A survey on factors inhibiting the speaking performance of 11th graders at nguyen dieu high school m a 60 14 10

Data collected from two sources, a 35-item questionnaire survey of 288 eleventh graders and 5 question interview with 6 teachers of English reveal four factors on the part of the student

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES



-DOAN THI MINH TRANG

A SURVEY ON FACTORS INHIBITING

AT NGUYEN DIEU HIGH SCHOOL

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL)

Supervisor PHAN THI KIM LOAN, M.A

Ho Chi Minh City, July 2012

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled “A survey on factors inhibiting the speaking performance of 11th graders at Nguyen Dieu High School” in term of the statement of Requirements for Theses and Field study reports in Master’s Program issued by the Higher Degree Committee

The thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree

Ho Chi Minh City, July 2012

Doan Thi Minh Trang

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, DOAN THI MINH TRANG, being the candidate for the degree

of Master of Arts (TESOL), accept the requirements of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities relating to the retention and use of the thesis of Master’s Thesis deposited in the University Library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original version of my thesis deposited in the University Library should be accessible for the purpose of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for care, loan, or reproduction of the thesis

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Fisrt of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, M.A Phan Thi Kim Loan, for her thoughtful comments, directions, and advice during the fulfillment of the thesis Without her thorough guidance, patience, and encouragement, the thesis could not have been finished

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Dr Nguyen Thu Huong for giving me useful directions and supplying me with valuable materials on the topic and research methods at the early day of forming the thesis’ title and all teachers who have taught me

in M.A in TESOL course 2007

Next, I would like to thank 288 eleventh graders and 6 teachers of English at Nguyen Dieu High School who had kindly given truthful responses to my questionnaires and interviews, which offered me advantages in carrying out the research

My special gratitude is also extended to M.A Pham Thi Viet An for helping me search references, saving time reading my drafts, giving me useful comments and suggestions, and being my sincere companion during the time I conducted the research and wrote the report

Last but not least, many thanks are also sent to my family, who helped me to survive the demand of academic life, especially to Hang - my youngest sister - who assisted me a lot

in gathering the data for the research, processing the data, and constantly giving me warm encouragement

I owe a debt of gratitude to those who help me, love me, and believe in me

ABSTRACT

This study investigated factors inhibiting the speaking performance of eleventh students at Nguyen Dieu high school in Binh Dinh province Data collected from two sources, a 35-item questionnaire survey of 288 eleventh graders and 5 question interview with 6 teachers of English reveal four factors on the part of the student: lack

of linguistic knowledge (vocabulary and grammar knowledge) and affective filters (lack of self-confidence and anxiety causing absence of mind) and two factors on the part of the teacher belonging to teacher’s methods (teacher’s focus on other skills not speaking and teacher’s seldom leaving students enough time and opportunities) Findings from this study also reveal that in students’ perception, lack of pronunciation knowledge, teacher’s correction strategy, rare speaking topics outside the textbook, and insufficiency of teaching aids are four more negative factors while in teachers’ perception, class size is a negatively influential factor To conclude, recommendations made for English practitioners to improve the students’ speaking performance were proposed

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Statement of authorship i

Retention and Use of the Thesis ii

Acknowledgements iii

Abstract iv

Table of Contents v

List of Tables ix

List of Figures xi

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background of the study and statement of the problem 1

1.2 Significance of the study 3

1.3 Research questions 4

1.4 The Organization of the thesis 4

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Theoretical background to the research 6

2.1.1 What is speaking? 6

2.1.1.1 Definitions of speaking 6

2.1.1.2 Purposes of speaking 7

2.1.1.3 English speaking in the language classroom 8

2.1.2 Speaking performance 9

2.1.2.1 Speaking process 10

2.1.2.2 Characteristics of speaking performance 11

2.1.3 Factors affecting speaking performance 13

2.1.3.1 On the part of the student 13

2.1.3.1.1 Affective factors 13

2.1.3.1.1.1 Age 13

2.1.3.1.1.2 Affective filters 14

2.1.3.1.2 Linguistic factors 16

2.1.3.1.3 Cognitive factors 18

2.1.3.1.3.1 Unfamiliarity with the topic 18

2.1.3.1.3.2 Peer interaction 18

2.1.3.1.3.3 Time pressure 19

2.1.3.1.4 Sociocultural factors 19

2.1.3.2 On the part of the teacher 20

2.1.3.2.1 Teacher’s methods 21

2.1.3.2.2 Teacher’s skills 22

2.1.3.2.2.1 Classroom management 22

2.1.3.2.2.2 Matching tasks to groups 23

2.1.3.2.2.3 Varying activities 24

2.1.3.2.3 Teacher’s feedback and correction 24

2.1.3.3 From other sources 26

2.1.3.3.1 Curriculum/syllabus 26

2.1.3.3.2 The textbook 26

2.1.3.3.3 Classroom environment 27

2.2 Previous research on the teaching and learning of speaking skill in high school

English classes in VietNam 28

2.3 Summary 30

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 31

3.1 Aims of the research 31

3.2 Research questions 31

3.3 Research settings 32

3.4 Research design 33

3.4.1 Sampling 33

3.4.1.1 Student sample 33

3.4.1.2 Teacher sample 34

3.4.2 Instruments 35

3.4.2.1 Questionnaire 35

3.4.2.2 Interviews 36

3.5 Data collection procedure 37

3.6 Data analysis procedure 38

3.7 Summary 38

Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 39

4.1 Data analysis 39

4.1.1 Students’ questionnaire 39

4.1.1.1 Factors on the part of the student 39

4.1.1.1.1 Affective filters 39

4.1.1.1 2 Linguistic factors 43

4.1.1.1.3 Cognitive factors 45

4.1.1.2 Factors on the part of the teacher 47

4.1.1.2.1 Teacher’s methods 47

4.1.1.2.2 Teacher’s skills 52

4.1.1.2.3 Teacher’s feedback and correction 55

4.1.1.3 Factors from other sources 58

4.1.1.3.1 Curriculum/syllabus 58

4.1.1.3.2 The textbook 59

4.1.1.3.3 Classroom environment 60

4.1.1.4 Other factors 60

4.1.2 Teachers’ interviews 63

4.2 Discussion of findings 66

4.3 Summary 70

Chapter 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 71

5.1 Summary of the findings 71

5.2 Contribution of the research 72

5.3 Limitations of the research 73

5.4 Suggestions for further research 73

5.5 Recommendations 74

5.5.1 To teachers 74

5.5.2 To students 75

5.5.3 To educational authorities 76

REFERENCES 78

APPENDIX 1: Phiếu khảo sát sơ bộ dành cho học sinh 88

APPENDIX 2: Preliminary questionnaire for students 90

APPENDIX 3: Phiếu khảo sát dành cho học sinh 92

APPENDIX 4: Students’ questionnaire 96

APPENDIX 5: Câu hỏi phỏng vấn dành cho giáo viên 100

APPENDIX 6: Guided questions for teacher interviews 100

APPENDIX 7: Responses from the interviews with teachers 101

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Ages 33

Table 3.2 Gender distribution 34

Table 3.3 Extra English class attention 34

Table 3.4 Synthesized contents of factors inhibiting the speaking performance in the students’ questionnaire 36

