An investigation into the applicability of critical strategy in group work to the teaching of speaking skills for the second year students at english department of hong duc university

MINOR PROGRAM THESIS AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE APPLICABILITY OF CRITICAL STRATEGY IN GROUP WORK TO THE TEACHING OF SPEAKING SKILLS FOR THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OF

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

- -

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG HẠNH

M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE APPLICABILITY OF CRITICAL STRATEGY IN GROUP WORK TO THE TEACHING OF SPEAKING SKILLS FOR THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH

DEPARTMENT OF HONG DUC UNIVERSITY

( Nghiên cứu khả năng ứng dụng chiến lược phản biện theo nhóm vào giảng dạy kỹ năng nói cho sinh viên năm thứ hai khoa Tiếng Anh

trường Đại Học Hồng Đức tỉnh Thanh Hoá )

Field : English Language Teaching Methodology Code : 60.14.10

HA NOI - 2011

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

- -

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG HẠNH

M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE APPLICABILITY OF CRITICAL STRATEGY IN GROUP WORK TO THE TEACHING OF SPEAKING SKILLS FOR THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH

DEPARTMENT OF HONG DUC UNIVERSITY

( Nghiên cứu khả năng ứng dụng chiến lược phản biện theo nhóm vào giảng dạy kỹ năng nói cho sinh viên năm thứ hai khoa Tiếng Anh

trường Đại Học Hồng Đức tỉnh Thanh Hoá )

Field : English Language Teaching Methodology Code : 60.14.10 Supervisor : Nguyễn Bàng, M.A

HA NOI - 2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS

page

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES viii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the Study 1

2 Aims of the Study 2

3 Research Questions of the Study 3

4 Scope of the Study 3

5 Methods of the Study 3

6 Design of the Study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Introduction 4

1.2 An Overview of Speaking 4

1.2.1 Definitions of Speaking 4

1.2.2 The Importance of Speaking in Language Teaching and Learning 5

1.2.3 The Principles for Teaching Speaking 6

1.2.4 The Communicative Approach to Teaching Speaking 7

1.2.4.1 CLT and Teaching Speaking in the Classroom Context 7 1.2.4.2 Speaking Activities 8

1.2.4.3 Problems with Speaking Activities 8

1.3 The Critical Strategy (CS) in Teaching Speaking 9

1.3.1 What is the Critical Strategy ? 9

1.3.2 The Importance of CS to the Development of Students' Speaking Skills 9

1.3.3 Teaching Critical Strategies Used in the Speaking Lessons 11

1.3.3.1 Oral Presentation 11

1.3.3.2 Group Discussion 12

1.3.3.3 Seminar 13

1.3.4 Factors Affecting CS Application in Group Work 13

1.3.4.1 Student Variables 14

1.3.4.2 Teacher Variables 15

1.3.4.3 Language Environment and Course Book 16

1.3.4.4 Tests and Evaluations 16

1.4 Summary 16

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 17

2.1 Introduction 17

2.2 The Context of the Study 17

2.3 The Research Methodology 18

2.3.1 Selecting Population 18

2.3.2 The Instrumentation 19

2.3.2.1 The Questionnaires 19

2.3.2.2 The Classroom Observations 20

2.4 Data Analysis 20

2.4.1 Data Analysis of the Survey Questionnaires 20

2.4.1.1 Data Analysis of the Teachers' Survey Questionnaire 20

2.4.1.2 Data Analysis of the Students' Survey Questionnaire 27

2.4.2 Data Analysis of the Class Observations 36

2.5 Summary 37

CHAPTER 3: MAJOR FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 33 3.1 Introduction 38

3.2 The Teachers' and Students' Beliefs and Attitudes

towards CS Application in Group Work 38 3.3 The Teachers' Situation of Applying CS in Group

Work in the Speaking Lessons 38 3.4 The Challenges when Applying CS in Teaching Speaking Skills 39

3.5 The Modifications for Applying CS in Group Work Possible 40

3.6 Summary 41

PART C: CONCLUSION 42

1 Conclusion 42

2 Limitations of the Study 43

3 Recommendations for Further Study 43

REFERENCES 44 APPENDICES I Appendix 1: Survey Questionnaire for Teachers I Appendix 2: Survey Questionnaire for Students V Appendix 3: Classroom Observation Sheet X

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CA: Communicative Approach

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

CS: Critical Strategy

DLSD: Division of Language Skills Development

FLD: Foreign Language Department

HDU: Hong Duc University

No: Number of responses

SLA: Second Language Acquisition

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

CHARTS

Chart 1: Teachers' beliefs and attitudes towards the role of CS in group work to the

students' speaking skills development

Chart 2: The teachers' beliefs and attitudes of the topics in the current course books to

CS application in group work

Chart 3: The teachers' techniques used most

Chart 4: The students' beliefs and attitudes towards speaking skills

Chart 5: The students' beliefs and attitudes towards CS in group work

Chart 6: The students' preferences for speaking topics

TABLES

Table 1: Teachers' ideas of CS

Table 2: The teachers' beliefs and attitudes of the students' English proficiency to

CS application in group work

Table 3: The teachers' frequency of applying CS in group work

Table 4: Types of techniques and activities used by the teachers

Table 5: The difficulties affirmed by teachers

Table 6: Solutions suggested by teachers

Table 7: The students' beliefs about their English proficiency

Table 8: The students' profits gained from CS in group work

Table 9: The students' preferences for the techniques the teachers used

Table 10: The students' difficulties in preparing the contents of the topics or the tasks

