STRATEGIES TO ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO PARTICIPATE IN ENGLISH SPEAKING ACTIVITIES AT HAIPHONG SECONDARY VOCATIONAL SCHOOL OF TECHNICAL– PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY,HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -------- LÊ XUÂN HƯƠNG TRANG STRATEGIES TO ENCOURAGE STUDENTS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY,HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



LÊ XUÂN HƯƠNG TRANG

STRATEGIES TO ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO

PARTICIPATE IN ENGLISH SPEAKING ACTIVITIES AT HAIPHONG SECONDARY VOCATIONAL SCHOOL OF

TECHNICAL – PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

Những chiến lược tăng cường sự tham gia của học sinh trong các giờ học

kỹ năng nói tại Trường Trung cấp Kỹ thuật - Nghiệp vụ Hải Phòng

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: Engl sh teaching methodology Code: 60.14.01.1

HANOI, 2015

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY,HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



LÊ XUÂN HƯƠNG TRANG

STRATEGIES TO ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO

PARTICIPATE IN ENGLISH SPEAKING ACTIVITIES AT HAIPHONG SECONDARY VOCATIONAL SCHOOL OF

TECHNICAL – PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

Những chiến lược tăng cường sự tham gia của học sinh trong các giờ học

kỹ năng nói tại Trường Trung cấp Kỹ thuật - Nghiệp vụ Hải Phòng

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: Engl sh teaching methodology Code: 60.14.10.1

Supe visor: Dr Dương Thị Nụ

HANOI, 2015

DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled

“Strategies to encourage students to participate in English speaking activities at HaiPhong secondary vocational school of technical – Professional training" is

the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts, and that this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution

Hanoi, 2015

Lê Xuân Hương Trang

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost I offer my sincerest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Duong Thi Nu, who has supported me thoughout my thesis with her patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge Without her support and active participation

in every step of the process, this thesis may never have been completed

I would like to thank the teachers of the Faculty of post – graduated studies for their interesting lectures who provided me with the strong inspired statation for this study

This study would not have been possible without the corporation and support extended by teachers and students at HaiPhong Secondary Vocational School for Technical – Professional Training Their patience and willingness to respond to my survey questionnaires are very much appreciated

I would also like to thank my colleagues who listened and discussed ideas about this thesis with me on many occasions Their informal support and encouragement has been indispensable

Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family and friends for their encouragement and support during the course of my writing Without their support and assistance, it is impossible for me to finish this research

ABSTRACT This research has been done in an attempt to encourage students to take part in oral presentations and improve their speaking skill at HaiPhong Secondary Vocational School for Technical – Professional Training Specifically, the researcher puts focus on students’ attitude towards speaking skill, their degree of participation in classroom speaking activities, reasons that make them hesitant to participate in oral activities, current methods applied to teach speaking as well as teachers’ view of CLT, their attitude towards unwilling speakers and mistake makers, their difficulties in teaching speaking and techniques and activities applied

in teaching speaking The research was carried out among nine teachers and 100 students at HaiPhong Secondary Vocational School for Technical – Professional Training The data were collected by means of survey questionnaires, classroom observation It was firstly unveiled from the results that the level of students’ participation in speaking lessons is rather low Secondly, students’ talking time in speaking lessons is limited Thirdly, regarding to factors affecting students’ participation in oral activities, there were five main ones namely uninteresting speaking topics, poor background knowledge, lack of confidence, lack of motivation and passive learning style Fourthly, teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking was also highlighted Lastly, the current methods were shown that most of the students feel uncomfortable learning with the teachers’ teaching activities which lead to the inability, or the unwillingness of the students to express themselves through oral activities Basing on these findings, some implications are recommended for both the teachers and the students

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

1 List of Figures

Figure 1: The importance of speaking

Figure 2: Interest degree in speaking

Figure 3: Opinion of speaking topics

Figure 4: Degree of participation in oral activities

Figure 5 A, B: Current methods in speaking teaching

Figure 6: Students’ exectation from their teachers

Figure 7: Students’ expectation for speaking activities

Figure 8: Applied teaching methods

Figure 9: Teacher’s attitude towards oral activities

Figure 10: Difficulties in speaking teaching

Table 11: Activities to motivate students to participate more in oral activities

2 List of Tables

Table 1: Students’ attitude towards speaking skill

Table 2: Factors that make students hesitant to participate in oral activities Table 3: Teachers’ opinion of CLT

