The development of english speaking skill among high school students

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HCM CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF TESOL PHẠÏM THỊ NGỌC DUNG HỒ CHÍ MINH CITY August 2005 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS In term of the statement of Requirements for Theses in Master’s programmes issued by Higher Degree Committee Ho Chi Minh City, August 2005 PHAM THI NGOC DUNG ii RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, PHAM THI NGOC DUNG, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the library for the care, loan or the reproduction of theses Ho Chi Minh City: August, 2005 PHAM THI NGOC DUNG iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deep gratefulness to Dr Dennis Berg, my thesis advisor, who supported me throughout this effort; he provided precious guidance and kind consideration I also want to thank the Post Graduate Department - University of Social Sciences and Humanities which tried to create the best condition for me to complete my thesis Further more, it would be a shortcoming if I did not mention my family and my friends in the same course who always encourage me during these times Finally, I would like to thank my colleagues and the students at Lê Thị Hồng Gấm high school who were always ready to help and cooperate whenever I needed iv ABSTRACT A survey was conducted of two hundred high school students in grades 10, 11 and 12 It investigates the students’ learning experiences and their expectations in their high school English classes A 39 question survey was delivered, during class time, to all students studying English at Leâ Thị Hồng Gấm High School in Ho Chi Minh City The survey provides a description of the activities of teachers and students in spoken English classes, the level of the students’ confidence, and their attitudes and expectations toward the skill of spoken English The findings identified the causes of bad attitudes towards the learning of speaking to be the foundation for some implications in Chapter Concerning the approaches used in teaching English, where the Grammar Translation method is given high priority, the results of this study suggest some practical techniques and strategies for teachers in high school to choose suitable points from the Communicative Approach in teaching method and cooperative learning Furthermore, it also suggests certain techniques to build up students’ confidence, manage the classroom, and to select teaching material Techniques and strategies are recommended for teachers to improve the English proficiency of students in high school today v TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of Originality ii Retention and Use of the Thesis iii Acknowledgements iv Abstract v Table of content vi List of tables ix INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 1.1 Description of English courses at high school 1.2 The method which is being used for teaching speaking 1.2.1The role of the learners 1.2.2The role of the teacher 1.3 Characteristics of the students – the learners 10 1.3.1 Learners 10 1.3.2 Teacher 11 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Nature of speaking 13 2.2 Classroom interaction 16 2.2.1 What is interaction? 16 2.2.2 The need for interaction in classroom 17 2.3 Factors affecting learning and teaching speaking skill 18 vi 2.3.1 Students’ confidence 18 2.3.2 Material 19 2.3.3 Teacher’s role 20 2.3.4 Approaches in language teaching 22 2.3.4.1 Grammar translation approach 22 2.3.4.2 Direct approach 22 2.3.4.3 Reading approach 23 2.3.4.4 Audiolingualism 23 2.3.4.5 Communicative approach 24 2.3.4.5.1 The role of teacher and learners 25 2.3.4.5.2 The characteristics of learning process 26 2.3.4.5.3 Language view and cultural view 27 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Samples 28 3.2 Questionnaire 29 3.3 Procedure 30 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS 4.1 Sample Demographics 31 4.2 Data analysis & findings 34 CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS and CONCLUSIONS 5.1 Material selection 58 5.1.1 The text books in high school 58 5.1.2 Selecting appropriate material 59 5.2 Classroom management 61 5.2.1 Some skills in classroom management 62 5.2.1.1 Learning names 62 5.2.1.2 Establishing rules 62 5.2.1.3 Be firm and consistent 63 vii 5.2.1.4 Creating climate for learning 63 5.2.2 Some common problems in teaching speaking skill 63 5.2.2.1 Students won’t talk or say nothing 63 5.2.2.2 The speaking activities end up with gossiping, chatting in mother tongue language 64 5.2.2.3 All students speak together and it gets noisy and teacher loses control of the classroom 65 5.3 Building up students’ confidence 66 5.3.1 Classroom climate 66 5.3.2 Classroom interactions 67 5.3.3 Reducing students’ anxiety 68 5.3.4 Enhancing students’ motivation 70 5.4 Some points about methodology in speaking class 72 5.4.1 Applying some points in communicative approach 72 5.4.2 Some communicative activities in classroom 77 5.4.2.1 Problem solving task 78 5.4.2.2 Role plays 78 5.4.2.3 Language games 79 BIBLIOGRAPHY 83 viii LIST OF TABLE Table 1: What is your gender? …31 Table 2: what is your class level? 32 Table 3: How long have you studied English? 33 Table 4: Do you take private lesson? 34 Table 5a: The activities in classroom 34 Table 5b: Rating the frequency of speaking skill by the activities in class 35 Table 6a: Reasons of learning speaking skill 37 Table 6b: Students ranking their reasons for speaking English 38 Table 7a: Students’ activities in class room 40 Table 7b: Ranking of the frequency of activities in classroom 41 Table 8a: Level of using English of teacher in classroom 44 Table 8b: Rating the frequency of using English of teacher in classroom 45 Table 9: level of students’ confidence 46 Table 10a: Reasons for lacking confidence 47 Table 10b: Rating the reasons for lacking confidence 49 Table 11a: Factors effecting teaching speaking 50 Table 11b: Rating the factors effecting teaching speaking 51 Table 12a: Students ‘expectations toward speaking activities in class 53 Table 12b: Rating students ‘expectations toward speaking activities in class 54 ix INTRODUCTION English is playing an ever increasing role in our society English