VIỆC KHAI THÁC NGỮ LIỆU THỰC tế TRONG bài THUYẾT TRÌNH kĩ NĂNG nói của SINH VIÊN năm THỨ BA, KHOA sư PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

This initial chapter outlines the research problem and rationale for the study together with its scope and significance. Above all, the aims and objectives are identified with six research questions which serve as guidelines for the whole research. Finally, the chapter concludes with an overview of the rest of the paper to orientate the readers throughout this paper. 1.1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study In the past ten years, there has been a variety of research studies on using authentic materials in language teaching and learning by many authors, namely Martinez (2002), Oura (n.d.), Berardo (2006), Lombardi (2007), McCoy (2009), Nguyen (2007), and Phan (2011), of which the two latest were conducted on learners at FELTE, ULIS, VNU. Those works exploited a variety of aspects in using this type of materials, which has contributed considerately to the situation of teaching and learning English in some countries as well as in Vietnam. Besides, there have many studies on presentation, which were carried out by students in ULIS, VNU. One of them is the thesis “A study on how to give a good presentation for secondyear students of English Department, CFL, VNUH” by Pham (2003). However, to the best knowledge of the researcher, there has not been any author exploiting the use of authentic materials in speaking presentation among thirdyear students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU. Furthermore, it is necessary to take an investigation into the lessons drawn by these students from this group activity. Having been one of the students who have experienced this activity in the course, the researcher find it necessary and significant to carry out an inside research on the aspect of working with authentic materials for speaking presentations. The real situation has inspired the researcher to convey the topic “The exploitation of authentic materials in speaking presentations by thirdyear students, FELTE, ULIS, VNU” with the expectation to fill in the gap of the previous studies.

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION

This initial chapter outlines the research problem and rationale for the study together with its scope and significance Above all, the aims and objectives are identified with six research questions which serve as guidelines for the whole research Finally, the chapter concludes with an overview of the rest of the paper

to orientate the readers throughout this paper.

1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale for the study

In the past ten years, there has been a variety of research studies on usingauthentic materials in language teaching and learning by many authors, namelyMartinez (2002), Oura (n.d.), Berardo (2006), Lombardi (2007), McCoy (2009),Nguyen (2007), and Phan (2011), of which the two latest were conducted onlearners at FELTE, ULIS, VNU Those works exploited a variety of aspects inusing this type of materials, which has contributed considerately to the situation ofteaching and learning English in some countries as well as in Vietnam

Besides, there have many studies on presentation, which were carried out

by students in ULIS, VNU One of them is the thesis “A study on how to give agood presentation for second-year students of English Department, CFL, VNUH”

by Pham (2003)

However, to the best knowledge of the researcher, there has not been anyauthor exploiting the use of authentic materials in speaking presentation amongthird-year students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU Furthermore, it is necessary to take aninvestigation into the lessons drawn by these students from this group activity.Having been one of the students who have experienced this activity in the course,the researcher find it necessary and significant to carry out an inside research on

the aspect of working with authentic materials for speaking presentations The real

situation has inspired the researcher to convey the topic “The exploitation of authentic materials in speaking presentations by third-year students, FELTE, ULIS, VNU” with the expectation to fill in the gap of the previous studies.

1.2 Aims of the study and research questions

This study, firstly, is going to discuss students’ perceptions of authenticmaterials Secondly, it aims to find out the reasons why the students chose to useauthentic materials in their speaking presentations Next, the researcher desires toexploit the difficulties that the students faced when using these materials.Furthermore, the researcher expects to discover the students’ methods ofexploiting authentic materials in completing this activity or in other words, theirsolutions to the difficulties they encounter Finally, the researcher also aims toexploit some lessons drawn by the students throughout their process of workingwith authentic materials to carry out their presentations

Those aims will be reached by the responses to six research questions:

1 What are authentic materials as perceived by the students?

2 Why and how did the students use authentic materials for their speakingpresentations?

3 What is the relation between the students’ use of authentic materials andteacher’s comments?

4 What were the difficulties that the students encountered when using authenticmaterials?

5 What did the students do to overcome the difficulties in using authenticmaterials?

6 What is the difference in the use of authentic materials between main-streamstudents and fast-track students?

1.3 Significance of the study

Once having been completed, this research would be of benefits for thetarget population including teachers and students, policy makers as well as otherresearchers who are interested in the same field

