MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ TRÚC LY FACTORS INFLUENCING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS: A CASE STUDY AT TUY PHUOC 3 HIGH SCHOOL Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 8140111 Supervisor: Dr. VO DUY DUC BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN NGUYỄN THỊ TRÚC LY NHỮNG YẾU TỐ ẢNH HƢỞNG ĐẾN KỸ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH - MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU ĐIỂN HÌNH TẠI TRƢỜNG THPT TUY PHƢỚC 3 Ngành: Lý luận và phƣơng pháp dạy học bộ môn tiếng Anh Mã số: 8140111 Ngƣời hƣớng dẫn: TS. VÕ DUY ĐỨC i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP This thesis represents my own work and due acknowledgement is given whenever information is derived from other sources. No part of this thesis has or is being concurrently submitted for any other qualification at any university except where due reference has been made in the text.
Quy Nhon, 2022 NGUYEN THI TRUC LY ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Without the assistance of many people, this thesis could not have been completed. I would like to express my profound gratitude and respect to those who provide me with advice and assistance when I carry out this research. First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Vo Duy Duc, my supervisor, who kindly provides me with appropriate direction, useful suggestions and critical comments so that I can have a suitable topic to pursue and finish in time.
I would also give my special thanks to all the lecturers of the Department of Foreign Languages and the Department of Pedagogy in specific and to Quy Nhon Univesity in general who have provided me with precious education, not only in English major but also in other fields of knowledge. Without such knowledge, I cannot make such a far progress in my academic career. I would also like to say thanks to some of the teachers and students at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School who participated in my study for their support incompleting the survey questionaires and helping me in recording the speaking classes. Last but not least, I am particularly indebted to my parents for their greatest encouragement and support that motivated me to complete this study even in the hardest period.
I feel extremely lucky to have their sympathy and backup. iii ABSTRACT The current study aimed at investigating major problems that Tuy Phuoc 3 high school students have in the process of learning English speaking skills as well as the reasons behind the frequency of making common mistakes in speaking English. A descriptive research design was employed for the study. The participants of this study were 120 students of three grades: 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade and 8 English teachers at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School.
The data was gathered through online surveys and audio recordings. The results showed two kinds of problems that students encounter including linguistic problems and psychological problems. From the findings, most of the students always have difficulties in using grammar (59,2%), vocabulary (54,2%) and pronunciation ( 42,5%) correctly. In addition, up to 60,2 % of the participants always feel anxious or shy when they perform a speaking task.
Besides, the results also revealed that affective factors impacting students’ performance in speaking skills are shyness, peer pressure, anxiety, and fear of making mistakes. Other factors that hinder speaking performance are time for preparation, pressure to perform well, teachers’ support, motivation to speak, topical knowledge, listening ability. Among these factors, time for preparation is the most influential factor, which accounts for 87,5% of the respondents. The study has significant contributions to teaching and learning speaking skills.
iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF TABLES. vii LIST OF FIGURES.
AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY. SCOPE OF THE STUDY. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY. DESIGN OF THE STUDY.
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORICAL BACKGROUND. DEFINITION OF SPEAKING SKILLS. MAJOR PROBLEMS STUDENTS FACE IN LEARNING TO SPEAK ENGLISH. FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCE.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND PROCEDURE. Biographic information of the participants. Data-collecting Instruments. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS SPEAKING ENGLISH IN THE CLASS. COMMON PROBLEMS STUDENTS MAKE WHEN SPEAKING ENGLISH. Students’ perception of common speaking problems. Teachers’ responses to students’ speaking mistakes.
Observation during actual teaching. FACTORS INFLUENCING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS. Students’ self-evaluation. Factors affecting students’ speaking performance.
Teachers’ evaluation of performance conditions. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS. Common problems Tuy Phuoc 3 high school students encounter when they learn to speak English. Factors influencing the students’ speaking skills.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES. 65 APPENDICES vii LIST OF TABLES Table Title Page number number 3.1 Students’ background information 26 3.2 Teachers’ background information 27 4.1 Students’ perception of common problems 34 4.2 Students’ self-evaluation 40 4.3 Factors influencing students’ speaking skills 51 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Title Page number number 4.1 Students’ attitudes toward speaking English 32 4.2 Students’ frequency of practise speaking English 32 outside the class 4.3 Students’ evaluation of the important of speaking 33 skills 4.4 Students’ attitude of English – speaking classes 34 4.5 Teachers’ responses to students’ mistakes during 38 oral work 4.6 Factors influencing students’ speaking performance 42 4.7 The performance conditions in speaking class 50 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. RATIONALE It is undeniable that English has an important role in global communication, so the number of English language learners has been increasing. However, to become a mastered or just successful language learner, they must have the ability to speak in this language.
