Attitudes of teachers and first year non english major students at hanoi university of industry towards the use of visual AIDS in english speaking lessons

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST –GRADUATE STUDIES TRƯƠNG THỊ THANH HOÀI ATTITUDES OF TEACHERS AND FIRST-YEAR NON-ENGL

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST –

GRADUATE STUDIES

TRƯƠNG THỊ THANH HOÀI

ATTITUDES OF TEACHERS AND FIRST-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY TOWARDS THE USE OF VISUAL AIDS IN ENGLISH

SPEAKING LESSONS (Thái độ của giáo viên và sinh viên năm thứ nhất không chuyên tiếng Anh trường đại học Công Nghiệp Hà Nội đối với việc sử dụng giáo cụ trực quan trong các giờ học nói tiếng

Anh)

M.A Minor thesis

Field: English teaching methodology Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: Mai Ngọc Khôi, M.A

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Acknowledgements ……… i

Abstract ……… Iii Table of contents ………. Iv List of abbreviations ……… Vii List of tables and charts ……… viii

PART A: INTRODUCTION ……… 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study……… 2

3 Significance of the study……… 2

4 Scope of the study……… 2

5 Methods of the study ……… 2

6 Organization of the study ……… 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT ……… 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ……… 4

1.1 Attitudes ……… 4

1.1.1 Definitions of attitude ……… 4

1.1.2 Components of attitude ……… 4

1.1.3 Relationship between belief, perception and attitude ……… 5

1.2 Speaking skills ……… 5

1.2.1 Definition of speaking ……… 5

1.2.2 Speaking in relation to three other skills ……… 6

1.2.3.The role of speaking in communicative language teaching … 8

1.3 Visual Aids ……… 9

1.3.1 Definitions of visual aids ……… 9

1.3.2 Benefits of using visual aids in teaching speaking……… 9

1.3.3 Types of visual aids ……… 11

1.3.3.1 Chalkboards and whiteboards ………

1.3.3.2 Pictures ………

1.3.3.2.1 Wall pictures ………

1.3.3.2.2 Wall charts………

1.3.3.2.3 Flash cards ………

1.3.3.2.3.1 Picture flash cards ………

1.3.3.2.3.2 Word flash cards ………

1.3.3.2.4 Work cards and work sheets ………

1.3.3.3 Realia ………

1.3.3.4 Authentic printed materials ………

1.3.3.5 Overhead projectors ………

1.3.3.6 Computers and videos ………

1.3.4 Studies concerning the use of visual aids in the Vietnamese context CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ……….

2.1 The context of Hanoi University of Industry………

2.1.1 Teachers ………

2.1.2 Students ………

2.1.3 Teaching and learning facilities ………

2.2 The study ………

2.2.1 Research questions ………

2.2.2 Selection of participants ………

2.3 Instruments ………

2.3.1 The questionnaires ………

2.3.2 The direct interviews ………

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ………

3.1 The data analysis ………

3.1.1 The participants’ age, gender and years of experience ………

3.1.2 Research question 1 ………

3.1.2.1 The teachers’ attitudes towards speaking and visual aids in speaking lessons ………

11 12 12 13 13 13 14 15 15 15 15 15 16 16 17 17 17 17 18 18 18 18 19 19 20 22 22 22 23 23

3.1.2.2 The students’ attitudes towards speaking and visual aids in 25

speaking lessons ………

3.1.3 Research question 2 ……… 26

3.1.4 Research question 3 ……… 29

3.1.5 Research question 4 ……… 30

3.1.6 Research question 5 ……… 32

3.2 Discussion and findings ……… 35

PART C: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ………… 38

1 Conclusion of the study ……… 38

2 Recommendations ……… 38

3 Limitations and suggestions for further study ……… 41

APPENDIXES

Appendix 1 Survey questionnaire for teachers

Appendix 2 Survey questionnaire for students

Appendix 3 Interview for teachers

Appendix 4 Interview for students

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

HaUI: Hanoi University of Industry

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Table 1 Teachers’ age, gender, years of experience,

Table 7 Purposes of visual aids in teaching speaking skills from teachers’ view points

Table 8 The purposes of visual aids in teaching speaking from students’ view

points

Chart 1: Favorite types of visual aids used in speaking lessons from the view points

of teachers and students

………

Chart 2: Teachers’ techniques of using visual aids

………

Chart 3 The students’ favorite activities when learning speaking through visual

aids Chart 4: Teachers’ difficulties in using visual aids to teach speaking

25272831312629303233

8

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

In recent years, English has become an important language It is not only spoken bymost native speakers but also the second and official language in many countries SinceVietnam joined the WTO (the World Trade Organization), teaching and learning English as aforeign language has taken an important part and English has become a compulsory subject inmost national curriculum

It is undeniable that the goal of learning and teaching English is to make studentsmaster the communicative activities As for the students at Hanoi University of Industry ingeneral and the freshmen in particular, learning speaking skill is a really important task Most

of the students at HaUI are non-English majors so they often find speaking the mostchallenging to them to acquire English In fact, what students are wondering is always haunted

in the researcher’s mind most of the time, which urges her to find a suitable solution tomotivate them in English speaking lessons

