Problems and suggestions for teaching speaking skills at no trang long ethnic high school daklak province m a 60 14 10

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE  PROBLEMS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS AT NO TRANG LONG ETHNIC HIGH SCHOOL – DAKLAK PROVINCE A thesis submitted in par

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE



PROBLEMS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS AT NO TRANG LONG ETHNIC HIGH SCHOOL – DAKLAK PROVINCE

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

Degree of Master of Arts (TESOL)

Supervisor:

LE THI THANH, Ph.D

Student:

KRONG AI HUONG LAN

Ho Chi Minh City, 2011

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I certify authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:

PROBLEMS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS AT NO TRANG LONG ETHNIC HIGH SCHOOL – DAKLAK

PROVINCE

in term of statement of Requirements for the Theses in Master’s Programs

issued by the Higher Degree Committee

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in

any other institution

Ho Chi Minh City, April 25, 2011

KRÔNG ÁI HƯƠNG LAN

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I hereby state that I, Krông Ái Hương Lan, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library

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

Ho Chi Minh City, April 25, 2011

KRÔNG ÁI HƯƠNG LAN

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I would like to express my deepest and sincerest gratitude to my thesis

supervisor, Ph.D LÊ THỊ THANH, who has provided helpful guidance,

precious comments and strong support in the development and completion of

this thesis Without Ph.D LÊ THỊ THANH, this work would have never

been done

I would also like to acknowledge my debt to all teachers and students working at No Trang Long High School who were willing to respond to my questionnaires and gave me the permission to use their information as well as their own teaching experiences related to the scope of this thesis

Last but not least, I wish to send my warmest thanks to my grandmother and my mother, who took care of my little daughter during the long period of time I spent doing this thesis with great understanding and sympathy as well as whose moral support has backed me to attain my aim

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The thesis aims (1) to examine some problems faced by teachers in teaching speaking skills to ethnic students at No Trang Long Ethnic High School in Khanh Xuan Ward, Buon Ma Thuot City, DakLak Province; (2) to investigate some factors influencing the speaking skills of the ethnic students and (3) to give some suggestions for improving the quality of teaching as well

as learning oral skills The study was mainly based on the questionnaire delivered to informants of 178 the 11th grade ethnic students who do not major in English at No Trang Long Ethnic High School, a high school which

is for various ethnic minority groups of DakLak Province and questionnaire given to five teachers who are teaching English at NTLEHS as well as two teachers from two ethnic schools in the same city who were all experienced in teaching speaking skills to minorities Besides, class observations were also conducted in two classes at No Trang Long High School so that the researcher could witness the reality in which the teachers apply their teaching methods The information gained from the classroom observation was objective Moreover, the class observation was conducted to gather information but not

to evaluate the teachers’ teaching quality Hence, the teachers did not feel so worried as to affect much their usual teaching way

The results of the study indicate that learners’ affective factors such as anxiety, shyness, self-esteem, autonomy; the language as well as the culture barrier between teacher and ethnic students prevent teachers from improving the quality of teaching speaking skills to ethnic students at No Trang Long Ethnic High School

Based on the findings, suggestions for better practice were made to enable teachers and their ethnic students to be more successful in speaking classes The study therefore provides not only ethnic students as well as

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in DakLak Province and those who are interested in teaching oral English with possible improvements on the practice of teaching speaking

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CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii

ABSTRACT iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

LIST OF TABLES xii

LIST OF CHARTS xiii

ABBREVIATIONS xv

Chapter 1 1

INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 THE PROBLEM 1

1.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY 3

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 4

1.4 AN OVERVIEW OF THE CURRENT SITUATION OF TEACHING ENGLISH AT GRADE 11 AT NO TRANG LONG ETHNIC HIGH SCHOOL – DAKLAK PROVINCE 4

1.4.1 A DESCRIPTION OF NO TRANG LONG ETHNIC HIGH SCHOOL (TRƯờNG PHổ THÔNG DÂN TộC NộI TRÚ NƠ TRANG LƠNG) 4

1.4.2 A DESCRIPTION OF THE CURRENT SITUATION OF TEACHING 11TH GRADE ENGLISH AT NTLEHS 5

1.4.3 COURSE EVALUATION 7

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 7

1.6 LIMITATIONS AND DELIMITATIONS 8

1.7 AN OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 8

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LITERATURE REVIEW 10

2.1 THE BASIC CONCEPTS OF SPEAKING 10

2.1.1 DEFINITION 10

2.1.2 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SPEAKING AND OTHER SKILLS IN LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING 11

