Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Viet Nam National University-Ha Noi
Viet Nam National University-Ha Noi
Viet Nam National University-Ha Noi
(Nghiên cứu điều tra về thái độ của sinh viên đối với việc dạy nói của
giáo viên người bản ngữ tại Trường Cao Đẳng Sư Phạm Thái Bình)
Hanoi – 2011
VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************
(Nghiên cứu điều tra về thái độ của sinh viên đối với việc dạy nói của
giáo viên người bản ngữ tại Trường Cao Đẳng Sư Phạm Thái Bình)
Hanoi - 2011
LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS
LISTS OF TABLES
Pages
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration …………………………………………………………………………… .i
Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………... .ii
Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………. .iii
Lists of Abbreviations ………………………………………………………………... .iv
Lists of Tables ………………………………………………………………………... .iv
Table of Contents …………………………………………………………………….. .v-vii
Part A: INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………..1-3
1. Rationale for the Study ……………………………………………………. 1
2. Aims of the Study and Research Questions ………………………………. 2
3. Scope of the Study …………………………………………………………. 2
4. Research Methodology ……………………………………………………. 2
5. Design of the Study ………………………………………………………... 3
Part B: DEVELOPMENT ………………………………………………………….. 4-36
Chapter 1: Literature Review ………………………………………………………. 4-18
1.1. Attitude and their Roles in Second Language Acquisition ………………4-7
1.1.1. Concepts of Attitude …………………………………………….4-5
1.1.2. Classifications of Attitude ………………………………………5
1.1.3. The Role of Attitude in Second Language Acquisition ………....6-7
1.2. The Teaching of Speaking ……………………………………………..... 7-16
1.2.1. Definitions of Speaking …………………………………………7-8
1.2.2. The Position of Speaking in English Language Teaching
and Learning …………………………………………………………...8
1.2.3. Accuracy and Fluency in Speaking ……………………………...8-9
1.2.4. Problems with Speaking ………………………………………...9-10
1.2.5. Communicative Language Teaching Approach in Teaching
Speaking and Communicative Competence ……………………….......11-12
1.2.6. Principles of Teaching Speaking ……………………………... 12-13
v
1.2.7. Classroom Speaking Activities ………………………………….13-14
1.2.8. Characteristics of Successful Speaking Activities ………………14-15
1.3. Advantages and Disadvantages of Native English-Speaking
Teachers ……………………………………………………………………..15-16
1.4. Previous Studies ………………………………………………………...16-18
1.5. Conclusive Remarks …………………………………………………....18
Chapter 2: Research Methodology ………………………………………………..19-24
2.1. Research Context ……………………………………………………….19
2.2. Research Questions …………………………………………………….19-20
2.3. Research Approach ……………………………………………………..20
2.4. Research Participants ………………………………………………… .20-21
2.5. Research Instruments …………………………………………………..21-23
2.6. Data Collection Procedure ……………………………………………..23-24
2.7. Data Analysis Procedure ……………………………………………….24
Chapter 3: Results and Discussion ……………………………………...................25-36
3.1. The answer to the first research question: Students’ attitudes
towards native teachers’ teaching speaking………………………………...25-31
3.1.1. Results ………………………………………………………………...25-30
3.1.1.1. Students’ attitudes towards the role of speaking skill in
their English learning …………………………………………….......25-26
3.1.1.2. Students’ attitudes towards advantages of native teachers as
native speakers ……………………………………………………….26-28
3.1.1.3. Students’ attitudes towards disadvantages of native teachers as native
speakers ………………………………………………………………28-29
3.1.1.4. Students’ attitudes towards native teachers’ teaching
techniques …………………………………………………………….29-30
3.1.2. Discussion ……………………………………………………………………..30-31
3.2. The answer to the second research question: The differences of
three different graders’ attitudes towards native teachers’ teaching
speaking in some extent ……………………………………………………...31-36
3.2.1. The results………………………………………………………….......31-35
vi
3.2.2. Discussion ……………………………………………………………...35-36
3.3. Conclusive remarks ………………………………………………….......36
Part C: CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………........37-39
1. Summary of Major Findings ……………………………………………..37
2. Implications for English Language Teaching …………………………...38
3. Limitations of the Study …………………………………………………..38-39
4. Suggestions for Further Studies ………………………………………….39
REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………..............40-42
APPENDICES ……………………………………………………………................I-VIII
Appendix 1: Survey Questionnaire in English …………………………...................I-II
Appendix 2: Survey Questionnaire in Vietnamese …………………….....................III-V
Appendix 3: Interview Transcripts …………………………………………………..VI-VIII
A. Schedule 1: Interviews with the first year students ……………............VI
B. Schedule 2: Interviews with the second year students ………………....VII
C. Schedule 3: Interviews with the third year students …………………..VIII
vii
Part A: INTRODUCTION
1
teachers are, and to what extent different graders have different attitudes; then, to give some
implications for the employment of native teachers in the context of Vietnam and the
improvement of the teaching of English by Vietnamese non-native teachers. Therefore, two
research questions raised are:
1. What are the students‘ attitudes towards the teaching of speaking by native-English
speaking teachers?
