Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS the current situation of english language teaching to the 10 form students at dong hy secondary school a case study

Aims of the study

The study is aimed at finding out the English language teaching and learning at Dong

Hy Secondary School in Thai Nguyen It is expected that the study will be referred to testimony necessity in improving those facts To be more specific of purposes in this study are:

- To investigate the current situation of English language teaching at Dong Hy Secondary School by focusing on studying the following conditions: the teachers with their perceptions of CLT and their CLT practical application, the examination, the new English text book, the students and the teaching and learning environment

- To find out difficulties that the teachers of English at Dong Hy Secondary School experience when applying CLT

- To offer some suggestions on how to improve the quality of teaching English when using CLT

III Scope of the study

The study focuses on the investigation of teaching English at Dong Hy Secondary School in Thai Nguyen when applying CLT approach As set in the aims of the study, I limited to focus on studying the following contents: the teachers with their perceptions of CLT and their CLT practical application, the examination, the new English textbook, the students and the teaching and learning environment

Due to the limit of time and within the scope of an M.A minor thesis, only grade 10 students and six teachers at Dong Hy Secondary Schools in Thai Nguyen are chosen as the participants of the study

IV Methods of the study

In order to complete this thesis, the quantitative method was used to collect the needed data from the participants

- The questionaire was for six teachers at Dong Hy Secondary School

- The class observations were conducted Three classrooms were chosen at random as the best or the weakest students)

All comments, remarks, recommendations, and conclusions given in this study were based on the data analysis

The thesis consists of three parts

Part A - Introduction- Presents the rationale, the aim, scope, methods, and design of the study

Part B - Development- consists of three chapters

Chapter one-Literature Review- Deals with the theories related to the study:

Communicative activities, Communicative language teaching, Advantages of using CLT in teaching foreign language, Problems of the application of CLT in teaching English as a foreign language, Previous studies relating to CLT application , Conditions related to CLT application

Chapter two-Research methodologies- Presents the methodology performed in the study It provides information about the participants, the instrumentation Data collection and findings are also presented in this chapter

Chapter three-Findings and recommendations Discusses the data of the study and propose recommendations for applying CLT in teaching English to grade10 students at DH secondary school

Part C: Conclusion- Summarizes all the key issues as well as the limitations of the study and suggestions for further study

Part b: Development CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter briefly covers the concepts related to the study: communicative activities, communicative language teaching, advantages of using CLT in teaching foreign language, problems of the application of CLT in teaching English as a foreign language, previous studies relating to CLT application , conditions related to CLT application

The aim of a CA in class is to get learners to use the language they are learning to interact in realistic and meaningful ways, usually involving exchanging of information

Thus, in order to organize and improve CA the following should be taken into consideration

According to Harmer (1991), communicative activities are the ones which involve learning through using language for a communicative purpose They are the activities in which learners use the linguistic repertoire they have learnt in order to communicate specific meanings for specific purposes Sharing the same definition, Scrivener (1994) claimed that communicative activities are classroom activities designed to get learners to speak and listen to one another In other words, whatever activity the students are involved in, if it is to be genuinely communicative and if it is really promoting language use, the students should have a desire to communicate If they do not want to be involved in communication then that communication will probably not be effective The students should have some kind of communicative purpose That is to say, they should use language in some way to achieve an objective Then their attention should be centered on the content of what is being said or written not the language form that is being used

1.1.2 Characteristics of a good communicative activity

A communicative activity should have a desire to communicate When someone asks a question, they must wish to get some information There must be either an „information gap‟ or an „opinion gap‟ or some other reason to communicate For example, when the teacher asks students to describe their house, the teacher is creating an artificial

„communicative purpose‟ and making the activity more artificial by asking to do it in English The teacher also creates „information gap‟ by giving different information to pairs of students so that they can have a reason to exchange information

Another characteristic of a communicative activity is that there is a focus on meaning not language forms In real life students do not ask about their friends‟ family in order to practice „have got‟ forms They ask the questions because they are interested in the information That means what they are interested is the meaning not the language forms

According to Littlewood (1981, p.17) a good CA can provide „whole-task practice‟, improve motivation, allow natural learning and create a context that supports learning The followings are the contributions that a good communicative activity can make to language learning:

First, communicative activities provide "whole - task practice" While non - communicative activities provide training in the part - skills (of which the performance is composed), CA provides practice in the total - skill, sometimes called "whole-task practice" Learning how to swim, for example, usually involves not only separate practice of individual movements (part - skills), but also actual attempts to swim short distance (whole-task practice in order to suit the learners‟ level of ability through various kinds of communicative activity

