MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
QUY NHON UNIVERSITY
HO THI DIEM
ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS BY RURAL 9th
GRADERS VERSUS URBAN ONES IN BINH DINH
PROVINCE
Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching
Code: 8140111
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. NGUYEN QUANG NGOAN
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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I confirm that the work presented in this research report has been carried
out by myself. Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, no
other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the
thesis. I confirm that this work is submitted in partial fulfillment for the M.A.
thesis in English at Quy Nhon University and has not been submitted
elsewhere in any other form for the fulfillment of any other degree or
qualification.
Quy Nhon, July 2022
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Without the support, encouragement, and contributions from my Assoc.
Prof. Doctors, Doctors, colleagues, friends and family, the successful
completion of this thesis work would not have been possible. I take this
chance to appreciate them for their expert advice and wise invaluable
comments, and generous time. They have enriched my knowledge and made
my graduate journey a memorable chapter in my life.
First and foremost, I am grateful to my thesis supervisor, Assoc. Prof.
Dr. Nguyen Quang Ngoan, for his amazing supervision. His outstanding
knowledge and profession teaching-related expertise inspired me greatly
during my academic life at Quy Nhon University, and he opened new
horizons for me in the field. I appreciate his accommodating guidelines and
suggestions, great patience, and strong management skills in helping me
resolve the obstacles during the time I carried out my thesis. I feel fortunate to
have had him support for my work.
I was also thankful to my colleagues for their fascinating assistance,
support and management during the pilot phase. They not only encouraged
me when I met obstacles during my thesis, but also gave me valuable insights
into my thesis. I am very lucky to know all of them.
Last, but not least, I am grateful to all the support and encouragement I
received from my beloved family throughout my thesis education.
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ABSTRACT
This research was conducted with the aim to investigate similarities and
differences in speaking English between rural 9th graders and urban ones in
Binh Dinh Province, how well rural 9th graders in Binh Dinh Province speak
English, compared to urban 9th graders in Binh Dinh Province. In this study,
quantitative and qualitative approaches were applied for comparative analysis.
The population of the study was 69 rural 9th graders, 61 urban ones and 6
English teachers in charge of teaching those 9th graders of the 6 secondary
schools chosen to investigate in Binh Dinh Province consisting of 3 secondary
schools in an urban area and 3 ones in a rural area. The instruments were Test
and Interview. The data for analysis selected from the first test (Test 1), the
second test (Test 2) and the interviews were analyzed by means of SPSS. The
findings showed that there was significant difference about English speaking
skills among the urban group and the rural group. However, there was
improvement between the first test and the second test among the two groups.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................. ii
ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................. iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................... vii
LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................... viii
LIST OF CHARTS ........................................................................................... x
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1
1.1 Rationale...................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Research aim and objectives ....................................................................... 3
1.3 Research questions ...................................................................................... 4
1.4 Scope of the study ....................................................................................... 4
1.5 Significance of the study ............................................................................. 4
1.6 Structure of the thesis .................................................................................. 5
CHAPTER 2.LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................... 7
2.1 Oral communication and the Speaking skill in a Foreign Language .......... 7
2.1.1 Definitions of Oral communication and the Speaking skill .............. 7
2.1.2 Oral proficiency ............................................................................... 12
2.1.3 Necessity of Speaking Assessment .................................................. 14
2.1.4 Test specifications............................................................................ 15
2.1.5 Speaking Component Assessment using the Components of
English Language Development Assessment (ELDA) ............................ 15
2.2 Speaking skills of the 9th graders in Vietnam ........................................... 19
2.3 External factors and speaking in English .................................................. 20
2.3.1 Family factor .................................................................................... 21
v
2.3.2 Socio-economic factor ..................................................................... 21
2.3.3 Facilities and resources .................................................................... 21
2.3.4 Teacher‟s qualification .................................................................... 22
2.4 Related studies .......................................................................................... 22
CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURE ................................ 29
3.1 Research design ......................................................................................... 29
3.2 Participants ................................................................................................ 30
3.3 Instruments ................................................................................................ 31
3.3.1 Tests ................................................................................................. 32
3.3.2 Interviews ......................................................................................... 33
3.4 Procedure ................................................................................................... 33
3.4.1 Data collection ................................................................................. 33
3.4.2 Data analysis .................................................................................... 35
CHAPTER 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .............................................. 36
