MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRADING

KINH BAC UNIVERSITY

----------

INTERNSHIP REPORT
Topic:

“Study on English speaking skills of students at

Au Viet Vocational School”

Instructor:
Student:

Bac Ninh, April 2019

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express our gratitude to all without whom we can never
finish this project. Firstly, I want to thanks for all lecturer, instructors and the
faculty who helped us in each period of my internship and consulted me to solve
all problems. Secondly, all of classmates who give us many informative and
helpful reports at the class which help us to get ideas as well as know how to do a
research paper part by part and for the complication of the study.
We are indebted all colleagues in the Au Viet Vocational School, who
have allowed me to be trained to make the report and were so kindly taken part in
my report findings.
Finally, we want to thank Kinh Bac University for providing us all
necessary facilities for us and support for this internship period.
I have been finished my internship period at the Au Viet Vocational
School for a week, and this time was a great opportunity for me to learn and to
experience of working environment in practice. I would like to send my special
thank all other lecturers of English subject, Faculty of Foundation Study for their
enthusiastic help.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Scope of the study 2
2. Aim and objectives of the study 2
3. Research questions of the study 3
4. Methods of the study 3
5. Organization of the study: 3
6. Introducing the reason for choosing Au Viet Vocational school 4
7. Research topic 4
PART 2: REPORT CONTENT 5
1. Working schedule with assessment and confirmation of instructor every week 5
2. Administrative organizations and personnel of the internship entity. 5
2.1 Description of the Au Viet Vocational school 5
2.2 The English subject in Faculty of foundation study 8
2.2.1 Students: 8
2.2.2 Teachers 9
2.2.3 Course book 9
2.2 Details of actual works were assigned during the internship period 10
2.3 Method of implementation 11
2.4 Results achieved through internship period 12
2.4.1 Teaching and learning speaking skill as seen from students’ perspective 12
2.4.2 Teaching and learning speaking skill as seen from teachers’ perspective 15
2.4.3 Experience gained during the internship period 24
2.4.4 Recommendation for improving English speaking skills in Au Viet
Vocational School. 25
3. Some thought about how the internship might influence my future career plans
39
PART 3: FINAL ASSESSMENT AND CONCLUSION OF THE REPORT 39

2
1. Summary of the study 39
2. Suggestions for further study 40

3
Part 1: Introduction

As we know in our day today, English is the language that is widely used.
What do we learn English for? The answer is to communicate. What do students
learn English for? Students also share a common goal like us. The job of
teachers teaching English is to provide students with the basic knowledge they
need, so that in the future they can develop more in their learning. Therefore, as
teachers, we all want to make them able to speak and communicate proficiently
in English with high frequencies.
It is not easy for most students to speak well and communicate proficiently
in a short time. Of course both teachers and students face many problems on the
subject. We are always faced with difficulties in teaching students at different
levels of ability to acquire and manipulate different skills.
In teaching English, for a teacher the combination of teaching the four
skills of Listening - Speaking - Reading - Writing is an indispensable job, to
comply with the program reformed by the Ministry of Education and Training.
and issued. In order to help students, speak correctly, pronounce correctly a
word, teachers need to have teaching techniques to make students easy to
remember, compare, easily recognize and apply well to practice, as well as get
good results on related tests. After the internship period, to share with colleagues
- to help students overcome this obstacle and give them a positive habit of
pronouncing and speaking skills. I myself would like to give some
recommendations in order to improve English speaking skills of students at Au
Viet Vocational School. I’m pretty sure that some of the problems I present in
this topic, my colleagues already know. It's easy to get used to the idea like: "We
don't have students speaking at all levels."; "We keep doing so for them to

1
understand and use sentence patterns, proficient grammar points as much as
possible, in order to make them achieve high scores in their tests.”
In fact, in the reform program enacted and used by the Ministry of
Education, students are taught the Listening and Speaking skills with the
Reading and Writing skills combined with each other, but in the final exam
Students will only take the test mainly by writing. That may be the reason that
we do not pay much attention to student’s Speaking skills. Teaching good
Speaking skills is invisible and we also help them to develop Listening skills, not
only are these skills very important in daily communication but also help them
achieve high scores in the periodic and regular tests. In addition, teaching good
speaking skills will also help our students to be more confident when using
English.

1. Scope of the study

English teaching methods are diverse. Within this topic, I only study the
method of studying English speaking skills. Due to the disallowed conditions, I
only conducted experiments with students in English 1 classes of the the Au Viet
Vocational School (76 students). The English class is twice a week, 1 hour 30
minutes each.

2. Aim and objectives of the study

Find out the current status of speaking skills of Student in the Au Viet
Vocational School. I was an intern English teacher so I want to improve the
quality of teaching English in particular and improve the quality of education in
general so the above issues make me particularly interested. And that is the
reason that I study and explore to find the best solutions to apply in

2
teaching/studying practice, in order to improving speaking skills of Student at
Au Viet Vocational School.

3. Research questions of the study

The researcher wishes to raise the questions as follows:
 What are the factors affecting willingness of non-major MA students of
English to speak in class?
 What difficulties do teachers encounter in teaching English speaking skill
for these students?

4. Methods of the study

To research on this topic, I use the following methods:
- Surveys
- The method of reading documents
- Observation method
- Attending professional activities, meetings of the English subject of the
faculty.
- Interview and small talks with students, teacher:

5. Organization of the study:

The report consists of three parts:
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Content - Report on the results of the study on administrative
organization and Human resource of the Au Viet Vocational school, Report the
results of learning about specialized activities and the working environment of
the internship department, Details of actual works were assigned during the
internship period, Method of implementation, Results achieved through
internship period. Giving Recommendation for English speaking skills
learning/teaching in Au Viet Vocational School.

3
 Part 3: Final Assessment and Conclusion of the Report

6. Introducing the reason for choosing Au Viet Vocational school

One of the main activities of the Au Viet Vocational school is training nurses,
supplying labour in nursing to abroad for working with high income. So together
with the professional skills, the student at Au Viet Vocational school need to
learn other language as well. They need to be able to communicate well, and
English is a popular indispensable language. For that reason, I decided to choose
Au Viet Vocational school for my internship period. This school focus much
about the foreign language ability of the student so that made easier for me in
researching the topic.

