VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES CAO VĂN TUYÊN THE IMPACTS OF THE TEACHER-STUDENT INTERACTION ON STUDENTS’ WILLINGNESS TO SPEAK DURING ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASSES NHỮNG ẢNH HƯỞNG CỦA MỐI TƯƠNG TÁC GIỮA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH ĐỐI VỚI SỰ THAM GIA CỦA HỌC SINH TRONG CÁC TIẾT HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI – 2015 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES CAO VĂN TUYÊN THE IMPACTS OF THE TEACHER-STUDENT INTERACTION ON STUDENTS’ WILLINGNESS TO SPEAK DURING ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASSES NHỮNG ẢNH HƯỞNG CỦA MỐI TƯƠNG TÁC GIỮA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH ĐỐI VỚI SỰ THAM GIA CỦA HỌC SINH TRONG CÁC TIẾT HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr Lê Văn Canh HANOI – 2015 DECLARATION I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “The impacts of the teacher-student interaction on students' willingness to speak during English speaking classes” is my own research for the Minor Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, VNU – Hanoi, and that this thesis has not, wholly or partially, been submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions Hanoi, 2015 Cao Văn Tuyên i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Lê Văn Canh, who allowed me to draw fully on his wisdom and experience in implementing this study His guidance, encouragement and invaluable detailed critical feedback have been most generous Secondly, I would like to convey my special thanks to all my teachers of the Post graduate course 20, whose fundamental knowledge about language teaching and learning has been greatly important to the achievement of my minor thesis And am in debt to the Board of Management of Post Graduate for their supports and the favorable conditions they have granted me during my study and thesis I am also thankful to the teachers and students at Kim Son A High School, whose cooperation has been of great significance to the completion of the thesis Last but not least, I would like to thank my family, who supported me during the thesis training and have supplied me with great encouragement Without their love and thoughtful understanding, I would not have completed this thesis successfully ii ABSTRACT A common problem for teachers of English is dealing with a passive class, where students are unresponsive and avoid interaction with the teacher This is especially true when a teacher seeks interaction in a teacher-class dialog, such as asking questions to the class as a whole, expecting at least one student to respond This can be a frustrating experience for both parties Obviously, there will be times when no student can answer a teacher's question, but often students not answer even if they understand the question, know the answer, and are able to produce the answer Furthermore, students can often be very reluctant to give feedback or ask the teacher a question in front of the class One of the reasons is claimed to be the poor teacher-student interaction My study attempted to explore this problem and sought to create a more interactive teacher-class interchange in one class of English learners This study was therefore conducted with the hope to find out if the teacherstudent interaction may affect students’ willingness to speak in speaking lessons and how it affects students' interest In this study, the data was collected at Kim Son A High School By doing this, I can know the attitude of students towards teacherstudent interaction in speaking lessons and its effects on their willingness to speak The researcher also gives some suggestions to help teachers at Kim Son A High School enhance students' interest in speaking lessons iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT .iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES vi Table 1: The importance of speaking skill vi Table 2: The students’ speaking competence vi Table 3: The students’ willingness to speak vi Table 4: Factors that impact the students’ willingness to speak .vi Table 5: What teachers often did to encourage students to speak vi Table 6: Willingness to speak English vi Table 7: The teacher-student interaction’s impacts on students’ willingness to speak vi Table 8: Students participation in speaking classes (cycle 1) vi Table 9: The students’ survey questionnaires (cycle 2) vi Table 10: Students’ participation in speaking classes (cycle 2) vi PART A: INTRODUCTION .1 Rationale for the study Aims of the research .1 Questions of the research .2 Scope of the research Methods of the research .2 Organization of the study .3 PART B – DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW Speaking skill overview .5 1.1 Definition of speaking 1.2 Features of speaking skill 1.3 Speaking lessons 1.4 The teacher’s roles in the stages of teaching speaking 1.5 Difficulties encountered in teaching and learning speaking 1.5.1 Difficulties in teaching speaking 1.5.2 Difficulties in learning speaking 10 1.5.3 Methods of teaching speaking 10 1.5.4 A successful speaking lesson in classroom 12 1.6 Willingness to Communicate – Willingness to speak 13 1.7 Teacher-student interaction 14 1.7.1 Interaction 14 1.7.2 Teacher-student interaction 15 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 18 Description of the subjects 18 Settings and subjects of the study .18 Current situation of teaching and learning speaking skill at Kim Son A High School 19 3.1 Questions of the research 19 3.2 Research methods 19 iv Justification for data collection instruments .20 4.1 Questionnaires 20 4.2 Interviews .21 4.3 Observations 21 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS .23 Data analysis and findings 23 1.1 Data analysis and findings of cycle 23 1.1.1 Data analysis and findings of teachers’ questionnaire survey (Prequestionnaires) 23 1.1.3 Data analysis and findings of students’ questionnaire survey (Prequestionnaires) 30 1.1.4.Data analysis and findings of the researcher’s observation on students’ 33 participation in speaking classes (Please refer to Appendix 4) 33 1.2 Data analysis and findings of cycle 35 1.2.1 Data analysis and findings of students’ questionnaire survey (Postquestionnaires) (Please refer to Appendix 5) .35 1.2.2 Data analysis and findings of the researcher’s observations on students’ .36 participation in speaking classes (Please refer to Appendix 6) 36 1.2.3 Data analysis and findings of teachers’ questionnaire survey (Postquestionnaires) (Please refer to Appendix 7) .37 PART C: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS .40 1.Conclusion and implications .40 1.1.1.Making corrections in constructive ways 41 1.1.2.Caring about students 42 1.1.3.Creating equality among students .42 1.1.4.Encouraging students to speak up .42 1.2 For the students 43 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 43 REFERENCES 45 APPENDIX I Appendix 1: .I Appendix 3: III Appendix 4: IV Appendix 5: .V Appendix 6: VI Appendix 7: VII v LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The importance of speaking skill Table 2: The students’ speaking competence Table 3: The students’ willingness to speak Table 4: Factors that impact the students’ willingness to speak Table 5: What teachers often did to encourage students to speak Table 6: Willingness to speak English Table 7: The teacher-student interaction’s impacts on students’ willingness to speak Table 8: Students participation in speaking classes (cycle 1) Table 9: The students’ survey questionnaires (cycle 2) Table 10: Students’ participation in speaking classes (cycle 2) vi PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale for the study The teacher-student interaction is of significant importance in foreign language teaching and learning It is argued that interactions between teachers and students facilitate language development and lead to better language learning The present study is an attempt to investigate the impacts of the teacher-student interaction on students' willingness to speak during English speaking classes In the school where I work as a teacher of English, speaking skill receives the attention from both teachers and students However, the result of students in learning speaking skill has fallen short of expectations Amazingly, among the four skills of the language, speaking skill seems to be the worst one Students can hardly use the language in their oral communication This has resulted in our shock that a student with years of studying the English language even cannot make an oral self introduction It is the result of students’ unwillingness to speak during English speaking classes In the last years of my experience as an English teacher at a high school, it has been clear to me that there are many factors causing such an unwillingness to participate in English classes of students, one of which is the poor teacher-student interaction This was the reason why I decided to study the impacts of teacher-student interaction in students’ willingness to speak during English speaking classes The success of my plan is supposed to contribute to motivating students’ participation in English speaking activities together with improving their speaking skill Consequently, this may be useful when applied in other schools with the quite similar situation of teaching and learning English speaking skill Aims of the research The research was conducted to identify how the teacher-student interaction affects students’ willingness to speak during their English classes Furthermore, the researcher tried to find out the factors that can help contribute to the good teacher- student interaction in order to enhance students’ participation in English speaking classes and their speaking ability Questions of the research To achieve the aims mentioned above, the following research questions were raised for exploration: How can teacher-student interaction impact students’ willingness to speak during English speaking classes? What can help form a good teacher-student interaction to enhance students’ participation in their speaking activities? Scope of the research In this individual research, the researcher focused only on the impacts of the teacher-student interaction on students' willingness to speak during English speaking classes to the students of class 10B1 of Kim Son A High School, which is located in Ninh Binh Province There were 40 students, 25 male and 15 female in that class Most of them were between 15 and 16 years old who were in their first year at the high school The data collected from classroom observations, informal interviews and questionnaires were then analyzed by the researcher himself Besides, three teachers were involved in the research All of them were female and had at least three-year experience of teaching English at the school Interviews were conducted with those teachers as participants before the researcher performed his teaching of speaking in the class 10B1 so that he could have a brief understanding on how the teacher-student interaction affected students’ willingness to take part in speaking activities Methods of the research In this research, a qualitative approach was used to the question of the impacts of teacher-student interaction on students’ willingness to speak during English speaking classes The researcher conducted a survey of high school students and teachers In addition, the researcher made an observation when he was invited to observe class 10B1 addressed by Ms Lan, one of the three teachers interviewed PART C: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS Conclusion and implications Firstly, the teacher-student interaction has very great impacts on students’ willingness for speaking lessons Such an interaction can make students become more or less motivated in their speaking activities A