An investigation into the difficulties faced by teachers in teaching english speaking skills to mường ethnic students at bac son high school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRỊNH THỊ HOAN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE DIFFICULTIES FACED BY T

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRỊNH THỊ HOAN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE DIFFICULTIES FACED BY TEACHERS IN TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS TO MƯỜNG ETHNIC STUDENTS AT BẮC SƠN HIGH SCHOOL

(Nghiên cư ́ u những khó khăn giáo viên gă ̣p phải trong da ̣y ki ̃ năng nói cho ho ̣c

sinh dân tô ̣c Mường ta ̣i trường THPT Bắc Sơn)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

HA NOI-2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRỊNH THỊ HOAN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE DIFFICULTIES FACED BY TEACHERS IN TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS TO MƯỜNG ETHNIC STUDENTS AT BẮC SƠN HIGH SCHOOL

(Nghiên cư ́ u những khó khăn giáo viên gă ̣p phải trong da ̣y ki ̃ năng nói cho ho ̣c

sinh dân tô ̣c Mường ta ̣i trường THPT Bắc Sơn)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor : Dr Nguyễn Huy Ky ̉

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

BS: Bắc Sơn

ESL: English as a Second Language

ELT: English Language Teaching

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Participants‟ age, gender and years of experience

Table 2: Teachers' ideas about teaching speaking skills to Mườ ng ethnic minority

students

Table 3: Teachers‟ attitude towards teaching English speaking skills in the

textbook “English 11”

Table 4: Teachers‟ ideas about CLT

Table 5: Teachers‟ difficulties in teaching English speaking skills

Table 6: Teachers‟ attitude towards learners keeping making mistakes and ways

to correct them

Table 7: Teachers‟ techniques applied currently in teaching speaking to reduce

the difficulties and to encourage students to speak English

Table 8: Students‟ opinions on the speaking topics presented in the textbook “

Tiếng Anh 11”

Table 9: Students‟ reasons for learning English

Table 10: Students‟ attitudes towards learning English speaking skills

Table 11: Factors that make students unwilling to speak in English

Table 12: Students‟ ideas about teachers‟ reactions to their mistakes

Table 13: Students‟ ideas about their teachers‟ current techniques used for

teaching English speaking skills

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP……… i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……… ………… ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ……….………… iv

