Tài liệu Investigating some factors affecting english speaking skill of k9 english students foreign language department hung vuong university and suggesting some solutions

PHU THO PEOPLE’S COMMITEE HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY ---------&--------- NGUYEN THI DUNG K6 ENGLISH CLASS SUMMARY OF GRADUATION PAPER INVESTIGATING SOME FACTORS AFFECTING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL OF K9 ENGLISH STUDENTS – FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT – HUNG VUONG UNIVERSITY AND SUGGESTING SOME SOLUTIONS. Field: Linguistics Code: Mentor: Nguyen Thi Thu Hang, MA_Foreign Language Department –Hung Vuong University Phu Tho, May 2012 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research has been developing for almost seven months with the responsibility of researcher and great help from other people. First of all, I wish to express my deep gratefulness to my supervisor, Mrs. NguyÔn ThÞ Thu H»ng, MA_Foreign Language Department –Hung Vuong University. She is the person who has been my trusted guide through the completion of the thesis. My acknowledgement is also sent to Dean and Leading Board of English faculty, who gave me opportunities to study and do my graduation paper. My deepest gratitude also goes to all the lectures of English faculty at Hùng Vương University for their enthusiastic teaching during my four_ year study. They gave me not only knowledge but also the precious experience in life. Great acknowledgement is made to all authors of the books listed in the biography, whose ideas have inspired and stimulated my thinking and my writing of this paper. Many thanks are also sent to my dear friends who have shared with me a lot during my studies and my research work as well. Last but not least, the whole- hearted thanks to my parents, siblings, especially my beloved who have loved, cared and stood by my side through any joyful and depressing moments in my life. Phu Tho, May, 2012 Nguyen Thi Dung ABSTRACT For some recent years, English plays an important role in Viet nam, therefore, it had been taught in schools as a compulsory subject. Although the English teaching curriculum in Vietnam has been changed a lot, it does not meet the main objective of learning and teaching foreign language in general which is communicative competence. As a result, after graduating from university, most of the students can not communicate well in English although they are very good at grammar and vocabulary and students in Hung Vuong University are not except. That is why improving their speaking ability should be paid more attention when they are still at university. It is also a question inspired me to think about factors affecting English speaking skill and from that suggest some solutions to improve students’ speaking skill for k9 English students - Foreign Language Department- Hung Vuong University. In attempt to fulfill my thesis, the following processes are made: Firstly, the theoretical background of speaking skill in English learning. Then the survey questionnaire is delivered the students to find out the current situation of learning and teaching as well as some factors affecting on English speaking skill of the first year English students. Besides, other method employed includes classroom observations. From the collected findings, some suggested solutions have been recommended with aiming at improving students’ speaking skill. At the end of this study, those activities have applied with the hope to help k9 English students to learn speaking skill effectively. Table of content ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ABSTRACT A. INRODUCTION.....................................................................................1 I. Background for the study…………………………………….. 1 II. Research purpose……………………………………………. 2 III. Hypothesis…………………………………………………………… 2 IV. Research procedure………………………………………………….. 3 V. Scope of the study……………………………………………………. 3 VI. The significance of the research…………………………………… 3 VII. Organization of the study…………………………………………… 3 B. THE STUDY…………………………………………………………. 6 6 Chapter i: literature review………………………………………... 1.1. Speaking skills in English learning………………………………….. 6 1.1.1. An overview of speaking skills……………………………………. 6 1.1.2. The importance of speaking skills in English learning……………. 7 1.1.3. Principles for teaching speaking………………………………….. 1.2. Factors affecting learning English speaking skills ………………… 8 11 1.2.1. Listening comprehension………………………………………….. 1.2.2. Grammatical accuracy…………………………………………….. 1.2.3. Pronunciation……………………………………………………… 1.2.4. Vocabulary………………………………………………………… 11 11 12 13 1.2.5 Appropriateness of answers………………………………………... 14 1.2.6. Organization of ideas……………………………………………… 14 1.2.7. Fluency……………………………………………………………. 15 1.2.8. Enthusiasm and Self-confidence…………………………………. 16 1.2.9. Length of answers…………………………………………………. 17 1.3. Strategies to speak English well…………………………………….. 17 1.4. Useful activities in learning English speaking……………………… 21 CHAPTER II: Methodology…………………………………………… 26 2.1. Subject of the study………………………………………………….. 26 2.2. Data collection instruments…………………………………………. 27 2.2.1. Classroom observation……………………………………………. 27 2.2.1.1. Reasons of classroom observation………………………………. 27 2.2.1.2. Description of classroom observation…………………………… 28 2.2.2. Survey questionnaires……………………………………………... 28 2.2.2.1. Reasons for choosing the questionnaire…………………………. 28 2.2.2.2 Description of survey questionnaire……………………………... 