A study on the opportunities for and constraints on developing students’ oral skills at an upper-secondary school

A study on the opportunities for and constraints on developing students’ oral skills at an upper-secondary school

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION1 Rationale

In the context of Vietnam’s economic reform and global participation, English

plays an extremely important role in helping its human resources to communicate with therest of the world Therefore, there has been a great demand for teaching and learningEnglish all over the country for various purposes.

However, how to teach and learn English in general and English speaking skill inparticular effectively is a matter of controversy Speaking skill should be kept in mind tobe the most popular and affective way of communication.

Being an English teacher at Doluong 1 Upper Secondary School (DL1SS) I realizethat there are many students who are good at writing and reading find it difficult to speakEnglish.

For these reasons, in this study , I would like to investigate the recent reality ofteaching and learning English speaking skill in DoLuong 1 Upper-Secondary School(DL1SS), a school in the countryside of Nghe An, a province in the Center Vietnam Theaim of the study is to identify the reasons for students’ poor oral competence so thatappropriate solutions could be proposed to the question under investigation.

2 Aims of the study

This study is aimed at:

-investigating the recent reality of teaching and learning English speaking skill atDoluong 1 Upper-Secondary School (DL1USS).

-identifying the opportunities for and constraints on developing students’ oral skillsas perceived by the teachers and students at DL1USS

-proposing some solutions with the hope of helping English teachers improve theirteaching speaking skill and students’ learning ability.

3 Method of study

In order to achieve the aims of the study, questionnaires, class observations andinterviews were used to collect data and information from the teachers and students atDoluong 1 Upper-Secondary School (DL1USS)

4 Scope of the study

With the above aims, this study is limited to the exploration of opportunities andconstraints as perceived by the teachers and students of Doluong1 Upper-SecondarySchool in Nghe An with regard to the teaching and learning of English speaking skills andsome recommendations The study only focuses on 26 of 43 classes, where there areteachers and students who are implementing the two new English syllabuses for grades 10and 11, published by the Ministry of Education.

5 Design of the study

The study consists of three parts:

Part One: Introduction presents the rationale, the aim, the method, the scope and the

design of study.

Part Two: Development consists of following chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature Review aims at the basic theoretical background which

consists of: Definition of Speaking skill, Positions of speaking in language teachingprograms, Difficulties in and constraints on learning to speak a foreign language, andFactors affecting students’ participation in speaking activities.

Chapter 2: Methodology focuses on the recent situation of English teaching and

learning at Doluong 1 Upper-Secondary School and the Research methodology Themethodology includes the participants and instruments of the study.

Chapter 3: Data analysis and discussion of the results of the questionnaires, class

observations and the interviews will be conveyed in this chapter.

Chapter 4: This chapter proposes the findings concluded from the results of theprevious chapter and some recommendations for teachers and students at DL1USS in the

hope of helping to develop students’ oral skill.

Part Three: Conclusion summarizing all the issues in the research contains Limitation of

the study, Recommendation for further study and Conclusion.

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENTCHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

To begin with the study, in this chapter, the researcher will present some theoreticalbackground so that the study will be based on This chapter includes 4 small parts as

follows: Definitions of Speaking skill, The position of Speaking in language teaching

programs, What makes speaking a foreign language difficult, and Factors affectingstudents’ participation in speaking activities.

1.1 Definitions of Speaking skill

Speaking skill of a second or foreign language is regarded as a very complicatedtask First of all, speaking is used for variety of purposes and each purpose involves indifferent skills In a casual conversation, for instance, speakers’ purposes may be to makesocial contact with others, to establish sympathetic relationships or to spend time chattingharmlessly with someone On the other hand, the purpose may be to find out or to expresstheir opinions or to clarify information On other occasions, speakers wish to giveinstructions, persuade people or get things done They may want to describe things, tocomplain about people’s behaviors, to make requests or to entertain people with jokes.Each of these different purposes for speaking implies knowledge of the rules that accountfor how spoken language reflects the context or situation which speech occur in, theparticipants involve in, and their specific roles or relationships, and the kinds of activitiesthe speakers are involved in.

According to Brown and Yule’s (1983: 127), speaking skill consists of short,fragmentary utterance, in a range of pronunciation There is often a great deal of repetitionand overlap between one speaker and another and speakers usually use non-specificreferences.

