1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationales The Department of English - Tay Bac University operates within the curriculum framework of the Ministry of Education and Training However, the fact shows that there has not been a specific curriculum for English Departments, which makes it difficult for the teachers to design their own syllabus based on general objectives of the Ministry of Education and Training After the course the students have to be able to communicate successfully in social situations such as talking about life or career They have to take part in discussion, negotiation or explanation of social issues, agree or disagree with others’ opinions, They have to gain confidence in communicating successfully, using communicative strategies to express their ideas, and feelings appropriately and fluently However, there is a fact that the students not gain these objectives In order to achieve these objectives, the teachers have to invest a lot of time, energy, passion, intelligence and creativity into designing suitable lessons as well as finding out how to teach speaking skill to help the students achieve the above objectives Therefore, the teacher should begin analyzing students’ needs, and interests in learning English during the process of designing lesson activities After several years of teaching speaking skills, we have found that the first year students are still quite passive in speaking English They not actively participate in speaking activities Students’ participation in classroom activities has been the centre of various TEFL research In general, it can be affected by a variety of factors coming from teachers’ side like teacher’s teaching methods, teachers’ characteristics, teachers’ knowledge; students’ side such as motivation, attitudes, personality, learning styles, age, gender differences; and others including classroom environment, types and contents of activities, etc All the factors, even they are subjective or objective, are composed of social, cognitive and affective features These features are equally important for learners to learn an L2 It can be seen from the fact of our teaching and learning that students’ learning is much affected by their feelings and emotion When being asked if they like learning English or not one of the students who had poor participation in learning answered: “I don’t really like learning English The reason why I’m here to study English is I have no other choice.” I was very surprised at what the student said This also helped me understand why that student didn’t participate actively in the speaking activities It can not be denied that the student’s feelings and attitudes toward learning English affect his learning process in general and his participation in learning activities in particular Research on second/foreign language acquisition has identified a variety of factors hypothesized to account for some of the variance in the level of proficiency attained by individuals learning a second language The factors considered may generally be classified into two basic categories: cognitive and affective variables Cognitive variables are the relatively stable ability characteristics of learners that may affect the success with which an individual learns another language These are factors such as aptitude, intelligence, and certain cognitive style characteristics Affective variables, on the other hand, describe individual characteristics relating to factors such as attitude and motivation In fact there are quite a lot of affective factors other than motivation and attitude, but in this study I limit the concept to four factors: attitude, motivation, anxiety, and personality Although there have been many studies on affective factors conducted in various contexts, especially factors causing anxiety in second/foreign language learning, not a single one has ever been done on students in the mountainous areas This study is an attempt to explore this issue in relation to speaking English In conclusion, the study is of great value in terms of both theoretical and practical aspects From the theoretical angle, it provides us with the knowledge about the factors and affective factors affecting students’ participation in speaking activities, and also the study can be an implication for teachers who want to enhance learners’ participation in their learning 1.2 Aims of the study The study was carried out to find out some of the affective factors affecting the first year students’ participation in classroom speaking activities, and why these factors affect their participation in classroom activities In order to find out a theoretical framework or the investigation in this thesis, the literature on the factors affecting second language learning, theoretical foundation of affective factors in second language learning, affective factors affecting students’ participation in classroom speaking activities, and learners’ participation and related issues is reviewed 1.3 Research Questions To achieve the aims which are mentioned above, the following research questions were raised for exploration: What are the students’ motivation and attitudes towards speaking English? To what extent does anxiety affect their participation in speaking English? What is the relationship between their personality and their participation in speaking activities? 