MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ PHAN THI THAO AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH SPEAKING ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM BY ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUE COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING HUE, 2013 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ PHAN THI THAO AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH SPEAKING ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM BY ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUE COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: TRUONG BACH LE, D. HUE, 2013 i BỘ GIÁO DỤC ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ------------ PHAN THỊ THẢO KHẢO SÁT CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG NÓI SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ HUẾ SỬ DỤNG NGOÀI LỚP HỌC LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60140111 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS. TRƯƠNG BẠCH LÊ HUẾ, 2013 ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP 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 Phan Thi Thao iii ABSTRACT This thesis seeks to explore issues in speaking activities outside the classroom used by English major students at Hue College of Foreign Language. Particularly, it attempts to find out types of activities and impacts of them on developing students‟ speaking skills. Besides, through this study, the researcher also tries to explore factors affecting students‟ participation in such activities. The data for this thesis were obtained through the use of questionnaires distributed to 100 English major students across four year levels.
Interviews were also conducted with 20 English major students. The findings reveal that students have deep awareness of the importance of speaking activities outside the classroom. The study also indicates that the type of activities the students utilized most is entertaining activities. Additionally, the findings prove speaking activities outside the classroom help students improve not only their speaking skills but also other language skills.
Finally, motivation and problems students encounter are the common factors affecting the frequency of their participation in such activities. iv Acknowledgements Apart from my own efforts, the success of any project depends largely on the encouragement and guidelines from many others. I take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to the people who have been instrumental in the completion of this thesis. First and foremost, I owe my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr.
Truong Bach Le for his invaluable guidance and advice. I cannot say thank you enough for his tremendous support and kind-hearted help. I feel motivated and encouraged throughout the stages of the research. Without his encouragement and assistance, this thesis would not have been completed.
Besides, I would like to show my greatest appreciation to Dr. Pham Hoa Hiep who gave me suggestion for the proposal of this thesis. He inspired me greatly to work on this study. I am grateful for his support and help from the initial days.
In addition, it is an honor for me to convey my special thanks to all the teachers of English Department and English major students in Hue University College of Foreign Languages for their enthusiasm during my data collecting process. Also, I am indebted to many of the librarians of Hue University College of Foreign Languages for providing me with a good environment and facilities to complete this thesis. Finally, I wish to express my love and gratitude to my beloved family and my friends for their understanding and endless love, through the duration of my thesis. v vi TABLE OF CONTENTS SUB COVER PAGE.
i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP .v TABLE OF CONTENTS. vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.x LIST OF CHARTS. xi LIST OF TABLES. xii CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION.
Rationale of the study. Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Structure of the study.5 CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW.
Definitions of language learning activities outside the classroom. Types of English speaking activities outside the classrooms. Self-study activities. The factors affect learners‟ participation in out-of-class activities.
The impacts of out-of-class language activities on English speaking skills. Data collecting instruments .24 CHAPTER 4 - FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. Students‟ competence in speaking English. Students‟ perceived speaking competence.
Students‟ perceptions of speaking activities outside the classroom. Types of English speaking activities outside the classrooms used by students. The reliability statistics data collected from questionnaires. Types of English speaking activity outside the classroom.
Self-study activities. Face-to-face activities. Benefits of speaking activities outside the classroom to English major students at HUCFL. The impact of English speaking activities outside the classroom on speaking skills.
The impact of English speaking activities outside the classroom on other language skills. Factors affecting students‟ participation in English speaking activities outside the classroom. Motivation for participation in English speaking activities outside the classroom. The problems students have when participating in English speaking activities outside the classroom .55 viii CHAPTER 5 - CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS.
Implications for administrators at HUCFL. Implications for foreign language teachers. Implications for foreign language students. Contribution of the study.