allows people to have access literature in science and technology and provides increased opportunities for studying and finding jobs Moreover, with the “open-door” policy and the investment of many foreign companies in Vietnam, and especially with the explosion of access to the Internet, English has become an essential tool for many young people in Viet Nam These things can easily explain why there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people taking English courses To most people, mastering the art of speaking (the ability to hold conversations) is the most important aspect of learning a foreign language In order to become competent in a foreign language, it is important for language learners not only to master the rules, to acquire a suitable sized vocabulary and to learn new sets of phonological and syntactic rules, but also to communicate well With the development of speaking skills, a language learner becomes more confident in their abilities and comes to understand how useful the new language is when he or she can communicate well In Viet Nam, English has been a compulsory subject in high schools school for long time though it was interrupted in some years because of the war and certain policies of government Then, with the new tendency and the need, learning foreign language; especially English, takes back its power uncertainty about what the other person will say Authentic communication involves an information gap; each participant has information that the other does not have In addition, to achieve their purpose, participants may have to clarify their meaning or ask for confirmation of their own understanding So as to help students be familiar with authentic material, teacher can select the suitable ones from advertisements, travel brochures books It will be great environment for students if their foreign language classroom serves as a small partial substitute community In classroom, when talking to students, teacher always tries to use the language as naturally as possible Sometimes, because of worrying that the students can not understand, teacher slows down to make the message more comprehensible, but it also distorts the subtle shift in pronunciation that occurs in natural paced speech In this case, teacher can state the same idea in different ways to aid comprehension and use the vocabularies and sentence structures which the students are familiar with There would not be enough if teachers not encourage students to find out the context together with the material The context includes knowledge of the topic or content, the vocabularies and the language structures in which the content is usually presented, and the social and cultural expectations associated with the content It helps students have an authentic experience of understanding and using language From the activities such as predicting from the title or heading, answering the questions about the topic, finding the vocabularies and structures that are usually in that type of material, or finding the relevant social and cultural expectations, students can raise their awareness of the context To create classroom speaking activities which can develop communicative competence, teacher needs to incorporate a purpose and an information gap and allows for multiple forms of expression Ordinarily, the purpose of 74 communication is conveying information so that the activities should be designed to meet requirement of speaking skill These activities should be designed with a purpose because what happens and what students practice in language classroom stimulates communication outside the classroom Moreover, the classroom activities can also maximize opportunities for learners to use language in a communicative way for meaningful activities When students work together in pairs, small groups to complete the given tasks, they have an excellent chance to use the language Teacher should be more emphasis on working in pairs or small group work When possible, teacher forms the groups because each student is able to contribute to the discussion as a listener and as a speaker Using small group of three to five is good for effective discussion In addition, small group draw out quieter students who may participate difficultly in large group Furthermore, working in group makes students realize that each one has relevant information that the others not have They are able to structure their own ideas and experiences The solidarity among students grows when they collaborate to work Team work also teaches students to organize and share the work so as to complete the task faster and more effective Depending on the classroom and the circumstances, groups may be either student-selected or determined by the teacher In fact, whether having a leader in groups or not is not important, but occasionally it may be advisable to appoint the leader to give each group member a particular responsibility Groups need to be rearranged from time to time to allow students to work with variety of peers In communicative approach, students only discuss points of grammar when they arise or grammar can be taught but less systematically For the 75 students, their marks partly show the ability in learning and they are put in the pressure from family and even their own teacher The system of testing in Viet Nam together with the importance role of grammar makes teacher address grammar consciously Generally, students often have knowledge of “the Prescriptive rules” which associated with standard use of native language From detail and systematic rules in grammar, language becomes logical With this concept, teacher sometimes has to make use the Grammar-Translation or other methods to aid students’ comprehension In communicative approach, the request is slightly different It focuses on “descriptive rules” which states how the language is actually used by fluent speakers and these rules depend on the setting (casual/formal use of language), the topics and the backgrounds of the speakers Each view point has strong points; the important thing is that the teacher considers the condition of class to choose suitable strategies in teaching grammar in speaking class Errors are natural part of learning language Learners try their best to use