An investigation into the attitudes of teachers and students at the Hanoi College of Industrial Economics towards speaking activities in the textbook New Headway Pre-intermediate and some suggestions

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT refers to Communicative Language Teaching HCIE refers to the Hanoi College of Industrial Economics L2 refers to second language ELT refers to English Language

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG LAN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE ATTITUDES OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS AT THE HANOI COLLEGE OF INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS TOWARDS SPEAKING ACTIVITIES IN THE TEXTBOOK NEW HEADWAY PRE-INTERMEDIATE AND SOME

SUGGESTIONS

Nghiên cứu thái độ của giáo viên và sinh viên trường Cao đẳng Kinh tế Công nghiệp Hà nội đối với hoạt động nói trong giáo trình New Headway Pre-

Intermediate và một số gợi ý

M.A Minor program thesis

Field: English teaching methodology Code: 601410

HANOI - 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG LAN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE ATTITUDES OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS AT THE HANOI COLLEGE OF INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS TOWARDS SPEAKING ACTIVITIES IN THE TEXTBOOK NEW HEADWAY PRE-INTERMEDIATE AND SOME

SUGGESTIONS

Nghiên cứu thái độ của giáo viên và sinh viên trường Cao đẳng Kinh tế Công nghiệp Hà nội đối với hoạt động nói trong giáo trình New Headway Pre-

Intermediate và một số gợi ý

M.A Minor program thesis

Field: English teaching methodology Code: 601410

Supervisor: Phạm Minh Hiền , M.A

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION OF ORINALITY ……… i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……… ……… ii

ABSTRACT……… iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS……… ……… v

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ……… ……… ix

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS ……… ……… x

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationales ……… ……… 1

2 Aims of the study ……… ……… 1

3 Scope of the study ……… ……… 2

4 Significance of the study ……… ……… 2

5 Methodology of the study ……… ……… 2

6 Design of the study ……… ……… 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: Literature review 1.1 Communicative Language Teaching ……… ………… 4

1.1.1 Definition of CLT ……… ……… 4

1.1.2 Characteristics of CLT ……… ……… 4

1.2 Speaking skills ……… ……… 5

1.2.1 Definitions of speaking skills ……… ………… 6

1.2.2 Importance of speaking skills in ELT ……… … 6

1.2.3 The development approach of speaking skills ……… 7

1.2.4 Problems with speaking skills ……… ………… 9

1.2.5 The techniques in teaching speaking skills ……… 9

1.2.5.1 Pair-work ……… ……… 9

1.2.5.2 Group work ……… ……… 10

1.2.6 The activities in teaching speaking skills ……… 10

1.2.6.1 Information gap activities ……… …… 11

1.2.6.2 Jigsaw activities ……… ……… 11

1.2.6.3 Role play ……… ……… 11

1.2.6.4 Discussion ……… ……… 12

1.3 Textbooks ……… ……… 13

1.3.1 Definitions of textbooks ……… ……… 13

1.3.2 The roles of textbook in language program ……… 13

1.3.3 Previous studies related to the series of textbooks New Headway ………… 14

1.4 Motivation ……… ……… 15

1.4.1 Definitions of motivation ……… ……… 15

1.4.2 The importance of motivation in foreign language learning ……… 16

Chapter II: The study 2.1 Current situation of teaching and learning English at the HCIE ……… 17

2.1.1 Description of the English course at the HCIE ……… 17

2.1.2 Description of the 1st year students at the HCIE ……… 17

2.1.3 Description of the teachers at the HCIE ……… 18

2.2 Design and methodology ……… 18

2.2.1 Subjects of the study ……… 18

2.2.2 Instruments of data collection ……… 18

2.2.2.1 Questionnaires ……… 18

2.2.2.2 Interviews ……… 18

2.2.2.3 Classroom observations ……… 19

2.3 Data analysis ……… 19

2.3.1 Questionnaires ……… 19

2.3.1.1 Questionnaire for the students ……… 19

2.3.1.1.1 The attitude of students at the HCIE towards speaking skills in ELT 19 2.3.1.1.2 The attitude of students at the HCIE towards the speaking skills in the textbook NW Pre ……… 20

2.3.1.1.3 Students‟ difficulties in speaking lessons ……… 22

2.3.1.1.4 Students‟ preferences and demands for the speaking lessons …… 23

2.3.1.2 Questionnaire for the teachers ……… 24

2.3.1.2.1 The attitude of teachers at the HCIE towards speaking skills in ELT 24 2.3.1.2.2 The attitude of teachers at the HCIE towards the speaking skills in the textbook NH Pre……… 24