1.4 Scope of the study Learners’ participation in language learning can be affected by many factors which are closely related Among these factors, affective factors seem to be a complex one that needs to be studied However, the study only focuses on the first year students of English at Tay Bac University because at this level learners often have more difficulties than those of higher levels Further more, the study only focuses on speaking activities because speaking skill is one of the most important and difficult skills, and need developing for their future job as teachers 1.5 Method of the study In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the study uses a survey questionnaire as the sole research instrument for collecting data There have been many studies on factors in second/foreign language learning which employed survey questionnaires as the major method After the data is collected, analyzed and discussed, some conclusions will be drawn, and some suggestions will be made in the thesis 1.6 Design of the study The study consists of four chapters: Chapter one includes the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the method and the design of the study Chapter two provides a theoretical background of factors and affective factors affecting students’ participation in classroom speaking activities such as anxiety, motivation, attitudes, personalities, teacher characteristics and classroom atmosphere; a theoretical foundation of affective factors and learner participation This is viewed as the theoretical framework for the investigation in the next chapter Chapter three presents the study It includes the context of the study, the research questions, the research method, the participants and the findings of the study Chapter four is the conclusion of the study, providing the summary of the findings and some implications for teachers of English as a foreign language Some possible suggestions for further research are also discussed in this chapter CHAPTER 2: RELATED LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Learner factors affecting second language learning It is believed that learners have different characteristics which lead to more or less successful language learning For example, some teachers believe that extroverted learners are better at acquiring communicative skills than introverted learners However, the identification and classification of different individual factors has proved to be problematic Different researchers use different labels to describe different set of behavioural traits So it is not easy to compare and evaluate the results of their investigations Each factor is not a unitary construct but a complex of features which are manifest in a range of overlapping behaviours It is, therefore, not surprising to find that a number of terms have been employed to describe the phenomena such as ‘affective, cognitive, and social factors’ (Tucker et al 1976), ‘attitudinal and motivational characteristics’ (Gardner 1976), ‘language aptitude, motivation, learning strategies, cognitive and affective factors’ (Skehan, 1989), and “age, social-psychological factors, personality, cognitive style, learning strategies’ (Larsen-Freeman and Long, 1991) In an attempt to impose some order on this set of terms and concepts, Rod Ellis (1985) proposes to make an initial distinction between personal and general factors According to him, personal factors are highly idiosyncratic features of each individual’s approach to learning a L2 They include ‘nesting patterns’ (the need for a secure and orderly home base before learning can effectively begin), ‘transition anxiety’ (the stress generated by moving to a foreign place), and the desire to maintain a personal language learning agenda Schumanns (1977) found that such factors strongly influenced their SLA The general factors are variables that are characteristic of all learners They differ not in whether they are present in a particular individual’s learning, but in the extent to which they are present, or the manner in which they are realized General factors can be further divided into those that are modifiable (likely to change during the course of SLA) such as motivation, and those that are not modifiable (do not change in strength or nature as SLA takes place) such as aptitude (Ellis, 1985) He also concludes that personal and general factors have social, cognitive and affective aspects Social aspects are external to the learner and concern the relationship between the learner and native speakers of the L2 and also between the learner and other speakers of his own language Cognitive and affective aspects are internal to the learner Cognitive factors concern the nature of the problemsolving strategies used by the learner, while affective factors concern the emotional responses aroused by the attempts to learn an L2 Different personal and general factors involve all three aspects in different degrees For example, aptitude is thought of as primarily cognitive in nature, but also involves affective and social aspects Personality is primarily affective, but also has social and cognitive sides Age is a factor that may involve all three aspects fairly equally Also, learning style is composed of social, cognitive and affective features It has been proved that learner factors play an important role in SLA In this study, we would like to study affective factors only 2.2 Theoretical foundation of Affective factors in second language learning 2.2.1 Humanistic perspective Humanistic education has been paid much attention to for ages, therefore, in language teaching humanism is a crucial factor To the meaning of the term ‘humanistic’ as applied to language teaching, Gertrude Moskowitz (1978) has devoted more pages and more explicit attention than anyone else One of her statements is that ‘through the ages man has been striving to become more human’ This is apparently consistent