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

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

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATES STUDIES

: English Teaching Methodology :601410

Hanoi, 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATES STUDIES

***********

TRẦN THỊ THU

BUILDING UP STUDENTS’ SELF-CONFIDENCE IN

LEARNING SPEAKING SKILLS AT A UNIVERSITY IN HANOI:

A SURVEY OF METHODS

(Xây dựng sự tự tin cho sinh viên khi học kỹ năng nói tiếng Anh ở một trường đại học tại Hà Nội: Khảo sát về các phương pháp)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field : English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor : Dr Trần Thị Thu Hiền

Hanoi, 2013

Trần Thị Thu

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

self-The subjects in the study are 150 non-English major freshmen randomly selectedand twelve teachers teaching English for these faculties’ students Findings from thequestionnaires and interview show that non-English major freshmen at HanoiUniversity of Industry are not self-confident in learning speaking skills due tostudents’ factors, teachers’ factors and objective factor Besides, three methods havebeen applied to increase freshmen’s self-confidence in speaking English namelydesigning pair or group work activities, letting students practice through manyspeaking activities and giving interesting topics of speaking

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

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

DECLARATION………. i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……… ii

ABSTRACT………. iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS……… iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……… vii

LIST OF TABLES……… viii

LIST OF FIGURES……… ix

PART I: INTRODUCTION……… 1

1 Rationale……… 1

2 Aims of the study……… 3

3 Research questions……….3

4 Methods of the study……… 3

5 Scope of the study……… 4

6 Significance of the study……….4

7 Structure of the study……… 4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT……… 6

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND……… 6

1.1 English speaking teaching……… 6

1.1.1 Definition of speaking……… 6

1.1.2 The components of speaking skill………. 7

1.1.3 Teaching speaking………. 7

1.1.4 Problems with speaking activities……… 8

1.1.5 Stages of teaching speaking……… 8

1.2 Self-confidence……… 9

1.2.1 Definition of self-confidence………. 9

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

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

1.2.3.1 Students’ factors……… 11

1.2.3.2 Teachers’ factors………. 12

1.2.3.3 Objective factors……… 15

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

1.3 Summary ……… 18

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY……… 19

2.1 The context of the study……… 19

2.2 The textbook………. 20

2.3 The participants……… 20

2.3.1 The students……… 20

2.3.2.The teachers……… 21

2.4 The data collecting instruments………. 21

2.4.1 The questionnaires………. 21

2.4.1.1 Questionnaire for teachers……… 21

2.4.1.2 Questionnaire for students……… 21

2.4.2 The interview………. 22

2.5 Data collection procedure……… 22

2.6 Summary……… 23

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION……… 24

3.1 Data analysis………. 24

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.2 Summary……… 32

CHAPTER 4: MAJOR FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS……… 33

4.1 Major findings……… 34

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

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

.speaking skills………. 35

4.2 Suggestions……… 36

4.2.1 Suggestions for students……… 36

4.2.2 Suggestions for teachers……… 37

4.2.3 Suggestions for the administrators……… 38

4.3 Summary……… 38

PART III: CONCLUSION……… 39

1.Conclusion………. 38

2 Limitations and suggestions for further studies……… 39

REFERENCES……… 40 APPENDIXES……… I

LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 1: Students’ awareness about the importance of English speaking… …….…25Table 2: Comparison of teachers’ and students’ assessment of the importance of self-confidence in learning speaking skills……… ………… … …26Table 3: Teachers’ and students’ assessment of students’ level of self-confidence in speaking English ……… ….….…26Table 4: Comparison of teachers’ and students’ opinion of the objective factors

affecting students’ self-confidence in speaking English ……… ……….…30

LIST OF FIGURES

Page

Figure 1: Students’ general attitudes towards learning English ……….…….23Figure 2: Students’ attitudes towards learning to speak English ……….………24Figure 3: Comparison of teacher’ and students’ judgment of the students’ factors affecting students’ self-confidence in speaking English ……….………27Figure 4: Teachers and students’ judgment of the teachers’ factors affecting students’ self-confidence in speaking English ……….….… ……28Figure 5: Students’ comments of teachers’ applied methods to increase students’ self-confidence in learning speaking skills……… … …… 31

Today an alarming situation in Vietnam is that many Vietnamese studentsgraduating from colleges, universities cannot speak simple English sentences or arenot confident to communicate in English This is a problem that universities in generaland HaUI in particular have been considering and trying to find out effective methods

in order to improve the quality of teaching English, especially speaking skills.According to the article “Students lack confidence to use English” by Hieu (2011),Vietnamese students are not confident to speak English due to the following causes aslimited amount of vocabulary, incorrect pronunciation, fear of mistakes, shyness,focusing much on learning grammar and little using English in reality

The goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency Learners should

be able to make themselves understood, using their current proficiency to the fullest.According to Kelly, L., & Watson, A K (1986:4), students’ confidence is one of the

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

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

confidence in their ability often listen in silence instead of participating in oralactivities

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

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

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

up ideas for this paper

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

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

Doqaruni, V R (2011) investigates increasing the students’ confidence inspeaking: An Iranian Experience

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

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

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

at a university in Hanoi: A survey of methods”.

2 Aims of the study

The aims of the study are:

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

 To find out the methods to increase non-English major freshmen’s

self-confidence in learning speaking skills

4 Methods of the study

In order to conduct the study, both quantitative and qualitative methods ofresearch are used, namely the survey questionnaires and the interview First, twosurvey questionnaires are administered to non-English major freshmen and teachersteaching English for these students at HaUI relatively to gather data and informationfor the study

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

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

5 Scope of the study

The study focuses on factors affecting non-English major freshmen’s confidence in speaking English and methods to build their self-confidence in learningspeaking skills at HaUI Therefore, all other researches related to factors affectingnon-English major freshmen’s self-confidence and methods to build their self-confidence in other skills, to other subjects (not non-English major students at HaUI)and and using other textbooks (not New Headway-Elementary) are beyond the scope

self-of the study

6 Significance of the study

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

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

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

at other around the country

7 Structure of the study.

The thesis consists of three parts

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

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

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

Chapter 1 presents the theoretical background of the study.

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

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

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

data analysis and discussion are explained

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

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

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

at some limitations of the study and proposes suggestions for further studies.

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter reviews theories and researches related to the paper’s issues It is expected to provide readers with background knowledge for better understanding of the rest of the paper.

1.1 English speaking teaching

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

that “speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information.” Scott, G (1978) argues that

speaking is considered an activity involving two or more people and both hearers andspeakers have to react to what they hear and make their contribution Each participanthas an intention or set of intentions - goals that he wants to achieve in the interaction.Each participant has to be able to interpret what is said to him; which he cannotpredict exactly either in terms of form or in terms of meaning McDonough & J Shaw,

C (1993) add that speaking is a skill which enables people to produce utterances whencommunicating to achieve a particular purpose Therefore, speakers can express theirideas, wishes or opinions, negotiate or solve problems, or establish or maintain socialrelationships

In short, different researchers have different concepts of speaking but they allagree with the same view that speaking is a two-way process between the speaker andlistener.

1.1.2 The Components of Speaking Skill

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

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

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

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

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

• produce the English speech sounds and sounds patterns

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

• select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting,

audience, situation and subject matter

• organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence

• use language as a means of expressing values and judgments; and use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses which is called fluency.

Nunan’s opinion can be considered the most effective notion in teaching speaking skills as it look at every aspect of this field

1.1.4 Problems with speaking activities

Speaking activities play an important role in a language course with the purpose

of improving learners’ ability to express through speech Nevertheless, teachers oftenface some problems with speaking activities Nurgiyantoro, B (2004:17) and Ur, P.(1996) show:

• Inhibition

Learners of English are often inhibited in practicing speaking something inEnglish in the classroom The main causes are that they fear of mistakes, criticism, orlose face

• Nothing to say

Learners often say that they have no ideas for speaking topics

• Uneven or low participation:

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

• Mother-tongue use:

Learners possessing the same mother tongue have a tendency of using it inthe classroom This makes them feel easier and unnatural to speak in a foreignlanguage

1.1.5 Stages of teaching speaking

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

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

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

• The Pre-speaking stage

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

• The while-speaking stage

At this stage, students work on the while-task individually or in groups withoutthe teacher’s interference to correct any mistakes The teacher does not have to teachmuch but gives assistance instead In addition, the teacher monitors and assists weakstudents to complete the task

• The post-speaking stage

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

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

1.2 Self-confidence

1.2.1 Definition of self-confidence

Self-confidence can be understood as “having confidence in yourself and your ability” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary: 2011) It means that self-confident

people trust their own abilities, have a general sense of control in their lives, andbelieve that they will be able to do what they wish, plan, and expect Self-confidence

is an attitude which allows individuals to have positive yet realistic views ofthemselves and their situations

