Tài liệu Factors influencing students' speaking skills a case study at tuy phuoc 3 high school

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 ................................................................... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ................................................................................ ii ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................. iv LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................ viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................. 1 1.1. RATIONALE .......................................................................................... 1 1.2. AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY ......................................... 2 1.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS .................................................................... 3 1.4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY ....................................................................... 3 1.5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ....................................................... 3 1.6. DESIGN OF THE STUDY ..................................................................... 3 CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORICAL BACKGROUND ............................................................................................. 5 2.1. DEFINITION OF SPEAKING SKILLS ................................................ 5 2.2. MAJOR PROBLEMS STUDENTS FACE IN LEARNING TO SPEAK ENGLISH....................................................................................................... 7 2.2.1. Linguistic problems ............................................................................. 7 2.2.2. Psychology ......................................................................................... 12 2.3. FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCE ........................................................................................ 14 2.3.1. Performance Conditions..................................................................... 14 2.3.2. Affective Factors ................................................................................ 15 2.3.3. Listening Ability ................................................................................ 19 v 2.3.4. Topical Knowledge ............................................................................ 20 2.3.5. Teacher’s Feedback ........................................................................... 21 2.4. SUMMARY .......................................................................................... 23 CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY........................................ 24 3.1. RESEARCH DESIGN AND PROCEDURE ....................................... 24 3.1.1. Research Design................................................................................. 24 3.1.2. Procedure ........................................................................................... 24 3.2. DATA COLLECTION ......................................................................... 25 3.2.1. Participants ......................................................................................... 25 3.2.2. Biographic information of the participants ........................................ 26 3.2.3. Data-collecting Instruments ............................................................... 28 3.3. DATA ANALYSIS ............................................................................... 30 3.4. SUMMARY .......................................................................................... 30 CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ......................................... 31 4.1. STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS SPEAKING ENGLISH IN THE CLASS. ............................................................................................... 31 4.2. COMMON PROBLEMS STUDENTS MAKE WHEN SPEAKING ENGLISH..................................................................................................... 34 4.2.1. Students’ perception of common speaking problems ........................ 34 4.2.2. Teachers’ responses to students’ speaking mistakes ........................ 38 4.2.3. Observation during actual teaching ................................................... 39 4.3. FACTORS INFLUENCING STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILLS ...... 40 4.3.1. Students’ self-evaluation .................................................................... 40 4.3.2. Factors affecting students’ speaking performance ............................ 42 4.3.3. Teachers’ evaluation of performance conditions ............................... 50 4.3.4. Observation ........................................................................................ 51 4.4. CHAPTER SUMMARY ....................................................................... 57 vi CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS.......................... 59 5.1. CONCLUSIONS................................................................................... 59 5.1.1. Common problems Tuy Phuoc 3 high school students encounter when they learn to speak English .......................................................................... 59 5.1.2. Factors influencing the students’ speaking skills. ............................. 60 5.2. IMLICATIONS..................................................................................... 61 5.3. LIMITATIONS ..................................................................................... 63 5.4. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES...................................... 64 REFERENCES .............................................................................................. 65 APPENDICES vii LIST OF TABLES Table Title number Page 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 number Page 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 1.1. 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.201). 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.P., et al., 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. 1.2. 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. 1.3. 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? 1.4. 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. 1.5. 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. 1.6. 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. 2.1. 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. Moreover, speaking is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving. Nevertheless, speech is not always unpredictable. Speaking requires that learners not only understand how to provide specific points of language like grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary (linguistic competence), but also that they understand when, why, and in what ways to provide language 6 (sociolinguistic competence). Finally, unlike written language, speech has its own abilities, structures, and traditions. To achieve a specific speech act, a good speaker combines a variety of abilities and knowledge. According to Chaney and Burke (1998, p.13), speaking is defined as “...the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts." This skill is critical in the teaching and learning of second languages, but it has been neglected for years, particularly in high schools. It demands as much attention as reading skills because it is the vehicle that carries many of the most basic transactions. In terms of language teaching and learning, speaking is taken into account as one of the four important language skills (listening, reading, speaking, and writing) to practice and master. Nunan (2003, p.48) claimed that "Speaking is the productive oral skill. It consists of producing systematic verbal utterance to convey meanings." Also, regarding speaking as a skill, Bygate (1987, p.3) looked into the difference between knowledge and skill in a speaking session, which he thought to be a critical aspect of speaking instruction. He argued that speaking is considered as a skill that deserves attention as much as literary skills in both first and second language. In addition, Ur in his book titled "A course in language teaching" indicated: (...) of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems intuitively the most important: people who know a language are referred to as 'speakers' of that language, as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing; and many if not most foreign languages learners are primarily interested in learning to speak (Ur, 1996, p.120). 