In 2006, a new national curriculum was introduced, it specifically statedthat communicative skills should be main goal of teaching English in secondaryschools, and that the teaching of f
Trang 1THE TABLE OF CONTENT
1 INTRODUCTION……… 1
1.1 Rationale for the study……… 1
1.2 Research aims and subjects……… 3
1.3 Methodology……… 3
2 PROCEDURE……… 5
2.1 Literature review……… 5
2.2 Components of speaking……… 6
2.3 Factors affecting Second Language Learners’ skills………… 7
2.4 Reality of learning speaking skills………
2.5 Solutions to improve speaking lessons ………
9 11 2.6 Educational effects of the study……… 14
3 CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS……… 16
3.1 Conclusions ………
3.2 Suggestions ………
16 17
Trang 21 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study
Within Asia there is growing recognition of the importance of learning Englishbecause, for many, it is viewed as a prerequisite for accessing quality education andjob opportunities (Nguyen & Hudson, 2010) In Vietnam, as in many Asiancountries, English is now taught as a compulsory school subject from an early age (it
is taught from grade 3 onwards) (Misnistry of Eduaction and Training (MOET),2008), and many changes have been initiated in the teaching of the subject in the lastfew year
In the early 1990’s Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) was firstintroduced and replaced the old methods of mainly grammar translation and a focus
on the formal aspects of language There are a number of CLT’s definitions, forexample, according to Nunan, CLT can be characterized by a series of features, andthe most important of which is “an emphasis on learning to communicate throughinteraction in the target language” (1991: 279) In CLT speaking is regarded ascentral to the learning process due to its role in interaction, whether in terms of theinteraction hypothesis (Long, 1996), or in terms of socio-cultural theory (Lantolf &Thorne, 2006) Therefore, the teaching and learning of speaking is of vitalimportance for the success or lack of success in teaching English using CLT inVietnam
The CLT approach to teaching and learning English has continued to beencouraged in Vietnam This can be seen by the continued government support inpolicy implementation and the Vietnamese teachers’ favorable view of this approach(Le, 1999) In 2006, a new national curriculum was introduced, it specifically statedthat communicative skills should be main goal of teaching English in secondaryschools, and that the teaching of formal knowledge of the language should supportthe teaching of these skills, rather than be goals themselves (MOET, 2006) However,these changes have not necessarily resulted in more effective education forVietnamese student learning English After studying the subject for a number ofyears, many learners still cannot use the language effectively Indeed, it is estimatedthat less than twenty percent of university students who have majored in English
Trang 3have the necessary language skills to gain employment as interpreters, translators,tour guides or teachers of English (Pham, 2004).
It is agreed that the following reasons have resulted in the lack of success inimplementing CLT in Vietnam Firstly, despite changes made to the curriculum anddemand for a more communicative approach to teaching, the national examinationsystem remains largely unchanged Examinations usually test linguistic rather thancommunicative competence, and frequently lack a listening or speaking component.Obviously, there is a negative effect on classes from the exams because teachers maynot pay their attention to the teaching of listening and speaking in their classes, andfocus instead on the aspects which are present in the exams (Ellis, 1996) Also, manystudents use strategies that are just enough to pass the exams, that is, they put in aminimum effort to learn the English language (Trang & Baldauf, 2007) Anotherconstraint on the implementation of CLT in Vietnam is the English as a ForeignLanguage (EFL) context, where English is not widely spoken and learners have littleimmediate need to use English and a few opportunities to practice the languageoutside the classroom This lack of exposure to English can lead to the learner’s lack
of motivation to learn (Le, 1999), and what motivation they do have is generallydependent on teachers’ initiative and learners’ will to succeed in learning language(Ellis, 1996) In addition, large class sizes can create difficulties for theimplementation of communicative activities In Vietnam secondary schools theaverage class size between 42 and 52 students (Le, 1999), this student numbercontributes to the difficulties in creating an ideal class atmosphere This is a bigchallenge for teachers to carry out many supplementary speaking activities with such
a large class, especially when they are also required to cover all the items on thecurriculum in limited time Moreover, the language level of many Vietnamesesecondary school English teachers is quite low, as a recent test administered by theMininstry of Education and Training shows When tested to see if they reached therequired B2 level of English, only about twenty percent of the teachers whovolunteered for the test passed the exam (Park, 2011) Obviously, this low level ofEnglish may result in some teachers being unable to effectively implement speakingactivities in the classroom Finally, at an individual level, teachers in Vietnam havehad varying degrees of success in implementing CLT into their classrooms (Lewis &
Trang 4McCook, 2002) While many teachers are enthusiastic about its use, others aredoubtful about how it can be realized in practice in their context, and in fact therewere only surface changes seen in their previous practices (Pham, 2007).
