A large number of methods to build students’ self-confidence in speaking English have been given by numerous researchers so far. Nevertheless, just some of the methods are chosen to be presented in the following section as they are in line with what this paper deals with.
Teacher is one of the significant factors to promote language teaching effectively in terms of preparing lesson plans, materials and activities and also, acting as a facilitator in language learning. Teachers should research to improve their effective teaching by reflecting in the classroom (Hatch, T., White, M.E., & Capitelli, S., 2005: 323, McIntyre, D., & Rudduck, J., 2005: 360, and Ruthven, K., 2005: 407). According to Brown, H. D. (2001), group work activities are very helpful in developing speaking
skill, confidence and improving vocabulary, pronunciation for students. Wiriyachitra, A. (2003: 25) claims that a teacher is the factor to make students have positive or negative attitudes in language learning. Considering the teacher factor, Brown, H. D.
(2001) says that the cause of students’ lack of confidence is due to the lack of encouragement from the teacher. Thus, encouragement should become an essential thing to increase students’ self-confidence. Giving students encouragement to show their ability to communicate in English well contributes to students’ success of learning. Byrne, D. (1986) adds that teachers should comment students’ speaking activities at the end of the presentation. Chu, C. W. L. (2001: 250) sees teachers’
sincerity and trustworthiness to be the key to open the door to the students mind if teachers’ reflective practice is to be successful. With the same concern, Pesce, C. (2011) contends that it is urgent that teacher creates a friendly and open classroom environment. By doing this, shy students are hoped to feel fine of making mistakes in their learning. The students will not worry of their imperfect pronunciation and grammar. As a result, they dare to speak in their speaking class. In term of possible solutions to overcome the students’ lack of confidence, Htwe, Y. (2007) proposes the strategy to build students’ confidence. He claims that maximizing students’
exposure to English is a good way to build the students’ confidence. This will make students experience a sense of ability to speak English. Ur, P. (1991: 281) also shares some strategies to improve students’ motivation to speak in classroom, in which the principal one is collecting the interesting topics to students.
Many researches pertaining to methods to build students’ self-confidence in learning speaking skills in the world as well as in Vietnam have been accomplished until now. In these researches, the authors use different ways to build self-confidence for students in speaking English.
Firstly, the research “Gaining Speaking Confidence by Mastering Basic English Questions: Using Enjoyable Games within a Simple Framework” is made by Loucky, J. P. (2004). Aiming at building students’ confidence in speaking English, he
Secondly, the research “Extensive Pair Taping for College Students in Japan:
Action Research in Confidence and Fluency Building” is undertaken by Kubo, M.
(2009). In order to enhance students’ confidence and fluency in speaking English, he applies the extensive pair taping method.
Thirdly, the research “An Action Research on Increasing the Students’
Confidence in Speaking: An Iranian Experience” is conducted by Doqaruni, V. R.
(2011). In this study, the author applies a student-centered approach that emphasizes students’ cooperation, interaction and participation in pairs and groups to raise students’ self-confidence in speaking English.
Fourthly, the research “Building students’ confidence in English speaking class through group work at Faculty of Finance and Banking, Vietnam University of Commerce” is implemented by Lien, P. (2012). In the first phase, the author uses two questionnaires, one for five teachers (to search for information about their opinions about group work, suitable group work activities to build confidence for students, group work procedure and problems in organizing group work) and the other for students (to find out students’ attitude to group work, factors affecting their confidence in speaking, their favorite group work activities and their difficulties when working in group). In the second phase, two interviews (one for teachers and the other for students) are carried out in English and Vietnamese between the author, 3 teachers and 10 students. Finally, the author observes five English speaking lessons to confirm the reliability and validity of the information about group work activities to build students’ confidence in speaking lessons.
These researches have effect towards developing students’ confidence in speaking English. Each method has the certain efficiency and motivates students to participate speaking activities that improve their speaking skills much.
As for my study, to boost students’ self-confidence in learning speaking skills I use two research instruments such as questionnaires and interview to figure out factors affecting students’ self-confidence in speaking English and applied methods to develop their self-confidence. Finally, thanks to the result of the interview for students
and found factors preventing students’ self-confidence, some methods to increase students’ self-confidence in learning speaking skills are proposed in the study.
To sum up, many different methods to boost students’ self-confidence in speaking English have been proposed by the researchers so far. Some of them act as the lodestar in language teaching, some are applicable in certain situations and need adapting in other cases.