nglish as a foreign language (efl) students` attitudenes towards pair work activities in speaking lessons: A case study at a college in Can Tho city

Although several studies have been conducted on the effects of using pair work in speaking classes, little research has been undertaken about how pair work strategies could[r]

ABSTRACT

Although several studies have been undertaken into how pair work influences students’ learning speaking English as a foreign language, little research on this area of interest exists within the context of teaching and learning English in Can Tho, Mekong Delta, Vietnam This research was therefore conducted to investigate students’ attitudes towards pair work activities in speaking lessons at a college of tourism in Can Tho City Participants in this study were one-hundred twenty-six ESP students Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and classroom observations The findings of this study reveal that pair work activities in speaking lessons brought students interest and confidence Pedagogical implications and recommendations for the further research are also provided

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of abbreviations vii

List of tables viii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Research aim and question 3

1.3 Research hypothesis 3

1.4 Significance of the study 3

1.5 Organization of the study 3

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Attitudes 5

2.2 Pair work 5

2.2.1 Definitions 5

2.2.2 Advantages of pair work 6

2.3 Speaking 7

2.3.1 Definitions 7

2.3.2 The importance of speaking skill 8

2.3.3 Some factors affecting students’ speaking skill 8

2.3.4 Speaking components 10

2.4 Related studies 11

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 14

3.1 Research design 14

3.2 Participants 15

3.3 Research instruments 17

3.3.1 Questionnaires 17

3.3.2 Semi-structured interviews 19

3.3.3 Classroom observations 20

3.4 Materials 21

3.5 Data collection procedures 21

3.5.1 Administering questionnaires 22

3.5.2 Administering semi-structured interviews 22

3.6 Data analysis procedure 24

CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS 25

4.1 Findings from the questionnaires 25

4.1.1 Students’ interest towards pair work activities in speaking lessons 26

4.1.2 Students’ pressure towards pair work activities in speaking lessons 27

4.1.3 Students’ confidence towards pair work activities in speaking lessons 28

4.1.4 Students’ attitudes towards classroom management in speaking lessons 30

4.1.5 Students’ attitudes towards assessment in speaking lessons 31

4.2 Findings from classroom observations 32

4.2.1 Teaching strategies 32

4.2.2 Teaching resources 33

4.2.3 The roles of the teacher 34

4.2.4 Interaction 35

4.2.5 Mistake correction 36

4.2.6 Students’ participation 36

4.3 Finding from the interviews 37

4.3.1 Students’ positive attitudes towards pair work activities in speaking lessons 37

4.3.2 Benefits from pair work activities 39

4.3.3 Challenges from pair work activities 40

CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS 41

5.1 Summary of key findings 41

5.2 Discussion 42

5.3 Conclusions 43

5.4 Pedagogical implications and recommendations 43

5.5 Limitations 44

5.6 Recommendations for further research 44

REFERENCES 45

APPENDICES Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students 1

Appendix 2: Observation sheet 4

Appendix 3: Interview questions 6

Appendix 4: Raw calculation 7

Appendix 5: Transcription of the individual interview 9

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EAP English for Academic Purposes

EFL English as a Foreign Language

ESP English for Specific Purposes

LREs Lexical Language-Related Episodes

MoET Ministry of Education and Training

LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 3.1: Participants’ backgrounds 15

Table 3.2: The curriculum 16

Table 3.3: Summarized items for each cluster in the questionnaire 17

Table 3.4: Reliability statistic 18

Table 3.5: Research procedure 21

Table 3.6: The interviewees’ conditions 23

Table 4.1: Descriptive statistics (cluster of interests) 26

Table 4.2: One Sample t-Test (like speaking) 26

Table 4.3: Descriptive Statistics (cluster of pressure) 27

Table 4.4: One Sample t-Test (limited time in speaking) 28

Table 4.5: Descriptive statistics (cluster of confidence) 28

Table 4.6: One Sample t-Test (opportunities to speak) 29

Table 4.7: Descriptive statistics (cluster of classroom management) 29

Table 4.8: One Sample t-Test (management is not easy) 30

Table 4.9: Descriptive statistics (cluster of classroom assessment) 30

Table 4.10: One Sample t-Test (assessment is easy) 31

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the rationale, research aim, question and hypothesis It

concludes with significance of the study and thesis organization

1.1 RATIONALE

English is now widely accepted as an international language of several aspects of life including communication (e.g., Crystal, 2003; De Swaan, 2001; Le & Nguyen, 2017; Nguyen & Nguyen, 2018) This global trend of English language use has been advocated

by the Vietnamese government in ways that English is viewed to be the most important foreign language in Vietnam across all levels of Vietnamese educational system (Le & Nguyen, 2017) In particular, students start learning English at Grade three However, most of the students lack the ability of English language use to meet their current academic needs, future careers and other purposes Therefore, the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) launched the National Foreign Languages 2020 Project to promote the quality of teaching and learning how to use foreign languages including English for communicative competence By 2020, this government policy requires graduates to use English independently and confidently in communication, academic study and work in Vietnam and in foreign enterprises However, the majority of graduates could not speak English at a required pre-intermediate level (MoET, 2008)

