i THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines ENGLISH LANGUAGE MACRO-SKILLS OF FRESHMAN VIETNAMESE STUDENTS IN SELECTED COLLEGES IN BAC GIANG CITY: INPUT TO INTERVENTION MEASURES A Dissertation Presented To The Faculty Of The Graduate School Batangas State University Batangas City, Philippines In Partial Fulfillment Of The Requirements For The Degree Of Doctor Of Philosophy Major In English By: NGO THI THU HUONG April 2015 ii THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines APPROVAL SHEET This dissertation entitled “ENGLISH LANGUAGE MACRO-SKILLS OF FRESHMAN VIETNAMESE STUDENTS IN SELECTED COLLEGES IN BAC GIANG CITY: INPUT TO INTERVENTION MEASURES” prepared and submitted by NGO THI THU HUONG in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy major in English has been examined and is recommended for Oral Examination MATILDA H DIMAANO, Ph.D Adviser PANEL OF EXAMINERS Approved by the Committee on Oral Examination with a grade of DR AMADA G BANAAG Chairman DR MARIA LUISA A VALDEZ Member DR FELIX M PANOPIO Member DR MYRNA G SULIT External Representative Accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy major in English Comprehensive Examination: _ Date MATILDA H DIMAANO, Ph.D Dean, Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences iii THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines ABSTRACT Title : English Language Macro-Skills of Freshman Vietnamese Students in Selected Colleges in Bac Giang City: Input to Intervention Measures Author : Ngô Thị Thu Hương Degree : Doctor of Philosophy Major : English Year : 2015 Adviser : Dr Matilda H Dimaano Summary Knowledge regarding the four-macro skills that are needed by learners to communicate effectively which include listening, speaking, reading, and writing is of vital importance Consistently seeking improvement along these macro skills will contribute to the self-development, effective communication and success in many different environments and contexts of the learners Macro skills integration in lessons should come naturally from the teacher as well as the listener When one listens, writing opportunities emerge; when one reads, opportunities for speaking emerge Learners are motivated to have opportunities relative to learning the skills to allow the skills iv THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines subconsciously to grow naturally within them This study focused on the Freshman Vietnamese students’ English Language Macro Skills among selected Colleges in Bac Giang City It utilized the descriptive method of research The subjects of the study are composed of 299 first year college students taking up Basic English course in the three colleges in Bac Giang namely Ngo Gia Tu College, Industry and Technology College and Vocational College The data gathering instruments used in the study are the documentary analysis and teacher-made test Findings of the study revealed that the learning contents of a General English course offered to Freshman students in Bac Giang was determined through literature and detailed outline of the course General English I for Diploma Degree Program with English Language as field issued by the Ministry of Education and Training of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam It is given four units credits with 60 hours- time allocation for the first semesters English I has the learning objectives of providing students with guidance in the study of English Alphabet, vowels, consonants, stress, intonation and basic structures; developing their ability to use these structures in different contexts; enriching their knowledge in vocabulary and grammar and improving their ability to communicate effectively by providing comprehensive re-enforcement v THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines activities in the four macro-skills of English language In addition, the course outline of General English I course is divided into five units where each unit has six components namely: grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, speaking and listening Each unit also comprises overall objectives In unit I, the overall objectives are for the students to get to know to each other and introduce themselves and other people In Unit II, the overall objectives are for the students to be able to ask for personal information, talk about their family, family members, class, jobs and engage in conversation about class, friends and family members For Unit III, the overall objectives are for the students to be able to use the present simple with personal pronouns to talk and to write about work and daily activities; and to tell time and date For Unit IV, the overall objectives are for the students to use the present simple, to talk and to write about shopping, likes and dislikes, free time and leisure activities and for the students to be familiar with situations in an English class Regarding Unit V, the overall objective is for the students to describe the place where students live and for them to ask and to give directions, as well as to report In speaking, the focus is on taking about stories and practice police interview while in listening the focus is on listening for specific information vi THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines Further, results of the study as to the level of students’ performance in the macro-skills in reading, writing listening and speaking the English language were all of average level of the given student population There were significant relationships existed in the students’ performance among the macro-skills in English language It was only the reading versus listening pair that showed no significant relationship Students encountered difficulties in comprehension for macro skills in reading and listening; while sharpening writing skill is the difficulty students encountered for macro kill in writing; and pronunciation for the macro skill in speaking The most serious among the difficulties in macroskills are those that pertain to comprehension skills in reading and listening The intervention measures proposed were composed of select strategies designed to improve skills where students demonstrated poor performance The following are the recommendations of the study that English teachers have to be encouraged to provide more language exercises for their students to improve their language deficiencies; proposed intervention measures must be utilized to validate their usefulness; similar studies on English language macro skills be conducted on universities to determine their students language performance vii THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines ACKNOWLEDGMENT The researcher sincerely expresses her heartfelt gratitude to the following who contributed much in the accomplishment of this piece of work Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry, Viet Nam and Batangas State University, Philippines for giving me the opportunity to finish my Ph.D degree Dr Matilda H Dimaano, Dissertation Adviser, for her patience, guidance, encouragement and supervision in the writing this research Her enlightening suggestions and detailed comments have made this dissertation a reality Without her help, this study would not have been possible Dr Corazon Cabrera and Dr Myrna Sulit, external panel members for their excellent comments and detailed suggestions; Dr Felix M Panopio, statistician, for his kindness in sharing his mathematical expertise; Dr Amada G Banaag and Dr Maria Luisa Valdez members of the panel for their contributions in providing insightful suggestions; Dr Remedios Magnaye, the recording secretary for writing down all the comments and suggestions of the panel; viii THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines Bac Giang Ngo Gia Tu College, for the financial assistance and moral support; The teachers of English Department from three Colleges: Bac Giang Ngo Gia Tu college, Industry and Technology College, Vocational College in Bac Giang province for their valuable insights that inspire her to carry out this research endeavor; and The first year college students from three the Bac Giang Colleges for their cooperation in accomplishing the questionnaires The researcher is also very grateful for the wholehearted support and love of her husband – Mr Trong and her three children Quyen, Diep and Quan along with all the members of her family during the writing process ix THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines DEDICATION This piece of work is wholeheartedly dedicated to my loving and eversupportive husband, Mr Trong and to my children Sincere thanks are also afforded to all the members of my family and to all colleagues in Bac Giang College who made this work possible Ngô Thị Thu Hương x THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TITLE PAGE ………………………………………………………………….i APPROVAL SHEET …………………………………………………………ii ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………… iii ACKNOWLEDGMENT …………………………………………………… vii DEDICATION ……………………………………………………………… ix TABLE OF CONTENTS x LIST OF TABLES xiii LIST OF FIGURES .xiv CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM Introduction Statement of the Problem …………………………………… Scope, Delimitation and Limitation of the Study ……………10 Significance of the Study ………………………………… .11 II REVIEW OF LITERATURE Conceptual Literature ……………………………………… 13 Research Literature …………………………………………… 64 177 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines A check and cheque B cost and depot C hand and and Answer: Customer’s preferred payment A credit card B cash C cheque Answer: Based on the recording, which is the correct stress of the word “insurance” A insurance’ B in’surance C insura’nce Answer: How is the word “quality” used in the conversation? A noun B verb C adjective Answer: Thank you for participating! 178 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines Appendix B Validation Letters of Teacher-Made-Test and Survey Questionnaire for Students and Teachers (1) 179 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines (2) 180 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines (3) 181 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines Appendix C Request letter to the Head of Institutions (1) Request letter to the Head of Institution of Vocational College 182 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines (2) Letter of Request to the Head of Institution of Industry and Technology College 183 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines (3) Letter of Request to the Head of Institution of Bacgiang Ngo Gia Tu College 184 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines Appendix D Documentations (1) Photographs of the study sites Bacgiang Ngo Gia Tu College Industry and Technology College 185 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines Vocational College (2) Validation of Questionnaires in Batangas State University Dry run of Students' test Questionnaires Teachers’ Questionnaires validation 186 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines (3) Administration of Teacher-Made Test in Bac Giang Colleges Bac Giang Ngo Gia Tu College Industry and Technology College Vocational College 187 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines (4) Administration of Questionnaires for Teachers Respondents Bac Giang Ngo Gia Tu College Industry and Technology College Vocational College 188 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines (5) The Researcher with the Heads of Bacgiang Colleges Retrieving the Response Letters to Requests Bacgiang Ngo Gia Tu College Industry and Technology College Vocational College 189 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines Appendix E Psychrometric Conversion Table 190 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines Source:http://faculty.pepperdine.edu/shimels/Courses/Files/ConvTable.pdf Accessed 05/08/2014 191 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines CURRICULUM VITAE Name: Ngo Thi Thu Huong Tan Yen district, Bac Giang province, Vietnam Mobile phone: 0919336128 Email: ngothithuhuong1976@yahoo.com PERSONAL INFORMATION Date of birth: Birth place: Age: Nationality: Religion: Sex: Spouse: Children: 28/7/1976 Bacgiang city, Vietnam 38 Vietnam No Female Nguyen Van Trong Nguyen Manh Quyen Nguyen Ngoc Diep Nguyen Manh Quan EDUCATION BACKGROUND 2003 - 2007: Master of Arts Major in English Hanoi University 1994 - 1998: Bachelor of Arts Major in English Hanoi National University- Hanoi Foreign Language WORK EXPERIENCE 1998 - present: Lecturer of Foreign Language Department of Bac Giang Ngo Gia Tu - College ... of the Philippines intervention measures to enhance the macro- skills of the First year students among the selected colleges in Bac Giang Province The study covered the three (3) colleges in Bac. .. researcher is interested to investigate the English Language Macro Skills of Freshmen students with the end view of proposing an intervention measures to enhance the macro skills of freshmen students. .. Language Macro- Skills of Freshman Vietnamese Students in Selected Colleges in Bac Giang City: Input to Intervention Measures Author : Ngô Thị Thu Hương Degree : Doctor of Philosophy Major : English