Some techniques to help 10th Form students diminish reticence in learning English speaking skill 1 I INTRODUCTION 1 Reasons for choosing the topic It is undeniable that English is an international lan[.]
I INTRODUCTION Reasons for choosing the topic: It is undeniable that English is an international language and together with its increasing importance, the need of learning English is becoming more urgent than ever In learning English at high schools in Vietnam, speaking skill has become compulsory since the old English textbook was put into use in 2006, and it is especially attached the great importance in NEW English textbook ( published in 2012) However, as we can see, for a long time, the language teaching and learning have been based on the out-of-date methods in which students only passively sit, take notes but rarely contribute to the lessons They not ask their teacher questions, even when they have problems Therefore, when approaching new teaching methods such as Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Project- based approach, students feel passive in classroom This results in numerous problems inflicting students in learning the speaking skill, one of which is the reticence in oral activities There have been a variety of studies on this situation and various solutions have been given However, students’ reticence is still common occurrence in language classrooms in Vietnam Based on my twelve-year teaching experience at Hoang Hoa high school, I know that the students rarely speak English, even in English speaking classes, though they have been learning English since they were at the primary school It is important to involve students in classroom learning activities and minimize their reticence because involvement in classroom interaction will help students explore and learn English much better For such reasons I choose “ Some techniques to help 10th- form students diminish reticence in learning English speaking skill” ( New English textbook) as a theme for my experiential initiative Aims of the study: The study is carried out to: (1 ) Find out some factors causing 10th- form students to be reticent in English speaking activities SangKienKinhNghiem.net (2 ) Give some suggestions to stimulate students to speak English Scope of the study: The subjects chosen for this study are 10th- form students at Hoang Hoa high school, Thanh Hoa province where I have been teaching Moreover, because of the limited time and within an experiential initiative, only speaking skill was chosen on the ground that speaking seems to be the most challenging language skill to English learners in Vietnam in general Methods of the study: To achieve the objectives of the study, several methods are used, but I use mainly quantitative and qualitative methods The data serving the research analysis and discussions are collected by means of a survey questionnaire for students and observation New things of the study: The study is based on what I did research in the school year 2013-2014, but in this research, the scope of the study is the students who are learning New English Textbook II DEVELOPMENT THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: 1.1 Definition of reticence: Reticence is generally viewed as an abstract concept and has been defined by many researchers McCroskey (1977) portraits it as “an individual’s level of fear or anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons ” Reticent people often speak less and for shorter durations; their language tends to be less comprehensible, less immediate, and less intense (Evans, 1996) A student’s reticence in class not only reveals that he/she is unwilling to talk in certain circumstances; it could also indicate any of the following symptoms: (1) the student’s apathy toward the topic at hand or to the learning process itself; (2) the student who is not comprehending is overwhelmed, or is bored; (3) the student is isolated from the learning community; (4) the student has not learned the value or strategies of engagement or he/she does not appreciate or believe in that value SangKienKinhNghiem.net It can be seen that different researchers approach reticence’s definitions in different ways However, they all share the same point of view that reticence is quite pervasive in English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms and can negatively affect the learning of the target language 1.2 Possible causes of language learning reticence: In the past few decades, an increasing number of studies in ESL/EFL have been conducted to explore the reasons for students’ reticence in classrooms Generally speaking, reticence in class discussions might result from: (1) low self esteem – students who think of themselves as unworthy or unable to communicate successfully, so they tend to remain silent out of shame (2) fear of being ridiculed when they inappropriately or inaccurately respond (3) fear of success – this occurs when a student interacts successfully; they attributes their success to luck or accident and then is apprehensive for others expecting him/herself to continue excellent performance, which means to interact with similar or superior success in the future (4) cultural differences – various cultures forbid or strongly discourage individuals from speaking up in classroom settings; sometimes for the reason of deference towards teachers; elder students’ behaviour could also contribute to this phenomenon (5) communication apprehension – a clinical fear of communicating with or in the presence of others 1.3 Effects of reticence in class: The effects of reticence are particularly evident in ESL/ EFL classes and it, to some degree, is a