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166 demand, in 2013, the Government ratified the Decision 281/QĐ-TTg, i.e. Project 281 (GOV, 2013) to facilitate students in further advancing their studies in a comfortable and secure environment.
Concurrently, the implementation of Vietnam’s National Foreign Language 2020 Project (the NFL 2020 Project) with the ambitious goal of employing a holistic reform in teaching and learning foreign languages in the national system, led to the idea that learning communities may serve as the central role in this nationwide project.
At Can Tho University (CTU), the establishment of the English Club (EC), marked a milestone on the path of reforming English teaching and learning. EC serves as an interest club with the regular consultancy of CTU Youth Union administrators and other stakeholders. EC is responsible for offering complimentary practical English activities, alongside cultural immersion events to help boost students’ confidence and language capacities for a fully integrated future (CTU Youth Union, 2016).
During the first few months, EC only provided a venue and volunteers to help students practice speaking English. Initially, EC was a place for free talk so that participants had their freedom of expression. What the researchers found thought-provoking was that, through their observations, there was a lack of confidence and enthusiasm towards a free-talk approach. Participants refused to initiate and maintain conversations or were able to produce one-word responses only. Also, they constantly complained that they had nothing to say, despite the fact that volunteers were willing to help them when asked. It was decided that a more structured and systematic approach to EC should be added to and tested as soon as possible.
From August 2016, a new series of activities were available at EC, aimed to provide bite-sized knowledge and training to participants, instead of just creating an English-speaking environment like free talk did.
This particular research project aimed to investigate the efficacy of EC’s new approach in boosting student confidence, in terms of communicative aspects. It also offers a vantage point for EC founders and administrators to:
1. Observe the demand for and status quo of communicative performances of its participants;
2. Assess the efficiency of structured activities at EC which would enhance verbal confidence;
3. Suggest possible solutions if the findings indicate negative progress or recommend some improvements otherwise.
Literature review Learning communities
To better conduct the research and design of EC activities, the researchers first reviewed past studies on learning communities, starting with ones defining the practice.
167 Efforts to define learning communities have led to a variety of descriptions which serve as the backbone for this research.
A common definition states learning communities are groups of learners who continuously and critically improve their shared ways of accumulating knowledge so that they feel best supported (Bolam, McMahon, Stoll, Thomas & Wallace, 2005).
The Center for Communicative Learning and Leadership at San Jose State University (n.d.) proposed that the concept of a learning community could serve as a platform for students and mentors alike to enjoy continuing shared knowledge through outside-the-classroom activities. To study the effects of learning communities on students’ learning the researchers utilized the approach of Tinto and Russo (1993). They included the manageable size of a learning community, interdisciplinary sessions lasting 3 to 5 hours per day, abundant opportunities to practice, compare and analyze, as well as a safe and non-threatening environment. Therefore, it was hypothesized that the present research would also identify an improvement in student confidence thanks to English Club activities.
Confidence in verbal communication
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, confidence is the “state of being sure of doing something, and not being shy and aggressive in social situations”. Phe et al. (2002) defined confidence as “the belief in oneself” (p.1077).
Many past studies have indicated that there is a relationship between self-confidence and oral performance. McIntyre (2004) suggested that self-confidence plays a vital role in students’
“willingness to communicate in a foreign language”. Tran (2016) also observed this tendency when conducting empirical research on the willingness to communicate. A quantitative data by Gürler (2015) also pointed out that there is a “significant correlation between self-confidence and speaking skill”. It is clear that without self-confidence, English learners could hardly express themselves fluently.
Based on the Personal Competencies Dictionary (n.d.), Akagündüz (as cited in Gürler, 2015) and Matta (n.d.), the researchers constructed a framework for verbal communication self-confidence consisting of five factors: attitude, body language, language use and contents, response and habitual behaviors, as in Figure 1.
168 Figure 1.Conceptual framework of self-confidence in verbal communication.
Methodology
The researchers focused on two questions in this study:
(1) What are the impacts of EC’s oriented activities on student confidence?
(2) What are students’ attitudes towards EC’s confidence-centered activities?
Forty-six first, second and third-year students at Can Tho University, with a variety of majors were involved in this study. They were asked to sign a consent form detailing the terms and conditions for participation in this study. They all started learning English at Grade 6.
The questionnaire used in this research was based on the conceptual framework of self-confidence in verbal communication. Forty-four Likert-scale items, grouped into five different clusters:
Attitude, Body language, Language use and contents, Response time and Habitual behaviors were developed. The first pilot questionnaire was answered by 80 random people so as to check the reliability (α=.754).
Initially, the researchers collected quantitative data from the pre-questionnaire and used it for the lesson plans (detailed instructions and on-the-spot assistance were available to avoid misunderstandings). The same procedure was applicable for the post-questionnaire. Data of the questionnaires were then subjected to an SPSS analysis. The participants’ progress and overall observation were additionally kept track of in journals.
To confirm the observations and questionnaire findings, the researchers decided to conduct semi-structured interviews with 2 participants and 2 EC volunteers. The qualitative findings from the
169 interviews helped researchers gain better insights into participants’ reflections on the current activities and fill in any gaps left by the quantitative data analysis.
The materials for 12 meetings were developed by the researchers based on the conceptual framework. Each meeting focused on one particular topic such as greetings, family, friends, university life, etc. which served as a support for participants to initiate and sustain conversations.
The materials used supported language use and contents as the aim was to provide students with lexical items necessary to sustain the conversation. The research follows the action research design and is illustrated in Figure 2 below.
Figure 2. Phases in action research for self-confidence in verbal communication
Results and discussion
The students’ attitudes towards EC’s confidence-centered activities
For this research question the main data source is the Likert-scale questionnaire and the author’s journal.
Planning
Conceptual framework, lesson plans
Action
12 meetings, pre/post-questionnaire
Observation
Journal
Reflection
Results, implications