INTRODUCTION
RATIONALE
It is undeniable that English has an important role in global communication, so the number of English language learners has been increasing However, to become a mastered or just successful language learner, they must have the ability to speak in this language In this case, Nunan stated that for most people, mastering speaking skills is the single most important aspect of learning a second or foreign language (Nunan,
1991, cited as in Hendra Heriansyah, 2012) In the same way, Richards and Renandya (2002) assert: "A large percentage of the world's language learners study English in order to develop proficiency in speaking" (p.201) They argue that speaking is the most important language skills that need to be controlled, and they assess learning achievement based on mastery of speaking skills (Burnkart, 1998, cited as in Hendra Heriansyah, 2012)
Moreover, it can be said with certainly that English provides us with numerous benefits and advantages People from Europe, Africa, and Asia speak English, so instead of learning their challenging language, we may converse with them in English That is the reason why speaking English is often believed to be one of the most important subjects that we should not miss, as David Crystal (2003) in his book- “English as global language” stated that "Out of 360 persons, around 330 speak English as their mother tongue"
Many students, however, struggle to express themselves due to a lack of vocabulary, poor grammatical structure, psychological influence, mother language tendencies, and inaccurate pronunciation Listeners can understand but not very well when students speak English words incorrectly
In Vietnam, a recent study (Quyen, V.P., et al., 2018) showed that most high school students faced both internal and external challenges For example, those difficulties were the lack of vocabulary to express ideas in speaking English and the limitation of English speaking strategies; or teachers did not create interesting speaking activities and correct mistakes of speaking with few responses
At schools, English is also a compulsory subject which most Vietnamese students have learned since they were in grade 3 After graduating from high school, students with a great passion for this foreign language choose English as a major for their higher education When learning this language, learners have to master four main skills: listening, reading, speaking and writing Of these four skills, speaking is considered to be the most difficult skill that requires a huge amount of time to practice and promote
Being one of the English teachers at Tuy Phuoc 3 high school, I recognize that the majority of the students cannot speak English fluently or pronounce correctly, even most of the other excellent students cannot communicate well with each other or with the teachers in English I desire to help students at my school improve their English speaking skills.
AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The major aim of this study is to investigate some major problems the students encounter when they learn to speak English and find out the factors affecting the students' speaking performance In order to achieve this aim, some objectives are posed:
- To identify major problems that high school students have in the process of learning speaking skills
- To point out the factors influencing students’ speaking skills.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Based on the aims of the research, the following questions are expected to be answered:
1 What are the problems that Tuy phuoc 3 high school students encounter when they learn to speak English?
2 What are the factors affecting their speaking performance?
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
Due to the research conditions, it was impossible for the research to be carried out in a large-scale investigation of all classes at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School Instead, it focused on 120 students and 6 English teachers at Tuy Phuoc 3 high school to find out common problems that students encounter when they learn to speak English and it also focused on factors affecting their speaking performance.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
It is obvious that English is an international language which is spoken widely around the globe As a result, speaking is one of the basic competencies which should be mastered by students in the process of learning English as a foreign language The study sheds light on speaking issues of high school students, which could point out the factors causing major problems that students make during English speaking classes at school and some feasible solutions to deal with such difficulties.
DESIGN OF THE STUDY
The study is structured as follows:
Chapter 1, Introduction: announces the rationale, aims, research questions, scope, methods and design of the study
Chapter 2, Literature Review and Theoretical Background: shows some previous relevant studies and relevant theoretical background for the study
Chapter 3, Research Methodology: introduces the methods of research, procedures of the study and the research design
Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion: deals with the data gathered, presents the author's finding and discusses
Chapter 5, Conclusion and Implications: summarizes the main findings which gives answers to research questions as well as suggestions for further researches.
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORICAL
DEFINITION OF SPEAKING SKILLS
The definition of speaking, just like other abstract terms, varies from scholar to scholar The variety of its definition can be explained as the result of the difference in the mentality of people from different periods as well as the difference in the perspective from which speaking is considered However, they all believe that speaking involves speech and through speech speakers express their opinions, attitudes, feelings, etc
Burns & Joyce (1997) defined speaking as an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves the production, reception, and processing of information Its form and meaning are determined by the context in which it takes place, which includes the participants themselves, their shared experiences, the physical surroundings, and the purposes for speaking It means that speaking is learners’ ability to express their opinions, feelings, and ideas orally, coherently, logically, and appropriately in a given meaningful context Moreover, speaking is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving Nevertheless, speech is not always unpredictable Speaking requires that learners not only understand how to provide specific points of language like grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary (linguistic competence), but also that they understand when, why, and in what ways to provide language
(sociolinguistic competence) Finally, unlike written language, speech has its own abilities, structures, and traditions To achieve a specific speech act, a good speaker combines a variety of abilities and knowledge
According to Chaney and Burke (1998, p.13), speaking is defined as
“ the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts." This skill is critical in the teaching and learning of second languages, but it has been neglected for years, particularly in high schools It demands as much attention as reading skills because it is the vehicle that carries many of the most basic transactions
In terms of language teaching and learning, speaking is taken into account as one of the four important language skills (listening, reading, speaking, and writing) to practice and master Nunan (2003, p.48) claimed that "Speaking is the productive oral skill It consists of producing systematic verbal utterance to convey meanings."
Also, regarding speaking as a skill, Bygate (1987, p.3) looked into the difference between knowledge and skill in a speaking session, which he thought to be a critical aspect of speaking instruction He argued that speaking is considered as a skill that deserves attention as much as literary skills in both first and second language
In addition, Ur in his book titled "A course in language teaching" indicated:
( ) of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems intuitively the most important: people who know a language are referred to as 'speakers' of that language, as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing; and many if not most foreign languages learners are primarily interested in learning to speak
The author emphasized the importance of speaking and he realized that learning speaking involves quite a vast knowledge of different language aspects so speaking may be perceived as a complicated process
According to Byrne (1986), he stated that speaking skill is one of two ways of the oral communication process, and is the productive skill The speaker must encode (or interpret) the message he desires to express in proper language, while the listener must decode (or interpret) it
To sum up, each researcher has a different way to describe speaking In general, their definitions are different in the form; however, they seem to be the same in the content, i.e speaking as an action, a process, and a skill In this study, the term "speaking" was used as a skill related to language teaching and learning.
