A STUDY ON THE PROBLEMS FACED BY TEACHERS AND STUDENTS AT NHI CHIEU UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL IN KINH MON DISTRICT, HAI DUONG PROVINCE IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS AND SOLUTIONS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* VŨ THỊ THUỲ A STUDY ON THE PROBLEMS FACED BY

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

VŨ THỊ THUỲ

A STUDY ON THE PROBLEMS FACED BY TEACHERS AND STUDENTS AT NHI CHIEU UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL, IN KINH MON DISTRICT, HAI DUONG PROVINCE IN TEACHING

AND LEARNING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL AND SOLUTIONS

(NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH TRƯỜNG T.H.P.T NHỊ CHIỂU, HUYỆN HINH MÔN, TỈNH HẢI DƯƠNG TRONG VIỆC DẠY

VÀ HỌC KĨ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CÙNG BIỆN PHÁP KHẮC PHỤC)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

VŨ THỊ THUỲ

A STUDY ON THE PROBLEMS FACED BY TEACHERS AND STUDENTS AT NHI CHIEU UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL, IN KINH MON DISTRICT, HAI DUONG PROVINCE IN TEACHING

AND LEARNING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL AND SOLUTIONS

(NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH TRƯỜNG T.H.P.T NHỊ CHIỂU, HUYỆN HINH MÔN, TỈNH HẢI DƯƠNG TRONG VIỆC DẠY

VÀ HỌC KĨ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CÙNG BIỆN PHÁP KHẮC PHỤC)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Assoc.Prof Nguyễn Văn Độ

DECLARATION

I hereby state that I, Vu Thi Thuy, being a candidate for the Degree of Master

of Arts (TEFL), accept 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, October 2014

Vũ Thị Thuỳ

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Prof Nguyen Van

Do, my supervisor, for thorough reading, critical comments, invaluable suggestions, various sources of reference and precious corrections on my writing Furthermore, I

am grateful to his close guidance and generous help, which have been great encouragement to me during the process of writing up the thesis

I, hereby, would like to express my sincere thanks to lecturers of Faculty of Post Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies of Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their interesting lessons and suggestions, which aroused the thesis for this study to be realized

I also owe my sincere thanks to teachers of English at Nhi Chieu Upper Secondary who have enthusiastically participated in my study

Finally, my heart-felt thanks go to my beloved family who have encouraged and supported me in every stage of this study

of English The findings revealed that both teachers and students at Nhi Chieu Upper Secondary school are facing the problems in teaching and learning speaking skills From the findings, some suggestions were given with the hope that they might be a reliable source of reference for teachers of English at Nhi Chieu Upper Secondary school to improve their teaching skills

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF CHARTS, TABLES vi

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 1

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Design of the study 2

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1 Some major trends and approaches of language teaching 4

2 CLT approach 5

3 Speaking skills 8

3.1 Nature of language skills and oral communication 8

3.2 Types of speaking skills 11

3.3 Characteristics of speaking 12

4 Teaching and learning English speaking skills 13

4.1 The role and status of speaking in language teaching and learning 13

4.2 Stages of teaching and learning English speaking skills 14

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 18

2.1 Research context 18

2.1.1 Textbook 18

2.1.2 Students 20

2.2 Method of the study 21

CHAPTER 3 DATA ANALYSIS 24

3.1 Data analysis of teachers’ survey questionnaire 24

3.2 data analysis of students’ survey questionnaire 32

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS 42

4.1 Finding 42

4.1.1 Difficulties of teachers 42

4.1.2 Difficulties of students 43

4.1.3 Typical causes 44

4.2 Suggested solutions 45

4.2.1 Providing more intersting topic to encourage students’ participation 45

4.2.2 Building a habit of speaking English for students in the class 45

4.2.3 Equipping teaching facilities 46

PART III: CONCLUSION 48

1 Conclusion 48

2 Limitations and suggestions for further research 49

REFERENCES 50 APPENDIX A I

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1: Difficulties of teachers 42

Chart 2: Difficulties of students 43

Chart 3: Typical causes of the problems 44

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Description of teachers’ experience in teaching English 24

