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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
------------

LE THI THANH HUYEN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO
EFL TEACHERS’ STRATEGIES TO DEAL WITH
STUDENTS’ PASSIVENESS IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS
AT SOME HIGH SCHOOLS IN QUANG TRI PROVINCE

MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY
OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts,
Hue University of Foreign Languages

HUE, 2016


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
------------

LE THI THANH HUYEN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO
EFL TEACHERS’ STRATEGIES TO DEAL WITH
STUDENTS’ PASSIVENESS IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LESSONS
AT SOME HIGH SCHOOLS IN QUANG TRI PROVINCE

MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY

OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
CODE: 60.14.01.11
SUPERVISOR: HOANG TINH BAO, Ph.D

HUE, 2016
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BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
--------

LÊ THỊ THANH HUYỀN

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC CỦA
GIÁO VIÊN TIẾNG ANH ĐỂ GIẢI QUYẾT TÌNH TRẠNG
THỤ ĐỘNG CỦA HỌC SINH TRONG GIỜ HỌC NÓI TẠI
MỘT SỐ TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG Ở QUẢNG TRỊ

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP
DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH
MÃ SỐ: 60.14.01.11

NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC
TS. HOÀNG TỊNH BẢO

HUE, 2016

STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP

3


The work contained in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a
degree or diploma in any university. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and
belief, my thesis contains no material previously published or written by another
person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.

Signed:…………………………
Le Thi Thanh Huyen
Date: …………………………..

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ABSTRACT
This research aims to investigate EFL teachers’ strategies to deal with
students’ passiveness in speaking lessons at some high schools in Quang Tri
Province. The research’s subjects are the EFL teachers and the students from Vinh
Linh, Gio Linh, Nguyen Hue and Bui Duc Tai High School. To fulfill the purpose of
the study, the relevant theories of the previous researchers on teaching strategy,
speaking skill and students’ passiveness were chosen and cited appropriately for the
content of the research.
Both quantitative and qualitative metthods were used for the researrch. The
data were collected from questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaire were
delivered to 160 students and 32 teachers. Additionally, five teachers were invited to
participate in the interviews.
The findings of the research demonstrated that there were a lot of strategies
employed by the teachers to deal with students’ passiveness but the frequency of
using them varied among teachers. In addition, there are still some difficulties in

carrying out their strategies effectively because of some problems such as students’
shyness, lack of confidence or anxiety.Based on these findings , implications for
teachers and students were also presented to increase students’ participation in
speaking lessons as well as enhance the efficiency of English teaching and learning.

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Acknowledgements
This study would not be done without the encouragement and assistance of
many people. Therefore, I wish to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to
their support during the time of doing this research.
First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Hoang
Tinh Bao for his professional guidance and support. His guidance helped me in all
the time of studying and writing this thesis.
I sincerely thank the teachers and students at Vinh Linh, Gio Linh, Nguyen
Hue, Bui Duc Tai High School who participated in this project.
My special thanks would also go to my family and friends for all their
understanding, faith, and involvement during the time I was conducting this project.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.3: Reasons for students ‘passiveness in speaking lessons 40
Table 4.4: Students’ suggestions3

LIST OF FIGURES
41

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, the researcher will provide the background as well as the
rationale of the research in detail followed by the objectives, the research questions, the
scope and the organization of the study.
1.1. Background
In the context of teaching and learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL),
students’ participation in learning activities is very important to successful language
learning. EFL teachers can base on the amount and quality of students’ contribution to
classroom work in order to evaluate whether they have carried out a good lesson to
elicit sufficient responses from students (Goh, 2013). Fassinger (1995) notes that not
only teachers but learners can also share the benefits of their participation. According
to Cohen (1991, p.699), students’ personal participation or engagement is considered as
a means that brings “students actively into the educational process’’ and supports in
“enhancing our teaching and bringing life to the classroom”. Furthermore, when
students actively engage with what they are studying, they tend to learn better
(Daggett, 1997; Weaver & Qi, 2005), enjoy their study more (Junn, 1994) and make an
improvement in their communication skills as well as group interactions (Dancer &
Kamvounias, 2005). In spite of the benefits of students’ participation in class and the
fact that a lot of students are aware of the importance of taking part in class activities,
many teachers still experience a great deal of students’ quietness and passiveness in the

classroom. Karp and Yoels (1976) find that in any given classroom, only a handful of
students commonly participate in classroom tasks, which is known as the phenomenon
called “consolidation of responsibility”. According to the research carried out by
Howard and Henney (1998), about 90% of interactions in classroom were made by a
few students and around one-third were regular participants while a half of the students
were observed not to participate at all.

