Efl students perceptions of the impact of shadowing on speaking skills

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY 00O00 PHAM THI TH1EN THU EFL STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF THE IMPACT OF SHADOWING ON SPEAKING SKILLS Major: Teaching English to Speakers of other Languages Major code: 14 0111 MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Supervisor: LE THI THUY NHUNG, Ph.D % HO CHI MINH CITY, 2022 TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ CỘNG HÒA Xà HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH Độc lập - Tự - Hạnh phúc KHOA ĐÀO TẠO SAU ĐẠĨ HỌC GIẤY XÁC NHẬN Tôi tên là: PHẠM THỊ THIÊN THƯ Ngày sinh: 29/11/1982 Nơi sinh: Phú Yên Chuyên ngành: TESOL, khóa 17 Mã học viên: 1781401110046 Tơi đồng ý cung cấp tồn văn thơng tin luận văn tốt nghiệp hợp lệ quyền cho Thư viện trường đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh Thư viện trường đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh kết nối tồn văn thơng tin luận văn tốt nghiệp vào hệ thống thông tin khoa học Sở Khoa học Công nghệ Thành phổ Hồ Chí Minh Ký tên Phạm Thị Thiên Thư CỘNG HÒA Xà HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM Độc lập - Tự - Hạnh phúc Ý KIÉN CHO PHÉP BẢO VỆ LUẬN VĂN THẠC sĩ CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN HƯỚNG DẪN Giảng viên hướng dẫn: TS LÊ THỊ THÙY NHƯNG Học viên thực hiện: PHẠM THỊ THIÊN THƯ Lớp: MTESOLO17A Ngày sinh: 29/11/1982 Nơi sinh: Phú Yên Tên đề tài: EFL students’ perceptions of the impact of shadowing on speaking skills Ý kiến giáo viên hướng dẫn việc cho phép học viên bảo vệ luận văn trước Hội đồng: íÍùL.ALLƯ 2, / z’ Ty” í ■c c ./ ' dCíUP U.ỈA L í, J.L Ý í.2 í LCC, 1.0 Lit Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, ngày.X.7 tháng íỉ,- năm 2022 Người nhận xét STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I confirm that my thesis, "EFL Students' Perceptions of the Impact of Shadowing on Speaking Skills," is all my own work All of the resources utilized in the thesis were documented The work was not presented to Ho Chi Minh city Open University or anywhere else Ho Chi Minh Jun 18”\ 2022 —“2^x2 Pham Thi Thien Thu acknowledgements would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor Dr L.e Thi Thuy Nhung who was continuously giving me constructive feedback to help me improve my thesis writing Because of her support and direction I became a better researcher Dr Lc Thi Thuy Nhung sparked my interest in investigating student's perceptions of the impact of shadowing on speaking skills She also provided me with clear instructions on how to complete the thesis In the TESOL program I am so thankful to the entire Graduate School of Ho Chi Minh City Open University for their support I owe a debt of gratitude to the entire English faculty of Ho Chi Minh University of Transport for offering me to be a guest lecturer They offered me a lot of freedom in teaching, so I could be creative with my methodology I would like to thank all of my hard-working students who took the time to complete my survey and interview In my trip, my buddies play an important part I would like to express my appreciation to all of the MTESOL017 members who joined me on this remarkable learning journey I tally appreciate all my lovely friends who urged me to keep going with my writing Finally I am so grateful to my family for their love and sharing During my time in graduate school, my parents, siblings, mother-in-law and especially my beloved husband and sons had been extremely supportive and loving Their passionate, far- reaching love travels across oceans II ABSTRACT Shadowing has been known as a technique that can benefit ESL and EFL teachers and learners by potentially assisting in the development of speaking, reading, and listening at the same time However, few studies have mentioned students' psychology of impact of shadowing on speaking This research was aimed to examine students' perceptions of the impact of shadowing on speaking skills and their perceptions of the challenges and benefits of practicing shadowing in speaking classes The participants were thirty-two non-English major students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport The mixed method employed was the combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches A quasi-expcriment design and structured interview were conducted in the study After the experiment was carried out for weeks, a questionnaire survey was completed by the students, and then the collected data were analyzed to examine their perceptions To further explain the results of the questionnaire and to gain more insights of students' perceptions on the impact