UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE HO CHI MINH CITY DEVELOPING DISCUSSION SKILLS FOR EFL SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS M. in TESOL THESIS Student: Truong Thi Mai Hanh Supervisor: Nguyen Van Muoi, Ph. 2007 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF MASTERS' THESIS I certify my authorship of the Masters' Thesis submitted today entitled DEVELOPING DISCUSSION SKILLS FOR EFL SECOND-YEAR STUDENT In terms of the Statement of requirements for Theses in Masters' programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee of Department of English Linguistics and Literature, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University of Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City, June, 2007 TRUONG THI MAI HANH 2 RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, TRUONG THI MAI HANH, being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL) accepted the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Masters' Thesis deposited in the Library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my Masters' Thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Librarian for the care, loan and reproduction for theses. Ho Chi Minh City, June, 2007 Signature……………………………………………………………………………………. TRUONG THI MAI HANH 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Senior Lecturer Nguyen Van Muoi, Ph.D, who gave thoughtful and insightful comments and provided valuable support in the preparation and completion of this thesis. I would have not finished my thesis without his guidance and constructive critical questions which helped me think through the problems.
I am also grateful to the teachers and the students who were very responsive to the survey questionnaires. The thesis would have never been possible without their help. Last, I would like to dedicate this thesis to my husband for his love, understanding, sympathy and support, without which I would hardly have been able to overcome difficulties to complete it. 4 LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES List of figure Figure 2.1 Abilities underlying speaking proficiency 16 List of tables Table 3.1 Background information about the learner subjects 30 Table 3.2 Background information about Interview Informants 31 Table 4.1 Students’ background information and studying English 36 Table 4.2 Students’ current problems, practices, needs, 38 and suggestions on the learning of English discussion inside the classroom Table 4.3 Students’ frequency, habit as well as problems 39 when discussing in English outside the classroom Table 4.4 Students’ ideas about the course book 40 Table 4.1 Common problems the learners have 41 when they carry out discussion in classroom Table 4.2 Factors influencing the learners’ speaking proficiency 42 in English Table 4.3 Effective ways to develop 43 the Vietnamese learners’ discussion skills Table 4.4 Difficulties in conducting discussion class 44 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality .i Retention and use of the thesis .iv List of tables & figures .v Table of contents .vi Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION .3 AIM OF THE STUDY.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY.5 OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY.4 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 THE CONCEPT OF DISCUSSION .5 AND SOME ASPECTS INVOLVED 2.1 The definition of discussion .2 The aim of discussion .3 The recognition of a successful discussion .4 The factors in a good discussion .5 The organization of a discussion .2 THE COMPONENTS UNDERLYING SPEAKING PROFICIENCY .3 THE FACTORS AFFECTING EFL LEARNERS’ SPEAKING .1 Pre-existing personality .1 The role of the teacher .2 The influence of co-operative learning principle .4 THE TEACHING METHODS OFTEN USED IN VIETNAM .1 The grammar-translation method .2 The communicative approach .5 THE TASK OF TEACHERS AND LEARNERS .1 Characteristics of subjects .3 Data collection procedures .35 Chapter 4: RESULTS, DISCUSSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS .1 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS .1 The results and discussions.36 of the survey questionnaire for students 7 4.1 The results and discussions for part 1 .36 of the survey questionnaire for students 4.2 The results and discussions for part 2 .37 of the survey questionnaire for students 4.3 The results and discussions for part 3 .39 of the survey questionnaire for students 4.4 The results and discussions for part 4 .40 of the survey questionnaire for students 4.2 The results and discussions .41 for the interview questionnaire for teachers Summary of the results .1 Building up students’ self-confidence .1 Projecting students’ self-esteem .47 and removing students’ language anxiety 4.2 Removing barrier between teacher and students .3 Building up students’ motivation .2 Choosing the topics .3 Varying discussion activities .63 Appendix 1 Questionnaire to students .65 Appendix 2 Questionnaire to teachers .69 Appendix 3 An example of discussion material .1 GENERAL BACKGROUND A large percentage of the world’s learners study English in order to develop proficiency in speaking.
Speaking proficiency, in other words, is the goal of teaching and learning English as a foreign language. According to Scarcella and Oxford (1992), speaking proficiency is determined by communicative skills and abilities underlying speaking proficiency: grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competence. Communicative competence involves being able to use the target language appropriate to a given social context. It means that the learners need knowledge of the linguistic forms, meanings and functions.