2. To what extent do different graders‘ have different attitudes?
4. Research Methodology
As the major aim of the study is to find out students‘ attitudes towards the teaching by
native English speaking teachers, survey approach was selected, and two main data collection
methods employed were questionnaire and interview. Cencus sampling was used with all
English majors at Department of Foreign Languages of Thai Binh Teacher Training College.
The data were collected from 100 participants who belong to three different grades/groups.
The analysis was carried out in the light of finding out the answers to the research questions.
2
Chapter 2: Research Methodology is concerned with the context of the study,
research questions, research approach, research participants, research instruments, data
collection procedure and data analysis procedure.
Chapter 3: Results and Discussion describes the results of the study which were
collected from questionnaires and interviews, and the discussion based on the results to
answer the research questions.
Part C: Conclusion gives the summary of major findings of the study, some
pedagogical implications for English teaching and learning in Vietnam, and suggestions for
further studies based on the limitations of the study.
3
Part B: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1: Literature Review
This chapter will present the theoretical background for the study. In the first place,
concepts, classifications and roles of attitude in language learning are discussed. Then, issues
related to speaking and the teaching of this skill such as definitions of speaking, its roles in a
second language learning or techniques of teaching speaking, etc., are presented too. Next
comes to the advantages and disadvantages of native-English-speaking teachers. Finally,
prior studies related to the topic are summarized.
4
Attitudes are said to have cognitive, affective and conative components. The
cognitive component refers to the individual‘s belief structure, the affective to emotional
reactions, and the conative to the tendency to behave toward the attitude object (Gardner,
1985). This idea is shared by Wikipedia. It states that attitudes are judgments and they
develop on the ABC model: Affect, Behavior and Cognition. It further explains that ―the
affective response is an emotional response that expresses an individual‘s degree of
preference for an entity. The behavioral intention is a verbal indication or typical behavioral
tendency of an individual. The cognitive response is a cognitive evaluation of the entity that
constitutes an individual's beliefs about the object‖. More interestingly, this source reveals
that most attitudes result from either direct experience or observational learning from the
environment.
In short, attitude is a mental state that expresses an individual‘s degree of like or
dislike, positive or negative opinions about an object, a person, a thing or an event.
Additionally, it has three components: affective, cognitive, conative or behavioral.
5
1.1.3. The Role of Attitude in Second Language Acquisition
Attitude plays an important role in additional language acquisition. Positive attitudes
towards another language helps create motivation that facilitates success in acquiring that
language and vice versa. Several studies have proved this.
Gardner (1968) and other researchers conducted a number of studies with the aim to
focus on the roles of attitude in second language acquisition and indicated that the learners‘
attitudes have a relationship with their learning performance. Some other studies concluded
that a certain aspect of attitudinal-motivational components offers favorable conditions for
the acquisition of second language. Namely, students who have positive attitudes towards a
second language are more motivated to learn and more successful in acquiring that language.
Similarly, İsmet ŞAHİN (2005) reviewed a number of studies and pointed out that
student attitudes towards learning a foreign language and student performance are strongly
related. Then he came to a conclusion that attitudes are one of the elements that determine
success in foreign language acquisition and native speaker teachers influence student
attitudes, which needs further studying.
Personally, this is a significant conclusion which fosters educators, especially teachers
to pay more attention to strengthen students‘ positive attitudes in their language learning.
However, attitudes are a complex aspect of psychology and they are impacted by different
elements or factors. Additionally, they are not permanent. Students may have negative
attitudes towards their language learning or even language teaching. Sharing this idea,
Shimizu (1995, as cited in Maggie Lieb, 2009) points out the influence of learners‘ attitudes
towards teachers on their language learning by stating that ―negative attitudes towards
teachers could adversely affect student motivation, not only in the classroom, but also in
terms of a student‘s desire to continue learning the language‖. This is really worth much
consideration because our goal is to inspire students‘ long-lasting second language
acquisition. Therefore, more researches need to be conducted to find out how to build up
students‘ positive attitudes and avoid their negative ones towards teachers.
