Some suggestions to improve speaking skill for the second year students at thanh hoa university of culture, sports and tourism (TUCST)

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGVINH UNIVERSITY LÊ QUỐC NGUYÊN SOME SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILL FOR THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT THANH HOA UNIVERSITY OF CULTURE, SPORTS AND TO

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

LÊ QUỐC NGUYÊN

SOME SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILL FOR THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT THANH HOA UNIVERSITY OF CULTURE, SPORTS

AND TOURISM (TUCST)

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

NGHỆ AN - 2014

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

LÊ QUỐC NGUYÊN

SOME SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILL FOR THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT THANH HOA UNIVERSITY OF CULTURE, SPORTS

AND TOURISM (TUCST)

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

Code: 60.14.01.11

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: M.A PHAN THỊ HƯƠNG

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby acknowledge that this study is my own work The data and findingsdiscussed in the thesis are true, used with permission, and have not been publishedelsewhere

Author

Lê Quốc Nguyên

1.6 The role of the teacher and students in teaching and learning speaking 12

1.7.1 The pre - speaking stage 15

1.8.1 Students’ Difficulties in learning speaking 18

1.8.1.1 Fear of making mistake 18

1.8.1.2 Shyness when talking in English 20

1.8.1.3 Thinking of what to say in Vietnamese then Translating into

1.8.2 Teachers’ Difficulties in teaching speaking 22

1.8.2.1 Teacher-learner relationship 22

1.8.2.2 Inappropriate teacher pedagogical practices 23

1.8.2.3 The amount of Teacher Talk 23

1.8.2.4 Teacher's Correction 24

1.8.2.5 Krashen’s Input Theory 24

2.1 The Teaching and learning situation in Thanh Hoa University of culture,

2.1.2 Syllabus used for non - English major students at TUCST 29

2.4.1 Instrument 1: classroom observation 34

3.1.1.1 Their teaching experience 37

3.1.1.2. Difficulties for teachers 37

3.1.2.1 Students’ background of learning English 43

3.1.2.2 Students’ attitude towards speaking skill 45

3.1.3 Factors making the students unwilling to speak in class. 45

3.1.4 Students’ difficulties in learning speaking 46

3.1.5 Students’ interest in speaking activities 48

3.2.1 Helping the students to improve their grammatical structures and

3.2.4.1 Problems of the teachers 54

3.2.4.2 Solutions to the teachers’ problems 55

3.2.5 Some suggestions to develop the students’ speaking skill 55

3.2.5.1 Helping the students to have ideas to speak 55

3.2.5.2 Using pair work and group work to help low level students 57

3.2.5.3. Reducing the students’ use of Vietnamese during group work 60

3.2.5.4 Changing the students’ deep routed habit of passive learning

I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor Mrs Phan ThiHuong for her precious advice, practical suggestions and constant encouragement inthe preparation and completion of this graduation paper Without her help thisgraduation paper would not have possibly been completed

I wish to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to the teacher ofDepartment of post- graduate studies who supply me with the good conditions to

conduct this thesis and finish This M.A course.

I would be also grateful to the teachers and students at Thanh Hoa University

of culture, sports and tourism for their assistance and unwillingness to permit me toobserve their classes, interview and to answer my questionnaire

Due to the limited scope, mistakes in this graduation paper are inevitable.Therefore, I hope to receive further comments and advice from the readers to make

it better

This thesis aims to find out the difficulties in teaching and learning speakingskill that teachers and non-English major students encountered at Thanh HoaUniversity of Culture, Sports and Tourism and give some suggestions fordeveloping the students’ speaking skill

The study includes three main parts The study begins with the introduction,which includes rationale, scope of the study, aims of the study, significance of thestudy, methodology and design of the study Part two includes three chapters inwhich the first chapter presents the related literature, the second chapter, the heart ofstudy, gives a brief introduction of Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports andTourism, describes the study in detail, the third chapter deals with the summary,finding and pedagogical implications of study Part three is the conclusion, whichfocuses on the summary of the research

LIST OF TABLES, GRAPHS AND FIGURES

Table 3: Teacher pedagogical Practices in teaching speaking skillTable 4: Students’ opinions on inappropriate teacher pedagogical

practices in English speaking lessons

Table 6: Students’ history of learning English

Table 7: Students’ time of learning English

Table 8: Students’ attitude towards speaking skill

Table 9: Factors making the students unwilling to speak in classTable 10: Students’ difficulties in learning speaking

Table 11: Students’ interest in speaking

ABBREVIATIONS

TUCST: Thanh Hoa university of Culture, Sports and Tourism

No of Students: Number of Students

No of Teachers: Number of Teachers

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Nowadays, English plays an important role in all over the World People useEnglish in most of areas, like science, technology, business and commerce,international relations and so on English is a useful bridge to help people fromother countries understand and say a same language It is the main language of mostinternational organization like NATO, European free trade Association Most allinternational conferences and competitions use English For example; miss Worldcontest and World cup Now Internet and mobile phone are very popular to contactpeople from all the world and the language for them are written in English Adultand children from different counties can talk, share the idea and learn about theculture through Internet and Mobile phone by English Someone can travel aroundthe world if he can speak English well and so on In Vietnam, English has beentaught from primary level and in most of final test student have to pass Englishexam as an essential requirements

Mai Thanh Thu (2008,) in her research about speaking difficulties whichstudents faced when they studied speaking, mentioned that Speaking is one of fourimportant skills that should be paid attention to in the process of teaching andlearning The goal of learning speaking should improve students’ communicativeskill, by that way, students can express their ideas But in fact, a large number ofstudents at Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports and Tourism find it difficult tospeak in English as they have to think for a long time about what they intend to saybefore they can actually speak some words Even worse, some cannot speak anyEnglish at all

