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Output file VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES BY LÊ THANH CƯỜNG TEACHERS’ AND INSPECTORS’ PERCEPTIONS OF AN EFFEC[.]
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES BY: LÊ THANH CƯỜNG TEACHERS’ AND INSPECTORS’ PERCEPTIONS OF AN EFFECTIVE ENGLISH LESSON NHẬN THỨC CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ THANH TRA VỀ MỘT GIỜ DẠY TIẾNG ANH HIỆU QUẢ Minor Programme Thesis Field: Language Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 HA NOI – 2010 z VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES BY: LÊ THANH CƯỜNG TEACHERS’ AND INSPECTORS’ PERCEPTIONS OF AN EFFECTIVE ENGLISH LESSON NHẬN THỨC CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ THANH TRA VỀ MỘT GIỜ DẠY TIẾNG ANH HIỆU QUẢ Minor Programme Thesis Field: Language Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Lê Văn Canh, MA HA NOI – 2010 z iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Research questions 3 Methods of the study Scope of the study The design of the thesis PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Effective teaching 1.2 Teaching evaluation 1.3 Observation as a tool to evaluate teaching 1.4 Criteria for evaluating lesson effectiveness 10 1.5 Summary 13 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 2.1 The context 15 2.1.1 An overview of present curriculum and textbooks in upper-secondary school context ……………………………………………………………………………… 15 2.1.2 Observation and teaching evaluation practice in upper-secondary context 15 2.2 The participants 16 2.3 Method of data collection 17 2.4 Data analysis 17 2.4.1 Teachers’ perceptions 18 z v 2.4.1.1 Teachers’ general perceptions of MOET’s evaluation criteria 18 2.4.1.2 Teachers’ interpretation of MOET’s evaluation criteria 18 2.4.1.3 Teachers’ suggestions about criteria for an effective lesson 24 2.4.2 Inspectors’ perceptions 26 2.4.2.1 Inspectors’ general perceptions of MOET’s evaluation criteria 26 2.4.2.2 Inspectors’ interpretations of MOET’s evaluation criteria 26 2.4.2.3 Inspectors’ suggestions about criteria for an effective lesson 30 2.4.3 Convergences and divergences between teachers’ and inspectors’ perceptions 2.4.3.1 Convergences 31 2.4.3.2 Divergences 33 2.5 Discussion of the findings 34 PART C: CONCLUSION Conclusions 38 Implications 39 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research 40 References……………………………………………………………………………41… Appendices……………………………………………………………………………I-V z PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale We are living in a changing world in which new developments are affecting every aspect of life Now is the era of global integration with “new social movements that requires special considerations” (Canagarajah, 2006, p.24) In this context English has occupied its unrivalled position of a language used as a medium of international communication English becomes “one of the most important means for acquiring access to the world intellectual and technical resources” and it “enables learners to access more advanced and up-to-date resources than they can in their native language” (Canh, 2003, p.36) The important role of English language in the modern life highlights the need for enhancing the quality of English language learning and teaching More and more researchers, scholars, educational administrators and teachers are taking interest in the matter of effective English teaching The factors that help to promote effective teaching then have received increased attention Classroom observation is a common practice in every school It captures information about how teachers deliver their lessons and it is considered as the most commonly used tool not only for evaluating teachers but also for fostering their profession development (Minhis, as cited in Office of Institutitional Analysis & Planning [OIAP], 2007) According to O’Leary (as cited in Leshem & Bar-Hama, 2008), “classroom observation has occupied a prominent role in terms of its use as a tool by which to jugde and subsequently promote good practice” (p.261) However, it is becoming more of a challenge to teaching evaluation through classroom observation in the present picture of language learning and teaching The picture now is very complicated as contextual factors such as different objectives, resources, support for professional development, student motivation, etc …are influential in teaching process (OIAP, 2007) This should be taken into account when teaching evaluation is carried out It should be noted that a number of problems arising in the practice of evaluating teachers’ teaching have been identified by lots of researchers According to Bath (as cited in Sawa, 1995), conventional teaching evaluation often manifests itself as “a meaningless ritual, or even worse, it becomes a recurring occasion to heighten anxiety and discomfort among teachers involved” (p.2) This may emerge from the fact that observers tend to use themselves as a standard and they observe impressionistically (Sheal, 1989) This is echoed z by Bailey (2002) when he states that teachers have sometimes felt like objects whose behaviour and key decisions were shaped by dominant views of observers who may not be aware of the daily practice of a particular language classroom Leshem and Bar-Hama (2008) also mention the same problem when they point out that observations tend to be subjective and are based on the observers’ own teaching approach, which can create biased results In upper-secondary schools in Vietnam, the evaluation of teachers’ teaching is carried out on a regular basis The most important source of information used to the evaluation is collected by means of classroom observation which has received increased concern from educational administrators, inspectors and teachers themselves This is because criteria for evaluation are not specific, and evaluation is, therefore, more subjective