4.1 Students‟ English speaking test results ..................................................... 36
4.1.1 Participants‟ English speaking test results within the two groups .. 37
4.1.2 Participants‟ English speaking test results between the two
groups ........................................................................................................ 39
4.2 Students‟ conversation skills and project presentation skills .................... 40
4.2.1 Students‟ conversation skills from Test 1 and Test 2 ...................... 40
4.2.2 The students‟ belief in their conversation skills from the
interviews .................................................................................................. 41
4.2.3 Students‟ project presentation skills from the interviews ................ 45
4.3 Students‟ abilities of giving personal opinions and exchanging ideas
and information between the two groups ........................................................ 47
4.4 Students‟ English pronunciation ............................................................... 48
4.4.1 Students‟ pronunciation in speaking English in the urban group .... 49
4.4.2 Students‟ pronunciation in speaking English in the rural group ..... 53
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4.4.3 Students‟ opinions about English pronunciation ............................. 57
4.4.4 Teachers‟ opinions about English pronunciation ............................ 64
4.5 External factors influence the students‟ English speaking skills .............. 66
4.5.1 Results from the students ................................................................. 66
4.5.2 Results from the teachers ................................................................. 68
4.6 Summary ................................................................................................... 69
CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION ........................................................................ 72
5.1. Summary of the study .............................................................................. 72
5.2. Summary of key findings of the study ..................................................... 72
5.3. Implications .............................................................................................. 73
5.4 Limitations and suggestions for further study .......................................... 74
REFERENCES ................................................................................................ 76
vii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
MOET:
Ministry of Education and Training
EFL:
English as a foreign language
L2:
Second language
L1:
First language
ELDA:
English Language Development
Assessment
SES:
Socio-ecomomic Status
Q1:
Question 1
Q2:
Question 2
Q3:
Question 3
Q4:
Question 4
ST 1:
Student 1
ST 2:
Student 2
ST 3:
Student 3
ST 4:
Student 4
viii
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1: Speaking scoring rubric of the tests ............................................... 17
Table 4.1: Reliability Statistics for Test 1....................................................... 36
Table 4.2: Reliability Statistics for Test 2....................................................... 37
Table 4.3: Mean difference of students‟ speaking test results in the rural
group ............................................................................................. 38
Table 4.4: Mean difference of students‟ speaking test results in the urban
group ............................................................................................. 38
Table 4.5: Students‟ English speaking test results between the two groups .. 39
Table 4.6: Students‟ conversation skills in speaking in English between
the two groups ............................................................................... 41
Table 4.7: Students‟ abilities of giving personal opinions and exchanging
ideas and information between the two groups ............................ 48
Table 4.8: Students‟ pronunciation in speaking in English between the two
groups ............................................................................................ 49
Table 4.9: Reliability Statistics of students‟ pronunciation in speaking
English in the urban group in Test 1 ............................................. 50
Table 4.10: Students‟ pronunciation in speaking English in the urban
group in Test 1 .............................................................................. 50
Table 4.11: Reliability Statistics of students‟ pronunciation in speaking
English in the urban group in Test 2 ............................................. 52
Table 4.12: Students‟ pronunciation in speaking English in the urban
group in Test 2 .............................................................................. 52
Table 4.13: Reliability Statistics of students‟ pronunciation in speaking
English in the rural group in Test 1 .............................................. 54
Table 4.14: Students‟ pronunciation in speaking English in the urban
group in Test 1 .............................................................................. 54
ix
Table 4.15: Reliability Statistics of students‟ pronunciation in speaking
English in the rural group in Test 2 .............................................. 56
Table 4.16: Students‟ pronunciation in speaking English in the rural group
in Test 2......................................................................................... 56
Table 4.17: Some urban and rural participants‟ scores from Test 1 and
Test 2 ............................................................................................. 68
x
LIST OF CHARTS
hart 4.1: Urban students‟ belief versus rural students‟ one in their
conversation skills......................................................................... 44
hart 4.2: Urban students‟ project presentation skills versus rural
students‟ ones. ............................................................................... 47
Chart 4.3: Opinions of the urban students about English pronunciation ........ 60
Chart 4.4: Opinions of the rural students about English pronunciation ........ 62
hart 4.5: Urban students‟ opinions versus rural students‟ opinions about
English pronunciation. .................................................................. 63
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1 introduces the rationale underlying this current study. The
chapter includes 6 main parts: rationale, aim of the study, research questions,
scope of the study, significance of the study, and structure of the thesis.
1.1 Rationale
According to Eaton (2010, p. 16), learning English as a foreign language
in the 21st century is emphasized not only on grammar, but also on
communicative skills and the skills are applied as a means for communicating
and connecting to others over the world. In English language learning,
speaking is considered as one of the most key skills to be progressed and
enhanced continually communication. The speaking skill is also one of the
essential elements to evaluate someone‟s English abilities.
