Factors affecting the participation in speaking activities of 10th grade students at Doson High school and some possible solutions

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ---0o0--- TRẦN THỊ THẢO FACTORS AFFECTING THE PARTICIPATION IN S

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES -0o0 -

TRẦN THỊ THẢO

FACTORS AFFECTING THE PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING

SCHOOL AND SOME POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

NHÂN TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN SỰ THAM GIA VÀO HOẠT ĐỘNG NÓI CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT ĐỒ SƠN

VÀ MỘT SỐ GIẢI PHÁP KHẮC PHỤC

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410

Hanoi, September 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES -0o0 -

TRẦN THỊ THẢO

FACTORS AFFECTING THE PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING ACTIVITIES OF

10 TH GRADE STUDENTS AT DOSON HIGH SCHOOL AND SOME POSSIBLE

SOLUTIONS

NHÂN TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN SỰ THAM GIA VÀO HOẠT ĐỘNG NÓI CỦA

HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT ĐỒ SƠN

VÀ MỘT SỐ GIẢI PHÁP KHẮC PHỤC

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410

SUPERVISOR: PHẠM MINH HIỀN, M.A

Hanoi, September 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents Page

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENT iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LISTS OF TABLES AND CHARTS viii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationales of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 1

3 Research questions 2

4 Methods of the study 2

5 Scope of the study 2

6 Significance of the study 3

7 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Theoretical background of speaking in second language learning and teaching 1.1.1 Definitions of speaking 4

1.1.2 Importance of speaking 4

1.1.3 Approaches to the teaching of speaking 4

1.2 CLT and teaching speaking 6

1.2.1 Concept of CLT 6

1.2.2 Characteristics of CLT 6

1.2.3 Communicative activities 7

1.2.4 Students‟ participation in speaking activities 7

1.3 Factors affecting students’ participation in speaking activities 7

1.3.1 Students‟ factors 7

1.3.1.1 Students‟ learning styles 7

1 3.1.2 Students‟ language levels 8

1.3.1.3 Students‟ attitude and motivation 9

1.3.1.4 Students‟ anxiety 10

1.3.2 Teachers‟ factors 12

1.3.2.1 Teacher‟s roles 12

1.3.2.2 Teacher‟s characteristics 14

1.3.2.3 Teacher‟s methodology 15

1.3.3 Classroom factors 16

1.3.3.1 Classroom atmosphere 16

1.3.3.2 Classroom size 17

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 18

2.1 Research setting 18

2.1.1 An overview of Doson High School 18

2.1.2 The teachers 18

2.1.3 The students 18

2.1.4 The materials and syllabus 18

2.2 Methodology 19

2.2.1 Research questions 19

2.2.2 Participants 19

2.2.3 Data collection instruments 19

2.2.3.1 Questionnaires 19

2.2.3.2 Interviews 20

2.2.3.3 Class observations 20

2.2.4 Data collection procedures 20

2.2.5 Data analysis 21

2.2.5.1 Results from students‟ questionnaire 21

2.2.5.2 Results from teachers‟ questionnaire 29

2.2.5.3 Results from class observations and interviews 33

CHAPTER 3: MAJOR FINDINGS, DISCUSSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 3.1 Major findings and discussions 35

3.1.1 Students‟ level of participation in class oral activities 35

3.1.2 Factors affecting students‟ participation 35

3.1.3 Students‟ attitudes towards the applied teaching techniques 36

3.2 Recommendations 37

3.2.1 For teachers 37

3.2.1.1 Varying speaking activities 37

3.2.1.2 Personalizing speaking topics 37

3.2.1.3 Using group work to good effect 37

3.2.1.4 Managing speaking turns 38

3.2.1.5 Building cooperative atmosphere 38

3.2.1.6 Establishing good rapport with students 39

3.2.1.7 Combining the textbook with other relevant materials 39

3.2.1.8 Managing speaking time appropriately 40

3.2.2 For students 40

3.2.2.1 Cooperating with students 40

3.2.2.2 Cooperating with teachers 40

3.2.2.3 Taking risks 40

PART C: CONCLUSION 41

1 Summary of the study 41

2 Limitations and suggestions for further study 42

REFERENCES 43

APPENDICES I

APPENDIX 1: Questionnaire for students I APPENDIX 2: Questionnaire for teachers IV APPENDIX 3: Pre – treatment interview questions VII APPENDIX 4: Post – treatment interview questions VIII APPENDIX 5: Classroom observation checklist IX

