Building up students’ self confidence in learning speaking skills at a university in hanoi a survey of methods

The study focuses on factors affecting non-English major freshmen’s confidence in speaking English and methods to build up their self-confidence in learning speaking skills.. Besides, th

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATES STUDIES

(Xây dựng sự tự tin cho sinh viên khi học kỹ năng nói tiếng Anh ở

một trường đại học tại Hà Nội: Khảo sát về các phương pháp)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60 14 10

Hanoi, 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATES STUDIES

(Xây dựng sự tự tin cho sinh viên khi học kỹ năng nói tiếng Anh ở

một trường đại học tại Hà Nội: Khảo sát về các phương pháp)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60 14 10

Supervisor : Dr Trần Thị Thu Hiền

Hanoi, 2013

Signature

Trần Thị Thu

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Tran Thi Thu Hien, for her guidance, helpful suggestions, invaluable critical feedback and encouragement during the time I tried to complete this thesis

I would like to sincerely thank the lecturers of the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their useful lessons that have helped in the clarification of my points

I am also grateful to all the teachers and the students at Hanoi University of Industry, who have contributed data to my study Without their enthusiastic cooperation, and assistance, I would never have been able to conduct my research

I would also like to thank all the members of my family for their love, care and encouragement

Last but not least, I would like to thank all those who read and comment this work in manuscript

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ABSTRACT

Speaking is considered an important skill among the four language skills and self-confidence in learning speaking skills plays an essential part to learner’s success However, in reality, the level of self-confidence in speaking English of non-English major freshmen at Hanoi University of Industry is not high

The study focuses on factors affecting non-English major freshmen’s confidence in speaking English and methods to build up their self-confidence in learning speaking skills

The subjects in the study are 150 non-English major freshmen randomly selected and twelve teachers teaching English for these faculties’ students Findings from the questionnaires and interview show that non-English major freshmen at Hanoi University of Industry are not self-confident in learning speaking skills due to students’ factors, teachers’ factors and objective factor Besides, three methods have been applied to increase freshmen’s self-confidence in speaking English namely designing pair or group work activities, letting students practice through many speaking activities and giving interesting topics of speaking

Based on such findings, some suggestions are given with the hope that they might be useful for teachers as well as non-English major freshmen at Hanoi University of Industry in particular and other universities in general to develop non-English major freshmen’s self-confidence in learning speaking skills

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

DECLARATION……… i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……… ii

ABSTRACT……… iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS……… iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……… vii

LIST OF TABLES……… viii

LIST OF FIGURES……… ix

PART I: INTRODUCTION……… 1

1 Rationale……… 1

2 Aims of the study……… 3

3 Research questions……… 3

4 Methods of the study……… 3

5 Scope of the study……… 4

6 Significance of the study……… 4

7 Structure of the study……… 4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT……… 6

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND……… 6

1.1 English speaking teaching……… 6

1.1.1 Definition of speaking……… 6

1.1.2 The components of speaking skill……… 7

1.1.3 Teaching speaking……… 7

1.1.4 Problems with speaking activities……… 8

1.1.5 Stages of teaching speaking……… 8

1.2 Self-confidence……… 9

1.2.1 Definition of self-confidence……… 9

1.2.2 Importance of self-confidence in speaking English……… 10

1.2.3 Factors affecting students’ self-confidence in speaking class……… 11

1.2.3.1 Students’ factors……… 11

1.2.3.2 Teachers’ factors……… 12

1.2.3.3 Objective factors……… 15

1.2.4 Methods of building students’ self-confidence in speaking English………… 15

1.3 Summary ……… 18

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY……… 19

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2.1 The context of the study……… 19

2.2 The textbook……… 20

2.3 The participants……… 20

2.3.1 The students……… 20

2.3.2.The teachers……… 21

2.4 The data collecting instruments……… 21

2.4.1 The questionnaires……… 21

2.4.1.1 Questionnaire for teachers……… 21

2.4.1.2 Questionnaire for students……… 21

2.4.2 The interview……… 22

2.5 Data collection procedure……… 22

2.6 Summary……… 23

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION……… 24

3.1 Data analysis……… 24

3.1.1 Students’ general attitudes towards learning English……… 24

3.1.2 Students’ attitudes towards learning to speak English……… 25

3.1.3 Students’ awareness about the importance of English speaking……… 26

3.1.4 Comparison of teachers’ and students’ assessment of the importance of self-confidence in learning speaking skills……… 26

