VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** PHẠM THỊ HUẾ ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS’ RELUCTANCE TO PARTICIPATE[.]
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** PHẠM THỊ HUẾ ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS’ RELUCTANCE TO PARTICIPATE IN SPEAKING ACTIVITIES AT NAMDINH COLLEGE OF EDUCATION (Sự dự tham gia hoạt động học nói sinh viên chuyên Anh trường Cao đẳng Sư phạm Nam Định) M.A.MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.140.111 HANOI-2014 z VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** PHẠM THỊ HUẾ ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS’ RELUCTANCE TO PARTICIPATE IN SPEAKING ACTIVITIES AT NAMDINH COLLEGE OF EDUCATION (Sự dự tham gia hoạt động học nói sinh viên chuyên Anh trường Cao đẳng Sư phạm Nam Định) M.A.MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.140.111 Supervisor: Nguyễn Đức Hoạt, Ph.D HANOI-2014 z DECLARATION I, Pham Thi Hue, hereby certify that my M.A thesis entitled “English Majored Students’ Reluctance to Participate in Speaking Activities at Nam Dinh College of Education” is the result of my own research in the fulfillment of the requirement for Degree of Master of Arts at the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies – University of Languages and International Studies, Hanoi I commit that this thesis has not been submitted anywhere for any degree Hanoi, 2014 Signature Phạm Thị Huế i z ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Nguyen Duc Hoat, PhD, for his invaluable inspiration, assistance, guidance and encouragement during the time I have tried to complete this thesis He has been willing to give help and advice whenever I expect I wish to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to all lecturers and the staff of Department of Post Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies, Hanoi for their interesting and helpful lectures and suggestions for the topic of my study I am in debt of many authors’ works and ideas, which enhance me to complete my study with sharp evidences My appreciation and gratitude are also extended for the teachers and students at English Department, Nam Dinh College of Education, who participated in doing the survey and responding to my interviews Last but not least, I wish to express special thanks to my husband and my beloveds for their everlasting, care and encouragement ii z ABSTRACT Though importance of speaking in English learning has been acknowledged by researchers all over the world, many students at Nam Dinh College of Education were found to be reluctant to participate in speaking activities This study was carried out to investigate the potential sources leading to this problem and propose some suggestions to encourage students’ participation in speaking lessons The participants involved in this research were 35 second year English majored students at Nam Dinh College of Education and four teachers of English agreed to join the study to support the researcher better her research The instruments, including a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with students and teachers, were employed to achieve the purposes of the study The data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively It was induced in the research that most second year English majors were unwilling to participate in speaking activities, which resulted from factors related to learners, teachers, speaking topics and peers Based on the findings, some suggestions were made with the hope that students will be more encouraged to take part in speaking activities iii z LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1: Students’ perception on the importance of learning speaking skills Figure 3.2: Students’ interest in speaking English in class Figure 3.3: Students’ frequency of speaking English in class Figure 3.4: Students’ frequency of volunteering to speak in class LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Factors associated with learners’ low level of English proficiency Table 3.2: Factors associated with fear of making mistakes and being laughed at Table 3.3: Factors associated with learners’ personality Table 3.4: Factors associated with teachers’ personality Table 3.5: Factors associated with teachers’ teaching methods Table 3.6: Factors associated with speaking topics Table 3.7: Factors associated with peers Table 3.8: Students’ preference of speaking activities Table 3.9: Students’ perception on necessity of the ways to encourage language learners to participate in speaking activities iv z TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the study Research questions Methods of the study Significance of the study Scope of this study Structure of the Thesis PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Speaking skills in second/ foreign language learning 1.1.1 Definition of speaking 1.1.2 Nature of speaking 1.1.3 Factors contributing to a successful speaking activity 1.2 Attitudes in language learning 1.3 The concept of reluctance and students’ reluctance in EFL