Some suggestions to improve speaking skill for the second year students at thanh hoa university of culture, sports and tourism (tucst) masters thesis in education

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY LÊ QUỐC NGUYÊN SOME SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILL FOR THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT THANH HOA UNIVERSITY OF CULTURE, SPORTS AN

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

LÊ QUỐC NGUYÊN

SOME SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILL FOR THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT THANH HOA UNIVERSITY OF CULTURE, SPORTS

AND TOURISM (TUCST)

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

NGHỆ AN - 2014

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

LÊ QUỐC NGUYÊN

SOME SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILL FOR THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT THANH HOA UNIVERSITY OF CULTURE, SPORTS

AND TOURISM (TUCST)

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

Code: 60.14.01.11

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: M.A PHAN THỊ HƯƠNG

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby acknowledge that this study is my own work The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission, and have not been published elsewhere

Author

Lê Quốc Nguyên

1.7.1 The pre - speaking stage 15

1.8.1.3 Thinking of what to say in Vietnamese then Translating into

2.1 The Teaching and learning situation in Thanh Hoa University of culture,

2.4.1 Instrument 1: classroom observation 34

3.2 Findings and discussion 49 3.2.1 Helping the students to improve their grammatical structures and enrich

3.2.5.1 Helping the students to have ideas to speak 55

3.2.5.2 Using pair work and group work to help low level students 57

3.2.5.4 Changing the students’ deep routed habit of passive learning style 60

3.2.5.5 Maintaining students’ extrinsic motivation and enhancing their

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor Mrs Phan Thi Huong for her precious advice, practical suggestions and constant encouragement in the preparation and completion of this graduation paper Without her help this graduation paper would not have possibly been completed

I wish to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to the teacher of Department of post- graduate studies who supply me with the good conditions to

conduct this thesis and finish This M.A course

I would be also grateful to the teachers and students at Thanh Hoa University

of culture, sports and tourism for their assistance and unwillingness to permit me to observe their classes, interview and to answer my questionnaire

Due to the limited scope, mistakes in this graduation paper are inevitable Therefore, I hope to receive further comments and advice from the readers to make

it better

ABSTRACT

This thesis aims to find out the difficulties in teaching and learning speaking skill that teachers and non-English major students encountered at Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports and Tourism and give some suggestions for developing the students‘ speaking skill

The study includes three main parts The study begins with the introduction, which includes rationale, scope of the study, aims of the study, significance of the study, methodology and design of the study Part two includes three chapters in which the first chapter presents the related literature, the second chapter, the heart of study, gives a brief introduction of Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports and Tourism, describes the study in detail, the third chapter deals with the summary, finding and pedagogical implications of study Part three is the conclusion, which focuses on the summary of the research

LIST OF TABLES, GRAPHS AND FIGURES

practices in English speaking lessons

ABBREVIATIONS

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Nowadays, English plays an important role in all over the World People use English in most of areas, like science, technology, business and commerce, international relations and so on English is a useful bridge to help people from other countries understand and say a same language It is the main language of most international organization like NATO, European free trade Association Most all international conferences and competitions use English For example; miss World contest and World cup Now Internet and mobile phone are very popular to contact people from all the world and the language for them are written in English Adult and children from different counties can talk, share the idea and learn about the culture through Internet and Mobile phone by English Someone can travel around the world if he can speak English well and so on In Vietnam, English has been taught from primary level and in most of final test student have to pass English exam as an essential requirements

Mai Thanh Thu (2008,) in her research about speaking difficulties which students faced when they studied speaking, mentioned that Speaking is one of four important skills that should be paid attention to in the process of teaching and learning The goal of learning speaking should improve students‘ communicative skill, by that way, students can express their ideas But in fact, a large number of students at Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports and Tourism find it difficult to speak in English as they have to think for a long time about what they intend to say before they can actually speak some words Even worse, some cannot speak any English at all

When students speak English badly, one tends to blame the students for having poor ability or making insufficient effort However, there are other important factors

in teaching and learning process that should be taken into consideration such as interest, teaching materials, attitude of teachers and students toward the subject, etc

For the above-mentioned reasons, the author has chosen to do a study entitled

―Some suggestions to improve Speaking skill for the second year students at Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports and Tourism (TUCST)”

This study will try to find out problems and suggest some solutions to improve the teaching and learning English speaking skill for students at TUCST

2 Scope of the study

The researcher doesn‘t think that he will deal with all speaking problems of current materials used for non major students of culture management in this study

It is too broad Therefore, the focus of this study is to investigate speaking difficulties experienced by teachers and non- English major students of culture management at TUCST when using the course book ―Life lines‖, then suggest solutions to the problems in order to help students improve their speaking skill

3 Aims of the study

The study is carried out with aims to:

- Investigate the students‘ attitude toward speaking skill

- Investigate teachers and non- English major students‘ areas of speaking difficulties

- Give some suggestions to solve the problems so as to improve teaching and learning speaking skill

In order to achieve the aims set forth, the following research questions are posed

1 What are the difficulties met by the second year students of culture management when they learn speaking skill at Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports and Tourism?