Second, communicative activities improve motivation The learners‟ ultimate aim is to take part in communication with others Their motivation to learn is more likely to be sustained if they can see how their classroom learning is related to these objectives and help them to achieve it with increasing success

Next, communicative activities allow natural learning Many aspects of language learning can take place only through natural processes, which operate only when a person is involved in using the language for communication If this is so, communicative activity (inside or outside the classroom) is an important part of the total learning process

Last, communicative activities can create a context which supports learning

Communicative activity provides opportunities for positive personal relationship to develop among learners and between learners and the teacher These relationships can help to create an environment that supports the individual in his effort to learn

Harmer (1991:19) has summarized those characteristics in a figure called the communication continuum; as follows:

NON - COMMUNICTIVE ACTIVITIES COMMUNICTIVE ACTIVITIES

Methods of the study

In order to complete this thesis, the quantitative method was used to collect the needed data from the participants

- The questionaire was for six teachers at Dong Hy Secondary School

- The class observations were conducted Three classrooms were chosen at random as the best or the weakest students)

All comments, remarks, recommendations, and conclusions given in this study were based on the data analysis.

Design of the study

The thesis consists of three parts

Part A - Introduction- Presents the rationale, the aim, scope, methods, and design of the study

Part B - Development- consists of three chapters

Chapter one-Literature Review- Deals with the theories related to the study:

Communicative activities, Communicative language teaching, Advantages of using CLT in teaching foreign language, Problems of the application of CLT in teaching English as a foreign language, Previous studies relating to CLT application , Conditions related to CLT application

Chapter two-Research methodologies- Presents the methodology performed in the study It provides information about the participants, the instrumentation Data collection and findings are also presented in this chapter

Chapter three-Findings and recommendations Discusses the data of the study and propose recommendations for applying CLT in teaching English to grade10 students at DH secondary school

Part C: Conclusion- Summarizes all the key issues as well as the limitations of the study and suggestions for further study.

LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Communicative activities

Definition of a communicative activity

According to Harmer (1991), communicative activities are the ones which involve learning through using language for a communicative purpose They are the activities in which learners use the linguistic repertoire they have learnt in order to communicate specific meanings for specific purposes Sharing the same definition, Scrivener (1994) claimed that communicative activities are classroom activities designed to get learners to speak and listen to one another In other words, whatever activity the students are involved in, if it is to be genuinely communicative and if it is really promoting language use, the students should have a desire to communicate If they do not want to be involved in communication then that communication will probably not be effective The students should have some kind of communicative purpose That is to say, they should use language in some way to achieve an objective Then their attention should be centered on the content of what is being said or written not the language form that is being used.

Characteristics of a good communicative activity

A communicative activity should have a desire to communicate When someone asks a question, they must wish to get some information There must be either an „information gap‟ or an „opinion gap‟ or some other reason to communicate For example, when the teacher asks students to describe their house, the teacher is creating an artificial

„communicative purpose‟ and making the activity more artificial by asking to do it in English The teacher also creates „information gap‟ by giving different information to pairs of students so that they can have a reason to exchange information

Another characteristic of a communicative activity is that there is a focus on meaning not language forms In real life students do not ask about their friends‟ family in order to practice „have got‟ forms They ask the questions because they are interested in the information That means what they are interested is the meaning not the language forms

According to Littlewood (1981, p.17) a good CA can provide „whole-task practice‟, improve motivation, allow natural learning and create a context that supports learning The followings are the contributions that a good communicative activity can make to language learning:

First, communicative activities provide "whole - task practice" While non - communicative activities provide training in the part - skills (of which the performance is composed), CA provides practice in the total - skill, sometimes called "whole-task practice" Learning how to swim, for example, usually involves not only separate practice of individual movements (part - skills), but also actual attempts to swim short distance (whole-task practice in order to suit the learners‟ level of ability through various kinds of communicative activity

Second, communicative activities improve motivation The learners‟ ultimate aim is to take part in communication with others Their motivation to learn is more likely to be sustained if they can see how their classroom learning is related to these objectives and help them to achieve it with increasing success

Next, communicative activities allow natural learning Many aspects of language learning can take place only through natural processes, which operate only when a person is involved in using the language for communication If this is so, communicative activity (inside or outside the classroom) is an important part of the total learning process

Last, communicative activities can create a context which supports learning

Communicative activity provides opportunities for positive personal relationship to develop among learners and between learners and the teacher These relationships can help to create an environment that supports the individual in his effort to learn

Harmer (1991:19) has summarized those characteristics in a figure called the communication continuum; as follows:

NON - COMMUNICTIVE ACTIVITIES COMMUNICTIVE ACTIVITIES

How can the teacher make the classroom CA more communicative? There is no real possibility of real communication in English in monolingual classroom Learners must pretend that they need to communicate in English However, the teacher can improve the students‟ interaction in the classroom by looking at the features mentioned above The teacher can easily reduce the intervention and use more authentic materials Encouraging a wider variety of language use and creating more natural communicative purposes are also what the teacher can do.