7 The author emphasized the importance of speaking and he realized that learning speaking involves quite a vast knowledge of different language aspects so speaking may be perceived as a complicated process. According to Byrne (1986), he stated that speaking skill is one of two ways of the oral communication process, and is the productive skill. The speaker must encode (or interpret) the message he desires to express in proper language, while the listener must decode (or interpret) it. To sum up, each researcher has a different way to describe speaking. In general, their definitions are different in the form; however, they seem to be the same in the content, i.e. speaking as an action, a process, and a skill. In this study, the term "speaking" was used as a skill related to language teaching and learning. 2.2. MAJOR PROBLEMS STUDENTS FACE IN LEARNING TO SPEAK ENGLISH Obviously, anyone learning a new language is supposed to make mistakes. Even if the students are disappointed, we must accept this as a fact of learning a language. It is not simple to be a great learner in four basic skills when learning English as a foreign language, especially speaking. Hetrakul (1995) said that “they? Who? use English more frequently only inside the class and less frequently outside the class”. Whereas students have limited time to learn English in class, and they still do not have enough encouragement to practice English outside the class in order to get familiar with English”. This section highlights some common problems that high school students may encounter when they practise speaking English. 2.2.1. Linguistic problems Speaking problems are factors that caused someone to be unable to communicate. Language difficulties, according to Doris and Jessica (2007), 8 are one of the major causes of poor academic achievement. These issues may obstruct students' ability to enhance and improve their speaking skills. The students' weak grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation are the main reasons for their speaking difficulties. Those problems belong to linguistic problems. Linguistics is the scientific study of language, including the structure of language (grammar), words, and phonology. Spolsky and Hult (2008) define linguistics as the study of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation in detail. Linguistic problems are those problems which make students’ speaking ability become poor. Some linguistic problems can influence someone's ability to talk, such as bad grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. According to Richards (2008), some typical learners have difficulty in speaking because (1) they are poor at grammar, (2) lack vocabulary needed to talk, and (3) poor at pronunciation. 2.2.1.1. Grammar Grammar is a field of linguistics concerned with the structure of words, their relationships with one another, and their agreement in phrases, clauses, and sentences in order to communicate meaning. The researcher would like to quote certain opinions in order to better comprehend the concept of grammar. Chomsky (1986) said, "Grammar is a set of rules that would generate all the possible sentences of a language and none of the possible sentences," Chomsky said (p.236). Grammar, then, is a set of rules for generating both logical and illogical phrases. Grammar is one of the methods for constructing a sentence. Grammar deals with how sentences are built and written so it may be considered a bit boring to study correct grammar since it really is worth the time and effort. Learners who do not understand the rules of grammar will never be able to speak effectively in English. Grammar becomes tough, according to Celce-murcia (2001s), since learners do not learn structures one 9 at a time. Even when learners appear to have mastered a particular structure, backsliding is not uncommon when new forms are introduced to the learners' interlanguage. For example, a learner who has mastered the third singular person marker on a present tense verb may over-generalize the rules and apply it to newly developing model verbs, resulting in errors like "She can speak English." Because the students have not understood English grammar, these errors may arise when they speak. 2.2.1.2. Vocabulary Researchers from Harvard University and Google estimated a total of 1,022,000 words in 2010 during a project that required them to look at terms in digitized books, and that the number will increase by several thousand per year. Approximately 171,476 to around 470,000 words are used in English nowadays. As a result, many students struggle to communicate themselves due to a lack of vocabulary. Regardless of the fact that many students learn English from primary school to college or university, their vocabulary remains limited. Students learn basic English at university, but native speakers use slang, idioms, and phrasal verbs in everyday conversation. In fact, while speaking English with only simple words, high school students still have a lot of communication limitations. Another source of difficulties in English speaking classes is a lack of vocabulary, which makes speaking uninteresting and inefficient. In addition, it confuses students too much in using correct vocabulary in speaking. Schewertly (2012) indicated that choosing appropriate vocabulary is an important aspect of any presentation. It means that lacking of knowledge vocabulary will become a challenge to choose the correct words. If the words used to be not in rules, they will make a misunderstanding to the audiences. Another mistake students make when speaking English is failing to pay 10 attention to word stress, phrase stress (rhythm), and not using intonation. Vietnamese is a tonal language, which means that each word has a mark to differentiate it from other words like "be," "bé," and " bẻ". Meanwhile, English is a toneless language. Students must use rhythm or intonation to express their meaning, attitude, and feelings when speaking. Misuse or omission of rhythm/intonation might cause the audience to misunderstand what the speaker is trying to say. It will also make it difficult for us to listen to what others have to say. Besides, a vocabulary item is a single word or a group of words with a specified meaning. According to Kamil and Hiebert (2005), vocabulary is the knowledge of word meanings. There are at least two types of words: oral and written. The set of terms for which we know the meanings when we talk or read verbally is known as oral vocabulary. When we write or read silently, our print vocabulary comprises of words for which the meaning is known. Language problems occur when someone lacks the necessary vocabulary to communicate and does not know how to put the vocabulary together into a meaningful phrase. Khan (2005) claims that a large majority of students learning English as a foreign language have difficulty using words and expressions in conversation. Furthermore, Doris and Jessica (2007) claim that in real-life conversation, no one paid attention to correct grammar expressions, but instead focused on the content and how to respond. Students know exactly what they want to say in the source language, but when they have to transfer to the target language, such as English, they frequently struggle to combine and apply the necessary vocabularies. 2.2.1.3. Pronunciation English has developed into a language that brings people from all over the world together. Learners of a second or foreign language are also expected