Students’ difficulties towards learning english speaking in a rural area an investigation at xuan chau lower secondary school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ***************** NGUYỄN THỊ HƢƠNG STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES TOWARDS LEARNING ENGLISH SPEAKING IN A RURAL AREA AN INVESTIGATION AT XUAN CHAU LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL (KHÓ KHĂN VỀ VIỆC HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH Ở KHU VỰC NÔNG THÔN – NGHIÊN CỨU TẠI TRƢỜNG TRUNG HỌC CƠ SỞ XUÂN CHÂU – XUÂN TRƢỜNG – NAM ĐỊNH) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi – 2017 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HƢƠNG STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES TOWARDS LEARNING ENGLISH SPEAKING IN A RURAL AREA AN INVESTIGATION AT XUAN CHAU LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL (KHÓ KHĂN VỀ VIỆC HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH Ở KHU VỰC NÔNG THÔN – NGHIÊN CỨU TẠI TRƢỜNG TRUNG HỌC CƠ SỞ XUÂN CHÂU – XUÂN TRƢỜNG – NAM ĐỊNH) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã Hanoi - 2017 DECLARATION I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled: “Students’ Difficulties towards Learning English Speaking in a Rural Area - An Investigation at Xuan Chau Lower Secondary School” is the result of my own work in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts of Faculty at Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University of Hanoi The research has not been submitted to any other universities or institutions Hanoi, 2017 Nguyễn Thị Hương i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not be fulfilled without the help of many people, and I would like to show my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has taught me, inspired me, challenged me, and supported me throughout the realization of this thesis I would like to express my deepest thanks to my beloved supervisor, Dr Vu Thi Thanh Nha, for her whole-hearted assistance, encouragement as well as profound guidance she gave me while I was doing my research I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all my lecturers and staffs at the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University of Hanoi whose support and consideration have enabled me to pursue the course I would also like to express my whole-heated thanks to teachers and all students of Xuan Chau Lower Secondary School for their helps and their willingness to participate in the research Without their help, this thesis could not be fulfilled Last but not least, I owe my sincere thanks to my family and my kind-hearted friends, who have always inspired and encouraged me to complete this study ii ABSTRACT Speaking is often considered as the most difficult skill of language learning Many students find it difficult to activate this knowledge in real time, and face-to-face encounters Hence, the study addressed the gap in our understanding of the difficulties of secondary students, especially students in a rural area, encountered in learning English speaking Furthermore, the students’ opinions about the role of speaking in their English course and the possible solutions to overcome the difficulties were also covered in this study With these aims, questionnaire as well as semi-structured interview was constructed as collecting data instruments Four students were interviewed out of 67 students who responded to the questionnaire The highlighted difficulties were: lack of practice outside class, large class, and limitation of class time; it also reported together with suggestions that might help students overcome the difficulties In addition, some pedagogical implications, limitations and suggestions for further studies were included in this study iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION .10 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction .1 1.2 Rationales 1.3 Aims of the study 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Significance of the study 1.7 Outline of the study 1.8 Summary CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction .5 2.2 Speaking skill 2.2.1 Definition of speaking skill 2.2.2 The purposes of speaking 2.2.3 The characteristics of speaking 2.2.4 The role of speaking in language teaching and learning 2.2.5 Approaches to teaching speaking: A review 10 2.3 