Using Active Teaching to improve English Speaking Skill for first-year Non- English Majoring Students AOF”.PDF

ABSTRACT This thesis concentrates on Active Teaching and how Active Teaching would help to improve the teaching and learning quality of English speaking skill for first year Non-English

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and effort and that it has not been submitted anywhere for any award Where other sources of information have been used, they have been acknowledged

Author

I also want to give my kind regards to all teachers and students of the Faculty of Foreign Language for their kindness and help in my practicing time

at this faculty

ABSTRACT

This thesis concentrates on Active Teaching and how Active Teaching would help to improve the teaching and learning quality of English speaking skill for first year Non-English Majoring students AOF Throughout the thesis, basic information on English speaking and Active Teaching will be provided: the definition and the description Also included in the thesis are figures and facts on current situation of English speaking skill at classes of first year non-gifted students Interviewing method and questionnaire will be used in the thesis to collect students’ opinions on the current and the planned teaching methods Teachers’ view would be taken into consideration to find out what they think about the changes and obstacles may exist when new methods are experimented The thesis concludes with the recommendation on the application of Active Teaching methods in order to improve speaking skill for first year Non-English Majoring students

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION……… i

ACKNOWLEDGMENT……… ……ii

ABSTRACT……… ……… iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……… iv

LIST OF TABLES……… v

INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Methodology 3

5 Organization of the study 3

CHAPTER 1: BASIC THEORY OF SPEAKING AND ACTIVE TEACHING 4

1.1 Speaking skill and its related concepts 4

1.1.1 Definition of Speaking 4

1.1.2 The importance of speaking skill in classrooms 4

1.1.3 Skills and knowledge good English speaker need 5

1.1.4 Teaching Speaking 6

1.1.4.1 What is Teaching Speaking? 7

1.1.4.2 How to Teach Speaking? 7

1.2 Active teaching in a speaking lesson 8

1.2.1 Definition and description of active teaching 8

1.2.1.1 Definition of active teaching 8

1.2.1.2 Description of active teaching 9

1.2.2 Methods of Active Teaching 9

1.2.2.1 Brainstorming 9

1.2.2.2 A visitor to the classroom 9

1.2.2.3 Personal interview 10

1.2.2.4 Role-Play 10

1.2.2.5 Making a presentation 10

1.2.2.6 Case studies 10

1.2.2.7 Group work/ Team work/ Discussion Groups 11

1.2.2.8 Class debate 11

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 13

2.1 Description of the subjects 13

2.1.1 Description of first-year Non-English Majoring students 13

2.1.2 Description of first-year Non-English Majoring students’ current state of English speaking skill 13

2.2 Researches on current state of speaking teaching and the application of Active Teaching methods 14

2.2.1 Research methods 14

2.2.2 Research’s results 15

2.2.2.1 Number of speaking periods in total English study program 15

2.2.2.2 Current active teaching methods used 18

2.2.2.3 Teachers’ opinions on the use of Active teaching methods for speaking skill 19

2.2.2.4 Obstacles experienced by the teachers when applying Active 21

2.2.2.5 Students’ opinions on the use of current Active teaching methods 23

2.2.2.4 Student’s obstacles on the application of more Active 24

2.3 What to draw from the findings 25

2.3.1 From students’ perspective 25

2.3.2 From teachers’ perspective 26

2.4 Conclusion 27

2.4.1 How active teaching methods used 27

2.4.2 Obstacles in applying Active Teaching 29

2.4.2.1 Students’ obstacles 29

CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS 31

3.1 Recommendation on change within faculties involved 31

3.1.1 Recommendation on change to Non-English majoring faculties 31

3.1.2 Recommendation on change to Faculty of Foreign Language 32

3.1.3 Recommendation on change to teachers 33

Extra method 2: Case Studies 35

3.1.4 Recommendation on change to students 40

CONCLUSION 42

REFERENCE 44 APPENDIX

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AOF: Academy of Finance

FFL: Faculty of Foreign Language

EOSL: English for Speakers of Other Languages AT: Active Teaching

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Speaking activities and topics/drills in the course book “Business

Basics”

Table 2: Active Teaching methods, which being used

Table 3: Implementation of active teaching methods, teachers’ opinion (by percentage)

Table 4: Obstacles experienced by the teachers when applying group work in the speaking class by percent

Table 5: Application of current active teaching methods, students’ opinion (by percent)

Table 6: Students’ obstacles when applying AT methods

to speak English fluently, to use English to communicate wherever and

whenever they want in order to benefit themselves and the society?

