Using debates topics to increase students’ participation in English classes at National Economic Technical College

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 2.1: Students’ profiles Table 3.1: The degrees of students’ participation before the experiment Table 3.2: Students’ purposes of learning English Table 3

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 2.1: Students’ profiles

Table 3.1: The degrees of students’ participation before the experiment

Table 3.2: Students’ purposes of learning English

Table 3.3: Students’ learning styles in the two classes

Table 3.4: Students’ levels of participation before and after the experiment Figure 3.1: Students’ levels of participation in group discussion in Class KT1A Figure 3.2: Students’ level of participation in group discussion in Class KT1B Figure 3.3: Students’ levels of participation in debating in Class KT1A

Figure 3.4: Students’ levels of participation in debating in Class KT1B

Figure 3.5: Students’ levels of participation before the experiment Figure 3.6: Students’ levels at the end of the experiment

ABBREVIATIONS

NETC: National Economic Technical College

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

ESL: English as Second Language

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

The first chapter of this thesis is to introduce the rationale, the aims of the study as well as the research questions which the study was to carry out to find out the answers It also presents the scope of the study, an overview of the methods employed to conduct the research, the significance of the study as well as its design

1 Rationale of the study

As a foreign language in Vietnam, English is learned seriously by many people to have a good prospect in the community of the international world Recently, English becomes a universal language which is very important to be mastered well

There are four English skills to learn, namely speaking, reading, writing, and listening skill Speaking seems intuitively the most important skill to master because by mastering speaking skill, people can give ideas and exchange information with others Hence, in speaking English classes learners should work and participate in the lessons as much as possible Students’ participation is worth being studied as it plays a very important role in studying and teaching efficiency

At NETC, like at many colleges and universities in Vietnam, English has been a compulsory subject in its curriculum for many years and speaking is an important skill However, it seems that students do not pay much attention to speaking They are often not very motivated and eager to take part in speaking activities

For these above reasons, the researcher has decided to write this thesis with the aim of increasing students’ involvement in speaking lessons There are many activities to make students engage including role play, games, problem-solving, songs and discussion (Fauziati, 2008: 122) In addition, there is a new technique which is also used in teaching speaking This

is debate technique Debate is the process of inquiry and advocacy, a new way of arriving at a reasoned judgment on a proposition (Freeley, 2000: 4) An individual may use debate to reach

a decision in his own mind; alternatively, individuals or groups may use it to bring others around to their way of thinking In this case, the writer would like to use debate technique to

increase students’ involvement in the research entitled USING DEBATE TOPICS TO INCREASE STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING CLASSES AT NATIONAL ECONOMIC TECHNICAL COLLEGE (NETC)

2 Aims of the study

This study is aimed at:

 Investigating the current situation of teaching and learning speaking English at NETC

to see how actively the second year Accounting students involved in oral activities and what accounts for the degree of their involvement

 Investigating the effectiveness of using debate topics in increasing students’ participation in speaking English classes at NETC

 Proposing some suggestions to use debate topics effectively to intensify students’

participation in speaking lessons

3 Research questions

To reach the aims of the study, the two research questions are addressed:

(1) How actively are the second year Accounting students at NETC involved in oral activities in the class, and what accounts for the degree of their involvement?

(2) How effective is the use of debate topics in increasing students’ participation in English speaking lessons?

4 Scope of the study

This research has a broader scope and it is impossible for the writer to handle all problems Therefore, the writer limits the scope of the research There are many ways to intensify students’ participation in speaking activities However, in this study, the researcher only focuses on debate technique that is used for teaching English speaking to the second year students The subject of the research is limited to English teachers and the second year Accounting students at NETC 2010 – 2011 academic year

5 Methods of the study

The study was a quasi-experiment using both quantitative and qualitative methods That is, the data serving the research analysis and discussion were collected by means of:

6 Significance of the study

In this study, the researcher hopes to give a small contribution to help readers understand the use of debate technique in teaching and learning process The teachers and learners can realize the effectiveness of this technique in increasing students’ participation in speaking English lessons

The writer also expects that her findings could be used by other researchers to open further analysis of debate technique

7 Design of the study

The study is divided into three parts as follows:

Part 1 presents a general introduction of the study including the rationale, the aims, the

research questions, the method, the scope, the significance and the design of the study

Part 2 presents the development of the study including four chapters

Chapter 1 is underlying theory It delivers previous study and theoretical review Chapter 2 is research method It presents background information, methods and

procedure of the study

Chapter 3 is research result and discussion This chapter discusses the results or

findings of using debate topics in teaching English speaking to the second year Accounting students at NETC

Chapter 4 suggests what both teachers of English and students at NETC should and

shouldn’t do in order to get the most benefit from using debate technique to increase the students’ participation in speaking lessons

Part 3 is the conclusion of the study It gives the limitations of the study and some suggestions

for further researches

PART 2: THE STUDY CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter consists of three sections Section one deals with the issue of teaching speaking Section two concerns some concepts of increasing students’ participation Section three focuses on the debate technique

1 1 Notion of speaking skill

1.1.1 Definitions of speaking

Speaking is one of four necessary skills to use a language successfully According to Chaney (1998:13), speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non – verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” (as cited in Kayi, 2006) Fowler & Thompson (2000) share the same view that speaking is “the action of conveying information

or expressing one’s thoughts and feelings in spoken language” This definition confirms that speaking is a process because it contains speakers’ thoughts and feelings

Orwig (1999) defines speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode It is complicated and involves more than just pronouncing words W.F Mackey also agrees that oral skill “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.” (quoted from Bygate, M., 1987:5)

In conclusion, speaking is the ability to perform the linguistic knowledge in actual communication It functions to express one’s idea, feeling, thought and needs orally

 Grammar concerns with how to arrange to correct sentences in conversation The utility of grammar is to learn the correct way to gain expertise in a language both in oral and written form

 Vocabulary means the appropriate diction which is used in conversation Without having a sufficient vocabulary, one can’t communicate effectively

 Fluency and accuracy: Fluency can be defined as the ability to speak fluently and accurately suited with professional necessity Basically, being fluent means being able

to keep the language coming

Richards, Platt and Weber (1985) state that Communicative Competence includes:

 Knowledge of grammar and vocabulary of the language

 Knowledge of rules of speaking (e.g knowing how to begin and end conversations, knowing what topics can be talked about in different types of speech event, knowing which address, forms should be used with different people and in different situations

 Knowing how to use and respond to different types of speech acts such as requests, apologies, thanks and invitations

 Knowing how to use language appropriately (quoted from Nunan 1999: 226)

1.1.3 Methods and techniques of teaching speaking

In teaching speaking, speaking lessons can follow the usual pattern of preparation, presentation, practice, evaluation, and extension The teacher can use the preparation step to establish a context for the speaking task (where, when , why, and with whom it will occur) and

to initiate awareness of the speaking skill to be target (asking for clarification, stressing key words, using reduced forms of words) In presentation, the teacher can provide learners with a preproduction model that furthers learners’ comprehension and helps them become more attentive observers of language use Practice involves learners in reproducing the targeted structure, usually in a controlled or highly supported manner Evaluation involves directing attention to the skill being examined and asking learners to monitor and assess their own progress Finally, extension consists of activities that ask learners to use the strategy or skill in

a different context of authentic communicative situation, or to integrate use of the new skill or strategy with previously acquired ones (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997; Carter & McCarthy, 1995)

Various ways have been used as the method of teaching and learning speaking English There are traditional ways of teaching by using traditional tools (book, chalks, blackboard or whiteboard) and the newer and modern method by using the modern tools such as realia, real object, pictures, music, etc

In term of teaching technique, Fauziati (2002:6) describes that technique is classroom practice done by the teacher when presenting a language program This is the way the classroom activities are integrated into lessons and used as the basis for teaching learning Some techniques often used in speaking class are discussions, information gap, storytelling, games, interviews, dialogues, story completion, reporting, and debate technique

1.2 Students’ participation

1.2.1 Concept of students’ participation

Students’ participation can be identified in terms of three kinds of interaction: students to their teacher, students to students, and students to material