This study into the teaching and learning of speaking skills has been proposedfor a number of reasons As a high school English teacher in Vietnam, I am aware ofthe problems in the teaching of English speaking skills in the classroom describedabove and would like to investigate more how speaking skills are currently beingtaught and consider how any problems can be overcome It is hoped that by studyingwhat is happening in the classroom, the researcher can get insight into any constraints
on the teaching of speaking skills and solutions can be suggested for thesechallenges In other words, it is believed that the study will be useful for the Englishteachers working at the school in question, and also may prove to be of use for otherteachers working in high schools in the province
1.2 Research Aims and Subjects
The research has been carrried out in 2 classes of grade 10: 10A and 10K at HaTrung High School
The aims of this research are to investigate how English speaking skills aretaught in here and the difficulties the students face during their speaking tasks Afterperforming some observations and experiments, it is hoped that some new ideas will
be suggested and put to use Therefore, its final purpose is to provide local teacherswith some recommendations helping them tackle the challenges on the teachingspeaking skills more effectively
1.3 Methodology
This research will take the form of a case study This method is using when thestudy focuses on a single unit, or a bounded system, where there are clear, finitelimits to the phenomenon (Merriam, 1998) In this case, the bounded system is made
up of the two English classes, 10A and 10K, at Ha Trung High School iigh ThanhHoa province, and how speaking skills are taught and learnt in this context
According to Stake (2005), case studies can be classified as being intrinsic(seeking understanding of a specific case which is important in its own right),instrumental (examining a specific case to gain insight into a wider issue) orcollective (where multiple cases are studied in order to provide insight into an issue)
Trang 5This case is an example of an intrinsic case study as the goal is to study thisparticular context in-depth and focus on its particular characteristics in order tosuggest improvements for the same context
One of the drawbacks of case studies is that they have limited generalizability
as the results obtained from one source are not necessarily statistically generalizable
to the whole population of learners of which the case is a member (Dörnyei, 2007).However, the aim of this research is to gain insight into the specific case, not to makebroad generalizations Therefore, a case study is appropriate in these circumstances
In case studies, many researchers typically use qualitative data collection techniques(Lodico et al., 2010), but as using a case study approach is essentially a description ofwhat is to be studied, rather than a methodological choice (Stake, 2005), any suitabledata collection methods can be used In this case, both qualitative and quantitativedata will be collected, using a questionnaire, interviews and classroom observation.Besides, classroom observations were used in order to gather data to help theresearcher get to know how students are learning speaking skills at the currentcontext and what difficulties students have regarding their speaking skills Thanks tothis way, the researcher has a chance to watch events as they occur Observations,therefore, can be considered the best data collection technique in searching forinformation about how speaking skills are actually taught at the school
To gain the best insight into the way that students in this context are learningthe speaking skills, a questionnaire was also used, that is, the difficulties the students
at the school experience in the learning of speaking skills This data, reflecting thestudents’ perceptions of the challenges they face, was used along with the datacollected from observations of actual events in order to identify the main difficultiesthe students have in improving their speaking skills
A questionnaire was chosen as a method of data collection, as this datacollection tool can reach a large number of respondents without suffering influencefrom researcher’s presence
The aim of the questionnaire is to discover the students’ perceptions of thespeaking activities they perform in class and also any difficulties they encounterwhile speaking (see appendix )
Trang 6It is noted that the questionnaire has several limitations For instance, it limitsthe choice of respondents, preventing them from providing their own ideas (Bryman,2008; Denscombe, 2010) Additionally, no prompting or additional questions can beperformed to gather further data (Bryman, 2008) A final limitation is the matter oflow response rates and missing data (Bryman, 2008)
2 PROCEDURE
2.1 Literature review
This research project involves the teaching and learning of speaking skills, andbefore beginning the research, a review of the literature regarding this topic will becarried out in this part In order to do this, firstly, the theoretical basis for teachingspeaking skills will be explored, followed by an analysis of what it means to be aneffective speaker in the second language learning In the following section, somefactors which influence how successful a learner is at learning speaking skills will beexamined
