VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, LANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ——>-+-— NGUYÊN ANH QUỲNH FACTORS AFFECTING THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN ORAL ACTIVITIES: A SURVEY AT THAI NGUYEN COLLEGE OF EDUCATION (NHỮNG NHẪN 'TO ANH HUONG DEN SU THAM GIA VAO CAC HOAT DONG NÓI CỦA SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYEN NAM THỨ NHẬT NGHIÊN CỬU KHAO SAT TAI TRUONG CAO DANG SU PHAM THAI NGUYEN) M.A MINOR THESIS, FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601416 HANOT-2012 ‘TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Page DECLARATION. He He He He weed ACKNOWLUDGEMEN'TS. He He He SÁT ABSTRACT. ke ke ke weed TABLE OF CONTENTS.
LIST OF ABBREVTATIONS. He He He ee Vil TLIST OF FIGURES AND TA BLES. He He Vil Part A: INTRODUCTION. Statement of problem and rationale.
" raeeee " raeeee wel Aims of the gtuđy. ¬— ¬— ¬— wd won Signiticance ot the study Scope of the study awe Research methods Organization of the sludy Part B: DEVELOPMENT. CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW. Theoretical background of speaking.
Concept of speaking. TH se TH se TH se wd 1.2, The role of speaking in foreign language teaching. Approaches in teaching speaking. Students’ participation in oral activities 1.1, Concept of sludents’ participation.
Factors affecting students’ participation in oral a 12. Students’ language proficiency level.2, Students’ personally factors. Students’ atlilude and mơlivation. Teachers’ hímg miethod.
" raeeee " raeeee well 1. Teachers’ knowledge and characteristics. Classroom at~nosphere. " raeeee " raeeee weld 1.
Classroom physical conditions. Relevance of this study.1, Background of the study. An overview of Thai Nguyen College of Education 2. The tearhers oc 2.4, The materials and syllabus 3.
Dala collections instruments. Data collection procedures CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3. Results of students’ survey questionnaire. Results of teachers’ survey questionnaire.
Result from interviews with teachers. Findings and discussion .4 Students’ low level of participation in oral activities. Students’ factors coos 3. CHAPTER 4: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .2, ‘The teachers 43, The classroom.
ke ke ke wh Part B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter consists of three sections The first section reviews the theoretical background of speaking which includes the concept ot speaking, the role of speaking in foreign language teaching and learning, approaches in teaching speaking. The second section deals with the issues of students’ participation in oral aclivili s. The las sevtion is the relevance of this study. Theoretical background of speaking 1.
Concept of speaking In language teaching, speaking can be regarded as the productive skill. Different linguisls have dilferent coneepls of” spoaking. According to Chancy and Burk {1998:13), speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols in a variety of contexts”. As stated by Bum and Jayce (1997), speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information.
Moreover, speaking, as Bygate (1987) defines, involves not only the use of the right sounds in the pallems of rhythm and intonation, bul also the choice of words and mflections im the right order to convey the right meaning. In the study of Browm and Yule (1983), spoken language consists of short, fragmentary ultcranees in a range of pronuncialion. Besides, speaking is known lo have two main types of conversation namely dialogue and monologue. In monologue, you give uninterrupted oral presentation while in dialogue you interact with one or more other speakers for transachional and international purposes Irom the above definitions, speaking is making use words, knowing and being able to use language: expressing in words and making speech.
‘Iheretore, we can inter that speaking is the ability to make use of words or a language to express oneself in actual communication. The role of speaking in foreign language teaching and learning Jt has been accepted tor many years that communication 1s the proper aim for language teaching. According to Ilymes (1972) "The goal of language teaching is to develop communicative competence” (as cited in Larseen-Freeman. That means we learn a language to communicate well in that language.
In the study of Ur (1996), speaking scoms intuitively the most important of all four skills. Speaking is Part C: CONCLUSION. Summary of the study. Limitation and susgestions for further study.
APPENDICES classroom size, atmosphere, and materials. ‘Lhe subjects of the study are 6 teachers of English and 160 first year non-major English students at TNCE 5. Research methods To conduct the study, quantitative and qualitative methods were used. To collect information and evidence lor the study, survey questionnaires for both teachers and students and interviews for teachers were used.
All comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion provided in the study based on the data analysis. Organization of the study ‘This mmor thesis 1s composed of three parts: Part A, Introduction, presents the statement of problem and rationale, aims ot the study, significance of the study. scope of the study, research methods, and organization ot the study. Part B, Development, including the following chapters: Chapter I, Literature review, presents the theoretical background of speaking in which concepl ol speaking, the role of speaking in Jorcign language teaching and learning, approaches in teaching speaking are considered, issues ot students’ participation in oral activities including concept of students’ participation and factors atfecting students’ participation in oral activities Chapter 2, Methodology, includes background of the study, research questions, the participants, data collection instruments, and data collection procedures.
