A survey on the attitudes of grade 10 english majored students at bien hoa specialized high school towards their teachers’ uses of online materials to improve their speaking skill

The study was thus conducted with the aim of exploring the students‟ attitudes towards their teachers‟ uses of supplementary online materials to improve their English speaking skill.. Th

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

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

ĐOÀN HỒNG ANH

A SURVEY ON THE ATTITUDES OF GRADE 10

ENGLISH-MAJOR STUDENTS AT BIEN HOA SPECIALIZED HIGH SCHOOL TOWARDS THEIR TEACHERS’ USES OF ONLINE MATERIALS TO IMPROVE THEIR SPEAKING SKILL

(NGHIÊN CỨU KHẢO SÁT VỀ THÁI ĐỘ CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10 CHUYÊN ANH TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN BIÊN HÕA ĐỐI VỚI VIỆC GIÁO VIÊN SỬ DỤNG NHỮNG TÀI LIỆU TRÊN INTERNET ĐỂ NÂNG CAO KĨ NĂNG NÓI

CHO HỌC SINH)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Hanoi, 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

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

ĐOÀN HỒNG ANH

A SURVEY ON THE ATTITUDES OF GRADE 10

ENGLISH-MAJOR STUDENTS AT BIEN HOA SPECIALIZED HIGH SCHOOL TOWARDS THEIR TEACHERS’ USES OF ONLINE MATERIALS TO IMPROVE THEIR SPEAKING SKILL

(NGHIÊN CỨU KHẢO SÁT VỀ THÁI ĐỘ CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10 CHUYÊN ANH TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN BIÊN HÕA ĐỐI VỚI VIỆC GIÁO VIÊN SỬ DỤNG NHỮNG TÀI LIỆU TRÊN INTERNET ĐỂ NÂNG CAO KĨ NĂNG NÓI

CHO HỌC SINH)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: TÔ THỊ THU HƯƠNG, PhD

Hanoi, 2016

DECLARATION

I, Doan Hong Anh, hereby declare that the thesis entitled: “A survey on the attitudes of grade 10 English-major students at Bien Hoa Specialized High School towards their teachers‟ uses of online materials to improve their speaking skill” is the result of my own research in the fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Moreover, this thesis has not been submitted anywhere for any degree

Hanam, 2016

Đoàn Hồng Anh

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my affectionate and deeply-felt gratitude to my supervisor, TO THI THU HUONG, PhD for her invaluable assistance, inspiration

as well as guidance during the time I tried to accomplish this thesis

I owe my sincere thanks to all the lecturers in Postgraduate Department of University of Languages and International studies for their precious lectures and ideas

Moreover, I would like to send my thanks to the teachers and students at Bien Hoa Specialized High School for their enthusiastic cooperation in this study

Finally, I am also deeply indebted to my family who has supported me vigorously Their great love and encouragement have assisted me in completing this thesis

ABSTRACT

Speaking is considered one of the most important and challenging skills which English-major students at Bien Hoa Specialized High School are facing Their ability to speak English is generally limited Teachers at Bien Hoa Specialized High School, therefore, have selected and used a diverse source of online materials in the context of a poor provincial teaching-learning environment, in order to provide motivation and help the students to overcome their speaking difficulties and improve the skill The study was thus conducted with the aim of exploring the students‟ attitudes towards their teachers‟ uses of supplementary online materials to improve their English speaking skill Questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used as data collection instruments of the study The participants in the study consisted of 35 grade 10 English-major students (6 males and 29 females) The findings revealed that most of the grade 10 English-major students hold a positive attitude towards their teachers‟ uses of supplementary online materials to improve their English speaking skill From the findings, some suggestions on appropriate use

of supplementary online materials were given with the hope that they might be useful for the teachers at Bien Hoa Specialized High School to improve their students‟ English speaking skill

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

BHSHS: Bien Hoa Specialized High School

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ELT: English Language Teaching

ESL: English as a Second Language

MOET: Ministry of Education and Training

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

LIST OF FIGURES

CHarts

Figure 1: Students’ awareness about the importance of learning English speaking

Figure 2: Students’ feeling of speaking English

Figure 3: Students’ interest in learning speaking skill

Figure 4: Students’ assessment of the difficulty level of speaking topics in the grade

10 pilot English textbook

Figure 5: Students’ awareness of the importance of using online materials in speaking lessons

Figure 6: Students’ judgements of online materials used in speaking lessons

Figure 7: Students’ preference for types of online materials

Figure8: Students’ preference for work arrangement in speaking lessons using online materials

Figure 9: Students’ preference for speaking activities in speaking lessons using online materials

Figure 10: Students’ preference for the integration of speaking with other skills (listening, writing, reading)

Figure 11: Students’ comments on the effectiveness of using online materials to improve speaking skill

Figure 12: Students’ improvement when online materials are used in speaking lessons

Figure 13: Students’ self-evaluation of their own speaking skill after teachers use online materials in the speaking lessons

Figure 14: Students’ expectation of their teachers’ use of online materials in

speaking lessons

Tables

Table 1: Students’ perception of the advantages of online materials

Table 2: Students’ perception of the disadvantages of online materials

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF FIGURES v

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rational of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research questions 3

4 Significance of the study 3

5 Scope of the study 3

6 Methodology of the study 4

7 Design of the study 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1.1 Attitude and their roles in language learning 6