2.3.1.2.3 Teachers‟ difficulties in speaking lessons and their textbook

adaptation ………

26 2.3.2 Interviews ……… 27

2.3.3 Classroom observations ……… 28

Chapter III: Findings and suggestions 3.1 Findings ……… 31

3.1.1 About the students ……… 31

3.1.1.1 The students „attitude towards speaking skills ……… 31

3.1.1.2 Prior passive learning experiences ……… 31

3.1.1.3 Low level of proficiency ……… 32

3.1.2 About speaking skills in the textbook NH Pre ……… 32

3.2 Suggestions for teaching speaking skills ……… 33

3.2.1 Suggestions for students ……… 33

3.2.2 Suggestions for the teachers ……… 34

3.2.3 Adaptation for the speaking skills of the textbook ……… 36

PART III: CONCLUSION 1 Summary of the study ……… 38

2 Limitations of the study ……… 38

3 Suggestions for further study ……… 39

APPENDICES Appendix 1: Survey questionnaires for students ……… I Appendix 2: Survey questionnaire for teachers……… III Appendix 3: Questions for students „interview ………

……

V

Appendix 4: Questions for teachers „interview ……… … VI Appendix 5: Classroom observation form ……… ……… VII

Appendix 6: Contents of speaking activities in NH Pre ……… IX

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT refers to Communicative Language Teaching HCIE refers to the Hanoi College of Industrial Economics L2 refers to second language

ELT refers to English Language Teaching

IGA refers to Information gap activities

ESP refers to English for special purposes

ESL refers to English as a second language

EFL refers to English as a foreign language

NH Pre refers to New Headway Pre-Intermediate

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Table 1: Students‟ attitudes towards speaking skills in ELT ……… 20

Table 2: Students‟ attitudes towards speaking skills in the textbook NH Pre

Table 5: Teachers‟ attitudes towards speaking skills in the textbook NH Pre ……… 25

Table 6: Teachers‟ difficulties in speaking lessons and their adaptation ……… 26 Table 7: Results of class observations ……… 28

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationales

In Vietnam, since the country adopted open-door policy, the need for integrating into the world has increased In order to achieve this need, a tool for integrating has been explored: English That is why English is now widely taught throughout the country in almost all educational institutions, universities, colleges, schools and language centers at every level English teaching and learning have become very important to our country because of industrialization and modernization

The teaching of English in Vietnam always follows the frameworks of English Language Teaching (ELT), from the grammar translation to audio-lingual method in which teaching and testing are focused mainly on writing and reading so Vietnamese students of English are very good at grammar but can hardly speak English

To catch on with the above demand and to improve English speaking skills, Vietnamese teachers of English have been searching for a more suitable and effective method of teaching and have come to decide on using the Communicative Language Teaching Approach (CLT)

at all levels As a result, speaking skills have gained their important roles in the curriculum

of most English courses nowadays At the Hanoi College of Industrial Economics (HCIE), where I have been working for 10 years, speaking skills have been taught based on the

textbook Headway Pre–Intermediate since 2006 From my personal observation and

professional experience as a teacher of English, I have realized that teaching and learning speaking skills have still faced some difficulties and the students‟ ability to speak English has not improved much For several years, I have been haunted by the questions what difficulties the teachers and students have and how to improve the students‟ English speaking ability effectively Analyzing the attitudes of the teachers and students towards

speaking skills in the textbook NH Pre will help me find the situation of teaching and

learning speaking skills, in general and teaching and learning speaking skills in the textbook

NH Pre in particular From the result of the investigation, the writer of this thesis can

suggest some solutions to improve the situation

2 Aims of the study

With the above- presented rationales, the specific aims of the study, accordingly, are:

- to find out the attitudes of teachers and students at the HCIE towards speaking skills in ELT

- to investigate the attitudes of teachers and students at the HCIE towards the speaking

skills in the textbook NH Pre

- to find out students‟ preferences and demands

- to recommend some solutions based on the findings of the study

3 Scope of the study

As it has been stated above, the study is designed to explore teachers and students‟ attitudes

towards speaking activities in the textbook NH Pre in order to make some methodological

recommendations for teaching speaking skills The study is, therefore, explorative by nature Given the aims of the study, I limited myself to focus on teachers and the first-year students

at the HCIE who have taught and studied the textbook NH Pre

4 Significance of the study

This study is first hoped to be helpful to both teachers and students at the HCIE because its finding will enable not only the teachers to see whether their ways of teaching English in general and teaching speaking in particular are appropriate and effective but also make students to fully understand their responsibility for their study The practical meaning of this

study is to evaluate teaching and learning speaking skills based on the textbook NH Pre

