VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *********************** TRẦN THỊ NGỌC MAI AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL OF NON-MAJOR ETHNIC MINORITY STUDENTS AT A TEACHER TRAINNING COLLEGE IN THE NORTHWESTERN AREA OF VIETNAM (Nghiên cứu những chiến lược để phát triển kỹ năng nói Tiếng Anh của sinh viên không chuyên người dân tộc thiểu số tại trường Cao đẳng Sư phạm vùng Tây Bắc Việt Nam) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI - 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *********************** TRẦN THỊ NGỌC MAI AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL OF NON-MAJOR ETHNIC MINORITY STUDENTS AT A TEACHER TRAINNING COLLEGE IN THE NORTHWESTERN AREA OF VIETNAM (Nghiên cứu những chiến lược để phát triển kỹ năng nói Tiếng Anh của sinh viên không chuyên người dân tộc thiểu số tại trường Cao đẳng Sư phạm vùng Tây Bắc Việt Nam) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr. Huỳnh Anh Tuấn HANOI - 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby certify the thesis entitle ‘an investigation into the strategies for developing English speaking skill of non-major ethnic minority students at a teacher training college in the Northwestern area of Vietnam’ is my own study in the fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
Hanoi, September 2017 Tr n Th Ng M i i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Huynh Anh Tuan, who is willing to devote his time to offer me professional guidance and practical comments on my research. If there is not his valuable suggestions, careful and detailed critical comments, this study will not be fulfilled. Also, my deepest gratitude is extended to my parents as well as friends for their support and encouragement throughout my thesis.
Finally, this research could not have been conducted without the cooperation of the non-major ethnic minority students at Dien Bien teacher training college during the process of data collection. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT The present study is conducted in the hope of finding out: (1) the types of strategies non-major ethnic minority successful and unsuccessful learners at a teacher training college in the Northwestern area of Vietnam use to develop their speaking skill (henceforth referred to as speaking strategies) and (2) the relationship between their speaking learning strategies and their oral language proficiency. In order to seek answers to the two research questions centering on these two issues, a descriptive survey method was applied. A questionnaire and some interviews were utilized to collect the data.
The questionnaire which consisted of 28 items was built from Oxford‘s Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) to elicit the ethnic minority students‘ use of str tegies for developing spe king skill. The interviews onsisted of 6 questions involving students‘ n me, attitudes, study methods, perceptions and study hours of interviewees to get more understanding of the re sons behind the students‘ le rning str tegies hoi es. Thirty six students, who were classified as successful, satisfactorily successful and unsuccessful took part in the survey and eight students were chosen to participate in the interviews after completing the questionnaire. The findings of this study revealed that some strategies were more frequently used by learners than the others.
Moreover, there were similarities in choosing memory strategies, cognitive strategies and social strategies for improving the le rners‘ spe king skill nd significant differences in the frequency of the use of compensation strategies, metacognitive strategies and affective strategies among student groups. Besides, successful and satisfactorily successful students used more strategies than unsuccessful students. The results also presented some successful and unsuccessful students were reported using strategies not listed in the questionnaire. The final finding is that language learning strategies are related to successful and unsuccessful non-major ethnic minority students‘ or l English proficiency to some extent.
iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vii LIST OF TABLES.
viii PART A: INTRODUCTION. Objectives of the study. Methods of the study. Scope of the study.
Significance of the study. Organization of the study.5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Language learning strategies. Definitions of language learning strategies.
Classifications of language learning strategies. The differences between language learning strategies and language use strategies. Definition of speaking. Components of second language speaking competence.
Relationship between language learning strategy use and language proficiency. Language Learning Strategies and English Majors .20 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Previous studies on language learning strategies. Previous studies on speaking strategies.
Research method: Survey. Types of survey research: Descriptive survey. Survey research designs: Cross-sectional design. Steps in carrying out a survey: 7 steps.
The outcomes of the pilot study. Setting of the study. Data collection instruments: Questionnaire & Interview. Data collection procedure.
Data analytical framework. Data analysis procedure .48 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS. Questionnaire data analysis (for investigating the types of speaking strategies used between successful, satisfactory successful and unsuccessful students). Interview data analysis .58 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Questionnaire data analysis (for finding out the relationship between l ngu ge le rning str tegies nd students‘ or l English profi ien y)………….68 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Kinds of language learning strategies for developing English speaking skill used by successful and unsuccessful ethnic minority students. Rel tionship between l ngu ge le rning str tegies nd students‘ or l English proficiency. Limitations and suggestions for further studies.
XXXII vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESL: English as a second language LLS: Language learning strategy LLSs: Language learning strategies SD: Standard deviations SPSS: Statistical Package for the Social Science SILL: Strategy Inventory for Language Learning vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Seven-stage survey research process. 31 Table 2: Strategies for survey sampling. 34 Table 3: Three sample size estimates. 35 T ble 4: Summ rizes the entire result ronb h‘s lph.
38 Table 5: Strengths and weaknesses of tape-recording and note-taking. 45 Table 6: Speaking strategy at six categories of language learning strategy used between successful, satisfactorily successful and unsuccessful students. 52 Table 7: Memory strategies used by successful, satisfactorily successful and unsuccessful students. 53 Table 8: Cognitive strategies used by successful, satisfactorily successful and unsuccessful students.
53 Table 9: Compensation strategies used by successful, satisfactorily successful and unsuccessful students. 54 Table 10: Metacognitive strategies used by successful, satisfactorily successful and unsuccessful students. 55 Table 11: Affective strategies used by successful, satisfactorily successful and unsuccessful students. 56 Table 12: Social strategies used by successful, satisfactorily successful and unsuccessful students.
56 Table 13: Overall speaking strategies between successful, satisfactorily successful and unsucessful students. 57 Table 14: ANOVA results for the language learning strategies used by learners with different English proficiency. 58 T ble 15: Students‘ s ores nd their le rning str tegy use t six tegories of LLSs. 64 Table 16: Students‘ s ores nd their memory strategy use.
64 Table 17: Students‘ s ores nd their ognitive str tegy use. 65 Table 18: Students‘ s ores nd their ompens tion str tegy use. 65 Table 19: Students‘ s ores nd their metacognitive strategy use. 66 Table 20: Students‘ s ores nd their ffe tive str tegy use.
67 Table 21: Students‘ s ores nd their so i l strategy use. 67 viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION This part provides an overview of the current study. It starts with reasons for choosing the research topic. Then, objectives and research questions of the study are shown.
Next, methods and scope of the study are discussed. After that significance of the study is clarified. Finally, the outline of the study is presented. Rationale There is no doubt that speaking plays an important role in the language learning process.
Hence, among the four language skills speaking is claimed to be at the heart of second language learning, (Egan 1999: 277). Moreover, Nunan (1999) states that success in learning a language is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the language. However, spoken language production is often considered one of the most difficult aspects of language learning (Brown & Yule, 1983). Pinter (2006) also sees that learning to speak is viewed as the greatest challenge for all language learners to truly grasp.
Thus, how to improve speaking proficiency for students seems to be a crucial question among instructors. A common comment drawn among ethnic minority students in Dien Bien context is that they are able to understand what they read and write although they sometimes may make mistakes in writing and understand a paragraph wrongly; yet they find arduous to express their feelings and ideas through oral language. They like to speak in their mother tongue when they interact to their friends. Also, minority learners feel afraid of making mistakes in English speaking so they often find hard to get enough experience with English in English class.
As a result, they fail to obtain speaking skills which lead to low marks in speaking. ‘Teachers open the doors, but you must enter by yourself’ is an old Chinese proverb. It seems true when the change in favor of learning and teaching placed importance on learner-centered approach rather than the teacher-centered one. Teachers provide their students with good opportunities to gain knowledge and learners know how to apply that knowledge to their own studying in order to be more successful.
Wenden and Rubin (1987) found that some learners were more successful than others since they use learning strategies more effectively. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Furthermore, learning strategies are considered to be ― n extremely powerful le rning tool‖ (O‘M lley, Ch mot, Stewner-Manzanares, Kupper, and Russo, 1985:43). This ‗tool‘ is ble to help students over ome the problems they f e in their language learning journey. Nonetheless, most of ethnic minority students often ignore appropriate strategies that they are guided by their teachers or rarely apply those strategies in their learning.
There goes an old proverb which states: “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish and he eats for a lifetime‖. When applied to the language teaching and learning field, this proverb probably means that if students are provided with strategies, they will manage their own learning. This suggests that using language learning strategies in learning process need to be encouraged.
There has been a limitation in the number of studies on the second language learning of ethnic minority students in Vietnam. Study by Tran Thi Phuong Hoa (2011) focused on ethni minority students‘ beliefs about English language learning and the study by Le Ngoc Oanh (2009) investigated into differences of reading strategy use between Kinh and Thai students. Until now, there has been one study carried out by Do Thi Anh Thu (2017) on learner autonomy of ethnic minority in Northwest region, Vietnam. However, there have not been any studies which were conducted to discover and clarify strategies that were used by ethnic minority students in improving their speaking skills.