The interaction between students and their teacher includes care, contact, and cooperation between them in the class Students who have a good interaction with their teacher always join the class discussion, support and act as their teacher requires Moreover, they ask for more information or explanation, perform an activity voluntarily, share personal experience relating

to the topics being discussed to show that they involve in what is happening in the class Thus, participation not only means attending the class regularly and on time but also taking part in the lesson actively

The interaction between students and students is set up through their discussion in small groups A good interaction involves their cooperation and contribution to the task given Whenever students feel pleasant and comfortable in groups, they will do their best to complete the task

Students’ participation also includes the interaction between students and material Obviously, students will be more active and pay more attention to the lesson if they are interested in the material or the task given In other words, good and interesting materials can get students to involve in the lesson

In short, students’ participation is concerned with their activeness in the lesson, their success

in completing the class activities and their interaction to what is happening in the class

1.2.2 Factors affecting students’ participation in the class

From the description of students’ participation in the previous section, we can see that students’ participation depends on different interactions in classroom Hence, in order to involve students in communicative activities, it is essential to understand the factors affecting students’ participation

 Students’ learning styles

According to Willing (1995, cited in Nunan 1988:93), learners’ styles can be classified into four types:

 Concrete learners: they preferred learning by games, pictures, films and

videos, talking in pairs and learning through the use of cassettes

 Analytical learners: these learners liked studying grammar, studying English

books, finding their own mistakes, and learning through reading newspapers

 Communicative learners: they liked to learn by observing and listening to

native speakers, talking to friends in English and learning English wherever possible

 Authority-oriented learners: they liked the teacher to explain everything,

writing everything in their notebooks, having their own textbooks, learning to read, studying grammar, and learning English words by seeing them

 Students’ motivations

It is all known that motivation is strongly related to achievement in language learning

in the way it decides learners’ success or failure Motivation, according to Brown (1987), is an inner drive, impulse, emotion, or desire that encourages one to do a particular action Teachers, therefore, should know and realize the source of students’ motivation, both instrumental and integrative to meet specific needs as well as to “actively push learners to realize their full potential and make maximum progress.” (Ur, 1996:273)

 Teaching techniques

It is obvious that different teaching techniques create different degrees of students’ participation in the lesson Techniques which focus on grammatical and phonological accuracy like choral repetition, drilling substitution, content explanation will result in learners’ passiveness and limit their participation in learning In contrast, techniques that involve students in communicative activities such as role-play, problem-solving, debating, etc can encourage students to participate in the lesson

 Teachers’ personal qualities and characteristics

In order to involve students in the lesson, Barry (1993) points out some characteristics a teacher should have as follows:

 Being natural: if the teacher behaves naturally, the relationship between him

and his students will be closer, which increases students’ participation in the lesson

 Being warm: this makes students easy to express themselves in the lesson

 Being pleasant: this characteristic will make the classroom’s atmosphere

relaxing and interesting, which of course increases students’ involvement

 Being tolerant: the teacher should be fair and consistent with all students so

that he can encourage all of his students to participate in the lesson

It is pointed out that no teacher has all characteristics and personal qualities listed above However, they can help much in enhancing students’ participation in the class activities

1.3 Debate

1.3.1 Definitions of debate

Generally, debate or debating is a formal method of interactive and representational argument Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examines consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examines what is or isn’t the case or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion A debate has been described as a form of argument that

“has strict rules of conduct and quite sophisticated arguing techniques” (ACT Debating Union Inc, 1996) It must have a topic that has scope for argument, i.e there must be at least two sides to the topic

According to Mabrur (2002:5), debate is technique which involves two or more speakers, discussing certain topics; giving their opinions, thoughts, and facts; then giving respond to relevant questions or comments from others in the class

Debate can be implemented as the alternative way to teach speaking Debate is different from other techniques In debate, the students are given some topics to be discussed One or two students of them presents their opinions and facts concerning the topics The next step, he gives response to the questions and comments from his friends in the class

