Nghiên cứu về các yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến động lực học nói tiếng anh của học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT yên định 1

ABSTRACTThis study is an attempt to investigate factors affecting motivation in speaking English ofthe 10th grade students at Yendinh 1 high school.. The main purposes of the study are t

First of all, I wish to send my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Pham Minh Hien, M.A forher valuable guidance, helpful suggestions and critical feedback throughout the research.Also, I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to all the lecturers in the Department ofPostgraduate Studies, College of Foreign languages, VNU for their useful lessons fromwhich I have benefited a lot for the accomplishment of this study

I am greatly indebted to my students from class 10A1 to class 10A5 and my colleagues atYendinh 1 high school for their participation and assistance without which this study couldnot have been successful

Last but not least, I would like to express my special thanks to my loving parents, myhusband, my daughter and my close friends who offered me their love, care, support andencouragement so that I could accomplish my study

ABSTRACT

This study is an attempt to investigate factors affecting motivation in speaking English ofthe 10th grade students at Yendinh 1 high school The main purposes of the study are tofind out: types of motivation possessed by grade 10 students at Yendinh 1 high school,factors affecting students’ motivation in speaking English, activities and techniquesapplied by teachers and students’ preference and then give some suggested solutions forteachers to stimulate students to speak and overcome the difficulties they face with inteaching speaking

The study consists of three parts Part A, the introduction, states the rationale, aims, scope,design and methods of the research Part B is divided into three chapters Chapter 1reviews theoretical background relating to motivation and speaking Chapter 2 presents theinstrumentation, data collection and data analysis Chapter 3 summarizes some majorfindings and discussion, and then gives recommendations to the teachers of English Part

C, the conclusion, points out some limitations and give some suggestions for further study

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LISTS OF TABLES AND CHARTS vi

PART A- INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research Questions 2

4 Methods of the study 2

5 Scope of the study 3

6 Significance of the study 3

7 Design of the study 3

PART B DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Theoretical background of motivation in L2 learning 5

1.1.1 Definition of motivation 5

1.1.2 Types of motivation 6

1.1.2.1 Integrative and instrumental motivation 6

1.1.2.2 Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation 7

1.1.2.3 Resultative motivation 8

1.1.3 Factors affecting motivation in L2 learning 8

1.2 Theoretical background of speaking in L2 learning 12

1.2.1 Definition of speaking 12

1.2.2 Approaches to the teaching of speaking 13

1.2.3 The roles of the teacher in different stages of teaching speaking 14

1.2.4 Motivation in speaking in classroom 15

CHAPTER 2 THE STUDY 18

2.1 Introduction 18

2.2 Situation analysis 18

2.2.1 The setting of the study 18

2.2.2 Subjects 19

2.2.3 Speaking materials 20

2.2.4 Applying techniques and activities of CLT in teaching speaking at Yendinh 1 high school 22

2.3 Participants 23

2.4 Data collection instruments 23

2.4.1 Survey Questionnaires 23

2.4.1.1 Questionnaires for students 24

2.4.1.1.1 Pre-treatment questionnaire 24

2.4.1.1.2 Post-treatment questionnaire 24

2.4.1.2 Questionnaire for teachers 24

2.4.2 Interviews 24

2.4.3 Class observations 25

2.5 Data collection procedures 25

2.6 Data analysis 26

2.6.1 Results from students’ pre- treatment questionnaire 26

2.6.2 Results from students’ post-treatment questionnaire 37

2.6.3 Results from teacher’s survey questionnaire 45

CHAPTER 3 MAJOR FINDINGS, DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS .53 3.1 Major findings and discussions 53

3.1.1 Types of motivation possessed by Grade 10 students at Yendinh 1 high school53 3.1.2 Factors affecting Grade 10 students in learning speaking English 53

3.1.3 Speaking motivational activities and techniques employed by teachers and students’ preferences 55

3.1.4 Teachers and students’ comments on speaking activities in Tieng Anh 10 textbook 55

3.2 Recommendations for motivating students to speak English in class 56

3.2.1 Promoting the students’ internal factors 56

3.2.2 Varying speaking activities 57

3.2.3 Managing speaking turns in class 58

3.2.4 Setting up a co-operative atmosphere in class 58

3.2.5 Combining the textbook and relevant materials 59

3.2.6 Recognizing the potential value of available facilities of the school and the

Internet 59

3.2.7 Being enthusiastic, tolerant, helpful, creative and active 60

PART C CONCLUSION 61

1 Summary of the study 61

2 Limitations and suggestions for further study 61

REFERENCES 63 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 VI APPENDIX 3 XII APPENDIX 4 XIII APPENDIX 5 XVI APPENDIX 6 XVIII

APPENDIX 7 XXII

LISTS OF TABLES AND CHARTS

1 List of tables

Table 1 Types of motivations 27

Table 2 Factors making students reluctant to speak English in class 33

Table 3 Factors preventing students’ speaking process 34

Table 4 Factors encouraging students to speak 40

Table 5 Activities applied by the teachers and student’s preference 42

Table 6 What teachers do to motivate students to take part in speaking activities 44

Table 7 Teacher’s opinions on students’ motivation of the speaking stages 46

Table 8 Problems teachers facing in teaching speaking 46

Table 9 Activities applied by teachers by frequency 47

Table 10 Speaking activities applied by teachers 48

Table 11 Techniques applied by teachers 49

Table 12 Teacher’s evaluation on speaking skill of Tieng Anh 10 textbook 51

2 List of charts Chart 1 Students’ average marks in the first semester 26

Chart 2 Students’ perceived importance of English 29

Chart 3 Students’ attitude to learn English speaking 30

Chart 4 Students’ effort in learning speaking 30

Chart 5 Students’ desire to learn English speaking 31

Chart 6 Students’ interest in learning speaking 31

Chart 7 Students’ frequency of speaking English in class time 32

Chart 8 Students’ reluctance of speaking English 33

Chart 9 Students’ opinions on the topics of Tieng Anh 10 textbook 35

Chart 10 Students’ opinions on the speaking tasks of Tieng Anh 10 textbook 36

Chart 11 Students’ results after the treatment 39

Chart 12 Activities enjoyed most by students 43

PART A- INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

In recent decades, English has been more and more important in Vietnam The importance

of English is not only in how many people speak it but also in what it is used for Besidethe native language is popularly used in all fields of the society, English is now widelyknown as the major language of intercommunication, international commerce andbusiness, science and technology and so on Thus, people with good English proficiencyare extremely needed in any fields of society As a result, there has been a positive trend ofteaching and learning English across the country People, from children to adults, learnEnglish with different purposes Children learn English because of the requirement of theirparents and school Students learn English to pass the exams, to study abroad or to find agood job in the future Adults learn English in order to be able to communicate withforeigners or do business In general, despite deriving from different purposes, every onewants to turn English to become their own instrument in their lives

In the process of teaching and learning English, there are many factors affecting thesuccess of language learners such as aptitude, age, personality, motivation and so on,among which motivation plays an important role Researchers on motivation have pointedout that learners who are highly motivated can learn a foreign language better than thosewho are not and vice versa This is true for both children and adult learners