Chapter 4 Table 4.1 Students’ responses to anxiety for fear of losing face 39

Table 4.2 Students’ responses to anxiety causing absence of mind 40

Table 4.3 Students’ responses to the compulsory nature of speakingEnglish 40

Table 4.4 Students’ responses to uninteresting nature of learning to speak

English 41

Table 4.5 Students’ responses to lack of self-confidence 41

Table 4.6 Students’ responses to lacking knowledge of English grammar 43

Table 4.7 Students’ responses to lacking knowledge of English vocabulary 43

Table 4.8 Students’ responses to lacking knowledge of English pronunciation 44

Table 4.9 Students’ responses to absence of ideas for speaking topics 45

Table 4.10 Students’ responses to partner’s not good cooperation 46

Table 4.11 Summary of the analysis on inhibiting factors on the part of the student 47

Table 4.12 Students’ responses to teacher’s focus on teaching other skills 48

Table 4.13 Students’ responses to teacher’s seldom using visual teaching aids 48

Table 4.14 Students’ responses to teacher’s rare provision of vocabulary and grammar points 49

Table 4.15 Students’ responses to teachers’ seldom giving a sample

presentation 50

Table 4.16 Students’ responses to teacher’s seldom giving enough time and opportunities to discuss and prepare for speaking 50

Table 4.17 Students’ responses to teacher’s giving speaking topics outside the textbook 51

Table 4.18 Students’ responses to teacher’s talking time 52

Table 4.19 Students’ responses to teacher’s rare effective class control 53

Table 4.20 Students’ responses to teacher’s seldom conducting a variety of speaking activities 53

Table 4.21 Students’ responses to teacher’s mismatching speakingtasks to groups 54

Table 4.22 Students’ responses to teacher’s correction strategy 55

Table 4.23 Students’ responses to teacher’s rare compliments 56

Table 4.24 Summary of the analysis on inhibiting factors on the part of the teacher 57

Table 4.25 Students’ responses to amount of time curriculum giving for speaking lessons 58

Table 4.26 Students’ responses to unfamiliarity of speaking topics 59

Table 4.27 Students’ responses to negative feature of speaking activities 59

Table 4.28 Students’ responses to negative classroom atmosphere 60

Table 4.29 Students’ responses to insufficiency of the teaching aids 61

Table 4.30 Students’ responses to discomfort of seating arrangement 61

Table 4.31 Summary of the analysis on inhibiting factors from context 62

LIST OF FIGURES

Chapter 4

Figure 4.1 Students' responses to affective filters 42

Figure 4.2 Students’ responses to linguistic factors 45

Figure 4.3 Students’ responses to cognitive factors 46

Figure 4.4 Students’ responses to teacher’s methods 52

Figure 4.5 Students’ responses to teacher’s skills 55

Figure 4.6 Students’ responses to teacher’s feedback and correction 56

Figure 4.7 Students’ responses to factors from other sources 62

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study and statement of the problem

It is not exaggeration to claim that English is an international language Indeed, English is no longer strange to generations of Vietnam, for it has proved its power in most of fields, like economy, medical care, education, etc It goes without saying that possession of English language competence, to everyone, is an essential prerequisite for employment and for success of academy and career Realizing the important role

of English language, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) of Vietnam has put English into official curriculum for students at schools since the early of 1980s of the previous century Nowadays, besides the presence of other foreign languages such

as French, Chinese, Russian, English has got the interest of most Vietnamese students Evidently, 99.1% of secondary school students learn English as a foreign language, 0.6% French, 0.2% Russian, and 0.1% Chinese according to the latest statistics of the Institute of Strategies and Programs for Education (New World, Nov 28, 2011) However, it is so disappointing that the result of English at school is just a coating

(ibid.) At a conference in Ha Noi on improving English proficiency at higher

education levels, the Vice Minister of Education and Training, Nguyen Vinh Hien complained, “they [college students] cannot use English no matter how much we have tried to teach them, which is a real failure for the education sector.” (Vinh, 2011, p 8) Also in another article, it was blamed that over 90% of Vietnamese students could neither obtain knowledge directly at lectures given in English nor give a presentation

on specific purposes in English although they owned sufficient conditions of English for graduation (Phan, 2011, p 3) On mentioning the role and position of speaking skill in learning a foreign language, Ur (2000) declares, “of all the four skills

[listening, speaking, reading, and writing] speaking seems intuitively the most important: people who know a language are referred to as ‘speakers’ of the language,

as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing” (p 12) However, it’s worth blaming that low proficiency in speaking English is found in a majority of college students, as in the statement, “few college students can speak English with intonation while a large number have a limited vocabulary,” said Dr Duong Bach Nhat, the Dean

of the Foreign Language Faculty at Duy Tan University in Da Nang city (Vinh, 2011,

p 8) Vu Ngoc Pi, the President of Thai Nguyen Industry and Technology college in Thai Nguyen province said that there were various causes of students’ low level in English He added that one of the causes stemmed from seven-year education at secondary school and high school, where students graduated with low level of English In his opinion, this resulted in the practice that they entered colleges and

universities with low level of English (ibid.) Without a thread of doubt, there was a

gap between the aims of training English at school and the practice of students’ English after seven years of learning English at secondary school and high school

