Southern Luzon State University

College of Education

School for Graduate Studies

Master of Arts in Teaching English

ENG520 – Teaching Listening and Speaking

Action Research Proposal

Methods of Enhancing Speaking Skills of Students

by

RAYMUND C. FRANCIA

MATE Student

May, 2014

I. Introduction

The short span of time shows English Language to dominate over other languages in

communication universal wide and continues to extend. The advancing media environment

demands better competencies in communication especially of the spoken language. Anyone

aiming to acquire the benefits of modern education, research, science, trade, etc., knows that it is

impossible without a working knowledge of the English language and good communication skills.

A person seeking a greener pasture can be successful in the competition if he has a good command

of the language. Effective speaking competence greatly benefits both the speaker and the

employee.

Most academicians, professors and researchers ascertain that developing speaking skills of the

students would be more effective along with teaching other language competencies, thus resulting

to whole language development of student’s communicative ability. They even suggests that the

integrated use of modern techniques can yield positive results and lead to the improvement of

communicative competence. Learning English by using new methods in education and traveling

and working abroad encourages students to learn the language, develops their ability to speak

fluently, and helps them overcome the language barrier.

Hence, the problem of teaching English to students, especially the problem of speaking skills

of the students has not yet been solved, and one can find much to explore in this field. Because of

the significant role of speaking, many researchers have proposed methods to enhance speaking

skills by means of syllabus design, teaching principles, types of tasks and materials, and speaking

assessment. Working on it they proposed ways to enhance speaking skills of students with the help

of different methods of teaching, the use of appropriate exercises, and learner-centered approach

to studies.

Generally, it is a sine qua non that the students be equipped of the speaking skills. To utter

their message and to respond with comprehension formed the communicative competence. To

achieve this, students should be given integrated tasks which help them develop both skills.

This study aims to define the strengths and weaknesses in the students speaking skills in English

and to demonstrate the possibilities of enhancement of their speaking skills.

II. Background

The purpose and the task of improving the way the students speak is taxing and had been a

struggle for several teachers in the past up to now. The same issue has been prevalent in several

part of the world particularly in the academic community from kindergarten to college level.

Indefinite and extraneous variables do affect directly and indirectly such speaking skill of the

individual student.

Lately, interest in the English language as a means of international communication has grown

substantially. English has already become the language of professional communication in various

spheres of life. Most students wish to learn to speak English; that is why speaking plays a

primary role in teaching oral communication.

In the Philippines, like in many other countries, the problem of speaking skills is crucial. A

number of researchers investigated this field and came to the conclusion about students' low level

of speaking ability and their inability to speak confidently and fluently. One among the many

reasons to take into consideration might be the lack of confidence and anxiety about making errors

as stated by Trent (2009) and in other related studies. Most college students are not confident in

their ability to learn to speak; teachers must overcome their reluctance in order to change this

situation.

The willingness to communicate plays an important part in becoming fluent in speaking which

is the goal of language learners. For instance, Julius Kuhl's theory of action control is introduced

as an expansion of the conceptual framework for the study of Willingness to Communicate (WTC).

Kuhl proposed three key concepts: preoccupation, volatility, and hesitation, which form part of the

base from which WTC in the second language is built.

Other factors dealing with willingness to communicate can be divided into individual

differences in the linguistic and non-linguistic outcomes of language learning, such as motivation,

aptitude, language learning strategies, language anxiety, and others (Dörnyei, 2005). They have

been a key focus of second language research for over 50 years as Gardner mentioned.

Recently, MacIntyre (2007) drew attention to the learner's decision to voluntarily speak the

language when the opportunity arises, even as basic language skills are being acquired.

Nevertheless, despite the emphasis on communication in modern language pedagogy and the well-

accepted view that learners require practice in speaking in order to learn ( MacIntyre, 2003), some

language learners habitually choose to remain silent.

Moreover, several teachers do not observe proper time and activities during language class.

Students are discourage from not speaking English correctly and are often shouted at. Although

both teachers and students are responsible for the poor speaking ability of the latter, the teachers,

who have the professional knowledge and skills, bear a greater responsibility.Students who study

English as a foreign language usually have limited opportunities to speak English outside the

classroom (Zhang, 2009) and also limited exposure to English speakers or members of the

international community. This might be one reason for teachers to provide more situations and

activities for students to strengthen their speaking competence.

A Number of factors relating to speaking skills are to be considered for effective English

speaking performance. Pronunciation, vocabulary, and collocations are singled out as important

factors to be emphasized in building fluency for EFL speakers. Providing students with a variety

of situations and frequent speaking tasks plays a significant role in the improvement of students’

fluency when speaking (Tam, 1997). Confidence and competence usually reinforce English

speaking skills. Patil (2008) asserted that building up the learner’s confidence to eliminate their

fear of making errors was a priority that a teacher should consider in order to make learners feel

comfortable with their language use. Confidence and competence in speaking could be developed

from appropriate syllabus design, methods of teaching, and adequate tasks and materials (Bailey,

2005; Songsiri, 2007).

