MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

WILLINGNESS TO COMMUNICATE IN ENGLISH
INSIDE EFL CLASSROOMS: A CASE STUDY AT
TRAN HUNG DAO HIGH SCHOOL,
HCM CITY, VIETNAM

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Master of Arts in TESOL

Submitted by: TRAN HO THUY HUONG
Supervisor: Dr. BUI THI THUC QUYEN

HO CHI MINH City, 2017


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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby declare that the thesis entitled “WILLINGNESS TO COMMUNICATE
IN ENGLISH INSIDE EFL CLASSROOM AMONG VIETNAMESE
HIGHSCHOOL STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY AT TRAN HUNG DAO
HIGH SCHOOL, HCM CITY” is the result of my own work except as cited in
the reference.

This thesis has not been accepted for any degree and is not currently submitted in
candidature of any other degree.

Ho Chi Minh City, 2017

language worldwide, few studies were conducted in Vietnam, especially among
high school students. The current study was to fill this gap. It aimed to explore the
level of WTC in English inside EFL classrooms and investigate the extent to which
it may be affected by classroom context factors.

This case study was carried out at Tran Hung Dao high school, Ho Chi Minh City.
Results from data analysis revealed that the students there were not really willing to
communicate in English inside EFL classrooms. Besides, their WTC in English
was found to be greatly affected by a number of classroom context factors,
categorized into interlocutors, tasks and class management. These findings have
shed light on the nature of WTC in English inside EFL classrooms among Tran
Hung Dao high school students. It helps the teachers there better understand why
their students choose to speak up or remain silent during the lessons. The study also
presents some pedagogical implications for English language teachers as well as
policy makers to promote learners’ L2 WTC.
suggestions for future research are also supplied.

Besides, its limitation and


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TABLE OF CONTENTS
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ............................................................................. i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................. iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................................. iv
LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................... vii
LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... viii
ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................................... ix

2.7 Summary ........................................................................................................... 34
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................... 35
3.1 Research design ................................................................................................. 35
3.2 Research site...................................................................................................... 36
3.3 Research Participants ........................................................................................ 38
3.4 Data collection instruments ............................................................................... 40
3.4.1 The questionnaire ...................................................................................... 40
3.4.2 Classroom observation .............................................................................. 41
3.4.3 Participants’ diary entries .......................................................................... 42
3.4.4 The semi-structured interview ................................................................... 43
3.5 Data collection procedure ................................................................................. 44
3.6 Data analysis ..................................................................................................... 46
3.7 Validity and reliability in the present study ...................................................... 48
3.7.1 Validity and reliability in the quantitative part of the study...................... 48
3.7.2 Validity and reliability in the qualitative part of the study........................ 49
3.8 Ethical considerations ....................................................................................... 50
3.9 Summary ........................................................................................................... 50
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION........................................................... 50
4.1 Research question One ...................................................................................... 50
4.1.1 Results of the questionnaire survey ........................................................... 50
4.1.2 Discussion Research question One............................................................ 55
4.2 Research question Two ..................................................................................... 56
4.2.1 Findings of Research question Two .......................................................... 57
4.2.1.1 Interlocutors ....................................................................................... 57
4.2.1.2 Tasks .................................................................................................. 61
4.2.1.3 Class management ............................................................................ 65
4.2.2 Discussion of Research question Two....................................................... 69
4.3 Summary ...................................................................................................... 73



Table 3.2 Phase II participant information ....................................................................39
Table 3.3 Data collection procedure ..............................................................................45
Table 3.4 Classroom observation schedule ....................................................................46
Table 3.5 Research questions, their purposes, data sources and data analysis ..............47
Table 4.1 Questionnaire respondent demographics .......................................................52
Table 4.2 Descriptive statistics of the respondents’ overall WTC ................................ 52
Table 4.3 Frequency statistics of the respondents’ level of WTC .................................53
Table 4.4 Group Statistics .............................................................................................. 54
Table 4.5 Independent Samples Test ..............................................................................55
Table 4.6 Phase Two participant demographics ............................................................57


