Strategies for coping with facetoface oral communication problems employed by firstyear English majored students at Thuongmai University ABSTRACT Economic globalization has prompted that the communicative approach plays an important role in language teaching especially in the context where English is a foreign language and the ultimate goal of language teaching is to improve the communicative competence of language learners Language learners can significantly improve their communicative competence by developing their ability to use communication strategies or strategies for coping with face to face oral communication problems Tha.
ABSTRACT Economic globalization has prompted that the communicative approach plays an important role in language teaching especially in the context where English is a foreign language and the ultimate goal of language teaching is to improve the communicative competence of language learners Language learners can significantly improve their communicative competence by developing their ability to use communication strategies or strategies for coping with face-to-face oral communication problems That’s also the aim of English Faculty students of Thuongmai University who are often preoccupied with developing their oral communication, which is needed to improving their academic performance, professional development, personal and social effectiveness The present study discussed the challenges and complexities that mostly first-year English major students encountered Quantitative data from questionnaire and informal interviews with the first year students are used to analyze and interpret to find out the frequency of communication strategies used by the subjects to overcome the difficulties they coped with when performing speaking and listening tasks, from that help provide recommendations for English teaching and learning for communicative competence in Faculty of English, Thuongmai University 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EOCS OCS CS EFL ESL OCSI FLA TMU English Oral Communication Strategies Oral Communication Strategies Communication Strategies English as a Foreign Language English as a Second Language Oral Communication Strategies Inventory Foreign Language Anxiety Thuongmai University LIST OF FIGURES AND CHARTS 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Along my graduation journey, I have received a great deal of support, encouragement, help and suggestions from my supervisors, classmates, friends and family, who have all played important roles in my present achievement First and foremost, I would like to send my deepest gratitude to Ms Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc, the supervisor of this graduation paper Her detailed comments and useful advice have helped me shape my ideas and realize my aims She has also provided me with many useful materials as well as encouraged and created favorable conditions for me to fulfill this research Therefore, it is an undeniable fact that this paper would have not been completed without her invaluable support Secondly, I would like to show my sincere thanks to all the lecturers of the English Faculty whose lectures have enriched my academic knowledge of English during the past four years I am grateful to you for your help and transfer of precious experience, which will prepare us for knowledge to come into practical works and for stable basis to actualize our dream career Also, my particular thanks are sent to the Faculty of English for giving me a chance to the thesis In addition, I warmly thank all my friends for their encouragement and precious assistance throughout the process of writing the thesis Their material and spiritual support is a great driving-force for me Especially, I wish to thank the majority of the first year students of Thuongmai University school year 2020-2024 for their honest answers and individual share in the process of completing survey questionnaires Last but not least, I wish to send special thanks to my beloved family including, my parents, brother and sister for their endless love, understanding and whole-hearted encouragement throughout my research journey and life Every you is an indispensable part and all are supportive that have helped an undergraduated me finish my graduation paper smoothly Without all these people, the thesis would never have been successfully completed CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY This chapter is supposed to show the main reasons why the graduation thesis has been chosen and the organization of the study as well It provides meaning of research subject, scope of the study and then the research methodology to help having specific overview about the mentioned issue Rationale 1.1 English has become the main factor for business and in the global workplace As a result, competence in English is an important requirement for any professional, working in an international business environment English communication skills are the key to succeed in a career path English proficiency is undoubtedly vital for all Thuongmai University students, especially those who are majoring in English According to annalyzing, more than a half of the students who register for English major at Thuongmai University are from countryside and what I mean here is that majority of local school haven’t paid much attention to speaking skill, instead they try to fulfill the vast knowledge in grammar and vocabulary, the teaching and learning of English is commonly grammarfocused and students’ English competence is measured by written exams It comes to the reason why in their first year, they have to make a lot of effort to improve their speaking skill, in other words, it’s crucial for them to learn how to speak correctly, smoothly and confidently since it’s the most basic thing to be done before they start their major subject Moreover, the wrong spelling some times create inferiority for the students I myself had been very successful with the use of memorization strategies for learning English vocabulary and grammatical structures from textbooks written or translated by Vietnamese authors or scholars However, I experienced difficulty in expressing my opinion in academic contexts or communicating