The problems in teaching english speaking skills to the minority students at nghe an ethnic boarding high school and some suggested solutions

a study on the problems in teaching english speaking skills to the minority students at NGHE AN ethnic boarding high school and some suggested solutions SUBJECT: ENGLISH NGHE AN EDUCATION AND TRAINING DEPARTMENT TEACHING EXPERIENCE a study on the problems in teaching english speaking skills to the minority students at NGHE AN ethnic boarding high school and some suggested solutions SUBJECT: ENGLISH Tác giả: Lê Sa Tổ môn: Văn – Ngoại Ngữ Năm học: 2020 - 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: INTRODUCTION .1 Rationale Aims and Significance of the study .2 Research questions: .2 Scope of the study .2 Method of the study .2 Design of the study PART II CONTENT .4 I Theoretical background 1.1.1 Definition of Communicative Language Teaching .4 1.1.2 Characteristics of Communicative Language Teaching 1.1.3 The Teachers’ and Students’ roles in Communicative Language Teaching 1.2 Speaking Skills 1.2.1 Definitions of speaking 1.2.1 The characteristics of speaking .7 1.2.2 The role of speaking in language teaching and learning .8 1.2.3 Approaches to the teaching of speaking 1.2.4 Problems with speaking activities .10 II The study 11 2.1 Research setting 11 2.1.1 An overview of the research site 11 2.1.2 Description of the teachers of English in Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School 11 2.1.3 The students at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School .12 2.1.4 The current situation of English teaching and learning at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School 12 2.2 Methodology study 13 2.2.1 Participants 13 2.2.2 Research instruments 14 2.2.3 Data analysis 14 2.3 Presentation of the statistical results 14 2.3.1 Data analysis of teachers’ survey questionnaire 14 2.3.1.1 Methodology 14 2.3.1.2 The findings 14 2.3.2 Data analysis of students’ survey questionnaire 22 III Findings and Suggested solutions 30 3.1 Findings 31 3.1.1 Problems from the teachers 31 3.1.2 Problems from the students 32 3.1.3 Other problems 34 3.2 Suggested solutions 35 3.2.1 Improving CLT knowledge for teachers 35 3.2.2 Using suitable techniques for error correction in English speaking lessons 36 3.2.3 Implementing some kinds of communicative activities 36 3.2.4 Providing more interesting topics to encourage students’ participation37 3.2.5 Providing more opportunities to practise speaking English 38 3.2.6 Helping students to be confident 38 3.2.7 Building a habit of speaking English for students in the class 38 3.2.8 Training students to become efficient speakers 39 3.2.9 Making good use of emotional factors 39 3.2.10 Equipping teaching facilities .40 PART III: CONCLUSION .41 Summary of the study 41 Limitations of the study .41 Suggestions for further studies 41 REFERENCES 43 Appendix a 44 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching SLL: Second Language Learning ELT: English Language Teaching NEBHS: Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School MOET: Ministry of Education and Training PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale In Vietnam, in the recent years, the teaching and learning of English have been gaining significance firstly because it is an international language; secondly it is also seen as a means to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between Vietnam and other countries, especially since Vietnam became an official member of WTO There have been an increasing number of people desiring to know English with the hope of keeping up with the latest modern technology in the world English has now been taught not only at all universities and colleges, but also at almost every senior high school and it is considered as a compulsory subject at secondary school To meet the demand of learners of English, teachers of English in Vietnam have been trying to find out the most suitable and effective method of teaching English They have always tried to catch up with the world’s latest frameworks of English Language Teaching As in other countries, teachers of English in Vietnam are now using Communicative Approach to teach English to learners of all levels They hope to provide learners with a means of communication, namely English which is vital for them to be successful in their job and to fulfill their social demands in the time of globalization At Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School, where the author studies, English is a compulsory subject in the curriculum and it is considered as a major subject for the high school examination It is taught with the purpose that students have some basic knowledge of English in order to communicate and to use it as a key to science and technology However, there still exist many difficulties facing English language teachers in Vietnam in general and English language teachers at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School in particular in teaching speaking skills to students The teachers of English at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School find it difficult to teach speaking successfully In the teaching situations, the students usually keep quiet in speaking lessons; they mind speaking English There are many students