2.1.2.1 The differences between spoken language and written language 11

2.1.2.2 The relationship between speaking and other skills in language learning and teaching 13

2.2 FACTORS AFFECTING EFL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS 14

2.2.1 LANGUAGE FACTORS 15

2.2.1.1 Vocabulary 15

2.2.1.2 Stress 15

2.2.1.3 Sounds 16

2.2.1.4 The content of speaking topics 16

2.2.2 PERSONALITY FACTORS 16

2.2.2.1 Self-esteem 16

2.2.2.2 Anxiety 17

2.2.2.3 Inhibition 17

2.2.2.4 Attitude and motivation 18

2.2.3 LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE 19

2.2.4 SOCIO – CULTURAL FACTORS 19

2.2.5 LEARNERS’ AUTONOMY 20

2.2.6 THE IMPACT OF CULTURE ON TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH 22

2.3 TECHNIQUES OF TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS 23

2.3.1 SPEAKING CLASS OBJECTIVES 23

2.3.2 STAGES OF TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS 25

2.3.2.1 The presentation stage 25

2.3.2.1.1 Presenting new language use through texts 26

2.3.2.1.2 Presenting new language use through activities 27

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2.3.3 THE ROLES OF TEACHERS AND LEARNERS IN ORAL COMMUNICATION 30

2.3.3.1 The roles of teachers 31

2.3.3.1.1 An informant 31

2.3.3.1.2 A conductor and monitor 32

2.3.3.1.3 A manager and guide 33

2.3.3.2 The roles of learners 36

2.3.4 POPULAR TEACHING METHODS OFTEN USED AT NO TRANG LONG ETHNIC HIGH SCHOOL IN DAKLAK PROVINCE 37

2.3.4.1 The Grammar-Translation method 37

2.3.4.2 The Communicative Approach 38

2.4 ETHNIC MINORITY GROUPS 39

2.4.1 VIETNAM ETHNIC MINORITY GROUPS 39

2.4.2 EDUCATION AMONG ETHNIC MINORITY GROUPS IN VIETNAM 41

2.4.3 ETHNIC MINORITY GROUPS IN DAKLAK PROVINCE 43

2.4.4 THE EDE LANGUAGE 46

2.5 SUMMARY 47

Chapter 3 48

METHODOLOGY 48

3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 48

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN 48

3.2.1 INSTRUMENTS 49

3.2.1.1 Questionnaires 49

3.2.1.1.1 Questionnaire for the teachers 50

3.2.1.1.2 Questionnaire for the students 51

3.2.1.2 Class observation 51

3.2.2 SUBJECTS 52

3.2.2.1 Teacher subjects 52

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3.3 SUMMARY 56

Chapter 4 57

DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 57

4.1 DATA ANALYSIS 57

4.1.1 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PARTICIPANTS 57

4.1.1.1 The characteristics of the teachers 57

4.1.1.2 The characteristics of the students 59

4.1.2 THE PARTICIPANTS’ POINTS OF VIEW ON TEACHING AND LEARNING SPEAKING SKILLS 61

4.1.2.1 Reasons for teaching and learning speaking skills 61

4.1.2.2 The importance of speaking skills 63

4.1.2.3 Speaking skills are difficult to develop 66

4.1.3 THE FACTORS AFFECTING ETHNIC STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS AT NTLEHS 69

4.1.3.1 Teachers’ and students’ opinions about students’ feeling when speaking English inside and outside the classroom 69

4.1.3.2 Reasons for students’ lacking confidence 71

4.1.3.3 The way ethnic students solve communicative problems 72

4.1.3.4 Teachers’ and students’ opinions about students’ common mistakes when practicing speaking English 73

4.1.3.5 Teachers’ talking time compared students’ talking time in one period 74

4.1.3.6 Students’ opinions about activities used in classroom by the teacher 76

4.1.3.7 Ways of correcting speaking mistakes 78

4.1.3.8 Students’ activities practicing speaking in classroom 80

4.1.4 TEACHERS’ AND ETHNIC STUDENTS' EVALUATION ON DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH AT THE GRADE 11 AT NTLEHS 81

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4.1.4.2 Teachers’ and students’ evaluation on oral lessons in Tieng Anh 11 86

4.1.5 DATA ANALYSIS OF THE CLASS OBSERVATION 87

4.1.5.1 Class observation 1 88

4.1.5.2 Class observation 2 90

4.2 SUMMARY 93

4.3 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 93

4.3.1 FINDINGS FROM RESEARCH QUESTION 1 93

4.3.1.1 Teachers have to teach multi-leveled classes 93

4.3.1.2 Teachers are not equipped with learner-centered teaching 94

4.3.1.3 There are no oral tests for speaking skills 94

4.3.1.4 There are no good facility for speaking activities 94

4.3.2 FINDINGS FROM RESEARCH QUESTION 2 94

4.3.2.1 Personality factors, language factors and the way teachers correct mistakes and give compliments 94

4.3.2.2 Teaching strategies 95

4.3.2.3 The textbook adapting 95

4.3.2.4 The language barriers between Ede and Vietnamese and the barriers between Ede and English 96

4.3.2.5 Learning condition and school facilities 96

4.3.3 FINDINGS FROM RESEARCH QUESTION 3 96

4.3.3.1 Lack of training in Communicative Language Teaching 96

4.3.3.2 The culture barrier between teachers and ethnic students 97

4.3.3.3 The unfamiliar topic of oral lessons in textbook 97

4.4 SUMMARY 97

Chapter 5 98

RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 98

5.1 RECOMMENDATIONS 98

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5.1.1.2 Classroom management 99