Brown (1994: 45) and Burns & Joyce (1997: 29) define that speaking is aninteractive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving andprocessing information When participating in communicative activities, the speakershould choose the correct vocabulary to describe the things they want to say about, torephrase or emphasize words to clarify the description to produce the expected pattern ofspecific discourse situations.

Looking through the English language teaching methodology literature, we caneasily see that there have been many different definitions of speaking skill proposed bylinguists, but no definition is satisfactory According to Fisk (1990:1) oral communication(speaking skill) is one of those human activities that everyone recognizes but few candefine satisfactorily

Despite the definitional diversity, in the present study, speaking skill is defined as“the range of exercise types and activities with a communication approach is unlimited,provided that such exercises and activities enable learners to attain the communicativeobjectives of the curriculum, engage learners in communication and require the use of suchcommunicative processes as information sharing, negotiation of meaning, andinteraction” (Richard and Rodgers, 1986: 165)

In conclusion, speaking skill is one of the key modes of human communication,and one of the macro skills that language students should be helped to develop for theircommunicative purposes For that reason, teachers should help their students to improvetheir speaking and overall oral competence.

1.2 The position of speaking in language teaching programs

It is known that language is an effective means of communication through which

we can convey our ideas, our thought, or our desires Language helps us clarify what wemean Without language, human beings have never achieved such developments as theyhave done these days It is language that makes human beings distinctive from animals.

Many language learners consider speaking ability the measurement of knowing alanguage In other words, speaking skill is very important in language teaching andlearning If learners do not learn how to speak or not to get opportunities to speak, as manythink, they may soon lose their interest in learning, and learning the language is the wayhow to speak the language.

Bygate, M (1987: 5) stresses that speaking “is also a medium through which muchlanguage is learnt, and which for many is particularly conductive for learning”

Nunan (1991: 279) states that success in an oral conversation is measured in termsof the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language If a student doesn’t knowhow to speak and has no chance to speak in the language classroom, he will lose interest in

learning In the speaking class, on contrary, if the teacher doesn’t organize right andpositive activities, the speaking a language will become less and less boring.

Sharing the same ideas, Richard, A (1991: 165) cites that it is the speaking skillthat helps learners to have communication which is the proper aim of language teaching.

According to Byrne (1991: 45), while listening and reading are regarded asreceptive skills, speaking and writing are productive skill Speaking not only helps studentsto communicate well and exchange information and culture with others but also promotethe integration of speaking, listening, reading and writing in the ways that reflect naturallanguage use.

Similarly, Brown, G and Yule, G (1992: 256) point out that speaking plays an everimportant role in a very transactional intention, that is, to make clear what they want tosay.

From those points, we can come to a conclusion that speaking skill is one of themost necessary skills in language teaching program It suits the development rules ofhuman beings as one can speak before he can read and write That is the reason whyspeaking skill should be taught in the language room.

1.3 What Makes Speaking a foreign Language Difficult?1.3.1 Characteristics of spoken language

Speaking in a second or foreign language has often been viewed as the mostdemanding of the four skills When attempting to speak, learners must concentrate theirthoughts and encode their ideas in vocabulary and syntactic structures of the targetlanguage.

According to Kathleen M Bailey and Lance Savage (1993: 18), depending on theformality and importance of the speech situations as well as their own personal linguisticpropensities, the learners may also attend to monitor their output (speaking skill)

These two linguists also add that in conversations and other interactive speechevents, the speakers must attend to the feedback from their interlocutors and observe therules of discourse used in the target culture Phonological considerations add to thedifficulties to the task, especially for adult learners, as speakers strive to achieve “good”pronunciation The speed of such interaction is also an issue because their may not be

adequate time for processing either outgoing speech or incoming messages at the typicalrate of native-speaker interactions

All of these factors combine to make speaking in a second or foreign language aformidable task for language learners.

Sharing this idea, Penny Ur (1996: 120) shows the four following prerequisites of asuccessful speaking activity in the classroom:

-Learners talk a lot: during speaking skill activities, learners should have chances totalk a lot to develop their oral skill.

-Participant is even: all learners are involved in the activities and their distributionfor speaking chance is the same.

-Motivation is high: all the learners are interested in talking and positivelyparticipate in speaking activities.

-Language is of an acceptable level: this means that the language used by teachersand learners to express their ideas and thoughts is understandable to others Thus, from the characteristics of spoken language mentioned above, it can beinferred that teachers have an important duty to find out the appropriate methods to teachtheir students.