1.3.2 Steps for classroom debating

The steps of using debate topics in English speaking classrooms are:

a The teacher grows controversial question which is related with material

b The teacher divides the class into some groups PRO and CONTRA

c The teacher asks the students to develop argument each position and choose one of them become speaker

d The speaker of each group goes forward to present their argument

e After listening argument of each group, the students prepare opposition argument from their opposition group and choose the new speaker

f The speaker mutual gives opposition argument

g The debate finishes without determining who won the debate

h The whole class discusses what is learned from that experience

i The teacher asks the students to identify the best argument

1.3.3 Advantages and disadvantages of using debate topics in teaching speaking

 Advantages

According to one educator (Lybbert, 1985), the debate discipline has three goals: (1) the enhancement of critical thinking and reasoning abilities; (2) academic advancement or development; and (3) the promotion of communication skills

Nisbett (2003) declares: "Debate is an important educational tool for learning analytic thinking skills and for forcing self-conscious reflection on the validity of one's ideas (210)." Sodikaw (1985) believes that debate helps students develop the emotional maturity to win and lose graciously; acquire the necessary social skills to work with a colleague and compete against other students; and use spoken English in an increasingly sophisticated way

Debating is also a teaching strategy that provides a framework for students to explore and develop a range of views over an issue Debating encourages students to

 Improve the quality of their responses as they are provided with thinking time and they can build upon their own ideas

 Stay on task as they have to present their ideas and listen to their peer

 Present their views to an authentic audience

 Develop co-operative learning skills

 Develop research skills

 Formulate an argument

 Explore a variety of views

(http://education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/english/literacy/strategies/tsvels3speak.htm)

Krieger (2005) acknowledges the usefulness of debate in language learning because it

“engages students in a variety of cognitive and linguistic ways” Teachers often use the debate

to effectively increase students’ involvement and participation during tutorial/seminar sessions Fukuda (2003), in a debate study conducted with Japanese students, found that

“Before the debates only 30.8% of the students were not afraid of expressing their opinions when they were not the same as others’ After the debate this figure rose to 56.7%.”

In addition, debating represents a great opportunity to encourage discussion and break the ice

in a classroom Because no one is required to speak, participants' anxiety is usually low and allows for a free-flowing discussion that encourages creativity and natural speaking skills It involves all the students and they can't afford to sleep on the back seats because they know they will wreck the lesson if they do

According to Marcin (2007), the advantage of debate over discussion is that former offers a structured forum, with a clear division of roles and speaking time, which forces all participants

to express their views rather than these who are more articulate and outspoken

In short, the strengths of debate implementation are: interest the students, train the students to cooperate well with other friends, train the students to express their opinions, increase students’ readiness to present the argument, and improve their speaking ability

 Disadvantages

Tumposky cautions that debate can ultimately compromise and distort the process of learning, e.g., students can work to be effective in influencing the thinking of others at the expense of being accurate Another limitation in debate is that it can cause frustration and anxiety in some learners

The other weaknesses of debate implementation are:

 Debate is only used for certain subjects especially in speaking subject

 The implementation of debate needs long time

 Debate can make the students emotional in defending their argument Sometimes, the students are very emotion in expressing their argument, moreover, if they must defend their stand or opinion which is in contradiction with theirs

 Teacher gets difficulties in controlling the debate implementation

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter gives a thorough description of how the research was carried out, including six steps: 1) Reviewing the research questions; 2) Determining on the study design; 3) Describing the setting of the study; 4) Selecting subjects; 5) Describing the experiment; 6) Data collecting and procedures The details are going to be presented as follows

2.1 Reviewing the research questions

One objective of the study is to investigate the techniques and activities are often used by the teachers at NETC, then to relate the teachers’ techniques to their students’ participation Therefore the first question to be addressed is “How actively are the second year Accounting students at NETC involved in oral activities, and what accounts for the degree of their involvement?”

Based on what has been found, the main content of the study focuses on the impact of the debate technique, which was tested at NETC The purpose of the experiment is to find out whether there are more students participating in the lesson after the treatment of this technique

in comparison with the number of students’ participation before Therefore, the second question is “Does the use of debate technique increase students’ participation in English speaking lessons?”

