Đề tài Teaching speaking skill for non-Major MA students at VNUH

TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to those who have contributed to this thesis and proud to acknowledge their help. I would like first and foremost to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor, Ms. Phan Thi Van Quyen, for her inspiring and invaluable guidance, advice, encouragement and everything that I learnt from her throughout my work. Without her this thesis would not have been possible. My sincere thanks also go to all lecturers and the staff of the Department of Post Graduate Studies at College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University for their useful lectures, assistance and enthusiasm during my course. Special acknowledgement is also given to my colleges and former MA students of law, technology, economics, education and business administration at Vietnam National University Hanoi, who have been very supportive in filling the survey questionnaires. Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my husband and my family for their understanding, patience and support during the entire period of my study. Nguyễn Thị Thu Hương LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AOL Age Of Learning C Consonant CLT Communicative Language Teaching ESOL English for Speakers of Other Languages MA Master of Arts SGS School of Graduate Studies TEFL Teaching English as a Foreign Language TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages VNUH Vietnam National University, Hanoi V Vowel LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: Units of spoken language. Table 1: Speaking activities and topics/drills in the course book ‘English for Graduate Students’. Table 2: What make students interested in speaking in English class. Table3: What make students unwilling to speak in English class. Table 4: Students’ assessment of classroom speaking activities given by teachers. Table 5: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking for MA students at SGS. Table 6: What teachers do to motivate students to speak in class. Table 7: Suggested ideas for discussion. Table 8: Activities suitable for each unit in the course book ‘English for Graduate Students’. PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Today, English is the language of globalization, international communication, commerce, the media and pop culture, and thus, affects motivations for learning English. English is no longer seen as the property of the English-speaking world but as an international commodity sometimes referred to as World English or An International Language. In Vietnam, foreign languages, with English as the most studied, have become a compulsory subject at schools and colleges. Many students begin their learning English when they are ten years old. City children even have their first lessons of English as early as they attend primary school. As for MA students of laws, economy, technology, education and business administration at VNUH, the minimum time of dealing with English before their MA course is 420 class contacts (approximately 315 hours). They are supposed to be of pre-intermediate level of English before having another 150 class contacts as a compulsory part of their MA course at VNUH. However, it is surprising to learn that many of these students are incapable of using their English to talk, even in class. What is more, the same situation exists in many other colleges and universities in Vietnam. There have been numerous studies on this situation and various solutions, recommendations and suggestions have been given, including changing teaching methods, changing syllabus or textbooks, upgrading teachers’ qualifications, changing formats of speaking tests and so on. At SGS – VNUH, which is in charge of teaching English for MA students at VNUH, no such a research has been done before. The author, as a full-time teacher at SGS, is more than aware of the situation and she herself has encountered a number of difficulties in helping her students improve their speaking skill. This actually drives her to this research, namely “Teaching speaking skill for non-major MA students at VNUH”. Scope of the study To improve speaking skill for non-major MA students of English at VNUH, various methods can be made used of. However, within the framework of a minor thesis, the author only intends to give an overview of the current situation of teaching and learning speaking skill at SGS – VNUH and to suggest activities to help teachers improve their students’ speaking skill and achieve the objectives of each unit of the course book as well. The suggested activities will serve as a reference for teachers to teach effectively speaking topics in the course book English for Graduate Students only. Aim and objectives of the study Within the framework of a minor MA thesis, the study aims at suggesting classroom activities with the hope that they would be helpful, in one way or another, for teachers in their teaching English speaking skill to non-major MA students of English at VNUH. To achieve this aim, the objectives are to investigate the current situations of learning and teaching of speaking skill to non-major MA students of English at VNUH in order to find out the reasons for students’ unwillingness to speak English as well as teachers’ problems in teaching speaking skill. Research questions of the study The researcher wish to raise the questions as follows: What are the factors affecting willingness of non-major MA students of English to speak in class? What difficulties do teachers encounter in teaching English speaking skill for these students? Methods of the study To complete the study, quantitative method was used. Two survey questionnaires and some short interviews were given to non-major MA students of English at SGS – VNUH and their teachers to collect information for the study. All comments, remarks, suggestions and conclusion provided in the study based on the analysis of the data collected from these surveys. Organization of the study The study consists of three parts. Part one, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale and the scope of the thesis, defines the aim and objectives of the study. The research questions, methods and organization are also mentioned in this part. Part two, DEVELOPMENT, includes the following three chapters: Chapter one, Literature Review, covers the concepts relevant to the study: the nature of language skills and communication, the nature of speaking skill, in which answers to the questions: What is speaking? What are components of speaking? What skills and knowledge does a good speaker need? are found. Then the author discusses what skills and knowledge a good speaker needs. Methods and approaches most frequently applied so far in the teaching of speaking skill are also reviewed in this part. Chapter two, namely Teaching and Learning English Speaking skill at SGS – VNUH, provides an analysis of the current situation of teaching and learning speaking skill here based on the result of interviews and surveys of student’s attitude towards the current teaching methods and activities applied by the teachers in class, and teachers’ opinions about the course book. Chapter three, Some suggested activities for teaching English speaking skill at SGS, presents activities designed for each unit of the course book with the hope that they would help the teachers in creating motivation and improving students’ ability to speak English. Part three, CONCLUSION, summarizes the findings and addresses the shortcomings of the study. It also gives suggestions for further researches and studies. PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1 The nature of language skills I.1.1 The nature of language skills Language has been divided into different skill areas, based on the purpose of analysis and instruction. Regarding teaching points of view, language skills mainly consist of four-macro skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, in which speaking and writing are productive skills and listening and reading are receptive skills (Byrne, 1988:8). Regarding the manners by which they are formed, language skills are divided into oral skills relating to articulately organs, which are listening and speaking and literacy skills in connection with manual script including reading and writing. Of the four skills, speaking plays a role of great importance. It is central to the business of teaching and learning, in every discipline and at every level of instruction. It defines who knows or does not know a language. One cannot say he knows English without his ability to use the language to talk and once a person can speak in English, people say he knows the language without knowing if he can read or write it or not. I.1.2 The nature of speaking skill I.1.2.1 What is speaking? Speaking is “an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information” (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997). Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking. It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving. Speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary ("linguistic competence"), but also that they understand when, why, and in what ways to produce language ("sociolinguistic competence"). It has its own skills, structures, and conventions different from written language (Burns & Joyce, 1997; Carter & McCarthy, 1995; Cohen, 1996). A good speaker synthesizes these skills and knowledge to succeed in a given speech act. I.1.2.2 What are components of speaking? This section examines the components of spoken English, drawing on a model proposed by van Lier (1995). It is necessary for teachers to understand fully these interrelated components in order to help adult learners improve their speaking skill. distinctive feature phoneme syllable morpheme word phrase clause utterance text PHONOLOGY MORPHOLOGY SYNTAX STRESS RHYTHM INTONATION Figure 1: Units of spoken language (van Lier, 1995, p. 15). DISCOURSE The figure depicts the many elements involved in teaching speaking to adult ESOL learners. The left column lists four traditional areas of linguistic analysis (which teachers must understand), and the center column labels the units of spoken language (which learners must master). Beginning at the pyramid’s base, text refers to stretches of language of an undetermined length. Texts can be either written or spoken, but here the focus is exclusively on spoken discourse. Spoken texts are composed of utterances: what someone says. A clause is two or more words that contain a verb marked for tense and a grammatical subject. Independent clauses are complete sentences that can stand alone (“Tuan went to work”), whereas dependent clauses cannot (“While Tuan was going to work . . .”). In contrast, a phrase is two or more words that function as a unit but do not have a subject or a verb marked for tense. These include prepositional phrases (“in the hospital” or “after school”) and infinitive phrases (“to drive” or “to move up”). Clauses and phrases do not usually appear alone in formal writing, but they are quite common in speech. Both clauses and phrases can be utterances, as can individual words, the next level in the pyramid. A word is called a free morpheme—a unit of language that can stand on its own and convey meaning (bus, apply, often). In contrast, bound morphemes are always connected to words. These include prefixes, such as un- or pre-, as well as suffixes, such as -tion or -s or -ed. Often, during the pressure of speaking, it is difficult for Vietnamese learners English to use the expected suffixes because Vietnamese language does not utilize these kinds of morphemes as grammatical markers. A phoneme is a unit of sound that distinguishes meaning. Phonemes can be either Consonants (like /p/ or /b/ in the words pat and bat) or Vowels (like /I/ and /ổ/ in bit and bat). Phonemes differ from English to Vietnamese and are therefore difficult for learners to pronounce. For example, the “th” sounds in think and the are pervasive in English but do not exit in Vietnamese language. Learners of English, especially adult ones, often approximate or replace the “th” sounds with “s” or “z” or “d”. In the top levels of the figure, the word syllable overlaps the levels of morphemes and