Difficulties in speaking english of english majored freshmen at tay do university

TAY DO UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE RESEARCH PROPOSAL DIFFICULTIES IN SPEAKING ENGLISH OF ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY Supervisor: Student: Huynh Thi My Duyen, MA Name: Luong Hong Hieu Code: 13D220201053 Class: English 8B Can Tho, April 2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to the following people who helped me to complete this research First of all, I wish to express my great gratitude towards my supervisor Huynh Thi My Duyen, MA at Tay Do University This proposal could not have been completed without her enthusiasm, in-formativeness, and thoughtfulness Moreover, she spent her valuable time on guiding and encouraging me during the time I was designing the research Secondly, I want to give my special thanks to instructors in the Faculty of Linguistics and Literature of Tay Do University who conveyed knowledge of English to me over the years Finally, I want to give my deep gratefulness to my family for supporting me the best condition and encouraging me throughout the years of studying They absolutely trust me and love me with all their heart This is the motivation that helps me accomplish this study i COMMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Ackowledegements i Comments ii Table of contents iii Abtract v PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 The significance of study 1.3 The organization of study PART 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 The definitions of speaking 2.2 Common difficulties in speaking .4 2.2.1 Linguistic factors 2.2.2 Background knowledge 2.2.3 Listening ability 10 2.2.4 Psychological factors 10 2.3 Summary of the literature review .12 PART 3: RESEARCH AIMS - RESEARCH QUESTION – HYPOTHESIS 14 3.1 Research aims 14 3.2 Research question 14 3.3 Hypothesis 14 PART 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 15 4.1 Design 15 iii 4.2 Participants 15 4.3 Instruments 15 4.3.1 Questionnaire 16 4.3.2 Test 16 4.3.3 Interview .16 4.4 Procedure 17 PART 5: EXPECTED OUTCOMES 18 REFERENCES 19  Appendix A: Questionnaire of the difficulties in speaking English of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University 23  Appendix B: Test ability in speaking English of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University 26  Appendix C: Interview of the difficulties in speaking of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University 27 iv ABSTRACT Speaking is said to be an indispensable skill which partly contributes to the success of learning English and daily communications It is also the subject that many students may face difficulties in learning Therefore, the research entitled "The difficulties in speaking English of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University" aims to figure out common difficulties in studying speaking of students majoring in English The participants of this research are thirty-five students of class Bachelor English 11B, course 2016-2020 The three main instruments of the study are a questionnaire, a test and an interview They are used to find out the students' difficulties in learning to speak English in terms of linguistics (pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar), background knowledge psychological obstacles, etc Through this research, students can recognize the factors affecting speaking English so that they can choose and apply appropriate ways to enhance their speaking skill v PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Nowadays, with the development of modern science and technology, English has become an international language “It is the major medium of education, publishing and international negotiation It is perhaps the most flexible of all languages Therefore, people belonging to different parts of the world widely often use English as the common mode of learning and communication.” Madhumati, (2009, p35) Therefore, the demand of studying English, especially learning to speak English, has become more and more necessary It has become the international language of education and business, so this brings people many opportunities to cooperate and work with foreigners In other words, it is compulsory for people who want to get a good job with high salary to speak English well For that reason, many people nowadays, especially students want to become good speakers of English, so that they can be successful in work However, learning English seems to be a difficult process of many students To study English effectively, students must improve four basic skills including listening, speaking, reading and writing These four skills have an interrelated If listening and reading produce the language input, then writing and speaking produce the language output Among these skills, speaking is a prominent skill which is hard to be mastered and plays a significant role in communication According to Hornby (1985, p21), “speaking is making use of words in an ordinary voice; uttering words; knowing and being able to use a language; expressing oneself in words; making a speech” In reality, speaking skill is not easy for students Some students have to face many difficulties when they speak According to Ur (1996, p117), there are many factors that cause difficulty in speaking They are as follows: inhibition, nothing to say, low or uneven participation and mother tongue In addition, Raba’ah (2005, p15), pointed out that there are many factors that cause difficulties in speaking English Some of these factors are related to the learners themselves, the teaching strategies, the curriculum, and the environment Similarly, students at Tay Do University especially the English majored freshmen, may encounter difficulties when speaking English They often complain that they cannot speak English well Besides, the teacher have also complain that their students' speaking scores are too low They may not enough confidence to speak English Even worse, students who have studied English for a long time, cannot speak English fluently Moreover, when freshmen entered university’s learning environment, many of them may not adapt themselves to new ways of teaching and learning