HONG DUC UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES TRAN THI UYEN TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS TO TWELFTH - GRADE STUDENTS AT HOANG HOA IV HIGH SCHOOL - DIFFICULTIES AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS GRADUATION THESIS Thanh Hoa, June 2021 i DECLARATION To the best of my knowledge and belief, this gradate thesis contains no material which has previously been submitted and accepted for any other degree in any university. The thesis is my own work and based on my own research. It involves no material previously published or written by any other person, except where due reference is made in the paper. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the process of implementation and completion of this graduation paper, I have received many helpful assistance, guidance and encouragements from my teachers, friends and family.
First of all, I would like to send my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Le Thi Huong C for giving me helpful advice, suggestions, timely guidance, supports and feedback when I carried out my study in order that I am able to shape my ideas, better my organization and complete parts of the study. It is an undeniable fact that this graduation paper would not have been completed without her help and support. Furthermore, I am also grateful to all the lecturers of Faculty of Foreign Language, Hong Duc University for their useful materials, valuable instructions and advice for my research. In addition, I am appreciative of students at Hoang Hoa IV high school who participated in the study, specifically in the survey and interview helping me to collect necessary and useful information to implement the research.
Last but not least, I thank my dear family and friends who have supported and encouraged me throughout the process of implementation the study. Thanh Hoa, 6th June 2021 Student Tran Thi Uyen iii ABSTRACT This graduation thesis aimed at investigating some difficulties that students and teachers at Hoang Hoa IV High School have encountered in speaking lessons. The causes of those difficulties were also investigated in order to find the solutions to solve these problems. Two questionnaires were used to investigate the research questions were delivered to 9 English teachers and 105 twelfth-grade students at Hoang Hoa IV High School.
These questions were concerned with students‟ and teachers‟ difficulties in English speaking lessons, the causes of those difficulties, how often they practiced English and in what ways they practiced, how to improve their English speaking ability on their own, as well as any comments they would like to add. The data collected were analyzed quantitatively. The results showed that the participants have encountered many difficulties in English speaking lessons such as; lack of motivation, anxiety or lack of confidence, lack of vocabularies, structures, lack of opportunities to use English in real life, low linguistic competence and low communicative competence, etc…as listed in the finding part. The reasons for these difficulties were mostly come from the teachers; the students and the school context.
On the basis of the data analysis, some recommendations were made for the improvement of quality of teaching and learning English at Hoang Hoa IV High School. The study is, thus, significant in helping Hoang Hoa IV English teachers and students to deal with common problems they are facing. iv TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION. iii TABLE OF CONTENT.
iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES. Aims and significance of the study. Scope of the study.
Design of study. 4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Communicative approach to language teaching. Understanding of Communication.
Communicative language teaching. Overview of speaking activities. Understanding of speaking skills. Theories of teaching speaking skills.
Characteristics of a successful speaking activity. Principles in teaching speaking in CLT. Problems with speaking activities. Factors affecting English speaking skills.
9 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY. Context of the study. An overview of the research site. Description of the students at Hoang Hoa IV High School.
Description of the teachers at Hoang Hoa IV High School. Description of physical setting. Presentation of statistical results. Results and discussions from the questionnaires for the students.
Results and discussions from the questionnaires for the teachers. Difficulties from the students. Lack of motivation. Anxiety or lack of confidence.
Lack of vocabularies, structures. Lack of opportunities to use English in real life. Low linguistic competence and low communicative competence. Using mother tongue problem.
Difficulties from the teachers. Large class size. Lack of reference materials. Lack of facilities.
Summary of the study. Motivate students to participate in the speaking skills lessons. Create a warm class atmosphere. Vary the teaching techniques.
Provide more interesting topics to motivate students‟ participation. Encourage students to participate in the speaking activities. Equip teaching facilities. Help students to be confident.
Help students overcome pronunciation problems. Overcome time constraint problem. Improve students‟ linguistic competence. Overcome the using of mother tongue problem.
Create opportunities for students to use English in real life. 54 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS B.A: Bachelor of Arts CLT: Communication Language Teaching PW: pair work GR: group work I: interview UP: using pictures G: game D: drama De: debate RP: role play ST: story telling P: presentation N0 : number %: percentage viii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES 1. Tables Table 1: Students‟ level of language learning. 16 Table 2: Students‟ motivation for learning English.
16 Table 3: Students‟ self- improvement of speaking skills. 20 Table 4a: The frequency of using techniques. 21 Table 4b: Students‟ opinions towards teachers‟ teaching speaking techniques. 21 Table 5: Students‟ difficulties in speaking lessons.