Among proper solutions, using visual aids to teach speaking has been proved to be aneffective way When mentioned the importance of visual aids in learning and teaching alanguage, Bowen emphasized that “learning is a complex process and visual aids are a greathelp in stimulating the learning of a foreign language The students must use his ears as well

as his eyes but it is the eye that is primary channel of learning” (1982, p1) Chamberlain(1980) also pointed out that 83% of the information received by the brain comes through sightand only 11% comes through hearing This means in the learning process, what students seeand touch will be perceived in their mind better than what they can hear only Visual aids cancreate many communicative situations to encourage students to speak and make teaching andlearning easier and more pleasant as well as more productive A teaching lesson which isprovided with an appropriate type of visual aids will be an active one in which all students arewilling to speak the given topic For example, a map can be fully made use in asking andgiving direction lessons or a real object, a picture can be a good illustrator in describinglessons

For the reasons mentioned above, the researcher chooses “Attitudes of teachers and

first-year non-English major students at Hanoi University of Industry towards the use of visuals aids in English speaking lessons” as the title for this research with the hope that it will

reveal the application of visual aids in teaching speaking and some benefits of using visual

aids in teaching and learning English speaking skills What’s more, some suggestions ofexploiting visual aids more effectively to teach speaking skills will be given with the hope ofproviding useful source and reference for teachers at HaUI in particular and for all teachers ofEnglish in general to motivate their dear students in English speaking lessons Last but notleast, it is expected that the research would be a certain contribution to the improvement ofteaching speaking skills for first-year non-English major students at HaUI.

2 The aims of the study

- To investigate the teachers and students’ attitudes toward speaking skills

- To investigate the teachers and students’ attitudes toward the use of visual aids in teaching and learning speaking skills

- To investigate the application of visual aids in the field of teaching speaking skills

- To explore the benefits of using visual aids in teaching and learning speaking skills

- To explore the problems faced by teachers and first-year non-English major students atHaUI

- To give some recommendations to exploit visual aids more effectively

3 Significance of the study

This study helps point out the teachers and students at HaUI’s attitudes toward visualaids in teaching and learning speaking skill Particularly, this study is carried out with the hope

to provide an insight into current teaching situation of using visual aids in English speakinglessons to teach first-year non-English major students at Hanoi University of Industry Last butnot least, it is hoped that the study would make some suggestions of applying and exploitingvisuals in teaching English speaking so that the teachers can have proper adjustment to theirteaching methods

4 Research scope of the study

This paper is restricted to mention the visuals which can be used for teaching andlearning speaking Some other kinds of visual aids such as teachers’ gestures, facial expressionare not intended to be covered because they are mostly used in teaching vocabulary

This paper only focuses on types of visual aids such as boards, pictures, realia, video, etcwhich are well applicable to particular conditions at Hanoi University of Industry

5 Methods of the study

To reach the aims of this study, both qualitative and quantitative approaches are madeused of Data are collected from the survey questionnaires and direct interviews Thequantitative data obtained from survey questionnaires were then analyzed statistically Direct

interview was carried out to supplement the survey questionnaires Both of the two methods are hoped to bring about valid and reliable data.

6 Organization of the study

The study consists three main parts:

Part one: Introduction which provides specific reference to the rationale, aims,

significance, scope, methodology, and organization of the study

Part two: Development which includes three chapters.

- Chapter one: Literature review which gives the brief view on attitudes, the basic theoretical background of speaking skills and the overall view of visual aids

- Chapter two: Methodology that gives the research questions and describes an insightinto research methods to find out the answers to research questions This chapter also gives the briefview on the subjects, the procedures and the instruments to collect data employed to seek for theanswers to the research questions

- Chapter three: Data analysis and discussion show the data collected from the survey questionnaires and the interview Also, these data will be discussed in this chapter

Part three: Conclusion which reviews the main findings of the study, offers some

recommendations of using visual aids to teach speaking skills effectively as well as somesuggestions for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

This chapter discusses the theory and research into which this study bases on Somebasic concepts related to attitudes, speaking skills, visual aids are addressed to provide thetheoretical background for the study

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW1.1 Attitudes

1.1.1 Definitions of attitude

Over the course of decades of research, there are various definitions of attitudesproposed According to Jung, attitude is a “readiness of the psyche to act or react in a certainway” (1971, p.687) Richard R Bootzin, Gordon H Bower, Jennifer Crocker, Elizabeth Hallpoint out that an attitude is “an evaluative response to a particular object, idea, person, orgroup of people This response reflects an individual preference or aversion.” (1991, p.628).Triandis, H (1971) supported these ideas by defining attitudes as a disposition ortendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain thing (idea, object, person, andsituation.) They encompass, or are closely related to, our opinions, beliefs and are based uponour experiences

From these above definitions, a conclusion can be drawn that attitudes are a hypotheticalconstruct that represents an individual's degree of like or dislike for something People canalso be conflicted or ambivalent toward an object, meaning that they simultaneously possessboth positive and negative attitudes toward the item in question These definitions seem to becomprehensive and significant for this study, since the researcher, to some extent, aims atinvestigating teachers and first-year non-English major students’ evaluation of the use ofvisual aids in English speaking lessons

1.1.2 Components of attitudes

Attitudes are judgments In discussion of components of attitudes, traditionally, they are

considered to have three components According to Fazio, R.H (1986), most attitudes are theresult of either direct experience or observational learning from the environment; they develop

on the ABC model (affective, behavioral, and cognitive):

