VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE AN INVESTIGATION INTO FACTORS INFLUENCING VIETNAMESE STUDENTS’ WILLINGNESS TO COMMUNICATE ORALLY IN EFL CLASSROOMS A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By HOANG THI KIM OANH Supervised by Assoc. LUU TRONG TUAN HO CHI MINH CITY, MAY 2023 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The completion of my thesis would have been an insurmountable challenge without the indispensable guidance, support, and encouragement of many individuals to whom I owe my sincere gratitude. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my esteemed supervisor, Associate Professor Dr. Lưu Trọng Tuấn, who provided invaluable assistance during my most trying times when I had to start from scratch.
His unwavering guidance and advice were instrumental not only in completing my thesis, but also enhancing my learning strategies and project management skills. He continuously motivated me to aim for excellence, both in my academic and personal pursuits, which has significantly contributed to my personal development. I would like to express my profound gratitude to Dr. Lê Hoàng Dũng, the Vice President of Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, who permitted me to conduct my survey at Thu Duc campus and instructed me to prepare necessary documents for the official survey.
I would also like to thank all EFL teachers, learners, and administrative staff who assisted me in the data collection. I would like to appreciate the dedicated instructions of all lecturers who provided me with invaluable knowledge about the theory and practice of teaching English, as well as the precious teaching experience shared during the lessons. I would like to express my appreciation to my family, including my parents, my husband, brothers, and my two little daughters, for their assistance, encouragement, and support in my pursuit of higher education. I would like to express my special gratitude to my friends, Thạch Thị Quyên and Trần Thanh Nga, my classmates in the Master of TESOL program.
They are people who gave me much motivation, inspiration, support, and positive reinforcement for my present thesis. Without them, my thesis would not have been completed successfully. ii STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I certify that this thesis entitled “AN INVESTIGATION INTO FACTORS INFLUENCING VIETNAMESE STUDENTS’ WILLINGNESS TO COMMUNICATE ORALLY IN EFL CLASSROOMS” is my own work. This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institution.
Ho Chi Minh City, May 2023. Hoàng Thị Kim Oanh iii RETENTION OF USE I hereby state that I, Hoàng Thị Kim Oanh, being the candidate for the degree of Master in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Thesis deposited in the Library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purpose of study and research in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of the theses. Ho Chi Minh City, May 2023.
Hoàng Thị Kim Oanh iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. ii STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY. iii RETENTION OF USE. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS.
v LIST OF TABLES. viii LIST OF FIGURES. Background of the study. Rationale of the study.
Research aims and research questions. Significance of the study. Scope of the study. Organization of the thesis.
Willingness to communicate (WTC). Characteristics of WTC. WTC in L2 context. WTC in EFL context.
The importance of WTC orally in language classrooms. Model of WTC. Factors influencing WTC. Language class risk-taking.
Conceptual framework of the thesis. Rationale of choosing a context in Vietnam. The overview of research site. Rationale of choosing non-English major students as the sample.
The overview of population. Description of the research instrument. Reliability and validity. The main study.
Data collection procedure. Data analysis procedure. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. The results of Cronbach’s Alpha analysis.
The Cronbach’s Alpha results of the piloting. The Cronbach’s Alpha results of the main study. Test for normality. The result of correlation matrix.
The result of Multicollinearity. The results of Exploratory Factor Analysis. The results of Exploratory Factor Analysis for six factors. The first round of running EFA.
The second round of running EFA. The EFA results for WTC. The result of Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Hypothesis testing for addressing the two first research question.
Results of research question 3. Differences between males and females in terms of willingness to communicate orally in Vietnamese EFL classrooms. Differences among departments in terms of willingness to communicate orally in Vietnamese EFL classrooms. Summary of the findings.
Implications for EFL learners. Implications for EFL teachers. Implications for school administrators. Implications for textbook writers.
Limitations and recommendations. 145 APPENDIX 1A: THE QUESTIONNAIRE IN ENGLISH VERSION. 145 APPENDIX 1B: THE QUESTIONNAIRE IN VIETNAMESE VERSION. 150 APPENDIX 2: THE ADAPTATION OF QUESTIONNAIRE ITEM FROM THE ORIGINAL VERSION.
155 APPENDIX 3: THE RESULTS OF CRONBACH’S ALPHA IN THE PILOT STUDY. 159 APPENDIX 4: THE RESULTS OF CRONBACH’S ALPHA IN THE MAIN STUDY. 163 APPENDIX 5: THE SCREE-PLOT OF EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS 170 APPENDIX 6: THE RESULT OF STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODEL ANALYSIS. 174 APPENDIX 7: THE DESCRIPTIVE RESULTS OF THE STUDY’S SCALES.
179 APPENDIX 8: THE ONE-WAY ANOVA RESULTS IN RELATION TO THE DIFFERENCES IN WILLINGNESS TO COMMUNICATE AMONG DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS. 181 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 2. Review of previous studies. Participants’ demographic information in the main study.
General information of the questionnaire. Criterion for Cohen’s 𝒇𝟐. Cronbach’s Alpha for the pilot study. The Cronbach’s Alpha result of the subscales for the main study .Error! Bookmark not defined.
The coefficient alpha of all variables in the second run of Cronbach’s Alpha analysis. Descriptive statistics of participants’ willingness to communicate in EFL classrooms. Correlation matrix among variables. Error! Bookmark not defined.
The statistical results of multicollinearity test. KMO and Bartlett's Test Results in the first EFA round. Total variance explained by extracted components in the first EFA round. Rotated component matrix in the first EFA round for the factors.
KMO and Bartlett's Test Results in the second EFA round. Total variance explained by extracted components in the second EFA round. Rotated component matrix in the second EFA round for the factors. KMO and Bartlett's Test Results in the EFA for WTC.
Total variance explained by extracted components of WTC. Rotated component matrix for WTC. The indices of goodness of model fit. The result of the scales’ convergent validity and discriminant validity.
The structural model index. The results of path coefficients and effect sizes of the relationship between WTC and factors. The result of Independent Samples T-test. The statistic result of genders.
The results of One-way ANOVA test. 125 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2. The heuristic model of WTC conceptualized by MacIntyre and Charos (1996). Conceptual framework of the present thesis.
The result of Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Structural Equation Model. 106 ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS WTC: Willingness to communicate EFL: English as a Foreign Language ESL: English as a Second Language SPSS: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences AMOS: Analysis of Moment Structures SEM: Structural Equation Model L1: The first language L2: The second language x ABSTRACT In recent decades, willingness to communicate orally has been emphasized as an important role in boosting learners’ communicative performance. The enhancement of learners’ willingness to communicate orally in English classrooms has become an important goal that every EFL Vietnamese teacher has attempted to achieve.
Nonetheless, the factors behind students’ willingness to communicate orally are not fully understood. Therefore, the present thesis aims to fill this knowledge gap by investigating the associations between personal factors (including self-confidence, communication apprehension, learning motivation, and language class risk-taking) and willingness to communicate orally; the relationships between situational factors (including topic interest and classroom atmosphere) and learners’ willingness to communicate orally; and the disparity in willingness to communicate orally among students in terms of demographic attributes (i., genders and departments). The study employed a quantitative method with a five-point Likert scale questionnaire distributed to 306 non-English major freshmen at a national university in Ho Chi Minh City. The results showed that learning motivation had the strongest effect on these participants’ willingness to speak; in the meantime, there were no significant associations among language class risk-taking, topic interest, and willingness to communicate.
Moreover, willingness to communicate orally was found to increase if students had high self- confidence or received sufficient support from the classroom atmosphere. In contrast, the results revealed that communication apprehension exerted a negative influence on these students’ willingness to participate in speaking tasks in the classrooms. The study also found that there were no differences in willingness to communicate orally among students in terms of genders and departments. In light of the findings, the study provided some useful recommendations for many stakeholders to help enhance students’ willingness to communicate orally and task engagement in classrooms.
Keywords: willingness to communicate orally, personal factors, situational factors, non-English major freshmen xi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the background of the study in relation to willingness to communicate orally will be presented. Then, the rationale for conducting this study will be displayed, along with the three stated aims and the relevant research questions. Moreover, the researcher will mention the significance and organization of this thesis in this chapter.
Background of the study In the 21st century, globalization has led to the widespread use of English as a lingua franca for human beings to communicate and exchange knowledge. This trend has directly impacted the awareness of Vietnamese people about the importance of learning English in formal classrooms, resulting in its inclusion as an obligatory subject in the National Entrance Examination for university admission (Do & Do, 2014). Additionally, in the context of global economic integration, there has been a great change in teaching and learning English to meet a growing demand for English-proficient employees who can communicate effectively in addition to their areas of expertise (Namaziandost, Homayouni & Rahmani, 2020). It means that they are required not only to be good at their majors but also to competently communicate in English.
As a result, in recent years, the development of learners’ communicative competence has become a fundamental goal of teaching and learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Vietnam. Indeed, learners are encouraged to communicate effectively in English classrooms (Ho, 2020). Many scholars regard communicative competence as a multifaceted concept referring to the ability to use a foreign language appropriately and effectively in various social situations (Hymes, 1992; Canale, 2014; Greene, 2016; Savignon, 2018). In other words, the chief aim of communicative competence teaching is to motivate language learners to use the target language with high tendency and be engaged in communicative tasks.
Particularly, learners are encouraged to ask questions, ask for more clarification about given tasks, have 12 access to authentic resources to produce meaningful conversations, and interact with other interlocutors with error avoidance (Savignon, 2001). Swain (1995) claims that success in learning a second or foreign language only occurs if learners participate interactively in purposeful communication practices. It refers to individuals with high communicative competence who could enhance their fluency, comprehension, and learning efforts in terms of four language skills. This leads to an emphasis on applying communicative competence teaching in a range of integrated English classrooms at universities (Dos Santos, 2020; Mustapha & Yahaya, 2013; Liu, 2005; Le, 2021).