Students attitudes towards learning to speak english at ly thai to high school bac ninh

3.3 The participants 15 4.1 Data analysis of students‟ questionnaire 19 4.1.1 Students‟ general attitudes towards learning English 19 4.1.2 Students‟ attitudes towards learning to speak

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410

Hanoi, 2012

2.2.4 Approaches to teaching and learning speaking skills 8

2.2.5 Factors affecting students‟ participation in speaking activities 11

3.3 The participants 15

4.1 Data analysis of students‟ questionnaire 19

4.1.1 Students‟ general attitudes towards learning English 19 4.1.2 Students‟ attitudes towards learning to speak English 20 4.1.3 Students‟ opinions about factors affecting them in learning to

4.1.5 Students‟ expectations to learning to speak English 31

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 42

Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire for students I

Appendix 5: Interview questions for teachers and transcription XVII

TABLE OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Students‟ general attitudes towards learning English 19 Figure 2: Students‟ favorite English lessons in the classroom 20 Figure 3: Students‟ awareness about the importance of English speaking 21 Figure 4: Students‟ evaluation of English speaking lessons in class 22 Figure 5: Students‟ assessment of speaking topics in the textbook

lessons

30

Figure 12: Students‟ expectations to learning to speak English 32

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study

Among the four language skills known as listening, speaking, reading and writing, speaking skill is considered the most significant one that most learners of foreign languages need to achieve because it shows learners‟ proficiency in that language Pattison (1992) also shows that when people mention knowing or learning a language, they mean being able to speak the language Being an English teacher, the researcher thinks that speaking should be paid much attention to in the process of teaching and learning However, the fact at the researcher‟s school is that students have poor ability to speak English although they have been learning English since they were in grade 3 or 4 They speak English badly even in English speaking lessons They often feel unconfident and confused when their teachers ask them to speak English They regularly find it difficult expressing their ideas in English and even some students cannot speak anything except “sorry, I don‟t know” This problem is also mentioned by the researcher‟s colleagues when they usually tell her that in their speaking lessons students are very lazy and do not participate much in speaking activities Therefore, this problem needs improving to help students in her school have better English speaking ability

For such reasons, the researcher conducted this study to investigate the students‟ attitudes towards learning to speak English and the reasons why they had these attitudes By doing the study, she can know more about her students‟ expectations for learning English speaking skills at her school so that she could give some suggestions which might be useful for teachers and students at Ly Thai To

high school to develop speaking skills for their students

1.2 Aims of the study

This study is aimed at:

- finding out Ly Thai To high school‟s students‟ attitudes towards learning English speaking skills and the reasons why they had such attitudes

- giving some suggestions useful for Ly Thai To high school‟s teachers to develop their students‟ speaking skills

(2) Why do they have these attitudes towards learning to speak English?

1.4 Scope of the study

As stated above, the study was designed to find out the students‟ attitudes towards learning to speak English Because of limited time and experience, the study was not carried out on a large scale The study, therefore, was restricted to the

10th graders at Ly Thai To high school only

1.5 Methods of the study

To conduct the study, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used, involving the survey questionnaire, the classroom observations and the interviews First, the survey questionnaire was delivered to students to investigate their attitudes towards learning to speak English Then, the classroom observations and the interviews with some English teachers were conducted to get supplementary information Finally, the results obtained from the questionnaire, the classroom observations and the interviews were discussed and analyzed to with a hope for providing some useful suggestions for teachers to develop speaking skills for their students

1.6 Significance of the study

The study is conducted with the expectation that its results will be useful for students and teachers of English at Ly Thai To high school The study will help

teachers understand more about their students‟ attitudes towards and expectations for their learning to speak English Based on the findings, some suggestions are given to the teachers to help them improve their students‟ speaking skills Hence, it could be

a considerable contribution to teaching and learning English speaking effectively and enjoyably at Ly Thai To high school

1.7 Design of the study

This thesis consists of five main chapters:

Chapter one is the INTRODUCTION including the rationales, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the methods, the significant, and the design of the study It shows the reason why the author decided to choose this study and the methods for the fulfillment of the study

Chapter two is the LITERATURE REVIEW It is aimed at exploring the theoretical background for the thesis It will focus on two main points: attitudes and speaking

Chapter three is the METHODOLOGY Chapter three starts with the description of the setting and the participants It also presents how data was collected through the research methods and research procedures

Chapter four is the DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION, in which the detailed description of data analysis and discussion on the findings of the study are explained

