Nghiên cứu thái độ của sinh viên đối với việc học nói tiếng Anh và việc thực hành nói trên lớp của họ tại trường Cao đẳng Thuỷ lợi Bắc Bộ

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FALCUTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  NGUYỄN THỊ CHÚC QUỲNH A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FALCUTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



NGUYỄN THỊ CHÚC QUỲNH

A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS LEARNING

TO SPEAK ENGLISH AND THEIR CLASSROOM SPEAKING PRACTICES AT NORTHERN WATER RESOURCE COLLEGE

(Nghiên cứu thái độ của sinh viên đối với việc học nói tiếng Anh và việc thực hành nói trên lớp của họ tại

trường Cao đẳng Thuỷ lợi Bắc Bộ)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410

Hanoi, 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FALCUTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



NGUYỄN THỊ CHÚC QUỲNH

A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS LEARNING

TO SPEAK ENGLISH AND THEIR CLASSROOM SPEAKING PRACTICES AT NORTHERN WATER RESOURCE COLLEGE

(Nghiên cứu thái độ của sinh viên đối với việc học nói tiếng Anh và việc thực hành nói trên lớp của họ tại

trường Cao đẳng Thuỷ lợi Bắc Bộ)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410

Supervisor: Dr Mai Thị Loan

Hanoi, 2013

i

DECLARATION

This paper is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education I certify that this thesis is the result of my own research, and that it has not been submitted for any other degree

Ha Nam, September, 2013 Student‟s signature

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Dr Mai Thi Loan, for her invaluable guidance, criticism and encouragement in the process of completing this minor thesis

I also wish to express my sincere thanks to all the lecturers of the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies at University of Language and International Studies for their very useful lectures

My profound thanks also go to the teachers and the students at Northern Water Resource College for their enthusiastic help and support

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my loving family and my special friends who always encouraged and helped me to complete this study

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ABSTRACT

Attitude plays an important role in language acquisition and it helps explain linguistic behaviour Learners may have positive or negative attitudes towards learning a language Language attitude has great influence on language learning and acquisition as well as learners‟ choice and use of language Besides, speaking is considered the most important skill that almost all the language learners want to master However, not all language learners have positive attitude towards learning this skill This thesis was carried out to investigate the students‟ attitudes towards learning to speak English and their classroom speaking practices at Northern Water Resource College The data of the study were collected through a survey questionnaire which involved the participation of 100 randomly collected samples and four class observations The data collected then were analyzed and generalized The findings of the research revealed that the students hold a negative attitude towards learning to speak English From the findings, some suggestions were given with the hope that they might be useful for the teachers at Northern Water Resource College to improve their students‟ English speaking skill

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LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1 Students‟ awareness of the importance of English speaking skill……… 19

Figure 2 Students‟ assessment of their English speaking ability……… 20

Figure 3 Students‟ feelings of speaking English……… 20

Figure 4 Factors affecting students‟ learning to speak English……… 22

Figure 5 Students‟ preferences for practising English 24

Figure 6 Frequency of students‟ speaking in English class……… 27

Figure 7 Activities and methods teacher often uses in English speaking classes 29 Figure 8 Things teachers often do after giving speaking topics……… 30

Table 1 Students‟ attitudes towards learning English……… 18

Table 2 Students‟ willingness to speak English……… 21

Table 3 Students‟ solutions to overcome difficulties in speaking English in class 23 Table 4 Students‟ ways to improve English speaking competence……… 24

Table 5 Students‟ expectations for learning to speak English……… 25

Table 6 The things that students often do in English speaking classes………… 27

Table 7 Students‟ ways to speak English in classroom……… 28

Table 8 Teachers‟ mistake correction ……… 31

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION ……… i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……… ii

ABSTRACT……… iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ……… iv

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES……… v

TABLE OF CONTENTS……… vi

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION……… 1

1 Rationale of the study……… 1

2 Aims of the study……… 2

3 Research questions ……… 2

4 Scope of the study ……… 2

5 Significance of the study……… 2

6 Methodology……… 3

7 Design of the study……… 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT……… 4

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW……… 4

1.1 Attitudes ……… 4

1.1.1 Definitions of attitudes……… 4

1.1.2 Components of attitudes……… 5

1.1.3 Functions of attitudes…… ……… 6

1.1.4 Language attitudes………….……… 7

1.2 Speaking theory……… ……… 7

1.2.1 Definition of speaking……… ……… 8

1.2.2 The role of speaking in foreign language teaching and learning… 8

1.2.3 Problems with speaking skill……… 9

1.2.4 The techniques and activities in teaching speaking skills……… 10

1.2.4.1 The techniques in teaching speaking skills……… 10

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1.2.4.2 The activities in teaching speaking skills……… 11