5.1.1.2.1 Learning ethnic names 99

5.1.1.2.2 Creating climate for learning 100

5.1.1.3 Building up students’ confidence 100

5.1.1.3.1 Classroom climate 100

5.1.1.3.2 Classroom interaction 100

5.1.1.3.3 Reducing students’ anxiety 101

5.1.1.3.4 Enhancing learning motivation 103

5.1.1.4 Applying communicative approach 104

5.1.2 RECOMMENDATIONS TO ADMISNISTRATORS 108

5.1.2.1 Having ethnic minority teachers to teach English for students in their communities 108

5.1.2.2 Giving more training in Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 108

5.2 CONCLUSION 108

REFERENCES 109

APPENDICES 113

APPENDIX 1: BOOK MAP OF TIENG ANH 11(Hoang, V.V et al, 2007) 113

APPENDIX 2: COMPOSITION AND DISTRIBUTION 117

OF THE VIETNAMESE ETHNIC MINORITY GROUPS 117

APPENDIX 3: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS (In Vietnamese) 123

BẢNG CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT 123

APPENDIX 4: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS 129

(In English) 129

APPENDIX 5: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS (In Vietnamese) 134

APPENDIX 6: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS (In English) 141

APPENDIX 7: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS (In EDE Language) 148

APPENDIX 8: LESSON OBSERVATION SHEET 156

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and 2005 43

Table 3.1: Teacher’s background information 53

Table 3.2: Student’s background information 55

Table 4.1: Teachers’ background information 58

Table 4.2: Ethnic students’ background information 60

Table 4.3: Teachers' ranking of skills and activities in importance 64

Table 4.4: Students' ranking of skills and activities in importance 65

Table 4.5: Teachers' ranking of skills and activities in difficulty to teach 67

Table 4.6: Students' ranking of skills and activities in difficulty to master 68

Table 4.7: The way ethnic students solve communicative problems 73

Table 4.8: Level of English used in classroom by the teacher 78

Table 4.9: Students' activities in classroom 80

Table 4.10: Students' evaluation on aspects of their English course 82

Table 4.11: Teacher's evaluation on aspects of their English course 84

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Chart 2.1: Composition and Distribution of the Vietnamese Ethnic Monirity Groups 40

Chart 2.2: Educational attainment of Kinh/ Hoa and Ethnic minorities, adults of 18 years and older, 1993-2004 41

Chart 4.1: Teacher’s vs Student’s reasons for teaching/learning speaking skills 63

Chart 4.2: Teacher’s ranking of skills in importance 64

Chart 4.3: Student’s ranking of skills in importance 65

Chart 4.4: Teacher’s ranking of skills in difficulty to teach 67

Chart 4.5: Student’s ranking of skills in difficulty to master 68

Chart 4.6: Teacher’s vs Student’s opinions about student’s feeling when speaking English inside classroom 70

Chart 4.7: Teacher’s vs Student’s opinions about student’s feeling when speaking English outside classroom 70

Chart 4.8: Teacher’s vs Student’s opinions about reasons for student’s lack of confidence 71

Chart 4.9: Teacher’s vs Student’s descriptions about student’s common mistakes when practicing English 74

Chart 4.10: Teacher’s vs Student’s talking time in one period 75

Chart 4.11: Teacher’s vs Student’s preferences in ways of correcting speaking mistakes 79

Chart 4.12: Students’ evaluation on different aspects of English course 82

Chart 4.13: Teachers’ evaluation on different aspects of English course 84

Chart 4.14: Teacher’s vs Student’s acceptance on the availability of teaching aids 85

Chart 4.15: Teacher’s evaluation on oral lessons in textbook 86

Chart 4.16: Student’s evaluation on oral lessons in textbook 87

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BA: Bachelor of Arts

DP: Daklak Province

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

FSQL: Fundamental School Quality Levels

GSO: General Statistics Office

MA: Master of Arts

MOET: Ministry of Education and Training

NTLEHS: No Trang Long Ethnic High School

TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

UK: United Kingdom

UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization VHLSS: Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey

VLSS: Vietnam Living Standard Survey

Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning On the other hand, if the appropriate activities are applied, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, motivating learners and making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic environment

1.1 THE PROBLEM

Speaking is a crucial part of teaching English as a foreign language The success in teaching speaking skills is measured in terms of learners’ ability to carry out a conversation in the language (Karl Krahnlce, 1994)

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In reality, most Vietnamese teachers of English at high schools have

to encounter a lot of difficulties in helping their students to achieve the success in learning English as the first foreign language These difficulties seem to be obvious to teachers who are in charge of teaching English to ethnic students at No Trang Long Ethnic High School (NTLEHS) the English name for Trường Phổ thông Dân tộc Nội trú Nơ Trang Lơng – a provincial high school totally for local ethnic students in DakLak Province including Ede, Gia Rai and M’nong

