Teachers perceptions and reported use of storytelling for vocabulary teaching at vus english center m a

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND REPORTED USE OF STORYTELLING FOR VOCABULARY TEACHING AT VUS ENGLISH CENTER A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL) By TRAN VAN DOAN TESOL 2019A Supervisor Bui Thi Thuc Quyen, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2022 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND REPORTED USE OF STORYTELLING FOR VOCABULARY TEACHING AT VUS ENGLISH CENTER A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL) By TRAN VAN DOAN TESOL 2019A Supervisor Bui Thi Thuc Quyen, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2022 i STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify that the major thesis entitled “TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND REPORTED USE OF STORYTELLING FOR VOCABULARY TEACHING AT VUS ENGLISH CENTER.” is the result of my own work This major thesis has not previously been accepted for any degree and submitted in any other institutions Ho Chi Minh City, July 2022 TRẦN VĂN ĐOÀN ii RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, TRAN VAN DOAN, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s theses deposited in the University Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for care, loan or reproduction of theses Ho Chi Minh City, July 2022 TRẦN VĂN ĐOÀN iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my warm and deeply sincere to all of those people who have supported me to shape this thesis First and foremost, I am grateful to my thesis supervisor, Dr Bui Thi Thuc Quyen, for her thorough guidance, valuable comments, positive encouragement and suggestions in the completion of this thesis Without her help, this M.A thesis would be far from accomplishment I am greatly indebted to my VUS campus manager, Ms Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh, for her support in reaching the qualified participants of this study I would like to thank all of my colleagues for their great participation throughout the process of data collection in this research My sincere thanks also go to my classmates who have supported me in the process of data analysis Last but not least, my deepest gratitude and sincere thanks are sent to my family for spiritual support and encouragement during the time of the study completion iv ABSTRACT Storytelling practice is believed to be a highly effective application in second language teaching, especially in vocabulary teaching and learning With regards to very young children, they are assumed to possess unique characteristics when it comes to learning a foreign language Thus, teachers of very young learners, in the lesson with storytelling, may encounter a huge number of different difficulties in teaching them vocabulary which may result in distinctive opinions of this teaching practice This thesis dealt with the teachers’ perceptions of storytelling application in vocabulary teaching in the class of very young learners, namely “Smartkids”, at VUS English Centers Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were included in the process of data collection which involved 60 experienced teachers teaching this level of learners at this center While the survey was designed to gather the teachers’ reported practice of storytelling and their perceptions on this research issue, the interviews were also conducted in order to deeply comprehend the teaching activities and techniques applied in the lesson as well as their thinking on the effectiveness and difficulties of this teaching method The comparison of local and foreign teachers was also involved to better understand the research problems The findings of the study showed that teachers applied various activities in the lesson of storytelling so as to capture the students’ attention at most While most teachers appreciated the benefits of this practice to vocabulary teaching and learning, students were believed to be the main reason causing the most challenges in this lesson In addition, no significant differences were found between two groups of teachers regarding both reported practice and perceptions v TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of originality ii Retention and use of the thesis iii Acknowledgements iv Abstract v Table of contents vi List of abbriviations ix List of tables x List of figures xi Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Background to the study 1.2 Research aims 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Significance of the study .5 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Organization of the study Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Teachers’ perceptions Perceptions Language teachers’ cognition 2.2 Teaching English vocabulary 2.2.1 English vocabulary 2.2.2 English vocabulary teaching .10 2.3 Teaching English vocabulary to Very Young Learners 12 2.3.1 Very young learners .12 Very young learners’ characteristics in learning English 12 2.3.2 Teaching vocabulary to very young learners .13 2.4 Applying storytelling in teaching 15 2.4.1 Stories and storytelling 15 2.4.2 Storytelling and factors involved 18 2.4.3 Practice of storytelling in the class .20 vi 2.5 Benefits of stories and storytelling in language learning 24 2.5.1 Boosting motivation and attitudes 24 2.5.2 Increasing creativity and imagination 25 2.5.3 Improving language knowledge and skills development .25 2.5.4 Storytelling and vocabulary development 27 2.5.5 Storytelling as a methodological teaching approach 29 2.6 Challenges in using storytelling to teach vocabulary to very young learners .31 2.6.1 Derived from teachers 31 2.6.2 Derived from students 32 2.6.3 Derived from materials and other factors .33 2.7 Conceptual framework 33 Chapter 3: Methodology 37 3.1 Research design 37 3.2 Research site 38 3.3 Participants 39 3.4 Research instruments 42 3.4.1 Questionnaires 42 3.4.2 Interviews .44 3.5 Pilot study 46 3.5.1 Pilot questionnaires 46 3.5.2 Pilot interviews .47 3.6 Data collection procedures 48 3.6.1 Questionnaires’ procedures 48 3.6.2 Interviews’ procedures 49 3.7 Data analysis procedures .51 3.7.1 Questionnaire data analysis 51 3.7.2 Interview data analysis 54 3.8 Chapter summary .56 Chapter 4: Results and discussions 58 4.1 Results 58 vii 4.1.1 Teachers’ practice of storytelling to vocabulary teaching to very young learners 58 4.1.2 Teachers’ perceptions of storytelling application for vocabulary teaching 72 4.2 Discussions of the results 91 4.2.1 Research question 1: How teachers apply storytelling to teach vocabulary in a VYLs class? 91 4.2.2 Research question 2: What are the differences between Vietnamese teachers’ and foreign teachers’ reported practice? .94 4.2.3 Research question 3: What are the teachers’ perceptions towards the application of storytelling to vocabulary teaching in the VYLs class? 96 4.2.4 Research question 4: What are the differences between Vietnamese teachers’ and foreign teachers’ perceptions of the effectiveness and difficulties of storytelling application? 98 4.3 Chapter summary .98 Chapter 5: Conclusion, suggestions and recommendations 100 5.1 Conclusion 100 5.2 Pedagogical implications 103 5.3 Limitations of the study .104 5.4 Recommendations for future research .105 5.5 Chapter summary .106 Appendices 117 viii LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS VUS – VIETNAME USA SOCIETY ENGLISH CENTER VYLs – Very young learners VN – Vietnamese teacher E- English teacher ICT – Information and Communications Technology SPSS - Statistical Package for the Social Sciences ix 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159