THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES LE HAI YEN A STUDY ON FACTORS AFFECTING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS OF THE 10TH GRADE ETHNIC MINORITY STUDENTS AT VAN HOA I HIGH SCHOOL (Nghiên cứu những yếu tố ảnh hưởng tới kỹ năng nói tiếng Anh của học sinh dân tộc thiểu số khối 10 ở trường Văn hóa I) M.A THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 THAI NGUYEN - 2019 Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc.vn Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc.vn THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES LE HAI YEN A STUDY ON FACTORS AFFECTING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS OF THE 10TH GRADE ETHNIC MINORITY STUDENTS AT VAN HOA I HIGH SCHOOL (Nghiên cứu những yếu tố ảnh hưởng tới kỹ năng nói tiếng Anh của học sinh dân tộc thiểu số khối 10 ở trường Văn hóa I) M. THESIS (APPLICATION ORIENTATION) Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Dr. Nguyen Thi Hong Chuyen THAI NGUYEN - 2019 Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc.vn DECLARATION I hereby certify that this research entitled “A study on factors affecting English speaking skills of the 10th grade ethnic minority students at Van hoa I High School” was conducted and then submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of English Linguistics. This paper was original and has not been submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions.
Thai Nguyen, September 23rd 2019 Signature Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc.vn ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to send my gratitude to all those who have supported and contributed to the accomplishment of this study. Firstly, I thank my parents, all the family members and friends for their encouragement that enabled me to complete the study. They gave me the powerful energy to overcome the stress of working days on the study. Secondly, I am greatly obligated to my supervisor, Dr.
Nguyen Thi Hong Chuyen for her expert guidance. She enthusiastically supported me during my completion of this MA thesis. Chuyen was the one who read all my draft copies, listened to my ideas, and hurried me to keep up with the research proposal timetable. Moreover, she made some important suggestions which greatly contributed to the final improvements.
Finally, I wish to extend my sincere gratitude to all the enthusiastic participants at Van hoa I High School who contributed valuable data for the study. Their outstanding cooperation helped to fulfill this study. Thai Nguyen, September 2019 Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc.vn ABSTRACT Nowadays, English is considered as an international language all over the world. If students are good at English, they can improve their opportunities to broaden knowledge, and get well-paid jobs in the future.
However, out of the four language skills, speaking is considered as the most important but difficult aspect to master. This study was conducted to find out the major factors that prevent the students from achieving good English speaking skills. The study was carried out at Van hoa I High School, Thai Nguyen City, Vietnam. The participants of the research were 51 grade 10th students and 6 English teachers at this school.
The researcher aimed to a) explore the learners’ speaking problems; b) find out the main factors causing them; c) give out some useful and effective suggestions for the learners, teachers and school to improve the students’ oral skills. In order to fulfill those purposes, questionnaires, interviews and observations were used as the main research instrument to collect data. The findings proved that there were two main kinds of factors that affected the learners’ speaking skills called internal factors and external factors. The internal ones related to the factors coming from the students themselves, such as anxiety, lack of self-confidence.
Meanwhile, the external factors were from the outside aspects which were mainly about the linguistic factors like lack of vocabulary, poor grammar, and weak pronunciation. Additionally, the study also suggested some recommendations to improve the learners’ oral skills. For example, in order to minimum the impact of grammatical mistakes to their speaking performance, the learners should outline what sentence structures, tenses and other aspects of grammar they would need for their speech before speaking or teachers should balance the time on the importance of teaching speaking skills and other language skills as well as grammar. Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc.vn TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.
iii TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………….iv LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, DIAGRAM AND ABBREVIATIONS. vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Statement of the Problem and the Rationale for the Study. Aims, Objectives and Research Questions of the study.
Scope of the Study. Significance of the Study. Organization of the research .13 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definition of speaking skills.
Definitions of language. Definitions of speaking skills. The importance of speaking skills. The characteristics of speaking skills.
Features contributed to the English speaking competence. Common factors affecting speaking skills. Non-linguistic factors/ Affective factors. Use of mother tongue.
Role of teachers. Data collection instrument .26 Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc. Data collection procedure. Data analysis tool: Microsoft Excel 2013.
Procedure of analyzing the data .32 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. An overview of the results .61 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS. Summary of the study. Major findings of the study.
The factors that affect 10th grade ethnic minority students’ speaking skills at Van hoa I High School. The internal factors. The external factors. Suggestions to enhance speaking skills for the students.
Suggestions for the students. Suggestions for the teachers. Suggestions for the school. Pedagogical implications and suggestions.
Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research.67 APPENDICES……………………………………………………………………… I Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc.vn LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, DIAGRAM AND ABBREVIATIONS List of abbreviations EFL: English as a Foreign Language MOET: Ministry of Education and Training List of tables Table 1: Anxiety when speaking English .44 Table 2: The avalability of teaching and learning resources .51 Table 3: English policy at Van hoa I High School .51 Table 4: Teachers’ opinions about students’ speaking problems .54 Table 5: Teachers’ opinions about the factors causing students’ speaking problems .54 Table 6: Observations’ results .60 List of figures Figure 1: How often conversation tasks were assigned in speaking lessons .33 Figure 2: How often questioning tasks were assigned in speaking lessons .34 Figure 3: How often explaining tasks were assigned in speaking lessons .34 Figure 4: How often discussion tasks were assigned in speaking lessons .35 Figure 5: How often presentation tasks were assigned in speaking lessons .35 Figure 6: How often interview tasks were assigned in speaking lessons .36 Figure 7: How often dialogue tasks were assigned in speaking lessons .36 Figure 8: How often giving example tasks were assigned in speaking lessons .37 Figure 9: Using wrong tenses .38 Figure 10: Getting troubles when distinguishing part of speech .39 Figure 11: Feeling difficult to use different sentence structures .39 Figure 12: Vocabulary problems .40 Figure 13: Pronunciation problems .41 Figure 14: Being influenced by mother tongue .41 Figure 15: Being not confident when speaking English .42 Figure 16: Being worried about losing face in front of friends when speaking English .43 Figure 17: Family Background .45 Figure 18: Mother tongue influence on acquisition of English pronunciation .45 Figure 19: Lack of motivation.46 Figure 20: Lack of proper use of vocabulary .47 Figure 21: Poor listening skills .47 Figure 22: Poor English grammar .48 Figure 23: Lack of confidence .49 Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc.vn Figure 25: Peer interaction influence .50 Figure 26: Teachers’ teaching methods .52 Figure 27: Frequency of encouraging students to speak English .52 Figure 28: Language used to teach.53 List of diagram Diagram 1: Various Features of English Pronunciation .18 Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc.vn CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. General Introduction According to the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) in Vietnam, the core aims of English as a subject is to help the students to form and develop their communication skills through learning four skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing and language skills such as phonic, vocabulary and grammar. The Circular No. 01/2014/TT-BGDĐT (January 24th, 2014) of the MOET defined that when the children finish primary school, they will acquire level 1 of the Vietnamese Six-level Foreign Language Competency Framework.
In other words, at this level, the students can basically understand simple actual conversations, and they can apply their English to primarily communicate with English speaking people. Level 2 of this framework is the expected result that secondary school students need to achieve. When the leaners reach this level, they can understand the common daily English which relates to basic communication in the real life. For high school students, they need to accomplish Level 3 of the Vietnamese Six-level Foreign Language Competency Framework when they finish grade 12.
If the learners reach Level 3, it means that they can figure out and understand the main ideas of the given texts. In addition, the students can also write simple paragraphs about the familiar topics like jobs, school, and entertainment. Furthermore, they can communicate quite well in almost all situations in English. In short, the very end purpose of learning a language is to use the language communicate properly and effectively in the real communicative context.
To achieve this expected purpose, speaking skills could not be ignored. Nowadays, English is considered as an international language all over the world. It has become the common language used in business, technology, and education throughout many parts of the world. Therefore, mastering English is very important for students in every country.
With the rapid international integration in Vietnam, it is necessary for future labors to know and acquire good English ability. Consequently, the ones who achieve great English competence will have more chances to get better jobs in the future. Hence, students should concentrate on their English learning to improve it and balance their four English skills. Mekong & Kerubo (2017) conclude that the four major skills in learning a language develop in order.
Firstly, the learners should sharpen Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc.vn their listening skills, which will build the basic foundation to develop their speaking skills. After that, reading skills are expected to be improved. Last but not least, it is writing skill. From this point of view, it can be said that speaking is such an important skill in learning English.
Ur (1996, as cited in Bhattacharya, 2017) states that people who know one language are referred to the good speakers of this language. As a result, the English leaners’ capacity of speaking English is becoming increasingly more important. Gilakjani (2012) claims that “it is vital that speakers of English, whether they are native or non-native speakers, are able to exchange meanings effectively”. However, out of the four language skills, speaking is considered as the most important but difficult aspect to master.
According to Fitriani et al. (2015) and Leong et al. (2017), the success of learning a foreign language is accounted by the level of learners’ speaking skills. Ur (1996) defines that “individuals who learn a language are referred to as the speakers of that language”.
Nevertheless, many learners find it hard to express their ideas in spoken ways. Generally, language learners often encounter a lot of problems when speaking a foreign language. Communication is a difficult and complex process to perform.