The investigation into student's willingness to communicate orally in english classes as perceived by 11th grade students at Sao Viet high school

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

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LE THI MY LINH

THE INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS’ WILLINGNESS

TO COMMUNICATE ORALLY IN ENGLISH CLASSES

AS PERCEIVED BY 11TH GRADE STUDENTS

AT SAO VIET HIGH SCHOOL

MASTER THESIS

TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES

Ho Chi Minh City, 2020

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

---------------------------------------------

LE THI MY LINH

THE INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS’ WILLINGNESS

TO COMMUNICATE ORALLY IN ENGLISH CLASSES

AS PERCEIVED BY 11TH GRADE STUDENTS

AT SAO VIET HIGH SCHOOL

Supervisor: HUYNH CONG MINH HUNG, Ph.D.

Master in TESOL

Student No.: 1681401110016

Ho Chi Minh City, 2020

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BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH

---------------------------------------------

LÊ THỊ MỸ LINH

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ SỰ CHỦ ĐỘNG TRONG GIAO TIẾP BẰNG TIẾNG

ANH THEO ĐÁNH GIÁ CỦA HỌC SINH KHỐI 11 TRƯỜNG THPT SAO

VIỆT

Giảng viên hướng dẫn: Tiến sĩ Huỳnh Công Minh Hùng

Chuyên ngành: Lý luận và phương pháp dạy học bộ môn Tiếng Anh

Mã số học viên: 1681401110016

Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh, 2020

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that this thesis, entitled “The investigation into students’ willingness to

communicate orally in English classes as perceived by 11th grade students at Sao

Viet High School”, is my own work.

Except where reference is made in the text, this study contains no material

published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part of a study by which I have

qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma.

No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgment in the main

text of the study.

Ho Chi Minh City, 2020

Student’s Signature:

Le Thi My Linh

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I want to express my endless gratitude to Dr. Huynh Cong Minh Hung, my

supervisor, for his support and guidance during the process of doing this thesis. I

would like to thank him for his great knowledge and patience in assisting and

answering my questions as well as encouraging and keeping my focus. Without my

supervisor, this thesis could not be possible.

Also, my sincere gratitude goes to the participants at Sao Viet High School who

supported me by all their hearts. It was such a great honor to cooperate with them

during my time of doing research. I would like to thank them for helping me make

this thesis.

Finally, my eternal love and thanks go to my friends, my colleagues and my family

who always have faith in me and encourage me since I participated in the course.

Without all of them, I could not finish my course properly.

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ABSTRACT

This study was an attempt to investigate the extent to which Sao Viet High School

students were willing to communicate orally in English speaking classes and to

discover the factors affecting their willingness to communicate. The research

primarily focused on students' willingness of the spoken communication by 11th

grade students inside English classroom.

In order to accomplish this thesis paper, the researcher used qualitative and

quantitative methods for data analysis. The data were collected from Willingness To

Communicate (WTC) questionnaires, classroom observations and individual semi￾structured interview with the participants.

The results gained from the findings and data analysis revealed that the participant

students did not have high degree of WTC orally in English classes and their WTC

ranged from "sometimes willing to communicate" to "usually willing to

communicate". According to the involved students' perceptions, there were six

factors influencing their WTC which included L2 self-confidence, L2 self-perceived

communication competence, interlocutors, format and content of the task given,

familiarity with interlocutors and background knowledge.

It is hopeful that the research could contribute to the theoretical foundation and

methodology of the WTC construct. This study also provided pedagogical

implications for English language teachers. The limitations of this study and the

suggestions for future research were also identified.

Keywords - students ‘willingness to communicate; factors; English speaking classes

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TÓM TẮT

Bài viết nghiên cứu về mức độ và các yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến sự chủ động giao tiếp

trong giờ học nói Tiếng Anh của học sinh trường THPT Sao Việt. Bài viết tập trung

nghiên cứu sự chủ động giao tiếp của học sinh khối 11 trong giờ học nói Tiếng Anh.

Bài nghiên cứu sử dụng kết hợp phương pháp định tính và định lượng để phân tích

dữ liệu. Dữ liệu được thu thập từ phiếu điều tra, dự giờ và phỏng vấn đối tượng

nghiên cứu.

Sau khi phân tích dữ liệu, kết quả cho thấy những học sinh tham gia nghiên cứu

không có mức độ chủ động giao tiếp bằng Tiếng Anh cao và mức độ chủ động giao

tiếp của các em thay đổi từ thỉnh thoảng đến thường xuyên sử dụng Tiếng Anh để

giao tiếp. Theo như ý kiến của học sinh, có 6 yếu tố có thể ảnh hưởng đến mức độ

các em chủ động giao tiếp bằng Tiếng Anh bao gồm: sự tự tin, mức độ các em tự

đánh giá về khả năng giao tiếp của mình, hình thức thảo luận, hình thức và nội dung

yêu cầu của hoạt động, đối tượng giao tiếp và kiến thức nền tảng.