Table 2: Teachers’ attitudes towards speaking skills 24

Table 3: Teachers’ CLT training background 25

Table 4 Teachers’ perception of CLT 26

Table 5 Number of teachers applying CLT in teaching speaking skills 27

Table 6 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching English speaking skills 28

Table 7 Teachers’ attitudes towards reluctant speakers 29

Table 8 Techniques to minimize the difficulties 30

Table 9 Methods applied in teaching speaking 31

Table 10 Students’ reasons for learning English 33

Table 11 Students’ attitudes towards speaking skills 34

Table 12 Students’ opinions on speaking topics 35

Table 13 Factors that make students reluctant to speak 36

Table 14 Teachers’ reaction to students’ mistakes 38

Table 15 Students’ opportunities to speak English outside classroom 39

Table 16 Teachers’ current techniques to encourage students to speak 40

PART I INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Nowadays it is not daring to say that the ability to speak at least one foreign

language is a necessity “Language is arguably the defining characteristic of the

human species and knowledge of language in general, as well as ability to use one’s first and, at least one other language, should be one of the defining characteristics of the educated individual” (Nunan, 1999: 71) Learning English is becoming a need

that most students are aware of and that the society demands, especially in the process of industrialization and modernization in connection to the open door policy

of Viet Nam We are living in the time of immense technological inventions where communication among people has expanded way beyond their local speech communities Therefore learning a second language has become a means of keeping

up with the pace of the rapidly changing world

Speaking seems to be the most important skill that should be paid attention to

in the process of teaching and learning It is true for the students at Nhi Chieu High School where learners are future citizens who learn English in order to be able to communicate with the foreigners and to work as a good worker or staff But in fact there are a large number of students who find it difficult to speak in English When most of the students are required to talk in English, they often stand speechless or they have to think for a long time about what they intend to say

This has given me the desire to conduct “A study on the problems faced by

teachers and students at Nhi Chieu Upper Secondary School in Kinh Mon district, Hai Duong province in teaching and learning English speaking skills and solutions”

2 Aims of the study

The study is conducted to find out the most typical difficulties faced by teachers and students at Nhi Chieu Upper Secondary School in teaching and learning English speaking skills and some recommendations including coping

strategies and classroom techniques and activities for them to minimize those difficulties Specifically, this research tries to investigate the potential sources causing the difficulties in teaching the skill of speaking and simultaneously identify the specific problems of those sources respectively Furthermore, some recommendations are made with the anticipation of helping English Language teachers improve the quality of their teaching the speaking skill

3 Research questions

The above aims can be realized through the following research questions:

1 What are the difficulties of the teachers and students in teaching and learning English speaking skills at Nhi Chieu Upper Secondary School?

2 What are the most typical causes of these problems?

3 What should be done to help teachers and students at Nhi Chieu upper Secondary School to overcome the problems?

4 Scope of the study

Though problems in teaching speaking exist in the four macro-skills, the researcher has chosen to focus on difficulties in teaching speaking skill to students

at for the fact that mastering speaking is so central to language learning that when

we refer to speaking a language, we often mean knowing a language In addition, some recommendations for the teachers of English at the school to decrease those difficulties are also proposed

The study of difficulties, recommendations of other skills to ameliorate the quality of teaching English skills would be beyond the scope of the study Also, due to the researcher’s limited ability, time constraints and narrow-scaled study, this study only involves the students and five teachers of English at Nhi Chieu Upper Secondary School

5 Design of the study

The study consists of three parts:

Part 1 Introduction (presents basic information such as : the rationale , the aims, the research questions, the scope of the study )

Part 2 Development (may consist of three chapters)

- Chapter 1 (deal with literature review of English peaking skills together with

teaching and learning English speaking skills)

- Chapter 2 ( deal with the methodology research of the study)

- Chapter 3 (presents findings of the study and suggest some solutions to the

problems that have been found)

