An investigation into students’ willingness to communicate english in speaking lessons of first year students at an institute of education management in vietnam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HOAN AN INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS’ WILLINGNESS TO SPEAK ENGLISH IN SPEAKING LESSONS OF FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT AN INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION MANAGEMENT IN VIETNAM (Nghiên cứu sẵn sàng học nói tiếng Anh sinh viên năm thứ Học viện Quản lí Giáo dục – Việt Nam) M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 814023101 HA NOI – 2019 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HOAN AN INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS’ WILLINGNESS TO SPEAK ENGLISH IN SPEAKING LESSONS OF FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT AN INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION MANAGEMENT IN VIETNAM (Nghiên cứu sẵn sàng học nói tiếng Anh sinh viên năm thứ Học viện Quản lí Giáo dục – Việt Nam) M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 814023101 Supervisor: Dr Dương Thu Mai HA NOI – 2019 DECLARATION I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “An investigation into students‟ willingness to speak English in speaking lessons of first-year students at an Institute of Education Management in Vietnam” is my own research for the Minor Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, VNU – Hanoi The thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library can be accessible for the purposes of study Hanoi, 2019 Nguyen Thi Hoan i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Dr Duong Thu Mai for the invaluable support, guidance, and timely encouragement she gave me while I was doing this research I am truly grateful to her for her advice and suggestions right from the beginning when this study was only in its formative stage My special thanks also go to teachers of English and students of National Institute of Education Management for their participation to the study as the subjects of the study Without them, this project could not have been so successful I am particularly grateful to my close friends for their helping me with valuable reference documents and data for my research Last but not least, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my family who have constantly inspired and encouraged me to complete this research ii ABSTRACT This study is an attempt to investigate to the current willingness to communicate (WTC) in English of freshmen at a university in Vietnam This cross-sectional survey research primarily focuses on students‟ level of WTC and factors affecting WTC in the classroom by means of a questionnaire survey and a semi-structured interview In order to accomplish this thesis, a mixed method design was employed in order to explore the construct of WTC The results revealed that students‟ willingness to communicate was nearly “sometimes willing to communicate”, mean is 1.9 in the four-value scale The factors to encourage and discourage their willingness to communicate range from social setting, self-perceived communicative competence, motivation, personality, teacher‟s role to language anxiety The results of the study contribute to an understanding of WTC in the higher education context in Vietnam Keywords: Willingness to communicate, social setting, communicative competence, motivation, communicative competence iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L2 Second Language WTC Willingness to Communicate NIEM National Institute of Education Management ELT English Language Teaching EFL English as Foreign Language CC Communicative Competence CA Communication Apprehension iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statements of the problem and the rationale of the study 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Objectives of the study 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Methods of the study 1.7 Design of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Willingness to communicate 2.2 Factors Influencing WTC 2.3 Previous Studies into Willingness to Communicate 12 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 18 3.1 The Context 18 3.2 Research Design 19 3.3 Participants 20 3.4 Instrumentations 20 3.4.1 Questionnaires .20 3.4.2 Interviews 21 3.5 Data collection procedures 23 v 3.6 Data analysis procedures .23 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS .25 4.1 Results of the research question .25 4.2 Results of the research question .29 4.2.1 Social settings 29 4.2.2 Self-perceived communicative competence 30 4.2.3 Motivation 31 4.2.4 Personality 32 4.2.5 Teacher‟s role 33 4.2.6 Language anxiety 33 4.2.7 Speaking activities 34 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 36 5.1 Summary of the study 36 5.2 Limitations of the study .37 5.3 Contribution of the research and pedagogical implications 37 5.4 Recommendations for further study 38 REFERENCES 40 APPENDIXES I Appendix 1: I Appendix 2: III Appendix 3: V Appendix 4: VI Appendix 5: VII vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Descriptive statistics of each degree of willingness (N=115) .26 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The hypothesized mode (Joe et al., 2017, p 136) 13 Figure 2: Cyclical thematic content analysis 24 vii APPENDIXES Appendix 1: Survey Questionnaires about students’ willingness to communicate English in speaking lessons in English classroom Below are 25 situations in which a person might choose to speak or not to speak in class Presume that you have completely free choice Please to what extent you agree with each of the following statements For each item, circle the number corresponding to your response Please indicate your answer using the following – point scale (lowest to highest) where: 1= Never willing; = Sometimes willing; = Usually willing; = Always willing No 10 11 Talk with a elevator Talk with a s Speak in pub people) of str Talk with a standing in li Talk with a s Talk in a la people) of fri Volunteer an asks a questio Talk in a sm people) of str Talk with a fr Talk with a restaurant Talk in a la people) of ac 12 Talk with a st 13 Talk with a s 14 Speak in pub people) of fri 15 Talk in a sm people) of ac 16 Talk with a g 17 Talk in a la people) of str 18 Ask a questio 19 Talk in a sm people) of fri 20 Speak in pub people) of ac 21 Talk to your 22 Talk with a li 23 Help others a 24 Participate in 25 Present your Scoring: To compute the subscores add the percentages for the items indicated and divide the total by the number indicated below: Filter questions 13, 16 Public: + 10 + 14 + 20; divided by Meeting: + +7 + 11 + 17; divided by Group: + 15 + 19 + 20; divided by Dyad: +5 + + 12; divided by Classroom: 21 + 22 + 24 + 25; divided by Stranger: + + + 12 + 17; divided by Acquaintance: + + 11 + 15 + 20; divided by Friend: + + 14 + 19 + 23; divided by II Appendix 2: Survey Questionnaires about students’ willingness to communicate English in speaking lesson in English classroom (Vietnamese version) Dưới 25 tình mà bạn lựa chọn để giao tiếp không giao tiếp tiếng Anh lớp Bạn đồng ý với ý kiến Với tình huống, khoanh trịn vào số ứng với câu trả lời mà bạn lựa chọn theo thang điểm (từ thấp đến cao nhất) đây, tương ứng: = Không sẵn sàng; 2= Thỉnh thoảng sẵn sàng; = Thường xuyên sẵn sàng; = Ln ln sẵn sàng STT Tình Nói chuyện tiếng anh với mộ quen thang máy Nói chuyện tiếng anh với mộ lạ xe buýt Nói chuyện tiếng anh với mộ người lạ nơi cơng cộng (kho người) Nói chuyện tiếng anh với ngư đứng xếp hàng Nói chuyện tiếng anh với nhâ bán hàng cửa hàng Nói chuyện tiếng anh với họp lớn (khoảng Xung phong trả lời câu hỏi ti giáo viên đặt câu hỏi lớp Nói chuyện tiếng anh với ngư nhóm nhỏ (khoảng năm Nói chuyện tiếng anh với bạn đứng xếp hàng Nói chuyện tiếng anh với mộ phục vụ bàn nam/nữ nhà Nói chuyện tiếng anh với 10 11 III 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Cảm ơn hợp tác bạn IV người quen họp (khoảng 10 người) Nói chuyện tiếng anh với ngư đứng xếp hàng Nói chuyện tiếng anh với mộ viên cửa hàng Nói chuyện tiếng anh với nhó nơi cơng cộng (khoảng 30 người Nói chuyện tiếng anh với mộ nhỏ người quen (khoảng người) Nói chuyện với người thu gom Nói chuyện tiếng anh với người lạ họp (khoản người) Trả lời câu hỏi tiếng anh trướ Nói chuyện tiếng anh với mộ bạn bè (khoảng người) Nói chuyện tiếng anh với nhó quen nơi cơng cộng (khoảng 30 Nói chuyện tiếng anh với giá sau học Nói chuyện tiếng anh với ngư lý thư viện Giúp bạn khác trả lời câu hỏi Anh Tham gia thảo luận học tiếng anh Đưa quan điểm riêng bạ tiếng anh lớp Appendix 3: Interview questions for students *How important is it for you to learn English? How good are you at learning English? What you think your English level is like? What about your speaking skill in particular? How motivated were you during learning English? How much did you like learning English together with your classmate? How would you describe your personality (quiet or talkative, relaxed or tense)? How competent you think you were to communicate in English? Did you feel very sure and relaxed when speaking English? Did you feel confident when you were speaking English in class? 10 Did it embarrass you to volunteer answers in class? 11 Did you feel that the other students spoke English better than you did? 12 How did you feel when you needed to use English to communicate? Did you usually feel nervous or at ease? Did you enjoy using English? 13 Were you afraid that other students would laugh at you when you were speaking English? 14 Did you get nervous when your someone asked you a question in English? 15 In what situation did you feel most comfortable to communicate: in pair, in small groups, with the stranger/acquaintance/friend? Why? 16 17 *Do you like reading or watching news in English? Do you often share or talk about information that you know with your friends or classmates? 18 How you like if your teacher lectures in English? 19 Do you hope that your English teacher speaks more English in class? 20 Would you like to have more opportunities to speak English in class? V Appendix 4: Interview questions for students (Vietnamese version) Học tiếng anh quan trọng với bạn? Bạn tự đánh giá khả tiếng anh nào? Bạn nghĩ trình độ tiếng anh bạn mức nào? Bạn nghĩ kĩ nói mình? Động lực thúc đẩy bạn q trình học tiếng Anh? Bạn thích học tiếng anh với bạn lớp nào? Bạn miêu tả tính cách (trầm lặng hay nói nhiều, thoải mái hay căng thẳng)? Bạn nghĩ trình độ thành thạo để giao tiếp tiếng Anh? Bạn có thấy thoải mái chắn học tiếng Anh khơng? Bạn có cảm thấy tự tin nói chuyện tiếng Anh lớp? 10 Bạn có cảm thấy ngại xung phong trả lời học tiếng Anh? 11 Bạn có cảm thấy bạn lớp nói tiếng Anh tốt bạn? 12 Bạn cảm thấy cần sử dụng tiếng anh để giao tiếp? Bạn cảm thấy căng thẳng hay thoải mái? Bạn có thích sử dụng tiếng Anh? 13 Bạn có sợ bạn lớp cười bạn nói tiếng Anh lớp? 14 Bạn có cảm thấy lo lắng giáo viên hỏi bạn học tiếng Anh? 15 Bạn cảm thấy thoải mái giao tiếp tình đây: theo cặp, theo nhóm nhỏ, với người lạ/người quen hay với bạn bè? Tại sao? 16 Bạn thích đọc xem tin tức tiếng Anh khơng? 17 Bạn có thường xun chia sẻ hay nói chuyện với bạn bạn lớp thông tin bạn biết không? 18 Bạn có thích giáo viên giảng tiếng Anh khơng? 19 Bạn có mong muốn giáo viên nói tiếng Anh nhiều học? 20 Bạn có mong muốn có nhiều hội nói tiếng Anh lớp không? VI Appendix 5: Link between Research Questions, Data Sources and Data Collection Methods Research Questions What is the level of willingness to communicate in English of NIEM Students? RQ Intervi - Speak in p (about 30 strangers - Talk with in a resta - Speak in p (about 30 friends - Speak in p (about 30 acquaint - Talk in a l (about 10 friends - Volunteer the teach in class - Talk in a l (about 10 acquaint - Talk in a l (about 10 strangers - Talk in a s (about fi strangers Research objectives Public Meeting Group VII - Dyad - Classroom - Stranger - - Acquaintance - Friend - (1) Teachers as WTC of NIEM Interlocutors (2) Self-perceived communicative − − − influencing the competence What factorsstudents? − X (3) Language anxiety − − − − − (4) Classroom social setting XI − (5) Personality − − (6) Motivation − − − − XII Speaking activities − Did you like reading or watching news in English? − Do you often share or talk about information that you know with your friends or classmates?  Would you like to have more opportunities to speak English in class? XIII ... What is the level of willingness to communicate in English of NIEM first- year students? What factors affect their willingness to communicate in English in speaking lessons? 1.4 Significance of. .. into students? ?? willingness to speak English in speaking lessons of first- year students at an Institute of Education Management in Vietnam? ?? is my own research for the Minor Degree of Master of Arts... limitations in research design and data All these conditions have motivated the researcher to conduct ? ?An investigation into students? ?? willingness to speak English in speaking lessons of first year students