Teachers perceived difficulties in teaching speaking skill for pre intermediate classes at academy of finance in the light of CLT

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ THU NHUNG TEACHERS' PERCEIVED DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL FOR PRE-INTERMEDIATE CLASSES AT ACADEMY OF FINANCE IN THE LIGHT OF CLT

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN THỊ THU NHUNG

TEACHERS' PERCEIVED DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL FOR PRE-INTERMEDIATE CLASSES AT ACADEMY OF

FINANCE IN THE LIGHT OF CLT

(KHÓ KHĂN CỦA GIÁO VIÊN TRONG VIỆC DẠY KĨ NĂNG NÓI CHO

CÁC LỚP KHÔNG CHUYÊN TẠI HỌC VIỆN TÀI CHÍNH)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology

Code : 60.14.10

HANOI - 2009

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN THỊ THU NHUNG

TEACHERS' PERCEIVED DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL FOR PRE-INTERMEDIATE CLASSES AT ACADEMY OF

FINANCE IN THE LIGHT OF CLT

(KHÓ KHĂN CỦA GIÁO VIÊN TRONG VIỆC DẠY KĨ NĂNG NÓI CHO

CÁC LỚP KHÔNG CHUYÊN TẠI HỌC VIỆN TÀI CHÍNH)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60.14.10

Supervisor: Nguyễn Thu Hiền - MA

HANOI - 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements i

Abstract ii

List of abbreviations and tables iii

Table of contents iv

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale for the study 1

2 Scope of the study 1

3 Aims and research questions of the study 2

4 Methods of the study 2

5 Organzation of the study 3

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 The overview of CLT 4

2.2 Speaking skill in the light of CLT 5

2.2.1 The nature of speaking skill 5

2.2.2 The importance of teaching speaking skill 5

2.3 The role of the teacher and learners in a speaking lesson 6

2.3.1 The role of the teachers 6

2.3.2 The role of the learners 6

2.4 Speaking activities 7

2.4.1 The characteristics of speaking activities 7

2.4.2 The characteristics of a successful speaking activity 8

2.4.3 Categories of speaking activities 8

2.5 Organization of a speaking activity 11

2.5.1 Whole-class discussion 11

2.5.2 Group work 12

2.5.3 Pair work 13

2.5.4 Individual work 13

2.6 Teachers' perceived difficulties in teaching speaking skill in the light of CLT.13 2.6.1 Difficulties from teachers 13

2.6.2 Difficulties from students 14

2.6.3 Difficulties from Educational system 17

2.7 Summary 27

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Setting of the study 19

3.2 Participants of the study 19

3.3 Data collection instruments 21

3.4 Procedures of data collection and data analysis 22

3.5 Summary 23

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 4.1 The results of the survey questionnaire and the semi-structure interview 24

4.1.1.Difficulties from students 25

4.1.2 Difficulties from teachers 29

4.1.3 Difficulties from educational system 31

4.2 The additional results of the semi-structure interview 33

4.2.1 Warm-up activities 33

4.2.2 Teachers' suggestions to motivate students 34

4.2.3 The formation of the groups 35

4.2.4 Teachers' suggestions to deal with disruptive behaviors 35

4.2.5 Teachers' suggestions in using the textbook Business Basics 36

4.2.6 Teachers' suggestions to deal with the problem of large-sized

classes 36

4.3 Sub-conclusion 36

CHAPTER FIVE: IMPLICATIONS TO COPE WITH TEACHERS' DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL 5.1 Suggestions for warm-up activities 38

5.2 Organization of group work and pair work 38

5.3 Some suggested speaking activities in the classroom 39

5.3.1 Information gap activities 39

5.3.2 Discussion 40

5.3.3 Interview 41

5.3.4 Role play 41

5.4 Creating a supportive and motivational speaking environment 42

5.4.1 Establishing a good relationship between teacher and students 42

5.5.2 Encourage students to speak 43

5.5 Suggestions for teaching speaking in large classes 43

CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION 6.1 Summary 46

6.2 Limitations of the study 46

6.3 Suggestions for the further study 46

REFERENCES 47 APPENDICES I

LIST OF FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS

Figure 1: Teaching English experience

Figure 2: Teachers' education and qualifications

Figure 3: Average number of students in each class

Figure 4: Reported difficulties in teaching speaking skill

Figure 5: Difficulties from students

Figure 6: Difficulties from teachers

Figure 7: Difficulties from Educational system

Figure 8: English teaching schedule for the first term

Figure 9: Some teachers' suggested warm-up activities

Figure 10: Teachers' suggestions to motivate students

Figure 11: Teachers' suggestions to deal with disruptive behaviors

AOF: Academy of Finance

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

EFL: English as Foreign Language

SLA: Second Language Acquisition

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

In the trend of globalization, English – which is considered to be an international language – has become more and more popular and widely used in many countries in the world, including Vietnam In recent years, with the national policy of renovation and expansion of international relations, there has been an increasing need for learning English

in Vietnam

To meet the demand of learners of English, teachers of English in Vietnam have been trying to find out the most suitable and effective methods of teaching English They always try to catch up with the world’s latest frameworks of English Language Teaching Therefore, as in many other countries, teachers of English in Vietnam are now using Communicative Language Teaching Approach (CLT) to teach English to students of all levels They hope that by using this teaching method, they can help their students improve their English and use it effectively and fluently in communication

