VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** BÁ THỊ HIỀN STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS LEARNING TO SPEAK ENGLISH AT LY THAI TO HIGH SCHOOL, BAC NINH (Nghiên cứu thái độ học nói Tiếng Anh của học sinh trường THPT Lý Thái Tổ, Bắc Ninh) M.A. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Hanoi, 2012 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv TABLE OF FIGURES vi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Rationale of the study 1 1.2 Aims of the study 1 1.3 Research questions 2 1.4 Scope of the study 2 1.5 Methods of the study 2 1.6 Significance of the study 2 1.7 Design of the study 3 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 4 2.1 Attitudes in language learning 4 2.1.1 Definition of “attitude” 4 2.1.2 Roles of learners‟ attitudes in language learning 4 2.2 Speaking 5 2.2.1 Concepts of speaking in foreign languages 5 2.2.2 The role of speaking in foreign language teaching and learning 6 2.2.3 Characteristics of a successful speaking lesson 7 2.2.4 Approaches to teaching and learning speaking skills 8 2.2.5 Factors affecting students‟ participation in speaking activities 11 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 15 3.1 The setting 15 3.2 The textbook 15 v 3.3 The participants 15 3.4 The data collecting instruments 16 3.5 Data collection and analysis procedure 17 CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 19 4.1 Data analysis of students‟ questionnaire 19 4.1.1 Students‟ general attitudes towards learning English 19 4.1.2 Students‟ attitudes towards learning to speak English 20 4.1.3 Students‟ opinions about factors affecting them in learning to 27 speak English 4.1.4 Students‟ attitudes towards teacher‟s teaching method in 29 speaking lessons 4.1.5 Students‟ expectations to learning to speak English 31 4.2 Data analysis of classroom observations 33 4.3 Data analysis of teachers‟ interviews 37 4.4 Chapter summary 38 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS 39 5.1 Summary of findings 39 5.2 Suggestions for teachers 40 5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 42 5.4 Conclusion 43 REREFENCES 44 APPENDICES I Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire for students I Appendix 2: Classroom observation sheet XI Appendix 3: The observed lesson plan 1 XII Appendix 4: The observed lesson plan 2 XIV Appendix 5: Interview questions for teachers and transcription XVII Appendix 6: A sample lesson plan XX vi TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1: Students‟ general attitudes towards learning English 19 Figure 2: Students‟ favorite English lessons in the classroom 20 Figure 3: Students‟ awareness about the importance of English speaking 21 Figure 4: Students‟ evaluation of English speaking lessons in class 22 Figure 5: Students‟ assessment of speaking topics in the textbook 23 “Tieng Anh 10” Figure 6: Students‟ frequency of feeling unwilling to speak English 24 in the classroom Figure 7: Students‟ preference in practicing speaking English in class 25 Figure 8: Students‟ self-judgment about their English speaking ability 26 Figure 9: The things students do in the speaking class 27 Figure 10: Factors affecting students‟ English speaking learning 28 Figure 11: Students‟ attitudes towards teacher‟s teaching method in speaking 30 lessons Figure 12: Students‟ expectations to learning to speak English 32 1 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study Among the four language skills known as listening, speaking, reading and writing, speaking skill is considered the most significant one that most learners of foreign languages need to achieve because it shows learners‟ proficiency in that language . Pattison (1992) also shows that when people mention knowing or learning a language, they mean being able to speak the language. Being an English teacher, the researcher thinks that speaking should be paid much attention to in the process of teaching and learning. However, the fact at the researcher‟s school is that students have poor ability to speak English although they have been learning English since they were in grade 3 or 4. They speak English badly even in English speaking lessons. They often feel unconfident and confused when their teachers ask them to speak English. They regularly find it difficult expressing their ideas in English and even some students cannot speak anything except “sorry, I don‟t know”. This problem is also mentioned by the researcher‟s colleagues when they usually tell her that in their speaking lessons students are very lazy and do not participate much in speaking activities. Therefore, this problem needs improving to help students in her school have better English speaking ability. For such reasons, the researcher conducted this study to investigate the students‟ attitudes towards learning to speak English and the reasons why they had these attitudes. By doing the study, she can know more about her students‟ expectations for learning English speaking skills at her school so that she could give some suggestions which might be useful for teachers and students at Ly Thai To high school to develop speaking skills for their students. 1.2 Aims of the study This study is aimed at: - finding out Ly Thai To high school‟s students‟ attitudes towards learning English speaking skills and the reasons why they had such attitudes. 