Therefore, it is also expected to be beneficial to both teachers and students at colleges and

universities where New Headway series are used as a textbook

5 Methodology of the study

To achieve the aims stated, quantitative method was mainly used The data collected for the

study come from 100 first- year students at the HCIE who have just finished studying NH Pre and 10 teachers who have taught Basic English for the first year students for over 2

years

Survey questionnaires were used to collect information and evidence for the study with the hope that the research would be reliable and the processing of the data would be manageable within limited time budget

In addition, the research also used qualitative method that is the author collected some information based on her informal classroom observations and interviews with 10 students and 5 teachers chosen from 100 students and 10 teachers in the questionnaire survey The

researcher hopes that these methodologies supplement each other and the data are more reliable

All comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion provided in the study are based on the data analysis

6 Design of the study

The study consists of three main parts, a list of reference and appendices

Part I, INTRODUCTION, deals with the reason for the research and the aims, scope, significance, methodology and design of the study

Part II, DEVELOPMENT, includes three important chapters:

Chapter 1 is intended to give some theoretical background related to speaking skills, textbook and the problems in teaching and learning speaking skills

In chapter 2, the methodology underlying the research is presented This chapter presents the background information of the subjects of the study, the instruments used to collect the data Chapter 2 provides an analysis on the current situation of teaching and learning speaking at first year classes at the HCIE; the attitudes of teachers and students at the HCIE towards the speaking skills in ELT; the attitudes of teachers and students at the HCIE towards the

speaking skills in the textbook NH Pre and the students‟ preferences and demands

Chapter 3 focuses on some findings and recommendations about learning and teaching

speaking skills based on the textbook NH Pre

Part III is the CONCLUSION of the study, providing summary of the issues, the major findings in the research, limitations and suggestions for further

PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: Literature review

1.1 Communicative Language Teaching

to the field when he proposed a model of language in which he made a distinction between

usage and use, which usage referring to grammatical aspects of language and use referring to

communicative aspects of language

According to Bock (2000) CLT is tailored to get at meaning and learners negotiate meaning

in class Meaning is considered as what is communicated The negotiation of meaning can be implicated through pair work, group work in problem-solving tasks He also states:

“Authentic materials, functional tasks, and group and pair work are significant aspects of CLT”

The definition above 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

1.1.2 Characteristics of CLT

The focus of CLT is therefore on functional language usage and learners‟ ability to express their own ideas, feelings, attitudes, desires and needs In CLT, skill is more important than

content That means the focus of the lesson is fluency, not accuracy Communicative lessons are characterized by activities where learners communicate and where tasks are completed

by means of interaction with other learners Therefore, learners‟ completing a task is foreground and communicating with each other back grounded

Another characteristic of CLT is “its learner- centred and experienced-based tasks view of second language teaching” (Richard and Roger, 1986:69) According to CLT theory, individual learners possess unique interests, styles, needs, and goals that should be reflected

in the design of instructional methods (Savignon, 1991) Teachers are to develop materials based on the demonstrated needs of a particular class Students must be made to feel secure, unthreatened, and non- defensive in a CLT classroom, so teachers using CLT should avoid adopting a teacher-centred, authoritarian posture (Taylor, 1983)

Li (1998:967) summaries the characteristics of CLT in 6 categories as follows:

 A focus on communicative functions

 A focus on meaningful tasks rather on language

 Efforts to make tasks and language relevant to a target group of learners through an analysis of genuine, realistic situations

 The use of authentic, from life materials

 The use of group activities

 The attempt to create a secure, non threatening atmosphere

However, to make CLT possible, textbooks which are used play a very essential role With uncreative books, teachers should consider how to change the weak version of CLT into a strong one Communicative activities should be used with wisdom at the proper time to arouse learners‟ interest In other words, CLT has to be focused meaningful and fun (Yang, 2003)

1.2 Speaking skills

Speaking skills in English are a priority for many foreign language learners and for them speaking ability is considered to be the measure of knowing a language Learners often evaluate their success in language learning as well as the effectiveness of their English course based on how well they feel they have improved in their spoken language proficiency

1.2.1 Definitions of speaking skills

According to Florez (1999) speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information It is often spontaneous, open-ended and evolving

Brown and Yule (1983) state that spoken language consists of short fragmentary utterances

in a range of pronunciation However, speaking is a skill, which deserves attention as much

as literacy skills in both first and second language because our learners often need to speak with confidence in order to carry out a lot of their most basic transactions (Bygate, 1991) Further more, speaking is known with two main types of conversation called dialogue and monologue

Brown and Yule (1983) point out the ability to give uninterrupted oral presentation (monologue) is rather different from interacting with one or more other speakers for transactional and international purposes