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

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

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

1.2.2 Importance of self-confidence in speaking English

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

In language learning, especially speaking, Kelly, L., & Watson, A K (1986:4)point out that students’ confidence is one of the important factors to improve theirlearning Chen (2003) shares that confidence is a direct factor that affects students spokenEnglish Dornyei, Z (2001) mentions the ways to build students’ confidence byproviding experience of success, encouraging the learners and reducing anxiety.According to Gander, S L (2006:13-14), many learners feel satisfied and successfulwhen they have achieved at least the independent or fluent levels of proficiency, thatmake them feel confident in their work Keller has given out an ARCS model (Attention,Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction) that specifies four kinds of strategy (cited inAik, C T., & Tway, D.C., 2006: 31) First, a lesson must gain the attention (A) of thelearner according to this model Next, such a lesson must also have relevance (R) for thestudent and have a perceived value Moreover, a person must also have confidence

(C) that is also critical to the learning process as “learners who expect to succeeddemonstrate more confidence than learners who expect to fail” (Huett, J., Huett, K.,Bray, M., Moller, L., & Young, J., 2008:113) Lastly, satisfaction (S) refers to thepositive feelings that come from accomplishments

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

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

1.2.3 Factors affecting students’ self-confidence in speaking class

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

1.2.3.1 Students’ factors

a Students’ language proficiency

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

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

b Students’ attitude

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

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

relationship to motivation Spolsky (1998:23) says that “a learner’s attitude affects the development of motivation” Language learners having intrinsic or extrinsic

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

c Students’ psychological factors

Fear of mistakes

Many researchers agree that fear of mistake leads to students’ reluctance tospeak English in classroom (Tsui in Nunan, 1999; Htwe, Y, 2007; Robby, S, 2010).Aftat, M (2008) suggests that this fear is related to the way of correction and negativeevaluation Hieu, T (2011) adds that students’ fear of being laughed at by otherstudents or being criticized by the teacher also affect the fear of making mistake Inthe same line, Kurtus, R (2001) shares that students are scared of being lookedfoolish by other students and they care about the way other people see them Thus, tosolve this problem teacher should remind their students that making mistakes is not abad or wrong thing but a valuable thing that students can learn a lot from

Shyness

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

1.2.3.2 Teachers’ factors

a Teachers’ misconceptions about CLT

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

b Inappropriate teacher teaching methods

Inappropriate teacher’s talking time

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

Inappropriate teacher’s correction

According to Brown, H D (2002: 205), it is students’ errors that show how theyacquire the language through strategies Teachers are supposed to correct students’ errors

to help them master language in their conversation While some students prefer gentleand clever correction, other students prefer encouragement and frank correction Ur, P.(2000) states that students may be unconfident and disappointed if teachers correct theirerrors insensitively As a result, teachers should be careful and

sensitive in giving corrections in order that students comprehend and correct theirerrors comfortably.

Inappropriate teacher’s roles

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

Breen, M & Candlin, C N (1980) propose that the teacher has three main roles

in a speaking class: a facilitator, a participant and an observer Harmer, J (1999: 57)argues that teachers’ roles in the classroom can be classified as a controller, anorganizer, an assessor, a prompter, a participant, a resource, a tutor and an observer.Byrne, D (1986: 2) identifies the roles of teachers basing on threecorresponding stages of teaching speaking At the first stage – the presentation stage,teachers as an informant prepares materials and presents the language items to thestudents At this stage, teachers allocate time properly so students can have enoughtime for speaking activities At the second stage- the practice stage, teachers as aconductor provides as many opportunities as possible for students to practice the newlanguage items At the last stage – the production stage, teachers act as a manager and

a guide Teachers encourage students to use the language freely and comment on theirperformance at the end of the presentation

c Teacher’s characteristics

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

on students’ self-confidence Whitty, G (1996: 89) mentions two types of qualities of

a successful professional teacher They are professional characteristics andprofessional competences The former obtains professional values, personal andprofessional development, communication, relationships, synthesis and application.The latter contains knowledge and understanding of children and their learning,subject knowledge, curriculum, the education system and the teacher’s role

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

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

1.2.3.3 Objective factors

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

Facilities for language teaching and learning is involved in classroom physicalcondition such as lightness, temperature, fresh air, the layout of the desks or tables,the facilities for displaying picture, charts, etc (Underwood, M., 1987) Classroomfacilities have a great effect on students’ learning and their attitude towards thesubject Students’ motivation may be also influenced positively or negatively by theseconditions

