MINISTRYOFEDUCATIONANDTRAINING QUYNHONUNIVERSITY HO THIDIEM ENGLISH SPEAKINGSKILLS BY RURAL9thGRADERS VERSUS URBAN ONES IN BINH DINHPROVINCE Field Theory and Methodology of English Language TeachingCo[.]
Rationale
According to Eaton (2010, p 16), learning English as a foreign languageinthe21 st centuryisemphasizednotonlyongrammar,butalsooncommunicativ e skills and the skills are applied as a means for communicatingandconnectingtoothersovertheworld.InEnglishlanguagelearning,spe aking is considered as one of the most key skills to be progressed andenhanced continually communication The speaking skill is also one of theessentialelementstoevaluatesomeone‟sEnglish abilities.
TheCommonEuropeanFrameworkofReferenceforLanguages:learning, teaching and assessment was created for the unification of directivesinthelearningandeducationofthelanguages,proposesorientationsb y means of linguistic guidelines to achieve the communication in the teaching-learning process of a language by The
Council of Europe In the
CommonEuropeanFrameworkofReferenceforLanguagestheacquisitionofalanguage is contextualized with specific aims of communication, it is neededto learn in classrooms beyond linguistic contents At present, we are requestedto be able to communicate in English during English learning process ingeneralandinthelifeinparticipate,especiallyEnglishspeakingskills.According toClark and Clark (1997, p 233), “speaking is fundamentally aninstrumentalact”.Widdowson(1984,p.58)saysthat“speakingistheactive or productive skill” According to above two definitions, itc a n b e r e f e r r e d that speaking is an interaction progression between two people or more Agood speaking activity is when the people interacting can understand eachother.Forexample,speakingactivitiesinclassroomsareinteractionbetwee na teacher and a student or more students In the interaction, the teacher shouldhave a good speaking ability because through his or her speech, he or she hastohelphisstudents understandthe material.
Today,witheconomicintegrationandglobalizationinV i e t n a m , speaking English well is necessary in life in general and at work in particular.It is in recognition of the need tob e g o o d a t E n g l i s h s p e a k i n g s k i l l a n d achieve efficiency in communication focally emphasized on speaking skills inthe Vietnamese school system The curriculum which guides the study of thissubjectisplannedavailablebytheMinistryofEducationandTraining(MOET) in Vietnam for both rural and urban schools The scheme of workguiding the teachers of this subject is also made available in the same way toallschools.Lately,theMOETinVietnamhasissuedguidelinesforthepiloting of teaching and learning English as a foreign language (EFL) andEnglish is taught in schools as a compulsory subject from Grade 3 In thecontext of Binh Dinh - a province belonging to Coastal Southern CentralVietnam consisting of Quy Nhon City and ten rural and mountainous districts,there has been a difference in using types of textbook series in curriculumfrom Grade 3 to Grade 9 between schools in Quy Nhon City and schools indistricts Therefore, at the time the study was carried out, I chose the urbanlow- secondary schools and the rural ones which have applied pilot EnglishcurriculumoftheMOETforGrade9toinvestigate.Italsomeansthatinvestigated
9 th gradersusedthesametypeoftextbook,andcurriculumdistributed bythe MOET.
In the context of Vietnam, English language called and known as theforeign language (EFL) is acquired This implies that most speakers acquireEnglish in addition to their mother tongue, called and known as the firstlanguage (L1) And this may lead to mother tongue interference problem.Observably, Vietnamese learners have difficulties in English pronunciation Itis obviously seen that both the teachers and the learners must exert effort inthis aspect of the English languaget o a c h i e v e f l u e n c y , w h e t h e r i n t h e U r b a n or Rural areas But it is disappointing to understand that people pass positiveresults in favor of the students in the urban areas to be better in the knowledgeand understandingofthesubject thantheonesin the rural areas.
Because of the above reasons, this study, entitled “English
SpeakingSkills By Rural 9 th Graders Versus Urban Ones In Binh DinhProvince”,wishes to assess English speaking skills amongst 9 th graders at three urbanlower-secondary schools and three rural ones in Binh DinhProvinceandexaminedifferencesand similarities in speaking English amongthem.
Researchaimandobjectives
The general aim of the study is to investigate similarities and differencesin speaking English between rural 9 th graders and urban ones in Binh DinhProvince.
Toexamine howwellrur al 9 th graders inBinh D in hProvince spe akEnglish.
Tod i s c u s s s i m i l a r i t i e s a n d d i f f e r e n c e s i n s p e a k i n g E n g l i s h b e t w e e n rural 9 th graders andurbanonesin BinhDinh Province.
Researchquestions
3 Whata r e s i m i l a r i t i e s a n d d i f f e r e n c e s i n s p e a k i n g E n g l i s h b e t w e e n rural 9 th gradersandurbanonesinBinh DinhProvince?
Scopeofthestudy
Thestudymainlybasesontheframeworkofthe2018highschoolEnglish target program of the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnamto analyze and compare speaking skills in English of the 9 th graders of thelower-secondary schools However, with the restricted time and geographicalconditions, I was not ambitious to conduct a total research on the9 th gradersofa l l l o w e r - s e c o n d a r y sch oo ls i n B i n h D i n h P r o v i n c e In st e a d , I c o n d u c t e d my study on
130 ninth graders of six lower-secondary schools including 69ninth graders of three rural schools and 61 ninth graders of three urban ones.And the English teachers of the 9 th graders were asked to give help on myinterview.
Significanceofthestudy
Thefindingsofthe study areexpectedtohelppeoplehaveamoreaccuratepointofviewofspeakingskillsinEnglish ofthe9 th s t u d e n t s , whether in rural areas or urban areas The findings of the research seem tomakeboththeoreticalandpracticalcontributions.Itcanenrichthecomparative studies of English speaking skills and contribute to the process ofteachinga n d l e a r n i n g E n g l i s h l a n g u a g e F u r t h e r m o r e , t h e r e s e a r c h r e s u l t s wish to expose that it is suggested for the government to recruit teachers ofOral English who are professional to teach the subject in schools and it is alsosuggestedfortheschoolsintheruralareasto bemadeconducivelikethosein the urban areas - electrification, water, quarters, library, laboratory etc Inaddition,the recommendations have also been put in place that the studentsshouldlearnandpracticeallEnglishspeakingskillsincludingspeaking,listenin g,writing,reading anduses ofthelanguage.
Structureofthethesis
Chapter 1, Introduction, introduces the rationale, aim and objectives,researchquestions,scope,significanceofthestudyandstructureofthethesis.
Chapter 2, Literature Review, is put within its theoretical framework, bypresenting the major theories that support it First of all, I present literature onOral Communication and the Speaking skill in a Foreign Language includingDefinitions of Oral communication and the Speaking skill; Oral proficiency;NecessityofSpeakingAssessment;Testspecifications;andSpeakingCom ponentAssessmentusingtheComponentsofEnglishLanguageDevelopment
Assessment (ELDA) Secondly, English speaking skills of the9th graders in Viet Nam is also shown Thirdly, External factors and speakingin English are discussed, which consisting of Family factor, Socio- economicFactor,FacilitiesandResources,andTeachers‟qualification.Fourthly,relatedstudi es areshown.
Chapter3,Methodology,suppliescommentsonresearchdesign,participants,instr umentsandprocedure.
In chapter 4, Results and discussion, presents similarities and differencesin speaking skills of the investigated 9 th graders in rural schools versus urbanschools and the external factors influencing the similarities and differences inOral Englisharereported.
Chapter5,ConclusionandImplications,composesofthemainfindings resulting in the conclusions and discussion of its limits and a fewrecommendations.
The purpose of this study is to examine English speaking skills by rural9 th graders versus urban ones in Binh Dinh Province The chapter reviews theliterature knowledge related to (1) Oral communication and the speaking skillin a Foreign Language, (2)Speaking skills of the 9 th graders in Vietnam, (3)Externalfactors andspeakinginEnglish,and (4)Relatedstudies.
Oralcommunicationandthe SpeakingskillinaForeignLanguage
DefinitionsofOral communicationandtheSpeakingskill
The definitions of the terms “Oral communication” and “Speaking skill”havebeensuggestedbyalotof researchers in languagelearning.
Paltridge (2001) states that oral communication is a two-way progressionembracingthespeakerandlisteneranditrelatestheproductiveskillinspeaking and the receptive one in understanding or listening to understand (citedinPalmero,2019).
Rixon(2011)declaresthatoralcommunicationskillconcernsacommunicativeabil ityofconveyingandreceivinginformation.Oralcommunicationrefers to the meaning‟s negotiationbetween two or morepersons;therefore,itisalwaysrelatedtothecontextoccurringspeakingcommunication which bothspeakerand listenerplayimportantroles.
Palu (2016) and Akinola (2014) proclaim that oral communication is aunique and learned oratorical skill that expects to understand what to be saidandhow tosay it Speechinmoreformalcircumstancesisnotsentoutnaturally What should be learned is how to think and show oneself as aspeakerinalloccasions.
(2005)p r o f e s s e s t h a t „ o r a l c o m m u n i c a t i o n s k i l l i s a highly sought skill compared to writing and reading‟ (cited in Palmero, 2019).This is reason why learning to speak is an important aim It provides learnswith a set of communication skills so that they can employ in the rest of thelife Besides, oral communication is employed to send out thought, debate ordiscuss, suggest explanations, send out information, and make attention orimpressions onothers.
Palu(2016)andOlatunji(2012)saidthatoralcommunicationisadynamic interactive progression that relates to the effectual spread of realities,opinions,thoughts,feelingandworth.Speakersareactivelyandareconsciously absorbed in communication so that they may grow informationandunderstanding entailedforeffectivegroup function.
Gass(2013)assertsthatoralcommunicationisthespokencontactbetweentwoor morepeople(citedin Palmero,2019).
RichardsandRenandya(2002, p 204)reportsthataneffective oralcommunication require the skills to use the language competently in real- lifeinteractions involving not only verbal communication but also paralinguisticfactorsofspeechlikepitch,stressand intonation.Brown(2007,p.237)declares that social contact in interactive role of language is important and inwhich itis notonlywhat yousaybut alsohowyou sayit.