orally with foreigners in social situations Hence, face-to-face oral communication (OC) is important problems for them and English oral communication strategies (EOCS) are defined as the tools that students of English Department use to overcome their English oral communication problems and develop their English oral communicative competence in academic and social practices Given the importance of the ability to communicate orally in English, this study therefore discusses the challenge that first-year English students encountered, and the strategies they applied during their school year The results were analyzed and interpreted to find out the frequency of communication strategies used by the subjects to overcome the difficulties they coped with when performing speaking and listening tasks It is hoped that the outcomes of the present study will help promote a more genuine reflection on the speaking and listening proficiency of Thuongmai University’s first-year English major students Therefore, I choose the topic: “ Strategies for coping with face-to-face oral communication problems employed by first-year English majored students at Thuongmai University ” to research I hope that this research will provide not only first-year students but also all students who are in curriculum of English Department with a relatively full and detailed view about how to improve communication skill Previous studies 1.2 To complete my study in the best way I have found and read many documents related to the topic I am currently working on I have read lots of related materials such as books and previous studies in both Vietnamese and English They are useful precious documents for me In relation to English Oral Communication Strategies (EOCS), there have been a large number of researchers who have studied this field not only in our country but also over the world Of course, each researcher has their own direction and has a conclusion for their own studies The review of previous studies will show remarkable data on students’ performance as using face-to-face oral communication to finish their subjects 1.2.1 Studies Abroad Kongsom (2009) have confirmed that CS training in the classroom could literally help students to communicate more effectively, raise students’ awareness of CSs, and enhance students’ confidence in speaking English Besides, formal training or formal discussion on CSs and the teaching of CSs will be useful among English teachers The reseach provide related knowledge and most important is the useful solution in class because the environment is the ideal and primary one for students to practice and mutual study After all, they could have useful advice and comments from their teachers Yasuo Nakatani (June 2006) focuses on how valid information about learner perception of strategy use during communicative tasks can be gathered systematically from English as a foreign language (EFL) learners The result shows that OCS includes categories of strategies for coping with speaking problems and categories for coping with listening problems during communication Since Selinker’s (1972) identification of the concept of OCS, there have been several theoretical frameworks and definitions of OCS from different perspectives These definitions of OCS have, to some extent, resulted in different classifications and taxonomies of OCS The literature reviewed found that research studies on OCS were based on two perspectives – the interactional and psycholinguistic, which were introduced by Tarone (1977, 1984) and Færch and Kasper (1983, 1984), respectively 1.2.2 Studies in Vietnam PhD Huyen Minh Bui (June, 2016) has studied this area before with the object Vietnamese students in Transnational Education Advanced Programs in Vietna and concluded that Vietnamese students were active and autonomous language learners in their choices of EOCS To reach this conclusion, she laid out the theoretical background for definition, importance, purpose, format and some types of EOCS Besides, she also pointed out some common obstacles and mistakes of Vietnamese students understanding speeches or talking with native speakers in English Her brilliant research has provided a comprehensive study of EOCS from the students’ perspectives and explored how they use these strategies to deal with their English oral communication problems and improve their English communicative competence Nguyen Thi Thu and Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu (2016) explored the CSs among Vietnamese Non-majors of English at Intermediate Level has recommended raising students’ awareness of CS use in their oral communication along with incorporating a formal instruction on CSs in school curriculum because by this way, students can have more chances to expose to the use of CSs in class activities With the close objects to my research, “ A study on improving English speaking skill for first-year students in English Faculty at Thuongmai University” by Nguyen Phuong Anh (2018) examines difficulties while speaaking English of first-year English majored students and give recomendations for students to improve their speaking ability as well as suggest some methods and activities for teachers to make English classes more interesting and efficient The reseacher shows that a majority of firstyear students at TMU have poor English speaking skill and suggests helpful techniques to hopefully solve the problem With the development of time, the studies on direct communication are more popular both for English and other fields Almost research proved the useful strategies of OC in academic and practical environment and the way to improve speaking skill However, to develop the proficiency in English communication, the students need to understand the difficulties that they have to face at first From that they can handle it and improve their speaking skill Thus, this thesis will focus on the difficulties in verbal communication pointing to first year English majored students of Thuongmai University and then form the study: “Strategies for coping with face-to-face oral communication problems employed by first-year English majored students at Thuongmai University ” Aims and objectives of the study 1.3 Publication of