- An affective or emotional component: An individual's degree of preference for an entity, how people feel about the object E.g “ I feel good when I am around my friend”

- A behavioral component: A verbal indication or typical behavioral tendency of anindividual It means how people act toward an object E.g “I try to hang out with my friendwhenever I get the chance”

- A cognitive component: A cognitive evaluation of the entity that constitutes anindividual's beliefs about the object It is about people’s knowledge, beliefs and thoughts about theobject E.g “I think my friend is kind, charming, and humorous”

1.1.3 Relationship between perception, belief and attitude

There is close ties among belief, perception and attitude According to Richard R.Bootzin, Gordon H Bower, Jennifer Crocker, Elizabeth Hall (1991), beliefs and

perception are just inside the brain, they are not in action Belief is the root or foundation of a person’s way of thinking In normal life, people do not question or filter their belief They taketheir beliefs as it is It includes the values that they have

Perception is the method or way of thinking or point of view Some people called itparadigm It is the filter of any input based on their beliefs

Attitude is what people act or react How people perform their thinking is their attitude.Their action is depending on their attitude They usually do not see their own action (except infront of the mirror or in their own movie) Their action is just a show-off of their perceptionand their belief In other words, what people act or react is directly influence by their way ofthinking, their values, and their beliefs

Also, people are aware of their own beliefs, their own way of thinking, their own values,and what they are doing Unaware reaction means a reflex action from subconscious level godirectly to their action Without awareness, they will do everything in reflex They do notthink on what they are doing With awareness, they can think before they are acting or reactingbecause their awareness controls the three levels: belief, perception and attitude

Many problems in people’s life often come from the relation with other persons Theycannot control other person but they can influence others through their own change in attitude,their words, their action or their reaction

In conclusion, attitudes are generally positive or negative views of a person, place, thing,

or event It has three components: Affective, Behavioral, and Cognitive Attitudes have closerelationship with belief and perception These are valuable theoretical background that helpsthe researcher approach the aims of the study

1.2 Speaking skills

1.2.1 Definition of speaking

Communication is a very important part of human civilization Webster (1983, p.266)says that communication is “a process by which information is exchanged between individualsthrough a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior.” Communication using languagecan be conducted in two ways: orally (speaking) and in a written form (writing) Despite thefact that these two means of language communication are equally important, “it is speech, notwriting, which serves as the natural mean of communication between members of community”(Byrne, 1976)

Speaking is actually a natural activity, which appeared in our daily life thousands ofyears before script was invented No one knows when people started to speak as speakingrequires nothing except people themselves

Chaney (1998, p.13) views speaking as the process of building and sharing meaning throughthe use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in variety of contexts Meanwhile, Bygate (1987,p.1) states that speaking is a popular form of expression “which uses the “colloquial” register”.Literary skills are on more prized than speaking because “speaking is transient and improvisedand can therefore be viewed as facile, superficial or glib”

What’s more, Brown (1994) defines speaking as an interactive process of constructingmeaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information River basing on

speaking’s characteristics considers “speaking” as “basic to some of most interesting and

exciting activities.” (1996, p.207)

From these above definitions of speaking, it can be concluded that speaking refers to a process

of interaction in which people can exchange their opinions, thoughts, and emotions Thisprocess can happen in various situations through verbal and non-verbal symbols and it cancreate different attractive and exciting activities

Speaking skill is man’s ability in using language as a means of communication Bygate states

that: “we do not merely know how to assemble sentences in the abstract: we have to produce

them and adapt them in the circumstances This means making decisions rapidly, implementing them smoothly and adjusting our conversation as unexpected problems appeared in our path.” (1987, p.3) He highly appreciates speaking skill by stating that

speaking is the medium through which much language is learnt

Clearly those learners do not learn by heart every word, sentence and then gather them in theabstract but they learn how to speak in a particular situation This means speaking skill helpslearners learn language as a means of communication in a real life It can develop learners’ability to speak fluently, correctly and clearly so that they can speak out in every situation By

considering what good speakers do, what speaking tasks can be used in class, and whatspecific needs learners report, teachers can help learners improve their speaking and overalloral competency.

1.2.2 Speaking in relation to the three other skills

It cannot be denied that the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing areequally important in communication as well as in teaching and learning language They have avery close relationship with each other so that they should not be shown in isolation The fourskills can be divided into two skills in two groups: productive and receptive skills Productiveskills involve speaking and writing because the author has to produce his own language incommunicative process and receptive skills involve reading and listening because people justreceive language from others

Byrne, D (1976, p25) represented the relationship among four skills in the following diagram

It is important to remember that “receptive” does not mean passive in both listening andreading Successful oral communication must combine the success of both productive andreceptive skills Listening should be paid due attention to because if language learners cannotcontrol over what is said to them, communication will break down immediately Doff, A(1988) said that there are two main reasons for teaching listening comprehension First, wecannot develop speaking skill unless we also develop listening skill In order to have asuccessful conversation, students must understand what is said to them, the ability tounderstand spoken English may become very important To develop this ability, students needplenty of practice in listening to English spoken normal speech Second, “listening to spokenlanguage English is an important way of acquiring the language of “picking up” structures andvocabulary In a situation where learners are living in a country where English is the firstlanguage, they have plenty of “expose” to the language, they hear it all the time and canacquire it more easily than learners who do not hear English spoken around them So we need

to give these learners many opportunities to listen to spoken English as possible