AccordingtoNunan(1989,p.32),effectiveoralcommunicationcomprises:theskil ltoarticulatephonologicalfeaturesofthelanguagecomprehensibly; mastery of stress, rhythm, intonation patterns; an acceptableextentoffluency;skillsintransactionalandinterpersonal;skillsintakingshortandl ongspeakingturns;managementskillsofinteraction;negotiatingskillsofmeaning;conversa tionallisteningskills(successfulconversationsrequiregoodlistenersaswellasgoodspeaker s);skillsinbeingawareofnegotiatingpurposesforconversations;usingcorrectconversationalformul aeandfillers.
Besides, from Webster‟s New Dictionary (1994, p 932), we learn thatspeakingisanacttoexpressone‟sideas,feeling,purposeandthoughtorally.Itisalsocalledo ralcommunication.Speakingneedstheperformance,expression,intonation, stressing, pronunciation, grammar, and confidence to explore theideaoropinion.Thus,speakingisacomplexskillbecauseatleastitisconcernedwithcompo nentsofpronunciation,grammar,vocabulary,andfluency(Syakur,1987,p.5).
Moreover, Widdowson (1996, p 56) says that speaking as a case in pointofuse,isapartofreciprocalexchangeinwhichbothreceptionandproductionplay a significant role In this sense, skill of speaking involves both receptiveandproductiveparticipation.Infact,speakingisproductiveratherthanreceptivesk illbecauseitisasawaylanguagesystemismanifestedthroughtheuse of organs of speech and operates through the aural rather than the visualmedium Therefore, speaking can be considered as productive and receptiveskillthroughbothauralandvisualasitisusedincommunicativeactivity.
Siahaan (2008, p 95) suggests that “speaking is a productive languageskill”.Itrefersthatspeaking is a person's skill tocreate sounds that aremeaningfulandunderstoodbyotherssothatgoodcommunicationcanbemade.
According to Bygate (1987, p 7), speaking is an undervalued skill inmany ways Speaking is a skill which deserves attention every bit as much asliteraryskills.
Thornbury (2005, p 20) states that speaking is an activity in real lifeperformed by speaker to carry out his/ her ideas for interacting with listeners.Theactivitiesareunintendedandtheircontinuousness isbasedonsituations.
Ladouse (in Nunan, 1991, p.23) reports that speaking is expressed as theactivityasthecapabilitytoarticulateoneselfinthecircumstance,ortheactivitytodescribeacts,orsituationinaccuratewordsorthecapabilitytoconverseorto expressasequenceofideasfluently.Furthermore,accordingtoWilson(1983,p.5),speakin gasprogressoftheconnectionbetweenspeakerandlistener.
Another definition of speaking comes from Cameron (2001, p 40), shepresentsthat speaking is about makinghearers understandu t t e r e r ‟ s f e e l i n g and ideas by carrying out an act of communication which uses language Atthe time people give utterances, they express their meanings, feelings, ideasand desires.
Besides, Caroline (2005, p 45) defines that speaking is an essential oralcommunication among people in humanity Speaking serves as natural meansof communication of the participants of the community for both expression ofthinking andformasocialbehaviour.
Additionally, according to Chaney (in Kayi, 2006, p.1), speaking is abuilding and sharing meaning process through the use of verbal and non- verbali n v a r i o u s c o n t e x t s M a c k e y i n B y g a t e ( 1 9 8 7 , p 5 ) s u m m a r i z e s t h a t oral expression involves the use of right sounds in the right patterns of rhythmand intonation, and the choice of words and inflections in the right order toconveym e a n i n g T h a t i s t h e r e a s o n w h y s p e a k i n g c a n b e u n d e r s t o o d a s a n oral expression because it is used to express the idea by saying words andsentences, even though many other things are included in it In our daily life,according to Thornbury (2005, p 1), speaking is interactive and requires theability to co-operate in the management of speaking turns It also typicallytakes place in real time, with little time for detailed planning Hence, speakingrepresents arealchallengetomost language learners.
Moreover, Fulcher (2003, p 23) asserts that “speaking is thev e r b a l u s e of language to communicate with other” In other words, this activity concerntwo or more participants implying both hearers and speakers and they have torespond towhatever theyhear.
Bailey (2000, p 25) states that speaking is an interactive progressionwhere speakers expect to construct meaning through producing, getting andprocessinginformation.
Brown (2001, p 267) reports that when somebody can use a language tospeak, itrefersthat he cancompetently perform a conversation Ina d d i t i o n , he declines that the standard of acquiring language successfully is virtuallyalways the exposition of the ability to achieve pragmatic purposes through aninteractivediscoursewithothersusinglanguage.
Infact,speakingisacrucialpartofsecondlanguagelearningandteaching(Kayi,200 6,p.15).Ontheonehand,relatingtothelanguageteaching,speakingastheskillofbeing abletousethelanguageisaproblemin teaching a foreign language (Bygate, 1987, p.1) In addition, the object ofteaching speaking is to improve the oral communication of students. Harmer(1990,p.38)statesthattheaimofteachingistotrainstudents‟communicativeskil lsinreallife.Asaresult,languageactivitiesintheclassroom should focus on the individual language use This requires teachersnot only to create a warm and humanistic classroom atmosphere, but alsoencouragestudents tonaturallycommunicatewiththeirpartners.
Fromthestatementsonoralcommunicationandthespeakingskillsdefinitionsabove,itc anbeconcludedthatEnglishoralcommunicationandthespeakingskillsarepartsofcommunicatio nskills.Theskillsrefertotheprocessof conveying ideas, thought, point of view, or feelings through spoken words.This can be carried out in a conversation between two or more participants.English as second language learners often do not have chances to practicespeaking English outside the classroom, and for most of them, the only placewhere they meetEnglish is the course book Rixon (2011) claims that eventhoughspeakingskillsareconsideredasnecessarylanguageskillsthatlearners ought to improve, it has been widely noticed that they cope with lots ofdifficulties in speaking English Therefore, learners ought to be supported toobtain these skills English teachers should actively engage their students'speakingabilitiesthroughenjoyablelanguageactivitiesandmediaintheclassro omandgivethemplentyofopportunitiestopracticetheirspeakingskills.
Oralproficiency
An overall definition of oralproficiency inEnglish is theability oflearners to speak and use English in real communication with conversers Itcan be said that a fluent English speaker is someone who asks or responds toquestionseffectively,understandshisorherteachers,expresseshis/herthoughts without difficulty and exactly, and have a tendency to interact morewith a talker. He/she is also a person who is able to use spoken languageappropriately and competently through practice, especially the practice to useperfectlylargerlanguageunits.
Oral proficiency is a polysemous notion It relates to some aspects oflanguage such as vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, intonation, proficiencyand skills of interaction.
Saunders and Brien (in William M Saunders et al.,2006,p.14)claimthat:"DevelopingproficiencyinoralEnglishinvolvesacquiringvocabul ary,gainingcontrolovergrammar,anddevelopinganunderstanding of the subtle semantics of English At the same time, acquiringproficiency in English involves learning how to use the language to interactsuccessfullywithother speakersofthelanguage".
Taylor (1988) has the same notion He states that proficiency includeswhatlearnersknowandtheirabilitytousetheirknowledgeinreal- lifecommunication.Proficiencyisconsideredasadynamicconcept,closelylinkedtopro cessandfunction.
Therefore, a universe definition of oral proficiency in English is
„„thelearner‟s ability to speak and use English in actual communication with aninterlocutor‟‟.
The purpose of learning a foreign language is to use it naturally. Brumfit(1984) considers fluency as using language naturally like a native speaker.Spokenfluencyisalsoanimportantcommunicationcomponent,becausefluent speaking ability can help speakers produce continuous speech withoutdifficulty in understanding for listeners and to maintain ideas to communicatemore effectively (cited in Yang, 2014). There are not any language learnersturning down speaking English fluently This means that spoken fluency isessential for learners of English as foreign language to progress and enhance.In addition, the issue of spoken fluency is widely debated Nation
(1997)supposesthatimprovingspeakingfluencyalsoenhancesthequalityofgrammatic al accuracy and content control degrees The practice of speakingfluency does not conflict with instruction that focuses on form, but greatlyenhancethe accuracyof a language.
In the context of our country, spoken fluency is required for professionalaimsuchasdoingbusinessanddiplomatic affairs,andforhighered ucation.Attheprivatesector,variouslocalandmultinationalcompanieshavecreat eda vast employment field for our young generation The candidates‟ requiredqualities are presentation abilities and spoken fluency which can be noticedfromtheemploymentadvertisementsontheradioandinnewspapers.Sometimes ataninterviewthe academicresultisomittedif somebody‟sEnglish speaking skills are acceptable Candidates‟ English speaking skillsmakes them confident in the interview because they can give the responseseasily.I n a d d i t i o n , s t u d e n t s w h o a r e g o i n g a b r o a d f o r p u r p o s e o f p u r s u i n g their higher education must be able to speak English fluently At today‟sworkplaceswhereeverythingiscarriedoutthroughvoicemail,teleconferencing, video conferencing, power point presentations, seminars,meetings and conference through teamwork our abilities to communicate arebecoming more andmore significant.
NecessityofSpeakingAssessment
In countries where learners study English as a second language, they donot get lots of opportunities to practice their English skills And even if theyhave any chance to apply, they are not received feedbacks properly that theyemploy English whether correctly or not Institutions are the best places forthem to carry outwhat they have learned and can be assessed andhavecorrection Therefore, appropriate assessment is essential in developing skillsbecause if there is not assessment, the process of gaining competence remainsinadequate.
On the whole, Brown (2002) states that “English language teaching nowrequiresdiagnosis,treatmentandassessment”(citedinYang,2 0 1 4 ) Bachmana ndPalmer(2010)suggestthat“studentsshoulddemonstratelanguage proficiency through a performance test The tasks used in such anassessment should enable students to talk, to participate in a conversation, orto communicate in another context that exists in real life” (cited in Srikaew etal.,2015).
In the context of Vietnam, the prevailing mentality is that students learnforeignlanguagestogetgoodgradesinexams,nottodevelopskills.Assessment of speaking skills is as important as other skills Hughes (1989, p.44) suggests to teachers, “if you want to encourage oral ability, then test oralability” If students understand that they have to present something or take anoralassessmentinEnglishattheexaminationandtheirgoodachievementin theuseoflanguageiscontingentontheirperformance,theywillb e thoughtful enoughtoprogresstheirspeakingabilities.