and based on the evaluators’ intuition Also, teaching evaluation in upper-secondary school context is facing challenges on account of considerable changes in language teaching The new textbooks with new guidelines on teaching have been introduced into this educational environment in replacement of the old-fashioned ones The evaluation of teachers’ performance in class, however, has not yet responded well to the change What guides inspectors’ evaluation of teachers’ performance is a set of general criteria for lesson evaluation regulated by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) These criteria for teaching evaluation have been administered for all subjects, so they potentially lack subject sensitivity element It should be noted that sensible teaching evaluation with constructive comments from the observers can exert positive impact on teachers’ teaching skills The quality of teaching evaluation, to a large extent, depends on teachers’ and inspectors’ perceptions of what constitute effective teaching This matter has been researched in the field of language teaching For example, Griffits (2004) considers teacher perceptions very important as they potentially influence the effectiveness of teaching process From the reasons mentioned above, it is urgent and necessary to explore the viewpoints that teachers and inspectors hold about criteria for an effective language lesson Up to now, there has been little research into this thought process in upper-secondary school context This study is intended to move toward that goal It is hoped that the findings of the study will make a positive contribution to the improvement in teaching evaluation practice in high school context, which is of great significance to teacher professional growth z Research questions The research questions which guide this study are as follows: - What are teachers’ and inspectors’ perceptions of an effective English lesson in upper-secondary school context? - What suggestions are made on the criteria for evaluating an English lesson in uppersecondary school context? - What are the implications for language teaching and teaching evaluation practice in upper-secondary school context? Method of the study The qualitative research method was adopted for this study to explore the uppersecondary school teachers’ and inspectors’ perceptions of an effective lesson Specifically, semi-structured interviews with teachers and inspectors were undertaken to collect data for analysis and discussion Scope of the study The study focuses on discovering teachers’ and inspectors’ perceptions of an effective English lesson in Hai Duong provincial upper-secondary school context Aspects explored center on the evaluation criteria for an effective lesson mandated by MOET The design of the thesis The study is divided into parts Part A is an introduction to the research, in which matters such as rationale, method of study and research questions are presented Part B is the development of the study in which there are chapters, chapter and chapter Chapter reviews the relevant literature on the matters of effective teaching, teaching evaluation, observation and criteria for lesson effectiveness Ideas from the researchers in the field have been discussed to create a theoretical framework for the study Chapter presents the context of the study, the participants and data collection method This is followed by the analysis of the data collected and discussion of the findings Part C provides conclusions of the study findings and the implications for language teaching and teaching evaluation in upper-secondary school context Also, in this part, the limitations and suggestions for further research are included z PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction This chapter reviews the relevant literature on teaching evaluation It first discusses what effective teaching is, then teaching evaluation This is followed by a discussion of the limitations of evaluating teaching solely through classroom observations Finally, criteria for evaluating teaching are reviewed 1.1 Effective teaching Effective teaching is the topic that concerns lots of researchers, educational administrators and teachers What discussed below is the matter of effective teaching in terms of teaching materials, teaching methods, class management and student learning outcome Teaching materials Teaching materials are among the components that constitute effective teaching Teachers need materials to carry out their instructional practice Effective teaching needs good materials Researchers are currently putting a great emphasis on the use of meaningful materials in a language class According to Siser (2008), meaningful materials are the ones that are relevant to students, reflecting real life issues and problems The more meaningful materials are to students, the quicker and easier they will be learned In addition to this, the content embedded in materials should be varied, natural and authentic, so that students feel they are working on tasks in real life (Kusuma & Powell, 2004) Rivers (2003) also voices his favour of the use of materials that focus on the use of natural language He states that it is good to provide students with practice in using the language for everyday life communication This is opposed to the unnatural types of drills and practice exercises which are still widely used in many teaching contexts Learners in different contexts vary in their learning styles, language proficiency or learning needs Rivers (2003) says that learning and teaching are shaped by student needs and objectives in particular circumstances Therefore, materials should be designed to care about learners’ particularities They should not be too challenging to students in terms of linguistic knowledge but should be interesting enough to motivate them in their learning Similarly, Martin (2005) encourages