A comprehensive discussion of the nature of speaking is provided by Bygate (1987), who shows that in order to be able to speak a foreign language, it is obviously necessary to have micro-linguistic skills, that is, to understand some grammar, vocabulary and the rules governing how words are put together to form sentences However, these motor-perceptive skills, as Bygate calls them, are not sufficient since while producing sentences We often have to adapt them to the circumstances He then presents the second set of speaking skills: the interaction skills which involve using knowledge and basic motor-perceptive skills in deciding what to say and how to say it, while maintaining the intended relation with others

1.2.2 Importance of speaking skills in ELT

It is believed that to know the language means to know how to speak As a result, different linguists and methodologists have recognized the essential role of speaking skills in ELT for various reasons

In the first place, it is the speaking skills which help the learners have communication which,

as for Richard A (1991), is the proper aim of language teaching Once the learner communicates well, he can get information from others about anything he would like to know Moreover, as Larson.C.U (1996) believes, effective communication can bring people

a more productive, satisfied and meaningful life In other words, being able to communicate successfully in a foreign language helps people to take it easy and be confident to express

themselves Therefore, conflicts, threats and nerves can be avoided and a better relationship will come to them

Secondly, as Littlewood (1991) states, communicative use is the goal as well as a means of learning which helps the learners reach it Therefore, speaking skills enforce and bring about the successful acquisition of reading, listening and writing, in other words, the learning of English as a whole Sharing the same view, Decaney and Bowen (1968) stress that only after

a reasonable mastery of spoken form has been achieved should other skills be taught And Martin Bygate (1987) adds that speaking “is also a medium through which much language is learnt, and which for many is particularly conductive for learning.”

In conclusion, speaking skills keep a special and very important position in ELT as an effective speaking ability not only helps a learner to acquire the language better but to communicate successfully to improve his academic knowledge as well Only when a learner

of English can actually use the language as a means of communication, can he master the language in the true meaning After all, speaking ability is the very signal that reveals if a person really knows the language or not

1.2.3 The development approach of speaking skills

Byrne (1991:22-31) points out that there are three phases to develop learners‟ oral ability, which are as follows:

Phase 1: The presentation phase

In this first phase, teachers are the center of learning and teaching activities and they work as

an information provider because they know English, select materials to teach and present the materials in such a way that the meaning of the new language is as intelligible and memorable as possible while the learners are motionless As far as we are concerned, oral materials are written mainly in two forms, which are dialogues and prose Thus, it is obviously that these two different forms need presenting in different ways

As for Byrne (1991:22), the following ten different steps are often used to present a dialogue

1 Establish setting by using pictures At this phase, English is used as much as possible

2 Draw out learners‟ experience related to situation

3 Explain some key words

4 Set listening task by asking key information of the dialogue

5 Ask learners to listen without looking at the dialogue

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

7 Ask learners to listen and repeat

8 Ask learners to pick up difficulties (good chances for them to speak) and explain difficulties

9 Ask them to practice (role-play)

10 Ask them to dramatize the dialogue

It can be said that these ten steps are perfect and logically arranged However there is no need to use all these steps for presenting a dialogue, it depends on the learners‟ English competence Thus, some of the steps can be left out to save time and make the learners more motivated

In order to present a prose, Byrne (1991:26) suggests that teachers should use the following steps:

1 Introduce the topic by asking to look at the picture or asking them about related things

2 Introduce the text New words and structures are given

3 Provide relevant practice

4 Set the reading task: make questions

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

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

7 Explain difficulties they still have

8 Do silent reading again because the learners need to go on step 9

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

10 Like presenting a dialogue, these steps should be used dynamically to increase the learners‟ motivation

Phase 2: The practice phase

Unlike the presentation phase, at this phase learners have to do most of talking Teachers provide maximum amount of practice and of course practice is often in the form of activities

to improve fluency of speaking

The learners, at this phase, answer the teacher‟s guided questions, discuss with their partners

to find new ideas related to the topic Therefore, it is better to promote more pair work and group work At the end of the practice phase, Ur (1990:12) suggests that what the teacher should do to enhance the learners‟ fluency of speaking First, attention must be fully paid by the learners Second, the target language must be clearly heard or repeated Third, learners

understand the meaning of new materials and finally, short-term memory of the material must be created for later use in the lesson

Phase 3: The production phase

Now learners need opportunities to speak English freely at this phase They talk about what they have prepared at the practice phase again The learners present their own ideas and their friends‟ ideas can be added during their talk A real chance to speak English takes place when the learner can use English naturally for themselves, not for their teacher Using group work at this phase will help learners have chances to participate in talks; time can be saved and learners seem to be more confident

Byrne (1988:2) notes that so as to improve speaking ability for learners we should follow these phases orderly However, they might not be applied as expected because of time limitation, types of learners and materials in use

1.2.4 Problems with speaking skills

Ur (1996) claims that a successful speaking ability should achieve a maximal student taking time, even participation among students, student strong motivation to speak and comprehensibility of students‟ language She also points out the following common problems that tend to occur in a speaking class:

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

2 Students can not think of anything to say

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

4 Students tend to use their mother tongue instead of the foreign language (Ur,1996:121)

Thus, for a successful speaking lesson, the teacher, among other things, should be aware of these problems so as to have appropriate and effective solutions to improve the students‟ speaking ability

1.2.5 The techniques in teaching speaking skills

According to CLT, pair and group work activities are considered to be the most common practices in a language classroom, in which students are allowed to interact with each other and then will be able to communicate in the target language

1.2.5.1 Pair-work

The definitions of pair work have been developed over the years with the contributions of linguistics and are brought together by Adrian Doff (1988: 137) as follows: Pair work is a

process in which “the teacher divides the whole class into pairs Every student works with

his or her partner in pairs, and all the pairs work at the same time (it is sometimes called

“simultaneous pair work”) This is not the same as “public” or “open” pair work, with pairs of students speaking in turn in front of the class.”

The definition of pair work in this case is an activity that gives students a chance to talk to each other practice language together, study a text, research language or take part in information gap activities

Generally, there are two main types of pair work, fixed pairs and flexible pairs, suggested by

Byrne (1983) The former is when the students work with the same partner in order to complete task of some kinds In this kind of pairs they will deeply understand each other and know the other‟s ability Meanwhile, in the later, the students keep changing the partners They can lift their chairs freely to talk to any partners they like This thus will make the activity more interesting

Obviously, pair work is one of the most successful ways of getting students to use the new language they have been taught

1.2.5.2 Group work

Beside the definition of pair work, Adrian Doff (1988:137) also defines group work as a

process that “the teacher divides the class into small groups to work together (four or five

students in each group), as in pair work, all the groups work at the same time.”

In groups, students can write a group story, role- play a situation, prepare a presentation, discuss an issue or come to a group decision

Clearly, group work is a co-operative activity, during which students share aims and responsibilities, they have chances for greater independence as they take some of their own learning decisions, without the teacher controlling every move, and they can work without the pressure of the whole class listening to what they are doing They learn to negotiate, to listen to different opinions and points of view They participate more equally and in most cases, they feel free to experiment and use the language

1.2.6 The activities in teaching speaking skills

Many researchers discuss classroom activities and a lot of activities are designed based on the theory and characteristics of CLT

Richards and Rodgers (1986:165) 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 objects of the curriculum, engage learners in communication and require the use of such communicative processes as information sharing, negotiation of the meaning and interaction

Klippel (1984), Doff (1988) and Harmer (1998) plan out a lot of communicative activities and games which can help learners achieve some degrees of communicative efficiency competence

1.2.6.1 Information gap activities

Sometimes, IGA can be employed to change the atmosphere in pair and group work This is one of the easiest and most interesting forms of communicative activity in the speaking class In order to get the most proficiency, the teacher can divide the class into pair or groups In each pair or each group, one acts as the asker, the other the answerer, let them discuss for a few minutes and they change the role IGA may take three forms: (1) One student has some information and the other has to find it by asking questions; (2) One student has some information and tells it to the other student; (3) Both students have different information and they tell each other Information gap activities serve many purposes such as solving a problem or collecting information Also, each partner plays an important role because the task cannot be completed if the partners do not provide the information the others need These activities are effective because everybody has the opportunity to talk extensively in the target language

1.2.6.2 Jigsaw activities

Jigsaw activities are more elaborate information gap activities that can be done with several partners In a jigsaw activity, each partner has one or a few pieces of the "puzzle," and the partners must cooperate to fit all the pieces into a whole picture The puzzle piece may take one of several forms It may be one panel from a comic strip or one photo from a set that tells a story It may be one sentence from a written narrative It may be a tape recording of a conversation, in which case no two partners hear exactly the same conversation

This structure controls the number of variables that students must deal with when they are first exposed to new material As they become comfortable, they can move on to true communicative output activities

1.2.6.3 Role play

Pattison (1987: 63) considers that most communication practices in the average foreign language classroom involve an element of role play because the speakers pretend that the

foreign language is their only means of communication In his definition, role play may involve assuming a partly or wholly different person, and/ or pretending to be in a different situation

Role play involves giving a role to one or more member of a group and assigning a purpose that participants must accomplish Simulations often involve a more complex structure and more members and all the members of the group work on an imaginary situation and solve a specific problem (Brown: 1994)

According to Harmer (2001) students may benefit a lot from this kind of activity as it simulates a real-life encounter as if they were doing so in the real world As for Harmer, role play can be used to encourage general oral fluency or train students for specific situations especially when they are studying ESP

