I would like to acknowledge the assistance I received from a number of people in the course of carrying out the research paper. I highly treasure the important role they played in making the completion of this thesis a success.First of all, I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Mr Nguyen Van Vinh for painstakingly reading through my work from the beginning to the end and for his constants advice and invaluable comments and suggestions. Without his continuous support I may not have come this far. Secondly, I want to express my thanks to the teachers of English at COFI at CMCC who supplied me with basic and useful knowledge about how I could structure a research project and what I should write in each chapter. Thirdly, I wish to extend my special thanks to the students from B English class at COFI in CMCC for their help and cooperation during my research at their class.Last but not least, I owe my sincere thanks to my parents who have always inspired and encouraged me to complete this study.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the assistance I received from a number of people in the course of carrying out the research paper I highly treasure the important role they played in making the completion of this thesis a success First of all, I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Mr Nguyen Van Vinh for painstakingly reading through my work from the beginning to the end and for his constants advice and invaluable comments and suggestions Without his continuous support I may not have come this far Secondly, I want to express my thanks to the teachers of English at COFI at CMCC who supplied me with basic and useful knowledge about how I could structure a research project and what I should write in each chapter Thirdly, I wish to extend my special thanks to the students from B English class at COFI in CMCC for their help and cooperation during my research at their class Last but not least, I owe my sincere thanks to my parents who have always inspired and encouraged me to complete this study i ABSTRACT In Vietnam, English is one of the foreign languages that are compulsory from primary school to university However, teaching English to ethnic minority students has long been a controversial issue This research investigates the difficulties in English speaking skill encountered by learners at COFI in CMCC with the hope to find out some suggested solutions to the problems The thesis is divided into chapters: chapter presents the rationale, purpose, methods, research and significance of the study Chapter presents the theoretical background of speaking, teaching and learning, and communicative language teaching approach; Chapter describes the methodology of the thesis Specifically, the data for this research was collected in the forms of survey questionnaires and The participants of the survey questionnaires were teachers and 30 students After the results of the survey questionnaires had been clarified, Chapter analyses and discusses the results from the survey questionnaires A lot of difficulties when teaching English speaking skill to learners such as lack of time in using the new textbook, the poor teaching and learning conditions, students' limited triangular language environment, low level of background knowledge, low level of English proficiency, etc.; Chapter mentions conclusions of this study, some limitations, recommendations for further study and some pedagogical recommendations for both subjective and objective problems For example, the teachers should plan the speaking lessons more carefully, improving the student’s Vietnamese competence The teacher’s selfimprovement of speaking skill, educating teachers to teach English for their students in their communities, Motivating students to learn, adapting the textbooks These recommendations are expected to be beneficial to both teachers and students in COFI at CMCC ii Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii LIST OF TABLES iii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .8 CHAPTER RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 10 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUTION AND IMPLACATIONS .23 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CMCC: Ca Mau Community College COFI: Center Of Foreign Language and Informatics N of Ts: Number of Teachers N of Ss: Number of Students CLT: Communicative Language Teaching LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Difficulties of students about learning speaking skill .18 Table 2: Difficulties of teachers about teaching speaking skill .19 iii Table 3: Students attitudes towards English and facilities teaching and learning at COFI in CMCC .20 Table 4: Teachers attitudes towards English the materials teaching and learning at COFI in CMCC .22 Table 5: Students's for reasons learning English 23 Table 6: Teachers methods in teaching English 24 Table 7: Some solutions to improve speaking skill of teachers 25 iv Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study In a short period of time English displaced other languages and became the leading means of communication worldwide Its domination continues to extend The modern world of media, mass communication, and Internet demands a good knowledge of English, especially of spoken English Every person wishing to get the benefits of modern education, research, science, trade, etc., knows that it is impossible without a working knowledge of the English language and good communication skills A person without oral