1.3 Review of previous studies on attitude……… 13

1.4 Summary……… 14

CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY……… 15

2.1 The setting of the study… ……… 15

2.2 Participants……… 15

2.3 Data collection instruments ……… 16

2.4 Data analysis procedure……… 16

CHAPTER 3 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ………… 18

3.1 Questionnaires for students….……… 18

3.1.1 General attitudes of students at NWRC towards learning English… 18

3.1.2 Students’ attitudes towards learning to speak English……… 18

3.1.2.1 Students‟ awareness of the importance of speaking skill… 18

3.1.2.2 Students‟ assessment of their English speaking ability………… 19

3.1.2.3 Students‟ feelings of speaking English………… ………… 20

3.1.2.4 Factors affecting students‟ learning to speak English………… 22

3.1.2.5 Students‟ preferences for practising English 24

3.1.2.6 Students‟ expectations for learning to speak English……… 25

3.1.3 Students’ classroom practices……… ……… 26

3.1.3.1 The frequency of students‟ speaking in English class ……… 27

3.1.3.2 The things that students often do in English speaking classes… 27

3.1.3.3 Students‟ ways to speak English in classroom……… 28

3.1.3.4 Teacher‟s teaching activities in English speaking classes…… 28

3.2 Classroom observations……… 31

3.2.1 Teacher‟s methods and speaking activities ……… 35

3.2.2 Students‟ participation……… 37

PART III CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS……… 38

1 Summary of findings……… 38

1.1 Students‟ attitudes towards English and learning to speak English…… 38

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1.2 Students‟ classroom speaking practices……… 39

2 Implications for teachers……… 39

3 Suggestions for further study……… 41

4 Conclusion…… ……… 42

REFERENCE……… 43

APPENDIX 1 Questionnaire for students ……… I APPENDIX 2 Class observation sheets………… ……… XI

to cope with the growing local, national and international demands for English skills

In Vietnam, English is becoming more widely used in every field of life and it

is an official and compulsory foreign language which has been taught in most schools and universities all over the country for nearly two decades now People thus have a great concern about learning the language Many people are aware that English guarantees them good jobs if they are good at English Among the four language skills known as listening, speaking, reading and writing, speaking skill is considered the most significant one that most learners of foreign languages need to achieve The crucial importance of speaking skill has been stated by many linguistic researchers For example, Ur (1996:120) states that of all four skills, speaking seems intuitively the most important and people who know a language are referred

to as speakers of that language, as if speaking included all other skills of knowing that language Richards (2008:19) also says: “the mastery of speaking skills in English is a priority for many second and foreign language learners Learners consequently often evaluate their success in language learning as well as the effectiveness of their English course on the basis of how well they feel they have improved in their spoken language proficiency” However, for many years, not much attention has been paid to learners‟ speaking competence in Vietnamese English classes and time for speaking practices is limited for many reasons Consequently, students have poor ability to speak English although they have been learning English for a long time They speak English badly even in English speaking lessons They often lack the confidence and feel confused when they are

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asked to speak English They regularly find it difficult to express their ideas in English and even some students cannot speak anything but keep silent during speaking lessons Among many different factors that affect students‟ learning to speak English in classroom, the attitude of the students has a very important position

This study has been conducted to investigate the attitudes of students at NWRC towards learning to speak English and their classroom speaking practices in order to offer some suggestions which might be useful for teachers and students here to develop English speaking skills

2 Aims of the study

This study aims at:

- finding out the attitudes of students at NWRC towards learning to speak English

- investigating the classroom speaking practices of the students at NWRC

- recommending some solutions for teachers at NWRC to improve their students‟ speaking skill based on the findings of the study

3 Research questions

1 What are the attitudes that students at NWRC hold towards learning to speak English?

2 How are their classroom speaking practices?

3 What should the teachers do to improve their students‟ English speaking skill?

4 Scope of the study

The study was carried out at NWRC with the participation of 100 first-year students to find out the attitudes of students towards learning to speak English and their classroom speaking practices Based on the findings, some suggestions were given to the teachers to help them improve their students‟ speaking skills

5 Significance of the study

The result of the study is believed to help teachers at NWRC understand more about the students‟ attitudes towards learning to speak English and their expectations of the teachers‟ speaking lessons so that the teachers have suitable

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methods to improve their students‟ speaking skills and encourage students to practise speaking English in classroom

6 Methodology of the study

To conduct this study, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used, involving the survey questionnaires and classroom observations The survey questionnaires were delivered to 100 first-year students to investigate their attitudes towards learning to speak English Besides, class observations were conducted to see how and what students often did during English speaking classes Classroom observations helped the researcher survey students‟ practices in real situations so that the reliability and validity of the data collected for this study could be achieved The data collected from the questionnaires and the result of class observations will

be analyzed and generalized with a hope for offering some suggestions for the teachers at NWRC to improve speaking competence for their students

7 Design of the study:

This thesis includes three main parts as follows:

Part I: Introduction

This part includes the rationales, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the significance, the methodology and the design of the study

Part II: Development

This part consists of three chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature review

In this chapter, the theoretical background of the study is introduced It focuses

on three main points: theory of attitudes, speaking skills and some techniques as well as activities that are often used in speaking lessons

Chapter 2: Research methodology

This chapter starts with the description of the setting and the participants of the study It also presents how data were collected through the research methods and research procedures

Chapter 3: Data analysis and Discussions

In this chapter, the data collected will be analyzed and discussed From this, students‟ attitudes toward learning to speak English will be found and their classroom practices will be mentioned as well

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Part III: Conclusion and Recommendations

This chapter gives a short summary of findings and draws out some suggestions that are good for teachers and students in teaching and learning to speak English Beside that, some recommendations for further researches are also discussed in this chapter

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the author will give an overview of the theoretical background for the study In the first place, the definitions, the components, the functions of attitude as well as the concept of language attitude are discussed Then, some issues related to speaking such as definitions of speaking, the role of speaking in foreign language teaching and learning, problems with speaking skills, the techniques and activities in teaching speaking skills are presented Finally, prior studies related to the topic are also summarized