with the general definition of ‘ humane’ She says that what is called ‘humanistic’ education is related to a concern for personal development, self-acceptance and acceptance by others, in other words, making students ‘more human’ But what does it mean ‘to be more human’? For Moskowitz, there seem to be two major emphases The first is on feelings ‘Humanistic education takes into consideration that learning is affected by how students feel about themselves’ (p.12) ‘It is concerned with educating the whole person, the intellectual and the emotional dimensions’ (p.11) Her second emphasis is on bringing out the uniqueness of each individual The glosses that other writers have provided for humanistic have been briefer Medgyes (1986) cites Moskowitz, and says: In both the Humanistic – Psychological Approach and the Communicative Approach, learners are seen not so much as full-time linguistic objects at whom language teaching is aimed, but rather as human individuals whose personal dignity and integrity, and thee complexity of whose ideas, thoughts, needs and sentiments, should be respected Foreign language teachers must contribute to the self-actualizing process (1986, p.109) Richards and Rodger (1986), again citing Moskowitz, say that ‘In sum, humanistic techniques engage the whole person, including the emotions and feelings as well as linguistic knowledge and behavioral skills’ (p.11) Terrell (1982) describes ‘affectivehumanistic activities’ as those that explore the students’ values, ideas, opinions, goals and feelings as well as their experiences’ (p.281) Roberts (1982) speaks of the “humanistic/ psychological” or “whole engagement’ approach, a term that, for him, covers ‘ a range of methods and techniques which on the surface may seem unconnected’, but which he says share at least two significant assumptions: That the affective aspects of language learning problems are as important as the cognitive aspects And therefore the learners should be treated in some sense as a ‘whole person’ (p.101) That the answers to language learning problems are more likely to come from psychology than from linguistics (ibid) Similarly, Bhanot (1983) says that ‘humanistic approaches draw their inspiration from psychology rather than from other disciplines such as linguistics’, and that ‘language learners are regarded as “whole persons” with emotional and intellectual needs’ (p.361) Brown (1980) derives his use of the term ‘humanism’ largely from references to the work of Carl Rogers: We can see in Rogers’ humanism quite a departure from the scientific analysis of Skinnerian psychology, and even from Ausubel’s rationalistic theory Rogers is not as concerned about actual cognitive process of learning since, he feels, if the context of learning is properly created, then human beings will, in fact, learn everything they need to That is, there will be no irresponsible dilettanism resulting in incomplete coverage of the subject matter The teacher as facilitator must therefore provide the nurturing context for learning and not see his mission as one of rather programmatically feeding students qualities of knowledge which they subsequently devour (1980, p.77) David Nunan (1991) in his discussion of a number of methods which advocate a diverse range of classroom techniques believes that ‘if learners can be encouraged to adopt the right attitudes, interests and motivation in the target language and culture, as well as in the learning environment in which they find themselves, then successful learning will occur, and that if these affective factors are not right, then no set of techniques is likely to succeed, regardless of how carefully they have been devised or how solidly they based on the latest theory and research’ (p 234) Stevick (1990), who has taken up and extended the work of Curran, Gattegno and Lozanow, became interested in applying principles of humanistic psychology to language learning and teaching after he became dissatisfied with both audio-lingual habit theory and cognitive code learning He came to the conclusion that success or failure in language teaching depends not so much on whether one adopts inductive or deductive techniques for teaching grammar, nor whether one engages in meaningful practice rather than in pattern drills, but in the extent to which one caters to the learner’s affective domain 2.2.2 Towards a definition of affect Among various definitions provided by scholars in the field of second language acquisition we will turn our attention to the most relevant ones Arnold (1999) defines affect in terms of “aspects of emotion, feeling, mood or attitude which condition behaviour”, whereas Dickinson (1987: 25) characterises it as being concerned with the learner’s attitude towards the target language and its users, and with his/her emotional responses Stevick (1999: 44) propounds the following interpretation (1982): One’s ‘affect’ towards a particular thing or action or situation or experience is how that thing or that action or that situation or that experience fits in with one’s needs or purposes, and its resulting effect on one’s emotions … affect is a term that refers to the purposive and emotional sides of a person’s reactions to what is going on (Stevick, 1999: 55) 2.2.3 The Affective Filter Hypothesis The Affective Filter hypothesis (Krashen, 1987) states how affective factors relate to the second language acquisition process The concept of an affective filter was proposed by Dulay and Burt (1977) They have suggested that attitudinal factors may relate to second language acquisition in the following ways: ‘performers with optimal attitudes have lower affective filter A low filter means that the performer is more open to the input, and that the input strikes deeper Thus, having the right attitudes may two things for second language acquirers: it will encourage them to try to get more input, to interact with speakers of the target language with confidence, and also to be more receptive to the input they get.’ The following figure represents the affective filter and how it relates to second language acquisition: Filter Input Language Acquisition Device Acquired competence Figure 1: Operation of the Affective Filter (Krashen, 1987: p.39) ‘The affective filter acts to prevent input from being used for language acquisition Acquirers with optimal attitudes are hypothesized to have a low affective filter Classrooms that encourage low filters are those that promote low anxiety among students, that keep students off the defensive’ (p.32) It can be seen from the Affective Filter Hypothesis that the effect of affect is outside the language acquisition device proper It still maintains that input as the primary causative variable in second language acquisition, affective variables acting to impede or facilitate the delivery of input to the language acquisition device To summarize, the Affective Filter hypothesis implies that our pedagogical goals should not only include supplying comprehensible input, but also creating a situation that promotes a low filter The effective language teacher is someone who can provide input and help make it comprehensible in a low anxiety situation 10 2.2.4 Affective goal of second language competence In the second language acquisition, the combinations of sounds, the formal distinction, the numerous syntactic rules and semantic relationships are not only new and in many respects unexpectedly different from the first language, but they often arouse an emotional response; they may appear puzzling, arbitrary, frustrating, confusing, sometimes amusing, and occasionally also attractive and pleasing One affective objective of language teaching must be to overcome any sense of rejection of the language and its features on the part of the learner Stern (1992) in his discussion of affective goal of second language competence believed that ‘the learners should be encouraged to cultivate not only an intellectual understanding of what is obligatory, but intuitive sense of right or wrong, in other words, or a feeling of being at home in the language It is part of affective goal that the learner should engage in target language activities, and that he should so with positive feelings; that is we should encourage the learner to use the language willingly and even with enjoyment.’ (p 87) 2.3 Affective factors affecting students’ participation in classroom speaking activities Learners, in particular classroom learners, react to the learning situation, they find themselves in a variety of affective ways For example, Schumann (1977) reports being unable to settle down to study Farsi and Arabic until he had achieved order and comfort in her physical surroundings Bailey (1980) discusses a classroom crisis that occurred when her French teacher administers a test that the class considered unfair Ellis and Rathbone (1987) studied and reported that one of the beginner learners of German was unable to learn any German during a period because of a boyfriend problem These and other studies testify to the complexity and dynamic nature of learners’ affective states and the influence these have on their ability to concentrate on learning Students’ participation can be identified as students’ involvement in classroom activities, and in this case, speaking activities It is shown in interactions between students and students, and between students and teacher Students’ participation can be measured by 27 also give us the same thing, many of them say that the situation when they not want to speak English is when they have to speak in front of other students, and when they don’t understand what the teacher says It is not too difficult to understand this because most students did not speak English much when they were at high school, so now they are still not familiar to speaking English which is an important subject or skill they have to learn at university That is the reason why they often feel nervous when they not understand what the teacher says, which leads to their anxiety preventing them from actively taking part into speaking activities Therefore, this can be useful information for all the teachers of English, especially the teacher teaching speaking skills Another reason for their low level of participation in speaking activities is that they are afraid of making mistakes, which can be seen from the student answers for the question 9, 79.5% of the students agree that one of the reasons they not want to speak in class is they are afraid of making mistakes, this is also one of the situations when they not want to speak English (information collected from questions 29, Appendix 1) Not only the fear of making mistakes but also the fear of being corrected is one of the factors When talking about the situations in which they enjoy speaking many students say that they will enjoy speaking more if the teacher and their partners not correct them because sometimes when they make mistakes, other classmates correct and laugh at them, which make them feel uncomfortable and not want to speak any more Additionally, during our informal talk with students outside of the class many of them say when they not understand every word the teacher says they feel really anxious and they are even more nervous and tensed when being asked to speak English