communication skills will suffer in this era of competition and may find it difficult to achieve a higher position So, Center Foreign Language and Informatics at Ca Mau Community Colleges have decided to establish, as the main purpose of English certificate level A, B, C the development of the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing Speaking is considered to be one of the four macro skills necessary for effective communication in any language according to most research, particularly when speakers are not using their mother tongue But if you've been learning for a while and don't find yourself really speaking with ease Therefore, it is reason why I choose the topic: The difficulties and some solutions to improve speaking skill of B English students in Foreign Language and Informatics center at CMCC 1.2 Statement of purpose The aim of this article is to define the strengths and weaknesses of speaking skills of today's students and to demonstrate the possibilities of enhancement of the speaking skills of students learning English at Center for Foreign languages and Informatics in CMCC Base on the results of the current situation, I will give some solutions to improve speaking skill for B English students in Foreign Language and Informatics Center at CMCC 1.3 Research questions - What are your difficulties when learn speaking skill English in classes? - How can you improve your English speaking skill? 1.4 Significance This study help find out the practical solution to students can improve their weak points and raise their speaking skill in learning English It will help students learn more about the disadvantages of Learning English communicative from which fix bugs have more confidence in their English ability Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Concepts of speaking As mentioned above, speaking is the productive, oral skill Speaking consists of producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning (utterances are simply things people say) Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information (Florez, 1999, p.1) It is often spontaneous, open-ended and evolving (ibid, p.1), but it is not completely unpredictable Speaking is such a fundamental human behavior that we don’t stop to analyze it unless there is something noticeable about it For example, if a person is experiencing a speech pathology (if a person stutters or if his speech is impaired due to a stroke or a head injury), we may realize that the speech is atypical Likewise, if someone is a particularly effective or lucid speaker, we may notice that her speech is atypical in a noteworthy sense What we fail to notice on a daily basis, however, are the myriad physical, mental, psychological, social, and cultural factors that must all work together when we speak It is even a more impressive feat when we hear someone speaking effectively in a second or foreign language According to Brown and Yules opinions (1983), spoken language consists of short, fragmentary utterances in a range of pronunciation However, speaking is a skill, which deserves attention as much as literacy skills in both first and second language because our learners often need to speak with confidence in order to carry out a lot of their most basic transactions (Bygate, 1991) Furthermore, speaking is known with two main types of conversation called dialogue and monologue Brown and Yule (1983) point out the ability to give uninterrupted oral presentation (monologue) is rather different from interacting with one or more other speakers for transactional and international purposes It is much more difficult to extemporize on a given subject to a group of listeners That explains why speaking skill generally has to be learnt and practiced carefully before giving a presentation A comprehensive discussion of the nature of speaking is provided by Bygate (1987), who shows that in order to be able to speak a foreign language, it is obviously necessary to have micro-linguistic skills, that is, to understand some grammar, vocabulary and the rules governing how words are put together to form sentences However, these motor-perceptive skills, as Bygate calls them, are not sufficient since while producing sentences, we often have to adapt them to the circumstances He then presents the second set of speaking skills: the interaction skills, which involve using knowledge and basic motor-perception skills in deciding what to say and how to say it, while maintaining the intended relation with others 2.2 Characteristics of speaking Speaking has the following characteristics: Firstly, its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving However, speech is not always unpredictable Language functions (or patterns) that tend to recur in certain discourse situations can be identified and charted Secondly, speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary (linguistic competence), but also that they understand when, why, and in what ways to produce language (sociolinguistic competence) Thirdly, speech has its own skills, structures, and conventions different from written language A good speaker synthesizes this array of skills and knowledge to succeed in a given speech act Lastly, Bygate (1987) considers speaking as an undervalued skill in many ways The reason is that almost all people can speak, and so take speaking skill too much for granted He also asserts that speaking skill deserves attention every bit as much as literacy skills Learners often need to be able to speak with confidence in order