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Purposes of the Study - - G11 1n SH TH ng ng Hết 1 1.3 Research questions 0n
The study aims to investigate factors attributed to silence in the speaking classrooms of BE major students at NEU as well as their influences on English speaking skills and in-class performance On the basis of the examined information, the research then suggests some solutions to prevent or reduce this silence in order to minimize these effects.
Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa — 11192000 — Business English 61C
1 What are the factors attributed to silence in Speaking classes reported by
BE-major students at NEU?
2 What are the effects of these factors on those students’ speaking skills and their performance in oral practice?
3 What can be done to break the silence in Speaking classes of BE-major students in order to minimize the effects of these factors?
Scope of the Study eee LH HH ng nh HH 2 1.5 Methodology - - ng HH Hết 2 1.5.1 PaFÍCIDQHÍS ĂẶẶ Ăn SnnHH* TH HH He 2 1.5.2 ẽHSHHIN€HÍS Ă Ă So SH HH HH 3 1.5.3 PrOC€dHF€S Ă.Ă TT HH HH HH hệt 3 1.6 Organization of the Study c2 12t + nh he 4
The research focuses on major factors attributed to silence within Speaking classes of BE-major students at National Economics University, Vietnam The researcher examined the frequency of verbal participation of these students as a background knowledge, and then further investigated to specify contributing factors This research also explored the effects of the factors attributed to in-class silence Some suggestions were then generated.
This study only investigates BE students without classifying their school years and English levels due to the limited time available for performing the research The data were collected after one week of distribution.
A total of 100 BE-major students of FFLs, NEU from three classes who were supposed to be at least at a pre-intermediate level of English ranging from first year to fourth year students participated in this study All had received standard English education from primary to high school The research was conducted anonymously and voluntarily by which students’ names were not collected which meant that participation or non-participation had no effect on the student's result in their classes Students were asked to complete an in-class questionnaire on their perspectives and behaviors toward silence in speaking class.
15 BE-major students of the three classes mentioned above participated in the semi-structured interviews Chosen respondents were familiar with the researcher in order to create a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere.
Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa — 11192000 — Business English 61C
The research used two instruments to acquire a more thorough understanding of the factors attributed to student’s silence in speaking classes: a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview.
In a quantitative sense, this study yielded statistical data to measure the differences in students’ attitudes toward silence via a survey Anticipated factors and related situations were measured on a 5-point Likert scale from always, frequently, occasionally, rarely to never Moreover, the questionnaire included four open-ended questions to encourage independent thinking and stimulate participants' ideas, a theory motivated by Johnson and Christensen (2017) Thanks to this open design, the questionnaire functioned as both a qualitative and quantitative data collecting tool.
Another qualitative tool of data collection was semi-structured interviews with students to collect detailed information of the reason behind their silence during classroom engagement.
The questionnaire was distributed to 100 BE students at all school years A corresponding 100 responses were received An informal meeting was scheduled between the researcher and the participants after they finished their classes to explain each question in detail and to affirm the confidentiality of the study before handing out the survey forms The data were then collected, tallied and computed.
In the findings, open-ended questions were decoded, and relevant replies were grouped together Respondents who chose to answer the open-ended questions were coded as Q1 to Q41.
The 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted online to match with interviewees’ schedules Each interview lasted for 15 minutes in a non-judgmental way in which respondents were repeatedly reassured that there were no right or incorrect responses prior to describing their personal behaviors and beliefs concerning silence in language courses The interviews were recorded with respondents’ permission From the recording, key points were then noted To ensure the confidentiality of all participants, interviewees’ names were coded fromS1-S15 The fundamental benefit of interviews is that they offer far more extensive information than other methods of data collection as people may feel more comfortable in a conversation than filling out a survey Boyce, C., & Neale, P.(2006) The study, therefore; focused on qualitative methods Results of the
Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa — 11192000 — Business English 61C quantitative analysis served as the foundation for the qualitative analysis, commentary, and evaluation.
This research is divided into four chapters, each of which has a distinct purpose and is structured as follows:
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: This chapter provides an overview of the study, including its context, objectives, goals, scope It also discusses the research's rationale and research questions.
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW: This chapter deals with the concepts of Classroom silence and reviews findings of previous studies related to factors contributing silence in second language classes.
CHAPTER 3 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS: This chapter offers the conclusions reached after performing research and gathering data Presentation, analysis, and discussion of the data will be covered in this part.
CHAPTER 4 RECOMMENDATIONS: This chapter contains the recommendations for other researchers who want to study related subjects Some limitations are also listed.
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS: This chapter presents an overview of all theoretical and practical frameworks of the study.
Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa — 11192000 — Business English 61C
LITERATURE REVIEW HH re 5 2.1 Silence in educational €0'If€XS - 5 ng re 5 2.2 Factors attributed to silenee - cSnnnHgngnrưy 6
Silence has been long recognized as a phenomenon that appears in all aspects of life It is perceived differently depending on culture and context While to Easterners, silence is golden meaning that silence presents self-time or time to think, their Western counterparts often consider silence as a negative occurrence. This stereotype is proven to be a miscomprehension by King, J (2013) Silence in Eastern culture can be as awkward as it is to Westerners, especially in a classroom context.
Many educators consider students’ silence in the classroom to be a severe issue This is especially true in the circumstance ofa second language class whereas a great deal of research has shown how oral interaction and production of the target language can greatly enhance L2 learning (e.g Izumi 2003; Swain 2005) The anxiety of non-native English teachers when they face prolonged silence without knowing the underlying meanings, causes, and appropriate responses has thus received particular attention Seeking the answers, this research investigates silence under linguistic approach for pedagogical objectives, thereby solely addressing silence in educational contexts.
