Teaching Listening and Speaking to Grade 3 Students: A...

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Proceedings-Teaching Techniques-006 1 4 th International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences April 21 st , 2012 Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University Teaching Listening and Speaking to Grade 3 Students: A Comparison between Non-English and English-Majored Teachers in Songkhla, Thailand Nontaporn Kumjun 1 and Asst. Prof. Dr. Chonlada Laohawiriyanon 2 1. Department of Languages and Linguistics Faculty of Liberal Arts Prince of Songkla University Hat Yai, Songkhla, Thailand 2. Department of Languages and Linguistics Faculty of Liberal Arts Prince of Songkla University Hat Yai, Songkhla, Thailand Abstract The purposes of the study were to investigate the teaching techniques of listening - speaking English skills, and problems in teaching listening - speaking English skills with Grade 3 students. The subjects in this study, selected by a purposive sampling technique, were six English teachers who taught in Grade 3 in five elementary schools in a district of Songkhla province in 2011. Among these, three teachers obtained a Bachelor’s degree with English as their major or minor subjects; the other three majored in Technology education, Tourism and Chinese. Their age ranged from 23 to 48 years old. Data collection was obtained from classroom observations and a questionnaire. The observation ranged from three to five occasions, depending on the number of hours assigned to cover one teaching unit. The results from the questionnaire demonstrated that five subjects had approximately one to two years of teaching English to Grade three students; only one subject had five-year experience. The majority (four subjects) had never attended any training due to administrative problems. As a result, they had to interpret the national curriculum themselves and write their own lesson plans. They reported that they did not encounter any problems concerning teaching English listening and speaking skills. The observation results revealed the opposite picture. In that, most teachers used Thai in class mainly to teach listening and speaking to their students, even using CD-ROMS to introduce the lessons. They relied their teaching on prescribed commercial course books. The most frequently used technique was to read conversations aloud and the students repeated after the teachers. The students, then, were asked to do exercises in the course books, for example, matching words with picture, filling appropriate words in conversations, drawing pictures and coloring in. Interestingly enough, there was one subject who used distant-learning TV program to teach his class. He only monitored the students to follow the lessons on the TV. The lessons emphasized listening and speaking skills and were very well made. The students, however, did not benefit much from merely watching the TV programs due to the lack of feedback from a human teacher. As for the quality of English pronunciation, the non-English-majored teachers had better pronunciation than the subjects with an English major degree.

Transcript of Teaching Listening and Speaking to Grade 3 Students: A...

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Proceedings-Teaching Techniques-006 1 4th International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences

April 21st , 2012 Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University

Teaching Listening and Speaking to Grade 3 Students:

A Comparison between Non-English and English-Majored

Teachers in Songkhla, Thailand

Nontaporn Kumjun1

and Asst. Prof. Dr. Chonlada Laohawiriyanon2

1. Department of Languages and Linguistics Faculty of Liberal Arts Prince of Songkla University Hat

Yai, Songkhla, Thailand

2. Department of Languages and Linguistics Faculty of Liberal Arts Prince of Songkla University Hat

Yai, Songkhla, Thailand

Abstract

The purposes of the study were to investigate the teaching techniques of listening -

speaking English skills, and problems in teaching listening - speaking English skills with

Grade 3 students. The subjects in this study, selected by a purposive sampling technique,

were six English teachers who taught in Grade 3 in five elementary schools in a district of

Songkhla province in 2011. Among these, three teachers obtained a Bachelor’s degree with

English as their major or minor subjects; the other three majored in Technology education,

Tourism and Chinese. Their age ranged from 23 to 48 years old. Data collection was obtained

from classroom observations and a questionnaire. The observation ranged from three to five

occasions, depending on the number of hours assigned to cover one teaching unit.