Having been aware of the necessity of good English knowledge of learners, the Academy of Finance (AOF) has paid considerable attention to update teaching methodologies Of all the teachers’ contribution, those following CLT are highly appreciated for its usefulness to students’ achievement The aspects of greatest concern are: syllabus design, learning strategies, methods of teaching four skills of listening, reading, writing and speaking With the recognition of the importance of developing speaking skill in pre-intermediate students at AOF and hope of helping teachers of English deal better with teaching speaking skill, I would like to do a research on teachers' perceived difficulties in teaching speaking skill for pre-intermediate classes at AOF in the light of CLT

2 Scope of the study

This study is aimed at meeting the need of the non major English first-year students

at AOF on an appropriate way to practice speaking skill The data collection and data analysis therefore are based on the information provided by teachers at AOF who teach English to the first year students during their first semester Materials involved in the strategy training program include the students’ course book and workbook – “Business Basics” written by David Grant and Robert McLarty (1995) and other tasks developed by

the teacher Within the framework of a minor thesis, the author only intends to study teachers' perceived difficulties in teaching speaking skill to the first year students of Academy of Finance Then, this study also gives some suggestions to help the teachers at AOF in particular and at other universities in general to deal better with teaching speaking skill to non-major English students at pre-intermediate level

3 Aims and research questions of the study

Within the framework of a minor MA thesis, the study aims at studying the difficulties teachers perceive when they teach speaking skill to non-major English students

of AOF at pre-intermediate level and providing some suggestions to overcome these difficulties

The researcher wish to find out the questions as follows:

- What are teachers' perceived difficulties in teaching speaking skill to non-major English students of AOF at pre-intermediate level?

- What are teachers' perceived causes of these difficulties?

- What are teachers' suggestions to solve these problems?

4 Methods of the study

To complete the study, qualitative method was used A survey questionnaires and a semi-structure interview were conducted to collect information for the study All comments, remarks, suggestions and conclusion provided in the study based on the analysis of the data collected from the survey and the interview

5 Organzation of the study

My study is divided into six chapters:

► Chapter 1: Introduction briefly states the rationale for the study, aims and research questions, scope, methods and organization of the paper

► Chapter 2: Literature review discusses the literature on CLT, speaking skill, teaching speaking skill, speaking activities, perceived difficulties in teaching speaking skill and causes of these difficulties

► Chapter 3: Methodology presents the methods used to find out data for the study In details, it includes the selection of participants, data collection instruments, procedures of data collection and data analysis

► Chapter 4: Results and discussion present and discuss the results of the questionnaire and semi-structure interview

► Chapter 5: Implication to cope with teachers' perceived difficulties in teaching speaking skill presents useful suggestions to deal with these difficulties

► Chapter 6: Conclusion summarizes the findings, discusses the limitations of the study and provides suggestions for the further study

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter briefly presents the overview of CLT, the nature of speaking skill and the importance of teaching speaking skill, the role of teachers and learners in speaking lessons, speaking activities and their characteristics, and difficulties in teaching speaking skill for non-major students of English

2.1 The overview of CLT

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) which emerged in the 1970s and 1980s

is currently the most favorite and the most widely-used method in English language classes

in Vietnam

Different authors view CLT differently However, most definitions of CLT come under its weak version which emphasizes the importance of opportunities to use English for communicative purposes Among the available definitions, the one given by Nunan

(1989) seems to be the most widely-accepted and the most favorable on As for him, “CLT

views language as a system for the expressions 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 including functional skills as well

as linguistic skills.” Nunan also asserts that in communication process, learners are

negotiators and integrators whereas teachers are facilitators

Whatever its definition is, its goal still remains the same, that is communicative competence The concept of communicative competence was first introduced by Hymes in

1972 and continued to be developed by Canale and Swain (1980), Canale (1983), Bachman (1990), Bachman and Palmer (1996) Canale and Swain (1980) expanded on the theoretical basis of CLT for both teaching and testing In their reaction against an over emphasis on function and a lack of emphasis on grammatical complexity (as was reflected

in Wilkin's functional/notional syllabus and Munby's communicative syllabus), they pointed out that externally oriented communication is not necessarily more essential than other purposes of language such as self-expression, verbal thinking, problem solving, and creative writing