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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1 Heuristic model of WTC in L2 of MacIntyre et al. (1998) ...................... 15
Figure 2.2 Wen and Clément’s (2003) model of variables moderating
the relation between DC and WTC in the Chinese EFL classroom ......... 17
Figure 2.3: Kang’s (2005) model of situational WTC in L2 ..................................... 25
Figure 2.4 Cao (2009)’s Classroom L2 WTC Model ................................................ 26
Figure 2.5 The variables contributing to the participants’ WTC
in Pattapong (2010)’s study ..................................................................... 29
Figure 2.6 Conceptual framework of the current study ............................................. 32
Figure 4.1Conceptual framework of the current study .............................................. 53


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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ESL

Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
English is undoubtedly a global language. It is spoken as a mother tongue in the
USA, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, several
Caribbean countries and some other territories. Besides, it is spoken as an official
language, the language used in government, law courts, media and education
system, in more than seventy countries (Crystal, 2003). Remarkably, it is the
language most widely learnt as a foreign language in over one hundred countries all
over the world (ibid).

By the early 2000s, about one fourth of the world’s

population, around one and a half billion people, is fluent or competent in English,
and this number is expected to continue rising (ibid). English is second to no other
languages in terms of users (Crystal, 2003; Strevens, 1992).

In Vietnam, nowadays, together with the improvement of socio-economic
conditions, the development of science and technology, and the impact of
globalization and integration, the need to learn English as a foreign language has
increased more sharply than ever before (Kieu, 2010; Nguyen, 2012; Hoang, 2011).
People need to know English in order to do business with foreign counterparts,
work for international companies, serve international tourists, understand computer
language, travel or study abroad, make friends with people around the world, or
simply enjoy a plenty of movies or songs in English. Therefore, English should be
first and foremost learnt for communication purposes. Communication, according
to MacIntyre and Charos (1996), is more than a means of facilitating language
learning; it is an important goal in itself.

Enhancing learners’ communicative

countryside.

However, for the purpose of enhancing international integration

process and improving national human resources with proficiency in English, the
teaching and learning English, especially in state schools in Vietnam, does not seem
adequate enough to meet the demands (Le, 2013). The fact is that a large number of
students, after graduating from high school, can do grammar exercises quite well,
but fail to understand other people and express themselves in simple English
conversations. It causes them to lose further education and job opportunities or
spend a great deal of time and money to study English again in a language center.


3

With the aim to renovate the teaching and learning of foreign languages within the
national educational system, in 2008, the Ministry of Education and Training of
Vietnam introduced the National Foreign Language 2020 project. One of the goals
of this project is that “by the year 2020, most Vietnamese students graduating from
secondary, vocational schools, colleges and universities will be able to use a foreign
language confidently in their daily communication, their study and work…” It
means that the learners’ ability to communicate should be the aim of the English
language classroom.

In Vietnam, as communication is the objective of English teaching and learning,
and is significantly practiced inside classrooms, the issue of whether students speak
up during language lessons when they have a chance to do so gains importance.
However, from my own experience as an English teacher, I have found that students
are not equally enthusiastic about speaking in English. While some of them take
advantage of every opportunity to communicate in English, others try to avoid it.

However, almost all of them were conducted among university students. Very few
studies were to explore high school students’ L2 WTC or carried out in the
Vietnamese context. Therefore, the current study was conducted to explore the
WTC in English among Vietnamese high school students inside EFL classrooms.

1.3 Aims of the study
The current study had two aims. The first aim was to explore the level of WTC in
English inside EFL classroom among Vietnamese high school students. The second
aim was to investigate the extent classroom context factors affect it.

1.4 Research questions
In order to achieve the objectives of the study stated above, the following two
research questions were explored:
1. To what extent are Vietnamese high school students willing to communicate
in English inside EFL classrooms?
2. To what extent do classroom context factors affect the Vietnamese high
school students’ willingness to communicate in English?

1.5 Significance of the study
The current study provided important information about Tran Hung Dao high
school students’ WTC in English in class. This information could help the teachers
there predict the students’ actual oral behaviours in English class. Besides, the


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study shed light on the extent this willingness could be promoted or hindered by
various classroom context factors.

1.6 Scope of the study

the dominant foreign language, English was taught in limited classes and
institutions in the formal educational system with the goals to understand the USA
and to fight against the US invasion on the diplomatic front (ibid). In the South, in
contrast, English was most widely learnt for the purpose of direct interactions with
the USA (ibid).
From 1975 – 1986, due to the withdrawal of Americans from South Vietnam, the
American Trade Embargo and the economic support from the former Soviet Union,
Russian was actually the top-ranking foreign language to be learnt in the country.
The number of people learning English decreased sharply (Nguyen, 2012; Hoang,
2011).

From 1986 to the present, teaching and learning English in Vietnam has turned over
a new leaf.

With the open-door policy (Doi Moi) initiated in 1986 by the

Vietnamese Communist Party, the economy of the country shifted from centrally
planned to market oriented.

Since then, the cooperative relationships between

Vietnam and other countries in the region as well as all over the world have
continually expanded. English, as a result, has become the foreign language of first
choice to facilitate this integration (Hoang, 2011; Kieu, 2010; Le, 2011; Nguyen,
2012). Now English is taught in almost every secondary school, high school,
college and university. In big cities like Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City, English is
taught as an elective subject at primary schools and even as an extra-curriculum
activity at nursery schools. English is a compulsory paper in the National High
school Examination, which students have to pass to get a diploma. At tertiary level,
students must reach a certain level of English in order to graduate from universities

a compulsory subject at both secondary and high school levels. Students from
Grade 6 to Grade 8 and from Grade 10 to Grade 12 study 3 periods (each period
lasts forty-five minutes) of English a week during the school year. Students at
Grade 9 study less, 2 periods per week. Students at primary level from Grade 3 to


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Grade 5 learn English as an optional subject with two periods per week. As a total,
Vietnamese students spend from 525 to 682 hours learning English at school (ibid).

These students, when graduating from high school, are expected to be able:
 to use English as a means of communication at a certain level of
proficiency in four macro-skills: listening, speaking, reading and
writing
 to read materials at the same level of their textbook, using a
dictionary
 to have mastered basic English phonetics and grammar, to have
acquired the minimum of around 2500 vocabulary items of English
 to attain a certain level of understanding of English and American
cultures, to become aware of cross-cultural differences in order to be
better overall communicators, to better inform the world of the
Vietnamese people, their history and culture, and to take pride in
Vietnam, its language and culture.
(MOET, 2007, cited in Hoang, 2011)

Besides being the compulsory subject at secondary and high school level, English is
also one of the three compulsory subjects in the National High school exam, which
all high school leavers have to take in order to get a diploma.


examination-oriented practice distracts teachers and learners from investing time
and effort in communicative activities.

Third, in Vietnam, the textbook is also the curriculum, which makes it
understandable that classroom instruction is mostly textbook-driven, and teachers
are under pressure of finishing the entire syllabus within the time allotted (Le,
2011). It makes them reluctant to adapt the textbook to the classroom situation for
fear of violating what has already been set up. The communicative tasks which
have been rigidly written in the textbooks, as a result, may be not interesting or
suitable for all kinds of learners throughout the country.

Forth, big size class with mixed-level of learners may hinder communicative
teaching approach (Le, 2011; Van, 2011). With formal testing system measuring


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learners’ lexico-grammatical knowledge, students at the same grade may possess
different communicative competent levels. Together with big class size, it is very
difficult for teacher to handle students’ interaction activities.

