HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY N
O
.2
FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

TRAN HUONG LINH
A STUDY ON FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS’
PARTICIPATION IN SPEAKING LESSONS AND SUGGESTED
ACTIVITIES
FOR THE FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HPU N
o
.2

(SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
OF THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ENGLSH)

HANOI, MAY 2015
HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY N
O


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan (M.A.), for
her enthusiastic instructions. Without her insightful discussion, her critical comment,
her dedicated support, and her valuable orientation, this thesis would not have been
completed.

I also owe a great debt of gratitude to Ms. Emma Parenteau for her valuable
guidance and advice.

My special thanks are also sent to Mr. Dang Ngoc Nam (M.A.) from Faculty of
Foreign Language of HPU N
o
.2, for his help and advice for this thesis.

I cannot fully express my gratitude to all the lecturers of Faculty of Foreign
Languages of HPU N
o
.2 for giving me permission to commence this thesis in the first
instance and to do the necessary research work.

I would also like to send my sincere thanks to English major students from
Course 40 at HPU N
o
.2 in the academic year of 2014-2015 taking part in my research.

Last but not least, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my beloved
people, my parents, my younger sister and friends for their support and encouragement
throughout the time I carried out my study.


STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

Title:
A STUDY ON FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION
IN SPEAKING LESSONS AND SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES
FOR THE FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HPU N
o
.2

(Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Bachelor of
Arts in English)

I certify that all the materials in this study which are not my own work have
been identified and acknowledged, and that no material is included for which a degree
has been conferred upon me. Date submitted: May, 2015

Student Tran Huong Linh
Supervisor Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan, M.A.

Tran Huong Linh Graduation Paper

before and after the action plan

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 Students‟ interaction in lesson 5 49
Table 2 Students‟ interaction in lesson 8 52
Table 3 Students‟ interaction in lesson 9 53
Table 4 Students‟ interaction in lesson 10 53
Table 5 Students‟ interaction in lesson 11 54
Table 6 Students‟ interaction in lesson 12 55

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 Representing different student levels 12

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Faculty of Foreign Languages vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i
ABSTRACT ii
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv
LIST OF GRAPHS v
LIST OF TABLES v
LIST OF FIGURES v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vi
PART ONE
INTRODUCTION
I. Rationale 1
II. Research questions 2

I.3.7. Interview 24
I.3.8. Picture Narrating 24
I.3.9. Picture Describing 25
I.4. Summary 25
CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY
II.1. Research methods 27
II.1.1. Action research 27
II.1.2.Action research procedure 27
II.1.2.1. Identifying the problem (week 3) 27
II.1.2.2. Collecting initial data (weeks 4 – 5) 28
II.1.2.3. Analyzing data and generating hypotheses (week 6) 28
II.1.2.4. Planning action (week 7) 28
II.1.2.5. Implementing action (weeks 8 – 12) 29
II.1.2.6. Collecting data to monitor change (weeks 8 – 12) 29
II.1.2.7 Analyzing and evaluating students‟ participation after action plan (weeks 13 – 14) 29
II.2. Data collection instruments 29
II.2.1. Survey questionnaires 29
II.2.1.1. Rationale behind the use of survey questionnaires 29
II.2.1.2. Construction of the survey questionnaires 30
II.2.1.2.1. Construction of the Pre-survey questionnaire (Appendix A) 30
II.2.1.2.2. Construction of the Post-survey questionnaire (Appendix B) 30
II.2.2. Classroom observation 31
II.2.2.1. Rationale behind the use of classroom observation 31
II.2.2.2. Observation sheet: On-task behavior (Appendix C) 32
II.3. The participants 33
II.3.1. The teacher 33
II.3.2. The observers 33
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Faculty of Foreign Languages viii

IV.2.1. Recommendations for grouping students 63
IV.2.2. Recommendations for discussion 64
IV.2.3. Recommendations for role-play and simulation 64
IV.2.4. Recommendations for information gaps 65
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Faculty of Foreign Languages ix

