Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking skills to students at bac ha international university

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ YẾN DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING TOEIC SPEAKING SKILLS TO STUDENTS AT BAC HA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY (Những khó khăn việc dạy kỹ nói TOEIC cho sinh viên trường Đại học Quốc tế Bắc Hà) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 HANOI – 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ YẾN DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING TOEIC SPEAKING SKILLS TO STUDENTS AT BAC HA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY (Những khó khăn việc dạy kỹ nói TOEIC cho sinh viên trường Đại học Quốc tế Bắc Hà) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, Ph.D HANOI – 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Certificate of originality of study project report i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of abbreviations vii Table of figures viii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Aims of the study Scope of the study Significance of the study Methodology Organization of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 An overview of the TOEIC test 1.2 The TOEIC speaking test 1.3 Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking skills 1.3.1 Difficulties from teachers 1.3.2 Difficulties from students 10 1.3.3 Difficulties from objective factors 13 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 15 2.1 The research context 15 2.1.1 Description of the English language teaching and learning at BHIU 15 2.1.2 Description of the students at BHIU 16 2.1.3 Description of the teachers at BHIU 17 2.2 Methods of the study 18 2.3 Research design 19 2.3.1 Sample and sampling 19 2.3.2 Research instruments 20 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2.3.3 Data collection 22 2.3.4 Data analysis 22 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 24 3.1 Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking from teachers’ perspectives 24 3.1.1 General difficulties 24 3.1.2 Specific difficulties 26 3.2 Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking from students’ perspectives 27 3.2.1 General difficulties 27 3.2.2 Specific difficulties 29 3.3 Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking from both teachers’ and students’ perspectives 30 3.3.1 General difficulties 30 3.3.2 Specific difficulties 31 3.4 Solutions to the eight most common difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking skills 32 3.4.1 Students' low level of speaking competence 32 3.4.2 Students' passive learning style 33 3.4.3 Students' low motivation level 34 3.4.4 Big and multi-level class 36 3.4.5 Helping students to have inappropriate intonation and stress 37 3.4.6 Helping students to improve their listening competence 38 3.4.7 Helping students to recognize the relationship between the sender and receiver of the message 38 3.4.8 Helping students to support their answers with reasons, examples 40 PART C: IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION 41 CHAPTER 1: IMPLICATIONS 41 CHAPTER 2: CONCLUSION 44 2.1 Summary of the findings 44 2.2 Limitations of the study 45 2.3 Suggestions for further studies 46 REFERENCES 47 APPENDICES I Appendix A: Sample of a complete TOEIC speaking test I Appendix B: TOEIC speaking test scoring guide IV v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Appendix C: Questionnaire for students VIII Appendix D: Questionnaire for teachers XII Appendix E: Transcript of group interview XIV Appendix F: Sample of information gap activity XXVI Appendix G: Sample of graphic organizer XXVIII vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS TOEIC The Test of English for International Communication TOEFL The Test of English as a Foreign Language IELTS The International English Language Testing System GMAT The Graduate Management Admission Test BULATS The Business Language Testing System BEC Business English Certificates EFL English as a Foreign Language BHIU Bac Ha International University vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1: Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking skills in general - from teachers’ perspectives 26 Figure 2: Difficulties in teaching six different parts of the TOEIC speaking test - from teachers’ perspectives 28 Figure 4: Difficulties in teaching six different parts of the TOEIC speaking test - from students’ perspectives 29 Figure 5: Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking skills in general 31 Figure 6: Difficulties in teaching six different parts of the TOEIC speaking test 32 viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Nowadays, with the rapid pace of globalization, English as an international language is playing a more and more important role in all walks of life As a result, the teaching of EFL has been paid more attention than ever before English has become a compulsory subject in all education institutions from primary schools to universities To meet the demand of the society, a lot of reliable international English tests such as IELTS, TOEFL, GMAT,….have come into being It is, however, a fact that most of these tests serve the academic purpose That is to say they aim at providing learners with academic English for their further study, especially for overseas study Obviously, a very important sector of English learners has been left behind with very few tools to evaluate their English – English for the workplace Recently, BULATS and BEC have been introduced to ease the situation but they seem not to fully satisfy most of the learners’ expectation Businesses, government agencies and English-language learning programs around the world have been using the TOEIC test as the standard for English-language assessment in the workplace for more than 30 years Today, more than 10,000 organizations in 120 countries turn to the TOEIC test to make their hiring, placement and training decisions While TOEIC listening and reading tests have been widely used, TOEIC speaking and writing tests are considered fairly new to English-language learners