Strategies for coping with face to face oral communication problems employed by english major students at tay do university

TAY DO UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE (Logo Đại Học Tây Đô) STRATEGIES FOR COPING WITH FACE-TO-FACE ORAL COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS EMPLOYED BY ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY Supervisor: PHAN THI MINH UYEN, MA Student’s name:NGUYEN THI NGOC TRAM Student’s code: 1652220201072 Class: Bachelor of English 11B May 2020 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT My research could not be finished without the help of a lot of people I would like to give my profound gratitude to all those who helped me to complete this research First of all, I would like to express my honest gratitude to my supervisor, MA Phan Thi Minh Uyen She was very friendly and enthusiastic, showed me good directions and gave me helpful advice for me during the busy time Thanks to her instructions and advice, I could prepare the proposal more easily and quickly Moreover, she was very whole-hearted when she helped me to disentangle the difficulties that I could not resolve during the progress of the study Secondly, I would like to send my sincere thanks to the University of Tay Do, especially, the teachers of Faculty of Linguistics and Literature for bringing me opportunities to study and conduct the research Finally, I want to give my deep gratefulness to my family and friends for supporting me the best condition and encouraging me throughout the years of studying ii COMMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .i COMMENTS .ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii ABSTRACT iv CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 The significance of study 1.3 The organization of the study CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 What is communication ? 2.2 Definition of communication strategies 2.3 Difficulties in Communication in English 2.4 Four websites to improve English communication skills 2.5 Strategies for coping with face to face oral communication CHAPTER III: RESEACH AIM - RESEACH QUESTION - HYPOTHESIS 3.1 Reseach aims 3.2 Reseach questions CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 4.1 Design 4.2 Participants 4.3 Instruments 4.3.1 Questionare 4.4 Procedure CHAPTER V: EXPECTED OUTCOME 10 REFERENCE 11 QUESTIONNAIRE 12 iii ABSTRACT Nowadays, English is considered to be the most popular communication language Good command of English is an important goal of English teaching.Language learners can significantly improve their communicative competence by developing their ability to use communication strategies or strategies for coping with face-to-face oral communication problems The current exploratively study focused much in natural investigation,which lead Tay Do students majoring in English cope with their face to face oral communication problems Therefore, the researcher decides to carry out the study about "Strategies for coping with face to face oral communication Problems employed by English major students at Tay Do university" The participants of this research are students of class Bachelor of English 12 (2017-2021) This study helps students improve their communication skills, confident and communicate better iv CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the research would like to present the rationale, significance and the organization of the study 1.1 Rationale Nowadays, society is more and more developing Vietnam is in the process of integrating with other countries around the world In general, together with Vietnam’s joining the WTO in 2006 and the opening attitude towards foreign investors, the demand for employees who are good at communication in English is increasing English is considered as a tool for communication among people in the the world Especially, communication in English is more and more important in life In addition, Aladdin's study (2012) “found that communication strategies can be used to convey messages and therefore, can improve students' communication in the target language” English language students in general and English language students of Tay Do University in particular, they often have difficulty in face-to-face communication At Tay Do University, students' fluency in English communication skills is more and more important as the training aims of Bachelor of English major (2010) including: "The ability to communicate confidently and fluently in multi-cultural communicative environment" However, many students of Tay Do University still have problems in English communication after they graduation from university Especially for English majored at Tay Do university, they not have opportunities to practice Speaking at high school That is the reason why students always feel worried, uncomfortable and unconfident when speaking English Listening and speaking play an important role in better communication Therefor, the researcher decides to study about " Strategies for coping with face to face oral communication problems employed by English major students at Taydo university" 1.2 The significance of study This research is designed in order to provide some coping strategies in students communicative skill The finding of the research is expected to help students communicate face to face better 1.3 The organization of the study The research consists of five chapters Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Literature review Chapter 3: Research Aim - Research Questions – Hypotheses Chapter 4: Research Methodology Chapter 5: Expected outcome CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter presents definitions of communication and communication difficulties Moreover, researchers provide methods and strategies to improve communication skills 2.1 What is communication ? Communication is the act of conveying the information and massage of an object ( an individual or a group ) to another subject through the use of language, body language and communication rule that both parties understand The term "communication" has long been discussed by many researchers According to Karl (2000), the word "communication" has its origin from the Latin verb communicare with the meaning "to share", "to make common" Merriam Webster dictionary defines it "a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior as communication" On the basis of information acquisition, the two parties will develop and adjust their goals and behaviors through