A study on the difficulties in learning speaking english of the first year students at the faculty of information technology, thai nguyen university

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *&* NGÔ PHƯƠNG THÙY A STUDY ON THE DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING SPEAKING ENGLISH OF THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY (TÌM HIỂU NHỮNG KHĨ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT KHOA CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN, ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN) M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 HA NOI - 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *&* NGÔ PHƯƠNG THÙY A STUDY ON THE DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING SPEAKING ENGLISH OF THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY (TÌM HIỂU NHỮNG KHĨ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT KHOA CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN, ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN) M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 SUPERVISOR: PHAM MINH HIEN, M.A HA NOI - 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: INTRODUCTION 1.1Rationales of the study 1.2Aims and objectives of the study 1.3Scope of the study 1.4Methods of the study 1.5Significance of the Study 1.6Structure of the study PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1Introduction 1.2Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 1.2.1Definition of CLT 1.2.2Characteristics of CLT 1.3Nature of speaking and Development of speaking Skills 1.3.1Definition of speaking 1.3.2Characteristics of speaking 1.3.4The development Approach of S 1.4Difficulties in learning to speak English 1.4.1Psychological factors 1.4.2Cultural factors 1.4.3Linguistics factors 1.4.4Objective factors 1.5Summary CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1Introduction 2.2The setting of the study 2.3Subject of the study 2.4Instruments for collecting data 2.5Data analysis 2.6Summary CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1Introduction 3.2Data analysis of students’ responses 3.3Data analysis of teachers’ responses 3.4Summary CHAPTER 4: SUGGESTIONS 4.1 Introduction 4.2Recommendations for the Teaching of Speaking to first year stud 4.2.1Teaching students strategies to le 4.2.2Improving teachers’ classroom t 4.2.3Developing speaking materials 4.2.4Creating speaking environment f 4.2.5Reducing the class size 4.2.6Ranking the students’ ability 4.3Summary PART 3: CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………47 1 Conclusion 1.2 Limitations and suggestions for further research 47 REFERENCES 49 APPENDIXES 51 LIST OF TABLES AND PIE CHARTS Tables Table 1: Students’ judgments in speaking materials 30 Pie charts Pie chart 1: Students' competence in speaking skills 23 Pie chart 2: Student's perception towards speaking skills 24 Pie chart 3: Students' actual activities in speaking class 25 Pie chart 4: Students' perception towards difficulties in learning to speak English 26 Pie chart 5: Students' perception towards the psychological barriers to learning to speak English 26 Pie chart 6: Students' perception towards the effect of cultural factor to learning to speak English 27 Pie chart 7: Students' perception towards the effect of grammar knowledge to learning to speak English 28 Pie chart 8: Students' perception towards the effect of vocabulary to learning to speak English 29 Pie chart 9: Students' perception towards the effect of pronunciation to learning to speak English 29 Pie chart 10: Students' expectation towards the teachers' instruction 30 Pie chart 11: Students’ thought of class size 31 Pie chart 12: Students’ thought of mixed ability class 32 Pie chart 13: Teachers' perception of students' thought over speaking skills 32 Pie chart 14: Teachers' perception of students experience over speaking skills .33 Pie chart 15: Teacher's perception of students' actual activities in speaking class 34 Pie chart 16: Teacher's perception of their students' speaking difficulties 35 iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative language Teaching ELT: English Language Teaching ESL: Learning English as a Second Language FIT: Faculty of Information Technology IT: Information Technology L2: Second Language LSC: Learning Skills Council SLA: Second Language Acquisition iv PART I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationales of the study David Nunan (1995) wrote: “When someone asks, “Do you know another language?” they generally mean “Can you speak the language?”(p.225)” One can not be considered to know a language without speaking it It can be seen that speaking is one of the most important skills that learners must master during the learning a foreign language process However, speaking another language is not an easy task for all people To this one, it is easy but to the others it is so difficult Nowadays, with the development of modern science and technology as long as the integration policy, the Vietnamese government has allowed more and more foreign companies and partners to invest in most industries in the country to help boost the economy This process has resulted in increasing interactions between Vietnamese and foreigners, especially from English-speaking countries Therefore, the demand of studying foreign languages, especially learning to speak English, has become more and more necessary Understanding the important role of speaking skill when learning a foreign language, the Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) - Thai Nguyen University focuses on the teaching and learning English in the light of Communicative Teaching Approach FIT pays special attention to develop speaking skill Despite that, the desired effect is not high With the hope of helping students to learn to speak English effectively, the difficulties in learning to speak English have been chosen as the topic of the present research Realizing the current difficulties that the first year students in FIT encounter will attribute to the improvement and enhancement of the learning and teaching English speaking quality in the FIT The research will first shed a light on how learners think and study to speak English in FIT; second, it will reinterpret the recent difficulties in learning to speak English that learners meet in terms of revised relevant theories Third, it will recommend some solutions to upgrade the learning to speak English quality in FIT Forth, it will make the teachers become more aware of the problems may occur in speaking class, from which they can have better and reasonable solutions to their classes 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study The study is carried out to find out the answers for the following questions: “What difficulties students in FIT meet when they learn to speak English?” “What are possible causes leading to difficulties in learning speaking skills of the first year students in FIT?” “What are possible solutions to the problems?” The study is aimed to - Investigate the current situation of learning and teaching speaking in the FIT - Find out what difficulties the first year students in FIT meet when they learn to speak English - Suggest some realistic and appropriate techniques to help improve the teaching and learning to speak English in FIT 1.3 Scope of the study In this study, the researcher tends to overview the difficulties the students in FIT face when learning speaking English and to suggest some possible solutions to the problems in order to help students learning speaking English better This is also the limitation of the study 1.4 Methods of the study - Two questionnaires are designed to find out the difficulties that the first year students in FIT face (one for teacher and one for students) - Data collected will be analyzed and presented in the study - Besides, there will be some interviews and observations carried out in informal situations 1.5 Significance of the Study The research is the first step of a larger investigation into the difficulties in learning to speak English in a university or in a nation The goal of the research is to conduct a small survey of the difficulties that the first year students in FIT meet when they learn to speak English A questionnaire will be designed based on the three main factors: psychology, linguistics and socio-culture Data collected will be analyzed statistically The result achieved will interpret the difficulties that the students in FIT encounter, and support further and more detailed study of the phenomena identified here 1.6 Structure of the study This study includes five chapters Chapter 1: Introduction In this chapter, the reasons why the topic was chosen are stated Besides, the background and scope of the study, the aims, the significance, the method and structure of the study are also mentioned Chapter 2: Literature review The relevant theories are revised in this chapter as the base for the research carried out Chapter 3: Development This chapter will present the development and how the study is carried on Chapter 4: Findings and Discussions This chapter present the research result achieved and discussed on the result acquired Chapter 5: Suggestions and Conclusion In this chapter, the suggestions will be presented basing on the result discussed in the previous chapter The conclusion will show a brief summary of the study and the limitation PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Introduction This chapter revised relevant theories and studies that can be the base for the research being carried out The nature of speaking, the development of speaking as well as the main factors that affect learning to speak English of the ESL learners will be presented 1.2 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 1.2.1 Definition of CLT So far, CLT has been viewed and studied by different authors such as Wilkins (1972), Nunan (1989) Each author has his own point of view about CLT However, they all considered CLT as an approach that is more prominent than those appeared before them like Grammar – Translation method, Direct method, The Audio-lingual method CLT can be understood as a set of principles about the goals of language teaching, how learners learn a language, the kinds of classroom activities that best facilitate learning, and the roles of teachers and learners in the classroom (Richards, 2006) Nunan (1989 p.194) considered “CLT views language as a system for the expressions of meaning Activities involve oral communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which is meaningful to the learners Objectives reflect the needs of the learner including functional skill as well as linguistic objectives The learner‟s role is as a negotiator and integrator The teacher‟s role is as a facilitator of the communication process.” According to Sandra J Savignon‟s perspective (2000, pp 124 – 129): “The essence of CLT is the engagement of learners in communication to allow them to develop their communicative competence.” (p 128) “The focus of CLT is to promote the development of functional language ability through learner participation in communicative events.” (p 126) CLT is associated with a focus on learners‟ communicative needs, on learner autonomy, and on negotiation of meaning It includes attention to form as well as to meaning The principles of CLT apply also to reading and writing as well as to face-to-face oral communication PART 3: CONCLUSION 1 Conclusion This study focuses on answering the three research questions: “What difficulties students in FIT meet when they learn to speak English?” “What are possible causes leading to difficulties in learning speaking skills of the first year students in FIT?” “What are possible solutions to the problems?” To answer three research questions, first of all, a brief introduction of the importance of the speaking skills is presented in the first chapter Secondly, a review of relevant literature on speaking skills shows that the teachers should understand the nature of speaking in order to teach speaking well In case of this study, Vietnamese teachers should aware of many factors that affect speaking Of which three prominent factors that should be considered seriously are psychological, linguistic and cultural factors Based on the research questions set at the beginning, the present study found that the first year students in FIT encounter a great deal of difficulties in learning to speak English Especially, the difficulties perceived by both the students and the teachers show that the source of the difficulties is the lack of linguistic knowledge such as vocabulary, pronunciation or cultural knowledge This study is done with the hope of helping teachers foresee the problems and prepare to cope with these in order to teach speaking with better quality The findings of the study show that there is an understanding between teachers and students, which is necessary to find out the common ways to overcome the difficulties in teaching and learning to speak English Further more, the study also suggest some solutions to the problems such as improve teachers‟ classroom techniques, improve speaking materials and create speaking environment In conclusion, the hope of the writer when writing this research is that it will be useful for the ones who are concerned with the problem Any comments or contribution to this research will be appreciated 1.2 Limitations and suggestions for further research In most research projects, limitations are inevitable This study is of no exception This study is to investigate the difficulties that the first year students in FIT encounter when learning to speak English Perceptions may, however, not be always accurate and reliable since the researcher in this current study only used three methods: questionnaires through two informants: teachers and students, interview and class observation Thus, it would be 47 better to use other methods in a further research Further more, the writer‟s practical experiences in teaching speaking and knowledge of this field are limited, so that the suggestions in the chapter four are likely to be subjective and incomplete, leaving the issue open to debate Future work, therefore should overcome this shortcoming 48 REFERENCES Ainslie, Susan (1994) Mixed Ability Teaching: Meeting Learners´needs Netword 3: Teaching Language to Adults London: Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research Allwright, R (1982) 'What Do We Want Teaching Materials For?' ELT Journal (36) 1, 8-12 Baker, Joanna (2000) The English language teacher’s handbook: how to teach large classes with few resources New York: Continuum; London: Cassel Berns, M (1990) Contexts of competence: Social and cultural considerations in communicative language teaching New York: Plenum Bialystok, E (1978) Burns, R.B.(1979) The self-concept: in theory, measurement, development and behaviour London: Longman Bygate, M (1987), Speaking, Oxford University Press Canale, M and Swain, M (1980) Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing Applied Linguistics Canale, Michael, (1983), “From communicative competence to communicative language pedagogy” in J.C Richards and R.W Schmidt (eds) Language and Communication, London: Longman Canfeild, J and Wells, H C (1994) 100 Ways to Enhance Self-Concept in the Classroom Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon 10 Carrasquillo, A L (1994) Teaching English as a second language: A resource guide New York: Garland Publishing 11 Coopersmith, S (1967) The Antecedents of Self-esteem London: Cambridge University Press p: 4-5 12 Cunningsworth, A (1995) Choosing your coursebook Oxford: Heinemann 13 Dimitracopoulou, I (1990) Conversational competence and social development Cambridge University Press 14 Ellis, R (1994) The study of second language acquisition Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press by Arrangement with Oxford University Press 15 Gardner, R & Lambert, W (1972) Attitudes and Motivation in Second Language Learning New York: Newbury House 16 Gouws, E and Kruger, N: (1994) The Adolescent: an Educational Perspective Dubai, Butterworth 17 Hess, Natalie (2001) Teaching Large Multilevel Classes Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 18 Horwitz et al, The modern language journal, 70, ii, 1986 19 Howatt, A (1984) A History of English Language Teaching: Oxford University Press, Oxford 20 http://www.linguist.org.cn/doc/uc200605/uc20060516.pdf 21 Hymes, D H (1971) On communicative competence In J Pride and J Holmes (Eds.), Sociolinguistics Penguin, 1972 49 22 Johnstone, K 1999 Research on language learning and teaching: 1997-1998 Language Learning 23 Kelly, A.V (1974) Teaching mixed ability classes: an individualized approach London: Harper & Row Ltd 24 Leonettie, R (1980) Self-concept and the school child New York: Philosophical Library 25 Lightbrown, P M & Spada N (2001) Factors affecting second language learning In: Candlin, C.N & Mercer, N (Eds.), English language teaching in its social context London: Routledge 26 Littlewood, W (1981), Communicative Language Teaching New York: Cambridge University Press 27 Nunan, David (1995) Language Teaching Methodology London : Phonix ELT 28 Rao, Z (2002), Chinese Students’ Perceptions of Communicative and NonCommunicative Activities in EFL Classroom System 30, pp 85-105 29 Richards C.J.(2006), Communicative Language Teaching Today, Cambridge University Press 30 Richards, J (2005) The Role of Textbooks in a Language Program Retrieved from the WWW Nov 2007 at http://www.professorjackrichards.com/work.htm 31 Sapir, E (1921) T Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech [M] New York: Harcourt Brace & Company 32 Savignon, S J (2000) Communicative Language Teaching London 33 Scarcella, R & Oxford, R (1992) The tapestry of language learning: The individual in the communicative classroom Boston, MA: Heinle and Heinle 34 Shank, Cathy C, and Terrill Lynda R (1995) Teaching Multilevel Adult ESL Classes Eric Digests Washington DC: Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education 35 Sheldon, L.E (1988) Evaluating ELT Textbooks and Materials ELT Journal 42 (4) 36 Sid Gilbert, Quality Education (2005): Does Class Size Matter?, research file, volume 37 Tomlinson, Carol Ann (1999) The differentiated classroom: responding to the needs of all learners Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and curriculum Development 38 Wu Guang, LIANG Jia-xia (2007) Analysis of psychological barriers in oral English teaching, journal, volume 39 Xuemei Meng, Qianyu Wang (2006) Psychological Factors and Teachers’ Language, journal, volume 40 Yul Iskandar (2000) Test Personaliti Jakarta Yayasan Dharma Graha 50 APPENDIXES 51 APPENDIXES Appendix THE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS Dear students! This questionnaire is designed with the hope of investigating what difficulties you have in learning to speak English The results gained from this questionnaire will improve my teaching of oral English, and my better performance will in turn help you to improve your speaking Please circle the answer that expresses your opinion Do you like learning English? A Yes B No How good are you at speaking English? A Good B Pretty good C Fair What you think of speaking skills? A Very important B Normal C Not important at all How you like speaking English? A Do not like B Just so so Are you interested in oral work designed in class? A Yes B No D Poor D I not know C Like it very much How is your speaking experience in speaking skills? A Have a lot of experience B Have enough experience to study well speaking skill C Have little experience D Have no experience at all A Yes Do you use strategies when learning to speak English? B No What you often in speaking class? A Actively take part in speaking activities B Only pay attention to the activities I like C Passively what I am asked D Do other thing instead How you feel when you speak in public or in front of your classmates? A Confident B Nervous C Embarrassed D Not confident at all 10 How would you like your teacher to give you her instructions? A First in English, then in Vietnamese B In Vietnamese only C In English only I 11 How you like the activities in oral work? A They are boring B Like them very much C Do not know 12 Does your pronunciation affect your speaking? A Yes, a lot B A little C I not know 13 How good are you at pronunciation? A Excellent B Good D Poor C Fair 14 How you feel when pronouncing a word in public? A Confident B Stupid C Shy D Not ready to speak 15 Do you know how to pronounce a word correctly? A Yes B No 16 Is the number of English vocabulary important to you? A Very important B Normal C Not important 17 Do you have enough vocabulary to express your idea (at least in the class)? A Yes B No 18 Do you know how to construct an English sentence? A Yes B No 19 How you think your grammar knowledge affect you? A Very confident B Not confident at all C Suspicious about what I said D Not know how to speak 20 What you think of the current textbook used to teach speaking? A Too difficult B A bit difficult C Interesting D Boring E Suitable to the students’ level 21 What you think of your class size? A Too large B Large C Medium D Small 22 How your friends’ English abilities affect you? A A lot B Not much C Only a little 23 How the ways of English communication affect your speaking? A A lot B A little C I not know 24 What are the reasons for your unsuccessful speaking ability? A mental B lack of speaking practice environment C linguistic knowledge D socio-cultural factor Thank you for your cooperation! II Appendix QUESTIONAIRES FOR TEACHERS Dear my colleagues! This questionnaire is designed with the hope of investigating how well you, as the teacher of teaching to speak English, understand your first year students in speaking acquisition Further more, it is also aimed at knowing the methods you have exploited to carry out speaking lessons as well as the solutions you suggest to improve the teaching and learning to speak English in our faculty Your help will be very useful since all the information I get will be analyzed The results will be applied to the teaching speaking English for the first year students in our faculty Thanks for your help! Have you been trained in CLT? A Yes, in English teaching-training course B Yes, in English teaching workshops C Others D No, I have never been trained in CLT What you think about CLT? A is learner-centered; B doesn’t teach grammar; C emphasizes on fluency more than accuracy; D focuses on meaningful tasks rather than on language itself; What teaching methods are currently applied in teaching speaking to the first year students? A CLT A How you think your students assess speaking skill? Very important Do your students have experience in learning to speak English? A They have a lot B They have enough experiences to study speaking skill effectively C They have not experience at all D They have experience but not enough A B C D What you think your students in speaking class? Actively take part in speaking activities given Only take part in the activities they like Do passively what they are told Do other things instead What factors you think make your teaching speaking difficult? A Multi-level class B Large class size C Unsuitable course book D Learners are lack of studying motivation What are the difficulties that your first year students face when learning to speak A B They are not getting used to speaking in class They lack linguistic knowledge III C D They are afraid of making mistakes They not know how to say an English sentence correctly What you often when your students make mistakes? A Correct intermediately B Let them speak, then I correct later when they finish speaking C Say nothing D Others 10 What you when your students are reluctant to speak? A Encourage them to speak B Give them a favour C Let them sit down and never ask them any questions D Others 11 What activities you often organize to reduce psychological barrier when teaching speaking? A Pair work B Group work C Role play D None of these 12 What you usually to make your learners interested in speaking lessons? A Encourage them by grades B Praise them C Let them choose topics to discuss D Do nothing 13 What you think of your class size? A Too large B Large C Medium 14 What your students think of the mixed ability class? A Affect learning a lot B Not affect much D Small C Affect a little 15 What solutions you suggest to improve teaching speaking quality? A Reduce class size B Rank learners’ ability C Upgrade and adapt the materials and course books D Others 16 What solutions you suggest to create an active learning to speak English environment? A Create interesting activities suitable with each situation B Help learners complete the linguistic knowledge C Get learners approach to the target language culture D Do nothing Thank you for your cooperation! IV Appendix INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS Do you like learning English? Can you speak English well? What you think of speaking skills? How you learn to speak English? Do you think you have an effective way of learning to speak English? What you often in speaking class? Do you often pay attention to speaking activities? How is your speaking ability now? Are you confident enough when you are asked to speak English? Why? 10 How does your classmates’ ability affect you? 11 Do you think that it is easy to study mixed class? 12 What you think of your class size? 13 What prevents you from speaking English?? 14 Do you know how to communicate correctly according to the native communication style? V Appendix INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS What you think about the students’ perception of speaking English? Do your students have any experiences in learning English? How does big class restrict your way of teaching English speaking? Do you think your students have suitable speaking strategies? How your students act in your class? Are the materials exploited suitable with your students’ abilities? What difficulties you think your students meet the most when learning to speak English? How does mixed class affect your way of teaching and learning quality in your class? VI Appendix SIMULATION Some suggested simulations used for the first year students in FIT are: Buying a pair of shoes in a shoes shop Buying clothes in a clothes shop Going to the market to buy food Introducing a foreigner about some beauty-spots in Vietnam Inviting your friend to go out for dinner Inviting your friend to go to the cinema VII Appendix CLASSROOM OBSERVATION CHEC Name: Date: Class: Observed Time: Observer Department: No Questions I Teacher’s teaching method Was the teaching method suitable with the students’ levels? Did teachers create variety of interesting speaking activities (pair work or group work) in class? Did teachers pay attention to correct students speaking mistakes? Did teachers encourage real use of language? Was the target language used as a medium of instruction all or most of the time? Did teachers provide students with speaking modal? Were the lessons communication centered, rather than informational, most of the time? Did teachers assist students, rather than push them? Did the teachers have a pleasant and supportive personality? Were training aids used to enhance or reinforce results? II Student’s reaction Did the students well prepare the assigned exercise before class? Did the students participate actively in the oral class? Were the students interested in the oral class activities? Did students use language to talk about language in speaking class? Did students have enough speaking experiences? Did students encounter linguistic problems? Did students encounter psychological problems? Did students encounter cultural problems? Did the students most of the communication, rather than the teachers? III Learning environment Was the classroom comfortable in terms of environment and learning atmosphere? VIII ... that conversation can be analyzed in terms of routines Which are conventional ways of presenting information: Information routines and interactional routines He explained informational routine... studies that can be the base for the research being carried out The nature of speaking, the development of speaking as well as the main factors that affect learning to speak English of the ESL learners... since the years 1970s After that, speaking and the nature of speaking are also mentioned The main theory is discussed carefully The factors that hinder the process of learning to speak English are