2 What are the difficulties for the teachers in teaching speaking skill?

3 What are effective solutions to those difficulties?

4 Significance of the study

The study is expected to enhance teaching method of speaking to the second year students and the students‘ learning of speaking skill

For the practical basis, the researcher chooses the survey research with two survey questionnaires and interview for teachers and second year students of culture management at TUCST

6 Design of the study

The study is divided into three parts

Part A is Introduction, presents the rationale, the aims, the scope, the methodology and the design of the study

Part B is Development It consists of three chapters

Chapter 1 reviews the theoretical background, which is relevant to the purpose of the study

Chapter 2 gives a brief introduction on the materials and current situations of teaching speaking at TUCST and describes the research methodology, which focuses on the context of the study, participants, the instruments and data collection procedure

Chapter 3 deals with data analysis and some suggestions

Part C is Conclusion, summaries the study and offers some suggestion for further research

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES

1 The nature of speaking

For the purposes of analysis and instruction, language has been divided into the four skill areas These can be discussed in the framework of how we learned our first language When we were a child we first learnt to practice language through the skill of listening Later, we used language by speaking combined with listening Then, at school stage, children learnt the skills of reading and writing The first two skills, listening and speaking, are called the oral skills due to the manners by which they are formed The last two, reading and writing, are called the literacy skills as they connect with manual script

When children grow in their language ability and use, they don‘t use individual skill, they use skills more flexible and know to combine other skills to make a completed conversation such as they can listen while they are speaking, they can

then speaking to your students All of the skill areas are related to each other and used in coordination with each other

Many studies showed that some learners are very good at memorizing words and grammar rules, but they still cannot speak well They can read better than they speak A child doesn‘t learn to speak like this, he learns to listen then he imitates to speak long before learning to write and read

These studies help us know that it is better to begin with speaking, because after learning to speak, it is easier to develop reading and writing skills in the foreign language classroom But, language teachers have found it is difficult to develop their students‘ speaking skills after reading and writing

Speaking is regarded as very important for language teaching and learning Speaking is a bridge to reach other skills It helps learners to read better, to listen more effectively and to write more accurately Speaking is surely the most effective means of communication (Ur, 1996)

Brown (1983) also states that ―Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information‖ From this state, we see that speaking is a complex process and its content depends on the context, purposes of speaking, participants take part in the process and communicative skill of speakers and listeners

Mai Thanh Thu (2008) carried out researched on some difficulties which students faced in speaking She also stated that:

It is often spontaneous, open ended and evolving However, speech is not always unpredictable Language functions that tent to recur in certain discourse situations (declining and invitation, requesting time off from work) can be identified and charted Speaking requires not only that learners know how to produce specific points of language, such as grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary (linguistic competence), but also that they understand when, why and in what way to produce language

Scott (1978) reveals that ―speaking can be typified as an activity involving two

or more people in which the participants are both hearers and speakers having to react to what they hear and make their contribution.‖ In speaking activity, the speaker and hearer have their own idea or intention, they usually can‘t predict what will happen next but base on the context, they will give their opinion and try to explain or defense their idea

Each has an intention or a set of intentions that he wants to achieve in the interaction and an ability to interpret what is said to him which he cannot predict exactly either in terms of form or in terms of meaning

―Speaking is such a fundamental human behavior that we don‘t stop to analyze

it unless there is something noticeable about it‖ Nguyen Thu Linh (2008) To approve the ideas she gave example:

if a person is experiencing a speech pathology (if a person stutters or if his speech is impaired due to a stroke or a head injury), we may realize that the speech

is a typical

Likewise, if someone is a particularly effective or lucid speaker, we may notice that her speech is atypical in a noteworthy sense What we fail to notice on a daily basis, however, are the myriad physical, mental, psychological, social, and cultural factors that must all work together when we speak It is even a more impressive feat when we hear someone speaking effectively in a second or foreign language

There are a lot of concepts of speaking Each researcher gives his own idea and tries to approve that it is true But all of them agree that speaking is very important skill, and they all try to find out the nature of speaking, speaking act, in which the speakers, speaking process, and speaking message are emphasized

Speaking is the productive, oral skill Speaking consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning (utterances are simply things people say) Speaking is ―an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information‖ (Florez, 1999, p.1) It is ―often spontaneous, open-ended and evolving‖ (ibid., p.1), but it is not completely unpredictable

Communicative activity is a complex process When communication takes place speakers and hearers usually change their turns At that time they themselves feel that they want to speak out or write down something they want to express their idea and share their opinion with the others

In oral communication process, the roles of speakers and listeners are interchanged; information gaps between them are created and then closed with the effort from both sides In organizing classroom oral practice, teachers should create

as much information gap as possible and teachers‘ vital duty is to encourage communication which yields information gaps Teachers should also bear in mind the differences between real-life oral communication and classroom oral communication

According to Broughton (1980:25), ―all living creatures have some means of conveying information to others of their own group, communication being ultimately essential for their survival;‖ beside the verbal communication, man uses the non- verbal communication to communicate each other But they mainly communicate through spoken language Today, it is commonplace to say that

―Language is never used for its own sake, but always for the sake of achieving an objective, or to perform a function, to persuade, in form, inquire, threaten, etc.‖ (Ur, 1981:3)

Brown and Yule‘s opinions (1983), spoken language consists of short, fragmentary utterances in a range of pronunciation However, speaking is a skill, which deserves attention as much as literacy skills in both first and second language because our learners often need to speak with confidence in order to carry out a lot

of their most basic transactions (Bygate, 1991) Furthermore, speaking is known with two main types of conversation called dialogue and monologue