in the class, which is also proved by 60.3 % of the students who report in the questionnaires that they often feel uncomfortable when the teacher asks them to speak English in the class Another element that needs to be taken into consideration is that of learner perception, As can be seen from the table, 76.7 % of the students keep thinking that other students are better at speaking than they are Clearly, this perception is one of obstacles for them to take part in speaking activities Because of thinking that other students speak English better than them, they will not be willing to speak in front of the class with the fear of making mistakes and losing face This may be one of the reasons why 54.8 % of the students prefer listening to others to speaking it to themselves (see Table 1) Apparently, anxious students have more difficulty expressing themselves and tend to underestimate 28 their level of ability Therefore, teachers need to identify anxious students and any elements of the classroom environment which can help to reduce level of learner anxiety In conclusion, the statistics show that there is still a large number of the students suffering from anxiety which cause negative effects to their learning process in general and to their participation in speaking activities in particular As a result, a low-anxiety language learning environment must play an important role in designing and conducting language courses 3.7.3 Learner motivation It cannot be denied that motivation is closely related to success in second/foreign language learning However, the success is a long term goal So in order to gain success in learning a foreign language, or in this case in order to improve speaking skills, learners must take part in speaking activities conducted in the classroom Therefore, it can be said that motivation is also closely related to learner’s participation in speaking activities Question 13 Option a b n % 73 100 Question Question Question Question Question Question Question 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 n % 51 69.9 22 30.1 n % 25 34.2 48 65.8 n % 14 19.2 59 80.8 n % 9.6 66 90.4 n % 12.3 64 87.3 n % n % 32 43.8 41 56.2 71 97.3 2.7 Table 3: Learner motivation In which: 13 Speaking English well is important because it is useful for my career 14 I like to participate in speaking activities because it helps me to get good mark 15 I practise speaking English as much as I can 16.I am not afraid of making mistakes while I am speaking English 17 I think I can learn English well without speaking it 18 To me, speaking English is least important Other language skills such as reading, writing and listening are more important than speaking 19 I enjoy speaking English more than anything else in the classroom 20 I would be very proud of myself if I could speak English well a: agree b: disagree As mentioned in the previous part, motivation can be divided into extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation The former kind of motivation refers to outside 29 factors, language learning for immediate and practical goals, the later one refers to inside factors like the enjoyment of the learning process or the desire to learn the target language Although both kinds of motivation are important, it is believed that intrinsic motivation is more important to success in language learning than extrinsic motivation It is also said that students will learn better if they have in themselves some kind of motivation whether it is intrinsic or extrinsic Based on the data obtained through questionnaires (see Table 3), their purposes of learning can be summarized as follow: the first and the most important purpose was for their prospects for future job 100% of the students think that speaking English well is important because it is useful for their career They believed that if they were good at communicative skills they would get a job more easily And their second important purpose was to get good mark As can be seen from the table, 69.9 % of the students like to participate in speaking activities because it helps them to get good marks Their answers to the open questions provide us with the same information: many students think that if the teacher gives them high marks they will enjoy speaking more, and when they want to get good mark from the teacher they will speak more These findings show that most students have extrinsic motivation which is an outside push to force them to study English In addition, most students are aware of the importance of speaking skills, which is proved by the data collected through questionnaires As we can see from the table, 87.3 % of the students disagree that speaking skill is less important than the other skills such as reading, writing and listening Moreover, nearly all of them (97.3%) think that they would be very proud of themselves if they could speak English well, and 90.7 % of the students also think that they can’t learn English well without speaking it, which means that to them speaking English is very important, even more important than the other skills Looking back to the theory about motivation, if the learner finds it important to succeed in learning in order to maintain and promote his or her own positive self-image, the learner will be motivated We may wonder whether students could be good at learning English with only extrinsic motivation The answer will probably “yes” because the final goal in any of our training programs at higher education level is work – oriented However, looking at the information from the table we can see that although most students are highly extrinsically motivated, many of them are not