Last but not least, there is a lack of qualified teachers, who are able to conduct a
lesson in a communicative way (Hoang, 2011; Le, 2011). Even in big cities like Ho
Chi Minh City, most schools, especially primary ones, are in short of English
language teachers (Bich, 2017).

This is maybe because of teachers’ heavy

workload and insufficient salary.


construct of WTC, heuristic models of L2 WTC, dual characteristics of L2 WTC,
variables underlying L2 WTC, empirical studies on learners’ WTC in EFL
classroom and the impact of classroom environment on it, and the summary.

Chapter Three describes the methodological issues considered in the current study.
It outlines the research design, research site, research participants, data collection
instruments, data collection procedure, data analysis, validity and reliability of the
current study, ethical considerations and summary.

Chapter Four reports the results from data analysis and discussion about the
findings in relation to previous relevant research. It is divided into two sections
corresponding to two research questions: the level of WTC of the participants and
the extent it might be affected by classroom context factors.

The thesis ends with Chapter 5. It presents the conclusion and recommendations
and is divided into three sections: summary of the findings, pedagogical
implications, and limitations of the current study and suggestions for further
research.


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Chapter 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
As the current study aimed to investigate Vietnamese high school students’ WTC
and identify the classroom variables affecting it, this chapter is dedicated to
reviewing the notion of WTC in first, second and foreign language, heuristic models
of L2 WTC, dual characteristics of L2 WTC, variables underlying it and empirical
studies on WTC in L2 classroom.


communication apprehension and cultural diversity were associated with WTC. In
1994, MacIntyre proposed a model describing the interrelation among factors of
WTC.

Communication and perceived competence were the variables most

immediately responsible for determining a person’s WTC. Though MacIntryre
(1994) continues to consider L1 WTC as a trait-like variable and a stable part of
one’s personality, he suggests investigating it in conjunction with specific
situational characteristics in future research.

Several years later, MacIntyre, Dörnyei, Clément and Noels (1998) initiated the
notion of WTC in L2. They claime that due to “the uncertainty inherent in L2 use
that interacts in a more complex manner with those variables that influence L1
WTC” (p.546) and the fact that “L2 use carries a number of intergroup issues, with
social and political implications that are usually irrelevant to L1 use” (p.546), WTC
in L2 is not a simple manifestation of WTC in L1. MacIntyre et al. (1998) then
define L2 WTC as “a readiness to enter into discourse at a particular time with a
specific person or persons, using a L2” (p.547). They also outline a comprehensive
conceptual model showing the range of potential influences on WTC in L2,
including both immediate situational factors – the desire to communicate with a
specific person and the state of communicative self-confidence – as well as more
enduring ones, such as interpersonal motivation, intergroup motivation, selfconfidence, intergroup attitudes, social situation, communicative competence,
intergroup climate and personality. WTC in L2, according to them, is a situationbased variable.


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Supporting the notion that L2 WTC is a situational variable that can change
moment-to-moment, Kang (2005) emphasizes its dynamic emergence and

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Figure 2.1 Heuristic model of WTC in L2 of MacIntyre et al. (1998)

In a pyramid shape, the model comprises twelve variables arranged in six layers.
The first three layers, Communication Behavior (layer I), Behavioral Intention
(layer II) and Situated Antecedents (layer III) represent situation-specific influences
on WTC at a given moment in time.

The latter three layers, Motivational

Propensities (layer IV), Affective-Cognitive Context (layer V) and Social and
Individual Context (layer IV), represent stable, enduring influences on the process.
Each of the six Layers has one or more than one variable.
WTC, in this model, is viewed as “the final step in preparing the language learner
for communication” (MacIntyre et al., 1998, p. 558). It is directly influenced by the
desire to communicate with a specific person and state communicative selfconfidence – a momentary feeling of confidence, which is transient within a
particular situation. These two variables in turns are influenced by more stable
variables such as the personality of the language learner, the social context in which
he/ she lives, his/ her attitudes towards native speakers and second language groups,