Thai Nguyen University Batangas State University Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of Philippines NGO THI THU HUONG ENGLISH LANGUAGE MACRO SKILLS OF FRESHMAN VIETNAMESE STUDENTS IN SELECTED COLLEGES IN BAC GIANG CITY: INPUT TO INTERVENTION MEASURES Speciality: English language and literature Ph.D DISSERTATION SUMMARY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE THAI NGUYEN, 2014 The Dissertation was completed in: THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Advisor: Matilda H. Dimaano, PhD Reviewer No.1: Reviewer No.2: Reviewer No.3: The Dissertation will be evaluated at the State Council held at: ……………………………………………………………………… At: hour date month year 2014 Dissertation can be found at the libraries: - National library of Vietnam; - Learning Resource Center - Thai Nguyen University; - Library of International Training and Development Center; - Library of Batangas State University, Philippines. 1 THE PROBLEM In this summary dissertation, all figures and tables are numbered as in dissertation” With the increasing integration of Vietnam into the world, English has proved its significant role as a medium of communication which brings Vietnam to the world and brings knowledge of the world to every individual who knows how to make use of it. English has gained a strong position in Vietnamese people when more and more people learn English with clearly-defined purpose in mind. For students, English enables them to get access to a wide variety of materials which help them to meet their study and job requirements. Studying at colleges or universities can be well regarded as a preparatory period when students accumulate enough basic knowledge and skills to get ready to their later work. At Bacgiang colleges, more and more attention has been paid to English language leaning, especially general English language for first year students. However, there are difficulties of second language learners in macro- skills. Among the difficulties second language learners experience in learning are having difficulties with reading, writing and spelling; pronouncing or reading multi-syllabic words; having reduced or limited vocabulary and word knowledge in comparison to their peers; having poor retrieval of information due to problems with meaning; and having poor literacy in their first language. The behaviours manifested relative to these deficiencies learners are easily destructed include: poor organizational skill; show reluctance to learn or get involved in classroom activities, work slowly or too 2 quickly and inaccurately; demonstrate lack of motivation and have poor self- esteem. On the part of the teacher, mastery of the elements or features of a language is significant in the second language situation since it helps assess 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. 3 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1. BACKGROUND OF STUDY In learning, there are five macro skills that are needed by learners to communicate effectively and these are listening, speaking, reading, writing and viewing. In communication process these skills are very essential. These skills may approach or solve future problems in communication most especially in our day to day tasks such as in learning or gaining information, presenting, or holding a successful meeting. The knowledge regarding the use of these five macro skills is of vital importance. Consistently seeking improvement along these macro skills will contribute to the self-development, effective communication and success in many different environments and contexts of the learners. Absence of these macro skills to a person pose difficulties on his movement through life and to thrive in the varied areas such as education and career. Attaining the language skills on the part of the learners need mastery of the language which takes years to learn. But, it can be attained for teachers are required to note the oral and written difficulties encountered by learners and address the difficulties by energizing students to varied learning activities gearing towards enhancing language proficiency. It is of vital importance for teachers to determine the needs and difficulties of students for her to design appropriate instructional materials for the enhancement of learner’s language proficiency. 4 Fully aware of the fact, the researcher is encouraged 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. 1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM This study focuses on the Freshmen Vietnamese students’ English Language Macro Skills among selected Colleges in Bacgiang City. Specifically, it seeks 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 2.1: Reading 2.1.1: Word recognition skills 2.1.2: Comprehension Skills 2.1.3: Utilization Skills 2.2: Writing 2.2.1: sharpening writing skill 2.2.2: sentence correction 2.3 Speaking 2.1.1: pronunciation 2.1.2: comprehension 2.1.3: grammatical accuracy 5 2.4 Listening 2.4.1: comprehension 2.4.2: homonym 2.4.3: correct stress of the word 2.4.4: use of words 3. Are there significant relationships between pairs of macro- skills in English language? 4. What difficulties do students have in the following macro-skills? 4.1. Reading 4.2. Writing 4.3. Speaking 4.4. Listening 5. Which among the difficulties appear to be more relatively serious? 6. What intervention measures may be proposed to enhance macro- skills of students? 1.3. SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY This study was focused on the English Language Macro skills of First Year College students among selected Colleges in Bac Giang City. It covered the learning contents of a general English course offered to Freshmen students as well as the level of students’ performance in the macro-skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening. This also determined the significant differences among the 6 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 the three (3) colleges in Bac Giang City namely: Vocational College, College of Technology and Bac Giang Ngo Gia Tu College. This study is limited on the results of the gathered data. Fifty one 51 faculty members who were presently teaching Basic English and 299 students from the three (3) colleges were part of this study. Results of the study was limited on the information from the respondents in the Academic year 2013-2014. 