VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES FACING 7th GRADERS IN SPEAKING LESSONS AT A HOME-BASED ENGLISH CLASS. (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 7 TRONG CÁC GIỜ HỌC NÓI Ở MỘT LỚP HỌC TIẾNG ANH TẠI NHÀ.) Student : VANG THI HUE Student code : 621244 Major : ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Supervisor : NGUYEN THI LAN ANH, M.A HANOI-2021 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES FACING 7TH GRADERS IN SPEAKING LESSONS AT A HOME-BASED ENGLISH CLASS. (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 7 TRONG CÁC GIỜ HỌC NÓI Ở MỘT LỚP HỌC TIẾNG ANH TẠI NHÀ.) Student : VANG THI HUE Student code : 621244 Major : ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Supervisor : NGUYEN THI LAN ANH, M.A HANOI-2021 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “A study on difficulties facing 7th graders in speaking lessons at a home- based English class” 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 Vang Thi Hue Approved by SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name) Date:…………………… i ACKNOWLEDGMENT During the process of doing this graduation paper, I have received manynecessary assistances, precious ideas and timely encouragements from myteachers, family and friends. This paper could not have been completed withoutthe help, encouragement and support from a number of people who all deservemy sincerest gratitude and appreciation. First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor – Nguyen Thi Lan Anh.A , the English teacher at Faculty of Education and Foreign Languages , who has always been willing to give me valuable advices and suggestions in order that I can complete successfully this study. Second, I am grateful to all teachers in Department of professional English and Department of general English in Faculty of Education and Foreign Languages at Vietnam National University of Agriculture for allowing me to do this graduation thesis.
I am so thankful to 7th graders at home- based English class of Mrs. Hang for their whole – heart participation in the study.I would like to acknowledge my thanks to all the authors of the books,magazines, and the other materials listed in the reference part for their ideas thathave been reflected and developed in the study. I am equally indebted to my classmates for their suggestions andencouragements in the process of my study. Last but not least, my particular thanks are given to my parents for theirencouragement and support which played an important role in my graduationpaper.
ii TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS. v LIST OF ABBREVIATION. vi LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS.
vii PART 1: INTRODUCTION. RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY. SCOPE OF THE STUDY.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY. DESIGN OF THE STUDY. 3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT. 5 Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW.
REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES (AT HOME AND ABOARD). Related research studies at home. Related research studies abroad. REVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND.
Definition of English speaking skill. The importance of English speaking skill. General outline of a speaking lesson. What a good speaker does.
Factors affecting students‟ difficulties in speaking English. RESEARCH SETTING/ CONTEXT. Data collecting instruments. Data collecting procedures.
22 Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. The survey results from questionnaire. Results from the interview. Suggestions on improving the students English speaking performance.
45 PART III: CONCLUSION. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES. 51 iv ABSTRACT Speaking skill is one of the most necessary skills to communicate in the real life.
In learning a foreign language, it is more and more important to learn this skill. This study aims at finding out the common difficulties that the 7th grade students face when they learn English speaking skill at a home- based English class and suggest some possible solutions to those difficulties. The sample of the study consists of 20 students (13 female students and 7 male students ). To achieve the objectives of the present study, I used questionnaire suvey and interview as data collection instrument.
The results of the study has revealed two group difficulties: First of all, the difficulty in linguistics problems (pronouncing English words, lack of lexical resources, and confusion of grammar use). Second, the difficulty in non-linguistics problems ( being afraid of speaking, lack of confidence and motivation, lack of fluency in speaking, limit time to practice English speaking at class). Based on this finding, further recommendation and deeper implications are provided. v LIST OF ABBREVIATION ESL : English as Second Language i.e : That is EFL : English Foreign Language vi LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Table 3.
Difficulties facing the 7th grader students in learning English speaking from their own perspective. The interview results of students‟ evaluation in English speaking skill. The students' assessment of learning the speaking skill. Students‟ attitudes towards the importance of English speaking skill.
The students‟ interesting in English speaking skill. The frequency of students having problems in learning English speaking skill. Speaking text type students expect to practice more. Factors affecting the learning of English speaking skill belong to the group of linguistic problems (pronunciation, lack of vocabulary and grammar) 28 Chart 3.Difficulty in lack of confidence and motivation.
