As a consequence of the “open door” policy, which have been in effect since 1987, in Vietnam, the study of English has been booming. English is seen as a means of access to scientific and technological development, as the language for international communication, and as an instrument for receiving grants and aid. For young people, English is an effective tool for further study as well as better job opportunities. English has therefore, been most widely taught from primary schools to universities in both private enterprises and state offices. It is offered as a compulsory subject in the curriculum as well as the national secondary and high school examinations.
Nowadays, of all the language teaching approaches, it has been proved that the communicative language teaching has its predominant role. This predominance over other approaches to language teaching has led to the increasingly important role of teaching speaking skills. Moreover, since Vietnam entered WTO, there has been a growing awareness of the importance of and need for spoken English. However, teaching and learning speaking skills to students in Vietnamese classrooms is at present still a matter of much concern by language teachers due to current teaching materials, characteristics of learners as well as teachers’ proficiency and classroom methodology.
The first introduction of the new textbook “English 10” into teaching at TP High school has marked real renovation in language teaching and learning from the traditional approach – grammar translation method, which only concentrates on the ability of using grammar rules precisely, to communicative approach, which focuses on communication ability. Nonetheless, the teachers of English at Thai Phien High school find it difficult to teach speaking successfully because of the class size, the students’ language level, and additionally, students are not acquainted with CLT. Moreover, a majority of the teachers were trained under the strong influence of the Grammar-Translation method which impedes them from teaching speaking successfully even the new textbook follows the communicative approach.
As a teacher of English at Thai Phien high school in Hai Phong I often receive similar questions from many students. For example, “I can understand grammar and sentence structures well, but I feel embarrassed to talk in English” or “What should I do to speak English well?” In my reality of teaching, there are many students who have perfect knowledge of grammar which works wonderfully for reading and writing but can’t express themselves to the teacher. On the other hand, I often hear a lot of complaints from the colleagues: “Students seem so quiet and lazy during speaking lessons. It is very difficult to make them participate in speaking activities”.
Therefore, the idea of doing something useful for my colleagues and students has urged me to conduct the research.
Another reason why the study was carried out lies in my love for teaching speaking. By doing the study, I can know more about the challenges in teaching and learning speaking skills so that I can find relevant techniques a long with activities to improve my teaching speaking at Thai Phien High school.