7. Research topic

I took my internship period in Au Viet Vocational school. The student here is

supposed to be at pre-intermediate level of English because English is a
compulsory part of their course at Au Viet Vocational school. However, it is
surprising to know that many of these students are incapable of using their
English to talk, even in class. Moreover, the same situation exists in many other
colleges and universities in Vietnam. There have been numerous studies on this
situation and various solutions, recommendations and suggestions have been
given, including changing teaching methods, changing syllabus or textbooks,
upgrading teachers’ qualifications, changing formats of speaking tests, etc. At
Au Viet Vocational school, I am in charge of teaching English for 1st year
students. As per research from other English teachers, they are fully aware of the
situation and encountered a number of difficulties in helping students improve

4
their speaking skill. This actually drives me to this research, named “Study on
English speaking skills of students at Au Viet Vocational School”.

5
Part 2: Report Content

1. Working schedule with assessment and confirmation of instructor every

week
(follow the format in Appendix 2)

2. Administrative organizations and personnel of the internship entity.

2.1 Description of the Au Viet Vocational school

Au Viet Vocational School is an entity of the National Education system

of Vietnam. The main task of the school is to train the standard level knowledge
and skills for jobs in the medical sectors: Pharmacists, Nurses, General
Practitioners, Traditional Medicine Physicians, Medical Imaging Techniques,
contributing to the supply of medical human resources for the city and for nearby
areas; The Au Viet School also is associated with colleges and universities to
organize training courses at those colleges and universities. In addition, the
school cooperate with Japan and Germany to create opportunities for nursing
students of the school and those who have graduated from Nursing across the
country to have the opportunity to work in these countries with high income. Au
Viet has a team of managers, teachers and trained staff from a variety of sources,
highly qualified, dynamic, responsible for learners and society. This is one of the
main conditions for the school to gradually improve the quality of teaching and
learning, improve its position and prestige in society.
Establishment year: 2006
Address 1: No. 371 Nguyen Kiem (785/5), Ward 3, Go Vap District, Ho
Chi Minh city.
Phone: (028) 6278 0083 - (028) 6275 2491
Address 2: 15 Luong Minh Nguyet, Tan Thoi Hoa ward, Tan Phu district,
Ho Chi Minh city.
6
 Phone: 0934 040 042 - (028) 6658 3335 - (028) 3961 8508
Email: [email protected]
Website: auviet.edu.vn
 Administrative organizations and personnel of the school:
 Departments:
 Administration - Organization Department
 Department of Planning – Finance
 Training and Quality Assurance Department
 Examination Department
 Political Department - Working with students
 Equipment Administration and Engineering Department
 Legal Department
 Inspection Department

 Faculties:

 Faculty of foundation study

 Pharmacy Faculty
 Medical Faculty
 Nursing and Medical Engineering Faculty

 Personnel:

7
 Form of recruitment Title Training Qualification
Before
Circular 116
Number Content Total and Other
according to Professor D. Professor Doctor Master Bachelor College Others
contracts
Circular 116

To ta l te a c h e rs ,
a d min is tra tiv e o ffic e rs 2 16 12 5 10 5 1 0 7 10 6 85 4 27
a n d e mp lo y e e s

I Te a c h e r 17 1 80 10 5 0 0 7 10 2 76 0 0

1 P h a rma c y Fa c u lty 58 33 25 0 0 7 21 30 0 0

a S ub je c t of P re p a ra tion 13 7 6 0 0 2 4 7 0 0

S ub je c t of P h a rma c y -
b 12 9 3 0 0 1 4 7 0 0
P ha rma c e utic a l P la n t
S ub je c t of Drug Te s ting -
c 16 8 8 0 0 2 6 8 0 0
Che mic a l a na lys is

S ub je c t of P h a rma c e u tic a l
d 17 9 8 0 0 2 7 8 0 0
Che mis try - p ha rma c olog y

2 Fa c u lty o f Me d ic in e 10 2 36 66 0 0 0 66 36 0 0

a S ub je c t of Nu rs ing 17 8 9 0 0 0 9 8 0 0

b S ub je c t of Tra d itio na l Me dic in e 15 4 11 0 0 0 11 4 0 0

S ub je c t of Inte rn a l Me d ic ine -
c 20 7 13 0 0 0 13 7 0 0
Childre n - Infe c tio n

d S ub je c t of Fo re ign - P rod uc tio n 23 8 15 0 0 0 15 8 0 0

e S ub je c t of P u blic He a lth 27 9 18 0 0 0 18 9 0 0

3 P re s c ho ol P e da g og y 5 5 14 0 0 0 14 5 0 0

4 Fa c ulty of Fo un da tio n S tud y 6 6 0 0 0 0 1 5 0 0

Ma n a g e me n t s ta ffs a n d
II 45 45 0 1 0 0 4 9 4 27
e mp lo y e e s

1 P rin c ip a l 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0

2 vic e - P rin c ipa l 2 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0

3 Ma n a g e me nt s ta ffs 7 7 0 0 0 0 2 5 0 0

Admin is tra tive , p ro fe s s ion a l a n d

4 27 27 0 0 0 0 0 4 4 19
s e rvic e o ffic ia ls

5 Oth e r s ta ffs 8 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8

 Mission

Creating a comprehensive educational environment for learners to have

qualities and capabilities; life skills and professional skills, serving as a
foundation for improving the working efficiency of young Vietnamese human
resources on par with other countries in the region.

Building a long-term friendly and cooperative relationship with educational

institutions, medical establishments, enterprises, domestic and foreign socio-
political organizations, so that teachers and learners can approach get advanced

8
education programs, practice moral qualities and promote their own abilities,
soon get the real working environment.