classrooms 1.4 Reluctance and willingness / unwillingness to communicate 1.5 Factors making learners reluctant to participate in EFL classrooms 1.5.1 Learners’ factors 1.5.2 Teachers’ factors 10 1.5 Factors associated with speaking topics 11 1.5.4 Factors associated with peers 11 1.5.5 Factors associated with culture 11 1.6 Review of previous studies related to learners’ reluctance in EFL classrooms 12 v z CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 14 2.1 Research questions 14 2.2 Research Setting 14 2.2.1 Introduction to English Department, Nam Dinh College of Education 14 2.2.2 Syllabus and Materials for Speaking 15 2.3 The participants 15 2.4 Data collection instruments 15 2.4.1 Students survey questionnaire 16 2.4.2 Interviews 17 2.5 Data collection procedures 17 2.6 Techniques of data analysis 18 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 19 3.1 Students’ attitudes towards learning speaking skills 19 3.1.1 Students’ perception on the importance of learning speaking skills 19 3.1.2 Students’ interest in speaking English in class 19 3.1.3 Students’ frequency of speaking English in class 20 3.1.4 Students’ frequency of volunteering to speak in class 21 3.2 Factors making second-year English majored students reluctant to participate in speaking activities 22 3.2.1 Factors associated with learners 22 3.2.2 Factors associated with teachers 26 3.2.3 Factors associated with speaking topics 29 3.2.4 Factors associated with peers 31 3.3 Students’ expectation to encourage learners to participate in speaking lessons 32 3.3.1 Students’ preference of activities in speaking lessons 32 3.3.2 Students’ perception of necessity of the ways to encourage language learners to participate in speaking activities 34 PART C: CONCLUSION 37 Conclusions 37 vi z Recommendations for teachers to encourage students to participate in speaking classes 37 2.1 Reduce the level of task difficulty 37 2.2 Build a supportive learning environment 38 2.3 Vary speaking activities 39 2.4 Promote positive attitudes among students 39 Limitations of the study 40 Suggestions for further studies 40 REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS I APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS V APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS VI APPENDIX 4: SUMMARY OF INTERVIEW FOR STUDENTS RESULTS VIII APPENDIX 5: TRANSCRIPTS OF INTERVIEW FOR TEACHERS X vii z PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Student’s participation in classroom activities has been the centre of various TEFL research It is said that participation is essential for language acquisition as the more learners speak out, the better their spoken language is Commenting on the relationship between participation and students’ academic achievement, Liu (2005) finds that students who participate actively are likely to have better achievement than those not Learners’ oral participation can help them fill in the gap between what they want to say and whether they are able to say it However, engaging in English classroom activities is considered to be one of the most problematic areas Many students in Vietnamese colleges or universities are reported to be passive and unwilling to participate in those activities The students of English Department at Nam Dinh College of Education are no exceptions They are found not to respond to teachers’ questions in speaking classes unless they are called on It is very common to see that only a few students are confident to answer questions The attempt to create a student-centered learning atmosphere in English by teachers is usually unsuccessful In fact, the outcome of oral English speaking is not satisfactory Therefore, it is valuable to think about the causes of their reluctance to participate in speaking activities and at the same time the ways to minimize the harmful effects, so that the teaching and learning can be more effective for those reluctant learners This is my motivation in conducting the research on the topic: “English Majored Students’ Reluctance to Participate in Speaking Activities at Nam Dinh College of Education” Aims of the study The main aim of the research is to find out the reasons why the second year English major students at Nam Dinh College of Education are reluctant to participate in speaking activities The second most important aim of this study is to find out what students expect to encourage them to participate actively in speaking lessons z ... is my motivation in conducting the research on the topic: ? ?English Majored Students’ Reluctance to Participate in Speaking Activities at Nam Dinh College of Education? ?? Aims of the study The main... not participate in classroom activities (Ely, 1986) Hamouda ( 2013 ) found that fear of making mistakes and being laughed by their classmates are announced to be factors contributing to passive participation... reluctance to participate in speaking activities and at the same time the ways to minimize the harmful effects, so that the teaching and learning can be more effective for those reluctant learners