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. Personally, I am grateful to my family, my parents, my sisters and my brothers who have given me their love and support in my study and implementation of this thesis.
Lastly, I would like to thank all my friends and people concerned who have helped me during my two-year study in Hue city. Hue, October 25th, 2018 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Pages STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY………………………………………………. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vii LIST OF TABLES .1 The rationale of the study.2 Aims of the study .3 Scope of the study .5 Significance of the study .6 Structure of the study .1 Definition of discussion techniques .2 Kinds of discussion techniques .3 Benefits of discussion techniques .3 Teaching speaking skills .1 The teacher’s role in using discussion techniques .2 Difficulties in teaching speaking skills .3 Difficulties in the students’ learning of speaking skills .4 Techniques of teaching speaking skills .5 Types of discussion techniques used in teaching speaking skills .4 The use of discussion techniques to deal with students’ difficulties in learning English speaking skills .5 Previous studies on using discussion techniques in teaching speaking skills20 2.2 The post test .30 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .1 Students’ attitudes toward learning English speaking skills before using discussion techniques .1 Students’ attitudes toward learning English skills .2 Students’ attitudes toward learning English speaking skills .2 Students’ feedback after the use of discussion techniques .1 Students’ opinions on the use of discussion techniques .2 Students’ attitudes toward the benefits of discussion techniques .3 Pre-test and Post-test of speaking skills .4 Taking notes of the teacher .1 Teacher’s talking time and students’ talking time .2 The role of teacher and students in speaking class .44 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS .1 A summary of key findings .50 APPENDIX 1: LESSON PLANS .76 QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS’ AT TELECOMMUNICATIONS UNIVERSITY IN NHA TRANG vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS N : Number Ss : Students STT : Students’ Talking Time TCU : Telecommunications University TTT : Teacher’s Talking Time vii LIST OF TABLES Contents Page Table 4.1: Students’ attitudes toward learning English language skills .2: Students’ attitudes toward learning English speaking skills …….3: Students’ attitudes toward speaking activities in the textbook………33 Table 4.4: Students’ desire of improving speaking skills …………….1a: Students’ opinions on the use of discussion techniques ……………35 Table 4.1b: Students’ opinions on the use of discussion techniques given by the teacher….1c: Students’ opinions on the teacher’s use of discussion techniques in English speaking classes ……………………………….2: Students’ attitudes toward the benefits of discussion techniques in improving their speaking skills …………………….3: Students’ scores from Pre-test and Post-test of speaking skills….4: TTT and STT before and after using discussion techniques…………41 viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 The rationale of the study English has become a universal language for recent years.
People use English not only for study, but also for their communicative purposes in jobs and daily life. Hence, learning English helps people gain knowledge as well as make their living. However, the teaching and learning of English in most schools in Vietnam is still carried out with traditional methods at the present. Teachers only focus on teaching grammar and its uses, and learners acquire their proficiency in these grammatical structures by repeating, memorizing or learning by heart in a passive way.
Moreover, they do not consider English as a communicative means in their life; they are not aware of the importance of English in getting new knowledge and new cultures from different countries. Therefore, the teaching and learning of English as a communicative language is very necessary for both teachers and students. It means that speaking skills should be focused strongly in every classroom in Vietnam’s schools, especially colleges and universities. However, the reality of students’ difficulties at some universities, such as Telecommunications University in Nha Trang shows that students spend little time on speaking skills; as a result, they have fewer chances to communicate with other students in their English class.
Furthermore, teachers also have difficulties in completing and designing lesson plans for a speaking course. These are some reasons why the qualities of teaching speaking skills are always lower than those of others, since students learn English without any interaction. Moreover, as the English lessons seem to be very boring and students do not find any motivation in class, the use of discussion techniques to improve the quality of speaking skills is very useful for both teachers and students. Thence, students can be encouraged to be more involved and concentrate on their speaking tasks.
1 They also feel more confident to take part in discussion in groups, even in front of class, which is considered good opportunities for students to promote their ability in speaking English. What is more, using discussion techniques has resulted in controlling of main topics of the lesson, the skill of solving problems and the promoting of interactive skills (Wilen, 1990). Besides, working in groups motivates the learners to brainstorm ideas, organize them coherently and speak them out fluently that help to develop their communicative competence. For the teachers at Telecommunications university, they sometimes apply discussion techniques flexibly in speaking class and they partly obtain some benefits from these kinds of techniques.
However, in order to help students improve their English speaking skills, we need to conduct an appropriate study on discussion techniques which provide students with effective methods of developing their speaking skills in class.2 Aims of the study Due to the problems mentioned above, this study’s aims are to investigate the use of discussion techniques in English speaking classes at Telecommunications University in Nha Trang. However, in order to know the advantages of discussion techniques compared to other traditional techniques, we need to learn more about the reality of using speaking techniques and their effects on students’ speaking skills. Moreover, the teachers should recognize the limitations of these techniques so that they find better techniques that help learners improve their speaking skills. Hence, discussion techniques are researched and applied in speaking lessons with the hope that they can promote their benefits.
These techniques can help to solve partly the existing difficulties in speaking classes.3 Scope of the study With the aims mentioned above, the subject of the study includes the use of discussion techniques which help students improve their speaking skills. The study participants are English non-majored students at Telecommunications University in Nha Trang. In fact, we investigate our study with 56 students from 2 classes (ĐH 24E and ĐH 24H) during the second semester of the school year 2017-2018 on some specific issues: 2 - The reality of teaching and learning English speaking skills at our university; - The difficulties teachers and students often have in teaching and learning English speaking skills; - Benefits of discussion techniques in improving students’ speaking skills.4 Research questions This study investigates the questions related to the topic “A study on the use of discussion techniques in the English speaking classes at Telecommunications University in Nha Trang” as follows: 1. What are students’ perceptions of using discussion techniques in English speaking classes? 2.
How do teachers use discussion techniques in teaching English speaking skills? 3. What are the benefits of discussion techniques in improving students’ speaking skills? 1.5 Significance of the study Concerning the issue of improving students’ speaking skills by using discussion techniques, this study achieves some significance for the research, teachers and learners. For the research, this study helps to develop and apply discussion techniques in teaching speaking skills both theoretically and practically. Basing on the rules of discussion techniques, the teacher helps students promote their speaking skills.
Besides, during speaking lessons, the teacher finds the ways to deal with some limitations of discussion techniques so that they can be used most effectivelly. For the students, to overcome their difficulties in speaking as well as improve their speaking skills with discussion techniques, students need to master discussion techniques and use these kinds of techniques. Their feedback and suggestions on the use of these techniques also indicate students’ outcomes from the study.