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International Standard Program, ULIS, VNU is working as an organization in which students from other faculties of VNU attends a language training course run by ULIS teachers. Since the students are all nonEnglish major ones, they encounter a vast amount of difficulty in language skills, especially speaking. That is the reason why this research was conducted with the aim of reviewing ISP students’ perception of their favorite learning strategies, their anxious feeling in speaking classes and the effects of those two factors on their inclass speaking performance. The study involved 89 students from 3 classes from ISP. To answer the research questions, both quantitative (questionnaires) and qualitative (semistructured interview) were employed. After 3 months of collecting and analyzing data, the findings were figured out with the great effort of the researcher as well as supports from the participants. The research result recorded that indirect strategies, specifically metacognitive, were preferred the most by the respondents. Besides, 90% of participants admitted having experienced apprehension while making a speech. Low English proficiency captured the majority of participants’ vote for leading to speaking anxiety. Being surveyed about impacts of their preferred learning strategies on inclass speaking performance 58% of participants announced the satisfying results while 42% among them complained that they make no change in further presentations. Simultaneously, a majority of participants claimed that their apprehensive feeling affects their speaking performance negatively while another number of them stated their positive viewpoint on the influence of speaking anxious and few of targeted learners recognized both of positive and negative impacts of apprehension on oral practice quality. In the conclusion part of the study, the researcher pointed out some personal implication and suggestion for further studies as well as for teaching speaking methods
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER LEARNING STRATEGIES, ANXIETY AND THEIR IMPACTS ON IN- CLASS SPEAKING PERFORMANCE OF FRESHMEN IN INTERNATIONAL STANDARD PROGRAMS SUPERVISOR: HOANG THI HONG HAI, M.A STUDENT : PHAM PHUONG CHI YEAR OF ENROLMENT: QH2010 HANOI, MAY 2014 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP CHIẾN LƯỢC HỌC, NỖI LO LẮNG VÀ NHỮNG ẢNH HƯỞNG LÊN CHẤT LƯỢNG BÀI NÓI CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM NHẤT NHIỆM VỤ CHIẾN LƯỢC Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Hoàng Thị Hồng Hải, Ths Sinh viên: Phạm Phương Chi Khoá: QH2010 HÀ NỘI - NĂM 2014 ACCEPTANCE I hereby state that I - Pham Phuong Chi, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper. Signature Pham Phuong Chi ACKNOWLEDGMENT First of all, I would like to express my genuine appreciation of my supervisor, Ms. Hoang Thi Hong Hai, whose helpful consultancy, positive encouragement and touching faith in me despite my language weakness and procrastination. She has played an indispensible factor contributing to successful story of this paper. Secondly, I also want to take this chance to send my grateful thanks to Mr. Le Van Canh, who offered me a vast reservoir of reference materials and Ms. Vu Bao Chau, who provided me a lot of valuable advice on research methodology. Also I want to send my best regards to Ms. Le Huong Ly for her enthusiastic support in my data collection procedure. Furthermore, I sincerely appreciate the supportive ISP students who are from class ISP2, ISP9 and ISP17 for finishing the questionnaires, particular that of Interviewee 1, Interviewee 2 and Interviewee 3 for their enthusiasm as well as serious participation during the interview. Last but not least, I want to thank all of my beloveds including my family members for their unconditional care and all of my classmates, particularly Duong Hoang Linh, Nguyen Lan Phuong for their timely helps and sympathy as well as knowledgeable suggestions and inspiring consolation. 4 ABSTRACT International Standard Program, ULIS, VNU is working as an organization in which students from other faculties of VNU attends a language training course run by ULIS teachers. Since the students are all non-English major ones, they encounter a vast amount of difficulty in language skills, especially speaking. That is the reason why this research was conducted with the aim of reviewing ISP students’ perception of their favorite learning strategies, their anxious feeling in speaking classes and the effects of those two factors on their in-class speaking performance. The study involved 89 students from 3 classes from ISP. To answer the research questions, both quantitative (questionnaires) and qualitative (semi-structured interview) were employed. After 3 months of collecting and analyzing data, the findings were figured out with the great effort of the researcher as well as supports from the participants. The research result recorded that indirect strategies, specifically metacognitive, were preferred the most by the respondents. Besides, 90% of participants admitted having experienced apprehension while making a speech. Low English proficiency captured the majority of participants’ vote for leading to speaking anxiety. Being surveyed about impacts of their preferred learning strategies on in-class speaking performance 58% of participants announced the satisfying results while 42% among them complained that they make no change in further presentations. Simultaneously, a majority of participants claimed that their apprehensive feeling affects their speaking performance negatively while another number of them stated their positive viewpoint on the influence of speaking anxious and few of targeted learners recognized both of positive and negative impacts of apprehension on oral practice quality. In the conclusion part of the study, the researcher pointed out some personal implication and suggestion for further studies as well as for teaching speaking methods. 