Chapter 1. Introduction 1.1. Background As we have already known, English is very important in the era of industrialization and modernization, especially in the period of integration. It is like the key to expand our vision, we can reach all areas of life and are able to catch up with the era of information technology quickly by using English. Communicating in English in our global allows us to become successful persons. It can also allow us to understand people all over the world, gain knowledge from new technologies, and connect our understandings while traveling from places to places. If more and more young generations learn to communicate in English, there would surely be no limitation in the global. The benefit of being able to communicate in English is that not only is it a very common language; it is probably the most universal language in the world. Therefore being able to communicate in English would mean you are more likely to be able to communicate with a higher number of people in general. In fact, to use fluently communication skills of English communication, in this case is oral communication, the office staffs must have regular and long term exercise, with different form and content related to various professional jobs, the use of practice communicate in English is not new but still difficult for office staffs. With the study of this subject, I hope to help the office staffs realize their current situation and also share some methods to help them to overcome their difficulties in practicing in order to communicate more effective, more positive, and more active in English communication. And finally, to help them use English to communicate in professional work. That is the reason I choose the topic: “Current situation and solutions to improve English communication at Ca Mau environmental police”. 1.2. Statement of purpose This is a small study to research about Situation of English communication at Ca Mau environmental police and some solutions to overcome this. 1.3. Research questions What are the disadvantages of the staffs when they use English to communicate in their workplace and with the foreign environmental agent? Some ways to improve the advantages and minimize the disadvantages of the English communicative skill of the staffs. 1.4. Significance This study can help the staffs recognizing of how communicative skill is the most important factor to be successful in any business, especially of Ca Mau Environmental police. It will also help the staffs recognize the advantages of English communication, know more effective ways to use English communication and have more experience in communication when working with foreign environmental agent Chapter 2. Literature review Communication affects every aspect of our life, from work and education to society and entertainment. There is very little we can do without communication, in fact almost nothing at all. In order to communicate effectively, one needs a language that is widely understood and is common. English has become that sort of language. It is the language most commonly used and understood by almost everyone. So it is easier to communicate in English as it is the best way to express ourselves. For that reason, there has been many research worldwide, include Vietnam, about the subject of speaking communication in English, and there are also many different opinions about this subject: According to Brown (2001) there are some features that make speaking as difficult language skill. They cover clustering, redundancy, reduced forms, performance variables, colloquial language, rate of delivery, stress, rhythm, intonation of English and interaction 1. As stated by Richards and Renandya (2002), speaking is used for many different purposes and each purpose involves different skills. Therefore, the ability to speak a foreign language is a very complex task 2. Speaking is an important issue for people who want to communicate in a foreign language as English. One of the outcomes of foreign speakers is to speak English fluently and Harmer (2003) states that “the ability to speak fluently presupposes not only a knowledge of language features, but also the ability to process information and language ‘on the spot’” (p. 269). When the learners are engaged in discussions, the purpose of speaking here may be to express opinions, to persuade someone about something or clarify information 3. Also according to Harmer, a popular kind of activity is the prepared a talk where a student (or learner) makes a presentation on a topic of their own choice. This talk is more known as oral presentation. Here, learners (this study focused on the office staff) present a topic usually using visual aids such as posters or power point presentations. For this, they prepare their material and study it before the presentation. In short, speaking is considered the most important skill to communicate in English. As people wanted to speak English in general, teachers can give more attention to this skill in English classes. Teachers can use several aids to improve speaking in classrooms like practicing and visual reinforcements. Chapter 3. Methodologies This chapter focuses mainly on the process of the study. It include times spend to observe to gather information and the list of the questionnaires to give the staffs. 3.1. Overview of the questionnaires The questionnaires are focused on evaluate the current ability of the staffs. It consists of 5 questions, three multiple choices question and three opening question: • From question 1 to question 3: ask about general information of each staff and an overview about their communicate ability. Selected good, medium, bad. • Question 4: ask about the difficulties of communication of each staff. • Question 5: ask about some solutions to overcome the difficulties and listed above. 