Table 11: The students' difficulties in delivering presentations

Table 12: The students' suggestions for their difficulties

Table 13: The students' suggestions for teachers

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

It is recognized that in recent years, in the field of second language acquisition (SLA), researchers have been more interested in studying the learning process than the learning product and in the development of communicative competence than that of linguistic competence ( Chen, 1990) For this tendency, the present study is intended to investigate into the applicability of critical strategy in groups in the speaking lessons for English-major students at Hong Duc University based on the following reasons:

Firstly, there is an urgent need to improve students' communicative competence in addition

to lexical and grammatical knowledge In fact, we are living in the twenty-first century with the dominance of English all over the world in such important areas as aviation, business, commerce, technology, science, international relations and diplomacy In accordance with the open policies to integrate into the world community, the large number

of companies from different countries investing into several fields in Vietnam Therefore, the necessity for English has been increasing very rapidly, in particular English speaking skills has become a common requirement for jobs, and is considered to be a "ladder" to a successful career Being aware of that, in the past years, the teaching staff of English at Hong Duc University (HDU) has been trying hard to define suitable methods and to compile appropriate materials for language teaching and learning in which speaking skills

is treated as the most important of the four language skills but has not been successful in producing sufficient, fluent foreign language speakers One of the main reasons is the lack

of frequent practice from students To enhance students' speaking skills development, teachers need to create more opportunities for the students to practice and learn from their own strengths and weaknesses as well as their peers' weaknesses and strengths Among suggested solutions, CS in groups can be of great help because it is the interaction in the classroom among students to express their opinions on the topics Moreover, through these activities students will learn the way to co-operate in the group or team that is very important in the real world and positive social relation in the community

Secondly, opponent strategy in groups is one of the teaching techniques designed in the communicative approach which emerges as the latest development because of its

superiority In the view of this approach, the learner is considered the center of the learning process, the teacher servers as a facilitator, allowing students to be in charge of their own learning Breen, M and Candlin, C.N (1980) stated that learners should be active in groups as well as in classroom activities to enhance their interactive learning to be communicatively competent However, there is a fact that not all learners are participants

in the speaking lessons because of shyness, lacking motivation or poor knowledge of pronunciation and vocabulary Thus, in order to involve all learners in class activities, it is the teachers' business to design and apply techniques to increase students' participation in class activities and makes them more active CS in groups is one of the feasible methods to motivate students to participate heartily in speaking activities in the class

Finally, the paper is implemented to investigate the effectiveness of applying this technique and from that discovering its strong and weak points to set up the most relevant ones in terms of contents The results obtained based on the theoretical background and the present use of it at the Foreign Language Department, HDU would help students to raise their speaking skills as well as improve teachers' teaching methodologies in relation with the process of renovation for teaching at the Foreign Language Department, HDU currently

2 Aims of the Study

The research focuses on investigating the practice of the critical strategy used by the teachers at English Department of Hong Duc University and giving some suggestions for applying CS to enhance the students' speaking skills The specific aims of the research are

as follows:

- To investigate the teachers' and the students' beliefs and attitudes towards the application of the critical strategy in groups in the speaking lessons

- To find out the reality of teaching and learning CS in groups in the speaking lessons

- To find out the teachers' challenges when applying the critical strategy in groups in the speaking lessons

- To give some possible suggestions for using the critical strategy in groups to enhance students' speaking skills

3 Research questions of the Study

Regarding to the aims of the research, , the following research questions are put forward:

1 What are the teachers' and students' beliefs and attitudes towards the application of the critical strategy in groups in the speaking lessons ?

2 How is Critical Strategy applied in the speaking lessons?

3 What are the challenges underlying the application of the critical strategy in teaching speaking to the English second year students?

4 What modifications are necessary to make the critical strategy possible ?

4 Scope of the Study

There has existed a variety of strategies to the teaching of speaking skills at English Department of HDU, but the study only focuses on investigating the applicability of the CS

in groups to the teaching of speaking skills for the second-year students there

5 Methods of the Study

The major method used in this study was survey Firstly, two survey questionnaires were administered to the teachers and the students Secondly, based on the obtained results from the questionnaires, the class observations were carried out in class k12 These were to find out the reality of applying CS in groups in the speaking lessons including the techniques and activities used, the atmosphere of the classroom, the students' attitudes to the lessons and their interactions during the lessons

6 Design of the Study

The study is divided into three parts: Part 1 is the introduction including the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope and methods of the study; Part 2 is the

development, which consists of three chapters: chapter 1 is the literature on knowledge of

speaking skills, of the Critical Strategy (CS) and offactors affecting the application of CS

in the teaching of speaking; Chapter 2 is the study, which presents the actual procedure of the study including the setting, subjects, sample, instrumentation, data collection and data

analysis; chapter 3 is the major findings and discussion.; Part 3 is the conclusion, which

contains the main points discussed in the paper, some limitations of the study and future research will be presented

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Introduction

This chapter is concerned with some of issues in the theories of the speaking skills and of the Critical Strategy This review of related literature focuses on the two following sections: (1) theoretical background of speaking skills; (2) theoretical background of CS

1.2 An overview of speaking skills

1.2.1 Definitions of Speaking

In English study, speaking can be considered as a major component or an inseparable part

of any language learning process Therefore, speaking has been the object of numerous studies with varieties of definitions