At Nguyen Dieu high school, which is located in Tuy Phuoc district in Binh Dinh province, 7-year English program has been taught for high school students There are four 45-minute periods of English per week, which occupy more amount of time than some other subjects such as physics, chemistry, literature, etc Three out of the four periods are utilized for teaching the selection of Tieng Anh, and one is used for teacher’s improving the students’ English based on the students’ level in the class Moreover, the teaching staff consist of teachers qualified with B.A degree in teaching English and full of enthusiasm Getting a great support by the local authority and Binh Dinh Department of Education and Training, the teachers have attended annual workshops on improving English teaching methods and skills held by the British Council What’s more, there are two micro-teaching periods every week aiming at improving the quality of teaching and learning English at the school It is quite obvious that the teaching and learning of English has received a lot of attention, so it

has numerous advantages Nonetheless, according to the 11th grade students’ evaluation of criteria in their speaking performance through the response to the seven questions in part two of the preliminary questionnaire (see APPENDIX 2 on page 90) conducted by the researcher, 60.8% of the respondents revealed that they did not like speaking skill at all, 58.0% supposed that they were bad and even very bad at speaking, only 25.3 % affirmed that their speaking skill was good and average When being asked to evaluate their speaking performance, only 19.1% assessed that the accuracy of their grammar knowledge was good and average, 22.2% thought that the accuracy of their pronunciation knowledge was good and average, and 11.1% revealed that they could make word choice correctly Similiarly, only 10.5% unveiled that they could speak comparatively fluently while 88.9% could not Obviously, the

self-11th graders themselves evaluated that criteria in their speaking performance were very low Moreover, as a nine year-experienced teacher of English language, the researcher herself has witnessed her students’ deficiency in their speaking performance at Nguyen Dieu high school Through her observations as well as complaints of colleagues - English teachers, the researcher is aware that there are numerous factors inhibiting the students’ speaking performance, so she feels a need to find out why 11th grade students at Nguyen Dieu high school can not perform oral

English well

1.2 Significance of the study

The study “A Survey on Factors Inhibiting the Speaking Performance of 11th Graders

at Nguyen Dieu High School” implies a great significance in foreign language pedagogy Firstly, it makes clear of factors inhibiting the speaking performance of eleventh students Secondly, it helps to change the students’ and teachers’ perception

on factors inhibiting the students’ English speaking performance Fourthly, it gives out recommendations which enable teachers to adjust their methods, improving their

students’ speaking ability and positively helping their students better and master

English speaking skill

Three sub-questions can be derived:

1 What factors on the part of the student inhibit the students’ speaking performance?

2 What factors on the part of the teacher inhibit the students’ speaking performance?

3 What factors from other sources such as teaching curriculum/syllabus, the textbook, and classroom environment inhibit the students’ speaking performance?

1.4 Organization of the thesis

There are five chapters in this thesis as follows

Chapter 1 gives an overview of the research which consists of the research’s background, significance, and research questions

Chapter 2 concentrates on review of the literature which is relevant to the research Firstly, it revisits definitions, purposes, and characteristics of speaking and speaking

performance Secondly, it looks for factors affecting the learners’ speaking performance, including factors on the part of the student, on the part of the teacher, and from other sources Finally, it takes a glance at previous research on the teaching and learning speaking skill in English classes at high school in Vietnam

Chapter 3 deals with the research’s methodology which comprises research aims, research questions, research setting, research design, data collection, and data analysis procedure

Chapter 4 shows statistically the findings of the research Thereafter, discussions of the findings are presented

Chapter 5 comes up with conclusions and makes recommendations for further research and for practice of teaching and learning English at high school

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 2 reviews the relevant literature, including the theoretical background to the study and an overview of the previous research on the teaching and learning speaking skill in English classes at high school in Vietnam

2.1 Theoretical background to the research

In this section, an overview of speaking and its related concepts is reviewed Definitions and discussions related to speaking performance are revisited In addition, factors affecting students’ speaking performance are discussed in great detail

2.1.1 What is speaking?

2.1.1.1 Definitions of speaking

Speaking is referred to as ‘a process of oral language production’ (Tarone, 2005, p 485) In greater detail, it is defined as “a complex process involving constructing a message in a form that other people can understand, and delivering the message using the correct pronunciation, stress, and intonation” (Lindsay & Knight, 2006, p 68) Speaking is not only considered to be “interactive”, but also involves

“producing”, “receiving” and “processing information” (Florez, 1999, p 1, cited in

Comings, Gamer & Smith, 2006, p 124) Moreover, speaking is often “spontaneous,

open-ended, and evolving”, but it is not entirely “unpredictable” (ibid., p 124)

2.1.1.2 Purposes of speaking

Speaking can be done for a variety of purposes Speaking is to be sociable, to satisfy a need, to make a requirement, to give an offer, to respond to someone, to “express the speaker’s feelings or opinions about something, to exchange information, to refer to

an action or event, and so on” (Lindsay & Knight, 2006, p 57) Language researchers suggest different dimensions for speaking from different points of view It is said that speech is usually for either of the two main purposes, transactional and interactional purposes (Pridham, 2001, cited in Bailey, 2006, pp 127-128) or by other terms, transactional and interpersonal functions (Thornbury, 2005) For a transactional function, speaking is to “convey information and facilitate the exchange of goods or services” Some examples for this aim are phoning to book a table at a restaurant,

making a job interview, or giving an airport announcement, etc (ibid p 14) For an

interpersonal function, speaking is to “establish and maintain social relations”, for example, a conversation between friends at a restaurant (Thornbury, 2005, p 13) Instead of using the term “function” to talk about purposes for speaking, Bygate (1987), on the other hand, uses the term “routine” According to Bygate, routines - conventional ways of presenting information - are divided into two types 1) informational routines and 2) interactional routines Informational routines consist of recurring types of information structures, which can be subdivided into routines that are basically expository in nature, and routines that are evaluative Meanwhile, interactional routines can be subdivided into service or social encounters Bygate's (1987) information and interaction routines correspond respectively to the transactional and interactional functions of language proposed by Brown and Yule (1983) Also, Nunan (1989) supposes that the informational and interactional functions represent two different dimensions of interaction - the expository and evaluative subroutine - which are the features of service and social interactions These

two dimensions are put together in a grid, which can be used for the functional analysis of transactional and interpersonal interactions

2.1.1.3 English speaking in the language classroom

Speaking is regarded as a productive skill (Spratt, Pulverness & Williams, 2007, p 34), and perhaps as the most fundamental of human skills (Bailey, 2006, p 121) Speaking, one of the four macro skills, is essential for effective communication in any language, particularly when speakers are not using their mother tongue (Boonkit,

2009, p 1) In second language learning and teaching, language in speaking is generated by the learner (in speech or writing) Therefore, speaking is viewed as the productive oral skill (Comings, Gamer & Smith, 2006, p 124)

As mentioned in 2.1.1, speaking involves “putting a message together”,

“communicating the message” and “interacting with people” (Lindsay & Knight,

2006, p 57) Therefore, in order to meet the conditions, speaking activities in classroom are designed in various forms ranging from individual work to pair work and group work (Harmer, 2007, p 44), in which language learners can respond to each other employing the language properly to the situation which they are put in and the person they are talking to (Lindsay & Knight, 2006, p 68) As a result, their production needs enough accuracy and fluency for others to understand and respond

(ibid.) Depending on the stage of the lesson, they are guided to practice “producing

errors-free language” or accuracy otherwise they are led to focus on “interaction” and

or fluency rather than accuracy (ibid., p 61) More clearly, speaking tasks that focus

on getting learners to produce sounds, phrases, or grammar structures vary from tasks where learners are completely controlled by the teacher to those where they have

more liberty to choose the language they use (ibid.)