Limitations of the study. Recommendations for future research .67 ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL : English as a foreign language ESAOC : English speaking activities outside the classroom ESL : English as a second language ETA4 : English through academics athletics and the arts abroad HUCFL : Hue University College of Foreign Languages NGOs : Non-governmental organizations x LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.1: Students‟ speaking grade first semester of school year 2012- 2013 .2: The comparison on students‟ speaking ability across the class levels .3: The impact of English speaking activities outside the classroom on speaking skills .4: The impact of English speaking activities outside the classroom on other language skills .5: Factors motivating students to participate in English speaking activities outside the classroom .49 xi LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Summary of participants .2: Summary of clusters in types of activity used by students .1: Students‟ perception of the importance of speaking activities outside the classroom .2: The reliability of the piloted questionnaires reliability statistics .3: The reliability of the total questionnaires reliability statistics .4: The frequency of activities carried out in speaking English .5: Mean score of 3 clusters .6: Entertaining activities outside the classroom ranked in order of frequency (Cluster 1) .7: Self-study activities outside the classroom ranked in order of frequency (Cluster 2) .8: Face-to-face activities outside the classroom ranked in order of frequency (Cluster 3) .9: Suggestions for making full use of English activities outside the classroom .10: The problems students have when participating in activities. 53 xii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION First of all, this chapter aims to examine the pedagogical context in which the issues worthy of investigation in this thesis project arise. Then, it also sets out to deal with the matters by stating the research questions.
Next, the scopes and significance of the study are also mentioned in this part. Finally, the thesis structure is presented to give the readers an overview of this research project. Rationale of the study English is an international language that is used globally in every major aspect of our lives such as economics, politics, science, technology, education, etc. We might say that it is a big loss to those who cannot communicate in English in the era of globalization nowadays.
In our country, fortunately, “English is unquestionably preferred by the majority of Vietnamese students” (Ton & Pham, 2010). However, it is not an easy task to learn English, especially for those who do not live in the English- speaking countries. In Vietnam, where English is taught as a foreign language, learning English is not easy. Undoubtedly, the context in which learning takes place makes a vital contribution to the success of learning; this is true in particular for language acquisition.
In the countries where English is not a primary language, people lack an authentic English environment to practice. They do not have opportunities to use English in their daily lives. Pickard (1996) also agrees with this by stating “Availability of speaking opportunities in the foreign language setting was limited”. Hence, in such countries, in-class instruction is obviously not enough for students to improve their English skills, especially listening and speaking skills.
This partly explains for the importance of English speaking activities outside the classroom to the foreign language learners in order to improve their speaking skill. In my experience in learning English, I found myself and my friends also lacked motivation in learning English. The curriculum and English textbooks were inflexible and dry with a lot of grammar exercises and long readings which did not help us 1 much to improve listening and speaking skills. Some topics in textbooks were also not interesting enough to attract us.
That is the reason why we felt learning English in the classroom was boring and sleepy. Moreover, time for class to practice English skills was limited. Hence, we did not have many opportunities to communicate in English in the classroom. Additionally, in reality, we did not know how to learn English effectively and where and how to practice English.
This, as Doan (2011) points out “Practice is considered an important part of language learning. However, some students do not know how to practice well and feel disappointed as practice does not always help them make much progress in their studies”. Therefore, he adds that teachers should give students guidance to practice English effectively. Nevertheless, to do this, teachers should understand more about learners‟ lives in order to know how they learn English from the environment around them and how they create opportunities to communicate in English in their daily lives.
In the current situation of learning English in Vietnam, the investigations in some foreign language universities have shown that many students felt embarrassed and diffident when communicating with foreigners in English. They said that although studying in the foreign language university, they did not have chances to communicate with the foreigners. Due to this, their speaking skill is not improved (Nguyen, 2006). Hence, some students try to find suitable activities outside the classroom to practice their speaking skill.
Nonetheless, outside the classroom, most students in non- English speaking countries like Vietnam are immersed in a first- language environment which lacks opportunities to practice English speaking. The question posed here is whether we have any way to help students have motivation in speaking. The fact is that many students seem to love their daily activities such as listening to music, watching films, surfing the Internet, taking part in English clubs, etc. Thus, why don‟t we encourage students to integrate these activities into practicing speaking? For instance, teachers encourage students to watch films in English or listen to English songs day by day in order to improve their listening and speaking skills.
Participating in English clubs and organizations gives student chances to use authentic language. Nonetheless, how many students in 2 HUCFL take part in these activities? What out-of-class activities do they often take part in? And how these activities affect their English speaking are still the big concerns of many English teachers and students. Indeed, it seems that many researchers pay more attention to studying on what takes place in the classroom than out of the classroom. This is partly explained by the fact that “while classroom experiences and coursework patterns are relatively easy to observe and document, students‟ out-of-class experiences pose a greater challenge for the higher education researcher” (Krause, 2007).
Additionally, it is undeniable that students do not spend much time on class, therefore; classroom does not help them much to improve their speaking skills. It can be said that without out-of-class activities, students cannot acquire English language skills.