3.2. Methodology 3.2.1. Time for study From 20th March 2013 to 25th April 2014. 3.2.2. Place for study Ca Mau Environment police. 3.2.3. Procedure Firstly, I research the documents and spent some times to observe their communicate ability and prepare the questionnaires. Secondly, I gave some copies of questionnaire to random staffs of Ca Mau Environment police. After that, I collected the copies of questionnaire, which they completed it after a few days later. Finally, I organized and analyzed the collected information. Chapter 4: Result and Discussion 4.1. Result After I got back the questionnaire from 10 of the staffs of Ca Mau Environmental police. I have some following result tables Questions Options The number of staffs Percent Question 1: How do you often use English to communicate with foreign agents? A. Usually 3 30% B. Sometimes 4 40% C. Rarely 3 30% Question 2: Do you feel nervous when using English to communicate with foreign agents? A. Yes 5 50% B. A little 3 30% C. No 2 20% Question 3: How do you think your communicate ability are? A. Good 3 30% B. Medium 5 50% C. Bad 2 20% Table: The frequency and general level of communication of the staffs The results from the table above show that most of staffs usually using English to communicate with foreign environmental agent and most of them often feel nervous during their communications. There are 80% of the staffs being nervous when they are communication and only 30% think their communication level is good. In question 4, the majority of staffs (80%) answered that their difficulties during their communications are: • They often speak so fast that the foreign agents sometimes cannot understand them. • They have problem with pronunciation. • They apply too much grammar rules. • They often uses uh, ah, ohh,...when they communicate with foreign agents. • There are no chance and time to practice and well prepare because sometimes the foreign agents ask questions that the staffs did not have the knowledge of. • Sometimes they are nervous and do not have appropriate gesture. • They do not have enough words to express their feeling. • They do not fully understand what the foreign agents say without looking at the documents. In question 5, they also share their thought of some methods they would like to practice to improve their communication: • Practice to speak more slowly and pronounce more clearly. • Learning some common phrases to use in conversation when they do not understand what the foreign agent says. • Practice some listening skills to understand more of what the foreign agents says without looking to the documents too much. • Pay less attention to grammar rules, speak free and more concise. • Learn to politely refuse some questions that are out of the topic or out of their knowledge. • Regularly study new vocabularies. 4.2. Discussion According to the answers in the questionnaires, I recognize the difficulties of the staffs when they communicate with foreign agent. Hence, I will suggest some solutions to overcome the difficulties and improve the quality of their communication. In my opinion, the staffs of Ca Mau Environmental police should: • First, dont study grammar too much: don’t worry too much about grammar Just do your best to communicate, and you’ll often be successful even if you do make a small grammar mistake. Also, remember that the grammar of spoken English is often more “flexible” than the grammar of written English. • Second, practice speaking English as much as possible in lowpressure situations, such as: Talk to yourself in the mirror, talk to your instructor and your friends in English center. If you make a mistake, they can correct you. It’s extremely important to practice in lowpressure situations as much as possible to build your confidence so that you will be comfortable speaking English in a more “highpressure” situation (like a teleconference, presentation, or job interview). • Third, slow your speech down: If you speak too quickly, and with the wrong intonation and rhythm, native speakers will have a hard time understanding you. Dont worry about your listener getting impatient with your slow speech it is more important that everything you say be understood. • Fourth, learn and study phrases: Many people learn vocabulary and try to put many words together to create a proper sentence. No matter how many words a person knows, they cannot create a proper sentence. The reason is because they didnt study phrases. When you learn a language, you learn both words and phrases together. Likewise, you need to study and learn phrases. If you know 1000 words, you might not be able to say one correct sentence. But if you know 1 phrase, you can make hundreds of correct sentences. If you know 100 phrases, you will be surprised at how many correct sentences you will be able to say. Finally, when you know only a 1000 phrases, you will be almost a fluent English speaker. Base on the staffs ability, they should choose the appropriate methods mentioned above to practice in order to improve their communication quality. Chapter 5: Conclusion In conclusion, my study help the staffs of Ca Mau Environmental police recognize the importance of communicate in English with their work. In general, most of them are at above average level of communication and are aware of the role of communication in their work. In particular, they had some difficulties in using words and got some common mistakes such as grammar and pronounce. However, they had several different methods to overcome these difficulties and improve their