Testspecifications
The list of contents of test specifications found in Alderson et al. (1995)includes:thetest‟spurpose;descriptionoftheexaminees;testlevel;definitionofcons truct(theoreticalframeworkforthetest);descriptionofsuitablelanguage course or textbook; number of sections/papers; time for each sectionor paper; weighting for each section or paper; situation of target language;text-types; text length; language elements to be tested; language skills to betested; test tasks; rubrics; test methods; criteria for marking; descriptions oftypical performance at each level; description of what candidates at each levelcan do in the real world; sample papers; samples of students‟ performance ontask (ascitedin Hamdan,2015,p.194).
AccordingtoCohen,ManionandMorrison(2018,p.570),testspecifications include: the programme objectives and student learning outcomestobeaddressed;thecontentareastobeaddressed;therelativeweightings,balan ce and coverage of items, with weightings addressing objectives, contentareas, kinds of question and difficulty of the items; the total number of items inthe test; the number of questions required to address a particular element of aprogrammeorlearningoutcomes;theexactitemsin thetest.
SpeakingComponentAssessmentusingtheComponentso f Englis hLanguageDevelopmentAssessment(ELDA)
TheComponentsofEnglishLanguageDevelopmentA s s e s s m e n t (ELDA) is an assessment which is used annually in the United States anddesignedtofacilitateschoolsinmeasuringthestudents‟annualprogressachievement ofEnglish language in Grades 3 to 12 in developing Englishlanguageproficiency.Ferraraetal.(2008)statethatELDAassesseslanguage skills with content which is drawn from school curricular and non- curricularresources that is suitable with age and each grade cluster assessment. TheELDA assessment‟s component has four speaking functions Firstly, it isReason The Reason function is outlined as debating for or against a certaintopic relating and supporting the argument The required response relates toclearpositionandinformation.Secondly,itisExplain.Itisdefinedasproviding detailed information about a relevant topic in a conversation Therequired response is relevance, specific ideas and information Next, it is Tell.Itisdefinedasprovidingmaininformationaboutarelevanttopicinaconversation.Th erequiredresponseisrelevance,extendswithdetailsorexamples And the last one is Connect It is defined as establishing a verbalconnection with an interlocutor in order to converse on a topic The responserequiredis relevanceas ademonstrationofconnection(Yunus,2012).
2.1.5.1 Numbers of Items, Time and needed materials of the English speakingtests(Test1and Test2)forthe9 th graders
Eachtesthad4questionsfor4speakingfunctionsaccordingtotheELDAassessment‟sco mponent,including1questionforReasonfunction,otheroneforExplain function, other one for Tell function and another one for Connectfunction The content of the questions and the images related to the questionswereprintedonA4- sizepaper.Alaptopstoringthecontentofthetestquestionsandprojectors/ televisionswereusedtopresenttostudentsthecontentofthetestsincasetheimagesofthetests onpaperwereunclear.Thetimeforeachstudenttoanswerall4questionsineachtestwasabout 8-
Students‟ responses in oral English following the prompts are scored bythetestexaminersthroughusingaspeakingrubric.Thestudentsget0,1,or2 points for each response given by them for each question, depending on theappropriateness and response‟s quality according to the scoring guide Foreach function the teacher gives input, scaffolding, the prompt, and finallyrepetition the prompt to remind and encourage the students to demonstratetheir speaking abilities (Yunus, 2012) In addition, the students' pronunciationscoresarealsoassessedbasedonCurriculumframeworkandgoalsf o r E nglishofuniversaleducationin2018oftheMOETinV i e t n a m T h e students getfrom 0 to 0.5pronouncing pointsf o r e a c h r e s p o n s e g i v e n b y them for each question The students with good pronunciation, good accent,intonation,rhythmofphrasesandthesentencesgetthescoreso f pronunciationfr om0.4to0.5points,theoneswithclearpronunciation,relativelya c c u r a t e s o u n d s r e c e i v e t h e s c o r e s o f p r o n u n c i a t i o n f r o m 0 2 5 t o
0.35 points, and the ones get the pronunciation scores from 0.0 to 0.2 points iftheydon‟tachievethecriterionsofpronunciationinEnglishspeaking.Table
Unclear,ambi guous ornotcontaini ngessentialin formation
Doesn‟t containessentialin formation orextend beyondinformatio nintheprompt
Doesn‟t provideessentialin formation orexplain/elaborat e.May contain onlyinformationfrom theprompt.
Can‟tparticipa te in ashort, simpleconversati onaboutrelated issues
Partlyconnect s withsomeessen tialinformatio n;otherinform ation isunclear ormissing,err ors mayinterfere with understanding
Provides essentialinformation andattempts todescribe/extend orspecific detailwithout essentialinformati on fromthe prompt Errorsmay interfere withunderstanding
Bothessentialan d attempts toexplain,elaborat eoninformation.
Can participatein a short,simpleconv ersationaboutr elatedissues
Essentialinfor mation isconveyedclearl y andwithouta mbiguity.
Errors do notinterfere withunderstan ding
Essentialinforma tion isprovided anddescribes/exte ndswith specificdetail.
Essentialinformat ion andspecific detailexplain, elaborateand convey order.Errors do notinterfere withunderstandin g
Responsesexp ress a clearposition andincludeinfo rmationthat supportsthepo sition.
, relativelyac curatesoun d,accent,int onation,rhy thm ofphrasesa nd thesentences.
Clearpronunciatio n,relatively accuratesound, accent,intonation, rhythmof phrases and thesentences.
Clearpronunciatio n,relativelyaccura te sound,accent,into nation,rhythm of phrasesandthesente nces.
Clearpronuncia tion,relativelya ccurate sound,accent,into nation,rhythm ofphrases and thesentences.
Speakingskillsofthe9 th graders in Vietnam
According to Curriculum framework and goals for English of universaleducation in 2018 of the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam,afterstudying English at the lower secondary level, students can achieve Englishlevel 2 of the 6-level ForeignLanguage Competency Framework for Vietnam.Specifically, they can understand frequently used sentences and structuresrelated to basic communication needs (such as information about family, self,shopping, asking for directions, employment, etc.); can exchange informationonsimple,familiareverydaytopics;cansimplydescribehimself,hissurroun dings,andmattersofbasicneed ThroughEnglish,studentshavegeneral knowledge about the country, people, culture of English-speakingcountries and other countries in the world; have a positive attitude towards thesubjectandlearningEnglish;atthesametimehaveunderstandingan dpride in the values of their national culture; develop qualities such as compassion,family love, pride in the homeland, environmental protection, a sense of self- studyandresponsibilityforself andfamily.
Aboutlanguageknowledgefor9 th graders,topicsareaboutLivingenvironment, Urban life, Vietnam - past and present, Life in the past, Healthyliving,Natural wonders,Travel,Futurejob,Englishintheworld.
- Clearpronunciation,relativelyaccuratesound,accent,intonation,rhythm of phrasesandthe sentences.
- Participate in short, simple conversations about familiar issues relatedto workanddailylife.
- Short,well-preparedprojectpresentationonfamiliartopics;givereasons anda briefexplanationofthe personalopinions.
ExternalfactorsandspeakinginEnglish
Familyfactor
The factor of family is determined by many researchers that it is veryimportant in the students‟ achievement Rural students‟ English speakingability is not as good as urban students‟ one, this is believed that it is affectedby their parents‟ education Moreover, adolescents‟ choices to pursue higherlearningarealsoaffectedbyparents‟prospect(UKEssays,2018).
Socio-economicfactor
The socio-economic factor affects their academic performance Most oftheruralstudentsdon‟thaveenoughconditionstogetmoreacademicresources because they are often from poor families Conversely, most ofurbanstudentsareusuallyfromwealthierfamilies,theyhaveenoughconditions tojoin tuition classes and get more resources of materialsforreferences.Itmeansthatthisaffectsthestudents‟abilityoflanguage(UKEss ays,2018).
Facilitiesandresources
Learners‟ achievement is also thought that it is affected by facilities andresources factors For rural schools, some of them are downgraded and lackfacilities applied to support in learning and teaching The problem of unevenspreading of facilities and resources between provinces, rural and urban areasremains intact It is important to have enough facilities supporting and beinghelpfulineff ec ti ve languageteaching andlearning Si nc e rural stude ntsare not provided enough facilities, they have fewer opportunities to access totechnology.Urbanstudents‟learningprogressionhasalargenumberofadvantagesan dtheadventanddevelopmentoftechnologymaket h e i r learning easier and their comprehension in learning process will also be betterthrough the facilitiesprovided(UKEssays,2018).
Teacher‟squalification
It is important for students to receiveboth support from teachers inlanguageteachingandlearningprocessandgoodknowledgeandgoodteaching and imparting skills from qualified teachers to obtain students‟ goodperformance.Teachinginruralschoolshascertaind i f f i c u l t i e s ; t h e r e f o r e , most of the teachers don‟t want to work in rural areas It means that most ofteachers sent to the rural areas to teach are the novice teachers having lessexperienceinteaching(UKEssays,2018).
Relatedstudies
Many studies explored the urban and rural students‟ English proficiency.Some of those examined the students‟ English proficiency in schools whichdidn‟thaveenoughfacilitiesandapprisedthatstudents‟proficiencyinEnglishespe ciallyoralproficiencyin particularis loworlimited.
Basa,Asrida,&Fadli(2018)examinedfactorscontributingtothestudents‟ speaking ability and asserted that there were several contributingfactors to the students‟ speaking development Some of all factors suggestedbyhimintheresearchincludeTeacher,FamilySupport,ClassroomEnvironm ent, Learning Materials This research was a case study based onqualitative approach To get the data, Basa, Asrida, & Fadli investigated eightstudents of the twelfth-grade students of SMAN 3 Batusangkar in 2017-2018school year The data was collected by an unstructured interview The authorconcludedthatthereweremanycontributingfactorstothestudents'speaking ability consisting of internal factors and external factors and he listed manyexternalfactorscomprisingsocialclass,teachers,familysupportandclassroomen vironment.
Karunaratne(2003)executedtheresearch toinvestigate severalaspects ofthesociologyinEnglishteachingandlearninginSriLankaandi t attempted to discover the ability to apply of the communicative approach inEnglish teaching and learning in the context of Sri Lanka He examined theefficiency of the teaching approach in teaching English in four public schoolsin Colombo The results of the study raised considerable doubt about thecommunicativenessinanEnglishlessonattheschoolswheresocialconditions, teaching conditions and physical facilitieswere claimed to beinsufficientandit was expectedthatteachers shouldbewellqualified.
