difficulties in teaching toeic speaking skills to students at bac ha international university

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

--------------------

NGUYỄN THỊ YẾN

DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING TOEIC SPEAKING
SKILLS TO STUDENTS AT BAC HA
INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
(Những khó khăn trong việc dạy kỹ năng nói TOEIC cho

sinh viên trường Đại học Quốc tế Bắc Hà)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.10

HANOI – 2013


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

--------------------

NGUYỄN THỊ YẾN

DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING TOEIC SPEAKING
SKILLS TO STUDENTS AT BAC HA
INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
(Những khó khăn trong việc dạy kỹ năng nói TOEIC cho

sinh viên trường Đại học Quốc tế Bắc Hà)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.10
Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa, Ph.D

HANOI – 2013


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Certificate of originality of study project report ..........................................................................i
Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................ii
Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... iii
Table of contents ......................................................................................................................... iv
List of abbreviations ................................................................................................................. vii
Table of figures .........................................................................................................................viii

PART A: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................. 1
1. Rationale of the study ......................................................................................... 1
2. Aims of the study ................................................................................................ 2
3. Scope of the study ............................................................................................... 3
4. Significance of the study ..................................................................................... 3

5. Methodology ....................................................................................................... 4
6. Organization of the study ................................................................................... 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT .............................................................................. 5
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................... 5
1.1. An overview of the TOEIC test ....................................................................... 5
1.2. The TOEIC speaking test ............................................................................... 6
1.3. Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking skills ............................................... 9
1.3.1. Difficulties from teachers ........................................................................... 9
1.3.2. Difficulties from students ......................................................................... 10
1.3.3. Difficulties from objective factors ............................................................ 13
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ........................................................................... 15
2.1. The research context ...................................................................................... 15
2.1.1. Description of the English language teaching and learning at BHIU ......... 15
2.1.2. Description of the students at BHIU ......................................................... 16
2.1.3. Description of the teachers at BHIU ......................................................... 17
2.2. Methods of the study ..................................................................................... 18
2.3. Research design ............................................................................................. 19
2.3.1. Sample and sampling................................................................................ 19
2.3.2. Research instruments................................................................................ 20

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2.3.3. Data collection ......................................................................................... 22
2.3.4. Data analysis ............................................................................................ 22
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS..................................................... 24
3.1. Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking from teachers’ perspectives ........ 24
3.1.1. General difficulties ................................................................................... 24
3.1.2. Specific difficulties .................................................................................. 26

3.2. Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking from students’ perspectives ........ 27
3.2.1. General difficulties ................................................................................... 27
3.2.2. Specific difficulties .................................................................................. 29
3.3. Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking from both teachers’ and students’
perspectives ........................................................................................................... 30
3.3.1. General difficulties ................................................................................... 30
3.3.2. Specific difficulties .................................................................................. 31
3.4. Solutions to the eight most common difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking
skills ...................................................................................................................... 32
3.4.1 Students' low level of speaking competence .............................................. 32
3.4.2 Students' passive learning style.................................................................. 33
3.4.3 Students' low motivation level ................................................................... 34
3.4.4 Big and multi-level class ........................................................................... 36
3.4.5 Helping students to have inappropriate intonation and stress ..................... 37
3.4.6 Helping students to improve their listening competence ............................ 38
3.4.7 Helping students to recognize the relationship between the sender and
receiver of the message ...................................................................................... 38
3.4.8 Helping students to support their answers with reasons, examples ............. 40

PART C: IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION ..................................... 41
CHAPTER 1: IMPLICATIONS .............................................................................. 41
CHAPTER 2: CONCLUSION ................................................................................. 44
2.1. Summary of the findings ............................................................................... 44
2.2. Limitations of the study ................................................................................. 45
2.3. Suggestions for further studies ...................................................................... 46

REFERENCES .................................................................................................. 47
APPENDICES ..................................................................................................... I
Appendix A: Sample of a complete TOEIC speaking test .......................................... I
Appendix B: TOEIC speaking test scoring guide .................................................... IV