The results from the questionnaire demonstrated that five subjects had approximately

one to two years of teaching English to Grade three students; only one subject had five-year

experience. The majority (four subjects) had never attended any training due to

administrative problems. As a result, they had to interpret the national curriculum themselves

and write their own lesson plans. They reported that they did not encounter any problems

concerning teaching English listening and speaking skills. The observation results revealed

the opposite picture. In that, most teachers used Thai in class mainly to teach listening and

speaking to their students, even using CD-ROMS to introduce the lessons. They relied their

teaching on prescribed commercial course books. The most frequently used technique was to

read conversations aloud and the students repeated after the teachers. The students, then,

were asked to do exercises in the course books, for example, matching words with picture,

filling appropriate words in conversations, drawing pictures and coloring in. Interestingly

enough, there was one subject who used distant-learning TV program to teach his class. He

only monitored the students to follow the lessons on the TV. The lessons emphasized

listening and speaking skills and were very well made. The students, however, did not benefit

much from merely watching the TV programs due to the lack of feedback from a human

teacher. As for the quality of English pronunciation, the non-English-majored teachers had

better pronunciation than the subjects with an English major degree.

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1. Background and Rationale

Thailand has acknowledged the importance of English and thus commenced

its English language teaching since 1999 (Thongsri, 2005) during which English served as a

foreign language. It was not until the most recent curriculum reform in 2008 in the wake of

several curriculum reforms by the Ministry of Education that the status of English was

changed to an international language. Since then, all the educational institutions offering

basic education have been required to adopt new frameworks and prescribed directions for

their course/curricula arrangements in order to equip Thai students with English and essential

skills for survival in the society or for further study.

The most current English curricula aim to provide the preparatory level

graduates (Grades 1-3) with English communication skills on the topics related to

themselves, namely families, schools, environments, foods, drinks, and leisure and

recreational activities using a range of around 300-450 words. However, despite the

continuous curriculum and teaching practice reforms, Thai primary students have not been

able to meet such a goal of the curriculum. Their English learning achievements have always

been low. For instance, according to the Ordinary National Education Test (O-NET) in

English in the academic year 2009, primary six students in Songkla Province had as low as an

average score of 28.79 out of 100. When compared with other subjects, the English scores

were the lowest (National Institute of Educational Testing Service; 2010). Such low scores

spur the question of what the root of this problem is. Is it the curriculum itself or other factors

that contribute to the unsuccessful English teaching and learning?

Duangporn Noopong (2002), in her study on the problems contributing to

failure in English teaching and learning, identified fives problems: 1. students themselves

having insufficient English background knowledge, 2. the lack of teaching support including

insufficient native speaker English teachers and the lack of fund for teachers to arrange

extracurricular activities, 3. the lack of expert guidance for curriculum implementation and

impractical teaching activities, 4. the lack of knowledge and ability to construct tests and to

understand test analysis and types of language tests, 5. teachers lacking teaching experience

and knowledge. Her findings have been partially attested in a study by the Ministry of

Education (2010) which asked teachers to rate their own abilities. It was found that 51.91

percent of the teachers were unsatisfied with their own English proficiency. Furthermore,

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Wichit Srisa-aan (2010) mentioned during a roundtable discussion on problems arising from

teachers held as part of an academic cooperation between Thailand and the U.S. ---that the

teachers were not only insufficient in terms of quality but also in terms of quantity. A number

of teachers taught subjects outside their areas of specialization. As a result, they possessed

insufficient knowledge in the subjects and failed when being assessed on the teacher quality.

This previously reported problem coincides with the research on the lack of quality teachers

by Pruet Siribanphitak (2005) who collected data from 24,206 primary and secondary level

teachers under the Office of the Basic Education Commission of Thailand in 115 educational

regions. He found that firstly, 20 percent of teachers in public schools and 17 percent in

private schools taught subjects outside their specialization and secondly, a large number of

teachers had low English proficiency so when it came to English teaching, speaking and

pronunciation, they had no confidence as they thought that they were neither native speakers

nor English major graduates.

