A survey on english speaking competence activities of english majored sophomores at thu dau mot university

ABSTRACT The English-speaking competence is one of the most important language skills, especially in the future learning and working environment of each student, especially students spec

Lecturer: Nguyễn Hoàng Minh Đức (MA)

Binh Duong, December 2020

Lecturer: Nguyễn Hoàng Minh Đức (MA)

Binh Duong, December 2020

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

Student full name: Pham Thi Phuong Nhi

Student ID: 1722202010236

Title of paper: "A survey on English-speaking competence activities of

English-majored sophomores at Thu Dau Mot

University"

I hereby confirm that I am the sole author of the paper presented Where the work

of others has been consulted, this is duly acknowledged in the paper’s bibliography I have also not consulted any other unnamed online sources All verbatim or referential use of the sources named in the bibliography has been specifically indicated in the text

Binh Duong, 13/12/2020 The writer

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the process of writing the topic, the writer encountered diverse problems, but fortunately, the writer has received a lot of help in selecting topics, searching documents, conducting survey, ete

Firsly, the writer would like to thank the instructor, Ms Nguyen Hoang Minh Duc, who took the time to guide the writer carefully, specifically in the case of busy teaching From the first step of selecting a topic to the final revision of the report, she has provided many insightful and detailed pieces of advice to help the writer open up many of the writer's research ideas, as well as giving valuable comments in the process

of writing reports on the writer's topic

In addition, the writer would like to thank the teachers of Thu Dau Mot University

in general and the Faculty of Foreign Languages in particular for creating a healthy learning environment, teaching knowledge so that the writer has the opportunity to learn, practice valuable training, improve knowledge, skills and implement this research project

Lastly, without the support of the English language sophomores during the survey, the writer could not finish the research Therefore, the writer would like to express the gratitude to all of them

Sincerely thanks!

Pham Thi Phuong Nhi

ABSTRACT The English-speaking competence is one of the most important language skills, especially in the future learning and working environment of each student, especially students specializing in the English language However, the speaking competence of English-majored sophomores is difficult To recognize the difficulties, the student's English competence is self-evaluated by the students and the methods that student applies to improve their ability The author has surveyed the students, especially the English-majored sophomores of Thu Dau Mot University to get relatively accurate figures on this issue through survey questions

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION, MOTIVATION AND PURPOSE cccssscesseee 1

3.2 Definition of Speaking Competence 6 3.3 Factors affecting speaking competence 6 3.4 The importance of English-speaking competence to students .scseseseses 7

10 5.2 The Actfivities to Improve English-speaking compefence « 14

CHAPTER VI: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 20

6.1.1 Students’ self-evaluation about the students’ English-speaking

LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Student’s self-evaluation about the difficulty of speaking English 10 Table 2 Student’s opinion about student’s current speaking competence 11 Table 3 Students’ opinions about difficulties students often have in speaking

Table 4 The factors that influence English-speaking abiÏÌfy <« 13 'Table 5 Current speaking actfivifies inside English-speaking cÌass 14 Table 6 Current while-speaking activities inside English-speaking class 15 Table 7 Students’ opinions about post-speaking activities inside English-speaking

Table 8 Current pre-speaking activities 18 Table 9 Activities to improve students’ English-speaking competence outside the

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION, MOTIVATION AND PURPOSE

1 Rationale for research

Today, English is growing rapidly and widely used all over the world English is spoken by more than 400 million people worldwide Learning English is more and more important in Vietnam these days The open-door economic policy and Vietnam’s joining World Trade Organization (WTO) help Vietnam’s economy, culture, and education to develop The proficiency of English brings opportunities for employment in international companies People are rushing to learn English to get good jobs as a result

Speaking competence is playing a very important role As the above fact, the number of people who need to communicate in English is considerably increasing They are recognizing that English is not a scientific subject, but a tool to earn a living This recognition helps speaking competence get more attention in the curriculum in universities

Thu Dau Mot University is one of the universities in Binh Duong province with The English Language Program at Thu Dau Mot University equips students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to meet the requirements of working in an English-speaking environment at home and abroad However, the English students at Thu Dau Mot University still have many limitations in using this language, especially the limitation of the speaking competence of students

The desire to find out what the students really do to improve their speaking competence and how the teachers actually teach speaking competence in the speaking classes makes the writer conduct this research

2 Research Question

The main questions to be answered in this study are:

-What is the general situation of the English-speaking competence of English-majored sophomores at Thu Dau Mot university?

-What activities do students do to improve their English-speaking competence?

