A study on the difficulties in learning speaking English of the first year students at the Faculty of Information Technology, Thai Nguyen University

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---*&*--- NGÔ PHƯƠNG THÙY A STUDY ON THE DIFFICULTIES IN LEAR

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-*&* -

NGÔ PHƯƠNG THÙY

A STUDY ON THE DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING SPEAKING

ENGLISH OF THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS

AT THE FACULTY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

(TÌM HIỂU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA

SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT KHOA CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN,

ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN)

M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10

HA NOI - 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-*&* -

NGÔ PHƯƠNG THÙY

A STUDY ON THE DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING SPEAKING

ENGLISH OF THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS

AT THE FACULTY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY,

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

(TÌM HIỂU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA

SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT KHOA CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN,

ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN)

M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10

SUPERVISOR: PHAM MINH HIEN, M.A

HA NOI - 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I: INTRODUCTION 3

1.1 Rationales of the study 3

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 4

1.3 Scope of the study 4

1.4 Methods of the study 4

1.5 Significance of the Study 4

1.6 Structure of the study 5

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1.1 Introduction 6

1.2 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 6

1.2.1 Definition of CLT 6

1.2.2 Characteristics of CLT 7

1.3 Nature of speaking and Development of speaking Skills 8

1.3.1 Definition of speaking 8

1.3.2 Characteristics of speaking 8

1.3.4 The development Approach of Speaking Skills 10

1.4 Difficulties in learning to speak English 12

1.4.1 Psychological factors 12

1.4.2 Cultural factors 15

1.4.3 Linguistics factors 16

1.4.4 Objective factors 17

1.5 Summary 19

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 20

2.1 Introduction 20

2.2 The setting of the study 20

2.3 Subject of the study 21

2.4 Instruments for collecting data 21

2.5 Data analysis 22

2.6 Summary 22

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 23

3.1 Introduction 23

3.2 Data analysis of students’ responses 23

3.3 Data analysis of teachers’ responses 32

3.4 Summary 37

CHAPTER 4: SUGGESTIONS 38

4.1 Introduction 38

4.2 Recommendations for the Teaching of Speaking to first year students in FIT 38

4.2.1 Teaching students strategies to learn to speak English 38

4.2.2 Improving teachers’ classroom techniques 40

4.2.3 Developing speaking materials 45

4.2.4 Creating speaking environment for students 45

4.2.5 Reducing the class size 46

4.2.6 Ranking the students’ ability 46

4.3 Summary 46

PART 3: CONCLUSION………47

1 1 Conclusion 47

1.2 Limitations and suggestions for further research 47

REFERENCES 49 APPENDIXES 51

LIST OF TABLES AND PIE CHARTS Tables

Table 1: Students’ judgments in speaking materials 30

Pie charts Pie chart 1: Students' competence in speaking skills 23

Pie chart 2: Student's perception towards speaking skills 24

Pie chart 3: Students' actual activities in speaking class 25

Pie chart 4: Students' perception towards difficulties in learning to speak English 26

Pie chart 5: Students' perception towards the psychological barriers to learning to speak English 26

Pie chart 6: Students' perception towards the effect of cultural factor to learning to speak English 27

Pie chart 7: Students' perception towards the effect of grammar knowledge to learning to speak English 28

Pie chart 8: Students' perception towards the effect of vocabulary to learning to speak English 29

Pie chart 9: Students' perception towards the effect of pronunciation to learning to speak English 29

Pie chart 10: Students' expectation towards the teachers' instruction 30

Pie chart 11: Students’ thought of class size 31

Pie chart 12: Students’ thought of mixed ability class 32

Pie chart 13: Teachers' perception of students' thought over speaking skills 32

Pie chart 14: Teachers' perception of students experience over speaking skills 33

Pie chart 15: Teacher's perception of students' actual activities in speaking class 34

Pie chart 16: Teacher's perception of their students' speaking difficulties 35

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT: Communicative language Teaching

ELT: English Language Teaching

ESL: Learning English as a Second Language FIT: Faculty of Information Technology

IT: Information Technology

L2: Second Language

LSC: Learning Skills Council

SLA: Second Language Acquisition

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationales of the study

David Nunan (1995) wrote: “When someone asks, “Do you know another language?” they generally mean “Can you speak the language?”(p.225)” One can not be considered to know a language without speaking it It can be seen that speaking is one of the most important skills that learners must master during the learning a foreign language process However, speaking another language is not an easy task for all people To this one, it is easy but to the others it is

so difficult

Nowadays, with the development of modern science and technology as long as the integration policy, the Vietnamese government has allowed more and more foreign companies and partners to invest in most industries in the country to help boost the economy This process has resulted in increasing interactions between Vietnamese and foreigners, especially from English-speaking countries Therefore, the demand of studying foreign languages, especially learning to speak English, has become more and more necessary

