(LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ) An investigation into the applicability of critical strategy in group work to the teaching of speaking skills for the second year students at English department of Hong Duc university

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

------

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG HẠNH
M.A. MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE APPLICABILITY OF CRITICAL
STRATEGY IN GROUP WORK TO THE TEACHING OF SPEAKING
SKILLS FOR THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH
DEPARTMENT OF HONG DUC UNIVERSITY

( Nghiên cứu khả năng ứng dụng chiến lược phản biện theo nhóm vào
giảng dạy kỹ năng nói cho sinh viên năm thứ hai khoa Tiếng Anh
trường Đại Học Hồng Đức tỉnh Thanh Hoá )

Field

: English Language Teaching Methodology

Code

: 60.14.10

HA NOI - 2011

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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

------

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG HẠNH
M.A. MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE APPLICABILITY OF CRITICAL
STRATEGY IN GROUP WORK TO THE TEACHING OF SPEAKING
SKILLS FOR THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT ENGLISH
DEPARTMENT OF HONG DUC UNIVERSITY

( Nghiên cứu khả năng ứng dụng chiến lược phản biện theo nhóm vào
giảng dạy kỹ năng nói cho sinh viên năm thứ hai khoa Tiếng Anh
trường Đại Học Hồng Đức tỉnh Thanh Hoá )

Field

: English Language Teaching Methodology

Code

: 60.14.10

Supervisor : Nguyễn Bàng, M.A

HA NOI - 2011

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
page
DECLARATION ..........................................................................................................

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..........................................................................................

ii

ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................

iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .......................................................................................

vii

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES ............................................................................

viii

PART A: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................

1

1. Rationale of the Study ............................................................................................

1

2. Aims of the Study ...................................................................................................

2

3. Research Questions of the Study ............................................................................

3

4. Scope of the Study ..................................................................................................

3

5. Methods of the Study ..............................................................................................

3

6. Design of the Study ................................................................................................

3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT .......................................................................................

4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................

4

1.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................................

4

1.2 An Overview of Speaking ....................................................................................

4

1.2.1 Definitions of Speaking ..................................................................................

4

1.2.2 The Importance of Speaking in Language Teaching and Learning ................

5

1.2.3 The Principles for Teaching Speaking ............................................................

6

1.2.4 The Communicative Approach to Teaching Speaking ..................................

7

1.2.4.1 CLT and Teaching Speaking in the Classroom Context

7

1.2.4.2 Speaking Activities ...................................................................................

8

1.2.4.3 Problems with Speaking Activities ...........................................................

8

1.3 The Critical Strategy (CS) in Teaching Speaking ................................................

9

1.3.1 What is the Critical Strategy ? ........................................................................

9

1.3.2 The Importance of CS to the Development of Students' Speaking Skills ......

9

1.3.3 Teaching Critical Strategies Used in the Speaking Lessons ...........................

11

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1.3.3.1 Oral Presentation ......................................................................................

11

1.3.3.2 Group Discussion ......................................................................................

12

1.3.3.3 Seminar .....................................................................................................

13

1.3.4 Factors Affecting CS Application in Group Work .........................................

13

1.3.4.1 Student Variables ......................................................................................

14

1.3.4.2 Teacher Variables .....................................................................................

15

1.3.4.3 Language Environment and Course Book ................................................

16

1.3.4.4 Tests and Evaluations ...............................................................................

16

1.4 Summary ...............................................................................................................

16

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY .........................................................................................

17

2.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................................

17

2.2 The Context of the Study ......................................................................................

17

2.3 The Research Methodology ..................................................................................

18

2.3.1 Selecting Population .......................................................................................

18

2.3.2 The Instrumentation ........................................................................................

19

2.3.2.1 The Questionnaires ...................................................................................

19

2.3.2.2 The Classroom Observations ....................................................................

20

2.4 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................

20

2.4.1 Data Analysis of the Survey Questionnaires ..................................................

20

2.4.1.1 Data Analysis of the Teachers' Survey Questionnaire ..............................

20

2.4.1.2 Data Analysis of the Students' Survey Questionnaire...............................

27

2.4.2 Data Analysis of the Class Observations.........................................................

36

2.5 Summary ...............................................................................................................

37

CHAPTER 3: MAJOR FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

33

3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................

38

3.2 The Teachers' and Students' Beliefs and Attitudes ................................................

38

towards CS Application in Group Work
3.3 The Teachers' Situation of Applying CS in Group ...............................................

38

Work in the Speaking Lessons
3.4 The Challenges when Applying CS in Teaching Speaking Skills ........................

39

3.5 The Modifications for Applying CS in Group Work Possible .............................

40

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3.6 Summary ...............................................................................................................

