VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -------------------- NGUYỄN THỊ YẾN DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING TOEIC SPEAKING SKILLS TO STUDENTS AT BAC HA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY (Những khó khăn trong việc dạy kỹ năng nói TOEIC cho sinh viên trường Đại học Quốc tế Bắc Hà) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.10 HANOI – 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -------------------- NGUYỄN THỊ YẾN DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING TOEIC SPEAKING SKILLS TO STUDENTS AT BAC HA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY (Những khó khăn trong việc dạy kỹ năng nói TOEIC cho sinh viên trường Đại học Quốc tế Bắc Hà) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.10 Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, Ph.D HANOI – 2013 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Certificate of originality of study project report. iii Table of contents.
iv List of abbreviations. vii Table of figures .viii PART A: INTRODUCTION. Rationale of the study. Aims of the study.
Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Organization of the study. 5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW.
An overview of the TOEIC test. The TOEIC speaking test. Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking skills. Difficulties from teachers.
Difficulties from students. Difficulties from objective factors. The research context. Description of the English language teaching and learning at BHIU.
Description of the students at BHIU. Description of the teachers at BHIU. Methods of the study. Sample and sampling.
20 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. 22 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking from teachers’ perspectives. Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking from students’ perspectives.
Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking from both teachers’ and students’ perspectives. Solutions to the eight most common difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking skills .1 Students' low level of speaking competence .2 Students' passive learning style.3 Students' low motivation level .4 Big and multi-level class .5 Helping students to have inappropriate intonation and stress .6 Helping students to improve their listening competence .7 Helping students to recognize the relationship between the sender and receiver of the message .8 Helping students to support their answers with reasons, examples. 40 PART C: IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION. Summary of the findings.
Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further studies. I Appendix A: Sample of a complete TOEIC speaking test. I Appendix B: TOEIC speaking test scoring guide.
IV v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Appendix C: Questionnaire for students. VIII Appendix D: Questionnaire for teachers. XII Appendix E: Transcript of group interview. XIV Appendix F: Sample of information gap activity.
XXVI Appendix G: Sample of graphic organizer. XXVIII vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS TOEIC The Test of English for International Communication TOEFL The Test of English as a Foreign Language IELTS The International English Language Testing System GMAT The Graduate Management Admission Test BULATS The Business Language Testing System BEC Business English Certificates EFL English as a Foreign Language BHIU Bac Ha International University vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1: Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking skills in general - from teachers’ perspectives. 26 Figure 2: Difficulties in teaching six different parts of the TOEIC speaking test - from teachers’ perspectives. 28 Figure 4: Difficulties in teaching six different parts of the TOEIC speaking test - from students’ perspectives.
29 Figure 5: Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking skills in general. 31 Figure 6: Difficulties in teaching six different parts of the TOEIC speaking test. 32 viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study Nowadays, with the rapid pace of globalization, English as an international language is playing a more and more important role in all walks of life.
As a result, the teaching of EFL has been paid more attention than ever before. English has become a compulsory subject in all education institutions from primary schools to universities. To meet the demand of the society, a lot of reliable international English tests such as IELTS, TOEFL, GMAT,….have come into being. It is, however, a fact that most of these tests serve the academic purpose.
That is to say they aim at providing learners with academic English for their further study, especially for overseas study. Obviously, a very important sector of English learners has been left behind with very few tools to evaluate their English – English for the workplace. Recently, BULATS and BEC have been introduced to ease the situation but they seem not to fully satisfy most of the learners’ expectation. Businesses, government agencies and English-language learning programs around the world have been using the TOEIC test as the standard for English-language assessment in the workplace for more than 30 years.
Today, more than 10,000 organizations in 120 countries turn to the TOEIC test to make their hiring, placement and training decisions. While TOEIC listening and reading tests have been widely used, TOEIC speaking and writing tests are considered fairly new to English-language learners despite their introduction in December 1996. The introduction of TOEIC speaking and writing test was to satisfy the increasing need of the global workforce for employees who are capable of speaking and writing at a certain level. In Vietnam, most of the colleges choose to focus on the traditional version of TOEIC test: TOEIC listening and reading.