1.2 Teaching speaking 7

1.2.1 Definition of Speaking 7

1.2.2 The position of speaking in English Language Teaching and Learning 7

1.2.3 Approaches in teaching and learning speaking skills 8

1.2.4 Learners‟ problems with learning English speaking 9

1.3 Teaching and learning materials 10

1.4 Online materials 10

1.5 Supplementary Materials 11

1.5.1 Definition of Supplementary Materials 11

1.5.2 Advantages of Supplementary Materials 11

1.5.3 Criteria for selecting materials 12

1.6 Previous research 14

1.7 Summary 15

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY 16

2.1 Research Context 16

2.1.1 The School, the Teachers and the Students 16

2.1.2 The textbook 17

2.1.3 The teachers‟ uses of online materials (taken from the Internet) 18

2.2 Research Participants 19

2.3 Data Collection Instruments 19

2.3.1 Questionnaire 19

2.3.2 Interview 20

2.4 The data collection procedure 21

2.5 The data analysis procedure 22

2 6 Summary 22

CHAPTER THREE: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 23

3.1 Questionnaire for students 23

3.1.1 Students‟ attitudes towards learning English speaking skills 23

3.1.2 Students‟ attitudes towards teachers‟ uses of online materials to improve their speaking skill 26

3.2 Interviews 39

3.3 Summary 40

PART C CONCLUSIONS 42

1 Major findings of the study 42

2 Pedagogical recommendations 44

3 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 44

REFERENCES 46 APPENDIXES I APPENDIX 1: Questionnaire I APPENDIX 2: Transcription For Interview V APPENDIX 3: A collection of online materials VII

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rational of the study

Nowadays, English is recognized as a lingua franca for communication across nations and cultures throughout the world In Viet Nam, to meet the demands for development and integration of the country into the world arena, over the last decades, more emphasis has been put on the teaching and learning of English language At present, English is a compulsory subject in most schools of all levels, especially at high schools

Among the four macro language skills known as listening, speaking, reading and writing, speaking skill is considered the most significant one that most learners of foreign languages need to achieve However, in Vietnam, for many years, not much attention has been paid to developing learners‟ speaking competence in English classes and time for speaking practices is limited for many reasons Consequently, students have poor ability to speak English though they have been learning the language for a long time They speak English badly even in English speaking lessons They often lack the confidence and feel confused when they are asked to speak in English They regularly find it difficult to express their ideas in English and even some students cannot speak anything but just keep silent during the speaking lesson

As a teacher of English at a specialized high school, I am fully aware of the importance of English speaking skill Moreover, I am now in charge of teaching English to grade 10 English-major students These students have to take part in many examinations especially the ones for gifted students Furthermore, Information Technology has become very important in recent times Computers are used in almost all fields of life, and the Internet has developed into a significant source of information The Internet provides a huge quantity of online English teaching and learning resources The easy access to computers and the Internet and the increasing number of free web-based English courses, English teaching and learning materials have supported teachers and learners in teaching and learning

English Accordingly, it is advisable that teachers who are very busy making lesson plans should take advantages of an abundant source of teaching materials on the Internet Furthermore, in this research context where the researcher is working, there are not enough computers linked to the internet in each classroom and students generally do not have their own computer or access to the Internet at home Each foreign language classroom is equipped with only one computer connected to the Internet and a projector The physical setting in this study does not qualify students for learning online courses and does not meet the requirements for using computer-mediated teaching/learning Therefore, I, as well as other teachers who are responsible for teaching English-major students in my school, have selected and used supplementary online materials in regular classroom settings in order to improve their English speaking skill There has never been any pedagogical guideline to guide teachers in the effective use of online materials for teaching English in my school

We expect the use of supplementary online materials will give a valuable impact

on the students' learning English speaking but students‟ attitudes towards their teachers‟ use of online materials are still unknown All these above-mentioned reasons have motivated me to conduct a survey on the attitudes of grade 10 English-major students at Bien Hoa Specialized High School (BHSHS) towards their teachers‟ uses of online materials to improve their English speaking skill The findings could help teachers and students, not only at BHSHS but also at similar settings, to fully exploit online materials for even better teaching and learning English

2 Aims of the study

This study aims at:

- finding out the attitudes of grade 10 English-major students at Bien Hoa Specialized High School towards their teachers‟ uses of supplementary online materials to improve students‟ English speaking skill so that more appropriate use

of online materials could be provided

- recommending to teachers at Bien Hoa specialized high school some pedagogical suggestions for even more effective use of supplementary online materials to improve their students‟ English speaking skill

3 Research questions

1 What are the attitudes of grade 10 English-major students at BHSHS towards their teachers‟ uses of supplementary online materials to improve their English speaking skill?

2 How should teachers at BHSHS exploit online materials for even more effective teaching of English speaking skill?

4 Significance of the study

The study is conducted with the expectation that its results will be beneficial for English-major students and teachers of English at BHSHS The study helped teachers understand more about their students‟ attitudes towards and expectations

on their teachers‟ uses of supplementary online materials Based on the findings, some suggestions on employing and exploiting supplementary online materials were given to the teachers to help them improve their students‟ English speaking skills Hence, it could be a considerable contribution to the endeavor of making teaching and learning English even more effective and enjoyable at BHSHS or elsewhere with similar contexts of limited teaching and learning resources

5 Scope of the study

As stated above, the study was designed to find out the students‟ attitudes towards their teachers‟ uses of supplementary online materials to improve their speaking skill Due to the author‟s limited time and experience, the study was not carried out on a large scale The study, therefore, was restricted to grade 10 English-major students at BHSHS only because these students are the first ones to benefit from the use of online materials in their English language learning Moreover, the teacher bases on the topics in the grade 10 pilot English textbook to select supplementary online speaking materials to use in regular classroom setting In addition, the study focuses on making suggestions to busy teachers on effective uses

of supplementary online materials to improve their students‟ English speaking skill

as these online materials could help busy teachers to reduce the amount of time for preparing lessons