phonemes because a syllable can consist of a morpheme or simply one or more phonemes. The structure of syllables is referred to as being either open (ending with a V) or closed (ending with a C). Vietnamese languages use the open syllable structure, in which a syllable consists of just a V, or of a C followed by a V. Spoken English, in contrast, allows both open syllables (C-V, or just V) and closed syllables (C-V-C, or simply V-C), as well as C clusters, where two or more Consonants occur in sequence (as in the words stretched or jumped). For this reason, Vietnamese learners of English may omit word-final Consonants, thereby eliminating the sounds that convey important linguistic information, such as plurality, possession, or tense. Consonants and vowels are called segmental phonemes. Sometimes a spoken syllable consists of one phoneme (/o/ in okay). Syllables also consist of combined sounds (the second syllable of okay), and of both free and bound morphemes. For instance, the free morpheme hat consists of three phonemes but only one syllable. The word disheartened has three syllables, four morphemes (dis + heart + en + ed), and nine phonemes. A smaller unit, the distinctive feature, relates to how and where in the mouth a sound is produced when we speak. These minute contrasts contribute to ESOL learners’ accents. The three other labels in The figure—stress, rhythm, and intonation represent the suprasegmental phonemes. When we speak, these phonemes carry meaning differences “above” the segmental phonemes. For instance, the sentence “I am going now” can convey at least four different meanings, depending on where the stress is placed. The differences are related to the context where the utterances occur. Consider these interpretations: I am going now. (You may be staying here, but I choose to leave.) I am going now. (You may assert that I’m staying, but I insist that I am leaving.) I am going now. (I insist that I am leaving, rather than staying.) I am going now. (I am not waiting any longer.) It is critical to know how these levels of spoken language relate to the speaking skill of Vietnamese learners. Two key points derive from a substantial review of the research on foreign accent by Major (2001). First, he says that really learning the sound system of a language entails mastering (a) the individual segments (the V and C phonemes), (b) the combinations of segments, (c) prosody (stress, intonation, rhythm, etc.), and (d) “global accent, or the overall accent of a speaker” (p. 12). He adds that a global foreign accent is the result of a nonnative combination of (a), (b), and (c). Second, Major (2001) notes that “both the learner’s age and the AOL (when the learner was first exposed to the language) have been found to be important variables in governing whether and to what degree a learner can acquire a native like accent” (pp. 6–7). He concludes that “the vast majority of the research indicates that the younger the learner the more native like the pronunciation” (p. 11). I.1.2.3 What skills and knowledge does a good speaker need? A speaker's skills and speech habits have an impact on the success of any exchange (Van Duzer, 1997). Speakers must be able to anticipate and then produce the expected patterns of specific discourse situations. They must also manage discrete elements such as turn-taking, rephrasing, providing feedback, or redirecting (Burns & Joyce, 1997). Other skills and knowledge that instruction might address include the following: producing the sounds, stress patterns, rhythmic structures, and intonations of the language; using grammar structures accurately; assessing characteristics of the target audience; selecting vocabulary that is understandable and appropriate for the audience, the topic being discussed, and the setting in which the speech act occurs; applying strategies to enhance comprehensibility; using gestures or body language; and paying attention to the success of the interaction and adjusting components of speech. I.2 Teaching adults Adults bring life experiences and a level of maturity into the classroom that children and adolescents do not. Their expectations and motivations reflect this. Here are several keys to keep in mind when teaching adults: Adult classrooms may present great diversity Be prepared for diversity of cultural background, age, previous formal education, previous exposure to English, life experiences, and current life situations. Adults respond well to knowledgeable, enthusiastic teachers You must be comfortable with the subject matter you are teaching and communicate enthusiasm for the subject matter and your role as a teacher. This will help you gain respect and is especially important if you are younger than your students. If you must teach material which is challenging for you, try not to communicate a negative attitude about the material to your students. If a student asks a question which you can't answer, don't be afraid to say, "I don't know, but I'll find out for you." Adults are not too old to learn a second language well Although native language learning and literacy are best accomplished in childhood, when it comes to learning a second language, research has shown that adolescents and adults outperform children. Adolescents even surpassed children in pronunciation skills. One of the reasons children appear to acquire a second language faster than adults is simply that they get a lot more practice with other children and have lower inhibitions, but many adults have attained a high level of fluency in a foreign language. Adults need a comfortable and safe learning atmosphere Trial and error should be encouraged in language learning. Adults will take more risks in an environment where it's safe to make mistakes without embarrassment. You may want to minimize public reading and writing until your learners gain confidence, especially if literacy skills are deficient. The same goes for standing in front of the group to speak. Adult learning is transformative Learning in childhood is said to be formative, when skills and concepts are developed for the first time. Adults, on the other hand, are extending and refining their knowledge based on existing knowledge and beliefs. They are changed or transformed by learning experiences. Adults need repeated practice of a concept or skill Adults generally need patience and repetition to solidify new language concepts or skills. If adults have already developed bad habits with English errors, these will take time and effort to break. Adults also tend to have a lot on their minds and limited time to practice English outside the classroom. Adults learn well with question asking and answering, and problem finding and solving These activities require mature thought processes which stimulate and motivate adult minds. Adults want practical, real-life contexts The more relevant and useful the subject matter, the more motivated your learners will be. Adults enjoy materials that relate to their personal experiences and interests, and they want to be able to apply what they're learning in the real world. I.3 How speaking skill has been taught to adult ESOL learners Although several language teaching methods have been used to teach speaking in a second or foreign language, three methods have dominated language teaching in the past 60 years. This section first briefly reviews each method, then focuses specifically on how the method treats the speaking skill of adult ESOL learners. The Grammar-Translation Method In the grammar-translation method, students are taught to analyze grammar and to translate (usually in writing) from one language to another. The key instructional goal is to read the literature of a particular culture. According to Richards and Rodgers (1986), the main characteristics of the grammar-translation method are: reading and writing are the major focus; the vocabulary studied is determined by the reading texts; the sentence is the basic unit of teaching and language practice”; the primary emphasis is on accuracy; teaching is deductive (i.e., grammar rules are presented and then practiced through translating); and the medium of instruction is typically the students’ native language. The grammar-translation method does not prepare students to speak English, so it is not appropriate for nonacademic adult ESOL students who want to improve their speaking skill. The method is not consistent with the goals of increasing fluency, oral production, or communicative competence of adult ESOL learners. In grammar-translation lessons, speaking consists largely of reading translations aloud or doing grammar exercises orally. There are few opportunities for expressing original thoughts or personal needs and feelings in English. The Audio-lingual Method The audio-lingual method dominated English-language instruction for many years. In this method, speaking skill is taught by having students repeat sentences and recite memorized textbook dialogues. The theory behind the audio-lingual method is that students learn to speak by practicing grammatical structures until producing those structures become automatic. Then, it is thought, the learners would be able to engage in conversation. As a result, “teaching oral language was thought to require no more than engineering the repeated oral production of structures . . . concentrating on the development of grammatical and phonological accuracy combined with fluency” (Bygate, 2001, p. 15). The theoretical basis of the audio-lingual method behaviorist is the concept of good habit formation. This theory proposes that for learners to form good habits, language lessons must involve frequent repetition and correction. Teachers address spoken errors quickly, in hopes of preventing students from forming bad habits. If errors are left untreated, both the speaker and the other students in class might internalize those erroneous forms. There is little or no explanation of vocabulary or grammar rules in audio-lingual lessons. Instead, intense repetition and practice are used to establish good speaking habits to the point that they are fluent and automatic - that is, adult ESOL learners would not have to stop and think about how to form an utterance before speaking. Audiolingualism “rapidly lost popularity, partly as a result of the strong theoretical arguments that were advanced against it, but also because the results obtained from classroom practice were disappointing” in several ways (Ellis, 1990, p.29). Many learners lost interest in language learning because the pattern practice and audio-lingual drills were boring. Adult learners often felt hampered because the method downplayed the explicit teaching of grammar rules. In addition, the memorization of patterns “did not lead to fluent and effective communication in real-life situations” (p.30). “While audiolingualism stressed oral skills (evidenced by the amount of time spent in the language laboratory practicing drills), speech production was tightly controlled in order to reinforce correct habit formation of linguistic rules” (Lazaraton, 2001, p. 103). This sort of tightly controlled practice does not necessarily prepare learners for the spontaneous, fluid interaction that occurs outside the classroom. Communicative Language Teaching During the 1970s and 1980s, language acquisition research (and dissatisfaction with the audio-lingual method) made TESOL professionals reconsider some long-standing beliefs about how people learn languages. As a result, communicative language teaching arose. CLT is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language. In this method teachers often downplay accuracy and emphasize students’ ability to convey their messages (Hammerly, 1991). Accuracy is the extent to which the adult ESOL learners’ speech matches the native speaker norms. Fluency is the speed, ease, and naturalness with which ESOL learners communicate orally. Proficient speakers are both fluent and accurate, but at the lower levels, fluency and accuracy often work against one another. That is, to be accurate and apply learned rules, adult ESOL learners may speak hesitantly or haltingly. To be fluent in conversation, they may overlook the time-consuming application of rules. The instructional implications are that teachers should not focus only on accuracy, but should