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Output file Vietnam national university, Hanoi University of Languages and international studies Department of Post graduate Studies DIỆP THỊ HỒNG LIÊN MA MINOR THESIS Challenges in teaching English T[.]
Vietnam national university, Hanoi University of Languages and international studies Department of Post-graduate Studies DIỆP THỊ HỒNG LIÊN MA MINOR THESIS Challenges in teaching English To Ethnic minority students in a mountainous province (Những thách thức việc dạy tiếng Anh cho học sinh dân tộc thiểu số tỉnh miền núi) Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Cohort: MA 17 Supervisor: Phạm Minh Tâm, MA Hanoi, 2010 z iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Headings Pages Declaration …………………………………………………………………… i Acknowledgment …………………………………………………………… ii Abstract …………………………………………………………………… iii Table of contents …………………………………………………… iv Abbreviations vii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study ………………………………………………… 1.2 Aims of the study ……………………………………………………… 1.3 Significance of the study ………………………………………………… 1.4 Scope of the study ……………………………………………………… 1.5 Methodology …………………………………………………………… 1.6 Organization of the study ……………………………………………… CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 An overview on English Language Teaching Methods …………… 2.1.1 The Grammar - Translation Method 2.1.1.1 Introduction …………………………………………… 2.1.1.2 Advantages of the Grammar -Translation Method ……… 2.1.1.3 Disadvantages of the Grammar -Translation Method …… 2.1.2 The Audio-Lingual Method 2.1.2.1 Introduction ……………………………………………… 2.1.2.2 Advantages of the Audio-Lingual Method ……………… 2.1.2.3 Disadvantages of the Audio-Lingual Method …………… 2.1.3 Communicative Language Teaching 2.1.3.1 Introduction ……………………………………………… 2.1.3.2 Advantages of Communicative Language Teaching …… 2.1.3.3 Disadvantages of Communicative Language Teaching … 10 2.2 Common classroom activities associated with Communicative z v Language Teaching 2.2.1 Accuracy versus fluency activities ……………… ……… …… 11 2.2.2 Mechanical, meaningful, and communicative practice …… 13 2.2.3 Information-gap activities ………………………………… 13 2.2.4 Jig-saw activities …………………………………………… 14 2.2.5 Other activity types in CLT ………………………………… 14 2.3 Proficiency in the native language and the second language, and the acquisition of a third language 2.3.1 Definitions ………………………………………………… 15 2.3.2 The influence of proficiency in the native language and the 16 second language on the acquisition of a third language … CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research setting 3.1.1 An overview of the research site ………………………… 18 3.1.2 Description of the teachers of English …………………… 18 3.1.3 The students …………………………………………… 19 3.1.4 The materials of teaching and learning ………………… 19 20 3.2 Research questions 3.3 Participants 3.3.1 Population ……………………………………………… 20 3.3.2 Sampling ……………………………………………… 20 3.3.3 Detailed description of participants …………………… 21 3.4 Data Collection Instruments 3.4.1 Interviews …………………………………………… 21 3.4.2 Classroom observations ……………………………… 22 3.5 Data Collection Procedure ………………………………… 22 3.6 Data Analysis Procedure …………………………………… 23 CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Research question ………………………………………… z 25 vi 4.2 Research question …………………………………………… 29 4.3 Conclusive remarks …………………………………………… 32 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary of major findings ………………………………… 33 5.2 Recommendations 5.2.1 Adjusting teaching to learners’ needs ………………… 34 5.2.2 Adapting the textbooks ……………………………… 35 5.2.3 Motivating students to learn ………………………… 35 5.2.4 Having ethnic minority teachers to teach English for their 36 students in their communities …………………………… 5.2.5 Improving teaching conditions …………………………… 36 5.3 Limitations of the study ………………………………………… 37 5.4 Suggestions for further study …………………………………… 37 References …………………………………………………………… 38 Appendices Appendix A Interview Protocols for Teachers …… I Appendix B Observational protocol …………………… III z vii ABBREVIATIONS GTM: Grammar Translation Method ALM: Audio-Lingual Method CLT: Communicative Language Teaching L1: the first language L2: the second language L3: the third language z CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study The ever-growing need for good communication skills in English has created a huge demand for English teaching around the world The result is that its status in education system and settings is an extraordinary one (Rossner and Bolitho, 1990, p 5) In correspondence to this trend, in Vietnam, the importance of English as a language of international communication has been acknowledged by the Government; English teaching and learning have been given more and more priority English is considered as a compulsory subject in the school curriculum in recognition that “it can contribute to students’ personal, linguistic, social, and cultural development” (Canh, 2004, p.167) Ministry of Education and Training in Vietnam (2006) has stated that the objective of language teaching is teaching learners to communicate fluently, appropriately and spontaneously in the cultural context of the target language To meet the demand of learners of English, teachers of English in Vietnam have been trying to catch up with the world’s latest frameworks of English Language Teaching as well as to find out the most suitable and effective method of teaching English with the hope of providing learners with a means of communication, namely English which is vital for them to be successful in their job and to fulfill their social demands in the time of globalization In Hoa Binh mountainous province, where the author has been working for over fifteen years, English is a compulsory subject in the curriculum and it is considered as one of the major subjects for the high school final examination English is taught with the purpose to give students some basic knowledge of English in order to communicate and use it as a key to science and technology However, there still exist many difficulties facing teachers in teaching English to students, especially those from ethnic minorities It can be observed that ethnic minority students’ scores are very low in English Less than per cent earn good marks, even in the national graduation exams (Hoa Binh Department of Education and Training, 2008; 2009) Furthermore, according to one high school teacher of English, the majority of ethnic minority students can understand forty per cent of teachers’ lectures in Vietnamese In some remote areas, lower level students understand less than 20 per cent of what teachers say in z Vietnamese (“Minority Students Need”, 2008) Ethnic minority students mainly use their mother tongues – Muong, Thai, Hmong, Tay and other languages - to communicate inside their families and small communities From first grade onward, at school and in public places, ethnic minority students have to struggle with Vietnamese to study and communicate with other people This is why not many can understand lectures, even at high school, because they not thoroughly comprehend Vietnamese - and very few teachers can explain things to them in their native languages (“Ethnic Schools Lack”, 2007) Thus, studying English language in addition to Vietnamese language might be very challenging for ethnic minority students Furthermore, other problems are compounded by poor living conditions, poorlyfurnished classrooms, scarce access to supporting materials and facilities, limited access to the target language, etc As a result, many ethnic minority students fail to make progress in learning the language and the quality of English language education for ethnic minority students remains unsatisfactory for communicative purposes All of these problems might make teachers feel frustrated in teaching English to ethnic minority students, and in developing students' communicative competence in English The point is that if we leave this problem unsolved, there will be a likelihood of loading teachers of English with teaching to ethnic minority students of limited proficiency in English language, and pushing students into being fed up with learning English This fact has given the author an impetus to the research on challenges in teaching English to ethnic minority high school students in Hoa Binh province with the hope to find out the solutions to these problems and to make a small contribution to improve the quality of teaching English to ethnic minority students in a mountainous province Aims of the study The study aims at investigating the areas of challenges in teaching English to ethnic minority high school students in Hoa Binh mountainous province Also, it is expected that some solutions to overcome challenges encountered will be suggested To be more specific, in realizing this study, the objectives are: To investigate the areas of challenges that the teachers have encountered when teaching English to ethnic minority students z To offer some solutions with the hope of helping English language teachers in Hoa Binh province overcome those difficulties, improve the quality of their teaching, which later helps improve ethnic minority students’ language learning quality 1.3 Significance of the study The study is hoped to be beneficial to both teachers and ethnic minority students in mountainous high schools First, findings of the study could be shared among teachers of English to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the coming years Next, it might highlight the rationale for professional development programs for high school teachers of English in mountainous areas in Vietnam Finally, the findings could be used as a data base for further study 1.4 Scope of the study This study, as stated earlier, addresses challenges that teachers of English have faced when teaching English to ethnic minority high school students in Hoa Binh province In addition, the study is to find out the possible solutions which help teachers of English improve the quality of their teaching To keep the study in manageable size, the study has been delimited only to English language teachers of Hoa Binh Ethnic Minority Boarding High School and two high schools in the remote districts 1.5 Methodology The study employed qualitative approach Data were collected via interviews and classroom observations: - Interviewing teachers of English to clarify challenges raised in their teaching to ethnic minority students - Having classroom observations to get information about both teachers’ ways of teaching and students’ ways of learning in class as well as to ascertain the prevalent problems forwarded by the teachers during the interviews 1.6 Organization of the study This study consists of five parts: Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Results & Discussion, and Conclusion z Chapter one Introduction - presents the rationale, aims, significance, scope, methodology, and organization of the study Chapter two Literature Review - provides a theoretical basis for the study Chapter three Methodology - includes an overview of the approach used in conducting the study It also provides a thorough description of the data collection procedure as well as the analytical procedure Chapter four Results and Discussion - reports the findings of the study and discusses the prominent aspects Chapter five Conclusion – presents the conclusions of major findings, recommendations, limitations for the study, and suggestions for further studies z CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 An overview on Language Teaching Methods In the discussion of the history of language teaching methods, it can be understandable that a teaching method which may be effective at one point of time in history may still be ineffective at the other point This dynamic character of the language teaching goals makes the history of foreign language teaching ever-changing, ever- adapting Moreover, one method is replaced by another it does not mean that the former is worse than the latter and will be thrown into the wastebasket of history It only means that the replaced method fails to correspond to a certain need at a certain time in history As a result, the history of foreign language teaching methods is not the history of replacement of one method by another Rather, it would be the history of adding one new method to the treasury of existing methods A number of methods have been evolved for the teaching of English and also other foreign languages in the recent past; however, in Vietnam three methods which enjoy significant use and dominate the language teaching are the Grammar – Translation, the Audio-lingual method, and the Communicative Language Teaching These methods are now discussed in this thesis as follows 2.1.1 The Grammar – Translation Method 2.1.1.1 Introduction Grammar – Translation Method (GMT) was in fact first known in the United States as the Prussian Method (A book by B.Sears, an American classics teacher, published in 1845 was entitled The Ciceronian or the Prussian Method of Teaching the Elements of the Latin Language [Kelly 1969] The Grammar Translation method embraced a wide range of approaches but, broadly speaking, it viewed foreign language study as a “mental discipline” (Richards & Rodgers, 1996) The Grammar Translation Method focused on grammatical analysis and translation It theorized that students acquire a foreign language by learning and explaining grammar rules According to Prator and Celce-Murcia (1979, p.3), the key features of the Grammar Translation Method were that: Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target language z ... students in a mountainous province Aims of the study The study aims at investigating the areas of challenges in teaching English to ethnic minority high school students in Hoa Binh mountainous province. .. of English to clarify challenges raised in their teaching to ethnic minority students - Having classroom observations to get information about both teachers’ ways of teaching and students? ?? ways... proficiency in English language, and pushing students into being fed up with learning English This fact has given the author an impetus to the research on challenges in teaching English to ethnic minority