Students’ attitudes towards the teaching of speaking by native english speaking teachers a survey research at thai binh teacher training college

LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONSNESTs : native-English speaking teachers NNESTs : non-native-English-speaking teachers CLT : Communicative Language Teaching Table 4: Students’ attitudes towards na

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410

Hanoi – 2011

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF

POST – GRADUATE STUDIES *****************

ĐỖ THỊ MINH NGUYỆT

STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE TEACHING

OF SPEAKING BY NATIVE-ENGLISH-SPEAKING TEACHERS: A SURVEY RESEARCH AT THAI BINH

TEACHER TRAINING COLLEGE

(Nghiên cứu điều tra về thái độ của sinh viên đối với việc dạy nói của giáo viên người bản ngữ tại Trường Cao Đẳng Sư Phạm Thái Bình)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410

Supervisor: PHẠM MINH TÂM, MEd.

Hanoi - 2011

LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS

NESTs : native-English speaking teachers

NNESTs : non-native-English-speaking teachers

CLT : Communicative Language Teaching

Table 4: Students’ attitudes towards native teachers’ teaching techniques. 29

Table 5: Three different graders’ attitudes towards native teachers’ teaching

speaking (according to three categories in detail) 32-33

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration ……… i

Acknowledgements ……… ii

Abstract ……… .iii

Lists of Abbreviations ……… iv

Lists of Tables ……… iv

Table of Contents ……… v-vii Part A: INTRODUCTION ……… 1-3 1 Rationale for the Study ……… 1

2 Aims of the Study and Research Questions ……… 2

3 Scope of the Study ……… 2

4 Research Methodology ……… 2

5 Design of the Study ……… 3

Part B: DEVELOPMENT ……… 4-36 Chapter 1: Literature Review ……… 4-18 1.1 Attitude and their Roles in Second Language Acquisition ………4-7 1.1.1 Concepts of Attitude ……….4-5 1.1.2 Classifications of Attitude ………5

1.1.3 The Role of Attitude in Second Language Acquisition ……… 6-7 1.2 The Teaching of Speaking ……… 7-16 1.2.1 Definitions of Speaking ………7-8 1.2.2 The Position of Speaking in English Language Teaching and Learning ……… 8 1.2.3 Accuracy and Fluency in Speaking ……… 8-9 1.2.4 Problems with Speaking ……… 9-10 1.2.5 Communicative Language Teaching Approach in Teaching

Speaking and Communicative Competence ……… 11-12

1.2.6 Principles of Teaching Speaking ……… 12-13

1.2.7 Classroom Speaking Activities ……….13-141.2.8 Characteristics of Successful Speaking Activities ………14-15

1.3 Advantages and Disadvantages of Native English-Speaking

Teachers ……… 15-16 1.4 Previous Studies ……… 16-18 1.5 Conclusive Remarks ……… 18

Chapter 2: Research Methodology ……… 19-24

2.1 Research Context ……….19 2.2 Research Questions ……….19-20 2.3 Research Approach ……… 20 2.4 Research Participants ……… 20-21 2.5 Research Instruments ……… 21-23 2.6 Data Collection Procedure ……… 23-24 2.7 Data Analysis Procedure ……….24

Chapter 3: Results and Discussion ……… 25-36

3.1 The answer to the first research question: Students’ attitudes

towards native teachers’ teaching speaking……… 25-31

3.1.1 Results ……… 25-30

3.1.1.1 Students’ attitudes towards the role of speaking skill intheir English learning ……… 25-263.1.1.2 Students’ attitudes towards advantages of native teachers as nativespeakers ……….26-28

3.1.1.3 Students’ attitudes towards disadvantages of native teachers as native speakers ………28-29

3.1.1.4 Students’ attitudes towards native teachers’ teachingtechniques ……….29-30

3.1.2 Discussion ……… 30-31 3.2 The answer to the second research question: The differences of

three different graders’ attitudes towards native teachers’ teaching

speaking in some extent ……… 31-36

3.2.1 The results……… 31-35

3.2.2 Discussion ……… 35-36

3.3 Conclusive remarks ……… 36

Part C: CONCLUSION ……… 37-39

2 Implications for English Language Teaching ……… 38

REFERENCES ……… 40-42 APPENDICES ……… I-VIII

Appendix 1: Survey Questionnaire in English ……… I-II Appendix 2: Survey Questionnaire in Vietnamese ……… III-V Appendix 3: Interview Transcripts ……… VI-VIII

A Schedule 1: Interviews with the first year students ……… VI

B Schedule 2: Interviews with the second year students ……… VII

C Schedule 3: Interviews with the third year students ……… VIII

Part A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the Study

Teachers are considered to be one of the most crucial elements affecting the success

of students learning a foreign language in non-English speaking countries In the last decadethere has been on-going discussion involved in advantages and disadvantages of nativeteachers and non-native teachers of English (Philipson, 1992; Medgyes, 1994; Liu, 1999).There have been also studies on learners‘ perceptions or attitudes towards the teaching ofboth native and non-native teachers, even on that of a certain area of language such asspeaking, listening or grammar in China, Korea, and Japan (Liu, 1999; Liu & Zhang, 2007;Xiaoru, 2008) The findings indicate a preference for native teachers, but this depends on thequalities of native teachers and the language areas they take over

In Vietnam, since students learn English as a foreign language and a number of themare exposed to native English speaking teachers (hereafter referred as NESTs) there havebeen hardly any studies on their teaching Language learners, their parents, and even peopledirectly involved in language education expect that the best teacher of a language is a nativeteacher However, whether this expectation is true or not and to what extent it is believable isleft for future studies