really active in learning, 30 65.8 % of the students not practise speaking English as much as they can It means that they not actively participate in speaking activities, they not take opportunities to speak English, which is also proved by 82.6% of the students who not often take every opportunity to speak English in the classroom (see Table 1) And 80.8% of them are still afraid of making mistakes while speaking English This is also one of the reasons why they not take part in speaking activities actively It is clear that although most students are extrinsically motivated, they not really succeed in learning Is it true that it would be much more difficult for them to succeed in something or achieve something without their interest in it? The answer will probably “yes” because more than half of the students (56.2%) disagree that they enjoy speaking English more than anything else in the classroom This provide the evidence that many of them not have real interest in learning English, they not really like learning speaking English in the classroom, which may be the cause of their low level of participation in speaking activities in the classroom In other words, if they learned English because they liked it but not because they were forced to so or because they were pushed from outside, it would be much more likely that they would succeed From the above analysis, it can be concluded with certainty that the lack of intrinsic motivation, the enjoyment of learning or a desire to learn had a considerable effect on their participation in classroom speaking activities Therefore, it is suggested that the teacher should develop in them intrinsic motivation with a view to increasing their participation 3.7.4 Learner personality It is believed that the personality of learners constitutes a major factor contributing to the success or failure in language learning Extroverted learners have been said to be more active and find it easier to acquire communication skills, in other words, oral skills In contrast, introverted learners are more quiet and willing to enjoy more time reading and writing Therefore, we can see that learner personality affect their participation in oral classroom activities Below is the information collected from the survey questionnaires about the effect of learner personality 31 Question Question Question Question Question Question Question Question 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Option a b n % n % 34 46.6 39 53.4 19 54 26 74 n % 44 60.3 29 39.7 n % 35 47.9 38 43.1 n % 40 54.8 33 45.2 n % 55 75.3 18 24.7 n % n % 53 72.6 20 27.4 15 58 20.5 79.5 Table 4: Learner personality In which: Question 21 I enjoy practicing speaking with other students in my class Question 22 I really enjoy role-play activities in the class Question 23 I often practise speaking English at home by myself Question 24 I hate speaking English in front of other students and the teacher in my class Question 25 In the classroom I never volunteer to speak English Question 26 I feel comfortable when I speak English in groups of students Question 27 I find discussion activities the most interesting in a speaking lesson Question 28 I don’t mind if my teacher or my classmates correct me while I’m speaking English a: agree b: disagree When being asked about their enjoyment of practising speaking English with other students, more than half of them (53.4 %) say they not like practising speaking with other classmates It is understandable as it was presented previously that most students not have real interest in learning speaking Furthermore, many of them say they only like discussing with the students they like or with those who are similar to their old friends, which means that they are, so far, introverted, those who not like meeting and talking with strange people This may be a negative factor affecting their study, especially their speaking learning Dramatically, 74 % of them say they not really like role-play activities in the class This is also an explanation for the fact of our teaching that when being asked to perform a role-play activity, almost none of them volunteer to This is also proved by 54.8 % of the students who say they never volunteer in the class 47.9 % of them say that they hate speaking English in front of other students and the teacher in their class And only 20.5 % of them not mind if their teacher and their classmates correct them while they are speaking These findings provide us with the evidence that many of the learners are introverted They are too shy to speak in front of the class They are not ready to make 32 mistakes, and are afraid of reducing images of themselves, which is the reason why 79.5 % of the learners are not happy with their teacher or friends’ correction, they not like being corrected So probably the fear of being corrected will prevent them from taking part in speaking activities Many studies on personality have proved that introverted learners typically enjoy more academic success, and they may spend more time reading and writing And in this study the data obtained shows us that 60.3 % of the students often practise speaking at home by themselves In order to understand more about this, we asked some students how they learn speaking at home Most of them say they often write down their given topics on paper as assays, then they practise speaking basing on those writings Amazingly, even when they practise conversations, they also write down the conversations and take turns saying out loud the sentences in the conversations, they often this without noticing that they are writing and reading but not speaking Therefore it can be