Speaking, according to Donough and Shaw (1993), is a skill which enables people to produce utterances when communicating to achieve a particular end Savignon (1991) also states that language generated by the learners, hence speaking is a productive skill referring

to produce systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning The fact that a wide range of appropriate expressions is needed to fulfill particular purposes in communication,

Brown (1994: 45) and Burns & Joyce (1997: 29) share the same ideas that speaking is an inter-active process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information Likewise, Byrne (1991:9) proves that oral skills in communication are complementary In most of the process of communication, the roles of speakers and listeners are interchanged, information gaps between them are created, and then closed with the effort from both sides Thus, speaking is comprehended as a two-way process between speaker and listener involving the productive skills of communication

In another expression, Richard and Rodgers (1986:165) define speaking as "the range of

exercise types and activities with a communication approach is unlimited, provided that such exercises and activities enable learners to attain the communicative objectives of the curriculum, engage learners in communication and require the use of such communicative

processes as information sharing, negotiation of meaning, and interaction” They think

that teachers who take account of communication as the goal of foreign language teaching can select, organize, design oral tasks or activities related to negotiation and exchange of feedback among students in the classroom more communicative and effectively

In conclusion, although there has existed the definitional diversity of speaking from different linguistics, they are all agreed that speaking is fundamental to human communication and one of the macro skills that foreign language students should be helped

to develop their communicative purposes

1.2.2 The importance of speaking in language teaching and learning

Pattison (1992) confirms that when people know or learn a language, they mean being able

to speak the language, thus of the four language skills, speaking as a productive skill (Bryne, 1991:8) plays a very important role in the language acquisition process

Speaking, according to Donough and Shaw (1993), is a skill which enables people to produce utterances when communicating to achieve a particular end Thus, it is said that speaking skills helps learners enhance their acquisition and appropriate production of the language in each different purpose of communication

Furthermore, in language teaching, speaking not only helps students to communicate well, exchange information and culture with others but also helps them to read better, to listen more effectively and write more accurately As Bygate, M (1987:5) stresses that speaking

“is also a medium through which much language is learnt, and which for many is particularly conductive for learning” It means that, in speaking lessons, learners are not

only exposed to new language in the real contexts of the daily life and are advised to draw out new forms with the help from teachers but also they learn from themselves grammatical or other kinds of rules by discovering or inducing them from the contexts and their experience of using the language Therefore, it is often seen that speaking is a good source of motivation for most students in foreign language learning

For the ideas above, it is believed that speaking is an essential skill to the most primary medium for output in language learning process, not only as productive skill but also to the development of students' language competence and learning motivation

1.2.3 The principles of teaching speaking

Encouraging students to take part in speaking activities in the classroom is not easy for foreign language teachers This requires their awareness of learners' level of language knowledge Kathleen M Bailey (2005:124) lists three principles for teaching speaking to advanced learners: (i) help learners to combine fluency and accuracy; (ii) encourage learners to take reasonable risks in speaking; (iii) provide opportunities for learners to notice the gap

The first one refers to how to work on both fluency and accuracy at the same time since the learners with a truly proficient ability of language are not only able to speak English spontaneously at a normal conversational rate, but also to maintain their accuracy

The second one, as explained by M.Beily (2005:125) encourages learners to take

reasonable risks in English Advanced students have a functional range of vocabulary and can generally make themselves understood and get their needs met They have mastered many English grammar patterns and sometimes they get comfortable with their level of proficiency and seem to stop trying to improve their English Therefore, it is a teacher who stretches learners' proficiency by encouraging them to try new things and take reasonable risks in speaking English

The third one means that learners should be given opportunities to "notice the gap" It refers to the learners realizing that the way they are saying something in the target language differs from the way native or proficient speakers say it This awareness can be about individual words, grammar rules, idioms, appropriate phrases, pronunciation-any component of the language they are learning We as teachers can do to help learners become more self-aware by a variety of tasks and materials for speaking activities

These principles are good orientations for teaching speaking skills It is hoped that language teachers can help their students by drawing suitable strategies to practice speaking skills in the classroom more effectively

1.2.4 The communicative approach to teaching speaking

1.2.4.1 CLT and teaching speaking in the classroom contexts

In the past several years, although there has existed a variety of approaches for language teaching, CLT is always the popular approach and has strongly influenced on the language teaching in Vietnam, especially in teaching speaking skills to advanced students

CLT marks the beginning of a major innovation within the language teaching which is widely accepted nowadays It emphasizes that the goal of the language learning is to develop communicative competence that consists of grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence (Canale and Swaine, 1980)

In fact, CLT is a broad approach and can guide the real teaching in classroom contexts because of the main principles: (i) Teaching is learner-centered and responsive to the needs and interests; (ii) The target language is acquired through interactive communicative use that encourages the negotiation of meaning; (iii) There is exposure to examples of authentic language from the target language community (Brufit,1984)

However, the reality of oral communication practice inside the classroom is different from that of communication in the real world Therefore, understanding the characteristics of classroom oral communication practice is very vital for teachers to design effective speaking activities Pattison (1987) points out its characteristics: (i) The content or topic is highly predictable and decided by teachers, textbooks, tapes, etc The meaning of what they say may not always be clear to the speakers; (ii) Learners speak in order to practice speaking, to follow teachers' instructions or demands and to get good marks; (iii) The extrinsic motivation is satisfied as the foreign language is practiced, as teachers accept or correct what is said, as teachers give marks to learners; (iv) Participants are often a large group in which not everyone is facing the speakers or interested in what they say except for the teacher; (v) Language in classroom communication is often solved by translation The characteristics of classroom oral communication practice help teachers understand the constraints of speaking activities designed in the line of CA and make them more aware of the complexity of speaking practice in the classroom to plan out appropriate solutions