Table 4 A, B: Teachers’ reactions towards unwilling speakers and mistake makers

Table 5: Techniques to make students more interested in speaking lessons Table 6: Time on-task, off-task for students in speaking activities

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

PART A: INTRODUCTION 2

1 Rationale 2

2 Aims of the study 3

3 Research questions 3

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Methods of the study 4

6 Design of the study 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1 Nature of speaking skill and principles in teaching speaking 5

1.1 Nature of speaking skill 5

1.2 Principles of teaching speaking 7

1.3 Teacher’s roles in teaching speaking 7

2 Students’ participation in oral activities 8

2.1 Concept of students’ participation 8

2.2 Factors affecting students’ participation in oral activities 9

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY 12

1 Subjects of the study 12

2 Data collecting instrument 12

3 Data collection procedure 13

4 Data analysis procedure 14

CHAPTER THREE: STATISTICS AND ANALYSIS OF DATA 15

1 Results of questionnaires for students 15

1.1 Students’ attitude towards speaking skill 15

1.2 Students’ degrees of participation in classroom speaking activities 17

1.3 Reasons that make students hesitant to participate in oral activities 17

1.4 Current methods applied to teach speaking 20

1.5 Students’ expectation from their teachers 21

2 Results of questionnaire for teachers 23

2.1 Teachers’ view of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 23

2.2 Teacher’s attitude towards unwilling speakers and mistake maker 25

2.3 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking 26

2.4 Techniques and activities applied in teaching English speaking 27

3 Results of classroom observations 28

CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 30

1 Findings 30

1.1 Levels of students’ participation in speaking lessons 30

1.2 Students’ talking time in speaking lessons 30

1.3 Learner’s factors affecting participation in oral activities 31

1.4 Teacher’s difficulties in teaching speaking 33

1.5 Current teaching methods 34

2 Recommendations from the study 35

2.1 Recommendations for the learners 35

2.2 Recommendation for the teachers 36

PART C: CONCLUSION 40

1 Recapitulation 40

2 Conclusions 40

3 Limitations and suggestions for further study 42

REFERENCES 43 APPENDIXES I

PART A: INTRODUCTION This part, which includes rationale for the study, aims, research questions, scopes, methods and design of the study, would hopefully provide readers an overview

of the whole research

1 Rationale

Speaking skill, the most important aspect of learning a second language, is still

a challenge for most students at vocational schools in general, HaiPhong Secondary Vocational School for Technical – Professional Training in particular Many students

do not have a clear purpose of learning English in their mind and they are passively motivated to learn English basing on the textbooks and teachers’ method of delivery

As a result, most of students consider English as a compulsory subjects at schools and find themselves unable to use English for day-to-day communication

Many research has been done on English language teaching and learning at secondary vocational schools toward a greater emphasis on communication and student centeredness While efforts have been made to encourage the participation of students

in writing, reading, listening, far less attention is paid to teach necessary techniques to develop good speaking skill Besides, numerous difficulties in teaching and leaning speaking such as error correction, overcoming nervousness, etc… helping students to develop their ability in communication has not been emphasized much yet

In terms of my experiences of teaching English at HaiPhong Secondary Vocational School for Technical – Professional Training, I found that most of my students are unwilling to participate in oral activities Reasons or this are various including teaching methods focus on grammar, teachers’opinion of English learning, student’s lack of idea or language devices, etc To bridge the gap, this research aims at exploring some real situations about English speaking teaching and learning at HaiPhong Secondary Vocational School for Technical – Professional Training, and search for some reasons that affect the students’ participation in oral activities as well

as to suggest some appropriate teaching strategies to stimulate learner’s involvement in oral activities

2 Aims of the study

students at HaiPhong Secondary Vocational School for Technical – Professional Training In general, it has three purposes Firstly, it is to investigate the impacts of oral activities on the students’ performance in English speaking lessons Secondly, it aims

at finding students’ attitudes towards the participation in oral presentations in the classroom Finally, it is to provide both teachers and students with some suggestions to encourage students’ participation in speaking activities

3 Research questions

In order to reach the aims of the study, the research questions are as followed:

 1 What are teachers and students’ attitudes towards speaking skill?

 2 What are the factors affecting students’ participation in speaking activities?

 3 What should teachers do to increase students’ participation in speaking activities?

4 Scope of the study

The research is conducted with view to current situation of teaching and

learning speaking at HaiPhong Secondary Vocational School for Technical –

Professional Training and find out the reasons why the students are not ready to speak and suggest some strategies to attract their attention

There are two groups of subjects in the study The first group contains 100 students who have learned English for 4 years at lower secondary schools The second group includes 9 teachers of English to help find out what teaching methods and techniques were currently exploited in their teaching

5 Methods of the study

With the aims mentioned above, this survey research will use both quantitative and qualitative methods including survey questionnaire and classroom observation

The data serving the research analysis and discussion were collected from a large number of teacher and student participants Classroom observation about the average amount of the students’ ‘time-on-task’ and “time-off-task” was used as the indispensable method to make the study more reliable and more valid

As for data analysis, the quantitative data from survey questionnaires would be calculated and from classroom observation would be transcribed and summarized Then, all the data would be presented in charts, tables and for better visualization

6 Design of the study

This assignment is divided into three main parts, including:

  Part A, INTRODUCTION, presents the research problem, the purpose, scope, design of the study

  Part B, DEVELOPMENT, consists of three following chapters:

  Chapter one, Literature Review, presents concepts relevant to the research topic

including nature of speaking skill and principles of teaching speaking and definition of students’ participation, and factors affecting students’ participation

  Chapter two, Methodology, describes the subjects of the study, data collecting

instrument, data collection procedure and data analysis procedure

  Chapter three, “Statistics and Analysis of data” analyses the collected data to

answer the three research questions

  Chapter four, “Findings and Recommendations” presents the findings with

conclusions and comments after the experiment was finished, and suggestions to stimulate the students’ participation in speaking activities

  Part C, CONCLUSION, presents recapitulation, conclusions, limitations and suggestions for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter is expected to provide background knowledge for better understanding of the next part of the research

1 Nature of speaking skill and principles in teaching speaking

1.1 Nature of speaking skill

1.1.1 Definition of speaking

Every language has two kinds of skills The first one is the receptive skill which involves two aspects: understanding and reading; and the second one is the productive skill, which involves writing and speaking

Clark (cited in Nunan, 1991: 23) indicates that speaking is the result of teaching learning process Students’ skill in conversation is core aspect in speaking teaching, it becomes vitally aspect in language teaching learning success if language function as a system for expression of meaning When students speak in a confident and comfortable way, they can interact better in real daily situations Because of this, the purpose of this project was to encourage the development of effectiveness

in spoken English For the author, developing effectiveness implies using language

in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere –an atmosphere of trust and support

Along with this, Ladouse (cited in Nunan, 1991: 23) stated that speaking is the ability to express oneself in the situation, or the activity to report acts, or situation in precise words or the ability to converse or to express a sequence of ideas fluently Taking into account Ladouse's concept, the success in speaking is measured through the ability to carry out a conversation in the language It also means that speaking becomes meaningful to students when they have to pay attention to what they are saying Therefore, students can express their ideas better with good vocabularies and acceptable pronunciation

In this research, speaking skill can be stated as the skill to use the language accurately to express meanings in order to transfer or to get knowledge and information from other people in the certain situation In other words, the term

“speaking” will be used to refer to a skill related to language teaching and learning

1.1.2 Characteristics of speaking

In language teaching and learning, speaking is considered a skill to practise and master In this light, Bygate (1987) investigates the distinction between knowledge and skill in speaking lesson, which he considered as crucial in the teaching of speaking According to him, studying knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation, etc is not enough to make a good speaking learner It means that the skill to use this knowledge to communicate successfully is also important Regarding to this aspect, Harmer (2001) also denotes that speaking has many different aspects including two major categories – accuracy, involving the correct use of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation practised through controlled and guided activities; and, fluency, considered to ‘the ability to keep going when speaking spontaneously’

However, the learning of speaking English has been also relegated to linguistic knowledge such as knowledge of vocabulary and grammar rules besides attention paid to practising language skill So, it is very important that useful principles of teaching speaking give students a non-threatening experience in participation in oral activities

To sum up, it is undeniable that the aim of language teaching is learner ability to communicate in the target language By considering what good speakers

do, what speaking tasks can be used in class, and what specific needs learners report, teachers can help learners improve their speaking and overall oral competency

