The Secondary School Students’ Assessments Of Sexuality Education In Curriculum

1. Introduction

Sex education is currently a heated issue that attracts a great deal of attention nationwide and worldwide. Despite researchers and educators’ persuasion that sex education can bring about several benefits, many people, including parents and teachers, are unconvinced of this program being a positive school subject. There are pros and cons in their arguments which need careful consideration before implementation can be realized.

According to Rosen, Murray and Moreland (2004) “Sexuality education is the lifelong process of acquiring information and forming attitudes, beliefs, and values about identity, relationships, and intimacy” (p.4). In other words, sex education should be part of an advanced education program in order to assist children with adequate knowledge of a physical life. In fact, human reproduction and modern civilization would be impossible without the young generation being academically armed with this knowledge.

Despite this fact, school children in Viet Nam seem to be left with the impression that sex knowledge should be grasped by the children themselves. In other words, few schools officially teach this knowledge to school children, fearing that it is too sensitive and it may arouse their curiosity to the extent that they might experiment themselves on this.

In order to find out what secondary school children think about this problem, a mini research was done, hoping that it may throw some light to such areas as the importance of sex education, the age of acquiring this knowledge, the content of the sex education, and finally the method of instructing it to school children.

2. Methodology

In order to collect the data for the study, a questionnaire (Appendix) was developed. The subjects of this study were the secondary school students; therefore, a bilingual questionnaire (English/ Vietnamese) was designed. It was divided into 5 main parts with 9 questions. Some kinds of questions such as multi-choice, scale, close-ended were involved. The first part of the questionnaire aimed to find out the students’ assessments of importance of sexuality education. The second one explored the subjects’ opinions on the ages suitable for acquiring the knowledge of sexuality and the next one discovered students’ opinions on the contents and then the students’ suggestions for teaching sexuality knowledge to secondary students. The last one found out students’ opinion on the counter effect of sexuality education at school.

50 students at Le Loi Secondary School were selected randomly from different classes. They are all at the age of 13.

Before doing the official survey, we had a pilot survey in our own class to see whether or not our questionnaire was acceptable. From the comments of our colleagues, some questions in the questionnaire were adapted to fit the purpose of our primary research.

The official survey was carried out during a break time. Handouts were delivered to 50 participants on a voluntary basis. All the participants had time to read bilingual questions before progressing to completing all queries in the questionnaire. It took 40 minutes to give out and collect the handouts. All questionnaires were classified as appropriate.

3. Findings and discussion

3.1. Importance of sexuality education

As is shown in chart 1, a significant number of students (46%) agreed that sexuality education was important and 38% of them strongly supported that it was very important. In other words, 74% of the respondents support the introduction of sex program at secondary school. Another 10% held the view that it is quite important. Meanwhile only 6% of respondents considered it as an unimportant subject, which may be understood that they do not want to learn this subject at their age or else.

One noticeable thing is that majority of students highly appreciated sexuality education at schools. In fact, many teachers and health educators believe that sexuality education helps to reduce the risk-taking sexual behaviors which might lead to negative impacts like unplanned pregnancy, infection with sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, sexuality education can provide “opportunities for young people to explore their attitudes and values and to practice the decision-making and other life skills they need to be able to make informed choices about their sexual life” (International Technical Guidance On Sexuality Education: An evidence-informed approach for schools, teacher and health educators, 2009, p.2). In brief, sexuality education encourages young people to live safely and enjoy their sexual life.

Certainly, sexuality education programs in schools should help minimize the risks that the youth might face in the course of their sexual experiences. Then, another question that needs clarifying is the appropriate age range for sexuality education. The next part of survey will focus on this matter.

3.2. The age suitable for acquiring sex knowledge

As can be seen from chart 2, most of the students (62%) would like to be provided with sexuality knowledge when they are at the age of the secondary school. It was followed by high and primary education (18%, 14%). Only 6% of them were in agreement that it was the best to begin introducing at high educational level.

Obviously, it is highly recommended by a large number of respondents that sexuality education be started at secondary school. It can be explained by the fact that most students start their puberty at the age of 12 or 13. Pubescence is a time of great physical and mental changes, especially sexual development. Young people are really curious about the development of their bodies; therefore, providing information about heath, sexuality for young people at this time is very crucial. Furthermore, Kelly (1998) claimed that the majority of youth experienced sexual copulation during the adolescence. Thus, sexuality education should be included in the education curriculum of the secondary school to help the students avoid harmful effects of unsafe sex and have good preparation for a mature life.

Along with introducing sexuality education at appropriate age, finding out the suitable contents to provide for students when studying this subject is also very important. The following section is aimed to discuss this issue.

3.3. Contents of sex education programs should provide for children

As shown in the table, we can see the great difference among students’ opinions about the contents what students should be taught in sexuality education. The most obvious is that the majority of the students (72%) would like to study all of the contents recommended above in sexuality education. This is in congruent with the finding about information of learning including “growth and development, reproduction, contraception, interpersonal relationships, sexual behavior” (International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education: An evidence-informed approach for schools, teachers and health educators, 2009, p.5).