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Appendix C: Questionnaire for students .............................................................. VIII
Appendix D: Questionnaire for teachers ................................................................ XII
Appendix E: Transcript of group interview .......................................................... XIV
Appendix F: Sample of information gap activity............................................... XXVI
Appendix G: Sample of graphic organizer ...................................................... XXVIII

vi


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
TOEIC

The Test of English for International Communication

TOEFL

The Test of English as a Foreign Language

IELTS

The International English Language Testing System

GMAT

The Graduate Management Admission Test

BULATS

The Business Language Testing System

BEC

Business English Certificates

EFL

English as a Foreign Language

BHIU

Bac Ha International University

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TABLE OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking skills in general - from teachers’
perspectives ............................................................................................... 26
Figure 2: Difficulties in teaching six different parts of the TOEIC speaking test - from
teachers’ perspectives ................................................................................... 28
Figure 4: Difficulties in teaching six different parts of the TOEIC speaking test - from
students’ perspectives................................................................................................. 29
Figure 5: Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking skills in general ....................... 31
Figure 6: Difficulties in teaching six different parts of the TOEIC speaking test ............. 32

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PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
Nowadays, with the rapid pace of globalization, English as an international language
is playing a more and more important role in all walks of life. As a result, the
teaching of EFL has been paid more attention than ever before. English has become
a compulsory subject in all education institutions from primary schools to
universities. To meet the demand of the society, a lot of reliable international English
tests such as IELTS, TOEFL, GMAT,….have come into being. It is, however, a fact
that most of these tests serve the academic purpose. That is to say they aim at
providing learners with academic English for their further study, especially for
overseas study. Obviously, a very important sector of English learners has been left
behind with very few tools to evaluate their English – English for the workplace.
Recently, BULATS and BEC have been introduced to ease the situation but they seem
not to fully satisfy most of the learners’ expectation.
Businesses, government agencies and English-language learning programs around
the world have been using the TOEIC test as the standard for English-language
assessment in the workplace for more than 30 years. Today, more than 10,000
organizations in 120 countries turn to the TOEIC test to make their hiring,
placement and training decisions. While TOEIC listening and reading tests have
been widely used, TOEIC speaking and writing tests are considered fairly new to
English-language learners despite their introduction in December 1996. The
introduction of TOEIC speaking and writing test was to satisfy the increasing need
of the global workforce for employees who are capable of speaking and writing at a
certain level. In Vietnam, most of the colleges choose to focus on the traditional
version of TOEIC test: TOEIC listening and reading. Meanwhile some others start
to integrate TOEIC speaking and writing into their syllabus with a view to
providing students with an effective tool to apply for their future jobs.

1


Despite its recent appearance, TOEIC speaking has proved itself a reliable tool to
evaluate students’ ability to communicate in the real workplace. Bac Ha
International University where I have been teaching for more than 2 years is one of
the leading universities for this new trend of teaching TOEIC speaking to students.
Having been introduced in Bac Ha International University for 2 years, TOEIC
speaking is believed to be very practical and useful for third year students who are
going to graduate and struggle to find their positions in the workplace. During
these two years, BHIU lecturers of TOEIC speaking have encountered some
certain difficulties which can be classified into three categories: from students (
low level of English competence, low motivation level….), from teachers ( large
amount of talk time in class, inappropriate error correction techniques,….), from
objective factors ( large and multi-level classes, lack of facilities….). Some other
difficulties may also emerge from the nature and construction of the TOEIC exam
itself which is quite different from speaking tests developed by Vietnamese
educators.
This study attempts to figure out the difficulties faced by BHIU lecturers when
teaching TOEIC speaking as well as draw out some feasible solutions suggested by
the lecturers to overcome these difficulties.
2. Aims of the study
The primary goal of this thesis is to study the difficulties of lectures when teaching
TOEIC speaking from both lecturers’ and students’ perspective in BHIU. Some
suggested solutions would also be given by the lecturers to overcome these
difficulties. These issues can be tackled through answering three questions:
1. From the perspective of lecturers, what are the difficulties in teaching
TOEIC speaking to students at Bac Ha International University?
2. From the perspective of students, what are the lecturers’ difficulties in
teaching TOEIC speaking at Bac Ha International University?