Chapter five is the CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS This chapter presents a summary of the findings and draws out some suggestions that are good for teachers and students in teaching and learning English speaking The limitations of the study and some recommendations for further researches are also discussed in this chapter

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Attitudes in language learning

2.1.1 Definition of “attitude”

There are many definitions of attitude Among them Gardner (1985:91-93) claims that attitude is an evaluative reaction to some referent or attitude object, inferred on the basis of the individual‟s beliefs or opinions about the referent In Gibb‟s view (1988), attitude is generally defined as a state of mind, which is influenced by feelings, experiences of the world and belief In addition to that, Zimbardo, and Leippe (1991) defined attitude as “an evaluative disposition toward some object based upon cognitions, affective reactions, behavioral intentions, and past behaviors that can influence cognitions, affective responses, and future intentions and behaviors”

The above definitions show attitudes in general understanding, but in the scale of my study, attitude is understood as „learning attitude‟ According to Oxford and Shearin (1994), attitude is one of the factors impacting motivation in language learning Gardner (1985) stated that positive attitudes and motivation are related to success in second language learning Holmes (1992) believes that people develop attitudes towards languages, which reflect their views about those who speak the languages, and the contexts and functions with which they are associated He claims that attitudes in the context of language learning are defined as the way people look

at the language, the class and the people, and the culture of language

In short, in language learning, we can see students‟ attitudes in their feelings and belief about the way of acting towards the lessons, learning style, teachers and the course books In this study, it relates to students‟ feelings and belief about learning to speak English

2.1.2 Role of learners‟ attitudes in language learning

In language instruction, students‟ attitudes towards learning the language are regarded as “an important predictor of success” since “students who consider the learning of English as a positive and rewarding experience are less likely to suffer from foreign language anxiety” (Tsiplakides & Keramida, 2010)

Chambert (1999) asserts that learning occurs more easily, when the learner has

a positive attitude towards the language and learning Positive attitudes on the part

of the language learners can enhance an integrative motivation, and attitudes upon success in language learning is widely acknowledged Also, Holmes (1992) states that if people feel positive towards those who use the language, they would be more highly motivated towards learning it

Unquestionably, good learners are those that have a positive attitude towards their subject The overall findings show that positive attitudes have a strong impact

on the success of language learning Most of the researches have claimed that students‟ attitude is an integral part of learning and that it should, therefore, become

an essential component of second language pedagogy

Some factors that influence students‟ attitudes towards their foreign language learning are identified by Tsiplakides & Keramida, (2010): a) teacher-student relationships, b) the general classroom atmosphere, and c) the use of authentic teaching materials and activities These authors also suggest a number of principles

to foster positive attitudes in ESL/ EFL classes: (1) Developing Teacher-student Relationship; (2) Fostering a Positive Psychological Classroom Atmosphere; (3) Creating an Attractive Physical Classroom Environment; (4) Supplementing the Teaching Material with Authentic Texts and Tasks

In short, students‟ attitudes play a very crucial role in language learning as they would appear to influence students‟ success or failure in their learning

2.2 Speaking

2.2.1 Concepts of speaking in foreign languages

Speaking skill has been placed more weight in comparison with other skills as

it is the first step to identify language ability For many language learners,

“mastering the art of speaking is the single 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” (Nunan, 1991: 39) According to Nunan‟s point of view, it is necessary for teachers of language to pay much attention to teaching speaking skills in a way that helps learners participate confidently in transactions

The importance of speaking raises the needs to understand the nature of speaking in human interactions There have been many scholars discussing the nature of speaking as follows:

Chaney (1998:13) states that speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts"

Brown (1994) defines speaking as a process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information

Bygate (cited in Mackey, 1965:266) shows “oral expression involves not only the use of the right sounds in the patterns of rhythm and intonation, but also the choice of words and inflections in the right order to convey the right meaning”

2.2.2 The role of speaking in foreign language teaching and learning

As mentioned above, speaking skill plays an important role in foreign language learning because effective speaking ability helps learners not only to acquire the language better but also to communicate successfully in the target language As we can see, communication is a basic demand for everyone, so if we want to communicate we should learn how to speak For the increasing demands for joining in a lot of fields in life, not only domestically but also overseas, learners need to be able to communicate well as they ask for information to serve their different purposes

According to Ur (1996:120), speaking seems intuitively the most important

of all four skills Speaking is regarded as the first step to confirm who knows or does not know a language Ur (1996) indicates that people who know a language are referred to as “speakers” of that language, as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing; and many if not most foreign language learners are primarily interested in learning to speak In addition to that, Nunan (1991) points out “success is measured

in terms of ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language”