There is no entrance examination into this high school and the learning result of the 9th grade is considered as the criteria to be admitted The students from district ethnic secondary schools in the whole DakLak Province and remote villages with low standard of living as well as poor background of knowledge are recruited according to Government Policy to Ethnic Minorities

The Ede language is considered the official language among Ede, Gia Rai and M’nong people and ethnic students use Ede language as their mother tongue to communicate in their families and communities As a result, they have to face a lot of difficulties in learning Vietnamese as the first foreign language when they start schooling at primary schools

Up till now, there are ethnic minority teachers available only for primary schools, not for secondary schools and high schools Ethnic students have faced more difficulties in learning English as the second foreign language because there are language barriers between Ede and Vietnamese used by their teachers as well as barriers between Ede and English, the target language

Due to ethnic students’ low level, at the 10th grade, teachers’ objectives at NTLEHS focus more on helping their students to consolidate

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basic grammar structures to prepare for compulsory tests Besides, there are

no oral tests in final examinations, thus, ethnic students are lack of motivation to practice their speaking skills inside and outside the classroom At the 11th grade, although teachers of English at NTLEHS have spent much time and energy applying various methods or activities in teaching speaking skills, they encounter plenty of obstacles in developing their ethnic students’ oral ability, the ability to communicate in English according to the situation, purpose, and the roles of the participants Most ethnic students at NTLEHS find it difficult to speak English naturally, accurately and fluently Because of the culture barrier between their own mother tongue and their teacher’s native language, the limited vocabulary, poor grammar and lack of autonomy, they do not feel confident to speak English As a result, their speaking skill is said to be somewhat weak and even is not much improved after they finish the school year

In view of this reality, the researcher decided to do an investigation into problems in teaching speaking skills to ethnic students at NTLEHS

The subjects involved in investigation are 5 teachers who are teaching

English to ethnic students at NTLEHS and two teachers who ever experienced in teaching English speaking skills to ethnic students randomly selected from two different ethnic high schools in different wards in Buon

Ma Thuot City; and 178 the 11th graders who do not major in English at NTLEHS The ethnic students at grade 11 were selected as the population

of interest because the 10th grade ethnic students have been promoted from remote secondary schools and thus they are not familiar with high school life Moreover, the time they study English at their high school are not long enough to give valuable information The 12th grade ethnic students, on the other hand, were busy working for their graduation as well as university

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entrance examinations This left the 11th graders as the most suitable subjects of this investigation

Basing on the findings from the study, the researcher who herself is

an ethnic minority hopes to give some suggestions with the hope to improve the quality of teaching oral practice to ethnic students at NTLEHS

1.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY

The aim of EFL learners is to use English effectively in communication However, most ethnic students at NTLEHS are just too shy to speak to their friends or their teachers While they are supposed to really use the language they are learning, they are not confident enough to

do so The classroom atmosphere seems to be too tense for them to communicate with each other naturally, and they just keep silent or just smile and say nothing This real situation makes the educational administrators and teachers take into consideration Thus, the study aims at: (1) Identifying some problems and obstacles encountered by teachers

in teaching speaking skills to ethnic students at NTLEHS;

(2) Investigating possible factors affecting ethnic students’ speaking skills at NTLEHS; and

(3) Recommending some solutions that have made teaching English speaking skills more practicable and accessible to ethnic students at NTLEHS

1.4.1 A description of No Trang Long Ethnic High School (Trường Phổ thông Dân tộc Nội trú Nơ Trang Lơng)

The local ethnic minorities in DakLak Province such as Ede, Gia Rai and M’Nong live in remote villages and face a lot of difficulties in daily life and education They spend most of their time working extremely hard

in the field to cultivate their crops and they are lack of opportunities to follow high education Most of them stop their schooling at primary level Some of them try to graduate from secondary schools but a few of them are able to attend the high schools where there are difficult entrance examinations and out of ethnic students’ ability As a result, the rate of ethnic students attending high schools is considerably low To tackle the problem, No Trang Long Ethnic High School was founded in 1976 It is a provincial ethnic high school totally for local ethnic students in DakLak Province such as Ede, Gia Rai and M’Nong The aim of the school is to facilitate education among ethnic groups It creates a necessary learning environment to support poor ethnic students to follow higher education The ethnic students are chosen from district ethnic secondary schools

The total number of ethnic students at the school in the school year

2009 – 2010 was 506, divided into 3 grades as follows:

Tieng Anh 11 (Hoang, V.V et al., 2007) which was put in use since

2007 are used as the official course book, covering the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing This course book is designed in theme-based direction, including 16 units and 6 consolidations (See Appendix 1) Each unit is taught for 2 weeks (6 periods):

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1.4.3 Course evaluation

15-minute written test (T1) 1

45-minute written test (T2) 1

The end-term written test (T3) 1

T3: the end-of term test;