In the context of the study, Thai Binh Teacher Training College, where the researcher

is working as a non-native teacher of English, there were native teachers who came to teachspeaking skill through educational cooperation projects However, they are short-term onesand the teachers worked with all English majors of the college in oral classes for a schoolyear only and then left them for non-native teachers The author of the study as a successorwonders what the students actually think of native teachers‘ teaching speaking and whetherdifferent graders have different opinions That is also the reason for the study The study isexpected to investigate the students‘ attitudes towards native-English teachers‘ teachingspeaking and give some valuable suggestions for the employment of native-English teachers

at the context of the study in particular and in Vietnam in general and the improvement of theteaching of speaking in particular and other areas of English language teaching in general bynon-native teachers

2 Aims of the Study and Research Questions

The aims of the study are: first, to investigate what the attitudes of English majors atThai Binh Teacher Training College towards the teaching of speaking by English native

teachers are, and to what extent different graders have different attitudes; then, to give someimplications for the employment of native teachers in the context of Vietnam and theimprovement of the teaching of English by Vietnamese non-native teachers Therefore, tworesearch questions raised are:

1 What are the students‘ attitudes towards the teaching of speaking by native-Englishspeaking teachers?

2 To what extent do different graders‘ have different attitudes?

3 Scope of the Study

Due the time limit and the real context of the study where native teachers were put incharge of speaking sections only, the study focused on investigating the students‘ attitudestowards native teachers‘ teaching speaking Besides, the research only emphasized studyinggeneral issues related to the strengths and weaknesses as well as the main techniques ofnative teachers in teaching speaking skill

4 Research Methodology

As the major aim of the study is to find out students‘ attitudes towards the teaching bynative English speaking teachers, survey approach was selected, and two main data collectionmethods employed were questionnaire and interview Cencus sampling was used with allEnglish majors at Department of Foreign Languages of Thai Binh Teacher Training College.The data were collected from 100 participants who belong to three different grades/groups.The analysis was carried out in the light of finding out the answers to the research questions

5 Design of the Study

The study includes three main parts:

Part A: Introduction presents the rationale for the study, the aims and research

questions, scope of the study, research methodology, and design of the study

Part B: Development consists of three chapters as follows:

Chapter 1: Literature Review presents the theoretical background for the study It

involves concepts, classifications and roles of attitude in language learning; issues related tospeaking and the teaching of this skill such as definitions, principles or techniques;advantages and disadvantages of native teachers; and previous studies

Chapter 2: Research Methodology is concerned with the context of the study,

research questions, research approach, research participants, research instruments, datacollection procedure and data analysis procedure

Chapter 3: Results and Discussion describes the results of the study which were

collected from questionnaires and interviews, and the discussion based on the results toanswer the research questions

Part C: Conclusion gives the summary of major findings of the study, some

pedagogical implications for English teaching and learning in Vietnam, and suggestions forfurther studies based on the limitations of the study

Part B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature Review

This chapter will present the theoretical background for the study In the first place,concepts, classifications and roles of attitude in language learning are discussed Then, issuesrelated to speaking and the teaching of this skill such as definitions of speaking, its roles in asecond language learning or techniques of teaching speaking, etc., are presented too Nextcomes to the advantages and disadvantages of native-English-speaking teachers Finally,prior studies related to the topic are summarized

1.1 Attitude and their Roles in Second Language Acquisition

(p 45)This idea is shared by Gibb (1988) as he agrees that attitude is a state of mind, which

is influenced by feelings, experiences of the world and belief This definition sounds a bitgeneral: it is a state and response but exactly what kind of response it is Gardner (1985, p 9)claims that a person‘s attitude bases on his beliefs or opinions: ―An individual‘s attitude as

an evaluative reaction to some referent or attitude object, inferred on the basis of theindividual‘s beliefs or opinions about the referent‖

I myself find the following concept of attitude clear and convincing: ―An attitude is

a hypothetical construct that represents an individual's degree of like or dislike forsomething Attitudes are generally positive or negative views of a person, place, thing, orevent— this is often referred to as the attitude object‖ (Wikipedia – online dictionary)

Similarly, Hallorah (1967) states that attitude represents an individual like or disliketowards an item Attitudes are positive, negative or neutral views of an ―attitude object‖, i.e

a person, situation or event People can also be ―ambivalent‖, meaning that theysimultaneously possess a positive and a negative bias towards the attitudes in question.Obviously, attitude is also a state but represents a person‘s degree of like or dislike It is alsoresponse but exactly positive or negative

Attitudes are said to have cognitive, affective and conative components The cognitivecomponent refers to the individual‘s belief structure, the affective to emotional reactions, andthe conative to the tendency to behave toward the attitude object (Gardner, 1985) This idea isshared by Wikipedia It states that attitudes are judgments and they develop on the ABC

model: Affect, Behavior and Cognition It further explains that ―the affective response is an emotional response that expresses an individual‘s degree of preference for an entity The behavioral intention is a verbal indication or typical behavioral tendency of an individual The cognitive response is a cognitive evaluation of the entity that constitutes an individual's

beliefs about the object‖ More interestingly, this source reveals that most attitudes resultfrom either direct experience or observational learning from the environment

In short, attitude is a mental state that expresses an individual‘s degree of like ordislike, positive or negative opinions about an object, a person, a thing or an event.Additionally, it has three components: affective, cognitive, conative or behavioral

1.1.2 Classifications of Attitude

According to Gardner (1985, pp 40-41), the ways of classifying attitude can be seenreflected in the relationship between the attitude measures and indices of achievement in asecond language He proposes as follows:

Attitude can be classified along a dimension of specificity/generality For example,attitudes toward learning French is specific because there is a specific activity described.Whereas, attitudes toward learning a foreign language is general since there is no particularactivity associated with the language