To begin with, as the research problem has stated, the findings of this studywould contribute to students’ awareness in their use of real-life materials Thishopefully would provide students with a theoretical base and enhance their studyskills and working skills in the future

Besides, the findings discussed in Chapter 4 and the implications provided

in Chapter 5 of this study would be used as a helpful source for teachers andpolicy makers To be specific, students’ understanding about authentic materials,their difficulties in using authentic materials in speaking presentations and theirsolutions to those difficulties will be presented in the fourth chapter In the fifthchapter, pedagogical implications will be suggested by the researcher with the aim

to make the best use of students’ awareness of authentic materials in their speakingpresentations

Last but not least, this study hopefully would be a reliable source for otherresearchers who are interested in the same field The data, findings and

implications will be available and free for them to access Besides, they couldlearn from some limitations of this study

1.4 Scope of the study

First, materials in general are categorized into many types In this study,the focus is on authentic materials employed by students

Second, authentic materials can be used for various purposes and fields.However, the paper only investigates the use of authentic materials in speakingpresentations by English learners at FELTE, ULIS, VNU

Third, the scope is narrowed to a population of 87 third-year studentsincluding 80 students in main-stream group and 7 students in fast-track group, and

a teacher who was in charge of speaking skills in the fast-track group in semester

1, academic year 2011-2012

1.5 Methodology

1.5.1 Data collection methods

Survey questionnaires and interviews were combined to collect the datafrom the target population To be specific, the same set of questionnaire wasemployed to survey third-year main-stream students and fast-track students Afterthe data from survey questionnaire was synthesized, two semi interviews with amain-stream student and a fast-track student were carried out for the sake ofthoroughly investigated data Simultaneously, a set of questions for interview wassent to the target teacher to exploit his opinions on his students’ use of authenticmaterials in their speaking presentations

It should be noted that all of the survey questionnaires and interviews’questions were designed by the researcher, based on the researcher’s purposes ofemploying the data, and were delivered to the participants in the second semester

of academic year 2011-2012 Besides, the language used in survey questionnaireswas simple English so that the participants had not difficulty in answering Next,Vietnamese was encouraged in the interviews with the students for the sake ofclear and understandable expressions and opinions, and friendly face-to-faceatmosphere In fact, English was recognized sometimes in the interviews when thestudents wanted to use the accurate terminologies However, the interview with theteacher was carried out online and in English because the teacher was not available

in Vietnam at the time of the interview There was only one interview, with thefast-track student, was recorded as she agreed to do so

1.5.2 Data analysis methods

Firstly, the data from the survey questionnaire was decoded andsummarized into tables and charts From this result, the researcher made use ofrelevant interview questions to illustrate those quantitative data

Secondly, the interviews with teacher and students would be transcribedand synthesized By researching the data, the answers by the students and theteacher were presented in tables and figures so that the would find it convenient tofollow Data from the interview with the teacher would be used for answeringresearch question 3 Meanwhile, all of the answers collected from the studentswould be employed to answer six research questions of this study

The data collected from the questionnaires and the data from the interviewswere analyzed separately After that, they were combined together to answer all ofthe research questions

1.6 An overview of the rest of the paper

The rest of the paper includes five chapters as follows:

Chapter 2 (Literature review) provides the background of the study,

including definition of key concepts, description of the context in which speakingpresentations are conducted in FELTE, ULIS, VNU

Chapter 3 (Methodology) describes the participants and instruments of the

study, as well as the procedure employed to carry out the research

Chapter 4 (Results and discussion) presents, analyzes and discusses the

findings that the researcher found out from the data collected according to sevenresearch questions

Chapter 5 (Recommendations) presents the researcher’s suggestions to

resolve remaining problems in using authentic materials in speaking presentations

in FELTE, ULIS, VNU

Chapter 6 (Conclusion) summarizes the main issues discussed in the paper,

the limitations of the research as well as some suggestions for further studies

Following this chapter are the References and Appendices.

