Tqp chi khoa hgc trUdng Dqi hgc Quy Nhdn Tqp IV, sdi nam 2010 A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL OF NON ENGLISH IMAJORS AT QUY NHON UNIVERSITY DOAN THI THANH HIEU% DOAN THI MINH T[.]
Tqp chi khoa hgc trUdng Dqi hgc Quy Nhdn Tqp IV, sdi nam 2010 A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL OF NON-ENGLISH IMAJORS AT QUY NHON UNIVERSITY DOAN THI THANH HIEU% DOAN THI MINH TRANG^ BUI THI MINH NGUYET'^ INTRODUCTION In recent years, the Elementary New Headway and Pre-Intermediate New Headway by John and Liz Soars (2000) have been used as the course books for non-English majors at Quy Nhon University (henceforth QNU) The ultimate goal of these two books is to help students develop communicative competence However, it can hardly be said that those non-Engbsh majors have attained this goal Most of them shake their heads or say that they have no idea when asked to speak even a simple English sentence In other words, they seem not to be confident when they have to use English for communication This problem has set an alarm for improvement solutions The impetus for this study comes from that sad reality The study aims at identifying the reality of practicing the Engbsh speaking skill of QNU non-English majors as well as looking into the students' attitudes, motivations, and expectations towards their studying the skill at university so that the teachers can make innovation in their teaching methods on the basis of the findings THEORETICAL BACKGROUND It is clear that to be able to make an improvement in teaching methods, teachers need to bear in mind some learners' characteristics The first important factor is students' needs Indeed, ''meeting learners' needs is part of being a good teacher" (Spratt, Pulvemess, and WUbams, 2005: 57) Talking about the language learners need in the modem world, Nunan (1999: 71) emphasizes: "m world that is increasingly intermeshed economically, environmentally, and electrically, the ability to communicate effectively is crucial" There is no doubt that communicative abibty is the goal of foreign language learning For all these things, learners need to learn language as communication, not just as a bst of facts to be memorized or a set of symbols to be manipulated (Nunan, 1999:71) Additionally, learners' motivation is worth considering because it is considered "a key to learning" (Domeyei, 1998: 34) Strongly motivated students tend to spend more time working outside the class and to participate actively in class as well Harmer (1991: 75) divides learners' motivation into two main categories: extrinsic motivation, which is related to factors outside the classroom and intrinsic motivation, which is related to what 122 DOAN THI THANH HIEU°, DOAN THI MINH TRANG\ BUI THI MINH NGUYET takes place inside the classroom Cleariy, learners' intrinsic motivation depends very much on the teacher and the atmosphere sbe/be creates, the method she/be uses, the activities she/he designs and the personality sbe/be shows In other words, the goal of everything she/be does is to establish a close relationship with students, to give them confidence, and to satisfy their expectations In short, the role of the teacher is crucial in students' success or failure Language teachers are easily aware of the stress involved in learning a foreign language, tiie learners' feeling of anxiety Learners, especially adult ones are very cautious of mistakes, for they are afraid of "losing face" This gives the explanation for their unwillingness to speak English It is the teacher's correction that can give much help in taking away their anxiety Undoubtedly, mistake correction "is a vital part of the teacher's role, and something which the teacher is uniquely able to provide" (Harmer, 1991: 62) It has to be done with tact The teacher has to measure what is appropriate for a particular student in a particular situation SURVEY RESULTS 3.1 Participants and data-gathering instruments Responding to the questionnaire were 224 second-year and third-year students at the ages of 19-23 from six randomly chosen classes in six departments at Quy Nhon University Of the respondents, 91 students (40.6%) were male and 133 (59.4%) were female The majority of them, 189 students (84.4%), have finished high school with seven years learning English as a foreign language Among the rest, 31 students (13.8%) have studied English for three years and only students (1.8%) have never learned Engbsh before The questionnaire (please see Appendix) was delivered to 224 students in the six classes thanks to the assistance from the teachers in charge of General English classes It consists of two parts, one of which helped to find out students' personal information such as sex, age, and years of studying English The main part includes 12 questions on four aspects: (1) students' motivation for learning English; (2) students' level of confidence in speaking English and their difficulties; (3) students' attitudes towards speaking error treatment; (4) students' expectation in university English courses 3.2 Data analysis and flndings 3.2.1 Students' motivation for learning English Questionnaire item 1, "Why you study English?" sought to know students' motivations for learning English Six answers were provided, and the participants were asked to respond to each answer by circling one of the four choices: (1) very important, (2) important, (3) littie important, and (4) not important The participants' choice of responses to this motivational question is presented in table 123 A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL Table 1: Motivation for learning English Items (a) It is a compulsory subject at university (b) It is necessary for the future job (c) I want to read professional books (d) I like to know about cultures of English-speaking countries (e) I want to talk to foreigners (f) I like to enjoy English music Quantity of the chosen items 124 60 26 14 (55.4%) (26.8%) (6.2%) 163 (72.8%) 43 (19.2%) 75 (11.6%) 14 (6.2%) (1.8%) 25 (11.2%) 66 (29.5%) 18 (8.0%) 44 (19.6%) 27 (12.1%) (33.5%) 50 (22.3%) 93 (41.5%) 79 (35.3%) 58 (25.8%) 103 (46.0%) 64 (28.6%) 81 (36.2%) 53 (23.7%) 23 (10.3%) 37 (16.5%) The overwhebning majority of the students (82.2%) considered "a compulsory subject at university" the highest motivation for them to study Engbsb It sounds reasonable because thek Engbsb marks make up more than 30% of then- total grade at the end of each semester In addition, the present situation in society offers more job opportunities for graduates who have a good knowledge of English, so almost all of the students (92%) regarded their learning Engbsb at university very important or important to thek fiiture jobs According to 63% of tiie students, they learned English because they wanted to read professional books Quite interestingly, 30.3% learned Engbsb because they wished to know more about the cultures and values of Engbsb-speaking countries With the tendency of worldwide integration these days, it is possible that they desire to widen their knowledge about other cultures so that they can easily adjust themselves to the globabzation One effective way to broaden minds about the world is communicating with native speakers or foreigners That is also the reason why 61.1% attended university Engbsb classes It is particularly surprising that about a half of the students (47.4%) needed English to satisfy their personal needs Thus, it is clear that the students at Quy Nhon University have various purposes for learning English 3.2.2 Students' attitudes towards speaking skill Figure shows that the great number of the students asked (43.3%) was fond of studying speaking skill It is likely that most of them realize the importance of speaking among the four practical language skills This fact impbes that a lot of students look forward 124 DOAN THI THANH HIEU», DOAN THI MINH TRANG^ BUI THI MINH NGUYEP to chances to practice English speaking However, because of the immediate purpose, that is passing final exams, some of them (21 % and 20.5%) focused on writing, and reading comprehension 14.7% of them liked all of the four skills and listening was the favorite skill of only 29 students (13.4%) 50% Speaking Writing Reading skills Listening Figure 1: Students' attitudes towards speaking skill With regard to the parts taught much in class (figure 2), a slight majority of the respondents (71.4%) chose grammar Writing and reading were also paid attention to, but not much according to 22.4% and 4.6% of the students, whereas speaking and listening were almost ignored in General Engbsh courses Certainly, botii teachers and students are not surprised at this fact On the one band, speaking and listening are not tested in tiie end-of-semester tests On the other band, tiiey may suppose tiiat fiiture jobs of non-Engbsh majors not need English much 80% 70% ?4>4% 50%40%30%20% 10% ] J*"*^- 0% grammar writing reading ^.jgMB^^astaJ^ speaking listening Figure 2: The parts taught much in class 3.2.3 Students' level of confidence in speaking English and their difficulties The students were asked how often they experienced a lack of confidence in speaking English As can be seen in figure 3, nearly three quarters of the students clauned that they were often (40.6%) and always (31.3%) unconfident when speaking English A quarter of them assumed that they sometimes felt so The number of students who seldom A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL 125 bad such a feeling took up only a small ratio (2.7%) The result showed a sad reality that no students felt confident in their English speaking ability • , : ! # ' ^ often always sometimes seldom never Figure 3: The level of confidence in speaking English There are several reasons why students feel afraid of speaking English (table 2) A remarkable percentage (75.9%) of the students did not like speaking Engbsb because they lack Engbsh words to express their opinions Vocabulary turns out to be the biggest problem of non-Engbsh majors It is certain that this fact gives teachers much help when designing speaking tasks for non-majors According to 20.5% of the respondents, their difficulty in speaking came from the fact that they were not used to speaking Engbsb in front of a lot of people It cannot be denied that there is a remarkable link between students' level of confidence and their experience in speaking Engbsb in the past Most of students did not use English as a means of communication during years at high school They seldom or never expressed their ideas orally in front of their teachers or friends Maybe it is also the reason why they feel strange and indifferent to speaking activities in class In addition to these two factors, as for 15.2% of the students, their obstacle is that they "don't understand what the teacher has just said" 9.8% and 7.1% of the respondents were afraid of wrong grammar and losing face respectively These figures certainly make Engbsb teachers put some thought into their teaching style Table 2: Students' difficulties in speaking English Difficulties in speaking English Percentage of students I don't have enough words 75.9% I am not used to speaking English in front of a lot of people 20.5% I don't understand what the teacher and friends have just said I am afraid of wrong grammar 15.2% I am afraid of losing face ifl say something wrong 7.1% 9.8% 126 DOAN THI THANH H1EU\ DOAN THI MINH TRANG^ BUI THI MINH NGUYEP 3.2.4 Students' attitudes towards speaking error treatment Figure revealed students' high appreciation of speaking mistake correction The largest number of them (70.5%) expected their teacher to correct their mistakes as much as possible (always) Neariy a quarter (24.1 %) of the respondents hoped that their mistakes were often corrected while 5.4% thought teachers should sometimes or seldom pay attention lo their mistakes SO'/r 70% 50% 'iiyii