despite their introduction in December 1996 The introduction of TOEIC speaking and writing test was to satisfy the increasing need of the global workforce for employees who are capable of speaking and writing at a certain level In Vietnam, most of the colleges choose to focus on the traditional version of TOEIC test: TOEIC listening and reading Meanwhile some others start to integrate TOEIC speaking and writing into their syllabus with a view to providing students with an effective tool to apply for their future jobs LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Despite its recent appearance, TOEIC speaking has proved itself a reliable tool to evaluate students’ ability to communicate in the real workplace Bac Ha International University where I have been teaching for more than years is one of the leading universities for this new trend of teaching TOEIC speaking to students Having been introduced in Bac Ha International University for years, TOEIC speaking is believed to be very practical and useful for third year students who are going to graduate and struggle to find their positions in the workplace During these two years, BHIU lecturers of TOEIC speaking have encountered some certain difficulties which can be classified into three categories: from students ( low level of English competence, low motivation level….), from teachers ( large amount of talk time in class, inappropriate error correction techniques,….), from objective factors ( large and multi-level classes, lack of facilities….) Some other difficulties may also emerge from the nature and construction of the TOEIC exam itself which is quite different from speaking tests developed by Vietnamese educators This study attempts to figure out the difficulties faced by BHIU lecturers when teaching TOEIC speaking as well as draw out some feasible solutions suggested by the lecturers to overcome these difficulties Aims of the study The primary goal of this thesis is to study the difficulties of lectures when teaching TOEIC speaking from both lecturers’ and students’ perspective in BHIU Some suggested solutions would also be given by the lecturers to overcome these difficulties These issues can be tackled through answering three questions: From the perspective of lecturers, what are the difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking to students at Bac Ha International University? From the perspective of students, what are the lecturers’ difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking at Bac Ha International University? What are the lecturers’ suggestions to overcome these difficulties? LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Scope of the study It is a fact that there are many different types of difficulties which lecturers may encounter when teaching TOEIC speaking However, this paper only focuses on the most common difficulties voted by lecturers and students in teaching TOEIC speaking in general and in teaching parts of the TOEIC speaking in specific Some suggestions will also be made by the lecturers with a view to improving the teaching of TOEIC speaking in BHIU Since this study is carried out to figure out BHIU lecturers’ difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking, the findings of this paper may not be necessarily generalized to lecturers at other universities Significance of the study The globalization of education has triggered a greater demand for good English speaking ability in the job market As a new and worldwide standard of English language learning, the TOEIC test has added speaking to its original format as a way to prove the importance of speaking in the real workplace Nevertheless, very few colleges take advantage of this new format and adapt it to their syllabus Also, even less research on the TOEIC test, especially on TOEIC speaking has been implemented All the previous research on TOEIC speaking focuses on proving the reliability and validity of this test (“TOEIC Research”) The lecturers of TOEIC speaking have met some certain difficulties but seem to have no chance to raise their voice, to discuss with other colleagues and to figure out the best solutions to their problems This study is carried out to set a light on this important issue BHIU lecturers as well as students are expected to recognize lecturers’ difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking while the lecturers themselves can possibly gain some advice to overcome these difficulties from their colleagues All in all, the teaching of TOEIC speaking is expectedly, to some extent, improved in BHIU in the next semesters LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com APPENDIX E TRANSCRIPT OF THE GROUP INTERVIEW Researcher: Hi everyone and thank you very much for coming here today As mentioned in my email to you all, I have been carrying out my Master thesis on “Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking skills to students at Bac Ha International University” I intended to use two research instruments: Questionnaires and Group Interview After the analysis of the Questionnaires for Lecturers and Questionnaires for Students, the eight most common difficulties faced by lecturers in teaching TOEIC speaking skills are drawn out The “General difficulties” include students’ low level of speaking competence, students’ passive learning style, students’ low motivation level, and large and multi-level class while the most popular difficulties in teaching different parts of TOEIC speaking are difficulties in helping students to have appropriate intonation and stress (in all parts), to improve their listening competence to understand questions in the recording (in part – question and part – question 10), to recognize the relationship between the sender and receiver of the message (in part – question 10), to support their answers with details, reasons and examples (in part – question 11) This group interview aims at finding out your suggested solutions to these difficulties All of them would be highly appreciated This interview will be recorded and transcribed later Please be aware that the data from the interview will be kept confidential