VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRỊNH THỊ HOAN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE DIFFICULTIES FACED BY TEACHERS IN TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS TO MƢỜNG ETHNIC STUDENTS AT BẮC SƠN HIGH SCHOOL (Nghiên cƣ́u nhƣ̃ng khó khăn giáo viên gă ̣p phải trong da ̣y ki ̃ năng nói cho ho ̣c sinh dân tô ̣c Mƣờng ta ̣i trƣờng THPT Bắ c Sơn ) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 HA NOI-2013 z VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRỊNH THỊ HOAN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE DIFFICULTIES FACED BY TEACHERS IN TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS TO MƢỜNG ETHNIC STUDENTS AT BẮC SƠN HIGH SCHOOL (Nghiên cƣ́u nhƣ̃ng khó khăn giáo viên gă ̣p phải trong da ̣y ki ̃ năng nói cho ho ̣c sinh dân tô ̣c Mƣờng ta ̣i trƣờng THPT Bắ c Sơn ) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor : Dr. Nguyễn Huy Kỷ HA NOI-2013 z LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching BS: Bắ c Sơn ESL: English as a Second Language ELT: English Language Teaching EFL: English as a Foreign Language iv z LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Participants‟ age, gender and years of experience Table 2: Teachers' ideas about teaching speaking skills to Mường ethnic minority students Table 3: Teachers‟ attitude towards teaching English speaking skills in the textbook “English 11” Table 4: Teachers‟ ideas about CLT Table 5: Teachers‟ difficulties in teaching English speaking skills Table 6: Teachers‟ attitude towards learners keeping making mistakes and ways to correct them Table 7: Teachers‟ techniques applied currently in teaching speaking to reduce the difficulties and to encourage students to speak English Table 8: Students‟ opinions on the speaking topics presented in the textbook “ Tiế ng Anh 11” Table 9: Students‟ reasons for learning English Table 10: Students‟ attitudes towards learning English speaking skills Table 11: Factors that make students unwilling to speak in English Table 12: Students‟ ideas about teachers‟ reactions to their mistakes Table 13: Students‟ ideas about their teachers‟ current techniques used for teaching English speaking skills v z TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP………………………………………….iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS …………………………………….iv LIST OF TABLES …………………………………………. Aims of the study…………………………………………. Scope of the study………………………………………………………….
Methods of the study…………………. Design of the study………………………………………………….4 Chapter 1 : LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………. An overview of Communicative Language Teaching. Definitions of Communicative Language Teaching.
Characteristics of Communicative Language Teaching…. Roles of teachers in CLT. Roles of learners in CLT. Nature of Language skills and oral communication.
Nature of Language skills. An overview of speaking in language teaching and learning. Definitions of speaking. The characteristics of speaking.
The role of speaking in language teaching and learning.4 Approaches to the teaching of speaking.12 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. An overview of the research site. Description of the teachers of English at Bắ c Sơn high school. Description of the students at Bắ c Sơn high school.
The teaching and learning English speaking skills. Data collection and analysis procedure.17 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS. Data analysis of teachers‟ survey questionnaire. Data analysis of students‟ survey questionnaire.33 CHAPTER 4: MAJOR FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
Summary of the findings. Difficulties from the teachers. Shortage of Training in CLT. Misunderstanding of the teaching method.
Difficulties from the students. Limited English proficiency. Limited motivation in learning. Use of Vietnamese during pair work or group work.
Students‟ negative psychological factors. Large size of the class. Difficulties from the textbook “ Tiế ng Anh 11”. Improving CLT knowledge for the teachers.
Making speaking communicative activities. Building positive environment in class. Limitations of the study……………………………………………. Suggestions for further study…………………………………….VIII viii z PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale of the study As we know that we are living in the world of globalization. English is a common language and is spoken in many countries. It is considered as universal language in many fields such as: science, technology, diplomacy and so on. Most of the universities worldwide include English as one of their major subjects.
Vietnam is also competing with the other countries in terms of education and many other things. Hence, we are forced to meet global standards. In Vietnam, English has become a compulsory subject in the curriculum and it is considered as one of the major subjects for the national secondary school and high school examinations. Ministry of Education and Training in Vietnam (2006) has stated that the objective of language teaching is teaching learners to communicate fluently, appropriately and spontaneously in the cultural context of the target language.
In recent years, the study of English has gained momentum because it is partly the change in education policies of our government. The number of people who wish to know and master English has become more and more increasing, especially since Vietnam adopted an open-door policy, teaching and learning English have been paid much attention to. There still exist many difficulties facing English language teachers in Vietnam in general and English language teachers at Bắ c S ơn high school in particular in teaching speaking skills to students. The teachers of English at Bắ c Sơn high school find it difficult to teach speaking successfully because of remote and mountainous area, ethnic majority students, students‟ low level, students‟ poor living conditions, lack of materials and facilities.