strong indicator of academic performance Reticence negatively affects everything from the teachers’ expectations of student performance, actual classroom performance, and perceptions of others while communicating Reticent learners suffer from mental blocks during spontaneous speaking activities, lack confidence, are less able to self-edit and identify language errors and are more likely to employ strategies such as skipping class Reticent students also forget previously learned material, volunteer answers less frequently and have SangKienKinhNghiem.net a greater tendency to remain passive in classroom activities than their less reticent counterparts The effects of reticence could also extend outside the second language classroom A high level of reticence might also correspond with communication apprehension, causing individuals to be quieter and less willing to communicate in other public occasions As a result, people who exhibit this kind of communication reticence are more likely to be perceived as less trustworthy, less competent, less socially and physically attractive, tenser, less composed and less dominant Therefore, working on reticence problem in and out of class is of great significance not only in academic development, but also in mental development of the students FACTUAL BACKGROUND: 2.1 Research setting: The study was conducted at Hoang Hoa high school, a rural school of Thanh Hoa province The school was established in 1989 and it has recorded a lot of achievements in training provincial gifted students for some recent years The school has 32 classes with over 70 teachers of different subjects Each class consists of about 40 students Most of the students come from the villages in the district where English learning and teaching does not get much attention The only sources from which students can get knowledge are the textbooks and their teachers Like students in many other schools in Vietnam, students in my school are complained a great deal for their inability to use English for communication after leaving school The total number of English teachers at Hoang Hoa high school is All of them are female aged from 30 to 42 They were trained from training courses in English language teaching at different universities in Vietnam All of them are friendly, active, knowledgeable and full of inspiration for teaching The main English textbooks used in teaching English at this school are Tieng Anh 10, Tieng Anh 11, and Tieng Anh 12 ( Basic stream) Besides, in the school year 2017-2018, there is one 11th- grade class ( 11A10) and two 10th- grade classes (10A4 and 10A10) applying NEW ENGLISH TEXTBOOK SangKienKinhNghiem.net ( published in 2012) The teaching method applied by the teachers at this school is various and integrated, but mainly Grammar Translation Method (GTM) because both teachers and students are more concerned about the students’ performance in the national examination for 12th students and the examination for gifted students Therefore, from my personal observation as a classroom teacher, students are unwilling to speak English in the speaking lessons The teaching of English in general and the teaching of English speaking in particular at my school has encountered many difficulties As a consequence, it is very necessary for the staff at Hoang Hoa high school to find out effective ways to minimize the difficulties in teaching English and from then, to improve the quality of English speaking lessons 2.2 Major findings: Factors making 10th- form students at Hoang Hoa high school reticent in English speaking lessons The study showed that the level of students’ participation in speaking activities was very low A lot of students tended to be reticent in the speaking lessons With regard to what contributed to students’ reticence in classroom, many factors were identified They were students’ factors, teacher’s factors and objective factors Firstly, a range of student- related factors brought reticence into play Among these factors, the most prominent one was low English proficiency Although all of the students had learnt English for at least years, their English language proficiency such as vocabulary, grammar, even pronunciation was poor Gradually, they would not feel interested in speaking and became reticent Another important factor was the fear of being laughed at when making mistakes Probably because of the fear of leaving a bad impression on the teacher and peers, many students worried about making mistakes and thus, were unwilling to speak Addition to it was “personality” Some students were so shy and introverted that they became nervous when speaking to a group of people even in the mother tongue, let alone the foreign language Another factor was “ Students’ speaking skill is influenced by their mothertongue” During my reality of teaching, I realize that students are greatly affected by their mother-tongue while speaking When being required to talk about a given SangKienKinhNghiem.net topic, it is common that students first think about the ideas in Vietnamese, then try to translate them into English This has been proved ineffective in developing students’ speaking ability It is much better that students are guided to think in English in order to make their speaking more natural Secondly, the findings referred to teacher’s factors According to the questionnaire for students, the most important factor relating to teachers was teachers’ ways of mistake correction In speaking lessons at Hoang Hoa high school, students were often interfered immediately when they made mistakes during their performances This was a great influence on their continuous speaking Too much teacher’s