Factors influencing students speaking skills a case study at tuy phuoc 3 high school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ TRÚC LY FACTORS INFLUENCING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS: A CASE STUDY AT TUY PHUOC HIGH SCHOOL Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 8140111 Supervisor: Dr VO DUY DUC BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN NGUYỄN THỊ TRÚC LY NHỮNG YẾU TỐ ẢNH HƢỞNG ĐẾN KỸ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH - MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU ĐIỂN HÌNH TẠI TRƢỜNG THPT TUY PHƢỚC Ngành: Lý luận phƣơng pháp dạy học môn tiếng Anh Mã số: 8140111 Ngƣời hƣớng dẫn: TS VÕ DUY ĐỨC i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP This thesis represents my own work and due acknowledgement is given whenever information is derived from other sources No part of this thesis has or is being concurrently submitted for any other qualification at any university except where due reference has been made in the text Quy Nhon, 2022 NGUYEN THI TRUC LY ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Without the assistance of many people, this thesis could not have been completed I would like to express my profound gratitude and respect to those who provide me with advice and assistance when I carry out this research First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Dr Vo Duy Duc, my supervisor, who kindly provides me with appropriate direction, useful suggestions and critical comments so that I can have a suitable topic to pursue and finish in time I would also give my special thanks to all the lecturers of the Department of Foreign Languages and the Department of Pedagogy in specific and to Quy Nhon Univesity in general who have provided me with precious education, not only in English major but also in other fields of knowledge Without such knowledge, I cannot make such a far progress in my academic career I would also like to say thanks to some of the teachers and students at Tuy Phuoc High School who participated in my study for their support incompleting the survey questionaires and helping me in recording the speaking classes Last but not least, I am particularly indebted to my parents for their greatest encouragement and support that motivated me to complete this study even in the hardest period I feel extremely lucky to have their sympathy and backup iii ABSTRACT The current study aimed at investigating major problems that Tuy Phuoc high school students have in the process of learning English speaking skills as well as the reasons behind the frequency of making common mistakes in speaking English A descriptive research design was employed for the study The participants of this study were 120 students of three grades: 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade and English teachers at Tuy Phuoc High School The data was gathered through online surveys and audio recordings The results showed two kinds of problems that students encounter including linguistic problems and psychological problems From the findings, most of the students always have difficulties in using grammar (59,2%), vocabulary (54,2%) and pronunciation ( 42,5%) correctly In addition, up to 60,2 % of the participants always feel anxious or shy when they perform a speaking task Besides, the results also revealed that affective factors impacting students’ performance in speaking skills are shyness, peer pressure, anxiety, and fear of making mistakes Other factors that hinder speaking performance are time for preparation, pressure to perform well, teachers’ support, motivation to speak, topical knowledge, listening ability Among these factors, time for preparation is the most influential factor, which accounts for 87,5% of the respondents The study has significant contributions to teaching and learning speaking skills iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES viii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE 1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 1.6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 DEFINITION OF SPEAKING SKILLS 2.2 MAJOR PROBLEMS STUDENTS FACE IN LEARNING TO SPEAK ENGLISH 2.2.1 Linguistic problems 2.2.2 Psychology 12 2.3 FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCE 14 2.3.1 Performance Conditions 14 2.3.2 Affective Factors 15 2.3.3 Listening Ability 19 v 2.3.4 Topical Knowledge 20 2.3.5 Teacher’s Feedback 21 2.4 SUMMARY 23 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 24 3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN AND PROCEDURE 24 3.1.1 Research Design 24 3.1.2 Procedure 24 3.2 DATA COLLECTION 25 3.2.1 Participants 25 3.2.2 Biographic information of the participants 26 3.2.3 Data-collecting Instruments 28 3.3 DATA ANALYSIS 30 3.4 SUMMARY 30 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 31 4.1 STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS SPEAKING ENGLISH IN THE CLASS 31 4.2 COMMON PROBLEMS STUDENTS MAKE WHEN SPEAKING ENGLISH 34 4.2.1 Students’ perception of common speaking problems 34 4.2.2 Teachers’ responses to students’ speaking mistakes 38 4.2.3 Observation during actual teaching 39 4.3 FACTORS INFLUENCING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS 40 4.3.1 Students’ self-evaluation 40 4.3.2 Factors affecting students’ speaking performance 42 4.3.3 Teachers’ evaluation of performance conditions 50 4.3.4 Observation 51 4.4 CHAPTER SUMMARY 57 