TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ SINH VIÊN THỰC HIỆN LỚP : NGUYỄN THỊ TRÀ MI : CỬ NHÂN ANH K13B KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP THE MAJOR FACTORS AFFECTING SPEAKING SKILL OF FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS TIONS TO IMPROVE THEIR COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE (NHỮNG NHÂN TỐ CHÍNH ẢNH HƯỞNG TỚI KĨ NĂNG NÓI CỦA SINH CHUYÊN NĂM NHẤT CHUYÊN NGÀNH NGOẠI NGỮ ĐẠI HỌC HẢI PHÒNG VÀ MỘT SỐ GIẢI PHÁP ĐỀ XUẤT NHẰM PHÁT TRIỂN NĂNG LỰC GIAO TIẾP CHO ĐỐI TƯỢNG SINH VIÊN NÀY) NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC THẠC SĨ NGUYỄN VĂN PHI Hải Phòng tháng năm 2016 HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT -STUDENT: NGUYEN THI TRA MI CLASS: ENGLISH MAJOR B K13 Graduation Paper THE MAJOR FACTORS AFFECTING SPEAKING SKILL OF FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS TIONS TO IMPROVE THEIR COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE Supervisor: Nguyen Van Phi, M.A Haiphong, May 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I could not complete my assignment without the great help and useful advice from my teacher, my family as well as my friends Firstly, I would like to express my great thanks to my supervisor, Mr Nguyen Van Phi, M.A for his enthusiastic help and useful advice Secondly, I would like to express my deep thanks to all the teachers in Foreign Language Department of Haiphong University for giving me helpful lectures that can be considered very good source of background knowledge to support my ideas My thanks also go to my family as well as my classmates who have enthusiastically helped and encouraged me during the time I conducted this work Haiphong, May 2016 Nguyen Thi Tra Mi I LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: Faerch and Kasper’s classification of communication strategies Figure 2: Students’ personalities Table 1: Students’ strategies to speak English Table 2: Students’ opinions about speaking topics Table 3: Students’ favorite topics Table 4: Students’ difficulty in creating sentences Table 5: Students’ listening comprehension Table 6: Students’ opinion about teachers’ learning methods Table 7: Teachers’ learning methods in pre-speaking phase Table 8: Teachers’ methods in speaking practice phase Table 9: Students’ motivation to learn English Table 10: Students’ recognition about the role of the target language Table 11: Students’ recognition about the role of English Table 12: Students’ interest in learning English Table 13: Students’ interest in speaking English Table 14: Students’ feelings when speaking English II TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES REFERENCES .IV CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .1 1.1 Rationale of the study 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Research questions .2 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1.1 Speaking Skill definition 2.2 Factors affecting speaking skill 10 2.2.1 Communication strategies .10 2.2.2 Factors affecting speaking skill 13 2.2.2.1 Phonological aspect 13 2.4.1.3.Strategic competence 26 2.4.1.4.Discourse competence 27 3.1 Overview of the survey .29 3.1.1 Aims of the survey 29 3.1.2 Informant and settings 29 3.2 Description of questionnaires 30 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 30 4.1 Results and discussion 31 4.1.1 Speaking strategies 31 III 4.1.2 Speaking topic .31 4.1.3 Language knowledge .32 4.1.4 Listening comprehension .33 4.1.5 Teachers’ learning methods 34 4.1.6 Subjective factors 37 4.1.6.1 Motivation 37 4.1.6.2 Interest .39 4.1.6.3 Self-confidence 40 4.1.3.4 Personality 41 CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION 42 5.1 RECOMMENDATIONS .42 5.1.1 Suggested activities for effective speaking 42 5.1.1.1 Paraphrasing 42 5.1.1.2 Chain game or chain story 43 5.1.1.3 Information Gap 43 5.1.1.4 Brainstorming .44 Practice gives students the confidence Brainstorming is a practical activity that can help students to be confidents while expressing ideas in front of a group of people 44 5.1.1.5 Storytelling 44 5.2 GUIDELINES FOR using games and pair work and group work in a speaking lesson effectively 45 5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTHER STUDY 48 REFERENCES APPENDIX IV CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study In the process of learning English, it is acknowledged that one of the most important skills in learning English as well as other languages is speaking skill Speaking not only helps students improve their communicative competence but also enables them to develop language skills such as listening, writing, and reading Thus, it is extremely important in learning language especially learning communicative English Besides, in learning reality, many first year students struggled with speaking skill for the reason that they can hardly have chance to practice this skill at lower levels This fact is true at Haiphong University in the progress of helping students with accessing to direct communication and improving their communicative competence at the very first stage To some extend, the researcher tried to conduct the study entitled “The factors affecting speaking