5 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Table 1: Taxonomies of communicating strategies 7 Table 2: Mean of speaking learning strategies preference 23 Table 3: Mean of speaking anxiety manifestations 31 Figure 1 - Votes for metacognitive strategies 25 Figure 2 - Votes for compensation strategies 26 Figure 3 - Votes for memory strategies 29 Figure 4 - Proportion of students experiencing anxiety while speaking 30 Figure 5 - Votes for physiological manifestations of speaking anxiety 32 Figure 6 - Votes for self-criticism manifestations of speaking anxiety 34 Figure 7 - Votes for psychological manifestations of speaking anxiety 35 Figure 8 - Causes leading to speaking anxiety 39 Figure 9 - Effect of preferred learning strategies on speaking performance 42 Figure 10 - Effect of apprehension on speaking performance 44 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 6 ULIS University of languages and International Studies VNU Vietnam National University ISP International Standard Program L1/L2 First language/ Second Language FLCAS Foreign language classroom anxiety scale SILL Strategy inventory for language learning TABLE OF CONTENTS 7 CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION 1.1. Problem statement and rationale for the study With the growing concern of the globalization process, it is obvious that the demand for communication among nations has always been given a greater priority. As a result, second language acquisition has become more essential and advantageous than ever. Therefore, a number of researchers have also mentioned the situation of increasing attention paid to language teaching and learning. (Liu, 2006) Unfortunately, learning a second language has never been an easy task for learners. In his article, Liu (2006) also highlighted that: “Language educators have long recognized that learning a second/foreign language is not an abstract exercise of memorizing vocabulary and applying grammatical rules. The learner must also face the stress and ambiguities of communicating within the parameters of an unfamiliar culture” Liu (2005) also stated that English students , especially non-English-major ones, often find it hard to carry out their speaking practice, therefore their speaking performance does not live up to their expectations. According to the aforementioned arguments, EFL learners, when learning the speaking skill, have to cope with many difficulties concerning both language and psychology. Difficult as it is, the speaking skill plays a vital role in enabling the learners to communicate successfully. “Among language skills, speaking skill is the most substantial in language accomplishment” (Naraza, 2011) . On the grounds of that, linguists, educators, researchers and teachers have been trying to facilitate the process of learning the speaking skill. There is previous research into students’ perception on EFL learning speaking development, in which the speaking skill was evidenced to have received such great attention that (1) an enormous number of methods and approaches on verbal communication in the classroom have been explored through 8 various conferences and studies (2) thousands of articles on speaking skill learning such as books, audios, videos are incessantly brought out (Naraza, 2011). It was claimed in a previous study that in comparison to writing, reading or even listening skills, a number of students have regarded fluent verbal communication among people as more essential (Burnkart, 1998). In order to establish the communication effectively, it is necessary for the learners to build up their own learning strategies which help them to acquire the communicative purposes. It is assumed by Haron, Ahmad, Mamat and Mohamed (2012) that scaffolding certain strategies in their oral practice in class may likely be beneficial for the learners’ speaking skill acquisition. Besides, there also exists a notion that “learners of the English language often express a feeling of stress, nervousness or anxiety while learning to speak English Language and claim to have a ‘mental block’ against learning English” (Tanveer, 2007). It can be drawn from the above mentioned assumptions that learners’ learning strategies and anxiety in verbal activities have significant impacts on their speaking performance. In the faculties of English language training in the University of Language and International Studies (ULIS), Vietnam National University (VNU), speaking skill is regarded as one of the four necessary skills for language learning accuracy, especially in the International Standard Program (ISP), where students from international divisions of other university members in VNU are trained to perceive higher English proficiency level. During the course, ISP students have opportunities to practice not only IELTS speaking format but presentation skill in foreign language as well. Speaking in English, however, is still a serious challenge for the learners, especially freshmen, to define their learning strategies and reduce anxiety while making oral practice. It has been reported and observed by the researcher as well as her classmates through the Tutoring Program 2013 (organized by the students in Fast-Track Division, in which the students in International Standard Program were regarded as the targeted objects and trained about language learning strategies) that the students in the 9 International Standard Programs always ranked speaking as the most difficult subject in which they had encountered a numerous challenges. For all the above-mentioned reasons, the researcher wishes to conduct a study entitled: “Learning strategies, anxiety and their impacts on in-class speaking performance of freshmen in International Standard Programs”. 