According to Widdowson, H.G (1990), speaking and listening are said to relate tolanguage expressed through the aural medium and reading and writing are said to relate tolanguage expressed through the visual medium He also suggested another way representingthese skills by referring not to the medium but to the activity of the language users Thus,speaking and writing are said to be passive and receptive skills He expressed these notions inthe below simple diagram

Productive/ active Receptive/passive

However, according to him, it is not especially helpful and might be passivelymisleading to represent the language skills in this way When considering the usage “Theterms aural/ visual and productive/ receptive refer to the way language is manifested ratherthan to the way it is realized in communication”

Therefore, in order to be successful in speaking as well as learning foreign language, learnersshould pay attention to all skills because the purpose of learning language processes the ability

of communication

1.2.3 The role of speaking in communicative language teaching

Communicative language teaching was founded in the early 1960s and has become apopular approach of teaching foreign language in Vietnam especially in English classes Thereare different definitions given by language theorists.

“CLT views language as a system for the expression of meaning Activities involve oralcommunication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which is meaningful to thelearners Objectives reflect the needs of the learners They include functional skills as well aslinguistic objectives The learner’s role is a negotiator and integrator The teacher’s role is afacilitator of the process Materials promote communicative language use; they are task-basedand authentic” (Nunan, 1989, p.194)

In communicative language teaching, speaking is regarded as one of the key outputs forEnglish learners “Of the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), speaking seemsintuitively the most important: people who know a language are referred to as speakers’ of thatlanguage, as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing… Classroom activities thatdevelop learners’ ability to express themselves through speech would therefore seem animportant component of a language course” (Ur, 1991, p.120)

According to Canale and Swain (1980), the goal of CLT is to develop communicativecompetence that can best serve the needs of the learners Communicative method mainlyfocuses on activities in which students have chances to determine what they want to sayindependently of the teacher Roger Scott (1981:67) emphasized the important role ofspeaking in CLT that “the communicative approach makes sure that the interactions whichtake place in the classroom replications of or necessary prerequisites for, in communication ismore important than learning the rules of language above the level of the sentence.”

Therefore, it is very essential for learners to achieve communicative competence inlearning language courses Students must improve their abilities to communicate freely andeasily in the real life in a particular situation In order to be successful in teaching and learningoral communication, the teacher plays a very important role, not as a person who providesprompt that triggers utterance or a certain structure from students but as a person who can set

up the condition for communication to take place

1.3 Visual aids

1.3.1 Definition of visual aids

According to Dictionary of English language and Culture, visual aids are defined as

“something that people can look at to help them understand, learn, remember, etc such as a

picture, map, photograph, or film Visual aids are often used as materials in education.” (1998,p.1490).

In short, visual aids are anything visible to learners that the teacher uses for differentteaching purposes in the class They can be objects, pictures, drawings, cards, even cut-outstaken from newspapers, textbooks, etc With the instructions from the teachers, students canexploit them and perceive knowledge

1.3.2 Benefits of visual aids in teaching speaking

Visual aids are proved to be beneficial in teaching a foreign language Bowen M(1982) stated that during the learning process, visual aids are great helping stimulating thelearning of foreign language The students must use his eyes but it is the eye that is theprimary channel of learning” Visual aids are indeed increasingly making great contribution tolanguage teaching and learning in general and to speaking in particular There has been a greatdeal of studies on the benefits of visual aids in teaching speaking They can be summarized asfollow:

- Visual aids as a means to provide situations

According to Lee and Coppen (1970, p1), the main virtue of visual aids is to “help toprovide the situation (context) which light the meaning of the utterances used” Bowen (1982,p1) stated that visual aids can “enrich the classroom by bringing in topics from the outsideworld” There is a point above the idea that once teaching foreign language is contextualizedwith the help of visual aids, students will have chance to learn the language in real situation Inaddition, the creative and imaginative abilities of students can also vary those situations thuscomments, guesses, interpretations and arguments are made Therefore, the learning processbecomes more easily and more naturally As a result, students are not only able to speak thetarget language well inside the classroom, they also communicate successfully outside theclassroom

- Visual aids as a factor of motivation

Motivation plays an important role in second language acquisition success Brown(1990, p.161) claimed that in second language learning “a learner will be successful with theproper motivation” Thus, learners who are interested in learning tend to do better than thosewho are not Visual aids can create active learning atmosphere which helps students feel more

confident and feel free to take risks and to have sufficient opportunities to speak AndrewWright (1991) also supported this idea that “visual aids affect students in some ways andcause him or her to want to listen and to speak” Lee and Coppen (1970, p.1) stated that it isvisual aids that “can bring more variety and interest into language lessons” Colorful,interesting, lively images will catch students’ eyes, attract them at once, dispel their intrinsicshyness and activate them to talk without the fear of making mistakes.