talking time was the factor 52% of the students chose The teachers occupied almost all the class time, so students didn’t have much time to speak Therefore, chances given to them to express their own ideas were limited In stead of taking part in oral activities actively, they only kept silent, took notes and spoke only when they were asked to One more factor was teacher’s uneven allocation of turns 42% complained their teacher favored the better students when soliciting responses That was the reason why some lower proficient students in class had few chances to speak out Another reason was some teacher’s preference for using Vietnamese in English lessons Last but not least, it was Teachers’ assistance does not meet students’ needs: Some students sometimes don’t know how totalk about a given topic due to their teacher’s unclear instructions or vague explanations, for example Besides, the inappropriate method of their teachers discourages them Consequently, the teachers works as a controller while the students become passive Thirdly, objective factors like large and multilevel classes, time constraint and text book also resulted in the students’ silence in speaking lessons While speaking topics in the textbook were interesting, the difficulty of speaking tasks was one of the factors that caused to the students’ silence in oral activities Another factor is full- sized classes With the average number of students was 40 to 49 in each class with different ability, it was not easy for teachers to control their students’ activities Consequently, many students kept silent all the time Besides, SangKienKinhNghiem.net lack of time was a factor, though it only took up a small percentage The teacher is always under pressure to cover the allocated syllabus in the time allowed Due to time limit, learners had little chance to practice in class The teachers seldom asked students to pair work or group work, and classroom interaction was usually in the form of short questions and answers IMPLEMENTATION AND SOLUTIONS: From the major findings of the study, in order to minimize the students’ reticence in English speaking lessons, some suggestions have been made with the hope to improve the current situation of teaching and learning the speaking skill 3.1 Increasing students’ English proficiency: As can be viewed from the survey questionnaire for students, low English proficiency was the greatest contributor to the students’ reticence in oral English lessons Thus, it is very essential for teachers to find solutions to enhance students’ English competence If students lack words or structures to express themselves, what teachers should is providing structures and related words when introducing topics through listening or reading as pre-speaking activities Teachers should provide examples which are great helping enrich their vocabulary, memorizing phonetic sounds and stress as well as grammatical structures Besides, teachers should pay attention to students when they are speaking so as to guess their ideas to support them in case they cannot find exact words to express themselves What is more, teachers need to explain that words represent thoughts so students should not attempt to use unusual syntax, or “big words” but try to find direct and meaningful ways of making them understood For example, when teaching Activity - Speaking- Unit 4: For a better community- Tiếng Anh 10 tập The aim of this task is that students will be able to talk about the three most important things to in your local area I provide students with useful phrases: - The most important thing to is…………… now that…… - The second priority is………………… on the ground that…… - We consider …………… to be the priority because…… SangKienKinhNghiem.net If students have difficulties in finding ideas for the topics, teachers can make use of and introduce various ideas for discussion to make these topics interesting and familiar enough to students This problem can also be solved by choosing the topics which are more interesting and appropriate to the students’ age, level, and relating to the real life to create enjoyable class atmosphere that make reluctant students interested in speaking For example, when teaching Activity 4- Speaking- Unit 9: Preserving the environment- Tiếng Anh 10 tập The aim of this task is that students will be able to talk about the environmental impacts of human activities Procedure: - Give suggestions and ask students to complete the table: Human activity Type of Consequence pollution fossil fuel burning by motor vehicles, factories, aircrafts and a series problems air pollution of such environmental as acid rain, greenhouse effect, globe warming rockets and health problem fertilizers and pesticide contaminated vegetation and the sprays, harmful rubbish and chemicals decrease of soil fertility leading to soil pollution the negative utilization of land thrown in the rivers loud and annoying human psychological and health sounds from factory problems such as stress, the machinery, motor noise pollution vehicles, aircraft, and increase of health rate and hearing damage musical instruments - Ask students to complete the conversation: Sample: SangKienKinhNghiem.net Student A: Our earth is having the severe soil pollution The soil is very harmful now Student B: Yes, It is the result of human activities People use fertilizer and spray pesticides, threw harmful rubbish and chemicals in the river Student A: These cause the vegetation contaminated and the the decrease of soil fertility This leads the negative unilization of land - Call two or three pairs to present and then give feedback 3.2 Creating a friendly classroom atmosphere and rapport