In this chapter, the researcher has elaborated on the following points:

(1) Statement and rationale for the study

(2) Aims and objectives of the study

(3) Scope of the study

(4) Methods of the study

(5) An overview of the rest of the paper

Summary

The chapter has provided the rationale for the study by stressing the role

of authentic materials in language learning and teaching as well as disclosing the research gap The framework of the paper has also been elaborated on with the six research questions and clearly defined scope These elaborations have not only justified the major contents and structure of the study but will also work as the guidelines for the rest of the paper.

CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW

This second chapter, as the name says it, sheds light on the literature of the study, specifically the background and a number of studies related to the research topic In this chapter, a detailed presentation of the research background will be provided with the four key concepts “speaking presentations”, “authenticity”,

“materials” and “authentic materials” critically identified, together with a brief discussion of the context of speaking presentations conducted in FELTE, ULIS, VNU Literature gap in previous studies will be offered simultaneously in the discussion of the key concepts

2.1 Speaking presentation

2.1.1 The concept of speaking and speaking presentation

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the verb “speak”means “to talk to somebody about something” or “to have a conversation withsomebody”, and “presentation” means “the act of showing something or of givingsomething to somebody”

Meanwhile, some authors have defined speaking as “an interactive process

of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processinginformation” (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997, cited in Florez, 1999)

Brown (1994, cited in Florez, 1999) has stated that speaking is one of thetwo most used skills in classroom, together with listening Sharing a similarconcern with Brown, perceived “public speaking and presentation skills are inmuch demaand in today’s world” (Coombe, England & Schmidt, 2011) Coombe,England and Schmidt (2011) also cited an advice by Osborn and Osborn (2004)

that “good orals and written skills can be your most possession” regarding theirrole in job searching

2.1.2 Speaking presentation in the CLT context

Communicative language teaching (CLT) emphasize on group work and,therefore, materials for classroom in the CLT context promote teachers andlearners to “make use of a wide variety of small-group activities” (Richards,2006) The speaking presentations exploited in this research study belong to agroup activity in five speaking classes

Moreover, CLT is supposed to foster authenticity in general, and the use of authentic materials in particular, as it provides learners “a preparation for survival

in the real world” (Richards, 2006)

2.2 Authenticity

2.2.1 The concept of authenticity

The concept of authenticity has been discussed for years and “createsconfusion because of a basic ambiguity” (Widdowson 1983, p.30 as cited inMishan 2004) Multiple interpretations of the term have emerged in many studies

by scholars and theorists, which results in the immensity of definitions

According to Grellet (1981, p.8 as cited in Mishan 2004, p.13),

“authenticity means that nothing of the original text is changed and also that itspresentation and layout are retained” In his book, Mishan (2004, p.13)) also citessome quotations by some well-known experts in the field of authenticity to supportthe idea about the originality and the uniqueness of authentic texts

Another approach to the understanding of authenticity is suggested byRogers and Medley (1988, as cited in Shimoossi & Ketabi 2007, p.150) is that

“authenticity is the naturalness of form, and appropriateness of cultural andsituational context” However, Chavez (1998, as cited in Shomoossi & Ketabi

2007, p.150) clarifies that authenticity cannot be defined as “anything reallyexisting in the outside world” since “any text taken out of its original context andaway from its intended audience automatically becomes inauthentic” In otherwords, authenticity is created in the process of bringing an item from the real life

to the users’ situations

Those definitions are even not detailed enough to persuade the researcherswho refer authenticity to “the acts of authentication by students and their teacher”(Van Lier 1996, p128, as cited in Mishan 2004, p.15) Two years later, thisopinion by Van Lier was also mentioned in the theoretical base of Bacha’s work asauthenticity is a “process of personal engagement” and dependent on “a learner’sself determination and commitment to understanding” (Van Lier, 1996 cited inBacha, 2006) Back to 1995, Lee (as cited in Shomoossi & Ketabi 2007, p.150)also agrees that authenticity must be built up “through the interaction of the users,situations and the texts By synthesizing the opinions about learners’ engagementand interaction with materials, Mishan (2004, p.15) states that authenticity is

“associated less with the text” than with the learners’ “interactions” with that text

2.2.2 The importance of authenticity in language learning

As the topic authenticity has become “problematic within a framework ofEnglish as an international language” (Kramsch & Sullivan, 1996), manyresearchers raise their concern about the benefits that authenticity brings tolanguage users