Communicative language teaching

Communicative language teaching (CLT) has become the accepted orthodoxy theory of TEFL over the past thirty years or more Its theoretical base, according to Richards &

Rogers (2000: 71), includes the following characteristics First, language is a system for the expression of meaning Second, the primary function of language is for interaction and communication Third, the structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses Fourth, the primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural

 materials control features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse

CLT method has brought many advantages Dubin and Olshtain (1986) in Burns

(1997) have suggested one of the major benefits of CLT is that it brought about a more comprehensive view of teaching and learning Communicative language teaching makes use of real life situations that necessitate communication The teacher sets up a situation that students are likely to encounter in real life Students and teachers should try to get closer to real communication in the classroom The communicative approach can leave students in suspense as to outcome of a class exercise, which will vary according to their reactions and responses Students‟ motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics Thus, CLT plays an important role in foreign language teaching in general and in teaching speaking in particular

Communicative language teaching (CLT) is an innovation in English language teaching (ELT) CLT emerged as a new teaching approach in Britain in the 1970s The call for adoption of CLT was not accidental It came from the educational problem that needed to be solved This problem was the existing unsatisfactory teaching results of the traditional grammar-oriented method

Many researchers have discussed communicative language teaching but few offer the definition of CLT Finally, the researcher takes CLT as a way of teaching in which the application of communicative activities and target language aims to develop learners‟ competence of understanding and exchanging different ideas, behavioral modes, values, beliefs, and cultures

“communicative language teaching is an approach to foreign or second language teaching which emphasizes that the goal of language learning is communicative competence and which seeks to make meaningful communication and language use a focus of all classroom activities”.(Richard and Schmidt, 2001:90)

Principles of communicative language teaching: Learners learn a language through using it to communicate Authentic and meaningful communication should be the goal of classroom activities Fluency and accuracy are both important in language learning

Learning is a process of creative construction and involves trial and error

A communicative approach is essentially learner- centered Communicative language teaching emphasizes the development of learners' ability and willingness to use the target language appropriately and accurately for the purposes of effective communication

1.2.3.1 The goal of teachers who use the communicative approach

The goal of the teacher is to have students become communicatively competence

1.2.3.2 The role of the teachers and students

Teachers in communicative classrooms will find themselves talking less and listening more-becoming active facilitators of their students' learning (Larsen - Freeman, 1986)

The role of the CL teacher is two: To facilitate the communication process between all classroom participants and to act as an independent participant within the learning- teaching group (Breen and Candlin, 1980:99)

The role of the communicative learner is as negotiator-between the self, the learning process, and the object of learning –emerges from and interacts with the role of joint negotiator within the group and within the classroom procedures and activities which the group undertakes The implication for the learner is that he should contribute as much as he gains, and thereby learn in an independent way (Breen and Candlin, 1980:110) Students are expected to interact primarily with each other, rather than with the teacher, and correction of errors may be absent or infrequent The cooperative (rather than individualistic) approach to learning stressed in CLT may likewise be unfamiliar to leaners (Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 166)

1.2.3.3 The feelings of the students

One of the basic assumptions of the communicative approach is that students will be more motivated to study a foreign language since they will feel they are learning to do something useful with the language they study

The characteristics of CLT help the learners understand what is happening in a CLT classroom And then the teacher can take advantage of this approach to promote her students' learning

A focus on communicative function: The communicative function is considered as the most important characteristic of CLT because the goal of CLT is to help the learners gain communicative competence

A focus on meaningful tasks rather than on language per se: The teacher gives the students meaningful tasks in order to improve the students' communicative competence

The meaningful tasks create opportunities for the learners to use the language and to improve their communicative competence

Efforts to make tasks and language relevant to a target group of learners through an analysis of genuine, realistic situations It is clear that the genuine, realistic situations are essential in the class Through performing tasks relevant to those situations, the students learn the meaning and functions in the context

The use of authentic, from life materials: Authentic materials have a positive effect on learner motivation in the foreign language classroom They create opportunities for the students to be exposed to the real language

The use of group activities: This kind of student collaboration has two benefits First, the whole class actively participates in a task at the same time and students can then compare their findings when the task is over; and second, the meaningful task is rehearsed in class for later use in real communication outside the classroomThe attempt to create a secure, non- threatening atmosphere: It is clear that the students don't want to say anything when the atmosphere in classroom is serious And in contrast, when the atmosphere in class is stress - free, the learners will speak enthusiastically

1.2.5 Conditions related to CLT application

Whether CLT is applied successfully or not depends on a number of factors They are teachers, students with their motivation, proficiency and learning style, authentic materials, teaching and learning materials, the support of the administration, teaching and learning environment, time, examination, and cultural factor

In terms of teachers, CLT requires the teacher with high English proficiency and with mastering the concept of CLT so that they can take advantage of the communicative approach and manage the class (Hird, 1995) The teachers of CLT must be flexible to adapt themselves in a particular context Furthermore, they have to invest much time in preparing the lessons and collecting and designing additional materials It is the teacher's responsibility to organize the classroom as a setting for communication and communicative activities

For the student, their motivation, proficiency, and learning style are the vital factors relating to the successful application of CLT (Hird, 1995; Gahin and Myhill, 2002)

When the learners determine their studying purpose, or when they are encouraged in study, it seems that they will be motivated to participate in the class

Advantages of using CLT

There are some advantages of using the communicative language teaching approach

Firstly, it allows learners to use the target language in meaningful contexts, thus bringing the real world into the classroom Even at the beginner level students want to learn English to communicate with people in their community They want to be able to make an appointment on the phone, give reasons for, speak to their children‟s teachers, ask for information or advice and to be able to speak with people in the community

A second advantage is that this approach can be adapted to any level ranging from pre-beginner to advanced and is suitable for classes comprising students with different linguistic backgrounds and varying levels of communicative competence, thus allowing learners to interact with each according to their level of proficiency

A third advantage is that the CLT approach enables the teacher to step back and take on the role of „facilitator‟ The teacher is able to observe individual learning through various tasks and is able to determine and respond to student‟s needs.

Problems of applying CLT

Littlewood (1984) point to the fact that ESL is the language which is widely spoken in the community where it is learnt whereas EFL is used to communicate outside the local community CLT in an EFL classroom is a challenge for teachers and students Lacks of English - Speaking environment and authentic situations cause hindrances in the learning process

The differences in the English - speaking environment, the authentic situations the motivation, the school curriculum, the national curriculum goals, and the testing system bring different results when applying CLT in ESL class and EFL classroom.

Previous studies related to CLT

The four studies by Hird (1995), Li (1998), Gahin and Myhill (2001), Bock (2000), and Vu To Lan (2003), are presented in this thesis These studies were carried out in China, Egypt, South Korea and in Vietnam to find out difficulties hindering the success of CLT application in those countries

Basing on experience of teaching English in China, Hird (1995) had an article about the situation of communicative English language teaching in China The author shows the specific factors limiting the CLT application They are the grammar-focused examination system, influence of traditional teaching styles and teacher- related factors

The findings of the research show that the teachers‟ difficulties in implementing CLT are economic factors, examination pressure, teachers‟ academic abilities, and Egyptian cultural traditions, feelings of frustration and stress of the teachers Economic constraints include low pay, lack of resources, large-sized unequipped classrooms, and lack of appropriate teacher training provision

Li discovered that teachers, students, and educational system are the main hindrances of CLT success

The results of the study made by Bock pointed out that CLT implementation is hindered from success by the teachers, the students, and educational system Vu To Lan

(2003) carried out a research study on the difficulties when implementing CLT at the 6 th grade classes at Hanoi-Amsterdam School The classified the difficulties into four catergories: the teachers, the new material, the testing system, and teaching/ learning environment.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.1 Background of the study

Description of the students

The majority of secondary school students at DH have been learning English since they were in lower secondary schools This means by the time they go to secondary school, they have at least 4 or more years of experience in learning English Their lower secondary years were spent with the new text books and the two aspects: learner-centered approach and communicative language teaching (CTL) However, most students are not good at listening and speaking the target language They can do written exercises on English grammar accurately but they can hardly communicate in English They do not feel confident in communicating in English Using English to communicate is a big challenge for them.They still thinks that learning a foreign language means learning grammar, structures and most of them still keep silent and do not participate in the activities of lessons.

Description of the teachers

The teachers are the most important factors in the process of teaching and learning a target language In DH secondary school, there are 12 teachers of English aged from 28 to

52 and none of them has ever been to any English speaking countries Two of them have been trained in the in-service training programmes because they used to be the teachers of Russian The rest has been trained at College of Foreign Language - Vietnam National University, Hanoi and Thainguyen Teachers‟ Training College

The teachers at DH Secondary School are familiar with traditional language teaching

However, most of them usually try to acquire knowledge of the communicative competence and apply it in their teaching English.

Setting of the study

- The class size: There are about 45 students in each class It is difficult to carry out a communicative activity in a mixed- ability and large class There is a lot of unavoidable noise in the classroom when the teachers create a communicative environment for students

All the classrooms are designed for lecture lesson Students still sit in the tranditional oder It means that the seats are arranged orderly in front of the teacher in rows and classroom equipment is just a chalkboard and cassette recorder

- The textbook: The English textbook is “Theme-based”and follows two current approaches the learner-centered approach and communicative language teaching (CLT)

English 10 contains sixteen teaching units Each teaching unit consists of five 45-minute periods with four skills: reading, speaking, listening, and writing In the units, teachers teach learners to use language fluently in communication stead of presenting the exact language about grammar, vocabulary Besides the skill-focused periods, Language focus is also an important part of each unit and is designed to summarize all language elements like vocabulary, grammar Students will catch an overview of the entire unit After every three units, students will have chances to evaluate their learning results units called „Test yourself‟

Materials for reference and self-study are not available There is a library at the school but there are not many English books for reference Most of the books here are for students only.

Subjects

The subjects under study are all the teachers who are teaching English to the students‟ grade 10 at DH secondary school All of the teachers have taught English for at least 5 years and at most for 15 years, so they have accumulated a lot of experience in teaching English in many contexts.

The classroom observation

- The classroom observation was conducted to gather information but not to evaluate the teachers' quality The researcher decided in advance what she was going to observe by designing a checklist that could prevent her from deviation and helped her focus on the categories that matched her intent for the research

All teaching and learning activities in class have been noted: for instance, the teachers‟ questions and explanation, the student‟s answers and their mistakes, the teachers and the students‟ interaction, the students‟ group work, etc.

The instruments

- The observation was carried out in one week in the second semester of the school year 2009-2010 Three classrooms were chosen at random for observation (with no attempt to select the best or the most experienced teachers as well as the best or the weakest students)

- The questionnaire was distributed to 6 teachers of English who teach grade 10 at

DH Secondary School The questionnaires which had been delivered were handed back

- Teachers‟ CLT training background (Question 3)

- Teachers‟ opinions about the most suitable method for their teaching English at present (Question 4)

- Teachers‟ information on CLT (Questions 5,6)

- Teachers‟ understanding of subjects about CLT (Questions 7,8)

- Looking about applying CLT in the actual classroom practice (Questions 9,10,11)

- Inspecting the English textbook in CLT application (Question 12)

- Teachers‟ oppinions about the difficulties in the implementation of CLT in their context of language teaching (Question 13)

- The degree of success in applying CLT at DH secondary school (Question14).

Presentation of statistical results

* Question1 and 2 Question 1 focuses on the teachers‟ ages Question 2 is about the teachers‟ experience of teacing English The results are shown the following table

Table1: Teachers’ ages Years of Teaching

Table2: Teachers’ years of teaching English

It can be seen in table 1 that teachers attended in the study are different ages Only 17

% of the teachers asked are above 45 and 33% are between 30 and 35 The teachers aged from 36 to 45 make up 50% This data show that the teachers are mainly in the midle age with quite a lot of living experience as well as teaching experience

The table 2 shows that English language teachers are quite experienced in their profession Four out of six teachers (67%) have been teaching foreign language for than eleven years

*Question 3 and 4 Question 3: Have you ever been trained in CLT?

Table 3: Teachers’ CLT training background

CLT is now the dominant foreign language teaching method; however, the table 3 shows that not all teachers at school have attended in workshops for CLT Only 67% have received formal training in CLT Two teachers has never received any kinds of training in CLT.They have general knowledge about CLT as they have read books on CLT themselve

Question 4: What approach do you think most suitable for ?

The Grammar-Translation Method (GTM) 0

Combination of GTM and CLT 67

Table 4: Teachers’ oppinions about method

When asked the opinions about method that 2 out of 6 teachers (33%) think that CLT is suitable for their teaching situation at present 4 out of 6 teachers (67%) teach with a combination of the grammar- translation method and the communcative language teaching approach Teachers have to combine methods because of the pressure and format of tests

*Question 5 and 6 Question 5 How often do you read books or attended workshops to improve your knowledge of CLT?

Table 5 Teachers’ information about the enrichment of knowledge on CLT

Question 6 You understand the principle and the characteristics of CLT

Table 6 Teachers’ information about perception on CLT

Table 5 shows that all teachers sometimes attended workshops or the training course on CLT to improve their knowledge of CLT

Table 6 shows that the majority of the respondents (67%) said that they understand the principles and characteristics of CLT and the rest admitted that they are uncertain about the principle and characteristic of CLT

Opptions % always emphasizes fluency over accuracy 50 is learner-centered 100 does not teach grammar 50 s‟ final goal is students‟communicative competence 100 is used only for teaching speaking and listening skill 67 focuses on meaningful tasks rather than on language itself 50

Table 7 Teachers’ point of view about CLT

According to the data in table 7, 100% of teachers asked think that CLT‟s final goal is students‟communicative competence and they all also admit that CLT is learner- centered The percentage of those who agree that CLT does not teach grammar and focuses on meaningful tasks rather than on language itself is 50% 67% of teachers think that CLT is used only for teaching speaking and listening skill

All information above show that the teachers donot have good knowledge of CLT and half of the teachers don‟t understand some important characteristics of CLT

Key concepts, principles and characteristics Agree (%) Disagree (%) Uncertain (%)

Grammatical correctness is the most important criterion by which language performance should be judged

Group work activities are essential in providing opportunities for co-operative relationship to emerge and in promoting genuine interaction among students

For students to become effective communicators in the foreign language, the teachers' feedback must be focused on the appropriateness and not the linguistic form of the students' responses

The learner- centered approach to 100 language teaching encourages responsibility and self- discipline and allows each student to develop his/ her full potential

Group work allows students to explore problems for themselves and thus have some measures of control over their own learning It is therefore an invaluable means of organizing classroom experiences

The teacher should correct all the grammatical errors student make If errors are ignored, this will result in imperfect learning

Key concepts, principles and characteristics Agree (%) Disagree (%) Uncertain (%)

It is impossible in a large class of students to organize your teaching so as to suit the needs of all

Group work activities take too long to organize and waste a lot of valuable teaching time

The communicative approach to language teaching produces fluent but inaccurate learners 67 33

By mastering the rules of grammar, students become fully capable of communicating with another

The role of the teacher in the language classroom is to impart knowledge through activities such as explanation, writing and example

Tasks and activities should be negotiated and adapted to suit the students' needs 100 rather than imposed on them Group work activities have little use since it is very difficult for the teacher to monitor the students' performance and prevent them from using their mother tongue

A textbook alone is not able to cater for all the needs and interests of the students

The teacher must supplement the textbook with other

Table 8 Teachers’ understanding about CLT

As can be seen in the table 8, the teachers (100%) agree that group work activities are essential in providing opportunities for co-operative relationship to emerge and in promoting genuine interaction among students and the learner-centered approach to language teaching encourages responsibility and self-discipline and allows each student to develop his/her full potential They also think that group work allows students to explore problems for themselves and thus have some measures of control over their own learning

It is therefore an invaluable means of organizing classroom experiences and tasks and activities should be negotiated and adapted to suit the students' needs rather than imposed on them 100% of teachers also admit that a textbook alone is not able to cater for all the needs and interests of the students The teacher must supplement the textbook with other

All above reveal that the teachers had some understanding of the CLT approach

However, there remains some misconception about CLT because some concepts, principles, and characteristics in the question are uncertain from teachers‟ response This may lead to the teachers‟reluctance to adopt CLT in their teaching

Question 9 Which of the following activities are used and how often they are used when you teach a lesson in your class?

Writing vocabulary on the board and students copy down

Making sentences with new words 50 33 17

Explaining grammar rules or new structures

Doing role-plays/ Dramatizing the conversation

Playing games/ singing English songs 67 33

Discussing in pairs or group works 33 67

Table 9 The frequency of activities used in the classrooms

The aim of question 9 is about the frequency of activities used in classroom The information from the data collected that all teachers have tried to apply some communicative activities Over 50% even 100% of the teachers used communicative activities are very often and often as: Doing role-plays/ dramatizing the conversation,discussing in pairs or group works, substitution drills, and practicing dialogues However, 100% of the teachers still explain grammar rules or new structures because the grammar is

If teachers spend most of the time in teaching grammar or explaining new structures, this means that they are using the tranditional method in their teaching If they concentrate time for communicative activities; it means that they are trying to adopt CLT What and how they actually do in the class will be presented later in classroom observation results

* Question 10 When students make errors, you often:

Correct errors for all students 50

Correct as soon as your students make errors 67

Correct yourself all errors of your students 50

Ask students to correct errors for each other 50

Collect students‟errors and correct them later 33 Mark students‟ errors then students correct themselves 50

The data in table 10 presents that most teachers correct errors for all students and correct yourself all errors of your students 50% of the teachers mark students‟ errors then students correct themselves and ask students to correct errors for each other 67% of them correct as soon as your students make the errors They collect students‟ errors and correct them later (33%) This data shows that the way of correcting errors of the majority is contradicted with the theory about error correction of CLT

Question 11 Have you ever changed the position of the students’seat, tables, and benches for suitable lesson context?

Table 11: The frequency of change the position of students’seat, tables and benches for the lesson situations

As the table shows, 17% of the teachers sometimes and 83 % of them seldom change the position of students‟ seat, tables, and benches for suitable lesson context There are many ways to arrange the tables and chairs logically in the language classes as circle, horseshoe However; the space of classrooms and time of lesson are very limited; so it is not easy to carry out that

* Question12 You think that in the current textbook:

There should be more communicative activities 100

The number of communicative activities should be reduced 50 50 Communicative activities are relevant to your students' background knowledge

There is not enough time to cover all the activities, content, tasks, exercises in the textbook

The topics deal with current issues 83 17

The exercises/ tasks are a little bit long and difficult 50 50 The exercises / tasks are properly designed for CLT 100

There is not enough time to develop other CLT materials in the English classes

There should be more authentic materials 50 50

There are enough audio/ visual aids to use with the unit 100

Table 12.Teachers’ opinions about the currently-used textbook

Findings and recommendation

Findings

The results above show some factors that make the teaching at DH Secondary School less effective They can be classified into four main groups namely: difficulties from students, difficulties from teachers, difficulties arising from the testing system, and difficulties from the teaching and learning environment

The students‟ low level of English proficiency, limited motivation, passive learning styles and lack of confidence are constraints for the adoption of CLT

The application of CLT in class is constrained by the students' low English proficiency The teachers wanted to use the target language in teaching, but the students did not understand So the teachers had no other ways but choosing to speak Vietnamese or translate into Vietnamese The students will get used to waiting for the explanation from the teachers This leads to the passive learning style of the students In summary, it is the students' low level of English proficiency plus the limited time that hindered the application of CLT

The important of motivation to language learning is clear to all Motivation is related to success in second language learning Motivation is expressed through students‟ diligence and ardent participation in their lessons So the teachers meet difficulties in using reason for that is: as non-English language major students, they do not pay much attention to English In their mind, they have to learn English as it is a compulsory subject in the syllabus and not many of them really love English and learn it as a hobby

The passive learning style of the students hinders the application of CLT from success Influenced by Confucianism, students feel rude if they interrupt, question, or argue with their teacher In the classroom, students sit in silence unless the teacher calls them individually to speak Corrective feedback is part of the teacher‟s role in the classroom If the teacher does not give corrective feedback, the students will think that she is of poor competence

Lack of confidence of students also hinders the application of CLT from success

When students do not feel confident enough because of their lack of target language These lead to teachers‟difficulties in their teaching in some skills as: Speaking, listening

Although all the six teachers have applied CLT to their teaching, they still have some mis conceptions about it

The data collected from the questionnaire shows that four out of the six teachers believe that CLT is only used for speaking and listening skills

Some teachers think that they should provide students with all the language they need to complete a task In fact, in applying CLT, teachers can not know exactly what language the students will use If the teachers keep doing so, students will become lazy and less creative in learning

The misconception is that some teachers still believe that accuracy is more important than fluency This misconception leads to inappropriate ways of correcting mistakes If students make mistakes while performing their tasks, teachers often stop them immediately to correct This is really a threat to students‟ fluency and continuous thinking Some of the teachers themselves were not eager to apply CLT The students do not want to do communicative tasks and activities The exams do not consist of exercises relating to communicative tasks and activities This de-motivates the teachers to apply CLT

3.1.3 Difficulties arising from the testing system

The national grammar–focused exam influences the way of teaching At DH secondary School, teachers still use the grammar-translation method in their teaching in classroom It is the testing system that forces the teachers to teach the grammar regardless of whether they like or dislike CLT approach

The grammar–focused examinations affect the way of the students‟ learning The students are practical They concentrate on learning grammar, or linguistic forms and reluctant to complete communicative tasks/exercises/activities because the exam focuses mainly on grammar

3.1.4 Difficulties from the teaching and learning environment

As the researcher have already mentioned, English classes at DH secondary school consist of 40-50 students This was not an ideal condition for the teachers to carry out communicative approach Moreover, in a large and heterogeneous classes, it is really a big challenge for the teachers to help the weaker students and to keep the more advanced ones motivated at the same time

Lack of class time and teaching aids are also difficulties which is a barrier to the success of CLT application.