 Vision

By 2018, Au Viet will upgrade to Ho Chi Minh City Medical College and
build an international medical skill training canter, to train learners to meet the
professional occupations. be recruited in developed countries.

 Au Viet School Value

- Responsibility: To form a dynamic team with high professional

qualifications, good moral qualities, understand the needs of learners and
society;
- Solidarity: Creating a friendly educational environment, maximizing
collective strength;
- Cooperation: Building a friendly and long-term cooperative relationship
with domestic and foreign educational and medical institutions.
- Integration: Access to advanced education programs, internationalize
knowledge for teachers and learners.

2.2 The English subject in Faculty of foundation study

2.2.1 Students:
The report studies 1st year students of the Faculty of foundation study, at Au
Viet School. The students’ age varies from 16 to 30. Almost those under 25, who
account for more than 90 percent of all students, finished 420 class contacts
(equivalent to 315 hours) of English at university. Some even had a longer time
of learning English at schools. The rest do not have so much time learning

9
English and many of them have not used English for a long time or even do not
know about English. Despite difference in age and the time of acquiring English,
in order to be graduated from Au Viet School and ready for the work abroad, all
of them must pass the English exam at pre-intermediate level. Those who
already have a certificate of English at the equivalent or higher level are
exempted from that exam. At Au Viet School, they have to continue to learn
English as a compulsory subject.

2.2.2 Teachers
Almost all the teachers of English at Au Viet School have got bachelor
degree in English Language and at least several years of teaching experience.
The rest are about to finish their MA course. The majority of them are from
Hanoi University of Education or Hanoi University. Only 50 percent of them are
working as full-time teachers at Au Viet School.

2.2.3 Course book

The course book is Intermediate English for Students, published in 2010 by
the Au Viet School and has ever since been used as an official course book. It
was adapted from New Headway Intermediate, by Liz & John Soars, to fit
students’ level of English and educational goals of the universities. Intermediate
English for Students was, according to what is stated in the Introduction,
intended to be “communicative oriented and inclusive of the four language
skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing as well as language components:
phonetics, grammar and vocabulary. There are 10 units, each accompanies with a
topic familiar to learners and includes such parts as grammar, vocabulary,
practice exercises and communicative skills”. However, the course book
appears to focus on grammar and grammar exercises other than communication

10
skills. This can be easily noticed on the very first page of the book, which
presents each unit with a topic and all grammar items it is about, without any
skills named. As considerations go further to contents of each unit, this seems to
be proved right. Activities for speaking skill, for example, are not found to
appear until unit four. To be more detailed, all activities and topics or drills in
terms of speaking skill in the course book are presented as the following.

Unit Speaking activities Topics/drills

1 None
2 None
3 None
4 Discussion Tourism
6 Discussion Retirement
7 Dialogue completion Second conditional
Discussion Money, life, work
Doing charity
8 Text completion Modals of probability
Pair work Personality
Discussion Children and family size
9 Answering questions Different views of smoking
Collecting things
10 Information gap Famous people
Table 1: Speaking activities and topics/drills in the course book ‘Intermediate
English for Students

It can be learned from the table that the variety of speaking activities is very
limited, with discussion as the most common. It therefore depends very much on
teachers’ experience and enthusiasm to design speaking activities that motivate
students and improve their speaking ability.

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 2.2 Details of actual works were assigned during the internship period
- Listening to reports on the operation of the school, activities of the English
subject team, the activities of students in the class.

- Working as homeroom teacher for English 1 class for 4 weeks, instructor is

Ms. Hoang Thi Minh

- Attending 4 lectures of professional instructors and 24 classes of friends in

the group, attending 1 team activity and 1 lesson of homeroom activities.

- Preparing lesson plans to teach 8 professional lectures under the instruction,

of which 5 are Speaking classes

- Attending 24 lesson sessions of other interns.

- Preparing lesson plans, class activities, talking with students and other
teachers for the research topic.

- Guiding team activities, organizing extracurricular activities.

- Completing all records as required.

- Participating in other school activities

2.3 Method of implementation

To complete the study, quantitative and qualitative method was used. Two
survey questionnaires and some short interviews were given to students of
English at Au Viet School and their teachers to collect information for the study.
All comments, remarks, suggestions and conclusion provided in the study based
on the analysis of the data collected from these surveys. Besides, some other
method was used together with the surveys, interview:

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 - The method of reading documents

- Observation method: Attending lessons to observe the improvement of

English speaking teaching methods and also the speaking ability of students.
- Attending professional activities, meetings of the English subject of the
faculty to clearly identify ways to improve speaking teaching method and
summarize the results of students.

2.4 Results achieved through internship period

2.4.1 Teaching and learning speaking skill as seen from students’

perspective
As seen from students’ point of view, there are both subjective and objective
factors that contribute to students’ unwillingness to speak in English class.

Regarding subjective factors, students’ lack of vocabulary, i.e. low level of

proficiency, dominates their speaking performance in class. As one student said,
“my poor vocabulary of English caused a lot of troubles in talking to others, so
we seldom speak in English” (Tan, student of law). Lack of vocabulary is
another source of students’ reticence in speaking lessons. “I always found my
vocabulary so small that I didn’t know how to communicate my ideas. I was
very anxious and felt bad. So I have to keep quiet. And this is very common
among students in the university” (Ha, student of education).

To help students develop their vocabulary, teacher could try the followings.

- Maintaining classroom charts (to be changed regularly) on which students

may record a growing list of synonyms for certain words.

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 - Having students keep individual word lists to extend their speaking
vocabularies (e.g., ghost: phantom, spook, spirit, apparition; purple: mauve, lilac,
violet). They may gather these from their listening, writing, reading, and viewing
activities as well as from experience outside of the classroom.

Besides, passive habit of learning is also considered one of the main causes
for students’ silence in oral English classes. More than half of the informants
own the habit of listening passively without speaking until they are asked to
speak. “We are reticent maybe because we were taught to be so since primary
school. We were hardly encouraged to speak out loud in front of others” (Hang,
student of Nursing).

