Some suggestions for teaching english speaking skill to the non english major students at vinh university masters thesis in education

ABSTRACT This study is aimed at investigating the reality of teaching the speaking skill to non-major students of English at Vinh University but only focuses on difficulties experienced

MINISTRY OF EDUCATIONAND AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

HOANG THI CHUNG

SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING

ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL TO THE NON-ENGLISH

MAJOR STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY

MASTER‟S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Nghệ An, 2014

MINISTRY OF EDUCATIONAND AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

HOANG THI CHUNG

SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING

ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL TO THE NON-ENGLISH

MAJOR STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY

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

Code: 60 14 01 11

MASTER‟S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: Phan Thi Huong, M.A

Nghệ An, 2014

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I declare that this dissertation represents my own work, and that it has not been previously submitted to this University or to any other institutions for a degree, diploma or other qualifications

Hoang Thi Chung

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest thanks to M.A Phan Thi Huong, my supervisor for her immense encouragement as well as her detailed guidance she gave me while I was doing my research, without which the study could not have been completed

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to FLD‘s Dean,

Dr Tran Ba Tien, without his support, motivation and consideration, it would not have been possible for me to complete the course

I would also like to express my thanks to the teachers of English at Vinh University who helped me in providing the materials, answering the survey questionnaire, taking part in the interviews actively and making constructive comments in the process of writing this thesis, without their help the thesis would not have been successful

I am also thankful to my first-year students of K53 from two classes NN1-111: NN1-112 for their whole-heated participation in the study

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my friends and my family for their understanding, patience and support during the entire period of my study

Hoang Thi Chung

ABSTRACT

This study is aimed at investigating the reality of teaching the speaking skill to non-major students of English at Vinh University but only focuses on difficulties experienced by the teachers of English and some recommendations and classroom techniques and activities for them to minimize those difficulties Specifically, some classroom activities are made with the hope that they would be helpful for teachers in their teaching English speaking skill to non- English major students of English at VU The thesis consists of five chapters Chapter 1 is an introduction to the thesis Chapter 2 includes the review of related literature, methodology used in the research study The findings and discussion of relevant difficulties in teaching speaking skill caused by teachers themselves, students and objective factors are all presented in the chapter 4 The final chapter is the conclusion of the study, which discusses the overview that can be drawn from the study, concurrently suggests some classroom techniques and activities with the hope that they can add interest to each lesson and serve different learning styles Teachers can find sample games and activities in this part for getting their students more involved in speaking in class and can feel free to change their content or degree of difficulty to suit their needs, or use them as a springboard to create specific activities

It is hoped that this thesis will be useful for teachers at VU in teaching the speaking skill to their non-English major students

LIST OF TABLES

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF TABLES iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF TABLES vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1 2 Scope of the study 2

1.3 Aims of the study 2

1.4 Research questions of the study 2

1.5 Organization of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Review of previous studies 4

2.2 What is speaking? 4

2.3 What are components of speaking? 5

2.4 Characteristics of Speaking Skill 8

2.5 Aims of Teaching Speaking Skill 9

2.6 Difficulties in teaching English speaking skill 10

2.6.1 Difficulties from teachers 10

2.6.2 Difficulties from students 17

2.6.3 Difficulties from objective factors 19

2.7 Development approach of speaking skills 20

2.8 How speaking skill has been taught to ESL learners 22

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 27

3.1 Overview of the subjects of the study 27

3.1.1 Students 27

3.1.2 Teachers 28

3.1.3 Course book 29

3.2 Methods of the study 31

3.2.1 Participants 31

3.3 Data collection 33

3.4 Data analysis 33

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 35

4.1 Difficulties from teachers 35

4.1.1: Unsuitable teacher pedagogical practices 35

4.1.2 The lack of confidence in English communicative competance of the teachers 39

4.2 Difficulties from students 40

4.2.1 Students‘ prior learning experiences 41

4.2.2 Lack of background and social knowledge 42

4.2.3 Anxiety or Shyness in class 42

4.2.4 Low motivation for learning English 43

4.2.5 Low level of English proficiency 44

4.2.6 Passive learning style 45

4.2.7 Lack of confidence 45

4.3 Difficulties from objective factors 46

4.3.1 Large and multilevel classes 46

4.3.2 Lack of class time 47

4.3.3 Text books 49

CHAPTER 5: SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION 52

5.1 Summary of the study 52

5.2 Suggestions for minimizing the difficulties in teaching speaking skill to non-English major students at VU 53

5.3 Some suggested classroom techniques for teachers to motivate non-English major students who are reticent in oral English classes 56

5.3 Suggested activities for motivating students and improving their speaking ability 60

5.5 Suggestions for further study 74

REFERENCES 75 APPENDICES I

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ELT: English Language Teaching

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ESL: English as Second Language

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

STT: Student talking time

TTT: Teacher talking time

TM: Translation Method

ESP: English for Specific Purposes

No of Students: Number of Students

No of Teachers: Number of Teachers

VU: Vinh University

LIST OF TABLES

Figure 1: Units of spoken language (van Lier, 1995, p 15) 5

Table 3.1: Distribution of Time and Units in 2 Semesters 29

Table 3.2: Speaking activities and topics/drills in the course book ―New Headway Pre-interemediate the third edition‖ 30