who have good knowledge of grammar which works wonderfully at reading and writing exercises but they can not express themselves in English What is more, in real-life situations, students find it hard to communicate with English speaking people; it is hard for them to response spontaneously and naturally Certainly, there are many reasons for this If those difficulties are not found out and no solutions can be given, the speaking classes cannot be successful and students will be fed up with learning English if they find it worthless to study the subject All of the above reasons have inspired the author to the research on “The problems in Teaching English Speaking Skills to the Minority students at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School and some Suggested Solutions” with the hope to make a small contribution to the quality of teaching and learning speaking skills at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School Aims and Significance of the study This study is aimed at finding out the areas of difficulties in teaching English speaking skills to the minority students at NEBHS Also, it is expected that some solutions to overcome difficulties encountered will be suggested To be more specific, in realizing this study, the objectives are: - Investigating the current situation of teaching and learning of speaking skills at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School - Investigating the areas of difficulties and obstacles that the teachers at NEBHS have encountered when teaching the speaking skills - Suggesting some solutions with the hope of helping English language teachers at NEBHS improve the quality of their teaching, this later helps improve students’ learning quality Research questions: In order to achieve the above aims, the research questions are as follows: (i)What are the current methods and techniques of teaching speaking skills used at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School? (ii) What are problems experienced by the teachers in teaching English speaking skills at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School? (iii) What are feasible solutions to overcome those difficulties? Scope of the study The study focuses on the difficulties that the English language teachers have met when teaching speaking skills to the minority students at NEBHS and some suggested solutions which help them improve the quality of their teaching The study of difficulties, some suggested solutions to other skills and levels would be beyond the scope of the study Method of the study In order to realize the aims of the study, quantitative method was used Two survey questionnaires were used to collect information and evidence for the study: - The first survey questionnaire is carried out on 140 students at NEBHS - The second survey questionnaire is carried out on English language teachers of NEBHS All comments, remarks and recommendations given in the study were based on the data analysis Design of the study This study consists of three parts: Introduction, Content and Conclusion • Part I: Introduction • Part II: Content The development comprises three chapters: I : Theoretical Background II : The study III: Data analysis and Discussion of the findings •Part C: Conclusion PART II CONTENT I Theoretical background 1.1 Communicative Language Teaching 1.1.1 Definition of Communicative Language Teaching Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) appears in the 1960s and 1970s and was thought as a resolution against the Audio- lingual Method It is an outcome of more attention to learners’ effective and appropriate use of language learnt It is pointed out by Brindley (1986: 11) that “The 1970’s and 1980’s could be regarded as the era of Communicative Language Teaching” Communicative Language Teaching also marks the beginning of a major innovation within language teaching because of its superior principles which are widely accepted nowadays So far, several researchers have done the work on CLT and different authors view CLT differently However, it is difficult to define it in a satisfactory way There is a variety of definitions about CLT and each of them developed her / his own ideas regarding CLT As for Nunan (1989: 194), Communicative Language Teaching means: CLT views language as a system for the expression of meaning Activities involve oral communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which is meaningful to the learners Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives The learner’s role is as a negotiator and integrator The teacher’s role is as a facilitator of the communication process Materials promote communicative language use; they are task- based and authentic It is thought that the definition contains aspects that are common to many other definitions The definition above, as with any definitions of the language teaching method (Penny Cook, 1989), represents a particular view of understanding and explaining language acquisition It is socially constructed and must be seen as a product of social, cultural, economic, and political forces Williams (1995) summarizes the CLT classroom as one in which there is an emphasis on the use of authentic language and unpredictable input Negotiation of meaning between students and teachers should be