VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* ĐỖ THỊ HẠNH A STUDY ON THE INFLUENCES OF SOME FIRST CULTURAL FACTORS ON FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENT’S PARTICIPATION IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LEARNING AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ SỰ ẢNH HƯỞNG CỦA MỘT SỐ NHÂN TỐ VĂN HÓA MẸ ĐẺ LÊN VIỆC THAM GIA HỌC NÓI TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HA NOI - 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* ĐỖ THỊ HẠNH A STUDY ON THE INFLUENCES OF SOME FIRST CULTURAL FACTORS ON FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENT’S PARTICIPATION IN ENGLISH SPEAKING LEARNING AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ SỰ ẢNH HƯỞNG CỦA MỘT SỐ NHÂN TỐ VĂN HÓA MẸ ĐẺ LÊN VIỆC THAM GIA HỌC NĨI TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN KHƠNG CHUN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa HA NOI - 2014 DECLARATION I hereby certify that the thesis entitled A study on the influences of some first cultural factors on first year non-English major students’ participation in English speaking learning at Hanoi University of Industry is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and that it has not been previously submitted to this University or to any other institutions in application for admission to a degree, diploma or other qualifications Signature Đỗ Thị Hạnh Date: August 10th, 2014 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my academic supervisor Dr Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa for her conscientious guidance, helpful suggestions, invaluable critical feedback and encouragement in the writing of this study Without invaluable assistance, my study would not have been completed I also wish to acknowledge my great gratitude to all my lecturers at University of Languages and International Studies during my MA course, to the whole staff of the Post Graduate Department as well as the organizers for this Master Course I would like to sincerely thank 60 first year students at Hanoi University of Industry who participated in the study My appreciation is also extended to my colleagues at HaUI for their warm concern and assistance in the process of collecting the data Without their participant and support, this study could not be conducted Last but not least, my heartfelt thanks go to my family and my friends for their love, understanding, encouragement and support to help me complete this study Hanoi, August, 2014 Đỗ Thị Hạnh ii ABSTRACT This research is implemented to investigate the first cultural factors that influence students’ participation in English speaking learning activities at Hanoi University of Industry The research’s subjects are the first year non-English major students from HaUI The results from the questionnaires and the class observations show that the factors coming from cultural factors such as the different traditional learning style, collectivism rather than individualism and the fear of losing face have been regarded as important factors affecting remarkably students’ participation in speaking lessons The findings of the research indicate that teachers should help students to be confident, not to be shy, passive, or afraid of making mistake; improve students’ knowledge of grammar and enrich their vocabulary; build a cooperative atmosphere in class as well as create variety of interesting and appropriate activities to increase students’ involvement in teaching speaking English Implications and suggestions for further research are made with the hope for better methods to help the teachers reduce their students’ negative effect of these factors during the process of learning speaking English iii LIST OF ABBREVIATION AND SYMBOLS HaUI : Hanoi University of Industry CLT : Communicative Language Teaching SLA : Second Language Acquisition ESL : English as a Second Language EFL : English as a Foreign Language E.g : Example UK : United Kingdom : United State US L2 : Second Language iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figure 1: The frequency of students’ speaking English in class Figure 2: Students’ questioning or interrupting the teacher Figure 3: Students’ frequency of expressing their own opinions Table 1: Teachers’ current teaching activities to increase students’ participation Table 2: The frequency of teachers’ current teaching activities Table 3: Students’ participation in speaking activities Table 4: Activities motivate students to take part in speaking lessons Table 5: Students’ comfort when speaking English Table 6: Factors influence on students’ participation in speaking learning Table 7: What teacher should to help students overcome the difficulties v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION………………………………………………………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………… ii ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………… iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS………………………………… iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES……………………………………………… vi TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………… vi PART A: INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………… 1 Rationale for the study………………………………………………………… Aims and objectives of the study …………………………………………… Scope of the study ………… ………………………………………………… Significance of the study ……………………………………………………… Methods of the study….