Because of the importance of speaking skills in language teaching and learning it is essential that language teachers should pay much attention to teaching speaking skill They should identify their students‟ attitudes towards and expectations for learning speaking to make interesting learning atmosphere They should play a positive role in helping students get involved in speaking activities in the classroom Rather than leading students to pure memorization, the teacher can provide a rich environment where students have real communication, authentic materials and meaningful tasks that promote oral language Gradually, students will know how to use their target language correctly and communicatively in everyday conversations

2.2.3 Characteristics of a successful speaking lesson

Pertaining to characteristics of an effective speaking lesson, Ur (1996) has a comprehensive look at the issue In her viewpoint, there are four characteristics to determine whether the speaking lesson is fruitful or not as follows:

 Learners keep talking in most of the time allowed for the activity in which the learners are the centre of the activity and the interference by the teacher is little

 Participation is evenly distributed among learners

 All group members are motivated in the activities thanks to an interesting topic or their desire to achieve the task objective

 Language use is appropriate, easy to understand and quite accurate

First and foremost, talking time is the factor that can make a speaking lesson successfully The more time students engage with in the course of a lesson, the more language they can obtain So an effective speaking lesson is very likely to correlate highly with the learners‟ talking time Learners should get as many speaking opportunities as possible in order that their speaking time should be maximized

Then, motivation is strongly related to achievement in language learning in the way it decides learners‟ success or failure Learners need a motivation to be eager and encouraged to speak, for example, they have something new to share, want to contribute to the task achievement or just they are fond of the topic If learners are highly motivated, they will willingly participate in classroom activities and volunteer to perform them

In addition to that, a good speaking lesson must provide opportunities of speaking evenly to all students with different levels Both weak students and more advanced ones should be provided with opportunities for communicating The lesson is not effective if the classroom discussion only focuses on some participants who are talkative while others speak very little or not at all

Moreover, in order to help students gain success in speaking, the topic chosen should be appropriate for students so that they can use ideas from their own experience and knowledge to present the topic If the topic is completely unfamiliar the students, they will find it difficult to engage with the task the teacher gives them

as they have little knowledge to talk about it

2.2.4 Approaches in teaching and learning speaking skills

The history of language teaching has shown a lot of changes in approaches and methods For a long time, many language teaching methodologists have constantly looked for the most appropriate way to teach English effectively As a result, many language teaching methods and approaches have come into being such as:

 Grammar-translation method

 The Direct method

 The Audio-lingual method

 The Audio-visual method

 Communicative Language Teaching

However, in the recent decades, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

is considered one of the most effective approaches to teach learners to communicate

in a language they learnt as it helps to develop the learners‟ communicative language ability

According to Nunan (1989:194), “CLT views language as a system for the expression of meaning Activities involve oral communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which is meaningful to the learners Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives The learner‟s role is as a negotiator and integrator The teacher‟s role is

as a facilitator of the communication process Materials promote communicative language use; they are task-based and authentic”

The definition above represents a particular view of understanding and explaining language acquisition It is socially constructed and must be seen as a product of social, cultural, economic, and political forces

CLT is usually characterized as a broad approach to teaching, rather than as a teaching method with a clearly defined set of classroom practices As such, it is most often defined as a list of general principles or features One of the most recognized of these lists are David Nunan‟s (1991a: 279, cited in Bang, N & Ngoc, N.B) five features of CLT:

 An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language

 The introduction of authentic texts into learning situation

 The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on the learning process itself

 An enhancement of the learner‟s own experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning

 An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outside the classroom

These five features are claimed by practitioners of CLT to show that they are very interested in the needs and desires of their learners as well as the connection between the language as it is taught in their class and as it used outside the classroom Thus, in the light of CLT, the goal of language teaching is to develop communicative competence In CLT classroom, learners are encouraged to contribute as much as they gain, and learn in an independent way CLT favors interaction among small numbers of learners with a purpose to maximize the time each learner learns and uses languages, shares information and negotiates meaning Though interaction learners‟ experience can be modified, many kinds of learning strategies made aware and applied, and especially classrooms move away from teacher- centeredness to learner- centeredness, which is an essential element to raise learners‟ motivation in language learning