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It is supposed that the students’ passiveness is one of the common classroom
problems facing most of the EFL teachers. The problem of EFL students’ passiveness
in classroom has been found in recent studies, especially in Asian English learning
environment (Tsui, 1996; Jackson, 2003; Chen, 2003; Zou, 2004; Thompson, 2009).
Many students from Confucian heritage culture countries in Asia have often been
observed to be quiet in language classrooms, unwilling to speak up and often tend to
wait until they are called upon by their teachers instead of volunteering to share their
ideas (Tran Thi Tuyet, 2013). The students who were found to be passive learners
chose not to use the target language most of the time and rarely actively took part in
classroom discussions (Liu, 2005). Such a behavior reflects students’ passive role and
their unwillingness to contribute to the classroom work.
For EFL teachers, the passiveness of students is a kind of uncomfortable feeling
because it negatively reflects on their instructional practice. Furthermore, the act of
being passive in class has always been regarded as the main cause of frustration for
both teachers and students (Flowerdew & Miller, 1995). Many EFL teachers have felt
the frustration after trying their best to activate their students but receive very little or
no response (Le Phuong Nga, 2002). It is also clear that EFL classroom will become a
frustrating and boring place if most of the students are passive. The passiveness of
students not only causes a sense of failure for EFL teachers but also makes them
difficult with gaining the goal of communicative language teaching.

In particular, the frustration caused by students’ passiveness can be seen more
clearly in speaking lessons in which the activities are designed for students’ discussion.
Even though everyone seems to realize the significance of participation and teachers
always want to boost the activeness in classroom, many students seem to be unwilling
to participate in activities due to many different aspects. As a result, to encourage
students to fully contribute in the classroom discourse, it is important for EFL teachers
to discover causes of their students’ passiveness in class so that they can employ some

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practical techniques and strategies in order to make their students more active in
English speaking lessons.
1.2. Rationale
Among the four skills for language proficiency, speaking is often considered as
the center and the most important skill (Bailey & Savage, 1994; Zaremba, 2006). As a
result, EFL teachers in Vietnam have tried their best to encourage students to
participate in English speaking activities so that students can improve their speaking
competence and confidence. However, the oral outcomes are not very satisfactory
when a lot of Vietnamese students still find it very difficult to speak English fluently
due to lack of both confidence and competence despite their seven years or more
learning English at school (Trung Hieu, 2011).
One of the reasons for this problem is students’ passiveness or their
unwillingness to participate in speaking activities. Based on my teaching experience at
high school, I have observed that many students are indeed reticent and passive in
English speaking activities. Some of them know the answers or want to take part in
class activities but they rarely volunteer to do that until being called by the teachers.
Stephen and his colleagues (2006) described the learning process of Vietnamese
students as passive and it consists of more listening to teachers, taking notes and
shortening memorized contents in the examinations. Some recent studies (e.g.

Thompson, 2009; Stephen et al., 2006; Nguyen Tuong Hung, 2002) have also stated
that many Vietnamese students still regard the teacher as the powerful source of
knowledge and rarely take part in classroom activities in an active way. This evidence
shows the students’ passiveness as well as the dependent learning style is still popular
in the educational system in Vietnam. In the EFL pedagogy environment, therefore,
how to deal with the passive learning style adopted by many students in the educational
system in Vietnam tends to be a compelling question among EFL teachers.