41

PART C: CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................

42

1 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................

42

2 Limitations of the Study ..........................................................................................

43

3 Recommendations for Further Study .......................................................................

43

REFERENCES .............................................................................................................

44

APPENDICES ..............................................................................................................

I

Appendix 1: Survey Questionnaire for Teachers ........................................................

I

Appendix 2: Survey Questionnaire for Students ........................................................

V

Appendix 3: Classroom Observation Sheet ................................................................

X

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CA:

Communicative Approach

CLT:

Communicative Language Teaching

CS:

Critical Strategy

DLSD:

Division of Language Skills Development

FLD:

Foreign Language Department

HDU:

Hong Duc University

No:

Number of responses

SLA:

Second Language Acquisition

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LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

CHARTS
Chart 1: Teachers' beliefs and attitudes towards the role of CS in group work to the
students' speaking skills development
Chart 2:

The teachers' beliefs and attitudes of the topics in the current course books to
CS application in group work

Chart 3:

The teachers' techniques used most

Chart 4:

The students' beliefs and attitudes towards speaking skills

Chart 5:

The students' beliefs and attitudes towards CS in group work

Chart 6:

The students' preferences for speaking topics

TABLES
Table 1:

Teachers' ideas of CS

Table 2:

The teachers' beliefs and attitudes of the students' English proficiency
CS application in group work

Table 3:

The teachers' frequency of applying CS in group work

Table 4:

Types of techniques and activities used by the teachers

Table 5:

The difficulties affirmed by teachers

Table 6:

Solutions suggested by teachers

Table 7:

The students' beliefs about their English proficiency

Table 8:

The students' profits gained from CS in group work

Table 9:

The students' preferences for the techniques the teachers used

Table 10: The students' difficulties in preparing the contents of the topics or the tasks
Table 11: The students' difficulties in delivering presentations
Table 12: The students' suggestions for their difficulties
Table 13: The students' suggestions for teachers

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PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
It is recognized that in recent years, in the field of second language acquisition (SLA),
researchers have been more interested in studying the learning process than the learning
product and in the development of communicative competence than that of linguistic
competence ( Chen, 1990). For this tendency, the present study is intended to investigate
into the applicability of critical strategy in groups in the speaking lessons for Englishmajor students at Hong Duc University based on the following reasons:
Firstly, there is an urgent need to improve students' communicative competence in addition
to lexical and grammatical knowledge. In fact, we are living in the twenty-first century
with the dominance of English all over the world in such important areas as aviation,
business, commerce, technology, science, international relations and diplomacy. In
accordance with the open policies to integrate into the world community, the large number
of companies from different countries investing into several fields in Vietnam. Therefore,

the necessity for English has been increasing very rapidly, in particular English speaking
skills has become a common requirement for jobs, and is considered to be a "ladder" to a
successful career. Being aware of that, in the past years, the teaching staff of English at
Hong Duc University (HDU) has been trying hard to define suitable methods and to
compile appropriate materials for language teaching and learning in which speaking skills
is treated as the most important of the four language skills but has not been successful in
producing sufficient, fluent foreign language speakers. One of the main reasons is the lack
of frequent practice from students. To enhance students' speaking skills development,
teachers need to create more opportunities for the students to practice and learn from their
own strengths and weaknesses as well as their peers' weaknesses and strengths. Among
suggested solutions, CS in groups can be of great help because it is the interaction in the
classroom among students to express their opinions on the topics. Moreover, through these
activities students will learn the way to co-operate in the group or team that is very
important in the real world and positive social relation in the community.
Secondly, opponent strategy in groups is one of the teaching techniques designed in the
communicative approach which emerges as the latest development because of its

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superiority. In the view of this approach, the learner is considered the center of the learning
process, the teacher servers as a facilitator, allowing students to be in charge of their own
learning. Breen, M. and Candlin, C.N. (1980) stated that learners should be active in
groups as well as in classroom activities to enhance their interactive learning to be
communicatively competent. However, there is a fact that not all learners are participants
in the speaking lessons because of shyness, lacking motivation or poor knowledge of
pronunciation and vocabulary. Thus, in order to involve all learners in class activities, it is
the teachers' business to design and apply techniques to increase students' participation in

class activities and makes them more active. CS in groups is one of the feasible methods to
motivate students to participate heartily in speaking activities in the class.
Finally, the paper is implemented to investigate the effectiveness of applying this
technique and from that discovering its strong and weak points to set up the most relevant
ones in terms of contents. The results obtained based on the theoretical background and the
present use of it at the Foreign Language Department, HDU would help students to raise
their speaking skills as well as improve teachers' teaching methodologies in relation with
the process of renovation for teaching at the Foreign Language Department, HDU
currently.
2. Aims of the Study
The research focuses on investigating the practice of the critical strategy used by the
teachers at English Department of Hong Duc University and giving some suggestions for
applying CS to enhance the students' speaking skills. The specific aims of the research are
as follows:
-

To investigate the teachers' and the students' beliefs and attitudes towards the
application of the critical strategy in groups in the speaking lessons .