3.1.5 Teachers’ and students assessment of students’ level of self-confidence in speaking English……… 27

3.1.6 Factors affecting students’ self-confidence in learning speaking skills……… 28

3.1.6.1 Comparison of teachers’ and students’ judgment of the students’ factors affecting students’ self-confidence in speaking English……… 28

3.1.6.2 Teachers’ and students’ judgment of the teachers’ factors affecting students’ self-confidence in speaking English……… 29

3.1.6.3 Comparison of teacher’ and students’ opinion of the objective factors affecting students’ self-confidence in speaking English……… 30

3.1.7 Students’ comments on teachers’ applied methods to increase students’ self-confidence in learning speaking skills……… 31

3.2 Summary……… 32

CHAPTER 4: MAJOR FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS……… 33

4.1 Major findings……… 34

4.1.1 Factors affecting the non-English major students’ self-confidence in speaking English at HAUI……… 34

4.1.2 Teachers’ applied methods to increase students’ self-confidence in learning

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.speaking skills……… 35

4.2 Suggestions……… 36

4.2.1 Suggestions for students……… 36

4.2.2 Suggestions for teachers……… 37

4.2.3 Suggestions for the administrators……… 38

4.3 Summary……… 38

PART III: CONCLUSION……… 39

1.Conclusion……… 38

2 Limitations and suggestions for further studies……… 39

REFERENCES……… 40

mastered Ur, P (1996:120) states that “of all the four skills (listening, speaking,

reading and writing), speaking seems intuitively the most important.” According to

Pattison, P (1992), when a person learns a language, he intends to be able to speak the language The need for speaking mastery in English has been dramatically increasing because of the confirm position of English as a language for international communication Many language learners think that speaking ability

is regarded as the measure of knowing a language Fluency in English as the ability

is to converse with others, much more than the ability to read, write, or comprehend oral language They regard speaking as the most important skill that they can acquire

In Vietnam, the issue of how to speak English fluently has also gained much concern in recent years However, Vietnamese students have to face many difficulties in managing this skill

Today an alarming situation in Vietnam is that many Vietnamese students graduating from colleges, universities cannot speak simple English sentences or are not confident to communicate in English This is a problem that universities in general and HaUI in particular have been considering and trying to find out effective methods in order to improve the quality of teaching English, especially speaking skills According

to the article “Students lack confidence to use English” by Hieu (2011), Vietnamese students are not confident to speak English due to the following causes as limited amount of vocabulary, incorrect pronunciation, fear of mistakes, shyness, focusing much on learning grammar and little using English in reality

The goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency Learners should be able to make themselves understood, using their current proficiency to the fullest According to Kelly, L., & Watson, A K (1986:4), students’ confidence is one of the

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important factors to improve their learning Chen (2003) adds that confidence is a

direct factor that affect students spoken English In fact, language learners who

lack confidence in their ability often listen in silence instead of participating in oral activities

HaUI is using New Headway Elementary (the third edition) as the course book for non-English major freshmen Although the book covers all four skills in English, most of non-English major freshmen feel embarrassed and unconfident in speaking skills It seems that it is very difficult for them to speak English fluently Besides, HaUI is doing the innovation of improving the quality of education and training, especially teaching English Thus, teachers of English need to research and enhance the methods of teaching, and students need to have new styles of learning to raising the learning outcomes

All above reasons have urged me to do research to figure out methods to increase non-English major freshmen’s self-confidence in learning speaking skills

Up to present, there have been a number of studies that deal with methods to build students’ self confidence when learning speaking skills These studies have lit

up ideas for this paper

Loucky, J P. (2004) has an investigation on building student confidence by using games within a simple framework

Kubo, M (2009) does research on confidence and fluency building for college students in Japan through extensive pair taping

Doqaruni, V R (2011) investigates increasing the students’ confidence in

speaking: An Iranian Experience

In Vietnam, a research by Lien, P (2012) studies on using group work to improve students’ confidence in English speaking classes at faculty of finance and banking, Vietnam University of Commerce

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All these researches succeed in building students’ confidence through using interesting games, pair taping, and students’ interaction in pairs and in groups However, not any researchers have done research to find various methods to build up non-English major freshmen’s self-confidence in learning speaking skills based on factors affecting their self-confidence in speaking English That is the reason why I

choose the topic “Building up students’ self-confidence in learning speaking skills

at a university in Hanoi: A survey of methods”

