VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES o0o NGUYỄN THỊ NGA AN INVESTIGATION INTO CLASSROOM OPPORTUNITIES FOR AND CONSTRAINTS ON THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS AT PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY Nghiên cứu thuận lợi trở ngại lớp học việc dạy học nói tiếng Anh trường Đại học Phương Đông M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 Hanoi, 2015 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES o0o NGUYỄN THỊ NGA AN INVESTIGATION INTO CLASSROOM OPPORTUNITIES FOR AND CONSTRAINTS ON THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS AT PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY Nghiên cứu thuận lợi trở ngại lớp học việc dạy học nói tiếng Anh trường Đại học Phương Đông M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: Assoc Prof Le Van Canh, PhD Hanoi, 2015 DECLARATION I, Nguyễn Thị Nga, K22 being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts hereby certify that this minor thesis entitled AN INVESTIGATION INTO CLASSROOM OPPORTUNITIES FOR AND CONSTRAINTS ON THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS AT PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY is completely the result of my own work for the Degree of Master at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and that this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or institution Hanoi, December 8th , 2015 Candidate Nguyễn Thị Nga ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not have been completed without the help, encouragement and support of a number of people who all deserve my sincerest gratitude and appreciation First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Le Van Canh, Ph.D for his continuous support, his patience, motivation and immense knowledge His guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis I could not have imagined having a better supervisor for my thesis Secondly, I would like to send my thanks to all lectures and the staff of the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies of Vietnam National University Hanoi for their useful materials, instructions and enthusiasm which are of great importance to this thesis My special thanks also go to my colleagues and students of Phuong Dong University whose valuable advice, tremendous assistance and cooperation are indispensable for the thesis Without their help, this study could not have been fulfilled I find myself indebt to my beloved family- my parents, my husband, my sisters and brothers and all my friends who have always stood for me with their consideration and encouragements to help me overcome all problems to complete this thesis Last but not least, I would like to send my special thanks to my readers for their concern, interest and comments for this study ABSTRACT This thesis aims at investigating the classroom opportunities for and constraints on the teaching and learning of speaking skills of non-major students at Phuong Dong University Specifically, the study has been conducted in the form of a survey research with three instruments: the classroom observation, the questionnaire and the interview The participants are 70 non-major students and 3English teachers from Phuong Dong University The data revealed that students of Phuong Dong University experience certain opportunities as well as difficulties from themselves and from their teachers when taking part in speaking activities and techniques given by their teachers during speaking lessons Some recommendations to overcome the difficulties are also given in the thesis It is hoped that this thesis will be useful for both teachers and students of Phuong Dong University in their teaching and learning of English speaking skills LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Students’ English learning history Table 2: Students’ general opinions on language skills Table 3: Students’ opinions on speaking skill Table 4: Students’ assessment of their speaking skills Table 5: Students’ assessment of speaking activities in speaking lessons Table 6: Students’ participation in speaking class Table 7: Tteachers’’ instructions in speaking class Table 8: Teachers’ mistake correction Table 9: Students’ opportunities in speaking activities during speaking lessons Table 10: Students’ difficulties in speaking activities during speaking lessons PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale Amid the context of international integration and globalization, English has become an international language and increasingly proved its important role in all fields of life, including education In recent years, Vietnam has eye-witnessed an upward trend of teaching and learning English, especially when students are fully aware of educational opportunities that they can benefit from the mastery of English In Vietnam, English is taught as a foreign language that has four skills, namely listening, reading, speaking and writing Among these four skills, speaking seems to be the most demanding but central skill However, students have experienced lots of problems during their speaking learning Despite the fact that some students who have learnt the English language for more than ten years, they are unable to use the language fluently and effectively They are often passive and shy in using English in real communication The reasons behind this problem are various Some students say that they don’t know what to say or afraid of making mistakes Others claim that lack of ideas, vocabulary or stimuli are factors inhabiting them from participating in speaking tasks The teachers of English are also to blame in this situation They may not have provided enough opportunities to students for improving their communication skills Besides, they may not have properly used classroom techniques or strategies in developing English for communication Therefore, all these factors have made the process of teaching and learning speaking skills become irrelevant, boring and sometimes a burden, too With years of experience in teaching English at Phuong Dong University, I realized that during the process of teaching and learning speaking skill, both teachers and non-major students at my own university have experienced not only opportunities but constraints as well Actually, being aware of this current situation, in some ways, will enable the people involved to continue to benefit from the advantages and try to identify and suggest practical solutions to the problems they have to encounter This awareness will also pay the way for the improvement of teaching and learning English in order to ensure a better future of using English as a communicative language for non-major students at Phuong Dong University Therefore, all these aforementioned factors have encouraged me to undertake a survey research in which I would like to identify the opportunities as well as constraints in classrooms of teachers and students when dealing with English speaking skill at my own university I am inspired to conduct a study named “An investigation into classroom opportunities for and constraints on the teaching and learning of English speaking skills at Phuong Dong University” Aims and objectives of the study The study is certainly aimed at finding out the opportunities as well as constraints in classroom which teachers and non-major students of Phuong Dong University have to experience during the process of teaching and learning English speaking skills Specifically, the objectives of the research are as follows: (1) To investigate the common classroom activities and techniques in teaching speaking skills to non-major students at Phuong Dong University (2) To explore the learning opportunities that those activities create for students to develop their speaking skills (3) To find out the constraints on speaking skills of students brought about by those activities Research methodology Three research questions will be addressed as follows: (1)What are the teachers’ common classroom activities and techniques in teaching English speaking skill to non-major students at Phuong Dong University? (2) What learning opportunities those classroom activities and techniques create for non-major students to develop their speaking skills? (3) To what extent those classroom activities and techniques constrain on non-major students’ speaking skills? In order to answer the research questions stated above, this study is carried out on the combination of two different methods, namely quantitative and qualitative methods As for instrument, classroom observation is carried out to find out teachers’ common classroom practices in speaking lessons Survey questionnaires for students and interviews with both teachers and students are carried out to find out the opportunities and constraints of those practices they have to experience during speaking lessons As for participants, the study is intended to involve 70 second-year students of Phuong Dong University They come from classes of Finance and Banking Department and now are in the first semester of their second year, working with Starting Skill Moreover, teachers who are directly responsible of teaching English speaking skill for the classes at Phuong Dong University also take part in the study Scope of the study This study only focuses on the classroom opportunities and constraints on the teaching and learning of English speaking skills at Phuong Dong University However, in an attempt to make this study more manageable, the study only aims at the teaching and learning of English speaking skills of non-major students at Phuong Dong University The subjects of the study are restricted to 70 secondyear students at Phuong Dong University despite their gender and ability and English teachers who directly teach speaking skill for non-major students of Phuong Dong University Structure of the thesis The study is divided into three main parts, and a list of reference and appendices are attached to the end Part I, Introduction, presents the rationale, the aims and objectives, the scope, the research methods and the design of the study Part II, Development, consists of three chapters Chapter one is the Literature review This chapter provides the theoretical background of the study Chapter two is the Methodology of the study which includes instruments, participants, REFERENCES 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