Academy of Finance has already realized the question raised by the society on English speaking skill It also keeps in mind its role of devoting itself to the education system, as well as the economic growth New plans have been suggested on English speaking lessons with the hope of making students approach English speaking skill right from the moment they start their study at the university

In learning speaking skill, the students often find some problems The problem frequently found is that their native language causes them difficult to use the foreign language Other reason is because of motivation lack to practice the second language in daily conversation They are also too shy and afraid to take part in the conversation Many factors can cause the problem of the students’ speaking skill namely the students’ interest, the material, and the media among others including the technique in teaching English Many techniques can be applied including Active Teaching methods because many research findings say that they are effective to use in teaching speaking

Non-English Majoring students AOF, like any other English learners, have to face with these problems, and find it hard to reach the target of outcome standard on English speaking needed by the society To solve this problem, AOF – in general, and the teachers of Faculty of Foreign Language – in detail, are making effort to find out suitable methods to help Non-English Majoring students come up with the general standards on English speaking skill This perception by AOF has inspired me to pursue my research on

“Using Active Teaching to improve English Speaking Skill for first-year English Majoring Students AOF” I wish that this thesis would provide effective recommendation for AOF to improve English speaking skill teaching and learning, thus helping the university to have satisfactory outcomes – students that are qualified by the society in English speaking skill

Non-2 Aims of the study

As mentioned above, in order to understand how the Academy of Finance is running its English speaking teaching - learning system for Non-English Majoring students, what is the current results and how Active Teaching methods would help to improve these results, this thesis will research English speaking skill, current situation of English speaking teaching

at AOF, Active Teaching together with its meanings, components and efficiency; suggesting some recommendation to improve student’s English speaking ability in the Academy

3 Scope of the study

The research scope of the study is restrained in Non-English Majoring Faculties, Academy of Finance Moreover, the research focuses on analyzing

the current situation and improving the English speaking teaching and learning with Active Teaching methods

4 Methodology

The data methods are used to collect and analyze the information about English speaking skill and the current teaching – learning situation at AOF The data used in this study are mainly primary data: data from the teachers and students of AOF, from internet and books

5 Organization of the study

Beside introduction and conclusion, my thesis consists of three main chapters as follow:

The first part: Introduction briefly states the rationale of the study, aims

of the study and scope of the research

Chapter 1: Literature review, discussing the definition of speaking

skill and Active Teaching, providing the description of each one

Chapter 2: Current situation, finding and analyzing current situation of

speaking lessons for Non-English Majoring Students AOF

Chapter 3: Recommendation, presenting the obstacles in applying

Active Teaching and suggesting recommendation on the application of Active Teaching to improve speaking skills for first-year Non-English Majoring Students AOF

CHAPTER 1: BASIC THEORY OF SPEAKING AND ACTIVE

TEACHING 1.1 Speaking skill and its related concepts

1.1.1 Definition of Speaking

In Oxford Advanced Dictionary the definition of speaking is to express

or communicate opinions, feelings, ideas, etc, by or as talking and it involves the activities in the part of the speaker as psychological, physiological (articulator) and physical (acoustic) stages

According to Chaney, speaking is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts While another expert, Theodore Huebner said Language is essentially speech, and speech is basically communication by sounds And according to him, speaking is a skill used by someone in daily life communication whether at school or outside The skill is acquired by much repetition; it primarily a neuromuscular and not an intellectual process It consists of competence in sending and receiving messages

From the above definition, it can be inferred that speaking is expressing ideas, opinions, or feelings to others by using words or sounds of articulation

in order to inform, to persuade, and to entertain that can be learnt by using some teaching - learning methodologies

1.1.2 The importance of speaking skill in classrooms

Among the four skills in learning English, speaking and writing are the productive skills However, speaking is regarded as very important for language teaching and learning Speaking is a bridge to reach other skills Speaking helps learners to read better, to listen more effectively and write

more accurately Speaking is surely the most effective means of communication (Ur, 1996)

There are two most important reasons why speaking should be taught in classrooms The first reason is speaking is a good source of motivation for students Nunan (1991) points out, “success is measured in terms of the ability

to carry out a conversation in the (target) language” For the students who have ability to speak English eligibly, they want to speak English; they know

to express themselves in English Thus, they always speak when possible But for those who cannot speak English well, they do not want to speak in group

As a result, they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning English In addition to this, in the English speaking class, if the speaking activities are organized in the suitable way, speaking can have a lot `of fun and therefore can raise motivation in the learners If the speaking is practiced successfully, the other skills can also be improved through speaking

For the second reason, nowadays, the demand for communication among people is really important Without it, the life does not exist For this, speaking always plays an important role in people’s lives Speaking is considered as survival skill in real life (Ur, 1996; p 134)

For the ideas above, speaking skill also plays the key role in foreign language learning and teaching

1.1.3 Skills and knowledge good English speaker need

A speaker's skills and speech habits have an impact on the success of any exchange (Van Duzer, 1997) Speakers must be able to anticipate and then produce the expected patterns of specific discourse situations They must also manage discrete elements such as turn-taking, rephrasing, providing

feedback, or redirecting (Burns & Joyce, 1997) Other skills and knowledge that instruction might address include the following:

- producing the sounds, stress patterns, rhythmic structures, and intonations of the language;

- using grammar structures accurately;

- assessing characteristics of the target audience;

- selecting vocabulary that is understandable and appropriate for the audience, the topic being discussed, and the setting in which the speech act occurs;

- applying strategies to enhance comprehensibility;

- using gestures or body language; and

- paying attention to the success of the interaction and adjusting components of speech

1.1.4 Teaching Speaking

Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues However, today's world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students' communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance

1.1.4.1 What is Teaching Speaking?

What is meant by teaching speaking is to teach English language learners to:

1) Produce the English speech sounds and sounds patterns

2) Use words and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language

3) Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter

4) Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence

5) Use language as a means of expressing values and judgments

6) Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which

is called fluency

1.1.4.2 How to Teach Speaking?

When teaching young learners we constantly have to keep in mind the fact that what we have in front of us is a mixed class with varied abilities, expectations, motivation level, knowledge and last but not least, different learning styles Thus, we need to vary our approaches and offer as much opportunity as possible to make the whole class find a little something to hold

on to, expand and grow

Young learners are like sponges, they soak up everything we say and how we say it Thus clear and correct pronunciation is of vital importance, since young learners repeat exactly what they hear What has been learned at an early stage is difficult to change later on One rule that applied here is slowly and steadily through constant revision and recycling

songs, poems and rhymes, students speaking abilities grow, their pronunciation gets better and their awareness of the language improves When applying the above-mentioned tools into the teaching practice, what should be kept in mind is that interaction is an important way of learning Therefore, increased oral emphasis should be included in our teaching to give the students as much speaking time as possible

Now many linguistics and English as second language (ESL) teachers agree on that students learn to speak in the second language by

"interacting" Communicative language teaching and collaborative learning serve best for this aim Communicative language teaching is based on real-life situations that require communication By using these methods in ESL classes, students will have the opportunity of communicating with each other

in the target language In brief, ESL teachers should create a classroom environment where students have real-life communication, authentic activities, and meaningful tasks that promote oral language This can occur when students collaborate in groups to achieve a goal or to complete a task

1.2 Active teaching in a speaking lesson

1.2.1 Definition and description of active teaching

1.2.1.1 Definition of active teaching

Active teaching and learning involves the use of strategies which maximize opportunities for interaction Active teaching and learning offers opportunities for interaction between teachers and students, amongst the students themselves, as well as between students and the materials, the topic itself or the academic discipline

1.2.1.2 Description of active teaching

Active teaching involves the use of instructional techniques designed for meaningful student engagement in the discovery of knowledge Philosophically, the approach has a long history, from Socrates to John Dewey to the teaching case method refined at Harvard University They conscious selection of goals for the classroom and methods for teaching helps create a sense of purpose in the educational process It also represents collaboration – a commitment on the part of instructors and students to enliven the educational environment

1.2.2 Methods of Active Teaching

1.2.2.1 Brainstorming

On a given topic, students can produce ideas in a limited time Depending on the context, either individual or group brainstorming is effective and learners generate ideas quickly and freely The good characteristic of brainstorming is that the students are not criticized for their ideas so students will be open to sharing new ideas

1.2.2.2 A visitor to the classroom

A visitor can be invited to the classroom because of his/her expertise

in a given area or to interact with the young people It is advisable to brief the visitor about the class group e.g what they are studying, how far they have gone with their course and topic, the age group etc The visitor will want to know the format of the visit e.g question and answer, presentation etc A question and answer session is generally better for involving the students The following are some of the points that students may want to discuss

1.2.2.3 Personal interview

Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people It is a good idea that the teacher provides a rubric to students so that they know what type of questions they can ask or what path to follow, but students should prepare their own interview questions After interviews, each student can present his or her study tot the class Moreover, students can interview each other and “introduce” his or her partner to the class

1.2.2.4 Role-Play

Role-plays require students to place themselves in a particular situation or take a committed position on a key issue in the course For example, students might become players in an historical event, one requiring they research positions and argue for certain actions or decisions In scientific fields, students can become actual representatives of a physical process, acting it out to make it more concrete

1.2.2.5 Making a presentation

Students are asked to speak in front of a group of people about a required topic with or without time limits Normally, students often use visual aids like pictures or slide shows to make the presentation livelier

1.2.2.6 Case studies

More structured than role plays, case studies are stories, often based

on real world examples, that place students in the role of decision maker They contain the data students need to make sense of the situation, but don’t usually contain analysis or conclusions Students must make sense of the information and come to appropriate conclusions regarding the next actions to take, or the kind of data thy will need in order to come to an appropriate

conclusion Case studies thus test students’ analytic and problem solving approaches while making them conscious of how to use the skills they’ve been developing in the class

1.2.2.7 Group work/ Team work/ Discussion Groups

After a content-based lesson, a discussion can be held for various reasons students are divided into group/team, and may aim to arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event, or find solutions in their discussion groups Before the discussion, it is essential that the purpose of the discussion activity is set by the teacher In this way, the discussion points are relevant to this purpose, so that students do not spend their time chatting with each other about irrelevant things

1.2.2.8 Class debate

Class debate can be used with either large or small groups In either case, it is often best to begin with a brief class discussion of the issues involved in the debate topic This provides a context for the debate, a sense of the sub-issues involved, and a gauge of class feelings on the issues At this time the instructor should also make clear the rules of the debate, including time allotted to each side and rules for speaking (Formats and rules for several kinds of debates can be found on line.) If a small group format is used, divide the class into groups and give them time to choose their topic and resolution (Debates are often won or lost in the wording of the resolution, so

it is important that the students have some leeway in deciding upon this wording.) After the sides and resolution are decided, the students will need time to prepare their arguments and tactics If the class is to perform the debate as a large group, the instructor usually serves as moderator In this case, the two sides should also be given some time to develop their positions

and their strategies of argument before the debate begins In either a small- or large-group format, students may be instructed to argue for their own beliefs

or against them, depending on the instructor’s objectives Likewise, the instructor may choose to have students argue first an affirmative position and then a negative one Some instructors prefer to summarize the debate at the end; this can clarify the information presented and direct students to focus on the key points derived from the exercise Other instructors refrain from summarizing students’ contributions, thereby preserving the variety of opinions and perspectives that were expressed over the course of the debate

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY

2.1 Description of the subjects

2.1.1 Description of first-year Non-English Majoring students

In Academy of Finance, those who study English are divided into two groups: English Majoring and Non-English Majoring students For English Majoring students, the expected results from the university and the society seem to be easier to achieve, as they have already had the solid base of English, its knowledge and skills On the contrary, Non-English Majoring students find it hard to come up with the outcome English standards First-year Non-English Majoring students are the ones who have just transited from High School Education to University one All they have in mind about English is the knowledge that they learnt in their Secondary and High School Researches on English study program of Non-English Majoring students show that although English is one of the subject chosen for the High School Graduation Exam, the number of English periods takes only 10% of the total study program (3 periods in total 30 periods per week) In these English periods, time spent for speaking skill is only one-fourth of the lesson, or sometimes no time for speaking skill Therefore, it can be concluded that the English knowledge base of Non-English Majoring students is very weak, similarly is their English Speaking

2.1.2 Description of first-year Non-English Majoring students’ current state of English speaking skill

From the above features, it can be pointed out that English is the weakness of a majority of Non-English Majoring students Weak base of English knowledge, and not much time spent practicing speaking English

result in quite bad Speaking skill in a lot of students Only a few students who had set their goal of English study from the start and have their own methods

of learning English speaking can do well in this skill However, these students count for a small number of first-year Non-English Majoring students Thus,

to conclude, English speaking skill of mostly every first-year Non-English Majoring student is seriously bad and needs improving so much

2.2 Researches on current state of speaking teaching and the application of Active Teaching methods

Question 2: What are your obstacles when attending classes that use AT?

The second questionnaire is designed for the teachers to know these two things:

Question 1: What do you think about the application of active teaching

methods in speaking class?

Question 2: What are your obstacles when applying these methods?

100 copies of the questionnaire delivered to the students and 06 copies of the questionnaire delivered to the teachers have been all responded Author’s class observation was successful due to the help and support of all teachers and the students

2.2.2 Research’s results

2.2.2.1 Number of speaking periods in total English study program

The course book is Business Basics published in 1995 by Oxford

University Press, and has been used as an official course book It was written

by David Grant and Robert McLarty to fit students’ level of English and

educational goals of the universities Business Basics was, according to what

is stated in the Introduction, the book from which “Students have the opportunity to actively engage in communication activities that can be readily transferred to their real-life work or to a pre-experience learner setting The activities in the Business Basics series, whether listening, speaking or writing, are designed to simulate activities which are as close as possible to the real-life business situations in which students are going to find themselves” However, the course book appears to focus on grammar and grammar exercises other than communication skills This can be easily noticed on the very first page of the book, which presents each unit with a topic and all grammar items it is about, without any skills named As considerations go further to contents of each unit, this seems to be proved right Activities for speaking skill, for example, take small amount in each unit To be more detailed, all activities and topics or drills in terms of speaking skill in first-year Non-English Majoring students are presented as the following (Here we consider only 10 first units, as that’s all what first-year Non-English study)

Table 1: Speaking activities and topics/drills in the course book

“Business Basics” (Source: Abstracted from the contents of 10 first lessons in the book “Business Basics”)

Unit Speaking activities Topics/drills

1

Pair work

- Checking spelling

- Ask for information

Individual work Talk about your company/ your

- Going on a business trip

- Ask for information Individual work Eating out

5

Pair work

- Business trip abroad

- Question-making Individual work Famous stores in your country

8 Pair work/ Group work

- The rich and related topics

- A place to live in

9

Individual work Pronunciation

10

Group work/ Pair work

- Present-giving art

- Making an interview Individual work Talk about your own job

It can be learned from the table that the variety of speaking activities is very limited, with pair work as the most common It therefore depends very much on students’ ability and enthusiasm to study And because first-year

Non-English Majoring students are considered not to have enough necessary skills, it is hard to achieve the book’s targets

2.2.2.2 Current active teaching methods used

Table 2: Active Teaching methods, which being used

2.2.2.3 Teachers’ opinions on the use of Active teaching methods for speaking skill

Table 3: Implementation of active teaching methods, teachers‟ opinion (by percentage)

1 I understand active teaching methods well enough to

2 The costs involved in implementing more active teaching

3 Active teaching methods best prepare students for the real

8 Using active teaching enhances my career advancement 83

9 Active teaching is a valuable instructional approach 100

10 I prefer using familiar teaching methods over trying new

Half of the teachers is confident that they are well-trained enough to implement active teaching (AT) successfully, while the rest half seems to be unsure about their ability to do so

No one showed any denial toward the importance and effectiveness of AT, and they also all agreed that AT methods are not costly to apply

Approximately 50% of the teachers raised their voice that their Non-English Majoring students are lack of skills necessary, and thus AT are giving them too much responsibility and pressure

33% of the teachers think it is hard to apply AT in teaching, 16.67% of which blamed it on their lack of experience in AT 33% said that they do not want any changes in their traditional ways of teaching

However, in general, the majority of teacher realized the value of AT, as it not only improves students’ speaking skill very much, but also enhance their career advancement

In brief, though there are some negative ideas on the application of Active Teaching, almost all the teachers have to agree on the importance and good effects that AT can bring about

2.2.2.4 Obstacles experienced by the teachers when applying Active

Table 4: Obstacles experienced by the teachers when applying group work in the speaking class by percent

c Lack of academic training in active teaching 33

e Few people with expertise to turn for advice 16

f Feeling deficient to facilitate a communicative class

16

h Low English proficiency of students 50

i Students resistance to class participation 33

k Lack of money for material and teaching aid development

0

l Students use Vietnamese during class 67

Look into the obstacles experienced by the teacher, 83 % of the teachers sometimes met the obstacles and the rest 17 % often met difficulties None of them either always or never met obstacles when applying active teaching methods

Table 4 offers the result of the types of obstacles the 6 teachers faced Clearly, all the teachers (100%) had overload work When asked, they said most of them had from 15 hours a week or more in the same class, therefore, they had very little time (83 % said so) to prepare for the lesson, especially active activities requires a lot of time Moreover, there is one teacher who had even 24 hours a week (one class in the morning and the other in the afternoon), maybe he will be exhausted soon The same percent (83 %) goes with the obstacles of immovable seating arrangement The teachers just wanted to save time and satisfy the students’ wishes to remain in one place

67 % of the teachers said their students use Vietnamese during the class if without their teachers’ attention 50 % of the ideas collected go to Multi-level class, low English proficiency of students and students made so much noise

33 % of the ideas go to lack of academic training in AT methods and students resistance to class participation as they said since they graduated from university, they had had no time to go to workshop, and moreover, the students refused to do their trying to implement active methods because they did not like or they just wanted to sleep because they are all night awake for other homework Only 16 % of the teacher said they needed more teaching experience and needed people with expertise to turn for advice and feeling deficient to facilitate a communicative class And lastly, all of them did not blame the obstacles on the lack of money for material and teaching aid development

2.2.2.5 Students’ opinions on the use of current Active teaching methods

Table 5: Application of current active teaching methods, students‟ opinion (by percent)

How well do you learn from these methods?

Teaching methods in

class

Very well

Well Okay Not

Group work/ Team

work/ Discussion Groups

Regarding the students’ opinion for the use of current active teaching methods, most of them show positive opinions On the contrary to the rest three methods, Brainstorming gained no satisfactory rating, which means that

it is not considered to be useful in class It seems to be not highly appreciated

by students when the majority – only 80% of them see it only as acceptable

In addition, more than 17% of the students didn’t see it as a useful learning method, due to difficulties in expressing ideas in English

Personal interview, Making a presentation, and Group work methods have much efficiency when respectively 10%, 60% and 60% of the students asked confirm that they are helpful in class No student denied the efficiency of these methods, as 0% of the students ranked them as “Badly” In detail, Personal interview was rated very useful by 11% of students, helpful by 69%,

quite useful from 15% of those, and not quite useful from 5% with the reason that this method put them under a lot of pressure preparing for the lesson Making a presentation and Group work proved themselves to be the most effective methods when most of the students taking part in the questionnaire said that these methods are useful for their learning speaking English Exactly 60% students accept their usefulness, 0% against the application, and the rest 40% see them as acceptable have shown that these two methods are widely appreciated by the students

In short, Brainstorming method is the one that is not very much in the interest of the students, as it is hard for non-English Majoring students to express their ideas (or the whole of them) in English Personal interview somehow shows its effectiveness to students, but still seems to be stressful for some of them Making a presentation and Group work are considered to be the best two methods, as they not only improve student’s speaking skill but also help them to be more confident in public with not much pressure

2.2.2.4 Student’s obstacles on the application of more Active

Teaching methods for speaking classes

Table 6: Students‟ obstacles when applying AT methods

1 I don’t think I can come up with new methods and

activities, as my English speaking is not good enough

61

2 Many of my classmates speak English much better than

me, so we should not have similar learning program

10

3 I’m not interested in studying speaking at all 8

More than 60% of first-year Non-English Majoring student showed their obstacle in the application of more AT methods is that they have already had to try hard enough to come up with the current speaking lessons and activities, so they don’t think they are ready to adapt to any changes in their study Some of these claim the uneven level of English proficiency to be the reason for their lack of determination to try new approaches Some others revealed that they have no interest for English speaking, so whether it changes

in style of teaching or not does no matter to them

2.3 What to draw from the findings

The following facts were withdrawn from the data taken from the survey of teachers and students

2.3.1 From students’ perspective

As seen from students’ point of view, they already realize the importance and effectiveness of active teaching methods, how active teaching can help to improve their speaking English Almost all of them have had clear ideas in their mind how better an active method could make them become However, there are still reasons, both subjective and objective ones

Regarding subjective factors, students’ lack of necessary knowledge and skills, i.e low level of speaking fluency, limited vocabulary, etc dominates their speaking performance in class As one student said, “my poor vocabulary of English caused a lot of troubles in talking to others, so we seldom speak in English” (Lack of vocabulary is another source of students’ reticence in speaking lessons “I always found my vocabulary so small that I didn’t know how to communicate my ideas I was very anxious and felt bad

So I have to keep quiet And this is very common among students in the university” (Ha, student of accounting)