use both form-focused and fluency building activities in adult ESOL classes. In some language teaching methods, such as Total Physical Response, the focus is on input-based activities. In contrast, communicative language teaching methods feature more interaction-based activities, such as role plays and information gap tasks. Curricular choices, such as task-based and project-based activities also promote interaction. Pair work and group work are typical organizational features of interaction-based lessons in communicative language teaching. Recent critiques of CLT include an article by Stephen Bax entitled: "The end of CLT: a Context Approach to language teaching" in which he argues that the dominance of CLT has led to the neglect of one crucial aspect of language pedagogy, namely the context in which that pedagogy takes place. Bax argues that it is time to replace CLT as the central paradigm in language teaching with a Context Approach which places context at the heart of the profession. The article argues that such a shift is taking place already and will eventually change our practice radically. Concluding remark It can be drawn out that of all the approaches stated above, which have dominated language teaching in the past 60 years throughout the world, the first two, i.e., the Grammar-Translation method and the Audio-lingual method, have proved to be of less use in the current teaching of speaking skill, especially that to adult learners, whose characteristics regarding psychology, mindset and ability in learning to speak English require productive methods rather than inactive ones. CHAPTER II: THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL AT VNUH II.1 Overview of the subjects of the study II.1.1 Students The thesis studies MA students of laws, economy, technology, education and business administration at VNUH. The students’ age varies from 22 to about 50. Almost those under 30, who account for more than 50 percent of all students, finished 420 class contacts (equivalent to 315 hours) of English at university. Some even had a longer time of learning English at schools. The rest do not have so much time learning English and many of them have not used English for a long time. Despite the difference in age and the time of acquiring English, to become an MA student at VNUH, almost all of them must pass the English entrance exam at pre-intermediate level. Those who already have a certificate of English at the equivalent or higher level are exempted from that exam. At SGS – VNUH they have to continue to learn English as a compulsory subject. II.1.2 Teachers Almost all the teachers of English at SGS have got MA degree in TEFL and at least several years of teaching experience. The rest are about to finish their MA course. The majority of them are from VNUH, some from Hanoi University of Education. Only 20 percent of them are working as full-time teachers at SGS – VNUH. II.1.3 Course book The course book is Intermediate English for Graduate Students, published in 2004 by SGS – VNUH and has ever since been used as an official course book. It was adapted from New Headway Intermediate, by Liz & John Soars, to fit students’ level of English and educational goals of the universities. Intermediate English for Graduate Students was, according to what is stated in the Introduction, intended to be “communicative oriented and inclusive of the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing as well as language components: phonetics, grammar and vocabulary. There are 10 units, each accompanies with a topic familiar to learners and includes such parts as grammar, vocabulary, practice exercises and communicative skills”. However, the course book appears to focus on grammar and grammar exercises other than communication skills. This can be easily noticed on the very first page of the book, which presents each unit with a topic and all grammar items it is about, without any skills named. As considerations go further to contents of each unit, this seems to be proved right. Activities for speaking skill, for example, are not found to appear until unit four. To be more detailed, all activities and topics or drills in terms of speaking skill in the course book are presented as the following. Unit Speaking activities Topics/drills 1 None 2 None 3 None 4 Discussion Tourism 6 Discussion Retirement 7 Dialogue completion Second conditional Discussion Money, life, work Doing charity 8 Text completion Modals of probability Pair work Personality Discussion Children and family size 9 Answering questions Different views of smoking Collecting things 10 Information gap Famous people Table 1: Speaking activities and topics/drills in the course book ‘English for Graduate Students’ It can be learned from the table that the variety of speaking activities is very limited, with discussion as the most common. It therefore depends very much on teachers’ experience and enthusiasm to design speaking activities that motivate students and improve their speaking ability. II.2 Data analysis II.2.1 Discussion of the survey questionnaires To collect information concerning the current situation of teaching and learning speaking skill at SGS – VNUH, the author conducted two survey questionnaires; one was delivered to 100 students and the other to 12 teachers of English at SGS. To answer the question in the survey questionnaires, informants may have more than one choice, so the total percentage of the answers to a certain question may not equal 100 percent. The first questionnaire was designed for the students with three questions: Question 1: What make you interested in speaking in English class? Question 2: What make you unwilling to speak in English class? Question 3: Does your teacher often introduce classroom speaking activities? The second questionnaire is designed for the teachers and consists of two questions. Question 1: What are your difficulties in teaching speaking for MA students at SGS? Question 2: What do you do to motivate students to speak in class? 100 copies of the questionnaire delivered to the students and 12 copies of the questionnaire delivered to the teachers have been all responded. II.2.2 Presentation of statistical results II.2.2.1 Teaching and learning speaking skill at SGS as seen from students’ perspective Option % C. My teacher gives me more attention because I speak English better than other students in the class. 27 B. My teacher always encourages me to speak, even when I make a lot of mistakes in speaking. 23 F. I like speaking activities and games. 22 D. I can express my ideas in English easily. 15 E. I feel confident in speaking English in front of others. 15 G. I’m accustomed to practicing speaking in class. 8 A. Topics are interesting/familiar. 7 Table 2: What make students interested in speaking in English class The low percentages in table 1 reveal the fact that there is hardly anything attractive enough to encourage a large number of students to speak. 27% students speak because of the attention they receive from their teachers as they speak English better than other students. Other factors involving students into speaking in class are teachers’ encouragement and activities or games, which respectively receive response from 23% and 22% of the students. Subjective factors like students’ good ability and high confidence in speaking English make only 15% of them interested in speaking in class. Some are accustomed to speaking in English class and some find topics are interesting and familiar to speak about (8% and 7% respectively). Students also specified other factors affecting their interest in speaking in class such as their wishes to improve speaking skill and be able to communicate with foreigners. Option % I. I’m tired after a working day. 72 A. Topics are boring/unfamiliar. 56 D. I can’t find exact words to express my ideas. 53 G. I’m not accustomed to speaking English in class (It’s my habit to sit in class and listen quietly to teachers until I’m asked to speak). 52 C. I’m afraid that my classmates will laugh at me if I make mistakes. 39 B. My teacher often corrects my mistakes when I’m speaking. 29 H. It’s ok if I don’t speak. The teacher never complains about that. 28 E. My teacher hardly ever pays attention to me. 25 F. My teacher and other students speak almost all the time. 23 Table3: What make students unwilling to speak in English class Statistics provided in table 3 prove to be well-matched with those in table 2. It seems that many students share the same reasons for their being uninterested in classroom speaking activities. Circumstance makes up the largest proportion of the reasons for students’ unwillingness to speak. 72% of them state that they are too tired to go to class. This is because almost all MA students at VNUH go to work during day time and attend their classes in the evening. It is very common that they enter the class with “an exhausted body and an empty stomach”, as one student noted in the questionnaire. Many students (56%) blame boring/unfamiliar topics for discouraging them to speak in class and a similar number (53%) state that they are not interested in speaking as they cannot find exact words to express their ideas. Students who are not active in class make up the rate of 52%. They are passive and only speak when they are asked to, especially 28% of them who are never complained by the teachers for their not speaking in class. Another factor that should be taken into consideration is students’ wish to save face. Although they are adult learners, 39% of them are afraid of making mistakes and do not want to be laughed at. For this reason, 29% do not like it when teachers interrupt them to correct their mistakes. This discourages them a lot. Psychological factors also play a role in getting students speak English. 25% of the students get discouraged when they receive little or no attention from teachers or when teachers and other students speak most of the time. Some of them state that their shyness also affects their willingness to speak in class. Option % E. Occasionally. I like the activities. 47 C. Yes, sometimes. I like the activities. 23 D. Yes, sometimes. But the activities are not interesting and varied enough. 16 F. Occasionally. And the activities are not interesting. 13 A. Yes, very often. I like the activities. 0 B. Yes, very often. But the activities are not interesting and varied enough. 0 G. Never. 0 Table 4: Students’ assessment of classroom speaking activities given by teachers The data in table 4 show that all teachers design classroom speaking activities but none of them do it very often. A large proportion of the students show interest in classroom speaking activities but those activities are occasionally introduced by their teachers. Not many students (16%) complain that activities their teachers use do not appear to be interesting to them. It can be drawn out that students are motivated by speaking activities. The question is whether or not and how often teachers make use of activities in their teaching. Only 16% of the students state that their teachers sometimes make use of classroom activities in raising students’ interest in speaking and these students do not find the sometimes-provided activities interesting when 25% say that they like these activities. II.2.2.2 Teaching and learning speaking skill at SGS as seen from teachers’ perspective Option % B. Students’ levels of proficiency are varied. 100 A. Students are unwilling to speak. 75 E. Teaching speaking takes time when I have to cover all other contents of the course book. 58.3 C. I don’t have enough time to prepare speaking activities. 41.7 D. I can’t find suitable and interesting speaking activities. 25 Table 5: Teachers’ difficulties in teaching speaking for MA students at SGS It can be seen from table 1 that students’ varied level of proficiency is an obstacle to all of the teachers. The second obstacle that identified by many of them (75%) is students’ unwillingness to speak. 