Table 4.1: Teachers‘ current teaching method 35

Table 4.2: Teachers‘ mistake correction for learners in speaking lessons 36

Table 4.3: Students‘ opinion on teachers‘ pedagorical practices 37

Table 4.4: Teachers‘ English communicative competence 39

Table 4.5:: Teachers‘ difficulties in teaching speaking to non-English students at VU 40

Table 4.6:: Students‘ difficulties in learning speaking skill in English classes 41

Table 4.7:: Students‘ reasons for learning English 43

Table4.8: Students‘ opinions on the speaking skill 44

Table 4.9:: Students‘ assessment of speaking topics and activities based on the textbook ‗New Headway Pre-intermediate the third edition‘ 50

Table 5.1:: Activities suitable for each unit in the course book ―New Headway Pre-intermediate the third edition‖ 74

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

We are living in the global world in which English language has rapidly become an international language To meet this requirement, English has been taught almost everywhere in Vietnam, especially in schools, colleges, universities, English is a compulsory subject

However, how to speak English well is a problem for many Vietnamese learners of English, especially for the students of colleges and universities Despite the fact that most of the students have been learning English since they were at secondary or high school, they can not speak English fluently, or some cannot speak any English at all As a teacher of English at Vinh University, from our observation and our own teaching experience, we see that during a speaking lesson students can hardly use English for communicative objectives even in the simple form Some explain that they want to talk but they do not know what to say Some are in poor participation in speaking activities in the classroom

In fact, there is a large number of non-English major students who may be good at reading, writing but find it difficult to speak in English I often encourage

my students to talk in English in class but they keep silent during the lessons Perhaps, there is a variety of reasons for their poor participation, including such large classes, lack of ideas, lack of motivation, lack of confidence when communicating or poor knowledge of English language In addition to those mentioned above, equipment and teaching methods of teachers can make the situation worse

There have been numerous studies on this situation and various solutions, recommendations and suggestions have been proposed, including innovating teaching methods, changing syllabus or textbooks, upgrading teachers‘ qualifications, changing formats of speaking tests and so on At Vinh University, however, no research on suggesting communicative activities for teaching speaking

English at VU, is more than aware of the situation and she herself has encountered a number of difficulties in helping her students improve their speaking skill This

actually drives her to this research, entitled ―Some suggestions for teaching English speaking skill to the non-English major students at Vinh University‖

1 2 Scope of the study

To improve speaking skill for non- English major students at VU, various methods can be made used of However, within the framework of this thesis, the author only intends to give an overview of the current situation of teaching and learning speaking skill for non-English major students at VU and suggest communicative activities to help teachers improve their students‘ speaking skill and achieve the objectives of each unit of the course book as well The suggested activities will serve as a reference for teachers to teach effectively speaking topics

in New Headway Pre-intermidiate the third edition

1.3 Aims of the study

Within the framework of a thesis, the study aims at suggesting classroom activities with the hope that they would be helpful for teachers in their teaching English speaking skill to non- English major students at VU

To achieve this aim, the objectives are (i) to investigate the current situations

of learning and teaching of speaking skill to non- English major students at VU in order to find out the reasons for students‘ unwillingness to speak English as well as difficulties experienced by the teachers of English in teaching speaking skill; (ii) to suggest some classroom activities to be used in speaking class for non-English majors

1.4 Research questions of the study

The researcher wish to raise the questions as follows:

1 What difficulties do the teachers at VU encounter in teaching the skill of speaking to non-English major students?

2 What should be done to minimize the difficulties in teaching the skill of speaking to non-English major students experienced by the teachers of English at VU?

1.5 Organization of the study

The study consists of the following parts:

Chapter 1: Introduction

This part will introduce the problem leading to the study, rationale, purpose, scope, and organization of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review and theoretical background

Presented in this chapter are the concepts relevant to the study: Review of

previous studies ; The Nature of Language skills; The nature of speaking skill; What

is speaking?; What are components of speaking?; What skills and knowledge does a good speaker need?; What is speaking Skills; Characteristics of Speaking Skills;

Teaching Speaking Skills; Aims of Teaching Speaking Skills; Development approach of speaking skills; How speaking skill has been taught to adult ESL learners

Chapter 3: Methodology

This part presents the detailed procedure of the study: the methodology, population selection, data collection and analysis

Chapter 4 Findings and Discussions The part deals with the findings drawn out

from the analysis of data The chapter also proposes some suggestions to make

teaching English speaking more effective

Chapter 5 Conclusion

Main points and contents of the study will be summarized based on the results of

the study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Review of previous studies

For many years, language teaching was seen as helping learners develop linguistic competence, many researches around teaching speaking such as

―Appropriate error-correction stratigies in speaking lessons‖, ― Some suggestions to conduct effectively English speaking activities‖, etc , proved very effective as the inspiration for students to study Recently, communicative language teaching (CLT) with its emphasis on meaning and communication in the target language and its learner-centered approach has served as the dominant approach to language teaching

Recently, in their minor study, Julie Mathews- Aydinly and Regina Van Horne (2006) have pointed out that multilevel classes can present challenges to teachers as it is very difficult to design or organize speaking activities for many learners with different level and interests The suggested solutions are also presented in their study With the fact of teaching speaking skill to non-English majors at VU, I would like to study more about speaking activities with the hope that I can contribute to teaching English speaking successfully

2.2 What is speaking?

Speaking is ―an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information‖ (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997) Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking Speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary, but also they can understand when, why, and in what ways to produce language