3. What are the lecturers’ suggestions to overcome these difficulties?
2


3. Scope of the study
It is a fact that there are many different types of difficulties which lecturers may
encounter when teaching TOEIC speaking. However, this paper only focuses on the
most common difficulties voted by lecturers and students in teaching TOEIC
speaking in general and in teaching 6 parts of the TOEIC speaking in specific. Some
suggestions will also be made by the lecturers with a view to improving the
teaching of TOEIC speaking in BHIU.
Since this study is carried out to figure out BHIU lecturers’ difficulties in teaching
TOEIC speaking, the findings of this paper may not be necessarily generalized to
lecturers at other universities.
4. Significance of the study
The globalization of education has triggered a greater demand for good English
speaking ability in the job market. As a new and worldwide standard of English
language learning, the TOEIC test has added speaking to its original format as a
way to prove the importance of speaking in the real workplace. Nevertheless, very
few colleges take advantage of this new format and adapt it to their syllabus. Also,
even less research on the TOEIC test, especially on TOEIC speaking has been
implemented. All the previous research on TOEIC speaking focuses on proving the
reliability and validity of this test (“TOEIC Research”).
The lecturers of TOEIC speaking have met some certain difficulties but seem to
have no chance to raise their voice, to discuss with other colleagues and to figure
out the best solutions to their problems. This study is carried out to set a light on
this important issue. BHIU lecturers as well as students are expected to recognize
lecturers’ difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking while the lecturers themselves
can possibly gain some advice to overcome these difficulties from their colleagues.
All in all, the teaching of TOEIC speaking is expectedly, to some extent, improved

in BHIU in the next semesters.
3


5. Methodology
This study aims at investigating difficulties of BHIU lecturers in teaching TOEIC
speaking through questionnaire and interview surveys. The population of this study
consisted of 12 lecturers who have been teaching TOEIC speaking at BHIU. The
students’ sample included 95 third year students of BHIU. The lecturers took part in
the questionnaires and seven of them attended the group interview. By answering
the questionnaire, they exposed their difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking while
during the interview they were expected to give some solutions to these difficulties.
The students participated in the questionnaire survey to illustrate what they think
are the lecturers’ difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking. To achieve the goal of
this study, the researcher designed the questionnaire into two main parts: difficulties
in teaching TOEIC speaking skills in general, difficulties in teaching 6 different
parts of TOEIC speaking test. The suggestions were collected through the group
interview with seven full-time lecturers of English in BHIU.
6. Organization of the study
The study consists of three parts. Part A, Introduction, deals with rationale of the study,
aims of the study, scope of the study, significance of the study, methodology and the
organization of the study. Part B, Development, is composed of three chapters. Chapter
One, Literature Review, reviews the TOEIC test and the difficulties in teaching TOEIC
speaking skills. Chapter Two, Methodology, mentions the research context, methods of
the study and research design. Chapter Three, Findings and discussions, presents and
discusses findings of the difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking to third year students at
BHIU, and some solutions suggested by the lecturers. The last part, Implications and
Conclusion, gives some implications from the study. It also summarizes important
findings, suggests the limitations of the thesis as well as the areas for further studies.