Attitude can be classified in terms of their relevance to second language achievement.Relevance can be defined in terms of the correlation between the attitudes and theachievement variables Some attitudes are obviously more relevant to the task of learning asecond language than others

Another way of classifying attitude variables is either educational or social attitudes.Instances of educational attitudes would be attitudes toward the teacher, the course, etc.Social attitudes involve attitudes which focus on the cultural implications of second languageacquisition

In brief, classification methods of attitude are varied They depend on the relationshipbetween the attitude and achievement variables This research focuses on educational andspecific attitudes, namely those towards teachers

1.1.3 The Role of Attitude in Second Language Acquisition

Attitude plays an important role in additional language acquisition Positive attitudestowards another language helps create motivation that facilitates success in acquiring thatlanguage and vice versa Several studies have proved this

Gardner (1968) and other researchers conducted a number of studies with the aim tofocus on the roles of attitude in second language acquisition and indicated that the learners‘attitudes have a relationship with their learning performance Some other studies concludedthat a certain aspect of attitudinal-motivational components offers favorable conditions forthe acquisition of second language Namely, students who have positive attitudes towards asecond language are more motivated to learn and more successful in acquiring that language

Similarly, İsmet ŞAHİN (2005) reviewed a number of studies and pointed out thatstudent attitudes towards learning a foreign language and student performance are stronglyrelated Then he came to a conclusion that attitudes are one of the elements that determinesuccess in foreign language acquisition and native speaker teachers influence studentattitudes, which needs further studying

Personally, this is a significant conclusion which fosters educators, especiallyteachers to pay more attention to strengthen students‘ positive attitudes in their languagelearning However, attitudes are a complex aspect of psychology and they are impacted bydifferent elements or factors Additionally, they are not permanent Students may havenegative attitudes towards their language learning or even language teaching Sharing thisidea, Shimizu (1995, as cited in Maggie Lieb, 2009) points out the influence of learners‘attitudes towards teachers on their language learning by stating that ―negative attitudestowards teachers could adversely affect student motivation, not only in the classroom, butalso in terms of a student‘s desire to continue learning the language‖ This is really worthmuch consideration because our goal is to inspire students‘ long-lasting second languageacquisition Therefore, more researches need to be conducted to find out how to build upstudents‘ positive attitudes and avoid their negative ones towards teachers

More interestingly, Ellis (1994) shows mutual relationship between learner attitudesand their achievements in second language acquisition He clarifies that learner attitudesinfluence L2 competence of each learner and are themselves impacted by this achievement.Thanks to success learners achieve, their positive attitudes will be promoted and because oflack of success, their negative ones could be made stronger

I am of the same opinion that learners‘ attitudes and their success in second languageacquisition are mutually and bilaterally related Therefore, building positive attitudes is the

key to achieving language proficiency and studies on learner attitudes are significant andworth further concern and effort by educators and ELT practitioners.

In this research, students‘ attitudes towards teachers, namely native-English speakingteachers are studied and its results are expected to suggest some implications for non-nativeteachers and the employment of native teachers for better ESL/EFL teaching and learning inVietnam

1.2 The Teaching of Speaking

1.2.1 Definitions of Speaking

There have existed different definitions of speaking, which depends on each scholar‘spoint of view to speaking W F Mackey (1965, p 266, as cited in Martin Bygate, 1987)states about oral expression briefly but clearly:

Oral expression involves not only [ ] the use of the right sounds in the right patterns

of rhythm and intonation, but also the choice of words and inflections in the rightorder to convey the right meaning

It is agreeable that what involves in speaking is not only pronunciation but also agood use of vocabulary or grammar to express the ideas accurately However, Mackey seems

to focus on linguistic rather than communicative aspects of speaking skill

In another way, Bailey, Kathleen M (2005, p 2) claims: ―speaking is a productiveand verbal skill It composes oral utterances which are produced systematically to expressmeaning‖ Speaking here is defined briefly and clearly but not very satisfactory to some

extent Can‘t we communicate orally when we do not produce utterances systematically (my

own emphasis)? However, speaking involves both linguistic and pragmatic features and itshould be a process of delivering and interpreting message This is satisfied by Florez (1999,

p 1, as cited in Kathleen M Bailey 2005, p 2) when he states that speaking is ―aninteractive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving andprocessing information‖

Personally, it is an interesting and reasonable idea on speaking because it mentionsthe complete process of oral communication: producing, receiving and processinginformation The message from the speaker can be interpreted differently by differenthearers Communication could not be successful if the hearer misinterpret what the speakerexpresses

In short, speaking is an interactive process of sending and receiving messagessuccessfully It involves both linguistic and communicative aspects so that the listener can

receive and process the information the speaker want to convey, by which the concept of speaking in this study is understood.

1.2.2 The Position of Speaking in English Language Teaching and Learning

Speaking is one of two productive skills and it seems to be the skill that languagelearners desire to master most since their major aim is using language to communicate withothers Thus, it is clear that speaking is the key component to English language teaching andlearning

Pattison (1992) proves the position of speaking in learning a language that: "whenpeople mention knowing or learning a language, they mean being able to speak thelanguage" Similarly, Bygate (1987, p 7) expresses his opinion on the role of speaking that it

is the vehicle of social solidarity, of social ranking, of professional advancement and ofbusiness

The mastery of speaking skills in English is a priority for many foreign languagelearners The learners often evaluate their success in language learning as well as theeffectiveness of their English course on the basis of how they have improved in their spokenlanguage proficiency Nunan (1991, p 39) clarifies this: "mastering the art of speaking is thesingle most important aspect of learning a second language or foreign language, and success

is measured in term of ability to carry out a conversation in the language."

