TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Pages SUB COVER PAGE STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS .1 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.4 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES. Scope of the study. Structure of the study .12 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Previous studies related to the topic.
The overview of Vietnamese learners’ English speaking competence. Vietnamese learners’ English speaking competence. The situation of learning English speaking skill in the classroom. What is speaking?.
Activities for speaking practice in the classroom. Students’ problems appearing while learning English-speaking skill. Solutions to overcome those problems. Possible ways to overcome speaking problems inside the classroom.
Overcoming speaking problems through out-of-class activities. The importance of out-of-class activities. Some out-of-class activities to enhance English speaking skill. Benefits of out-of-class activities.
Data analysis methods .44 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. The situation of learning English. Students’ purposes of learning English. Learning English speaking skill.
Students’ expectations in learning English speaking. Students’ attitudes towards English speaking skill. The understanding of speaking. The importance of English speaking skill.
Students’ interest in learning English speaking. Activities organized in speaking practice in the language classroom. Students’ English speaking competence. Students’ problems while speaking English.
Effective ways to enhance English-speaking skill. Students’ suggestions to enhance English-speaking skill. Teacher’s interest in improving students’ English speaking competence 63 4. Students’ perceptions about out-of-class activities.
Students’ interest towards out-of-class activities. The importance of out-of-class activities. Out-of-class activities for enhancing students’ English speaking competence. Benefits of out-of-class activities .72 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND LIMITATIONS.
Implications and suggestions .77 APPENDICES 3 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL : English as a Foreign Language N1 : The number of the first year students N2 : The number of the second year students N3 : The number of the third year students N4 : The number of the fourth year students CALL : Computer-Assisted Language Learning CMC : Computer Mediated Communication 4 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.2: Students’ English speaking competence .3: Students’ interest towards out-of-class activities .4: The importance of out-of-class activities .5: Benefits of out-of-class activities .71 LIST OF TABLES Figure 4.1: Students’ purposes of learning English .2: Students’ expectations in learning English speaking .3: The understanding of speaking .4: The importance of English speaking skill.5: Students’ interest in learning English speaking .6: Activities organized in speaking practice in the language classroom .2: Students’ English speaking competence .7: Students’ problems while speaking English .8: Students’ suggestions to enhance English-speaking skill .9: Teacher’s interest in improving students’ English speaking competence .3: Students’ interest towards out-of-class activities .4: The importance of out-of-class activities .10: Out-of-class activities for enhancing students’ English speaking competence .5: Benefits of out-of-class activities .71 5 ABSTRACT This paper aims to explore some out-of-class activities in order to help students enhance their English speaking skill. The subjects involved in the research consist of 49 students of advanced physics program at Hue University, College of Education. The data was collected both quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings of the study were obtained by means of questionnaires and interviews with the informant of the research.
The findings reveal that the students are highly aware of the importance of out-of-class activities in improving English-speaking skill. In addition, the findings show five interesting out-of-class activities that students have done for developing English speaking skill such as (1) listening to and singing along with English music songs, (2) watching English films, (3) participating in some English-speaking clubs, (4) reading English grammar books, and (5) talking to friends in English. Moreover, some benefits from out-of-class activities were confirmed by the majority of participant such as (1) be more confident in speaking English with everyone, (2) be better at English speaking skill, and (3) know more some English vocabularies. Based on the findings, some recommendations and implications are made in the hope that the quality of learning English-speaking skill may be improved in the near future.
Besides, some limitations and further researches are thus suggested. Rationale “It is an evitable fact that English language is the most widely used language around the world” (Wijarwadi, 2008, p. In the researcher’s opinion, therefore, more and more people would like to learn English due to different purposes. For instance, some people would like to learn English because they have an intention to work or immigrate in the foreign countries where English is spoken as the first language like the United States of America or Canada, others would like to learn English because they would like to keep space with the trend of the era of globalization.
However, for many students, it is likely that they learn English as a Foreign Language because it is considered one of the compulsory subjects in their curriculum. Similarly, on write has stated, Outside English-speaking countries, English has become a compulsory component of education in many countries. This trend also applies in Vietnam. At many schools and universities, English is chosen as a compulsory subject for students as English is considered to be a useful tool to access the world knowledge.
