Luận văn An investigation into the reality of teaching and learning speaking skills to the 2nd year non-Major english students at pre-intermediate level of proficiency at hanoi university of industry - Hoàng Bích Thủy

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE POST GRADUATE STUDIES ---***--- HOÀNG BÍCH THỦY AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING SPEAKING SKILLS TO THE 2ND YEAR NON-MAJOR ENGLISH STUDENTS AT PRE-INTERMEDIATE LEVEL OF PROFICIENCY AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH ĐỐI VỚI SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI KHÔNG CHUYÊN TRÌNH ĐỘ TIỀN TRUNG CẤP TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI M.A. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Methodology Code: 601410 HANOI, DECEMBER 2008VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE POST GRADUATE STUDIES ---*****--- HOÀNG BÍCH THỦY AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING SPEAKING SKILLS TO THE 2ND YEAR NON-MAJOR ENGLISH STUDENTS AT PRE-INTERMEDIATE LEVEL OF PROFICIENCY AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH ĐỐI VỚI SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI KHÔNG CHUYÊN TRÌNH ĐỘ TIỀN TRUNG CẤP TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI M.A. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Ms. Đỗ Thị Mai Thanh MA HANOI, DECEMBER 2008i VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I certify that the minor thesis entitled: “An investigation into the Reality of Teaching and Learning Speaking Skills to the 2nd year non-major English students at Pre-Intermediate level of Proficiency at Hanoi University of Industry” is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts is the result of my own work, except where otherwise acknowledge and that this minor thesis or any part of the same had not been submitted for a higher degree to any other universities or institutions. Date:…….……………………………. Signature:..…………………………… ii ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS During the process of wrting this thesis, I have been fortunate to receive supports and assistance from a variety of people. First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Do Thi Mai Thanh, who allows me to draw fully on her wisdom and experience in implementing this study. Her guidance, encouragement and invaluable detailed critical feedback have been most generous. I would like to convey my thanks to all my teachers of the Post graduate course 14 whose fundamental knowledge about language teaching and learning is of great importance to the achievement of my academic study. It is my pleasure to acknowledge my debt to the Board of Management of Foreign Languages Department for their support and the favorable conditions they have granted me during my study. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my deepnest thanks to all the teachers and colleagues, especially Ms Le Thi Thu Huong in the non-major English group 2 at Hanoi University of Industry for their help in completing the survey questionnaires, for their constructive suggestions to this research, and for their willingness to share their relevant problems with me. I am most thankful to the students of K9 at Faculties of Economics, Engineering, Chemistry, Electronic and Computer Science at Hanoi University of Industry whose cooperation is great significance to the completion of the study. Finally, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my parents, my husband whose loving support has been encouraging me to fulfill this thesis successfully. iii ABSTRACT It is the fact that speaking is an important language skill. However, in the reality, the teaching and learning English speaking are still far from satisfactory. The study focuses on the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards speaking skill as well as the analysis of the present teaching and learning to speak English. Once, problems have been identified, suggestions for teachers to improve the situation of teaching and learning speaking English to the 2 year non-major English students would be made. The thesis consists of three main parts: the introduction, the development, and the conclusion. The introduction - gives rationale for the study and sets up the aims, scopes and methods of the study. The develoment - which is considered as the main part of the study, includes three chapters with differents functions. Chapter 1 provides theoretical background about Communicative Language Teaching, speaking skills, three main stages of speaking and motivation in a speaking lesson. Chapter 2 investigates the current teaching and learning English speaking to the 2nd year non-major English students at Hanoi University of Industry, the problems encountered by both teachers and students as well as the materials used in teaching and learning English speaking to 2nd year non-major English students are exposed. This chapter also deals with the research methodology which covers participants, the settings of the study, the data collection methods, the data analysis, and the findings and discussions. Chapter 3 offers some possible suggestions to improve the teaching and learning English speaking to 2nd year non-major English students. Part three - the conclusion - sums up the issues addressed and suggests some main points for further research. iv LIST OF ABREVIATIONS Ss : Students Ts : Teachers HaUI: : Hanoi University of Industry CLT : Communicative Language Teaching N : Number Voc : Vocabulary Stru : Structures v LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Tables: Table 1: Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards speaking skill and the role of teaching and learning speaking skills 20 Table 2: Students’ purposes of learning English and their participation in learning to speak English 21 Table 3: Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards speaking materials and appropriate time for teaching and learning English speaking 24 Table 4: Pre-speaking activities carried out by teachers and students’ responses 26 Table 5: While-speaking activities carried out by teachers and students’ responses 27 Table 6: Post-speaking activities carried out by teachers and students’ responses 28 Table 7: Teachers’ techniques to teach English speaking and students’ responses 29 Table 7.1: Teachers’ techniques to deal with students’ low speaking level and their mistakes 29 Table 7.2: Teachers’ techniques to encourage students to speak and improve their English speaking skills 31 Charts: Chart 1: Teachers’ attitudes towards Communicative Language Teaching 22 Chart 2: Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards students’ speaking competence 23 Chart 3: Teachers’ and students’difficulties in teaching and learning English speaking 25 Chart 3.1: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching English speaking skills 25 Chart 3.2: Students’difficulties in learning English speaking skills 25 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT i ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABREVIATIONS iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES v TABLE OF CONTENTS vi PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study 1 Aims of the study 2 Reseach questions 2 Scope of the study 2 Methods of the study 2 VI. Design of the study 3 PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT 4 Chapter one Literature review 4 1.1. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 4 1.1.1. Concept of CLT 4 1.1.2. Characteristics of CLT 4 1.1.3. Conditions of Applying CLT 5 1.1.4. Using CLT in Teaching Speaking Skills 6 1.1.5. Factors Affecting CLT Application 7 1.2. Speaking Skill 7 1.2.1. Concepts of Speaking 7 1.2.2. Characteristics of Speaking 8 1.2.3. The Development Approach of Speaking Skill 9 1.3. Problems with Speaking and Speaking activities 10 1.3.1. Problems with Speaking 10 1.3.2. Problems with Speaking Activities 11 1.4. Motivation 12 1.4.1. Definition of Motivation 12 1.4.2. Types of Motivation 13 Chapter two Research Methodology 15 2.1. Practical Situation of Teaching and Learning English Speaking Skills at HaUI 15 2.1.1. Description of the English Course and its Objectives at HaUI 15 2.1.2. Description of the Students at HaUI 16 2.1.3. Description of the Teachers at HaUI 17 2.2. The Study 17 2.2.1. Participants 17 2.2.2. The Setting of the Study 18 2.2.3. The Data Collection Methods 19 2.2.4. Data Analysis of the Teachers’ and Students’ Survey Questionnaires 20 2.3. Findings and Discussions 33 2.3.1. Teachers’ and Students’ Attitudes towards Speaking and Speaking Materials 33 2.3.2. Teachers’ and Students’ Problems in Teaching and Learning to Speak English 33 2.4. Summary 37 Chapter three Recommendations to Improve the Teaching and Learning to Speak English 38 3.1. Improving Teachers’ Classroom Techniques to Teach Speaking Materials 38 3.1.1. Increasing Students’ Speaking Interest and Motivation 38 3.1.2. Applying Different Activities in Teaching Speaking 39 3.1.3. Activating Students to Work in Different Stages of Speaking 41 3.2. Training Students to Become Efficient Speakers 42 3.2.1. Making Students Aware of the Nature of Speaking Process 42 3.2.2. Encouraging Students to Develop Speaking Habits 42 3.3. Developing English Speaking Materials 44 3.4. Improving Teachers’ Professional Knowledge, Teaching Methodology and Responsibilities 45 3.4.1. Improving Teachers’ Professional Knowledge 45 3.4.2. Improving Teachers’ Teaching Methodology 46 3.4.3. Increasing Teachers’ Responsibilities 46 3.5. Summary 47 PART THREE: CONCLUSION 48 REFERENCES APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1 : Survey Questionnaire for Teachers I APPENDIX 2 : Survey Questionnaire for Students II REFERENCES Brown, G. &Yule, G. (1983). Teaching the spoken English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Brown, H. Douglas. (1994). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pegagogy. Prentice Hall Regents. Burkart, G. S. (1998). Spoken Language: What it is and how to teach it. Washington, DC: Centre for Applied Linguistics. Retrieved from www.nclrc.org. Byrne, D. (1991). Techniques for classroom interaction. London: Longman. Canale, M. and Swain, M. (1980). Approaches to Communicative Competence. Singapore: RELC. Celce-Murcia & L. Mc-Intosh (eds). (1979). Teaching English as Second or Foreign Language. Rowley Massachusetts: Newbury House. Cohen, A. D. (1998). Strategies in Learning and Using a Second Language. New York: Longman. Das, B. K. (1985). Communicative Language Teaching. Seameo Recl. Doff, A. (1988). Teaching English: A training course for teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Downs, M. (2000). Increasing Students Motivation. Teacher’s Edition, 4, 8-13. Harmer, J. (1991). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman: London and New York. Ellis, R. (1997). Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Le Van Canh. (2004). Understanding Foreign Language Teaching Methodology. National University Publishing House. Lighbow, P. M. and Spada, N. (1999). How Language are Learned. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Littlewood, W. (1981). Communicative Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lewis, M. and Hill, J. (1992). Practical Techniques for Language Teaching. London: Comercial Colour Press. Mathews-Aldinli, J. and Van Horne, R. V. (2006). Promoting the Success of Multilevel ESL Classes: What Teachers and Administrators Can Do. Centre for Adult English Language Acquisition (CAELA). Retrieved from www.cal.org/caela/els_resources. Nunan, D. (1989). Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nunan, D. (1991). Language Teaching Methodology. UK: Prentice-Hall International. Nunan, D. (1991). Reseach Method in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nuttall, C. (1996). Teaching Reading skills in a Foreign Language. Macmillan. Pattison, P. (1987). Developing Communicative Skills. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Richards, J. C. (1983). Communicative Needs in Foreign Language Learning. ELT Journal. V37. 1983. River, W. M. (1981). Teaching Foreign Language Skills. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. River, W. M. and Temperley, M. S. (1986). A Practical Guide to the Teaching of English as a Second or Foreign Language. Oxford University Press. Savinon, S. J. (1983). Communicative Competence: Theory and Classroom Practice. Addison- Wesley Publishing Company. Ur, P. (1996). A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. I APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS This survey is designed to collect information for the study on “An investigation into the Reality of Teaching and Learning English Speaking to the 2nd year non-major English students at Hanoi University of Industry”. Your assistance in completing the following items is highly appreciated. You can be certain that this is for research purpose only and that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data. Before answering the questions, please fill in some information: * Gender : Male/ Female * Your age : ...................... * How long have you been teaching English? (0-3 years; 4-5 years; 6-8 years; more than 10 years) * What materials are you using to teach English at your University? ................................................................................................................................................ Please circle the appropriate answers for the following questions. You may choose more than one option. 1. Which of these four following English language skills do you think the most difficult for your students? A. Listening. C. Reading. B. Speaking. D. Writing. 2. What is your idea about teaching and learning English Speaking to the 2nd year non-major English students at Pre-Intermediate level of Proficiency at your University? A. Very essential. C. Not very essential. B. Essential. D. Not essential at all. 3. What do you think of your students’ Speaking competence at HaUI? A. Really bad B. Bad C. Quite good D. Good E. Really good 4. What are the appropriate periods (45 minutes/period) for teaching and learning English Speaking to the 2nd year non-major students? A. 1 period/ week. C. 3-4 periods/ week. B. 1-2 periods/ week. D. More than 4 periods/ week. 5. What do you think of the materials used for teaching and learning Speaking to the 2nd year non-major English students at Pre-Intermediate level of Proficiency at your University? A. Difficult and boring. C. Interesting and stimulating. B. Difficult but interesting. D. Easy and boring. 6. What are your difficulties in teaching Speaking skills to the 2nd year students at Pre-Intermediate level of Proficiency? A. Students’ low motivation. E. Large and heterogeneous class. B. Students’ low level of English proficiency. F. Inappropriate materials. C. Time limitation. G. Poor teaching equipments. D. Students’ laziness. H. Others (please specify).................. 