29 2.3. Current situation of learning speaking English……………………… 29 2.3.1. Data collected from observation………………………………… 29 2.3.2. Data collected from students’ survey……………………………… 30 2.4. Results………………………………………………………………. 34 CHAPTER III: Suggested 37 Solutions…………………………………… 3.1. Discussion…………………………………………………………… 37 3.2. Picture Describing………………………………………………… 38 3.3. Role-play……………………………………………………………. 39 CHAPTER IV: The 40 Experiment…………………………………………. Procedure……………………………………………………………. 40 CHAPTER V: Results and Discussion………………………………… 45 5.1. Results………………………………………………………………. 45 5.1.1. Results from the test………………………………………………. 45 5.1.2. Results from class observation……………………………………. 46 5.1.3. Results from recording…………………………………………… 48 5.2. Discussion…………………………………………………………… 49 Part c: 51 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………….. I. Implications…………………………………………………………… 51 II. Limitations of the study……………………………………………… 52 III. Suggestions for further studies………………………………………. 53 References Appendixes Hung Vuong University - Foreign Language Department Part A: introduction I. Background for the study All developing nations are aware of the fact that learning a foreign language is very important in order to adopt the latest scientific and technological innovations in the world. Undoubtedly, English has become a world language rather than the language of only the English speaking countries such as the UK and the US because the number of the people who use English as a means of communication exceeds much more than the number of the people who speak it as their mother tongue. Hence, English is used as a common foreign language to contact the people in other countries, and thousands of people belonging to various professional groups are going abroad (either with the support of some institutions or not). English has become one of the most important languages in the world. It has trickled even into lesser known countries as something that is needed to communicate with others. English is used in politics, business dealings, and everyday life. Many people are finding it hard to get by without knowing English. The global language of English is found in popular music, television programs and even on the internet. As a whole, there are more websites made in English than anywhere. Realizing the importance of English, many people have taken it on as a second language. Being able to speak English accurately and fluently is a big desire for anyone studying English and this seems to be the most challenging task for EFL learners. This task can be fulfilled if students live up to some basic requirements and one of them is the English speaking skill and good English speaking skill is considered as the key to successful communication. Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching. Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a Nguyen Thi Dung – K6 English 1 Graduation Paper Hung Vuong University - Foreign Language Department 5 repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues. However, today's world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students' communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriately in each communicative circumstance. There is a fact that k9 English students, they are the first year students so their ability to speak English is not very good. The reasons mentioned above have inspired the author of this paper to conduct the study entitled “Investigating some factors affecting speaking skill of K9 English students of the Foreign Language Department – Hung Vuong University and suggesting some solutions”. And hopefully, this study will contribute to the goal of enhancing students’ performances in learning foreign languages in general and English in particular. II. Research purpose The study aims at the following goals:  Researching on the theoretical background of the issues of English speaking skill.  Investigating some factors affecting English speaking skill of K9 English students at the Foreign Language Department – Hung Vuong University.  Suggesting some solutions to improve students’ English speaking skill.  Conducting experiment to test the effectiveness of the suggested solutions. III. Hypothesis By investigating some factors affecting English speaking skill of K9 English students at the Foreign Language Department – Hung Vuong University and suggesting some solutions to improve students’ English speaking Nguyen Thi Dung – K6 English 2 Graduation Paper Hung Vuong University - Foreign Language Department skill, the students’ performances of speaking will be better, more interesting and their English competence in general will be improved. IV. Research procedure The study based on some theoretical background on aspects involving speaking skill. By theoretical method the researcher reviewed in the literature review section to get the basis for the research. Classroom observation and questionnaires were administered to get the information about situation of learning English speaking at the university. Then the results collected were analyzed to identify some factors and some feasible solutions will be provided. In order to test the effectiveness of suggested solutions, the researcher carried out an experiment. After the experiment, there were results to help the researcher make further comments on the procedure. V. Scope of the study The study focused on investigating some factors affecting English speaking skill made by the first year English students at the Foreign Language