and will be used only for the purpose of this study So, let’s start with the first difficulty: students’ low level of speaking competence What you think are the solutions to this difficulty? Participant B: I think that it’s a very serious problem for all non English major students This difficulty results from not good English education during their school years Also, it’s our responsibility for the further two years students have studied XIV LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com English in BHIU Hence, to solve this problem completely, I think we should spend more time and effort teaching students carefully from very first time they enter BHIU That is to say, instead of supposing students to have already mastered the high-school English knowledge, we should provide students with basic English at first It may take one or two terms but I’m sure it’s worth Once students have a good basic English, they can catch up on with the college curriculum very well Participant A: I totally agree with Ms B’s idea for a more careful teaching of first-year students But what can be done to help current third year students to improve their English competence? Participant C: As for students with low level of English competence in my class, I highly suggested them to join the other lower – level classes in their free time I hope that their hard work may quickly bridge the gap between them and the other students By this way, weak students have a chance to revise their forgotten knowledge while they can still proceed their study as their plan In particular, all of these bridging classes are totally free at our university if students ask for permission from the teachers in advance Participant D: Great idea Beside these bridging classes, another free place for students to further practice their English speaking is joining BEC (Bac Ha English Club) I joined some of their events and found it a very interesting and useful environment for students to speak English They may also get a lot of advice from senior students and hopefully may make progress in their English speaking study Participant E, F, G: Well-done! Participant A: By the way, I would like to introduce to you a very useful website in which students can hold small English speaking meetings It is in fact a free webconference website It is however very important for students to be instructed carefully before they start using their own conferences or meetings XV LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Participant B, C, D, E, F, G: Great! Can you send us the address of the website please? Participant A: Sure, I’ll send it to your email after this meeting Researcher: Very good Now, let’s move on to the second difficulty: students’ passive learning style Participant G: The problem of the education system once again Students are used to listening to their teachers writing on the board, then noting down in their notebook They prefer keeping silent or being “obedient” rather than speaking up or arguing with classmates and teachers This is especially true for the classes, the majority of which are female students Participant E: That’s right This passive learning style is just like a bad habit which has been lasting for so long, and hence it’s very difficult to brainwash our students Participant F: You two are a bit negative about our BHIU students This passive learning style has been, to some extent, changed in Vietnamese subjects However, as it comes to English, it seems to get more serious From my viewpoint, we can change our students’ learning style gradually As for me, I often give compliments on any arguments from students regardless whether they are correct or not Participant A: I increased the time for pair or group work, discussion and argument in my class Whether it is in TOEIC reading, listening or speaking lessons, students are encouraged to work in a team and express their ideas freely Sometimes, I allow them to speak in Vietnamese to make sure that they feel confident to give their ideas Of course, English comments or questions are a bit higher evaluated and granted with some extra marks Participant E: To change students’ habit of “teachers’ reading and students’ writing”, I often prepare my lessons in power point which I promised to send to students However, students are encouraged to take note on any important XVI LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com explanations, examples and so on A short test on so-called important notes is often carried out to encourage students to take careful note during the lesson Participant G: To make sure that students feel confident to speak up in front of other classmates, I usually assign the topics, for example, at the end of each lesson Students can prepare beforehand and feel it easier to express their ideas in English in the next lessons Researcher: Thank you very much for your suggestions If there is no more suggestion for this difficulty, we should continue with the third one: students’ low motivation level Participant D: Students’ low motivation level? Is it due to the teachers’ teaching methodologies? Participant B: In my opinion, students’ low motivation level may result from two main reasons First of all, they themselves don’t like the subject or don’t feel that learning TOEIC speaking skills is important for their future career You know, students are quite practical now They don’t pay much attention to the subjects which may not be useful for them The second reason is possibly the teachers’ teaching method Perhaps we not apply appropriate teaching methodologies to attract their attention Participant C: So, what is the solution to make students motivated? It’s seemingly very difficult to me Participant F: In my first lesson with my TOEIC speaking class, I asked my students to “Work in group and discuss the question: Is it necessary to study TOEIC speaking? Why (not)?” The students were quite excited to discuss these two questions Some of them frankly said that TOEIC speaking is not really important, especially in comparison with TOEIC reading and speaking It is also a fact in Vietnam as a good certificate of TOEIC reading and