Factors affecting teachers’ attitudes 8
As Karavas- Doukas (1996) state, “one of the first factors affecting many teachers’ attitudes is culture values” EFL teachers’ attitudes and practices are related to cultural values and their practices Traditionally, teachers are considered to be the most powerful person and centre in the classroom in Vietnam This view point is influenced by Confucian ideology Undeniably, the model of I- R- E is still so popular in the majority of Vietnamese teachers ( I: teacher initiates; R: students response; E: teachers evaluates)
Teachers are considered as a significant source of instrinsic motivation It is also commonly known that teachers’ skill, knowledge, personality and proficiency in the target language play important role in the class
One generalization about a good teacher is teaching method and ability If learners find teachers’ method boring, they will probably become demotivated, whereas if they have confidence in the method, they will find it motivating
* Students’ attitudes: Their attitudes might influence how they approach their learning as well as the way their teachers teach
* Students’ anxiety and confidence: Many studies have showed problems often attributed to students’ low English proficiency are actually caused by students anxiety Thus it can be said that language anxiety has a negative relationship with learning success and vice versa, self-confidence has a positive relationship One of the factors that may cause anxiety or bring back in confidence is learners’ learning experience
Classroom conditions can have a great effect on learning and can alter a learners’ motivation either positive or negative However, teacher should bear in mind problems associated with “large” classes They include noise, too many people and fixed objects in a restricted space, not enough materials for everyone, not being able to respond to different needs the difficulties of maintaining the class etc
In EFL environment, English is rarely heard outside school, thus practicing English outside is very rare Without the reinforcement of an English-environment, motivation becomes a product of teachers’ initiative on the one hand and the learners’ will to succeed or fear of failure- on the other EFL is often a part of the school training program and therefore subject to not only contextual factors such as support from local community, government policies, etc but also to teachers’ language proficiency, resources, materials, and the ability to evaluate learners as well
In the designing of a language of a language course or syllabus, one of the factors that should be taken into account is time In a communicative class, learners need to have enough time to update knowledge and to practice what they have learnt Thus time plays an important role in teaching and learning a language
Texts books are of great importance in any language program because in most cases, textbooks include goals and objectives Administrators and teachers then should collaborate to answer the question of whether the textbook being used is appropriate to learners’ needs to the social and institutional setting
Teaching and testing are interwoven and interdependent; therefore it is difficult to separate them Tests can serve positive and negative even give them a lot of anxiety For the reason, it is certain that teachers need make tests positive experiences for learners by creating tests with care and effort Tests should relate with high degree to course content and program objectives Moreover, the evaluation of learners should be both based on test results and derived from classroom observation and teachers/ learners feedback In brief, testing is a vital component of curriculum development and evaluation and cannot be separated from teaching and learning.
Summary 10
In this chapter, some brief information about vocabulary and its position in language- teaching are reviewed Different vocabulary teaching methods such as the Grammar Translation Method, the Direct Method, the Audio-lingual Method have been also revised
Furthermore, the writer has a brief overview on CLT, its characteristics and vocabulary teaching techniques in combination with communicative activities Finally, factors affecting teachers’ attitudes to apply CLT are mentioned In the next chapter, the situation of English learning and teaching at NVCHS will be analyzed, and the survey with a questionnaire for 8 teachers and another one for 180 students, an observation and an interview with 4 teachers will be done After that, the findings of the survey will be analyzed and discussed.
