VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI
COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE
POST GRADUATE STUDIES
***
HOÀNG BÍCH THỦY
AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
SPEAKING SKILLS TO THE 2
ND
YEAR NON-MAJOR ENGLISH STUDENTS AT PRE-
INTERMEDIATE LEVEL OF PROFICIENCY
AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY
NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH ĐỐI VỚI SINH VIÊN
NĂM THỨ HAI KHÔNG CHUYÊN TRÌNH ĐỘ TIỀN TRUNG CẤP
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI
M.A. Minor Programme Thesis
Field: English Methodology
Code: 601410
HANOI, DECEMBER 2008
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI
COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE
POST GRADUATE STUDIES
*****
HOÀNG BÍCH THỦY
AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
SPEAKING SKILLS TO THE 2
ND
YEAR NON-MAJOR ENGLISH STUDENTS AT PRE-
INTERMEDIATE LEVEL OF PROFICIENCY
AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY
NGHIÊN CỨU THỰC TRẠNG VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH ĐỐI VỚI SINH VIÊN
NĂM THỨ HAI KHÔNG CHUYÊN TRÌNH ĐỘ TIỀN TRUNG CẤP
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI
M.A. Minor Programme Thesis
Field: English Methodology
Code: 601410
Supervisor: Ms. Đỗ Thị Mai Thanh MA
HANOI, DECEMBER 2008
i
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES
CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT
I certify that the minor thesis entitled: “An investigation into the Reality of Teaching and
Learning Speaking Skills to the 2
nd
year non-major English students at Pre-Intermediate level
of Proficiency at Hanoi University of Industry” is submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Arts is the result of my own work, except where
otherwise acknowledge and that this minor thesis or any part of the same had not been submitted
for a higher degree to any other universities or institutions.
Date:…….…………………………….
Signature: ……………………………
ii
ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS
During the process of wrting this thesis, I have been fortunate to receive supports and
assistance from a variety of people.
First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Do Thi
Mai Thanh, who allows me to draw fully on her wisdom and experience in implementing this
study. Her guidance, encouragement and invaluable detailed critical feedback have been most
generous.
I would like to convey my thanks to all my teachers of the Post graduate course 14
whose fundamental knowledge about language teaching and learning is of great importance to the
achievement of my academic study.
It is my pleasure to acknowledge my debt to the Board of Management of Foreign
Languages Department for their support and the favorable conditions they have granted me during
my study.
I would also like to take this opportunity to express my deepnest thanks to all the
teachers and colleagues, especially Ms Le Thi Thu Huong in the non-major English group 2 at
Hanoi University of Industry for their help in completing the survey questionnaires, for their
constructive suggestions to this research, and for their willingness to share their relevant problems
with me.
I am most thankful to the students of K9 at Faculties of Economics, Engineering,
Chemistry, Electronic and Computer Science at Hanoi University of Industry whose cooperation
is great significance to the completion of the study.
Finally, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my parents, my husband whose loving support
has been encouraging me to fulfill this thesis successfully.
iii
ABSTRACT
It is the fact that speaking is an important language skill. However, in the reality, the
teaching and learning English speaking are still far from satisfactory.
The study focuses on the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards speaking skill as well
as the analysis of the present teaching and learning to speak English. Once, problems have been
identified, suggestions for teachers to improve the situation of teaching and learning speaking
English to the 2 year non-major English students would be made.
The thesis consists of three main parts: the introduction, the development, and the
conclusion. The introduction - gives rationale for the study and sets up the aims, scopes and
methods of the study. The develoment - which is considered as the main part of the study, includes
three chapters with differents functions. Chapter 1 provides theoretical background about
Communicative Language Teaching, speaking skills, three main stages of speaking and
motivation in a speaking lesson. Chapter 2 investigates the current teaching and learning English
speaking to the 2
nd
year non-major English students at Hanoi University of Industry, the problems
encountered by both teachers and students as well as the materials used in teaching and learning
English speaking to 2
nd
year non-major English students are exposed. This chapter also deals with
the research methodology which covers participants, the settings of the study, the data collection
methods, the data analysis, and the findings and discussions. Chapter 3 offers some possible
suggestions to improve the teaching and learning English speaking to 2
nd
year non-major English
students. Part three - the conclusion - sums up the issues addressed and suggests some main points
for further research.
iv
LIST OF ABREVIATIONS
Ss : Students
Ts : Teachers
HaUI: : Hanoi University of Industry
CLT : Communicative Language Teaching
N : Number
Voc : Vocabulary
Stru : Structures
v
LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS
Tables:
Table 1: Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards speaking skill and the role of teaching
and learning speaking skills 20
Table 2: Students’ purposes of learning English and their participation in learning to speak
English 21
Table 3: Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards speaking materials and appropriate time for
teaching and learning English speaking 24
Table 4: Pre-speaking activities carried out by teachers and students’ responses 26
Table 5: While-speaking activities carried out by teachers and students’ responses 27
Table 6: Post-speaking activities carried out by teachers and students’ responses 28
Table 7: Teachers’ techniques to teach English speaking and students’ responses 29
Table 7.1: Teachers’ techniques to deal with students’ low speaking level and their
mistakes 29
Table 7.2: Teachers’ techniques to encourage students to speak and improve their
English speaking skills 31
Charts:
Chart 1: Teachers’ attitudes towards Communicative Language Teaching 22
Chart 2: Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards students’ speaking competence 23
Chart 3: Teachers’ and students’difficulties in teaching and learning English speaking25
Chart 3.1: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching English speaking skills 25
Chart 3.2: Students’difficulties in learning English speaking skills 25
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT i
ACKNOWLEGDEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
LIST OF ABREVIATIONS iv
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vi
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1
I. Rationale of the study 1
II. Aims of the study 2
III. Reseach questions 2
IV. Scope of the study 2
V. Methods of the study 2
VI. Design of the study 3
PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT 4
Chapter one Literature review 4
1.1. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 4
1.1.1. Concept of CLT 4
1.1.2. Characteristics of CLT 4
1.1.3. Conditions of Applying CLT 5
1.1.4. Using CLT in Teaching Speaking Skills 6
1.1.5. Factors Affecting CLT Application 7
1.2. Speaking Skill 7
1.2.1. Concepts of Speaking 7
1.2.2. Characteristics of Speaking 8
1.2.3. The Development Approach of Speaking Skill 9
1.3. Problems with Speaking and Speaking activities 10
1.3.1. Problems with Speaking 10
1.3.2. Problems with Speaking Activities 11
1.4. Motivation 12
1.4.1. Definition of Motivation 12
1.4.2. Types of Motivation 13
Chapter two Research Methodology 15
2.1. Practical Situation of Teaching and Learning English Speaking Skills at HaUI 15
2.1.1. Description of the English Course and its Objectives at HaUI 15
2.1.2. Description of the Students at HaUI 16
2.1.3. Description of the Teachers at HaUI 17
2.2. The Study 17
2.2.1. Participants 17
2.2.2. The Setting of the Study 18
2.2.3. The Data Collection Methods 19
2.2.4. Data Analysis of the Teachers’ and Students’ Survey Questionnaires 20
2.3. Findings and Discussions 33
2.3.1. Teachers’ and Students’ Attitudes towards Speaking and Speaking Materials 33
2.3.2. Teachers’ and Students’ Problems in Teaching and Learning to Speak
English 33
2.4. Summary 37
Chapter three Recommendations to Improve the Teaching and
Learning to Speak English 38
3.1. Improving Teachers’ Classroom Techniques to Teach Speaking Materials 38
3.1.1. Increasing Students’ Speaking Interest and Motivation 38
3.1.2. Applying Different Activities in Teaching Speaking 39
3.1.3. Activating Students to Work in Different Stages of Speaking 41
3.2. Training Students to Become Efficient Speakers 42
3.2.1. Making Students Aware of the Nature of Speaking Process 42
3.2.2. Encouraging Students to Develop Speaking Habits 42
3.3. Developing English Speaking Materials 44
3.4. Improving Teachers’ Professional Knowledge, Teaching Methodology and
Responsibilities 45
3.4.1. Improving Teachers’ Professional Knowledge 45
3.4.2. Improving Teachers’ Teaching Methodology 46
3.4.3. Increasing Teachers’ Responsibilities 46
3.5. Summary 47
PART THREE: CONCLUSION 48
REFERENCES
APPENDICES I
APPENDIX 1 : Survey Questionnaire for Teachers I
APPENDIX 2 : Survey Questionnaire for Students II
REFERENCES
Brown, G. &Yule, G. (1983). Teaching the spoken English. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Brown, H. Douglas. (1994). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language
Pegagogy. Prentice Hall Regents.
Burkart, G. S. (1998). Spoken Language: What it is and how to teach it. Washington, DC:
Centre for Applied Linguistics. Retrieved from www.nclrc.org.
Byrne, D. (1991). Techniques for classroom interaction. London: Longman.
Canale, M. and Swain, M. (1980). Approaches to Communicative Competence. Singapore:
RELC.