language creatively and spontaneously so that giving feedback and correcting errors is what students expect from their teacher In a part of a lesson that focus on form Students should be guided to self-correct by waiting after they have spoken When giving feedback, teacher should not correct the learners but give students more models and opportunities to observe such as paraphrasing utterance and modeling the correct form or suggesting students to clarify their utterance or providing paraphrases of their own The error occurs because students may have not sufficient chance to observe the correct form or to develop sufficient knowledge of the language system or because they not observe the form correctly or because they are nervous or because the task is difficult There are many reasons and teacher should consider the possible causes to give appropriate ways of dealing errors and giving feedback Teacher’s 76 correction should not cut in the middle the flow of talk Constant correction is unnecessary and even counter productive The responses of teacher are the useful comprehension check for students and show teacher’s care in what they are speaking Teacher should make notes of the mistakes discreetly when teacher circles the groups or when students present and then send them back to the whole group in the feedback session later Learning a language also means learning its culture because language expresses ideas and transmits cultural values Culture is everyday activities The differences in custom, social and historical context always raise the students’ curiosity and enthusiasm When discussing language with students, especially the spoken language, we teach culture at the same time It is a good chance for teacher to provide the knowledge of cultural aspects of language use Using media, magazine, newspaper, radio and television program as authentic material to expand students’ perspectives and generate interesting discussion about the relationship between language and culture There is a gap between Eastern and Western culture so that even the teacher finds it difficult to explain custom, ways of living to students So as to reduce this obstacle as much as possible, teacher always trains themselves by reading, updating the information 5.4.2 Some communicative activities in classroom There are a lot of activities in classroom and the duty of teacher is to take advantage of Communicative Approach With the present condition, I only try my best to find out which ones are suitable for students and they enjoy their speaking classes 77 5.4.2.1 Problem solving tasks In this kind of activity, students have to fill the information gap, choose and give feedback Those factors are always necessary in communication Students work and share their information They are presented with a problem to be solved Students use either information that they may have as individuals or that they may get from elsewhere A simple example might be for the group to decide where they go on a vacation This gives students a practice in negotiating meaning 5.4.2 Role plays Role plays provides the opportunity for students to develop and revise their understanding and perspectives by exploring thoughts and feeling of characters in given in situations The teacher may take a role, becoming an active participant in promoting independent thinking and co-operative learning To make this activity more joyful, teacher should have good preparation, be active and creative When organizing role play activities, teacher must pay attention to these points: ƒ Take care of the content involved in the role play not just be language but meaning that students have some knowledge of and interest in ƒ Engage students in activities that foster commitment in the role play (guiding imaginary, interviewing) ƒ Setting up the classroom physically (arranging desks, adjust light) ƒ Inserting some kinds of tension to arouse the students’ interest It is important that students feel safe taking risk as they take part in various roles Establishing expectations and rules can help students to be supportive with each other during the role play Teacher encourages 78 attentive listeners to give respond and discuss the following part If the role play has been planed effectively, the experience should be satisfying and positive for all participants 5.4.2.3 Language games Language games are always welcome by students They are the “useful clowns” to break the stress The competitive aspect of games is an asset for students to use and explore the use of language There are plenty of books, discs… etc which providing a variety of games but the important thing is how can teacher can select the suitable material to make use Sometimes, what seems to be the normal thing in classroom such as drawing, cards, pictures turns out to be effective teaching aids Teacher can make their “own games” games for his students Before giving a game, teacher should select ones that are language intensive and require students to speak and listen to each other in comprehensible ways The games match with students’ interest (teacher can invest their interest forehand to choose the most favorite games), classroom condition, students’ level Remember not to let one game too long; students sooner or later get bored Teacher should switch to another game whenever possible There are some excellent sources of games on the Internet: • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_game – • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_game • www.english-online.org.uk/games/gamezone2.htm • eastern.edu/academic/trad_undg/sas/depts/english/Battista Thesis.htm • Wright, Andrew, David Betteridge and Michael Buckby (1979) Game for language learning Cambridge University press 79 Summary This chapter gives some suggestions to important factors which have great effect in learning and teaching of spoken English The four sections provide techniques how to select the good material, manage the classroom, build up students’ confidence and give appropriate points in teaching method From those points, language teachers at high school may find something interesting and useful to apply at their own class 80 CONCLUSIONS From the reality of students at high school about their speaking ability, this