58.3% is the proportion of the teachers who have difficulty because teaching speaking is time consuming when they must cover all other contents of the course book. Regarding subjective factors, 41.7% of the teachers lack time to prepare activities and to 25% of them, finding suitable and interesting speaking activities is impossible. May be the reason why so many teachers do not have enough time for the preparation of their teaching at VNUH is that, as mentioned in the first part of this chapter, only 20% of them work full time here. It is very likely that they spend more time and effort for the classes at colleges where they work as full time teachers. Option % H. I ask the better students to speak first. 66.7 D. I give them many questions. 41.7 A. I create interesting games and activities. 33.3 E. I always listen attentively to and appreciate students’ answers. 33.3 F. I never forget to praise them before pointing out their mistakes in speaking. 25 J. I encourage students to learn by reminding them of the proportion of speaking skill in their end of course test. 25 B. I introduce interesting and familiar topics. 16.7 C. I let them talk about whatever topic they like. 16.7 I. I ask the better students to speak after other students. 16.7 G. I set funny classroom rules/punishment for those who keep quiet or speak Vietnamese in class. 8.3 Table 6: What teachers do to motivate students to speak in class The table shows that asking better students to speak first is the dominant way with the rate of 66.7%. The way that ranks second is giving students many questions to motivate them to speak with 41.7%. Next comes creating interesting activities and games with 33.3% and the same rate believe that appreciating students by listening attentively to them can help to motivate them to speak. 16.7% of the teachers introduce interesting and familiar topics to students to motivate them and the same number let students talk freely about topics of their interest. Asking the better students to speak after other students is also applied by that number. It is quite interesting to learn that in order to improve students’ willingness in speaking, 25% of the teachers remind students of the proportion of speaking skill in their end of course test and the same number apply a psychological method which is praising students before pointing out their mistakes so as not to discourage them to speak. Using funny classroom rules/ punishment as a way to eliminate students’ reticence in speaking is employed the least with 8.3%. III.1 Findings The findings below are based on the above statistical results of the two survey questionnaires together with the follow-up interviews. The author has received interviewees’ permission to include their names in this study. III.1.1 From students’ perspective As seen from students’ point of view, there are both subjective and objective factors that contribute to students’ unwillingness to speak in English class. Regarding subjective factors, students’ lack of vocabulary, i.e. low level of proficiency, dominates their speaking performance in class. As one student said, “my poor vocabulary of English caused a lot of troubles in talking to others, so we seldom speak in English” (Tan, student of law). Lack of vocabulary is another source of students’ reticence in speaking lessons. “I always found my vocabulary so small that I didn’t know how to communicate my ideas. I was very anxious and felt bad. So I have to keep quiet. And this is very common among students in the university” (Ha, student of education). To help students develop their vocabulary, teacher could try the followings. Maintaining classroom charts (to be changed regularly) on which students may record a growing list of synonyms for certain words. Having students keep individual word lists to extend their speaking vocabularies (e.g., ghost: phantom, spook, spirit, apparition; purple: mauve, lilac, violet). They may gather these from their listening, writing, reading, and viewing activities as well as from experience outside of the classroom. Besides, passive habit of learning is also considered one of the main causes for students’ silence in oral English classes. More than half of the informants own the habit of listening passively without speaking until they are asked to speak. “We are reticent maybe because we were taught to be so since primary school. We were hardly encouraged to speak out loud in front of others” (Hang, student of education). What is more, students’ confidence also accounts for their unwillingness to speak in English class. It is found that students are reticent to speak English also because they are worried about making mistakes. Thus, they keep quiet and wait until they are asked to speak. “I am not so active because I don’t want to lose face when I make mistakes (Linh, student of law). “I have self respect and I don’t want to be laughed at” (Sinh, student of law). Moreover, they are also afraid of having their mistakes being pointed out. “I’m very embarrassed when teachers point out and correct my mistakes when I am speaking and sometimes I don’t want to or don’t know what to say next” (Hao, student of education). To motivate students to speak in class without fear of making mistakes, teachers should try to employ the following strategies. When students make mistakes, point out what they said right in addition to what they said incorrectly. Listen attentively to the students’ response – not to the structure (grammar), but to the meaning. Create a classroom environment where making mistakes is ok.  Design activities like that drive students to the concentration on meaning and content rather than structural/grammatical accuracy. As for objective factors, circumstance appears to be the most de-motivating to students’ willingness to speak in class. More than three quarters of the students go to work when doing their MA and most of them feel too tired to continue with evening classes. Physical state is therefore an obstacle to them in learning, especially productive skills like speaking. Most of them, however, are willing to involve in speaking activities if the learning is made fun and enjoyable. Ranking second is the topics introduced in speaking classes. More than half of the students blame boring or unfamiliar topics for making them not willing to speak and very few find topics interesting enough to them. Interest contributes a lot to students’ active participation in classroom speaking activities. According to one student, “when something is not interesting, most people are not willing to talk about it, while one can talk as much as he can on what he is interested” (Huy, student of information technology). Similarly, whether a student is active also depends on his/her familiarity with a topic. “It depends on how much I know about the topics. If I know more I am active, but if I know little about it, I keep quiet” (Hien, student of information technology). The fact is as few as one third of the teachers questioned introduce interesting games and activities in their speaking classes. Next comes the little attention and encouragement that students receive from their teachers. The data analysis shows that students of high or low proficiency of English are both motivated if their teachers pay more attention to them and encourage them to speak and that many are de-motivated when teachers neglect them. III.1.2 From teachers’ perspective As seen from teachers’ point of view, their difficulties in teaching speaking for non major MA students of English at SGS originate from outside factors and also those from the teachers themselves. According to all of the teachers, the most dominant characteristic of English classes at SGS- VNUH is the varied level of proficiency, which is very challenging for them to manage classes. Many teachers complain that their teaching can hardly make all students in the class involved as there is always knowledge that is “a piece of cake for these students but a hard job for others” (Ms. Thuy). This gap is partly resulted from the difference in age among the students. “The younger seem to be more advanced … some of the older even knows almost nothing” (Mr. Thuong). Teachers suggested some common concerns like “advanced students dominate” (Ms. Huong) or “higher level students seem bored or the lower seem lost” (Mr. Tuan). The next obstacle to the teachers is students’ unwillingness to speak. As found in the previous part, whether students are motivated in oral English classes depends quite a lot on their teachers. It can be seen that there exists a reciprocal influence between teachers and students in teaching and learning speaking skill, which requires bilateral efforts in improving the situation. Besides, teachers also complain that teaching speaking skill is difficult as it takes time whereas they are not allowed to leave out or make light of other skills and knowledge of the course book. The study has also found out that teachers’ difficulties in motivating their students to speak in English classes result from the teachers themselves. Many of them do not prepare activities for their speaking classes as they lack time, which is too much a subjective reason. Similarly, which again can hardly be regarded as a reasonable excuse as at this time and in this capital city, various types of supplementary materials for teaching English skills is so available that a complaint may be referred to as that of a lazy or else a not-enthusiastic-enough teacher. III.2 Recommendations Below are general recommendations and also specific ones for each of the findings presented above, all of which are for teachers to improve the gloomy situation of their English speaking classes and motivate their students to speak. Teachers needs first and foremost identify all causes of the situation so as to employ suitable measures to solve each single problem at a time or some or all of them. To deal with the biggest problem found in the survey, which is the students’ varied level of proficiency; teachers can make use of whole-class activities as well as pair or group work. Classes can begin and end with whole-class activities to foster a sense of unity among the students. Teachers can also choose to break students into pairs or groups for all or part of the class time. Group students of similar ability level so that they can work on the same activity at about the same pace; such groups do not need to be the same size. Grouping students of mixed abilities and giving them the same task allow them to help one another. Teachers can have all groups working on activities concurrently, or may want to rotate between 2-3 groups, teaching a lesson to one while others work on a self-guided task. The latter method requires greater preparation but is more likely to meet level-specific needs. Here are some ideas for pair and group work in multi-level classes. Similar-ability pairs should do tasks where the roles are interchangeable with the same difficulty. Examples: information gaps, dialogues, role plays, and two-way interviews. Mixed-ability pairs need unequal tasks. Examples: a story dictated by one and transcribed by the other, an interview in which one asks and one answers, and role plays with one role larger than the other. Similar-ability groups can be different sizes. Consider gender, and age issues when grouping. Such groups can work on tasks where everyone can contribute equally. Examples: problem solving and process writing. Mixed-ability groups need activities that do not require equal language abilities. Examples: board games and making lists. Individuals of much higher or much lower than the rest of the class may be given independent tasks to work on. When working with class as a whole, the following strategies can be used to keep higher level students challenged while not neglecting lower ones. If the dominance of students with higher level of proficiency becomes problematic, end the group work and facilitate the activity yourself by using the board so all students can see and participate. If this happens during whole-class activities, teachers may need to take a more active role in controlling possession of speaking time between the advanced and the beginners. If teachers know advanced students will complete a task in a given time quickly, give them extra activities like a writing assignment or worksheet to do while waiting for the rest of the class to finish. Advanced students can be asked to explain new vocabulary words (preferably in English), or model a dialogue with you. When holding class discussions or checking students’ comprehension of the lesson, ask beginners simple questions with one correct answer, save open-ended and opinion questions for higher level students. In choosing whole-class activities, reliance on texts should be minimized. Authentic materials like songs and video clips are well suited to multilevel participation. Additionally, teachers can ask for students’ feedback on their class experience, and discuss any individual concerns directly with the respective students. It will probably help to speak individually with each of the students you are concerned about and ask for their suggestions. If topics are found not interesting/familiar enough, teachers should provide topics which are more interesting and appropriate to students’ age, level of English, and relating to real life to create enjoyable class atmosphere that makes reluctant learners interested in speaking. Assigned topics may not inspire students to talk as much as student-selected topics. Students should be given the chance to select topics themselves because the topic certainly will be in their list of favorite, and the more likely they like it, the more they are interested in discussion. As students are all adults, they usually like to talk about such topics as family, love, jobs, incomes, and so on. However, lessons cannot go without content and objectives of each unit of the course book being achieved, i.e., topics in the course book, although being considered boring or unfamiliar ones, cannot be eliminated. Teachers can make use of and introduce various ideas for discussion, some of which are introduced in the table below, to make these topics interesting and familiar enough to students. Unit Topics Suggested ideas for discussion 1 Happiness - Who do you think is happier? A normal citizen or a famous people? - do you think a billionaire is a happy person? 