THE INVESTIGATION 11
Current situation of the teaching and learning of English at Nguyen Van Cu High School 1 School factors 11
Nguyen Van Cu High School was founded in 1977 in Da Ton village in Gia Lam district
English, as a foreign language, is one of the compulsory subjects in high school In NVCHS, instructions, learning and teaching activities are mostly carried out in the classroom Most of the lessons are developed in such a fixed condition that the teachers find it difficult to make a change in applying new ideas in language teaching
- The class size: There are about 45 students in each class Thus, it is difficult to implement a communicative task in a mixed ability and large class The focus on creating a communicative environment also means that there is a lot of unavoidable noise in the classroom; it influences the learning of next-door class
- The school has just installed one language lab, but it hasn’t been used The reason is that it is designed for only 30 students , while there are about 45 students in each class and 34 classes in school The school has 1 overhead projector for 34 classes, 2 multi-function study rooms for nearly 80 teachers of 12 different subjects, but teachers hardly use them as teaching aids because these teaching aids are not enough if many classes are in need
- Materials: Materials for reference and self-study are not available There is also a library in NVCHS but there are few English references
- All of the classroom are designed for lecture lessons It means that the seating is arranged orderly in front of the teacher and classroom equipment is just a chalkboard
Teachers are the most important factors in the process of teaching In order to carry out this process properly The school has 8 English teachers including 7 females and 1 male, and age from 25 to 50 They are energetic and are willing to devote their time and energy to teaching Of the 8 English teachers who got B.A degree, 2 ones are following M.A course of University of Language & International Studies -VNUH The youngest has nearly three teaching experience The oldest has over 25 years teaching experience, however, she had been teaching Russian for 18 years before starting her English teaching career
In term of language teaching method, the teachers at NVCHS are familiar with traditional teaching method as they are used to teaching the old syllabuses When following the new syllabuses, they feel difficult to initiate activities and manage the class However, the teachers are always aware of the new trend in teaching methods and aware of the importance of the communicative approach when teaching English to their students in general and vocabulary in particular
Students are important elements in the process of teaching and learning It is essential to collect as much information as possible before the syllabus is designed, lessons are planned and method of teaching is chosen Every year, the school receive about 550 students from 12 villages in the district The age of the grade-10 students at NVCHS is about 16 years They come from different areas of the district In general, students from Trau Qui townlet, Long Bien district or nearby have better knowledge of the English language than those who come from father areas But at school, these two different groups of students are set in the same classes, so that there is big gaps among the students In class activities, betters students of English proficiency are always dominant while students of low proficiency keep silent or get bored
The traditional methods of teaching have much affect to the students’ awareness of their needs in term of communication in real life situation Moreover, when entering grade 10, they are divided into two streams: Natural Science and Basic Stream Most of them are often not good at English, or they spend only a little time learning it For them, English is simple an obligatory subject They learnt it mainly for marks, just to pass the tests Thus, they seem to be likely passive in learning They are likely to become motivated or de- motivated learning depending much on the textbook and teachers’ method of delivery
However, the grade-10 students at NVCHS are rather highly motivated by some practical reasons If they don not learn English carefully, they will fail the exams and cannot go up to the higher class
The main material used for this study is the textbook Tieng Anh 10 (2006: Educational Press), which is theme-based designed with 16 units, equivalent to 16 topics divided into 6 themes: Personal Information, Education, Community, Health, Recreation, The World around us Every unit provides students with many vocabulary through practice of listening, reading, speaking, and writing Reading is selected as the first section in every unit on purpose Via the reading text and tasks which focus on developing different reading skills, it is useful to stimulate and familiarize students with the theme and relevant information and language items Teaching procedure of reading, speaking, listening, and writing sections is divided into three stages to achieve different language skills or knowledge on purpose This refers to the domination of communicative approach and characterized features of the new textbook Self-study activities are drawn attention to after every 3 units by Test yourself in which listening, reading, grammar and writing are presented respectively The book is ended with glossary as well as pronunciation and phonetic symbols that has been introduced in the textbook This is to help both teacher and learner easily.