Wright (1987), we speak because of the following reasons:

Giving or asking for factual information

Expressing what we think and find out what someone else thinks

Expressing what we feel and find out what someone else feels

Expressing what we think is right or wrong…etc

television programs, a teacher or professor gives a formal lecture, an announcer gives the instruction or changes in the airport, etc‖

This type corresponds with non-reciprocal listening where the transfer of information is in one-direction only from the speaker to the listener and is used like the written form with no reaction and response from the listener These types take place when the speaker wants to talk with a large number of listeners about the same issue

Donne Byrne (1986) also says: ―Dialogues seem to be best suited to the teaching

of the spoken language‖ In this study, the researcher will use the dialogue as an effective way to improve speaking skill for non-major students of culture management at Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports and Tourism

Many language learners think that you can master a language if you speak fluently; it seems that speaking ability is the measure of knowing a language As for them, fluency is the ability to converse with others much more than the ability to read, write or comprehend oral language Language learners regard speaking is most important skill they can‘t get progress in acquiring language if learners do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunities to speak in the language classroom, they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning On the contrary, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to be

The skill of speaking has been recently considered by many methodologists a priority in language teaching Of all the four skills, Ur (1997: 120) concludes, speaking seems intuitively the most important Most language learners, she adds, are primarily interested in learning to speak

In Nguyen Thi Thu Linh‘s study(2008), she carried out to compare some researchers‘ view about concept of speaking skill and showed that Numan has similar view, he says that ―the ability to operate in a second language can be actually equated to the ability to speak that language‖ Another researcher shares the same idea that Hedge, he gives the evidence that speaking has recently obtained, at least from textbook writers, the attention it deserves: ―Learners need to develop at the same time knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, functional language and communicative skills Attention to the systems of language is crucial, but the development of fluency and contextual appropriacy are equally important goals‖ Speaking is fundamental to human communication Different linguists have different concepts of speaking but they all agree with this idea

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

In Brown and Yule‘s opinions (1983), spoken language consists of short, fragmentary utterances in a range of pronunciation Usually, there is a great deal of repetition and overlap between one speaker and another Speaker usually uses non- specific references They also add that spoken language is made to feel less conceptually dense than other types of language such as prose by using the loosely organized syntax, and non- specific words, phrases and filters

speaking

1.6.1 The role of the teacher

The goal is not only to get students to speak and share thinking but also to have them learn and develop through speech As students‘ language skills develop, classroom talk and discussion can be directed toward the goals of exploring ideas

and facts found in texts and in the subsequent development of thought and deepening of knowledge

Gillian Bertram (2002) claims that to act as facilitators of student learning, teachers should:

Encourage students to bring their ideas and background knowledge into class learning activities

Be a responsive listener to students’ talk

Nature an accepting environment where students will feel free to express themselves without fear of censure by adult or fellow students

Raise questions concerning the activities or conversations held with students Promote robust discussion and exposition amongst class members

Provide opportunities for speaking, discussion, and expression of ideas, experiences and opinions across the whole curriculum This will involve a range of experiences which the size and type of audience, the situation and purpose will all vary

Present themselves as good models of oral language

Establish strategies to manage all form of communication to ensure all students have fair and equitable opportunities to develop their interpersonal speaking and listening skills, e.g small and large group work discussions

Donn Byrne (1976:3) has a clearer explanation for the teacher‘s roles as follows:

* The teacher acts as an informant at the presentation stage

In this stage, teacher knows clearly items what he/she is going to present, teacher chooses the useful ways and new material to present, he/ she will organize the lesson in the way to save time and make it most clearly to understand and remember The students listen to the teacher‘s presentation and try their best to understand and memory In this stage, the students only listen and memory, teacher controls all class activity, but teacher has to know that he must save time, present the new items clearly and as fast as he can This act saves time for students to practice at next stage

* The teacher as a conductor and monitor at the practice stage

At this stage, teacher finishes his presentation, student understands and remembers the new items, teacher talking time is less and student talking time increases Now, teacher‘s role is an instructor and observer The students practice what they are introduced In this stage, teacher doesn‘t introduce new item but, while student are practicing they can ask their teacher to explain or instruct more if they get troubles

* The teacher as a guide at the production stage

At this stage, the students are given enough new language item, they have just practiced the new language item in the practice stage But they haven‘t known to use language in real life and this is a big problem in learning speaking skill Most of students at Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports and Tourism usually said that they don‘t know why they have to learn English; they don‘t know to use what they learnt in real life so, this stage, students have much more changes to apply what they have learned into real life, they can use language to express their idea and share their view with their partners so they will understand that they have learned something useful to them, it also encourages them to continue learning In this stage, the teacher continues guiding students to practice

1.6.2 The role of learners

―Students are communicators They are actively engaged in negotiating meaning- in trying to make themselves understood – event when their knowledge of the target language is incomplete They interact with one another in various configurations; pairs, triads, small groups and whole class Since the teacher‘s role

is less dominant than in a student- centered method, students are seen as more responsible managers of their own learning‖ Nguyen Thi Thu Linh (2008) One of the basic assumptions of Communicative Approach is that the students will be more motivated to study a foreign language if they feel they are learning to do something useful with the language they study