Bygate, Martin (1987) believes that speaking is the skill by which they are most frequently judged and thought Learners often need to be able to speak with

confidence Speaking skill is regarded as the vehicle of social solidarity, of social ranking, of professional advancement and business It is also a medium through which much language is learnt‖

In Brown and Yule‘s point of view (1983) spoken language consists of short, fragmentary utterances, in a range of pronunciation There is often a great deal of repetition and overlap between one speaker and another and speaker usually use non-specific references They also point out that spoken language is made to feel less conceptual dense than other types such as prose by using the loosely organized syntax, and non-specific words and phrases

2.3 What are components of speaking?

This section examines the components of spoken English, drawing on a model proposed by van Lier (1995) It is necessary for teachers to understand fully these interrelated components in order to help adult learners improve their speaking skill

distinctive feature phoneme

syllable morpheme

DISCOURSE

The figure depicts the many elements involved in teaching speaking to adult ESL learners The left column lists four traditional areas of linguistic analysis (which teachers must understand), and the center column labels the units of spoken language (which learners must master)

Beginning at the pyramid‘s base, text refers to stretches of language of an

undetermined length Texts can be either written or spoken, but here the focus is

exclusively on spoken discourse Spoken texts are composed of utterances: what someone says A clause is two or more words that contain a verb marked for tense and a grammatical subject Independent clauses are complete sentences that can stand alone (―Tuan went to work‖), whereas dependent clauses cannot (―While Tuan was going to work ‖) In contrast, a phrase is two or more words that

function as a unit but do not have a subject or a verb marked for tense These include prepositional phrases (―in the hospital‖ or ―after school‖) and infinitive phrases (―to drive‖ or ―to move up‖) Clauses and phrases do not usually appear alone in formal writing, but they are quite common in speech Both clauses and phrases can be utterances, as can individual words, the next level in the pyramid

A word is called a free morpheme—a unit of language that can stand on its own and convey meaning (bus, apply, often) In contrast, bound morphemes are always connected to words These include prefixes, such as un- or pre-, as well as suffixes, such as -tion or -s or -ed Often, during the pressure of speaking, it is

difficult for Vietnamese learners English to use the expected suffixes because Vietnamese language does not utilize these kinds of morphemes as grammatical markers

A phoneme is a unit of sound that distinguishes meaning Phonemes can be either Consonants (like /p/ or /b/ in the words pat and bat) or Vowels (like /i/ and /æ/ in bit and bat)

In the top levels of the figure, the word syllable overlaps the levels of

morphemes and phonemes because a syllable can consist of a morpheme or simply one or more phonemes

Consonants and vowels are called segmental phonemes Sometimes a spoken syllable consists of one phoneme (/o/ in okay) Syllables also consist of combined sounds (the second syllable of okay), and of both free and bound morphemes For instance, the free morpheme hat consists of three phonemes but only one syllable

The three other labels in the figure—stress, rhythm, and intonation represent

the suprasegmental phonemes When we speak, these phonemes carry meaning

differences ―above‖ the segmental phonemes For instance, the sentence ―I am going now‖ can convey at least four different meanings, depending on where the stress is placed The differences are related to the context where the utterances occur Consider these interpretations:

I am going now (You may be staying here, but I choose to leave.)

I am going now (You may assert that I‘m staying, but I insist that I am

leaving.)

I am going now (I insist that I am leaving, rather than staying.)

I am going now (I am not waiting any longer.)

It is critical to know how these levels of spoken language relate to the speaking skill of Vietnamese learners Two key points derive from a substantial review of the research on foreign accent by Major (2001) First, he says that really learning the sound system of a language entails mastering (a) the individual segments (the V and C phonemes), (b) the combinations of segments, (c) prosody (stress, intonation, rhythm, etc.), and (d) ―global accent, or the overall accent of a speaker‖ (p 12) He adds that a global foreign accent is the result of a nonnative combination of (a), (b), and (c)

Second, Major (2001) notes that ―both the learner‘s age and the age of learning (when the learner was first exposed to the language) have been found to be important variables in governing whether and to what degree a learner can acquire a native like accent‖ (pp 6–7) He concludes that ―the vast majority of the research indicates that the younger the learner the more native like the pronunciation‖ (p 11)

To conclude, it can be seen from the Pyramid that all the levels of language operate when we speak, and conversation is not really simple at all It is impotant for language teachers to understand these units of language and how they work together

2.4 Characteristics of Speaking Skill

Bygate, M (1987) states that: ―In most speaking the person to whom we are speaking is in front of us and able to use right if we make mistakes‖ Unlike readers

or writers, speaker may need patience and imagination, too While talking, speakers need to take notice of the other and allows listeners chance to speak it

Brown (1983) and her colleagues point out that a listener helps speakers improve their performance as a speaker because being a listener gives learners models to utilize when acting as speaker Besides, being a hearer first helps appreciate the difficulties inherent in the task It is clear that giving speakers experience in hearer‘s role is more helpful than simple practice in tasks in which a speaker is having real difficulties in appreciating what a particular task required Richards (1985) states that Communicative Competence includes:

a) Knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary of the language

b) Knowledge of rules of speaking (e.g knowing how to begin and end conversations, knowing what topics can be talked about in different types of speech event, knowing which address, forms should be used with different person one speaks to and in different situations

c) Knowing how to use and respond to different types of speech acts such as requests, apologies, thanks and invitations

d) Knowing how to use language appropriately (quoted from Nunan, David, 1999: 226)