Discussing purposes of speaking activities in language class, Lindsay and Knight (2006) and Harmer (2007) hold the same views They all ascertain that speaking tasks serve three main reasons, such as rehearsal, feedback and encouragement Firstly, speaking activities furnish language learners with rehearsal opportunities, which are chances to practice real-life speaking in classroom (Harmer, 2007, p 123) At this point, they are called “pre-communicative activities” (Littlewood, 1981, p 85) or

“pseudo-communicative skill getting activities” which would naturally lead into

“spontaneous communication” (Rivers & Temperly, 1978, p 5, cited in Bygate, 1987,

p 55) Secondly, as discussed above, speaking tasks where language learners attempt

to use “any or all of the language they know” supply feedback for both teachers and learners (Harmer, 2007, p 123) That is to say, through speaking tasks, they can see how well they are doing, how successful they get, and what language problems they are facing Consequently, feedback and correction will be given out to better the learners’ speaking performance (Thornbury, 2005, p 91) Finally, the more chances language learners have to use language knowledge they have accumulated in their minds, the more automatic they get in using their knowledge As a matter of fact, language users become more and more autonomous In other words, they will be able

to use the language naturally and fluently in effortless way (Harmer, 2007, p 123)

In brief, in the eyes of linguists, socialists and pedagogues, speaking emerges as an essential skill in real-life communication in any language In English language classroom, speaking is viewed as a skill that needs practice and effort to get autonomy

2.1.2 Speaking performance

The word “performance” is often used “interchangeably” with the word

“achievement” (Hayward & Sparks, 1976, p 10) and it may be used to indicate

“academic prowess or success” (Delvare, 1995, p 31) According to Smith (cited in

Delvare, 1995), student performance at tertiary institutions is internationally monitored by the amount of time taken to earn the qualification, so performance is affirmed to be equated with academic success (p 28)

Speaking performance is defined as actual instances of producing oral language in real time (McNamara, 1996, p 54) Speaking performance or oral language production is a popular research target and has been assessed in various fields For example, research has been conducted into task effects on speaking performance in second language acquisition field (Skehan & Foster, 2001), into the effects of language and culture on second language speaking (Tollberg, 2009), or into language testing (O’Loughlin, 2001) Speaking performance has also been the focus in other research fields dealing with language use (Ortega, 2003) This section reviews previous literature in aspects of speaking performance namely speaking process and characteristics of speaking performance

2.1.2.1 Speaking process

A model of speaking process suggested by Levelt (1993) is highly appreciated by researchers and it has been adopted in recent research (Doughty, 2001 & Thornbury, 2005) This model proposed from a psycholinguistic perspective consists of both speaking and listening As the current research focuses on speaking, the relevant parts are mentioned

There are three stages of speech production in Levelt’s (1993) model They are (a) conceptualisation, (b) formulation, and (c) articulation Messages are conceived in the first stage, then they are put in a form of language in the second stage Finally, it is pronounced and expressed in the last stage In the second stage, all the information related to vocabulary is subdivided into two components: lemmas and lexemes The lemmas consist of information on meanings and syntax, while lexemes constitute

information on morphology and phonology After messages are formed in the first stage, lemmas are searched for words, and grammatical structures are derived accordingly, which results in surface structures Next comes phonological encoding,

in which morphological and phonological information is incorporated by the use of lexemes The resulting product is called a “phonetic plan”, “articulatory plan”, or

“internal speech”, which is articulated later as “overt speech” During the different processes of speaking, outcomes are monitored Formed messages are checked according to their appropriateness, and the internal and overt speeches are also monitored Levelt (1993) states that these processes are conducted in parallel and done automatically, and that is the reason why he asserts the speaker achieves fluency

Levelt (1993) posits that the three stages of speech production are what occur “inside the head” of a language speaker On the outside, speech production is characterized

by fluency and accuracy

2.1.2.2 Characteristics of speaking performance

Speaking has numerous characteristics, two of which are accuracy and fluency (Gower, Phillips & Walters, 2005, p 99) In the communicative approach, fluency and accuracy are of the main characteristics of this approach, and they are seen as complementary in accomplishing a given task (Brown, 2000, p 166)

Fluency is defined as how fast and how much a learner speaks without hesitancy

markers (e.g., functionless repetitions, self-corrections, and false starts) in “coping with real time processing” (Wolfe-Quintero, Inagaki, & Kim, 1998, p 14) In a more intelligible expression, fluency can be thought of as “the ability to keep going when

speaking spontaneously” (Gower, et al, 2005, p 100) It can be inferred that when

speaking fluently, students should be able to “get the message across with whatever

resources and abilities they’ve got, irrespective of grammatical and other mistakes”

(ibid.) Hedge (2000) also adds that the term fluency relates to the expressed in the

last stage In the second stage, all the information related production and that it is normally reserved for speech (p 54) According to Skehan and Foster (2001), fluency

is associated more with meaning and “getting a task done” (p 190) Fluency measures can be divided into two categories “temporal” measures and measures of “a degree of freedom from various dysfluency markers” (Lennon, 1990, p 403) Speed is also argued to be an important factor in fluency and pausing, because speakers need to take breath (Thornbury, 2005, pp 6-7) However, a frequent pausing is an indication that the speaker has problems of speaking, and in such cases of production strategies, i.e the ability to fill the pauses, such as “uh” and “um”, vagueness expressions such

as “short of” and “I mean” are advisable to be used for filling the pauses (ibid., p 7)

