A study on english language teachers’ reasoning for the strategies they use in teaching speaking skills at van xuan high school, hoai duc, ha noi

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

TRỊNH THỊ NHUNG

A STUDY ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS’
REASONING FOR THE STRATEGIES THEY USE IN
TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS AT VAN XUAN HIGH
SCHOOL, HOAI DUC, HA NOI
NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHỮNG LÝ GIẢI CHO VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÁC
CHIẾN LƯỢC DẠY KỸ NĂNG NÓI CỦA GIÁO VIÊN DẠY TIẾNG ANH
TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT VẠN XUÂN, HOÀI ĐỨC, HÀ NỘI

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

HANOI – 2015


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

TRỊNH THỊ NHUNG

A STUDY ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS’

REASONING FOR THE STRATEGIES THEY USE IN
TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS AT VAN XUAN HIGH
SCHOOL, HOAI DUC, HA NOI
NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHỮNG LÝ GIẢI CHO VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÁC
CHIẾN LƯỢC DẠY KỸ NĂNG NÓI CỦA GIÁO VIÊN DẠY TIẾNG ANH
TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT VẠN XUÂN, HOÀI ĐỨC, HÀ NỘI

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111
Supervisor: Nguyễn Văn Độ, Assoc. Prof. Dr.

HANOI – 2015


DECLARATION
I, Trịnh Thị Nhung, certify that the thesis entitled “A study on English
language teachers’ reasoning for the strategies they use in teaching speaking skills
at Van Xuan High School, Hoai Duc, Ha noi.” reports the result of the study
conducted by myself. The minor thesis is submitted to Department of Post-graduate
studies, ULIS, Hanoi for Degree of Master in TESOL. It has not been published
anywhere.

Hanoi, 2015

Trinh Thi Nhung

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my
supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Văn Độ, for his valuable guidance, helpful
advice, recommendation, as well as his encouragement during the time I tried to
complete this minor thesis. Without his supervision, this work would never have
been possible.
I am also indebted to all the professors of Post-Graduate Department for their
encouragement and their valuable lectures while I was taking the M.A course in
English Language Teaching Methodology at the University of Languages and
International Studies, Vietnam National University (VNU). Their constructive ideas,
assistance and advice helped me much during various stages of learning and writing
my M.A thesis.
My deepest thanks also go to my colleagues and my students at Van Xuan
High School, Hoai Duc, in Ha Noi who have helped me to collect data for the study.
Finally, I would like to express my biggest love and thanks to my family for
their unconditional contributions during the time I conducted my research. It was
my parents and my husband who gave me the will to complete this challenging
work.

ii


ABSTRACT
This research investigates the strategies applied in teaching speaking skills
with the new English textbooks for students at Van Xuan High School in Hoai Duc,
and explains the question why they used these strategies.
The thesis is divided into 3 main parts: Part A presents the rationale, aims,
research questions, scopes, research methods and the design the study. Part B
includes 4 chapters: Chapter 1 presents definitions of major terms used in this study,

including overview on speaking skills, definition of speaking, theories of teaching
speaking skills and strategies in teaching speaking skills; Chapter 2 describes the
methodology of the thesis. Specifically, the data for this research was collected in
the forms of class observation, survey questionnaires and interviews. The
participants of the interview were 6 English teachers and the participants of the
survey questionnaires were 270 grade - 11 - students; Chapter 3 analyses and
discusses the results from the class observation, survey questionnaires and
interviews; Chapter 4 mentions some findings and recommendations. Finally, Part
C gives the conclusions of this paper, some limitations and recommendations for
further study.

iii


LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Table 3.2a: Teacher’s difficulties in teaching English speaking
Table 3.2b: Teacher’s solutions to the problems
Table 3.2c: Teacher’s reasons for using speaking techniques and activities
Table 3.3a: Students’ reasons for learning English
Table 3.3b: Frequency of employed activities
Table 3.3c: Student’s attitude towards teacher’s teaching speaking activities
Table 3.3d: Student’s expectation from teacher
Table 3.3e: Factors affecting Van Xuan students’ participating English lessons
Table 3.3f: Student’s achievements from speaking teaching strategies
Figure 3.3.1: Student’s opinions on speaking topic in the textbooks
Figure3.3.2: Frequency of student’s speaking participation
Figure 3.3.3: Student’s opinions about the frequency of teacher’s English speaking
Figure 3.3.4: Frequency of student’s English speaking
Figure 3.3.5: Student’s progress after applied speaking teaching strategies