Students’ problems with speaking activities 11 2.4 Summary 16 iv CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 17 3.1 Introduction 17 3.2 Research questions 17 3.3 The research context 17 3.3.1 Research site 17 3.3.2 Students 18 3.3.3 Teachers 18 3.3.4 English textbooks 18 3.3.5 The facilities 20 3.4 Participants 20 3.5 Methods of the study 20 3.6 Data collection procedures 21 3.6.1 Questionnaire 22 3.6.1.1 Aims of the questionnaire .22 3.6.1.2 Students’ questionnaire 22 3.6.2 Interview 24 3.6.2.1 Aims of the interview 24 3.6.2.2 Students’ interview 24 3.7 Data analysis 25 3.8 Summary 26 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS 27 4.1 Introduction 27 4.2 Findings from students’ questionnaire 27 4.2.1 Students’ opinions on the role of speaking in their English course 27 4.2.2 Students’ difficulties in learning English speaking 30 4.2.3 Students’ suggestions to overcome the difficulties 34 v 4.3 Findings from students’ interviews 38 4.3.1 Students’ opinions on the role of speaking in their English course .39 4.3.2 Students’ difficulties in learning English speaking 41 4.3.3 Students’ suggestions to overcome the difficulties 41 4.4 Summary 42 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 43 5.1 Introduction 43 5.2 Discussion of the main findings .43 5.3 Pedagogical implications 45 5.3.1 For English teachers .45 5.3.2 For students 47 5.4 Limitations of the study 48 5.5 Suggestions for the further research 48 5.6 Conclusion .49 REFERENCES 50 APPENDIX 1: BẢNG CÂU HỎI DÀNH CHO HỌC SINH I APPENDIX 2: CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN DÀNH CHO HỌC SINH IV APPENDIX 3: SAMPLE LESSON PLAN V APPENDIX 4: STUDENTS’ QUESTIONNAIRE …………………………… IX vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as a Foreign Language ELT: English Language Teaching ESL: English as a Second Language L1: First language TESOL: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1: Three key features of learners’ speech Table 2: Summary of the questions in part of students’ questionnaire 23 Table 3: Students’ opinions in term of difficulty of four English skills 28 Table 4: Students’ opinions on the skill(s) they wanted to improve 29 Table 5: Students’ difficulties in learning English speaking 31 Table 6: Students’ opinions on the speaking topics presented in the textbook 34 Table 7: Students’ opinions on activities teachers organised in speaking lessons 36 Figure 1: The overall mean of four main factors 32 viii REFERENCES AMEP Research Center (2002) Pronunciation Available: http://www.nceltr.mq.edu.au/pdamep Al-Jamal, D A., & Al-Jamal, G A (2013) An Investigation of the Difficulties Faced by EFL Undergraduates in Speaking Skills English Language Teaching, 7(1), 19 Baker, J., & Westrup, H (2003) Essential Speaking Skills: A Handbook for English Language Teachers London: Continuum Brown, H.D (1994) Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents Brown, G., & Yule, G (1983) Teaching the Spoken Language (Vol 2) Cambridge University Press Burns, A (1998) Teaching Speaking Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 18, 102-123 Burns, A (1999) Quantitative and Qualitative Collaborative Action Research for English Language Teachers Cambridge University Press Burns, A., & Joyce, H (1997) Focus on Speaking National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Bygate, M (1987) Speaking Oxford University Press Bygate, M (1998) Theoretical Perspectives on Speaking Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 18, 20-42 Byrne, D (1976) Teaching Oral English (Vol 1986) London: Longman Cohen, L M L (1989) Research Methods in Education New York: Routledge 50 Creswell, J W (2013) Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Florez, M A C (1999) Improving Adult English Language Learners: Speaking Skills ERIC Digest (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No ED: 435204) Gardner, R C., & MacIntyre, P D (1993) A Student's Contributions to Secondlanguage Learning Part II: Affective variables Language Teaching, 26(01), 1-11 Goh, C C M., & Burns, A (2012) Teaching Speaking Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Halliday, M (1975) Learning How to Mean London: Edward Arnold Harmer, J (1991) The Practice of Language Teaching Edinburgh: Longman He, S X., & Chen, A J (2010) How to Improve Spoken English