2 Aims of the study

The aims of the study are:

 To find out the factors affecting non-English major freshmen’s self-confidence

in speaking English at HaUI

 To find out the methods to increase non-English major freshmen’s confidence in learning speaking skills

4 Methods of the study

In order to conduct the study, both quantitative and qualitative methods of research are used, namely the survey questionnaires and the interview First, two survey questionnaires are administered to non-English major freshmen and teachers teaching English for these students at HaUI relatively to gather data and information for the study

Then, to verify the reliability of the data collected, an in-depth interview has been conducted to the freshmen

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Finally, the results from the questionnaires and interview are analyzed and discussed with a hope for giving useful recommendations to improve non-English major freshmen’s self-confidence in learning speaking skills

5 Scope of the study

The study focuses on factors affecting non-English major freshmen’s confidence in speaking English and methods to build their self-confidence in learning speaking skills at HaUI Therefore, all other researches related to factors affecting non-English major freshmen’s self-confidence and methods to build their self-confidence

self-in other skills, to other subjects (not non-English major students at HaUI) and and using other textbooks (not New Headway-Elementary) are beyond the scope of the study

6 Significance of the study

This study is expected to be of any use in the process of teaching and learning theoretically and practically

Theoretically, to some extent the results of this study are expected to be able to give the additional information toward the theory system of English teaching methods in general and methods to increase non-English major freshmen’s self-confidence in learning speaking in particular The results of this study are also expected to give motivation to the other researchers to implement related studies in this field

Practically, the results of this study are expected to be a useful reference for the teachers of English at HaUI as well as the teachers of English of the similar cases

at other around the country

7 Structure of the study

The thesis consists of three parts

Part I is an introduction of the study, which presents the rationale, the aims,

the research questions, the methods, the scope, the significance and the structure of the study

Part II is the development of the study which consists of three chapters:

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Chapter 1 presents the theoretical background of the study

Chapter 2 deals with the methodology performed in the study It provides

information about the context of the study, the textbook, the participants, the data collection instruments and the data collection procedure

Chapter 3 shows the data analysis and discussion in which the detailed description of

data analysis and discussion are explained

Chapter 4 is a summary of the findings and draws out some recommendations that

are good for students, teachers and administrators to raise non-English major freshmen’s self-confidence in learning speaking skills

Part III is the conclusion This part reviews the main findings of the study and looks at

some limitations of the study and proposes suggestions for further studies

1.1 English speaking teaching

1.1.1 Definition of speaking

It is clear that speaking is indispensable means of human communication Many different definitions of speaking have been proposed by famous researchers Chaney,

A.L & Burk, T.L (1998:13) defines that speaking is “the process of building and sharing

meaning through the use of verbal and non – verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts”

According to Byrne, D (1976:8), “speaking is a two-way process between the

speaker(s) and the listener(s) involving the productive skill of speaking and the receptive skill of understanding.” In this process, the speaker and the listener have

different functions The speaker encodes the message in language appropriately, whereas the listener decodes the message Brown, G and Yule, G (1983) also

shares that “speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves

producing, receiving and processing information.” Scott, G (1978) argues that

speaking is considered an activity involving two or more people and both hearers and speakers have to react to what they hear and make their contribution Each participant has an intention or set of intentions - goals that he wants to achieve in the interaction Each participant has to be able to interpret what is said to him; which he cannot predict exactly either in terms of form or in terms of meaning McDonough & J Shaw, C (1993) add that speaking is a skill which enables people to produce utterances when communicating to achieve a particular purpose Therefore, speakers can express their ideas, wishes or opinions, negotiate or solve problems, or establish or maintain social relationships

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In short, different researchers have different concepts of speaking but they all agree with the same view that speaking is a two-way process between the speaker and listener

1.1.2 The Components of Speaking Skill

Both Nurgiyantoro, B (1987:259-260) and Syakur (1987: 3) share the same idea that components of speaking are pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension

• Comprehension: For oral communication certainly requires a subject to respond to speech as well as to initiate it

• Grammar: It concerns with how to arrange a correct sentence in conversation

•Vocabulary: Vocabulary means the appropriate diction which is used in conversation

• Pronunciation: Pronunciation is the students’ way to utter English well and it deals with phonology