1.2.6.4 Discussion

Discussion is one kind of speaking activity in which students are given a topic by the teacher (or they can choose their own one), then they have a set of time to discuss it In a discussion, students have a chance to think of the ideas and the language to express them Students often feel more confident and comfortable when talking about something with their friends in groups Harmer emphasizes that some discussions may happen in the middle of the lesson and they are not prepared for by the teacher but if encouraged they can provide some of the most enjoyable and productive speaking in the speaking class Harmer suggests that the best way of encouraging discussion is to provide activities which force students to reach a decision which is often the result of choosing between specific alternatives However, during

a discussion chaos may be an inevitable result and at the time the role of the teacher as a controller becomes very important

Discussion activities help learners practise what they have learned, find ways to achieve objectives such as solving a problem, ranking objects, procedures and so on Through discussion, learners can also develop conversational skills such as how to take turn, to change the topic of the conversation, to interrupt someone politely and so on Discussions in small groups also have some of the advantages as it does in role play activities such as putting shy learners to ease to feel like speaking, giving more opportunities for learners to speak, making learners more aware of their responsibility to group success

In summary, the activities presented in this section do not cover all the activities that teachers apply in the classroom However, communicative games, role plays and discussions can be exploited to over other speaking activities such as interviewing, problem-solving

tasks and so on and factors such as learners‟ interest, maturity and experience of learning and life should be paid enough attention to

1.3 Textbooks

1.3.1 Definitions of textbooks

Tomlinson (1998) defines a textbook as a book “which provides the core materials for a course” and which covers many issues in a single volume by taking into consideration all the points that students are required to learn during a course period Generally, such kind of a book includes four-skill activities, grammatical information, vocabulary studies, and different language functions

Matos (2000) reviewed the definition of the textbook in his article as Harries and Hodges (1995) stated “Textbook- a book used for instructional purposes, especially in schools and colleges” In most cases, textbooks represent the hidden curriculum of the language studies

in a certain program or country For this reason, they play an important role for obtaining information about the likely teaching and learning practices of a particular school, program

or institution (Richards, 1998)

According to Sheldon (1988), the selection of a textbook or textbook package is an important decision in language education as it is necessary to take into consideration such factors as ‘professional, financial, and political investment’ Additionally, Chambers (1997) states that it is not an easy process to select a suitable textbook, as many people may be involved in the selection procedure and different opinions may cause resistance for the use of any specific textbook Therefore, it might be useful to include all the teaching team in the textbook decision process

1.3.2 The roles of textbook in language program

English language instruction has many important components but the essential constituents

to many ESL/ EFL classrooms and programs are the textbooks and instruction materials that are often used by language instructors As Hutchinson and Torres (1994: 315) suggest,

“…no teaching-learning situation, it seems, is complete until it has its relevant textbook.” Other theorists such as Sheldon (1988: 237) agree with this observation and suggest that textbooks “represent the visible heart of any ELT program.” Besides, many authors believe textbooks are a starting point from which teachers are stimulated and provoked to create

lessons for their classes Cunningsworth (1984: 65) believes that published materials provide the initial framework, which must be adapted by each individual teacher to match the needs

of their students Later on (1995) he argues that they are an effective resource for directed learning, an effective resource for presentation material, a source of ideas and activities, and a reference source for students, a syllabus where they reflect predetermined

self-learning objectives, and support less experienced teachers who have yet to gain confidence

Moreover, Hutchinson and Torres (1994) have pointed out that textbooks may play a pivotal role in innovation They suggest that textbooks can support teachers through potentially disturbing and threatening change processes, demonstrate new and/or untried methodologies, introduce change gradually, and create scaffolding upon which teachers can build a more creative methodology of their own

Finally, according to Haycroft (1998), most important reward of using textbooks is that they are psychologically vital for students since their accomplishment can be measured concretely

when we use them

1.3.3 Previous studies related to the series of textbooks New Headway

Ranalli (2002) evaluated New Headway Upper-Intermediate, one of the course-books used

at the Foreign Language Institute of Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea According to Ranalli, the book concentrates on traditional approaches such as a clear focus on grammar with in-depth analysis and clarification through many exercises and reading material, yet it employs the “Communicative approaches” since students are required to work out rules individually and reflect upon their personal opinions He also states in his study “the speaking practice is so well integrated and the book can boast many opportunities for personalization” However, activities such as those above “do not actually teach how to organize conversation in English” (Cunningsworth, 1995: 70) The language input is useful and relevant although the language variety is not ideal He also questioned if there is enough speaking practice of a useful type He argued that while the discussions which predominate

in Headway are useful for developing fluency, an approach which incorporates speaking

sub-skills or strategies is warranted in the case of Korean learners

However, the weak point of the book can be overcome trough adaptation and supplementation