2.2 A Quasi-Experimental Research

This research was a quasi-experimental study, using classroom observations ‘before’ and ‘at the end’ of the experiment, questionnaire and interviews with both teachers of English and the second year students of Accounting Faculty at NETC

Like experiments, quasi-experiments, as pointed out by Nunan (1992), are carried out so as to explore the strengths of relationship between variables which do not remain consistent In this study, it is the relationship between two independent variables: the two classes and the use of the debate technique in which the two classes were the organismic variable and the technique

was the experimental variable, and another dependent variable: the level of participation in the classroom oral activities among the second year Accounting students at NETC

One problem that is often mentioned in any types of experiment is the validity due to the lack

of random assignment including both internal validity which is the minimum control necessary

to interpret the results and external validity which deals with the extent of generalizability of the results (Wiersma: 1995) In the study, in order to gain the validity the two classes were separately experimented with debate technique The teachers teaching the two classes during the experiment had also taught these two classes in the previous term to ensure that the experiment would be carried out properly The researcher was the observer who met and discussed with the two teachers before the experiment to overcome the difficulties they might face during the experiment After the experiment, the degrees of participation in each class before and at the end of the experiment were compared and then some conclusions were drawn out about the relationship between the use of the technique and the level of the participation in the classroom speaking activities of the second year Accounting students at NETC So as to gain more validity, the researcher asked another teacher of English for help during the classroom observations before and at the end of the experiment For each stage, the researcher took the average amount of the students’ ‘time-on-task’ and ‘time-off-task’ The researcher also asked this teacher to note down necessary information accounting for students’ levels of participation that could be used in the data analysis

In this way, possible representativeness and generalizability may be argued on a logical basis and the findings may be more valid and reliable

2.3 The current situation of English learning and teaching at NETC

NETC is a quite new college, which trains business administrators, electronic engineers and accountants The faculty of English just has 4 teachers all of whom are quite young Two of them graduated from Hanoi University of Education 2 years ago and are following an MA course at Post-graduate Department of Hanoi University of Foreign Languages and International Studies They have just had two-year experience of teaching English The others have Master Degrees and have taught English for about 7 years

At NETC, English is one of compulsory subjects for all students; however, it is not a major one The English class often ranges from 40 to 50 students Students have to study English as

a means of communication during 4 semesters with 75 periods for basic English and 75 periods for English specific purposes By the end of the course, students are expected to be able to communicate in English at pre-intermediate level Therefore, English is taught according to CLT, in which all four language skills: speaking, reading, listening and writing are focused

The textbooks used during the course are the New Headway series (elementary to intermediate level) (Liz and John Soars, 1999), and Market Leader (pre-intermediate) (David Cotton, David Falvey and Simon Kent, 2007)

pre-2.4 Selecting subjects

The term ‘subject’ is used to mean someone who participates in an experiment, who receives experimental treatments In this study, the subjects are 90 second year Accounting students at NETC The students’ profiles are illustrated in table 2.1

No and Percentage of students

Table 2.1: Students’ profiles (Total number of students: 90)

Along with the students are 4 teachers: Two were directly responsible for carrying out the experiment as they were the teachers of the two classes; the others were the researcher and another teacher of English who observed the two classes before and at the end of the experiment

2.5 The experiment

Subjects in the experiment were at 2 classes named KT1A and KT1B In order to gain the validity, the experiment was conducted separately on the two classes The procedures of the experiment can be described as follows:

 First, the researcher and another teacher in turn observed the two classes in four lessons to be aware of the degrees of the students’ participation before the experiment, using the observation sheets suggested by Wajnryb (1992) The degrees of participation were measured in terms of their ‘time-on-task’ and ‘time-off-task’

 Second, a survey questionnaire was distributed among the students of the two classes

to find out more about the factors that might affect their participation in classroom speaking activities

 Then five students in each class were randomly chosen and interviewed to know more about the related factors

 After that, the researcher met and discussed with the teachers of the two classes to know about their evaluations of the students’ participation, their techniques and activities they often used to increase the students’ participation

Then with the help of the two teachers, the researcher began to carry out the experiment on the two classes which lasted in 4 weeks from 2/4/2011-2/5/2011 (4 periods/a week)

After 4 weeks of the experiment:

 The researcher and another teacher in turn attended and observed the two classes in 4 lessons, using the observation sheets by Wajnryb (1992), noting down the students’ participation in terms of their ‘time-on-task’ and ‘time-off-task’

 Then the researcher chose and interviewed randomly five students in each class to know their attitudes towards the technique, which would help confirm the results obtained through the classroom observations