1.3.2 Difficulties in learning to speak a foreign language

In addition to the linguistic complexity which makes speaking a difficult skill to beacquired, there are pedagogical difficulties These difficulties are understood as thelearning environment such as the large size of classes, deficient facilities and difficultsyllabuses.

In large classes, students are usually different in levels of language proficiency, inlearning style and even in general attitudes towards the language, which causes a lot ofchallenges and makes teachers feel troublesome and stressed to make effective classroommanagement As Ur (1996: 303) says that teachers of large classes also face with theproblems of discipline, creating effective learning environment for all, finding suitablematerials, and activating all students, especially, silent ones.

Teaching aids such as pictures, maps, photos, samples of real objects, and so onserve as a tool to maximize students’ opportunities to practice and help to make thelearning environment better to carry out speaking activities If facilities are not enough and

not interesting, students will be de-motivated and the lessons will not be successful asexpected

Syllabuses also play an important role in the success of speaking lessons If thecontents of the syllabuses are familiar, students will be excited and positively participate inthe activities In contrary, if the syllabuses are strange and difficult, students will be de-motivated or keep silent.

Thus, in order to involve students in communicative activities, it is necessary forteachers to realize factors affecting students’ participation in communicative activities aswell as to find out solutions to the problems.

1.3.3 Constraints on learning to speak a foreign language

Constraints on learning to speak a foreign language are thought to be socio-physicalconstraints It means that these constraints come from inner students

It is often thought that the ability to speak a language is the product of languagelearning Classroom activities play an important role in a language course becausespeaking activities in classroom can help develop students’ ability to express themselves.In fact, not all the speaking lessons take place as successfully as the teachers expected.Sometimes, teachers find disappointed by such problems as pointed out by Ur (1996:121):

- The students are often inhibited about trying to say things in a foreign language inthe classroom because they feel very shy of being paid attention to what they say,or fearful of losing face, or they are even worry about making mistakes.

-The students have nothing to say That is, students find it difficult to select suitablewords from their store of language clustering to express their ideas and thoughts,and in some cases they lack knowledge of the matters being discussed.

-Students’ participation is uneven and low This problem often occurs in largeclasses, especially, in speaking activities Stronger students tend to dominate thegroups or class, whereas weaker ones tend to speak very little or keep silent.

-Students tend to use their mother tongue instead of the foreign language That is,while some students are very self-confident of their ability to speak English, othersare anxious about speaking Some may show their anxiety in silence for fear ofmaking mistakes or being laughed at by their friends Others show their anxiety inreturning to using their mother tongue when they have to communicate somethingunfamiliar or complicated.

In conclusion, teachers should try their best to understand the constraints onstudents’ learning to speak a foreign language and find out suitable methods to help theirstudents to overcome the constraints as well as to encourage students to participate inspeaking activities to help develop their speaking skill

1.4 Factors Affecting Students’ Participation in Speaking Activities1.4.1 Teacher Variables

In the traditional teaching method, a teacher plays the role of the controller ormanager of the class The teacher can teach anything they find necessary and students areonly the listeners Students have to do what their teacher tells them Teacher can askstudents questions and their students have to answer Nevertheless, the traditional teaching

method has many limitations and has been criticized recently

Different from the teacher in the traditional teaching method where the role of theteacher is considered the most important, the teacher in CLT classes has many differentroles At times, he is the controller or manager of the classes when establishing situationsto promote communication; during the activities, he works as the facilitator and adviser,answering students’ questions; he is the co-communicator when involving in thecommunicative activities with students; he is the prompter when his students get lost orcannot think of what to say next; he is also the observer to observe what students do in oralcommunicative activities so that he can give their students useful group and individualfeedback; furthermore, he is the feedback providers when his students have difficulty in themiddle of a speaking activity and helpful and gentle correction may get students out ofdifficult

Wilkins (1974:53) states that the teacher himself is the one important variable inthe learning situation The important role of the teacher is also acknowledged by Kay &Christison (1978: 14), who argue that a teacher has to play different roles such as aninstructor, a consultant, a supervisor, a communicator, and a controller They should beable to give instructions clearly, encourage the students to actively participate in thelearning process and to interact with each other Where necessary, the teacher is supposedto help their students with their difficulties in linguistic matters as well as backgroundknowledge.

