Workbook on English Language Micro-skill for First Year College Students in Selected Universities in Thai Nguyen Province, Vietnam

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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of the Philippines

WORKBOOK ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE MICRO-SKILLS FOR FIRST

YEAR COLLEGE STUDENTS IN SELECTED UNIVERSITIES

IN THAI NGUYEN PROVINCE, VIETNAM

A Dissertation

Presented to

The Faculty of Graduate School

Batangas State University

Batangas City, Philippines

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for the Degree

Of Doctor of Philosophy

Major in English

By:

DANG THI THU HUONG

June 2015

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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

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APPROVAL SHEET

This dissertation entitled “WORKBOOK ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE

MICRO-SKILLS FOR FIRST YEAR COLLEGE STUDENTS IN SELECTED

UNIVERSITIES IN THAI NGUYEN PROVINCE, VIETNAM” prepared and

submitted by DANG THI THU HUONG in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy major in English has been examined

and is recommended for Oral Examination.

MATILDA H. DIMAANO, Ph.D.

Adviser

PANEL OF EXAMINERS

Approved by the committee on Oral Examination with a grade

of _________.

DR. AMADA G. BANAAG

Chairman

DR. MARIA LUISA A. VALDEZ DR. FELIX M. PANOPIO

Member Member

DR. MYRNA G. SULIT

External Representative

Accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

degree of Doctor of Philosophy major in English.

Comprehensive Examination: PASSED

_____________ MATILDA H. DIMAANO, Ph.D.

Date Dean, Graduate Studies

College of Arts and Sciences

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ABSTRACT

Title : Workbook on English Language Micro-skill for First Year

College Students in Selected Universities in Thai Nguyen

Province, Vietnam

Author : Dang Thi Thu Huong

Course : Doctor of Philosophy

Major : English

Year : 2015

Adviser : Dr. Matilda H. Dimaano

Summary

The study was conducted to assess the English language micro- skill

needs of first year college students in selected universities in Thai Nguyen

Province, Vietnam. It covered the level of English language proficiency among

students in the four modes of language performance in reading, writing,

speaking and listening. The faculty also assessed the students English micro

skills relative to motor-perceptual skills for spoken and written media,

intonation skills concerned with understanding and conveying meaning

especially attitudinal meaning, deductive skills: deducing meaning or use of

unfamiliar lexical items such as reducing recourse to use of dictionary,

perceptual or communicative skills, conceptual skills: understanding and

expressing conceptual meaning, intrasentencial structure and semantic

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relations skills, discourse coherence skills and information transfer skills.

This study also determined which among the four modes of language

performance the students find most difficult and which among the English

micro skills students find difficult as assessed by faculty respondents. The

output of the study is a proposed supplementary workbook to enhance the

students micro skill needs.

The study covered the four (4) Thai Nguyen Universities in Thai Nguyen

Province with three hundred eighty (380) freshman students and 53 English

language teachers as respondents of the study. It made use of descriptive

research and utilized the survey questionnaire and the teacher- made- test as

the data gathering instruments.

Results of the study as to the level of students’ proficiency in the four

modes of English language performance, students generally have an average

proficiency in all the test areas in the performance in reading with an average

correct rating of 65.26 percent and a verbal equivalent of average with the

highest proficiency was observed in the areas on context clues and fact and

inference with 82.05 percent, and topic sentence and main idea with a percent

correct scores of 69.26 percent and 68.86 percent respectively; and summary

statements with a percent correct score of 42.32 percent and interpreted as

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low average.

In writing students generally showed an average performance with an

average correct score of 54.57 percent. This value may appear high and above

50 percent, but among the component areas, only three of the five items had

high values which mean that the students have developed proficiency along

these three component areas with most adeptness gained in words in

sentences where they get the high average rating. The two low scoring items

are punctuation and modifier placement with the former acquiring the lowest

performance rating of 18.42 percent.