good interaction between the teacher and the students helps the students to be more willing for their speaking learning process The students will be willing to raise their voice though their English is not good or their ideas are not perfect In contrast, a poor interaction with the teacher can make the students lose their enthusiasm for the lessons of speaking As a result, they don’t want to join in the activities of the speaking lessons However, not all teachers have recognized the important role that the teacher-interaction Many of them face passive students during speaking lessons even though their students’ speaking competence is quite good They have been taking a lot of measures in or motivate their students to speak However, there are no changes in the ways of learning speaking among the students The teachers will not be able to get their students to join in the speaking lessons excitedly until they realize the crucial role of a good teacher-student interaction on students’ learning and make take measures to better that interaction Secondly, there are some factors that can contribute to improving students’ involvement in the speaking lessons Those factors include the constructive corrections during students’ speeches, the care for the students by the teacher, the equal opportunities for speaking for the students of all levels, the encouragement from the teacher and the communication between the teacher and the students They all help form the good teacher-student interaction The teacher, of course, cannot get all those factors overnight In other words, it takes time and patience to build them up to form a good teacher-student interaction Moreover, the teacher needs to work hard for that good interaction He needs to well understand the current situations of his interaction with the students so that he can improve it 40 Consequently, the teacher will be able to manage a good possible teacher-student interaction In conclusion, the teacher-student interaction may have effects on how willing the students are for their learning for speaking Having a good interaction with the students may be useful for the teacher Besides, the students could get benefits from such a good interaction Therefore, it is worth for the teacher to form that good interaction for speaking classes of willing students with the factors mentioned above The results of the study partly showed the impacts of the teacher-student interaction on students’ willingness to speak during English speaking classes Therefore, the author would like to give some implications for the teachers and students as follow: 1.1 For the teachers The teachers should try to figure out the current situation of their interaction with the students They need to realize how important the teacher-student interaction means to their students’ willingness for their participation in speaking activities In addition, they should try their best to create a positive teacher-student interaction They should put into consideration all the main factors helping to build a positive teacher-student interaction, suggested as below: 1.1.1 Making corrections in constructive ways The teachers should take notes of their students’ mistakes and write them on the blackboard without pointing out by whose mistakes those are Then, the teachers have the whole class correct those mistakes This way, the students don’t feel directly embarrassed when corrected in front of their classmates Second, the teachers may get the students to correct the mistakes in pairs This helps create more speaking time for the class Last but not least, there should be the 'correction time' to give praise for good language the teachers heard during the students’ speaking activities 41 1.1.2 Caring about students Firstly, the teachers should listen to their students’ feelings This helps develop a trusting relationship between teachers and students Secondly, it is necessary for the teachers to ask their students’ for feedbacks The students will realize that the teachers value their opinions and experiences It also creates a classroom atmosphere where students feel safe to ask questions and grow their confidence Furthermore, the teachers should spend time taking to their students as friends When talking to the students, the teachers may find out what difficulties in speaking their students encounter, what they need from the teachers or how they feel about their interaction with the teachers 1.1.3 Creating equality among students The teachers should make sure to treat their students in an equal way It means there must be fairness among students The students of different levels of English competence should have the same right for their opportunities to raise their voice during speaking classes The teachers call on all students, including the outstanding ones and the “not-so-good” ones for ideas or for answers They teachers ought to offer all students a chance to show to their strengths It can make them feel that they are included and valued and then they become more motivated 1.1.4 Encouraging students to speak up It is worth providing the students with encouraging words when they don’t seem to perform their speaking activities well Those may be as simple as “I believe you can it” or “I know you have tried you best Keep trying and you will make progress” Praising words are also very beneficial to students By saying “I am very proud of your successful progress”, the teachers can make their students feel their work has been recognized Besides, the teachers may offer the students some rewards Simple ones like a candy, a pen or even a lap from the class make students work harder to achieve more success 42 1.2 For the students They should realize the important role of a good interaction with the teachers on their improvement of speaking learning They ought to be frank to tell their teachers what they expect from the teachers and what they need for their