According to Nunan, David (1999) what are needs to know and be able to do

in order to speak in another language is to know how to articulate sounds in a comprehensible manner, one needs an adequate vocabulary, and to have mastery of syntax

The socio linguist Dell Hymes (1974) proposed the notion of communicative competence as an alternative to Chomsky‘s linguistic competence Communicative competence includes linguistic competence, but also a range of other socio linguistic and conversational skill that enable the speaker to know how to say what

to whom

2.5 Aims of Teaching Speaking Skill

As for Widdowson H.G (quoted from Brumfit C.J & Johnson K:117), ― the problem is that students, and especially students in developing countries, who have received several years of formal English teaching, frequently remain deficient in the ability to actually use the language, and to understand its use in normal communication, whether in the spoken or the written mode‖ (1979:117)

Therefore, objective of teaching speaking skill is communicative efficiency

or in other words is to teach learners the way to communicate ―appropriately‖ and efficiently It can be seen from the example give by Newmark of a man who is good

at structures but fails in utterance competence

So, to help learners develop communicative efficiency in speaking, teacher can use balanced activities approach that combines language input, structured output and communicative output

Language input comes in the form of teacher talk, listening activities, reading passages, and the language heard and read outside of class It gives learners the material They need to begin producing language themselves

Language input may be content oriented or form oriented

Structured output focuses on correct form In structured output, learners may have options for responses, but all of the options require them to use the specific form or structure that the teacher has just introduced

Structured output is designed to make learners comfortable producing specific language items recently introduces, sometimes in combination with previously learned items

In communicative output, the learners‘ main purpose is to complete a task, such as obtaining information, developing a travel plan… To complete the task, they may be use the language that the teacher has just presented, but they also may draw on any other vocabulary, grammar, and communication strategies that they know In communicative output activities, the criterion of success is whether the learner gets the message across Accuracy is not a consideration unless the lack of it interferes with the message

In a balance activities approach, the teacher uses a variety of activities from these different categories of input and output Learners at all proficiency levels, including beginners, benefit from this variety, it is more motivating, and it is also more likely to result in effective language learning

2.6 Difficulties in teaching English speaking skill

Language teaching is a complex process involving many interrelated factors Larsen-Freeman points out that language teaching can be summarized into three fields: language learner/learning (How to learn); language/culture (What to Learn); teacher/teaching (How to teach) Basing on Larsen-Freeman‘ views, difficulties in language teaching in general and difficulties in teaching English speaking skill in particular are examined from teachers, students together with objective factors affecting the teaching process

2.6.1 Difficulties from teachers

Inappropriate teacher pedagogical practices

a The amount of Teacher Talk

According to second language acquisition theories, both teachers and students should participate in language classes actively Teachers have to face two tasks in language classrooms: (1) offer enough high-quality English language input; (2) offer more opportunities for students to use the target language So the distribution of teacher talk time, as an important factor that affect language learning, has been concerned by many scholars An important issue is whether 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 It is evident that if teachers devote large amounts of time to explanations or management instructions, student talk will be indeed severely restricted Teacher-initiated talk will dominate the classroom, allowing little opportunity for extended student talk In such an environment, students have little opportunity to develop their language proficiency Harmer points out that the best lessons are ones where STT is maximized Getting students to use the language they are learning is a vital part of a teacher‘s job (Harmer, 2000:4)

b Teacher's Correction

Inevitably learners will make mistakes in the process of learning “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) It is a vital part of

the teacher‘s role to 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

One of the crucial issues is how correction is expressed: gently or assertively supportively or as a condemnation, tactfully or rudely Ur (2000) points out that

we should go for encouraging, tactful correction The learner has reliable intuitive

knowledge about what kind of correction helps most, that is, learner preferences are

on the whole reliable guide So teachers have to be careful when correcting, if teachers do it in an insensitive way, the students will feel upset and lose their confidence

c Krashen’s Input Theory

Input plays a critical role in language learning There is no learning without input The language used by the teacher affects the language produced by the learners, the interaction generated, and hence the kind of learning that takes place The problem is what type and how much of input is appropriate and useful for language learners in classrooms

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

By examining the idea of comprehensible input and the two corollaries, one can find that comprehensive and right quantity input is the central concern with which learners are able to learn language It is the foundation or premise of the occurrence of learning This provides implications for language teaching: teacher talk should be comprehensible in different forms and in right quantities But how could

teachers know whether their input is enough or not? How could they make their input comprehensible? Krashen describes two ways: 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 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 in right quantities

d Teacher-learner relationship

The relationship between the teacher and students plays a part in evoking problems in teaching speaking skill A necessary prerequisite for creating a favorable learning atmosphere in the class is to establish a good relationship between the teacher and his students One of the possible ways of pursuing this aim

is to talk with students about their feelings and help them rationalize their anxiety about speaking, which results in difficulties in teaching speaking skill (Tsui, 1996) The teacher may decide to talk to individual students outside the classroom, as students may feel inhibited about discussing their feelings in front of their classmates This ―step‖ 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)

Teachers’ deficiency in English communicative competence

This can be another constraint in teaching speaking skill which is related to teachers‘ deficiency in English communicative competence For many years,

language teaching was seen as helping learners to develop linguistic

competence-that is, helping students master the sounds, words, and grammar patterns of English The idea was that by studying bits and pieces of a language, students could eventually put them all together and communicate