What is more, students’ confidence also accounts for their unwillingness to

speak in English class. It is found that students are reticent to speak English also
because they are worried about making mistakes. Thus, they keep quiet and wait
until they are asked to speak. “I am not so active because I don’t want to lose
face when I make mistakes (Linh, student of Nursing). “I have self-respect and I
don’t want to be laughed at” (Sinh, student of Nursing). Moreover, they are also
afraid of having their mistakes being pointed out. “I’m very embarrassed when
teachers point out and correct my mistakes when I am speaking and sometimes I
don’t want to or don’t know what to say next” (Hao, student of Medical).

To motivate students to speak in class without fear of making mistakes,

teachers should try to employ the following strategies.

- When students make mistakes, point out what they said right in addition to
what they said incorrectly.

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 - Listen attentively to the students’ response – not to the structure
(grammar), but to the meaning.

- Create a classroom environment where making mistakes is ok.

- Design activities like that drive students to the concentration on meaning

and content rather than structural/grammatical accuracy.

As for objective factors, circumstance appears to be the most de-motivating to

students’ willingness to speak in class. More than three quarters of the students
go to work when doing their MA and most of them feel too tired to continue with
evening classes. Physical state is therefore an obstacle to them in learning,
especially productive skills like speaking. Most of them, however, are willing to
involve in speaking activities if the learning is made fun and enjoyable. Ranking
second is the topics introduced in speaking classes. More than half of the
students’ blame boring or unfamiliar topics for making them not willing to speak
and very few find topics interesting enough to them. Interest contributes a lot to
students’ active participation in classroom speaking activities. According to one
student, “when something is not interesting, most people are not willing to talk
about it, while one can talk as much as he can on what he is interested” (Huy,
student of Medical). Similarly, whether a student is active also depends on
his/her familiarity with a topic. “It depends on how much I know about the
topics. If I know more I am active, but if I know little about it, I keep quiet”
(Hien, student of Pharmacy). The fact is as few as one third of the teachers
questioned introduce interesting games and activities in their speaking classes.

Next comes the little attention and encouragement that students receive from
their teachers. The data analysis shows that students of high or low proficiency
of English are both motivated if their teachers pay more attention to them and

15
encourage them to speak and that many are de-motivated when teachers neglect
them.

2.4.2 Teaching and learning speaking skill as seen from teachers’

perspective
As seen from teachers’ point of view, their difficulties in teaching speaking
for non-major students of English at Au Viet School originate from outside
factors and also those from the teachers themselves.

According to all of the teachers, the most dominant characteristic of English

classes at Au Viet School is the varied level of proficiency, which is very
challenging for them to manage classes. Many teachers complain that their
teaching can hardly make all students in the class involved as there is always
knowledge that is “a piece of cake for these students but a hard job for others”
(Ms. Thuy). This gap is partly resulted from the difference in age among the
students. “The younger seem to be more advanced … some of the older even
knows almost nothing” (Mr. Thuong). Teachers suggested some common
concerns like “advanced students dominate” (Ms. Huong) or “higher level
students seem bored or the lower seem lost” (Mr. Tuan). The next obstacle to the
teachers is students’ unwillingness to speak. As found in the previous part,
whether students are motivated in oral English classes depends quite a lot on
their teachers. It can be seen that there exists a reciprocal influence between
teachers and students in teaching and learning speaking skill, which requires
bilateral efforts in improving the situation.

Besides, teachers also complain that teaching speaking skill is difficult as it

takes time whereas they are not allowed to leave out or make light of other skills
and knowledge of the course book.
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 The study has also found out that teachers’ difficulties in motivating their
students to speak in English classes result from the teachers themselves. Many of
them do not prepare activities for their speaking classes as they lack time, which
is too much a subjective reason. Similarly, which again can hardly be regarded
as a reasonable excuse as at this time and in this capital city, various types of
supplementary materials for teaching English skills is so available that a
complaint may be referred to as that of a lazy or else a not-enthusiastic-enough
teacher.

Below are general recommendations and also specific ones for each of the
findings presented above, all of which are for teachers to improve the gloomy
situation of their English speaking classes and motivate their students to speak.
Teachers needs first and foremost identify all causes of the situation so as to
employ suitable measures to solve each single problem at a time or some or all
of them.

To deal with the biggest problem found in the survey, which is the students’
varied level of proficiency; teachers can make use of whole-class activities as
well as pair or group work. Classes can begin and end with whole-class activities
to foster a sense of unity among the students. Teachers can also choose to break
students into pairs or groups for all or part of the class time. Group students of
similar ability level so that they can work on the same activity at about the same
pace; such groups do not need to be the same size. Grouping students of mixed
abilities and giving them the same task allow them to help one another. Teachers
can have all groups working on activities concurrently, or may want to rotate
between 2-3 groups, teaching a lesson to one while others work on a self-guided
task. The latter method requires greater preparation but is more likely to meet

17
level-specific needs. Here are some ideas for pair and group work in multi-level
classes.

Similar-ability pairs should do tasks where the roles are interchangeable with
the same difficulty. Examples: information gaps, dialogues, role plays, and two-
way interviews.

Mixed-ability pairs need unequal tasks. Examples: a story dictated by one and
transcribed by the other, an interview in which one asks and one answers, and
role plays with one role larger than the other.

Similar-ability groups can be different sizes. Consider gender, and age issues
when grouping. Such groups can work on tasks where everyone can contribute
equally. Examples: problem solving and process writing.

Mixed-ability groups need activities that do not require equal language

abilities. Examples: board games and making lists.

Individuals of much higher or much lower than the rest of the class may be
given independent tasks to work on.

When working with class as a whole, the following strategies can be used to
keep higher level students challenged while not neglecting lower ones.

If the dominance of students with higher level of proficiency becomes

problematic, end the group work and facilitate the activity yourself by using the
board so all students can see and participate. If this happens during whole-class
activities, teachers may need to take a more active role in controlling possession
of speaking time between the advanced and the beginners. If teachers know
advanced students will complete a task in a given time quickly, give them extra

18
activities like a writing assignment or worksheet to do while waiting for the rest
of the class to finish. Advanced students can be asked to explain new vocabulary
words (preferably in English), or model a dialogue with you.

