Dealing with reticence in English speaking activities of non-English-majored students at University of Science, Vietnam National University Hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -o0o NGUY N VŨ XUÂN LAN DEALING WITH RETICENCE IN ENGLISH SPEAKING ACTIVITIES OF NON-ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI KH C PH C TÌNH TR NG KHƠNG NHI T TÌNH THAM GIA CÁC HO T Đ NG NĨI MƠN TI NG ANH C A SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN TRƯ NG Đ I H C T NHIÊN, Đ I H C QU C GIA HÀ N I M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 Hanoi, 2016 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -o0o NGUY N VŨ XUÂN LAN DEALING WITH RETICENCE IN ENGLISH SPEAKING ACTIVITIES OF NON-ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI KH C PH C TÌNH TR NG KHƠNG NHI T TÌNH THAM GIA CÁC HO T Đ NG NĨI MƠN TI NG ANH C A SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN TRƯ NG Đ I H C T NHIÊN, Đ I H C QU C GIA HÀ N I M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 upervisor r Ho ng Th Xu n Ho Hanoi, 2016 DECLARATION I hereby certify that this research entitled “Dealing with reticence in English speaking activities of non-English-majored students at University of Science, Vietnam National University, Hanoi” was conducted and then submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (M.A) This paper was original and has not been submitted for any degrees at any other universities or institutions Hanoi , 2016 Ngu n V Xu n L n i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to Dr Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa for her expert guidance, encouragement and patience during my completion of this MA thesis Her important suggestions greatly contributed to the final improvements of this paper Special thanks should also be sent to colleagues and my students at Hanoi University of Science, without whom the data procedures could not have ever been completed Finally, I take this opportunity to record my sincere gratitude to my family, for their incessant support, without which I would not be able to overcome personal difficulties to complete this paper on schedule ii ABSTRACT Reticence has been a common problem in EFL classrooms, which seriously damages students’ studying process as well as restricts academic improvement of the whole class This paper reports an action research undertaken in an English course for 24 second-year non-English majors in a university in Hanoi, Vietnam Employing such research instruments as questionnaires, researcher’s classroom observation and students’ reflection, the study reveals that these students had low current level of reticence which was presumably caused by some certain factors With the aim of decreasing students’ reticence in speaking activities, various measurements including brainstorming strategies training, communication strategies training and motivational feedback were applied Data collected after the research project proved the positive influence of these measurements on students’ willingness to participate in speaking activities in class iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv Abbreviations vi List of tables and figures viii PART A INTRODUCTION Problem statement and rationale of the study Aims and objectives of the study 3 Research questions Scope of the study Methods of the study Design of the study PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW Speaking skills Reticence 2.1 Definitions of reticence 2.2 Reticence in classroom 2.3 Causes of reticence in EFL classroom 2.4 Foreign Language Class Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) 19 2.5 Possible solutions for reticence in EFL class 19 Related studies 15 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY Background of the study 17 1.1 Description of the English course and textbook 17 1.2 Participants 17 Action research 18 iv 2.1 Rationale for action research 18 2.2 Action research model 20 Research instruments 21 3.1 Questionnaire 21 3.2 Classroom observation 22 3.3 Reflective report 22 Research procedure 23 4.1 Research steps 23 4.2 Data analysis 24 4.3 Procedure of the intervention 24 CHAPTER RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Research question 29 Research question 35 PART C CONCLUSIONS Summary of the major findings of the research 43 Teaching implication 45 Limitations of the study 46 Suggestion for the next cycle 47 REFERENCES 48 APPENDICES I v ABBREVIATIONS List of abbreviations EFL: English as a foreign language FLCAS: Foreign Language Class Anxiety Scale vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES List of tables Table Comparison between traditional research and action research 19 Table Timeline of intervention phase 25 Table Excerpt from table of score for students’ activeness in pair work and group work 38 List of figures Figure Waters-Adams’s action research model (2006) 20 Figure Average score of each categories of FLCAS 35 Figure Class’s average score of activeness in group and pair speaking activities in each period 38 vii PART A INTRODUCTION This part, which is an introduction to the thesis, helps to provide the background as well as the context for the present study The section includes the statement of the problem and rationale for the study, research questions, aims and objectives, significance, scope of the study and an overview of the rest of the paper Problem statement and rationale of the study According to researchers in foreign language teaching, speaking skill is believed to be a significant component of any language teaching curriculum The ability to speak/ communicate in English is one of the initial aims of learning and using a foreign language (Tsui, 1992; Ellis, 1988) The importance of speaking skill can be seen in two aspects: in social and in academic context Firstly, being able to communicate, which also reflexes the speaker’s self-expression, personality, reasons and thoughts in a variety of social and working situations, is surely the goal of almost every L2 learners (Luoma, 2004) Secondly, there is an undeniable connection between students' classroom participation and their academic achievement Students who participate actively in class, in other words, more willing to speak out in class, are proved to have higher academic achievement than that of those who are passive in class KrupaKwiatkowski (1998), in her study, claims that "interaction involves participation, personal engagement, and the taking of initiative in some way, activities that in turn are hypothesized to trigger cognitive processes conducive to language learning" (p 133) This also implies that whether students can perform well in foreign language partly relies on their behavior and activeness in class The more they are enthusiastic in speaking lessons, the more likely that they will learn effectively Consequently, the role of the ability to speak, as well as the perception of ability to speak, should not be underestimated by either teacher or pupil In real teaching situation, however, a great number of students show low level of in-class participation They are normally not willing to speak English or to join in speaking activities with classmates; even when they know the answers, they don’t understand what the teacher is correcting I often feel like not going to my English class 10 I feel confident when I speak English in class 11 I’m afraid that my English teacher is ready to correct every mistake I make 12 The more I study for English test, the more confused I get 13 I am often ready to contribute ideas in a group discussion on a given topic 14 I always feel that the other students speak English better than I 15 I feel very anxious about talking in English with other students 16 I feel more tense and nervous in my English class than in my other classes 17 I feel overwhelmed by the number of rules I have to learn in order to speak English 18 I get nervous when the English teacher asks questions that I haven’t prepared in advance 19 I get tense and nervous when I have to discuss things that II are unfamiliar to me in English 20 I feel overwhelmed by the number of words I have to learn in English 21 I usually don’t know what to talk about when the class is discussing a topic 22 There are times I wanted to contribute my answers but I did not know how to express my ideas 23 I am afraid that I will pronounce incorrectly when speaking English 24 The English classes move so fast that I’m afraid of being left behind III APPENDIX COMPONENTS OF FLCAS IN THE CURRENT STUDY As an attempt to organize and describe the collected data in a way that facilitates the understanding and interpretation of the students’ responses, this current research used FLCAS with the following construction of components Communication It frightens me when I don’t understand what the teacher is saying in Apprehension English I get upset when I don’t understand what the teacher is correcting 10 I feel confident when I speak English in class 15 I feel very anxious about talking in English with other students Test Anxiety I tremble when I know that I’m going to be called on in English class I am usually at ease during English tests in my class 12 The more I study for English test, the more confused I get 24 The English classes move so fast that I’m afraid of being left behind Attitude During my English class, I find myself thinking about things that have towards nothing to with the course English class I worry about the consequences of failing my English class and English I often feel like not going to my English class subject 16 I feel more tense and nervous in my English class than in my other classes Fear of Negative Evaluation I don’t worry about making mistakes in English class It embarrasses me to volunteer to answer in English classes 11 I’m afraid that my English teacher is ready to correct every mistake I make 14 I always feel that the other students speak English better than I Lack of idea 13 I am often ready to contribute ideas in a group discussion on a given topic IV 19 I get tense and nervous when I have to discuss things that are unfamiliar to me in English 21 I usually don’t know what to talk about when the class is discussing a topic 18 I get nervous when the English teacher asks questions that I haven’t prepared in advance Low Language 17 I feel overwhelmed by the number of rules I have to learn in order to Proficiency speak English 20 I feel overwhelmed by the number of words I have to learn in English 22 There are times I wanted to contribute my answers but I did not know how to express my ideas 23 I am afraid that I will pronounce incorrectly when speaking English V APPENDIX OBSERVATION CHECKLIST Instruction: Observers note down students’ behaviour and expression during speaking activities, using the following numbers/ letters to indicate level of activeness, anxiety and confidence = Active = Moderately active = Neutral = Moderately inactive = Inactive In section “Note”, if necessary, the observers note down other remarkable behavior/ expressions of each student For example, observers may want to note that a student makes use of communicative strategies in his/ her speech or how often student switches to mother tongue Students who are absent in speaking activities will be marked 0, which means not available VI Week… Date:…………… Observer’s name:…………………………………………… Lesson’s topic:……………………………………… Lesson’s objectives: ………………………………………… tudents’ Pair Group Response number work work with teacher 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 VII Presentation Note 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 VIII APPENDIX GUIDELINE FOR REFLECTIVE REPORT The following questions are the guidelines to reflect your feelings about speaking activities in class Please provide detailed explanation/ reasons for your answers This report would help the teacher to have a more insightful understanding about your difficulties as well as desire in order to adjust her lessons tudents’ perception of their own feelings nd reticence in cl ss Q1: Generally, you feel comfortable in speaking activities? Why/ why not? Q2: What prevents you from speaking up in class activities? Q3: After weeks, you find yourself more confident/ less anxious in English class? Q4: After weeks, you find yourself participate more actively in speaking activities? Q5: What brought about the changes in your confidence and activeness? tudents’ perspective of te cher’s te ching methodolog Q6: What you think of your teacher and her teaching methods? Q7: Which speaking activities you like most/ least? What are the reasons? Q8: What you think about brainstorming strategies? How are they helpful to you in speaking? Which topic of discussion did you like best/ least? Q9: What you think about communication strategies? How much you apply learned strategies into conversations? Q10: Do you wish to make any change in speaking activities? Thank you for your cooperation! IX APPENDIX SAMPLE LESSON PLAN Week - Lesson - File 2C : RACE TO THE SUN – Speaking session A Objectives: By the end of the lesson, Ss will be able to: - get familiar with words and phrases related transport and travel - being able to talk about topics relating to traffic and means of transportation - Get familiar with paraphrasing strategy while speaking B Teaching aids: Textbook, handouts C Teaching methods: CLT D Procedure Time Activity Te cher’s ctivities 3’ - T has a list of means of transport (bicycle, car, train, motorbike, boat, foot, subway, airplane, bus) Warm-up Aim: to activate Ss’ prior knowledge and to engage them with the unit topic - For each word, T invites a S to the board to describe that word using only body language (mime) tudents’ ctivities - Ss who are called on describe the given words using only body language - Other Ss guess the means of transport - After class members have guessed the miming, T writes down each word on the board 10’ Vocabulary introducing Aim: to introduce Ss to a range of vocabulary relating to traffic and means of transport 15’ - T asks Ss to translate the highlighted words and phrases in supplementary reading handout (which is previous lesson’s homework) - T provides Ss with exact meanings of each word and how to use them in sentence (if necessary) Communication Activity 1: strategies - T administer handout (2) to Ss and training asks them to match the words with Aim: to their synonyms or definitions introduce - T calls some Ss on to give their X - Assigned S translate highlighted words in homework reading text - Ss note down exact meanings of new words and phrases - Ss the matching exercise in handout (1) students to paraphrasing answers and encourage other Ss to comment on these answers - Ss ask T for clarification if necessary - T provide Ss with the correct answers * T introduces paraphrasing skill to Ss and explains this strategy’s effect in speaking Activity 2: - T administer handout (3) to Ss, asks them to work in pair and explain words to each other to guess, using synonyms and paraphrasing - Ss work in pair, using handout (3) and explain words to each other, using synonyms and paraphrasing - T goes around to check if Ss need help - Ss ask T for clarification if necessary - T asks some Ss for the word/ expressions they use to explain the given words - T provides Ss with sample answers 5’ Group discussion Aim: to get students to generate ideas and discuss on the lesson’s theme - T divides Ss into groups of or - T asks groups to brainstorm ideas for this question:” Should students travel to school by bus or by their own bicycles?” - T assigns the “secretary” of each group and goes around to make sure each group is working properly - Ss work in group of or 5, brainstorming ideas for the given question - One S acts as the secretary who notes down other members’ ideas - One S presents group’s ideas to T - T calls on one member of each group to contribute their arguments and writes the ideas onto the board 10’ Speaking Aim: to get Ss to practice using new words and generated ideas - T gives Ss minutes to prepare a short speech on the given question - T invites or students to deliver their speech in front of class XI - Ss spend minutes to prepare 2’ Assigning homework Aim: to help Ss revise the lesson and get ready for the next one - T hands out reading material for the next lesson and asks Ss to complete them at home XII - Take note APPENDIX HANDOUT (1) SUPPLEMENTARY READING - SAMPLE Week4 Unit Reading homework Read the following passage and translate all underlined words and phrases into Vietnamese MY FAVOURITE MEANS OF TRANSPORT Hello, I am Nada I want to tell you about my best means of transport: cars I prefer cars to other vehicles because it provides freedom In fact, you can travel by car anywhere and at any time Meanwhile, if you travel by train or bus, for example, you will have to wait for some minutes to hours Besides, cars go faster than many other means of transport like bicycle It is also more comfortable than bus, motorbike or bicycle and far safer In addition, you can listen to music or to the radio while driving This is mainly why I enjoy using car However, it's true that cars cause pollution and damages the environment since they consume a large amount of fossil fuel worldwide It also kills thousands of people every year in terrible accidents Moreover, millions of people spend hours waiting in traffic jams daily Indeed, sometimes the traffic is so bad at rush hours that it is quicker to walk than to go by car or bus In conclusion, car has both advantages and disadvantages to offer All things considered, it is the most suitable vehicle for me Questions: According to this passage, what are the advantages and disadvantages of cars? How you travel to school every day? Is it convenient? Which means of transport you usually use when you go to your holiday destinations? If you can choose, which means of transport will you use? Why? Which means of transport you like least? Why? XIII APPENDIX HANDOUT (2) PARAPHRASING EXERCISE Match these words (a – h) with their synonyms or definitions (1 - 8): a means of transport like b comfortable causes harm to c enjoy vehicle d rush hours use e damages a kind of energy that helps f advantage vehicles like car or motorbike to run g consume convenient h fossil fuel the time of the day when roads are very crowded with people and vehicles benefit XIV APPENDIX HAN OUT (3) “GUE THE WOR ” GAME Adapted from Ogane (1998) HANDOUT A Explain these words (1 - 5) in English Your partner listens to you and tries to guess what they are Example: This is something on the road, usually at crossroad It can turns red, green or yellow People stop when it is red, and go when it is green ( traffic lights) train passenger ticket airport bicycle -HANDOUT B Explain these words (1 - 5) in English Your partner listens to you and tries to guess what they are Example: This is something on the road, usually at crossroad It can turns red, green or yellow People stop when it is red, and go when it is green ( traffic lights) subway train station petrol map rush hour XV APPENDIX E ch student’s score of level of reticence before intervention nd fter the Student number Score before intervention Score after intervention Score gap S1 46 59 13 S2 52 67 15 S3 51 67 16 S4 65 76 11 S5 41 55 14 S6 55 64 S7 48 59 11 S8 63 75 12 S9 61 71 10 S10 50 64 14 S11 44 52 S12 47 60 13 S13 62 74 12 S14 57 69 12 S15 54 67 13 S16 70 76 S17 54 70 16 S18 67 75 S19 43 54 11 S20 53 63 10 S21 49 64 15 S22 50 57 S23 61 72 11 S24 40 57 17 Total 1283 1567 284 Average score 53.54 65.5 11.8 XVI