Improving english speaking skill to 10 TH from student at nong cong i high school

CONTENTS
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION...............................................................................1
I. Rationale of the study.....................................................................1
II. Aims of the study.........................................................................2
III. Scope of the study.......................................................................3
IV. Method of the study.....................................................................3
V. Design of the study.......................................................................3
PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT...........................................................................4
Chapter I: Research methodology, data analysis and discussions....................4
I. Research methodology...................................................................4
1. Research questions.....................................................................4
2. The participants.........................................................................4
3. The instruments.........................................................................5
4. Conclusion..............................................................................7
II. Data analysis and discussion...........................................................7
1. Questionnaires..........................................................................7
2. Conclusion............................................................................24
Chapter II: Findings and recommendations.....................................................25
1. Summary of the findings..............................................................25
2. Recommendations......................................................................26
PART THREE: CONCLUSION.........................................................................31
1. Summary of the study..................................................................31
2. Limitations and suggestions for further study.....................................32

1


PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
I. Rationale of the study.
When it comes to English, people immediately think of it as a global language: the
official language of more than 53 countries and territories, the official language of the

EU and the third most widely used language only after Chinese and Spanish (you should
note that China has a population of more than 1 billion people). International events,
global organizations ... also consider English as the language of communication.
In addition, English is spoken by more than 400 million people worldwide, more
than 1 billion people speak English as a second language (according to Wikipedia), the
most developed countries with the highest per capita income on the world are all
proficient in English, or commonly used, taught as school subjects ...
For Vietnam, a country standing in front of an era of development, expanding with
the door of globalization, do you see the importance of learning English. With students,
students, future generations of the country, learning English becomes even more
necessary than ever.
Understanding that, Vietnam's education system has put English as a compulsory
subject in school chair since elementary school years. English is also a mandatory
graduation exam at all levels. English has been widely taught in schools, universities,
companies as well as in organizations. There are also many different English teaching
programs available on radio, television and internet.
It is widely accepted that one of the main purposes of studying English is to use it
for communications. Being able to speak English is an important criterion to assess a
learner of English. However, it is a common issue at my school that the students rarely
speak English, even in English classes, though they have been learning English since
they started at the lower secondary school.
Being a teacher of a high school, I would like to investigate the reasons of the
students’ inhibition and unwillingness to speak English, and I hope to be able to make
some recommendations that can help the students overcome their inhibition and
unwillingness, and thereby improve their speaking skill. My experience idea‘s namely
“Improving English Speaking skill to 10th-form students at Nong Cong I High
School”.

2

II. Aims of the study.
The study is aimed at:

- Investigating the current English speaking teaching and learning situations of
grade 10 at Nong Cong I High School.
- Identifying the factors which make the students inhibited or unwilling to speak English
in class.
- Making some suggestions for the teachers at Nong Cong I High School with the hope
of helping the students overcome their inhibition and unwillingness, and thereby
improve their speaking skills.
- Suggesting some realistic and appropriate class teaching techniques with the hope that
they can enhance the learners in speaking skill.
III. Scope of the study.
To improve speaking skill for the students at Nong Cong I High School, various
activities can be used, and a number of things should be done. However, the researcher
only intends to overview a brief of the current situations of teaching and learning
English speaking skills of grade 10 at Nong Cong I High School, and to identify the
factors which make the students inhibited and unwilling to speak English, and to make
some recommendations to motivate students to speak English more.
IV. Method of the study.
To realize the aims of the study, quantitative and qualitative methods have been
used. The data collected for the study came from two sources: the 10 th- form student
respondents and the teacher-respondents at Nong Cong I High School, Thanh Hoa
province.
Two questionnaires, one for students and the other for teachers, and an interview of
teachers are going to be used to collect information and evidence for the study. All the
comments, remarks, recommendations and conclusions provided in the study are based
on the data analysis.
V. Design of the study

The minor study consists of three parts:
- Part one: introduction

3


- Part two: development
- Part Three: conclusion
PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter I: Research methodology, data analysis and discussions
This chapter deals with the methodology, data analysis and discussions have been
employed to achieve the aims and objectives of the study. In order to collect the data,
both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used.
I. Research methodology
1. Research questions.
In this paper, the reasons for the unwillingness to speak English of the 10 th form
students in Nong Cong I High School have been investigated. Then some techniques
that can help to improve the students’ speaking skills will be suggested.
1. Why are the 10th – form students at Nong Cong I High School inhibited and
unwilling to speak English in class?
2. What should be done to help the students overcome these above problems, and
improve their speaking skills?
2. The participants.
In order to get the data for the study, 120 students from three 10 th-form classes and
five teachers of English teaching grade 10 at Nong Cong I High School, Thanh Hoa
province have been randomly selected for investigation.
The students all come from countryside. Most of them are at the age of 16, so they
belong to the same psychological age group. Their time length of learning English is
also the same. They all started learning English at grade 6. They all have a low cultural
standard. Students at this school do not have much time to learn, they spend all their

time working on the farm so the time for students study is limited.
The five teachers who were invited to join the study are all full-time teachers at the
school. One of them has been at work for ten years, the two other for eight years, one for
three years, and the last one for two years.
3. The instruments.
Data for the study was obtained with two different instruments: questionnaire and
interview.