When holding class discussions or checking students’ comprehension of the

lesson, ask beginners simple questions with one correct answer, save open-ended
and opinion questions for higher level students. In choosing whole-class
activities, reliance on texts should be minimized. Authentic materials like songs
and video clips are well suited to multilevel participation.

Additionally, teachers can ask for students’ feedback on their class

experience, and discuss any individual concerns directly with the respective
students. It will probably help to speak individually with each of the students you
are concerned about and ask for their suggestions.

If topics are found not interesting/familiar enough, teachers should provide

topics which are more interesting and appropriate to students’ age, level of
English, and relating to real life to create enjoyable class atmosphere that makes
reluctant learners interested in speaking. Assigned topics may not inspire
students to talk as much as student-selected topics. Students should be given the
chance to select topics themselves because the topic certainly will be in their list
of favorite, and the more likely they like it, the more they are interested in
discussion. As students are all adults, they usually like to talk about such topics
as family, love, jobs, incomes, and so on. However, lessons cannot go without
content and objectives of each unit of the course book being achieved, i.e., topics
in the course book, although being considered boring or unfamiliar ones, cannot
be eliminated. Teachers can make use of and introduce various ideas for

19
discussion, some of which are introduced in the table below, to make these
topics interesting and familiar enough to students.

Unit Topics Suggested ideas for discussion

1 Happiness - Who do you think is happier? A normal

citizen or a famous people?

- do you think a billionaire is a happy

person?

2 Arts - Talent and education – which do you think

makes a genius?

3 Customs - What Vietnamese custom do you think the

most shocking to foreigners?

- What domestic and foreign custom you

know that is most interesting to talk about?

4 Tourism - Why do you think more and more people

visit Vietnam?

- What do you think are Vietnam’s

attractions to foreign visitors?

- Why do you think many foreign visitors do

not come back Vietnam?

- More and more Vietnamese people travel

abroad: why?

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6 Retirement - Age for retirement should be the same
between men and women: do you agree?

- What do you think you will do when you

retire?

7 Money, life, - What job do you think can bring you most
work money?

- What is your dream job?

Doing charity - have you ever done charity? Why did you
do it?

- Who in the society do you think need

charity the most?

8 Personality - name four necessary characteristics of a

good wife/ husband/ teacher (or a successful
businessman/ politician …)

- What are five things you love/hate about

yourself?

- What do you wish your girlfriend/

boyfriend/ husband/ wife … to be like?

21
 Children and - do you wish to be/ to have the only child in
family size your family?

- How many brothers/ sisters/ children/ sons/

daughter do you wish to have?

9 Different - What is your advice for a girl whose

views of husband to-be smokes bears bronchitis?
smoking
- Why do you think cigarettes are produced
and smoked?

Collecting - If any collections would be valuable in 50

things years, what would you collect?

- Why do you think people collect things?

10 Famous - If you can become a famous people in one

people day, who do want to be?

- If you can give a question to Miss Vietnam

2006/ President Bush/ (any famous person)…,
what will you ask?

Suggested ideas for discussion

For teachers whose students are timid in speaking classes, they should give
their students more praise, encouragement and supportive compliments rather
than negative criticism. Teachers should be more tolerant to learners’ language
mistakes as this is unavoidable, even with the most competent students. This is
not to say that students should be given praise every time. Alternatively,

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comments on good points students have made should always be prior to those
that need further improvement.

Teachers can also talk with students about their fear of making mistakes. Tell
them that mistakes are positive as at least they show teachers where students’
difficulties are so that teachers can help them.

If students lack words to express themselves, what teachers should do is

providing related words when introducing topics through listening or reading as
pre-speaking activities. Besides, teacher should pay attention to students when
they are speaking so as to guess their ideas to support them in case they cannot
find exact words to express themselves. What is more, teachers should not
expect perfection from students in the use of unfamiliar or difficult words, but
rather should develop a supportive environment and group rapport that
encourage students to experiment with unfamiliar words. Teachers need to
explain that words represent thoughts so students should not attempt to use
unusual syntax, outlandish phrases, or “big words” but try to find direct and
meaningful ways of making themselves understood.

It seems to be problematic to change students’ habit of “listening without

speaking” in speaking lessons. If students are not accustomed to speaking in
English class, alternative ways need to be applied.

One way is to have everyone stand up and either ask a question or answer a
question to sit down. This way helps when teachers make it fun or else the
students will feel uncomfortable. Teachers can make it a game, and the losing
team has to write more homework or something little like that. Another way is to
have students answer in groups, as a lot of them do not want to be the only one

23
to talk. Alternatively, students can be spilt up into pairs and given an interesting
dialogue to read before reading the dialogue out loud.

All these ways to make students get accustomed to speaking in class cannot
go without deciding factors such as teachers’ patience, support and enthusiasm.

All in all, there is hardly any single measure that can deal with all problems
raised in the process of teaching and learning a language in general and speaking
skill in particular. Applying the following strategies can hopefully help teachers
deal with most of difficulties they encounter in their teaching speaking skill. Yet
whether a speaking class succeeds depends almost on the active role of teachers
in their teaching as well as that of students in their learning.

Do interesting topics or make topics interesting. Teachers can formally ask

students (in a needs analysis) what topics they are interested in. If teachers tackle
topics that students are not interested in, they will lose the students’ desire to
participate at the very beginning of the lesson. In case students appear to be
bored with topics in the course book, easy and interesting ideas for discussion
can be introduced to make the topics less boring and more familiar to students.

Be enthusiastic about what you are teaching. This is the timeless one. Any
students can spot a bored teacher at twenty paces. If you do not feel enthusiastic
about your teaching, the students will tend to follow your lead, reflecting your
lack of enthusiasm and surely you will be helpless about getting already-tired
students involve in speaking lessons.