(Bùi Thị Minh Hồng, 2006) In fact, it is no doubt that English has been introduced to educational institutions, which is learnt from Junior High School up to University level as a compulsory subject. In addition, some students also think that they need to learn English well in order to be able to get high score when taking some kinds of tests like TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) or IELTS (International English Language Testing System), then it can provide them with ready access to world scholarship. Actually, this is considered as one of the best wishes of many Vietnamese students. This is possibly because studying abroad is a great chance for practicing English as well as a useful way for improving English-speaking skill.
What is more, “it is often suggested that one of the principle advantages of studying abroad is that it has the power to expand the four walls of the traditional classroom to include the local streets and people of any given culture” (Mendelson, n. Besides, in terms of studying abroad, one writer shared, 7 Studying abroad, I have learned much. I have learned what I have not learned during my 12 years of secondary education and years at university…. I have learned how to learn independently.
Students have to exploit the resources in the library to their utmost, which helps develop autonomy in studying and doing research. Working by this way, when knowledge has been constructed, they are in learners’ mind. In Vietnam, we do not even have enough time for rote learning, let alone going to the library for doing searching. As a result, after the exam, knowledge “goes back” to the teachers.
Secondly, learning a foreign language requires the language learners to master four skills at the same time. They are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It is because these four skills have a close relationship with each other. For instance, listening and reading often help us to receive information.
Meanwhile, speaking and writing are considered the means of transferring information. However, among these four skills, speaking skill seems to be the most important skill because “speaking ability is the measure of knowing a language” (Lawtie, 1998, p. This is to say that students can evaluate their English knowledge throughout their speaking ability. Therefore, in the researcher’s point of view, in order to help students to be better at English speaking skill, the EFL teachers should pay more attention to teaching speaking by making some suitable changes in teaching methodology to make the lesson more interesting and meaningful.
If so, to some extent, the teachers may encourage students to have some positive motivations in learning English in general and in learning English-speaking skill in particular. Nevertheless, both teachers and students play an important role in teaching and learning process, so not only teachers but also students should strive to have the results more than expected. What happens if the teacher teaches well, but the students do not learn well? This, as a result, can cause two situations- one is that the teacher is not satisfied with their students; another is that the students do not really pay attention to their learning or it seems that the students themselves are less responsible for their learning. In other words, they seem to be indifferent to their learning.
For this reason, it makes the researcher tend to think that students should 8 participate positively all activities in speaking practice inside the classroom as well as take all chances in speaking class to express their ideas in English to make their English speaking skill better. However, rarely can all students do like that in the classroom because there are many students with different levels, learning styles as well as interests in each class. Therefore, in the researcher’s viewpoint, it is desirable that students are encouraged to do some activities outside the classroom actively in addition to taking part in all activities organized in speaking practice in the classroom in order to help them enhance their English speaking skill as well as other skills effectively. It is because participating in out-of-class activities makes students feel free in choosing what activities they would like to do in order to enhance English-speaking skill.
Moreover, when doing some out-of-class activities, students will be able to realize that they themselves play the central role in learning process and this can remind them that the teachers just give some sincere advice as well as some conscientious guidance in order to help them learn English better. This is to say, students themselves decide the path leading to the success of learning English. Thirdly, English is more important to those who follow some learning programs in cooperation with many foreign universities. In fact, nowadays, there are many universities in Vietnam having a close relationship with other universities in the world in order to train some majors such as Business Administration, Banking and Finance, and so on.
For example, in Hue University, College of Education, in recent years, there has always been a class about less than 30 students following the program, namely “Advanced physics program”. In all of the classes following this program, students mostly learn many subjects related to their major with many teachers coming from The United States of America. During the first year, they mainly learn English at the basic level with some important grammatical rules. However, from the second year to the fifth year, they will totally learn all subjects belonging to their major in English.
Therefore, in order to help them to communicate in English successfully with their teachers, students need to be good at English, especially English-speaking skill because “it is one of the central 9 elements of communication” (Shumin, 1997, p. For this reason, the researcher really thinks that the students of advanced physics program should practice English as much as possible in order to help them to have “a concrete foundation” when learning with many foreign teachers in the near future. To do so, they may need to take advantage of all opportunities in the classroom to talk or share their ideas in English. Nevertheless, not all students can do like that, because they seem to be less confident in expressing their ideas in English.
In addition, it is clear that some students tend to be shy when speaking English because they do not have good pronunciation. Moreover, other students also think that their vocabulary is not abundant enough to express their ideas as well as their thought in English. Therefore, it is necessary for them to do some activities outside the classroom to help them improve their pronunciation, gain the vocabulary as well as build up their confidence in speaking English.