4


a. The questionnaire
Two questionnaires were designed: one for students and the other for teachers. The
questionnaire for teachers is written in English. It consists of ten questions concerning
four aspects:
- Teachers’ opinion on Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
- Difficulties they usually encounter when teaching grade 10.
- Teachers’ opinion on reluctant speakers, the students keep making the same
mistakes and the way to correct them.
- Their recent techniques to motivate reluctant speakers.
The questionnaire for students is written in English, too. It consists of fourteen
questions concerning to some aspects, as follows:
- (Question 1). Students’ assessment of speaking topics in the textbook “English
10”.
- Students’ attitude toward speaking skill. (Questions 2, 3, 4)
- Factors making students reluctant to speak English in English classes. (Qs 5, 6)
- Current methods applied to speaking skills. (Questions 7, 8)
- Current implementations to encourage students to speak English. (Qs 9,10,11, 12)
- Students’ desires. (Qs 13, 14)
b. The interview

An interview was carried out for more in-depth data. The interviewers were five
teachers teaching English 10 at the school. Each of them was asked five questions (see
Appendix B). The two first questions are about their teaching techniques and steps in
speaking lessons. The next is about their thought of the design of speaking lesson in the
new textbook “English 10”. The two last questions focus on their ideas about the criteria
of a good speaking lesson, and their common feeling about the speaking lessons they
gave. The interview is a structured one in which “the agenda is totally predetermined by
the researcher, who works through a list of the set questions in a pretermined order”
4. Conclusion
This part presented the research questions, participants, instruments, and
procedures of data collection and analysis. In a best attempt to build a scientific

5


methodology, the researcher hopes to achieve a reliable and valid data for the study.
Next, is the presentation of the data analysis and discussion.
II. Data analysis and discussion
1. Questionnaires.
1.1. Questionnaire for teachers.
Questionnaire for teachers consisting of ten questions is designed to find out the
information concerning four aspects. The questions and responses to them are presented
in the headings below.
a. Difficulties in teaching process at Nong Cong I High School.
Question 4 of the questionnaire asks about the difficulties that the teachers
encounter in their teaching grade 10 at the school. The information collected shows that
none of the five teachers experience the same difficulties in their teaching. Especially,
two of them complain that class sizes and students’ low English proficiency are the two
difficulties they have encountered, while another says her students’ English proficiency
is not good enough for lesson requirements, and as to the three others, it is multi-level

classes that matters them. With my own experience from several years’ teaching at
school, these are not the distinctive difficulties of any school in Son La. Besides, the
sufficient substance conditions of schools also matters the teachers a lot. Due to
difficulties, it is not easy for teachers to get a high effect in teaching without their great
attempt and creativeness.
b. Teachers’ attitude towards reluctant speakers and the learners keeping
making the same mistakes, and way to correct them.
These two aspects are the aims of questions 5, 6 and 7. All the teachers opened out
that they have never been angry with their students’ reluctant or mistakes, but very
tolerant. They just keep silent until their students have finished their task, smile and
encourage them to go on. Moreover, three of them rarely interrupt for correction of their
students’ mistakes, while two others are sometimes not patient enough to wait until their
students have finished their presentation and correct the mistakes, but correct them when
they are speaking. When being asked about the solutions to students’ reluctance to
speak, the researcher finds that the teachers do not get angry, make students speak or

6


ignore those solutions, but try to encourage students to speak by asking them easier
questions.
c. Teachers’ current techniques to motivate reluctant speaking learners at
Nong Cong I High School.
The information about this aspect is the aim of the questions 8, 9 and 10. Helping
students interested in a lesson is an art in teaching. Being asked about the techniques for
it, three out of five teachers say they usually praise their students, but two others answer
that they encourage them in many different ways depending on situations.
Making students interested in lessons by praising them is quite a good way but I
myself prefer the latter, which is teachers should have different ways to interest students
in different situations.