MAJOR PROBLEMS STUDENTS FACE IN LEARNING TO SPEAK
Obviously, anyone learning a new language is supposed to make mistakes Even if the students are disappointed, we must accept this as a fact of learning a language It is not simple to be a great learner in four basic skills when learning English as a foreign language, especially speaking Hetrakul (1995) said that “they? Who? use English more frequently only inside the class and less frequently outside the class” Whereas students have limited time to learn English in class, and they still do not have enough encouragement to practice English outside the class in order to get familiar with English” This section highlights some common problems that high school students may encounter when they practise speaking English
Speaking problems are factors that caused someone to be unable to communicate Language difficulties, according to Doris and Jessica (2007), are one of the major causes of poor academic achievement These issues may obstruct students' ability to enhance and improve their speaking skills The students' weak grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation are the main reasons for their speaking difficulties Those problems belong to linguistic problems
Linguistics is the scientific study of language, including the structure of language (grammar), words, and phonology Spolsky and Hult (2008) define linguistics as the study of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation in detail Linguistic problems are those problems which make students’ speaking ability become poor Some linguistic problems can influence someone's ability to talk, such as bad grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation According to Richards (2008), some typical learners have difficulty in speaking because (1) they are poor at grammar, (2) lack vocabulary needed to talk, and (3) poor at pronunciation
Grammar is a field of linguistics concerned with the structure of words, their relationships with one another, and their agreement in phrases, clauses, and sentences in order to communicate meaning The researcher would like to quote certain opinions in order to better comprehend the concept of grammar Chomsky (1986) said, "Grammar is a set of rules that would generate all the possible sentences of a language and none of the possible sentences," Chomsky said (p.236) Grammar, then, is a set of rules for generating both logical and illogical phrases Grammar is one of the methods for constructing a sentence
Grammar deals with how sentences are built and written so it may be considered a bit boring to study correct grammar since it really is worth the time and effort Learners who do not understand the rules of grammar will never be able to speak effectively in English Grammar becomes tough, according to Celce-murcia (2001s), since learners do not learn structures one at a time Even when learners appear to have mastered a particular structure, backsliding is not uncommon when new forms are introduced to the learners' interlanguage For example, a learner who has mastered the third singular person marker on a present tense verb may over-generalize the rules and apply it to newly developing model verbs, resulting in errors like "She can speak English." Because the students have not understood English grammar, these errors may arise when they speak
Researchers from Harvard University and Google estimated a total of 1,022,000 words in 2010 during a project that required them to look at terms in digitized books, and that the number will increase by several thousand per year Approximately 171,476 to around 470,000 words are used in English nowadays As a result, many students struggle to communicate themselves due to a lack of vocabulary
Regardless of the fact that many students learn English from primary school to college or university, their vocabulary remains limited Students learn basic English at university, but native speakers use slang, idioms, and phrasal verbs in everyday conversation In fact, while speaking English with only simple words, high school students still have a lot of communication limitations Another source of difficulties in English speaking classes is a lack of vocabulary, which makes speaking uninteresting and inefficient
In addition, it confuses students too much in using correct vocabulary in speaking Schewertly (2012) indicated that choosing appropriate vocabulary is an important aspect of any presentation It means that lacking of knowledge vocabulary will become a challenge to choose the correct words If the words used to be not in rules, they will make a misunderstanding to the audiences
Another mistake students make when speaking English is failing to pay attention to word stress, phrase stress (rhythm), and not using intonation Vietnamese is a tonal language, which means that each word has a mark to differentiate it from other words like "be," "bé," and " bẻ" Meanwhile, English is a toneless language Students must use rhythm or intonation to express their meaning, attitude, and feelings when speaking Misuse or omission of rhythm/intonation might cause the audience to misunderstand what the speaker is trying to say It will also make it difficult for us to listen to what others have to say
Besides, a vocabulary item is a single word or a group of words with a specified meaning According to Kamil and Hiebert (2005), vocabulary is the knowledge of word meanings There are at least two types of words: oral and written The set of terms for which we know the meanings when we talk or read verbally is known as oral vocabulary When we write or read silently, our print vocabulary comprises of words for which the meaning is known
Language problems occur when someone lacks the necessary vocabulary to communicate and does not know how to put the vocabulary together into a meaningful phrase Khan (2005) claims that a large majority of students learning English as a foreign language have difficulty using words and expressions in conversation Furthermore, Doris and Jessica (2007) claim that in real-life conversation, no one paid attention to correct grammar expressions, but instead focused on the content and how to respond Students know exactly what they want to say in the source language, but when they have to transfer to the target language, such as English, they frequently struggle to combine and apply the necessary vocabularies
English has developed into a language that brings people from all over the world together Learners of a second or foreign language are also expected to speak English fluently, as if they were native speakers A second language learner, according to Hinkel (2005, p.491), must master the individual characteristics of a new language's sound Furthermore, it will be good for the students to be able to speak naturally like the native-speaker itself
According to Burns (2003), it is more important that the English speakers can achieve:
- Intelligibility (the speakers produce sound patterns that are recognisable as English),
- Comprehensibility (the listener is able to understand the meaning of what is said),
- Interpretability (the listener is able to understand the purpose of what is said)
"It's hot today" for example, could be pronounced "Is ho day." Because of the inaccuracy of the noises, tension, and patterns, this is unlikely to be understood As a result, the speaker is incomprehensible to the listener because the meaning is unavailable In communication, clear communication is critical The following are the numerous characteristics that make up the generation of sounds in English:
- Supresegmental features: linking, intonation, and word stress
- Segmental features: phonemes; consonant and vowel sounds
Pronunciation is just as important as syntax and vocabulary in learning a new language Correct pronunciation is essential for improving speaking ability Pronunciation is connected with other fields such as listening and even grammar Once a person can pronounce correctly the endings of the words, for example, he can, at the same time give grammatical information
In brief, grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation are considered to be common linguistic problems faced by students in speaking English language
In the following part, psychology will be explored as another aspect It includes shyness, lack of confidence and anxiety
The most difficult problem of most students is that they are afraid to speak and to communicate in English because of shyness Gebhard (2000) believed that in the classroom, particularly in the speaking class, students' shyness may cause issues with their ability to learn In addition, Baldwin (2011) stated that one of the most frequent phobias that students experience is speaking in front of others, and they frequently worry that they would forget what to say or that their mind will go blank out of shyness
FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING
With the view to helping students overcome problems in learning speaking, it is necessary for the teachers to figure out factors that affect their speaking performance Performance conditions (time pressure, planning, standard of performance, and amount of assistance), affective elements (such as motivation, confidence, and anxiety), listening capacity, topical knowledge and feedback during speaking activities can all affect students' speaking performance
With regards to factors influencing students’ speaking skills, performance conditions in speaking class also affect them negatively when speaking Learners carry out a speaking activity under different conditions Time pressure, planning, the quality of the performance, and the level of support are all factors that influence speaking performance (Nation & Newton, 2009)
Patanasorn (2010) believed that giving students extra planning time before performing a task can help them develop more fluent and complicated English Moreover, as Ellis (2009) reported, it is a fair conclusion to write that
“strategic planning can assist learners to speak more fluently and that this is evident in both the temporal and repair dimensions of fluency” (p 493)
In addition, it cannot be denied that time pressure is a decisive factor affecting speaking performance Time pressure, in the form of both final deadlines (i.e., a set time limit indicating the finish of an activity, such as the end of a football match) and time costs (the fact that whatever task one is doing currently is time that could be spent doing something else), often impairs solitary performance (Ariely & Zakay, 2001; Payne, Bettman, & Johnson, 1988; Payne, Bettman, & Luce, 1996) Moreover, time pressure refers to the urgency with which students must complete their speaking tasks, which might make it more difficult (Thornbury, 2005)
Students’ speaking performance can be affected by the factors that come from affective factors (such as anxiety, shyness, self- consciousness or confidence, fear of making mistakes)
Horwitz (1986) identified three key causes of anxiety in students based on the outcomes of their study: communication apprehension, exam anxiety, and fear of unfavorable evaluation The ability of students to communicate in the target language is referred to as communication apprehension Many students experience anxiety as a result of their lack of ability in this subject The second cause is test anxiety, which is caused by students' fear of being tested The final reason has to do with the opinions of other students As previously stated, other students' "assessment" frequently causes anxiety among students themselves Furthermore, students' anxiety is influenced by their fear of being judged by their teachers All of this implies that teachers should be concerned with better understanding students and controlling classrooms According to Harmer (2007), in order to relieve this anxiety, teachers must pay attention to each student's strengths and weaknesses in order to design a learning technique that accommodates all students in the classroom
Moreover, anxiety can be caused by a student speaking a foreign language (FL) or second language (L2) in public It stands out among the affective variables as the most essential and potentially dangerous factor that might obstruct language learning Anxiety obstructs the learning process because most of the students are afraid of appearing "wrong, stupid, or incomprehensible" (Brown, 2001, p.9), which will diminish their speaking abilities This feeling has become such a mental obstacle for them that they are unable to communicate effectively in the target language The students’ speaking anxiety is caused by many factors such as fear of making mistakes, lack in vocabulary, and lack in pronunciation, which make students may become tongue-tied or wordless in an unexpected situation leading to depression and a sense of failure
By focusing on the factor of “anxiety”, Horwitz stated that
“researchers, language teachers, and even language learners themselves have been interested in the possibility that anxiety inhibits language learning for quite some time” (Horwitz, 2001, p.112) In his research, he claimed that
“anxiety is indeed a cause of poor language learning in some individuals”
Besides, some research on language anxiety in Indonesian context reported similar findings Students in a speaking class, according to Padmadewi (1998), are frequently anxious owing to the pressure of the speaking activities, which force them to speak individually and spontaneously within a set amount of time In the same year, Kim who carried out a study on affective experiences of Korean college students in different instructional contexts In her work, she pointed out that students in a conversation class experienced higher anxiety levels than students in a reading class
Shumin (2002) emphasizes that if students are overly nervous, they feel tongue-tied or unable to find words, which negatively impacts their performance in foreign language classes Because the ability to take risks is considered essential for "successful learning of a second language," EFL students should be encouraged to speak bravely in order to gradually improve their speaking competence, as motivation is thought to be the most important factor that educators can target in order to facilitate learning
In terms of the cause of shyness, Bowen (2005) and Robby (2010) believe that some shy students are naturally quiet In this situation, the students are not very confident and tend to be shy because speaking English in front of their peers and teacher is quite daunting to them Furthermore, Saurik (2011) identifies that most English students are nervous when speaking the language because they are afraid of making mistakes They also fear being made fun of by their peers Students' shyness is their view of their own abilities, according to the findings of this study
From another perspective, according to He and Chen (2010), the main cause of students' lack of confidence is their inability to communicate in English As they pointed out, many students believe their English is poor and that they are unable to communicate effectively in English The lack of encouragement from the teacher is another reason of students' lack of confidence Many teachers believe that convincing students that they can speak English is not crucial in this situation As a result, students find studying demotivating rather than stimulating, as Brown (2001) points out
This implies that, in order to boost students' confidence, encouragement is essential As a result, encouraging students and showing that they will be able to communicate effectively in English is important for their learning achievement
With concern to the causes of lack of motivation, Nunan (1999) elaborated on the causes of students' "lack of motivation" including uninspired teaching, boredom, a lack of perceived relevance of materials, and a lack of awareness about the instructional program's aims Furthermore, he believed that uninspired teaching has an impact on students' enthusiasm to learn In this setting, boring teaching sometimes reduces students' motivation owing to boredom In addition, Babu (2010) claimed that a lack of motivation in the classroom causes students to be hesitant to speak English According to him, the basis of this problem is that teachers do not inspire students to communicate in English Good instruction results in motivation After that, he goes on to say that teachers must have enthusiasm, originality, and interest in their students in order to motivate them to learn better and actively communicate in English In other words, teachers' teaching ability has a significant impact on students' motivation As a result, it is critical that teachers express enthusiasm in their teaching
Last but not least, people all throughout the world are trying to improve their English today Although not everyone who learns English wants to be successful, many students stop halfway through despite their average ability Fear of making a mistake is the key cause One of the main reasons why students struggle to speak English in class is their fear of making a mistake Furthermore, some students desire to be language perfectionists so that they can easily blame themselves if they make a mistake in front of others Low self-esteem or a lack of comprehension of the listener are the origins of this issue People who are faced with this form of fear are unable to speak They only communicate and practice by themselves in this situation
The main reason for fear of mistake is that “students are afraid of looking foolish in front of other people and they are concerned about how other will see them” (Kurtus, 2001) Students were concerned that if they made an English error, their friends would laugh at them and they would receive bad feedback from their peers In other situations, individuals are concerned about how they will sound and are afraid of sounding silly, among other things
SUMMARY
Overall, learning a foreign language means learning how to apply that language in real-life situations As a result, speaking ability is regarded as the most important of all language abilities, as it reflects the way through which individuals communicate with one another This chapter shaded light on the significant of speaking skill, its definition, as well as, in addition to the students’ common mistakes in speaking English including grammatical mistakes and pronunciation mistakes, and it ended with the factors influencing students’ speaking performance
