A study on the reality of teaching conversational skills to non-English major students at Phuong Dong Unversity Difficulties and some suggested teaching techni.PDF

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS PDU: Phuong Dong University HNU: Ha Noi National University LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: Rivers and Temperley’s framework 1978:4 Figure 2: Littlewood’s

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality of study project report i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of abbreviations and tables vi PART A: INTRODUCTION Error! Bookmark not defined

1 The rationale of the study Error! Bookmark not defined

2 Aims of the study Error! Bookmark not defined

3 Research questions of the study Error! Bookmark not defined

4 Scope of the study Error! Bookmark not defined

5 Methodology Error! Bookmark not defined

6 Design of the study Error! Bookmark not defined PART B: DEVELOPMENT Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW Error! Bookmark not defined 1.1 Overview of teaching speaking skills to foreign learners of EnglishError! Bookmark not defined

1.1.1 Nature of speaking skill Error! Bookmark not defined 1.1.2 Teaching speaking skill- methodological objectives Error! Bookmark not defined 1.2 Conversations Error! Bookmark not defined 1.2.1 Concepts of conversation Error! Bookmark not defined 1.2.3 Units of conversation Error! Bookmark not defined 1.2.4 Native speakers' conversation Error! Bookmark not defined 1.3 Teaching conversational skills Error! Bookmark not defined 1.3.1 Approaches to teaching conversation skills Error! Bookmark not defined 1.3.2 Principles of teaching conversational skill Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY Error! Bookmark not defined 2.1 The research context Error! Bookmark not defined

2.1.1 Description of the English course for non-English major students and its objectives at the

faculty of foreign languages, Phuong Dong University Error! Bookmark not defined 2.1.2 Description of the students at Phuong Dong UniversityError! Bookmark not defined 2.1.3 Description of the teachers at Phuong Dong UniversityError! Bookmark not defined 2.2 Methods of the study Error! Bookmark not defined 2.3 Research design Error! Bookmark not defined 2.3.1 Sample and sampling Error! Bookmark not defined 2.3.2 Research Instruments Error! Bookmark not defined 2.3.3 Data collection Error! Bookmark not defined 2.3.4 Data analysis Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Error! Bookmark not defined 3.1 Teachers and students’ personal information Error! Bookmark not defined 3.2 Difficulties from teachers and students Error! Bookmark not defined 3.2.1 Students’ English proficiency and learning motivationError! Bookmark not defined 3.2.2 Students’ attitudes toward speaking skill Error! Bookmark not defined 3.2.3 Teachers/ students’ perception of English conversationsError! Bookmark not defined 3.2.4 Difficulties of teaching and learning conversations and conversational activities in classesError! Bookmark not defined

3.3 Suggested techniques and activities for teaching conversational skills to non- English major

students Error! Bookmark not defined 3.3 1 Overview of teaching problems Error! Bookmark not defined

3.3.2 Suggested teaching techniques to improve the effectiveness of teaching conversations to

non-English major at Phuong Dong University Error! Bookmark not defined 3.4 Activities used in conversation classes to improve students’ conversational skillsError! Bookmark not defined

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

PDU: Phuong Dong University

HNU: Ha Noi National University

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1: Rivers and Temperley’s framework (1978:4)

Figure 2: Littlewood’s framework (1981:86)

Figure 3: Nolasco and Arthur ‘framework (2000)

Figure 4: William Littlewood’s framework

Table 1: Teachers’ genders

Table 2: Students’ genders

Table 3: Teachers’ years of teaching

Table 4: Students’ years of learning English

Table 5: Students’ English proficiency

Table 6: Students’ learning motivation

Table 7: Students’ attitudes toward speaking skill- Teachers’ ideas Table 8: Students’ attitudes toward speaking skill- Students’ ideas Table 9: Teachers and students’ concepts of conversations

Table 10: Factors of a good conversation

Table 11: Content of conversations in the textbook

Table 12: Students’ difficulties

Table 13: Teachers’ difficulties

Table 14: Conversational activities in classes

Table 15: Students’ attitude toward conversation activities

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 The rationale of the study

In Vietnam today, learning English has become a rising demand among Vietnamese people Also, English is chosen to become a compulsory topic in high schools, colleges, and universities This fact results from the open door policy of Vietnamese government to develop its economy and therefore the demand of communicating in English appears to serve the needs of foreign investors as well as Vietnamese enterprises For many years the focus on reading and writing skills under the influence of grammar translation and audio lingual methods in high school curricula has made students pay more attention to grammar and vocabulary knowledge Therefore, high school graduates are more confident in doing grammar and vocabulary written tests than listening and speaking tests In English classes, students are timid in interacting with teachers and friends and that affects their ability in speaking and listening in English Whereas, the application of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) into teaching English has required students to acquire good competence of communicating in English, especially speaking and listening skills Therefore it is necessary for teachers and students to change their attitudes as well as teaching and learning methods to have good English communicative proficiency

In some recent years, Phuong Dong University has provided students who learn English as a non-major subject an English integrated course including four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing skills Four skills are taught in one unit following topic-based books named: Streamlines, Headway, and now Know How Among the skills, students are not very confident, or even afraid of speaking lessons and tests Five years teaching there gave me chances to teach different first-year and second-year students and most of them feedback the same reality of feeling nervous and stressed in learning and doing speaking tasks Even though there are some changes in the old curricula, and there is

a switch in applying CLT in English classes, students do not show a better attitudes and results in learning this skill, which is considered the focus of the new curricula

Under this circumstance, I have had some casual talks among students and teachers

at Phuong Dong University and found out that students are worried about speaking in front

of the class and find it very difficult to talk with others in English The actual performance

of English speaking tests showed that students were more confident in speaking individually if they had information for the teachers‟ questions However, when they were asked to interact with other student in conversations, they spent a lot of time preparing for these and finally still felt worried and did an unnatural and unstructured conversation Some of them even failed to speak from the very beginning of the conversation The result

of the interviews and tests suggested me a topic for my minor thesis in the Master course in

English Teaching Methodology; that is “A study on the reality of teaching conversational skills to non-English major students at Phuong Dong University (PDU): difficulties and some suggested teaching techniques.” The paper attempts to clarify the difficulties of

teaching conversational skills and suggest some activities that are practical in teaching these skills in English speaking lessons Some suggestions in teaching and learning methods are also put forward, which are relevant to CLT application

2 Aims of the study

The research investigates the reality of teaching conversational skills to English major at Phuong Dong University The main goal of the research is to identify the difficulties of teacher and students when they deal with conversational skills to recommend techniques and activities in classes to help teachers reduce difficulties

non-3 Research questions of the study

The study aims at answering the following questions

1 What are the difficulties of teachers at Phuong Dong University conversational skills to non-English major students?

2 What are the difficulties of non-English major students at Phuong Dong University when learning conversational skills?

3 What techniques and activities are effective to teach non-English major students at Phuong Dong University conversational skills?

4 Scope of the study

In this study, the investigator intended to focus on the difficulties of teachers and non English major students when they teach and learn conversational skills Because these

obstacles are the common worry among teachers and learners and from these difficulties, techniques are selected to help teachers reduce them in teaching and help students to have more confidence in conversing in English classes

5 Methods of the study

To fulfill the above aims, the investigator has chosen both qualitative and quantitative methods for the study All the comments, remarks, suggestions and conclusions are drawn out from factual research, observation, experience and discussion among teachers and learners Data for analysis are gained through the following sources:

- Survey questionnaire: This method is used to find out the difficulties the teachers

and students at Phuong Dong University face when they interact in conversation lessons The questionnaires are useful for getting data of the attitudes and behaviors of the teachers and learners when facing these difficulties It is very convenient for the researcher to conduct the research when she does not have much time for the research and she does not need to directly do it

- Interviews and observation: The methods are significant in getting more

qualitative data by getting closer to the objects of the study Moreover, observation done

by the researcher is leading to more objective data and open new perspective of the study

6 Design of the study

This minor thesis consists of three parts:

Part A -INTRODUCTION: states the rationale, aims, research questions and design of the study

Part B – DEVELOPMENT: includes three chapters:

Chapter 1- LITERATURE REVIEW: provides theoretical background that is relevant to the purpose of the study

Chapter 2 - METHODOLOGY: presents the methodology of the study including the research context, methods of the study, research design

Chapter 3- FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION: deals with the data analysis of two questionnaires designed for teachers and on English major students to find out their difficulties in teaching and learning conversational skills and the finding of the study and suggests some useful techniques for teaching conversational skills to non- English major students

Part C- CONCLUSION: summarizes some main contents of the study, points out the limitations and suggest directions for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Overview of teaching speaking skills to foreign learners of English

1.1.1 Nature of speaking skill

Oral skill or speaking skill among four macro skills (including listening, speaking, reading, and writing) is considered one of the most important in learning languages According to Bygate (1987), speaking help learners “carries out many of their basic transactions It is the skill by which they are most frequently judged, and through which they make and lose friends It is the par excellence of social solidarity, of social ranking, of professional advancement and of business It is also a medium through which much language is learnt, and for many is particularly conductive for learning.” For some language learners, learning to speak a language is learning the language and their improvement in the language competence is the progress in speaking competence That results from the fact that listening and speaking skills is used much more than reading and writing skills in daily life Speaking and listening skills are used in daily communications and learning these skills is learning to communicate

To define speaking, different authors have different concepts about it These definitions are stated to clarify the requirements for the speakers and the functions of speaking in social communication In the first place, speaking is defined as “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information” (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997) In communication, speakers have to know how to use their vocabulary and grammatical structures to produce information and analyzing information they get from other speakers In this process, the speakers are not required to have the “linguistic competence” to use vocabulary or grammar or pronunciation but also the “sociolinguistic competence” which decides when, why and how language is produced in certain situations In addition, Brown and Yule (1983) make a useful distinction between two functions of speaking: interactional function (which serves

to establish and maintain social relations) and transactional functions (which focuses on the

exchange of information) According to Bygate (1991:5), speaking, regarded as a skill, should consist of two sub types of skills: motor-perceptive skills and interaction skills Motor-perceptive skills include “perceiving, recalling, and articulating in the correct order sounds and structures of the language” Whereas, interaction skills, as Wilkins say, are those of “controlling one‟s own language production and having to make one‟s own choice” Interaction skills require speakers to make decisions about “what to say, how to say it, and whether to develop it, in accordance with one‟s intentions, while maintaining the desired relations with others.” (cited from Bygate: p5)

In short, speaking is a fundamental skill that helps humans communicate Language learners should be aware of its functions and prepare for themselves both linguistic and sociolinguistic competence to become successful speakers

1.1.2 Teaching speaking skill-methodological objectives

The development of different approaches asserts a different perspective on the importance of speaking and teaching speaking skill For many years, language teaching aims at helping learners achieve linguistic competence, which is the ability to master the sounds, words, and grammar patterns In the mid-1970s, the notion of linguistic competence is extended to the communicative competence-the ability to interact with other speakers, to make meaning, as distinct from the ability to perform on discrete- point tests

of grammatical knowledge Therefore, teachers should study what objectives materials and methods aim at when they teach speaking skills Here are some accounts of major objectives of oral materials that are adopted from Bygate (1987)

Rivers and Temperley (1978) distinguish skill-using and skill-getting through a diagram (Figure 1) Yet, these skills do not reflect the success of language learning as even beginners have skills they can use to communicate at least something Moreover, activities should be designed to “bridge” the gap between two processes The authors suggest using

“pseudo-communicative” skill-getting activities, which would lead “naturally into spontaneous communication” (1978:5)

Figure 1: Rivers and Temperley’s framework (1978:4)

Little Wood (1981) provides another framework for defining exercises in figure 2

Figure 2: Littlewood’s framework (1981:86)

Littlewood makes a distinction between pre-communicative and communicative activities Pre-communicative activities “isolate specific elements of knowledge or skill which compose communicative ability, and provide learners with opportunities to practice them.” (1981:85) The aim of this phase is for the learners using acceptable language with reasonable fluency, without concerning “communicate meanings effectively.” Communicative tasks, on the other hand, ask learners to “integrate his pre-communicative knowledge and skills into “the full activity of communicating meanings”, providing what Littlewood calls “whole-task practice”

Training learners part-skills or let them practice total skill, or whole task practice, help them develop speaking skill However, the activities selected should be suitable with the learners‟ level of ability

1.2 Conversations

1.2.1 Concepts of conversation

There are varied definitions of conversation regarding its nature and functions In daily life, conversation is understood as a communicative activity in which two or more people talk about certain topics In classes, conversation is understood by some students as

a list of continual questions and answers However, in some well-known books, the following authors give different views on conversation

First, M Bailey (2005: 42) claims that “conversation is one of the most basic and pervasive forms of human interaction.”

Second, Pridham (2006: 2) defines conversation as “any interactive spoken exchange between two or more people” and “can be:

 Face-to-face exchanges: these can be private conversations, such as talk at

home between the family, or more public and ritualized conversations such

as classroom talk or Question Time in the Houses of Parliament

 Non face-to-face exchanges, such as telephone conversations;

 Broadcast materials such as a live radio phone- in or a television chat

show”

Third, Nolasco and Arthur (2000: 5) suggest conversation “refers to a time when two or more people have the right to talk or listen without having to follow a fixed

schedule, such as an agenda.” In conversation, „„everyone can have something to say and anyone can speak at any time”

While Pridham gives us a definition which shows the nature of conversation

regarding interactional and transactional functions of spoken language, Nolasco and Arthur emphasize the freedom of speakers in conversation Last, in my opinion, conversation is a talk between two or more people In a conversation, speakers have chance to express their opinion about certain topics In addition, the chance of speaking is fair among speakers and good speakers are also good listeners

1.2.2 Functions of conversation

There are few authors stating the functions of conversation However, the most common ideas about that come from two authors: Brown and Yule when they assert "two different kinds of conversational interaction can be distinguished-those in which the primary focus is on the exchange of information (the transactional function of conversation), and those in which the primary purpose is to establish and maintain social relations (the interactional function of conversation)” (Brown and Yule, 1983) In transactional uses of conversation the primary focus is on the message, whereas interactional uses of conversation focus primarily on the social needs of the participants

As stated by Nolasco and Arthur (2000:5), conversation targets at exchanging information, creating and maintaining social relationships such as friendship, negotiating status and social roles, as well as making decision on and doing joint actions The social function is considered the primary purpose of conversations

Bailey (2005) also mentions the function of conversation is “interactive” when she notices the participation of two or more people in a conversation

In linguistics, Brown and Yule (1983) look at conversation through two main functions of transaction and interaction while other authors pay more attention to its

“interactional” function However, it is agreed that doing all these tasks of a conversation

is difficult to native speakers, let alone foreigners

1.2.3 Units of conversation

There are different ways to call the components of a conversation M.Dobson (1974) named questions, answers and exclamations “the elements of conversation” Pridham (2001) raises question „What does conversation consist of?” He believes that the knowledge of conversation should go far beyond “words” or “sounds” He adds situation is another factor that we should consider when we want to build a conversation Yet, no authors above analyse carefully the structure of conversation and guide learners how to construct a conversation appropriately as Nolasco and Arthur (2000) They stress on exchange as the basic unit of conversation They describe the structure of conversation in the following figure:

Example:

A: Jane

B: Yes

A: Could I borrow your bike, please?

B: Sure, it‟s in the garage

A: Thanks very much

A

Figure 3: Nolasco and Arthur’s framework (2000:5)

As can be seen from the figure, conversation includes some exchanges Each exchange is

constituted of two moves that are called “an initiating move” and “ a response” The move

can be also named “turn” and can be “taken without using words” e.g by a nod of the

head (Nolasco and Arthur, 2000: 5)

Each move can function differently, for example, request or acknowledge To identify the

function of the move, factors such as the speakers, the place and time the conversation

takes place, as well as the position of the move in the stream of speech should be taken into

account

Another characteristic of conversation, according to these authors, is open- ended and the

potential to develop in any way Based on this feature of conversation, the following

example cannot be a conversation even though it is composed of a series of exchanges:

A: How much are the oranges?

B: Eighteen pence each, madam

Turn 1 [Solicit: call]

„Jane‟

Turn 2 [Give: available]

„Yes‟

Turn 3 [Solicit: request]

Could I borrow your bike, please?

Turn 4 [Give: comply]

„Sure, it‟s in the garage.‟

Turn 5 [Acknowledge: thank]

„Thanks very much‟

Exchange 3

A: I‟ll have two, please

B: That‟s thirty six pence!

The two speakers want to finish their business as quickly as possible Instead, they may do this in order to get some discount or develop their social relationship that is always potential in real life Normally, students often make unfinished conversations by giving some exchanges and make it to an end as soon as they can because they think that way is safe to them and enough for speaking tasks The difficulty makes teachers headache when they try to find the way to initiate and sustain class conversations

1.2.4 Native speakers' conversation

To learn how to make conversations successfully in English, it is best to find out the way native speakers form a conversation A normal conversation could follow these rules:

o usually only one speaker speaks at a time

o the speakers change

o the length of the any contribution varies;

o there are techniques for allowing the other party or parties to speak;

o neither the content nor the amount of what we say is specified in advance

(Cited from (Nolasco and Arthur, 2000: 7)

Not all the conversations happen in that way, but it shows us the move and the exchange as well as the unpredictability of conversation content That also requires speakers‟ flexibility

in making a conversation and teachers‟ consideration in guiding students how to construct

a normal conversation without limiting their freedom in exchanges

In short, following the model conversation and guarantee all the requirements and principles of a real conversation is a hard work to most learners, especially beginners

1.3 Teaching conversational skills

1.3.1 Approaches to teaching conversation skills

Richards (1990: 76-77) states two major approaches to teaching conversation skills directly and indirectly The direct approach “involves planning a conversation program around the specific microskills, strategies, and processes that are involved in fluent conversation.” This is appropriate for English major students who learn speaking as a separate skill, not integrated skill In these speaking classes, teachers have chance to teach students microkills, strategies, and processes of a conversation and instruct them to practice

regularly Moreover, students are at high level of English have background to understand conversational knowledge better than students who do not major in English

The indirect approach implies that conversation should not be taught, but rather students acquire conversation skills by taking part in meaningful tasks The direct approach calls students‟ attention to conversational rules, conventions, and strategies while the indirect one allows students to be set loose to engage in interaction

Richards (p.79) is somewhat critical of indirect approach in which he remarks „ the focus is

on using language to complete a task, rather than on practicing language.” However, the indirect approach should be employed to teach non-English major students for the following reasons:

o The time for conversation lesson is limited,

o Students are required to fulfill the tasks in books

o Students are at low level of English

The question is “How do teachers design meaningful tasks to guide students to make a good conversation without learning its rules, conventions and strategies?”

To find out the answer to the above question, teachers should be aware of some principles

of teaching conversations to get a base for preparing appropriate tasks to teach students

1.3.2 Principles of teaching conversational skill

Teaching conversational skills should be teaching “how”, not teaching „what‟ That means teachers should teach students the way to make a normal conversation and the way to overcome obstacles in conversing Tasks and strategies they use to teach should prepare students for the following principles of conversation.( by Richard (1990: 79-80), cited from Brown(2001, p.277))

- How to use conversation for both transactional and interactional purposes

- How to produce both short and long turns in conversation

- Strategies for managing turn-taking in conversation, including taking a turn, holding a turn, and relinquishing a turn

- Strategies for opening and closing conversations

- How to initiate and respond to talk on a broad range of topics, and how to develop and maintain talk on these topics

- How to use both a casual style of speaking and a neutral or more formal style

- How to use conversation in different social settings and for different kinds of social encounters, such as on the telephone and in informal and formal social gatherings

- Strategies for preparing trouble spots in conversation, including conversation breakdown and comprehension problems

- How to maintain fluency in conversation through avoiding excessive pausing, breakdowns, and errors of grammar or pronunciation

- How to produce talk in a conversational mode, using a conversational register and syntax

- How to use conversational fillers and small talk

- How to use conversational routines

1.3.3 Activities used for conversation classes

According to William Littlewood there is a continuum of classroom activities to promote communicative (or conversational) competence

Figure 4: William Littlewood’s framework (cited from Nolasco and Arthur (2000))

Nolasco and Arthur (2000) claim the significance of using different types of conversation activities to students of other languages as follows:

o Controlled activities: give students confidence and support

o Awareness activities: Increase sensitivity in students to what they are aiming at

o Fluency activities: Give students the practice they need to use English for communication

o Feedback tasks: Allow students to reflect on their own performance so that they become aware of areas in which they have to improve

Contextualised drills Cued dialogues Discourse Chains Role play

Creativity

Step 1: Controlled activities

Performing memorised dialogues

* Summary

The introduction part reviews commonly know theoretical issues in teaching speaking and conversation The last goal of any speaking course is to develop students‟ communicative competence through meaningful activities in and outside classes Conversation skills are basic ones that students need to achieve for that goal, thus teachers should be aware of the nature and the principles of teaching these skills and the activities used for teaching conversation classes The choice of the activities which are appropriate to students at different levels depends on teachers and their understanding about students‟ motivation Nevertheless, the basic principles from controlled to free activities should be employed as students are normally young and vulnerable to so difficult or unfamiliar tasks They need

to be taught step by step and have chance to improve their conversation skills through interacting with teacher and friends in class These principles will be used in my real teaching conversation lessons to non-English major students at Phuong Dong University as

a pilot practice for my own teaching The interviews with students and other teachers after the lessons will help me change my teaching method appropriate for my students

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 The research context

2.1.1 Description of the English course for non-English major students and its objectives at the faculty of foreign languages, Phuong Dong University

The study is conducted at the faculty of foreign language, Phuong Dong University where students learning English are divided into two groups One group majoring in English spend four years learning English skills such as listening, speaking, reading, writing, translating, etc Another group majoring in Chinese, Japanese learn English as the second foreign language They learn integrated skills in a 12 credit course in three semesters Students learn some textbooks such as Know How and New Headway These books are usually theme-based and skill-based to introduce students with basic knowledge

of grammar, vocabulary and skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing These knowledge and skills are taught interrelated in one lesson from elementary to intermediate levels Each book consists of from 12 to 14 units in which listening and speaking practice

is encouraged The reading and writing lessons are placed before or after the two other skills to stimulate students to use English in form of spoken language first and followed by written language The textbooks chosen are quite in common use among non-English major students at other universities and are proved to be appropriate with the students The content is aimed at introducing the language skills and knowledge as well as some cultural knowledge to help students understand and know how to use English outside classroom, not only inside classroom

The aim of this course for non-English major students is to develop students‟ communicative competence in English After the course, students are expected to communicate in English at the intermediate level Students normally will learn English as a second foreign language and their need after learning this course is to communicate with foreigners in spoken form Therefore, communicative teaching method is used as the main way of instruction and interaction in class In addition, students are tested after each semester with four skills of listening, reading, writing and speaking Knowledge of grammar and vocabulary is also assessed as a small part in the test The final result will be the average mark after summing up the marks of four skill tests In these tests, the requirements are set as follows:

- General knowledge of English grammar and a number of words in use

+ Do exercise on grammar or vocabulary tests

+ Answer questions related to grammar and vocabulary knowledge through doing reading, listening, speaking, or writing tasks

- The capacity of communicating in English in common situations in spoken and written forms

+ Answer questions after reading or listening to a passage

+ Speak and write a passage based on a given topic or situation

2.1.2 Description of the students at Phuong Dong University

As stated above, non-English major students at the faculty of foreign languages learn English as second foreign languages from the third semester (at the beginning of the second year) to the fifth semester (at the beginning of the third year) They start at different levels of English since some of them learn Chinese and Japanese as the main foreign languages before they enter the university Students who have a certain competence of English forget a part of what they learned after one year learning other languages

Students, however, are interested in learning English as they are aware of the opportunity of getting good jobs if they are competent at English Moreover, most of them are getting used to learning strategies and teaching methods of foreign languages, thus teachers do not have to spend too much time training them how to learn English in classes

2.1.3 Description of the teachers at Phuong Dong University

To ensure teaching about 800 students learning English as major and non-major subjects, the faculty of foreign languages employs and hires about 20 teachers Most of them graduated from some institutions of training teachers of English such as: The College

of foreign studies, Viet Nam National University, and Ha Noi University The qualification status of the teaching contingent is that 10% have doctoral degree, 70% have MA degree and the rest have bachelor degree Most of the teachers are enthusiastic and active in teaching The frequent meetings or discussions on how to improve the teaching and learning quality are held to get new ideas about changing teaching and learning methods as well as adapting materials appropriate to students

2.2 Methods of the study

The study employs both quantitative and qualitative research methods This is, according to Wisker.G (2001:138) “a common approach” Questionnaires are used as a kind of quantitative method of study to collect information from teachers and students The questionnaires include both closed and open-ended questions which give teachers and students chance to express their opinions on the difficulties of teaching and learning conversational skills as well as their favourite techniques in teaching these skills Besides, interviews and group observation are used to get quantitative data for the study Interviews get the research get closer to the participants who are teachers and students Their in-depth thinking noted during the interviews will help the researcher have more insight looks into the study issue Moreover, observations give a condition for the researcher to check whether the teachers and students do what they say in the lessons

2.3 Research design

2.3.1 Sample and sampling

The data of the study is collected from two main sources: survey questionnaires and interviews The survey questionnaire is conducted among 10 teachers who have from 3 to

10 years experience in teaching non-English major students at Phuong Dong University 5 out of 10 teachers had MA degree in English teaching and language study 3 of them are attending an MA course at some universities and, 2 teachers have BA degree in English Especially 9 teachers are female and only one teacher is male They work at the faculty of foreign languages at Phuong Dong University as the role of full-time and part-time teachers

The questionnaires for students are delivered to 100 students learning in three groups They are majoring in Chinese and Japanese and learning English as a second foreign language They are second-year students who are taking part in a second semester of their English course They are supposed to pass first semester tests and get the elementary level of English The students are required to master four skills of English that is, listening, speaking, reading, and writing at the elementary level and are learning lessons at pre- intermediate level These students have one semester learning English in the first half of their third school year Their views on the research questions and their suggestions for the

next semester are useful for the researchers to analyse the problems and give appropriate solutions to it

In addition, three teachers and five students are asked to take part in interviews These teachers and students are at different ages and have different experience in teaching and learning English They come from different groups of participants and are willing to be interviewees and ready to give honest answers to the interview questions

2.3.2 Research Instruments

The data for the study comes from both a quantitative method called survey questionnaires, and two qualitative methods namely interview and group observation

a Instrument 1: Survey questionnaire

The employment of questionnaires is appropriate to the thesis questions as “they are often used to gather information about attitudes, behaviours, activities, and responses to events…It is a method of gathering large number of responses…” (Wisker, 2001:147) The survey questionnaires, as stated above, are completed by both teachers and students In the first step, teachers and students were asked to write their answers on the delivered list of 10 questions and return these to the researchers after three days to make sure that they have time to think about the questions and answers Especially, two teachers asked to receive the questions through emails because they were teaching in another province They also sent their reply three days after the questions were sent The contents of the questions are detailed as follows

First, the questionnaire for the teachers includes 10 questions The questions are designed

in the form of both open and close- ended ones The closed-ended questions help the participants save time in finding the answer to these while the open-ended questions help the researcher get closer to the participants‟ ideas and have varied answers to the problem raised However, for the time limitation of the teachers, there is only one open-ended question which takes teachers and students time to write down the answers In 10 questions, the first 3 questions focus on exploring their view on the students‟ English proficiency, their motivation of learning English and their attitudes toward speaking skill The evaluation of learners‟ capacity will affect the teachers‟ choice of teaching methods and activities The next 4 questions in the list aim at discovering the teachers‟ viewpoint on

the nature of conversation, the contents of conversation lessons in the books for English major students, and their difficulties in teaching conversations to their students The perception of teachers about English conversations has much influence on their teaching method and students‟ perception Thus, getting their ideas on this is a reason for their choice of activities and techniques in the next questions Besides, questions about the conversation contents and their obstacles in teaching these contents to non-English major students help the researcher get base for the suggested solutions in the next chapter Last, the three ending questions are spent for checking what activities the teachers have used for their conversation lessons and their effectiveness and getting their ideas on the solutions to the difficulties they meet when teaching this kind of skills All in all, teachers play an important role in teaching and learning process Under their instructions, students know what to learn and how to learn Therefore, teachers are an important source of information that any researcher cannot neglect

non-Second, students, as the second main participants of the study, are involved in the survey willingly, and answer a list of 10 questions Like the teachers, the students‟ self-perception about their English proficiency, motivation and attitudes toward speaking are discovered through first three questions The next four questions ask students about their conversation knowledge and their thinking about the conversation content in their textbooks Students,

in addition, spend time generating their obstacles when learning conversation skills The last three questions ask students about their teachers‟ activities in conversation classes, students‟ preferences for the activities and their expectations in the next semester The consistency of teachers‟ and students‟ number of questions and the question arrangement is the researcher‟s intention in order to get a consistent data from two sides of teaching and learning subjects The similarities or differences, if available, will be very interesting to analyse and from that help the researcher draw conclusions

b Instrument 2: Interviews

Compared to the survey questionnaires, the semi-constructed interviews play more or less important role in data collection step This brings more direct answers to the issues stated and other information and can be used “to supplement information provided in a questionnaire” (Wisker, 2001:164) On the other hand, it is quite time-consuming and the number of participants is much more limited Therefore, choosing the interviewees is also

a hard work for the researcher Three teachers and five students are chosen to satisfy some criteria including different ages, genders, experience in teaching and learning English, willing interviewees, and suitable schedules with the interviewer To save time for the interviews, the questions are delivered to them two days before the face-to-face interviews

to give the participants time to think about the answers and note down the main points The group of five yes/no and wh-questions targets at the problems of teaching and learning conversational skills The content of the questions for the teachers and students are similar with the aim to get different perspectives of teachers and learners for the problems Question 1 asks teachers and students for students‟ English capacity They are asked to choose the skills students are good at among grammar, vocabulary, listening, speaking, reading, and writing Question 2 intends to figure students‟ attitudes toward speaking English and the reasons why they like or dislike it Question 3 aims at getting students and teachers ideas about the reality of teaching conversations in classes Question 4 asks for students‟ feedback about the lessons designed in students‟ textbook and their comments on the content of the lessons Finally, question 5 is designed to get students‟ comments on their teachers‟ usage of activities to teach these lessons The fifth question for teachers focuses on the usage of articulation question which is considered related to conversation teaching

Instrument 3: Observation

The observation is a supplementary source to the first two study instruments It enables the researcher “to capture what people actually do rather than what they say they do.” (Wisker, 2001:178) The researcher directly observes what other teachers and their students teach learn conversational skills in classes The observation is difficult to carry out as teachers are reluctant when being observed and students are do not behave naturally when there is another teacher in their classes However, in the condition that the promise of without interfering their teaching process is kept; two teachers agree to let her attend her classes to fulfill the observation checklist for the sole purpose of studying

2.3.3 Data collection

The first stage of the data collection was delivering the questionnaires to 15 teachers and 100 students at the foreign language faculty, Phuong Dong University through handouts and emails Two groups of students were the two observed groups and one group

was being taught by the researcher After three days, the questionnaires were collected and analysed to get the figures for the study

The second stage took places soon after the questionnaires were collected Three teacher informants were interviewed in the room of English teaching staff at Phuong Dong Univeristy Each interview lasted from 10 to 15 minutes in the break time after each teaching period Five student informants gathered in a classroom and one by one were interviewed in another room to ensure the objectiveness of the interview All the answers were jotted down in forms of notes and two students are allowed to answer in Vietnamese since they are not confident in answering in English The notes were also collected and analysed by generating the ideas in form of transcripts

The observation tasks were actually done at the same time with the questionnaire delivery The reason for it is that after observing the lesson the researcher delivered the questionnaires to the students and the teacher for the sake of convenience

2.3.4 Data analysis

Data analysis is not only the process of reading out the data collected but the process

of interpreting the data under the viewpoint and experience of the researcher The analysis will bring a lot of suppositions in the research questions into light These results will be presented in forms of tables and charts that help to compare different viewpoints of teachers and students on the research problems

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Teachers and students’ personal information

- Gender:

The survey questionnaire is sent to 10 teachers in which 9 out of them are female and 1 out

of them is male Similarly, the number of female students outweighs the number of male students 83 % of the students are girls while only 17% of them are boys In general, teachers and students at English classes are mostly female, and that may affect the students‟ motivation in classes

Table 3: Teachers’ years of teaching Table 4: Students’ years of learning English

English teachers at PDU are quite experienced, and the youngest teachers have two years teaching English Among 10 teachers participating in the survey questionnaire, 4 teachers have been teaching English from 6 to 10 years This doubles the number of

teachers who have from 11 to 15 years experience 30% of the teachers are young teachers who have been teaching English from1 to 5 years Last, there is only 1 teacher who experience in teaching English in more than 16 years

The percentage of students who are supposed to learn English from primary school outnumbers the percentage of other students 41% of the students have more than 10 years learning English ( since primary school) while 31% of them learn English for 7 years (since secondary school) and 22% started learning English three years ago There is only 6% of the students start learning English in university and as known they meet a lot of difficulty learning speaking skill in classes

3.2 Difficulties from teachers and students

3.2.1 Students’ English proficiency and learning motivation

Question1- What do you think about your students’ / your English levels?

Table 5: Students’ English proficiency

Question2- What do your students/ you learn English for?

Table 6: Students’ learning motivation

Students‟ motivation and language competence play a very important role in the teaching and learning success They also decide the syllabus design as well as the teachers‟ usage of methods Teacher when being asked usually feel satisfied with non-English major students‟ level as these students pass the university entrance exam with good English mark Most of them have learnt English at high school, thus they are quite familiar with learning English and want to improve their English level in the university Exceptionally, in some years, as some teacher said, one or two students in the class have never learnt English before they enter university because they learn other languages at high school such as French or Chinese In fact, 70% of the teachers surveyed say that their students‟ level is normal, 30% say that their students are good To understand more about it, I ask them:

“What are your students good at? (Choose among grammar, vocabulary, listening, speaking, reading, and writing,)” And their answer is as follows:

Teacher1,3 :Most of my students are good at grammar I do not need to teach them

grammar sometimes as they have learnt it at high school In the first term, vocabulary is also not a problem to them Among skills, reading is the easiest to them, but listening and speaking are always the challenges during the lessons In the first term, they do not have to write much so they still feel relaxed with it

Teacher 2: I think they are good in general They can read l, do grammar and

vocabulary exercises well They are a little afraid of speaking and listening as they do not practice a lot I think there are no problems with their writing They can write better than many other students I think that they are good students

However, students‟ self evaluations vary among three groups More than 30% of surveyed students dissatisfied with their English levels Half of the participants think they are in the average group who is named “normal” And 17% feel confident when they said they are good at English The students‟ self-assessment reflects their confidence and satisfaction about their knowledge It is also a source of motivation that helps them learn well in classes Besides, other source of students‟ motivation is their purposes when learning a subject Teachers agree with students in stating two main reasons for their learning English; that is “for finding a good job after graduation and passing tests at university” 100% of teachers and more than 90% of students put these reasons the first choices when being asked 38% students said they also learn English because it is a

compulsory subject At Phuong Dong University, students can choose one language among three languages English, Chinese, Japanese to learn as a second foreign language To Chinese and Japanese major students, English is considered to be the first choice as most students have learnt it at high school It must be accepted that even students are allowed to make choice in learning what language but their choice is compulsory, not because of their interest When being asked, students said:

Students 1,2,5: I do not really like English but I chose it because is required in my

course at university And I think English is also easy to learn compared to other languages To say about my competence, I think I am not very good at English I can do some exercises, but not speaking or listening I am afraid of writing, too I am always worried about my final tests

Students 3,4: I like learning English I have learnt it for more than 8 years and I

think it is good for my job Teachers say I am good at it, but I think I am best at doing grammar and reading tests, not speaking or writing I am nervous when I have to speak out something I am afraid of speaking in front of the whole class I usually make pronunciation mistakes

3.2.2 Students’ attitudes toward speaking skill

Question 3 - What are your students’/ your attitudes toward speaking skill?

Table 7: Students’ attitudes toward speaking skill- Teachers’ ideas

Table 8: Students’ attitudes toward speaking skill- Students’ ideas

a) Learning English is very useful for students now and then

Speaking skill accounts for 30% of students‟ final results in each semester and students are aware of that learning speaking skill is useful for them in short term and long term Students know that communicative competence in English is necessary for their jobs

in the near future Teachers also orient students about their goals of learning English

course at university is communicating well in English That might be the reason why

students agree with the first statement in the question 5

b) Teachers/ students are satisfied with students’ speaking skill

Students may feel disappointed about their English speaking competence 80% said

“disagree” and 20% said “agree” with the statement “Are you satisfied with your speaking?” Whereas, more than half of the teachers said “agree” and less than half of them said “disagree” Students‟ self evaluation depends on their confidence when they speak while teachers have some criteria to assess students‟ speaking such as pronunciation, expressions, interaction, etc Interviewed teachers and students told me that their strengths are repeating a model conversation or answering teachers‟ short questions Their weaknesses can be listed: wrong pronunciation, wrong use of words, wrong use of grammar, and so on The threat of saying something wrong makes students feel worried about speaking skill, and the teachers‟ strict correction may lead to an interruption in speaking lessons

c) Students like talking with teacher and friends in class

According to 7 out of 10 teachers (70%), students are interested in speaking English, but only 47% of students believe that Up to 63% of student participants said they

do not like speaking English while the percentage of teachers who support them is just 30% The difference in assessing students‟ preference for speaking skills will affect

teaching and learning process A student in the interview frankly said that “I don’t like speaking because I do not want to be noticed when I speak Sometimes I lose face because

I mispronounce a word.” Another student added: “I can’t think of anything to say I do not know how to begin and when to stop I want to speak as quickly as possible and sit down.”

The feeling of worry and an empty mind usually hinder students to speak and that is the reason why they do not like speaking Teachers, however, more optimistic when they said:

“Students like speaking as in my classes they follow what I ask them to do, they can do speaking tasks quite well, especially ask and answer questions They are afraid of giving a long talk such as telling a story or respond a difficult question” The question is “How can

we check whether students like speaking or not?” To me, if students like speaking, they are not afraid of speaking out anything from short conversations to longer discussions They are happy as they have chance to speak and share ideas, not because they do all the tasks to meet the requirements of teachers The perception of students‟ interest in speaking will help teachers explore the needs and difficulties of students when they learn speaking Thus, teachers can draw their interest in the lesson and make them speak out naturally

d) Students usually talk with friends or foreigners in English outside classroom

Students support teachers when they disagree that they use English to speak outside classroom Regular habits of using English, especially speaking practice with foreigners help students improve their ability as well as fluency when responding to authentic situations Yet, students seem to never do it In addition to it, to non-English major students, they tend to find chance to practice their own majors (Chinese or Japanese), rather than English

3.2.3 Teachers/ students’ perception of English conversations

a) Teachers and students’ concepts of conversations

Question 4: What is a conversation?

Table 9: Teachers and students’ concepts of conversations

When being asked to write down the definition of conversation, teachers and students expressed their ideas through the following concepts:

- Conversation is a list of questions and answers: Students regard

conversation as a group of questions and answers 100% of students agree with this idea, but only 20% of teachers agree When being asked they pointed out that conversations could be understood as a list of initiating statements or questions and responses Everything must not be spoken out Sometimes a nod or shrug of your head indicates a meaningful response Thus it is not exact to say questions and answers are basic elements

of a conversation This idea match with the theory that states in the book

- Conversation happens among some people (not one): Normally,

conversations in books are for two or three, or even more people Students get used to it and they agree that conversation is not for one person Likewise, teachers who are educated can identify what is monologue, dialogue and conversation

- Conversation is for exchanging information: Teachers agree with that

while more than 1/3 students disagree I asked some students and they told me that sometimes conversation is only for greeting, or chatting It is not very important and it is not for exchanging information It is just for fun The misunderstanding about the word

“information‟‟ leads students to define its as important or complicated issues

- Conversation is about a certain topic: Students approve this as they are

asked to make a conversation basing on a given situation and task Students try to complete telling about one topic However, teachers have better understanding about it A natural conversation must be maintained and the change of topic is the reason for it to be lengthened

- Others: Teachers and students added that conversation in class is different from

conversation outside class Conversation in class is normally short and based on a model and complete An outside conversation is natural, that means it depends on the moods, the relationships of the participants to be long or short, and sometimes it is not complete as one

of them have other works to do

b) Factors of a good conversation

Question 5: What do you think a good conversation should include?

Table 10: Factors of a good conversation

In the table above, it is easy to realize the similarity and difference between teachers and students‟ perception about the importance of different factors to form a good conversation Both teachers and students consider questions and answers as the key factors

of making conversations Likewise, they also agree with each other in terms of the ability

to create a atmosphere similar to a real conversation Good expressions are also the important element that two types of participants give the same comment

However, in terms of grammar and pronunciation, students seem to be more worried about that than teachers Nearly 100% students place these factors in most important position Whereas, teachers do not think they are the main things that affect the efficiency of communication In contrast, role play is noticed by teachers while students do not care much about it

A small percentage of teachers and students mention other factors that they believe

to make up a good conversation These include body language, focus on topic, the flexibility in questioning and answering All these suggestions aim at a natural conversation that native speakers usually carry out in the real life

3.2.4 Difficulties of teaching and learning conversations and conversational activities in classes

a Difficulties of teaching and learning conversations

- Content of conversations in the textbook

Question 6: What do your students / you think about the content of the

conversation lessons in your textbooks?

Table 11: Content of conversations in the textbook

The above table shows teachers and students‟ feedback on the conversations in the textbooks Teachers evaluate the content of conversations is quite appropriate to students 100% teacher

The assessment titled “neutral” is not very easy or difficult to students‟ levels Nevertheless, 82% of the students agree with the teachers, and 18% think that it is difficult

to them The small proportion of students saying “difficult” shows that the content of the conversations is quite suitable to them and is not a big problem that need to be dealt with

In the interview, students said:

Students 1: I like model conversations in the book, but I think it is a little difficult

because of pronunciation I try to repeat the conversation and still make mistakes with pronunciation What do I like most? I think it is the situations I like playing roles in these situations

Students 2,3,4: I do not like making conversations I think repeating the model

conversations is enough Teachers shouldn’t require us to do more than that because I even can’t pronounce well I think at higher levels, I can make a conversation by myself

Student 5: I like listening to model conversations, not speaking out I think the

conversations are not Vietnamese, it is English or American, so I just want to listen to know what it is, I don’t think Vietnamese people will say so

One teacher gave comments: “I think there is no problem with the content of model conversations in the books The pronunciation practice and some gambits go along with these conversations help students learn more easily Students sometimes look ignorant when they listen or practice these conversations Therefore teachers should know how to draw students‟ interest in these by encouraging them to make up a similar conversation or marking their speaking That helps them a lot.”

- Students’ difficulties

Question 7: What difficulties do you meet when you learn conversations?

Table 12: Students’ difficulties

Regarding students, it seems to be difficult for them to overcome the worry of making mistakes They place it the biggest obstacle to their study Following it is the reason of group work, interest in speaking and chance to speak in class Students when being asked told me:

We do not want to get bad mark, so we try to follow all the teachers’ instructions and requirements But actually, we do not want to speak to someone who we never talk You know, when we stand up, all the classmates look at us as an UFO, we are afraid of making mistakes and get low marks We feel released until we are allowed to sit down

Beside the above reasons, the unfamiliar content and teachers‟ boring lessons are also make it difficult to students when they learn conversations Students also said about these in the interview:

I do not like my teacher very much She is enthusiastic but she speaks too softly and sometimes she is so strict She gives marks for each task and we feel stressed about it Sometimes we don’t understand why native speakers say this or that, but she seems to neglect explaining it for us

The main focus on the study is finding out the teachers‟ and students‟ difficulties Teachers find students‟ low motivation and low level of spoken language are the most challenging to the teaching process Beside, students usually speak Vietnamese and make noise In large classes, Vietnamese interference and a noisy class atmosphere affect the teaching process Students are also passive in the lessons 50% of the teachers are not satisfied with these students who usually wait for other s to ask questions and give responses One teacher said:

“I usually observe the students‟ group conversations and find out that there are some students who are never actively involved in the discussion They preferred sitting and keeping silent or responding slowly to others When the group is asked to repeat what they have discussed, the representatives are not them I do not like such a passive attitude toward learning.” The large classes and lack of experience are also accepted as marginal causes that trouble teaching Some other difficulties that are explored through teachers‟ ideas include: time limitation for conversations, lack of teaching facilities (e.g projector, internet), the unmatched interests between teachers and students, students‟ different preferences, generation gap between teachers and students, and the repetition of teaching staff In short, teachers usually teach in classes which there are differences in number of students, students‟ different levels of English and interests Therefore, the difficulty of choosing a teaching method that is appropriate to all students seems to be hard for them, especially the young teachers

b Conversational activities in classes

Question 8: Which activities has your teacher used to teach conversations?

Table 14: Conversational activities in classes

Question 9: What is the attitude of non English major students toward your conversation lessons?

Table 15: Students’ attitude toward conversation activities

To find out what happens in conversation classes, the two questions asking about activities and students‟ attitudes toward these activities are mentioned According to the percentage of teachers and students surveyed, the most popular activities used in conversation lessons are dialogue building, sharing, ranking activities and role plays When

being asked about these, teachers reply: “In fact, we prefer using these activities as they are easy to conduct in groups They also motivate students to speak and interact Beside,

these activities are usually available in the textbooks and we do not need to plan more activities.” Similarly, some students are fascinated by these activities when they say: “I think these activities are not so difficult I like role plays and building dialogues most because they have model conversations in the textbooks I just replace words and I have

my own conversations.” Still, other students do not like some activities such as sharing They frankly give comments on it “I do not like sharing I always do not want to tell other about my problems or stories They are personal When teachers ask me to do so, I try to make up a story and tell others, but I still think that it is not interesting to use this activity.”

For other less common activities, teachers and students have different ideas Some

of these activities can be named articulation activities, gambits, stress, rhythm and intonation activities These activities are very necessary to learning conversations, and a large proportion of teachers use them in lessons However, students do not realize these as

a small number of them assert that teachers have used these kinds of activities in lessons

When being asked about this, teachers explain that “First, these activities are often taught before or after the conversations Second, time for these activities is not as long as for conversation practice Sometimes, teachers leave these activities for correction stage of lessons, thus students do not realize that these activities are taught and practiced.” Students, in contrast, think these activities are “different parts of the lessons that are not related to conversation learning” The opposite ideas about the commonness of activities

used raised a question for teachers about the way to guide students to understand the importance of these activities and their significance to the fulfillment of conversations If teachers try using these in lessons, but students ignore them, their doing is not efficient

Some other activities such as observation tasks and cultural awareness activities are less commonly used Other activities that are not directly related to conversation practice but are favored by students include games, music listening, or watching films that have authentic conversations However, sometimes the facilities are not sufficient and time for lesson is not enough to do these activities in class

Question 10: What should teachers do to help you develop your conversational skills?

This question hopefully gets a lot of ideas from teachers and students‟ suggestions to improve the conversation lessons in class However, not many students were eager to answer it while teachers give some recommendations The teachers‟ recommendations include improving