HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2
FOREIGN LANGUAGES FACULTY
-----------------

TỐNG HUỆ PHƯƠNG

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING SKYPE TO IMPROVE
SPEAKING SKILLS FOR THE FIRST YEAR ENGLISH
EDUCATION STUDENTS AT HANOI PEDAGOGICAL
UNIVERSITY 2
(SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
OF THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS OF ENGLISH)

BA THESIS IN ENGLISH

HANOI, 2017


HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2
FOREIGN LANGUAGES FACULTY
-----------------

TỐNG HUỆ PHƯƠNG

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING SKYPE TO IMPROVE
SPEAKING SKILLS FOR THE FIRST YEAR ENGLISH
EDUCATION STUDENTS AT HANOI PEDAGOGICAL
UNIVERSITY 2
(SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
OF THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS OF ENGLISH)


University 2 (HPU2) in English speaking skills. The results collected from two
tools: the speaking test interview to measure the students' speaking skills
achievements and the survey questionnaire to determine the changes towards the
improvement of speaking skills outside class due to the implementation of
Skype.
Based on the results of the pre-speaking test interview and the pre survey
questionnaire, the researcher had concluded that not only students‟ English
speaking was low, but their errors in English speaking sub-skills were numerous,
consequently the application of Skype outside class was scheduled with a
number of topics for practice discussion.
Resulting from the post-speaking test interview and the post survey
questionnaire, the employment of Skype was demonstrated that it was effective
in improving students‟ speaking ability and their attitudes towards practicing
speaking outside class.

ii


STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I state that the thesis is truly my original work. The thesis does not contain
any material which has been written or published by another person except
where referenced within the text.

Date submitted: May 2017

Student

Supervisor



SLA

Student Oral Language Observation Matrix

SOLOM

iv


TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I
INTRODUCTION
I. RATIONALE ..........................................................................................................................1
II. RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................2
III. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES........................................................................................3
IV. RESEARCH SCOPE .......................................................................................................3
V. RESEARCH TASKS .........................................................................................................4
VI. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..............................................................................4
VII. SIGNIFICANCE ..............................................................................................................5
VIII. RESEARCH DESIGN.................................................................................................5
PART II
DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
I.1. English speaking skills ....................................................................................................7
I.1.1. Definitions of speaking ................................................................................................7
I.1.2.English language speaking skills .............................................................................9
I.1.3. English language speaking sub-skills ..................................................................9
I.1.3.1. Accuracy ..........................................................................................................................9

II.2.1. Speaking test interview ...........................................................................................27
II.2.1.1. Pre-speaking test interview ...............................................................................27
II.2.1.2. Post- speaking test interview ............................................................................28
II.2.1.3. Checklist .....................................................................................................................28
II.2.2. Survey questionnaire ...............................................................................................29
II.2.2.1. The pre-survey questionnaire ..........................................................................29
II.2.2.2. The post-survey questionnaire ........................................................................29
II.3. Research setting ..............................................................................................................30

vi


II.4. Participants .......................................................................................................................30
II.5. Research procedure ......................................................................................................31
II.5.1. Describing the background...................................................................................31
II.5.2. Identifying problems ................................................................................................31
II.5.3. Producing vision/objectives ..................................................................................32
II.5.4. Proposing solution .....................................................................................................32
II.5.5. Implementing case study ........................................................................................33
II.5.6. Results and evaluation ............................................................................................34
II.6. Data analysis ....................................................................................................................34
II.6.1. Test interview...............................................................................................................34
III.6.1.1. Oral test interview ...............................................................................................34
II.6.1.2. Interview’s checklist .............................................................................................34
II.6.2. Survey questionnaire ...............................................................................................35
CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
III.1. Description of procedure and the outcome ....................................................36
III.1.1. Week 1 ...........................................................................................................................36
III.1.2. Week 2 ...........................................................................................................................38
III.1.3. Week 3 ...........................................................................................................................39

III.2.2.3.1. Words‟ pronunciation ........................................................................................58
III.2.2.3.2. Words‟ reiteration ...............................................................................................58
III.2.2.4. Pronunciation ............................................................................................................59
III.2.2.4.1. Stress and Intonation ..........................................................................................59
III.2.2.4.2. English consonants .............................................................................................59
III.2.2.5. Grammar .....................................................................................................................60
III.2.2.5.1. Wrong verbs tense ...............................................................................................60
III.2.2.5.2. Subject verb disagreement ...............................................................................60
III.2.2.5.3. Clipped sentences ................................................................................................61
III.2.3. Comparison and evaluation ...............................................................................61

viii


III.3. Results from survey questionnaire .....................................................................63
III.3.1. Students’ attitudes toward English speaking skills................................63
III.3.2. Students’ attitudes toward using Skype to practice speaking ..........65
III.3.3. Challenges facing the students in using Skype to practice speaking
............................................................................................................................................................67

