The effects of processing instruction on the learning of past simple of vietnamese young learners ma

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE THE EFFECTS OF PROCESSING INSTRUCTION ON THE LEARNING OF PAST SIMPLE OF VIETNAMESE YOUNG LEARNERS A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By KỸ TRẦN MINH UYÊN Supervised by PHAM VU PHI HO, Assoc Prof Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, November 2021 Acknowledgements I cannot express enough thanks to my supervisor, Pham Vu Phi Ho, Assoc Prof Ph.D., for the continued support Without his considerable encouragement, I would not have complete the thesis Moreover, my completion of this thesis could not have been accomplished without the support of one of my best friends who inspired me to conduct the thesis topic He was the person who intrigued me to conduct this thesis Finally, I also want to express thanks to the committee who have left lots of constructive comments on my thesis to make it more valuable Your guidance is precious to me Statement of originality I hereby declare that this thesis entitled “The effects of processing instruction on the learning of past simple of Vietnamese young learners” is my own work This paper does not contain any materials which have been previously submitted, in whole or in part, for another degree in any institutions All the work from other authors, which has been used as references in this study, was cited with acknowledgement Ho Chi Minh, November 2021 KỸ TRẦN MINH UYÊN TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements Statement of originality List of tables and figures List of Abbreviations: ABSTRACT CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 10 1.1 Background to the study 10 1.1.1 The views towards grammar instruction in language teaching 10 1.1.2 The contexts of grammar instruction in Viet Nam 10 1.2 Statement of the problem 12 1.2.1 In the world 12 1.2.2 In Vietnam 13 1.4 Aim of the study 15 1.5 Research questions 15 1.6 Significance of the study 15 1.7 Scope of the study 16 1.8 Outline of the thesis 16 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 17 2.1 Definition 17 2.1.2 What is input? 17 2.1.3 What is input processing? 17 2.1.4 What is Processing Instruction? 19 2.1.5 What is Traditional Instruction or PPP? 20 2.1.6 What is Structured Input Activities? 20 2.2 Processing Instruction: Lines of Research 21 2.3 Previous studies 22 2.3.1 PI outperformed TI 22 2.3.2 TI is more effective than PI 28 2.4 Conceptual framework 31 2.5 Research gap 32 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 36 3.1 Research design 36 3.2 Participants and context of the study 36 3.2.1 Context of the study 36 3.2.2 Participants 36 3.3 Research instruments 37 3.3.1 Pre-tests and post-tests 37 3.3.2 Focus group interview 40 3.4 Training procedure 41 3.4.1 Why is Past Simple Tense chosen for this study? 41 3.4.2 Materials 42 3.4.2.1 Explicit explanation 42 3.4.2.2 Traditional Instruction 43 3.4.2.3 Processing Instruction 44 3.4.3 Steps in training procedure 47 3.5 Data collection and Data analysis 49 3.5.1 Data collection procedure 49 3.5.2 Data analysis procedure 51 3.6 Reliability and Validity 52 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 55 4.1 Analysis of data 55 4.1.1 Students’ performance before treatment 55 4.1.2 The results from pre-test to post-test 56 4.1.2.1 Interpretation tests at sentence level 56 4.1.2.2 Interpretation tests at discourse level 57 4.1.2.3 Production tests at sentence level 58 4.1.2.4 Production tests at discourse level 59 4.1.3 The effects of PI and TI 60 4.1.3.1 Interpretation tests at sentence level 60 4.1.3.2 Interpretation tests at discourse level 61 4.1.3.3 Production tests at sentence level 62 4.1.3.4 Production tests at discourse level 63 4.1.4 Learners’ perception towards Processing Instruction 64 4.2 Discussion of results 67 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 78 5.1 Conclusion 78 5.2 Limitations 79 5.3 Implication 79 REFERENCES 81 APPENDICES 88 List of tables and figures List of figures Figure 2.1 Processes in Second Language Acquisition (VanPatten, 1993) Figure 2.2 Processing Instruction model Figure 2.3 Traditional Instruction model Figure 2.4 New Processing Instruction model Figure 3.1 Data collection List of tables Table 3.1 Instruction materials Table 3.2 Training procedure Table 3.3 Cronbach’s Alpha of pre-test and post-test Table 4.1 Pre-test results Table 4.2 Means and Standard Deviation of the Pre-test and Post-test (Interpretation tests at sentence level) Table 4.3 Mann-Whitney U Test results from pre-test to post-test of PI group (Interpretation tests at sentence level) Table 4.45 Means and Standard Deviation of the Pre-test and Post-test (Interpretation tests at discourse level) Table 4.5 Mann-Whitney U Test results from pre-test to post-test of PI group (Interpretation tests at discourse level) Table 4.6 Means and Standard Deviation for the Pre-test and Post-test (Production tests at sentence level) Table 4.7 Mann-Whitney U Test results from pre-test to post-test of PI group (Production tests at sentence level) Table 4.8 Means and Standard Deviation for the Pre-test and Post-test (Production tests at discourse level) Table 4.9 Mann-Whitney U Test results from pre-test to post-test of PI group (Production tests at discourse level) Table 4.10 Means and Standard Deviation for Post-test (Interpretation tests at sentence level) Table 4.11 Mann-Whitney U Test results of TI and PI group (Interpretation tests at sentence level) Table 4.12 Means and Standard Deviation for Post-test (Interpretation tests at discourse level) Table 4.13 Mann-Whitney U Test results of TI and PI