More interestingly, Ellis (1994) shows mutual relationship between learner attitudes
and their achievements in second language acquisition. He clarifies that learner attitudes
influence L2 competence of each learner and are themselves impacted by this achievement.
Thanks to success learners achieve, their positive attitudes will be promoted and because of
lack of success, their negative ones could be made stronger.
I am of the same opinion that learners‘ attitudes and their success in second language
acquisition are mutually and bilaterally related. Therefore, building positive attitudes is the
6
key to achieving language proficiency and studies on learner attitudes are significant and
worth further concern and effort by educators and ELT practitioners.
In this research, students‘ attitudes towards teachers, namely native-English speaking
teachers are studied and its results are expected to suggest some implications for non-native
teachers and the employment of native teachers for better ESL/EFL teaching and learning in
Vietnam.
7
receive and process the information the speaker want to convey, by which the concept of
speaking in this study is understood.
8
Accuracy in this context refers to the ability to speak properly-that is, selecting the
correct words and expressions to convey the intended meaning, as well as using the
grammatical patterns of English. Fluency, on the other hand, is the capacity to speak
fluidly, confidently, and at a rate consistent with the norms of the relevant native
speech community.
(p. 5)
In my opinion, accuracy should involve comprehensible pronunciation as well, not
only vocabulary and grammar competence because oral communication will not be
successful if the speaker fails to pronounce words or utterances comprehensibly. In fact, in
many countries where people use English as a foreign language like Vietnam, a large number
of learners fail to have good pronunciation.
It is obvious that most learners of English want to achieve accuracy and fluency as
well in oral communication and they are both important. But how to balance and develop
both accuracy and fluency is a challenging task to both teachers and learners of English
speaking classes. In context of Vietnam, the traditional teaching and learning habits seem to
focus on accuracy rather than fluency. However, few students achieve accuracy as expected.
It is also the case in Japan. Kouichi Ano (2005) shows in her study that an increasing number
of Japanese students with fluency are discovered to replace accurate ones in terms of
grammar because of a shift from grammar focused teaching to communicative language
teaching by Japanese English education whose aim is to improve students‘ communication
competence. The main reason given is that speaking skills with different kinds of classroom
communicative activities have been put more focus on than accuracy of grammar. The result
is revealed that students can communicate more fluently but less accurately. This fact
deserves attention by educators, course designers and teachers.
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Third, there is low or uneven participation among learners because some dominate the
others.
Last, learners use their mother tongue as it is easier and natural or they are not
motivated and disciplined enough to keep using the target language.
Sharing the idea on the first problem of speaking with Penny Ur, David Nunan
(1999), in a recent survey he conducted with his colleagues, comes to a conclusion that the
biggest problem in speaking classes was the students‘ reluctance or hesitation to speak. More
importantly, he finds out the reasons for the above problem in Amy Tsui‘s study (1996). The
study pointed out five major factors accounting for the reluctance of students to speak in
class. They are students‘ perceived low proficiency in English and their lack of confidence
and willingness, students‘ fear of mistakes and derision, teachers‘ intolerance of silence,
teachers‘ uneven allocation of turns and incomprehensible input from the teacher.
Similarly, in the book ― Practical English Language Teaching: Speaking‖, Bailey
(2005) indicates that:
A great deal of research has shown that students are often hesitant and anxious about
speaking the target language in class. In fact, researchers have studied language
classroom anxiety. The term refers to the situationally triggered anxiousness that
learners experience when they try to interact in the target language during lessons.
(p. 163)
It can be clearly seen that the main problem of speaking is students‘ hesitation and
anxiety to express their ideas. It is true in the context of Vietnam, with Vietnamese learners,
who are often shy and reserved. In my opinion, as a practitioner in Vietnam, one of the main
reasons comes from the traditional teaching habit, due to which teachers do not encourage
students to express their own ideas. It is also a cultural feature.
Additionally, how to solve the problems is another problem. In my own opinion,
teachers play a very important role in coping with these problems. They should create a
friendly environment in the speaking classrooms, which helps reduce students‘ anxiety.
Besides, teacher‘s flexible evaluation of students‘ oral performance may work well.
In summary, speaking problems are students‘ anxiety of expressing their ideas,
uneven participation among students, no ideas to express, lack of motivation and difficulties
in keeping using the target language. Teachers are the decisive element in solving these
problems. They can do it by creating a relaxing and stimulating atmosphere in their oral skill
classes.