Raghdah Al-Madany investigates Saudi students‟ view of the English textbooks Headway

Series based on need analysis, in order to identify the students‟ needs and help them learn

the English language in a smooth way The results showed that there was a general satisfaction about the textbook The majority of the students agreed that the book covers the four major skills and it has multiple task and activities that encourage interaction among pair/ group work The students also agreed that the textbook presented everyday life situations and they enjoyed doing the tasks presented in the textbook

According to Zareva (-) in his study of Headway Elementary books, the textbooks take into

consideration the needs of its learners through developing their receptive and productive skills within a selection of context The authors have done a great job in making sure to engage learners in diverse tasks and multiple activities According to Zareva, the textbook raises English cultural awareness among students which develops their intercultural competence at the early stages of their language learning The textbook provide learners with knowledge about different cultures as they are being exposed to native and non-native English speakers in the textbook itself

1.4 Motivation

1.4.1 Definitions of motivation

There are some definitions of motivation that are defined by several famous researchers

According to Ellis (1997:75), “motivation involves the attitudes and effective states that

influence the degree of effort that learners make to learn an L2”

Dornyei (2001:7) stated “motivation explains why people decide to do something, how hard

they are going to pursues it and how long they are willing to sustain the activities”

Another theory on motivation can be seen from Littlewood‟s respective that “ in second

language learning as in every other field of human learning, motivation is the crucial force which determines whether a learner embarks on a task at all, how much energy he devotes to

it, and how long he preserves It is a complex phenomenon and includes many components: the individual’s drive, need for achievement and success, curiosity, desire for stimulation and new experience, and so on”

Gardner (1985:10) defined that “motivation in the present context refers to the combination

of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language plus favorable attitudes towards learning the language” In other words, motivation can be defined in terms of two

factors: learners‟ communicative need and their attitudes towards the second language community (Light brown & Nina Spada, 1999:56) It means that if learners need to speak the second language in a wide range of social situations or to fulfill professional ambitions, they

will perceive the communicative value of the second language and will therefore be motivated to acquire proficiency in it

1.4.2 The importance of motivation in foreign language learning

Motivation plays a very important role in teaching and learning as “positive attitudes and

motivation are related too success in second language learning” (Gardner, 1985) And

motivation is considered as “a key consideration in determining the preparedness of learners

to communicate” (Gardner, 1985:10)

Oxford & Shearin (1994) appreciate the role of motivation because “it determines the extent

of active, personal involvement in L2 learning”

Carroll (1962) further suggested the following critical factors in second language learning: aptitude, opportunity or method and motivation among which motivation predicted the

amount of time a learner would spend on the task of language learning She pointed out: “the

more motivation a learner has, the more time he or she will spend learning an aspect of a second language”

In short, motivation plays a vital part in developing language skills It can be considered as both the cause and the result of language learning achievement That is, learners who experience success in learning may become more or in some contexts, less motivated to learn (Ellis, 1997:75)

Chapter II: The study

2.1 Current situation of teaching and learning English at the HCIE

2.1.1 Description of the English course at the HCIE

Concerning the teaching and learning English at the HCIE, the students here have three years training in the College but they only have three semesters dealing with English with the total

of 180 periods The English course is divided into two stages In this study, the researcher only focus on the first stage

The first stage - Basic English for the first year students - lasts 150 periods and it is carried out in two semesters This stage aims at providing students with general knowledge of English grammar, vocabulary as well as developing students‟ four language skills At this

very first stage, the textbook NH Pre by John and Liz Soars is used with the hope that we

can develop the students‟ communicative competence and the students can learn the real things from daily life

At the end of each semester, students are assessed based on a written test of reading and writing skills only As a result, many students and even teachers are 'examination-oriented' They spend time developing reading and writing skills while 'ignoring' listening and speaking skills

2.1.2 Description of the 1 st year students at the HCIE

Like students of other colleges and universities, the students of the HCIE may come from all parts of the country: big cities, provinces and mountainous areas Their age ranges from 18

to over 20 Students of the HCIE do not have the same level of English language proficiency Few of them have learned English for 7 years at secondary and high schools some have only learned English for 3 years and some others have never learned English Students from big cities seem to be better; however, they are only good at grammar, not speaking or listening They can do grammatical exercises very quickly and well but they cannot speak fluently and most of them do not feel confident in communicating in English

When studying English at the HCIE, most of the students want to enhance listening and speaking skills on one hand and develop their English for Economics on the other hand with the hope that they can use English as a useful tool in their career

