ fluency development According to Harmer (1999: 57-62), the teacher has different roles in teaching including; controller, organizer, assessor, prompter, participant, resource, tutor and observer With each role, the teacher must take responsible for helping students develop their studying especially in speaking skill

Besides, Byner (1986: 2) divided the role of the teacher into stages of teaching speaking accounting for the presentation stage, the practice stage and the production one At the first stage, the teacher must prepare the references carefully and present them clearly for all students to understand with a suitable time At the practice stage, student will practice and do as teachers’ guide At the final stage, students should apply what they studied in their products and use the language fluently It is an opportunity for students to express their ideas and opinions

Teachers have many different roles, but the most important one is to motivate students to develop their fluency or arouse their interest in speaking skills

Another important factor from teachers is their methodology, which refers to the approach or method and teaching techniques he/she uses in the classroom There are many methods that teachers can apply in their teaching; however, the most suitable one may be Communicative Language Teaching with learner-centered method with various techniques such as role-play, games, pair work, group work, interview, discussion, etc

In short, teachers have an important role in improving students’ speaking and they must try their best to motivate students to join in their lessons

1.3.2.2 Classroom factors

Dornyei’s framework shows many new factors affecting students’ speaking which consists of:

a Physical conditions Physical conditions in the classroom consists of

classroom size, chairs, tables, boards which affect learners’ taking part in the speaking lesson as well as students’ English fluency development Harmer (2001) stated that physical conditions had a notable effect on students’

learning and their attitude towards SLA

b Classroom atmosphere The learning environment needs to get rid of

anxiety so that students can be motivated to improve their speaking fluency development Students also feel comfortable and relaxed whenever they speak as well as hear English

c Language environment Language environment must be available for

students when they learn L2 because it is an opportunity for them to communicate with native speakers In addition, they can make use of mass media such as radio, cinema or TV to access to English (Ellis, 1998)

Summary

This chapter has presented theoretical background knowledge related to the

topic of the study It has discussed some definitions about speaking skills, an overview of Communicative Language Teaching Besides, it also discussed internal and external factors influencing students’ fluency development including learners’ motivation, learners’ learning styles Learners’ level, habits of using mother tongue, teachers factors and classroom factors The following chapter will display the detailed description of methodology, the procedure and the result of the study in the light of the above discussed theories

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Chapter 2 briefly presents research setting and the study In the first part, description for facilities, teachers, students and the English textbook at Tran Phu Upper Secondary School are mentioned In the second part, there will be a description for kind of the research, participants, data collection instruments, data collection procedures, data analysis and data analysis procedure

2.1 Research context

2.1.1 Description for facilities at Tran Phu Upper Secondary School

Tran Phu Upper Secondary School is located in Vinh Yen city, Vinh Phuc province, which is 45 kilometers far from Hanoi The school is equipped with modern techniques for teaching such as interactive boards, projectors, computers and a big library with various types of materials as well as a language laboratory Each class is divided into four rows with two students sitting together Thus, teachers may find it difficult to control all students in class when they learn in the classroom However, due to the inefficient teaching skills not only most of the techniques in the language LAB are broken down, but also teachers are not capable enough to control students with the computers Besides, the students’ learning attitude is not really good Using technologies in teaching English also poses some challenges because of some senior teachers are not able to handle electronic machines properly This school consists of 33 classes (each has about 35 students) and 7 English teachers

2.1.2 Description of the teachers at Tran Phu Upper Secondary School

Tran Phu Upper Secondary School is a big school in Vinh Phuc province There are 7 female English teachers at this school and most of them are experienced

in teaching Half of the English teachers are taking the post-graduate course at VNU University of Languages and International Studies Most of the English lessons are usually conducted in much Vietnamese because the characteristics of the teaching and learning situation in Vietnam is learning for passing written exams, not for speaking skills Moreover, students’ ability for listening is not good so they do not understand everything in English or cannot use English fluently Besides, teachers are familiar with teaching in their mother-tongue The new textbooks require a new

method, which may be a big difficulty for those teachers They do not focus on speaking skill and as a result, students’ speaking skill is very poor Vietnamese teachers of English still feel embarrassed when they speak English Therefore, it is a big problem that we need to discuss and solve

2.1.3 Description of the students at Tran Phu Upper Secondary School

Though all students started learning English when they were in grade 6, their English proficiency is not good enough Their aim for studying English is only to pass tests and exams, so they focus mainly on grammar and reading skill As a result, the time for studying English is long; but the ability for communicating fluently cannot be improved Moreover, students have to study many subjects at school, so they do not have enough time to practice speaking English In addition, their English levels are varied because each person has specific strength and weakness Their parents express their deep concern about children’s learning What they aim at and how their children can pass the entrance exams to get over to university Once, I have heard a student’s mother complain that the teacher spoke too much English in lessons, so her children did not understand They wanted the teacher to pay attention to grammar and teach students how to do the test well but not for communication

2.1.4 Description of the English textbook

The English textbook is designed following communicative approach Each unit covers one specific topic relating many fields such as literature, science, technology, environment, community, and so on Each theme in the textbook consists of four main skills beside language focus, communication and project of renovation textbook Each lesson lasts for forty five minutes including Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing skills

In my point of view, the most interesting part in the English textbook is the

“Communication and Project” part because it supports a lot for speaking skills in which students are poor In fact, the new textbook has proved that speaking is built more relevant and suitable for current teaching and learning situation in high school

in Vietnam The teaching method chosen for this book is task-based teaching because students are at the center of education and it aims at developing their creativity Contrary to traditional teaching approaches, which are teacher-centered, this section is really learner-centred one

One more noteworthy point is that the objectives of the textbook are clear and relevant Students must make sure that they master many grammar rules as well

as the amount of vocabulary The textbook provides basic knowledge of English at

a proper level for each grade Their main role is developing language skills including listening, reading, writing and speaking skills One of the most important targets is improving the communicative competence of students and they want to broaden students’ knowledge of many different cultures around the world The balance division between skills is considered suitable for teaching and learning, so students can improve their English in a more comprehensive approach

To sum up, the renovation of the textbook also meets the demand and the global trend of learning English

2.2 The study

2.2.1 Kind of the research

This study is conducted as a qualitative and quantitative study because it is suitable with the aim of the research The reason for this is because Bouma has stated that “both qualitative and quantitative approaches are essentials to the research process in social sciences” (1996: 173) Therefore, to make sure of the results are reliable I choose both approaches to carry out the survey Using the characteristics of the methods mentioned above, I firstly make the outline of the research Then I decide which research questions are suitable with the aim of the study Thus, research questionnaires are presented to meet the aim of the research

Besides, collecting data, experience in teaching and observation during the teaching process, the researcher analyzes the data, so it is necessary for the researcher to use both qualitative and quantitative

2.2.3 Data collection instruments

2.2.3.1 Questionnaires

The questionnaires were delivered to the grade 11 students The questionnaire has two main parts The first part is to gather data on general information consisting learners variables – gender, self – perceived speaking proficiency, frequency of speaking English outside the classroom, and motivation in speaking English The students’ questions consisted of 10 close and open-ended questions designed in English The researcher delivered 378 survey questions to students, but the numbers of fully-answered questionnaires are 326 samples

The researcher asked all other teachers of grade 11 classes for permission to conduct the surveys with the students During the survey, if the students did not understand any questions, they could ask for support It took me 3 days to complete collecting data for this thesis

The statistical information is presented in tables after collecting questionnaires from the students in order to deal with the research questions and make the thesis more reliable