Bài nghiên cứu này sẽ góp phần bổ sung lí thuyết và phương pháp nghiên cứu liên

quan đến chủ đề về sự chủ động giao tiếp bằng Tiếng Anh. Đồng thời, bài viết cũng

đưa ra một số ứng dụng trong giảng dạy cho giáo viên. Bên cạnh đó, các điểm còn

hạn chế và đề xuất cho những nghiên cứu tiếp theo cũng được đề cập trong bài viết.

Từ khóa – sự chủ động giao tiếng, các yếu tố ảnh hưởng, lớp học nói Tiếng Anh

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Table of Contents

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ........................................................................................ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.....................................................................................................v

ABSTRACT..........................................................................................................................vi

LIST OF FIGURES ...............................................................................................................x

LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................xi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..............................................................................................xii

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................1

1.1. Statement of problems and rationale for the study..................................................1

1.2. Significance of the study.........................................................................................3

1.3. Aims and objectives of the study ............................................................................4

1.4. Research questions..................................................................................................4

1.5. Scope of the study ...................................................................................................5

1.6. Organization ............................................................................................................5

CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW ..............................................................................7

2. 1. Introduction.............................................................................................................7

2. 2. Definition of Willingness to communicate .............................................................7

2. 3. Roles of Willingness to communicate in foreign language acquisition ..................8

2.4. The Willingness to communicate model .................................................................9

2.5. Conceptual framework ..........................................................................................17

2.6. Factors affecting students’ Willingness to communicate orally in L2 classroom .18

2.7. Related previous studies in Vietnam and in foreign countries..............................22

2.8. Research gaps........................................................................................................25

2.9. Summary ...............................................................................................................26

CHAPTER 3 - METHODOLOGY......................................................................................27

3.1. Introduction...........................................................................................................27

3.2. Setting of the study................................................................................................27

3.3. Research design.....................................................................................................28

3.4. Selection of the subjects........................................................................................28

3.5. Data collection instruments...................................................................................29

3.5.1. WTC Questionnaire .......................................................................................29

3.5.2. Classroom observations.................................................................................31

3.5.3. Interview ........................................................................................................32

3.6. Instruments’ reliability and validity ......................................................................33

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3.6.1. Data reliability ...............................................................................................33

3.6.2. Data validity...................................................................................................34

3.7. Data analysis procedures.......................................................................................36

3.7.1. Questionnaire analysis...................................................................................36

3.7.2. Observations ..................................................................................................37

3.7.3. Interview analysis..........................................................................................37

3.8. Summary ...............................................................................................................37

CHAPTER 4 - FINDINGS ..................................................................................................38

4.2. Results of research question 1...............................................................................38

4.2.1. Results of the questionnaire...........................................................................39

4.2.2. Results of the classroom observation.............................................................43

4.3. Discussion of results of research question 1 .........................................................45

4.4. Results of research question 2...............................................................................47

4.5. Discussion of results of research question 2 .........................................................50

4.6. Summary ...............................................................................................................53

CHAPTER 5 - CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................54

5.1. Summary of the findings.......................................................................................54

5.2. Contribution of the research and pedagogical implications..................................55

5.3. Limitations ............................................................................................................56

5.4. Suggestions for further study ................................................................................57

REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................59

APPENDIX A – WTC questionnaire (English version) ......................................................66

APPENDIX B – WTC questionnaire (Vietnamese version)................................................68

APPENDIX C – Class observation scheme.........................................................................70

APPENDIX D – Interview questions for students (English version)..................................71

APPENDIX E – Interview questions for students (Vietnamese version)............................73

APPENDIX F – Transcription for the interview .................................................................75

APPENDIX G – Summary for students’ answers in the interview ...................................102

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Portion of MacIntyre's (1994) Willingness to Communicate Model ........10

Figure 2: MacIntyre and Charos’ (1996) model of L2 Willingness to communicate,

adapted in Matsuoka & Evans (2005, p.7)................................................................11

Figure 3: Heuristic Model of Variables Influencing WTC (MacIntyre, Clément,

Dörnyei, & Noels, 1998)...........................................................................................12

Figure 4: Variables moderating the relationship between DC and WTC in the

Chinese EFL classroom (Wen & Clément 2003, p.25).............................................15

Figure 5: An EFL classroom WTC model (Riasatti 2018, p.14) ..............................18

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: Demographic Information of the Participants..........................................29

Table 3.2: Reliability of the questionnaire ................................................................33

Table 4.1: Descriptive Statistics of the Overall WTC (N=117)................................39

Table 4.2: Descriptive Statistics of Each WTC Item (N=117)..................................40

Table 4.3: Factors perceived by students affecting their WTC orally in English class

...................................................................................................................................48