the situation of teaching speaking skill to the students of pre intermediate level of proficiency at peoples police college i problems and some suggested techniques and activities

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************

KHỔNG THỊ THU HẰNG
Bản tóm tắt luận văn

THE SITUATION OF TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL TO THE
STUDENTS OF PRE-INTERMEDIATE LEVEL OF PROFICIENCY
AT PEOPLE’S POLICE COLLEGE I: PROBLEMS AND SOME
SUGGESTED TECHNIQUES AND ACTIVITIES
(THỰC TRẠNG DẠY KỸ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CHO HỌC VIÊN Ở TRÌNH ĐỘ TIỀN
TRUNG CẤP TẠI TRƯỜNG TRUNG CẤP CẢNH SÁT NHÂN DÂN I: KHÓ KHĂN VÀ ĐỀ
XUẤT MỘT SỐ CÁC THỦ THUẬT VÀ HOẠT ĐỘNG DẠY HỌC PHÙ HỢP)

M.A. MINOR THESIS

FIELD: METHODOLOGY
CODE: 601410
COURSE: 18

HANOI - 2011


iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION…………………………………………………………………………...i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………….ii
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………...………..iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………...……………….iv
LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS……………………………………………...……...vii
LIST OF ABREVIATIONS…………………………………………...………………..viii
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………...…….….1
1. Rationale of the study…………………………………………………………...……...1
2. Aims of the study………………………………………..………………………………2
3. Significance of the study…………………………………………………..……………2
4. Scope of the study……………………………………………………..………..…….…3
5. Method of the study…………………………………………………………...………..3
6. Design of the study……………………………………………….………………..…....3
PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT……………………………………………..….…….....5
CHAPTER ONE - LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………..…5
1.1. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)…………………………………..…5
1.1.1. Concept of CLT………………………………………..…..…………….....6
1.1.2. Characteristics of CLT………………………………………..………….....6
1.1.3. Using CLT in Teaching Speaking Skill…………………………..………...8
1.2. Nature of language skills and oral communication………………………..…….8
1.2.1. Nature of language skills……………………………………………..…….8
1.2.2. Oral communication………………………………………..…..…………...9
1.3. Speaking skill……………………….………………………..…………………..10
1.3.1. Concepts of speaking………………………………………..…………….10
1.3.2. Characteristics of speaking…………………………………………..…....11
1.3.3. The development approach of speaking skill……………………….……..12
1.4. Problems with speaking and speaking activities………………………..………14
1.4.1. Problems with speaking…………………………………………..……….14


iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION…………………………………………………………………………...i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………….ii
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………...………..iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………...……………….iv
LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS……………………………………………...……...vii
LIST OF ABREVIATIONS…………………………………………...………………..viii
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………...…….….1
1. Rationale of the study…………………………………………………………...……...1
2. Aims of the study………………………………………..………………………………2
3. Significance of the study…………………………………………………..……………2
4. Scope of the study……………………………………………………..………..…….…3
5. Method of the study…………………………………………………………...………..3
6. Design of the study……………………………………………….………………..…....3
PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT……………………………………………..….…….....5
CHAPTER ONE - LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………..…5
1.1. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)…………………………………..…5
1.1.1. Concept of CLT………………………………………..…..…………….....6
1.1.2. Characteristics of CLT………………………………………..………….....6
1.1.3. Using CLT in Teaching Speaking Skill…………………………..………...8
1.2. Nature of language skills and oral communication………………………..…….8
1.2.1. Nature of language skills……………………………………………..…….8
1.2.2. Oral communication………………………………………..…..…………...9
1.3. Speaking skill……………………….………………………..…………………..10
1.3.1. Concepts of speaking………………………………………..…………….10
1.3.2. Characteristics of speaking…………………………………………..…....11
1.3.3. The development approach of speaking skill……………………….……..12
1.4. Problems with speaking and speaking activities………………………..………14
1.4.1. Problems with speaking…………………………………………..……….14

