A study on one technique to improve conversational skill for operational staff at somerset grand hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES PHAN THI HONG DUNG A STUDY ON ONE TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE CONVERSATIONAL SKILL FOR OPERATIONAL STAFF AT SOMERSET GRAND HANOI NGHIÊN CỨU MỘT THỦ THUẬT NHẰM NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO NHÂN VIÊN THUỘC BỘ PHẬN VẬN HÀNH TẠI SOMERSET GRAND HÀ NỘI M. A. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR: TO THI THU HUONG, Ph.D HANOI - 2008 DECLARATION I certify that this essay is entirely my work. I have provided fully documented references to the work of others. The material in this essay has not been submitted for assessment in any other formal course of study. Phan Thi Hong Dung ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest thanks to my beloved supervisor Dr. To Thi Thu Huong for the invaluable support, guidance, and timely encouragement she gave me while I was doing this research. I am truly grateful to her for her advice and suggestions right from the beginning when this study was only in its formative stage. I would also like to send my sincere thanks to my colleagues in Somerset Serviced Residences, Hanoi who have helped me in providing the teaching materials, answering the survey questionnaire and making constructive and insightful comments as well as suggestions for this paper. My sincere thanks also go to all the teachers of the Department of Post graduate Studies at Hanoi College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University for their profound knowledge, useful materials which have inspired and facilitated me much throughout the course. I also own an enormous debt of gratitude to Ms. Ngo Thanh Thuy for her invaluable enthusiasm and encouragement during my course. Last but not least, I owe mother and my husband for their continuous support, they covered all the housework and looked after my child for me to contribute totally my time on this research. ABSTRACT Conversational English is crucial in office communication at Somerset Grand Hanoi and it’s still a big concern of Somerset Management Board. On the way to find solutions for English training in the company, one technique has been approved to be very effective to improve conversational skill for operational staff in using “Practical Situations”. This study focuses on how researcher uses “Practical Situations” effectively in English training. And what are the most frequently happening practical situations at Somerset Grand Hanoi? The subjects involved in the study were 23 operational staff from three departments: Housekeeping, Engineering, Security, 12 heads of departments were invited to join survey, to answer the questionnaires, to participate in the interview, and to provide the source for observation. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS SGH: Somerset Grand Hanoi HOD: Head of department ESL: English second language ESP: English for specific purpose CBI: Content-based instruction OJT: On job training BCS: Basic conversational standard CLT: Communicative language teaching TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration ……………………………………………………………………. Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………….. Abstract …………………………………………………………………………… List of abbreviation ………………………………………………………………... Table of content ……………………………………………………………………. PART I: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………… Rationale ………………………………………………………………… Aims of the study ………………………………………………………… Research questions ………………………………………………………. Methods of the study ……………………………………………………. Scope of the study ………………………………………………………. Design of the study ……………………………………………………… PART II: DEVELOPMENT …………………………………………………….. Chapter 1: Literature review …………………………………………………….. 1. Conversation theory ………………………………………………………. 2. Communicative language teaching ………………………………………. 2.1 Content-based instruction (CBI) ……………………………………. 2.2 Principles of teaching oral skill ………………………………………. 2.3 Techniques to teach oral skill ………………………………………… 3. Adult learning theory ……………………………………………………… 4. Current English training programs for operational staff at Somerset Grand Hanoi ……………………………………………………… 4.1 The training program …………………………………………………… 42. The required English standards ………………………………………… Chapter 2: Methodology …………………………………………………………….. Rational for choosing action research ………………………………………. Steps of action ……………………………………………………………… Participants ………………………………………………………………. Instruments …………………………………………………………………. Procedure of data collection ……………………………………………….. 5.1 Questionnaire survey ………...…………………………………………. 5.2 Interviews …………..…………………………………………………… 5.3 Observation …………………….……………………………………… Data analysis …………………………………………………………..…… Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion ………………………………………….…… How do trainers use the practical situations in improving conversational skill for operational staff at SGH? …………………… Effectiveness of using Practical situations in improving Conversational skill for Operational staff …………………………… Discussions: How to use these practical situations effectively for training staff? …………………………………………………….. PART III: CONCLUSION …………………………………………………………. 1. Summary of main findings ………………………………………………. 2. Limitation of the study ……………………………………………..……. 3. Suggestions for further research ………………………………………… REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………. APPENDIX 1 ……………………………………………………………………….. APPENDIX 2 ……………………………………………………………………… APPENDIX 3 ……………………………………………………………………… APPENDIX 4 ………………………………………………………………………. PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale No one can deny the universality of English. Outside English-speaking countries, English has become a compulsory component of office communication in many countries. This trend also applies in Vietnam. At Somerset Grand Hanoi, English is a MUST for all staff as it is considered to be the most useful and effective tool to communicate with customers. So, the company always invests time and money in improving conversational skills for its staff. However large the investment is, in fact, the conversational skills of operational staff still do not meet the job requirements. It is a big problem for the company, because the staff conversational competence directly and seriously affects the service. Many misunderstanding happens at work. For example, once a guest ordered to change one queen bed into twin beds for their two children. When the task was transferred to a housekeeping staff, she immediately brought the bed sheets to the room to change for the guest. That guest was