IV.2.5. Recommendations for storytelling 66
IV.2.6. Recommendations for interview 67
IV.2.7. Recommendations for picture narrating and picture describing 67
IV.3. Limitations and suggestions for further study 68
REFERENCES 70
APPENDIX A: Pre-survey Questionnaire 74
APPENDIX B: Post-survey Questionnaire 78
Appendix C: Observation sheet 79
Appendix D: Students’ interaction self-report 81
Appendix E: Speaking lesson plan – Lesson 5 (Pre-action stage) 82
Appendix E.1: Additional pictures 85
Appendix F: Speaking lesson plan – Lesson 11 (Action stage) 88
Appendix F.1: Additional material of lesson 11 91
Appendix F.2: Worksheet 1 92
Appendix F.3: Worksheet 2 93
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Faculty of Foreign Languages 1

PART ONE
INTRODUCTION
Chapter One introduced the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the

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Faculty of Foreign Languages 2

students‟ side and suggested solutions for this problems is still limited. This has given
me the desire to conduct a study to identify these factors as well as to find out the
effective activities to increase the students‟ participation in speaking lessons for the
first year English major students at HPU N
o
.2
II. Research questions
To achieve the aims which are mentioned above, the following research
questions were raised for exploration:
What are the factors on the learners‟ side affecting their participation in
speaking lessons?
What should be done to increase the students‟ participation in speaking
lessons?
III. Research objectives
This study aims to find out the factors that have negative effects on the first-
year-English-major students‟ involvement in speaking lessons. Based on the findings,
the researcher will suggest some activities to increase the students‟ participation as
well as to enhance the effectiveness of the speaking lessons.
IV. Research significance
The result of the study is expected to be useful input not only for the teachers
but also for the students. With regard to the teachers, it will help to indicate the factors
that directly affect the success of speaking lessons and suggest some effective
activities which teachers can apply in order to increase the learners‟ participation as
well as the qualification of speaking lessons. In term of students, the study will show
them the barriers that prevent them from participating actively in speaking lessons and
find out the oral activities which they prefer to take part in.

 Chapter Two: METHODOLOGY presents the methods used in the study.
 Chapter Three: RESULTS shows the detailed results and analysis on the
data collected from survey questionnaires and classroom-observation.
Part III: CONCLUSION provides a review, limitations of the study as well as
suggestions for further studies.
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PART TWO
DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
This chapter involves different issues in the theories of factors affecting students‟
participation, including the literature review, theoretical background of learners‟
factors and activities to promote students‟ involvement in speaking lesson.
I.1. Literature review
It is undeniable that, speaking is one of the most important skills that students at
any levels frequently desire to improve and enhance. That is the reason why,
nowadays there are a growing of teachers tries their best to find out more creative and
effective activities with aim of encouraging students to talk more in speaking lessons.
Ur (1996) illustrates four characteristics of a successful speaking activity,
including learners talk a lot, participation is even, motivation is high, and language is
of an acceptable level. Among those, learners talk a lot (as much as possible of the
period of time allowed to the activity in fact occupied by learners talk. This may seem
obvious, but often most time is taken up with teachers or pauses) and participation is
even (classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority of talkative participants: all
get a chance to speak, and contributions are fairly evenly distributed) can be called as
“students‟ participation”. Moreover, low or uneven participation was recognized as
one of the most complicated and conspicuous phenomenon.
In general, students‟ participation is frequently considered as students‟

There are many variables that enormously influence students‟ acquisition as
well as their involvement in speaking sessions. Dunn, Dunn and Price (1979) believe
that learners are affected by their: (a) environmental (sound, light, temperature, and
the need for either a formal or informal design); (b) emotional (motivation,
persistence, responsibility, and the need for either structure or options); (c)
sociological (self, pair, peer, team, adult, or varied); and (d) physical (perceptual
strengths, need for intake, time of day or night energy levels, and need for mobility)
preferences.
Larsen-Freeman and Long (1991) identify six factors, namely 1) age; 2)
language aptitude; 3) social-psychological factors: motivation and attitudes; 4)
personality: self-esteem, extroversion, anxiety, risk taking, sensitivity to rejection,
empathy, inhibition and tolerance to ambiguity; 5) cognitive style; and 6) learning
strategies.
Besides, Brown (1994) refers to three mutually informing categories: the first
he names styles and strategies: which comprise, among others, learning and reasoning
styles, left- and right- brain functioning and the tolerance of ambiguity; secondly, he
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Faculty of Foreign Languages 6