Methodology 13
The sample was drawn from two sources: 180 students in class 10A2, 10A6, 10A10, 10A12, and 8 teachers in English teaching staff
The first group who I took at random includes non-English majors at different classes
They are also at different levels of English proficiency All of those have experience in English for 4 years at lower-secondary schools The textbook in use is the new “Tieng Anh 10” Also, the subject is completely taught by Vietnamese teachers of English
The other group involves all 8 teachers of English aged from 25 to 50 years old All of them have more or fewer opportunities to learner new teaching techniques in English Teacher Training Project methodology course
In order to collect data for the study, three kinds of instruments are used: questionnaire, classroom observation and interview
The survey questionnaire is one of the instruments which are often used to collect data in social sciences Many significant advantages of using questionnaires are indicated by many researchers, such as less pressure on informants, not under pressure of interview bias and analysis of answers is straightforward
The questionnaires were delivered to 8 teachers and 180 students
The second questionnaire consists of two types of questions including 9 closed and opened-ended one (see Appendix A) To ensure the students’ accurate misunderstandings before answering the question, all of them were written in Vietnamese Their answers were also written in Vietnamese, which enable them to express their ideas fully and with ease It took 4 weeks to deliver the questionnaire and collect 180 copies of the questionnaires
The questions focus on the following categories:
- The students’ attitudes and motivations towards learning English in general and learning in particular (question 1, 2, 3, 7)
- The students’ evaluation of their English vocabulary lesson(question 4, 8, 9)
- The students’ difficulties in learning vocabulary (question 5, 6)
The questionnaire was designed for 8 teachers of English at NVCHS (see Appendix B) It contains 10 closed and opened-ended questions in English The questionnaire was delivered to the teachers and collected within 4 weeks
- The teachers’ age and their teaching experience (question 1)
- The teachers’ opinions on CLT (question 2, 3, 4)
- The teachers’ attitudes towards teaching vocabulary (question 5)
- The teachers’ aims in teaching vocabulary (question 6)
- The teachers’ time to teach vocabulary (question 7)
- The teachers’ ways to teach vocabulary (question 8)
- The teachers’ problems when applying CLT in teaching vocabulary to grade-10 students (question 9)
- The teachers’ recommendations for the problems they met (question 10)
Observations are most effective when approached as collaboration meant to benefit all involved For the one being observed, an observation can provide useful feedback that might not be revealed by other assessment methods In addition, the one observing can learn from seeing a fellow teacher in action
Classroom observation was also applied in order to clarify and test the validity of information about teaching and learning English vocabulary at 10-grade It was carried out in four different classes once a week in each class within 5 weeks All of these observation were for gathering information needed for the study Classroom observation is important given to the purpose of this study because it helps to show the researcher how English vocabulary is being taught and also to test what challenges facing teachers when they apply CLT in teaching vocabulary for grade-10 students
According to Sagor.R (1993) when using interviews to collect data, it is helpful to produce relevance information and insights Although a interview usually requires considerable time commitments from both interviewer and interviewee, it is excellent way co collect data In other words, interview is an extremely useful and valuable way to get in-depth and comprehensive information They involve one person interviewing another person for personal or detailed information
In this study, parallel with the survey questionnaire and classroom observation, interviews with teachers for more in depth data were also carried out Each of the interviewees was asked 3 questions (see Appendix C)
2.2.3 Data analysis and result 2.2.3.1 Results and discussions from the questionnaires 2.2.3.1.1 Questionnaire for the students a The students’ attitudes and motivations towards learning English in general and learning in particular (question 1, 2, 3, 7)
Question 1,2, 3 dealt with the students’ attitudes and motivations towards learning English in general and learning in particular
Question 1 relates to students’ attitudes towards learning English at school The results are presented as follows:
Students’ attitudes towards learning English at school
Like or like very much learning English 45 25%
Don’t like learning English at all 27 15 %
Neither like nor dislike, just learn it because it is a must
Table 1: Students’ attitudes towards learning English at school
The findings shown in the table indicated the students’ attitudes towards learning English at school The result from the table showed that 25% of them showed their positive attitudes in learning English 60% thought English is a must Only 15% of those responded negatively did not find English interesting at all