2 - giving some suggestions useful for Ly Thai To high school‟s teachers to develop their students‟ speaking skills. 1.3 Research questions The above aims of the study can be realized by answering the following research questions: (1) What are Ly Thai To high school‟s students‟ attitudes towards learning English speaking skills? (2) Why do they have these attitudes towards learning to speak English? 1.4 Scope of the study As stated above, the study was designed to find out the students‟ attitudes towards learning to speak English. Because of limited time and experience, the study was not carried out on a large scale. The study, therefore, was restricted to the 10th graders at Ly Thai To high school only. 1.5 Methods of the study To conduct the study, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used, involving the survey questionnaire, the classroom observations and the interviews. First, the survey questionnaire was delivered to students to investigate their attitudes towards learning to speak English. Then, the classroom observations and the interviews with some English teachers were conducted to get supplementary information. Finally, the results obtained from the questionnaire, the classroom observations and the interviews were discussed and analyzed to with a hope for providing some useful suggestions for teachers to develop speaking skills for their students. 1.6 Significance of the study The study is conducted with the expectation that its results will be useful for students and teachers of English at Ly Thai To high school. The study will help 3 teachers understand more about their students‟ attitudes towards and expectations for their learning to speak English. Based on the findings, some suggestions are given to the teachers to help them improve their students‟ speaking skills. Hence, it could be a considerable contribution to teaching and learning English speaking effectively and enjoyably at Ly Thai To high school. 1.7 Design of the study This thesis consists of five main chapters: Chapter one is the INTRODUCTION including the rationales, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the methods, the significant, and the design of the study. It shows the reason why the author decided to choose this study and the methods for the fulfillment of the study. Chapter two is the LITERATURE REVIEW. It is aimed at exploring the theoretical background for the thesis. It will focus on two main points: attitudes and speaking. Chapter three is the METHODOLOGY. Chapter three starts with the description of the setting and the participants. It also presents how data was collected through the research methods and research procedures. Chapter four is the DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION, in which the detailed description of data analysis and discussion on the findings of the study are explained. Chapter five is the CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. This chapter presents a summary of the findings and draws out some suggestions that are good for teachers and students in teaching and learning English speaking. The limitations of the study and some recommendations for further researches are also discussed in this chapter. 4 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Attitudes in language learning 2.1.1 Definition of “attitude” There are many definitions of attitude. Among them Gardner (1985:91-93) claims that attitude is an evaluative reaction to some referent or attitude object, inferred on the basis of the individual‟s beliefs or opinions about the referent. In Gibb‟s view (1988), attitude is generally defined as a state of mind, which is influenced by feelings, experiences of the world and belief. In addition to that, Zimbardo, and Leippe (1991) defined attitude as “an evaluative disposition toward some object based upon cognitions, affective reactions, behavioral intentions, and past behaviors ... that can influence cognitions, affective responses, and future intentions and behaviors”. The above definitions show attitudes in general understanding, but in the scale of my study, attitude is understood as „learning attitude‟. According to Oxford and Shearin (1994), attitude is one of the factors impacting motivation in language learning. Gardner (1985) stated that positive attitudes and motivation are related to success in second language learning. Holmes (1992) believes that people develop attitudes towards languages, which reflect their views about those who speak the languages, and the contexts and functions with which they are associated. He claims that attitudes in the context of language learning are defined as the way people look at the language, the class and the people, and the culture of language. In short, in language learning, we can see students‟ attitudes in their feelings and belief about the way of acting towards the lessons, learning style, teachers and the course books. In this study, it relates to students‟ feelings and belief about learning to speak English. 