As there is a great difference between knowledge of language forms and knowledge that enables the learners to communicate functionally and interactively, the learners need to know that many different forms can be used to perform a function. They must be able to choose from among these the most appropriate form for communication and manage the process of negotiating meaning with whom they are interested. “Communicative competence is the aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages and negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific context… it is a dynamic, interpersonal construct that can only be examined by means of the overt performance of two or more individuals in the process of negotiating meaning” (Brown, 1994, p.227) It’s due to the complex nature of speaking proficiency, discussion skills are suggested as a vehicle to induce the learners to talk in the classrooms, to use the language creatively, purposefully and individually (Ur, 1981, p. 10 Ur (1981) also designed: The most natural and effective way for learners to practice talking freely in English is by thinking out some problems or situation together through verbal interchange of ideas, or in simpler terms, to discus.
I am using the word “discussion” here rather broadly to include any thing from the simplest-question-answer guessing process, through exploration of situations by role-play, to the most complex political and philosophical debates. I include not only the talking but also any reading and writing that may be entailed.2) In the framework of this thesis, we focus on applying discussion activities to the teaching of speaking English as a foreign language to develop discussion skills- an aspect of speaking proficiency to EFL learners.2 RATIONALE Today, it is commonplace that English speaking proficiency is the main purpose of EFL learners in general and Vietnamese students in particular. Different approaches and different skills involved have been adopted in English learning and teaching process to meet this demand of the EFL learners. Discussion skills, one aspect of speaking proficiency, therefore, have been much emphasized on.
In many English books used at universities and language centers such as Headways, Lifelines, discussion skills have been almost required in every unit. In many English speaking classes, discussion skills have been often used. However, it can’t be denied that discussion skills are often undeveloped in the EFL classrooms in spite of the teachers’ awareness of the importance of these skills in the teaching of speaking and their attempts to adopt these in practice. In response to this situation, an attempt to find out potent inhibitors and based on the 11 perceived ones to choose some activities which are proved to be more effective to develop discussion skills in the EFL classrooms is a necessity.3 AIM OF THE STUDY The study aims at finding out potent inhibitors which are responsible for the problem of undeveloped discussion skills in EFL classes and at applying more effective ways to develop discussion skills- an aspect of speaking proficiency to Vietnamese learners in the light of the communicative approach.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY The study is designed for the students of regular programs at Cultural University (CU) and at National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA).
These students do not major in English and their speaking levels are not the same although they are classified the pre-intermediate level and the intermediate level (1st year- students and second-year students). The study was conducted in the 3-month course. During the study, we adopted the communicative approach. For our study, we followed these steps: Initially, a questionnaire was given to both classes (at Cultural University and at National Academy of Public Administration).
This was done to classify some difficulties the learners are likely to face when they carry out discussion in speaking classes. Next, discussion activities were used in the two classes. During the study period, the observation of the success of the teaching was done. Finally, the results were collected.
They were then identified and analyzed.5 OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 12 The thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter 1 mentions the scope, the aim, the rationale of the study as well as the general background to the study. Chapter 2 provides a brief review of the previous researches to the teaching of discussion skills including the concept of discussion and some aspects involved as well as mentions the components underlying speaking proficiency and factors influencing EFL learners’ speaking proficiency. This chapter also briefly reviews the approaches which have been adopted in teaching EFL and the roles of the teachers and learners in speaking classes.
Chapter 3 suggests the methodology employed in the research, including the research questions, the research design with a description of the subjects, instruments and data collection procedures. Chapter 4 includes the results and the discussions of the findings from the study. This chapter also has the part of suggestions for the findings of the study concerning the building students' self-esteem, choosing the topics as well as adopting a more flexible method in teaching discussions. The conclusion confirms the effectiveness of the using discussion activities in order to develop speaking proficiency in the light of the communicative approach to the teaching EFL to the Vietnamese students.
13 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW In Chapter One, the background information has been presented. This chapter will review prominent studies to support the study, involving the following main points: 1. The concept of discussion and some aspects involved 2. The components underlying speaking proficiency 3.
The factors influencing EFL learners’ speaking proficiency 4. The teaching methods often used in Vietnam 5. The role of the teacher and learners in the process of teaching and learning EFL The literature review is to provide a theoretical base on which discussion skills to EFL second-year students can be developed.1 THE CONCEPT OF DISCUSSION AND SOME ASPECTS INVOLVED This part includes the definition of discussion, the aims of discussion, the recognition of a successful discussion, as well as the factors of a good discussion.1 The definition of discussion Most courses now emphasize the importance of fostering learners’ ability to communicate in the foreign language and there is a corresponding increase in the time and energy allotted to communication activities and exercises in the classroom. It is, however, worth noting here that if communication practice is one of the most components of the EFL learning and teaching process and is one of the most focused, it is also one of the most problematical.
It is much more difficult to get EFL learners to use the target language creatively, purposefully and 14 individually. The vehicle to enable learners to get this goal is suggested as the discussion.