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1.4.2. Problems with speaking activities……………………………………..…..15
1.5. Summary………………………………………………………………..…….......15
CHAPTER TWO - METHODOLOGY ……………………………………...….........17
2.1. The research context………………………………………….……………….....17
2.1.1. Course and its objectives at People’s Police College I……………………..17
2.1.2. The students at the PPCI……………………………………………..……...18
2.1.3. The teachers at the PPCI…………………………………………….……....18
2.1.4. Physical setting……………………………………………………………..19
2.2. Research questions…………………………………...……………...…..……….20
2.3. Participants…………………………………………………………………….…20
2.4. Data collection instruments………………………………………………....…...20
2.4.1. Questionnaire……………………………………………….…………........21
2.4.2. Interview………………………………………………………………...… 22
2.5. Data collection procedures………..…………………………………………… .22
2.6. Data analysis……………………………….……………………………………..22
2.7. Summary………………………………………………………………………….23
CHAPTER THREE: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS…………………………........24
3.1. Findings…………………………………………………………………………...24
3.1.1. Questionnaire and interview for teachers………………………….……...24
3.1.2. Questionnaire and interview for students……………………………..…..30
3.2. Discussions…………………………………………………………………...……37
3.2.1. Teachers’ and students’ perception of speaking and speaking activities….38
3.2.2. Teachers’ and students’ problems in teaching and learning to speak English………...38
3.2.2.1.Teachers’ problems in teaching 1st year English students……....38
3.2.2.2. Students’ problems in learning to speak English……………......40
3.2.3. Inappropriate current techniques in teaching speaking skill ………….....41
3.2.4. Problems from objective factors……………………………………….....42
3.3. Summary…………………………………………………………………………43

PART THREE: SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION…………………..……….…44
1. Overview………………………………………………………………….………..44
2. Recommendations ………………………………………………………………..44


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2.1. Some coping strategies for teachers……………..……………………….....44
2.2. Some suggested classroom techniques and activities for teachers to motivate
students of English ……………………………………………………………………..46
2.2.1. Some suggested techniques in teaching speaking……………………..46
2.2.1.1. Teaching speaking strategies…………………………………....46
2.2.1.2. Base the activities on easy language…………………………....47
2.2.1.3. Use language in authentic ways………………………………...47
2.2.1.4. Design activities with a purpose………………………………...48
2.2.1.5. Use pair work and group work………………………………….48
2.2.1.6. Adjust feedback/ Error correction………………………………49
2.2.2. Some suggested activities in teaching speaking………………………49
3.4.2.1. Drill activities…………………………………………………..49
3.4.2.2. Structured output activities/ Guided activities…………………50
3.4.2.3. Communicative output activities……………………………….52
3. Limitations of the study ………………………………………………………...53
4. Suggestions for further study………………………………………….……….54
REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………..……….55
APPENDICES……………………………………………………………………….…….I
Appendix 1……………………………………………………………………………..…..I
Appendix 2…………………………………………………………………………….….III
Appendix 3………………………………………………………………………………..V

vii

LIST OF CHARTS
Chart 1:

Teachers’ perception of CLT

Chart 2:

Teachers’ current method in teaching speaking skill

Chart 3:

Teachers’ reaction when students keep making mistakes and frequency
of correcting mistakes while students are performing their tasks
Chart 3.1: Teachers’ reaction when students keep making mistakes
Chart 3.2: frequency of correcting mistakes while students are
performing their tasks

Chart 4:

The students’ reasons for learning English

Chart 5:

Students’ opinions on the speaking topics.

Chart 6:

Teachers’ reactions to students’ mistakes

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1:

Teachers’ attitudes towards teaching and learning speaking skill at
PPCI

Table 2:

Teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking skill to the students at PPCI

Table 3:

Techniques to minimize the difficulties encounter in teaching speaking
at PPCI

Table 4:

Students’ attitudes towards speaking skills

Table 5:

Factors that make the student reluctant to speak

Table 6:

Teachers’ current techniques to encourage students to speak


viii

LIST OF ABREVIATIONS
PPCI

: People’s Police College I

Ss

: Students

Ts

: Teachers

CLT

: Communicative Language Teaching

GE

: General English

ESP

: English for Specific Purposes

No. of teachers

: Number of teachers

No. of students

: Number of students

FLD

: Foreign Languages Department


1

PART ONE : INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
Undeniably, English is a global language crossing many international boundaries. In
fact, the English language is so popular, it is spoken in more than a hundred countries and has
more than a million words. English is considered as the medium of communication in the
fields of science, technology, diplomacy, and business, and so on. English has an inherent
simplicity and flexibility allowing it to be learnt quickly, cementing English as a global
language.
In addition, the political and economic changes have great positive impact on the
teaching methods of teachers of English in Vietnam. They have realized that students can only
improve their language competence through communication. It is the need for oral
competence in English that has turned the teachers‟ emphasis from teaching grammar into
teaching communication. Therefore, speaking skills nowadays play a much more important
role in modern English than ever before. In every English class, teachers would like to develop
students‟ speaking skills by applying the communicative language teaching method known as
one of the most effective approaches that help students speak.
However, in some places in Vietnam English teaching has been strongly influenced by
the traditional methods. Teachers as well as students pay much attention to the grammatical
items. In these classes, teachers mainly focus on explaining the grammatical rules and