skill of the first year English major students at Haiphong University and some suggested solutions to improve their speaking skill.” The author hopes that her study will be a useful material that can help first year students with speaking skill 1.2 Aims of the study The aims of the study are as follows: To investigate the factors affecting speaking skill of the first year English major students at Haiphong University To provide some solutions to the problems that the students encounter while learning speaking skill 1.3 Scope of the study The study deals with the common problems that the first year English major students at Haiphong University usually have when they learn to speak English in the classrooms 1.4 Research questions The study aims at answering two questions: - What factors affect speaking skills of the first year English major students at Haiphong University? 1.5 What are the solutions to improve the students’ speaking ability? The design of the study The study consists of five chapters as following: - Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter deals with the reasons for choosing the topic of the study, the aims, scope and the structure of the study - Chapter 2: Literature review This chapter gives an overview on skills focusing on speaking skill, strategies and theories on communicative competence - Chapter 3: Methods of the study This chapter aims at stating the methods that the author applies to the study - Chapter 4: Results and discussion In this chapter, the results of the study are analysed and some findings are given and discussed - Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendation This chapter provides some suggested solutions to help students overcome the difficulties in speaking skill and to improve their communicative competence Also, this part is the summary of the main points presented in the study Additionally, the suggestions for further study are also mentioned CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Speaking skill 2.1.1 Speaking Skill definition Speaking is one of the skills that have to be mastered in learning English Speaking is also a crucial part of the language learning process It is important for students to know definitions first Many experts define speaking in different ways Chaney and Burke [1998: 13] define speaking as “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbol, in a variety of contexts.” While another expert, Huebner [1960:5] said language is essential speech, and speech is basic communication by sounds And according to him, speaking is the skill used by someone in daily life communication whether at school or outside The skill is acquired by much repetition; it primarily a neuromuscular and not an intellectual process It consists of competence in sending and receiving messages Speaking skill refers to the action of conveying information or expressing one’s thoughts and feelings in spoken language [Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, 2009] Speaking skill is considered the art of communication and a productive skill that helps the speakers express their ideas, opinions or feelings to others by using words or sounds of articulation A person who has good speaking skills is the one who can generate words that can be understood by listeners and for that good speaking skill is a useful means to make the utterances clear and informative Speaking process should pay attention to what and how to say as well as to whom appropriately 2.1.2 Characteristics of speaking skill One of the researchers who have paid much attention to this oral skill is Bygate To show the characteristics of speaking skill, he investigates the characteristics of spoken language In his point of view, it seems that speaking skill has not been identified as a difficult depending on students’ level After practicing listening in motion, students can improve their communicative competence very quickly because they have chances to apply the different strategies to communicate 5.1.1.2 Chain game or chain story Students need a lot of practice especially hard work This process will build in students’ mind the structures that the teachers are explain to them To improve the language knowledge, this is considered a very good way However to use this technique effectively, the teachers need to organize many different interesting activities For example, the “chain of words” or “repeat what I say”, etc “Chain of words” is useful to teach grammatical items It is a game designed to improve students’ retention After learning vocabulary, students are given a structure and they have to use the learned words to continue the chain Example: - Yesterday, I bought an apple - Yesterday, I bought an apple and a book - Yesterday, I bought an apple, a book and a cat - To check students’ understanding, teachers may ask students to try to remember how many sentences they can make with the structures after finishing the games The structures can be designed to be more difficult to adjust to different levels of the students 5.1.1.3 Information Gap In this activity, students are supposed to be working in pairs One student will have the information that the other partner does