The teaching and learning English process at Bắ c Sơn high school seems to still focus too much on grammar and structures. Students are very good at doing exercises of written forms, these forms of exercises mostly concern grammar, reading or writing comprehension. The consequence is that students have many difficulties in speaking. There are many students who have perfect knowledge of grammar but can‟t express 1 z themselves to the teacher.
Therefore, they usually keep quiet and lazy during speaking lessons. It is very difficult to make them participate in speaking activities. All of the above reasons have inspired the author to do the research on “An investigation into the difficulties faced by teachers in teaching English speaking skills to Mườ ng ethnic students at Bắ c S ơn high school” with the hope to investigate the teachers‟ difficulties in teaching English speaking, then I will present some recommendations that can help the teachers overcome those difficulties, and thereby make a small contribution to the quality of teaching and learning speaking skills at Bắ c Sơn high school. Aims of the study The study is aimed at: - Investigating the current situation of teaching and learning of speaking skills at Bắ c Sơn high school.
- Identifying the difficulties and obstacles that the teachers at Bắ c Sơn high school have faced when teaching speaking skills. - Making some suggestions for the teachers at Bắ c S ơn high school with the hope of helping the students overcome their inhibition, and thereby improve students‟ speaking skills. Research questions My study aims at answering the following research questions: - What are the current techniques of teaching speaking skills used at Bắ c S ơn high school? - What kinds of difficulties do the teachers at Bắ c Sơn high school often meet in teaching English speaking skills to Mường ethnic students? - What are the most effective ways that help the teachers at Bắ c Sơn high school to overcome these difficulties? 4. Scope of the study The researcher only intends to give a brief overview of current English speaking teaching and learning situations of grade 11 students at Bắ c Sơn high school, and to focus 2 z on the difficulties that the English language teachers have met when teaching speaking skills to the minority students at Bắ c S ơn high school and then offer some implications and activities with the hope that teaching and learning speaking skills will be improved.
The study of difficulties, some suggested solutions to other skills and levels would be beyond the scope of the study. Methods of the study To realize the objectives of the study, qualitative and quantitative methods will be used. The data collected for the study will mainly from two sources: 140 students of 11th grade and 4 teachers of English at Bắ c S ơn high school. Survey questions are used to collect information and evidence for the study.
All comments, remarks, recommendations, and conclusions provided in the study are based on the data analysis. Design of the study This study consists of three parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion. Part A: Introduction Part B: Development The development comprises four chapters: + Chapter 1 : Literature Review + Chapter 2 : Research Methodology + Chapter 3 : Data analysis + Chapter 4: Findings and Recommendations Part C: Conclusion 3 z PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter presents the theoretical background of the research concerning CLT, nature of language skills, and an overview of speaking skill in language teaching and learning. An overview of Communicative Language Teaching 1.
Definitions of Communicative Language Teaching Communicative Language Teaching is a prominent theoretical model in English Language Teaching (ELT) and CLT is accepted by many applied linguists and teachers as one of the effective approaches. Since its first appearance in Europe in early 1970s and subsequent development in English as a Second Language countries over the past 20 years, CLT has extended in scope and has been used by different educators in different ways. A number of research studies have been conducted and much effort has been put into discussion on the implementation of CLT in EFL. So far, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has been viewed differently by different authors: (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) Communicative language teaching (CLT), or the communicative approach, is an approach to language teaching that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of study.
According to Littlewood (1981:1), "one of the most characteristic features of communicative language teaching is that it pays systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language, combining these into a more fully communicative view". CLT advocates to go beyond teaching grammatical rules of the target language, and recommend that, by using the target language in a meaningful way, learners will develop communicative competence. CLT emphasizes on learners-centered teaching. According to Savignon (1983:263), "Communicative Language Teaching has become a term for methods and 4 z curricula that embrace both the goals and the processes of classroom learning, for teaching practice that views competence in terms of social interaction”.
Li (1998:679) also added that CLT requires teachers to develop materials based on the needs of a particular class and "students must be made to feel secure, unthreatened, and nondefensive" in a CLT classroom. According to Bock (2000) CLT is tailored to get at meaning and learners negotiate meaning in class. Meaning is considered as what is communicated. He also states: “Authentic materials, functional tasks, and groups and pair work are significant aspects of CLT”.
According to Nunan (1989: 194), Communicative Language Teaching means: CLT views language as a system for the expression of meaning. Activities involve oral communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which is meaningful to the learners. Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives. The learner’s role is as a negotiator and integrator.
The teacher’s role is as a facilitator of the communication process. Materials promote communicative language use; they are task- based and authentic. It is thought that the definition contains aspects that are common to many other definitions. The definitions above, as with any definitions of the language teaching method (Penny Cook, 1989), represents a particular view of understanding and explaining language acquisition.
It is socially constructed and must be seen as a product of social, cultural, economic, and political forces. Characteristics of Communicative Language Teaching In approaches and methods in language teaching.