structures to students who are considered as passive recipients. As a result, those students
might be structurally competent but communicative incompetent. That causes a lot of
difficulties in using English in real-life communication.
To meet the demand of learners of English, teachers of English in general and teachers
of English at People's Police College I (hereafter PPCI) in particular have been trying to find
out the most suitable and effective method of teaching English Speaking. Therefore, the
Communicative Language Teaching Approach (hereafter CLT) is applied to teach English to
learners of all levels. They hope that by using this teaching method, they can help their
learners improve their English and use it effectively and fluently in communication. That is


2

also the idea suggested by many linguists and methodologists such as Nunan (1991) and Das
(1985).
Nevertheless, there still exist many difficulties facing English Language teachers in
Vietnam in general and English Language teachers at the PPCI in particular. Many
Vietnamese learners can write and read English quite well but they cannot speak fluently and
correctly in communication. Certainly there are many reasons for this. As one teacher of
English I realized that although both teachers and learners try their best to reach their goals to
teach and study English speaking skills effectively, up to now the results have been still far
from satisfaction.
This has given me the desire to conduct this research to examine the teaching and
learning English speaking skill as well as to find techniques and activities to improve the
quality of the teaching of speaking skill at the People's Police College I where I am working
full time.
2. Aims of the study
The main purpose of this study is to investigate the reality of teaching and learning
speaking skills to the students at Pre-Intermediate level of proficiency at PPCI in order to find
out problems preventing the students from willingly taking part in speaking activities in the

English class. The writer also makes some recommendations for the English teachers as
reference in their teaching speaking skills with a view to help the students improve their
speaking competence. The specific objectives of the study are:


To investigate the current situation of teaching English speaking skill at PPCI.



To identify the problems that the teachers and students face in teaching and learning
speaking skills.



To suggest some techniques and activities to improve the quality of the teaching of
speaking skill at PPCI.

3. Significance of the study
The study is significant for the following reasons. Firstly, it finds out how teachers and
students perceive the concept of speaking and speaking activities. Secondly, it find out the


3

problems that teachers and students face. Furthermore, it gives some suggestions for the
teachers to adapt the textbook and provides some techniques to help motivate learners.
4. Scope of the study
The study focuses on the difficulties that the English language teachers meet when
teaching speaking skill to students of Pre-Intermediate level of English Proficiency at the
PPCI and some suggested techniques and activities which help them improve the quality of

their teaching. The study of difficulties, recommendations of other language skills such as
reading, writing and listening to ameliorate the quality of learning English skills would be
beyond the scope of this study. In addition, due to the time constraints and the narrow-scale
study, the study only involves in the number of the 1st year students of Reconnaissance
Investigation Police at People‟s Police College I.
5. Method of the study
This study is designed to use both quantitative and qualitative. In order to gain the
most successful results, the quantitative data has been collected through survey questionnaires.
One survey questionnaire is for students of pre-intermediate level of English language
proficiency at the PPCI and the other is for English language teachers of Division of Foreign
Languages and Informatics – The PPCI. Collected data, then, will be processed and analyzed
to yield conclusions about the study.
Together with the quantitative method, the qualitative data has been obtained by
informal interviews with some students and teachers to gather in-depth information about the
real situations of teaching and learning speaking skills at PPCI.
All comments, remarks and recommendations assumptions and conclusion provided in the
study based on the data analysis.
6. Design of the study
This minor thesis is composed of three parts:
PART ONE, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale, the aims, significance, scope, methods
and design of the study.
PART TWO, DEVELOPMENT, consists of three following chapters.


4



Chapter one, Literature Review, presents the concepts relevant to the study. It starts
with the theoretical issues on Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), which

consist the definition, characteristics, using CLT in teaching speaking. The next part
discusses about nature of language skills and oral communication, speaking skill with
the definition of speaking skill as well as the development approach of speaking skill.
This chapter also presents related theories to the problems in teaching English speaking
skill.



Chapter two, Methodology, mentions the research context, research questions,
participants, data collection instruments, data collection procedure, data analysis.



Chapter three, Findings and Discussion, the study and the presentations of the
statistical results and presents and discusses findings of the difficulties in teaching
speaking skill to students of English at PPCI including the difficulties caused by
teachers themselves, students and objective factors.

