VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CURRENT SITUATION OF USING MULTIMEDIA IN LEARNING SPEAKING SKILLS OF THE FIRST- YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE. KHẢO SÁT THỰC TRẠNG CỦA VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÔNG NGHỆ ĐA PHƯƠNG TIỆN TRONG HỌC KỸ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM NHẤT CHUYÊN NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TẠI HỌC VIỆN NÔNG NGHIỆP VIỆT NAM Student : BUI THI LAN ANH Student code : 621247 Major : ENGLISH LANGUAGE Supervisor : M. NGUYEN THI HUONG Hanoi – 2021 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CURRENT SITUATION OF USING MULTIMEDIA IN LEARNING SPEAKING SKILLS OF THE FIRST- YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE. KHẢO SÁT THỰC TRẠNG CỦA VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÔNG NGHỆ ĐA PHƯƠNG TIỆN TRONG HỌC KỸ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM NHẤT CHUYÊN NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TẠI HỌC VIỆN NÔNG NGHIỆP VIỆT NAM Student : BUI THI LAN ANH Student code : 621247 Major : ENGLISH LANGUAGE Supervisor : M.
NGUYEN THI HUONG Hanoi – 2021 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled "AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CURRENT SITUATION OF USING MULTIMEDIA IN LEARNING SPEAKING SKILLS OF THE FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE" submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor in English Language. Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis. Hanoi, 2021 Bui Thi Lan Anh Approved by SUPERVISOR M. Nguyen Thi Huong (Signature and full name) Date: 01/07/2021 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, upon the process of the accomplishment of this thesis, I would like to sincerely address my gratitude to Mrs.
Nguyen Thi Huong, M.A, lecturer of English at Vietnam National University of Agriculture for her valuable instructions, comments, her assistance and criticism, and her kind encouragement and correction. I am also particularly indebted to all my classmates, friends, and students for their cooperation, encouragement and suggestions in conducting the research. I wish to thank all my teachers, lectures, and the staff at the Faculty of Education and Foreign Languages at Vietnam National University of Agriculture for their consideration and enthusiasm in helping me to finish the course and complete the study. My appreciation and gratitude are also extended to my beloved family; my parents whose endless love and support ask for nothing in returns.
Finally, I realise that this thesis is still far from being perfect. There were many mistakes made. It is expected that this thesis will be able to give contribution and be useful for the readers especially for those who are interested in the similar study. Ha Noi, 2021 The Writer, Bui Thi Lan Anh ii ABSTRACT Speaking plays an important role in the learning process.
In an attempt to enhance first-year English major students ' speaking at Vietnam National University of Agriculture , this paper is conducted. The study aimed to investigate the current situation of using multimedia in learning speaking skills of Vietnam National University of Agriculture first-year English majors and whether these multimedia tools can really motivate and improve the students ' speaking skill. The subjects of this research were 139 students in K65 of the first-year English majors at Vietnam National University of Agriculture. The author used questionnaire and semi-structured as the principal sources of data.
Analyses of these data indicated that the multimedia tools really helped enhance students ' speaking skill. Based on the findings of this study , some practical recommendations in application of these tools for learning speaking skill were presented. iii LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1: Students's opinion about the importance of speaking skill. 23 Chart 2: Student's opinion about the difficulty of speaking skill.
24 Chart 3: Student's opinion about the time they spend learning to speak English everyday. 25 Chart 4: Student's opinion about often or not of using multimedia tools in learning English speaking skills. 25 Chart 5: Student's opinion about the use multimedia tools help you become interested in learning speaking. 26 Chart 6: Student's opinion about the use multimedia tools help you learn new words more easily.
26 Chart 7: Student's opinion about the use multimedia tools help you catch speaking lesson's ideas more easily. 27 Chart 8: Student's opinion about the use multimedia tools help you practice at home more easily. 27 Chart 9: Student's opinion about the use multimedia tools help you practice more various speaking activities. 28 Chart 10: Student's opinion about difficulty in using multimedia tools to learn speaking.
29 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY. iii LIST OF CHARTS .iv TABLE OF CONTENTS. Rationale for the study. Aims and objectives of the study.
Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Design of the study. 4 Chapter 1: Literature Review.
Review of the previous studies (At home & abroad). Review of theoretical background (depends on what the study is about). Definitions of speaking. Criteria of Good Speaking Skill.
Factors affecting students’ speaking skill. Definition of multimedia. Theoretical basis of using multimedia tools in language teaching. Multimedia tools and language teaching.
Multimedia at VNUA .Research setting/context. Data collecting instruments. 21 Chapter 3 - Finding and Discussion. Questionnaire for students.