2.1.2 Role of learners‟ attitudes in language learning 5 In language instruction, students‟ attitudes towards learning the language are regarded as “an important predictor of success” since “students who consider the learning of English as a positive and rewarding experience are less likely to suffer from foreign language anxiety” (Tsiplakides & Keramida, 2010). Chambert (1999) asserts that learning occurs more easily, when the learner has a positive attitude towards the language and learning. Positive attitudes on the part of the language learners can enhance an integrative motivation, and attitudes upon success in language learning is widely acknowledged. Also, Holmes (1992) states that if people feel positive towards those who use the language, they would be more highly motivated towards learning it. Unquestionably, good learners are those that have a positive attitude towards their subject. The overall findings show that positive attitudes have a strong impact on the success of language learning. Most of the researches have claimed that students‟ attitude is an integral part of learning and that it should, therefore, become an essential component of second language pedagogy. Some factors that influence students‟ attitudes towards their foreign language learning are identified by Tsiplakides & Keramida, (2010): a) teacher-student relationships, b) the general classroom atmosphere, and c) the use of authentic teaching materials and activities. These authors also suggest a number of principles to foster positive attitudes in ESL/ EFL classes: (1) Developing Teacher-student Relationship; (2) Fostering a Positive Psychological Classroom Atmosphere; (3) Creating an Attractive Physical Classroom Environment; (4) Supplementing the Teaching Material with Authentic Texts and Tasks. In short, students‟ attitudes play a very crucial role in language learning as they would appear to influence students‟ success or failure in their learning. 2.2 Speaking 2.2.1 Concepts of speaking in foreign languages 6 Speaking skill has been placed more weight in comparison with other skills as it is the first step to identify language ability. For many language learners, “mastering the art of speaking is the single most important aspect of learning a second language or foreign language, and success is measured in term of ability to carry out a conversation in the language” (Nunan, 1991: 39). According to Nunan‟s point of view, it is necessary for teachers of language to pay much attention to teaching speaking skills in a way that helps learners participate confidently in transactions. The importance of speaking raises the needs to understand the nature of speaking in human interactions. There have been many scholars discussing the nature of speaking as follows: Chaney (1998:13) states that speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts". Brown (1994) defines speaking as a process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information. Bygate (cited in Mackey, 1965:266) shows “oral expression involves not only the use of the right sounds in the patterns of rhythm and intonation, but also the choice of words and inflections in the right order to convey the right meaning”. 2.2.2 The role of speaking in foreign language teaching and learning As mentioned above, speaking skill plays an important role in foreign language learning because effective speaking ability helps learners not only to acquire the language better but also to communicate successfully in the target language. As we can see, communication is a basic demand for everyone, so if we want to communicate we should learn how to speak. For the increasing demands for joining in a lot of fields in life, not only domestically but also overseas, learners need to be able to communicate well as they ask for information to serve their different purposes. 7 According to Ur (1996:120), speaking seems intuitively the most important of all four skills. Speaking is regarded as the first step to confirm who knows or does not know a language. Ur (1996) indicates that people who know a language are referred to as “speakers” of that language, as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing; and many if not most foreign language learners are primarily interested in learning to speak. In addition to that, Nunan (1991) points out “success is measured in terms of ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language” Because of the importance of speaking skills in language teaching and learning it is essential that language teachers should pay much attention to teaching speaking skill. They should identify their students‟ attitudes towards and expectations for learning speaking to make interesting learning atmosphere. They should play a positive role in helping students get involved in speaking activities in the classroom. Rather than leading students to pure memorization, the teacher can provide a rich environment where students have real communication, authentic materials and meaningful tasks that promote oral language. Gradually, students will know how to use their target language correctly and communicatively in everyday conversations. 2.2.3 Characteristics of a successful speaking lesson Pertaining to characteristics of an effective speaking lesson, Ur (1996) has a comprehensive look at the issue. In her viewpoint, there are four characteristics to determine whether the speaking lesson is fruitful or not as follows:  Learners keep talking in most of the time allowed for the activity in which the learners are the centre of the activity and the interference by the teacher is little.  