• Fluency: It can be defined as the ability to speak fluently and accurately suited

with professional necessity

1.1 3 Teaching speaking

Hornby (1995: 37) defines that teaching is giving the instructions to give a person (knowledge, skills, etc) Speaking means uttering words or articulating sounds with the ordinary voice Thus, teaching speaking is giving instructions to a person to communicate

According to Nunan, D (2003) teaching speaking means teaching English language learners to:

• produce the English speech sounds and sounds patterns

• use words and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language

• select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter

• organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence

1.1.4 Problems with speaking activities

Speaking activities play an important role in a language course with the purpose of improving learners’ ability to express through speech Nevertheless, teachers often face some problems with speaking activities Nurgiyantoro, B (2004:17) and Ur, P (1996) show:

Learners often say that they have no ideas for speaking topics

• Uneven or low participation:

Due to the limitation of time, not all learners have much time to practice speaking English in class In a large group, each student has little time for talking Therefore, only some learners dominate the group whereas other learners speak very little or nothing

• Mother-tongue use:

Learners possessing the same mother tongue have a tendency of using it

in the classroom This makes them feel easier and unnatural to speak in a foreign language

1.1.5 Stages of teaching speaking

Many researchers agree that a speaking lesson consists of three main stages Terry, C (2008) suggests that three main stages are the pre-communicative stage, the practice stage and the communicative interaction stage In the pre-communicative stage, the teacher introduces the communicative function, emphasizes the fixed

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expressions, shows the target structure and provides students with the necessary vocabulary In the practice stage, the teacher helps and corrects students’ mistakes if necessary In the last stage, the teacher assures negotiation among students and takes note on their mistakes Then the teacher gives students feedback on pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary and asks them to repeat if necessary

According to Methodology course 1- Teaching The Skills written by Nguyen, B (2002:42-43), a speaking lesson should have three stages: pre, while and post

• The Pre-speaking stage

This stage helps students to think about the topic or situation before they speak about it Pre-speaking tasks can be brainstorming, discussion tasks or vocabulary preparation tasks Through these tasks, students select their ideas on the topic and the teacher provides key vocabulary with the students to express their own ideas and teaches students the correct pronunciation of vocabulary so they can have a good stress and intonation in speaking English At this stage, the teacher has to set up a pre-task and organize pair or group work

• The while-speaking stage

At this stage, students work on the while-task individually or in groups without the teacher’s interference to correct any mistakes The teacher does not have to teach much but gives assistance instead In addition, the teacher monitors and assists weak students to complete the task

• The post-speaking stage

The post-speaking stage is the follow-up stage At this time, the teacher asks students to report their work and lets the whole class present what they get from pair

or group work The teacher might give feedback and correct students’ notable and common mistakes

1.2 Self-confidence

1.2.1 Definition of self-confidence

Self-confidence can be understood as “having confidence in yourself and your

ability” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary: 2011) It means that self-confident

Or it means “you are sure you can do things well, that people like you etc”

(Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 5th Edition: 2009)

In other words, self-confidence means the belief of someone in his ability to do something successfully When a person believes that he can do something, he can get success So students’ self-confidence can help them succeed in speaking English fluently

1.2.2 Importance of self-confidence in speaking English

As language learners, confidence is fundamental to communication, and an important catalyst to the whole process and the enjoyment at every step

In language learning, especially speaking, Kelly, L., & Watson, A K (1986:4) point out that students’ confidence is one of the important factors to improve their learning Chen (2003) shares that confidence is a direct factor that affects students spoken English Dornyei, Z (2001) mentions the ways to build students’ confidence by providing experience of success, encouraging the learners and reducing anxiety According to Gander, S L (2006:13-14), many learners feel satisfied and successful when they have achieved at least the independent or fluent levels of proficiency, that make them feel confident in their work Keller has given out an ARCS model (Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction) that specifies four kinds of strategy (cited in Aik, C T., & Tway, D.C., 2006: 31) First, a lesson must gain the attention (A) of the learner according to this model Next, such a lesson must also have relevance (R) for the student and have a perceived value Moreover, a person must also have confidence (C) that is also critical to the learning process as “learners who expect to succeed demonstrate more confidence than learners who expect to fail” (Huett, J., Huett, K., Bray, M., Moller, L., & Young, J., 2008:113) Lastly, satisfaction (S) refers to the positive feelings that come from accomplishments

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Hence, building up students’ self-confidence in learning language skills has to

be one of the top priorities for any teachers Self- confidence is one of the significant factors to drive students to reach their goals If teachers are always aware of raising students’ self-confidence and try to help students to achieve their tasks, students’ confidence will be increased little by little