In the 1970s and 1980s, however, our understanding of language learning experienced a significant shift in focus This shift was influenced by international developments in linguistics, curricula, and pedagogy, as well as by sociolinguistic research (primarily in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States) In addition, the numbers of refugees and immigrants resetting in English-speaking countries made linguist and language teachers realize that developing linguistic competence alone was not enough to be able to speak English well and get along in society

In the mid-1970s the notion of linguistic competence came to be viewed as a

component of the broader idea of communicative competence ―the ability of

language learners to interact with other speakers, to make meaning, as distinct from their ability to perform on discrete-point tests of grammatical knowledge‖ (Savignon, 1991, p.264)

There are several important models of communicative competence (see especially Bachman, 1990, Canale and Swain, 1980, Richards, Platt and Weber,

1985, Littlewood, 1994, and Hedge, 2000), all of which include some form of

sociolinguistic competence, or the ability to use language appropriately in various contexts Sociolinguistic competence involves register (degrees of formality and informality), appropriate word choice, style shifting, and politeness strategies

Another important element of communicative competence is strategic competence In terms of speaking, this is the learner‘s ability to use language

strategies to compensate for gaps in skills and knowledge For example, if you don‘t know a word you need to express your meaning, what strategies can you use to make your point?

A fourth component of communicative competence is discourse competence, ―how

sentence elements are tied together‖, which includes both cohesion and coherence

(Lazaraton, 2001, p.104) Cohesion includes reference, repetition, synonyms, and

so on In contrast, coherence involves ―how texts are constructed‖ (Lazaraton,

2001, p.104; see also Bachman, 1990, pp.84-102, and Douglas, 2000, pp.25-29) These four components of communicative competence have several practical implications for EFL and ESL teachers Since communicative competence is a multifaceted construct, it is important for teachers to understand the complexities learners face when they are speaking English

One of those complexities is balancing fluency and accuracy A proficient

speaker is both fluent and accurate Accuracy in this context refers to the ability to

speak properly-that is, selecting the correct words and expressions to convey the

intended meaning, as well as using the grammatical patterns of English Fluency,

on the other hand, is the capacity to speak fluidly, confidently, and at a rate consistent with the norms of the relevant native speech community

An important concept for teachers to understand is that while students are at the beginning and intermediate levels of language learning, that is, while they are still developing their proficiency, fluency and accuracy often work against each other Before grammar rules become automatic and while learners are still acquiring essential vocabulary items, applying the rules and searching one‘s memory for the right words can be laborious mental processes, which slow the learners‘ speech and make them seem dysfluent Likewise, language learners can sometimes speak quickly, without hesitating to apply the rules they have learned, but doing so may

decrease their accuracy (that is, the number of errors they make in speaking may increase)

Below is Hedge‘s description of communicative competence which probably considered as the most elaborate

Linguistic

competence

- to achieve accuracy in the grammatical forms of the language

- to pronounce the forms accurately

- to use stress, rhythm and intonation to express meaning

- to build a range of vocabulary

- to learn the script and spelling rules

- to achieve accuracy in syntax and word formation

Pragmatic

competence

- to learn the relationship between grammatical forms and functions

- to use stress and intonation to express attitude and emotion

- to learn a scale of formality

- to understand and use emotive tone

- to use the pragmatic rules of language

- to select language forms appropriate to topic, listener, etc

- to be able to use cohesive devices in reading and writing texts

- to be able to cope with authentic texts

Strategic

competence

- to be able to take risks in using both spoken and written language

- to use a range of communication strategies

- to learn the language needed to engage in some of these strategies, e.g

―What do you call a thing that/person who…‖

Fluency

- to deal with the information gap of real discourse

- to process language and respond appropriately with a degree of ease

- to be able to respond with reasonable speed in ―real time‖

From the description of communicative competence mentioned above, to teach teaching speaking skill, teachers might have been required to have language

teaching competence including five interrelated fields, that is, linguistic

competence, pragmatic competence or sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, strategic competence and fluency This can be understood that

linguistic competence (syntactic structures, vocabulary, and pronunciation) is not the only requirement of teaching speaking skill However, in English oral classes teachers only spend teaching time in providing the knowledge of linguistic

competence, which causes students‘ failure to unsuccessfully communicate

2.6.2 Difficulties from students

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 unprepared or unwilling

to speak Their reluctance and reticence in English oral classes pose a big challenge for teaching speaking skill

First and foremost, many reasons for learners‘ unwillingness to speak can be enumerated Burns and Joyce identified three groups of factors that are likely to cause reluctance with learners These encompass cultural, linguistic, and affective

factors (Burns and Joyce, 1997) Cultural factors follow from students‘ prior

learning experiences and consequently from the expectations that are formed on

their basis Examples of linguistic factors limiting speaking may be, according to

Burns and Joyce, difficulties in the phonetics and phonology of the target language, poor knowledge of grammatical patterns or low awareness of cultural background and social conventions that are necessary for processing meaning in the target language A low motivation level, timidity or anxiety in class, negative social

experiences, and culture shock are ranked among possible affective factors (134) In

discussing the methodology of speaking, Ur (1997) is also preoccupied with learners‘ problems with speaking activities The difficulties she has encountered in

getting her learners to speak in the class correspond to some of the items such as

mother tongue, inhibition, no ideas to share and problems of participation A

careful investigation into the nature of learners‘ problems with speaking was conducted by Tsui She based her study on ―the classroom action research project reports of thirty-eight ESL teachers‖ These were practising secondary school teachers who enrolled to a two-year in-service teacher training at the University of Hong Kong The results Tsui presented reveal a considerable similarity to those identified by Burns and Joyce, and Ur According to Tsui‘s study, there are five

factors determining learners‘ hesitancy to speak in class: students’ fear of making

mistakes and losing face in front of their peers, students’ low opinion of their own proficiency level, teachers’ intolerance of silence, uneven participation and incomprehensible input

