VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
_________________


LÊ HỒNG PHƯỢNG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF USEFUL EXPRESSIONS
TO ENHANCE SPEAKING SKILLS FOR THE THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS
AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY
NGHIÊN CỨU CÁCH SỬ DỤNG CÁC CỤM TỪ HỮU ÍCH
GIÚP NÂNG CAO KĨ NĂNG NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ BA
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KINH DOANH CÔNG NGHỆ HÀ NỘI

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

HANOI - 2017


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
_________________


LÊ HỒNG PHƯỢNG



ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This thesis would not be fulfilled without the help of some people, and in
some ways, I would like to thank everyone who has taught me, inspired me,
challenged me, and supported me during the process of conducting this thesis.
I would like to express my deepest thanks to my beloved supervisor, Duong
Thi Nu, Ph.D, for her great assistance as well as her dedicated guidance she gave
me while I was carrying out my project.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all lecturers
in Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International
Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their interesting lectures and
professional dedication which have inspired me to conduct this thesis.
I would also like to express my thanks to my colleagues at Faculty of
English, my third-year students at Faculty of Management at Hanoi University of
Business and Technology for their willingness to participate in the research.
Without their help, this project could not be completed.
Last but not least, I am most thankful to my family and my closed friends
who have always inspired and encouraged me all the time.

Hanoi, May 2017

Lê Hồng Phượng

ii


ABSTRACT

The majority of second language learners encounter problems when they
speak in the target language. For the number of the students at Hanoi University of

1.2 The role of speaking in language learning .................................................................. 5
1.3 Components of speaking competence .......................................................................... 8
1.4 Different techniques used to teach pronunciation .................................................. 10
1.5 The role of useful expression or fixed expression in developing speaking skill ....... 10
1.6 Previous studies............................................................................................................... 11
1.6.1 Lexical bundles..........................................................................................11
1.6.2 Idiomatic expression..................................................................................13
1.6.3 Useful expressions .....................................................................................14
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ......................................................................... 15
2.1 Context of the study ........................................................................................................ 15
2.2 The study ........................................................................................................ 17
2.2.1 Participants ...............................................................................................17
2.2.2 Data collection instruments .......................................................................17
2.2.3 Questionnaire .............................................................................................18
2.2.4 Pre-test and Post-test results .....................................................................20
2.2.5 Analysis techniques
2.2.6 Data presentation and analysis ..................................................................21
2.2.7 Procedure ...................................................................................................21
iv


2.3 A statement and a sample of assessment ………………………………………….24
2.3.1 Assessment requirements and criteria .......................................................24
2.3.2 The principles for grading ........................................................................24
2.3.3 A sample of assessment .............................................................................25
Chapter 3: DATA ANALYSIS ............................................................................... 27
3.1

Students‟ general attitude towards using useful expressions in learning


Speaking skills is one of crucial parts of second language learning and
teaching. “The ability to speak in a foreign language is at the very heart of what it
means to be able to use a foreign language” (Louma, 2004). The mastery of this
output skill in English is a priority for many second language or foreign-language
learners. In this global era, English is utilized as an international medium of
communication and it helps people to work and cooperate in a common language. It
is the fact that the learners are often evaluated their success in the language learning
as well as the effectiveness of their English course through their spoken language
proficiency. Unfortunately, speaking skill is a complicated and multifaceted skill
which is not easy to be improved and takes a long time to make progress. Up to
now, various approaches to teaching speaking, therefore, have been recommended
to help deal with this issue.
In most universities in Vietnam, English is a compulsory subject which
equips students for effective workplace communication after their graduation. It
goes without saying that at Hanoi University of Business and Technology (hereafter
HUBT), a private university, it is not an exception.
Being a teacher of English at English Department at HUBT, the author has
had an opportunity to teach English mainly for communication in four skills
listening, speaking, reading and writing. Thanks to approaching all students from
the freshmen to the seniors at all levels in all majors, the researcher herself has
found that her students have a number of problems with speaking skill. They are not
willing to speak due to many reasons such as poor pronunciation, being afraid of
making mistakes, lack of vocabulary and not having a language environment to
1


practice English and so on.
During the first few courses, the author had many frustrations because even
some of her students had motivation to learn English, they could not make progress
in speaking skill. Some students said to her “I can understand your English, but

action is carried out for the third-year students of all majors in a class of about 30
students at HUBT within 8 weeks. The collected data are analyzed and discussed to
figure out how using useful expressions contribute to enhance students‟ speaking skill.
1.4 Research questions
This study is conducted to find the answers for the following questions:
1. What is the students‟ attitude towards useful expressions?
2. To what extent does the use of useful expressions enhance speaking skill for
the students from the teacher and the students‟ perspectives?
1.5 Method of the study
Action research is employed in this study. Both qualitative and quantitative
methods are used in this research. The data were collected by means of:
-