When students speak English badly, one tends to blame the students for havingpoor ability or making insufficient effort However, there are other important factors

in teaching and learning process that should be taken into consideration such asinterest, teaching materials, attitude of teachers and students toward the subject, etc

For the above-mentioned reasons, the author has chosen to do a study entitled

“Some suggestions to improve Speaking skill for the second year students at

Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports and Tourism (TUCST)”

This study will try to find out problems and suggest some solutions to improvethe teaching and learning English speaking skill for students at TUCST

2 Scope of the study

The researcher doesn’t think that he will deal with all speaking problems ofcurrent materials used for non major students of culture management in this study

It is too broad Therefore, the focus of this study is to investigate speakingdifficulties experienced by teachers and non- English major students of culturemanagement at TUCST when using the course book “Life lines”, then suggestsolutions to the problems in order to help students improve their speaking skill

3 Aims of the study

The study is carried out with aims to:

- Investigate the students’ attitude toward speaking skill

- Investigate teachers and non- English major students’ areas of speakingdifficulties

- Give some suggestions to solve the problems so as to improve teachingand learning speaking skill

In order to achieve the aims set forth, the following research questions areposed

1 What are the difficulties met by the second year students of culturemanagement when they learn speaking skill at Thanh Hoa University of Culture,Sports and Tourism?

2 What are the difficulties for the teachers in teaching speaking skill?

3 What are effective solutions to those difficulties?

4 Significance of the study

The study is expected to enhance teaching method of speaking to the secondyear students and the students’ learning of speaking skill

For the practical basis, the researcher chooses the survey research with twosurvey questionnaires and interview for teachers and second year students of culturemanagement at TUCST

6 Design of the study

The study is divided into three parts

Part A is Introduction, presents the rationale, the aims, the scope, themethodology and the design of the study

Part B is Development It consists of three chapters

Chapter 1 reviews the theoretical background, which is relevant to thepurpose of the study

Chapter 2 gives a brief introduction on the materials and current situations ofteaching speaking at TUCST and describes the research methodology, whichfocuses on the context of the study, participants, the instruments and data collectionprocedure

Chapter 3 deals with data analysis and some suggestions

Part C is Conclusion, summaries the study and offers some suggestion forfurther research

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES

1 The nature of speaking

1.1. Nature of Language skills

For the purposes of analysis and instruction, language has been divided into thefour skill areas These can be discussed in the framework of how we learned ourfirst language When we were a child we first learnt to practice language throughthe skill of listening Later, we used language by speaking combined with listening.Then, at school stage, children learnt the skills of reading and writing The first twoskills, listening and speaking, are called the oral skills due to the manners by whichthey are formed The last two, reading and writing, are called the literacy skills asthey connect with manual script

When children grow in their language ability and use, they don’t use individualskill, they use skills more flexible and know to combine other skills to make acompleted conversation such as they can listen while they are speaking, they canread while they are writing As a teacher, you will be reading your lesson plans andthen speaking to your students All of the skill areas are related to each other andused in coordination with each other

Many studies showed that some learners are very good at memorizing words andgrammar rules, but they still cannot speak well They can read better than theyspeak A child doesn’t learn to speak like this, he learns to listen then he imitates tospeak long before learning to write and read

These studies help us know that it is better to begin with speaking, because afterlearning to speak, it is easier to develop reading and writing skills in the foreignlanguage classroom But, language teachers have found it is difficult to developtheir students’ speaking skills after reading and writing

1.2 Definition of speaking

Speaking is regarded as very important for language teaching and learning.Speaking is a bridge to reach other skills It helps learners to read better, to listenmore effectively and to write more accurately Speaking is surely the most effectivemeans of communication (Ur, 1996)

Brown (1983) also states that “Speaking is an interactive process of constructingmeaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information” From thisstate, we see that speaking is a complex process and its content depends on thecontext, purposes of speaking, participants take part in the process andcommunicative skill of speakers and listeners

Mai Thanh Thu (2008) carried out researched on some difficulties whichstudents faced in speaking She also stated that:

It is often spontaneous, open ended and evolving However, speech is not always unpredictable Language functions that tent to recur in certain discourse situations (declining and invitation, requesting time off from work) can be identified and charted Speaking requires not only that learners know how to produce specific points of language, such as grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary (linguistic competence), but also that they understand when, why and in what way to produce language

Scott (1978) reveals that “speaking can be typified as an activity involving two

or more people in which the participants are both hearers and speakers having toreact to what they hear and make their contribution.” In speaking activity, thespeaker and hearer have their own idea or intention, they usually can’t predict whatwill happen next but base on the context, they will give their opinion and try toexplain or defense their idea

Each has an intention or a set of intentions that he wants to achieve in theinteraction and an ability to interpret what is said to him which he cannot predictexactly either in terms of form or in terms of meaning

“Speaking is such a fundamental human behavior that we don’t stop to analyze

it unless there is something noticeable about it” Nguyen Thu Linh (2008) Toapprove the ideas she gave 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 a typical

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.