Semi-structured interviews. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study. Limitations of the study. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Suggestions for further study. 41 vi PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY Nowadays, with the development of science, technology, education and economy, English becomes more and more important in our modern society. We have to use English in almost every aspect of life and in almost fields of work and study.
So English becomes a compulsory subject in primary schools, secondary schools, high schools, especially in universities throughout the country in Vietnam. In almost universities, students learn English as a compulsory subject. They learn listening skill, speaking skill, reading skill and writing skill. And one of skills which students lack the confidence when practicing is speaking skill.
After twelve years studying at school, they just focused on grammar and reading comprehension to pass the college entrance exam, they did have lots of chances for practicing speaking. They often lack of confidence in communication and they lack time and method for learning speaking. So we should help the first-year students improve their speaking skills to gain the better speaking abilities in the future, especially when they graduate and apply for work. Multimedia makes the students spend more time on using some tools to complete their English assignment.
It creates an environment for studying and learning professionally. The students feel very eager to come to class each day when they have English lesson. Moreover, Multimedia is believed that it will help student feel passionate about learning English, especially speaking skills and feel confidents in daily communication, also at work because they have chances to practice in group task and experience in real life. The research really desires that the students can have more opportunities to search, study and practice.
Also, they can find out that multimedia is one of the best ways to help them improve their English day by day. With above reasons, the researcher really aspires to conduct a study “An investigation into the current situation of using multimedia in learning speaking skills of the first-year English majors at Vietnam National University of Agriculture” to find the better way for the teaching and learning English speaking skills and apply suitable 1 techniques and activities in speaking class. With the hope, the students can improve their ability for speaking skills. This study with the objective is to explore the application of the project-based approach to improve speaking skills for the first-year students at Vietnam National University of Agriculture.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1. Aims The main aim of this study is to investigate the current situation of using multimedia in learning speaking skills of VNUA first-year English majors. Objectives The overall purpose of this survey is to investigate the following issues: · Investigate the current situation of using multimedia in learning speaking skills of VNUA first-year English majors · Propose some solutions to improve students' using multimedia in learning speaking comprehension skills. RESEARCH QUESTIONS This study is conducted to seek the answer to the following research questions: a.
What is the current situation of using multimedia in learning speaking skills of VNUA first-year English majors? b. What are some solutions to improve the VNUA first-year English majors’ using multimedia in learning speaking skills? 1. SCOPE OF THE STUDY The study will investigate the current situation of 139 first-year English majors (K65) learning speaking skills in the second term at the school year 2020 – 2021 at VNUA. And then, some suggested solutions will be given to use multimedia in learning speaking skills more effectively.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This study offers theoretical and practical significance. Theoretically, this study can add the current theory dealing with the implementation of multimedia to improve the quality of the learning process. The findings of the study may give information about the usefulness of applying multimedia in learning English speaking to improve the quality of learning of speaking generally, and the students' speaking ability particularly in a similar context. DESIGN OF THE STUDY Apart from abstracts, references and appendices, the study consists of three main parts: Part 1 - Introduction, presents rationale of the study, aims and objectives of the study, research questions, the scope as well as the significance of the study.
Some information about VNUA is also mentioned in this chapter. Part 2 - Development is divided into 3 chapters: Chapter 1 - Literature review, provides theoretical background the definitions of speaking as well as multimedia tools, shows the difficulties of learning speaking are provided in this chapter. The relationship between multimedia tools and learning speaking. Many previous foreign and Vietnamese studies are included in this chapter.
Chapter 2 - Methodology, describes the methodology used in the research including the action research, data collection instruments, participants, the procedures employed to carry out the research. Chapter 3 - Finding and Discussion, reports and discusses the findings of the study. Part 3 - Conclusion, summarizes the research and states the conclusion, points out the limitations of the study and suggests several solutions. 3 PART 2: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature Review 1.
REVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS STUDIES (AT HOME & ABROAD) 1. Related research 1 Neri, Cucchiarini, and Strik (2008) studied whether a computer assisted pronunciation training program can help young learners improve word-level pronunciation in English. Participants were 11 years. Results showed that pronunciation quality of isolated words improved significantly for both groups (experimental & control).
They concluded that training with a computer-assisted pronunciation program with a simple automatic speech recognition SE ir component can lead to short-term improvements in pronunciation in contrast to those achieved by means of more traditional, teacher-led pronunciation training. Eaton (2010) found that computer-based communication is a beneficial feature for language learning. Computer-assisted discussion tend to feature more equal participation than face to- face discussion. Teachers or a few outspoken students are less likely to dominate the floor, resulting in class discussions that are more collaborative.
Zhao (2013) supported this view by stating that access and exposure to engaging, authentic, and comprehensible yet demanding materials in the target language is essential for successful language learning.