Students’ unwillingness to speak english in english language classroom as perceived by students and teachers at high schools in hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER STUDENTS’ UNWILLINGNESS TO SPEAK ENGL

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER STUDENTS’ UNWILLINGNESS TO SPEAK ENGLISH

IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOM AS

PERCEIVED BY STUDENTS AND TEACHERS AT

HIGH SCHOOLS IN HANOI

Supervisor: Dr Vũ Hải Hà Student: Phùng Thị Mai Phương

Course: QH2012.F1.E7

HÀ NỘI – 2016

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

SỰ KHÔNG SẴN LÕNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH TRONG LỚP HỌC TIẾNG ANH NHẬN BIẾT BỞI

GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH CẤP 3 Ở HÀ NỘI

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Tiến sĩ Vũ Hải Hà Sinh viên: Phùng Thị Mai Phương

Khóa: QH2012.F1.E7

HÀ NỘI – 2016

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Signatures of Approval:

Supervisor‟s comments , including suggestion for improving the speed and quality of the thesis:

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ACCEPTANCE PAGE

I hereby state that I: Phung Thi Mai Phuong (QH2012.F.1.E7), being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited

in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Signature

Date

May 1, 2016

I also wish to thank Mrs Nguyen Thi Thanh Loan, Mrs Nguyen Thu Hang and

181 students from Cao Ba Quat and Yen Vien high school for their participation in the research I genuinely appreciated Mrs Nguyen Thi Thanh Loan‟s advice and contributions to my study Her passionate enthusiasm for teaching inspired me a lot

I wish to extend my warmest thanks to my close friends who have been always supported and encouraged me in my tough time I would like to send my thanks to Ms Le Thi Hoai Thu for her strong encouragement for me to continue the thesis

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family especially my mother, who always give me unconditional love and care I offer my regards and blessings to all of them

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ABSTRACT

Students‟ unwillingness to speak in English language classroom after nearly 10 years studying English at schools has become an urgent problem because of the demand for communication in English This study investigates to what extent students at high schools

in Hanoi remain unwilling to speak English In addition, it finds out the reasons for students‟ unwillingness to speak English as perceived by both students and teacher at 2 high schools in Hanoi

181 students and 2 teachers from Cao Ba Quat high school and Yen Vien high school were invited to participate in the research Both quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods were applied to the study The perceptions of both student and teacher participants were investigated through multiple methods: questionnaires, interviews and stimulated recalls After the questionnaires, data was analysed to chose participants for interviews and stimulate recalls

Findings from questionnaires showed that the extent to which students remain unwilling

to speak English in English language classroom was not too high However, the validity

of the results from questionnaires was not proved Data from interview and stimulated recall helped to find out the reasons for students‟ unwillingness to speak English As perceived by students, 10 reasons synthesized were: Low group cohesiveness, Lack of teacher support, Low risk-taking, Less tolerance of ambiguity, Lack of motivation, Fear

of negative evaluation, Language anxiety, Unfamiliar Topic, Lack of interest, and Bad experiences From teacher‟s perceptions, individual characteristics, lack of teacher support, low risk-taking and language anxiety were affective factors

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACCEPTANCE PAGE ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

ABSTRACT iv

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Problem Statement and Rationale 1

2 Research Questions 2

3 Significant of the study 2

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Thesis structure 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Definition of key terms 5

1.1.1 Unwillingness 5

1.1.2 Speaking English 5

1.1.3 Unwillingness to speak 6

1.1.4 Unwillingness to speak in English language classrooms 6

1.2 Overview of reasons for students‟ unwillingness to speak 7

1.3 Dynamics of classroom communication in ELC 13

1.4 Related studies 14

1.5 Research gap 16

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 17

2.1 Research approach 17

2.1.1 Context of the study 17

2.2 Participant selection 18

2.2.1 Participants for questionnaires 19

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2.2.2 Participants for interviews and stimulated recall 20

