An investigation into english speaking activities outside the classroom by english major students at hue college of foreign languages

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES PHAN THI THAO AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH SPEAKING ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM BY ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUE COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING HUE, 2013 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES PHAN THI THAO AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH SPEAKING ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM BY ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUE COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: TRUONG BACH LE, D Ed HUE, 2013 i BỘ GIÁO DỤC ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ PHAN THỊ THẢO KHẢO SÁT CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG NÓI SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ HUẾ SỬ DỤNG NGOÀI LỚP HỌC LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60140111 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS TRƯƠNG BẠCH LÊ HUẾ, 2013 ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates and have not been published elsewhere Author Phan Thi Thao iii ABSTRACT This thesis seeks to explore issues in speaking activities outside the classroom used by English major students at Hue College of Foreign Language Particularly, it attempts to find out types of activities and impacts of them on developing students‟ speaking skills Besides, through this study, the researcher also tries to explore factors affecting students‟ participation in such activities The data for this thesis were obtained through the use of questionnaires distributed to 100 English major students across four year levels Interviews were also conducted with 20 English major students The findings reveal that students have deep awareness of the importance of speaking activities outside the classroom The study also indicates that the type of activities the students utilized most is entertaining activities Additionally, the findings prove speaking activities outside the classroom help students improve not only their speaking skills but also other language skills Finally, motivation and problems students encounter are the common factors affecting the frequency of their participation in such activities iv Acknowledgements Apart from my own efforts, the success of any project depends largely on the encouragement and guidelines from many others I take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to the people who have been instrumental in the completion of this thesis First and foremost, I owe my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Truong Bach Le for his invaluable guidance and advice I cannot say thank you enough for his tremendous support and kind-hearted help I feel motivated and encouraged throughout the stages of the research Without his encouragement and assistance, this thesis would not have been completed Besides, I would like to show my greatest appreciation to Dr Pham Hoa Hiep who gave me suggestion for the proposal of this thesis He inspired me greatly to work on this study I am grateful for his support and help from the initial days In addition, it is an honor for me to convey my special thanks to all the teachers of English Department and English major students in Hue University College of Foreign Languages for their enthusiasm during my data collecting process Also, I am indebted to many of the librarians of Hue University College of Foreign Languages for providing me with a good environment and facilities to complete this thesis Finally, I wish to express my love and gratitude to my beloved family and my friends for their understanding and endless love, through the duration of my thesis v vi TABLE OF CONTENTS SUB COVER PAGE i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP iii ABSTRACT iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v TABLE OF CONTENTS vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS x LIST OF CHARTS xi LIST OF TABLES xii CHAPTER - INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study .1 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Research significance .4 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Structure of the study CHAPTER - LITERATURE REVIEW .6 2.1 Definitions of language learning activities outside the classroom 2.2 Types of English speaking activities outside the classrooms 2.2.1 Self-study activities 2.2.2 Social activities 12 2.3 The factors affect learners‟ participation in out-of-class activities 14 2.3.1 Internal factors 15 2.3.2 External factors 17 2.4 The impacts of out-of-class language activities on English speaking skills 18 2.5 Chapter summary 20 CHAPTER - METHODOLOGY 21 3.1 Introduction 21 3.2 Research approach 21 vii 3.3 Research scope .22 3.3.1 Research site 22 3.3.2 Participants .22 3.4 Data collecting instruments 22 3.4.1 Questionnaire 22 3.4.2 Interview 23 3.5 Data analysis 24 3.6 Chapter summary 24 CHAPTER - FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 25 4.1 Students‟ competence in speaking English 25 4.1.1 Students‟ perceived speaking competence 25 4.1.2 Students‟ perceptions of speaking activities outside the classroom 27 4.2 Types of English speaking activities outside the classrooms used by students 29 4.2.1 The reliability statistics data collected from questionnaires 29 4.2.2 Types of English speaking activity outside the classroom 32 4.2.2.1 Entertaining activities .32 4.2.2.2 Self-study activities 36 4.2.2.3 Face-to-face activities .38 4.3 Benefits of speaking activities outside the classroom to English major students at HUCFL 44 4.3.1 The impact of English speaking activities outside the classroom on speaking skills 44 4.3.2 The impact of English speaking activities outside the classroom on other language skills 46 4.4 Factors affecting students‟ participation in English speaking activities outside the classroom 48 4.4.1 Motivation for participation in English speaking activities outside the classroom 48 4.4.2 The problems students have when participating in English