3.4. Students’ suggestion for teaching sexuality knowledge

As illustrated in chart 3, more than a half of the students (64%) wanted to have sexuality education taught as a separate subject. Nearly 30% of the respondents shared the idea that sexuality education ought to be integrated with another subject. Only 8 % of them were still unsure about how this subject should be instructed.

The results showed that the majority of the students are in favor of studying sexuality education as a separate subject. This finding is not in line with a recommendation from Sexuality Education in Europe (p.12):“Typically, sexuality education is taught in Biology lessons and in perhaps one other area of curriculum”. There are some reasons for the result of this minor research. First, if sexuality education is the part of other subject like biology, physical education and so on, it will be ignored by the teachers because “Experts are concerned that not only are many teachers under prepared, they are also being forced to teach material with which they do not feel personally comfortable” (Kelly, 1998, p.225). Second, if sexuality education is a separate subject, a lot of topics related to sexual life will be covered. It will help students get much useful information and avoid bad sexual activities which can bring about severe consequences in future.

As can be expected, students highly appreciated teaching sexuality education as a separate subject. Besides, concerns have been raised over the type of sexuality education class. The next part will concentrate on talking over this issue.

It can be seen from chart 4, 62% of participants liked learning sexuality education in the single-sex class. Meanwhile 30% of them supported co-ed class and only 8% of respondents still did not know for certain about which type of class organization was suitable for sexuality education program at school.

As expected, most of the students supposed that sexuality instruction should be conducted in the single-sex class. This is perhaps due to the Vietnamese culture and customs which tend to disapprove of discussing this topic in public and with the presence of the opposite sex. This finding was in accordance with conclusion “separating students into same-sex group, for part or all of a programs, has also been demonstrated to be effective” (as cited in International Technical Guidance On Sexuality Education: An evidence-informed approach for schools, teachers and health educators, 2009, p.11). Many people, especially the young, are too shy to talk about sexuality because it is really a sensitive topic. A respondent reported that during a class on sexuality education, she had some queries about female sexual organs; however, she did not dare to ask because there were some boys in her class. She was afraid of being laughed at. Hence, single-sex is an effective type of class for students so that they can feel comfortable and safe when studying sexuality education.

Besides contents, type of class, methodology, instructor of this subject is an important topic in sexuality education curriculum. This issue will be taken into account in the following part of the research.

As table 6 shows, majority students (22 respondents) would like to be taught sexuality education by specialists (physician or nurses). It was followed by 15 students who agreed with teacher of school. Only 2 respondents thought that students can study sexuality education on their own.

After all, the role of educator is very important in teaching sexuality education. Most of the students wanted specialists (physicians or nurses) because some reasons such as “They can be specially trained to cover this sensitive topic and to implement participatory activities; they can be provided with regularly updated information; and they can be linked to community-based reproductive health services” (International guidelines on sexuality education: an evidence informed approach to effective sex, relationships and HIV/STI education, 2009, p.19). This will be the key factor to help students study this subject much better.

There is broad agreement among students that sexuality education is very useful. Nonetheless, some still fear that learning this subject will hasten early onset of sexual experiments among young people. This issue will be analyzed in the following part.

3.5. Students’ opinion on the counter effect of sexuality education at school

As can be seen from the pie-chart, more than a half (54%) of the students claimed that sexuality education at early age did not encourage young people to have sex. Only 16% of them gave opposite opinion. And lots of students, accounted for 30%, still did not know the answer.

This result pointed out that the majority of the students highly appreciated the effectiveness of sexuality education in delaying young people from curiosity and sex experimentation. This finding goes on line with the conclusion which is “sexuality education can lead to later and more responsible sexual behavior or may have no discernible impact on sexual behavior” (International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education: An evidence-informed approach for schools, teachers and health educators, 2009, p.8). Apparently, when students are taught about sex, they are aware of sexual demeanor, they know when and how to have safe sex, particularly they can take the cognizance of the existing health problems which are the consequences of wrong sexual activities.

4. Conclusion

In conclusion, this paper has taken into consideration several issues of sexuality education, which shows some new information on the matter of teaching sexuality to school children. As a result of this some suggestions have been provided. However, a number of contents of sexuality education have not been covered yet because of this project’s small scale and time limitation. Thus, we hope that further research should be done on this topic. In addition, because of its benefits, sex education should be broadly implemented over schools.