Questionnaires

-

Interviews

The questionnaire is designed to gather data about the students‟ ideas on the
intended criteria. Information gathered from interviews with teachers will be notetaken, analyzed and used for providing more information.
These two research instruments are used in three phases of the action research for
preliminary investigation, exploration of the effects that the action creates, and
reflection on the action phase.
1.6 Design of the study
A part from the Introduction and Conclusion, the study is organized into
three main parts: Literature Review, Methodology, Results and Discussion.
In the first part, Introduction consists of the rationale, aims, research questions,
significance of the study, scope of the study, and the design of the study.
In the second part, chapter 1 - Literature Review mentions the theoretical

fixed or useful expressions, for example Wiktorsson (2002) prefabs, Grant and
Nation (2006) figurative as well as Nation and Meara (2002), and Wiktorsson
(2003) use the term “multi-word units”. Gluckberg (2001) proposes that fixed
expressions include, in order of relative frequency: compound, idioms, names,
clichés, songs, books, and movie titles, quotes and familiar foreign phrases.
From the author‟s perspective, useful expressions in English are fixed
expressions that are used frequently in speaking to express a concept or idea. They
are a standard form of expressions which have taken on a more specific meaning
than the expression themselves. They are different from proverbs in that it is used as
a part of a sentence.
1.2 The role of speaking in language learning
Speaking is fundamental to human communication. Let us think of all the
various conversations we have in a day and compare that with how much written
communication we do in one day. In our daily lives, most of us speak more than we
write. When communication takes place, where there is speech. Without speech, we
cannot communicate with one another. The importance of speaking skill, therefore,
5


is extremely enormous for the learners of any language.
If a person would like to become a well-rounded communicator, he or she needs to
be proficient in each of four language skills such as listening, speaking, reading and
writing. Of all skills, the ability to speak skillfully provides the speaker with a
couple of distinct advantages. When we attend a job interview, present a topic,
negotiate a contract with our clients and so on; becoming an effective
communicator is obviously a great benefit. When we share our views with others,
the joy we get is uncountable and the better understanding about life and ourselves
as well. Especially, in some cases, speaking skills can support someone‟s profession
well or even lead to their career success.
One of the highest levels of speaking is to present a certain matter in front of

skills. ESL learners in primary, middle, and secondary school contexts also need to
use speech to develop thinking skills that are specific to different subjects in the
school curriculum, and the ability to do this empowers the learners to engage
critically with their social and physical world.
According to Wolvin and Coakely (1996), the connection between language
learners‟ speaking abilities and their academic learning is much formal learning
through the spoken language. Through the medium of English, being able to speak
(and listen) in the language of instruction will greatly facilitate students‟
participation in class and the learning of the subject matter. To be able to speak
English, the second language learners have to develop various pragmatic
competencies. Learners need to learn how to initiate and maintain conversations, to
sustain group discussions, describe feelings and give reasons in an acceptable
manner, and ask for more information or assistance (Brice, 1992). In other words,
one of the fundamental reasons why second language learners need to develop good
speaking skills is to engage in effective day-to-day classroom communication.
With the same viewpoint, Goh et al. (2012) claims that it is important for the
second language learners to develop speaking skills that enables them to use spoken
English effectively in various contexts of learning. It is also not uncommon to find
the second language learners being perceived as less able or intelligent, simply
because they cannot use the language to express their understanding, doubts, and
opinions clearly. Inability to speak and listen effectively in their second language
7


can cause some learners to abstain from participating in class. When even daily
communication becomes a problem, it is not surprising that many second language
learners cannot participate in the discourse of academic learning. As a result, they
are further disadvantaged in schools because they cannot demonstrate ways of using
the “mainstream” language valued in formal education (Cummins, 2000).
In a broader perspective, Grainger (2004) claims that when teachers help