There are a lot of concepts of speaking Each researcher gives his own idea andtries to approve that it is true But all of them agree that speaking is very importantskill, and they all try to find out the nature of speaking, speaking act, in which thespeakers, speaking process, and speaking message are emphasized

1.3 Spoken language and communication

Speaking is the productive, oral skill Speaking consists of producing systematicverbal utterances to convey meaning (utterances are simply things people say).Speaking is “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producingand receiving and processing information” (Florez, 1999, p.1) It is “oftenspontaneous, open-ended and evolving” (ibid., p.1), but it is not completelyunpredictable

Communicative activity is a complex process When communication takes placespeakers and hearers usually change their turns At that time they themselves feelthat they want to speak out or write down something they want to express their ideaand share their opinion with the others

In oral communication process, the roles of speakers and listeners areinterchanged; information gaps between them are created and then closed with theeffort from both sides In organizing classroom oral practice, teachers should create

as much information gap as possible and teachers’ vital duty is to encouragecommunication which yields information gaps Teachers should also bear in mindthe differences between real-life oral communication and classroom oralcommunication.

According to Broughton (1980:25), “all living creatures have some means ofconveying information to others of their own group, communication beingultimately essential for their survival;” beside the verbal communication, man usesthe non- verbal communication to communicate each other But they mainlycommunicate through spoken language Today, it is commonplace to say that

“Language is never used for its own sake, but always for the sake of achieving anobjective, or to perform a function, to persuade, in form, inquire, threaten, etc.” (Ur,1981:3)

Brown and Yule’s 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 languagebecause 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 knownwith two main types of conversation called dialogue and monologue

Wright (1987), we speak because of the following reasons:

Giving or asking for factual information

Expressing what we think and find out what someone else thinks

Expressing what we feel and find out what someone else feels

Expressing what we think is right or wrong…etc

television programs, a teacher or professor gives a formal lecture, an announcergives the instruction or changes in the airport, etc”

This type corresponds with non-reciprocal listening where the transfer ofinformation is in one-direction only from the speaker to the listener and is used likethe written form with no reaction and response from the listener These types takeplace when the speaker wants to talk with a large number of listeners about thesame issue

Donne Byrne (1986) also says: “Dialogues seem to be best suited to the teaching

of the spoken language” In this study, the researcher will use the dialogue as aneffective way to improve speaking skill for non-major students of culturemanagement at Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports and Tourism

1.5 Speaking skill

Many language learners think that you can master a language if you speakfluently; it seems that speaking ability is the measure of knowing a language As forthem, fluency is the ability to converse with others much more than the ability toread, write or comprehend oral language Language learners regard speaking is mostimportant skill they can’t get progress in acquiring language if learners do not learnhow 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 theright 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 funand dynamic place to be

The skill of speaking has been recently considered by many methodologists apriority in language teaching Of all the four skills, Ur (1997: 120) concludes,speaking seems intuitively the most important Most language learners, she adds,are primarily interested in learning to speak

In Nguyen Thi Thu Linh’s study(2008), she carried out to compare someresearchers’ view about concept of speaking skill and showed that Numan hassimilar view, he says that “the ability to operate in a second language can beactually equated to the ability to speak that language” Another researcher shares thesame idea that Hedge, he gives the evidence that speaking has recently obtained, atleast from textbook writers, the attention it deserves: “Learners need to develop atthe same time knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, functional language andcommunicative skills Attention to the systems of language is crucial, but thedevelopment of fluency and contextual appropriacy are equally important goals”.Speaking is fundamental to human communication Different linguists havedifferent concepts of speaking but they all agree with this idea

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

In Brown and Yule’s opinions (1983), spoken language consists of short,fragmentary utterances in a range of pronunciation Usually, there is a great deal ofrepetition and overlap between one speaker and another Speaker usually uses non-specific references They also add that spoken language is made to feel lessconceptually dense than other types of language such as prose by using the looselyorganized syntax, and non- specific words, phrases and filters

1.6 The role of the teacher and students in teaching and learning speaking

1.6.1 The role of the teacher

The goal is not only to get students to speak and share thinking but also to havethem learn and develop through speech As students’ language skills develop,classroom talk and discussion can be directed toward the goals of exploring ideas

and facts found in texts and in the subsequent development of thought anddeepening of knowledge.

Gillian Bertram (2002) claims that to act as facilitators of student learning,teachers should:

Encourage students to bring their ideas and background knowledge into class learning activities.

Be a responsive listener to students’ talk.

Nature an accepting environment where students will feel free to express themselves without fear of censure by adult or fellow students.

Raise questions concerning the activities or conversations held with students Promote robust discussion and exposition amongst class members.

Provide opportunities for speaking, discussion, and expression of ideas, experiences and opinions across the whole curriculum This will involve a range of experiences which the size and type of audience, the situation and purpose will all vary.

Present themselves as good models of oral language.

Establish strategies to manage all form of communication to ensure all students have fair and equitable opportunities to develop their interpersonal speaking and listening skills, e.g small and large group work discussions.

Donn Byrne (1976:3) has a clearer explanation for the teacher’s roles as follows:

* The teacher acts as an informant at the presentation stage

In this stage, teacher knows clearly items what he/she is going to present,teacher chooses the useful ways and new material to present, he/ she will organizethe lesson in the way to save time and make it most clearly to understand andremember The students listen to the teacher’s presentation and try their best tounderstand and memory In this stage, the students only listen and memory, teachercontrols all class activity, but teacher has to know that he must save time, presentthe new items clearly and as fast as he can This act saves time for students topractice at next stage

* The teacher as a conductor and monitor at the practice stage

At this stage, teacher finishes his presentation, student understands andremembers the new items, teacher talking time is less and student talking timeincreases Now, teacher’s role is an instructor and observer The students practicewhat they are introduced In this stage, teacher doesn’t introduce new item but,while student are practicing they can ask their teacher to explain or instruct more ifthey get troubles