LIST OF TABLES ……….………….… v

Part A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale……… 1

2 Aims of the study……… 2

3 Research questions……… …… 2

4 Scope of the study……… 2

5 Methods of the study……… ……… ….3

6 Design of the study……… … 3

Part B: DEVELOPMENT……… …… ….4

Chapter 1 : LITERATURE REVIEW……….… 4

1.1 An overview of Communicative Language Teaching 4

1.1.1 Definitions of Communicative Language Teaching 4

1.1.2 Characteristics of Communicative Language Teaching… … 5

1.1.3 Roles of teachers in CLT 6

1.1.4 Roles of learners in CLT 6

1.2 Nature of Language skills and oral communication 6

1.2.1 Nature of Language skills 6

1.2.2 Oral communication 7

1.3 An overview of speaking in language teaching and learning 8

1.3.1 Definitions of speaking 8

1.3.2 The characteristics of speaking 8

1.3.3 The role of speaking in language teaching and learning 9

1.3.4 Approaches to the teaching of speaking 10

1.4 Summary……… … 12

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 13

2.1 Research setting 13

2.1.1 An overview of the research site 13

2.1.2 Description of the teachers of English at Bắc Sơn high school 13

2.1.3 Description of the students at Bắc Sơn high school 14

2.1.4 The teaching and learning English speaking skills 14

2.2 Methodology study 15

2.2.1 Participants 15

2.2.2 The Instruments 16

2.3 Data collection and analysis procedure 17

2.3.1 Data collection 17

2.3.2 Data analysis 17

2.4 Summary 17

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS 18

3.1 Data analysis of teachers‟ survey questionnaire 18

3.2 Data analysis of students‟ survey questionnaire 26

3.3 Summary 33

CHAPTER 4: MAJOR FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 35

4.1 Summary of the findings 35

4.1.1 Difficulties from the teachers 35

4.1.1.1 Shortage of Training in CLT .35

4.1.1.2 Misunderstanding of the teaching method 35

4.1.2 Difficulties from the students 36

4.1.2.1 Limited English proficiency 36

4.1.2.2 Limited motivation in learning 36

4.1.2.3 Use of Vietnamese during pair work or group work 36

4.1.2.4 Students‟ negative psychological factors 37

4.1.3 Other difficulties 37

4.1.3.1 Large size of the class 37

4.1.3.2 Difficulties from the textbook “ Tiếng Anh 11” 37

4.2 Recommendations 38

4.2.1 Improving CLT knowledge for the teachers 38

4.2.2 Making speaking communicative activities 38

4.2.3 Building positive environment in class 40

4.3 Summary 40

Part C: CONCLUSION 41

1.Conclusions 41

2 Limitations of the study……… ….41

3 Suggestions for further study……… …… 42

REFERENCES 43 APPENDICES I APPENDIX A I APPENDIX B V APPENDIX C VIII

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

As we know that we are living in the world of globalization English is a common language and is spoken in many countries It is considered as universal language in many fields such as: science, technology, diplomacy and so on Most of the universities worldwide include English as one of their major subjects Vietnam is also competing with the other countries in terms of education and many other things Hence, we are forced to meet global standards

In Vietnam, English has become a compulsory subject in the curriculum and it is considered as one of the major subjects for the national secondary school and high school examinations Ministry of Education and Training in Vietnam (2006) has stated that the objective of language teaching is teaching learners to communicate fluently, appropriately and spontaneously in the cultural context of the target language In recent years, the study

of English has gained momentum because it is partly the change in education policies of our government The number of people who wish to know and master English has become more and more increasing, especially since Vietnam adopted an open-door policy, teaching and learning English have been paid much attention to

There still exist many difficulties facing English language teachers in Vietnam in general and English language teachers at Bắc S ơn high school in particular in teaching speaking skills to students The teachers of English at Bắc Sơn high school find it difficult

to teach speaking successfully because of remote and mountainous area, ethnic majority students, students‟ low level, students‟ poor living conditions, lack of materials and facilities

The teaching and learning English process at Bắc S ơn high school seems to still focus too much on grammar and structures Students are very good at doing exercises of written forms, these forms of exercises mostly concern grammar, reading or writing comprehension The consequence is that students have many difficulties in speaking There are many students who have perfect knowledge of grammar but can‟t express

themselves to the teacher Therefore, they usually keep quiet and lazy during speaking

lessons It is very difficult to make them participate in speaking activities

All of the above reasons have inspired the author to do the research on “An

investigation into the difficulties faced by teachers in teaching English speaking skills

to Mườ ng ethnic students at Bắc S ơn high school” with the hope to investigate the

teachers‟ difficulties in teaching English speaking, then I will present some recommendations that can help the teachers overcome those difficulties, and thereby make a small contribution to the quality of teaching and learning speaking skills at Bắc Sơn high school

2 Aims of the study

The study is aimed at:

- Investigating the current situation of teaching and learning of speaking skills at Bắc Sơn high school

- Identifying the difficulties and obstacles that the teachers at Bắc Sơn high school have faced when teaching speaking skills

- Making some suggestions for the teachers at Bắc S ơn high school with the hope of helping the students overcome their inhibition, and thereby improve students‟ speaking skills

3 Research questions

My study aims at answering the following research questions:

- What are the current techniques of teaching speaking skills used at Bắc S ơn high school?

- What kinds of difficulties do the teachers at Bắc Sơn high school often meet in teaching English speaking skills to Mường ethnic students?

- What are the most effective ways that help the teachers at Bắc Sơn high school to overcome these difficulties?