Visual aids are obviously the stimulus to form learners’ motivation They can refresh theatmosphere, warm up the atmosphere by living and interesting images that attract students’attention and interest Speaking lessons with new ideas, comments, arguments, etc willbecome more exciting when all students are willing to talk and discuss about the given topics

- Visual aids as a tool to maximize students’ opportunity to practice

Visual aids can be used as an effective tool to create opportunity for students to practice.Andrew Wright (1991) showed that “visual materials help to direct and promote conversation

in group” In addition, Bowen, M (1982, p.1) pointed out visual aids could “allow the teacher

to talk less by diminishing the important of the verbal stimuli provided by the teacher’s voiceand allow the students to talk more” With their presence, they attract students’ attention andreduce the verbal stimuli provided by the teacher’s voice Therefore, the teacher talks less andstudents have opportunity to talk and discuss more Students have more chance to developtheir fluency by communicating regularly in class As a result, both of their communicativeskill as well as their language will improve much

- Visual aids as an assistant to help learners remember best

When exploited appropriately, visual aids are helpful for students to remember long.According to Bowen, visual aids provide students with “a new dimension of dramatic realismand clarifying facts which might pass unnoticed or be quickly forgotten” (1982, p.1) Asmentioned above, visual aids can create real circumstances in which language items are used.Language items that are used in each situation are obviously memorized longer than withoutthem As a result, students will absorb the language without being aware of it They willunderstand the meaning and the usage of the language items naturally and recall what theyhave lent easily In a nutshell, with the help of visual aids, students can remember the languageitems for a long time

In conclusion, visual aids are proved to be useful in teaching and learning speaking.Clearly, what students can see has a profound influence on their learning process Therefore, if

being exploited suitably, visual aids may become good sources to maintain learners’motivation, create contextualization and help students memorize longer as well as give morechances of practice speaking.

1.3.3 Types of visual aids

In general, the following aids are not all kinds of visual aids but the very common ones

of which possible benefits can be exploited in English language teaching and learning or to bemore specific, in teaching and learning speaking Of course, there are many others visual aidswhich are not dealt with in this paper Some of them require special preparation of equipmentand are not suitable for language teaching at HaUI such as funnel board, magnetic board, etc.Furthermore, some other kinds of visual aids such as teachers’ gestures, facial expression arenot intended to be covered because they are mostly used in teaching vocabulary These types

of visual aids can be divided as follow:

1.3.3.1 Chalkboards and whiteboards

Chalkboards are said to be the most common and useful visual aids for teachers Theircolors are usually black or green They are available, inexpensive Some chalkboards aremagnetized allowing pictures, word cards, etc to adhere to the surface if magnets are placed

on top of them

Whiteboards are increasingly more common It is easier to keep them clean thanchalkboards They need pens that are specialized for whiteboards It is also easy to stickpictures and cards to their surface What’s more, images can be projected onto their surfacefrom a projector

One prominent advantage of chalkboards and whiteboards is they do not depend on otherfactors like electricity supply Teachers can use chalkboards and whiteboards whenever theylike to teach a lesson They can serve different teaching purposes such as setting a scene for adebate, telling a story, etc However, the effect of using them depends on the way teachers usethem to make the lessons much more interesting

Here are some characteristics of chalkboards and whiteboards

- The whole class can see it

- Texts and pictures can “grow” in front of the class

- Texts and pictures can be erased, added to or substituted quickly

- Parts of the boards can be obscured

- Texts or pictures on paper or card can be propped against the board, stuck to it or hungover it.

- A white cloth or a sheet of paper can be stuck to the chalkboard or hung over it to act

as a projection screen

- Several people can work on the board at one time

(Andrew Wright and Safia Haleem: 1991: p.5, 6)

1.3.3.2 Pictures

Pictures are considered one of the most useful visual aids for teachers to teach speaking.They can function as a stimulus as they encourage students’ imagination and memory Themost useful contribution a picture can make is to contribute to the students’ understanding of amore general context which is made of pictures Apart from the pictures in the textbooks thatthe teachers often make use of, they can prepare the pictures by themselves to serve theirdifferent teaching purposes There are various kinds of pictures such as wall pictures, wallcharts, flash cards, work cards, paintings, etc However, in this paper, some types of pictureswhich are popular and easy to design and use especially in large and crowded class arefocused on

1.3.3.2.1 Wall pictures

“A wall picture is simply a large illustration of a scene or event, or a set of scenes or events.” (Bowen, 1982, p13) They are large enough to be seen by all the students

Characteristics

- They contain many details and they can show a complicated scene

- The whole class can see them

- They can be used more than once and for different teaching purposes if they are kept carefully

- They can be hung on display

For example: This wall picture will be useful for the speaking lessons of “Asking andgiving directions”

1.3.3.2.2 Wall charts

“A wall chart is a large diagram or picture display card Most wall charts consist ofcombinations of visual and verbal material Their aim is to give information on a topic.”(Bowen, 1982, p.13)

Wall charts are usually complex, with printing too small to be seen by the students fromtheir seats They are ideal for pair and group work in intermediate and advanced classes.Therefore, Bowen (1982) stated that word cards can be prepared to accompany the charts sothat students may work together to prepare a presentation before the whole class and/ or toprepare a wall display” (1982, p.15)

1.3.3.2.3 Flash cards

1.3.3.2.3.1 Picture flash cards

Picture flash card is one of the most flexible of the media According to Wright andHaleem (1991), Picture flash cards are pictures mounted or drawn on cards approximately 15

cm by 20 cm They are used in oral work for cueing responses to questions or in more opencommunicative work for stimulating conversation, story telling, etc

A picture flash card has a picture on one side only However, both sides can be used andthe cards can be folded or cut in various ways with particular teaching purposes in mind

As for a classroom use, picture flash cards “are more suitable for the representation of asingle concept, such as an object or an action It is best to use picture flash cards for therevision and practice of previously taught language, rather than for the presentation of newitems (Bowen: 1982, p.28)

For example: Teachers can use two picture flash cards of sausages and eggs to help students practice the use of “would prefer”

1.3.3.2.3.2 Word flash cards

According to Bowen (1982), word flash cards are cards on which words have been

printed and they can be held up rapidly or “flashed” by the teacher before the class

Word flash cards are usually 8 cm in height and 10 cm in width but the length varies

according to the number of letters in the word to be printed on the card

Characteristics:

- Word flash cards are inexpensive

- They are easy to make, store and carry to classes

- Teachers can hold, prop and stick them on the board or any objects in the classroom They can display a number of cards at the same time

- Teachers and students can easily handle and use them at the appropriate moment

For example: The teacher can make use of these following word flash cards to have

students practice the speaking task: Talk about your daily life

TEETH

1.3.3.2.4 Work cards and work sheets

Work cards (about 15 cm x 20 cm) and work sheets are for individual students use or foruse by students working in a small group They can include visual as well as text Good coursebooks can provide a lot of these kinds of material Besides, magazine pictures, drawings, mapsand diagrams can also be important parts of work cards at all levels and used for differentpurposes

Characteristics:

- Work cards can be made by teachers or students or taken from authentic printed materials

- Two sides of the cards can be used for presenting different information This separation

of the information is useful in some types of activities

- They can create interests and enable students to work more or less independently of theteachers

1.3.3.3 Realia

Realia or real objects are available inside or outside the classroom brought to the class

by the teachers or learners They offer a great help to the teachers in designing variouslanguage activities for their students to take part in They can be a toothbrush, a pen, a clock, anewspaper, a box of color pencils with different sizes and various materials

1.3.3.4 Authentic printed materials

“Authentic printed materials include anything written and printed in English:newspapers, magazines, publicity, technical instructions for equipment, holiday brochures,etc.” (Andrew Wright and Safia Haleem: 1991, p.84)

Characteristics:

- There are various and free materials for the teachers to choose

- They can make the students curious because they are not originally produced for schools

- They can be copied and stuck onto cards to reuse

- The complexity of the language may cause difficulty for the students if the teachers expect them to understand every word

1.3.3.5 Overhead projector

Overhead projector is now getting more popular It is a very useful kind of visual aid.Light from a powerful bulb passes through and is focused onto a mirror, which throw the lightonto a transparency screen

Characteristics:

- The whole class can see the project image

- Overhead projector can supplement or substitute for the chalkboard while still allowingthe teacher to face the class.

- Material can be kept and used in the following lessons

- Texts and pictures can be modified in front of the class

- The teacher can cover part of what is on the overhead projector transparence with a piece of paper or cardboard and present the information’s they want

1.3.3.6 Computer and video

Today, with the development of technology, computer and video are becoming more andmore popular They are indeed good source of visual in teaching and learning English Theycan bring in colorful images and vivid movements Furthermore, they provide large amount ofinformation in a brief of time Therefore, they motivate students to actively join in languagelearning tasks and help them improve not only speaking but also listening and reading skill

In conclusion, there are diversified kinds of visual aids that both teachers and studentscan take advantage of in speaking lessons The value of visual aids depends on how much theycontribute to the lessons They will actually be of great help if exploited suitably

1.3.4 Studies concerning the use of visual aids in the Vietnamese context

In Vietnam, visual aids have also appealed several researchers Although most of their

BA or MA graduation papers do not have chance to be published because of subjective orobjective reasons, they are of great value in practice especially in the researchers’ currentsituation of teaching and to all the people who concerns in the research as well as thoseinterested in the discussing matters

In accomplishing this research, the author has also read numerous studies dealing withthe topic However, most of these papers focus on exploitation of the effectiveness as well asthe benefits of visual aids in language teaching and learning For example, “Using visual aids

to motivate tenth form students in their learning to speak” conducted by N T Nhung (2003) or

“Using visual aids as an effective way to improve communicate competence of uppersecondary school students in Hanoi” by T.X Thu (2002) or H Linh’s (2008) graduation paper

on “Using realia in teaching grammar to tenth form students in Hanoi high schools”, etc There

is a need for a study that investigates teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the use of visualaids in English speaking lessons Therefore, this study was conducted to bridge the gap

In this chapter, some theoretical background knowledge and views on attitudes, definitionsand the role of speaking skills in CLT, definitions, types, benefits of visual aids as well as studiesconcerning the use of visual aids in the Vietnamese context have been reviewed The analysis and

discussion of the data collected from the questionnaires and interviews addressing to the research questions will be given in the next chapters.

