Master minor programme thesis English linguistics: Dealing with reticence in English speaking activities of non English majored students at university of Science, Vietnam national university Hanoi

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This action research project was conducted to aim at solving the problem of reticence in speaking activities which possibly caused students’ low achievement in English subject at university.

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Nội dung Text: Master minor programme thesis English linguistics: Dealing with reticence in English speaking activities of non English majored students at university of Science, Vietnam national university Hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -----------o0o------------ NGUY N VŨ XUÂN LAN DEALING WITH RETICENCE IN ENGLISH SPEAKING ACTIVITIES OF NON-ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI KH C PH C TÌNH TR NG KHÔNG NHI T TÌNH THAM GIA CÁC HO T Đ NG NÓI MÔN TI NG ANH C A SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN TRƯ NG Đ I H C T NHIÊN, Đ I H C QU C GIA HÀ N I M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 Hanoi, 2016
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES -----------o0o------------ NGUY N VŨ XUÂN LAN DEALING WITH RETICENCE IN ENGLISH SPEAKING ACTIVITIES OF NON-ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI KH C PH C TÌNH TR NG KHÔNG NHI T TÌNH THAM GIA CÁC HO T Đ NG NÓI MÔN TI NG ANH C A SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN TRƯ NG Đ I H C T NHIÊN, Đ I H C QU C GIA HÀ N I M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 upervisor r Ho ng Th Xu n Ho Hanoi, 2016
DECLARATION I hereby certify that this research entitled “Dealing with reticence in English speaking activities of non-English-majored students at University of Science, Vietnam National University, Hanoi” was conducted and then submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (M.A). This paper was original and has not been submitted for any degrees at any other universities or institutions. Hanoi , 2016 Ngu n V Xu n L n i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to Dr. Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa for her expert guidance, encouragement and patience during my completion of this MA thesis. Her important suggestions greatly contributed to the final improvements of this paper. Special thanks should also be sent to colleagues and my students at Hanoi University of Science, without whom the data procedures could not have ever been completed. Finally, I take this opportunity to record my sincere gratitude to my family, for their incessant support, without which I would not be able to overcome personal difficulties to complete this paper on schedule. ii
ABSTRACT Reticence has been a common problem in EFL classrooms, which seriously damages students’ studying process as well as restricts academic improvement of the whole class. This paper reports an action research undertaken in an English course for 24 second-year non-English majors in a university in Hanoi, Vietnam. Employing such research instruments as questionnaires, researcher’s classroom observation and students’ reflection, the study reveals that these students had low current level of reticence which was presumably caused by some certain factors. With the aim of decreasing students’ reticence in speaking activities, various measurements including brainstorming strategies training, communication strategies training and motivational feedback were applied. Data collected after the research project proved the positive influence of these measurements on students’ willingness to participate in speaking activities in class. iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration .............................................................................................................. i Acknowledgements ............................................................................................... ii Abstract ................................................................................................................. iii Table of contents .......................................................................................... iv Abbreviations ........................................................................................................ vi List of tables and figures ...................................................................................... viii PART A. INTRODUCTION 1. Problem statement and rationale of the study ....................................................... 1 2. Aims and objectives of the study ....................................................................... 3 3. Research questions ............................................................................................ 3 4. Scope of the study ............................................................................................... 3 5. Methods of the study .......................................................................................... 4 6. Design of the study .............................................................................................. 4 PART B. DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1. LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Speaking skills .................................................................................................... 5 2. Reticence ............................................................................................................. 6 2.1. Definitions of reticence ................................................................................... 6 2.2. Reticence in classroom .................................................................................... 7 2.3. Causes of reticence in EFL classroom ............................................................... 8 2.4. Foreign Language Class Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) ........................................... 19 2.5. Possible solutions for reticence in EFL class .................................................. 19 3. Related studies................................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER 2. METHODOLOGY 1. Background of the study .................................................................................... 17 1.1 Description of the English course and textbook .............................................. 17 1.2. Participants .................................................................................................... 17 2. Action research ................................................................................................. 18 iv
