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COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
POST – GRADUATE DEPARTMENT

HOÀNG THỊ HẰNG
"Teaching the speaking skill in Enterprise I to
students at Thaibinh Economic and Technical College:
challenges and recommendations"

(Dạy kỹ năng nói theo giáo trình Enterprise I cho sinh viên trường Cao đẳng
Kinh tế - Kỹ thuật Thái Bình: khó khăn và giải pháp)

MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
HOÀNG THỊ HẰNG
"Teaching the speaking skill in Enterprise I to
students at Thaibinh Economic and Technical
College: challenges and recommendations"
(Dạy kỹ năng nói theo giáo trình Enterprise I cho sinh viên trường Cao
đẳng Kinh tế - Kỹ thuật Thái Bình: khó khăn và giải pháp)

MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS ENGLISH METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60 14 10

INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Dư ơng Thị Nụ HANOI - 2009
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HANOI - 2009
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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
POST – GRADUATE DEPARTMENT

HOÀNG THỊ HẰNG


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION III
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT IV
ABSTRACT V
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 65
1.1. DEFINITION OF SPOKEN LANGUAGE, SPEAKING AND CONVERSATION 65
1.2. THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE SKILLS, SPEAKING SKILL AND CONVERSATION 76
1.2.1. The nature of Language Skills 76
1.2.2. The nature of Speaking Skill 87
1.2.3. Conversation 98
1.2.4. Conversation openings 98
CHAPTER 2: CONVERSATION–OPENING TEACHING AND LEARNING 1312
2.1. AN OVERVIEW 1312
2.2. CONVERSATION-OPENING TEACHING AND LEARNING 1614
2.2.1. Questionnaires for Teachers 1715
2.2.2. Questionnaires for Students 2320
CHAPTER 3: CHALLENGES 2825
3.1. CHALLENGES FROM THE COURSE-BOOK 2825
3.2. LITTLE EXPERIENCED TEACHERS 2926
3.3. INAPPROPRIATE TEACHING METHOD 2926
3.4. PASSIVE LEARNING STUDENTS 3127
CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS 3229
4.1. IDENTIFYING THE OBJECTIVE CLEARLY 3431
4.2. CONFERENCING ON TEACHING METHODS 3632
4.3. BUILDING SAMPLE LESSON PLANS 3733

CHAPTER 3: CHALLENGES 25
3.1. CHALLENGES FROM THE COURSE-BOOK 25
3.2. LITTLE EXPERIENCED TEACHERS 26
3.3. INAPPROPRIATE TEACHING METHOD 26
3.4. PASSIVE LEARNING STUDENTS 27
CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS 29
4.1. IDENTIFYING THE OBJECTIVE CLEARLY 31
4.2. CONFERENCING ON TEACHING METHODS 32
4.3. BUILDING SAMPLE LESSON PLANS 33
4.4. CHANGING STUDENTS' PASSIVE LEARNING HABIT. 35
CONCLUSION 40
REFERENCES 42
APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONAIRE FOR TEACHERS I
APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONAIRE FOR STUDENTS III
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4
1.1. DEFINITION OF SPOKEN LANGUAGE, SPEAKING AND CONVERSATION 4
1.2. THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE SKILLS, SPEAKING SKILL AND CONVERSATION 4
1.2.1. The nature of Language Skills 4
1.2.2. The nature of Speaking skill 5
1.2.3. Conversation 6
1.2.4. Conversation openings 7
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LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 1: THE TEACHING EXPERIENCE 1715
TABLE 2: THE TEACHING OF CONVERSATION-OPENINGS 1816
TABLE 3: ASSESSMENT ON STUDENTS’ LEARNING 2119
TABLE 4: ASSESSMENT ON THE COURSE-BOOK2219
TABLE 5: STUDENTS' ATTITUDE TOWARDS LEARNING THE SPEAKING SKILL 2321
TABLE 6: THE LEARNING OF CONVERSATION-OPENINGS 2421
TABLE 7: LEARNING CONSCIOUSNESS 2623
TABLE 9: FEASIBILITY OF RECOMMENDATIONS (QUESTIONNAIRES FOR TEACHERS) 3330
TABLE 1: THE TEACHING EXPERIENCE 13
TABLE 2: THE TEACHING OF CONVERSATION-OPENINGS 13
TABLE 3: ASSESSMENT ON STUDENTS’ LEARNING 15
TABLE 4: ASSESSMENT ON THE COURSE-BOOK 16
TABLE 5: STUDENTS' ATTITUDE TOWARDS LEARNING THE SPEAKING SKILL 17
TABLE 6: THE LEARNING OF CONVERSATION-OPENINGS 17
TABLE 7: LEARNING CONSCIOUSNESS 18
TABLE 9: FEASIBILITY OF RECOMMENDATIONS (QUESTIONNAIRES FOR TEACHERS) 23