Historically speaking, within language teaching methodologies the teaching ofspeaking skills has often been relegated to a minor skill (Nation, 2011) In thegrammar-translation approach, speaking was not given any attention to at all, andlater approaches, for example, the ‘comprehension approach’ delayed the teaching ofspeaking until learners had already built up substantial knowledge of the languagesystem through listening input (Winitz, 1981) While speaking was highlighted in theaudio-lingual approach and through Communicative Language Teaching, oralinteraction has been dominant, many contemporary language exams and coursesaround the world continue to teach and assess language through the medium ofwritten skills (Bygate, 2009) In addition, despite communicative advances inlanguage teaching, speaking is often viewed as a skill that can show evidence of whathas been learnt, rather than as a mechanism for learning to take place(Kumaravadivelu, 2006) However, in recent years research has indicated thatlanguage learning can take place through production of speech, and this can aid otheraspects of language learning, rather than solely benefit the acquisition of oralinteraction skills
The interaction approach states that language learning takes place throughexposure to language (input), production of language (output) and the feedback that
Trang 7occurs as a result of interaction (Gass & Selinker, 2008) Therefore, interaction issaid to connect “input, internal learner capacities, particularly selective attention, andoutput in productive ways” (Long, 1996: 452), and its importance “is not simply that
it creates learning opportunities, it is that it constitutes learning itself” (Allwright,1984: 9)
As can be seen, the interaction approach and hypothesis regard interaction andspeaking with others as a key aspect of second language acquisition and an importantcomponent of language courses
In terms of the output hypothesis, Kumaravadivelu (2006) indicated thatoutput refers to the utterances which learners produce orally or in the written form,and is therefore an important part of any discussion of teaching speaking Asmentioned above, output was for many years considered a way of showing whatlearning has taken place rather than a mechanism for creating knowledge Indeed,according to Krashen (1982) speaking is a result of acquisition rather than its cause.Recent research evidence, however, has shown that output and the production ofspeech have a larger role in language acquisition, and input alone is not enough toaccount for acquisition Swain (1985) introduced the concept of comprehensibleoutput, that is, the delivery of a message which is “not only conveyed, but that isconveyed precisely, coherently, and appropriately” (1985: 248-9) By this concept,she meant that learners should be pushed or stretched in their production as anecessary part of making themselves understood She asserted that languageproduction moves learners from processing language at the level of word meaningwhich can often be done through guesswork or focusing on key words, to theprocessing of language at the level of grammatical structures which requires a higherlevel of cognitive activity
In short, output in the form of production of speech in English language classescan help the learners develop not only their speaking skills, but also theirgrammatical and syntactic knowledge of the language
2.2 The Components of Speaking
According to Hedge (2000), in order to help students develop their ability tospeak English, we firstly need a descriptive framework for looking at spokendiscourse to categorise the demands that different situations make of the participants
Trang 8In other words, we need to know what is involved in speaking We can describe aperson’s command of a language in terms of ‘communicative competence’, that is,
“that aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages and
to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts” (Brown, 1994: 227).Canale and Swain (1980) developed an orientational framework for definingcommunicative competence which consists of four elements: grammaticalcompetence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategiccompetence This framework has been developed and expanded by various otherresearchers For example, according to Littlewood (2011), there should be fivedimensions to communicative competence as sociocultural competence should beadded Meanwhile, Thornbury (2005) adds genre knowledge, and separates thelinguistic competence component further into competence in grammar, vocabularyand pronunciation
2.3 Factors Affecting Second Language Learners’ Speaking
A number of factors can affect how successful a learner is at acquiring oralcommunicative competence in a second language, for example age, aptitude andmotivation In this study, however, the most pertinent factors that may affect howwell the learners acquire speaking skills are cultural and affective factors andclassroom practices
Regarding to cultural factors, it is clear that Asian students in general andVietnamese students in particular are accustomed to being passive and non-verballearners due to the fact that they come from the countries where ‘harmony andconformity are strongly stressed’ (Stapleton, 2001: 509), reticence and humility arehighly valued in these cultures (Park, 2000) while argumentation, persuasion aredevalued (Brenner & Parks, 2001) This can bring out difficulties in implementingspeaking activities such as pair and group work as many learners may be afraid oflosing face in front of their classmates and therefore are not confident in participating
in groups Moreover, Vietnamese learners have lower interest in pursuingcomplexity, dislike ambiguity and uncertainty (Rao, 2001; D’Andrade , 2008) Many
of the speaking activities used in CLT are of an unstructured nature where there is noone right or wrong answer, as their aim is to assist students to practise speaking This
Trang 9ambiguity and flexibility of tasks may not be suitable for these learners, as they maynot have the strategies and skills to deal with them effectively.
