Presentation of the statistical results

a - Teaching and learning speaking skills at TNC-ET as seen from students’

perspective

Questions Options %

1. Why are you learning English?

I like English. 20

Because English is an international language.

To learn something about the target culture.

To get a good job. 32

To communicate with foreign people. 9 Speaking English has prestige. 9

Have to learn. 82

2. How is speaking skill important to you?

Very 81

Quite 15

Little 2

Not at all 2

Table 2: Students’ opinion on learning English

The low percentages in Table 2 reveal the fact that there is hardly special reason for students at TNC-ET to study English seriously.

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There is only a small number, 20% of the students like English. It is understandable because many of them have never learnt any foreign language. The same number studies for the reason that English is an international language. Other reasons for students‟ attention in English lessons are to learn something about the target culture and to get a good job, which respectively receive responses from 30%

and 32% of the students. Subjective causes like to communicate with foreign people and speaking English has prestige make up only 9% of the number of students coming to English classes. The biggest number of students chooses the last and unarguable reason: have to learn it (82%).

However, when being asked about the importance of English speaking skills most students confirm that speaking skills are very important to them. It takes 85%.

15% says that it is quite important and the percentage defying it is little important or not important at all is very small, which takes only 2%.

Question Options %

3. What makes you reluctant to

speak in English

class?

Topics are not familiar and interesting.

I can‟t find exact words to express my ideas. 59 I‟m not in the habit of speaking English in class. 39

I‟m afraid that my classmates will laugh at me if I make mistakes.

35 My teacher often corrects my mistakes when I‟m

speaking.

31 It‟s ok if I don‟t speak. The teacher never complains

about that.

My teacher hardly ever pays attention to me. 56 My teacher and other students speak almost all the time. 56

My teacher never explains requirements in Vietnamese so I don‟t understand what she/he is talking about.

Table 3: The reasons that make students unwilling to speak in English class

Statistics provided in Table 3 prove to be well-matched with those in Table 2. It seems that many students share the same reasons for their being uninterested in classroom English speaking.

It can be seen from Table 3 above that 59% of the students in the survey reveal that their teachers often kept a distance from them in oral English lessons, which led to a stressful classroom atmosphere. This suggested that the relationship between teachers and students might be another potential source of difficulty in teaching and learning speaking skill in English classes. If the teacher rarely smiles at students, they may consider he is too strict and hard to access. Hence, the classroom atmosphere is quite tense

Many students (60%) blame boring topics for discouraging them to speak in class and a similar number (59%) say that they are not interested in speaking as they cannot find exact words to express their ideas.

Students who are not active in class make up the rate of 39%. They are passive and only speak when they are asked to, especially 28% of them who are never complained by the teachers for their not speaking in class.

Another factor that should be taken into consideration is students‟ wish to save face. Although they are adult learners, 35% of them are afraid of making mistakes and do not want to be laughed at. For this reason, 31% do not like it when teachers interrupt them to correct their mistakes. This discourages them a lot.

Psychological factors also play a role in getting students speak English. 56%

of the students get discouraged when they receive little or no attention from teachers or when teachers and other students speak most of the time. Some of them state that their shyness also affects their willingness to speak in class.

We are surprised to gain 53% of the students stating that they do not know what they have to do in speaking activities because their teacher uses English all the time. This is really a big problem because it is impossible for the first-year students to keep up with full English requirements.

Question Options %

4. Do you often find

your speaking

lessons interesting?

Occasionally. I like the activities. 54

Yes, sometimes. I like the activities. 25 Yes, sometimes. But the activities are not interesting

and varied enough.

Yes, very often. I like the activities. 0 Yes, very often. But the activities are not interesting

and varied enough.

Never. 0

Table 4: Students’ assessment of speaking activities given by teachers

The data in Table 4 show that all teachers design classroom speaking activities but none of them do it very often. A large proportion of the students, 54%, show interest in classroom speaking activities but those activities are not introduced very often by their teachers. Not many students (15%) complain that activities their teachers use do not appear to be interesting to them. It can be drawn out that students are motivated by speaking activities. The question is whether or not and how often teachers make use of activities in their teaching. 25% of the students state that their teachers sometimes make use of classroom activities in raising students‟

interest in speaking and these students find the sometimes-provided activities interesting.

b - Teaching and learning speaking skills at TNC-ET as seen from teachers’

perspective

Question Options No of teachers

1. How confident do

you feel about teaching speaking?

