Teaching speaking skill to large English classes at Thanh Do University difficulties and solutions = Dạy kỹ năng nói cho lớp học tiếng Anh đông người tại Trườn

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Teachers’ experience Table 2: Teachers’ facts and opinions concerning large classes Table 3: Difficulties in teaching speaking skill to large English classes Tabl

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Teachers’ experience

Table 2: Teachers’ facts and opinions concerning large classes

Table 3: Difficulties in teaching speaking skill to large English classes

Table 4: Difficulty in managing class and monitoring students’ work

Table 5: Solutions to manage class and monitor students’ work

Table 6: Difficulty in promoting interaction in classes

Table 7: Solutions to promote interaction in classes

Table 8: Difficulties posed by students

Table 9: Solutions to deal with difficulties posed by students

Table 10: Difficulty in giving students maximum opportunities to show the product

Table 11: Solutions to help teachers give students maximum opportunities to show the product Table 12: Difficulty in selecting activities

Table 13: Solutions to select activities

Table 14: Difficulty in teaching preparation

Table 15: Solutions to teaching preparation

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

DECLARATION……… ii

ABSTRACT……….….iii

LIST OF TABLES ……… iv

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1

2 Review of related studies 1

3 Rationale 3

4 Objectives of the study .3

5 Research questions 4

6 Significance of the study 4

7 Scope of the study 4

8 Methods of the study 4

9 Design of the study 4

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 6

1.1 Teaching English in large classes 6

1.1.1 What is a large class? 6

1.1.2 Challenges of working with large classes 7

1.1.3 Attitude towards teaching English in large classes 7

1.2 Teaching speaking skill 8

1.2.1 Concept of speaking 8

1.2.2 The importance of teaching speaking skill in the classroom 9

1.2.3 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity 9

CHAPTER 2: PRACTICAL RESEARCH………11

2.1 The English teaching and learning context ……… 11

2.2 Methods of the study ………12

2.2.1 Subjects of the study……… 12

2.2.2 Instruments of the study……… 12

2.2.3 Data collection procedure……… 13

2.3 Data analysis and discussion ……… 14

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND RECOMMANDATIONS ………25

3.1 Findings……… 25

3.1.1 Teachers’ difficulty in teaching preparation……… 25

3.1.2 Teachers’ difficulty in managing class and monitoring students’ work………….26

3.2 Some recommendations………27

3.2.1 Creating a Small-Class Atmosphere in a Large-Class Setting……….27

3.2.1.1 Learn students' names……… 27

3.2.1.2 Give clear instructions……….27

3.2.1.3 Use a microphone………29

3.2.1.4 Move around the classroom or lecture hall……… 30

3.2.2 Encouraging Class Participation……… 29

3.2.2.1 Divide the class into pairs/groups………30

3.2.2.2 Give participation points……… 31

3.2.2.3 Have students contribute material for class……….31

3.2.3 Evaluating………31

3.2.3.1 Require some groups’ product of the activity to grade ……… 31

3.2.3.2 Occasionally require an individual product based on group work ……….31

3.2.3.3 Use peer evaluations at the end of an activity……… 31

3.2.4 Reflecting on your teaching……….32

3.2.5 Selecting activities……… 32

PART 3: CONCLUSION………36

REFERECES………38 APPENDICES I Appendix 1: Questionnaire I Appendix 2: Classroom observation……… VI

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Review of related studies

There is vast literature on issues related to the teaching and learning in large classes The following division of issues on large classes may help the readers have an overview on this topic

a Advantages and disadvantages in large classes

The advantages of large classes include decreased instructor costs, efficient use of faculty time and talent, availability of resources, and standardization of the learning experience (McLeod, 1998) However, there are significant disadvantages to large classes, including strained impersonal relations between students and the teacher, limited range of teaching methods and discomfort among teachers teaching large classes (McLeod 1998)

b Class size and student performance

There have been conflicting results among extant researches on the relationship between class size and student performance The results of some studies show no significant relationship between class size and student performance (Hancock, 1996; Kennedy & Siegfried, 1997), while other studies favor small class environments (Gibbs, Lucas, & Simonite, 1996; Borden