4 Scope of the study

The researcher only intends to give a brief overview of current English speaking teaching and learning situations of grade 11 students at Bắc Sơn high school, and to focus

on the difficulties that the English language teachers have met when teaching speaking skills to the minority students at Bắc S ơn high school and then offer some implications and activities with the hope that teaching and learning speaking skills will be improved The study of difficulties, some suggested solutions to other skills and levels would be beyond the scope of the study

5 Methods of the study

To realize the objectives of the study, qualitative and quantitative methods will be used The data collected for the study will mainly from two sources: 140 students of 11thgrade and 4 teachers of English at Bắc S ơn high school Survey questions are used to collect information and evidence for the study

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

6 Design of the study

This study consists of three parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion

 Part A: Introduction

 Part B: Development

The development comprises four chapters:

+ Chapter 1 : Literature Review

+ Chapter 2 : Research Methodology

+ Chapter 3 : Data analysis

+ Chapter 4: Findings and Recommendations

 Part C: Conclusion

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents the theoretical background of the research concerning CLT, nature of language skills, and an overview of speaking skill in language teaching and

learning

1.1 An overview of Communicative Language Teaching

1.1.1 Definitions of Communicative Language Teaching

Communicative Language Teaching is a prominent theoretical model in English Language Teaching (ELT) and CLT is accepted by many applied linguists and teachers as one of the effective approaches Since its first appearance in Europe in early 1970s and subsequent development in English as a Second Language countries over the past 20 years, CLT has extended in scope and has been used by different educators in different ways A number of research studies have been conducted and much effort has been put into discussion on the implementation of CLT in EFL

So far, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has been viewed differently by

different authors:

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Communicative language teaching (CLT), or the communicative approach, is an approach to language teaching that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of study

According to Littlewood (1981:1), "one of the most characteristic features of

communicative language teaching is that it pays systematic attention to functional as well

as structural aspects of language, combining these into a more fully communicative view" CLT advocates to go beyond teaching grammatical rules of the target language,

and recommend that, by using the target language in a meaningful way, learners will develop communicative competence

CLT emphasizes on learners-centered teaching According to Savignon

(1983:263), "Communicative Language Teaching has become a term for methods and

curricula that embrace both the goals and the processes of classroom learning, for teaching practice that views competence in terms of social interaction” Li (1998:679)

also added that CLT requires teachers to develop materials based on the needs of a

particular class and "students must be made to feel secure, unthreatened, and

According to Nunan (1989: 194), Communicative Language Teaching means:

CLT views language as a system for the expression of meaning Activities

involve oral communication, carrying out meaning 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

It is thought that the definition contains aspects that are common to many other definitions The definitions above, as with any definitions of the language teaching method (Penny Cook, 1989), represents a particular view of understanding and explaining language acquisition It is socially constructed and must be seen as a product of social, cultural, economic, and political forces

1.1.2 Characteristics of Communicative Language Teaching

In approaches and methods in language teaching

Richards and Rodgers (2001) summarized the communicative view of language as:

• Language is a system for the expression of meaning

• The primary function of language is to allow interaction and communication

• The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses

• The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning

So the communicative approach views language as a system through which the meaning

is expressed perfectly Its main function is to permit interaction and communication; the primary elements of language are not only grammatical and structural features but also the functional and communicative meaning

Another characteristic of CLT is the introduction of authentic material (Dublin, 1995; Larsen- Freeman, 1986; Long and Crooks, 1992; Nunan, 1990) In CLT, it is considered desirable to give learners the opportunity to response to genuine communicative needs in realistic L2 situations so that they develop strategies for understanding language as actually used by native speakers (Canale and Swain, 1980)

1.1.3 Roles of the teachers in CLT

There are quite a few roles for teachers in CLT which are determined by the view

of CLT According to Breen and Candlin in article “The essentials of a communicative curriculum in language teaching” there are two main roles of a teacher in CLT class rooms The first role is to facilitate the communication process among all the students in the classroom and the different type of activities and texts Secondly, a teacher has to act as an independent participant within the learning teaching groups The teacher is also expected to act as a resource, an organizer of resources, a motivator, a counselor, a guide and a researcher (Richards & Rodgers, 2001)