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According to Crystal (2004:4), English is “the world‟s first truly global language”.
It is undeniable that in a globalization world, in a globalization world, English has become
a tool that helps to achieve success in career and life; of which, English speaking skill is of
the most important skills. General Director of the Educational Testing Service Dr. Zoubir
Yazid said if learners were hesitant to communicate in English, they would gradually
forget almost all of what they had learned. Young people learn to speak English to prove a
competitive advantage in global companies and organizations. In many fields, the ability to
speak English is mandatory.
However, for a long time, English is mainly performed with the grammar translation
method at most non-English major education institutes with a big focus on the form of the
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language which are mainly grammatical and vocabulary items. Testing and evaluation of
English was still based on reading and grammar exercises; the use of English for
communication was ignored. Consequently, learners became structure competent, but
communicative incompetent., and they found it challenging to make communications in
English.

At Thaibinh Economic and Technical College (TETC), also with a traditional teaching
method which is Grammar Translation, teachers concentrated too much on vocabulary and

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Within the framework of an M.A thesis, the study aims to make suitable recommendations
for teaching Conversation-openings to the first-year students of Thaibinh Economic and
Technical College via the course book Enterprise I.
In order to achieve this aim, some objectives are made as follows:
o Investigating the teaching and learning of Conversation-openings at Thaibinh
Economic and Technical College.
o Identifying challenges that TETC teachers encounter in teaching conversation
openings
o Based on training objectives and real situation, making some appropriate
recommendations for teaching conversation-openings. 4. Subjects of the study
The target subjects of the study are teachers who teach Enterprise I and first year Non-
English major students who will study Enterprise I at Thaibinh Economic and Technical
College. The accessible subjects are TETC teachers and students who have just finished
teaching and learning Enterprise I and currently on course. Eight teachers and over one
hundred students agreed to participate in the research.

5. Research questions
Some questions have been raised as follows:
o How effective are conversation-openings taught to TETC students?
o What are TETC teachers‟ challenges in teaching conversation-openings?
o What are appropriate solutions to teaching Conversation-openings to TETC
students?

6. Methods of the study

o Chapter one - Literature review deals with some theories relevant to the study
which are closely related definitions, nature of language skills and speaking skill,
conversation, and conversation openings.
o Chapter two - The reality of conversation-opening teaching and learning at
Thaibinh Economic and Technical College provides an overview of the research
site with infrastructure, teachers, students, and chosen course-book. This part also
surveys the teaching and learning of English speaking skill at TETC (how do
teachers teach and how do students learn?).
o Chapter three shows challenges that teachers encounter during their process of
teaching conversation openings, withdrawn from the results of questionnaires.
o Chapter four is some recommendations for how to teach Conversation-openings
effectively to first year Non-English major students of Thaibinh Economic and
Technical College.
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Part three,; entitled CONCLUSION, states summarizes some key points, some
recapitulation, and some conclusions of the study; limitations of the study and suggested
direction for further research.
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encyclopedia)
According to Levinson (1983), conversation is the use of language which includes both
linguistic and social factors. It is not only words that are woven together, but also human
acts and lives.
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1.2. The nature of language skills, Speaking skill and Conversation
1.2.1. The nature of Language Skills
It is known that language communication involves some language skills. On the teaching
point of view, language skills consist of four inter-related macro-skills; namely, listening,
speaking, reading and writing. Among the four macro-skills, listening and reading are
considered to be receptive skills, and speaking and writing are productive skills (Byrne,
1991:8).
According to the manners by which they are formed, speaking and listening skills which
relate to articulatory organs are called oral skills; the ones in connection with manual script
including reading and writing are named literacy skills.
The whole picture of four language macro-skills is illustrated in the following figure

Of the four skills, speaking plays an utmost important role since it is the step to identify
who knows or does not know a language. Pattison (1992) confirms that when people speak
of knowing or learning a language, they mean being able to speak the language.
Speaking skill is one of two oral skills, namely speaking and listening. It has a
complementary relationship with listening skill. From a communicative, pragmatic view of
the language classroom, listening and speaking skills are closely intertwined.
As Byrne (1991:9) puts it, “speaking always necessitates at least two participants:
speaker(s) and listener(s). When the speaker starts the message, the listener encodes, and
responds to the message in turns.
As for Bygate (1987:12), in most speaking the person to whom we are speaking is in front
of us and able to put us right if we make mistakes. He or she can also generally show
agreement and understanding – or incomprehension and disagreement. Unlike readers or
writers, speakers may need patience and imagination, too. While talking, speakers need to
take notice of the other and allows listeners chance to speak it. It means that we take turns
to speak. Brown (1983) and her colleagues point out that a listener helps speakers improve
their performance because being a listener gives speakers models to utilize when acting as
a speaker. In addition, being a hearer first helps the listener appreciate the difficulties
inherent in the task. It is clear that giving speaker experience in hearer‟s role is more
helpful than simple practice in tasks in which a speaker is having real difficulties in
appreciating what a particular task required.
“Therefore, nature of oral communication is comprehended as a two-way process between
the speaker and the listener. Oral communication is effective only when the learners are
supplied with oral skills” (Byrne, 1991:9) . Hence, that is the reason why teaching
speaking skill is always associated with teaching the listening skill. The interaction
between these two modes of performance applied especially strongly to conversation, the
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telephone, interview, casual encounters at parties, lessons, etc. all tend to be organized in
characteristic ways (Bygate, 1987:24,25-25).
1.2.4. Conversation openings
Every conversation is different from all others. Nobody ever had exactly the same private
conversation again, even if he conversed about the same topic. Nevertheless there are
certain items in conversations that are very alike or completely alike, and which seem to be
built on certain schemes. One of places in conversations where these schemes occur is
opening.
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Theoretically, the number of possibilities for conversation openings is infinite,
for instance, Questions/Request, Offers, Challenges, Compliments, Greetings,
Invitations, Announcements, Stereotyped expression or topic, and so on. Although the
number of possibilities for conversation openings is infinite, in practice, according to
Schegloff (1972), we do so limited number of ways.
In daily business situations, there is often certain ways of opening a conversation. The
followings are what most commonly used:
By greeting
Greeting is the easiest and most usual way to open a conversation. This pattern is used by
everyone to start his talk to an acquaintance or to a stranger. When people meet, one
usually starts to talk by saying “Hi!” or “Hello”, or by asking “How are you?”, “How are
you doing?” to another or the others. After the other person or persons respond to one of
these greetings, they open a real conversation. So, such greetings sometimes can be
regarded only as a prelude of a real conversation.

Answer) pairs, which project the form and content of answers, and is often used in
interviews
Example:
A:
Alison, do you know where John is?
B:
I am sorry, I do not know.
A:
Ok, thank you.

By addressing
People often use such attractive words or phrases as “Hey” and “Excuse me”,
including addressing one‟s name to volunteer a talk with others because these words
and phrases will draw the attention of others, especially when one puts emphasis on
them.
Example:
A:
Hey, Stephanie. (with stress on these two words) I’ll give you something.
B:
What will you give me?
A:
You did a lot of work. I’ll give you something as a gift. Come with me.
B:
Thank you!