Mai Thanh Thu (2008), in her research about the difficulties which the non- English major students got when they study speaking skill, reveals that‖ The aim of teaching speaking is to enable learners to communicate effectively and successfully

in real life‖ In Nunan‘s view (1998: 80) To meet this aim the learners have take the following roles:

- The learner is the passive recipient of outside stimuli

- The learner is an interactor and negotiator who are capable of giving as well as taking

- The learner is a listener and performer who have little control over the content of learning

- The learner is involved in a process of personal growth

- The learner is involved in a social activity and the social and inter- personal roles of the learner cannot be divorced from psychological learning process

- The learner must take responsibility for their own learning developing autonomy and skills in learning how to learn

1.7 Stages of teaching speaking

According to Methodology course 1- Teaching the skills (Ha Noi 2002: 42-43) there are three stages in a speaking lesson: pre-speaking, while- speaking, and post- speaking Each stage the teacher and the learner has their own activities and in each stage, speaking activity has its own characteristics

1.7.1 The pre - speaking stage

As we mentioned about the teacher‘s role in teaching speaking skill At first stage, the teacher talking time is much, he/ she dominates class activities It is the same way, in pre- speaking stage, teacher is the centre He will present new items and introduce it to students, he organizes his lesson in the way that student can understand and memory the new language items easily Contract the teachers‘ roles

In this stage, students only listen and observe teacher‘ introduction

So far, oral materials are written mainly in two forms in every course book They are dialogue and prose And obviously these two forms must be presented in defend ways

According to Byrne (1991:22) introduction of the procedure in which the ten different steps are used to present a dialogue They are:

Establish setting by using pictures (at this phrase English should be used as much as possible)

Draw out learners’ experience related to situation

Explain some key words

Set listening task by asking key information of the dialogue

Ask learners to listen without looking at the books

Allow learners to have a look at their books when necessary

Ask the learners to listen and repeat

Ask learners to pick up difficulties (good chance for learners to soak) and explain difficulties

Ask them to practice ( Role- play)

Ask learners to dramatize the dialogue

What‘s more, the presentation of prose massage suggested by Byrne (1991: 26) includes the nine steps:

Introduce the topic by asking the students to have a quick look at the picture or

by asking them about a related book, film, or TV programme they have seen

Introduce the text including new words or new structures However, there is no need to explain all things in the text

Provide relevant language practice, for example, train the students with pronunciation drill so that they can speak English easily, fluently and also help them remember the new words

Set the reading task by making questions

Ask the students to read the silently

Read the passage aloud

Explain any difficulties faced by the students

Do silent reading again

Get the students to talk about what they have learned

The two ways presentation is said by Byrne they are very useful for presenting a dialogue and prose But, we can‘t apply all of steps in every situation we have to base on the participants, lesson‘s need and the situation of teaching and learning to apply It means that in some cases we can follow all the steps but in another cases, some steps are not very necessary we can‘t leave it out

1.7.2 The while - speaking stage

At the pre-speaking stage Teacher is the centre, he dominates all class activities, students are the hearer, and they have to listen and memory the new language items But, in this stage, the teacher talking time is less Now it is the students‘ turn, the students have much more time to practice, the aim of this stage is to improve students‘ speaking skill, the teacher lets students with their partners, they can work

in pair or groups The main purpose of this stage is to improve students‘ speaking skill, to help them speak fluently so the teacher shouldn‘t care much about the students‘ mistakes, the teacher shouldn‘t stop students when they are speaking In this stage, teacher plays a monitors‘ role and help the weaker student if they can‘t follow the others

1.7.3 The post - speaking stage

This stage is time for learners to speak English, at pre- speaking and the while- speaking stage, Learners are the role of listener, most of time, and their teacher gives instruction and practice At the post- speaking stage, students are given more chances to practice freely A real chance to speak English takes place when the learners are able to use English naturally for themselves, not for their teacher To practice effectively, teachers should ask learners to work in pairs or work in group Group work and pair work play an important part in making learners practice speaking By doing group work and pair work, all learners can have chance to participate in task Time can be saved and learners seem more confident

In the while- speaking stage, the students are required to practice, but they have

to practice follow some models and at the post – speaking stage, the students continue practicing, they do an extension speaking activity, it helps students to express and share their view to another groups or partners Through this, students feel they have studied something meaningful, they can use language for their own, they know how to apply what they have studied in real life the teacher in this stage must take on the role of a manager or a guide in order to give feedback, correct serious mistakes, give students marks and set personal goals for improving their speaking abilities

Byrne (1988:2) concludes that in order to improve speaking ability of learners, three phases above should be followed orderly But in fact, they might not be applied as expected due to time limitation, types of learners and materials in use The phases can be overlapped or run into one another provided that we keep our aim to get the learners to communicate However, teachers ought to pay attention to what has been spoken by the students during the Practice and Production phases so that they can see how far students have improved their speaking ability and what mistakes they might produce

There exist many student-related problems in teaching speaking skill in English

classes Many learners, as reported by studies into speaking (e.g Tsui: ―Reticence

and anxiety in second language learning‖), are shyness when talking, Thinking of

what to say in Vietnamese then Translating into English, Teacher-learner relationship; Objective factors in English oral classes pose a big challenge for teaching speaking skill