23 Table 6: Factors affecting Hoang Hoa IV students‟ participating in English classroom activities. 23 Table 7: Students‟ expectation from the teachers. 24 Table 8: The teachers‟ age and their teaching experience. 25 Table 9: Teachers‟ difficulties in teaching English speaking skills.
27 Table 10: Teachers‟ solutions to the problems. 28 Table 11: Teachers‟ suggestions to overcome the difficulties. Figures Figure 1: Students‟ attitudes towards English speaking skills. 17 Figure 2: Students‟ opinions on the speaking topics in the textbooks.
18 Figure 3: Frequency of students‟ speaking participation. 18 Figure 4: Opportunities to use English outside classroom. 19 Figure 5: Teachers‟ attitude towards speaking skills. 26 Figure 6: Teachers‟ techniques of teaching speaking skills.
Rationale English language is considered as a global language to communicate between people and people around the world. In every country, the students are compelled to study English language. One of the main tasks assigned to English language teaching at school is that of training students to be communicatively competent. For many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues.
However, with the rapid progress of globalization, English speaking skill is thought to be the key to one‟s success in his career. The goal of teaching 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. Classroom activities that develop learners‟ ability to express themselves through speech would therefore seem to be an important component of a language course. Due to some objective and subjective reasons, teaching and learning English in general and teaching and learning speaking in particular does not come up to the study goals.
A great deal of researches has shown that students are often hesitant and anxious about speaking the target language in class. Despite teachers‟ efforts to provide students with opportunities to develop their communicative skills, how to teach and learn speaking skills effectively is still a challenging question to both teachers and students to many high schools in Vietnam. At Hoang Hoa IV High School, the situation is the same. For most students, they find speaking especially important yet challenging one.
What can we, as teachers, do to help our learners overcome their problems and take advantage of opportunities to practice speaking? 2 All the above mentioned reasons have inspired the writer to conduct a research titled “Teaching English speaking skills to the tenth form students at Hoang Hoa IV High School – difficulties and suggested solutions. Aims and significance of the study This study is aimed at finding out the difficulties in teaching and learning English speaking skills to 12th - grade students at Hoang Hoa IV High School and then suggesting solutions to improve their English speaking skills. The study is also carried out with the hope to be of some help to improve the effectiveness of English learning and teaching at Hoang Hoa IV High School. Scope of the study The study only focuses on the difficulties that 12th grade students and English teachers at Hoang Hoa IV High School have encountered in speaking skills.
Research questions (1) What are the difficulties encountered by the English teachers and the 12th grade students in teaching and learning English speaking skills at Hoang Hoa IV High School? (2) What are the causes and suggested solutions of those difficulties and how to solve them? 5. Research methods In order to meet the aims of the study, quantitative method was used. Two survey questionnaires were used to collect data for the study. - The first survey questionnaire was carried out on 105 12th-grade students from 3 classes at Hoang Hoa IV High School.
- The second one is carried out on 9 English teachers of Hoang Hoa IV High School. All comments, remarks, recommendations, assumptions and conclusions provided in the study based on the analysis of the statistics from the survey questionnaires conducted with the 12th - grade students and English teachers of Hoang Hoa IV High School. Design of study This study consists of 3 parts: Part A: Introduction presents the rationale, the aims, scope, the method and design of the study. The research questions are also mentioned in this part.
Part B: The study consists of 3 chapters: Chapter 1: Literature Review reviews the theory about CLT and speaking skills. Chapter 2: The study – The study setting is presented in this chapter. Data collection and analysis are also presented in this chapter Chapter 3: Findings focuses on the difficulties facing the English teachers at Hoang Hoa IV High School and their students in teaching English speaking skills. Part C: Conclusion summarizes all the key issues of the study and suggests some techniques for the English teachers to teach speaking skills more effectively.
The limitations of the study and some suggestions for further study are also mentioned in this part. 4 PART B THE STUDY CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Communicative approach to language teaching 1. Understanding of Communication “Communication is one of those human activities that everyone recognizes but few can definite satisfactorily.
“Communication is such a well-integrated part of our day-to-day existence that we tend to take it for granted rarely pausing to consider what it involves or just how important it is to us”. (Thompson, 2003) Thompson (2003) stated that “the most relevant definition of communication for present purposes is social interaction through messages”. There are two related aspects that we should consider when talking about definition of communication is “social” and “interaction”. Communicative language teaching 1.
Nature of communicative language teaching Communicative language teaching means little more than an integration of grammatical and functional teaching. Littlewood (1981) stated “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”. Communicative language teaching stresses the importance of providing the learners with opportunities to use English for communicative purposes and attempts to integrate such activities into a wider program of language teaching. The techniques of communicative language teaching The techniques of communicative language teaching are described by features.