The students’ questionnaire is constructed with 10 questions divided into three parts. Part I refers to students’ background of learning English and their reasons for learning English, Part II includes 4 questions about students’ attitudes towards learning English speaking skill as well as their difficulties in speaking English.
Eliciting student’s attitudes towards communicative activities is the content of Part III, which consists of 4 questions. The students’ difficulties in practising communicative activities are discovered in the Part IV with one open question.
4.1.1.1. Students‟ background of learning English
The questionnaires reveal the students’ time of learning English. 82% of the students have learnt English for 5 years. The students learning English for 7 years account for 16%. In addition, 2% of the students have learnt English for 10 years.
The statistical result points out that the numbers of the students who start learning English at kindergarten and primary schools is small and the majority of students start learning English at secondary school.
Figure 1: Students’ time of learning English 82%
16% 2%
5 years 7years 10years
The result draws out that the students at Do Luong 1 High School are various in English learning conditions and time of learning English. They live mainly in rural areas so they do not have condition to learn English earlier. This leads to the low quality of learning English and it is reason why the students are not good at learning English.
4.1.1.2 Students‟ reasons for learning English Question 1: Why do you learn English?
90%
10%
95%
4% 6%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
To be a compulsory subject in curriculum
To get a good job in the future
To pass the examinations
To communicate with foreigners
To entertain yourself (listen to songs, read books and magazines in English)
Figure 2: Students’ reasons for learning English
The aim of question 1 shows the reason of learning English. The data collection identifies that 95% of the students give their opinion that reason for learning English is to pass the examinations but 90% of them agree the reason why they learn English is that English is a compulsory subject in the curriculum. The result reveals that a greater number of the students in this school are not really motivated in learning English. They do not really enjoy learning English. In addition, the statistics show that 10% of them learn English because they think it is helpful to get a good job in the future. Moreover, 4% of the students give the reason of learning English is to communicate with the foreigners. Lastly, only 6% of the students state that they learn English to entertain themselves such as listening to songs, reading books, and magazines in English. The result shows that the majority of students learn English because it is a compulsory subject. It is easy to understand that the motivation of students in learning English is not high. It is an obstacle in teaching English to the teachers at Do Luong1 High School.
4.1.1.3 Students‟ attitudes towards learning speaking skill
Question 2: How interested do you feel in speaking English classes?
Questions 2 is designed to discover the students’ attitude towards speaking skill. When being asked about their interest in speaking English in class, only 10%
of students say they are very interested; 15% of them are rather interested in speaking English. In addition, 57% of the students reveal that they are not interested at all. Lastly, 18% of the students suppose that they are little interested in speaking English in class.
Figure 3: Students’ interest in speaking English
In conclusion, the numbers of students who are not completely interested in speaking English are largest. The result reveals the students’ motivation in speaking English is not high. If they do not like learning, they can not learn the subject well.
Hence, the teacher should provide interesting methods to elevate the students’
motivation and interest in learning English; especially, in learning speaking skill.
Question 3: How often do you speak English in class?
Very often Sometimes Rarely Hardly
15% 50% 35%
0%
Table 1: Students’ frequency of speaking English
In the survey, when answering question 3 “How often do you speak English in class?”, 50 out of 105 said “Sometimes”. Only 15% of the students answer that they
10%
15%
18%
57%
Very intersed Rather interested Little interested Not interested at all
usually speak English in class. More surprisingly, the writer found that the number of students who rarely speak English in class is not small (35%). This also shows a big question for the teachers of English and the reasons why they do not participate much in the activities.
Question 4: When do you often speak English at school?
This question is to find out the reasons for speaking of students in classroom.
Figure 4 is showed to demonstrate the result.
26% 12%
62%
They talk with their friends in class
Their teacher asks them
They are interested in the topic and activities
Figure 4: Reasons for speaking of students in class
The chart in Figure 4 shows that about 65 out of 105 students admitted talking with friends in class and 27 students said that they only spoke when they were asked to do so by their teachers. At the same time, very few students (8 of them) spoke English when they were interested in the topic and speaking activities
In order to clarify the answer to question 5 relating to the students’ difficulties while speaking English, Table 2 show the reasons.