In addition, it is assumed that when people speak in a second or foreign language, they become more apprehensive and tense and thus more unwilling to participate in conversation (Horwitz et al., 1986; MacIntyre & Gadner, 1989) It has been found that many SL/FL students, especially Asian learners, are passive in language classrooms and choose not to use the target language most of the time, especially when responding to teachers (Tsui, 1996) Meanwhile, multiple variables such as low English proficiency, personal traits (i.e., reservedness, shyness, introvertedness) or individual differences (i.e., self-esteem and/or self-perception), and cultural beliefs were found to contribute to student reticence in SL/FL

classrooms

Adopting a quantitative method, MacIntyre and his associates conducted a number of empirical studies and found that communicating in a second language was related to a willingness to engage in L2 communication, motivation for language learning, the opportunity for contact, and the perception of competence, language and anxiety, personality, intellect, the social context, and other variables (MacIntyre & Charos, 1996; MacIntyre et al., 1998; MacIntyre et al., 2001) They also claimed that willingness to communicate was a good predictor for students‘

actual use of the target in communication Based on six interviews of Japanese students at the University of Edinburgh, Dwyer and Heller-Murphy (1996) concluded that the students were reticent in EFL/ESL classrooms due to fear of public failure, fear of making mistakes, lack of confidence, low English proficiency, and inability to keep up with native speakers, incompetence in the rules and norms

of English conversation, disorientation, etc On the basis of the analysis of interviews with 15 lecturers in the university in Hong Kong, Flowerdew et al (2000) also found that the students were rated as passive and reticence learners in the classroom by their lecturers who attributed student reticence to such factors as low English proficiency, fear of being embarrassed in front of other peers, their inability to understand concepts, incomprehensible input, lack of preparation, and the passive learning style acquired during their secondary schooling

All these findings reveal that reticence is a widely-observed phenomenon in SL/FL classrooms However, since wide differences exist in SL/FL language learning situations, to better understand the issue of reticence and enhance the oral proficiency of the target language by promoting students‘ actual participation in classroom activities, more research is needed with different groups of learners in various SL/FL learning situations

2.6.3 Difficulties from objective factors

The objective factors like large and multilevel classes, time constraint and text book also result in the difficulties in teaching speaking skill

Recently, in their minor study, Julie Mathews-Aydinli and Regina Van Horne (2006) have pointed out that multilevel classes can present challenges to teachers, as

it is very difficult to design or organize speaking activities for many learners with different levels and interests The suggested solutions are also presented in their study As for them, there are some things that teachers should follow in order to promote success of multilevel classes not only in speaking lessons but also in other ones

According to the information from the article ―University English classrooms

in Vietnam‖ (2005) by Pham Hoa Hiep, many Vietnamese teachers are conflicted, feeling that their circumstances oppose, or at least, militate against attempts to use communicative practices For example, they have to prepare students for a grammar-based examination, and have to finish certain content in the textbook in a certain amount of time They may have classes of 60 students, many of whom are more concerned about the immediate goal – to pass exams, to get a degree, rather than the long term goal – to develop communicative competence

Moreover, in the article ―Language and Vietnamese Pedagogical Contexts‖ by

Le Van Canh, the author mentioned ―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.‖ The author affirmed that the teacher is always under pressure to cover the allocated syllabus in the time allowed

To conclude, this chapter has reviewed a theoretical framework of difficulties

in teaching English speaking skill including nature of language skills and oral communication, the skill of speaking and difficulties in teaching English speaking skill In the following chapter, the methodology used in the study will be dealt with

2.7 Development approach of speaking skills

In teaching English, teachers may face many of issues that prevent them from a good conduction such as: number of learners, types of learners, size of class, number of learning hours, and types of materials Therefore, the teachers must have

a good grasp of a variety of techniques and procedures through which learners‘ ability can be refined According to Byrne, D (1991:22, 23) there are three phrases

to develop learners‘ oral ability They are briefly presented as follows:

The pre-speaking

In this phase, teachers are the centre It means that they work as an information provider, since they know English, select materials to teach and present the material in such a way that the meaning of the new language items as

memorable as possible as while the learners are motionless 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

 It has been known that this procedure is perfectly and logically arranged However, it is dependent on the learner‘s competence so some steps can be left out It is quite hard for Vietnamese learners to conduct the step ten because they are generally shy and time is limited Nine other steps are used

 Introduce the text New words and structures are given

 provide relevant practice,

 Ask the learners to read the passage in silence and find the answers,

 Ask learners to read again aloud and ask for the answer

 Explain difficulties they still have

 Do silent reading again because the learners need to go on the step nine

 Get the learners to talk about what they have to learner based on the previous

answers

The while-speaking

Unlike the presentation phase, in this phase learners have to do most of the talking Teacher provides maximum amount of practice Practice is usually in the form of activities or exercises to improve fluency of speaking Pair work or group work are used in this phase