Connect with your students. It does not make any sense; no matter how
evolved and refined your methodology is, if you do not connect with your class.
Teachers have to tune in to the different language abilities and the different

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personalities of their students. This involves focusing more on what the students
are saying and less on what teachers are saying.

Teach “use”, not only ‘usage”. When students are using the target language
(for example, in a role play), they feel empowered. They can feel the benefits of
the lesson in a very tangible way. In contrast, learning rules about the target
language is likely to result in the rapid onset of boredom. For example, it is
better to set up an information gap, in which students are trying to arrange a
meeting than to give a lecture on the form and meaning of the present continuous
for the future.

2.4.3 Experience gained during the internship period

Through teaching activities:

- Always need more and more effort on the way of education.

- I need to practice more the ability to cover classes in teaching and class
activities, continue to try to exchange pedagogical services, speaking skills in
front of class and professional.

- Through the lesson hours of professional instructors and lectures of students

in the group, I learned a lot of experiences. From lesson planning, appropriate
time distribution, reasonable steps to class, apply appropriate methods for each
lesson content. And draw many other valuable lessons in teaching activities.

25
 2.4.4 Recommendation for improving English speaking skills in Au Viet
Vocational School.
After the internship period and results of my surveys. I have some
recommendations on suggested activities for motivating students and improving
their speaking ability.

 Content

As much as possible, the content should be practical and usable in real-life

situations. Too much new vocabulary or grammar should be avoided.

 Correcting Errors

Teachers need to provide appropriate feedback and correction, but don’t

interrupt the flow of communication. Take notes while pairs or groups are
talking and address problems to the class after the activity to avoid embarrassing
the student who made the error. Teachers can write the error on the board and
ask who can correct it.

 Quantity versus Quality

Address both interactive fluency and accuracy, striving foremost for

communication. Get to know each student’s personality and encourage the
quieter ones to take more risks.

 Conversation Strategies

Encourage strategies like asking for clarification, paraphrasing, gestures, and

initiating (‘hey,’ ‘so,’ ‘by the way’).

 Teacher Intervention

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 If a speaking activity loses steam, teachers may need to jump into a role-play,
ask more discussion questions, clarify your instructions, or stop an activity that is
too difficult or boring.

Below are some activities and games that can add interest to each lesson and
serve different learning styles. Teachers can find sample games and activities in
this part for getting their students more involved in speaking in class and can feel
free to change their content or degree of difficulty to suit their needs, or use them
as a springboard to create specific activities. These activities can be made more
challenging by increasing the complexity of the language and adding elements of
risk, or made less challenging by simplifying the language and providing more
guidance to reduce the risk of making errors.

 Activity 1: Word Routes

This activity can make students feel more relaxed about expressing their
opinion among their own peer groups. It generates a lot of talking as students are
free to express whatever ideas/opinions they have about topic. It allows freedom
and flexibility so students develop confidence in their speaking and fluency
skills as they examine the twists and turns that different conversations can take
on the same subject.

Aims Express opinions about a subject and refer to events freely

Ask questions and seek opinions
Class time 15-20 minutes
Preparation time 30 minutes
Resources List of interesting topics
Procedure

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 1. Prepare a list of topics that interest students (e.g. fashion, love, marriage,
holiday).
2. Divide the class into several groups of five or six students.
3. Have students choose one member of the group to take notes.
4. Give all the groups the same topic for free discussion. (This means
students are free to discuss the topic and to develop and carry on their
conversation within the time limits of the activity.)
5. While students are discussing the topic, have the note-taker keep track of
the progression or “word route” of the conversation (e.g. from toothpastes,
to teeth, to dentists, diet, to clothes).
6. At the end of the time period (5-10 minutes), check the group’s progress
and have the note-taker of each group present the word route they have
recorded.
7. Compare the different groups’ development of their conversation as the
whole-class activity.

 Activity 2: Two-minute Conversations: If I were …

This activity gives the students the opportunity to get to know each other
better and therefore helps to create a non-threatening environment for speaking
and sharing ideas. It also encourages students to think creatively because they
must share a personal characteristic in an abstract way. Students practice
initiating, continuing, and closing a conversation; using the conditional;
communicating personal information; and developing vocabulary.

Aims Get to know classmates

Practice the conditional

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Class time Variable

Preparation time 15 minutes

Resources movable desks; handout with 15 or more categories (see

Appendix below).

Procedure

1. Arrange half of the desks in a large outer circle facing in, and the other
half in an inner circle facing out so that when seated, every student has a
partner.

2. Give the students two minutes to discuss the topics listed on the handout.
There is a different topic for each conversation but every conversation
starts with the phrase, “If I were a _______, I would be (a) _______
because _______.” (E.g. If the topic were Body of Water, they could say,
“If I were a body of water, I would be an ocean because an ocean can be
very calm, deep and mysterious, but in a moment it can be dangerous.
That’s what I am, very moody, but never dull. How about you? What
would you be?”.

3. When the time is up, ask the students in the inner circle to stand up and
move one seat to the right to begin another 2-minute conversation with a
new partner.

 Activity 3 Toss and Tell Us

This activity accesses linguistic knowledge from memory in an oral mode

and provides students with practice in reading short sentences aloud to the class.
This practice is achieved through understanding and speaking in response to

29
short directives covering a variety of subjects. Students who are not participating
have an opportunity to learn information – for example, the answers to the short
directives – so that when their turns come they will be able to answer fluently.

Aims Answer content questions about the real world

Generate feedback on peers’ performance

Class time Variable

Preparation time None

Resources pair of dice, roll of dice sheet

Procedure

1. Select a student at random to roll the dice.

2. Have that student roll the dice to obtain a number from the Roll of the
Dice sheet.

3. Then ask the student to choose a classmate, select answers A, B, or C from

the Roll of the Dice sheet, and read it to the selected classmate.

4. The selected student responds. If the student cannot respond, have the first
student read another one of the three items.

5. If the student again cannot respond, read the third choice.

6. Should the student still not be able to respond, that student loses this turn.
Have the first student roll again and select a new student to answer.