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

* Tables Page

Table 1: Students‟ learning styles 23

Table 2: Students‟ motivation 24

Table 3: Students‟ anxiety 24

Table 4: Students‟ language levels 25

Table 5: Teachers‟ talking time 26

Table 6: Teachers‟ techniques of encouraging students 27

Table 7: Students‟ evaluation on speaking lessons 27

Table 8: Factors affecting students‟ participation 28

Table 9: Students‟ suggested techniques to increase their participation 28

Table 10: Teachers‟ assessment and attitudes towards speaking skill 29

Table 11: Teachers‟ opinions about teaching methods 30

Table 12: Teachers‟ problems in teaching speaking skill 30

Table 13: Teachers‟ current teaching techniques and activities 31

Table 14: Factors affecting students‟ participation 32

Table 15: Teachers‟ suggested solutions to increase students‟ involvement 33

Table 16: The level of students‟ participation before and after the treatment 34

* Charts Pie – chart 1: Students‟ assessment of their speaking ability 21

Pie – chart 2: Students‟ level of participation in speaking activities 22

Pie – chart 3: Students‟ attitudes towards speaking skill 22

Pie – chart 4: Students‟ assessment of speaking activities in the class 23

Pie – chart 5: Students‟ level of reluctance in speaking lessons 25

Pie – chart 6: Students‟ assessment of the topics in the textbook TIENG ANH 10 26

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationales of the study

In recent years, teaching and learning English is very popular in Vietnam English has become a crucial means of communication and it is widely used in different fields of the society such as international commerce, science & technology, education and so on Therefore, the goal of learning English has verified: students study English not only to pass the exam but also to get communication competence in order to find a good job in the future or to study abroad It is obvious that learning speaking skills is very important

Together with new textbooks, new teaching approaches have been applied to increase the effectiveness of teaching English at high schools In the light of communicative language teaching (CLT), students‟ participation in classroom activities plays a crucial role in the success of the lesson However, this is the concern of most teachers as students‟ reluctance to speak in the class is the biggest challenge they are facing

Having been teaching English at Doson High School for six years, I have realized that our students have the same problem, they are not active to participate in the speaking activities With the desire to identify the causes and solutions to this problem, I chose the

topic “Factors affecting the participation in speaking activities of 10 th grade students at Doson High School and some possible solutions” as the title of my thesis

This study helps us have a deep understanding about the factors affecting students‟ participation in oral activities In general, it can be affected by a variety of factors coming from teachers‟ side, students‟ side and classroom condition It will also examine the techniques and activities applied by teachers and investigate some difficulties in teaching speaking skills Through this study, the researcher expects to find out some appropriate solutions to increase students‟ participation in speaking activities

2 Aims of the study

The study aims to investigate the factors affecting the participation in speaking activities of 10th grade students at Doson High School and find out some possible solutions

To be more specific, the major aims of the study are as follows:

- To identify factors affecting the participation in speaking activities of 10th grade students at Doson High School

- To examine some techniques and activities applied by teachers and students‟ preference

- To offer some suggestions for teachers to increase students‟ participation in speaking activities

3 Research questions

The study is implemented to answer the following questions:

1 How actively are the 10th grade students at Doson High School involved in oral activities in the class?

2 What are the factors affecting the participation in speaking activities?

3 What are the possible solutions to increase students‟ participation in speaking activities?

4 Methods of the study

To conduct the study, both quantitative and qualitative methods are used The data was collected by means of:

- Questionnaires

- Classroom observations

- Interviews

Survey questionnaires, one for students and the other for teachers were mainly used

to gather information and evidence for the study

To make the data more reliable, interviews and classroom observations were conducted All the comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion provided in the thesis were based on the analysis of the study

5 Scope of the study

Concerning the scope of the study, some of the following things should be taken into consideration First, the subject of the study are the 10th grade students who are full of energy, desire and time to do the study Second, the study only focuses on oral activities because speaking skill is the most important skill for communication Third, the study concentrates to investigate factors affecting the participation in speaking activities including teacher factors, student factors and classroom factors hindering students‟ involvement in oral activities and find out some solutions Finally, both quantitative and qualitative were used because of their convenience and high reliability

6 Significance of the study

The information of the factors affecting the participation in speaking activities is helpful for students and teachers of English in general and teachers at Doson High School

in particular The suggestions to increase students‟ involvement help the teachers overcome the challenges and find the ways to have successful lessons It can‟t be denied that the study is of great value to both students and teachers of English

7 Design of the study

The study is divided into three parts: the Introduction, the Development and the Conclusion

Part A: Introduction- deals with the rationales, aims, methods, scope, significance and

design of the study

Part B: Development – consists of three chapters

Chapter 1: Literature review – provides some theoretical background about speaking skill and factors affecting students‟ participation in speaking activities

Chapter 2: The study – presents the situation analysis, participants, data collection instrument, data collection procedures and data analysis The detailed results of the research are focused

Chapter 3: Major findings, discussion and recommendations – shows major findings, discussion and some recommendations for teachers to increase students‟ participation

in speaking activities

Part C: Conclusion- is a review of the study, suggestions for further research and

limitations of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical background of speaking in second language learning and teaching 1.1.1 Definitions of speaking

Speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non verbal symbols, in a variety contexts” (Chaney, 1998:13) Bailey (2005:2) shares the same view that “ speaking is the productive, oral skill It consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning.”