Pronunciation. This assessment is famous for its academic reputation which is
recognized worldwide. In terms of Fluency and Coherence, this refers to how good
the candidate is at keeping talking at the right speed and how good they are at
connecting their ideas together. This is a fairly general criteria which includes
evaluating the relevance of the candidate's answers. For the Lexical Resource, this
relates to how much vocabulary the candidate has and how well they use it. As well
as the rules of language at a word level, this criteria considers the communicative
functions of speech and the social meaning of speech. The next criterion,
Grammatical Range and Accuracy, this refers to how many structures the candidate
has and how well they use them. Again, as well as the rules of language, this criteria
considers the communicative functions of speech. The last one, Pronunciation, this
refers to how well the candidate pronounces the language. As well as considering
the communicative effect of the candidate's pronunciation, there is evaluation of
how much strain it causes on a listener, and how noticeable their accent is.
In HUBT, to measure learners‟ speaking competence, basically, those
components above are almost used; however, they are assessed at a lower level. There
are five main categories used to assess students‟ communicative competence:
Vocabulary, Grammar, Fluency, Pronunciation, Content and Useful expressions. The
first category Vocabulary, this refers to their use of words and the range of accuracy of
the vocabulary they choose to use. It is not only how they select words but also how well
they utilize them will be considered. The second category Grammar, the variety of
grammar and how correctly they use are both judged by their teacher. Therefore, the
range of tenses as well as the appropriate use of them is important in all parts of speaking
test. About the third one Fluency, this measures student‟s ability to speak without too
many pauses and hesitations. About Pronunciation, this is not only the way students
pronounce individual words but the whole sentences which are considered. The teacher
will be considering how easily their students can understand what he or she saying. The
9




 What‟s your view?

give me ____.
1.4 Different techniques used to teach pronunciation
Up to now, there have been many different techniques applied to teach
pronunciation all over the world such as discussions, role play, simulations,
information gap, brainstorming, storytelling, interviews, story completion,
reporting, picture describing and so on.
1.5 The role of useful expression or fixed expression in developing speaking skill
Expression is a part of every language. (Boers, 2008) claims that all
languages have idioms and are full of them. Native speakers have a tendency to
utilize expressions spontaneously without thinking of the figurative meaning. It is
natural that non-native speakers find several expressions not easy to understand.
Because of the difference between spoken language and written language, the
speaker has barely time to make plan what they are going to say, therefore, the
sentences are shorter and less complex, and may contain grammatical and
syntactical mistakes. The speaker must also produce his utterance within severe
constraints, he does not know in advance what will be said to him and hence what
his utterance will be a response to yet. If the conversation does not flag, he must
10


respond quickly. The rapid formulation of utterances which are simultaneously
“right” on several levels is central to the spoken communicative skill (Taylor, 1983).
Obviously, the pressure of time dramatically affects the language we use.
The possible solutions which help speakers reduce this pressure are considered are
the speakers should use devices to facilitate production and devices to compensate
for difficulties. And some of the facilitation and compensation devices are using of
time creating devices and using of idiomatic or conventional expressions called

appear more frequently than expected by chance, helping to shape meaning in
specific contexts and contributing to our sense of coherence in a text” (Hyland,
2012). Lexical bundles are crucially important for determining the success of
language users within specific discourse communities and for the construction of
discourse in all university registers in particular. Previous research has shown that
lexical bundles are especially prevalent in university classroom teaching. They can
be classified in terms of their formal linguistic aspects and their functional role in
texts. According to Bogart, (Biber, Conrad, & Cortes, 2004) identify three main
discourse functions for lexical bundles: stance expressions, discourse organizers and
referential expressions.
In terms of developing speaking skill, Biber and Conrad (1999) said that
lexical bundles are the sequences of words that most commonly co-occur in a
register. They are not usually fixed expressions, and it is not possible to substitute a
single word for the sequence; in fact, most lexical bundles are not structurally
complete at all.
Many bundles in conversation contain the beginning of a main clause
followed by the beginning of an embedded complement clause. Those lexical
bundles can build discourse building blocks, with the following slot being used to
express the content specific to each individual situation. Based on the explanation
lexical bundles can help them to build a specific content of conversation in certain
situations.
In frequency of use of lexical bundles, there are almost 4,000 different lexical
bundles in conversation, and about 3,000 various lexical bundles in academic prose. In
conversation, three-word bundles occur more than 80,000 times per million words and
four-word bundles over 8,500 times per million words. In academic prose, three-word
bundles occur more than 60,000 times per million words, and four-word bundles over
5,000 times per million words (Conrad & Biber, 2004).
12