1.8.1 Students’ Difficulties in learning speaking

1.8.1.1 Fear of making mistake:

When students begin studying English they are not self- confident to speak, they are fear of making mistakes This difficulty seems due to a number of reasons

Firstly, when asked to speak English in classroom students don‘t have an idea about the subject They may don‘t know about what they are learning to do Their knowledge about the subject is not very much, so they can‘t speak I think the starting point of every lesson should be an operation of some kind, which students might actually want to perform in the foreign language

Moreover, some students have an idea but they can‘t speak out, so why? Some surveys showed that learners are usually worried about what the others might say or think Before speaking they always think that they will speak incorrectly and their friends will laugh at their mistake in pronunciation or in grammar All of these reasons make them keep silent during the period In addition, student may have an opinion, but do not feel that they can say exactly what they mean They are afraid they might not be able to put their words and the opinions in order, to make other understand their ideas easily

The next reason makes learners can‘t speak that is, students have a good idea, but want to express it in same eloquent manner that they are capable of their mother tongue They forget that the way or the rule of expressing ideas in English and Vietnamese is different Also, the grammar, the words order and intonation of Vietnamese are very different to English Moreover they always think of what they are going to say in Vietnamese first then translate into English This make them think slowly and the order of the words in the sentences may be wrong One more reason for students making mistakes in speaking class may come from their teacher who believes that some small mistakes of grammar or pronunciation do not matter

as long as the student gets his message across In some language classroom, students haven‘t been prepared well about what they are going to speak, they may

be forced in to activities and in an effort to deal with them they make mistake because they to do something they have been shown how to do, or they have not mastered sentence the all construction so it‘s not really a mistake at all

It easy for students to make mistakes when teachers ask them to try to express something that students are not quite sure of how to say, they are frightened of making mistakes and do not want to express their ideas in front of their classmates

1.8.1.2 Shyness when talking in English

Most of Vietnamese student are introverts so they are not self confident to stand

in front of class, many people, their classmates, and teacher to speak English Students, who asked if they want to volunteer or wait to be asked to perform in front

of class, said that they usually wait to be asked by teachers The reason is that they are too shy

To help students overcome their shyness in language conversation class Teachers should limit speak their mother language, teachers need to actually communicate in English Students are reluctant to spoken out, they don‘t volunteer answer When teachers bring up a new topic and students may not know clearly about it but they seldom ask question for clarification Some students will only talk

if specifically called upon and only then if there is a clear cut answer But even if the answer is obvious, it may be preceded by a silence so long that the teacher is tempted to supply the answer first This type of silence does not necessarily signify

an unwillingness to comply, but may simply indicate that the students are too nervous to respond, or too uncertain of the answer to risk public embarrassment Moreover, in a classroom, there are students who know the answer and want to make a good impression on the teacher, but something keeps their hands down and stifles their voices They are inhibited from acting because of inner commands from the guard- self: ― You‘ll look ridiculous, your classmate will laugh at you this is not

a place to that… you will be safe if you are not seen and not heard‖ And the students decide not to risk the dangerous freedom of a spontaneous answer and meekly comply

Another reason makes students ‗shyness may be caused by the way of teaching Traditionally, the teachers organized their lesson follow the teachers- central method When the lesson starts, the teachers always stand behind a desk at the front

of the class He speaks and do his work all the time, he only stops his work to make question to students when he thinks it is necessary, most of time students sit in silence, write down on their notebook and receive the information from the teachers‘ lecture It is boring method when a lesson takes place where one talks and learners listen but don‘t speak, don‘t give any question This ways of teaching forms the learners‘ passive style day by day It‘s a one way transmission of information from teacher to student Students have no opportunity to express themselves Because of this, it is natural that students will feel shy when they want to express themselves…all that things make students have a very good condition to be passive for so long that they will feel shy when they want to express their thoughts event when they know the clear answered As teachers who respect and care about students as individuals and hope to take into account their choices of learning and social style, some teachers may be reluctant to address this issue of shyness and hence, not attempt to mediate in helping those students overcome the emotion and behavior that is called shyness And indeed, well- intentioned but misguided approaches to shyness can exacerbate the students‘ suffering; probably one of the most powerful things teachers do to help their students is to create a classroom atmosphere, which is conductive to inspiring confidence

1.8.1.3 Thinking of what to say in Vietnamese then Translating into English

We know that the mother tongue has a big affect on learner when they study the second language It has both positive and negative sides The positive side is that many skills acquired in the first language can be transferred to the second language For example, if a student has developed good reading skills in Vietnamese, he or she is likely to be able to apply this skill when reading English But its negative side is that the first language, Vietnamese is deeply ingrained in students, they usually tend to think in Vietnamese, and then translate into English when they want to express their idea This takes a lot of time because they have to think of how to put the words and their thought in order This is not useful because

while they pay attention to thinking and translating, the others may stand up and say what they want to transfer from Vietnamese to English in class Hence they have lost the change of speaking English in class In addition, things like the grammar or intonation of Vietnamese and English are quite different We all know, for example, that in Vietnamese an adjective always goes after a noun, while an adjective always stands before a noun in English For this reason, some students sometimes make mistakes when they apply the rude of Vietnam grammar into English, they may say

