I.4. Students’ participation in oral activities
I.4.2. Factors affecting students’ participation in oral activities
I.4.2.3. Teacher’s teaching techniques and methods
For each teacher, the good choice of teaching methods as well as techniques is very important to increase students‟ participation in every lesson. When deciding what teaching method to use, a teacher needs to consider students' background knowledge, environment, learning goals, learning time and material resources. We also know that different teachers exploit different methods and techniques in their teaching. As a result, different degrees of student‟s participation are created by different teachers. Teacher-centered methods such as the Grammar-translation method or the Direct method always cause teachers to choose the techniques which mostly limit students‟ participation and put them in the passive settings.
On the contrary, learner-centered methods like CLT bring the teacher various techniques that motivate students in participating in the lesson since they are the main characters of all
activities. The examples of these techniques can be named as pair-work, group-work, role play, or games.
I.4.2.4. Teacher personal qualities
Teachers are important and make a difference. The quality of teaching is a crucial factor in promoting effective learning in schools. Effective teaching requires individuals who are academically able and who care about the well-being of students.
Some people may think that it is quite hard to specify the qualities of good English teachers. If we look around, we can see that the teachers loved by the students are of rather different personalities. Some are very charismatic, lively, and easy-going. Others are quiet, slightly introvert and not very sociable. Parker Palmer (1999) also observes that good teaching isn‟t about technique either. He has asked students around his country to describe their good teachers to him. Some of the students describe people who lecture all the time, some of them describe people who do little other than facilitate group process, and others describe everything in between. However, he does notice that despite the different teaching methods employed by different good teachers, these teachers do share some characteristics.
Palmer summarizes that good teachers are “people who have some sort of connective capacity, who connect themselves to their students, their students to each other, and everyone to the subject being studied”. The interpretation of this is that good teachers let the students know that they care for the students. They help the students communicate with each other among themselves so that they find themselves in a nice learning environment.
They also motivate the students to learn the subject they‟re teaching.
We may not think that Palmer‟s list of qualities of good teachers is exhaustive, but it does show that the relationship between teachers and students has a great value in making his class an interesting place where students can enjoy learning. In other words, the teacher‟s personal qualities may have a remarkable effect on his/her students‟ participation.
CHAPTER TWO: THE STUDY
This chapter gives an absolute description of how the research was carried out, including some steps as follows:
II.1. Current situation of teaching and learning English speaking skill at DDHS Dong Do High School is situated at 8 Vong Thi, Lac Long Quan Street, Tay Ho district, Hanoi city - the suburb of Hanoi. Like other private schools in Hanoi, Dong Do School have three levels of educating and training which are primary school, lower secondary school, and upper secondary school. However, the majority of students of this school are students at high school which consists of 6 classes at grade 10, 7 classes at grade 11, and 7 classes at grade12. In addition, each class consists of over 35 students. English is the only foreign language taught and learnt at the school.
The students at DDHS are mostly aged from 15 to 18 years old, and they finished lower secondary school in the suburb of Hanoi capital. Moreover, a large number of students at DDHS are the students who can not enter public schools which demand higher grades.
Therefore, their English proficiency is not good.
The total number of English teachers at DDHS is 9, 6 out of whom were trained at Hanoi Foreign language Teacher Training University; two teacher graduated from Hanoi Foreign Language University; and one graduated from the department of English - Hanoi University of Education. Most teachers of English at this school are from 27 to 40 years old, and have at least 5 years of teaching English at school. However, the teaching method, which is mainly applied at this school, is Grammar-Translation method - a very traditional method. Other methods are seldom exploited.
The main English textbook used in teaching English at this school are Tieng Anh 10, Tieng Anh 11, and Tieng Anh 12 (basic stream). The staff of this school is also aware of the importance of English, so there are from 6 to 8 periods of English in each week.
It means that teachers of English have so much time to let their students practice and revise. Speaking skill is one of the five parts designed in each unit: (reading, speaking, listening, writing, and language focus); hence, it is often taught and learned within one period - 45 minutes. The other periods are spent on teaching and learning other skills, pronunciation and grammatical issues.
II.2. Methodology
To conduct the research, two methods were applied: qualitative method and quantitative method.
All considerations, comments, assumptions, suggestions and conclusions provided in the study are based on the analysis of the statistic data collected from Questionnaires Survey and Observation.
II.3. The subjects of the study
There are two groups of subjects in the study
- The first group contains 100 students chosen randomly from over 200 students at the eleventh grade at DDHS. They are the subjects for the first questionnaire. All of them have learned English for 4 years at lower secondary schools in the suburb area in Hanoi capital.
- The second group includes 9 teachers of English: 1 male and 8 female. They were selected to be the subjects of the second questionnaire to help find out what teaching methods and techniques were currently exploited in their teaching.
II.4. Data collecting instrument
The instrument used in this study is two questionnaires. The first survey questionnaire was used for students to clarify their English competence as well the ways of learning speaking skill. The second one was used for teachers to find out what teaching methods and techniques were currently exploited in their teaching. In addition, observation, at the same time will be also carried out by the researcher at DDHS to make the study more reliable.
II.5. Data collection procedure
The data for such a research are collected through the procedure of analyzing and synthesizing theoretical issues of the nature of language skills and communication.
Some principles in teaching speaking are also mentioned. Then, two questionnaires are aimed at finding out the students‟ problems in speaking English, the reasons, as well as some activity that teacher often carry out in their teaching speaking lessons. The result will be analyzed under statistic method. After that, some solutions to these problems will be suggested.
CHAPTER THREE: STATISTICS AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
III.1. Statistical results of questionnaires for students
The first survey questionnaire was planned for 100 students at DDHS to make sure the reliability and validity of the data collection. It consists of 10 questions which are related to the five main issues presented in the following tables and charts
III.1.1. Students’ attitude towards speaking skill
Questions Options Results(%)
Q 1
How important is speaking to you?
A. Very important 27
B. Rather important 52
C. Little important 16
D. Not important at all 5
Q 2
How much do you feel interested in speaking in class
A. Very interested 10
B. Rather interested 14
C. Little interested 51
D. Not interested at all 25
Q 3
What do you think about the speaking topics in the textbook?
A. Interesting 10
B. Boring 53
C. Difficult 24
D. Easy 13
Table1: Students’ attitude towards speaking skill
Table one presents the information about students‟ attitude towards speaking skill. As can be seen 79 % of the students claim that speaking skill is important to them while 16%
suppose speaking skill is little important and it is not important at all for 5%. Moreover, the statistics from table 1 show a surprising fact that only 24 % of all students feel interested in speaking lessons while 51% feel little interested and 25% of them respond that they do not feel interested at all.
The responses to questions 3 from table 1 seem to explain suitably why a lot of students are not interested in speaking lesson. It is because that nearly 77% of informants think that the topic in each speaking lesson is difficult or boring and only 13% of them regard it to be easy. The minority (10%) say it is interesting.
It can be concluded that the majority of the students agree that English speaking skill is really significant. However, the number of students who feel interested in speaking in class is contrary. The reason for it may concern the speaking topic - they may be difficult, easy or boring. The question raised here is how students get involved in speaking activities in a classroom.
III.1.2. Students’ degrees of participation in classroom speaking activities
As can be seen from the chart above, the majority of students (63%) have little participation in oral activities. Next is the number of students who like speaking English when appointed by the teachers (15%). Only 9 % like English when they have already prepared at home for what they want to say. The students who like to speak English with friends next to them or at the same table and who are willing to speak English in any activities have the lowest rate, 8% and 5%, respectively.
From the results shown in the chart, a conclusion can be drawn that levels of students‟
participation in oral activities are very different; the most remarkable fact is the number of students has little their involvement in speaking lessons. Hence, the teachers should know what factors affecting student‟s participation.
Figure 1: Degrees of students' participation in oral activities
A
5% B
15%
C 8%
D 9%
E 63%
III.1.3. Reasons that make students hesitant to participate in oral activities
Questions Options Results (%)
Q 1
Which factors make you reluctant to speak English in speaking lessons?
A. feeling shy 10
B. not being accustomed to speaking in front of other people 17
C. boring teaching method 22
D. uninteresting lessons 43
E. Learning goal is not to communicate 8
Q 2
What do you think often affect your involvement in English speaking lessons?