Understanding the important role of speaking skill when learning a foreign language, the Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) - Thai Nguyen University focuses on the teaching and learning English in the light of Communicative Teaching Approach FIT pays special attention to develop speaking skill Despite that, the desired effect is not high

With the hope of helping students to learn to speak English effectively, the difficulties in learning to speak English have been chosen as the topic of the present research Realizing the current difficulties that the first year students in FIT encounter will attribute to the improvement and enhancement of the learning and teaching English speaking quality in the FIT

The research will first shed a light on how learners think and study to speak English in FIT; second, it will reinterpret the recent difficulties in learning to speak English that learners meet

in terms of revised relevant theories Third, it will recommend some solutions to upgrade the learning to speak English quality in FIT Forth, it will make the teachers become more aware

of the problems may occur in speaking class, from which they can have better and reasonable solutions to their classes

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study is carried out to find out the answers for the following questions:

1 “What difficulties do students in FIT meet when they learn to speak English?”

2 “What are possible causes leading to difficulties in learning speaking skills of the first year students in FIT?”

3 “What are possible solutions to the problems?”

The study is aimed to

- Investigate the current situation of learning and teaching speaking in the FIT

- Find out what difficulties the first year students in FIT meet when they learn to speak English

- Suggest some realistic and appropriate techniques to help improve the teaching and learning to speak English in FIT

1.3 Scope of the study

In this study, the researcher tends to overview the difficulties the students in FIT face when learning speaking English and to suggest some possible solutions to the problems in order to help students learning speaking English better This is also the limitation of the study

1.4 Methods of the study

- Two questionnaires are designed to find out the difficulties that the first year students

in FIT face (one for teacher and one for students)

- Data collected will be analyzed and presented in the study

- Besides, there will be some interviews and observations carried out in informal situations

1.5 Significance of the Study

The research is the first step of a larger investigation into the difficulties in learning to speak English in a university or in a nation The goal of the research is to conduct a small survey of the difficulties that the first year students in FIT meet when they learn to speak English A questionnaire will be designed based on the three main factors: psychology, linguistics and socio-culture Data collected will be analyzed statistically The result achieved will interpret

the difficulties that the students in FIT encounter, and support further and more detailed study

of the phenomena identified here

1.6 Structure of the study

This study includes five chapters

Chapter 1: Introduction

In this chapter, the reasons why the topic was chosen are stated Besides, the background and scope of the study, the aims, the significance, the method and structure of the study are also mentioned

Chapter 2: Literature review

The relevant theories are revised in this chapter as the base for the research carried out

Chapter 3: Development

This chapter will present the development and how the study is carried on

Chapter 4: Findings and Discussions

This chapter present the research result achieved and discussed on the result acquired

Chapter 5: Suggestions and Conclusion

In this chapter, the suggestions will be presented basing on the result discussed in the previous chapter The conclusion will show a brief summary of the study and the limitation

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Introduction

This chapter revised relevant theories and studies that can be the base for the research being carried out The nature of speaking, the development of speaking as well as the main factors that affect learning to speak English of the ESL learners will be presented

1.2 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

Nunan (1989 p.194) considered “CLT views language as a system for the expressions of meaning Activities involve oral communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which is meaningful to the learners Objectives reflect the needs of the learner including functional skill as well as linguistic objectives The learner‟s role is as a negotiator and integrator The teacher‟s role is as a facilitator of the communication process.”

According to Sandra J Savignon‟s perspective (2000, pp 124 – 129): “The essence of CLT is the engagement of learners in communication to allow them to develop their communicative competence.” (p 128)

“The focus of CLT is to promote the development of functional language ability through learner participation in communicative events.” (p 126)

CLT is associated with a focus on learners‟ communicative needs, on learner autonomy, and

on negotiation of meaning It includes attention to form as well as to meaning The principles

of CLT apply also to reading and writing as well as to face-to-face oral communication

1.2.2 Characteristics of CLT

Since its appearance, CLT has improved its prominent power which no approaches appeared before it had With the change from the “weak” version to the “strong” version, CLT has changed its ideal method It focuses on the learners, and develops the syllabus based on the learners‟ needs It turns from “learning to use English” to “using English to learn it” (Howatt,

1984 p 279) CLT has its own characteristics as follows

As for British and American perspectives, CLT aims to make communicative competence the goal of language teaching and to develop procedures for teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge and the interdependence language and communication

Larsen- Freeman (cited in Rao (2002, p 87)) considered the central characteristic of CLT is that “almost everything that is done is done with communicative intent” Another feature of CLT is that “activities in the Communicative Approach are often carried out by students in small groups” (Larsen-Freeman cited in Rao (2002, p.87)) One more noteworthy attribute of CLT is “its learner-centred and experience-based teaching” (Richards and Rodgers cited in Rao, (2002, p 88)