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1.2.5. Communicative Language Teaching Approach in Teaching Speaking and
Communicative Competence
Being founded in the early 1960s Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has
recently become a fashionable term to cover a variety of developments in syllabus design and
to a lesser extent, in the methodology of teaching a foreign language, especially English.
Different authors view CLT differently. However, most emphasize the importance of
opportunities to use English for communicative purposes when this approach has been
applied in language teaching and learning. Nunan (1989) typically states that:
―CLT views language as a system for the expressions 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 learner including
functional skills as well as linguistic objectives‖.
In the light of CLT, there have been favorable changes in teaching speaking. Bailey
(2005, pp. 18-19) explains clearly that in some language teaching methods, beginning
learners undergo a period of listening to English before they begin to speak it. The focus is on
input-based activities. For example, learners initially respond physically to spoken commands
from the teacher rather than speaking themselves. In contrast, in CLT, the focus is more
interaction-based activities such as role-plays and information gap tasks in which pair-work
and group-work are typically employed.
For many years, language teaching was seen as helping learners develop linguistic
competence – that is, helping students master the sounds, words and grammar patterns of
English. However, from the appearance of CLT, the notion of linguistic competence came to
be viewed as a component of the broader idea of communicative competence. According to
Canale and Swain (1980), the second language learners cannot be expected to achieve a
satisfactory level of communicative competence if no knowledge of probability of occurrence
of grammatical forms and communicative function is developed. Their view of
communicative competence consists of four areas of knowledge and skills: grammatical
competence (ability to use correct grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation), sociolinguistic
competence (ability to use appropriate language in different contexts and settings), discourse
competence (ability to combine language elements to show cohesion in form and coherence
in thought), strategic competence (ability to verbal and non-verbal communication
strategies).
Savignon (1991, p. 264, as cited in Kathleen M. Bailey, 2005, p. 3) defines
communicative competence as ―the ability of language learners to interact with other
11
speakers, to make meaning, as distinct from their ability to perform on discrete-point tests of
grammatical knowledge‖. Bailey (2005, p. 3) also shows four important elements of
communicative competence: linguistic competence (grammatical or structure competence),
sociolinguistic competence (or pragmatic competence), discourse competence, and strategic
competence.
In brief, the application of CLT in language teaching and learning, especially in
teaching speaking has changed the view of language competence. It is not only linguistic
competence but also pragmatic, discourse and strategic competence.
12
At advanced levels, the principles of teaching speaking that should be followed by
teachers are:
Allow only speech in the target language, which greatly increases the amount of
English spoken
Have a clear guideline, which reduces the temptation of learners to hide in their
native language
Discourage learners from using their native language without the teacher‘s
permission
In summary, there are principles that teachers of oral skills should follow. The
principles vary to learners of different levels. However, some common ones are giving
learners practice with both fluency and accuracy, providing opportunity for learners to talk by
using pair-work and group-work, planning communicative tasks that involve interaction and
negotiation of meaning, designing classroom activities that involve both guidance and
practice to improve learners‘ communicative competence, and keeping learners using the
target language. These principles are used as the criteria in this study.
13
Discussion activities: students are given a topic and asked to discuss in group,
give and prove their opinions.
Opinion sharing activities: involve identifying and articulating a personal
preference, feeling, or attitude.
Reasoning gap activities: involve comprehending and conveying information.
Prepared talks: students make a presentation on a topic of their own choice
with or without agreement with the teacher.
Classroom speaking activities are various. However, teachers should choose the most
suitable ones for their learners‘ ability as well as the purpose of the course.
14
both linguistic knowledge and intercultural pragmatic competence. Oral communication will
fail if the speaker and the hearers do not share the background knowledge.
15
Ulku Ozturk & Derin Atay (2010) and Chen Xiaoru (2008) also agree that NESTs can
not predict students‘ language problems as well as their potential. They explain that it is
because NESTs haven‘t experienced the process of acquiring the foreign language
themselves. Xiaoru provides further information on NESTs‘ limitations that they can not
speak students‘ native language, so they have difficulties in forming positive relationship
with the students and helping them solve the problems, which is contrary to the ideas of Dr
İsmet ŞAHİN.
In brief, NESTs possess both strengths and weaknesses. The prevailing strength is
their language competence and their common weakness is their unawareness of learners‘
problems and expectations. However, the most important thing is that NESTs should be
employed to teach in the fields where they can make their best advantages.