In addition, Perera (2001) also suggested the complex factors affectingthe English teaching and learning The study was implemented to inquire intoclassroom interaction‟s role in acquiring second language in Sri Lanka. Someof the objectives of the research were to explore how the learning materialsprovided opportunities for second language learning and how oral interactionsbetweenteacherandstudentsintheclassroomspromotedprobabilitytodevelo p second language In the study, Perera selected four schools fromdifferent sociocultural backgrounds to examine and used the approach basedonobservationalcasestudies.Ontheotherhand,thelearningmaterialsuse dintheclassroomswerebasedonCommunicativeLanguageT e a c h i n g approach which focuses on oral interaction and was used to complement thequalitative data.
He indicated that the oral interactions were the results of acomplex relationship including the teachers who differed in terms of theirexperiences.ThepurposeoflearningEnglishdifferedbetweenschools,betweenst u d e n t s, a n d w a s r e l a t e d t o t h e sc h o o l s‟ c u l t u r e a n d t h e s t u d e n t s ‟ socio-economic background As a result, the opportunities to develop foreignlanguageperformance weredifferentin eachofcontext.
McLoyd‟s(1989)examinedhowpovertyandlowsocio-ecomomicstatus(SES) concerns with insufficient learning outcomes Parental education beinganessentialstandardofSESinvolveschildren‟seducationaloutcomes.Nevertheles s, McLoyd stated that the different conditions of family SES,including parental education, income, and parents‟ occupation status might bepredictedasthestrongeraffectingfactorsofchildren‟sacademicoutcomes.
Odigbo (1990) studied on teachers‟ accomplishment and effectiveness inteaching He employed a sample size including two hundred and forty(240)teacherswithaninvestigationinferentialresearchdesign.UsingPearsonProductMoment Correlation Analysis, he found that the proper approach tosafety in the languages is through training He stressed that such traininginvolves acquiring more knowledge and higher qualification According tohim, it was not safe to assume that a teacher in front of the English Languageclass was qualified to teach the subject He proposed that teaching diplomareferred to the teacher‟s qualification which has to be obviously shown by theteacher‟s teaching of the subject to understand it effectively (as cited in Idoli& Ummanah, 2011) Besides, Sunday & Kola (2014) explored involvement ofteachers in the students‟ learning outcome The study emphasized teachers‟position conquering important resource in the educational system of Nigerian.It noticed that teachers‟ pedagogical content knowledge is very important forthe teachers to teach effectively and to be able to improve students‟ academiclearning Moreover, Mittapalli et al (2021) studied on various development ofspeaking skills in English language learning The research emphasized thevalueofcommunicationskillsinallaspectsoflife,especiallyEnglishspeakingskills.Italsostressed onimproving students'Englishspeakingskills in an EFL/ESL classroom environment Besides, it emphasized that a teacherplayed an important role in improving students' English speaking skills inEnglishlanguageclassroomsbyusingvariousmethods,techniques,andapproaches since skills of communication were essential for in any fields ofthelife.
Similarly, Lan Nguyen et al (2021) explored factors influencing Englishproficiency.T h i s s t u d y a t t e m p t e d t o e x a m i n e h o w t h e V i e t n a m e s e s t u d e n t s are distinctive or not in learning English, and investigated factors influencingVietnamesestudents‟languageproficiency.Thestudyhypothesizedthesignific anceofintrinsicfactorsandextrinsicfactorsindeterminingVietnamesepeople‟sEnglis hproficiency.Theintrinsicfactorsw e r e individualability,thought,hard- workingandmotivation;c o n v e r s e l y , extrinsicfactorsincludedstudentdemogra phic,homeenvironment,a n d school environment In this study, the authors stated lightly how studentsstudiedasecondlanguageandhowtheirlanguageproficiencycouldbedevelope d.T h e p a r t i c i p a n t s o f t h e s t u d y w e r e m o r e t h a n 2 5 0 0 s t u d e n t s o f eight famous universities in Vietnam The researchers sent to them onlinequestionnaires to collect data The researchers employed SPSS and EVIEW toanalyzecollecteddata.Researchresultsassertedthat:Underparents‟perspective,parent s‟educationgreatlyaffectedtheformationoftheirchildren'sthinkingandlanguageprefe rences.Thehighertheeducationalachievement parent was, the better the child learnt a foreign language Thestudy also suggested that high-income families were able to provide theirchildren with opportunities to have better language skills than low- incomefamilies Parents‟ investment in educationwas key to help their childrenenhancetheirforeignlanguageskills;furthermore,undereducators‟perspectiv es,thehigherEnglishexposure‟slevelthestudentswereequipped at school, the higher their language was proficient and students had learningprograms that use English as the main language in learning and teaching oftenhad better foreign language proficiency than students had traditional trainingsystems.
On the contrary, Kosgei et al (2013) implemented the study on influenceofteachercharacteristicsonstudents‟academicachievementamongsecondar y schools The aim of this study was to explore the involvementbetweenteachercharacteristicsandstudents‟learningachievement.Theo bjectives of this study were to identify the relation between qualification andexperienceoftheteacherstostudentacademicachievement.Thetargetpopulation of the study was teachers of 26 public secondary schools in NandiDistrict, Kenya A causal comparative research design was employed in thestudy The instrument of the study was a questionnaire used to collect data.Collecteddatawasanalyzedapplieddescriptiveandinferentialstatisticaltechniques.T heresultsoftheresearchreportedthatteacherqualificationdoesn‟tinfluencestudent‟sachie vementin learning.
Moreover, Kimani, Kara, & Njagi (2013) carried out the investigationintoteacherinfluencingfactorsonstudents'achievementinlearninginseco ndary schools in Nyandarua County, Kenya The focal objective of thestudy was toexamine how selected teachers‟ demographic characteristicsrelatedtoinstructionalpracticesandacademicperformanceinsecondary schools in Nyandarua County Data were collected from one hundred and fiftythree teachers selected randomly from eighteen schools in three districts in theCounty participated in the study using a validated questionnaire.Kimani,Kara, & Njagi (2013) concluded that “teachers‟ age, gender,professionalqualifications and professional experience did not have significant effect onacademicachievementinsecondaryschools”.
In addition, Dahar et al (2011) studied on impact of the prior schoolenvironment on performance in learning of students at the secondary stage inPunjab (Pakistan) The aim of the study was to explore the impact of thequality of the teachers on the learning achievement of the students at thesecondary stage. The random sample size of the study included a total of 288schools,20studentsand10teachersofeachschool.Theinstrumentst o collect data of the study were a questionnaire for teachers to identify thequality of the teachers and a result sheet used to collect the data of students‟academic achievement Dahar et al (2011) found that there was not
“muchdifferenceinthequalityofteachersofschoolswithhigheracademicachievement and that of the schools with lower academic achievement” Thestudy concludedthattheindicatorsof teacher qualityinthe researchw e r e “not effective but instead the prior achievement is the most effective” Thiswas the reason why the researchers implicated that“only the quantity ofacademic and professional degrees/certificates or trainings or years of serviceor amount of salary was not important but it was the attitude of teacherstowardsteachingandtheextentoftheuseoftheirskills,expertisea n d abilitiesi nteachingthatisimportant”.Eventhoughtheresearchh a d limitationowingtolimitedti meandresourcesaswellaslimitationofconversation of teacher quality, it had significance to guide for developing theeducationstandards,educationalmanagersandthe policymakers.
Ingeneral,manyresearcheswereimplementedtoinvestigatei n t o English speaking skills as well as factors influencing English speaking skills.Nevertheless,asfarasIknow,nostudiesexamineddifferencesandsimilarities in students‟ English speaking performance in rural areas versusurban ones And this creates a research gap for this current study Therefore, Icarriedo u t t h e r e s e a r c h t o e x p l o r e E n g l i s h s p e a k i n g s k i l l s b y t h e r u r a l 9 th graders versus urban ones in Binh Dinh Province to identify what differencesand similarities there might be among them and how some external factorsmight influenceEnglishspeaking skills.
This chapter comprises the research design applied in conducting thestudy It also clarifies the participants, the research instruments, and finally,theprocedureto fulfillthe final goalofthisstudy.
Thisstudywasbasedonthenon-experimentalmethodology.Non-Experimental research design is one of the broad types of research designs, inwhich the researcher detects the phenomena as they take place naturally, andno external variables are presented Variables in a research design are notdeliberatelymanipulated,noristhesettingcontrolled.Non-Experimentalstudy designs illustrate existing phenomena without manipulating conditionstoinfluencesubjects‟responsesandtherearenomanipulationsofanindepend entvariableandinvestigatecurrentstatusofsomething.Theclassifications of non- experimental research are: Ex post facto,
Correlational,Descriptive,Comparative,Survey,Historical,Casestudy(citedinRadhakrish nan, 2013) The methodology of the study was descriptive andcomparative. Tejedor (1999) points out that the most used methodology insidethe investigation in education is of descriptive type(as cited in Mayo
&Barrioluengo,2017).WhereasCreswell(2002)recognizesthedescriptivestudies of investigation as the ones in which the investigator applies a certaininstrument to a representative population sample in order to examine certainattitudes, behaviors or characteristics of it (as cited in Mayo & Barrioluengo,2017).This is the reason whyIselected this methodology.
Researchdesign
Int h i s r e g a r d I c h o s e a q u a n t i t a t i v e a n d q u a l i t a t i v e c o m b i n a t i o n AccordingtoMuijs(2004,p.1),“quantitativeresearchisexplainingphenomena bycollectingnumericaldatathatareanalyzeusingmathematicallybasedmethods(cite dinparticularstatistic)”.Itmeansthatquantitativeresearchmethodsd e a l i n g w i t h n u m b e r s a n d a n y t h i n g t h a t i s m e a s u r a b l e i n s y s t e m a t i c way of investigation of phenomena and their relationships.Patton & Cocharn(2002) reports that qualitative research is characterized by its aims, whichrelatetocomprehendingsomeaspectsofsociallife,anditsmethodsgeneratin gwords,ratherthannumbers,asdataforanalysiswhereasquantitative methods aim to measure something (cited in Bricki & Green,2008) According to
Patton & Cocharn (2002), qualitative methods generallyaspiretorespondquestionsaboutthe„how‟,
„what‟or„why‟ofaphenomenonratherthan„howmuch‟or„howmany‟answeredbyq uantitativemethods If the aim is to know how individuals or a community within itperceive a particular issue, then qualitative methods are oftens u i t a b l e ( c i t e d in Bricki&Green,2008).