group (Interpretation tests at discourse level) Table 4.14 Means and Standard Deviation for Post-test (Production tests at sentence level) Table 4.15 Mann-Whitney U Test results of TI and PI group (Production tests at sentence level) Table 4.16 Means and Standard Deviation for Post-test (Production tests at discourse level) Table 4.17 Mann-Whitney U Test results of TI and PI group (Production tests at discourse level) List of Abbreviations: Processing Instruction – PI Traditional Instruction – TI Structured Input Activities – SI activities Presentation – Practice – Production – PPP Meaning-based Output Instruction – MOI Content and Language Integrated Learning – CLIL Content-based Instruction – CBI Second-language acquisition – SLA First language – L1 Second language – L2 ABSTRACT Vietnamese learners are facing the problem of being incapable of using the structure appropriately in specific context In order to solve this problem, a new type of instruction which is Processing Instruction (PI) is being put into use A thing that this study tries to make a difference is that PI practice is redesigned by combining the output practice with structured input activities to maximize the effects Another gap is the investigation into learners’ perception towards PI The participants were young learners aged to 11 at A1 level The participants come from a middle class family who are the current students of a language center in Thu Duc City There were two groups of 34 participants divided into PI and control group The control group experienced the ordinary type of instruction which is called Traditional Instruction (TI) Pre-tests and post-tests were delivered to examine the improvement and to compare the effects of these instruction A focus group interview was also carried out to determine learners’ perception towards the target instruction The results recommended that PI group had significant effects on learners and obtained more benefits than control group The findings of focus group interviews indicated that learners feel more confident when they have time to process the structure before producing them They also mentioned some difficulties they have undergone so that researcher has a chance to redesign the activities to be appropriate to learners’ need Keywords: Processing Instruction, Traditional Instruction 105 People cooked meat People travelled around the world People washed their cave People danced with friends People planted trees People climbed a mountain People walked to the jungles 10 People worked on the computer III PRODUCTION PRACTICE 13 Answer the questions then tell your friends and compare the answers 11 What did you yesterday morning? 12 Where did you travel last year? 13 What did you cook last month? 14 Where did you walk in the morning? 15 Did you cry last week? Why? 14 Write a story based on the picture using Past Simple Tense (1) go to the zoo – (2) not jump – (3) visit panda – (4) jump 106 APPENDIX PROCESSING INSTRUCTION IRREGULAR VERB IV REFERENTIAL ACTIVITIES Listen to the following statements and decide whether each statement refers to an activity that I now or I did last summer in Ha Noi Now I Last summer … went to the museum … ate a lot of fruits … climb the mountain … swam in the river 10 … went shopping in mall Listen to the following statements made by a journalist about the life of a model Ashley and decide whether each statement is referring to her past life as a model in the countryside or her life now in the big city She … caught a bus to school … ate ice cream by the river … plays game on iPad … made cakes with friends 10 … slept in her friends’ house Now Past 107 Read the following statements about things your teacher does, and decide whether he does them now or last weekend Now He Last weekend … plays the guitar … went to the supermarket … ran in the park … swam in the swimming pool 10 … drove car around the town 10 Read to each sentence Select the appropriate time-related adverbials that can be added to the sentence you hear Yesterday Today Harry ate a big hamburger Sarah caught a bus to school Candy swam with some friends We clean our house 10 Tom played the guitar 11 You will hear some short conversations and decide whether these conversations happen now or happened in the past (Cambridge Movers Test 1) Boy: And can you see my friend? She’s wearing an orange jacket She loves climbing! Woman: Yes Wow! She’s at the top of that tree! 108 Boy: I know Woman: And what’s her name? Boy: It’s Vicky She’s funny I like her a lot Boy: And look at my mum! Woman: Where’s she? Boy: It’s difficult to see her She’s waving with both hands Look, next to the waterfall Woman: Oh, yes And what’s her name? Boy: it’s Anna Boy: I enjoyed Thursday more Woman: Why? What did you on Thursday? Boy: We drove down to the beach and went for a walk there Woman: And did you go sailing? Boy: No, it was too cold Boy: Mum and I went to the market on Wednesday Woman: What did you buy there? Boy: we bought another rabbit a friend for Daisy Woman: Is the new rabbit naughty too? Boy: No! And she’s got big brown and white ears I love her Woman: What did you on Friday? Boy: We went to the library to choose some new books Woman: And did you find an exciting story to read? Boy: Yes I found a story about a family who go on holiday to the beach Woman: And what they there? Boy: They find some treasure! 