1.2 Principles of teaching speaking

Chaney in Kanyi (2006) adds that Speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts It means speaking is interaction between speakers with a listener O’Malley (1996:59) speaking means negotiating intended meanings and adjusting one’s speech to produce the desired effect on the listener

In addition, Harris (1974: 81) states that speaking is a complex skill requiring the simultaneous use of a number of different abilities which often develop at different rates He adds that there are five components of speaking ability They

are: pronunciation, including the segmental features vowels and consonants and the stress and intonation patterns; grammar; vocabulary; fluency, the ease and speed of the flow of speech; comprehension; requires a subject to respond to speech as well

as to initiate it

From the above definition, the researcher can conclude that speaking is particular skill that has many functions in daily life By speaking we can share our ideas, feeling, and intentions that we are able to interact with ones others At least, there are five components that should be considered in speaking such as: pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension

1.3 Teacher’s roles in teaching speaking

In a traditional point of view, a teacher is a person who educates students and controls the process of learning Nowadays the understanding of this role has changed Broadly speaking, the function of teachers is “showing or helping someone to learn how to do something, giving instruction, guiding in the study of something; providing with knowledge, causing to understand” (Brown (2001:7))

There is an interaction process between teacher and students in the case of knowledge transferring And the purpose of language teaching is to help students enhance their speaking skills through improvement of their grammar, enrichment of their vocabulary, and management of interactions in terms of who says what, to

whom, when, and about what (Richards, Platt, and Weber (as cited in Nunan, 1999,

p 226))

In my project, I played several roles such as encourager, helper, monitor (or checker), controller and facilitator to promote students to learn the language, especially speaking and I also accepted that it was very useful for me to comprehend the significant theories of both language teaching and language learning

2 Students’ participation in oral activities

2.1 Concept of students’ participation

Participation is defined as the act of taking part in an activity or event

free encyclopedia) students are engaged in speaking learning when they are involved in their tasks, persist despite challenges and obstacles, and take speaking production Based on the above definition, we can define students’ participation as taking part of what is going on during a speaking session through interacting with the teacher and classmates Concerning the interaction between students and their teachers, students are considered to maintain a good interaction with their teachers This connection has been shown in five categories: preparation, contribution to discussion, group skills, communication skills, and attendance (Dancer &

Participation takes place not only inside the classroom but also outside the classroom ‘‘In-class student participation,’’ consists of asking questions, raising one’s hand, and making comments However, the interaction between students themselves is different from the first kind of interaction It has been recognized in group working and can be measured by student’s sense of responsibility and cooperation

2.2 Factors affecting students’ participation in oral activities

2.2.1 Students’ learning styles

The term “learning style” has many definitions Leaver, Ehrman and Shekhtman (2005, p 66) defined learning styles as convenient shortcuts for talking about patterns of what an individual is likely to prefer as a learner Each student should have an opportunity to select his/her own ways of language learning at his/her own pace Also Keefe (1979) defines learning styles as the “composite of characteristic cognitive, affective, and physiological factors that serve as relatively stable indicators of how a learner perceives, interacts with, and responds to the learning environment Therefore, teachers need to focus more and more on individual needs in order to plan and manage the personal study environment and programs

As a teacher and a researcher, I have to be aware of this view As a result, in this project a variety of activities, techniques and materials were provided to give students more opportunities to select by themselves

2.2.2 Students’ motivation

Brown (2002, p 17) said, “Motivation is one of the most important factors

in your success in English.” Clydesdale (2006, p 129) showed that when students were interested in the task, they were intrinsically motivated and their creative thinking was increased In addition, students’ motivation also contributes to speaking teaching “Motivation is the backbone of any classroom When the students are motivated, the teacher can perform his/her job the best.” (Lite (2002) Motivation can make student’s interest grows and therefore to meet their own goals

as well as their teacher’s goals

To promote students’ confidence in speaking English in this project, I encouraged students to reflect immediately by using the question “What are the factors that promoted my confidence in speaking English?” If students have broad repertoires of learning strategies in language speaking, they can develop their

speaking rapidly The more students have learning strategy repertoires, the more students’ confidence in speaking English is increased