Students may feel unwilling to speak as they are afraid of their teachers. Making a
close relation with students to motivate them is thus something teachers should do. The
finding shows that to make students feel a close relation to the teachers, the teachers at
this school avoid remaining in the teacher’s seat or standing at the blackboard, but walk
around the class and give help.
Group - work and pair - work are two of the activities which the teachers here often
use to give chance to their students to practise speaking. The disadvantage of these two
activities is that students may chat in their mother tongue without the teacher’s good
control. To prevent this possibility, four out of the teachers move around the class and
observe, while the only other reminds his students of speaking English.
In my own opinion, reminding students of speaking English is not a good way to
prevent students from speaking Vietnamese as students’ voluntaries is not always high;
they may not speak in the target language without the teacher’s observation. In addition
to reminding them, teachers need to go around and observe what students are doing.
In summary, it can be seen from the responses to the questionnaire for teachers that
the teachers teaching grade 10 at Nong Cong I High School have all been trained in
CLT. Although not all of them have a full understanding of CLT, they have attempted to
apply it in their speaking teaching reality afterwards. However, the effect of CLT is
limited.
1.2. Questionnaire for students.

7


a. Students’ assessment of speaking topics in the text book “English 10”.
Question one in the questionnaire is designed to explore students’ assessment of
the text book “English 10”. The result of 120 respondents is shown at rate in the table
bellow:
Options
Question

Question
1

A
(%)
How do you find the speaking topics 60

B
(%)

C
(%)

D
(%)

34

4

2

presented in class, based on “English 10”?
A. Interesting

B. All right

C. Boring

D. Too boring

Table 1: Students’ assessment of speaking topics in the text - book “English 10”.
Of 120 respondents, seventy-two students finds the speaking topics in the textbook
“English 10” interesting which takes 60%. 34% finds the topics all right. The number of
students that have negative assessment is minimal, only six percent.
The result reveals that speaking topics in the textbook are not the factor that causes
to unexciting atmosphere in speaking classes, because the rate of students that has
positive assessment of the topics takes the majority. The cause of the problem is,
therefore, not the material, but something else which should be explored in other
aspects.
b. Students’ attitude towards speaking skill.
The questions 2, 3 and 4 are designed to discover students’ attitude towards
speaking skills. The specific questions and students’ responses are shown in table 2.
Options
Questions
Question 2

How is speaking skills important to you?

A
(%)

B
(%)

C
(%)

D
(%)

80.3

16.7

1.5

1.5

22.9

35

33.1

9

A. very important B. rather important
Question 3

C. little important D. not important at all
How much do you feel interested in
speaking English classes?
A. very interested

B. rather interested

C. little interested D. not interested at all

8

Question 4

Do you feel reluctant to speak English in

26

51.1

11

11.9

class?
A. Yes, often
B. Yes, sometimes
C. No, I like speaking very much
D. No, I speak English willingly
Table 2: Students’ attitude towards speaking skills.
Being asked about the importance of English speaking skill, most of students find
that speaking skill is very important to them. It takes 80.3%; 16.7% says that it is rather
important, and the percentage defying it is very small, which takes 3.0%. However,
when being asked about their interest in speaking English in class, there is only 22.9%
of students says it is very interested; 35% is rather interested while the percentage that
is not interested makes the biggest group, which takes 42.1%. In question four, twentysix percent often feels reluctant to speak English in class while 51.1% of students is
respondent sometimes. Only 22.9% does not feel reluctant to speak English in class.
In short, it can be said that most of the respondents suppose speaking is an
important skill. However, the percent of students often feel reluctant to speak English in
class is bigger than that of students interested in speaking English in class. So the

question raised here is what factor makes nearly half of the students uninterested and
over two third reluctant to speak English in class? The following responses will be the
answer to the question.
c. The factors that make students reluctant in speaking English.
The next questions 5 and 6 attempt to find out the factors that make students
reluctant to speak English in class. The questions, possible answers and responses can
be seen in table 3 bellow:
Options

A
(%)

Questions

9

B
(%)

C
(%)

D
(%)


Question 5 What factors make you reluctant to speak 7.1

76

2.0

14.9

12.8

33.2

35

English in class?
A.

Being afraid of losing face.

B.

Being not accustomed to speaking.

C.

Learning goal is not to communicate

in English.
D.
Boring teaching way.
Question 6 What do you think often deter your speaking 19
process?
A.

Unability to find words

B.

Unability to find ideas.

C.