Therefore, various factors seem to be responsible for the failure in English

teaching and learning. However, the most urgent problems that need to be solved are those

arising from teachers themselves because they are vital determining factors in the success of

curriculum implementation. Since the primary level is an important academic foundation, the

quality of teachers teaching at this level certainly has effects on the students. Although the

curriculum or teaching practices are revised, such efforts are futile if the teachers do not

understand such changes. Apart from this, English teaching should begin with listening skills

as they are widely used and the learners must first understand spoken messages before they

can respond to them verbally followed by reading and writing. Listening skills thus are the

important foundation on which other skills are built. Paul (2004: 71) argues that the most

important thing in teaching English to children was to have them listen to English with a

difficulty suitable for their proficiency level as much as possible. Primary teachers must

provide teaching and learning arrangements suitable for the age of students. And since the

primary level is an important foundation for further study in the higher levels, primary

students must be equipped with the right knowledge. Unfortunately, in spite of the

significance of primary teachers, there is a relatively scarce amount of qualitative research to

date which studies the English learning and teaching arrangements of junior primary teachers

focusing on listening and speaking skills as targeted in the curriculum set forth by the

Ministry of Education. In particular, English-majored or -minored primary teachers and non-

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English- majored or -minored primary teachers seem to be under-explored regardless of such

an existing great number of teachers without much English experience nationwide as earlier

mentioned.

In light of this, the researcher is interested in the learning and teaching

arrangements for teaching Grade 3 students (the highest level for the educational level 1)

listening and speaking skills. Specifically, this research aimed to find out to what extent the

teachers at this level teach in accordance with the curriculum of the Ministry of Education by

comparing between English-majored teachers and non English-majored teachers. This

research would yield the results which contribute to the enhancement and development of

learning and teaching arrangements in primary schools so as to meet the quality and learning

achievements targeted by the Ministry of Education curriculum B.E. 2551.

2. Research Methodology

2.1 Subjects

The total number of primary teachers in 29 primary schools in Amphoe

Muang, Songkla province was 30. The subjects of this research consisted of six primary three

English teachers in the academic year 2011. Of these schools, 18 were under the Songkla

Primary Education Office Region 1 and 11 were private schools under the Songkla Office of

Private Education. Purposive sampling was used to select the teachers based on their

qualifications. Three teachers with English major or minor degrees and three without were

obtained. The researcher was permitted to observe in only five schools. That is, all the six

teachers represented five different schools since every school in Amphoe Muang, Songkla

province typically has only one English teacher for each educational level, except for one

school which had two primary three English teachers with different qualifications who were

observed in this study. These schools provide educational services from primary 1-6

following the Basic Education Curriculum B.E.2551.

2.2 Research Instruments

Research instruments for this research comprised the classroom instruction

observation form and semi-structured interview as follows:

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2.2.1 The observation form for assessing instructional process of teaching

English listening and speaking skills has two sections. Section 1 consists of 15 items aimed to

observe the instruction of listening skills. Section 2 contains 17 items aimed to observe the

instruction of speaking skills. These total 32 items can be divided based on the learning

standards and indicators in accordance with the Basic Education Core Curriculum B.E. 2551

into the following:

Learning Standards Indicators Items

1.1 Understand and interpret

spoken and reading massages

from various mediums and

express opinions reasonably

1. Act in compliance with the

orders and requests heard or read.

10

2.Pronounce words, spell words

and pronounce groups of words,

simple sentences and simple chants

by observing the principles of

pronunciation.

1, 2, 16, 19, 20,

21, 24

3. Choose / identify pictures or

symbols corresponding to groups of

words or sentences heard.

3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 14,

17

4. Answer questions from listening

to or reading sentences, dialogues

or simple tales

8, 9, 23

1.3 Present information,

concepts and opinions through

speaking and writing.

1.Give data about oneself or

familiar topics

25

2. Categorise words according to

the types of persons, animals and

objects about which they have

heard or read.

15

2.1 Understand the

relationship between

languages and cultures of

native speakers and can apply

this understanding

1. Speak and make accompanying

gestures by observing social

manners/culture of native speakers.

28

3. Participate in language and

cultural activities suitable to their

13, 30

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appropriately. age levels.

Learning Standards Indicators Items

2.2 Understand the

similarities and differences

between languages and

cultures of native speakers

and those of Thais and apply

this understanding

appropriately.

1.Tell differences concerning

sounds of the alphabets, groups of

words and simple sentences in

foreign languages and those in Thai

language.

11

4.1 Use foreign languages in

various situations in

educational institutions,

communities and societies.