2.1. Rationale for action research .......................................................................... 18 2.2. Action research model ................................................................................... 20 3. Research instruments ........................................................................................ 21 3.1. Questionnaire ................................................................................................ 21 3.2. Classroom observation ................................................................................... 22 3.3. Reflective report ............................................................................................ 22 4. Research procedure ........................................................................................... 23 4.1. Research steps ............................................................................................... 23 4.2. Data analysis ................................................................................................. 24 4.3. Procedure of the intervention ......................................................................... 24 CHAPTER 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 1. Research question 1 ........................................................................................... 29 2. Research question 2 .......................................................................................... 35 PART C. CONCLUSIONS 1. Summary of the major findings of the research ................................................. 43 2. Teaching implication ........................................................................................ 45 3. Limitations of the study .................................................................................... 46 4. Suggestion for the next cycle ............................................................................ 47 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................... 48 APPENDICES......................................................................................................... I v
ABBREVIATIONS List of abbreviations EFL: English as a foreign language FLCAS: Foreign Language Class Anxiety Scale vi
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES List of tables Table 1. Comparison between traditional research and action research ................. 19 Table 2. Timeline of intervention phase ................................................................ 25 Table 3. Excerpt from table of score for students’ activeness in pair work and group work ...................................................................................................................... 38 List of figures Figure 1. Waters-Adams’s action research model (2006) ...................................... 20 Figure 2. Average score of each categories of FLCAS .......................................... 35 Figure 3. Class’s average score of activeness in group and pair speaking activities in each period ........................................................................................................... 38 vii
PART A. INTRODUCTION This part, which is an introduction to the thesis, helps to provide the background as well as the context for the present study. The section includes the statement of the problem and rationale for the study, research questions, aims and objectives, significance, scope of the study and an overview of the rest of the paper. 1. Problem statement and rationale of the study According to researchers in foreign language teaching, speaking skill is believed to be a significant component of any language teaching curriculum. The ability to speak/ communicate in English is one of the initial aims of learning and using a foreign language (Tsui, 1992; Ellis, 1988). The importance of speaking skill can be seen in two aspects: in social and in academic context. Firstly, being able to communicate, which also reflexes the speaker’s self-expression, personality, reasons and thoughts in a variety of social and working situations, is surely the goal of almost every L2 learners (Luoma, 2004). Secondly, there is an undeniable connection between students' classroom participation and their academic achievement. Students who participate actively in class, in other words, more willing to speak out in class, are proved to have higher academic achievement than that of those who are passive in class. Krupa- Kwiatkowski (1998), in her study, claims that "interaction involves participation, personal engagement, and the taking of initiative in some way, activities that in turn are hypothesized to trigger cognitive processes conducive to language learning" (p. 133). This also implies that whether students can perform well in foreign language partly relies on their behavior and activeness in class. The more they are enthusiastic in speaking lessons, the more likely that they will learn effectively. Consequently, the role of the ability to speak, as well as the perception of ability to speak, should not be underestimated by either teacher or pupil. In real teaching situation, however, a great number of students show low level of in-class participation. They are normally not willing to speak English or to join in speaking activities with classmates; even when they know the answers, they 1