1.2.3 Factors affecting students’ self-confidence in speaking class

Students’ self-confidence in learning speaking class is impacted by many factors and the major ones will be discussed in the following section

1.2.3.1 Students’ factors

a Students’ language proficiency

There is no doubt that students’ language proficiency is a major factor for their self-confidence in oral activities Rob, E (1985) suggests that proficiency contains the learners’ knowledge of target language; it can be understood as “competence” Proficiency can be considered as linguistic competence or communicative competence Scarcella, R & Oxford, R (1992) points out linguistic competence consists of grammar structures, vocabulary and mechanics (basic sounds of letters, syllables; the appropriate pronunciation of words, intonation and stress elements) Rob, E (1985) also adds that second language proficiency is usually judged in relation to native speaker proficiency

To sum up, the students’ low language proficiency levels can have a direct influence on their self-confidence in learning speaking English as nothing blows a student confidence like standing in front of their classmates and not being able to answer a question As a result, students should be conscious of their difficulties and try to develop their second language proficiency by practicing English frequently

b Students’ attitude

Attitude plays a very important part in language learning According to Chandrasegaran, A (1981), attitude relates to states of emotion and thought for the English language, the learning of English and the culture of English-speaking people Gardner, R (1985:8) shares that individual’s attitude is a reaction which is evaluative

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to some referent or attitude object, inferred from the individual’s belief about the reference Gardner, R C and Larmbert, W E (1972) believe that attitude makes a learner be persistent to purchase an object Language learning attitude has a close

relationship to motivation Spolsky (1998:23) says that “a learner’s attitude affects

the development of motivation” Language learners having intrinsic or extrinsic

motivation will have a more positive attitude than those without motivation or those consider language learning as a compulsory subject

c Students’ psychological factors

Shyness

Shyness is a state of emotion that many students sometimes encounter when they are asked to speak in English class Baldwin, C (2011) claims that students’ feeling of shyness in speaking in front of people makes their mind blank and they do not remember what to say Bowen, T (2005) and Robby, S (2010) explain that shyness is caused by learners’ nature Saurik (2011) urges that almost students have feeling of shyness in speaking a language since they think they will make mistakes when they talk

1.2.3.2 Teachers’ factors

a Teachers’ misconceptions about CLT

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According to Thompson, G (1996: 22-27), teachers often misunderstand about Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in four aspects Firstly, using the CLT method means that teachers do not teach grammar Secondly, using the CLT method means that teachers only teach speaking Thirdly, using the CLT method means that pair work is role play The last one is that using the CLT method means expecting too much from teachers These misconceptions have resulted in teachers’ inappropriate teaching methods

b Inappropriate teacher teaching methods

Inappropriate teacher’s talking time

According to Nunan, D (1991), teacher talk is a very significant part for both the organization of the classroom and the processes of acquisition For the organization and management of the classroom, it is through language that teachers’ implementing their teaching lessons may lead to success or failure For processes of acquisition, teacher talk may be a main source of target language input for the learners An important issue is whether the amount of teacher talk influences learners’ L2 acquisition or foreign language learning Many researchers have found that teachers’ talking time accounts for over 70% of the total talk in the classroom (Chaudron, C, 1988; Cook, V, 2000) It is evident that teacher talk dominating in the class restricts student talking time that allows little opportunity for extended student talk To avoid the overuse of teacher talk, many scholars tend to maximize student talk time and minimize teacher talk time (Harmer, J, 2000)

Inappropriate teacher’s correction

According to Brown, H D (2002: 205), it is students’ errors that show how they acquire the language through strategies Teachers are supposed to correct students’ errors to help them master language in their conversation While some students prefer gentle and clever correction, other students prefer encouragement and frank correction Ur, P (2000) states that students may be unconfident and disappointed if teachers correct their errors insensitively As a result, teachers should be careful and

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sensitive in giving corrections in order that students comprehend and correct their errors comfortably

Inappropriate teacher’s roles

Up to now, many methods of teaching English have come about and CLT approach seems to be the current dominant methodology In CLT approach, students play the centre role in the language classroom However, teachers still have certain roles in the classroom and teachers’ roles can bring about the success or failure of the classroom