Question 2 focuses on students’ reasons for learning English
Reasons for learning English Number (No) Percentage (%)
Table 2: Students’ reasons for learning English
According to the statistics of table 2, the grade students at NVCHS were aware of the importance and benefits of learning English 36.7% of the students said that they learned English for their future jobs 2.2% learned English for their interest, 23.3% learning English for communicating Especially, 37.8% said that it was a compulsory subject This revealed that a great number of students in this school were not really motivated in learning English
Question 3 aims at exploring the students’ attitudes towards vocabulary learning
Students’ attitudes towards vocabulary learning Number (No) Percentage
Table 3: Students’ attitudes towards vocabulary learning
As shown in the table 3, most of the students consider vocabulary a very important element in language learning This number presents 59.4%, only 35.6% of them think vocabulary is important and 5% not very important This means that most of these students are well aware of the importance of vocabulary in their English learning This awareness lead to motivation in their learning process
Question 7 discovers students’ interests towards types of vocabulary teaching techniques used in communicative activities
Students’ interests towards types of vocabulary teaching techniques used in communicative activities
Table 4: Students’ interests towards types of vocabulary teaching techniques used in communicative activities
As clearly stated from table 4, 35 % of the participants are interested in “ Games”, while
“Oral/ Written vocabulary exercises” ( Verbal) hold 30% However, 25% of the total like
“Visual”, and only 10 % of students being asked have the motivation for “ Role-play” b The students’ evaluation of their teacher’s way of teaching vocabulary (question4, 8, 9)) Question 4 helps to find out the students’ evaluation of their teacher’s way of teaching vocabulary 80% of the students state that their teachers always teach vocabulary by translating all new words into Vietnamese and vice-versa and saying the word clearly, and writing them on the board And they also add that these techniques do not make them fully satisfied because they find them not efficient much The survey and the observation showed that the teachers often wrote all the new words with their Vietnamese equivalents on the board and asked students to copy down all the new words in their notebooks Then, they asked the students to repeat in chorus and individually
Most of the students said that their teachers rarely carry out the three techniques ( use synonyms and antonyms, use mimes, gestures and facial expressions and use English to define the new word) Only 12% of the students say that their teachers sometimes use synonyms and antonyms and 17% confirm that their teachers use target language to define the new word, and 15% state that their teachers use mimes, gestures and facial expressions Moreover, 20% of the students also reveal that teachers sometimes use the technique of using visual aids For their teachers’ way of teaching vocabulary, 31% of the participants say that they like their teachers using visual aids to show them the meaning of words 30% state that they are interested in their teachers using mimes, gestures and facial expressions in introducing the meaning of words Furthermore, 15% of the respondent confirm that they like their teachers to use the target language to define the new words
According to them, these techniques are efficient
Question 4 also aims at exploring the students’ evaluation of their teacher’s way of consolidating vocabulary In order to consolidate students’ vocabulary, 20% of the students say that their teachers often ask them to do exercise of reordering words, doing multiple choice items, and matching words With their teachers’ way of consolidating vocabulary, 39% of the respondents confirm that they like matching words 35% state that they enjoy doing multiple choice items And 30% of the participants say that they are interested in reordering words As a result, they state that these techniques are efficient
FINDING AND SOME POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS 29
Finding 29
3.1.1 Teachers’ attitudes towards applying CLT in teaching vocabulary for grade-10 students at NVCHS
- Both teachers and students are aware of the importance of the teaching and learning vocabulary in their language teaching and learning process
- Most of teachers take a positive view of the communicative approach to language teaching, they find it difficult to apply CLT in teaching vocabulary
- Teachers’ awareness of teaching English vocabulary through communicative activities does not coincide with their present teaching at NVCHS
- In fact most of them often teach vocabulary by translating all new words into Vietnamese and vice-versa and saying the words clearly, and writing them on the board, then the teachers asked students to read after in chorus and individually In order to consolidate the new words, teachers often check students’ understanding the meaning of words Teachers rarely use visual, aids, mimes gestures, and facial expressions presenting new words
- Vocabulary teaching activities applied by teachers of grade-10 students at NVCHS are not well match to students’ ages, abilities and interests For example, 60% of the survey students suppose that communicative activities can help them to retain vocabulary and to be interested in the lesson as well, whereas most of teachers (75%) highlight the importance of teaching vocabulary for examination
- To teach vocabulary communicatively, half of the teachers are interested in using verbal techniques for designing classroom based communicative activities, some use visual techniques, game, and role-play However, they sometimes use the techniques, and they often teach vocabulary communicatively only when other teachers attend their lesson or when they have to sit for examinations or when they are inspected by educational officials
3.1.2 The reasons causing teachers’ attitude in teaching vocabulary communicatively and their own solutions
Although most of teachers take a positive view of the communicative approach to language teaching, they find it difficult to apply CLT in teaching vocabulary There are lots of reasons such as lack of training or retraining in CLT, students’ lack of good attitudes to learning vocabulary, large class size, multi-level classes, the school’s grammar-based exams non justifying to use CLT, students’ using Vietnamese in work-group or pair-work, deficiency in strategic and sociolinguistic competence in English, misconception about CLT, students’ low English proficiency Besides the mentioned problems above, there are other reasons as follows: few opportunities to learn how to use CLT, lack authentic teaching materials, students’ passive styles to evaluate communicative competence, students’ uneven participation in class activities, lack of time and expertise to develop CLT materials and poor teaching facilities
In order to overcome these problems, many suggestions are given by the own teachers
One of the most favorable solutions is that teachers should self-improve their English level and teaching methods as well as enhance their sociolinguistic competence by attending workshop or seminars on CLT Another effective way to solve the problems is motivating students more to learn English because students are regarded as an important factor in the process of teaching and learning Besides these, giving open-ended questions that allow weaker students to give their answers too, encouraging collaborative work from students and giving encouragements and positive correction and feedback on their students’ mistakes are considered as useful techniques to encourage students to participate in communicative activities Moreover, the teachers hope to have further training on teaching methods and be provided with sufficient facilities and authentic materials.
Suggestions 30
3.2.1.1 Training and retraining teachers in CLT
One of the reasons why the teachers may be reluctant to apply CLT in teaching English in general and vocabulary in particular is that they are not trained and retrained in CLT sufficiently To solve the problem, the cooperation between the administrators and teachers should be had Firstly, the administrators should give the teachers assistance, support and encouragement in applying new ideas and materials Also, they need provide the teachers opportunities to be trained and retrained in CLT and to improve strategic and sociolinguistic competence in English Moreover, more workshops and seminars should be held so that the teachers can share their teaching experience as well as improve their knowledge about it Thus their misconception about CLT might be solved For these reasons, the administrators obviously play a very important role in overcoming the problem
For the teachers, beside the administrators’ assistance and support, they need to try their best to self-study and self-improve their knowledge and teaching methods Self-study is an effective way because the teachers may achieve knowledge from various sources such as books, magazines or media
3.2.1.2 Redefining students’ role and teachers’ role
Students’ role and teachers’ role should be re-learnt On the other hand, students are not passive recipients any longer They become communicator in the class They can join in class activities and are free to express their ideas, to give their disagreements with the teachers or to put the teachers their questions On the other hand, teachers are no loner to “ knowledge-transmitter” They perform the role of a facilitator of the students’ learning, a management of classroom activities, an advisor to answer students’ questions and to control their performance, and a “ co-communicator” to engage in the communicative activities a long with the students ( Littlewood,1981) The students’ new role and teachers’ role is a new concept for students Thus, teachers need to be flexible to control the class because it take time for the students to get familiar to the new one
3.2.1.3 Changing students’ attitude towards learning English
To apply CLT effectively in a traditional language classroom, changing students’ attitude towards learning English in general and vocabulary in particular is essential to be changed
English should be considered as important as other subjects in the training course and communication should be their final goal of learning English Besides the students’ own effects, teachers play a very important role in changing students’ attitude Obviously, CLT is a “ Western method”- a new method, so they need to let their students have opportunities to get used to it In my opinion, to change students’ attitudes, improving students’ motivation in learning vocabulary needs to be considered
3.2.1.4 Improving students’ motivation in learning vocabulary
Some effective ways for the teachers can be applied in the classroom to improve students’ motivation in learning vocabulary
It is necessary for the teachers to design exercises that are suitable with the students’ level
In fact, at NVCHS big and mixed-ability classes are popular Thus, suitable exercises need to be arranged from easy to difficult ones As a result, good English proficiency students do not feel de-motivated with the limited competence tasks and low ones can also catch up with the others
It may be a good chance for students to exchange knowledge obtained from reading books
In addition, through this kind of reading, learners consciously and subconsciously acquire new vocabulary in the books By retelling stories, paraphrasing ideas, or critiquing a poem, for instance, students will remember the words they have read A reading club benefits students because it provides a context where language input, output, and interaction facilitate learning vocabulary Moreover, a reading club can increase motivation, if the books chosen reflect common interest or popular topics
3.2.1.4.3 Creating interesting topics, games and communicative activities
This may make the students enjoy learning English as well as create enjoyable atmosphere in the class When the students find something interesting, they are willing to join in
Because the environment in which students learn a foreign language is very important, as it has great effect on the learning process In ESL environment, teachers can rely on students’ picking up vocabulary outside the class However, generally EFL students have encounter new items mostly only during class time Thus, teachers should exploit communicative vocabulary activities to bring students into contact with language as it is used in real situation to meet actual communication need Also, the vocabulary activities need to be carefully chosen so that they can be really useful to the students, and they need a careful preparation Teachers have to familiarize himself or herself with material and the activity, decide the organization steps and time allowance Besides, the following questions should be raised: i) What is the purpose of the activity? ii) What help might students need? iii) How can the teacher generate interest in the activity? iv) What instructions are needed?
Besides, teachers should consider some factors during the class as follows:
+ Create interesting topics and set the scene :
For instance, teachers raise questions about the topic to discuss
+ Model preparatory task When teachers give instruction, they should make clear its goal, the rules and the steps
+ Student preparation time While the teacher monitors, the students write + Modeling
T-S, S-T, S-S This is probably the most important for successful communicative activities It can be used:
- To show target language in action and elicit relevant vocabulary
- To clarify/ illustrate the requirements or the objective of the task
- To highlight the type of conversational framework needed
- To identify potential problem areas
- To gauge the students’ readiness to begin the activity
- To build student confidence + Pair work
Monitor, teachers only interrupt when students really get stuck Monitor aims to:
- Allow students to work on the task without too much interference
- Identify any common errors or areas of breakdown
- Offer encouragement, and recognize when best to change the pairings + Deal with problems
Error correction can still be done effectively when you don’t want to interrupt students in the middle of a conversation First, write typical problems that you have heard on the board Next, draw attention to these problems after the tasks have been completed Then, encourage the students to offer suggestions for solving the problems
New pairing By repeating the activity with a new partner, students can attempt to incorporate the corrections and suggestions made during the previous stage
Let students present their findings
Finally, it is worth remembering that teachers don’t have to apply often all of these guideline because the students themselves will always influence the way an activity unfolds
3.2.2 Suggestions on vocabulary learning communicative activities for 10-grade students at NVCHS
In order to attract students’ attention to learn vocabulary communicatively, the researcher would like to introduce some communicative activities for the practice of some lessons in Tieng Anh 10 by Education Press
3.2.2.1 Same activity 1: Topic based activity: Profession