1.1 Attitudes

1.1.1 Definitions of attitude

Attitude is a complex concept and there have been many definitions proposed to describe its essence Eagly and Chaiken (1993:1) define attitude as “a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor” This idea seems to have something in common with Ajzen‟s viewpoint (1988:4, cited in Baker, 1992:11) which defines an attitude as a disposition to respond favourably or unfavourably to an object, person, institution or event

Allport (1954:45, cited in Gardner, 1985:8) states that, “an attitude is a mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual‟s response to all objects and situations with which it is related”

Gardner (1985:9) claims that “attitude is an evaluative reaction to some referent

or attitude object, inferred on the basis of the individual‟s beliefs or opinions about the referent”

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Lambert (Lambert & Lambert, 1973, cited in Porkaew, 2004:70) defines attitude as “an original and consistent manner of thinking, feeling, and reacting to people, groups, social issues or, more generally, to any event in the environment” According to Baker (1992:10), “attitude is a hypothetical construct used to explain the direction and persistence of human behavior”

In my opinion, attitudes are the feelings, thinking and beliefs of an individual

towards everything around him/her

1.1.2 Components of attitudes

Attitudes play an important role in study in general and in language learning in particular According to Reid (2003:33), “Attitudes are important to us because they cannot be separated from study” There is a considerable amount of research on the effects of attitudes toward learning on students‟ behaviors Positive attitudes toward any subjects are frequently found to enhance the students‟ interest in the subject and their motivation to learn And attitude is considered as an essential factor influencing language performance

There are different ways of distinguishing dimensions of attitudes In general, it

is agreed that attitudes have three components According to Harding (cf Harding

et al 1954, cited in Garner, 1985:8), attitudes have cognitive, affective and conative

components Wenden (1991, cited in Karahan, 2007:75) sees attitudes as including three components: cognitive, evaluative and behavioral components Besides, many researchers agree that attitude concept has three components, including behavioral, cognitive and affective or emotional components These three attitudinal components are based on the three theoretical approaches of behaviorism, cognitivism and humanism respectively In the following, the researcher will take the viewpoint of Saul McLeod (2009) and give a brief description of three components of attitude concept from his viewpoint

 Behavioral/ conative component

It refers to the predisposition to act towards the attitude object in a certain way The behavioral aspect of attitude deals with the way one behaves and reacts in particular situations

 Cognitive component

This aspect of attitude involves a person‟s beliefs/ knowledge about an attitude object The cognitive attitude can be classified into four steps of connecting the

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previous knowledge and the new one, creating new knowledge, checking new knowledge, and applying the new knowledge in many situations

 Emotional/ Affective component

It involves a person‟s feelings/ emotions about the attitude object

This model is known as the ABC model of attitudes The three components are usually linked However, there is evidence that cognitive and affective components

of behaviour do not always match with behaviour

1.1.3 Functions of attitudes

Different psychologists have different ways of classifying functions of attitude Although several functions have been identified, the conceptualizations scholars offer are similar to the functions established by Smith et al (1956), Katz (1960), and Herek (1987) Daniel Katz (1960, cited in Wikipedia) classified attitudes into four different groups based on their functions, including four functions as follows:

 Utilitarian: People adopt attitudes that are rewarding and that help them avoid punishment In other words, any attitude that is adopted in a person's own self-interest is considered to serve a utilitarian function

 Knowledge: People need to maintain an organized, meaningful, and stable view of the world Important values and general principles can provide a framework for our knowledge Attitudes achieve this goal by making things fit together and make sense

 Ego-Defensive: This function involves psychoanalytic principles where people use defense mechanisms to protect themselves from psychological harm Mechanisms include denial, repression, projection and rationalization

 Value-Expressive: this function serves to express one's central values and self-concept and to establish our identity and gain us social approval thereby showing us who we are, and what we stand for

However, Smith et al (1956, cited in Fazio & Olson, 2003:145) proposed an

„object-appraisal‟ function, which can be thought of as a combination of Katz‟s utilitarian and knowledge functions The object appraisal function is conceptualized

as attitudes that form as immediate evaluations of attitude objects.Another function which he called the „externalization‟ function is similar to Katz‟s ego-defensive function The last function of attitude in Smith‟s theory is termed the „social adjustive‟ function This function reflects the ability of attitudes to promote or

In this study, language attitudes are understood as students‟ attitudes towards learning a foreign language

We can see that language attitudes have a great effect on the acquisition of a language Positive attitudes could enhance the process of language learning, influencing the nature of students‟ behaviors and beliefs towards other languages, its culture and community, and this will identify their tendency to acquire that language

Baker (1992:9) states that, “In the life of language, attitudes to that language appear to be important in language restoration, preservation, decay or death” In his study, Karahan (2007:84) came to a conclusion that positive language attitudes let learners have positive orientation towards learning English

Despite its importance in language learning, students‟ attitude towards language learning are influenced by many factors and to foster students‟ positive attitude in ESL/EFL classes is not easy at all According to Tsiplakides & Keramida (2010, The Internet TESL Journal), students‟ attitudes towards language learning may be affected by: a) teacher-student relationships, b) the general classroom atmosphere, and c) the use of authentic teaching materials and activities

1.2 Speaking theory

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In language teaching, we often talk about the four language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) Among them, speaking skill is considered the most important skill because speaking ability is considered to be the measure of knowing

a language According to Richards (2008:19), the mastery of speaking skills in English is a priority for many second or foreign language learners and language proficiency is used to evaluate learners‟ success in language learning as well as the effectiveness of their English course

