Challenges in teaching and learning the speaking skill a study in an ethnic boarding high school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI THU HA CHALLENGES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING THE SPEAKING SKILL: A STUDY IN AN ETHNIC BOARDING HIGH SCHOOL MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION Nghe An, 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI THU HA CHALLENGES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING THE SPEAKING SKILL: A STUDY IN AN ETHNIC BOARDING HIGH SCHOOL Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 8140111 MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION Supervisor: TRAN BA TIEN, Ph.D Nghe An, 2018 DECLARATION I certify that the thesis entitled “Challenges in teaching and learning the speaking skill: A study in an Ethnic Boarding High school” is the result of my own study and the substance of this research has not been submitted for degree to any other university or institution Vinh, July 10th 2018 Signature Nguyen Thi Thu Ha i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing this thesis has been fascinating and extremely rewarding I would like to thank a number of people who have contributed to the final result in many different ways To commence with, I express my sincere and deepest to my supervisor, Tran Ba Tien Ph.D who ploughed through several preliminary versions of my text, making critical suggestions and posing challenging questions His expertise, invaluable guidance, constant encouragement, affection attitude, understanding, patience and healthy criticism added considerably to my experience Without his continual inspiration, it would have not been possible to complete this study I am highly thankful to the students from grade 10 for their help and cooperation during my research at their class I am also grateful to my colleagues from Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School who helped and encouraged me a lot when I was conducting our research I also own my special thanks to some friends of mine who supported me a lot during my work Finally, I take this opportunity to express my deep sense of gratitude to our beloved family for providing me constant encouragement and supporting me spiritually throughout Vinh, July 10th 2018 ii ABSTRACT This study investigated the difficulties and challenges facing students and teachers in speaking lessons to 10th graders at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School No 2, the influence of multilingual factors in teaching and learning speaking skills as well as some strategies which were used by students and teachers in teaching and learning English speaking skill Questionnaires and interview were provided to students and teachers in order to find the answers An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to explore the factorial structure of the questionnaire Based on the results, the difficulty hindering them in learning speaking skills was the lack of target knowledge which caused the code-switching in learning process Some others were discovered such as inhibition, nothing to say, low or uneven participation Additionally, the most challenge facing teachers was the use of students' mother tongue in English speaking classroom Their troubles came from mostly from the difficulty of students when they could not understand language of instruction in classroom The results from study indicated that students and teachers used some useful strategies to overcome their problems in speaking lessons such as code-switching, using communicative approach However, the effectiveness in speaking lessons still needs more improvement Key words: multilingual classroom, code-switching, strategies, Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION .0 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES vi LIST OF FIGURES vii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the research 1.3 Questions of the research .2 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Organization of the study .3 Chapter 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .4 2.1 Overview 2.2 Communicative competence 2.3 Speaking skills .6 2.3.1 Definition of Speaking 2.3.2 Characteristics of spoken language 2.3.3 Problems with Speaking Activities 2.3.4 Multilingual Classroom .9 2.3.5 Mother tongue, the first language and the second language 10 2.3.6 Code-switching .11 2.4 Approaches to teaching the speaking skills .12 2.4.1 The Grammar – translation Method 12 2.4.2 Direct vs indirect approaches 12 2.4.3 The Communicative approach 14 2.5 Interaction in English language classroom 15 2.5.1 Types of interaction patterns 15 iv 2.5.2 Pair work and group work in language learning .17 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY .22 3.1 Overview 22 3.2 Setting of the study 22 3.3 Participants 25 3.4 Data collection 26 3.4.1 Questionnaire 26 3.4.2 Class observation 27 3.4.3 Interview 27 3.5 Data analysis 27 3.6 Research procedures 28 Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .29 4.2 Findings 29 4.2.1 Results from students’ questionnaire (Appendix 1) 29 4.2.2 Results from teachers' questionnaire (Appendix 3) 35 4.2.3 Results from teachers' interview (Appendix 4) .41 4.2.4 Results from observation results .45 4.3 Discussion 46 Chapter 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 56 5.1 Conclusion 56 5.2 Teaching implications 57 5.3 Limitation 60 5.4 Suggested further research 60 REFERENCES 61 APPENDICES: Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students (Vietnamese version) Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students (English version) Appendix 3: Questionnaire for teachers Appendix 4: Interview questions to teachers v LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Teachers’ Background Information 26 Table 3.2: Students’ Background Information 26 Table 4.1: Frequency of using communicative activities in speaking lessons 35 Table 4.2: Frequency of using communicative activities in speaking lessons 41 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: Communicative language competence based on Beckman & Palmer 1996:68 Figure 4.1: Students’ evaluation to their English speaking skills .29 Figure 4.2: Students’ interest in English speaking lesson 30 Figure 4.3: Students’ problems in English speaking activities 31 Figure 4.4: Languages students used in speaking lessons 31 Figure 4.5: Students' classmate in the same ethnic group 32 Figure 4.6: Students' answer about the usefulness of mother tongue in learning .33 Figure 4.7: The cases students used mother tonge in learning 33 Figure 4.8: Students' strategies in improving English speaking skills 34 Figure 4.9: Language allowed using in speaking classroom 34 Figure 4.10: Language of instruction in speaking classroom 35 Figure 4.11: Teachers' evaluation to the importance of speaking skills to their students 36 Figure 4.12: Teachers' assessment to the students' participation in speaking activities 36 Figure 4.13: Teachers' application of method in teaching speaking skills .37 Figure 4.14: Teachers' assessment towards teaching material 37 Figure 4.15: Teachers' organization of interaction of pair and group work 38 Figure 4.16: The basis of organizing interaction of pair and group work 38 Figure 4.17: Teachers' interaction with students in classroom 39 Figure 4.18: Problems occurring while students' cooperation in class .40 Figure 4.19: Teachers' talking time in classroom .40 vii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale The growing need of the English language makes it even more important to learn According to Paik (2008), English is perceived as an indispensable tool in order to live in the global economy; therefore, the demand for learning English language is speedily increasing Teaching has the major role in the acquisition of English language Patil (2008) supposes that, teaching English is not only transmitting knowledge to the students; instead, it is to enable them to read, to speak and to write with fluency It is true that Vietnam is a multiethnic country with over fifty distinct groups Each group has its own language, lifestyle, and cultural heritage Kinh is considered the largest ethnic group in Vietnam However, in Nghe An the situation is so different from the other areas of Vietnam due to linguistic diversity in the region Among the difficulties facing the ethnic minorities in Nghe An, uneven education quality between urban and rural areas can be seen as a serious matter to educators and teachers in this province In Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School No 2, the students gather from some ethnic groups residing in mountainous areas such as Thai, H' Mong, Muong, Tho etc They come from different ethnic groups and speak different languages The main hindrance in learning English here is a triangular language environment Minority students mainly use their mother tongues - Thai, Hmong, and others - to communicate inside their families and small communities From first grade onward, at school and in public places, minority students have to learn Vietnamese to study and communicate with other people Also, English is a compulsory subject for them at upper secondary school In addition, in real life situations, students find it hard to communicate with English speaking people It seems to be difficult for them to have natural conversations It can be seen that minority students at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School are incompetent in English communication, which contributes great influence on the minority students' interest of learning English Furthermore, there  For teaching a Facilitating communication - There is an essential thing that teachers should clarify expectations for communication and encourage a variety of modes of communication - Teachers should provide extra visual and oral support while presenting information For example, they may use redundancy and paraphrase to help students understand concepts Key words that might be difficult for students to understand should be written out on the board Moreover, teachers should organize explanations and phrases that clearly mark important information and transitions between ideas - Teachers should encourage students to use technology in learning such as recording class sessions or teachers may record them for a latter observation and learning - It is a good idea for teachers to find out who their students are and how they communicate For example, students can be asked to fill out an online survey or index cards with information about themselves and their classroom communication experiences - Also, teachers should provide opportunities for students to reflect on their learning, For example, they should allow time for question and answer at the end of class - It is also important that teachers should offer specific feedback Especially, teachers should offer constructive feedback (in a one-on-one setting) on communication issues that teachers think might be helpful for them to be aware of b Encouraging participation As far as we see in the findings and discussion, students claimed for their little or uneven participation