NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE *** *** NGUYEN HOA NGUYEN TEACHING SPEAKING TO THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF ECONOMICS OF VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HOCHIMINH CITY: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER IN TESOL SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN TIEN HUNG, Ph. HO CHI MINH CITY November, 2006 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: TEACHING SPEAKING TO THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF ECONOMICS OF VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HOCHIMINH CITY: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS in terms of the statement of Requirements for Theses in Master’s Programmes issued by Higher Degree Committee. HoChiMinh City, November 10th , 2006 NGUYEN HOA NGUYEN I RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, NGUYEN HOA NGUYEN, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and the use of Master’s Theses deposited in Library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses.
HoChiMinh City November, 1st , 2006 NGUYEN HOA NGUYEN II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. NGUYEN TIEN HUNG, who provides me with his precious knowledge, assistance, consideration, and encouragement so that I can finish this thesis report. I must be grateful to the teachers of Department of Post- Graduate Studies of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities of Ho Chi Minh City who supply me with the good conditions to conduct this thesis and finish this M. My thanks go to Dr.
DINH THI ANH NGUYET, my head of the Foreign Language Department of the Faculty of Economics of the Vietnam National University- HoChiMinh City, and my colleagues for their assistance, encouragement during the time I participate in M. Last but not least, I owe a debt to my colleagues who are the subjects of my thesis for their willingness to permit me observing their classes and to answer my questionnaires. III ABSTRACT Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) attracts a variety of experts’ consideration; however, no explicit definitions about it has been invented. It is seen that CLT requires the teachers much, especially communicative competence, flexibility, and creativity.
It must be flexibly implemented in a particular context. The main objective of this thesis is to help the teachers overcome the constraints as CLT is adopted to teach to the first year students at the Faculty of Economics of Vietnam National University-HoChiMinh City. In detail, the researcher tries to (1) find out the difficulties that the teachers perceive; (2) collect the solutions that the teachers suggest in relation to his suggestions with a view to improving the situation. The procedures of data collection were accomplished thanks to the instruments as classroom observation and two questionnaires.
The former adapted from Brown (1994) included 25 categories, which were divided into 5 parts as Preparation, Execution/ Method, Personal Characteristics, and Teacher/ Student Interaction to assess which categories the teacher applied in his/ her class. The latter consisted of one for yielding the difficulties and another for gathering the remedies. The 1st questionnaire adapted from Li (1998) was composed of four items to gain the subjects’ ethnographic data and 4 questions to get the difficulties perceived by the teachers. The 2nd questionnaire designed on the basis of the results of the 1st one, and of classroom observation, and the literature review.
It contained 9 questions to collect the solutions suggested by the teachers. The procedures consist of 3 stages: firstly, the 1st questionnaire was IV delivered to the subjects and handed in; secondly, the classroom observations were done; thirdly, the 2nd questionnaire was distributed and handed in. The findings of this investigation classified into the two main sections are the difficulties and the solutions, of which the former include difficulties caused by the teachers, difficulties caused by the students, and difficulties caused by the educational system, and the latter consist of remedies. The situation can, however, get better unless the solutions suggested by the teachers are accomplished.
V TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originally. i Retention and use the thesis. iv Table of contents. vi List of abbreviations.
ix List of figures and tables. ix Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION. Background to the study. Statement of purpose.
Significance of the thesis. Overview of thesis chapters .3 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Communicative Language Teaching. Theory of language.
Theories of language learning. Concept of CLT. Characteristics of CLT. Conditions related to applying CLT `.
The role of CLT in teaching speaking. The nature of communication. Oral communicative practice. Oral communicative activities.
Role-play and simulation. Problem-solving activities. Talking about yourself .35 Chapter 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. The 1st questionnaire.
Difficulties caused by the teachers. Limited training in CLT. Misunderstanding of CLT. Difficulties caused by the students.
Difficulties caused by the educational system. The 2nd questionnaire. Solutions to the difficulties caused by the teachers. Solutions to the difficulties caused by the students.
Solutions to the difficulties caused by the educational system. Difficulties from the teachers and solutions. Difficulties from the students and solutions. Difficulties from the educational system and solutions.