- To find out the reality of teaching and learning CS in groups in the speaking lessons
- To find out the teachers' challenges when applying the critical strategy in groups in the
speaking lessons.
- To give some possible suggestions for using the critical strategy in groups to enhance
students' speaking skills.

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3. Research questions of the Study
Regarding to the aims of the research, , the following research questions are put forward:
1. What are the teachers' and students' beliefs and attitudes towards the application of
the critical strategy in groups in the speaking lessons ?
2. How is Critical Strategy applied in the speaking lessons?
3. What are the challenges underlying the application of the critical strategy in teaching
speaking to the English second year students?
4. What modifications are necessary to make the critical strategy possible ?
4. Scope of the Study
There has existed a variety of strategies to the teaching of speaking skills at English
Department of HDU, but the study only focuses on investigating the applicability of the CS
in groups to the teaching of speaking skills for the second-year students there.
5. Methods of the Study
The major method used in this study was survey. Firstly, two survey questionnaires were
administered to the teachers and the students. Secondly, based on the obtained results from
the questionnaires, the class observations were carried out in class k12. These were to find
out the reality of applying CS in groups in the speaking lessons including the techniques
and activities used, the atmosphere of the classroom, the students' attitudes to the lessons
and their interactions during the lessons.
6. Design of the Study
The study is divided into three parts: Part 1 is the introduction including the rationale, the
aims, the research questions, the scope and methods of the study; Part 2 is the
development, which consists of three chapters: chapter 1 is the literature on knowledge of
speaking skills, of the Critical Strategy (CS) and offactors affecting the application of CS
in the teaching of speaking; Chapter 2 is the study, which presents the actual procedure of
the study including the setting, subjects, sample, instrumentation, data collection and data
analysis; chapter 3 is the major findings and discussion.; Part 3 is the conclusion, which
contains the main points discussed in the paper, some limitations of the study and future
research will be presented.

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1 Introduction
This chapter is concerned with some of issues in the theories of the speaking skills and of
the Critical Strategy. This review of related literature focuses on the two following
sections: (1) theoretical background of speaking skills; (2) theoretical background of CS.
1.2

An overview of speaking skills

1.2.1 Definitions of Speaking
In English study, speaking can be considered as a major component or an inseparable part
of any language learning process. Therefore, speaking has been the object of numerous
studies with varieties of definitions.
Speaking, according to Donough and Shaw (1993), is a skill which enables people to
produce utterances when communicating to achieve a particular end. Savignon (1991) also
states that language generated by the learners, hence speaking is a productive skill referring
to produce systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning. The fact that a wide range of
appropriate expressions is needed to fulfill particular purposes in communication,
Brown (1994: 45) and Burns & Joyce (1997: 29) share the same ideas that speaking is an
inter-active process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and
processing information. Likewise, Byrne (1991:9) proves that oral skills in communication
are complementary. In most of the process of communication, the roles of speakers and
listeners are interchanged, information gaps between them are created, and then closed
with the effort from both sides. Thus, speaking is comprehended as a two-way process

between speaker and listener involving the productive skills of communication.
In another expression, Richard and Rodgers (1986:165) define speaking as "the range of
exercise types and activities with a communication approach is unlimited, provided that
such exercises and activities enable learners to attain the communicative objectives of the
curriculum, engage learners in communication and require the use of such communicative

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processes as information sharing, negotiation of meaning, and interaction”. They think
that teachers who take account of communication as the goal of foreign language teaching
can select, organize, design oral tasks or activities related to negotiation and exchange of
feedback among students in the classroom more communicative and effectively.
In conclusion, although there has existed the definitional diversity of speaking from
different linguistics, they are all agreed that speaking is fundamental to human
communication and one of the macro skills that foreign language students should be helped
to develop their communicative purposes.
1.2.2 The importance of speaking in language teaching and learning
Pattison (1992) confirms that when people know or learn a language, they mean being able
to speak the language, thus of the four language skills, speaking as a productive skill
(Bryne, 1991:8) plays a very important role in the language acquisition process.
Speaking, according to Donough and Shaw (1993), is a skill which enables people to
produce utterances when communicating to achieve a particular end. Thus, it is said that
speaking skills helps learners enhance their acquisition and appropriate production of the
language in each different purpose of communication.
Furthermore, in language teaching, speaking not only helps students to communicate well,
exchange information and culture with others but also helps them to read better, to listen
more effectively and write more accurately. As Bygate, M. (1987:5) stresses that speaking