very angry because his order was misunderstood and thus, wasted his time. Another example is, when a guest wanted to borrow an “adapter”, a receptionist quickly called “a doctor” for him. These mistakes seem to be funny but they badly affect the professionalism of the company which is famous for leading international standard service in hospitality industry. As a person in charge of staff training the researcher finds it a big problem. How to improve conversational skills for operational staff? How to confirm that their English speaking skills meet the job requirement to satisfy guests’ expectations, needs and wants? These questions whirl in her mind all the time. After 2 years of conducting English training for the staff, she has used many textbooks which are available in the market such as: New Interchange, New Headway, Be My Guest (Francis O’Hara) but the final results still have not met her expectations as well as the job requirements. Many pilot courses have been conducted with the help of many experts as well as data surveyed from staff and customers. After all, one technique has been found to be more effective in improving conversational skills for her operational staff. That is using practical situations from their daily work to help them develop the necessary English conversational skills for their very work. Thus, this current study is conducted to shed light on the effectiveness of this technique in the training and development of English conversational skills for operational staff at Somerset Grand Hanoi (SGH) and other similar institutions in Vietnam or elsewhere. Aims of the study The study explores the effectiveness of using practical situations to improve English conversational skills for operational staff at Somerset Grand Hanoi (SGH). The major aims of the study are to: Conduct an analysis of the current situation of training English conversational skills for operational staff at SGH with particular reference to the technique of using practical situations. Pilot the use of practical situations (that are essential for communication in English by operational staff at SGH) for training conversational skills for these staff to find out how effective the technique is. Finalize a package of 10 most applicable practical situations with suggestions for effective use of these practical situations in training operational staff to improve their English conversational skills. Research questions In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims, the following research questions were formulated for investigation: How do trainers use the technique of practical situations for improving conversational skills of operational staff at SGH? What are the 10 most applicable practical situations? How effective is the use of these practical situations for improving conversational skills for SGH operational staff? 4. Method of the study The method used in the study is action research. According to Wallace (1998, quoted in Mackey & Gass 2005: 216) action research is “basically a way of reflecting upon your teaching...by systematically collecting data on your everyday practice and analyzing it in order to come to some decisions about what your future practice should be”. The goal of this is to improve teaching and learning. In this study, the goal of the action is to improve conversational skills for SGH operational staff. Five steps for the action were identified and implemented. They are: Identify problems/concerns: for this study, it is how to improve English conversational skills for SGH operational staff; Conduct a preliminary investigation to gather information on how trainers use the technique of practical situations for improving conversational skills of operational staff at SGH and what practical situations can be used in training conversational skills for the target staff; Pilot the use of the technique and form assumptions about the effectiveness of the technique and identify 10 most applicable practical situations for dissemination; Evaluate the effects of the practice; i.e. the effectiveness of the technique of using practical situations for improvement of conversational skills for SGH operational staff; Disseminate the results of the process in the form of a Training Handbook containing the 10 most applicable work situations with practical guidelines for trainer. For collection of data, questionnaire survey was used to explore current use of practical situations in training English conversational skills for operational staff at SGH as well as to identify work related topics/situations and appropriate learning tasks and activities. Interviews with 10 loyal customers, who have stayed at Somerset Grand Hanoi for more than 1 year, were also conducted to find out the required conversational skills and typical communication situations for SGH operational staff at work (pre-training) as well as guests’ level of satisfaction with target staff’s conversational skills after the pilot training. On the basis of the collected data, the researcher comes to a conclusion about the applicability and effectiveness of using practical situations in improving conversational skills for operational staff. A training course employing the identified practical situations for improvement of targeted staff is designed on the basis of the existing course and piloted. She then finalized a package of highly work-related situations and suggested methods to use these situations in training conversational skills for operational staff at SGH. Observations by the Heads of departments, immediate supervisors and the co-trainer after the pilot course were sources of information on the evidence of improvement in English conversational skills of SGH operational staff, indicators of the effectiveness of the technique. Scope of the study This research aims to explore the effectiveness of using practical situations in improving English conversational skills for operational staff at Somerset Grand Hanoi. These staff includes people working at Front Office, Security, Engineering, and Housekeeping. Within the limited framework of a minor thesis, the present study can only focus on the Security, Engineering, and Housekeeping staff as, for them; English conversational skills are the most critical for maintaining an excellent image and success for the company. Besides, their English proficiency level is still very low, that is seriously hampers their work performance. Design of the study The study comprised three parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion. Part 1 (Introduction) presents the rationale, aims, scope, methodology and design of the study. Part 