Part 3 Conclusion

- Summarize the key issues

- Limitation

PART II DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

Language teaching in general and English language teaching in particular have undergone a process of development for many centuries And over the centuries, this process has seen many changes as a result of various influences The evolution of second and foreign language teaching from the history until now has marked so many ‘rise and fall’ of language theories proposed by researchers, theorists and language teaching professionals Those are continuous attempts to renew language teaching

Within the framework of this thesis, it is difficult to cover all aspects as well as detailed theories during the history of language teaching However, some major approaches and methods will be overviewed in the following part But first, some terms in language teaching should be clarified

1 Some major trends and approaches of language teaching

The Grammar Translation Method is considered as the oldest method of teaching foreign language Its focus was on grammatical rules, the memorization of vocabulary and of various declensions, conjugations, translations of texts and written exercises Although this method is occasionally used by some language teachers today, it is often looked upon as ineffective and old fashioned by most linguistic and educational theorists because students who learn languages through

this method usually lack communicative competence in the target language

The emergence and dying away of some language teaching approaches and methods have been continued over many centuries with Direct Method, Audio-Lingual Method, Situational Language Teaching, etc And the latest method that has been come along with the trend of developing the communicative competence is Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

Unlike other approaches, the primary focus of CLT is on helping learners create meaning rather than helping them develop perfectly grammatical structures or acquire native-like pronunciation This means that successfully learning a foreign language is assessed in terms of how well learners have developed their communicative competence Despite such outstanding features, many writers such

as Michael Swan (1985) and more recently Bax (2003) have critiqued CLT for paying insufficient attention to the context in which teaching and learning take place However, in a broad sense, CLT has been still the most influenced approach and continued to be adopted worldwide

From the brief history review of the teaching methodology, we may see that none of the teaching approaches and methods is extremely perfect Therefore, as practitioners engaged in classroom teaching, we must not follow one method or another The decision of which method used in Vietnam should be considered in many aspects such as sources of materials, teachers’ proficiency, learners’ needs, and facilities for teaching and learning

2 CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) approach

2.1 Concept of CLT

There are varieties of definitions about CLT Nunan (1989:194) overviews the methods, which are adapted below, certain aspects that are common to many definitions of CLT

CLT views language as a system for the expression of meaning Activities involve oral communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which

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

Nunan also asserts that in communication process, learners are negotiators and integrators whereas teachers are facilitators

The definition above, as with any definition of the language teaching method, represents a particular view of understanding and explaining language acquisition It

is socially constructed and must be seen as a product of social, cultural, economic, and political forces

Canale and Swain (1980) expanded on the theoretical basis of CLT for both teaching and testing In their reaction against an over emphasis on function and a lack of emphasis on grammatical complexity, they pointed out that externally oriental communication is not necessarily more essential than other proposes of language such as “self-expression, verbal thinking, problem solving, and creative writing”

2.2 Characteristics of CLT

Language is not simply a system of rules It is now generally seen “as a

dynamic resource for the creation of meaning” ( Nunan, 1989) This point of view is

really supports CLT

- CLT is aimed at (a) making communicative competence the goal of language teaching and (b) developing procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication (Le Van Canh, 2004)

- The goal of CLT is to create a realistic context for language acquisition in the classroom to develop Hymes’ notion of communicative competence

- CTL is also associated with learner-centered and experienced based tasks

- The focus of CLT is on functional language usage and learners’ ability to express themselves In other words, for CLT, developing learners’ skills is more important

- There are three major principles of CLT:

(1) communication principle: emphasizes activities that involve real

communication promote learning

(2) task principle: purposes that activities in which is used for carrying out

meaningful tasks promote learning

(3) meaningfulness principle: claims that language that is meaningful to the

learners supports the learning process (Le Van Canh, 2004)

- In communicative classes, learners communicate with each other and learning tasks are completed by means of interaction between learners It is clear that learners’ completing a task is fore-grounded and communicating with each other is back-grounded This may lead to considerable use of pair work, group work and mingling activities

- In ESL classes, teachers are facilitators and monitors, usually, without interruption and then to provide feedback on the success

2.3 Using CLT in Teaching Speaking Skills

When using communicative activities, it is important to make students feel comfortable and confident, feel free to take risks and have opportunities to speak According to Pica, Young and Doughty (1987), there are two kinds of classroom available to second language learners:

Input has been modified or simplified such as a traditional “teacher-fronted” classroom; and authentic students-to-student interaction is emphasized It provides the learners more opportunities for speaking since the learners try to achieve mutual understanding and modify their language according to the demand of the situation

Objectives for speaking are often given by the particular program in which the teacher must work In some cases, the syllabus will consist of a list of grammar structures to be taught The teacher needs to be flexible in making best use of what

is available for teaching purpose In other words, the teacher must have some

freedom in deciding what objectives to meet, what content to cover, and what activities to use In this case, the teacher can go beyond the more specific goals and objectives of the particular program to the speaking needs that the students have in the “real world”

There are many speaking activities can be used in classroom such as scrambled sentence, language games, role-plays, problem-solving, discussion, cued story, picture story etc

represented in Figure 1 (Figure 1 is extracted from the book “Methodology

Handbook for English Teachers in Vietnam” by Forseth, R., Forseth, C., Tạ, T.H &

Nguyễn, V.D p.34)

As learners grow in their language ability and use, the different skills are most often integrated with each other so that they are being used in coordination with each other In conversation, when one person is speaking another is listening After listening and understanding, the hearer responds by speaking In an academic setting, while students are listening, they may be also writing notes or reading a handout As a teacher, you will be reading your lesson plans and then speaking to your students All of the skill areas are related to each other and used in coordination with each other

However, for the purpose of teaching language, we may divide language into the various skill areas and concentrate on one at a time We are first interested in speaking because second (or foreign) language learners often neglect or have difficulty with oral production (speaking) Some learners have memorized hundreds

of words and many grammar rules, but they still can not speak well Many learners can read better than they speak This is very much unlike a child who learns to listen and speak long before learning to read or write

So, we begin with speaking, because after learning to speak, it is easier to develop reading and writing skills in the foreign language classroom However, language teachers have found it is difficult to develop their students’ speaking skills after reading and writing

3.1.2 Oral communication

It is obvious that speaking is the key to human communication Though speaking takes many definitions, following are some of the definitions by the most

famous researchers According to Byrne (1976:8), “speaking is a two-way process

between the speaker(s) and the listener(s) involving the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding.” Both the listener and the speaker have a

positive function to perform: the speaker has to encode the message to be conveyed

in appropriate language, while the listener has to decode the message The message itself in normal speech usually contains a great deal of information that the listener needs And at the same time, the listener is helped by the speakers’ prosodic features such as stress and intonation which accompany the spoken utterances and form part

of its meaning, and also by his facial and body movements

Brown (1983) also states that “speaking is an interactive process of

constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information.” Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs,

including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking It is often spontaneous, open ended and evolving However, speech is not always unpredictable Language functions that tent to recur in certain discourse situations (declining and invitation, requesting time off from work) can be identified and charted Speaking requires not only that learners know how to produce specific points of language, such as grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary (linguistic competence), but also that they understand when, why and in what way to produce language (sociolinguistic competence)

Scott (1978) reveals that “speaking can be typified as an activity involving

two or more people in which the participants are both hearers and speakers having

to react to what they hear and make their contribution.” Each has an intention or a

set of intentions that he wants to achieve in the interaction and an ability to interpret

what is said to him which he can not predict exactly either in terms of form or in terms of meaning

Chaney (1988:13) defined that “speaking is the process of building and

sharing meaning through the use verbal and non-verbal symbols in a variety of contexts”

Different researchers have different concepts of speaking but they all agree with one very important feature of speaking, that is a two way process between the speaker and listener

3.2 Types of speaking skills

There are two major types of speaking: monologue and dialogue

3.2.1 Monologue

In Brown and Yule’s opinion (1983), a monologue involves the ability to give an uninterrupted oral presentation such as when a broad caster reads news in radio or television programs, a teacher or professor gives a formal lecture, an announcer gives the instruction or changes in the airport, etc This type corresponds with non-reciprocal listening where the transfer of information is in one-direction only from the speaker to the listener and is used like the written form with no reaction and response from the listener These types take place when the speaker wants to talk with a large number of listeners about the same issue

3.2.2 Dialogue

A dialogue, conversely, means interacting between two or more speakers for transactional and interactional purpose There are turn takings to change the roles of speakers and listeners in this type Idea exchanges occur directly and quickly as

well Donne Byrne (1986) also says: “Dialogues seem to be best suited to the

teaching of the spoken language” Using a dialogue to speak spoken English to

non-major students of culture management is one of effective techniques which will be discussed in this study

3.3 Characteristics of speaking

Accuracy and fluency are very important aspects of speaking If the learner does not know the correct use of the language then he should be given enough opportunity to improve his speaking proficiency During students’ speaking, the teacher should not interrupt them to point out an error Because this may make students anxious and affect fluency

3.3.1 Accuracy

Accuracy means the correct use of the language in terms of grammar,

vocabulary and pronunciation According to Harmer : “ accuracy involves the

correct use of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation” In speaking, accuracy is

very important and the teacher should make them clear about the correct use Teacher should encourage students for the correct use of the language According to

Nunan : “ accuracy is the extent to which students’ speech matches what people

actually say when they use the target language” However, teacher should not be too

focused on accuracy Because, if they are very particular about producing correct language from the beginning then students might never gain fluency of speech 3.3.2 Fluency

Fluency if the capability of the speakers to use the language quickly, spontaneously and confidently Learners must be given opportunity to develop both

their fluency and accuracy According to Nunan : “ fluency if the extent to which

speakers use the target language quickly and confidently with few hesitation or unnatural pauses, false starts, word searches” When students get used to the

language and learn to communicate properly then the fluency comes We cannot expect from the beginners to speak fluently For improving fluency, the learners should be give the chance to speak spontaneously without worrying much about accuracy

3.4 Characteristics of a good speaker

A good learner always organize his thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence and uses language as a means of expression A good leaner should know the use of right words in the right order with the correct pronunciation, different

language function and social and cultural norms “ Speakers must be able to

anticipate and then produce the expected patterns specific discourse situation They must also manage the discrete elements such as turn-taking, rephrasing, providing feedback or redirecting” ( Burn and Joyce 1997) Learners have to take part in

communication and have to choose correct vocabulary, use facial expression so that other people can easily understand what he or she is trying to say According to Brown, a good speaker does the following things:

- use the grammar structures accurately

- selecting vocabulary that is understandable and appropriate for the audience

- using gestures and body language

- paying attention the the success of the interaction and adjusting components of speech such as vocabulary, rate of speech and complexity of grammar structures to maximize the listeners comprehension and involvement

4 Teaching and learning English speaking skills

4.1 The role and status of speaking in language teaching and learning

The development of speaking skill, in terms of its importance in language teaching, can be illustrated by the position ascribed to this skill in different approaches to teaching Presumably the most striking contrast would be revealed in comparison of the recent view on speaking with the views held by advocates of grammar-translation or audio-lingual method In these approaches the skill of speaking was rarely emphasized in connection to its purpose, i.e the ability to use a language in real-life situations, the ability to communicate If it was addressed, then

it usually was only in terms of accuracy That can be seen in the following quotation

by Mackey: “Oral expression involves not only [….] the use of the right sounds in

the right patterns of rhythm and intonation, but also the choice of words and inflections in the right order to convey the right meaning” (Bygate: 5) The

quotation reflects the conception of speaking at that time The emphasis on the formal part, i.e the correct sounds, the correct choice of words and inflections etc., led to the accuracy oriented practice Types of activities such as oral drills, model dialogue practice and pattern practice (“The Audio-lingual method”) were widely used in teaching speaking The result was that, although learners knew the patterns and memorized the rules, they were not able to use their knowledge in practice They were not capable of exploiting the rules and patterns in real interaction One of the possible causes of their “inability” could be the lack of opportunities to use their theoretical knowledge in purposeful communication They were not exposed to situations when they would be made to use whatever language they had at their disposal to convey their message or to try to understand their interlocutor’s message There was not much prominence given to the fact that there was a difference between “knowledge about a language” and “skill in using it” in communication (Bygate: 3)