“is also a medium through which much language is learnt, and which for many is
particularly conductive for learning”. It means that, in speaking lessons, learners are not
only exposed to new language in the real contexts of the daily life and are advised to draw
out new forms with the help from teachers but also they learn from themselves
grammatical or other kinds of rules by discovering or inducing them from the contexts and
their experience of using the language. Therefore, it is often seen that speaking is a good
source of motivation for most students in foreign language learning.
For the ideas above, it is believed that speaking is an essential skill to the most primary
medium for output in language learning process, not only as productive skill but also to the
development of students' language competence and learning motivation.

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1.2.3 The principles of teaching speaking
Encouraging students to take part in speaking activities in the classroom is not easy for
foreign language teachers. This requires their awareness of learners' level of language
knowledge. Kathleen M. Bailey (2005:124) lists three principles for teaching speaking to
advanced learners: (i) help learners to combine fluency and accuracy; (ii) encourage
learners to take reasonable risks in speaking; (iii) provide opportunities for learners to
notice the gap.
The first one refers to how to work on both fluency and accuracy at the same time since
the learners with a truly proficient ability of language are not only able to speak English
spontaneously at a normal conversational rate, but also to maintain their accuracy.
The second one, as explained by M.Beily (2005:125) encourages learners to take
reasonable risks in English. Advanced students have a functional range of vocabulary and
can generally make themselves understood and get their needs met. They have mastered
many English grammar patterns and sometimes they get comfortable with their level of

proficiency and seem to stop trying to improve their English. Therefore, it is a teacher who
stretches learners' proficiency by encouraging them to try new things and take reasonable
risks in speaking English.
The third one means that learners should be given opportunities to "notice the gap". It
refers to the learners realizing that the way they are saying something in the target
language differs from the way native or proficient speakers say it. This awareness can be
about individual words, grammar rules, idioms, appropriate phrases, pronunciation-any
component of the language they are learning. We as teachers can do to help learners
become more self-aware by a variety of tasks and materials for speaking activities.
These principles are good orientations for teaching speaking skills. It is hoped that
language teachers can help their students by drawing suitable strategies to practice
speaking skills in the classroom more effectively.

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1.2.4 The communicative approach to teaching speaking
1.2.4.1 CLT and teaching speaking in the classroom contexts
In the past several years, although there has existed a variety of approaches for language
teaching, CLT is always the popular approach and has strongly influenced on the language
teaching in Vietnam, especially in teaching speaking skills to advanced students.
CLT marks the beginning of a major innovation within the language teaching which is
widely accepted nowadays. It emphasizes that the goal of the language learning is to
develop

communicative competence that consists

of grammatical

competence,

sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence (Canale and
Swaine, 1980).
In fact, CLT is a broad approach and can guide the real teaching in classroom contexts
because of the main principles: (i) Teaching is learner-centered and responsive to the needs
and interests; (ii) The target language is acquired through interactive communicative use
that encourages the negotiation of meaning; (iii) There is exposure to examples of
authentic language from the target language community (Brufit,1984).
However, the reality of oral communication practice inside the classroom is different from
that of communication in the real world. Therefore, understanding the characteristics of
classroom oral communication practice is very vital for teachers to design effective
speaking activities. Pattison (1987) points out its characteristics: (i) The content or topic is
highly predictable and decided by teachers, textbooks, tapes, etc. The meaning of what
they say may not always be clear to the speakers; (ii) Learners speak in order to practice
speaking, to follow teachers' instructions or demands and to get good marks; (iii) The
extrinsic motivation is satisfied as the foreign language is practiced, as teachers accept or
correct what is said, as teachers give marks to learners; (iv) Participants are often a large
group in which not everyone is facing the speakers or interested in what they say except for
the teacher; (v) Language in classroom communication is often solved by translation.
The characteristics of classroom oral communication practice help teachers understand the
constraints of speaking activities designed in the line of CA and make them more aware of
the complexity of speaking practice in the classroom to plan out appropriate solutions.