A. limited vocabulary and grammatical structures 35
B. nothing to say 33
C. lack of time to prepare 4
D. poor pronunciation 15
E. teachers talk too much in class 13
Table 2: Factors that make students hesitant to participate in oral activities
Statistics provided in Table 2 show that 43% of students feel reluctant to speak English because the lessons are uninteresting. 22% assume that boring teaching method discourages them from speaking and 17 % are not accustomed to speaking in front of other people. Others (10%) feel shy and blame the learning goal (8%)
In Table 2 it can also be realized that 33% of students think that nothing to say for the given topic is one of big trouble preventing them from participating in oral activities; 35%
of them state that limited vocabulary and grammatical structures seem to be an obstacle for them to express their ideas. 28% 0f them suppose that they cannot speak because they pronounce words badly, and their teachers talk too much in class. Only 4% of them say that it is due to lack of time to prepare.
In summary, through the data collected from Table 1 it can be easily concluded that there is a variety of reasons that make students hesitant to participate in oral activities such as:
inappropriate teaching method, poor language proficiency, prior learning experience….
III.1.4. Current methods applied to teach speaking
The statistics provided from Figure 2 is about current methods applied in teaching speaking, consist of two issues.
35% of students say that their teacher often provide them with new words and structures relating to given topics after giving speaking topics, and the same number supposes that their teacher only provide with main ideas for given topics. 25% think that their teachers encourage them to plan the given topics, and 5% of them said they are made to discuss the topics themselves.
According to the statistics 76% revealed that their teacher stop them immediately whenever they make mistakes to correct them while only a few of learners said that their teacher wait until they finish their speech, point out their mistakes and encourage them to correct themselves. These seem to be an inappropriate way of correcting mistakes which may discourage students from taking part in oral activities.
III.1.5. Students’ desires In which:
A. Not interrupt you when you make mistakes B: Accept a variety of your answer C. Give you speaking tasks suitable to your ability D. Encourage you with grades and gifts
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
%
A B C D A B C D
teacher's activities
after giving speaking topic
teacher's mistake correction
Figure 2: Current methods applied to teaching speaking
From the result collected in Figure 3, it can be recognized that 100% of the participants want their teacher to give them speaking tasks suitable to their ability in order to maximize their involvement in speaking lessons. In addition, from 90% to 95% of them desire that their teacher should accept a variety of their answers and should not interrupt them whenever they make mistakes. However, only 67% of them like their teacher to motivate them in taking part in oral activities by encouraging them with grades and gifts.
Other students‟ desires are presented in the tables as follows:
Q: What do you think about these activities below?
Items Results (%)
Strongly like Like Don‟t mind Dislike Strongly dislike
Work individually 5 12 13 47 23
Work in pairs,
groups 39 46 11 4 0
Games for speaking 33 66 1 0 0
Table 3: Students’ desires for speaking activities
It can be seen from Table 3 that 70% of informants say that they do not like working individually. Instead, they are fond of working with other because 85% of them like working with their friends in pairs or in groups. Also, the number of students like games for speaking is very high with 99% while only 1% do not mind at all.
95 90
100 67
0 20 40 60 80 100
percentage
A B C D
Figure 3: students' expectant activities from teachers
It can be concluded from Figure 3 and Table 3 that the teachers of English at DDHS may be too strict in the lesson and this may make students nervous and unnecessarily stressed.
Therefore, students hope their teacher should allow more pair work, group work and games in speaking lessons as they are considered to be the most appropriate activities in the process of learning speaking.
III.2. Statistical results of questionnaire for teachers III.2.1. Teachers’ view of CLT
The second questionnaires with 9 questions were designed for 9 teachers of English at DDHS. The data collected through the responses will be analyzed in this part of the study.
Questions Options Results
(%)
Q. 1
What do you think about CLT (Communicative Language Teaching)
(You can choose all statements if you think they are true) A. Focuses on meaningful tasks rather than on language itself.
B. Doesn‟t teach grammar
C Emphasizes on fluency more than accuracy D. Is learner-centered
89 0 100
78
Q. 2
Have you been taught in CLT?