With 5 years of experience in teaching English at high school, I have realized thatmotivation is one of the key factors that determine students’ success or failure in languagelearning For teaching and learning speaking skill, the great impact of motivation is not anexception It is undeniable that if the students are motivated, especially from the warm- upstage, their speaking will be completed more successful and their difficulties in speakingwill no longer exist

This is the reason why I choose studying on factors affecting motivation in speakingEnglish of grade 10 students is the topic for my minor thesis This study will examinetypes of motivation that students have in speaking and point out some factors affected theirmotivation to speak It also investigates the activities and techniques applied by teachers,students’ preferences and demands, and some difficulties teachers faced in teachingspeaking The researcher hopes that this study will figure out a concrete picture of

motivation in speaking English of grade 10 students at Yendinh 1 high school and it will be

of help for teachers who want to increase students’ motivation in speaking Englishlearning

2 Aims of the study

The aims of the study are to investigate the factors affecting motivation in learningspeaking English of the 10th grade students at Yendinh 1 high school Some main purposescovering the study are summarized as follows:

(1) To identify types of motivation possessed by grade 10 students at Yendinh 1 high school.

(2) To point out some factors affecting students’ motivation in speaking English.

(3) To examine some activities and techniques applied by teachers and students’ preferences.

(4) To give some suggestions for teachers to stimulate students in speaking English and overcome the difficulties they have to face with in teaching speaking English for grade 10 students.

3 Research Questions

1 What are the types of motivation possessed by Grade 10 students in learning speakingEnglish?

2 What are the factors affecting Grade 10 students in learning speaking English?

3 What are teachers and students’ attitudes towards speaking skill?

4 What have teachers done to motivate students in learning speaking English?

5 What are teachers and students’ opinions on Tieng Anh 10 textbook?

4 Methods of the study

To carry out the study, quantitative method was mainly used The data collected for thestudy come from two sources: the 10th grade students and all teachers of English atYendinh 1 high school

Survey questionnaires, two for students (pre- and post-treatment questionnaire) and one forteachers, were used to gather information and evidence for the study

In addition, to make the data collected more reliable and authentic, qualitative method wasapplied with two instruments: a follow up interview and an informal observation

All the comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion provided in the study werebased on the data analysis of the study.

5 Scope of the study

Studying motivation and its effects on the second language have been paid attention bymany researchers so far This study only investigates factors affecting motivation inspeaking English of grade 10 students at Yendinh 1 high school Because of the limitedtime and within an M.A minor thesis, the researcher intends to make a brief view of thecurrent situation of teaching and learning English speaking skill of the 10th grade students

at Yendinh 1 high school; identifies factors affecting their speaking stimulation; examinestechniques and activities used by teachers and students’ preferences and demands; thensuggests some recommendations for teachers to encourage students to speak English andovercome difficulties in teaching speaking

6 Significance of the study

First, the information about types of motivation possessed by grade 10 students in thisminor thesis is believed to be useful for the teachers of English in general and teachers ofEnglish at Yendinh 1 high school in particular

Second, identifying some factors affecting students’ motivation in speaking English,pointing out students’ preferences and demands to activities and techniques applied byteachers are believed to be helpful for all teachers when teaching speaking

Third, giving some recommendations for teachers to motivate students to speak Englishand overcome obstacles and difficulties in teaching speaking is expected to be beneficial

7 Design of the study

The study is divided into three parts: the Introduction, the Development and theConclusion

Part A: Introduction- deals with the rationale, aims, scope, methods, significance and

design of the study

Part B: Development- consists of three chapters.

Chapter 1- Literature Review- is intended to give some theoretical background related to

motivation and speaking

Chapter 2- The Study- presents the situation analysis, participants, data collection

instruments, data collection procedures and data analysis The detailed results of the surveyand a comprehensive analysis on the data collected are focused

Chapter 3- Major findings, discussions and recommendations- shows major findings

and discussions and offers some recommendations for teachers to motivate students tospeak and overcome some difficulties teachers meet in teaching speaking

Part C: Conclusion- is a review of the study, suggestions for further research and

limitations of the study

an L2’ (Ellis, 1997: 75) Woolfolk (2001: 366) also defined motivation as ‘an internal statethat arouses, directs and maintains behavior’ Similarly, Brown (2000: 160) indicated that

‘motivation is some kind of internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order toachieve something’

It can be seen that different researchers approach motivation definition in different ways.However, they all share the same point of view that motivation combines effort and desireplus favorable and occurs as a result of a combination of internal and external influences.This research, therefore, will follow the definition of motivation proposed by Gardner(1982: 132- 147) that motivation is perceived to be composed of three elements Theseinclude effort, desire and affect Effort refers to the time spent studying the language andthe drive of the learner Desire indicates how much the learner wants to become proficient

in the language, and affect illustrates the learner’s emotional reactions with regard tolanguage study

‘integrative motivation typically underlines successful acquisition of a wide range ofregisters and a nativelike pronunciation’(Finegan, 1999:568) and an integrative orientationinvolves an interest in learning an L2 because of ‘a sincere and personal interest in thepeople and culture represented by the other language group’(Lambert 1974:98- cited inEllis, 1997).

 Instrumental motivation

Instrumental motivation, on the contrary, is something which concerns ‘the practical valueand advantages of learning a new language’ (Lambert 1974: 98- cited in Ellis, 1997) andwhich is characterized by ‘the wish to learn the language for purposes of study or careerpromotion’ (Ur, 1996: 276) and the desire to obtain something practical or concrete fromthe study of a second language (Hudson, 2000) With instrumental motivation, the purpose

of language acquisition is more utilitarian, such as meeting the requirements for school oruniversity graduation, applying for a job, requesting higher pay based on language ability,reading technical material, translation work or achieving higher social status Instrumentalmotivation is often characteristic of second language acquisition, where little or no socialintegration of the learner into a community using the target language takes place, or insome instances is even desired

 Integrative vs Instrumental Motivation

While both integrative and instrumental motivation are essential elements of success, it isintegrative motivation which has been found to sustain long- term success when learning a

second language (Ellis 1997) Those who do support an integrative approach to languagestudy are usually more highly motivated and overall more successful in language learning.However, it has been found that generally students select instrumental reasons morefrequently than integrative reasons for the study of language One area where instrumentalmotivation can prove to be successful is in the situation where the learner is provided with

no opportunity to use the target language and therefore, no chance to interact withmembers of the target group Lukmani (1972) found that an instrumental orientation wasmore important than an integrative orientation in non- westernized female learners of L2English in Bombay (cited in Ellis, 1997) Therefore, ‘a learner with instrumentalmotivation is more interested in how the language can be a useful instrument towardsfurthering other goals, such as gaining a necessary qualification or improving employmentprospects’ (Littlewood, W 1998: 57)