& Burton, 1999; Arias & Walker, 2004) Results vary based on the criteria used to gauge student performance, as well as the class size measure itself When traditional achievement tests are used, small classes provide no advantage over large classes (Kennedy & Siegfried, 1997) However, if additional performance criteria are used (e.g., long-term retention, problem-solving skills), it appears that small classes hold an advantage (Gibbs et al., 1996; Arias & Walker, 2004)

c Effectiveness of teaching methods

The traditional passive view of learning involves situations where material is delivered to students using a lecture-based format In contrast, a more modern view of learning is constructivism, where students are expected to be active in the learning process by participating in discussion and/or collaborative activities (Fosnot, 1989) Overall, the results of recent studies concerning the effectiveness of teaching methods favor constructivist, active

learning methods The findings of a study by de Caprariis, Barman, & Magee (2001) suggest that lecture leads to the ability to recall facts, but discussion produces higher level comprehension Further, research on group-oriented discussion methods has shown that team learning and student-led discussions not only produce favorable student performance outcomes, but also foster greater participation, self confidence and leadership ability (Perkins

& Saris, 2001; Yoder & Hochevar, 2005) Hunt, Haidet, Coverdale, and Richards (2003) examined student performance in team based methods In contrast to these findings, a study by Barnes & Blevins (2003) suggests that active, discussion-based methods are inferior to the traditional lecture-based method A comparison of lecture combined with discussion versus active, cooperative learning methods by Morgan, Whorton, & Gunsalus (2000) demonstrated that the use of the lecture combined with discussion resulted in superior retention of material

among students

d Students’ preferences for teaching methods

In terms of students’ preferences for teaching methods, a study by Qualters (2001) suggests that students do not favor active learning methods because of the in-class time taken by the activities, fear of not covering all of the material in the course, and anxiety about changing from traditional classroom expectations to the active structure In contrast, research by Casado (2000) examined perceptions across six teaching methods: lecture/discussion, lab work, in-class exercises, guest speakers, applied projects, and oral presentations Students most preferred the lecture/discussion method Lab work, oral presentation, and applied projects were also favorably regarded Hunt et al (2003) also noted favorable student attitudes towards active learning methods

In Vietnam, Trần Thị Ngọc Bắc (2005) conducted an experiment with the use of group work and questioning techniques for increasing students’ participation in communicative activities

in large classes at Thái Nguyên College of Education She came to the conclusion that these techniques strongly increase the students’ talking time and particiaption and reduce teacher’s talking time in language activities

Đặng Quỳnh Trâm (2006) carried out a survey research to find solutions to improve operative learning in non-English major multilevel classes at Thái Nguyên University of Education

co-In a research by Trịnh Lan Hương (2008), she suggested some communicative activities for large multilevel classes at Electric Power University to help students acquire grammatical knowledge in a communicative way

In 2009, Nguyễn Đức Hưng carried out a study on increasing students’ participation in commnunicative activities in large classes by using group work and questioning techniques at Marie Curie High School, Hải Phòng He proved that the two techniques: group work and questioning will help students increase their participation in communicative activities in large classes

In short, although there have been a variety of books and researches on teaching and learning

in large classes, but there is inadequate research touching upon the issues of teaching speaking skill to large English classes Moreover, speaking skill is fundamental to people’s communication This fact leads me to do this study

2 Rationale

Most teachers agree that teaching a small group of students is easier, more enjoyable, and less time consuming than teaching a large group Unfortunately, due to budgets, space, or lack of teachers, many ESL schools only offer large classes In some schools, large classes may consist of up to 50 or more students and Thành Đô University is not an exception

What Gorlach (1995) said is true in the case of Thành Đô University Class size ranges from forty to fifty students, which makes it difficult for teachers to arrange activities enabling students to practice speaking Over-sized English classes make speaking lessons stiff and unmoving

