VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES --------------------*&*-------------------- NGÔ PHƯƠNG THÙY A STUDY ON THE DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING SPEAKING ENGLISH OF THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY (TÌM HIỂU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT KHOA CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN, ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN) M. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 HA NOI - 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES --------------------*&*-------------------- NGÔ PHƯƠNG THÙY A STUDY ON THE DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING SPEAKING ENGLISH OF THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY (TÌM HIỂU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT KHOA CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN, ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN) M. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 SUPERVISOR: PHAM MINH HIEN, M.A HA NOI - 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: INTRODUCTION .1 Rationales of the study .2 Aims and objectives of the study.3 Scope of the study.4 Methods of the study .5 Significance of the Study .6 Structure of the study .6 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .2 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) .1 Definition of CLT .2 Characteristics of CLT .3 Nature of speaking and Development of speaking Skills .1 Definition of speaking .2 Characteristics of speaking .4 The development Approach of Speaking Skills .4 Difficulties in learning to speak English .2 The setting of the study .3 Subject of the study .4 Instruments for collecting data .22 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .2 Data analysis of students’ responses.3 Data analysis of teachers’ responses.2 Recommendations for the Teaching of Speaking to first year students in FIT .1 Teaching students strategies to learn to speak English .2 Improving teachers’ classroom techniques .3 Developing speaking materials .4 Creating speaking environment for students .5 Reducing the class size.6 Ranking the students’ ability .47 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.2 Limitations and suggestions for further research. 51 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND PIE CHARTS Tables Table 1: Students’ judgments in speaking materials.
30 Pie charts Pie chart 1: Students' competence in speaking skills. 23 Pie chart 2: Student's perception towards speaking skills. 24 Pie chart 3: Students' actual activities in speaking class. 25 Pie chart 4: Students' perception towards difficulties in learning to speak English.
26 Pie chart 5: Students' perception towards the psychological barriers to learning to speak English. 26 Pie chart 6: Students' perception towards the effect of cultural factor to learning to speak English. 27 Pie chart 7: Students' perception towards the effect of grammar knowledge to learning to speak English. 28 Pie chart 8: Students' perception towards the effect of vocabulary to learning to speak English.
29 Pie chart 9: Students' perception towards the effect of pronunciation to learning to speak English. 29 Pie chart 10: Students' expectation towards the teachers' instruction. 30 Pie chart 11: Students’ thought of class size. 31 Pie chart 12: Students’ thought of mixed ability class.
32 Pie chart 13: Teachers' perception of students' thought over speaking skills. 32 Pie chart 14: Teachers' perception of students experience over speaking skills. 33 Pie chart 15: Teacher's perception of students' actual activities in speaking class. 34 Pie chart 16: Teacher's perception of their students' speaking difficulties.
35 iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative language Teaching ELT: English Language Teaching ESL: Learning English as a Second Language FIT: Faculty of Information Technology IT: Information Technology L2: Second Language LSC: Learning Skills Council SLA: Second Language Acquisition iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationales of the study David Nunan (1995) wrote: “When someone asks, “Do you know another language?” they generally mean “Can you speak the language?”(p. One can not be considered to know a language without speaking it. It can be seen that speaking is one of the most important skills that learners must master during the learning a foreign language process. However, speaking another language is not an easy task for all people.
To this one, it is easy but to the others it is so difficult. Nowadays, with the development of modern science and technology as long as the integration policy, the Vietnamese government has allowed more and more foreign companies and partners to invest in most industries in the country to help boost the economy. This process has resulted in increasing interactions between Vietnamese and foreigners, especially from English-speaking countries. Therefore, the demand of studying foreign languages, especially learning to speak English, has become more and more necessary.
Understanding the important role of speaking skill when learning a foreign language, the Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) - Thai Nguyen University focuses on the teaching and learning English in the light of Communicative Teaching Approach. FIT pays special attention to develop speaking skill. Despite that, the desired effect is not high. With the hope of helping students to learn to speak English effectively, the difficulties in learning to speak English have been chosen as the topic of the present research.
Realizing the current difficulties that the first year students in FIT encounter will attribute to the improvement and enhancement of the learning and teaching English speaking quality in the FIT. The research will first shed a light on how learners think and study to speak English in FIT; second, it will reinterpret the recent difficulties in learning to speak English that learners meet in terms of revised relevant theories. Third, it will recommend some solutions to upgrade the learning to speak English quality in FIT. Forth, it will make the teachers become more aware of the problems may occur in speaking class, from which they can have better and reasonable solutions to their classes.