The post-speaking

Learners need chances to speak English freely at this phase A real chance to speak English takes place when the learners are able to use English naturally for themselves, not for their teacher Group work plays an important part in making learners practice speaking By doing group work, all learners can have chance to participate in task Time can be saved and learners seem more confident

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

2.8 How speaking skill has been taught to ESL learners

Although several language teaching methods have been used to teach speaking in a second or foreign language, three methods have dominated language teaching in the past 60 years This section first briefly reviews each method and

then focuses specifically on how the method treats the speaking skill of adult learners

The Grammar-Translation Method

In the grammar-translation method, students are taught to analyze grammar and to translate (usually in writing) from one language to another The key instructional goal is to read the literature of a particular culture According to Richards and Rodgers (1986), the main characteristics of the grammar-translation method are:

Reading and writing are the major focus;

The vocabulary studied is determined by the reading texts;

The sentence is the basic unit of teaching and language practice‖;

The primary emphasis is on accuracy;

Teaching is deductive (i.e., grammar rules are presented and then practiced through translating); and

The medium of instruction is typically the students‘ native language

The grammar-translation method does not prepare students to speak English,

so it is not appropriate for nonacademic adult ESL students who want to improve their speaking skill The method is not consistent with the goals of increasing fluency, oral production, or communicative competence of adult ESOL learners In grammar-translation lessons, speaking consists largely of reading translations aloud

or doing grammar exercises orally There are few opportunities for expressing original thoughts or personal needs and feelings in English

The Audio-lingual Method

The audio-lingual method dominated English-language instruction for many years In this method, speaking skill is taught by having students repeat sentences and recite memorized textbook dialogues The theory behind the audio-lingual

method is that students learn to speak by practicing grammatical structures until producing those structures become automatic Then, it is thought, the learners would be able to engage in conversation As a result, ―teaching oral language was thought to require no more than engineering the repeated oral production of structures concentrating on the development of grammatical and phonological accuracy combined with fluency‖ (Bygate, 2001, p 15)

The theoretical basis of the audio-lingual method behaviorist is the concept

of good habit formation This theory proposes that for learners to form good habits, language lessons must involve frequent repetition and correction Teachers address spoken errors quickly, in hopes of preventing students from forming bad habits If errors are left untreated, both the speaker and the other students in class might internalize those erroneous forms There is little or no explanation of vocabulary or grammar rules in audio-lingual lessons Instead, intense repetition and practice are used to establish good speaking habits to the point that they are fluent and automatic

- that is, adult ESOL learners would not have to stop and think about how to form

an utterance before speaking

Audiolingualism ―rapidly lost popularity, partly as a result of the strong theoretical arguments that were advanced against it, but also because the results obtained from classroom practice were disappointing‖ in several ways (Ellis, 1990, p.29) Many learners lost interest in language learning because the pattern practice and audio-lingual drills were boring Adult learners often felt hampered because the method downplayed the explicit teaching of grammar rules In addition, the memorization of patterns ―did not lead to fluent and effective communication in real-life situations‖(p.30)

―While audiolingualism stressed oral skills (evidenced by the amount of time spent in the language laboratory practicing drills), speech production was tightly controlled in order to reinforce correct habit formation of linguistic rules‖ (Lazaraton, 2001, p 103) This sort of tightly controlled practice does not

necessarily prepare learners for the spontaneous, fluid interaction that occurs outside the classroom

Communicative Language Teaching

During the 1970s and 1980s, language acquisition research (and dissatisfaction with the audio-lingual method) made TESOL professionals reconsider some long-standing beliefs about how people learn languages As a result, communicative language teaching arose

CLT is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language

In this method teachers often downplay accuracy and emphasize students‘ ability to convey their messages (Hammerly, 1991) Accuracy is the extent to which the adult ESL learners‘ speech matches the native speaker norms Fluency is the speed, ease, and naturalness with which ESL learners communicate orally Proficient speakers are both fluent and accurate, but at the lower levels, fluency and accuracy often work against one another That is, to be accurate and apply learned rules, adult ESL learners may speak hesitantly or haltingly To be fluent in conversation, they may overlook the time-consuming application of rules The instructional implications are that teachers should not focus only on accuracy, but should use both form-focused and fluency building activities in adult ESL classes

In some language teaching methods, such as Total Physical Response, the focus is on input-based activities In contrast, communicative language teaching methods feature more interaction-based activities, such as role plays and information gap tasks Curricular choices, such as task-based and project-based activities also promote interaction Pair work and group work are typical organizational features of interaction-based lessons in communicative language teaching

Concluding remark

It can be seen that of all the approaches stated above, which have dominated language teaching in the past 60 years throughout the world, the first two, i.e., the Grammar-Translation method and the Audio-lingual method, have proved to remain certian drawbacks in the current teaching of speaking skill, especially that to adult learners, whose characteristics regarding psychology, mindset and ability in learning to speak English require productive methods rather than inactive ones

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Overview of the subjects of the study

In general, the non-English major students do not have the same level of English language proficiency Some of them have learned English for 7 years; some have 3 years of learning English at high school where only written English is taught and some has never learnt English because at secondary and high school, they learnt French or Russian This big gap has a certain effect on the students‘ learning attitudes

They can hardly communicate in English as they often feel shy The students are incapable of using their English to talk in class due to their lack of social knowledge as well as their poor English knowledge, so they keep silent during the lesson Moreover, the traditional methods of teaching of teachers can be the other causes