From Nunan‟s point of view (Nunan, 1991: 39), for many language learners,

“mastering the art of speaking is the single most important aspect of learning a second language or foreign language, and success is measured in term of ability to carry out a conversation in the language” Therefore, it is necessary for teachers of language to pay much attention to teaching speaking skills in a way that helps learners participate confidently in transactions

1.2.1 Definitions of speaking

There are many different definitions of speaking According to Florez (1999, cited in Bailey, 2005:2), speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information It is often spontaneous, open-ended and evolving

Chaney (1998:13) states that speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts"

Brown (1994:245) defines speaking as a process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information

Bygate (cited in Mackey, 1965:266) shows that “oral expression involves not only the use of the right sounds in the patterns of rhythm and intonation, but also the choice of words and inflections in the right order to convey the right meaning”

So, in the light of these definitions, in this study, the researcher will take the idea that speaking is an interactive process of sending and receiving messages successfully It involves both linguistic and communicative aspects so that the listeners can receive and process the information the speakers want to convey

1.2.2 The role of speaking in foreign language teaching and learning

As we all know, speaking is one of two productive skills and it seems to be the skill that almost all language learners want to master because their major aim of

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learning the language is to use it to communicate with other people As stated by Ur (1996:120), speaking included all other kinds of knowing that language and many if not most foreign language learners are primarily interested in learning to speak So,

it is clear that speaking is the key component to English language teaching and learning

Bygate (1987:7) claims the role of speaking that it is the vehicle of social solidarity, of social ranking, of professional advancement and of business and he adds that speaking “is also a medium through which much language is learnt, and which for many is particularly conductive for learning.”

It is clear that having good speaking skills help the learners have communication which is the proper aim of language teaching Once the learner communicates well, he can get information from others about anything he would like to know and being able to communicate successfully in a foreign language helps people to take it easy and be confident to express themselves Therefore, speaking skills enforce and bring about the successful acquisition of reading, listening and writing, in other words, the learning of English as a whole

In conclusion, speaking skills hold a special and very important place in ELT The main goal in teaching the skill of speaking is oral fluency- that is the ability to express oneself intelligibly, reasonably, accurately and without undue hesitation Having an effective speaking ability does not only help a learner acquire the language better but communicate successfully and enrich his academic knowledge

as well In order to attain this goal, it is necessary to give students an actual language environment where they can use the language to express their own ideas Therefore, the teachers of English should pay much attention to teaching their students speaking skills as well as offer them a rich language environment in class

so that the students can communicate meaningfully and fluently in English This can help improve students‟ ability to communicate in the target language clearly and efficiently outside the classroom as well as contribute to the success of learners in school and later in every phase of their life

1.2.3 Problems with speaking skills

It is claimed that successful speaking ability should achieve a maximal student talking time, even participation among students, students‟ strong motivation to

The second problem in getting students to talk in the classroom is nothing to say Even if the students are not inhibited, the teachers often hear learners complain they cannot think of anything to say They may have no motivation to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should be speaking

Moreover, uneven or low participation is among the teachers‟ obstacles Only one participant can talk at a time if he or she is to be heard In a large group, this means that each one has only very little time for talking This problem is compounded by the tendency of some learners to dominate the group, while the others speak very little or not at all

The final problem that is stated by Ur is the use of mother-tongue in classes In classes where all, or a number of the learners share the same mother tongue, they may tend to use it This happens because it is easier, because it feels unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language and because learners feel less „exposed‟

if they are speaking their mother tongue

From these points we can see that in order to encourage students to talk in class, the language teacher should create suitable activities to help students overcome these obstacles so that they have more chances to talk in the classroom

1.2.4 The techniques and activities in teaching speaking skills

1.2.4.1 The techniques in teaching speaking skills

In CLT, pair and group work activities are considered to be the most common techniques used in a language classroom, in which students are allowed to interact with each other so that they will be able to communicate in the target language

 Pair-work

Doff, A (1988: 137) defines pair work as follows: Pair work is a process in which “the teacher divides the whole class into pairs Every student works with his

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or her partner in pairs, and all the pairs work at the same time (it is sometimes called “simultaneous pair work”) This is not the same as “public” or “open” pair work, with pairs of students speaking in turn in front of the class.”

By working in pairs, students have more chances to practise the target language because the working time is longer and the number of participants is bigger When working in pairs, students with low speaking competence can feel more confident to speak without being afraid of losing face or being laughed at Students can also help each other to learn to speak Besides, by using pair work, the teacher will have more time to go round the class to help students when necessary and note down common mistakes made by students so that the teacher can give feedback to the whole class

In addition, working in pairs creates an actual language environment where students can express their ideas in their own way Therefore, students‟ speaking skill can be improved

 Group work

Beside the definition of pair work, Doff (1988:137) also defines group work as

a process that “the teacher divides the class into small groups to work together (four

or five students in each group), as in pair work, all the groups work at the same time.”