In an effort to capture how the 9 th graders in Binh Dinh Province speakEnglish well, I used qualitative methods and on the other hand, to investigateinto similarities and differences in speaking English between rural 9th gradersand urban ones in Binh Dinh Province,Iusedquantitativeones.
Participants
The population of the study was 69 rural 9 th graders, 61 urban ones and 6their English teachers having the same years of teaching experience at 6 lowersecondary schools chosen to investigate in Binh Dinh Province consisting of 3lower secondary schools in an urban area and 3 ones in a rural area Theinvestigated 9 th graders followed the same curriculum andused the sametextbook series from grade 6 to grade 9 and the surveyed English teachers hadsimilarteachingexperienceandqualification.Theselectedstudentstoinvestigatewerei ntheclassesincludingstudentswithgoodacademicability.
Instruments
Tests
E L D A The questions of the tests were designed according to Ferrara‟s theoreticalframework and according to the criteria for accessing the English speakingskills by 9 th grade students based on the framework of the 2018 high schoolEnglish target program of the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam.The component of ELDA assessment consists of four speaking functions. Foreach function, input, scaffolding, provides the prompt, and finally repeats theprompt were given to encourage the students to demonstrate their speakingabilities.Itookthe picturesandquestionsfor the testwhichrelate tot h e topics from the books of English for 9 th gradeTieng Anh 9 Thí diemedited bytheMinistryof Educationand Training(MOET)inVietnam(2021).
A Sample Test was designed based on Speaking Component AssessmentusingE L D A w i t h t h e c o n t e n t t h a t m a t c h e s t h e c r i t e r i a o f t h e M i n i s t r y o f
Education and Training of Vietnam for 9 th grade students The intention of thesamplet e st w a s t o f a m i l i a r i z e st u d e n t s w i t h t h e f or m a t a n d s t r u c t u r e o f t h e test as well as to guide studentso n h o w t o a n s w e r t h e q u e s t i o n s a n d t h e criteriaforassessingstudents‟responses.
Test 1 and Test 2 forms were also designed similarly to the sample test.The purpose of the use of the two tests was to increase the accuracy of theresultsof thestudy.
Interviews
One interview was used for ten 9 th graders, five of whom were fromurban schools and the other five from rural schools Another one was appliedto sixEnglish teachers including three from urban schools and the other threefromruralschools.
Procedure
Datacollection
My data collection included various methods to obtain information fromthe research sites To respond to the first and the second research questions, Iused the data collected from Test 1 and Test 2 which were conducted twoweeks apart For the third research question, semi-structured interviews werescheduled.Thetestsandtheinterviewsweretape- recorded,withfullpermissionandconsentfromtheparticipants,toensurethatimportanti nformation wasnotomitted.
First of all, I conducted a pilot study A pilot test of five 9 th graders in anurban area and five ones in a rural area was conducted Interviews of threeurban
9 th graders and three rural ones were carried out Interviews of three thestudents‟E n g l i s h t e a c h e r s w e r e a l s o e x e c u t e d T h e p i l o t s t u d y i s a w a y t o determineifthegiventestingfieldsaregoodenoughforcollectingtherequireddataor iftherearesomemoreadditionalneedstobemadef o r makingtestingmoreefficient(Saran gam,2020).Thepilotstudyoft h e present research was to examine the feasibility of the study and time of thetests and the interviews In fact, I faced initial difficulties in obtaining theconsent of the participants, especially English teachers They were willing togive me opportunities to connect with their students to conduct my pilot testandinterview for students, butt h e y r e f u s e d t o b e i n t e r v i e w e d ; h o w e v e r , I tried my best to convince them, as a result, they agreed to let me do theinterviews Furthermore, the time when I implemented the pilot study waswhenthelocalsweredoingsocialdistancingduetotheCovid-
19pandemic,so I conducted the pilot test and interviewed the students online throughGoogleMeetsandinterviewedteachersbyphoningthem.Fortunately,I ended up doing a completed pilot study with a pilot test of ten 9 th graders aswellas pilot interviews ofthreeEnglish teachers andsixstudents.
With the successful data collection from the pilot study, I conducted aformal study with the first test (Test 1) and the second test (Test 2) I alsodesignedaSampleTest,andbeforeconductingTest1andTest2 , I introduced the format and structure of the tests as well as how to answer andevaluate the test results to students.A c c o r d i n g t o t h e o r i g i n a l p l a n , I w a s going to conduct the research with each class with more than 30 students, butwhen implementing the research, some students of the selected classes had tobe isolated from other people due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, sothe number of participants in the study was less than the planned participants.And the fact was therefore over twenty 9 th graders from each selected schoolwere taken the first test which took each of them about ten minutes to answertheq u e s t i o n s o f t h e t e s t A f t e r i m p l e m e n t i n g t h e f i r s t t e s t ( T e s t
1 ) a b o u t 2 weeks, I continued to carry out the second test (Test 2), designed with thesame formas thefirsttest.
To conduct an interview of students, I randomly chose to interview five9 th graders from urban schools and five ones from rural schools immediatelyafter they finished Test 2 I also interviewed all English teachers of the 9 th graders (six teachers) It took each student and each English teacher of themabout 5 minutes to reply the questions of the interviews I and my friends whoareE n g l i s h t e a c h e r s a t s c h o o l s o r E n g l i s h C e n t e r s i n B i n h D i n h
P r o v i n c e wereexaminersforthetestsandIconductedinterviewsbym y s e l f T h e r esults of the English speaking tests were scored live.The students‟ andteachers‟ answers to the tests and the interviews were tape-recorded for dataanalysis.
Dataanalysis
Iselectedcontentanalysisasatechniquetoanalyzei n d i v i d u a l interviews because content analysis can be used to analyze interviews (Cohen,Manion, & Morrison,
2007, p.475; Merriam, 2009, p.205) Researchers usecontent analysis to describe the phenomena of interest for a particular purpose(Downe-Wamboldt, 1992) and gain insights into a particular phenomenon(Steenkamp &Northcott,2008).
To explore the similarities and differences between students‟ scores inurbanschoolsandruralschools,analysesinSPSSlikeScaleT e s t s , DescriptiveStati sticTests and Independent SampleTTestwereused.
Toensurethevalidityandreliabilityoftheresearch,Ichosetheappropriate research methods: quantitative and qualitative methods; used theappropriate research instruments: test and interview; designed of the testsbased on the theoretical framework and the criteria set; test-retest; clearlydefinedthesamplesizeandchecked reliabilityofthetestbymeansin SPSS.
The purpose of the chapter is to report the results of the study from thedata collected by the speaking skills tests and the semi-structured interviews.Thechapterbeginswitht h e s t u d e n t s ’ s p e a k i n g s k i l l s i n t h e f i r s t t e s t ( Test 1) and the second test (Test 2) The findings from participants’ results ofthetestsand interviewsareconcludedin the chapter.
Students‟Englishspeakingtestresults
Participants‟Englishspeakingtestresultswithinthetwogroups
Firstly, the results of the rural group‟s Test 1 and Test 2 were collectedand analyzed With p< 0.01 (p= 0.00), it was confident enough to concludethat the mean score of Test 1 and the mean score of Test 2 were different.Then, theDescriptive Statistic Test was performed to identify mean score ofeachtest.ThesescoresareillustratedinTable4.3.
The results showed the difference of means in Test 1 and Test 2 of therural group (M Test1=5.53; SD Test1=1.25, M Test2=5.93; SD Test2=1.27).The mean score of Test 2 was higher than that of Test 1 It can be concludedthat after conducting Test 1 for two weeks, the rural 9 th graders‟ speaking testscoresincreased.
Afterward, the results of the urban group from Test 1 and Test 2 werealso collected and analyzed to identify the difference of mean scores of thegroup‟s Test 1 and Test 2 With p< 0.01 (p=0.00), it was fully confident toconcludethattheEnglishspeakingtestscoresoftheurbangroupweredifferent atTest 1and Test 2 Later, the meanscores ofTest 1 andT e s t
The mean score of the Test 1 was different from the one of Test 2.(MTest1=6.84;SDTest1=0.88,MTest2=7.24;SDTest2=0.88).Theresultindicatesthat themeanofTest2washigherthanthatofTest1.AfterconductingTest1fortwoweeks;theref ore,itcanbereportedthat,theurban
Ingeneral, thestudents‟testresultsinbothurbanandruralgroupsincreased though there was not any intervention Thus, after taking Test 1,students seem to be familiar with the format of the test, they might be betterprepared and more confident to answer the questions of Test 2 The students‟EnglishspeakingtestresultsatTest 2;therefore,increasedsignificantly.
Participants‟Englishspeakingtestresultsb e t w e e n t h e t w o groups
Toevaluatestudents‟EnglishspeakingtestresultsfromTest1andTest2 between the two groups, the Descriptive Statistic Test and the IndependentSample T Test were carried out The results of the Descriptive Statistic Testarepresentedintable 4.5.
Tests Groups N Minimum Maximum Mean Std.Deviation
In Test 1, the mean score of the urban group (M= 6.84) was higher thanthe mean score of the rural group (M=5.53) To check whether there was asignificantdifferenceinthestudents‟speakingtestresultsfromTest1between the urban group and the rural group, an Independent Sample TTestwasrun.Theresultshowedthatthedifferenceinthestudents‟Englishspeaking test results in Test 1 between the two groups was significant (t =7.01, df = 122.23,p=.00) This means that students‟ English speaking testresultsintheTest1oftwo groupsweredifferent.
Table 4.5 also revealed that the students‟ English speaking test resultsbetween the two groups were different at Test 2 After conducting Test 1 fortwo weeks, the means of the Test 2 of both groups were highly raised (MTest2=7.24 for the urban group and M Test2= 5.93 for the rural group werehigher M Test1= 6.84 for the urban group and M Test1= 5.53 for the ruralgroup respectively).