According to Garcia-Carbonell et al (2001, as cited in Phan, 2011, p.26),researchers and practitioners of EFL “have faced the issue of communicativecompetence as a goal in language acquisition” This communicative movement hasraised the awareness of developing students’ skills that can be used in the outsideworld (Guariento and Morley, 2001, as cited in Vahid baghban & Pandian, 2011,p.1) Moreover, authentic learning opens up to “real-life decision making” and

“lifelong skills” and, thus, prepare students with the awareness of “thecomplexities of ill-defined real-world problems” (Lombardi, 2007, p.10)

Several related studies suggest that authenticity provides language learners

“both linguistics and cultural information that they may not be available inpedagogical texts used in traditional classroom” (Kim 2000, p.190, as cited inPhan, 2011, p.25) This researcher also states that authenticity considerablycontributes to the process of “overcoming certain cultural barriers to languagelearning” (Kim, 2000, as cited in Al-Musallam, 2006, p.4) Besides, Rogers andMedley (1988, as cited in Mousavi & Iravani, 2012, p.2) agree that learners have

to use real-world language if they want to develop their “functional proficiency”and real-world communication

The issue of authenticity filling the gap in language between classroom andreal life has been recently raised by Adam et al (2010) as it helps learners

“understand all written or oral materials containing real, not processed language,produced by a real speaker or for a real audience and in a real situation”.According to Lebow and Wager (1994, p.3, as cited in Phan 2011, p.26), asignificant job of education is to transfer the production from the stage “knowingsomething” to the latter stage “using it when relevant” Lebow and Wager (1994,p.3, as cited in Phan 2011, p.26), suggests a reason for the existence of the gap

between classroom and real world that is the lack of “the contextual features ofreal-life problem-solving situations”

Furthermore, authenticity plays a role in making language lessons moreappealing to students as they have a chance to approach what is really happening

in real life Having studied in this field, Akar and Yildirim (2000, as cited in Oguz

& Bahar, 2008, p.331) prove that authenticity is an effective way to increasestudents’ motivation and thus increase the productivity of language teaching.Besides, teaching and learning atmosphere can be enhanced by the appearance ofauthenticity since the teachers are equipped with relevant “linguistic and structuralbasis” (Taylor et al., 2004, as cited in Oguz & Bahar, 2008, p.331)

2.2.3 The classification of authenticity

There are also several ways to classify authenticity since there exist severalorientations to the term authenticity

Breen, M (1985 cited in Al-Musallam, 2006) proposes four types ofauthenticity which are in continual interrelationship with one another during anylanguage lesson, including text authenticity, learner authenticity, task authenticity

and situation authenticity

Table 1 Classification of authenticity according to Breen (1985)

Authenticity of the text or

text authenticity

The authentic qualities of a given text and a means

to help the learners develop an authenticinterpretation

Authenticity of the learners

or learner authenticity

The learners must discover the conventions ofcommunication in the target language whichenables them to acquire the meaning interpretationshared among fluent language users

Authenticity of tasks or task

authenticity

“The chosen tasks should involve the learners notonly in authentic communication with texts andother in the classroom, but also in learning and thepurpose of learning.”

Authenticity of the actual

social situation

The provision of the conditions in which theparticipants can publicly share the problems,achievements and overall process of learning alanguage together as a social activity

Taylor (1994, as cited in Tatsuki, 2006) shares similar viewpoint He liststhree facets of authenticity summarized in Table 4 below:

Table 2 Facets of authenticity according to Taylor (1996) and Breen (1985)

Authenticity of language Authenticity of text used as input data for learners

Authenticity of learners’ own interpretation of suchtexts

Authenticity of task Authenticity of the tasks conductive to language

learningAuthenticity of situation Authenticity of the actual social situation of the

language classroom

Another way to classify authenticity is suggested by Philips and Clifton(2005, p.5), which is illustrated in Figure 1:

Figure 1 Classification of authenticity according to Phillips and Clifton (2005)

2.3 Materials

2.3.1 Definition of materials

Richards and Schmidt (2002, p.333) propose a definition for the termmaterials as “anything which can be used by teachers or learners to facilitate thelearning of a language” This idea is backed up by Tomlinson (2011) Besides, helists many sources of materials for language learning and teaching such as “videos,DVDs, emails, youtube, dictionaries, grammar books, readers, workbooks,newspaper, live talks by native speakers, instructions given by a teacher, taskswritten on cards or discussions between learners” (Tomlinson, 2011, p.2) Whilestudying about materials development, he defines materials as “anything which isused to increase the learners’ knowledge and/or experience of the language.” Inthis study, the researcher focuses on authentic materials

2.3.2 Materials in communicative language teaching

According to Richards (2006), communicative language teaching (CLT)offers learners communicative competence which older methods such asaudiolingualism and situational language teaching fail to do (p.9) He points out anapproach to language teaching in the 1970s and 1980s that requires teachers to

“rethink their teaching, syllabuses and classroom materials” (Richards, 2006, p.9).