Recommendations

In order to reduce the difficulties faced by the teachers at DH secondary school in applying CLT in their teaching and help them have more successful in the lessons.In this part, the author just wants to present the recommendations based on the findings

To introduce CLT successfully in traditional language classrooms, students‟attitude toward English needs to change They should consider English as other subjects in the school curriculum In order to CLT becomes a norm in teaching English, Students should not resist this way of learning So, teachers need consciously reorient students to this method- CLT

When oral test has not been organized immediately and when the traditional test has not been changed to be more criteria- referenced to test grammar, vocabulary and reading skills more communicatively, one solution for this problem is to make students understand what they have learnt in the classroom is for future use, rather than for immediate use In this context, it is important to maintain a good balance between instruction, correction, and communication

Besides, other solutions should be applied to enhance the students‟ motivation The teachers should design realistic situations to enhance the students‟ motivation Hence, to increase the students‟ limited motivation, the teachers should invest more time and energy to search for the pictures or documents to illustrate the lesson, to make the lesson more attractive

Another solution to increase the students‟ motivation in learning English is to affect the students‟ psychological aspect Some effective ways that the teachers can apply in their classroom to enhance the learners‟ motivation They include: the teachers call the learners by names; the teachers appreciate highly the students’ opinion; tangible instructions and objectives are used in the class; praise and encouragement are produced appropriately to the learners To increase the students‟ motivation, the teacher must firstly make effort to understand the learners since the more the teachers understand them, the easier his/ her teaching will be

The students‟ low English proficiency cannot be improved immediately The teachers should try their best to make the lesson easier for the students to understand They should turn the difficult exercises into easier by finding the way to express the meanings or structures so that the students can understand easily They should design more tasks and activities that are suitable for the students‟ proficiency level

Finally the students‟ passive learning style also causes the difficulty for the application for the application of CLT The teachers should also praise the students when they give the right answers or have good ideas The teachers should appoint the weak students to speak or answer the easy questions or give them the simple tasks The teachers should praise the students at the right time and avoid criticizing them before the class when they give the wrong answers because this will make them lose their face and become more passive and influence negatively the students‟ participation in class These are some suggestions for teachers on error correction in class:

Collect errors made by the students and involve the whole class as much as possible in correction process

Help students understand why they are wrong by indicating that an error has been made, showing the students where the errors are and what kind of errors they are, getting students try again if they can get them right

Spend less time correcting what is only problem for one student and more time on

Do not interrupt students before he finishes his utterance because he will find it disconcerting or frustrating

Try not to repeat the errors, even in mocking, astonished way

The solution for this problem lies in the teachers themselves and the educational administrator and the government

The problem that the teachers are well-equipped with the knowledge of CLT can change unless the teachers want to change themselves It is necessary that educational administrators should organize more workshops or seminars on CLT The training courses or workshops will help motivate the teachers to apply what they have conceived there into their classroom

Beside the administrators‟ support, teachers should have effort to self study to gain knowledge Self study will be a good solution for increasing the teachers‟ knowledge They can achieve knowledge from different sources as: books, magazines, internet, radio

At present, the teachers‟ salary is low It does not ensure the teachers‟ life They have to work on their extra–time to earn more money, thus when the government increases their salary, the teachers will invest all their time and energy in teaching profession

3.2.3 Reform of the current English testing system

To facilitate innovations in teaching methodologies, there must be some macro- changes, the most significant of which is to reform the testing system In the near future, it can be foreseen that the grammar–based English examination in the educational system remains unchanged So a solution that seems feasible is to change the traditional test The traditional test can be changed to be more criterion–referenced to test grammar, vocabulary, and reading skills more communicatively

3.3.4 Improving the teaching and learning environment

The large mixed ability classes also hinder the teachers from applying CLT There are only ideal classes for adopting CLT in the far future when the government invests

In addition, the heterogeneous class is a constraint for the teachers to adopt CLT One solution for this problem is that the teachers should divide the students into groups which include both good and bad students and design tasks suitable for the students‟ level from easy to difficult This solution helps develop the co-operation among the students

“Designing tasks suitable for the students‟ level” is considered an effective solution for the heterogeneous classes

So far the study has gone through all the necessary stages

In the part A, „Introduction‟ is mentioned: rationable, aims, methods, scope and design of the study

Part B consists of Chapters one, two, and three

Chapter one reviews some theoretical backgrounds relating to the study, namely

„communicative activities, communicative language teaching, advantages of using CLT in teaching foreign language, problems of the application of CLT in teaching English as a foreign language, previous studies relating to CLT application,conditions related to CLT application‟

In chapter two, an overview of the reality of teaching English with CLT approach to grade 10 students at DH secondary school is presented from questionnaires for six teachers and three class observations