2.2.3 Teacher’s teaching techniques and methods

For each teacher, the good choice of teaching methods as well as techniques

is very important to increase students’ participation in every lesson When deciding what teaching method to use, a teacher needs to consider students' background knowledge, environment, learning goals, learning time and material resources We also know that different teachers exploit different methods and techniques in their teaching As a result, different degrees of student’s participation are created by different teachers Teacher-centered methods such as the Grammar-translation method or the Direct method always cause teachers to choose the techniques which mostly limit students’ participation and put them in the passive settings On the contrary, learner-centered methods like CLT bring the teacher various techniques that motivate students in participating in the lesson since they are the main characters of all activities The examples of these techniques can be named as pair-work, group-work, role play, or games

In my project, learner-centred instruction is very useful for language learning, especially speaking, however, a teacher has to have insight to understand

it It does not mean that students should be taught every time in a learner-centred way and high technology used It depends on how students spend resources in the institutes and how much they apply themselves to reach their goals Also the teacher must be aware of reflecting on how students can learn most

2 2.4 Teacher personal qualities

Some people may think that it is quite hard to specify the qualities of good English teachers If we look around, we can see that the teachers loved by the students are of rather different personalities Some are very charismatic, lively, and easy-going Others are quiet, slightly introvert and not very sociable Parker Palmer (1999) also observes that good teaching isn’t about technique either He has asked

students around his country to describe their good teachers to him Some of the students describe people who lecture all the time, some of them describe people who do little other than facilitate group process, and others describe everything in between However, he does notice that despite the different teaching methods employed by different good teachers, these teachers do share some characteristics

Palmer summarizes that good teachers are “people who have some sort of connective capacity, who connect themselves to their students, their students to each other, and everyone to the subject being studied” The interpretation of this is that

good teachers let the students know that they care for the students They help the students communicate with each other among themselves so that they find themselves in a nice learning environment They also motivate the students to learn the subject they’re teaching

In my project, Palmer’s list of qualities of good teachers shows that the relationship between teachers and students has a great value in making his class an interesting place where students can enjoy learning In other words, the teacher’s personal qualities may have a remarkable effect on his/her students’ participation

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY

To conduct the research, two methods were applied: qualitative method and quantitative method All comments, suggestions and conclusions in the study are based

on the analysis of the statistic data collected from Questionnaires Survey and Observation

1 Subjects of the study

This paper was carried out among 100 students namely X06, X07, K07 and 9 teachers of English placed into two groups The first group was selected to complete the survey questionnaire with a hope of obtaining comprehensive data and accurate reflection of their participation in speaking activities They have been learning English for at least nearly three years (some learned English at secondary schools, but some did not) The other group has nine teachers aged from 25 to 37 They have been teaching English at school for at least 5 years

After carrying out the survey questionnaire, group K07, X06 was chosen for carrying out the classroom observation for direct reflection of the students’ participation in oral activities Accordingly, the researcher could have more in-depth findings about the research’ issue

2 Data collecting instrument

Based on the essence of the research questions, the researcher employed both quantitative and qualitative method including survey questionnaires and classroom observation to examine the results

  Survey questionnaire

Among the different methods of collecting data for research purposes, the survey questionnaire is preferred by researcher due to its strengths and benefits This instrument is said to “provide data economically and in a form that lends itself perfectly to the purposes of the study” (Vanjendra & Mallick, 1991, p.13) Despite the fact that this instrument is widely used, it has several minor limitations Questions may

be misunderstood by respondents and responses to closed-ended questions provide

limited depth As a results, a large number of valueless data can exist So, the researcher plans to to avoid using ambiguous and difficult words to make sure that the respondents could understand clearly what they had to do Especially, the questionnaire for students was written in both English and Vietnamese to avoid students’ confusion

or misunderstanding and thus the inaccuracy of the results

  Classroom observation

This research used two survey questionnaires as the primary tool, followed by classroom observation for deeper investigations According to Bridget, Robert, Jason, Megan (A Practitioner’s Guide to Conducting Classroom), by using classroom observation, the researcher can strengthen the information collected from the questionnaires

In this observation, the researcher paid attention to students’ talking as well as the degree of students’ participation times in speaking lessons

3 Data collection procedure

Step 1: Pre-test the questionnaire

Pre-testing is the administration of the data collection instrument with a small set of respondents from the population for the full scale survey If problems occur in the pre-test, it is likely that similar problems will arise in full-scale administration The purpose of pre-testing is to identify problems with the data collection instrument and find possible solutions This step allows the researcher to determine whether the respondents have any difficulty in understanding the questionnaire and whether there are ambiguous or biased questions and measure how much time it takes to complete each questionnaire The results of the pre-test helps to ensure that all the required information will be obtained

