Báo cáo thực tập tốt nghiệp tiếng anh (5)

PART I: INTRODUCTION Justification of the Study English is an international language and becoming more and more important in the economic integration and globalization nowadays This fact particularly holds true in the context of Thailand where many aspects of society involved with the use of English, especially in tourism industry Due to this, English has been popularly taught in many colleges and universities in Thailand in order to equip students with knowledge and necessary communication skills Besides domestic programs, many students have sent abroad to learn English The countries include America, England, Australia… and Vietnam As a student of a cooperative program between Thailand and Vietnam, the author has spent two years of studying at Vinh University The author feels that this is a good opportunity for her and her classmates to study both English language and Vietnamese culture However, she herself and her classmates have also experienced many difficulties both in life and study They have been confronted with the differences in the ways of living, the habits, the customs, etc., which acquire them to change much in order to adapt This naturally directly affects their study At university, though having made great efforts, they still showed dissatisfactions with the results Among many of their stated problems, speaking English has been one of the most obvious one Many of the author’s classmates have revealed that they did not develop good speaking skills The fact that they don not speak Vietnamese and Vietnamese teachers not speak Thai should have been good condition for using English, but this has also been a great obstacle to them in making each to be understood, especially to those of Thai students who not speak good English This of course caused an invisible barrier between them and much discouraged the students On the other hand, as Vietnam is not an Englishspeaking country, generally, Vietnamese students rarely speak English outside class Thai students who not have Vietnamese friends to practice English with eventually speak Thai with their peers Thus, it is obvious that they not have enough practice both in and outside class During the process of learning English in Vinh university, the author has confronted with this problem, and that is the reason the author chooses the topic “Problems in Learning English Speaking Skills for Thai Students at Vinh University”, with the hope that this paper might help the learners in the following courses overcome their difficulties in speaking skill Aims and Objectives of the study The study is conducted with the following aims To find out the problems and difficulties in learning and teaching speaking skill for Thai students at Vinh University To find out the main reason for these problems 3.To suggest some solutions and activities to these problems to partly improve speaking skill Methods of the Study The study is based on the two following methods a the collective method b the analyzing method Scope of the Study The topic ‘‘Problems in Learning English Speaking Skill for Thai Students at Vinh University’’ is a general topic and it can not be exploited in the study due to the limitation of a B.A thesis Therefore, the study only focuses on the main problems which cause difficulties for Thai students at Vinh University and the real situations of teaching and learning English Speaking Skill according to a survey done it by 15 of Thai students at Vinh University Besides, from this survey, some suggestions and solutions are given to improve in learning English Speaking Skill for Thai Students at Vinh University Design of the Study The thesis consists of three main parts: Part 1: Introduction, the aims, the methods, scope and design of the study Part 2: Development consist of chapters: Chapter 1: Theoretical Background – provides the literature review of the study, including definition of key concepts and review of related studies Chapter 2: Methodology – describes the participants, instruments, as well as the procedure of the research The results of the investigation which present analyzes and discuss the findings were also presented in this chapter Chapter 3: Recommendations – provides the activities to solve the students’ problems discussed in chapter Part C: Conclusion – summarizes the main issues discussed in the paper, states the limitations and contributions of the research, recommendations as well as some suggested directions for further studies Summary In this part of the study, the researcher has briefly elaborated on the rationale for the study, the aims and objectives together with the scope and methods of the study Also, an overview of the other chapters was presented, making it easier to follow the rest of the paper Generally speaking, these elaborations have not only sketched out the major contents and structures of the study but will also work as the guidelines for the whole paper PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Theoretical Background 1.1 What is Speaking Skill? Speaking as an academic discipline relates to all the ways we speak, so it embraces a large body of study and knowledge The speaking discipline includes both verbal and nonverbal messages A body of scholarship about speaking is presented and explained in textbooks, electronic publications, and academic journals Speaking skill can be defined in