Output file VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ THU HIỀN EXPLORING ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES T[.]
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES - TRẦN THỊ THU HIỀN EXPLORING ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS AND EXPECTATIONS FOR TEACHERS’ CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES AT BIEN HOA SPECIALIZED HIGH SCHOOL, HA NAM Nghiên cứu thái độ kỳ vọng học sinh chuyên tiếng Anh việc giảng dạy giáo viên trường THPT Chuyên Biên Hoà, Hà Nam M.A Minor Thesis Field: English Methodology Code: 60 14 10 HANOI – 2010 z VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES - TRẦN THỊ THU HIỀN EXPLORING ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS AND EXPECTATIONS FOR TEACHERS’ CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES AT BIEN HOA SPECIALIZED HIGH SCHOOL, HA NAM Nghiên cứu thái độ kỳ vọng học sinh chuyên tiếng Anh việc giảng dạy giáo viên trường THPT Chuyên Biên Hoà, Hà Nam M.A Minor Thesis Field: English Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Cao Thúy Hồng, M.A HANOI – 2010 z v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS vii PART A INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale……………………………………………………… Aims of the study……………………………………………… Research questions……………………………………………… Scope of the study……………………………………………… Methods of the study…………………………………………… Significance of the study………………………………………… Format of the study……………………………………………… PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1 The learner-centered approach…………………………………… Basic Principles…………………………………………………… Benefits …………………………………………………………… I.2 Foreign language learners’ attitudes ………………………… Definition…………………………………………………………… Role of learners’ attitudes………………………………………… I.3 Foreign language learners’ expectation………………………… Definition………………………………………………………… Mismatch between teachers’ intentions and learners’ expectations Balancing the mismatch between teachers’ intentions and learners’ expectations………………………………………………………… I.4 Shape of an English lesson…………………………………… 12 Stages of a language lesson…………………………………… 12 Teacher’s roles in a language lesson…………………………………… 14 Role of teaching content/ materials in a language lesson…………… 15 z vi Role of language materials………………… …………… 15 Materials development…………………………………… 16 Common teaching activities in a language lesson CHAPTER II THE STUDY 17 20 II.1 Setting of the study…………………………………… 20 Brief introduction of the school…………………………………… 20 General situation of English teaching and learning in the school… 20 II.2 Subjects …………………………………… 21 II.3 Instruments……………………………………………………… 21 The survey questionnaire 22 The follow-up interview 23 II.4 Data analysis process………………………………………… 23 CHAPTER III DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 23 III.1 The Survey Questionnaire……………………………………… 24 III.1.1 Students’ general attitudes towards their language teachers’ roles and work in the classroom 24 III.1.1.1 Students’ general attitudes towards language teachers’ role in their learning III.1.1.2 Students’ general attitudes towards teachers’ work 24 24 III.1.2 Students’ levels of satisfaction with each of the teaching items carried out by the language teachers 25 III.1.3 English major students’ comments on teaching and learning materials provided by the teachers and their workload in English 27 III.1.4 English major students’ opinions on the frequency and quality of some specific teaching activities 28 III.1.5 English major students’ expectations for future teaching adjustments and improvement III.2 The follow-up interview……………………………………… 30 32 III.2.1 Reasons for satisfaction ……………………………………… 32 III.2.2 Reasons for dissatisfaction…………………………………… 32 III.2.3 Students’ other expectations………………………………… 33 CHAPTER IV RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BETTER LANGUAGE TEACHING AT ENGLISH MAJOR CLASSES IN THE SCHOOL z 34 vii IV.1 Recommendations for teaching language skills 35 To improve the teaching of listening skill 35 To improve the teaching of speaking skill 35 IV.2 Recommendations for selecting, editing and developing teaching materials 37 IV.3 Recommendations for applying specific teaching activities 37 PART C CONCLUSION 39 Summary of the study…………………………………………… 39 Limitations of the research…………………………………………… 39 Recommendations for further research …………………………… 40 REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX – Survey Questionnaire I APPENDIX - Interview Questions V APPENDIX – Table VI APPENDIX – Table VII z viii LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Charts Chart Students’ general attitudes towards language teachers’ role Chart Students’ general attitudes towards teachers’ work Chart Students’ levels of satisfaction with each of the teaching items performed by the language teachers Tables Table English major students’ comments on teaching and learning materials provided by the teachers and their workload in English Table English major students’ opinions on the frequency and quality of some specific teaching activities Table English major students’ expectations for future teaching adjustments and improvement z PART A INTRODUCTION Rationale Like in every part of the world, the practice of English teaching and learning in Vietnam has been more popular than ever before Many language teaching methods and approaches have been introduced and applied in the teaching and learning process, aiming at best achieving educational objectives In the view of modern language teaching and learning approaches, learners are widely recognized as a major factor determining the learning success; and learner motivation and autonomy is considered to be essential for successful language learning by most language teachers, as Gardner argues, a “motivated learner” is regarded as being: (a) eager to learn the language, (b) willing to expend effort on the learning activity, and (c) willing to sustain the learning activity (Gardner, 1985, p 10) It is, thus, stipulated that teachers make all efforts to motivate learners and stimulate their autonomy Research have shown that discovering learners‟ attitudes, beliefs, needs and expectations is really beneficial for teachers to develop appropriate teaching methods and adjust teaching activities, helping to bring about learners‟ satisfaction and more engagement in learning It is also widely known that in order to succeed in English teaching, teachers need to get and keep learners‟ attention and their positive participation (Davies, 2000, p.12); and that despite classroom teachers‟ efforts to make sure that their lessons are a success, sometimes things not work as well as they had planned (Jeremy, 1991) and then classroom problems may occur These problems can be student-caused, parent-caused, or administrator-caused (Jessup, 1971) Teachers are also identified as one of the problem- causing sources since the way they teach and behave has a profound influence on learners‟ attitudes which affect their learning either negatively or positively In order to create positive learning attitude, it is crucial to investigate learners‟ views on what and how teacher in the classroom so that appropriate adjustment in the teaching can be carried out to draw learners‟ highest level of concentration and participation in very lesson In my specific teaching context, the way we teach English is based on the combination of some modern language