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First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Đỗ Thị Thanh Hà, for her valuable advice, constructive comments, patient support and encouragement in the completion of this M.A. Thesis. I would like to send my sincere thanks to my informants in this study, whom I selected as the target subjects of this research. Without their enthusiastic contribution and cooperation, this research would certainly not have been completed. In the thesis, it is inevitable that the ideas of many other writers in this field are reflected and developed. Their ideas have stimulated my thinking on doing this paper. My debt to the authors listed in the references is equally great. To all these scholars, I offer my sincere thanks. Finally, I am greatly thankful to my family and friends, who are forever a great source of support and encouragement.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Đỗ Thị Thanh Hà, for her valuable advice, constructive comments, patient support and encouragement in the completion of this M.A. Thesis. I would like to send my sincere thanks to my informants in this study, whom I selected as the target subjects of this research. Without their enthusiastic contribution and cooperation, this research would certainly not have been completed. In the thesis, it is inevitable that the ideas of many other writers in this field are reflected and developed. Their ideas have stimulated my thinking on doing this paper. My debt to the authors listed in the references is equally great. To all these scholars, I offer my sincere thanks. Finally, I am greatly thankful to my family and friends, who are forever a great source of support and encouragement. i ABSTRACT Realizing many 11 th graders at Toan Thang high school being passive in English Speaking classes, this study aims to explore students’ perception toward their reticence behaviour in real- world classes, factors contributing to it and students’ expectation. A total of 373 students enrolled in eight 11 th grade classes, were first observed in eight English Speaking lessons, and then filled in two sets of open- ended questionnaire. After that, six of them were interviewed using semi-structured format. A mix- method analysis is conducted to explore the findings. From the study, it is revealed that students have strong willingness to participate in English activities though they rarely do so in reality due to various learning misconceptions. The result indicates that teachers need not only to use interesting, various and suitable activities to encourage students to learn the target language but also to explain and have more informal talks with students to teach them how to learn effectively. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i ABSTRACT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v LIST OF TABLES AND GRAPHS vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rationale 1 2. Aim of the study 2 3. Research questions 2 4. Scope of the study 2 5. Methods of the study 3 6. Design of the study 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4 1.1.Reticence behaviour in foreign language class 4 1.1.1.The concept of reticence 4 1.1.2.Interpretation of reticence 5 1.1.3.Consequences of reticence 6 1.2.Students’ reticence behaviour in English speaking lessons 7 1.2.1.Students’ participation in verbal interaction 7 1.2.2.Potential obstacles to students’ verbal participation 8 1.2.3.Teachers’ roles towards students participation 9 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODS OF THE STUDY 11 2.1.The fitness of case study to the research purpose 11 2.2.Participants and setting of the study 12 2.2.1.Participants 12 2.2.2.Setting of the study 12 2.3.Data collection 14 2.3.1.Data collection instruments 14 2.3.2.Data collection procedure 17 2.3.3.Data analysis procedure 19 CHAPTER 3: FINDING AND DISCUSSION 20 3.1.Findings 20 3.1.1.Students’ reticence behaviour in English Speaking classes 20 3.1.2.Factors affecting students’ behaviour 25 3.1.3.Students’ expectation 29 3.2.Discussion 31 3.2.1.To what extent do the students remain reticent in English speaking classes, and what activities make them the most reticent? 31 3.2.2.What are students’ perception of their own learning behaviour and factors influencing such behaviour? 32 iii 3.2.3.What are students’ perspectives on whether, and how, to move the classroom to a more interactive mode? 33 PART C: CONCLUSION 35 1.Recapitulation 35 2.Pedagogical implications 36 3.Limitations of the study 38 4.Suggestions for further study 39 REFERENCES 40 APPENDIX 1: OBSERVATION TRANSCRIPT I Observation Transcript 1 I Observation Transcript 2 IX APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE (English) -Part 1 XVI APPENDIX 3: QUESTIONNAIRE (English) -Part 2 XIX APPENDIX 4: QUESTIONNAIRE (Vietnamese) -Part 1 XXII APPENDIX 5: QUESTIONNAIRE (Vietnamese) -Part 2 XXV APPENDIX 6: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (English) XXVIII APPENDIX 7: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (Vietnamese) XXX APPENDIX 8: DETAILED ANALYSIS RESULT FOR GRAPH 1 XXXII XXXII XXXIII XXXIII APPENDIX 9: DETAILED ANALYSIS RESULT FOR GRAPH 2 XXXV APPENDIX 10: DETAILED ANALYSIS RESULT FOR GRAPH 3 XXXVI iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT Communicative Language Teaching EFL English as a Foreign Language ELT English Language Teaching Ss Students T Teacher v LIST OF TABLES AND GRAPHS TABLE 1 Data collection procedure in brief Page 18 GRAPH 1 Students’ self evaluation- The frequency of attending English Speaking Activities Page 22 GRAPH 2 Students’ real participation in class Page 24 TABLE 2 Students’ self evaluation- The frequency of attending English Speaking Activities (with Mean, Mode, Median, Standard Deviation, p- value and Standard Deviation formula in excel) XXXI GRAPH 3 Students’ evaluation of main factors affecting their reticence Page 26 TABLE 3 Students’ self evaluation- The frequency of attending English Speaking Activities (with Correlation coefficient formula) XXXII TABLE 4 Students’ self evaluation- The frequency of attending English Speaking Activities (with Spearman- Brown correction formula) XXXII TABLE 5 Students’ real participation in class (with p- value formula) XXXIV TABLE 6 Students’ evaluation of main factors affecting their reticence XXXV vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Because of the increasing status of English as a world language, people in Viet Nam in general and in my hometown of Tien Lang in particular are becoming more and more aware of the importance of the spoken English. This awareness was reflected not only during many daily informal talks but also officially in the national English language curriculum (MOET, 2006) which required high school students to be able to conduct conversations in English on familiar daily life topics. Despite this expectation, many high school students have been observed to be either quiet, uncooperative or to speak English with a trembling voice, make numerous unnecessary pauses, or have shaking hands or legs, etc. during the lesson. This study was motivated by my concern about the apparent reluctance of Toan Thang high school students to participate in English- speaking class interactions. The decision to look into students’ reticence at Toan Thang high school was first inspired by my teaching and living experience with the students in this school for more than three years. Such contact not only allows a valuable rapport with members of this case but also encourages my interest in further understanding students’ perception and expectation. Initial observations at the selected location reveals that spontaneous discourse was rare in many English speaking classes and many oral interactions not only did not include any students’ individual thoughts or elaborated responses but also fostered a great deal of dependence on the teacher. As a result, both teachers and students have become frustrated and often complained about the quality of the learning outcome. This makes it urgent to examine this phenomenon to better understand the learning situation at Toan Thang high school and ultimately enhance the learning and teaching of oral English here. The second reason is my realization that students themselves and students in different context (both educational context and 1 background) exhibit different behaviour and worldviews, which would contribute diverse perspectives, experiences and insights into the topic of reticence. The above reasons actually drive the researcher to a study thesis, namely “An investigation into students’ reticence in English speaking lessons - A case of Toan Thang high school”. 2. Aim of the study The current study aims at: • Exploring the nature of students’ reticence in English speaking lessons at Toan Thang high school and some common situations for reticence to flourish, • Investigating students’ viewpoints of their own learning behaviour and potential obstacles to their verbal participation in the classroom, • Finding out students’ aspiration on whether, and how, to move the classroom to a more interactive mode. 3. Research questions (1) To what extent do the students remain reticent in English speaking classes, and what activities make them the most reticent? (2) What are students’ perception of their own learning behaviour and factors influencing such behaviour? (3) What are students’ perspectives on whether, and how, to move the classroom into a more interactive mode? 4. Scope of the study Within the framework of a minor M.A. thesis, the researcher only focuses on the real situation of reticence happening among 11 th graders in their English speaking lessons at Toan Thang high school, as well as their various angles and desires towards this issue. 2 5. Methods of the study To achieve the aims mentioned above, the study adopts the methodological approach of the case study using mixed methods for data collection. The tools for data gathering include class observation, semi-structured interview and questionnaire. 6. Design of the study There are five main chapters in the thesis: Part A: Introduction, which presents the rationale, aims, scope and research questions. Part B: Development including: Chapter 1: Literature Review, which reviews theoretical foreground from the previous studies on students’ reticence behaviour in general and in English speaking classes in particular. Chapter 2: Research Methods of the Study, which composes of 3 parts: the fitness of case study to the research purpose, participants’ description and setting of the study (the case), and data collection. Chapter 3: Findings and discussion, which is the discussion of the findings through an analysis of the data collected through means of researching: observations, semi-structured interviews and questionnaire. Part C: Conclusion, in which major findings of the study will be briefly summarized as well as the acknowledgement of the limitations of the study will be elaborated. Besides, the classroom transcripts, interview transcripts, questionnaires and tables of data analysis results are included in the Appendices. 