Speaking skill should be kept in mind to be the most popular and effective way of communication But how to teach speaking skill effectively when there are so many students

in a class is a matter of great concern

The study is designed to find out the problems of large size English speaking teaching classes and to suggest the use of some solutions to minimize the difficulties of this reality

3 Objectives of the study

The objectives of the study comprise the followings:

a To identify the practical problems of large size English speaking teaching classes at Thành

Đô University

b To discover suitable solutions to minimize the difficulties and enhance the effectiveness of teaching English speaking skill in large classes at Thành Đô University

4 Research questions

To reach the objectives of the study, the two research questions are addressed:

a What are the teachers’ most common problems of large English speaking classes at Thành

Đô University?

b What are the solutions to minimize the difficulties and enhance the effectiveness of teaching English speaking skill in large classes at Thành Đô University?

5 Significance of the study

It is hope that the study will help to better my own teaching and give the colleagues at Thành

Đô University and those whose are concerned with large classes in terms of teaching speaking skill as well as some suggestions to improve this situation at Thành Đô University and also at colleges and universities nationwide

6 Scope of the study

This study limits itself to the investigation of teachers of English at Thành Đô University, Hanoi to find out their difficulties in teaching speaking skill to large non-English-major classes through questionnaire and classroom observation The classes observed are first year non-English-major college students

7 Methods of the study

Both qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to carry out the study That is, the

data serving the research analysis and discussion were collected by means of:

a Questionnaire

b Classroom observation

8 Design of the study

The study consists of three chapters, excluding the Introduction (which contains Literature review, Rationale, Objectives of the study, Research questions, Significance of the study, Scope of the study, Methods of the study and Design of the study) and the Conclusion (which review the main content and findings of the study and end with some suggestions for further researches)

Chapter 1, Theoretical background, presents the basic theoretical background on two issues: Teaching English in large classes in general and teaching speaking skill in large classes in particular

Chapter 2, Practical research, consists of three parts:

The first part, The English teaching and learning context, provides the background information

about the university, the teachers, the students, the materials as well as facilities for English teaching and learning

The second part, Methods of the studies, shows how the research was carried out Subjects, instruments of the study, procedure of data collection, and methods of data analysis are found

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORITICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Teaching English in large classes

1.1.1 What is a large class?

Firstly, the question to be addressed as we start our study of this module is “what is a large class?” This question was put to some senior academics attending a UNESCO Regional Workshop on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education in Kenya The views of a large class were expressed as follows:

“Large classes have more than 100 students enrolled.”

“A large class is one with more students than available facilities can support.”

“There is no fixed number The large class depends on the discipline- smaller number for engineering, science, and medicine and large number for the arts, humanities, and social science.”

“There is nothing like a large class The large class is only the mind of the orthodox teacher.”

(UNESCO Regional Workshop)

There is no agreed definition of a large class in the literature Some teachers simply define

“large” as “to many students to learn names by the end of the semester” Thus, the concept of

a large class varies from teacher to teacher One person’s large class is what some others consider as regular, normal, or even small For example, a social science lecturer may not think 50 students make for a class However, a foreign language teacher who works alone with

a class of 50 and who individualizes their teaching finds class to be overcrowded Therefore, large class can be understood as one that feels large That means, if a teacher feel that the class size stops her/him from working in her/his preferred way, it is large for her/him

Ur (1996: 302) also stated that “large class” varies from place to place, and “the exact number does not really matter: what matter in how you, the teacher see the class size in your own specific situation

In our context, we decide to choose Nolasco & Arthur’s definition of large classes in Large classes (1988) in which they indicate that an average large class may be from 40 students

1.1.2 Challenges of working with large classes

In large classes, students come from different backgrounds, areas and they are different in learning styles, preferences levels of English proficiency, and general attitudes towards English Therefore, these classes are usually multilevel and cause various challenges for effective teaching and learning English