speaking activities outside the classroom 53 4.5 Chapter summary 55 viii CHAPTER - CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 56 5.1 Conclusions 56 5.2 Pedagogical implications 58 5.2.1 Implications for administrators at HUCFL 58 5.2.2 Implications for foreign language teachers .58 5.2.3 Implications for foreign language students .59 5.3 Contribution of the study 60 5.4 Limitations of the study 60 5.5 Recommendations for future research 60 REFERENCES 62 APPENDICES 67 ix findings of this study as a guide to encourage students to seek opportunities to use English outside the classroom Teachers should provide students with some useful and interesting activities and guide them how to participate effectively and successfully Additionally, the understanding speaking activities outside the classroom will benefit teachers to integrate them to teaching period From this findings, teachers know more about their students‟ interests, habits, common activities their students often used and their problems such as limited vocabulary Hence, teachers should help students enrich their vocabulary and useful expressions used daily to make them more confident to communicate with others in English Last but not least, end-of-course feedback should be considered as a compulsory and routine part of every class This helps teachers realize the strengths and weaknesses of their students to have suitable solutions for the next semester Also, thanks to this, teachers have more information about speaking activities outside the classroom that successful students and less successful students participate 5.2.3 Implications for foreign language students The followings are some steps that students in foreign language classes can take to improve their speaking skills: Firstly, the findings from this study prove that speaking activities outside the classroom are always available and various Hence, it can be said that students are easy to find opportunities to practice speaking outside the classroom Students can define which activities are useful, interesting and suitable for them to participate Then, they can create opportunities to practice English from the everyday routine Secondly, as the most important reasons of problems in participating in activities outside the classroom were the lack of confidence and vocabulary, students must actively practice as well as create as many opportunities to enhance their skills and vocabulary as possible To this, in the class, students should be 59 more active to participate in class discussions which may inspire them to participate in activities outside the classroom Besides, students should learn meaning, usage and pronunciation of new words to enrich their vocabulary Thirdly, students should also exchange experience with their friends and teachers to know more about effective activities outside the classroom to participate By this way, students have valuable information about these activities and then they can choose some of them to practice their speaking skills outside the classroom 5.3 Contribution of the study Up to now, there have been a number of studies that focus on what takes place inside the classroom more than what take place outside the classroom This study, therefore, is supposed to gain some insights into this area of few footprints with the hope to confirm the worth of language activities outside the classroom and most importantly, to take the initiative to study the speaking activities outside the classroom It is expected that the study can partly contribute to the further success of teaching and learning English speaking at HUCFL 5.4 Limitations of the study The results from the interview were generalized from responses of only 25 students whose opinions may not stand for the opinions of the whole the English students at HUCFL Therefore, the findings of the study were restricted in some ways Additionally, some issues were not analyzed thoroughly and deeply enough due to the author‟s own constraints of knowledge, time and experience in using technical device Moreover, there might be some mistakes in this study because of technical problem In spite of the above limitations the author hopes to have the reader‟s sympathy and look forward to receiving any constructive comments on this study 5.5 Recommendations for future research Based on the limitations of this study as mentioned above, some suggestions for future research can be as follows: 60 - Researches on this issue in the future can be done with the relationship between students‟ achievements in the class and speaking activities outside the classroom - In the future, researchers should explore the activities found to be most helpful for improving English speaking skills for students 61 REFERENCES Al-Otai bi, G (2004) Language learning strategy use among Saudi EFL students and its relationship to language proficiency level, gender and motivation Indiana University of Pennsylvania Anderson, K (2004) Teachers’ conceptions of language learning: out-of-class interactions Retrieved September, 2012 from 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Yilmaz, S (2010) Similarities and differences between female and male learners: Inside and outside classroom autonomous language learning activities Procedia Social and Behaviorial Sciences, 3, 237-244 Yap, S L (1998) Out-of-class use of English by secondary school students in a Hong Kong Anglo-Chinese school Unpublished MA Thesis, University of Hong Kong 66 APPENDICES APPENDIX A QUESTIONNAIRE Dear participants, Thank you very much for participating in this survey This questionnaire is done to collect information for my thesis on the topic: AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH SPEAKING ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM BY ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUCFL Each of your answer is of crucial importance and is used for research purpose only All information provided remains confidential A PERSONAL INFORMATION: - You are: - Sex:  1st year student  2nd year student  3rd year student  4th year student  Male  Female - Age: ……… - Your speaking grade last semester  A  B  C  F - Estimate your own EFL speaking skill: (please put a tick by your level) Excellent Good Fair Poor B ENGLISH SPEAKING ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM Note: English speaking activities outside the classroom (ESAOC) are defined as any language activity that takes place outside the class to improve your English speaking skills 67 Do you like speaking English?  Yes  No Do you think that ESAOC are very important to develop your speaking skills?  Yes  No Do you think that activities outside the classroom can replace activities inside the classroom?  Yes  No Do you think that students can gain speaking proficiency without being involved in any activity outside the classroom?  Yes  No Do you often look for effective ESAOC to take part in?  Yes  No Where you look for effective ESAOC to take part in? Do you see that there are many available ESAOC for you to improve your speaking skills?  Yes  No Do you take part in any activity outside the classroom?  Yes  No If your answer is YES, please state what activities you take part in and your reasons here: How much time are you engaged in ESAOC every week?  Less than hour  1~3 hours  3~5 hours  More than hours 68 10 When did you start to take part in ESAOC?  1st year  2nd year  3rd year  4th year 11 How frequencies you use the following activities to improve your speaking skills? Please tick (√) in the appropriate box Never Rarely (2) Types of activities (1) Sometimes (3) Often (4) Very often (5) Listen to the news on radio or TV Study in the library Watch TV programs, videos or movies Listen to music Talk with friends in English Talk with native speakers in English Use English at home Pay attention when someone is speaking English Take part in foreign organizations such as NGO 10 Get a part time job somewhere, for example, at bar/restaurant, for the foreigners 11 Take part in Englishspeaking club 12 Participate in the discussions in English 69 Never Rarely (2) Types of activities (1) Sometimes (3) Often (4) Very often (5) 13 Use chat/ email 14 Use YouTube 15 Use Skype 16 Play game online in English 17 Record yourself reading aloud for pronunciation practice 18 Record your letter on cassette for your pen friend 19 You and your friends record a dialogue in English together 20 You pretend you have an English friend and have imaginary conversations with her 21 Organize a regular time to practice your speaking 22 Use a dictionary to help you with pronunciation and stress 23 Find out where you can talk to other speakers of English 24 Find materials like poetry and plays that you can read aloud to practice your pronunciation, stress and rhythm 25 Visit English speaking country 70 12 Which of the following has been improved thanks to ESAOC ? Please tick (√) in the appropriate boxes (You can choose more than one)  Pronunciation  Accuracy  The ability to use useful expressions  The ability to use slang  Intonation  Accent  Fluency in speaking English  Be more confident to speak English  Others: 13 Beside developing your speaking skills, ESAOC have helped you improve (You can choose more than one)  Listening skills  Writing skills  Reading skills  Vocabulary  Grammatical competence  Target cultural knowledge  Others: 14 What elements motivate you to participate in ESAOC? (You can choose more than one)  Your interest in the activity  Your teachers‟ suggestions  Your friends‟ suggestions  Benefits of activities to your study  Requirement of curriculum in school  Preparing for jobs in the future  Others: 71 15 Do you think that you are making full use of ESAOC around you?  Yes  No 16 If your answer is No, in your opinion, what should be done to make full use of them (You can choose more than one)  There should be the guide for using these activities by teachers  Students should learn how to use activities effectively by themselves  There should be the connection between what takes place inside and outside the classroom to motivate students to take part in ESAOC  Others: 17 There are some available activities that can help you improve your speaking skills but you NOT participate The reasons are:  You are lazy  You feel unconfident and embarrassed  You not like making mistakes  You not have enough time  You are not interested  Your friends not engage with you  You think they not support your study  You cannot find anyone to speak to  Others: 18 What are the difficulties you encounter when participating in ESAOC?  You not understand what others say  You cannot understand the speakers‟ culture  You not have enough vocabulary to speak  You cannot find the way to start a conversation  Others: 19 Please state your own activities for enhancing your speaking proficiency which are not included in the statements above THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR COOPERATION! 72 APPENDIX B INTERVIEW Dear participants, Thank you very much for participating in this survey This questionnaire is done to collect information for my thesis on the topic: AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH SPEAKING ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM BY ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUCFL Each of your answer is of crucial importance and is used for research purpose only All information provided remains confidential A PERSONAL INFORMATION: - You are: - Sex:  1st year student  2nd year student  3rd year student  4th year student  Male  Female - Age: ……… - Your speaking grade in the last semester □A □B □C □F - Estimate your own EFL speaking skill: (please put a tick by your level) Excellent Good Fair Poor B QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEW Do you think that students can gain speaking skills without taking part in any English speaking activity outside the classroom? Why? Do you take part in any activity outside the classroom to improve your English speaking skills? What are they? And why? In these activities, which activities help you mostly improve your speaking skills? And how they help you improve your language skills? What factors affect your participation in such activities? What are your recommendations about speaking course in the class in relation to activities outside the classroom? 73