Sharing these opinions with Kay& Christison (1978: 65), Cross (1992: 54) addsthat the teacher is the manager of the activity and must plan it, organize it, start it, monitorit, time it and conclude it The teacher is active and, remaining sensitive to the atmosphereand pace of the group and noting persistent errors for remedial teaching Should this taskbe seen to be going drastically wrong, the teacher will stop it and revert it to some form ofpractice before starting group work again

Obviously, the role of the teachers in CLT classes is very difficult but extremelyimportant So as to become good teachers, they always have to try their best to fulfill theirduties Teachers should always give students chances to express their individuality byasking them to share their ideas and opinions with others.

Harmer (1996:1) suggests some generalization about good teacher qualities:“teacher needs to do everything possible to create a good rapport with their learners Partlythis happens by providing interesting and motivating classes; partly this comes from suchthings as treating all the learners the same … and acting upon their hopes and aspirations.Most of it depends on paying more attention to the learner than to the teacher”.

According to Nunan (1991: 279), when teaching speaking skill, teachers shouldoffer the five following features:

-Emphasizing on learning to communicate though interaction in the targetlanguage.

-Introducing authentic texts into the learning situations.

-Providing opportunities for learners to focus, not only on languages but also on thelearning process itself.

-Enhancing the learners own personal experiences as important contributingelements to classroom learning.

-Attempting to link classroom language learning with language activation outsidethe classroom

In conclusion, as it is proved above, the role of the teacher is extremely importantfor the process of teaching and learning languages

1.4.2 Student Variables

One of the most important variables which have a great influence on teaching andlearning is students’ variable Without students, there would be no class, no teaching andno learning

In class environment, students always have different relationships such as studentsto their teacher, students to students, and students to materials.

It is considered that the relationship between students and their teacher is veryimportant Once students have good relationship with their teacher, they will always takepart in the class activities, become involved in what is happening in the classroom, or evenvolunteer to perform activities In turn, if students do not have good relationship with theirteachers, they always show their resistance to class participation Active students are thosewho always show their desires to work on problems with their teachers, respond to theirteacher’s questions and those who can make their own opportunities for practice in usingthe language inside or outside the classroom.

The relationship among students is established by their performing activities ingroups Group work activities will be effective and successful if teacher’s teaching methodis easy and appropriate, and students’ levels of English proficiency are nearly the same.Besides, during the lesson, there are also many other affective factors coming fromstudents These factors such as students’ attitudes, anxiety, competitiveness, and otheremotional responses can help or hinder language learning (Krashen, 1985).

The relationship between students and materials is regarded as students’ success inperforming given activities If the materials are up to their expectation and easy andunderstandable to students, activities will be successful, but in turn, if the materials are toodifficult, there will be unwanted results This problem can only be solved when the teacheradapts and adjusts the materials.

1.4.3 Learning Environment and Text books

The environment in which students learn can greatly influence their academicperformance and well-being at school The learning environment can be seen as physicalconditions, such as class size, chairs, desks, tables, lights, boards It stands to reason thatthe better the learning environment looks, the more it inspires the people inside it In otherwords, whatever a child’s academic ability, pleasing environment will definitely lead tobetter attendance, improved concentration and a healthy dose of motivation

According to Harmer (1992: 271), physical conditions have great impact onstudents’ learning as well as their attitudes towards the subject matter

While learning environment can be seen as class size and facilities in class, thetextbooks and authentic materials (visual aids) can be considered important resources.

Textbooks are greatly important in language teaching program because they specifygoals and objectives Textbooks play a vital role in forming comprehensible input, ahypothesis defined by Krashen Krashen (1981:126) states that “children progress byunderstanding the language that is a little beyond them” It means that if the contents of thetextbook are suitable and up to students’ knowledge, they will much help develop students’speaking competence Otherwise, if the contents of the textbooks are unsuitable and new tostudents or much beyond students’ knowledge, it will be a very difficult job for teachers toincrease students’ language competence.

Authentic materials (visual aids) can be regarded as an important factor affectingstudents’ learning situation According to Lam (2003: 26), authentic materials mayinclude: tapes, tape-recorders, language laboratories, wall pictures, wall charts, flannelboards, other display facilities, slides, film trips, films, televisions, radios, record players,video recorders, and libraries.

To show the benefits from authentic materials, Betty Morgan Bowen, (1982:1) citesthat authentic materials “allow the teacher to talk less by dismissing the importance of theverbal stimuli provided by the teacher’s voice and allow the students to talk more Thisvisual rather than verbal approach results in less teacher’s talking time and more students’participation.” It is true that authentic materials motivate students much, particularly whenthey are too tired of doing many exercises Students realize that learning with authenticmaterials is so interesting and they will continue more on the lesson.