16
class. Meanwhile, most of the students at higher grades prefer their Chinese English teachers
because they are more familiar with the national curriculum, and the examinations to be
taken; therefore, they are better able to equip their students with the necessary strategies and
help them pass the exams. Chen Xiaoru also concludes that Chinese students have a clear
preference for NESTs because of their high proficiency in English, ability to use English
functionally, and the awareness of the culture of English speaking countries. Additionally,
they believe that NESTs are more fluent and accurate with a special emphasis on their good
pronunciation.
No researches on students‘ attitudes towards the teaching of speaking by NESTs have
been found. However, there are some which discover learners‘ attitudes to NESTs‘ teaching
in some specific areas in English language teaching.
Chen Xiaoru (2008) finds out in her study that there is a clear preference for an
NESTs in the areas of pronunciation, culture, and speaking and she comes to a conclusion
that: ―Pronunciation and cultural knowledge stand out as the two most prominent areas in
which native speaker teachers have advantages over non- native speaker teachers‖. She
proved this by giving some examples of students‘ responses in her interview that NESTs
speak fluently and use English as a medium of instruction, so they learn more; that NESTs
would provide them with more chances to speak English and serve as a perfect model for
imitation. Similarly, Tsui (1996) indicates that students value the authenticity of NESTs
with regard to pronunciation, knowledge of English speaking countries, and their informal
and flexible teaching styles.
Sekigawa et al, (2003) also studies advantages and disadvantages of having native
speakers as teachers of English and clarifies that the majority of students like to have NESTs
in their speaking and pronunciation classes because, they explain, listening to ‗real‘ English
in class is very exciting and they can put themselves in a situation where they can speak only
English; therefore, they get used to speaking and thinking in English. On the other hand, her
study demonstrates that learners have difficulty in understanding and communicating with
foreign teachers; they can not express themselves well in English. The reasons for these
obstacles are that they do not get used to different pronunciation and accents as well as fast
speed by NESTs and that their English competence is poor. As a result, students become
more passive and quieter, then fail to acquire speaking skill.
17
Another study conducted by Liu (1999, as cited in İsmet ŞAHİN, 2005) concluded
that a good oral English teacher should be a good English speaker and many native English
speakers have proven to be successful teachers in oral English classes in China.
In Vietnam, there are hardly any researches done on students‘ attitudes to NESTs as
well as to their teaching of any specific areas of English language, including that of speaking.
It is partially because the employment of NESTs in academic institutions is not popular and
does not receive enough concern from educators. The author of this study have been working
in a college where there are NESTs employed, namely in the area of speaking and wish to
investigate students‘ attitudes towards the teaching of this field by NESTs with a view to
giving some valuable implications for successful English language teaching and making a
certain contribution to the evaluation of using native speakers as teachers of English in our
country.
To conclude, a variety of studies point out that students have both positive and
negative attitudes towards native English speaking teachers. However, preferences prevail.
Most respondents think that native English teachers can offer friendly classroom
environment, variety of interesting activities, flexible teaching styles. They prefer native
English teachers on pronunciation, speaking and culture courses because they have high
proficiency in English, offer a good model for students to imitate and a natural source of
attraction to students. Besides, some participants show that native English teachers can not
help them to anticipate and solve their learning problems and pass the exams easily.
18
Chapter 2: Research Methodology
This chapter is concerned with the methodology of the research. It includes research
context or the setting of the study, research questions, research approach, research
participants, research instruments, data collection procedure and data analysis procedure.
19
1. What are the students‘ attitudes towards the teaching of speaking by native-English
speaking teachers?
2. To what extent do different graders‘ have different attitudes?
20
sampling. However, he adds that census is one particular survey type of sample which
includes every member of population in the survey.
In this study, census sampling is employed because the subjects of the research are all
English-majored students of Department of foreign languages at Thai Binh Junior Teacher
Training College, who are exposed to native teachers in their speaking classes. They are 100
and belong to 3 groups: 40 first year students of Group English 1, 30 second year students of
Group English 2 and 30 third year students of Group English 3. All the participants
volunteered to take part in the study. The majority of them are female (95% of the sample).
The students‘ ages rank from 18 to 20. They have been learning English for at least 6 years
before enrolment and their English proficiency is of different levels but at least at
intermediate level. They were exposed to native teachers in oral classes in the school year
2010-2011. The table below provides the detailed information of the participants of the study.
Number
Grade Level of English proficiency
Male Female
1 2 38 Pre-intermediate
2 1 29 Intermediate
3 2 28 Upper-intermediate
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