Teaching speaking skill for non-Major MA students at VNUH

TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to those who have contributed to this thesis and proud to acknowledge their help. I would like first and foremost to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor, Ms. Phan Thi Van Quyen, for her inspiring and invaluable guidance, advice, encouragement and everything that I learnt from her throughout my work. Without her this thesis would not have been possible. My sincere thanks also go to all lecturers and the staff of the Department of Post Graduate Studies at College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University for their useful lectures, assistance and enthusiasm during my course. Special acknowledgement is also given to my colleges and former MA students of law, technology, economics, education and business administration at Vietnam National University Hanoi, who have been very supportive in filling the survey questionnaires. Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my husband and my family for their understanding, patience and support during the entire period of my study. Nguyễn Thị Thu Hương LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AOL Age Of Learning C Consonant CLT Communicative Language Teaching ESOL English for Speakers of Other Languages MA Master of Arts SGS School of Graduate Studies TEFL Teaching English as a Foreign Language TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages VNUH Vietnam National University, Hanoi V Vowel LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: Units of spoken language. Table 1: Speaking activities and topics/drills in the course book ‘English for Graduate Students’. Table 2: What make students interested in speaking in English class. Table3: What make students unwilling to speak in English class. Table 4: Students’ assessment of classroom speaking activities given by teachers. Table 5: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking for MA students at SGS. Table 6: What teachers do to motivate students to speak in class. Table 7: Suggested ideas for discussion. Table 8: Activities suitable for each unit in the course book ‘English for Graduate Students’. PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Today, English is the language of globalization, international communication, commerce, the media and pop culture, and thus, affects motivations for learning English. English is no longer seen as the property of the English-speaking world but as an international commodity sometimes referred to as World English or An International Language. In Vietnam, foreign languages, with English as the most studied, have become a compulsory subject at schools and colleges. Many students begin their learning English when they are ten years old. City children even have their first lessons of English as early as they attend primary school. As for MA students of laws, economy, technology, education and business administration at VNUH, the minimum time of dealing with English before their MA course is 420 class contacts (approximately 315 hours). They are supposed to be of pre-intermediate level of English before having another 150 class contacts as a compulsory part of their MA course at VNUH. However, it is surprising to learn that many of these students are incapable of using their English to talk, even in class. What is more, the same situation exists in many other colleges and universities in Vietnam. There have been numerous studies on this situation and various solutions, recommendations and suggestions have been given, including changing teaching methods, changing syllabus or textbooks, upgrading teachers’ qualifications, changing formats of speaking tests and so on. At SGS – VNUH, which is in charge of teaching English for MA students at VNUH, no such a research has been done before. The author, as a full-time teacher at SGS, is more than aware of the situation and she herself has encountered a number of difficulties in helping her students improve their speaking skill. This actually drives her to this research, namely “Teaching speaking skill for non-major MA students at VNUH”. Scope of the study To improve speaking skill for non-major MA students of English at VNUH, various methods can be made used of. However, within the framework of a minor thesis, the author only intends to give an overview of the current situation of teaching and learning speaking skill at SGS – VNUH and to suggest activities to help teachers improve their students’ speaking skill and achieve the objectives of each unit of the course book as well. The suggested activities will serve as a reference for teachers to teach effectively speaking topics in the course book English for Graduate Students only. Aim and objectives of the study Within the framework of a minor MA thesis, the study aims at suggesting classroom activities with the hope that they would be helpful, in one way or another, for teachers in their teaching English speaking skill to non-major MA students of English at VNUH. To achieve this aim, the objectives are to investigate the current situations of learning and teaching of speaking skill to non-major MA students of English at VNUH in order to find out the reasons for students’ unwillingness to speak English as well as teachers’ problems in teaching speaking skill. Research questions of the study The researcher wish to raise the questions as follows: What are the factors affecting willingness of non-major MA students of English to speak in class? What difficulties do teachers encounter in teaching English speaking skill for these students? Methods of the study To complete the study, quantitative method was used. Two survey questionnaires and some short interviews were given to non-major MA students of English at SGS – VNUH and their teachers to collect information for the study. All comments, remarks, suggestions and conclusion provided in the study based on the analysis of the data collected from these surveys. Organization of the study The study consists of three parts. Part one, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale and the scope of the thesis, defines the aim and objectives of the study. The research questions, methods and organization are also mentioned in this part. Part two, DEVELOPMENT, includes the following three chapters: Chapter one, Literature Review, covers the concepts relevant to the study: the nature of language skills and communication, the nature of speaking skill, in which answers to the questions: What is speaking? What are components