of shadowing on speaking skills, structured interviews were employed The result showed Vietnamese adult learners perceived shadowing as a helpful technique to improve their speaking skills The benefits of shadowing were identified to develop their grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and fluency in speaking skills and reduce their anxiety of speaking The results also showed learners were excited about shadowing like a new technique with their personal experiences of practice of shadowing The difficulties of applying shadowing were time consumption and students less focus on intonation Thus, this study also suggested that students should practice shadowing more frequently and should pay more attention on the intonation as intonation is the key factor to increase their pronunciation Based on the findings of the study, some implications were developed in order to increase students' speaking skills iii ABBREVIATIONS L.2 the second language F.FL English as a Foreign Language ESL English as a Second Language TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages CEFR Common European Framework of Reference for Languages ESOL English for speakers of other languages SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences SD Standard Deviation M Mean iv LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 The categories and the items in the questionnaire 28 Table 3.2 The categories and the items in the interview 29 Table 4.1: Background information about the participants in the survey 35 Table 4.2 Cronbach’s alpha of the benefits of shadowing scale (8 items) 36 Table 4.3 Cronbach’s alpha of the benefits of shadowing scale (7 items) 38 Table 4.4 Number of items and internal consistency of the sub-scales 40 Table 4.5 Descriptive Statistics of the impact of shadowing on pronunciation 42 Table 4.6 Descriptive Statistics of the impact of shadowing on grammar and vocabulary 43 Table 4.7 Descriptive Statistics of the impact of shadowing on fluency 44 Table 4.8 Descriptive Statistics of the benefits of practice of shadowing in speaking classes 45 Table 4.9 Descriptive Statistics of the challenges of practice of shadowing in speaking classes 46 Table 4.10 Background information about the groups ill the interview 47 V TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF TABLES V TABLE OF CONTENTS .vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study .2 J Questions of the study 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Structure of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Speaking skills 2.1.1 Definition of speaking 2.1.2 Components of speaking .7 2.2 Perceptions I 2.2 Shadowing 12 2.2.1 Definition of shadowing 12 2.2.2 Benefits in using shadowing 12 2.2.2 Challenges in using shadowing 14 2.2.4 Review of previous research 15 2.2.4.1 Studies on the procedure of shadowing in teaching approaches: 15 2.2.4.2 Studies on the effectiveness of shadowing assisting students' speaking skills: .16 2.2.4.3 Studies on the influence of shadowing on students' psychology: 19 2.2.4 Studies on shadowing in Vietnamese context 20 2.3 Theoretical framework of the study 21 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 23 3.1 Research site .23 3.2 Participants 24 3.3 Research design 25 vi 3.4 Research instruments 27 .3.4.1 Questionnaires .27 3.4.2 Interview 28 3.5 Data collection procedures 29 3.6 Reliability and Validity of theInstruments 32 3.7 Data analysis 33 3.8 Ethical considerations 34 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 35 4.1 Findings from the questionnaire: 35 4.1.1 Participants' background information and their experience of shadowing .35 4.1.2 Reliability of the instruments 35 4.1.3 Findings for Research question 1: What arc students' perceptions of the impacts of'Shadowing on their speaking skills'.’ 41 4.1.3.1 The impacts of shadowing on pronunciation 42 4.1.3.2 The impacts of shadowing on grammar and vocabulary 43 4.1.3.3 The impacts of shadowing on fluency 44 4.1.4 Findings for Research question 2: What are the students' perceptions of the benefits and challenges of practice of shadowing in speaking classes'? 45 4.1.4.1 The benefits of practice of shadowing in speaking classes 45 4.1.4.2 The challenges of practice of shadowing in speaking classes 46 4.2 Findings from the interview' 47 4.3 Discussion: 49 4.3.1 Discussion on the findings of Research Question 49 4.3.2 Discussion on the findingsof Research Question 50 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 52 5.1 Conclusion 52 5.2 Implications 53 5.2.1 For teachers 53 5.2.2 For students 53 5.3 Limitations anil recommendations 54 5.3.1 Limitations 54 5.3.2 Recommendations 54 vii