Rationale for the study
Culture plays a significant role in language teaching and learning It may decrease learners’ involvement in classrooms Being aware of cultural differences and knowing how to deal with related differences are critical for the success of teaching and learning in general, and learning participation in particular According to Wright (2010), participation is central to second language acquisition (SLA) and therefore, language proficiency When students lack proficiency and do poorly on tests, their self- confidence and motivation in school may be impacted Students, who are actively involved, in contrast, report higher satisfaction and higher persistence rates
With the recognition of the importance of proficiency, especially proficiency of students’ speaking skills, Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) has implemented a program which lasts five semesters and focuses on teaching English extensively for communication Experiencing two-years teaching, the researcher found out that many students could write and read English well but they could not speak fluently and correctly Most of the students found speaking difficult, even uninteresting Therefore, they were quite passive in speaking English They did not actively participate in speaking activities Their low participation may be due to a variety of factors in which first cultural factors such as the different traditional learning style, collectivism rather than individualism, the fear of losing face, etc play a significant role
This has given the researcher the desire to conduct a research namely “The influences of some first cultural factors on first year non-English major students’ participation in English speaking learning at HaUI” to identify the first cultural factors that influence students’ participation as well as to find out the techniques and activities to increase students’ involvement in speaking activities at HaUI I hope that this research can give a few benefits to teachers, students and people concerned about this field.
Aims and objectives of the study
This study aims at finding out some first cultural factors influencing first year non- English major student’s participation in English speaking learning, specifically in English speaking lessons
The main objectives of this study are as follows:
1 To investigate the present situation of participation in English speaking learning activities of first year non-English major students at HaUI This includes what activities teachers use in speaking lessons, how often they organize those activities and how students take part in those speaking activities
2 To find out how some first cultural factors influence students’ participation in the classroom while learning English speaking, such as the traditional learning style, collectivism rather than individualism and the fear of losing face
Based on the findings, the researcher gives some suggestions for teachers to stimulate students in speaking English and overcome the difficulties they have to face with in teaching speaking English for university students.
Scope of the study
There are so many aspects relating to English speaking learning including strategies, methods, ways of learning (learning in class, or learning at home), etc The above aspects can be influenced by learners’ first culture In this study, for the limitation of time, conditions, and materials, this study only focuses on participation of students with two main issues: the present situation of HaUI first year non-English major students’ participation in learning speaking and the influence of some first cultural factors on their classroom involvement while learning speaking English including the traditional learning style, collectivism and the fear of losing face
The study involves the participation of 60 first year non-English major students at HaUI They have experienced one semester studying English at this university.
Significance of the study
The significance of the present study would be to contribute some useful information which teachers can consider in their real English speaking classrooms so as to help students have more effective speaking lessons.
Methods of the study…
In the study, both qualitative and quantitative methods are used The data will be collected by means of classroom observations and questionnaires After the data is collected, analyzed and discussed, some conclusions will be drawn and some suggestions will be made in the thesis.
Research questions of the study …………………………………………… 7 Organization of the study……………………………………………………… 3 4
In the thesis, the following questions will be answered
1 What is the present situation of participation in English speaking learning of first year non-English major students at HaUI?