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1. Reticence behaviour in foreign language class 1.1.1. The concept of reticence The terminology of reticence in academic writing was first introduced in 1965 with Phillips’ article introducing to the field of speech communication and the notion that some people had difficulty communicating across a range of situations. After his groundbreaking contribution, reticence caught the attention of many researchers and linguists under different cognate constructs such as reticence (Keaten & Kelly, 2000), communication incompetence, communication apprehension (McCroskey, 1970) and unwillingness to communicate (Burgoon, 1976). Their studies, no matter how different they were, agreed with Keaten and Kelly on an affirmation that reticence was a communication problem with cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions and was due to the belief that one was better off remaining silent than risking appearing foolish. (Keaten & Kelly, 2000) My own standpoint of reticence is strongly influenced by Keaten & Kelly’s affirmation, which has been narrowed down to a specific situation- English Speaking classroom. Reticence, in this paper, refers to behaviour of reticents who have a tendency to avoid communication, that is, to engage in chronic silence out of fear of foolishness. They remain silence as a patterned response to the threat of negative evaluation. The feeling of uneasiness, worry, nervousness and apprehension experienced by non-native speakers when learning or using a second or foreign language has now changed learners into reticents since they possess a set of faulty beliefs about communication and foreign language learning process. 4 [...]... bored; 8 (3) the student is isolated from the learning community; (4) the student has not learned the value or strategies of engagement or he/ she does not appreciate or believe in that value Additionally, reticence can be the result of high tension beween the new approach and learners’ traditional perception (Jarvis, 1986; Little & Sanders, 1990) To sum up, there are a variety of factors that lead... doubt and finally students’ reticence Le (2002) reported that despite the strong promotion of CLT, the lack of appropriate in- service professional development meant that “teachers are generally incapable of teaching English communicatively in their real- world classroom Instead, they spend most of their lesson time explaining abstract grammar rules and guiding their students in choral readings.” 9 Secondly,... group D to enter university and college (Lương Trường Xuân, 2014) 2.2.2 Setting of the study The analysis was carried out as a case study of Toan Thang high school This is a state- run school located in Tien Lang district, which is about 30 kilometer from Hai Phong city center The inhabitants here live mainly on farming, deep-sea fishing, and a wide range of traditional handicrafts There isn’t any English... club or center operating at the moment in this area 12 At this school, students attend 5 obligatory periods in the morning and three optional extra- classes in the afternoon Eleventh graders follow the curriculum promulgated by the Ministry of Education and Training, with a weekly English class time of 135 minutes, split into three lessons of 45 minutes each Only students from class 11B8, the intermediate... questionnaire was either structured, open-ended, or both The questionnaire was first written in English and then, to ensure clarity for respondents, was translated into Vietnamese Since it contains a large number of items, which could have affected the concentration span, the interest and the willingness to answer of teenagers, I decided to administer it into two parts which were delivered twice in each... 8) The data from the graph above shows that “group work” (item 8.5, 8.7 and 8.17) ranks first in the order of preference of seventeen English lesson activities in question 8 This strong desire for active participation contrasts sharply with the passive role that students are said to adopt It seems that students prefer working in pairs or in groups rather than working individually, no matter who are... trying to find out the exact word, the participants can use other similar 26 phrases, description, explanation and even body language to transfer the message rather than using Vietnamese or revealing reticent Relating to this method, all of the interviewees feel strange and surprised as they have no idea how to use them Equally, with the mean score of more than 3.5, the communicative competence is... satisfaction and higher persistence rates (Tsui, 1996) Furthermore, the act of being silent, reluctant to participate or speak using the target language has always been considered as the main source of frustration, and failure for not only students but also instructors (Flowerdew & Miller, 1995; Jackson, 2002), which is essentially important when the conceptualization of the Communicative Language Teaching... teacher’s misconception about students’ ability that causes students’ consciousness of being underestimated or neglected, which finally leads to reticence behaviour A survey by Tomlinson & Bao (2004) demonstrated that many teachers do not wish to change their methods, with more than half the respondents not wishing to participate in intervention for change, and some refusing to believe that the learners... considered a main source of inhibiting students’ verbal performance Many teachers remain too conservative to accept different ways of viewing the same issue (Bao, 2004) In brief, the influence of the teacher’s traditional role over students’ attitudes toward classroom participation is indicated in four main tendencies One view highlights teachers’ unchallenged expertise and self- complacency as a cause of poor . 40 APPENDIX 1: OBSERVATION TRANSCRIPT I Observation Transcript 1 I Observation Transcript 2 IX APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE (English) -Part 1 XVI APPENDIX 3: QUESTIONNAIRE (English) -Part 2 XIX APPENDIX. Speaking lessons, and then filled in two sets of open- ended questionnaire. After that, six of them were interviewed using semi-structured format. A mix- method analysis is conducted to explore the. self evaluation- The frequency of attending English Speaking Activities (with Spearman- Brown correction formula) XXXII TABLE 5 Students’ real participation in class (with p- value formula) XXXIV TABLE