PART III
CONCLUSION
I. Summary of the study .......................................................................................................68
II. Limitations ............................................................................................................................69
III. Recommendations …………………………………………………………………...…70
REFERENCES .................................................................................................. 73
APPENDIX A .................................................................................................... 81
APPENDIX D .................................................................................................... 86
APPENDIX E .................................................................................................... 93
APPENDIX F ..................................................................................................... 94

introduce themselves well and correctly in English, because they only focus
on traditional books which are full of grammar structures and words. They

1


lack of English practice environment to improve and motivate them to use
English in daily communication in real life. That is the reason why many first
year English major students reported that they have to deal with a large
number of difficulties in speaking skills study.
Due to this problem, the development of IT in the recent modern
century solves this problem in the quickest and most effective way. There has
been an invented software which connects users all over the world, allows
them to make a call, chat and watch their face like real talk, send files also,
without any cost whenever their computers or phones are connected to the
Internet called Skype. In addition, because of the long geographical distance,
each student has been equipped by own laptop and cell phone which are
connected to the Internet and comfortably installed Skype that have
opportunities of English speaking practice. Today there are more than 630
million users of Skype. This number rises sharply every day and every time.
With the purpose of helping first-year students of English Education at
HPU2 enhance their English speaking skills, this study focuses on the training
of English conversation whereby some native speakers of English and nonnative but advanced English speakers function as Conversation Facilitators
(CFs) using audio conferencing- Skype to talk with a small group of students
or converse one-to-one. This process focuses on the speaking sub-skills such
as comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar practice.
II. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Speaking is one of the most important skill of language learners so that
it is vital for first year students to have a proper method of improvement,
particularly they would need this skill almost all the years at university life,

Skype as a new application tool to enhance students‟ speaking skills outside
class. English speaking class are clarified specifically into five sub-skills
focused on Comprehension, Fluency, Vocabulary, Pronunciation and

3


Grammar. This thesis can be also be beneficial not only English major
students, but other languages and even for people who are not major in
English and who have intention to learn it as a second language.
V. RESEARCH TASKS
The study involves fulfilling the following tasks:
1. Describe a general view of both the speaking definitions; subspeaking skills, English speaking inside/outside class and Skype application
such as the definitions of Skype, benefits of using Skype.
2. Describe Skype applying process, by what way Skype is carried out
among students.
3. Conduct a pre- speaking test interview to find out which level
students are belonging to sub- speaking skills such as comprehension, fluency,
vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar.
4. Conduct a post- speaking test interview to find out how English
speaking skills of first year students of English Education effective by
applying Skype as a tool improvement outside class.
VI. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A case study approach was taken in this study. With the purpose of
enhancing students‟ speaking competence through Skype application, the
thing, which the researcher completed, was to review some relevant
publications. Then the researcher consults with supervisors and friends to
produce pre- interview. A number of topics and evaluated criteria as below
were presented. During seven weeks applying Skype speaking skills practice
the researcher would participate in the conversation discussion, observe the

description of the subjects and the procedures of making research.
- Chapter 3 named “Results” shows the results in detail.
5


 Part 3 is the “Conclusion” provides the summary, limitations of
the study and suggested some ideas for further studies.

6


PART II
DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

I.1. English speaking skills
I.1.1. Definitions of speaking
Speaking is defined as an interactive process of constructing meaning
that involves producing, receiving and processing information. Its form and
meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, the participants, and
the purposes of speaking (Burns & Joyce, 1997). In addition, speaking is the
form of oral correspondence between the speaker and the hearer in
transforming ideas for reaching the goal of communication (Taufiqulloh,
2009 ).
Moreover, according to Nunan, he states that: “Speaking is the ability
in using oral language to explore ideas, intentions, thoughts, and feeling to
other people as the way to make the message clearly delivered and well
understood by the hearer”. (1995). Together with this idea, Merrian, the
author of “Webster Online Dictionary” (2002), mentions speaking definition:
“Speaking is uttering words or articulating sound with ordinary voice.

Although not only English- majored students in the first year at HPU2,
but non English-major others have improved this subject for more ten years,
their speaking skills are limited, due to studying habits at high school such as
grammar focus, examinations focus and their passivity in learning a language.
According to Widdowson (1994), speaking is the active production skill and
use of oral production. It is the capability of someone to communicate orally
with others. Thus, it is vital to map out the new way to motivate and
encourage students‟ study as new method to make different in learning
English communication.