Silence, in the words of Bosacki (2005), is the absence of vocalization The definition of silence can be expanded to encompass a student who fails to convey a particular content or to express what is expected Granger (2004) links classroom silence to misconduct, disagreement, disobedience, and, in the instance of pupils playing the listener, dishonesty He contends that silence in the classroom might be viewed as a type of defense since it allows pupils to cling onto performances and presumptions that may make them vulnerable to their peers and professors.
In addition, according to Silva (2016) in a classroom, silence can indicate objections, exhaustion, appreciation, dejection, loss of motivation, attentiveness, or interactional methods such as refusal, agreement, demand, caution, control, threat, or clarification Students may choose to remain silent in class as a kind of emotional defiance against the teacher's authority in the classroom and as a way to discreetly express their unfavorable feelings In some circumstances, silence may be beneficial for education since it fosters learning, yet when teachers assess a student's academic performance, they generally seem to view silence as a
Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa — 11192000 — Business English 61C negative characteristic According to Teng's research, college students’ in-class silence can be interpreted as a type of psychological state and behavior on the levels of thinking, emotion, and action He emphasizes that silence merely denotes a lack of discourse, not a lack of cognition, since it only indicates a limited or insufficient engagement in classroom communication.
To summarize, silence in the classroom happens when the teachers ask questions and receive no response from the students, or when students hesitate to voice their opinions when the teachers raise discussion or debate While silence could either present a fascinating or destructive occurrence, it is mostly regarded as negative actions of students towards the instructors and thus build a barrier to the teaching and learning progress of the target languages.
Negative silence in language classrooms is the subject of numerous studies (Delima, 2012; Liu, 2005; Nakane, 2005; Tani, 2005) Most studies focused on identifying factors that contribute to such silence with the intention of avoiding students' vocal absence (Chen 2003; Liu & Jackson, 2009).
Overall, students' target language competency, previous speaking performance in class, confidence level, students’ personalities and teaching methodology are all feasible factors for their tendency to stay silent in language classrooms (Delima, 2012; Liu, 2005; Liu & Jackson, 2009).
Firstly, students’ target language competency is a significant factor for in- class silence Recent investigations showed that it is linguistic problems that prevent most students from expressing their ideas (Hanh, 2020; Harumi 2010) Hanh’s interviewed students said that they faced difficulties in making themselves understood due to lack of vocabulary, ungrammatical expression uses and incorrect pronunciation Moreover, insufficient language input and output were also considered as important causes leading to students' silence (Chen 2003; Cheng, 2000).
Secondly, psychological factors that originated from students’ psychological insecurities and different personalities are responsible for silence in the classroom Tsui (1996) highlighted students' anxiety regarding peer pressure as one of the various parameters affecting student-reticence Harumi (2010) added that it is interesting to note that their lack of self-assurance is caused by the presence of other students or the classroom environment Students were afraid of
Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa — 11192000 — Business English 61C looking ignorant or unintelligent in front of their peers As a result, individuals tended to remain silent since they were unsure whether their answers were accurate, or their opinions varied from those of others (Hanh, 2020).
Some previous studies on student engagement identified students' personalities as major contributors to student silence (Liu, 2005; Nakane, 2005) Cole & McCroskey (2003) also suggested the differences in students’ personality may have a significant influence on their participation in language class interactions The characteristics of students vary from energetic to quiet, extroverted to introverted, optimistic to pessimistic Extroverted students are more eager in expressing themselves than introverted students due to their desire to express their opinions to their teacher and classmates On the other hand, Introverts tend to stay silent in class, appear uninterested in class sessions, and unwilling to answer instructor questions.
Additional psychological factors contributing to students' unwillingness to participate actively in EFL classrooms emerged from the lack of interest and high stress level, which are expressed as avoidance of class involvement Teaching students that are unmotivated is one of the most challenging tasks for many teachers (Miller & Aldred, 2000; Otoshi & Heffernan, 2011) If students are eager to learn in EFL classes, they will attempt to participate in class activities regardless of their English-speaking skills levels One behavior of avoiding class interaction involves being reluctant to join in with class activities Some students intentionally sit in the back rows since they prefer not to actively engage in the lesson, opting to work in small groups.
Lastly, teaching methodology including turn-taking, classroom environment time execution, pedagogical style and lesson content is also considered as a contributing factor to in-class silence Turn-taking was recognized as a relevant factor by Harumi (2010) Even though linguistic barriers were prominent in the participants' responses to his research, the effects of students’ issues with turn taking were also noteworthy in the context of cultural norms.Several respondents appear to have struggled to take their turn and consequently missed the chance to speak up In addition to turn-taking, difficult topics,uninteresting tasks were contributing factors that stopped them from engaging verbally more (Hanh, 2020) Classroom environment is also responsible for in- class silence According to Liu and Littlewood (1997), large classrooms discouraged students from sharing their views and increased their anxiety about communicating in a foreign language for fear of public disgrace if they made a
Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa — 11192000 — Business English 61C mistake in front of their classmates This is associated with the peer pressure factor mentioned in the previous point High levels of stress or anxiety may also contribute to students’ reluctance to engage in EFL classroom activities Anxiety, according to Jackson (2002), is a state of tension, uneasiness, and fear caused by an activation of the nervous system that controls emotions EFL students are more prone to feel uneasy as they attempt to utilize a foreign language without actually using it successfully.