enthusiasm in the lessons However, to form a good teacher-student interaction, there must be efforts taken by the students They need to fulfill what they are expected to as students In addition, they should be aware of the importance of mastering English language Being good at English is considered the key to get a good job in the time of economic integration Therefore, they need be more and more self-motivated in the language lesson activities every single day Last but not least, they should be well-prepared for new lessons and know how to work in pairs and in groups Furthermore, it is crucial that they respond to the teacher positively There is no need for shyness when raising their voice during lessons Being self-respondent and supportive of the teacher and classmates is also recommended In conclusion, the students need to see that their participation in speaking activities all contribute to their better English speaking competence Limitations and suggestions for further studies Due to the participants in the survey and the respondents in the interviews, this study has a limited generalization The students surveyed came from generally the same socio-economic status, and are generally the same in terms of ethnicity The interview participants were also very similar in ethnicity and background Their only difference was chronological age and teaching experience These similarities among respondents might sway the results towards one side Besides, due to the pressure for time, the researcher conducted his study in only one class Therefore, though the researcher has figured out what impacts the teacher-student interaction has on students’ willingness to speak those impacts may not be the same for different students in the same school and students in different 43 schools Thus, the teachers in other classes and schools should consider those impacts, as figured out in the study, as references When applying those to their schools, adaptations and change are recommended Next, only the interaction between the teacher and the students itself cannot decide the level of willingness of the students during their speaking activities There are so many factors which contribute to the level of students’ participation in speaking lessons For more motivated students in speaking, the teachers should take into other factors related to the matter as well In this study, the researcher only tried to find out what impacts the teacherstudent interaction has on students’ willingness to speak, and then made out what contribute to the good teacher-student interaction for more motivated students in speaking classes The future researchers can help the students to be more motivated in English speaking lessons with other factors related to the teaching and learning of the language Last but not least, other future researchers may conduct studies to find out if the interaction between the teachers and the students can impact the students’ willingness in their lessons of listening, reading and writing as well as how those impacts take place Also, other researchers may try to figure out some other factors that can contribute to the teacher-student interaction apart from the ones that have been listed and analyzed in this study Regarding the entire work, students and teachers can find this research a reliable referential source to make some necessary changes as well as to implement further exploitation into the same field 44 REFERENCES Bailey, K.M (2005), Practical English Language Teaching: Speaking, New York, NY: McGaw Hill Baloche, L (1998), The cooperative classroom: Empowering learning, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Bygate, M (1987), Speaking, Oxford University Press, pp - Byrne, D (1991), Techniques for Classroom Interaction, Longman, London, pp 22 -31 Chaney, A.L & Burke, T.L (1998), Teaching Oral Communication in Grades K -8, Allyn and Bacon, Boston, pp.13 Christopher M Knoell (2012), the role of the student-teacher relationship in the lives of fifth grades: a mixed analysis, Lincoln, Nebraska Florez (1999), Improving Aldult English Language Learners' Speaking Skills, Washington, DC Hedge,T.(2000), Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom, Oxford University Press Hopkins, D (1985), A teacher's guide to classroom research, Open University Press, Philadelphia 10 Kagan, S (1994), Cooperative Learning, San Clemente, Kagan Cooperative Publishing 11 Lauren Liberante (2012), The importance of teacher–student relationships, as explored through the lens of the NSW Quality Teaching Model, Bachelor of Primary Education (second year), Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong, Australia 12 Lenka Temerová (2007), How to improve students’ communicative skills, Bachelor Thesis, Masaryk University Brno 13 Littlewood, W.(1992), Teaching Oral Communication, Oxford: Blackwell 14 Mackey, A and Gass, S M (2005), Second Language Research: Methodology and Design, London: Lawrence Erlbaun Associates 45 15.McDonough, J and McDonough, S (1997), Research methods for English language teachers, Arnold, Delh 16 Meihua Liu (2005), Reticence in Oral English Language Classrooms: A Case Study in China, the Chinese University of Hong Kong 17 M.Navehebrahim and A Abd Ghani (2011), Enhancing the performance of spoken English among the nonnative: A conceptual model, 2011 International Conference on Social Science and Humanity IPEDR vol.5 (2011) © (2011) IACSIT Press, Singapore 18 Nunan, D (2003), Practical English Language Teaching, Mc Graw-Hill, New York, pp 48 19 Peter D MacIntyre (2007), Willingness to communicate in a second language: Individual decision making in a social context, Cape Breton University 20 Richards, J C (2005), Communicative Language Teaching Today, the Cambridge University Press New York, NY10013-2473, USA 21 Tsui, A 1995, Introducing classroom interaction, Penguin Group 22 Van Lier, L (1995), Interaction in the Language Curriculum: Awareness, Autonomy and Authenticity, London; P120.L34V36 46 New York: Longman, 1996 APPENDIX Appendix 1: QUESTIONAIRE SURVEY FOR TEACHERS I am conducting a study on speaking skill for non – English major students To help me fulfill this study, please complete the questionnaire survey below The information collected is used for this study only, and will not be used for any other purposes (For each question, you may choose more than one option) What is your opinion about speaking skill? Speaking skill is… Very important Not very important Important Unimportant Please specify your reasons for your choice: ……………………………………… …………………………………………………………………… …………….