Both the results from Test 1 and Test 2 showed a surged trend in Englishspeaking test scores of both the two groups, it could not be denied that Test 1and Test 2 results of the rural group (M Test1 = 5.53, M Test2 = 5.93) werelower than the urban group‟s ones (M Test1= 6.84, M Test2 = 7.23) Theresult of the Independent Sample T Test indicated that there was significantdifference in the results from the Test 2 between the urban group and the ruralgroup (t=6.91,df = 121.36,p =.00).
In conclusion, after carrying out Test 1 and Test 2 of the urban group andrural group, the time gap between these two tests was about two weeks, theresultsshowedthatthereweresignificantdifferencesaboutthelevelofEnglish speaking skills between the 9 th graders in the two groups in both Test1 and Test 2.This fact leads to a consideration that rural 9 th graders had lowerlevelofEnglishspeakingskillsthanurbanones.
Students‟conversationskillsandprojectpresentationskills
Students‟conversationskillsfromTest1andTest2
To investigate into the 9 th graders‟ conversation skills between the twogroups,the students‟ scores of conversation skill in Test 1 and Test 2 werecollected and analyzedby running two Descriptive Statistic Tests and anIndependentSampleTTest The results aregiven in Table4.6.
Table 4.6: Students’ conversation skills in speaking in English between the twogroups
Tests Groups N Minimum Maximum Mean Std.Deviation
Fromtable4.6,theoverallmeanscoresofstudents‟conversationskillsofthe urban group were higher than the ones of the rural group in both Test 1(M=1.54;SD=.27fortheurbangroup,M=1.27;SD=.34fortheruralgroup)andTest 2 (M=1.57; SD=.23 for the urban group, M=1.32; SD= 34 for the ruralgroup).TheconductionofIndependentSampleTTestonstudents‟conversationskills was to investigate whether there was significantly different in students‟conversationskillsbetweenthetwogroupsinTest1andTest2.Withp67%), the other participants had the scores of pronunciationfrom0.4to0.5points(70%), the other participants had thescores of pronunciation from 0.4 to 0.5 points (86.9%),someoftheparticipantsh adthescoresofpronunciationfrom0.4to 0.5 points (0.3,Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted ≤ 0.99) Accordingly, the test was reliableenough tobeused as aninstrumentinthisresearch.
From Table 4.16, for Q1Test2, 2.8 percent of the participants (2.8%) hadthescoresofpronunciationfrom0.4to0.5points,95.6percentoftheparticipants
(95.6%) had the scores of pronunciation from 0.25 to 0.35 points,1,4p e r c e n t o f t h e p a r t i c i p a n t s ( 1 4 % ) h a d t h e s c o r e s o f p r o n u n c i a t i o n f r o m
0.0 to 0.20 points; for Q2Test2, 2.8 percent of the participants (2.8%) had thescores of pronunciation from 0.4 to 0.5 points, 95.6 percent of the participants(95.6%) had the scores of pronunciation from 0.25 to 0.35 points, 1.4 percentof the participants
(1.4%) had the scores of pronunciation from 0.0 to 0.20points; for Q3Test2, 4.3 percent of the participants (4.3%) had the scores ofpronunciation from 0.4 to 0.5 points, 94.1 percent of the participants (94.1%)had the scores of pronunciation from 0.25 to 0.35 points, 1.4 percent of theparticipants( 1 4 % ) h a d t h e s c o r e s o f p r o n u n c i a t i o n f r o m 0 0 t o 0 2 0 p o i n t s ; forQ4Test2,4.3percentoftheparticipants(4.3%)hadthescoresofpronuncia tion from 0.4 to 0.5 points, 95.6 percent of the participants (95.6%)had the scores of pronunciation from 0.25 to 0.35 points, 0 percent of theparticipants (0%) had the scores of pronunciation from 0.0 to 0.20 points.Therefore, most of the participants had the scores of pronunciation from
0.25to0.35points(≥94.6%),someoftheparticipantshadthescoresofpronunciationf r o m 0 4 t o 0 5 p o i n t s ( ≤ 4 3 % ) a n d a f e w o f t h e m h a d t h e scoresofpronunciatio nfrom0.0 to0.2points(≤1.4%).
Statistically,mostoftheruralstudentshadclearpronunciations,relatively accurate sounds in speaking English, some of the rural students hadgoodpronunciation, goodsounds, accents, intonations, rhythmso f p h r a s e s and the sentences and a few of them had unclear pronunciations and relativelyinaccuratesoundsinspeakingEnglish.
Students‟opinions aboutEnglish pronunciation
Afterc o l l e c t i n g t h e d a t a f r o m t h e t e s t , t h e r e s e a r c h e r i n t e r v i e w e d t e n students among the participants in the two groups in order to further identifytheir opinions about English pronunciation and difficulties while learningpronunciation inspeaking English.
Theface-to-facesemi-structuredinterviewswereaudio-recordedandtranscribed. Mostof the participants statedthattheyfounditdifficultinlearning pronunciation in speaking English or they felt difficult in the earlystageof their learningEnglish.
After the interviews were conducted forfive urban students andf i v e ruralstudents,themajorityofurbanparticipantssaidthattheyfoundpronuncia tion in English difficult at first, but then they got used to learning it.Forexamples,participantA,Band Csaid:
“…… I found it difficult to pronounce English when I started learningEnglish.However,afterIhadlearnedEnglishformanyyears,Ifeltpronou ncing English hasnodifficulty.”
“…… At present, I feel learning English pronunciation is not difficultbecauseIhavelearnedEnglishwhenIwasachild,andIhavebeenpracticedpr onouncing English so much; therefore, I don’t have difficulty in learningEnglishpronunciation.”
“… …At first, I found it difficult to pronounce English because theintonation was different from the mother tongue However, afterm a n y y e a r s ofstudyingEnglish,Igotusedtoit,soIfeelthatitisnotdifficultt o pronounc eEnglishatpresent.”
Thus,mosturbanstudentsfoundthatEnglishpronunciationwasnolonger difficult This may lead to the conclusion that the majority of the urbanstudents hadtheabilityto pronounce English.
Ontheotherhand,therewerealsoasmallernumberoftheurbanparticipantswhofou ndEnglishpronunciationdifficult.Forinstance,participant Dsaid:
IfounditdifficulttolearnEnglishpronunciation.Itw a s extremelydifficulttopron ounceEnglishlikeanative-speaker.Whenpronouncing English, I and most people in my area, often miss ending sounds.Inaddition,theintonationofthemothertongueisnotthesameastheintonati onofnativespeakers whenspeaking English.”
In addition, a small percentage of the participants thought that Englishpronunciation was both easy and difficult For example, participant E statedthat:
“… … I thought learning English pronunciationwas both easy anddifficult It was difficult in how to speak and imitate like a native- speaker.Furthermore,itwasalsoeasybecauseIcouldapplytherulesofpronunciation: rules about stress, about ending sounds, about intonation andsoon,andlistenerscouldunderstandwhatIsaidthroughmyEnglishpronunciati on.”
(ParticipantE) Chart 4.3 shows the urban students‟ opinions about
As shown in Chart 4.3, the majority of the urban students (60%) statedthat learning English pronunciation had difficulties at first, but after practicingfor a long time during the process of learning English, no longerwas itdifficult 20% of them thought that English pronunciation was difficult Theother 20% of them had the opinion that English pronunciation in speakingEnglishwasbothdifficultandeasy.Fromtheseresults,itcanbeconc ludedthe majority of urban students believed English pronunciation in speakingEnglishweredifficult; howevertheycouldpracticeto improve it.
MostofruralparticipantsoftheinterviewssaidthattheyfoundpronunciationinEngl ishverydifficult,prettydifficultordifficult.Forexamples,participant
“…… I felt that it was pretty difficult in learning pronouncing English,especiallyinstresspatterns.”
“…… I felt it was very difficult to pronounce English because there weremany words which are difficult for me to have sounds and accents like nativespeakers.”
E n g l i s h b e c a u s e t h e r e were many consonants and vowels in English which I found it difficult toremember themandhavesoundsand accentslikenativespeakers.”
“… … I found pronouncing English difficult because there are two waystopronounceEnglishincludingBritishEnglishandAmericanEnglish.Moreo ver,I couldnot pronounceEnglish likenative-speakers.”
From theabove information, itcanbe seenthatmany rurals t u d e n t s found it difficult to pronounce English, in other words, they were not good atEnglishpronunciation.
Inaddition,asmallnumberofparticipantsthoughtthatEnglishpronunciationwasv erydifficultatfirstanditwaseasierafteritw a s frequentlypracticed.Forexample,partici pantJstated:
I have practiced English pronunciation with my teacher as wellas by myself through using dictionaries on mobile phones to imitate how topronounce words and using the words in sentences when speaking Englishwith friends.Andnow, Ifeel English pronunciationeasier.”
(ParticipantJ) Chart 4.4 presents the rural students‟ opinions about
Chart 4.4 reveals most participants (80%) told that English pronunciationwas difficult Just 20% participants stated that learning to pronounce Englishjustcauseddifficultiesintheearlytimeandpointedthatpracticingpronouncingfreq uentlyhelpedimprovetheirabilitiesofEnglishpronunciation.Inconclusion,mostofther uralstudentshadb e l i e f t h a t English pronunciation was difficult; however, English pronunciation could beenhanced bypracticingregularly.
4.4.3.3 The urban students’ opinions versus rural students’ ones aboutEnglishpronunciation
Chart 4.5 compares the urban students‟ opinions versus rural students‟opinions aboutEnglish pronunciation.
Chart 4.5: Urban students’ opinions versus rural students’ opinions about
ItcanbeseenfromChart4.5thatthepercentageoftheu r b a n participants (80%) stating that they found it difficult in English pronunciationat first was more than the number of rural participants (20%) On the contrary,the quantity of rural participants (80%) having difficulties in pronouncingEnglish was much more than that of urban participants (20%).
On the otherhand, 20% of urban participants reported that English pronunciation was bothdifficult and easy, whereas none of the rural participants (0%) thought thesame.
Thus, it can be inferred that urban 9 th graders‟ English pronunciationabilitieswerebetterthanruralones.Mostoftheruralstudentsfounditdifficult to have English pronunciation like native-speakers;they justh a d clear pronunciation and relatively accurate sounds in speaking English andlisteners could understand their English. Besides, many of the urban studentsstated that they felt difficult to pronounce English in the early time and thatthey could practice and improve it so their
English pronunciation becamebetter.AndtheresultsfromtheinterviewsweresimilartotheresultsIobtained from the tests The number of 9 th graders in the urban group withgoodEnglish pronunciationwasbiggerthantheonein theruralgroup.