1.1.2.2 Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation

Motivation can be intrinsic or extrinsic Intrinsic motivation, generally, refers to the fact ofdoing an activity for itself, pleasure and satisfaction derived from participation (Deci andRyan, 1985) Contrary to intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation pertains to a widevariety of behaviors that are engaged in as a means to an end and not for their own sake(Deci and Ryan, 1985) Schulz (1991:18) said that the concept of extrinsic motivationreferred to the extent to which the learning environment (i.e the teacher, materials,curriculum, learning tasks etc.) contributed to or detracted from intrinsic motivation of thelearner to acquire a language

Intrinsic motivation is possessed by people having personal interest in doing somethingand helping to set their goals People are intrinsically motivated not because accomplishingthe activity they do to bring a reward, but because doing the activity itself is a reward.Some linguistics noted that a student with intrinsic motivation participated in his/ herlearning for its own sake, for the enjoyment it provided, the learning it permitted, or thefeelings of accomplishment it evoked The feelings of competence and self- determinationare significant factors of intrinsic motivation Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand,derives from an anticipation of rewards such as praise, awards, prizes, evaluation and fearfor punishment An extrinsically motivated student does the activity in order to obtainsome reward or avoid some punishment external to the activity itself, and this kind of

motivation refers to learning situations where the reason for doing a task is somethingother than an interest in the task itself In addition, undertaking the task may be somethingthe person feels pressured to do rather than genuinely wants to do Deci and Ryan state thatlearners will lose motivation and reason to do something when rewards are no longeravailable and that giving external rewards to them previously with intrinsic motivation canharm the good effect of it However, some researchers show that extrinsic motivation iseffective for those with no motivation, and when it is a positive feedback.

In short, it becomes clear that intrinsic motivation produces more potential benefits thanthe extrinsic Intrinsically motivated students tend to try harder and think more deeply thanextrinsically motivated ones

1.1.2.3 Resultative motivation

In some cases, motivation is the result of learning Hermann (1980) stated that ‘it issuccess that contributes to motivation rather than vice- versa’ (cited in Ellis, 1997)

Ellis (1997) also concluded that ‘the relationship between motivation and achievement is

an interactive one A high level of motivation does stimulate learning, but perceivedsuccess in achieving L2 goals can help to maintain existing motivation and even createnew types Conversely, a vicious circle of low motivation = low achievement= lowmotivation can develop’

1.1.3 Factors affecting motivation in L2 learning

1.1.3.1 Dornyei’s extended motivational framework.

Dornyei (2001:112- 113) analyzed L2 learning motivation within a framework of threelevels, which offers a vast list of motivational components;

(1) Language level involves factors related to the L2 such as the culture, thecommunity as well as practical values and benefits connected with learning L2.(2) The learner level involves individual characteristics that the learner brings to thelearning process These characteristics include learners’ self- confidence, self-efficacy, need for achievements, causal attributions, the perceived L2 competences,and goal orientations and so forth

(3) Learning situation level is associated with situation- specific motives of L2 learningwithin a classroom and it is divided into three aspects The first is course- specificmotivational components which are related to the syllabus, the teaching

materials, the teaching method and the learning tasks The second is specific motivational components which concern the motivational impact of theteacher’s personality, behavior and teaching style And the third is group-specific motivational components which are related to the group dynamics ofthe learner group.

teacher-1.1.3.2 Williams and Burden’s framework of the L2 motivation

Williams and Burden (1997) analyzed L2 learning motivation in a framework of twofactors: internal and external Internal factors encompass various components such asintrinsic interest of activity, perceived value of activity, sense of agency, mastery, self-concept, attitudes, developmental age, stage and gender and other affective states(confidence, anxiety, fear) External factors include significant others (parents, teachersand peers); the nature of interaction with significant others (mediated learning experiences,the nature and amount of feedback rewards, the nature and amount of appropriate praise,punishments and sanctions); the learning environment (sense of comfort, resources, time ofday, week, year, size of class and school, class and school ethos) and the broader context(which includes wider and family networks, local education system, conflicting interests,cultural norms and societal expectations and attitudes) (Cited in Dornyei, 2001: 114)

1.1.3.3 Factors affecting student motivation in L2 learning

There have been some studies on the factors affecting students’ motivation in learning aforeign language so far Above are two L2 motivation frameworks that refer to somefactors such as language level, learner level, learning situation level (Dornyei, 2001) andinternal and external factors (Williams and Burnden, 1997) Although researchers have hadsome different views in this issue, they all have come to an agreement with a list ofcommon factors affecting students’ motivation These factors can be divided into threegroups: teacher’s factors, students’ factors and learning condition factors

 Students’ factors

The first factors are students’ intelligence and aptitude Intelligence, according toLightbown and Spada (1999: 52), refers to ‘performance on certain kinds of test’ andaptitude is something which ‘involves both underlying language learning capacity and acapacity to handle decontextualized language’ (Ellis, 1997: 522) Lightbown and Spadaalso point out that language aptitude is usually described as a combination of four factors:

(1) the ability to identify and memorize new sounds, (2) the ability to understand thefunction of particular words in sentences, (3) the ability to figure out grammatical rulesfrom language samples and (4) the ability to memorize new words (1999: 53).

The second is students’ personality In the eyes of many language teachers, the personality

of the students constitutes a major factor contributing to success or failure in languagelearning Ellis (1997) has proved that extroverted learners are advantaged in thedevelopment of the kind of language associated with basis interpersonal communicationskills and that extroverted learners may also be more likely to participate actively in oralcommunication (1997: 523) Shared the same view with Ellis, Lightbown and Spada list anumber of personality characteristics that have a great influence on the success of secondlanguage learners: extroversion, inhibition, self- esteem, empathy, dominance,talkativeness and responsiveness (1999: 54- 55)

The third factor is learners’ age Children are believed to be better than adults in acquiring

an L2 in general and in speaking a new language with native- like fluency in particular.Some researchers argued that late starters may be able to learn the syntax and thevocabulary of a second language, but that attaining a native-like pronunciation isimpossible for them Also, they concluded that younger learners have a greater chance ofattaining native-like proficiency in the L2, older learners may show faster progress at thebeginning, but are probably surpassed by the young ones in the end

The fourth factor is learning style The term ‘learning style’ refers to the characteristicways in which individuals orientates to problem- solving Keefe (1979) definedlearning style as ‘the characteristic cognitive, affective and physiological behaviors thatserve as relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with and respond

to the learning environment… Learning style is a consistent way of functioning thatreflects underlying causes of behavior’ (cited in Ellis, 1997: 499)

The last factor is learners’ belief Most learners have strong beliefs about howlanguages are learnt, how their instruction should be delivered Little, Singleton andSilvius found out ‘past experience, both of education in general and of languagelearning in particular, played a major role in shaping attitudes to language learning’(cited in Ellis, 1997: 478- 479)

 Teacher’s factors

Teacher plays an important role in students’ learning motivation As a matter of fact, someteacher’s factors and appropriate teacher behaviors will increase students to motivate inlearning

Dornyei (2001) pointed out some teacher’s factors affecting students’ motivation:appropriate teacher behavior, teacher’s enthusiasm and a good relationship with thestudents