8


Speaking is defined operationally in this study as the secondary stage
students' ability to express themselves orally, coherently, fluently and
appropriately in a given meaningful context to serve both transactional and
interactional purposed using correct pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary
and adopting the pragmatic and discourse rules of the spoken language. In
other words, they are required to show mastery of the following sub
competencies/ skills.
I.1.2. English language speaking skills
Speaking is a skill, which deserves attention every bit as much as
literary skills, in both first and second language. Learners of a language need
to be able to speak with confidence (Bygate, 2003).
Speaking is the productive skill in which students utter words and
sentences for specific purposes to convey certain messages using the
appropriate grammatical rules, vocabulary and score of formality with the
atmosphere of confidence and comfort.
Learning to speak English confidently is nowadays a need. It is no
more an issue of status however it is of supreme necessity for a good quality

71).
I.1.3.2. Fluency
Thornbury (2005) defines fluency as the ability to converse or to
express a sequence of ideas fluently, but what is fluently or fluency? Fluency
can be defined as the features of a second language oral performance that
serve as reliable indicators of how efficiently the speaker is able to mobilize
and temporally integrate, in a nearly simultaneous way, the underlying
processes of planning and assembling an utterance in order to perform a
communicatively acceptable speech act. It is the ability to describe and report
actions or situations in precise words (Segalowitz, 2010: 47).

10


According to Wikipedia 2013, Harrell (2007) defines fluency as a
speech language pathology term which means the smoothness or flow with
which sounds, syllable, words and phrases are joined together when speaking
quickly.
People can be said as fluent speakers if their speaking includes the
pauses management by, fit timing, correctness fill, meaningful transition
points and words between pauses. Foster and Skehan in Nunan (2004)
propose a model in assessing speaking fluency by considering the total
number of seconds of silence and time spent saying „um‟ and „ah‟ by subjects
as they complete a task.
People can be said as fluent speakers if their speaking includes the
pauses management by, fit timing, correctness fill, meaningful transition
points and words between pauses. Foster and Skehan in Nunan (2004)
propose a model in assessing speaking fluency by considering the total
number of seconds of silence and time spent saying „um‟ and „ah‟ by subjects
as they complete a task. With the same idea, Tumova (2002) states that

arrangement of language (Parsons, 2004:8). It is true that languages have
rules, but people put these rules to their spoken words. Languages started by
people making sounds which evolved into words, phrases and sentences
(Alvarez, 2010: 14).The fact is that all languages change over time for a
variety of reasons (Barry, 2002: 84). Grammar is simply a reflection of a
language at a particular time (Alvarez, 2010:14).
I.1.3.5. Vocabulary
Vocabulary is one of the most important objectives of teaching and
learning a second/foreign language, because it is the basis of the speech.
Semantic development continues from early childhood through adulthood. As
children grow, they continue to develop vocabulary through further practice
(Angell, 2008: 99).

12


Vocabulary learning serves communication (Kim, 2008: 1) and
acquiring new knowledge. The goal of vocabulary development is to help
students become independent learners to infer or learn meanings of unknown
words (Cooper, Kiger, Robinson & Slansky, 2011: 228).
I.1.3.6. Comprehension
Comprehension is not considered as an sub-speaking skill; however,
because of students‟ limited comprehensive competence when they
communicate not only with non-native speakers but native ones, the
researcher would like to find out after using Skype as a language practice tool
if students‟ competence in communicative comprehension advanced.
According to Merrian, the author of “Webster Online Dictionary”,
comprehension is defined as the ability to understand. It means that in a
conversation, the speaker and the hearer are able to exchange information
with each other. All these information focus on topics, and if they change

different languages, from Vietnamese to English.
In Vietnam in the 60s of the last century, some electric computers
appeared and the Western still called them Science Computer. Until the early
years of 1980, Western conducted the concept “Informatics” and widely
extended in Vietnam in 1985. Next, Informatics Organization was established
there in 1988 which marked the important and rapid development for every
subject in this country.
English being its language, the Internet is regarded either as providing
new possibilities for non-native speakers (Warschauer, 2000a, 2000b) or as
another form of linguistic imperialism in the age of electronic communication
(Joe Lockard, 2000; Murray, 2000b).
I.2.2. History of using technology in language classrooms
The history of educational technology reveals the endeavors that
educators made to introduce various types of technology into classrooms.

14