hesitate to speak up. It is assumed that when people speak in a second or foreign language, they become more apprehensive and tense and thus more unwilling to participate in conversation (Horwitz et al., 1986). Researches carried out with interviews, observations, journals and survey revealed that a large proportion of L2 learners have the tendency to stay passive and reticent in foreign language classrooms, which hinders their academic achievement. Encouraging students to talk in a language classroom, therefore, is a problem that most language teachers face (Tsui, 1996). With the importance of speaking as mentioned above, there is a pressing need for English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers to help reticent students develop the skills and confidence needed to take an active role in oral classroom lessons. Thus, researchers have been paying increasing attention to the growing importance of oral proficiency in L2 learning situations (Chen, 2003; Flowerdew et al., 2000; Jackson, 2002, 2003; MacIntyre et al., 2001; Tong, 2010). Most of these studies focus on the factors accounting for this phenomenon. As an EFL teacher in Vietnam, the researcher has experienced many difficult groups of students who have low proficiency in speaking but refuse to collaborate in class. In Asian culture context, this has been shown more clearly than ever. The majority of Vietnamese students have 3 to 12 years studying English from primary school to high school; nevertheless, English subject is usually test-oriented, hence focuses mainly on grammar and reading while speaking is generally neglected. Students have very few chances for oral practice, which lead to the deficiency on speaking skill and also the habit of speaking in foreign language. As a consequence, students bring that passive habit along when entering university, creating highly inactive atmosphere when it comes to speaking activities. It has become common that a student graduating from university with 2 years of learning English cannot hold a simple conversation with foreigners. In the advent of globalization, an increasing number of companies require certain English level or certification from their employees; meanwhile, the number of university and college graduates who are incapable of using English has always been alarming. This prevents them from 2
pursuing their desired career or looking for opportunities to work or study abroad. Accordingly, the researcher feels the urge to find out the reasons for the silence of students in speaking class and experiment various solutions to help them gain confidence as well as take their chances to learn and practice English. Another reason for carrying out this study is the fact that willingness to participate in class has been found to vary according to the context (Liu & Jackson, 2009). Since not so many studies have previously dealt with confidence in a Vietnam L2 context, this paper is an attempt to contribute to knowledge in the field of L2 teaching, taking the issue of reticence into account in a Vietnamese EFL classroom. 2. Aims and objectives of the study This action research project was conducted to aim at solving the problem of reticence in speaking activities which possibly caused students’ low achievement in English subject at university. The specific objectives which guide the study as outlined as follows: 1) To identify the given class’s current level of reticence and possible causes; 2) To evaluate the impact of the intervention on the students’ reticence level. 3. Research questions This paper is expected to answer these following questions: 1) What was the level of reticence in English speaking activities of students before the research project? 2) To what extent was reticence changed after the intervention as perceived by teacher and by students? 4. Scope of the study This research was carried out in the school year 2016 – 2017, in a class of 24 students at University of Science, Vietnam National University, Hanoi during a course of 6 weeks (from August to October), which is equal to half of a semester. These students were at pre-intermediate level, and had studied English for two semesters before that. The course book employed was New English Files Intermediate (Oxeden, 2007). Since the teacher/ researcher’s major concern is 3
reticence in speaking activities, this study concentrates on activities that involve/ require speaking skills only. Among many research approaches, this study employs action research as the main approach to collect and analyze data. 5. Methods of the study As mentioned in the previous part, the researcher chose action research for this study for several reasons. Unlike other types, action research is considered "practical research" since the matter of the research is rooted from real situations, real problems identified by researchers, and it proposes measurements to solve those problems or improve the situations. Brown (2005, as cited in Songsiri, 2007, p.50) agreed that action research does not only benefit learners but also aids teachers in enhancing their teaching effectiveness. This study employed such tools as questionnaire, observation and reflective report for each stage of the study. 6. Organization of the study The study is divided into five chapters: Part A: Introduction Part B: Development Chapter 1: Literature Review This chapter reviews the current theories on reticence. To be specific, definition, possible causes and solutions proposed by previous studies will be mentioned. Chapter 2: Methodology The Methodology chapter explains why action research was chosen as the research method, shows the steps of how the research was conducted, and justifies data collection instruments and data analysis methods. Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion In chapter 3, the actions, findings and analysis of the findings of the research are provided in response to the research questions. Part C. Conclusion This part summarizes the findings of the action research, acknowledges the limitations and offers suggestions for further research. 4
PART B. DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1. LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Speaking skills Among four skills in English learning, speaking and writing are categorized into productive group. Speaking is the bridge to reach other skills, helps learners to read better, to listen more effectively and to write more accurately. Speaking is surely the most effective means of communication (Ur, 1996) There are two important reasons why speaking should be taught in classroom. First, speaking is considered “a survival skill in real life” (Ur, 1996, p.134). In this era of globalization when English has been regarded as the international language, it is essential for any individual who desires to interact with the surrounding world to be able to speak this language. Speaking aids learners to develop not only socially but also academically since it is an indispensable tool for thinking and learning. Secondly, the ability to speak English is a good source of motivation for learners. The mastery of speaking skills in English is a priority for many second or foreign language learners. Richards (2009) pointed out “learners consequently often evaluate their success in language learning as well as the effectiveness of their English course on the basis of how well they fell they have improved in their spoken language proficiency” (p.21). Nunan (1991) agreed with this point of view, claiming that success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the target language. It can be concluded that a lot of language learners correlate their proficiency in speaking with their overall ability in the target language, which means that if they are able to speak well, they are more likely to be confident and motivated in studying the language. These are the reasons for which speaking skills are hardly neglected in language classroom. 5