In addition, Florez (1991:1) defines speaking as “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information” (cited in Bailey, 2005:2)

According to Mackey (1965) “ oral expression involves not only the use of the right sounds in the right patterns of rhythm and intonation, but also a choice of words and inflections in the right order to convey the right meaning”, (cited in Bygate, 1987:5)

From the above definitions, it can be concluded that speaking is the productive skill used to convey meaning

In social contexts, speaking is particularly useful as it is key to communication Kayi (2006) and Bygate (1987) share the same view that the learners need to have ability

to speak confidently to carry their most basic transactions In short, because of the importance of oral skill in language teaching and learning, it is vital that speaking skill should be paid great attention to

1.1.3 Approaches to the teaching of speaking

- The Grammar – translation Method

In the Grammar – translation Method, students are taught to analyze grammar and

to translate (usually in writing) from one language to another The main goal of this

method has been for students to read the literature of a particular culture This method does not really prepare students to speak English, therefore, it is not entirely appropriate for students to improve their speaking skills In conclusion, the Grammar – translation Method

is not consistent with the goals of increasing English learners‟ fluency, oral production or communicative competence

- The Direct Method and Audio - lingualism

The Direct Method focused on “everyday vocabulary and sentences” (Richards and Rodgers, 1986:9) and lessons were conducted entirely in the target language More importantly, the lesson presented new teaching points in speaking rather than in writing and it was practiced “ in a carefully graded progression organized around question and answer exchanges between teachers and students.” (Richards and Rodgers, 1986:10 as cited in Bailey, 2005:17)

In Audiolingualism, speaking is taught by having students repeat sentences and recite memorized dialogues from the textbook According to Bygate (2001:15), “teaching oral language was thought to require no more than engineering the repeated oral production of structures” (cited in Bailey, 2005:17) In this method, the lesson emphasized repetition drills in order to familiarize students with the sounds and structural patterns of the language In short, memorizing patterns did not lead to fluent and effective communication in real – life situations

- Communicative Language Teaching

At the end of the 1960s, the Audio – Lingual Method met a drastic attack from both American sociolinguistics and British functional linguistics based on the study of language from a wider prospective Hymes (1972) put forward the term “communicative competence” to refer to appropriate language performance in contrast to “ linguistic competence” At the same time, Brumfit and Johnson (1979) emphasized “the functional and communicative potential of language They saw the need to focus on communicative proficiency rather than on mere mastery of structures” (Richards and Rodgers, 2001:153) CLT features more interaction- based activities such as role plays, information gaps, pair work and group work In summary, among some approaches of the language teaching methods, CLT is the most appropriate way for communication

1.2 CLT and teaching speaking

1.2.1 Concept of CLT

To define CLT, Nunan (1989:194) states:

“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 including functional skills as well as linguistics objectives The learner’s role is a negotiator and integrator The teacher’s role is a facilitator of the communication progress.”

In brief, CLT emphasizes communication in a foreign language and improves the learners‟ competence through communicative activities

1.2.2 Characteristics of CLT

According to Richards and Rogers (2001:161), CLT has a rich theoretical base and some of the characteristics of the communicative view of language are:

- 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 use

- The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse

In Brumfits‟s view (1984:91-93), CLT‟s characteristics can be summarized as follows:

- Teaching is leaner – centered and responsive to learners‟ needs and interests

- The target language is acquired through interactive communicative use that encourages the negotiation of meaning

- Genuinely meaningful language use is emphasized , along with unpredictability, risk-taking and choice-making

- There is exposure to examples of authentic language from the target language community

- There is a whole language approach in which the four traditional language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) are integrated

In brief, CLT is characterized with communicative competence, leaner‟s – centeredness and four skills integration These characteristics will be the principles for

teachers to choose appropriate techniques as well as activities in the classroom to improve students‟ communicative competence

1.2.3 Communicative activities

Communicative activities, defined by Harmer (1999) are those that give students who are somehow involved in both the desire to communicate and a purpose involving them in a varied use of language Those activities play an important role in a language classroom as students can do their best to use the language effectively, arriving at a degree

of language autonomy

Richards and Rogers (2001:165) discuss that the range of exercise types and activities with a communicative approach is unlimited, provided that such exercises and activities enable learners to attain the communicative objectives of the curriculum, engage learners in communication

1.2.4 Students’ participation in speaking activities

Students‟ participation can be understood as students‟ involvement in classroom activities and in this case, oral activities It consists of interaction between students and students and students and the teacher The interaction between students themselves arises

in pair work and group work When they work together, students‟ participation can be measured by their sense of responsibility and cooperation

As for the interaction with the teacher, students express themselves in class discussion or show their ability to answer the question raised by teacher or share their knowledge or personal experiences

In order to have a successful lesson, students‟ participation must be active and even However, students‟ participation in classroom oral activities can be affected by a variety of factors such as from students, teachers and classroom

1.3 Factors affecting students’ participation in speaking activities

1.3.1 Students’ factors

1.3.1.1 Students’ learning styles

Individual„s learning style in an educational context indicates the different way he/she approaches new information Keefe (1979) defines learning style as “cognitive, affective and physiological traits that are relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with and respond to the learning environment” (as cited in Brown, H.D

2007:120) Although we share similar learning patterns, preferences and even approaches, everyone learns and processes information in their own way