Unability to find structures

D. Not enough time for preparation.
Table 3: The factors that make students reluctant in speaking English.
Statistics provided in table 3 shows that 76.1% of the respondents are afraid of
losing face in front of teachers and classmates while the other 15.6 percent of students
responses they speak English unwillingly in class as they are not accustomed to
speaking english in class that was effected by their prior learning experiences at school.
The percentage of responses complaining about teaching method is up to 2.0% and
14.9% of the students answer that the goal in their study is not to communicate in
English.
It can also be realized in table 3 that 12.8 % of the respondent supposes one of the
factors deterring students to speak English in classroom is that they are unable to find
the ideas for the given topics, while the other 19% of them states their poor vocabulary
is an obstacle for them to express their ideas. 33.2% of the students answers that they
can not speak since they can not find structures to express their ideas. Also, thirty-five
percent responses that they are not given enough time for the preparation of their topics.
In summary, it has seen from table 3 that most of the students choose option B in
question 5. It means that they are not accustomed to speaking English. It is obvious that
outside classroom they are not accustomed to speaking English, and especially they not
only communicate in Vietnamese but also in their language. However, in English

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classes, the teachers have to make speaking English their habit. Only by doing this way,
can students’ language learning gain the right goal to communicate.
There is not too much difference in percentage of options in question six. However,
the four options are the problems that can be blamed for teaching.
d. Current methods and techniques applied to teach speaking skill.
Questions 7 and 8 are designed to find out what methods and techniques applied to
teach speaking skill by teachers. The questions, answer choices and responses are
displayed in table 4:
Options
Questions
Question 7

A
(%)
What do you think your teacher’s talking 11.9

B
(%)

C
(%)

D
(%)

9.5

48.4

30.2

14.5

12.1

72.2

time?
A.

Too much.

B.

A litter much.

C.

All right.

D.
Question 8

Too little time
When you make mistakes in speaking,

1.2

your teacher:
A. gets angry and interrupts to correct the
mistakes.
B. does not get angry but interrupts to
correct mistakes
C. waits until you have finished your
presentation,

then

points

out

your

mistakes and corrects them.
D. waits until you have finished your
presentation, points out your mistakes and
encourages you to correct them yourself.
Table 4: Current methods and techniques applied to teach speaking skills.
As we can see in table 4, 48.4% of students comment that their teachers’ talking
time in speaking lessons is enough. The second taking 30.2% responses their teachers

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talk too little. The rest say that their teachers talk too much or too little time during
speaking lessons.

It can be easily recognized from table 4 that most of the students (72.2%) respond
that their teachers often point out their mistakes and encourage them to correct their
mistakes themselves after they have finished a speaking task while only a few of the
students state their teachers usually point out their mistakes and correct them when they
have finished their speech. The percentage of students finds that their teachers do not get
angry but interrupt for correcting when they make a speaking mistake which takes
14.5%, and 1.2% of students may not feel satisfied with their teachers’ teaching when
complaining that their teachers often get angry and interrupt them whenever they make
mistakes.
To sum up, through data collection from the findings in table 4, most of the
teachers at this school take more focus on fluency and contents than on accuracy and
forms. Teachers do not often stop students to correct mistakes until the students stop
speaking. This means that the teachers here talk too much in class. Obviously, student
talking time is limited.
e. Current implementations to encourage the students to speak more.
Four questions are aimed at the current implementations to encourage the students
to speak English more. All the choices and responses in table 5 below:
Options
Questions
Question
9

A
(%)
After giving you speaking topics, your teacher 53
usually:

B
(%)

C
(%)

D
(%)

11.
9

18.1

17

17

17.8

A. provides you with new words and structures
relating to the topics.
B. provides you with main ideas of the topics.
C. encourages you to plan the topics.
Question
10

D. makes you discuss the topics yourselves.
What does your teacher usually do to
encourage you to practise speaking?
A. uses communicative games.

12

3.2

62


B. creates topics interesting and appropriates
to your level.
C. supports some suggested questions.
Question
11

D. uses group work.
Are you given enough time to prepare the
answer to a question?

35.
9

50

10

4.1

5.9

15.
7

72.8

5.6

A. Yes, usually enough.
B. Yes, sometimes enough.
C. No, little.
Question
12

D. No, not enough.
What does your teacher do after finishing a
topic discussion?
A. encourages students to keep talking about
the topic outside the class.
B. only corrects mistakes.
C. appreciates your presentation and draws out
experience.

D. does nothing.
Table 5: Current implementation to encourage the students to speak more.
The data collected from question 9 in table 5 points out that most of learners which
takes seventeen percent comment that their teachers almost do nothing after giving them
a topic for discussion, while 53% of them states that their teachers help them discuss the
topic by giving them some words, structures or main ideas related to the given topics.
While 11.9% assumes that their teachers provide them main ideas of the topics, and the
percentage of students responses their teachers often encourage them to plan the topicstaking 18.1%.62% of the students use group work in question 10. The students say their
teachers use communicative games to encourage them to speak, which takes 3.2%
(option A), while the percentage of students choose options B is 17% to express that
their teachers give topics interesting and appropriate to their level and option C to say

that their teachers support some suggested questions to encourage them to practise
speaking.