Similar to pair work, group work also has advantages mentioned above It is a cooperative activity during which students share aims and responsibilities Group work is more suitable for discussion tasks It is more dynamic and informative than pair work because of the greater number of students involving in the task When working in groups, students may feel more secure and free to express their ideas and they can help each other when they share the ideas about the task

1.2.4.2 The activities in teaching speaking skills

Many researchers discuss classroom activities and a lot of activities are designed based on the theory and characteristics of CLT Richards and Rodgers (1986:165) discuss that the range of exercise types and activities with a communicative approach is unlimited, provided that such exercises and activities enable learners to attain the communicative objects of the curriculum, engage learners in communication and require the use of such communicative processes as information sharing, negotiation which involves the participation of all students It

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is suitable for discussion tasks which encourage students to share ideas and knowledge

Bailey and Savage (1995) design a lot of different activities to develop speaking

skills in the book New Ways in Teaching Speaking

Among those activities, the followings are the most commonly used in the speaking classes

 Information gap activities

In this activity, students are divided into pairs or groups Each speaker has a part of information making up a whole Because they have different information, there is a gap between them They have to work with each other to find the information to fill the gap by asking questions or describe and draw the picture or memorize the order of things and so on Each student plays an important part in completing the task as the information cannot be completed if any partner does not

give the information he or she knows

 Role play

Harmer (1998:92) defines role-play as follows: “Role-play activities are those where students are asked to imagine that they‟re in different situations and act accordingly”

Pattison (1987: 63) considers that most communication practices in the average foreign language classroom involve an element of role-play because the speakers pretend that the foreign language is their only means of communication In his definition, role-play may involve assuming a partly or wholly different person, and/

or pretending to be in a different situation

According to Harmer (1998:87), having students take part in role-play activity giving them a chance to rehearse having discussions outside the classroom It is a way for students to „get the feel” of what communicating in the foreign language really feels like Harmer (1998:94) also states that students may benefit a lot from this kind of activity as it simulates a real-life encounter as if they were doing so in the real world As for Harmer, role-play is more than just play-acting: it offers

chances for rehearsal and Engagement that some other activities fail to give and

role-play can be used to encourage general oral fluency or train students for specific situations especially when they are studying ESP

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 Discussion

Discussion is one kind of speaking activity in which students are given a topic

by the teacher (or they can choose their own one), then they have a set of time to discuss it In a discussion, students have a chance to think of the ideas and the language to express them Harmer (1998:91) suggests that the best way of encouraging discussion is to provide activities which force students to reach a decision which is often the resultof choosing between specific alternatives “There are many discussion possibilities The important thing is that students need to be

Engaged with the topic They then might do some study and move quickly to Activate stages- which include the discussion itself Almost certainly, however there will be feedback, including Study, after the discussion is over” However, during a

discussion, chaos may be an inevitable result and at the time the role of the teacher

as a controller becomes very important

Discussion activities help learners practise what they have learned, find ways to achieve objectives such as solving a problem, ranking objects, procedures and so

on Through discussion, learners can also develop conversational skills such as how

to take turn, to change the topic of the conversation, to interrupt someone politely and so on Discussion in small groups also has some of the advantages as it does in role play activities such as putting shy learners to ease to feel like speaking, giving more opportunities for learners to speak, making learners more aware of their responsibility to group success

In short, the activities mentioned above do not cover all the activities teachers use in the classroom Many other activities can be used to encourage students to get involved in the speaking lessons It is necessary for language teachers to pay attention to such speaking activities and exploit them effectively and suitably in order

to encourage students to take part in the speaking activities and develop their speaking competence

1.3 Review of previous studies on attitude

Many studies have been conducted to explore students‟ attitudes towards learning a foreign language in general and learning English in particular in different countries all over the world Noursi (2013:22) has introduced many studies done by researchers in different countries For example, Musa (1985) investigated the EFL students‟ attitude toward studying English in the United Arab Emirates using a five-

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point scale questionnaire The findings show that students had positive attitudes and extreme eagerness towards learning English and they also valued the importance of English language efficiency in the daily life Besides, the findings of many other previous studies (Vijchulata and Lee (1985) in Malaysia, Benson (1991) in Japan, Mahboob's (2001) and Moussu (2002) in the USA, Arani (2004) in Iran, and Karahan (2007) in Turkey) also show students‟ positive attitudes towards English language and its learning

At Vietnam National University, Hanoi- College of Foreign Languages, there are also many M.A theses on students‟ and teachers‟ attitudes towards various aspects in English learning and teaching such as learning and teaching English language skills or teachers‟ techniques used in teaching English skills as well as the contents of textbooks, etc For example, N.T.T Hang (2006), T.T Phuong (2007), N.H Tuyet (2009), N.T Chung (2010) investigated students‟ and teachers‟ attitudes towards teaching and learning vocabulary using different techniques N.T.C Ha (2006), N.T.T Loan (2006), T.T Huyen (2008) focus on teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards teaching and learning grammar B.T.T Trang (2007), H.T.B Thuy (2008), T.T Van (2010), etc on teachers‟ techniques used in teaching English skills There are many other studies on teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards teaching and learning different language skills Among these studies, there is only a study on attitudes of students at a high school in Bac Ninh towards learning to speak English by B.T Hien (2010) The findings showed that most of the respondents in this study had negative attitudes towards learning to speak English The researcher also gave some reasons for these negative attitudes From the findings, the researcher provided some solutions for the teachers to motivate their students to

speak English in class

1.4 Summary

This chapter has given some theoretical background knowledge concerning definitions of attitude, language attitude and components as well as functions of attitude Besides, this chapter also introduces the theory of speaking, problems related to speaking skill and techniques and activities often used by teachers during speaking classes Some previous studies in different contexts focusing on attitudes were also covered in the chapter

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CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 The setting of the study

The study was carried out at NWRC which is located in Ha Nam Province This college specializes in irrigational construction engineering The college has about

350 first-year students The students here come from different provinces in the north of Vietnam

The college does not have special rooms for students to learn foreign languages The reference books are very poor in the college library In addition, the class size is large with about 50 to 60 students in each class Consequently, the teaching and learning of English is limited