Participation is evenly distributed among learners.  All group members are motivated in the activities thanks to an interesting topic or their desire to achieve the task objective.  Language use is appropriate, easy to understand and quite accurate. 8 First and foremost, talking time is the factor that can make a speaking lesson successfully. The more time students engage with in the course of a lesson, the more language they can obtain. So an effective speaking lesson is very likely to correlate highly with the learners‟ talking time. Learners should get as many speaking opportunities as possible in order that their speaking time should be maximized. Then, motivation is strongly related to achievement in language learning in the way it decides learners‟ success or failure. Learners need a motivation to be eager and encouraged to speak, for example, they have something new to share, want to contribute to the task achievement or just they are fond of the topic. If learners are highly motivated, they will willingly participate in classroom activities and volunteer to perform them. In addition to that, a good speaking lesson must provide opportunities of speaking evenly to all students with different levels. Both weak students and more advanced ones should be provided with opportunities for communicating. The lesson is not effective if the classroom discussion only focuses on some participants who are talkative while others speak very little or not at all. Moreover, in order to help students gain success in speaking, the topic chosen should be appropriate for students so that they can use ideas from their own experience and knowledge to present the topic. If the topic is completely unfamiliar the students, they will find it difficult to engage with the task the teacher gives them as they have little knowledge to talk about it. 2.2.4 Approaches in teaching and learning speaking skills The history of language teaching has shown a lot of changes in approaches and methods. For a long time, many language teaching methodologists have constantly looked for the most appropriate way to teach English effectively. As a result, many language teaching methods and approaches have come into being such as: 9  Grammar-translation method  The Direct method  The Audio-lingual method  The Audio-visual method  Communicative Language Teaching. However, in the recent decades, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is considered one of the most effective approaches to teach learners to communicate in a language they learnt as it helps to develop the learners‟ communicative language ability. According to Nunan (1989:194), “CLT views language as a system for the expression of meaning. Activities involve oral communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which is meaningful to the learners. Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives. The learner‟s role is as a negotiator and integrator. The teacher‟s role is as a facilitator of the communication process. Materials promote communicative language use; they are task-based and authentic”. The definition above represents a particular view of understanding and explaining language acquisition. It is socially constructed and must be seen as a product of social, cultural, economic, and political forces. CLT is usually characterized as a broad approach to teaching, rather than as a teaching method with a clearly defined set of classroom practices. As such, it is most often defined as a list of general principles or features. One of the most recognized of these lists are David Nunan‟s (1991a: 279, cited in Bang, N & Ngoc, N.B) five features of CLT:  An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language.  The introduction of authentic texts into learning situation  The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on the learning process itself 10  An enhancement of the learner‟s own experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning  An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outside the classroom. These five features are claimed by practitioners of CLT to show that they are very interested in the needs and desires of their learners as well as the connection between the language as it is taught in their class and as it used outside the classroom. Thus, in the light of CLT, the goal of language teaching is to develop communicative competence. In CLT classroom, learners are encouraged to contribute as much as they gain, and learn in an independent way. CLT favors interaction among small numbers of learners with a purpose to maximize the time each learner learns and uses languages, shares information and negotiates meaning. Though interaction learners‟ experience can be modified, many kinds of learning strategies made aware and applied, and especially classrooms move away from teacher- centeredness to learner- centeredness, which is an essential element to raise learners‟ motivation in language learning. Moreover, in CLT classroom teachers have been concerned to ensure that students not only practice speaking in a controlled way in order to produce features of pronunciation, vocabulary and structures accurately; but also practice using these features more freely in purposeful communication. It has therefore become usual to include both accuracy – and fluency – based activities from the beginning of the course. The challenge for the communicative classroom is to find activities and procedures for speaking which will prepare students for spontaneous interaction and which will aid the acquisition process, though of course the two aims may usefully coincide. Since a particular type of activity may provide for some of these things but not others, there is then the question of how to create a varied program of activities which gives a range of opportunities for speaking practice. 