to carry out many of their most basic transactions Bygate also highly appreciates speaking skill by stating that speaking is the medium through which much language is learnt To sum up, it is undeniable that speaking is key to communication By considering what good speakers do, what speaking tasks can be used in class, and what specific needs learners report, teachers can help learners improve their speaking and overall oral competency 2.3 Situtions of teaching and learning speaking skill at COFI in CMCC 2.3.1 Condition of teaching and learning The first and most easily found in an English class is now the student population A common class of not less than 40, with grades up to 50, 60 This figure often make school educators and legal headaches are one of the most difficult question to answer in the system COFI Besides visual media in foreign language classes are too poor Most of the classrooms are not equipped with video or audio recorder so fail to attract students to the native environment, has not been real life into the classroom 2.3.2 Attitude of student learning Vietnam students often shy when speaking They have no habit of arguing in class or stated their opinion whether true or false, especially in the presence of teachers Aerobic classes are not pro attitude: you stand up and say the wrong one, the classmates often laughed or revise sarcastically This phenomenon has limited the participation of student lessons In class, students are usually very active, inclined to be positive than negative, chatting or distracted in class was very popular This behavior reflects very clearly in the language class, the hour requires students to be involved in many different forms of training such as training in pairs work, trained group, or honing their skills power requires students to move, leaving space in the class These exercises so often creates confusion And much as we feel less of an effect does not depend on class engineering and enthusiasm of teachers in class, mainly due to the attitude of student learning 2.3.3 Methods of teaching and learning The tradition of our teaching to bring the trend spreading information one way: teachers, students take notes Students often depend heavily on teachers: class, wanting to say, recorded teachings that, on memorizing Percentage of students learning attitude, considering his discourses is only part of knowledge required, just the direction, very little This ingrained habit makes teachers often promote all of their ability to dominate classroom time, students are also drawn back a modest way Such learning can only be acceptable to many theoretical courses, but learning a foreign language is a purely practical procedures and practices to the clever, turning what he understood was what he used advantage Students, our students not understand most of the English learning method how to effectively, how to increase your vocabulary, how to listen understand who he said , using the word what classic , listening with a few steps tapes this shows the learner should be specified not only the road but also going further to match with the current trend of integration 2.4 Overview of previous studies In this chapter, I will present some past researches in the same fields There were many opinions on English teaching and learning, such as: In Viet Nam, like in many other countries, the problem of speaking skills is crucial A number of researchers investigated this field and came to the conclusion about students' low level of speaking ability and their inability to speak confidently and fluently One among the many reasons to take into consideration might be the lack of confidence and anxiety about making errors as stated by Trent (2009) and in other related studies Most college students are not confident in their ability to learn to speak; teachers must overcome their reluctance in order to change this situation Zaremba and Zhang hypothesize that, of the four macro English skills, speaking seems to be the most important skill required for communication (Zaremba, 2006) Students who study English as a foreign language usually have limited opportunities to speak English outside the classroom (Zhang, 2009) and also limited exposure to English speakers or members of the international community This might be one reason for teachers to provide more situations and activities for students to strengthen their speaking competence Confidence and competence usually reinforce English speaking skills Patil (2008) asserted that building up the learner’s confidence to eliminate their fear of making errors was a priority that a teacher should consider in order to make learners feel comfortable with their language use Confidence and competence in speaking could be developed from appropriate syllabus design, methods of teaching, and adequate tasks and materials (Bailey, 2005; Songsiri, 2007) Regarding speaking effectiveness, Shumin (1997) pointed out a number of elements involved, including listening skills, sociocultural factors, affective factors, and other linguistic and sociolinguistic competences such as grammatical, discourse, sociolinguistic, CHAPTER RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Overview about the COFI Center of Foreign language and Information was established in 1998 with the first name is Foreign language and Informatics Office of Center for Continuing Education (now is the COFI of CMCC) It has the function of training about English and Information technology in order to meet the requirement of local