VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
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NGUY N VŨ XUÂN LAN

DEALING WITH RETICENCE IN ENGLISH SPEAKING
ACTIVITIES OF NON-ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS
AT UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE,
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI
KH C PH C TÌNH TR NG KHÔNG NHI T TÌNH THAM GIA CÁC
HO T Đ NG NÓI MÔN TI NG ANH C A SINH VIÊN KHÔNG
CHUYÊN TRƯ NG Đ I H C T

NHIÊN,

Đ I H C QU C GIA HÀ N I

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code : 60140111

Hanoi, 2016


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
-----------o0o------------

was original and has not been submitted for any degrees at any other universities or
institutions.

Hanoi , 2016

Ngu n V Xu n L n

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to Dr. Hoang Thi
Xuan Hoa for her expert guidance, encouragement and patience during my
completion of this MA thesis. Her important suggestions greatly contributed to the
final improvements of this paper.
Special thanks should also be sent to colleagues and my students at Hanoi
University of Science, without whom the data procedures could not have ever been
completed.
Finally, I take this opportunity to record my sincere gratitude to my family,
for their incessant support, without which I would not be able to overcome personal
difficulties to complete this paper on schedule.

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ABSTRACT
Reticence has been a common problem in EFL classrooms, which seriously
damages students’ studying process as well as restricts academic improvement of
the whole class. This paper reports an action research undertaken in an English
course for 24 second-year non-English majors in a university in Hanoi, Vietnam.

2. Reticence ............................................................................................................. 6
2.1. Definitions of reticence ................................................................................... 6
2.2. Reticence in classroom .................................................................................... 7
2.3. Causes of reticence in EFL classroom ............................................................... 8
2.4. Foreign Language Class Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) ........................................... 19
2.5. Possible solutions for reticence in EFL class .................................................. 19
3. Related studies................................................................................................... 15
CHAPTER 2. METHODOLOGY
1. Background of the study .................................................................................... 17
1.1 Description of the English course and textbook .............................................. 17
1.2. Participants .................................................................................................... 17
2. Action research ................................................................................................. 18

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2.1. Rationale for action research .......................................................................... 18
2.2. Action research model ................................................................................... 20
3. Research instruments ........................................................................................ 21
3.1. Questionnaire ................................................................................................ 21
3.2. Classroom observation ................................................................................... 22
3.3. Reflective report ............................................................................................ 22
4. Research procedure ........................................................................................... 23
4.1. Research steps ............................................................................................... 23
4.2. Data analysis ................................................................................................. 24
4.3. Procedure of the intervention ......................................................................... 24
CHAPTER 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
1. Research question 1 ........................................................................................... 29
2. Research question 2 .......................................................................................... 35
PART C. CONCLUSIONS


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PART A. INTRODUCTION
This part, which is an introduction to the thesis, helps to provide the
background as well as the context for the present study. The section includes the
statement of the problem and rationale for the study, research questions, aims and
objectives, significance, scope of the study and an overview of the rest of the paper.
1. Problem statement and rationale of the study
According to researchers in foreign language teaching, speaking skill is
believed to be a significant component of any language teaching curriculum. The
ability to speak/ communicate in English is one of the initial aims of learning and
using a foreign language (Tsui, 1992; Ellis, 1988).
The importance of speaking skill can be seen in two aspects: in social and in
academic context. Firstly, being able to communicate, which also reflexes the
speaker’s self-expression, personality, reasons and thoughts in a variety of social
and working situations, is surely the goal of almost every L2 learners (Luoma,
2004). Secondly, there is an undeniable connection between students' classroom
participation and their academic achievement. Students who participate actively in
class, in other words, more willing to speak out in class, are proved to have higher
academic achievement than that of those who are passive in class. KrupaKwiatkowski (1998), in her study, claims that "interaction involves participation,
personal engagement, and the taking of initiative in some way, activities that in turn
are hypothesized to trigger cognitive processes conducive to language learning" (p.
133). This also implies that whether students can perform well in foreign language
partly relies on their behavior and activeness in class. The more they are
enthusiastic in speaking lessons, the more likely that they will learn effectively.
Consequently, the role of the ability to speak, as well as the perception of ability to
speak, should not be underestimated by either teacher or pupil.
In real teaching situation, however, a great number of students show low

that a student graduating from university with 2 years of learning English cannot
hold a simple conversation with foreigners. In the advent of globalization, an
increasing number of companies require certain English level or certification from
their employees; meanwhile, the number of university and college graduates who
are incapable of using English has always been alarming. This prevents them from

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pursuing their desired career or looking for opportunities to work or study abroad.
Accordingly, the researcher feels the urge to find out the reasons for the silence of
students in speaking class and experiment various solutions to help them gain
confidence as well as take their chances to learn and practice English.
Another reason for carrying out this study is the fact that willingness to participate
in class has been found to vary according to the context (Liu & Jackson, 2009). Since not
so many studies have previously dealt with confidence in a Vietnam L2 context, this paper
is an attempt to contribute to knowledge in the field of L2 teaching, taking the issue of
reticence into account in a Vietnamese EFL classroom.
2. Aims and objectives of the study
This action research project was conducted to aim at solving the problem of
reticence in speaking activities which possibly caused students’ low achievement in
English subject at university.
The specific objectives which guide the study as outlined as follows:
1) To identify the given class’s current level of reticence and possible causes;
2) To evaluate the impact of the intervention on the students’ reticence level.
3. Research questions
This paper is expected to answer these following questions:
1) What was the level of reticence in English speaking activities of students before
the research project?
2) To what extent was reticence changed after the intervention as perceived by

possible causes and solutions proposed by previous studies will be mentioned.
Chapter 2: Methodology
The Methodology chapter explains why action research was chosen as the research
method, shows the steps of how the research was conducted, and justifies data
collection instruments and data analysis methods.
Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion
In chapter 3, the actions, findings and analysis of the findings of the research are
provided in response to the research questions.
Part C. Conclusion
This part summarizes the findings of the action research, acknowledges the
limitations and offers suggestions for further research.

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PART B. DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1. LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Speaking skills
Among four skills in English learning, speaking and writing are categorized
into productive group. Speaking is the bridge to reach other skills, helps learners to
read better, to listen more effectively and to write more accurately. Speaking is
surely the most effective means of communication (Ur, 1996)
There are two important reasons why speaking should be taught in
classroom. First, speaking is considered “a survival skill in real life” (Ur, 1996,
p.134). In this era of globalization when English has been regarded as the
international language, it is essential for any individual who desires to interact with
the surrounding world to be able to speak this language. Speaking aids learners to
develop not only socially but also academically since it is an indispensable tool for
thinking and learning. Secondly, the ability to speak English is a good source of
motivation for learners. The mastery of speaking skills in English is a priority for

students in speaking activities. This is to say that reticence, with its expressions
such as inhibition, lack of things to say or low participation, is one of the problems
that need to be addressed since it impedes the process of teaching and learning in
speaking classroom.
2. Reticence:
2.1. Definitions of reticence:
The major characteristic of a reticent person is avoidance of social situations
in which they feel inept (Phillips, 1997). Phillips (1984) stated: “when people avoid
communication because they feel they would lose more by talking rather than by
remaining silent, we refer to it as reticence” (p.52).
Keaton and Kelly (1999) redefined reticence basing on Phillip’s theory as
follow: When people tend to avoid communication because they believe it is better
to remain silent than to risk appearing foolish, this behavior is referred to as

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reticence. Reticent individuals are those who tend to avoid communication due to
the threat of negative evaluation. Keaton and Kelly (1999) also asserted that
reticence, as a behavioral response, is not always problematic in social
communication. However, it does become problematic when chronic silence
prevents an individual from obtaining his or her personal or professional goals.
2.2. Reticence in classroom
Student’s lack of activeness in class is a common problem that has been
experienced by a great number of language teachers, especially those who work
with Asian students. Some demonstrations of students’ reticence are their
withdrawal, or fear of interacting with teachers and peers, silence in group
discussion and hesitation/ refusal when answering direct questions.
Reticence, to some degree, is a strong indicator of academic performance.
Reticence has been proved to have a detrimental effect on students’ confidence,

Heller-Murphy, 1996; Flowerdew and Miller, 2000; Liu, 2005; Donald, 2010;
Riasati, 2014). These causes can be summarized as follow:
(1) low self-esteem: students who think of themselves as unable to communicate
successfully, so they tend to remain silent out of shame;
(2) fear of negative evaluation when they give inaccurate response;
(3) fear of success: this seemingly strange phenomenon occurs when a student
interacts successfully; they consider their success as luck or coincidence and then is
afraid that others expecting them to continue excellent performance in the future,
which they cannot guarantee.
(4) communication apprehension – a fear of communicating with or in the presence
of others.
(5) low proficiency in the target language: students do not have enough vocabulary,
grammar structures and knowledge about rules and norms in English conversation
to produce their speech, and/ or they lack subject matter, which means students have
nothing to speak on a particular topic
(6) external factors: unfamiliar environment, teacher’ teaching style, and
incomprehensible input and lack of familiarity with the tasks.

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2.4. Foreign Language Class Anxiety Scale (FLCAS)
In attempt to establish a valid and reliable anxiety measure specific to
foreign language learning, Horwits (1986) and colleagues developed an instrument
called FLCAS to measure the level of learners’ anxiety. In their conception,
language learning anxiety, can be subcategorized into three distinct forms of
performance anxieties namely communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of
negative evaluation.
Anxiety has been shown to be one of the major causes for reticence in
language class in previous studies (Dwyer and Heller-Murphy, 1996; Liu, 2005;

will not be able to perform the task well, and this is one of the causes of students’
unwillingness to speak. Teachers can make tasks more accessible for students by (1)
giving students more time to do tasks, (2) bringing the tasks within students’
experience and (3)allowing students to collaboratively solve communicative tasks.
b. Promote positive attitudes among students
Students who have positive attitudes towards language learning are less
likely to suffer from language learning anxiety and more likely to participate
actively in learning tasks (Tsiplakides & Keramida, 2010). The following
techniques can help the teacher build up positive attitudes among students so that
they can feel free to speak in the language class. First, it is important to change
students’ negative beliefs and attitudes towards mistakes, let them know that
making errors is a part of learning; hence, meaning-focused oral activities should be
utilized. Secondly, students’ self-confidence can be boosted by creating various
opportunities for classroom success in using spoken English (Oxford, 1999). If easy
tasks, clear and simple goals are used in the first place and completed by students,
students can achieve sense of success and high self-perceived communication
competence more easily. Last, Young (1991) suggested that teacher can lower
students’ anxiety in the classroom by finding out what students are anxious about,
then helping them ease some of their fears and teach them strategies such as selftalks and doing relaxation activities to deal with fears.
c. Build a supportive learning environment
If students can feel a sense of support from their teacher and classmates, it is
more likely that they will be willing to speak in the target language. The following

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are some techniques that teachers can use to create a supportive atmosphere for
students. First, teacher may encourage peer support in the classroom to help
students feel secure about their answers or performance later. Also, teachers are
suggested to be sensitive when assigning students into groups since causes for

effectively.

According to Bygate (1987), communication strategies include achievement
strategies and reduction strategies. The former involves attempting to compensate
for speaker’s language by improvising a substitute, while the latter means reducing
the message so as either to bring it within the scope of speaker’s knowledge or else
to abandon the message and go on with something the speaker can manage. In this
study, the aim is to encourage students to speak up in class instead of avoiding
communication problem; consequently, achievement strategies are preferred to be
applied. There are various types of achievement strategies that students may use,
including:
a.

Foreignizing a mother-tongue word: pronouncing it as though it belonged to

the target language. The teacher/ researcher finds this strategy impractical for
Vietnamese students as their mother-tongue share very few pronunciation rules in
common with English.
b.

Borrowing a word from mother-tongue: when lack vocabulary in the target

language, speaker may use L1 occasionally with the hope that the interlocutor will
get the message. This strategy is feasible in a language class where all students have
the same mother-tongue.
c.

Literally translating a mother-tongue word: for example, a Portuguese

speaker could try the word “feast” instead of “party” or “holiday”, based on “festa”.

purpose is to generate as many ideas as possible within a specified time-period.
These ideas are not evaluated until the end and a wide range of ideas is often
produced. Each idea produced does not need to be usable. Instead, initial ideas can
be viewed as a starting point for more workable ideas. The principle of
brainstorming is that you need lots of ideas to get good ideas.
In diagnosing phase, the teacher/ researcher has identified one of the key
factor preventing students from speaking up in class is their lack of ideas. She is
convinced that brainstorming is an effective strategy to help students cope with idea
shortage.
In order to find out why some learners are more successful than others,
Rubin (1975) studied the characteristics of good learners and explained why
brainstorming is a useful tool in classroom.
(1) Brainstorming invites the learners to organize existing knowledge in their own
minds. It works to activate the resources of the student by creating a series of
connecting ideas. This leads to an organization of language.
(2) Brainstorming can help learners to take charge of their own learning. Learners
begin examining their existing resources and identifying gaps in their knowledge.

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This allows learners to become involved in the selection of language used in the
speaking task.
(3) Brainstorming can help students to learn to take risks. There are no 'right' or
'wrong' answers in brainstorming and no danger of teacher correction. By carrying
out a simple brainstorming warm-up, students can obtain a sense of competence and
feel more confident in raising their ideas.
As discussed in this section, brainstorming can help our students to become
better learners. Moreover, they will learn language from each other and by
interacting together they will become better communicators.

students may focus on the development of their skills through the mastery of new
material, and then they continue displays of persistence, enjoyment, and good
performance. Second, students who are praised for their hard work may learn to
improve their performance to achieve their goals regardless of their poor
performance which is considered as a temporary “lapse in effort rather than as a
deficit in intelligence” (Mueller & Dweck, 1998, p. 34).
In terms of corrective feedback, researchers have agreed that it is associated
with L2 learning, because it leads learners to notice L2 forms (Bitchener & Knoch,
2010). However, there is no uniformly agreed conclusion that feedback has a direct
impact on learners’ oral performance. Truscott (1999) claimed orally direct
correction has no impact on learners’ grammatical accuracy in speech.
Feedback is employed in this project with the purpose of encouraging
students, lessening their fear of negative evaluations in the hope that students will
be more active in speaking activities. Accordingly, in the intervention phase of this
project, the teacher/ researcher utilized more motivational feedback, especially
effort feedback than other types of feedback.
3. Related studies:
Students’ reticence in EFL class is an issue that has been exploited in various
aspects. Beside a large number of studies carried out investigate factors underlying
students’ reticence and its effects on studying process, there are other research
attempting to promote their confidence in foreign language classroom by employing
different measurements. Meihua Liu (2011) explored correlation between Foreign
language anxiety and English learning motivation and found out that these two

15


factor significantly negatively related with each other. Donald (2010) employed
error correction and extended wait-time to promote learners’ participation in
language classroom. Songsiri (2007) carried out a research improve Thai students’