EFL Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices on the Use of Interactive Activities in Reading Classes at Tertiary Level: A Case Study at A Local University in Vietnam.

EFL Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices on the Use of Interactive Activities in Reading Classes at Tertiary Level: A Case Study at A Local University in Vietnam.EFL Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices on the Use of Interactive Activities in Reading Classes at Tertiary Level: A Case Study at A Local University in Vietnam.EFL Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices on the Use of Interactive Activities in Reading Classes at Tertiary Level: A Case Study at A Local University in Vietnam.EFL Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices on the Use of Interactive Activities in Reading Classes at Tertiary Level: A Case Study at A Local University in Vietnam.EFL Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices on the Use of Interactive Activities in Reading Classes at Tertiary Level: A Case Study at A Local University in Vietnam.EFL Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices on the Use of Interactive Activities in Reading Classes at Tertiary Level: A Case Study at A Local University in Vietnam.EFL Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices on the Use of Interactive Activities in Reading Classes at Tertiary Level: A Case Study at A Local University in Vietnam.EFL Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices on the Use of Interactive Activities in Reading Classes at Tertiary Level: A Case Study at A Local University in Vietnam.EFL Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices on the Use of Interactive Activities in Reading Classes at Tertiary Level: A Case Study at A Local University in Vietnam.EFL Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices on the Use of Interactive Activities in Reading Classes at Tertiary Level: A Case Study at A Local University in Vietnam.EFL Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices on the Use of Interactive Activities in Reading Classes at Tertiary Level: A Case Study at A Local University in Vietnam.MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES NGUYEN THI LE HANG EFL TEACHERS’ BELIEFS AND PRACTICES ON THE USE OF INTERACTIVE ACTIVITIES.

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES NGUYEN THI LE HANG EFL TEACHERS’ BELIEFS AND PRACTICES ON THE USE OF INTERACTIVE ACTIVITIES IN READING CLASSES AT TERTIARY LEVEL: A CASE STUDY AT A LOCAL UNIVERSITY IN VIETNAM DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING HUE, 2022 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES NGUYEN THI LE HANG EFL TEACHERS’ BELIEFS AND PRACTICES ON THE USE OF INTERACTIVE ACTIVITIES IN READING CLASSES AT TERTIARY LEVEL: A CASE STUDY AT A LOCAL UNIVERSITY IN VIETNAM CODE: 14 01 11 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY O F ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING Supervisor Dr Bao Kham Supervisor Assoc Prof Dr Do Minh Hung HUE, 2022 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ NGUYỄN THỊ LỆ HẰNG NIỀM TIN VÀ THỰC TIỄN TRIỂN KHAI HOẠT ĐỘNG TƯƠNG TÁC TRONG LỚP ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH Ở BẬC ĐẠI HỌC: NGHIÊN CỨU TRƯỜNG HỢP GIẢNG VIÊN TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC ĐỊA PHƯƠNG Ở VIỆT NAM MÃ SỐ: 14 01 11 LUẬN ÁN TIẾN SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC TS BẢO KHÂM PGS.TS ĐỖ MINH HÙNG HUẾ, 2022 DECLARATION I certify that the present thesis submitted today entitled “EFL Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices on the Use of Interactive Activities in Reading Classes at Tertiary Level: A Case Study at A Local University in Vietnam” for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in theory and methodology in English language teaching, is the result of my own research, and has not been submitted for a higher degree at any other institutions, colleges, or universities To the best of my knowledge and beliefs, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by other people except where the reference is made in the thesis itself Hue, 2022 Author’s signature: i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS On my Ph.D journey, I received a lot of assistance and support from beloved people who worked diligently to help me, believed in me and guided me at every stage of conducting the research Hereby, I would like to express my most sincere thanks to those willingly contributing their professional and academic knowledge to helping me complete this study First of all, I would like to send my deepest gratitude to my chief supervisor Dr Bao Kham who has wholeheartedly and enthusiastically supervised me and guided my research from the initial days with a lot of difficulties, through the stages of formulating the proposal, collecting and analyzing data, presenting papers at the scientific panels, writing the first draft of my thesis, then revising and editing, and finally completing my PhD thesis His support and encouragement inspired and motivated me a lot throughout this hard journey Without him, I could not reach the destination of this PhD thesis completion and submission I would also like to express my great gratitude to my second supervisor - Assoc Prof Dr Do Minh Hung, who, although lives very far from me, gives me a lot of valuable instructions and feedback to every step of the study and to various versions of this thesis with the whole-hearted support and words of wisdom I saw myself fortunate to have him as a mentor for this work Honestly speaking, but for his support, my thesis would not be in its final shape as it is now I would also like to extend my sincere gratitude to Assoc Prof Dr Pham Thi Hong Nhung and management board as well as the lecturers of Faculty of English, University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Hue University for wholeheartedly and dedicatedly supporting and guiding me during the processes required to complete my study program Their support, encouragement, and willingness as the scientific panel’s members brought me huge benefit in broadening my scope of investigation, and helped me to reach the completion of the thesis I would also like to convey my thankfulness to the advisory panel’s members and all examiners who gave me a lot of insightful and valuable comments and suggestions for improving the quality of my thesis I highly appreciated their questions and inquiries ii that contributed to sharpening my mind and providing me with bright ideas to improve my thesis on the right track I owe big thanks to my former rector and my current rector, as well as my colleagues at the university and the Foreign Language Faculty