In other words, materials play a significant role in building up a methodologicalbase for communicative language teaching

Richards and Rodgers (1986, as cited in Nguyen, 2006, p.9) divide CLTmaterials into three types: text-based, task-based and realia This research onlyfocuses on realia materials as it discusses the topic authenticity While studyingabout CLT materials, Nunan (1989, as cited in McKendry, 2006, p.5) argues thatmaterials should be found in “realia rather than textbooks” and their primary role

is “to promote comprehension and communication” This research is going todiscuss the characteristics that make authentic materials different from other types

of materials

2.4 Authentic materials

2.4.1 Definition of authentic materials

According to Bacon and Finnermann (1990), authentic materials are

“produced by and for native speakers of the target language” (Bacon andFinnermann cited in The HKU Scholars Hub, n.d pg 6)

In his journal “The effect of authentic materials on the motivation of EFLlearners in English language teaching”, Peacock (1997, cited in Berardo, 2006)based on authentic materials’ purposes to define them as “materials that have beenproduced to fulfill some social purpose in the language community.” Meanwhile,

it is agreed by Wallace (1992, cited in Berardo, 2006) that authentic materials are

“real-life texts, not written for pedagogic purposes.”

Authentic materials is regarded as those in “spoken or written” form, whichare produced for communicative purpose and not for specific pedagogic purpose

(Nunan, 1999, cited in Oura, n.d pg 67) Nunan (1999) also stated that usingauthentic materials could help to bring the “real world” to language classroom

Although the definition of the term “authentic materials” has been in a

continuous debate, the researchers who are aforementioned have had the commonperception that authentic materials are those produced from and for realcommunicative situations, and not for the purpose of teaching and learningEnglish

2.4.2 The importance of authentic materials in a speaking presentation

2.4.2.1 Advantages of authentic materials

Firstly, the advantages of using authentic materials for children at thekindergarten level has been worked out by Duquette, Dunnett and Papalia (1987,cited in The HKU Scholars Hub, n.d.) After that, Allen et al (1988, cited in TheHKU Scholars Hub, n.d.) has proved the significance of authentic texts for highschool students From these studies, it is necessary to appreciate the important role

of authentic materials for learners at many levels

Secondly, authentic materials are perceived by Brinton (1991, cited inOura, n.d.) as an enhancement in exchanging classroom language and real-worldlanguage Two other researchers in the field of authenticity, Clarke and Silberstein(1977), have provided favorable arguments on this type of materials: authenticmaterials “provide cultural information about the target language” and “exposure

to real language”, “relate more closely to learners’ needs”, and “support a morecreative approach to teaching” (cited in Richards, 2006)

Later, Nunan (1997) has emphasized the importance of learning withauthentic materials by suggesting the learners “listen and read authentic material

of as many different kinds as possible” (cited in Oura, n.d.)

Besides, Berardo (2006) has shared his personal experience that authenticmaterials are more attracting to his students in comparison with the textbooks Thematerials were perceived by his students as “interesting”, “up to date” and

“stimulating”

2.4.2.2 Problems in using authentic materials

It is undeniable that authentic materials play a significant role in languageteaching and learning nowadays However, people has been arguing thedisadvantages of using those materials

Firstly, Guariento and Morley (2001, cited in The HKU Scholars Hub, n.d.)has claimed that authentic texts may not suit the learners at low levels since thoselearners may find them “lexically and syntactically difficult” Therefore, the use ofthese materials sometimes causes learners’ misunderstanding and annoyance

Another researcher who also emphasized the lexical sophistication of

authentic materials is McCoy (2009) In his study “Using authentic materials: Keeping it real”, authentic materials were regarded as being more difficult than the

artificial materials, “unsimplified” and with “complex syntactic patterns andvocabulary.”