1. Listen/speak in simple situations

in the classroom

12, 18, 22, 26, 27,

29

2.2.2 The semi-structured interview was designed to elicit the information on

the background of the teachers, teaching load, curriculum implementation and problems

regarding English learning and teaching arrangements for primary three students. The

questionnaire contains three sections. The 8 items in section 1 concern personal information.

The 9 items in section 2 deal with learning and teaching arrangements. Section three

comprises the total of 19 items, two of which are open-ended questions regarding problems

and suggestions while the rest is concerned with teaching problems and teachers’ needs.

The researcher consulted related documents and research to ensure that the

observation form and semi-structured interview encompassed all the teaching techniques and

problems related to teaching listening and speaking skills to primary three students. After

these two research instruments were presented to three experts to check for their content

validity, 41 items were reduced to 30 items. Then there was a pilot test of these research

instruments with teachers not in the subjects. The question items were revised again prior to

the observation.

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2.4 Data Analysis

The data was categorized under English and non-English-majored teachers. As

the number of subjects was small, the researcher used actual figures to report the results of

the study.

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3. Results

1. According to the data analysis, three subjects held the bachelor degree in

English while the rest held the bachelor degree in other majors including educational

technology, tourism and Chinese. These six subjects had experiences of teaching English for

primary 3 between 1-5 years. Two of the subjects attended the training “Teaching English for

Primary Three Students Curriculum B.E. 2551”, one of whom was an English major graduate

while the other was non-English major graduate. The other four subjects had no experience

with the training as they were not selected by their schools to participate in the training. Two

subjects with English major qualifications rated all their English four skills as “good” while

the other rated all the skills as “fair”. One subject with other major qualifications rated

him/herself as “good” for all the four skills, another rated all as “fair” while the other rated

listening and reading skills as “good” and speaking and writing skills as “fair”. Regarding the

learning and teaching arrangements for each unit, the subjects designed their teaching plans

by studying the curriculum, the guidelines for learning and teaching arrangements or the

textbooks used in the classrooms, and then writing the lesson plans by themselves. The data

obtained from the open-ended questions revealed the common teaching problems faced by

the six teachers. These included the students could not remember vocabulary, had no

confidence when speaking, and had insufficient lessons (1 hour a week).

2. The researcher collected the data from the observation of English speaking

and listening teaching techniques and analyzed them as shown below.

Table 1: Results of Teaching Listening Observations Categorized by Qualifications

Aspect Techniques

English

Major

Non-English

Major

Yes No Yes No

Presentation

1 Introducing lessons by having English conversations

with students 0 3 2 1

2 Reading words aloud 3 0 3 0

3 Using gestures to present vocabulary 0 3 2 1

4 Using realia to present vocabulary 1 2 0 3

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According to the Table 1, the six teachers introduced the new vocabulary

during the presentation stage by having students listen to their own pronunciation of the

words rather than to music or native speakers from CD. Both groups of teachers had different

techniques when teaching vocabulary: the teachers with English major qualifications often

used pictures as their teaching aids whereas the teachers with other major qualifications often

used gestures. During the practice stage, it was found that non-English majored teachers

provided more opportunity for listening to the students when compared to their English major

counterparts. In the production stage, only one teacher had students categorize the parts of

speech of the words.

5 Using pictures to present vocabulary 2 1 1 2

Aspect Techniques

English

Major

Non-English

Major

Yes No Yes No

6 Using synonyms/antonyms to present vocabulary 0 3 0 3

7 Using games, finger-plays and songs to teach

vocabulary or dialogues 1 2 1 2

Practice

8 Answering students’ questions in English. 0 3 1 2

9 Repeating questions until students can

understand 1 2 1 2

10 Having students follow English instructions 1 2 2 1

11 Teaching phonics 0 3 1 2

12 Using tape recorders to teach dialogues 1 2 2 1

13 Teaching cultures of native speakers through songs 0 3 0 3

14 Teaching new words through songs 0 3 0 3

Production

15 Having students categorize vocabulary 0 3 1 2

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Table 2: Results of Observation of Teaching Speaking Categorized by Qualifications