The Importance of an Interpersonal Teacher-Student Relationship on Students’ learning among Second-year Students

Introduction

Nowadays, with the development of teaching management and teaching methods, people are paying more attention to TSR. “It is the keystone for other factors” Marzano and Pickering (2003, p.41) said. It is believable that cultivating a harmonious and affective environment between teachers and students will have positive effect on the study for many students. At school, there are exchanges not only in knowledge but also in affection between them. Certainly, psychological barriers have still existed for a long period of time. Thus, the teacher will be the guardian helping students get rid of those things, build stress-free atmosphere and explore their potential. Moreover, school may not be so friendly with students. That is why there is a need for strong TSR. It is a significant factor that cannot be omitted in the process of learning and teaching, which requires cooperation and active attendance from both teachers and students. In our small-scale project, we wish to find out the importance of having this relationship as well as ways to build up it effectively.

Materials and Methods

A questionnaire (Appendix) was chosen because of its advantages. It included ten items. The first part was to identify the actual state of TSR among second-year students. It mainly focuses on the level of TSR that students have now and the difficulties they have in process of forming a good TSR. The second one was to find out how a good TSR has influences on student’s learning motivation in terms of some basic aspects. In addition, the question is whether the final result can be affected by this relationship, was discovered by asking respondents their average score of the last term and level of their relationship with teachers. Collecting respondents’ ideas to establish an effective TSR is of the last part. Characteristics of a teacher which students often expect were also known through this questionnaire.

Second-year students of Hanoi University and Hanoi Architectural University were subjects of our research. 55 students with both genders at the age of 20 were chosen randomly from different classes. TSR affects all students who study many different subjects and those students have already made different views of TSR between school and University at this time. So we wanted to survey as many students as possible to get objective and reliable information.

Before doing the survey officially, we had a pilot survey in our class to see which problems our questionnaire may have. A bilingual English-Vietnamese questionnaire was processed because the English version was too demanding. The questions “How are the benefits of this relationship” and “Which aspects do TSR benefit you” seem to be similar to the question “how TSR influences on students’ study based on some statements”. We decided to delete it. Another question on how to build up a good TSR was changed from open-ended question into multiple-choice one because it took longer time to complete them. In addition, it was quite hard for us to summarize students’ suggestions. We also left a blank for them to fill in if they had any other different ideas.

We started administering the research in April, 2010. It took three weeks to give out, collect the handouts and analyze the data. 55 questionnaires delivered but only 50 ones were classified as appropriate.

Findings and Discussion

I. The actual state of TSR among students.

It is obvious that the teacher is a close person to students at school. He or she provides them with not only knowledge of their fields but also social understanding. The result showed that a large number of students (54%) regarded teacher as one of their moral guardians in life. Most of them highly appreciated the role of teacher. And as a result, 92% agreed that TSR is not only in teaching and learning. This figure proved the existence of other purposes which may also base on this relationship.

However, when being asked about the frequency of communicating with teachers, over half of students (52%) admitted that they are infrequent with doing so. The number of ones who rarely communicates with teacher is still high (18%). Generally, this relationship stands at a normal level (60% indicated), and can be the result of this phenomenon.

By questionnaire, we found out that there were many reasons which were described in chart 1, leading to students’ infrequent communicating. Half of them chose the option that communicating frequency depends on the relationship. A lot of them do not like to chat with their teachers out of fear, anxiety or timidity. They are afraid of bothering teachers (80%) or feel unconfident (52%). Others (70%) thought that the time is limited and so on. We can see that there was a lack of exchanges between teachers and students. “A perfect TSR is based on trust and care” while students are especially prone to problems and troubles concerning love, family, friends and academic studies during their adolescence (Kabir, 2007, p.2). It is crucial that they gain the care and recognition of their teachers through frequent communication with teachers, to talk about the problems when they have completely trust in teachers (Davis, 1999) and will not conceal some of the facts. In addition, teachers should have a high sensitivity to student’s emotion and be proactive to talk to them.

II. Impacts of a harmonious TSR on students’ learning.

The percentage in chart 2 shows that TSR had influence on student’s learning. About 60% of learners thought that TSR had great influence on their learning interest and performance. It depends on teacher’s expectations and if teachers act as though they expect students to be motivated (Davis, 1999). Only 2 to 6% of them chose “no influence”. Moreover, the students who do not like their teacher are more likely to feel sleepy during class (Kabir, 2007). While those who have good relationship with teacher, are more willing to cooperate with their teachers, find interest and performance important.

Study duration seems to be hard work, requiring not only efforts and courage of learners to face difficulties but also motivation and pleasant mood. By analyzing the questionnaire, we found that students’ learning interest and their love for the teacher are highly correlated. And their willingness to devote efforts to lessons and accept teacher’s comments also depends deeply on their relationship. Efforts, motivation and pleasant mood help students reach high spirit, concentrate better on what they are learning for a longer period of time (Davis, 1999). As a result, learners can master knowledge more efficiently (46% agreed) and easily talk about their difficulties (58%). However, the influence on self-study depends on each learner with 50% somewhat approved. Thus, in some aspects, TSR functioned to adjust students’ interests and efforts in learning.

