3381 METHODS TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS FOR ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN Nguyễn Đức Trung Quân Khoa Tiếng Anh, Trường Đại học Công nghệ TP Hồ Chí Minh GVHD ThS Nguyễn Phương Thảo ABSTRACT Speaking skills.
METHODS TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS FOR ENGLISH-MAJORED FRESHMEN Nguyễn Đức Trung Quân* Khoa Tiếng Anh, Trường Đại học Công nghệ TP Hồ Chí Minh GVHD: ThS Nguyễn Phương Thảo ABSTRACT Speaking skills is one of the crucial skills that many language learners desire to master in order to communicate effectively However, being able to speak fluently is still a problem for students, especially for low-level learners The main purpose of this study is to determine the main factors hindering first-year learners to speak English fluently and to suggest solutions for improvement Keywords: speaking skill, factors, first-year learners, solutions INTRODUCTION Undergraduate students choose English major because of the number of people in the world that use English to communicate on regular basis is two billion This language is the dominant business language, and it has become almost necessary for people to speak English There are many motivations for students to learn this language, such as: technology, tourism, media, international economic, etc Language is the powerful tool to keep people all over the world connected together so four skills when we learn any language are the same level of essential Speaking for special communication usually occurs in contexts where speaking performance is conducted for an audience in different circumstances When a speech involving an audience is taken into consideration, the act of speaking is considered to be more complicated than general everyday conversation and a number of other skills are therefore included in the speaking delivery process, e.g choosing topic, organizing thoughts, tailoring the message and adapting to listener feedback (Lucas, 2001) However, most students still struggle with speaking English and they have fewer opportunities to expose themselves to the language in daily life Although there are a range of methods that have been employed to teach learners to improve English speaking ability, they lead to insufficient results THE IMPORTANCE OF SPEAKING SKILLS Brown and Yule (1983) says, “Speaking is the skill that the students will be judged upon most in real-life situations” Speaking allows students to communicate with others and express our thoughts and feelings Speaking skill in second or foreign language is a challenge for the learners, because to speak a foreign language such as English requires more than knowing grammar but also the use of English in a real context Kaji (2006) states that speaking is to select appropriate words and sentences according to proper social 3381 setting, audience, situation, and subject matter Being a fluent speaker requires many knowledge towards the language learnt itself and its usage in the real communication SPEAKING ACTIVITIES BY FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS At university, English-majored students might be asked to perform different speaking tasks Based on Kaji’s suggestions of speaking types, the table below is the result of the survey by 40 first-year HUTECH university students from the faculty of English language This small-scale survey was conducted by the researcher from his own class Table Types of Speaking Activities by English-Majored Freshmen Task Frequency Percentage Conversation 15 37.5% Questioning 20% Discussion 12.5% Explaining 12.5% Giving 17.5% example Table shows that the tasks that are required from the students inside the classroom usually are: Conversation/Dialogue, questioning, discussion, explaining, giving example Below are the details: Conversation/Dialogue: The result of this study showed that conversation skill was the most frequent speaking task that is required from students inside the classroom, 15 out of 40 students (37.5%), mentioned that they have a conversation with the others inside the classroom This is due to the fact that courses for freshmen are ListeningSpeaking where they are asked to have a conversation with their peers Questioning: 3382 The results showed that questioning task was less than conversation, students out of 40 students (20%), mentioned that they have to make questioning inside the classroom Discussion: This section presents medium results as previous task, out of 40 students (12.5%), mentioned that they have to make a discussion inside the classroom Explaining: The result presented that this task is exactly as questioning task, out of 40 students (12.5%), mentioned that they have to make explaining inside the classroom Giving example: The result of this task presented the same as “explaining”, out of 40 participants (17.5%), mentioned that they have to giving examples inside the classroom SPEAKING DIFFICULTIES Speaking problems are some problems that make student lacks of speaking ability One among the many reasons to take into considerations might be the lack of confidence and anxiety about making errors as stated by Trent (2009) These problems may become the obstacles for the students to enhance and improve their speaking ability They did not find a good environment to acquire enhance foreign language as family, school, and native speaker friends or poor in grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILLS Many college students master the fine point of English grammar but find themselves at a loss when it comes to actual conversation with native speakers According to table you can see that students are still shy and afraid when they say something wrong when they are speaking The limited amount of vocabulary is also the top issue of students that they can express their thinking This part presented some methods for problems that students are suffering from English oral communication inside and outside the class The table below is the result of the survey by 40 first-year Hutech university students The survey was also conducted by the researcher with his class Table Speaking Practices by English-majored Freshmen Method Frequency 3383 Percentage Listening to English songs, news, films 22 55% Speaking with native speakers 34 85.5% Conversation among students 12 30% Development of grammar 22 55% The results showed that 22 out of 40 students (55%) prefer listening to English songs, news, films to improve speaking skills “Music is rhythm, a reflection of our physiological life Music is also melody, sequence of sounds, which is associated with our emotional life.” (Fonseca-Mora, Toscano-Fuentes, & Wermke, 2011) Not only children but also adults prefer to listen to music As a younger generation, college students regard listening to English songs as a fashion With beautiful melodies and highly memorable lyrics, they can create a relaxed atmosphere, improve motivation for learners and provide enough language input 34 out of 40 students supposed speaking with native speakers is the best method to help them improve speaking skills Nobody would challenge the value of effective native-speaking English, and there is no doubt that a non-native speaker possesses some disadvantages such as having an accent and being less familiar with semantics, idioms, and slang expressions However, the enthusiasm, caring attitude, professional training, and subject-matter knowledge are important elements of good language teaching While native speakers may be perfect language models for students to copy, non-native speaking teachers can be a better guide They can more effectively direct students to effective language models from which they have benefited and offer successful language learning strategies they have used Conversation among students is method help educators understand the dynamics of conversation and help them promote more productive, equitable discourse with and among students The last one is the development of grammar The result showed 22 out of 40 students prefer this method The use of correct grammar is important because it is the main feature within both our spoken and written communication that allows us to have our messages clearly understood Using incorrect grammar can lead to meaningless sentences and unclear message, which in turn can lead to misinterpretation by a communication partner Using correct grammar makes listening and reading easier for others to understand and can make the communication process more enjoyable CONCLUSION 3384 Through a review of literature, obviously that speaking skill is not easy to improve Students must boost their self-confidence to make opportunities to have conversations and practice more In addition to all the methods mentioned above, students can create situations on their own that can encourage them to produce English oral interactions because such interactions can provide learners with opportunities to explain concepts and help them to vocalize concrete meaning, by which learners can learn their tendency toward English oral communication activities REFERENCES [1] Brown, G & Yule, G (1983) Teaching the spoken language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [2] Fonseca-Mora, C.; Toscano-Fuentes, C & Wermke, K (2011) Melodies that help: The relation between language aptitude and musical intelligence Anglistik International Journal of English Studies 22(1), 101-118 [3] Kaji, H (2006) Teaching speaking: Activities to promote speaking in a second language The Internet TESL Journal, 12(11) http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Kayi-TeachingSpeaking.html [4] Lucas, E (2001) The art of public speaking (7th Ed) Singapore: McGraw-Hill [5] Trent, J (2009) Enhancing oral participation across the curriculum: Some lessons from the EAP classroom Asian EFL Journal, 11, 256-270 3385