6 Methodology of the study

To conduct the survey, the researcher used both qualitative and quantitative methods Two data collection instruments were used: questionnaire and interview First, a survey questionnaire was delivered to students to investigate their attitudes towards their teachers‟ uses of supplementary online materials with an aim to improve students‟ speaking skill Then, interviews with selected students were conducted to get additional information and to cross check information collected from the questionnaire Finally, the information obtained from the questionnaire and interviews were analyzed along the two themes presented through the two research questions On the basis of the finding, suggestions for teachers to appropriately use supplementary online materials to develop English speaking skills for their students were provided

7 Design of the study

This thesis consists of three main parts as follows:

Part A: Introduction

This part includes the rationales, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the methods, the significance, and the design of the study It shows the reason why the author decided to choose this study and the methods for the fulfillment of the study Part B: Development

This part consists of three chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature review

It is aimed at setting up the theoretical background for the thesis It focuses on three main concepts: attitudes, speaking and supplementary online materials

Chapter 2: Research methodology

This chapter starts with the description of the setting and the participants Moreover, it provides the construction of the survey questionnaire and interview

questions It also presents how data was collected to find answers to the two research questions

Chapter 3: Results and discussion

In this chapter, the detailed description of data analysis and discussion on the findings of the study are explained

Part C: Conclusions

This chapter presents a summary of the findings and draws out some suggestions that are good for teachers and students in teaching and learning English speaking In addition to that, the limitations of the study and some recommendations for further research are also discussed in this chapter

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Attitude and their roles in language learning

Thornbury (2006) asserts that an individual‟s attitude towards learning a language is the way he or she feels about and behaves towards it, and the individual‟s attitude towards language learning can be positive or negative

Based on Thornbury‟s definition of attitude, this study holds that attitude is a person‟s opinions, behaviors, feelings and beliefs toward something/somebody In language learning, students‟ attitudes presented in their feelings and beliefs about,

in their way of acting towards the lessons, the teaching/learning style, the teachers, the textbooks and the teaching/learning materials In this study, it relates to students‟ opinions, feelings, behaviors and belief about their teachers‟ uses of supplementary online material to improve their English speaking skill

Regarding structure of attitudes, according to Gardner (1985), attitudes have three components: cognitive component; behavioral component; affective/emotional component Two components of attitudes focused upon in the study are the cognitive component and the affective component

To Ellis (1994), learners‟ attitudes play an important role in language acquisition and learning Both negative and positive attitudes can be found towards the language they learn If learners have positive attitudes toward the language they are learning, they will have favorable feelings towards the culture and the speakers of the language In the words of Noels et al (2003:36), “if students are interested in the countries where the languages are spoken, they may be more motivated to learn the language” When students have negative attitudes towards language learning, they are not interested in learning or may have difficulties with the teacher (Ellis 1994)

The role of learners‟ attitudes is significant in language learning, and therefore, it

is vital to inspire learners‟ learning a language Tsiplakides and Keramida (2010) showed that students with positive attitudes towards language learning are less

likely to suffer from learning anxiety and more eagerly and capably to do learning tasks

Thus, in this research, students‟ attitudes towards their teachers‟ uses of supplementary online materials to improve their English speaking skill were studied and then on the basis of the findings, some pedagogical suggestions for non-native teachers to use supplementary online materials for even better English teaching and learning in Vietnam are proposed

1.2 Teaching speaking

1.2.1 Definition of Speaking

This study used the definition of speaking as stated by Florez (1999, in Bailey, 2005:2), that speaking is an interactive process of successfully sending and receiving messages The process involves both linguistic and communicative aspects so that the listener can receive and process the information the speaker wants to convey It is because the definition is easy to understand and suits the context of the current study

1.2.2 The position of speaking in English Language Teaching and Learning

In English language teaching and learning, speaking appears to have an important position According to Ur (1996: 120) speaking is the most important skill among other macro skills:

Of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) speaking seems intuitively the most important: people who know a language are referred to

as „speakers‟ of the language, as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing, and many if not most foreign language learners are primarily interested to speak

According to Richards (2008:19), the mastery of speaking skill in English is a priority for many second or foreign language learners and language proficiency is used to evaluate learners‟ success in language learning as well as the effectiveness

of their English course

In short, speaking skills play a very important part in English language teaching and learning Thus, the main goal in teaching the skill is oral fluency - that is the ability to express oneself intelligibly, reasonably, and without undue hesitation In order to meet this goal, it is necessary to give students an English language environment so that they can use the language to express their own ideas Supplementary online materials and meaningful tasks can help reach the goal of developing oral language fluency

1.2.3 Approaches in teaching and learning speaking skills

Historically, there have been many language teaching methods and approaches such as:

 Grammar-translation methods

 The direct method

 The Audio-lingual method

 The Audio-visual method

 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

Recently, CLT which emphasizes the importance of opportunities to use English for communicative purposes has been applied in language teaching and learning Nunan (1989:194) described the approach as follows:

CLT views language as s system for the expression of meaning Activities involve oral communication, carrying out meaningful tasks and using language, which is meaningful to the learners Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives The learner‟s role is as a negotiator and integrator The teacher‟s role is as a facilitator of the communication process Materials promote communicative language use; they are task-based and authentic

The goal of teaching speaking in CLT is communicative competence; so teaching and learning objectives should focus on this This study used Nunan‟s (2003) definition that teaching English speaking is to teach learners to:

1 Make the English speech sounds and sound patterns

2 Use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the language

3 Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting audience, situation, and subject matter

