VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ***************** NGUYỄN THỊ HƢƠNG STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES TOWARDS LEARNING ENGLISH SPEAKING IN A RURAL AREA AN INVESTIGATION AT XUAN CHAU LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL (KHÓ KHĂN VỀ VIỆC HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH Ở KHU VỰC NÔNG THÔN – NGHIÊN CỨU TẠI TRƢỜNG TRUNG HỌC CƠ SỞ XUÂN CHÂU – XUÂN TRƢỜNG – NAM ĐỊNH) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi – 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ------------------------ NGUYỄN THỊ HƢƠNG STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES TOWARDS LEARNING ENGLISH SPEAKING IN A RURAL AREA AN INVESTIGATION AT XUAN CHAU LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL (KHÓ KHĂN VỀ VIỆC HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH Ở KHU VỰC NÔNG THÔN – NGHIÊN CỨU TẠI TRƢỜNG TRUNG HỌC CƠ SỞ XUÂN CHÂU – XUÂN TRƢỜNG – NAM ĐỊNH) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr. Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã Hanoi - 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled: “Students’ Difficulties towards Learning English Speaking in a Rural Area - An Investigation at Xuan Chau Lower Secondary School” is the result of my own work in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts of Faculty at Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University of Hanoi. The research has not been submitted to any other universities or institutions. Hanoi, 2017 Nguyễn Thị Hương i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not be fulfilled without the help of many people, and I would like to show my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has taught me, inspired me, challenged me, and supported me throughout the realization of this thesis I would like to express my deepest thanks to my beloved supervisor, Dr.
Vu Thi Thanh Nha, for her whole-hearted assistance, encouragement as well as profound guidance she gave me while I was doing my research. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all my lecturers and staffs at the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University of Hanoi whose support and consideration have enabled me to pursue the course. I would also like to express my whole-heated thanks to teachers and all students of Xuan Chau Lower Secondary School for their helps and their willingness to participate in the research. Without their help, this thesis could not be fulfilled.
Last but not least, I owe my sincere thanks to my family and my kind-hearted friends, who have always inspired and encouraged me to complete this study. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Speaking is often considered as the most difficult skill of language learning. Many students find it difficult to activate this knowledge in real time, and face-to-face encounters. Hence, the study addressed the gap in our understanding of the difficulties of secondary students, especially students in a rural area, encountered in learning English speaking.
Furthermore, the students’ opinions about the role of speaking in their English course and the possible solutions to overcome the difficulties were also covered in this study. With these aims, questionnaire as well as semi-structured interview was constructed as collecting data instruments. Four students were interviewed out of 67 students who responded to the questionnaire. The highlighted difficulties were: lack of practice outside class, large class, and limitation of class time; it also reported together with suggestions that might help students overcome the difficulties.
In addition, some pedagogical implications, limitations and suggestions for further studies were included in this study. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES. viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Aims of the study. Scope of the study.
Significance of the study. Outline of the study .4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definition of speaking skill. The purposes of speaking.
The characteristics of speaking. The role of speaking in language teaching and learning. Approaches to teaching speaking: A review. Students’ problems with speaking activities .16 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY.
The research context. Methods of the study. Data collection procedures. Aims of the questionnaire.
Aims of the interview. Findings from students’ questionnaire. Students’ opinions on the role of speaking in their English course. Students’ difficulties in learning English speaking.
Students’ suggestions to overcome the difficulties .34 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Findings from students’ interviews. Students’ opinions on the role of speaking in their English course. Students’ difficulties in learning English speaking.
Students’ suggestions to overcome the difficulties .42 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION. Discussion of the main findings. For English teachers. Limitations of the study.
Suggestions for the further research.50 APPENDIX 1: BẢNG CÂU HỎI DÀNH CHO HỌC SINH. I APPENDIX 2: CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN DÀNH CHO HỌC SINH. IV APPENDIX 3: SAMPLE LESSON PLAN. V APPENDIX 4: STUDENTS’ QUESTIONNAIRE …………………………….IX vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as a Foreign Language ELT: English Language Teaching ESL: English as a Second Language L1: First language TESOL: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1: Three key features of learners’ speech .8 Table 2: Summary of the questions in part 2 of students’ questionnaire .23 Table 3: Students’ opinions in term of difficulty of four English skills .28 Table 4: Students’ opinions on the skill(s) they wanted to improve .29 Table 5: Students’ difficulties in learning English speaking .31 Table 6: Students’ opinions on the speaking topics presented in the textbook .34 Table 7: Students’ opinions on activities teachers organised in speaking lessons .36 Figure 1: The overall mean of four main factors .32 viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.