Teaching speaking is a very important part of second language learning The goal ofteaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency The ability to communicate in a secondlanguage clearly and efficiently contributes to the success of the learner in school and successlater in every phase of life

1.2.3 Accuracy and Fluency in Speaking

Accuracy and fluency are two of the main criteria assessed in oral performance Both

of them are goals for the majority of learners in speaking English By fluency it means thatthey are capable of verbally expressing their ideas non-stop and without worrying about theirsaying In terms of accuracy, it means that they can communicate orally with no grammaticaland lexical mistakes or errors However, a question raised is that which is more important?

According to Bailey (2005), one of the challenges learners encounter in speakingEnglish is balancing fluency and accuracy They are two significant components of a goodspeaker He clarifies accuracy and fluency as follows:

Accuracy in this context refers to the ability to speak properly-that is, selecting the

correct words and expressions to convey the intended meaning, as well as using the

grammatical patterns of English Fluency, on the other hand, is the capacity to speak

fluidly, confidently, and at a rate consistent with the norms of the relevant nativespeech community

(p 5)

In my opinion, accuracy should involve comprehensible pronunciation as well, notonly vocabulary and grammar competence because oral communication will not besuccessful if the speaker fails to pronounce words or utterances comprehensibly In fact, inmany countries where people use English as a foreign language like Vietnam, a large number

of learners fail to have good pronunciation

It is obvious that most learners of English want to achieve accuracy and fluency aswell in oral communication and they are both important But how to balance and developboth accuracy and fluency is a challenging task to both teachers and learners of Englishspeaking classes In context of Vietnam, the traditional teaching and learning habits seem tofocus on accuracy rather than fluency However, few students achieve accuracy as expected

It is also the case in Japan Kouichi Ano (2005) shows in her study that an increasing number

of Japanese students with fluency are discovered to replace accurate ones in terms ofgrammar because of a shift from grammar focused teaching to communicative languageteaching by Japanese English education whose aim is to improve students‘ communicationcompetence The main reason given is that speaking skills with different kinds of classroomcommunicative activities have been put more focus on than accuracy of grammar The result

is revealed that students can communicate more fluently but less accurately This factdeserves attention by educators, course designers and teachers

1.2.4 Problems with Speaking

Besides the awareness of characteristics of successful speaking activities, it isessential to point out speaking problems and find the solutions to them

Penny Ur (1996, p 121) mentions four main problems with speaking activities asfollows:

First, learners are often inhibited about expressing their ideas in a foreign languagebecause of their fear of making mistakes, losing face and attracting attention

Second, learners have nothing to say even they are not inhibited

Third, there is low or uneven participation among learners because some dominate theothers.

Last, learners use their mother tongue as it is easier and natural or they are notmotivated and disciplined enough to keep using the target language

Sharing the idea on the first problem of speaking with Penny Ur, David Nunan(1999), in a recent survey he conducted with his colleagues, comes to a conclusion that thebiggest problem in speaking classes was the students‘ reluctance or hesitation to speak Moreimportantly, he finds out the reasons for the above problem in Amy Tsui‘s study (1996) Thestudy pointed out five major factors accounting for the reluctance of students to speak inclass They are students‘ perceived low proficiency in English and their lack of confidenceand willingness, students‘ fear of mistakes and derision, teachers‘ intolerance of silence,teachers‘ uneven allocation of turns and incomprehensible input from the teacher

Similarly, in the book ― Practical English Language Teaching: Speaking‖, Bailey (2005) indicates that:

A great deal of research has shown that students are often hesitant and anxious about

speaking the target language in class In fact, researchers have studied language

classroom anxiety The term refers to the situationally triggered anxiousness that

learners experience when they try to interact in the target language during lessons

(p 163)

It can be clearly seen that the main problem of speaking is students‘ hesitation andanxiety to express their ideas It is true in the context of Vietnam, with Vietnamese learners,who are often shy and reserved In my opinion, as a practitioner in Vietnam, one of the mainreasons comes from the traditional teaching habit, due to which teachers do not encouragestudents to express their own ideas It is also a cultural feature

Additionally, how to solve the problems is another problem In my own opinion,teachers play a very important role in coping with these problems They should create afriendly environment in the speaking classrooms, which helps reduce students‘ anxiety.Besides, teacher‘s flexible evaluation of students‘ oral performance may work well

In summary, speaking problems are students‘ anxiety of expressing their ideas,uneven participation among students, no ideas to express, lack of motivation and difficulties

in keeping using the target language Teachers are the decisive element in solving theseproblems They can do it by creating a relaxing and stimulating atmosphere in their oral skillclasses

1.2.5 Communicative Language Teaching Approach in Teaching Speaking and Communicative Competence

Being founded in the early 1960s Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) hasrecently become a fashionable term to cover a variety of developments in syllabus design and

to a lesser extent, in the methodology of teaching a foreign language, especially English

Different authors view CLT differently However, most emphasize the importance ofopportunities to use English for communicative purposes when this approach has beenapplied in language teaching and learning Nunan (1989) typically states that:

―CLT views language as a system for the expressions of meaning Activities involveoral communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which ismeaningful to the learners Objectives reflect the needs of the learner includingfunctional skills as well as linguistic objectives‖

In the light of CLT, there have been favorable changes in teaching speaking Bailey(2005, pp 18-19) explains clearly that in some language teaching methods, beginninglearners undergo a period of listening to English before they begin to speak it The focus is

on input-based activities For example, learners initially respond physically to spokencommands from the teacher rather than speaking themselves In contrast, in CLT, the focus ismore interaction-based activities such as role-plays and information gap tasks in which pair-work and group-work are typically employed

For many years, language teaching was seen as helping learners develop linguisticcompetence – that is, helping students master the sounds, words and grammar patterns ofEnglish However, from the appearance of CLT, the notion of linguistic competence came to

be viewed as a component of the broader idea of communicative competence According to

Canale and Swain (1980), the second language learners cannot be expected to achieve asatisfactory level of communicative competence if no knowledge of probability of occurrence

of grammatical forms and communicative function is developed Their view of

communicative competence consists of four areas of knowledge and skills: grammatical competence (ability to use correct grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation), sociolinguistic competence (ability to use appropriate language in different contexts and settings), discourse competence (ability to combine language elements to show cohesion in form and coherence

in thought), strategic competence (ability to verbal and non-verbal communication

strategies)

Savignon (1991, p 264, as cited in Kathleen M Bailey, 2005, p 3) definescommunicative competence as ―the ability of language learners to interact with other

speakers, to make meaning, as distinct from their ability to perform on discrete-point tests ofgrammatical knowledge‖ Bailey (2005, p 3) also shows four important elements of

communicative competence: linguistic competence (grammatical or structure competence), sociolinguistic competence (or pragmatic competence), discourse competence, and strategic competence.

In brief, the application of CLT in language teaching and learning, especially inteaching speaking has changed the view of language competence It is not only linguisticcompetence but also pragmatic, discourse and strategic competence

1.2.6 Principles of Teaching Speaking

To et al (2011, pp 45-46) in their course book ESL/EFL Classroom Techniques and Practices clarify 6 principles of teaching speaking as follows:

(1) Be aware that the teaching of speaking is closely bound up with receptive skill work

(2) Give students practice with both fluency and accuracy

(3) Plan communicative tasks that are based on the concept of information gap

(4) Provide opportunities for students to talk by using group work or pair work, and limiting teacher talk

(5) Plan tasks that involve negotiation of meaning

(6) Design classroom activities that involve guidance and practice in both

transactional and interactional speaking

Bailey (2005) divides principles of teaching speaking into three groups: Beginning levels, Intermediate levels, and Advanced levels At beginning levels, teachers should follow

the principles:

 Provide something for learners to talk about

 Create opportunities for students to interact by using group-work or pair-work

 Manipulate physical arrangements to promote speaking practice At intermediate levels, teachers should:

 Focus on and work toward real, spontaneous speech to avoid form-based drills (repetitious or grammar-based exercises)

 Design activities, which encourage natural interaction between speakers

 Place learners in pairs or groups in order to create exciting speaking environment

At advanced levels, the principles of teaching speaking that should be followed by

1.2.7 Classroom Speaking Activities

Classroom speaking activities can be categorized into two main types: communicativedrills and communicative activities (To et al, 2011, pp 47-48)

 Communicative drills: in which teachers control the learners‘ speech primarily by

ensuring that they produce short utterances and which are carried out through the followingactivities:

Practical situations: students can practice requesting and providing

Jigsaw activities: require students‘ cooperation and interaction.

 Communicative activities: aim at communicative end in which students have a desire

to communicate, a purpose to communicate, and use a variety of language structures Here issome examples of communicative activities:

Role-plays: involve the teacher giving role cards to students for pair-work.

Discussion activities: students are given a topic and asked to discuss in group,

give and prove their opinions

Opinion sharing activities: involve identifying and articulating a personal

preference, feeling, or attitude

Reasoning gap activities: involve comprehending and conveying information Prepared talks: students make a presentation on a topic of their own choice

with or without agreement with the teacher

Classroom speaking activities are various However, teachers should choose the most suitable ones for their learners‘ ability as well as the purpose of the course

1.2.8 Characteristics of Successful Speaking Activities

In the teaching of speaking skill, organizing efficient oral activities is significant.Therefore, it is required to be aware of the characteristics of successful speaking activities

According to Penny Ur (1996, p 120), there are four characteristics of a successful speaking activity:

(1) There is a great deal of learner talking time (as much as possible), which means the reduction of teacher talking time or pauses

(2) Even participation by learners is needed (there is no dominance by some talkative learners and opportunities to participate in speaking activities are given to all)

(3) Learners are highly motivated (It means they want to express their own ideas in classroom discussions because of interesting topics)

(4) Language used is of acceptable level, which is comprehensible to other students Sharing the ideas with Penny Ur, Louanne Piccolo (2010) argues that a successful

speaking activity can help limit teacher talking time and increase student talking time; avoiddominance by some talkative students and create even participation among learners; offerinteresting topics to motivate students to speak; and encourage acceptable language that isrelevant and comprehensible to the others He also adds that interruptions during student‘stalking need to be limited for a good oral activity It is necessary to clarify whoseinterruptions (teacher‘s or students‘) should be limited To my thinking, interruptions byteacher should be avoided but those by partners may be good because they create an excitingand enthusiastic atmosphere during the classroom discussions They also help increasestudent talking time and exchanging ideas among the participants

The above-mentioned characteristics of a successful speaking activity are reasonableand it is noted that acceptable level of language should be understood as a combination of

both linguistic knowledge and intercultural pragmatic competence Oral communication willfail if the speaker and the hearers do not share the background knowledge.