2 How do some first cultural factors influence students’ participation when learning English speaking in the classroom?
Part A, Introduction, deals with the reason for the research and the aims, scope and methodology of the study The research questions are also raised in this part
Part B, Development, consists of the four following chapters:
* Chapter 1 is intended to give some theoretical background related to culture, speaking skills and learners’ participation In addition, some cultural factors in the teaching and learning of speaking skills in classrooms will be discussed
* Chapter 2 provides the current situation of participation in learning speaking skills at HaUI Information about teachers, students, materials and problems, is mentioned
* Chapter 3 gives the analysis on the situation and the influence of some first cultural factors on students’ involvement in English speaking learning in the classroom
* Chapter 4 focuses on the findings and recommendations about using some activities to get over cultural difficulties and improving students’ participation in speaking skills in the classroom
Part C, Conclusion, addresses the key issues in the study, summarizing some shortcomings revealed during the process of completing this research paper.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Culture
Levine and Adelman (1993) asserted that “Culture is a shared background (for example, national, ethnic, religious) resulting from common language and communication style , customs, beliefs, art, music and all the other products of human thought made by a particular group of people at a particular time It also refers to the informal and often hidden patterns of human interactions, expressions and viewpoints that people in one culture shared” Levine and Adelman compared culture with an
“iceberg” The visible part of an iceberg or culture consists of appearance, food, language, tradition and customs… and the invisible part includes values, beliefs, attitudes and communicative styles, perceptions, etc The visible part of culture is a small part of a much bigger whole Therefore, people cannot see the significant influence of culture on an individual behavior and interaction with others
According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary (1995: 285), culture is “art, literature, music and other intellectual expressions of a particular society or time”
(1995) This concept mentions general culture relating to the exposed parts of culture, which are easily recognized such as language, food, clothes, etc
Ferrando (1996, cited in Quang, Nguyen 2006:16) asserted that “Culture is everything that people have, think and do as a member of a society” (2006) The concept of culture, therefore, involves the way people from a particular cultural background think, feel, act, make friends, worship and behave in a community Culture distinguishes one human group from others It also distinguishes human being from animals Culture is shared, learned symbolic system of values, beliefs and attitudes that shapes and affects
6 people’s behaviors, norms, values, attitudes, customs, lifestyle, perceptions, taboos, communicative styles, art, history, geography, economics and political systems…
In short, culture has been defined in different ways by many scholars Culture is sometimes identified with notions of personal space, appropriate gestures, time and so forth Culture is something to learn, it affects the way we act and respond, including the visible aspects and taboos of working in other countries
Because of different ways of defining the culture, there are different classifications of its elements In this part, only some classifications of cultural elements from some famous authors such as Stephen Moore and Stephen Dahl are listed
According to Stephen Moore (1985:4 as cited by Mai Thanh, Do & Thu Trang, Dao 2006: 5-6) culture consists of the following elements: Beliefs, values, norms, roles, role conflict, and status
Beliefs: are general, vague opinions about the world and about the nature of society They vary by society and sometimes by subcultures E.g God created the earth in seven days, or that Jesus was the son of God
Values: are vague beliefs about what is right and correct in the world They imply that there are certain appropriate forms of action which ought to be taken
For example, life is precious; thus, it is wrong to kill anybody
Norms: are socially expected patterns of behavior (Actions that are regarded as normal) E.g Not talking out loud during a play, wearing black clothes to a funeral
Roles: Social roles are patterns of behavior expected of certain people according to the occupation or position they hold in society E.g Clergyman’ role is to be sympathetic, well-mannered, well-spoken, religious, and charitable A heavy- drinking clergyman would be regarded with astonishment by most people
Role conflict: There are innumerable social roles - father, mother, child, shopkeeper, etc All of us occupy a number of roles, which are generally complementary, but sometimes they may conflict, for instance
Status: refers to the position of a person or a social role in society according to the amount prestige received from others In different societies or cultures, status varies In Britain, those with the highest status are the best educated and the rich, although this will obviously vary within subcultures
In Stephen Dahl’s description (cited by Mai Thanh, Do & Thu Trang, Dao 2006:6), culture is “ordered into” three layers, like an onion, where one peel has to be taken off in order to see the following inner
The outer layer, artifacts and products, is the most explicit part including language and food, architecture and style etc
The second layer is norms and values
The inner most layer, basic assumptions, represents the core assumptions of what life is, assumptions about how to handle everyday problems that have become self-evident, that is communication
1.3 Some cultural factors in the teaching and learning of speaking skills in classrooms
Today, educators have become aware of not only the importance of cultural factors in the teaching of speaking skills but also the great influence of inferences between two cultures-target and learner’s cultures-on the way of teaching and learning speaking skills