The most difficulty concerning classroom management in which teachers find it troublesome and stressed is to control the whole class effectively and give students different learning styles individually In such large classes, students are easy to get bored, frustrated as stronger student may feel held back while the weaker ones may feel pressured Moreover, according to Ur (1996: 303), teachers of large classes also face with the problems of discipline, correcting written assignments, creating effective learning for all, finding suitable materials, and activating all students, especially silent ones

In large classes, teachers neither make sure if their students are learning effectively because the tasks given are either too difficult or too easy for many of them nor they can find topics and activities that keep all students interested because students are crowded and they are also different More seriously, teachers find it too difficult to activate students They do not take part in class activity, or they are silent, only few students appear to respond to teachers’ questions

1.1.3 Attitude towards teaching English in large classes

"The issues raised by teaching in large classes are rarely addressed Those teachers - and they are numerous - who have to cope with classes that contain 50 or more learners are therefore often ill-prepared to deal with the situation in which they find themselves in schools." (Hayes, 1999) Most English teachers tend to view teaching English in large classes rather negatively

They often associate large English classes with disorderliness, lack of control, lack of students' attentiveness, lack of teacher-student interactions, and therefore, lack in efficiency and effectiveness

Kennedy and Kennedy (1996) wrote in their article Teacher Attitudes and Change Implementation that "what worries her (a Greek language teacher), however, is the size of the

class since she believes that as soon as the number of groups passes a certain number, it is difficult to 'control what happens'." Phil Wankat (in Felder 1997) went even further by saying that "anything you can do in a large class you can do better in a small one"

However, not all English teachers think that class size matters Such teachers would say that good teaching is good teaching: what holds true for small classes also holds true for large ones Richard M Felder (1997) holds that "there are ways to make large classes almost as effective as their smaller counterparts." Recent research shows (Kickbusch, 2000) that

"Reductions in class size to less than 20 students without changes in instructional methods cannot guarantee improved academic achievement." and that "class size appears to have more influence on student attitudes, attention, interest, and motivation than on academic achievement." In reality, it is not very uncommon that some teachers enjoy teaching in large classes, and they feel that if proper strategies are adopted and the classes are well-organized, they may have a greater sense of achievement As Felder (1997) stated that "the instructor's satisfaction may be even greater in the large classes: after all, many professors can teach 15 students effectively, but when you do it with 100 or more you know you've really accomplished something."

1.2 Teaching speaking skill

Many language learners consider speaking ability the measure of knowing a language As for them, fluency is ability to converse with others much more than the ability to read or write They regard speaking as the most important skill they can acquire and they assess their progress in terms of their accomplishments on spoken communication Therefore, if learners

do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunities to speak in the language classroom, they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning On the contrary, if the right

activities are taught in the right way, speaking in lass can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to be 1.2.1 Concept of speaking

Speaking is fundamental to human communication Different linguists have different concepts

of speaking, but they all agree with this idea

Brown (1994) defines speaking as an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information

In Brown and Yule’s opinions (1983), spoken language consists of short, fragmentary utterance in a range of pronunciation Usually, there is a great deal of repetition and overlap between one speaker and another Speaker usually uses non-specific references They also add that spoken language is made to fell less conceptually dense than other types of language such

as prose by using the loosely organized syntax, and non-specific words, phrases and filters such as oh, well, uhuh

1.2.2 The importance of teaching speaking skill in the classroom

On the other hand, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to be

b Speaking is fundamental to human communication

Just think of all the different conversations you have in one day and compare that with how much written communication you do in one day Which do you do more of? In our daily lives most of us speak more than we write, yet many English teachers still spend the majority of class time on reading and writing practice almost ignoring speaking and listening skills Do

you think this is a good balance? If the goal of your language course is truly to enable your students to communicate in English, then speaking skill should be taught and practiced in the language classroom

1.2.3 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity

a Learners talk a lot

Most of the time allotted for the activity is occupied by learner talk not by e teacher talk or pause

b Participation is even

Classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority of talkative participants All get a chance

to speak, and contributions are evenly distributed

c Motivation is high

Learners are eager to speak because they are interested in the topic and have something new to say about it or because they want to contribute to achieve as task objective

d Language is of an acceptable level

Learners express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensive to each other, and of an acceptable level of language accuracy

e Goals are oriented

Encourage learners to reach the objective, they know why they do the activity, the outcome is

clear

(Adapted from Ur (1996))