speaking English Therefore, the researcher decides to carry out a study entitled “The difficulties in speaking English of English mojored freshmen at Tay Do University” It is conducted to explore these issues deeply and find out ways to improve the speaking skill of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University 1.2 The significance of study The research can be beneficial for students and teachers of English English freshmen may recognize the difficulties of speaking English Through the research results, students could find ways to resolve the difficulties that they meet to improve their speaking skill Besides, the teachers of English can also know some common difficulties of their students in speaking to change the teaching methods and suggest some possible solutions in order to help their students learn to speak English better 1.3 The organization of study The thesis includes five parts consisting of (1) Introduction, (2) Literature Review, (3) Research Aims, Research questions, Hypothesis, (4) Research Methodology and (5) Expected outcomes Part one Introduction includes the rationale, the significance of the research and the organization of the research proposal are also mentioned Part two Literature Review embraces definitions of speaking and common difficulties in speaking and ways to improve speaking and summary literature review Part three includes the research aims, research question and hypothesis Part four Research Methodology involves the research design, participants, instruments and the procedure of the study about difficulties in speaking English of freshmen majoring in English at Tay Do University Part five includes Expected Outcomes could bring to expected which expresses the results of the research, and the benefits that the research PART 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 The definitions of speaking There are many definitions presented by different scholars Following are some of the definitions by the famous researchers or prestigious universities According to Joji Miyauchi (2001) speaking is an action to produce words Speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non - verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” Chaney (1998, p.13) As for Bygate (1987, p.5), “speaking is a skill which deserves attention every bit as much as literacy skills, in both first and second language” Florez (1991, p.1) gave another definition on speaking He considered speaking as “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and meaning and processing information, it is often spontaneous open- end, and evolving” There have been many different kinds of definitions on speaking, however, speaking can be understood as the process of forming an utterance which carries a certain meaning to express one's idea to the others for a certain purpose Speaking is one of the most necessary skills that foreign language learners have to master 2.2 Common difficulties in speaking Speaking is not an easy skill In the process of learning language, students may have difficulties when learning to speak English The study will analyze the causes that make the students difficulties in speaking English and suggest some solutions that can overcome the difficulties In this study, it is found that four factors that can affect students' speaking They are linguistics, background knowledge, listening ability and psychological PART 3: RESEARCH AIMS - RESEARCH QUESTION – HYPOTHESIS 3.1 Research aims The research aims to find out the difficulties in speaking of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University Through the research, students can realize their own difficulties and solutions could be found out Students can apply some ways to resolve the difficulties that they meet to improve their speaking skills 3.2 Research question This research will be conducted to answer the following question: What are the difficulties in speaking English of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University? 3.3 Hypothesis According to the literature review and the research questions, it is hypothesized that English majored freshmen at Tay Do University may face many difficulties in speaking The problems may be related to many factors such as vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, etc Students may not have enough vocabulary to express their thoughts or opinions In addition, students cannot speak fluently because they often focus on grammatical structures Moreover, English words can be difficult to pronounce – and when speaking English, students have to consider not only the pronunciation of the individual words but also the connection between the words in the sentence Listening ability is also an important factor If students not understand what other people are saying, it is difficult to reply Besides, students may also lack time to practice speaking English Students feel nervous when they face unfamiliar topics 14 PART 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 4.1 Design The design of the research is based on the research question and hypothesis mentioned in Part The main object of this research is participants They are English majored freshmen who would respond to the questionnaire This is a descriptive study and the instruments are a questionnaire, a test and an interview Therefore, to make the research more specific and more objective, students are invited to answer the interview and the test questions The collected data of these instruments will be analyzed to show difficulties to speak English of the freshmen 4.2 Participants The participants of this research include 39 students of English majored freshmen of class English 11B (2016-2020) at Tay Do University Their ages are from 18 to 20 Vietnamese is their mother tongue and they use English as their foreign language Most of them have been learning English for years and a few have 10 or 11 years of English learning experience 4.3 Instruments Questionnaire, test and interview are used as three instruments in this study Questionnaire is considered one of the most commonly used techniques to collect data since questionnaire can be objectively scored and analyzed (Oxford, 1990) The questionnaire can help to save more time in the procedure of collecting Actually, in the form of the attitude rating scales, the questionnaire can be given to many people simultaneously However, the questionnaire sometimes appears to have some disadvantages The questionnaire cannot get details Therefore, the questions on the test and the interview can help to reveal students’ evaluation on their English speaking skill It is also pointed out the students’ obstacles when learning this skill 15 4.3.1 Questionnaire The questionnaire plays an important role in the study Questionnaires are more amenable to quantification, cheap and easy to answer They are good ways for collecting information (Cohen & Manion 1989, Weir & Roberts 1994) Moreover, questionnaires are considered as more reliable ways since they are anonymous and this encourages greater honesty Cohen (2000) The questionnaire (see Appendix A) has two parts Part one includes questions about students' learning background Part two is the table about the difficulties in students’ speaking It has 25 statements corresponding to a five-degree scale ranging from strongly agree, agree, no ideas, disagree to strongly disagree Students can tick on the appropriate column next to the statement Questions from to focus on learners' psychological Questions from to 21 aim to find out difficulties related to linguistic factors such as vocabulary grammar, and pronunciation Questions from 22 to 25 mention external factors such as speakers' accent and environments for practice Finally, learners' solution include questions 4.3.2 Test The test for students is designed to collect information about the difficulties in the process of speaking After administering the questionnaire, the researcher invites students to the test (2 students with the highest scores, students with average scores and students with minimum scores in the questionnaire) Test time is 10 minutes for each student The test consists of a circumstance and questions (see Appendix B) The students' answers will be recorded The aim of this test is to find out the freshmen's speaking ability and what is the difficulties in speaking English 4.3.3 Interview The interview for students is designed to collect information about the difficulties in the process of listening (see Appendix C) It consists of questions First of all, questions and are to investigate students' attitude toward speaking 16 In question 3, students would point out difficulties that they often get when speaking Next, question aims at surveying the students’ most problematic factor in speaking English Question is about students' ways to solve their problems The last question is designed to find out their practicing time 4.4 Procedure This research was done within 12 weeks and the process was divided into steps in the following table: Duration (12 weeks) Activities in study process Step 1: from the 1st - Designing framework of the research/ outline week to nd week - Designing questionnaires, test and interview - Looking for references - Writing part and part Step 2: from the st week to 7th week - Getting the teacher’s guidance - Editing part 1, 2, the questionnaires, test and interview - Writing part - Writing part 4,5 and getting the teacher’s guidance - Editing part 3, 4, and temporary completion of the main Step 3: from the 8th content in the research week to the 12th week - The teacher checks the research and proposes some advices - Editing the whole research - Completing the paper 17 PART 5: EXPECTED OUTCOMES This study is expected to find out the difficulties of the students in speaking skill at Tay Do University These difficulties can be related to the linguistics and factors from learners Students may meet difficulties such as vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and background knowledge Besides, factors from learners can include practicing time, attitude and motivation in speaking English These research results can help the students recognize their problems and the causes of these problems as well as find out suitable solutions for themselves In addition, besides difficulties, the research is also expected to find out some suitable solutions for the students to deal with those problems They can be useful to overcome difficulties in speaking English They are ways to learn vocabulary, ways to increase grammar, ways to improve the pronunciation, ways to use the strategies in listening The researcher also expects students to improve their speaking ability if they apply these solutions Furthermore, the researcher hopes through this research, the students will be aware of the importance of speaking in English, and focus more on speaking Moreover, it is also expected that through the research results, English teachers can understand some common difficulties of their students in speaking Besides, teachers can find suitable ways to guide their students in speaking subject 18 REFERENCES Anderson, A., & Lynch, T (2000) Listening Oxford University Press Aouatef, B (2015) The Main Psychological Factors Affecting Learners’ Oral Performance Case Study: Second Year LMD Students of English Mohamed Kheider University of Birska Retrieved from http://dspace.univbiskra.dz:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/5962/1/BELEGD AIR%20Aouatef.pdf Brown, G., & Yule, G (1983) Teaching the Spoken Language Cambridge University Press Bygate, M (1987) Speaking Oxford University Press Brown, H (2001) Teaching by Principles An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall Brazil, D., Coulthard & M., & Johns, C (1980) Discourse, intonation and language teaching London: Longman Boyle, J (1984) Factors affecting listening comprehension ELT Journal, 38(1), 34-38 Retrieved from http://203.72.145.166/ELT/files/38-1-5.pdf Brown, D (1994) Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy Englewood 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Miller, L (1996) Student perceptions, problems and strategies in second language lecture comprehension RELC Journal 23 (2), 60– 80 18 Fauzan, U (2014) The Use of Improvisation Technique to Improve the Speaking Ability of EFL Students DINAMIKA ILMU 14 (2) 19 Fang, Z., & Schleppegrell, J (April 2010) “Disciplinary literacies across content areas: Supporting secondary reading through functional language analysis”, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, International Reading Association, 53(7), 587‐597 20 Fisher, D., & Frey, N (2009) Background knowledge: The missing piece of the comprehension puzzle Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann 21 Florez, M (1998) Improving adult ESL learners’ pronunciation skills Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/Pronun.html 20 Retrieved from 22 Hornby, A (1985) Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current Language Oxford: Oxford University Press 23 Hetrakul, K (1995) The Second Language Retrieve from http://eserver.org/courses/spring95/76-100g/KavinHetrakul.html 24 Higgins, J (1995) Facilitating listening in second language classrooms through the manipulation of temporal variables Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Kent at Canterbury 25 Juhana, M (2012) Psychological Factors That Hinders Students from Speaking in English Class (A Case Study in a Senior High School in South Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia) Journal of Education and Practice3 (12) 26 Joji, M (2001) The Role of Introversion in Developing Speaking Skill Retrieved from http://www.geocities.ws/nuesp_indonesia/paper_11.htm 27 Khamkhien, A (2010) Teaching English Speaking and English Speaking Tests in the Thai Context: A Reflection from Thai Perspective English Language Teaching Journal, 3(1), 184-200 28 Kurtus, R (2001) Overcome the Fear of Speaking to Group Retrieved form http://www.school-for-champions.com/speaking/fear.htm 29 Kubo, M (2009) Extensive Pair Taping For College Students in Japan: Action Research in 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Learning New Words Retrieved from: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/easy-ways-improve-expand-your-vocabularyone-to-one-english-teaching 37 Rost, M (1994) Listening London: Longman 38 Ur, P (1996) A course in Language Teaching Practice and Theory Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 39 Weir, C., & Robert, J (1994) Evaluation in ELT Oxford: Blackwell 40 Yagang, F (1994) Listening: Problems and solutions In T Kral (ed.) Teacher Development: Making the Right Moves Washington, DC: English Language Programs Divisions, USIA 41 Zua, L (2008) Exploring the Affective Factors Influencing Teaching of Spoken English Retrieve from: http://okarticle.com/html/Thesis/20080104/26.html 22 APPENDIX A QUESTIONNAIRE Difficulties in speaking English of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University Student’s full name: Age: Male  Gender: Female  Class: Please read the following questions and circle the appropriate answer for each question How long have you been learning English? years Where you come from? a Urban area/ city b Rural area/ countryside The below table is about your difficulties in speaking English Please check () and rate yourself honestly based on what you actually given the statements using the following scales: (1) Strongly Agree; (2) Agree; (3) No Ideas; (4) Disagree; (5) Strongly Disagree Statements Speaking English is not easy to you You often feel nervous when you face an unfamiliar topic 23 ST A NI D SD (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) You are afraid of making mistakes when speaking English You often feel shy when speaking in front of your class Lack of vocabulary is one of your barriers in speaking You not have enough vocabulary to express your ideas, thoughts and emotions You also meet difficulties in choosing appropriate words in particular context You cannot speak fluently because you often focus on grammatical structures You often make your grammatical errors in tenses 10 You often have problems with word order in speaking 11 You not pay attention in pronunciation 12 You not often pronounce final sounds 13 You cannot recognize familiar words when they are spoken since you have mispronunciation of those words 14 Your listening ability is not good 15 In communication, you cannot understand all of what your partner says 16 You cannot use some words although you have learned them 17 You cannot speak English well because you not have good background knowledge 24 18 You have a trend of translating word- by- word when speaking 19 You not express your ideas clearly in speaking 20 You cannot express your ideas convincingly 21 You are afraid of asking your partner for clarification when you not understand 22 You have many chances to practice speaking English 23 You often practice speaking English outside the class 24 You find it hard to distinguish some similar sounds 25 You have low listening speed Please answer the questions below: What you to improve your English speaking? How often you practice speaking? How long, Where and with whom? Thank you very much for taking your valuable time to complete this survey 25 APPENDIX B TEST Ability in speaking English of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University Student’s full name: Age: Male  Gender: Female  Directions: In this part of the test, you will answer three questions For each question, begin responding immediately after you hear a beep No preparation time is provided A circumstance: Imagine that a Canadian marketing firm is doing research in your country You have agreed to participate in a telephone interview about television viewing Question 1: How often you watch television? Question 1: What kinds of programs you usually watch? Question 3: Describe your favorite television program? 26 APPENDIX C INTERVIEW Difficulties in speaking English of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University Student’s full name: Age: Male  Gender: Female  Why you choose English as your major? _ _ _ _ Do you have any difficult in speaking English? Why or why not? _ _ _ _ What are your difficulties in speaking English? (Vocabulary, pronunciation, social background knowledge, psychological obstacles, topics, etc.)? _ _ _ _ 27 According to you, which is the most difficult factor in speaking English (vocabulary, pronunciation, social background knowledge, psychological obstacles, topics, etc.)? Why? _ _ _ _ What you to improve your speaking skill? _ _ _ _ How often you practice English speaking? How long and with whom? _ _ _ _ 28