vi CHAPTER CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 59 5.1 CONCLUSIONS 59 5.1.1 Common problems Tuy Phuoc high school students encounter when they learn to speak English 59 5.1.2 Factors influencing the students’ speaking skills 60 5.2 IMLICATIONS 61 5.3 LIMITATIONS 63 5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES 64 REFERENCES 65 APPENDICES vii LIST OF TABLES Table Title number Page number 3.1 Students’ background information 26 3.2 Teachers’ background information 27 4.1 Students’ perception of common problems 34 4.2 Students’ self-evaluation 40 4.3 Factors influencing students’ speaking skills 51 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Title number Page number 4.1 Students’ attitudes toward speaking English 32 4.2 Students’ frequency of practise speaking English 32 outside the class 4.3 Students’ 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Errors Usually Often They cannot control when to use past, present, future tense while speaking Subject and verb in their sentences not agree in number They are sometimes confused when organizing words in a sentence They use pronoun incorrectly They often make ambiguous sentences (sentences which have more than one way of understanding) They often use double negative to emphasize the negative (Ex: I don’t see nothing) Sometimes Rarely Never AP-3 Errors Usually Often They use wrong voice (active voice and passive voice.) They are confused of whether using -ing or –ed adjectives They often use two conjunctions in a complex sentences (Although…but… Because…so…) 10 They feel difficult with phrasal structure because they not know how to organize kinds of word in a phrase Sometimes Rarely Never Which pronunciation mistakes students tend to encounter when speaking English?  Word stress  Vowel misunderstanding  Sentence stress  Ending sounds  Others SECTION 3: Factors influencing the students’ speaking skills How are the performance conditions in speaking class? Performance conditions Are the students given plenty of time to perform a speaking task? Do the students prepare for a task before the task is performed? Do the students have the pressure to perform well? Are the teachers patient, understanding, sympathetic and supportive? Yes No AP-4 How are your students in speaking class?  Motivated  Anxious  Confident  Very bad  Bad  Average  Good  Very good What is your reaction when the students make mistakes during oral work? (You can have more than one choice)  Keep quiet, smile and encourage them to go on their task  Stop them and correct their mistakes  Get annoyed when students keep making mistakes  If students cannot think of what to say, you may prompt them forwards  Watch, listen to students and write down points to give feedback afterwards 10 In your opinion, which of the following factors affects your students’ speaking performance? (You can have more than one choice)  Time for preparation  Topical knowledge  Pressure to perform well AP-5  Listening ability  Teachers’ support  Feedback during speaking activities  Motivation to speak  Time allowed to perform a speaking  Confidence task  Anxiety Other reasons (please specify)…………………………………………………………………… Thank you very much for taking your valuable time to complete this survey Your opinions are greatly appreciated QUESTIONNAIRE (for students) Bảng câu hỏi khảo sát thiết kế cho đề tài “Các yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến kỹ nói học sinh - Một nghiên cứu Trường THPT Tuy Phước ” Vui lịng đánh dấu (X) vào bên cạnh (các) tùy chọn bạn chọn) PHẦN 1: THÔNG TIN CÁ NHÂN Giới tính  Nam  Nữ Bạn học tiếng Anh ?  Dưới năm  2-4 năm AP-6  5- năm  Hơn năm PHẦN 2: THỰC HÀNH NÓI TIẾNG ANH Bạn nói tiếng Anh mức độ lớp?  Rất nhiều  Kha  Bình thường  Ít  Khơng chút Bạn có thường xun luyện nói bên ngồi lớp học khơng?  Thường xuyên  Thường thường  Thỉnh thoảng  Hiếm  Khơng Bạn nghĩ cần thiết kỹ nói cơng việc tương lai bạn?  Rất cần thiết  Cần thiết  Bình thường  Khơng cần thiết  Rất không cần thiết AP-7 Bạn cảm thấy lớp học nói?  Có động lực  Lo lắng  Tự ti PHẦN 3: NHỮNG LỖI SAI HAY GẶP PHẢI KHI NĨI TIẾNG ANH Bạn có hay gặp lỗi sai sau nói tiếng Anh ? Lỗi Thƣờng Thƣờng Thỉnh xuyên Bạn có hay mắc lỗi ngữ pháp nói tiếng Anh ? Bạn có hay mắc lỗi phát âm nói tiếng Anh ? Bạn có hay mắc lỗi trọng âm từ nói tiếng Anh ? Bạn có hay mắc lỗi ngữ điệu câu nói tiếng Anh ? Bạn có hay đệm nhiều từ "um", "ah", nói tiếng Anh ? Bạn có hay kiểm sốt tốc độ nói tiếng Anh ? Bạn có hay mắc lỗi từ vựng nói tiếng Anh ? Bạn có hay lan man, lạc đề giao tiếp tiếng Anh ? thƣờng Hiếm Không thoảng AP-8 PHẦN 4: NHỮNG NHÂN TỐ ẢNH HƢỞNG TỚI KĨ NĂNG NÓI CỦA BẠN Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến hiệu suất nói bạn? Nhân tố Hồn Đồng Trung Khơng Hồn tồn ý lập đồng ý tồn đồng ý khơng đồng ý Tơi có trình độ tiếng Anh thấp Tơi qn quy tắc ngữ pháp tiếng Anh Tôi gặp áp lực nói khơng có đủ thời gian để suy nghĩ thấu đáo Tơi có thói quen suy nghĩ ngơn ngữ mẹ đẻ Tơi thiếu việc thực hành nói Tơi khơng thể kiểm sốt tơi nói Các yếu tố khác (vui lòng ghi rõ) ………………………………………………………………… Cảm ơn bạn nhiều dành thời gian quý báu để hồn thành khảo sát Ý kiến bạn đánh giá cao AP-9 APPENDIX TEACHERS’ RECORDING TRANSCRIPT Wow In terms of the factors affecting students are speaking skill, for me, there are some major factors The first one is effective factors and the next one is teachers’ correction or teachers’ feedback or the teachers’ support.It's very important because the teacher encourages the students to speak confidently.They don't care about making mistakes.They don't care about what what they can make during their overall performance It's good for the students to bemore confident to express their ideas Yeah.The first one effective factors.The next one is teachers’ feedback or support And the last one is maybe a student don't have enough vocabulary, don't have enough structures that's related to grammar or the vocabulary or the useful expression or the phrases that related to the topic.So this is one of the elements that affect the student confidence express their ideas because maybe they are not confident because they have no ideas, no words to express their ideas (Mrs.Hung) I think there are two important factors influencing students speaking skills The first one is effective factors that's related to confidence, anxiety, or motivation.So these factors may encourage students to be more confident,to be more motivated or less answers about their overall performance in public or in front of class.The second important thing is about the lack of grammar Actually your lack of grammar knowledge preventing you from being able to fully express your idea.(Mrs.Tu) Yeah It's quite an interesting question I will answer about the factors influencing the students speaking skills Ok First of all I would like to share something about my actual teaching When students are required to perform a speaking test they always say that teacher I have not done yet, teacher please AP-10 give me more time or teacher I have no idea to say about this topic and I know that there are many factors that cause situation Firstly, the student often lack of vocabulary and grammar Sometimes they don't know how to use the grammar correctly and moreover they have the limitation about the vocabulary so they can't brainstorm enough vocabulary to talk about the topic And the second factor is that the time for preparation Teacher should give students enough time for them to prepare for the task Think it is one of the most important things that students are often shy or anxious about their performance because they scared of being laughed at by their classmates That's all (Mrs.Hao) Actually, speaking skill is regarded one of the most difficult aspects of language learning.Therefore, there is a variety of factors influencing students’speaking skill.The first one is the subject matter, the second one is the ability of listening skills.The third one is proper vocabulary and the last one is the feeling of anxiety.The last one, I mean that students may not have enough confidence to speak English Besides, there is an important thing is that teachers shouldn’t give negative comments during students’ speaking activities Just encourage them to practise speaking English regardless of their mistakes And from the people Yes that's all the fact that I want to mention to you (Miss.Trinh) I think there are two factors, two main factors that influencing students’ speaking skills, which are external factors and internal factors So internal factors such as self confidence,their motivation to express themselves, and Besides that, student knowledge of the topic also important factors.And I think their language competency, such as what vocabulary should they use, how to use that grammar correctly and how to pronounce some words, and external factors such as the classroom, the speaking AP-11 environment, the teachers, whether they are supportive or not, and the speaking activities, whether they are interesting enough to elicit students' motivation to speak Besides, you know, our school is in the rural area, so there are few native speakers, as a result, students don’t have much chance to interact with them.Bye (Mrs Truc) Oh, you are also an English teacher at Tuy Phuoc High School, you think that our students were lack of English listening ability ? Yeah… sometimes our students can speak English by themselves, but when they practise English in pairs or groups, they can’t perform well For example, they can’t perform an English conversation fluently because they can’t hear their peers’ questions maybe On the other hand some students don’t like speaking English, students don’t know spelling symbols in English (Mrs.Thuy) Maybe our students don’t have enough time to preprare ideas, vocabulary related to the topics that teachers give them Umm… each lesson only lasts 45 minutes, perhaps we can’t give students a long time to prepare everything before speaking So, sometimes I provide them with some useful phrases or structures and write them on the board to encourage students to discuss the tasks To sum up, teacher should give students enough time for them to prepare for the task It is very important because the teachers encourage the students to speak confidently (Miss Trang) ... their ability to communicate in English at Tuy Phuoc high school, I am so inspired to conduct a study on ? ?Factors influencing students? ?? speaking skills - A case study at Tuy Phuoc High School? ?? as... and students at Tuy Phuoc High School are no exception  23 2.4 SUMMARY Overall, learning a foreign language means learning how to apply that language in real-life situations As a result, speaking. .. speech in the class 3. 3 DATA ANALYSIS In order to answer the research questions and meet the goal of research aim, data analysis has been done using both qualitative and quantitative data The survey