In addition, CLT is usually characterized as an approach to teaching, rather than as

a teaching method with a clearly defined set of classroom practices As such, it is most

often defined as a list of general features One of the most recogninzed of these lists is Nunan's (1991, p.279) five features of CLT:

► An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language

► The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation

► The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also

on the learning process itself

► An enhancement of the learner's own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning

► An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activities outside the classroom

In short, until now CLT has been considered the most comprehensive approach

2.2 Speaking skill in the light of CLT

2.2.1 The nature of speaking skill

Speaking is "an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information" (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce 1997) Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving Speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary (linguistic competence), but also that they understand when, why and in what ways to produce language ("socio-linguistic competence") It has its own skills, structures, and conventions different from written language (Burns & Joyce, 1997; Carter & McCarthy, 1995; Cohen, 1996) A good speaker synthesizes these skills and knowledge to succeed in a given speech act

2.2.2 The importance of teaching speaking skill

For most people, the ability to speak a language is synonymous with knowing that language since speech is the most basic means of human communication Ur (1996) also

pointed out that "of all four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking

seems intuitively the most important, people who know a language are referred to as

"speaker" of that language, as if speaking includes all other skills of knowing" (p.120)

Therefore, from the awareness of the role of speaking skill, it is easily recognized that

teaching speaking skill is so important It creates motivation for students in the process of learning a foreign language because many of them view that learning a language is to use that language to communicate and express ideas The abillity to communicate in a second language clearly and efficiently contributes to the success of the learner in school and success later in every phase of life Therefore, it is essential that language teachers pay great attention to teaching speaking

2.3 The role of the teachers and learners in a speaking lesson

2.3.1 The role of the teachers

Teaching a foreign language is so difficult because the teacher is attemping to teach

in the classroom what is normally learnt outside it, so the teacher plays an important role in developing the ability of the students to use the language they are learning for the purpose

of communication In general, Byrne (1980) states that "the teacher is a means to an end:

and instrument to see that learning takes place As a human being, he is of course a subtle and sensitive instrument who can not be satisfactorily replaced by a mechanical aid" (p.1)

, However, if we are trying to get students to speak fluently, five general roles of teachers

in oral lessons are suggested in Matthews, Spratt and Dangerfield (1990) as the follows:

►Motivator: The teacher as motivator is the single most important role for students

however good at language the teacher is, without motivation they will never learn

►Informant: It is the most obvious role of the teacher He or she plays this role in

the initial presentation, extension of already presented material, revision and explanation

►Conductor: This role is concerned with the practical things a teacher needs to be

able to do in the lesson The teacher must be able to elicit, initiate rules, explain things and answer students' queries, provide a model for students to imitate, give instructions, monitor activities and correct things

►Diagnoser: The teacher must be able to diagnose what should be taught by

showing the need to learn an item and evaluating the learners' errors

►Correctors: The teacher must decide about what, how much, when and how to

correct

2.3.2 The role of the learners

The emphasis in CLT on the process of communication rather than mastery of language forms, leads to different roles for learners from those found in more traditional

second language classrooms Breen and Candlin describe the learner’s role within CLT in the following terms:

The role of learner as negotiator – between the self, the learning process, and the object of learning – emerges from and interacts with the role of joint negotiator within the group and within the classroom procedures and activities which the group undertakes The implication for the learner is that he should contribute as much as he gains, and thereby learn in an interdependent way (1980: 110)

In fact, students have an active role to play in learning process They are participants and performers in activities The measure of a good lesson is the student activity taking place, not the performance of the teacher

2.4 Speaking activities

Since communicative competence became the ultimate goal of teaching a foreign language, speaking activities have played a very important part Students are encouraged and motivated to speak with other students Byrne (1987) states that motivation makes learning more meaningful and effectively Furthermore, research on second language acquisition (SLA) suggests that more learning takes place when students are engaged in relevant tasks within the dynamic learning environment rather than in traditional teacher-led classes (Feldman, 2003)

2.4.1 The characteristics of speaking activities

Acording to Kripple (1991), speaking activities refer to any operation which is used

to consolidate language already taught or acquired and which occurs during the free stage

of a lesson or students can produce meaningful and authentic utterances without the controlling influence of the teacher or the course Ur (1996) also emphasizes that speaking activities “develop learners’ ability to express themselves through speech”, therefore they

“seem an important component of a language course” (p.20)

Harmer (1991) summarizes six characteristics of speaking activities which are widely accepted among researchers: a desire to communicate, a communicative purpose, content not form, variety of language, no teacher intervention, no materials control

When students involve in an activity, if it is to be genuinely communicative, they should have desire to communicate The students should also have some kinds of communicative purposes which should be the most important part of the communication When students have a purpose of this kind, they should be centered on the content of what

is being said, not language forms that are being used The students, however, have to deal with the variety of language rather than one only grammatical structure While students are taking part in communicative activity, the teacher should not intervene because this action means telling students that they are making mistakes, which would undermine the communicative purpose of this activity The last one is no materials control Normally, in a lesson, students have to work with materials which force the use of some certain language