of speaking? What skills and knowledge does a good speaker need? are found. Then the author discusses what skills and knowledge a good speaker needs. Methods and approaches most frequently applied so far in the teaching of speaking skill are also reviewed in this part. Chapter two, namely Teaching and Learning English Speaking skill at SGS – VNUH, provides an analysis of the current situation of teaching and learning speaking skill here based on the result of interviews and surveys of student’s attitude towards the current teaching methods and activities applied by the teachers in class, and teachers’ opinions about the course book. Chapter three, Some suggested activities for teaching English speaking skill at SGS, presents activities designed for each unit of the course book with the hope that they would help the teachers in creating motivation and improving students’ ability to speak English. Part three, CONCLUSION, summarizes the findings and addresses the shortcomings of the study. It also gives suggestions for further researches and studies. PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1 The nature of language skills I.1.1 The nature of language skills Language has been divided into different skill areas, based on the purpose of analysis and instruction. Regarding teaching points of view, language skills mainly consist of four-macro skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, in which speaking and writing are productive skills and listening and reading are receptive skills (Byrne, 1988:8). Regarding the manners by which they are formed, language skills are divided into oral skills relating to articulately organs, which are listening and speaking and literacy skills in connection with manual script including reading and writing. Of the four skills, speaking plays a role of great importance. It is central to the business of teaching and learning, in every discipline and at every level of instruction. It defines who knows or does not know a language. One cannot say he knows English without his ability to use the language to talk and once a person can speak in English, people say he knows the language without knowing if he can read or write it or not. I.1.2 The nature of speaking skill I.1.2.1 What is speaking? Speaking is “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information” (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997). Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking. It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving. Speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary ("linguistic competence"), but also that they understand when, why, and in what ways to produce language ("sociolinguistic competence"). It has its own skills, structures, and conventions different from written language (Burns & Joyce, 1997; Carter & McCarthy, 1995; Cohen, 1996). A good speaker synthesizes these skills and knowledge to succeed in a given speech act. I.1.2.2 What are components of speaking? This section examines the components of spoken English, drawing on a model proposed by van Lier (1995). It is necessary for teachers to understand fully these interrelated components in order to help adult learners improve their speaking skill. distinctive feature phoneme syllable morpheme word phrase clause utterance text PHONOLOGY MORPHOLOGY SYNTAX STRESS RHYTHM INTONATION Figure 1: Units of spoken language (van Lier, 1995, p. 15). DISCOURSE The figure depicts the many elements involved in teaching speaking to adult ESOL learners. The left column lists four traditional areas of linguistic analysis (which teachers must understand), and the center column labels the units of spoken language (which learners must master). Beginning at the pyramid’s base, text refers to stretches of language of an undetermined length. Texts can be either written or spoken, but here the focus is exclusively on spoken discourse. Spoken texts are composed of utterances: what someone says. A clause is two or more words that contain a verb marked for tense and a grammatical subject. Independent clauses are complete sentences that can stand alone (“Tuan went to work”), whereas dependent clauses cannot (“While Tuan was going to work . . .”). In contrast, a phrase is two or more words that function as a unit but do not have a subject or a verb marked for tense. These include prepositional phrases (“in the hospital” or “after school”) and infinitive phrases (“to drive” or “to move up”). Clauses and phrases do not usually appear alone in formal writing, but they are quite common in speech. Both clauses and phrases can be utterances, as can individual words, the next level in the pyramid. A word is called a free morpheme—a unit of language that can stand on its own and convey meaning (bus, apply, often). In contrast, bound morphemes are always connected to words. These include prefixes, such as un- or pre-, as well as suffixes, such as -tion or -s or -ed. Often, during the pressure of speaking, it is difficult for Vietnamese learners English to use the expected suffixes because Vietnamese language does not utilize these kinds of morphemes as grammatical markers. A phoneme is a unit of sound that distinguishes meaning. Phonemes can be either Consonants (like /p/ or /b/ in the words pat and bat) or Vowels (like /I/ and /æ/ in bit and bat). Phonemes differ from English to Vietnamese and are therefore difficult for learners to pronounce. For example, the “th” sounds in think and the are pervasive in English but do not exit in Vietnamese language. Learners of English, especially adult ones, often approximate or replace the “th” sounds with “s” or “z” or “d”. In the top levels of the figure, the word syllable overlaps the levels of morphemes and phonemes because a syllable can consist of a morpheme or simply one or more phonemes. The structure of syllables is referred to as being either open (ending with a V) or closed (ending with a C). Vietnamese languages use the open syllable structure, in which a syllable consists of just a V, or of a C followed by a V. Spoken English, in contrast, allows both open syllables (C-V, or just V) and closed syllables (C-V-C, or simply V-C), as well as C clusters, where two or more Consonants occur in sequence (as in the words stretched or jumped). For this reason, Vietnamese learners of English may omit word-final Consonants, thereby eliminating the sounds that convey important linguistic information, such as plurality, possession, or tense. Consonants and vowels are called segmental phonemes. Sometimes a spoken syllable consists of one