thesis gives a small survey to find out the common causes of the problems associated learning and teaching of spoken language Analyzing the data reflects four main factors including the students’ self confidence, teaching method, classroom management and the material The biggest obstacle of students is their low level of confidence and they are not ready for the new active roles in class Understand this point, teacher can supply appropriate environment, create good condition for students, encourage collaboration and enhance motivation to increase their confidence With the traditional view point, teachers have to most of the activities in class, especially, in Grammar-Translation which can not lack the part of teacher in any stage According to the theory in Literature Review and Findings of the survey, the role of teacher has changed In speaking class, teacher is an instructor, a cooperator and gives his hand whenever possible Chapter (Data analysis) provides the opinion, the evaluation of students and the results are the foundation for the next Chapter Chapter (Implications and conclusion) presents some ways to select material, choose suitable points in teaching methods, build up students’ confidence and manage the class Teacher in oral class presenting in this thesis is very active and flexible to the condition of learning and teaching to satisfy the need of students 81 Since students are not familiar with speaking activities and they are not provided necessary skills for speaking class It leads them feel uncomfortable and unnatural to restart speaking skill at intermediate level This thesis also suggests for further research is how to improve speaking skills for pupils at junior highs school (the pupils who start learning English) To sum it up, this thesis offers some suggestions to language teachers in oral classes at high school with the hope that they will find some practical and interesting items to put in use 82 BIBLIOGRAPHY Brown, G (1977) Listening to spoken English, London: Longman Brown, G and G, Yule (1983) Teaching the spoken language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Brown,G and G.Yule (1983) Teaching the spoken language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Brown,H.D (1994) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall International Brumfit, C (1983) Communicative Methodology in language teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Byrne,D (1987) Techniques for Classroom Interaction, London: Longman Candlin, E.Frank (1963) New present day English for Foreign students, London: University of London Press Ltd Candlin,C.N (1984) General English syllabus design, Oxford: Pergamon press Counihan,G (1998)Teach students to Interact, Not just talk, The Internet TESL journal, volume Doff,A (1988) Teach English, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Ellis,R (1994) The Study of second language acquisition, Oxford : Oxford University Press Fiona, L (1998) Teaching English < www/teaching English/org.uk/try/speaking try-speaking activities> Krahnke.K (Fall,1994) Teaching English as a foreign second language, SEAMEO center 83 Ho, M.Q (1998) Spoken and Written language Some implications for teaching English to Vietnamese EFL English trainees, Unpublished Master’thesis Larsen-Freeman,D (1986) Techniques and Principles in language teaching, Oxford: Oxford University Press Lewis,M &Hill, J (1985)Practical techniques for language teaching, Language Teaching Publication Littlewood,W (1984) Foreign and second language learning, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Marry,U (1992) Effective Class Management, London: Longman Tran, K.H (2004) The leading factors to success for speaking classes of English majors at Binh Duong university, Unpublished Master’thesis Ur,P (1986) Practical English teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Wright,T (1987) Role of teacher and learners, Oxford : Oxford University Press 84 Student Survey This is a short survey concerning your experiences in studying and learning English Please take a few minutes and answer each question honestly and completely Your help in this effort is greatly appreciated Thanks I Personal Information Name of School: _ … grade 10 Class Level: … grade 11 … grade 12 How long have you been studying English? years months Do you take private English Lessons outside of school? ( Gender: ( ) Female ( ) Male ) No ( ) Yes Age (last birthday): In your English class at high school, how often you participate in each of the following activities: Always 01 Reading 02 Writing 03 Speaking 04 Listening to your teacher 05 Doing grammatical exercises 06 Talking to your teacher in English 07 Discussing with friends in English 08 Working in groups 09 Asking for help from your classmate 10 Working independently 11 Taking part in extra-curricular activities 85 Often Sometimes Seldom Never In your class, how often does your teacher use English when: Always 12 Explaining the meaning of vocabulary 13 Explaining grammatical points 14 15 Talking something out of the lesson content Giving general instructions 16 Giving complements to students 17 Criticizing students Often Sometimes Seldom Never Students ‘confidence aspect 18 How often you lack of confidence? Reason for lacking confidence 19 Be afraid of losing face 20 Not having enough vocabularies to express 21 Nothing to say 22 Not familiar with speaking in the crowd 23 Understanding little in what teacher is talking Why you want to speak English? Agree 24 To get a good job 25 To satisfy some of your hobbies: chat, sing, and write to pen pal…… 26 To Go abroad 27 Because I Love the sound of English 28 To Communicate with a foreigner 29 To pass the exam 86 Not sure Disagree What you think about ….? Good 30 The Teaching method 31 The Curriculum 32 The Physical conditions of the class 33 The Level of your classmates Fairly good OK Rather bad Could you evaluate your interest in such kinds of activities? Interesting 34 Doing grammatical exercises 35 Having interesting materials: pictures, films, songs, 36 Working in group 37 Providing cultural aspects involving the lessons 38 Grading students’ abilities 39 Organizing “speaking English competitions” among students 87 Not sure Uninteresting Bad 88