Another cultural factor which can affect the acquisition of speaking skills is theteacher – student relationship Confucian influences lead Vietnamese students to seetheir teachers are superiors whose job is to impart their knowledge and for thelearners to passively receive it (Tuong, 2002; Accacia, 1993) As a result, learnershardly ever express their own opinions in the classroom and are not confident incommunicating or interacting with teachers, leading to difficulties in practising theoral skill (Littlewood & Liu, 1997)
In terms of affective factors, anxiety is considered as the core problem toVietnamese learners Students always face with the fear of making mistakes, beinglaughed at and the feeling of failing the class ( Deweale, 2012) Thus, a crucial factor
in reducing language anxiety in the EFL classroom is the teacher, who is often theonly source of contact that the learners have when studying a foreign language If theteacher is able to show the learners that they are in a safe learning environment wherethey need not fear speaking up, the learners are thought to be less likely to showanxiety in speaking (Arnold & Foncesca, 2007)
Another significant factor that influences the success of learners acquiringspeaking skills is the way in which they are practised in the classroom According toHarmer (2007), teachers can do many tasks in order to make learners more confident
in speaking, for example, giving clear instructions, allowing sufficient preparationtime, repeating the tasks, and providing thoughtful feedback
It can be seen so far from the interaction and output hypotheses that speakingcan be used both as a means to practise what has been learnt and as a mechanismthrough which language can be acquired However, speaking is a complicatedconstruct, which requires a number of different types of knowledge and each of theseneeds to be thoroughly addressed in the classroom In addition, learners can face anumber of obstacles to improving their speaking skills, from cultural issues such as afear of losing face, to affective factors such as language anxiety It has been seen thatobstructions to learning can also emerge from the teacher’s side, either through poorclassroom practices or through lack of knowledge of how to teach and practisespeaking skills using a CLT approach However, as the literature review
Trang 10demonstrates, there is a lack of empirical studies examining how speaking skill iscurrently taught in the context This gap motivated the author to conduct this research2.4 Reality of learning speaking skills
In this section, the findings from the class room observations and thequestionnaires will be presented This is the very current situation of learning andteaching English speaking skills at Ha trung High School, the studied context
2.4.1 Classroom observation findings
Totally, 4 classes were observed with 5 speaking activities including
Question/answer, role play, dialogue, discusion, presentation In most activities, the
teacher gave instructions about the task for all the activities, helpful phrases ordifficult and new words were written on the board The teacher monitored theactivities, and feedback was always given to the students
A number of problems were noted during the activities including using the firstlanguage, a lack of students’ motivation and the fact that the activities were either notdemanding enough for the students as in the case of practicing dialogue or seemedabove their levels of expertise as in the discussion and the presentation classes
2.4.2 Questionnaire Findings
From the two classes 10A and 10K with the total student number of the 2 serveyedclasses is 84, 46 female students and 38 male students
In this part, activities are listed and respondents are asked to choose answers based
on the Likert scale, where 1 is very easy, 2 is easy, 3 is neither easy nor difficult(neutral), 4 is difficult, and 5 is very difficult
Graph 1: Students’ difficulty of speaking activities
Trang 11The graph1 demonstrates how much difficulty the surveyed students have toconfront with when they experience learning speaking skills
As can be seen from the graph, short question/answer and role play are the twoeasiest speaking activities for the learners 45% of the students (37) stated that theyhave no difficulty performing the short question/answer task, and 38 students ratedrole play to be 1 or 2 on the difficulty scale While, 19% of the total students (16)judged these learning activities to be 3 (neutral level) 34% and and 37% of thesurveyed answered that they couldn’t do these activities, respectively
On the contrary, the three others including dialogue, presentation anddiscussion are really challenges for these 10 grade students The majority of therespondents rated these either 4 or 5, with the highest number (63 students (75%)) forpresentation, the following, 61 for discussion and 59 for dialogue Only 8 studentsasserted that they can perform presentation activity easily, 9 positive answers fordiscussion and 11 for the other
Graph 2: Students’ enjoyment of speaking activities