thesisNhững nhân tố ảnh hưởng đến sự tham gia vào cac hoạt động nói của sinh viên

FACTORS AFECTING THE FIRST YEAR NONENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN ORAL ACTIVITIES Những nhân tố ảnh hưởng đến sự tham gia vào cac hoạt động nói của sinh viên The research is carried out to find out the factors affecting the first year non English major students’ participation in oral activities at TNCE. The study aims to answer the following research questions: (1) How do the students participate in oral activities? (2) What are the factors affecting the first year non English major students’ participation in oral activities? (3) What should be done to increase students’ participation in oral activities? The respondents were 6 English teachers and 160 first year non – English students from 4 classes: officemanagement K3, chemistry – biology K17, literature – geography K17, mathematic – physics K17. In this paper, the researcher uses two data collection instruments: questionnaires for teachers and students, and interviews with teachers.

Part A: INTRODUCTION Statement of problem and rationale Undeniably, in learning English, the four skills namely reading, writing, speaking, listening are very important but speaking seems to be the most significant Any learners of English want to achieve this skill However, speaking is generally considered the most demanding of the four skills (Bailey and Savage, 1994: vii) For this reason, being aware of the necessity of speaking, English teachers though trying to improve all four skills, always pay much attention on speaking for their students However, the teaching and learning of English speaking skill in Vietnam has encountered many difficulties For Vietnamese learners, speaking is a very difficult skill It takes learners lots of time practicing if they want to be skillful at it In fact although most of Vietnamese learners pay much attention to grammatical structures and vocabulary, they are often reluctant in speaking skill In recent years, English teachers have changed their teaching methods and focused their teaching on speaking to the students One top concern of almost all teachers is students’ ineffective participation in speaking lessons The reasons for that are various Tsui (1996), after carrying a research in Hong Kong, lists five principle factors affecting the reluctance of students’ participation in classroom speaking lessons: students’ perceived low proficiency in English, students’ fear of making mistakes and derision, teachers’ intolerance of silence, uneven allocation of turns, incomprehensible input (as cited in Nunan, 1999: 234) In Vietnam, Phung (2006) conducts an experiment about techniques to overcome factors affecting the participation in classroom oral activities at College of Social Sciences and Humanities The findings shows that factors affecting his students’ participation includes students’ learning styles, motivation, language level, gender differences, teachers’ teaching techniques, characteristics, teachers’ knowledge, implementation of teachers’ role in speaking activities, the available facilities and classroom atmosphere Nguyen (2010) suggests strategies to increase the participation in communicative activities of students at Dong Do high school, Hanoi She also concludes that the factors affecting her students’ participation in communicative activities are students’ poor background knowledge, lack of confidence, lack of motivation and passive learning style Although there have been many studies about factors affecting students’ participation in oral activities, it is considered new in the EFL context of Thai Nguyen College of Education (TNCE) As a teacher at this college, the researcher sees that most of her students not often enjoy speaking period, and they not actively contribute the speaking lessons They always keep quiet, passively take note, some listen to better students speaking but nothing, and some hard-working students discuss in Vietnamese The study entitled “Factors affecting the first year non-English major students’ participation in oral activities: a survey at Thai Nguyen College of Education” is an attempt to find out the reasons for above problems, and give some suggestions to increase students’ participation in oral activities Objectives of the study The study was conducted to (1) investigate the current teaching and learning of speaking skill of the students at TNCE, (2) identify the factors affecting the first year non-English major students’ participation in oral activities, then (3) give some recommendations for teachers and students to increase students’ participation in oral activities Significance of the study Theoretically, it is hoped that this study can be used as a reference for other researchers who want to conduct the study related to teaching and learning speaking in general and factors affecting students’ participation in oral speaking activities in particular The result of the study can be useful for English teachers to implement suitable teaching method to their students Practically, the study will hopefully better the researcher and her colleagues’ teaching, help the students be aware of their problems in learning and solve these problems The researcher also hopes that this study will benefit both the teaching and learning of English speaking Scope of the study The current research mainly covers the possible factors affecting the students’ participation in oral activities including students’ language proficiency level, attitude and motivation, personality, teacher’s teaching methods, characteristics, classroom size, atmosphere, and materials The subjects of the study are teachers of English and 160 first year non-major English students at TNCE Research methods To conduct the study, quantitative and qualitative methods were used To collect information and evidence for the study, survey questionnaires for both teachers and students and interviews for teachers were used All comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion provided in the study based on the data analysis Organization of the study This minor thesis is composed of three parts: Part A, Introduction, presents the statement of problem and rationale, aims of the study, significance of the study, scope of the study, research methods, and organization of the study Part B, Development, including the following chapters: Chapter 1, Literature review, presents the theoretical background of speaking in which concept of speaking, the role of speaking in foreign language teaching and learning, approaches in teaching speaking are considered, issues of students’ participation in oral activities including concept of students’ participation and factors affecting students’ participation in oral activities Chapter 2, Methodology, includes background of the study, research questions, the participants, data collection instruments, and data collection procedures Chapter 3, The results and discussions, presents data analysis of the study, findings and discussions which discover factors affecting both students and teachers in oral activities Chapter 4, Implications and Recommendations, gives some suggestions to increase students’ participation in oral activities Part C, Conclusion, summarizes all the key issues of the study as well as the limitations of the study and suggestions for further study Part B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter consists of three sections The first section reviews the theoretical background of speaking which includes the concept of speaking, the role of speaking in foreign language teaching and learning, approaches in teaching speaking The second section deals with the issues of students’ participation in oral activities The last section is the relevance of this study 1.1 Theoretical background of speaking 1.1.1 Concept of speaking In language teaching, speaking can be regarded as the productive skill Different linguists have different concepts of speaking According to Chaney and Burk (1998:13), speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols in a variety of contexts” As stated by Burn and Joyce (1997), speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information Moreover, speaking, as Bygate (1987) defines, involves not only the use of the right sounds in the patterns of rhythm and intonation, but also the choice of words and inflections in the right order to convey the right meaning In the study of Brown and Yule (1983), spoken language consists of short, fragmentary utterances in a range of pronunciation Besides, speaking is known to have two main types of conversation namely dialogue and monologue In monologue, you give uninterrupted oral presentation while in dialogue you interact with one or more other speakers for transactional and international purposes From the above definitions, speaking is making use words, knowing and being able to use language; expressing in words and making speech Therefore, we can infer that speaking is the ability to make use of words or a language to express oneself in actual communication 1.1.2 The role of speaking in foreign language teaching and learning It has been accepted for many years that communication is the proper aim for language teaching According to Hymes (1972) “The goal of language teaching is to develop communicative competence” (as cited in Larseen-Freeman, 1986) That means we learn a language to communicate well in that language In the study of Ur (1996), speaking seems intuitively the most important of all four skills Speaking is regarded as the first step to confirm who knows or does not know a language Abbot (1981) remarks that just as the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so the proof of language-learning lies in the learner's ability to perform, communicate in the foreign language Pattison (1992) shared the same opinion that when people mention knowing or learning a language, they actually mean that they are able to speak the language For that reason, speaking skill plays an important role in foreign language teaching because effective speaking ability helps learners not only to acquire the language better but also to communicate successfully In the language classroom, speaking skill should be paid great attention to 1.1.3 Approaches in teaching speaking There are several approaches in teaching English speaking such as GrammarTranslation Method, Direct Method, Audio-Lingual Approach, and a more modern approach, namely Communicative Language Teaching Approach (CLT) However, in recent decades, CLT mostly employ on the belief that helps to develop the learners’ communicative language ability Therefore, in this section, the researcher only discuss on CLT as an approach for teaching speaking skill Many researchers say that CLT has prevailed over traditional methods such as grammar translation method or the audio-lingual method This is due to several reasons According to Mitchell (1994), CLT covers the four skills of the language which are listening, reading, speaking, and writing (receptive and productive skills), which can be lacking in certain methods like grammar translation method or the audio-lingual method Today, communicative language teaching is viewed as the most effective and widely used approach in EFL/ESL teaching, most modern methods and techniques emphasize it (Kumaravadivelu 1993; Savignon 2000), and most materials and textbooks are designed for it Moreover, Savignon (2000: 126-128) says that the essence of CLT is the engagement of learners in communication to allow them to develop their communicative competence He also emphasized that the focus of CLT is to promote the development of functional language ability through learner participation in communicative events A further definition of CLT is explicitly characterized by Li (1998:679) as follows: A focus on communicative function; A focus on meaning tasks rather than on language per se (e.g grammar or vocabulary study); Efforts to make tasks and language relevant to a target group of learners through an analysis of genuine, realistic situation; the use of authentic, from life materials; the use of group activities; and the attempt to create a secure, non threatening atmosphere CLT is learner-centered and emphasizes communication and real-life situations Therefore, the role of the teacher and the students in CLT is quite different from traditional teaching methods In the traditional classroom, the teacher is in charge and "controls" the students In CLT the teacher serves as more of a facilitator, allowing students to be in charge of their own learning According to LarsenFreeman (1986), teachers in communicative classroom talk less and listen more The teachers set up the exercise, then step back and observe, sometimes act as a monitor In contrast, the students most of the speaking Because of the increased responsibility to participate in communicative activities, students may find they gain confidence in using the target language in general Students are more responsible managers of their own learning In conclusion, among some approaches of the language teaching methods, CLT is the most appropriate way to teach students to communicate Therefore, the researcher decides to choose CLT as an approach for teaching speaking skill and considers it as one of the bases of the study 1.2 Student’s participation in oral activities 1.2.1 Concept of students’ participation Students’ participation can be understood as students’ involvement in classroom activities and in this case, oral activities According to Howard, Short, and Clark (1996: 8-24) participation is the student’s active engagement in the classroom to promote effective learning The student’s activities may include reciting in class, having conversations with the instructor or their classmates, doing written outputs, and sharing ideas with others It means a participative learner is one that is not passive Moreover, Sylvelyn, Judith and Paulin (2009) define participation as students who actively engage in classroom discussions, rather than be passive learners who simply take in knowledge They affirm that in a classroom-based learning, participation can be a positive feedback given by students to either the lesson or the teacher which can lead to possible ways in the development of an improved classroom learning experience 1.2.2 Factors affecting students’ participation in oral activities Students’ participation in oral activities can be affected by a variety of factors originating from students, teachers and classroom In the following sections, some of the major factors will be discussed 1.2.2.1 Students’ factors 1.2.2.1.1 Students’ language proficiency level It is undeniable that students’ language proficiency is one important factor affecting students’ participation in oral activities According to Rod (1985) proficiency consists of the learners’ knowledge of target language; it can be synonymous with “competence” Proficiency can be viewed as linguistic competence or communicative competence Second language proficiency is usually measured in relation to native speaker proficiency Moreover, Stern (1992) defines proficiency in terms of objectives or standards These can serve as criteria by which to assess proficiency as an empirical fact that is the actual performance of given individual learners or group of learners Language proficiency ranges from Beginning to Fully-English Proficient However, historically, few students achieve Fully-English Proficient In fact, in a class if students’ language proficiency is rather low, they will not be confident to participate in speaking lesson Moreover, if students’ language proficiency level are low or students are of different language proficiency levels, teachers may cope difficulties choosing a suitable teaching method, and activities used in class To conclude, the limitation in the students’ language proficiency levels can directly affect their participation, how much they like the activities Thus, in order to develop their second language proficiency, students should try their best to overcome all their difficulties, practice English as mush as possible and teachers should choose the topics and activities of students’ levels to encourage their participation 1.2.2.1.2 Students’ personality factors It is obvious that personality has a great influence on students’ participation in speaking lesson Participation usually means students speaking in class: answer and ask questions, make comments, and join in discussions, etc Students who not participate in those ways mentioned above are often considered to be passive and are generally penalized when participation is graded Brown (2000) argues that personality is one of the affective factors that are equally important for explaining differential success among second language learners Personality may be divided into extroversion and introversion While extroversion is associated with risktaking, introversion is subsumed under the concept of self-esteem A study conducted by Galvan and Fukada (1997/1998: 29-49) finds that students who are outgoing participated more than introverts The study also determine that participants who self-reported as having passive personalities are least likely to initiate a question or volunteer an answer to teacher’s question Additionally, knowledge of personal preferences can help teachers and administrators understand and predict student performance so they can restructure the situation to facilitate more students’ participation Moreover, as stated by Barrett and Connot (1986: 3945), introverted students are least involved in school activities and have lower academic achievement As Carskadon (1978: 140-142) states, extroverts generally produce more action with fewer thoughts whereas introverts produce numerous thoughts with little action To sum up, in a class students with different personality characteristics may result in different level of participation in lessons and different of level of success as well Understanding of students’ personality will help teachers choose the suitable method to involve all students in oral activities 1.2.2.1.3 Students’ attitude and motivation Besides, students’ attitude and motivation is also a very important factor Gardner (1985:10) defined that “motivation in the present context refers to the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning the language plus favorable attitudes towards learning the language” In other words, motivation can be defined in terms of two factors: learners’ communicative need and their attitudes towards the second language community (Lightbrown and Spada, 1999:56) In language learning, motivation is considered as “a key consideration in determining the preparedness of learners to communicate” (Gardner, 1985:10) He also indicates that the motivation of foreign language learning contains four aspects: a goal, effortful behavior, a desire to attain the goal and the attitude It can be understood that if students have strong learning motivation take positive attitude towards study and make great efforts to master English with clear goal and desire, they will gain better grade than those who have not acquired motivation According to (Sass, 1989: 86-88) there are many factors affecting student's motivation to work and to learn: interest in the subject matter, perception of its usefulness, general desire to achieve, self-confidence and self-esteem, as well as patience and persistence And, of course, not all students are motivated by the same values, needs, desires, or wants Some students will be motivated by the approval of others, some by overcoming challenges 10 work) and the same number suggested combining books with other relevant sources of materials for suitable adaptation Moreover, they also gave some other suggestions: carry out tests or exams on speaking, improve classroom physical conditions, etc 3.1.3 Result from interviews with teachers After gathering information from the survey questionnaires, the researcher conducted instructional interviews with teachers to confirm further ideas The purpose of the interviews with teachers is to explore the factors affecting students’ participation in oral activities and to find out some solutions to improve students’ involvement a Teachers’ assessment about speaking topics and tasks in the course book “lifelines elementary” in term of difficult level, variety of the activities, and communicativeness Most of the teachers said that speaking tasks in the course book “lifelines elementary” were not very difficult with students’ level because this book was designed for students who had limited precious experience of learning English All of the topics, such as getting started, descriptions, likes and dislikes, daily life, etc are quite familiar to students In term of the variety and communicativeness of the activities, two of them agreed that the speaking activities were not various and not very communicative One teacher said: The most common tasks in each lesson are asking and answering questions or making conversations basing on the model conversations After so many activities that are conducted in the same way, students would be bored and passive in learning Agreed with this idea, another teacher said: There are lacks of communicative activities, such as games, information-gap, brainstorming, etc which would motivate students in learning Most of the time students base on the models in the book, they only speak what the teachers expect 30 them to speak There are no discussions, problem solving, etc for them to freely express their ideas b Factors affecting students’ participation in oral activities In term of students’ low level of language proficiency 100% teachers said that the students’ level of English was very low Most of students were lack of vocabulary, their grammar was not very good, they often had problems in transferring from the native language into the target language, and their pronunciation were not good, so they could not confidently express their ideas in English One teacher complained: Most of my students have studied English since they were at grade 6, even at grade 3, but their grammar and vocabulary was very low When they first enter our college, most of them know a few English words When talking about students’ shyness, all teachers said their students were so shy and nervous when speaking in front of the class that they could not speak any thing In other words, students always lacked self-confident and felt uncomfortable when they said something in English Concerning to students’ motivation, two of the teachers agreed that motivation was one of an important factor affecting students’ involvement They said that most of their students studied English speaking skill because of pressure from their teachers, not because of their interest or their goal in learning English Moreover, when regarding boring topics and activities, one teacher said: The topics and tasks in the course book “lifeline elementary” are not very various and interesting enough to attract students With regard to large class size, two teachers agreed that the size of the class also affected students’ participation One teacher said that: In large classes, students are of different level, interest, so it is so challenging for teachers to conduct activities to involve all students Students are not given equal opportunities to take part in the activities Good students tend to domain the activities while weaker students tend to keep quiet Finally, the teachers agreed that teachers’ teaching method had a great impact on students’ involvement in oral activities One teacher revealed that she did not want 31 to change the way of teaching and often turn speaking part into grammar or writing, because grammar and writing are more important in the test and examination She said: English and other subjects at the college are usually taught in the lecture style and students occasionally only talk After so many lessons in such traditional settings, students are already accustomed to rely on teachers to give them information directly Therefore, this makes it difficult for teachers of English to motivate students in learning and to get all students to participate in class activities c Teachers’ suggested solution to increase students’ participation All of the teachers agreed that they should use various activities such as game, roleplay, etc and create a co-operative English learning environment (pair work, group work…), design appropriate speaking tasks to the learners’ abilities In term of using various activities, one of them said: Different communicative activities were easy ways of learning without being bored and more importantly, it would stimulate students’ interests, enhance their desire, and create the motivation for the learners of English to get involved and participate actively in the learning activities She added sometimes she conducted games, role-play…, her students were so interested and participate actively However, due to time constrains, inadequate preparation, she could not conduct such activities very often Moreover, establishing the co-operative learning environment is highly appreciated by the teachers One teacher said: Cooperative learning environment is an important element in teaching and learning English As I observe, my students are more confident and comfortable in groups with their partners Another teacher said: Pair work or group work is a very effective way to get students, even the weak students, involve in oral activities Pair work and group work create pleasant atmosphere for students to exchange their ideas This will benefit in increasing students’ talking time and decrease teachers’ talking time 32 Besides, one teacher suggested designing appropriate speaking tasks to the learners’ abilities She said: Though the topics, in general, were quite suitable with students’ level, some topics were too difficult for them to talk about and were quite irrelevant to the students’ needs Therefore, there should be some modifications to make these topics and activities to be more interesting and suitable to get students involvement In addition, the teachers also gave some other suggestions, such as conducting tests or exams on speaking They thought that in the college when the traditional written exams were being used, students would focus their studying on grammar, vocabulary, etc to pass the exam They said: Only when organizing test on speaking, students would take responsibility to learn speaking skill, and they would actively involve in oral activities Besides, they also suggest improving classroom conditions with computer, projectors, video or cassette players, etc., or buying more materials for references and self-study One of them also suggests organizing English speaking club, so that students will have more chance to speak English 3.2 Findings and discussion With the hope of finding out main factors affecting students’ participation in oral activities, the major purpose of giving two survey questionnaires and interviews is to elicit feedback from the students and the teachers on how to increase the involvement in oral activities for first year non-English major students at TNCE The findings are briefly stated as follows 3.1.1 Students’ low level of participation in oral activities By analyzing the data from the questionnaires and the interview, we could conclude that the level of participation of the students was low Although most of the students state that they highly appreciate the importance of speaking skill in studying foreign language, they passively study this skill as well as participate in oral activities, and their speaking ability is at low level Therefore, to find out factors affecting students’ low participation is a necessary task 33 3.2.2 Students’ factors The results reveal the fact that students’ low level of language proficiency in English is one of the major factors preventing them from speaking Although all of the students in the survey have learnt English for at least years at secondary school, their English language proficiency such as vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and so on is very poor Consequently, they cannot express ideas in English confidently Moreover, from the questionnaires and interviews, psychological factors are also considered as another main factors affecting students’ participation in oral activities Most of the students tend to feel shy, nervous or anxious while speaking in front of the class Also, they fear that they will be laughed at by their teachers and friends if they make mistakes while speaking Lack of motivation is the next factors that the researcher would like to discuss in this section From the questionnaire, more than half students say that they study English because it is a compulsory subject and not many of them really love either English or English speaking skill Therefore, in speaking lessons, instead of participating in oral activities actively, they often keep quiet, passively take note, and only talk they are asked to In conclusion, all the above-mentioned problems have a great deal of hindrance on learner’s involvement in speaking activities Teachers should have effective ways to help students overcome these problems 3.2.3 Teachers’ factors The collected data indicate that the teachers face lots of difficulties in teaching speaking skill, those difficulties come from students’ low level, shyness, motivation, boring topics or large class size Teachers themselves play an important role in getting students’ involvement in studying The first thing needs to be considered is teachers’ teaching method At TNCE, all teachers have true awareness of the necessity of implementing CLT in teaching However, they not always apply this approach due to different reasons In stead, most teachers use Grammar-Translation method, which is considered as teacher-centered, and focus their teaching on grammar and vocabulary to help students pass the written exams In general, 34 teachers not use appropriate method, and cannot inspire students’ motivation to participate in activities Beside, the teachers’ talking time is inappropriate because they occupy almost all the class-time, so students not have much time to speak Therefore, chances given to them to practise are limited Finally, teachers’ characteristic is also important in encouraging students in learning If teachers are strict and unfriendly, students will not feel safe and dare not speak freely in class In brief, teacher’s characteristics will make a pleasant and interesting classroom atmosphere and teachers’ method and knowledge will make effective teaching and learning 3.2.4 Classroom factors Another factor affecting students’ involvement in oral activities is classroom atmosphere and environment Many students agreed that classroom atmosphere and environment have strong impact on their interests in the subjects Most of students like a pleasant, cooperative environment where they can work in pair or small groups Students can overcome their shyness and inhibitions with ease to talk when they are in pair or small groups with their friends Besides, an encouraging learning makes the learners, particularly the weak ones, more comfortable to express themselves Moreover, large class size also affects students’ participation In short, classroom is one important factor that teachers should pay great attention to in order to improve students’ involvement 3.2.5 Material factors Materials in language learning should be taken into consideration Students often feel interested to speak English in classroom if the topics are interesting, and the tasks are neither too difficult nor too easy Although the course book “lifelines elementary” was not designed for teaching speaking only, speaking skill is a focus of this book The book contains opportunities for oral activities Speaking practice takes place through the oral presentation and practice of new language items, in dialogue work, role plays, group work, and class activities These pair exercises and role-play activities build on the teaching points and increase the opportunities for 35 individual practice However, the results show that the topics and tasks in the book are quite difficult and boring The unsuitable tasks may demotivate students so that they are unwilling to participate in speaking activities, and keep quiet all the time Therefore, tasks must be adapted by each individual teacher to match their students’ need and abilities 3.3 Conclusion The findings from the questionnaires and interviews reveal many useful facts related to factors affecting students’ participation on oral activities Those factors come from students, teachers, classroom and materials First, students’ factors conclude students’ low level of language proficiency, students’ shyness, nervousness, and fear of making mistakes, students’ low motivation Second, concerning to teachers, the factors are teachers’ teaching method, and teachers’ characteristics Third, classroom factors refer to classroom size and atmosphere Finally, with regard to materials, suitable materials have much impact on students’ participation These findings were important because it would give the researcher the foundation of implications and recommendations to get students actively participate in oral activities 36 CHAPTER 4: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS From the findings of the study, in order to increase the first year non-English major students’ participation in oral activities, some suggestions have been made with the hope to improve the current situation of teaching and learning speaking skill at TNCE 4.1 The students Firstly, to be successful in learning English, students should take positive attitudes and motivation towards English as well as English speaking They should consider English as important as other subjects in the syllabus and speaking is their goal in learning English By having positive attitudes and motivation, students will have desire to study Therefore, they will actively participate in class activities Secondly, students should try to become less hesitant or nervous and more confident to speak, try to participate more actively and take every opportunity to talk Next, self-study is very important Students should take responsibility to improve their grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary and so on Besides, they also can listen to radio or watch television, read newspapers and magazines in English to enrich their vocabulary and knowledge Steps by steps they will get used to spoken English and feel more confident to express their ideas Then, students should set up English speaking habits Having good habits in speaking English is one of the ways to help students improve their speaking In class activities, students should try to talk to teachers and friends in English instead of Vietnamese Finally, ask for help from teacher or friends if necessary When students want to express their ideas, but they not have enough vocabulary, they should ask their teachers or friends for suggestions 4.2 The teachers First of all, teachers should create a pleasant, supportive and co-operative classroom atmosphere, and establish close relationship with the students It is better for teachers to give students more encouragement than criticism to help students 37 overcome the feeling of anxiety, shyness or nervousness Moreover, teachers should allow students to discuss broadly, work co-operatively with their partners in their groups More students work in co-operative groups, the more they understand, retain, and feel better about themselves and their peers Working in a co-operative environment encourages student responsibility for learning Moreover, by having peer support, student motivation is increased Students can overcome their shyness and inhibitions with ease to talk, show their feelings and thoughts when they are in small groups Only in a relaxing teaching atmosphere, can students have happy mood and dare to speak English Next, teachers should apply, adapt suitable teaching methods, and make best use of communicative approach in teaching by creating realistic contexts for students to develop communicative competence so learner-centered approach instead of teacher-centered one ought to be used Teachers should facilitate as much time as possible for students to speak In other words, provide maximum opportunity to students to speak the target language by providing a rich environment that contains collaborative work, authentic materials and tasks When students have more opportunities to speak, their speaking skills will be improved In addition, teachers should use various speaking activities to motivate them to study Teachers can apply many other activities such as game, discussion, role-play, information gap, interview, picture description, brainstorming, etc in stages of a speaking lesson These kinds of activities will avoid students’ boredom and stimulate their interest in learning Then, teachers can organize class in pairs or groups for students to co-operate with each other Most of the students say that they will feel more secure if they work in a safe environment It means that when they are in co-operative learning groups or among friends, their anxiety will be allayed and the fear of making mistakes will be decreased However, when organizing class in pairs or groups, teachers should monitor the activities to avoid students speaking Vietnamese and make sure all 38 students have the equal chance to speak Besides, teachers should play the role of an advisor, or recourse provider to give help when necessary Besides, teachers may personalize the topics and tasks, combine the course book with other materials to be suitable with students’ levels The findings show that many topics and tasks in the book are difficult and unsuitable with students so that some of them are not interested in speaking activities In order to encourage students to speak, teachers should adapt the topics and task to be more suitable, and familiar to the students Besides, teachers should combine book with other materials such as newspaper, magazines to make the lesson more interesting to students Last but not least, teachers should carry out regular tests or examinations on speaking skill In fact, the tests and examinations not include speaking component Therefore, many students ignore this skill Most of them are interested in learning grammar rules, vocabulary, reading comprehension with the hope to pass the written exam Hence, the teachers should test the students’ speaking ability more often so that the students have to take responsibility and put more effort on learning this skill 4.3 The classroom The EFL learning environment has a powerful effect on learning motivation So that improving physical condition in classroom is necessary Multimedia equipment should be added to all classrooms and the language lab should be staffed This will arouse all students’ interest to learn English Moreover, it should be better if the desks are movable The students would feel more comfortable and free to contact with each other It is also very convenient for pair works or group works 39 Part C: CONCLUSION The previous chapters have provided answers to the three research questions In this chapter the researcher will give a summary of the important findings, discusses the limitations of the research Summary of the study The study aims at finding the factor affecting the participation in oral activities of first year non- English major students at TNCE as well as making some suggestions to increase students’ participation in oral activities The study was carried out at four classes: office-management K3, chemistry-biology K17, literature-geography K17, mathematic-physics K17 In this study, two questionnaires for both teachers and students and interviews for teachers were used as research instruments From students and teachers’ responses to the questionnaires and interviews, the researcher has found out the answers to the three research questions For the first question “How the students participate in oral activities?” the researcher found out that most of students participate passively in oral activities When teachers ask them to some tasks, they often sit quietly, pretend to concentrate on the book, or take note, or nothing They rarely speak, or only speak when they like the topics or when teachers order them to As for the second questions “What are the factors affecting the first year non-English major students’ participation in oral activities?” the researcher found out the reasons for students’ passive participation in oral activities Those factors include students’ factors (students’ low level of language proficiency, students’ personality), teachers’ factors (teachers’ teaching method and characteristic), classroom factors (classroom size, atmosphere and environment), and material factors (difficult or unsuitable tasks) Based on the findings of this study, a number of suggestions to increase students’ participation in oral activities were given Those suggestions were the answer for the third question “what should be done to increase students’ participation in oral activities?” By using various communicative activities (games, 40 role-play…), creating a co-operative English learning environment (pair work, group work), combining books with other relevant sources of materials for suitable adaptation, designing appropriate speaking tasks to the learners’ abilities and conducting tests or exams on speaking, teachers can help students actively participate in oral activities Limitation and suggestions for further study 2.1 Limitations of the study Although the study is carefully and clearly designed and based on reliable data, due to the shortage of time, lack of resources and the researcher’s ability, shortcomings are inevitable Firstly, the study is carried out with only 160 first year non-English major students so to some extent, the results may not be generalized for all students of the college Secondly, the researcher only used survey questionnaires and interviews for the research instrument In order to make obtained result more reliable, different instruments for data collection, such as observation, should be applied Despite the unavoidable limitations, the researcher hopes that this study will be of some value to teachers and students in their language teaching and learning process 2.2 Suggestions for further research This study only concentrates on factor affecting students’ participation in oral activities and makes some suggestions to increase students’ involvement It is likely to affirm that the study has merely mentioned a very small part of teaching 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