By Making Comment on Something Both Sides Know:
The following example is a dialogue between two students going out of a classroom
A:
It’s hot inside.
B:

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CHAPTER 2: CONVERSATION–OPENING TEACHING AND LEARNING
2.1. An overview
The research site
Thaibinh Economic and Technical School was established in 1989 and developed into
College in 2000. It is located at 12 Hoang Cong Chat Street, Thaibinh city. It involves
various functions and responsibilities; of which training College-level students majoring in
Economics is a main duty.
In term of training language, English is chosen to be the only foreign language for TETC
students of all majors and levels. There are three main textbooks: Enterprises, streamlines,
and speciality English materials; of which, Enterprises, Enterprises are taught to college-
level students.
In term of training languages, English is chosen to be the only foreign language for
students of all majors and levels. For a long term, English has been taught with a focus on
language, that is, grammar and vocabulary. However, the English speaking skill has
recently received a place of big concern. Lessons involving all 4 skills (listening, speaking,
reading and writing) have been taught to College-level students for over two years now.
Infrastructure
For meeting the requirement of physical conditions for teaching and learning, we are
equipped with 50 classrooms, 6 computer rooms (250 sets), 2 labs (60 pieces), 16
projectors, microphones… The college library includes 5 rooms, of which there is one
electronic library room with 30 personal computers connected to the Internet. All working
offices have personal and portable computers. Our English and Informatics centre have 8
sets of computers, of which four ones are for teachers of English. On average, one set
serves the working demand of two teachers of English.

shy, quiet and passive.
Có thể sửa câu trên thành như sau:
Almost TETC students are commonly characterized as shy, quiet and passive
These students have some common characteristics: shy, keeping quiet, and passive in
learning English, mostly dependent on textbooks and teachers, uncooperative and
unplanned working, low self-study consciousness, inappropriate English studying method.
Textbook “Enterprise I”
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Enterprises 1, 2, 3 have been long used as the main course books for teaching and learning
English at TETCTETC college-level students. Originally, they are used to teach language
knowledge. However, for over 2 years now, they are used to teach communication; of
which, Enterprise I is taught to students of the first term.
Structure of content:
Enterprise I consists of 10 units, designed in the time process, and focusing its content
around the business operation of a company entitled Travel Services Limited. and Alison
from her first day to the successful day in this company. Each unit concentrates on a
different situation occurring in daily business work that most the learners of business
English are likely to encounter in their future working environments. In almost all lessons,
conversations appear as main texts.
An outstanding speaking type in Enterprise I is Conversation. Conversation appeared
in almost all lessons as main texts.
o Unit 1: A telex from Mr. Green

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Speaking activities in Enterprise I activities are mainly reading - saying and remembering,
asking and answering, and sometimes playing roles. Speaking is integrated within
activities, normally before a reading or after a listening (for example, after hearing a phone
call, taking and relaying a message, students are asked to answer some questions for
checking the information that students can hear).

Speaking skills are integrated within activities. A speaking exercise normally follows a
listening, stands before a reading (take an example, after hearing a phone call, taking and
relaying a message, students are asked to answer some questions or playing roles).
Therefore, interactions only focus on answering question after listening or asking and
answering to check the information that students can listen, making questions and
answering based on given pictures, practicing speaking certain functional languages
appeared in the conversation.
Activities and exercises related to Conversation-openings:
As mentioned above in content of Enterprise I, tThe language of conversation openings
commonly appeared in the context of greeting a visitor, greeting a workmate, answering a
phone call, at an interview…
The language of conversation openings is designed in Functions sections in the way form
of reading - saying and remembering. Activities and exercises are little, simple, and
unvarying.
2.2. Conversation-opening teaching and learning
Questionnaires delivered to TETC teachers and students aimed at investigating the
teaching and learning of conversation openings have been responded. This part shows data
analysis and its results.
investigating “how effective are conversation openings taught to TETC students” have
been responded. This part shows data analysis and its results.
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speaking skill before?
A. Yes, a lot
B. Yes, a little
C. No, I've never
12,5
%

25
%

62,5
%

Question 2
How long have you been teaching
Enterprise I?
A. 1-2 years
B. 3-5 years
C. More than 5 years
25
%

75
%
0
%
Table 1 shows statistics of the teacher‟s experience inof teaching the English, speaking
skill and in teaching teaching Enterprise I.
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