Accuracy, on the contrary, involves “the correct use of vocabulary, grammar, and

pronunciation” (Gower et al., 2005, p 99) Accuracy is also viewed as “how well the

target language is produced in relation to the rule system of the target language” (Skehan, 1996, p 23) It also refers to how much a learner speaks without errors in

real-time communication (Wolfe-Quintero et al., 1998) While fluency is related to

meaning, accuracy is more related to form (Skehan, 1998, p 5) However, accuracy is associated with the use of “an interlanguage system of a particular level to produce

correct, but possibly limited, language” (ibid.) In controlled and guided activities the

concentration is usually on accuracy, and the teacher makes it clear from feedback

that accuracy is important (Gower et al, 2005, p 99) During these activities,

correction is favored and often appropriate Therefore, learners should focus on a number of things in their production of the spoken language, mainly, the grammatical structure, vocabulary and pronunciation

To sum up, as reviewed in part 2.1.2 speaking is produced through three stages conceptualization, formulation, and articulation then is expressed overtly by the language speaker It is then evaluated on the two aspects fluency and accuracy

2.1.3 Factors affecting speaking performance

A number of factors contributing to the success or failure of the possible outcomes of

a language course particularly language learners’ speaking performance can be traced back to various sources such as the language learner, the language teacher, and other sources namely teaching curriculum, teaching materials, and teaching environment

2.1.3.1 On the part of the student

Language learner’s speaking performance may be affected by various factors coming from the learner himself, including affective factors, linguistic factors, cognitive factors, and sociocultural factors

2.1.3.1.1 Affective factors

2.1.3.1.1.1 Age

For years, age has been considered to be one of predictors of second language proficiency (Krashen, 1982, p 43) It is supposed that there is Critical Period Hypothesis, which claims that puberty is a milestone for the facility in the process of language acquisition (Lenneberg, 1962) Brown (2000) supposes from both observational and research evidence that mature adults manifest a number of inhibitions such as embarrassment In another respect, there is a suspicion of the existence of critical period, for it is so difficult to predict knowledge or ability in any

of the other area of communicative competence based on age of acquisition (Archibald, 2000, p 420) However, Birdsong (2006), who has studied theoretical issues and empirical findings of age related to research of second language acquisition, finds that brain memory, learning conditions, and second language

processing speed are connected with age factor Though there are opinions from the opposite view, age is inevitably an affective factor in second language acquisition

2.1.3.1.1.2 Affective filters

It is undeniable that in the process of the adaptation, learners bring psychological barriers with them to the learning situation (Freeman, 2000, p 81) Basing on the notion that psychological variables may strongly enhance or inhibit second language acquisition, Krashen (1982) develops a construct of an affective filter, which consists

of variables of anxiety, motivation, and self-confidence He gives out Affective Filter Hypothesis, which claims that if a learner has very low motivation, very low self-confidence and a high level of anxiety, the affective filter comes into place and

hinders him/her from acquiring the new language (ibid., pp 30- 32)

As a part of the emotional side of human behaviors, anxiety is defined as a complex affective concept associated with feelings of uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, apprehension, or worry (Scovel, 1978, p 134) Three components of foreign language anxiety identified and examined are communication apprehension, test anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1989) Communication apprehension is a person’s level of fear or anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with another person or people (Brown,

2000, p 151) Test anxiety which is apprehension over academic evaluation may be rooted from deficits in learners learning and study skills or caused by learners’ peer

performances in the past (ibid.) The third component, fear of negative social

evaluation is defined as apprehension about others’ evaluation from the learner’s need

to make a positive social impression on others (ibid.) On examining the relationship

between language anxiety and oral performance, Gardner (1985) and Philip (1992) contend that language anxiety is an effective factor that affects achievement in their second language It is a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings and behaviors related to classroom language learning, which arises from the uniqueness of

language learning process (Horwitz et al.,1986) Anxiety is ascertained to have a

debilitating effect on speaking English for some students (Woodrow, 2006, p 323)

Motivation, from a behavioristic perspective, is just “the anticipation of reward” while from cognitive perspective, it is activated by degree of effort and it is driven by “basic human needs” (Asubel, 1968; cited in Brown, 2000, pp 160-161) From a constructivist perspective, motivation is considered in social context, community,

social status, and security of group (ibid., p 162) In terms of communicative needs,

motivation is divided into two types based on its source or purpose Grounded on source of motivation, there are integrative and instrumental orientations of the learners, but grounded on its purpose, motivation is examined in terms of the intrinsic

and extrinsic motives of the learners (ibid., p 166) Intrinsic motivation refers to the

willingness to engage in an activity because it is enjoyable and fulfilling while extrinsic motivation refers to the desire to do it so as to receive an external reward or

avoid punishment (ibid., pp 166-167) It appears that intrinsic orientations are more

powerful learning stimuli (e.g Maslow, 1970; Crookes & Schmidt, 1991; Dörnyei, 1998) However, in both cases, the degree of motivation that an individual learner possesses is the crucial factor for successful learning (Gardner, 1985)

As seen so far, the construct of self-confidence or more specifically, self-efficacy and its related concepts certainly represent the complex nature of human psychology and behavior, the assumption being that “what people think, believe, and feel affects how they behave” (Bandura, 1986, p 25) Within second language motivation research, second language self-confidence is described as “self-perceptions of communicative competence and concomitant low levels of anxiety in using the second language” (Clement & Kruidenier, 1985) Moreover, self-confidence serves as “the most important determinant of attitude and effort expended toward second language learning” (Clement, Dörnyei, & Noels, 1994, p 422) Self-confidence in second language acquisition is inadequately perceived as a construct, and it has taken little empirical validation up to now (Moyer, 2006, p 267)

2.1.3.1.2 Linguistic factors

Linguistic knowledge which is perceived as “knowledge of features of language” (Thornbury, 2005, p 11) is regarded as a crucial one that proficient speakers draw on when speaking Linguistic knowledge is supposed to consist of four broad categories, namely pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and sentence formation (Hadden, 1991)

It is also considered in a wider range, which comprises genre knowledge, discourse knowledge, pragmatic knowledge, register, grammar, vocabulary and phonology (Thornbury, 2005, pp 13-24) In the scope of this study, the three main components constituting linguistic factors namely grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation are studied and focused

It is suggested that grammar knowledge for speaking purposes consists widely of

“those grammar systems that favor rapid, real-time speech production” (Thornbury,

2005, p 33) Actually, English grammar is important, for it helps language learners to communicate more accurately, meaningfully, and appropriately (Larsen-Freeman,