4 Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence

5 Use language as a means of expressing values and judgements

6 Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which

is called as fluency

1.2.4 Learners’ problems with learning English speaking

In teaching English speaking, Ur (1996:121) identified some main problems that learners have with speaking activities as follows:

Firstly, learners are often inhibited about expressing their idea in a foreign language It can be explained that unlike reading, writing and listening activities, speaking requires some degree real-time exposure to an audience Learners are often reluctant to try to say something in a foreign language in the classroom because they are nervous about making mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face, or simply shy of attracting attention

Secondly, learners think up no ideas related to topics to say even they are not inhibited They usually make no effort to brainstorm as many ideas as possible about target topics Even if the students are not inhibited, the teachers often hear learners complain they cannot think of anything to say and they have no idea about the target speaking topic

Thirdly, the obstacle to getting learners to talk in the classroom is low or uneven participation among learners because some dominate the others Only one participant can talk at a time if he or she is to be heard In a large group, this means that each one has only very little time for speaking This problem

is worsened by the tendency of some learners to dominate the group, while the others speak very little or not at all

Lastly, learners use their mother tongue as it is easier and natural or they are not motivated and disciplined enough to keep using the target language They usually use their mother tongue In classes where all, or a number of the learners share the same mother tongue, they may tend to use it.

In short, learners‟ problems in learning English speaking are their anxiety of expressing their ideas, uneven participation, no ideas to express, lack of motivation and difficulties in using the English language Teachers can solve these problems by creating a relaxing and stimulating atmosphere in their English speaking skill classes Using suitable and appropriate teaching and learning materials is one of the ways

1.3 Teaching and learning materials

Tomlinson (1998:2) defines materials as “anything which is used by the teacher

or learners to facilitate the learning of a language that is able to improve the students‟ knowledge and experience of the language” Materials can be linguistic, auditory or kinesthetic, and they can be presented in print, through live performance

or display, or on cassette, CD-ROM, DVD or the internet Materials can be grouped into instructional, experiential, elicitative or exploratory according to their functions such as to inform learners about the language, to provide experience of the language

in use, to stimulate language use or to help learners discover about the language for themselves

In this research, I follow Tomlinson‟s definition of materials because it is easy to understand and suits my teaching context

1.4 Online materials

Generally, the term "online" means being connected to the Internet The connection can be through a phone line, using a dial-up or DSL modem, a wifi modem, or through a wireless connection Computers, smart phone, tablets… can be connected to the Internet Materials available online can be accessed through these devices and be used for teaching and learning purposes in general, teaching and learning English in particular

In this study, materials are things used by teacher or learners in teaching and learning English that give students opportunities to improve their skills and knowledge of English Online materials refer to any kinds of legal materials which are available online and appropriate for teaching-learning English

1.5 Supplementary Materials

1.5.1 Definition of Supplementary Materials

According to McGrath (2002), supplementary materials are materials taken from another source or any other material that is designed for learning purposes It means that adding something new and challenging to provided additional materials in order

to supplement the textbooks Supplementary materials are used when teachers find that there are no suitable or relevant materials that can be found in the published textbooks In language teaching – learning, printed materials and audio-visual materials are the most common forms of supplementary materials

Brown (1994) says that teachers need to use supplementary materials to promote motivation, one of the key factors in learning That means, teachers also need supplementary materials to teach the students to give more input to them and to motivate learner to get better understanding

1.5.2 Advantages of Supplementary Materials

There are some advantages of supplementary materials proposed by Reddy (2003) The benefits are:

a Creativity

Students can find various references in supplementary materials They can find a variety of types of activities and stimulate their creativity in doing the tasks

b Exciting activities

Designing supplementary materials is based on the students‟ needs and interests, so

it makes learners interested in the learning process Materials in the textbooks might not be enough for the students, so they need another sources such as supplementary materials

c Breaking monotony of the class

Supplementary materials can give the learners extra language practice, so that they can have varied lessons and useful practice This might be the way to overcome the problem faced by the students who often feel bored when the teachers only use one textbook in the teaching and learning process

d Encouraging situational English

Supplementary materials can encourage students to speak They can have more speaking materials to enhance their skills Besides gaining the students‟ interest

in speaking, it can make them aware in using English in the classroom

e Improving language skills and communication skills

Varied activities and tasks in the supplementary materials can enhance the language and communication skills of the students By doing some activities in supplementary materials students are encouraged to practice their skill more

f Leading to group/team work

Some activities in supplementary materials lead students to work in a group They can discuss, argue, and make conclusion together with their group This can build their social skill and learn how to be a leader in the team work

g Tasks can be challenging

Supplementary materials sometimes use authentic materials which are not design for a particular level, in order to give learners with experiences of working

in one step or few steps higher level challenge materials

1.5.3 Criteria for selecting materials

Tomlinson‟s criteria of good materials could be used as criteria for the selection

of online materials in this research (1998:7-22):

 Materials should achieve impact

Impact is achieved when materials have a noticeable effect on learners It means that the learners' curiosity, interest and attention are attracted If this is achieved there is a better chance that learners can take in some of the language Materials can achieve impact through:

 Novelty (e.g unusual topics, illustrations and activities)

 Variety (e.g breaking up the monotony of a unit routine with an unexpected activity; using many different text types taken from many different types of sources; using a number of different instructor voices on a cassette)

 Attractive presentation (e.g use of attractive colors; lots of white space; use

of photographs)

 Appealing content (e.g topics of interest to the target learners; topics which offer the possibility of learning something new; engaging stories; universal themes; local references)