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Students’ passiveness has been a common problem facing most of the English
teachers in Vietnam in general and Quang Tri Province in particular. For this reason,
this study on EFL teachers’ strategies to cope with students’ passiveness in speaking
lessons has an important meaning to both English teachers and students who always
consider speaking as a difficult skill. In addition, a better understanding of this problem
will certainly help to improve the quality and effectiveness of teaching speaking skill at
high schools in Quang Tri Province. Consequently, this research is conducted to
investigate further about the passivity of EFL students in English speaking classes with
the hope that this research finding will collect a variety of teachers ‘strategies and
experience to deal with this problem in oral lessons. Finally, this study’s outcome can
make a small contribution towards boosting the efficiency the English teaching and
learning, which will be helpful for the researcher as well as counterparts in English
teaching job.
1.3. Research objectives
The general objective of this study is to investigate the strategies that are used
by EFL teachers to deal with students ‘passiveness in English speaking lessons at some
high schools in Quang Tri Province. Through this research, the researcher hoped to get
deeper insight into the current situation of teaching and learning speaking English at
some high schools in Quang Tri. The research is expected to elicit a variety of teachers’

strategies and techniques to deal with this common problem in most of the speaking
classes. The findings and implications of this study would hopefully be useful in the
improvement of teaching and learning speaking English at high schools in Quang Tri
Province.
1.4. Research questions
In order to fulfill the objectives mentioned above, the researcher makes an
enormous effort to seek the answers to the following questions:

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(1) What strategies are commonly used by EFL teachers to deal with students’
passiveness in speaking lessons?
(2) What are teachers’ views on the current strategies in dealing with students’
passiveness?
(3) What suggestions should be highlighted?
1.5. Research scope
This research mainly focuses on EFL teachers’ strategies to deal with students’
passiveness in speaking lessons at four high schools: Gio Linh, Vinh Linh, Nguyen
Hue and Bui Duc Tai High School. The investigation does not cover the scope of
teachers’ strategies in other lessons. It involves the participants of 32 English teachers
and 160 students from those four high schools.
1.6. Organization
This paper consists of five chapters namely Introduction, Literature Review,
Methodology, Findings and Discussion, and Conclusion and Implications.

- Chapter 1 introduces general background, the rationale, the research questions, the
-

objectives and the organization of the study.

Chapter 2 reviews the literature of the frameworks for the study.
Chapter 3 gives the research methodology.
Chapter 4 presents the findings and discussions.
- Chapter 5 provides the conclusions, the implications for English teaching and
learning as well as the suggestions for further studies.

CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
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It can be said that students’ passiveness in learning is a common problem faced
by most of the EFL teachers. This problem has also been increasingly concerned and
investigated by many researchers. The present study aims at exploring some practical
strategies employed by teachers to cope with the passivity of students in English
speaking lessons. In order to have a clear idea of the main concepts related to the study,
in this chapter, the researcher will focus on the basic concepts involving this topic from
a variety of sources with the aim of supplying the foundations and valuable data for the
investigation.
2.1. Teaching strategy
2.1.1. Definition of teaching strategy
Strategy in general is usually known as a suitable or systematic plan which aims
at achieving the goal. In education, strategy is the way often used by teachers in order
to deliver contents of the subject in the classroom. Everyday teachers work with
students in a variety of conditions so they have to use different strategies to design
curriculum, manage the classroom environment or give lectures. For this reason,
teaching strategy is also considered as the ability to select proper approach in teaching
by means of using appropriate methods and techniques (“Strategy and method,” 2009).
Therefore, the aim of a teaching strategy is to assist the progress of students’ learning,
stimulate as well as engage them in learning activities. Strasser (1964), as cited in

Torskars (2011) assumed that teaching strategy means “a generalized plan for a lesson
which includes structure, desired learner behavior, in terms of the goals of the
instruction and an outline of tactics necessary to implement the strategy”. It can be
seen that teaching strategy is regarded as a pattern of teaching acts carried out by the
teachers to make sure that students have understood the lessons well and it also refers
to a plan or a program that is extensively used to ensure that a certain message or
lesson is passed from the teacher to the student (Miressa, 2014). Furthermore, teaching
strategies also represent “a complex approach to teaching which often contains a