Whether can efficient study be the result of having a harmoniously interpersonal TSR? By questionnaire, we collected 84% of students who had average score over 7.0. What can they reveal about their relationship with teachers? Nearly half of these students had very good TSR (47% self-evaluated), the normal level accounted for only 26%. Surprisingly, most of them thought that they had better results thanks to their good link with teachers; TSR was conductive to their grades which in turn can further motivate them. According to http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu, “close relationships with teachers lead to higher levels of students engagement and achievement” (Pianta, 1999). Furthermore, getting satisfactory grades in exam was also a useful way that students gave impressions on teachers as cited in Harris’s report (1991). Teaching and learning is a duplex activity, which needs cooperation from both sides. Therefore, students should try their best to build a good TSR for their own benefits.

III. Suggestions to build up good and harmonious TSR.

Chart 5, which is illustrated above, reveals that there was also a need to know which popular characteristics of teachers that students often expect in forming a harmonious TSR. Respecting students was the quality of teachers that had the highest proportion up to 82% in comparison with the appearance. Although people assumed that it gave the impression on students, it was not very important to them, standing at the modest level. As Kabir (2007) suggested that teachers should treat students as their own children and mutual love with respect forming a TSR. The sense of self-esteem was quite strong in these students. They longed for respect from others. If the teachers respect them, they will show respect for teachers as well.

A teacher with a wide scope of knowledge is the second most popular qualification among students (74%). It seemed that teachers were expected to be professional, adapting to students’ needs in learning. The next qualification was the one who is kind-hearted and sympathetic, who should know students’ needs and treat students as his or her friends or families. The qualification of fairness ranked as high as that of having a good temper (68%). Marzano and Pickering (2003) also concluded that “students have a strong sense of fairness”, “they will resist efforts to monitor their behavior” if teachers have inappropriate behavior (p.33). Nearly the same percentage of learners favored teachers who had a sense of humor. Teachers can make class as interesting as possible by some activities to engage students. Of course, this part of responsibility also falls on students.

It is believed that knowing the main characteristics of a TSR is the vital element as a direction in making a strong connection with teachers to students. The highest percentage of participants (nearly 80%) agreed that TSR must have pleasant working atmosphere, following with mutual respect (66%). Other characteristics seemed to be less important than these ones. Cahn (1987) indicated that “In TSR, the quality of the relationship rather than the content of the course may be the most important factor determining the effectiveness of teachers” (p.182). Moreover, students need inspiration, challenging and stimulation from their instructors to become more enthusiastic, following Davis’s report (1999).

Since teaching is a two-way process, setting up a good TSR also requires students’ efforts. The data in table 1 indicates that there were various ways students used to improve their relationship with teachers and how they paid attention to each of them. The largest number of respondents (42%) thought that enhancing communication with teachers was good way and could shorten the distance between them and teachers. 34% held the view that cooperating actively could improve TSR, devoting to the effectiveness of the lessons. Sometimes, holding activities makes class more interesting and devotes to the effectiveness of class (28% agreed). Only 6% chose making suggestions for teachers’ teaching improvement. It seemed that enhancing communication and actively cooperating were useful ways which students often think and use. As far as the community concerns, teachers are burdened with heavy workload and pressure. Being understood and appreciated by students, teachers gain the assurance to perform their duties. Cahn (1982) confirmed that “perceived understanding plays important role in the development of TSR as measured by student evaluation of teachers” (p.179). Not only should we have confidence in and respect our teachers, but also ask sensibly, study spontaneously and learn persistently. No doubt the result will be fruitful.

Conclusion

In conclusion, our small-scale research found out the actual state and some significant points of having an effectively interpersonal TSR. Generally, students may not have full-evaluation on its importance. Their frequent communication with teachers was still limited basing on many listed reasons we collected, making the building of TSR difficult. In spite of playing a very important role, the fact that it is not easy to build a harmonious TSR on account of estrangement between teachers and students, which comes from traditional concepts, teachers’ teaching practice and students’ affection. “Effective teaching and learning cannot take place in a poorly managed classroom” (Marzano & Pickering, 2003, p.1). It is emphasized on the necessity of having cooperation from both sides. Instead of treating students as lifeless bottles thirsting for knowledge, teachers should treat them as good friends, to whom the share invaluable experience, enrich logical thinking and ethics. Students also must respect them and cooperate with them for creating a pleasant learning environment. Those above are the useful ways letting TSR exist for ages.

Some Academic Listening Problems Facing Second-Year English Major Students

Introduction 

Listening plays a vital role in daily life. People listen for different purposes like communication, information, academic purposes, entertainment …In addition, without listening skill, no communication can be achieved. However, according to some previous researches, such as Rixon’ one (1993), those who learn English as a foreign language, especially in a non-native setting, find it difficult to acquire good listening skill. The listening problems involved hearing the sounds, understanding intonation and stress, coping with redundancy and noise, predicting, comprehending colloquial vocabulary, fatigue, understanding different accents, using visual and aural environmental clues (Ur, !990). To investigate thoroughly this matter, in this project, listening skill of second-year English major students researched to point out the attitude of students towards learning listening, which difficulties they often face when listening English and the reasons for these problems. This research would concentrate only on problems in term of redundancy, vocabulary and accents when students study listening English.