inferred that those introverted learners prefer writing and reading to speaking This is also one of the factors leading to their poor participation in classroom speaking activities However, answering the questions 26 and 27, 75.3 % of the students say they feel comfortable when they speak English in groups of learners; and 72.6 % of them find discussion activities the most interesting in a speaking lesson This can be understood that the students may find it more comfortable and easier when discussing in groups because it may help them to reduce the fear of making mistakes and being corrected As we know during the discussion the students focus more on the ideas but not on the language used and also seldom there is any correction at this stage This may be the reason why they feel comfortable From the fact of our teaching we find that in discussion activities, commonly, only some students actively take part in the activity which means that they speak more than the others, and some other students only listen to the others As the information collected, 54.6 % of the students prefer listening to others speaking to speaking English themselves (Question 6, Table 1) This also explains why they still find discussion activities interesting and they still feel comfortable Moreover, students’ answers to the questions 29 and 30 provide the information that students will not enjoy speaking when their partners speak too much and even when their partner not speak much So this can be important information for teachers who want to improve their learners’ speaking skills 33 In conclusion, learner personality, to some extent, affects their level of participation in classroom speaking activities It is too difficult to change learner personality, but the teachers, during their teaching process, should understand more about learner personality and find new ways of teaching to suit the learners 3.7.5 Summary Basing on the fact of learner’s low level of participation in speaking activities in classroom, the researcher decided to study on some of the learner affective factors which are believed to affect students’ participation in classroom speaking activities The results of the study, to some extent, could answer to the research questions However, in order to get better results other studies are suggested CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 4.1 Summary of the study The study focused on the first year majors of English at Tay Bac University in order to find out some of their affective factors which affect their participation in classroom speaking activities Some of the factors expected to affect learner participation were learner anxiety, attitude, motivation and personality The findings of the study show that there are still many students who not have positive attitudes to English speaking skills Most of them not really enjoy speaking English in classroom because they not think it is more important than other skills Moreover, their attitudes to the teacher and his teaching, and their classmates are found to be affective factors which are closely related to their participation in speaking activities 34 Concerning learner motivation, most students have extrinsic motivation, their purposes of learning are for their future jobs and for good marks during their learning process Most of them not really have interest in learning English, especially in speaking English If the teacher gives them good marks they will enjoy speak more, and whenever they want to get good marks they will speak more so that the teacher may give them high marks Clearly it is difficult for us to succeed in doing something without our interest in it, and speaking English is not an exception With regard to learner anxiety, the number of the students who are still suffering from anxiety is not small They are afraid of making mistakes, being corrected and losing face in front of the other students because they still underestimate their ability Therefore, they are afraid of speaking English in front of the teacher and other students in class, and they are even more nervous and uncomfortable when the teacher asks them to speak in class It can be concluded that student anxiety has big effect on their participation in speaking activities in classroom As for learner personality, most of them are found to be introverted learners They not like talking with many people except for the persons they like, so they only like talking with the students who are their close friends, and who they like They are too shy to speak English in front of the class, that is why they feel comfortable when they speak in groups, but when having to speak in front of the teacher and other students in class they are nervous and often feel uncomfortable In conclusion, based on these findings it can be said that those factors, to some extent, affect students’ participation in speaking activities and affect their English learning process also 4.2 Conclusion It can be concluded from the study that learners’ second language learning in general and participation in speaking activities in particular are affected both positively and negatively by their affective factors Firstly, learners’ negative attitudes towards their target language learning is an obstacle preventing them from taking part in speaking activities in classroom 35 Secondly, both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are essential in language learning, and intrinsic motivation has been proved to be more important in acquiring communicative skills, which is illustrated by their low level of participation in speaking activities when they lack intrinsic motivation