11 2.2.5 Factors affecting students‟ participation in speaking activities. There are a lot of factors affecting students‟ participation in classroom oral activities. In the following sections, some of the major factors will be discussed Students‟ motivation According to Gardner (1985: 10), motivation is known as “a key consideration in determining the preparedness of learners to communicate, while Harmer (2001) defines motivation simply as “some kind of internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something” Motivation can be classified in different ways. In some studies, motivation is categorized into two types: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Harmer (2001) states that extrinsic motivation is caused by such outside factors as the need to pass an exam, the hope of possibility for future travel, etc. In contrast, intrinsic motivation is caused by inside factors like the enjoyment of the learning process itself or by a desire to make themselves feel better. Motivation has great importance in foreign language learning as in Brown‟ opinion (2000: 160), “it is easy in second language learning to claim that a learner will be successful with the proper motivation”. Therefore, in order to be successful, language learners really need motivation to continue their learning. Students‟ attitude As mentioned above, attitude is also a very important factor which has an influence on the language learning. Gardner and Lambert (1972) defined attitude as the persistence that a learner has to follow an object. Language learning attitude has a relationship to motivation. Language learners who have extrinsic or intrinsic motivation will have the more positive attitude than those without motivation or who consider language learning a compulsory subject. Students‟ learning preferences 12 Learners' preferences refer to learning style describing "an individual's natural, habitual, and preferred way of absorbing, processing, and retaining new information and skill"(Reid, 1995) (cited in Lightbown and Spada, 1999). Learners may have their own learning styles which help classify them into certain learner groups. Willing (1988; cited in Nunan: 1991) categorizes learners into the following groups based on their preferences:  Concrete learners: These learners tend to like games, pictures, films, video, using cassettes, talking in pairs and practicing English outside class.  Analytical learners: These learners like studying grammar, studying English books and reading newspapers, studying alone, finding their own mistakes and working on problems set by the teacher.  Communicative learners: These students like to learn by watching, listening to native speakers, talking to friends in English and watching television in English, using English out of class, in shops, trains, etc., learning new words by hearing them, and learning by conversation.  Authority-oriented learners: These learners prefer the teacher to explain everything, like to have their own textbook, to write everything in a notebook, to study grammar, learn by reading, and learn new words by seeing them. It can be inferred from Willing‟s classification that, if the majority in one class belong to the two former groups, the degree of participation in oral activities in this class will be low. Harmer (2001) suggests that we should balance the interests between individuals and groups, pay attention to individual traits when putting them into groups visual learners, aural learners and kinaesthetic learners or field independent and field dependent learners. Teacher‟s good relationship with students Having a good relationship with students helps teacher encourage students to join in classroom activities. The reason is because the connection between students 13 and teachers brings the teachers to learn about each student as unique from others, and also enables them to understand the diversity of all the students In order to have a good relationship with students, teachers should make close the gap between them and students by being friendly, helpful, tolerant, smiling instead of shouting at them and never creating stressful atmosphere in the classroom. Remembering students' names, is also of great importance when teachers wish to make good impression on students. Teacher‟s good knowledge Teacher‟s knowledge plays a really important role in language teaching especially in teaching speaking. Knowledge here is understood not only the knowledge of the target languages itself but also the knowledge of many other fields such as society, culture, art, policy and so on. Having a good knowledge of a wide variety of fields will help teachers become more active in teaching