1.3 Advantages and Disadvantages of Native English-Speaking Teachers

Native-English speaking teachers (NESTs), like non-native English speaking teachers(NNESTs), have both advantages and disadvantages The followings are some major ones

The most common strength of NESTs which is shared by many scholars (Li & Meng,2005; Liu, 1999; Medgyes, 1994; İsmet ŞAHİN, 2005, etc) is their oral competence EvenMedgyes (as cited in Iván García Merino, 1997) affirms that: ―The more proficient, themore efficient‖ In their study, Li & Meng (2005, as cited in Mingxu Liu & Limei Zhang2007) add other two strong points possessed by NESTs They are their various and moreattractive teaching methods and creation of a comfortable and enjoyable learning atmospherewhich stimulates students to be involved in class activities

Similarly, Mingxu Liu & Limei Zhang (2007) points out in their study that NESTscan create a student-friendly classroom environment Another advantage also presented intheir research is that NESTs develop students‘ ability to think independently, which seems to

be a weakness of NNESTs

More interestingly, Dr İsmet ŞAHİN (2005) points out that native-English teachers‘advantages over their non native-English counterparts are ―their being more tolerant oflearners‘ errors with respect to grammatical errors than nonnative English teachers, theirgiving more importance to fluency than to accuracy and their obliging learners to speakEnglish more because of their incapability of using learners‘ native language‖ It is interestingwhen NESTs makes use of their own disadvantage of not using students‘ first language topush them to speak the target language because this helps increase the students‘ talking timeand limits the interference of the mother tongue in the second language acquisition

Besides strengths, NESTs have some weaknesses According to Li & Meng (2005, ascited in Mingxu Liu & Limei Zhang 2007), native-English speaking teachers are unaware ofthe learners‘ expectations and problems They select their own teaching materials, not followones designed by the institutions and they use the flexibility of the evaluation of students‘ability without unchanged criteria Personally, the two latter weaknesses are not veryconvincing because teachers can design their own materials or use the others if they find theexisting ones are not suitable And it may be the case for the assessment The criteria are onlyappropriate for a certain setting and a group of learners

Ulku Ozturk & Derin Atay (2010) and Chen Xiaoru (2008) also agree that NESTs cannot predict students‘ language problems as well as their potential They explain that it isbecause NESTs haven‘t experienced the process of acquiring the foreign languagethemselves Xiaoru provides further information on NESTs‘ limitations that they can notspeak students‘ native language, so they have difficulties in forming positive relationshipwith the students and helping them solve the problems, which is contrary to the ideas of Drİsmet ŞAHİN.

In brief, NESTs possess both strengths and weaknesses The prevailing strength istheir language competence and their common weakness is their unawareness of learners‘problems and expectations However, the most important thing is that NESTs should beemployed to teach in the fields where they can make their best advantages

1.4 Previous Studies

There have been a number of studies on students‘ attitudes or perceptions of nativeEnglish speaking teachers Most of their findings show that students have positive attitudestowards the teaching of English language by NESTs However, there exist some problemslearners encounter when they are taught by NESTs and students at different grades and levels

of English proficiency have various preferences to NESTs

Most of the students surveyed in the study by Mingxu Liu and Limei Zhang believethe foreign teachers‘ class is friendlier and they have less stress in class compared withChinese teachers‘ classes The findings of this study also indicates that the students at the toplevel enjoy foreign teachers‘ classes more than the low level students who enjoy Chineseteachers‘ class more It is because the latter felt nervous in foreign teachers‘ classes because

of their inability to express themselves properly

Similarly, Song-Ae Han studies Korean students‘ attitudes towards NESTs and pointsout that ―The learners with low English proficiency express their worries about learning inNESTs‘ classes because they think that NESTs are not as concerned about their difficulties inlearning English as KTEs (Korean teachers of English, my own explanation) are‖ Theresearch adds that NESTs have less deep relationships with their students than KTEs and thatNESTs‘ lack of knowledge of Korean language and culture can be disadvantageous for thelow level learners

In contrast, the study by Chen Xiaoru (2008) reveals that the longer the studentsspend with their teachers, the less they prefer NESTs Namely, the majority of the freshmenlike to have NESTs in their classes due to their casual manner and variety of activities in

class Meanwhile, most of the students at higher grades prefer their Chinese English teachersbecause they are more familiar with the national curriculum, and the examinations to betaken; therefore, they are better able to equip their students with the necessary strategies andhelp them pass the exams Chen Xiaoru also concludes that Chinese students have a clearpreference for NESTs because of their high proficiency in English, ability to use Englishfunctionally, and the awareness of the culture of English speaking countries Additionally,they believe that NESTs are more fluent and accurate with a special emphasis on their goodpronunciation.

No researches on students‘ attitudes towards the teaching of speaking by NESTs havebeen found However, there are some which discover learners‘ attitudes to NESTs‘ teaching

in some specific areas in English language teaching

Chen Xiaoru (2008) finds out in her study that there is a clear preference for anNESTs in the areas of pronunciation, culture, and speaking and she comes to a conclusionthat: ―Pronunciation and cultural knowledge stand out as the two most prominent areas inwhich native speaker teachers have advantages over non－ native speaker teachers‖ Sheproved this by giving some examples of students‘ responses in her interview that NESTsspeak fluently and use English as a medium of instruction, so they learn more; that NESTswould provide them with more chances to speak English and serve as a perfect model forimitation Similarly, Tsui (1996) indicates that students value the authenticity of NESTs withregard to pronunciation, knowledge of English speaking countries, and their informal andflexible teaching styles

Sekigawa et al, (2003) also studies advantages and disadvantages of having nativespeakers as teachers of English and clarifies that the majority of students like to have NESTs

in their speaking and pronunciation classes because, they explain, listening to ‗real‘ English

in class is very exciting and they can put themselves in a situation where they can speak onlyEnglish; therefore, they get used to speaking and thinking in English On the other hand, herstudy demonstrates that learners have difficulty in understanding and communicating withforeign teachers; they can not express themselves well in English The reasons for theseobstacles are that they do not get used to different pronunciation and accents as well as fastspeed by NESTs and that their English competence is poor As a result, students becomemore passive and quieter, then fail to acquire speaking skill

Another study conducted by Liu (1999, as cited in İsmet ŞAHİN, 2005) concludedthat a good oral English teacher should be a good English speaker and many native Englishspeakers have proven to be successful teachers in oral English classes in China.