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mixture of teaching methods, utilizing a number of techniques with each method”
(Henson, 1980). From the definitions above, it can be concluded that a teaching
strategy consists of the principles and methods used for different objectives of teaching
and learning.
2.1.2. What is an effective teaching strategy?
A teaching strategy is considered to be effective if it can “activate students'
curiosity about the lesson topic, engage students in learning, develop critical thinking
skills, keep students on task, engender sustained and useful classroom interaction, and,
in general, enable and enhance the learning of course content”(“Effective teaching
strategies”, 2015). In order to engage students in learning, teachers should base on
several factors such as learning style, aptitude, skills, and enthusiasm of the students to
choose suitable teaching strategies for their class. As a result, it can be seen clearly that
there is no best teaching strategy but teachers can base on concrete settings in order to
decide the most appropriate one. However, to make sure that teachers’ strategies can
support the learning and teaching process effectively, there are some common features
of the teaching strategy that have been suggested for teachers as follows:

1) Stands for a generalized plan, way and means for carrying out the

task of teaching i.e. more specifically for teaching a particular
lesson.

2) Directed towards the realization of the set teaching learning
objectives.

3) Devised and employed for helping the learners in the realization of
the set teaching learning objectives.

4) Brings out a scheme, programme or teaching learning structure,
which if followed may help in the better realization of the set
teaching learning objectives.

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5) Requires a number of well planned tactics (those behaviors and
activities of a teacher which he/she works out and makes use of for
the development of a particular teaching strategy) for its effective
implementation.

(“Strategy and method,” 2009)
2.2. Theoretical background of speaking skill
2.2.1. Concepts of speaking
In language learning contexts, speaking is one of the vital skills that students
should gain well because of its important role for effective communication. By
producing ordinary sound, speaking is considered as the use of language in the simplest
way. Some experts in language learning and teaching have suggested many concepts of
speaking. Tarigan (1985, p.15) defined speaking as “a skill of conveying words or
sounds of articulation to express or to deliver ideas, opinion, and feeling”. It can be

seen that through speaking, people can express their feelings, needs and opinions as
well as set up or maintain social relationships. Tarigan (1990) pointed out that speaking
is the learned language skill which is produced by listening skill and developed in child
life. With speaking skill, individuals are able to produce utterances during their
communication to gain a particular end (Donough and Shaw, 1993).
Hadfield (1999, p.7) considered speaking as a type of bridge for students
between classroom and the world outside. Bygate (1997) agreed that a lot of language
is learnt through speaking which is viewed as a medium skill. The “bridge” in
Hadfield’s concept also means that speaking is “vehicle par excellence of social
solidarity, of social ranking, of professional advancement and business” (Fajariyah,
2009). For this reason, speaking is a means to link individuals to society.
Speaking is also a productive skill. It has a connection with components of
pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and fluency which could not be separated
(Syakur, 1987, p.5). Brown (2001, p.267) saw that a person can keep going on a talk

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properly competently when he speaks a language. Chaney(1998, p.13) defined
speaking as “the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and
non – verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts”. In second or foreign language,
speaking is viewed as “the most demanding of the four skills yet for many people,
speaking is seen as the central skill (Bailey & Savage, 1994). According to Brown &
Yule (1983), spoken language production is often regarded as one of the most difficult
aspects of language learning. As a result, Nunan (1991) assumed that speaking was
successful or not, it depended on the ability to carry out a conversation in the language.
2.2.2. Components of Speaking
Speaking is regarded as one of the language arts most regularly used by people
in the world. Like other skills, speaking also needs many components in order to
perform its functions. These components play an important role to support students’

success in learning speaking foreign language. According to Haris (1969) and Syakur
(1987), there are five components of speaking skill including pronunciation, grammar,
vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. In this study, the researcher would like to
mention about these five elements as follows:
2.2.2.1. Pronunciation
Pramujunarta (2007) argued that pronunciation is one of the components that are
very helpful in comprehending speaking skill. Furthermore, it also plays a significant
role to make the communication process easy to understand. Pronunciation is the
component that studies about the ways by which words are produced clearly
when people speak. It aims at getting the learners to pronounce exactly so that other
speakers can be comprehensible and understand easily. Gerard (2007) stated that if a
speaker continually mispronounces, it can be extremely difficult for another speaker
from another language community to understand.
2.2.2.2. Grammar
In spite of not being the most important component of speaking, grammar may
support learners with understanding phrases or sentences correctly so that they are able

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to produce utterances fluently and exactly in the right form of language (Ur, 1996).
Moreover, another benefit of grammar is to help learners get the right method to master
competence in oral as well as written form of a language.
2.2.2.3. Vocabulary
Learning vocabulary is very significant for learners to be able to speak or write
a language properly. Wilkins (1972, p.110-111) stated that “without grammar very little
can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”. As a result of this, it is
difficult for individuals to communicate efficiently as well as express their thoughts in
both oral and written form if they do not have enough vocabulary. Also, learners have
to learn large and many vocabularies to make their speech fluent.