Firstly, appropriate teacher behavior in classroom is very important It is considered apowerful ‘motivational tool’ Alison (1993) stated that teacher’s behavior could ‘persuade’

or ‘attract’ students to engage in on- task behaviors (cited in Dornyei 2001: 120) ‘Theteacher should be a patient, encouraging person who supports students’ learning efforts.Students should feel comfortable taking intellectual risks because they know that they willnot be embarrassed or criticized if they make a mistake’ (Good and Brophy, 1994 - cited inDornyei, 2001: 121)

Secondly, teacher’s good relationship with the student is also a key element of motivation

in student learning The teacher should establish the relationship of mutual trust andrespect with students This relationship also involves finding opportunities to talk withthem on a personal level and letting them know that teachers have thought about them andthat their individual effort is recognized (Dornyei, 2001: 120)

The third factor is teacher’s enthusiasm Csikzentmihalyi (1997) said that teachers needed

to be ‘enthused and involved in the teaching process and in the material they are teaching’(cited in Dornyei, 2001: 178) Csikzentmihalyi also points out that enthusiastic teachers arethe ones who love what they are doing, who show by their dedication and their passion thatmake students willing to pursue knowledge (cited in Dornyei, 2001: 177- 178)

The last factor is teacher’s commitment to the students’ academic progress Teachersshould care for what their students have learnt and succeeded (Dornyei, 2001) Theyshould also offer concrete assistant, responding immediately when help is requested,correcting tests, arranging extra- assignments and so on

In short, teacher’s attitude, behavior as well as the general level of their commitmenttowards the students, their learning and their subject matter, constitute some of the mostprevailing influences on student motivation Dornyei says that ‘teachers are the designatedleaders of the class group’ and therefore, they cannot lack their responsibility for

maintaining their own commitment to the teaching process because the lack of thisresponsibility will cause ‘psychological absence’ from teaching process, which is thefastest way to undermine the motivational base of the learners.

 Teaching and learning condition

Teaching and learning condition involves classroom atmosphere and physical condition

A pleasant and supportive classroom atmosphere will create motivation; it encouragesstudents to express their opinions and thinking MacIntyre (1999) and Young (1999)pointed out that students’ anxiety created by a tense classroom climate was one of the mostpotent factors that undermined learning effectiveness and L2 motivation (cited in Dornyei,2001: 121)

Physical conditions are important, too Physical conditions refer to something in classroomsuch as classroom’s size, classroom’s facilities (chairs, desks, tables, electric facilities…).Hammer (1992) stated that physical conditions had great impact on students’ learning aswell as their attitude towards the subject matter Physical condition affects both teacher andstudents’ motivation The large class, the poor facilities will decrease the relationshipbetween teacher and students, and as a result, will decrease motivation

1.2 Theoretical background of speaking in L2 learning

Bygate (1997) stated that speaking was a skill which deserved attention every bit as much

as literacy skill It is often thought of as a ‘popular’ form of expression that uses theunprestigious ‘colloquial’ register Speaking is in many ways an undervalued skill Perhapsthis is because we can almost all speak, and so take the skill too much for granted In hisown view, Mackey (1965) shows that ‘oral expression involves not only the use of theright sounds in the right patterns of rhythm and intonation, but also a choice of words andinflections in the right order to convey the right meaning’(cited in Bygate, 1997: 5).According to Mackey, for the student who wants to be good at speaking, he/ she has to

choose the right forms, put them in correct order, sound it like native speaker and evenproduce the right meanings

1.2.2 Approaches to the teaching of speaking

 The Grammar- translation Method

In the Grammar- translation method, students are taught to analyze grammar and totranslate from one language to another The Grammar translation method, therefore, doesnot really prepare students to speak English, and it is not entirely appropriate for studentswho want to improve their speaking skills This method is not consistent with the goals ofincreasing English learners’ fluency, oral production, or communicative competence Ingrammar- translation lessons, speaking consists largely of reading translations aloud ordoing grammar exercises orally There are few opportunities for expressing originalthoughts or personal needs and feeling in English (Bailey, 2005: 16)

 The Direct Method and Audiolingualism

The Direct method focused on ‘everyday vocabulary and sentences’ (Richards andRodgers, 1986) and lessons were conducted entirely in the target language The DirectMethod emphasized speaking in that ‘new teaching points were introduced orally’ rather inwriting Also, lessons emphasized speaking and listening, which were practiced ‘in acarefully graded progression organized around question and answer exchanges betweenteachers and students’ (cited in Bailey, 2005: 17)

The Direct Method strongly influenced the development of the Audiolingual Method.Nunan (2003) points out that in Audiolingualism, speaking is taught by having studentsrepeat sentences and recite memorized dialogues from the textbook Repetition drills- ahallmark of the Audiolingual Method- are designed to familiarize students with the soundsand structural patterns of the language Lessons followed the sequence of presentation,practice, and production (cited in Bailey, 2005: 17)

 Communicative Language Teaching

Because the Grammar translation method, the Direct method and Audiolingualism ‘did notlead to fluent and effective communication in real- life situations’, the CommunicativeLanguage Teaching (CLT) evoked The goal of language teaching in the light of CLT is todevelop communicative competence In CLT classroom, learners are encouraged tocontribute as much as they gain, and learn in an independent way CLT favors interaction

among small numbers of learners with a purpose to maximize the time each learner learnsand uses languages, shares information and negotiates meaning Though interactionlearners’ experience can be modified, many kinds of learning strategies made aware andapplied, and especially classrooms move away from teacher- centeredness to learner-centeredness, which is an essential element to raise learners’ motivation in languagelearning CLT features more interaction- based activities, such as role- plays andinformation gap tasks Pair work and group work are typical organizational features ofinteraction- based lessons in CLT.

In summary, among some approaches of the language teaching methods mentioned above,CLT is the most appropriate way to teach students to communicate My minor thesis isabout factors affecting students’ motivation to speak English in class, so what I have tofind out are what affecting students in speaking English and how to motivate them to speakEnglish better In terms of speaking skill, I think that CLT is one of the most effectiveapproaches to teach learners to speak in second language Therefore, I have decided tochoose CLT not any other method to teach speaking and doing my treatment of the study

1.2.3 The roles of the teacher in different stages of teaching speaking

Byrne, D (1986) stated three stages of teaching speaking: the presentation stage, thepractice stage and the production one In each stage, the role of the teacher is different

At the presentation stage, the teacher is considered an informant role The teacherintroduces something new to be learned and present it in such a way that the meaning ofthe new language is as clear and memorable as possible The students listen and try tounderstand At this point of the lesson, the teacher is at the centre of the stage Therefore,teacher’s time spending should be sensible so that the students get enough time to practisethemselves

At the practice stage, it is the students’ turn to do most of the talking while teacher’s maintask is to devise and provide the maximum amount of practice, which must the same time

be both meaningful and memorable The teacher’s role, then, is completely different fromthat at the presentation one The teacher is like the skilful conductor of an orchestra, givingeach of the performers a chance to participate and monitoring their performance to see that

it is satisfactory

At the final stage, the production one, the teacher takes on the role of manager and guide.Students are given opportunities to use language freely Sometimes students can makemistakes at this stage, but mistakes are unimportant The more important is that studentshave chance to use language as they wish, to try to express their own ideas Moreover, theybecome aware that they have learnt something useful to them personally, and areencouraged to go on learning However, students will probably seem to the teacher to lurchbackwards and forwards rather than make steady progress It will not be so easy for theteacher to measure students’ performance as it was at the practice stage, nor is there anyeasy recipe for success So, what is needed is flexibility, tolerance, patience on teacher’spart- and, above all, an understanding of the learners’ difficulties.

To sum up, the teacher through speaking lesson should work as a motivator His/ her rolesclosely relate to the three stages of learning Whatever teacher is doing in the classroom,his/ her ability to motivate the students, to arouse their interest and involve them in whatthey are doing, will be crucial Therefore, some key factors of teacher’s role are teacher’sown performance- the mastery of teaching skills, which depend on teacher’s carefulpreparation; teacher’s selection, and presentation of topics and activities, and, of course,teacher’s own personality, which, in language teaching, must be flexible enough to allowthe teacher to be both authoritative and friendly at the same time

1.2.4 Motivation in speaking in classroom

1.2.4.1 Motivation in the classroom setting

Lightbown and Spada (1999: 57- 58) stated that if the teacher could make classroomsplaces where students enjoy coming because the content is interesting and relevant to theirage and level of ability, where the learning goals was challenging yet manageable andclear, and where the atmosphere was supportive and non- threatening, teachers could make

a positive contribution to students’ motivation to learn Two researchers replicated findingsfrom studies by Graham Crookes and Richard Schmit (1991) and pointed out somepedagogical practices for teachers to motivate students in classroom setting:

- Motivating students into the lesson: At the opening stages of lessons, remarkteachers make about forthcoming activities can lead to higher levels of interest onthe part of the students

- Varying the activities, tasks and materials: Lessons which always consist of thesame routines, patterns and format often lead to a decrease in attention and anincrease in boredom Varying the activities, tasks, and materials can help to avoidthis and increase students’ interest levels.

- Using co- operative rather than competitive goals: Co- operative learning activitiesare those in which students must work together in order to complete a task or solveproblem These techniques will increase the self- confidence of students, includingweaker ones

1.2.4.2 Factors affecting students unwilling to speak in classroom

Tsui (1996) found out five principal factors affecting the reluctance of the student to speak

up in class:

- students’ perceived low proficiency in English

- students’ fear of mistakes and derision

- teachers’ intolerance of silence

- uneven allocation of turns

- The nature of the classroom activities, including irrelevance, overload andrepetitiveness

(cited in Dornyei, 2001: 146)

1.2.4.3 Some conditions for effective motivation in speaking

Nunan (1999) pointed out some preconditions for effective motivation

1 Supportive Environment: including orderly classroom, teacher is skilled inclassroom management; students are nonanxious and feel comfortable taking risks,feedback is positive

2 Appropriate level of difficulty: tasks are neither too easy nor too difficult; studentsknow what they have to do criteria for success are clear

3 Meaningful learning: students know what and why they learn; activities aremeaningful; the relationship between activities and objective is clear; tasks aresequenced so that new tasks build on and extend ones that come before; studentsare given a reason to be in class

4 Strategies: motivational strategy is matched to instructional need; particularstrategies are not overused; teacher uses a range of strategies; there is a learning-how- to- learn dimension to instruction

5 Content: students can relate content to own experience; topics are interesting(Nunan, D 1999: 235)

In conclusion, chapter 1 has presented some theoretical background knowledge related to the topic of the study It has discussed some concepts and ideas concerning to the issue of motivation in general and motivation in L2 study in particular Besides, some different aspects related to speaking were also discussed, especially some aspects related to factors affecting students’ speaking motivation The following chapter will display the detailed description of the methodology, the procedures and the results of the study under the light

of the above discussed theories

CHAPTER 2 THE STUDY2.1 Introduction

There are two parts in this chapter The first part will analyze the situation of the studywith the description of the setting of the study, the subjects, speaking materials, thetechniques and activities teachers applied in teaching speaking and instruments applied tocollect data The second part will offer a comprehensive analysis on the data collectedfrom the survey questionnaires, interviews and class observations

2.2 Situation analysis

2.2.1 The setting of the study

The study was conducted at Yendinh I high school, a rural school of Thanhhoa province.The school has 30 classes with over 80 teachers of different subjects Like other highschools in Vietnam, English was taught here as a compulsory subject Currently, there areten teachers of English and over 1500 students ranged from Grade 10 to grade 12 Most ofstudents come from villages and town in the district

English has been taught as a compulsory subject at Yendinh 1 high school since 1995.However, the teaching of English, especially teaching English speaking for Grade 10 hasmet some difficulties The first difficulty is that English is not paid much attention by most

of students in school About one- fifth of the tenth grade students wish to take universityentrance exam in English, so only they have real interest in learning The second isteachers have to teach in the large size classes There are at least 50 students for each class.Therefore, teaching English speaking is very difficult for teachers Teachers will face withsome problems in monitoring work, giving feedback, setting up communicative tasks aswell as paying attention to all students during class time The third is most of the studentsare not familiar with teaching in English They say that they do not understand if allEnglish lessons are taught in English They also feel quite uncomfortable and pressuredwhen using English to express themselves The last is the lack of materials Materials forreference and self- study are not available There is a library at school but there are notmany books for reference English newspapers and magazines, which are good sources ofcurrent target language, are not available Moreover, some facilities needed for learning

such as computers, projectors … are not enough There are no language labs and libraryInternet for students, too.

In school year 2007- 2008, the students at Yendinh 1 high school had to take part in twosyllabus: the old one was for Grade 12, and the new one was for Grade 10 and Grade 11.The old was acquainted and easy for students because it had been applied in teaching andlearning for over 10 years and its requirement for students was lower than the new Thenew was designed following communicative approach It required students not only expert

in doing grammar exercises but also in practicing multi- skills

Normally, there are only three periods (135 minutes) of studying English every week Yet,

it is not enough for the students to practise and develop their skills as well as to enrich theirbackground knowledge, vocabulary and structure capacity What’s more, English is hardlyused to talk outside class As a result, these factors may affect students’ motivation inlearning English especially in learning English speaking So, it is advisable for the teachers

to employ various techniques to arouse students’ interest in learning English speaking.They, then, may improve their speaking skill and other language skills

2.2.2 Subjects

The study was carried out to investigate factors affecting motivation in speaking English ofGrade 10 students Thus, the subjects of the study are 510 grade 10 students and tenteachers of English at Yendinh 1 high school

 Grade 10 students

Grade 10 students, both male and female, had similar backgrounds, that is, all of themcome from villages or town in the district, finished secondary school with 4 years oflearning English