Teachers‟opinionsabout Englishpronunciation
The researcher also constructed face-to-face semi-structured interviewswith six the 9 th graders‟ English teachers in order to further identify theiropinionsaboutEnglishpronunciationanddifficultieswhilelearningpronunciation in speaking English The interviews were also audio- recordedandtranscribed.FollowingaresomecommentsonEnglishpronunciationabilities ofthestudentsfromthe teacherinterviewees.
“……Thestudentsinurbanareahadlotsofopportunity tolearnEnglish at English centers They were given clear instructions on Englishpronunciation from English teachers and were interacted with foreigners, sotheyhadgood abilitiesof reflexes andpronunciation.”
In addition, a teacher from another urban school said that only a smallnumber of students at the school had good English pronunciation, most ofthem did not have good pronunciation in speaking English but they had clearpronunciation, relatively accurate sounds in speaking English and listenerscould understandtheir English:
“… … The students' pronunciation was still limited, only about one- thirdof the 9 th graders at the school have good pronunciation in speaking English.Most of the students were afraid to speak English because they thought theirpronunciationisnotgood,butwhentheyspokeEnglish,listenerscouldunderst and whattheysaid.”
“ Ifoundthestudents hadabilitiesto speakEnglish.However,there wereafewstudentswithgoodEnglishpronunciation.”
According to thec o m m e n t f r o m a n E n g l i s h t e a c h e r a t a n o t h e r s c h o o l , just a minority of the students at the school had good English pronunciationbecause the English teachers at the school didn‟t focus on English speakingskills,mostofEnglishknowledgethestudentslearntattheschoolw a s English grammar contents:
“… … The students at the school had no good English pronunciationbecause they were just taught English grammar at school.Just a few studentshad goodE n g l i s h p r o n u n c i a t i o n b e c a u s e o f t h e i r p r a c t i c i n g a n d s t u d y a t homeby themselvesthrough appsorinternet.”
WiththeinformationonEnglishpronunciationcollectedfromtheinterviews with the English teachers, it can be seen that the results of theinterviews were similar to the results of the tests From the results, it can bededuced that the majority of the students, whether urban or rural, had clearpronunciation, relatively accurate sounds in speaking English, which makeslistenersunderstandwhattheysaid.Althoughthenumberoftheu r b a n students with good English pronunciation was bigger than the number of therural ones, it was not statistically proved that all urban students had goodpronunciation or that all rural students had poor pronunciation as many peoplethought.
Externalfactorsinfluencethestudents‟Englishspeakingskills
Results fromthe students
Mostoftheparticipantsintheurbanareatoldthattheyhadgoodfinancial conditions as well as facilities to participate in extra English classesbeyondtheir school.
However,theminority of thestudents whoh a d s u c h goodconditionsweretaughtEnglish speakingskillsattheseclasses;themajority of the students were self-educated through Apps and the Internet forEnglishspeaking learningpurposes Forinstance,theysaid:
“… …I focused on all English skills during my English learning process.I used to learn at an English center, but I did not feel interested in learningEnglish there because it was not suitable for me After that, I participated inEnglish classes at English teachers’ houses For each English skill, I signedup to learn with an English teacher who specializes in that skill Besides, IhavelistenedtoEnglishlisteninglessonsontheInternettoimprovemyEnglishpronun ciationandimitatedhowtopronouncelikenative-speakers…”
I h a v e l e a r n t a t e x t r a E n g l i s h c l a s s e s w h e r e t h e t e a c h e r h a s taught me all the English skills, especially listening and speaking In addition,I listen to English music and watch English movies frequently and try topronouncelikenative-speakers…”
“… … I joined extra English classes, but the teachers there did not focusonE n g l i s h s p e a k i n g Il e a r n t sp e a k i n g E n g l i s h b y j o i n i n g E n g l i s h c l u b s o n
“… I took part in extra English classes which just taught me writing,reading skills and grammar I used materials in English on the Internet but Ijust enjoyedreadingskills…”
“……IparticipatedinEnglishclassesbeyondmyschoolbutt h e teacher of the classes just taught me grammar, reading and writing skills.Nevertheless,IwatchEnglishvideosandmonologuesforentertainmentpurp oses ontheInternet…”
On the other hand, some participants from the rural area reported thatthey did not have favourable conditions to learn English at extra Englishclasses; they studied at home by themselves throught h e I n t e r n e t a n d A p p s and even if they had the conditions to participate in extra classes, they werenot taught English speaking skills there For example, student 6 (ST 6) andstudent 7 (ST7) said:
“… … I did not join extra English classes at English centers or Englishteachers’ houses because of my family condition I was self-taught by usingApps,DictionariesandjoiningEnglishclubsontheInternet.Ihav estudiedallEnglishskillsandhavepracticed learningEnglish regularly…”
“… … I learned English at anEnglish center but I was not taughtEnglish speaking there I learned to speak English by participating Englishclubs onFacebook…”
Results fromthe teachers
The information about the external factors was also collected from theinterviews of English teachers The urban teachers presented that the urbanstudentshadgoodfinancialconditions,facilities,resources,andqualifiedteachers which helped support them to learn English Conversely, the ruralteachersreportedthattheruralonesdidnothavesuchgoodconditionstosupporttheirlear ningEnglish,especiallyEnglishspeakingskills.Forexample,Teacher1fromanurbanareaandTe acher2fromanotherruralareasaid:
M o s t o f t h e u r b a n s t u d e n t s ’ p a r e n t s w a n t e d t h e i r c h i l d r e n t o speak English well, so they let their children join extra classes at Englishcentersorat English teachers or hiredtutor fortheirchildren…”
Teacher 2Let‟stakealookattheseparticipants‟scoresobtainedfromTest1and Test2inTable4.17tosee howtheymatchwiththeresultsofexternalfactorsfromthe interviewsof them(ST1,ST2,ST3, ST4, ST5, ST6, ST7):
From Table 4.17 and the participants‟ reports from the interviews of thestudents, it can be seen that ST 1 getting absolute scores in both Test 1 andTest
2 was from an urban area and joined many extra English classes of manyEnglish teachers who specialized in each specific English skill, whereas theother ones (ST
2, ST 3, ST 4, ST 5, ST 6, ST 7) did not had such conditions.Therefore, it can be inferred that financial conditions and qualified teachersaffected the students‟ English speaking skills However, it can be presentedthat ST 6‟s English speaking total scores in Test 1 and Test 2w e r e h i g h e r than ST 2, ST 3, ST 4 and ST 5.
ST 2, ST 3, ST 4 and ST 5 have lived in thecity and had much more good financial conditions, facilities, resources andqualifiedteachersbecausetheywereinEnglishspecializedclasses,whileST6 has lived in the countryside and she said that her family did nothaveconditions for her to join extra English classes Accordingly, it can also beconcluded that financial conditions, facilities, resources and qualified teachersdidn o t i n f l u e n c e E n g l i s h s p e a k i n g s k i l l s o f m o s t s t u d e n t s M o r e o v e r , f r o m the results of the tests and interviews, it can also be seen that the students‟interest in English skills,the ability of being self-educated and practicingEnglish skills by using the Internet and Apps for learning English affected thestudents‟English speaking skills.
Summary
InitsattempttoexamineEnglishspeakingoftheurban9 th g r a d e r s versusruralone s,thischapterhas identifiedthe urbanstudents‟
Englishspeakingskillsandtheruralstudents‟onesaswellassimilaritiesanddifferences in English speaking skills of the students in the urban group andtheonesinthe ruralgroup.
After investigating the data, it has been revealed that students‟ speakingskillsresultsweredifferent.Therural9 th gradershadlowerlevelofspeakin g skills than urban ones who had higher level of conversation skills. Moreover,theu r b a n s t u d e n t s w i t h w e l l - p r e p a r e d p r o j e c t p r e s e n t a t i o n d i d a b e t t e r j o b than the rural ones In addition, the urban
9 th graders‟ English pronunciationabilities were in a higher level than the rural ones Most of the rural studentsjusthadclearpronunciationandrelativelyaccuratesoundsins p e a k i n g Eng lish and listeners could understand their English, whereas the number of9 th graders in the urban area with good English pronunciation was bigger thanonein the ruralarea.
Finally, the effects of external factors on the students‟ English speakingskill were also identified The results from the data collection exposed that thenumber of
9 th grade urban students with high English speaking scores wasmoret h a n t h a t o f t h e 9 th g r a d e r u r a l o n e s T h e r e f o r e , t h i s f a c t l e a d s t h e conclusionthatfinancialconditions,facilities,resources,andqualifiedteac hersinfluencedtheEnglishspeakingskills.Thus,thefindingsw e r e similar to some previous researchers such as Lan Nguyen et al (2021) andOdigbo (1990) Lan Nguyen et al (2021) suggested that high-income familieswere able to provide their children with opportunities to have better languageskills than low-income families Odigbo (1990) emphasized that a teacherplayed an important role in improving students' English speaking skills inEnglish language classrooms Meanwhile, the findings were not similar toKosgeietal.(2013),whichreportedthatteacherqualificationdidnotinfluence student‟s achievement in learning Nevertheless, there were stillrural 9 th grade students who scored in speaking English higher than many
9 th gradeurbanstudents.Accordingly,goodfinancialconditions,facilities,resources, and qualified teachers did not influence the English speaking skillsof most students Thus, the findings were not similar to Lan Nguyen et al. (2021),O d i g b o ( 1 9 9 0 ) a n d B a s a , A s r i d a , & F a d l i ( 2 0 1 8 ) B a s a , A s r i d a , &
Fadli (2018) listed many contributing external factors to students' speakingabilitycomprisingqualifiedteachers,familysupportandclassroomenvironme nt.
This current chapter concludes the report of the study First, this chaptersummarizes the study and the main findings of the study Then, the researchimplications are suggested Finally, the chaptere n d s w i t h t h e l i m i t a t i o n s o f thestudyandthesuggestionsforfuture research.
Summaryof thestudy
The study mainly focused on students‟ speaking skills The study wasconducted in four weeks at 6 lower secondary schools in Binh Dinh Province.One hundred and thirty grade 9 students from six classes were invited toparticipate in the research The data for the current study was collected byEnglishspeakingskilltestsincludingTest1andTest2,andthesemi-structured interviews for some of the 9 th grade students and their Englishteachers The collected data were analyzed by means of the SPSS and contentanalysis to examine how well the 9 th grade urban students and 9 th grade ruralones speak English well and find out similarities and difficulties inEnglishspeakingskillsbetweenthetwogroups.
Summaryof keyfindingsofthestudy
Themainfindingsofthestudy aresummarizedinthissection.T h e resultsofthefindingsshowedthereweresignificantdif ferencesinparticipants‟Englishspeakingtestsscoresbetweenthetwogroups.Theresult s from the data analysis of the semi-structured interviews supported toincrease the reliability of the research results from the tests and helped tofind the external factors affecting the students‟ English speaking skills Thefindings presented that the number of the 9 th grade urban students with goodEnglish speaking skills consisting of perfectEnglishpronunciationskills,well- preparedp r e s e n t a t i o n s k i l l s o f E n g l i s h p r o j e c t s , e x c e l l e n t a b i l i t i e s o f making conversation in English and good abilities of giving reasons and abrief explanation of the personal opinions as well as exchanging ideas andinformation on simple topics was bigger than the number of the 9 th grade ruralstudents Accordingly, it does not mean that all urban students had betterEnglish speaking skills than rural students as many people thought.T h e r e were also the 9 th grade rural students who were better at English speakingskills than the 9 th grade urban students although these 9 th grade rural studentsdidnothavegoodfinancialconditions,facilities,resourcesandqualifiedteachers.Therefore, the other finding of the study was that family factors,socio-economic factors, facilities and resources, and teacher qualification didnot influence English speaking skills of most students And it can also be seenthat the students‟ interest in English skills, the ability of being self- educatedand practice of English skills by using the Internet and Apps for learningEnglishaffected thestudents‟Englishspeaking skills.
Implications
Englishspeakingskillsarebecomingincreasinglyimportantbothinacademics and in everyday life; so it has been focused in the Vietnameseeducation system As a kind of research on teaching methods, the study of theurban 9 th graders' English speaking skills versus the rural 9 th graders' Englishspeaking skills is one of interesting topic to discuss as this topic is able tomakepeoplehaveana p p r o p r i a t e p o i n t o f v i e w o n t h e u r b a n s t u d e n t s a n d rural students‟ English speaking skills In other words, it can be found thatEnglish speaking skills play a great role in communication Therefore, theresultsoftheresearchseemtomakeboththeoreticalandpracticalcontributions.
Theoretically, through this study, it can enrich the comparativestudies of English speaking skills Practically, it contributes to the process ofteaching andlearningEnglishlanguage.
Furthermore,theresearchresultsshowedgoodimplicationsforthegovernment,educational administrators, English teachers and students It isrecommended for the government and educational administrators that theyshould provide adequate school facilities and recruit high-qualified Englishteachers Besides, it is suggested for English teachers they apply activities fortheir students to practice speaking skills, especially English pronunciation,conversation skills in English,presentation skills for English projects, andabilities to make conversations inEnglish and abilities to give reasons and abrief explanation of the personal opinions as well as exchanging ideas andinformation on simple topics In other words, English teachers should beactive, passionate about their profession,inquisitive and creative In addition,the study is proposed for students that they should learn all English skills Inaddition to English classes at school, the students can improve their Englishskills by self-studying through Apps and the Internet which are helpful forEnglishlearningpurposes.
Limitationsandsuggestionsfor furtherstudy
Mistakes and shortcomings are unavoidable in spite of all the efforts toconduct this research It is the lack of time and materials that prevents theresearcher from searching samples needed for the analysis Moreover, thestudied data was just selected from a few schools in Binh Dinh Provinceinstead of whole 9 th graders of the province, which limits itself to collecteddata. Accordingly, the results of the study might not be as good as expectedalthoughithasprovidedacertaincontributiontoteachingandlearningEnglish language It is grateful to receive any feedback from teachers, friendsand people who are interested in this study to make the research become abetterone.
ThestudyhasinvestigatedintoEnglishspeakingskillsoftheurban9 th graders versus rural 9 th ones There are, nevertheless, some other aspects thatneedmoreresearch.Itissuggestedthatotherresearcherswhoareinterest edin English speaking skills should conduct more than comparative studies ofEnglishspeakingskills,suchas:
- English performances of the 4 skills of the 9 th grade urban and ruralstudents inBinhDinhProvince.
- English speaking skills of rural high school students versus those inurbanhighschools.
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Imagine that you are going to a place of interest in your area.Tell mesomethingabout theplanforthedayout.
Fore x a m p l e , y o u m i g h t t a l k a b o u t t h e p l a c e y o u a r e g o i n g t o c h o i c e , who youwant togowithand whatyou wantto dothere.
For example, you might talk about whatcity it is or what main features or attractionsof the cityare.
Remembert o sp e a k i n c o m p l e t e sentences And describe what you think aboutthepicture.
Now look at the two pictures (picture Aand picture B).
Remember to speak in complete sentences and say at least two sentencesabout thesimilaritiesand differencesbetweentwopictures
You and your partner make a short conversation to tellwhether or not youthinklearningEnglishishelpfulfor your future Give at least twor e a s o n s whyyouthink that.
For example,youcanaskyourp a r t n e r a b o u t w h a t k i n d o f j o b h e / s h ewants to have in the future and whether they need to English or not, or wherehe/she wants to work, in their country or abroad, a big company or smallworkshop.
Remembertospeakincompletesentencesandtakepartinashortconversation to tell mewhether or notyou think learningE n g l i s h i s h e l p f u l foryourfuture.Giveatleast tworeasons whyyouthinkthat.
There are many nice cities in Viet Nam and over the worldTellmeabout thecityyou would liketo visit most.
For example, do you like to visit a city in Viet Nam or would you rathertravelt o a c i t y i n t h e w o r l d ?
Remember to speak in complete sentences and tell me about the city youwouldliketovisitmost.
Look at Picture 1 I am goingto askyou aboutit.
Tell me one or two sentencesabout what you seeinthepicture.
Forexample,youcantalkabout what the girls are doing, andwhyshemight be doingthat.
Remembert o sp e a k i n completesentencesandtellmewhat you see in thepicture.
For example, you can talkaboutsimilaritiesanddifferencesb etweenthewayteenagersentertainthemsel vesnowadays andthepast.
Remembertospeakincomplete sentencesandsay atleast two sentences about howthe two pictures are similar ordifferent.
You and your partner make a short conversation to tell features about a citymake people prefer to live in the city Give at least two features and give reasonswhyyouthinkthat.
For example, you can ask your partner which features some people like citiesandyour partner can answer about the cities with many parks andopen spacebecause people can go there to relax and entertain with their friends or families intheirfreetime.
Remember to speak in complete sentences and make a short conversation totell features about a city make people prefer to live in the city Give at least twofeatures.
There are lots of the necessary life skills for teenagers Some of theseskillsincludesocialskills,cognitiveskills,housekeepingskills,emotioncontrol skills,andself-careskills.You mighthave theseskills.
Fore x a m p l e , y o u t h i n k a b o u t t h e i m p o r t a n c e o f s o c i a l s k i l l s T h i s i s necessaryfornegotiating,makingnetworkandrelationships.Youcancooperatewithoth ersandresolveconflictsandhavecommunicationskills.
Remembert o s p e a k i n c o m p l e t e s e n t e n c e s a n d t e l l m e a b o u t t h e l i f e skills you thinkit‟sthe mostnecessaryforyour life.
Look at Picture 1 I am going to askyou aboutit.
Tell me one or two sentences aboutthewonderyouseeinthepicture.
For example, you can tell what youknow about the wonder such as location,main featuresof thewonder.
Forexample,youmighttalkaboutclassroomsinthepastandnowadays(school facilities,teachers,students )
There are ways Vietnamese teenagers entertain themselves in the past andnowadays.
YouandyourpartnermakeashortconversationtotellaboutthewayVietnamese teenagers entertain you prefer Give at least two reason you like theway.
For example, you can ask and reply your partner which way he/she prefers,Vietnamese teenagers‟ pastimes in the past or nowadays You can say somethingmakesyou enjoy,theplaceteenagersentertain,whoteenagersentertainwith,etc.
Remember to speak in complete sentences and make a short conversation totell which way you prefer, Vietnamese teenagers‟ pastimes in the past or nowadays.Giveatleasttworeasonyoulike theway.
(Emc mthy nht h e nàokhiphátm tiengAnh?Dhaykhó?)
2 How did you feel when you had a conversation about the topics youhavelearnedinthis semester?EasyorDifficult?Like orDislike?
( Emcm th y nh the nào khi em dindàm tho ivcác ch d mà emhoctronghockn à y ? Dha ykhó?Thíchhaykhn g thích?)
3 HowdidyoufeelwhenyoupresentedtheprojectsyourEnglishteacher assigned you to do? Easy or Difficult? Like or Dislike? Did you feelconfidentafterfinishing yourprojects? Weretheyhelpful foryou?
( Emcm th y nhthe nào khi em tr nh bày các dán màcgiáo tiengAnh giao cho em làm? Dhay khó? Thích hay kh ng thích? Emcm th y ttinsaukhihoànthànhcácdá n dókhn g ? ócóíchgc h o emkh ng?)
4 Do you join any English club? Do you attend any extra- curricularEnglish classes? If yes, what English skills have you learnt there, speakingskills,listeningskills,orreading &writingskills and grammar?
(Emcóthamgiabtkc ulcbtiengAnhnàokhng?Emcódihocthêm tieng Anh kh ng?eu có,l p h o c t h ê m d ó , e m d ợ c h o c n h ũ n g k ĩ nǎngnào?-kĩnǎngnói,kĩnǎngnghe,kĩnǎngdoc,vietvàngũpháp?
5 Do you use materials on the Internet to support your English learning?
If yes, you can tell me materials you have used? And which English skills youareinterested mostinlearning byyourselfinthe Internet?
(EmcósủdụngcáchocliutrênInternetdehotrợchovichocTiengAnhca emkhn g ? eucó,emcóthechobietcáchocli umàemds ủ dụnglàg?