……………………………………………………… Research questions of the study …………………………………………… Organization of the study……………………………………………………… PART B: DEVELOPMENT……………………………………………… CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………………… Culture……………………………… ……………………………………… 1.1 Definitions of culture…….………………………………………………… 1.2 Elements of culture……………………………………………… 1.3 Some cultural factors in the teaching and learning of speaking skills in classrooms ……………………………………………………………… 1.4 The role of culture in language teaching and learning…………… Speaking skills……………………………………………………………… 10 2.1 Definitions of speaking skills…………………………………………… 10 2.2 Types of classroom speaking performance……………………………… 11 2.3 Characteristics of a successful speaking activity………………………… 13 Learners’ participation……………………………………………………… 14 vi Review of previous studies…………………………………………… CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY…………………………………………… Setting of the study…………… …………………………………………… 15 17 17 1.1 Brief introduction of Hanoi University of Industry …… ……………… 17 1.2 Students and their background ………………………………………… 17 1.3 The course book …………………………………………………………… 18 The instruments……………………………………………………………… 18 Subjects……………………………………………………………………… 19 Data collection procedures….………………………………………………… 20 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS ……………………………………………… 22 Situation of students’ participation in learning speaking in classroom lessons 22 1.1 Speaking activities used by teachers……………………………………… 22 1.2 The frequency of teachers’ current teaching activities ………………… 23 1.3 Students’ participation in speaking activities …………………………… 24 1.4 Activities motivate students to take part in speaking lessons …………… 25 1.5 Students’ comfort when speaking English ……………………………… 26 1.6 The frequency of students’ speaking English in class …………………… 27 1.7 Students’ questioning or interrupting the teachers ……………………… 28 1.8 Students’ frequency of expressing their own opinions ………………… 29 The influence of some first cultural factors on students’ participation while learning speaking English in the classroom ……………………………… 30 Students’ desire in order to overcome those difficulties ………………… 31 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS…………………………… 35 Major findings and discussion ……………………………………………… 35 1.1 The situation of students’ participation in class oral activities………… 35 1.2 Factors influence students’ participation in speaking activities………… 35 Recommendations for increasing students’ participation in speaking activities…………………………………………………………………… vii 37 2.1 Teachers should be enthusiastic, friendly, helpful and tolerant………… 37 2.2 Teachers need to help our students to improve their knowledge of grammar and enrich their vocabulary …………………………………… 2.3 Teachers should build a cooperative atmosphere in class ……………… 38 38 2.4 Teachers need to create variety of interesting and appropriate activities 39 2.5 Students should take risks ……………………………………………… 40 PART C: CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………… 41 Recapitulation ……………………………………………………… 41 Pedagogical implications……………………………………………………… 42 Limitations and suggestions for further studies …………………………… 43 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………… 45 APPENDIXES…………………………………………………………………… I viii because of being afraid of making mistakes The teachers, therefore, have to be friendly, give a smile instead of getting angry when students make mistakes Students should make use of opportunities to practice speaking English and make sure that making mistakes is inevitable in language learning process 2.2 Teachers need to help our students to improve their knowledge of grammar and enrich their vocabulary The findings indicated that the majority of the students found it hard to carry out their speaking tasks because of their poor vocabulary, ideas and knowledge relating to the speaking topics Thus, the teachers should find out the speaking topics which suit for students’ language level With such a topic, it is quite easy for students to speak and express their opinions Moreover, the teachers have to create a competitive atmosphere for the students to use new words and structures in speaking activities Finally, they must find other materials relevant to students’ interest; provide students with useful vocabulary, structures and information they need The teachers should also give encouragement so that students will have no fear to speak 2.3 Teachers should build a cooperative atmosphere in class Most of the students felt reluctant to speak in class due to their shyness or lack of confidence Thus, the teachers should try to understand their shyness to make them more confident when practicing English in front of the class by creating an atmosphere in which they feel comfortable, asking questions in order to reduce students’ anxieties, and admit when students not know anything A cooperative classroom atmosphere in which students are encouraged to take part in oral activities can facilitate students to express their opinions without being afraid of