2.3 Instruments 22

2.3.1 Face-to-face questionnaire 22

2.3.2 Semi-structured interview 24

2.3.3 Stimulated Recall 24

2.4 Data collection 25

2.4 Data analysis 27

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 28

3.1 Result of research question 1 28

3.2 Result of research question 2 33

3.3 Result of research question 3 40

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 43

4.1 Summary of key findings 43

4.2 Contribution of the study 43

4.3 Limitations of the study 44

4.4 Suggestion for further study 45

LIST OF REFERENCES 46

APPENDIX A: Questionnaires 50

APPENDIX B: Sample of Students‟ interviews 53

APPENDIX C: Sample of Teachers‟ interviews 57

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LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Distribution of number of participants ……….19

Table 2.2 Description of student participants……… 20

Table 2.3 Distribution of number of participants in interviews and stimulated recall 21

Table 2.4 Schedule of data collection procedures ……… 21

Table 2.5 Data analysis for each question ……….22

Table 2.6 Construction of questionnaires……… ……….23

Table 2.7 Schedule of data collection procedures……….………26

Table 2.8 Data analysis for each question……….……… 27

Table 3.1: Descriptive statistics of the overall WTS ……… 29

Table 3.2: Descriptive statistics of each degree of willingness……… 30

Table 3.3 Descriptive statistics of each class……….32

Table 3.4 Descriptive statistics of reasons for students‟ UTS……… 33

Table 3.5 Reasons for students‟ UTS from interview………35

Table 3.6 Reasons for students‟ unwillingness to speak English perceived by teachers 40

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LIST OF FIGURE

Figure 1.1: Heuristic Model of WTC in L2 of MacIntyre et al (1998)……….8

Figure 1.2: Wen and Clément‟s (2003) model of WTC for EFL students in China……10

Figure 1.3: A Framework for Understanding Communication in Second Language

Classrooms……….14 Figure 3.1 Extent of agreement of lowest mean score and highest mean score items….33

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT Communicative Language Teaching ELC English Language Classroom

GTM Grammar Translation Method

MOET Ministry of Education and Training L1 First Language

UTS Unwillingness to speak

WTC Willingness to Communicate

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This introductory chapter presents an overview of the study It starts with the problem statement and rationale for the study, followed by the clarification of the research aims and research question Then, it provides the significance and the scope of the study Finally, the thesis structure is introduced to help readers have a brief overview of the research carried out

1 Problem Statement and Rationale

In the light of globalization, English plays an important role in communication among people all over the world Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), the language teaching methodology that emphasizes the essential role of communication (Brumfit, 1979), therefore, has been widely used instead of Grammar Translation Method (GTM) According to Richards (2006), while grammatical competence is an important dimension

of language learning, one can master the rules of sentence formation in a language and still not be very successful at being able to use the language for meaningful communication MacIntyre et al (1998) demonstrates the process underlying the disposition to choose to speak a second language given the opportunity in a framework of Willingness to Communicate (WTC) That framework was adapted by Wen and Clément (2003) with more cultural factors especially applied to nonwestern classroom settings

In Vietnam context, due to international integration trend, the demand for communication in English has become urgent than ever Therefore, instead of utilizing traditional teaching method such as grammar translation teaching method or audio-lingual method, Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has had predisposition towards CLT recently However, there is no doubt that many English language learners in Vietnam still encounter the problem of speaking English, which may lead to low chances

of getting a good job in the future, misunderstanding while communicating with foreigners, etc This problem happens not only to students who are not good at English in general but also to those who demonstrate successfully in reading, listening and writing

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skills Liu and Littlewood (1997) discovered that the more speaking activities in which students are engaged, the higher they rate their ability to speak and vice versa, which indicates that students feel confident about their oral proficiency simply because they have had a lot of practice in speaking Nevertheless, it will be a huge challenge for teachers to make students practice speaking in classrooms if they are not willing to do Unwillingness to speak in English language classrooms, therefore, has become one of the most important issues in teaching language as a foreign language in Vietnam

It was this problem that urged the researcher to conduct a research on students‟ unwillingness to speak in English language classroom The study was carried out at two high schools in Hanoi, which are Yen Vien high school and Cao Ba Quat high school The reasons for these choices and detailed descriptions of these two schools would be presented in the third chapter, Methodology

2 Research Questions

The research was conducted with the hope of discovering satisfactory answers to the

three following questions:

RQ1 To what extent do students at high schools in Hanoi remain unwilling to speak in English language classrooms?