4


PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1 An overview of the TOEIC test
TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) is designed to set the
global standard for assessing English proficiency for business. That is to say TOEIC
questions “simulate real-life situations that are relevant to the global workplace”
while its score reports “provide accurate, meaningful feedback about a test-taker's
strengths and weaknesses, along with a description of the English-language
strengths typical of test-takers performing at various score levels” (“The TOEIC
Tests — the Global Standard for Assessing English Proficiency for Business”).
To achieve this primary goal, standardization of format and criteria for assessment
are essential for both the examiners and the candidates. The TOEIC test consists of
two main parts: The TOEIC test and TOEIC Bridge™.
The TOEIC Bridge™ test is a paper-and-pencil test that measures a test taker's
ability to listen to and read everyday English. It may be considered a bridge to link
up English language learners to the TOEIC test which has been widely used by
companies, institutions as well as private test takers to measure the level of English
language learners in the workplace.
The TOEIC Listening and Reading test was developed about 30 years ago as a
measure of receptive language skills and has been widely accepted and used
worldwide. This test measures a non-native speaker’s listening and reading skills in
English as these skills are used in the workplace. The TOEIC Listening and Reading
is a paper-based test which lasts for 2 hours (45 minutes for Listening section and
75 minutes for reading section). The total scores range from 10 to 990 for both
sections.
5

Recognizing the increasing needs of the market place for employees with speaking
and writing ability, ETS decided to launch the computer-based TOEIC Speaking
and Writing tests in December 2006. They are valid assessments of Englishlanguage speaking and writing skills for business. The speaking section is
composed of 11 tasks and takes approximately 20 minutes to complete. The writing
section is composed of 8 tasks and takes approximately one hour to complete. The
score ranges from 0 to 200 for both sections.
When the TOEIC Listening and Reading test is taken together with the TOEIC
Speaking and Writing tests, TOEIC test scores provide an accurate measure of
proficiency in all four English language skills.
1.2. The TOEIC speaking test
Recently, ETS has added TOEIC speaking and writing tests to the TOEIC product
line in order to directly assess the ability to speak and write in English in a
workplace setting. This addition is in response to multinational corporations’ need
for employees with high-level speaking and writing.
As stated in TOEIC Speaking and Writing Examinee Handbook (2009), speaking is
assessed by six different kinds of tasks requiring various types of responses, which
are evaluated according to the following criteria: pronunciation, intonation and
stress, grammar, vocabulary, cohesion and the contents’ relevance, and
completeness. Scores are reported on a scale of 0 to 200 and proficiency levels are
reported. In the first part (Question 1 and 2) of TOEIC speaking test, students are
asked to read a text aloud. The second part (Question 3) asks students to describe a
picture. Part 3 (Questions 4 to 6) requires students to listen to some questions and
respond to them immediately. In part 4 (Questions 7 to 9), students read a text, then
respond to questions about the text. Part 5 (Question 10) asks students to propose a

6


solution to a problem. Finally in part 6 (Question 11), students must express their

opinion toward an issue.
Communicative competence in TOEIC speaking
The TOEIC speaking test was developed to align as closely as possible with
theories of Communicative Competence (Powers et al, p. 1). As a tool to evaluate
communicative competence of language learners, TOEIC speaking test is designed
to cover five components of communicative competence. Different scholars defined
and classified communicative competence in different ways, but the description of
Hedge (2000) may be considered the most elaborate. Communicative competence
includes 5 main components: linguistic competence, pragmatic competence,
discourse competence, strategic competence and fluency.
Linguistic competence means that learners can build a range of vocabulary in the
first place. They are then required to pronounce the forms accurately, to use stress,
rhythm and intonation to express meaning. It is also necessary to for them to learn
the script and spelling rules. Another requirement is accuracy in the grammatical
forms of language, in syntax and word formation.
To achieve pragmatic competence, learners need to use stress and intonation to
express attitude and emotion. The relationship between grammatical forms and
functions are also supposed to be learnt. It is essential to learn a scale of formality,
to understand and use emotive tone, to use the pragmatic rules of language and to
select language forms appropriately to topics, listeners, etc…..
Discourse competence shows how sentence elements are tied together. It means the
ability to take longer turns, to use discourse makers and cohesive devices, as well as
to open and close conversations.