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1.2.4.2 Speaking activities
Based on the theory and characteristics of CLT, Littlewood (1981) lists two main types of
communicative activities which he calls: "functional communication activities and social
interaction activities". The main purpose of the former encourages learners to use the
language they know to get meaning across as effectively as possible such as tasks that
learners note similarities or differences in sets of pictures, discover missing feature in a
map or picture, or know how to complete a map, follow directions, and solve problems
from shared cues. The latter activities including conversation and discussion sessions,
dialogues and role-plays, simulations, improvisations and debates emphasize on social as
well as functional aspects of communication.
To advanced learners who have a large range of vocabulary and grammar, a variety of
tasks and activities designed in line of CA including information sharing, negotiation of
meaning, and interaction are necessary because they can help teachers stimulate learners'
natural oral communication in the classroom.
1.2.4.3 Problems with speaking activities
It is acknowledged that enables the learners to participate in communicative speaking
activities in the classroom is not easy. In order to do that well, according to Ur (1996:121),
teachers come across the problems, for instance, students' inhibition about saying
something in the target language because they are worried about making mistakes, fearful
of criticism or losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts; learners'
poor ideas to express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should speak; uneven
or low participation of learners in communicative activities in groups because each one has
only very little time for talking or the tendency of some learners to dominate the group
while others speak very little or not at all; or mother-tongue use in discussion because
learners feel less "exposed" if they are speaking their mother, particularly unusual topics.
The above mentioned problems create a lot of difficulties for teachers to organize
communicative activities in the classroom. Therefore, it is said that teachers have to
overcome those to design and carry out successful speaking activities in the classroom.

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1.3 The Critical Strategy (CS) in teaching speaking
1.3.1 What is the Critical Strategy ?
According to Richards, J.C & Schmidt, R. (2002:515) "strategy is procedures used in
learning, thinking, etc which serve as a way of reaching a goal". A teaching strategy is a
conscious plan comprising of a wide range of selected skills and techniques, which are
targeted at the achievement of an objective. Thus a critical teaching strategy is a one for
the classroom that is used to increase motivation and retention, to help students develop a
positive image of self and others, to provide a vehicle for critical thinking and problemsolving, and to encourage collaborative social skills. In other words, encouraging students
to have critical thinking in the learning process is the goal of this strategy.
In a seminal study on critical thinking and education in 1941, Edward Glaser defines
critical thinking as the ability to think critically that involves three things: (i) an attitude of
being disposed to consider in a thoughtful way the problems and subjects that come within
the range of one's experiences, (ii) knowledge of the methods of logical inquiry and
reasoning, and (iii) some skills in applying those methods. Thus, it is said that critical
thinking is the mode of thinking about any subjects, contents, or problems in which
learners improve the quality of their thinking in learning how to analyze the logical
structure of texts clearly and rationally in reflective and independent thinking.
It is obvious that critical strategy enhances students' language skills, engages in reflective
and independent thinking and being able to think clearly and rationally. Thinking clearly
and systematically in analyzing an issue can improve the way learners express their ideas
and their comprehension abilities. Therefore, the critical strategies relevant to learners'
level will develop their language skills, especially spoken language.
1.3.2 The importance of CS to the development of students' speaking skills
CS in groups is one of the teaching techniques designed in the CA which emerges as the
latest development because of its superiority. Thus, effective application of this technique
can enhance learners' practical abilities, and achieve a gratifying teaching result. It is said

to be a great challenge for teachers to conduct CS in English speaking teaching, but CS

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actually realizes the students-centered teaching mode and brings about a lot of benefits for
teaching in general, and for the development of students' speaking skills in particular.
First and foremost, it encourages students to practice speaking more. Based on the
principles and theories of CA, teachers create various kinds of tasks like role-play,
simulation and group discussion or presentation and so on to increase the intellectual and
emotional participation or involvement of the individual students in solving a particular
problem. These activities make teaching process communicative, which can motivate
students’ passion and enhance “the interactive communication” in the classroom. In
addition, when they come together in groups with a given topic or task, each of them is
responsible for their own study that is very important to achieve general goals of the group.
Therefore she feels that she is making useful contribution to the group and that is
significant because it helps build up interest, self-confidence in expressing her ideas in
front of the class or interact with the others in the target language.
Furthermore, CS improves students' practical speaking skills. It is true that teaching
speaking to students means helping them have good communicative skills when leaving
school. To achieve this, CS is considered as one of the most effective techniques since it
focuses on practicality and feasibility, whose terminal objective is to cultivate students’
language skills and practical communicative competence. In a speaking lesson with CS,
students practice the language they have learnt in meaningful ways such as skills to express
wishes, ideas or opinions, negotiate or solve problems, or establish and maintain social
relationships, or interrupt the others in the polite ways through the real life situations
related to the target language community. More particularly, through interacting with the
classmates, students will get a lot of experience to communicate well outside classroom.

Finally, CS enhances language and presentation skills. Thinking clearly and systematically
can improve the way learners express their ideas. In learning how to analyze the logical
structure of texts, critical thinking also improves learners' comprehension abilities.
The benefits from CS indicate that it is a feasible teaching technique to foster students'
spoken language as well as practical communicative skills.