Available:http://sites.google.com/site/languagejournal/Home/how-to-improvespoken-English Hetrakul, K (1995) The Second Language Available: http://eserver.org/courses/spring95/76-100g/KavinHetrakul.html Huyen, N T T., & Nga, K T T (2003) Learning Vocabulary through Games Asian EFL Journal, 5(4), 90-105 Johnson, R B., Onwuegbuzie, A J., & Turner, L A (2007) Toward a Definition of Mixed Methods Research Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 1, 112–133 Juhana (2012) Psychological Factors That Hinder Students from Speaking in English Class Journal of Education and Practice ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X Vol 3, No 12, 2012 www.iiste.org Kingen, S (2000) Teaching Language Arts in Middle Schools: Connecting and communicating Routledge 51 Kurtus, R (2001) Overcome the Fear of Speaking to Groups Retrieved January, 24, 2012 Larsen-Freeman, D., & Michael, H Long (1991) An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 15, 394-395 Leather, J., & van Dam, J (2002) Towards an Ecology of Language Acquisition In Ecology of Language Acquisition (pp.1-29) Springer Netherlands Lea, S J., Stephenson, D., & Troy, J (2003) Higher Education Students' Attitudes to Student-centred 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Studies in Higher Education, 28(3), 321-334 Liu, M., & Jackson, J., (2008) An Exploration of Chinese EFL Learners’ Unwillingness to Communicate and Foreign Language Anxiety Modern Language Journal, 92, 71-86 Littlewood, W (2007) Communicative Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Nunan, D (1989) Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom New York: Cambridge University Press Nunan, D (1999) Second Language Teaching and Learning Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers Oppenheim, A N (1992) Questionnaire Design, Interviewing, and Attitude Measurement London; New York: Printer Richards J (1990) The Language Teaching Matrix Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Sawir, E (2005) Language Difficulties of International Students in Australia: The Effects of Prior Learning Experience International Education Journal, 6(5), 567-580 52 Skehan, P (1996) A Framework for the Implementation of Task-based Instruction Applied linguistics, 17(1), 38-62 Skehan, P (1998a) A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning Oxford: Oxford University Press Tanveer, M (2007) Investigation of The Factors That Cause Language Anxiety for ESL/EFL Learners in Learning Speaking Skills and The Influence It Casts on Communication in The Target Language Dissertation, University of Glasgow Thornbury, S (2005) How to Teach Speaking Harlow: Pearson Education/Longman Ur, P (1991) A Course in Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Ur, P (1996) A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 53 APPENDIX BẢNG CÂU HỎI DÀNH CHO HỌC SINH Phiếu điều tra thực nhằm mục đích tìm hiểu khó khăn mà học sinh lớp trường Trung học sở Xuân Châu gặp phải học kỹ nói tiếng Anh số giải pháp để khắc phục khó khăn Những thông tin mà bạn cung cấp cần thiết quan trọng khảo sát Những thông tin sử dụng cho nghiên cứu không dùng cho mục đích khác, thông tin cá nhân bạn bảo mật Chân thành cảm ơn bạn!  Phần 1: Câu hỏi khảo sát Bạn vui lòng trả lời câu hỏi sau: Bạn bắt đầu học tiếng Anh từ nào? Đánh giá độ khó kỹ sau: (Đánh dấu () vào lựa chọn bạn, = Khó, = Bình thường, = Dễ) Kỹ STT Kỹ đọc (Reading) Kỹ nghe (Listening) Kỹ nói (Speaking) Kỹ viết (Writing) 3 Trong bốn kỹ nghe – nói – đọc – viết, bạn mong muốn cải thiện kỹ nào? (Bạn viết nhiều lựa chọn) Ở trường, bạn có tiết học tiếng Anh tuần? Trong đó, thời gian dành cho học nói? Ngoài lên lớp, bạn giành thời gian để học tiếng Anh ngày? Trong đó, thời gian dành cho học nói? I Những khó khăn mà bạn gặp phải học nói tiếng Anh là: (Đánh dấu () vào lựa chọn bạn, = Hay gặp, = Ít gặp, = Không gặp) Khó khăn STT Yếu tố ngôn ngữ Không có kiến thức chủ đề thảo luận Thiếu vốn từ vựng, ngữ pháp Có vấn đề phát âm Không theo kịp tốc độ giáo viên bạn khác Sử dụng nhiều tiếng mẹ đẻ học nói Yếu tố tâm lý Sợ mắc lỗi lúc nói Không đủ tự tin để nói trước người Luôn có tâm lý lo lắng học nói Không có động lực tham gia vào học Cơ sở vật chất 10 Cơ sở vật chất hạn chế 11 Tài liệu tham khảo chưa đáp ứng nhu cầu học sinh Yếu tố môi trường học 12 Không có nhiều thời gian luyện tập lớp 13 Không có nhiều hội luyện tập lớp đông 14 Ít luyện