people, contribute to development of Ca Mau For the first time in operation, the COFI faced many difficulties and challenges From the stage of promotion, opening enrollment classes to the lack of faculty forces, quality and professional work experience is limited Especially, infrastructure and equipment to support for teaching did not have conditions to equip Given the problems in operation, The COFI has been closely guided by the Party Committee, Managing Board, the active support of the offices, faculties, departments and staffs in CMCC The generation of managers and staffs have overcome the difficulties and limitations to make solid foundation to build long -term development plan for the center Up to now, over 15 years of construction and development, the COFI has achieved many positive results, the prestigious of center was confirmed and evaluated in high training quality and the quality of teaching staff On the basis of material : The COFI has fully equipped about modern facilities and computer rooms , labs , projectors , and many other equipment combinations to create friendly learning environment to serve for teaching and learning better Specifically, the computer lab (room 05 with over 125 machines) connected to high-speed Internet, all classrooms are equipped with air conditions , multi-function projectors The center have been 17 classes of English Certificate in level A, B, C, and 18 classes of Informatics Certificate in level A, B The center aims to meet the learners demand for studying and upgrading knowledge of foreign language and information particularly in Ca Mau Community College 10 4.2 Questionnaires This section of the thesis is the treatment of the data collected from the survey questionnaires conducted on teachers and 30 students This part will present the analysis of the data collected from the English teachers and the students of class level B English at COFI in CMCC All the statistical data will be shown in the form of percentages Among 1,2,3,4 questions for the students, as to questions 5,6,7,8 for the teachers Therefore, the results for the questions are presented in the percentage of the options chosen In which, questions and in the teachers and students survey questionnaires are designed to ask about the difficulties of teaching and learning speaking skill Questions 2-3-6 are about the teachers and students attitudes towards English subject, the speaking skill, the materials and facilities teaching and learning at COFI in CMCC Question are about the students reasons for learning and question are methods of teachers for teaching English in COFI The questions in the teachers survey questions about some solutions to improve speaking skill for students 11 Question N of Ss % A You aren't interested 16 B Large classes and no equivalent 10 C Ability to speak English well you 17 D You lazy 10 35 E Inappropriate curricula F You don't enough time to clearn What is often your Answer 15 encounter difficulties have not Table 1: Difficulties of students about learning speaking skill 12 Question Answer N of Ts % A Students low motivation 12 B Students low level of English 45 C Time limitation 0 D Students laziness 16 E Large and heterogeneous class 12 F Inappropriate materials 0 G Poor teaching equipments 10 H Others (please specify) 0 proficiency What are your difficulties in teaching speaking skills ? 13 Table 2: Difficulties of teachers about teaching speaking skill From table and the collected data above, we can come to conclusion that the teachers and students face many difficulties during the process of teaching and learning speaking For the students at COFI, the biggest factor that prevents them from expressing their ideas is their low level of English proficiency (45%) Only 11% of the students isn't interested The students (35%) and teachers (16%) blame that the students laziness is another factor that deter the students to speak As well, the low motivation of the students in participating class speaking activities is believed one of the difficulties by 12% of the teachers and 13% of the students The number of teachers and students which accounts for 12% and 12% respectively complains that it is so hard to express themselves in a large and heterogeneous class The teachers and students also say inappropriate materials, poor speaking equipments, or time limitation are the obstacles for teaching and learning speaking skills In conclusion, pair works or group works in the final stage are highly appreciated by both of the teachers and students This activity would be a great step if the teachers know how to control the class well in the previous stages as well as to check and assess the students speaking competence 14 Question Do you are Answer N of Ss % A Yes 30 100 B No 0 C Only a few teaching facilities 0 14 46 B Important 15 49 C Little important equipped with modern teaching facilities such as radios, televisions, computers, VCRs, projectors etc To cater for teaching What English? A Very important speaking is your views on learning to speak English in class? D Not important 15 Table 3: Students attitudes towards English and facilities teaching and learning at COFI in CMCC There are many reasons why the students at COFI not willingly spend much time on speaking skills in classes but one of those reasons comes from the present facilities used in class According to the data in the table above, we can conclude the students of COFI have a negative opinion about the teaching and learning sources Moreover, nearly 100% of them say that the