Also, the students‘ attitudes towards learning have much influence on the effect of teaching Some students think that English is not a major subject and not useful for their future job So the students have born in their mind that the final goal

is to pass the exams In addition, the majority of the students do not have appropriate learning strategies or the habit to learn independently or creatively As a result, they never prepare the lesson at home or review the lesson regularly

At the end of each semester, students have to participate in a final test that

students are required to do at least a midterm test (the number of test depends on teacher) in order to be given marks to be qualified to participate in the final exam

3.1.2 Teachers

Obviously, if students are the most important factor in the learning process, teachers are the most significant factor in the teaching process At VU, there are 20 teachers of English aged from 35 to 60 but none of them have ever been to any English-speaking countries Of 20 teachers, four were trained at Hanoi College of Foreign Languages- Vietnam National University, only one was trained from VU as full-time course, and the rest used to be teachers of Russian, French and Chinese but they took an in-service English course at VU and now work as non-English teachers Eleven out of twenty teachers have been teaching English from 6 years to over 20 years and have acquired considerable pedagogical competence However, the method of teaching, which is applied by most of the teachers at this University,

is a very traditional one – the Grammar Translation method Other methods are rarely used by them In addition, the results of a recent study carried out by the researcher show that non-English major teachers at VU confront a lot of difficulties

in teaching English, especially speaking skill to non-English major students They claimed about many problems in teaching speaking skills in English classes According to them, these problems were originated from themselves-teachers of English, students and objective factors Therefore, it is very necessary for non-English major teachers to find out effective ways to minimize the difficulties in teaching English so as to improve the quality of English speaking lessons

In terms of teacher‘s qualification, two of them have acquired Ph.D degree; twelve have M.A degree (60%), while the rest (30%) have B.A degree and are about doing M.A courses Each teacher has to teach 3 or 4 classes, each of class has

more than 50 students They are required to use the textbook ―New Headway interemediate the third edition ‖ by John and Liz Soars to teach 105 periods of the

Pre-training program

3.1.3 Course book

The teaching material currently used for the non- English major students is the

―New Headway Pre-interemediate the third edition ‖ by John and Liz Soars

This textbook treats the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing thoroughly and combines traditional methods of language teaching and more recent communicative ones

The 12-unit textbook is programmed to be taught in 2 semesters as presented below in Table 3.1

Table 3.1: Distribution of Time and Units in 2 Semesters

There are 12 units, each accompanies with a topic familiar to learners and includes such parts as grammar, vocabulary, practice exercises and communicative skills However, the course book appears to focus on grammar and grammar exercises other than communication skills This can be easily noticed on the very first page of the book, which presents each unit with a topic and all grammar items

it is about, without any skills named As considerations go further to contents of each unit, this seems to be proved right Activities for speaking skill, for example, are not found to appear until unit three To be more detailed, all activities and topics

or drills in terms of speaking skill in the course book are presented as the following

Semester

The number

of credits

Time (50- minute lesson

1 3 45 lesson periods per 15 weeks 1-5 New Headway

interemediate the third edition

Pre-2 4 60 lesson periods per 15 weeks 6-12

Table 3.2: Speaking activities and topics/drills in the course book “New

Headway Pre-interemediate the third edition”

1 None

2 None

3 Story telling Stories

4 Discussion The main shopping center in the

world

6 Pair work Things comparision

Discussion Money, life, work

7

8 Discussion Jobs for boys and girls

9 Information gap Famous people

10 Text completion First conditional

Discussion Science Technology

11

Text completion Phrasal verbs

Second conditional Discussion Dream and Reality

12 Pair work Exchanging information

It can be learned from the table that the variety of speaking activities is limited, with discussion as the most common It therefore depends very much on teachers‘ experience and enthusiasm to design speaking activities that motivate students and improve their speaking ability

3.2 Methods of the study

This study is conducted as a qualitative and quantitative study, in which, interviews questionnaire are used to collect data One of the outstanding features of the quantitative methodology is its objectivity According to Burns (1999), the quantitative approach is employed when the researcher aims at attaining objectivity

and control as it is held that it can ―offer ways of testing hypothesis that are widely

accepted or standardized‖ (1999:22) Hence, to obtain an overview of difficulties in

teaching and learning speaking skill in English classes experienced by teachers and students at VU, a survey will be conducted among the teachers Moreover, to have a comprehensive picture, a similar questionnaire will be delivered to the first-year non-English students in the 2nd term

However, according to Burns (1999), qualitative research is the methodology

of studying the participants‘ opinion, actions and experiences through interview, observation and published information One strong point of the qualitative method

is that the collected data is usually ―extensive‖ and ―detailed‖ (Burns, 1999:23) For

these reasons, the author would like to carry out in-depth interviews with a number

of teachers and students so as to gain deep understanding of difficulties in teaching English speaking skill to non-English major students at VU Their insights are of great use for the process of analyzing data

3.2.1 Participants

In order to get information to fulfill the aims of the study, first and foremost, the survey was conducted among two different groups of subjects The first questionnaire was administered to 20 teachers who teach English to non-English major students at

VU The researcher selected them as the subjects of the study with the hope to find out the difficulties they encounter in teaching English speaking skill to non-English major students at VU

The second questionnaire was administered to 100 non-English major students

at VU They were chosen from two classes- NN1-111, NN1-112 at the end of the