PART THREE, SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION, is some coping strategies and
classroom techniques and activities in reducing those difficulties suggested by the participants
of the study, the conclusion of the study which presents overview of the study. Besides the
limitations of the thesis are pointed out and the areas for further study are also proposed.


5

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
It is known that the history of language teaching has shown the change on methods, which

have reflected recognition of changes in the sort of proficiency learners needs. What has
changed in a second language teaching is not the way we teach but in the aim of language
teaching and learning (Le, 2004).
Teaching a second language used to aim at enabling learners to read and appreciate class of
literature. Therefore, any teachers who were able to reach this aim were thought to be good
teachers (Le, 2004). For a long time traditional methods - Grammar translation and Audiolingual were used to teach English that made learners become structure competent and
communicative incompetent.
It is undeniable that most learners of English nowadays desire to be able to communicate with
others in the language they learn. Parallel with this change in the aims of learning English,
methods of teaching had to be changed. For a long time, a number of language teaching
methodologists have constantly looked for the most appropriate way to teach English
effectively. As a result, some teaching methods came into being such as:
 Grammar-translation method
 The Direct method
 The Audio-lingual method
 The Audio-visual method
 Communicative Language Teaching.
Mackey (1965) remarks that most methods, which have ever developed, still continue to exist
in one form or another as each method has its advantages and disadvantage. For example,
grammar-translation is easy to implement and cheap to administer which makes it still be used
in many classroom situations in large classes.
General speaking, it is hard to say which method is the most effective and appropriate without
considering the circumstances in which it is applied. The question of which method should be
used in Vietnam depends most on the background of English language teaching and learning


6

in the country, sources of materials, teachers' proficiency, learners' needs and facilities for
teaching and learning.

1.1.1. Concept of CLT
So far, CLT has been viewed differently by different authors such as Wilkins (1972), Nunan
(1989), and so on. However, most of definitions of CLT come under the weak version
stressing the importance of opportunities to use English for communicative purposes. Among
the available definitions, the one given by Nunan (1989, p194) seems to be the most widelyaccepted and the most favorable one. As for him:
"CLT views language as a system for the expression of meaning. Activities involve oral
communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which is meaningful to the
learners. Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they include functional skills as well as
linguistic objectives. The learner's role is as a negotiator and integrator. The teacher's role is
as a facilitator of the communication process. Materials promote communicative language
use; they are task-based and authentic".
Nunan also asserts that in communication process, learners are negotiators and integrators
where as teachers are facilitators.
The definitions above, as with any definitions of the language teaching method, represents a
particular view of understanding and explaining language acquisition. It is socially constructed
and must be seen as a product of social, cultural, economic, and political forces.
Canale and Swain (1980) expanded on the theoretical basis of CLT for both teaching and
testing. In their reaction against an over emphasis on function and a lack of emphasis on
grammatical complexity, they pointed out that external oriental communication is not
necessarily more essential than other proposes of language such as "self-expression, verbal
thinking, problem solving, and creative writing".
1.1.2. Characteristics of CLT
Language is not simply a system of rules. It is now generally seen "as a dynamic resource for
the creation of meaning" (Nunan,1989). This point of view is really supports CLT.


7

 CLT is aimed at (a) making communicative competence the goal of language teaching and
(b) developing procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the

interdependence of language and communication (Le, 2004).
 CLT is grounded on a theory of language as communication. The goal of CLT is to create a
realistic context for language acquisition in the classroom to order communicative competence
(Hymes, 1972).
 CLT is also associated with learner-centered and experienced based tasks (Richard and
Rodgers, 1986. L.Tsang, and Wong, 2000).
 The focus of CLT is on functional language usage and learners' ability to express
themselves. In other words, for CLT, developing learners' skills is more important than the
content of the teaching and learning (Johnson, 1982).
 There are three major principle of CLT:
(1) communication principle: emphasizes activities that involve real communication promote
learning.
(2) task principle: supports that activities in which language is used for carrying out
meaningful tasks promote learning.
(3) meaningfulness principle: claims that language that is meaningful to the learners supports
the learning process.
(Le, 2004)
 In communicative classes, learners communicate with each other and learning tasks are
completed by means of interaction between learners. It is clear that learners' completing a task
is fore-grounded and communicating with each other is back-grounded. This may lead to
considerable use of pair work, group work and mingling activities.
 In ESL classes, teachers are facilitators and monitors, usually, without interruption and then
to provide feedback on the success.
However, CLT is not a perfect method. There still exist critical remarks on CLT as its
inappropriateness to local contexts and cultures, its negation of rote-learning, memorization,
displaying questions, teacher's talk, etc.