with students : The relationship that the teacher build with their students influences the interaction that takes place in the classroom Research has shown that students are more willing to speak in class when the teachers make the class environment one of interest and engagement, which will then lessen learner reticence Besides, as recommended by the student interviewees, teachers have to develop positive personality traits such as patience, a sense of humor, or considerateness to make students more comfortable with their language learning process During the teaching process, I always try to remember the students’ name and then use their names Instead of pointing at students and asking: “ What is your opinion about .?”, I often say: “ Hoa, Could you tell me something about this matter?” I assume that when students are called by their names, they will feel happier because their teacher shows his/ her concern to them Walking around the classroom and assisting the learners when necessary during the lessons is an useful way I apply to bring the friendly Furthermore, I also give students immediate praise, compliment and encouragement than criticism For example, after the student’s presentation, I often use encouraging words such as : "Good ideas", "Excellent" , "Perfect", "Well done” Furthermore, smiling expectantly, nodding as students talk and maintaining eye contact with students also stimulate them to take part in oral activities effectively Additionally, I also talk to students when meeting them outside the classroom This would create a trust between teachers and students which can lead to enhanced rapport and confidence to speak English in class If the students are confident in themselves, they will be on their way to speaking successfully, with better fluency and accuracy SangKienKinhNghiem.net In short, establishing close and good relationship with the students, especially with the reluctant students, is one of the best ways to reduce reticence and encourage them to communicate I am very excited when one of my students told about me that : “My teacher is so wonderful For us, she is like a close friend who is always willing to give help and valuable knowledge” 3.3 Innovating seating arrangement in the classroom: One of the important factors which create active participation of the students in the speaking lessons is arranging desks and chairs suitably so that students may feel more comfortable and motivated for oral activities In the traditional arrangement, desks are placed in rows facing one direction By this way, children are all asked to put their focus on a single point in the front of the room (and to the teacher) And they are discouraged from communicating with other students, whose backs are visible in front of them and whose faces are behind them Due to the drawbacks of the traditional seating arrangement, when teaching speaking, I often apply some new ways of arranging desks and chairs as follows: a U- shaped or circle seating arrangement: In a U-shaped configuration, desks all are placed around the walls of the room, pointing to a central spot in the classroom with an opening in the front of the room, like a horseshoe 10 SangKienKinhNghiem.net Having the tables in a circle will create an environment rich in discussions No one is sitting behind the circle or on the sides of the room When a student talks, he can see his entire audience; when he listens, he can see who's speaking I believe a U-shaped configuration has a good impact on student learning It will encourage discussion and in turn, students learn from each other By doing so, my classroom becomes an environment that engage students in critical thinking, discussions and reflection U- shaped seating arrangement is often used when I organize oral activities like Games, Quiz, Ask and Answer b Cluster- group seating arrangement: For small-group and pairwork activities, I can create clusters of desks in various areas If the tables are arranged as so, I can walk around, engage more students, and hopefully create an environment where students can talk and share ideas freely and comfortably 11 SangKienKinhNghiem.net Cluster- group seating arrangement is often used when I organize oral activities like Discussion, Picture description or Interview All things considered, gaining and keeping students’ participation in oral activities is an ongoing challenge for teachers Workable seating arrangement can help make this task easier It also allows the teacher to more readily monitor students’ activities This can have a significant impact on student learning 3.4 Having suitable ways of correcting students’ mistakes: Language teachers can encourage their students to speak by helping them establish positive attitudes towards speaking errors (Hsu, 2001) Teachers can explain to students that making mistakes while speaking the language is acceptable not only because everyone makes mistakes, but also because that is an inevitable part of language learning Mistake correction is necessary but how and when to correct is more important Teachers should select the right time to correct students’ errors, preferably at the end of their speech as suggested by the student respondents in this study, not stop them when they are speaking Teachers should also avoid overcorrection (correct every single error produced by students) The problem with correcting everything is that major mistakes and minor mistakes all get lumped together It is not helpful to the learning process The best way is to offer students correct linguistic feedback through modeling (e.g by repeating what the student has just said but with the correct grammar) For example, when doing