Willing (1987, as cited in Bailey 2005:169-170) divides learners into four groups based on their 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

As can be seen from Willing‟s classification, if the majority of students in one class belong to concrete and authority – oriented groups, the degree of participation in oral activities of this class will be low

According to Brown (1994) the contrast between reflectivity and impulsivity dimension is one factor affecting students‟ participation in speaking lesson Reflective learners are slower, more careful and often weigh all the considerations before speaking out in the class, on the other hand, impulsive learners are quicker at making decision and make gambles before a solution is achieved So in speaking lesson, impulsive learners are faster but less accurate speaker than reflective ones

As claimed by Ellis (1985:120), extroverted learners are more willing to interact with others than the introverted, and therefore they are more successful in oral communication

Sharing the same view with Ellis, Lightbown and Spada list a number of personality characteristics that have a great influence on the success of second language learners: extroversion, inhibition, self – esteem, empathy, dominance, talkativeness and responsiveness (1995:54-55)

We can conclude with certainty that if the teacher neglects these differences among students, only some of them can benefit from the classroom activities It is understandable that not all students participate actively in the activities

1.3.1.2 Students’ language levels

In Tsui‟s research (1996) in HongKong, she found out five principal factors affecting the reluctance of students‟ participation in class speaking lesson:

- students‟ perceived low proficiency in English

- students‟ fear of mistakes and derision

- teacher‟s intolerance of silence

- uneven allocation of turns

- incomprehensible input

(as cited in Nunan 1999:234)

Is it the common problem for Vietnamese high school students? Lack of vocabulary, structures and expressions make students unwilling to speak Therefore, in the classroom many students just sit in silence and do not participate in the classroom activities

In Burns and Joyce‟s view, students have difficulties in pronunciation such as sounds, rhythms and stress patterns of English, lack of social and cultural knowledge, low proficiency of grammar patterns and problems in transferring from the native language into the target language All of these linguistics factors result in break – down in processing language and communication

It is understandable that with limited knowledge students can not confidently speak out much about anything In brief, the limitations in the students‟ language levels can directly affect their participation however much they like the activities We, therefore, should choose the topics as well as the kinds of activities of their levels to encourage their participation

1.3.1.3 Students’ attitudes and motivation

Harmer (1999:51) defines motivation as “some kind of internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something” According to Lightbown and Spada

“motivation in second language learning is a complex phenomenon which can be defined

in terms of two factors: learners‟ communicative needs and their attitudes towards the second language community” It can be understood that if learners have favorable attitudes and desire to speak the second language for communication, they will be motivated to acquire the language proficiency

Harmer (1999:51) divides motivation into two types intrinsic and extrinsic motivation Intrinsic motivation is possessed by people having personal interest in doing something On the contrary, extrinsic motivation is caused by such outside factors, not for their own sake, as the need to pass an exam or the hope of financial reward

If all the students just learn English in order to pass the written exams, they think that participating in speaking activities is not necessary In this case, a big question for the language teachers is how to inspire students‟ personal interests in the speaking lessons?

In order to do so, we have to understand the sources of motivation as “without knowing where the roots of motivation lie, how can teachers water those roots?” (Oxford

& Shearin, 1994:15) Fisher (1990) points to three major sources of motivation in learning:

- The learners‟ natural interests (intrinsic satisfaction)

- The teacher/ employment…etc (extrinsic reward)

- Success in the task (combining satisfaction and reward)

Harmer (1999:51) also mentions that the sources of motivation are diversified They may derive from the society we live in, significant others like the attitude of parents

or old siblings, the teacher and the method The responsibility of the teachers is to increase and direct students‟ motivation through setting clear goals, learning environment and interesting classes, which can directly influence students‟ participation

Besides Harmer, Downs (2000) points out some conditions that help increase students‟ motivation He says that motivation increases when students feel acknowledged and understood, when students are confident and they can succeed, when language has a communicative purpose, and when students take responsibility for their own learning Lightbown and Spada (1999:57) reconfirm that if we can make the classroom places where students enjoy coming because of interesting content, challenging but manageable and clear goals, supportive and non-threatening atmosphere, we can make a positive contribution to students‟ motivation

It is clear that motivation plays an important part in the success of language learning We may not know exactly how much motivation factor accounts for students‟ participation but it can be concluded that the degree of motivation is directly proportional

to the level of involvement in oral activities It is true that, the more motivated students are, the more actively they are involved in speaking tasks

1.3.1.4 Students’ anxiety

Anxiety, simply speaking, is a kind of troubled feeling in the mind Spielberger (1983:1) defines anxiety as ”the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the automatic nervous system” (as cited in Brown (2007:161) More simply, it is associated with feelings of uneasiness, frustration, self-

doubt, apprehension or worry (Scovel, 1978:134) Anxiety is classified into trait anxiety, state anxiety and situation-specific anxiety Trait anxiety, as Scovel (1978) noted, refers to