mutual interaction to understand the same situation, have the same voice and get the most benefits be As defined in Tubbs (2003) 's book Human Communication: Principles and Contexts, "communication is the process in which meaning is created among two or more people" Communication is the activity of exchanging information Communication achieve a certain purpose ,to establish awareness and interact with each other in the relationship between people and people 2.2 Definition of communication strategies Communication is a tool for exchanging and receiving information Although,there are still many existing problems ,communication strategy is considered as a supportive method for better communication Strategy comes from the ancient Greek term " strategia " , used to refer to the tactics employed to defeat the enemy In the field of education, strategy is a tool to cope when problems arise Færch and Kasper (1983a, p.36) define communication strategies as "potentially conscious plans for solving what to an individual presents itself as a problem in reaching a particular communicative goal." Besides, the communication strategies is defined by many researcher in different perspectives Further, Canale (1983, p.10) sees communication strategies as "verbal and non-verbal strategies that may be called into action to compensate for breakdowns in communication due to limiting conditions in actual communication or to insufficient competence in one or more other areas of communicative competence, and to enhance the effectiveness of communication " Communication strategies are heavily used to achieve better results In dialogue, communication strategies can bridge the language gap and knowledge between the talkers 2.3 Difficulties in Communication in English Even people whose English is their mother tongue sometimes have difficulty communicating For English major students at Tay Do University, they often have difficulties in communicating o English sounds : Vietnamese who learn English often make basic mistakes such as swallowing sounds, having no stress, and speaking without intonation They are also easily confused when they not understand what we are saying There are even some cases that are misleading due to our "Vietnamese" pronunciation o English translation : Listening to English, translating into Vietnamese, moving backwards before speaking will take too much time This is the main reason why you sometimes can't keep up with the speaker's speed It is difficult to express yourself fluently and fluently in your thoughts o Vocabulary : the key requirement for good communication is vocabulary If the students vocabulary is too low, they cannot hear and speak well According to Rubin and Thompson (1994) "vocabulary learning is at the heart of mastering a foreign language" Besides, it is supported by Ur (1996) that "vocabulary is one of the important thing to be taught in learning a foreign language because it will be impossible to speak up without a variety of words".Students often lack the necessary vocabulary when they are engaged in authentic communicative situations (Rabab'ah, 2003) In addition, vocabulary is very important when improving speaking skill If speakers not have vocabulary, they cannot speak anything and not understand what people say o Pronunciation : Pronunciation skills are said to be difficult to learn due to the language barrier, Vietnamese inherent pronunciation other than English However, this is also a good decision which is important for whether you are good at English conversations or not A person who speaks well needs to pronounce the word clearly and knows how to use intonation in communication suitably Celce Maurica (1996) also agrees that "there is a close link between pronunciation and listening comprehension since the ability to perceive and produce speech requires the knowledge of the sound, intonation, stress pattern and how speech is organized" They think that pronunciation is not as important as vocabulary If people not pronunce correctly, people will not understand what the speaker says In addition, improving and developing pronunciation require a lot of time Therefore, if students want to be good English speaker, students should practice pronunciation regularly o Speaking speed : You are more likely to swallow words the listener does not understand or cannot keep up If you speak too slowly, it will cause distraction to the listener 2.4 Four websites to improve English communication skills o www.spotlightenglish.com o www.busuu.com o www.voaspecialenglish.blogspot.com o www.envid.com 2.5 Strategies for coping with face to face oral communication o Always remember and call your name noi o Be confident o Speak slowly and clearly o Get straight to the point o Please encouraged o Always smile o Listen to details o Predict the content o Use body language CHAPTER III: RESEACH AIM - RESEACH QUESTION - HYPOTHESIS In this chapter, the researcher would like present research aims, research questions and hypotheses 3.1 Reseach aims The most important purpose of this study is to help English students of Tay Do University improve their face-to-face communication skills 3.2 Reseach questions This research is required to answer the following researched questions: Do English – major juniors at Tay Do university have problems in communication in English? What are common problems encountered by them in oral communication? What they to deal with these difficulties? 3.3 Hypotheses According to the literature and the research question, it is hypothesized that English studens of Tay Do University's communication skills will improve and develop from the benefits of coping strategies in communication It mean that they can find out and solve their own problems to communicate English better CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY In this chapter, the method of doing the study is presented It consists of the design, participants, instruments and the procedure 4.1 Design The research is conducted to answer the research question and to test the hypotheses The researcher also wants to find out the difficult to communication of English language students at Tay Do university In this study, the researcher uses questionnaire as tools to find the answers of the research question Besides, learners who are selected randomly as the participants to survey are required to take the questionnaire and interview 4.2 Participants The participants of this research are students of class Bachelor of English 12 (20172021) at