THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines i 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 Graduate School Batangas State University Batangas City, Philippines In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Major in English By: NGO THU THU HUONG (Autumn) December 2014 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines ii ABSTRACT Title : English language macro-skills of freshman Vietnamese students in selected colleges in Bacgiang city: input to intervention measures. Author : Ngô Thị Thu Hương (Autumn) Course : Doctor of Philosophy major in English language and Literature. Year : 2014 Adviser : Dr. Matilda H. Dimaano. Summary: The main focus of the study was to assess the Freshman Vietnamese students’ English Language Macro Skills among selected Colleges in Bacgiang City. This study sought to find out the learning contents of a general English course offered to Freshman students, the level of students’ performance in the macro-skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening, the relationships between pairs of macro- skills in English language, the difficulties students have in the macro-skills, THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines iii the difficulties appear to be more relatively serious and the intervention measures proposed to enhance macro- skills of students The study made used of the descriptive method of research to determine the English language macro-skills of Freshman Vietnamese students among selected colleges in Bacgiang. There were 299 students from three colleges of Bacgiang and 30 teachers who were the respondents of the study. Findings of the study revealed that General English courses cover skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing as well as essential vocabulary, idioms and colloquial language. They are designed to give students confidence to communicate effectively in real life and provide them with effective training in English for work, study and travel. In Bac Giang Colleges, the course General English I required students to attend and participate in all class activities and do homework and this is given ten percent weight. Students are also required to take progress test in grammar, vocabulary, reading and writing and assigned also ten percent of weight and a midterm test in the same area with twenty percent allocated weight for each. THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines iv The dissertation also assessed about 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. The dissertation also showed that there were significant differences existed in the students’ performance among the macro-skills in English language and were therefore not related to each other. Most students encountered difficulties in comprehension for macro skills in reading and listening; sharpening writing skill for macro kill in writing; and pronunciation for the macro skill in speaking. The difficulties in macro- skills are those that pertain to comprehension skills both in Reading and Listening. Finally, The dissertation proposed the intervention measures composed of select strategies designed to improve skills where students demonstrated poor performance. THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The researcher wishes to express her personal thanks and appreciation to those who, in one way or another, have helped make this dissertation. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Thai Nguyen University - Viet Nam and Batangas State University – Philippines who have made very favorable condition and opportunity for the development of the dissertation. I am indebted to ITC, Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry of Thai Nguyen University for accepting me as a PhD. Student and for your guidance and supports during the course. I wish to recognize with great gratitude valuable advice, and general assistance provided by Dr. Matilda H. Dimaano, for her patient guidance, helpful suggestions, encouragement and constructive supervision in writing of this research. Her enlightening suggestions and detailed comments have shaped this dissertation largely. Without her help, this field study report would have been impossible. THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines vi I owe my gratitude to Dr. Corazon Cabrera and The Panels for their highly intellectual abilities to give excellent advises and detailed review during the preparation of this study. I greatly appreciate the financial assistance and spiritual supports of Bacgiang Ngo Gia Tu College , of Foreign Language Department, of my dear colleague for me and my family during my PhD. study. I would like to give expressions to my gratitude to all the teachers of the Graduate School of Batangas State University of the Philippines and teachers of English Department from three Colleges in Bacgiang province for their valuable lectures that inspire me to carry out the research. I take this opportunity to express my thankfulness the first year students from three Bacgiang Colleges for their cooperation in completing the questionnaires. My classmates, thank you very much for making the atmosphere of our class as friendly as possible. I am also very grateful for the wholehearted support and love that my husband and children, along with her parents, brothers extended during the writing process. They supported her high and low points that accompanied the realization of this study. I can just say thank you all for everything. THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TITLE PAGE I TABLE OF CONTENTS ii LIST OF TABLES v LIST OF FIGURES vi CHAPTER I.THE PROBLEM Introduction 1 Statement of the Problem 11 Scope, Delimitation and Limitation 