listening guarantees good XVII LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com knowledge of English and may help students to get their desirable job This idea was then quickly argued by the other students who mentioned the role of TOEIC speaking in the real work place It means that students must certainly communicate in English in the future work place and the skills they get from TOEIC speaking test will be of great importance and of great help to them to score more extra points in the eyes of the directors or the bosses Participant A: We can also add a fact that the students need TOEIC speaking skills right from the interview stage By answering interviewers’ questions accurately, relevantly and rapidly, they themselves can increase their chances to get the jobs Researcher: What about further explaining about the reasons for the appearance of TOEIC speaking and writing in the new format of TOEIC test? Participant E: Good idea Obviously, the TOEIC test of reading and listening cannot evaluate candidates’ English competence completely In addition, the requirements of the business world to search for employees who can not only read and listen but also speak and write in English well Is it correct? Researcher: Absolutely Participant B: And who knows in the near future when students graduate, a new requirement from industrial factories will be a complete TOEIC test with all four skills? Researcher: Great So, we must make clear the objectives of the TOEIC speaking subjects before we start teaching Participant C: To make my TOEIC speaking more interesting to students, I tried to use a wide range of communicative activities such as information gaps, role-play and discussions These activities should be designed in the form of ESL games XVIII LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Participant D: For example, I used games for practicing minimal pairs as teaching the first part of TOEIC reading, you know, how to have acceptable pronunciation, intonation and stress The redesign of these games may take a long time but it is really worth and does raise students’ motivation I’ll send you some of my prepared games for this “reading” part Participant A: Thanks a lot, D I would also like to share my games for the second part: picture description That game is quite familiar to you all, I think I often use the photos in the listening section and redesign a photo matching game for students Students are divided into groups, a member of which goes to the board There is a set of 10 photos in front of them Their task is after listening to a description; they choose the correct photo and stick it to the board The audiences are called on at random to make some description about the 10 photos This game is quite funny and motivating to my students Researcher: Thank you very much for your great idea of A and D Can we summarize all the ESL games which we have already used for TOEIC speaking classes and share with each other? I think that we can attract our students’ attention and improve their motivation level Please send it to me, say, within a week I’ll summarize and synthesize all the games and send them all to our Dep Is it ok? All participants: Ok Participant A: I nearly forgot a very effect tool to motivate students, that is the use of visual aids such as power point, projector, video, graphs… These tools will certainly make our lessons more catching to students All participants: Sure We have been using these visual aids too Researcher: Now, let’s figure out possible solutions to the third difficulty of “large and multi-level class” XIX LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Participant G: I suggest dividing students into smaller groups, say, groups of or students whose levels of English include intermediate (1 student), pre-intermediate (2 or students) and elementary (1 or students) By this way, good students may help weaker ones Also, it’s also easier for us to check the group work rather than check the individual work which certainly takes a lot of time and effort, and it’s totally impossible for us to within one or two periods Participant B: But the problem here is whether students work well in a group I heard a lot of comments on group work that is only good students the work and then the weaker ones naturally get benefits without doing anything Participant E: Therefore, before assigning students into groups, we must guide them how to work in groups I mean how to assign work to each member, how to synthesize the individual work, how to evaluate the work from each member and give a mark to them In other words, the group leader should be chosen and instructed carefully about his or her roles Participant C: That’s right Another very important issue which should be taken into consideration is class management Sometimes, it’s very hard for me to control them, especially during the group work time The number of nearly 40 students within a class is too big and they make so much noise Participant F: To solve this problem, we need the aid from group leaders and the monitor once again Each group leader should make sure that group members will express their ideas in turn They should also adjust the volume of their voice so that the whole class won’t turn into a noisy market Participant D: What about the problem of knowledge delivered to students within a single lesson? I mean weak students can only digest very basic one while better students expect to get something more challenging I met this difficulty in my class, you know, as basic knowledge is delivered, good students feel bored while weak students find it totally de-motivating with the introduction of intensive knowledge XX LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Participant A: I think that we should decide the amount of knowledge we transfer within a lesson basing on the outstanding students’ level of English competence As we know, students belonging to pre-intermediate and elementary are prevailing in comparison to intermediate Therefore, what we should introduce to students in class is only basic and slightly higher to make sure that all students can understand the gist of the