Aim: Help students to see not only one word but also its relation with the others
Resources: specific vocabulary design by teachers Example: Find out not only new words concerning profession, but also the place of work
( An example of period Reading- Unit 1 is given for illustration)
Profession Place of work Duties
Farmer field To do the farming work
( An example of period Speaking- Unit 5 is given for illustration)
1 The teacher give students a situation as follows:
“ Imagine that your family has built a new house You have only old furniture Here is a list of things you may find useful Choose the most useful thing from point of view”
A radio, a TV, an electric cooker, an air conditioner, a cell phone, a computer, a camera, a mirror, a fridge
2 Students work in pairs for about 6-8 minutes After that they read the list of words they have chosen
E.g: I need an air conditioner to keep air cool or warm when it is hot or cold
Aim: To enrich previously met items
Example: Collocation use with Miss, Get, Do and Make Choose which one of the following four verbs goes with the expression listed below
Miss Get Do Make a ( Miss/ Get/ Do/ Make) a goal b ( Miss/ Get/ Do/ Make) home c ( Miss/ Get/ Do/ Make) progress d ( Miss/ Get/ Do/ Make) frightened e ( Miss/ Get/ Do/ Make) a chance f ( Miss/ Get/ Do/ Make) permission g ( Miss/ Get/ Do/ Make) money h ( Miss/ Get/ Do/ Make) mistake i ( Miss/ Get/ Do/ Make) cooking j ( Miss/ Get/ Do/ Make) message
Aim: Learn new words through pictures
( An example of period Reading- Unit1 is given for illustration, see Appendix D)
1 Stick pictures on the boards
2 Use pictures to teach the following new words
+ leading buffalo + ploughing and harrowing
+ pumping water + plot of land
( An example of period Listening- Unit6 is given for illustration)
1 glorious (… ) 4 left-over (…….) 7 sleep soundly(…)
1 Give words of verbs, nouns, adjectives Ask students if they are nouns (n), verbs (v), or adjectives (adj)
2 Students open the bracket to find out word form, and make examples
Delicious (adj) → This meal was very delicious
Aim: to enhance vocabulary remembering by helping students link new items with the learned ones
1 Select a word central to the topic
3 Invite students label categories as many words as possible that relate to the target word
5 From the list, construct a map
( An example of period Reading- Unit2 is given for illustration, see Appendix E)
3.2.2.7 Same activity 7: Game ( Word guessing game)
Choose five words relating to recent conversational themes Write sets of clues to help students Play with whole class or teams Use one word per lesson over five lessons or use all words in one session as a longer game
“ I am a noun but I am very important
Aim: Learn new words through piece of music
( An example of period Listening- Unit12 is given for illustration,)
1 Play some parts of the songs and ask Ss to answer some questions:
What is the name of the song? (Suoi Mo, Lang Toi, Tien Quan Ca + Truong Ca Song Lo) How is the song?
3 Ask Ss to find out adjectives to describe the songs
4 Suoi Mo: sweet and gentle Tien Quan Ca + Truong Ca Song Lo: rousing and solemn Lang Toi: lyrical
3 Teacher check their answer, T gives English words if Ss don’t know
Aim: Learn new words through pictures
1 Prepare a sheet containing about 10 small pictures
2 Students are asked to work in pair to match new items with pictures
( An example of period Reading- Unit7 is given for illustration, see Appendix F)
PART C: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY
On the trend of regional and global integration, good English proficiency people in both grammatical competence and sociolinguistic competence are certainly needed to participate into the world In order to meet the demands of practical needs and settings, the educational system in general and in the area of language education in particular should be reformed For these reasons, traditional English teaching methods seem not to be suitable and useful in the new social situations so finding another method for innovation is essential Naturally, CLT should be a suitable alternative to the traditional ones and be implemented in the educational system to meet the demands of the social contexts
However, it should be applied with a close and careful consideration of the cultural values of Vietnam
This research is an attempt to find out the teachers’ attitude towards apply CLT in teaching vocabulary for grade-10 students at NVCHS Based on the instrument as questionnaires for both teachers and students, observation, and interview, the study has figured out the important findings with a help to improving the English at the school The findings are divided into two categories such as attitude, reasons leading to the attitude, and suggestions
Teachers are aware of the importance of the teaching and learning vocabulary in their language teaching and learning process Although most of teachers take a positive view of the communicative approach to language teaching, they find it difficult to apply CLT in teaching vocabulary in teaching vocabulary Thus, teachers’ awareness of teaching English vocabulary through communicative activities does not coincide with their present teaching at NVCHS