3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.2 Aims and objectives of the study The study is carried out to find out the answers for the following questions: 1. “What difficulties do students in FIT meet when they learn to speak English?” 2. “What are possible causes leading to difficulties in learning speaking skills of the first year students in FIT?” 3. “What are possible solutions to the problems?” The study is aimed to - Investigate the current situation of learning and teaching speaking in the FIT - Find out what difficulties the first year students in FIT meet when they learn to speak English - Suggest some realistic and appropriate techniques to help improve the teaching and learning to speak English in FIT 1.3 Scope of the study In this study, the researcher tends to overview the difficulties the students in FIT face when learning speaking English and to suggest some possible solutions to the problems in order to help students learning speaking English better.
This is also the limitation of the study.4 Methods of the study - Two questionnaires are designed to find out the difficulties that the first year students in FIT face (one for teacher and one for students). - Data collected will be analyzed and presented in the study. - Besides, there will be some interviews and observations carried out in informal situations.5 Significance of the Study The research is the first step of a larger investigation into the difficulties in learning to speak English in a university or in a nation. The goal of the research is to conduct a small survey of the difficulties that the first year students in FIT meet when they learn to speak English.
A questionnaire will be designed based on the three main factors: psychology, linguistics and socio-culture. Data collected will be analyzed statistically. The result achieved will interpret 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com the difficulties that the students in FIT encounter, and support further and more detailed study of the phenomena identified here.6 Structure of the study This study includes five chapters Chapter 1: Introduction In this chapter, the reasons why the topic was chosen are stated. Besides, the background and scope of the study, the aims, the significance, the method and structure of the study are also mentioned.
Chapter 2: Literature review The relevant theories are revised in this chapter as the base for the research carried out. Chapter 3: Development This chapter will present the development and how the study is carried on. Chapter 4: Findings and Discussions This chapter present the research result achieved and discussed on the result acquired. Chapter 5: Suggestions and Conclusion In this chapter, the suggestions will be presented basing on the result discussed in the previous chapter.
The conclusion will show a brief summary of the study and the limitation. 5 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Introduction This chapter revised relevant theories and studies that can be the base for the research being carried out. The nature of speaking, the development of speaking as well as the main factors that affect learning to speak English of the ESL learners will be presented.2 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 1.1 Definition of CLT So far, CLT has been viewed and studied by different authors such as Wilkins (1972), Nunan (1989). Each author has his own point of view about CLT.
However, they all considered CLT as an approach that is more prominent than those appeared before them like Grammar – Translation method, Direct method, The Audio-lingual method. CLT can be understood as a set of principles about the goals of language teaching, how learners learn a language, the kinds of classroom activities that best facilitate learning, and the roles of teachers and learners in the classroom (Richards, 2006).194) considered “CLT views language as a system for the expressions 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 learner including functional skill 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.” According to Sandra J. Savignon‟s perspective (2000, pp. 124 – 129): “The essence of CLT is the engagement of learners in communication to allow them to develop their communicative competence.
128) “The focus of CLT is to promote the development of functional language ability through learner participation in communicative events. 126) CLT is associated with a focus on learners‟ communicative needs, on learner autonomy, and on negotiation of meaning. It includes attention to form as well as to meaning. The principles of CLT apply also to reading and writing as well as to face-to-face oral communication.
6 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.2 Characteristics of CLT Since its appearance, CLT has improved its prominent power which no approaches appeared before it had. With the change from the “weak” version to the “strong” version, CLT has changed its ideal method. It focuses on the learners, and develops the syllabus based on the learners‟ needs. It turns from “learning to use English” to “using English to learn it” (Howatt, 1984 p.
CLT has its own characteristics as follows. As for British and American perspectives, CLT aims to make communicative competence the goal of language teaching and to develop procedures for teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge and the interdependence language and communication. Larsen- Freeman (cited in Rao (2002, p. 87)) considered the central characteristic of CLT is that “almost everything that is done is done with communicative intent”.
Another feature of CLT is that “activities in the Communicative Approach are often carried out by students in small groups” (Larsen-Freeman cited in Rao (2002, p.