study on students’ attitudes towards learning to speak English and their classroom speaking practices at Northern Water Resource College

A study on students’ attitudes towards learning to speak English and their classroom speaking practices at Northern Water Resource College Nguyễn Thị Chúc Quỳnh Trường Đại học Ngoại ng

A study on students’ attitudes towards learning

to speak English and their classroom speaking practices at Northern Water Resource College

Nguyễn Thị Chúc Quỳnh

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn ThS Chuyên ngành: English language teaching methodology

Mã số: 60 14 10 Người hướng dẫn: Dr Mai Thi Loan

Năm bảo vệ: 2013

Keywords: Tiếng Anh; Phương pháp giảng dạy; Kỹ năng nói; Giao tiếp

Content

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationales

Nowadays, English is used for international communication more than any other languages

in the world English is recognized as a lingua franca for communication across nations and cultures and is the most desired second or foreign language in most countries in the world English is used as a second or foreign language in the workplace, international trade, global media, tourism, education, aviation, business, technology and on diplomatic occasions As a result, the demand for speakers using English effectively is necessary in every country Teaching and learning English, except for the native language, is thus crucial for communicative purposes

to meet the demands of global economics and to cope with the growing local, national and international demands for English skills

In Vietnam, English is becoming more widely used in every field of life and it is an official and compulsory foreign language which has been taught in most schools and universities all over the country for nearly two decades now People thus have a great concern about learning the language Many people are aware that English guarantees them good jobs if they are good at English Among the four language skills known as listening, speaking, reading and writing, speaking skill is considered the most significant one that most learners of foreign languages need

to achieve The crucial importance of speaking skill has been stated by many linguistic researchers For example, Ur (1996:120) states that of all four skills, speaking seems intuitively the most important and people who know a language are referred to as speakers of that language,

as if speaking included all other skills of knowing that language Richards (2008:19) also says:

“the mastery of speaking skills in English is a priority for many second and foreign language learners Learners consequently often evaluate their success in language learning as well as the effectiveness of their English course on the basis of how well they feel they have improved in their spoken language proficiency” However, for many years, not much attention has been paid

to learners’ speaking competence in Vietnamese English classes and time for speaking practices

is limited for many reasons Consequently, students have poor ability to speak English although they have been learning English for a long time They speak English badly even in English speaking lessons They often lack the confidence and feel confused when they are asked to speak English They regularly find it difficult to express their ideas in English and even some students cannot speak anything but keep silent during speaking lessons Among many different factors that affect students’ learning to speak English in classroom, the attitude of the students has a very important position

This study has been conducted to investigate the attitudes of students at NWRC towards learning to speak English and their classroom speaking practices in order to offer some

suggestions which might be useful for teachers and students here to develop English speaking skills

2 Aims of the study

This study aims at:

- finding out the attitudes of students at NWRC towards learning to speak English

- investigating the classroom speaking practices of the students at NWRC

- recommending some solutions for teachers at NWRC to improve their students’ speaking skill based on the findings of the study

3 Research questions

1 What are the attitudes that students at NWRC hold towards learning to speak English?

2 How are their classroom speaking practices?

3 What should the teachers do to improve their students’ English speaking skill?

4 Scope of the study

The study was carried out at NWRC with the participation of 100 first-year students to find out the attitudes of students towards learning to speak English and their classroom speaking practices Based on the findings, some suggestions were given to the teachers to help them improve their students’ speaking skills

5 Significance of the study

The result of the study is believed to help teachers at NWRC understand more about the students’ attitudes towards learning to speak English and their expectations of the teachers’ speaking lessons so that the teachers have suitable methods to improve their students’ speaking skills and encourage students to practise speaking English in classroom

6 Methodology of the study

To conduct this study, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used, involving the survey questionnaires and classroom observations The survey questionnaires were delivered to