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY

This chapter introduces the context of Hanoi University of Industry where the study isconducted Then the research methodology chosen for achievement of the aims and objectiveswill be discussed in details

2.1 The context of Hanoi University of Industry

Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) was officially established in December 2005 on thebasis of Hanoi Industrial College, one of the leading vocational colleges in Vietnam wherethousands of skilled workers and engineers are trained every year

HaUI is a big university which is in the process of developing to reach the aim of beingone of the great universities of Southeast Asia Realizing the importance of English, theuniversity authorities have paid due attention to the matter of improving the quality ofteaching and learning English The ultimate aims are specific with the hope to enhance thetraining quality and increase the standard of graduate students with good job opportunities

2.1.1 Teachers

The English teaching staff in the Department of Foreign Languages consists of 112teachers whose ages range from 22 to 50 years old Most of the teachers are female All of theteachers hold B.A degrees from different universities in Vietnam At present, 2% have PhDdegree, 62% have M.A degree or are doing an M.A course

The academic background of the teachers shows that all of them have been exposure todifferent teaching methods such as communicative method or learner-centered approach, etc.However, most teachers usually employ the traditional method of teaching speaking Classesare usually conducted in the form of lectures, with most of the time the teachers play the keyrole in the classroom, being the main speakers working through the text The teachers explainnew words, terms or structures and then guide students to answer warm-up questions Then,the students imitate their teachers Discussions are rarely held due to the limitation of time

2.1.2 Students

In general, the students here are at the age of 18-23 They are mostly male students,coming from different provinces all over the country The class size is about 50 students each.Most of students have studied English at high school; however, the problem is that most ofthem do not consider English as their major, so they did not pay much attention to studyEnglish at that time This gives the teachers a number of works

Besides, English is not their favorite subjects Most of students are not really interested

in leaning English due to the fact that they find it difficult to learn and use English skills,especially speaking For illustration, they are familiar with the common teaching methods atsecondary and high school with the focus is on Grammar

2.1.3 Teaching and learning facilities

The class size for an English lesson is about 50 students each, but the classrooms, thoughbeing well equipped with a projector, a computer, a cassette player and two loudspeakers atthe corner of the room, are designed for about 80 to 100 students, which are actually too bigfor an English class of a much smaller size Another problem is that all students and most ofthe teachers of English have to use the course books New Headway Elementary which areunclear, black and white photocopied ones This fact may prevent them from exploiting color,photographs and pictures for learning and teaching

2.2 The study

2.2.1 Research questions

1 What are teachers and students’ attitudes towards speaking skills and visual aids in speaking lessons?

2 How often do teachers use different kinds of visual aids in teaching speaking skills?

3 What techniques have been embedded in visual aids when teaching speaking skills?

4 What are teachers and students’ attitudes towards the effectiveness of using visual aids in teaching speaking skills?

5 What are problems faced by teachers and students when using visual aids in speakinglessons?

2 2.2 Selection of participants

Two groups are selected as participants of the survey questionnaires

Group 1 involves 50 teachers of English Their ages are ranging from 22 to 40 years old.Most of the teachers are quite young Some of them have just graduated from university sothey do not have much teaching experience Some of them are masters of art in Englishteaching; the others are attending the MA course at College of Foreign Languages, VietnamNational University Each teacher is assigned to teach at least 25 periods a week All of themnow or used to teach English for first-year non-English major students The reason for thisselection is they are dedicated teachers and willing to do the questionnaires Moreover, the

selected teachers have not only the knowledge of the language but also the understanding ofthe subject matter Therefore, the researcher can easily collect the reliable information.

The other group includes 200 first-year non-English major students Most of them are ofdifferent ages from 18 to 22 both males and females They all come from different parts of thecountry: cities, provinces, mountainous and remote areas They do not have the same level ofEnglish language proficiency They are studying in different non English major faculties andclasses such as Electronics 2A, Computer Science 5A, Mechanics 1A, Marketing 1A, etc All

of them follow the same four terms of general English They are studying at the end of the firstsemester Moreover, they are also wiling to do the questionnaires

The textbook in use is New Headway with the level of Elementary published by OxfordUniversity Press There are 14 units lasting 90 periods with various topics familiar to daily lifesuch as jobs and career, future plans, hobbies, holidays, etc The book provide students withgeneral knowledge of vocabulary, phonology, grammar, as well as developing four integratedlanguage skills with the focus on speaking skill The students have 6 periods per week andthey continuously learn in 15 weeks

The samples of teachers and students are randomly chosen among 112 teachers of English atFaculty of foreign language and about 620 first year non English major students from differentfaculties of Hanoi University of Industry to ensure the reliability and validity of the results asthey can be representatives for the whole population The result can be generalized fromsample to the whole population of teachers and first year non English major students

2.2.3 Instruments

The two sets of survey questionnaires and two sets of direct interviews are conductedamong the non major 1st year students and teachers of English at HaUI to find out learning andteaching English speaking status and their attitude towards speaking and visual aids in Englishspeaking lessons

To get information for this study, survey questionnaire and interview are the mainmethods of data collection The qualitative data were abstained from the two sets of interviewswhile the quantitative data were collected from two sets of survey questionnaires Due tolimited time budget, the two methods are hoped to bring in validity and reliability

2.2.3.1 The questionnaires

2.2.3.1.1 Objectives

Two sets of survey questionnaires are designed, one for teachers and one for students.The two survey questionnaires including open-ended and closed-ended questions which aredivided into different parts The questionnaire for teachers includes 12 questions and the onefor students has 11 questions These questions are divided into five main parts:

- Personal information:

Question 1, 2, 3, 4 in Survey questionnaire for teachers

Question 1, 2, 3 in Survey questionnaire for students

- Attitudes toward speaking skills and visual aids Question 5 in Survey questionnaire for

teachers Question 4 in Survey questionnaire for students

- The application visual aids in English speaking lesson: Question 6, 7, 8, 9,10 in Survey

questionnaire for teachers Question 5,6,7,8, 9 in Survey questionnaire for students

- The benefits of using visual aids in teaching and learning English speaking lessons:

Question 11 in Survey questionnaire for teachers

Question 10 in Survey questionnaire for students

- The difficulties of using visual aids in teaching and learning English speaking lessons:

Questions 12 in Survey questionnaire for teachers

Question 11 in Survey questionnaire for students

2.2.3.2 The direct interview

There are two sets of the direct interviews One is for students and the other for teachers.The interviews are carried out among 10 teachers and 20 first year non English major students.They are also randomly chosen Hopefully, they can be representatives for the wholepopulation of teachers and first year non English major students

The two interviews include 8 opened-ended questions and are divided into four main parts:

- Attitude towards speaking and visual aids

Questions 1, 2, 3 in the interview for teachers

Question 1, 2, 3 in the interview for students

- Application of visual aids (kinds and benefits of visual aids) Questions 4, 5 in the

interview for teachers

Questions 4, 5 in the interview for students

- The benefits of using visual aids in teaching and learning English speaking lessons:

Questions 6 in the interview for teachers

Question 6 in the interview for students

- The difficulties of using visual aids in teaching and learning English speaking lessons:

Questions 7 in the interview for teachers

Question 7 in the interview for students

- Some suggestions to use visual aids more effectively in teaching speaking.

Question 8 in the interview for teachers

Question 8 in the interview for students

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION3.1 The data analysis

3.1.1 Participants’ age, gender and years of experience

The first forth questions in teachers’ survey questionnaire asked for demographicinformation only These results were reported in Table 1 to describe the sample of participants

that were surveyed

Table 1 Teachers’ age, gender, years of experience, qualification

As can be seen from Table 1, almost all of the teachers are very young The number of

their ages ranging from 22 to 35 accounts for 98% of the teachers asked The majority of themare female (92%) 76% of them have less than 10 years of teaching experience and the rest24% have taught English more than 10 years Their qualification is also different Only oneout of fifty teachers asked is PhD 62% of them acquire Master of Art while the rest 36%

including those who are attending MA course are bachelor

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English 1-3 48%

Table 2 Students’ age, gender, years of learning English

The first three questions in the survey questionnaire for students asked for demographicinformation only These results were reported in Table 2 to describe the sample of students thatwere surveyed As can be seen in the table, eighteen year old students accounted for 67% while22% of them were nineteen and twenty Only 10% of them were from twenty one to twentythree The majority of the students were male, 75% and the minority was female, 25% Theperiod of time they learned English was different Nearly half of them studied English from one

to three years Besides the percentage of them learned English more than three years but lessthan 7 years was considerable, 42% Only 10% admitted that they did not learn English before

3.1.2 Research question 1:

“What are teachers and students’ attitudes towards speaking skills and the use of visual aids in speaking lessons?”

3.1.2.1 The teachers’ attitudes toward speaking and visual aids in speaking lessons

Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly

2 Teaching speaking skill for

students is necessary

3 Using visual aids in speaking

lessons is useful and effective

4 It is interesting to use visual aids

to teach speaking

5 My students are excited when I

use visual aids in speaking lessons

Table 3: Teachers’ attitudes toward speaking and visual aids in speaking lessons

The data were generated from Likert attitude scales of this type, and space did not permitthe researcher to enter a detailed a discussion of everything; however, several issues are worthhighlighting

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speaking for students is necessary (S2: 58%+38%= 96%) Only 4 % of the teachers consider itunimportant at all.

The data collected from the first two statements reveal that most of the teachers highly appreciate the importance of speaking skill in English teaching and learning

This idea was explained by one teacher that “Teaching speaking is very important and

necessary University is the place where students are trained for their career If the students communicate well in English, they will have a lot of chances for better jobs in the future They can not only work in Vietnam but also in other countries.”

Other teacher supported that “In HaUI, oral tests are also given to students together with

the written tests at the end of every term to evaluate their communicative competence However, most of the students’ speaking ability’s level is quite low Speaking is one of their biggest problems Thus, it is necessary to teach them; otherwise, they will fail the oral exam.”

Another enthusiastically showed the reason that “In communicative language teaching, the

focus is on communicative proficiency rather than on the mastery of structures I hope my dear students can use the language to communicate not to know the rules of the language only.”

Concerning the role of visual aids in teaching speaking, more than half of the teachersthought that visual aids were useful and effective in teaching speaking (S3: 36%+42%= 78%)

“I believe visual aids can draw my students’ attention They can motivate my students to join

in the speaking activities” One teacher said However, they are not totally supported by all the

teachers when 18% of them still feel not useful and not effective to use them to teach speakingand 4% show their neutral attitude and 10% don’t find them useful and effective at all One

teacher specified their claim that “Sometimes instead of joining the speaking activities, my

students turns to comment the quality of visual aids about the size, the color, etc Visual aids, therefore, distract the students What’s more, it takes time to introduce and use the visual aids and guide them to the speaking activities”

In terms of teachers’ interest in using visual aids to teach speaking, eighty four percent(S4: 48%+ 36%) reported that they were interested in using them in speaking lessons Only8% showed that they were not interested at all Most of the teachers (S5: 50%+36%= 86%)felt that their students were excited if the speaking lessons were taught with the help of visual

aids One teacher specified their claim that “With visual aids, the speaking lessons seem to be

more exciting and attract more students’ attention Students were not only stimulated but they also appear to be more confident to speak”