cites sociocultural factors which are the process of overcoming of the personal and
transactional barriers presented by two cultures in contact, and the relationship of
culture learning to language learning; the third called personality, including in it self-
esteem, affect, anxiety, extroversion and motivation.
Additionally, Ellis (1994) describes general factors that make learners active or
passive in speaking class, such as language learning aptitude and motivation, and
specific learner strategies.
Moreover, Burns and Joyce (1997) show that the level of participation could be
closely associated to cultural, linguistic, or/and psychological factors. Those could be
the students‟ passive learning style; their limitations in pronunciation; vocabulary;

Over the years, several educators have asked questions about how people learn.
How does a learner receive and process information? How is that information stored
within the brain and later retrieved for solving problems and learning new material?
How should sequencing and organizing information affect classroom presentation?
(Keefe, 1988). Attempts to answer these questions have focused a large number of
researches in the areas of learning styles. Even, different researchers will have
different definitions as well as opinions about this factor, it can be seen that studies of
learning styles give attention both to how a student learns and to how a student prefers
to learn.
From Reid‟s point of view (1995), the term “learning style” has been used to
describe as an individual‟s natural, habitual, and preferred way of absorbing,
processing, and retaining new information and skills.
Besides, Kolb (1979) explains that different people naturally prefer a certain
single different learning style. That is the reason why Willing (1987) (qtd. in Harmer,
2007) divides learners into four main categories.
 Converges: these are students who are by nature solitary; prefer to avoid
groups, and who are independent and confident in their own abilities. Most
importantly, they are analytic and can impose their own structures on learning.
They tend to be cool and pragmatic.
 Conformists: these are students who prefer to emphasize learning “about
language” over learning to use it. They tend to be independent of those in
authority and are perfectly happy to work in non-communicative classrooms,
doing what they are told. A classroom of conformists is one which prefers to
see well-organized teachers.
 Concrete learners: though they like conformists, they also enjoy the social
aspects of learning and like to learn from direct experience. They are interested
in language use and language as communication rather than language as a
system. They enjoy games and group works in class.
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showed above, complex and sometimes perplexing. Thus, if teachers are unable to
cover all the types as well as the differences of the students, they may fail to provide
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Faculty of Foreign Languages 9

maximal advantages to each learner in the class. That is also the reason why, when
teachers offer oral activities, not all students truly desire to involve in.
I.2.2. Students’ attitudes and motivation
I.2.2.1. Students’ attitudes
Of all the potential factors that can affect learners‟ success, perhaps none are as
important as attitudes and motivation which a student brings with him or her to the
learning process (Robertson, 2013). By this reason, these two factors have become the
subject of a wide range of science research, namely Gardner & Lambert (1972), Ellis
(1994), Long and Larsen-Freeman (1991), Ur (1996), Brown (1994), Harmer (2001 &
2007) and Ortega (2009).
The terms “attitudes and motivation” frequently go together because they have
close relationship. Gardner and Lambert (1972) and Lightbown and Spanda (1999), for
instance, always use these two term simultaneously. Nevertheless, in order to get clear
understanding about the difference between them, it will be better to define them
separately. First of all, the definition of attitudes should be made clear.
In the succinct words of Bem (1970), “Attitudes are likes and dislikes”.
Similarly, Eagly and Chaiken (1993) in a highly influential textbook, define attitudes
as “a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with
some degree of favor or disfavor”. In terms of second language acquisition, attitudes in
Chandrasegaran‟s research (1981) refer specifically to states of emotion and thought
relating to the English language, to the learning of English and to the culture of
English-speaking people.
Attitudes towards a language can be either positive or negative. It can be seen in
speaking lessons that a student with negative attitudes may not desire to attend the

the language in order to learn about, to interact with or to get involved to the
community. Instrumental motivation, on the other hand, refers to the desire to learn the
second language for a specific goal or reasons such as to get a degree or a job, or to
improve social status. However, Lightbown and Spada (2006) believe that the
distinction between these two types is not always clear. Additionally, in some learning
environments, it is difficult to distinguish between these two types of orientation to the
target language and its community.
Apart from this, in discussions of motivation an accepted distinction of Harmer
(2001) is made between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, that is motivation which
comes from outside and from inside. Extrinsic motivation is caused by a huge number
of outside factors, for example, the need to pass an exam, the hope of financial reward,
or the possibility of future travel. Intrinsic motivation, by contrast, comes from within
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Faculty of Foreign Languages 11

the individual. Thus, a person might be motivated by the enjoyment of the learning
process itself or by a desire to make themselves feel better. Both the types of
motivation have different roles to play and both can lead to success. Nonetheless, most
researchers and methodologists have come to the view that intrinsic motivation is
especially important for encouraging success (Harmer, 2001).
Increasing and directing students‟ motivation is one of a teacher‟s
responsibilities, though he/she has no capability to help all of his/her students.
However, teachers can make a positive contribution to students‟ motivation to involve
in the lessons if classrooms are places where students enjoy coming to because the
content is interesting and relevant to their age and their level of ability, the learning
goals are challenging yet manageable and clear, and the atmosphere is supportive.
Crookes and Schmidt (1991) point to several areas where educational research has
reported increased levels of motivation for students in relation to pedagogical
practices. Included among these are:

methodology and the kind of language (and the topics) which teachers expose students
to.
Initially, teachers need to understand the basic levels of language proficiency,
based on this foundation they can plan suitable instructions, explanations and activities
for each group so as to benefit all students as well as to encourage them to engage
effectively in the speaking sessions.
Harmer (2007) describes students in three levels, beginner, intermediate and
advanced, and these categories are further qualified by talking about real beginners
and false beginners. Between beginner and intermediate, we often class students as
elementary. The intermediate level itself is often sub-divided into lower intermediate
and upper intermediate and even mid-intermediate. One version of different levels,
therefore, has the progression shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Representing different student levels
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Faculty of Foreign Languages 13

Harmer also claims that some techniques and exercises are suitable for some
students but less appropriate for others at higher level, and some assumptions about
advanced students‟ abilities are less successful when transposed, without thought, to
students at lower levels. This is especially true in speaking tasks. That is the reason
why it is necessary for teachers to classify their students according to levels of
language and have different instructions for them.
In fact, students acquire language partly as a result of the comprehensible input
they receive – especially from the teachers. This means, of course, that we will have to
adjust the language we use to the level of the students we are teaching. For instance, it
is quite feasible to ask advanced students to get into pairs or groups to discuss a topic
of some kind without structuring the activity in any way. But when asking elementary
students to have a discussion in pairs or groups, we need to be far more rigorous in

misunderstanding among conversations wither others. Clearly, most students who have
difficulties in pronunciation are unwilling to communicate in the target language for
fear of being ridiculed.
In light of aforementioned facts, it can be concluded that levels of language
proficiency take a great influence on learners‟ willingness and motivation to contribute
to speaking activities. Correspondingly, teachers should pay more attention to students
with aim of helping them break this barrier and speak up during the lesson time.
I.2.4. Students’ personality
Human personality in all its shapes and colors brings variety to this world
(Zafar & Meenakshi, 2012). This factor has been the core of the study of human
psychology for more than 150 years. In second language learning acquisition, the
study of the relation of personality and language learning has been the subject of
scholars like Krashen (1985), Skehan (1989), Gass & Selinker (1994), etc.
A large variety of research has been done to develop theories of personality that
could aid us in understanding the formation of personality traits.
According to Funder (2004) personality refers to an individual‟s characteristic
patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior, together with the psychological
mechanisms-hidden or not-behind those patterns.
In Bilsky & Schwart‟s research (1994), personality is briefly defined as unique
pattern of traits whereby a trait is the way one individual differs from another.
As can be seen, each student has their own and special personality which will
induce various difficulties in learning second language. Even though, there are a great
deal of traits believed to make up human personality, Zafar and Meenakshi (2012)
point out that extroversion and introversion are two key characteristics that intensely
influence students‟ participation in the process of learning. As stated in “Handbook of