Department – Hung Vuong University, working out the causes for these factors and proposing some solutions to solve the problem. VI. The significance of the research This research is carried out with the hope that it can help find out factors affecting English speaking skill made by the first year English students at Foreign Language Department – Hung Vuong University. This study is also beneficial to students themselves because once they have realized their own factors, they can avoid confusing when communicating. Besides, this research also lays the foundation for further studies on this topic. VII. Organization of the study The study consists of three main parts: Nguyen Thi Dung – K6 English 3 Graduation Paper Hung Vuong University - Foreign Language Department Part A: Introduction. This chapter introduces an overall view of the research. Part B: The study: consists of 5 chapters Chapter I: Literature review Literature review of English speaking, factors affecting learning English speaking, strategies to speak English well, and some useful activities in learning speaking are provided in this chapter. Chapter II: Methodology This chapter contains two sections. The first section provides detailed information about the subjects of the study, and then focuses on some reasons for choosing the data collections. The second section provides some findings about the real situation of teaching and learning speaking, some factors affecting English speaking skill of the first year English students – foreign language department- Hung Vuong University. Chapter III: Suggested solutions The researcher will provide some feasible solutions to improve students’ English speaking skill. Chapter V: The experiment The researcher would like to conduct an experiment to help students improve their speaking skill. Chapter IV: Results and discussion The researcher will give the results and discussion after conducting an experiment. Part C: Conclusion This concludes summary, implications, limitations of the research, and provides suggestions for further studies. Nguyen Thi Dung – K6 English 4 Graduation Paper Hung Vuong University - Foreign Language Department References Appendix Nguyen Thi Dung – K6 English 5 Graduation Paper Hung Vuong University - Foreign Language Department Part b: the study Chapter I: literature review In this chapter, the researcher reviews the literature of speaking skill, factors affecting learning English speaking, strategies to speak English well and some useful activities in learning speaking. Those are important factors which help the researcher resolve problems in the study. 1.1. Speaking skills in English learning 1.1.1. An overview of speaking skills Speaking is among the four skills which learners take interest in when learning a language. It is one of the most used skill, and need to be paid much attention to both foreign teachers and learners. Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts” (Chaney, 1998: P 13). Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching. Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues. In addition, Brown (1994b) and Burns & Joyce (1997) also share the same view. They considered speaking as an interaction process of constructing that involves producing, receiving and processing information. Its form and meaning are dependent on the content in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking, which is often spontaneous, open-ended, and involving. However, speech is not always unpredictable. Language functions or language patterns tend to recur in curtain discourse situations (for example: accepting an invitation or ordering food and drink) Burns & Joyce, 1997). In other words, speaking is the activity which helps speakers transfer information and maintain Nguyen Thi Dung – K6 English 6 Graduation Paper Hung Vuong University - Foreign Language Department the relationship. Speaking requires learners to not only learn how to produce specific points of language such as grammar and vocabulary (linguistic competence), but also when, why and in what ways language is produced (linguistic competence). Although the concept of “speaking skill” was mentioned a lot, it seems to be too difficult to give an exact definition. Among which Mackey (cited in Bygate, 2000) summarized oral expressions as follows: Oral expression involves not only the use of the right sounds in the right patterns of rhythm and intonation but also the choice of words and inflections in the right order to convey the right meaning. In another research, Brown and Yule (cited in Richard, 1983) have pointed out the functions of speaking which are classified into two main functions known as international functions of speaking and the transactional functions. 