“a more permanent predisposition to be anxious” while state and situation-specific anxiety are usually experienced in relation to some particular event or situation (Brown, 2007) Through the research of Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986), they found out three main causes of language anxiety: communication apprehension, text anxiety and fear of negative evaluation Through their study with 97 college students, they came to a conclusion that the students with language anxiety found it more difficult to give their own opinions than the relaxed learners They also mentioned that the more anxious the students were, the worse they performed in speaking

Clearly, anxiety and speaking performance are closely related If the students are afraid of losing face as making mistakes or being laughed at by other students, they are certain to keep quiet and wait until they are required to speak in oral English lessons Tsui (1996) reconfirmed that students‟ fear of making mistakes and derision was one of the

causes of reluctance in speaking lessons

In Zhang Xiuqin„s research (2006), he found out that anxiety was the main negative factor which prevented students from participating in classroom speaking activities High anxiety learners tended to withdraw from voluntary participation and reluctant to take risks

He identified some main causes of language anxiety:

1 Less proficient English

2 Students‟ fear of mistakes and derision

3 Large class size

4 Unwilling to take risks

5 Low tolerance of ambiguity

6 Competitiveness

In short, anxiety is obviously an important factor in the second language acquisition

in general and in students‟ participation in speaking activities in particular Therefore, language educators should strive to promote a non – threatening environment and have techniques to reduce students‟ anxiety like: creating a relaxed and safe atmosphere for students, avoiding negative evaluation of students in classrooms and comment on students‟ behaviors with more encouragement and taking some measures to relax students‟ attention

to exams or evaluation

1.3.2 Teacher’s factors

1.3.2.1 Teacher’s roles

With an increasing concern about the CLT approach in foreign language teaching and learning, in which learners are the centre of the lesson, the roles of a teacher are different from those in the other different teaching methods Harmer (1999:57-62) listed the roles of a teacher as follows:

- Controller: When teachers act as controllers, they are in charge of the class and of the activity taking place in the class Indeed, the role of a controller really makes sense in many educational contexts like when announcement need to be made, when orders has to

be restored, when explanations are given, or when the teacher is leading a question and answer session However, if a teacher abuses the role, it will affect students‟ practice and opportunities to join oral activities

- Organizer: Organizing students to do various activities is one of the most important roles that teachers have to perform This involves giving students information, telling them how to do the activity, putting them into pairs or groups and ending the activities If a teacher does this role successfully, it will encourage students to involve in the class oral activities

- Assessor: The role of a teacher as an assessor is of great importance It can be understandable that any student after performing an activity wants to know whether he/she has practiced the right English or not So, a teacher has to offer feedback, evaluation, correction or grade students in various ways, but with sensitivity fairness and support Teachers should be fair and tactful towards students‟ reaction, otherwise they can demotivate students from participating in classroom activities

- Prompter: During oral practice, students sometimes have difficulty expressing ideas due to their lack of vocabulary, so they can not proceed the activities In such situations, teachers can provide them with words or phrases or give discretion suggestion to help them continue their tasks, however, it should be done sensitively and encouragingly

- Participant: According to Harmer, a teacher is not only a person who stands back from students‟ activity, lets them get on with their own discussion or just gives feedback or mistake correction, but also a participant in students‟ activity As a result, it can help strengthen the relationship between students and teachers, but it sometimes dominates the proceedings due to the knowledge and experience of teachers

- Resource: During the discussion or presentation, students might want to know the meaning of a phrase or a word, or further information about the topic What the teacher should do is to offer students guidance to look for that information and encourage them to use resource material for themselves, but not spoon- feed the students otherwise they will

be over – reliant on the teacher

- Tutor: When students are working on longer projects, such as pieces of writing or preparation for a talk or a debate, we can act as a tutor to work with individuals or small groups The teacher can go around the class, stay with a particular group or individual, or offer the general guidance In that case, students feel more supported and helped, as a result the class atmosphere is greatly enhanced

- Observer: We want to observe what students do during their oral communicative activities, therefore we can give them appropriate feedback It is useful to take note on students‟ performance either in their use of actual language or in their use of conversational strategies Observing students can help us judge the success of the materials and activities used in the class

Unlike Harmer, Byrner(1986:2) stated the roles of the teacher according to the stages of teaching speaking: the presentation stage, the practice stage and the production one At the first stage, the teacher acts as an informant He/she prepares the materials and presents the language as clearly as possible and the students listen and try to understand However, teacher‟s spending time should be sensible, otherwise students do not have enough time for their practice

At the practice stage, it is time for students to do most of the talking and the teacher devises and provides the maximum amount of practice The teacher‟s role is like the skilful conductor of an orchestra, giving each of the performers a chance to participate and monitoring the performance

At the final stage, the production one, the teacher takes on the role of manager and guide Students need to be given regular and frequent opportunities to use language freely, even if they sometimes make mistakes The most important thing is students have chances

to express their own ideas personally and are encouraged to go on learning

Above all, the most important role of the teacher through stages of speaking lesson

is a motivator Whatever you are doing in the classroom, your ability to motivate the students, to arouse their interests and to involve what they are doing will be crucial