lessons As for intermediate students, we can assign extra tasks for them to at home Participant B: And we’d better check them through email instead of in class For instance, I asked my best students to list all the feasible structures besides those introduced in class to describe a photo They’ll then send them to me by email and of course I’ll reply to them by email later on Participant C: Good idea Participant G: For specially weak students, I try to spend time talking to them personally to understand their problems If they need my help, I can try to teach them one extra class every week to help them keep up with other classmates Participant D: I’m not sure I can arrange my time or not for these free classes Researcher: I think that G’s idea is very helpful to weak students If we can, we should try it and for sure we’ll be happy with the result at the end So, we’ve just gone through the solutions to the general difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking Let’s move on to the first specific one: difficulty in helping students to have appropriate intonation and stress Participant B: Poor pronunciation, especially intonation and stress are very common among non English major students who not have a chance to learn pronunciation officially and carefully Although our students did have an opportunity to study with foreigners during the first two years, the resulting XXI LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com pronunciation, intonation and stress are not comparatively good Should we include pronunciation into our syllabus for first year students? Participant A: Sure, we discussed this issue for several times Maybe we should try integrating pronunciation into our syllabus for first year students next semester Researcher: That’s right We’ll get back to that issue in our departmental discussion later Now, can you give out some solutions to current students with inappropriate intonation and stress please? Participant C: Though it takes quite a lot of time, I usually spend about lessons introducing students basic knowledge of pronunciation, intonation and stress before moving on to teach real content of TOEIC speaking test (part I) For example, I guide them how to read the syllables and check the pronunciation in dictionaries Common stress patterns for two or three syllable words are also introduced briefly As for sentence stress, I remind students what kind of words is often stressed You know important words in a sentence: noun, verb, adj,… English words should be pronounced in groups to make it understandable to listeners Where to pause, how long to pause….should be also mentioned In short, we should pick out the most common items to teach students Participant D: Since we don’t have enough time in class to introduce all necessary knowledge of pronunciation, intonation and stress to students, I advise them to buy the book “……” and practice at home I ask them to record their voice by their mobile phone or a recording machine and send these recordings to me by email I’ll check and give them some comments on their pronunciation Participant F: Great I think I should adopt your method As for me, I advise my students to use a free web-based text-to-speech application This program is very easy to use All what students must is to type a word, a phrase or a text and then click “say it” to hear the guided pronunciation with an appropriate intonation and stress XXII LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Researcher: Excellent guys It’s time for us to deal with the problem of helping students to improve their listening competence You know students must listen to questions in a recording, then reply to them quickly in part III of the TOEIC speaking test Our students often fail to catch the meaning of the questions, then are unable to answer the questions accurately Participant D: I think the best way for students to quickly improve their listening competence is practice You know “practice makes perfect” By this I mean students should try to find reliable sources of TOEIC listening part II (Questions and Responses) The questions in this section are quite similar to those in TOEIC speaking test part III At first, students should apply all the techniques to get the correct answers for these exercises What is, however, more important is that after doing the exercises, students should play the recordings again, repeat after them, trying to copy the way they pronounce English words, phrases and sentences By this way, students get familiar to the format of the questions in both listening and speaking tests, improve their vocabulary and pronunciation at the same time In short, our purpose to improve students’ listening competence can certainly be reached Participant C: Fantastic We can also use some popular methods like listening to real English whenever and wherever we are This method may be very old but I think really effective to improve students’ listening capacity Researcher: Well-done Now, let’s find out solutions to the third difficulty of helping students to recognize the relationship between the sender and the receiver of the message This difficulty belongs to part V (Question 10: Propose a solution) Any suggestions please? Participant F: I must confess that this part seems to be the most challenging to students because what students must in this part is listen to the problem (which often lasts for about minute) to understand the problem of the speaker, to figure XXIII LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com out the relationship between the speaker and listener (the student), to note down quickly their solutions (within 30 seconds) and then speak up in 60 minutes Participant E: That’s right Only some students in my class can really understand the problem, especially can figure out the real relationship between the listener and the speaker Consequently, their solutions are often irrelevant or inaccurate Participant B: I’m thinking of one solution While students are listening to the recording, they should take note of important information From these notes, they may make a guess about the relationship between the