the EOCS identified in this study will inform first year English majored students in selecting strategies to improve their English oral communication skills that are appropriate to their English proficiency and educational and cultural backgrounds The study is an understanding of the students’ perspectives, on both the benefits and difficulties of studying in English major, aims at finding the various and functional strategies for coping face-to-face oral communication problems Each of idea and suggested solution is for the sake of first year students, support them to invest more time and mentality improving the faceto-face oral communication Following that, it has the potential to benefit students enrolled in English Department at Thuongmai University The study mainly focuses on answering these questions: - What are the difficulties in the English oral communication learning process - of first-year English majored students at Thuongmai University? What are effective strategies to help first-year English majored students improve their face-to-face oral communication? 1.4 Research subject Face-to-face oral communication skills are fundamental to the development of literacy and essential for thinking and learning Communication skills are vital for a student’s academic success and future career prospects Thuongmai University is famous for its commerce major and in today’s challenging economic environment, students must not only 10 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS This chapter reports a sumary of the study Besides it focuses on giving some effective solutions to improve students’ English speaking skill and some recommendations for further study are also addressed 4.1 Summary of the study The main aim is to find out the causes and solutions of problems of English oral communication skills for first-year majored English students at Thuongmai university The study was divided into chapters with each own purpose The first chapter focused on the overview of the study The second chapter presented the literature review The third chapter showed clearly the current situation and the researcher’s findings of speaking and listening English in Faculty of English The last chapter is some suggestions and recomendations toimprove English communication skills for fresnhmen 4.2 Recommendations and suggestions to improve English oral communication for the first-year English majored students at TMU 4.2.1 Practicing listening skill Practicing listening skill is one of the important solutions to improve students English speaking skill The students should listen to the radio, they could get up five minutes earlier and listen to the News, listen to music or listen any things they are interested in English It is necessary for the students to try to create a habit of regular listening in English Thanks to listening every day, students not only improve their listening and speaking skill but also have more background knowledge about aspects or fields which are useful for them Listening to music in English and sing along is another way to improve listening skill, music is one the best tools for learning intonation and pronunciation The best way to enhance their listening skill is to practice listening through dictation Students can choose any channel or sources which they 37 love to practice this skill There are many useful channels on the Internet such as CNN News, VOA learning English Through these channels, student can improve their listening skill as well as broad their mind about many interesting fields To be specific, the author would like to suggest some wellknown websites, Youtube channels and mobile applications that students could use to practice listening as well as how to use them effectively: 4.2.1.1 Website Ted.com consists of so many inspiring videos as well as audios relating different topics Especially, the presenters are all professionals in their own major In order to practice listening effectively by this website, students should read the English and Vietnamese subtitles first to get the main content of the video While watching it, students could rewind each sentence until they understand the meaning So after many times doing the same thing, students could get used to the way that presenter pronounces words BBC Learning English includes a lot of lessons which were designed for learners of multiple levels In which, Talking sport is a series of 52 articles made by BBC Learning English to celebrate Olympic 2012 The structure of the video begins with the fact that you will hear Usain Bolt (a Jamaican sprinter) saying with no subtitles, then the clip will be played back with subtitles to make it easier to understand Next, Natalie will explain the the Usain passage and introduce the structure he uses to talk about the topics Finally, there will be some examples that people in London use the structure Therefore, listening to this everyday would help you to get used to ways native speakers talking in real life with very pratical examples 4.2.1.2 Mobile application Spotlight English is software for listening lessons from ten minutes to fifteen minutes in length This is a free English listening software that has many special diverse topics as well as related to everyone's life, suitable for learners with an elementary level Spotlight English software provides users 38 with transcripts of each listening lesson which help you to revise and even imitate the speakers VOA is also one of the free English listening practice software VOA stands for Voice of America, one of the US government-sponsored and broadcast multimedianews sources The content of listening lessons is basic and short, very suitable for listening practice beginners to learn English The content focuses on American culture The newsletters on this site will be real news but are expressed in such way that is easier to understand such as: adding subtitles, some newsletters with slower speed than usual and specially designed for English learners The other popular mobile applications to practice listening English are Duolingo, ABA English, SpeakingPal Communicate, Learning English TFlat, etc 4.2.1.3 Youtube channel Videos of VOA Learning English are short and very simple news whose topics