Activity (Speaking- Unit 7: Cultural diversity- Tiếng Anh 10 Tập ) Student A: I think the more interesting thing about the UK is that the bride should wear something old Student B : Do you? I think It is unlucky to walk under a letter is more interesting I can correct student A’s mistake by asking “ A, The more intersting or the most interesting?” Or teachers can take notes, then write common errors on the board at the end of the activities and ask who can correct them To so, it helps avoid 12 SangKienKinhNghiem.net embarrassing the student who made the error Another effective way is to introduce peer correction so that students might feel less threatened This helps promote safe atmosphere for students and enables them to assist each other in correcting errors 3.5 Using communicative games: Games are activities that can help teachers to create contexts in which language is useful and meaningful Games help students reduce stress, which are truly beneficial to teachers in motivating students Games can be played at the opening stages of lessons or at the production phrase or whenever students feel tired after long time of learning, they will draw more attention to the lesson with lower stress There is a variety of language games to use in the classroom, such as wordsearch, crossword, hangman, etc Based on the aims of each lesson, I choose an appropriate type of game to help my students learn speaking skill the most effectively Example 1: Using game “Speech chain” when teaching Activity 2- Speaking Unit 3: Music- Tiếng Anh 10 tập The aim of the task is that: each group of students will be able to share some information about the TV show they like to other groups Organization: in rows Time: 15 minutes Procedure: - Teacher explains how to play the game: Speech chain includes a series of connected words or sentences + Student will speak the first sentence about a TV show ex: (Student 1): We plan to produce a TV show called: “ Cooking like your mum” + Student must repeat the sentence that student told him, and say something new about this topic ex: (Student 2) : We plan to produce a TV show called: “ Cooking like your mum” It’s a reality TV show for mums and son or daughter who love cooking + Keeping the speech chain, student must also remember all those who came before him Therefore, he needs to say: 13 SangKienKinhNghiem.net ex: (Student 3): We plan to produce a TV show called: “ Cooking like your mum” It’s a reality TV show for mums and son or daughter who love cooking It’s on on Sunday evenings from 7.45 to 8.45 ex: (Student 4): We plan to produce a TV show called: “ Cooking like your mum” It’s a reality TV show for mums and son or daughter who love cooking It’s on on Sunday evenings from 7.45 to 8.45 Winning the show the winner will get a 4-day trip to Danang for people - Teacher should count the number of sentences students can remember and continue until a student makes a mistake or forgets the previous sentence When a student makes a mistake or forgets, a new speech chain starts again with another student This can be made more motivating by setting a limit and then rewarding all the class if they reach that goal Example 2: Using game “Role-play” when teaching Activity 3- SpeakingUnit 10: Ecotourism- Tiếng Anh 10 Tập The aim of the task is that: students will be able to ask and answer questions about one ecotourism destination in Vietnam Organization: whole class Time: 10 minutes Procedure: - Teacher calls student “A” to go to the board “A” takes the role of a tourist guide who will take visitors to a famous historical place of Vietnam - Other students will act as tourists and ask “A” questions about this historical place Suggested questions: + What ecotourism destination you want to introduce? + Where is it situated? +When was it found/ built? +What interesting things can we find there? + What is the fee for visiting? + Are people there hospitable? + What will visitors there? 14 SangKienKinhNghiem.net After applying games to the speaking lessons, most of my students said that they liked the relaxed atmosphere, the competitiveness, and the motivation that games brought to the classroom And they seem to learn more quickly and retain the learned materials better in a stress-free and comfortable environment 3.6 Using visual aids: In the communicative approach, visual aids are very important both in teaching and organizing the classroom because they make students draw attention to the lesson, arouse their interest in it and create the good learning atmosphere during the lesson In addition, through visual aids, learners can enjoy themselves, release stress and have an open mind to learn and perceive the words English speaking lessons will become more lively, natural and stimulating Visual aids can be the teacher themselves, the blackboard, real objects or Pictures, diagrams, charts, tables, Example 1: When teaching Activity 1- Speaking- Unit 1: Family life – Tiếng Anh 10 tập I download pictures about kinds of household chores on the Internet at home At the beginning of the lesson, I show these pictures for students to guess what type of chores they are Through these pictures, students can talk about which chores they like doing and which they dislike a, b, _ 15 SangKienKinhNghiem.net c, _ d, _ g, k , e, f, _ h, _ i, _ l , _ m Example 2: when teaching Activity ( Speaking- Unit 5: Inventions- Tiếng Anh 10 tập 1)) The aim of this activity is that: by the end of the task, students will be able to talk about the characteristics, uses and benefits of some unique inventions - Before working in groups, I provide each group with some pictures about the benefits of the invention which they are going