This chapter has addressed some major issues in terms of English language teaching in large classes in general and teaching speaking skill in particular Regarding to teaching English in large classes, first the concept of a large class has been defined under different point of views Yet, the definition that is suitable for the researcher’s context has been given Second, some challenges of working with large classes have been discussed Third, the attitude towards teaching English in large classes has been mentioned Considering teaching speaking skill, the concept of speaking by different linguists has presented Additionally, the importance of teaching speaking skill in the classroom has also mentioned Finally, some characteristics of a

successful speaking activity have been reviewed In next chapter, the English teaching and learning context at Thành Đô University; research methods including subjects of the study, instruments of the study, data collection procedure; and data analysis and discussion will be presented

CHAPTER 2: PRACTICAL RESEARCH

2.1 The English teaching and learning context

Thành Đô University was founded in 2004, switching from Thành Đô college of Technology

As a new-born university, it has coped with many difficulties in teaching and learning

In Thành Đô University, English teaching and learning activities are mostly carried out inside the classrooms which are designed for lecture lessons with the only classroom equipment – a chalkboard The only type of teaching aid that the Foreign Language Department has is cassette recorders However, these cassette recorders are not in good condition due to their oldness Thành Đô University also has other equipments like projectors, video recorders, television but they are used for the students of English only

The materials for reference and self-study are not available for teachers and students at Thành

Đô University In the library there are only some English book but they are not really helpful for teachers and students

In spite of difficulties and challenges, English is always considered of great importance by all the leaders and teachers because it equips students with additional skills to supplement and upgrade their knowledge and then find better jobs after their graduation Therefore, teachers of English at Thành Đô University are making great efforts to find out appropriate methods to teach English more effectively

However, there have been existed some problems needing to be solved The classes are quite big with from 40 to 60, even 70 students in a class Levels of students are variable:

elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate There are even some students who have never learnt English before They also have different learning styles Some active students like communicating and participating actively in speaking activities Some are still influenced by traditional method of teaching and learning They are not aware of their language need in term

of communication in real life situations They often keep silent and are not willing to participate in class activities As a result, it is difficult for the teacher to monitor the class and engage students in speaking activities in the class

Moreover, English in one of the compulsory subjects at Thành Đô University but it is not the main subject and the traditional exam-written exams are being used Therefore, the attitude towards English learning is also a matter Their major is not English so they do not devote themselves to English learning Sometimes, in the class, they do not have independent habit of learning English They just want to be given exercises to practice grammar to pass the final exams Some even think that communicative activities are not necessary and just take time, not helping them get high mark at the end of the term

The current teaching material for these non-English major students is New English File Elementary by Clive Oxenden, Christina Lamtham-Koenig and Paul Seligson (1996) and is distributed into two semesters with sixty periods for semester 1 and 45 periods for semester 2 The main aim of teaching English in the first stage is to provide students with background knowledge of English for their next years The final test designed by the teachers of English at the University assesses students’ listening, reading and writing in the first semester and plus speaking in the second period

2.2 Methods of the study

2.2.1 Subjects of the study

Teachers were the central unit of analysis in this study because in any teaching and learning process, the teacher is the key factor, responsible for promoting or restraining students’

learning

The subjects of this study are 20 teachers of English from Foreign Language Department at Thành Đô University Most of them are young and energetic They are willing to devote their time and enthusiasm to language teaching: researching and debating to find out an appropriate

and progressive way to teach English effectively They are aged from 23-46 and graduated from Hanoi University of Foreign Languages and International Studies- Vietnam National University- and Hanoi University

2.2.2 Instruments of the study

This study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods which helped to provide qualified background data for finding out teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking skill to large English classes Quantitative data were gathered through survey questionnaire to teachers and qualitative data were collected via classroom observation

a Questionnaires

In this study, questionnaires were selected as one of the important data collection instruments because it not only provides information gathered from a large number of participants but also helps to obtain information about different kinds of issues