teaching approaches including learner-centered, skillbased and task-based to obtain the objectives of teaching language communicatively This requires my colleagues and me to work hard, design diverse teaching activities in our teaching process However, despite our efforts, sometimes we realize here and there our students lose interest in our lessons This makes us feel rather discouraged and wonder about z the effectiveness of each activity we use in the classroom Personally, the researcher strongly believes that designing learning tasks and teaching activities must be based on teachers‟ understanding of the students We must realize what they want to learn and how they want us to teach Thus, exploring our students‟ evaluation of our teaching, their attitudes and expectations for what and how we is really essential to improve the learning and teaching situation in the school in the next stage For all the above mentioned reasons, the writer upheld a strong desire to conduct a survey research on English major students‟ attitudes towards and expectations for teachers‟ classroom activities Aims of the study - to examine the school‟s English major students‟ attitudes towards their language teachers‟ classroom activities - to investigate the students‟ needs, interests and expectations for improvement in English teaching in these classes - to suggest necessary changes that the teachers should make in their teaching process to improve the English teaching and learning situation Research questions The study is carried out to find out the answers to the two main research questions: What are students‟ attitudes towards the teachers‟ way of teaching? What and how the students expect their teachers to change in their way of teaching in the future? It is clear that the former helps to learn about students‟ evaluation and reflection of what and how the teachers in the classrooms whereas the later helps to look over students‟ needs and expectations for teachers‟ future actions To work out the answer to the first major question, a number of minor questions need answers as well They are: (1) What are the students‟ general attitudes towards teachers‟ roles and work in the classroom? (2) What in the teachers‟ job the students feel satisfied with? Why? (3) What in the teachers‟ job the students feel dissatisfied with? Why? (4) How the students remark upon teaching and learning materials provided by the teachers and their workload in English? (5) What are the students‟ opinions on the frequency and quality of some specific teaching activities conducted by teachers in every lesson? z Scope of the study Teaching activities can be various and indefinite However, only activities that teachers normally conduct and perform in English lessons are taken into account in the study Besides, only English major students of three grades 10, 11 and 12 in the school are under investigation In addition, this study only concentrates on exploring their attitudes towards and expectations for what and how the teachers in the classroom Methods of the study During the process of collecting and analyzing the data for the research, both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed Specifically, the data were collected via means of a written survey questionnaire –typical of quantitative method; and a group interview - typical of qualitative method Significance of the study It is expected that the findings in the study will help the teachers in the school see the strong points and weak points of their work Information of the students‟ expectations may also be of great help to the teachers in considering developing appropriate teaching methods, adopting eligible techniques and adapting suitable activities so as to improve the teaching and learning situation All in all, the study is hoped to be greatly significant in improving the English learning and teaching situation in the school Format of the study The study is organized into three parts The first part, Introduction, provides all the information about the rationale, aims, scope, significance and format of the study Research questions and methodology are also identified in this part The second part, Development, consists of four chapters The first chapter, Theoretical Background, reviews relevant literatures In the next chapter, The study, the setting, subjects, instruments and data analysis process of the study is presented The third chapter is devoted to a detailed description of Data analysis and discussion And the last chapter, namely Recommendations for better language teaching at English major classes in the school, puts forward some recommendations for better teaching at English major classes of the school The last part, Conclusion, presents not only a summary but also some limitations of the research and gives some suggestions for further study z PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Identifying and carrying out necessary teaching adjustments by the way of investigating students‟ attitudes and expectations partially shows learner-centeredness in the teaching and learning process Thus, relevant literature regarding the learner-centered approach and learners’ attitudes and expectations in foreign language learning will be reviewed in this chapter Some issues concerning teaching activities in foreign language lessons are also discussed in the chapter I.1 The learner-centered approach A lot of changes in education have taken place as a result of changes in educational objectives to meet the new demands of the current time and bring about better learning and teaching outcomes One of the observable changes in education is the shift in focus from teachers to learners in the teaching and learning process Although “learner-centeredness” is not a new concept in the world, it has been popularly developed and widely applied in education and especially in language teaching and learning for only several decades In Vietnam, learner-centered teaching has been recently encouraged and promoted for a number of years The approach has been asserted and confirmed as a big and essential renovation in education since 1986, at the 6th congress of Communist Party of Vietnam Basic Principles In terms of principle, the learner-centered approach emphasizes the central role of learners in all classroom activities It is stated that learning is totally determined by learners According to Campbell (1992, pp.5-6), the main principle of learner-based teaching is that “all class activities can be done using information that the learners themselves bring to class” In his view, students bring a lot with them to the classroom They all have ideas, opinions, experiences and areas of expertise All of this is important to them What they need from the English classroom is the language to express all this, and there by themselves This viewpoint is shared and backed up by many scholars Holliday (1994, p.167) adds that the experience and knowledge students bring to the classroom is of great value to the learning process and must be capitalized and built upon Learner-based teaching focuses on encouraging learners to express their ideas freely and “all of the activities, even grammar practice, are based on “here and now” of the learners” (Campbell, 1992, p.8) Thus, it can be said that every activity in learner-centered z ... research on English major students? 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