Step 2: Delivering the survey questionnaires

100 copies of questionnaires for students in classes X06, X07, K07 and 09 for teachers were delivered at break time to make sure that all the participants received the questionnaires The researcher also prepares for questions raised by participants during the process Time for the questionnaires completion was about 15 minutes

Step 3: Carrying out classroom observation work

Classroom observation should take place within a few days (so that the checklist

is reviewed whether it worked effectively enough) Afterwards, some necessary changes in classroom observation checklist were made basing on the drawbacks of its design

4 Data analysis procedure

In analyzing the data of questionnaires in the research, the method of descriptive statistics is used After the data was collected, the results and findings were shown by means of descriptive statistics with the display of frequency tables In detail, quantitative results of questionnaire for students will be analyzed in percentage and grouped into four categories, namely, students’ attitude towards speaking skill, students degree of participation in classroom speaking activities, reasons that make students hesitant to participate in oral activities and current methods applied to teach speaking Quantitative results of questionnaire for teachers were also categorized into four groups: teachers’ view of CLT, teachers’ attitude towards unwilling speakers and mistake makers, teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking and techniques and activities applied in teaching speaking After that, they were presented preliminary in tables, charts for better visualization Qualitative data which obtained from class observation was summarized to assist the findings of research

CHAPTER THREE: STATISTICS AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

1 Results of questionnaires for students

The first survey questionnaire consists of 12 questions which are related to the five main issues presented in the following tables and charts

Students’ attitude towards speaking skill

1 Why do you learn

speaking skills?

Table 1: Students’ attitude towards speaking skill

As Table 1 illustrates, more than half (51%) of students stated that they take part

in speaking activities because it is compulsory at their school Among the reasons chosen by the learners, it is recognized that students are obliged to learn it to pass their examinations (25%) Only 16% of the students claim that speaking is necessary for the future job while 8 % suppose they are interested in the speaking skill

Figure 1: Importance of speaking

students claim that speaking skill is very important and rather important to them, while 62% suppose speaking skill is little important and it is not important at all for 14%

Figure 2: Inte rest degree in speaking

Figure 3: Opinion of speaking topics

Question 4 The possible reasons for these above issues can be seen in results of the 4thquestion This issue has indicated that a lot of students are not interested in speaking lessons due to mainly: difficulty (35%), boredom (43%) and easiness (15%) in the lesson topics The minority (7%) says it is interesting

In general, it can be concluded that the majority of the students agree that English speaking skill is not really significant And the number of students who feel uninterested

in speaking in class is the same This result may raise a question: how students get involved in speaking activities in a classroom

1.2 Students’ degrees of participation in classroom speaking activities

Figure 4: Degree of participation in oral activities

In conclusion, the levels of students’ participation in oral activities are various The interesting fact is that most of students have little involvement in speaking lessons

So, the teachers should know what factors affect student’s participation

1.3 Reasons that make students hesitant to participate in oral activities

Question Response Number of

7 How do you

practice

speaking

activities ?

Table 2: Factors that make students hesitant to participate in oral activities

important causes which interfered with or disturbed the students' oral participation These are uninteresting lessons, shyness and not being accustomed to speaking in front

of other people 26% of students feel reluctant to speak English because the speaking

topics are uninteresting Boring teaching method accounts for 11% 24% of them are not accustomed to speaking in front of other people 21% and 13% of students feel shy and consider lack of students’ talking time as other difficulties in speaking learning The minority of students (5%), among the 100 students choose “learning goal is not to

communicate”

From the results shown in Table 2 we could also infer that the majority of students just sometimes speak English, and rarely participate or speak English during the class In detail, only 35% students pay attention to practising speaking skills Majority of them (30%) never respond in English They either keep silent all the time (18%) or speak Vietnamese (12%) The rest spends time chatting with other group members about topics (35%)

Taking into account students' opinions about difficulties with regard to the English language skills, the majority of the students (34%) considered the major trouble preventing them from participating in oral activities is because they have nothing to say about the given topic About (28%) students confessed that limited vocabulary and grammatical structures also affect students speaking skills The number

of students considered their poor pronunciation and their teachers’ maximum talking time accounts for 20% and 5% in turn Only 4% of them said that it is due to lack of time to prepare Other (9%) stated that their low proficiency in English also discouraged them from speaking

