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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
Socialist Republic of Vietnam

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines

ENGLISH LANGUAGE MACRO-SKILLS OF FRESHMAN
VIETNAMESE STUDENTS IN SELECTED COLLEGES
IN BAC GIANG CITY: INPUT TO
INTERVENTION MEASURES

A Dissertation
Presented To
The Faculty Of The Graduate School
Batangas State University
Batangas City, Philippines

In Partial Fulfillment
Of The Requirements For The Degree
Of Doctor Of Philosophy
Major In English

By:

NGO THI THU HUONG
April 2015

APPROVAL SHEET
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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
Socialist Republic of Vietnam

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines

This dissertation entitled “ENGLISH LANGUAGE MACRO-SKILLS OF
FRESHMAN VIETNAMESE STUDENTS IN SELECTED COLLEGES IN BAC
GIANG CITY: INPUT TO INTERVENTION MEASURES” prepared and
submitted by NGO THI THU HUONG in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy major in English has been examined
and is recommended for Oral Examination.
MATILDA H. DIMAANO, Ph.D.
Adviser

PANEL OF EXAMINERS
Approved by the Committee on Oral Examination with a grade of ______.

DR. AMADA G. BANAAG
Chairman

DR. MARIA LUISA A. VALDEZ
Member


DR. FELIX M. PANOPIO
Member

DR. MYRNA G. SULIT
External Representative
Accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy major in English.

Comprehensive Examination: ____________
_____________
Date

MATILDA H. DIMAANO, Ph.D.
Dean, Graduate Studies
College of Arts and Sciences

ABSTRACT
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Title

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Republic of the Philippines

: English Language Macro-Skills of Freshman Vietnamese

Students in Selected Colleges in Bac Giang City: Input to
Intervention Measures.
Author

: Ngô Thị Thu Hương

Degree

: Doctor of Philosophy

Major

: English

Year

: 2015

Adviser

: Dr. Matilda H. Dimaano

Summary
Knowledge regarding the four-macro skills that are needed by learners
to communicate effectively which include listening, speaking, reading, and
writing is of vital importance. Consistently seeking improvement along these

macro skills will contribute to the self-development, effective communication
and success in many different environments and contexts of the learners.
Macro skills integration in lessons should come naturally from the
teacher as well as the listener.

When one listens, writing opportunities

emerge; when one reads, opportunities for speaking emerge. Learners are
motivated to have opportunities relative to learning the skills to allow the skills

subconsciously to grow naturally within them.

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BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines

This study focused on the Freshman Vietnamese students’ English
Language Macro Skills among selected Colleges in Bac Giang City. It utilized
the descriptive method of research. The subjects of the study are composed of
299 first year college students taking up Basic English course in the three
colleges in Bac Giang namely Ngo Gia Tu College, Industry and Technology

College and Vocational College. The data gathering instruments used in the
study are the documentary analysis and teacher-made test.
Findings of the study revealed that the learning contents of a General
English course offered to Freshman students in Bac Giang was determined
through literature and detailed outline of the course General English I for
Diploma Degree Program with English Language as field issued by the
Ministry of Education and Training of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. It is
given four units credits with 60 hours- time allocation for the first semesters.
English I has the learning objectives of providing students with guidance in the
study of English Alphabet, vowels, consonants, stress, intonation and basic
structures; developing their ability to use these structures in different contexts;
enriching their knowledge in vocabulary and grammar and improving their
ability to communicate effectively by providing comprehensive re-enforcement

activities in the four macro-skills of English language.
In addition, the course outline of General English I course is divided into
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five units where each unit has six components namely: grammar, vocabulary,

reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Each unit also comprises overall

objectives. In unit I, the overall objectives are for the students to get to know
to each other and introduce themselves and other people. In Unit II, the overall
objectives are for the students to be able to ask for personal information, talk
about their family, family members, class, jobs and engage in conversation
about class, friends and family members.
For Unit III, the overall objectives are for the students to be able to use
the present simple with personal pronouns to talk and to write about work and
daily activities; and to tell time and date. For Unit IV, the overall objectives are
for the students to use the present simple, to talk and to write about shopping,
likes and dislikes, free time and leisure activities and for the students to be
familiar with situations in an English class.

Regarding Unit V, the overall

objective is for the students to describe the place where students live and for
them to ask and to give directions, as well as to report. In speaking, the focus
is on taking about stories and practice police interview while in listening the
focus is on listening for specific information.