4.2 Stages of teaching English speaking skills

According to Methodology course 1- Teaching the skills (Ha Noi 2002: 43) a speaking lesson should have three stages: pre-speaking, while- speaking, and post- speaking Obviously, each stage has it own characteristics

42-4.2.2.1 The Pre-speaking stage

This stage plays an essential role in the whole process of a speaking lesson because it is difficult to ask students to speak without preparation which involves such activities as pre-speaking questions, brain storming, discussion tasks or vocabulary tasks It is commonly found in every course book that oral materials are written into different forms: dialogue and prose Byrne introduced the procedure

- Establish the setting: Pictures are made use of and drawn if simple Use English as much as possible at this stage

- Arouse students interests and experience related to the situation

- Explain some selective words

- Set a listening task by asking key questions of the dialogue

- Ask the students to listen without looking at their books

- Ask the students to look at their books while they are listening

- Ask the students to listen and repeat

- Deal with any difficulties in the dialogue

- Ask the students to practice the dialogue

- Ask the students to dramatize the dialogue

What’s more, the presentation of prose massage suggested by Byrne (1991: 26) includes the nine steps

- Introduce the topic by asking the students to have a quick look at the picture

or by asking them about a related book, film, or TV programme they have seen

- Introduce the text including new words or new structures However, there is

no need to explain all things in the text

- Provide relevant language practice, for example, train the students with pronunciation drill so that they can speak English easily, fluently and also help them remember the new words

- Set the reading task by making questions

- Ask the students to read the silently

- Read the passage aloud

- Explain any difficulties faced by the students

- Do silent reading again

- Get the students to talk about what they have learned

The two above produces could be said that they are perfect for presenting a dialogue and prose However, depending on the students’ level and time allocation,

some of the steps can be left out In addition, before delivering activities for this stage, the teacher needs to pay careful attention to the object of each lesson, the situation of teaching and learning and the student’ needs as well

4.2.2.2 The while- speaking stage

Unlike the pre-speaking stage, it is the student’s turn to do most of the talking The teacher, at this stage, lets students work with each other without interfering or correcting any mistakes in order not to stop students from speaking fluently The teacher only gives assistance if necessary The specific aim of the while- speaking stage is to develop students’ speaking skill so the teacher does the minimum amount

of teaching and talking since the students will be working on the while- speaking task by themselves, individually or in groups Instead, the teacher will have to do a lot of monitoring and assisting weaker students who have difficulty completing the task

4.2.2.3 The post- speaking stage

It is the last phase of a speaking lesson so it is the time for the students’ production What they produce will reflect their speaking skill, interests or views A real show of English speaking takes place when the students are able to use English for themselves Also, when they reflect upon their performance, they can recognize what they have done well and where they require improvement

The post-speaking stage is like the follow up stages After students have practiced speaking skill in the while- speaking stage, they do an extension speaking activity This helps students take the information from other groups or whatever they have produced in the while- speaking stage and do something meaningful with

it Accordingly, getting the students to report their work and the whole class may be invited to comment can be recommended to be the most effective at this stage Thus, the teacher in this stage must take on the role of a manager or a guide in order to give feed back, correct serious mistakes, give students marks and set personal goals for improving their speaking abilities

Byrne (1988:2) comes to a conclusion that to develop oral ability, the three stages: pre-speaking, while- speaking and post- speaking should be followed orderly Nevertheless, due to time constraint, purposes of a speaking lesson, types of students and materials in use, this sequence might not always be applied mechanically on every occasion However, teachers ought to pay attention to what has been spoken by the students during the while and post speaking stages so that they can see how far students improves their speaking ability, what mistakes they might produce, what problems they encounter Then appropriate techniques, particularly technique to deal with students’ mistakes and problems would be mapped out These questions are explained clearly in the study

CHAPTER 2 REASEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.1 Research context