RQ2 What are the reasons for students’ unwillingness to speak English in English language classrooms as perceived by students at high schools in Hanoi? RQ3 What are the reasons for students’ unwillingness to speak English in

English language classrooms as perceived by teachers at high schools in Hanoi?

3 Significant of the study

This study needs to be conducted for several reasons Firstly, based on the results of the research, students and teachers can have a general look on to what extent students at high schools remain unwilling to speak in English language classroom In addition, teachers can benefit directly from the study in discovering the reasons for students'

4 Scope of the study

Enormous as the number of English language learners in Vietnam is, this study only concentrates on students and teachers at high schools in Hanoi This is because students at high school have been learning English for at least 7 years, which is long enough for them to be able to speak English to some extent Besides, since the researcher used to study at Yen Vien high school and would have teaching practicum at Cao Ba Quat High School, students and teachers at these two schools would be chosen as participants of the study To sum up, the researcher invited 181 students and 2 teachers from those two schools to participate in the study

are introduced

Chapter 2: Literature review

This chapter introduces theories related to doing research such as definition of key terms, overview of reasons for students' unwillingness to speak English in class,

dynamics of classroom communication in ELC, related studies and research gap

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Chapter 3: Methodology

This provides information about research approach, participants, instruments,

research design, data collection method and data analysis method

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion

In this chapter, data collected will be analysed to answer three research questions

proposed The results are presented and discussed in detail

Chapter 5: Conclusion

This last chapter comprises summary of findings, contributions of the study, limitations of the study and suggestions for further study

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter begins with definition of key terms related to the study, followed by an overview of reasons for students‟ unwillingness to speak Next, dynamics of classroom communication in ELC will be demonstrated The next section of this chapter is related studies and the last one will be research gap

1.1 Definition of key terms

1.1.2 Speaking English

Definition of “Speak” as a verb in Oxford learner‟s dictionary is “to talk to somebody about something; to have a conversation with somebody” According to Widdowson (1994), speaking is the active production skill and use of oral production It

is the capability of someone to communicate orally with others To evaluate speaking skill of English, 4 main criteria are based on They are Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy, and Pronunciation (Xia, 2010, p.13)

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1.1.3 Unwillingness to speak

One of the earliest studies on unwillingness to communicate in L1 is that of Burgoon (1976) According to her, unwillingness-to-communicate was defined as „„a chronic tendency to avoid and/or devalue oral communication and to view the communication situation as relatively unrewarding‟‟ (p 60) Burgoon (1976) stated that

“the major lines of research supporting the unwillingness to communicate construct are those on anomia, alienation, introversion, self-esteem and communication apprehension” Following the earlier work of Burgoon (1976) and others, McCroskey and Baer (1985) conceptualized willingness to communicate (WTC) “as the probability of engaging in communication when free to do so” (MacIntyre, Clément, Dornyei & Noels, K.1998, p.546)

1.1.4 Unwillingness to speak in English language classrooms

Based on „Unwillingness to Communicate‟ (Burgoon, 1976), „Predisposition to Verbal Behavior‟ (Mortensen, Arnston & Lusting, 1977) and „Shyness‟ (McCroskey & Richmond, 1982), the concept of Willingness to communicate (WTC) in L2 emerged in the mid 1980s For the first time, MacIntyre and Charos (1996) applied the WTC model

to second language settings and showed that personality and social context had an effect

on the frequency of second language (L2) use as well as WTC

Later, MacIntyre et al (1998) broadened what was proposed by MacIntyre and Charos (1996) on the assumption that WTC in L2 could not simply obvious WTC in first-language (L1) users (p.546) The rationale behind the lack of transferability of WTC from L1 to L2 was justified by greater difference in L2 users‟ communicative competence and social factors influencing L2 use (MacIntyre et al., 1998; Cao & Philip, 2006) Looking at WTC as a situational construct, they defined L2 WTC as „„readiness to enter into discourse at a particular time with a specific person or persons, using a L2” (p 547)

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In this study, the researcher based on the definition of WTC of MacIntyre et al (1998)

to infer unwillingness to speak in English language classrooms, which is “unreadiness to enter into oral discourse in English language classrooms at a particular time with a specific person, using English.”