The students under investigation have just finished the first term of grade 10 school year.Although they have had for over four years of learning English, their English proficiencyhas been very low They all seem to have some knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, theothers such as speaking, listening, writing or reading are very bad It can not deny thatmost students want to learn English well, but their condition, learning environment andtheir capacity do not allow them to do so About two third of them are from farmer families

so that their lives are rather poor Their learning condition, thus, is not equipped enough.Moreover, outside class time, they often help their families with farming and housework.Some of them often have little time for extra-learning and doing homework Added to that,

their parents do not take care of them enough Some parents do not know what English is,what their children are learning and which subject they are studying best Besides, learningenvironment is very important, too When being asked why students at Yendinh 1 highschool are not good at English, most of the teachers agree that they do not have goodenvironment English seems never to be used outside class Furthermore, in Englishlessons, English is used much by teachers and good students The others are lazy orreluctant to talk because they have no effort and aim to learn Some are afraid of talking asthey fear to make mistakes and lose face, and sometimes they fear to get bad marks and bepaid bad attention from teachers By and large, students have few chances to practiseEnglish and to speak it out Added to that, they do not use every condition as well as ability

to learn As a result, their English is very bad, especially their English speaking

 Teachers

Yendinh 1 high school consists of ten teachers of English aged from 24 to 56 All of themhave been teaching at school for at least two years Eight of them have got the UniversityBachelor’ Degree in English, one finished the in- service training course in English 5 yearsago because he used to be the teacher of Russian and only one of them had ever been to anEnglish speaking country As rural teachers, they have few opportunities to upgrade theirteaching and do not have a lot of teaching facilities and materials to help their work.Despite all these advantages, they are helpful, friendly and dedicated teachers Most ofthem want to devote their whole lives for teaching They all have a great desire to acquireknowledge of how to teach English well as well as how to widen their English background.Also, they are always willing to help their students tackle with difficulties in learning

2.2.3 Speaking materials

The main material for English speaking in Grade 10 is a new set of English Tieng Anh 10 It was designed following communicative approach There are five parts ineach unit arranging as follows: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus inwhich a variety of exercises and tasks were compiled for practice Also, there exist aconsolidate unit of which objective is examine how well the students have achieved in theprevious units The content of the new textbook is arranged according to themes Each unitmentions one theme relating to everyday life, which is very useful and practical tostudents’ needs Those themes will be exploited and practised from different skills that areallocated in different periods of forty- five minutes Compared with the old textbook,

textbook-which students are required to master basic grammar rules of the target language and toacquire a certain bulk of vocabulary for translating texts, the new textbook is designed withmuch more practical objectives It develops language skills comprehensively in the targetlanguage, improves communicative competence of students, and helps students be aware

of the learning process, in which linguistic knowledge is the means of learning, not theultimate target of language mastery Furthermore, it provides students with thefundamental but systematic knowledge of English at a suitable level and enriches students’understanding of their own culture and other cultures, especially cultures of Englishspeaking countries

For speaking skill, its aim is to develop students’ speaking competence beginning with arange of the specific information to a complete theme A speaking lesson often includesthree to four tasks The first tasks (task 1 and task 2) provide learners with backgroundknowledge of the topic and help learners develop language specific functions such asexpressing preferences, agreement or disagreement… The next tasks (task 3 or task 4)require students to connect the first two tasks, add some more information and change itinto a complete topic, then talk out with or without the guide of the teacher In eachspeaking lesson, students play a center role, teachers are only facilitators that help andinstruct students with their learning In this case, students play the role of both as thesubject and as the goal of language learning process They will join in activities directlyand actively to acquire the target language For example, topics are introduced to students

by pictures, charts or maps which activate the imagination of students Then, they willhave chances to work in pairs or groups to express their own opinions and ideas about thetopics By that way, students have participated in lesson as an active subject

In short, the new English textbook have proved to be more realistic, relevant andappropriate to the context of teaching and learning English at high schools in Vietnam Itnot only was designed following two approaches in education and in learning a secondlanguage: the learner- centered approach and the communicative approach, of which task-based teaching is the main method, but also provided students with the languagebackground relating to habits, custom and culture… that is easy and helpful for students topractise Certainly, the new English textbook have some advantages as mentioned above

It, however, makes both teachers and students face with great deal of challenges such asinappropriate facilities for teaching and learning, students’ low proficiency, teacher’spassiveness…, which require both teachers and students to overcome

2.2.4 Applying techniques and activities of CLT in teaching speaking at Yendinh 1 high school

As mentioned in chapter 1, CLT method can help individual learners possesses uniqueinterests, styles, needs and goals that should be reflected in the design of instructionalmethods (Savignon, 1983), so learners can feel secure, unthreatened, and non- defensive in

a CLT classroom The researcher, therefore, depending on some advantages of CLT andderiving from the requirements in teaching and learning of the new textbook- Tieng Anh

10, applied CLT in teaching speaking English at Yendinh 1 high school as the way toincrease students’ motivation Following are some communicative activities andtechniques that the researcher have used during her doing treatment

 Encouraging students to work in pairs, groups and work individually

 Using some techniques for developing speaking skills

- Combining textbook and relevant materials

- Giving feedback regularly by marking and giving comments on students’ speaking

- Creating the co-operative atmosphere

- Varying communicative activities

- Encouraging them to speak by suggested questions

 Appling some speaking activities

- Completing dialogue practice

- Role play

- Interview

- Games

- Free discussion and problem solving

- Structure- based activities

- Making up sentences orally

- Question and answer exchanges

2.3 Participants

The participants for the survey questionnaires were 110 students of two classes (10 A1 and

10 A5) which were selected randomly from class 10 A1 to class 10 A10 and 10 teachers ofEnglish These students have learnt the new syllabus since they were in Grade 6 Whenparticipating this study, they were in the second term of the school year In researcher’sobservation, their English proficiency and level of motivation was as quite equal as others’.Ten teachers of the school were selected to get the objective data Among those teachers,some have had many years of teaching (more than 10 years); some others have justexperienced teaching for few years The results from these teachers will give objectiveview on students’ motivation in speaking

All participants took part in the survey by responding to the three kinds of questionnaires,two for students and one for teachers Besides, some students were also invited to take part

in a follow- up interviews in order to get a complete look into the research issues

2.4 Data collection instruments

To collect data for this study, the researcher used two main kinds of research instruments:questionnaires for students and teachers and follow-up interviews Added to that, classobservations were also employed to supplement the above instruments

2.4.1 Survey Questionnaires

The instruments used in this study consisted of three questionnaires: two questionnaires forstudents and one for teachers According to Bill Gillham, using questionnaires has someadvantages: low cost in time and money; easy to get information from a lot of people;respondents can complete the questionnaire when it suits them, analysis of answers toclosed questions is straightforward; less pressure for an immediate response, respondents’anonymity; lack of interviewer bias, standardization of questions (but true of structuredinterviews); can provide suggestive data for testing an hypothesis The questionnaires weredesigned in both close and open-ended questions The questionnaires for students werewritten in Vietnamese to make sure that students understood all questionnaire items