* The teacher as a guide at the production stage

At this stage, the students are given enough new language item, they have justpracticed the new language item in the practice stage But they haven’t known touse language in real life and this is a big problem in learning speaking skill Most ofstudents at Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports and Tourism usually said thatthey don’t know why they have to learn English; they don’t know to use what theylearnt in real life so, this stage, students have much more changes to apply whatthey have learned into real life, they can use language to express their idea andshare their view with their partners so they will understand that they have learnedsomething useful to them, it also encourages them to continue learning In thisstage, the teacher continues guiding students to practice

1.6.2 The role of learners

“Students are communicators They are actively engaged in negotiatingmeaning- in trying to make themselves understood – event when their knowledge ofthe target language is incomplete They interact with one another in variousconfigurations; pairs, triads, small groups and whole class Since the teacher’s role

is less dominant than in a student- centered method, students are seen as moreresponsible managers of their own learning” Nguyen Thi Thu Linh (2008) One ofthe basic assumptions of Communicative Approach is that the students will be moremotivated to study a foreign language if they feel they are learning to do somethinguseful with the language they study

Mai Thanh Thu (2008), in her research about the difficulties which the English major students got when they study speaking skill, reveals that” The aim ofteaching speaking is to enable learners to communicate effectively and successfully

non-in real life” In Nunan’s view (1998: 80) To meet this aim the learners have takethe following roles:

- The learner is the passive recipient of outside stimuli

- The learner is an interactor and negotiator who are capable of giving as well as taking.

- The learner is a listener and performer who have little control over the content of learning.

- The learner is involved in a process of personal growth.

- The learner is involved in a social activity and the social and personal roles of the learner cannot be divorced from psychological learning process

inter The learner must take responsibility for their own learning developing autonomy and skills in learning how to learn.

1.7 Stages of teaching speaking

According to Methodology course 1- Teaching the skills (Ha Noi 2002: 42-43)there are three stages in a speaking lesson: pre-speaking, while- speaking, and post-speaking Each stage the teacher and the learner has their own activities and in eachstage, speaking activity has its own characteristics

1.7.1 The pre - speaking stage

As we mentioned about the teacher’s role in teaching speaking skill At firststage, the teacher talking time is much, he/ she dominates class activities It is thesame way, in pre- speaking stage, teacher is the centre He will present new itemsand introduce it to students, he organizes his lesson in the way that student canunderstand and memory the new language items easily Contract the teachers’ roles

In this stage, students only listen and observe teacher’ introduction

So far, oral materials are written mainly in two forms in every course book.They are dialogue and prose And obviously these two forms must be presented indefend ways.

According to Byrne (1991:22) introduction of the procedure in which the tendifferent steps are used to present a dialogue They are:

Establish setting by using pictures (at this phrase English should be used as much as possible)

Draw out learners’ experience related to situation.

Explain some key words.

Set listening task by asking key information of the dialogue.

Ask learners to listen without looking at the books.

Allow learners to have a look at their books when necessary.

Ask the learners to listen and repeat

Ask learners to pick up difficulties (good chance for learners to soak) and explain difficulties.

Ask them to practice ( Role- play)

Ask learners to dramatize the dialogue.

What’s more, the presentation of prose massage suggested by Byrne (1991: 26)includes the nine steps:

Introduce the topic by asking the students to have a quick look at the picture or

by asking them about a related book, film, or TV programme they have seen.

Introduce the text including new words or new structures However, there is no need to explain all things in the text.

Provide relevant language practice, for example, train the students with pronunciation drill so that they can speak English easily, fluently and also help them remember the new words.

Set the reading task by making questions

Ask the students to read the silently

Read the passage aloud

Explain any difficulties faced by the students

Do silent reading again

Get the students to talk about what they have learned

The two ways presentation is said by Byrne they are very useful for presenting adialogue and prose But, we can’t apply all of steps in every situation we have tobase on the participants, lesson’s need and the situation of teaching and learning toapply It means that in some cases we can follow all the steps but in another cases,some steps are not very necessary we can’t leave it out

1.7.2 The while - speaking stage

At the pre-speaking stage Teacher is the centre, he dominates all class activities,students are the hearer, and they have to listen and memory the new language items.But, in this stage, the teacher talking time is less Now it is the students’ turn, thestudents have much more time to practice, the aim of this stage is to improvestudents’ speaking skill, the teacher lets students with their partners, they can work

in pair or groups The main purpose of this stage is to improve students’ speakingskill, to help them speak fluently so the teacher shouldn’t care much about thestudents’ mistakes, the teacher shouldn’t stop students when they are speaking Inthis stage, teacher plays a monitors’ role and help the weaker student if they can’tfollow the others

1.7.3 The post - speaking stage

This stage is time for learners to speak English, at pre- speaking and the speaking stage, Learners are the role of listener, most of time, and their teachergives instruction and practice At the post- speaking stage, students are given morechances to practice freely A real chance to speak English takes place when thelearners are able to use English naturally for themselves, not for their teacher Topractice effectively, teachers should ask learners to work in pairs or work in group.Group work and pair work play an important part in making learners practicespeaking By doing group work and pair work, all learners can have chance toparticipate in task Time can be saved and learners seem more confident

while-In the while- speaking stage, the students are required to practice, but they have

to practice follow some models and at the post – speaking stage, the studentscontinue practicing, they do an extension speaking activity, it helps students toexpress and share their view to another groups or partners Through this, studentsfeel they have studied something meaningful, they can use language for their own,they know how to apply what they have studied in real life the teacher in this stagemust take on the role of a manager or a guide in order to give feedback, correctserious mistakes, give students marks and set personal goals for improving theirspeaking abilities