Based on the theory about teacher‟s roles, we can see that teacher‟s roles may affect students‟ participation, therefore in order to encourage students‟ involvement we should implement appropriate roles

1.3.2.2 Teacher’s characteristics

Though “the perfect set of personal qualities and characteristics for an effective teacher has not been found” (Barry, 1993:94), it would be true to say that in order to involve students in classroom‟s activities, teacher firstly should be one that students respect and lay their trust on The teacher‟s prestige will make students feel safe in the lesson and willing to participate in the activities To support this point, Barry (1993) mentions some characteristics that a teacher should have:

- Being natural: The teacher should present himself as real person such as the feeling of happiness, sympathy, annoyance or humorous Therefore, the relationship between students and teacher will be closer, which helps increase students‟ involvement and co-operation in the process of teaching and learning

- Being warm: The teacher regards students as his fellow people, respects their personal characteristics and is happy to have them around

- Being pleasant: The teacher‟s attitude towards students expresses his relaxation, friendliness in the relationship with his students Besides, being pleasant also means being enthusiastic towards the job of teaching

- Being approachable: An approachable teacher is the one who makes students feel good about being with him and the one that students can come to see if they have problems

- Being tolerant: In learning a foreign language, students‟ mistakes are inevitable The teacher needs to be tolerant with those mistakes instead of criticizing them tactlessly

To establish a good relationship, it is vital that teachers should be cordial, acceptant and tolerant, otherwise it can make students scared and afraid of speaking in the class Tsui (1996) found out that teachers‟ intolerance of silence is one of five principal factors affecting students‟ reluctance in speaking (cited in Nunan, 1999:234) Further more, in his investigation, Oxford (1998) also stated that the teacher‟s relationship with the students, the teacher‟s attitude or the style conflicts between them are major factors demotivating students‟ participation (cited in Dornyei, 2001:146)

It should be noted that not every teacher can have all the above characteristics, but

it can help improve a good rapport between the teacher and students With such good

interaction during the lesson, it both creates a positive environment for learning and enhances students‟ participation in the activities

1.3.2.3 Teacher’s methodology

The teacher‟s methodology refers to the approach or method and the teaching techniques he uses in the classroom Through the history we have experienced the existence and development of many teaching methods that can be divided into two types: teacher – centered and learner – centered methods Traditional methods such as the Grammar Translation Method, the Direct Method are teacher – centered ones which mostly focus on grammatical and phonological accuracy These techniques are choral repetition, drilling substitution, content explanation and narrative presentation seem so mechanical and simple that they will result in learners‟ passiveness and limit their participation in learning In recent time, in the light of Communicative Language Teaching, teacher‟s technique turn from teacher – centered method into learner – centered method The teaching technique consist of role-play, problem solving, games, pair work, group work, interview and discussion, etc

However, no teaching method is the best one as each one has its own advantages and disadvantages In order to apply a suitable teaching method, the teacher should take some of the following factors into consideration including learners‟ level, interests and purposes Applying the appropriate method can have positive effects on students‟ learning and participation in classroom‟s activities

In conclusion, students‟ participation can be affected by teacher‟s factors including teacher‟ role, characteristics and methodology Teaching method may play a decisive part

in obtaining teaching goals, and in this case, increasing students‟ involvement in oral activities In addition, teacher‟ characteristics and teacher‟s roles in the classroom activities play an important role in students‟ participation Therefore, in order to reach this goal, teachers should improve themselves in methodology, knowledge and personality to motivate students

1.3.3 Classroom factors

1.3.3.1 Classroom atmosphere

It is certain that classroom atmosphere affects students‟ success in language learning According to Underwood (1987:34-44), both students and teachers take the

responsibility for creating a good teaching and learning environment with the following points:

- Giving a sense of purpose: All the students are provided opportunities to talk and listen to each other and they have clear objectives to achieve in and after the lesson

- Ensuring that English is spoken: It is important to use English as the classroom language right from the beginning and make sure that you want to conduct the lesson in English Therefore, students will form the habit of speaking English in the class There is

no doubt that the teacher‟s command of using the target language can have great influence

on the students‟ willingness to speak By doing so, the teacher wants to set the best example and provides a good model for his classes

- Balancing fluency and accuracy: The teacher should balance the encouragement of fluency with the need for accuracy If he focuses too much on accuracy, weaker students will be shy and reticent to speak Then, they will lose the confidence in speaking , and the gap between the weak and other fellow students become bigger

- Using appropriate language: Classroom expressions are highly appreciated to be used regularly in the class However, the language should be clear, understandable and it matches students‟ level

- Giving encouragement: When students are trying their best to reach the goals, the teacher should give an appropriate comment to encourage them A comment like “Good”,

“Well done”, “That‟s right” can make students feel more confident and motivated, and more importantly they are eager to speak more often

- Involving all the students: In large classes, it is very easy to miss some students out when doing oral practice Underwood suggests some ways of endeavoring to include all the students such as using the class register list, setting speaking rules and games to encourage all students to participate in the activities

- The place of examination and tests: Students are often nervous and anxious about the exams and tests Thus, the teacher shouldn‟t put too much weight on giving marks or tests