expressions is an effective way for learners to become more knowledgeable and better
13


aware of the culture and customs of that particular language. The importance of idioms
also lies in the fact that it is an everyday routine of the native English speakers‟
language. Learning idiomatic expressions by non-natives leads them to better English
proficiency, help their second or foreign language seem to be more native speakers.
Therefore, learning English idiomatic expressions not only enhances one‟s second or
foreign language skills but helps non-native speakers of a language understand that
target language better (Yule, 2006).
According to Maisa and Karunakaran (2013), no translator or language
teacher can afford to ignore idioms if a natural use of the target language is an aim.
In short, lexical bundles, idiomatic expressions or useful expressions are parts in
learning language. They help learners acquire language more deeply and naturally.
The learners using these expressions become alike to native speakers.
1.6.3 Useful expressions:
To be frank, there have not been many researches relating to the useful
expressions. Recently, the research on “Useful expressions for implementing
cooperative learning in English” of results of groups of four authors M. Asakawa,
A.Kanamaru, T. Plaza and C. Shiramuzu from different schools and universities in
Japan.
The results of the questionnaire suggested students generally considered the
list to be helpful in establishing smoother English language communication with
their classmates. The results also suggested that the list helped build confidence and
contributed to increased motivation among the students. The individual comments
in the questionnaire further indicated that students felt the list played a significant
role in helping them during discussions or at least say something such as a quick
response.
The effectiveness of the list which the author provided helped students move

chapter mentions the advantages and disadvantages when the researcher used those
instruments and data analysis procedure.
2.1 Context of the study
This study draws on the research carried out at Hanoi University of Business
and Technology, a private university located in Vinh Tuy ward, Hai Ba Trung
district, Hanoi, Vietnam. HUBT is famous for giving opportunities of studying for
students related to two major fields: business and technology. These fields cover

15


three groups of various majors like Economics – Business, Technology and Foreign
Languages. Of all, Management and Accounting are the most popular majors in
HUBT. There are thousands of students enrolling in these fields with their full of
expectation annually. Thanks to these expectations, the university always makes the
effort to meet students‟ requirements.
In order to fulfill the needs of the current job in competitive market at
present, the university‟s priority and policy are mainly focus on English and
Information - Technology beside the other major subjects. Therefore, English is
considered to be an extremely essential to all major students and non-major students
as well. In the HUBT‟s curriculum, English is designed for students to learn lasts a
half and three years. Also, the school always seeks for new methods to enhance the
quality of teaching and learning English. Every year, the English faculty carries out
adjusting, renewing or even substituting textbook and course book. In the recent
years, the university‟s infrastructure has changed dramatically in order to provide
equipment and teaching aids for teaching and learning English effectively such as
radio sets, computers, loud speakers and projectors in all classrooms. Beside such
multi-media classrooms, the reference books, the interactive video and audio are
also available in the library. Furthermore, the computer rooms are fully- equipped
with free Internet access. These facilities support students in improving and

2.2.1 Participants
The participants in the study are selected randomly are 30 students who
major in Management at HUBT. Most of these students have studied English at
least seven years and they completed their second year at school curriculum last
semester. They are currently the third-year students; therefore, they are supposed to
be familiar with the learning and teaching styles at HUBT.
The 30 students of Faculties of Managing participating in the study are
assumed by the researcher to be more studious than those at other faculties because
of their current academic and future career requirements. Thus, this study does not
necessarily present the whole population of the university. Because of the scope of
the study, the author tries to investigate the effectiveness of learning speaking
through a questionnaire and interview.
2.2.2 Data collection instruments
To reach the major objectives of the study, a survey questionnaire was
utilized as a main tool for data collection in this research because it is considered to
be a “useful instrument for to collecting survey information, providing structured,
often numerical data, being able to be administered without the presence of the

17


researcher, and often being comparatively straightforward to analyze”. (Cohen,
Manion, & Morrison, 2013)Therefore, it would certainly be valuable for helping the
researcher explore the effectiveness through learning speaking. Moreover, this
research tool is also relatively more comfortable, time-saving and economical to
administer. Hence, using a questionnaire is one of the solutions to the
methodological problem. Though the use of questionnaire has some weak points,
for instance, “participants think the researcher wants to hear, or indulge in selfflattery”, Ellis (1985) highlighted that questionnaires have provided an insight into
the personal nature of language learning, particularly classroom language learning.
Though the questionnaire is the major instrument, this study comprises the