In summary, there is diversity in students’ opinions of negative impact on their speaking factors affecting students’ spoken production such as: inappropriate teaching method, poor language proficiency, prior learning experience, etc So it’s necessary to find out how students think of current methods applied to teach speaking

1.4 Current methods applied to teach speaking

Figure 5A: Current methods in speaking teaching

Question 9: Teachers’ activities after giving speaking topics

Figure 5B: Current methods in speaking teaching

Question 10: Mistake correction model Going through Figure 5A, it can also be realized that 43% of the students state that their teacher often provide them with necessary vocabulary and structures relate to the topic after giving speaking topics Others (49%) suppose that their teachers only provide them with main ideas for given topics And only 5% think that their teachers encourage them to plan the given topics, and the rest (13%) say they are made to discuss the topics themselves It suggests that students lack of self-preparation and activeness before they participate in oral activities

The other issue investigated in this study was whether teachers’ mistake correcting methods affect students’ participation in oral activities As shown in the 10th

A Feel very angry and ask to interrupt to you correct mistakes when you are speaking

B Only interrupt to correct mistakes when you are speaking

C Wait until you've finished your work and correct your mistakes

D Wait until you've finished your work and show your mistakes and encourage you correct them yourself

E other(s): (Please specify)

A Provide necessary vocabulary and structures related to the topic

B Suggest the ideas of the topic

C Encourage to prepare outline for the topic

D Require topic discussion

E Other(s): (Please specify)

question, it revealed that 81% of students said that their teachers often stop them immediately whenever they make mistakes to correct them The method in which the teachers wait until their students finish their speech, point out and correct their mistakes accounts for 14% Mistake self-correct model in the classroom is not a popular way to encourage students to learn English We are, therefore, going to find out students’ expectation from their teachers

1.5 Students’ expectation from their teachers

Other students’ expectation are presented as following:

A To give clear instructions

B Not to interrupt to correct when you are speaking

C To provide necessary vocabulary, language, and suggest the ideas

atmosphere

E To minimize his/her talking time

F To give feedback, praise and encouragement

The answers to this question reveal the students’ expectation on how they practice speaking skill in class It is surprising that 64% of them said that they do not like individual working 93% of them confessed that they were fond of working with other students in small groups Also, the number of students liked games for speaking

is very high with 96% while only 4% do not care Nearly most of the students chose story telling (91%), role playing (89%), picture describing (86%), difference finding (79%) as effective ways to enhance their speaking skill The students may use these activities as a serious impediment to the speaking process However, still a few students (11%, 11%, 9%, 14% in turns) propose these activites are not motivation enough

It can be concluded from Figure 6 and Figure 7 that the teachers of English at HaiPhong Secondary Vocational School of Technical-Professional Training may be too strict in the lesson and this may make students nervous and unnecessarily stressed

In short, the students’ questionnaire aims at finding out the students’ behavior/attitude towards speaking skills It also attempts to find out if students enjoy participating in classroom speaking activities, if their teachers use effective teaching

methods and what the students’ expectation are to them Some interesting results provided from the students may help innovate the speaking teaching and learning at HaiPhong Secondary Vocational School of Technical-Professional Training

2 Results of questionnaire for teachers

2.1 Teachers’ view of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

The second questionnaires with 9 questions were designed for 9 teachers The data collected through the responses will be analyzed in this part of the study

2 Have you been

taught in CLT?

Table 3: Teachers’ opinion of CLT

that all of the teachers think that CLT emphasizes more on fluency than on accuracy 51% of the teachers think CLT as learner-centered while no teachers say that CLT focuses on grammar teaching About the CLT experience, more than half number of the teachers (77%) revealed that they had been taught CLT in English teaching-training courses, and 23% of them have been taught in English teaching workshops

From the above results we can see the teachers’ views on CLT and their experience The teachers were therefore asked what teaching methods are currently applied in teaching The results are as shown in Figure 8

The results in Figure 8 and Table 3 indicate that the neglect of CLT in teaching could partly create positive impact on students’ motivation and enthusiasm in the speaking learning What should teachers do? We are going to analyse teachers’ reaction with two of these impacts namely the unwilling speakers and mistake makers

Grammar translation CLT

Other methods

Audio-lingual method