not have and the partners will share their information Information gap is an activity that is designed to serve many purposes such as problem solving or collecting information 43 Also, each partner plays an important role because the task cannot be completed if the partners not provide the information the others need It is evaluated that this activity is effective because everybody has the opportunity to talk extensively in the target language This activity can sometimes require students to move around the class to collect information It can be a physical activity to help students have some exercises to be relaxed Moreover, this activity gives students chances to exchange information to each other; students can learn the useful expressions by interacting to the others 5.1.1.4 Brainstorming Brainstorming is an activity designed to help students generate ideas quickly In a limited period of time, students are given a topic and required to produce ideas Depending on the contexts, students can work individually or in groups, they will brainstorm to think of the ideas that are relevant to the topic given For instance, teachers can give the students the topic: “what you think about sound pollution in big cities?” within minutes, they have to make the outline of what they are going to talk about After minutes, teachers can point a person in random to present the ideas The good characteristic of this activity is that the students are not criticized for their ideas so that they will feel open and free to share their new ideas Speaking contain different factors including presenting ideas, this activity is good practice to train students to become active and flexible in any real circumstances as they are taught the skill to produce ideas quickly to different topics Practice gives students the confidence Brainstorming is a practical activity that can help students to be confidents while expressing ideas in front of a group of people 5.1.1.5 Storytelling Students are always fond of reading stories Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from somebody beforehand, or they may create their own stories to tell their classmates Storytelling can foster students to have creative thoughts Besides, it also helps students express the ideas in the format of beginning, development and ending 44 including the characters and the settings of the story in which the story happens Moreover, students can also tell jokes or give some riddles to the class The types of story should not be limited to help students think creatively, however, the length of the story should be controlled to limit the scenes that are too detailed and not necessary to mention 5.2 GUIDELINES FOR using games and pair work and group work in a speaking lesson effectively 5.2.1 How to use games effectively There is a wide variety of games that can be used for educational aims However, choosing and preparing games for teaching and learning English vocabulary is a creative process that needs so much consideration of teachers The following are general guidelines to choose and to use games effectively: Firstly, the choosing of games is an important process A game must be more than just fun It means that they must be designed to serve typical aims and teacher should exploit them thoroughly Games used should also keep all of the students involved and interested They should be an effective way to keep “friendly” competition between students Through this competition, students will be more involved in the lesson and be closer to each other Moreover, games should give students a chance to learn, practice, or view specific language material This feature is consistent to the first one If games cannot meet this demand, they not mean anything; it is merely a way of recreation Games should also lend themselves well to revision exercises helping students recall material in a pleasant, entertaining way Secondly, in teaching and learning English, games are often used as short activities when there is some time left at the end of a lesson However, they should not be regarded as a marginal activity filling in odd moments when the teacher and class have nothing better to They ought to be at the heart of teaching foreign language Therefore, they can be used at all stages of the lesson But teacher must be sure that games provided are suitable and carefully selected Then, before playing a game, 45 teachers should give attention to the number of students, proficiency level, cultural context, timing, learning topic and the classroom setting All of these factors determine the effectiveness of games used Thirdly, before playing games, teacher should explain the task and roles of students in the games If the teacher does not this, students will feel embarrassed because they not know how the games go and what procedure they have to follow So, clear explanation is the first important factor which determines the success of games used Fourthly, while games are being used to serve the learning task, teachers should have some methods to encourage the participation of all students, foster them and cheer with them Small gifts can be used for this goal In reality, using games in classroom sometimes fails