In general, the problems of students related to speaking can be divided into four main groups:

1. Out of fear from being criticized by both teachers and their classmates, students feel

unconfident and shy to speak English.

2. Being grouped with other students, they tend to speak in their native tongue as they are

comfortable.

3. The topics given to the students are lack of resources and information the students need.

4. Many of the students are wanting of linguistic and verbal competence which require a

democratic and supportive speaking environment.

In the analyses of speaking skills, it crystallizes that speaking skills of most students are

inadequately developed. It is indeed, a true problem the teachers and students are facing which

needs immediate intervention. The situation cited herein supports the idea of the researcher to

conduct the study.

III. Description of Research

This study is upon descriptive quantitative research because it ―attempts to describe the

existing condition of the students speaking ability with the purpose of finding several suitable and

useful methods to enhance the said ability. Statistical treatment will also be utilized for a more

reliable computation of the results.

The researcher has chosen Olongtao National High School in Macalelon Quezon as the place

to conduct the study for the second quarter. From a number of fourth year students for the school

year 2014-2015, stratified sampling is utilized to choose 50 students and 4 English teacher

respondents to be subjects of the study.

It seeks to describe the existing means and ways of teaching and learning process focusing

mainly on the methods frequently used and neglected by the teachers.

IV. Methods of Collecting Data and Making Analysis

Descriptive survey using questionnaires, interview and checklist will be utilized as the

means for collecting data since the results given by these methods would be more tangible and

observable.

The survey is a qualitative, non-experimental, descriptive research method. It is useful

when a researcher wants to collect data on phenomena that cannot be directly observed (such as

opinions on library services). Surveys are used extensively in library and information science to

assess attitudes and characteristics of a wide range of subjects.

Semi-structured interviews, checklists, teacher researcher’s close observation of pupils’

performance during class and structured questionnaires were used to collect data in this study.

Quantitative data came from the questionnaires and qualitative data came from the interviews and

observation. In this way, data were triangulated to ensure validity (Seliger and Shohamy, 1989;

Nunan, 1992; Bell, 1993; McDonough and Mcdonough, 1997). Documentation of the results are

to be utilized.

The data will be collected following the schedule and interpreted using weighted mean and

kendall’s formula of correlation and coefficient. Kendall statistical formula is a reliable statistical

approach when there are more than two data collection procedures such as interviews,

questionnaire and checklist. The significance of the correlation is trustier.

After due preparation and facilitation of research materials, the researcher analyses the data

using the statistical method in determining the selected variables chosen by the respondents in a

range of significance as to insignificant, significant and strongly significant.

The results of data analysis are to be presented using table, figures, graphs and charts for a

clearer presentation of the output.

V. Potential Importance of Research

This research will benefit the following school stakeholders Olongtao National High

School, Macalelon, Quezon.

Students. In any school programs/projects the ultimate beneficiary are the students. The

students will be given a chance to improve their skills in speaking. Opportunities for oral

development will be wider and communicative competence will follow through.

Teachers. The results of this study this will serves as basis for the teachers to develop or

design other activities that will be utilized in teaching speaking skills. They’ll have options to

choose from the many methods the best and suited methods for certain topics.

School Heads. The results of this study will help the school heads in their supervisory

instructional plan. Further, they can acquire additional information needed by them for their

classroom observations, evaluations and assessments.

Future researcher. Similar studies would be conducted relative to enhancing speaking

skills in teaching. This will be a good source and foundation of other researches to strengthen the

results.

VI. References

Yulia Morozova, Methods of Enhancing Speaking Skills of Elementary Level Students, Institute

of Fundamental Education, Ural Federal University B.N. Yeltsin, Yekaterinburg, Russia,

Unpublished Research, 2000

Baker, S.C., MacIntyre, P.D., 2000. The role of gender and immersion in communication and

second language orientations. Language Learning 50, 311–341.

Clément, R., Baker, S.C., MacIntyre, P.D., 2003. Willingness to communicate in a second

language: the effect of context, norms, and vitality. Journal of Language and Social

Psychology22, 190–209.

Dornyei. Z. The Psychology of the Language Learner: Individual Differences in Second

Language Acquisition Erlbaum, London (2005).

MacIntyre P.D. Willingness to communicate in the second language: understanding the decision

to speak as a volitional process Modern Language Journal, 91 (2007), pp. 564–576.

Zhang, Y. (2009). Reading to speak: Integrating oral communication skills. English Teaching

Forum, 47(1), 32-34. ching Forum,47(1), 32-34. Retrieved from

http://exchanges.state.gov/englishteaching/forum/archives/2009/09-47-1.htm

Koshy, V. (2005). Action research for improving practice: a practical guide. London: SAGE.

Zaremba, A. J. (2006). Speaking professionally. Canada: Thompson South-Western.

Bailey, K.M. (2005). Practical English Language Teaching: Speaking. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Faculty of Arts, (2004). Undergraduate catalog. Nakhon Pathom, Thailand:

SilpakornUniversity Press.

Goh, C. (2007). Teaching speaking in the language classroom. Singapore: SEAMEO Regional

Language Centre.