In addition, Betty Morgan Bowen, (1982:1) says that authentic materials

“encourage the learners to lift their eyes from their books, which make it easier and more

natural for one to speak to another.” In fact, different types of authentic materials can helpto change the atmosphere of the classroom and bring in the ‘real world’ which makesstudents think and act just as in daily life.

However, there are different types of authentic materials to for the teacher to makeuse of, but the teacher should not abuse them, otherwise, the students will be confused andirritated Teacher should consider his or her own ability as well as the students’ level ofproficiency in L2 and their interest to choose the most suitable ones.

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter includes two small parts The first one is the context of the study Thesecond part is the research methodology which consists of the participants and instruments

of the study

2.1 The Context of the Study

The study was conducted at Doluong 1 Upper-Secondary school, which wasfounded in 1959 and situated near the centre of Doluong Town, and with the staff of good,energetic and enthusiastic teachers The school is famous for its teaching and learningachievements in other school subjects except for English The reason for this is thatEnglish is a comparatively new subject at this school It was just introduced into the schoolcurriculum around 10 years ago Before English, Russian used to be taught for over 35years.

Although founded long ago, DL1USS is now having a difficult time The schooldoes not have enough classrooms, thus, the teaching and learning take place both in themornings and afternoons The school does not have a language lab for English classes; thelibrary has few English books, papers and magazines for students to read in their free time;in the school, there is a serious shortage of modern facilities such as overhead projectors.The school has only 3 overhead projectors for 43 classes and nearly 100 teachers of 12different subjects.

Every year, the school receives about 700 students from 33 villages in the district.At present, the school has 43 classes with the total number of students of over 2000

Similar to any other school, there are 3 different syllabuses for 3 different grades.Students of grade 12 are following the old syllabus published by the Ministry of Educationin 1986 This syllabus is considered out of date and will not be used next year Students ofgrades 10 and 11 are learning the two new syllabuses published by the Ministry ofEducation in 2006 which are regarded as updated but very difficult ones.

The difficulties in teaching and learning English come firstly from students Ingeneral, students in the school differ in their level of language proficiency Most studentscoming from the centre of the town and nearby have been learning English since grade 6, asmall number of students started in grades 1 to 5 The rest coming from the rural areas

where there are very difficult situations for living and learning have been learning Englishsince grade 7, 8, 9 and even grade 10

Although most students started learning English at the early age, many of themhave low proficiency of English because of their wrong attitudes to English learning,laziness as well as the shortage of time for English Besides this, all the new syllabuses ofother subjects which are considered difficult and overloaded have greatly affectedstudents’ English leaning

As for the staff of English teachers, the school has 11 English teachers consisting of3 males and 8 females and aged from 25 to 56 Of the 11 English teachers who got B.A.degrees, 6 graduated from the Foreign Language Department of Vinh University, 1 fromCFL-VNUH, and the other 4 from in-service centre in Vimh City The youngest teacherfinished university last year, so she has nearly one-year teaching experience The oldestone has over 30-year teaching experience, however, he had been teaching Russian for 20years before starting his English teaching career about 10 years ago

In terms of language teaching method, the teachers at DL1USS are familiar withthe traditional teaching method as they are used to teaching the old syllabuses and nearlyhalf of them have never been trained CLT as well as never been to a workshop or seminars.When following the new syllabuses, they feel difficult to initiate activities and manage theclass Fortunately, most of them have a great desire to acquire knowledge ofcommunicative competence to apply in teaching English.

2.2 The Research Methodology2.2.1 The Participants

In order to gather information for the study, 160 students of grades 10 and 11 atDL1USS were chosen to answer the questionnaire These students, of whom 50% arefemale and 50% are male students, are those who are learning the new English 10 and 11syllabuses published by the Ministry of Education in 2006

10 English teachers aged from 25 to 56 were invited to answer the questionnaire 2of them are male taking 20% and other 8 are female taking 80% The teachers have theteaching experience from 1 to 25 years.

25 students who were volunteers from 5 classes were chosen for the interview afterthe class observations by the researcher Of these students, there are 48% females and 52%males.

