1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** NGUYỄN THỊ VÂN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL TO STUDENTS WITH LOW ENGLISH PROFICIENCY: DIFFICULTIES AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS Nghiên cứu về việc dạy kỹ năng nói cho người học có ngữ năng tiếng Anh yếu: Những khó khăn và giải pháp M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Hanoi - 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** NGUYỄN THỊ VÂN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL TO STUDENTS WITH LOW ENGLISH PROFICIENCY: DIFFICULTIES AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS Nghiên cứu về việc dạy kỹ năng nói cho người học có ngữ năng tiếng Anh yếu: Những khó khăn và giải pháp M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: DƢƠNG THỊ NỤ, PhD Hanoi - 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Ms. Duong Thi Nu, for her invaluable guidance, criticism and encouragement in the process of completing this minor thesis.
I also wish to express my sincere thanks to all the lecturers of the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies at University of Language and International Studies for their very useful lectures. My profound thanks also go to the teachers and the students at College of Finance and Business Administration for their enthusiastic help and support. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my loving family and my special friends who always encouraged and helped me to complete this study. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 ABSTRACT The research is aimed at finding out the difficulties and some effective solutions in teaching speaking skill to students with low English proficiency (SLEP).
Two questionnaires were designed to investigate the learning and the teaching English speaking skill of 50 randomly selected SLEP and 6 teachers at College of Finance and Business Administration (CFBA). The findings showed that the low motivation and the shallow, negative, and passive learning strategies of SLEP lead to their unsuccessful outcome. In addition, from the results of the study, some pedagogical suggestions related to creating a classroom atmosphere, praises and rewards, opportunities of success, activities and techniques, and more learning strategies, are offered for teachers of English. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 5 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS SLEP: Students with low English proficiency CFBA: College of Finance and Business Administration L1: First language L2: Second language N: Number of cases LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 6 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Students‘ English learning background Table 2: Students‘ attitude and motivation to English speaking skill and English speaking skill learning Table 3: Students‘ strategies in English speaking skill learning Table 4: Students‘ desires in English speaking skill learning Table 5: Teachers‘ experience and opinion on SLEP and teaching speaking skill to SLEP Table 6: Teachers‘ techniques in teaching English speaking skill to SLEP LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……………………………………………………………………i ABSTRACT …………………………….……………………………………………………ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ………………………………………………….iii LIST OF TABLES …………………………………………………………………………….iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………………………………v PART A INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………… 1 1.
Aim of the study ……………………………………………………………………………. Scope of the study …. Method of the study…………………………………………………………………………. Design of the study ……………………………………………………………………….4 Chapter 1 Literature Review …………………………………………………………… 4 1.
Theoretical background of speaking skill in second language learning ……………. Definition of speaking …………………………………………………………………. Approaches to the teaching of speaking ………………………………………………. Factors affecting learners‘ speaking achievement ………………………………….8 Motivation and attitude ……………………………………………………………………….
Students with low English proficiency (SLEP)………………………………………. Definition of SLEP ……………………………………………………………………. Ways to help SLEP …………………………………………………………………….12 Chapter 2 The study ……………………………………………………………………. Instruments and methodology ……………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………16 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Questionnaire for students ….16 Methodology ………………………………………………………………………………… 16 Statistical result ……………………………………………………………………………… 17 - Students‘ English learning background ……………………………………………. 17 - Students‘ attitude and motivation to English speaking skill and English speaking skill learning ……………………………………………………………………………… 18 - Students‘ strategies in English speaking skill learning …….21 - Students‘ desires in English speaking skill learning ………………………. Questionnaire for teachers …………………………….27 Methodology ………………………………………………………………………………… 27 Statistical result ……………………………………………………………………………… 27 - Teachers‘ experience, and opinion on SLEP and teaching speaking skill to SLEP.
27 - Teachers‘ techniques in teaching English speaking skill to SLEP……………. 28 Chapter 3 Findings and recommendations …………………………………………… 31 3. Difficulties in teaching speaking skill to SLEP …………. Suggested solutions in teaching speaking skill to SLEP …………………….
Creating a pleasant and supportive classroom atmosphere ……………………………. Having high expectation and using reward appropriately ……………………………. Providing opportunities for students to experience success …………………………. Using various and interesting activities and new and effective techniques ………….
Training the students with more strategies in learning English speaking skill………. An example of applying some techniques in teaching plan of English speaking ….I APPENDIX 1 Questionnaire for students .IV APPENDIX 2 Questionnaire for teachers.XII LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 9 PART A INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale No one can deny the universality of English nowadays. Outside English-speaking countries, English has become a compulsory component of education in many countries.
This trend also applies in Vietnam. At many schools and colleges, English is chosen as a compulsory subject for students as English is considered to be a useful tool to access the world knowledge. However, though the importance of English has been recognized, how it is taught can often be questioned for several problems. One of the problems is the existence of mixed-ability-student classes.