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 7. Have the student who rolled the dice pass them to the student who
responded, who then selects another student at random and the activity
continues.

 Activity 4 Agreeing and Disagreeing

A lively and relaxed classroom atmosphere helps students learn a

language. This activity encourages the students to exchange opinions in a non-
threatening situation. The activity also centers around topics that are familiar and
of interest to the students. Students are free to express their views, and they are
also required to clarify or support their opinions. Genuine communication as
well as learning can thus take place in a relaxed classroom setting.

Aims Practice giving and responding to opinions

Class time 30 minutes

Preparation time 5 minutes

Resources White board and marker; ball (optional)

Procedure

1. Explain the task to the students. The students will be paired up and they
will take turns giving opinions about each other and responding to each
other’s opinions.

2. Write on the board the different expressions students can use in expressing
and responding to an opinion. The list may include I think, I feel, as I see
it, in expressing an opinion; and that’s right, correct, exactly, in agreeing;
and I’m afraid not, not quite, in disagreeing.

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 3. Pair off the students randomly. Explain the task. Students should take turns
giving an opinion about the partner’s beliefs, likes, dislikes, hobbies,
interests, abilities and skills. Their partner should then respond, by either
agreeing or disagreeing. Each student should give at least three opinions.
The response has to be given immediately after each opinion.

4. Encourage of the students to use a different expression each. Examples

might include:

- Opinion: I think you like eating fast food a lot as I have seen you at least
twice at McDonald’s.

- Response: Well, you’re quite right. I especially like the French fries there.

- Opinion: I guess you enjoy listening to pop music.

- Response: Actually, I don’t. I prefer classical music to pop music.

- Opinion: In my opinion, you are very shy since I seldom hear you speak in
class.

- Response: Mm, in fact, I don’t think I’m shy. I seldom speak in class since
I think it is not very polite.

 Activity 5 Letting Students Ask the Questions

We all know that people want to talk about what interests them. This
activity makes the most of that premise by requiring students’ participation
throughout every step: from allowing the students to choose the topics to be
discussed to having the students be responsible for leading the group discussions.

Aims Speak and learn about an interesting topic

32
 Take responsibility for learning

Class time 15-30 minutes

Preparation time 20 minutes

Procedure

1. give students a questionnaire asking them to list at least five topics they
would like to discuss.

2. type the list of topics on a handout for students and have them choose (as a
class) a topic to discuss in the next lesson.

3. have students write down three interesting and relevant questions about the
topic they would like to ask other students.

4. for the next lesson:

- type the questions and number them on a handout.

- cut out as many slips of paper as there are questions and number them
corresponding to the questions on the handout.

- Include vocabulary items on the handout that may be useful for the
upcoming discussion.

5. on the discussion day, give the students the handout and distribute the slips
of paper at random so that each student has a few slips.

6. have students ask the question that corresponds to the number on their slip
of paper, beginning with question 1. Each student asking a question should
actively elicit responses from the other students and make sure everyone
has a chance to speak.

7. Continue the same process until all the questions have been asked and
discussed.

 Activity 6 The Year That Was

33
 Nearly everyone has access to media news and may discuss the news in
their L1. As language teachers, we can capitalize on this real-life activity outside
the classroom and encourage students to express their opinions about the news in
a classroom activity.

Aims Discuss important events that occurred in the previous year

Practice arguing, agreeing, disagreeing, and justifying

Class time 30 minutes

Preparation time 30 minutes

Resources Copy magazines that summarize the past years' events in
photos

Procedures
1. Choose, cut out, and paste onto separate sheets of paper, 10 pictures about
news stories from a previous year out of an end-of-the-year magazine. (Do
not leave any captions or text on the pictures.)
2. Number the pictures from 1 to 10 in random order. You may need to make
several sets of pictures, depending on the size of the class.
3. Have students use a clean sheet of paper and write Topic at the top of the
left-hand side, and Comment at the top of the right-hand side. Also have
them number from 1 to 10, at equal intervals, down the left-hand side of
the paper.
4. Tell students you will distribute 10 pictures. They should look at them and
write the topic of the story (if they know it) next to the corresponding
number on the Topic side of their page. Students should not discuss the
pictures with you or other classmates during this part of the activity.

34
 5. Organize the class into groups of five and have students compare their
topic lists.
6. Once you and the students are satisfied with the lists, elicit the topics from
students as a class activity and write them on the chalkboard so that
eventually, everyone has a similar list.
7. Have the groups discuss the topics for 15-20 minutes and have them make
notes under the Comment section of their paper.
8. Choose members from each group to explain to the class what 10 news
items are about.
9. Make brief notes from this discussion on the board.
10. Ask groups to discuss the importance of each item and rank them in order
of importance.
11. Again, choose members from each group to tell the class the order of
importance they have determined, and encourage class discuss to decide
the "best order".

 Activity 7 Get It Done

This class activity encourages learners to gain confidence in control over one of
the many uses of the verb get. Get It Done encourages students to avoid
dependency on written English for oral work, contextualize grammar and
pronunciation in genuine communication, and keep the eyes up when they speak.

Aims Practice causative get or have

Review regular and irregular past participles and

pronunciation of –ed endings

35
 Understand English spoken at normal, conversational speed

Class time 20-25 minutes

Preparation time None

Procedures

1. Put two or three examples of causative get or have sentences on the

chalkboard. For example,

- Joseph gets his hair cut every three weeks.

- She got her teeth checked at the dentist.

- New students will get their registration verified soon.

2. Elicit from the class the meaning of causative gets by asking such
questions as Does Joseph cut his own hair? Who probably cuts his hair?