2 (Development) consists of four chapters: Chapter 1: Literature review on Conversation theory; Communicative language teaching (Practical situations); Adult learning; Current English training programs for operational staff at SGH Chapter 2: Methodology detailing rationale for choosing Qualitative research approach, Participants, Questionnaire survey, Interviews, Observations, and Data Analysis procedures. Chapter 3: Findings and discussion of the results. Part 3 (Conclusion) provides conclusions on the research and makes suggestions for further study. PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature review In this chapter, relevant literature and theoretical framework of this study are presented, which include (1) Conversation theory, (2) Communicative language teaching with focus on: Communicative competence, Principles of teaching speaking, Techniques of teaching speaking and using practical situations. (3) Adult learning, (4) Current English training programs for operational staff at Somerset Grand Hanoi. Conversation theory There are many definitions of conversation theory. Some of the commonly cited are: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Conversation Theory regards social systems as symbolic, language-oriented systems where responses depend on one person's interpretation of another person's behavior, and where meanings are agreed through conversations. But since meanings are agreed, and the agreements can be illusory and transient, scientific research requires stable reference points in human transactions to allow for reproducible results. Pask found these points to be the understandings which arise in the conversations between two participating individuals, and which he defined rigorously. Conversation Theory describes interaction between two or more cognitive systems, such as a teacher and a student or distinct perspectives within one individual, and how they engage in a dialog over a given concept and identify differences in how they understand it. Conversation Theory came out of the work of Gordon Pask on instructional design and models of individual learning styles. In regard to learning styles, he identified conditions required for concept sharing and described the learning styles holist, serialist, and their optimal mixture versatile. He proposed a rigorous model of analogy relations. From Conversation Theory – Gordon Pask at Conversation Theory as developed by Pask originated from this cybernetics framework and attempts to explain learning in both living organisms and machines. The fundamental idea of the theory was that learning occurs through conversations about a subject matter which serves to make knowledge explicit. Conversations can be conducted at a number of different levels: Natural language (general discussion) Object languages (for discussing the subject matter) Metalanguages (for talking about learning/language) Along this vein, the conversational skills for operational staff at SGH (a full-serviced apartment hotel) comprise not only English but also hospitality-related skills. So in this study, the researcher intends to use elements of both Natural language and Object language to improve conversation skills for the targeted staff. In order to facilitate learning, Pask argued that the subject matter should be represented in the form of structures which show what is to be learned. These structures exist in a variety of different levels depending upon the extent of the relationships displayed. The critical method of learning, according to Conversation Theory, is "teachback" in which one person teaches another what they have learned. Pask identified two different types of learning strategies: Serialists – Progress through a structure in a sequential fashion Holists - Look for higher order relations For students to learn a subject matter, they must learn the relationships among the concepts. For teachers, the explicit explanation of the subject matter facilitates student understanding (e.g., use of teachback technique). However, students differ in their preferred manner of learning relationships (serialists versus holists), so a thorough understanding of students/trainees is essential to teaching/training success. Given its relevance and effective application, “Teachback” will be applied to develop the program for improving conversational skills for SGH operational staff. At the completion of the study, a training guideline for trainers will be published based on the findings so that a Train the Trainer model could be used. Communicative language teaching Communicative language teaching began in Britain in the 1960s as a replacement to the earlier structural method, called Situational Language Teaching. This was partly in response to Chomsky's criticisms of structural theories of language and partly based on the theories of British functional linguistic, such as Firth and Halliday, as well as American sociolinguists, such as Hymes, Gumperz and Labov and the writings of Austin and Searle on speech acts. Communicative language teaching (CLT) has become the accepted orthodoxy theory of TEFL over the past ten years or more, and many, but not all, general courses include communicative goals, communicative practice or communicative methodology. Its theoretical base, according to Richards and Rodgers (1986/2000:71), includes these characteristics: 1. Language is a system for the expression of meaning. 2. The primary function of language is for interaction and communication. 3. The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses. 4. The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse. Communicative language teaching makes use of real-life situations that necessitate communication. The teacher sets up a situation that learners are likely to encounter in real life. Unlike the audiolingual method of language teaching, which relies on repetition and drills, communicative approach can leave learners in suspense as to the outcome of a class exercise, which will vary according to their reactions and responses. The real-life simulations change from day to day. Learners’ motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics. Berns (1984) explains Firth’s view that “language is interaction; it is interpersonal activity and has a clear relationship with society. In this light, language study has to look at the use (function) of language in context, both its linguistic context (what is uttered before and after a given piece of discourse) and its social, or situational, context (who is speaking, what their social roles are, why they have come together to speak)”(Berns,1984:5).