1.2 Overview of reasons for students’ unwillingness to speak

There are many reasons assumed to cause unwillingness to communicate Burgoon‟s research associated the unwillingness-to-communicate construct with (1) anomia and alienation, (2) introversion, (3) low self-esteem and (4) high communication apprehension Firstly, anomics are those who fail to adopt society‟s norms and values Consequently, they often feel insecure, powerless, alone, socially isolated and alienated from society The reason why they avoid communication is that they perceive communication experiences to be negative and the reason why they distrust communication is that they distrust other people Secondly, introverts are characteristically quiet, timid and shy because their lower need for communication and their anxiety Thirdly, people with low self-esteem are more persuasible and conforming due to their less faith in their own opinions They expect others to reject or criticize their communication efforts, which leads to their unwillingness to communication The forth reason mentioned by Burgoon is communication apprehension and reticence According

to Burgoon (1976), communication apprehension or reticence people are insecure, feels inadequate in communication, is easily embarrassed, shy, withdrawn and prone to agree with others However, because these reasons are for unwillingness to speak in L1, factors related to language competence were not mentioned It cannot be denied that a lot of students refuse to speak English due to their low English proficiency Therefore, other studies should be investigated

The Heuristic Model of L2 WTC developed by MacIntyre et al (1998) describes six categories or variables regarded as six layers of the model (figure 1) There are two basic

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structures inside the model The first three layers (I, II and III) represent situation-specific influences on WTC at a given moment in time and the latter three layers (IV, V and VI) represent stable and enduring influences on L2 WTC Moving from the top to the bottom

of the model means moving from the most immediate situational to the more stable and enduring influences on L2 communication situations This is the most suitable model for this study because it focuses on L2 communication, therefore, it was used to analyze reasons for students‟ unwillingness to speak in English language classrooms

Figure 1.1: Heuristic Model of WTC in L2 of MacIntyre et al (1998)

Note From “Willingness to Communicate in the Second Language: Understanding the

Decision to Speak as a Volitional Process.” by P D., MacIntyre, 2007, The Modern

Language Journal, 91, p 568

In Layer I, Communication Behavior is treated in a broad sense which includes activities such as speaking up in class, reading L2 newspapers, watching L2 television or utilizing a L2 on a job These behaviors origin from behavioral intension described as

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Layer II In Layer II, Willingness to communicate can be explained by a simple example Supposing a teacher poses a question to the students in classroom, some of them are likely to feel confident to answer and desire to speak Assumed that they have to raise their hands before speaking then all the students who raise their hands express WTC in L2 although only one of them can actually verbalize the answer The reasons why those students raise their hands are explained in the figure Because they wish to say something

to their teachers and their classmates are they are self-confident with their answers So behavioral intension is basically like “when I am given an opportunity to speak up, I plan

to speak up” Layer III explained that their self-confidence in a particular situation comes from their self-confidence with language competence If they are not good enough at that language to understand teacher‟s question and come up with answer, they cannot feel confident to speak up in that case Additionally, interpersonal and intergroup make them have desire to speak with their teacher and classmates, maybe to please teacher or to get good marks Specifically, the desire to communicate with a specific person is hypothesized to be encouraged by affiliation and control motives A research in social psychology reveals that affiliation often occurs with people who are physically attractive and who are similar to us in a variety of ways (Lippa, 1994) Regarding State Communication Self-Confidence, Clément (1980, 1986) described self-confidence with two key constructs which are perceived competence and a lack of anxiety Those constructs, however, seem to be enduring while MacIntyre et al (1998) make a distinction between the trait-like confidence and a momentary feeling of confidence Concerning Layer IV, motivational propensities are based on the affective and cognitive contexts of intergroup interaction and lead to state self-confidence and a desire to interact with a particular person Layer V addresses variables that are more remote from the specific language learning and communication context They are intergroup attitudes, social situation and communicative competence The last layer, the social and individual context involves intergroup climate and personality Specifically, intergroup climate