2.1.3 Description of the teachers at the HCIE

If students are the most important factor in the learning process, teachers are the most important factor in the teaching process At the HCIE, there are 10 teachers of English language aged from 25 to 43 but only none of them have ever been to English speaking countries 7 out of 10 full-time teachers of English at the HCIE were trained at Hanoi Foreign language Teacher training College, one of the teachers – the former teacher of Russian– finished an in-service course of English, one teacher graduated from Hanoi Foreign Language College and one teacher graduated from Hanoi Open University Half of the teachers have been teaching English for over 5 years and have acquired certain pedagogical competence However, the method of teaching, which is applied by most of the teachers at this college, is a very traditional one- the Grammar Translation method Other methods are rarely used

2.2 Design and methodology

2.2.1 Subjects of the study

The study was conducted in the HCIE Data was collected from 100 first year students and

10 teachers of English at the HCIE There will be a sample accompanied within the research

2.2.2 Instruments of data collection

The main instruments, which I have used in this study to collect data, are questionnaires, interviews and class observation

2.2.2.1 Questionnaires

Questionnaires for both students and teachers generally comprise a combination of open –end questions, providing balance between depth and authenticity of information and fixed- option data, which are more easily quantifiable

The survey for students was written in Vietnamese and included two parts The first part investigates their attitudes towards speaking skills The second part deals with their opinion about the speaking skills in the book in different aspects

Teacher survey questionnaires, on the other hand, enabled to collect teachers‟ opinions about the quality as well as practicality of the textbook

2.2.2.2 Interviews

Beside questionnaires, interviews are regarded as a useful tool for collecting data in second language acquisition research The interview method was selected to confirm the information gather from the questionnaires,

In order to obtain more in-depth data, ten students and five teachers were selected randomly among the respondents for a structured interview These students were asked in Vietnamese and they answered the interview questions also in Vietnamese This was to guarantee the truthfulness of the information in case the students were not confident enough in answering

in English or they may got confused in understanding the interview questions and in giving answers to the asked questions

2.2.2.3 Class observation

Classroom observations seemed to be very effective in evaluating the textbook in reality as they were used in authentic teaching and learning contexts They were carried out in different classes in the first and second semesters

The researcher carried out classroom observations by visiting 5 classes The observation checklists for communicative class were made and after class, the elements in the checklist were given assessment The checklist includes three criteria

2.3.1.1 Questionnaire for the students

2.3.1.1.1 The attitudes of students at the HCIE towards speaking skills in ELT

It can be calculated that most of the respondents (71%) suppose speaking is an important skill while only 4% of them answer speaking skills are not important at all and 25% of them state they are a little important It is easily realized that only 22 % of the respondents feel interested in speaking skills in class whereas 63% answer that they do not feel interested in speaking at all 15% of the respondents feel little interested

Also from the collected data, an uninteresting fact is that only 35% of the respondents state that they speak English willingly, while the percentage of the informants who feel reluctant

to speak accounts for 65%

Question 3 Do you feel reluctant to speak in class?

A Yes, often B Yes, sometimes

C No, I like speaking very much

D No, I speak willingly

38% 27% 20% 15%

Table 1: Students’ attitudes towards speaking skills in ELT

In short, it can be concluded that most of the students suppose speaking skills are necessary However, the majority of the respondents are not interested in speaking and the same number of the learners feels reluctant to speak English in class So the question raised here is what teachers should do in class to make learners more interested in speaking

2.3.1.1.2 The attitudes of students at the HCIE towards the speaking skills

in the textbook NH Pre

More than a half of the students (68%) said that they were not satisfied with the speaking skills lessons in the class None of them felt very satisfied but 32 % of the students have shown good attitudes towards the speaking lessons

Questions Options

Question 4 Are you satisfied with speaking lessons in

the class?

A Not very dissatisfied B Not satisfied

C Satisfied D Very satisfied

15% 53% 32% 0%

Table 2: Students’ attitudes towards speaking skills in the textbook NH Pre

To understand well about the students‟ attitudes towards the speaking skills lessons, the researcher asked the students about their opinions about contents of the topics, the activities and the time of the lessons in the class

18% of the respondents said that the topics were quite suitable but 17% of respondents answered that they were interesting but not suitable with them; only 5% thought that they were suitable with their ability and 60% of them said they were too difficult

Figure 1: Students’ attitudes towards speaking topics

In terms of the students’ opinion about the speaking activities, 11% of the students said that they were very interesting and suitable with their levels and they were interesting but difficult for 48% of students However, 16% of the students felt it boring and 25% of them said that they were too difficult for their level so they could not meet the teachers’

requirements

Figure 2: Students’ attitudes towards speaking activities

The thing that the researcher concerned about is how the students took part in activities in speaking lessons The result shows that only 3 % of the students were enthusiastically involved; 50 % of them only spoke when the teacher asked them and 15% were not very enthusiastic 32 % of the students said that they were very shy to take part in the activities