Materials and Methods

In order to gather the data for our study, a monolingual questionnaire (Appendix) was developed because of its advantages. For example, questionnaires are considered as reliable ways for collecting information since they are anonymous and this encourages greater honesty. Furthermore, they are also cheap and easy to answer. Our questionnaire was created including 9 closed items. Two first questions investigate whether listening skill is a hindrance for second-year English major students. The next three questions ask students what problems they often face when studying listening English. And the four last ones probe what the reasons for their difficulties are.

Second-year English Department students at Hanoi University were the subjects of our research. 50 students from different classes were all selected on voluntary basic. Most of them are female and the age range is 20-21. These participants were chosen because all of them may experience such problems.

We started administering the project in Hanoi University in March, 2010. All the participants were summoned to one class room. 50 questionnaires were sent to 50 subjects. Before they answered the questions, all the queries were responded and participants then progressed to completing the questionnaire. All the handouts were collected after 30 minutes.

Results and discussion

I. Evaluation of second-year English major students’ listening skill

As illustrated in this column chart, studying listening is a really big obstacle for second-year English major students. The number of students who answered listening skill was hard was 60% and very difficult was 10%. This figure was approximately six times as much as the percentage of students (12%) who thought listening English just was a trivial matter. Obviously, the large number of sophomores who are lack of confidence in their own abilities of listening proves their modest level at listening.

II. Problems of academic listening facing second-year English major students

The investigation into the difficulties which second-year English major students often encounter when studying listening shows that most of them have problems with redundancy, colloquial vocabulary and different accents.

As shown in table 1, it is clear that most of the sophomores agree that redundancy was a hindrance for them when listening. Redundancy includes such thing as repetition, paraphrases, self-correction, and the use of words such as “I mean”, “well”...A learner listener is often unable to profit from such redundancy by becoming aware that not every new sentence or phrase contains new information and that there is extra time available for comprehending. Instead, they will feel interfered and distracted. This was proved by the data recorded. Among 50 students questioned, 43 ones said they always or sometimes faced problem with coping with redundancy. Whereas just 5 respondents answered redundancy rarely made them confused and 2 participants did not consider it a problem when studying listening. It appears to be in congruent with Ur’s finding (1990). She wrote in her book that a lot of foreign-language learners had problem with redundancy when listening English because they thought it was compulsory to comprehend everything, even absolutely unessential words and then they were thrown off balance if meeting any unknown words.

Furthermore, colloquial vocabulary is a language barrier to second-year English majors too. It is claimed by 86% of the students (43) to be one of the most common drawbacks in listening. 38 ones answered they sometimes encountered the problem with colloquial vocabulary and 5 participants always had trouble with that. Only 7 respondents hardly or never met the problem with colloquial vocabulary. In explanation, a lot of vocabulary used in colloquial speech may already be known by foreign listeners but this does not mean that they are familiar with them, especially those who have been confined to classroom learning environment. This conclusion agrees with Ur’s study (1990). She noted that when colloquial vocabulary occurred in fast stream of listening, even if listening learners had learned that word yet but not been familiar with it, it was still difficult to be recognized.

Moreover, the variety of accents also makes it difficult for sophomores to listen since they do not have much exposure to different accents. For instance, if learners listen to French people speaking English, they will feel hard to understand him or her because these speakers often speak English in a native French intonation. The result from table 1 demonstrated that 94% of the students (47) experienced this kind of problem whereas only 6% of participants (3) reported that different accents were not their trouble. From this data, it can be seen that second-year English major students seemed to be not capable of understanding various accents. This finding is in accordance with what Ur (1990) has found out. According to Ur, “many foreign-language learners who are used to be the accent of their own teacher are surprised and dismayed when they find they have difficulty understanding someone else” (p.20).

III. Some reasons explaining the problems of second-year English major students

As shown before from column chart 1, listening is actually an obstacle to students. In fact, to get good listening skill, it takes much time and efforts. However, many students seem to spend little time practicing at home. The data shows that second-year English major students’ level of listening depends on the frequency of studying listening. Of 3 respondents who were good at listening, all of them answered that they always studied listening. On the contrary, of 47 students admitted to be at fair or poor level, 9 ones rarely studied listening and even among 32 people who said that they sometimes learned, 9 was still weak at this subject. This number indicates that the infrequency of studying can be one of the reasons that cause sophomores difficulties in listening.

From table 3, it is obvious that most of the students who have problems with pronunciation encounter difficulties when studying listening. Of 47 students admitted to be fair or poor at listening skill, 38 replied that they were fair or weak at pronunciation too. Unlike, 2 out of 3 respondents who reported to be good at listening also claimed that they were good at articulation. So weakness at pronunciation might be another reason that made second-year English major confused when listening. Ur (1990) also proclaimed in her book that “It is certainly that if he learns to pronounce the sounds accurately himself, it will be much easier for him to hear them correctly when said by someone else” (p.12).