As for David Nunan (1991 p.279), CLT has five basic characteristics:

(1) An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language (2) The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation

(3) The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on the language but also on the learning process itself

(4) An enhancement of the learner's own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning

(5) An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outside the classroom

Though CLT‟s prominent characteristics, teachers should know how to turn from the “weak” version into the “strong” one to make CLT possible The Communicative activities should be used at the proper time to arouse learners‟ interest

1.3 Nature of speaking and Development of speaking Skills

“an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and meaning and processing information, it is often spontaneous open-end, and evolving” There have been many different kinds of definitions on speaking; however, speaking can be understood as the process of forming utterance which carries a certain meaning to express one‟s idea to the others for a certain purpose

Truly speaking, speaking is one of the most necessary skills that the foreign language learners have to master Murphy (1991) stated “the ability to speak coherently and intelligently on a focused topic is generally recognized as a necessary goal for ESL students” Understanding adequately about speaking and the nature of it, ESL learners will achieve communicative competence more easily

competence refers to both knowledge and skill in using this knowledge when interacting in actual communication Knowledge refers here to what one knows (consciously or unconsciously) about the language and about other aspects of communicative language use; skill refers to how well one can perform this knowledge in actual communication.”

Richards, Platt and Weber (1985: 49) also stated:

“Communicative competence includes: a) knowledge of grammar and vocabulary of the language; b) knowledge of rules of speaking; c) knowing how to use and respond

to different types of speech acts such as: requests, apologies, thanks, and invitations; d) knowing how to use language appropriately.” (cited in Nunan (1995, p 226))

Obviously, the communicative competence depends on each person To this one it is easy, but

to this one it is difficult Since, it is assigned with many factors: psychological, socio-cultural, and linguistic factors

Generally speaking, one of the most typical characteristics of speaking is the communicative competence as mentioned above

David Nunan (1995 p.227) reckoned “Another aspect of speaking that is particularly relevant for second language speakers concerns whether or not the speaking is planned or spontaneous.” He also stated that “We tend to assume that all conversations are spontaneous, and so they are to a degree However, we all have routines, set phrases and other expressions that we use to assist us when speaking spontaneously.” Aslo discussing about the routines, Bygate M (1987) suggested that conversation can be analyzed in terms of routines Which are conventional ways of presenting information: Information routines and interactional routines

He explained informational routine recurring types of information structures, including stories; descriptions of places and people; presentation of facts; comparisons; instructions Meanwhile, interactional routines are routines based not so much on information content as on sequences

of kinds of terms occurring in typical kinds of interactions These routines can be characterized in board terms to include the kinds of turns typically occurring in given situations, and the order in which the components are likely to occur (Bygate, 1987 p.24:25) David Nunan then based on the concepts that Bygate mentioned further discussed the routines

He neither asserted Bygate‟s theory nor disclaimed He brought forward his point of view and affirmed “Bygate‟s routines facilitate communication for first language speakers because they make the interactions more predictable” However, he stated “if language were totally

predictable, then the communication would be unnecessary.” He added “for second language speakers, routines can be crucial in facilitating comprehension” Hence, when teaching and learning to speak the teachers and the learners have to enable themselves to communicate in the challenging situations, the unpredictable situation, which force the learners more actively

to take part in and to comprehend the communication Teachers and learners have to build up themselves the knowledge about grammar, vocabulary, and socio-culture to be confident when speaking Besides, they should take chances to communicate in class as well as outside classroom Though, communication outside classroom is not similar to that inside class Teachers should understand the importance of communicative competence and the differences between the two kinds of situations to help learners speak English naturally and make their speeches sound “native”

1.3.4 The development Approach of Speaking Skills

According to Byrne (1991 p.22:23) there are three phrases to develop learners‟ oral ability Phrase 1: The presentation phrase

In this phrase, teachers play the dominant role while learners passively listen and take notes With their English knowledge, teachers select materials and present it in such a way that learners can absorb knowledge easiest The oral materials introduced to learners are often in two forms: dialogue and prose Each form needs a different way to present To present a dialogue, Byrne (1991 p.22), suggested 10 following different steps

1 Establish setting by using pictures At this phrase, English should be used as much as possible

2 Draw out learner‟s experience related to situation

3 Explain some key words

4 Set listening task by asking key information of the dialogue

5 Ask listeners listen without looking at their books

6 Allow learners to have a look at their books when necessary

7 Ask learners to listen and repeat

8 Ask learners to pick up difficulties and explain difficulties

9 Ask them to practice

10 Ask them to dramatize the dialogue

Obviously, the procedure is perfect and logically arranged However, it depends on the learners‟ competence Teachers do not need to follow every step They can leave out some steps to adapt with their lectures and to make the lectures more flexible and attract the learners Byrne (1991) also pointed out 9 other steps to introduce the prose to the learners