- Extra-curricular activities: Extra-curriculum activities conducted outside lesson times can make a significant contribution to maintaining a good atmosphere in the classroom If students have more interesting activities, they will take a more positive attitude towards their studies

In short, we have mentioned some suggestions for establishing and maintaining a purposeful and happy class atmosphere This is an important work as it requires both the teacher and students to create an encouraging learning environment

1.3.3.2 Classroom size

According to Le Phuoc Ky (Teacher‟s Edition, 2002), in a language class in which students‟ participation contributes greatly to the success of the lesson, the number of students should be kept small so that interaction between teachers and students and between one student and another can be maximized On the contrary, in large classes students are different in learning styles, preferences and levels of English proficiency Teachers can not pay equal attention to all students The lesson would never be finished and uninvolved students would get bored and start to do something else

Moreover, Ur (1993:303) shares the same view that teachers of large classes also face with the problem of discipline, creating effective learning for all, choosing suitable materials and activating students, especially silent ones As a result, students‟ opportunities

to practice are lessened and only a few good students improve their English, while many average or weak ones make little progress or fall further behind

In brief, large classes cause problems not only for teachers but also for students and their learning process The main issue is how to involve all learners to participate in the learning process and shorten the gap between their differences

Summary

In conclusion, chapter 1 has presented some theoretical background knowledge related to the topic of the study It has discussed some definitions about speaking skills, an overview of Communicative Language Teaching and theories of participation Besides, it also discussed factors affecting students‟ participation in speaking activities including students, teacher and classroom factors The following chapter will display the detailed description of the methodology, the procedure and the results of the study under the light

of the above discussed theories

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY

This chapter consists of two parts: research setting and research methodology In the first part, an overview of Doson High School, the teachers of English, the students and the materials are mentioned In the second part, there will be a description of the research questions, participants, data collections from the survey questionnaires, interviews and class observation as well as the method of data analysis

2.1 Research setting

2.1.1 An overview of Doson High School

Doson High School, the research site, situated in Doson District, twenty kilometers far from Haiphong city, was founded in 1969 With 40 years of establishment and development, Doson High School is becoming a reliable address for students and their parents in Doson District The school currently has 26 classes with nearly 1200 students ranged from grade 10 to grade 12 The teaching staff composes of 80 teachers, of whom one – third are young and enthusiastic

2.1.2 The teachers

There are six teachers of English currently working at Doson High School Among them, six are female and one is male, and their age ranks from 25 to 40 All of them have got the University Bachelor‟s Degree in English, two of them graduated from Vietnam National University, Hanoi – University of Languages and International Studies and the others graduated from Haiphong University They are helpful, enthusiastic and willing to make some renovations in teaching methodology However, the age of the teachers also reveals that they are young and have little experience of teaching

2.1.3 The students

Although all students started learning English from grade six, their English proficiency is very low They study English just to prepare for the tests and exams, so what they need in learning English is to learn grammar lessons and to do exercises It seems that

a lot of students can not communicate successfully despite knowing a lot about English grammar patterns Besides, the majority of Doson students focus on group A for the Entrance Exam to University, therefore they have no motivation to study English, especially speaking skill

2.1.4 The materials and syllabus

The main material for teaching English at Doson High School is a new set of English textbook approved by the Ministry of Education and Training The textbook Tieng Anh 10 consists of 16 units including five parts: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus The book was designed according to communicative approach For speaking skill, its objective is to develop students competence and ability to exchange information at a simple level about the situations relating to the topics they have learnt Generally speaking, the new English textbook has proved to be more relevant and appropriate to the current context of teaching and learning English at high school in Vietnam However, it is also challenging for both teachers and students because of different students‟ English proficiency and teaching - learning conditions of each school

2.2 Methodology

2.2.1 Research questions

The final aim of the research is to investigate the factors affecting the participation

in speaking activities of 10th grade students at Doson High School and find out some solutions to increase students‟ involvement The study is implemented to answer the following questions

1 How actively are the 10th grade students at Doson High School involved in oral activities in the class?

2 What are the factors affecting the participation in speaking activities?

3 What are the possible solutions to increase students‟ participation in speaking activities?

2.2.2 Participants

The participants of the study were 120 students who were selected randomly from class 10 C1 to 10 C8 and 6 teachers of English The research was conducted in the second term of the school year All the participants took part in the survey questionnaires by answering all the given questions In addition to questionnaires, 10 students were interviewed in order to have in – depth data

2.2.3 Data collection instruments

2.2.3.1 Questionnaires

Two types of questionnaires were used in this study (one for students and the other for teachers) The questionnaires consist of close and open – ended questions, checklist questions and scale shopping from agree to disagree

The questionnaire for students consists of two main parts with 12 questions Part I was about the students‟ personal information including gender, age and class Part II aimed

to find out the level of students‟ involvement, their assessment towards themselves, teachers and the textbook, factors affecting the participation in speaking activities and some suggestions from students