2.3.3.2 Class observation

Besides survey questionnaires, the researcher also used class observation to make sure of the reliability and validity of the data as well as the information about internal and external factors influencing students’ English fluency development The researcher took part in observing several English speaking lessons from others teachers before and during the study Finally, all of the characteristics such as teachers’ teaching styles, teaching techniques, and students’ involvement are also presented Preferences and some other factors were mentioned in the checklist

2.3.4 Data collection procedures

Collecting data is very important for a study as it determines the success of a study Each student would be delivered a paper questions with available responses

If they agreed with which statements, they would tick on this answer Therefore, the data was collected in same way from all of the classes The dada was arranged in the tabular form and percentage of each frequency was calculated

In the first stage, questionnaires were delivered to 378 students in different classes at grade 11 The participants returned the questions as soon as they completed questions survey at class in a suitable time

To ensure the validity and reliability of the data, the researcher continued to observe some English speaking lessons to find out the factors affecting students’ fluency development Both questionnaires and observation aim to gather information about teaching and learning situations in speaking lessons and give

analysis and solutions to solve the problems in students speaking lessons

2.3.5 Data analysis

Together with questionnaires, the researcher used class observation to see how the students performed and what problems the students really encountered in speaking lessons The researcher observed two classes, 2 periods for each class Everything observed, heard, and experienced during class observation was recorded carefully in detail The aim of association between questionnaires and observation is very clear because the researcher wants to identify both internal and external factors that influence in students’ speaking Moreover, through observation the researcher examines the reliability of questionnaires as well as from questionnaires; the

researcher could make out the deep issues of each learner

2.3.6 Data analysis procedure

The quantitative data derived from the questionnaires were analyzed using Excel program In order to answer the three research questions, the descriptive statistics of frequencies and percentages were used The qualitative data were derived from the class observation What happened in every class observed was described in detail The researcher also discussed the strong and weak points of these classes with the aim of finding the factors affecting the students’ English speaking development as well as suggest solutions to improve students’ speaking

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS

The data was collected after the researcher carried out survey questionnaires and observation Therefore, it will be presented in the form of tables and charts As a result, the findings of the research will be clarified

3.1 Results of the survey questionnaires

3.1.1 Questionnaires for teachers

Part I: Teachers’ evaluation for learning and teaching speaking skill

Teachers’ attitudes toward speaking skill and teaching English speaking skill Table 3: Teachers’ attitudes toward speaking skill and teaching this skill

Question 1 Very important Important

Not very important

Not important at all

in the school agreed that speaking skill is as important as other skills (listening, reading and writing) The numbers of the teachers who think that speaking, listening, writing skill are equally important There is only one teacher who believed that reading is more difficult than others Following the data, we can realize that most of the teachers find that teaching speaking skills are very essential; however, they are still quite reluctant to teach this skill

Teachers’ comment on students’ participation and interest in speaking lesson\

Table 4: Teachers’ opinion on students’ participation and interest in speaking lesson

teachers

Percentage (%)

Factors influencing students’ English fluency development

Table 5: Factors influencing students’ English fluency development

Question

5

number of teachers

Percentage (%)

Students’ low level of English

Boring topics and activities 2 28.6 Students’ reluctance to speak English 6 85.7 Students’ lack of motivation 5 71.4 Lack of environment for speaking 4 57.1

According to the information in Table 5, the teachers have encountered several issues when teaching speaking English to students The statistics show that all of the students’ low level of English proficiency is the most important factor affecting students’ development of speaking However, six out of seven teachers

think that students’ reluctance to speak is because of their young age Some others confirmed that students lack the motivation and environment for speaking 85.7%, 71.4%, 57.1% respectively There are still 2 teachers (28.6%) who believed that large class size is a crucial problem affecting students’ speaking In other words, English proficiency plays an important part in their teaching students

Part II: Teachers’ difficulties

Teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking skill

Table 6: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking skill

the teachers Percentage (%)

6 Lack of students’ motivation in

to add another factor to this problem She said that atmosphere played an important role in contributing to teaching skills