8

In spite of limitations and shortcomings, no one can negate that Communicative Language
Teaching allows teachers to incorporate motivating and purposeful communicative activities
and principle into their teaching, which later results in the improvement of their learners'
proficiency.
For the reasons mentioned above, CLT has served as the dominant approach to language
teaching since the demise of Audio-lingual Method.
1.1.3. Using CLT in Teaching Speaking Skill
When using communicative activities, it is important to make students feel comfortable
and confident, feel free to take risks and have opportunities to speak. According to Pica,
Young and Doughty (1987), there are two kinds of classroom available to second language
learners:
Input has been modified or simplified such as a traditional "teacher-fronted"
classroom; and authentic students-to-student interaction is emphasized. It provides the learners
more opportunities for speaking since the learners try to achieve mutual understanding and
modify their language according to the demand of the situation.
Objectives for speaking are often given by the particular program in which the teacher
must work. In some cases, the syllabus will consist of a list of grammar structures to be taught.
The teacher needs to be flexible in making best use of what is available for teaching purpose.
In other words, the teacher must have some freedom in deciding what objectives to meet, what
content to cover, and what activities to use. In this case, the teacher can go beyond the more
specific goals and objectives of the particular program to the speaking needs that the students
have in the "real world".
There are many speaking activities can be used in classroom such as scrambled
sentence, language games, role-plays, problem-solving, discussion, cued story, picture story etc.
1.2. Nature of language skills and oral communication
1.2.1. Nature of language skills
It is known that language communication involves some language skills, which
consists of four macro inter-related skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). That is the
reason why learners of English are required to have an adequate mastery of the four skills.

9

Nevertheless, the degree of fluency of each skill, which is a learner requires, depends on their
course purposes. As for Byrne (1991), listening and reading are considered to be receptive
skills, whereas speaking and writing are productive skills. Speaking and listening are also
called oral skills basing on the manners by which they are formed as they are related to
articulator organs.
The skills in connection with manual script including reading and writing are called literacy
skills. Of the four skills, speaking plays an utmost important role since it is the step to identify
who knows or does not know a language. Pattison (1992) confirms that when people speak of
knowing or learning a language they mean being able to speak the language.
1.2.2. Oral communication
Communication between human is a complex and ever changing process. When
communication take place, speakers/ writers feel the need to speak and write. One of the forms
of communication is oral communication which is realized by using oral skills. As mentioned
above oral communication skills are speaking and listening. In real life, listening is used twice
as often as speaking. However, speaking is used twice as much as reading and writing (Rivers,
1981). Inside ELT classrooms, speaking and listening are the most often used skills (Brown,
1994). In oral communication process, the roles of speakers and listeners are interchanged
information gaps between them are created and then closed with the effort from both side. In
organizing classroom oral practice, teachers should create as much information gap as possible
and teachers' vital duty is to encourage communication which yields information gaps.
Teachers should also bear in mind the differences between real-life oral
communication and classroom oral communication. As for Pattison (1987) classroom oral
practices have five characteristics: (1) the content or topic is predictable and decided by
teachers, books, tapes, etc; (2) learners' aims in speaking are to practise speaking, to follow
teachers' instructions and get good marks; (3) learners' extrinsic motivation is satisfied; (4)
participants are often a large group; (5) language from teachers or tape is closely adapted to
learners' level.

Nunan (1989) provides a list of characteristics of successful oral communication. As
for him, successful oral communication should involve: (1) comprehensible pronunciation of


10

the target language; (2) good use of stress, rhythm, intonation patterns; (3) fluency; (4) good
transactional and interpersonal skills; (5) skills in taking short and long speaking in turns; (6)
skills in the management of interactions; (7) skills in negotiating meaning; (8) conversational
listening skills; (9) skills in knowing about and negotiating purposes for the conversation; (10)
using appropriate conversational formulae and filters.
1.3. Speaking skill
1.3.1. Concepts of speaking
As mentioned above, speaking is the productive, oral skill. Speaking consists of
producing systematic verbal utterances to convey meaning (utterances are simply things
people say). Speaking is "an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves
producing and receiving and processing information" (Florenz, 1999, p.1). It is "often
spontaneous, open-ended and evolving" (ibid., p.1), but it is not completely unpredictable.
Speaking is such a fundamental human behavior that we don't stop to analyze it unless
there is something noticeable about it. For example, if a person is experiencing a speech
pathology (if a person stutters or if his speech is impaired due to a stroke or a head injury), we
may realize that the speech is atypical. Likewise, if someone is a particularly effective or lucid
speaker, we may notice that her speech is atypical in a noteworthy sense. What we fail to
notice on a daily basis, however, are the myriad physical, mental, psychological, social, and
cultural factors that must all work together when we speak. It is even a more impressive feat
when we hear someone speaking effectively in a second or foreign language.
According to Brown and Yule's opinions (1983), spoken language consists of short
fragmentary utterances in a range of pronunciation. However, speaking is a skill, which
deserves attention as much as literacy skills in both first and second language because our
learners often need to speak with confidence in order to carry out a lot of their most basic

