VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN MINH SƠN
A SURVEY ON STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS LEARNING
SPEAKING SKILLS AT UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND
HUMANITIES, VNU

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ THÁI ĐỘ CỦA SINH VIÊN VỀ VIỆC HỌC KỸ
NĂNG NÓI TẠI TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KHOA HỌC XÃ HỘI VÀ NHÂN
VĂN – ĐHQG HÀ NỘI) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

Supervisor: NGUYỄN ĐỨC HOẠT, PhD Hanoi, 2014

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DECLARATION

I, Tran Minh Son, hereby declare that the thesis entitled: “A survey on students’
attitudes towards learning speaking skills at University of Social Sciences and
Humanities, VNU” is the result of my own research in the fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Moreover, this thesis has not been
submitted anywhere for any degree.

Hanoi, 2014
Author’s signature Trần Minh Sơn

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my affectionate and deeply-felt gratitude to my
supervisor, NGUYEN DUC HOAT, PhD for his invaluable assistance, inspiration

offered suggestions for both lecturers and students to improve the lecturers’
teaching speaking skills and the students’ ability to speak English.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION………………………………………………………
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………
TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS…………………………………………
LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………
PART A: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………
1. Rationale ……………………………………………………………….
2. Aims of the study ……………………………………………………
3. The research questions…………………………………………………
4. Significance of the study ………………………………………………
5. Scope of the study …………………………………………………….
6. Methods of the study ………………………………………………….
7. Structure of the study …………………………………………………
PART B: THE STUDY………………………………………………….
Chapter one: LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………….
1.1. Speaking skills and attitudes ………………………………………
1.1.1. Speaking skills ……………………………………………………
1.1.2. Attitudes…………………………………………………………
1.2. The elements of speaking ……………………………………………
1.3. The communicative approach in teaching English speaking skills….

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2.2. The setting……………………………………………………………
2.3. The participants………………………………………………………
2.4. The data collection instruments………………………………………
2.5. The data collection procedure………………………………………
2.6. The data analysis procedure………………………………………….
2.7. Summary……………………………………………………………
Chapter three: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION………………………
3.1. What are the students’ attitudes towards learning English speaking
skills at USSH, VNU?
3.2. What are the factors influencing the students’ attitudes?
3.3. What are the suggestions for the lectures and the students? ………
3.4. Summary …………………………………………………………….
PART C: CONCLUSION………………………………………………
1. Conclusions…………………………………………………………….
2. Suggestions for lecturers and students…………………………………
2.1. Suggestions for lecturers……………………………………………
2.2. Suggestions for students…………………………………………….
3. Limitations of the study ……………………………………………….
4. Suggestions for further studies ……………………………………….
REFERENCES…………………………………………………………
APPENDIX 1: Questionnaire (Vietnamese version)………………….
APPENDIX 2: Questionnaire (English version)……………………….
APPENDIX 3: Transcription For Interview…………………………
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2. CLT = Communicative Language Teaching

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1: Students' general attitudes towards liking or disliking
learning English
Figure 3.2: Students' general attitudes towards four English skills
Figure 3.3: Students' attitudes towards the importance of learning
English speaking skills
Figure 3.4: Students' purposes of learning English speaking skills
Figure 3.5: Students' attitudes towards English speaking lessons
Figure 3.6: Students' frequency of the unwillingness to speak English in
speaking lessons
Figure 3.7: Students' activities in speaking lessons
Figure 3.8: Students’ attitudes towards teachers’ teaching methods of
speaking skills
Figure 3.9: Factors influencing students’ attitudes towards learning
speaking skills
Figure 3.10: Students' preference for work arrangements in speaking
lessons
Figure 3.11: Students' comprehension when the teacher explains the
instruction in English in speaking lessons
Figure 3.12: Students’ expectations of learning speaking skills
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attention to it. Moreover, their majors are not English, and they have a tendency to
be more interested in their own majors such as History, Orientalism, and
Philosophy. In English speaking lessons, they do not feel highly enthusiastic about
speaking English. They possess low proficiency in grammar, vocabulary as well as
listening skills, leading to the fact that they are usually unconfident of speaking
English and feels difficult to share their thoughts in English. In the researcher’s
view, it is better for this problem to be enhanced in order to assist students in
making progress in learning English speaking skills.
For the reasons mentioned above, exploring the students’ attitudes towards
learning speaking skills is really essential. By investigating the students’ attitudes
and the factors impacting on those attitudes, the researcher may discover much
more this university’s students’ expectations, from which he can offer suggestions
for ways of improving students’ ability to speak English at USSH, VNU.

2. Aims of the study
The aims of the study are:
- To investigate EFL students’ attitudes towards learning speaking skills at USSH,
VNU.
- To find out factors influencing their attitudes in learning to speak English.
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- To offer suggestions in order for not only USSH,VNU’s lecturers of English to
develop their students’ ability to speak English at USSH,VNU but also the students
to improve their attitudes towards learning speaking skills.

3. The research questions
The study is conducted in an effort to answer the following research questions:
Question 1: What are the students’ attitudes towards learning English speaking
skills at USSH, VNU?
Question 2: What are the factors influencing the students’ attitudes?

7. Structure of the study
The study consists of three parts.
Part A: INTRODUCTION
This part includes rationale, aims, the research questions, significance, scope,
methods and design of the study.
Part B: THE STUDY
This part is composed of three chapters, as follows:
 Chapter 1: Literature review
The chapter presents the previous findings relevant to the study such as the
defintions of attitudes and speaking skills, the elements of speaking, the
communicative approach in teaching English speaking skills, the roles of
attitudes in language learning and speaking skills.
 Chapter 2: Methodology
The chapter is involved in the introduction of the University of Social
Sciences and Humanities-VNU – the research place, the information of the
participants, the data collection instruments consisting of the reasons for
choosing the questionnaire and interview and the categories of the twelve
questions in the questionnaire. Moreover, the data collection procedures and
methods of data analysis are also stated carefully. 4

 Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion
After collecting the results from the students of the University of Social
Sciences and Humanities-VNU, all the answers to the questions from the
questionnaire and interview are analyzed and discussed logically and in
depth in this chapter. The figures will be presented through tables and
graphs.
Part C: CONCLUSION

utterances to express meaning. Bailey (2005) also states that speaking is a verbal
and productive skill and consists of systematically-produced oral utterances.
Nonetheless, Burns and Joyce (1997) as well as Brown (1994) have a different view
that speaking can be understood as an interactive process of meaning construction
that is associated with producing, receiving and processing information.
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Another term for “speaking” is spoken communication or oral communication. It
is more immediate and natural, so speaking is in need of the parties’ simultaneous
presence and attentiveness (Rai, 2010).
Thus, it is reasonable to state that speaking is a verbal skill and a process of oral
communication. A speaker begins to produce oral utterances, which are received by
a hearer, and then are processed so that the hearer can understand what the speaker
is saying.

1.1.2. Attitudes
The definition of attitude can be understood as an individual’s judgement
towards something, and in general people’s attitudes can be positive or negative in
spite of the fact that they can potentially have ambivalent attitudes (both positive
and negative attitudes) or claim that they have no attitudes (Baker and Ellece,
2011).
Attitude is composed of three components. The first one is the affective
component which is involved in our evaluation of and feelings about the object. The
second one is the cognitive component which is related to our beliefs about the
object, and the last one is the behavioral component, which reflects the intentions of
an individual (Fazio, 1986).
Kumaravadivelu (2006) defines attitudes as “one’s evaluative responses to a
person, place, thing or an event”. He adds that attitude is complicatedly connected
with the processes and practices of language learning. Moreover, Malcolm (cited in
Kumaravadivelu, 2006:39) suggests two external forces shaping the learner’s

very necessary. Harmer (2001) also presents three elements, namely language
processing, interacting with others and on-the-spot information processing. The
language processing is related to “the retrieval of words and phrases from memory
and their assembly into syntactically and propositionally appropriate sequences”
(p.271). The interaction with other people includes listening, an understanding of
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other people’s feelings. The on-the-spot information processing means that a
speaker can process the information another speaker tells him or her as soon as he
or she receives it.
To sum up, there are many elements of speaking in the language features and the
mental/social processing. A speaker should have knowledge of language features,
together with the ability to process information and language immediately.
Language features are composed of four elements necessary for spoken production,
namely connected speech, expressive devices, lexis and grammar and negotiation
language. When the speaker has these language features, the mental/social
processing will assist him or her in achieving successful communication goal.
Processing skills consist of three elements such as language processing, interacting
with others and on-the-spot information processing.

1.3. The communicative approach in teaching English speaking skills
The communicative approach is also called communicative language teaching.
Nunan (1989) have an overview of CLT, as follows: in CLT, language is considered
as a system for communication and conveying meaning. Activities used in CLT are
related to real communication, meaningful tasks. Objectives in CLT reflect learners’
needs and they are composed of functional skills and linguistic objectives. In CLT
classrooms, students act as an interactor and a negotiator, and teachers act as a
facilitator. Harmer (2001:84) defines CLT as “the name which was given to a set of
beliefs which included not only a re-examination of what aspects of language to
teach, but also a shift in emphasis in how to teach”. He also adds that CLT

2005:19). In other words, group-work and pair-work are two typical ways in which
a teacher can group his or her students in a CLT classroom.
One of the approaches can be applied in teaching English speaking skills is
communicative language teaching because speaking can be more effective by
applying this approach to teach, and it is likely to enhance students’ speaking
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achievement. According to the article “A Comparison of Learners’ and Teachers’
Attitudes Towards Communicative Language Teaching At Two Universities In
Vietnam” by Khoi Mai Ngoc and Noriko Iwashita (2012), not only students but also
teachers have positive attitudes towards communicative language teaching
approach. Thus, it can be said that CLT is the appropriate approach to apply to teach
English speaking skills. However, designing various activities for speaking skills in
order to assist students in interacting spontaneously can still be the challenge in
CLT classroom.