N: the total number of tests before the end-of-term test)

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

In reality, most teachers of English at high schools in Vietnam have

to encounter a lot of difficulties in helping their students to achieve the success in learning English as the first foreign language Especially, teachers of English at NTLEHS have to face much more problems in teaching English speaking skills to ethnic students whose culture, native language or group may be different from theirs The author herself was an ethnic Ede student and is now an ethnic Ede teacher of English at a high school so she unhesitatingly conducts the study in hope of helping teachers and ethnic students in DP in particular and that in other provinces of the Central Highlands in general get a better view on the problems they have to deal with and take a forward step in teaching and practicing English

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speaking skills In addition, the study may be also significant to educational

administrators The obstacles and difficulties revealed by both teachers and students may have offered them useful information on the actual situations

of teaching and practicing English speaking skills, which is really necessary for them to carry out the educational reformation

1.6 LIMITATIONS AND DELIMITATIONS

Upon teaching a foreign language, “integrating skills” is a notion that the language teachers should pay attention to but the research study will be limited to only speaking skills Most teachers of English in the study

haven’t got many experiences in their teaching with Tieng Anh 11 (Hoang, V.V et al., 2007) which has been put in use since 2007 Moreover, the

investigation took place at NTLEHS, a high school for ethnic students, where the students did not major in English and not have the same level due to the absence of an entrance examination The limit of the allotted time also had an effect on expanse and depth of the study

The findings of the study based on the data collected from the questionnaires for students and teachers, class observation The sample was convenient sample and participations were voluntary This should not, however, impact the findings since there were no obvious biases concerning the issues being studied in the use of such a selection process

Due to the nature of the study, the generalizations were limited to No Trang Long Ethnic High School It is hoped that the recommendations from this study may; however, be helpful reference to other schools

1.7 AN OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

The study is presented in five chapters as follows:

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Chapter 1 discusses the reason why the researcher chooses the topic

and the significance of the study The research questions are raised in this chapter

Chapter 2 reviews the literature dealing with speaking acquisition,

the relationship between speaking and other skills, factors affecting learning and teaching speaking skills, the role of teachers and learners in oral communication, the descriptions of Ede group, its education and Ede language

Chapter 3 describes the methodology employed in the study

Chapter 4 reports the results of the study and discussion of the

findings

Chapter 5 closes the study with the conclusion and some

recommendations for teaching English speaking skills to ethnic students

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Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents the issues of the theoretical background relevant to the study: (1) the basic concepts of speaking; (2) the factors affecting EFL learners’ speaking skills; (3) teaching of speaking skills; (4)

an overview of ethnic groups, the Ede people and their language

2.1 THE BASIC CONCEPTS OF SPEAKING

2.1.1 Definition

Whenever we refer to knowledge of a language, we obviously include the ability to speak the language There are several definitions of speaking Bygate (1987) considers speaking as the skills by which learners are most frequently judged and through which they make and lose friends Chastain (1988) defines speaking as the using of background and linguistic knowledge to create an oral message that will be meaningful for the intended audience It is the vehicle par excellence of social solidarity, social ranking, of professional advancement and of business It is also the medium through which much language is learnt Burns and Joyce (1997) have written that speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information According to Julie Hebert (in Richards and Renandya, 2002), speaking is a process which involves two or more people who use language for interaction and transactional purposes; it is not the oral expression of written language

Although definitions of speaking may be different in words, speaking is both interaction and transactional Transactional communication is primarily concerned with the transmission of information

to distinguish oral production, speech, from written production Speaking is not writing that we say aloud (Arnold, 2003)

Spoken language is divided into monologues and dialogues To high school students, speaking skills develop based on dialogues

2.1.2 The relationship between speaking and other skills in language learning and teaching

2.1.2.1 The differences between spoken language and written language

Speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” (Chaney, 1998) When distinguishing between spoken and written language, Brown and Yule (1983) point out that for most of its history; language teaching has been concerned with the teaching of written language This language is characterized by well-formed sentences which are integrated into highly structure paragraphs Spoken language, on the other hand, consists of short, often fragmentary utterances in a range of pronunciations There is often a great deal of repetition and overlap between one speaker and another, and speakers frequently use non-specific references

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In practice, speaking and writing are different ways of meaning and serve different purposes The differences between the two modes of language production are in no way trivial Chastain makes brief distinction between speaking and writing as follows:

Speech involves sounds while writing does not At a competence level, the purpose of speaking practice stresses sound symbol association, vocabulary, spelling and structural forms Speech is normally a social process carried out in the presence of other people while the written lesson may be completed alone Speech requires almost instantaneous formulations of statements or questions followed by replies and reactions, while writing is a much slower process (1976:365)