Very confident (be willing to communicate in all various

situations) 0

Confident enough (communicate in different situations if

expected) 2

Not very confident (avoid communicating in various

situations as much as possible) 4

Not confident at all (feel a bit frightened if coping orally

with different situations) 1

Table 5: Teachers’ English communicative competence

It can be seen from Table 5 that the majority of teachers of English (4) did not feel self-confident enough about teaching speaking. So they often tried to avoid conducting various communicative situations relating to real-life contexts with their students. In this regard, 5 of 7 of the teachers in Table 5 admitted that they lacked English communicative competence which might be the most suitable explanation to their shortage of self-confidence about teaching speaking English. Communicative competence, according to Nunan, 1991, Littlewood, 1994, and Hedge, 2000, includes not only linguistic competence but also a range of sociolinguistic and conversational skills that enable the speaker to realize how to say, what to say, when etc. This can be understood that teacher‟s task in English speaking classes not only provides students with basic grammatical structures, common vocabulary and acceptable pronunciation but also puts that knowledge into use by helping students practice speaking and communicate in various situations and contexts in combination with their strategic and sociolinguistic competence. Therefore, when being asked about the problems attached to English communicative competence, most of the teachers admitted that they were deficient in this ability, which constrained them teaching speaking skill in their English classrooms. Not only teachers but also students lack a language

environment to develop their communicative competence, which prevents them from communicating in English fruitfully.

Question Options No of

teachers

2. According to you, what

are the reasons for

ineffective speaking lessons?

Students‟ levels of proficiency are varied. 7

Students are unwilling to speak. 5

Teaching speaking takes time when I have to cover all other contents of the course book.

English classes are often large and multi-level. 4 I can‟t find suitable and interesting speaking activities. 3

I don‟t have enough time to prepare speaking activities. 3

Table 6: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking at TNC-ET

It can be seen from Table 6 that students‟ varied level of proficiency is an obstacle to all of the teachers. The second obstacle that identified by many of them (5/7) is students‟ unwillingness to speak. 4 is the number of the teachers who have difficulty because teaching speaking is time consuming when they must cover all other contents of the course book. Class size and level are also big remains at many schools, so 4 teachers as well confirm to encounter this problem.

Regarding subjective factors, 3 of 7 of the teachers lack time to prepare activities and to nearly a half of them, finding suitable and interesting speaking activities is impossible. May be the reason why so many teachers do not have enough time for the preparation of their teaching at TNC-ET is that, over a half of them work all daylong at school because of the lack of teachers and dense syllabus.

Many people often wonder whether it means they spend little time and less effort for the classes at colleges or not.

Question Option No of teachers

3. What do you do

to motivate students to speak in class?

I ask the better students to speak first. 6

I give them many questions. 5

I create interesting games and activities. 4 I always listen attentively to and appreciate students‟

answers.

I never forget to praise them before pointing out their mistakes in speaking.

I encourage students to learn by reminding them of the proportion of speaking skill in their end of course test.

I introduce interesting and familiar topics. 3 I let them talk about whatever topic they like. 3 I ask the better students to speak after other students. 3 I set funny classroom rules/punishment for those who

keep quiet or speak Vietnamese in class.

Table 7: What teachers do to motivate students to speak in English class The table shows that asking better students to speak first is the dominant way with the number of 6 teachers. The way that ranks second is giving students many questions to motivate them to speak with 5. Next comes creating interesting activities and games with 4 and the same rate believe that appreciating students by listening attentively to them can help to motivate them to speak.

Three of seven of the teachers introduce interesting and familiar topics to students to motivate them and the same number let students talk freely about topics of their interest. Asking the better students to speak after other students is also applied by that number.

It is quite interesting to learn that in order to improve students‟ willingness in speaking, also 3 of the teachers remind students of the proportion of speaking skill in their end of course test and the same number apply a psychological method which is praising students before pointing out their mistakes so as not to discourage them to speak. Using funny classroom rules/ punishment as a way to eliminate students‟ reticence in speaking is employed the least with 1.

In summary, we can see from the tables above that the questionnaires can really provide in depth the information about the reality of teaching speaking to the first-year students at TNC-ET. In general the teachers‟ repertories of speaking teaching activities are not really varied. Their competence of lively communicating is not good and their opinions on their criteria for a good speaking lesson are not enough. Therefore, not all the teachers usually feel pleased with their speaking lessons because of the limitation of students‟ proficiency, time constraint and the teachers‟ unenthusiasm themselves, though they admitted the importance of speaking lessons. However, responsible teachers are trying to renovate speaking teaching methods little by little. They all want to motivate students to take part in lessons as much as possible. This will gradually constitute changes in actions and thoughts of other teachers. Besides, the data concerning the reality of teaching and learning speaking at TNC-ET have been collected described and discussed.

Especially, through the collected data the research question for the students can find its answer. In addition a basis of the answer to the other questions is also made.

Although students define the role of English fluency, they are still hesitant to participate in speaking lessons enthusiastically. Of course they need teachers‟ help.

Good lesson preparation of the teacher helps them a lot, or even close attitude will make a better situation. This is the information shown with the numbers in the tables. It will be explained in the next chapter in detail.

Some suggested activities in speaking lessons