English is a common and compulsory subject at this college The students have

to learn totally 150 periods, of which 120 periods are for General English and 30

periods for ESP In this college, the book New Headway Pre-Intermediate written

by John & Liz Soars is chosen to be the main course book for all the students at the early stage (General English)

When students enter the college, they are at different levels of English language proficiency Most of them have studied English for at least three years but their English is not very good However, students are not divided into different groups depending on their levels of language proficiency, because there has never been an official examination to classify them Besides, because of their long time of learning English at high school, they are not considered as the beginners of English Accordingly, all of them take the same course with Pre-Intermediate level In addition, the limited class time and large class size, lack of reference books, etc are big problems for effective teaching and learning

Speaking skill at this college is considered to be unimportant and students do not have to take an oral exam at the end of each semester All they have to do is to take a written test to finish a term Therefore, both students and teachers do not pay much attention to developing speaking skill

2.2 Participants

For the reason that at NWRC, English is only taught to the first-year students, the sample in this study includes 100 first-year students, randomly chosen from different classes Because this is a college of construction engineering, there are

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very few female students Therefore, 95% the participants are male Most of them have quite low English ability as their English results are not very good Nearly 50% of them had to retake the first term test

2.3 Data collection instruments

To collect data, the researcher used two types of instruments, including a questionnaire and class observations A questionnaire was employed as a measuring instrument to investigate students‟ attitudes towards learning to speak English and their actual classroom practices The subjects targeted were the total population of first-year students at NWRC Most of them were male All the students have to study English as a foreign language The questionnaire was piloted with 100 subjects in which 95% of them were male and only 5% female The questionnaire was divided into two parts The first part of it required personal information, including gender, age, class and their time of English learning The second section consisted of general informative questions in which participants were asked to answer the questions by choosing the given choices and examined students‟ awareness regarding the importance of learning to speak English In addition, this section focused on causes that may influence students‟ English learning The second part of the questionnaire asked the students about:

- Their attitudes towards learning to speak English, including 12 questions (from 1 to 12) Students answered the questions by selecting one or more choices

- Their classroom practices, including 6 questions (from 13 to 18) Each question contains different choices Students can choose one or more options given

Apart from a questionnaire, class observations were also carried out to find out how and what students often did during English speaking classes Based on the findings from the class observations, the results collected from the questionnaire were revaluated In this study, the researcher carried out four class observations in four classes with different teachers Class observations were noted down and analyzed later

2.4 Data analysis procedure

Data were collected through a questionnaire and class observations Because the students‟ English is limited, the questionnaire was translated into Vietnamese so

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that the students could understand the questions thoroughly and give the answers correctly and truthfully The survey was piloted with the first-year students in early May, 2013 The survey questionnaire was distributed to students of the first academic year 2012-2013 and then was completed in class and collected immediately After that, the data were analyzed and generalized

Beside the questionnaire, the researcher also carried out four class observations

in order to validate the results of the questionnaire During the observations, the observer took notes all the activities of the lecturers and students The information collected was examined and compared with the results of the questionnaire From the results of both instruments, the researcher drew out some conclusions and gave some suggestions for teachers to improve their students‟ speaking ability

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CHAPTER 3 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Questionnaire for students

3.1.1 General attitudes of students at NWRC towards learning English

A B C D E

Question 1: Do you like learning English?

A Like B Dislike C Neither like nor dislike 16% 32% 52%

Question 2: Why do you learn English?

A To pass examination

B Because English is a compulsory subject in curriculum

C To get a good job in the future

D To listen to songs, read books, magazines in English

E To speak English to foreigners

62% 93% 27% 11% 7%

Table 1 Students’ attitudes towards learning English

Concerning the two first questions in the questionnaire which were designed to investigate students‟ attitudes towards learning English, the result shows that most

of the participants have a negative attitude towards learning English As we can see from the table 1, of all 100 participants, only 16% liked learning English 32% of them said that they disliked learning it and 52% held a neutral attitude towards learning English

There are many reasons for their English learning Most of the respondents (93%) said that they learned English because it was a compulsory subject at college 62% of them said they learned English for examinations 27% of the participants learned English because they wanted to get a good job in the future Very few of them learned English for other purposes such as for listening to music, reading books and magazines in English (11%) or for communicating with foreign people (7%)

3.1.2 Students’ attitudes towards learning to speak English

3.1.2.1 Students’ awareness of the importance of speaking skill

Students‟ awareness of the importance of English speaking skill is displayed in the figure 1 The collected data show that most students were aware of the importance of English speaking skill

Figure 1 Students’ awareness of the importance of English speaking skill

As we can see from Figure 1, 16% of the respondents said that speaking skill was very important and 68% said that it was important Most of them recognized that English now is an international language and it is used in almost every field of life Therefore, speaking skill helps them to communicate with foreign people and it

is useful to them in the future Besides, 12% of them said that English speaking skill was little important and four per cent of the participants said they saw no importance of English speaking skill There are some reasons for their thought The first reason is that they did not tend to speak English in their daily life because they only lived and worked with Vietnamese people and there is no chance for them to meet and communicate with foreigners Therefore, there is no need and no environment to speak English Moreover, at their college, there is no English oral test at the end of each semester All they had to do was to take a written test So, they did not need to practise speaking English Besides, these students thought that English was unnecessary for their future jobs That is why they did not care for speaking skill

3.1.2.2 Students’ assessment of their English speaking ability

When asked about their English speaking ability, most of the participants had negative answers As shown in the Figure 2, among 100 respondents, none of them thought that their English speaking ability was very good Only 7% of them thought that they had a good English speaking ability 40% of the respondents admitted that their English speaking competence was not good enough The largest percentage

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(42%) stated that they were bad at speaking English A remarkable number of respondents (11%) stated that their English speaking ability was very bad (Figure 2)

Figure 2 Students’ assessment of their English speaking ability

3.1.2.3 Students’ feelings of speaking English

Regarding students‟ feelings of speaking English (Figure 3), the results show that a majority of participants (72%) felt that speaking English was difficult 16% of them thought it was very difficult A similar number of participants (12%) found it normal to speak English It is quite disappointing that none of them found it easy to speak English

Figure 3 Students’ feelings of speaking English

A Being afraid of losing face

B Not getting used to speaking English

C Not paying much attention to speaking skill

D Boring teaching

ideas:………

62% 68% 35% 12% 15%

Table 2 Students’ willingness to speak English

From the fact that none of the participants found it easy to speak English, only 7% of the respondents said that they were willing to speak English in class Nearly half of the participants (48%) said that they sometimes felt willing to speak English Moreover, the number of students who rarely spoke English in class is considerable 17% of them said they rarely felt willing to speak English in class Also a great number of respondents (28%) said they never spoke English except when they were asked to speak by the teacher From the data in the table 2, we can see that most of the students are not willing to speak English in class

There is a variety of reasons for their unwillingness The first reason was that they were afraid of losing face (62%) Besides, many students (68%) said that they

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were not used to speaking English in class Moreover, because students did not have

to take an oral test, they did not pay much attention to speaking skill (35%) Some respondents thought the teaching was boring (12% of the respondents) In addition

to the reasons stated above, some other participants (15%) also gave some more reasons for their unwillingness to speak English in class such as their lack of confidence or their shyness Others said they lacked vocabulary and structures to express their ideas or even they could not think of a word when they had to speak in front of the whole class

3.1.2.4 Factors affecting students’ learning to speak English

Question 8 was designed to find out the factors that affect students‟ English speaking In other words, this question aims at investigating factors that demotivate

students‟ speaking learning

Figure 4 Factors affecting students’ learning to speak English

Question 8 What factors affect your speaking learning? (You can choose more than one)

A I feel shy when speaking English

B I am afraid of being laughed at when making mistakes

C Unability to find out words and structures to express my ideas in English

D Poor pronunciation

E Lacking knowledge of the speaking topics, having nothing to say

F Having a little time for preparation

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G Having a little time for practising speaking

H The classroom is crowded and noisy

I The speaking class is often stressful

J After class, there is no speaking environment to practise speaking

As we can see from the figure 4, nearly one third of the respondents (30%) felt shy when speaking English About half of them did not want to speak English in class because they were afraid of being laughed at if they made mistakes 72% the respondents said that they had difficulty in finding words and structures to express their ideas in English A majority of the participants (84%) admitted that they are bad at pronunciation This demotivated them from speaking English Besides, a considerable number of the participants (24%) said that they lacked knowledge of the speaking topics, so they could not think of ideas related to the topic to discuss during the speaking lessons There are two other factors that have great influence on students‟ learning to speak English which relate to the time for practising speaking English and the language environment after class 62% said that they had little time for practising speaking English and 68% said that they did not have environment to practise speaking English Apart from the factors mentioned above, there exist some other factors which have influence on students‟ learning to speak English to some extent such as little time for preparation (35%), crowded English class (28%) or stressful English classes (12%)

It is clear that when students practise speaking English, they encounter many difficulties In order to overcome difficulties in speaking English, students have different solutions With the aim to investigate the ways students used to overcome difficulties when speaking English, the author gave them a question (question 9) with three main solutions for students to choose The results are shown in the table

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Question 9 What do you often do when you have difficulties in

learning to speak English?

Results

A I ask for help from teachers or higher proficiency-level students 62%

Table 3 Students’ solutions to overcome difficulties in speaking English in class

Question 10 What do you often do to improve your English speaking? Results

A I try to learn by heart new words and structures 32%

B I try to read, and write in English as much as possible to get the ideas

and practise how to express my ideas

41%

Table 4 Students’ ways to improve English speaking competence

3.1.2.5 Students’ preferences for practising English

Question 11 aims at finding students‟ preferences for techniques used for speaking practice and the results are shown in Figure 5

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When asked about their favourite techniques in speaking practice, most of the respondents said they preferred working in groups (88%) and in pairs (74%) 25%

of them liked practising with the whole class Only six per cent of the respondents

said they wanted to practise individually

3.1.2.6 Students’ expectations for learning to speak English

Question 12 What are your expectations for learning to speak

English? (You can choose more than one)

Results

B Being provided with more words, structures and ideas related to

the topics before

83%

C The teacher should create more interesting and appropriate

topics to students rather than using the difficult ones in the

textbook

65%

D The teacher accepts a variety of answers 22%

E The teacher should take care of all students in class 57%

F The teacher doesn’t interrupt students when they make mistakes 18%

G The teacher should create a relaxing atmosphere in speaking

class to encourage students to speak English

62%

H The teacher is not only good at English but also good at other

fields such as culture, society, politics, history and so on

55%

I The teacher should be enthusiastic, friendly and helpful to

students

87%

J The teacher uses communicative games in speaking lessons 58%

Table 5 Students’ expectations for learning to speak English

Students‟ expectations for learning to speak English are shown very clearly in the table 5 There is a variety of expectations that students have for learning to speak English From the figures in the table 5, we can see that most of the participants desired that the teacher should be enthusiastic, friendly and helpful to students (87%) and they also wanted the teacher to provide them more words, structures and ideas related to the topics before (83%) In addition, students wanted

to have more chances to practise speaking English as well (72%) One of the factors

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that affect students‟ learning to speak English is the speaking topics In this research, 65% of the participants agreed that the teacher should create more interesting and appropriate topics to students rather than using the difficult ones in the textbook Students often feel uneasy to do with difficult or unfamiliar topics because their vocabulary and grammatical structures are limited Beside that, they lack knowledge of the topics, so they could not think of ideas related to the topics Consequently, students feel demotivated and unconfident to raise their voices Another factor that can encourage students to speak English in class is the language atmosphere 62% of the respondents thought that the teacher should create a relaxing atmosphere in speaking class to encourage students to speak English When students are in a pleasant and friendly language atmosphere, they may forget the pressure and feel like speaking This is also an important factor that a teacher of English should be aware of

Many students also hoped that the teacher should take care of all students in class According to the data in the table 5, 57% of the respondents shared this idea

In fact, many students complained that their teachers only paid attention to students with good speaking competence This made students who were not very good or bad at speaking English have fewer chances to practise speaking and their speaking skill could not be improved

Students‟ expectations are not limited to those ones that we have analyzed above There are still some other ones For example, many students (58%) wanted the teacher to use communicative games in speaking lessons A similar number of the students (55%) thought the teacher should not only have good knowledge of English but also be good at other fields such as culture, society, politics, history and

so on Some students hoped that the teacher would accept a variety of answers

(22%) and the teacher did not interrupt students when they made mistakes (18%)

In short, from the analysis above, we can see that students have a lot of different desires for learning to speak English It is necessary for teachers of English to be aware of these expectations in order to have suitable ways to teach English to their students effectively

3.1.3 Students’ classroom practices

In order to know how students practise speaking English in classroom, the researcher had designed six questions (from question 13 to question 18) The results from the collected data can be stated as follows:

Figure 6 Frequency of students’ speaking in English class

When students were asked about the frequency of speaking in classroom, among

100 participants, only eight respondents (8%) said they always spoke in English classroom 15% of them said that they usually did that A great number of respondents (55%) said they sometimes spoke English in English class Besides, the number of students who said that they rarely or never spoke in English classroom is quite considerable (16% vs 6% correspondingly) (See question 13, Figure 6)

3.1.3.2 The things that students often do in English speaking classes

Question 14 was designed to find out what students often do during English speaking classes The collected data can be summarized in the table 6

Question 14 What do you often do in speaking class? (You can choose

more than one)

Results

A Listening to the teacher‟s explanation attentively 68%

C Discussing the topics in pairs/ groups in Vietnamese 45%

D Discussing the topics in pairs/ groups in English 46%

E Not participating in speaking activities, doing other things 26%

Table 6 The things that students often do in English speaking classes

As we can see from the table 6, a majority of students which account for 68% of the participants listened attentively to the teacher‟s instruction More than half of

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them (58%) took part in speaking activities eagerly Although they are in speaking classes, 45% of the participants admitted that they often used Vietnamese to discuss the topics Nearly the same number of them (46%) said they often discussed speaking topics in English Meanwhile, many students (26%) still did not take part

in speaking activities but did other things

3.1.3.3 Students’ ways to speak English in classroom

Question 15 How do you often speak English? Results

B In speaking, I first organize my ideas in Vietnamese, then

translate them into English

45%

C I say any words appearing in my mind without thinking of

grammatical rules

29%

Table 7 Students’ ways to speak English in classroom

Concerning the ways students practise speaking English, we can see that only 26%

of the respondents said that they tried to avoid word-to-word translation 45% of them often organize ideas in Vietnamese before then translate them into English Meanwhile, 29% of the respondents said that they said any words appearing in their mind without thinking of grammatical rules

3.1.3.4 Teacher’s teaching activities in English speaking classes

One factor that has great influence on students‟ speaking practices is teacher During a speaking lesson, the teacher plays a role as an instructor and activity designer The success of a speaking lesson depends much on the speaking activities and methods used by the teacher There are many different activities that can apply

to speaking lessons in order to encourage students‟ participation However, some activities are more widely used such as group work, role-play or games To investigate the activities and methods that are often used at NWRC, the researcher conducted question 16 The collected results are displayed in the figure 7 as follows:

Figure 7 Activities and methods teacher often uses in English speaking classes

As shown in figure 7, the most favourite activities and techniques used by the teacher in speaking lessons are group work (88%), role-play (83%) and visual aids (74%) Another activity that is often used in speaking classes is playing games (63%) This activity can help speaking lessons become more interesting and exciting In addition, teachers at NWRC also use other activities to encourage students to speak such as interview (45%), questioning (55%), information gap (34%) or free-discussion (28%)

In conclusion, it is clear that in order to make speaking lessons more effective

and easier for students, teachers should apply many different methods and choose activities which are suitable for their students Teachers should take an account for activities which attract many students‟ preferences, too

Each speaking lesson needs a topic Often the teacher decides the speaking topic for the whole class but students may need some help from their teachers in order to do their task well However, different lecturers have different ways to help their students Question 17 aims at finding what teachers at NWRC often do to help their students to deal with speaking topics