communicate ability. Knowledge of English is important as we can get to know how to frame sentences, how to use words in dialogues while speaking to others. As every word has a particular context where it fits right, using words in such a manner in English is a art that can only be mastered by practice. And with such command, we can easily communicate with others on any level. Concentration on learning English communication skills in this new millennium is a tremendous move towards communicating fluently in English. Also our way of pronunciation of different words will be improved if we learn good communication. We can make conversation, practice dialogues, give highquality presentations if we learn English communication language skills. Communicating with people in English on a daily basis also improves our pitch voicetone of our speech; how to speak in a correct form for correct usage. References 1 K. Johnson and K. Morrow, (1981). Communication in the Classroom. Harlow: Longman. 2 Brown, D. (2001). Teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy. White Plains: Longman. 3 Richard, Jack c. Redandya, Willy A. (2002). Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press. 4 Harmer, J. (2003). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman 6 http:www.espressoenglish.netenglishspeakingtipsfor4commondifficulties 7 http:www.rediff.comgetahead2005sep02accent.htm 8 http:www.talkenglish.comExtraLessonsSpeakingRules.aspx 9 http:www.techwonders.com201011importanceofenglishlanguage.html Appendix (Questionnaires) This survey questionnaire is used for my study topic Current situation and solutions to improve English communication at Ca Mau environmental police. Your help in answering the following questions would make a great assistance to the completion of my graduation paper. Please choose the answer by circle your choice for the multiple choice questions and write your ideas in the blanks for the opening questions. Question 1. How do you often use English to communicate with foreign agents? A. Usually B. Sometimes C. Rarely Question 2. Do you feel nervous when using English to communicate with foreign agents? A. Yes B. A little C. No Question 3. How do you think your communicate ability are? A. Good B. Medium C. Bad Question 4. What do you think are the difficulties of using English to communicate? Question 5. What do you think you should do to overcome these difficulties in using English to communicate? THANK YOU
Chapter 1. Introduction 1.1. Background As we have already known, English is very important in the era of industrialization and modernization, especially in the period of integration. It is like the key to expand our vision, we can reach all areas of life and are able to catch up with the era of information technology quickly by using English. Communicating in English in our global allows us to become successful persons. It can also allow us to understand people all over the world, gain knowledge from new technologies, and connect our understandings while traveling from places to places. If more and more young generations learn to communicate in English, there would surely be no limitation in the global. The benefit of being able to communicate in English is that not only is it a very common language; it is probably the most universal language in the world. Therefore being able to communicate in English would mean you are more likely to be able to communicate with a higher number of people in general. In fact, to use fluently communication skills of English communication, in this case is oral communication, the office staffs must have regular and long term exercise, with different form and content related to various professional jobs, the use of practice communicate in English is not new but still difficult for office staffs. With the study of this subject, I hope to help the office staffs realize their current situation and also share some methods to help them to overcome their difficulties in practicing in order to communicate more effective, more positive, and 1 more active in English communication. And finally, to help them use English to communicate in professional work. That is the reason I choose the topic: “Current situation and solutions to improve English communication at Ca Mau environmental police”. 1.2. Statement of purpose This is a small study to research about Situation of English communication at Ca Mau environmental police and some solutions to overcome this. 1.3. Research questions What are the disadvantages of the staffs when they use English to communicate in their workplace and with the foreign environmental agent? Some ways to improve the advantages and minimize the disadvantages of the English communicative skill of the staffs. 1.4. Significance This study can help the staffs recognizing of how communicative skill is the most important factor to be successful in any business, especially of Ca Mau Environmental police. It will also help the staffs recognize the advantages of English communication, know more effective ways to use English communication and have more experience in communication when working with foreign environmental agent 2 Chapter 2. Literature review Communication affects every aspect of our life, from work and education to society and entertainment. There is very little we can do without communication, in fact almost nothing at all. In order to communicate effectively, one needs a language that is widely understood and is common. English has become that sort of language. It is the language most commonly used and understood by almost everyone. So it is easier to communicate in English as it is the best way to express ourselves. For that reason, there has