teachers to take the responsibilities of adapting z materials to suite their learners According to him, teachers need to add, for example, extra necessary language knowledge or topics if their students want or need Teaching methods Effective teaching results from the way the lesson is delivered to students This requires teachers to have good instructional skills to make it easy for students to attain the target language knowledge as well as to develop their language skills Pellino (2009) identifies four loads as barriers to meaningful instructions, namely cognitive load, culture load, language load and learning load, and that it is the job of the teacher to lower these barriers, helping students to overcome them Appropriate techniques need to be devised to construct understanding, and reinforce their interest in their learning process Obviously, to teach effectively, teachers need to be flexible in their delivery of the lesson What guides their teaching practice is not only the body of theoretical knowledge in the field of language teaching but also the reality of their classroom According to Rivers (2003) teachers should develop and strengthen their own way of proceeding in relation to the needs and individual strengths of their students in their own context It is teachers who have control over their decision making process, which vary with changing circumstances In a similar vein, Martin (2005) emphasizes the need to make changes to the lesson plan because learners vary in learning backgrounds and language proficiency Teachers should modify activities and the tasks if they realize that they are far from being appropriate in the class In other words, teachers should be sensitive to their particular students This is echoed by Sizer (2009) when he states that good teaching does not mean fixed teaching and that teachers should be flexible with changing circumstances According to him, successful teaching does not mean all matters in the lesson are fully covered In some particular teaching situations, the lesson delivered is still considered effective even though the teacher cannot go through all the tasks and activities intended to be dealt with A single best method may not exist in modern language teaching environment Effective teachers know how to combine different methods in their teaching in order to yield good learning outcome According to Ganguly (2003), effective teachers use techniques that best serve the learning styles of their students Students not only learn by being exposed to learning opportunities but they also need to be explicitly taught what important for them to know What can be inferred is that direct or indirect explanation is not effective on its own In fact, the combination of the two is a fair solution Rivers (2003) z is also in favour of the combination of methods in teaching According to him, no method claims to stand on its own in modern language learning and teaching environment Researchers also focus on the importance of moving from simple tasks to complex ones in class Students will feel learning more rewarding if they have the opportunity to master the simple concepts first, then complex ones However, the final goal of every language course is that students know how to use language they have learnt for different purposes in communication (Martin, 2005) The practice of grammar structures with isolated meanings does not prepare the learners for meaningful use of language Instead, language practice should be close to real communication According to Rivers (2003), teachers should provide students with opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills to new situations Similarly, Martin (2005) puts an emphasis on the need to proceed from more controlled activities to less controlled ones in the class Class management Class management is one of the important aspects that determine the success of teaching What is meant by effective classroom management is that teachers are aware of their different roles in class They should take a suitable role at each stage of the lesson and should be flexible in what they to keep class activities not only in discipline but also in relaxed atmosphere According to Yen (2006), the good language teacher should realize that the language teaching does not merely go in hand with the mastery of grammar rules and expansion of vocabulary but there are also many important tools that affect or even promote language teaching For example, some knowledge of psychology brings about not only behaviour success at mastering language, but also cognitive success and increased confidence Kusuma & Powell (2004) make the same point when stating that what teachers are encouraged to is to set up a positive classroom environment that will support future interaction and collaboration between teacher and students and between students themselves It is for sure that the positive classroom environment is one of the decisive factors that contribute to satisfactory learning outcome Martin (2005) postulates that students will learn more easily in the environments in which anxiety is lessened and selfconfidence and self-esteem can be developed Similarly, Kusuma & Powell (2004) state that students learn best if they are in a classroom where they feel safe and confident to attempt new tasks z ... the quality of English language learning and teaching More and more researchers, scholars, educational administrators and teachers are taking interest in the matter of effective English teaching... knowledge of language, their command of practical English, students’ needs and their practice for language use According to them, successful teachers usually: - have a practical command of English, ... the mastery of grammar rules and expansion of vocabulary but there are also many important tools that affect or even promote language teaching For example, some knowledge of psychology brings about