Breen, M & Candlin, C N (1980) propose that the teacher has three main roles in a speaking class: a facilitator, a participant and an observer Harmer, J (1999: 57) argues that teachers’ roles in the classroom can be classified as a controller, an organizer, an assessor, a prompter, a participant, a resource, a tutor and an observer Byrne, D (1986: 2) identifies the roles of teachers basing on three corresponding stages of teaching speaking At the first stage – the presentation stage, teachers as an informant prepares materials and presents the language items to the students At this stage, teachers allocate time properly so students can have enough time for speaking activities At the second stage- the practice stage, teachers as a conductor provides as many opportunities as possible for students to practice the new language items At the last stage – the production stage, teachers act as a manager and a guide Teachers encourage students to use the language freely and comment on their performance at the end of the presentation

c Teacher’s characteristics

In addition to teaching methods, teachers’ characteristics have a great influence

on students’ self-confidence Whitty, G (1996: 89) mentions two types of qualities of a successful professional teacher They are professional characteristics and professional competences The former obtains professional values, personal and professional development, communication, relationships, synthesis and application The latter contains knowledge and understanding of children and their learning, subject knowledge, curriculum, the education system and the teacher’s role

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Barry, K (1993) proposes that a teacher should be natural, warm, tolerant, pleasant and approachable A teacher possessing these characteristics can build close relationship with their students This relationship has a great impact on creating pleasant classroom atmosphere and developing students’ self-confidence in speaking class

In brief, a teacher may not have all these characteristics Nevertheless, teachers should improve their teaching methods and make a close relationship with their students to help them be self-confident in learning speaking English

1.2.3.3 Objective factors

Difficulties from objective factors affecting students’ self-confidence in speaking class are usually determined by uninteresting topics, lack of materials and inappropriate facilities for language teaching and learning

Facilities for language teaching and learning is involved in classroom physical

condition such as lightness, temperature, fresh air, the layout of the desks or tables, the facilities for displaying picture, charts, etc (Underwood, M., 1987) Classroom facilities have a great effect on students’ learning and their attitude towards the subject Students’ motivation may be also influenced positively or negatively by these conditions

1.2.4 Methods of building students’ self-confidence in speaking English

A large number of methods to build students’ self-confidence in speaking English have been given by numerous researchers so far Nevertheless, just some of the methods are chosen to be presented in the following section as they are in line with what this paper deals with

Teacher is one of the significant factors to promote language teaching effectively in terms of preparing lesson plans, materials and activities and also, acting

as a facilitator in language learning Teachers should research to improve their effective teaching by reflecting in the classroom (Hatch, T., White, M.E., & Capitelli, S., 2005: 323, McIntyre, D., & Rudduck, J., 2005: 360, and Ruthven, K., 2005: 407) According

to Brown, H D (2001), group work activities are very helpful in developing speaking

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skill, confidence and improving vocabulary, pronunciation for students Wiriyachitra,

A (2003: 25) claims that a teacher is the factor to make students have positive or negative attitudes in language learning Considering the teacher factor, Brown, H D (2001) says that the cause of students’ lack of confidence is due to the lack of encouragement from the teacher Thus, encouragement should become an essential thing to increase students’ self-confidence Giving students encouragement to show their ability to communicate in English well contributes to students’ success of learning Byrne, D (1986) adds that teachers should comment students’ speaking activities at the end of the presentation Chu, C W L (2001: 250) sees teachers’ sincerity and trustworthiness to be the key to open the door to the students mind if teachers’ reflective practice is to be successful With the same concern, Pesce, C (2011) contends that it is urgent that teacher creates a friendly and open classroom environment By doing this, shy students are hoped to feel fine of making mistakes in their learning The students will not worry of their imperfect pronunciation and grammar As a result, they dare to speak in their speaking class In term of possible solutions to overcome the students’ lack of confidence, Htwe, Y (2007) proposes the strategy to build students’ confidence He claims that maximizing students’ exposure to English is a good way to build the students’ confidence This will make students experience a sense of ability to speak English Ur, P (1991: 281) also shares some strategies to improve students’ motivation to speak in classroom, in which the principal one is collecting the interesting topics to students

Many researches pertaining to methods to build students’ self-confidence in learning speaking skills in the world as well as in Vietnam have been accomplished until now In these researches, the authors use different ways to build self-confidence for students in speaking English

Firstly, the research “Gaining Speaking Confidence by Mastering Basic

English Questions: Using Enjoyable Games within a Simple Framework” is made by

Loucky, J P (2004) Aiming at building students’ confidence in speaking English, he uses interesting games with basic English questions