transactions (Bygate, 1991). Furthermore, speaking is known with two main types of
conversation called dialogue and monologue.
Brown and Yule (1983) point out the ability to give uninterrupted oral presentation
(monologue) is rather different from interacting with one or more other speakers for
transactional and international purposes. It is much more difficult to extemporize on a given


11

subject to a group of listeners. That explains why speaking skill generally has to be learnt and
practised carefully before giving a presentation.
A comprehensive discussion of the nature of speaking is provided by Bygate (1987), who
shows that in order to be able to speak a foreign language, it is obviously necessary to have
micro-linguistic skills, that is, to understand some grammar, vocabulary and the rules
governing how words are put together to form sentences. However, these motor-perceptive
skills, as Bygate calls them, are not sufficient since while producing sentences, we often have
to adapt them to the circumstances. He then presents the second set of speaking skills: the
interaction skills, which involve using knowledge and basic motor-perception skills in
deciding what to say and how to say it, while maintaining the intended relation with others.
1.3.2. Characteristics of speaking
As for Bygate M. (1987), in most speaking the person to whom we are speaking is in front
of us and able to put right if we make mistakes. He/ She can also generally show agreement
and understanding - or incomprehension and disagreement. Unlike readers or writers, speakers
may need patience and imagination, too. While talking, speakers need to take notice of the
other and allows listeners chance to speak it. It means that we take turns to speak. Brown
(1983) and her colleagues point out that a listener helps speakers improve their performance as
a speaker because being a listener gives learner models to utilize when acting as a speaker. In
addition, being a hearer first helps the learner appreciate the difficulties inherent in the task. It
is clear that giving speakers experience in hearer's role is more helpful than simple practice in
task in which a speaker is having real difficulties in appreciating what a particular task

required.
Speaking has the following characteristics:
Firstly, its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including
the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the
purposes for speaking. It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving. However, speech is
not always unpredictable. Language functions (or patterns) that tend to recur in certain
discourse situations can be identified and charted.


12

Secondly, speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific points of
language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary ("linguistic competence"), but also
that they understand when, why, and in what ways to produce language ("sociolinguistics
competence").
Thirdly, speech has its own skills, structures, and conversations different from written
language. A good speaker synthesizes this array of skills and knowledge to succeed in a given
speech act.
Finally, Bygate (1987) considers speaking as an undervalued skill in many ways. The
reason is that almost all people can speak, and so take speaking skill too much for granted. He
also asserts that speaking skill deserves attention every bit as much as literacy skills. Learners
often need to be able to speak with confidence in order to carry out many of their most basic
transactions. Bygate also highly appreciates speaking by stating that speaking is the medium
through which much language is learnt.
In conclusion, it is undeniable that speaking is key to communication. By considering
what good speakers do, what speaking tasks can be used in class, and what specific need
learners report, teachers can help learners improve their speaking and overall oral competency.
1.3.3. The development approach of speaking skill
Byrne (1991, p. 22-31) points out that there are three phases to develop learner‟s oral ability,
which are as follows:

 Phase 1: The Presentation Phase (when you introduce something new to be learned)
In this phase, teachers are centre. It means that they work as information provider, since they
know English, select materials to teach and present the material in such a way that the
meaning of the new language is as intelligible and memorable as possible while the learners
are motionless. As far as we know, oral materials are written mainly in two forms in every
course-book. They are dialogues and prose. And obviously these two forms must be presented
in different ways.
According two Byrne (1991, p.22) 10 different steps are used to present a dialogue. They are
the following:


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1. Establish setting by using pictures. At this phase English should be used as much as
possible.
2. Draw out learners‟ experience related to situation.
3. Explain some key words.
4. Set listening task by asking key information of the dialogue.
5. Ask learners listen without looking at the books.
6. Allow learners to have a look at their book when necessary for them.
7. Ask the learners to listen and repeat.
8. Ask learners to pick up difficulties (good chance for them to speak) and explain
difficulties.
9. Ask them to practice (role-play)
10. Ask them to dramatize the dialogue.
It is known that this procedure is perfect and logically arranged. However, it is dependent on
learner‟s competence so some steps can be left out. It is quite hard for Vietnamese learners to
conduct the step 10 because they are generally shy and time is limited. 9 other steps are used
to present a prose. Byrne (1991, p.26) suggests that teachers should use the following steps to
present a prose. Introduce the topic by asking to look at the picture or asking them about the

related thing.