By restricting students’ choice, materials are denying the langauge variety of characteristics which is said to be important for genuine communication

2.4.2 The characteristics of a successful speaking activity

There are no common ideas about charateristics of a successful speaking activity Nevertheless, Ur (1996)’s four characteristics seem to be the most popular

► Learners talk a lot: As mush as possible of the period of time allotted to the

activity is in fact occupied by learner talk

► Participation is even: Classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority of

talkative participants: all get a chance to speak, and contributions are fairly evenly distributed

►Motivation is high: Learners are eager to speak because they are interested in the

topic and have something new to say about it, or because they want to contribute to achieving a task objective

►Learner is of an acceptable level: Learners express themselves in utterances that

are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other, and of an acceptable level of language accuracy

These standards help the teachers evaluate their speaking lessons and also encourage them to find ways to motivate students to have a successful speaking lesson

2.4.3 Some kinds of speaking activities

There are some main types of speaking activities presented in To (2007) such as role play, discussion, opinion sharing activity, reasoning gap activity, and prepared talk Morlin R (2002) introduces some classroom speaking activities as acting from a script, discussion, prepared taks, questionaires, and role play

2.4.3.1 Discussion

“By disscussion is meant any exchange of ideas and opinion either on a class basis, with the teacher as mediator, or within the context of the group, with the students talking among themselves” (Byrne, 1980, p.82)

After a content-based lesson, a discussion can be held for various reasons The students may aim to arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event, or find solutions in their discussion groups Before the dicussion, it is essential that the purpose of the discussion activity is set by the teacher In this way, the discussion points are relevant to this purpose, so that students do not spend their time chatting with each other about irrelevant things For example, students can become involved in agree/disagree discussions In this type of discussions, the teacher can form groups of students, preferably

4 or 5 in each group, and provide controversial sentences like “people can learn best when they read vs people learn best when they travel” Then each groups works on their topic for a given time period, and presents their opinions to the class It is essential that the speaking should be equally divided among group members At the end, the class decides

on the winning group who defended the idea in the best way This activity fosters critical thinking and quick decision making, and students learn how to express and justify themselves in polite ways while disagreeing with the others For efficient group discussions, it is always better not to form large groups, because quiet students may avoid contributing in large groups

2.4.3.2 A role play

One other way of getting students to speak is role-playing Students pretend they are in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles In role-play activities, the teacher gives information to the learners such as who they are and what they think or feel Thus the teacher can tell the students that “You are David, you go to the doctor and tell him what happened last night, and …” (Harmer, 1984) Role play often goes with role cards in which different roles of students are written clearly For example:

Role card A: You are a customer on a cake shop You want a birthday cake for a friend

He or she is very fond of chocolate

Role card B: You are a shop assistant in a cake shop You have many kinds of cakes but

not chocolate (Ur, 1996, p.132)

Role play provides the opportunity for students to develop and revise their understanding and perspectives by exploring thoughts and feelings of characters in given situations The teacher may take a role, becoming an active participant in promoting independent thinking and co-operative learning

2.4.3.3 An opinion-sharing activity

It involes identifying and articulating a personal preference, feeling, or attitude The activity may require using factual information, formulating arguments, and justifying one’s opinions For some topics, there may be no right or wrong responses and no reason to expect the same answers or responses from different individuals or different groups For example, the teacher divides the class into several groups that will discuss or describe a common object from different perspectives After all groups finish, the teacher asks the groups to report to the rest of the class Example: Describe a television set from one of the following points of view:

Group 1: prehistoric people

Group 2: modern people

Group 3: people from the future

Group 4: people from another planet

2.4.3.4 A Reasoning gap activity

It involves deriving some new information from given information through the process of inference or deduction and the perception of relationships or patterns The activities necessarily involve comprehending and conveying information In this activity, students are supposed to be working in pairs One student will have the information that other partner does not have and the partners will share their information Thus this activity serves many purposes such as solving a problem or collecting information Also, each partner plays an important role because the task can not be completed if the partners do not provide the information the others need This activity is effective because everybody has the opportunity to talk extensively in the target lalnguage

2.4.3.5 Prepared talk

A popular kind of activity is the prepared talk where a student (or students) makes a presentation on a topic of their own choice Such talks are not designed for informal spontaneous conversation, because they are prepared, they are more ‘writing-like’ than

this However, if possible, students should speak from notes rather than from a script (Morlin R., 2002, p.274)

Prepared talks represent a defined and useful speaking genre, and if properly organized, can be extremely interesting for both speakers and listeners Just as in process writing, the development of the talk, from original ideas to finish work, will be of vital importance