‗dog black‖ instead of ―black dog‖ Moreover, Vietnamese is considered a rich language, so the more interesting the idea they thought in their mind, the more difficult it is to find the word in English to translate So we can state that beside the positive sides which we can transferred from the mother tongue into the second language there are some negative sides which are not good habit for the students to think and translate from Vietnamese into English while speaking

1.8.2 Teachers’ Difficulties in teaching speaking

1.8.2.1 Teacher-learner relationship

The relationship between the teacher and students plays a part in creating problems in teaching speaking skill It is necessary to create a favorable learning atmosphere in the class It is to establish a good relationship between the teacher and his students To solve this problem, the teacher should talk friendly with students about their feelings and help them rationalize their anxiety about speaking, which results in difficulties in teaching speaking skill (Tsui, 1996)

Nguyen Thi Thu Linh (2008).‖When students feel inhibited about discussing their feeling in front of their classmates the teacher should talk to individual students outside the classroom This way may contribute to the creation of trust and

―partnership‖ between the student and the teacher.‖ In addition, students always feel more comfortable when learning with the teachers who have a good sense of humor, friendly, relaxed and patient (Young, 1991) Such anxieties related to teacher-learner interactions are also investigated in a wealth of studies by Horwitz (1988), Horwitz et al (1991), and Koch and Terrell (1991)

1.8.2.2 Inappropriate teacher pedagogical practices

You will learn nothing if teacher doesn‘t teach So teacher practice plays a very important role in language learning Some researchers have discussed the relationship between teacher talk and language learning As Nunan (1991) points

out: ―Teacher talk is of crucial importance, not only for the organization of the

classroom but also for the processes of acquisition It is important for the organization and management of the classroom because it is through language that teachers either succeed or fail in implementing their teaching plans In terms of acquisition, teacher talk is important because it is probably the major source of comprehensible target language input the learner is likely to receive‖ The amount

and type of teacher talk is even regarded as a decisive factor of success or failure in classroom teaching (Hakansson, cited from Zhou Xing & Zhou Yun, 2002) As Nguyen Thi Thu Linh (2008), it is very essential to build a friendly, non-threatening classroom atmosphere which is created on the basis of a close teacher-learner relationship It makes the process of teaching and learning effective Inappropriate teacher pedagogical practices are considered in two opinions, those are classroom teacher talk and classroom teacher-learner relationship opinion, and they have been seen as major contributor to the difficulties in teaching speaking skill

1.8.2.3 The amount of Teacher Talk

According to researchers, learners will acquire the second language better when both teachers and students should participate in language classes actively In this process, teachers have to deal with two tasks in language classrooms: (1) offer enough high-quality English language input; (2) offer more opportunities for students to use the target language

The amount of teacher talk time, as an important factor that affect language learning, has been concerned by many scholars The amount of teacher talk influences learners‘ L2 acquisition or foreign language learning A great number of researchers have testified this Researches in language classrooms have established that teachers tend to do most of the classroom talk Teacher talk makes up over 70

percent of the total talk (Cook, 2000; Legarreta, 1977; Chaudron, 1988; Zhao Xiaohong, 1998)

When the teachers use amount of time up to 70 percent in the classroom talk to explanation or instruction, the students talk time will be shorten The students in this case don‘t have enough time to practice speaking; they also have a little opportunity

to extended talk Realized this problem, many researchers tend to maximize the students talk time (STT)and minimize the teachers talk time (TTT) (Zhao

Xiaohong, 1998; Zhou Xing & Zhou Yun, 2002) Harmer points out that the best

lessons are ones where STT is maximized Getting students to speak to use the language they are learning is a vital part of a teacher‘s job (Harmer, 2000:4) However, Fillmore argued the amount of TTT should not be decreased blindly.(Nguyen Thi Thu Linh , 2008)

1.8.2.4 Teacher's Correction

Students will learn nothing if they don‘t make any mistakes When learners make mistakes we know that they are trying to study something ―A learner‘s errors are significant in (that) they provide to the researcher evidence of how language is learned or acquired, what strategies or procedures the learner is employing in the discovery of the language‖ (Brown, 2002: 205) The teachers play

an important part in learners‘ studying; they point out students‘ mistakes and provide correction In correction, some specific information is provided on aspects

of the learners‘ performance, through explanation, or provision of better or other alternatives, or through elicitation of these from the leaner (Ur, 2000) Correction helps students to clarify their understanding of meaning and construction of the language

1.8.2.5 Krashen’s Input Theory

As Krashen‘s Input Theory Students learn nothing or they hardly acquire second language if Input is much more or less than learners ‗current Knowledge So, in the language classroom, the teachers play an important role The language used by the teacher affects on students‘ acquisition It is not very good if input is so much or so

little So how much of input is appropriate and useful for language learners in classrooms

Nguyen Thi Thu Linh (2008) carried out to study about difficulties in teaching speaking skill to non- English major students, she studied on Krashen‘s input theory

to find out the most suitable ways to teach speaking skill and she explained that:

In Krashen’s view, learning only takes place by means of a learner’s access to

comprehensible input Humans acquire language in only one way - by understanding messages or by receiving comprehensible input Learning will occur when unknown items are only just beyond the learner’s level It is explained in detail “i+1”structure “i” stands for the learners’ current linguistic competence, and “1” stands for the items the learners intend to learn The Input Theory also has two corollaries (Krashen, 1985: 2):

