MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION CAPSTONE PROJECT FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES THE IMPACT OF LANGUAGE-ORIENTED EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES ON ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS: UTE - FFL SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES ADVISOR: Dr. NGUYEN DINH THU STUDENT: LE HOAI PHUONG SKL009933 Ho Chi Minh City, August, 2017 Ho Chi Minh University of Technology and Education FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ––– ––– THE IMPACT OF LANGUAGE-ORIENTED EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES ON ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS: UTE - FFL SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES A graduation of paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts Submitted by LE HOAI PHUONG Supervisor: Dr. NGUYEN DINH THU Ho Chi Minh City August 10th, 2017 The Impact of Language-oriented Extracurricular Activities on English Speaking Skills: from UTE - FFL Second-year Students’ Perspectives Le Hoai Phuong A thesis submitted to the faculty of The University of Technology and Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of bachelor The Faculty of Foreign Languages University of Technology and Education August 10th 2017 STATEMENT OF THE AUTHORSHIP I certify that this graduation on paper, entitled “Impact of Language-oriented Extracurricular Activities on English Speaking Skills: UTE Second-year Students’ Perspectives”, is my own work. No material written or published elsewhere is contained except where references are made within this paper.
I understand that this work may be reproduced or used by Ho Chi Minh University of Technology and Education, or an authorized third party, in order to detect plagiarism. Ho Chi Minh City, July 25th, 2017 LE HOAI PHUONG i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would first like to extend my most sincere gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thu, who offered a great deal of encouragement, support and precious advice along the process of conducting this thesis. I cannot express how truly grateful I am to him as not only a constant sources but also his time budget to offer me invaluable guidance so that I could complete my graduation paper.
Appreciations also go to all of my friends and family who had supported me with all their hearts. Thank you for always sharing ideas and unconditional support, which enlightens me during my writing. Lastly, I want to send a special “thank you” to all the participants who have spent time doing the survey of this study. They have always encouraged and contributed ideas to help me in one way or another to achieve the best performances in every path of my thesis.
ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ECA Extracurricular activities EC Extra-curricular EFL English as a Foreign Language FFL Faculty of Foreign Languages University of Technology and UTE Education A Agree SA Strongly agree DA Disagree SD Strongly disagree VI Very interesting I Interesting SI Slightly interesting ID Indifferent NI Not interesting at all RQ Research question iii LIST OF TABLES Table 1.2: Students’ place of origin.3: Students’ language-oriented ECAs participation .4: Students’ knowledge of language-oriented ECAs at UTE .5: Students’ knowledge of interesting .6: Frequency of language-oriented extracurricular programs participation .7: Students’ favorite language-oriented activities .1: Mean scores of students’ ratings of different types of. language- oriented activities .2: Students’ ratings of different types of language-oriented ECAs .9: Impact of language-oriented ECAs on English Acquisition .1: Overall mean scores of Students’ .2: Improvement of Students’ English speaking skills .1: Factors preventing students from language-oriented ECAs participation .2: Mean scores of factors preventing students from language- oriented ECAs participation.1 Reliability Statistics of Scale .2: Mean scores of students’ attitudes toward the language-oriented ECAs on English speaking skills .13 Suggestion for the improvement of .29 Supervisor of language-oriented ECAs .1 Interviewees’ roles in language-oriented ECAs summary .34 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.2: Students’ place of origin .3: Students’ language-oriented ECAs participation.4: Students’ knowledge of language-oriented ECAs at UTE .5: Students’ knowledge of interesting .6: Frequency of language-oriented extracurricular programs participation .7: Students’ favorite language-oriented activities .9: Impact of language-oriented ECAs on English Acquisition .29: Supervisor of language-oriented ECAs .33 v TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF THE AUTHORSHIP. ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. iii LIST OF TABLES.
iv LIST OF FIGURES .v TABLE OF CONTENTS. viii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION .2 Rationale of the study .4 Purposes of the study .5 Significance of the study.6 Structure of the thesis.4 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Definition of Speaking.2 Speaking Difficulties in Foreign Language Learning .1 Definition of ECAs .2 Roles of ECAs .4 Learners’ Attitudes to ECAs.13 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY .1 Site of research and Participants .1 Site of research .3 Data collection instruments.17 CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION .1 Analysis of Questionnaire Results .2 Analysis of Interview Results .53 REFERENCES APPENDIXES vii ABSTRACT To all the language learners, speaking has been found to be the most significant and complicated skills to master. Since the amount of time spent inside the classroom is insufficient for students’ English practice, language-oriented ECAs conducted during non-regular school hours are taken into account with the aim to improve their English speaking skills. Data from a survey and interview of participants in this study indicate that the majority of the students are aware of the helpfulness of language-oriented ECAs to their English speaking skills.
However, some factors preventing them from language-oriented ECAs participation are identified. Based on these findings, recommendations in terms of the development, organization, and modification for the improvement of linguistic ECAs are offered to language learners, teachers and further research. Keywords: [Language-oriented extracurricular activities, English speaking skills] viii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Overview That “English is now widely used all over the world, almost in all fields of occupations and professions, showing a very important requirement in applying a job” indicates the internationally recognized role of English in the world today (Bloomfield, in Hanunah, 2009:3). A learner of English is deemed through his acceptable use of the four skills, of which speaking plays the most pivotal role in language learning since learners can only master the language when they can speak it (Hanunah, 2009).
Therefore, a number of different strategies have been applied to English teaching and learning in order to help students improve their English speaking ability. According to Hastuti (2009), teaching and learning activities at school and universities consists of formal programs and informal programs. Apart from formal programs - activities held inside the classroom, informal programs, normally called extracurricular activities, usually happen during non-regular school hours and inside the campus. In fact, due to a large amount of students’ time is spent beyond the classroom walls, it is how students spend their leisure time that influences their academic results (Stephens & Schaben, 2002).
Thus, a considerable number of studies have been done to explore the impact of students’ engagement in extracurricular activities (ECAs) on their foreign language learning. Before 1900s, schools were supposed to pay attention to academic outcomes only. Non-academic activities were solely seen as a mean of entertainment which draws students’ attention away from academic achievement (Marsh & Kleithman, 2002). In the early 20th century, extracurricular activities were gradually perceived as a new trend.
At that time, people and educators had opposite views on the real role of ECAs. Eventually, however, 1 people together with educators tend to see similar benefits that ECAs bring to foreign language learners. Today, aside from the regular academic curriculum, more support from schools and universities to ECAs has been provided. It is believed that ECAs create more supporting environment and real communicative situations for students to practice (Hastuti and Bahdi, 2009).
Moreover, Tenhouse and Eccles (2003) agree that ECAs act as regular classes for students to practice their language skills. By participating in these activities, skills can be explored and developed. Besides, students who actively engage in ECAs are better accommodated with their needs to achieve higher retention, GPAs and improvement in language skills (Wadley and Williford, 2008). On the contrary, some downside of ECAs involvement is also expressed through the concerns for decreasing in students’ concentration in academic curriculum and class attendance (Reeves, 2008).
Based upon several literature reviews on this topic, there is a strong connection between English language learning and ECAs participation that this study will explore.2 Rationale of the study A great number of researchers (Darling et al., 2005; Eccles et al., 2003; Fredricks and Eccles, 2006; Nasim Googol &Mahnaz Armat, 2012) have put primary focus on how students’ academic results or their school engagement have been improved when they join in ECAs. Although benefits that ECAs bring to language learning have been explored by many researchers from Iraq, Indonesia, Australia, etc, little has been paid to the impact of being involved in ECAs related to language on language skills improvement, particularly in speaking. The most recent study about linguistic ECAs was implemented in Ishik University (Iraq), a Preparatory School by Yildiz (2016). However, his focus was mainly on discovering the range of language related ECAs’ impacts on students’ English academic achievement.
2 A thorough study to date was conducted by Yanda (2014) who investigated the extent to which extracurricular program engagement affects students’ speaking improvement. This study suggests four main benefits that English Students Club brings to the improvement in speaking skills: self-motivation, supporting environment, interesting and creative programs. However, the number of factors mentioned in this research has been conducted with 24 Indonesian students of the Education Department (State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN)), whose personal features are different from those of UTE students in Vietnam. Moreover, English clubs held at university in Indonesia might have different educational settings and organization.
For these reasons, the results of Yanda’s study have limited access to this current research in students at UTE, Vietnam, and therefore they are not benefiting from these programs. Hence, this study will expand the scale based on UTE second-year students’ characteristics, background of knowledge and perspectives.3 Thesis questions This thesis seeks to answer the following questions: 1. What experience do FFL second-year students have with language-oriented ECAs after one year studying at UTE? 2. What are UTE-FFL second-year students’ attitudes toward the impact of language- oriented ECAs on English speaking skills? 3.
What suggestions do students offer for language-oriented ECAs improvement at UTE? 1.4 Purposes of the study The overall purpose of this study is to discover UTE-FFL second-year students’ perspectives on the impact of language-related ECAs on English speaking skills. To identify what experience FFL second-year students have in language-oriented ECAs after one year studying at UTE. To examine the attitudes of FFL second-year students toward the influence of language-oriented ECAs participation on their English speaking skills. To learn from students’ suggestions about what feasible modification and development can be made in the framework of language-oriented ECAs at UTE.5 Significance of the study The findings of this study will first contribute to the benefit of UTE students since English speaking skills play a vital role in many aspects of life today.
Because the investigation of this study is on students’ perspectives, it then raises the awareness of both teachers and students on the impact of language-oriented ECAs on improving learners’ English speaking skills. Thanks to this, teachers can determine how to make appropriate interventions regarding linguistic ECAs in the academic curriculum become helpful to the enhancement of students’ English speaking skills. More importantly, the exploration of how being involved in language-oriented ECAs can improve students’ English speaking skills put forward the guidance and direction for students to practice their English speaking skills. Last but not least, this study acts as a platform for further research conducted on relevant issues in different local contexts.6 Structure of the thesis The thesis consists of five chapters: Chapter I sketches an overall view of this paper such as the rationale, research questions, purpose and its significance.
Chapter II presents the review of relevant literature to the research problems regarding speaking skills and ECAs. 4 Chapter III provides a detail description of research methodologies, including participants and types of data collection are used to answer the research questions of this study.