iv


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
1. C.L.T: Communicative Language Teaching
2. No.: Number
3. %: Percentage
4. ST: Story telling
5. IG: Information gap
6. Q&A exchanges: Question and answer exchanges
7. RP: Role play
8. PD: Picture description
9. CS: Class survey
10. PS in groups: Problem solving in groups

v


TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION .............................................................................................. i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................. ii
ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................... iii
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ................................................................ iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .......................................................................... v
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................. vi
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale for the Research .............................................................................. 1
2. Aims of the Research ...................................................................................... 2
3. Research Questions ......................................................................................... 2
4. Scope of the Research ..................................................................................... 2

5. Research Instruments ...................................................................................... 2
6. Design of the Research ................................................................................... 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1: Literature review ........................................................................... 4
1.1. Overview on speaking skills ........................................................................ 4
1.1.1. Speaking skills .......................................................................................... 4
1.1.2. Theories of teaching speaking skills .......................................................... 5
1.1.2.1. Functions of spoken language ................................................................ 6
1.1.2.2. The role of speaking skills in communication approach ......................... 6
1.2. Strategies in teaching speaking skills ........................................................... 7
1.2.1. Brainstorming ........................................................................................... 7
1.2.2. Debates ..................................................................................................... 7
1.2.3. Discussion ................................................................................................ 8
1.2.4. Group work ............................................................................................... 8
1.2.5. Simulations ............................................................................................... 9
1.2.6. Communicative activities .......................................................................... 9
1.3. Factors affecting the outcomes of learning speaking skills ........................... 10

vi


1.3.1. Learners’ aptitude ..................................................................................... 10
1.3.2. Learners’ attitude ...................................................................................... 11
1.3.3. Learning strategies .................................................................................... 11
1.3.4. Psychological factors ................................................................................ 12
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1. An overview of the research site .................................................................. 13
2.2. Subjects ....................................................................................................... 14
2.3. Instruments of data collection ...................................................................... 15
2.3.1. Observation .............................................................................................. 15

2.3.2. Interview for teachers ............................................................................... 16
2.3.3. Questionnaire for students ......................................................................... 16
2.4. Data analysis methods ................................................................................. 17
2.5. Research procedure ...................................................................................... 18
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS
3.1. Results from class observation ..................................................................... 19
3.2. Results from teachers’ interview .................................................................. 21
3.3. Results from students’ questionnaire ............................................................ 25
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
4.1. Findings ........................................................................................................ 30
4.1.1. The students and teachers’ difficulties in speaking lessons ........................ 30
4.1.2. The teachers’ teaching strategies used in speaking lessons ........................ 32
4.1.3. The outcomes from the teachers’ teaching strategies in speaking lessons ...32
4.1.4. The students’ expectations towards their teachers ..................................... 33
4.2. Recommendations ....................................................................................... 33
4.2.1. A careful plan of the speaking lesson ........................................................ 34
4.2.2. The change in students’ speaking habit and opportunity for students to use
English in real life .............................................................................................. 36
PART C: CONCLUSIONS
1. Summary, major finding and implications on teaching .................................. 38

vii


a. Summary and major findings ........................................................................ 38
b. Implications on teaching ............................................................................... 38
2. Limitations of the study ................................................................................. 39
3. Suggestions for further studies ...................................................................... 39
REFERENCES ................................................................................................. 40
APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1: CLASS OBSERVATION SHEET .........................................................I
APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS ………………......II
APPENDIX 3: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS …………….....III
APPENDIX 4: CLASS OBSERVATION SHEET .............................................. VI
APPENDIX 5: TABLES AND FIGURES …………………………………...XXXIV

viii


PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
Turning to the 21st century, the society has witnessed plenty of extensive
changes in every walk of life. In a constant changing world, with a rapid growth of
globalization and spread of information and technology, communication plays a
crucial role in many different fields. It is undoubted that English has, as an
international language, become more and more important all over the world. To
catch up with this trend of growth, English teaching and learning in Vietnam have
been paid more attention. In fact, English is a compulsory subject in all curriculums
from primary to upper secondary level of education. It is clear that listening,
speaking, writing and reading are four key skills to English teaching. Of them,
speaking skill is strongly considered the most important one. “Speaking in a second
or foreign language has often been viewed as the most demanding of the four skills.”
(Bailey, Kathleen M & Savage, Lance, 1994). People widely choose speaking as the
quickest way to convey messages and ideas. As a result, it is believed that speaking
is the main ingredient to an individual’s success in working and learning. From that
point, to get the goal of improving the speaking skill of students in English class,
the techniques used are vital indicators of successful achievements. The fact that
each student has a different way in studying, level of knowledge and capacity of
perception considerably challenges teachers. Before applying a new method to give
out English talking- related lessons, researches are thoroughly investigated and

examined. Not only do the teachers hope for an effective lecture, but they also take
current situations of their school students into account. The mutual desire of
teachers and students working in a second language used environment is to motivate
learners to speak out in any given chance, and subsequently improve speaking skills
for students.
This research, based on primary and secondary data, investigates the reasons
why English teachers choose their strategies for English teaching. As an English
teacher at a high school, the researcher hopefully takes a chance to develop and

1


improve herself through conducting this research, regardless of its scope of minor
thesis. These really decisive factors give the writer motivation to carry out a
research: “A study on English teaching teachers’ reasoning for the strategies
they use in teaching speaking skill at Van Xuan high school”.
2. Aims of the research
The study is aimed at
-

identifying the strategies used in English speaking lessons and the outcomes
from these strategies.

-

suggesting some solutions in hoping to improve English speaking for students.
3. Research questions
The following questions were made to achieve the aims above:

1. What instructional strategies do teachers at Van Xuan high school use in their

teaching speaking skill?
2. Why do they use those strategies according to their self-reports?
4. Scope of the research
The study focuses on strategies applied in teaching English speaking skills
for students at Van Xuan High School in Hoai Duc. The strategies are investigated
in some particular classes, and the questions are raised to explain why they used
these strategies.
5. Research instruments
To collect data and information, three outstanding instruments are used:
-

The first one is related to class observation in speaking lessons of students in
some particular classes.

-

The second one is interviewing the English teachers of these above classes at
Van Xuan high school.

-

The last one is survey questionnaire for the students of these classes at Van
Xuan High School.
All comments, remarks, recommendations, assumptions and conclusions

provided in the study based on the analysis of the statistics from class observation,

2

survey questionnaire and interview section conducted with the students from six
groups (11D1, 11D2, 11D3, 11D4, 11D5 and 11D6 in 2013 - 2014) and their
English teachers at Van Xuan high school.
6. Design of the research
There are three main parts in this study, namely Introduction, Development, and
Conclusions.
Part A: The introduction, begins with the rationale, aims, research questions,
scopes, research methods, and the design of the study.
Part B: Development, includes the following chapters
Chapter 1: Literature review, presents definition of major terms used in this study,
including overview on speaking skills, factors affecting students’ speaking skills,
and strategies in teaching speaking skills.
Chapter 2: Methodology includes settings, participants, data collection instruments,
data collection procedure, data analysis methods.
Chapter 3: Data analysis, presents data analysis and discussion.
Chapter 4: Findings and recommendations.
Part C: Conclusions, includes the summary of the findings, implications,
limitations and recommendations for further studies.

3


PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter consists of three sections. Section one deals with the overview
on speaking skills which is intended to be discussed in terms of the definition of
speaking skill and theories of teaching speaking skills. Section two focuses on the
definition of strategies in teaching speaking skills and some common strategies in
teaching speaking skills. The last section is about factors affecting the outcomes of
learning speaking skills.

1.1. Overview on speaking skills
1.1.1. Speaking skills
We are now living in a globalization world than ever before, and speaking is
regarded as an integral part of life. There is no doubt that speaking plays an
important role in both social and academic field. Especially, for the whole learning
process, speaking is obviously crucial. For that reason, the term “speaking” has
drawn much of attention of linguists. As a result, there have been various
definitions of speaking.
One of the most accepted term is offered by Jones, R (1989:86). Speaking in
his words is defined as “Speaking is a form of communication, so it is important
that what you say conveyed in the most effective way”. In addition, Kathleen M.
Bailey (2005: 2) stated that “speaking is the productive, oral skill”. Speaking, as
mentioned above, is the way by which speakers say a word to listeners not only to
express what is on their mind but also what they need and desire to do. Because
people spend time communicating with others, speaking meets their daily demand.
To a speaking learner, the term “speaking” has been more deeply offered. In
more academic words, Nguyen and Nguyen (2001) considered speaking quite
different from the preceding terms. Speaking in their words is focused on two main
aspects: accuracy and fluency. “Accuracy involves the correct use of vocabulary,
grammar and pronunciation” while “Fluency can be thought of as the ability to keep
going when speaking spontaneously”. Language learner, who is able to fluently

4


communicate in or out of the class, is necessary to master speaking skills.
Regardless of grammatical and other mistakes, learner is encouraged to develop
their speaking ability across whatever resources they have got. To language teachers,
they believe in a teaching speaking method that does not put students to have a
definitely communicative accuracy and unnecessary to follow conversational

teaching methods. What language teachers choose to develop students’ speaking
ability is to provide them with conversational practice. Consequently, to each stage
of language learning, there is difference on the requirements and standards of
fluency and accuracy.
Bygate (1987) raised a suggestion that “speaking is a skill which deserves
attention as much as the literary skills in both native and foreign languages”. About
the nature of speaking, he also denoted that “in order to be able to speak a foreign
language, it is necessary to know a certain amount of grammar and vocabulary. Part
of a language course is therefore generally devoted to this objective”.
1.1.2. Theories of teaching speaking skills.
The reason that oral language is chosen as the most effective means of
communication leads all people develop their own forms oral language. The ways to
promote speaking skills have caught much of attention from the recent studies on
communication. Therefore, a question is raised to determine how to develop both
language competence and language use. It is undeniable that learning language,
particularly a foreign language is not an easy task but a whole process. Teaching,
therefore, is firmly important. Teaching speaking, together with teaching strategies,
is supposed to help speaking learners use inputs as resources from environment and
personal acquisition in learning language to generate output in communication.
Furthermore, teaching speaking focuses on fluency in which learners’ thoughts are
organized in a meaningful and logical order so that the learners have ability to use
language confidently and quickly with as few unnatural pauses as possible.

5


1.1.2.1. Functions of spoken language.
According to the study of Brown and Yule (1983a: 1-3; 1983b: 11-16),
language functions under 2 main aspects including: transferring information
considered as transactional function and establishing or maintaining social

relationships, or in other words, interactional function. The characters of
interactional spoken language can be seen as shifts of topic and short turns. The
accuracy and clarity of information is estimated not to be the initial importance.
Similarly, facts and views are not normally raised as a question or challenge. To
transactional spoken language, the norm is its longer turns. On account of the goal
seen as effective transference of information, interlocutors are actively engaged in
the negotiation of meaning. From the stating mentioned above, Brown and Yule call
interactional language "listener oriented" and transactional language "message
oriented".
1.1.2.2. The role of speaking skills in communication approach.
Firstly, people may think it is common knowledge that English learners are
definitely in a close relation to some things done with oral language. Students, who
are said to be good at English, will be thought to have ability as an English native
speaker.
Secondly, for further development of writing and reading skills, oral English
play a useful role. The above point of views is that Rivers obviously illustrated
“when we read and write, we call upon what we know of the language orally”.
(1968: 20) He continues to provide some bases on which the reason why reading is
related to speaking is explained. It is stated that when students are doing some
reading, they are also taking advantage of their oral English competence. Moreover,
it is likely that students who are not good at English speaking may have a poor
ability to read in English. Similarly, Rivers’ arguments pointed out in 1968 that
writing has the same involvement in oral ability as reading.

6


1.2.

Strategies in teaching speaking skills

It is undoubted that strategies play an indispensable role in language learning
process. The teacher, regarded as the strategies user, are hoped to provide
systematic practice and approach for students attending language learning activities.
That the education ministry has witnessed a movement in policy leads to a change
in teaching strategies and approaches in general. The teacher –centered model has
turned into student – centered where the teachers play a role as guider and support
students with a learning environment in which they are actively engaged in learning
activities. There are a lot of teaching strategies for English speaking teachers to
develop speaking skill of English learners such as: brainstorming, debates,
discussions, group work, simulations and communicative activities.
1.2.1 Brainstorming.
According to the study of Australian researchers (2014), it was expressed
that “brainstorming is a large or a small group activity that encourages students to
focus on a topic and contribute to the free flow of ideas”. In brainstorming teaching
strategy, the teacher begins with raising a topic or questions and problems related to
the topic. Students are required to express their ideas by using relevant and coherent
words in a limited time. After that, a class discussion is opened, and the teacher
plays a role as supervisor and student are allowed to raise their voice without any
criticisms.
Brainstorming delivers to students speaking opportunities by expressing their
own ideas as well as listening to other people. Facing a specific speaking topic,
students not only use their previously learnt knowledge but also accommodate
differences. By sharing ideas with other people, it is chance to evaluate and respect
language abilities and skills. Participating in a brainstorming activity, students
shape the habit of making outline before starting to do anything.
1.2.2. Debates
The UNSW (2014), based on their observation, debating was defined as
“structured way of exploring the range of views on an issue”. In a debate with

7


structured argumentation, there are two opposing individuals or groups of people
who are for and against the ideas to protect their position. Debates provide students
with engagement in activities helping interaction. Before making a debate, students
learn how to think critically and strategically in accessing to both defending and
opposing ideas. To become a survival in a competitive speaking activity, it is a must
for learners to have listening and oral skills. It is true that debating requires higher
level of talk than discussion only.
1.2.3. Discussion
There is a claim that “Discussion stimulates communication among students,
and it helps to achieve communicative practice. With this activity students have an
opportunity to develop sharing and co-operative skills”. (ÇAKIR, 2006). Unlike a
lecture that is mostly controlled by an individual presentation, discussion lets each
member actively attend a talk. Discussion encourages individual contributions, and
the play role is highly appreciated. To reach the conclusion of a discussion, opinions
of members need to be shared and solutions are found to tackle to problems.
Students may develop oral skill through expressing ideas, negotiating and
persuading others. In addition, students also take a chance to improve their
problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
1.2.4. Group work
Within the aim of motivating the study among students, group work plays a
useful role in class. To change that negative learning and teaching situation, a
boring speaking lesson with the teacher raising a question and students pointed to
answer one by one, group work is suggested in speaking lesson. Group work, in
other works, cooperative learning, encourages people to participate in doing a task.
In fact, working together is more highly appreciated than working independently.
In teaching strategies, group work requires students’ participation to work
periodically and share the outcome of cooperating process. Consequently, the whole

class involvement is apparently increased. Stimulating activity as group work brings
to the class an efficient and effective working environment in which motivation, the

8


enthusiasm to learn, confidence to speak and cooperation with others are valued.
(Jacobs and Ratmanida, 1996: 102).
1.2.5. Simulations
According to Joan Andorfer’s view (2008), simulations encourage language
learner. Simulations create a scenario in which instruction provided by the teacher.
Simulations focus on student - centered form that the teacher plays a controlling
role. This is the reason why Burns & Gentry expressed their views that is is
necessary for the teacher to pay attention on role playing or simulation. (1998). In
more specific words, the student must be encouraged to study, provided with
relevant learning material by the teacher.
1.2.6. Communicative activities
It is obvious that the ultimate goal of learning language is communication,
therefore, the communicative activities should be used in the English Learning class
as an integral part. Naturally, communicative activities should

help students

towards achieving autonomy, which is defined as “the capacity to self- regulate
performance as consequence of gaining control over the skills that were formerly
over-regulated (p90, Thornbury, 2005). He explains that as speaking is a cognitive
skill, knowledge becomes increasingly automated through successive practice. In
real life, conversation takes place before people have some information that they
want to get across. Speaking activities in the classroom that aims at communicative
end, therefore, should satisfy some following criteria. There should be no control

over the usage of specific language form and the activities should be meaningfocused and fluency- targeted. Role play is a kind of communicative activity, in
which students are asked to view themselves or play another person in a certain
context and act out the situation (Van Ment, 1999). Salies (1995) states that role
play activity provides students with communicative competence, so that they can
feel comfortable to interact with people outside the world. In addition, it enables
students to practice in a real language world. Discussion activity is a different
communicative activity that offers students the chance to give and justify their

9


opinion on a debatable topic. Before students do this activity, they need to be
prepared with necessary language and brainstorm idea. With the opinion sharing
activity, it is required to use factual information, formulating arguments and
justifying one’s opinion. The activity involves identifying and articulating a
personal preference, feelings and attitude. For some topics there even maybe no
right or wrong responses. Reasoning gap activity and prepared talks are two other
valuable communicative activities.
1.3.

Factors affecting the outcomes of learning speaking skills
There are many factors affecting the outcomes of learning a second language.

Studies have found that the outcome of a second language acquisition is strongly
influenced by aptitude, attitude of learners, learning strategies and psychological
factors.
1.3.1. Learners’ aptitude
It is clear that difference in learning ability leads to a difference in language
level. It is reported that a poor aptitude often causes a poor learning strategy to use.
“Aptitude refers to the special ability involved in second language learning.”

(Douglous et al. 1995). Gardner (1980) and Skehan (1989) argued aptitude plays a
decisive role achieving the level of the second language learning. For students with
a good aptitude in learning, they are able to understand the functions of words in a
sentence and use rules of grammar. Furthermore, they are likely to determine key
words, memorize and use them in a proper and correct way.
An outstanding point shedding light on the relation between aptitude and
learning a foreign language is that it is not necessary for successful students at the
second language acquisition to fill in all components of aptitude. Students who have
a strong ability to memorize but an average to the components of aptitude are a
clear example of the above stating. Some specific tests on measurements of aptitude
help the teachers understand that aptitude can be in any individual and determine
how much it is in different forms.

10


1.3.2. Attitude of learners
Attitude poses the second factor on the outcome of the process of learning a
second language. Gardner and Lambert (1972) gave some information that the
attitude of learners as a persistence depends much on their learning target to follow.
The attitude towards second language learning is closely related to leaners’
motivation. The motivation regarding to both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation
brings to learners a positive attitude than those who work without it. The outside
factors affect extrinsic motivation whereas intrinsic one is influenced by the inside
factors like desire to achieve learning target or enjoyment attained from the learning
process. To students who consider learning a language a compulsory task,
motivation does not go with.
1.3.3. Learning strategies
The third influential determinant of language achievement is learning
strategies. There are a number of language learning strategies defined within a

second language education. Rubin (1987:22) suggested that language learning
strategies “are strategies which contribute to the development of the language
system which the learner constructs and affect learning directly”. Another term
adding information about learning strategies is: “Steps or actions taken by learners
to improve the development of their language skills” (Gass et al. 1993: 265).
Having the same concern on language learning strategies, O’Malley and Chamot
(1990:1) defined it as “the special thoughts or behaviors that individuals use to help
them comprehend, learn, or retain new information”. Each individual choose the
language learning strategies that they work best with. For example, some students
learn vocabulary by putting it in a specific context and then using it whereas some
students choose to look it up many times until they could memorize it. Successful
students in second language learning are often the students who adopt the learning
language strategies that suit them best.

11


1.3.4. Psychological factors
Within language learning, students’ participation is a key determinant of the
level of proficiency. Howard, Short, and Clark (1996) stated that students who
actively participate in class activities promote effective learning. However,
psychological factors are one of the factors affecting participation of learners in the
classroom. Wood defined psychological factors as the developmental processes
inside the learner. The teacher, therefore, is expected to help the learner in terms of
psychological problems. (1981:92). In reality, to interact with other people and
develop speaking skill, learners are said to reach both motivation and speaking
opportunities. As a result, the learner is suggested to be provided with a learning
environment in which they recognize individual value and have a sense of safety
towards speaking. In addition to this, that learning it is necessary to the learning
environment to have clear co-operation between learner and learner as well as

teacher and learner.
Besides, to learn a foreign language and speaking as well, anxiety plays a
negative factor to the language learning process. It poses obstacles on the learner to
overcome difficulties in learning, especially speaking a foreign language. Trait
anxiety, state anxiety and situational-specific anxiety made from distinction can be
listed in different kinds of anxiety. Perhaps aspect of personality can be the best
view of anxiety. Spielberger (1983) defined anxiety as apprehension happing at a
particular moment when there is a respond to a particular situation such as public
speaking, examination and class participation.
In a nutshell, the outcome of learning a second language depends largely on
students’ aptitude, attitude, learning strategies and psychological factors. The
teacher needs to be aware of the relationship between the factors and the outcome in
foreign language acquisition. Fully comprehending the factors, suitable teaching
strategies are found out to improve speaking skill of English students.

12


CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
This chapter provided the general description of how the study has been conducted.
This chapter included the following sections: an overview of the research site,
subjects, methods of data collection
2.1. An overview of the research site
Van Xuan high school, the research site, located in Cat Que commune, Hoai Duc
district, the suburb of HaNoi city, is a public school founded in 2002. It is one of
three schools in Hoai Duc district. The school has 36 classes of three grades 10th,
11th and 12th with approximately 90 teachers of different subjects. The students of
classes from A1 to A7 of each grade have three English lessons every week. For
classes from D1 to D6 of each grade, they have one more selective English lesson
every week. The textbook used for teaching is the new textbooks, Tieng Anh 10, 11,

12 at basic level. The English teacher staff at Van Xuan high school are at the age
of from thirty to forty years old who are experienced and enthusiastic in teaching.
They are eager to enhance the teaching skills and their students’ performance.
However, they find out that the most challenging skill among four basic skills is
speaking skill. They always hope to improve the speaking skills for their students.
The students come from villages in Hoai Duc district. They are chosen by passing
the tenth grade entrance exam with the score of over 36 points, which is ranked at
the medium in comparison with other schools in Hanoi. The students have the same
years of learning English with the same curriculum and textbook.
At Van Xuan high school, English is recognized as a compulsory and necessary
subject. However, for most of the students here English is always a really difficult
subject and they do not often like English lessons. Therefore, it is difficult for the
teachers of English to teach as well as improve their students' English level. Thanks
to the recent economic renovation, most of the students in my school are better
aware of the need of learning English. However, the majority of students learn
English in my school just to pass the national examinations. They do not have an
obvious communicative need. All they need is a sufficiently good knowledge of

13


grammar and vocabulary of the target language to pass the national grammar-based
and norm-referenced examinations. Because of testing system, our school's students
seem to be in favor of language focus lesson. In speaking lessons, they have a lot of
difficulties expressing themselves in English and thus they remain inactive in the
class.
Despite above difficulties, like many other high schools in Vietnam, the teachers of
the school have been attempting to apply appropriate methods in order to meet the
students' need and equip them with a more communicative competence. The
teachers tend to adopt more communicative activities.

2.2. Subjects
The subjects of the study were composed of 276 participants divided into 2 groups:
The first group consisted of 270 grade 11 students from 6 classes, 11D1, 11D2,
11D3, 11D4, 11D5 and 11D6 (2013 – 2014). They were at the same age of
seventeen and had the same total year of learning English with the same curriculum
from primary school to high school. All of them specialized in 3 subjects Math,
Literature and English. Most of them choose those three subjects to take the
university entrance examination. Their academic performance in social science
subjects was better than ones in natural science subjects. They were interested in
learning English. Each week, they had three English lessons as other classes and
one more selective lesson. In total, they had four English lessons every week. They
had been learning English at least for nearly six years.
The second group involves six teachers aged from 32 to 39. They have been
teaching at school for at least 7 years. They are assigned to teach English 11. One
has already got her M.A. degree and two others are going to. Of these six English
teachers, with more than seven years’ working experience, five of them graduated
from official courses at the University of Languages and International Studies,
Vietnam National University, Hanoi. The rest teachers finished in-service training
programs of the University. Most English teachers are young and active. They have
easier access to CLT (through classes, Internet and books or different courses), so

14


they are more familiar to it so as to apply it in their teaching. On average, every
teacher has seventeen periods per week besides a great deal of work (designing tests,
marking, controlling form classes, etc., as well as family workloads at home).
Especially, half of the members are following courses of English of the 2020
foreign language project.
2.3. Instruments of data collection

In the process of doing the study, three instruments were used: observation,
questionnaire and interview.
2.3.1. Observation
Observation is a fundamental way of finding out the world around us. Marshall and
Rossman (1989) define observation as "the systematic description of events,
behaviors, and artifacts in the social setting chosen for study" (p.79). Observations
enable the researcher to describe existing situations using the five senses, providing
a "written photograph" of the situation under study (Erlandson, Harris, Skipper, &
Allen, 1993). The collected information can be recorded in some ways to enable the
analysis and interpretation latter. In addition, the observation can be useful to
crosscheck data from the future questionnaire. For those reasons, class observation
was the first instrument to be carried out in this study. The researcher attended
different speaking teaching classes of six different teachers to get the general view
of how teachers conduct a speaking lesson. The prior purpose was to find out what
kind of strategies that were being used in the speaking class by the teachers.
Furthermore, it was to see whether those strategies work effectively and how was
the students’ participation in the lesson. To prevent teachers and students from
preparing themselves, the exact objectives of class observation were not announced
to them in advance. There are three items in the observation sheet.
Item I was to make an overview toward the setting of the class
Item II was to explore the teacher’s strategies through the lesson plan, method and
procedure

15