In this case, Nunan stated that for most people, mastering speaking skills is the single most important aspect of learning a second or foreign language (Nunan, 1991, cited as in Hendra Heriansyah, 2012). In the same way, Richards and Renandya (2002) assert: "A large percentage of the world's language learners study English in order to develop proficiency in speaking" (p. They argue that speaking is the most important language skills that need to be controlled, and they assess learning achievement based on mastery of speaking skills (Burnkart, 1998, cited as in Hendra Heriansyah, 2012). Moreover, it can be said with certainly that English provides us with numerous benefits and advantages.
People from Europe, Africa, and Asia speak English, so instead of learning their challenging language, we may converse with them in English. That is the reason why speaking English is often believed to be one of the most important subjects that we should not miss, as David Crystal (2003) in his book- “English as global language” stated that "Out of 360 persons, around 330 speak English as their mother tongue". Many students, however, struggle to express themselves due to a lack of vocabulary, poor grammatical structure, psychological influence, mother language tendencies, and inaccurate pronunciation. Listeners can understand but not very well when students speak English words incorrectly.
In Vietnam, a recent study (Quyen, V., 2018) showed that 2 most high school students faced both internal and external challenges. For example, those difficulties were the lack of vocabulary to express ideas in speaking English and the limitation of English speaking strategies; or teachers did not create interesting speaking activities and correct mistakes of speaking with few responses. At schools, English is also a compulsory subject which most Vietnamese students have learned since they were in grade 3. After graduating from high school, students with a great passion for this foreign language choose English as a major for their higher education.
When learning this language, learners have to master four main skills: listening, reading, speaking and writing. Of these four skills, speaking is considered to be the most difficult skill that requires a huge amount of time to practice and promote. Being one of the English teachers at Tuy Phuoc 3 high school, I recognize that the majority of the students cannot speak English fluently or pronounce correctly, even most of the other excellent students cannot communicate well with each other or with the teachers in English. I desire to help students at my school improve their English speaking skills.
For those reasons, with a view to looking into the factors that influence their ability to communicate in English at Tuy Phuoc 3 high school, I am so inspired to conduct a study on “Factors influencing students’ speaking skills - A case study at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School” as my master thesis. AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The major aim of this study is to investigate some major problems the students encounter when they learn to speak English and find out the factors affecting the students' speaking performance. In order to achieve this aim, some objectives are posed: - To identify major problems that high school students have in the 3 process of learning speaking skills. - To point out the factors influencing students’ speaking skills.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS Based on the aims of the research, the following questions are expected to be answered: 1. What are the problems that Tuy phuoc 3 high school students encounter when they learn to speak English? 2. What are the factors affecting their speaking performance? 1. SCOPE OF THE STUDY Due to the research conditions, it was impossible for the research to be carried out in a large-scale investigation of all classes at Tuy Phuoc 3 High School.
Instead, it focused on 120 students and 6 English teachers at Tuy Phuoc 3 high school to find out common problems that students encounter when they learn to speak English and it also focused on factors affecting their speaking performance. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY It is obvious that English is an international language which is spoken widely around the globe. As a result, speaking is one of the basic competencies which should be mastered by students in the process of learning English as a foreign language. The study sheds light on speaking issues of high school students, which could point out the factors causing major problems that students make during English speaking classes at school and some feasible solutions to deal with such difficulties.
DESIGN OF THE STUDY The study is structured as follows: Chapter 1, Introduction: announces the rationale, aims, research 4 questions, scope, methods and design of the study. Chapter 2, Literature Review and Theoretical Background: shows some previous relevant studies and relevant theoretical background for the study. Chapter 3, Research Methodology: introduces the methods of research, procedures of the study and the research design. Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion: deals with the data gathered, presents the author's finding and discusses.
Chapter 5, Conclusion and Implications: summarizes the main findings which gives answers to research questions as well as suggestions for further researches. 5 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORICAL BACKGROUND The purpose of this chapter is to provide an extensive review of literature on speaking skills. First, an overview of speaking skills including definitions of speaking skills is presented. This chapter is also designed to present some major problems that high school students encounter when they learn to speak English.
Then, factors influencing students’ speaking skills are pointed out. DEFINITION OF SPEAKING SKILLS The definition of speaking, just like other abstract terms, varies from scholar to scholar. The variety of its definition can be explained as the result of the difference in the mentality of people from different periods as well as the difference in the perspective from which speaking is considered. However, they all believe that speaking involves speech and through speech speakers express their opinions, attitudes, feelings, etc.
Burns & Joyce (1997) defined speaking as an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves the production, reception, and processing of information. Its form and meaning are determined by the context in which it takes place, which includes the participants themselves, their shared experiences, the physical surroundings, and the purposes for speaking. It means that speaking is learners’ ability to express their opinions, feelings, and ideas orally, coherently, logically, and appropriately in a given meaningful context.