Firstly, “influenced by their traditional learning style, Vietnamese students are quiet and attentive in class” whereas “teachers are considered the complete source of knowledge” “The students wait until called upon to answer the questions asked by the teachers, instead of volunteering” They are also “good at memorizing and following
8 directions, reluctant to participate (though knowing the answers), meticulous in note- taking, shy away from oral skills (being more comfortable with grammar and writing exercises) and from group interaction” (Hung Tuong, Nguyen 2002) In addition,
“students often regard the teachers as information providers or knowledge givers They pay a lot of respect to teachers by keeping silent and asking no questions in the classroom Students, as well as society keep the belief that teaching is the noblest profession, and therefore, teachers need to be highly respected” (Thuy Duong, Nguyen
2010) Thus, “being talkative, interrupting, questioning, bragging, or challenging the teachers are not typical of Vietnamese culture Such behavior is strongly criticized and avoided” “Americans, in contrast, regard silence as no communication, non- cooperative attitude, and often try to fill the emptiness Silence is treated as passive or negative reaction” (Hung Tuong, Nguyen 2002) Furthermore, Vietnamese students really “lock into the classroom structure and the things teachers say is absolutely right in their minds As a result, these lead to silence during speaking lessons Teachers’ talk is occupied more than that of the learners’ This teacher-centered methodology has long been used at schools in Vietnam” (Thuy Duong, Nguyen 2010)
Review of previous studies
An investigation into factors that hinder the participation of university students in English speaking lessons at Ba Ria – Vung Tau University, which was carried out by Thi Mai, Le (2011) took this matter into consideration The study mentioned the factors that hindered the participation of the second-year English major students at Ba Ria – Vung Tau University in English speaking lessons due to the teacher’s factors, students’ factors and learning and teaching conditions The researcher analyzed activities and techniques often used by teachers to increase students’ participation
Furthermore, she gave some suggestions for teachers to stimulate students in speaking English and overcome the difficulties they have to face with in teaching speaking English
Faizah Mohamad Nor & Liew Hui Choo’s study (2010) also concentrated on the factors affecting second language learners’ classroom participation The study mentioned the factors that affected the participation of students at a Malaysian University in the classroom due to students’ fear, anxiety, learning strategies, lecturers’ teaching practices, personality, perceptions of the lecturers as the authority and perceptions of their roles as universities students The researcher also suggested some techniques taken to encourage students’ involvement in classrooms
Another study is by Thi Thao, Tran in 2010 concentrating on factors affecting the participation in speaking activities of 10 th grade students at Doson high school and some possible solutions In the study, the researcher found out the students’ level of participation in class oral activities, their attitudes towards the applied teaching techniques, as well as the factors affecting students’ participation such as teacher’s factors, students’ factors, classroom factors and materials factors Then she gave some
16 recommendations for improvement in teaching and learning speaking skills in classrooms.
METHODOLOGY
Setting of the study
At HaUI, the teaching of English consists of two stages During the first stage, students study general English with four micro skills namely: speaking, listening, reading and writing Basic English lasts 5 terms with the aims at providing students with general knowledge of English grammar, vocabulary as well as developing students’ four language skills At this very first stage, the textbook New Headway by John and Liz Soars is used with the hope that we can develop the students’ communicative competence and the students can learn the real things from daily life The second stage lasts one term in which students learn English related to their field in order to improve the professional knowledge of English to adapt their future job requirement
Students of HaUI come from all parts of Vietnam (cities, towns, districts and mountainous areas) The students who live in cities and towns seem better at English than those who come from districts and mountainous areas Some of them have learned English for 10 years at primary, secondary and high school whereas others have only learned English for 3 years Specifically, some other students have never learned English before Lots of students who learned English at school experienced traditional method of English teaching (the Grammar-Translation method), the emphasis of which is on the learning of the rules of the language, not on the acquisition of language skills and cultural contents Furthermore, the majority of the students does not have appropriate learning strategies and have passive learning styles Therefore,
18 their general English skills, especially speaking skill, are supposed to be at lower levels
New Headway Elementary, the second level of the six ones (beginner, elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate, upper-intermediate and advanced) written by Liz and John Soars with 14 units, may satisfy the demands of the communicative approach of HaUI to language teaching with four major skills of listening, reading, writing and speaking The textbook has clear approaches to grammar Each unit has a language review section at the back of the book, which gives a short summary of the target structure and its uses Moreover, the authors of these course books also try to mention and emphasize to cultural topics in every text, activity and conversation in each unit
For these reasons, the course book becomes a pleasure to use at the author’s university
Furthermore, the course book has a useful teacher’s book, which supports comprehensive help with useful suggestions for setting up pair work, group work and lesson planning The teachers at HaUI have taken the advantage of those to create suitable activities with the aim at making students participate in lessons more actively, specially speaking activities.