due to the lack of cooperation among members of class Games require all students’ involvement and they promote friendly competition; therefore, it is very important that students have a cooperative attitude Fifthly, teachers should not use one game again and again because students will feel bored when playing them much time in a long and in the same period Teachers should prepare many different games to use them suitably Lastly, when using games, teachers should have a close control of the students and must be fair in evaluation of the students’ activities I also found that students usually speak in their mother tongue to discuss instead of the language they are learning (English) Consequently, teachers should make sure that their students are using English during the process of activities by paying more attention to their monitoring jobs 5.2.2 How to use pair work and group work effectively 5.2.2.1 Suggestions for students’ shyness in using English When organizing pair work and group work, some students were still shy when talking to other students in English In this case, the first thing teachers should is encourage them to use English to talk without the fear of making mistakes by teachers’ 46 explanation about the importance of speaking English in speaking classes The second thing teachers should is to provide enough new words or ask students brainstorm words relating to the topics for them because most of the students said that they did not have enough vocabulary 5.2.2.2 Suggestions for forming pairs and groups When forming pairs and groups, the teachers should change partners in pairs and members in groups frequently It creates more chances for students to practice and learn with other students Besides; mixed abilities in pairs and groups is also valuable in supporting the participation of underperforming students 5.2.2.3 Suggestions for giving instructions It is necessary for students to know what the teacher wants them to So, before starting group work, the teachers should explain what students have to carefully Their voice should be clear They should explain the task both in English and in Vietnamese so that the students easy to understand what they have to 5.2.2.4 Suggestions for correcting students’ mistakes To decrease students’ mistakes, there are some suggestions for the teachers According to Bryne (1989, p.31 ), he advices giving the students a clear model and give them enough practice before they start on their own Besides, Watcyn – Jones (2002, p.10 ) advices the teachers that while walking round the classroom to monitor the students’ progress, it is useful for teachers to have a small notebook or a piece of paper on which they note down any mistakes they hear However, the teachers remember that they not correct students’ mistakes by interrupting in students’ progress Instead, the teachers should call some pairs or groups to stand up to practice after pair and group activities finish This is the time students’ mistakes are pointed out The teachers write common mistakes on the board and correct them so that all the students can see clearly 5.2.2.5 Suggestions for lacking experience in pair work and group work management 47 Lack of experience and academic training in pair work and group work management is a difficulty teachers admitted So, before organizing pair work and group work in a speaking class, the teachers should have knowledge in pair work and group work management to get the success in organizing it They can attend extra training courses of pair work and group work management or learn through books to provide themselves more knowledge and experience to organize it effectively 5.3 CONCLUSION As people already knew, learning speaking is a very important part of language learning because the ability to communicate in a second language clearly and efficiently contributes to the success of the learner not only in school but also the success later in every phase of life There is no doubt that English has become an international language and play an essential role in communication Considering its importance, English learning and learning have recently gained mush consideration Among the four skills, speaking has been received a great deal of consideration of the scholars In addition, the study focuses on the actual situation of speaking learning fact of the first year English major students at Haiphong University By doing this study, my main purpose is to investigate the factors affecting students’ speaking skill on which I am based to suggest the recommendations to improve students’ communicative competence However, because of the limitation of time and the knowledge, this study cannot cover all the aspects of relating matter Besides, this research has been done within the limited understanding, there may be unavoidable mistakes, it would be a pleasure to receive the recommendations from the readers 5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTHER STUDY Due to the scope of the graduation paper and the limitation of knowledge as well as experiences, I cannot cover all the aspects of the matter in this study Within this work, I only focus on dealing with the factors affecting speaking skill