Furthermore, stress is very important for comprehension. Also, intonation patterns are significant not just for interpreting such straightforward elements as questions, statements, emphasis but more subtle messages like praises or insults … However, paying attention to stress and intonation when listening was still not the habit of second-year English major students. Among 50 participants, 2 ones replied that they were good at listening skill and always paid attention to stress and intonation when they studied listening. Meanwhile, 22 respondents who rarely or never concentrated on stress and intonation got fair or poor results in listening. It signified that not focusing on stress and intonation brought students bad results in studying listening. This conclusion is similar to Ur’s finding (1990). She found that the English system of stress, intonation and rhythm can stop listeners from comprehending spoken English.

Another significant issue is the lack of background knowledge. General background knowledge (knowledge of culture, knowledge of the topic under discussion and general world knowledge of current affairs, art, politics, literature …) helps language learners make guesses about what they hear or read. Nevertheless, many students still do not concentrate on this area. As the pie chart shows, just 15% of the sophomores proclaimed they were confident with their good background knowledge. Of 85% left, 45% of the second-year English majors were at fair degree and 40% admitted to be poor at background knowledge. It appeared that weakness at students’ listening skill can be caused by the limited background knowledge. This opinion was strongly confirmed by Anderson and Lynch (1993). They demonstrated that background knowledge is vital and “Gaps in our knowledge of the culture, of the association and references available to native users, can present obstacles to comprehension” (p.35).

Conclusion

To sum up, the small-scale investigation shows some considerable points related to listening skill of second-year English major students. In general, most of them seem to have problems with listening. The most common difficulties collected by learners are redundancy, colloquial vocabulary and different accents. One of the reasons for their problems is the time they spend studying themselves is too little to improve listening skill. Moreover, difficulties are also caused by the weakness in pronunciation, stress and intonation. Another factor is students’ limited background knowledge. It is highly recommended that to acquire an acceptable listening skill, students themselves should listen to the variety of materials and find out effective listening learning style. Simultaneously, learners had better improve theirs speaking skill and background knowledge by practicing and reading more. These are suggestions to solve the problems as well as to upgrade English listening skill for second-year English major students in Hanoi University. Hopefully, the findings we get from this project will help learners with better listening.

How To Tackle Main Problems In Comprehension Interpreting

The consecutive language interpreting process involves 6 major skills, i.e. active listening, memorizing, note taking, analyzing discourse, paraphrasing and reformulating. Of all the interpreter's essential skills above, listening and analyzing discourse are considered our weakest ones. The aim of this report is to recognize the reasons that led to our weakness, along with identifying the solutions that will possibly help us improve the ability of active listening and analyzing discourse.

I/Active listening skill

1/ Reasons for the problems of active listening

The problems relating to active listening skill will be identified in this section.

To begin with, they are the subjective causes that brought about our difficulties in active listening. The first objective one is the limitation of vocabulary. Due to the lack of terminology, we could not fully understand the messages of the speakers. Another subjective reason that should be noted is the low frequency practicing listening skills and communicating with English-speaking speakers. Not withstanding, unexpected negative feelings, such as tenseness and nervousness, can possibly affect us- the amateur interpreters.

Other reasons that should be concerned are the objective ones. For instance, interpreters usually have to work in a variety of environment and rarely do they listen to the speakers clearly in such “perfect conditions”. With the appearance of the impacts from the surroundings such as noises, distraction might be unavoidable. Therefore, the interpreters find it difficult to listen and fully understand the messages of the speaker unless they stay focus on only what the speakers is saying. Moreover, the variation of English accents makes us confused when listening. We get accustomed to hearing the recordings of standard British English and American English accents with very clear utterance for a majority of English learners. However, in common communication, we have to deal with a variety of English accents from many different countries. The speakers will perform their dialects that could be very difficult for the interpreters to catch the words. The speed of utterance is also considered the barrier in the first step of consecutive language interpretation. Assuming this, active listening is seemed to be one of the most complicated tasks in the consecutive language interpreting process. Needless to say poor listening skills leads to many difficulties in interpretation.

2/ Solutions for the problems of active listening

Based on the problems above, some solutions are identified to enhance the ability of active listening. The first possible solution is to take more effort on enriching our vocabulary. The more words we have, the more words we listen. In addition, practicing listening skills in a higher frequency is indispensable, which helps us improve not only the listening skills but also our vocabulary. Finally, having a clear mind during active listening is very important for us to grab the messages of the speakers. There is no doubt that all these solutions will enable us to be active and confident interpreters.

II/ Memorizing skills

1/Reasons for the problems of memorizing skills

The problems relating to active listening skill will be described in this section and divided into two main parts, due to types of reasons.