Introduce the text. New words and structures are given.



Provide relevant practice.



Set the reading task: make questions.



Ask the learners to read the passage in silence and find the answer.



Explain difficulties they still have.



Do silent reading again because the learners need to go on with the step 9.



Get the learners to talk about what they have to learn based on the previous answers.

 Phase 2: The Practice Phase (when you allow the learners to work under your direction)

Unlike the presentation phase, this phase learners have to do most of talking. Teachers provide
maximum amount of practice. Practice is usually in the forms of activities to improve fluency
of speaking. At this phase, pair work or group work is used.


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 Phase 3: The Production Phase (when you give learners opportunities to work on their
own)
At this phase learners need chances to speak English freely. A real chance to speak English
takes place when the learner is able to use English naturally for themselves, not for their
teachers. Group work plays an important part in making learners practice speaking here.
Doing group work, all learners can have chance to participate in talks. Time can be saved and
learners seem more confident.
Byrne (1988, p.2) concludes that in order to improve speaking ability of learners. These three
phases should be followed orderly. But in fact, they might not be applied as expected due to
time limitation, types of learners and materials in use.
1.4. Problems with speaking and speaking activities
1.4.1. Problems with speaking
Everything has bad and good sides. Speaking also has its own problems.
According to Brown (1994, p.256), the characteristics of spoken language can make oral
performance easy as well as in some cases difficult. There are following problems with
speaking.
* Clustering: Fluent speech is phrase not word by word. Learners can organize output both
cognitively and physically through such clustering.
* Redundancy: The speaker has an opportunity to make clearer through the redundancy of
language. Learner can capitalize on this featured of spoken language.
* Reduce forms: Contraction, elisions, reduced vowel, etc all form special problems in
teaching spoken English. Students don‟t learn colloquial contraction can sometimes develop a
stilted, bookish quality of speaking that in turn stigmatize them.

* Colloquial language: Colloquialism appears both in monologues and dialogues. If learners
are only exposed to standard English and / or “text book” language, they sometimes have
difficulty in understanding and producing words, idioms and phrases of colloquial language.
* Stress, rhythm and intonation: This is the most important characteristic of English
pronunciation because the stress-time rhythm of spoken English and its intonation patterns
convey important massages. But in fact the learners of English often find it difficult to


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pronounce English words, to stress the right syllabus, to follow the stress-time rhythm and
intonation patterns of spoken English.
* Affective factors: In the process of learning speaking, students often encounter the risk of
saying out things that may be young, stupid and incomprehensible. At those times, they tend to
be anxious because they do not want to be judged by other learners.
* Interaction: The greatest difficulty that the students face in learning to speak originates from
the interactive nature of most communication. Engaged in the process of negotiation of
meaning with many discourse constraints, learners have to do the complex task of choosing
what to say, how to say, when to say, etc. Learners are also affected by their interlocutors‟
performance.
1.4.2. Problems with speaking activities
In order to know more clearly about the problems in learning and teaching speaking that
students and teachers often meet, we should concern some problems with speaking activities
suggested by Luu (2000, p56-57).
* Inhibition: Unlike reading, writing and listening activities, speaking requires some degree of
real time exposure to an audience. Learners are often inhibition about trying to say things in a
foreign language. In the classroom: worried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism or
losing face, or simply shy of the attention that their speech attracts.
* Nothing to say: Even if they are not inhibited, you often hear learners complain that they
cannot think of anything to say, or that they have no motive to express themselves beyond the

guilty feeling.
* Lows or uneven participation: Only one student can talk at a time in a large group. This
means that each one have only very little time for talking. This problem is compounded by the
tendency of some learners to dominate the group, while others speak very little or not at all. In
some cases some students haven‟t got any chance, intentionally and unintentionally, to speak
for a long time.
* Mother-tongue use: When all, or a number of the learners share the same mother tongue,
they may tend to use it frequently. This happens because the native language is easier to use
and because they feel unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign language and become