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1.3.3 Teaching critical strategies used in the speaking Lessons
As mentioned above, CS plays a significant role in teaching speaking and is one useful
tool to improve students' speaking skills. Therefore, employing a number of specific
techniques can enhance the effectiveness of classroom communication, which are oral
presentation, group discussion and seminar.
1.3.3.1 Oral presentation
Emden & Becker (2004: 1) state that the “ability to speak well enough to interest,
influence or persuade other people is a major asset for whatever they want to do in the
future and it may change them in ways that they did not expect”. Their idea is true as oral
presentation skills can bring about distinct advantages in teaching speaking: (i) It helps
students develop the skills of spoken interaction through which teachers can discover
whether communication takes place; (ii) It helps teachers obtain feedback about the
students' improvements related to the aspects of spoken language and intervene with
appropriate remedies. Also, students can get feedback on their performance immediately
that is particular good for them to find out a more effective speaking learning strategy; (iii)
It helps students have critical thinking about everything, produce a well-organized oral
report, which accordingly will help to develop their language proficiency.
In this technique, students are divided into different groups of 3-4 students to cover a topic
or task given that is required thorough preparation at home before they actually report to

the class. When this process takes place, each member of the group will take turns to make
oral presentations related to a two-minute talk on different parts of the topic and all class
members will be active listeners. As such, the activity may go on in the form of a
discussion and teacher will act as an observer and a 'referee' at the same time because s/he
may intervene when practical help is needed to reach a final agreement on the topic
discussed.
For the mentioned above points, it is noted that oral presentation including informative
presentations, an instructional presentation, arousing presentations, a persuasive
presentation, a decision-making presentation, as Randall P. Whatley lists (see http: //
www.cs.wisc.edu/%7Emarkhill/conference-talk.html) is a helpful strategy to improve
students' speaking skills and thereby develops their personal confidence.

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1.3.3.2 Group discussion
Group work is commonly the choice of teachers because large classes do not allow them
to create enough opportunities for all learners to participate in classroom communicative
activities at the same time. According to Brown (1994), group work offers various
advantages: (i) It generates interactive language; (ii) It offers an embracing affective
climate; (iii) It promotes learners responsibility and autonomy; (iv) It is a step toward
individualizing instruction.
Besides, it is agreed that group work also contains some certain disadvantages such as the
teacher is no longer in control of the class; students will use their mother tongue; students'
errors will be reinforced in small groups; teacher can not monitor all groups once; and
some learners may prefer to work alone (Brown, 1994). However, according to Brown,
group work can be conducted successfully if teacher takes into consideration various
factors like the way to group students, abilities, personal characteristics, etc. S/he also has

to make sure that every student has got chance to speak and does not interfere much with
their talk. Moreover, an appropriate task including games, role-play and simulation, drama,
project, interview brainstorming, information gap, jig saw, problem solving, decision
making, and opinion exchange whose topics refer to daily life is also very important to
promote successful group discussion.
In a group discussion, the class is divided into small groups of 3-4 students to work
together and all the groups work at the same time. Students are left free to interact among
themselves with minimum dose of intervention from the teacher. While students are
working in groups, teacher may move around listening, giving help when it is really
necessary. Then groups can interact to exchange information and ideas, come discussion
and some general consensus made by big group and finally teacher sums up discussion.
In short, group discussion as a communicative activity should be used to encourage
meaningful interaction among students and motivate them to express their opinions and
attitudes by a persuasive argument or convincing, evidence in the target language.

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1.3.3.3 Seminars
It is believed that seminar can be used very effectively in language teaching in general, and
in teaching speaking in particular. According to Furnneaux et al (1991, quoted in Jordan,
1997:196), there are four main types of seminar with some overlap among them: (i)
student group work: eg . a problem-solving exercise; (ii) the lesson: nominated students go
over prepared answers to case studies; (iii) discussion: eg. of materials previously read by
the whole group; (iv) presentation: e.g. class members reporting on reading they had done.
Seminar skills expose to a variety of language functions as strategies: disagreeing,
agreeing, persuading, starting a criticism, giving an example, asking questions, interrupting
and so on, which require an extensive practice of communicative skills.