 Materials should help learners to feel at ease

Although it is known that pressure can stimulate some types of language learners, the writer finds that most researchers agree that most language learners benefit from feeling at ease and that they lose opportunities for language learning when they feel anxious, uncomfortable or tense Materials can help learners to feel at ease in a number of ways For example:

- The learner feels more comfortable with materials with lots of white space than they do with materials in which lots of different activities are crammed together on the same page;

- The learner feels more at ease with texts and illustrations that they can relate to their own culture than they are with those which are culturally exotic;

- The learners are more relaxed with materials which are obviously trying to help them to learn than they are with materials which are always testing them

 Materials should require and facilitate learner self-investment

Materials can help them to achieve this by providing them with choices of focus and activity, by giving them topic control and by engaging them in learner centered discovery activities

 The learners' attention should be drawn to linguistic features of the

input

To help learners to pay attention to linguistic features of authentic input can help them to eventually acquire some of those features

 Materials should provide the learners with opportunities to use the

target language to achieve communicative purposes

Learners should be given opportunities to use language for communication rather than just to practice it in situations controlled by the teacher and the materials

 Materials should provide opportunities for outcome feedback

Feedback should be focused first on the effectiveness of the outcome rather than just on the accuracy of the output because feedback can lead to an output which becomes a profitable source of input

1.6 Previous research

Many studies have been carried out to explore students‟ attitudes towards learning a foreign language in general and learning English in particular in different countries all over the world LigijaKaminskienė and Galina Kavaliauskienė (2014) carried out the study “attitudes to improving speaking skills by guided individual activities” Besides, the study “Attitude of Students and Instructors toward Authentic Materials in Selected Adult TESL Programs was conducted by Shu-Chin,

Su It findings indicated that both ESL instructors and ESL students had positive attitudes toward authentic materials of discussions and newspapers ESL students indicated that Internet, discussions, newspapers, telephone, and computer programs were the most important authentic materials in learning English ESL instructors indicated that discussions, newspapers, maps, stories (printed), and food were the most used authentic materials in ESL class

The survey research “Learners‟ attitudes towards online language learning and corresponding success rates” carried by EmrahCinkara and BirsenBaggeci (2013) indicated that students‟ attitude toward the online English course were relatively positive Another study involved in students‟ and teachers‟ attitudes towards the use

of computer mediated communication voice & text chat as an instructional resource

to improve speaking skill was conducted by Muzeyyenaykac (2005) These studies only focus on students‟ attitude towards online learning, online courses, and the effective uses of computer mediated communication such as voice and text-based chat Moreover, they can be conducted only in a research context where there are enough classrooms equipped with computers linked to the Internet, or students have their own computer at home They have not investigated students‟ attitude towards their teachers‟ uses of online materials which are in most cases a web component in traditional face-to-face lessons, the most popular teaching and learning way in this research context

At Vietnam National University, Hanoi - University of Languages and International studies, there are also many M.A theses on students‟ and teachers‟ attitudes towards various aspects in English learning and teaching such as learning and teaching English language skills or teachers‟ techniques used in teaching English skills as well as the contents of textbooks, etc For example, N.H Tuyet (2009) investigated students‟ and teachers‟ attitudes towards teaching and learning vocabulary using different techniques N.T.C Ha (2006), focused on teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards teaching and learning grammar T.T Van (2010) did research on teachers‟ techniques used in teaching English skills There are many other studies on teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards teaching and learning different language skills However, there are not any studies on students‟ attitudes towards their teachers‟ uses of online materials to improve their speaking skill

1.7 Summary

This chapter has given some theoretical background knowledge concerning attitudes Besides, this chapter also introduces the theory of teaching speaking and supplementary speaking materials which are used as the basis for the data analysis related to the study on the attitudes of grade 10 English-major students at Bien Hoa Specialized High School towards their teachers‟ uses of online materials to improve their speaking skill

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Research Context

2.1.1 The School, the Teachers and the Students

This research is conducted at Bien Hoa specialized high school in Phu Ly city,

Ha Nam province Bien Hoa Gifted High School is a longtime established school in the system of high schools for gifted students It was founded in 1959 and called

"Ha Nam high school" It was officially called "Bien Hoa Gifted High School" in

2009 Each year, our school is responsible for forming 27 classes with 10 specializing subjects: mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, informatics, literature, history, geography, English and Russian Students who want to enter the school have to pass an entrance examination consisting of three subjects: Maths, Literature, English and a specialized subject with the specialized mark being doubled

There are eight English teachers, most of whom are young, aged between 25 and

38 Four of the teachers have already M.A degree, three of them are finishing her M.A course and only one of them holds a B.A degree in English language teaching

As for the students of the school, about 65% of them come from five districts of the province and approximately 35% of them live in the city Regarding English subject, the students who are not specialized in English just get 3 periods of English

a week and the teaching materials for this group are the textbooks (mainstream ones) prescribed by MOET Most of these students try to learn English because this

is one of the compulsory subjects at school and they have to study English to pass the examinations They learn three English periods per week However, the students who major in English have 11 periods of English per week (5 periods in the morning and 6 ones in the afternoon) The English-major students use the English

10 pilot textbook In addition, they can have chances to learn more supplementary materials compiled, adapted and selected by the teachers These students are really motivated in studying English and they have more time to study English in class because all English-major students have to attend all selective English periods in the

afternoon during which their teachers have to select, design and use supplementary materials in general and supplementary speaking materials in particular Furthermore, they have to take part in English examinations for English-specialized students Speaking is one skill included in these tests Therefore, it is necessary to exploit more speaking materials for them in order to help them improve their English speaking skill With the development of information technology, the Internet provides huge online English teaching and learning resources Accordingly, teachers in my school have exploited the valuable online resources, especially English lesson plans with ready-made classroom activities and related materials with the aim of enhancing the quality of teaching and learning English speaking and reducing time for preparing lessons