Nunan (1992) points out that “A questionnaire is an instrument for the collection of data, usually in written form, consisting of open and/or closed questions and other probes requiring

a response from subjects” Richards et al (1994, p.10) also defines questionnaire as an effective way of collecting information about “affective dimensions of teaching and learning, such as beliefs, attitudes, motivation, and preferences; and enable a teacher to collect a large amount of information relatively quickly” In addition, having the same idea with Richards, Seliger and Shohamy (1995) also states that questionnaire is an attractive means of collecting data on phenomena, which are not easily observed, such as motivation, attitude, language learning strategy use, etc

b Classroom observation

The teachers’ lessons were observed and the data from lesson observations was used to clarify and test the formation collected from questionnaires Moreover, classroom observations will help to provide information that the questionnaires can not

2.2.3 Data collection procedure

a Questionnaires

The questionnaires were distributed to the teachers of English at Thành Đô University to get their opinions on the difficulties they face when they teach speaking skill to large classes and

to find out the solutions they used to minimize the problems

Questionnaire for the teachers (Appendix 1) includes three parts:

Part 1 consists of three questions about teachers’ personal information

Part 2 compromises of five questions about teachers’ facts and opinions on large classes, Part 3 includes 2 questions about the difficulties in and solutions to teaching speaking skill to large English classes

to record the teaching and learning to find out the difficulties and solutions the teacher used The after-the-lesson step was for discussion and exchanging ideas between the observer and the teacher

In all classes the researcher observed the class size in visible reality The number of students

in the five classed observed were 55, 51, 50, 52 and 50 respectively From the fact, we can see that the class environment in observed classes is not suitable for a speaking lesson This is a problem which has great influence on English teaching and learning, especially on teacher’s management

2.3 Data analysis and discussion

Data Analysis Participants’ responses were analyzed descriptively by calculating percentages

in order to determine what trends in the data suggested about the teachers’ attitudes and perceptions towards difficulties in teaching speaking skill in large classes

a Teachers’ experience

Years of teaching experience No of teachers %

Table 1: Teachers’ experience

The table shows that teachers of English at Thành Đô University are quite young Fourteen out

of 20 teachers (70%) have been teaching English for more than 15 years The number of teachers having from 6 years of teaching account only 30%

b Facts and opinions concerning large classes

Questions

No of students

%

What’s the largest number of students you have had in a class? 70 85

Table 2: Teachers’ facts and opinions concerning large classes

The table 2 shows that English classes at Thành Đô University are quite large Seventeen teachers (85%) consider a class of 30 students is large and 16 teachers (80%) have taught 70 students in a class In fact, all English classes at the university start at around 40 So what are the difficulties facing the teachers when they work with these classes and what solutions they use to overcome this problem?

c Difficulties in teaching speaking skill to large classes

This section reports on the responses of the teachers to difficulties when they teach speaking skill in a large class as well as the solutions they used to minimize the problems The results from questionnaires will be presented in general with main difficulties, and then the results will be mentioned in detail with each difficulty and solution in combination with the classroom observations to show how much the observations reflect the teachers’ options from the questionnaire

Difficulties in teaching speaking skill to large English classes

No of teachers

%

Giving students maximum opportunities to show the product 13 65

Table 3: Difficulties in teaching speaking skill to large English classes

The above table shows that the most common difficulty among teachers is managing class and monitoring students' work (85%) Promoting interaction in class comes closely with 75% Difficulties posed by students are ranked the third (70%) With 13 teachers (65%) selected, Giving students maximum opportunities to show the product stands at the fourth position Two least difficulties for teachers are electing activities and teaching preparation (50%)

Now let have a careful look at each difficulty facing teachers when there are too many students in an English speaking class