2001 cited in Savage, Bitterlin, & Price, 2010, p 2) On theoretical background, grammar knowledge occupies a remarkable position in the process of speaking, for it contributes to the occurrence of the stage of formulation_ the second stage in speech production (as mentioned and discussed in part 2.1.2.1) That learners are taught to form and use relatively lengthy and complex sentence structures in written form rather than in spoken one is somehow impractical; however, it is sentence grammar that has always been the main focus of language teaching (Thornbury, 2005, p 33) In a word, grammar is recognized as a crucial component of linguistic factor in productive skills especially speaking performance

The second constituent of linguistic knowledge is vocabulary There is a theoretical background to the relationship between vocabulary and speaking performance As notified in section 2.12.1, no speech is created without vocabulary, so vocabulary is indispensable to speaking performance Along with grammar, vocabulary knowledge

is prominent and marks its significant role in language learners’ speaking as it is posited that “learning words is the essential task of language learning” and that “the better words you learn, the better you understand the connections between different words” (Kaufmann, 2006) So important is vocabulary knowledge that it is one of the essential and fundamental components of communication (Singleton, 1997, p 213) In conclusion, language learners who accumulate not enough vocabulary (or whose vocabulary is not sufficient) may feel frustrated to explain or express English in their speaking performance as clearly and exactly as it should be

Thirdly, as a component of linguistic factor, pronunciation, as Barners and Smith (1956) state, refers to the manner in which sounds, syllables, and words are uttered while speakers are speaking The sound is significant because “it is used as part of a code of a particular language” and “it is used to archive meaning in contrast of use” (Dalton & Seidlhofer, 1994, p 3) On theoretical background as discussed in section 2.1.2.1, pronunciation constructs mainly the third stage of speech production - the articulation Actually, without some degree of pronunciation foreign language learners cannot speak the language or express themselves freely and fluently (Brown, 1994) Normally, incorrect English pronunciation may confuse listeners especially native speakers To sum up, pronunciation is an influential component for it is one of the most essential parts in English linguistic features that directly result in English language learners’ speaking performance

2.1.3.1.3 Cognitive factors

2.1.3.1.3.1 Unfamiliarity with the topic

Topics or themes that are affirmed to be chosen for a speaking task should not call for specialised knowledge; otherwise the learner feel frustrated in finding something to talk about (Byrne, 1987, pp 75-76) This concept is also in accordance with the

notion raised by Rivers (1968) when this researcher appreciates the impact of the topic on the learner’s performance in the speaking task Rivers (1968) states that if the topic chosen is ‘uncongenial’ to the learner or about which s/he knows very little, s/he has nothing to ‘express’ whether in the native language or the foreign language (p 192) Also, students could not carry out the discussion on topics that are not interesting for them (Khadidja, 2010, p 38) In such cases, providing topics which do arouse talks is advisable for language teachers (Byrne, 1987, p 76)

2.1.3.1.3.2 Peer interaction

When a class is working as a whole group, it is necessary the case that individual students get fewer individual opportunities to speak or to reflect since speaking in front of a whole class is supposed to be more “demanding” and more “inhibiting” than speaking in smaller groups (Harmer, 2007, p 43) Actually, in pair or group tasks or even when an examiner interacts with an interlocutor, the performance of one speaker

is likely to affect the performance of the other (Luoma, 2004, p 190) This is also strengthened by Galaczi (2008) when he finds that high scorers mostly oriented to a collaborative pattern of interaction, while the low scorers generally oriented to a parallel pattern of interaction Therefore, the collaboration has a close relationship with the scores the learners take in paired oral test To language learner subjects, particularly teenagers, it is crucial to keep peer influences and foster a positive image for proficiency in a second language (Walqui, 2000) Obviously, under peer cooperation and assistance, low achievers’ linguistic ability is improved (Wigzell & Al-Ansari, 1993)

2.1.3.1.3.3 Time pressure

Time is considered an affective factor in language learner’s speaking (Oomen & Postma, 2001) It is because increasing time pressure has also implications for verbal monitoring, and speech gets more errors and becomes less fluent with increased

speech rate (ibid.) Furthermore, in a recent study, it is proved that time pressure in

speaking relates to a phenomenon named stuttering, which is an obstruct to fluency in speaking a language (Ezrati-Vinacour & Levin, 2001) Thornbury (2005) suggests that with a degree of urgency it is probable to increase the difficulty for the speaker (p 26) Actually, language learners are supposed to make more errors in phoneme monitoring, a component in interlocutor’s articulation under time pressure than in a control condition (Ganushchak & Schiller, 2006) To conclude, time pressure can be viewed as a factor of hindering fluency and accuracy of the language learners’

speaking performance

2.1.3.1.4 Sociocultural factors

A number of cultural features of a language affect second language learning (Shumin,

1997, p 2) “Language is a form of social action because linguistic communication occurs in the context of structured interpersonal exchange, and meaning is thus socially regulated” (Dimitracopoulou, 1990) That is to say, “shared values and beliefs form the traditions and social structures that seal a community together and are expressed in their language” (Carrasquillo, 1994, p 55) Therefore, to be able to speak

a language, one must know how a language is used in a social context as well as know how, when, and to what degree a speaker may show a verbal behavior on his/her partner (Berns, 1990) Because of the influence and interference of their own cultural norms, non-native speakers find frustrated to choose the language appropriate to certain situation (Shumin, 1997, p 2)

The presence of traditional values of Asian English language learners’ culture, especially the value of silence in the classroom, is regarded as one of sociocultural factors impeding the speaking skills of the learners (Woodrow, 2006) The state of keeping reticence in the classroom has a relation with original Confucian value of

face (ibid.) More specifically, maintaining silence by making no questions or not

giving any contradictory statements were supposed to respect the teachers’ authority

or to be the students’ understanding of the content in the class (ibid.) Together with

the recent revolutions in education, this view has been changed; however, its

influence on speaking in classroom remains in some extent (ibid.) If teachers of

English favour this concept and adopt it in their teaching process, students may feel

frustrated to show their speaking skill in class (ibid.)

In summary, sociocultural factors such as lack of knowledge of the nonverbal communication system of the target language and favour of maintaining reticence in classroom as a traditional value can act as factors hampering English language learners from getting adequate and sufficient speaking performance

2.1.3.2 On the part of the teacher

It is the teacher who is considered the key figure in the language course and who sets the tone for the learning activities (Allen & Valette, 1977, p 3) It is also argued that there are evidences that continuous development of teachers is one of the factors highly contributing to learners’ achievements (Smith & Haack, 2000) In language classes, at one time the teacher acts as a controller, prompter, or guide, and at other times s/he takes the roles of a feedback provider or assessor (Harmer, 2007, p 25) Breen and Candlin (1980) say, “the teacher has three main roles in the communicative classroom […] to act as a facilitator of the communicative process […] as a participant […] as an observer and learner.” Therefore, there is no question about the teacher’s important role in language course and learners’ achievement In this study, teaching methods, teaching skills, teachers’ feedback and corrections are discussed in relationship with the learners’ speaking performance

2.1.3.2.1 Teacher’s methods

Advisably, English language teachers of speaking skills need to take good considerations of language teaching approaches applied in their teaching practice because the role played by oral language in the classroom differs “dramatically” with various methodologies discussed in the literature (Mulphy, 1991, p 52) Grammar-Translation method, first named as such in Germany 1980, aimed to present learners with “short grammar rules and wordlists and then translation exercises, has failed to give learners opportunities to activate the language knowledge” (Harmer, 2007, p 49) That is to say, in the teaching method no attention is paid to speaking or listening

at all (Richards & Rogers, 2001 cited in Bailey, 2006, p 150) Audio-lingual method, originated in army education in 1940, was nominated to real or realistic language due

to orally manipulating language forms (Harmer, 2007, p 49) Communicative language teaching, on the other hand, has a beneficial effect because it offers language teachers a notion that learners learn the language not for knowledge but for communication; therefore, above all it furnishes learners with opportunities to “try out

real language” in the classroom (ibid., p 50) Learners are supported to talk more in

the classroom in communicative language teaching (Bailey, 2006, p 150); and a based approach, a natural extension of communicative language teaching, has permitted teachers and learners to concentrate on how learners achieve the language and how they can use language for certain tasks through producing pieces of writing

task-or task-oral perftask-ormance (Harmer, 2007, p 51)

2.1.3.2.2 Teacher’s skills

Along with teacher’s methods, the ways language teachers interact with learners are found to be vital components in successful teaching So are the tasks that the teachers

are assumed However, if language teachers own certain teaching skills, the class will get successful Teaching skills as proposed by Harmer (2007, p 28) consist of managing classes, matching tasks and groups, and varying activities

2.1.3.2.2.1 Classroom management

Classroom management is not merely “a bag of tricks” but “a multifaceted endeavor that is far more complex than establishing rules, rewards, and penalties to control students' behavior” (Evertson & Weinstein, 2006, p 5) More intelligibly, it is “the way a teacher organises and handles a class” (Harmer, 2007, p 34) In Harmer’s view, to manage classroom effectively, teachers have to handle various elements, such

as organization of space, time, and learners’ activities in groups, pairs, or individuals

(ibid.) Holding the same view, Duke (1982) confirms that “the critical element of the

teacher’s role thus shifts from control to management - management of time, space, materials, auxiliary personnel, and students.” Two matters of classroom management focused in this study include timing classes and maintaining discipline

Discussing the concept of timing classes, Allene & Velette (1997) posit that each English language teacher should keep waste time to a minimum through the establishment of routines, which are setting time for correcting students’ homework at the beginning of the class, assigning group works, handling the students’ questions, and timing for ending his/her class (p 50) Simultaneously, s/he has to take teacher talking time into good consideration in language classes because the amount of teacher talking time versus student talking time, which makes a profound impact on their proficiency (Xiao-yan, 2006, p 45), and which ‘characterizes’ classrooms (Richard, 1991, p 12) Therefore, excessive teacher talk is recommendable to be avoided (Nunan, 1991, p 190) in order to offer learners more opportunities to produce comprehensible output Also, Harmer (2000) points out that “a good teacher maximizes student talking time and minimizes teacher talking time” (p 4)

Discipline - only one component that figures into classroom management - is defined

as “the training which produces obedience or self-control, often in the form of rules and punishments if these are broken, or the obedience or self-control produced by this training” (The Cambridge International Dictionary of English,

1995, p 390) George (1990) defines discipline as creating and maintaining a learning atmosphere in which educators can teach and learners learn in an environment that encourages respect for educators, classmates and administrators (p 1) Allene & Velette (1997) suppose that if the teacher anticipates having difficulties with the students, discipline trouble seems to occur, and that if they are actively involved in class activities, they will be so busy learning the language that no time do they take to make trouble; therefore, “discipline will take care of itself” (p 51) As a result, “we must decide before entering the classroom what we expect our students to be doing, and we need to formulate a set of strategies for dealing with situations in which our expectations are not met” (Nunan & Lamb, 1996, p 123)

2.1.3.2.2.2 Matching tasks to groups

Harmer (2007) finds that there might be a mismatch between the task and the level of the students (p 29) Therefore, he suggests that language teachers need to think carefully about matching activities and topics to the different groups they teach He takes an example that some groups seem happy to work on their own creation while

others have a need of more help and guidance (ibid.,)

2.1.3.2.2.3 Varying activities

Variety, one principle behind good lesson planning, means involving students in a number of different types of activities and where possible introducing them to a wide selection of materials; it means planning so that learning is interesting and never monotonous for the students (Harmer, 1992, p 259) Monotonous and repetitive activities tend to bore students or demotivate them (Harmer 2007, p 29) Therefore, Harmer (2007) contends that varying activities and topics over a period of time is one

characteristic of good teachers because by doing this learners are exposed to the

freshness of the new activity type (ibid.)

2.1.3.2.3 Teacher’s feedback and correction

Giving feedback is considered the most important responsibilities of a teacher (Gower

et al, 2005, p 163) It refers to teacher’s response to errors or what learners produce

in the classroom (Wajnryb, 1996, p 49) The exact content of teacher’s response as it relates to the learners’ production may well have important influence on the learning

process (ibid.) Teacher’s feedback to learners is said to include giving praise and encouragement, correcting, and assessment (Gower et al, 2005, p 163)

Teacher’s feedback perceived in terms of motivational value - the value of positive feedback and the hindrance of negative feedback - is to bring self-awareness and

improvement (ibid) Therefore, when giving feedback on oral work, teachers always

consider not only positive points to comment upon but also how well to respond

(ibid.) Similarly, Brown (1988) insists that feedback, a must for teachers, has to be

genuinely responsive, which means that it allows learners to experience the effect of what they produce as a guide in their future efforts, and it must be more encouragement as well (p 16) Feedback, moreover, is most effective when it points out critical features of the language, gives information that allows the students to discover rules and principles of the language, and reduces ambiguity of choice for the learners (Zamel, 1981)