The instruments
The main instruments used in this study to collect data were observation and questionnaire
This is a method used to develop questionnaires The researcher observed 9 English speaking lessons I designed a checklist for what I wanted to observe (See appendix
2) The checklist for observation included kinds of speaking activities that the teachers used, students’ behaviors in speaking activities, their participation in the speaking activities and general comments on the effect of lessons
After 9 periods of class observations, the researcher designed a set of survey questionnaires for students, as a main tool to collect necessary data for the study All the questions were clear and short to make sure students fully understand them before answering The questionnaires, consisting of 10 questions, were delivered to 60 first year non-English major students at HaUI (Appendix 1) The aims of them were to elicit:
(1) Situation of students’ participation in learning speaking in classroom lessons (questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
(2) The influence of some of Vietnamese cultural factors on students’ participation while learning speaking English in the classroom (question 9)
(3) Some suggested solutions in order to overcome those difficulties (question 10) The questionnaire took approximately fifteen minutes to complete.
Subjects
Subjects of the study were 60 first year non-English major students at HaUI aged over
18 who were currently studying at HaUI and selected randomly in the research They come from different provinces, so their English proficiency is various There are big differences among the students in the city and the countryside A large number of the students have said they have spent nearly 10 years studying English The students living in the cities have more chances to meet native speakers at, for example, Language Centers or in the travel Some have been a little bit aware of the cultural knowledge in speaking English However, the students from countryside mainly focus on grammar and vocabulary when they learn English at primary, secondary and high
20 school Some are weak at English; they seem to be afraid of English, especially speaking activities
In addition, the research also used qualitative method that is the author collected some information based on her informal classroom observations The researcher hopes that these methodologies supplement each other and the data are more reliable
All comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion provided in the study are based on the data analysis.
Data collection procedures…
The data of the research was collected by means of classroom observations and questionnaires Firstly, the researcher observed some English lessons in order to develop questionnaires, and then delivered the questionnaires to students who were selected randomly Based on the findings, a hypothesis was formulated about the techniques and activities to be treated with a view to increase the student’s participation
The researcher observed 9 speaking periods lasting 405 minutes from 3 classes During the lessons, the researcher focused on the teachers’ activities, students’ behaviors in speaking activities, students’ participation in teachers’ activities, and then noted down the information on the observation sheet From the observations, the researcher found that although the teachers used different kinds of activities including role-play, interview, conversation, discussion, debate, game, response, reporting, retelling…, the students were not very interested in speaking activities Thus, students’ degree of participation was low During the class, the students did not volunteer to participate in the given activities They were not willing to work with the teachers and other members in the group They seldom gave their opinions about the topics but listened to other students’ ideas This might be due to unexciting, uncreative, uninteresting speaking activities or be from their traditional learning style, their attitude of collectivism, their fear of losing face for making mistake
The questionnaires were administered through face-to-face meeting They were handed out to 60 learners at HaUI to collect information The responses to each question were calculated and converted into percentage for analysis and discussion
DATA ANALYSIS ……………………………………………… 1 Situation of students’ participation in learning speaking in classroom lessons 1.1 Speaking activities used by teachers……………………………………… 1.2 The frequency of teachers’ current teaching activities ………………… 1.3 Students’ participation in speaking activities …………………………… 1.4 Activities motivate students to take part in speaking lessons …………… 1.5 Students’ comfort when speaking English ……………………………… 1.6 The frequency of students’ speaking English in class …………………… 1.7 Students’ questioning or interrupting the teachers ……………………… 1.8 Students’ frequency of expressing their own opinions ………………… 2 The influence of some first cultural factors on students’ participation while
The research was mainly based on quantitative approach The data was converted into statistical numbers and percentages The results were presented by means of numbers and tables or figures
1 Situation of students’ participation in learning speaking in classroom lessons
1.1 Speaking activities used by teachers
+ Question 1: In speaking lessons, which of the following activities does your teacher often use to increase your participation?