2.1.2 The textbook

With regards to the English 10 pilot textbook, it is designed to develop a more communicative approach, learner-centered learning, an emphasis on oral skills, and language for real-life communication The objective of the textbook aims to enable students to develop their communicative skills in the target language including four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing The textbook is theme-based designed in which language and the skills are structured on a certain topic The theme provides a context in which language is used so as to help students be able to use the appropriate language structures in different communicative situations The English 10 pilot textbook is continuously designed at the suitable level with high school students In this textbook, the objectives are clear and concise and a detailed overview of the topics, functions, structures/ grammar, and skills within each unit are illustrated in the introductory table of contents The English 10 pilot textbook is theme-based designed with 10 units, equivalent to 12 topics: Family life, Your body and you, Music, For a better community, Invention, Gender equality, Cultural diversity, New ways to learn, Preserving the environment, Ecotourism Each unit is divided into 5 sections separately: getting started, language, skills including four

subsections: reading, speaking, listening, writing, communication and culture, looking back and project One unit is designed to be taught in 8 periods

2.1.3 The teachers’ uses of online materials (taken from the Internet)

There are many ways of selecting and using online materials appropriately and effectively Although the Internet cannot teach students to speak English in itself, as

a resource of online teaching materials in the hands of a skilled teacher it can provide an abundant source of online learning materials, with which the teacher can compile and adapt for motivating and productive activities

As it is not always possible to provide enough computers with connection for all students in each language class An easy solution to the problem

Internet-of limited access to the Internet is to print materials from the Internet and give them

to students The Internet offers a rich variety of photocopiable worksheets or assignment handouts that students can do offline If teachers want to make full use

of the availability of online teaching and learning materials to supplement the lessons in textbooks, they can find additional supplementary teaching material to the topics, the themes discussed in the textbooks Ideas can be taken from textbooks where some activities are not challenging enough or not interesting enough for students Finding materials designed particularly for ELT is considerably easier and less-time consuming than locating and adapting authentic materials on a particular topic because teachers do not have to spend much time designing tasks

In this study, the researcher chooses to combine these ways She has students working offline with Internet resources because there are not enough computers linked to the internet for students in class and at home, not many students have personal computers In the research context, there is only one computer connected

to the Internet and a projector in each foreign language classroom Therefore, in order to take advantage of abundant resource of online English teaching and learning materials, she prints handouts or assignment sheets to give out students and she uses software Powerpoint to show audio files, video files, visual aids such as pictures, photographs, poster prepared on the websites She selects and exploits

online teaching lessons, online speaking activities, situational speaking tasks, links available on online materials which supplement the content of speaking lessons in the pilot English textbook grade 10 and suit the students‟ needs, interests, culture, age She chooses to use three legal and free websites including www.eslgold.com;

https://www.britishcouncil.org/; busyteacher.org. These three websites are designed and well-organized; therefore, it is convenient for teachers to select and find out suitable materials for their learners The materials on these websites are classified according to levels, specific purposes, learner groups In this research, the author usually uses materials with intermediate, upper-intermediate or advanced levels because the research participants are grade 10 English-major students Speaking topics are related to the ones in their pilot English textbook grade 10 which they learn during the English speaking lessons in class

well-2.2 Research Participants

The participants of the study are 35 grade 10 English-major students on the basis

of agreement to participate In my school, there is only one grade 10 English- majored class who learn the grade 10 pilot English textbook Among them, there are

6 male students and 29 female ones They are 16 years old and they have been learning English for 7 years Generally, the students‟ knowledge and skills of English are at intermediate level Among 35 students, there are 19 students living in Phu Ly city and the others coming from five districts of Ha Nam province At Bien Hoa Specialized High School, these students have five periods of English in the morning and six ones in the afternoon In the teaching process, it is realized that many of the students have poor speaking skill although they are English-major students They find it hard to express their ideas in oral form They are too shy to speak and have nothing to say about their target topic

2.3 Data Collection Instruments

2.3.1 Questionnaire

In survey research, questionnaires are one of the most powerful instruments to collect data The main strength of questionnaires is the ease of construction and

their ability to measure three types of data: factual, behavioral, and attitudinal Therefore, in this research, the researcher employs a questionnaire as a primary measuring instrument to find out students‟ attitudes towards and their preference for their teachers‟ uses of supplementary online materials to improve their English speaking skill

The questionnaire in this study includes 16 questions, which are both closed and open ended Below are the categories of the sixteen questions:

Questions from 1 to 4: Students’ attitudes towards learning English speaking skill Question from 5 to16: Students’ attitudes towards teachers’ uses of online materials

to improve their speaking skill

+ Question 5: Students’ awareness of the importance of using online materials in speaking lessons

+ Question 6: Students’ perception of the advantages and disadvantages of online materials teachers used

+ Question 7: Students’ judgements of online materials used in speaking lessons + Question 8: Students’ preference for types of online materials used by teachers + Question 12: Students’ preference for work arrangements in speaking lessons using online materials

+ Question 13: Students’ preference for speaking activities in speaking lessons using online materials

+ Question 14: Students’ preference for the integration of speaking with other skills +Question 9, 10, 11, 15, 16: Students’ perception of the effectiveness of using online materials to improve speaking skill

2.3.2 Interview

A secondary data collection instrument is interview The interview in this study

is semi-structured The reason why the researcher chose this type of interview is that the semi-structured interviews are based on the list of interview questions, but the order of asking these questions can be changed and other related questions can

be added to explore further; therefore, the researcher (as an interviewer) is given

much flexibility and the interviewed students are given some degree of control during the interview The interview data were used to provide more in-depth information to clarify students‟ attitudes towards teachers‟ use of online materials in English speaking lessons Seeing that it is very challenging to interview 35 students, the researcher selected to interview 6 students who agreed to participate

The interviewees were asked the same questions outside the class and

individually Two main questions raised were:

1) Why are you interested in learning English speaking even though it is difficult? 2) How do you find the supplementary materials taken from online sources that your teacher has used in your English speaking lessons?