essential in the implementation of tasks with resulting comprehensible input Risk talking which leads to successful communication is also very important In his viewpoint, Williams emphasizes the lack of focus on the direct instruction of language rules and error correction A major emphasis is on learner autonomy According to Bock (2000) CLT is tailored to get at meaning and learners negotiate meaning in class Meaning is considered as what is communicated The negotiation of meaning can be implicated through pair work, group work in problem- solving tasks He also states: “Authentic materials, functional tasks, and groups and pair work are significant aspects of CLT” 1.1.2 Characteristics of Communicative Language Teaching The theory of language in CLT shows that language is used as a means of communication Characteristics of CLT are given by Richards and Rodgers( 2001) as follows: •Language is a system for the expression of meaning •The primary function of language is to allow interaction and communication •The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses •The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse Thus, the objective of language teaching is to develop “communicative competence” Richards and Rodgers (2001 : 155) show that CLT aims to “ make communicative competence the goal of language teaching” And communicative competence is defined by Hymes( 1972 : 7): “ Communicative competence as speaker needs to know to communicate effectively in culturally significant setting.” Another characteristic of CLT is the introduction of authentic material (Dublin, 1995; Larsen- Freeman, 1986; Long and Crooks, 1992; Nunan, 1990; Widdwson, 1996) In CLT, it is considered desirable to give learners the opportunity to response to genuine communicative needs in realistic L2 situations so that they develop strategies for understanding language as actually used by native speakers (Canale and Swain, 1980) 1.1.3 The Teachers’ and Students’ roles in Communicative Language Teaching •Teacher roles: As Communicative Language Teaching is learner- centered, the teachers, though, are still the people to set up activities and give instructions to students, they step back to listen and monitor the class rather than talking much Breen and Candlin (1980) describe teacher roles in CLT in the following terms: The teacher has two main roles: the first role is to facililate the To solve this problem, it is recommended that seminars, workshops and training courses should be regularly held for the teachers to improve their knowledge on CLT Besides the administrators’ support, teachers should make effort to their self-study to gain knowledge Self- study is an effective solution since the teachers could achieve knowledge from other sources such as books, magazines, radio, television, etc In addition, peer observations or even informal talks that allow colleagues from the same working contexts to have the opportunities to exchange ideas, share experiences and innovations is considered to be one of the effective approaches to teachers’ professional development 3.2.2 Using suitable techniques for error correction in English speaking lessons It is advisable for the teachers to give students suitable ways of error correction In terms of CLT, language is a system for the expression of meaning (Richard and Rogers, 2001) In other words, the primary function of language is interaction and communication; thus the primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features During communicative activities teachers should not interrupt students in mid-flow to point out grammar, lexical or pronunciation errors All the errors of the students should be treated tactfully The teachers should correct serious mistakes or just stop if the students' answers are unclear Another better way to correct students' errors is to write common errors and correct them as a class discussion at the end of the activities This helps promote a safe atmosphere for students and enables them to assist each other in correcting errors Correction, in addition, is not necessary to be always corrected by teachers Self-correction is an effective alternating method Teachers can give a kind of signal, which has been regulated between teachers and students, teachers can help students to recognize and correct their mistakes It is important to help students fell that making mistake is something unavoidable, and thus, they feel free and self-confident to speak 3.2.3 Implementing some kinds of communicative activities Attraction of speaking classes can be enhanced if the task of exploring and designing classroom activities is paid due attention to Activities will be more attractive if teachers exploit from different sources like linguistic journals, magazines and internet Course books can also become a plentiful source of effective and interesting materials for speaking classes if the activities and topics there are properly and appropriately adapted to students’ level and specific characteristics To enhance the effectiveness of classroom 36 activities, it is worth paying attention to the matter of grouping students for group work and pair work activities In fact, pair work and group work have become the dominant activities in the class This is a quite effective way because students can work