Common problems in EFL speaking class: There are several discussions about problems that come from body of the students their self. The problems are commonly become obstacles in teaching speaking. Some major problems, according to Brown (2000) and Harmer (2007), are native language, age, exposure, motivation and concern for good speaking. Other specific problems that are commonly observed in the language classroom are related to individual learners’ personalities and attitudes to the learning process and learning speaking in particular. They can be defined as follows inhibition (fear of making mistakes, losing face, criticism; shyness), lack of things to say (learners have problems with finding motives to speak, formulating opinions or relevant comments), low or uneven participation (often caused by the tendency of some learners to dominate in the group), mother-tongue use (learners find it easier or more natural to express themselves in their native language) (Ur 1995, 121). As many teachers’ observations indicate, the above situations occur in language classrooms regardless of the level of proficiency or the number of students in the group. It seems that all of these phenomena share a relation with reticence of students in speaking activities. This is to say that reticence, with its expressions such as inhibition, lack of things to say or low participation, is one of the problems that need to be addressed since it impedes the process of teaching and learning in speaking classroom. 2. Reticence: 2.1. Definitions of reticence: The major characteristic of a reticent person is avoidance of social situations in which they feel inept (Phillips, 1997). Phillips (1984) stated: “when people avoid communication because they feel they would lose more by talking rather than by remaining silent, we refer to it as reticence” (p.52). Keaton and Kelly (1999) redefined reticence basing on Phillip’s theory as follow: When people tend to avoid communication because they believe it is better to remain silent than to risk appearing foolish, this behavior is referred to as 6
reticence. Reticent individuals are those who tend to avoid communication due to the threat of negative evaluation. Keaton and Kelly (1999) also asserted that reticence, as a behavioral response, is not always problematic in social communication. However, it does become problematic when chronic silence prevents an individual from obtaining his or her personal or professional goals. 2.2. Reticence in classroom Student’s lack of activeness in class is a common problem that has been experienced by a great number of language teachers, especially those who work with Asian students. Some demonstrations of students’ reticence are their withdrawal, or fear of interacting with teachers and peers, silence in group discussion and hesitation/ refusal when answering direct questions. Reticence, to some degree, is a strong indicator of academic performance. Reticence has been proved to have a detrimental effect on students’ confidence, self-esteem and level of participation. Reticent learners suffer from mental blocks during spontaneous speaking activities, lack confidence, are less able to self-edit and identify language errors and are more likely to employ strategies such as skipping class (Liu, 2011). Anxious students are also more likely to forget previously learned material, volunteer answers less frequently and have a greater tendency to remain passive in classroom activities than their less reticent counterparts. Moreover, reticence is not just a problem for individuals themselves. By not sharing what they know, those silent students deprive their classmates of opportunities to benefit from their knowledge, insights, and thinking (Liu, 2011). In a classroom environment, one’s contributions stimulate more and better thinking from others; everyone in a classroom needs to participate – by discussing and by listening to others. All students are benefit from idea and perception sharing. Consequently, students’ reticence is destructive for teaching and learning process. Therefore, the reticent problem deserves to be seriously studied and solutions are expected by all who are concerned with teaching and learning. 7
2.3. Causes of reticence in EFL classroom: Reticence in English classroom is often considered to correlate with foreign language anxiety. The anxiety here stands for the feeling of uneasiness, worry, nervousness and apprehension experienced by non-native speakers when learning or using a second or foreign language. Nevertheless, anxiety is only one among many other factors causing unwillingness to speak up of learners. Different researchers have employed different ways of identifying students’ reasons of reticence. Using interviews, observations, and journals written by second/foreign language learners, researchers have managed to discover why some language learners choose to remain silent in language classrooms (Dwyer and Heller-Murphy, 1996; Flowerdew and Miller, 2000; Liu, 2005; Donald, 2010; Riasati, 2014). These causes can be summarized as follow: (1) low self-esteem: students who think of themselves as unable to communicate successfully, so they tend to remain silent out of shame; (2) fear of negative evaluation when they give inaccurate response; (3) fear of success: this seemingly strange phenomenon occurs when a student interacts successfully; they consider their success as luck or coincidence and then is afraid that others expecting them to continue excellent performance in the future, which they cannot guarantee. (4) communication apprehension – a fear of communicating with or in the presence of others. (5) low proficiency in the target language: students do not have enough vocabulary, grammar structures and knowledge about rules and norms in English conversation to produce their speech, and/ or they lack subject matter, which means students have nothing to speak on a particular topic (6) external factors: unfamiliar environment, teacher’ teaching style, and incomprehensible input and lack of familiarity with the tasks. 8
2.4. Foreign Language Class Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) In attempt to establish a valid and reliable anxiety measure specific to foreign language learning, Horwits (1986) and colleagues developed an instrument called FLCAS to measure the level of learners’ anxiety. In their conception, language learning anxiety, can be subcategorized into three distinct forms of performance anxieties namely communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation. Anxiety has been shown to be one of the major causes for reticence in language class in previous studies (Dwyer and Heller-Murphy, 1996; Liu, 2005; Donald, 2010). High level of anxiety is equivalent to high level of reticence. Consequently, the teacher/ researcher found FLCAS a reliable tool to identify students’ reticence. The original FLCAS questionnaire consists of 33 items which can be divided into 3 categories (Communication Apprehension, Test Anxiety and Fear of Negative Evaluation). Among items of each category, there are positively keyed and negatively keyed ones. However, all of these items are presented randomly in the survey without the three category names. Basing on the causes of reticence in language class identified by previous studies and on Liu (2009) adapted questionnaire, some items are precluded or reworded and some others are added to better reflex the situation in the teacher/ researcher’s English classroom and the categories are rearranged. The complete questionnaire used in this study can be seen in Appendix 1. 2.5. Possible solutions for reticence in EFL class: 2.5.1. Solutions for general reticence in EFL class: There have been very few researches exploring the resolutions for the problem of reticence in English class. Nguyen, H. (2010), Riasati (2014), Songsiri (2007) have pointed out several techniques to encourage reticent students to speak in classroom. Their proposed solutions have a lot in common and all agree on some main points such as: the significant role of communicative language teaching (in 9
which communication strategies are emphasized), classroom atmosphere, group work, students’ anxiety reduction and students’ attitude. Many of these techniques are based on the Cognitive, Affective and Situational Framework put forth by Nation (2007). a. Reduce the level of task difficulty From Nation (2007)’s point of view, if students do not know enough, they will not be able to perform the task well, and this is one of the causes of students’ unwillingness to speak. Teachers can make tasks more accessible for students by (1) giving students more time to do tasks, (2) bringing the tasks within students’ experience and (3)allowing students to collaboratively solve communicative tasks. b. Promote positive attitudes among students Students who have positive attitudes towards language learning are less likely to suffer from language learning anxiety and more likely to participate actively in learning tasks (Tsiplakides & Keramida, 2010). The following techniques can help the teacher build up positive attitudes among students so that they can feel free to speak in the language class. First, it is important to change students’ negative beliefs and attitudes towards mistakes, let them know that making errors is a part of learning; hence, meaning-focused oral activities should be utilized. Secondly, students’ self-confidence can be boosted by creating various opportunities for classroom success in using spoken English (Oxford, 1999). If easy tasks, clear and simple goals are used in the first place and completed by students, students can achieve sense of success and high self-perceived communication competence more easily. Last, Young (1991) suggested that teacher can lower students’ anxiety in the classroom by finding out what students are anxious about, then helping them ease some of their fears and teach them strategies such as self- talks and doing relaxation activities to deal with fears. c. Build a supportive learning environment If students can feel a sense of support from their teacher and classmates, it is more likely that they will be willing to speak in the target language. The following 10
are some techniques that teachers can use to create a supportive atmosphere for students. First, teacher may encourage peer support in the classroom to help students feel secure about their answers or performance later. Also, teachers are suggested to be sensitive when assigning students into groups since causes for reticence varies from student to student. Next, it is common that students at low level are not yet able to convey all of their ideas. Therefore, they should be allowed to use L1 when appropriate. Last, it is important to make the classroom environment a non-threatening place by avoiding the following actions: correcting mistakes on the spot, calling on students at random, calling on students without allowing them to prepare for the answers, and calling on a student simply because he/she is quiet or not concentrating (Young, 1991). 2.5.2. Possible solutions for reticence in speaking activities in EFL class a. Communication strategies training Speaking competence is constructed from two basic parts which are linguistic competence and communicative competence. The former includes the ability to pronounce correctly, a sufficient amount of vocabulary and mastery of syntax in another language (Nunan, 1999). The other element, communicative competence involves a range of sociolinguistics and conversational skills which help speakers to know how to converse appropriately. Any language course is sure to include knowledge about pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, which ensure the practice for linguistic competence. However, when a student has not yet mastered the language, they need communicative competence to make up for breakdown in communication due to insufficient competence. The more students have communicative competence, the greater confidence they have. In other words, communicative competence plays an important role in motivating students to speak. Therefore communication strategies will be used as a tool to increase students’ competence and activities are needed to enable this. Oxford (in Nunan and Carter, 2001, p. vi) believed that: 11