The following chapter will deal with the research design employed, variables under study, the study locale, target population, sampling procedures and sample size, research instruments, piloting, data collection techniques, data analysis and lastly ethical and logistical considerations.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH DESIGN AND PROCEDURE
The design of this research is a qualitative research Gay et al.(2011) state that qualitative research is the collection, analysis, and interpretation of comprehensive narrative and visual (i.e., nonnumerical) data to gain insights into a particular phenomenon of interest Qualitative research methods are based on different beliefs and designed for different purposes
Besides, the method applied in this study is quantitative in nature Quantitative method in this research was a descriptive statistic using numbers and percentages that used to investigate factors influencing students’ speaking performance and problems found among students in speaking Aliaga and Gunderson (2002) have described the quantitative research methods as an investigation into a social issue, acquire numerical data, and analyze phenomena using mathematically based methodologies, particularly statistics
First of all, the researcher designed questionnaires and distributed it to high school students to find out their current situation as well as their common problems when speaking English In addition, it also investigated the factors influencing their speaking skills
After that, the researcher visited speaking classes and recorded some students’ talks about various topics in classes The audio records were then brought to home, transcribed into text to be analyzed
At the same time, the researcher engaged with observation and participant observation to take notes on students’ common problems during speaking classes and causes of these problems that are relevant to her evaluation during her actual research
Next, descriptive, contrastive and comparative methods were employed to process, examine and report the data after it was collected from the questionnaires as well as audio records
Finally, the researcher applied the qualitive and quantitative methods in order to find out common problems of high school students when speaking English at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School as well as factors affecting their speaking performance.
DATA COLLECTION
The participants of this research were 120 high school students of three grades at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School: 10 th grade, 11 th grade, 12 th grade and 8 English teachers who had been working as English teachers at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School as well About students, there are both females and males selected randomly Most of them are at the age of from 16 to 18 Their English level is intermediate They come from different areas, both rural and urban ones They speak Vietnamese as their mother tongue and English as a foreign language In addition, they have learned English for above 7 years since primary school The participants have been learning English as their major subject at school About the teachers, there are 8 female English teachers at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School Among them, there are 6 teachers with bachelor’s degrees and 2 teachers with master’s degrees All the teachers have a lot of expericence in teaching English at high schools and they also claims that high school students are facing with many problems when they learn speaking skills and the teachers will try to find out the causes of these problems
3.2.2 Biographic information of the participants
As seen from Table 4.1, the majority of participants joining the survey were females, which accounts for 63,3% while the number of male participants constitutes only 31,7% However, it can be seen that this survey consists of opinions from both gender, which would properly lead to an objective result In addition, the number of years they have spent on English ranging from 5 to above 7 years In details, 19,2% of participants have learnt English for 5-7 years, which means they started learning English since they were in the grade 6 The year numbers students experiencing English over 7 years are 80,8%, which means they started learning English since they were in the grade 3 This indicates the fact that all survey-takers have studied English for a quite long time and their level of English is good enough to communicate in English fluently to express their idea
As seen from Table 4.2, all of participants joining the survey were females from different ages As a result, the researcher can acquire various perspectives among many generations of teachers Besides, the number of years they have spent teaching English ranges from 1 to over 16 years In details, 37,5 % of participants have taught English for 1-5 years, and the year numbers of teachers who have taught English for at least 6 years are 62,5 % percent Furthermore, at least a bachelor's degree is compulsory for teachers at high schools In details, 75 % of teachers have bachelor’s degree and the rest have a master’s degree Therefore, their experiences in teaching English speaking skills are good enough to help the researcher conduct this study
The researcher used semi-structured questionnaires for teachers and students which were administered to teachers of English and students at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School The questionnaires for teachers and students were preferred in the study because they were the best instruments to gather information about peoples‟ opinions and attitudes and also efficient in collecting facts and easy to administer” (Baker and Westrup, 2003)
Questions were prepared in advanced and answered in online form The reason why this method was implemented because the online method helps to gather information faster than the tradional method The large amount of information could be collected from a huge number of people in a short period of time In addition, the outcomes of the questionnaires can be quickly and easily quantified by the use of the software package As a result, the questionnaires was considered as one of the common tools to collect the data for the research
The survey questionnaires include 3 sections:
Section 1 consists of questions that were asked to find out teachers and students’ background information
Section 2 provides a thorough insight into the common mistakes that students make while speaking English In this section, there are questions designed using the Five-Likert Scale
Section 3 focuses factors influencing the students’ speaking skills
These questions are designed for following purposes:
- To find out students' attitudes toward English speaking skills
- To identify students' mistakes in communicating with others and the frequency of making these mistakes
- To analyze some reasons behind these mistakes in speaking English
Tape recording is one of the techniques that is used for collecting data The recording of audio data through devices such as tape recorders has been a significant development within qualitative research, replacing the researcher's handwritten notes One of the key advantages of recording (audio or visual) an interview is that it allows the interviewer to focus on the conversation rather than writing notes, which can be distracting to both the interviewee and the person(s) asking the questions This frequently results in a disconnected interview in which important material is neglected, forgotten, or missed (CSR- Center for Strategy Research Boston, 2006) Furthermore, taped interviews have been demonstrated to assist the interviewee and interviewer to create and foster a better relationship and rapport during the procedures, resulting in the interviewee providing more extensive and in-depth information (Mary, 2008)
The researcher recorded randomly the speech of 20 students in her classes The speech could be an individual talk, pair or group discussion with the topic ranging widely from picture description to ambition in the future The topics were chosen because these topics were appropriated to students' level and interest and that they are in the students' curriculum The students were asked to prepare for the topic at home and give their speech presentation in class to avoid some careless mistakes
The researcher observed the students ability in speaking to identify the problems in the actual technique learning process This type of instrument was to get more reliable information than others The researcher used observation to check the existing situation in the class, which may come in handy for investigating factors influencing students' speaking skills During classroom observation, the researcher observed how much students are willing to deliver speech in the class.
DATA ANALYSIS
In order to answer the research questions and meet the goal of research aim, data analysis has been done using both qualitative and quantitative data The survey questionnaires were collected, sorted out, and then the answers in each question were counted and noted carefully The raw figures were calculated, summarized in tables in order to be discussed and illustrated using comparative and contrastive techniques Besides, each record was presented in written scripts and then was examined carefully to find out common grammatical errors students' made when speaking English Frequency and percentages of the analysis were also highlighted and taken note to provide essential proofs for the statistics analysis.
SUMMARY
In short, this chapter has provided the research design and methodology involved in the thesis It has presented the participants’ background information, data-gathering instruments of the research, research procedure, and methods
The next chapter will present how the researher answered the research questions and provide the product of the researcher’s analytic process.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS SPEAKING ENGLISH IN
Attitude is considered as a necessary component in language learning Therefore, a positive attitude is regarded as one of the important factors that have an impact on language learning By providing insight into the attitudes of Tuy Phuoc 3 high school students towards learning English, it contributes to the teaching of English as a foreign language The following figure is to reveal students’ attitudes towards learning English
Figure 4.1 Students' attitudes toward speaking English
As can be seen from the pie chart, participants mostly stayed neutral when being asked if they were interested in speaking English, which accounts for 48,3 % Whereas less than a third and 9,2% of them like and quite like speaking English respectively Besides, 10 % of participants have negative points of view towards English speaking skills; they do not like it at all In contrast, there is also participants giving answer that they are extremely interested in speaking skills, which only accounts for 2,5 % This indicates that students at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School have many problems related to learning English speaking skills
Figure 4.2 Students' frequency of practising speaking English outside the class
Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never
As can be seen from Figure 4.2, nearly half of the participants rarely practise English outside the classroom, which accounts for 43,3 % The percentages of students who picked “often” “sometimes” are 4,2 % and 36,7
% respectively Meanwhile, 14,2 % of the respondents picked “Never” They made their choice for a variety of reasons However, there are a few students who are always motivated to practise speaking English even if they are not at school, which accounts for 1,7 %
Figure 4.3 Students' evaluation of the importance of speaking skills
Figure 4.3 shows that speaking skill is highly appreciated by participants, this is due to the fact that 72,5 % of participants believed that speaking skill is very important, 16,7% of them thought that this skill is important among 4 skills of English Almost all students can be aware of the importance and the necessity of speaking skill in every aspect of life This positive attitude towards the speaking skills also contributes enormously to the desirable learning outcomes of speaking ability among students However, there is 8,3 % of students that have neutral opinions towards the importance of English speaking skills and even 2,5 % of them thought that speaking skills are not necessary at all
Really Necessary Necessary Neutral Not necessary
Figure 4.4 Students' attitude of English-speaking classes
FACTORS INFLUENCING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS
LIST OF FIGURES Figure number
4.1 Students’ attitudes toward speaking English 32 4.2 Students’ frequency of practise speaking English outside the class
4.3 Students’ evaluation of the important of speaking skills
4.4 Students’ attitude of English – speaking classes 34 4.5 Teachers’ responses to students’ mistakes during oral work
4.6 Factors influencing students’ speaking performance 42 4.7 The performance conditions in speaking class 50
It is undeniable that English has an important role in global communication, so the number of English language learners has been increasing However, to become a mastered or just successful language learner, they must have the ability to speak in this language In this case, Nunan stated that for most people, mastering speaking skills is the single most important aspect of learning a second or foreign language (Nunan,
1991, cited as in Hendra Heriansyah, 2012) In the same way, Richards and Renandya (2002) assert: "A large percentage of the world's language learners study English in order to develop proficiency in speaking" (p.201) They argue that speaking is the most important language skills that need to be controlled, and they assess learning achievement based on mastery of speaking skills (Burnkart, 1998, cited as in Hendra Heriansyah, 2012)
Moreover, it can be said with certainly that English provides us with numerous benefits and advantages People from Europe, Africa, and Asia speak English, so instead of learning their challenging language, we may converse with them in English That is the reason why speaking English is often believed to be one of the most important subjects that we should not miss, as David Crystal (2003) in his book- “English as global language” stated that "Out of 360 persons, around 330 speak English as their mother tongue"
Many students, however, struggle to express themselves due to a lack of vocabulary, poor grammatical structure, psychological influence, mother language tendencies, and inaccurate pronunciation Listeners can understand but not very well when students speak English words incorrectly
In Vietnam, a recent study (Quyen, V.P., et al., 2018) showed that most high school students faced both internal and external challenges For example, those difficulties were the lack of vocabulary to express ideas in speaking English and the limitation of English speaking strategies; or teachers did not create interesting speaking activities and correct mistakes of speaking with few responses
At schools, English is also a compulsory subject which most Vietnamese students have learned since they were in grade 3 After graduating from high school, students with a great passion for this foreign language choose English as a major for their higher education When learning this language, learners have to master four main skills: listening, reading, speaking and writing Of these four skills, speaking is considered to be the most difficult skill that requires a huge amount of time to practice and promote
Being one of the English teachers at Tuy Phuoc 3 high school, I recognize that the majority of the students cannot speak English fluently or pronounce correctly, even most of the other excellent students cannot communicate well with each other or with the teachers in English I desire to help students at my school improve their English speaking skills
For those reasons, with a view to looking into the factors that influence their ability to communicate in English at Tuy Phuoc 3 high school, I am so inspired to conduct a study on “Factors influencing students’ speaking skills - A case study at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School” as my master thesis 1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The major aim of this study is to investigate some major problems the students encounter when they learn to speak English and find out the factors affecting the students' speaking performance In order to achieve this aim, some objectives are posed:
- To identify major problems that high school students have in the process of learning speaking skills
- To point out the factors influencing students’ speaking skills
Based on the aims of the research, the following questions are expected to be answered:
1 What are the problems that Tuy phuoc 3 high school students encounter when they learn to speak English?
2 What are the factors affecting their speaking performance?
Due to the research conditions, it was impossible for the research to be carried out in a large-scale investigation of all classes at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School Instead, it focused on 120 students and 6 English teachers at Tuy Phuoc 3 high school to find out common problems that students encounter when they learn to speak English and it also focused on factors affecting their speaking performance
It is obvious that English is an international language which is spoken widely around the globe As a result, speaking is one of the basic competencies which should be mastered by students in the process of learning English as a foreign language The study sheds light on speaking issues of high school students, which could point out the factors causing major problems that students make during English speaking classes at school and some feasible solutions to deal with such difficulties
The study is structured as follows:
Chapter 1, Introduction: announces the rationale, aims, research questions, scope, methods and design of the study
Chapter 2, Literature Review and Theoretical Background: shows some previous relevant studies and relevant theoretical background for the study
Chapter 3, Research Methodology: introduces the methods of research, procedures of the study and the research design
Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion: deals with the data gathered, presents the author's finding and discusses
Chapter 5, Conclusion and Implications: summarizes the main findings which gives answers to research questions as well as suggestions for further researches
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORICAL BACKGROUND
The purpose of this chapter is to provide an extensive review of literature on speaking skills First, an overview of speaking skills including definitions of speaking skills is presented This chapter is also designed to present some major problems that high school students encounter when they learn to speak English Then, factors influencing students’ speaking skills are pointed out
The definition of speaking, just like other abstract terms, varies from scholar to scholar The variety of its definition can be explained as the result of the difference in the mentality of people from different periods as well as the difference in the perspective from which speaking is considered However, they all believe that speaking involves speech and through speech speakers express their opinions, attitudes, feelings, etc
Burns & Joyce (1997) defined speaking as an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves the production, reception, and processing of information Its form and meaning are determined by the context in which it takes place, which includes the participants themselves, their shared experiences, the physical surroundings, and the purposes for speaking It means that speaking is learners’ ability to express their opinions, feelings, and ideas orally, coherently, logically, and appropriately in a given meaningful context Moreover, speaking is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving Nevertheless, speech is not always unpredictable Speaking requires that learners not only understand how to provide specific points of language like grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary (linguistic competence), but also that they understand when, why, and in what ways to provide language
(sociolinguistic competence) Finally, unlike written language, speech has its own abilities, structures, and traditions To achieve a specific speech act, a good speaker combines a variety of abilities and knowledge
According to Chaney and Burke (1998, p.13), speaking is defined as
“ the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts." This skill is critical in the teaching and learning of second languages, but it has been neglected for years, particularly in high schools It demands as much attention as reading skills because it is the vehicle that carries many of the most basic transactions
CHAPTER SUMMARY
In this chapter, the data was analyzed and discussed; the findings of the study are the answers to research questions proposed in the introduction
The findings show that students at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School face up to many problems For example, they lack understanding of grammatical patterns, incorrect pronunciation, and have limited vocabulary Besides, student’s interest, mother tongue use, fear of making mistakes are also one of the problems that students encounter in the process of learning English speaking skills On the other hand, they also have psychological problems such as shyness, lack of confidence and anxiety
The causes of these problems are so various: performance conditions, affective factors, listening ability, topical knowledge, teacher’s feedback However, although the result of anxiety data is in accordance with the theory, the result of the observation still shows that the value of anxiety is not significant or anxiety does not have a big influence on students’ speaking ability It can be caused by various aspects such as students’ characteristics, the class atmosphere during the speaking classes, and it can also be caused by the teacher's attitude Students’ characteristics indicate that they are not concerned with English It can be seen during the lessons that many of them underestimate the speaking tasks and there are also some students who do not pay much attention during the assigned tasks Therefore, teachers’ attitude determines the students’ characteristics and class atmosphere
The next chapter focuses on the summary of findings, conclusions and the recommendations drawn from the findings presented.
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
CONCLUSIONS
The study made an effort to shed light on students’ common problems in speaking English as well as factors affecting students’ speaking skills at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School.Main findings of the study are as follows:
5.1.1 Common problems Tuy Phuoc 3 high school students encounter when they learn to speak English
Based on the results of this research, it can be concluded that two kinds of common problems that students come across during their English speaking performance are linguistic problems and psychological problems
According to the findings of this study, wrong word pronunciation was one of the problems students made when speaking in English This occurred in cases where a student borrowed phonemes from their mother tongue The students' vocabulary and grammar were directly borrowed from Vietnamese, a language that is significantly different from English As a result, the literal translation from mother tongue was incorrect Students also showed poor turn-taking abilities, which resulted in inadequate discussions and speech episodes because they did not give each other enough time to speak These problems made it difficult for students to become fluent English speakers and discouraged them from practicing Moreover, most of the students are always shy and anxious when they are required to perform a speaking task, which is a very common problem for all the students when learning English speaking skills.Thus, students should have a friendly and cooperative environment that can help them overcome their difficulties in oral performance
From all the problems in speaking that faced by students, the researcher has underlined some important factors affecting students’ English speaking ability
5.1.2 Factors influencing the students’ speaking skills
An analysis of the overall results of the study indicated that there are many factors that affect students’ speaking skills at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School Results of the teachers’ questionnaire indicated that time for preparation, topical knowledge, teachers’ support, motivation to speak, anxiety by the surrounding environment are the most affecting factors that affect students’ speaking proficiency from their point of view The experts, who are viewed as efficient elements in the teaching process, have conveyed their opinions that teaching methods are significant in teaching speaking They stressed that there is an urgent need for more teacher training on communicative approaches and methodologies of teaching speaking skills Furthermore, they have also stressed that the pressure to perform well, listening ability, in addition to teachers’ feedback during students’ English speaking performance also hinder their speaking proficiency All in all, these results prove that performance conditions, in addition to affective factors, play a leading part in forestalling the process of learning to speak English efficiently
On the other hand, according to the analysis from teachers’ records, there are also other factors influencing students’ speaking skills at Tuy Phuoc
3 High School apart from those mentioned above such as: the lack of vocabulary and grammar, the lack of exposure to native speakers, students’ interest, mother tongue, the lack of proper orientation and the fear of making mistakes
The mentioned factors in this paper have an important role in developing learners’ speaking skill The factors make learners less self- confident and less comfortable in their speaking classes According to the review of the study's literature, teachers should be aware of their students' interests and feelings, try to boost their learners' self-confidence, and select the most effective teaching strategy to keep them engaged in the speaking activity Teachers ought to encourage students who can speak English They should develop a friendly relationship with their students, make them feel very comfortable in class, and inspire in them a strong desire to learn English in general and to speak it in particular In addition, the literature review of this study represented that teachers should give their students enough time to practice speaking, help them overcome their shyness by being friendly and encouraging them to speak up, remind their students not to worry about making mistakes, and provide them with sufficient instruction and direction Teachers should provide their students with more opportunities to speak English by assigning them speaking assignments that will improve their communication skills and encourage them to participate in speaking activities
In order for students to feel comfortable making mistakes, teachers must also be aware of when and how to correct them.
IMLICATIONS
After carrying out an analysis of the factors influencing students’ speaking skills, certain implications can be drawn as follows:
In this study, the researcher has sought to respond to a number of the research questions related to the topic
The first practical contribution of the present research is that it provides us some common problems that Tuy Phuoc 3 high school students encounter when learning English speaking skills including linguistic and psychological problems Thanks to the findings above, teachers can realize that most of the students have difficulties in using vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation correctly Especially, the last one appears to be the most serious problem when they speak English On the other hand, as we can see from students and teachers’ responses, nearly all the students always feel anxious during English speaking lessons at school This implication is hoped to bring teachers a better insight into the difficulties that students face as they learn English speaking skills at school
The second important implication of this study derives from the finding on factors influencing students’ speaking skills at Tuy Phuoc 3 high school From the analyzed data above, teachers can have a more specific vision of the causes that affect students’ English speaking performance Remarkably, performance conditions and lack of vocabulary and grammar are two of the most influential factors Ideally, this part is the foundation for teachers to find out appropriate solutions to help students make better progress in English speaking classes
In light of the previous conclusion, teachers should allow enough time for students to prepare their speaking activity or presentation, as well as provide clear instructions and explanations regarding the content being presented The study also advises teachers to constantly stimulate and support students in their efforts to develop their speaking skills Teachers must create a relaxed and comfortable environment for students to develop their speaking skills, as well as provide engaging teaching and learning activities to increase students' self-confidence and willingness to speak, and also provide more opportunities for students to explore and express themselves in English class Students are expected to be more confident in speaking English and not afraid of making mistakes because they may learn from them in order to speak properly Students should also practice and familiarize themselves with English speaking on a regular basis If they can't find somebody to chat to, they can talk to themselves or the mirror This will develop their speaking skills effectively
This study is also believed to be the pioneering study investigating the factors affecting students’ English speaking performance at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School, so that it is hoped to serve as a base on which other studies can rely to make further exploration related to this aspect.
LIMITATIONS
Although a great deal of effort has been made in collecting and analyzing the data, limitations are unavoidable because of the lack of time and available materials for doing the surveys, finding the reliable sources of information as well as the limited knowledge and research skills of the researchers
Firstly, it should not only be investigated in terms of factors influencing students’ speaking skills The analysis and results should be better if it is related to potential solutions to deal with these factors
Secondly, the records of teachers at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School are only eight This is mainly due to the number of English teachers at this school is limited In addition, the condition in speaking class is affected by the noise from surrounding environment and the record device is not good enough (smart phone); therefore, the quality of some of record files is not high and some are unusable
Finally, as for the implication, it would be more interesting if we found out more game activities for class or suggested more kinds of practice for students at home It is the limitation of time and our knowledge and skills that prevents the researcher from exploring more students’ common problems during speaking classes, which are foundation for the researcher to do research on the factors that cause these problems.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES
Further research regarding factors influencing students speaking performance is suggested It is suggested to focus on studying and explore each factor separately and in detail Moreover, they can use other methods and more instruments in order to obtain better results
On the other hand, it is suggested that further investigation be made into the following areas:
+Improving Students’ Pronunciation through Phonetic Training
+ Communication Strategies for High School students
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This survey questionnaire is designed for the topic“Factors influencing students’ speaking skills - A case study at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School”
I would be grateful if you would complete the following items All your personal information will be kept strictly confidential and only be utilized for the research Thank you for your cooperation
Please put a tick ( ) in the box beside the option(s) you choose
4 How long have you been teaching English?
SECTION 2: Common mistakes that students make in speaking English
5 What kinds of grammatical errors do students often make while speaking English ?
Errors Usually Often Sometimes Rarely Never
1 They cannot control when to use past, present, future tense while speaking
2 Subject and verb in their sentences do not agree in number
3 They are sometimes confused when organizing words in a sentence
5 They often make ambiguous sentences (sentences which have more than one way of understanding)
6 They often use double negative to emphasize the negative (Ex: I don’t see nothing)
Errors Usually Often Sometimes Rarely Never
7 They use wrong voice (active voice and passive voice.)
8 They are confused of whether using -ing or –ed adjectives
9 They often use two conjunctions in a complex sentences (Although…but…
10 They feel difficult with phrasal structure because they do not know how to organize kinds of word in a phrase
6 Which pronunciation mistakes do students tend to encounter when speaking English?
SECTION 3: Factors influencing the students’ speaking skills
7 How are the performance conditions in speaking class?
Are the students given plenty of time to perform a speaking task?