Concerning the language production processes, Foss and Hakes (1978) argue that while spoken and written language may be similar in the sentence production processes, the speech production process differs from that of written language in that it involves “The construction of a program

of skilled motor movements to produce the speech sounds corresponding to the intended sentence and, of course, the realization of that program, the actual generation of a sound pattern…”, whereas written language involves the manipulation of language with all its planning aspects of production, idea generation and the choice of lexical, and syntactic structures Foss and Hakes, then, referred to spoken language as language behavior, but to writing as an inventive act In writing, the writer has to:

Select the most appropriate language and present it in the most appropriate way… Writing can be more precise, but it must be fully explicit whereas spoken communication can often be sketchy and leave things to be clarified later in reply to questions (Abbott, 1981:14)

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Linguistic differences can also be seen in the complexity of the language It is often thought that spoken language is simpler than written language However, Halliday (1985) argues that speech is no less complex than writing Written language, according to Halliday, is complex of the level of clause, while the spoken language is made complex in the way clauses are linked together That writing looks more complex is reflected in the lexical density of the text – that which refers to the number of lexical or content words per clause, or the tendency to create nouns from verbs as in the following examples:

Spoken: Good writers reflect on what they write

Writing: Reflection is a characteristic of good writers (Nunan, 1996: 85)

From this, Halliday (1985) suggests that spoken form in a sense is more basic than the written form, and that the writing process has altered the normal state of events – processes normally represented by verbs being transformed into things Brown and Yule make a similar comment on this sort of differences,

One major difference between spoken language and written language

is that density of packing information… Information may be packed densely in the written language, using heavily pre-modified noun phrase with accompanying post-modification, heavy adverbial modification and complex subordinating syntax (1983: 7)

In brief, as means of communications, both spoken and written languages share not only the same language system, but also the same process of modifying language to match some purposes Some styles of writing are more like speech and other styles of speech display features characteristic of writing There exists also intermediate case where spoken language is read out based on written notes or vice versa Spoken language,

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however, is different from written language in a number of important ways, which suggests that speaking is a distinct form, and that much effort is needed in order to teach and learn to speak well The complexity of the spoken language also means that speaking can be examined from many different aspects

2.1.2.2 The relationship between speaking and other skills in language learning and teaching

Researchers (e.g., Weaver, 1972; Rivers, 1981; Morley, 1991) estimate that we listen twice as much as we speak, four times as much as

we read, and five as much as we write In fact, speaking is the language skill used the second frequently in everyday life and often seen in conjunction with other skills such as listening, reading and writing (Rost, 2001)

The real listener present in the communicative setting provides continuous feedback and interaction that becomes an integral part of speaking (Celce-Murcia and Olshtain, 2000) From a communicative, pragmatic view of the language classroom, listening and speaking skills are closely intertwined (Brown, 1994) To high school students, conversation is almost the main speaking practice and Dobson (1974) states that an English conversation session is a time when everyone has a chance to talk, but it is also a time when everyone sharpens his listening skills As a result, speaking is related to or interwoven with listening, which is the basic mechanism through which the rules of language are internalized (Kang Shumin cited in Richards and Renandya, 2002)

Lynch (1996) states that as skills in some aspect of oral language increase, they help development in reading, and as a person improves his

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reading skills, that improvement seems to enhance further improvement in the spoken language In other words, people develop stronger reading skills; they further enable their development of more sophisticated speaking skills

According to Stevick (1982), there did exist a relationship between speaking and writing Those students whose writing was highly rated were also highly ranked concerning their spoken sample and vice versa Therefore, it might be safe to say that there is a positive relationship between students’ speaking and writing skills In particularly, students with

a higher proficiency in speaking may be more skilled in writing too and vice versa Conversely, students who have a lower proficiency in writing might not be good at speaking either and vice versa

Of course, the four facets must be paired with each other to gain a full appreciation and skill in the language one has chosen Only when all four aspects are worked, he will become fluent in the language But the more one practices one the more the others improve With regards to the close relationship between speaking and other skills in language teaching and learning, this counts double One will help the other to improve; pulling up one’s overall standard

2.2 FACTORS AFFECTING EFL STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS

There have been a great number of studies mentioning the factor influencing learners’ language proficiency Students’ personality factors, students’ linguistic competence, socio-cultural factors, students’ autonomy and the impact of culture seem to be the five factors which affect students’ oral ability Each of the factors is reviewed from either the issues of the theoretical aspects or the findings of research about the problems that learners usually face when speaking

2.2.1.2 Stress

When a word or syllable is pronounced with greater force than other words in the same sentence or other syllables in the same word or a musical note is played with greater force than others in a group (Cambridge dictionary, 2000) The meaning of a sentence often depends on stress and intonation Underwood (1989) states that stress is used to highlight words that carry main information the speaker wants to convey and changing stress can change the meaning of an utterance when the words remain the same Brown (1990) points out that the speakers always stress the important words which bring the core meaning