In Vietnam, there are hardly any researches done on students‘ attitudes to NESTs aswell as to their teaching of any specific areas of English language, including that of speaking

It is partially because the employment of NESTs in academic institutions is not popular anddoes not receive enough concern from educators The author of this study have been working

in a college where there are NESTs employed, namely in the area of speaking and wish toinvestigate students‘ attitudes towards the teaching of this field by NESTs with a view togiving some valuable implications for successful English language teaching and making acertain contribution to the evaluation of using native speakers as teachers of English in ourcountry

To conclude, a variety of studies point out that students have both positive andnegative attitudes towards native English speaking teachers However, preferences prevail.Most respondents think that native English teachers can offer friendly classroomenvironment, variety of interesting activities, flexible teaching styles They prefer nativeEnglish teachers on pronunciation, speaking and culture courses because they have highproficiency in English, offer a good model for students to imitate and a natural source ofattraction to students Besides, some participants show that native English teachers can nothelp them to anticipate and solve their learning problems and pass the exams easily

1.5 Conclusive Remarks

In conclusion, this chapter conceptualizes the discussion of issues and aspectsconcerning the topic of the study First, it concerns the concepts, the classifications, and theroles of attitude in second language learning Then comes to an overview of the teaching ofspeaking in which definitions, the roles of speaking, CLT approach in teaching speaking andthe ideas of communicative competence, issues of accuracy and fluency, techniques ofteaching speaking, classroom speaking activities, characteristics of successful activities, andproblems in speaking skill are discussed Next, advantages and disadvantages of nativeEnglish teachers are presented Finally, the results of previous studies on this topic aresummarized as well The following chapters will present the investigation, the findings andthe recommendations of the research under the light of the above-discussed theories

Chapter 2: Research Methodology

This chapter is concerned with the methodology of the research It includes researchcontext or the setting of the study, research questions, research approach, researchparticipants, research instruments, data collection procedure and data analysis procedure

2.1 Research Context

This research is done at Thai Binh Teacher Training College, where the author hasbeen teaching English for over 8 years There are about 2000 students here, most of whomare non-English majors, who are being trained to be teachers of different subjects likeMathematics, Physics or Chemistry

Annually, there are around 100 English-majored students belonging to 3 groups:English 1 (the first year), English 2 (the second year) and English 3 (the third year) Most ofthem will work as teachers of English after their graduation; whereas, some of them seek forother jobs like tour guides, hotel receptionists or interpreters They often work with theteachers of Department of Foreign Languages on English courses, all of whom were trained

at College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National University or Hanoi University, more half

of whom got MA degree on English Linguistics Besides, they have chances to learn Englishwith native English speaking teachers, who come from the United States of America or the

UK through education cooperation projects However, it is discontinued Native teachersonly worked with English majors in speaking classes and then left speaking classes for non-native teachers

Therefore, it came to the author that what the students actually think of native Englishspeaking teachers and their teaching of speaking Do they have positive or negative attitudes,

do different graders have different attitudes and to what extent? That is the researcher‘sconcern and the reason for the study It is expected to show the students‘ opinions aboutnative-English teachers‘ teaching speaking and give some valuable suggestions for theemployment of native-English teachers at my college in particular and in Vietnam in generaland the improvement of the teaching of speaking in particular and other areas of Englishlanguage teaching in general by non-native teachers

2.2 Research Questions

The study is aimed at finding out the students‘ attitudes towards native-Englishteachers‘ teaching speaking and the differences of these attitudes among three differentgroups of graders if any Therefore, it is supposed to answer two following questions:

1 What are the students‘ attitudes towards the teaching of speaking by native-Englishspeaking teachers?

2 To what extent do different graders‘ have different attitudes?

Similarly, Johnson (2005, p 105) in Approaches to Research in Second Language Learning states that surveys are used to affect learning and teaching issues including attitudes

of teachers and learners towards the teaching and learning Some of the purposes of surveyresearch are to gather demographic information about language learners, to study attitudes ofteachers and professors towards varieties, language practices, target language norms, studentlanguage use and growth, to determine the policies affecting learning and teaching, and tostudy attitudes of teachers/learners towards of techniques and teaching methods

Because the aim of the study is to find out students‘ attitudes towards the teaching bynative English speaking teachers, this approach with two main data collection methods:questionnaire and interview is employed

2.4 Research Participants

In any research approaches, deciding the participants for a study is very important Itseems to be a significant step in survey research, in which population and sampling strategiesare made clear appropriate According to Johnson (2005), population is the entire group ofentities or persons to which the results of a study are intended to apply Accordingly, thepopulation of this study is all English majors of Thai Binh Teacher Training College

Mertens (2005) states that ―sampling refers to the method used to select a givennumber of people (or things) from the population‖ There are two main sampling strategies:probability and non-probability sampling By probability sampling, it refers to any method ofsampling that utilizes some form of random selection It includes some subtypes such asrandom, systematic or cluster sampling In non-probability sampling, convenience, purposive

or snowball sampling are examples According to Dornyei (2003, pp 71-72), the mostcommon sampling strategies are probability sampling, convenience sampling and purposive

sampling However, he adds that census is one particular survey type of sample whichincludes every member of population in the survey.