1.2.4.2 Speaking activities

Based on the theory and characteristics of CLT, Littlewood (1981) lists two main types of

communicative activities which he calls: "functional communication activities and social

interaction activities" The main purpose of the former encourages learners to use the

language they know to get meaning across as effectively as possible such as tasks that learners note similarities or differences in sets of pictures, discover missing feature in a map or picture, or know how to complete a map, follow directions, and solve problems from shared cues The latter activities including conversation and discussion sessions, dialogues and role-plays, simulations, improvisations and debates emphasize on social as well as functional aspects of communication

To advanced learners who have a large range of vocabulary and grammar, a variety of tasks and activities designed in line of CA including information sharing, negotiation of meaning, and interaction are necessary because they can help teachers stimulate learners' natural oral communication in the classroom

1.2.4.3 Problems with speaking activities

It is acknowledged that enables the learners to participate in communicative speaking activities in the classroom is not easy In order to do that well, according to Ur (1996:121), teachers come across the problems, for instance, students' inhibition about saying something in the target language because they are worried about making mistakes, fearful

of criticism or losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts; learners' poor ideas to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should speak; uneven

or low participation of learners in communicative activities in groups because each one has only very little time for talking or the tendency of some learners to dominate the group while others speak very little or not at all; or mother-tongue use in discussion because learners feel less "exposed" if they are speaking their mother, particularly unusual topics

The above mentioned problems create a lot of difficulties for teachers to organize communicative activities in the classroom Therefore, it is said that teachers have to overcome those to design and carry out successful speaking activities in the classroom

1.3 The Critical Strategy (CS) in teaching speaking

1.3.1 What is the Critical Strategy ?

According to Richards, J.C & Schmidt, R (2002:515) "strategy is procedures used in

learning, thinking, etc which serve as a way of reaching a goal" A teaching strategy is a

conscious plan comprising of a wide range of selected skills and techniques, which are targeted at the achievement of an objective Thus a critical teaching strategy is a one for the classroom that is used to increase motivation and retention, to help students develop a positive image of self and others, to provide a vehicle for critical thinking and problem-solving, and to encourage collaborative social skills In other words, encouraging students

to have critical thinking in the learning process is the goal of this strategy

In a seminal study on critical thinking and education in 1941, Edward Glaser defines critical thinking as the ability to think critically that involves three things: (i) an attitude of being disposed to consider in a thoughtful way the problems and subjects that come within the range of one's experiences, (ii) knowledge of the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning, and (iii) some skills in applying those methods Thus, it is said that critical thinking is the mode of thinking about any subjects, contents, or problems in which learners improve the quality of their thinking in learning how to analyze the logical

structure of texts clearly and rationally in reflective and independent thinking

It is obvious that critical strategy enhances students' language skills, engages in reflective and independent thinking and being able to think clearly and rationally Thinking clearly and systematically in analyzing an issue can improve the way learners express their ideas and their comprehension abilities Therefore, the critical strategies relevant to learners' level will develop their language skills, especially spoken language

1.3.2 The importance of CS to the development of students' speaking skills

CS in groups is one of the teaching techniques designed in the CA which emerges as the latest development because of its superiority Thus, effective application of this technique can enhance learners' practical abilities, and achieve a gratifying teaching result It is said

to be a great challenge for teachers to conduct CS in English speaking teaching, but CS

actually realizes the students-centered teaching mode and brings about a lot of benefits for teaching in general, and for the development of students' speaking skills in particular First and foremost, it encourages students to practice speaking more Based on the principles and theories of CA, teachers create various kinds of tasks like role-play, simulation and group discussion or presentation and so on to increase the intellectual and emotional participation or involvement of the individual students in solving a particular problem These activities make teaching process communicative, which can motivate students’ passion and enhance “the interactive communication” in the classroom In addition, when they come together in groups with a given topic or task, each of them is responsible for their own study that is very important to achieve general goals of the group Therefore she feels that she is making useful contribution to the group and that is significant because it helps build up interest, self-confidence in expressing her ideas in front of the class or interact with the others in the target language

Furthermore, CS improves students' practical speaking skills It is true that teaching speaking to students means helping them have good communicative skills when leaving school To achieve this, CS is considered as one of the most effective techniques since it focuses on practicality and feasibility, whose terminal objective is to cultivate students’ language skills and practical communicative competence In a speaking lesson with CS, students practice the language they have learnt in meaningful ways such as skills to express wishes, ideas or opinions, negotiate or solve problems, or establish and maintain social relationships, or interrupt the others in the polite ways through the real life situations related to the target language community More particularly, through interacting with the classmates, students will get a lot of experience to communicate well outside classroom

Finally, CS enhances language and presentation skills Thinking clearly and systematically can improve the way learners express their ideas In learning how to analyze the logical structure of texts, critical thinking also improves learners' comprehension abilities

The benefits from CS indicate that it is a feasible teaching technique to foster students' spoken language as well as practical communicative skills