5 of the 10 English teachers at DL1USS were invited to participate in the interviewafter they had finished teaching their speaking lessons observed by the researcher 1 of theinterviewed teachers is male, and 4 are female

2.2.2 The Instruments of the Study

So as to gather more accurate data, both quantitative and qualitative methods wereused Quantitative data were gathered through two survey questionnaires administered bothto the students and the teachers and qualitative data were collected via class observationsand interviews of teachers and students Those two methods help the researcher get more

in-depth data for analysis.2.2.2.1 The Questionnaires

The questionnaire is adopted since it is one of the most popular instruments ingathering data It is not only easy to prepare and can be given to large groups of subjects atthe same time, but also helps the researcher get a great amount of information within ashort period of time The questionnaire is the most suitable method for a large-scalesurvey, the aim of which is to find out participants’ opinions and attitudes

In order to obtain sufficient data for this study, 160 copies of a questionnaire weredelivered to 160 students to gather information about students’ opinions of learning oralskill to investigate the opportunities for and constraints on developing their oral skill Ofall these students, 80 students are learning in grade 10 and another 80 in grade 11 Thestudents are using the new English syllabuses

10 copies of another questionnaire were distributed to 10 teachers to collectinformation about teacher’s perception of the difficulties they encounter in their teachingof oral skill and their techniques in dealing with these difficulties

2.2.2.2 Class Observations

The purpose of class observations is to know how the teachers perform theirlessons, what atmosphere is in the class, what students’ attitudes to the lessons are like, andwhat interactions of students are during the lessons

Thus, class observations are conducted to clarify some information which thequestionnaire cannot provide such as students’ real time-on-task and teachers’ instructionalstrategies as well as students’ responses to classroom tasks

So as to get more in-depth information, 5 class observations were made The 5teachers chosen to be observed are teaching at grades 10 and 11 The class observationswere carried out in 3 stages: before the lesson, during the lesson and after the lesson.

In before-lesson stage, the researcher focused on making contacts with the teacherto know the teacher’s teaching points In during-lesson stage, the observations were aimedat the teacher’s techniques and the students’ interaction in class In after-lesson stage, theresearcher concentrated on discussing and exchanging ideas with the observed teachers.During the lessons the researcher used observation sheets as presented in Appendix 3

2.2.2.3 The Interviews

The aim of the interviews is to get more in-depth information about teachers’ andstudents’ perception of the opportunities for and constraints on the development of oralskills in English The interviews were chosen since the interviews conducted in this studywere described as “semi-structured”, (Seliger and Shohamy, 1990) which consist of anumber of specific and defined questions determined beforehand, and allow someelaboration in questions and answers.

After the questionnaires and class observations, two interviews were conducted bythe researcher to get information One interview is for teachers who had finished theirteaching of speaking lessons observed by the researcher; the other is for students from theobserved classes

The interview for teachers consists of 8 questions and the interview for studentsincludes 9 questions Of course, the two interviews were performed in Vietnamese to makesure that all the interviewees had no difficulty in comprehending the meaning of theinterview questions to answer them After that, all the questions and answers of theinterviews are interpreted into English The interviewer took notes while the interview was

going on, then key ideas were summarized by the researcher himself (Appendix 4 & 5).

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the results of the study are presented The data has been collectedfrom the questionnaires, the class observations and the interviews The result will bepresented in forms of tables and figures.

3.1 The Questionnaires

As mentioned above, 160 copies of a questionnaire were given to 160 students whoagreed to answer the questionnaire Besides the students’ questionnaire, 10 copies ofanother questionnaire were given to 10 teachers who are teaching English at DL1USS Thequestionnaire for students is in Vietnamese so as to make sure that there is nomisunderstanding However, the questionnaires are then interpreted into English(Appendixes 1& 2).

3.1.1 The Questionnaire for Students3.1.1.1 Methodology

To make sure that the study has adequate reliability, a questionnaire is delivered to160 students, 80 of whom are studying in grade 10, another 80 are studying in grade 11.These grades are following the two new syllabuses published by the Ministry of Education.This questionnaire (Appendix 2) consists of 8 questions with 8 categories:

-Students’ experience in learning English

-Students’ self-evaluation of their English proficiency-Students’ stated purpose of learning English

-Students’ perception of the importance of speaking skill -Students’ interest in speaking skills

-Students’ satisfaction with their speaking proficiency and the speaking activitiesinside and outside the school

-Students’ opportunities for and difficulties in speaking skill-Factors needed by students to develop their speaking skill

3.1.1.2 Results

Figure 1: Students’ experience in learning English

According to Figure 1, we can see that 129 of 160 students (80.6%) have beenlearning English since grade 6 whereas 4 students (2.5%) say that they started at grade 10.In fact, these students come from rural areas where they didn’t have a chance to learn

English 27 other students (16.9%) say that they have been learning English since grades 1,2, 3, 4 or 5 Of course, these students come from the centre of the town or nearby.