2.4.3.6 Interviews

Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people It is a good idea that the teacher provides a rubric to students so that they know what type of questions they can ask or what path to follow, but students should prepare their own interview questions Conducting interviews with people gives students a chance to practice their speaking ability not only in class but also outside and helps them becoming socialized After interviews, each student can present his or her study to the class Moreover, students can interview each other and “introduce” his or her partner to the class

2.4.3.7 Brainstorming

On a given topic, students can produce ideas in a limited time Depending on the context, either individual or group brainstorming is effective and students generate ideas quickly and freely The good characteristics of brainstorming is that the sstudents are not criticized for their ideas so students will be open to sharing new ideas

2.5 Organization of a speaking activity

2.5.1 Whole – class discussion

An important aspect of whole-class discussion is the welding together of the whole group and the camaraderie that comes about when a whole group works together towards a common goal According to Andrewes S (2003), whole-class discussion has some

advantages that "the larger the group, the more variety there is in the ideas, opinions and

experiences which can contribute to the learning process" This can stimulate a greater

involvement in each member of the class Another advantage of whole-class discussion is

to encourage fluency and a more memorable and meaningful exchange among the students

It might also be more appropriate for the introverted and reflective learner Finally, if we are talking about classes of 15 students or so, there are likely to be many opportunities of letting the whole class function as a single unit instead of dividing it into groups

A whole-class feedback phase is also very useful and cohesive to the learning process after a session of group work Ideally, the group work that has gone before will ensure that everyone has something to say, and also a reason for listening Having

"rehearsed" in a more intimate context beforehand, students may face the whole class with more confidence in their ability to handle the target language

Dealing with whole-class discussions requires the experience and sensitivity to strike the right balance between neutrality and commitment, the tact to deal with explosive situations and domineering students, the knowledge and the analytic mind demanded by the topic under discussion, and the diplomacy to ensure a fair discussion with maximum participation

During group work students are more independent but the teacher still has important roles to play while students collaborate with each other The idea of cooperative learning is not that the teacher can abandon the class and neglect jobs

Many authors show the teacher’s roles in group work as an organizer, a controller,

an assessors, a prompter, and a participant (Harmer, 1991) According to Kay & Christison (1987), important teacher’s roles in carrying out group work is as an instructor, a consultant, a supervisor, a co-communicator and a controller, giving students instructions for the job duties, encouraging them actively to participate in learning process and to interact with each other, helping them with their difficulties in linguistic matters as well as background knowledge Cross (1992: 54) states that the teacher is the manager of the activity and must plan it, organize it, start it, monitor it, time it and conclude it The teacher

is active; marking, remaining sensitive to the atmostphere and pace of the groups and noting persistent errors for remedial teaching Should the task be seen to be going drastically wrong, the teacher will stop it and revert to some form of practice before starting group work again

In brief, the teacher plays a very important role in carrying out group work Only when the teacher fulfil the role, can students get all the benefits from it

2.5.3 Pair work

Pair work is a classroom activity in which the whole class is divided into pairs Harmer (2001) summarizes some advantages and disadvantages of pair work as the followings

Pair work immediately increases the amount of student practice It allows students

to use the language and also encourages students' cooperation which is itself important for the atmostphere of the class and for the motivation it gives to learning with others In short, with pair work, then, students can practice language use and joint learning

However, certain problems occur with pair work The class is sometimes noisy and undisciplined because all students in the class talk at one time Moreover, it is sometimes unavoidable that students will end up chatting in their mother tongue

2.5.4 Individual work

Applying individual work teachers can get students to involve in the lesson This proves to have many advantages It allows students to work at their own speed, allows them thinking time, allows them to be individuals For the time that individual work takes place, students can relax their public faces and go back to their own individual needs and progress

Individual work applied to motivate students in speaking skill is that teacher points one student and gets him (her) to speak Teachers often raise the questions for students to answer Teachers give students something to do in a certain time and then ask him/her to talk about what has just been asked and what he has thought

2.6 Teachers' difficulties in teaching speaking skill in the light of CLT

In many researches, the difficulties or challenges that teachers have to face in teaching speaking skill can be divided into some main groups: difficulties from teachers, difficulties from students and those are due to objective factors such as large classes, lack

of class time or unappropriate textbook

2.6.1 Difficulties from teachers

2.6.1.1 Misconceptions about CLT

The commnunicative approach has been influential for several years now and nobody can deny that it has brought about many exciting innovations, both in course

design and in classroom methodology On the other hand, it has also created confusion in certain respects Thompson (1994) wrote in the article "Some misconceptions about

communicative language teaching" that "many teachers remain somewhat confused about

what exactly CLT is" He mentioned four misconceptions as:

♦ CLT means not teaching grammar

♦ CLT means teaching speaking only

♦ CLT means pair work, which means role play

♦ CLT means expecting too much from the teacher

2.6.1.2 Inadequacy to implement CLT

In the article "Difficulties in implementing communicative theory in Vietnam" Bock (2000) discovered that ten of the 18 participants confessed to feeling inadequate to implement CLT in VIetnam The difficulty in implentation of CLT in EFL classes may be caused by the teachers' lack of experience or training

In a pilot study "Teachers' perceived difficulties in introducing the communicative approach in South Korea", Defeng Li (1994) found out that the teachers' deficiency in spoken English as well as deficiency in strategic and sociolinguistic competence constrained them in applying CLT in their classrooms (cited in Hall, D.R & Hewings A,

2001 p.57) Some typical comments were:

1 I am good at grammar, reading, and writing But my oral English is very poor Since I can't speak English well, how can I teach it to my students?

(Dong - Soon, July 31, 1995)

2 Those questions that are related to the sociolinguistic aspects of English are really hard for me In Korea, when you can't answer all of the students' questions right away, you can't be a teacher

(Young - Cheol, July 26, 1995)

2.6.2 Difficulties from students

2.6.2.1.Students' motivation

Motivation in second language learning is a complex phenomenon which can be defined in terms of two factors: students’ communicative needs and their attitudes towards the second language community (Lightbown P.M and Spada N., 1999) If students need

to speak the second language in a wide range of social situations or to fulfil professional ambitions, they will perceive the communicative value of the second language and will

therefore be motivated to acquire proficiency in it Likewise, if students have favourable attitudes towards the speakers of the language, they will desire more contacts with them In

a survey of EFL teachers, Nunan (1993) found “the biggest challenges in the EFL classroom to be motivation, getting students to speak (cited in Larazaton, 1980, p.110) Many teachers found that how to motivate students is one of the more complicated problems in teaching English because students do not pay much attention to learning it Some of students considered English as “a compulsory subject” in the syllabus and they

don’t love it or learn it as a hobby Gardner (1995) expressed that “Many attributes of the

individual such as compulsiveness, desire to please a teacher or parrents, or a high need

to achieve might produce effort as would social pressures, such as a demanding teacher, impending examinations, or the promise of a new bicycle.” (cited in Nunan, 1999, p.233)

In his book, Nunan pointed out some main reasons for students’ unmotivation as follows:

♦ Lack of success over time/ lack of perception of progress

♦ Uninspired teaching

♦ Boredom

♦ Lack of perceived relavance of materials

♦ Lack of knowledge about the goals of the instructional program

♦ Lack of appropriate feedback

Thus it is very important to motivate students to learn by making the classroom a supportive environment in which students are stimulated, engaged in activities which are appropriate to their age, interests and cultural backgrounds, and, most importantly, where students can experience success

2.6.2.2 The influence of students’ previous studies

According to Ballard and Clanchy (1991, p.11) “cultural and intellectual traditions differentially shape and inform education” The writers claim that those shaping influences are nowhere more evident than in regard to (i) styles of teaching and learning, (ii) the roles

of teachers and their students, and (iii) the nature and functions of assessment In the study

on Academic and Non-academic difficulties for Graduate non-English speaking

background students, Burke E and Smith C W indicated that “ways of being students and

of doing universiity that the students has previously learnt now are not always appropriate: some were being challenged” Hence, the students should be well aware of

the need to adjust to new ways of being student They should be also aware of how critical

it was for them to make these and other adjustments as quickly as possible during the first semester if they are to complete their studies successfully

2.6.2.3 Students’ use of the mother tongue

According to Ur (1991), “mother-tongue use” is one of the four main problems with speaking activities In classes where all, or a number of, the learners share the same mother-tongue, they may tend to use it Naturally, it is easier to speak their mother-tongue but unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language, and they fell less “exposed” if they are speaking their mother-tongue If they are talking in small groups it can be quite difficult to get some classes – particularly the less disciplined or motivated ones – to keep

to the target language

Lawtie (2009) also shares the same findings with Ur that “when students work in pairs or groups they just end up chatting in their own language” She explained that the learners tend to chat in their own language because the activity or the task isn’t pitched at the right level for the students; not all students are actively involved and the activity is not very interesting; or the timing of a speaking activity in a class can be crucial sometimes

2.6.2.4 Learners’ hesitation to speak

Byrne (1980) states three factors which make students hesitate to speak:

► Linguistic: Students sometimes do not know enough of the language to speak

Free expression will merely tax their limited competence and result in errors

► Spychological: It is noted that there are two main problems: In the first place,

they are inhibited when asked to express themselves freely in the presence of the whole class The second problem is that of interest If activities and topics are not related to their own background and experience, they will easily lose interest

► Cognitive: Here we must consider the question of providing students with

something to talk about: a topic, a theme, a stimulus of somekind All these things are necessary to arouse talk and responses from students