tập lên lớp Đánh giá bạn chủ đề nói sách “Tiếng Anh 9”: (Đánh dấu () vào lựa chọn bạn, = Không thích, = Bình thường, = Thích) Chủ đề STT Unit 1: A visit from a pen pal Unit 2: Clothing Unit 3: A trip to the countryside Unit 4: Learning a foreign language Unit 5: The media Unit 6: The environment II Unit 7: Saving energy Unit 8: Celebrations Unit 9: Natural disasters 10 Unit 10: Life on other planets Cảm nhận bạn hoạt động giáo viên tổ chức học nói: (Đánh dấu () vào lựa chọn bạn, = Không thích, = Bình thường, = Thích) Hoạt động STT Diễn kịch Phỏng vấn Thuyết trình Trò chơi Kể chuyện Luyện tập theo nhóm, cặp Ngoài hoạt động liệt kê câu 8, có hoạt động mà bạn muốn đề xuất để giáo viên bạn tổ chức học nói tiếng Anh? 10 Bạn có đề xuất để cải thiện khả nói tiếng Anh?  Phần 2: Thông tin cho vấn Sau khảo sát này, tác giả tiến hành vấn để lấy thêm thông tin cho nghiên cứu Nếu bạn lòng tham gia vấn, xin vui lòng để lại thông tin liên lạc: Họ tên: Lớp: Một lần chân thành cảm ơn hợp tác bạn! III APPENDIX CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN DÀNH CHO HỌC SINH Mở đầu - Người vấn chào hỏi giới thiệu thân - Người vấn giải thích làm nghiên cứu khó khăn học sinh học kỹ nói tiếng Anh Các câu hỏi cho mục đích kiểm tra hay đánh giá, mà dùng cho mục đích nghiên cứu; Câu hỏi vấn Trong học tiếng Anh lớp, bạn trọng học kỹ nào? Buổi phụ đạo buổi chiều bạn thường học gì? Bạn có học thêm tiếng Anh lên lớp không, bạn thường học lớp học thêm? Bạn đánh giá tầm quan trọng kỹ nói? Bạn tự đánh giá khả nói mức độ nào? Bạn có muốn cải thiện khả nói không? 3, Bạn thường luyện tập kỹ nói nhà không? Nếu có, thường luyện tập cách nào? Nếu không, sao? Khó khăn bạn hay gặp phải học nói? Bạn có thường xuyên tham gia hoạt động giáo viên tổ chức lớp không? Nếu không, sao? Bạn thường làm để khắc phục khó khăn gặp phải học nói tiếng Anh? IV APPENDIX SAMPLE LESSON PLAN Week Period Date of preparation Date of teaching 15/8/2016 22/8/2016 22 – 27/8/2016 UNIT 1: A VISIT FROM A PEN PAL LESSON 2: Speak I The aims of the lesson: By the end of the lesson, SS will be able to: - Make introductions and responses - Listen to the tape and choose the right pictures Knowledge: - Words: capital, industrial, church, spring roll = nem - Grammar: + Introduce oneself (Let me introduce myself I’m (Nga) + Response: Please to meet you, (Nga) Skills: Speaking, Listening, reading II Teaching aids: Textbook, pictures, chalk, Teacher’s activities Students’ activities I Motivation Warm-up activity - Asking questions: - Answering the questions: Where does Mary come from? Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur Who is her pen pal? Lan How long have Lan and Maryam been Over two years pen pals? Where is she visiting now? Hanoi V II The new lesson: - SPEAKING Pre-speaking Set the scene:(PICTURES) - Listen for what to - This is Nga, and this is Maryam Nga is talking to Maryam They are waiting for Lan outside her school They are talking to each other In pairs, put the sentences in the correct order to make a complete dialogue between Nga and Maryam, page Start like this: - Pair-work to arrange the dialogue A: Hello You must be Maryam B: That’s right, I am - Feedback and remark: Call two Ss to - Give the order of the dialogue give out their dialogue 1- c -5 – b- 4- d-2- e-3- a -6-f - Read the dialogue quickly to find out the - Read and find introductions and responses - Feedback and note: Call Ss to give - Give their answers their answers Hello, my name is Nga / I’m Hello, my name is Nga/I’m Nga ( Informal ) Nga Let me introduce myself I’m Let me introduce myself I’m Nga (Formal) Nga -Practice the dialogue in pairs: Call pairs - Pair-work - Check SS’ understanding by questions - Answer T’s questions: Does Maryam know Nga before? No, she doesn’t Is Mary enjoying her stay in Hanoi? Yes, she is because Vietnamese Why? people are friendly, and Ha Noi is a beautiful city VI - New-word teaching - Listen, repeat and copy Capital (n) thủ đô Industrial (a) công nghiệp Church (n) nhà thờ Spring roll (n) nem - Listen for what to While-speaking Now, you are talking to one of Maryam’s friends Yoko is from Tokyo in Japan, Paul is from Liverpool in England and - Read the information in boxes Jane is from a small town in Australia about Yoko, Paul and Jane Introduce - Pair-work yourself Make similar dialogues and take turn to be one of Maryam’s friends First, Read the information about Yoko, Paul and Jane carefully Then, practice the dialogue in pairs The teacher and a good student - Work with the teacher as an as an example: example Others listen S: Hello You must be Yoko T: That’s right I am S: Pleased to meet you Let me introduce myself I’m … T: Pleased to meet you, … S: Are you enjoying your stay in Viet Nam? T: Oh, yes, very much I like Vietnamese people, and I love old cities in Vietnam S: Do you live in a city, too? T: Yes, I live in Tokyo Have you been VII there? S: No (I haven’t) Is it very different from Hanoi? T: The two cities are the same in some ways It’s a busy big capital city S: Oh, I see Here’s Mary am Let’s go - Work in pairs to make the similar - Pair-work dialogues - Feedback : two pairs to perform - Pair-work Post-speaking - Ask Ss to copy one of the dialogues they - Copy have done in the exercise book Homework - Review the lesson and give homework for students VIII - Listen and take note APPENDIX STUDENTS’ QUESTIONNAIRE This questionnaire is conducted with a view to find out the difficulties in learn English speaking skill of 9th – grade students at Xuan Chau Lower Secondary School and possible solutions for those difficulties Your completion of this questionnaire is highly appreciated The data collected are used in the research paper only, not for other purposes Thank you so much for your cooperation!  Part 1: Câu hỏi khảo sát Please answer the below questions: When did you start to learn English? How you evaluate the difficulty of four English skills? (Please put tick () on your option, in which = difficult, = Normal, = Easy) No Skills Reading skill Listening skill Speaking skill Writing skill 3 Among four English skills, what skill(s) you want to improve? (You can write more than one option) How many periods of English you have in a week at school? In which how many periods are for speaking skill? How much time you spend learning English per day outside the class? In which how much time is for speaking skill? IX The difficulties that you encounter in speaking lessons: (Please put tick () on your option, in which = Always, = Sometimes, = Never) No Difficulties Linguistic factors Lack of background knowledge Lack of vocabulary and grammatical patterns Incorrect pronunciation Cannot catch up with the speed of teachers and classmates Mother-tongue use Psychological factors Afraid of making mistake Lack of confident Anxiety Lack of motivation Materials and facilities 10 Insufficient facilities 11 Insufficient materials Learning environment 12 Limitation of class time 13 Large class 14 Lack of practice outside class What you think about the speaking topics presented in “Tiếng Anh 9”: (Please put tick () on your option, in which = Dislike, = Normal, = Like) No Topics Unit 1: A visit from a pen pal Unit 2: Clothing Unit 3: A trip to the countryside Unit 4: Learning a foreign language Unit 5: The media Unit 6: The environment X Unit 7: Saving energy Unit 8: Celebrations Unit 9: Natural disasters 10 Unit 10: Life on other planets What you think about the activities teachers organized in speaking lessons? (Please put tick () on your option, in which = Dislike, = Normal, = Like) No Activities Role-play Interview Presentation Games Storytelling Practice in groups or pairs Except for activities listed in question 8, what activities you want your teachers hold in speaking lessons? 10 What should you to improve English speaking skill?  Part 2: Information for interview After the questionnaire, the researcher will carry out an interview to take more information for the study If you want to take part in, please give your information for contact: Full name: Class: Thank you for taking your valuable time to complete the questionnaire! XI ... Learning English Speaking in a Rural Area - An Investigation at Xuan Chau Lower Secondary School 1.3 Aims of the study The study was conducted to find out difficulties that students in a rural. .. students also find it difficult in learning English speaking Furthermore, this school is located in a rural area, teaching and learning English speaking meet more difficulties than schools in urban areas... thesis entitled: Students’ Difficulties towards Learning English Speaking in a Rural Area - An Investigation at Xuan Chau Lower Secondary School is the result of my own work in partial fulfillment