1.4. The roles of attitude in language learning
First of all, it is essential to understand of what language leaning is. Davies and
Pearse (2000) affirm that language learning is a long process of acquiring a
language through exposure to the language and its use to communicate and many
unavoidable mistakes can occur.
Learner’s attitudes in language learning play an important role. They are
involved in the success which learners have in learning a language (Lightbown and
Spada, 1993). Gardner (1985) points out three ways of classifying attitudes. The
first one is attitudes that have a dimension of specificity or a dimension of
generality. For instance, it seems to be specific to mention attitudes towards
learning English; whereas, attitudes towards learning foreign languages has a
general dimension. The second one is about attitudes’ relevance to second language
achievement. In this case, there are attitudes which are more connected with the
tasks of learning a second language than other attitudes. The last classification is

perceptions of the teacher, the class and his or her awareness of future needs impact
his or her attitudes towards language learning, too. Therefore, not only are attitudes
appreciated in language learning but also studying them a lot should be paid
attention to, which is because the role of attitudes is essential, and it can create the
learners’ success as well as the failure in their language learning. 12

1.5. The roles of attitude in learning speaking skills
The learners’ success in language learning and the effectiveness of their English
course are usually evaluated by them through the progress they feel they have made
in their proficiency in speaking (Richards, 2009). Thus, it can be said that the
learners’ attitudes towards their progress play an important role in the success in
language learning.
When mentioning attitudes in speaking, Quyen Thi Thuc Bui and Channarong
Intaraprasert (2013) believe that the learners who possess positive attitudes towards
English speaking skills are going to be far more involved in speaking activities, and
they have a tendency to make use of more ways which assist them in coping with
their difficulties during the conversation. On the contrary, the learners who have
negative attitudes will tend to be unwilling or less willing to take part in speaking
activities. Thus, it can be inferred that the learners’ attitudes in learning speaking
skills still play a vital role, which decides the learners’ desire to learn speaking.
Besides, Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986) mention the components of foreign
language anxiety in their article. One of them is communication apprehension,
which can be understood as an attitude “characterized by anxiety about or fear of
communicating with people”. In other words, this attitude occurs when an
individual feels nervous and afraid of communicating with other people. Therefore,
when the learners are anxious to speak English, this will also influence their
learning.

This chapter has presented previous research involved in the following aspects:
the defintions of speaking skills and attitudes, the elements of speaking, the
communicative approach in teaching English speaking skills, the roles of attitude in
language learning, the roles of attitude in learning speaking skills. All the
theoretical information mentioned above focuses on speaking skills and attitudes,
which are used as the basis for the data analysis related to the study on students’
attitudes towards learning English speaking skills at the University of Social
Sciences and Humanities, VNU. 14

Chapter two: METHODOLOGY
2.1. Research questions
The study is expected to solve two research questions, as follows:
1. What are the students’ attitudes towards learning English speaking skills
at USSH, VNU?
2. What are the factors influencing the students’ attitudes?
To carry out this, the researcher decided to choose the survey research because
of its advantages. Survey research is suitable for the study with a large population.
The data in this study were collected through a combination of the questionnaire
and interviews, the two typical data collection instruments in the survey research.
The questionnaire was expected to offer the best description of the students’
attitudes towards learning speaking skills at USSH, VNU through significant
statistics. However, during the process of completing the questionnaire, the students
might circle the choices that were not similar to their thoughts or opinions because
they might be afraid to make their teachers sad if their answers had a tendency to
criticize their teachers. Therefore, the researcher used the interview more to have an
opportunity to talk directly with some of the students participating in the
questionnaire with the aim of increasing the reliability of the questionnaire, which

the study because all of them have been learning English since they were in grade 3
or 4; however, their English is rather weak, especially speaking skills. Furthermore,
they are not confident of using English to communicate with their partners in
English classes. Therefore, the researcher would like to have a bird’s eye view of
their attitudes towards as well as their expectations of learning English speaking
skills so that he can make suggestions about improving the students’ English
speaking skills at USSH, VNU.

2.4. The data collection instruments
Seeing that the study is a survey used to gain the information of attitudes,
conditions or events at a single point in time (Nunan, 1992:140), the researcher
decided to use two various instruments, namely survey questionnaire and interview.
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Firstly, questionnaire is one of the typical instruments in the survey research.
This technique is used the most widely in order to gain data from participants;
moreover, it is said to be economical and have standardized questions (McMillan
and Schumacher, 1993). Richards et all (1992) states that the questionnaire is a
group of questions about a topic designed to be answered by participants in a study.
It is very important that a questionnaire should be valid, reliable and unambiguous.
Two types of questions often appearing in a questionnaire are closed questions and
open questions. With closed questions, the researcher will design the range of
possible choices for respondents to be able to choose, whereas with open questions,
respondents can decide what they want to say and how they say it.
The questionnaire in this study includes 12 questions, which are both closed and
open ended. The researcher asked the students to give further information to explain
their choices below each question. Furthermore, all the questions were bilingual in
English and Vietnamese in order that the students can understand the questions
perfectly and precisely. Below are the categories of the twelve questions:
Question 1, 2: students’ general attitudes towards learning English