Figure 1.2: Wen and Clément‟s (2003) model of WTC for EFL students in China

Note From “A Chinese conceptualisation of willingness to communicate in ESL,” by

W.P Wen and R Clément, 2003, Language, Culture and Curriculum, 16, p 25

This model clarifies the process from the desire to communicate (DC) in Layer III to willingness to communicate (WTC) in Layer II in MacIntyre et al.‟s (1998) model Wen and Clément distinguished between the DC and the WTC: “Desire refers to a deliberate choice or preference, while willingness emphasizes the readiness to act” (2003, p 25) It

is interpreted that every student may have a DC, but they may not end up speaking in class because their DC is restrained by cultural-oriented factors (Pattapong, 2010) Wen

& Clément‟s model includes four factors which are Societal Context, Personality Factors, Motivational Orientation, and Affective Perceptions Firstly, about Societal Context, it

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consists of group cohesiveness and teacher support Cohesiveness is “the degree to which the group coheres or hangs together” (Shaw, 1981) Shaw (1981) discovered that high cohesiveness is positively related to group productivity, satisfaction, social influence in the group and interaction Both Shaw‟s theory and Wen and Clément‟s conceptualisation share the concern that high group cohesiveness results in engagement and a pleasant feeling and thus willingness to communicate Teacher support is made of teacher‟s attitude, involvement, immediacy, and teaching styles Among those, teacher‟s involvement and immediacy are believed to be the most effective Teacher involvement

is regarded as the personal relationship between a teacher and his or her students (Reeve, 1996) If teacher‟s involvement is high, his or her students will feel less watched and evaluated, then more secure and enthusiastic (Skinner and Belmont, 1993) Teacher immediacy including verbal and non-verbal has positive influences on student motivation (Frymier‟s, 1993) It creates a close, warm and friendly environment, thus minimize anxiety and increase student engagement Secondly, Personality Factors includes risk-taking and tolerant of ambiguity Risk-taking involves the willingness to venture social embarrassment or smirks in front of one‟s peers (Beebe, 1983; Jonassen & Gra-bowski, 1993) Students who are afraid of taking risk fear looking ridiculous and losing their identities This leads to their unwillingness to speak in class Beside risk-taking, tolerance

of ambiguity is also an important factor Chapelle and Roberts (1986) noted that:

An L2 situation is considered „novel‟ by learners because the grammatical, lexical, phonological and cultural cues are unfamiliar and therefore insufficient for them to construct a meaningful interpretation On the other hand, these cues may be perceived

as being too numerous to interpret, resulting in a „complex‟ situation

Similarly, different English learners chose different ways to treat ambiguous learning situations Some of them face those ambiguous situations, whereas others avoid them Research by Naiman et al., (1975) has shown that students who were less tolerant of ambiguity performed worse on both receptive and productive language test Thirdly, Motivational Orientation consists of affiliation and task orientation Schachter (1967)

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argues that people simply seem to want to be in the physical presence of others Being

“submerged” in a group make them satisfied It is clear that the need for affiliation is a universal tendency However, in Wen and Clément‟s conceptualization, affiliation contains “cultural implications” Chinese culture is basically dominated by collectivism, which means that they feel comfortable when they are close to other group members Task orientation is likely to affect Chinese student engagement Sensitive to social judgement, they would go out of their way to avoid disapproval, which entails looking good or smart in the presence of others If they fail to accomplish their task in meaningful communication in the target language, they risk losing face When students are focused