Some well-known researchers such as Williams (1983), Swan (1985),Kienbaum, Russell and Welty (1986), and Peacock (1997) has raised the need ofmodifying and simplifying authentic materials so that they match the levels of

learners as they were aware that many of their students had found authenticmaterials less attractive than the traditional or “artificial” classroom materials (TheHKU Scholars Hub, n.d.)

Widdowson (1987) and several authors were even more critical whenstating that “authentic materials often contain difficult and irrelevant language”and that “using authentic materials is a burden for teachers” (cited in Richards,2006)

Martinez (2002) has mentioned several disadvantages of authenticmaterials: “culturally biased”, “unnecessarily difficult to understand outside thelanguage community”; therefore, “special preparation” is required for betterunderstanding

Summary

The chapter has provided the theoretical base for the whole study through careful elaboration on the key concepts “speaking presentations”, “authenticity”,

“materials” and “authentic materials” The review of a number of related studies

in this chapter has revealed a literature gap which the researcher is pursuing to bridge through this study.

CHAPTER 3 – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In the previous chapter, a brief overview of the literature on the research topic was given, which built up a theoretical basis for the whole research study In this chapter, the methods applied to answer the six research questions would be described in details The participants, the instruments and the procedure of data collection and data analysis would be specified

3.1 Participants

3.1.1 Population

Speaking presentation is one of speaking activities assigned for students inEnglish Department who major in teaching The students have been producingboth group presentations and individual presentations since the first semester ofthe first academic year in their university After six semesters experienced in theactivity, they are qualified enough to be invited to be participants in this study.Besides, they are experienced in finding and selecting materials from a wide range

of sources with various genres and writing styles Furthermore, they are aware ofthe need for significant and relevant information which help them understand theauthors’ opinions and purposes implied in the materials as well Moreover, theyare also qualified in using adequate language to express themselves Therefore, 80mainstream students and 7 fast-track students in FELTE, ULIS, VNU are capable

of exploiting authentic materials for their speaking presentations and providing theresearch with some implications needed for completing this research

On the other hand, the speaking skill teacher, who has been in charge ofspeaking lessons of this group, experienced in teaching and studying the skill Healso played an important role in instructing students to carry out this activity as

well as analyzing students’ works and consulting them From the perspective ofthe researcher, this teacher is qualified enough to become a participant of thisstudy

3.1.2 Sampling method

For the sake of reliability, the samples were selected purposively by theresearcher Speaking presentation studied by the researcher is a group activity.Questionnaires were provided to obtained some quantitative data from thestudents After that, semi-structured interviews were conducted to investigate thehidden perceptions behind the superficial information provided in thequestionnaire stage by the students Both of these data collection instruments weredesigned by the researcher and data collection stages took place after the groupshad carried out their speaking presentations in class Besides, a teacher, the onewho was in charge of supervising the students in fast-track group, was interviewedwith a separate set of questions

3.2 Data collection instruments

In order to answer five research questions, both survey questionnaire andsemi-structured interview were employed by the researcher

3.2.1 Questionnaire

Questionnaire was selected as the main source of data for this research.Questionnaire was defined by Brown (2011, cited in Dornyei, 2002) as “anywritten instruments that present respondents with a series of questions or statement

to which they react either by writing out their answers or selecting from amongexisting answers.” Besides, questionnaire was regarded as “being economical andpractical than individual interviews” by Mackey and Gass (2005, pg 94) TwoVietnamese researchers Hoang and Nguyen (2006, pg 18) also had an argument infavor of questionnaire as this is an efficient data collection instrument in terms oftime, effort and financial resources

Multiple-choice questions are employed in order to save participants’ timeand effort Besides, there are some open-ended questions designed with the aim toexploiting clearer answers and examples from the participants

in a qualitative research because it can be used as a “follow-up to certainrespondents to questionnaires” (McNamara, 1999, cited in Valenzuela &Shrivastava, 2002) Those researchers shared the same opinion that interview hadthe advantage above the other instruments for collecting data Specifically, it isnecessary for researchers to use interview to exploit the participants’ concerns in aface-to-face way, especially for the researcher of this study, who aim to discoverthe difficulties perceived by the students in a narrow scope

In this study, the interviews were semi-structured The researcher decided

to use this type of interviews due to its strengths in making use of interactions andexploiting evidences from the interviewers (Dowsett, 1986, as cited in Nguyen,2007) Besides, by using semi-structured interview, the researcher had anadvantage to “give explanation and ask for clarification if the answer is not clear,

to prompt the respondent to elucidate further if necessary, and to establish his ownstyle of conversation” (Corbetta, 2003, as cited in Kajornboon, 2004) Thestudents were interviewed after they had delivered their speaking presentations inclass After the data in survey questionnaires had been analyzed, one student inthe fast-track group and one student in the main-stream group were invited to theinterviews with the researcher Both of the interviews with the students were based

on the same list of questions prepared by the researcher beforehand In theprocedure of each interview, the researcher made the best use of her ownexplanation to the interviewee whenever he or she doubted about the questions’meanings A teacher, who was in charge of speaking skills in the fast-track group,was also invited to an interview readily prepared with a different question list fromthe students Besides, any different opinions from expected information receivedfrom the participants were quickly jotted down to ensure the reliability and theobjectivity of this study

The open-ended questions were used in the interviews for the sake ofthoroughly exploited data The interviews with both students were carried out in

an informal way due to the fact that both sides, the interviewer and theinterviewees, are students and they are only one-year gap in age During theinterviews, the researcher managed to create a friendly and comfortableatmosphere for the participants so that the data would be collected in a natural andreliable way On the other hand, the interview with their teacher was taken placeonline as the teacher was not in Vietnam at that time Most of the time, theresearcher and the students used their mother tongue Vietnamese for the purpose

of avoiding misunderstandings and saving time Besides, English was alsoencouraged when the participants used some typical terms related to the subject ofthis study The interview with the student from fast-track group was recorded, thentranscribed and translated into English, and available for hand-in However, theinterviews with the student from main-stream group and the teacher were notrecorded as this student was not willing to be recorded and this teacher was notavailable in Vietnam.

3.3 Data collection procedure

After all of the students completed their speaking presentations in class,survey questionnaires were delivered to all of the members They were supposed

to finish the questionnaires independently for the sake of personal privacy andreliability

Next, the interviews with students and the teacher will be carried out afterall the questionnaires were collected by the researcher An interview was berecorded with the permission of the participant

3.4 Data analysis and procedure

Firstly, the data from the questionnaire stage was decoding andsummarizing into tables and charts From this result, the researcher made use ofrelevant interview questions to illustrate those quantitative data

Secondly, the interviews with teacher and students were transcribed andsynthesized By researching the data, the experience perceived by the students andthe teacher were pointed out in paragraphs so that the readers of this research

would find it convenient to follow Data from the interview with the teacher wasused for answering research question 3 Meanwhile, all of the answers collectedfrom the students were employed to answer six research questions of this study.

The data collected from the questionnaires and the interviews was analyzedseparately After that, they were combined together to answer all of the researchquestions

Summary

The chapter has presented the methodology that the researchers applied to conduct this study Data was obtained from participants from class 091.E1, 091.E4, 091.E5 and 091.E9 at FELTE, ULIS, VNU with the use of two instruments, survey questionnaires and interviews The data was analyzed carefully to ensure the validity and reliability of the research

CHAPTER 4 - RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In the previous chapter, the methodology applied to conduct this study has been thoroughly presented with descriptions and justifications of the choice of participants, research instruments as well as the process f data collection and data analysis In this chapter, all the data will be analyzed and discussed to answer each research question respectively Tables, charts and graphs are made use of for better presentation and elaboration.

It should be noted that: First, each table or figure presents the data for onequestion in the survey questionnaire by both main-stream students and fast-trackstudents Second, in every pie chart, the circle inside illustrates the data from fast-track group and the circle outside illustrates the data from main-stream group

4.1 Research question 1: What are authentic materials as perceived by the students?

Before the survey questionnaires were delivered to all the students, theywere asked whether they had heard about the term “authentic materials” before.While all of the students from the fast-track group said “Yes”, there was only aminority of the main-stream students said so When being asked about theirunderstanding about the term “authentic materials”, third-year students includingmain-stream students and fast-track student gave various answers Specifically, allthe options for definitions suggested by the researcher in survey questionnaireswere chosen