where I am serving my teaching job for their on-going support and sympathy with my hard work In addition, I would like to express my thankfulness to all of the participating teachers who voluntarily and patiently accompanied me during a long time of my data collection process Their voluntary participation in the interviews and their permission for my observation and audio-recording of their reading classes contributed a lot to my data findings It is no doubt that the results I achieve today partially depended on them My PhD journey would not be successfully completed without my family’s encouragement, assistance and support Therefore, my special appreciation goes to my beloved parents, my husband, and my two children for their unconditional support and love My husband has been the most patient and supportive partner who was always by my side whenever I was in need He encouraged me unfailingly with kind words, motivated me, and especially had definite confidence in me From deep within my heart, I send my profound gratitude to all of my big family members who gave me unconditional love, sacrifice and care during my hard journey to complete my PhD thesis Without their support and motivation, I could not overcome all of the difficulties to become a better me now Deepest and most sincere thanks from the bottom of my heart! iii ABSTRACT This thesis adopted Mo’s (2020) system of teachers’ beliefs in teaching reading skills for EFL tertiary students with the purpose of investigating teachers’ beliefs and practices of using interactive activities (IAs) in teaching reading skills to EFL tertiary students in a Vietnamese teaching context This study was carried out with three EFL teachers from a local public university in the northern central region of Vietnam To seek for the answers to the research questions posed, the researcher gathered data from three data collection instruments which formed a triangulation of this research including in-depth interviews, classroom observations, and stimulated recall interviews It was shown in the findings of the study that EFL teachers perceived the use of IAs in teaching reading subject through their beliefs of goals, beliefs of principles, beliefs of contexts and beliefs of the teachers’ roles In addition, the findings revealed that the teacher participants used IAs in their reading classes in different ways Most of what they believed was consistent with the ways they acted in actual practices of teaching the chosen subject However, there still existed some inconsistencies due to the impact of certain factors as addressed in the thesis This study, as the researcher’s intention, does not aim at giving any generalization to the whole context of the EFL teaching and learning in Vietnam; however, it is expected to depict the picture of EFL teaching in some similar Vietnamese context It is significant in helping Vietnamese EFL teachers have a deeper understanding about foreign language teaching and learning in tertiary education at local universities, which hopefully helps the policy makers have a better view on the whole picture of teaching foreign languages in Vietnam In addition, some implications for whom the study may concern, and some recommendations for future research are also presented iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ELT : English language teaching CI : Classroom Interaction IAs : Interactive activities CEFR : The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages SCT : Sociocultural Theory EFL : English as a Foreign Language ESL : English as a Second Language L1 : First language/ Mother tongue L2 : Second language FL : Foreign Language MoET : Ministry of Education and Training v LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 2.1 Interaction and Collaboration Among Learners, Peers, and Teacher in an EFL Context (Behroozizad et al., 2014, p.222) 13 Figure 2.2 Variables that affect reading performance 17 Figure 2.3 Categories of Teachers’ Beliefs (Burn, 1996) 26 Figure 2.4: Teachers’ beliefs system by Mo (2020) 27 Figure 3.1 Data triangulation paradigm 53 Figure 3.2 Thematic analysis Guideline (Braun & Clarke, 2006) 62 Figure 3.3 Data Transcription and Analysis Procedure .65 Figure 4.1 Analysis of Teachers’ beliefs of using IAs in teaching 71 EFL Reading Comprehension skills 71 LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Description of scaffolding means in language teaching .14 Table 3.1 Criteria for researcher’s choosing qualitative research approach .43 Table 3.2 Information of the teacher participants .49 Table 5.1 A Summary of main interactive reading activities used in Lisa’s observed reading classes 101 Table 5.2 A Summary of main interactive reading activities used in Rosie’s observed reading classes 107 Table 5.3 A Summary of main interactive reading activities used in Maria’s observed reading classes 112 TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii vi ABSTRACT iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .v LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vi LIST OF TABLES .vi TABLE OF CONTENTS vii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study 1.2 Statement of the problem 1.3 Purposes of the study .5 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Significance of the research .7 1.7 Definitions of key terms 1.8 Organizational Structure of the Thesis CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory (SCT) 2.1.1 Sociocultural in Language Teahing and Learning .9 2.1.2 Major tenets of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory .10 2.1.2.1 Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) .11 2.1.2.2 Scaffolding 12 2.2 Reading Comprehension from Sociocultural Theory .15 2.2.1 Some perspectives about Reading Comprehension 15 2.2.2 A Sociocultural Perspective of Reading 16 2.3 Interactive Activities (IAs) .18 2.3.1 Interactive Activities in Language Teaching 18 2.3.2 Interactive Activities in Reading Comprehension 20 2.3.3 Principles of teaching EFL reading skills 22 2.4 Teachers’ beliefs and practices .25 2.4.1 Teachers’ Beliefs 25 2.4.1.1 Theoretical Beliefs .27 2.4.1.2 Action Beliefs 27 2.4.1.3 Context Beliefs 28 2.4.1.4 Beliefs about Teachers’ Roles 28 vii ...MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES NGUYEN THI LE HANG EFL TEACHERS’ BELIEFS AND PRACTICES ON THE USE OF INTERACTIVE ACTIVITIES. .. IN READING CLASSES 120 6.1 Findings about factors affecting EFL teachers’ application of interactive activities in tertiary reading classes 120 x 6.1.1 Teachers’ professional training... their beliefs of goals, beliefs of principles, beliefs of contexts and beliefs of the teachers’ roles In addition, the findings revealed that the teacher participants used IAs in their reading classes