In speaking practice with seminar in the classroom, students are asked to prepare brief
papers related to a list of issues suggested by teacher at home depending on the time
available for the activity. They are also free to join in any groups they choose, but they
have to make oral presentations and then involve in extensive interaction through
discussions, questions and answers, etc The role of teacher as a facilitator or a guide who
provides materials or suggest reference sources to help students find out information and
data for the topic chosen. The assessment for students' presentations based on knowledge
of subject content, capacity for analysis, synthesis, their own opinions in English and
creative thinking through a well ordered presentation and ability to express. The success of
the seminar depends on several factors, but the contents of the topics chosen, which decide
to the degree of students' participation and interest, are more important above.
Seminar is the most complex form of CS. It not only requires a high level of students'
spoken skills and their language knowledge but also requires more time for preparation
than the other strategies. However, it may be very effective to help students have fluent
and logic speaking skills.
1.3.4 Factors affecting CS Application in group work in the speaking lessons.
Making a success of speaking teaching not only depends on the useful strategies but also
comes from the factors affecting their application, which are student variables, teacher
variables, language environment and course book, tests and evaluations.

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1.3.4.1 Student variables
It is acknowledged that students are the key factors deciding the success or failure in
language teaching process. Students' participation and interest to speaking activities are
governed by the reasons such as their motivation, beliefs and attitudes, learning styles,
anxiety and confidence.

The first looks at motivation as " some kind of internal drive that encourages somebody to
pursue a course of action" (Jeremy Harmer, 1991) or is an inner drive, impulse, emotion,
or desire that encourages one to do a particular action. In his opinion, motivation
influences people's actions or thoughts to pursue a particular goal. In language learning,
students with positive motivation will learn faster, more active and effective with more
efforts than s/he does under normal circumstances.
The second sees students' beliefs and attitudes as the way to approach their learning. It is
noted that beliefs for the status of spoken language, teaching methods, the relationship
between teachers and students, among students, and confidence of using the language will
stimulate them participating heartily in speaking activities of the classroom. In contrast,
they always show their resistance to class participation. Therefore, investigating students'
beliefs and attitudes is one of the necessary duties of teachers to achieve good results for
their teaching.
The third, students' learning styles are also an important factor for the success of speaking
lesson. According to Keefe (1979:4), learning styles can be seen as cognitive, affective and
physiological traits that are relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact
with and respond to the learning environment. The fact that active students can use
contextual cues to help them in comprehension and expressing their ideas, etc and thereby
they contribute to the success of a speaking lesson.
Finally, students' anxiety and confidence are considered to be one of the characteristics
which has a relationship with learning success. Many studies reveal that language anxiety
has a negative relationship with learning success and vice versa, self-confidence has a
positive relationship. It is clear that students feel anxiety when they are in a position of
finding it hard to express their opinions and attitudes to a problem in the target language,

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but experience of success may facilitate their desire to learn, to participate in class
activities as well as to take risks communicating with other classmates. Thus, teacher
should also concern these characteristics of students to give suitable teaching strategies.
To sum up, student variables such as students' motivation, beliefs and attitudes, learning
styles, anxiety and confidence have a great influence on language teaching and learning as
well as in CS application to teaching speaking skills.
1.3.4.2 Teacher variables
It is said that teachers themselves are important variables in the teaching situation. That is
demonstrated by the factors like teachers' beliefs and attitudes, qualities and personalities
affecting how the success or failure of the learning lesson is.
First and foremost, it is necessary to see teachers' beliefs and attitudes for teaching process
because "teachers' beliefs are the strongest guiding influence on teachers' instruction"
(Freeman, 1986). Teachers' beliefs are found on the goals, values, teachers hold in relation
to the content, process of teaching and their understanding of the systems in which they
work and their roles within it. These values and beliefs affect teachers' decision and action.
Richards and Lockhart (1996) suggest that if teachers believe in the effectiveness of a
particular approach or method of teaching, they will consistently to implement it in the
classroom, on the contrary they will not carry out it successfully. Therefore, it is not
deniable that teachers' beliefs or attitudes have an effect on the classroom behavior,
influence what learners learn, and are potent determinants of teachers' teaching style.
Lastly, Wilkins (1976:53) states that teachers' skills, knowledge, personality and
proficiency in the target language play an essential role in the class. If teachers do not have
a deep and thorough knowledge of the subject, they will lose students' confidence that
influences students' beliefs, attitudes and interest in speaking activities. Apart from the
quality of teachers' knowledge, a good relationship with their students not only increase the
learning motivation but also make applying a new teaching method more successful.
In conclusion, as it is proved above, the role of the teachers in the classroom is extremely
important. Variables related to teachers' beliefs and attitudes, teachers' qualities and
personalities will impact on the process of teaching and learning a foreign language.

