study on students’ attitudes towards learning to speak English and their classroom speaking practices at Northern Water Resource College

A study on students’ attitudes towards learning
to speak English and their classroom speaking
practices at Northern Water Resource College

Nguyễn Thị Chúc Quỳnh


Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ
Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: English language teaching methodology
Mã số: 60 14 10
Người hướng dẫn: Dr. Mai Thi Loan
Năm bảo vệ: 2013


Keywords: Tiếng Anh; Phương pháp giảng dạy; Kỹ năng nói; Giao tiếp

Content
PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationales
Nowadays, English is used for international communication more than any other languages
in the world. English is recognized as a lingua franca for communication across nations and
cultures and is the most desired second or foreign language in most countries in the world.
English is used as a second or foreign language in the workplace, international trade, global
media, tourism, education, aviation, business, technology and on diplomatic occasions. As a
result, the demand for speakers using English effectively is necessary in every country. Teaching
and learning English, except for the native language, is thus crucial for communicative purposes
to meet the demands of global economics and to cope with the growing local, national and
international demands for English skills.
In Vietnam, English is becoming more widely used in every field of life and it is an official
and compulsory foreign language which has been taught in most schools and universities all over
the country for nearly two decades now. People thus have a great concern about learning the

language. Many people are aware that English guarantees them good jobs if they are good at
English. Among the four language skills known as listening, speaking, reading and writing,
speaking skill is considered the most significant one that most learners of foreign languages need
to achieve. The crucial importance of speaking skill has been stated by many linguistic
researchers. For example, Ur (1996:120) states that of all four skills, speaking seems intuitively
the most important and people who know a language are referred to as speakers of that language,
as if speaking included all other skills of knowing that language. Richards (2008:19) also says:
“the mastery of speaking skills in English is a priority for many second and foreign language
learners. Learners consequently often evaluate their success in language learning as well as the
effectiveness of their English course on the basis of how well they feel they have improved in
their spoken language proficiency”. However, for many years, not much attention has been paid
to learners’ speaking competence in Vietnamese English classes and time for speaking practices
is limited for many reasons. Consequently, students have poor ability to speak English although
they have been learning English for a long time. They speak English badly even in English
speaking lessons. They often lack the confidence and feel confused when they are asked to speak
English. They regularly find it difficult to express their ideas in English and even some students
cannot speak anything but keep silent during speaking lessons. Among many different factors
that affect students’ learning to speak English in classroom, the attitude of the students has a very
important position.
This study has been conducted to investigate the attitudes of students at NWRC towards
learning to speak English and their classroom speaking practices in order to offer some
suggestions which might be useful for teachers and students here to develop English speaking
skills.
2. Aims of the study
This study aims at:
- finding out the attitudes of students at NWRC towards learning to speak English
- investigating the classroom speaking practices of the students at NWRC
- recommending some solutions for teachers at NWRC to improve their students’ speaking skill
based on the findings of the study
3. Research questions

1. What are the attitudes that students at NWRC hold towards learning to speak English?
2. How are their classroom speaking practices?
3. What should the teachers do to improve their students’ English speaking skill?
4. Scope of the study
The study was carried out at NWRC with the participation of 100 first-year students to find
out the attitudes of students towards learning to speak English and their classroom speaking
practices. Based on the findings, some suggestions were given to the teachers to help them
improve their students’ speaking skills.
5. Significance of the study
The result of the study is believed to help teachers at NWRC understand more about the
students’ attitudes towards learning to speak English and their expectations of the teachers’
speaking lessons so that the teachers have suitable methods to improve their students’ speaking
skills and encourage students to practise speaking English in classroom.
6. Methodology of the study
To conduct this study, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used, involving the
survey questionnaires and classroom observations. The survey questionnaires were delivered to
100 first-year students to investigate their attitudes towards learning to speak English. Besides,
class observations were conducted to see how and what students often did during English
speaking classes. Classroom observations helped the researcher survey students’ practices in real
situations so that the reliability and validity of the data collected for this study could be achieved.
The data collected from the questionnaires and the result of class observations will be analyzed
and generalized with a hope for offering some suggestions for the teachers at NWRC to improve
speaking competence for their students.
7. Design of the study:
This thesis includes three main parts as follows:
Part I: Introduction
This part includes the rationales, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the
significance, the methodology and the design of the study.
Part II: Development
This part consists of three chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature review
In this chapter, the theoretical background of the study is introduced. It focuses on three
main points: theory of attitudes, speaking skills and some techniques as well as activities that are
often used in speaking lessons.
Chapter 2: Research methodology.
This chapter starts with the description of the setting and the participants of the study. It also
presents how data were collected through the research methods and research procedures.
Chapter 3: Data analysis and Discussions
In this chapter, the data collected will be analyzed and discussed. From this, students’
attitudes toward learning to speak English will be found and their classroom practices will be
mentioned as well.
Part III: Conclusion and Recommendations
This chapter gives a short summary of findings and draws out some suggestions that are
good for teachers and students in teaching and learning to speak English. Beside that, some
recommendations for further researches are also discussed in this chapter.



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