Aspect Techniques

English

Major

Non-English

Major

Yes No Yes No

Presentation

16 Modeling how English words are pronounced

several times 2 1 1 2

17 Focusing on word meaning 2 1 1 2

18 Using pictures /word cards /games as prompts 2 1 1 2

Practice

19 Giving opportunity for students to practice their

pronunciation 3 0 2 1

20 Correcting students’ mispronunciation 3 0 2 1

21 Having students practice pronunciation/speak

orally 2 1 2 1

22 Having students practice speaking with teacher or

in pairs 1 2 2

1

23 Teaching grammar inductively 2 1 2 1

24 Allowing sufficient time for students to learn

difficult language aspects 2 1 1 2

25 Having students talk about themselves and familiar

topics 2 1 1 2

26 Having students practice conversations in unison 2 1 1 2

27 Having individual students practice conversation

with teacher 1 2 1 2

28 Teaching social etiquettes and having students

practice 0 3 0 3

Production

29 Having students to do role play to practice 0 3 0 3

Presentation

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speaking

30 Having students talk about festivals or special days 0 3 0 3

The observation of teaching speaking skills (Table 2) during the presentation

and practice stages revealed that the English-majored teachers were more likely than their

non-English-majored counterparts to focus on the word usages in sentences, demonstrate by

themselves the pronunciation of words, provide English conversation examples and give

importance to pronunciation problems of the students. During the production stage, none

arranged any activities that helped students review speaking English expressions they had

learnt in the presentation and practice stages even though the textbook used by these teachers

contained activities for revision at the end of each unit.

Table 3-4 illustrate the subjects’ quality of teaching English listening and

speaking skills, which can be divided into high quality, moderate quality and low quality as

shown. The quality here was judged by the researcher while observing the class. Only the

items concerning quality of teaching were presented.

Table 3: Quality of Teaching Listening Skill Categorized by Qualifications

Item Teaching Techniques

English

Major

Non-

English

Major

H M L H M L

1 Introducing lessons by having English

conversations with students 0 0 0 1 0 1

2 Reading words aloud 0 1 2 1 0 2

3 Using gestures to present vocabulary 0 0 0 1 0 1

6 Using synonyms/antonyms to present vocabulary 0 0 0 0 0 0

8 Answering students’ questions in English. 0 0 0 1 0 0

9 Repeating questions until students can

understand 0 1 0 1 0 1

10 Having students act out 0 0 0 1 0 0

11 Teaching phonics 0 1 0 1 0 1

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Ta

ble 4: Quality of Teaching Speaking Skill Categorized by Qualifications

Note: 1. H (High) = Correct pronunciation, grammar and meaning.

2. M (Moderate) = Pronunciation, grammar and meaning were fairly and consistently

correct.

3. L (Low) = Much unclear and incorrect pronunciation. Incorrect grammar use. Wrong

meaning.

Concerning the quality of teaching pronunciation in listening and speaking

activities, Table 3 revealed a surprising result in that non-English-majored teacher were able

to use more English in class and with high quality. For example, they conversed with students

while the English- majored- teachers spoke did not (items1 and 8). Non-English-majored

teachers had students act out according to their instructions and presented dialogues in

English with a high quality while the English-majored teachers were able to do so with a

moderate quality (items 9, 10and11).

Taking pronunciation into account, the data from table 3 and 4 show that non-

English-majored teachers outperformed English major teachers. Moreover, one of the

subjects with English majored qualification had mispronunciation (item 16). With regard to

listening tasks for students (items 8 - 12), non-English-majored teachers also outperformed

the English majored teachers. Thus, it can be concluded that overall, the non-English majored

12 Exposing students to listening activities such as

from teachers or CD 0 0 0 1 0 0

Item Teaching Techniques

English

Major

Non-

English

Major

H M L H M L

16 Modeling how English words are pronounced

several times 0 0 2 1 0 0

20 Correcting students’ mispronunciation 0 0 3 1 0 1

21 Having students practice pronunciation/speak

orally 0 0 2 1 0 1

23 Teaching grammar inductively 0 1 1 1 0 1

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teachers outperformed the English major counterparts in terms of the quality of teaching

listening and speaking skills.