of the first year English major students at Haiphong University 48 However, this paper can be developed to work on the factors affecting speaking skill of not only first year English major students at Haiphong University but also students of other higher levels This is a promising topic as speaking skill is specially cared by the learners as well as researchers in the time of practical language to communicate After all, I am hopeful that this study can be the basis for the people who pay attention to communicative skill to enlarge and deepen their knowledge to make it more efficient 49 REFERENCES • Books Bygate, Martin (1987) Speaking Oxford: OUP Brumfit, C J And Johnson K (1985) The Communicative Approach to Language Learning Oxford: OUP Chandrasegaran, A (1981) Problems of Learning Language as a Second Language Singapore: Singapore University press Canale, M And Swain, M (1980) Theoretical Bases of Communicative Approaches to Second Language Learning and Testing Chomsky, N (1965) Aspect of the Theory of Syntax Cambridge MA: MIT Press Channey, A L And T L Burk (1998) Learning Oral Communication in Grades K-8 Boston: Allyn & Bacon Faerch, G and Kasper, G (1986) Strategies Competence in Foreign Language Learning Archus University: Archus University press Grace Stovall Burkart Spoken Language: What is it and How to Teach It Washington DC Center for Applied Linguistics 1998 Hymes, D H (1966) Two Types of Linguistic Relativity In W Bright (ed) Social Linguistics The Hague: Mouton Harmer, J (1984) The Practice of English Language Learning London: Longman Jack C, Richard Learning Speaking Theory and Methodology 50 10 Mc Dounough, S H (1995) Strategy and Skill in Learning a Foreign Language Britol: JW Arrowsmith Ltd 11 Nisbet, John & Shuck Smith Janet (1986) Learning Stratergies London: Routledge & Kegan Paul PLC 12 Thao Le (2005) Falcuty of Education University of Tasmania Australia 13 Weden, Anita & Rubin, Joan (1987) Leaner Strategies in Language Learning Cambridge: Prentice Hall International 14 Wardaugh, R (1998) An Introduction to Social Linguistics Massachusetts: Blackwell Publisher Ltd 3rd Edition 15 Ur, P (1996) A Course in Language Learning Cambridge: CUP 16 Yule, G, Tarone, E (1999) Focus on the Language Learners Oxford: OUP • Websites - https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/wsas/academics/communication/documents/Guideli nes.pdf - https://websrv1.ctu.edu.vn/coursewares/supham/csnnhoc_tin/ch2.htm 51 APPENDIX Questionnaires This survey questionnaire is designed for the research into “The factors affecting speaking skill of the first year English major students at Haiphong University and some suggested solutions to improve their communicative competence” Your cooperation in answering the following questions is highly appreciated This is for the purpose of studying only and you can be sure that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Do you have your own strategies to speak English better? a Yes b No How you think about the speaking topics that your teacher gives to you? a Very interesting b Not very interesting c Boring What types of topic you like the most? a Romantic b Political c Social d Others (please specify) 52 Is it difficult for you to create grammatical sentences when you are involving in a conversation? a Yes b No How you understand your partners’ ideas when you are having a conversation? a Understand easily although they sometimes express inappropriately b Sometimes it is difficult to see what they mean if they cannot make it clear c Usually get troubles with understanding their ideas Are you satisfied with the teacher’s methods used in speaking class? a Yes b No Which of the following activities does your teacher often provide you at the pre-speaking phase? a No activities b Learning vocabulary c Providing brief introduction to the specific skill d Giving guiding questions e Asking you to perform a particular task relating to the skill introduced How your teachers teach speaking during the lesson? a Getting you as many activities as possible 53 b Combining games with other activities c Reading the conversations in the handout and then role playing Do you have any special motivation to learn English? a Yes b No 10 What you think about speaking skill? a It is very important to find a good job b It is not very important, it is only a skill of four c I learn the skill just as it included in the curriculum 11 What you think of the role of English? a It is very important to find a good job b It is not very important, it is only a skill of four c I learn the skill just as it is included in the curriculum Do you like speaking English? a Yes b No Do you like speaking English? a Yes b No Do you feel comfortable when you are speaking English? 54 a I am really comfortable, I can express whatever I want in English b I am comfortable but sometimes I find it difficult to express my ideas c I not very comfortable however I still can control my speaking d I often find it hard to express my ideas because I am afraid of being wrong How you describe your personality? a Talkative d Self-esteemed a Conservative e Sociable b Reserved f Shy c Sensitive g active Thank you for your cooperation! 55