3 Research purpose

This study is to discover students’ self-perception of students’ English-speaking competence and the current English-speaking competence activities applied inside and ouside the classrooms

4 The significance of the research

This study will help the writer have a clearer, more realistic overview of English- speaking competence at TDM University This will support future research as background information

5.Background information about the research: Context and subjects

5.1 Context

Thu Dau Mot University

The school's precursor is Binh Duong Pedagogy College - a prestigious pedagogical training institution of Binh Duong province, providing a team of professional teachers, teaching expertise, and dedication to the younger generation June 24, 2009, Thu Dau Mot University (TDM university) was established under Decision No 900 / QD-TTG of the Prime Minister The mission of the University is to train high-quality human resources for socio-economic development and international integration of Binh Duong province, the Southeast region - the southern key economic region, and to become a consultancy center research in regional

Over 10 years of establishment and development, the University has shaped itself

as a multidisciplinary and multi-field educational institution It is developed by an advanced university model With the philosophy of "Aspiration - Responsibility - Innovation", Thu Dau Mot University has affirmed the position of a high-quality scientific research and training unit, which is a representative of the intellectual power

of Binh Duong province

English Language Program

The English Language Program at Thu Dau Mot University equips students with the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes to meet the requirements of working in an English-speaking environment at home and abroad

The training content consists of 120 credits, of which:

+ General education knowledge: helping students develop political thinking, critical- creative thinking, physical skills, teamwork skills, and scientific research methods + Basic knowledge: providing basic knowledge of the English language such as Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, Phonetics, Phonetics, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, Drafting skills speeches and presentations

+ Specialized knowledge: providing intensive English language knowledge about business communication, translation, and interpretation

+ Internships with diverse extracurricular activities help students be confident, creative and acquire the necessary skills to be able to adapt to a dynamic and challenging working environment

According to the above training content, Speaking is in the series of the Basic knowledge

of the English program

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6 Subjects

The participants are 130 sophomores from random English-majored classes at TDM University

7 The limitations of the research

First, this is small-scale research with only 130 students The number of participants can not represent the whole quantity of students who are studying English- speaking competence at Thu Dau Mot University

Second, the participants may have psychological variables that affect the answers

in the questionnaires The writer may not get totally precise feedback from the participants in case they have something in their minds that distracts them from full attention to the questions

CHAPTER IT: OVERVIEW OF PREVIOUS WORK

English is now a very popular language in the world and is applied in almost every country, including Vietnam With the strong development of Vietnam today, English is becoming more and more widely used, whether you work in any job, any profession Among the 4 skills of Listening - Speaking - Reading - Writing, speaking is considered

an important skill and is mainly applied in daily life to serve the daily communication when going to school, going to work and socializing However, not everyone can have a good level of speaking In fact, speaking is a difficult skill and few people speak fluently, especially students in the first years of university Recognizing that importance, many studies have been done to improve the Speaking competence of students in schools The first study is the project " Cai thien ky nang tieng anh tại lop su pham tieng anh k46 " carried out Ha Van Thuy and Luong Van Van They studied the learning and English communication situation of group | of the monk class It is English k46 In this topic, the author has analyzed the strengths such as the great passion of students for foreign languages and their desire to improve their foreign language skills On the other hand, the author surveyed students of this class through a few questions to find out their weaknesses From the causes that affect the students’ foreign language proficiency, the authors have proposed a number of measures to overcome the weaknesses of the students The researcher separated the class into small groups depending on the student's ability to study, the level of learning and understanding, and electing group leader to help students self-promote the best of their ability The team members with equal ability made students feel a lot more confident and learn more effectively

The second study is the research " Lam the nao de cai thien ky nang noi tieng anh cho sinh vien" by Ho Minh Thu The author has given some facts about the speaking skills of students, but it is not really clear Above all, the topic is “Lam the nao de cai thien ky nang noi tieng anh cho sinh vien" but the author has not really explored and delved into the main subject of the topic The author only proposed some recommendations for teachers and students

The third study is the topic " Mot so bien phap giup hoc sinh cai thien ky nang noi tieng anh" by Nguyen Thi Minh Ngoc This study has pointed out the real situation affecting students’ speaking skills, helping the writer to better understand one of the causes that adversely affect students’ speaking competence In addition, the author has proposed a number of methods to improve student speaking competence and conduct surveys in several classes and bring expected results

These researches have partly helped the writer understand the current situation of teaching and learning Speaking in Vietnam and get several activities to improve English

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speaking competence The writer could not find any particular study of Speaking Competence at Thu Dau Mot university, though

Summary

This section has briefly reviewed the previous researches relating to speaking competence The next section will introduce the key terms of the research

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this section, the writer gives the definitions of speaking and speaking competence, factors affecting speaking competence and the importance of English- speaking competence