phoneme (/o/ in okay). Syllables also consist of combined sounds (the second syllable of okay), and of both free and bound morphemes. For instance, the free morpheme hat consists of three phonemes but only one syllable. The word disheartened has three syllables, four morphemes (dis + heart + en + ed), and nine phonemes. A smaller unit, the distinctive feature, relates to how and where in the mouth a sound is produced when we speak. These minute contrasts contribute to ESOL learners’ accents. The three other labels in The figure—stress, rhythm, and intonation represent the suprasegmental phonemes. When we speak, these phonemes carry meaning differences “above” the segmental phonemes. For instance, the sentence “I am going now” can convey at least four different meanings, depending on where the stress is placed. The differences are related to the context where the utterances occur. Consider these interpretations: I am going now. (You may be staying here, but I choose to leave.) I am going now. (You may assert that I’m staying, but I insist that I am leaving.) I am going now. (I insist that I am leaving, rather than staying.) I am going now. (I am not waiting any longer.) It is critical to know how these levels of spoken language relate to the speaking skill of Vietnamese learners. Two key points derive from a substantial review of the research on foreign accent by Major (2001). First, he says that really learning the sound system of a language entails mastering (a) the individual segments (the V and C phonemes), (b) the combinations of segments, (c) prosody (stress, intonation, rhythm, etc.), and (d) “global accent, or the overall accent of a speaker” (p. 12). He adds that a global foreign accent is the result of a nonnative combination of (a), (b), and (c). Second, Major (2001) notes that “both the learner’s age and the AOL (when the learner was first exposed to the language) have been found to be important variables in governing whether and to what degree a learner can acquire a native like accent” (pp. 6–7). He concludes that “the vast majority of the research indicates that the younger the learner the more native like the pronunciation” (p. 11). I.1.2.3 What skills and knowledge does a good speaker need? A speaker's skills and speech habits have an impact on the success of any exchange (Van Duzer, 1997). Speakers must be able to anticipate and then produce the expected patterns of specific discourse situations. They must also manage discrete elements such as turn-taking, rephrasing, providing feedback, or redirecting (Burns & Joyce, 1997). Other skills and knowledge that instruction might address include the following: producing the sounds, stress patterns, rhythmic structures, and intonations of the language; using grammar structures accurately; assessing characteristics of the target audience; selecting vocabulary that is understandable and appropriate for the audience, the topic being discussed, and the setting in which the speech act occurs; applying strategies to enhance comprehensibility; using gestures or body language; and paying attention to the success of the interaction and adjusting components of speech. I.2 Teaching adults Adults bring life experiences and a level of maturity into the classroom that children and adolescents do not. Their expectations and motivations reflect this. Here are several keys to keep in mind when teaching adults: Adult classrooms may present great diversity Be prepared for diversity of cultural background, age, previous formal education, previous exposure to English, life experiences, and current life situations. Adults respond well to knowledgeable, enthusiastic teachers You must be comfortable with the subject matter you are teaching and communicate enthusiasm for the subject matter and your role as a teacher. This will help you gain respect and is especially important if you are younger than your students. If you must teach material which is challenging for you, try not to communicate a negative attitude about the material to your students. If a student asks a question which you can't answer, don't be afraid to say, "I don't know, but I'll find out for you." Adults are not too old to learn a second language well Although native language learning and literacy are best accomplished in childhood, when it comes to learning a second language, research has shown that adolescents and adults outperform children. Adolescents even surpassed children in pronunciation skills. One of the reasons children appear to acquire a second language faster than adults is simply that they get a lot more practice with other children and have lower inhibitions, but many adults have attained a high level of fluency in a foreign language. Adults need a comfortable and safe learning atmosphere Trial and error should be encouraged in language learning. Adults will take more risks in an environment where it's safe to make mistakes without embarrassment. You may want to minimize public reading and writing until your learners gain confidence, especially if literacy skills are deficient. The same goes for standing in front of the group to speak. Adult learning is transformative Learning in childhood is said to be formative, when skills and concepts are developed for the first time. Adults, on the other hand, are extending and refining their knowledge based on existing knowledge and beliefs. They are changed or transformed by learning experiences. Adults need repeated practice of a concept or skill Adults generally need patience and repetition to solidify new language concepts or skills. If adults have already developed bad habits with English errors, these will take time and effort to break. Adults also tend to have a lot on their minds and limited time to practice English outside the classroom. Adults learn well with question asking and answering, and problem finding and solving These activities require mature thought processes which stimulate and motivate adult minds. Adults want practical, real-life contexts The more relevant and useful the subject matter, the more motivated your learners will be. Adults enjoy materials that relate to their personal experiences and interests, and they want to be able to apply what they're learning in the real world. I.3 How speaking skill has been taught to adult ESOL learners Although several language teaching methods have been used to teach speaking in a second or foreign language, three methods have dominated language teaching in the past 60 years. This section first briefly reviews each method, then focuses specifically on how th