2.1.1 Description of the English textbook and its objectives at Nhi Chieu High School

English textbooks is compiled with theme-based approach Each unit mentions one theme relating to everyday life, which is very useful, practical to students’ needs The name of each unit is also the main theme of the entire unit And those themes are exploited and practiced from different skills that are allocated in

different periods of forty-five minutes including Reading, Speaking, Listening and

Writing

Besides the skill-focused periods, Language focus is also an important part of each

unit This part is designed to summarize all focused language like vocabulary, grammar and functions of the unit Therefore, students will catch an overview of the entire unit

After every three units, students will have chances to evaluate their learning results

through units called ‘Test yourself’ By that way, students will know what they need

to improve This is also a good opportunity for students to get acquainted with testing forms

2.1.1.1 Objectives of the textbook

If for the old textbooks, students were required to master basic grammar rules of the target language and to acquire a certain bulk of vocabulary for translating texts, the new textbook is designed with more practical objectives as follows:

 Providing the fundamental but systematic knowledge of English at a suitable level with high schools students

 Developing language skills comprehensively in the target language, including listening, speaking, reading and writing

 Improving communicative competence of students

 Enriching students’ understanding of their own culture and other cultures, especially cultures of English speaking countries

 Helping students to be aware of the learning process, in which linguistic knowledge is the means of learning, not the ultimate target of language mastery

Obviously, the objectives of the new English textbook have proved to be more realistic, relevant and appropriate to the context of teaching and learning English at high schools in Vietnam The four skills namely speaking, listening, reading and writing are developed in a good balance, which can avoid the dominance of grammar and reading of the old textbooks Therefore, students can improve their English in a more comprehensive approach

In short, the objectives of the new English textbook have overcome the shortage of the old ones and have been suitable with the global trend of learning English

2.1.1.2 Student-centered activities as the main strength of the new textbook One of the main distinctive features of the new textbook over the old one is the focus on students rather than on teachers In other words, the new textbook has highlighted students as center of learning process and teachers are only facilitators that help and instruct students with their learning In this case, students play the role both as the subject and as the goal of language learning process They will join in activities directly and actively acquire the target language Those are quite different from teacher-centered approach used in the old one, in which teacher played the role

as the main subject and provide students with a lot of grammar rules, and then students practiced those rules passively

By employing student-centered approach, the new textbook offers a variety of activities that well reflect the centered role of students For example, in a speaking lesson, topics are introduced to students by pictures, charts or maps which activate the imagination of students Then, they will have chances to work in pairs or groups

to express their own opinions and ideas about the topics By that way, students have participated in the lesson as an active subject

2.1.2 Description of the teachers at Nhi Chieu High School

Nhi Chieu High School is a small high school with 21 classes located in a mountainous district of Hai Duong province and 80 kilometers far from Ha Noi capital There are 5 teachers of English at the school More than half of them are experienced but resistant to change the traditional methodology that they used to teach for a long time The application of the English textbook with a new teaching method may be a big challenge for those teachers This also affects the usage of the new textbook, and as a result, causes ineffective lessons Vietnamese teachers of English, by and large, have positive attitudes towards the communicative approach, but they feel constrained to implement communicative teaching in their classroom for many reasons

2.1.3 Description of the students at Nhi Chieu High School

Students at Nhi Chieu High Schools have come from different lower secondary schools in the districts In fact, all of them have studied the new sets of English textbooks for secondary schools from grade 6th Therefore, their English competences are various Such a mixed-ability problem is also the concern of most teachers at high schools, as well as the textbook writers

Inside the classroom, students sit in long rows with 4 students being in one row, thus becoming very immobile for communicative activities while the teacher is under pressure to cover the allocated syllabus in the time allowed

Moreover, their proficiency in English language is very low since after four years of learning English at the lower secondary schools, many students find themselves

unable to use English for communicative purposes even in the simplest ways

2.2 Methods of the study

This study is conducted as a qualitative and quantitative study, in which interview, information collection and analysis as well as questionnaire to collect

data is used As Bouma has stated “both qualitative and quantitative approaches are

essentials to the research process in social sciences” (1996: 173); furthermore, each

methodology has its strengths and weaknesses, thus could not alone help to find out satisfactory and sufficient information That is the reason why I choose to make full use of both approaches rather than employ one and dispose the other so as to achieve the reliable results

One of the outstanding features of the quantitative methodology is its objectivity According to Burns (1999), the quantitative approach is employed when

the researcher aims at attaining objectivity and control as it is held that it can “offer

ways of testing hypothesis that are widely accepted or standardized” (1999:22)

Hence, to obtain an overview of difficulties in teaching and learning speaking skill

in English classes experienced by teachers and students at Nhi Chieu High School, surveys will be conducted among the teachers and students

However, according to Burns (1999), qualitative research is the methodology

of studying the participants’ opinion, actions and experiences through interview, observation and published information Correspondingly, this method will be made use of in the phrase of collecting, analyzing and synthesizing basic knowledge for the literature review since ,in this part, I need to have a deep understanding about the setting of the study, the history of relating studies, ideas, facts and figures Base on the characteristics of the methods mentioned above, researcher firstly make the outline of the research, define the research questions whether they suit the aims of the study Then, research questionnaires are designed with the aim of

finding out the answers to research questions There are two types of research questionnaires, one for students is designed in Vietnamese, the other for teachers is designed in English To make the research more exact, the research also carried out some semi-interviews with representatives of students and all the teachers to talk more about the problems

With the data collected, experiences and observation during teaching process, the researcher continued the analysis It is necessary for the researcher to apply both methods qualitative and quantitative because the research requires not only the analysis on the data but also from the practical experience pf the participants and the researcher

2.3 Data collection

In the first phase, questionnaires were administered to 100 students at different grades and 5 teachers of English of the school The participants were asked to complete the questionnaire at home and returned their responses three days later so that they would have as much time as they needed

After the collected data were analyzed, in the second phase, teachers informants and representatives of student informants with most problems in teaching and learning English speaking skill were contacted for semi-structured interviews with the researcher in locations where they felt at ease and at a time they suggested The interviews were all tape-recorded to free the interviewer to participate naturally in the discussion and to allow the content to be reviewed in details In addition, in order to capture the complexities of the student respondent’s individual perceptions and experience, the students interviews were conducted in Vietnamese while three teacher interviews were conducted in mainly English but were sometimes carried out in both Vietnamese and English At the beginning of each interview, the teachers and students were explained clearly, explicitly and unambiguously about the nature of the study During the interview, the researcher

modified the questions and procedures according to the subjects’ responses The length of each interview was from 10 to 15 minutes

2.4 Data analysis

Data analysis is not simply a single description of the collected data and information In fact, it is the process by which the researcher interprets the data and information collected from the survey questionnaires and interviews The scheme and coding categories in this research emerged from an examination of the data and information than pre-determined and imposed on the data and information The information from the interviews was transcribed and major themes were identified with a view to clarifying and supplementing the statistical results

Specifically, data to be taken in questionnaires and from interviews were analyzed in three directions with major themes: difficulties from teachers (namely, inappropriate teacher pedagogical practices, teachers’ deficiency in English spoken

or English communicative competence), difficulties from students (that is, past educational experiences, lack of background or lack of cultural and social knowledge, low motivation to learning English, low English level of proficiency, negative personal traits and traditional cultural beliefs), difficulties from objective factors (i.e., large and multilevel classes, time constraint and textbooks) and the respondents’ suggestions for decreasing the difficulties in teaching speaking skill in the interview

CHAPTER 3 DATA ANALYSIS

3.1 Data analysis of teachers’ survey questionnaire

5 copies of the first questionnaire distributed to 5 teachers were responded and the data is analyzed in this part of the study in the following tables

Teachers’ experience in teaching English

Years of teaching Number of teachers Percentage ( %)

1 – 5 0

6- 10 2 50%

11 - 15 2 50%

Table 1: Description of teachers’ experience in teaching English

Question 1 in the questionnaire was designed to measure the teachers’ experience in teaching English The result of Question 1 is presented in Table 1 The table shows that English language teachers at Nhi Chieu High School have many years of experience in teaching English

Questions Options No of

teachers

%

Question 2

the most important 0 0

as important as other skills 5 100% not so important as other