Table 1: Students’ self-evaluation of their English proficiency

QuestionsNo of responsesPercentage

1 What is your level of English?

a Excellent b Good

c Neutral d Bad e very bad

2 In English, what skill are you good at?

a Speaking b Listening c Reading d Writing

3 In English, what skill are you bad at?

a Speaking b Listening c Reading d Writing

Table 1 shows us the results of students’ English proficiency It can easily be seenthat although most students started learning English at early ages, their levels are not veryhigh Only 25 students (15.6%) have a good level of English, 76 students (47.5%) have aneutral level, 46 students (28.7%) have a bad level and 13 students have a very bad level Itis surprising that the number of students who are excellent at English is too small, only 3students (1.8%).

To answer Question 2, 117 students (73.1%) say that they are good at writing skill,110 (68.7%) other students think that they are good at reading skill Only 15 students(9.3%) are good at listening and 29 students (18.1%) are good at speaking skill Sadly, the

number of students good at reading and writing is over five times bigger than that ofstudents good at speaking and listening.

Contrary to the results of Question 2, the results of Question 3 tell us that 145students (90.6%) are the worst at listening, 131 students (81.8%) are the worst at speakingskill, whereas only 43 students (26.8) are the worst at reading and 35 students (21.8%) arethe worst at writing

Table 2: Students’ stated purpose of learning English

QuestionsNo of responsesPercentage

What is your purpose of learning English?

a To pass the exams

b To apply for a job in the futurec It is a compulsory subjectd To talk to foreignerse I don’t know what to dof Others: ……

78.160.681.23513.110.6Table 2 is about students’ stated purpose of learning English 130 students (81.2%)answer that they are learning English as it is a compulsory subject, 125 other students(78.1%) learn it to pass the exams 97 students (60%) consider it important for their future.56 students (35%) learn English to talk to foreigners Meanwhile, 21 students (13.1%)learn English without any reasons and 17 other students (10.6%) have other reasons, suchas watching films, reading books, etc… It is surprising that most of the students wereaware of the importance of English to their future study or employment; but most of themare learning the language just to pass the exam.

Obviously, it can be seen from the statistics that not many students really loveEnglish and learn it with great interest.

Figure 2: Students’ perception of the importance of speaking skill

Answering about perception of the importance of speaking skills as shown inFigure 2, 148 students (92.5%) agree that speaking skill is very important 12 otherstudents (7.5%) have a neutral attitude to English speaking skill Nobody disagrees,strongly disagrees, or even strongly agrees to it According to the results, students’ attitudeto English speaking skill seems to be good

DisagreeNeutralAgreeStrongly agree

Table 3: Students’ interest in speaking skills

QuestionsNo of responsesPercentage

1 You like speaking English very much?a Strongly disagree

b Disagreec Neutrald Agree

e Strongly agree

2 You are satisfied with your English speakingskill?

a Strongly disagreeb Disagree

c Neutrald Agree

e Strongly agree

3 You actively participate in activities in speakinglessons?

a Strongly disagreeb Disagree

c Neutrald Agree

e Strongly agree

043.230.626.20In Table 3, when asked if they like speaking English very much (Question 1), 112students (70.2%) agree with this statement Only 3 students (1.8%) strongly agree to thestatement 38 other students (23.7) have neutral liking to English speaking And there are 7students (4.3%) who disagree to the statement Compared to the results of the perception ofthe importance of speaking skills, there seems to be contradiction between students’ likingand their way of English learning.

According to the results of Question 2, 14 students (8.7%) strongly disagree and117 students (73.2%) disagree that they are satisfied with their speaking skill 25 students(15.6) have neutral satisfaction Only 4 students (2.5%) agree that they are satisfied with

their speaking skill These results may disclose the fact that students’ attitudes to speakingskill are not very good.

About the active participation in the activities (Question 3), 69 students (43.2%)disagree that they actively participate, 49 students (30.6%) have a neutral idea Only 42students (26.2%) agree that they positively participate in activities in speaking lessons.

