VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HOAN AN INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS’ WILLINGNESS TO SPEAK ENGLISH IN SPEAKING LESSONS OF FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT AN INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION MANAGEMENT IN VIETNAM (Nghiên cứu sự sẵn sàng trong các giờ học nói tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm thứ nhất tại một Học viện Quản lí Giáo dục – Việt Nam) M. MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 814023101 HA NOI – 2019 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HOAN AN INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS’ WILLINGNESS TO SPEAK ENGLISH IN SPEAKING LESSONS OF FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT AN INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION MANAGEMENT IN VIETNAM (Nghiên cứu sự sẵn sàng trong các giờ học nói tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm thứ nhất tại một Học viện Quản lí Giáo dục – Việt Nam) M. MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 814023101 Supervisor: Dr. Dương Thu Mai HA NOI – 2019 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “An investigation into students‟ willingness to speak English in speaking lessons of first-year students at an Institute of Education Management in Vietnam” is my own research for the Minor Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, VNU – Hanoi.
The thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions. I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library can be accessible for the purposes of study. Hanoi, 2019 Nguyen Thi Hoan i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Duong Thu Mai for the invaluable support, guidance, and timely encouragement she gave me while I was doing this research.
I am truly grateful to her for her advice and suggestions right from the beginning when this study was only in its formative stage. My special thanks also go to teachers of English and students of National Institute of Education Management for their participation to the study as the subjects of the study. Without them, this project could not have been so successful. I am particularly grateful to my close friends for their helping me with valuable reference documents and data for my research.
Last but not least, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my family who have constantly inspired and encouraged me to complete this research. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This study is an attempt to investigate to the current willingness to communicate (WTC) in English of freshmen at a university in Vietnam. This cross-sectional survey research primarily focuses on students‟ level of WTC and factors affecting WTC in the classroom by means of a questionnaire survey and a semi-structured interview. In order to accomplish this thesis, a mixed method design was employed in order to explore the construct of WTC.
The results revealed that students‟ willingness to communicate was nearly “sometimes willing to communicate”, mean is 1.9 in the four-value scale. The factors to encourage and discourage their willingness to communicate range from social setting, self-perceived communicative competence, motivation, personality, teacher‟s role to language anxiety. The results of the study contribute to an understanding of WTC in the higher education context in Vietnam. Keywords: Willingness to communicate, social setting, communicative competence, motivation, communicative competence iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L2 Second Language WTC Willingness to Communicate NIEM National Institute of Education Management ELT English Language Teaching EFL English as Foreign Language CC Communicative Competence CA Communication Apprehension iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.
iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. iv LIST OF TABLES. vii LIST OF FIGURES. vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.
Statements of the problem and the rationale of the study. Aims of the study. Objectives of the study. Significance of the study.
Scope of the study. Methods of the study. Design of the thesis. 3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.
Willingness to communicate. Factors Influencing WTC. Previous Studies into Willingness to Communicate. 12 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.
Data collection procedures. 23 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Data analysis procedures. 23 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS.
Results of the research question 1. Results of the research question 2. Self-perceived communicative competence. Summary of the study.
Limitations of the study. Contribution of the research and pedagogical implications. Recommendations for further study .VII vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Descriptive statistics of each degree of willingness (N=115). 26 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The hypothesized mode (Joe et al.
13 Figure 2: Cyclical thematic content analysis. 24 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Statements of the problem and the rationale of the study English used to be studied merely for passing paper exams, which leads to students‟ major focus on grammar. However, the demand of studying English as an international means of communication has been escalating during the last few decades in Vietnam.
The awareness that studying a foreign language as a means of communication has been raised for the public via many policies of the Ministry of Education and Training. As a result, more students have special interest in learning English, particularly speaking skills, when they enter university. In fact, college students in Vietnam, especially freshmen, have some problems in English speaking performance. They want to practice speaking but they still encounter big obstacles to raise their voice.
They maintain some studying habits of focusing on grammar and vocabulary rather than on speaking skills. This is why they often find it hard to present their ideas or they feel too shy to speak in front of others. In the field of second or foreign language acquisition, that students feel shy in speaking can be defined as “willingness to speak”. Willingness to communicate has been seen as a crucial factor to boost the communicative competence and communication apprehension (MacIntyre, 2007).
There have been studies on this theme, however, there are various variables affecting a successful model of willingness to communicate. Students‟ level of willingness to communicate may vary and be conditioned by communication variables (Galajda, 2017). Despite some research into this issue of students‟ willingness to communicate, most of the studies have been conducted in different contexts. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com In Vietnam, there have been two studies about willingness to communicate in 2012 and 2014 with limitations in research design and data.
All these conditions have motivated the researcher to conduct “An investigation into students‟ willingness to speak English in speaking lessons of first year students at an Institute of Education Management in Vietnam”. This present study hopes to provide an update of the literature, more in-depth data and a close look at this issue from the students‟ perception of WTC. Aims of the study The research is designed to investigate the level of the willingness to communicate (WTC) of the first-year students at the National Institute of Education Management (NIEM). First, this research investigates the current levels of WTC in English speaking lessons; its second objective is to find out about factors affecting WTC basing on the results obtained from survey questionnaires and interview.
Finally, some solutions that encourage students from participating in speaking lessons will be suggested. Objectives of the study The objectives can be guided by two research questions as follows: 1. What is the level of willingness to communicate in English of NIEM first-year students? 2. What factors affect their willingness to communicate in English in speaking lessons? 1.
Significance of the study Once having been completed, this research would make a useful contribution to the existing literature on the issue of willingness to communicate in Vietnam. This study seeks to help language teachers at NIEM in particular and higher education teachers in Vietnam in general stay aware of the need for the factors affecting WTC in the local contexts. Especially, for 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com teachers who have the same interest in the topic, this would become a helpful source of references. Scope of the study This present research is concerned with the students‟ level of WTC and factors affecting their WTC.
This study misses out the teacher‟s perceptions and other institutional factors regarding this issue. The study targets at first year students, and in English speaking lessons. They have general knowledge of English but they still have sluggish reactions to English – speaking environment. Furthermore, having just left high schools, they still kept some habits of studying of high school: grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation to pass the national exam which may need time and environment to change.
Methods of the study This is a cross-sectional survey research. There are two instruments to collect the data: questionnaires and interviews. Firstly, questionnaires help to collect a considerable amount of information in a short period of time and it can be used with many people in various situations (Foddy, 1994). The interviews were taken place in a natural context and were recorded for later transcriptions (Foddy, 1994).
Design of the thesis The thesis includes 3 parts: Part one, “Introduction” presents the rationale, the objectives, the scope, the tasks, the methods, the significance and the design of the study. Part two, “Development” has three chapters: Chapter 1: Literature review provides the background of the study, including definition of key concepts such as willingness to communicate in second language (L2), roles of teachers and students, speaking competence, speaking 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com in second language learning and teaching and a critical review of contemporary related studies. Chapter 2: Methodology describes the participants and instruments of the study, as well as the process employed to carry out the research. Chapter 3: Findings and discussion from the collected data are represented and in connection with the research questions and previous studies.
Part three: Conclusion summarizes the main issues discussed in the paper, the limitations of the research, recommendations related to research topic as well as suggestions for further research. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW The simplest format of a literature review is a summary of the relevant literature (Jesson, Matheson, & Lacey, 2011). This format consists of two main sections. The first section reviews definition of key terms includes the concept of willingness, communication, willingness to communicate.
The second section presents WTC in history and some related studies. According to Jesson et al. 92), “it is not necessary to copy out all the methodological details of each study – you have given a reference so the reader can do that if it is relevant – but what we need to know are the key points and that depends on the framework and focus of your research questions”. In so doing, Appendix 5 shows a table of research instruments which links the research questions to research objectives, methods, research tools and to literature review.
Willingness to communicate This section reviews key concepts in Willingness to Communicate (WTC) and it seeks to provide the overall literature of Willingness to Communicate. It first discusses the term willingness and goes on to present communication. In WTC, there are four central things we must take into consideration (Galajda, 2017): the situation of communication; who we communicate with (interpersonal communication); how much we can communicate (communicative competence); and the chances that we communicate (opportunities to communicate). Oxford Learner Dictionary (Hornby, 2015, p.