1.1.2. The importance of speaking skills in English learning Speaking, along with other three skills including reading, listening and writing helps learners learn a language most effective. Good speaking skills help people communicate the fastest and the most effective. Therefore, “some sort of dynamic individual and meaningful oral practice should be included in English lessons right from the beginning” (Hypel & Richard 198:13). There are the reasons why speaking skill is important. According to Flohr and Paesler (2006), speaking skills are the most important ones in learning a foreign language, they also emphasized that “the focus in learning a foreign language is on communication activities and expressive abilities and the global is to become a fluent speaker” Some others considered speaking as a meaningful source of motivation. According to Lawtiew, ELT teacher of British Council: Nguyen Thi Dung – K6 English 7 Graduation Paper Hung Vuong University - Foreign Language Department If students do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom they may soon get de-motivated and lose interests in learning. On the hand, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking is in the class can be a lot of fun and dynamic place to be. (2002) According to As Hornby (2010, P.129): Speaking helps us express or communicate opinions, feelings, ideas, etc, by or as talking and it involves the activities in the part of the speaker as psychological, physiological and physical stage. Teaching speaking skill makes lessons more interesting. Teaching speaking skill brings about a distinguished classroom atmosphere. It attracts all learners’ interests. Moreover, it urges them to be more active in the classroom activities, and it makes the lesson more interesting. Moreover, when discussing on the approach to teaching speaking, it was cited in Bygate (2000) that “Approaches to the teaching of speaking in a foreign language reflect the understanding of at least two phenomena: the nature of speaking in a second language, and how people learn” To sum up, speaking is really important in English teaching and learning. First of all, it is not only a helpful teaching medium for teacher to motivate and interest students in learning English, but also a catalyst to impose them in other skills and make them better communicators. Moreover, speaking is a significant pass in students’ learning since it is considered an instrument to measure students’ knowledge and ability of using English naturally and fluently in daily life. In general, speaking serves as an indispensable skill of any learners in learning a foreign language. 1.1.3. Principles for teaching speaking. According to Nunan (2003) teaching speaking is described as the followings: Nguyen Thi Dung – K6 English 8 Graduation Paper Hung Vuong University - Foreign Language Department  Produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns  Use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language.  Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter.  Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence.  Use language as a means of expressing values and judgments. • Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which are called as fluency. One of assessments of their learners’ learning progress particularly is the levels of speaking effectively. Such a case rushes linguistics and teachers to get suggest some principles for teaching speaking. In the book “Focus on speaking” published in 1997, Burns and Joyce showed six following principles: • “Learners need to understand the cultural and social purposes of spoken interaction, which maybe classified broadly as transactional or internal. • Speaking in evolves an understanding that spoken texts differ from written texts in their grammatical construction and discourse strategies. • Speaking activities should focus on whole texts in context rather than in the sentence level grammatical constructions in isolation. • Speaking involves an understanding of the ways in which context influences the choices of language made. • Learning and practicing vocabulary, grammatical structures and pronunciation should be related to context and lead to the use of the whole texts. • Spoken discourse types or texts can be analyzed with learners for their typical structures and grammatical patterns” (Burns and Joyce, 1997) Nguyen Thi Dung – K6 English 9 Graduation Paper Hung Vuong University - Foreign Language Department In Burns and Joyce’s viewpoint, the principles of teaching speaking relate to the cultural and social purposes of spoken interaction, understanding of the differences spoken and written texts, understanding of context influencing the choices of language, and so on. Obviously, Burns and Joyce are very interested in the learner’s understanding of purposes and context of spoken communication. Similarly, Forseth takes care of principles of teaching. He however, pays attention to more details as the followings: • “Limit the objectives to avoid to overwhelming the students by providing them with enough structures practice. • Mix the speaking activities with comprehensive work. • provide activities, which involve dialogues and functional use of language. • Do not emphasize the significance of mistakes. • State and work toward real and spontaneous speech. • Design activities, which encourage natural interaction between speakers. • Place students in pairs, or small groups • Provide topics of interest to the students: interesting topics increase students’ motivation. • Use the target language. This greatly increases the amount of English spoken and reduces the temptations of students to hide in their native language”. (Forseth, 1955) Thus, Burns, Joyce and Forseth presented some principles of teaching speaking in which teachers need to pay attention to the purposes of communication, culture aspects, and functional language design. In addition, teacher should take consider to how to organize and lead a lesson interestingly and effectively. In order to reach above purposes, teachers’ knowledge and skills in material adaptation as well as teachers’ classroom management are necessary to be taken into account. Nguyen Thi Dung – K6 English 10 Graduation Paper Hung Vuong University - Foreign Language Department 1.2. Factors affecting learning English speaking skills How does one acquire good English speaking skills? A lot of people aim to have an American or British accent in order to impress other people, and for others to say that they are indeed good in English. However, is this really the true measure of being a good English speaker? Kenworthy (1987) observed that there are many factors affecting English speaking skills. 