Moreover, in CLT classroom teachers have been concerned to ensure that students not only practice speaking in a controlled way in order to produce features

of pronunciation, vocabulary and structures accurately; but also practice using these features more freely in purposeful communication It has therefore become usual to include both accuracy – and fluency – based activities from the beginning of the course

The challenge for the communicative classroom is to find activities and procedures for speaking which will prepare students for spontaneous interaction and which will aid the acquisition process, though of course the two aims may usefully coincide Since a particular type of activity may provide for some of these things but not others, there is then the question of how to create a varied program of activities which gives a range of opportunities for speaking practice

2.2.5 Factors affecting students‟ participation in speaking activities

There are a lot of factors affecting students‟ participation in classroom oral activities In the following sections, some of the major factors will be discussed

Students‟ motivation

According to Gardner (1985: 10), motivation is known as “a key consideration in determining the preparedness of learners to communicate, while Harmer (2001) defines motivation simply as “some kind of internal drive which pushes someone to

do things in order to achieve something”

Motivation can be classified in different ways In some studies, motivation

is categorized into two types: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation Harmer (2001) states that extrinsic motivation is caused by such outside factors as the need to pass

an exam, the hope of possibility for future travel, etc In contrast, intrinsic motivation is caused by inside factors like the enjoyment of the learning process itself or by a desire to make themselves feel better

Motivation has great importance in foreign language learning as in Brown‟ opinion (2000: 160), “it is easy in second language learning to claim that a learner will be successful with the proper motivation” Therefore, in order to be successful, language learners really need motivation to continue their learning

Students‟ attitude

As mentioned above, attitude is also a very important factor which has an influence on the language learning Gardner and Lambert (1972) defined attitude as the persistence that a learner has to follow an object Language learning attitude has

a relationship to motivation Language learners who have extrinsic or intrinsic motivation will have the more positive attitude than those without motivation or who consider language learning a compulsory subject

Students‟ learning preferences

Learners' preferences refer to learning style describing "an individual's natural, habitual, and preferred way of absorbing, processing, and retaining new information and skill"(Reid, 1995) (cited in Lightbown and Spada, 1999) Learners may have their own learning styles which help classify them into certain learner groups Willing (1988; cited in Nunan: 1991) categorizes learners into the following groups based on their preferences:

 Concrete learners: These learners tend to like games, pictures, films, video,

using cassettes, talking in pairs and practicing English outside class

 Analytical learners: These learners like studying grammar, studying English

books and reading newspapers, studying alone, finding their own mistakes and working on problems set by the teacher

 Communicative learners: These students like to learn by watching, listening to

native speakers, talking to friends in English and watching television in English, using English out of class, in shops, trains, etc., learning new words by hearing them, and learning by conversation

 Authority-oriented learners: These learners prefer the teacher to explain

everything, like to have their own textbook, to write everything in a notebook, to study grammar, learn by reading, and learn new words by seeing them

It can be inferred from Willing‟s classification that, if the majority in one class belong to the two former groups, the degree of participation in oral activities in this class will be low Harmer (2001) suggests that we should balance the interests between individuals and groups, pay attention to individual traits when putting them into groups visual learners, aural learners and kinaesthetic learners or field independent and field dependent learners

Teacher‟s good relationship with students

Having a good relationship with students helps teacher encourage students to join in classroom activities The reason is because the connection between students

and teachers brings the teachers to learn about each student as unique from others, and also enables them to understand the diversity of all the students

In order to have a good relationship with students, teachers should make close the gap between them and students by being friendly, helpful, tolerant, smiling instead of shouting at them and never creating stressful atmosphere in the classroom Remembering students' names, is also of great importance when teachers wish to make good impression on students

Teacher‟s good knowledge

Teacher‟s knowledge plays a really important role in language teaching especially in teaching speaking Knowledge here is understood not only the knowledge of the target languages itself but also the knowledge of many other fields such as society, culture, art, policy and so on Having a good knowledge of a wide variety of fields will help teachers become more active in teaching speaking lessons since students can ask a lot of questions related and unrelated to the given topics When teachers are always willing to explain to students any problem they have, it is

a big motivation for students to learn English as they think that the knowledge of their teacher absolutely makes them satisfied Therefore, teachers should always pay attention to improve their knowledge

Teacher‟s teaching methods

For each teacher, the good choice of teaching methods as well as techniques

is very important to increase students‟ participation in every lesson When deciding what teaching method to use, a teacher needs to consider students' background knowledge, environment, learning goals, learning time and material resources We also know that different teachers exploit different methods and techniques in their teaching As a result, different degrees of student‟s participation are created by different teachers However, in speaking lessons teachers often prefer CLT method because it brings them various techniques that motivate students in participating in speaking activities