7


Strategic competence is the ability to use language strategies to compensate for gaps
in skills and knowledge. In other words, learners are encouraged to take risks in
both spoken and written language, and to use a range of communication strategies.

Fluency is defined as “responding coherently within the turns of the conversation,
linking words and phrases, using intelligible pronunciation and appropriate
intonation, and doing all of this undue hesitation” (p. 261).
Hedge’s model of communicative competence shares some common features with
other scholars’ models (Canale & Swain, 1980; Bachman, 1990). The main
difference lies in the terms used for types of competence. Instead of using the terms:
linguistic competence, pragmatic competence, discourse competence, strategic
competence and fluency, these scholars use sociolinguistic competence, strategic
competence, discourse competence which includes cohesion and coherence, fluency
and accuracy.
A striking feature which should be noticed by teachers is the confliction between
fluency and accuracy. Unlike fluency, accuracy is the ability to use the correct
words, grammatical structures and expressions to convey the intended meaning.
Students at lower levels of English proficiency cannot supposedly achieve both
fluency and accuracy at the same time. It is because students at these levels are still
on the way to learn new words and structures. If they try to speak fluently, they may
make some mistakes of accuracy like incorrect use of grammatical structures or
inappropriate word choice. Vice versa, if students try to speak slowly and carefully
to acquire accuracy, their fluency level will be certainly very low. In other words,
teachers should be aware of what extent of accuracy and fluency they expect
students to get in different levels.
In short, in order to help students get better results in TOEIC speaking tests,
teachers should be aware of five components of communicative competence.

8


1.3. Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking skills
The teaching of TOEIC speaking bears a lot of resemblance to that of speaking skill
in general. Hence, lecturers of TOEIC speaking may encounter the same difficulties

as those of speaking skill.
According to Larsen-Freeman’s view, difficulties in language teaching in general
and difficulties in teaching speaking skill in particular may stem from teachers,
students together with objective factors affecting the teaching process (LarsenFreeman, 1986).
1.3.1 Difficulties from teachers
The teachers’ inappropriate pedagogical practices may, to some extents, cause
troubles to their English teaching. Two most popular difficulties may result from the
teachers’ inability to adjust the amount of teacher talk in class and to use
appropriate teachers’ error correction techniques.
1.3.1.1 The amount of teacher talk
According to Nunan (1991), “Teacher talk is of crucial importance, not only for the
organization of the classroom but also for the processes of acquisition. It is
important for the organization and management of the classroom because it is
through language that teachers either succeed or fail in implementing their teaching
plans. In terms of acquisition, teacher talk is important because it is probably the
major source of comprehensible target language input the learner is likely to
receive.”
It is, however, proved in a lot of research that teachers tend to make up over 70% of
the total talk in the classroom (Chaudron, 1988; Cook, 2000). Once teacher talk
dominates the classroom, students will have less opportunity to further practice the
language and hence tend to be unable to develop their language proficiency.

9


1.3.1.2. Teachers’ correction techniques
Students’ errors are crucial evidence to show how they acquire the language
through certain strategies or procedures (Brown, 1994). Consequently, it turns to
teachers’ duty to correct students’ errors to clarify students’ understanding of
meaning and construction of the language.

It is a controversial issue as to how correction should be expressed. Some prefer
nice, gentle and tactful correction while the others are in favor of assertive,
encouraging and frank one. Ur (2000) preferred the later as students may lose their
confidence and feel disappointed if teachers correct their errors in an insensitive
way.
In short, teachers should be sensitive and tactful when giving corrections so that
students recognize their errors comfortably without any negative feeling.
1.3.2 Difficulties from students
Different scholars classified difficulties from students in different ways. In his
study, Tsui (1996) listed five factors to determine learners’ hesitancy to speak in
class: “students’ fear of making mistakes and losing face in front of their peers,
students’ low opinion of their own proficiency level, teachers’ intolerance of
silence, uneven participation and incomprehensive input.”
Dwyer and Heller-Murphy (1996) carried out 6 interviews of Japanese students at
the University of Edinburg and came to a conclusion that the reticence of students
in EFL/ESL classrooms resulted from fear of public failure, fear of making
mistakes, lack of confidence, low English proficiency, and inability to keep up with
native speakers, incompetence in the rules and norms of English conversation,
disorientation, and etc.
According to Burns and Joyce (1997), there are three main factors that possibly
cause reluctance to learn a second language including cultural, linguistic and
affective factors.