1.2. Aims of the study Generally, through the present thesis, the author aims to delve into three main aspects. First, she will find out the preferential strategies which have been employed by the participants to acquire their speaking purposes in classroom oral practice. Second, she will explore the anxious emotion and probable causes for this situation. Third, she will study the impacts of these two aspects on the learners’ speaking learning acquisition and fourth, she will recommend some probably usable solutions so that the attitude of learners towards speaking skill will be improved and their speaking practice will be fostered to reach the best results. 1.3. Research questions In order to perceive all the purposes stated above, the study revolves around the following questions: 1. What are the learning strategies preferred in in-class speaking activities by students of International Standard Program, ULIS, VNU? 2. What manifestation of anxiety do students of International Standard Program, ULIS, VNU encounter the most often in their speaking classes? 10 [...]... students’ speaking class in to 3 main categories: physiological, psychological and self-criticism Taking the same action with the speaking strategies part to analyze the collected data, the mean of anxiety demonstration will indicate which manifestation encountered the most by the participants in the Table 3 below Manifestation Mean Physiochological manifestations 19 I tremble and feel my heart pounding... another, whether it be an L1 for L2 item (for example, the use of the L2 word ‘animal’ for ‘rabbit’) 2 Substitution plus type: substitutions which require phonological and/or morphological adaptation before they are articulated, (e.g foreignizing, morphological creativity, such as the creation of the verb ‘ironize’ on the basis of the noun ‘iron’) 3 Reconceptualization: a change in the preverbal message... divided them into several categories: “Physiological”, “psychological”, “behaviorally” and “self-criticism” Besides, this author utilized the same framework of factors leading to students’ speaking apprehension as the current paper However, grouping those factors into personal factors and instructional factors, Nguyen found out that her targeted learners regarded low English proficiency as the most direct... other half of the questionnaire included 17 close-ended questions of manifestations of apprehension in speaking class adapted from FLCAS (Horwitz et al., 1986), 1 open-ended question of causes leading to 24 anxious feeling and the other open-ended question to ask about the effect of anxiety on their oral practice performance (Look at Appendix 1) Firstly, the close-ended questions are undeniably valuable... recommended answers is quite crucial Secondly, besides the close-ended questions, it is obvious that open-ended questions are irreplaceable in the present research It was stated in the research of comparison between close-ended and open-ended questions, Chestnut and Woodward (2006) also highlighted that the open-ended questions in theory allow the respondents to provide a more “precise” response Despite... an interview method using some pre-set questions but allowing some questions that have been chosen by the interviewer as well Part of the interview consists of structured questionnaire, but another part is unstructured This type of interview is believed to “consist of several key questions that help to define the areas to be explored, but also allows the interviewer or interviewee to diverge in order... procedure will be clarified below: PHASE 1: DESIGNING INSTRUMENTS The questionnaires were designed according to the format of both close-ended questions and open-ended one Having finished the first draft of questionnaire, the 27 researcher sent it to the supervisor to get some further comments After receiving responses from the supervisor, the questionnaire was revised properly and piloted with some researcher’s... students develop their favorite learning strategies, reduce the negative effects of anxiety and enhance students’ engagement and performance in class Also, ISP students, once being aware of their anxiety level and fortes in language using, will be able to recognize as well as develop strategies to advance their speaking performance, and lessen the debility of speaking apprehension 1.6 Methodology In this... self-completion with 35 questions in both “close” and “open” ended question frameworks Those questions were halved into prompted learning strategies and anxiety manifestation In the first half, based mainly on SILL (Oxford, 1989), the researcher selected several techniques normally applied by language learners in speaking activities and put them in 15 first close-ended questions while the other two open-ended... discovery on why reticence of oral activities in ESL/EFL classrooms arisen is apparently an essence in order to reduce the burden of learning for students Most of the below researches found by the current author reached an agreement that “low English proficiency” is the core reason why students usually meet with anxiety while speaking in front of the classes Besides, Dwyer and Heller-Mupphy (1996) also . NHẤT NHIỆM VỤ CHI N LƯỢC Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Hoàng Thị Hồng Hải, Ths Sinh viên: Phạm Phương Chi Khoá: QH2010 HÀ NỘI - NĂM 2014 ACCEPTANCE I hereby state that I - Pham Phuong Chi, being a candidate. M.A STUDENT : PHAM PHUONG CHI YEAR OF ENROLMENT: QH2010 HANOI, MAY 2014 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP CHI N LƯỢC HỌC, NỖI LO LẮNG. Phuong Chi ACKNOWLEDGMENT First of all, I would like to express my genuine appreciation of my supervisor, Ms. Hoang Thi Hong Hai, whose helpful consultancy, positive encouragement and touching