In conclusion, the chapter has briefly reviewed literature relating to the study The definition of attitude, the role of learners‟ attitudes in language learning, the concepts of speaking, characteristics of a successful speaking lesson, approaches

in teaching and learning speaking skills as well as the factors affecting students‟ participation in speaking activities have been discussed These concepts and ideas will serve as the theoretical background for all the analysis and discussions of the data in the following chapters

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 3.1 The setting

To get the aims for this study, the author chose Ly Thai To high school to carry out the investigation

Located in Bac Ninh, Ly Thai To high school has been known as one of the leading choice of parents and students when the students finish the secondary school The school has 42 classes with 100 teachers of different subjects and 2,000 students Each grade has 12 classes On the average, there are about 45 to 50 students in a class Most of the students come from the nearby villages

In the 10th grade, there are 600 students They are now 16-17 years of age They have learned English as a foreign language for 7-8 years but their English proficiency is not good At school they have three English classes a week

3.2 The textbook

The main English textbooks used in teaching English at this school are TiengAnh 10, TiengAnh 11, and TiengAnh 12 (basic stream) In TiengAnh

10, there are 16 units with different topics related to a wide variety of fields such

as a day in the life of…, school talks, people’s background and so on After

every three units there is a Test Yourself to evaluate students‟ knowledge of what they have learnt in these three units The speaking skill is one of the five

sections in each unit: (reading, speaking, listening, writing, and language focus)

It is often taught and learned within one 45-minute period

participants whose age ranged from 16-17 All of them started to learn English when they were in grade 3 or 4

There are two reasons for choosing the 10th-form students as the participants of the study Firstly, these students have had at least 7 years of experience in learning English However, their English proficiency is not good, especially speaking They may be good at grammar and can do these grammatical exercises quickly, but cannot speak English fluently Most of them

do not feel confident to speak English in front of their class or express their ideas

in English Secondly, the researcher would like to explore students‟ attitudes towards and expectations for learning to speak English and basing on this, the teachers of English at the researcher‟s school can adjust their teaching methods

to motivate their students to learn to speak English in the following school years

3.3.2 The teachers

The number of English teachers in this school is 12 In general, the majority of the English teaching staff is young and active doing their jobs In this study, the researcher chose 4 teachers teaching English to grade 10 for the interview All of them are female teachers Their experience in teaching English varies from 5 to 12 years In terms of qualification, all of them have been trained

at College of Foreign Languages – Vietnam National University, Hanoi ending with B.A degree and two of them have M.A degree

3.4 The data collecting instruments

In order to fulfill the tasks mentioned above, the three instruments are employed They are a survey questionnaire for students, classroom observations and interviews for teachers

Questionnaire: (Appendix 1): In order to collect reliable and

comprehensive data, a questionnaire was designed for the 10th-form students It had both open-ended and close-ended questions It consisted of 12 questions including the following categories:

 Students‟ general attitudes towards learning English Q1)

 Students‟ attitudes towards learning to speak English (Q2, Q3, Q4,Q5, Q6, Q7, Q8, Q9)

 Students‟ opinions about factors affecting them in learning to speak English (Q10)

 Students‟ attitudes towards teacher‟s teaching method in the speaking lessons (Q11)

 Students‟ expectations for learning to speak English (Q12)

Classroom observations: (Appendix 2) The classroom observations were

carried out later to reaffirm the information collected from the questionnaire and add some more useful and realistic information to this study: in what way the teachers conducted speaking lessons, the teachers‟ variety of activities, the teachers‟ knowledge, the interaction between teachers and students, what atmosphere there was in the class, what students‟ attitudes were like and what interactions students had during the lessons The researcher observed two classes, 10A4 and 10A6, taught by two different teachers of English who had different abilities The data was collected in two speaking lessons Each lesson lasted 45 minutes The classes were not prepared for being observed The students and teachers did as usual

Interview: (Appendix 5) After collecting data from the survey

questionnaire and classroom observations, the author used the interviews for teachers to get the in-depth discussion about students‟ attitudes towards learning to speak English and to explore why students had those attitudes Because it was too difficult for the researcher to conduct interviews with all teachers, the researcher selected 4 teachers teaching English for grade 10 for the interviews They were willing to express deeply their opinions, and ideas