10


1.3.2.1 Cultural factors
Cultural factors are those that emerge from students’ prior learning experiences as
well as from the expectations that are formed on their basis. The American linguist
Sapir (1921, pp. 60-90) insisted that language and culture are dual entities. Culture

represents what a society thinks and does, while its language expresses and
embodies the ideas of that society. In other words, if a learner expects to speak a
language well, he must appreciate the way it is used in social contexts. According to
Berns (1990), each language has its own rules of application as to when, how and to
what degree a speaker may impart a given verbal behavior to one’s conversational
partner. Hence, it is challenging for non-native speakers to choose the appropriate
forms for different communicative situations.
One of the most evident learning experiences is students’ learning style. Keefe
(1979) defined learning style as “cognitive, affective and physiological traits that
are relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive, interact with and respond to
the learning environment.”
Willing (1987, as cited in Bailey 2005, pp. 169-170) divided learners into four
groups basing on their behaviors. Concrete learners are the students who feel really
interested in social aspects of language learning whereas analytical learners prefer
working individually on reading and grammar. The third type of learners is called
communicative learners who are really willing to communicate with other speakers.
The last type, authority-oriented learners tend to be independent and prefer to work
in non-communicative classroom. It is clear from Willing’s classification that the
participation in oral activities of a class will be certainly at a low degree if most of
the students belong to concrete and authority-oriented group.
Ellis (1985, p.120) divided learners’ learning styles into two main types: extrovert
and introvert. Obviously, extrovert learners are more willing to interact with others

11


than the introvert ones, and so they are often more successful in oral
communication.
In short, it’s very necessary for teachers to take into consideration students’
different learning styles to improve their teaching.

1.3.2.2 Linguistic factors
According to Scarcella and Oxford (1992), linguistic factors (grammar competence)
take into consideration the expertise in grammar (morphology, syntax), vocabulary
and mechanics. With regard to speaking, mechanics refers to the basic sounds of
letters, syllables, the appropriate pronunciation of words, intonation and stress
elements (p.141).
Hence, with regard to the difficulties caused by linguistic factors to students’
learning, they may be resulted from transferring the learners’ first language into the
target language in terms of the sounds, rhythms, and stress patterns. The poor
knowledge of grammatical patterns or low awareness of cultural background and
social conventions that are necessary for processing meaning in the target language
are also important factors.
1.3.2.3 Affective factors
Affective factors that hinder the use of spoken language may be a low motivation
level, timidity or anxiety in class, negative social experiences and culture shock.
Motivation is considered to be an important aspect which can determine the failure
or success in any learning situation (Melton, 1990). According to Dornyei (2001)
motivation consists of three sets of components: course-specific motivational
components,

lecturer-specific

motivational

components

and

group-specific

motivational components. The first one involves the learners’ interest and needs to
syllabus, teaching materials, teaching methods and learning tasks. The second
concerns such factors as the lecturer’s personality, teaching method, modeling, task
12


