VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *************** TRỊNH THỊ NHUNG A STUDY ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS’ REASONING FOR THE STRATEGIES THEY USE IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS AT VAN XUAN HIGH SCHOOL, HOAI DUC, HA NOI NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHỮNG LÝ GIẢI CHO VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC DẠY KỸ NĂNG NÓI CỦA GIÁO VIÊN DẠY TIẾNG ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT VẠN XUÂN, HOÀI ĐỨC, HÀ NỘI M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI – 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *************** TRỊNH THỊ NHUNG A STUDY ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS’ REASONING FOR THE STRATEGIES THEY USE IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS AT VAN XUAN HIGH SCHOOL, HOAI DUC, HA NOI NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHỮNG LÝ GIẢI CHO VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC DẠY KỸ NĂNG NÓI CỦA GIÁO VIÊN DẠY TIẾNG ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT VẠN XUÂN, HOÀI ĐỨC, HÀ NỘI M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Nguyễn Văn Độ, Assoc. HANOI – 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I, Trịnh Thị Nhung, certify that the thesis entitled “A study on English language teachers’ reasoning for the strategies they use in teaching speaking skills at Van Xuan High School, Hoai Duc, Ha noi.” reports the result of the study conducted by myself.
The minor thesis is submitted to Department of Post-graduate studies, ULIS, Hanoi for Degree of Master in TESOL. It has not been published anywhere. Hanoi, 2015 Trinh Thi Nhung i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Assoc. Nguyễn Văn Độ, for his valuable guidance, helpful advice, recommendation, as well as his encouragement during the time I tried to complete this minor thesis.
Without his supervision, this work would never have been possible. I am also indebted to all the professors of Post-Graduate Department for their encouragement and their valuable lectures while I was taking the M.A course in English Language Teaching Methodology at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University (VNU). Their constructive ideas, assistance and advice helped me much during various stages of learning and writing my M. My deepest thanks also go to my colleagues and my students at Van Xuan High School, Hoai Duc, in Ha Noi who have helped me to collect data for the study.
Finally, I would like to express my biggest love and thanks to my family for their unconditional contributions during the time I conducted my research. It was my parents and my husband who gave me the will to complete this challenging work. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This research investigates the strategies applied in teaching speaking skills with the new English textbooks for students at Van Xuan High School in Hoai Duc, and explains the question why they used these strategies. The thesis is divided into 3 main parts: Part A presents the rationale, aims, research questions, scopes, research methods and the design the study.
Part B includes 4 chapters: Chapter 1 presents definitions of major terms used in this study, including overview on speaking skills, definition of speaking, theories of teaching speaking skills and strategies in teaching speaking skills; Chapter 2 describes the methodology of the thesis. Specifically, the data for this research was collected in the forms of class observation, survey questionnaires and interviews. The participants of the interview were 6 English teachers and the participants of the survey questionnaires were 270 grade - 11 - students; Chapter 3 analyses and discusses the results from the class observation, survey questionnaires and interviews; Chapter 4 mentions some findings and recommendations. Finally, Part C gives the conclusions of this paper, some limitations and recommendations for further study.
iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 3.2a: Teacher’s difficulties in teaching English speaking Table 3.2b: Teacher’s solutions to the problems Table 3.2c: Teacher’s reasons for using speaking techniques and activities Table 3.3a: Students’ reasons for learning English Table 3.3b: Frequency of employed activities Table 3.3c: Student’s attitude towards teacher’s teaching speaking activities Table 3.3d: Student’s expectation from teacher Table 3.3e: Factors affecting Van Xuan students’ participating English lessons Table 3.3f: Student’s achievements from speaking teaching strategies Figure 3.1: Student’s opinions on speaking topic in the textbooks Figure3.2: Frequency of student’s speaking participation Figure 3.3: Student’s opinions about the frequency of teacher’s English speaking Figure 3.4: Frequency of student’s English speaking Figure 3.5: Student’s progress after applied speaking teaching strategies iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1.T: Communicative Language Teaching 2. ST: Story telling 5. IG: Information gap 6. Q&A exchanges: Question and answer exchanges 7.
RP: Role play 8. PD: Picture description 9. CS: Class survey 10. PS in groups: Problem solving in groups v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.
iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. v TABLE OF CONTENTS. vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale for the Research. Aims of the Research. Scope of the Research. Design of the Research.
3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature review. Overview on speaking skills. Theories of teaching speaking skills. Functions of spoken language.
The role of speaking skills in communication approach. Strategies in teaching speaking skills. Factors affecting the outcomes of learning speaking skills. 10 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
An overview of the research site. Instruments of data collection. Interview for teachers. Questionnaire for students.
Data analysis methods. 18 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS 3. Results from class observation. Results from teachers’ interview.
Results from students’ questionnaire. 25 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 4. The students and teachers’ difficulties in speaking lessons. The teachers’ teaching strategies used in speaking lessons.
The outcomes from the teachers’ teaching strategies in speaking lessons. The students’ expectations towards their teachers. A careful plan of the speaking lesson. The change in students’ speaking habit and opportunity for students to use English in real life.
Summary, major finding and implications on teaching. 38 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Summary and major findings. Implications on teaching.
Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further studies. 40 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: CLASS OBSERVATION SHEET .I APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS ……………….II APPENDIX 3: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS …………….III APPENDIX 4: CLASS OBSERVATION SHEET. VI APPENDIX 5: TABLES AND FIGURES ………………………………….XXXIV viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale of the study Turning to the 21st century, the society has witnessed plenty of extensive changes in every walk of life. In a constant changing world, with a rapid growth of globalization and spread of information and technology, communication plays a crucial role in many different fields. It is undoubted that English has, as an international language, become more and more important all over the world. To catch up with this trend of growth, English teaching and learning in Vietnam have been paid more attention.
In fact, English is a compulsory subject in all curriculums from primary to upper secondary level of education. It is clear that listening, speaking, writing and reading are four key skills to English teaching. Of them, speaking skill is strongly considered the most important one. “Speaking in a second or foreign language has often been viewed as the most demanding of the four skills.
People widely choose speaking as the quickest way to convey messages and ideas. As a result, it is believed that speaking is the main ingredient to an individual’s success in working and learning. From that point, to get the goal of improving the speaking skill of students in English class, the techniques used are vital indicators of successful achievements. The fact that each student has a different way in studying, level of knowledge and capacity of perception considerably challenges teachers.
Before applying a new method to give out English talking- related lessons, researches are thoroughly investigated and examined. Not only do the teachers hope for an effective lecture, but they also take current situations of their school students into account. The mutual desire of teachers and students working in a second language used environment is to motivate learners to speak out in any given chance, and subsequently improve speaking skills for students. This research, based on primary and secondary data, investigates the reasons why English teachers choose their strategies for English teaching.
As an English teacher at a high school, the researcher hopefully takes a chance to develop and 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com improve herself through conducting this research, regardless of its scope of minor thesis. These really decisive factors give the writer motivation to carry out a research: “A study on English teaching teachers’ reasoning for the strategies they use in teaching speaking skill at Van Xuan high school”. Aims of the research The study is aimed at - identifying the strategies used in English speaking lessons and the outcomes from these strategies. - suggesting some solutions in hoping to improve English speaking for students.
Research questions The following questions were made to achieve the aims above: 1. What instructional strategies do teachers at Van Xuan high school use in their teaching speaking skill? 2. Why do they use those strategies according to their self-reports? 4. Scope of the research The study focuses on strategies applied in teaching English speaking skills for students at Van Xuan High School in Hoai Duc.
The strategies are investigated in some particular classes, and the questions are raised to explain why they used these strategies. Research instruments To collect data and information, three outstanding instruments are used: - The first one is related to class observation in speaking lessons of students in some particular classes. - The second one is interviewing the English teachers of these above classes at Van Xuan high school. - The last one is survey questionnaire for the students of these classes at Van Xuan High School.
All comments, remarks, recommendations, assumptions and conclusions provided in the study based on the analysis of the statistics from class observation, 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com survey questionnaire and interview section conducted with the students from six groups (11D1, 11D2, 11D3, 11D4, 11D5 and 11D6 in 2013 - 2014) and their English teachers at Van Xuan high school. Design of the research There are three main parts in this study, namely Introduction, Development, and Conclusions. Part A: The introduction, begins with the rationale, aims, research questions, scopes, research methods, and the design of the study. Part B: Development, includes the following chapters Chapter 1: Literature review, presents definition of major terms used in this study, including overview on speaking skills, factors affecting students’ speaking skills, and strategies in teaching speaking skills.
Chapter 2: Methodology includes settings, participants, data collection instruments, data collection procedure, data analysis methods. Chapter 3: Data analysis, presents data analysis and discussion. Chapter 4: Findings and recommendations. Part C: Conclusions, includes the summary of the findings, implications, limitations and recommendations for further studies.
3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter consists of three sections. Section one deals with the overview on speaking skills which is intended to be discussed in terms of the definition of speaking skill and theories of teaching speaking skills. Section two focuses on the definition of strategies in teaching speaking skills and some common strategies in teaching speaking skills. The last section is about factors affecting the outcomes of learning speaking skills.
Overview on speaking skills 1.