Speaking activities Students (No = 60) Percentage (%)
Table 1: Teachers’ current teaching activities to increase students’ participation
The data from Table 1 clearly showed that group work (73.3%), role-play (66.7%) and question and answer exchange (63.3%) were activities mostly used by teachers Other activities such as using games and visual aids (pictures, actions, maps, etc) for speaking hold 43.3%, interview accounted for 35%, free discussion took up 31.7%, and information gaps was 28.3%
It was seen that group work, role-play and questioning could be considered to be popular activities used by the teachers to encourage learners to engage in speaking lessons However, other mentioned activities would be used flexibly by the teachers in speaking lessons
1.2 The frequency of teachers’ current teaching activiti es
+ Question 2: How often does your teacher organize the activities?
Table 2: The frequency of teachers’ current teaching activities
According to the statistics from table 2, 100% of the teachers used question and answer exchange, role-play and group work in order to increase students’ participation
Concerning activities applied in speaking lessons, role-play and question and answer activities were the most preferred choices of the teachers (58.3% and 55%) for it is easy to apply for all types of tasks and is suitable to students’ levels The teachers also used other activities such as discussion, information gap and visual aids (pictures, maps, music ) Interview, games and some other activities are used sometimes and seldom for fear of making noises and being time-consuming
1.3 Students’ participation in speaking activities
+ Question 3: What do you often do when your teacher organize speaking activities in class?
Students’ participation in speaking activities Students (No`) Percentage (%)
Immediately, you participate in speaking excitedly
You wait for your partners’ speaking 30 50
You listen to your partners’ speaking 14 23.3
You take notes what your partners say 7 11.7
Table 3: Students’ participation in speaking activities
As can be seen from table 3, a lot of students rarely participated in speaking lessons excitedly During the lessons, a half of students just sat silently and only spoke English when the teacher called them or when their partners were the first people to speak
35% of them only listened to and took notes what their friends said For this question,
9 students (15%) were eager and excited to speak They immediately participated in speaking when their teachers organized activities It could be concluded that the students’ participation in speaking activities was rather low There were a lot of reasons causing this matter in which passive learning styles, the fear of making mistake and losing face, or uninteresting lessons were considered to be the most serious reasons Low participation never results in the successful speaking activities
1.4 Activities motivate students to take part in speaking lessons
+ Question 4: Which of the following activities can motivate you to participate in
Table 4: Activities motivate students to take part in speaking lessons
In Table 4, 68.3% of the students agreed that game was the most effective activity
Games made students comfortable and helped them reduce stress, increased their motivation and involvement in all activities in class The second choice accounting for 60% of the students was singing Students would be provided with interesting topics
They liked teachers using songs to make them interested in speaking activities 56.7% of the students gave a high appreciation to questioning and role-play or interview activities 41.7% of them believed that describing pictures or map activities could help them involve in speaking lessons better 30% and 28.3% of the respondents agreed that discussion and information gap were important activities in motivating their participation Besides, story telling or joke-telling and oral presentation activities played a role in their speaking for 10% and 5% of the students respectively
1.5 Students’ comfort when speaking English
+ Question 5: What makes you feel more comfortable in speaking activities?