Mistakes and errors are the items which are used as opposed to each other (Thornbury, 2005, p.92) A mistake implies the learners’ momentary failure to apply their knowledge while an error represents a gap in the speaker’s knowledge of the

system (ibid.,) Moreover, mistakes can usually be self-corrected, but errors cannot (ibid.,) Mistakes and errors are inevitable in the process of learning a foreign

language (Spratt, Pulverness & Williams, 2007, p 44) Actually, it is contended that making mistakes and errors are often a sign of learning, and that correction is a part of

teaching (Edge, 1989, p 69) Thus, the matter raised out is whether, when, what, and

how to correct learners’ errors (ibid.) In teaching practice, that students want to be

corrected the moment they make any mistake or to be corrected later is due to their different learning styles, intelligences, and preferences (Harmer, 2007, p 27) However, whichever method of correction teachers choose, and whoever they are working with, learners need to be treated with respect, not with mockery or sarcasm

(ibid.) That is the reason why correcting students is always a delicate event, so if teachers are too critical, they risk de-motivating learners (ibid.) Whatever kind of

error rectification a teacher conducts s/he must bear in his/her minds Michael Lewis's message “You never correct a mistake, you always correct a person” (Bartram & Walton, 1991, p 93) Moreover, there are three reasons why the active involvement of students in the process of dealing with mistakes is important: it stimulates active

learning, induces cooperative atmosphere, and develops independent learners (ibid., p

81) At the end of error self-correction activity, teacher’s feedback is crucial and must

be conducted in a way to have a long-term positive effect on students’ ability to

monitor their own performance (ibid., p 95).

2.1.3.3 From other sources

2.1.3.3.1 Curriculum/ syllabus

Curriculum refers to “the program studies of an educational institution” (Stern, 1996,

p 21) In a more restricted sense, it describes what is taught in a given subject (ibid.)

To a certain extent, it is defined both as what is taught in educational programs and as the sequence in which that subject matter is presented (Bailey, 2006, p 145) Because

of the fact that learners usually need the language that they are learning for some life purpose, curriculum could be organized according to what the learners need to be able to do and the words and phrases needed for the topics that they need to be able to talk about (Ek, 1975 & Wilkins, 1976 cited in Luoma, 2004, p 33) The aims of the

real-curriculum are translated into practical details in the official syllabus, which may not give enough helpful detail while a local teaching syllabus can (Sesnan, 1997, p 241) Actually, to the language learner, the course content must be relevant to the his/her need; that is, the topic and skills covered should have a direct relation to issues that the learner deals with while speaking in daily lives (Bailey, 2006, p 145) That is the reason why language teachers frequently focus on the vocabulary of the topics because with a limited vocabulary, it is impossible to talk on a topic (Khadidja, 2010,

p 18)

2.1.3.3.2 The textbook

The textbook is defined as a book on a specific subject used as a teaching/ learning guide (Richards & Schimidt, 2002, p 550) To a broad extent, the textbook is used as indication of “an organized and pre-packaged set of teaching/learning materials”, and

it is referred to as course book (Benmati, 2008, p 185) In the field of teaching and learning English as second or foreign language, a textbook is part of a graded series covering multiple skills (listening, reading, writing, speaking, and grammar) or dealing with a single skill (e.g reading) (Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, 1985, p 550) Thus, the role played by textbooks in language teaching and learning is important because it is a resource for presentation material (spoken/written), a source of activities for learner practice and communicative interaction, a reference source, a syllabus, and a resource for self-directed learning or self-access work (Cunningsworth, 1995, p 7) Furthermore, it is suggested that one of the primary advantages of using textbooks is that they are psychologically essential for learners as their progress and achievement can be measured concretely when textbooks are used (Haycroft, 1998)

2.1.3.3.3 Classroom environment

Classroom environment is viewed as “the setting in which students learning takes place” (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2009, p

103) Classroom climate and classroom environment factors positively relate to valued achievement and affective outcomes (Fraser, 1994) Classroom climate, disciplinary climate, and time on task are mentioned as three measures Research conducted in different regions of the world have been shown that classroom climate is one of the most crucial predictors of students’ achievement (Brophy & Good, 1986; Wang, Haertel & Walberg, 1997) Nevertheless, since the environment frequently varies, it is difficult to “identify domain-general indicators” (OECD, 2009, p 103)

Another measure of the environment at the classroom is time on task To get this

measure, teachers are asked to supply the percentage of time they typically use for actual teaching and learning in the target class for it supplies students with a

maximum opportunity to learn (ibid., p 104)

Briefly reviewed in 2.1.3 are influential factors rooted from the student, the teacher and other sources namely curriculum/ syllabus, the textbook, and classroom environment

2.2 Previous research on the teaching and learning of speaking skill in high school English classes in Vietnam

A number of studies carried out in the scope of Vietnamese educational environment have given an overall insight into certain problems in the practice of teaching and learning speaking skill of English language learners Among the studies, research on English speaking skills of high school students, to some extent, has provided teachers, scholars, and researchers with an overview look at the state of learning and teaching speaking skill in high school education

A research conducted on the development of speaking skill among high school students by Pham (2005) through carrying out a questionnaire for students pointed out some problems in learning the skill at high school, which consisted of the learners’

low confidence, weakness in classroom management, and overuse of mother tongue

in speaking classes Recommendations were made to deal with the state such as selecting suitable materials, using skills in classroom management, building up students’ confidence, applying communicative activities in classroom To some degree, this study raised out the learners’ perception on the problems derived from the learners at that high school not from the learners in other educational institutions, so it could not represent for the whole students population in Vietnam

What’s more, it was revealed in a survey carried out by Phan (2006) that high school students had passive English learning experience with little or no exposure to oral practice both inside and outside the classroom They were not motivated in learning, which was affected by ineffective teaching methods and inappropriate curriculum in high school then Moreover, it was also found that most of the learners lacked confidence in expressing their own opinions though they had high expectation of speaking practice at school Suggested in this study were some techniques to build up the learners’ confidence and learning motivation to deal with the state Some conversational strategies were recommended to help teachers vary communicative activities in language classroom

Despite findings and recommendations the two studies have given out, both of them were carried out in the context of the previous language skills programme, in which the speaking and listening skills had got less attention than the other two skills Thus, the findings as well as the recommendations might not be suitable for the current state when the selection of Tiếng Anh 11 has been in nationwide use since the school year 2007-2008 The need for conducting more research on the productive skill at high school has been set out for language researchers and language teachers

In a more recent study (Vo, 2009) - a case study on the ways of teaching speaking skill to eleventh graders at Nguyen Trai high school, 90 students chosen to join in two groups were trained in 16 weeks in the second semester of the school year 2008 –