Students in these classes have different levels of ability. While some are successful in English language learning, others are unsuccessful. The ones in the second group are less able in English when compared to their peers. Their utterances are in words or short prefabricated phrases.
Their grammar is mostly inaccurate and their pronunciation requires concentrated listening. In class they are apparently less motivated to learn. As a result, their ability can never improve (Littlejohn, 2001). For this reason, they say goodbye to English as quickly as they can.
Finding a balance in communication with these groups of students during lectures is not an easy job for teachers. It is also true at College of Finance and Business Administration (CFBA). Yet, while many researchers have investigated how to teach English speaking skill to students in general, few have introduced effective ways to teach this skill to students with low English proficiency. This actually drives the researcher to her study, namely, “Teaching speaking skill to students with low English proficiency: Difficulties and Suggested Solutions” for the purpose of identifying the difficulties in teaching speaking skill to students with low English proficiency (SLEP) and finding out some efficient techniques to help them at CFBA.
Aim of the study The study is aimed at the following points: - Investigating the current situation of learning and teaching of English speaking skill at CFBA. - Identifying the difficulties teachers of English at CFBA encounter in teaching speaking skill to SLEP. - Making some suggestions of effective ways for teachers of English at CFBA with the hope of helping them improve their teaching of English speaking to SLEP. Research questions LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 10 With the aim of the study, the following questions are raised: Question 1.
What are the problems that teachers of English may have in teaching speaking skill to low English proficiency students at CFBA? Question 2. What should be done to help these students improve their speaking skill? 4. Scope of the study Teaching speaking skill for less able students is a very popular problem at any schools and colleges in Vietnam. However, in the study, the researcher only wants to focus on the teaching of speaking skill to SLEP at CFBA where the researcher has taught English and has intention of finding out the main problems in the teaching.
Furthermore, in spite of being aware that there is a variety of techniques to help students in English speaking learning, the researcher only try to seek those which are effective for SLEP. Method of the study To fulfill the above aims, the researcher is using a survey research which is both qualitative and quantitative. The instruments for data collection include two survey questionnaires delivered to learners and teachers. Design of the study The minor thesis is composed of three parts: Part A, Introduction presents the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the method and the design of the study Part B, Development, consists of three following chapters 1.
Chapter one, Literature Review, presents the concepts relevant to the study. Chapter two, The Study, presents an overview of the context of investigation, the participants, the instruments, and the data analysis. Chapter three, Findings and recommendations, summarizes the difficulties and gives some suggested solutions in teaching SLEP speaking skill at CFBA. Part C, Conclusion, addresses the key issues in the study and gives some ideas for the limitations and a further research.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 11 PART B DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1 Literature Review 1. Theoretical background of speaking skill in second language learning 1. Definition of speaking Bygate (1997) states that speaking is a skill which deserves attention every bit as much as literary skills, in both first and second languages. In order to carry out many of their most basic transactions, the learners often need to be able to speak with confidence.
He also explains that there are two basic ways in which something is done can be seen as a skill. They are motor-perceptive skills which involve perceiving, recalling, and articulating in the correct sounds and structures of the language, and interaction skills which involve making decisions about communication, such as: what to say, how to say it, and whether to develop it, in accordance with one‘s intentions, while maintaining the desired relations with others. (Bygate, 1997: 5-6) According to Byrne (1986), speaking skill is one of two ways of oral communication process, and is the productive skill. The speaker has to encode the message he wishes to convey in appropriate language, while the listener has to decode (or interpret) the message.
The message, in normal speech, usually contains a good deal of ‗information‘ that is redundant; however, one should notice that speech is often characterized by incomplete and sometimes ungrammatical utterances, and by frequent false starts and repetition. Approaches to the teaching of speaking There are several approaches in teaching English speaking such as Grammar-Translation Method, Direct Method, Audio-Lingual Approach, and a more modern approach, namely Communicative Language Teaching Approach (CLT). Grammar- translation method is a European language teaching method which focuses on language structure and linguistic details. Its outcome is the learners‘ poor oral English ability development with substandard pronunciation and intonation and does not allow learners to use a language in a natural way (Widdowson, 1990, cited by Jin, 2007).
Another approach is Direct Method which is totally different from Grammar-Translation method. It uses English directly in teaching, such as using English to make conversations or have discussions. Students‘ English competence is developed in this way instead of using mother tongue to translate. The basic principle of this method is that the foreign language LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 12 learning process should be like the natural process of a child learning his or her mother tongue.
It is believed that language is a skill or habit, and this habit can be achieved by repetition and imitation. According to Jin (2007), in spite of having some advantages such as inspiring students‘ interests in learning English and being in favour of students‘ English pronunciation and intonation, it has certain limitations: (1) It only focuses on experiences and perceptual knowledge in English and it has little estimate on students‘ level of consciousness. (2) This method rejects mother tongue in English teaching. It only sees the disadvantages of mother tongue, but never makes use of mother tongue to facilitate students‘ comprehension.