First of all, the lack of concentration in the procedure of listening creates difficulties in memorizing. It is comprehensible that amateur interpreters can not memorize the main ideas mentioned in the speech unless we pay full attention to the speakers. The second subjective reason that should be pointed out is the lack of background knowledge of the topic revealed in the speeches.

Beside the subjective reasons, some objective ones are also identified. The length and the complexity of the speech are two of the factors that created the obstacles in memorizing. While translating long and complicated speeches, some details in the speeches may be easily forgotten. Take me as an example. In a recent visit to Sapa in April, I met some American tourists whose luggages were stolen and they were trying to explain to the local police about this. In their quite long speeches, there were so many details that I couldn’t memorize all when reproducing to the local police. Furthermore, as the common reason of all weaknesses, the laziness in practicing memorizing skills leads to the limitation in short-term memory.

2/ Solutions for the problems of memorizing

Memorizing, along with active listening, caused obstacle in interpretation. However, memorizing is not something that cannot be mastered. By hard-working and regular practicing, everyone in general and interpreter in particular can improve his memorizing skill. In order to comprehend and memorize information effectively, it is also crucial to listen to a variety of recordings from various sources. We should choose the topics most interesting first and then move to other less interesting ones. Different types of exercise also greatly contribute to our improvement. For instance, you can listen to anything you like and then try to memorize as much information as you can. Obviously, these solutions above can help you enhance you memorizing skills.

Problems Facing First-Year English Majors In Speaking

Introduction

In the acquisition of a second language, speaking is a vital skill to master. In spite of that, according to Baker and Westrup (2003), in many countries, because it is not assessed in tests, teachers usually disregard this skill and focus on other features such as grammar or vocabulary. This is especially true in the case of English education in Vietnamese high schools. However, in numerous colleges, students’ speaking skill is appreciated and becomes a criterion in evaluating linguistic performances. At the English Department of Hanoi University, during the first two years, speaking is a subject on the curriculum. Therefore, many first-year English majors struggle with their study. In order to examine this matter, we conducted this research. In this small-scale project, we wish to identify problems facing students before and during the speaking process as well as in their practice strategies.

Materials and methods

The purpose of this study is to determine problems in using and practicing speaking skill that students may confront during their first year at the English Department. To collect data for the study, a questionnaire (Appendix) was constructed due to various advantages. For instance, it provides a simple but very effective way to investigate on a large scale. Besides, it does not require any special apparatus or method. The questionnaire comprises eight questions divided into two parts. The first part, including questions one to six, identifies students’ perceptions of their own linguistic ability and problems first-year English majors might encounter before and while speaking English. The second part with two remaining questions investigates the suitability of respondents’ practice routines to improve speaking skill.

The subjects of the study are 50 first-year students of the English Department. They were selected randomly from different classes and varied in the level of English as well as speaking skill. Furthermore, in order to receive high response rates and great accuracy, we chose all the participants on a voluntary basis. The majority of the subjects is female and at the average age of 19.

Several versions of the survey had been conducted and compared in terms of resulting authenticity. After a pilot survey had been done with the help of 10 first-year students, we realized that open-ended questions do not gain as many revealing and reliable answers as multiple choice questions because they require much more time, while most respondents are not very patient. Consequently, in the designing process, we decided to use multiple choice questions as they could obtain instant and honest responses from participants. However, in case we do not provide adequate possible answers, some of the questions have open-ended options for students to express their own ideas.

The survey was administered at Hanoi University in March, 2010. After being edited properly, 55 questionnaires were distributed to the subjects. They were allowed to read the questions and raise queries first. Then the participants proceeded to complete the questionnaires. All the handouts were collected after 30 minutes, and 50 questionnaires were classified as appropriate. Within one week, we interpreted the findings for final results.

Results and discussion

1. First year English majors’ self-evaluation of English and Speaking skill

Figure 1 demonstrates how first year English students of Hanoi University assess their own ability to use English in general as well as in communication. A large proportion of respondents, comprising approximately 40 students, claimed that their English and speaking skill are poor or average. 12 first year English majors considered themselves competent linguistically. However, only 8 students rated their capability to speak English above average. This figure gives assurance on the assessment that “It [speaking skill]...is usually viewed as the most complex and difficult skill to master” (Tarone, 2005, p. 485). In a recent study, Bygate (2009) agreed with the aforementioned statement by claiming that learners with reading and writing proficiency do not always have fine speaking skills.

2. Findings concerning problems before and while speaking

2.1. Problems before speaking English

The pie chart compares how different methods of preparation are used by first year English majors in speaking. This stage is underestimated and neglected by 26 percent of students. In addition, 7 students stated that they only picture what to say in mind. As Turk (2001) insisted, this is not a wise strategy because without any written preparation, students may assume that they have more ideas than they truly do, forget crucial points or sometimes even freeze on the spot. Turk (2001) suggested that students should write down what to say in order to “focus and clarify your thoughts, and identify the points you want to make” (p. 90). However, they must understand that only key points should be written down, not the whole speech. According to Turk (2001), “ In many ways the most obvious thing to do, and often the first method chosen by inexperienced and nervous speakers, is to write the talk out in full, and read it out from the script” (p. 85). Unfortunately, it is exactly the method that the greatest percentage of first year English students adopts. As can be seen from the chart, the number of students writing down the full script before speaking constitutes 50 percent of all respondents, 5 times as many as those who only jot down some important notes. As a result, their performances in speaking are not satisfactory.