… What is your students’ speaking competence? A Excellent B Very good Your students are willing to speak during speaking C Good D Average Agree Disagree Strongly agree E Poor Strongly disagree What can impact the students’ willingness to speaking in speaking classes? A Student’s good grammar B Students’ good vocabulary C Teacher’s excellence of the subject D Good school facilities E Good interaction the teacher and the students F Others (please specify): ……………………………………………….………… …………………………………………………………………………….………… What you often to encourage your students to speak? A Ask them to learn by heart all vocabulary and structures involved in the lessons B Ask them to practice their English at home every day C Recommend speaking to native speakers D Others (please specify): ……………………………………………….………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… Thank you for your co-operation! I Appendix 2: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS Apart from the factors that can make your students unmotivated to speak as you have listed in the questionnaires, you think that your students are unwilling to speak because their interaction with you is not good? In your opinion, what impacts may the teacher-student interaction have on students’ willingness to speak? In your opinion, what can help form a good teacher-student interaction? II Appendix 3: QUESTIONAIRE SURVEY FOR STDUENTS (Cycle - Pre-questionnaires) The teacher-student interaction’s impacts on students’ willingness to speak I am conducting a study on speaking skill for non – English major students To help me fulfill this study, please complete the questionnaire survey below The information collected is used for this study only, and will not be used for any other purposes YES NO The positive teacher-student interaction is important The positive teacher-student directly affects my participations in speaking I trust my sharing personal information with my teacher I believe that my teacher cares about my personal wellbeing I believe my willingness to speak is affected by whether I have positive interactions with my teacher Are you satisfied with your present teacher-student interaction? Are you willing to speak during speaking classes? My interaction with my teachers affected my feelings about participations in the following ways:……………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… Thank you for your co-operation! III Appendix 4: OBSERVATION SHEET ON STUDENTS’ WORK IN THE FISRT SPEAKING LESSON CLASS: …………… SPEAKING LESSON NUMBER:…………… Active during Week Active to Active during pair work respond group work to the teacher Names of students Total number of students: IV Appendix 5: QUESTIONAIRE SURVEY FOR STDUENTS (Cycle - Post-questionnaires) I am conducting a study on speaking skill for non – English major students To help me fulfill this study, please complete the questionnaire survey below The information collected is used for this study only, and will not be used for any other purposes Completely agree Agree The teacher cared about us individually The ways my teacher corrected my mistakes was positive I have the same opportunities for my speaking as other classmates I have good interaction with my teacher The interaction I have with my teacher helps me feel more motivated in my speaking lessons I am willing to take part in speaking lessons now Thank you for your co-operation! V Disagree Completely disagree Appendix 6: OBSERVATION SHEET ON STUDENTS’ WORK IN SPEAKING LESSONS CLASS: …………… SPEAKING LESSON NUMBER: …………… Active during Active to Active during pair work respond group work to the teacher Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week VI Appendix 7: OBSERVATION SHEET FOR INVITED TEACHERS OBSERVING CLASSES ADRESSED BY THE RESEARCHER I am conducting a study on speaking skill for non – English major students To help me fulfill this study, please complete the questionnaire survey below The information collected is used for this study only, and will not be used for any other purposes Completely agree There was an equality of opportunities for students to be called on by the teacher The mistakes corrections during the learning process were very constructive The teacher cared about the students individually The students felt comfortable in the process of speaking lessons The students took part in the English speaking lessons with enthusiasm The teacher had good interaction with the students The teacher’s good interaction with the students had positive impacts on the students’ willingness to speak The teacher should maintain and better his interaction with the students VII Agree Disagree Completely disagree ... is the poor teacher- student interaction This was the reason why I decided to study the impacts of teacher- student interaction in students? ?? willingness to speak during English speaking classes The. .. to speak Table 5: What teachers often did to encourage students to speak Table 6: Willingness to speak English Table 7: The teacher- student interaction? ??s impacts on students? ?? willingness to speak. .. took part in the English speaking lessons with enthusiasm The teacher had good interaction with the students The teacher? ??s good interaction with the students had positive impacts on the students? ??