Corollary 1: Speaking is a result of acquisition, not its cause; it emerges as result of building competence via comprehensible input

Corollary 2: If input is understood and there is enough of it, the necessary grammar is automatically provided The language teacher need not attempt deliberately to teach the next structure along the natural order it will be provided

in just the right quantities and automatically reviews if the student receives a sufficient amount of comprehensible input

Krashen‘s input theory and his two corollaries showed that learners can learn language when unknown items are not far from the learner‘s level As his theory, comprehensive and right quality input are the deceive factors in learning language From this theory, language teacher finds that the student only acquire language when the input is comprehensive and right quantity But the problem occurs when language teacher have to find out whether learners‘ input is enough or not?

To answer the question whether learners‘ input is enough or not? In her research, Nguyen Thi Thu Linh (2008) showed that Krashen gives two ways to test learners‘ input:

The linguistic resources are insufficient for immediate decoding Simplified input can be made available to the learner through one-way or two-way interaction, with the former including listening to a lecture, watching television and reading, and the latter occurring in conversations Krashen stresses that two-way interaction

is a particularly good way of providing comprehensible input because it enables the learner to obtain additional contextual information and optimally adjusted input when meaning has to be negotiated because of communication problems

In Krashen‘s view, acquisition takes place by means of a learner‘s access to comprehensible input He says that the input that only teacher knows about The learner totally unknown, learners don‘t know about Krashen‘s input theory, they don‘t know about comprehensive and right quantity, he also comments that input is not cause learning to take place Teacher talk is play very important role in foreign language learning, he shouldn‘t talk anything under or beyond the learners‘ current level He should make their input comprehensible and in right quantities

He comments that the input, which is totally incomprehensible to learners, is not likely to cause learning to take place Teacher talk, actually serves as main sources of input of language exposure in classroom learning, is more important for foreign language learning, so teachers should make their input comprehensible and

also presented in their study As for them, teachers have to apply many other ways

to reach the success in multilevel class

Some other researchers have the same opinion of the large classes that teachers

in EFL settings often find classes of 40-70 students to be the norm, They are Teresa Dalle, Ph.D., and Emily Thrush, Ph.D These researchers stated that in large and multilevel classes challenge even well-trained and experienced teachers

In Vietnam, there are some researchers were mentioned this problem like; Pham Hoa Hiep (2005) in the article ―University English classrooms in Vietnam‖ showed that many Vietnamese teachers have feeling that their circumstances oppose to their aim in language learning classes because teachers have to teach students for a grammar- base lesson and have to finish lesson in the text book in the certain amount of time The goal of teaching helps students get a immediate result like, pass the examination, get good marks or get a degree We often complain that our students learn English but they can‘t use it in real life, one of reason is that students are learnt about English grammar and its rude but they are not taught to use it They usually get problem when they are asked to make a sentence English or state something in English

Another Vietnamese researcher has ever mentioned this situation, Le Van Canh

in the article ―Language and Vietnamese Pedagogical Contexts‖ in this article, he mentioned that ―the pre-determined syllabus and prescribed text book are also frustrating to teachers if they are committed to communicative methods‖ or ―….the obstacle to the implementation of the communicative approach is the class size and the teaching schedule.‖ As for him, Vietnamese teachers are teaching under pressure They always try their best to complete certain content in the textbook in a certain amount of time The time for students to practice language is limited

At Thanh Hoa University of culture, sports and tourism Beside Vietnamese teachers teaching English we also have native language teacher to help students learn speaking But it is very difficult to improve students‘ speaking skill; most of them said that they can‘t follow what teacher is speaking, someone said that they

can hear what teacher is speaking but they can‘t make a sentence to communicate to the teacher The students get this problem because, at secondary and high school level, they are trained follow the grammar- base method They learn English to get good marks and pass the exam, they have never thought that they will learn English

to communicate or apply it in real life

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter deals with the research methodology and tries to achieve the aims and objectives of the research In this study, we will mention the rationale to choose the research methodology and the data gather from questionnaire

culture, sports and tourism

2.1.1 Brief introduction of TUCST

Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports and Tourism is located in Thanh Hoa city, Thanh Hoa provice, it was founded in 1990 At the beginning, its duty was

to train only teachers of Art and Music for schools in Thanh Hoa province so English serves as a means that provides students with basic knowledge about grammar and vocabulary Since 2005, many new branches have been opened such

as Tour Guide and Hotel Receptionists, Tourism culture, Informatics Library, and Culture Management studies, fashion design, Music education, Graphic design, Vocal music, Physical education, Fine arts education, Painting For these purposes, English has become a major subject for the students of these fields

Every year our university admits more than 1000 newly enrolled students for

a course of 4 year study, of whom 250 students are trained in the Faculty of culture managers which is the biggest section at TUCST After graduating students of this field will become culture managers Therefore, the authority in our university has decided that English is the main subject with the purpose of helping these non-major students to develop their English communicative skill to meet the demand of their future employment

2.1.2 Syllabus used for non - English major students at TUCST

The teaching of English is divided into two stages at Thanh Hoa University

of culture, sports and tourism

At first stage (consisting of the first four terms) that is general English, students study four micro skills namely: speaking, listening, reading and writing The second stage lasts one term in which students learn English related to their

field That means ESP is introduced only after the students have studied GE for four terms