2.4 The data collection procedure

The participants were taught English speaking skill with online materials from the beginning of November, 2015 to the end of May, 2016 of the academic year 2015-2016 The data was collected at the last weeks of this school year

The procedure involved in two main steps as follows:

Step 1: At the middle of May, 35 questionnaires were delivered to 35 participants She explained how to complete the questionnaire before the students answered the questions and assisted students if necessary After that, all the questionnaires were filled appropriately and collected

Step 2: After the questionnaire, the interviews were carried out to verify the data from the questionnaire The researcher interviewed 6 selected students The interviews took place in the afternoon after the school They took place with the students‟ willingness and enthusiasm, and the information from the interview was taken note of Small talks with the interviewees aimed at creating the friendly atmosphere for the administration of the interview so that they did not feel anxious and give their most truthful and sincere answers to the interview questions All the interviewees were asked two same questions In order for the students to be able to express their opinion easily and clearly, the question and all their answers were spoken in Vietnamese

2.5 The data analysis procedure

After having collected the information from the questionnaire and the interview, the research started analyzing and discussing it All of the data from the questionnaire were summarized statistically and converted to percentages with the form of tables and graphs for the convenience of analysis The result of the interviews was descriptive data, and presented in tables Along with the information via survey questionnaires, information gained through the interviews was compared with and was added to the result of the questionnaires to assist interpretation

2 6 Summary

To sum up, chapter two has mentioned the detailed information involved in how the study was carried out by presenting the setting, the participants, the data collection instruments, the data collection procedure and the date analysis procedure The setting of the study is the location of BHSHS, its students, an overview of English learning at this school The participants section mentions the number of students taking part in the study The data collection instrument is about the main instrument to collect the data for the study which is the questionnaire The data collection procedure and the data analysis procedure are the two parts which mention the formal order and ways of collecting, analyzing and discussing the data from the questionnaire

CHAPTER THREE: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Questionnaire for students

3.1.1 Students’ attitudes towards learning English speaking skills

3.1.1.1 Students’ awareness of the importance of learning English speaking

Figure 1: Students’ awareness of the importance of learning English speaking skill

It is clear from the chart that no respondents believe that speaking is less or not important; therefore, it is obvious that 100% of the respondents agree that speaking

is important, namely up to 82.8% of the students think speaking very important and 17.2% of the students think it important Their common reasons are that English is mainly used to communicate with foreigners and in the future jobs In addition, they also share the idea that they found speaking important because it helps them to learn other skills better This result reveals that students emphasize the role of learning speaking skill and they have positive attitudes towards learning speaking skill Accordingly, it is likely that they will have positive attitudes toward teachers‟ uses

of online materials to improve their speaking skill This makes the researcher feel optimistic about their learning English speaking skill

3.1.1.2 Students’ feeling of speaking English

Figure 2: Students’ feeling of speaking English

In terms of students‟ feeling of speaking English, the results show that a majority of participants (71.4%) felt that speaking English was difficult 8.6% of them thought it was very difficult The number of students who found speaking English normal accounts for 17.1% Only 2.9% of the participants found it easy to speak English There is no denying that in spite of being English-major students, speaking skill is difficult and challenging to them They explained that they lacked knowledge of the speaking topics, having nothing to say Another reason is that they are unable to find out words and grammatical structures to express their ideas in English because of their limited vocabulary Some students said that they had a little time for practicing speaking; therefore, they need teachers to adapt more speaking activities, speaking tasks for them

3.1.1.3 Students’ interest in learning speaking skill

Figure 3: Students’ interest in learning speaking skill

As can be seen from the chart, a majority of students (82.8%) like learning speaking English This makes teachers more motivated in teaching speaking skill In contrast, there is a small number of students who do not like English very much This number accounts for 17.2% In addition, fortunately, no participants were not excited about English speaking lessons at all It is a favorable condition in which teachers can use and select more supplementary speaking materials in order to improve their speaking skill effectively

3.1.1.4 Students’ assessment of the difficulty level of speaking topics in the grade

10 pilot English textbook

Figure 4: Students’ assessment of the difficulty level of speaking topics in the grade

10 pilot English textbook

The chart above presents students‟ assessment of the difficulty level of speaking topics in the grade 10 pilot English textbook The largest percentage of 77.2% shows that the speaking topics in the grade 10 pilot English textbook are interesting but difficult However, none of the students though the topics were easy The numbers of students who think speaking topics interesting and difficult are the same (11.4%) This result can help explain the reason for students‟ attitude towards the importance of applying online materials to speaking lessons Because topics in the grade 10 pilot English textbook are difficult teachers need to select and use more speaking materials which have the same topic as this textbook, which provides students with more time for practicing speaking

Basing on the result above, teachers can make full use of the fact that the topics given in the textbook are interesting but difficult; therefore, teachers should first adapt these topics and then add suitable supplementary speaking materials