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages:
learning, teaching and assessment was created for the unification of directives
in the learning and education of the languages, proposes orientations by
means of linguistic guidelines to achieve the communication in the teachinglearning process of a language by The Council of Europe. In the Common
European Framework of Reference for Languages the acquisition of a
language is contextualized with specific aims of communication, it is needed
to learn in classrooms beyond linguistic contents. At present, we are requested
to be able to communicate in English during English learning process in
general and in the life in participate, especially English speaking skills.
According to Clark and Clark (1997, p. 233), “speaking is fundamentally an
instrumental act”. Widdowson (1984, p. 58) says that “speaking is the active
2
or productive skill”. According to above two definitions, it can be referred
that speaking is an interaction progression between two people or more. A
good speaking activity is when the people interacting can understand each
other. For example, speaking activities in classrooms are interaction between
a teacher and a student or more students. In the interaction, the teacher should
have a good speaking ability because through his or her speech, he or she has
to help his students understand the material.
Today, with economic integration and globalization in Vietnam,
speaking English well is necessary in life in general and at work in particular.
It is in recognition of the need to be good at English speaking skill and
achieve efficiency in communication focally emphasized on speaking skills in
the Vietnamese school system. The curriculum which guides the study of this
subject is planned available by the Ministry of Education and Training
(MOET) in Vietnam for both rural and urban schools. The scheme of work
guiding the teachers of this subject is also made available in the same way to
all schools. Lately, the MOET in Vietnam has issued guidelines for the
piloting of teaching and learning English as a foreign language (EFL) and
English is taught in schools as a compulsory subject from Grade 3. In the
context of Binh Dinh - a province belonging to Coastal Southern Central
Vietnam consisting of Quy Nhon City and ten rural and mountainous districts,
there has been a difference in using types of textbook series in curriculum
from Grade 3 to Grade 9 between schools in Quy Nhon City and schools in
districts. Therefore, at the time the study was carried out, I chose the urban
low- secondary schools and the rural ones which have applied pilot English
curriculum of the MOET for Grade 9 to investigate. It also means that
investigated 9th graders used the same type of textbook, and curriculum
distributed by the MOET.
3
In the context of Vietnam, English language called and known as the
foreign language (EFL) is acquired. This implies that most speakers acquire
English in addition to their mother tongue, called and known as the first
language (L1). And this may lead to mother tongue interference problem.
Observably, Vietnamese learners have difficulties in English pronunciation. It
is obviously seen that both the teachers and the learners must exert effort in
this aspect of the English language to achieve fluency, whether in the Urban
or Rural areas. But it is disappointing to understand that people pass positive
results in favor of the students in the urban areas to be better in the knowledge
and understanding of the subject than the ones in the rural areas.
Because of the above reasons, this study, entitled “English Speaking
Skills By Rural 9th
rader
er
rba
e
i h i h ro i ce”,
wishes to assess English speaking skills amongst 9th graders at three urban
lower-secondary schools and three rural ones in Binh Dinh Province and
examine differences and similarities in speaking English among them.
1.2 Research aim and objectives
The general aim of the study is to investigate similarities and differences
in speaking English between rural 9th graders and urban ones in Binh Dinh
Province.
The objectives of the study are:
To examine how well rural 9th graders in Binh Dinh Province speak
English.
To examine how well urban 9th graders in Binh Dinh Province speak
English.
To discuss similarities and differences in speaking English between
rural 9th graders and urban ones in Binh Dinh Province.
4
1.3 Research questions
The study is carried out to answer the following questions:
1. How well do rural 9th graders in Binh Dinh Province speak English?
2. How well do urban 9th graders in Binh Dinh Province speak English?
3. What are similarities and differences in speaking English between
rural 9th graders and urban ones in Binh Dinh Province?
1.4 Scope of the study
The study mainly bases on the framework of the 2018 high school
English target program of the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam
to analyze and compare speaking skills in English of the 9th graders of the
lower-secondary schools. However, with the restricted time and geographical
conditions, I was not ambitious to conduct a total research on the 9th graders
of all lower-secondary schools in Binh Dinh Province. Instead, I conducted
my study on 130 ninth graders of six lower-secondary schools including 69
ninth graders of three rural schools and 61 ninth graders of three urban ones.
And the English teachers of the 9th graders were asked to give help on my
interview.