Celce-Murcia & L. Mc-Intosh (eds). (1979). Teaching English as Second or Foreign Language.
Rowley Massachusetts: Newbury House.
Cohen, A. D. (1998). Strategies in Learning and Using a Second Language. New York:
Longman.
Das, B. K. (1985). Communicative Language Teaching. Seameo Recl.
Doff, A. (1988). Teaching English: A training course for teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Downs, M. (2000). Increasing Students Motivation. Teacher’s Edition, 4, 8-13.
Harmer, J. (1991). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman: London and New
York.
Ellis, R. (1997). Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Le Van Canh. (2004). Understanding Foreign Language Teaching Methodology. National
University Publishing House.
Lighbow, P. M. and Spada, N. (1999). How Language are Learned. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Littlewood, W. (1981). Communicative Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Lewis, M. and Hill, J. (1992). Practical Techniques for Language Teaching. London:
Comercial Colour Press.
Mathews-Aldinli, J. and Van Horne, R. V. (2006). Promoting the Success of Multilevel ESL
Classes: What Teachers and Administrators Can Do. Centre for Adult English Language
Acquisition (CAELA). Retrieved from www.cal.org/caela/els_resources .
Nunan, D. (1989). Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Nunan, D. (1991). Language Teaching Methodology. UK: Prentice-Hall International.
Nunan, D. (1991). Reseach Method in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Nuttall, C. (1996). Teaching Reading skills in a Foreign Language. Macmillan.
Pattison, P. (1987). Developing Communicative Skills. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Richards, J. C. (1983). Communicative Needs in Foreign Language Learning. ELT Journal.
V37. 1983.
River, W. M. (1981). Teaching Foreign Language Skills. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
River, W. M. and Temperley, M. S. (1986). A Practical Guide to the Teaching of English as a
Second or Foreign Language. Oxford University Press.
Savinon, S. J. (1983). Communicative Competence: Theory and Classroom Practice. Addison-
Wesley Publishing Company.
Ur, P. (1996). A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
I
APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS
This survey is designed to collect information for the study on “An investigation into the Reality
of Teaching and Learning English Speaking to the 2
nd
year non-major English students at Hanoi
University of Industry”. Your assistance in completing the following items is highly appreciated.
You can be certain that this is for research purpose only and that you will not be identified in
any discussion of the data.
Before answering the questions, please fill in some information:
* Gender : Male/ Female
* Your age :
* How long have you been teaching English? (0-3 years; 4-5 years; 6-8 years; more than 10
years)
* What materials are you using to teach English at your University?
Please circle the appropriate answers for the following questions. You may choose more
than one option.
1. Which of these four following English language skills do you think the most difficult for
your students?
A. Listening. C. Reading.
B. Speaking. D. Writing.
2. What is your idea about teaching and learning English Speaking to the 2
nd
year non-
major English students at Pre-Intermediate level of Proficiency at your University?
A. Very essential. C. Not very essential.
B. Essential. D. Not essential at all.
3. What do you think of your students’ Speaking competence at HaUI?
A. Really bad B. Bad C. Quite good D. Good E. Really good
4. What are the appropriate periods (45 minutes/period) for teaching and learning English
Speaking to the 2
nd
year non-major students?
A. 1 period/ week. C. 3-4 periods/ week.
B. 1-2 periods/ week. D. More than 4 periods/ week.
5. What do you think of the materials used for teaching and learning Speaking to the 2
nd
year non-major English students at Pre-Intermediate level of Proficiency at your
University?
A. Difficult and boring. C. Interesting and stimulating.
B. Difficult but interesting. D. Easy and boring.
6. What are your difficulties in teaching Speaking skills to the 2
nd
year students at Pre-
Intermediate level of Proficiency?
A. Students’ low motivation. E. Large and heterogeneous class.
B. Students’ low level of English proficiency.F. Inappropriate materials.
C. Time limitation. G. Poor teaching equipments.
D. Students’ laziness. H. Others (please specify)
7. Does your university have enough modern equipments (such as radio, TV, computer,
video, projector etc.) for teaching English Speaking skills?
A. Yes. B. No. C. Some of the equipments.
(please name)
8. As for you, CLT:
A. always emphasizes fluency over accuracy.
B. is student-centered.
C. its final goal is students’ communicative competence.
D. does not teach grammar.
E. is used only for teaching Speaking skill, not for other skills.
F. focuses on meaningful tasks rather than the language itself.
G. gives students opportunities to communicate with each other.
H. Others ( please specify)……………….
9. Do you apply CLT in teaching Speaking?
A. Yes. B. No. I use method.
10. What do you always do before a Speaking task?
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