4.1.1.4 Factors that make the students difficult to speak
Question 5: Do you have any difficulties in English speaking lessons
Options %
being afraid of losing face 58%
not getting used to speaking English 54%
not paying much attention to speaking skill 25%
low level of English language proficiency 70%
introversion (shy, timid and reserved) 70%
unable to find words or structures 80%
unable to find ideas 85%
not enough time for preparation 56%
too much teachers’ talking time 8%
others: ……… 0
Table 2: Factors that make the students difficult to speak
As we can see from the table, Question 5 focuses on the factors that make the students difficult to speak English. When the students are asked whether they have any difficulties in English speaking lessons, all of them say “yes”. Moreover, Question 5 also includes the causes that make the students difficult to speak in class.
The statistical data presents that 58% of the students are afraid of losing face in front of the teachers and classmates if they do not speak correctly. 54% of the students give the opinion that the factors, which make them difficult in speaking English in class is that they are not accustomed to speaking English in class. More importantly, 70% of the students agree that introversion (shy, timid, reserved) and low levels of English language proficiency are the causes that make the students difficult to speak in class. Furthermore, only 25% of the students do not paying much attention to speaking skill so they are afraid of speaking English.
In addition, the biggest factor that prevents the students from speaking English in class is lack of words or structures to speak. About 80% of the students state that
their poor vocabulary and lacking structures are obstacles for their expressing ideas, 85% of the students admit the difficulty in speaking English is lacking of ideas, 56% of them complain about the time limitation for preparations before speaking.
Another fact claimed by 8% of the students is that the teachers talk most of the time in the lessons and it is the reason why the students have not had the habits of speaking English in class.
In summary, from the results above, the students’ lack of ideas and poor vocabulary and structures are the biggest causes, which make the students difficult to speak in class. In addition, the teachers talk most of the time in the lessons is the lowest cause. Hence, the teachers need take notice of the difficulties of the students in order to help the students to improve their speaking abilities in the speaking lessons.
4.1.1.5 Students‟ attitudes towards communicative activities
The students’ attitudes toward communicative activities is shown through answers to questions 6 to 9.
Variables
Questions A B C D E F G
Kinds of communicati
ve activity
38%
Discussi on
29%
Intervie ws
66%
Using song
5%
Discour se chain
30%
Role play
80%
Communicat ive games
57%
Questi on and answer Table 3: Kinds of communicative activities that students like to take part in
Question 6 helps teachers know more about the kinds of communicative activities that students were fond of participating in. The collected data shows that communicative games and using songs are those that students liked to take part in most. They highly recommend using songs in speaking activities to cheer up the stressful atmosphere; also songs can draw their attention to the main speaking activities. Most of the student participants believed discussion and question and
answer as the feasible activities to take part in. They also approved the use of role- play and interviews but disapproved the application of discourse chain because discourse chain was thought to be merely suitable for gifted students of English in class not for all students. Therefore, ordinary students were not competent enough to take part in such a challenging activity.
The abovementioned ideas are some general findings on the kinds of communicative activities that most students prefer. Together with students’ interest in specific kinds of communicative activities, these will be taken into consideration in order to propose suitable suggestions for the use of communicative activities for 10th grade students.
4.1.1.6 Students‟ difficulties in practising communicative activities
The last question concerns the students difficulties in practising communicative activities.
Variables
Question A B C D E
Difficulties in practicing communicative
activities
67%
lack of vocabulary
5%
being afraid of
making mistakes
5%
fear for being criticized or
losing face
10%
feel shy while speaking
13%
have nothing
to say
Table 4: Students’ difficulties in practising communicative activities It can be recognized from Table 4 that among 105 students, 67% agreed that the biggest problem for them was lack of vocabulary to express their opinions. In addition, the number of students, which accounts for 33% had to face some psychological difficulties such as shyness, fear for being criticized, losing face or making mistakes, etc.