For speaking, students generally showed an average performance with

a percent correct rating of 49.11 percent which means the students were

performing at an average level in the modality of speaking. Numerically, the

performance in speaking was lower and below 50 percent. The students

showed the lowest numerical proficiency value in this language mode

indicating this area to be the weakest. In listening on the other hand, the

students generally showed an average proficiency with an average correct

rating of 59.28 percent. Though this value appears to be high and above 50

percent, only the items on sentence constituents and grammatical word class

contributed to the high values which mean that the students were proficient in

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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

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grammatical areas of listening and less proficient in vocabulary and main idea

finding.

In terms of faculty assessment of the students’ English language micro￾skills, all of the 20 items obtained an agree score of >84.91 percent with six

items that recorded a score of 84.91 percent which means that the list

presented are valid language micro-skills that can be used to assess students’

linguistic proficiency. The micro-skill with the highest agree score is perceptual￾communicative skills while the lowest is the conceptual skills. According to the

frequency of use, findings revealed that all of the items got ratings >3.6 which

is verbally equivalent to often which means that the teachers generally

perceived all the micro-skills to be practiced often by the students. The item

with the highest score is a tie between perceptual- communicative skills and

intrasentencial structure and semantic relations skills both with a mean

frequency score of 4.0.

The teacher respondents also rate the micro-skill items according to

their degree of importance. Results indicate that all of the items had ratings

>4.4 which means that the items could range from moderate to very important.

The item with the highest rating in terms of degree of importance is a tie

between perceptual- communicative skills and intonation skills. The lowest

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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Republic of the Philippines

scoring item is intrasentential structure and semantic relations skills.

In the aspect of difficulties encountered by students in the four modes of

language, seven out of the 17 test areas on the four modes of language,

students got the proficiency rating below 50 percent. These areas are

punctuation and modifier placement in riting, word order and use of stress in

speaking, meaning of words and topic sentence in listening, and summary

statements in reading. There were two difficult component items each for

writing, speaking, and istening and only one item for reading. This means that

reading in spite of being the most advance skill, difficulties are still encountered

by students in this modality, particularly in making summary statements.

Relative to the teachers’ assessment of the students’ micro-skills in the

four modes of language according to the frequency of use, results showed that

all the items got ratings of >3.7 which is verbally equivalent to often which

indicates that all the micro-skills are used often by the students. The item with

the highest mean frequency score is the item that pertains to the use of correct

words, a writing micro-skill followed by the item on fact and inference, a

reading micro-skill, and the item on form of words, a speaking micro-skill.

According to their degree of importance, all of the items had ratings >4.4

which means that the items could range from moderate to very important. This

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indicates that the teacher respondents generally perceived all the micro-skills

to be of a high degree of importance and thus, must always be included in the

teaching scheme and competency assessment of freshman students. The item

with the highest rating in terms of degree of importance is a tie between

perceptual-communicative skills and intonation skills. The lowest scoring item

is intrasentential structure and semantic relations skills.

As to the relationship of teacher’s assessment and students’

performance in the three language modalities, results indicate that 14 out of 17

micro-skill items compared showed significant differences. The significantly

different label indicates that the students’ proficiency scores are not related to

the teachers’ frequency assessment and are independent of each other which

mean that in majority of the micro-skills evaluated, no relationship could be

established between the students’ performance and the teachers’ assessment.

For the proposed supplementary workbook to address the micro-skill

deficiencies of the students in four modes of language, criteria were made as

bases. The study recommended that the proposed supplementary workbook

be reviewed, tried out and evaluated; that teachers need to be given series of

trainings along language teaching; and that this study may be replicated along

this area in other universities.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The researcher would like to convey her sincere gratitude to the

following persons whose valuable contributions lead to the completion of this

academic work.

Dr. Dang Kim Vui, President of Thai Nguyen University, Vietnam for the

opportunity given to be included in the Ph.D English Program in partnership

with Batangas State University, Philippines.

Dr.Matilda H. Dimaano, Dissertation Adviser, for the valuable inputs,

critical comments, suggestions and recommendations that greatly improved

this study. Her expertise in research, guidance and encouragement contributed

much in the completion of this study.