There are two main kinds of word; they are content word and function word The speaker often put stress on content words, but sometimes in order to create the contrast, emphasis, and surprise, the speakers also stress on function words So speakers usually face difficulties

in distinguish different words with different stress

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2.2.1.3 Sounds

Vietnamese learners often meet difficulties in leaning English sounds because there are some English sounds that do not exist in Vietnamese language Underwood (1989) points out that English have unknown and unusual sounds Buck (2001) states that English sounds change in normal speech Vietnamese learners always face problems with the vowel sounds

such as /ʌ/ in lunch, /a:/ in heart, /æ/ in man, /ɔ:/ in all… and consonant sounds such as /ʃ/ in shoes, /dʒ/ in judge, /ʒ/ in pleasure, /θ/ in thank, /ð/ in this…

2.2.1.4 The content of speaking topics

The topics of speaking may deal with many different contents in life which may be unfamiliar with learners This matter may cause troubles in some extent for learners in learning speaking According to Underwood (1993), the topics that are familiar with learners are easier than the unfamiliar topics

2.2.2 Personality factors

Stevick (1976) argues that existing personality of one person has an impact on his/her oral interaction Brown (1994) adds that personality factors within a person including self-esteem, anxiety, inhibition, attitude and motivation, etc can contribute in some way to the success of language learning

2.2.2.1 Self-esteem

Self-esteem is defined by Coppersmith (1967) as a personal judgment of worthiness that is expressed in the attitudes that the individual holds towards himself There would be no successful cognitive or affective

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activity that can be carried out without some degree of esteem, confidence, knowledge of yourself and belief in your own capabilities for that activity (Brown, 1994) If someone always tells himself or herself “I’m good at language” or “I feel comfortable when I have to speak to a native speaker”, he or she will be able to take advantages of opportunities available for language learning On the contrary, a student who sees himself or herself as “the strongly passive type” will have less verbal interaction in the target language Success, for him or her, in speaking a foreign language, therefore, is out of reach

self-2.2.2.2 Anxiety

Anxiety or “the feeling of uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt, apprehension or worry” (Brown, 1994; 141) is also considered to affect learners’ communication According to Scovel (cited in Freeman, 1991) moderate anxiety can be facilitating; whereas Krasen (cited in Phillips, 1999: 126) says that learners with low self-esteem are more likely to be concerned with what their classmates think about them and this fear of making a mistake or appearing foolish heightens their anxiety And the anxiety makes them less willing to speak out, or to practice speaking Shumin (1997) concludes that speaking a foreign language in public, especially in front of native-speakers, is often anxiety-provoking And sometimes when EFL learners become tongue-tied or lost for words, their extreme anxiety will occur and lead to communication failure She also adds that adults in some cultures, like in China, are usually afraid of “losing face” due to errors made when speaking a foreign language It may become

a barrier preventing adult EFL learners from improving their oral communication

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2.2.2.3 Inhibition

Another major aspect of personality that has been studied with regard to second language acquisition is inhibition Guiora can be said to carry out a great number of studies to investigate the relationship between inhibition and EFL learners’ speaking skill Though results from some of Guiora et al’s experiments (cited in Ellis, 1996) are not so convincing, inhibition is concluded to have a negative impact on second language pronunciation Such findings have given a rise to a number of steps that should be taken in foreign language teaching practices to create techniques that reduce inhibition in the classroom

2.2.2.4 Attitude and motivation

Attitude is the persistence shown by the learner in striving for a goal (Garder and Lambert, cited in Ellis, 1996) whereas, motivation is commonly thought of as an “inner drive, impulse, emotion, or desire that moves one to a particular action” (Brown, 1994)

Gardner and Lambert (cited in Littlewood, 1991) identify two types

of motivation: integrative motivation and instrumental motivation A learner with integrative motivation has a genuine interest in the second language in order to communicate with them more satisfactorily and to gain closer contact with them and their culture A learner with instrumental motivation, on the other hand, is more interested in how the second language can be useful instrument towards furthering other goals, such as gaining a necessary qualification or improving employment prospect

Lalonde and Gardner (cited in Spolsky, 1998) conducted studies to investigate the directness of relationship between attitudes, motivation and second language acquisition Attitudes are pointed out not to have direct

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influence on learning, but they lead to motivation which does Gardner’s findings seem to commensurate with Els’ conclusion: “attitudes are directly related to motivation, which in turn affects second language acquisition” (Els, 1984: 117) Ellis confirms the positive impact of motivation on learners’ learning According to him (1996), learners with little interest in the way of life of native speakers of the L2 or with low instrumental motivation can be expected to learn slowly and to stop learning some way short of native speaker competence Conversely, when learners have a strong instrumental motivation to learn a L2, they will probably prosper Integrative motivation is also proved to help learners get higher scores in their foreign language proficiency tests (Brown, 1994) Rababah’s study (2003) points out that Arab learners of English encounter problems in both speaking and writing partly because of their lack of motivation

2.2.3 Linguistic competence

Linguistic competence level seems to be an important variable affecting speaking skills because of combination of many language aspects According to Burton (1993), “linguistic competence, then, is a system knowledge that stands behind the linguistic ability native speakers’ manifest These activities include production, comprehension, and creative use of language.” Concretely, Dunkel, Hemmingand Chaudron (1993) state that “words, phrases, utterances, sentences, and connected discourse… [are] selectively comprehensible at different stage of proficiency.”

