VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* LƢƠNG THỊ HUYỀN AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON TEACHING AND LEARNING SPEAKING ENGLISH AT BINH GIA HIGH SCHOOL - LANG SON: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS Thực trạng dạy và học nói Tiếng Anh tại trƣờng Trung Học Phổ Thông Bình Gia - Lạng Sơn: Những khó khăn và cách giải quyết M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 Hanoi, 2014 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* LƢƠNG THỊ HUYỀN AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON TEACHING AND LEARNING SPEAKING ENGLISH AT BINH GIA HIGH SCHOOL - LANG SON: PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS Thực trạng dạy và học nói Tiếng Anh tại trƣờng Trung Học Phổ Thông Bình Gia - Lạng Sơn: Những khó khăn và cách giải quyết M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: HOÀNG THỊ XUÂN HOA, Ph.D Hanoi, 2014 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com i DECLARATION I certify that the thesis entitled “An exploratory study on teaching and learning speaking English at Binh Gia high school - Lang Son : Problems and solutions ” is the result of my own study and the substance of this research has not been submitted for degree to any other university or institution. Hanoi, August 2014 Signature Luong Thi Huyen TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, PhD for her precious instructions, helpful suggestions, and especially, invaluable critical feedback and correction during the research. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all of my lecturers at the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University Ha Noi, whose support and considerations have enabled me to pursue the course. I also wish to acknowledge the great support and precious help with the data collection and analysis of my colleagues and students at Binh Gia High School.
Without them, I could not have completed my thesis. Last but not least, my heartfelt thanks are due to my beloved family members who are always besides me to support and encourage me to fulfill my study. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iii ABSTRACT English speaking is an important skill and most used to express opinions, explanations, make arguments in daily life. Students need to speak English fluently to get better result in learning English and get a good job in the future.
This minor thesis aimed at investigating some difficulties that students and teachers at Binh Gia High School have encountered in learning and teaching English speaking skill and suggesting solutions to overcome these difficulties. The subjects of the study were 120 students and 12 teachers of English. The data of the research was collected from both students‟ and teachers‟ questionnaires, interviews. The findings showed that students' difficulties in learning English speaking skill were low level of English proficiency, lack of motivation and using mother tongue problem.
Teachers' difficulties in teaching English speaking skill were insufficient communicative competence and inappropriate method. In addition, other difficulties in learning and teaching English speaking skill of students and teachers were large and multi-level classes, current testing system and lack of class time. From these findings, some recommendations were made with the aim to improve the teaching and learning English at Binh Gia High School. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.
iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vi LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES. vii PART A: INTRODUCTION.
Rationale of the study. Aims of the study. Method and procedure of the research. Scope of the study.
Organization of the paper. 5 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. Definition of speaking. Characteristics of speaking.
The role of speaking in foreign language teaching. Teaching and learning speaking skill. Teaching speaking skill. Learning speaking skill.
Problems in teaching and learning speaking skill.Using CLT in teaching speaking skill. Overview of the English textbook. An overview of Binh Gia High School. The students at BGHS.
The teachers at BGHS. 14 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Data collection instruments. Data collection procedure.
17 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS. Results of the survey questionnaires. Difficulties from the students. Difficulties from the teachers.
Problems from other factors. 33 PART III: CONCLUSION. Solutions perceived by teachers and students to overcome teachers‟ and students' difficulties. Limitations of the study.
Recommendations for further study .XII TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communication Language Teaching BGHS: Bình Gia High School %: Percentage TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com vii LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES. Charts Chart 1: Teachers‟ and students‟ opinion about the importance of English speaking skill Chart 2: Teachers‟ and students‟ opinion about the importance of English speaking kill in comparison with other skills Chart 3: Teachers‟ and students‟ opinions about students‟ passion of learning English peaking skill Chart 4: Teachers‟ and students‟ judgment about students‟ speaking competence Tables Table 1: Information about students and teachers participating in the survey Table 2: Teachers‟ years of teaching English and students‟ years of learning English Table 3: Students‟ reasons for learning English speaking skill Table 4: jj Teachers‟ difficulties when teaching speaking skill Table 5: Teachers‟ solutions to improve the speaking lessons Table 6: Teachers‟ suggested solutions to improve the speaking lesson Table 7: Students‟ difficulties when learning English speaking skill TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 1 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study O‟Malley and Pierce (1996) stated that speaking is an important skill that a learner should acquire. It is very important in order to enable students to communicate effectively through oral language because the disability of the students to speak may lead them to be unable to express their ideas even in a simple form of conversation.
In addition, Burn and Joyce (1997: 54-55) stated that one of the aims of most language programs is to develop spoken language skills and most programs aim to integrate both spoken and written language. Learning a language means using it in communication in oral or written form, and being able to express feeling, thoughts, and experiences in various contexts. Lade (1964: 51) stated that to know the language is to use it. He further stated that students do not know a sentence until he can speak it.
One of the main tasks assigned to foreign language teaching at school is that of training students to be communicatively competent. Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998: 13). In any second language teaching and learning, speaking is always believed to be the most vital skill. Learning a target language makes no sense if you cannot communicate in it successfully.
For many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues. However, with the rapid progress of globalization, English speaking skill is thought to be the key to one‟s success in his career. The goal of teaching speaking should improve students' communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance. Classroom activities that develop learners‟ ability to express themselves through speech would therefore seem an important component of a language course.
However, in some places in Vietnam English teaching and learning has been strongly influenced by the traditional methods. Teachers as well as students pay much attention to the grammatical items. In these classes, teachers mainly focus on explaining the grammatical rules and structures to students who are considered as passive recipients. As a result, those students might be structurally competent but communicative incompetent.
That causes a lot of difficulties in using English in real-life communication. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 2 Speaking skill is a very important skill when learning English. The real situation of English language teaching in Vietnam showed that this is the skill that students usually neglect and are not good at even though they have very good grammatical knowledge. Students‟ learning methods depended much on teachers, students still were quite passive in their learning process.
In order to improve the students‟ speaking ability, teachers could use many kinds of communicative activities. There is a fact that students must pass examinations in English to graduate, but many of them fail to learn it successfully. Students have lost their communicative competence on which means little attention has been paid to communicative skills such as listening and speaking. In addition, under the effect of old-fashioned methods, students are believed to be indifferent to such skills.
They mentally withdraw or look for strategies to pass the required exams with minimum effort. Among the four skills known as listening, speaking, writing and listening, speaking skill plays an important part in language teaching in the context of Vietnam. For many learners, speaking skill is the most important of the four skills in a second language in general and in English in particular. However, it is the fact that most of students at Binh Gia High School seemed to consider speaking skill to be the most challenging.
From observations and teaching experiences, the author realized that students paid little attention to communicative skills such as listening and speaking. They lost interest in learning English and they were not active in participating in speaking activities. They felt nervous in speaking class and became demotivated in learning speaking. These led to the underachievement and had a negative effect on students in learning English as a foreign language.
There still exist many difficulties facing English Language teachers in Vietnam in general and English Language teachers at the Binh Gia High School in particular. Many Vietnamese learners can write and read English quite well but they cannot speak fluently and correctly in communication. Certainly there are many reasons for this. As one teacher of English I realized that although both teachers and learners tried their best to reach their goals to teach and study English speaking skills effectively, up to now the results have been still far from satisfaction.
TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 3 All the above mentioned reasons have inspired the writer to conduct a research titled “An exploratory study on teaching and learning speaking English at Binh Gia High School - Lang Son : Problems and solutions .” This study helps us to have a deep understanding about teachers' and students' difficulties in teaching and learning English. In general, it can be affected by a variety of factors coming from teachers‟ side, students‟ side and classroom condition. Through this study, the researcher expects to find out some appropriate solutions to overcome the difficulties for more successful teaching and learning speaking English skill at Binh Gia High School. Aims of the study This study aims to: Identify difficulties perceived by teachers and students in teaching and learning speaking skill.
Suggest solutions perceived by teachers and students to overcome the difficulties for more successful teaching and learning speaking English skill at Binh Gia High School. Method and procedure of the research With the aims of investigating difficulties of teachers and students in teaching and learning speaking skill at Binh Gia High School, survey questionnaires and interviews method were chosen. How do teachers and students perceive concepts of speaking skill? 2. What difficulties do the teachers and students face in learning and teaching of speaking skill at BGHS? 3.
What are solutions to improve the quality of the learning and teaching of speaking skill at BGHS? To collect data for this study, 120 students and 12 teachers were invited to take part in survey questionnaires and interviews.