Meanwhile some others start to integrate TOEIC speaking and writing into their syllabus with a view to providing students with an effective tool to apply for their future jobs. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Despite its recent appearance, TOEIC speaking has proved itself a reliable tool to evaluate students’ ability to communicate in the real workplace. Bac Ha International University where I have been teaching for more than 2 years is one of the leading universities for this new trend of teaching TOEIC speaking to students. Having been introduced in Bac Ha International University for 2 years, TOEIC speaking is believed to be very practical and useful for third year students who are going to graduate and struggle to find their positions in the workplace.
During these two years, BHIU lecturers of TOEIC speaking have encountered some certain difficulties which can be classified into three categories: from students ( low level of English competence, low motivation level….), from teachers ( large amount of talk time in class, inappropriate error correction techniques,….), from objective factors ( large and multi-level classes, lack of facilities…. Some other difficulties may also emerge from the nature and construction of the TOEIC exam itself which is quite different from speaking tests developed by Vietnamese educators. This study attempts to figure out the difficulties faced by BHIU lecturers when teaching TOEIC speaking as well as draw out some feasible solutions suggested by the lecturers to overcome these difficulties. Aims of the study The primary goal of this thesis is to study the difficulties of lectures when teaching TOEIC speaking from both lecturers’ and students’ perspective in BHIU.
Some suggested solutions would also be given by the lecturers to overcome these difficulties. These issues can be tackled through answering three questions: 1. From the perspective of lecturers, what are the difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking to students at Bac Ha International University? 2. From the perspective of students, what are the lecturers’ difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking at Bac Ha International University? 3.
What are the lecturers’ suggestions to overcome these difficulties? 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Scope of the study It is a fact that there are many different types of difficulties which lecturers may encounter when teaching TOEIC speaking. However, this paper only focuses on the most common difficulties voted by lecturers and students in teaching TOEIC speaking in general and in teaching 6 parts of the TOEIC speaking in specific. Some suggestions will also be made by the lecturers with a view to improving the teaching of TOEIC speaking in BHIU.
Since this study is carried out to figure out BHIU lecturers’ difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking, the findings of this paper may not be necessarily generalized to lecturers at other universities. Significance of the study The globalization of education has triggered a greater demand for good English speaking ability in the job market. As a new and worldwide standard of English language learning, the TOEIC test has added speaking to its original format as a way to prove the importance of speaking in the real workplace. Nevertheless, very few colleges take advantage of this new format and adapt it to their syllabus.
Also, even less research on the TOEIC test, especially on TOEIC speaking has been implemented. All the previous research on TOEIC speaking focuses on proving the reliability and validity of this test (“TOEIC Research”). The lecturers of TOEIC speaking have met some certain difficulties but seem to have no chance to raise their voice, to discuss with other colleagues and to figure out the best solutions to their problems. This study is carried out to set a light on this important issue.
BHIU lecturers as well as students are expected to recognize lecturers’ difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking while the lecturers themselves can possibly gain some advice to overcome these difficulties from their colleagues. All in all, the teaching of TOEIC speaking is expectedly, to some extent, improved in BHIU in the next semesters. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Methodology This study aims at investigating difficulties of BHIU lecturers in teaching TOEIC speaking through questionnaire and interview surveys.
The population of this study consisted of 12 lecturers who have been teaching TOEIC speaking at BHIU. The students’ sample included 95 third year students of BHIU. The lecturers took part in the questionnaires and seven of them attended the group interview. By answering the questionnaire, they exposed their difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking while during the interview they were expected to give some solutions to these difficulties.
The students participated in the questionnaire survey to illustrate what they think are the lecturers’ difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking. To achieve the goal of this study, the researcher designed the questionnaire into two main parts: difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking skills in general, difficulties in teaching 6 different parts of TOEIC speaking test. The suggestions were collected through the group interview with seven full-time lecturers of English in BHIU. Organization of the study The study consists of three parts.
Part A, Introduction, deals with rationale of the study, aims of the study, scope of the study, significance of the study, methodology and the organization of the study. Part B, Development, is composed of three chapters. Chapter One, Literature Review, reviews the TOEIC test and the difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking skills. Chapter Two, Methodology, mentions the research context, methods of the study and research design.
Chapter Three, Findings and discussions, presents and discusses findings of the difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking to third year students at BHIU, and some solutions suggested by the lecturers. The last part, Implications and Conclusion, gives some implications from the study. It also summarizes important findings, suggests the limitations of the thesis as well as the areas for further studies. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 An overview of the TOEIC test TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) is designed to set the global standard for assessing English proficiency for business.