In addition, linguistic competence includes all the elements of the language system such as aspects concerning grammar, phonology, and vocabulary (Celce-Murcia and Olshtain, 2000) to be fundamental in speaking process

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2.2.4 Socio – cultural factors

In real-life communication, all conversations are composed of two activities: speaking and listening (Dobson, 1974) and listening is considered a core which speaking is based on to enable a conversation flows Usually, one person speaks, and the other responds through attending by means of the listening process In fact, during interaction, every speaker plays a double role – both as a listener and as a speaker (Kang Shumin, cited in Richards and Renandya, 2002) Listening is a process of decoding spoken language If one cannot understand what is said, he is certainly unable to respond As Dobson (1974) has ever stated, success in life often depends on how well we listen whether in our mother tongue or a feign language There is no doubt that listening is extremely important in the developing of speaking ability

Besides, speaking skills are also influenced by socio-cultural factors because they play a major role in language acquisition and might inhibit language acquisition (Krahnke, 1994) Many cultural characteristics of a language also affect second language or foreign language learning (Kang,

in Richards and Renandya, 2002) since shared values and beliefs and are expressed in their language (Carrasquilo, 1994)

Moreover, in verbal communication, each culture has its own rules

of turn-taking, length of pause and adjacency pairs which are the characteristics of a conversation and maintain the flow of speech; and non-linguistic elements are even more complicated Mismatching and misunderstanding in oral communication can happen when the speaker and the hearer do not share socio-cultural rules of appropriacy, and therefore the speaker may have violated such a rule from the hearer’s point of view due to pragmatic transfer from the first language since the rules apply to a

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conversation can be somewhat different in different cultures (Celce-Murcia and Olshtain, 2000) So, it is necessary for language teachers to provide their students with sufficient knowledge of the society and culture of the target language in order that they can communicate effectively and fluently

Most of the high school students began learning English at 12 years old when they were at the 6th grade Many of them even started earlier – when they were at the 3rd grade According to many researchers, they are at the best age to acquire a foreign language As the result of Mark Parkowski’s study in 1980 (cited in Lightbrown and Spada, 1993), those who had begun learning their second/foreign language before the age of fifteen could ever achieve full, native-like mastery of the target language

2.2.5 Learners’ autonomy

Learner autonomy is a problematic term because it is widely confused with self-instruction It is also a slippery concept because it is notoriously difficult to define precisely The rapidly expanding literature has debated, for example, whether learner autonomy should be thought of

as capacity or behavior; whether it is characterized by learner responsibility

or learner control; whether it is a psychological phenomenon with political implications or a political right with psychological implications; and whether the development of learner autonomy depends on a complementary teacher autonomy (for a comprehensive survey, see Benson 2001)

There is nevertheless broad agreement that autonomous learners understand the purpose of their learning program, explicitly accept responsibility for their learning, share in the setting of learning goals, take initiatives in planning and executing learning activities, and regularly review their learning and evaluate its effectiveness (cf Holec 1981, Little

to worry about how they interact with one another

There are two general arguments in favor of trying to make learners autonomous First, if they are reflectively engaged with their learning, it is likely to be more efficient and effective, because more personal and focused, than otherwise; in particular, what is learned in educational contexts is more likely to serve learners' wider agendas Second, if learners are proactively committed to their learning, the problem of motivation is by definition solved; although they may not always feel entirely positive about all aspects of their learning, autonomous learners have developed the reflective and attitudinal resources to overcome temporary motivational setbacks

In the particular case of second and foreign languages, there is a third argument Effective communication depends on a complex of procedural skills that develop only through use; and if language learning depends crucially on language use, learners who enjoy a high degree of social autonomy in their learning environment should find it easier than otherwise

to master the full range of discourse roles on which effective spontaneous communication depends

2.2.6 The impact of culture on teaching and learning English

Culture is defined by Geetz (cited in Thinkel, 1991: 30) as a

“historically transmitted semiotic network constructed by humans and

From the point of view, what is primary concern are the patterns of social interaction among students and between teachers and students, expectations on how teaching and learning within the society itself Sometimes, in the multiethnic classroom, the cultural differences like different colors of skin and different behaviors will make some pupils less confident in discussions and even set them apart from the rest of the class Mathews (1994) adds behavior that is acceptable or polite in one culture may seem unacceptable or rude in another As a result, teaching English in this environment involves two things: allowing each learner to be an autonomous person and, on the part of the teacher and the rest of the class, accepting this autonomous person (Bygate, 1987) This is a big problem which a responsible language teacher should try his best to find effective solutions to Teaching English in a multiethnic classroom is much more complex than just analyzing codes for opening up social interactions (Scollon, 1995)