The summary of the main findings .73 VIII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT : Communicative Language Teaching L1 : The first language LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure Page 1: The nature of communication 24 2 : Oral communication practice 24 3: Percentage of teachers trained in teaching methodology 42 4: Percentage of teachers trained in CLT 42 5: Difficulties caused by the students 44 6: Difficulties caused by the educational system 46 7: Solutions to the teachers’ difficulites: Lack of training in CLT 47 8: Solutions to the teachers’ diificulties: Misunderstanding of CLT 48 9: Solutions to the state of crowded and multi-level classes 51 10: Teachers’ solutions to the lack of authentic materials from the Faculty 52 11: Administrators’ solutions to the lack of authentic materials 52 Table Page 1: Profile of the subjects 32 2: Frame of the 1st questionnaire 33 3: Frame of the classroom observation sheet 35 4: Frame of the 2nd questionnaire 35 5: Classroom observation results 39 6: Teachers’ understanding of CLT 43 7: Solutions to the difficulties caused by the students 49 IX CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Background to the study Learning English is becoming a need that most learners are aware of and that the society demands, especially in the trend of Vietnam’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and in the process of national industrialization and modernization. Therefore, the conception that only English–major students have priority to enhancing their skills becomes backward. In fact, every learner must be taken care of so that they can be beneficial to the modern educational opportunities.
Especially for the students in the Faculty of Economics of the Vietnam National University- HoChiMinh City, the four skills as speaking, listening, reading, and writing should be integratedly taught. In the current movement of reforming the teaching method, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is the approach which has made a great variety of experts and teachers involved in. CLT is not a method, but an approach which supplies the teachers with orientation and “without many detailed specifications of what and how to teach” (Davies & Pearse, 2000, p.9) draws out the common agreement of experts: “CLT involves an emphasis on communicating by means of the foreign language”. The aim of the implementation of CLT in teaching is to help the learners gain the communicative competence.
However, when CLT is adopted in EFL countries, many troubles appear. There should be research on the application of CLT in particular contexts so that the situation can be improved. In that light, what is expected from CLT can be gained. 1 At the Faculty of Economics of the Vietnam National University- HoChiMinh City, the administrators always support CLT to stimulate the learners’ activeness and creativity in the class as well as to help them communicate in English.
Although they are non-English major students who have a goal of becoming businessman at companies after four year study, they are always demanded to be good at English in which speaking is one of necessary skills. The syllabus, Business Basics by David Grant and Robert McLarty (New Edition, 2001), used for the first year students at the Faculty of Economics of the Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City meets the demand to develop their oral communicative ability and written ability as the aim of this syllabus is stated by these authors. Although all the teachers at the Faculty of Economics of the Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City who teach the first year students have made effort to adopt CLT in teaching English to improve their students’ oral ability over the past few years, it is supposed that CLT is not adopted completely and successfully. Statement of purpose In communication, it is impossible to accomplish a skill without another, so “integrating skills” is a notion that the teachers should pay attention to.
Although CLT refers to the 4 skills, it is appropriate to focus on one skill more than the rest (Harmer, 1991). This research study is limited to only speaking skill. That does not mean that CLT cannot be applied to the other skills, or the Faculty is not concerned about them. Indeed, according to the situation of the Faculty, the learners’ oral ability is one prominent problem that makes the administrators and teachers take into consideration.
Thus, this thesis is limited in investigating the constraints that the teachers meet when they apply CLT in teaching speaking to the students in the first year course. Research questions Although all the teachers at the Faculty who teach the first year students have made effort to adopt CLT in teaching English to improve their students’ oral ability over the past few years, it is supposed that CLT is not adopted completely and successfully. Hence, the researcher plans to study the reasons why the implementation of CLT in teaching English to students in the first year course is not successful. The solutions which aim at improving the situation will be found, as well.
In other words, the aims of the study are to answer the following questions: 1. What prevents the application of CLT in teaching speaking to first year students from effectiveness and success? 2. What solutions should be implemented to improve the situation? 1. Significance of the thesis It is hoped that this thesis will find out the useful remedies to improve the English teaching of speaking for the first year students at the Faculty of Economics of the Vietnam National University – HoChiMinh City.
Overview of thesis chapters This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the background and purposes of the study. Chapter 2 reviews the literature dealing with language learning strategies. Chapter 3 introduces methodology.
Chapter 4 presents results, discussions and conclusions. Chapter 5 presents conclusion. 3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW The literature review consists of 3 parts as follows: (1) Communicative Language Teaching; (2) Role of CLT in Teaching Speaking; and (3) a Summary of the Chapter. Communicative Language Teaching CLT is built up on both the language theory and the language learning theories.
In order to further understand CLT, the theory of language and of language learning relevant to CLT will be discussed as follows: 2. Theory of language CLT was developed on the basis of the theory of language as communication. Richards and Rodgers (1986) point out some of the characteristics of the communicative view of language: -Language is a system for the expression of meaning. -The primary function of language is for interaction and communication.