Do the students prepare for a task before the task is performed?
Do the students have the pressure to perform well? Are the teachers patient, understanding, sympathetic and supportive?
8 How are your students in speaking class?
9 What is your reaction when the students make mistakes during oral work?
(You can have more than one choice)
Keep quiet, smile and encourage them to go on their task
Stop them and correct their mistakes
Get annoyed when students keep making mistakes
If students cannot think of what to say, you may prompt them forwards
Watch, listen to students and write down points to give feedback afterwards
10 In your opinion, which of the following factors affects your students’ speaking performance? (You can have more than one choice )
Time allowed to perform a speaking
Thank you very much for taking your valuable time to complete this survey Your opinions are greatly appreciated
Bảng câu hỏi khảo sát này được thiết kế cho đề tài “Các yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến kỹ năng nói của học sinh - Một nghiên cứu tại Trường THPT Tuy Phước 3 ”
Vui lòng đánh dấu (X) vào ô bên cạnh (các) tùy chọn bạn chọn)
PHẦN 1: THÔNG TIN CÁ NHÂN
2 Bạn học tiếng Anh được bao lâu rồi ?
PHẦN 2: THỰC HÀNH NÓI TIẾNG ANH
3 Bạn nói tiếng Anh ở mức độ nào trong lớp?
4 Bạn có thường xuyên luyện nói bên ngoài lớp học không?
5 Bạn nghĩ gì về sự cần thiết của kỹ năng nói đối với công việc tương lai của bạn?
6 Bạn cảm thấy thế nào trong lớp học nói?
PHẦN 3: NHỮNG LỖI SAI HAY GẶP PHẢI KHI NÓI TIẾNG ANH
7 Bạn có hay gặp những lỗi sai sau khi nói tiếng Anh ?
1 Bạn có hay mắc lỗi ngữ pháp khi nói tiếng Anh ?
2 Bạn có hay mắc lỗi phát âm khi nói tiếng Anh ?
3 Bạn có hay mắc lỗi về trọng âm của từ khi nói tiếng Anh ?
4 Bạn có hay mắc lỗi về ngữ điệu của câu khi nói tiếng Anh ?
5 Bạn có hay đệm quá nhiều từ "um",
"ah", trong khi nói tiếng Anh ?
6 Bạn có hay mất kiểm soát về tốc độ khi nói tiếng Anh ?
7 Bạn có hay mắc lỗi về từ vựng khi nói tiếng Anh ?
8 Bạn có hay lan man, lạc đề khi giao tiếp tiếng Anh ?
PHẦN 4: NHỮNG NHÂN TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG TỚI KĨ NĂNG NÓI CỦA BẠN
8 Những yếu tố nào ảnh hưởng đến hiệu suất nói của bạn?
Nhân tố Hoàn toàn đồng ý Đồng ý Trung lập
1 Tôi có trình độ tiếng Anh thấp
2 Tôi quên quy tắc ngữ pháp tiếng Anh
3 Tôi gặp áp lực khi nói vì không có đủ thời gian để suy nghĩ thấu đáo
4 Tôi có thói quen suy nghĩ bằng ngôn ngữ mẹ đẻ
5 Tôi thiếu việc thực hành nói
6 Tôi không thể kiểm soát những gì tôi đang nói
Các yếu tố khác (vui lòng ghi rõ)
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1 Wow In terms of the factors affecting students are speaking skill, for me, there are some major factors The first one is effective factors and the next one is teachers’ correction or teachers’ feedback or the teachers’ support.It's very important because the teacher encourages the students to speak confidently.They don't care about making mistakes.They don't care about what what they can make during their overall performance It's good for the students to bemore confident to express their ideas Yeah.The first one effective factors.The next one is teachers’ feedback or support And the last one is maybe a student don't have enough vocabulary, don't have enough structures that's related to grammar or the vocabulary or the useful expression or the phrases that related to the topic.So this is one of the elements that affect the student confidence express their ideas because maybe they are not confident because they have no ideas, no words to express their ideas (Mrs.Hung)
2 I think there are two important factors influencing students speaking skills The first one is effective factors that's related to confidence, anxiety, or motivation.So these factors may encourage students to be more confident,to be more motivated or less answers about their overall performance in public or in front of class.The second important thing is about the lack of grammar Actually your lack of grammar knowledge preventing you from being able to fully express your idea.(Mrs.Tu)
3 Yeah It's quite an interesting question I will answer about the factors influencing the students speaking skills Ok First of all I would like to share something about my actual teaching When students are required to perform a speaking test they always say that teacher I have not done yet, teacher please give me more time or teacher I have no idea to say about this topic and I know that there are many factors that cause situation Firstly, the student often lack of vocabulary and grammar Sometimes they don't know how to use the grammar correctly and moreover they have the limitation about the vocabulary so they can't brainstorm enough vocabulary to talk about the topic And the second factor is that the time for preparation Teacher should give students enough time for them to prepare for the task Think it is one of the most important things that students are often shy or anxious about their performance because they scared of being laughed at by their classmates That's all (Mrs.Hao)
4 Actually, speaking skill is regarded one of the most difficult aspects of language learning.Therefore, there is a variety of factors influencing students’speaking skill.The first one is the subject matter, the second one is the ability of listening skills.The third one is proper vocabulary and the last one is the feeling of anxiety.The last one, I mean that students may not have enough confidence to speak English Besides, there is an important thing is that teachers shouldn’t give negative comments during students’ speaking activities Just encourage them to practise speaking English regardless of their mistakes And from the people Yes that's all the fact that I want to mention to you (Miss.Trinh)
5 I think there are two factors, two main factors that influencing students’ speaking skills, which are external factors and internal factors So internal factors such as self confidence,their motivation to express themselves, and Besides that, student knowledge of the topic also important factors.And I think their language competency, such as what vocabulary should they use, how to use that grammar correctly and how to pronounce some words, and external factors such as the classroom, the speaking