2.2.2.4. Fluency
Fluency is not only an important element of speaking but it is also the aim of a
lot of language learners. It can be defined as an individual’s capability to speak fluently
and accurately with little pauses like “ums” or “ers”. According to Brown (1997, cited
in Mohammad, Reza and Mohammad, 2013,) these signs like “ums” or “ers” reveal
that the speaker does not spend much time on finding the necessary language items
needed to express their ideas.
2.2.2.5. Comprehension
Comprehension is also another necessary component of speaking. It is agreed by
the researchers that “oral communication certainly requires a subject to respond to
speech as well as to initiate it”.
2.2.3. The importance of speaking skill
As we all know, there are four kinds of skill in English: listening, speaking,
reading and writing. These skills cannot be separated each other. Therefore, it is
difficult to decide which skill is the most important among four language skills.
However, Huebner (1960, p.5) confirmed that “language is essentially speech, and
speech is the most used skill by people rather than the three other skills”. Furthermore,
Ur (1996, p.120) said: “of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing),
speaking seems intuitively the most important.” Zaremba (2006) also agreed that of all
the four macro English skills, speaking seems to be the most important skill for

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communication. Consequently, it seems that speaking is a basic skill which is used as a
means of communication in people’s daily life and this skill seems to be the most
important and the closest to the goal of language teaching: communicative competence.
2.2.4. Characteristics of a successful speaking activity
It can be seen that the key to a successful speaking lesson is a successful
speaking activity. According to Munjayanah (2004, p.16), it is not always easy for

people to perform spoken language fluently. People sometimes have difficulty in
producing utterances because of different reasons. As a result, it might not be simple
for teachers to design a successful speaking task and that is why they should fulfill
some basic characteristics of a speaking activity.
In order to make a speaking lesson successful, Ur (1996, p.122) suggested that
“most of the time allotted for the activity is occupied by learner talk not by teacher talk
or pause”. Furthermore, this researcher agreed that it would be a good chance for
students to talk a lot by using the target language. Teachers can encourage learners to
talk by means of dividing them into small groups because students can practice more
and increase their talking time when working in groups. It is also proposed by Ur that
each group had better choose one representative who is responsible for monitoring the
others in group and making them remember to use only the target language for
speaking.
Besides learners talk a lot, even participation suggested by Brown (2001, p.270)
is also an important characteristic of a successful speaking task. He argued that all
learners in class ought to have equal opportunity to speak; moreover, classroom
discussion should not be dominated by a few talkative students.
Another feature of a successful speaking activity is students’ motivation. There
are two popular kinds of motivation: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation can be referred to the pleasure or value connected with the activity
itself (Leavitt, Pondy & Boje, 1989). This kind of motivation comes from inside an
individual rather than from external or outside factors. Extrinsic motivation, in
contrast, is the motivation which comes from the external environment of a person.

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Learners will be interested in a lesson if the topics which they are talking about are
suitable with them and involve real life. On the other hand, they will feel obliged to
learn a language if outside factors promote him or her to study (Anna, 2015).

The last principle that is mentioned by Ur (1996, p.120) is the acceptable level
of the language used. It means that teacher can attain good outcome in teaching
speaking through choosing tasks whose language level is equivalent to students’ level.
Furthermore, these kinds of speaking activity should enable learners to express their
ideas in a fluent way and make others comprehensible.
2.2.5. Speaking activities in classroom
In the age of communication, the aim of language teaching and learning has
been changed in order to motivate learners to use the language for meaningful and
effective communication. For this reason, teaching speaking activities should also be
designed and taught in an interesting and communicative way. Therefore, it is vital to
be aware of as well as clarify the activities in order that the teachers can take advantage
of them. The researchers have listed many different kinds of speaking activity
according to their various features. Harmer (2001, p.348-352) proposes six classroom
speaking activities including acting from script, communication games, discussion,
prepared talks, questionnaires, simulation and role play.

1) Acting from script
Acting from script is both a learning and language producing activity. In
teaching speaking, recognizing two types of acting from script is necessary for
teachers. With the first type known as playing scripts, the lines learners speak will have
real meaning and the teacher is regarded as a theatre director who concentrates on
suitable stress, intonation, and speed. In the second one, acting the dialogue, if students
have time to rehearse their dialogues before performing, they will be helped a lot.
Through acting from script, students will get much experience during the process.

2) Communication games
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Another type of speaking activities in classroom suggested by Harmer (2001) is

communication games. According to this author, the games should not only consist of
funny factors but they are also designed to stimulate communication between students
and base on the principle of the information gap.

3) Discussion
Discussion seems to be the most popular activity in speaking lessons. Through
discussion, students have chance to express their real ideas about the given problem
that is introduced by the teacher (cited by Anna, 2015). Harmer divided discussion
range into several stages including highly formal, whole-group staged events and
informal small-group interactions.

4) Prepared talks
According to Harmer, prepared talks are formal conversations since they are
prepared by students and more “writing like”. In this speaking activity, learners are
often required to give a presentation on the topic that they choose to talk about.
Additionally, it is possible for students to speak by using a note card instead of a script.

5) Questionnaires
If questionnaires are well-prepared and it ensures that both the questioner and
the respondents have something to say to each other, this kind of speaking task can
stimulate learners to use language patterns repeatedly in a natural way. Furthermore,
thanks to the results attained from questionnaires, the basis for written work,
discussions, or prepared talks can be formed. Consequently, to make this activity more
effective, the teacher should act as a resource to help learners design questionnaires on
the suitable topic.

6) Simulation and Role play
Simulation and role play are considered as the chance for students to practice in
specific contexts and also the way to encourage oral fluency. Through simulation and

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role play, learners can act out to show the characters’ thoughts and feelings as in the
real life.
2.3. Students’ passiveness in learning
2.3.1. Definition of passive learners
Passiveness is defined in Oxford Dictionary as “the state of accepting what
happens without reacting or trying to fight against it”. This term is not a new aspect in
education. Good, Slavings, Harel & Emerson (1987, p. 183, cited in Carolyn, 1999)
considered the passiveness of students as “retentive behavior in the sense that the
student is withholding consciously or unconsciously a response”. The behaviors here
may consist of not volunteering in class activities, answering only when called upon by
teachers, usually asking fewer questions and infrequently approaching teachers for
help. In the 1990s, the term “witness learner” was created by Helmut Fritsch through
the assessment of participation in an online conference. Helmut argued that passive
participants were those who considered witnessing the interactions among the active
participants as the way for them to learn (Beaudoin, 2002).
David Nunan based on learners’ creativity in order to describe passive learners
because of the reason that creativity is a basic characteristic of competence (Chomsky,
1965, cited in Richards, Platt & Platt, 1992). This author presented that passive learners
are those who “spend most learning time copying and reproducing language written
down by others instead of learning how to use language creatively themselves”
(Nunan, 1999, p.69). According to him, passive individuals “learn how to communicate
in model and predictable situations, but they don’t learn how to respond appropriately
in novel and authentic communicative situations” (p.69). Therefore, it can be seen that
learners who are passive in class often focus on writing down what the teachers say,
reading the textbook assignments and doing only what is expected to get a good grade.
These learners only practice patterns provided by teachers, textbooks and tapes. They
learn facts about language rather than how to use it communicatively to express ideas,

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to talk and write to other people, to read and listen to real language, and to learn how to
cooperate with others. As a result of these things, passive learners fail to show their
creativity.

