MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ A STUDY ON THE USE OF DISCUSSION TECHNIQUES IN THE ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASSES AT TELECOMMUNICATIONS UNIVERSITY IN NHA TRANG MA RESEARCH THESIS THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING HUE, 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ A STUDY ON THE USE OF DISCUSSION TECHNIQUES IN THE ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASSES AT TELECOMMUNICATIONS UNIVERSITY IN NHA TRANG MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.11 SUPERVISOR: PHAN THI THANH THAO, PHD. HUE, 2018 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ------------ NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG KỸ THUẬT THẢO LUẬN TRONG CÁC GIỜ HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC THÔNG TIN LIÊN LẠC NHA TRANG LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.11 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS. PHAN THỊ THANH THẢO HUẾ, 2018 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.
Date: 25 / 10 / 2018 Signature Pham Ngoc Dung i ABSTRACT From 2000, English has become a key subject in training program of Telecommunications university (TCU) in Nha Trang, and it is one of the compulsory subjects for all students from different majors at our school. In addition, since all students have to take an English exam before their graduation. That means English plays a more important role during their training course at TCU. Therefore, teaching and learning English always receive the deep consideration of both English teachers and students.
Especially, due to the demand for acquiring B1 level before graduation, students need to use quite fluently four language skills; however, speaking is considered the most difficult skill among three other skills like reading, listening and writing. This research was conducted to explore the issues of using discussion techniques in the English speaking classes for 56 freshman students at Telecommunications university in Nha Trang. Based on both quantitative and qualitative approaches with questionnaire and pre and post tests in the study method, data were collected and analyzed data to achieve some results relating to students’ difficulties in communicating in English, pronouncing correctly English words being lack of English grammar knowledge, and teacher’s challenges in teaching English speaking skills and their ways of using discussion techniques in English classes. To carry out our teaching experiment, 5 lesson plans were designed focusing on the use of discussion techniques in teaching English speaking skills.
Despite the limited number of participants and schools in our study, the findings of this study are also involved in some solutions to deal with difficulties in teaching English speaking skills and the implications on using discussion techniques to enhance the teaching quality of this skill for English teachers at Telecommunications university in Nha Trang. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, with regard to my assistance, I would like to thank all teachers at Hue University of Foreign Languages, who have offered me the training courses on theory and methodology of English language teaching. I would like to express my greatest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Phan Thi Thanh Thao, for her willingness to guide and give valuable corrections and suggestions during the writing of this thesis.
I am also grateful to the Dean of English Department, all the lecturers and staff of Hue University of Foreign Languages for their support and friendly help during my study. In addition, I would like to offer the sincere gratitude to the Headmaster and English teachers in Telecommunications university, Nha Trang-Khanh Hoa for their permission and support of my MA course at Hue University of Foreign Languages. I also acknowledge the kind assistance of students in Class ĐH 24E and ĐH 24H during the process of gathering data for the our study.