A. Yes, in English teaching-training courses B. Yes, in English teaching workshops C. No, I have never been taught in CLT D. Others
67 22 11 0 Table 4: Teachers’ opinion of CLT
As can be seen from Table 1, all of the teachers (100%) agree that CLT emphasizes on fluency more than accuracy followed by those who suppose that CLT focuses on meaningful tasks rather than on language itself with 89%. The number of teachers thinking CLT as learner-centered is little smaller with 78% while no teachers say that CLT teaches grammar. Also, Table 1 shows that most of the teachers (67%) have been taught CLT in English teaching-training courses, and 22% of them have been taught in English teaching workshops. However, 11% of them have not received formal CLT training.
The questioned raised here is what teaching methods are currently applied in teaching speaking at DDHS. The answer to this question is presented bellow:
Figure 4 shows an amazing fact that 56% of the teachers use Grammar translation method in their teaching speaking, while CLT is currently used by 22% of them. No teacher applies Audio-lingual method. Apart from the methods above, 22% of them use other methods.
From Figure 4 and Table 4, it can be implied that although most of English teachers at DDHS are fully aware of CLT, not many of them often apply CLT in their teaching. Most of them seem unfamiliar with this term.
III.2.2. Teacher’s attitude towards unwilling speakers and mistake makers Table 5 identifies that 78% of the teachers claim that their students are afraid of taking part in speaking activities, and 22% of them assume their students are ready to practice speaking. However, the Table 5 also presents 67% of the teachers who let their students sit down and not ask them again when they are reluctant to speak. In stead, only 10% of them promote their learners by asking easier questions and 23% of them force the students to speak.
22
56
0
22 0
10 20 30 40 50 60
%
A B C D
Figure 4: Teaching methods currently used in teaching speaking
CLT T
Grammar translation
Audio-lingual
Others
In addition, the Table 5 shows how the teachers feel when their students keep making mistakes. Most of the teachers (78%) at DDHS feel tolerant and 22% of them are tolerant with the fact that their students often make mistakes while speaking.
The findings reveal that most of the teachers still focus on accuracy, not fluency. It means that their teaching methods are not appropriate. If they keep doing so, they can not increase their students‟ involvement in oral activities.
Questions Options Results
(%)
Q 4
How do you evaluate about your students’ level of participation in the classroom speaking activities?
A. My students are very afraid of participating in speaking activities
44 B. My students are quite afraid of participating in speaking
activities
34
C. They are very willing to speak 22
D. I don‟t care 0
Q 5
What do you do when your students are reluctant to speak?
A. get angry 0
B. get them to speak 23
C. encourage them to speak by asking easier questions 10
D. let them sit down and not ask them again 67
Q 6
When your students keep making mistakes, you are………
A. Irritated 0
B. Little tolerant 78
C. Tolerant 22
D. Very Tolerant 0
Table 5: Teacher’s attitude towards unwilling speakers and mistake makers
III.2.3. Difficulties that teachers have confronted in teaching speaking
As shown in Figure 5, 55% of the teachers think that student‟s low English proficiency is one of the most difficulties that they have confronted in teaching speaking. Next are those who suppose that their difficulty is large-sized class (23%). Lack of time and students‟
shyness are two other obscurities said faced 22% of them. Besides these, they may have some other problems such as: inappropriate textbooks and so on…
III.2.4. Techniques and activities applied in teaching English speaking
Questions Options Results (%)
Q 8
What do you usually do to make your students interested in their speaking lessons? (Choose more than one option)
A. Encourage them by grades 46
B. Praise them 67
C. Let them choose topics to discuss 78
D. Design appropriate speaking tasks to the learners‟
abilities
100
Table 6: Techniques to make students more interested in speaking lessons
The responses in Table 6 show 100% of the teachers agree that designing appropriate speaking tasks to the learners‟ abilities is the best way to get them involved in speaking lessons. Letting students choose topics to discuss is close behind with 78%. Besides,
Figure 5: Difficulties that teacher have encountered when teaching speaking
B 11%
A 11%
D 23%
C 55%
Lack of time
Students‟ low English proficiency
Large-sized class
Students‟
shyness