been many research worldwide, include Vietnam, about the subject of speaking communication in English, and there are also many different opinions about this subject: According to Brown (2001) there are some features that make speaking as difficult language skill. They cover clustering, redundancy, reduced forms, performance variables, colloquial language, rate of delivery, stress, rhythm, intonation of English and interaction [1]. As stated by Richards and Renandya (2002), speaking is used for many different purposes and each purpose involves different skills. Therefore, the ability to speak a foreign language is a very complex task [2]. Speaking is an important issue for people who want to communicate in a foreign language as English. One of the outcomes of foreign speakers is to speak English fluently and Harmer (2003) states that “the ability to speak fluently presupposes not only a knowledge of language features, but also the ability to process information and 3 language ‘on the spot’” (p. 269). When the learners are engaged in discussions, the purpose of speaking here may be to express opinions, to persuade someone about something or clarify information [3]. Also according to Harmer, a popular kind of activity is the prepared a talk where a student (or learner) makes a presentation on a topic of their own choice. This talk is more known as oral presentation. Here, learners (this study focused on the office staff) present a topic usually using visual aids such as posters or power point presentations. For this, they prepare their material and study it before the presentation. In short, speaking is considered the most important skill to communicate in English. As people wanted to speak English in general, teachers can give more attention to this skill in English classes. Teachers can use several aids to improve speaking in classrooms like practicing and visual reinforcements. 4 Chapter 3. Methodologies This chapter focuses mainly on the process of the study. It include times spend to observe to gather information and the list of the questionnaires to give the staffs. 3.1. Overview of the questionnaires The questionnaires are focused on evaluate the current ability of the staffs. It consists of 5 questions, three multiple choices question and three opening question: • From question 1 to question 3: ask about general information of each staff and an overview about their communicate ability. Selected good, medium, bad. • Question 4: ask about the difficulties of communication of each staff. • Question 5: ask about some solutions to overcome the difficulties and listed above. 3.2. Methodology 3.2.1. Time for study From 20 th March 2013 to 25 th April 2014. 3.2.2. Place for study Ca Mau Environment police. 3.2.3. Procedure Firstly, I research the documents and spent some times to observe their communicate ability and prepare the questionnaires. 5 Secondly, I gave some copies of questionnaire to random staffs of Ca Mau Environment police. After that, I collected the copies of questionnaire, which they completed it after a few days later. Finally, I organized and analyzed the collected information. 6 Chapter 4: Result and Discussion 4.1. Result After I got back the questionnaire from 10 of the staffs of Ca Mau Environmental police. I have some following result tables Table: The frequency and general level of communication of the staffs The results from the table above show that most of staffs usually using English to communicate with foreign environmental agent and most of them often feel nervous Questions Options The number of staffs Percent Question 1: How do you often use English to communicate with foreign agents? A. Usually 3 30% B. Sometimes 4 40% C. Rarely 3 30% Question 2: Do you feel nervous when using English to communicate with foreign agents? A. Yes 5 50% B. A little 3 30% C. No 2 20% Question 3: How do you think your communicate ability are? A. Good 3 30% B. Medium 5 50% C. Bad 2 20% 7 during their communications. There are 80% of the staffs being nervous when they are communication and only 30% think their communication level is good. In question 4, the majority of staffs (80%) answered that their difficulties during their communications are: • They often speak so fast that the foreign agents sometimes cannot understand them. • They have problem with pronunciation. • They apply too much grammar rules. • They often uses uh, ah, ohh, when they communicate with foreign agents. • There are no chance and time to practice and well prepare because sometimes the foreign agents ask questions that the staffs did not have the knowledge of. • Sometimes they are nervous and do not have appropriate gesture. • They do not have enough words to express their feeling. • They do not fully understand what the foreign agents say without looking at the documents. In question 5, they also share their thought of some methods they would like to practice to improve their communication: • Practice to speak more slowly and pronounce more clearly. • Learning some common phrases to use in conversation when they do not understand what the foreign agent says. 8 • Practice some listening skills to understand more of what the foreign agents says without looking to the documents too much. • Pay less attention to grammar rules, speak free and more concise. • Learn to politely refuse some questions that are out of the topic or out of their knowledge. • Regularly study new vocabularies. 