4. Discussion

Based on the results from the teaching observation, it could be concluded that

the ability of teaching English listening and speaking skills among primary 3 English teachers

in Amphoe Muang, Songkla province was dissatisfactory. In terms of modeling the language,

not all six teachers’ pronunciation were at an acceptable level. Oftentimes, they conveyed

wrong meanings in some situations. These would negatively influence the students’ English

learning abilities. Most important of all, this happened at the very young age, which might

contribute to fossilization later. The research also revealed that the ability of teachers with

English major qualifications did not differ from that of teachers without English major

qualification. These teachers often used Thai as a medium of instruction during the

presentation, practice and production stages. These findings agreed with the research by

Rungsirin Chanhom (2006) which showed that the majority of foreign languages teachers

resorted to Thai as a medium of instruction. The teachers in this research relied heavily on

textbooks and used pictures as teaching aids for vocabulary teaching. This also corresponds

to the finding by Apichart Kaewmak (2011) who found that most teachers accounting for

54.5 percent used pictures as their teaching aids in the presentation and production stages.

This might be because pictures were easily available and could help students learn the

definitions of vocabulary more easily. The teachers in this research preferred pronouncing the

words themselves rather than having students listen to the native speakers on the audio

recordings or videos. They usually spoke English when they taught the content, often in short

English sentences or sometimes, they translated the content into Thai. Teaching listening and

speaking in this way robs the chance of practicing and developing language skills from the

students who deserve to be exposed to native speakers’ pronunciation as much as possible.

The fact that teachers do not use English as a medium of instruction provides little chance for

students to practice their listening skills and to use the language for communicative purposes

(Richards, 2006).

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Furthermore, it was found that, overall, the teachers spent little time in the

practice stage of instruction, focusing more on practicing speaking skills rather than on

listening skills. The teachers pronounced words as an example only a few times before asking

the whole class to repeat the words after them and then calling on students randomly to

pronounce the words. If the students mispronounced or used incorrect language, the teachers

would ask the students to pronounce the words again or to have the students listen to their

pronunciation once again before asking the students to repeat after them. However,

sometimes, the teachers moved on to a new word despite the students’ mispronunciation.

Apart from this, some of the teachers did not give much attention whether the students

understood the meanings of what was being learnt. Some of the teachers tried to convey the

meaning but failed. For instance, the teachers had students act out the story but the storyteller

was a student in the classroom. This confused the students that “I” meant third-person

pronouns (he, she). The teachers’ problem with language proficiency corresponded to the

research by the Ministry of Education (2553) which found that 51.91 percent of teachers

rated their own English proficiency as unsatisfactory.

According to the principle of teaching English for communicative purposes,

teachers should center on the correct use of language by having students memorize language

patterns and use the language during the practice stage of instruction (Richard, 2006). Yet, in

terms of English pronunciation among the six subjects, it was noticeable that, overall, non-

English major teachers had better pronunciation than their English major counterparts. The

pronunciation problems for the English major teachers in this research comprised not

releasing such final consonants as /t/, /p/, no stress and intonation. For example, their voice

did not go up at the end of the Yes/No questions, among many others. These pronunciation

problems corresponds with the research by Chonlada Laohawiriyanon et al. (2007) which

found that English teachers for Level 1 students had pronunciation problems, for example,

not releasing the final consonants and mispronunciation due to the influence of southern Thai

dialect. This problem is critical since once the students have early exposure to incorrect

pronunciations, they will mispronounce the words and will finally grow so used to

mispronunciation that the correction of it is difficult. Paisit Boriboon (2011) mentioned in his

essay on the development for teaching listening and speaking skills for primary students that

students should be exposed to the pronunciation of native speakers so that they can acquire

the correct pronunciation and native accent as much as possible.

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Regarding the learning and teaching arrangements during the production stage,

it was found that the teachers had students do exercises related to spelling and sentence

structure in the textbooks rather than review the listening and speaking skills previously

learnt. In fact, the learning activities during this stage are critical indicators of whether

students understand the content and can apply it into real life or not. Teachers therefore

should assign learning tasks or situations similar to real-life circumstances so that students

can make the most use out of what is being learnt previously in this production stage

(Littlewood, 1981).