to talk about with a view to helping them prepare better for their speaking Group 1: Talk about e-book reader 16 SangKienKinhNghiem.net Protect enviroment, reduce deforestation ( No trees are required to manufacture Don’t need any space to store your books ( thousands of books are stored in an e-book reader ) paper for the pages of ebooks) Portable Show links (carry a whole library of hundreds of books without worrying about their weight) (easy access to more information and related websites instead of turning page after page) Group 2: Talk about laptop Chat with friends, or relatives listen to music Type documents play games search for information Group 3: Talk about digital camera 17 SangKienKinhNghiem.net Group 4: Talk about food processor Free your hand Save your time and space perform many functions (chop, slice, cut heavy items) On the whole, using visual aids in oral activities really bring good effect in developing students’ motivation as well as reducing their reticence in the speaking lessons 3.7 Using group-work activities: For certain types of activity, group-work has a number of advantages over working with the whole class, working in pairs or working individually: Clearly, group work can increase the student talking time because they can share ideas, become close in the short time and above all solve the common problem 18 SangKienKinhNghiem.net assigned by the teacher Moreover, group work activities help students to be more confident when speaking in front of the class as they are given time to prepare and to rehearsals Additionally, students’ group work frees the teacher from the usual role of “an expert who always lectures” and allows him/her to walk to each group, to guide or to encourage students to work actively For such benefits, I often use group work activities to stimulate students to speak English Example 1, when teaching Activity ( Speaking- Unit 2: Your body and you- Tiếng Anh 10 tập 1)) The aim of this activity is that: by the end of the task, students will be able talk about how to kick a habit Procedures: - First, I divide the class into groups ( students of tables form a group) - Then, I give clear instructions, set the objectives of the activity with average speaking speed and simple words to help students understand the task Group 1: Talk about How to kick “ Watching TV all day” Group 2: Talk about How to kick “ Littering” Group 3: Talk about How to kick “Smoking” Group 4: Talk about How to kick “ Playing online games” I also set the time limit such as “ You have 10 minutes to this activity” - The next step I to help reluctant students get out of silence is assigning roles to them such as leader, timekeeper, note- taker, reporter - In order to make sure the groups work, I go round each group and help when necessary I usually help and encourage the less able students in participation by saying sentences like that: “ What you think, Hoai?” hay “- It is Hoai’s turn to speak” and prevent talkative students from dominating activities by saying: “ You have a point, Binh, but I think we should let Hoai speak” - When the time finishes, I call on the representative of each group to report what his/ her group have discussed Then I ask other groups to give comments and correct their friend’s mistakes before my final feedback on students’ answers 19 SangKienKinhNghiem.net Above are the most commonly-used techniques and activities to motivate reticent students to communicate in English speaking lessons However, before putting them into use, teachers of English need to take a serious consideration into what is appropriate for particular subjects in particular situations RESULTS AFTER APPLYING THE RESEARCH IN TEACHING: - At the beginning of the school- year, before I apply the research in teaching Speaking skill, I tested the speaking skill of 100 students from classes: 10A1, 10A6, 10A8, 10A9 and 10A10 ( in which there were many good students in 10A1 and 10A10) The statistics was shown as follows: The frequency of English speaking Number of students Percentage 1% 11 11% 70 70% 18 18% Always speak in English Usually speak in English, sometimes use Vietnamese Rarely speak in English, except when called by the teacher Never speak in English (only keep silent) - After a year of applying new methods and approaches, the result is better: The frequency of English speaking Number of Percentage students Always speak in English Usually speak in English, sometimes use Vietnamese Rarely speak in English, except when called by the teacher Never speak in English ( only keep silent) Compared with a year ago 15 15% increase 14% 36 36% increase 25% 44 44% reduce 26 % 5% reduce 13 % The result means that the implementation and solutions used in the school year 2016-2017 have brought good effect on students’ learning Speaking skill The number of reticent students has dropped considerably III CONCLUSION: Reticence is a complicated phenomenon which requires further exploration from a variety of perspectives and approaches This study, conducted through the 20 SangKienKinhNghiem.net ... translate them into English This has been proved ineffective in developing students? ?? speaking ability It is much better that students are guided to think in English in order to make their speaking more... effective ways to minimize the difficulties in teaching English and from then, to improve the quality of English speaking lessons 2.2 Major findings: Factors making 10th- form students at Hoang... reticence in English speaking lessons, some suggestions have been made with the hope to improve the current situation of teaching and learning the speaking skill 3.1 Increasing students? ?? English proficiency: