VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS AN INVESTIGATION INTO ORAL COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE KHẢO SÁT VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC GIAO TIẾP QUA KỸ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ 2 NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH, HỌC VIỆN NÔNG NGHIỆP VIỆT NAM Student : NGUYỄN AN KHÁNH Student code : 621194 Major : ENGLISH Supervisor : BÙI THỊ LÀ Hanoi – 2021 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS AN INVESTIGATION INTO ORAL COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE KHẢO SÁT VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC GIAO TIẾP QUA KỸ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ 2 NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH, HỌC VIỆN NÔNG NGHIỆP VIỆT NAM Student : NGUYỄN AN KHÁNH Student code : 621194 Major : ENGLISH Supervisor : BÙI THỊ LÀ Hanoi – 2021 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled an investigation into oral communication strategies adopted by second-year English majors at the Vietnam National University of Agriculture submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor in English Language. Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgment in the text of the thesis. Hanoi, 2021 Nguyen An Khanh Approved by SUPERVISOR Bui Thi La (Signature and full name) Date: /07/2021 i TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality. i Table of contents.
iv List of abbreviation. v List of tables. vi PART I: INTRODUCTION. Rationale for the study.
Aims and objectives of the study. Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Design of the study.
2 PART II: DEVELOPMENT. 4 Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Review of previous studies. Review of theoretical background.
The OCS Inventory. Data collection instrument. Data collection procedure. 23 Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
37 PART III: CONCLUSION. Concluding remarks on each of the thesis objectives. Limitation of the current research. Suggestions for further research.
43 iii ABSTRACT Oral communication strategies are a powerful instrument for EFL learners who would like to improve their English ability and communication skills. It is indeed a crucial tool for students to gain an understanding of communication techniques in EFL settings. As a result, one of this thesis was to look at the usage frequency of oral communication strategies among English majors at the Vietnam National University of Agriculture. In addition, as well as to propose effective oral communication strategies that enable English majors to enhance their communication ability.
The mixed-methods design was used in this study. The quantitative phase involved the administration of a questionnaire to 110 participants, and the qualitative phase involved 12 students who completed the questionnaire but volunteered to participate in the follow-up interviews. Integration of quantitative and qualitative findings of the current research revealed that English-majored second-year students used eight oral communication strategies to help to enhance their English oral communication competence. The study documented a few practical oral communication strategies.
The findings of this study might raise the awareness of oral communication strategies among Vietnamese students in general and VNUA students in particular. Combining the results of this study with those of other studies from different settings may lead to a better understanding of oral communication strategies. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATION CS Communication strategies EFL English as a foreign language M Mean OCS Oral communication strategies OCSI Oral Communication Strategies Inventory SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences St. D Standard Deviation VNUA Vietnam National University of Agriculture v LIST OF TABLES Table 3.
The overall use of oral communication strategies. Fluency Oriented strategies. Negotiation for meaning while speaking strategies. Attempt to think in English strategies.
Message reduction and alteration. Social affective strategies. Accuracy-oriented strategies. Message abandonment strategies.
Achievement and Reduction strategies. 31 vi PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale for the study In the process of globalization, high-quality human resources was one of the essential requirements for Vietnam. Yet, having only specialized knowledge without a good command of English, especially speaking and listening skills, Vietnamese human resources will face various difficulties in the job market and the career ladder.
It was the duty of universities to meet the need for a high- quality workforce with proficient English communicative skills. From such demand, English Linguistics becomes a new major at the Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA), elevating English-majored students' oral communication competence, which was a must to increase their competitiveness in the job market. Specifically, English was taught as a foreign language in the context of Vietnam. Among four English skills, namely reading, listening, speaking, and writing, most students find it challenging to study speaking and listening skills.
According to Bialystock (1990), developing the ability to use oral communication strategies (OCS) helps learners develop communicative proficiency to deal with their lack of knowledge of the target language. This was a crucial tool for students who were short of speaking and listening knowledge. Considering all the reasons above, I decided to propose a study titled "An investigation into communication strategies adopted by second-year English majors at the Vietnam National University of Agriculture". Aims and objectives of the study The aim of the study was to improve the second-year English majors oral communication skills at VNUA.
The objectives of the paper were to investigate the use of OCS by English- majored students at Vietnam National University of Agriculture and to suggest effective OCS for English majors to improve their oral communication ability. Research questions What were the oral communication strategies used in English communication by English-majored second-year students at VNUA? What suggestions should be given to improve English majors‟ oral communication skills at VNUA? 4. Scope of the study The study lasted 4 months from 01/03/2021. The author carried out an investigation into the use of OCS with 110 second-year English-majored students from the Department of Education and Foreign Languages at VNUA.
The study explored the use of OCS among English Linguistics second-year students. In detail, the study focuses only on OCS to cope with problems while speaking. Significance of the study Achieving specialized knowledge and proficient English communication competence at the same time was not an easy task for many students. In many means to develop communication ability, using OCS was a tool that was not limited by the target language knowledge of users.
The impact of OCS on second language or foreign language acquisition in general and English as a foreign language, in particular, has been proven by many scholars to successfully deal with communication difficulties. This was a valid reason for OCS to be compulsory knowledge for VNUA students in particular and students in general. By conducting this research, first, we hope to raise students‟ awareness of OCS, and second, this study was also expected to become a useful reference resource for fellow students as well as other researchers. Design of the study Apart from abstracts, references and appendices, the study consists of three main parts: 2 Part I - Introduction presents the rationale, aims and objectives of the study, research questions, and the scope of the study as well as the significance of the study.
Part II - Development was divided into 3 chapters: Chapter 1 - Literature review provides the theoretical background for the study. Chapter 2 - Methodology describes the research type and the methods used in the study including the research context, data collection instruments and procedures, and data analysis. Chapter 3 - Findings and discussions report and discuss the findings of the study. Part III - Conclusion summarizes the main issues that have been addressed in the study, points out the limitations and suggests recommendations for further study.
3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Review of previous studies A large and growing body of literature has examined OCS. First being recognized in the 1970s by Selinker, OCS has rapidly become a fascinating research topic. Numerous researchers have proven that OCS were crucial language tools.
In Vietnam, studies on the effect of OCS only started to emerge after a decade following the Doi Moi policy from the mid-2000s to the 2010s. An article with the title “A study on strategies used in verbal communication between native English and non-native speakers in the workplace” by Vu Thi Bich Hiep M.A published on Language and Life Magazine No. 5 (235) in 2015 was an example of research conducted in Vietnam. This paper has argued that non-native speakers (Vietnamese) tended to omit subjects (i.
“I”, “we”) and only use keywords or key phrases to communicate in English. Additionally when facing communication difficulties, they often reduced their message or repeated themselves. White lies, Yes/No, ambiguous expressions, and filler words were the answers of a large number of Vietnamese participants in this research. In her discussion, 3 strategies were suggested to help the non-native speakers understood received messages, which were explaining and summarizing strategies, asking questions strategies, and requesting repetition or spelling strategies.
In the end, Vu concluded that the two main purposes of verbal communication in the workplace were exchanging information and establishing a relationship, and integrating into an internationalized working environment helps Vietnamese office workers be more flexible, have better communication skills, and be more adaptable. In a recent study by Le Van Tuyen et al. “Strategies used by undergraduate English-majored students in oral communication” published on VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol.1 (2020) 156-170, they conducted this research on 4 second-year students, juniors, and seniors at Ho Chi Minh University of Technology (HUTECH) with the purposes of exploring the most commonly used strategies among English majors and differences in the use of strategies in oral communication among three academic levels. Adapted from the Oral Communication Strategy Inventory (Nakatani, 2006) in their study, the paper has reported that the strategies which English-majored Students at HUTECH used most frequently while speaking in English oral communication was the “fluency-oriented strategies”.
And among three academic levels from second- year students to seniors, it was stated that “the findings of the study revealed that there were no significant differences in the use of OCS among the participants”. Most participants reported that solving the problem was regarded as more effective than evading it when it comes to preventing communication breakdowns. Finally, Tuyen and his partners suggested similar studies should take place at other universities in Vietnam or in another context since the results were only true to the specific conducted site. Another article on the use of OCS by students in a non-English-majored context was published in TNU Journal of Science and Technology 225(03) in the same year.
The title of this article was “The use of OCS in different speaking tasks by the first-year students at Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and forestry” by Vu Kieu Anh. This paper, therefore, demonstrated her research on 30 first year Forestry-majored students with aims to find out types of OCS employed by the students while doing a speaking task and whether they use different types of strategies in one-way and two-ways tasks. In her detailed investigation, Anh concluded that participants mainly employed modification devices in the one-way task the same as the two-way task by adapting Willems (1987) classification. It was reported that “4 subtypes of CS that were topic avoidance, direct asking, foreignizing, and mime were not employed by the 5 students in this study” and while performing two tasks, the students also used a wide range of OCS types.
Outside of Vietnam, during the past half-century, many studies have been conducted from general theories to case studies in specific contexts. Much more information has become available since the 1980s such as definition, taxonomies, relation, etc.