13


Question 11 is aimed at the time to prepare the answer to a question. Of the four
options suggested, the students (50%) takes option B as their response to express that
they sometimes have enough time. The second biggest percentage (35.9%) is of those
who choose option A to admit they usually have enough time for preparation. The others
consist of twelve students (10%) who find their preparation time is rarely enough
(option C), and 5 students (4.1%) who complain they never have enough time to prepare
the answer to a question (option D).
Question 12 is about teachers’ work after their students have finished a topic
discussion. 5.9% for option A as their teachers encourages students to keep talking about
the topics outside the classroom. 15.7% for option B to say their teachers only correct
mistakes after their preparation. The majority of the respondents circle C to express that
their teachers usually evaluate their presentation and draw out the experience, which
states 72.8%, and option D which expresses their teachers have no reaction to their
students’ presentation (5.6%).
Teachers’ providing students with new words and structures relating to a given
speaking topic at Nong Cong I High School as to 53% of the students’ admission is a
necessary. It is the provision of new words and structures that is one of the teaching
steps at CLT. However, the teachers here do not usually do this work after giving their
students a speaking topic. According to the other students, their teachers only provide
main ideas of the topic, or provide nothing but encourage or make them discuss the
topic themselves. The researcher thinks teachers should providing students new words
and structures relating to a given speaking topic, and it is the teachers’ flexibility
because topics are different and situations are not always the same.
g. Students’ desires

Question 13 is about the students’ desires for their teachers’ actions to motivate
them to speak English in class, and question 14 is used to explore the students’
understanding of the advantages of pair-work and group-work activities. We can see the
percentages of the options in table 6 below
Options

A
(%)

Questions

14

B
(%)

C
(%)

D
(%)


Question 13

What do you want your teacher to do to 15

16.2 58.5

10.3

preparation.
What do you think about group work and 16.3 16.7 21.1

45.9

motivate you to speak?
A. Not to interrupt you when you make
mistakes.
B. To accept a variety of answers.
C. To give you a reading text based on
topics.
D. To
Question 14

ask you to speak without

pair work help you?
A. Enable you to speak more.
B. Give you opportunities to express your
own ideas.
C. Make you speak English more
naturally and creatively.
D. Give you opportunities to chat with
your classmates in Vietnamese even in
minority languages.
Table 6: Students’ desires
Question 13 is about the students’ desires for their teachers’ actions to motivate
them to speak. The data collected in table 6 indicates that the respondents of option A
taking fifteen percent do not like teachers’ interference for correction while they are

speaking. The number of students chooses option B as they want an acceptance of a
variety of answers from their teachers which takes 16.2%. 58.5% answers their teachers
give them reading text based on topics (option C). The last option, which states that they
would like their teachers to ask students to speak without preparation, does not take the
rest percentage but only 10.3%.
Question 14 is used to explore the students’ understanding of the advantages of two
activities: group-work and pair-work activities which are suggested by CLT. Happily for
the right understanding of 21,1% (option C) that group-work and pair-work have the
advantages of making learners speak English more naturally and creatively. In addition,

15


16.3% has positive comments on these two types of speaking activities: 7,1% states that
they enable them to speak more (option A), and 16.7% claims they give them
opportunities to express their own ideas (option B). However, the other students which
take 45.9% do not have a right understanding of group-work and pair-work as they
argue that these two types of activities only give them opportunities to chat with their
classmates in Vietnamese even in minority languages. it can be clearly realized from
table 6. The statistics to question 13 are clues for a deduction that the majority of the
students would be provided with a source of ideas, words and structures for their
speaking tasks.
They think reading texts can help them as a source. This means that the speaking
topics may be new to them while their words and structures are still limited, though the
topics are interesting as to sixty-six percent of the students’ admission. Together with the
other ideas from the other students such as teachers accept a variety of answers, ask
students to speak without preparation, or do not interrupt them, the statistics therefore
reveal that there needs to be some necessary changes in giving speaking topics and
conducting speaking classes by the teachers at Nong Cong I High School, whereas the
statistics from questions 14 shows that the teachers here have taken stock in improving

students’ speaking skills by using speaking-improving activities such as group-work or
pair-work, and making the students see the advantages of the activities.
In summary, from the data collected, it can be seen that the 10th-form students at
Nong Cong I High School find that speaking topics in the textbook “English 10”
interesting. The majority of the students who were asked admit that English speaking
skill is very important to them. However, they are not really interested in speaking
English in class and often feel reluctant to speak it in class. The reasons for this question
are too many, for example: the students can not find appropriate words, structures and
ideas for the topics or they are not accustomed to speaking. Although the teachers have
taken stock in improving students’ speaking skills by applying the techniques suggested
by CLT such as they do not often interrupt students’ speaking for error, correction. They
usually use group work and pair works to encourage them to practice speaking, etc.
However, sometimes their teaching ways make the students bored, and their talking time
is too much now but too little then. They do not give students enough time to prepare

16


the topics. All causes above partly make the students reluctant or unwilling to speak
English in class.
2. Interview
The interview is designed for teachers as a complement to the questionnaire. Five
teachers teaching 10th grade were asked five the same questions concerning four
aspects: Teachers’ methods of speaking teaching at school, their assessment of the
speaking lessons in “English 10”, their opinions on the criteria for a good speaking
lesson, and their feeling after speaking lessons. The questions and responses of teachers
are presented as follows:
a. Teachers’ methods of speaking teaching
Question 1 is about techniques and question 2 is about steps. The reason for this is
that the teachers may not know or remember exactly what methods they are applying,

but through their answers to these questions, the method they have applied can be
clearly seen.
Teacher 1: - Group-work or pair-work
- Games
- Information gap
- Picture or event describing.
- Role play
Teacher 2: - Role play
- Story telling
- Drama
- singing
Teacher 3: - Picture or event describing.
- Asking and answering
- networks
- Role play
Teacher 4: - Picture or event describing.
- Asking and answering
- Group-work or pair-work
- Story telling

17


Teacher 5: - Role play
- Asking and answering
- networks
- Picture or event describing.
It can be seen from the findings that the techniques that the teachers here are
applying are not various enough to make students interested in the lessons. The teachers’
repertoire must be expanded so that several activities can be used in each lesson, and the

activities of this lesson should be different from those bellow.
These are quotations of the responses to the question of teaching steps:
Teacher 1: - Pre-speaking
- While-speaking
- Post-speaking
Teacher 2: - Topic introduction
- Pre-teaching new words and useful language
- Students’ discussion
- Students’ presentation.
Teacher 3: - Give topic
- Pre-teach necessary words and remind about necessary structures.
- Suggested questions
- Have students discuss.
- Ask students to present.
Teacher 4: - Give topic
- Pre-teach necessary words and remind about necessary structures.
- Students’ discussion
- Students’ presentation.
- Evaluate and draw out experience.
Teacher 5: - Topic introduction
- Pre-teaching new words and useful language
- Have students discuss.
- Students’ presentation.
- Evaluate and draw out experience.

18


Comments can hardly be on the teaching steps by teacher one as they are more
stages than steps, while the steps applied by teachers two and three would be complete if

there were two more steps: ‘giving instruction’ after ‘pre-teaching language’, and
‘feedback’ after ‘students’ presentation’. The steps applied by the fourth teacher can be
said to be the most complete of all.
b. Teachers assessment of the speaking lesson in “English 10”
It has seen from the answers to question 3 that none of the five teachers really
highly appreciate the design of speaking lessons in the textbook “English 10”. One of
them judges that the speaking lessons are only good for small class size, while another
claims that they are good but a bit difficult for her students. And three other teachers
comment that the speaking lessons are quite scientific. I think that no textbook can be
suitable for all the learners around the country, but suitability can be made by necessary
changes in the teaching reality.
c. Teachers’ opinion on the criteria for a good speaking lesson.
Five teachers’ opinion on the criteria for a good speaking lesson, bellow is the
quotations:
Teacher 1: - Students are interested in the topic and lesson
- Every student has a chance to speak in a lesson
- The aims of the lesson are quite well achieved
Teacher 2: - Students talk more than teachers
- Students are interested in the topic and lesson
Teacher 3: - Students are only speak in English
- Students are interested in the topic and lesson
Teacher 4: - Students are interested in the topic and lesson
- Every student has a chance to speak in a lesson
- The aims of the lesson are quite well achieved
Teacher 5: - Students are only speak in English
- Students are interested in the topic and lesson
The criteria listed by each teacher are right for a good speaking lesson, as the
author idea, it is not enough. The researcher agrees with teacher two to state that
students must speak in English and speak more than teachers. It means that as much as