What makes students more comfortable Students (No`) Percentage (%)
Table 5: Students’ comfort when speaking English
The above table showed that 60 % of them felt more comfortable when working individually and eighteen students (30%) thought they were comforted in pair work
10% felt a little nervous when they had to work in groups According to a small talk with the students, the researcher found that they were not confident in speaking English in front of other students and afraid of making mistakes and losing face before others This resulted in their low participation in speaking activities, especially communicative activities
1.6 The frequency of students’ speaking En glish in class
+ Question 6: Which language do you often speak in class speaking activities?
Figure 1: The frequency of students’ speaking English in class
The above figure reflected that the frequency of speaking English in class was rather low As we can see, 66.7% of the students respectively spoke English and 33.3% often spoke Vietnamese in class In small talks with the researcher, some students confirmed that their habit of speaking Vietnamese in daily life and their fear of making mistake in English speaking might be the reasons leading 33.3% students to speak Vietnamese in speaking activities They also said that Vietnamese was easier for them to express their opinions
1.7 Students’ questioning or interrupting the teache r
+ Question 7: In classroom, how often do you question or interrupt the teacher whenever you are in doubt?
Very often Often Sometimes Seldom Never
Figure 2: Students’ questioning or interrupting the teacher
As figure 2 illustrated, 73.4% of students agreed that they sometimes or seldom questioned or interrupted the teacher and 21.6% said they never did Just 5% said that they often questioned and interrupted the teacher, which meant that the communication behavior of students was influenced by their own culture
In referring to the communication, Confucian philosophy considers the aim of communication to be maintaining harmony and building social relationships These cultural aspects lead students to think it is rude to interrupt teachers with different questions in the classroom Moreover, teachers cannot admit that they do not know the answers to students’ questions Therefore, students often avoid questioning or interrupting the teacher in class
1.8 Students’ frequency of expressing their own opinions
+ Question 8: How often do you express your own opinions in speaking activities?
Very often Often Sometimes Seldom Never
Figure 3: Students’ frequency of expressing their own opinions
According to figure 3, 80% of students sometimes or seldom expressed their own opinions in front of other students and only 10% said they often did Just 5% said that they never gave their ideas or expressed their own opinions very often in speaking activities This meant the students’ communication behavior was influenced by their own culture, which is collectivism Most students considered themselves to be introverted when learning English They hesitated to express their own opinions This might be because they need to keep harmony and balance with their classmates and teachers in a learning situation Students avoided objecting to others’ opinions or expressing their different ideas in group discussions and they did not say anything that may hurt others in conversation or arguments
2 The influence of some first cultural factors on students’ participation while learning speaking English in the classroom
+ Question 9: What following factors often influence your participation in learning speaking in classroom?
Factors influence students’ participation in speaking learning
You are shy, passive and not confident 31 51.7
You prefer doing exercises to speaking in the classroom 26 43.3 You only speak English when the teacher calls you 21 35 It’s your attitude and motivation about learning 25 41.7
You have no chance to talk because the teacher or your friend(s) talks a lot
You are afraid of losing face when making mistake 32 53.3
You hesitate to express your own opinions 30 50
Table 6: Factors influence students’ participation in speaking learning
The table showed that students had not raised their volunteerism and were not active in speaking practice Fear of losing face when making mistake was the highest reason, with 53.3% The second highest reason was students’ shyness, passivity, and lack of confidence, with 51.7% The students’ hesitation to express their own opinions (50%) was the third highest one Students’ preference for doing exercises than speaking and their attitude and motivation about learning were 43.3% and 41.7% respectively Over a third thought that they only spoke English when the teacher called was another reason for their low participation Only 20% of the student respondents thought they had no opportunity to speak because of their teacher’s or their friends’ talking a lot
Furthermore, students gave other factors that hindered their participation in learning speaking Boring, uninteresting topics and activities, large class sizes, teacher’s inappropriate teaching methodology accounted for students’ low participation
According to them, teacher’s good teaching methods, and behaviors, sense of humor, enthusiasm and tolerance, etc, would encourage students to speak more Another factor was the classroom atmosphere Students confirmed that if they had to learn in an uncomfortable atmosphere and a narrow room, they would feel difficult to move and unpleasant to interact with others Students’ low proficiency in English was also a factor hindering their involvement They did not have enough vocabulary, knowledge relating to speaking topics to express their ideas That’s why they did not participate in speaking activities in class
Clearly, students’ participation was influenced by many factors including classroom factors, low proficiency in English factors, teachers’ factors, learners’ learning style factors, topic ones, fear of losing face ones, hesitation to express their own opinions ones in which learners’ learning style factors, fear of losing face factors and hesitation to express their own opinions factors were considered to the most influential ones on students’ English speaking involvement
3 Students’ desire in order to overcome those difficulties
+ Question 10: What should the teacher do to help students overcome the difficulties when participating in speaking activities?
What teacher should do to help students overcome the difficulties
Not talk too much during speaking lessons 13 21.7
Change students’ attitude about learning 17 28.3
Make students more confident, not be shy or passive 35 58.3
Make students not be afraid of losing face when making mistake
Give students opportunities to express their own ideas 12 20
Provide students with vocabulary and structures in speaking lessons
Create a comfortable and co-operative English learning environment for students to speak English
Create more interesting, suitable topics, games or communicative activities
Table 7: What teacher should do to help students overcome the difficulties
FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS
Major findings and discussion ……………………………………………… The situation of students’ participation in class oral activities………… 2 Factors influence students’ participation in speaking activities………… 35 35 35 2 Recommendations for increasing students’ participation in speaking activities
1.1 The situation of s tudents’ participation in class oral activities
By analyzing the questionnaires from students and class observation, we could conclude that teachers organized different kinds of speaking activities and the participation of the first year non-English major students at HaUI was rather low
Although most of the students were aware of the importance of speaking skill, they were reluctant to take part in oral communicative activities This was one of the biggest challenges that all teachers were facing, thus to find out factors affecting students’ low participation was a necessary task.
1.2 Factors influence students’ participation in speaking activi ties
The findings showed that there were three main kinds of factors influencing students’ participation coming from the first culture: traditional learning style, collectivism and students’ shyness and fear of losing face In addition, four factors mentioned by students were students’ low proficiency in English, uninteresting topics, teacher’s inappropriate teaching methodology and classroom condition
Firstly, some factors came from traditional learning styles In speaking lessons, learning style influenced students much The impulsive learners often talked much while the reflective ones preferred to think more For the limited time lesson, the reflective learners often had fewer chances to speak out than the impulsive ones The findings from researcher’s observation pointed out that the speaking class with reflective learners seemed to be quieter and more boring than the one with impulsive ones In addition, it was students’ attitude in speaking involvement with 41.7% The more positive attitude students had, the more actively students participated in speaking lessons Moreover, most students thought that they studied English for the requirement of their future jobs, not for their personal interests In other words, students lacked intrinsic motivation which played an important role in students’ language learning
Therefore, students’ passive learning styles prevented them from gaining success in speaking lessons
The next factor was from collectivism A half of the students hesitated to express their own opinions, they preferred to listen to the ideas of others and take notes In their view, a quiet student learnt more and was more respectful than the one who spoke up, and took time away from the teacher’s lesson In a classroom, the classmates needed to live in harmony, so discussions using argument seemed to be impolite For this culture based reason, discussions, group activities, and productive interactions between students and teachers were difficult to be fully utilized
Thirdly, the fear of losing face and shyness influenced students’ involvement From the observation, students were anxious during speaking lessons, which caused negative effects to their learning process in general and to their participation in speaking activities in particular 53.3% of the students from the results of questionnaires were afraid of losing face when making mistakes in front of the teachers and other friends and worried about being called suddenly by the teachers without carefully prepared activities A lot of students felt worried, not self-confident enough in front of the classmates and teacher The findings showed that 51.7% of the students did not want to take part in speaking activities because of shyness Students’ shyness made them passive in the speaking activities
In the speaking lessons, the students with lower proficiency might feel unconfident
They were afraid of making mistakes and losing face in front of their teachers and other students As a result, they did not dare to join in any speaking activities in class
Most students said that their low level of English in terms of limited vocabulary, inability of expressing ideas affected their engagement in speaking activities
In addition, the uninteresting topics and activities of speaking lessons hindered students’ involvement Therefore, in order to interest students, teachers should create
36 new and interesting activities but challenging enough for students to discover themselves
Furthermore, teachers’ boring teaching techniques and activities couldn’t inspire students’ motivation to study In speaking lessons, the teachers with learner-centered teaching method would know how to keep students’ speaking and how to give each student chances to participate in speaking tasks
Finally, teaching and learning condition also played an important role in increasing students’ participation From the observation, the researcher found that it was very difficult for the teachers to control the crowded class and to organize speaking activities The students enjoyed the pleasant and supportive classroom atmosphere, which would create students’ motivation and encourage their participation in speaking activities
In short, the participation of the first year non-English major students at HaUI was strongly affected by different factors as previously mentioned above The factors were from Vietnamese cultural ones, students themselves, teachers and topics as well as the classroom atmosphere
2 Recommendations for increasing students’ participation in speaking activities
2.1 Teachers should be enthusiastic, friendly, helpful and tolerant
Teachers’ enthusiasm, friendliness, helpfulness and tolerance will create students’ interest in speaking English, so the teachers must pay attention to the shy and nervous students The friendly, sympathetic attitude of a teacher to a class brings out the best effect on both teaching and learning The teachers had better have a tolerant attitude towards students’ errors In other words, they need to consider mistakes as part of the natural process of language learning, so it is not necessary to correct every single mistake Through the results of questionnaires, most students did not want to speak because of being afraid of making mistakes The teachers, therefore, have to be friendly, give a smile instead of getting angry when students make mistakes Students should make use of opportunities to practice speaking English and make sure that making mistakes is inevitable in language learning process
2.2 Teachers need to help our students to improve their knowledge of grammar and enrich their vocabulary
The findings indicated that the majority of the students found it hard to carry out their speaking tasks because of their poor vocabulary, ideas and knowledge relating to the speaking topics Thus, the teachers should find out the speaking topics which suit for students’ language level With such a topic, it is quite easy for students to speak and express their opinions Moreover, the teachers have to create a competitive atmosphere for the students to use new words and structures in speaking activities Finally, they must find other materials relevant to students’ interest; provide students with useful vocabulary, structures and information they need The teachers should also give encouragement so that students will have no fear to speak
2.3 Teachers should build a cooperative atmosphere in class
Most of the students felt reluctant to speak in class due to their shyness or lack of confidence Thus, the teachers should try to understand their shyness to make them more confident when practicing English in front of the class by creating an atmosphere in which they feel comfortable, asking questions in order to reduce students’ anxieties, and admit when students do not know anything A cooperative classroom atmosphere in which students are encouraged to take part in oral activities can facilitate students to express their opinions without being afraid of making mistakes or negative evaluations
Students can work together in pairs or groups for a task in a cooperative atmosphere
They can get benefits from sharing ideas, feeling and knowledge It encourages active participation of all members in class A cooperative atmosphere increases learners talk more, more relaxed atmosphere and greater participation Teachers, therefore, need to build a warm environment in which teachers and students have a close relationship
They not only play the role of the facilitator of students’ learning, the manager of classroom activities, the advisor to answer students’ questions and to control their performance but also work as the participant to engage in the communicative activities along with the students
2.4 Teachers need to create variety of interesting and appropriate speaking activities