1 Introduce the topic by asking students to look at the picture or asking them about the related things

2 Introduce the text New words and structures are given

3 Provide relevant practice

4 Set the reading task: Make questions

5 Ask the learners to read the passage in silence and find the answers

6 Ask learners to read again aloud and ask for the answer

7 Explain difficulties they still have

8 Do silent reading again because the learners need to go on with the step 9

9 Get the learners to talk about what they have learned based on the previous answers Phrase 2: The practice phrase

Learners are the centre They are given chances to practice based on the activities that the teachers created for them Learners can practice individually, in pairs or in group depending

on the kinds of materials being exploited

Phrase 3: The production phrase

Learners can practice speaking freely They can speak what they want for the sake of themselves not for the teachers Working in group can help learners a lot Since, it reduces shyness or anxiety in public speaking Learners feel safe and confident to express their ideas Byrne (1988) asserted to help learners to improve their speaking ability These three phrases should be followed orderly However, in real class it is not easy to do that because it depends

on many factors: time, learners‟ ability, materials used… A good teacher should find herself a suitable teaching method with the class

1.4 Difficulties in learning to speak English

According to Hymes (1974), (Richards & Rogers, 1986; and Hedge, 2000), to learn to speak a language, one needs to have communicative competence Communicative competence includes linguistics competence, socio-linguistics competence, and discourse competence These factors determine the success of learning to speak a language These factors are affected

by the subjective factors such as: psychology, linguistics, culture and the objective factors like class size, materials used and learning environment Therefore, they are also the factors that affect learning to speak English

1.4.1 Psychological factors

English speaking is a complicated psychological process In terms of spoken English teaching, it‟s quite essential for teachers and learners to take some important psychological factors into accounts in order to achieve better results in spoken English teaching and learning

Obviously, psychological factors play a significant role in language learning Positive emotions can facilitate the language learning process and improve learners‟ language performance, while negative emotions will bring barriers to language learning and reduce learners‟ learning capacity There have been many research on the impact of the psychological factors on learning to speak English such as the research of Wu Guang, Liang Jia-xia In their research, they focused on analyzing the psychological barriers in oral English teaching They stated four types of difficulties like self-abasement, pride, fear of difficulty, anxiety From that, they found out the causes and analyzed deeply those causes The causes that they found out are divided into two kinds subjective and objective The subjective causes then further divided into three causes: psychological factors, motivation, interest and attitude, learners‟ original ability of listening and speaking Whilst, the objective factors are classified into four types: traditional language teaching mode and method, environments of language teaching, form and content of language test, and qualifications of language teachers Also studying about this problem, Xuemei Meng and Qianyu Wang had other ideas They believed that the psychological barriers include anxiety, self-esteem and ETL and risk-taking Therefore, the influences of negative emotional factors include motivation, anxiety, low self-esteem, insecure classroom atmosphere, lack rapport between teachers and students, etc The following are some of the emotional factors in details:

Motivation:

Among the factors affecting SLA, motivation is the most important one According to Johnstone (1999, p 146), it is a drive directed towards a goal Rod Ellis (1994, p 715) considers motivation as “the effort which learners put into learning an L2 as a result of their need or desire to learn it” Lightbrown and Spada (2001, p 33) define motivation in SLA as “a complex phenomenon which can be defined in terms of two factors: learners‟ communicative needs and their attitudes towards the second language community” Research has shown that whether second language learning is successful or not closely relates to the four types of motivation: Integrative & instrumental motivation, Intrinsic & extrinsic motivation (Lightbrown & Spada, 2001)

Gardner and Lambert (1972) considers the integrative motivation is the one from which learners learn language in order to take part in the culture of its people Meanwhile, ones with the instrumental motivation learn the language for a career goal or other practical reasons Paul R Pintrich & Dale H Schuck (1996) believes that intrinsic motivation is the motivation to engage in an activity for its own sake Meanwhile, extrinsic motivation is motivation to engage in an activity because it will bring back something valuable from the outside

It is clear that learners with high and favorable motivation for speaking often try to devote themselves into English speaking They look for the chances to practice speaking English everywhere In English class, they are active, and cooperate with teachers‟ activities positively Out of class, they take any opportunity for imitating, practicing and speaking English They are of strong volition and will, of clear learning purpose Thereby, they easily and more proficiently achieve success in spoken English In their turn, the success encourages higher motivation

Anxiety:

Language anxiety is the fear or apprehension occurring when a learner is expected to perform

in the second or foreign language (Gardner, 1972).According to Horwirtz et al (1986), anxiety

is the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous systems From the former research, Horwitz (1986) found that “anxiety can affect the communication strategies students employ in language class”, and that “difficulty in speaking in class are probably frequently cited concern of the anxious foreign language students seeking help at the LSC.” (p.126) He also stated that students seemed to be fairy comfortable responding to a drill or delivering prepared speeches in foreign

language class but they tended to “freeze” in a role-play situation Most of anxious students are afraid of being evaluated negatively and to be less competent than the other students They also are afraid of making mistakes (Horwitz, 1986) Therefore, anxiety is bad for the improvement of students‟ spoken English With the role of the educators, teachers should help students reduce anxiety by paying much attention to teaching attitude and creating a free learning environment without stress Teachers should use effective language when evaluate students and encourage them to study

Self-esteem:

Self-esteem refers to the individual‟s evaluation on himself, and attitude towards his or her ability, value, and achievement (Coopersmith (1967 p 4-5) It is originated from individual‟s experience and the judge of the outside world Comparatively speaking, learners with high self-esteem are full of the sense of self-confidence and self-affirmation In English learning, they can evaluate reasonably and objectively their own English level as well as the other learning skills: listening, reading, writing, speaking and translating Self-esteem was associated with the English speaking, and that learners with high self-esteem could have more chances to achieve speaking proficiency

Presumably, they are less likely to feel threatened when speaking or communicating in English

or in an unfamiliar situation They may also be more ready to risk making mistakes or projecting a reduced image of them

Extroversion:

Extroversion is a personal characteristic that can be observed through behaviors The ones who are extrovert tend to be out going, sociable and active They like being with people and feeling confident in social programs They are not clumsy when talking with strangers (Yul Iskandar,2000, p 46) On the contrary, the ones who are introvert seem quiet, clumsy and passive They are afraid of meeting people or showing their own ability

In the pedagogical perspectives, when learning English, learners with extroversion may enjoy certain advantages in English speaking Their nature makes them easier to be successful than the ones who are introvert They are more active, willing to take part in speaking activities and social interaction In turn, the success makes them more confident and more extrovert

Self-concept:

Gouws and Kruger (1994 p.91) stated that the self-concept comprises a unique set of observations, ideas and attitudes which the individual has about himself or herself Burns (1979 p.29) defines self-concept as the sum total of the views that a person has of himself or herself and entails his or her beliefs, evaluations and behavioural tendencies The self-concept

is a person‟s way of perceiving himself which may either be positive or negative

A positive self-concept is the base of the establishment of the healthy psychological Whether

or not a student learns in the classroom, and whether or not he or she enjoys the school experience, depends on how that student fell about himself or herself (Leonnetti 1980 p.10) A student who feels good about himself or herself usually participates in the classroom activities freely and with enthusiasm Canfeild and Wells (1994 p.2) stated that an individual‟s self-concept is composed of all beliefs and attitudes he has about himself It determines “who you are”, “what you think you are”, “what you do”, and “what you can become.”

1.4.2 Cultural factors

According to Trudgill (1983) language usually portrays in meaningful ways the speaker‟s innate and inherent national culture The American linguist Sapir (1921 p 60:90) maintains that language and culture are dual entities: Culture representing what a society thinks and does, while its language expresses and embodies the ideas of that society Thus, language and culture may be said to exist in a symbiotic relationship: language serving both as a conveyor

of culture and the capsule containing the mode of intellectualizing

Cultural characteristics impact foreign language learning From a practical standpoint, language serves as a kind of social action because oral and written communications take place within expected interpersonal exchanges, and meaning is derived from previously accepted social parameters (Dimitracopoulou,1990) In other words, commonly shared traditions, values systems and cultural beliefs create those traditions and social structures that bring and hold a community together and are thus inherently expressed in their language" (Carrasquillo 1994:55)

Thus, it is a given: If one wishes to speak a language well, one must appreciate how that language is used in social contexts It is commonly accepted that each language has its own rules of application as to when, how, and to what degree a speaker may impart a given verbal behavior to one‟s conversational partner (Berns,1990) It is often taxing for non-native

speakers to choose the forms appropriate to certain communicative situations due to mixed signals emanating from their own cultural norms

In addition, oral communication involves a very powerful nonverbal communicative system, which may sometimes contradict messages received via listening Due to the lack of familiarity with the nonverbal communicative system of the target language, EFL learners usually do not know how to be alert for and deduce nonverbal cues Thus ignorance of the nonverbal message often leads to misunderstanding the content of the message

1.4.3 Linguistics factors

Language proficiency is never a single construct, but a multiple module, comprised of various levels of abilities and domains (Carrasquillo1994, p.65) Hyme‟s theory of communicative competence components (1971) entails the interaction of grammatical, psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic, and probabilistic language components

Grammatical competence may be visualized as an opening umbrella concept that portrays increasing expertise in grammar (morphology, syntax), vocabulary, and mechanics With respect to speaking, the term mechanics refers to the basic sounds of letters and syllables, the proper pronunciation of words, meaningful and concise intonation, and stress elements (Scarcella and Oxford, 1992 p.141)