Giving students equal opportunities to participate in the activities

Selecting ways of evaluation and feedback giving 17 85

Table 4: Difficulties in managing class and monitoring students' work

Grading activities to suit with different level of students

Setting up and follow rules in class consistently 20 100

Taking note the error then giving that note to students

Giving positive feedback, verbally (praise) and non-verbally (make eye-contact, smile, nod)

Evaluating Carefully observing the groups and

their members

Requiring some type of group/ pair/

individual product for activities

Table 5: Solutions teachers use to manage class and monitor students' work

The percent of 85 shows that the most common difficulty among the teachers in speaking lessons is managing class and monitoring students’ work of which the three difficulties with the highest percent concern being able to give support and advice to individual students at the same time (90%), selecting ways of evaluation and giving feedback (85%) and giving students equal opportunities to participate in the activities (80%) The difficulty with the lowest percent

is organizing activities (40%)

To deal with this least difficulty -organizing the activities-table 5 shows that 100% of the teachers decide to put students in pairs and group This is proved by the classroom observations All the teachers observed choose this way to organize the activities The observations show the teachers’ pair and group formation as well as the teachers’ supervision during group work:

 Teachers’ pair and group formation

Out of 5 teachers, three of them asked students to sit in a desk of four Therefore, it was easy for them to have students worked in pair The other 2 teachers let students sit freely Students scattered everywhere in the class, even some desks there were only one student When the teachers wanted students to work in pair, they had to invite some to move their seats This is time-consuming

All the teachers asked three students who sat nearest o one another in a desk to be a group For groups of four the teachers asked two student of front back to turn back and combine with 2 students of next desk This way of random grouping could save time, as the students did not have to stand up to change their seats and the teacher and easily control the group

 Teachers’ supervision during group work

Two teachers went round the class from group to group to see if every member was working, but did not interfere at the beginning to let her students work on their own Then she assisted weaker students with vocabulary and structures, pronunciation, or assign additional tasks for

Encouraging peer teaching and students’ self-efforts

groups who finished earlier However, they often corrected students’ errors of pronunciation, the use of new words and grammar This distracted the students’ thought and seeking By supervising the groups in this way, the teacher played a role of a facilitator and a resource rather than a controller

As for the three other teachers, after giving instructions, instead of circulating the classes to help students, they just stood still and observed Even they sat at teacher’s desk until the students finished the activities This make the students hesitate in asking help from the teacher From table 5, we can see that 100% of the teachers choose requiring some type of group/ pair/ individual product for activities as a main way of evaluation the students’ work Only 20% of the teachers used peer evaluation

100% of the teachers considered giving further instructions and support when necessary as a must-do work to promote students’ participation in class

Promoting

interaction

Table 6: Difficulty in promoting interaction in classes

teachers

% Teaching students

Asking for repetition Giving examples

Moving around the classroom or lecture hall 16 80

Table 7: Solutions to promote interaction in classes

The second difficulty facing teachers is promoting interaction (75%) in the class of which 40%

of the teachers considered promoting interaction between the teacher and students as a difficult work and 60% - between students and students That is proven by the observation A class with many students will reduce opportunities for the teacher to interact with students Students-students interaction also becomes less effective because the limitation of space, the inflexibility of desks and chairs They (100%) agreed that teaching students oral communication skills such as questioning, responding, explaining, clarifying, showing agreement and disagreement with reasons, giving examples is necessary Equipped with this skills will help students become more confident to interact with the teachers and other students

in the class or in groups They also agree that the teachers should learning students' names and move around the classroom or lecture hall By doing that students may feel that the teacher is interested in them and s/he is trying to help them gain the progress

The teachers’ response to the questionnaire in good, but the observations are slightly different

It is observed that the students didn't respond willingly to the teacher’s questions and did not participate actively in class discussions Students also rarely asked the teacher questions They responded the teacher’s questions with the shortest answers (yes/no) and gave no reasons for their answers Thus the teacher received little oral feedback Exchanging ideas with the observer, the teacher said, “I want the students to be more demonstrative and more overtly communicative in their feedback I want these behaviors: I want the students to ask me questions, make comments and to respond with nods and shakes of the head, with sounds of agreement or sounds of understanding Also, I want them to be both reactive and proactive” This fact reveals that students have not been equipped enough necessary oral skills Moreover, teachers’ movement around the classes was not often This seemed to increase the distance between the teacher and students in a large classes and discouraged students from making questions to and requiring help from the teacher Most if the time calling students, instead of

Arranging seats to maximize the teacher’s opportunities to interact with students

10 50

using their name, the teachers just used the pronoun “you” Calling students by their name is necessary to enhance the relationship between teachers and students

teachers

% Difficulties

posed

by students

Students’ limitation of vocabulary and expressions 10 50 Students’ limitation of background knowledge 8 40 Students’ low motivation in speaking lessons 15 75

Table 8: Difficulties posed by students

teachers

% Providing necessary vocabulary and expressions before asking

students to do the task

Asking students to prepare the basic information of the topic before

going to class

Observing carefully to remind students of speaking English 17 85

Raising students’ awareness of the benefits to form the habit of using

L2

Table 9: solutions to deal with difficulties posed by students

Difficulties posed by students (70 %) are the third problem facing the teachers of which students’ low motivation in speaking lessons (75%) and students’ unequal participation (75%) seem the thorny problems Surprisingly, to deal with these obstacles, they used solutions such

as giving participation points, but only 50% of the teachers selected this method to encourage students’ participation, occasionally requiring an individual product based on group work (30%) and raising students’ awareness of the benefits to form the habit of using L2 (40%)

Through the observations, the observer can know that many students did not actively participate in the activities They were reluctant to say some English sentences with the partner when stood next to them and the speaking would stop when the teachers moved to other parts of the class Exchanging ideas with the observer, three teachers said many students like only learning grammar and then doing exercises in the textbook, they do not like speaking The problem of students’ unequal participation happens in mix-ability group where strong students dominate the activities

The two least-selected-difficulties are students’ limitation of vocabulary and expressions and students’ limitation of background knowledge This was proved by lesson observations Before asking students to carry out the activities, all teachers provide students necessary vocabulary, expressions and some basic information of the topic

Giving students maximum

opportunities to show the product of

Saving time by setting up some rules for students (start and stop work

right after the teacher’s command; be quick when moving to another

activity; be self discipline; and listen the teacher’s instruction careful)

Putting students in suitable groups (where they have chance to speak

and get help or encouragement from partners)

Table 11: Solutions to help teachers give students maximum opportunities to show the product

How to give students maximum opportunities to practice speaking is the fourth difficulty for the teachers of which giving time for individual speaking is ranked the first (85%), then pair practice (75%) and group discussion (70%) This is obviously true because with a limited amount of time, the teachers find it difficult to give time for all groups, pairs or individuals to present their products and therefore difficult to identify how much the goals of lesson were gained They all selected the two suggested solutions are: save time by setting up some rules

for students (start and stop work right after the teacher’s command; be quick when moving to another activity; be self discipline; and listen the teacher’s instruction careful) (80%) and putting students in suitable groups (where they have chance to speak and get help or encouragement from partners) (60%)

The observation shows that each observed class have about 10 groups of which only 2 or 3 groups had chances to present their product and got feedback from the teacher The teachers could not evaluate how good or bad the other groups’ product

Selecting activities which are Suitable with students’ level 7 35

Table 10: Difficulty selecting activities

Designing and adapting various activities to fit

students’ needs and ability

Table 11: Solutions to select activities

The teachers seem not having much difficulty with selecting activities (50%) of which how to make activities diverse in speaking lessons and attractive to students are the teachers’ main difficulties (50%) To deal with this problem they often make activities useful and similar to real life as well as design and adapt various activities to fit students’ needs and ability (75% teachers selected these ways) Thing the teachers rarely do is Exchanging activities with colleagues (only 40%)

This is easy to understand, because there are many book and web sites suggest the use of speaking activities to make the lesson more interesting and exciting

However, the observer found that almost all speaking activities were exactly in the textbook These activities were not modified so that they would be more interesting and suitable with all