on the task, they are likely to feel “empowered” in their pursuits, to exhibit active engagement (Ames, 1992) The last element to be mentioned in the model is Affective perception In MacIntyre‟s model, the affective-cognitive context is presented in the fifth layer, meaning that they has less direct impact on students‟ language learning and communication Nevertheless, in Wen and Clément‟s view, affective perceptions more directly determine students‟ WTC at a given time Affective perceptions in this model include the inhibited monitor and the positive expectation of evaluation In classroom settings, Chinese students tend to follow books, order and rules This makes them approach English language with a defensive mind so that they can avoid making errors and social embarrassment An inhibited monitor, therefore, can reduce self-consciousness and then anxiety Expectation of a positive evaluation is an essential tendency in interpersonal communication settings According to Lim (1994), “face is not what one thinks of oneself, but what one thinks others should think of one‟s worth” If one gets positive remarks, one‟s self-esteem is increased and, consequently, one has face (Yu &

Gu, 1990) In a positive communication environment, students feel secure taking risks, initiating speech and working harmoniously with their peers in a group (Richards, 2006)

To conclude, Wen and Clément‟s conceptualization is more specifically suitable for English language learners in China and for those in Asia in general Vietnam is a country

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which shares a lot of common cultural features with China, therefore, in this case, the researcher would apply Wen and Clément‟s framework to her study

1.3 Dynamics of classroom communication in ELC

There are substantial differences between classroom interaction and real life communication In class, teacher plays a powerful role in controlling class communication patterns, especially in Vietnam According to Vietnam culture, students have to obey and respect teacher in most of the situations In an English language class, it

is the teacher who decides whether students have to speak with the teacher or they have

to speak with their partners Therefore, to possess accurate understanding of classroom communication patterns it is necessary to investigate not only students‟ perception but also teacher‟ of the classroom interaction There are two dimensions to be examined which are the actions and interactions actually occurring in L2 classroom, and what students and teacher bring to the L2 classroom (Barnes, 1976, cited in Johnson, 1995) The frame work for understanding communication in L2 classroom is adapted from Barnes‟ model (Johnson 1995) The box on the left hand represents native language and L2 language that they have acquired through their real life experiences It characterizes the frames of references through which the students use language to interact with the world around them However, how this knowledge is demonstrated in classroom relies on patterns of classroom communication, which is shown in the center of the framework These patterns are changeable because it depends on how teacher control the patterns of communication and how students interpret and respond to teacher‟s control Lastly, the way students speak English in ELC is a result of teachers‟ control and students‟ perception of the communication patterns

1.4.1 Study abroad context

A research called “Why are some students reluctant to use L2 in EFL speaking classes?

An action research at tertiary level” by Merve Savaşçı (2014) was taken place in Turkey This study is more closely related to the researcher‟s study because they both have a further look at speaking English in EFL classes 22 young adults aged between 18 and 25 took part in the research The participants‟ native language is Turkish and they are advanced-level English students The data were collected through both qualitative and quantitative methods which are questionnaire and semi-structured interview Data

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collected from the research revealed that the students are reluctant to speak in English due the reasons such as lack of confidence, fear of making mistakes, cultural factors, and

teacher effect

1.4.2 Study in the foreign language context

Beside the early studies by Burgoon (1976) and MacIntyre et al., (1998), recently there have been several concerns about willingness or unwillingness to communicate in general and to speak in particular Interestingly, most of those studies were conducted in Asia, one of the earliest was carried out by Dwyer and Heller-Murphy (1996) After examining 6 interviews of Japanese students at the University of Edinburgh, they came to conclusion that the students were reticent in EFL classrooms due to fear of public failure, fear of making mistakes, lack of confidence, low English proficiency, inability to keep up with native speakers, incompetence in the rules and norms of English conversation, disorientation, etc

In Meihua Liu‟s (2005) research called Reticence in Oral English Language Classrooms: A Case Study in China, 27 first-year non-English majors enrolled in an English listening & speaking course in a Chinese university in Beijing were chosen as the participants for the study Coming from different departments such as Computer Science and Civil Engineering, these students met once a week for the lesson, which lasted 90 minutes per week Three research methods which are questionnaires, observation and reflective journals were utilized to find out that the reasons for students‟ reticence in oral English language are Chinese culture, personality, low English proficiency, past educational experiences, lack of practice, lack of courage and/or confidence, fear of losing face, lack of interest in/familiarity with topics, poor pronunciation, lack of vocabulary, pursuit of perfection, and difference between Chinese and English

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1.5 Research gap

In Vietnam, English has become a compulsory subject for students in grade three since 2008 It means that when they were at high school, they would have learnt English for at least 7 years However, the fact that they were very bad at English was confirmed by their teachers, their parents and by themselves Nguyen Huy Duc, who used to be student at Nguyen Trai High school, Hanoi admitted that although he had been learning English at school from grade 6 to grade 12, which equals to 7 years, he hardly could say a full English sentence According to Mr Ta Quang Sum who is the principal of Tran Hung Dao High School in Cam Ranh, Khanh Hoa, because of the pressure on the result of examinations, teaching and learning English is just about learning for testing Additionally, there is rarely speaking test in normal high schools

in Vietnam, which leads to lack of practicing speaking English in classrooms However, as the researcher observe, learning program is merely one among a lot of other causes to this situation Therefore, the question posed is what are the reasons for those who are bad at speaking English and never want to speak English?

In Vietnam context, there have several studies on this problem as the researcher mentioned above, namely the research on “Factors that affect students‟ willingness to communicate in English speaking lessons as perceived by 11th form students at Thai Phien high school” carried out by Linh (2015) However, it seems to only concentrate

on the perspectives of students while teachers are the people who observe and work with them every day in class In addition, most of previous studies employed quantitative data analysis method rather than qualitative method To fulfill those gaps, this research will find out the answers as perceived by both students and teachers with the combination of both quantitative and qualitative data analysis method to improve the overall picture of students‟ unwillingness to speak English at high schools‟ English language classrooms

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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter was designed to illustrate the methodology employed in this study It was divided into 5 main parts The first part is research design including the context of the study Next, information about participants would be described in terms of the way they were selected, the place where they were selected and their characteristics The third part demonstrated instrumentation, which was followed by data collection procedures Finally, the fifth part of the chapter addressed data analysis

2.1 Research approach

This study utilized pragmatic approach to investigate students‟ unwillingness to speak in ELC At the first stage of the study, quantitative method was employed to process information collected through questionnaires After that, qualification was applied to the study with interviews and stimulated recall methods Although quantification was rather quick and suitable for large numbers of participants, it could not provide details about feelings, thoughts, or characteristics like qualitative methods Additionally, because this research aimed to find out the reasons for students‟ unwillingness to speak English as perceived by students and teachers, the researchers

needed to take advantages of qualitative approach more than quantitative one

2.1.1 Context of the study

To make it easier for the readers to follow the research, it is essential to mention the research subject which are students at high schools in Hanoi According to statistical data

in 2016, there are approximately 236 high schools in Hanoi and the numbers of students are overwhelming to be counted Their ages normally range from 16 to 18 years old equivalent to from grade 10 to grade 12 Most of them have been learning English for at least 7 years, since they were in grade 3 Comparing to other cities and provinces, students in Hanoi have more chances to approach sources of learning English because it

The study was conducted at Cao Ba Quat high school and Yen Vien High school, Hanoi When the research was being carried out, students were in the second term of the school year About Cao Ba Quat high school, each grade from 10 to 12 consists of 12 classes Meanwhile, each grade in Yen Vien high school consists of 11 classes Each class has 3 English lessons per week

2.2 Participant selection

As mentioned in the research title, students‟ unwillingness to speak in English language classrooms as perceived by teachers and students at high schools in Hanoi were investigated; therefore, students and teachers from high schools in Hanoi were chosen to participate in research In order to enhance the reliability of the research, students and teachers from two different schools in Hanoi were chosen to be participants of the research They are students and teachers from Cao Ba Quat high school and Yen Vien high school in Gia Lam, Hanoi The researcher chose these schools for convenience because she used to study at Yen Vien high school and she had her internship at Cao Ba Quat high school This made it possible for her to conduct the research more easily In order to be involved in the research, participants had to satisfy one of two compulsory conditions: were studying from grade 10 to grade 12 at Cao Ba Quat high school and Yen Vien high school if they were students or were teaching English at Cao Ba Quat high school and Yen Vien high school if they were teachers