According to the research results, the teachers had rather little understanding

of techniques in teaching listening and speaking skills. They lacked teaching knowledge and

teaching skills. The learning activities designed by the subjects were not relevant to the skills

being focused on as it should have been. This was in line with the study by Duangporn

Noopong (2002) who found that the most common problem among secondary 1 English

teachers was the lack of teaching knowledge and teaching skills whereas the second most

common problem concerned the arrangements of language tasks. This also corresponds with

the research by Chonlada Laohawiriyanon et al. (2007) which found that the teachers who

engaged in the Training in Teaching English Listening and Speaking Skills for Level One

Students in Nakhon Sri Thammarat lacked the understanding of the relationship between

teaching English and the curriculum. As a result, their teaching was weak in content. Some of

the subjects did not clearly understand that the curriculum focusing on listening and speaking

skills require them to start teaching listening and speaking skills and allocate as much time as

possible to listening and speaking practices. The point that primary English teachers who

possessed were not English-majored had low teaching quality (Wichit Srisa-ann, 2010) and

had no confidence in teaching (Chonlada Laohawiriyanon et al, 2011) was after all merely a

part of the problem as this research has indicated otherwise that English majored teachers did

not outperform non-English majored teachers when it came to teaching English.

5. Limitations

Since this research compared the similarities and differences of teaching

English speaking and listening skills by primary three English teachers who were English

majored with non English-majored teachers in schools in Amphoe Muang, Songkla within a

limited period of time, the sample size was small so that the research could be successfully

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done within such limited timeframe. Moreover, the researcher observed the teaching of one

chapter. These research results therefore could not be generalised to primary English teachers

other than this six subjects when it comes to the teaching of listening and speaking skills.

6. Suggestions

Based on the research results concerning the techniques used in teaching

English listening and speaking skills for primary 3 students, the researchers would like to

suggest the following:

1. The concerned organizations including school administrators should

encourage and provide opportunities for both teachers with English teaching qualification and

those without to attend English language training and training on techniques in teaching

listening and speaking skills and on the English curriculum. This can help them deepen their

understanding how to design teaching activities that are more likely to meet the goals of the

curriculum.

2. Teachers should educate themselves about teaching techniques and useful

activities for their teaching. They should also practice language skills especially listening and

speaking skills in order to increase the quality of their teaching.

7. References

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sciences and humanities, 17(6), 23 - 59.

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Southern Secondary School: Administrators’ and Teachers’ Viewpoints.

Songklanakarin journal of social sciences and humanities, 2(2), 97 - 131.

Crystal, D. (2003). English as a Global Language (2nd

Edn.). Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Graddol, D. (2006). English Next. The United Kingdom : British Council.

Kaewmak, A. (2554). Instructional Materials in Songkhla Private Secondary Schools

from Teachers’ Perspectives: Use, Problems and Needs. Minor Thesis. Prince of

Songkla University.

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April 21st , 2012 Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University

Laohawiriyanon, C., Limpeanjud, T., & Sriwattanachat, P. (2007). English listening and

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Littlewood, W. (1981). Communicative Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge

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Ministry of Education. (2010). Strategies for English Language Reform for Enhancing

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National Institute of Educational Testing Service. (2010). O-NET Results for Primary 6

Students: 2010, Retrieved [27/10/11] from http://www.niets.or.th/

Noopong, D. (2002). English Teaching Problems and the Needs for Professional

Development of Teachers of English in Education Extended Schools under The

Jurisdiction of The Office of Primary Education, Nakhon Ratchasima. Nakhon

Ratchasima: English Program. Nakhon Ratchasima Rajaphat University.

Pual, D. (2004). Teaching English to Children in Asia. Hong Kong: Pearson Education

Asia Limited.

Richards, J.C. (2006). Communicative Language Teaching Today. New York: Cambridge

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http://buu401.blogspot.com/2010/05/blog-post_5888.html

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Subject Areas. Retrieved [10/10/11] from

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Thongsri, M. (2005). An Investigation into the Implementation of 2001 English

Language Curriculum in Government Secondary Schools in Songkhla. Thesis.

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