1.3.3 Teaching critical strategies used in the speaking Lessons

As mentioned above, CS plays a significant role in teaching speaking and is one useful tool to improve students' speaking skills Therefore, employing a number of specific techniques can enhance the effectiveness of classroom communication, which are oral presentation, group discussion and seminar

1.3.3.1 Oral presentation

Emden & Becker (2004: 1) state that the “ability to speak well enough to interest,

influence or persuade other people is a major asset for whatever they want to do in the future and it may change them in ways that they did not expect” Their idea is true as oral

presentation skills can bring about distinct advantages in teaching speaking: (i) It helps students develop the skills of spoken interaction through which teachers can discover whether communication takes place; (ii) It helps teachers obtain feedback about the students' improvements related to the aspects of spoken language and intervene with appropriate remedies Also, students can get feedback on their performance immediately that is particular good for them to find out a more effective speaking learning strategy; (iii)

It helps students have critical thinking about everything, produce a well-organized oral report, which accordingly will help to develop their language proficiency

In this technique, students are divided into different groups of 3-4 students to cover a topic

or task given that is required thorough preparation at home before they actually report to the class When this process takes place, each member of the group will take turns to make oral presentations related to a two-minute talk on different parts of the topic and all class members will be active listeners As such, the activity may go on in the form of a discussion and teacher will act as an observer and a 'referee' at the same time because s/he may intervene when practical help is needed to reach a final agreement on the topic discussed

For the mentioned above points, it is noted that oral presentation including informative

presentations, an instructional presentation, arousing presentations, a persuasive presentation, a decision-making presentation, as Randall P Whatley lists (see http: //

www.cs.wisc.edu/%7Emarkhill/conference-talk.html) is a helpful strategy to improve

students' speaking skills and thereby develops their personal confidence

1.3.3.2 Group discussion

Group work is commonly the choice of teachers because large classes do not allow them

to create enough opportunities for all learners to participate in classroom communicative activities at the same time According to Brown (1994), group work offers various advantages: (i) It generates interactive language; (ii) It offers an embracing affective climate; (iii) It promotes learners responsibility and autonomy; (iv) It is a step toward individualizing instruction

Besides, it is agreed that group work also contains some certain disadvantages such as the teacher is no longer in control of the class; students will use their mother tongue; students' errors will be reinforced in small groups; teacher can not monitor all groups once; and some learners may prefer to work alone (Brown, 1994) However, according to Brown, group work can be conducted successfully if teacher takes into consideration various factors like the way to group students, abilities, personal characteristics, etc S/he also has

to make sure that every student has got chance to speak and does not interfere much with their talk Moreover, an appropriate task including games, role-play and simulation, drama, project, interview brainstorming, information gap, jig saw, problem solving, decision making, and opinion exchange whose topics refer to daily life is also very important to promote successful group discussion

In a group discussion, the class is divided into small groups of 3-4 students to work together and all the groups work at the same time Students are left free to interact among themselves with minimum dose of intervention from the teacher While students are working in groups, teacher may move around listening, giving help when it is really necessary Then groups can interact to exchange information and ideas, come discussion and some general consensus made by big group and finally teacher sums up discussion

In short, group discussion as a communicative activity should be used to encourage meaningful interaction among students and motivate them to express their opinions and attitudes by a persuasive argument or convincing, evidence in the target language

1.3.3.3 Seminars

It is believed that seminar can be used very effectively in language teaching in general, and

in teaching speaking in particular According to Furnneaux et al (1991, quoted in Jordan, 1997:196), there are four main types of seminar with some overlap among them: (i) student group work: eg a problem-solving exercise; (ii) the lesson: nominated students go over prepared answers to case studies; (iii) discussion: eg of materials previously read by the whole group; (iv) presentation: e.g class members reporting on reading they had done Seminar skills expose to a variety of language functions as strategies: disagreeing, agreeing, persuading, starting a criticism, giving an example, asking questions, interrupting and so on, which require an extensive practice of communicative skills

In speaking practice with seminar in the classroom, students are asked to prepare brief papers related to a list of issues suggested by teacher at home depending on the time available for the activity They are also free to join in any groups they choose, but they have to make oral presentations and then involve in extensive interaction through discussions, questions and answers, etc The role of teacher as a facilitator or a guide who provides materials or suggest reference sources to help students find out information and data for the topic chosen The assessment for students' presentations based on knowledge

of subject content, capacity for analysis, synthesis, their own opinions in English and creative thinking through a well ordered presentation and ability to express The success of the seminar depends on several factors, but the contents of the topics chosen, which decide

to the degree of students' participation and interest, are more important above

Seminar is the most complex form of CS It not only requires a high level of students' spoken skills and their language knowledge but also requires more time for preparation than the other strategies However, it may be very effective to help students have fluent and logic speaking skills

1.3.4 Factors affecting CS Application in group work in the speaking lessons

Making a success of speaking teaching not only depends on the useful strategies but also comes from the factors affecting their application, which are student variables, teacher variables, language environment and course book, tests and evaluations

1.3.4.1 Student variables

It is acknowledged that students are the key factors deciding the success or failure in language teaching process Students' participation and interest to speaking activities are governed by the reasons such as their motivation, beliefs and attitudes, learning styles, anxiety and confidence

The first looks at motivation as " some kind of internal drive that encourages somebody to

pursue a course of action" (Jeremy Harmer, 1991) or is an inner drive, impulse, emotion,

or desire that encourages one to do a particular action In his opinion, motivation influences people's actions or thoughts to pursue a particular goal In language learning, students with positive motivation will learn faster, more active and effective with more efforts than s/he does under normal circumstances