3.1.2 Students’ attitudes towards teachers’ uses of online materials to improve their speaking skill

3.1.2.1 Students’ awareness of the importance of using online materials in

They explained that they need more time for practicing speaking English in class, more speaking activities, tasks Fortunately, no participants object to teachers‟ uses

of online materials in the speaking lessons Therefore, teachers are assured that online materials should be applied to teaching students to speak English

3.1.2.2 Students’ perception of the advantages of online materials

My opinions about the teachers’ uses of online

materials to improve speaking skill

Strongly agree

Agree Disagree Strongly

disagree

A Online teaching materials used by teachers

are very useful and motivating because there are

many beautiful, expressive, illustrative visual

aids

25.7% 54.4%

14.2% 5.7%

D Online materials the teacher used provide

background knowledge and topic vocabulary

vividly; therefore, they are helpful and create

more motivation for students

31.5%

48.6% 17.1% 2.8%

F Speaking tasks and activities in speaking

lessons using online materials are diverse, suit

Table 1: Students’ perception of the advantages of online materials

As can be explicitly seen from the table, most of the participants (77.2%) agree that online materials have several advantages such as their eye-catching presentation They share the opinion that online materials usually look beautiful and have many attractive visual aids Besides, the number of participants who agree that speaking activities on the Internet provide background knowledge and vocabulary

in a vivid way is 80.1% Students are provided with necessary vocabulary and structures; therefore, they are highly motivated to take part in speaking activities Background knowledge and vocabulary enables them to express their opinions They have something to say In addition, another advantage of online materials which receives great support from the participants is that speaking tasks and

activities of online materials are diverse, suit students‟ interests and meet their needs A quite high proportion of the respondents (71.5%) agree with this

3.1.2.3 Students’ perception of the disadvantages of online materials

My opinions about the teachers’ uses of

online materials to improve speaking skill

Strongly agree

Agree Disagree Strongly

disagree

B Many kinds of online teaching materials the

teachers used are not suitable for students‟

C Some of topics in online lessons selected by

the teachers are strange and not familiar with

students

E Online materials are designed by native

teachers who have different ethnic, social,

cultural and linguistic background; therefore,

they may make it difficult for students to

understand

Table 2: Students’ perception of the disadvantages of online materials

The table shows that up to 83.8 % of the participants disagree with online materials‟ drawbacks, whereas only less than one- fifth of the students agree with them In detail, 100% of the respondents share their disagreement with the idea that some of topics in online lessons are strange and not familiar with students However, 17.1% of the respondents find online materials difficult Although online lessons are written by native teachers, the differences of ethnic, social, cultural and linguistic background do not cause misunderstanding to Vietnamese students The majority of the participants (82.9%) disagree with the fact that online materials designed by native speakers are difficult to understand

3.1.2.4 Students’ judgements of online materials used in speaking lessons

Figure 6: Students’ judgements of online materials used in speaking lessons

It can be seen from the chart, the number of students finding speaking lessons with online materials fascinating and enjoyable is more than the number of those who do not think the application of online materials to English speaking lessons are interesting 82.9% (25.7% for the choice “very interesting and enjoyable” and 57.2% for “interesting”) of the students are fond of learning English speaking skill with online materials and they find these online materials enjoyable In contrast, there are 11.4% of the students who find teachers‟ uses of online materials to improve speaking skill not very interesting and only 5.7% of the students do not have any interest in learning English speaking skill with online materials In other words, these kinds of online materials have not motivated students They gave out the reason that topics in online lesson plans are difficult Moreover, although they are provided enough vocabulary and grammatical structures, they find it hard to express their opinions on topics fluently and naturally because since they were at lower secondary school, little emphasis has not been put on their speaking skills and they did not have to take an oral entrance exam to BHSHS On the whole, it is obvious that the majority of students (82.9%) find teachers‟ uses of online materials

to teach English speaking skill helpful, enjoyable and interesting They hold a

positive attitude towards teachers‟ uses of online materials to teach English speaking

3.1.2.5 Students’ preference for types of online materials

A Pictures, photographs, poster, sketches… B Handouts, assignment sheets…

C Radio broadcasts, audio files D Video files, television broadcasts

Figure 7: Students’ preference for types of online materials

As shown in the chart, the types of online materials including video files, television broadcasts are preferred by the highest number of participants (91.4%) The group which ranks second is audio files, radio broadcasts with the quite high proportion of 74.3% They stated that video files and radio files with tapescripts and subtitles provided them with background knowledge, vocabulary and grammatical structures about the topic in a vivid and motivating way Through these audio and video files, they had chances to listen to native speakers pronounce vocabulary and could learn how to use the vocabulary from the context In additions, in terms of video files, they could enjoy lively and beautiful scenes of the film, which motivated them so much and enabled them to feel less stressed It cannot be denied

that audio files and video ones on the internet are highly-appreciated and receive much support from students because of their advantages in English speaking lessons On the contrary, the group of online materials including pictures, photographs, posters, sketches on the Internet are preferred by only 22.8% and the number of the students who like handouts, assignment sheets is a little more than that (28.6%) They explained their choices that pictures, posters, photographs are very eye-catching and nice, which helped lower anxiety and stress during the speaking lessons Moreover, handouts and assignment sheets were easy for students

to do speaking tasks They could read articles about topics on photocopiable and printed handouts and worksheets easily instead of having to listen and see them on the screen Because of their not very good listening comprehension, they found it very difficult to listen for information related to their speaking topics It can be inferred that students with bad listening comprehension skill will not like any kinds

of online materials which incorporate audio and video files

3.1.2.6 Students’ preference for work arrangement in speaking lessons using

online materials

Figure 8: Students’ preference for work arrangement in speaking lessons using

online materials