McManus (2001, p.424) defined passive learners as individuals who “are
assumed to enter the course with minds like empty vessels or sponges to be filled with
knowledge”. They always regard teachers as people who have total knowledge and
therefore they think that anyone with total knowledge can teach others (James, 2014).
In short, passive learner is one of two distinct types of learners that teachers
usually identify in their classes. They are also students who are unwilling to take part
in the learning activities as well as avoid interacting with the teacher and raising
questions, or tend to listen and take notes. Erica (2013) illustrated the passive learning
environment in a vivid way:
Students’ forearms prop heavy heads and eye lids become fatigued and
weighty. Information fills the room, but the restless audience remains
impervious as attention is stolen by fleeting thoughts and boredom. If this is a
common scene at your school, most likely the learning environment is passive.

2.3.2. Characteristics of passive learners
2.3.2.1. Personality
It is very easy for teachers to identify two types of students in class, active
and passive. The personality of a passive learner varies distinctly from that of an
active one. Most of the teachers all know a student with a passive personality. They
seem to be more easygoing and often feel calm and not anxious or worried about what
happens in class. Many teachers found that passive learners are quiet, shy and usually
keep their distance of physical contact from others (“Martial arts for the passive

personality”, 2008). Furthermore, they are known to be anti-social, usually hesitate to
express themselves in front of the class and do as much as possible to avoid the
attention of their teachers or other students. One of the most common signs of a passive

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student’s behavior is avoiding eye contact. By the reason of their lack of confidence,
passive learners often try to look away and find it difficult to look into the eyes of other
people (Chance, 2013). Passive individuals are also patient and habitually lack a
dominant sense of pressure.
2.3.2.2. Involvement
While an active student is frequently enthusiastic about learning and actively
involves in answering questions and discussions in lessons, a passive student on the
other hand is most likely to engage wholly in his or her own thinking, without much
attention to what is taking place in class. The students who are passive tend to study
constantly, finish tasks on time and take time to relax. They do not actively
participate in learning activities. This is also the type of student who regularly takes a
backseat in most discussions or activities in which they have to involve. They would
not take the initiative to study on their own if it is not an assignment (Petty, 2004). A
passive learner will do his or her assignments in an involuntary way, and apparently
hand in them a short while before the deadline or after the deadline for submission has
passed (McWhorter, 2003). In a harmful manner, these students often miss classes,
take a number of short cuts to get through school without applying themselves and
probably drop out.
2.3.2.3. Energy
Passive students seem to take everything lightly and make a minimum effort
at their school work. They exert minimal possible energy into completing their
assignments, giving ideas in discussions or working with other students. Therefore,
passive students are usually considered to rather chill out and relax (“Difference

between active student and passive student”, 2013). It might be suggested that the
passive student stresses out more easily than the active student and needs time to
refresh.

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2.3.3. Causes of students’ passiveness in learning
Students’ passiveness is a common problem which exists in foreign language
classrooms causing frustration for the teachers and affecting the quality of language
learning. All language teachers want to take students out of the passive role and place
them in an active role in learning. Consequently, teachers need to identify negative
factors influencing students’ learning process in order to help them overcome their
difficulties. Therefore, most teachers would agree that it is necessary to carry out some
research to discover why some language learners choose to remain passive in language
classrooms. By using different ways such as questionnaires, interviews and
observations, researchers have tried to explore students’ reasons of being passive in
class.
Flowerdew et al. (2000) conducted a study on the issue of students’ reticence
and passiveness in a university in Hong Kong by the way of interviewing fifteen
lectures. They gave the conclusion that students were passive and reticent in language
classrooms because of their fear of being embarrassed in front of their peers, their
inability to understand concepts, the lack of preparation before coming to class, and
their perceived linguistic ability. In particular, the passive learning style seems to be
adopted by many students during their secondary schooling.
In 2011, Fang-yu Chang coming from Tungnan University in Taiwan carried out
an investigation in order to identify the reasons why Taiwanese students of English
language behave passively in the classroom participation. According to this researcher,
learners’ reticence and passivity in Taiwanese English classrooms can be explained by
a variety of reasons caused by both teachers and students. These causes are as follows:

• Maintaining Group Harmony
According to many researchers (Cheng, 2000; Jackson,2002; Kennedy, 2002), one of
the reasons which have influence on the way students speak and respond in language
classrooms is maintaining group harmony. Some students often feel the pressure when

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