2 Arts - Talent and education – which do you think makes a genius? 3 Customs - What Vietnamese custom do you think the most shocking to foreigners? - What domestic and foreign custom you know that is most interesting to talk about? 4 Tourism - Why do you think more and more people visit Vietnam? - What do you think are Vietnam’s attractions to foreign visitors? - Why do you think many foreign visitors do not come back Vietnam? - More and more Vietnamese people travel abroad: why? 6 Retirement - Age for retirement should be the same between men and women: do you agree? - What do you think you will do when you retire? 7 Money, life, work - What job do you think can bring you most money? - What is your dream job? Doing charity - have you ever done charity? Why did you do it? - Who in the society do you think need charity the most? 8 Personality - name four necessary characteristics of a good wife/ husband/ teacher (or a successful businessman/ politician …) - What are five things you love/hate about yourself? - What do you wish your girlfriend/ boyfriend/ husband/ wife … to be like? Children and family size - do you wish to be/ to have the only child in your family? - How many brothers/ sisters/ children/ sons/ daughter do you wish to have? 9 Different views of smoking - What is your advice for a girl whose husband to-be smokes bears bronchitis? - Why do you think cigarettes are produced and smoked? Collecting things - If any collections would be valuable in 50 years, what would you collect? - Why do you think people collect things? 10 Famous people - If you can become a famous people in one day, who do want to be? - If you can give a question to Miss Vietnam 2006/ President Bush/ (any famous person)…, what will you ask? Table 7: Suggested ideas for discussion For teachers whose students are timid in speaking classes, they should give their students more praise, encouragement and supportive compliments rather than negative criticism. Teachers should be more tolerant to learners’ language mistakes as this is unavoidable, even with the most competent students. This is not to say that students should be given praise every time. Alternatively, comments on good points students have made should always be prior to those that need further improvement. Teachers can also talk with students about their fear of making mistakes. Tell them that mistakes are positive as at least they show teachers where students’ difficulties are so that teachers can help them. If students lack words to express themselves, what teachers should do is providing related words when introducing topics through listening or reading as pre-speaking activities. Besides, teacher should pay attention to students when they are speaking so as to guess their ideas to support them in case they cannot find exact words to express themselves. What is more, teachers should not expect perfection from students in the use of unfamiliar or difficult words, but rather should develop a supportive environment and group rapport that encourage students to experiment with unfamiliar words. Teachers need to explain that words represent thoughts so students should not attempt to use unusual syntax, outlandish phrases, or “big words” but try to find direct and meaningful ways of making themselves understood. It seems to be problematic to change students’ habit of “listening without speaking” in speaking lessons. If students are not accustomed to speaking in English class, alternative ways need to be applied. One way is to have everyone stand up and either ask a question or answer a question to sit down. This way helps when teachers make it fun or else the students will feel uncomfortable. Teachers can make it a game, and the losing team has to write more homework or something little like that. Another way is to have students answer in groups, as a lot of them do not want to be the only one to talk. Alternatively, students can be spilt up into pairs and given an interesting dialogue to read before reading the dialogue out loud. All these ways to make students get accustomed to speaking in class cannot go without deciding factors such as teachers’ patience, support and enthusiasm. All in all, there is hardly any single measure that can deal with all problems raised in the process of teaching and learning a language in general and speaking skill in particular. Applying the following strategies can hopefully help teachers deal with most of difficulties they encounter in their teaching speaking skill. Yet whether a speaking class succeeds depends almost on the active role of teachers in their teaching as well as that of students in their learning. Do interesting topics or make topics interesting. Teachers can formally ask students (in a needs analysis) what topics they are interested in. If teachers tackle topics that students are not interested in, they will lose the students’ desire to participate at the very beginning of the lesson. In case students appear to be bored with topics in the course book, easy and interesting ideas for discussion can be introduced to make the topics less boring and more familiar to students. Be enthusiastic about what you are teaching. This is the timeless one. Any students can spot a bored teacher at twenty paces. If you do not feel enthusiastic about your teaching, the students will tend to follow your lead, reflecting your lack of enthusiasm and surely you will be helpless about getting already-tired students involve in speaking lessons. Connect with your students. It does not make any sense; no matter how evolved and refined your methodology is, if you do not connect with your class. Teachers have to tune in to the different language abilities and the different personalities of their students. This involves focusing more on what the students are saying and less on what teachers are saying. Teach “use”, not only ‘usage”. When students are using the target language (for example, in a role play), they feel empowered. They can feel the benefits of the lesson in a very tangible way. In contrast, learning rules about the target language is likely to result in the rapid onset of boredom. For example, it is better to set up an information gap, in which students are trying to arrange a meeting than to give a lecture on the form and meaning of the present continuous for the future. III.3 Suggested activities for motivating students and improving their speaking ability Here are some ideas teachers should keep in mind when planning speaking activities. Content As much as possible, the content should be practical and usable in real-life situations. Too much new vocabulary or grammar should be avoided. Correcting Errors Teachers need to provide appropriate feedback and correction, but don’t interrupt the flow of communication. Take notes while pairs or groups are talking and address problems to the class after the activity to avoid embarrassing the student who made the error. Teachers can write the error on the board and ask who can correct it. Quantity versus Quality Address both interactive fluency and accuracy, striving foremost for communication. Get to know each student’s personality and encourage the quieter ones to take more risks. Conversation Strategies Encourage strategies like asking for clarification, paraphrasing, gestures, and initiating (‘hey,’ ‘so,’ ‘by the way’). Teacher Intervention If a speaking activity loses steam, teachers may need to jump into a role-play, ask more discussion questions, clarify your instructions, or stop an activity that is too difficult or boring. Below are some activities and games that can add interest to each lesson and serve different learning styles. Teachers can find sample games and activities in this part for getting their students more involved in speaking in class and can feel free to change their content or degree of difficulty to suit their needs, or use them as a springboard to create specific activities. These activities can be made more challenging by increasing the complexity of the language and adding elements of risk, or made less challenging by simplifying the language and providing more guidance to reduce the risk of making errors. Teachers can consult table 8 for ease of accessing activities suitable for the unit being taught. Unit 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Suggested activities 1,3,4, 5, 7 1,3,4, 5,6,7, 8, 14 1,3, 4, 5 1,3, 4,5, 13 1,3, 4,5, 12 1,3, 4,5,7, 11,13 1,2, 3,4,5, 9 1,3, 4, 5, 10 1,3, 4, 5 1,3, 4, 5 Table 8: Activities suitable for each unit in the course book ‘English for Graduate Students’  For more activities, see appendix 4 Activity 1: Word Routes This activity can make students feel more relaxed about expressing their opinion among their own peer groups. It generates a lot of talking as students are free to express whatever ideas/opinions they have about topic. It allows freedom and flexibility so students develop confidence in their speaking and fluency skills as they examine the twists and turns that different conversations can take on the same subject. Aims Express opinions about a subject and refer to events freely Ask questions and seek opinions Class time 15-20 minutes Preparation time 30 minutes Resources List of interesting topics Procedure Prepare a list of topics that interest students (e.g. fashion, love, marriage, holiday). Divide the class into several groups of five or six students. Have students choose one member of the group to take notes. Give all the groups the same topic for free discussion. (This means students are free to discuss the topic and to develop and carry on their conversation within the time limits of the activity.) While students are discussing the topic, have the note-taker keep track of the progression or “word route” of the conversation (e.g. from toothpastes, to teeth, to dentists, diet, to clothes). At the end of the time period (5-10 minutes), check the group’s progress and have the note-taker of each group present the word route they have recorded. Compare the different groups’ development of their conversation as the whole-class activity. Activity 2: Two-minute Conversations: If I were … This activity gives the students the opportunity to get to know each other better and therefore helps to create a non-threatening environment for speaking and sharing ideas. It also encourages students to think creatively because they must share a personal characteristic in an abstract way. Students practice initiating, continuing, and closing a conversation; using the conditional; communicating personal information; and developing vocabulary. Aims Get to know classmates Practice the conditional Class time Variable Preparation time 15 minutes Resources movable desks; handout with 15 or more categories (see Appendix below). Procedure Arrange half of the desks in a large outer circle facing in, and the other half in an inner circle facing out so that when seated, every student has a partner. Give the students two minutes to discuss the topics listed on the handout. There is a different topic for each conversation but every conversation starts with the phrase, “If I were a _______, I would be (a) _______ because _______.” (E.g. If the topic were Body of Water, they could say, “If I were a body of water, I would be an ocean because an ocean can be very calm, deep and mysterious, but in a moment it can be dangerous. That’s what I am, very moody, but never dull. How about you? What would you be?”. When the time is up, ask the students in the inner circle to stand up and move one seat to the right to begin another 2-minute conversation with a new partner. Appendix Possible categories are color, days of the week, kinds of weather, musical instruments, months, countries, cities, articles of clothing, songs, kinds of fruit, flowers, pieces of furniture, food, toys, etc. Activity 3 Toss and Tell Us This activity accesses linguistic knowledge from memory in an oral mode and provides students with practice in reading short sentences aloud to the class. This practice is achieved through understanding and speaking in response to short directives covering a variety of subjects. Students who are not participating have an opportunity to learn information – for example, the answers to the short directives – so that when their turns come they will be able to answer fluently. Aims Answer content questions about the real world Generate feedback on peers’ performance Class time Variable Preparation time None Resources pair of dice, roll of dice sheet Procedure Select a student at random to roll the dice. Have that student roll the dice to obtain a number from the Roll of the Dice sheet. Then ask the student to choose a classmate, select answers A, B, or C from the Roll of the Dice sheet, and read it to the selected classmate. The selected student responds. If the student cannot respond, have the first student read another one of the three items. If the student again cannot respond, read the third choice. Should the student still not be able to respond, that student loses this turn. Have the first student roll again and select a new student to answer. Have the student who rolled the dice pass them to the student who responded, who then selects another student at random and the activity continues. Appendix Roll of Dice Sheet Roll the dice to obtain a number from 2 to 12. After the number has been determined, select answer A, B, or C and read to the student selected in a voice loud enough for all of the class to hear. Roll of 2 Tell us who you think are two most important people in the world today and explain why you think so. Tell us what your two favorite subjects in school are and explain why you like them. Tell us two things you like to do in your spare time. Roll of 3 Tell us the name of the last movie you saw and if you liked it, tell why. Tell us what country you would like to visit and why. Tell us, in detail, what you had for dinner last night. Roll of 4 Tell us four things you like about yourself. Tell us one thing you don’t like about yourself. Tell us the name of one item of clothing you would buy if someone gave you enough money to buy it and explain why. Roll of 5 Tell us who is the tallest boy in the class. Prove your answer. Tell us what the weather is like today. Tell us your dog’s name if you have one. If you don’t have a dog, what would you name one if you did? Roll of 6 Tell us the names of four grains that people eat. Tell us the names of four diseases. Tell us what size shoes you wear. Roll of 7 Tell us what you have in your right front pants pocket if you are wearing trousers. If not, tell us what brand of toothpaste you use. Tell us what you think is the most serious problem facing the world today. Tell us how to get to the university parking place. Roll of 8 Tell us whether most blood flows to the heart or from the heart. Tell us where your food goes after you swallow it. Tell us which you like better, cats or dogs, and give us your reasons. Roll of 9 Tell us who you would invite to go on a date with you if you could invite anybody in the world. Tell us what ice cream is made of. Tell us what the longest river in the world is. Roll of 10 Tell us approximately how many people live in China. Tell us three qualities you like in a person. Tell us what your favorite dessert is and what is it made of. Roll of 11 Tell us what state in the United States has the most people. Tell us the names of five different pieces of furniture. Tell us the name of the largest mammal that lives in the ocean. Roll of 12 Tell us the name of one famous poet. Tell us at what temperature water freezes in both Centigrade and Fahrenheit measurements. Tell us which animal(s) provide(s) us with wool. Activity 4 Agreeing and Disagreeing A lively and relaxed classroom atmosphere helps students learn a language. This activity encourages the students to exchange opinions in a non-threatening situation. The activity also centers around topics that are familiar and of interest to the students. Students are free to express their views, and they are also required to clarify or support their opinions. Genuine communication as well as learning can thus take place in a relaxed classroom setting. Aims Practice giving and responding to opinions Class time 30 minutes Preparation time 5 minutes Resources White board and marker; ball (optional) Procedure Explain the task to the students. The students will be paired up and they will take turns giving opinions about each other and responding to each other’s opinions. Write on the board the different expressions students can use in expressing and responding to an opinion. The list may include I think, I feel, as I see it, in expressing an opinion; and that’s right, correct, exactly, in agreeing; and I’m afraid not, not quite, in disagreeing. Pair off the students randomly. Explain the task. Students should take turns giving an opinion about the partner’s beliefs, likes, dislikes, hobbies, interests, abilities and skills. Their partner should then respond, by either agreeing or disagreeing. Each student should give at least three opinions. The response has to be given immediately after each opinion. Encourage of the students to use a different expression each. Examples might include: Opinion: I think you like eating fast food a lot as I have seen you at least twice at McDonald’s. Response: Well, you’re quite right. I especially like the French fries there. Opinion: I guess you enjoy listening to pop music. Response: Actually, I don’t. I prefer classical music to pop music. Opinion: In my opinion, you are very shy since I seldom hear you speak in class. Response: Mm, in fact, I don’t think I’m shy. I seldom speak in class since I think it is not very polite. Activity 5 Letting Students Ask the Questions We all know that people want to talk about what interests them. This activity makes the most of that premise by requiring students’ participation throughout every step: from allowing the students to choose the topics to be discussed to having the students be responsible for leading the group discussions. Aims Speak and learn about an interesting topic Take responsibility for learning Class time 15-30 minutes Preparation time 20 minutes Procedure give students a questionnaire asking them to list at least five topics they would like to discuss. type the list of topics on a handout for students and have them choose (as a class) a topic to discuss in the next lesson. have students write down three interesting and relevant questions about the topic they would like to ask other students. for the next lesson: type the questions and number them on a handout. cut out as many slips of paper as there are questions and number them corresponding to the questions on the handout. Include vocabulary items on the handout that may be useful for the upcoming discussion. on the discussion day, give the students the handout and distribute the slips of paper at random so that each student has a few slips. have students ask the question that corresponds to the number on their slip of paper, beginning with question 1. Each student asking a question should actively elicit responses from the other students and make sure everyone has a chance to speak. Continue the same process until all the questions have been asked and discussed. Activity 6 The Year That Was Nearly everyone has access to media news and may discuss the news in their L1. As language teachers, we can capitalize on this real-life activity outside the classroom and encourage students to express their opinions about the news in a classroom activity. Aims Discuss important events that occurred in the previous year Practice arguing, agreeing, disagreeing, and justifying Class time 30 minutes Preparation time 30 minutes Resources Copy magazines that summarize the past years' events in photos Procedures Choose, cut out, and paste onto separate sheets of paper, 10 pictures about news stories from a previous year out of an end-of-the-year magazine. (Do not leave any captions or text on the pictures.) Number the pictures from 1 to 10 in random order. You may need to make several sets of pictures, depending on the size of the class. Have students use a clean sheet of paper and write Topic at the top of the left-hand side, and Comment at the top of the right-hand side. Also have them number from 1 to 10, at equal intervals, down the left-hand side of the paper. Tell students you will distribute 10 pictures. They should look at them and write the topic of the story (if they know it) next to the corresponding number on the Topic side of their page. Students should not discuss the pictures with you or other classmates during this part of the activity. Organize the class into groups of five and have students compare their topic lists. Once you and the students are satisfied with the lists, elicit the topics from students as a class activity and write them on the chalkboard so that eventually, everyone has a similar list. Have the groups discuss the topics for 15-20 minutes and have them make notes under the Comment section of their paper. Choose members from each group to explain to the class what 10 news items are about. Make brief notes from this discussion on the board. Ask groups to discuss the importance of each item and rank them in order of importance. Again, choose members from each group to tell the class the order of importance they have determined, and encourage class discuss to decide the "best order". Activity 7 Get It Done This class activity encourages learners to gain confidence in control over one of the many uses of the verb get. Get It Done encourages students to avoid dependency on written English for oral work, contextualize grammar and pronunciation in genuine communication, and keep the eyes up when they speak. Aims Practice causative get or have Review regular and irregular past participles and pronunciation of –ed endings Understand English spoken at normal, conversational speed Class time 20-25 minutes Preparation time None Procedures Put two or three examples of causative get or have sentences on the chalkboard. For example, Joseph gets his hair cut every three weeks. She got her teeth checked at the dentist. New students will get their registration verified soon. Elicit from the class the meaning of causative get by asking such questions as Does Joseph cut his own hair? Who probably cuts his hair? Have the class articulate a rule for using causative get Activity 8 A Day in Life Aims Asking about events, practicing simple past tense Class time 15-20 minutes Preparation time None Procedure The class is divided into groups. One member of each group leaves the room. The remaining group members decide how the person who is outside spent the previous day. They draw up an exact time schedule from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and describe where the person was, what he did, who he talked to. So as not to make the guessing too difficult, the ‘victim’s’ day should not be divided into more than six two-hour periods. The people who waited outside during step 2 are called in and return to their groups. There they try and find out – by asking only yes/no questions – how the group thinks they spent the previous day. (Optional) when each ‘victim’ has guessed his fictitious day, the group tries to find out what he really did. Activity 9 What Would Happen If …? Aims If – clauses, making conjectures, asking for confirmation Class time 10-15 minutes Preparation time 30 minutes Resources About twice as many slips of paper with an event/situation written on them as there are students Procedure Every student receives one or two slips of paper with sentences like these on them: ‘What would happen if a shop gave away its goods free every Wednesday?’ ‘What would you do if you won a trip for two to a city of your choice?’ One student starts by reading out his question and then asks another student to answer it. The second student continues by answering or asking a third student to answer the first student’s question. If he has answered the question he may then read out his own question for somebody else to answer. The activity is finished when all the questions have been read out and answered. The student can prepare their own questions. Here are some more suggestions: What would happen if every body who told a lie turned green? people could get a driving lesson at 14? girls had to do military service? men were not allowed to become doctors or pilots? children over 10 were allowed to vote? men can live up to 200 years old? gold was found in your area? a film was made in your school/ place of work? headmasters had to be elected by teachers and pupils? smoking was not forbidden in public places? men are allowed to have more than one wife? What would you do if you were invited to the President’s house? you were invited to be an actor/actress by a famous film director? a photo graph of yours won first prize at an exhibition? your little sister aged 14 told you she were pregnant? you saw your teacher pass red light? you saw somebody hit a small child very hard? a salesman called at your house and tried to sell you something you do not need? your horoscope warned you against traveling when you want to go on holiday? it rained every day of your holiday? if you got a love letter from somebody you did not know? you saw a snake in your bed? you lost your walk in the woods? you found 200,000 dong in a library book? you forgot you had asked four people to lunch and didn’t have any food in the house when they arrived? a young man/girl told you that he/she cannot live without you? your lover told you he/she fell in love with another person? you could not sleep at night? you noticed that you didn’t bring any money with you when the seller gave you the shoes you decided to take? Activity 10 Personalities Aims Giving reasons, making comparisons Class time 10-15 minutes Preparation time None Procedure the teacher writes a list of 10-15 famous names on the board. She asks the students to select the six personalities they would like to invite to their classroom to give a talk and rank them in order of preference. They write their choices in order on a piece of paper. All the papers are collected. When the final list for the whole class has been compiled, students who selected the most popular personalities are asked to explain their choice. The activity could be continued with the students writing our interview questions they would like to ask the person of their choice. Remarks The teacher will be far more successful in devising a list which is geared towards her students’ knowledge and interests. Activity 11 Job prestige Aims Asking for and giving reasons, agreeing and disagreeing Class time 15-20 minutes Preparation time None Procedure The teacher outlines the task. “You are going to be given a list of 14 occupations. You have to rank them according to two criteria. First arrange them in the order which these jobs are regarded and paid for in our society. Secondly make a list in which you show how important you think each job should be.” dentist taxi driver secretary schoolteacher policeman lawyer journalist university professor actor nurse shop-assistant librarian engineer farmer “Work with your neighbor. You should – as far as it is possible – reach agreement in both rankings. Where you cannot agree, mark the difference of opinion on your list.” The results are presented by the students and noted on the board. The first list will probably be very similar in each case, with clusters of high prestige and low prestige job emerging clearly. The ranking of the jobs according to the importance allotted to them by individual students may differ wildly and should stimulate a discussion on the criteria for “upgrading” or “downgrading” certain occupations. Activity 12 Twenty things I’d like to do Aims Expressing likes and dislikes Analyzing one’s likes Class time 20-30 minutes Preparation time None Procedure The students are asked to write a list of 20 things they would like to do. These can be ordinary activities like eating a lot of ice-cream or more exotic dreams like going for a trip in a balloon. They should jot sown anything that comes to mind, writing the activities one under the other. These lists will remain private. the students are asked to code their lists by putting one or more of the following symbols in front of them: Ê if the activity is expensive WF if the activity involves other people (WF = with friends) A if they would do this on their own (A = alone) M or F if they think their mother (M) of father (F) would enjoy this, too X if the activity is at all physically or mentally harmful (e.g. smoking) now the students should think about the distribution stem sentences: I have learnt from this exercise that ... I am surprised that I am pleased that ... I am worried that ... I don’t mind that ... The completed sentences are collected by the teacher and individual ones read out, provided they contain a stimulus for discussion. Variations Students may want to make suggestions for other ways of coding. The lists are made up of things the students would not like to do. Activity 13 Consequences Aims Practicing future tense, conditional Thinking creatively Class time 10-20 minutes Preparation As many cards with an action on as there are groups Procedure The teacher divides the class into groups. She gives each group an action card. Examples: A 25-hour working week is introduced. A lorry driver empties a tank full of poisonous waste into the river near a town. Animal merchants catch the last animals of a dying species and sell them to zoos in Vietnam. Men can get maternity leave (paternity leave) like women. Robots that can do housework are built. Scientists discover that cancer is caused by pollution. A group of boys always use the bus or tram without paying. Each group now has to think of all the possible long-term and short-term consequences this action may have. The group secretary writes down all the consequences. When the group cannot think of any more consequences they exchange cards with another group. With each new card a different group member becomes secretary. The consequences of each action are shared and discussed with the whole class. Variations Each student can work out consequences on his own before working in a group. Remarks It should be stressed that there is rarely a chain of events triggered by one action alone. This technique is slightly misleading as it does not take complex situations and reasons for actions into account. Nevertheless it may help students realize that simple actions have far-reaching consequences. For some classes it can be helpful to give the students a handout to be filled in, like the one that follows. Action CONSEQUENCES Next few days Next year Next 20 years Activity 14 Chain story Aims Practicing simple past Class time 15-20 minutes Preparation Small slips of paper with one noun/ verb/ adjective on each of them, as many pieces of paper as there are students. Procedure Each student receives a word slip. The teacher starts the story by giving the first sentence, e.g. “It was s stormy night in November.” A student (either a volunteer or the person sitting nearest to the teacher) continues the story. He may say up to three sentences and must include the word on his slip of paper. The next student goes on. Variations Each student is also given a number. The numbers determine the sequence in which the students have to contribute to the story. PART THREE: CONCLUSION 1. Summary of the study The current teaching and learning situation has been figured out in the study through questionnaires and follow-up interviews with 100 students of law, economics, information technology, education and business administration and 12 teachers of English at VNUH. Due to various reasons such as variety in students’ level of language proficiency, lack of interesting topics, prior experience in learning speaking, and fear of losing face, more than two-thirds of the students remain reluctant to respond to the teacher and keep quiet until they are singled out to answer questions. Moreover, many of them seem to be helpless about being reticent when the teacher asks a question and expects a respond. The study has introduced some measures to help students become more willing and active to converse with others in the target language in class. It also includes activities for teachers to make use of in motivating their students to reduce reticence and be more confident in English speaking classes. To meet the needs of multi-level classes, teachers need to make use of various methods. In order to help reduce students’ reticence, teachers themselves should be aware of the existence of reticence among students and try to give more chances and encouragement to the more quiet ones by asking them more questions. As three quarters of them go to class after a working day, they are sometimes too tired to learn so lessons should be made with a lot of fun and comfort with interesting and motivating activities or games. Besides, as suggested by the students’ informants, teachers should prepare more topics which are not only interesting but also related to students’ life so that students have the interest in and ability to talk about them in English. In addition, teachers should try to establish a friendly, supportive, and non-threatening learning environment, as well as introducing activities that motivate students to speak. It is important for teachers to be friendly rather than strict and critical in class, in order to make students feel easy to speak English. 2. Suggestions for further study In further study, with greater time and effort, surveys should be conducted with a larger sample population and wider sources of activities and if it is possible, activities suitable for different majors need to be added. Suggested activities should consider students’ different majors one of the factors raising students’ willingness to involve in classroom speaking activities. Further studies on changing the form of speaking test to have a more challenging one is also suggested as an effort to motivate students in their learning speaking skill in English class at SGS – VNUH. REFERENCES Baley, K.M., & Savage, L. (1994) New Way in Teaching Speaking: TESOL. Bax, S. (2003). The end of CLT: a context approach to language teaching ELT J (pp.278-287). Brown, G., & Yule, G. (1983). Teaching the Spoken Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Brown, H.D. (1994). Teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents. Burns, A., & Joyce, H. (1997). Focus on speaking. Sydney: National Center for English Language Teaching and Research. Bygate, M. (2001). Speaking. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Byrne, D. (1988). Focus on the Classroom. Hong Kong: Modern English Publications. Cohen, A. (1996). Developing the ability to perform speech acts. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 18, (pp.253–267). Ellis, R. (1990). Instructed second language acquisition. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Hadfield, J. (1984). Advanced Communication Games: Nelson. Hadfield, J. (1984). Elementary Communication Games: Nelson. Hammerly, H. (1991). Fluency and accuracy: Toward balance in language teaching and learning. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. Kay, S. (1995). Reward Pre-Intermediate Communicative Activities for Students of English: Mcmillan. Klippel, F. (1991). Keep talking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Lazaraton, A. (2001). Teaching oral skills. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.) Teaching English as a second or foreign language (3rd ed., pp. 103–115). Boston: Heinle & Heinle. Major, R. C. (2001). Foreign accent: The ontogeny and phylogeny of second language phonology. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Nunan, D. (1989). Designing tasks for the communicative classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nunan, D. (1991). Language teaching methodology: A textbook for teachers. New York: Prentice Hall. O.M. & Spada, N. (1999). How Languages are Learned. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. (1986). Approaches and methods in language teaching: A descriptive analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ur, P. (1996). A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ur, P. (1991). Discussions that Work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Van Duzer, C. (1997). Improving ESL learners' listening skills: At the workplace and beyond. Van Lier, L. (1995). Introducing language awareness. London: Penguin English. Wallwork, A. (1997). Discussions A-Z Intermediate – A Resource Book of Speaking Activities: Cambridge. Washington, DC: Project in Adult Immigrant Education and National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education. Wallwork, A. (1997). Discussions A-Z Intermediate – A Resource Book of Speaking Activities: Cambridge. APPENDIX Appendix 1 Questionnaire for students QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS The following questionnaire aims at figuring out problems encountered by non-major MA students of English at VNUH in learning English speaking skill to suggest ways to improve their ability in speaking English. Please fill out by checking the box(es) which best describe(s) your ideas or specifying your answer. Your responses are more than of beneficial values. Thank you very much for your cooperation! Question 1 I’m interested in speaking English in class because … Topics are interesting/familiar. □ My teacher always encourages me to speak, even I make a lot of mistakes in speaking. □ My teacher pays attention to me because I speak English better than other students in the class. □ I can express my ideas easily in English. □ I feel confident in speaking English in front of others. □ I like speaking activities and games. □ I’m accustomed to practicing speaking in class. □ Others (please specify) ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Question 2 I’m not willing to speak English in class because … Topics are boring/unfamiliar. □ My teacher often stops me and corrects my mistakes when I’m speaking. □ I’m afraid that my classmates will laugh at me if I make mistakes. □ I can’t find exact words to express my ideas. □ My teacher hardly ever pays attention to me. □ My teacher and other students speak almost all the time. □ I’m not accustomed to speaking English in class (It’s my habit to sit in class and listen quietly to teachers until I’m asked to speak). □ It’s ok if I don’t speak. The teacher never complains about that. □ I’m tired after a working day. □ Others (please specify) ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Question 3 Does your teacher often use activities for you to practice speaking English in classrooms? Yes, very often. I like the activities. □ Yes, very often. But the activities are not interesting and varied enough. □ Yes, sometimes. I like the activities. □ Yes, sometimes. But the activities are not interesting and varied enough. □ Occasionally. I like the activities. □ Occasionally. And the activities are not interesting. □ Never. □ Others (please specify) ……………………………………………………………… Appendix 2 Questionnaire for teachers QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS The following questionnaire aims at figuring out difficulties that teachers have in teaching English speaking skill for non-major English MA students at SGS – VNUH so as to suggest ways to help teachers solve the problem. Please fill out by checking the box(es) which best describe(s) your ideas or specifying your answer. Your responses are more than of beneficial values. Thank you very much for your cooperation! Question 1 What are your difficulties in teaching speaking for non major MA students of English at SGS? Students are unwilling to speak. □ Students’ levels of proficiency are varied. □ I don’t have enough time to prepare speaking activities. □ I can’t find suitable and interesting speaking activities. □ Teaching speaking takes time when I have to cover all other contents of the course book. □ Others (please specify) …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Question 2 What do you do to motivate students to speak in class? I create interesting games and activities. □ I introduce interesting and familiar topics. □ I let them talk about whatever topic they like. □ I give them many questions. □ I always listen attentively to and appreciate students’ answers. □ I never forget to praise them before pointing out their mistakes in speaking. □ I set funny classroom rules/punishment for those who keep quiet or speak Vietnamese in class. □ I ask the better students to speak first. □ I ask the better students to speak after other students. □ I encourage students to learn by reminding them of the proportion of speaking skill in their end of course test. □ Others (please specify) …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Appendix 3 The Contents page of the course book English for Graduate Students Unit 1 Happiness Present states and actions Active and passive Numbers Unit 2 Telling tales Past tenses Active and passive Unit 3 Doing the right things Modal verbs Requests and offers Unit 4 On the move Future forms Traveling around Unit 5 Likes and dislikes Like Verb + V_ing or infinitive Unit 6 The world of work Present perfect Active and passive Unit 7 Imagine Conditionals Time clauses Would Unit 8 Relationship Modal verbs (2) Probability So do I! Neither do I! Unit 9 Obsession Present Perfect Continuous Time expressions Unit 10 Tell me about it Reported questions Questions tags Appendix 4 More suggested activities Warm-up Ideas Warm-ups help students put aside their daily distractions and focus on English. If they have not used English all day, they may take a little time to shift into it. Warm-ups also encourage whole-group participation which can build a sense of community within the group. Brainstorm Give a topic and ask learners to think of anything related to it. Write the responses for all to see, or ask a volunteer to do the writing. Teachers can use this to elicit vocabulary related to the lesson. Question of the Day Ask 1-2 simple questions and give learners some minutes to write their answers. Randomly choose a few people to share their answers with the group. Yesterday Have a student stand in front of the group and make one statement about yesterday, such as "Yesterday I went shopping." Then let everyone else ask questions to learn more information, such as "Who did you go with?" "What did you buy?" "What time did you go?" etc. Try this with 1-2 different students each day. Describe the Picture Show a picture and have learners take turns saying one descriptive thing about it. Lower level students can make simple observations like "three cats" while advanced students can make up a story to go with the picture. They are not allowed to repeat what someone else said, so they need to pay attention when each person speaks. Show & Tell A student brings an item from home and talks about it in front of the group. Give students enough advance notice to prepare and remind them again before their turn. Have a back up plan in case the learner forgets to bring an item. Students of lower level may only be able to share the name of an item and where they got it. Be sure to give them specific instructions about what information they are wanted to tell. Sing a Song Songs can be a lively way to get everyone involved. Mystery Object Bring an item that is so unusual that the learners are not likely to recognize what it is. Spend some time eliciting basic descriptions of the item and guesses what it is and how it is used. If possible, pass the item around. This is an activity in observation and inference, so don't answer questions. Just write down descriptions and guesses until someone figures it out or you reveal the mystery. Ice Breakers Name Crossword Write teacher’s name across or down on the board being sure not to crowd the letters. Students take turns coming to the board, saying their name, and writing it across or down, overlapping one letter that is already on the board. It's usually best if teachers allow students to volunteer to come up rather than calling on them in case a letter in their name is not on the board yet, although the last few students may need encouragement if they are shy. Similarities Give each person one or more colored shapes cut from construction paper. They need to find another person with a similar color, shape, or number of shapes and form pairs. Then they interview each other to find 1-2 similarities they have, such as working for foreign companies or having two children or coming from a certain city or town. They can share their findings with the class if there is enough time. Pair Interviews Pairs interview each other, using specified questions for intermediates and open format for advanced students. Then they take turns to introduce their partner to the whole class. Be sensitive to privacy when asking for personal information. Snowball Fight Give learners a piece of white paper and ask them to write down their name, date of birth, and some trivial fact (such as a favorite fruit). Have everyone wad the pages into 'snowballs' and toss them around for a few minutes. On teacher’s signal, everyone should unwrap a snowball, find the person who wrote it, and ask 1-2 more trivial facts. Write the questions on the board so the students can refer to them. Remember that each student will need to ask one person the questions and be asked questions by a third person, so leave enough time. Students then can take turns to introduce the person they interviewed. Mystery Identities Write the names of famous people or places (or use animals or fruits for a simplified version) onto 3x5cm cards. Attach a card to each student's back. Give them time to mingle and ask each other questions to try to figure out their tagged identities. This is usually limited to yes/no questions, although beginners might be allowed to ask any question they can. Be at least 90% sure that the students have heard of the items on the cards and especially the ones you place on their own backs. ESL Games Some of these can be used as warm-ups. Most of them can be linked to any lesson theme or grammatical form you're working on. These games usually require at least a small group to play, but you may be able to adapt some of them for one-on-one settings. Find Someone Who... Create a list of characteristics such as "likes chocolate," "has two children," or "can swim." There should be 10-15 items, and you can relate them to your lesson if you wish. Then let the learners mingle and get signatures of other learners who fit the descriptions. Make sure they are using appropriate question forms ("likes X" becomes "Do you like X?") and aren't just pointing to the items on the page. This can be made into a Bingo activity by putting the items on a grid. Scavenger Hunt Divide the class into teams and hand out a list of items to be collected (a penny, a stick of gum, a signature, a pine cone, a shoelace). Define the searching range (classroom, house, campus, neighborhood, and building). The first team to return with all the items wins a prize. Twenty Questions Select an object in your mind and let the learners ask up to twenty questions to guess what it is. Trade places with the winner and let that learner select an object for the next round. Storyline Divide into groups of 4-6 people. Give everyone a she