Teaching speaking skill for non-major ma students of english at vnuh

Teaching speaking skill for non-major ma students of english at vnuh

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iii

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES iv

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Scope of the study 1

3 Aim and objectives of the study 2

4 Research questions of the study 2

5 Methods of the study 2

6 Organization of the study 2

PART TWO:DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4

I.1 The nature of language skills 4

I.1.1 The nature of language skills 4

I.1.2 The nature of speaking skill 4

I.1.2.1 What is speaking? 4

I.1.2.2 What are components of speaking? 5

I.1.2.3 What skills and knowledge does a good speaker need? 7

I.2 Teaching adults 8

I.3 How speaking skill has been taught to adult ESOL learners 9

CHAPTER II: THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL AT VNUH 13

II.1 Overview of the subjects of the study 13

II.2 Data analysis 14

II.2.1 Discussion of the survey questionnaires 14

II.2.2 Presentation of statistical results 15

II.2.2.1 Teaching and learning speaking skill at SGS as seen from students’ perspective 15

II.2.2.2 Teaching and learning speaking skill at SGS as seen from teachers’ perspective 17

III.1 Findings 19

III.1.1 From students’ perspective 19

III.1.2 From teachers’ perspective 21

III.2 Recommendations 21

III.3 Suggested activities for motivating students and improving their speaking ability 27

PART THREE:CONCLUSION 43

1 Summary of the study 43

2 Suggestions for further study 43

REFERENCES AAPPENDIX C

My sincere thanks also go to all lecturers and the staff of the Department of Post GraduateStudies at College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University for their usefullectures, assistance and enthusiasm during my course.

Special acknowledgement is also given to my colleges and former MA students of law,technology, economics, education and business administration at Vietnam NationalUniversity Hanoi, who have been very supportive in filling the survey questionnaires.Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my husband and my family for theirunderstanding, patience and support during the entire period of my study.

Nguyễn Thị Thu Hương

SGS School of Graduate Studies

TEFL Teaching English as a Foreign Language

TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other LanguagesVNUH Vietnam National University, Hanoi

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1: Units of spoken language.

Table 1: Speaking activities and topics/drills in the course book ‘English for Graduate Students’.

Table 2: What make students interested in speaking in English class.Table3: What make students unwilling to speak in English class.

Table 4: Students’ assessment of classroom speaking activities given by teachers.Table 5: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking for MA students at SGS.Table 6: What teachers do to motivate students to speak in class.

Table 7: Suggested ideas for discussion.

Table 8: Activities suitable for each unit in the course book ‘English for Graduate Students’.

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION1.Rationale of the study

Today, English is the language of globalization, international communication, commerce,the media and pop culture, and thus, affects motivations for learning English English is nolonger seen as the property of the English-speaking world but as an international

commodity sometimes referred to as World English or An International Language.

In Vietnam, foreign languages, with English as the most studied, have become acompulsory subject at schools and colleges Many students begin their learning Englishwhen they are ten years old City children even have their first lessons of English as earlyas they attend primary school As for MA students of laws, economy, technology,education and business administration at VNUH, the minimum time of dealing withEnglish before their MA course is 420 class contacts (approximately 315 hours) They aresupposed to be of pre-intermediate level of English before having another 150 classcontacts as a compulsory part of their MA course at VNUH However, it is surprising tolearn that many of these students are incapable of using their English to talk, even in class.What is more, the same situation exists in many other colleges and universities in Vietnam.There have been numerous studies on this situation and various solutions,recommendations and suggestions have been given, including changing teaching methods,changing syllabus or textbooks, upgrading teachers’ qualifications, changing formats ofspeaking tests and so on At SGS – VNUH, which is in charge of teaching English for MAstudents at VNUH, no such a research has been done before The author, as a full-timeteacher at SGS, is more than aware of the situation and she herself has encountered anumber of difficulties in helping her students improve their speaking skill This actually

drives her to this research, namely “Teaching speaking skill for non-major MA students at

2.Scope of the study

To improve speaking skill for non-major MA students of English at VNUH, variousmethods can be made used of However, within the framework of a minor thesis, the authoronly intends to give an overview of the current situation of teaching and learning speakingskill at SGS – VNUH and to suggest activities to help teachers improve their students’speaking skill and achieve the objectives of each unit of the course book as well Thesuggested activities will serve as a reference for teachers to teach effectively speaking

topics in the course book English for Graduate Students only.

3 Aim and objectives of the study

Within the framework of a minor MA thesis, the study aims at suggesting classroomactivities with the hope that they would be helpful, in one way or another, for teachers intheir teaching English speaking skill to non-major MA students of English at VNUH.To achieve this aim, the objectives are to investigate the current situations of learning andteaching of speaking skill to non-major MA students of English at VNUH in order to findout the reasons for students’ unwillingness to speak English as well as teachers’ problemsin teaching speaking skill.

4 Research questions of the study

The researcher wish to raise the questions as follows:

- What are the factors affecting willingness of non-major MA students ofEnglish to speak in class?

- What difficulties do teachers encounter in teaching English speaking skillfor these students?

5 Methods of the study

To complete the study, quantitative method was used Two survey questionnaires and someshort interviews were given to non-major MA students of English at SGS – VNUH andtheir teachers to collect information for the study All comments, remarks, suggestions andconclusion provided in the study based on the analysis of the data collected from thesesurveys.

6 Organization of the study

The study consists of three parts.

Part one, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale and the scope of the thesis, defines theaim and objectives of the study The research questions, methods and organization are alsomentioned in this part.

Part two, DEVELOPMENT, includes the following three chapters:

- Chapter one, Literature Review, covers the concepts relevant to the study: the

nature of language skills and communication, the nature of speaking skill, inwhich answers to the questions: What is speaking? What are components ofspeaking? What skills and knowledge does a good speaker need? are found.Then the author discusses what skills and knowledge a good speaker needs.

Methods and approaches most frequently applied so far in the teaching ofspeaking skill are also reviewed in this part.

- Chapter two, namely Teaching and Learning English Speaking skill at SGS –

VNUH, provides an analysis of the current situation of teaching and learning

speaking skill here based on the result of interviews and surveys of student’sattitude towards the current teaching methods and activities applied by theteachers in class, and teachers’ opinions about the course book.

- Chapter three, Some suggested activities for teaching English speaking skill at

SGS, presents activities designed for each unit of the course book with the hope

that they would help the teachers in creating motivation and improvingstudents’ ability to speak English.

Part three, CONCLUSION, summarizes the findings and addresses the shortcomings of thestudy It also gives suggestions for further researches and studies.

PART TWO:DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUNDI.1 The nature of language skills

I.1.1 The nature of language skills

Language has been divided into different skill areas, based on the purpose of analysis andinstruction Regarding teaching points of view, language skills mainly consist of four-macro skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, in which speaking and writing areproductive skills and listening and reading are receptive skills (Byrne, 1988:8) Regardingthe manners by which they are formed, language skills are divided into oral skills relatingto articulately organs, which are listening and speaking and literacy skills in connectionwith manual script including reading and writing.

Of the four skills, speaking plays a role of great importance It is central to the business ofteaching and learning, in every discipline and at every level of instruction It defines whoknows or does not know a language One cannot say he knows English without his abilityto use the language to talk and once a person can speak in English, people say he knowsthe language without knowing if he can read or write it or not.

I.1.2The nature of speaking skillI.1.2.1 What is speaking?

Speaking is “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing andreceiving and processing information” (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997) Its form andmeaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participantsthemselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes forspeaking It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving Speaking requires thatlearners not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar,pronunciation, or vocabulary ("linguistic competence"), but also that they understandwhen, why, and in what ways to produce language ("sociolinguistic competence") It hasits own skills, structures, and conventions different from written language (Burns & Joyce,1997; Carter & McCarthy, 1995; Cohen, 1996) A good speaker synthesizes these skillsand knowledge to succeed in a given speech act.

I.1.2.2 What are components of speaking?

This section examines the components of spoken English, drawing on a model proposed byvan Lier (1995) It is necessary for teachers to understand fully these interrelatedcomponents in order to help adult learners improve their speaking skill

The figure depicts the many elements involved in teaching speaking to adult ESOLlearners The left column lists four traditional areas of linguistic analysis (which teachersmust understand), and the center column labels the units of spoken language (whichlearners must master).

Beginning at the pyramid’s base, text refers to stretches of language of an undetermined

length Texts can be either written or spoken, but here the focus is exclusively on spoken

discourse Spoken texts are composed of utterances: what someone says A clause is two

or more words that contain a verb marked for tense and a grammatical subject.distinctive

Figure 1: Units of spoken language (van Lier, 1995, p 15).

DISCOURSE

Independent clauses are complete sentences that can stand alone (“Tuan went to work”),

whereas dependent clauses cannot (“While Tuan was going to work ”) In contrast, a

phrase is two or more words that function as a unit but do not have a subject or a verb

marked for tense These include prepositional phrases (“in the hospital” or “after school”)and infinitive phrases (“to drive” or “to move up”) Clauses and phrases do not usuallyappear alone in formal writing, but they are quite common in speech Both clauses andphrases can be utterances, as can individual words, the next level in the pyramid.

A word is called a free morpheme—a unit of language that can stand on its own andconvey meaning (bus, apply, often) In contrast, bound morphemes are always connected towords These include prefixes, such as un- or pre-, as well as suffixes, such as -tion or -s or-ed Often, during the pressure of speaking, it is difficult for Vietnamese learners English

to use the expected suffixes because Vietnamese language does not utilize these kinds ofmorphemes as grammatical markers.

A phoneme is a unit of sound that distinguishes meaning Phonemes can be eitherConsonants (like /p/ or /b/ in the words pat and bat) or Vowels (like /I/ and /æ/ in bit and

bat) Phonemes differ from English to Vietnamese and are therefore difficult for learners to

pronounce For example, the “th” sounds in think and the are pervasive in English but do

not exit in Vietnamese language Learners of English, especially adult ones, oftenapproximate or replace the “th” sounds with “s” or “z” or “d”.

In the top levels of the figure, the word syllable overlaps the levels of morphemes and

phonemes because a syllable can consist of a morpheme or simply one or more phonemes.The structure of syllables is referred to as being either open (ending with a V) or closed(ending with a C) Vietnamese languages use the open syllable structure, in which asyllable consists of just a V, or of a C followed by a V Spoken English, in contrast, allowsboth open syllables (C-V, or just V) and closed syllables (C-V-C, or simply V-C), as well

as C clusters, where two or more Consonants occur in sequence (as in the words stretchedor jumped) For this reason, Vietnamese learners of English may omit word-final

Consonants, thereby eliminating the sounds that convey important linguistic information,such as plurality, possession, or tense.

Consonants and vowels are called segmental phonemes Sometimes a spoken syllableconsists of one phoneme (/o/ in okay) Syllables also consist of combined sounds (thesecond syllable of okay), and of both free and bound morphemes For instance, the free

morpheme hat consists of three phonemes but only one syllable The word disheartenedhas three syllables, four morphemes (dis + heart + en + ed), and nine phonemes.

A smaller unit, the distinctive feature, relates to how and where in the mouth a sound is

produced when we speak These minute contrasts contribute to ESOL learners’ accents The three other labels in The figure—stress, rhythm, and intonation represent the

suprasegmental phonemes When we speak, these phonemes carry meaning differences

“above” the segmental phonemes For instance, the sentence “I am going now” can conveyat least four different meanings, depending on where the stress is placed The differencesare related to the context where the utterances occur Consider these interpretations:

I am going now (You may be staying here, but I choose to leave.)

I am going now (You may assert that I’m staying, but I insist that I am leaving.)I am going now (I insist that I am leaving, rather than staying.)

I am going now (I am not waiting any longer.)

It is critical to know how these levels of spoken language relate to the speaking skill ofVietnamese learners Two key points derive from a substantial review of the research onforeign accent by Major (2001) First, he says that really learning the sound system of alanguage entails mastering (a) the individual segments (the V and C phonemes), (b) thecombinations of segments, (c) prosody (stress, intonation, rhythm, etc.), and (d) “globalaccent, or the overall accent of a speaker” (p 12) He adds that a global foreign accent isthe result of a nonnative combination of (a), (b), and (c).

Second, Major (2001) notes that “both the learner’s age and the AOL (when the learnerwas first exposed to the language) have been found to be important variables in governingwhether and to what degree a learner can acquire a native like accent” (pp 6–7) Heconcludes that “the vast majority of the research indicates that the younger the learner themore native like the pronunciation” (p 11).

I.1.2.3 What skills and knowledge does a good speaker need?

A speaker's skills and speech habits have an impact on the success of any exchange (VanDuzer, 1997) Speakers must be able to anticipate and then produce the expected patternsof specific discourse situations They must also manage discrete elements such as turn-taking, rephrasing, providing feedback, or redirecting (Burns & Joyce, 1997) Other skillsand knowledge that instruction might address include the following:

- producing the sounds, stress patterns, rhythmic structures, and intonations of thelanguage;

- using grammar structures accurately;

- assessing characteristics of the target audience;

- selecting vocabulary that is understandable and appropriate for the audience, thetopic being discussed, and the setting in which the speech act occurs;

- applying strategies to enhance comprehensibility;- using gestures or body language; and

- paying attention to the success of the interaction and adjusting components ofspeech.

I.2Teaching adults

Adults bring life experiences and a level of maturity into the classroom that children and adolescents do not Their expectations and motivations reflect this Here are several keys tokeep in mind when teaching adults:

- Adult classrooms may present great diversity

Be prepared for diversity of cultural background, age, previous formal education,previous exposure to English, life experiences, and current life situations.

- Adults respond well to knowledgeable, enthusiastic teachers

You must be comfortable with the subject matter you are teaching andcommunicate enthusiasm for the subject matter and your role as a teacher This willhelp you gain respect and is especially important if you are younger than yourstudents If you must teach material which is challenging for you, try not tocommunicate a negative attitude about the material to your students If a studentasks a question which you can't answer, don't be afraid to say, "I don't know, but I'llfind out for you."

- Adults are not too old to learn a second language well

Although native language learning and literacy are best accomplished in childhood,when it comes to learning a second language, research has shown that adolescentsand adults outperform children Adolescents even surpassed children inpronunciation skills One of the reasons children appear to acquire a second

language faster than adults is simply that they get a lot more practice with otherchildren and have lower inhibitions, but many adults have attained a high level offluency in a foreign language

- Adults need a comfortable and safe learning atmosphere

Trial and error should be encouraged in language learning Adults will take morerisks in an environment where it's safe to make mistakes without embarrassment.You may want to minimize public reading and writing until your learners gainconfidence, especially if literacy skills are deficient The same goes for standing infront of the group to speak

- Adult learning is transformative

Learning in childhood is said to be formative, when skills and concepts aredeveloped for the first time Adults, on the other hand, are extending and refiningtheir knowledge based on existing knowledge and beliefs They are changed ortransformed by learning experiences

- Adults need repeated practice of a concept or skill

Adults generally need patience and repetition to solidify new language concepts orskills If adults have already developed bad habits with English errors, these willtake time and effort to break Adults also tend to have a lot on their minds andlimited time to practice English outside the classroom

- Adults learn well with question asking and answering, and problem findingand solving

These activities require mature thought processes which stimulate and motivateadult minds

- Adults want practical, real-life contexts

The more relevant and useful the subject matter, the more motivated your learnerswill be Adults enjoy materials that relate to their personal experiences andinterests, and they want to be able to apply what they're learning in the real world.

I.3How speaking skill has been taught to adult ESOL learners

Although several language teaching methods have been used to teach speaking in a secondor foreign language, three methods have dominated language teaching in the past 60 years.

This section first briefly reviews each method, then focuses specifically on how the methodtreats the speaking skill of adult ESOL learners.

The Grammar-Translation Method

In the grammar-translation method, students are taught to analyze grammar and to translate(usually in writing) from one language to another The key instructional goal is to read theliterature of a particular culture According to Richards and Rodgers (1986), the maincharacteristics of the grammar-translation method are:

- reading and writing are the major focus;

- the vocabulary studied is determined by the reading texts; - the sentence is the basic unit of teaching and language practice”; - the primary emphasis is on accuracy;

- teaching is deductive (i.e., grammar rules are presented and then practiced throughtranslating); and

- the medium of instruction is typically the students’ native language

The grammar-translation method does not prepare students to speak English, so it is notappropriate for nonacademic adult ESOL students who want to improve their speakingskill The method is not consistent with the goals of increasing fluency, oral production, orcommunicative competence of adult ESOL learners In grammar-translation lessons,speaking consists largely of reading translations aloud or doing grammar exercises orally.There are few opportunities for expressing original thoughts or personal needs and feelingsin English.

The Audio-lingual Method

The audio-lingual method dominated English-language instruction for many years In thismethod, speaking skill is taught by having students repeat sentences and recite memorizedtextbook dialogues The theory behind the audio-lingual method is that students learn tospeak by practicing grammatical structures until producing those structures becomeautomatic Then, it is thought, the learners would be able to engage in conversation As aresult, “teaching oral language was thought to require no more than engineering therepeated oral production of structures concentrating on the development ofgrammatical and phonological accuracy combined with fluency” (Bygate, 2001, p 15).

The theoretical basis of the audio-lingual method behaviorist is the concept of good habitformation This theory proposes that for learners to form good habits, language lessonsmust involve frequent repetition and correction Teachers address spoken errors quickly, inhopes of preventing students from forming bad habits If errors are left untreated, both thespeaker and the other students in class might internalize those erroneous forms There islittle or no explanation of vocabulary or grammar rules in audio-lingual lessons Instead,intense repetition and practice are used to establish good speaking habits to the point thatthey are fluent and automatic - that is, adult ESOL learners would not have to stop andthink about how to form an utterance before speaking.

Audiolingualism “rapidly lost popularity, partly as a result of the strong theoreticalarguments that were advanced against it, but also because the results obtained fromclassroom practice were disappointing” in several ways (Ellis, 1990, p.29) Many learnerslost interest in language learning because the pattern practice and audio-lingual drills wereboring Adult learners often felt hampered because the method downplayed the explicitteaching of grammar rules In addition, the memorization of patterns “did not lead to fluentand effective communication in real-life situations” (p.30).

“While audiolingualism stressed oral skills (evidenced by the amount of time spent in thelanguage laboratory practicing drills), speech production was tightly controlled in order toreinforce correct habit formation of linguistic rules” (Lazaraton, 2001, p 103) This sort oftightly controlled practice does not necessarily prepare learners for the spontaneous, fluidinteraction that occurs outside the classroom.

Communicative Language Teaching

During the 1970s and 1980s, language acquisition research (and dissatisfaction with theaudio-lingual method) made TESOL professionals reconsider some long-standing beliefsabout how people learn languages As a result, communicative language teaching arose.CLT is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasizesinteraction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language

In this method teachers often downplay accuracy and emphasize students’ ability to conveytheir messages (Hammerly, 1991) Accuracy is the extent to which the adult ESOLlearners’ speech matches the native speaker norms Fluency is the speed, ease, andnaturalness with which ESOL learners communicate orally Proficient speakers are bothfluent and accurate, but at the lower levels, fluency and accuracy often work against one

another That is, to be accurate and apply learned rules, adult ESOL learners may speakhesitantly or haltingly To be fluent in conversation, they may overlook the time-consuming application of rules The instructional implications are that teachers should notfocus only on accuracy, but should use both form-focused and fluency building activities inadult ESOL classes.

In some language teaching methods, such as Total Physical Response, the focus is oninput-based activities In contrast, communicative language teaching methods feature moreinteraction-based activities, such as role plays and information gap tasks Curricularchoices, such as task-based and project-based activities also promote interaction Pair workand group work are typical organizational features of interaction-based lessons incommunicative language teaching.

Recent critiques of CLT include an article by Stephen Bax entitled: "The end of CLT: aContext Approach to language teaching" in which he argues that the dominance of CLThas led to the neglect of one crucial aspect of language pedagogy, namely the context inwhich that pedagogy takes place Bax argues that it is time to replace CLT as the centralparadigm in language teaching with a Context Approach which places context at the heartof the profession The article argues that such a shift is taking place already and willeventually change our practice radically

Concluding remark

It can be drawn out that of all the approaches stated above, which have dominatedlanguage teaching in the past 60 years throughout the world, the first two, i.e., theGrammar-Translation method and the Audio-lingual method, have proved to be of less usein the current teaching of speaking skill, especially that to adult learners, whosecharacteristics regarding psychology, mindset and ability in learning to speak Englishrequire productive methods rather than inactive ones.

CHAPTER II: THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISHSPEAKING SKILL AT VNUH

II.1Overview of the subjects of the studyII.1.1 Students

The thesis studies MA students of laws, economy, technology, education and businessadministration at VNUH The students’ age varies from 22 to about 50 Almost those under30, who account for more than 50 percent of all students, finished 420 class contacts(equivalent to 315 hours) of English at university Some even had a longer time of learningEnglish at schools The rest do not have so much time learning English and many of themhave not used English for a long time Despite the difference in age and the time ofacquiring English, to become an MA student at VNUH, almost all of them must pass theEnglish entrance exam at pre-intermediate level Those who already have a certificate ofEnglish at the equivalent or higher level are exempted from that exam At SGS – VNUHthey have to continue to learn English as a compulsory subject.

II.1.2 Teachers

Almost all the teachers of English at SGS have got MA degree in TEFL and at least severalyears of teaching experience The rest are about to finish their MA course The majority ofthem are from VNUH, some from Hanoi University of Education Only 20 percent of themare working as full-time teachers at SGS – VNUH

II.1.3 Course book

The course book is Intermediate English for Graduate Students, published in 2004 by SGS– VNUH and has ever since been used as an official course book It was adapted from New

Headway Intermediate, by Liz & John Soars, to fit students’ level of English and

educational goals of the universities Intermediate English for Graduate Students was,

according to what is stated in the Introduction, intended to be“communicative oriented and inclusive of the four language skills: listening,speaking, reading and writing as well as language components: phonetics,grammar and vocabulary There are 10 units, each accompanies with a topicfamiliar to learners and includes such parts as grammar, vocabulary, practiceexercises and communicative skills” However, the course book appears tofocus on grammar and grammar exercises other than communication skills.

This can be easily noticed on the very first page of the book, which presentseach unit with a topic and all grammar items it is about, without any skillsnamed As considerations go further to contents of each unit, this seems to beproved right Activities for speaking skill, for example, are not found toappear until unit four To be more detailed, all activities and topics or drills interms of speaking skill in the course book are presented as the following.

Doing charity

Collecting things

Table 1: Speaking activities and topics/drills in the course book ‘English for Graduate Students’

It can be learned from the table that the variety of speaking activities is very limited, withdiscussion as the most common It therefore depends very much on teachers’ experienceand enthusiasm to design speaking activities that motivate students and improve theirspeaking ability

II.2Data analysis

II.2.1 Discussion of the survey questionnaires

To collect information concerning the current situation of teaching and learning speakingskill at SGS – VNUH, the author conducted two survey questionnaires; one was deliveredto 100 students and the other to 12 teachers of English at SGS To answer the question in

the survey questionnaires, informants may have more than one choice, so the totalpercentage of the answers to a certain question may not equal 100 percent.

The first questionnaire was designed for the students with three questions:

Question 1: What make you interested in speaking in English class?Question 2: What make you unwilling to speak in English class?

Question 3: Does your teacher often introduce classroom speaking activities?

The second questionnaire is designed for the teachers and consists of two questions.

Question 1: What are your difficulties in teaching speaking for MA students at SGS?Question 2: What do you do to motivate students to speak in class?

100 copies of the questionnaire delivered to the students and 12 copies of the questionnairedelivered to the teachers have been all responded.

II.2.2 Presentation of statistical results

II.2.2.1 Teaching and learning speaking skill at SGS as seen from students’ perspective

C My teacher gives me more attention because I speak English better than otherstudents in the class.

27B My teacher always encourages me to speak, even when I make a lot ofmistakes in speaking.

E I feel confident in speaking English in front of others 15

Table 2: What make students interested in speaking in English class

The low percentages in table 1 reveal the fact that there is hardly anything attractiveenough to encourage a large number of students to speak

27% students speak because of the attention they receive from their teachers as they speakEnglish better than other students Other factors involving students into speaking in classare teachers’ encouragement and activities or games, which respectively receive responsefrom 23% and 22% of the students Subjective factors like students’ good ability and highconfidence in speaking English make only 15% of them interested in speaking in class.

Some are accustomed to speaking in English class and some find topics are interesting andfamiliar to speak about (8% and 7% respectively)

Students also specified other factors affecting their interest in speaking in class such astheir wishes to improve speaking skill and be able to communicate with foreigners

G I’m not accustomed to speaking English in class (It’s my habit to sit in class andlisten quietly to teachers until I’m asked to speak).

52C I’m afraid that my classmates will laugh at me if I make mistakes 39B My teacher often corrects my mistakes when I’m speaking 29H It’s ok if I don’t speak The teacher never complains about that 28

F My teacher and other students speak almost all the time 23

Table3: What make students unwilling to speak in English class

Statistics provided in table 3 prove to be well-matched with those in table 2 It seems thatmany students share the same reasons for their being uninterested in classroom speakingactivities

Circumstance makes up the largest proportion of the reasons for students’ unwillingness tospeak 72% of them state that they are too tired to go to class This is because almost allMA students at VNUH go to work during day time and attend their classes in the evening.It is very common that they enter the class with “an exhausted body and an emptystomach”, as one student noted in the questionnaire.

Many students (56%) blame boring/unfamiliar topics for discouraging them to speak inclass and a similar number (53%) state that they are not interested in speaking as theycannot find exact words to express their ideas

Students who are not active in class make up the rate of 52% They are passive and onlyspeak when they are asked to, especially 28% of them who are never complained by theteachers for their not speaking in class

Another factor that should be taken into consideration is students’ wish to save face.Although they are adult learners, 39% of them are afraid of making mistakes and do notwant to be laughed at For this reason, 29% do not like it when teachers interrupt them tocorrect their mistakes This discourages them a lot

Psychological factors also play a role in getting students speak English 25% of thestudents get discouraged when they receive little or no attention from teachers or whenteachers and other students speak most of the time Some of them state that their shynessalso affects their willingness to speak in class.

D Yes, sometimes But the activities are not interesting and varied enough 16F Occasionally And the activities are not interesting 13

B Yes, very often But the activities are not interesting and varied enough 0

Table 4: Students’ assessment of classroom speaking activities given by teachers

The data in table 4 show that all teachers design classroom speaking activities but none ofthem do it very often A large proportion of the students show interest in classroomspeaking activities but those activities are occasionally introduced by their teachers Notmany students (16%) complain that activities their teachers use do not appear to beinteresting to them It can be drawn out that students are motivated by speaking activities.The question is whether or not and how often teachers make use of activities in theirteaching Only 16% of the students state that their teachers sometimes make use ofclassroom activities in raising students’ interest in speaking and these students do not findthe sometimes-provided activities interesting when 25% say that they like these activities

II.2.2.2 Teaching and learning speaking skill at SGS as seen from teachers’ perspective

E Teaching speaking takes time when I have to cover all other contents of the course book.

58.3C I don’t have enough time to prepare speaking activities 41.7D I can’t find suitable and interesting speaking activities 25

Table 5: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking for MA students at SGS

It can be seen from table 1 that students’ varied level of proficiency is an obstacle to all ofthe teachers The second obstacle that identified by many of them (75%) is students’unwillingness to speak 58.3% is the proportion of the teachers who have difficulty

because teaching speaking is time consuming when they must cover all other contents ofthe course book

Regarding subjective factors, 41.7% of the teachers lack time to prepare activities and to25% of them, finding suitable and interesting speaking activities is impossible May be thereason why so many teachers do not have enough time for the preparation of their teachingat VNUH is that, as mentioned in the first part of this chapter, only 20% of them work fulltime here It is very likely that they spend more time and effort for the classes at collegeswhere they work as full time teachers

E I always listen attentively to and appreciate students’ answers 33.3F I never forget to praise them before pointing out their mistakes in speaking 25J I encourage students to learn by reminding them of the proportion of speaking

C I let them talk about whatever topic they like 16.7I I ask the better students to speak after other students 16.7G I set funny classroom rules/punishment for those who keep quiet or speak

Vietnamese in class.

Table 6: What teachers do to motivate students to speak in class

The table shows that asking better students to speak first is the dominant way with the rateof 66.7% The way that ranks second is giving students many questions to motivate themto speak with 41.7% Next comes creating interesting activities and games with 33.3% andthe same rate believe that appreciating students by listening attentively to them can help tomotivate them to speak

16.7% of the teachers introduce interesting and familiar topics to students to motivate themand the same number let students talk freely about topics of their interest Asking the betterstudents to speak after other students is also applied by that number.

It is quite interesting to learn that in order to improve students’ willingness in speaking,25% of the teachers remind students of the proportion of speaking skill in their end ofcourse test and the same number apply a psychological method which is praising studentsbefore pointing out their mistakes so as not to discourage them to speak Using funnyclassroom rules/ punishment as a way to eliminate students’ reticence in speaking isemployed the least with 8.3%

III.1 Findings

The findings below are based on the above statistical results of the two surveyquestionnaires together with the follow-up interviews The author has receivedinterviewees’ permission to include their names in this study

III.1.1 From students’ perspective

As seen from students’ point of view, there are both subjective and objective factors thatcontribute to students’ unwillingness to speak in English class

Regarding subjective factors, students’ lack of vocabulary, i.e low level of proficiency,dominates their speaking performance in class As one student said, “my poor vocabularyof English caused a lot of troubles in talking to others, so we seldom speak in English”(Tan, student of law) Lack of vocabulary is another source of students’ reticence inspeaking lessons “I always found my vocabulary so small that I didn’t know how tocommunicate my ideas I was very anxious and felt bad So I have to keep quiet And thisis very common among students in the university” (Ha, student of education).

To help students develop their vocabulary, teacher could try the followings.

- Maintaining classroom charts (to be changed regularly) on which students mayrecord a growing list of synonyms for certain words.

- Having students keep individual word lists to extend their speaking vocabularies

(e.g., ghost: phantom, spook, spirit, apparition; purple: mauve, lilac, violet) They

may gather these from their listening, writing, reading, and viewing activities as wellas from experience outside of the classroom.

Besides, passive habit of learning is also considered one of the main causes for students’silence in oral English classes More than half of the informants own the habit of listeningpassively without speaking until they are asked to speak “We are reticent maybe becausewe were taught to be so since primary school We were hardly encouraged to speak outloud in front of others” (Hang, student of education)

What is more, students’ confidence also accounts for their unwillingness to speak inEnglish class It is found that students are reticent to speak English also because they areworried about making mistakes Thus, they keep quiet and wait until they are asked tospeak “I am not so active because I don’t want to lose face when I make mistakes (Linh,student of law) “I have self respect and I don’t want to be laughed at” (Sinh, student of

law) Moreover, they are also afraid of having their mistakes being pointed out “I’m veryembarrassed when teachers point out and correct my mistakes when I am speaking andsometimes I don’t want to or don’t know what to say next” (Hao, student of education).To motivate students to speak in class without fear of making mistakes, teachers should tryto employ the following strategies.

- When students make mistakes, point out what they said right in addition to what theysaid incorrectly.

- Listen attentively to the students’ response – not to the structure (grammar), but tothe meaning.

- Create a classroom environment where making mistakes is ok

- Design activities like that drive students to the concentration on meaning and contentrather than structural/grammatical accuracy

As for objective factors, circumstance appears to be the most de-motivating to students’willingness to speak in class More than three quarters of the students go to work whendoing their MA and most of them feel too tired to continue with evening classes Physicalstate is therefore an obstacle to them in learning, especially productive skills like speaking.Most of them, however, are willing to involve in speaking activities if the learning is madefun and enjoyable Ranking second is the topics introduced in speaking classes More thanhalf of the students blame boring or unfamiliar topics for making them not willing to speakand very few find topics interesting enough to them Interest contributes a lot to students’active participation in classroom speaking activities According to one student, “whensomething is not interesting, most people are not willing to talk about it, while one can talkas much as he can on what he is interested” (Huy, student of information technology).Similarly, whether a student is active also depends on his/her familiarity with a topic “Itdepends on how much I know about the topics If I know more I am active, but if I knowlittle about it, I keep quiet” (Hien, student of information technology) The fact is as few asone third of the teachers questioned introduce interesting games and activities in theirspeaking classes.

Next comes the little attention and encouragement that students receive from their teachers.The data analysis shows that students of high or low proficiency of English are bothmotivated if their teachers pay more attention to them and encourage them to speak andthat many are de-motivated when teachers neglect them

III.1.2 From teachers’ perspective

As seen from teachers’ point of view, their difficulties in teaching speaking for non majorMA students of English at SGS originate from outside factors and also those from theteachers themselves.

According to all of the teachers, the most dominant characteristic of English classes atSGS- VNUH is the varied level of proficiency, which is very challenging for them tomanage classes Many teachers complain that their teaching can hardly make all students inthe class involved as there is always knowledge that is “a piece of cake for these studentsbut a hard job for others” (Ms Thuy) This gap is partly resulted from the difference in ageamong the students “The younger seem to be more advanced … some of the older evenknows almost nothing” (Mr Thuong) Teachers suggested some common concerns like“advanced students dominate” (Ms Huong) or “higher level students seem bored or thelower seem lost” (Mr Tuan) The next obstacle to the teachers is students’ unwillingness tospeak As found in the previous part, whether students are motivated in oral English classesdepends quite a lot on their teachers It can be seen that there exists a reciprocal influencebetween teachers and students in teaching and learning speaking skill, which requiresbilateral efforts in improving the situation.

Besides, teachers also complain that teaching speaking skill is difficult as it takes timewhereas they are not allowed to leave out or make light of other skills and knowledge ofthe course book.

The study has also found out that teachers’ difficulties in motivating their students to speakin English classes result from the teachers themselves Many of them do not prepareactivities for their speaking classes as they lack time, which is too much a subjectivereason Similarly, which again can hardly be regarded as a reasonable excuse as at thistime and in this capital city, various types of supplementary materials for teaching Englishskills is so available that a complaint may be referred to as that of a lazy or else a not-enthusiastic-enough teacher

III.2 Recommendations

Below are general recommendations and also specific ones for each of the findingspresented above, all of which are for teachers to improve the gloomy situation of theirEnglish speaking classes and motivate their students to speak Teachers needs first andforemost identify all causes of the situation so as to employ suitable measures to solve eachsingle problem at a time or some or all of them

To deal with the biggest problem found in the survey, which is the students’ varied level ofproficiency; teachers can make use of whole-class activities as well as pair or group work.Classes can begin and end with whole-class activities to foster a sense of unity among thestudents Teachers can also choose to break students into pairs or groups for all or part ofthe class time Group students of similar ability level so that they can work on the sameactivity at about the same pace; such groups do not need to be the same size Groupingstudents of mixed abilities and giving them the same task allow them to help one another.Teachers can have all groups working on activities concurrently, or may want to rotatebetween 2-3 groups, teaching a lesson to one while others work on a self-guided task Thelatter method requires greater preparation but is more likely to meet level-specific needs.Here are some ideas for pair and group work in multi-level classes.

- Similar-ability pairs should do tasks where the roles are interchangeable with thesame difficulty Examples: information gaps, dialogues, role plays, and two-wayinterviews

- Mixed-ability pairs need unequal tasks Examples: a story dictated by one andtranscribed by the other, an interview in which one asks and one answers, and roleplays with one role larger than the other.

- Similar-ability groups can be different sizes Consider gender, and age issues whengrouping Such groups can work on tasks where everyone can contribute equally.Examples: problem solving and process writing.

- Mixed-ability groups need activities that do not require equal language abilities.Examples: board games and making lists

- Individuals of much higher or much lower than the rest of the class may be givenindependent tasks to work on

When working with class as a whole, the following strategies can be used to keep higherlevel students challenged while not neglecting lower ones

If the dominance of students with higher level of proficiency becomes problematic, end thegroup work and facilitate the activity yourself by using the board so all students can seeand participate If this happens during whole-class activities, teachers may need to take amore active role in controlling possession of speaking time between the advanced and thebeginners If teachers know advanced students will complete a task in a given time quickly,give them extra activities like a writing assignment or worksheet to do while waiting for

the rest of the class to finish Advanced students can be asked to explain new vocabularywords (preferably in English), or model a dialogue with you

When holding class discussions or checking students’ comprehension of the lesson, askbeginners simple questions with one correct answer, save open-ended and opinionquestions for higher level students In choosing whole-class activities, reliance on textsshould be minimized Authentic materials like songs and video clips are well suited tomultilevel participation

Additionally, teachers can ask for students’ feedback on their class experience, and discussany individual concerns directly with the respective students It will probably help to speakindividually with each of the students you are concerned about and ask for theirsuggestions.

If topics are found not interesting/familiar enough, teachers should provide topics whichare more interesting and appropriate to students’ age, level of English, and relating to reallife to create enjoyable class atmosphere that makes reluctant learners interested inspeaking Assigned topics may not inspire students to talk as much as student-selectedtopics Students should be given the chance to select topics themselves because the topiccertainly will be in their list of favorite, and the more likely they like it, the more they areinterested in discussion As students are all adults, they usually like to talk about suchtopics as family, love, jobs, incomes, and so on However, lessons cannot go withoutcontent and objectives of each unit of the course book being achieved, i.e., topics in thecourse book, although being considered boring or unfamiliar ones, cannot be eliminated.Teachers can make use of and introduce various ideas for discussion, some of which areintroduced in the table below, to make these topics interesting and familiar enough tostudents

1 Happiness - Who do you think is happier? A normal citizen or a famous people?

- do you think a billionaire is a happy person?2 Arts - Talent and education – which do you think makes

- What is your dream job?

Doing charity - have you ever done charity? Why did you do it?- Who in the society do you think need charity themost?

8 Personality - name four necessary characteristics of a goodwife/ husband/ teacher (or a successfulbusinessman/ politician …)

- What are five things you love/hate about yourself?- What do you wish your girlfriend/ boyfriend/husband/ wife … to be like?

Children and family size - do you wish to be/ to have the only child in yourfamily?

- How many brothers/ sisters/ children/ sons/daughter do you wish to have?

9 Different views ofsmoking

- What is your advice for a girl whose husband be smokes bears bronchitis?

to Why do you think cigarettes are produced andsmoked?

Collecting things - If any collections would be valuable in 50 years,what would you collect?

- Why do you think people collect things?

10 Famous people - If you can become a famous people in one day,who do want to be?

- If you can give a question to Miss Vietnam 2006/

President Bush/ (any famous person)…, what willyou ask?

Table 7: Suggested ideas for discussion

For teachers whose students are timid in speaking classes, they should give their studentsmore praise, encouragement and supportive compliments rather than negative criticism.Teachers should be more tolerant to learners’ language mistakes as this is unavoidable,even with the most competent students This is not to say that students should be givenpraise every time Alternatively, comments on good points students have made shouldalways be prior to those that need further improvement.

Teachers can also talk with students about their fear of making mistakes Tell them thatmistakes are positive as at least they show teachers where students’ difficulties are so thatteachers can help them

If students lack words to express themselves, what teachers should do is providing relatedwords when introducing topics through listening or reading as pre-speaking activities.Besides, teacher should pay attention to students when they are speaking so as to guesstheir ideas to support them in case they cannot find exact words to express themselves.What is more, teachers should not expect perfection from students in the use of unfamiliaror difficult words, but rather should develop a supportive environment and group rapportthat encourage students to experiment with unfamiliar words Teachers need to explain thatwords represent thoughts so students should not attempt to use unusual syntax, outlandishphrases, or “big words” but try to find direct and meaningful ways of making themselvesunderstood.

It seems to be problematic to change students’ habit of “listening without speaking” inspeaking lessons If students are not accustomed to speaking in English class, alternativeways need to be applied

One way is to have everyone stand up and either ask a question or answer a question to sitdown This way helps when teachers make it fun or else the students will feeluncomfortable Teachers can make it a game, and the losing team has to write morehomework or something little like that Another way is to have students answer in groups,as a lot of them do not want to be the only one to talk Alternatively, students can be spiltup into pairs and given an interesting dialogue to read before reading the dialogue out loud.