In order to convey a desired meaning, EFL learners must possess a knowledge of the meanings of words, the four types of sentences, the complete sentence and a firm grasp of syntax; that is, they must fully comprehend how words are segmented into various sounds, and how sentences are stressed orally and in writing in particularly effective ways Thus, a solid underpinning in grammatical competence enables speakers to employ and fully comprehend English language structures both precisely and unhesitatingly, which unfailingly contributes to their fluency in that language

Besides grammatical competence, EFL learners must develop discourse competences which are consistent with communicative relationships In discourse, whether formal or informal, the rules of cohesion and coherence are applied, which aid in holding the communication together

in a meaningful and structured way In communication, both the message and comprehension

of a language require one's ability to perceive and process sometimes lengthy discourse, and to derive meaning based on both what was previously stated and whatever follows

Therefore, truly effective speakers should attempt to acquire a large repertoire of structures and discourse markers to express ideas, show relationships of time, and indicate cause, contrast, and emphasis (Scarcella and Oxford, 1992) With such acquired skills, learners can then more readily manage more complex conversational exchanges

Researchers have suggested several advantages of using textbooks For example, textbooks help to standardize instruction and assessment That is, by giving students in different classes the same textbook, teachers can teach and test them in the same way (Richards, 2005) Textbooks also provide syllabus for a program, thus supporting novice teachers, training them

in methodology and saving their time and effort for more worthwhile pursuits than material production (Cunningsworth, 1995) What is more, since textbooks are always carefully tested before being brought into the market, students tend to give them more credibility than teacher-generated or „inhouse‟ materials Students also often expect to use a textbook in their learning program (Sheldon, 1988) Without textbooks, they may think their learning is not taken seriously; thus, textbooks are psychologically essential for students Finally, textbooks may constitute an effective resource for learning in the classroom and self directed learning (Cunningsworth, 1995) A learner without a textbook might be out of focus and teacher-dependent

However, there still remain some limitations about the textbook One of the most prominent limitations is the textbooks are often implicitly prescriptive and thus might control the methods, processes, and procedures of classroom practice and „deskill‟ teachers (Allwright 1982) The second problem is that since textbooks are often written for global markets, they might not suit all classrooms and might require adaptation to better meet students‟ true needs

(Richards 2005) As a result, teachers should upgrade and adapt the materials to suit with students levels

Class size

The debate on class size has taken for a long time There have been many different ideas about that The old researches claimed that class size has great impact on the student‟s achievement Whereas, the new researches show that it has little impact (Sid Gilbert, 2005) There is another idea that: "most college professors believe small classes to be superior to larger ones

in many respects" (McKeachie, 1980) The smaller the class size is the greater number of interaction students have with their instructors and their fellows Obviously, this is very important to English speaking class If a student has to study in a large class, he will lack opportunities in involving and interacting with the others Otherwise, if he studies in a small class, he will have more chances to practice and interact with the others

Mixed-ability class

Ainslie (1994) defined that mixed-ability classes are the classes where students differ greatly

in ability, motivation for learning English, needs, interests, educational background, styles of learning, anxiety, experiences and so on Tomlinson (1999), Berry & Williams (2002) and Shank (1995), found out that every class is multileveled Therefore all teachers have to face with the challenges of mixed-ability classes

Baker (2002) recognized that in mixed ability classes, keeping the attention of all students become really difficult Since, the class is divided into different levels There remain active and non-active students because of the suitable levels of the lesson with their ability Hess (2001) believed that a mixed-ability class can seem uncooperative, the students can get bored easily and this can cause commotion in the classroom

To overcome this difficulty, teachers should create a relaxed and free environment to make students of multilevel actively take part in learning activities Otherwise, upgrading and adapting materials to suit with students‟ abilities is necessary

Environments of language teaching and learning

Language learning environment is very important to the English learners Being in an English speaking environment will improve learners‟ English speaking skills, which helps learners communicate more easily and effectively When learners are constantly hearing and speaking

English on a daily basis, learners can dramatically improve how to speak and understand the language However, it is not very easy to have a chance to go abroad to study English in order

to live in an English speaking community Learners should create the English learning environment themselves by working in groups, in class or reading or listening to news or the songs written or sang in English As English language teachers, teachers should upgrade and improve the teaching method to suit with the learners‟ levels and the ability

1.5 Summary

This chapter has briefly discussed and revised the relevant theories that are the base of the study There is a short talk about CLT at the beginning The writer wants to revise the concept and the characteristics of the CLT since CLT has been the center approach in language teaching since the years 1970s After that, speaking and the nature of speaking are also mentioned The main theory is discussed carefully The factors that hinder the process of learning to speak English are clarified

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Introduction

In this chapter, the writer describes the current situation of learning and teaching to speak English of the first year students in the FIT, Thai Nguyen University as the setting for the study The data gathering method using the questionnaires is also mentioned in terms of the purposes as well as how they were developed and used in the study

2.2 The setting of the study

Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) is a small one belonging to Thai Nguyen University From the nascent days (2001), FIT defined its purpose that is training informatics for students living in the Northern provinces Beside the compulsory subjects like mathematics, physics, informatics, programming and so on, FIT pays attention to teaching English The subject can

be considered to be extremely necessary, which can enable students to self-study in future Thanks to the fact that many information technology documents are now written in English Once students master the English language or at least they can read the documents written in it, they can easier approach the new technology than the other ones Understanding the importance of English, teachers of English in FIT have tried their best in order to improve and enhance the quality of teaching and learning English However, this is not an easy task The fact is that most of the students in FIT are from mountainous regions They are not carefully taught English in high school or are not taught at all Students are familiar with the old method

“teachers give lectures, students take notes” They have few chances to practice speaking English When coming to the FIT, they are taught to fulfill the need of oral tests It is very difficult for them to get acquainted with Further more, the class size is also a big challenge for the teachers It is too large There are about 60 or over 70 students in a class How can English

be taught in such a big class? As a result, chances for students to practice English are less and less The problems are given to the teachers: how to improve the teaching and learning; how to help students study English better…In addition, most of the English teachers are fresh from university There are 11 teachers of English Among them, only 7 are full-time teachers The others are amateurs They do administrative work in the FIT The one who has the most teaching experience is ten years and the others are about three to five years Therefore, it is not avoidable to lack teaching experiences Teaching in these large classes with non – equal level students is too difficult There are students who have studied English for 7 years, and also

students who have only studied English for 3 years Further more, there remain students who have not studied English at all in the high school They studied French or Russian instead Like other universities, English levels at Elementary, Pre-intermediate and Intermediate Each course takes 3 months Course books are chosen depending on age, levels, and requirements and so on The two books of Inside Out which have been adapted to suit with the students have been used to teach during the last three years

2.3 Subject of the study

This study was carried out with the cooperation of the 10 teachers and 100 first year students, who are working and studying in the Faculty of Information Technology (FIT), Thai Nguyen University The students were of mixed abilities and all of them were willing to participate in questionnaire responses The teachers were chosen randomly since they were in charge of teaching speaking skills to the first year students

Among the 700 first year students, 100 of them were chosen from different classes Since students were assigned to different classes, investigators decided to choose random sample of classes Thus, the students in this study could be the representative for the whole group of the first year students in the Faculty of Information Technology These students were between 18 and 20 years old, of whom males are majority and females are only 1/3 since males preferred

to specialize in Informatics than the females They all have similar backgrounds, that is, they all finished high school and pass the entrance examination before entering the FIT Most of them had studied English for at least three years However, their competence of English was very different

2.4 Instruments for collecting data

Two questionnaires, one designed for students and one for teachers, were designed to collect data for the investigation The questionnaires were administered to 10 teachers and 100 students The aim of the investigation is to collect information concerning:

- The difficulties that the first year students encountered when they learn to speak English and the sources of their difficulties

- The teachers‟ perception of the first year students‟ difficulties in learning to speak English and their suggestions to upgrade and improve the teaching and learning to speak English in the FIT

Before giving the questionnaires to the teachers and the students, the two questionnaires were given to some teachers, who have experiences in the area for judgments and comments The questionnaires then were tested on a sample of 5 teachers and 10 students then the final questionnaires were established The results achieve from the questionnaires will be used to reduce the speaking difficulties encountered and thus improve the teaching and learning to speak English at the Faculty of Information Technology, Thai Nguyen University

Besides, data could be obtained through the informal interviews with the teachers who are in charge of teaching English to the first year students and the students who are studying English

in the FIT Further more, data could also be obtained through the class observation or attendant in class for further reliability

To make the data collected reliable and accurate, all the questionnaires for students were translated into Vietnamese, and the interviews were carried out in Vietnamese in informal situations in the break or in the yard

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Introduction

Data obtained from questionnaires are analyzed statistically to answer the research questions, for which the prominent findings are presented in accordance with the discussion of the relating fields

3.2 Data analysis of students’ responses

3.2.1 Students perception toward speaking skills

Understanding the students‟ points of view towards speaking skills is very important and necessary, especially for the teachers of English If students appreciate the role of speaking skills when learning English, they will form precise motivations and attitudes These will decide the effectiveness of students in learning to speaking English

Pie chart 1: Student's perception towards

Not important

Do not know

Data from the investigation shows that 75% students in FIT believe that speaking skills are

very important Only 10% of them think that speaking skills are not important Obviously,

most of the first year students in FIT recognize the importance of speaking skills

3.2.2 Students’ competence in speaking skills

It is essential to ask students to judge their own speaking competence when studying about difficulties encountered as learning to speak English The results from the investigation present the speaking competence of the first year students as follows:

Pie chart 2: Students' competence in speaking

As can be seen from the pie chart, the portion of students with high competence is the smallest (5%), and the students with low competence are at the greatest portion (53%), which reflects

that the majority of first year students in FIT find speaking skill difficult to master Generally

speaking, most of the first year students in FIT are unable to speak English at the beginning level Therefore, it is definitely assumed that they encounter certain difficulties in speaking skill

3.2.3 Students’ English learning interest

Most of the students (95 %) when being asked if they like learning to speak English answered

“Yes” This shows that the first year students are really interested in learning to speak

English This makes them more successful in the future since once they find the learning

interesting they will spend more time studying the subject

3.2.4 Students’ experience in speaking skills

When being asked to judge their experience in speaking skills, none of the first year students think that they have a lot of experience; only 10% of them suppose they have enough experience for speaking skill Majority, 58% consider they have little speaking experience

meanwhile 32% confess that they do not have any experience at all That means the students’

lack of needed experience skill may also be a great barrier for them to learn to speak effectively

3.2.5 Students’ use of strategies

Speaking strategy is very important to the learners This will help students more successful in speaking skill However, the question is that all the first year students in FIT have strategy to learn to speak English The evidence from the investigation shows that 85% of the students do

not use any strategies to learn to speak Only 15% of them say they use Obviously, the first

year students in FIT lack sufficient strategies to study This will affect negatively to the effectiveness of learning to speak of the first year students, since they do not know how to study effectively This is also a great difficulty that the teacher should help the students to overcome

3.2.6 Students’ actual activities in speaking class

Pie chart 3: Students' actual activities in speaking

Do other things instead

This pie chart represents the actual activities that the students in FIT do in speaking classes The evidence shows that 25% of the students take part in the speaking activities actively 47% say they only take part in the activities that they find interested in A few of them (18%) do passively and only 10% do other things when they are in the speaking class Besides, five students of low competence interviewed reported that though they concentrate on speaking class and always take part in speaking activities actively, the results is not as improved as

expected It seems to be that they do not have a suitable strategy to learn to speak However, it

is amazing that the better the students are at speaking, the more actively they take part in speaking class Of the 5% of high competence students and 13% of quite high competence

students, 75% of them say they actively take part in the speaking activities; 25% say they only take part in the activities they like Of the 29% of average competence students and 53% of low competence students, 35% say they only do what they like and the rest (65%) state that

they get bored and do the other things instead Therefore, it can be concluded that

insufficient ability to speak English cause the lack of concentration on the part of students

in speaking class This affects the effectiveness of the teaching and learning to speak English

Simultaneously, this poses the problem that both the teachers and the students have to identify

to overcome It is proved that not all the speaking activities created in class and the teaching

teachers of English speaking class should carefully consider the activities and the materials exploited in the speaking classes

3.2.7 Students’ perception towards difficulties in learning to speak English

When being asked to evaluate the difficulties in learning to speak English, most of the first year students (42 %) in FIT assume that the limitation of linguistics knowledge is the main problem that they encounter when learning to speak English 32 % of them consider the lack

of speaking environment leads them to difficulty 23% think they have the psychological problems which make them reluctant to speak Only 3% reckon the difficulties in learning to speak English are because of the cultural factors

Pie chart4: Students' perception towards difficulties in learning to speak English

It can be seen that students themselves understand the main barriers when learning to speak English However, they do not know the proper solution to overcome the difficulties they encounter

3.2.8 Students’ perception towards psychological barriers to learn to speak English

Pie chart 5: Students' perception towards the psychological barriers to learning to speak

As can be seen from the pie chart, 53% of the students have the feeling of embarrassment when speaking English in front of the public 23% of them say they do not believe in

themselves at all Only 3% of them say they are confident Data shows that most of the first

year students in FIT have the psychological problems This psychological barrier really

affects negatively to the process of learning and teaching English Of the 15 students interviewed, 12 say they are not confident enough to speak in front of their classmates though

they are really like learning to speak The reasons are they are afraid of being laughed or

looking silly or becoming the source of fun of the others This rouses the problem for the

teachers of how to reduce this psychological barrier in order to make students freer in speaking class

3.2.9 Students’ perception towards the effect of cultural factors to learning to speak English

According to Trudgill (1983) language is rather like a mirror that reflects the national culture

of its speakers To speak a language, one must know how the language is used in a social context It is well known that each language has its own rules of usage as to when, how, and to what degree a speaker may impose a given verbal behavior on his/her conversational partner (Berns 1990) It can be said that culture is a necessary factor that learners need to master when learning a foreign language

Pie chart 6: Students' perception towards the effect of cultural factor to learning to speak