1.2.1. Listening comprehension. In Kenworthy’s opinion, listening comprehension is a very basic skill one must have in order to be a good English speaker. Why? One of the most common and critical mistakes non-native speakers of English make is focusing their time and effort in improving their English speaking skills without first assessing and practicing their English listening comprehension skills. A lot of them actually know grammar rules pretty well and can construct even complex sentences. Surprisingly, just when you thought they can communicate well in English, they suddenly come to a halt when being asked questions. He affirmed that: Some non-native speakers cannot understand the question/s, because the one asking speaks too fast or because of the speaker’s accent (in case of an Australian or a British speaker for example). They would often ask the speaker to repeat the question several times or request the speaker to speak more slowly, before they finally understand the question. Some, on the other hand, answer the question/s impressively (with not many mistakes in grammar and pronunciation; good explanations and examples; amazing fluency) just to find out in the end that he or she misunderstood the question, and therefore gave an inappropriate answer. 1.2.2. Grammatical accuracy. According Kenworthy (1987), some people wondered why there is a need to have grammatical accuracy in English, when even some native English speakers commit grammatical mistakes themselves. I used to ask that myself too, but as I listened more carefully to how both (native English speakers and Nguyen Thi Dung – K6 English 11 Graduation Paper Hung Vuong University - Foreign Language Department non-native English speakers) express their thoughts, the reason dawned on me. Native English speakers can say what they want without much difficulty due to their familiarity of the language. If they have difficulty expressing a certain concept/thought in a certain way, they can just use other ways of saying those things. They may commit some mistakes in grammar, but the mistakes do not distort or change the meaning of the sentences they want to convey, thus, it doesn’t give the listener much of a problem understanding them. On the other hand, the mistakes many non-native speakers of English commit are those that often change the meaning of sentences they want to express, and thus create a misunderstanding. That’s exactly the reason why non-native speakers have to study grammar more than native speakers. He also showed the common mistakes in grammar • Adjectives Ex. She is the most fairest girl I have ever seen. (“Fairest” is already in the superlative degree of comparison, so using “most” before it makes the meaning redundant.) Ex. He is worst than my ex-husband. (If only two things/people are being compared, “worse” should be used instead of “worst”.) • Verbs Ex. Few is expected to fail the test. (The indefinite pronouns both, many, several and few take a plural verb.) Ex. They hanged the old fiddle in the woodshed. (Some are confused with hanged and hung. “Hanged” means to kill somebody or yourself by fastening a rope around the neck and removing any other support for the body. “Hung”, on the other hand, means to suspend or fasten something so that it is held up from above. In this sentence, it seems as if the old fiddle was killed, which of course doesn’t make any sense.) 1.2.3. Pronunciation Nguyen Thi Dung – K6 English 12 Graduation Paper Hung Vuong University - Foreign Language Department Unlike other languages, English is not phonetic. What does that mean? It means we don’t always say English words the way we spell them. Let’s compare two languages as an example Ex. The Japanese word “honto” (really) is pronounced the way it is spelled. The English word “really” is not pronounced as "re-a-li" or "re-a-lai", nor is the word “really” spelled as “rili”. That’s one of the main reasons non-native speakers of English get confused in pronouncing many English words, especially if their native tongue is phonetic. The Sounds of –ed. The past simple tense and past participle of all regular English verbs ends in “ed”. However, the “ed” added to the verbs may have different sounds which depends if the base verb’s sound is voiceless or voiced. What is the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds? VOICED -A consonant is voiced when it makes the vocal cords vibrate. VOICELESS -When a consonant is pronounced without vibrating the vocal cords, it’s voiceless. 1.2.4. Vocabulary Chaney & Burk (1998) observed that: we have already neutralized our accent. So does that mean we can already convey our messages clearly? We still need to work on our vocabulary. Many people are misunderstood because of using words or expressions inappropriately. Below are some examples of the most commonly misused words in the English language. I hope you’ll find them helpful. “Accept” versus “Except” Accept is a verb which means “to receive”. Ex. I accept your proposal. Nguyen Thi Dung – K6 English 13 Graduation Paper