100 first-year students to investigate their attitudes towards learning to speak English Besides, class observations were conducted to see how and what students often did during English

speaking classes Classroom observations helped the researcher survey students’ practices in real situations so that the reliability and validity of the data collected for this study could be achieved The data collected from the questionnaires and the result of class observations will be analyzed and generalized with a hope for offering some suggestions for the teachers at NWRC to improve speaking competence for their students

7 Design of the study:

This thesis includes three main parts as follows:

Part I: Introduction

This part includes the rationales, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the

significance, the methodology and the design of the study

Part II: Development

This part consists of three chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature review

In this chapter, the theoretical background of the study is introduced It focuses on three main points: theory of attitudes, speaking skills and some techniques as well as activities that are often used in speaking lessons

Chapter 2: Research methodology

This chapter starts with the description of the setting and the participants of the study It also presents how data were collected through the research methods and research procedures

Chapter 3: Data analysis and Discussions

In this chapter, the data collected will be analyzed and discussed From this, students’ attitudes toward learning to speak English will be found and their classroom practices will be mentioned as well

Part III: Conclusion and Recommendations

This chapter gives a short summary of findings and draws out some suggestions that are good for teachers and students in teaching and learning to speak English Beside that, some recommendations for further researches are also discussed in this chapter

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Vietnamese Author

1 Nguyễn Thị Chung (2010) Teachers’ attitudes towards the use of computers in language

teaching at Hanam Teachers’s Training College, Unpublished MA Dissertation CFL-VNU

2 Nguyễn Thị Chúc Hà (2006), Students’ Attitudes towards English Grammar Learning at

Tran Nguyen Han Upper Secondary School, Unpublished MA Dissertation CFL-VNU

3 Nguyễn T.Thanh Hằng (2006) Teachers’ Attitude toward Applying CLT in Teaching

Vocabulary for Grade-10 Students at Nguyen Van Cu High School, Unpublished MA

Dissertation CFL-VNU

4 Bá Thị Hiền (2012) Students’ attitudes towards learning to speak English at Ly Thai To

High School, Bac Ninh, Unpublished MA Dissertation CFL-VNU

5 Trần Thị Huyền (2008) High school teachers’ perceptions and attitudes towards

Communicative language teaching to teaching grammar, Unpublished MA Dissertation

CFL-VNU

6 Nguyễn Thị Phương Lan (2010) An investigation into the attitudes of teachers and students

at the Hanoi college of industrial economics towards speaking activities in the textbook New Headway Pre-Intermediate and some suggestions, Unpublished MA Dissertation CFL-VNU

7 Nguyễn Thị Thanh Loan (2006), Teachers’ Attitudes towards Grammar Teaching in the

light of Communicative Approach with the Course book New Headway Pre-Intermediate to First-year Non-Major English Students at Hai Duong Medical Technical University,

Unpublished MA Dissertation CFL-VNU

8 Trần Thị Phương (2007) Students’ Attitude about the Role of Rote Learning in Vocabulary Learning Strategies at Nguyen Sieu Upper Secondary School, Unpublished MA Dissertation

CFL-VNU

9 Hoàng Thị Bích Thủy (2008), Students' attitudes towards cooperative learning at Nghe An

training college and implications for teacher education programs, Unpublished MA

Dissertation CFL-VNU

10 Bế Thị Thu Trang (2007), An investigation into Viet Bac 11 th grade students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards the application of pair work and group work in teaching and learning speaking skills, Unpublished MA Dissertation CFL-VNU

11 Nguyễn Hạnh Tuyết (2009) An Investigation into Teachers’ and Students’ Attitudes towards the Use of Visual Aids in Teaching and Learning Vocabulary at Le Quy Don Gifted High School, Dien Bien, Unpublished MA Dissertation CFL-VNU

12 Trần Thị Vân (2010), Teachers and students’ attitudes towards the effectiveness of

teaching and learning vocabulary through translation activities: A survey research at Tran Nhan Tong high school, Hanoi, Unpublished MA Dissertation CFL-VNU

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