The first stage is considered to be the most important to student‘s development of the four macro language skills since they have more time and chances to practice their skills basically than in the second one

As far as the materials are concerned, ―Lifeline Elementary‖ text book and workbook are chosen in GE classes The time devoted to GE is 180 periods (each period lasts 45 minutes)

The 2nd stage is time for students to study English for their professional field At this stage, those who want to have an additional tour manager certificate study the course book ―Pre- New cutting edge‖ The ESP course book covers 8

Module dealing with different topics Lifestyle; important first; at rest, at work;

special occasions; appearances; time off; ambition and dreams; countries and culture The students who study in the field of the office secretary study the course

book ―English for office secretaries‖ designed by teachers working in English group

at TUCST At the end of course, learners will receive a certificate for their profession field

2.1.3 Facilities used at TUCST

Mai Thanh Thu (2008) ―Teaching facilities are considered significant and may have positive and negative effects on the teaching process‖ At TUCST, English teaching and learning activities are mostly carried in fixed classrooms that make it difficult for teachers to make a change in applying new ideas of new teaching methods in language teaching What‘s more, there are 32 students in each class It is not easy to carry out a communicative task in a mixed ability and large classroom

In TUCST the administrators invested more money for mordent furniture of English teaching and learning But, in fact, that is not enough For example, there are just a few small tape recorders, no language laboratories and no videos Many classes are equipped with a LCD projector, however most of the teachers are

untrained to use these machine and the teaching techniques, so they cannot make full use of these facilities One of big problems for studying English at TUCST is that, the music class and English class are in the same building So the noise from the music class affecting to the English class is unavoidable

There is only small library at TUCST, thus English books for reference and self- study are not available and enough to meet the students and teachers‘ need The problem is that due to the book shortage and limitation in the library, students are required to read in the library instead of taking books at home

2.1.4 Teaching methods

There are 8 teachers of English language aged from 24 and 50 at our university Seven of them had formal ELT training in different universities inside Viet Nam, and only one had an in-service ELT training course One of them had doctor of English linguistic Two of them are studying Doctor of English linguistic and another had master of English teaching The oldest teacher has more 20 years of teaching experience and the youngest teacher has got over three years Three of us have ever participated in refreshment courses abroad or some domestic workshops

―Most of these students commonly spent most of time learning three subjects:

literature, history and geography in order to pass TUCST entrance exam So, they are real beginners at English when entering the first year of university and of different language proficiency levels Some of them have learned English for 7 years at secondary and high school some have only learned English for 3 years and

some others have never learned English before‖ Luckily, Students at TUCST are

mostly singers, tour guides, hotel receptionists, culture managements in the future, thus, they are open mind and generous They are also aware of the importance of English in their future career Therefore, they are eager and motivated to learn English Students from Thanh Hoa city and towns (Bim Son, Sam Son) seem better

at English However, during the years at secondary schools as well as at high schools, these students are trained under the strong influence of the Grammar- Translation method, the emphasis of which is on the learning of the rules of the language, not on the acquisition of language skills, especially those in speaking skill As a result, they cannot speak fluently and most of them do not feel confident

in communicating in English

Another element that should be taken into consideration is that many students don‘t have the habit of learning independently and tend to depend mainly on the given text books and the teachers for knowledge These facts call for teachers to innovate their language teaching methods in order to motivate the students in speaking lessons

This study is carried out at TUCST and limited to the second year students of Culture management Once again, within the size and scope of the study, life lines elementary textbook is chosen to conduct the study

The research is aimed to find out speaking difficulties encountered by teachers and non-English major students of Culture management study at TUCST Also the study explores the solution to deal with the problem

As stated in the previous section, the research is aimed to find out difficulties encountered by teachers and non-English major students of Culture management in teaching and learning English speaking skill at TUCST and suggest possible solutions to deal with the problem In order to achieve the aims of the study, the study is expected to address the following questions

- What are the difficulties faced by the second year students when they learn speaking skill at Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports and Tourism?

- What are the difficulties for the teachers in teaching speaking skill?

- What are possible solutions to those difficulties?

Questionnaire for students

The first questionnaire, consisting of following questions, was delivered to 80 students at TUCST The aims of this were to elicit:

(1) Students‘ background of English

(2) Students‘ attitude towards speaking skill

(3) Students‘ difficulties in learning speaking

(4) Students‘ interest in speaking activities

Questionnaire for teachers

The second questionnaire was delivered to 7 teachers at TUCST The purpose of this questionnaire was to indentify:

(1) Teachers‘ experience of teaching English

(2) Difficulties confronted by the teachers when teaching speaking to non-major students at TUCST

(3) Teachers‘ solutions to difficulties faced by them

The first group of subjects the study is 7 teachers of English who teach English

to non-English major students at TUCST They range from 24 to 50 years of age Of the 7 teachers, six have been trained from fulltime course at Hanoi Foreign Language Teachers Training College and Hong Duc University; the one other graduated from in-service course All of them have taught English to non-English major students for at least 1 year

The second group was 80 second-year students randomly taken from 100 students Their age varies between 19 and 22 so they belong to the same psychological age group However, their time of English learning at school (before