2.4.1.1 Questionnaires for students

2.4.1.1.2 Post-treatment questionnaire

Post-treatment questionnaire encompassed 15 questions which was divided into three parts.Part I was the same as part I in pre- treatment questionnaire Part II included 10 questionswhich would gather information about students’ motivation changes after applying somenew teaching techniques in speaking English Part III aimed at collecting informationabout teacher’s applying activities in teaching speaking English and students’ preference ofthese activities

2.4.1.2 Questionnaire for teachers

The survey to the teachers with eight questions was about what problems teachers oftenfaced with in teaching speaking English, what they had done to motivate students to speak

it and their opinion about Tieng Anh 10 textbook It comprised two sections:

Part I was the demographic information, which contained the teachers’ gender, age, thenumber of years they had been teaching English language in high school

Part II was about teacher’s opinion on students’ motivation in speaking, activities andtechniques they had been using to motivate the students, their comment about speakingskill in Tieng Anh 10 textbook

2.4.2 Interviews

Survey questionnaires were used as the main instrument in this study However, the using

of questionnaires also has some disadvantages: The answers may be simple and superficial,the respondents are unreliable and motivated, and may face with literacy problems, theresearchers may have little or no opportunity to correct the respondents’ mistakes and halloeffect (which concerns the human tendency to overgeneralize)… (Dornyei, Z 2005: 10-13) This is true for the study of motivation, which is an abstract, attitudinal concept

Therefore, the interviews were carried out in a following week after the post- treatmentwith ten participants who had considerable changes in attitude and motivation in learningspeaking English The aim of the researcher for interviews is to get better insights into theresearch questions and to discuss for further information about the items raised in thequestionnaires The participants were invited to answer the questions with the researcher’sexplanation of the questions and clarifying unclear answers, each interview lasted about 20minutes The informal talks were sometimes done between the researcher and students atEnglish lesson break to have in- depth understanding about the teaching method teachershad just applied and students’ preferences.

The questions for interviews were compiled in a paper sheet All the interviews werecarried out in Vietnamese in the form of an informal conversation between the researcherand the students The data collected from interview were recorded, transcribed, and thentranslated into English for the purposes of the study

2.4.3 Class observations

Apart from the survey questionnaires for both teachers and students and the interviews,class observations were employed to clarify and test the validity of information aboutstudents’ motivation and their reaction to teachers’ applied techniques The observationswere carried out in several English lessons before and during the treatment For eachlesson, the researcher observed in 45 minutes She designed a checklist for what shewanted to observe (See appendix 7) Students’ reactions towards the teacher’s activities,techniques and behaviors; their participation in the activities and their feedback after theactivities were all taken notes on the spot

2.5 Data collection procedures

First, the pre-questionnaire was delivered to students at the beginning of the second term tomeasure ‘input motivation’ After collecting information from the pre-questionnaire, theteachers taught the students for two months with applying the new techniques, and then thepost-questionnaire was given to students to gather information of students’ motivationchanges, students’ attitudes towards techniques and activities applied by teachers and theirpreferences The questionnaire for teacher was conducted after doing the post treatment togather information about teacher’s attitudes towards students’ motivation in speaking andthe effects of the activities and techniques that they had applied

Besides, the class observations were carried out before and during the treatment to checkand get the data for research Finally, the follow-up interview of ten participants wascarried out in the following week to get further information for the study.

2.6 Data analysis

This part of the thesis is the treatment of all data collected from the survey questionnairesconducted from 110 students and 10 teachers of English of Yendinh1 high school Theanalysis of the data is presented in three parts: the first and the second part are the results

of the pre-treatment and post-treatment questionnaire for students, the third is from thequestionnaire for teachers Along with the information via survey questionnaires,information gained through interviews and class observations were added to these mainparts to assist the results

2.6.1 Results from students’ pre- treatment questionnaire

2.6.1.1 Personal information

The first and the second questions were to gather the participants’ information of genderand hometown The total number of the students in the survey was 110 of which 59 werefemales and 51 were males All of them came from countryside, among them 78% wereliving in village and only 22% were living in town

The next question was about participants’ experience in learning English About 81 % hadbeen learning English for over 4 years (4 years at secondary school and one semester athigh school) Only 19 % had been learning English for over six years because they hadstudied English at primary school for 2 years

6.5 to 7.9 28%

over 8.0 5%

3.5 to 4.9 16%

5 to 6.4 51%

Chart 1. Students’ average marks in the first semester

The subjects had finished the first semester of Grade 10 school year at high school Theiraverage marks in English varied from 3.5 to 9.3 About 51% of them had marks from 5 to

6.4, 28% from 6.5 to 7.9, 5% had got over 8 Meanwhile, 16% got marks under 5 (from 3.5

to 4.9) It can be seen that the average marks of the subjects were not too high, whichmight reflected that they had little concern to English learning

2.6.1.2 Students’ motivation in learning speaking English

2.6.1.2.1 Types of motivation

The researcher had mentioned some types of motivation in chapter 1 of this study In thispart, the researcher focused on such types of motivation possessed by Grade 10 students atYendinh 1 high school They were integrative, instrumental, resultative, intrinsic andextrinsic motivation

A compulsory subject in the syllabus and the final exam 79 72%

Table 1 Types of motivations

Table 1 reveals that passing the final exam is the main reason of students’ studyingEnglish The highest percentage (72%) of the students wanted to learn English becausethey thought that English was one of the compulsory subjects for learning at school andtheir final examination The others (20%) wanted to learn English because they would takeEnglish as a main subject in the university entrance exam The future job was also thething that students concerned 30 % of them thought that English was necessary for theirfuture job Clearly, these students knew the role of English in the modern life when foreignlanguage was considered the main means of communication In some small talks with theresearcher at break, some students revealed that they studied English speaking only fortheir future Following are what they said:

- Yes, I study English speaking because I see it will be necessary for my job in thefuture After leaving university or college, I want to live on my own; I do notdepend on my parents any more

- I know when I study at university, I have to study English, too So, why don’t Istudy it now? Though I am very busy with studying Math, Physics and Chemistryfor my subjects of university entrance exam, I sometimes spend time for English

At the same time, about 16% of participants answered that they were interested in English,especially English people and culture The same answers with the same respondents alsorevealed they liked English because it helped them sing and listen to English songs Whenanswering the researcher’s question, one interviewee said:

- I have studied English at secondary school I am truly fond of listening and singingEnglish songs I also want to understand more about English people and culture Isee they are interesting

About 9% of the respondents claimed they wanted to study abroad in the future though sofar they had not known whether they could achieve their wishes or not; and that was thereason they tried to study English

The lowest percentage of the students (4%) affirmed they were learning English becausetheir average marks in English were higher than that in other subjects

In short, types of motivation possessed by Grade 10 students were quite varied Thehighest percentage was the students who possessed extrinsic motivation with the reasonthat they studied English for passing the examination and for the requirements of theirteachers because English was one of their compulsory subjects at school The lowerpercentage was the respondents with instrumental orientation These ones studied Englishfor passing university entrance exam, getting a good job in the future or going abroad tostudy The last one was some possessed integrative and intrinsic motivation with theunderlying reasons that they studied English because of their enjoyment for Englishlanguage and culture Among these figures, some students identified as having acombination of both intrinsic and instrumental orientation In general, students whopossessed extrinsic motivation often felt unwilling and forced to learn English whilestudents with instrumental and integrative orientation were quite eager to learn English

2.6.1.2.2 Students’ opinions on learning speaking English

Question 2 How is speaking skill important to you?