3.1 Definition of speaking

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, speaking is the action of conveying information or expressing one’s feelings in speech Also, Brown and Yule (1989, 14) stated in their book “Speaking is to express the needs3request, information, service, etc” Most people spend their everyday life in communicating with others What

is more, “Speaking”, as Harris (1977, 81) said, “is a complex skill requiring the simultaneous use of different abilities developed at the different rates”

Moreover, Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997) Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving However, speech is not always unpredictable

3.2 Definition of Speaking Competence

For Chomsky’s "Language" substitutes "competence" defined as a fluent native speaker’s knowledge (largely tacit) of grammaticality 4 of whether or not putative sentences are part of his language, according to structural relationships

Speaking competence is regarded as the measure of knowing a language (John, 1982) Therefore, language competence means the ability or knowledge to do something

In addition, Hymes (1972) defined an individual’s communication competence as the ability to use language effectively in actual communication

3.3 Factors affecting speaking competence

Hymes (1971) believes that L2 learners need to know not only the linguistic knowledge, but also the culturally acceptable ways of interacting with others in different situations and relationships His theory of communicative competence consists of the interaction of grammatical, psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic, and probabilistic language components According to Hymes's theory, Canale and Swain (1980) suggest that communicative competence consist of grammatical competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence which reflect the use of linguistic system and the functional aspects of communication, respectively

However, the writer focuses only on the linguistic knowledge in this study, for this study is small and cannot cover all the above factors

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3.4 The importance of English-speaking competence to students

To improve speaking competence, students should understand that English Speaking is so important in life because of the following reasons Firstly, in communication, the ability to speak English well will help students feel confident in front of everyone With speaking competence, the opponent will easily catch the content which they want to say, and it will be easier for them to communicate Next, with English speaking competence, they will be able to communicate in the language that all people

in the world use, which will help them easily and quickly adapt to a new life and establish relationships with new people globally Finally, Vietnam is a developing country, so many foreign companies are investing in Vietnam Therefore, there are thousands of opportunities to work in a professional environment with an extremely attractive salary, but this requires them to have a good level of English in order to have the opportunity to apply for the position better Therefore, English-speaking competence is essential in their work, study, and daily life

Summary

This section has briefly reviewed the theoretical background relating to the topic

to help people better understand the terminology used in this topic The next section will describe the methodology of the research

CHAPTER IV: METHODOLOGY

This section will describe clearly the methodologies used in the study such as research object, the participants, the data collection instrument

4.1 Research object

The writer focused on examining the level of speaking competence of current sophomores based on students’ self-perceptions and researching current activities the students is applying to improve speaking competence

4.2 The participants

The target population is the sophomores of 5 random sophomore classes at Thu Dau Mot University

4.3 The data collection instrument

To approach and exploit the topic effectively and accurately, the writer has applied the following specific method

4.3.1 Document research:

In this paper, the writer has studied documents from various methods such as eBooks on the Internet, books, and other research documents in the library at TDM university

4.3.2 Questionnaires:

The writer applies Google Drive to share an online questionnaire with students Through the online questionnaire on google drive, students who are asked will select the most appropriate answers and fill the questionnaire

As to the questionnaires, there is one questionnaire: a questionnaire for students The format of the questionnaires is designed to be clear and appeal to facilitate participation and increase cooperation

The questionnaire for students is written in both English and Vietnamese There are eight closed questions and no open questions in the questionnaire The content of the questionnaire consists of two main parts: the self-perception of English-speaking competence (1 question); Methods of developing English-speaking competence which has two sub-parts: In class activity (2 questions) and Extra activity (2 questions) The writer took IELTS Speaking Band Descriptors as the basis to set up the questions in the self-perception part The questionnaires are kept anonymous so that the participants feel free, to tell the truth

How was the research carried out?

For student participants, the writer has applied the following steps to retrieve data First, the writer asked and searched for contact information of English-majored

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sophomores Secondly, the writer contacted them, sent an online questionnaire, and asked them to help the writer to conduct the survey Because the questionnaire was written in Vietnamese, the question did not cause any difficulties to the students, so they did not need much guidance These students helped send emails to their classmates to help the writer to complete the survey better

4.4 The data categorization procedure

The data is divided into 2 main parts: Student’s self-evaluation about the English- speaking competence and students’ activities to improve English speaking competence 4.5 The data analysis procedure

The writer is still a student, and she does not have any special software to analyse the collected data to have a better analysis The writer simply uses percentages to analyse the data, though First, the writer presents the data in tables and then analysis the results

of students

Summary

This section has just presented the methodology employed in the research The next section will present the results of the research and then have a discussion of these results