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The participants of the study were 181 students, in which 90 students from Cao Ba Quat High School, and 91 students and 1 teacher from Yen Vien High School Student participants were studying in these two high schools and teacher participants were those who were their teachers of English 2 teachers were selected via convenience sampling method, which means the participants were readily available The teacher from Yen Vien high school was the English teacher of the researcher at high school and the teacher from Cao Ba Quat high school was the supervisor of the researcher during her internship These relationships help the study be conducted more conveniently The classes were chosen by simple random sampling among classes that those two teachers were running

To preserve confidentiality of the participants, names of their class were labelled as Cao

Ba Quat 1 (CB1), Cao Ba Quat 2 (CB2), Yen Vien 1 (YV1) and Yen Vien 2 (YV2)

Table 2.1 demonstrates the distribution of number of participants in this study

Table 2.1 Distribution of number of participants

Class Number of student

participants

Number of teacher participants

2.2.1 Participants for questionnaires

Because the questionnaires are normally applied to a large number of participants, only students were chosen to participate in this stage Therefore, 181 students described above would respond to questionnaires

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Table 2.2 Description of student participants

Class Numbers of students Grade English

Textbook Female Male

2.2.2 Participants for interviews and stimulated recall

At the next stage, 2 teachers and 8 students were interviewed to find out the answer for research questions 8 students were chosen based on the result of questionnaires The first part of questionnaires investigated to what extent students remain unwilling to speak English in ELC After analyzing the data of that part, researcher would pick from each class 2 students who are most unwilling to speak English in ELC to take part in interviews The number of interviewees is shown in table 2.3

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Table 2.3 Distribution of number of participants in interviews and stimulated recall

Class

Students responding interviews

Students participating in stimulated recall

Teachers participating in interviews

Teachers participating in stimulated recall

Table 2.4 Description of interview and stimulated recall

Class Student Gender Years of learning

is that respondents may answer superficially especially if the questionnaire takes a long time to complete Another one is that students may not be willing to answer the questions They might not wish to reveal the information or they might think that they will not benefit from responding perhaps even be penalised by giving their real opinion Therefore, the researcher tried to avoid asking too many question Simultaneously, she chose face-to-face questionnaire so that she could explain to students how the results will be beneficial and if their response is negative this is just as useful as a more positive opinion

There are totally 35 statements in questionnaires for students, 15 of which is to answer the question “To what extent do students at high schools in Hanoi remain unwilling to speak in English language classrooms?” and 20 of which is to answer the question “what are the reasons for Ss‟ unwillingness to speak in ELC?” To answer the

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researcher‟s questions, the interviewees had to circle one out of seven numbers from 1 to

7 This 7-point likert scale represents from the lowest to the highest extent of agreement

The construction of questionnaires is illustrated in table 2.6

Table 2.6 Construction of questionnaires

19 reasons for Ss‟ unwillingness to speak in ELC

(because of their pronunciation, grammar, etc) The last sentence is an open-ended question, for other reasons not mentioned in the list

The first part of questionnaire was adapted from Weaver‟s (2005) and Cao & Philp‟s (2006) studies They are related to students‟ willingness to speak English in ELC Because the scale varies from 1 (definitely disagree) to 7 (definitely agree), the researcher decided not to change situations from willing to unwilling to avoid double negative answer, which may confuse students Instead of thinking about “I disagree that I am not willing to…”, they just need to chose to what extent they are willing to do something

The second part of questionnaire contained the reasons for students‟ unwillingness

to speak in ELC based on previous studies The last question is an opened-question for students to come up with any other reason not available in the questionnaire Appendix A showed the whole list of questionnaires in English, however, the questionnaires given to students were translated into Vietnamese to avoid misunderstanding the questions