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Secondly, the research “Extensive Pair Taping for College Students in Japan:

Action Research in Confidence and Fluency Building” is undertaken by Kubo, M

(2009) In order to enhance students’ confidence and fluency in speaking English, he applies the extensive pair taping method

Thirdly, the research “An Action Research on Increasing the Students’

Confidence in Speaking: An Iranian Experience” is conducted by Doqaruni, V R

(2011) In this study, the author applies a student-centered approach that emphasizes students’ cooperation, interaction and participation in pairs and groups to raise students’ self-confidence in speaking English

Fourthly, the research “Building students’ confidence in English speaking

class through group work at Faculty of Finance and Banking, Vietnam University of Commerce” is implemented by Lien, P (2012) In the first phase, the author uses two

questionnaires, one for five teachers (to search for information about their opinions about group work, suitable group work activities to build confidence for students, group work procedure and problems in organizing group work) and the other for students (to find out students’ attitude to group work, factors affecting their confidence in speaking, their favorite group work activities and their difficulties when working in group) In the second phase, two interviews (one for teachers and the other for students) are carried out in English and Vietnamese between the author, 3 teachers and 10 students Finally, the author observes five English speaking lessons to confirm the reliability and validity of the information about group work activities to build students’ confidence in speaking lessons

These researches have effect towards developing students’ confidence in speaking English Each method has the certain efficiency and motivates students to participate speaking activities that improve their speaking skills much

As for my study, to boost students’ self-confidence in learning speaking skills

I use two research instruments such as questionnaires and interview to figure out factors affecting students’ self-confidence in speaking English and applied methods to develop their self-confidence Finally, thanks to the result of the interview for students

1.3 Summary

In conclusion, this chapter has presented relevant literature, which helps to form the theoretical framework for the study It has discussed the concepts and issues related to speaking skill Besides that, the factors that affect students’ self-confidence

in speaking English and methods to increase their self-confidence in learning speaking skills have also discussed In the next chapter, the methodology and the procedures of the study will be described in details to provide a deep understanding of the research

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter deals with the context of the study, textbook, participants, the data collecting instruments and data collection procedure that have been employed to achieve the aims of the study In order to collect the data, both quantitative and

qualitative methods have been used

2 1 The context of the study

HaUI locates in Minh Khai commune, Tu Liem district, Hanoi Founded in

2005, the faculty of foreign languages at HaUI consists of 128 teachers of English (20 teachers teaching English at English major faculty and 108 ones teaching English at non-English major faculties) The English teaching staffs of the university are 35 years old on average, active, creative and enthusiastic in their work and have made great efforts to teach as well as do scientific researches to contribute effectively to the development

of the university

The students of this university come from various provinces and although most

of them start learning English when they are in grade 6; however, they appear not to

be self-confident in speaking English From teaching experience, observation and discussion with teachers and students at the university, the researcher has found out some main causes, which are currently shared by other universities and institutions in Vietnam Firstly, even speaking is one of the four skills designed in the textbook, high school students do not pay much attention to speaking activities as this skill is not tested at the end of each semester The second cause is that teachers of English at schools themselves also do not place much emphasis on teaching speaking skill because their main concern in the process of teaching is to help students master basic knowledge of grammar for the exams at school The third cause is that some students show shyness when speaking in front of a crowd The fourth cause is that teachers at university do not encourage students to speak English in class The finally cause rises from the lack of vocabulary, structure and incorrect pronunciation making students not self-confident in speaking English In sum, many reasons leading to students’ low

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self-confidence in speaking English have been raised; nevertheless, what factors affect non-English major freshmen’s self-confidence in speaking English at HaUI and what methods raise their self-confidence in learning speaking skills are what the researcher needs to clarify in this paper

2.2 The textbook

The textbook used for non-English major freshmen at HaUI is New Headway Elementary (the third edition) by Liz and John Soars This textbook contains fourteen units and each unit has five components of Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing and Grammar The speaking component is well designed with various activities to suit students at elementary level

2.3 The participants

Apart from the researcher’s experience and observation, information and data

of the study have been collected from non-English major freshmen and teachers teaching English for these students at HaUI

2.3.2 The teachers

In this study, there are 12 teachers (ten female teachers and two male teachers) teaching English for non-English major freshmen K7 (2012-2016) In term of qualification, seven of them have MA degrees and the rest are studying for MA degrees

2.4 The data collecting instruments