In this study, census sampling is employed because the subjects of the research are allEnglish-majored students of Department of foreign languages at Thai Binh Junior TeacherTraining College, who are exposed to native teachers in their speaking classes They are 100 andbelong to 3 groups: 40 first year students of Group English 1, 30 second year students of GroupEnglish 2 and 30 third year students of Group English 3 All the participants volunteered to takepart in the study The majority of them are female (95% of the sample) The students‘ ages rankfrom 18 to 20 They have been learning English for at least 6 years before enrolment and theirEnglish proficiency is of different levels but at least at intermediate level They were exposed tonative teachers in oral classes in the school year 2010-2011 The table below provides thedetailed information of the participants of the study

In survey research, questionnaires are one of the most powerful instruments to collect

data This is emphasized by Dornyei (2003, p 3): ―Because the essence of scientific research is trying to find answers to questions in a systematic manner, it is no wonder that the questionnaire has become one of the most popular research instruments applied in the social sciences‖ He adds

that the main strength of questionnaires are the ease of their construction

Questionnaires are defined by Brown (2001, as cited in Dornyei, 2003, p 6) as ― anywritten instruments that present respondents with a series of questions or statements to whichthey are to react either by writing out their answers or selecting from among existinganswers‖ Questionnaires are used to measure three types of data: factual, behavioral, andattitudinal Attitudinal questions are explored to find out what people think, namely attitudes,opinions, beliefs, interests, and values (Dornyei, 2003) There are three ways of constructingquestionnaires: adopt (use an existing questionnaire of the previous study as your own

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new setting), and design/develop (make a new questionnaire) Hence, the author of thisresearch employs questionnaires as the main instrument to collect the data Two types of dataused are behavioral and attitudinal Adapting is chosen as the way of constructing thequestionnaire of this study and it consists of two main parts of the items.

Part A is two behavioral questions on the role of speaking skill in English learning In

this part, the subjects are asked to answer multiple-choice questions with specific instructionwhich helps them know well what they have to do

Part B is attitudinal questions on the subjects‘ attitudes towards the teaching of

speaking by native English speaking teachers In the part, Gardner‘s Instructions and Itemsfrom the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (1985, pp 177-178) are adapted with a list ofproposed statements expressing attitudes towards the teaching of speaking by the nativeEnglish speaking teacher and four scales of the degree of (dis)agreement The respondentsare asked to tick one of four scales presenting their attitudes The final part of thequestionnaire is the writer‘s thanks to the participants

For the details, see appendix 1: the questionnaire in English (I-II) and appendix 2: thequestionnaire in Vietnamese (III-V)

2.5.2 Interview

Another data collection instrument used in this survey research is interview.McDonough (2001) shows that interviewing is a very basic research tool in social sciencesand interviews are divided into structured, semi-structured, and unstructured Structuredinterviews are closest to the standard questionnaire and require adherence to a very particularset of rules Semi-structured interviews are more relaxed and flexible than structured ones.Unstructured interviews are the most relaxed of the three types They are like naturalconversations

In this study, semi-structured interviews were employed for several reasons First,they could bring the interviewer great flexibility to focus more on remarkable points (Nunan,1992) Furthermore, interactions in a semi-structured interview were ―incredibly rich‖; thecollected data could be ―extraordinary evidence about life‖ that might not be gained in astructured interview or questionnaire (Nunan, 1992, p 93) Accordingly, they could createrich, thick data for a valid and well-researched study

In the research, the interviews were used to triangulate and enrich the questionnairedata There were three interview schedules with three different groups of the participants.The sampling strategy used was maximum-variation (the individuals can be based on the

criterion of maximizing variation within the sample) The interviewees were selectedaccording to their oral performances evaluated by the native teachers The researcher based

on the mark record of speaking skills offered by the teachers at the end of the second schoolterm The students with the highest, the lowest and medium-ranked marks were chosen forthe interviews Therefore, there were 9 interviewees for three interview schedules, 3 ones foreach schedule The purpose of the researcher is to find out whether there is any relationshipbetween the students‘ attitude and achievement

The interviewees were asked the same questions outside the class and individually.Only one question raised was: What are your attitudes towards the teaching of speaking bythe native teachers? (Can you explain in detail?)

For the details, see appendix 3: interview transcripts (VI-VIII)

2.6 Data Collection Procedure

The subjects of the study were exposed to the native English speaking teacher in oralclasses from the middle of August, 2010 to the end of May, 2011 (of the school year 2010-2011) The data was collected at the last weeks of this school year The author of the study is

a teacher of Department of Foreign Languages and also working with the students in Englishcourses Therefore, the researcher has chances to approach the participants easily andconveniently

The procedures involved in two main steps as follows:

Step 1: At the middle of May, the questionnaires were delivered to the three groups of

participants As this is an educational research, the questionnaires were administered by hand.Each respondent was handed a copy of the questionnaire, and they were asked to answer allthe question items in the questionnaires However, in order to increase the quality andquantity of participant response, the questionnaires were written in Vietnamese Additionally,before the subjects answered the questionnaire, the researcher explained the purpose and thepotential significance of the research once again After that, she assured them of theconfidentiality of their answers When the respondents were clear about that, they tried torespond appropriately and helpfully

Step 2: At the end of May, the three interview schedules were carried out with three groups

of participants selected before They occurred outside the class and they were explained why theyhad been selected Small talks with the interviewees aimed at creating the friendly atmosphere forthe administration of the interview so that they could not feel nervous

and give their most truthful and sincere answers to the interview questions All theinterviewees were asked the same questions.

2.7 Data Analysis Procedure

Two sets of data were obtained from the data collection The first one was 100questionnaires from three groups of the participants The second one was three interviewschedules from 9 respondents

Descriptive statistics by Dornyei (2003) are used to analyze the data of thequestionnaire Tables are explored to summarize data about the respondents and theirresponses, and to present results of statistical analyses that are shown in percents The results

of the questionnaire and interview are intermingled to clarify the answers to the researchquestions The main part of the questionnaire is analyzed in subcategories of advantages,disadvantages, and teaching techniques of native teachers The findings and discussion arefollowed to demonstrate the answers to the research questions in depth

The following chapter will present the results and discussions of the study