14 Significance of the Study 15 II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Conceptual literature 17 Research Literature 77 Synthesis 83 Theoretical Framework 88 Conceptual Framework 92 Hypothesis 93 Definition of Terms 94 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines viii III. RESEARCH METHOD AND PROCEDURE Research Design 96 Subjects of the Study 96 Data Gathering Instrument 98 Data Gathering Procedure 99 Statistical Treatment of Data 100 IV. PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION Summary 138 Conclusion 150 Recommendation 151 BIBLIOGRAPHY 152 APPENDIXES Appendix A. Questionnaire on English Language Macroskills 162 Appendix B. Questionnaire on Teacher’s Assessment of the English Language Macroskills of Students 170 Appendix C. Validation Letter of the Questionnaire for Students.183 Appendix F. Letter of Request to the Head of Institution 186 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines ix Appendix G. Letter of Request to the Head of Institution 186 Appendix G. Letter of Request to the Head of Institution 187 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines x 187 Appendix H. Letter of Request to the Head of Institution 188 [...]... general English course offered to Freshman students as well as the level of students performance in the macroskills of reading, writing, speaking and listening This also determined the significant differences among the macro-skills in English language and the proposed intervention measures to enhance the macro-skills of the First year students among the selected colleges in Bac Giang Province The study covered... travel As regard to the basic goals of college English teaching, these include helping students to establish the concept of self-learning, creating the environment of self -learning, providing guidance in English learning strategies and cultivating students ability of self -learning (Liu et al 2003) Likewise, the ability to have independent learning is being demanded to most college students in the modern... definition of terms Conceptual literature The following topics are discussed in the conceptual literature: College Freshman English, Macro-skills in English, English Language competencies and Intervention measures College Freshman English This is one of the courses that first year college student is required to take since high competency in the English language is expected for college students to have... the Freshman Vietnamese students among selected Colleges in Bacgiang City Specifically, it sought to answer the following questions: 1 What are the learning contents of a general English course offered to Freshman students? 2 What is the level of students performance in the macro-skills of 12 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines... acquired in them and ingrained in them in articulating English; word recognition where through the same printed words are used in the vernacular and English, the same symbols do not stand for the same sound Another is the inability of learners to group words into units wherein the groupings and pauses in the flow of English speech is not always represented in writing Learners either string all the words together... the needs of the learners on the aspect of communication skills As a college instructor teaching Basic English Course at Bac Giang College, I am 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 Statement of the Problem This study focused on the English Language Macro... and skills Ability of teachers to encourage students to actively participate in large classes affects the English language learning of most college students As observed in big classes, most students have little opportunity to engage in classroom conversation in compared to small classes wherein students have sufficient time to engage in speaking and participate in language activities Students should be... involves thinking characterized by purposeful selection and organization of thoughts or ideas Beginning learners are given exposure to writing for them to be able to write of which they regarded in turn their writing with profound value Learners through writing discover, communicate, and connect them to people’s culture, to society, to existing knowledge and to meanings of communication In the absence of writing... English language The problem of each of 9 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Socialist Republic of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines communication skills among learners are pinpointed to insufficient training of teachers to learners starting from the kindergarten as regards to macro skills in teaching the language Further, as part of the rudimentary task and professional work of the... an informal email covers the reading lesson while in Writing, it includes writing email, as well as composition writing about class and family For speaking lesson, it focuses on practicing the language used in coffee shops and talking about famous people and making conversation at a hotel In the case of listening, understanding people talking, ordering and saying prices in cafes as well as talking . Republic of the Philippines ii ABSTRACT Title : English language macro-skills of freshman Vietnamese students in selected colleges in Bacgiang city: input to intervention measures. . of Vietnam BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY Republic of the Philippines i ENGLISH LANGUAGE MACRO-SKILLS OF FRESHMAN VIETNAMESE STUDENTS IN SELECTED COLLEGES IN BAC GIANG CITY: INPUT. students English Language Macro Skills among selected Colleges in Bacgiang City. This study sought to find out the learning contents of a general English course offered to Freshman students,