3.5 Data collection and analysis procedure

The study was conducted in the second term of the school year

2011-2012 In the middle of the second term, a survey questionnaire was given to the

students in five classes – 10A4, 10A5, 10A6, 10A10 and 10A11 After one period the questionnaire was collected The information from this questionnaire was then summarized and presented in the form of statistics For the following weeks, the author carried out some classroom observations The observations included two English speaking lessons for classes 10A4 and 10A6 At each session, the researcher took notes on what happened when the students learned English speaking lessons Finally, when the information from the survey questionnaires and classroom observations were collected and analyzed, structured interviews for 4 teachers teaching English 10 were carried out

The data collected from three different resources were read through to obtain a sense of the overall data The information from the questionnaire was displayed in the form of figures, while the information from the classroom observations and interviews was used as reflective notes and quotations

In short, the chapter has presented some key information about the setting, the textbook, the participants, the data collection instruments, the methods

of data analysis and procedure of the study

CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Data analysis of students‟ questionnaire

4.1.1 General attitudes towards learning English (Q1)

Question one in the questionnaire is designed to explore students‟ attitudes towards learning English The result of 200 respondents is shown as follows:

Figure 1: Students‟ general attitudes towards learning English

As can be seen in the figure 1, remarkably, 65.5% of the respondents have positive attitudes towards learning English They liked learning English because of some reasons they shared truthfully as below:

- “I like learning English because English is necessary and useful for my future job.”

- English can help me understand more about people, countries, cultures and many other fields in the world.”

- “I need to learn English well to take the entrance exam, and English is also very good for my future life.”

- “I want to go abroad to study.”

- “English is an international language so we need to know it to develop our future.”

- “I want to talk and make friends with foreigners all around the world.”

- “I like English because a lot of interesting books and entertainment are in English.”

Of two hundred participants, only twenty-nine (14.5%) said that they neither liked nor disliked learning English For them, English was only a compulsory subject If the lessons were easy and interesting, they liked learning and if the lessons were difficult, they would not

Whereas, forty respondents (20%) said that they disliked learning English Their reasons were mainly English was difficult They found English not easy at all and they did not know anything about this subject They could not remember new words and structures They could not express their ideas in English as well as do English exercises All these things made them hate English

4.1.2 Students‟ attitudes towards learning to speak English (Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5, Q6, Q7, Q8, Q9)

Figure 2: Students‟ favorite English lessons in the classroom

From the figure 2, we can easily realize that the lesson attracts students the most is grammar, it ranks the first with sixty-five students out of two hundred ones (32.5%) Students who liked grammar explained that grammatical lessons were easier to follow, sometimes they did not know the new words but they were still

able to do exercises Furthermore, they often took written tests, so grammar was very necessary

Listening lesson ranks second (25%) Some of the students choosing listening lessons as their favorite ones said, “I like to listen to the native speakers, which make me improve my English a lot.”, “I enjoy listening to international music so I find listening lesson interesting”, “Listening is the key to develop other skills.” Reading (17.5%) stands the third that students enjoy learning The reasons why students like reading are various, some of them are:

- “Reading helps me not only enrich my vocabulary but also get a wide variety

of information about nature, society, culture and so on”

- “Reading can broaden our knowledge”

- “I find it easier to learn”

Writing lesson attracted only twenty-eight students (14%) among two hundred ones, but it was still loved more than speaking lesson Only 11% of the respondents chose speaking lesson as their favorite one, which means they had negative attitudes towards speaking lessons This result really makes thee researcher disappointed but

it reflects honestly the reality of learning speaking in her school

Figure 3: Students‟ awareness about the importance of English speaking

Although only twenty-two respondents (11%) shown in figure 2 liked learning speaking lessons, more than half of them (58%) as in figure 3 realized the importance of English speaking skill They explained that English was spoken almost all over the world so English speaking ability was very necessary to communicate successfully with foreigners and to have chances to get good jobs in the future Moreover, they also realized that their English speaking ability showed they were good at or bad at English

The rest of the respondents (42%) reported that English speaking was not quite important (29%) and not important at all (13%) as they are Vietnamese they always use Vietnamese to communicate not English In addition to that, they seldom met foreigners or there were no foreigners around them to use English to communicate Another reason that many students expressed in the questionnaire was that they did not have oral tests, they only had written tests so the thing they needed to pay much attention to was grammar not the speaking skill

Figure 4: Students‟ evaluation of English speaking lessons in class

As shown in figure 4, only 5% of the respondents evaluated the speaking lessons were very interesting and 11% of them found interesting They said that in the speaking lessons they felt rather relaxed as they could discuss the given topics and

communicate with their friends in English They also said that they enjoyed speaking English because they could speak English fluently However, almost respondents chose English speaking lessons were not quite interesting (55.5%) and not interesting at all (28.5%) Their main reasons were they spoke English badly, they had nothing to say and they did not understand what the teacher and friends said in English They lacked vocabulary and grammatical structures to express their ideas so they were very nervous when asked to speak English by their teacher They also explained that they were bored with having to pay attention to correct grammar when speaking English, which prevented them from speaking English out fluently

As a result, they found the speaking lessons stressful and not interesting at all

Figure 5: Students‟ assessment of speaking topics in the textbook

“TiengAnh 10”

Figure 5 presents students‟ assessment of speaking topics in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” The largest percentage (62.5%) shows that the speaking topics in the textbook are familiar with daily life However, none of the students thought the topics were very interesting Only 12% of them said they were interesting, 15.5% found the topics normal, and the smallest percentage found them boring

Basing on the result above, teachers can make full use of the fact that the topics given in the textbook are familiar with daily life to motivate students to speak English Nevertheless, teachers should know how to adjust the tasks so as to make the topics both interesting and suitable for the students‟ language level

Figure 6: Students‟ frequency of feeling unwilling to speak English in the

classroom

The information about the students‟ frequency of feeling unwilling to speak English in the classroom is presented in figure 6 Looking at this figure, we easily find that most of the students felt unwilling to speak English in speaking class Forty-three students (21.5%) always felt unwilling, eighty students (40%) usually felt unwilling and twenty students (10%) sometimes felt unwilling to speak English Beside that, thirty-five students (17.5%) said they spoke English when the teacher asked them to and the rest, (twenty-two students) said they always sought for the chances to speak English in class These figures prove that the frequency of the students‟ unwillingness in speaking is rather high

Figure 7: Students‟ preference in practicing speaking English in class

Figure 7 shows that the students prefer pair work and group work to the whole class work and individual work 75% enjoyed working with a partner and 87% liked working in a small group The reason for the high percentage can be expressed by students‟ ideas as follows:

“Working in pairs and in groups can encourage me to speak English better as I can learn more vocabulary from my friends and they can correct my mistakes if I make any”

“There are many interesting ideas arising when working in pairs and in groups”

“I think learning to speak English means we need to communicate in English

so working in pairs and in groups brings chances for us to speak the target language”

However, only 25% of the participants liked working with the whole class and 7.5% of them liked working individually This result will encourage the teacher

to use more activities concerning pair work and group work to motivate students to speak English

Figure 8: Students‟ self-judgment about their English speaking ability

According to the data in figure 8, students‟ English speaking ability is rather low Only three students out of two hundred said that they had very good English speaking ability Twenty-two students corresponding to 11% said they had good speaking ability and 10% of them thought their English speaking ability was not good enough The majority of the students asked said they spoke English badly (46%) and very badly (31.5%) This result partly explained why students had negative attitudes towards learning to speak English

A Listen to the teacher's explanation attentively

B Joining in speaking activities actively

C Discussing the topics in pairs/groups in Vietnamese

D Discussing the topics in pairs/groups in English

E Not participating in speaking activities, doing other things

Figure 9: The things students do in the speaking class

As can be seen from figure 9 above, the percentage of respondents listening to teacher‟s explanation attentively in speaking class is rather high, which accounts for 60% However, the percentage of students joining eagerly in speaking activities in class is very low with 11.5% There were still many students (25%) not taking part

in speaking activities, but doing other things in a speaking class In addition to this,

in the English speaking class students prefer discussing the topic given in Vietnamese to in English, 35% of them used Vietnamese while only 21% used English This is another result that shows students‟ negative attitudes towards learning to speak English

4.1.3 Students‟ opinions about factors affecting them in learning to speak English (Q10)

A I feel shy when speaking English

B I am afraid of being laughed at when making mistakes

C Unability to find out words and structures to expressmy ideas in

English

D Poor pronunciation

E Lacking knowledge of the speaking topics, having nothing to say

F Having a little time for preparation

G Having a little time for practicing speaking

H The classroom is crowded and noisy

I The speaking class is often stressful

J After class, there is no speaking environment to practice speaking

K My learning goal is not to communicate

Figure 10: Factors affecting students‟ English speaking learning

Looking at figure 10, we can see the factors that affect these students in learning