The examination of languages used by students in thinking while speaking English reveals poor choices among first year English majors. A significant number of students, amounting to 67 percent, reported that they think in Vietnamese when they communicate in English. In a research, Wenden (2005) concluded that designing a speech in the native language and then translating it is disadvantageous to second language learners. Alternatively, they should think in their target language (Wenden, 2005). This is the tactic employed by only one third of respondents.

2.2. Problems while speaking English

As shown in figure 3, students meet a lot of difficulties in speaking English, and the most serious problem is the lack of confidence. Indeed, shyness is very likely to occur when students speak English (Baker & Westrup, 2003). Consequently, student involvement in studying, a crucial factor contributing to success (Ellis, 2003), can be discouraged. Offner (1997) shared the same opinion as he stated that being active is essential when studying speaking. Problems relating to the contents of a speech like ideas and grammar are the second and third most common as about 20 respondents selected them. 5 students added vocabulary difficulties to this set of problems. These phenomena were also reported by Baker and Westrup (2003), “They [learners] may have little idea about what to say, they may not know the words to use, or they may not be sure how to use the grammar” (p. 16). In addition, pronunciation is another major obstacle to 33 percent of students. This fact confirms the following opinion, “The acquisition of good pronunciation…is commonly held to be the most difficult of all tasks in second language learning” (Carrasquillo, 1994, p.136). In brief, these findings should be highlighted and carefully considered by both students and teachers of the English Department.

Figure 4 shows how students handle two other common obstacles regarding speaking English- running out of ideas and lexical problems, i.e., not knowing or forgetting words (Poulisse, 1990). Of the 50 students that participated in this survey, 26 students claimed that they would hesitate and try to think until they find the words or ideas. Only the minority of participants implements one of the following strategies stated by Poulisse (1990): “avoidance/ reduction strategies” (p. 59)- skip and move on to the next point, “interactional strategies” (p. 59)- let the interlocutors help, and “compensatory strategies” (p. 59)- find another way to express themselves. These strategies are very helpful if speakers wish to avoid communication breakdown (Poulisse, 1990).

3. Findings concerning rationality of current Speaking practice routines

Figure 5 indicates how often first-year English majors practice to improve their Speaking skill. Despite their incompetence in Speaking, the students tend to spend very little time on it. 60% of respondents either never or rarely practice Speaking. This is very disturbing because without practicing, language learners cannot develop their ability to speak (Offner, 1997). Additionally, only 5 students responded that their practicing Speaking English was frequently done. Chapelle (2003) suggested that spending time practicing English outside the classroom was essential to improve communication skill. Besides, Offner (1997) recommended “it is important that the time spent be done on a daily, or a near-daily basis as short sessions daily are much more effective than cramming all at once.” To sum up, unless first-year English students change their practice routines, little progress will be made in their speaking skill acquisition.

Figure 6 illustrates the popularity of different practicing tactics used by the students to improve their Speaking skill. Surprisingly, although 42 students indicated that their level of speaking skill is below good (as revealed in Table 1), more than a quarter of 50 respondents do almost nothing to improve their Speaking skill. Therefore, they do not see much progress in learning Speaking. On the other hand, it can be clearly seen that indirect practice strategies such as accessing sources to enrich background knowledge, e.g., television, newspapers, the Internet or building a bigger stock of vocabulary varied substantially in prevalence. However, in general, they are more preferred than those involving actual speaking. In fact, practicing with friends, the most common direct method, was chosen by only 9 participants, whereas the number of students selecting listening to English was twice as many, making it the most widely used strategy. This particular method can positively influence learners’ speaking skill. Ellis (2003) declared that listening skill can foster speaking competence. Nevertheless, students should not apply only one or two particular methods. Since each strategy has certain benefits and advantages, it is advisable to be flexible in choosing and combining different tactics (Ellis, 2003).

Conclusion

In conclusion, this research demonstrates numerous problems in applying and practicing speaking skill that many first-year English majors at Hanoi University encounter. It implies that inadequate knowledge of English features, e.g., structure, lexicon, pronunciation is a common problem facing many first year English students. Their lack of strategic approaches to preparing, using and improving speaking skill can also result in low communication ability. Thus, students should enrich their understanding of the target language as well as identify and employ suitable learning methods to improve their academic performances. Furthermore, it is hoped that learning strategies will be included in the curriculum of the English Department so that teachers can help their students design effective plans for acquiring advanced speaking skill.