VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES _________________ LÊ HỒNG PHƯỢNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF USEFUL EXPRESSIONS TO ENHANCE SPEAKING SKILLS FOR THE THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY NGHIÊN CỨU CÁCH SỬ DỤNG CÁC CỤM TỪ HỮU ÍCH GIÚP NÂNG CAO KĨ NĂNG NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ BA TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KINH DOANH CÔNG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI - 2017 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES _________________ LÊ HỒNG PHƯỢNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF USEFUL EXPRESSIONS TO ENHANCE SPEAKING SKILLS FOR THE THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY NGHIÊN CỨU CÁCH SỬ DỤNG CÁC CỤM TỪ HỮU ÍCH GIÚP NÂNG CAO KĨ NĂNG NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ BA TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KINH DOANH CÔNG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr. Dương Thị Nụ HANOI - 2017 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION I hereby certify that this thesis is entirely my own work.
I have provided fully documented references to the others‟ work. The material in this thesis has not been submitted for assessment in any other formal course. I also accept all the requirements of ULIS relating to the retention and use of M.A Graduation Thesis deposited in the library. Hanoi, May 2017 Lê Hồng Phượng i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This thesis would not be fulfilled without the help of some people, and in some ways, I would like to thank everyone who has taught me, inspired me, challenged me, and supported me during the process of conducting this thesis.
I would like to express my deepest thanks to my beloved supervisor, Duong Thi Nu, Ph.D, for her great assistance as well as her dedicated guidance she gave me while I was carrying out my project. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all lecturers in Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their interesting lectures and professional dedication which have inspired me to conduct this thesis. I would also like to express my thanks to my colleagues at Faculty of English, my third-year students at Faculty of Management at Hanoi University of Business and Technology for their willingness to participate in the research. Without their help, this project could not be completed.
Last but not least, I am most thankful to my family and my closed friends who have always inspired and encouraged me all the time. Hanoi, May 2017 Lê Hồng Phượng ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT The majority of second language learners encounter problems when they speak in the target language. For the number of the students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology, the matter might be a big obstacle. Because of their various and low levels before entering the school, the students find it difficult to master speaking skills in English.
In this project, the researcher conducts an investigation in the use of useful expressions to the third-year students within 8 weeks. The research was formulated as an action one which used a questionnaire as a research instrument to collect quantitative and qualitative about students attitudes and the effectiveness of using useful expressions in learning speaking skills. As can be seen from the qualitative and quantitative data, difficulties, limitations and challenges still occurred during the research; however, to some extent, the students made much progress in their speaking competence. The results suggested the use of useful expressions as one of the effective ways to teach and learn speaking in English.
iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION. iii TABLE OF CONTENT. iv PART 1: INTRODUCTION.2 Aims and objectives .3 Scope of the study .5 Method of the study .6 Design of the study. 3 PART 2 - CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Definition of terminology .2 The role of speaking in language learning .3 Components of speaking competence .4 Different techniques used to teach pronunciation .5 The role of useful expression or fixed expression in developing speaking skill .1 Context of the study .2 Data collection instruments .4 Pre-test and Post-test results .6 Data presentation and analysis .21 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.3 A statement and a sample of assessment ………………………………………….1 Assessment requirements and criteria .2 The principles for grading .3 A sample of assessment .25 Chapter 3: DATA ANALYSIS .1 Students‟ general attitude towards using useful expressions in learning speaking skill .1 Students‟ attitude towards interest in using useful expression in learning speaking skill.2 Students‟ opinion towards the suitability of using useful expressions in speaking lessons .3 Students‟ opinion towards the practical aspect of using useful expressions in speaking lessons .4 Students‟ opinion towards their improvements after learning useful expressions .5 Students‟ difficulties in doing the project .2 The effectiveness of the research.3 The pre- test‟s and post-test‟s results.
Limitation of the study. Suggestions for further study. I v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART 1: INTRODUCTION This part is dedicated to introducing the rationale of the study, the problem to be addressed in the study, the aims and objectives of the study, and the research questions to be answered. It will also present the scope of the study and an overview of the methods and the design of the study.1 Rationale Speaking skills is one of crucial parts of second language learning and teaching.