The second sees students' beliefs and attitudes as the way to approach their learning It is noted that beliefs for the status of spoken language, teaching methods, the relationship between teachers and students, among students, and confidence of using the language will stimulate them participating heartily in speaking activities of the classroom In contrast, they always show their resistance to class participation Therefore, investigating students' beliefs and attitudes is one of the necessary duties of teachers to achieve good results for their teaching

The third, students' learning styles are also an important factor for the success of speaking lesson According to Keefe (1979:4), learning styles can be seen as cognitive, affective and physiological traits that are relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with and respond to the learning environment The fact that active students can use contextual cues to help them in comprehension and expressing their ideas, etc and thereby they contribute to the success of a speaking lesson

Finally, students' anxiety and confidence are considered to be one of the characteristics which has a relationship with learning success Many studies reveal that language anxiety has a negative relationship with learning success and vice versa, self-confidence has a positive relationship It is clear that students feel anxiety when they are in a position of finding it hard to express their opinions and attitudes to a problem in the target language,

but experience of success may facilitate their desire to learn, to participate in class activities as well as to take risks communicating with other classmates Thus, teacher should also concern these characteristics of students to give suitable teaching strategies

To sum up, student variables such as students' motivation, beliefs and attitudes, learning styles, anxiety and confidence have a great influence on language teaching and learning as well as in CS application to teaching speaking skills

1.3.4.2 Teacher variables

It is said that teachers themselves are important variables in the teaching situation That is demonstrated by the factors like teachers' beliefs and attitudes, qualities and personalities affecting how the success or failure of the learning lesson is

First and foremost, it is necessary to see teachers' beliefs and attitudes for teaching process

because "teachers' beliefs are the strongest guiding influence on teachers' instruction"

(Freeman, 1986) Teachers' beliefs are found on the goals, values, teachers hold in relation

to the content, process of teaching and their understanding of the systems in which they work and their roles within it These values and beliefs affect teachers' decision and action Richards and Lockhart (1996) suggest that if teachers believe in the effectiveness of a particular approach or method of teaching, they will consistently to implement it in the classroom, on the contrary they will not carry out it successfully Therefore, it is not deniable that teachers' beliefs or attitudes have an effect on the classroom behavior, influence what learners learn, and are potent determinants of teachers' teaching style

Lastly, Wilkins (1976:53) states that teachers' skills, knowledge, personality and proficiency in the target language play an essential role in the class If teachers do not have

a deep and thorough knowledge of the subject, they will lose students' confidence that influences students' beliefs, attitudes and interest in speaking activities Apart from the quality of teachers' knowledge, a good relationship with their students not only increase the learning motivation but also make applying a new teaching method more successful

In conclusion, as it is proved above, the role of the teachers in the classroom is extremely important Variables related to teachers' beliefs and attitudes, teachers' qualities and personalities will impact on the process of teaching and learning a foreign language

1.3.4.3 Language environment and course book

Teaching and learning English in a foreign language environment impose a lot of challenges for teachers and students because the reinforce of an English-speaking environment is not continual Consequently, the experience of practicing real language in different contexts is limited that may decrease students' motivation in the classroom Actually, course book and syllabus play a vital role in English teaching and learning, especially spoken English If the contents of the course book are suitable to students’ knowledge, they will much help develop students’ speaking competence Conversely, it will be a very difficult job for teachers to increase students’ language competence Therefore, choosing an appropriate course book with proper goals and objectives referring

to students' needs, to the social and institutional setting should be considered carefully by administrators and teachers

1.3.4.4 Tests and evaluations

Brown (1994:375) states that formal or informal tests affect students' learning behaviors According to him, informal testing focuses on assessing students in the process of forming the competencies and skills with the goal of helping them to improve their language skills, and formal testing is to measure or summarize what a student has grasped at the end of the unit, module, or a course Both of them enhance students' motivation and attitudes in learning process However, test and evaluation also give students a lot of anxiety ( Brown, 1994:373) that possesses the negative factors affecting teaching and learning Therefore, the evaluation should be both based on test results and students' learning process In short, test and evaluation are not able to separate from teaching and learning

1.4 Summary

The chapter has so far conceptualized the discussion of issues and aspects concerning the topic of the study The prominent definitions of speaking skills are introduced according to outstanding scholars, and then the aspects relating to principles for teaching speaking and CLT have been mentioned CS in teaching speaking has mainly been focused on this chapter in which the definition of CS, the importance of CS, the strategies used in teaching speaking and factors affecting CS application in the classroom are conceptualized, dealt with and analyzed as a base of the study

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 2.1 Introduction

The previous chapter was devoted to the theoretical matters related to the topic This chapter will focus on details of the practical study, involving methodology, procedures of data collection and data analysis

2.2 The context of the study

The study was conducted at the Foreign Language Department (FLD), Hong Duc University (HDU) in which 13-year-old English Department is one of the major departments It was founded in 1998 with its main aim being training teachers of English who would work in most of the junior high schools in Thanh Hoa province For the past years, the need for teachers of English has been satisfied, so besides training teachers of English for the Province, the Department focuses on providing English major learners with the background knowledge of the language and skills helpful for their future jobs However, being a new Department, everything has been in the process of innovation and development for better things both teaching and learning