It is discovered by Lawtie (2009) that the roots of this problems can be cultural, that in some culture it is unusual for students to talk out loud in class, or if students feel really shy about talking in front of other students One of the way to go about breaking this cultural barrier is to create and establish your own classroom culture where speaking out loud in English is the norm Another way to get students motivated to speak more is to

allocate a percentage of their final grade to speaking skill and let the students know they are being assessed on their speaking practice in class throughout the term

2.6.2.5 Low or uneven participation

There is another problem facing many English speaking classes that only some capable learners appear to be involved in the speaking activities while the others are too shy to speak or have nothing to speak Thus the participation among the learners of the

same class is not even According to Ur (1991), “Only one participant can talk at a time if

she or he is to be heard; and in a large group this means that each one will have only very little talking time This problem is compounded by the tendency of some learners to dominate, while others speak very little or not at all”

2.6.3 Difficulties from Educational system

Problems with teaching speaking skill discovered in many researches are not only from teachers or students but also from objective factors, such as very large-sized classes, unappropriate time for practising, or problems with using textbook

2.6.3.1 Large and heterogeneous classes

In his research, Dalle T and Thrush E (2003) found that the number of students in

EFL are commonly from 40 to 70 They suggested that: “Even though it may be common,

large classes challenge even well-trained and experienced teachers” The task of teaching

oral skills in large classes can be daunting and there is a question that how oral exercises other than drills can be intergrated into a language class of so many students

2.6.3.2 Using textbook

Larazaton (1980, p.105) claims that “not all materials live up to their claims about

what they promote or teach in terms of language content, teaching methodology, and textual/task authenticity” Not all of the textbooks are totally suitable with all students’

level of language or interests, teaching methodology The tasks in textbooks are maybe too difficult or too easy for students to perform They are maybe also too boring and can not motivate students to speak Thus, using the textbook effectively is also a challenge teachers face

2.7 Summary

Chapter two deals with a review of the existing literature concerning teaching speaking skill for students of EFL: defining characteristics of speaking activities (Ur, 1996; Kripple, 1991; Harmer, 1991); comparing different kinds of speaking activities (Byrne,

1980; Nolasco and Arthur, 1998; Doff, 1998); especially analyzing the difficulties that teachers have to face in teaching speaking in the light of CLT (Nunan, 1993; Gardner, 1995; Ballard and Clanchy, 1991; Larazaton, 1980) When all perspectives are put together, these researches may be a great value to teachers, especially for Vietnamese university teachers

In conclusion, teaching speaking skill remains many problems for teachers to deal with as I have mentioned above Once they overcome these problems, they will have a successful lesson, students are motivated to speak and they can speak freely to communicate with each other in the target language Some solutions to these problems will

be proposed in the latter chapter of my study

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

This chapter introduces the methodology of the study into the real situation of EFL teaching in Vietnam It covers the rationale of selecting the participants, setting, procedures of data collecting and analyzing methods

3.1 Setting of the study

The investigation took place within the context of Academy of Finance - a University which teaches English for Specific Purposes for whom becoming accountants, auditors, business managers, or tax officers and so on The author selected an investigation into perceived difficulties in teaching speaking skill for pre-intermediate classes via using the textbook "Business Basics" by for a number of reasons as follows:

First, among four skills "speaking seems intuitively the most important, people who

know a language are referred to as "speaker" of that language, as if speaking includes all other skills of knowing" (Ur, 1996, p.120) Therefore, speaking creates motivation for

students in the process of learning a foreign language because many of them view that learning a language is to use that language to communicate and express ideas

Second, the textbook "Business Basics" including 12 units is ideally suitable for students with specific purpose of business English Although it reinforces and improves all

of the four skills including reading, speaking, listening and writing, speaking is emphasized the most with different types of speaking activites such as role-play, pair works, presenting and opinion sharing activities

Third, the most important reason is that for some years of applying the text book in teaching pre-intermediate classes at AOF, the author in the role of a teacher has faced many obstacles in teaching speaking skill Once the causes or roots of these problems have been found and solved, successful lessons will be made and help students to speak fluently English Their abillity to communicate in a second language clearly and efficiently contributes to their success in school and later in every phase of their life

3.2 Participants of the study

Altogether, 28 teachers of Academy of Finance completed the questionnaires Overall, the teacher group was a heterogeneous one They are different from each other in terms of age, teaching experience and the time they have taught using this textbook The information of the participants is presented in the table below:

Figure 1: Teaching English experience

Of the 28 teachers of English who took part in the survey, 17.50% of them had less than two years' teaching experience, 22% had from two to ten year' teaching experience and 60.50% of them have taught English more than ten years