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1.3.4.3 Language environment and course book
Teaching and learning English in a foreign language environment impose a lot of
challenges for teachers and students because the reinforce of an English-speaking
environment is not continual. Consequently, the experience of practicing real language in
different contexts is limited that may decrease students' motivation in the classroom.
Actually, course book and syllabus play a vital role in English teaching and learning,
especially spoken English. If the contents of the course book are suitable to students’
knowledge, they will much help develop students’ speaking competence. Conversely, it
will be a very difficult job for teachers to increase students’ language competence.
Therefore, choosing an appropriate course book with proper goals and objectives referring
to students' needs, to the social and institutional setting should be considered carefully by
administrators and teachers.
1.3.4.4 Tests and evaluations
Brown (1994:375) states that formal or informal tests affect students' learning behaviors.
According to him, informal testing focuses on assessing students in the process of forming
the competencies and skills with the goal of helping them to improve their language skills,
and formal testing is to measure or summarize what a student has grasped at the end of the
unit, module, or a course. Both of them enhance students' motivation and attitudes in
learning process. However, test and evaluation also give students a lot of anxiety ( Brown,
1994:373) that possesses the negative factors affecting teaching and learning. Therefore,
the evaluation should be both based on test results and students' learning process. In short,
test and evaluation are not able to separate from teaching and learning.
1.4 Summary
The chapter has so far conceptualized the discussion of issues and aspects concerning the
topic of the study. The prominent definitions of speaking skills are introduced according to

outstanding scholars, and then the aspects relating to principles for teaching speaking and
CLT have been mentioned. CS in teaching speaking has mainly been focused on this
chapter in which the definition of CS, the importance of CS, the strategies used in teaching
speaking and factors affecting CS application in the classroom are conceptualized, dealt
with and analyzed as a base of the study.

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CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY
2.1 Introduction
The previous chapter was devoted to the theoretical matters related to the topic .This
chapter will focus on details of the practical study, involving methodology, procedures of
data collection and data analysis.
2.2 The context of the study
The study was conducted at the Foreign Language Department (FLD), Hong Duc
University (HDU) in which 13-year-old English Department is one of the major
departments. It was founded in 1998 with its main aim being training teachers of English
who would work in most of the junior high schools in Thanh Hoa province. For the past
years, the need for teachers of English has been satisfied, so besides training teachers of
English for the Province, the Department focuses on providing English major learners with
the background knowledge of the language and skills helpful for their future jobs.
However, being a new Department, everything has been in the process of innovation and
development for better things both teaching and learning.
With respect to teaching, seminars and reports of science research on teaching
methodologies concerning speaking, every year, are held to create opportunities for the
teaching staff to make contributions to improving the quality of teaching and learning. Of
all the methods applied, the techniques or strategies and tasks designed and organized in

line of Communicative Approach with the learner-centeredness are often appreciated.
With regard to learning, students are expected to be active in self-studying, peer and group
cooperating to exchange the information and opinions to the others in the classroom They
are also stimulated participating in activities outside the classroom like English clubs, job
interviews, etc so as to get valid experience and improve their speaking skills.
As for the second-year students who have mastered many English grammar patterns,
developing their speaking skills is considered to be very important. They have 3 periods
per week with 3 credits for each term, equal to 45 periods. In each term, students are
required to complete six progress tests every two or three weeks (20%), a mid-term test

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(30%) at the seventh week and a final test at the fifteenth week (50%). This assessment not
only sees the students' progress and the effectiveness of the techniques as well as the
materials used but also motivates students in class speaking activities.
The current teaching materials of speaking used for the second year students are "Let's
Talk 2" by Leo Jones. The course book consists of 16 units with a variety of topics and the
activities related to pair work, group work and discussion that enhance students' real
communication skills in the classroom. The teachers, besides the current course book, are
encouraged to use the authentic materials in the speaking lessons, but they are selected
based on the students' level of English, their interests and the objectives of the term. In
fact, the classroom activities or tasks are chosen, designed and organized under the
tendency of CA with the learner-centered orientation, the teachers are encouraged to act as
"facilitators" and give learners choice in what to do and how to do it. Students are asked to
work in pairs, in groups to practice English in situational contexts. Therefore, they can
learn real things that are useful for the outside-classroom communication.
2.3 The research methodology

2.3.1 Selecting the population
The subjects chosen for the study were from two sources: from 40 second-year students
and from 8 teachers teaching in the Division of Language Skills Development, Foreign
Language Department, Hong Duc University.
Forty students were randomly selected to go in for the research and to participate in the
survey questionnaire. In the case, 'Cluster random sampling', which meant that instead of
randomly selecting the individuals, researcher randomly selected groups for the
observation. In this way, hopefully, the participants chosen could be representatives for the
rest of the population.
Eight teachers (80% of the population) who have been teaching the speaking skills for at
least two years were invited to take part in the survey questionnaire. It was hoped that their
experience would be useful for this study.

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