different ways According to Diane Phillips and Roger Gower (1995) speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode Another definition of speaking skill provided by Brown, H.D (1994) speaking is a learned skill Most people are born with the physical ability to talk, but we must learn to speak well and communicate effectively Speaking, listening, and our ability to understand verbal and nonverbal meanings are skills we develop in various ways We learn basic speaking skills by observing other people and modeling our behaviors based on what we see We also are taught some speaking skills directly through education, and by practicing those skills and having them evaluated 1.2 Importance of Speaking Skill Alls skills are important because we have to communicate with people at work and in normal life However, speaking has long been our main method for communicating with one another It is estimated that 75% of a person’s day is spent communicating in some way A majority of your communication time may be spent speaking and listening, while a minority of that time is spent reading and writing These speaking actions reflect skills which foster personal, academic, and professional success The National Speaking Association collected and annotated nearly 100 articles, commentaries, and publications, which call attention to the importance of the study of speaking in contemporary society Themes in the bibliography provide support for the importance of speaking education to: the development of the whole person; the improvement of the educational enterprise; being a responsible citizen of the world, both socially and culturally; and, succeeding in one’s career and in the business 1.3 Sub-Skills in Speaking Speaking skill consists a list of speaking sub skills Producing segmental features of English at word level (especially vowel and consonant sounds, stressed and unstressed syllables) Using supra segmental features of English (especially intonation, stress in sentences, word-linking and weak forms) accurately in spoken utterances Expressing grammatical (syntactic and morphological) relationships in spoken utterances at the level of the sentence Expressing relationships between parts of a spoken utterance through cohesive devices (especially grammatical cohesion such as noun-pronoun reference) Using markers in spoken discourse, in particular Sustaining communicative dialog with and without explicit markers Expressing conceptual meaning in spoken utterances Expressing attitudinal meaning in spoken text and utterances (especially by intonation) Marking the main points or important information in spoken text and utterances (especially through emphasis or vocal underlining and through verbal cues) 10 Expressing information or knowledge in informal and semi-formal utterances 11 Planning and organizing information in formal expository discourse 1.4 Problems in Speaking Skill 1.4.1 Pronunciation Pronunciation problems happen when speaking a second language because we are used to hearing and making sounds which only exist in their mother tongue When they hear or try to say the partially similar or totally different sounds, it's easy to make mistakes because they are used to hearing and making sounds in their mother tongue Besides, in English there are many homophones and homonyms which make students difficult to distinguish When having to talk with teachers, students are often nervous or shy so they can’t pronounce correctly 1.4.2 Vocabulary and Grammar In speaking, vocabulary and grammar are very important Using vocabulary and grammar in speaking can be compared to using bricks in building a house If students are not provided enough vocabulary and grammar, they can not express themselves correctly and adequately Especially when they nervous they can’t use correct grammar Misuse of verbs tenses is the most frequent kind of mistake in this situation 1.4.3 Psychology To many students, especially beginners, speaking to other people in a foreign language is a nightmare They are so nervous and anxious The reason for this is that they are afraid of making mistakes and loosing face in front of other people, especially their peers Besides, in some cultures, it’s their norms that girls shouldn’t talk to strangers, so they are naturally very shy, which creates a barrier to communicate when studying foreign language 1.4.4 Expressing It happens so many times that we can hear perfectly what other people say, and know exactly what we are trying to say, but it's almost as if our mouth will not co-operate with ours brain We not know what words to use That is the problem of expressing 1.4.5 Understanding people’ idea When speaking with some foreigners, we sometimes have problems of understanding because some of them speak very fast and not clearly Besides there are many English dialects with different accents which make us difficult to follow Another reason is that people from different countries have different way of thinking and expressing For example, English tend to express their ideas straightly while people in Asian countries tend to “beat about the bush”, which sometimes causes understanding problem 1.4.6 Fluency Many people make long pauses when they speak This makes the listener irritated and, as a result, communication becomes less effective To students speaking a foreign language, this happens more frequently because they have many difficulties such as above mentioned 1.4.7 Translating Many foreign language learners often translate when listening and before speaking This process takes much time and makes them more hesitant Moreover, they will face difficulty in expressing their ideas in cases there is no equivalence between the two languages Generally speaking, there are two factors to affect students' speaking English in class One is they fail to find suitable words to express themselves and the other is they are afraid of making mistakes Sometimes they make mistakes when they are speaking because they are shy and nervous 1.5 Summary In short, this chapter deals with some main points relating to the topic about speaking skill: some definitions of speaking skill according to some web-site, its importance and some main types of speaking; a popular approach for language teaching This part includes twelve sub-speaking skills and seven of problems in speaking skills CHAPTER 2: THE PROBLEMS OF LEARNING SPEAKING SKILL OF THAI STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY: THE SURVEY Aims and Objectives of the Survey The first aim of doing this survey is to investigate the ability of learning speaking skill of students and find out the main problems or difficulties they have when learning this skill The second aim is to know what can motivate them in speaking lessons The third most important reason of doing this survey is to give some suggestions to motivate students in speaking lessons better based on its results Participants The process of data collection involved the participation of Thai students at Vinh University To conduct the survey, 15 Thai students of 48 T2 English were chosen All students already had, to some extent, background knowledge about speaking skill In total, 15 students from Thai students class of English Language at Vinh university with varying backgrounds were involved in the data collection process Method In order to obtain sufficient reliable and valid data, and to achieve the research objectives, the survey questionnaire was chosen as the instrument of data collection The reason for this choice was that using questionnaires was particularly efficient in terms of researcher’s time and effort By administrating a questionnaire, a huge amount of information can be collected from a large number of people within a short period of time Furthermore, the questionnaire construction was made convenient for the data to be processed The participants only had to select the answer that was closest to their opinions; therefore, even not very enthusiastic ones could feel comfortable to answer all the questions Further information was obtained through the open-ended questions These features helped facilitate the data collation and analysis, as well as the comprehensive collection of information The survey questionnaire was designed with 10 questions of which there are multiple choice questions and open questions 10 - Divide the students into pairs and groups according to the different topics, let them prepare their "opinion", and then have a group spokesman deliver the opinion - Let the class have 5-10 minutes free talk at the beginning of every class Students can talk about any interesting events, news or stories they have read, listened and watched recently - Let students have an English class out of classroom with such activities as a English speaking club or class picnic and party It is essential to try to build an atmosphere where the students no longer feel shy, where they will voluntarily raise their hands to ask a question and where they will freely voice their own opinions 3.2.2 Increasing Encouragement After students finish their speaking in class, teachers should encourage them and let the students feel they have made some progress with a sense of their fulfillment Teachers can try to: Be firm in a gentle way and give them praise whenever they are doing anything close to a good job Be sincere and look for opportunities to find them doing something right Never get frustrated, angry and impatient Be a nice, sensitive, and approachable person at all times Never single students out or put them on the spot Treat them with kindness and respect Smile a lot and value their opinions Never embarrass anyone for a laugh 26 Allow the students to be themselves rather than expecting them to conform to your preconceived ideas about how they should behave Build their trust, take your time, and wait for them to come to you Teachers you should point out some apparent mistakes in their speaking, for example, the incorrect words in pronunciation or some serious mistakes in grammar after they finish their speech 3.2.3 Varying Methods It is very important for the teachers to adopt as many ways as possible to let students to practice English in class Strategy is due mainly to the fact that the students can choose what they want to read, listen to, watch, and talk about in class Try the following ways to the practice Free talk: choose those topics that have something to with the students’ interest and experience and also choose those subjects that students understand that there is no "right" answer, and the teacher is not judging their ideas, such as holidays, nature, ads, environment and pollution Retelling: Ask students to retell a story they have read, listened and watched Role playing: Ask students to practice situational dialogues by doing role plays, such as in the medical clinic, at the station, at the post office, in the restaurant and in the shop Debating: First try to choose some debatable topics such as who is cleverer? Boys or girls? Is the computer game useful or harmful for the students? Then let them discuss in pairs for 10 minutes After 10 minutes of discussion in pairs, divide the class into two groups; each representing their own real belief Finally let each group debate the other Act as a guide to help the debate along and nudge some of the silent students to talk Almost all the students take part and the class is lively and active 27 Storytelling: Ask students to tell stories with right intonation and pronunciation and gesture and expressions Talking according to the picture: Show students some cartoon pictures, or humorous pictures Let them talk freely Short play: Students really enjoy short plays Speech contest: Choose a topic to have a speech contest in class Description: Ask students to describe to a certain thing or event For instance, give your opinion on appearance after the teacher makes up 10 Speaking and drawing: Let one student give some description and ask other students to draw what the student says, such as, the location of a place and a plan of a school 11 Watching and speaking: 1) Let students to watch parts of cartoon film or some acts of TV play without any sound and voice and ask some of them to guess the meaning and talk about it 2) Let one or two students watch and talk about only pictures of film or TV play without any sound The other students imagine the scene by listening to the students' talking with their backs facing the TV set and then let them watch the program to compare 12 Acting as an interpreter: Let one student act an interpreter and one as a foreigner and some students as local citizens They communicate through interpretation, like shopping and sightseeing 13 Problem solving: Give students some topic with some key words and ask them to solve a certain problem For example, if you have these tools: a compass, a knife and a tin, how can you survive in the forest for a week? 3.2.4 Providing Necessary Guidance 28 Teachers play an important role in making the class lively and active by their guide and arrangement Students' initiatives should be encouraged and respected, but it does not mean there is no guide or assessment on the part of the teacher After all, the guidance and help of the teacher makes his job inevitable in the classroom and education The teacher should: Try to use many gestures, vivid language and clear expressions in class Act as an actor as well as a conductor giving demonstrations and showing them first such as retelling, free talking and storytelling Give students enough time to prepare what they want to speak Let students know the day before what they will be expected to participate in the next day Ask the students to try to memorize the whole thing, by asking questions and try to let them to think and say in their own words Teach students to concentrate your attention on the important information of the speech rather than every word that your partner says Teachers should invent more ways to let students practise This will arouse their interest to speak and help them more easily to master this skill 3.3 SUMMARY In conclude, this chapter suggests some solutions to solve the problems and difficulties in learning speaking skill and recommends several activities used to motivate students and increase their interest in learning this skill 29 PART 3: CONCLUSTION 3.1 Recapitulation Clearly, teaching and learning English speaking skill in particular and a language speaking skill in general are not easy at all It takes much effort from both teachers and students The thesis discusses some main points about student speaking skill: several different definitions according to some importance and types of speaking Moreover, it comes ups a language teaching approach It also presents its types of activities and sub-skill as well 30 In addition, the study investigates the real situations of learning speaking skill for Thai students at Vinh University by carrying out a survey From the survey, a lot of useful information has been found, leading to a conclusion for many matters of teaching and learning this skill which need solving Based on these findings, some solutions have been suggested including solutions to psychological problems and creating appropriate class activities in order to motivate students to speak in English It is hoped that all this will partly help to improve the current situation of learning and teaching speaking English for Thai students at Vinh University 3.2 Suggestions for Further Study The field of speaking skill is very large However, due to the limitations of time and the author’s knowledge and experience, the study can not cover all the matters relating to the topic There are still many more problems and solutions such as new interesting activities to change the boring and stressful atmosphere in many speaking classes Therefore the author hopes that someone who is interested in this matter will continue to develop this topic so as to find more useful and realistic solutions and activities for teaching this skill better REFERENCES Ann Galloway Communicative Language Teaching: an Introduction and Sample Activities Retrieved on October 22, 2009 from www.cal.org/resources/gallow01.htm/ Brown, H.D.(1994) Teaching by Principles New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents 3.Carol Van Dozer Improving ESL Learner’s Speaking Skills: at the 31 Workplace and Beyond Retrieved on November 13,2009 from www.improving- ESL- lms.list.vanduzerdoc Diane Phillips and Roger Gower (1995) Teaching Practice Handbook Kenneth Beare The challenge of Teaching Speaking Skill Retrieved on October 28, 2009 from www.about com/ Long M.H & Richards, J.C (1987) Methodology in TESOL USA: Heinle&Heinle Leo Jones Progress to First Certificate I Cambridge University Press L.A.HILL (1996) English Funny Stories The World Publisher Melissa Kelly Active Language for the Classroom Retrieved on October 25, 2009 from www.about.com 10 Richards, J.C and Rodgers, T.S (2001) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Cambridge University Press 11 Robert Wyss, M.A Bringing Learners up-to-date on CLT classroom approaches Retrieved on October 29, 2009 from www.eltnewsletter.com 12 Tanner R & Green.C.(1998) Tasks for teacher education UK Addisson Wesley Longman Ltd 32 QUESTIONNAIRE This questionnaire is designed to serve for the study “Problems in Learning English Speaking Skill for Thai Students at Vinh University’’ The researcher would be very grateful if you support her by answering the following questions truthfully Thank you for your help! How important speaking skill is? a Very important; b b Important ; c c Not important 33 How much you like studying speaking? a Very much; b Much c Not much How much time you spend for speaking each day? …………………………………………………………… How you practice speaking outside class? …………………………………………………………… What mark you often get for speaking skill? …………………………………………………………… How you evaluate the followings? Very Good Good Contents of the speaking course Speaking activities Teachers Teaching method 34 Not good What are problems you face while learning speaking? (Please put them in the order of seriousness) A Pronunciation B Vocabulary C Grammar D Understanding people E Expressing yourself F Pausing too long to search for words G Translating H Being nervous I Being shy What activities you like most in the speaking class? …………………………………………………………… What topics you like most in the speaking class? …………………………………………………………… 10 In your opinion, what should be done to improve the situation? ……………………………………………………………………… THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION! 35 ABSTRACT When communication has become more and more important to people all over the world and English is the international language, it is urgent and common that there are more people who speak English fluently However, to foreign language learners, this skill is thought to be the most difficult ones and therefore they often face many problems This study is an attempt to investigate the real situations and problems of Thai students of English at Vinh University in learning English speaking skills The triangulation of the questionnaires has revealed much useful information on the importance, self evaluation and problems in speaking skills of Thai students nowadays This analysis will bring teachers of speaking skill more insights into their students’ level, the effectiveness of the course as well as problems needed to be solved The study is hoped to contribute to improving the teaching of speaking skills for Thai students at Vinh University 36 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT .i TABLE OF CONTENTS ii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES v PART I: IN TNRODUCTION Justification of the Study Aims and Objectives of the Study Methods of the Study Scope of the Study .3 Design of the Study PART I I : DEVELOPMENT 37 CHAPTER THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .5 1.1 What is Speaking Skill? .5 1.2 Importance of Speaking Skill 1.3 Sub-skills in Speaking .6 1.4 Problems in Speaking Skill 1.4.1 Pronunciation 1.4.2 Vocabulary and Grammar 1.4.3 Psychology 1.4.4 Expressing 1.4.5 Understanding people’ ideas 1.4.6 Fluency 1.4.7 Translating .8 1.5 Summary CHAPTER THE PROBLEMS OF LEARNING SPEAKING SKILL FOR THAI STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY: THE SURVEY 10 Aims and Objectives of the Survey 10 Participants 10 Methods 10 Procedures 11 Findings 12 6.Remarks from the study .23 Summary .24 CHAPTER 3: WAYS TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILL FOR THAI STUDENTS AT VINH UNIVERSITY 25 3.1 For students .25 3.1.1 Continuously improve linguistic knowledge 25 3.1.2 Practice more 25 3.1.3 Overcoming psychological problems .26 3.2 For teachers .26 3.2.1 Creating Good Environment 26 3.2.2 Increasing Encouragement .27 38 3.2.3 Varying Methods 28 3.2.4 Providing Necessary Guidance 30 3.3 Summary 31 PART 3: CONCLUSTION 32 3.1 Recapitulation 32 3.2 Suggestions for Further Study 32 REFERENCES .33 APPENDIX 35 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES page Figure 1: Importance of speaking skill 11 Figure 2: Student’s interest in speaking English .11 Figure 3: Student’s amount of time for practicing speaking skill 12 Figure 4: student’s practice speaking outside class 13 Figure 5: Student’s mark of speaking skill .13 Figure 6: Student’s evaluation of speaking activities .14 Figure 7: Student’s problems while learning speaking 15 Figure 8: Activities students like most in speaking classes 16 Figure 9: Topics students like most in speaking classes 17 Figure 10: Student’s opinion what should be done to improve speaking .18 39 40