As can be seen from chart 2, the high percentage of the respondents (41%) consideredspeaking skill quite important to them while 26% stated it was normal 19% of therespondents mentioned speaking was a very important , even the most important skill 11%did not highly evaluate the importance of the speaking skill when they said that speakingskill was little important Only 3% of them thought speaking skill was not important at all

In general, most of students were aware of the importance of English in their studying.However, some of them did not admit this This was because these students learnt Englishwith extrinsic motivation not for their interest It was, thus, the teacher’s role to find ways

to stimulate the students to take part in the learning in the class

not at all, 3%

little, 11%

norm al, 26%

rather important, 41%

very important, 19%

Chart 2 Students’ perceived importance of English Question 3 How is your aptitude to learn speaking English?

When responding to this question, most of respondents underestimated their aptitude tolearn English 52% estimated their aptitude at low level while 19% even claimed it was atvery low Only 21% of the participants stated that their ability of English was OK, and 8%believed they had high enough ability In general, students did not believe in their ability tolearn English When evaluating their capacity for a foreign language, they seemed todepend on their results of this subject at the first semester and their need of it in the future

Question 4 How is your attitude to learn English speaking?

It can be seen from chart 3, students hold a positive attitude towards English speaking.More than half of the students stated their attitude was at OK, high or very high level Only44% of them considered it at low and very low level (in which students with very low leveljust occupied 16%) In observation process, the researcher saw that students’ attitudetowards learning was quite good They all had enough basic materials and textbook andmost of them always put attention to the teacher’s lecture

Chart 5 Students’ desire to learn English speaking Question 7 How much do you feel interested in speaking English in class?

Chart 6 reveals that the majority of the students are not interested in learning speaking.47% of the students had low interest This figure was much higher than those with the highone (12%) 23 out of 110 students (21%) answered that their interest was normal Forthem, they learnt English because of the pressure from outside such as requirement of theteachers and parents, the need for the exam… not because of their willingness The lowestpercentage of the respondents (4%) affirmed their interest very high while the studentswith no interest were much higher, 16%

little interested, 47%

not at all, 16%

very interested, 4%

rather interested, 12%

always usually sometimes rarely never

Chart 7 Students’ frequency of speaking English in class time

mistakes In some small talks with the researcher, some students stated that they wanted tospeak English in class because it was the class time that they could train themselves andexpressed their opinions in English Except that, no environment was available for them Ingeneral, the time to speak English in class was unequal among students Therefore, that theteachers should do were how to use techniques and activities to motivate learners’ internalinterest first and then, how to involve them to take part in speaking activities

2.6.1.3 Factors making students reluctant to speak English in class

Question 9 Do you feel reluctant to speak English in class?

The figures shown in chart 8 reveals that only 7% of the respondents spoke Englishwillingly The little higher percentage (14%) stated they liked speaking very much but didnot speak it willingly In contrast, the majority of them claimed they often felt reluctant tospeak, even no time they wanted to speak up In observation, the researcher also found outthat most students did not speak English voluntarily Only when the teachers got oralmarks or required, did they have to spoke up in front of the class When answeringresearcher’s questions, one student said: “I don’t want to speak in class although I knowclass is a good environment for me to practice I don’t feel self- confident” Shared thesame idea, another student also said: “I know the importance of speaking English in mystudy and future, but I don’t know why I can’t speak willingly Indeed, I am afraid everyone will laugh me ” In fact, classroom was a good environment for all students, especiallyrural students, to practice English speaking because outside class they seemed to have nochance However, the majority of the students were not highly willing to speak Thequestions for teachers, thus, were how to attract student to take part in speaking activities

as well as task completion

I like speaking very m uch 14%

I speak

w illingly 7%

Alw ays 11%

Often 46%

Sometimes 22%

Chart 8 Students’ reluctance of speaking English Question 12 Factors making students reluctant to speak English in class

There are learners’ factors, teacher’s factors and teaching and learning conditions thatmake learners unwilling to speak Here I only mention two factors: learners’ factors andteacher’s factors

Table 2 Factors making students reluctant to speak English in class

Table 2 represents factors that cause students reluctant to speak in class Actually, there areseveral elements that can be counted on For students in the survey, the most influentialfactor was teacher’s boring teaching 66% of the students stated that teacher’s clearinstruction, logical teaching steps as well as teacher’s good behaviors with sense of humor,enthusiasm or tolerance… in each lesson would encourage them to speak more The sameresults were also found in the interview Some students claimed teacher’s badpronunciation and poor background knowledge that decreased their desire of speakingEnglish Others blamed on teacher’s behavior and attitude that encouraged whether theywere willing to speak or not The second factor was the fear of mistakes and derision 62%

of the respondents affirmed that they wanted to speak in class, but they were always afraid

of making mistakes and losing face Similarly, when answering the researcher’s question,one interviewee said: “I am not self-confident enough to speak in front of my teacher andclassmates I am afraid of making mistakes.” The next one (56%) was the students who

were not accustomed to speaking Clearly, students sometimes did not speak up in class notbecause they lacked of knowledge background or new vocabulary but they had the habit ofpreferring to listen more than speak In addition, students’ proficiency was an importantfactor 47 out of 110 students (42%) blamed their reluctance of speaking for lowproficiency in English In the interview with the researchers, two students stated: “I likespeaking English But I sometimes cannot find words and structures to express my ideas”.Another complained: “My English knowledge is not very good That’s why I don’t speakmuch in class” Besides, some other students suggested that the way teachers behaved inteaching also had a great impact on their speaking motivation 40% complained theirteachers favored the better students when soliciting responses That was the reason whysome lower proficient students in class had few chances to speak out The smaller number

of the students (35%) mentioned to the teacher’s intolerance of silence that made themunwilling to speak Teachers often gave them little or no wait time for speaking Afterinstruction, teachers required them to speak up immediately, which caused them pressuredand stressed

In short, there are a variety of the factors that students had to face with These factorscame from students as well as from teachers In order to be better in English speakingactivities in class, the changes need be done between both teachers and students Teacherschange teaching methods and students change the way they learn

Question 13 Factors preventing students’ speaking process

Table 3 Factors preventing students’ speaking process

As can be viewed from the table, 56% of the students could not find words or structures toexpress their opinion when speaking In fact, the problems for the high school studentswere the lack of vocabulary and grammatical knowledge for learning It was easy to realizethat in each lesson teachers often explained not only new words and new structures butalso some simple words that learners had learnt before The next, which affected 47 % of