3. Have the class articulate a rule for using causative get?

 Activity 8 A Day in Life

Aims Asking about events, practicing simple past tense

Class time 15-20 minutes

Preparation time None

Procedure

1. The class is divided into groups. One member of each group leaves the
room.

36
 2. The remaining group members decide how the person who is outside spent
the previous day. They draw up an exact time schedule from 8 a.m. to 8
p.m. and describe where the person was, what he did, who he talked to. So
as not to make the guessing too difficult, the ‘victim’s’ day should not be
divided into more than six two-hour periods.
3. The people who waited outside during step 2 are called in and return to
their groups. There they try and find out – by asking only yes/no questions
– how the group thinks they spent the previous day.
4. (Optional) when each ‘victim’ has guessed his fictitious day, the group
tries to find out what he really did.

 Activity 9 What Would Happen If …?

Aims If – clauses, making conjectures, asking for confirmation

Class time 10-15 minutes
Preparation time 30 minutes
Resources About twice as many slips of paper with an event/situation
written on them as there are students
Procedure

Every student receives one or two slips of paper with sentences like these
on them: ‘What would happen if a shop gave away its goods free every
Wednesday?’ ‘What would you do if you won a trip for two to a city of your
choice?’ One student starts by reading out his question and then asks another
student to answer it. The second student continues by answering or asking a third
student to answer the first student’s question. If he has answered the question he
may then read out his own question for somebody else to answer. The activity is
finished when all the questions have been read out and answered.

37
 The student can prepare their own questions. Here are some more
suggestions:

What would happen if

Everybody who told a lie turned green?

people could get a driving lesson at 14?
girls had to do military service?
men were not allowed to become doctors or pilots?
children over 10 were allowed to vote?
men can live up to 200 years old?
gold was found in your area?
a film was made in your school/ place of work?
headmasters had to be elected by teachers and pupils?
smoking was not forbidden in public places?
men are allowed to have more than one wife?
What would you do if

you were invited to the President’s house?

you were invited to be an actor/actress by a famous film director?
a photo graph of yours won first prize at an exhibition?
your little sister aged 14 told you she was pregnant?
you saw your teacher pass red light?
you saw somebody hit a small child very hard?
a salesman called at your house and tried to sell you something you do not
need?
your horoscope warned you against traveling when you want to go on
holiday?
it rained every day of your holiday?
if you got a love letter from somebody you did not know?
you saw a snake in your bed?
you lost your walk in the woods?

38
 you found 200,000 dong in a library book?
you forgot you had asked four people to lunch and didn’t have any food in
the house when they arrived?
a young man/girl told you that he/she cannot live without you?
your lover told you he/she fell in love with another person?
you could not sleep at night?
you noticed that you didn’t bring any money with you when the seller
gave you the shoes you decided to take?

 Activity 10 Personalities

Aims Giving reasons, making comparisons

Class time 10-15 minutes

Preparation time None

Procedure

1. The teacher writes a list of 10-15 famous names on the board. She asks the
students to select the six personalities they would like to invite to their
classroom to give a talk and rank them in order of preference. They write
their choices in order on a piece of paper. All the papers are collected.

2. When the final list for the whole class has been compiled, students who
selected the most popular personalities are asked to explain their choice.

3. The activity could be continued with the students writing our interview
questions they would like to ask the person of their choice.

Remarks

39
 The teacher will be far more successful in devising a list which is geared
towards her students’ knowledge and interests.

3. Some thought about how the internship might influence my future career
plans
For any teacher who wants to know if he or she has enough qualifications and
abilities in educational work, he or she must experience it through practice. In
fact, it is only when we actually when into educational activities, we can know
that we are still incomplete in many aspects so that we can strive to improve
ourselves to bring practical benefits, serving a best quality of teaching activities
for students.

Through understanding the educational practice reality of the school, teachers

and students, I knew that the organizational structure is very important, it
governs all educational activities. It brought me more convenient in teaching
English as well as acting as a homeroom teacher. On the other hand, if I will be
an English teacher in the future, I will have a proactive direction to implement
the goals and plans set by the school.

Other things I experienced a lot in the internship period is how to be a friend

with students, make them open to talk/ share ideas with teachers. Also, I learnt
how to communicate with other colleagues in meetings or normal talking to
improve the teaching method together.

Part 3: Final Assessment and Conclusion of the Report

1. Summary of the study

The current teaching and learning situation has been figured out in the study
through questionnaires and follow-up interviews with 100 students of the Faculty
40
of Foundation study and 5 teachers of English at the Au Viet Vocational school.
These students will focus on their major starting from the 2 nd year such as:
medical, pharmacy, nursing, etc.

Due to various reasons such as variety in students’ level of language

proficiency, lack of interesting topics, prior experience in learning speaking, and
fear of losing face, more than two-thirds of the students remain reluctant to
respond to the teacher and keep quiet until they are singled out to answer
questions. Moreover, many of them seem to be helpless about being reticent
when the teacher asks a question and expects a respond.

The study has introduced some measures to help students become more
willing and active to converse with others in the target language in class. It also
includes activities for teachers to make use of in motivating their students to
reduce reticence and be more confident in English speaking classes. To meet the
needs of multi-level classes, teachers need to make use of various methods. In
order to help reduce students’ reticence, teachers themselves should be aware of
the existence of reticence among students and try to give more chances and
encouragement to the quieter ones by asking them more questions. As three
quarters of them go to class after a working day, they are sometimes too tired to
learn so lessons should be made with a lot of fun and comfort with interesting
and motivating activities or games. Besides, as suggested by the students’
informants, teachers should prepare more topics which are not only interesting
but also related to students’ life so that students have the interest in and ability to
talk about them in English. In addition, teachers should try to establish a
friendly, supportive, and non-threatening learning environment, as well as
introducing activities that motivate students to speak. It is important for teachers

41
to be friendly rather than strict and critical in class, in order to make students feel
easy to speak English.

2. Suggestions for further study

In further study, with greater time and effort, surveys should be conducted
with a larger sample population and wider sources of activities and if it is
possible, activities suitable for different majors need to be added. Suggested
activities should consider students’ different majors one of the factors raising
students’ willingness to involve in classroom speaking activities. Further studies
on changing the form of speaking test to have a more challenging one is also
suggested as an effort to motivate students in their learning speaking skill in
English class at the Au Viet Vocational School.

42