1.2 Nature of Language skills and oral communication

1.2.1 Nature of Language skills

It is known that language communication involves several language skills On the teaching points of views, language skills consist mainly of four- macro skills ( listening,

speaking, reading and writing) which are inter- related That is why students of English are required to have an adequate mastery of the four – macro skills Nevertheless, the degree of fluency of each skill, which a learner requires, depends on the course purposes The first two skills, listening and speaking, are called the oral skills due to the manners by which they are formed (they are related to articulator organs) The last two, reading and writing, are called the literacy skills as they connect with manual script

Of the four skills, speaking plays a very important role since it is the step to identify who knows and does not know a language Anyone who knows a foreign language can speak that language So, we begin with speaking, because after learning to speak, it is easier to develop reading and writing skills in the foreign language classroom However, language teachers have found it is difficult to develop their students‟ speaking skills after reading and writing

1.2.2 Oral communication

Communication is the exchange of ideas, information between two or more persons When communication takes place, speakers feel the need to speak, want something to happen such as expressing pleasure, charming listeners, etc and select the language they think is appropriate for their purpose

Pattison (1987) states that oral communication must include speaking and listening It means that there exist at least two participants: speaker(s) and listener(s) in a conversation When the speaker starts the massage, the listener decodes and responds to the message in turns

According to Byrne (1991:9), “the nature of oral communication is comprehended a two- way process between the speaker and the listener Oral communication is effective only when the learners are supplied with oral skills” In organizing classroom oral practice, teachers should create as much information gaps as possible and teachers‟ vital duty is to encourage communication which yields information gaps But teachers must take into account the reality of oral communication practice inside the classroom which differs from that of communication in the real - life world

As for Pattison (1987) classroom oral practices have five characteristics: (1) the

content or topic is predictable and decided by teachers, books, tapes, etc; (2) learners’ aims in speaking are to practice speaking, to follow teachers’ instructions and to get good marks; (3) learners’ extrinsic motivation is satisfied; (4) participants are often a large group; (5) language from teachers or tapes is closely adapted to learners’ level

However, not all people are good communicators By becoming an effective communicator one will be able to conduct himself in a variety of personal, professional, and academic environments with confidence

1.3 An overview of speaking in language teaching and learning

1.3.1 Definitions of speaking

Speaking is described as an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information Speaking depends on the context or the situation Context includes the physical environment, the purposes for speaking are more often spontaneous, open ended, and evolving Speaking requires learners to not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary but also that they understand when, where, why and in what ways to produce language

According to Brown and Yule (1983), spoken language consists of short, fragmentary utterances in a range of pronunciation However, speaking is a skill, which deserves attention as much as literacy skills in both first and second language because our learners often need to speak with confidence in order to carry out a lot of their most basic transactions (Bygate 1991) Furthermore, speaking is known with two main types of conversation called dialogue and monologue

Another author examining the nature of speaking is Bygate ( 1987), who shows that

in order to be able to speak a foreign language, it is obviously necessary to have micro- linguistic skills, that is, to understand some grammar, vocabulary and the rules governing how words are put together to form sentences However, these motor- perceptive skills, as Bygate calls them, are not sufficient since while producing sentences, we often have to adapt them to the circumstances He then presents the second set of speaking skills: the

interaction skills, which involve using knowledge and basic motor- perception skills in deciding what to say and how to say it, while maintaining the intended relation with others

1.3.2 The characteristics of speaking

According to Bygate (1985), in almost speaking, the person to whom we are speaking is in front of us and able to put us right if we make mistakes He or she can generally show agreement and understanding or incomprehension and disagreement as well Unlike readers or writers, speakers may need patience and imagination, too While talking, speakers need to take notice of the other and allow listeners chance to speak It means that we often take turns to speak

According to Bygate (1987, 22) both speakers and listeners, besides being good at processing spoken words should be „good communicators‟, which means „good at saying what they want to say in a way which the listener finds understandable‟ This means being able to possess interaction skills Communication of meaning then depends on two kinds

of skills: routines, and negotiation skills

To begin with, routines are the typical patterns in which speakers organize what they have to communicate There are two kinds of routines: information routines, and interaction routines The information routines include frequently recurring types of information structures involved in, for example, stories, descriptions, comparisons, or instructions