60.50%

39.50%

Mast ers Bachelors

Figure 2: Teachers' education and qualifications Regarding their education and qualifications, 60.50% of them have post-graduate degree in foreign languages (in English, Russian and Chinese), in which 32% of them have masters in English The rest of the teachers (39.50% ) has a bachelor degree in English This might mean the teaching backgrounds of teacher participants are quite varied; therefore, an objective result can be reassured

Figure 3: Average number of students in each class

In the school-year of period 2009 - 2010, there are 80 classes of the first-year students In which, only six classes have the numbers of students less than 30 (accounting for 8.50%) , and ten classes have more than 50 students in each one (12.50%) The majority of classes have the average numbers from 30 to 39 (34 classes accounting for 37.50%) or from 40 to 49 students (42.50%) Thus, it can be included that most classes at

AOF are very large

3.3 Data collection instruments

To collect data for my study, survey questionnaire for teachers and semi-structure interview are used

3.3.1 Survey questionnaire for teachers

The issues discussed in this paper are of a study that focuses on perceived difficulties in teaching speaking for non-major English classes at AOF, what are the causes

of the difficulties and suggested solutions to overcome these difficulties Bases on the essence of the research questions, the investigator relied upon the qualitative methods using survey questionnaire First, this technique when utilized can offer "extensive and detailed" description, clarifications and interpretations to form a thorough understanding of the research questions (Burnes, 1999, p.22) Second, questionnaire for teachers can

"capture the richness and complexity of behavior that occurs in natural settings from the participants' perspectives" (Trauth, 2001, p.37) Moreover, once collected, the data are analysed inductively to generate findings It is the inductive nature of this methodological approach and the emphasis on participant perspectives which cause the researcher in this mode to search for the ways that those being studied make sense out of their experiences

Qualitative researcher assumes that people act on the basis of their interpretations of experience Hence, the author of the study is interested in what participants experience and how they interpret these experiences Hopefully, with the use of this technique, the research issues would be perceived and explored with the most proper view

The survey questionnaire consists of two sections: section 1 is general information about the participants including 3 questions; section 2 is the main part of this survey: perceived difficulties in teaching speaking for non-major English classes at AOF including three main questions corresponding with reasons for these difficulties due to teachers, students or educational system that the author has worked out through reading references relating to the thesis (see appendix 1)

3.3.2 Semi-structure interview

In addition to the survey questionnaire, a semi-structured intervew is conducted for the purpose of finding out the causes for the biggest difficulties in teaching speaking in the light of CLT for non-major English classes and getting teacher's suggestions to solve these difficulties The semi-structure interview includes 9 questions (see appendix 2)

3.4 Procedures of data collection and data analysis

Reference materials provided the researcher of the study with some very helpful information to design the questionnaire, which was later piloted with her some colleagues After piloting, the questionnaire was revised in terms of the language used as well as the instructions to make it clearer The resarch was carried out through the following steps:

►The survey questionnaire was delivered to the teachers of English at AOF in October 2009 After all the answered ones were recollected, the author embarked upon the calculation and analysis work All the returned questionnaires were studied carefully to make sure that no answers are left out Next, the options given are calculated on a 100 percent scale so as to form a general view of the situations investigated into

►Together with the survey questionnaire, the author conducted a sem-structure interview with some of the participants targeted for more detailed explanation to reasons or causes of these problems in teaching speaking skill as well as for suggestions to deal with them Especially, interview questions focus on some of the most difficulties that teachers face in teaching speaking skills The participants'

answers were taken notes and common themes of the answers were carefully analyzed

3.5 Summary

The content reliability can be ensured and the researcher bias are combated by collecting different sources of data from different perspectives as well as by allowing participants in the research to access data Their input and evaluation of its authenticity correct researcher bias

With the research approach as well as the data collection instruments mentioned above in this chapter, the researcher has carried out the survey and interview to collect adequate amount of data on the subject matter These findings will be described and discussed in the following chapter - Chapter four: Results and Discussions

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The qualitative method using questionnaire survey and semi-structure interview, the participants and implementation of which have been described in detail in chapter three, examines teachers' perceived difficulties in teaching speaking skill for pre-intermediate classes at AOF in the light of CLT as well as the possible reasons for these problems The results of the two instruments will be discussed both simultaneously and separatedly

4.1 The results of survey questionaire and semi-structure interview

The difficulties reported by the teachers fall into three main categories: those caused by the students, by the educational system, and by the teachers While reading through the data, I discovered 157 total references to difficulties caused by students, 73 references to difficulties caused by the educational system and 55 references to difficulties caused by the teachers themselves In addition, a number of common themes emerged within each category

(28 maximum)

Students

A Lack of student motivation for speaking activities

B Student use of the mother-tongue during group work or

pair work

C Student resistance to class participation

D Low level of English language proficiency

E Student different levels of English proficiency

F Student lack of background knowledge on business

G Student different interests

H Student passive learning style

I Influences of student previous English courses