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learners feel less “exposed” if they are speaking the language they master. If they are talking
in a small group, it can be quiet difficult to get some classes, particularly less disciplines or
motivated ones, to keep to the target language.
* Teacher domination: Teaching in a crowded class, many teachers tend to spend much time
explaining words, phrases and grammar structures in details for fear that otherwise the
students cannot understand and fail in their tests. During explanation, teachers find it is easier
and less time consuming the use of the mother tongue. Another important thing is that the
teachers seem more interested in individual work (between teacher and one student or the
whole group, or one student and another student or the whole group). They fear that other
kinds of student grouping (pair work and group work) may cause noise or discipline problems.
1.5. Summary
This chapter so far discussed issues and aspects concerning to the topic of the study. It has
discussed the concepts and ideas relating to CLT. Such issues include definitions of CLT,
characteristics of CLT as well as teacher‟s and student‟s role in CLT. Given the purpose of the
study, it was mainly focused on the discussion of language skills and speaking skills. It
includes the definitions, the characteristics of speaking and the development approach of
speaking skill. Besides, the problems with speaking and speaking activities have been

presented as well.
The following chapters will present the investigation, the findings and suggested activities to
the problems under the light of the above mentioned theories.


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CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY
This chapter discusses the context that determines the study of the difficulties experienced by
the teachers in teaching English speaking skill to the students at the PPCI. The researcher
starts by describing an overview of People‟s Police College I, the teachers, the students, the
physical setting. The research questions, the participants, the methods of data collection are
also discussed in detail.
2.1. The research context
2.1.1. Course and its objectives at People’s Police College I.
The study was conducted at People‟s Police College I. All students at this college are
required to complete three semesters of English as part of their general education requirements
during the first and the second years. In the first two semesters, students have to finish with
General English (GE) program, which accounts for 120 periods. The third semester is reserved
for the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) program with a total number of 30 periods.
The first stage – the stage for GE- aims at providing students with general knowledge of
English grammar, vocabulary, phonology as well as developing students‟ four language skills
with more focus on the speaking skill, at this stage the textbook Lifelines (Pre-Intermediate)
is used. By using this textbook, our goal develops our students‟ communicative competence
and our students can learn the real things from daily life. Students are required to work in
pairs, in groups to practise English in common situations. Additionally, students also have
chances to listen to both native and non-native speakers from the tapes used with the textbook.
At this stage, one form of test is used: a written test at the end of each semester.
The second stage- the stage for ESP, the students are equipped with the knowledge of the
terms and structures related to their profession. The textbooks utilized at this stage depend on

students‟ required majors such as English for Reconnaissance Investigation Police, English for
Traffic Police and English for Administrative Police. They are designed by teachers at PPCI
themselves. Students are required to read the texts on real law cases, try to find out the
meanings of the law terms and then discuss in pairs, in groups answering the questions that
followed. During the study and at the end of this stage students have written tests.


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The objectives of the English course are obvious. At the end of the course (after 150 periods),
students are required to obtain:
 General knowledge of English grammar and a relatively big number of vocabularies in
uses.
 The capability to communicate with foreigners in English in common situations like: asking
to check foreigners‟ suspecting luggage, asking to get information from foreigners concerning
to the murder, asking to check the foreigners‟ residence, showing the way. The ability to
understand and use the professional terms and structures.
2.1.2. The students at the PPCI
Like students of other colleges and universities, in order to be students of the PPCI, they
have to pass a very challenging University Entrance Examination. Students of the PPCI come
from all parts of the country: big cities, provinces and mountainous areas.
New students of the PPCI do not have the same level of English language proficiency.
Some of them have learned English for 7 years at secondary and high schools some have only
learned English for three years and some have never learned English. Students from big cities
like Hanoi, Haiphong seem better. However, they are only good at grammar, not speaking.
They can do grammar very quickly and well at their level but they cannot speak fluently about
some common topics, and most of them do not feel self-confident or even a bit frightened in
communicating in English.
2.1.3. The teachers at the PPCI
If students are the most important factor in the learning process, teachers are the most

significant factor in the teaching process. In PPCI, there are 19 teachers of English aged from
24 to 34 but none of them have ever been to any English speaking countries. Of the eighteen
teachers, only 5 have been trained at College of Foreign Languages-Vietnam National
University, Hanoi and the rests graduated from the Faculty of Foreign Languages in Hanoi
Open University, Vinh University, People‟s Security Academy. At present, over half of the
teaching staff at the Division of Foreign Languages and Informatics in PPCI has been taking
M.A courses in Hanoi College of Foreign Languages-Vietnam National University, Hanoi
University of Foreign Studies and some foreign organizations of education and training in