Tay Do university They come from different areas , both rural and urban They all speak Vietnamese as their first language and English is considered as their foreign language The students are equal level Most of them have not had much chance to communicate with native speakers 4.3 Instruments The instruments of this study are the questionaire which is collected from students The researcher uses the questionaire as an instrument because it has more advantages In this study, the information needs to be reliable Therefore, the researcher needs many instruments for the study Besides, these help the researcher get a lot of information about the participants 4.3.1 Questionare The questionaire includes 18 questions and is designed based on the research aims and research questions Strategies for coping with face to face oral communication Problems employed by English major students at Tay Do university In the questionnaire, the first part is about a brief description of the researcher and some personal information of the participants From the question to question 9, the participants circle their choice on the answers given by the researcher, they can give the specific answer if needed These questions are about student's background The next part, the researcher suggests some factors effecting in communicating English The questions are composed in close form Each statement includes a fivepoint scale from (1) strongly agree, (2) agree, (3) no idea, (4) disagree and (5) strongly disagree From question 10 ,11,12 : these are difficult problems in speaking skills From question 13, 14, 15 : these are difficult problems in listening skills From question 16,17, 18 : there are worries in communication 4.4 Procedure Duration ( 16 weeks ) From week – week From week - week From week - week 15 Activities in the study process - Collecting the related material Designing frame work of the research - Designing chapter and questionnaire - Writing chapter and - Getting the teacher's guidance Editing chapter and - Writing chapter Getting the teacher’s guidance - Editing chapter Writing chapter 4, and temporary completion of the main content in the research From week 16 - Editing the whose research Completing the research CHAPTER V: EXPECTED OUTCOME Communication skills are considered a relatively difficult skill in language learning This study will look for communication difficulties in third- year English major students There are many difficulties are listening skils, speaking skills and vocabulary, etc The important purpose of this study is to provide coping strategies in face to face communication Some communication strategies are listening in detail, speaking clearly, confidently and using body language,etc Besides, there strategies will help students improve their communication skills with native English speakers Students can improve pronunciation , intonation accent and confident while communicating with native English speakers The researcher hopes through this research, communication strategies will help students communication better, and focus more on improve communication skills 10 REFERENCE Aladdin's (2012) Communication strategies and their significance in foreign language teaching System, 15 (3), 351-364 Canale, M (1983) From communicative competence to communicative language pedagogy In J C Richards & R W Schmidt (Eds.) Language and communication (pp 2-27) Harlow, UK: Longman Celce Maurica, M., Briton, D., &Godwin, J (1996) Teaching pronunciation: A reference for teachers of English to speakers of other language Cambridge and New York: Cambridge university press Færch, C., & Kasper, G (1983a) Strategies in interlanguage communication London and New York: Longman Karl (2000) Communication in the language classroom Oxford: Oxford University Press Rubab'ah, (2003) Acquiring Vocabulary Aston University Rubin and Thompson (1994) Understanding the Courses We Teach: Local Perspectives on English Language Teaching University of Michigan Press Tubbs (2003) Communicative competence and strategic competence Sino-US English Teaching, 1(10), 70-75 Ur (1996) Developing speaking skill through Reading (Vol 2) Canadian Center of Science and Eduaction Internet references: https://pasal.edu.vn https://idplanguage.com http://translationjournal.net/journal/63learning.htm 11 QUESTIONNAIRE “ Trategies for coping with face- to – face oral communication problems by English major students at Tay university” Dear friends, My name is Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tram and I am a senior of English major Firstly, There is my honor and I am so happy that you are spending your valuable looking helping me This is the questionnaire used to collect the important information from you, so please take your time to finish these below questions carefully because your answers are very important and helpful to my research One again, thank you so much! Student's full name: Gender: Age: Please read the following questions and circle the appropriate answer for each question Give the specific answer if needed How long have you studied English? years Where you come from? A Urban are / city B Rural area/ countryside Which skill you like best? A Listening B Speaking C Reading D Writing 12 What you think about speaking skill ? A Very important B Important C Normal D Not important E Not important at all What you think about listening skills ? Very important B Important C Normal D Not important E Not important at all Have you communicated with foreigners yet ? A Yes B No What you think about your listenning and speaking skill? A Very good B Good C Average D Bad E Very bad How is your English communication Skill ? A Very good B Good C Average D Bad E Very 13 What you think about Communicating with Native English speakers to improve English communicating skill? A Very useful B Useful C Normal D Useless Please read the following statements and mark (V) in suitable column to express your Strongly Stetements Agree (1) 10.My speaking skills is not good 11 Agree I speak so slowly that people lose interest 12 I speak so quickly that my listeners cannot keep up 13 My listening skill is not good 14 My English pronunciation is not standard, so the listener cannot understand 15 I felt unconfident and worried while communicating 16 I could not hear the pronunciation of a foreigner 17 My vocabulary is not enough to express my idea in communicating English 18 I don’t know how to improve communication skills 14 No Disagree Ideas (2) (3) Strongly Disagree (4) (5)