Byrne (1988:2) concludes that in order to improve speaking ability of learners,three phases above should be followed orderly But in fact, they might not beapplied as expected due to time limitation, types of learners and materials in use.The phases can be overlapped or run into one another provided that we keep ouraim to get the learners to communicate However, teachers ought to pay attention towhat has been spoken by the students during the Practice and Production phases sothat they can see how far students have improved their speaking ability and whatmistakes they might produce

1.8 Problems with speaking

There exist many student-related problems in teaching speaking skill in English

classes Many learners, as reported by studies into speaking (e.g Tsui: “Reticence

and anxiety in second language learning”), are shyness when talking, Thinking of

what to say in Vietnamese then Translating into English, Teacher-learnerrelationship; Objective factors in English oral classes pose a big challenge forteaching speaking skill

1.8.1 Students’ Difficulties in learning speaking

1.8.1.1 Fear of making mistake:

When students begin studying English they are not self- confident to speak, theyare fear of making mistakes This difficulty seems due to a number of reasons

Firstly, when asked to speak English in classroom students don’t have an ideaabout the subject They may don’t know about what they are learning to do Theirknowledge about the subject is not very much, so they can’t speak I think thestarting point of every lesson should be an operation of some kind, which studentsmight actually want to perform in the foreign language

Moreover, some students have an idea but they can’t speak out, so why? Somesurveys showed that learners are usually worried about what the others might say orthink Before speaking they always think that they will speak incorrectly and theirfriends will laugh at their mistake in pronunciation or in grammar All of thesereasons make them keep silent during the period In addition, student may have anopinion, but do not feel that they can say exactly what they mean They are afraidthey might not be able to put their words and the opinions in order, to make otherunderstand their ideas easily

The next reason makes learners can’t speak that is, students have a good idea,but want to express it in same eloquent manner that they are capable of their mothertongue They forget that the way or the rule of expressing ideas in English andVietnamese is different Also, the grammar, the words order and intonation ofVietnamese are very different to English Moreover they always think of what theyare going to say in Vietnamese first then translate into English This make themthink slowly and the order of the words in the sentences may be wrong One morereason for students making mistakes in speaking class may come from their teacherwho believes that some small mistakes of grammar or pronunciation do not matter

as long as the student gets his message across In some language classroom,students haven’t been prepared well about what they are going to speak, they may

be forced in to activities and in an effort to deal with them they make mistakebecause they to do something they have been shown how to do, or they have notmastered sentence the all construction so it’s not really a mistake at all

It easy for students to make mistakes when teachers ask them to try to expresssomething that students are not quite sure of how to say, they are frightened ofmaking mistakes and do not want to express their ideas in front of their classmates

1.8.1.2 Shyness when talking in English

Most of Vietnamese student are introverts so they are not self confident to stand

in front of class, many people, their classmates, and teacher to speak English.Students, who asked if they want to volunteer or wait to be asked to perform in front

of class, said that they usually wait to be asked by teachers The reason is that theyare too shy

To help students overcome their shyness in language conversation class.Teachers should limit speak their mother language, teachers need to actuallycommunicate in English Students are reluctant to spoken out, they don’t volunteeranswer When teachers bring up a new topic and students may not know clearlyabout it but they seldom ask question for clarification Some students will only talk

if specifically called upon and only then if there is a clear cut answer But even ifthe answer is obvious, it may be preceded by a silence so long that the teacher istempted to supply the answer first This type of silence does not necessarily signify

an unwillingness to comply, but may simply indicate that the students are toonervous to respond, or too uncertain of the answer to risk public embarrassment.Moreover, in a classroom, there are students who know the answer and want tomake a good impression on the teacher, but something keeps their hands down andstifles their voices They are inhibited from acting because of inner commands fromthe guard- self: “ You’ll look ridiculous, your classmate will laugh at you this is not

a place to that… you will be safe if you are not seen and not heard” And thestudents decide not to risk the dangerous freedom of a spontaneous answer andmeekly comply

Another reason makes students ‘shyness may be caused by the way of teaching.Traditionally, the teachers organized their lesson follow the teachers- centralmethod When the lesson starts, the teachers always stand behind a desk at the front

of the class He speaks and do his work all the time, he only stops his work to makequestion to students when he thinks it is necessary, most of time students sit insilence, write down on their notebook and receive the information from theteachers’ lecture It is boring method when a lesson takes place where one talks andlearners listen but don’t speak, don’t give any question This ways of teaching formsthe learners’ passive style day by day It’s a one way transmission of informationfrom teacher to student Students have no opportunity to express themselves.Because of this, it is natural that students will feel shy when they want to expressthemselves…all that things make students have a very good condition to be passivefor so long that they will feel shy when they want to express their thoughts eventwhen they know the clear answered .As teachers who respect and care aboutstudents as individuals and hope to take into account their choices of learning andsocial style, some teachers may be reluctant to address this issue of shyness andhence, not attempt to mediate in helping those students overcome the emotion andbehavior that is called shyness And indeed, well- intentioned but misguidedapproaches to shyness can exacerbate the students’ suffering; probably one of themost powerful things teachers do to help their students is to create a classroomatmosphere, which is conductive to inspiring confidence

1.8.1.3 Thinking of what to say in Vietnamese then Translating into English

We know that the mother tongue has a big affect on learner when they studythe second language It has both positive and negative sides The positive side isthat many skills acquired in the first language can be transferred to the secondlanguage For example, if a student has developed good reading skills inVietnamese, he or she is likely to be able to apply this skill when reading English.But its negative side is that the first language, Vietnamese is deeply ingrained instudents, they usually tend to think in Vietnamese, and then translate into Englishwhen they want to express their idea This takes a lot of time because they have tothink of how to put the words and their thought in order This is not useful because

while they pay attention to thinking and translating, the others may stand up and saywhat they want to transfer from Vietnamese to English in class Hence they havelost the change of speaking English in class In addition, things like the grammar orintonation of Vietnamese and English are quite different We all know, for example,that in Vietnamese an adjective always goes after a noun, while an adjective alwaysstands before a noun in English For this reason, some students sometimes makemistakes when they apply the rude of Vietnam grammar into English, they may say

‘dog black” instead of “black dog” Moreover, Vietnamese is considered a richlanguage, so the more interesting the idea they thought in their mind, the moredifficult it is to find the word in English to translate So we can state that beside thepositive sides which we can transferred from the mother tongue into the secondlanguage there are some negative sides which are not good habit for the students tothink and translate from Vietnamese into English while speaking

1.8.2 Teachers’ Difficulties in teaching speaking

1.8.2.1 Teacher-learner relationship

The relationship between the teacher and students plays a part in creatingproblems in teaching speaking skill It is necessary to create a favorable learningatmosphere in the class It is to establish a good relationship between the teacherand his students To solve this problem, the teacher should talk friendly withstudents about their feelings and help them rationalize their anxiety about speaking,which results in difficulties in teaching speaking skill (Tsui, 1996)

Nguyen Thi Thu Linh (2008).”When students feel inhibited about discussingtheir feeling in front of their classmates the teacher should talk to individualstudents outside the classroom This way may contribute to the creation of trust and

“partnership” between the student and the teacher.” In addition, students always feelmore comfortable when learning with the teachers who have a good sense of humor,friendly, relaxed and patient (Young, 1991) Such anxieties related to teacher-learner interactions are also investigated in a wealth of studies by Horwitz (1988),Horwitz et al (1991), and Koch and Terrell (1991)

1.8.2.2 Inappropriate teacher pedagogical practices

You will learn nothing if teacher doesn’t teach So teacher practice plays a veryimportant role in language learning Some researchers have discussed therelationship between teacher talk and language learning As Nunan (1991) points

out: “Teacher talk is of crucial importance, not only for the organization of the

classroom but also for the processes of acquisition It is important for the organization and management of the classroom because it is through language that teachers either succeed or fail in implementing their teaching plans In terms of acquisition, teacher talk is important because it is probably the major source of comprehensible target language input the learner is likely to receive” The amount

and type of teacher talk is even regarded as a decisive factor of success or failure inclassroom teaching (Hakansson, cited from Zhou Xing & Zhou Yun, 2002) AsNguyen Thi Thu Linh (2008), it is very essential to build a friendly, non-threateningclassroom atmosphere which is created on the basis of a close teacher-learnerrelationship It makes the process of teaching and learning effective Inappropriateteacher pedagogical practices are considered in two opinions, those are classroomteacher talk and classroom teacher-learner relationship opinion, and they have beenseen as major contributor to the difficulties in teaching speaking skill

1.8.2.3 The amount of Teacher Talk

According to researchers, learners will acquire the second language better whenboth teachers and students should participate in language classes actively In thisprocess, teachers have to deal with two tasks in language classrooms: (1) offerenough high-quality English language input; (2) offer more opportunities forstudents to use the target language

The amount of teacher talk time, as an important factor that affect languagelearning, has been concerned by many scholars The amount of teacher talkinfluences learners’ L2 acquisition or foreign language learning A great number ofresearchers have testified this Researches in language classrooms have establishedthat teachers tend to do most of the classroom talk Teacher talk makes up over 70

percent of the total talk (Cook, 2000; Legarreta, 1977; Chaudron, 1988; ZhaoXiaohong, 1998)

When the teachers use amount of time up to 70 percent in the classroom talk toexplanation or instruction, the students talk time will be shorten The students in thiscase don’t have enough time to practice speaking; they also have a little opportunity

to extended talk Realized this problem, many researchers tend to maximize thestudents talk time (STT)and minimize the teachers talk time (TTT) (Zhao

Xiaohong, 1998; Zhou Xing & Zhou Yun, 2002) Harmer points out that the best

lessons are ones where STT is maximized Getting students to speak to use thelanguage they are learning is a vital part of a teacher’s job (Harmer, 2000:4).However, Fillmore argued the amount of TTT should not be decreased blindly.(Nguyen Thi Thu Linh , 2008)

1.8.2.4 Teacher's Correction

Students will learn nothing if they don’t make any mistakes When learnersmake mistakes we know that they are trying to study something “A learner’serrors are significant in (that) they provide to the researcher evidence of howlanguage is learned or acquired, what strategies or procedures the learner isemploying in the discovery of the language” (Brown, 2002: 205) The teachers play

an important part in learners’ studying; they point out students’ mistakes andprovide correction In correction, some specific information is provided on aspects

of the learners’ performance, through explanation, or provision of better or otheralternatives, or through elicitation of these from the leaner (Ur, 2000) Correctionhelps students to clarify their understanding of meaning and construction of thelanguage

1.8.2.5 Krashen’s Input Theory

As Krashen’s Input Theory Students learn nothing or they hardly acquire secondlanguage if Input is much more or less than learners ‘current Knowledge So, in thelanguage classroom, the teachers play an important role The language used by theteacher affects on students’ acquisition It is not very good if input is so much or so

little So how much of input is appropriate and useful for language learners inclassrooms.