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possible of the lesson is in fact occupied by learners’ talk. As teachers 3 and 5,
motivation is high, that is, learners are eager to speak because they are interested in the
topic and they want to contribute to achieving the lesson objectives. Participation must
be even, classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority of talkative participants,
but all students get a chance to speak, and contributions are fairly evenly distributed. It
has seen that language is of an acceptable level, which means learners express
themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily comprehensible to each other, and
language accuracy.
d. Teachers’ feeling after speaking lesson.
In my opinion, the teachers should not blame their inability of classroom
management for their learners, but first for themselves as it is one of the tasks of the
teachers. That the students take a lot of time to prepare carefully by writing for speaking
shows their slow reaction to the teachers’ requirements. However, the reality can be
gradually improved with some changes in teaching techniques, such as: the teacher’s
acceptance of a variety of answers, and the amount of time allotted.
In contrast with the first two teachers’ feeling, the third and the fourth teachers
admitted they usually feel pleased with their speaking lessons because they usually feel
an excitement about the lessons from their students. Moreover, they added that through
the students’ presentation, teachers can understand more about students.
In summary, we can see from the findings that the interview can really provide in
depth the information about the reality of speaking teaching to 10th grate at Nong Cong I
High School. In general, the teachers’ repertoires of speaking teaching activities are not
really varied, their knowledge of speaking steps is not really good and their opinions on
their criteria for a good speaking lesson are not enough. Therefore, not all the teachers
who were asked usually feel pleased with their speaking lessons, though they admitted
the design of speaking lessons in the textbook “English 10” is good.
3. Conclusion

In this chapter, the data concerning the reality of teaching and learning speaking at
Nong Cong I High School have been collected, described and discussed. Especially,
through the collected data, the research question for students can be found its answer. In
addition, a basis of the answer to the other questions is also made.

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The first research question asks about the reason why the 10th-form students at
Nong Cong I High School are unwilling to speak English in class. The survey data of
the questionnaire for students can reveal some of the reasons for this. Accordingly,
sometimes their teachers’ teaching ways bore them, the teacher talking time is too much
now but too little then, and they do not give students enough time for preparation.
Like the two questionnaires, the interview for the teachers comes to be an effective
device to discover the reason for the students’ unwillingness to speak English in class.
The information from the interview indicates that the reasons for the students’
unwillingness and inhibition are also because the teachers’ repertoires of speaking
teaching are not various, their knowledge of teaching steps is not really good and their
opinions on the criteria for a good speaking lesson are a little too simple.
Chapter II: Findings and recommendations
This chapter presents the finding, and recommendations for the improvement of
English speaking teaching and learning at Nong Cong I High School.
1. Summary of the findings
According to the finding from the questionnaire, the realities of the students’
inhibition and unwillingness to speak English have been discovered as follows:
a. The teachers’ teaching ways have sometimes bored students, teacher talking time
is too little now and much then, and students are not often given enough time for
preparation.
b. The teachers have all been trained in CLT, but not all of them have a full
understanding of it, the effect of the application of CLT in speaking teaching is limited.

c. The teachers’ repertoires of speaking teaching activities are not really varied,
their ideas of teaching steps are not good enough, and their opinions on the criteria for a
good speaking lesson are not full enough.
d. Although the students generally find the speaking topics in textbook “English
10” interesting, and the majority of students who were asked admit that English
speaking skills are very important to them, they are not really interested in speaking
English in class, and often feel inhibited about speaking. The students complained that

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they could not find appropriate words, structures and ideas for the topics, and especially
they are not accustomed to speaking.
2. Recommendations
a. Teachers’ teaching ways should be varied, changed in techniques and activities
lesson by lesson, class by class, situation by situation in order to fit the distinctive
features of lessons and different abilities of students, and especially to avoid students’
boredom. In speaking teaching, communicative competence should be considered as the
ultimate goal. CLT is, therefore, suggested being the best teaching way. One of the main
features of CLT is that the role of the instructor is quite different from traditional
teaching methods. In traditional classroom, the teacher is in charge and ‘control’ the
learning, teacher talks’ time is more than student talks’ time. In CLT, on the other hand,
the teacher serves as more of a facilitator allowing students to be in charge of their own
learning, most of the class time is of the students’ talk. The teacher still sets up exercises
and gives direction to the class, but the students do much more speaking than in
traditional classroom. This responsibility can often lead to an increased sense of
confidence in using the target language.
b. In order to be able to effectively apply CLT in teaching, teachers must have a
full understanding of CLT. The ineffectiveness of applying CLT in Nong Cong I High
School is mainly because the teachers’ insufficient understanding of CLT. They do not

really know what the main features, principles of CLT are. The essential principles of
CLT in brief as follows:
(i) Needs-based
When designing curriculum: how are my students most likely to use English?
When modifying curriculum: how would my students most likely to use this
language?
For data: query students, other teachers, former students-observe interactions that
people like your students engage in.
(ii) Learning –centered
Transparency: show why we are doing this and why we are doing it in this
particular way

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Personalize whenever possible
Exploit materials to the fullest and scaffold learners so that they always get to use
the language: “off the page” as well as “on the page”
Running notes can help teachers respond to “what actually happened” as well as “
what was in the lesson plan”.
(iii) Free or creative communication: that is a chance for students to try to use the
language they have learnt in free or creative speech.
- Using stories: Give students a cartoon or set of pictures which show a story or
sequence of events. Students tell the story.
- Picture description: Provide an interesting picture for the class and ask them
questions about it. Then, have students tell about the picture without asking them
questions.
- Role- play: role play is a spontaneous conversation between two learners who are
imagining they are other people or imagining they are in the different situation.
- Free talk: Give students pen-ended questions and ask students to discuss questions

in pairs or small groups. Or, give students a list of topics and ask students to talk
freely about questions.
- Game: There are a lot of language games which can be used for speaking
exercises. For example, guessing games: choose an object in the classroom and
ask students to guess what it is, asking questions in English.
(iiii) Control activities: those are used to improve the accurate use of words, structures
and pronunciation that have just been taught.
- Single word substitutions: Teacher speaks a sentence to students and say a cue word
for students to replace a word in this sentence.
Example: T: I’m going to study.

Ss: I’m going to study.

T: Sleep

Ss: I’m going to sleep.

T: drink

Ss: I’m going to drink.

- Transformation exercises: The teacher gives a sentence along with a brief
instruction which focuses them to communicate with another form.
Example: T: I study English

Ss: I study English

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T: Yesterday

Ss: I studied English yesterday

T: Now

Ss: I’m studying English now

- Multiple-position substitutions: The teacher speaks a sentence to students and say a
cue word in a sentence.
Example: T: I like to eat oranges

Ss: I like to eat oranges.

T: Apple

Ss: I like to eat apples

T: Hate

Ss: I hate to eat apples

T: Marry

Ss: Marry hates to eat apples

c. As mentioned above, the students can not find appropriate structures, ideas and
words for the topics. It has seen from the study that it is not the distinctive problem.
However, there have been some solutions to it:
(i) Base the activity on easy single language. In general, the level of language

needed for a discussion should be lower than that used in intensive language-learning
activities in the same class. It should be easily recalled and produced by the participants,
so that they will not meet difficulties in finding words and structures to express their
ideas. It is a good idea to teach or review essential vocabulary and structures before the
activity starts.
(ii) The difficulty of finding ideas for the topics can be solved by choosing the
topics which are more interesting and appropriate to the students’ age, level, and relating
to the real life to create enjoyable class atmosphere that make reluctant students
interested in speaking. The teacher should save students a chance to select the topics
themselves because the topics certainly will be in their list of favorite, and the more they
like it; the more they are interested in discussion.
(iii) Besides, show the quiet, less able students that teachers always care for them
and accept a variety of their answers or presentations. Additionally, instead of forcing
shy students to speak, teachers should allow them to play a supporting role in group
work by writing down group decisions. let these students listen to their classmates since
conversation is as much about listening and understanding as speaking.
PART THREE: CONCLUSION

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This part will deal with a summary of the study, limitations and suggestions for further
study.
1. Summary of the study
It has seen from the study that the current teaching and learning situations has been
figured in the study through questionnaires and follow-up interview with five teachers
of Nong Cong I High School.
Due to various reasons such as variety in students’ level of language proficiency,
lack of interesting topics, prior experience in learning speaking, and fear of losing face,
more than two-thirds of the students remain reluctant to respond to the teacher and keep

quiet until they are singled out to answer questions. Moreover, many of them seem to be
helpless about reticents when the teacher asks a question and expects a respond.
The study has introduced some measures to help students become more willing and
active to converse with others in the target language in class. It also includes activities
for confidents in English speaking classes. To make students speaking English
confidently, teachers need to make use of various methods. In order to help reduce
reticence, teachers themselves should be aware of the existence of reticence among
students and try to give more chances and encouragement to the more quiet ones by
asking them more questions, providing them more sentence structures, and more words.
As all of students go to class after a working day, they are sometimes too tired to learn
so lesson should be made with a lot of fun and comfort with interesting and motivating
activities or games. Besides, as suggested by the students’ informants, teachers should
prepare more topics which are not only interesting but also related to students’ life so
that students have the ability and interest in talking about them in English. In addition,
teachers should try to establish a friendly, supportive environment as well as to
introduce activities that motivate students to speak in class. It is important for teachers
to be friendly rather than strict and critical in class, in order to make students feel easy
to speak English.
2. Limitations and suggestions for further study.
Although the study has certain strengths, such as the triangulation of data
collection methods, namely observation, survey questionnaires for learners and teachers,
and rich data, due to the researcher’s ability, it is obvious that the study has got a

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