to speak English are various The factor that affects students the most is no speaking environment to practice speaking English after class (80%) This is easy to understand why students chose that It is because speaking environment is really

important to develop their speaking skill Every nearly two weeks, there is only one forty five- minute-speaking period and after class, no one use English to communicate Therefore, it is difficult for students to improve their speaking skills The other factors that also affect students a lot are students‟ unability to find out words and structures to express their ideas in English (72.5%) and lack of knowledge about the topics given, having nothing to say (60%) These are the common problems in speaking class When called for speaking English in class, students often feel nervous and do not know how to express their ideas in English Nearly half of the respondents (47.5%) chose the factors about poor pronunciation, and stressful speaking class as the factors that affect their speaking skills 40% of them said they felt shy when speaking English, and 43.5% said that they were afraid of being laughed at when making mistakes These affected their learning to speak English

The rest factors including having a little time for preparation, having a little time for practicing speaking, the classroom is crowded and noisy, and the learning goal

is not to communicate have percentage ranging from 21% to 28%, in which the second is the lowest and the third is the highest

4.1.4 Students‟ attitudes towards teacher‟s teaching method in speaking lessons (Q11)

A The teacher talks too much

B The teacher’ knowledge of speaking topics is limited

C The teacher doesn’t explain the topics for speaking clearly enough

D The teacher’s attitude and methods of correcting mistakes are not appropriate

E The teacher doesn’t create a relaxed atmosphere in class to motivate students to speak English

F The teacher only pays attention to the students who speak well

G The teacher remains at her seat and does other things when students are working in pairs/ groups

H The teacher is not friendly

Another thing also makes students unpleased a lot is their teacher only pays attention to the students speaking English well One hundred and twenty students chose this point, which accounts for 60% of the total This is a common problem in speaking class because the time for speaking is limited, teachers invite students with low proficiency to speak but they cannot speak anything so teachers often call for the better ones to speak to avoid lacking much time However, teachers should change this way by creating easier tasks for those who speak English badly and encourage them to join in speaking activities

The next problem about their teacher‟s teaching method that students said is their teacher‟s limited knowledge of speaking topics The percentage of this is rather high with 40% The teachers having limited knowledge are really at a disadvantage so it is necessary for them to improve their English as well as their knowledge of other fields

Beside the three problems mentioned above, students also referred to many other things which made them feel unpleased with their teacher‟s teaching method However, the percentages of students choosing these are not high, fluctuating from 5% to 20%, in which the problem about the teacher talking too much accounts for 20% and the problem with the smallest percentage (5%) is about the teacher remaining at her seat and doing other things when students are working in pairs/ groups Nevertheless, there is another idea, thirty-seven students corresponding to 18.5% of the total said that they were satisfied with their teacher‟ teaching method

4.1.5 Students‟ expectations to learning to speak English

A Practicing speaking English more

B Being provided with more words, structures and ideas related to the topics before practicing speaking

C The teacher should create topics more interesting and appropriate to students rather than using the difficult ones in the textbook

D The teacher accepts a variety of answers

E The teacher should take care of all students in class

F The teacher doesn’t interrupt students when they make mistakes

G The teacher should create a relaxed atmosphere in speaking class to encourage students to speak English

H The teacher is not only good at English but also good at other fields such as culture, society, politics, history and so on

I The teacher should be enthusiastic, friendly and helpful to students

J The teacher uses communicative games in speaking lessons

Figure 12: Students‟ expectations to learning to speak English

Figure 12 describes the expectations of the students to learning to speak English The students desired a lot of things The majority of them (75%) expected their teacher to create a relaxed atmosphere in speaking class to encourage them to speak English This result is closely related to the one in Question 11 above Therefore, it is very necessary for the teachers to know this and to change the atmosphere in speaking class into the better one Beside that, 70% said they needed

to be provided with more words, structures and ideas related to the given topics before practicing speaking English As we know theirs are very limited, hence, teachers should provide them more so that they have things to talk during speaking lessons Also, many participants (62.5%) wished their teacher should be enthusiastic, friendly and helpful to them Teachers should not be too strict with their students or else their students would be under pressure and they would not take part much in speaking activities The two other desires have the same percentage (60%) are practicing speaking English more and the teacher is not only good at English but also good at other fields More than half of the respondents (57.5%) said that they wanted their teacher to use communicative games in speaking lessons Half of them (50%) said that their teacher should take care of all students in class They wanted the teacher to give them equal chances of speaking English in class Nearly half of them (47.5%) thought their teacher should accept a variety of