presentation and feedback. The third one relates to the characteristics of the
learners’ group cohesiveness, classroom goals being structured as cooperative,
competitive or individualistic (Dornyei, 2001). To get students really motivated,
lecturers need to ensure all the three sets of components which are, however, very
difficult to satisfy. Hence, in his book, Nunan (1999) pointed out some main
reasons for students’ de-motivation. Students’ de-motivation may result from lack
of success over time or lack of perception of progress. It is possibly caused by
teachers’ uninspired teaching or simply their boredom with the subjects. Another
reason is the lack of perceived relevance of materials. Failing to get the goals of the
instructional program or receive appropriate feedback also makes students demotivated.
Anxiety is “the subjective feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness, and worry
associated with an arousal of the autonomic nervous system” (Shank, & Terril,
1995). In Zhang’s research (2006), he identified some main causes of language
anxiety including less proficient English, fear of making mistakes, large class size,
unwillingness to take risks, low tolerance of ambiguity and competitiveness.
Obviously, all mentioned studies agree on the popularity of difficulties from
students in the EFL speaking classroom. These difficulties (stemming from cultural,
linguistic, and affective factors) need considering carefully so that students’
participation will be increased and teachers’ speaking lessons can be improved as a
result.
1.3.3 Difficulties from objective factors
A lot of recent studies have pointed out difficulties caused by large and multilevel
classes. According to Le Phuoc Ky (Teacher’s Edition, 2002), the number of
students should be kept small to maximize the interaction between teachers and

students. In large classes, students have different learning styles, preferences and

13


levels of English proficiency. Hence, teachers cannot pay equal attention to all
students in a large class.
Ur (1996, p. 303) shared the same view that teachers of large classes face such
difficulties in maintaining disciplines, choosing suitable materials and activating
students, especially silent ones. Consequently, only supposedly good students have
chance to practice the language leaving behind other weaker ones.
Whereas, Mathews-Aydinli and Van Horne (2006), in their minor study, insisted
that multilevel classes made it difficult for teachers to design and organize speaking
activities for learners. Hess (2001) believed that a multilevel class can be
uncooperative and the students tend to get bored easily in the classroom.
In his research, Dalle and Thrush (2003) suggested “Even though it may be
common, large classes challenge even well-trained and experienced teachers.”
Another idea stated that “most college professors believe small classes to be
superior to larger ones in many respects” (McKeachie, 1980). In other words, it is
widely believed that the smaller the class size is, the better the teacher can teach and
the students can learn.

14


CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1 Research context
2.1.1 Description of English language teaching and learning at Bac Ha
International University
The study was conducted at BHIU – a five year old university. Since it was

founded, the teaching and studying of English have been always paid serious
attention to and become one of the most outstanding features of BHIU in
comparison with other private universities. With 700 hours of English study,
graduate students are supposed to be able to have communicative competence at
intermediate level. Students also have opportunities to study with foreign teachers
during the first two years. During the first year, students have time to revise all their
previous English studies and develop their General English communicative
competence in all four skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Moving on to
the second year, students are supposed to improve their four basic skills for English
for Business Communication. The basic knowledge of Business is expected to set a
good and firm foundation for students to study two terms of TOEIC.
During the last two terms, TOEIC (reading, listening, speaking) are obligatory
subjects in the syllabus. TOEIC writing is, however, excluded as students have
already studied English for Commercial Correspondence and there is no need for
them to study over writing skill again. The exclusion of TOEIC writing skill also
results from the limited time for the last two terms. That is to say instead of
studying 10 periods or 8 periods per week like in the first two years, students have
only 6 and 3 periods per week to study the TOEIC test in the fifth and sixth term
respectively. Each term lasts 14 weeks, hence in total the preparation for the TOEIC
listening, reading, speaking tests is in 168 periods. TOEIC speaking is spent 56
periods for the whole course.