Therefore, teachers should pay more attention to this issue - They should set up expectations for class participation In another word, they should be clear about what participation means in your class Furthermore, 58 they should set ground rules for participation and discussion in order to avoid the disciplinary problem in classroom - Questions should be planned carefully Because their students may find it difficult to understand language of instruction in classroom, teachers should ask one question at a time, and allow time for thinking and responding Moreover, they should plan a series of questions to guide students' thinking Also, the level of complexity of the question should be carefully considered - Students should be given time to prepare before the discussion For example, students might note down their answers before the discussion Teachers should ask students to discuss key questions in small groups before a full class discussion Additionally, discussion questions in advance should be provided to students or teachers may ask students to post questions before they come to class - In teaching process, teachers may use active listening strategies They should bear in mind some questions that reflect on how students are listened: Am I allowing the student time to express themselves?, Am I concentrating on what the students is saying? or Am I attentive to verbal and non-verbal cues? The conclusion from the study shows that code-switching is an asset as it has a positive impact in an English EFL teaching and learning situation in the multilingual classroom at the same time as it helps students keep mother tongues alive Therefore, teachers should allow for the pluralistic language society and permit more use of mother tongue in the English classroom Furthermore, results from questionnaire indicate a need for language development through social interaction, which is in line with socio-cultural learning theory Students expressed their willingness to help each other through collaboration and thus the social aspects of the language would be taken into consideration The context and the individual learner's situation should be given a special role in the classroom as she/he makes their learning situation even more sensitive than that of other learners without such background Therefore, the teacher should consider these specific situations while deciding on what and how to 59 present a new language to the students Code-switching is a natural part of second language learning, teaching would therefore be one of those choices made  For learning The data show that learners adopt some different strategies to facilitate learning and improve their English Although they may not be conscious of using strategies, the study shows that they are involved in activities which are in fact language learning strategies Strategies can be seen as thoughts and behaviors that a learner engages in during language instruction, that are intended to influence a leaner's encoding process They are the 'moment-by-moment techniques' employed to solve problem resulting from the second language input and output The use of of code-switching is seen as a way to overcome language learning challenges where the need for language proficiency is vital Learner may thus, consciously or unconsciously use this strategy in their effort to learn English 5.3 Limitation Although the research has made much effort in studying, some mistakes are unavoidable due to the limitation of experience and knowledge First, the study was conducted in speaking lessons to 10th graders an ethnic boarding high school in Nghe An province, therefore it cannot cover all the factors which may happen in a multilingual speaking classes As a result, the results may not reflect fully the whole situation of learning and teaching speaking skills in this situation Second, the participants of the study were limited to ninety 10th graders and four teachers, so the results may be less various Finally, the results were collection mainly on questionnaire and interview and there was lack of experimental work which leads to unpersuasive matter 5.4 Suggested further research Due to the limitation of the research, it is suggested that this study can be extended to other aspects Therefore, the next study can be: An investigation into code-switching strategy to enhance students’ learning in multilingual speaking classrooms 60 REFERENCES  Adendorff, R (1993) Code-Switching amongst Zulu Speaking Teachers and Their Pupils: Its Functions and Implications for Teachers’ Education Language in Education, 7, 141-162  Bailey, M.K and Savage L (1994) New Ways in Teaching Speaking Illinois, USA  Beckman, Lyle F & Palmer, Adrian S 1996 Language testing in practice: Designing and developing useful language Tests Oxford Oxford University Press  Brown, D B (1994), Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, Prentice Hall International, Ltd  Brown, H.D (2001) Teaching by principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy (Second Edition)  Bygate M (1987) Speaking Oxford: Longman  Canale, M., & Swain, M (1980) Theoretical bases of communicative approaches tosecond language teaching and testing Applied Linguistics,1, 147  Ellis, R (1990) Instructed second language acquisition Oxford: Basil Blackwell  Gorham,J & Christophel, D.M (1992) Students’ perceptions of teacher behaviours as motivating and demotivating factors in college classes Communication Quarterly, 40, 239 -252  Hammarberg, Björn 2009 Processes in third language acquisition Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press  Hammerly, H (1991) Fluency and Accuracy: Toward Balance in Language Teaching and Learning Oxford Journals, Clevedon, Avon, England: Multilingual Matters  Hedge, Tricia 2000 Teaching and learning in the language classroom Oxford: Oxford University Press  Hymes, D (1972) On Communicative Competence In J.B Pride & J.Holmes (Eds.) 61  (Eds.), Sociolinguistics, 269-293 Baltimore, USA: Penguin Education, Penguin BooksLtd  Levine, Glenn Scott (2011) Code choice in the language classroom Bristol: Multilingual Matters  Light, J.A (1997) Communication is the essence of human life: Reflections on communicative competence Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 13, 61-70  Nunan, D (1995) Atlas: Learning-centered communication Student’s book 1, Boston: Heinle & Heinle  Nunan, D.(1996) Language Teaching Methodology Phoenix ELT & Prentice Hall Macmillan  Nunan, D.(1996) Language Teaching Methodology Phoenix ELT & Prentice Hall Macmillan  Paik, J (2008) Learning English, imagining global: The narratives of early English education experiences in South Korea The International Journal of Learning 15(10), 71-78 http://doi.org/10.18848/14479494/cgp/v15i10/45983  Patil, Z N (2008) Re-thinking the objectives of teaching English in Asia Asian EFL Journal, 1094, 27-240  Richard, J C (2006), Developing Classroom Activities: From Theory to Practice Vol 28/2, pp 3-8  Savignon, S J (1972) Communicative Competence: An Experiment in ForeignLanguage Teaching Philadelphia: The Centre for Curriculum Development, Inc  Savignon, S J (1983) Communicative Competence: Theory and Classroom Practice Texts and Contexts in Second Language Learning Reading, Massachusetts at all: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company  Sinclair, J.M & Coulhard, R.M (1975), Towards an Analysis of Discourse: The English Used by Teachers and Students Oxford University Press  Thornbury, S (2005) How to teach speaking, Perason Education Limited, Longman  Ur, P (1996), A course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory, Cambridge University Press 62  Widdowson, H G (1983) Learning Purpose and Language Use Oxford: Oxford University Press  Yule, George 2012 The study of language (5th edn.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 63 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students (Vietnamese version) PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA Bảng câu hỏi nhằm mục đích tìm hiểu ý kiến học sinh khó khăn gặp phải yếu tố đa ngơn ngữ có ảnh hưởng chiến lược học sinh học nói Tiếng Anh 10 Trường PT Dân Tộc Nội Trú THPT Số Nghệ An Câu trả lời bạn học sinh quan trọng thành cơng đề tài nghiên cứu Vì mong hợp tác bạn! Hãy đánh dấu (X) vào phương án bạn thấy phù hợp ……………………………………………………………………………………… I Thông tin cá nhân học sinh Giới tính: Nam Nữ Dân tộc: ………………………… Số năm bạn học Tiếng Anh: năm/tháng II Kinh nghiệm học sinh việc học nói Tiếng Anh (Ở số câu hỏi bạn chọn nhiều phương án phù hợp) Bạn đánh giá kĩ nói nào? Rất tốt Tốt Trung bình Kém Rất Bạn có thích học tiết kĩ nói trường khơng? Rất thích Có Khơng thích Khơng thích tí Điều với bạn hoạt động nói Tiếng Anh Kiến thức tiếng Anh bạn từ vựng, ngữ pháp, phát âm Bạn lo sợ mắc lỗi Bạn lo sợ bị trích mặt Bạn khơng có để nói Bạn có thời gian nói Bạn có xu hướng dùng tiếng mẹ đẻ Giáo viên không khuyến khích bạn Các điều khác…………………………………………………………… Bạn nói (những) ngơn ngữ tiết học nói Tiếng Anh? Chỉ Tiếng Anh Tiếng Anh tiếng mẹ đẻ Tiếng Anh tiếng Việt Tiếng Anh tiếng mẹ đẻ Tiếng Anh, tiếng Việt tiếng mẹ đẻ Bạn khơng nói Có bạn lớp học nói ngơn ngữ mẹ đẻ bạn khơng? Có Khơng Được nói tiếng mẹ đẻ học nói có khiến bạn học giỏi kĩ nói Tiếng Anh khơng? Có Khơng Khơng chắc Khi bạn sử tiếng mẹ đẻ lớp học? Khi giáo viên nói điều bạn khơng hiểu bạn quay sang hỏi bạn Khi bạn bạn nhờ bạn giúp đỡ Khi bạn không muốn giáo viên hiểu bạn nói nói Những khác: Bạn nghĩ học Tiếng Anh tốt cách nào? Khi bạn sử dụng Tiếng Anh lớp Khi bạn du lịch tới nước nói Tiếng Anh Khi bạn đọc sách Tiếng Anh Khi bạn xem phim Tiếng Anh Cách khác: Bạn sử dụng (những) ngơn ngữ tiết học nói? Chỉ Tiếng Anh Tiếng Anh tiếng mẹ đẻ Tiếng Anh tiếng Việt Tiếng Anh tiếng mẹ đẻ Tiếng Anh, tiếng Việt tiếng mẹ đẻ 10 Giáo viên bạn nói tiếng tiết học nói? Chỉ Tiếng Anh Tiếng Anh tiếng Việt Tiếng Việt 11 Giáo viên bạn thường xuyên sử dụng hoạt động trò chơi giao tiếp, khoảng trống thông tin, nhiệm vụ giải vấn đề đặt ra, đóng vai nào? Hoạt động Ln ln Các trị chơi giao tiếp Đóng vai Nhiệm vụ giải vấn đề đặt Khoảng trống thông tin Thường Thỉnh Hiếm Không thoảng Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students (English version) QUESTIONNAIRES This questionnaires aims to discover students’ opinions towards difficulties in learning speaking skill in classroom and how multilingual factors have an impact on students as well as the strategies using in learning speaking skill for 10th graders at Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School No Thank you for your cooperation, your answers will be a valuable input for my study Please put a cross (X) on the answer you choose ……………………………………………………………………………………… I Students’ Profile Your gender: Male Female ……………… Your ethnic group How long have you been learning English? years/months II Students’ Experience in Learning Oral Presentation Skills (More than one choice is acceptable in some sentences) How you evaluate your English speaking skills? a Very good b Good c Fair d Poor e Very poor Are you interested in the speaking lessons you have at your school? Very much Yes Not much Not at all What problems are true to you in English speaking activities? Your knowledge of English (such as vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation) is poor You are worried about making mistakes You are fearful of criticism or losing face You have nothing to say You have very little talking time You tend to use mother tongue Teacher not encourage you much Other difficulties…………………………………………………………… What language(s) you speak in the English speaking lessons? Only English English and my mother tongue English and Vietnamese Vietnamese and my mother tongue English, Vietnamese, and my mother tongue I don`t speak Are there other people in your English class having the same mother tongue as you? Yes No Does it help you learn English speaking better if you can use your mother tongue in English speaking class? Yes No I am not sure When you speak your mother tongue in classroom? When the teacher says something I not understand and I ask my friend When my friend asks me for help When I not want the teacher to understand what I am talking about Others: How you think you learn English best? When I use only English in the classroom When I travel to countries where they speak English When I read English books When I watch English films Others: What language(s) are you allowed speaking in English speaking class? Only English English and my mother tongue English and Vietnamese Vietnamese and my mother tongue Vietnamese, English and my mother tongue 10 What language does your teacher speaks in the English speaking lessons? Only English English/ Vietnamese Vietnamese 11 How often does your teacher use activities such as Communicative games, Information gap, Problem-solving tasks, Role play? Activities Communicative games Role play Problem-solving tasks Information gap Always Ofte Sometime n s Seldom Never Appendix 3: Questionnaire for teachers QUESTIONNAIRES This questionnaire is designed to seek for the information of teachers’ experience in using communicative activities in teaching speaking skill to 10th graders at Upper Secondary Schools in Nghe An The answer will be used as important data for the research not for any other purposes The answer, therefore, should be frank and accurate to your own ideas and teaching context Thank you very much for your cooperation! Please put a tick (√) on the answer you choose ……………………………………………………………………………………… I Teacher’s profile -Your qualification: BA MA Ph.D - Years of teaching: < years 5-10 years > 10 years - Have you ever participated in any workshops of teaching speaking skill? Yes No II Teacher’s Experience in Teaching Speaking at Upper Secondary Schools (More than one choice is acceptable in some sentences) How important you think speaking skill is to your students? Very necessary Necessary Not quite necessary Not necessary at all What you think about students’ participation in your speaking class? High level of participation Low level of participation Average level of participation No participation What teaching methods are currently being applied in your speaking lesson? Grammar – Translation method Audio – Lingual method Communicative Approach Combination of different methods What you think about speaking topics and tasks in textbook Tieng Anh 10? Appropriate to your students Inappropriate to your students No idea Others: How often you use pair work and group work? Very often Often Sometimes Never On what basis you often group your students for pair work and group work? Location of sitting Ability Relation in the same ethnic group among students Others (please specify) What you often when your students are doing activities in pairs or groups? Remain in your seat Stand in front of students, near the blackboard Walk around and give help Others (please specify)…………………………………………………… What difficulties you have when students work together? Unequal participation Lack of cooperation Too much noise Mother tongue use Others (please specify)………………………………………… What you think of your talking time in class? Too much Much enough All right Not much Appendix 4: Interview questions to teachers Interview Do you find teaching speaking skills in a multilingual class difficult? What problems and challenges you have in teaching speaking in a multilingual class? What is the language of instruction in the English speaking classroom? Do you code-switch in the English classroom? When? Do your learners code-switch? To which language they code-switch? What is your opinion about students' code-switching? Are there specific situations when the teacher or/and learner code-switch? What happens when the teacher or/and learner code-switch? 10 Do you think that the use of different languages in the same speech act from both you and learners affect teaching/learning? How and why? 11 What kind of interaction you often exploit in your classroom? 12 What strategies you mainly use to facilitate students' learning? 13 Do you often use communicative activities in teaching speaking skills to your students? ...MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI THU HA CHALLENGES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING THE SPEAKING SKILL: A STUDY IN AN ETHNIC BOARDING HIGH SCHOOL Field: Theory and Methodology... ? ?Challenges in teaching and learning the speaking skill: A study in an ethnic boarding high school? ?? The study is to explore problems and challenges in speaking lessons It is also intended to investigate,... from the survey are quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion “Findings and Discussion” shows the reality of teaching speaking Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School