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

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

Teacher is one of the significant factors to promote language teaching effectively

in terms of preparing lesson plans, materials and activities and also, acting as a facilitator

in language learning Teachers should research to improve their effective teaching byreflecting in the classroom (Hatch, T., White, M.E., & Capitelli, S., 2005: 323, McIntyre,D., & Rudduck, J., 2005: 360, and Ruthven, K., 2005: 407) According to Brown, H D.(2001), group work activities are very helpful in developing speaking

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

A (2003: 25) claims that a teacher is the factor to make students have positive ornegative attitudes in language learning Considering the teacher factor, Brown, H D.(2001) says that the cause of students’ lack of confidence is due to the lack ofencouragement from the teacher Thus, encouragement should become an essentialthing to increase students’ self-confidence Giving students encouragement to showtheir ability to communicate in English well contributes to students’ success oflearning Byrne, D (1986) adds that teachers should comment students’ speakingactivities at the end of the presentation Chu, C W L (2001: 250) sees teachers’sincerity and trustworthiness to be the key to open the door to the students mind ifteachers’ reflective practice is to be successful With the same concern, Pesce, C.(2011) contends that it is urgent that teacher creates a friendly and open classroomenvironment By doing this, shy students are hoped to feel fine of making mistakes intheir learning The students will not worry of their imperfect pronunciation andgrammar As a result, they dare to speak in their speaking class In term of possiblesolutions to overcome the students’ lack of confidence, Htwe, Y (2007) proposes thestrategy to build students’ confidence He claims that maximizing students’ exposure

to English is a good way to build the students’ confidence This will make studentsexperience a sense of ability to speak English Ur, P (1991: 281) also shares somestrategies to improve students’ motivation to speak in classroom, in which theprincipal one is collecting the interesting topics to students

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

Firstly, the research “Gaining Speaking Confidence by Mastering Basic English Questions: Using Enjoyable Games within a Simple Framework” is made by

Loucky, J P (2004) Aiming at building students’ confidence in speaking English, he

Secondly, the research “Extensive Pair Taping for College Students in Japan: Action Research in Confidence and Fluency Building” is undertaken by Kubo, M.

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

Thirdly, the research “An Action Research on Increasing the Students’ Confidence in Speaking: An Iranian Experience” is conducted by Doqaruni, V R.

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

Fourthly, the research “Building students’ confidence in English speaking class through group work at Faculty of Finance and Banking, Vietnam University of Commerce” is implemented by Lien, P (2012) In the first phase, the author uses two

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

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

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

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

and found factors preventing students’ self-confidence, some methods to increasestudents’ self-confidence in learning speaking skills are proposed in the study.

To sum up, many different methods to boost students’ self-confidence inspeaking English have been proposed by the researchers so far Some of them act asthe lodestar in language teaching, some are applicable in certain situations and needadapting in other cases

1.3 Summary

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

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

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

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

2 1 The context of the study

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

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

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

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

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

self-confidence in speaking English have been raised; nevertheless, what factors affectnon-English major freshmen’s self-confidence in speaking English at HaUI and whatmethods raise their self-confidence in learning speaking skills are what the researcherneeds to clarify in this paper.

2.2 The textbook

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

2.3 The participants

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

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

2.3.2 The teachers

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

2.4 The data collecting instruments

To implement the tasks mentioned above, the data is collected by means ofquestionnaires and interview.

2.4.1 The questionnaires

Two questionnaires, one for teachers and the other for students, have beendelivered to 150 non-English major freshmen and 12 teachers teaching English forthese students, HaUI To collect reliable and comprehensive data, the researcher usesboth open-ended and close-ended questions in the questionnaires

2.4.1.1 Questionnaire for teachers

The questionnaire for teachers is written in English It consists of five questionsconcerning three aspects:

- The importance of students’ self-confidence when learning speaking

English (question 1)

- The level of students’ self-confidence in speaking English (question 2)

- Teachers’ opinion on factors affecting students’ self-confidence in speaking

English (question 3,4,5)

2.4.1.2 Questionnaire for students

The questionnaire for students is written in Vietnamese It consists of nine questions concerning seven aspects:

- Students’ attitude to learning English (question1)

- Students’ attitude to learning speaking English (question 2)

- Students’ opinion on the importance of learning speaking English (question 3)

- Students’ opinion on the importance of self-confidence in speaking English (question 4)

- Students’ judgment about the level of their self-confidence in speaking English (question 5)

- Students’ judgment about factors making them not self-confident to speak English in class (question 6,7,8)

- Students’ comments on teachers’ applied methods to build students’ confidence in learning speaking skills (question 9)