speaking lessons since students can ask a lot of questions related and unrelated to the given topics. When teachers are always willing to explain to students any problem they have, it is a big motivation for students to learn English as they think that the knowledge of their teacher absolutely makes them satisfied. Therefore, teachers should always pay attention to improve their knowledge. Teacher‟s teaching methods For each teacher, the good choice of teaching methods as well as techniques is very important to increase students‟ participation in every lesson. When deciding what teaching method to use, a teacher needs to consider students' background knowledge, environment, learning goals, learning time and material resources. We also know that different teachers exploit different methods and techniques in their teaching. As a result, different degrees of student‟s participation are created by different teachers. However, in speaking lessons teachers often prefer CLT method because it brings them various techniques that motivate students in participating in speaking activities. 14 In conclusion, the chapter has briefly reviewed literature relating to the study. The definition of attitude, the role of learners‟ attitudes in language learning, the concepts of speaking, characteristics of a successful speaking lesson, approaches in teaching and learning speaking skills as well as the factors affecting students‟ participation in speaking activities have been discussed. These concepts and ideas will serve as the theoretical background for all the analysis and discussions of the data in the following chapters. 15 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 3.1 The setting To get the aims for this study, the author chose Ly Thai To high school to carry out the investigation. Located in Bac Ninh, Ly Thai To high school has been known as one of the leading choice of parents and students when the students finish the secondary school. The school has 42 classes with 100 teachers of different subjects and 2,000 students. Each grade has 12 classes. On the average, there are about 45 to 50 students in a class. Most of the students come from the nearby villages. In the 10th grade, there are 600 students. They are now 16-17 years of age. They have learned English as a foreign language for 7-8 years but their English proficiency is not good. At school they have three English classes a week. 3.2 The textbook The main English textbooks used in teaching English at this school are TiengAnh 10, TiengAnh 11, and TiengAnh 12 (basic stream). In TiengAnh 10, there are 16 units with different topics related to a wide variety of fields such as a day in the life of…, school talks, people’s background and so on. After every three units there is a Test Yourself to evaluate students‟ knowledge of what they have learnt in these three units. The speaking skill is one of the five sections in each unit: (reading, speaking, listening, writing, and language focus). It is often taught and learned within one 45-minute period. 3.3 The participants There are two groups of subjects in this study, the 10th-form students and the teachers teaching English to this grade. 3.3.1 The students Aiming at 10th-form students at Ly Thai To high school, the researcher chose 5 classes, namely 10A4, 10A5, 10A6, 10A10 and 10A11 and in each class, 40 students were chosen to carry out the research. There were 200 16 participants whose age ranged from 16-17. All of them started to learn English when they were in grade 3 or 4. There are two reasons for choosing the 10th-form students as the participants of the study. Firstly, these students have had at least 7 years of experience in learning English. However, their English proficiency is not good, especially speaking. They may be good at grammar and can do these grammatical exercises quickly, but cannot speak English fluently. Most of them do not feel confident to speak English in front of their class or express their ideas in English. Secondly, the researcher would like to explore students‟ attitudes towards and expectations for learning to speak English and basing on this, the teachers of English at the researcher‟s school can adjust their teaching methods to motivate their students to learn to speak English in the following school years. 3.3.2 The teachers The number of English teachers in this school is 12. In general, the majority of the English teaching staff is young and active doing their jobs. In this study, the researcher chose 4 teachers teaching English to grade 10 for the interview. All of them are female teachers. Their experience in teaching English varies from 5 to 12 years. In terms of qualification, all of them have been trained at College of Foreign Languages – Vietnam National University, Hanoi ending with B.A degree and two of them have M.A degree. 3.4 The data collecting instruments In order to fulfill the tasks mentioned above, the three instruments are employed. They are a survey questionnaire for students, classroom observations and interviews for teachers. Questionnaire: (Appendix 1): In order to collect reliable and comprehensive data, a questionnaire was designed for the 10th-form students. It had both open-ended and close-ended questions. It consisted of 12 questions including the following categories: