DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine. The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates, and have not been published elsewhere. Author MO JUJIAO i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Tran Van Phuoc, for his whole-hearted guidance, valuable comments and sincere encouragement, without which my research is far from being complete.
I am also very grateful to the 2nd-year English major students at Hue University, College of Foreign Languages, who carefully completed the questionnaire and sincerely provided me with valuable information for this research in interview. Finally, I am very much indebted to my friends for their encouragement and assistance during the time I conducted the study. ii ABSTRACT Past literature has indicated learning strategies help boost learners’ language acquisition. Most strategy studies have ascertained learners’ strategy preferences in general language learning.
The aim of this study was to explore the language learning strategies employed by 2nd-year students of English major in learning speaking skills; the perceptions of students on these strategies and suggestions raised from students in learning speaking skills were then investigated. An appropriate approach for this study was a combination of both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The data collection tools consisted of questionnaires, interviews. 100 hundred 2nd-year English major students at Hue University, College of Foreign Languages in Vietnam were asked to attend the questionnaire survey.
Individual interviews were later conducted on 9 surveyed students (all are females) to probe their speaking learning experiences, their perception on these strategies and their suggestions raised for learning speaking skills and to elicit more flexible responses on their strategy choices. The important findings include: (1) 2nd-year English major students had a moderate degree on strategy use in learning speaking skills; (2) social strategies were most frequently employed in learning speaking skills, while metacognitive strategies were least frequently used; (3) students were in different extend complained the teaching methods of teachers, classroom facilities and textbooks. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research were provided to conclude this study. Key terms: Language Learning Strategies, English Speaking Skills iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration of originality .iii Table of contents.
iv List of tables. vii List of figures .viii List of abbreviations. ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Background of the Study.
Purpose of the Study. Structure of the Thesis. 6 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW & THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. Review of the Literature.
Definitions of Language Learning Strategies. Taxonomy of Language Learning Strategies. The Importance of Language Learning Strategies in Language Teaching and Learning. The Significant Relationship between Language Learning Strategies and Speaking Skills.
Language Learning Strategies in This Study. Semi-structured Interview Questions. Research Data Collection Procedures. Research Data Analysis.
35 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS & DISCUSSIONS. Research Q1: What language learning strategies do students employ in learning English speaking skills? Which types of learning strategies appear to be the most/least used by 2nd-year English major students?. General Speaking Learning Strategies Used By 2nd-Year English Major Students. Types of Speaking Learning Strategies Which Were the Most/Least Used By 2nd-Year English Major Students.
Individual Strategy Preference. Research Q2: What are students’ perceptions on language learning strategies in learning English speaking skills?. Research Q3: Except for using language learning strategies, what suggestions should be given to learn English speaking skills?. Summary of Findings.
Limitations of This Study and Suggestions for Further Study. 61 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Different Classifications of Language Learning Strategies .2: The Strategy System Showing All Strategies: Overview Oxford (1990, pp.1: General Background of the Students: English Speaking Proficiency .3: Reliability Statistics of English Speaking Learning Strategies Questionnaire .4: Procedure of Data Collection .2: Strategy Use in Memory Category .3: Strategy Use in Cognitive Category .4: Strategy Use in Compensation Category .5: Strategy Use in Metacognitive Category .6: Strategy Use in Affective Category .7: Strategy Use in Social Category .8: Mean Scores, Standard Deviations and Preference Ranking of Individual Strategies .9: The Role of Speaking Learning Strategies .10: Necessary Speaking Learning Strategies for 2nd-Year English Major Students. 50 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: Diagram of the Strategy System: Overview (Oxford, 1990, P.2: Diagram of the Direct Strategy: Overview (Oxford, 1990, P.3: Diagram of the Indirect Strategy: Overview (Oxford, 1990, P. 12 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL : English as a Foreign Language ESL : English as a Second language HUCFL : Hue University, College of Foreign Languages MA : Master of Arts N : Number SILL : Strategy Inventory for Language Learning Q1, Q2, Q3 : Question 1, Question2, Question 3 SD : Standard Deviation S1, S2…to…S8, S9 : Student 1, Student 2…to…Student 8, Student 9 Ss : Students M : Male F : Female ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.
Background of the Study In many cities in Vietnam, English has become a compulsory subject in junior high schools (from grade 6 to grade 9) and in senior high schools (from grade 10 to grade 12). At these levels, English teaching tends to focus on heavily on grammar, reading, and writing, whereas listening and speaking generally receive little attention. Many school teachers just want to provide students with some knowledge of English grammar, reading and writing, which can help them pass finals and the National Entrance Examination to be admitted to university. Learning English, or any other language, is a process in which learners concentrate on developing the four primary skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
For many learners, each skill is a brick that contributes to the building up their language knowledge. If they know how to combine the four skills harmoniously or to use one skill to improve the others, they will be able to succeed in their studies. Of the four skills -listening, speaking, reading and writing- which all learners of a foreign language need to develop, speaking may be the most challenging skill for teaching and learning. It has been reported that teaching speaking skills is a very challenging job when teachers and learners share the same mother tongue and have little or no exposure to English outside the classroom (Bresnihan & Stoops, 1996; Chelle de porto, 1997; Kang, 1997; Nguyen, 2004).
Many decades ago, when the means of communication has not been developed, studying a foreign language encountered many difficulties. Therefore, more attention was paid to the writing skill than the other skills. Nowadays, the world has seen a great number of changes in many fields vary from economy, politics to science, technology and education. Naturally, such changes have direct impact upon English teaching and learning in many countries including Vietnam.
English has become an essential communicative tool. It is regarded as a link that 1 strengthens the relationship among most of countries in the world. For this reason, the purpose of learning English is not only to understand this language but also to know how to use this language to learn more about the world and to communicate with people from other countries. The speaking skill has therefore become one of the most important skills for those who learn English as a foreign language.
To most language learners, “Mastering the art of speaking is the single most important aspect of learning a second or foreign language,…” (Nunan, 1991, p. The speaking skill has become a practical aim for Vietnamese learners of English, who want “to communicate with people in other countries and to get a job” (Kramasch & Sullivan, 1996, p. Additionally, since Vietnam has opened its doors, the demand for speaking English to be competent enough to communicate verbally with the outside world and to access technology has rapidly increased (Le, 2001). However, the quality of English teaching and learning has not matched the growing demand of the society.
Do (2000) has found that less than 33% of the Vietnamese learners at tertiary level are fluent in spoken English. This evidence shows a disappointing reality dominant in Vietnam at the present time. The speaking skill is of importance in learning a foreign language, especially in the age of information. Thus, when generalizing about the nature of communication, Harmer (1997) notes: Speakers say things because they want something to happen as a result of what they say.
They may want to charm their listeners; they may want to give some information or express pleasure. They may decide to be rude or to flatter, to agree or complain. In each of these cases they are interested in achieving a communicative purpose (p. However, learning to speak a foreign language is actually difficult.
Knowing its grammatical and semantic rules is not sufficient for students to express what they want to say. According to Kang (1997), they must also acquire the knowledge of how native speakers use the language in the context of structured interpersonal exchange. In other words, for foreign language learners, effective oral communication is especially difficult because it requires the ability to use the 2 language appropriately in social interactions. Teaching and learning speaking thus might be challenge in a non-English environment.
The greatest difficulty in attempts to speak that learners encounter, in Brown’s view, is “not only the multiplicity of sounds, words, phrases, and discourse forms…, but also the interactive nature of most communication. Conversations are collaborative as participants engage in a process of negotiation of meaning” (2001, p. The contexts presented above may contribute to learners’ low performance in spoken English. In order to upgrade the quality of English teaching and learning as well as to satisfactorily meet the requirements of the fast changing society in the new era, Vietnamese education has recently undergone many considerable changes.
According to Brown (1994), if teaching methods, textbooks were considered primary factors in successful learning a few decades ago, the “methods” that learners employ to internalize and to perform in the language are as important as the teacher’s methods in recent years. He proposes the principle of Strategic investment: Successful mastery of second language will be due to a large extent of a learner’s own personal “investment” of time, effort and attention to the second/foreign language in the form of an individualized battery of strategies for comprehending and producing the language (P. Learning strategies facilitate foreign language acquisition (Green & Oxford, 1995; Oxford, 2003). Oxford (1990) defined foreign language strategies as specific methods or techniques that learners used to enhance comprehension, retention, retrieval, and application of information in learning a second/foreign language.
In the line of behaviorism, strategic behaviors general involve the acts of storage, acquisition, processing, and retrieval of information (Park, 1997; Brown, 2000; Lan & Oxford, 2003; Oxford, Cho, Leung & Kim, 2004). Previous studies indicated that successful language learners employ more strategies than others, and their strategies use varies with learning context (Green & Oxford, 1995; Chamot, 2004). That is, 3 effective language learners are those who are good at gathering and storing information in an efficient manner, and more importantly, are willing to try out newly acquired information in various learning environment, so that a wide range of strategies can be achieved in a systematic and organized way (Rubin, 1975). These learners are able to take advantages of practice, apply appropriate learning strategies according to their needs, and monitor their own learning progress to attain optimal learning effect.
In addition, there is a strong link between strategy use and learner autonomy (Ehrman, 1996; Su, 2005; Rivera-Mills & Plonsky, 2007). Autonomous learning is associated with self-directed practices. O’Malley and Chamot (1990) even viewed this self-regulatory deed as learning motivation because it involved the will to learn new information. To date, significant relations have been detected between learning autonomy and strategy use, and academic achievement can be reinforced by such self-regulating behaviors (Oxford, 1990; Su, 2005; Rivera-Mills & Plonsky, 2007).
Appropriate strategy use not only improves proficiency, but also greater self- confidence (Oxford, 1990). Generally, prompting learning independence, boosting self-value, and enhancing academic performance are the by-products of strategy use.