Introduction This chapter will provide the overview of the study such as rationales, aims, scope, research questions, significance, methods, and outline of the study. Rationales English is used more and more widely over the world, and becomes a common language in anywhere. It plays a particular role in world’s globalization and in international communication, and is chosen as an official language in many fields. Therefore, the need of learning English has increased rapidly.
Speaking seems to be the most important skills of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) because people who know a language are usually referred as speakers of that language (Ur, 1996). Speaking is the bridge to connect people, it is certainly the most effective means of communication; it is the means through which learners could communicate with others to achieve certain goals or to express their opinions, intentions, hopes and viewpoints. It is a truism in TESOL that speaking is one of the most fundamental skills in the acquisition of English as an additional language, and in many “social ecologies of learning” (Leather & van Dam, 2002, p.9), but it is among the most difficult and most problematic skills for most of students to master. In Vietnam, English is chosen as the major foreign language and a compulsory subject in nearly all schools at all levels; hence, English has received a lot of attention from many people like students, their families, and educators.
Understanding the necessity of English, everyone wants to be competent in English. To master English, the students need to grasp all the four skills that are closely related to one another: listening, speaking, reading and writing. However, in many schools, students exclusively focus on learning to read English-language documents, and to prepare English language essays and letters, with little attention to the skills 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com of conversation. Essentially, learning English is seen as learning a scholarly skill for the purposes of reading and writing, not as learning a living language of use.
Students give more special attention to writing and reading tasks that are similar to exam items, and give less attention to speaking tasks in the textbooks because speaking is completely excluded from the exams. After learning English in many years, students are incompetent in language and unable to communicate the target language. Students could be good at reading and writing skills, they may have a good knowledge of grammar and a wide range of vocabulary without finding it difficult to do grammatical exercises. However, they meet difficulties in speaking, and find it difficult to speak English in the real-life situations.
In Xuan Chau Lower Secondary School, students also find it difficult in learning English speaking. Furthermore, this school is located in a rural area, teaching and learning English speaking meet more difficulties than schools in urban areas. Therefore, it is essential to find out difficulties of students in learning speaking skills. All of the above reasons have made me conduct the research on “Students’ Difficulties towards Learning English Speaking in a Rural Area - An Investigation at Xuan Chau Lower Secondary School”.
Aims of the study The study was conducted to find out difficulties that students in a rural area could encounter in learning English speaking. In addition, the researcher also investigated students’ opinions on the role of speaking in their English course. As a result, some suggestions were proposed to help students overcome the difficulties. Research questions With these above aims, the study focused on three research questions below: 1.
What do students think is the role of speaking in their English course? 2. What difficulties do students encounter in learning English speaking? 3. What solutions should be suggested to help the students overcome the difficulties? 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Scope of the study The study was conducted at Xuan Chau Lower Secondary School, Nam Dinh province.
It only focused on learning English speaking of grade- 9 students in three aspects: students’ opinions on the role of speaking, students’ difficulties in learning speaking, and possible solutions for the difficulties. Significance of the study The significance of this study was that via the results, the researcher found out the problems that students encountered in learning English speaking and proposed some suitable solutions to help students overcome the difficulties. Based on findings of this study, there is a possibility that it could be a reference for other teachers in teaching speaking skill. It would be also a primitive road for further studies.
Outline of the study The study consists of five chapters: - Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter was a brief description of the research including the rationales for conducting the research, the aims of the study, research questions, scope of the study, significance of the study, and outline of the study. - Chapter 2: Literature review This chapter introduced some concepts, theoretical frameworks and related studies. - Chapter 3: The methodology This chapter introduced the research context and methodology of the study. - Chapter 4: Findings This chapter presented the major findings from the students’ questionnaire and interview to answer the research questions.
3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com - Chapter 5: Discussions and conclusion This chapter gave some concluding remarks, some limitations existing in this study, implication for English teaching and learning, and suggestions for further studies. Summary In summary, this chapter provided the overview of the study including rationales of the study, aims of the study, research questions, scope of the study, significance of the study, and design of the study. The following chapter will present the theoretical framework of the study. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.