“The ability to speak in a foreign language is at the very heart of what it means to be able to use a foreign language” (Louma, 2004). The mastery of this output skill in English is a priority for many second language or foreign-language learners. In this global era, English is utilized as an international medium of communication and it helps people to work and cooperate in a common language. It is the fact that the learners are often evaluated their success in the language learning as well as the effectiveness of their English course through their spoken language proficiency.
Unfortunately, speaking skill is a complicated and multifaceted skill which is not easy to be improved and takes a long time to make progress. Up to now, various approaches to teaching speaking, therefore, have been recommended to help deal with this issue. In most universities in Vietnam, English is a compulsory subject which equips students for effective workplace communication after their graduation. It goes without saying that at Hanoi University of Business and Technology (hereafter HUBT), a private university, it is not an exception.
Being a teacher of English at English Department at HUBT, the author has had an opportunity to teach English mainly for communication in four skills listening, speaking, reading and writing. Thanks to approaching all students from the freshmen to the seniors at all levels in all majors, the researcher herself has found that her students have a number of problems with speaking skill. They are not willing to speak due to many reasons such as poor pronunciation, being afraid of making mistakes, lack of vocabulary and not having a language environment to 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com practice English and so on. During the first few courses, the author had many frustrations because even some of her students had motivation to learn English, they could not make progress in speaking skill.
Some students said to her “I can understand your English, but when I speak to „real people‟ I can‟t understand them”. The writer has decided to introduce some changes with the desire for motivating and supporting her students to learn English speaking skill better through an action research whose result will be presented in this thesis entitled “An investigation into method of English teaching speaking skill using Useful Expressions for the third-year students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology.” The third-year students who are selected to be the participants in this study have already had two years learning English at HUBT as well as they soon have to gain a TOEIC certificate to graduate. Furthermore, in order to seek for jobs in an international workforce environment when Vietnam joined global organizations like WTO, TPP and soon Asian Union, learners especially need to be accustomed to and use common phrases, useful expressions which are familiar with people in the workplace context. Hence, they are able to communicate well with their seniors, colleagues, or clients.
Hopefully, the study will also help to facilitate her teaching, especially teaching speaking skill which she is interested in.2 Aims and objectives The aim of the current study is to investigate the effectiveness of the method of teaching speaking skill using Useful Expressions for the third-year students at HUBT. This fundamental aim can be achieved when the two following objectives are met. The first objective of the study is to seek for the effectiveness of using useful expressions for the students‟ improvement. The other one is to explore the students‟ attitudes towards using useful expressions technique.3 Scope of the study In order to improve students‟ speaking skill, teachers can use varieties of techniques.
However, this study merely focuses on studying the effectiveness of teaching useful expressions to improve students‟ speaking skill. 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com This action research is applied in five consecutive speaking lessons. The action is carried out for the third-year students of all majors in a class of about 30 students at HUBT within 8 weeks. The collected data are analyzed and discussed to figure out how using useful expressions contribute to enhance students‟ speaking skill.4 Research questions This study is conducted to find the answers for the following questions: 1.
What is the students‟ attitude towards useful expressions? 2. To what extent does the use of useful expressions enhance speaking skill for the students from the teacher and the students‟ perspectives? 1.5 Method of the study Action research is employed in this study. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used in this research. The data were collected by means of: - Questionnaires - Interviews The questionnaire is designed to gather data about the students‟ ideas on the intended criteria.
Information gathered from interviews with teachers will be note- taken, analyzed and used for providing more information. These two research instruments are used in three phases of the action research for preliminary investigation, exploration of the effects that the action creates, and reflection on the action phase.6 Design of the study A part from the Introduction and Conclusion, the study is organized into three main parts: Literature Review, Methodology, Results and Discussion. In the first part, Introduction consists of the rationale, aims, research questions, significance of the study, scope of the study, and the design of the study. In the second part, chapter 1 - Literature Review mentions the theoretical background of the study and the review of the previous studies.
The next chapter - Methodology describes the overall picture of how the research is carried out from the first step of determining the research design to the last step of gathering the results. 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com The chapter 3 is Results and Discussion. This part reports the statistical results and the analysis of the data. In the last part, Conclusion closes the study by summarizing the whole study with concluding remarks and offering some limitations and suggestions for further studies.
Besides, the list of References and the Appendixes are also parts of this study. 4 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART 2 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW A literature review is a collection of researches related to the field we are studying. It is a summary of research that has been published about a particular subject.