Established in 2006, College of Tourism in Can Tho City has been committed to training and providing tourism staff with knowledge of this area to serve local needs and those in the Mekong delta Students in this college came from different backgrounds from different provinces of this community Their ages range from 18 to 24 These students were high school students and employees In other words, their own knowledge, skills, cognitive abilities, curiosity, experience and attitude towards English were also completely different However, they had some similarities They wanted to be able to

speak English fluently In their general English classes, they had few chances to speak or use English They could only answer their teacher’s questions when they were asked After leaving their classes, they could not speak English to express what they wanted to, even simple things around them

The curriculum currently used in ESP classes, consisting of 240 periods, was assigned by the school principal In a typical speaking class, the teacher was the center while the students were passive They only listened to and answered the teacher’s questions The students usually combined answers given by the teacher to make a speech for their presentation As a result, only few students could give their presentation in front

of the class, whereas others could copy and learnt by heart for their final oral examinations Consequently, the students did not have the ability to communicate on their own In addition, the students’ speaking skill much depended on writing In class, whenever they were asked to speak, they often spent a lot of time preparing their speaking

by writing a complete composition When they were required to make a presentation in front of the class, all what they could do was to read what they had written on the paper

Three challenges encountered by students in speaking classes include inhibition, lack of vocabulary and time budget spent in speaking Students were inhibited whenever they wanted to say or expressed their opinions or ideas in English to their partners or in the classroom This resulted from the fact that they were afraid of making mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face They were even too shy in front of the attention by others while speaking (Nguyen & Tran, 2015)

Regarding lack of vocabulary, students found it hard to express ideas as a result of learning with traditional methods like teacher-centered or grammar translation The teachers just read or lectured while students were very passive Taken together, students were not given opportunities to communicate with other classmates

With regard to time spent in speaking, students in the large class of forty on average had very little opportunity to talk Also, in a mixed ability class, some dominating students said a lot while others spoke less or not at all

These issues mentioned above initiate this current study

1.2 RESEARCH AIM AND QUESTION

The aim of the study is to investigate students’ attitudes towards pair work activities in speaking lessons at a college of tourism in Can Tho City The study is guided by the research question: What are students’ attitudes towards pair work activities in speaking lessons?

1.3 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

It is hypothesized that EFL students could become more confident, learn more from their partners, and have more opportunities to use English through pair work activities in speaking lessons

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Although several studies have been conducted on the effects of using pair work in speaking classes, little research has been undertaken about how pair work strategies could improve EFL students’ English competence within the teaching and learning context in Vietnam Therefore, the findings of this study are expected to contribute to the improvements of teaching of English, particularly how to use pair work to enhance students learning speaking classes at a college of tourism in Can Tho City In particular, this study offers teachers insights into how to design a variety of pair work activities and strategies that involve students in communicative tasks

1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

This thesis is organized into five chapters: (1) Introduction, (2) Literature review, (3) Methodology, (4) Findings, (5) Discussion and Conclusions

Chapter One introduces the rationale for the study, research aim, question and hypothesis The significance and the organization of the study are also presented

Chapter Two reviews the literature relevant to the thesis topic in order to establish the foundation for the present study

Chapter Three presents the research methodology It includes research design, participants, context of the study, instruments, and data collection procedure

Chapter Four reports the findings of the study to answer the research question through questionnaire, observations and semi-structured interviews

Chapter Five discusses the findings of the study The chapter concludes with the implications, limitations of the study and recommendations for further research

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews the literature relevant to this study It includes the definitions

of key terms such as attitudes, pair work, speaking and its components and factors influencing students’ speaking skill The chapter concludes with related studies

2.1 ATTITUDES

There are several definitions of attitudes in the literature Ajzen (2005) defines attitude as disposition to respond to an object, person, institution or event in a favorable or unfavorable way This construct implies measurable responses which reflect or influence individuals’ thought or action towards a person, thing, place or event (Ajzen, 2005) Hashemi (2005) defines attitudes as someone’s opinions or views towards a particular subject matter Thus, attitudes could influence how individuals approach many aspects in life It is, therefore, believed that individuals with positive attitudes usually progress more rapidly in foreign language learning Attitudes are closely related to our beliefs and are based upon experiences, thus, it is believed that effective language teaching strategies can encourage students to be more positive towards the learning process in general and learning speaking in particular (Ibnian, 2012) Shahrzad (2016) defines attitude as opinion and feeling that everyone has about something Learning a foreign language is no exception Thus, attitude to language is a construct that interprets an individual’s linguistic behavior

For the purposes of this study, attitudes are viewed as responses and reactions that students have towards learning English as a foreign language

2.2 PAIR WORK

2.2.1 Definitions

Pair work is defined as a strategy that involves students in exposing themselves to opportunities to communicate ideas with others (e.g., Ellis, 2003; Gass & Mackey, 2006,

investigating factors that influence teachers’ attitudes towards pair work activities in speaking lessons at different colleges of sciences in Can Tho City may provide multiple views of this type of learning strategy to make best use of student learning outcomes in speaking Further research with a larger sample size can result in more holistic views by teachers and students across the school in particular and other teaching contexts in the community in general

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