speaker and the listener and the real problem of the speaker Hopefully, their suggested solutions will be more relevant and accurate Participant A: As for me, I divided the problems in this part into four main categories: Work-related problems, Bill payment, Delivery Failure, Reservation Mistakes I then provide them common words which often appear in each category of problems Also, the typical relationship between the speaker (who makes complaints) and the listener (who receives complaints) is drawn out From these prompts, students can be better prepared to give out the most suitable solutions Participant C: Great The students themselves must also keep in mind that they are acting a different role, not a student in this part While listening, they must not only understand the problem but also their role in this situation and that from their new position, what can they to solve the problem suitably Researcher: Great What about the last difficulty in helping students to support their answers with details, reasons or examples? Participant B: Is it the problem with students’ critical thinking? Participant A: Exactly Once again, this problem stems from our educational system Students are not taught how to express their opinion effectively That is to say they should first state their opinion, then support it with details, reasons or XXIV LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com examples Students often find it very difficult to figure out supporting ideas though they may quickly decide whether they agree or disagree with an issue Participant C: If some of them can, to some extent, give out some examples or ideas to support their opinion, these ideas are often not organized in a logical and effective way Participant D: I’m thinking of a model which my friends introduced to me some months ago It’s called “Graphic organizers” Simply speaking, graphic organizers can help our students to classify ideas and communicate more effectively They can be used for problem solving, decision making, and brainstorming Participant E: I heard of this model but don’t know how to use it Can you give us an example? Participant D: I’ll send you some popular models of graphic organizers which I often use in TOEIC speaking class But please keep in mind that graphic organizers can be widely adapted to all kinds of subject teaching and studying Researcher: You’re right, D Using graphic organizers help students to develop their critical thinking Instead of giving a simple answer stating their opinion, students can, hopefully, support it with examples, reasons or details Well, we have already come across all the difficulties with so many useful and practical solutions to them Thank you very much for your cooperation Have a nice day XXV LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com APPENDIX F SAMPLE OF INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITY Key Words: TOEIC Speaking and Listening: Picture Description Learner English Level: Pre - intermediate Activity Time: 10 minutes Procedure Pre-teach vocabulary items or formulaic phrases and write them on the board Example: "Student A, Picture (a list of relevant vocabulary)" "Student B, Picture (a list of relevant vocabulary)" Pair up the students One will be Student A and one will be Student B Hand out half of the pictures from the first part of the TOEIC listening test to Student A and the other half to Student B (2 pictures each) Inform students that they should not show their pictures to each other Student A must clearly describe the first picture to Student B according to the following criteria: people (i.e., number, gender, appearance, and activities), things (general/specific locations, and objects) Encourage Student A to use the vocabulary and phrases written on the board, as these will quite often occur later in the listening section Student B should be encouraged to ask for clarification and repetition where necessary This stage lasts about or minutes Next, students will listen to the four statements from the listening section, which match the picture Student B must choose the most correct statement that best describes the picture The teacher should then demonstrate describing the picture using the vocabulary items on the board, and repeat the XXVI LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com four statements once again The answers can then be discussed and explained After the first picture has been completed, Student B should describe the next picture to Student A This continues until all pictures of students have been completed The entire activity takes 10-15 minutes, depending on how much pre-teaching is required XXVII LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com APPENDIX G SAMPLE OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZER Question 11: (Narrator): Some people prefer to take a job that does not pay well but does provide a lot of time off from work What is your opinion about taking a job with a low salary that has a lot of vacation time? Give reasons for your opinion Student A’s opinion can be expressed and supported by using the following graphic organizer Disagree: A job with a slow salary but a lot of vacation time Reason Reason A high salary A lot of vacation time A better vacation Alone in your vacation Example Example Can stay in good hotels, enjoy better services… Nearly impossible to persuade friends to take longer time off work… XXVIII LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ... teaching TOEIC speaking to students at Bac Ha International University? 2) From the perspective of students, what are the lecturers’ difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking at Bac Ha International University? ... what are the difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking to students at Bac Ha International University? From the perspective of students, what are the lecturers’ difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking. .. trend of teaching TOEIC speaking to students Having been introduced in Bac Ha International University for years, TOEIC speaking is believed to be very practical and useful for third year students