English Department offers only radios but not other modern equipment like computers, projectors, T.V, video recorder, etc to make the speaking activities in class more exciting Surprisingly, the statistical results from question above revealed that students in general attached to speaking a considerable importance, that is, up to 45 8% and 49.2% of the students stated that speaking skill is a very important and rather important skill respectively whereas only 5% of them supposed speaking skill is little important Such a high rating of speaking with students may stem from the reason which may be connected with the demands of today’s society where the ability to speak at least one foreign language means a necessity This requirement together with the position of English as a world language may account for a strong position of speaking within language learning A good command of a language is considered an investment in a future life as it may extend one’s opportunities in looking for a decent and well-paid job or in further studies There may be an influence of popular culture with songs in English and English-speaking media (e.g the internet, TV and radio channels) Also, while studying, working or traveling abroad a good speaking skill proves to be a great advantage From this fact, it can be concluded that the majority of the students are aware of the importance of the speaking skill However, the question raised here is that what the reasons or factors that make students reticent in oral English classes are and what teachers should to motivate the students to speak 16 Question Answer N of Ts % What you A Difficult and boring 65 think of the B Difficult but interesting 20 C Interesting and stimulating 13 D Easy and boring 47 materials used for teaching and learning speaking skill at COFI? Table 4: Teachers attitudes towards English the materials teaching and learning at COFI in CMCC From the data in the table above, nearly half of the 65% teachers admit that the present material are not only difficult but also boring The topics of some lessons such as introduction about yourself, family, food and drink are repeated in different levels, which make both the students and teachers find it boring In contrast, they find difficult to deal with some complicated topics like cultures, environment, transportations or health problems On 17 the other hand, 20% teachers state that the current materials difficult but interesting 13% of the teachers consider these materials are interesting and stimulating because they can discover new and useful things after each lesson so that they can widen their knowledge The teachers (47%) have the same opinion that their materials are easy and boring From the fact above, we can conclude both the teachers and the students of COFI have a negative opinion about the teaching and learning sources No of students Question Options Why A Obligatory subject in university curriculum 21 you B Interested in English or enjoy learning English learn 27 English? C Extend future opportunities, i.e jobs, promotion etc (Tick D For the purpose of entertainment such as listening to more music, playing games, reading books, magazines, than one newspapers…in English option) E Widen your knowledge about countries in the world (i.e to learn about the language and culture of English speaking countries) (%) 72.5 23.3 85 24.2 25 F An important means of communication 18 68.3 G Others 0 Table 5: Students for reasons learning English As can be seen from Table 5, a relatively great proportion of COFI at CMCC students (68.3%) responded that they learned English because it’s an important means of 18 communication This means that nowadays it is important to be able to speak a foreign language, especially English This demand is connected with the position of English as an international language Speakers of English, in their opinion, were able to communicate and be understood almost in all situations and places all over the world A frequent students answer (72.5%) was that they had to learn English since it forms one of the obligatory subjects in the universities’ and colleges’ curriculum These results suggest that student motivation for learning English arises, in a large extent, from external stimuli, i.e the requirements of their universities and colleges and demands of the contemporary society in general Thus, the student motivation, in its prevailing part, can be characterized as extrinsic Moreover, the reason for learning English that recurred in students responses was that they would need English in their future lives, e.g in their future profession, when studying, working or traveling abroad In short, they need English in order to extend their future opportunities Upon scanning the results, it becomes apparent that the reason connected to extending future opportunities gained in prominence with the approval of 85% of the students The students increasing awareness and reflecting on the future possibilities, e.g studies or career orientation, may account for this fact The stimulus for learning English in order to extend future opportunities may be classified as belonging to extrinsic, instrumental category of motivation It may be concluded that in general the student motivation for learning English is extrinsic However, there may be the intrinsic motivation, arising from a genuine interest in English, detected in a much smaller proportion of students (23.3%).The findings here revealed that extrinsic, instrumental motivation seemed to outweigh intrinsic, integrative