Chapter 3, The results and discussions, presents data analysis of the study, findings and discussions which discover factors atfecting both students and teachers in oral activities Chapter 4, Implications and Recommendations, gives some suggestions to increase students’ participation in oral activities. Part C, Conclusion, summarizes all the key issues of the study as well as the limitations of the study and suggestions for further study. Part B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter consists of three sections The first section reviews the theoretical background of speaking which includes the concept ot speaking, the role of speaking in foreign language teaching and learning, approaches in teaching speaking. The second section deals with the issues of students’ participation in oral aclivili s.
The las sevtion is the relevance of this study. Theoretical background of speaking 1. Concept of speaking In language teaching, speaking can be regarded as the productive skill. Different linguisls have dilferent coneepls of” spoaking.
According to Chancy and Burk {1998:13), speaking is “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols in a variety of contexts”. As stated by Bum and Jayce (1997), speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information. Moreover, speaking, as Bygate (1987) defines, involves not only the use of the right sounds in the pallems of rhythm and intonation, bul also the choice of words and mflections im the right order to convey the right meaning. In the study of Browm and Yule (1983), spoken language consists of short, fragmentary ultcranees in a range of pronuncialion.
Besides, speaking is known lo have two main types of conversation namely dialogue and monologue. In monologue, you give uninterrupted oral presentation while in dialogue you interact with one or more other speakers for transachional and international purposes Irom the above definitions, speaking is making use words, knowing and being able to use language: expressing in words and making speech. ‘Iheretore, we can inter that speaking is the ability to make use of words or a language to express oneself in actual communication. The role of speaking in foreign language teaching and learning Jt has been accepted tor many years that communication 1s the proper aim for language teaching.
According to Ilymes (1972) "The goal of language teaching is to develop communicative competence” (as cited in Larseen-Freeman. That means we learn a language to communicate well in that language. In the study of Ur (1996), speaking scoms intuitively the most important of all four skills. Speaking is classroom size, atmosphere, and materials.
‘Lhe subjects of the study are 6 teachers of English and 160 first year non-major English students at TNCE 5. Research methods To conduct the study, quantitative and qualitative methods were used. To collect information and evidence lor the study, survey questionnaires for both teachers and students and interviews for teachers were used. All comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusion provided in the study based on the data analysis.
Organization of the study ‘This mmor thesis 1s composed of three parts: Part A, Introduction, presents the statement of problem and rationale, aims ot the study, significance of the study. scope of the study, research methods, and organization ot the study. Part B, Development, including the following chapters: Chapter I, Literature review, presents the theoretical background of speaking in which concepl ol speaking, the role of speaking in Jorcign language teaching and learning, approaches in teaching speaking are considered, issues ot students’ participation in oral activities including concept of students’ participation and factors atfecting students’ participation in oral activities Chapter 2, Methodology, includes background of the study, research questions, the participants, data collection instruments, and data collection procedures. Chapter 3, The results and discussions, presents data analysis of the study, findings and discussions which discover factors atfecting both students and teachers in oral activities Chapter 4, Implications and Recommendations, gives some suggestions to increase students’ participation in oral activities.
Part C, Conclusion, summarizes all the key issues of the study as well as the limitations of the study and suggestions for further study. LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Tigire L.àccccecoeccee ¬—-- ¬—-- ¬—-- ant) Figure 2. " tceaeee " raeeee Table 2. " tceaeee " raeeee ‘Table 3.
" tceaeee " raeeee ‘Table 4. ‘Table 10 Table 11 poor background knowledge, lack of contidence, lack of motivation and passive learning style. Although there have becn many studies about factors affecting students’ parlicipalion im oral activities, il is considered new in the RFT. context of Thai Nguyen College of Education (TNCE).
As a teacher at this college, the researcher sees that most ot her students do not often enjoy speaking period, and they do not actively contribute the speaking lessons. They always keep quiet, passively take note, some listen to better students speaking but do nothing, and some hard-working students discuss in Vietnamese. The suudy cmllled " Factors affecting the first year non-English major students’ participation in oral activities: a survey at thai Nguyen College of ducation” is an attempt to tind out the reasons for above problems, and give some suggestions to increase students’ participation in oral slivities, 2. Objec es of the study The study was conducted lo (1) invesligale the current teaching and learning of speaking skill of the sluderts al TNC, (2) identily the factors alfecling the First year non-English major students’ participation in oral activities, then (3) give same recommendations for teachers and students to increase students’ participation in oral activities.
Significance of the study Theoretically, it is hoped that this study can be used as a reference for other researchers who want to conduct the study related to teaching and Icarning speaking in general and faciors aftecling students’ partis pation ir oral speaking aclivilies in particular. The result of the study can be useful for English teachers to implement suitable teaching method to their students. Practically, the study will hopefully better the researcher and her colleagues’ teaching, help the students be aware of their problems in learning and solve these problems. The researcher alse hopes that this study will benefit both the teaching and learning of English spcaking.
Scope of the study The current research mainly covers the possible factors affecting (he students’ participation in oral activities including students’ language proficiency level, attitude and motivation, personality, teacher's teaching methods, characteristics, poor background knowledge, lack of contidence, lack of motivation and passive learning style. Although there have becn many studies about factors affecting students’ parlicipalion im oral activities, il is considered new in the RFT. context of Thai Nguyen College of Education (TNCE).