with different partners in the class This makes them more motivated and keeps their interest during the class time Thus, teachers should pay attention to more kinds of activities such as communicative games, role play, songs and drama These can change the atmosphere of classroom, create authentic situations for students to practise speaking English and help them to develop their creativity and ability Example 1: With the topic “Volunteer work” (Unit 4) in the textbook “Tieng Anh 11”, the teacher can use the Competition game – Describing the pictures to help students talk about different kinds of activities related to volunteer work Teacher divides the class into small groups of or students and gives each group a set of pictures Students are required to describe the activity in each picture in one sentence only Which group finishes first and has the most correct and meaningful sentences will be the winner This activity helps students to have a good warm- up before going to the main tasks of the lesson, increase students’ commitment to speak English fluently, get the students, maximum participation in class time and keep the class lively and dynamic Example 2: With some difficult topics such as: Illiteracy (Unit 5), World Population ( Unit 7), Nature in danger (Unit 10), etc it is hard for students to memorize the vocabulary , thus the teacher can use “ Competition gameCrossword puzzle” to help students memorize the new words right at the class This activity will provide with funny and easy way to memorize the difficult vocabulary 3.2.4 Providing more interesting topics to encourage students’ participation In order to encourage students to participate in English speaking lessons, the teachers should provide some interesting topics The topics can be in the textbook or outside the text-book It will be better if the topics are related to the lessons to create a feeling of security that the students are learning something in the lessons but not something outside Besides, the teachers can adapt the topics in the textbook to make them more suitable, interesting and familiar to the students Sometimes, it is advisable to let students choose the topics they like to talk about 37 For example, in a discussion activity the students have to talk about type of competitions and contests in the world, the teachers can choose the similar ones in Vietnam because the students may have more information about them such as: “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” (Ai triệu phú?)- The Vietnamese version of the British game show The maximum cash prize is one hundred and twenty million VND Or: “Arena 100” (Đấu trường 100)- The biggest show with the highest number of players, 100 3.2.5 Providing more opportunities to practise speaking English Besides the activities organized in the classroom, it is necessary to provide out-of class activities which students can communicate with other speakers in the target language This can be achieved by organizing extra activities in English like seminars or forming an English speaking club and film- making contests in the school to involve each student in an English speaking atmosphere Because 45 minutes for each speaking period is short for students to practice English From the real situations, the students have less chance to speak English Joining in those activities, the students will form a habit to speak English and an awareness of the importance of English language It also helps students find the joy within learning, hence, increases the motivation in learning 3.2.6 Helping students to be confident The finding indicates that students felt reluctant to speak due to the lack of confidence This is also a big obstacle for teaching speaking skills In order to help students to be effective and confident speakers, first of all teachers need to provide students with as much practice as possible because of the fact that practice will help students feel better prepared and thus more confident The teachers should point out students’ speaking ability; give immediate praise and encouragement so that they will have no fear but enough bravery to speak Moreover, the teachers should create and establish the classroom culture where speaking English aloud is the norm Possible feedback from teachers or classmates might be of great help in encouraging and relaxing shy students to speak more In conclusion, in order to improve the quality of teaching speaking skills, the teachers need to help students to build their confidence, which is a key to the success of teaching and learning process 3.2.7 Building a habit of speaking English for students in the class In order to enhance the students’ speaking interest and better motivate the students to speak, it is important for the teachers to help the students to form a habit of using English The teachers should set a good example for the students, which means they have to use English almost during the lessons but the English used should be easy for students to understand otherwise they will 38 lose interest in the lessons It is also important to encourage the students to use English not only when learning speaking skills but also other skills In addition, the teachers should let the students have more chance to practise listening to get acquainted to native speakers’ voice Having had a habit of speaking English in the class, students will participate more often in classroom speaking activities 3.2.8 Training students to become efficient speakers The students will never achieve their goals in learning speaking if they are not efficient speakers In addition, the difficulties in learning speaking skills of the students reflected in the study are the lack of words or structures and ideas to speak In order to help students overcome the difficulties, it is therefore, an important responsibility of the teachers to help students to become efficient speakers First, the teachers help students understand the nature of speaking process: an active process, which requires students to actively take part in the speaking process They no longer depend on the teacher’s lecture; they must actively join all speaking activities in order to overcome difficulties in learning vocabulary and structures In addition, the teachers train their students to become self-studiers as they have certain knowledge and English language ability If they can self- study effectively, they are eager to learn and they are more interested in speaking English Therefore their vocabulary, structures, grammar and speaking speed are also much more improved If students become efficient speakers and develop their autonomy in learning, not only student’s difficulties will be overcome but also teachers’ heavy task in lecturing, and amount of time speaking Vietnamese will be reduced The teachers, at that time, play the role of instructors whereas students can play the central role in speaking classes 3.2.9 Making good use of emotional factors In the course of growth, students are not mature psychologically, and their feelings are very frail The teachers must be able to arouse the learners’ active feelings and remove or restrain their passive feelings A language teacher could pass his kindness, encouragement' trust and respect to the students by means of words, expression and action, and arouse the interest of students Only in a relaxing teaching atmosphere can students have happy mood and dare to speak English Though the students' mistakes are unavoidable, the teachers may use some suitable methods to correct these mistakes and sometimes they don't have to correct them at all Teachers should also praise or encourage students more, though their oral English is not good enough, help them to experience success And we know one success may bring another; many times of success can reinforce the students' self39 confidence; then they may have the desire to express themselves in English 3.2.10 Equipping teaching facilities To improve the quality of teaching and learning English speaking skills, an adequate attention should be paid to the aspect of classroom facilities Besides the existing teaching facilities such as: board, chalk, cassette player, course book; it is necessary to equip classroom with modern equipment like computers, projectors, and TV for students to watch English programs, films, VCD, etc Equip the library with various reference books Add English magazines, novels, newspapers in the library In a word, one can enjoy English at any time and any place Students must involve themselves in these situations and cherish every chance to practice English The library is not only useful for students but also for the teachers as they can read in free time, improve their specialized knowledge as well as English language These devices would be of great importance in making the lectures more effective as the teachers can explain the subject matter lively and efficiently and save a lot of time in writing down everything on board as usual This also would change the atmosphere of classroom dramatically and make students more eager in learning As mentioned above, the classes are big size Inside the classroom, students sit in long rows with students being in one row, thus becoming very immobile for communicative activities while the teachers are under pressure to cover the allocated syllabus in the time allowed From this problem, classroom must be larger than now and decorated suitably for communicative activities Chair and tables should be arranged in a way that students can move around conveniently to join with their classmates to accomplish the tasks With such facilities, the process of teaching and learning will be more effective 40 PART III: CONCLUSION Summary of the study The importance of speaking is undeniable in language teaching and learning Therefore, understanding the teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking skills is apparently necessary to gain effective teaching and learning With the hope of finding the way to improve the teaching and learning of speaking skills to minority students at NEBHS, I has carried out this study I has tried my best to reach what I aimed my study at Although this is only my private experience as a result of my teaching everyday, I hope it will be beneficial to other teachers and students Beside, it reminds me not to stop learning and studying to find out new teaching methods and interesting activities so that I can achieve the best effects Limitations of the study Although the study is carefully and clearly designed and based on reliable data, it has the major limitations Due to the limitation