motivation as a drive to learn However, to succeed in learning English, the students need to be intrinsically motivated as well To conclude again, the students at CODING in CMCC still have low motivation of speaking English in class 19 Options No of Ts (%) CLT 60 Audio-lingual method 15 Grammar-Translation method 100 Direct method 45 Others 0 Questions What teaching methods are currently applied in your teaching speaking? Table 6: Teachers methods in teaching English The statistics from Table clearly shows that all the teachers of English at COFI preferred applying Grammar-Translation method in their teaching to applying CLT approach (60%) or others But the teachers was rarely applied in teaching English in general and teaching speaking in particular (100%) In consistent with the statistical results above, the student claimed that the teacher mainly focused on explaining and giving the forms of grammar structures and providing the meaning of vocabulary, or in other words, the goal of teaching was set on grammar accuracy, speaking fluency was neglected As a result of traditional methods, teachers occupied more class-time than students; hence, the students were not given significant time and encouragement to develop their self-confidence and their speaking ability 20 Question Answer N of Ts % A Ask students to learn by heart all 60 30 10 to 20 E Suggest students taking an English 90 75 learnt vocabulary and structures B Ask students to practise English everyday C Ask students try to speak as much English as possible D Advise students try communicate with native speakers course in Foreign language Centers F Others ( please specify 21 Table 7: Some solutions to improve speaking skill of teachers As can be seen from the table, the teachers have used a lot of techniques to encourage their students to participate in class speaking activities or to improve their English speaking competence It is obvious that problems often arise when the students are asked to complete a speaking task especially when difficult or boring topics appear Realizing this fact, many teachers (60%) ask students to learn by heart all learnt vocabulary and structures and suggest students taking an English course in Foreign language Centers (90%) would like their teachers to such thing so that they get more interested in the speaking lesson Another ways to get the students to practise English everyday (30%) and using other authentic materials such as communicative songs, games, movies, etc (75%) Hence, only 20% of the teachers apply the immediate assessment technique It is apparent that Vietnam is not an English speaking country, so according to teachers it is quite hard to find a real English communicative environment to improve English speaking skills Only 10% ask students try to speak as much English as possible 22 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUTION AND IMPLACATIONS In this study i discussed the issues of communicative competence, methods of enhancing oral communication, motivation and ways of overcoming the language barrier It was significant to learn different views of Viet Nam and foreign researchers on the problem of speaking skills of students So, the aim of this article: to define strengths and weaknesses of speaking skills of today's students in Viet Nam and to demonstrate the possibilities of speaking skill enhancement of students learning English was achieved as we proved that the integrated use of modern techniques may yield positive results and lead to the improvement of communicative competence Learning English by using new methods in education and traveling and working abroad makes students willing to learn the language, develop their ability to speak fluently, and help them overcome the language barrier The findings from this study also show that the main reason of poor speaking skills of CMCC students is their unwillingness to communicate due to many factors We can conclude that students needs to be an important component of COFI So, the main suggestion is to overcome the language barrier and build a strong COFL Only then will it be possible for the student to be a fluent speaker and not to be afraid of communicating in any situations 23 References (1).Bailey, K.M (2005) Practical English Language Teaching: Speaking New York: McGraw-Hill Faculty of Arts, (2004) Undergraduate catalog Nakhon Pathom, Thailand: SilpakornUniversity Press (2).Goh, C (2007) Teaching speaking in the language classroom Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre (3).Koshy, V (2005) Action research for improving practice: a practical guide London: SAGE (4).Zaremba, A J (2006) Speaking professionally Canada: Thompson South-Western (5).Trent, J (2009) Enhancing oral participation across the curriculum: Some lessons from the EAP classroom Asian EFL Journal, 11(1), 256-270 Wedside: http://www.english-at-home.com/speaking/better-english-speaking-skills/ 24 ... of today''s students and to demonstrate the possibilities of enhancement of the speaking skills of students learning English at Center for Foreign languages and Informatics in CMCC Base on the. .. classes of Informatics Certificate in level A, B The center aims to meet the learners demand for studying and upgrading knowledge of foreign language and information particularly in Ca Mau Community. .. speaking skill of B English students in Foreign Language and Informatics center at CMCC 1.2 Statement of purpose The aim of this article is to define the strengths and weaknesses of speaking skills of