The questionnaire for teachers also consists of two main parts with 13 questions In part I the information of gender, age and years of teaching was described In part II , it was about teachers‟ attitude towards teaching speaking skill, their opinions on CLT, factors affecting students‟ involvement and some suggested strategies

2.2.3.2 Interviews

Two interviews (pre – treatment and post – treatment) were conducted in Vietnamese between the researcher and 10 students Each interview lasted about ten minutes including questions, answers and explanation The interviews were in the form of

an informal conversation compiled in a paper sheet with note taking in order to have complete understandings about students‟ problems, preferences and their feedback

2.2.3.3 Class observations

Besides survey questionnaires, the pre and post interviews, the researcher still used class observations to confirm the reliability and validity of the information about factors affecting students‟ involvement and the effect of the applied techniques The researcher observed several English speaking lessons before and during the treatment In each lesson, the information of teacher‟s activities, teaching techniques (giving instructions, encouragement, comment and feedback) and students‟ involvement, preferences and attitudes towards the applied techniques were mentioned in the checklist

2.2.4 Data collection procedures

The data of the research was collected by means of questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations Firstly, the researcher delivered the questionnaires to 6 teachers and 120 students who were selected randomly Secondly, after collecting the information from the questionnaires, she started interviews with 10 students to get further information from students Then, to make sure the validity of the data she observed some English lessons to find out the factors affecting students‟ participation Based on the findings, a hypothesis was formulated about the techniques and activities to be treated with a view to increasing the student‟s participation Classroom observation during the treatment and post

interviews were carried out to gather information about the effects of using applied techniques and students‟ reaction towards speaking activities

2.2.5 Data analysis

The main source of data is derived from the answers of the two questionnaires for students and teachers Along with the information via survey questionnaire, interviews and classroom observation were used to add further data

2.2.5.1 Results from students’ questionnaire

The questionnaire was delivered to 120 students, however only 114 answers were collected and analysed 114 students selected randomly including 46 male and 68 female ones were at the age of 16

2.2.5.1.1 Students’ assessment of their speaking ability

ok 26%

bad 65%

very good

Chart 1: Students’ assessment of their speaking ability

The data from chart 1 shows that only 2% of the students were very good at speaking skill, 7% revealed that they had good ability while 26% of the participants were

at medium level Surprisingly, 65% of them(74 out of 114) believed that they were bad at speaking skill From the results, most of the students are at low English speaking level which may result from lack of practice or low participation in speaking tasks In other words, to improve speaking skill, students should make use of chances to practise speaking English in the class as well as outside learning environment

2.2.5.1.2 Students’ level of participation in speaking activities

As can be seen from chart 2, half of the students rarely participated in speaking lessons During the lessons, most of them just sat silently and only spoke English when the teacher called them 31% of participants (36 out of 114) sometimes involved in the lessons

as it depended on the topics or the activities they were in favor 16% were often willing to

speak English and only 3% were always actively involved It can be concluded that the level of participation is very low

rarely 50%

always 3%

often 16%

sometimes 31%

Chart 2: Students’ level of partipation in speaking activities

2.2.5.1.3 Students’ attitudes towards speaking skill

important 40%

very important 30%

not important 4%

little important 26%

Chart 3: Students’ attitudes towards speaking skill

As shown in chart 3, a great number of students (70%) thought that speaking was important even a very important skill 26% of participants stated that it was of little importance and the smallest percentage (4.4%) underestimated the significance of oral skill In general, most of students highly appreciated the importance English, especially communication ability However, it seems to be contradictary to the low level of participation in classroom activities

2.2.5.1.4 Students’ assessment of speaking activities in the class

As can be seen from chart 4, 37% (42 out of 114) found that speaking activities were all right and suitable for their level 16% thought that they were interested in the tasks, but surprisingly no one stated that speaking activities were very interesting On the contrary, nearly half of the participants (47%) found speaking activities not interesting The data from the interviews also added that the speaking tasks were boring and not

creative enough Most of the activities in the lessons came from the textbook without any changes, which couldn‟t inspire students‟ motivation to study In conclusion, to have a good speaking lesson it requires teachers to have good teaching technique, knowledge and enthusiasm to design creative and interesting activites with more in – depth information than the textbook

not interesting 47%

all right 37%

very interesting 0%

interesting 16%

Chart 4: Students’ assessment of speaking activities in the class

2.2.5.1.5 Students’ evaluation on learning speaking English

* Learning styles

1 I prefer doing exercise to speaking in the classroom 64 56.1% 50 43.9%

2 I enjoy practising English at home by myself 40 35% 74 65%

3 I always take every opportunities to speak English 4 3.5% 110 96.5%

4 I only speak English when the teacher calls me 96 85% 18 15%

Table 1: Students’ learning styles

The data from table 1 shows students‟ passive learning styles 56.1% students prefered doing exercise to speaking in the classroom and 65% enjoyed speaking English at home by himself/herself Most students (96.5%) never made use of chances to speak English except being called by the teacher (85%) Therefore, in a large class with limited time, if teachers do not pay attention to their students‟ learning styles and always call volunteer students, the silent ones will never have chances to raise their voice It‟s