With respect to teaching, seminars and reports of science research on teaching methodologies concerning speaking, every year, are held to create opportunities for the teaching staff to make contributions to improving the quality of teaching and learning Of all the methods applied, the techniques or strategies and tasks designed and organized in line of Communicative Approach with the learner-centeredness are often appreciated With regard to learning, students are expected to be active in self-studying, peer and group cooperating to exchange the information and opinions to the others in the classroom They are also stimulated participating in activities outside the classroom like English clubs, job interviews, etc so as to get valid experience and improve their speaking skills

As for the second-year students who have mastered many English grammar patterns, developing their speaking skills is considered to be very important They have 3 periods per week with 3 credits for each term, equal to 45 periods In each term, students are required to complete six progress tests every two or three weeks (20%), a mid-term test

(30%) at the seventh week and a final test at the fifteenth week (50%) This assessment not only sees the students' progress and the effectiveness of the techniques as well as the materials used but also motivates students in class speaking activities

The current teaching materials of speaking used for the second year students are "Let's Talk 2" by Leo Jones The course book consists of 16 units with a variety of topics and the activities related to pair work, group work and discussion that enhance students' real communication skills in the classroom The teachers, besides the current course book, are encouraged to use the authentic materials in the speaking lessons, but they are selected based on the students' level of English, their interests and the objectives of the term In fact, the classroom activities or tasks are chosen, designed and organized under the tendency of CA with the learner-centered orientation, the teachers are encouraged to act as

"facilitators" and give learners choice in what to do and how to do it Students are asked to work in pairs, in groups to practice English in situational contexts Therefore, they can learn real things that are useful for the outside-classroom communication

2.3 The research methodology

2.3.1 Selecting the population

The subjects chosen for the study were from two sources: from 40 second-year students and from 8 teachers teaching in the Division of Language Skills Development, Foreign Language Department, Hong Duc University

Forty students were randomly selected to go in for the research and to participate in the survey questionnaire In the case, 'Cluster random sampling', which meant that instead of randomly selecting the individuals, researcher randomly selected groups for the observation In this way, hopefully, the participants chosen could be representatives for the rest of the population

Eight teachers (80% of the population) who have been teaching the speaking skills for at least two years were invited to take part in the survey questionnaire It was hoped that their experience would be useful for this study

2.3.2 The instrumentation

So as to gather more accurate data, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used Quantitative data were gathered through two survey questionnaires administered both to the students and the teachers, and qualitative data were collected via class observations These methods helped the researcher get more in-depth data for the analysis

2.3.2.1 The questionnaires

The questionnaire was adopted since it was one of the most popular instruments in gathering data and helped the researcher get a great amount of information within a short period of time In this study, two questionnaires were delivered to forty students and eight teachers

The questionnaire for the students was designed with four parts: Part one comprised the first five questions (questions 1,2,3,4 for the closed questions and question 5 for the multiple choice) that the author desired to explore the students' beliefs and opinions towards the critical strategy in groups in the speaking lessons Questions 6,7,8 (the closed questions) were aimed at gathering data on the responses of students' preferences for the techniques and the topics that their teachers used Questions 9 and 10 were designed with the multiple choice to find out the difficulties the students encountered in the speaking process in groups The final part of the questionnaire was made to learn about the students' suggestions for the application of CS

The questionnaire for the teachers consisted of four points To begin with, their beliefs and attitudes towards the application of CS in groups in the speaking lessons were gathered through answers to the first four closed questions Next, the present use of CS in groups in the speaking lessons was surveyed with four questions (5,6,7,8) including the closed question and the multiple choice Third, the students' difficulties and the teachers' challenges in applying CS in groups were found out through question 9 Finally, the rest of the question (10) was aimed at investigating the teachers' suggestions to make the critical strategy possible

2.3.2.2 The class observations

The purpose of class observations was to know how the teachers performed their lessons, how atmosphere was in the class, what students’ attitudes to the lessons were like, what interactions of students and the activities were during the lessons

In this study, four class observations were carried out in the fourth term Each observation consisted of 3 stages: pre-lesson, while-lesson and post-lesson In pre-lesson stage, the researcher focused on making contacts with the teacher to know the teacher’s teaching points In while-lesson stage, the observations were aimed at the techniques and the activities used by the teacher and the students’ interaction in the class In post-lesson stage, the researcher concentrated on discussing and exchanging ideas with the observed teachers During the lessons, the researcher used observation sheets as presented in Appendix 3

2.4 Data analysis

In this part, the data collected and analyzed from the questionnaires and the class observations will be presented in the forms of tables and charts

2.4.1 Data analysis of the questionnaires

2.4.1.1 Data analysis of the teachers' survey questionnaire

In order to identify the applicability of CS in group work into the teaching of speaking skills, a questionnaire was delivered to 8 teachers who have been teaching English in DLSD of the FLD This questionnaire (Appendix 1) consisted of 10 questions with 4 categories:

- The teachers' beliefs and attitudes towards CS application in groups

- The teachers' situation of applying CS in group work in the speaking lessons

- The teachers' challenges when applying CS in group work

- The teachers' suggestions to make CS application possible

(i) The teachers' beliefs and attitudes towards CS application in groups

It is undeniable that the teachers' beliefs and attitudes play an important role in deciding the success of the teaching process Therefore, by identifying their beliefs and attitudes, the

researcher found the degree of effectiveness of a particular approach or teaching method used In this part, the data of the teachers' beliefs to their understanding of CS, to the role

of CS for enhancing the students' speaking skills, to the students' English proficiency and the correspondence of the topics in the current course books for CS application were collected and analyzed