Further, results of the study as to the level of students’ performance in
the macro-skills in reading, writing listening and speaking the English language
were all of average level of the given student population. There were significant
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Republic of the Philippines

relationships existed in the students’ performance among the macro-skills in
English language. It was only the reading versus listening pair that showed no
significant relationship. Students encountered difficulties in comprehension for
macro skills in reading and listening; while sharpening writing skill is the
difficulty students encountered for macro kill in writing; and pronunciation for
the macro skill in speaking. The most serious among the difficulties in macroskills are those that pertain to comprehension skills in reading and listening.
The intervention measures proposed were composed of select strategies
designed to improve skills where students demonstrated poor performance.
The following are the recommendations of the study that English
teachers have to be encouraged to provide more language exercises for their
students to improve their language deficiencies; proposed intervention
measures must be utilized to validate their usefulness; similar studies on
English language macro skills be conducted on universities to determine their
students language performance.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The researcher sincerely expresses her heartfelt gratitude to the
following who contributed much in the accomplishment of this piece of work.
Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry, Viet Nam and
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THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
Socialist Republic of Vietnam

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines

Batangas State University, Philippines for giving me the opportunity to finish
my Ph.D. degree.
Dr. Matilda H. Dimaano, Dissertation Adviser, for her patience,
guidance, encouragement and supervision in the writing this research. Her
enlightening suggestions and detailed comments have made this dissertation a
reality. Without her help, this study would not have been possible.
Dr. Corazon Cabrera and Dr. Myrna Sulit, external panel members for
their excellent comments and detailed suggestions;
Dr. Felix M. Panopio, statistician, for his kindness in sharing his
mathematical expertise;
Dr. Amada G. Banaag and Dr. Maria Luisa Valdez members of the panel
for their contributions in providing insightful suggestions;
Dr Remedios Magnaye, the recording secretary for writing down all the
comments and suggestions of the panel;

Bac Giang Ngo Gia Tu College, for the financial assistance and moral
support;
The teachers of English Department from three Colleges: Bac Giang
Ngo Gia Tu college, Industry and Technology College, Vocational College in


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Bac Giang province for their valuable insights that inspire her to carry out this
research endeavor; and
The first year college students from three the Bac Giang Colleges for
their cooperation in accomplishing the questionnaires.
The researcher is also very grateful for the wholehearted support and
love of her husband – Mr. Trong and her three children Quyen, Diep and
Quan along with all the members of her family during the writing process.

DEDICATION
This piece of work is wholeheartedly dedicated to my loving and eversupportive husband, Mr. Trong and to my children. Sincere thanks are also
afforded to all the members of my family and to all colleagues in Bac Giang
College who made this work possible.
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BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines

Ngô Thị Thu Hương

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TITLE PAGE ………………………………………………………………….i
APPROVAL SHEET …………………………………………………………ii
ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………..iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENT ……………………………………………………...vii
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DEDICATION ………………………………………………………………...ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................x
LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................xiii
LIST OF FIGURES ...............................................................................xiv
CHAPTER
I. THE PROBLEM
Introduction ..........................................................................1
Statement of the Problem ……………………………………...9
Scope, Delimitation and Limitation of the Study ……………10
Significance of the Study ………………………………….......11
II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Conceptual Literature ………………………………………......13
Research Literature ……………………………………………..64

Synthesis ……………………………………………………….70
Theoretical Framework………………………………………...75
Conceptual Framework ……………………………………… 78
Hypothesis …………………………………………………..... 81
Definition of Terms …………………………………………… 81
III. RESEARCH METHOD AND PROCEDURE
Research Environment .................................................... .. 84
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Research Design …………………………………………….. 87
Subjects of the Study ………………………………………... 87
Data Gathering Instrument ………………………………….. 89
Data Gathering Procedure …………………………………… 92
Statistical Treatment of Data ………………………………… 93

IV. PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF
DATA……………………………………………………………. 94
V. SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Summary of Findings …………………………………………..144
Conclusions…………………………………………………......156
Recommendations……………………………………………...157
BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………..………….158

APPENDICES
A. Questionnaire on English Language Macro-skills.....................169
B. Validation Letters of Teacher-Made Test and Survey
Questionnaires for Students and Teachers........……….............178
C. Request Letters
(1) To the Head of Institution of Vocational college .............181
(2) To the Head of Institution of ITC ....................................182
(3) To the Head of Institution of BG Ngo Gia Tu College ....183
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D. Documentations

(1) Photographs of the Study Sites….…………...….….........184
(2) Validation of Questionnaires in
Batangas State University ………………………………...185
(3) Administration of Teacher-Made Tests
in Bac Giang Colleges……………………………………....186
(4) Administration of Questionnaires in Bac Giang College...187
(5) The Researcher with the Heads of Bac Giang Colleges
Retrieving the Response Letters to Requests…………...188
E. Psychrometric Conversion Table .............................................. .189
CURRICULUM VITAE

LIST OF TABLES

Table
1

Title

Page


Distribution of Student Respondents in the
Three Colleges .............................................................88

2

Performance of Students in the Skill Area of
Reading Test................................................................100

3

Performance of Students in the Skill Area of
Writing Test ..................................................................105

4

Performance of Students in Listening Skills..................108

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5

Performance of Students in Speaking Test………….....110

6

Percent of Each Pair of Test Groups ...........................112

7

Difficult Items in the Teacher-Made Test ………..….....114

8

Most Difficult Items in the Teacher-Made Test.............119

9

Skills to be Used as Bases for the Design of
Intervention Measures..................................................121

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure
1

Title

Page


Research Paradigm on the English
Language Macro-Skills of Freshman
Vietnamese Students............................................80

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BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Republic of the Philippines