The interaction routines, on the other hand, present the characteristic ways, in which interactions are organized dealing with the logical organization and order of the parts of conversation Interaction routines can typically be observed in, for example, telephone conversations, interviews, or conversations at the party (Bygate 1987, 23-27)

To sum up, in learning speaking skills, the learners can be much more confident with clear understanding and governing these skills Moreover, the oral skill depends much on knowledge of language they can learn such as grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary

1.3.3 The role of speaking in language teaching and learning

It can not be denied that in our daily lives most of us speak more than we write Speaking when compared with writing is the essential form of language and writing is ranked second after it and derived from it About the role of speaking, Bygate (1987: vii) points out that “It is the vehicle of social solidarity, of social ranking, of professional

advancement and of business”

In language teaching and learning, speaking is a medium through which many other skills are learnt, and which is particularly useful for learning.The ability to communicate

in a second language clearly and efficiently contributes to the success of the learners in school and success later in every phase of life More than this, speaking is regarded as the first step to confirm who knows or does not know a language Ur, P (1996) shows that people who know a language are referred to as “ speakers” of that language as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing

Therefore, having dealt with the importance of oral skills in language teaching and learning, it is essential that language teachers should pay great attention to teaching speaking skills

1.3.4 Approaches to the teaching of speaking

According to Byrne (1991:23- 24), there are three phases to develop learners‟ oral ability:

Phase 1: The presentation phase

In this phase, teachers are centre They work as an information provider as they know English, select materials and the ways to present the materials Byrne (1991, 13) divides the roles of the teacher according to the type of interaction activity distinguishing between fluency and accuracy activities During this phase the teacher most frequently adopts the roles of manager, conductor, organizer and monitor And in this first phase, students usually observe and listen to the teacher, i.e they passively receive information

As we know, oral materials are written mainly in two forms in every course They are dialogues and prose Thus, it is obviously that these two different forms need presenting

in different ways

Byrne, D (1991) summaries ten different steps to present a dialogue as follows:

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

2 Draw out learners‟ experience related to situation

3 Explain some key words

4 Set the listening task by asking key information of the dialogue

5 Ask learners to listen without looking at the dialogue

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

7 Ask learners to listen and repeat

8 Ask learners to pick up difficulties and explain them

9 Ask them to practice ( role- play)

10 Ask them to dramatize the dialogue

From the steps above, we can see that the procedure is perfectly and logically arranged However, not all of them need to use for presenting a dialogue, it depends on the learners‟ English competence so some steps can be left out

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

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

2 Introduce the text New words and structures are given

3 Provide relevant practice

4 Set the reading task: make questions

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

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

7 Explain difficulties they still have

8 Do silent reading again because learners need to go on with step nine

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

Phase 2: The practice phase

In this phase learners have to do most of the talking Teachers provides maximum amount of practice to help learners improve vocabulary and grammar knowledge as well

as fluency of speaking Pairwork or groupwork are used in this phase

Phase 3: The production phase

Learners are given chances to speak English freely at this phase Being in a real situation, learners use English by themselves, not depend on the teacher They can develop their own ideas and their friends‟ ideas Pair work and group play an important part in making learners practice speaking By doing group work learners have chance to participate in talks: Moreover, this can save a great deal of time and learners seem to be more confident

1.4 Summary

In this chapter, the author has reviewed the theories from the famous linguistics and methodologists on some aspects of language teaching such as “Communicative Language Teaching”, “characteristics of Communicative Language Teaching”, “Nature of Language skills and oral communication” and the theories on some concepts such as “The nature of speaking skills” It includes the definitions, the characteristics of speaking and the role of speaking in language teaching and learning The following chapters will present the investigation, the findings and suggested solutions to the problems under the light of the above mentioned theories

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the setting of the research, participants, instruments as well

as the procedures of collecting and analyzing data

2.1 Research setting

2.1.1 An overview of the research site

Ngọc Lặ c is a mountainous district in the NorthWest of Thanh Hó a province, where over 80 % of the population belongs to Mườ ng ethnic minority group, and where there have been many difficulties in life as well as in educational development, especially

in teaching a foreign language like English

The school in my study, named Bắc Sơn high school was established in 2006 It is a mountainous and remote school At present, there are 19 classes with about 900 students The teaching placed into three different grades: grade 10, 11, and 12

The teaching staff composes of 40 teachers (20 are females and the others are males) Most of them are young, enthusiastic and creative

2.1.2 Description of the teachers of English at BS high school

At BS high school, there are five teachers of English currently working Three are female and the rest are male, at the age of from 26 to 37 Their experience in teaching English varies from 4 years to 10 years Two of them graduated from Ha Noi Foreign Languages University, the others were from Hong Duc University in Thanh Hóa province It is proved that all of them are qualified and experienced English teachers However, some get used to speech dominated education by a teacher-centered, book-centered, Grammar Translation Method Others even do not have a thorough grasp of the content of the curriculum and the new textbook, it results in confusion in teaching methods

The English teachers at Bắc S ơn school have to teach 2 to 5 classes In these classes, the number of pupils who belong to Mườ ng ethnic group are large The class size

is large (45 – 55) so the teachers can not control the classes effectively Moreover, the teaching materials are not available for all of the students

Most of the teachers are from different regions of Thanh Hóa province Therefore,

in their teaching, they meet many difficulties and numerous culture shocks

2.1.3 Description of the students at BS high school

The school has 19 classes with over 900 students ranged from grade 10 to grade 12 They are aged from 16 to 18 Most of them come from poor and large families with low income in the remote villages After finishing school, they spend most of their time helping their parents do farming and housework Their homework must be neglected Also, their parents are too busy to help them with their lessons In their minds, schooling

is their children's responsibility and teachers' charge, so they rarely pay attention to their children‟s schoolings or encourage them to learn hard Consequently, they are not provided with good learning conditions

The students do not have the same level of English language proficiency Some of them have learned English for 7 years at junior and senior high schools; some have only learned English for 3 years while a few have never learned English Although some of them study English rather well, they are only good at grammar, not speaking They are likely to do grammatical exercises very quickly and well at their level but they cannot speak fluently about some common topics, and most of them do not feel self-confident or even a bit frightened in communicating in English That was the reason why most of students feel bored and unmotivated in speaking classes

Mường is their first language, they always use it everyday to communicate with their parents and other members of their communities They only use Vietnamese at schools or

at public places, so their Vietnamese competence is still limited

Therefore, as for teachers from other regions, in their teaching process, they find it hard to understand their students and have to make greater efforts to encourage them to use Vietnamese or English when in class

To sum up, teaching English in general and teaching English speaking in particular for ethnic minority students in the remote mountainous area has long been a difficult issue

2.1.4 The teaching and learning English speaking skills

Nowadays, along with the strengthening position of English as a language for international communication, the teaching of speaking skill is also important due to the large number of students who want to study English in order to be able to use English for communicative purposes The skill of speaking has been recently considered by many methodologists a priority in language teaching Of all the four skills, speaking seems intuitively the most important

English teaching and learning at Bắc Sơn high school is quite different from that in other developed regions in Vietnam They are affected by some factors that come from students side such as: family background, large class size, lack of motivation and confidence, low English proficiency, low participation in class In summary, students at

BS high school may be considered to have more disadvantages of learning English speaking skills than at other schools

Besides, lack of training in new teaching methods, especially CLT makes it difficult for the teachers to teach English speaking skills All the above factors make the teaching and learning speaking skills more challenging

2.2 Methodology

2.2.1.Participants

In order to get the data for the study, 140 students from three classes and four teachers

of BS high school are the research objects

140 students are at grade 11 Most of them are at the age of 17, so they belong to the same psychological age group They are 65 females and 55 males Their time length of English learning is different Most of them belong to Mườ ng ethnic minority The students were chosen randomly without any previous fixed criteria They were explained that their responses to the questionnaires were anonymous This encouraged the subjects

to answer the questions straightforwardly and genuinely

Four teachers who are teaching at the school are invited to participate in the research They come from different regions Their ages range from 26 to 37 Two are females and the rest are males Their time length of teaching English is different: minimum is 4 years and maximum is 10 years The variety in the participants‟ age, sex,

qualification and teaching experience is expected to provide reliability and validity for the study

2.2.2 The instruments

In order to get information, the main data collection instruments for this study were two questionnaires for both students and teachers The researcher only used survey questionnaire as the instrument because of its convenience and the limitation of scope of this study Questionnaires were chosen because they are one of the most popular instruments in collecting data It is quite easy to prepare and it can be given to large groups of subjects at the same time Hence, the data will be more accurate In addition, the information collected is not so difficult to tabulate and analyze

a, The questionnaire for teachers

The purpose of this questionnaire was to find out the teachers‟ perception of CLT, the difficulties they have encountered in their teaching of speaking skills and their techniques and methods in dealing with these difficulties

At the beginning of January 2013, the author did a survey on this topic to develop

an appropriate survey instrument for this study The final questionnaire was administered

to 4 teachers teaching at Bắc Sơn school at the end of January 2013 Questionnaire (see appendix A) was designed for the teachers It consisted of 15 questions that were classified into categories:

• Teachers‟ ideas about teaching speaking skills to Mường ethnic minority students

• Teachers‟ attitude towards English speaking skills the textbook “Tiếng Anh 11”

• Teachers‟ ideas about CLT

• Teachers‟ difficulties in teaching English speaking skills

• Teachers‟ attitude towards learners keeping making mistakes and ways to correct them

• Teachers‟ techniques applied currently in teaching speaking to reduce the difficulties

and to encourage students to speak English

• Teacher‟s ideas

b, The questionnaire for students

At the same time, questions were distributed to 140 ethnic students To ensure that the students have right understanding of the questions, the teacher translated the questions into Vietnamese one by one It consisted of 13 questions that were classified into categories:

• Students‟ English background

• Students‟ opinions on the speaking topics presented in the textbook “ Tiếng Anh 11”

• Students‟ reasons for learning English

• Students‟ attitudes towards learning English speaking skills

• Factors that make students unwilling to speak in English

• Students‟ ideas about teachers‟ reactions to their mistakes

• Students‟ ideas about their teachers‟current techniques used for teaching English speaking skills

• Students‟ expectations toward their teachers

2.3 Data collection and analysis procedure

In the study, the way to gain data was in form of questionnaire The answers given

by the teachers and students in response to the questions were categorized by the researcher Each of the categories was then computed and the data were selected statistically in the form of tables and percentages

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS

This chapter aims at analyzing the data collected A careful analysis is clearly presented to investigate the difficulties of teachers in teaching speaking to Mường students

3.1 Data analysis of teachers’ survey questionnaire

The findings from the teacher questionnaire are categorized into sub-sections as in Table 1 will be summarized in table 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7

• Participants’ age, gender and years of experience

The first part is about demographic information only These results are reported in Table 1 to describe the sample of participants that are surveyed

Table 1 Participants’ age, gender and years of experience

6-10 2

The questionnaire for teachers consisting of 14 questions is designed to find out the information concerning aspects The questions and respones to them are presented in the headings below:

students

Table 2

at Bắc Sơn high school?

B Not very difficult 0%

The purpose of the question 1 in the questionaire for the teachers is to find out the teachers‟ attitudes about teaching speaking skills to Mường students at Bắc S ơn high school All of them admit that teaching teaching to these students is really difficult

3.1.2 Teachers’ attitude towards teaching English speaking skills in the textbook

B Normal book (various topics, but some of them aren‟t appropriate,

real situations, few interesting activities)

As presented in table 3, three of four teachers (75%) suppose that the textbook

“Tiếng Anh 11” is normal, no one (0%) agrees that it is a good book or a bad book and

one of them (25%) states that the textbook which was designed in the light of CLT is not totally appropriate for the examination which just focus on grammar not on fluency

The statistics of question 3 show that, half of the teachers in the survey (50%) reveal that the time for practicing speaking is enough while the same number of them (50%) affirm that the time is not enough The reason for the difference is that many teachers might not use class time reasonably Thus, the statistics results above show that

the textbook may become an obstacles in teaching speaking skills

3.1.3 Teachers’ ideas about CLT

Table 4

Question 4 Have you ever been trained in Communicative Language Teaching?

A Yes, in English Language Teaching workshops 0%

B Yes, in English Teaching- Training courses 50%

C No, I have never been trained in CLT 25%

D Others ( Please specify)……… 25%

Question 5 As for you, CLT: (You may circle more than one)

C Involves teaching speaking only, not other skills 25%

D Always emphasizes fluency over accuracy 50%

E Is an effective approach for your students 50%

The data in table 4 show that only two teachers have been trained in CLT in English Teaching- Training courses 25% have never received formal CLT training and the same number improved the knowledge of CLT by self-studying This data suggests that some teachers do not have many chances to understand about CLT This causes the difficulties which influenced the CLT application in teaching speaking skills

As regards the response to question 5, a majority of the teachers (75%) believe that CLT is “learner-centered” A half of the teachers (50%) affirm that CLT always

Only one of them (25%) thinks that CLT does not teach grammar and there is still a minority of the subjects (25%) to put it that CLT only concentrates on speaking skill, not

on other skills

According to what the teachers thought of CLT it is drawn out that the teachers at BS high school have basic knowledge of CLT However, their understanding of this approach

is not sufficient, which is a hindrance to their adopting CLT in teaching speaking skills

3.1.4 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching English speaking skills

Question 7 What are the difficulties you have faced in teaching speaking skills to

Mường ethnic students in grade 11 at Bắc Sơn high school? (You may circle

more than one)

A Students‟ low level of English proficiency 100%

D Students‟ negative psychological factors (fear of mistake, shyness,

anxiety, lack of confidence )

75%

E Students‟ use of mother - tongue language and making noise during

groupwork or pairwork

100%

G Students‟ limited cultural knowledge 25%

The table reveals some difficulties that teachers encounter in teaching speaking skills to the minority students Question 6 asks about the average number of students in

the English class One of the biggest problems is large sized - classes Many teachers have to teach in classes with over 50 students and most of them (75%) affirm this problem It‟s an obvious obstacle that it is difficult to manage the class as well as organize classroom activities in such classes The same number of the respondents (75%) confirm that the students‟ negative psychological factors is a constraint for them 50% find it hard

to teach speaking because of difficult speaking topics Many teachers (75%) accept that the trouble to their teaching is the students‟ lack of motivation All the teachers (100%) in the school have the same idea that students‟ low level of English proficiency and students‟ use of mother- tongue language and make noise during groupwork or pairwork prevent them from teaching speaking skills Only one teacher (25%) emphasizes that students‟ limited cultural knowledge is challenging problem to her.These findings reflect the problems of teachers faced at high school

3.1.5 Teachers’ attitude towards learners keeping making mistakes and ways to correct them

C Interrupt them and correct 50%

D Get angry when they keep making the same mistakes 0%

The responses in question 8 in table 6 show that all teachers give correction but the frequency is different 25% of the teachers very often correct mistakes and the same number (25%) not very often do so Half of them (50%) often give feedback to their students‟ errors

In question 9, the participants are asked about their manners of mistake correction All teachers have never been angry with their students‟ mistakes One of them (25%) is very tolerant She just keeps silent until the students have finished their task, smile and encourage them to go on The same number of the respondents (25%) confirm that he keeps quiet but not willing enough to smile and supportive, while two others (50%) frequently interrupt and correct their students when they are speaking instead of keeping silent until they finish their presentation and correct later

We can come to conclusion that the ways that teachers use to correct students‟ mistakes are not suitable It is known that impatience and intolerance in any situation, especially in teaching bring out not good effect

3.1.6 Teachers’ techniques applied currently in teaching speaking to reduce the difficulties and to encourage students to speak English

Table 7

Question 10 What do you do to deal with students’ low-level English proficiency? (You may circle more than one)

B Organize simple communicative activities 75%

D Give learners assistance or chances to obtain assistance from friends 50%

Question 11 What do you do when your students show low motivation in speaking lessons? (You may circle more than one)