The Panel of Examiners, Dr. Corazon B. Cabrera, , Dr. Felix M.

Panopio, Dr. Amada G. Banaag, Dr. Maria Luisa A. Valdez, Dr. Myrna G. Sulit,

for their insights, and commendable suggestions;

Dr. Remedios P. Magnaye, Recording Secretary, for sharing her time in

encoding the minutes of the oral defense and for her assistance;

Dr. Nguyen Tuan Anh; Dr. Nguyen The Hung, Former Directors, and Dr.

Hoang Thi Bich Thao, Director of the International Training Center, Thai

Nguyen University, for their support and encouragement;

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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

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The Rectors of the four selected universities of Thai Nguyen University

for their permission to conduct the study;

The Teachers and the Student respondents of the study, for their active

participation and cooperation;

All her friends, her parents and relatives for their encouragement and

support.

Dang Thi Thu Huong

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DEDICATION

This dissertation is lovingly dedicated to my husband and children.

Dang Thi Thu Huong

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TITLE PAGE........................................................................................ i

APPROVAL SHEET............................................................................ ii

ABSTRACT......................................................................................... iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENT........................................................................ ix

DEDICATION.......................................................................................xi

TABLE OF CONTENTS...................................................................... xii

LIST OF TABLES................................................................................ xv

LIST OF FIGURES............................................................................. xvii

CHAPTER

I. THE PROBLEM

Introduction............................................................ 1

Statement of the Problem ..................................... 9

Scope, Delimitation and Limitation of the Study.....10

Significance of the Study .......................................11

II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Conceptual Literature.............................................14

Research Literature................................................49

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Synthesis ...............................................................57

Theoretical Framework ......................................... 60

Conceptual Framework ......................................... 63

Hypothesis............................................................. 65

Definition of Terms................................................. 65

III. RESEARCH METHOD AND PROCEDURE

Research Environment ..........................................68

Research Design .................................................. 69

Subjects of the Study ............................................ 70

Data Gathering Instrument.....................................72

Data Gathering Procedure..................................... 76

Statistical Treatment of Data ................................ 77

IV. PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF

DATA .................................................................... 78

V. SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

Summary of Findings............................................. 151

Conclusions ...........................................................163

Recommendation .................................................. 165

BIBLIOGRAPHY.............................................................................166

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APPENDICES…………………………………………………………. 174

A. Questionnaires on English Language Micro Skills.......175

B. Questionnaire on Teacher’s Assessment of the

English Language Micro Skills..................................... 184

C. Validation Letters.........................................................199

D. Letters of Request to the Head of the Institutions....... 202

E. Photographs of the Study Sites................................... 206

F. Photographs of the Test Questionnaire Dry Run.........207

G. Photographs of the Heads of Four Universities

where Letters of Requests were Forwarded for

Signature to Conduct the Study................................208

H. Photographs of Students Respondents...................... 209

I. Photographs of Teacher Respondents....................... 210

J. Psychrometric Conversion Table............................. 211

CURRICULUM VITAE………………………………………………… 213

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LIST OF TABLES

Table Title Page

1 Distribution of the Respondents ………………..................... 71

2 Levels of Proficiency of Students in the

Modality of Reading.............................................................. 79

3 Levels of Proficiency of Students in the

Modality of Writing................................................................. 81

4 Levels of Proficiency of Students in the

Modality of Speaking............................................................. 83

5 Levels of Proficiency of Students in the

Modality of Listening.............................................................. 86

6 English Language Micro-Skills of Students Utilized

in the Basic English Course.................................................. 89

7 English Language Micro-Skills of Students as to

Frequency of Use................................................................... 91

8 English Language Micro-Skills of Students as to

Degree of Importance............................................................. 94

9 Comparison of the Student's Language Performance

and Teachers’ Assessment of Students’ Language

Micro-Skills Performance....................................................... 97

10 Difficulty of the Student Respondents in the

Four Modes of Language....................................................... 100

11 Performance of Students’ in the Four Modes of

English Language and their Frequency of Use..................... 103