of time, lack of resources and the researcher’s ability, drawbacks are unavoidable Firstly, the study only carries out an investigation into the difficulties in teaching English speaking possessed by students’ grade 11, so to some extent, the results may not be generalized for all students of the school Secondly, the study only used survey questionnaire as the main instrument for data collections Thus, the perceptions may not always be accurate and reliable In order to make obtained result more reliable, different instruments for data collection should be applied Thirdly, only some suggested solutions have been proposed to deal with those difficulties of the teachers Despite of the unavoidable limitations, the researcher believes that this study is beneficial to the teaching of speaking skills to the minority students at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School Suggestions for further studies This study has only focuses on the teaching of English speaking skills to minority students at NEBHS; it has no chance to deal with other three skills in language teaching: Listening, Reading and Writing Moreover, the study has only mentioned a very small part of the issues related to the teaching and learning of speaking skills There are some suggestions for further researches: - A study on the problems in teaching Listening/ Reading or Writing to the Minority students at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High school - A study on techniques and activities for the minority students which 41 help them improve their speaking skills I hopes that the further studies will be overcome all the existing limitations of this study and help to improve the quality of the teaching and learning English at NEBHS particular and at other schools in Nghe An in general 42 REFERENCES Bailey, K.M and Savage, L (1994) New ways in teaching Speaking USA Bock, G ( 2000) Difficulties in Implementing Communicative Theory in Viet Nam Teacher’s Edition , 2, 24- 28 Brindley, G ( 1986) Some Current Issues in Second Language Teaching Prospect, Vol No April 1986 Breen, M , and C N Candlin.(1980) The Essentials of a Communicative Curriculum in Language Teaching Applied Linguistics Brown, G and Yule, G (1983) Teaching the Spoken Language Cambridge: CUP Brown, Roberts and Nation, P Teaching Speaking: Suggestions for the Classroom http: // jalt – puplications org / tlt/ files / 97/ jan/ speaking html Byrne, D ( 1988) Focus on the Classroom HongKong: Modern English Publications Byrne, D (1991) Teaching Oral English London: Longman Bygate, M ( 1987) Speaking Oxford: OUP 10 Bygate, M ( 1991) Speaking Oxford : OUP 11 Canale, M and Swain M( 1980) Approaches to Communicative Competence Singapore: RELC 12 Dublin F (1995) (ed) The craft of Material Writing In P Byrd (ed), Material Writer’s guide (p 64- 78) Boston: Heinl and Heinl 13 Habermas, J (1970) Towards a Theory of Communicatine Competence In Dreitzel, H (ed) 14 Harmer, J (1993) The practice of English Language Teaching Harlow: Longman 15 Hymes, D H ( 1971) On Communicative Competence In Pride and Holmes (eds) and Brumfit, C J and Johnson, K (eds).1979 16 Hymes, D H ( 1972) In Richards J C ,and Rodgers, T S (1986) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Cambridge: CUP 17 Jack C Richards and Theodore S Rodgers ( 1986) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Cambridge :OUP 18 Kayi, H ( 2006) Teaching Speaking The Internet TESL Journal, Vol XII, No11, November 19 Van, H V ( 2006) Tiếng Anh 11 Nhà Xuất Bản Giáo Dục 43 Appendix a Survey questionnaire for teachers This questionnaire is designed for my research into the problems in Teaching English Speaking skills to the Minority students at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School Your assistance in completing the survey is highly appreciated All the information provided by you is solely for the study purpose, and you can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Thank you very much for your cooperation How long have you been teaching English? …………… years What you think about the importance of speaking skills for students at high school? the most important as important as other skills ( reading, listening, writing) not so important as other skills ( reading, listening, writing) others ( Please specify)…………………………………… What are your opinions on the text book “ Tieng Anh 11”? good but difficult good and appropriate bad book others:……………………………………………………… Have you ever been trained in Communicative Language Teaching? no, I have never been trained in CLT yes, in English Teaching- Training courses yes, in English Language Teaching workshops others ( Please specify)………………………………… As for you, CLT: ( You may circle more than one) is learner- centered always emphasizes on fluency more than accuracy focuses on meaningful tasks rather on language itself does not teach grammar is used only for teaching speaking skills, not other skills considers the teacher as a facilitator give students opportunities to communicate with each others Do you apply CLT in teaching speaking skills to the minority students at NEBHS? yes no I use…… What are your difficulties in teaching speaking skills to the minority students in grade 11 at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School? students’ low level of English