1.5 Significance of the study
The findings of the study are expected to help people have a more
accurate point of view of speaking skills in English of the 9 th students,
whether in rural areas or urban areas. The findings of the research seem to
make both theoretical and practical contributions. It can enrich the
comparative studies of English speaking skills and contribute to the process of
teaching and learning English language. Furthermore, the research results
wish to expose that it is suggested for the government to recruit teachers of
Oral English who are professional to teach the subject in schools and it is also
suggested for the schools in the rural areas to be made conducive like those in
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the urban areas - electrification, water, quarters, library, laboratory etc. In
addition, the recommendations have also been put in place that the students
should learn and practice all English speaking skills including speaking,
listening, writing, reading and uses of the language.
1.6 Structure of the thesis
The study is organized in 5 chapters:
Chapter 1, Introduction, introduces the rationale, aim and objectives,
research questions, scope, significance of the study and structure of the thesis.
Chapter 2, Literature Review, is put within its theoretical framework, by
presenting the major theories that support it. First of all, I present literature on
Oral Communication and the Speaking skill in a Foreign Language including
Definitions of Oral communication and the Speaking skill; Oral proficiency;
Necessity of Speaking Assessment; Test specifications; and Speaking
Component Assessment using the Components of English Language
Development Assessment (ELDA). Secondly, English speaking skills of the
9th graders in Viet Nam is also shown. Thirdly, External factors and speaking
in English are discussed, which consisting of Family factor, Socio-economic
Factor, Facilities and Resources, and Teachers‟ qualification. Fourthly, related
studies are shown.
Chapter 3, Methodology, supplies comments on research design,
participants, instruments and procedure.
In chapter 4, Results and discussion, presents similarities and differences
in speaking skills of the investigated 9th graders in rural schools versus urban
schools and the external factors influencing the similarities and differences in
Oral English are reported.
Chapter 5, Conclusion and Implications, composes of the main findings
6
resulting in the conclusions and discussion of its limits and a few
recommendations.
7
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
The purpose of this study is to examine English speaking skills by rural
9th graders versus urban ones in Binh Dinh Province. The chapter reviews the
literature knowledge related to (1) Oral communication and the speaking skill
in a Foreign Language, (2) Speaking skills of the 9th graders in Vietnam, (3)
External factors and speaking in English, and (4) Related studies.
2.1 Oral communication and the Speaking skill in a Foreign Language
2.1.1 Definitions of Oral communication and the Speaking skill
The definitions of the terms “Oral communication” and “Speaking skill”
have been suggested by a lot of researchers in language learning.
Paltridge (2001) states that oral communication is a two-way progression
embracing the speaker and listener and it relates the productive skill in
speaking and the receptive one in understanding or listening to understand (
cited in Palmero, 2019).
Rixon (2011) declares that oral communication skill concerns a
communicative ability of conveying and receiving information. Oral
communication refers to the meaning‟s negotiation between two or more
persons; therefore, it is always related to the context occurring speaking
communication which both speaker and listener play important roles.
Palu (2016) and Akinola (2014) proclaim that oral communication is a
unique and learned oratorical skill that expects to understand what to be said
and how to say it. Speech in more formal circumstances is not sent out
naturally. What should be learned is how to think and show oneself as a
speaker in all occasions.
Asubiojo et al. (2005) professes that „oral communication skill is a
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highly sought skill compared to writing and reading‟ (cited in Palmero, 2019).
This is reason why learning to speak is an important aim. It provides learns
with a set of communication skills so that they can employ in the rest of the
life. Besides, oral communication is employed to send out thought, debate or
discuss, suggest explanations, send out information, and make attention or
impressions on others.
Palu (2016) and Olatunji (2012) said that oral communication is a
dynamic interactive progression that relates to the effectual spread of realities,
opinions, thoughts, feeling and worth. Speakers are actively and are
consciously absorbed in communication so that they may grow information
and understanding entailed for effective group function.
Gass (2013) asserts that oral communication is the spoken contact
between two or more people (cited in Palmero, 2019).
Richards and Renandya (2002, p. 204) reports that an effective oral
communication require the skills to use the language competently in real-life
interactions involving not only verbal communication but also paralinguistic
factors of speech like pitch, stress and intonation. Brown (2007, p. 237)
declares that social contact in interactive role of language is important and in
which it is not only what you say but also how you say it.
According to Nunan (1989, p. 32), effective oral communication
comprises: the skill to articulate phonological features of the language
comprehensibly; mastery of stress, rhythm, intonation patterns; an acceptable
extent of fluency; skills in transactional and interpersonal; skills in taking short
and long speaking turns; management skills of interaction; negotiating skills of
meaning; conversational listening skills (successful conversations require good
listeners as well as good speakers); skills in being aware of negotiating purposes
for conversations; using correct conversational formulae and fillers.
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