Improving english speaking skill to 10 TH from student at nong cong i high school

CONTENTS PART ONE: INTRODUCTION .1 I Rationale of the study II Aims of the study .2 III Scope of the study .3 IV Method of the study V Design of the study .3 PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: Research methodology, data analysis and discussions I Research methodology Research questions The participants .4 The instruments .5 Conclusion II Data analysis and discussion Questionnaires Conclusion 24 Chapter II: Findings and recommendations 25 Summary of the findings 25 Recommendations 26 PART THREE: CONCLUSION .31 Summary of the study 31 Limitations and suggestions for further study 32 PART ONE: INTRODUCTION I Rationale of the study When it comes to English, people immediately think of it as a global language: the official language of more than 53 countries and territories, the official language of the EU and the third most widely used language only after Chinese and Spanish (you should note that China has a population of more than billion people) International events, global organizations also consider English as the language of communication In addition, English is spoken by more than 400 million people worldwide, more than billion people speak English as a second language (according to Wikipedia), the most developed countries with the highest per capita income on the world are all proficient in English, or commonly used, taught as school subjects For Vietnam, a country standing in front of an era of development, expanding with the door of globalization, you see the importance of learning English With students, students, future generations of the country, learning English becomes even more necessary than ever Understanding that, Vietnam's education system has put English as a compulsory subject in school chair since elementary school years English is also a mandatory graduation exam at all levels English has been widely taught in schools, universities, companies as well as in organizations There are also many different English teaching programs available on radio, television and internet It is widely accepted that one of the main purposes of studying English is to use it for communications Being able to speak English is an important criterion to assess a learner of English However, it is a common issue at my school that the students rarely speak English, even in English classes, though they have been learning English since they started at the lower secondary school Being a teacher of a high school, I would like to investigate the reasons of the students’ inhibition and unwillingness to speak English, and I hope to be able to make some recommendations that can help the students overcome their inhibition and unwillingness, and thereby improve their speaking skill My experience idea‘s namely “Improving English Speaking skill to 10th-form students at Nong Cong I High School” II Aims of the study The study is aimed at: - Investigating the current English speaking teaching and learning situations of grade 10 at Nong Cong I High School - Identifying the factors which make the students inhibited or unwilling to speak English in class - Making some suggestions for the teachers at Nong Cong I High School with the hope of helping the students overcome their inhibition and unwillingness, and thereby improve their speaking skills - Suggesting some realistic and appropriate class teaching techniques with the hope that they can enhance the learners in speaking skill III Scope of the study To improve speaking skill for the students at Nong Cong I High School, various activities can be used, and a number of things should be done However, the researcher only intends to overview a brief of the current situations of teaching and learning English speaking skills of grade 10 at Nong Cong I High School, and to identify the factors which make the students inhibited and unwilling to speak English, and to make some recommendations to motivate students to speak English more IV Method of the study To realize the aims of the study, quantitative and qualitative methods have been used The data collected for the study came from two sources: the 10 th- form student respondents and the teacher-respondents at Nong Cong I High School, Thanh Hoa province Two questionnaires, one for students and the other for teachers, and an interview of teachers are going to be used to collect information and evidence for the study All the comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusions provided in the study are based on the data analysis V Design of the study The minor study consists of three parts: - Part one: introduction - Part two: development - Part Three: conclusion PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: Research methodology, data analysis and discussions This chapter deals with the methodology, data analysis and discussions have been employed to achieve the aims and objectives of the study In order to collect the data, both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used I Research methodology Research questions In this paper, the reasons for the unwillingness to speak English of the 10 th form students in Nong Cong I High School have been investigated Then some techniques that can help to improve the students’ speaking skills will be suggested Why are the 10th – form students at Nong Cong I High School inhibited and unwilling to speak English in class? What should be done to help the students overcome these above problems, and improve their speaking skills? The participants In order to get the data for the study, 120 students from three 10 th-form classes and five teachers of English teaching grade 10 at Nong Cong I High School, Thanh Hoa province have been randomly selected for investigation The students all come from countryside Most of them are at the age of 16, so they belong to the same psychological age group Their time length of learning English is also the same They all started learning English at grade They all have a low cultural standard Students at this school not have much time to learn, they spend all their time working on the farm so the time for students study is limited The five teachers who were invited to join the study are all full-time teachers at the school One of them has been at work for ten years, the two other for eight years, one for three years, and the last one for two years The instruments Data for the study was obtained with two different instruments: questionnaire and interview a The questionnaire Two questionnaires were designed: one for students and the other for teachers The questionnaire for teachers is written in English It consists of ten questions concerning four aspects: - Teachers’ opinion on Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) - Difficulties they usually encounter when teaching grade 10 - Teachers’ opinion on reluctant speakers, the students keep making the same mistakes and the way to correct them - Their recent techniques to motivate reluctant speakers The questionnaire for students is written in English, too It consists of fourteen questions concerning to some aspects, as follows: - (Question 1) Students’ assessment of speaking topics in the textbook “English 10” - Students’ attitude toward speaking skill (Questions 2, 3, 4) - Factors making students reluctant to speak English in English classes (Qs 5, 6) - Current methods applied to speaking skills (Questions 7, 8) - Current implementations to encourage students to speak English (Qs 9,10,11, 12) - Students’ desires (Qs 13, 14) b The interview An interview was carried out for more in-depth data The interviewers were five teachers teaching English 10 at the school Each of them was asked five questions (see Appendix B) The two first questions are about their teaching techniques and steps in speaking lessons The next is about their thought of the design of speaking lesson in the new textbook “English 10” The two last questions focus on their ideas about the criteria of a good speaking lesson, and their common feeling about the speaking lessons they gave The interview is a structured one in which “the agenda is totally predetermined by the researcher, who works through a list of the set questions in a pretermined order” Conclusion This part presented the research questions, participants, instruments, and procedures of data collection and analysis In a best attempt to build a scientific methodology, the researcher hopes to achieve a reliable and valid data for the study Next, is the presentation of the data analysis and discussion II Data analysis and discussion Questionnaires 1.1 Questionnaire for teachers Questionnaire for teachers consisting of ten questions is designed to find out the information concerning four aspects The questions and responses to them are presented in the headings below a Difficulties in teaching process at Nong Cong I High School Question of the questionnaire asks about the difficulties that the teachers encounter in their teaching grade 10 at the school The information collected shows that none of the five teachers experience the same difficulties in their teaching Especially, two of them complain that class sizes and students’ low English proficiency are the two difficulties they have encountered, while another says her students’ English proficiency is not good enough for lesson requirements, and as to the three others, it is multi-level classes that matters them With my own experience from several years’ teaching at school, these are not the distinctive difficulties of any school in Son La Besides, the sufficient substance conditions of schools also matters the teachers a lot Due to difficulties, it is not easy for teachers to get a high effect in teaching without their great attempt and creativeness b Teachers’ attitude towards reluctant speakers and the learners keeping making the same mistakes, and way to correct them These two aspects are the aims of questions 5, and All the teachers opened out that they have never been angry with their students’ reluctant or mistakes, but very tolerant They just keep silent until their students have finished their task, smile and encourage them to go on Moreover, three of them rarely interrupt for correction of their students’ mistakes, while two others are sometimes not patient enough to wait until their students have finished their presentation and correct the mistakes, but correct them when they are speaking When being asked about the solutions to students’ reluctance to speak, the researcher finds that the teachers not get angry, make students speak or ignore those solutions, but try to encourage students to speak by asking them easier questions c Teachers’ current techniques to motivate reluctant speaking learners at Nong Cong I High School The information about this aspect is the aim of the questions 8, and 10 Helping students interested in a lesson is an art in teaching Being asked about the techniques for it, three out of five teachers say they usually praise their students, but two others answer that they encourage them in many different ways depending on situations Making students interested in lessons by praising them is quite a good way but I myself prefer the latter, which is teachers should have different ways to interest students in different situations Students may feel unwilling to speak as they are afraid of their teachers Making a close relation with students to motivate them is thus something teachers should The finding shows that to make students feel a close relation to the teachers, the teachers at this school avoid remaining in the teacher’s seat or standing at the blackboard, but walk around the class and give help Group - work and pair - work are two of the activities which the teachers here often use to give chance to their students to practise speaking The disadvantage of these two activities is that students may chat in their mother tongue without the teacher’s good control To prevent this possibility, four out of the teachers move around the class and observe, while the only other reminds his students of speaking English In my own opinion, reminding students of speaking English is not a good way to prevent students from speaking Vietnamese as students’ voluntaries is not always high; they may not speak in the target language without the teacher’s observation In addition to reminding them, teachers need to go around and observe what students are doing In summary, it can be seen from the responses to the questionnaire for teachers that the teachers teaching grade 10 at Nong Cong I High School have all been trained in CLT Although not all of them have a full understanding of CLT, they have attempted to apply it in their speaking teaching reality afterwards However, the effect of CLT is limited 1.2 Questionnaire for students a Students’ assessment of speaking topics in the text book “English 10” Question one in the questionnaire is designed to explore students’ assessment of the text book “English 10” The result of 120 respondents is shown at rate in the table bellow: Options Question Question A (%) How you find the speaking topics 60 B (%) C (%) D (%) 34 presented in class, based on “English 10”? A Interesting B All right C Boring D Too boring Table 1: Students’ assessment of speaking topics in the text - book “English 10” Of 120 respondents, seventy-two students finds the speaking topics in the textbook “English 10” interesting which takes 60% 34% finds the topics all right The number of students that have negative assessment is minimal, only six percent The result reveals that speaking topics in the textbook are not the factor that causes to unexciting atmosphere in speaking classes, because the rate of students that has positive assessment of the topics takes the majority The cause of the problem is, therefore, not the material, but something else which should be explored in other aspects b Students’ attitude towards speaking skill The questions 2, and are designed to discover students’ attitude towards speaking skills The specific questions and students’ responses are shown in table Options Questions Question How is speaking skills important to you? A (%) B (%) C (%) D (%) 80.3 16.7 1.5 1.5 22.9 35 33.1 A very important B rather important Question C little important D not important at all How much you feel interested in speaking English classes? A very interested B rather interested C little interested D not interested at all Question Do you feel reluctant to speak English in 26 51.1 11 11.9 class? A Yes, often B Yes, sometimes C No, I like speaking very much D No, I speak English willingly Table 2: Students’ attitude towards speaking skills Being asked about the importance of English speaking skill, most of students find that speaking skill is very important to them It takes 80.3%; 16.7% says that it is rather important, and the percentage defying it is very small, which takes 3.0% However, when being asked about their interest in speaking English in class, there is only 22.9% of students says it is very interested; 35% is rather interested while the percentage that is not interested makes the biggest group, which takes 42.1% In question four, twentysix percent often feels reluctant to speak English in class while 51.1% of students is respondent sometimes Only 22.9% does not feel reluctant to speak English in class In short, it can be said that most of the respondents suppose speaking is an important skill However, the percent of students often feel reluctant to speak English in class is bigger than that of students interested in speaking English in class So the question raised here is what factor makes nearly half of the students uninterested and over two third reluctant to speak English in class? The following responses will be the answer to the question c The factors that make students reluctant in speaking English The next questions and attempt to find out the factors that make students reluctant to speak English in class The questions, possible answers and responses can be seen in table bellow: Options A (%) Questions B (%) C (%) D (%) Question What factors make you reluctant to speak 7.1 76 2.0 14.9 12.8 33.2 35 English in class? A Being afraid of losing face B Being not accustomed to speaking C Learning goal is not to communicate in English D Boring teaching way Question What you think often deter your speaking 19 process? A Unability to find words B Unability to find ideas C Unability to find structures D Not enough time for preparation Table 3: The factors that make students reluctant in speaking English Statistics provided in table shows that 76.1% of the respondents are afraid of losing face in front of teachers and classmates while the other 15.6 percent of students responses they speak English unwillingly in class as they are not accustomed to speaking english in class that was effected by their prior learning experiences at school The percentage of responses complaining about teaching method is up to 2.0% and 14.9% of the students answer that the goal in their study is not to communicate in English It can also be realized in table that 12.8 % of the respondent supposes one of the factors deterring students to speak English in classroom is that they are unable to find the ideas for the given topics, while the other 19% of them states their poor vocabulary is an obstacle for them to express their ideas 33.2% of the students answers that they can not speak since they can not find structures to express their ideas Also, thirty-five percent responses that they are not given enough time for the preparation of their topics In summary, it has seen from table that most of the students choose option B in question It means that they are not accustomed to speaking English It is obvious that outside classroom they are not accustomed to speaking English, and especially they not only communicate in Vietnamese but also in their language However, in English 10 talk too little The rest say that their teachers talk too much or too little time during speaking lessons It can be easily recognized from table that most of the students (72.2%) respond that their teachers often point out their mistakes and encourage them to correct their mistakes themselves after they have finished a speaking task while only a few of the students state their teachers usually point out their mistakes and correct them when they have finished their speech The percentage of students finds that their teachers not get angry but interrupt for correcting when they make a speaking mistake which takes 14.5%, and 1.2% of students may not feel satisfied with their teachers’ teaching when complaining that their teachers often get angry and interrupt them whenever they make mistakes To sum up, through data collection from the findings in table 4, most of the teachers at this school take more focus on fluency and contents than on accuracy and forms Teachers not often stop students to correct mistakes until the students stop speaking This means that the teachers here talk too much in class Obviously, student talking time is limited e Current implementations to encourage the students to speak more Four questions are aimed at the current implementations to encourage the students to speak English more All the choices and responses in table below: Options Questions Question A (%) After giving you speaking topics, your teacher 53 usually: B (%) C (%) D (%) 11 18.1 17 17 17.8 A provides you with new words and structures relating to the topics B provides you with main ideas of the topics C encourages you to plan the topics Question 10 D makes you discuss the topics yourselves What does your teacher usually to encourage you to practise speaking? A uses communicative games 12 3.2 62 B creates topics interesting and appropriates to your level C supports some suggested questions Question 11 D uses group work Are you given enough time to prepare the answer to a question? 35 50 10 4.1 5.9 15 72.8 5.6 A Yes, usually enough B Yes, sometimes enough C No, little Question 12 D No, not enough What does your teacher after finishing a topic discussion? A encourages students to keep talking about the topic outside the class B only corrects mistakes C appreciates your presentation and draws out experience D does nothing Table 5: Current implementation to encourage the students to speak more The data collected from question in table points out that most of learners which takes seventeen percent comment that their teachers almost nothing after giving them a topic for discussion, while 53% of them states that their teachers help them discuss the topic by giving them some words, structures or main ideas related to the given topics While 11.9% assumes that their teachers provide them main ideas of the topics, and the percentage of students responses their teachers often encourage them to plan the topicstaking 18.1%.62% of the students use group work in question 10 The students say their teachers use communicative games to encourage them to speak, which takes 3.2% (option A), while the percentage of students choose options B is 17% to express that their teachers give topics interesting and appropriate to their level and option C to say that their teachers support some suggested questions to encourage them to practise speaking 13 Question 11 is aimed at the time to prepare the answer to a question Of the four options suggested, the students (50%) takes option B as their response to express that they sometimes have enough time The second biggest percentage (35.9%) is of those who choose option A to admit they usually have enough time for preparation The others consist of twelve students (10%) who find their preparation time is rarely enough (option C), and students (4.1%) who complain they never have enough time to prepare the answer to a question (option D) Question 12 is about teachers’ work after their students have finished a topic discussion 5.9% for option A as their teachers encourages students to keep talking about the topics outside the classroom 15.7% for option B to say their teachers only correct mistakes after their preparation The majority of the respondents circle C to express that their teachers usually evaluate their presentation and draw out the experience, which states 72.8%, and option D which expresses their teachers have no reaction to their students’ presentation (5.6%) Teachers’ providing students with new words and structures relating to a given speaking topic at Nong Cong I High School as to 53% of the students’ admission is a necessary It is the provision of new words and structures that is one of the teaching steps at CLT However, the teachers here not usually this work after giving their students a speaking topic According to the other students, their teachers only provide main ideas of the topic, or provide nothing but encourage or make them discuss the topic themselves The researcher thinks teachers should providing students new words and structures relating to a given speaking topic, and it is the teachers’ flexibility because topics are different and situations are not always the same g Students’ desires Question 13 is about the students’ desires for their teachers’ actions to motivate them to speak English in class, and question 14 is used to explore the students’ understanding of the advantages of pair-work and group-work activities We can see the percentages of the options in table below Options A (%) Questions 14 B (%) C (%) D (%) Question 13 What you want your teacher to to 15 16.2 58.5 10.3 preparation What you think about group work and 16.3 16.7 21.1 45.9 motivate you to speak? A Not to interrupt you when you make mistakes B To accept a variety of answers C To give you a reading text based on topics D To Question 14 ask you to speak without pair work help you? A Enable you to speak more B Give you opportunities to express your own ideas C Make you speak English more naturally and creatively D Give you opportunities to chat with your classmates in Vietnamese even in minority languages Table 6: Students’ desires Question 13 is about the students’ desires for their teachers’ actions to motivate them to speak The data collected in table indicates that the respondents of option A taking fifteen percent not like teachers’ interference for correction while they are speaking The number of students chooses option B as they want an acceptance of a variety of answers from their teachers which takes 16.2% 58.5% answers their teachers give them reading text based on topics (option C) The last option, which states that they would like their teachers to ask students to speak without preparation, does not take the rest percentage but only 10.3% Question 14 is used to explore the students’ understanding of the advantages of two activities: group-work and pair-work activities which are suggested by CLT Happily for the right understanding of 21,1% (option C) that group-work and pair-work have the advantages of making learners speak English more naturally and creatively In addition, 15 16.3% has positive comments on these two types of speaking activities: 7,1% states that they enable them to speak more (option A), and 16.7% claims they give them opportunities to express their own ideas (option B) However, the other students which take 45.9% not have a right understanding of group-work and pair-work as they argue that these two types of activities only give them opportunities to chat with their classmates in Vietnamese even in minority languages it can be clearly realized from table The statistics to question 13 are clues for a deduction that the majority of the students would be provided with a source of ideas, words and structures for their speaking tasks They think reading texts can help them as a source This means that the speaking topics may be new to them while their words and structures are still limited, though the topics are interesting as to sixty-six percent of the students’ admission Together with the other ideas from the other students such as teachers accept a variety of answers, ask students to speak without preparation, or not interrupt them, the statistics therefore reveal that there needs to be some necessary changes in giving speaking topics and conducting speaking classes by the teachers at Nong Cong I High School, whereas the statistics from questions 14 shows that the teachers here have taken stock in improving students’ speaking skills by using speaking-improving activities such as group-work or pair-work, and making the students see the advantages of the activities In summary, from the data collected, it can be seen that the 10th-form students at Nong Cong I High School find that speaking topics in the textbook “English 10” interesting The majority of the students who were asked admit that English speaking skill is very important to them However, they are not really interested in speaking English in class and often feel reluctant to speak it in class The reasons for this question are too many, for example: the students can not find appropriate words, structures and ideas for the topics or they are not accustomed to speaking Although the teachers have taken stock in improving students’ speaking skills by applying the techniques suggested by CLT such as they not often interrupt students’ speaking for error, correction They usually use group work and pair works to encourage them to practice speaking, etc However, sometimes their teaching ways make the students bored, and their talking time is too much now but too little then They not give students enough time to prepare 16 the topics All causes above partly make the students reluctant or unwilling to speak English in class Interview The interview is designed for teachers as a complement to the questionnaire Five teachers teaching 10th grade were asked five the same questions concerning four aspects: Teachers’ methods of speaking teaching at school, their assessment of the speaking lessons in “English 10”, their opinions on the criteria for a good speaking lesson, and their feeling after speaking lessons The questions and responses of teachers are presented as follows: a Teachers’ methods of speaking teaching Question is about techniques and question is about steps The reason for this is that the teachers may not know or remember exactly what methods they are applying, but through their answers to these questions, the method they have applied can be clearly seen Teacher 1: - Group-work or pair-work - Games - Information gap - Picture or event describing - Role play Teacher 2: - Role play - Story telling - Drama - singing Teacher 3: - Picture or event describing - Asking and answering - networks - Role play Teacher 4: - Picture or event describing - Asking and answering - Group-work or pair-work - Story telling 17 Teacher 5: - Role play - Asking and answering - networks - Picture or event describing It can be seen from the findings that the techniques that the teachers here are applying are not various enough to make students interested in the lessons The teachers’ repertoire must be expanded so that several activities can be used in each lesson, and the activities of this lesson should be different from those bellow These are quotations of the responses to the question of teaching steps: Teacher 1: - Pre-speaking - While-speaking - Post-speaking Teacher 2: - Topic introduction - Pre-teaching new words and useful language - Students’ discussion - Students’ presentation Teacher 3: - Give topic - Pre-teach necessary words and remind about necessary structures - Suggested questions - Have students discuss - Ask students to present Teacher 4: - Give topic - Pre-teach necessary words and remind about necessary structures - Students’ discussion - Students’ presentation - Evaluate and draw out experience Teacher 5: - Topic introduction - Pre-teaching new words and useful language - Have students discuss - Students’ presentation - Evaluate and draw out experience 18 Comments can hardly be on the teaching steps by teacher one as they are more stages than steps, while the steps applied by teachers two and three would be complete if there were two more steps: ‘giving instruction’ after ‘pre-teaching language’, and ‘feedback’ after ‘students’ presentation’ The steps applied by the fourth teacher can be said to be the most complete of all b Teachers assessment of the speaking lesson in “English 10” It has seen from the answers to question that none of the five teachers really highly appreciate the design of speaking lessons in the textbook “English 10” One of them judges that the speaking lessons are only good for small class size, while another claims that they are good but a bit difficult for her students And three other teachers comment that the speaking lessons are quite scientific I think that no textbook can be suitable for all the learners around the country, but suitability can be made by necessary changes in the teaching reality c Teachers’ opinion on the criteria for a good speaking lesson Five teachers’ opinion on the criteria for a good speaking lesson, bellow is the quotations: Teacher 1: - Students are interested in the topic and lesson - Every student has a chance to speak in a lesson - The aims of the lesson are quite well achieved Teacher 2: - Students talk more than teachers - Students are interested in the topic and lesson Teacher 3: - Students are only speak in English - Students are interested in the topic and lesson Teacher 4: - Students are interested in the topic and lesson - Every student has a chance to speak in a lesson - The aims of the lesson are quite well achieved Teacher 5: - Students are only speak in English - Students are interested in the topic and lesson The criteria listed by each teacher are right for a good speaking lesson, as the author idea, it is not enough The researcher agrees with teacher two to state that students must speak in English and speak more than teachers It means that as much as 19 possible of the lesson is in fact occupied by learners’ talk As teachers and 5, motivation is high, that is, learners are eager to speak because they are interested in the topic and they want to contribute to achieving the lesson objectives Participation must be even, classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority of talkative participants, but all students get a chance to speak, and contributions are fairly evenly distributed It has seen that language is of an acceptable level, which means learners express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other, and language accuracy d Teachers’ feeling after speaking lesson In my opinion, the teachers should not blame their inability of classroom management for their learners, but first for themselves as it is one of the tasks of the teachers That the students take a lot of time to prepare carefully by writing for speaking shows their slow reaction to the teachers’ requirements However, the reality can be gradually improved with some changes in teaching techniques, such as: the teacher’s acceptance of a variety of answers, and the amount of time allotted In contrast with the first two teachers’ feeling, the third and the fourth teachers admitted they usually feel pleased with their speaking lessons because they usually feel an excitement about the lessons from their students Moreover, they added that through the students’ presentation, teachers can understand more about students In summary, we can see from the findings that the interview can really provide in depth the information about the reality of speaking teaching to 10th grate at Nong Cong I High School In general, the teachers’ repertoires of speaking teaching activities are not really varied, their knowledge of speaking steps is not really good and their opinions on their criteria for a good speaking lesson are not enough Therefore, not all the teachers who were asked usually feel pleased with their speaking lessons, though they admitted the design of speaking lessons in the textbook “English 10” is good Conclusion In this chapter, the data concerning the reality of teaching and learning speaking at Nong Cong I High School have been collected, described and discussed Especially, through the collected data, the research question for students can be found its answer In addition, a basis of the answer to the other questions is also made 20 The first research question asks about the reason why the 10th-form students at Nong Cong I High School are unwilling to speak English in class The survey data of the questionnaire for students can reveal some of the reasons for this Accordingly, sometimes their teachers’ teaching ways bore them, the teacher talking time is too much now but too little then, and they not give students enough time for preparation Like the two questionnaires, the interview for the teachers comes to be an effective device to discover the reason for the students’ unwillingness to speak English in class The information from the interview indicates that the reasons for the students’ unwillingness and inhibition are also because the teachers’ repertoires of speaking teaching are not various, their knowledge of teaching steps is not really good and their opinions on the criteria for a good speaking lesson are a little too simple Chapter II: Findings and recommendations This chapter presents the finding, and recommendations for the improvement of English speaking teaching and learning at Nong Cong I High School Summary of the findings According to the finding from the questionnaire, the realities of the students’ inhibition and unwillingness to speak English have been discovered as follows: a The teachers’ teaching ways have sometimes bored students, teacher talking time is too little now and much then, and students are not often given enough time for preparation b The teachers have all been trained in CLT, but not all of them have a full understanding of it, the effect of the application of CLT in speaking teaching is limited c The teachers’ repertoires of speaking teaching activities are not really varied, their ideas of teaching steps are not good enough, and their opinions on the criteria for a good speaking lesson are not full enough d Although the students generally find the speaking topics in textbook “English 10” interesting, and the majority of students who were asked admit that English speaking skills are very important to them, they are not really interested in speaking English in class, and often feel inhibited about speaking The students complained that 21 they could not find appropriate words, structures and ideas for the topics, and especially they are not accustomed to speaking Recommendations a Teachers’ teaching ways should be varied, changed in techniques and activities lesson by lesson, class by class, situation by situation in order to fit the distinctive features of lessons and different abilities of students, and especially to avoid students’ boredom In speaking teaching, communicative competence should be considered as the ultimate goal CLT is, therefore, suggested being the best teaching way One of the main features of CLT is that the role of the instructor is quite different from traditional teaching methods In traditional classroom, the teacher is in charge and ‘control’ the learning, teacher talks’ time is more than student talks’ time In CLT, on the other hand, the teacher serves as more of a facilitator allowing students to be in charge of their own learning, most of the class time is of the students’ talk The teacher still sets up exercises and gives direction to the class, but the students much more speaking than in traditional classroom This responsibility can often lead to an increased sense of confidence in using the target language b In order to be able to effectively apply CLT in teaching, teachers must have a full understanding of CLT The ineffectiveness of applying CLT in Nong Cong I High School is mainly because the teachers’ insufficient understanding of CLT They not really know what the main features, principles of CLT are The essential principles of CLT in brief as follows: (i) Needs-based When designing curriculum: how are my students most likely to use English? When modifying curriculum: how would my students most likely to use this language? For data: query students, other teachers, former students-observe interactions that people like your students engage in (ii) Learning –centered Transparency: show why we are doing this and why we are doing it in this particular way 22 Personalize whenever possible Exploit materials to the fullest and scaffold learners so that they always get to use the language: “off the page” as well as “on the page” Running notes can help teachers respond to “what actually happened” as well as “ what was in the lesson plan” (iii) Free or creative communication: that is a chance for students to try to use the language they have learnt in free or creative speech - Using stories: Give students a cartoon or set of pictures which show a story or sequence of events Students tell the story - Picture description: Provide an interesting picture for the class and ask them questions about it Then, have students tell about the picture without asking them questions - Role- play: role play is a spontaneous conversation between two learners who are imagining they are other people or imagining they are in the different situation - Free talk: Give students pen-ended questions and ask students to discuss questions in pairs or small groups Or, give students a list of topics and ask students to talk freely about questions - Game: There are a lot of language games which can be used for speaking exercises For example, guessing games: choose an object in the classroom and ask students to guess what it is, asking questions in English (iiii) Control activities: those are used to improve the accurate use of words, structures and pronunciation that have just been taught - Single word substitutions: Teacher speaks a sentence to students and say a cue word for students to replace a word in this sentence Example: T: I’m going to study Ss: I’m going to study T: Sleep Ss: I’m going to sleep T: drink Ss: I’m going to drink - Transformation exercises: The teacher gives a sentence along with a brief instruction which focuses them to communicate with another form Example: T: I study English Ss: I study English 23 T: Yesterday Ss: I studied English yesterday T: Now Ss: I’m studying English now - Multiple-position substitutions: The teacher speaks a sentence to students and say a cue word in a sentence Example: T: I like to eat oranges Ss: I like to eat oranges T: Apple Ss: I like to eat apples T: Hate Ss: I hate to eat apples T: Marry Ss: Marry hates to eat apples c As mentioned above, the students can not find appropriate structures, ideas and words for the topics It has seen from the study that it is not the distinctive problem However, there have been some solutions to it: (i) Base the activity on easy single language In general, the level of language needed for a discussion should be lower than that used in intensive language-learning activities in the same class It should be easily recalled and produced by the participants, so that they will not meet difficulties in finding words and structures to express their ideas It is a good idea to teach or review essential vocabulary and structures before the activity starts (ii) The difficulty of finding ideas for the topics can be solved by choosing the topics which are more interesting and appropriate to the students’ age, level, and relating to the real life to create enjoyable class atmosphere that make reluctant students interested in speaking The teacher should save students a chance to select the topics themselves because the topics certainly will be in their list of favorite, and the more they like it; the more they are interested in discussion (iii) Besides, show the quiet, less able students that teachers always care for them and accept a variety of their answers or presentations Additionally, instead of forcing shy students to speak, teachers should allow them to play a supporting role in group work by writing down group decisions let these students listen to their classmates since conversation is as much about listening and understanding as speaking PART THREE: CONCLUSION 24 This part will deal with a summary of the study, limitations and suggestions for further study Summary of the study It has seen from the study that the current teaching and learning situations has been figured in the study through questionnaires and follow-up interview with five teachers of Nong Cong I High School Due to various reasons such as variety in students’ level of language proficiency, lack of interesting topics, prior experience in learning speaking, and fear of losing face, more than two-thirds of the students remain reluctant to respond to the teacher and keep quiet until they are singled out to answer questions Moreover, many of them seem to be helpless about reticents when the teacher asks a question and expects a respond The study has introduced some measures to help students become more willing and active to converse with others in the target language in class It also includes activities for confidents in English speaking classes To make students speaking English confidently, teachers need to make use of various methods In order to help reduce reticence, teachers themselves should be aware of the existence of reticence among students and try to give more chances and encouragement to the more quiet ones by asking them more questions, providing them more sentence structures, and more words As all of students go to class after a working day, they are sometimes too tired to learn so lesson should be made with a lot of fun and comfort with interesting and motivating activities or games Besides, as suggested by the students’ informants, teachers should prepare more topics which are not only interesting but also related to students’ life so that students have the ability and interest in talking about them in English In addition, teachers should try to establish a friendly, supportive environment as well as to introduce activities that motivate students to speak in class It is important for teachers to be friendly rather than strict and critical in class, in order to make students feel easy to speak English Limitations and suggestions for further study Although the study has certain strengths, such as the triangulation of data collection methods, namely observation, survey questionnaires for learners and teachers, and rich data, due to the researcher’s ability, it is obvious that the study has got a 25 number of drawbacks Firstly, the number of students involved in the survey is still limited, so the findings may, to some extent, not be generalized to all students Secondly, the procedures of data collection and data analysis have been carried out on a scientific and suitable research methodology Therefore, the conclusions and ideas in the study are all guaranteed in term of science Thirdly, the study was carried out on a various theoretical background presented in part two chapter one “Literature review” The techniques in the research are selected from different reliable but limited sources However, like any study weaknesses are unavoidable Actually surveys should be conducted with a larger sample population and wider sources of activities and if it is possible, activities suitable for different majors need to be added Suggested activities should consider students’ different majors of the factors raising students’ willingness to involve classroom speaking activities Further studies on changing the form of speaking test to have a more challenging one is also suggested as an effort to motivate students in their learning speaking skills at Nong Cong I High School Besides, the conclusion and recommendations would be generalized if the data were collected in more classes in the 10th-form at this school To get a better and more efficient study, surely the researcher, teacher in the coming time with the future research there will be a similar one which overcomes these weaknesses REFERENCE English 10 Internet Wikipedia 26 ... 1 0th- form students at Nong Cong I High School? ?? II Aims of the study The study is aimed at: - Investigating the current English speaking teaching and learning situations of grade 10 at Nong Cong I High. .. recommendations that can help the students overcome their inhibition and unwillingness, and thereby improve their speaking skill My experience idea‘s namely ? ?Improving English Speaking skill to 1 0th- form... making the students see the advantages of the activities In summary, from the data collected, it can be seen that the 1 0th- form students at Nong Cong I High School find that speaking topics in the