7. Does your university have enough modern equipments (such as radio, TV, computer, video, projector etc.) for teaching English Speaking skills? A. Yes. B. No. C. Some of the equipments. (please name)......................... 8. As for you, CLT: A. always emphasizes fluency over accuracy. B. is student-centered. C. its final goal is students’ communicative competence. D. does not teach grammar. E. is used only for teaching Speaking skill, not for other skills. F. focuses on meaningful tasks rather than the language itself. G. gives students opportunities to communicate with each other. H. Others ( please specify)………………. 9. Do you apply CLT in teaching Speaking? A. Yes. B. No. I use...................... method. 10. What do you always do before a Speaking task? A. Do nothing and go straight to the task. B. Only instruct students how to do the task. C. Give students some background knowledge about the topic. D. Provide some necessary vocabulary and structures related to the topic. E. Discuss with students to lead them to the topic. F. Brainstorm the topic. G. Others (please specify)..................................... 11. What do you do while students practice Speaking? A. Help students with useful vocabulary and structures. B. Go around the class to monitor. C. Stay at your seat and relax. D. Take time to do other things. E. Others ( please specify)………………. 12. What do you do when students show low motivation in Speaking activities? A. Carry out on-going assessments (giving students marks for participation). B. Let them choose their favourite partners. C. Give them some more support about vocabulary, structures and ideas. D. Encourage students to willingly take part in the activities. E. Ignore them. F. Others ( please specify)………………. 13.What do you often do after your students finish practising? A. Call some pairs to check. B. Appoint one or two groups to present. C. Exchange pairs to pairs / groups to groups. D. Check as the whole class. E. Don’t check at all. F. Others ( please specify)………………. 14. What do you do when students keep making mistakes? A. Keep silent and encourage them to continue. B. Keep silent but do not encourage them to continue. C. Interrupt them and correct the mistake every time they make. D. Wait until students finish and correct all mistakes they made. E. Get angry and ask them to stop. F. Others ( please specify)………………. 15. How do you deal with students’ low level of spoken English? A. Select and organize simple communicative activities. B. Give students chances in different Speaking activities. C. Translate instructions into Vietnamese. D. Give them the English equivalents from their ideas in Vietnamese. E. Criticize them for their low level. F. Neglect them. G. Others ( please specify)………………. 16. What do you do to encourage your students to speak? A. Suggest interesting topics for discussion. B. Give students some useful suggestions related to the topic. C. Let students choose topics themselves to discuss. D. Use other authentic materials (visual aids, stories, songs, video clips, movies, etc.) E. Involve students in the real English Speaking environment. F. Carry out on-going assessments (giving students marks for participation). G. Do nothing. H. Others ( please specify)………………. 17. What do you do to improve your students’ Speaking skills? A. Ask students to learn by heart all learnt vocabulary and structures. B. Ask students to practise English everyday. C. Ask students try to speak as much English as possible. D. Advise students try to communicate with native speakers. E. Suggest students taking an English course in Foreign language Centers. F. Others ( please specify)………………. II APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS Phiếu thu thập thông tin này được lập ra nhằm mục đích giúp các sinh viên không chuyên năm thứ hai trình độ tiền trung cấp tại trường Đại Học Công Nghiệp Hà Nội nâng cao kĩ năng nói. Việc tham gia trả lời các câu hỏi của các bạn sẽ là nguồn đóng góp rất có giá trị để chúng tôi hoàn thiện cách dạy và học nói tiếng Anh cho sinh viên năm thứ hai không chuyên tại trường đại học này. Xin vui lòng trả lời những câu hỏi dưới đây một cách trung thực và chính xác nhất. Chúng tôi đánh giá cao sự giúp đỡ của các bạn. Trước khi trả lời các câu hỏi, xin vui lòng điền đầy đủ các thông tin dưới đây: - Giới tính: Nam/ Nữ - Tuổi: .......... - Bạn đã học tiếng Anh được bao lâu rồi? ( chưa đến 1 năm; 1-2 năm; 3-5 năm; hơn 5 năm) - Bạn đang học những giáo trình tiếng Anh nào tại trường:............................................................. Xin vui lòng khoanh tròn những câu trả lời phù hợp cho những câu hỏi sau: 1. Mục đích học tiếng Anh của bạn là gì? A. Để vượt qua được các kỳ thi tiếng Anh. D. Để đi du học. B. Để giao tiếp. E. Để dễ tìm việc làm khi ra trường. C. Để giải trí. F. Ý kiến khác............................................ 2. Theo bạn, kĩ năng nào trong bốn kĩ năng sau là khó nhất? A. Nghe. C. Đọc. B. Nói. D. Viết. 3. Quan điểm của bạn về việc học nói tiếng Anh ở trên lớp như thế nào?