 Question 1: The teachers' ideas of CS

is student-centered and only used for teaching speaking not for the other skills. 3 37.5

enhances students to think clearly and systematically in analyzing an issue. 8 100

Table 1: Teachers' ideas of CS

The data in table 1 showed that most of teachers had a good knowledge of CS All the teachers thought that CS was learner-centered and mainly focused on developing critical thinking for students as well as enhanced them to think clearly and systematically in analyzing an issue, that CS gave students opportunities to communicate with others in group activities and creates a secure, non-threatening atmosphere in the classroom, that CS used authentic materials A majority of teachers (75%) believed that CS could be applied for four skills and work on both fluency and accuracy at the same time (75%) A minority

of teachers (37.5%) thought that CS only used for speaking skills and reduced teacher's work (25%) The teachers' misunderstanding of CS was not considerable Therefore, it might be said that the teachers' understanding of the technique positively affected CS application in the speaking lessons

 Question 2: The role of CS in group work to the students' speaking skills

Chart 1: Teachers' beliefs and attitudes towards the role of CS in group work to

the students' speaking skills development

As can be seen from the chart 1, a majority of teachers (62%) were aware of the importance of CS in group work to the students' speaking skills development, the other 38% even found it very important Therefore, it was easy to find that no one underestimated the importance of CS in groups to their teaching process

 Question 3: The correspondence of the topics in the current course book to CS

application in group work

75%

25%

Very suitable Suitable

Chart 2: The teachers' beliefs and attitudes of the topics in the current course

book to CS application in group work

The chart 2 revealed that (75%) of the teachers in the survey agreed the correspondence of the topics in the current course book with CS application in groups while (25%) of them found it very suitable That meant the speaking course book was carefully chosen and suitable to the second-year students' level as well as the teaching approach of FLD It was recognized that the teachers' beliefs to the current course book was one advantageous point for CS application

 Question 4: The correspondence of the students' English proficiency to CS

application in group work

The correspondence of the students' English proficiency to CS

application in group work

4 How feasible do you think the second year students' English

proficiency is to CS application in group work?

Table 2: The teachers' beliefs and attitudes of the students' English proficiency to

CS application in group work

Table 2 showed us the results of the teachers' beliefs to the students’ English proficiency for their CS application It can easily be seen that there was firm agreement among 8 teachers on that This result reflected the teachers' positive attitudes to CS application With the data obtained, it was concluded that the second-year students' level of spoken English was suitable to CS application in group work

(ii) The teachers' situation of applying CS in group work

 Question 5: The frequency of applying CS in group work

5 How often do you use CS in group work in the speaking lessons?

Table 3: The teachers' frequency of applying CS in group work

It can be drawn out from table 3 that a significant majority of the teachers ( 62.5%) in the survey often used CS application in groups, and 2 out of 8 teachers ( 25%) even employed

it very often Only one teacher (12.5%) employed it sometimes Obviously, most of the teachers were aware of the importance of CS in groups to the students' speaking skills

development, so no teacher was reported to apply this technique scarcely

 Question 6,7 and 8: The teachers' techniques in the speaking lessons

75

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Role play Group

discussion

Seminar Oral

presentation

No of responses Percentage

Chart 3: The teachers' techniques used most (question 6 and 7)

The given data in table 4 and chart 3 indicated an overall picture of the teachers' techniques and activities that they often used in their speaking teaching lessons The results implied that the most frequently-used techniques among the teachers were oral presentation (75%) and group discussion (50%) These techniques, according to them, brought about the effectiveness of CS application in group work

With respect to the activities used in the classroom, a variety of activities like opinion exchange, games, drama, project, problem-solving and short-survey were chosen with the high agreement from the teachers (see table 4) while problem-solving and drama employed most (100%) That revealed the effectiveness of these activities in the speaking lessons

(iii) The teachers' challenges when applying CS in group work (question 9)

As seen in table 5, there were two main difficulties reported as the difficulties on the part

of teachers and the difficulties on the part of students

The difficulties affirmed by teachers No %

1 The difficulties on the part of teachers

2 The difficulties on the students

Students' anxiety when preparing the contents of the topics or the tasks

given by teacher

Table 5: The difficulties affirmed by teachers

As far as the difficulties on the part of teachers were concerned, all the teachers (100%) claimed that limited time caused the difficulties to their application of CS in group work It was true that limited time of a period, 45 minutes, interfered each student' speaking activity

in groups or the effectiveness of a speaking period on CS Besides, a small part of the difficulties came from the deficiency in strategic and sociolinguistic competence in English The fact was that teachers had certain difficulties about strategic and sociolinguistic competence in English to help students have the successful strategies of presentation or information exchange or negotiation with the others in discussion

As for the difficulties on the part of students, the whole teachers (100%) alleged that students' anxiety when presenting a particular topic was one primary hindrance to CS application They thought that the students’ English proficiency was not good enough to give effective presentations because of lacking strategies for presentation or low confidence in speaking in front of crowd or poor contents of topics, etc In addition, the other three major hindrances perceived by a majority of the teachers in this survey questionnaire were students' anxiety when preparing the contents of the topics or the tasks given by teacher (62.5%), the use of Vietnamese in group discussion (75%) and resistance