are education, technology, health and economics Students would be able to understand the content of these videos more easily because the English subtitles are always available Also, the news on this channel was told by the announcers at slow speed wuth the right and clear pronunciation so that learners could know how to pronounce the words in the videos The other Youtube channels that students could use to develop their listening skill are English lesson, Let’s talk, EnglishClass101, Real English, etc 4.2.2 Practicing speaking skill 4.2.2.1 Seek opportunities to communicate in real situations The researcher found out that in order to have an effective conversation, it is literally necessary to find English-speaking environment so that students could practice their listening skills Thus, researcher would like to suggest 39 some practical activities to learn English, especially develop English reaction abilities as follows - Take part in English clubs: English clubs are ideal environment for students to practice listening skills because in there they have partners to interact with Especially, the ones which often create chances to communicate with native speakers would able students to have better listening skills of listening skills One of such clubs the writer would like to recommend is Hanoi Free Private Tour Guide Becoming the club's member, students would have opportunities to be as a tour guide introducing beauty spots in Hanoi to foreign tourists Furthermore, they would be able to chat with travellers from many regions and exchange cultural diversity as well Through such practical activities, students could enhance their speaking skills - Joining extracurricular activities One of the most popular and effective extracurricular activity to improve English speaking skill is making friends with foreigners and have a short conversation On the weekend, young students often go with their friends to the Old Quarter where a lot of foreigners come up to travel and relax Most of them are freely to spend 5-10 minutes to have chat with you and in this short conversation learners could ask and share with them Vietnam people, recommend must-go places and must-eat foods for new friends Meanwhile, native speakers can listen and give the sayers some advice about their pronunciation as well That is such a active way to practice both listening and speaking skill 4.2.2.2 Imitate what students could hear the native speakers Students suggested that one of the methods to improve English speaking skills is imitating what they could hear the native speakers But how to practice speaking English by imitating? In particular, whenever the students 40 listen to native speakers speak, it is a good idea for them to try to model everything, such as conunciations, accents, intonations, ete Students should choose the materials which are suitable for their English abilities They might be an English video or audio which their transcripts are available And then it is very important that students should read the transcripts so that they could understand what the video or audio talks about The next step is that students would listen to the materials so many times to make sure that they are familiar with the pronunciation of the speaker Last but not least, students should try to copy what they could hear from the materials The more times they do, the better they might be at speaking English 4.3 Limitation of the study Firstly, due to the lack of time, the data of the study were collected in two main instruments which are survey questionaires and short interviews with the participation of 45 first-year English-majored students therefore the results of this study would be able to reflect some parts of the English oral communication of the students in Thuongmai University The research has just focused on the reality of learning English oral communication through listening and speaking skills meanwhile other skills were not mentioned and analyzed Thus, it does not provide in-depth results on other aspects of English language And the participants just focused on the first-year English majored students, so the results were not remarkable, it also cannot analyze the reality of learning English of non-majored English students 4.4 Some suggestions for further studies Through the research findings, some suggestions for further studies were presented: This paper focused on the reality of learning English oral communication of the first-year English majored students at TMU Further studies about 41 learning English oral communication need to be conducted in other Departments at Thuong Mai University in particular and other universities in general Other studies related to improving oral communication through writing and reading skill also need to be investigated to find out the difficulties and problems students faced when learning these language skills Moreover, it is necessary to carry out more studies related to oral communication strategies in large scale with large samples, so the results will become more reliable and remarkable 42 CONCLUSION With the rapid development of international communication, English has become one of international languages Hence it is necessary to foster learners to grasp more language abilities Speaking English is pivotal part of modern life Having well English is a great opportunity to help people climb in their career ladder as well as broaden their mind in many fields Therefore, they can easily keep up with and integrate with today’s modern world Realizing the importance of oral communication, the thesis brings a closer sign to discover the current situation of English speaking of students And then a total of 45 students participated in survey questionnaires as well as interviews very helpful By categorizing and analyzing the data, the researcher found out that most students know the importance of improving their English oral communication and some main factors that affect students’ speaking performances In order to help students in developing English speaking abilities, the researcher suggested several pratical methods and each of which is relating to one fator influencing on students speaking skills Due to the limitation of the scope of the study as