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The two course books used for TOEIC speaking are TOEIC Speaking by Lee Seyeong and TOEIC Speaking Flow by Kim Hyeonju – Lee Boyeong. As mentioned
earlier, the TOEIC speaking test is a computer-based test which needs preparing
carefully before the exam. In BHIU, the TOEIC test is not carried out according to
the standard requirements. Instead of speaking to a computer, students still go into
the exam room and are interviewed by teachers. For this issue, the reliability and

validity of the TOEIC speaking test are not guaranteed. Another problem which also
arises from the new format of the TOEIC speaking test is the lack of reference
materials. Except for the two course books, the reference materials including both
printed and online materials are very limited.
2.1.2 Description of the students at BHIU
BHIU students come from two faculties: Economics and Information and
Technology. Only Economics students must study TOEIC as an obligatory subject.
A common feature of BHIU students is their family background. Most of them
come from first or middle-class families while their starting English level is very
low, supposedly beginners or elementary. After two years of studying General
English for Communication and English for Business Communication, some
students have improved their English level greatly to pre –intermediate or
intermediate level of communicative competence. However, for many others,
despite having successfully struggled to pass the tests, their English level nearly
stays the same.
Also, instead of dividing students into different classes according to their English
levels, from the second year, students are free to join any available classes which
suit their study schedule. For this reason, with a single class, there may be three
levels of English communicative competence: elementary, pre-intermediate and
intermediate.

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Last but not least, students of TOEIC speaking class often have very low motivation
level. There may be different reasons for this issue, one of which is the assumption
that what they need to apply for a good job is the TOEIC listening and reading, not
speaking. Their assumption is, to some extent, accurate since most of the companies
still accept the result of TOEIC listening and reading tests.
Without doubt, there is a lot to be done to improve student’s English speaking

competence in general and TOEIC speaking skills in specific.
2.1.3 Description of the lecturers at BHIU
Together with students, lecturers play a vital role in the second language
acquisition. BHIU lectures may be divided into two main categories. The first one
includes seven full-time lecturers who have been teaching TOEIC speaking skills.
The second one consists of the 13 visiting lecturers, three of who have experience in
teaching TOEIC speaking skills.
With regard to lecturers of TOEIC speaking, most of them are quite young, in the
age range between 22 and 38. Being young and active, they try to apply different
teaching methods to improve their lessons. Nevertheless, these young lecturers are
quite inexperienced in teaching preparation courses for the international tests like
IELTS, TOEFL or TOEIC.
In terms of qualifications, most of the lecturers have master degrees in English
language teaching with an exception of two lecturers. Some are also trained in
Business Administration, the background of which is of great help to their teaching
of Business Communication as well as TOEIC.
As teaching The TOEIC speaking test in BHIU, the lecturers have confronted a lot
of difficulties which will be made clear in the latter part of this study.

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2.2 Methods of the study
According to Cohen and Manion (1985) (as cited in Nunan (1992)), “surveys are
the most commonly used descriptive method in educational research”. It is due to
the fact that they are suitable to different studies from “large-scale” investigations to
“small-scale” ones carried out by a single researcher. In particular, in survey
research, the researchers do nothing to the subjects of research rather than collect
data from them. In other words, the data are gathered from people or things without
altering anything (Nunan, (1992)). For this reason, this study made use of survey

research which includes questionnaires and interviews.
The questionnaires are used to collect quantitative data while the interviews should
bring about qualitative one. As stated by Bouma (1996, p.173), “both qualitative
and quantitative approaches are essentials to the research process in social
sciences.” As a means of quantitative research, questionnaires are believed to “offer
ways of testing hypothesis that are widely accepted or standardized” (Burns, 1999,
p.2 2). The data collected from questionnaires are more amenable to quantification”
than discursive data like the observers’ journals, field notes, and etc. Therefore, two
questionnaires were designed for both lecturers and students of TOEIC speaking to
have a cross-check over the real difficulties faced by lecturers in their teaching
TOEIC speaking skills.
Meanwhile, interviews in qualitative research are of great help in “capturing
people’s opinion, feelings and practice, their experience…..” (Wisker, 2001, p.
164). The interviews are conducted to follow up the questionnaires for in-depth and
broader information (p. 165). In this study, the group interview was implemented to
chosen lecturers to find out feasible solutions to the most common difficulties in
TOEIC speaking lessons.

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