In conclusion, all the results shown in Table 3 can reveal that students at DL1USShave little interest in learning speaking skills.

Table 4: Students’ satisfaction with their speaking proficiency and the speakingactivities inside and outside the school

QuestionsNo of responsesPercentage

1 You always read English books and talk to your brothers, sisters and friends in English?

a Strongly disagreeb Disagree

c Neutrald Agree

e Strongly agree

2 Your school always organize extra activities for students leaning English?

a Strongly disagreeb Disagree

c Neutrald Agree

e Strongly agree

3 You always speak English outside the class& school?

a Strongly disagreeb Disagree

c Neutrald Agree

e Strongly agree

4 Activities of speaking skill in the course books are suitable for your level?

a Strongly disagreeb Disagree

c Neutrald Agree

e Strongly agree

3.11.80Looking at the results of Question 1, we can see that 109 students (68.2%) disagreethat they always read English books and talk in English to their friends, brothers and

sisters, 26 students (16.2%) have a neutral opinion, while 25 students (15.6%) agree withthe ideas These results reflect the fact that students are maybe very lazy at home or theydo not have good experience of English learning.

Answering Question 2, 147 students (92%) disagree that their school alwaysorganize extra activities for students learning English And 13 students (8%) have a neutralanswer to this statement From these results, it can be referred that the administrators donot take enough care of students’ English speaking skill.

According to the answers to Question 3, 116 students (72.6%) disagree that theyalways speak English outside class or school, 29 students (18.1%) express their neutralanswer and 15 students (9.3%) say that they usually speak English outside class andschool These data help us to know that most students do not practice their oral skill much.

When asked if activities of speaking skill lessons in the course books are suitablefor students’ level (Question 4), 152 students (95.1%) show their disagreement, 5 students(3.1%) have a neutral idea, and only 3 students (1.8%) think the activities suitable.

It can be inferred from the results of Table 4 that most students do not satisfy withtheir speaking skill and activities inside and outside the school.

Table 5: Students’ opportunities for and difficulties in speaking skill

QuestionsNo of responsesPercentage

1 What opportunities do you have in learning English speaking skill?

a Your teachers always help you.

b You can practice speaking with friends c You have opportunities to speak English.d You can help friends to speak English.

2 What difficulties do you have while learning English speaking skill?

a Unable to find words and ideas.b Not enough time to prepare.c Many friends resist speaking.

d Teachers speak non-standard English.e I’m afraid of losing face.

f I’m not taken care of by teachers.

70.688.140.622.532.536.8As for the opportunities when learning speaking skill in Question 1, 121 students(75.6%) say that they are helped by their teachers, 132 students (82.5%) answer that theycan practice speaking English with their friends, 125 students (78.1%) say that they have

opportunities to speak English Only 27 students (16.8%) think that they can help theirfriends speak English

About the difficulties in learning English speaking skills in Question 2, 113students (70.6%) are unable to find words and ideas, 141 students (88.1%) say that they donot have enough time to prepare, 65 students (40.6%) blame that many of their friends arelazy and resist speaking 36 students (22.5%) are to blame for their teacher’s non-standardEnglish speaking 52 students (32.5%) are afraid of losing face and 59 students (36.8%)say that they are not taken care of by their teacher

It can be seen from data of Table 5 that students have many difficulties in learningEnglish speaking skill.

Table 6: Factors needed by students to develop their speaking skill

QuestionsNo of responsesPercentage

1 What factors are needed for students to develop their speaking skill?

a Students need encouragement and better care from teachers and family.

b The syllabus should be adjusted by teachers to suit their students’ level.

c Teachers should prevent their students from speaking Vietnamese.

d Teachers should have more suitable methods.

2 What should students do to improve their speaking skill?

a Have a right attitude to speaking skill.

b Always practice speaking English at school and at home.

c Cut down on speaking Vietnamese in class.d Participate in different activities and share ideas

with others.

1001009596.8Discussing factors needed by students to develop their speaking skill, 160 students(100%) support the idea that they need encouragement and better care from teachers andfamily, 137 students (85.4%) agree that the syllabus should be adjusted by teachers to suittheir students’ level 124 students (77.5%) cite that teachers should prevent their studentsfrom speaking Vietnamese 142 students (88.7%) choose the idea that teachers should havemore suitable methods.

To find out solutions to the difficulties, 160 students (100%) recommend that theyshould have a right attitude to speaking skill and always practice speaking English at