students’ shyness students’ lack of motivation lack of time students’ use of mother- tongue during group work / pair work large- sized classes difficult speaking topics others: ………………………………………………… What you when your students are reluctant to speaking English in class? get angry and ask them to stand get them to speak encourage them to speak by asking easier questions let them sit down without asking them again others:……………………………………………………… What you when your students show low motivation in speaking lessons? suggest interesting topics for discussion let them choose topics to discuss carry out on – going assessments use authentic materials nothing 10 What you to deal with students’ low level of spoken English? select and organize simple communicative activities give students chance to prepare and allotted time to prepare give instruction in Vietnamese criticize them for their level neglect them 11 What you to prevent your students from using Vietnamese in speaking class? more around to observe remind them to speak English let them be criticize them 12 How often you speak English in your speaking class? always as much as possible sometimes never 13 Can you give some suggestions to have better way of teaching English speaking skills to the students at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School? …………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………… Thank you for taking time to complete this questionnaire Appendix b Survey questionnaire for students This survey questionnaire is designed for my research into the difficulties in teaching English Speaking Skills to the minority students at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School Your assistance in completing the survey is highly appreciated All the information provided by you is solely for the study purpose, and you can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Thank you very much for your cooperation 1.Did you learn English before High School? yes no If yes : How long did you learn English before? ………………….years 2.Why you want to learn English? to pass examinations to be a compulsory subject in curriculum to get a good job in the future to speak English to foreigners to listen to songs, read books, magazines in English others:…………………………………………………… 3.How important is the speaking skills to you? very important rather important little important not important at all 4.Why you like learning English speaking? to improve the knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, and phonology to communicate with foreigners to get a chance to have a university place or a work place in a foreign company after finishing school to get good marks speaking skill is very interesting 5.How you feel about speaking English? easy difficult normal very difficult 6.Are you afraid of speaking English in class? usually rarely sometimes never 7.What you think about speaking topics in the textbook “ Tieng Anh 11”? interesting boring all right not suitable 8.Are you willing to speak English in class? yes, I like speaking very much sometimes rarely never except when asked by the teacher 9.What factors make you afraid of speaking English in class? being afraid of losing face not getting used to speaking English not paying much attention to speaking skills boring teaching others:……………………………………………………… 10 class? What you think often prevent you from speaking English in unable to find words or structures unable to find ideas not enough time for preparation too much teachers’ talking time others:……………………………………………………… 11 If you make mistakes while performing your tasks, your teachers often……… get angry and interrupt you to correct remain self- control but interrupt you mistake correction wait until you finish your task, point out your mistakes then correct them for you wait until you finish your task, point out your mistakes then encourage you and your classmates to correct them 12 Do you have opportunities to speak English outside your class? usually sometimes rarely never 13 After giving topics what does your teacher often do? provide new words and structures relating to the topics provide main ideas of the topics elicit ideas from students give some tasks ask you to discuss the topics immediately 14 What does your teacher often to encourage you to speak English in class? give marks suggest interesting topics for discussion give you some suggested questions create some interesting games and activities others:……………………………………………………… 15 In order to improve your speaking skills How should your teacher do? ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Thank you for taking time to complete this questionnaire .. .NGHE AN EDUCATION AND TRAINING DEPARTMENT TEACHING EXPERIENCE a study on the problems in teaching english speaking skills to the minority students at NGHE AN ethnic boarding high school and some. .. research into the problems in Teaching English Speaking skills to the Minority students at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School Your assistance in completing the survey is highly appreciated All the information... An Ethnic Boarding High School and some Suggested Solutions? ?? with the hope to make a small contribution to the quality of teaching and learning speaking skills at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School