4.2. Discussion According to the answers in the questionnaires, I recognize the difficulties of the staffs when they communicate with foreign agent. Hence, I will suggest some solutions to overcome the difficulties and improve the quality of their communication. In my opinion, the staffs of Ca Mau Environmental police should: • First, don't study grammar too much: don’t worry too much about grammar! Just do your best to communicate, and you’ll often be successful even if you do make a small grammar mistake. Also, remember that the grammar of spoken English is often more “flexible” than the grammar of written English. • Second, practice speaking English as much as possible in low-pressure situations, such as: Talk to yourself in the mirror, talk to your instructor and your friends in English center. If you make a mistake, they can correct you. It’s extremely important to practice in low-pressure situations as much as possible to build your confidence so that you will be comfortable speaking English in a more “high-pressure” situation (like a teleconference, presentation, or job interview). 9 • Third, slow your speech down: If you speak too quickly, and with the wrong intonation and rhythm, native speakers will have a hard time understanding you. Don't worry about your listener getting impatient with your slow speech - it is more important that everything you say be understood. • Fourth, learn and study phrases: Many people learn vocabulary and try to put many words together to create a proper sentence. No matter how many words a person knows, they cannot create a proper sentence. The reason is because they didn't study phrases. When you learn a language, you learn both words and phrases together. Likewise, you need to study and learn phrases. If you know 1000 words, you might not be able to say one correct sentence. But if you know 1 phrase, you can make hundreds of correct sentences. If you know 100 phrases, you will be surprised at how many correct sentences you will be able to say. Finally, when you know only a 1000 phrases, you will be almost a fluent English speaker. Base on the staffs ability, they should choose the appropriate methods mentioned above to practice in order to improve their communication quality. 10 [...]... Concentration on learning English communication skills in this new millennium is a tremendous move towards communicating fluently in English Also our way of pronunciation of different words will be improved if we learn good communication We can make conversation, practice dialogues, give high-quality presentations if we learn English communication language skills Communicating with people in English. .. study topic "Current situation and solutions to improve English communication at Ca Mau environmental police" Your help in answering the following questions would make a great assistance to the completion of my graduation paper Please choose the answer by circle your choice for the multiple choice questions and write your ideas in the blanks for the opening questions Question 1 How do you often use English. .. staffs of Ca Mau Environmental police recognize the importance of communicate in English with their work In general, most of them are at above average level of communication and are aware of the role of communication in their work In particular, they had some difficulties in using words and got some common mistakes such as grammar and pronounce However, they had several different methods to overcome... these difficulties and improve their communicate ability Knowledge of English is important as we can get to know how to frame sentences, how to use words in dialogues while speaking to others As every word has a particular context where it fits right, using words in such a manner in English is a art that can only be mastered by practice And with such command, we can easily communicate with others on... Question 1 How do you often use English to communicate with foreign agents? A Usually B Sometimes C Rarely Question 2 Do you feel nervous when using English to communicate with foreign agents? A Yes B A little C No Question 3 How do you think your communicate ability are? 13 A Good B Medium C Bad Question 4 What do you think are the difficulties of using English to communicate? ... people in English on a daily basis also improves our pitch & voice/tone of our speech; how to speak in a correct form & for correct usage References 11 [1] K Johnson and K Morrow, (1981) Communication in the Classroom Harlow: Longman [2] Brown, D (2001) Teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy White Plains: Longman [3] Richard, Jack c & Redandya, Willy A (2002) Methodology in... Anthology of Current Practice New York: Cambridge University Press [4] Harmer, J (2003) The Practice of English Language Teaching Longman [6] http://www.espressoenglish.net /english- speaking-tips-for-4-common-difficulties/ [7] http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2005/sep/02accent.htm [8] http://www.talkenglish.com/ExtraLessons/SpeakingRules.aspx [9] http://www.tech-wonders.com/2010/11/importance-of -english- language.html... 4 What do you think are the difficulties of using English to communicate? Question 5 What do you think you should do to overcome these difficulties in using English to communicate? THANK YOU! 14 . English to communicate in professional work. That is the reason I choose the topic: Current situation and solutions to improve English communication at Ca Mau environmental police . 1.2. Statement. http://www.tech-wonders.com/2010/11/importance-of -english- language.html 12 Appendix (Questionnaires) This survey questionnaire is used for my study topic " ;Current situation and solutions to improve English communication at Ca Mau environmental. purpose This is a small study to research about Situation of English communication at Ca Mau environmental police and some solutions to overcome this. 1.3. Research questions What are the disadvantages