Difficulty in being afraid of speaking. Difficulty in lack of fluency in speaking. Difficulty in limit time to practice English speaking at class. The activities students most likely to do in speaking class.
What students most often do before speaking. The activities students most often do while speaking. 34 vii PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY Speaking English is considered as an important language skill and fundamental to human communication.
Many people around the world use English to communicate each other. Being able to speak English, people can interact with others without obstacles. In addition, people speak English to upgrade themselves to survive in the globalization era. As a researcher, I would like to present the thesis title “A study on difficulties facing 7th graders in speaking lessons at a home- based English class” for several reasons.
First of all, Speaking may be an important skill in communication in the real life. They are closely interdependent. We are able to talk sensibly when we understand what is said to us. If we fail to understand spoken language, we may miss important information and respond in a funny way.
Moreover, in learning a language, speaking is a useful means of providing students with comprehensible input, which is an essential component of the whole language learning process. And teaching speaking skill in classroom helps students make transition from classroom English to real-life English more easily and effectively. Therefore, I would like to do this research to help the students and teachers pay more attention to speaking skill. Secondly, Vietnamese student, especially the 7th graders still have a lot of difficulties in learning and practicing English speaking skill.
They often fall into confusion when speaking English because lack of professional knowledge, confidence, and the good learning method as well. That is the main reason they don‟t get the effective result in learning speaking in an English class. After I am a coach work at an English class, for nearly 6 month, I realize that the 7th graders at an English class still have many difficulties in their 1 speaking skill. In the hope of finding out the difficulties of speaking that they normally get, a study entitled: “A study on difficulties facing 7th graders in speaking lessons at a home - based English class” has been conducted because of all above mentioned reasons.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 2. Aims This study is aimed at finding out the common difficulties that the students face when they learn English speaking skill at an English class and suggest some possible solutions to those difficulties. They will be very helpful for the teachers to motivate their students in speaking class. These suggestions also wish to help the students catch up with the speed of a normal conversation in the real life so that they can improve their communication competence also pass the exams.
Objectives The researcher are survey and interview to find out the difficulties that 7th graders face in speaking lessons. And then find out the cause of the difficulties that 7th graders in English class are facing. Finally, proposing measures to improve difficulties that 7th graders are facing during English speaking lessons. RESEARCH QUESTIONS The study aims at addressing the following questions: (1) What are the difficulties facing 7th graders at an English classs in learning speaking? (2) What are the reasons behind those difficulties? (3) What are the suggestions on improving the students’ English speaking performance? 2 4.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY This graduation paper focuses on observing speaking lessons of one group of 7th graders ( 20 students) at an English class with similar English proficiency are studying the Mindset for Ielts Foundation student's book with Testbank and Online Modules. The course lasts 10 weeks,because of time limit , the researcher only observed the first 4 weeks from 1st March to 28th March (2 lesson per week; 2 hours per lesson). SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The study research into difficulties facing 7th graders at English class is of significance. Therefore, it should be beneficial as it not only pinpoints problems students have in speaking English, but also indicates the weaknesses students have in the four skills of English.
As a result, the right methods can be used to address those problems, and the course can be improved to help the students develop their English speaking skill. The researcher also hope that the findings of the research will really be necessary knowledge that helps the 7th grader students to understand more about English to improve their English language skills. DESIGN OF THE STUDY The study includes three parts and three main chapters, organize as follows: PART 1– INTRODUCTION presents the rationale of the study, aims and objectives of the study, research questions, the scope and the significance of the study. PART 2– DEVELOPMENT is composed of 3 chapters Chapter 1 - Literature review - provides theoretical background for the study including The definition of speaking, The importance of speaking skills, General outline of a speaking lesson, What good speaker does.
Chapter 2 – Methodology - describes the methodology used in the 3 research including the research methods, research setting/ context, data collection, and data analysis. Chapter 3 - Finding and Discussion -reports and discusses the findings of the study. PART 3 - CONCLUSION summarizes the main issues that have been addressed in the study, points out the limitations and suggestions for further studies REFERENCES APPENDIX 4 PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES (AT HOME AND ABOARD) Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching.
Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues. However, today's world requires that the goal of studying speaking should improve students' communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance. That‟s why, there have been a lot of studies on English speaking skill, including : 1.