Nguyen Thi Thu Linh (2008) carried out to study about difficulties in teachingspeaking skill to non- English major students, she studied on Krashen’s input theory

to find out the most suitable ways to teach speaking skill and she explained that:

In Krashen’s view, learning only takes place by means of a learner’s access to

comprehensible input Humans acquire language in only one way - by understanding messages or by receiving comprehensible input Learning will occur when unknown items are only just beyond the learner’s level It is explained in detail “i+1”structure “i” stands for the learners’ current linguistic competence, and “1” stands for the items the learners intend to learn The Input Theory also has two corollaries (Krashen, 1985: 2):

Corollary 1: Speaking is a result of acquisition, not its cause; it emerges as result of building competence via comprehensible input.

Corollary 2: If input is understood and there is enough of it, the necessary grammar is automatically provided The language teacher need not attempt deliberately to teach the next structure along the natural order it will be provided

in just the right quantities and automatically reviews if the student receives a sufficient amount of comprehensible input.

Krashen’s input theory and his two corollaries showed that learners can learnlanguage when unknown items are not far from the learner’s level As his theory,comprehensive and right quality input are the deceive factors in learning language.From this theory, language teacher finds that the student only acquire languagewhen the input is comprehensive and right quantity But the problem occurs whenlanguage teacher have to find out whether learners’ input is enough or not?

To answer the question whether learners’ input is enough or not? In herresearch, Nguyen Thi Thu Linh (2008) showed that Krashen gives two ways to testlearners’ input:

The linguistic resources are insufficient for immediate decoding Simplified input can be made available to the learner through one-way or two-way interaction, with the former including listening to a lecture, watching television and reading, and the latter occurring in conversations Krashen stresses that two-way interaction is a particularly good way of providing comprehensible input because it enables the learner to obtain additional contextual information and optimally adjusted input when meaning has to be negotiated because of communication problems.

In Krashen’s view, acquisition takes place by means of a learner’s access tocomprehensible input He says that the input that only teacher knows about Thelearner totally unknown, learners don’t know about Krashen’s input theory, theydon’t know about comprehensive and right quantity, he also comments that input isnot cause learning to take place Teacher talk is play very important role in foreignlanguage learning, he shouldn’t talk anything under or beyond the learners’ currentlevel He should make their input comprehensible and in right quantities

He comments that the input, which is totally incomprehensible to learners, isnot likely to cause learning to take place Teacher talk, actually serves as mainsources of input of language exposure in classroom learning, is more important forforeign language learning, so teachers should make their input comprehensible and

also presented in their study As for them, teachers have to apply many other ways

to reach the success in multilevel class

Some other researchers have the same opinion of the large classes that teachers

in EFL settings often find classes of 40-70 students to be the norm, They are TeresaDalle, Ph.D., and Emily Thrush, Ph.D These researchers stated that in large andmultilevel classes challenge even well-trained and experienced teachers

In Vietnam, there are some researchers were mentioned this problem like; PhamHoa Hiep (2005) in the article “University English classrooms in Vietnam” showedthat many Vietnamese teachers have feeling that their circumstances oppose to theiraim in language learning classes because teachers have to teach students for agrammar- base lesson and have to finish lesson in the text book in the certainamount of time The goal of teaching helps students get a immediate result like,pass the examination, get good marks or get a degree We often complain that ourstudents learn English but they can’t use it in real life, one of reason is that studentsare learnt about English grammar and its rude but they are not taught to use it Theyusually get problem when they are asked to make a sentence English or statesomething in English

Another Vietnamese researcher has ever mentioned this situation, Le Van Canh

in the article “Language and Vietnamese Pedagogical Contexts” in this article, hementioned that “the pre-determined syllabus and prescribed text book are alsofrustrating to teachers if they are committed to communicative methods” or “….theobstacle to the implementation of the communicative approach is the class size andthe teaching schedule.” As for him, Vietnamese teachers are teaching underpressure They always try their best to complete certain content in the textbook in acertain amount of time The time for students to practice language is limited

At Thanh Hoa University of culture, sports and tourism Beside Vietnameseteachers teaching English we also have native language teacher to help studentslearn speaking But it is very difficult to improve students’ speaking skill; most ofthem said that they can’t follow what teacher is speaking, someone said that they

can hear what teacher is speaking but they can’t make a sentence to communicate tothe teacher The students get this problem because, at secondary and high schoollevel, they are trained follow the grammar- base method They learn English to getgood marks and pass the exam, they have never thought that they will learn English

to communicate or apply it in real life

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter deals with the research methodology and tries to achieve theaims and objectives of the research In this study, we will mention the rationale tochoose the research methodology and the data gather from questionnaire

2.1 The Teaching and learning situation in Thanh Hoa University of

culture, sports and tourism

2.1.1 Brief introduction of TUCST

Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports and Tourism is located in ThanhHoa city, Thanh Hoa provice, it was founded in 1990 At the beginning, its duty was

to train only teachers of Art and Music for schools in Thanh Hoa province soEnglish serves as a means that provides students with basic knowledge aboutgrammar and vocabulary Since 2005, many new branches have been opened such

as Tour Guide and Hotel Receptionists, Tourism culture, Informatics Library, andCulture Management studies, fashion design, Music education, Graphic design,Vocal music, Physical education, Fine arts education, Painting For these purposes,English has become a major subject for the students of these fields

Every year our university admits more than 1000 newly enrolled students for

a course of 4 year study, of whom 250 students are trained in the Faculty of culturemanagers which is the biggest section at TUCST After graduating students of thisfield will become culture managers Therefore, the authority in our university hasdecided that English is the main subject with the purpose of helping these non-major students to develop their English communicative skill to meet the demand oftheir future employment

2.1.2 Syllabus used for non - English major students at TUCST

The teaching of English is divided into two stages at Thanh Hoa University

of culture, sports and tourism

At first stage (consisting of the first four terms) that is general English,students study four micro skills namely: speaking, listening, reading and writing.The second stage lasts one term in which students learn English related to their

field That means ESP is introduced only after the students have studied GE for fourterms.

The first stage is considered to be the most important to student’sdevelopment of the four macro language skills since they have more time andchances to practice their skills basically than in the second one

As far as the materials are concerned, “Lifeline Elementary” text book andworkbook are chosen in GE classes The time devoted to GE is 180 periods (eachperiod lasts 45 minutes)

The 2nd stage is time for students to study English for their professionalfield At this stage, those who want to have an additional tour manager certificatestudy the course book “Pre- New cutting edge” The ESP course book covers 8

Module dealing with different topics Lifestyle; important first; at rest, at work;

special occasions; appearances; time off; ambition and dreams; countries and culture The students who study in the field of the office secretary study the course

book “English for office secretaries” designed by teachers working in English group

at TUCST At the end of course, learners will receive a certificate for theirprofession field

2.1.3 Facilities used at TUCST

Mai Thanh Thu (2008) “Teaching facilities are considered significant andmay have positive and negative effects on the teaching process” At TUCST,English teaching and learning activities are mostly carried in fixed classrooms thatmake it difficult for teachers to make a change in applying new ideas of newteaching methods in language teaching What’s more, there are 32 students in eachclass It is not easy to carry out a communicative task in a mixed ability and largeclassroom

In TUCST the administrators invested more money for mordent furniture ofEnglish teaching and learning But, in fact, that is not enough For example, thereare just a few small tape recorders, no language laboratories and no videos Manyclasses are equipped with a LCD projector, however most of the teachers are

untrained to use these machine and the teaching techniques, so they cannot makefull use of these facilities One of big problems for studying English at TUCST isthat, the music class and English class are in the same building So the noise fromthe music class affecting to the English class is unavoidable

There is only small library at TUCST, thus English books for reference andself- study are not available and enough to meet the students and teachers’ need.The problem is that due to the book shortage and limitation in the library, studentsare required to read in the library instead of taking books at home

2.1.4 Teaching methods

There are 8 teachers of English language aged from 24 and 50 at ouruniversity Seven of them had formal ELT training in different universities insideViet Nam, and only one had an in-service ELT training course One of them haddoctor of English linguistic Two of them are studying Doctor of English linguisticand another had master of English teaching The oldest teacher has more 20 years ofteaching experience and the youngest teacher has got over three years Three of ushave ever participated in refreshment courses abroad or some domestic workshops

“Most of these students commonly spent most of time learning three subjects:

literature, history and geography in order to pass TUCST entrance exam So, they are real beginners at English when entering the first year of university and of different language proficiency levels Some of them have learned English for 7 years at secondary and high school some have only learned English for 3 years and

some others have never learned English before” Luckily, Students at TUCST are

mostly singers, tour guides, hotel receptionists, culture managements in the future,thus, they are open mind and generous They are also aware of the importance ofEnglish in their future career Therefore, they are eager and motivated to learnEnglish Students from Thanh Hoa city and towns (Bim Son, Sam Son) seem better

at English However, during the years at secondary schools as well as at highschools, these students are trained under the strong influence of the Grammar-Translation method, the emphasis of which is on the learning of the rules of thelanguage, not on the acquisition of language skills, especially those in speakingskill As a result, they cannot speak fluently and most of them do not feel confident

in communicating in English

Another element that should be taken into consideration is that many studentsdon’t have the habit of learning independently and tend to depend mainly on thegiven text books and the teachers for knowledge These facts call for teachers toinnovate their language teaching methods in order to motivate the students inspeaking lessons

This study is carried out at TUCST and limited to the second year students ofCulture management Once again, within the size and scope of the study, life lineselementary textbook is chosen to conduct the study

2.2 Research questions

The research is aimed to find out speaking difficulties encountered by teachersand non-English major students of Culture management study at TUCST Also thestudy explores the solution to deal with the problem

As stated in the previous section, the research is aimed to find out difficultiesencountered by teachers and non-English major students of Culture management inteaching and learning English speaking skill at TUCST and suggest possiblesolutions to deal with the problem In order to achieve the aims of the study, thestudy is expected to address the following questions

- What are the difficulties faced by the second year students when they learnspeaking skill at Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports and Tourism?

- What are the difficulties for the teachers in teaching speaking skill?

- What are possible solutions to those difficulties?

Questionnaire for students

The first questionnaire, consisting of following questions, was delivered to 80students at TUCST The aims of this were to elicit:

(1) Students’ background of English

(2) Students’ attitude towards speaking skill

(3) Students’ difficulties in learning speaking

(4) Students’ interest in speaking activities

Questionnaire for teachers

The second questionnaire was delivered to 7 teachers at TUCST The purpose ofthis questionnaire was to indentify:

(1) Teachers’ experience of teaching English

(2) Difficulties confronted by the teachers when teaching speaking to non-majorstudents at TUCST

(3) Teachers’ solutions to difficulties faced by them

2.3 The subjects

The first group of subjects the study is 7 teachers of English who teach English

to non-English major students at TUCST They range from 24 to 50 years of age Ofthe 7 teachers, six have been trained from fulltime course at Hanoi ForeignLanguage Teachers Training College and Hong Duc University; the one othergraduated from in-service course All of them have taught English to non-Englishmajor students for at least 1 year

The second group was 80 second-year students randomly taken from 100students Their age varies between 19 and 22 so they belong to the samepsychological age group However, their time of English learning at school (before