 The researcher also met and interviewed the two teachers of these classes to know about their evaluations, attitudes when using this technique to increase the students’ participation

In brief, the experiment can be summarized as follows:

Class KT1A: O1 _X _O2

Class KT1B: O3 _X _O4

O1: the degree of the participation before the experiment of Class KT1A

O2: the degree of the participation at the end of the experiment of Class KT1A

O3: the degree of the participation before the experiment of Class KT1B

O4: the degree of the participation at the end of the experiment of Class KT1B

X: Debate Technique

By comparing variables O1, O2, O3, and O4, there can be considerable results for the study

2.6 Data collection procedures

The data of the research were collected by means of classroom observations, questionnaires and follow-up interviews

2.6.1 Classroom observation (appendix 1)

The researcher and another teacher in turn attended the two classes before and at the end of the experiment, noting down the students’ participation in classroom speaking activities which was measured by their ‘time-on-task’ and ‘time-off-task’ using the observation sheets suggested by Wajnryb (1992) The data collected before the experiment would be used to compare with those of the post experiment to find out whether the use of the debate technique would be helpful in increasing the students’ involvement in speaking English lessons

2.6.2 Student questionnaire (appendix 2)

90 students of the two classes were invited to responds to the questionnaire before the experiment concerning the factors affecting their participation in speaking activities All the questions aim to investigate the factors originating from the teachers’ side and the students’ side

2.6.3 Follow-up interviews

2.6.3.1 Before the experiment

 The teacher interview (appendix 3)

The researcher interviewed the two teachers about the factors affecting the students’ participation, their evaluations on the students’ participation, the techniques and activities they often used to encourage more students’ involvement

 The student interview (appendix 4)

Ten students from the two classes were chosen and interviewed randomly, which helped to clarify the data obtained from the classroom observations and questionnaire

2.6.3.2 After the experiment

 The teacher interview (appendix 5)

The two teachers responsible for teaching the two classes during the experiment were interviewed to give their comments, evaluations, and their attitudes towards the application of debate technique to increase the students’ participation

 The student interview (appendix 6)

Ten students were randomly chosen from the two classes and interviewed to give their evaluation on their level of participation, attitudes towards the technique they were taught in the last four weeks

2.7 Analyzing and processing the data

After having been collected, the data of the study were divided in groups based on certain categories serving the purposes of the analysis The data of the study were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively As for the quantitative analysis, the statistics on amount of

‘time-on-task’ and ‘time-off-task’ observed will be presented in form of figures As regards qualitative analysis, the change of students’ participation level will be interpreted in terms of students and teachers’ attitudes toward the use of this technique

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

This chapter, including two sections: data analysis and discussion on the findings, presents an attempt to answer the two research questions:

(1) How actively are the second year Accounting students at NETC involved in oral activities in the class, and what accounts for the degree of their involvement?

(2) Does the use of debate technique increase students’ participation in English speaking lessons?

3.1 Some general assessments before the experiment and factors affecting the students’ participation in classroom speaking activities

3.1.1 Students’ levels of participation in classroom speaking activities

Before the experiment, the researcher and another teacher in turn observed the two classes in four speaking periods Then the researcher took the average amount of the students’ ‘time-on-task’ and ‘time-off-task’ used for the data analysis In all four lessons, the two teachers followed their traditional routines The following is the description of one lesson in both classes:

 Class: KT1A and KT1B

 Number of students in each class: 45

 Time: 45 minutes in which 20 minutes for speaking activities

 Lesson content: Planning for economic development

 Speaking activity: Discuss threats and opportunities for economic development in Vietnam

The procedure used by the teachers can be summarized as follows:

After a reading part about Striving for historic city’s dream, the teachers spent 20 minutes for speaking First, they announced the topic and asked the students to discuss it in groups of four

or five The teacher went round the class to help the students with vocabulary Then after

about 10 minutes, the teachers invited some students to stand up and present their group’s ideas Finally, the teachers gave comments on each production The results of the observations before the experiment can be illustrated as follows:

Table 3.1: The degrees of students’ participation before the experiment

With the statistics in Table 3.1 obtained by observing the two classes it is obvious that the level of participation in classroom speaking activities of the second year Accounting students

at NETC before the experiment was not very high The percentage of the students ‘on-task’ in Class KT1A and KT1B accounted for approximately on third of the total time in each class During the classroom observations, the researcher also found out that only a few of students worked seriously and enthusiastically when they were asked to discuss the topic Actually, most of the discussions lasted for a few minutes and then students did something else instead

of focusing on their work On being interviewed about the evaluations on the students’ participation, both teachers directly responsible for teaching the two classes agreed with what the researcher had found The result from the questionnaire also showed that most of students (75%) admitted that they just speak in English speaking lesson when the teachers assigned them to do Some students kept silent and some of them chatted with each other in Vietnamese when the teacher wasn’t with their group

In conclusion, the students’ participation in classroom speaking activities was quite poor, which affected their learning results So it is urgent to find out teaching techniques to increase their participation However, in order to have suitable teaching techniques, the researcher must understand the factors that might have negative effects on students’ involvement

3.1.2 Factors affecting students’ participation

It is necessary to discuss some factors that affect students’ motivation in participation The factors affecting students’ participation in the process of learning will be discussed in terms of: 1) Students’ motivations and learning styles; 2) The teachers’ techniques and activities

3.1.2.1 Students’ motivations and learning styles

Students’ motivations play an important role in deciding the level of their participation in class activities Therefore, by identifying the students’ motivations of learning English and their learning styles, the researcher will find out the degree of students’ willingness to take part in classroom activities as well as the reasons why there is little participation in these classes

Table 3.2: Students’ purposes of learning English

In table 3.2 , the data show that English is one of the compulsory subjects in the college and it

is easy to understand why students learns English to pass the final exam and get good marks The high percentage in these two categories (92 % and 41 %) reveals that they have low

motivation in learning speaking English because there is no examination for that All of exams mainly focus on vocabulary and grammar With low level of interest in this subject, it can be inferred that they may not actively take part in class activities This fact would appear to suggest that as the students’ motivation is low, the job of motivating students in learning speaking English burdens the teachers and requires them to find appropriate teaching

Concrete learners Communicative

learners

Authority – oriented learners

Table 3.3: Students’ learning styles in the two classes

In table 3.3, it can be seen that the learning styles vary from students to students who have different reasons for learning While speaking is an important skill so that students can communicate well, the number of communicative learners (13 %) is very small Whereas, the majority of students (39 %) in both two groups belong to the type of authority-oriented learners, who always expect teachers to explain everything for them

In conclusion, students’ motivations and learning styles proved that students in both classes were not highly motivated in learning Speaking English

3.1.2.2 The teachers’ techniques in the two classes

Teachers’ interesting teaching techniques and activities will encourage students to take part more in the class When interviewed, teachers shared that they regularly use discussion in speaking lessons According to the teachers of the two classes, discussion gives students a chance to talk about different issues Moreover, discussion is one kind of task in the textbook that Accounting students have to cover However, teachers complained that their students were not very eager to take part in discussion They often spent time working in groups to talk in Vietnamese or do something else instead of discussing the topics 64% of students showed the reason in the questionnaire that topics do not interest them Some of the topics were quite boring and students didn’t want to discuss them Other reasons including students’ shyness, lack of vocabulary and grammar were chosen by the rest of the students Besides, other activities like role-play or giving presentation were rarely used by teachers in speaking English lessons

After the analysis of the factors affecting the participation in classroom speaking activities among the second year students at NETC, it can be concluded that the degree of students’ participation was quite low because of many reasons which came from the students and the teachers As for the students’ side, the reasons were learning styles and motivation With regard to the teachers, it was teaching techniques In speaking lessons, teachers’ activities did not vary and topics of discussions were not very interesting to students With a view to increasing the students’ participation, debate technique was used This is not a new technique but the application of it to encourage students’ involvement in classroom speaking activities is totally new

3.2 Students’ participation at the end of the experiment

After a month of the experiment, the researcher attended and observed the two classes again to judge their levels of participation in oral activities and noted down considerable reasons accounting for their levels of involvement that would be used for the data analysis The researcher also interviewed both teachers and students to know their attitudes and evaluations towards the technique as well as their recommendations to maximize the benefits of the

technique