well as the time to make the research, this thesis might cover in some parts of the whole problem Hopefully, it could be a useful material for students in Thuongmai University to improve their English oral communication 43 REFERENCES Bygate, M (2000) Speaking Oxford: Oxford University Press McCarthy, M (1998) Spoken language and applied linguistics Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Richards, J & Renandya, W 2002 Methodology in language teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Dornyei, Z & Scott, M L (1995) Communication strategies: An empirical analysis with retrospection Twenty- First Annual Symposium of the Descret Language and Linguistics Society (pp 155-168) Kongsom, T (2009) The effects of teaching communication strategies on Thai learners of English Unpublished PhD thesis University of Southampton: U.K Nakatani, Y (2006) Developing an oral communication strategy inventory The Modern Language Journal, 151-168 Nakatani, Y (2010) Identifying strategies that facilitate EFL learners' oral communication: A classroom study using multiple data collection procedures The Modern Language Journal Tarone, E (1981) Some thoughts on the notion of communication strategy TESOL Quarterly, Vol 15 (No 3) Xiao-Hua Huang and Margaret Vannaerssen (2016), Learning Strategies for Oral Communication, Guangzhou Institute of Foreign Languages vs SEAMEO Regional Language Centre, Singapo 10 Christina Isabelli (2003) Development of oral communication skills abroad Illinois Wesleyan University, isabelli@gonzaga.edu 11 Huyen Minh Bui (2016) Exploring English Oral Communication Strategies used by Vietnamese students in Transnational Education Advanced Programs in Vietnam, RMIT University Nguyen Thi Thu, Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, Oral English Communication Strategies among Vietnamese Non-majors of English at Intermediate Level, American Journal of Educational Research, vol 4, no (2016) 44 APPENDIX (English version) Appendix 1: The survey questionnaire I Individual background How long have you studied English? * A less than years B - years C - 10 years D over 10 years Which factor you consider the most important in English speaking? * A Pronunciation B Grammar C Vocabulary D Intonation E Others: Can you make an evaluation of yourself level of speaking?* A Proficient B Good C Normal D Bad E Very bad How often you practice speaking per day? * A Not at all B Less than 30 minutes C 30 minutes - hour D More than hour 45 Who you often practice your speaking skill with (in class, after school, ) * A My classmates B My teachers C My roomates D Foreigners (I know them through outside activities, English clubs, in the Old Quarter, ) E Other friends II Difficulties Student’s difficulties and problems faced in English oral communication * A.Lack of motivation B.Confusion, worriness, embarrasment, non-confidence C.Limited background in English D.Lack of speaking environment III Solutions to improve oral communication How you to practice English speaking skill? * A Memorizing B Using shadowing or imitating technique: Repeat the text as soon as possible almost at the same time as the speakers and imitate their gestures C Planning (Think about which situation is about to happen, write down what have to say and then practice in advance) D Self-evaluation E Not at all F Others: 46 How you to practice English listening skill? * A Listen to music, news in English B Watch movies, reality Tv shows, talk shows, in English C Use apps which have pronunciation quizzes (ex: Duolingo, Lingodeer, ELSA Speak, English Pronunciation IP D Watch programs, read news or involved information for more details E Others: Which psychological difficulties you often meet when speaking English ? * A Lack of motivation ( don’t know exactly the reason why you have to be good at English, ) B Being afraid and have a great tension because there is also a possibility of losing face and misunderstanding others C Others: Which activities would you should to improve students’ oral communication?* A Listening to English radios, films, songs, prgrams B Practicing through learning apps : Doulingo, TFlat, BBC learning English,… C Speaking with native speakers D Developing grammar and vocabulary E Others: 47 Appendix 2: Interview question Question What are the difficulties you encounter when learning English speaking skill? Question What ways you use to improve your English oral communication? (Vietnamese version) Phụ lục 1: Bảng câu hỏi điều tra I Thông tin cá nhân Bạn học Tiếng Anh rồi? * A năm B - năm C - 10 năm D 10 năm Yếu tố bạn thấy quan bắt đầu học Tiếng Anh? * A Phát âm B Ngữ pháp C Từ vựng D Âm điệu E Khác: Đánh giá khả giao tiếp Tiếng Anh bạn?* A Lưu lốt B Tốt C Bình thường D Khơng tốt E Tệ 48 Bạn dành thời gian để luyện giao tiếp Tiếng Anh ngày? * A Khơng luyện B Ít 30 phút C 30 phút – tiếng D tiếng Bạn hay luyện nói ? * A Bạn lớp B Giảng viên C Bạn phòng D Người nước ngồi E Các bạn khác… II Difficulties Những khó khan gặp phải giao tiếp tiếng Anh * A.Thiếu động lực B.Lo lắng, xấu hổ, chưa tự tin nói C.Thiếu kiến thức D.Chưa có mơi trường luyện tập nhiều III Solutions to improve oral communication Bạn làm để cải thiện kĩ nói mình? * A Ghi nhớ kiến thức B Bắt chước nói người xứ C Chuẩn bị trước nội dung nói D Tự đánh giá sau nói E Khác: Bạn làm để cải thiện kĩ nghe mình? * A Nghe nhạc, phim , tin Tiếng Anh B Sử dụng ứng dụng học tiếng Anh C Nói chuyện với người xứ D Khác: 49 Phụ lục 2: Câu hỏi vấn Những khó khan việc giao tiếp miệng mà bạn gặp? Các giải khó khăn việc giao tiếp đề xuất bạn việc nâng cao khả nói sinh viên ? 50 ... LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EOCS OCS CS EFL ESL OCSI FLA TMU English Oral Communication Strategies Oral Communication Strategies Communication Strategies English as a Foreign Language English as a Second... verbal communication pointing to first year English majored students of Thuongmai University and then form the study: ? ?Strategies for coping with face-to-face oral communication problems employed by. .. of Thuongmai University? ??s first-year English major students Therefore, I choose the topic: “ Strategies for coping with face-to-face oral communication problems employed by first-year English majored