Thirdly, anxiety can be said to have the biggest influence on learners’ participation in speaking English This is also the affective factor which learners are suffering from the most in their learning foreign language, especially in developing speaking skills Last but not least, learner personality is also a considerable factor influencing their learning Extroversion is a helpful factor for learner participation in speaking activities whereas many students are found to be introverted In conclusion, learners’ affective factors are very important in their foreign language learning Therefore, in the process of teaching and learning the target language, they should be paid much consideration by both teachers and learners 4.3 Implications for second language teaching and learning As can be concluded from this brief conclusion of the study, there are some affective factors to be considered when attempting to increase the level of learner participation in classroom speaking activities Teachers cannot, of course, be expected to make all students "happy" all the time but they can certainly strive toward reducing tension and anxiety and setting-up a climate where all students feel welcome and respected from which they may grow their intrinsic motivation and have more positive attitudes for their learning The following suggestions summarize some of the major issues related to this complex topic of affect - Develop a good relationship with the learners such as learning the students’ names, showing interest in each student as a person, giving feedback on each student’s progress, openly soliciting the students’ ideas and feelings, laughing with the students and not at them, valuing and respecting what the students say and think, working with students as a team and not against them, and developing a genuine sense of vicarious joy when they learn something - Encourage and support students at all times but especially when they are struggling or lacking confidence in certain areas 36 - Be energetic and enthusiastic about what you are teaching and on those days when you not have that energy, provide activities that require the learners to put forth the majority of the energy - Create an atmosphere in which students are not afraid to make mistakes and are encouraged to take risks; choose error correction strategies which not put the student in an embarrassing or singled-out position go a long way in making the student feel comfortable enough to take risks in language classroom - Avoid tension-causing strategies such as surprise quizzes, overly competitive activities, putting students in front of their peers with no warning or chance for preparation, and correcting errors in a negative, accusatory fashion - Allow students opportunities to talk about themselves, their interests, and their culture Through preplanned and spontaneous activities, provide opportunities for interaction in the target language in and outside the language learning environment - Encourage goal setting and a sense of dedication and continuous commitment to the language learning task through meaningful, relevant and authentic language learning activities - Encourage learners to seek out opportunities in their lives that will help them in the learning of the target language - Create, through the presentation of attainable goals and reasonable challenges, a learning environment with a definite potential for success - Recognize the "little successes", improvements and progress of all students both individually and with the entire group - Help students improve motivation by showing that L2 learning can be an exciting mental challenge, a career enhancer, a vehicle to cultural awareness and friendship and a key to world peace - Make the L2 class a welcoming, positive place where psychological needs are met and language anxiety is kept to a minimum - Plan more interesting topics to encourage students’ participation (as the students reported in the survey questionnaires) Topics should be of students’ level, topics can be in the textbook or outside the textbook that are designed by the teacher, textbook topics can be adapted by the teacher in order to make them more suitable, interesting or familiar to the students 37 As mentioned, attitudes can also play a significant role in the language learning classroom As Krashen (1985) has proposed, attitudes can act as barriers or bridges to learning a new language and are the "essential environmental ingredient" for language learning Krashen (1982) states that learning can only happen if certain affective conditions (e.g positive attitudes, self-confidence, low anxiety) exist and that when these conditions are present input can pass through the "affective filter" and be used by the learner As language teachers, one of our most difficult challenges is to create an environment where positive attitudes toward the language flourish while not making students feel that their maternal language and culture is in any way less important Once again, it is important to reiterate that when students feel their thoughts, feelings, attitudes and interests are valued, their emotional well-being is influenced in a positive way Therefore, the teacher should be aware of affective factors, raise student awareness of those affective factors and more importantly find the ways to help students overcome the negative effects of those factors on their learning process in general and in developing speaking in 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come from different provinces in the country such as Thanh Hoa, Ha Tinh, Nam Dinh, not only from the North West of the country However, such variables