making mistakes or negative evaluations Students can work together in pairs or groups for a task in a cooperative atmosphere They can get benefits from sharing ideas, feeling and knowledge It encourages active participation of all members in class A cooperative atmosphere increases learners talk more, more relaxed atmosphere and greater participation Teachers, therefore, need to build a warm environment in which teachers and students have a close relationship 37 They not only play the role of the facilitator of students’ learning, the manager of classroom activities, the advisor to answer students’ questions and to control their performance but also work as the participant to engage in the communicative activities along with the students 2.4 Teachers need to create variety of interesting and appropriate speaking activities The findings of the study showed that some students were passive and they did not take part in speaking activities very often Over a third just listened to and took notes what their partners said A lot of them only spoke when the teachers called or other students were the first ones to give their ideas Teachers, therefore, should make students active by creating suitable, interesting and appropriate activities in speaking learning Pair work and group work are thought to be very useful in speaking lessons Using pair work and group work with interesting and appropriate topics helps teachers reduce boredom and tiredness among students, especially in large classes Establishing routines for pair work and group work activities will help teachers be easy to control and motivate students Secondly, teachers should be interested in using games and visual aids such as pictures, maps, music, etc to draw students’ attention to the lesson because games and visual aids help learners reduce stress and take part in speaking activities better Additionally, discussion, storytelling, interview, picture description, oral presentation, questioning, role-play should be introduced to the students so that they are not fed up with the same activities they have to every day 2.5 Students should take risks As we know that some passive students are often reluctant to speak in the class for fear of making mistakes or being laughed at by others However, according to Brown (1994), risk-taking is one of the essential characteristics of a successful second language learner Students, therefore, should make use of opportunities to practice speaking English and make sure that making mistakes is inevitable in language learning process 38 Summary Chapter has presented some major findings, discussions and recommendations to increase the participation in oral activities for first year non-English major students at HaUI The researcher hopes that the implications will be beneficial to all language teachers and learners 39 PART C: CONCLUSION Recapitulation This study aimed at finding out the cultural factors affecting the participation of first year non-English major students at HaUI in speaking activities To fit this aim, the literature review was first carried out to build a fundamental knowledge about how researchers in Vietnam and all over the world dealt with the problem as well as their findings or conclusions Some basic definitions were mentioned such as culture, speaking skills and learners’ participation Then some other studies relating to students’ participation in English speaking lessons were employed to provide a panorama of the issue After achieving such background knowledge, the setting and the final aim of this study were put into consideration to choose a suitable research methodology Data collection devices consistent with mixed methods including (1) the observations for an overall picture of English speaking lessons in reality, (2) the questionnaires for the situation of students’ participation and the influence of some first cultural factors on their involvement in English speaking classroom All those mentioned scrutiny and techniques are for the benefit of exploiting the potential and feasibility of English speaking lessons for the first year non-English speaking students at HaUI Based on the analyses and discussions presented above, the following conclusions can be reached Firstly, one of the most important points was the situation of students’ participation in speaking skills with two main aspects: teachers’ kinds of activities and students’ participation According to the findings, although the teachers organized different kinds of activities for students to practice such as group work, interview, games, 40 questioning, role-play, etc, the students’ participation was rather low They were reluctant to take part in oral communicative activities Secondly, the main conclusion from the findings and discussion was that there were various factors which affected students’ participation in speaking activities coming from the first culture such as traditional learning style, collectivism and students’ shyness and fear of losing face; students’ low proficiency in English; uninteresting topics; teacher’s inappropriate teaching methodology and classroom atmosphere The research affirmed the impact of these factors on students learning speaking in class, especially cultural factors The students’ comments on the ways the teachers used to motivate students to speak in English lessons were really a valuable source of information for the teachers to find out the best solutions to increase their participation Furthermore, the researcher also gave some recommendations for increasing students’ involvement in speaking lessons The researcher believed that these recommendations would be useful for English teachers in general and English teachers at HaUI in particular In conclusion, the findings of this study would make a significant contribution to improve the current situation in teaching and learning speaking skill for first year nonEnglish major students at HaUI Pedagogical implications The present study, through it detailed descriptions of learners’ participation in speaking lessons, offers valuable information for the teachers The results of this study have confirmed that learners’ participation needs to be seen as an important component of SLA Language teaching should foster learners’ involvement and their willingness to engage in communication In EFL contexts like Vietnam, second language learning mainly occurs in a classroom setting, so generating or enhancing students’ second 41 language participation in the classroom plays a significant role in improving students’ learning On the basic of the information, teachers need to help students to improve their knowledge of grammar and enrich their vocabulary, build a cooperative atmosphere in class, create variety of interesting and appropriate activities More importantly, helping students to be confident; not to be shy, passive or afraid of making mistake are of great importance Many students said they were not willing to communicate because they felt nervous, shy, unconfident or they were afraid of making mistakes Limitations and suggestions for further research Although the researcher has made great effort towards conducting this thesis, there undoubtedly exist some limitations First, the subjects of the questionnaire were 60 first year non-English major students, which can not cover all students at the school, so further studies should also investigate into the other subjects Second, due to a small group of teachers observed at their teaching speaking periods, the drawn conclusions were trial Therefore, further study should include this feature in their analysis in order to get more valid and reliable explanation on the issue Third, time for the treatment was not included to generalize the effectiveness of the suggested teaching techniques in classrooms Fourth, in this study, other factors that affected students’ participation in speaking activities such as students’ age, religion, aptitude, teachers’ expectations, materials, etc, were not focused Finally, the researcher carried the study with the hope to find out if some cultural factors affected learners’ participation in speaking activities only Their effects on 42 other skills should be considered in further studies Besides, further studies should also study specific techniques to overcome the negative effect of those factors 43 REFERENCES Brown, H Douglas (2001) Teaching by Principles: an Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy New York: Addison Wesley Longman Inc Brown, H Douglas (2007) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (5th Ed.) San Francisco: Pearson Longman Bygate, Martin (1987) Speaking Oxford; New York Oxford University Press Barry, K., & King, L (1993) Beginning Teaching Social Science Press Byrne, D (1986) Teaching Oral English: Longman Chaney, A.L and Busk, T.L (1998) Teaching Oral Communication on Grades K- Boston: Allyn & Bacon Hung Tuong, Nguyen (2002) Vietnam: Cultural Background for ESL/ FFL Teachers Boston, Boston University Harmer, J (1999) The Practice of English Language Teaching Malaysia: Longman Hinkel, Eli (Ed.) 1999 Culture in Second Language Teaching and Learning Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 10 Kramsch, C (1993) Context and culture in language teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press 11 Lightbown, P M., & Spada, N (1999) How Languages are Learned Oxford: Oxford University Press 12 Levine, Deana R and Adelman, Mara B (1993) Beyond Language: Cross Cultural Communication, Second Edition Prentice Hall Regents 44 13 Mai Thanh, Do & Thu Trang, Dao (2006) Introduction to Cross Culture Communication Vietnam National University, Hanoi College of Foreign Languages English Department 14 Nakamrua, Yuji (2006) The Construct of Speaking for Communicative Testing Journal of Foreign Language Education Vol.2 pp.61-74 Keio Research Center for Foreign Language Education 15 Thi Mai, Le (2011) An investigation into factors that hinder the participation of university students in English speaking lessons Hanoi VNU-CFL, MA thesis 16 Thi Thao, Tran (2010) Factors affecting the participation in speaking activities of 10th grade students at Doson high school and some possible solutions Hanoi VNU-CFL, MA thesis 17 Thuy Duong, Nguyen (2010) How to cope with cultural obstacles to speaking English in the classroom at Nguyen Tat Thanh high school Hanoi VNU-CFL, MA thesis 18 Quang, Nguyen (2006) Lecture Notes – CCC for Uni EL Teachers Vietnam National University-Hanoi 19 Ur, Penny (1996) A Course in Language Teaching Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 20 Wright, Wayne E (2010) Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Research, Theory, Policy, and Practice Philadelphia, PA: Caslon 45 APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE This survey questionnaire aims at investigating students’ participation in speaking learning and some first cultural factors affecting their involvement in speaking learning in classrooms Your assistance in completing this questionnaire will be highly appreciated You can be confident that the information you provide the questionnaire will be kept confidential and used only for research purposes Thank you very much! Instructions: For each question, please select an option only by circling on the answer that you think is right Please answer all questions Part 1: Situation of students’ participation in learning speaking in classroom lessons + Question 1: In speaking lessons, which of the following activities does your teacher often use to increase your participation? (You can choose more than one) Group work Interview Games Discussion Questioning Role-play Visual aids (pictures, maps, music ) Information gap I Others + Question 2: How often does your teacher organize the activities? Frequency Activities Very often Often Sometimes Seldom a Group work b Interview c Games d Discussion e Questioning f Role-play g Visual aids (pictures, maps, music ) h Information gap i Others + Question 3: What you often when your teacher organize speaking activities in class? Immediately, you participate in speaking excitedly You wait for your partners’ speaking You listen to your partners’ speaking II Never You take notes what your partners say You other activities + Question 4: Which of the following activities can motivate you to participate in English speaking lessons? (You can choose more than one) Story telling Questioning Describing pictures, maps… Games Singing Information gap Role-play Discussions Oral presentation 10.Interview 11 Others + Question 5: What makes you feel more comfortable in speaking activities? Working individually Working in pairs Working in groups Others + Question 6: Which language you often speak in class speaking activities? English Vietnamese Others III + Question 7: In classroom, how often you question or interrupt the teacher whenever you are in doubt? Very often Often Sometimes Seldom Never + Question 8: How often you express your own opinions in speaking activities? Very often Often Sometimes Seldom Never Part 2: The influence of some first cultural factors on students’ participation while learning speaking English in the classroom Question 9: What following factors often influence your participation in learning speaking in classroom? (You can choose more than one) You are shy, passive and not confident You prefer doing exercises to speaking in the classroom You only speak English when the teacher calls you It’s your attitude and motivation about learning You have no chance to talk because the teacher or your friend(s) talks a lot You are afraid of losing face when making mistake IV You hesitate to express your own opinions Others (please specify): ………………………………………………… Part 3: Students’ desire in order to overcome those difficulties + Question 10: What should the teacher to help students overcome the difficulties when participating in speaking activities? (You can choose more than one) Not talk too much during speaking lessons Change students’ attitude about learning Make students more confident, not be shy or passive Make students not be afraid of losing face when making mistake Give students opportunities to express their own ideas Provide students with vocabulary and structures in speaking lessons Create a comfortable and co-operative English learning environment for students to speak English Create more interesting, suitable topics, games or communicative activities Others (please specify): ………………………………………………… Thank you very much for your cooperation! V APPENDIX CHECKLIST FOR CLASS OBSERVATION Class: Date: Unit: Section: Teacher in charge: Kinds of speaking activities teachers use …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… Students’ behaviors in speaking activities in class …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… Students’ participation in teachers’ activities in class …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… General comments on the effect of the lesson when the teachers use teaching activities in class …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… VI ... research namely ? ?The influences of some first cultural factors on first year non -English major students’ participation in English speaking learning at HaUI” to identify the first cultural factors. .. learners 39 PART C: CONCLUSION Recapitulation This study aimed at finding out the cultural factors affecting the participation of first year non -English major students at HaUI in speaking activities... this matter into consideration The study mentioned the factors that hindered the participation of the second -year English major students at Ba Ria – Vung Tau University in English speaking lessons