1.4. SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY Administrators of Bac Giang College. This study can guide them in the Curriculum development by evaluating the different English proficiency enhancing activities. This study will serve as a guide for the realignment of the existing curriculum of Basic English to meet their institutional goals and objectives. Faculty of Basic English. This study will serve as a guide to the faculty teaching Basic English as they may be aware of the present level of students’ performance in macro-skills. This study will provide them insights on what classroom learning activities will be appropriate to enhance the Language proficiency of their students. First Year Students. The findings of this study will make them aware of their present level of macro skills. This would give them a challenge to improve their weak points and enhance their over all performance in Basic English. 7 Parents. Through this study, parents of the first year students will become aware of the English performance of their children which will make them more supportive and cooperative in school activities specifically on the improvement of the skills in the Basic English of their children. Future researchers. This study will serve as reference for their undertaking. CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDY 2.1. REVIEW OF RELATED STUDY. This section presents of some literatures related to the topic. 2.2. RESEARCH PARADIM INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT Figure 1: Research Paradigm Proposed Intervention Measures Assessment made through: Documentary Analysis Teacher Made Test A. Learning contents of a general English course B. Level of students’ performance in the macro-skills of:  reading  writing  speaking  listening C. Difficulties of the students in the macro- skills 8 The research paradigm explains the relationship of the input- process-output of the study. The input covers the learning contents of the general English course, level of students’ performance in the macro-skills and the difficulties of the students in the macro-skills; the process is assessment through documentary analysis and teacher made test; while the output is the proposed intervention measures for first year students in Bacgiang colleges. [...]... Macro-Skills of students 15 CHAPTER V SUMMARY, FINDINGS, CONCLUSION, RECOMMENDATION 5.1 SUMMARY This study aimed 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,... questions to oneself while in speaking, students are expected to communicate, ask and respond to questions In terms of reading, it is expected that students can employ scanning and skimming in searching for main ideas or details in varied reading while in writing, expressing in written language topics such as completing a form, informal email, etc are expected to students 17 In addition, the course outline... 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 5.2 FINDINGS Based on the objectives of the study, the findings are as following: 1 Learning Contents of a General English course offered to Freshman Students General English courses cover skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing as well as... confirmed and established in the findings of this study 6 Intervention measures that may be proposed to enhance the macro-skills of students Criteria were considered in the design of an appropriate intervention measures to address the difficulties of the students in the macro-skills of the English language specially for this population of students which include item skills where the students showed poor... speaking and listening, the relationships between pairs of macroskills in English language, the difficulties students have in the macro-skills, 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. .. contents of a General English Course comprised of the macro skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing designed to give students confidence to communicate effectively 2 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 3 There were significant differences existed in the students ... gears toward describing a holiday through a written report; speaking focuses on talking about stories and practice police interview and in listening the focus is on listening for specific information 18 2 Level of students performance in the macro-skills in reading, writing listening and speaking the English language The level of students performance in the macro-skills were analyzed to probe the different... in English language To determine whether significant differences exist in the students performance among the macro-skills in English language, the mean % scores of the students in the four macro-skills of the English language namely: reading, writing, listening and speaking were compared It can be observed that in general, the p-values were below 0.05, indicating that the mean % scores being compared... respondents’ performance in macro skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening 13 Weighted Mean This was used to quantify the student’s performance in the macro skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening Standard Deviation This was utilized to determine the level of students performance in the macro skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening Student’s T- test This was used to test the significant... regarding the learning contents of the subject Basic English course I In Bac Giang Ngo Gia Tu Colleges, this was used through the Detailed Outline of General English I for Diploma Degree Program with English Language as field issued by the Ministry of Education and Training of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Teacher Made Test This instrument is designed to determine the English language macro-skills of . Republic of Vietnam Republic of Philippines NGO THI THU HUONG ENGLISH LANGUAGE MACRO SKILLS OF FRESHMAN VIETNAMESE STUDENTS IN SELECTED COLLEGES IN BAC GIANG CITY: INPUT TO INTERVENTION MEASURES. aimed 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