109 12 Read a story and decide which action happens now and which action happened in the past Bill, Jane and their parents usually go the mall every weekend They buy food for the next week and some new clothes Then, they eat in the famous restaurant in the mall They also go to the café to have some drinks and cakes Last weekend, they didn’t go to the mall They went to the sea for Bill’s birthday The children played basketball with their father Mom put a picnic on the red blanket The family sat on the blanket and ate their lunch by the beach They gave Bill a cake and sang a birthday song After their food Mom and Dad slept and the children ran along the beach Every weekend Last weekend Go to the mall Buy food for next week Eat in the restaurant Go to the café Go to the sea Play basketball Eat lunch by the beach Sing a birthday song Run along the beach V AFFECTIVE ACTIVITIES 11 Choose True or False for you last weekend True I ate vegetables False 110 I met friends I took a shower I cleaned my room I went to the market and bought some food I went to the library and read some books I ran in the park I fed the dog I did homework 10 I slept all day 12 Agree or Disagree about what people did in Stone Age: Yes 11 People rode an elephant 12 People drove a car No 111 13 People swam in the river 14 People slept on a bed 15 People went to the movie theatre 16 People ran very fast 17 People built houses 18 People climbed a mountain 19 People went shopping in a mall 20 People grew tree VI PRODUCTION TASKS: 15 Answer the questions then tell your friends and compare the answers 16 What did you yesterday morning? 17 Where did you ride a bike last week? 18 What did you feed the dog yesterday? 19 Where did you go shopping with friends? 20 When did you buy fruit? 16 Write a story based on the picture using Past Simple Tense snow – eat – find – go out 112 APPENDIX PRE-TEST & POST-TEST COMPREHENSION TASKS: Listen to the sentences and decide whether each statement refers to an activity in the past or now Past Today 11 I bought some carrots in the supermarket 12 We climb the mountain together 13 Kelvin danced in the bathroom 14 Ben swam in the ocean 15 My grandpa grew some trees in the garden 16 My sister helped mom make a cake 17 We invited friends to our house 18 I looked for my pen 19 I laughed a lot when watching a movie 20 I wait for my mom in the mall Read the sentences and decide whether each statement refers to an activity happened yesterday or now Yesterday Linda ate a pizza My mom bought some broccoli Now 113 My dad cooked dinner for the family I make lunch with mommy My brother played the guitar in the living room I did my homework in bedroom Pat listened to music Sarah reads books at home Mark watched TV on the sofa 10 Sam sings a song in the bathroom Listen and choose whether each verb refers to past or present time (Movers 5) Conversation 1: Boy: It snowed on Wednesday That was the best day Woman: Oh What did you do? Boy: My uncle and I walked in the forest We saw a lot of animals Woman: Were you afraid? Boy: Oh, no! Past To walk in the forest To see a lot of animals Conversation 2: Boy: We went to the market on Sunday Oh, no, sorry, that was on Tuesday Woman: Tuesday? Right So what did you buy? Boy: Oh, a lot of things Bread and some cheese, and my uncle bought a rabbit Woman: To eat? Boy: No! For the children to play with! Present 114 Past Present To go to the market To buy a rabbit Conversation 3: Boy: I played my cousin on Monday Woman: Oh, did you? Boy: Yes I saw the rabbit again They have a lot of animals at my cousin’s house Woman: Oh? What kind? Boy: They have chickens in their garden – and a goat Past Present Past Present To play with cousin To have chicken in the garden Conversation 4: Woman: Who’s that boy? Boy: Where? Woman: He’s wearing a hat and he’s carrying some fish Boy: That’s Jim Woman: Is that our lunch? Boy: Yes It is To wear a hat To carry some fish Conversation 5: Boy: Look at Sally! Woman: Where is she? Boy: She’s standing in the water Woman: Why is she shouting? Boy: The water’s cold, I think! 115 Past Present To stand in the water To shout Read the story about A’s life in the past and his life now and decide whether each verb refers to an activity in the past or now My name is Grace I have a best friend called Linda There is a computer in my room I enjoy playing computer games on it with her She comes to my house and plays games on the computer with me on Saturdays We usually eat cake when we play However, the computer did not work yesterday We could not play computer games We decided to go to the movie theatre, we watched The Dragon movie Then, we went to the park and ate some ice cream there It was a wonderful day We don’t play computer games at home We want to go to the movie theatre at weekend Every Saturday Yesterday 1) Play computer games in my room 2) Eat cake 3) Go to the movie theatre 4) Go to the park 5) Eat ice cream PRODUCTION TASKS: Look at the picture and answer the question Today is Saturday 116 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday 13) What did he on Monday? 14) What did he on Tuesday? 15) What did he on Wednesday? 16) What did he on Thursday? 17) What did he on Friday? Look at the series of pictures and write a story Friday Saturday 117 APPENDIX – FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEW QUESTIONS What you feel when producing the new structure right after the teacher explains the rules as before? What you feel when producing the new structure after rules explanation, reading and listening to sentences using the structure? Why are you nervous when you have to output practice right after learning? (follow-up questions) Why are you more confident when you produce the new structure after reading and listening to sentences using new structure? (follow-up question) Do you believe that you will know the structure form and uses better after reading and listening to the sentences using that structure? Why you think you will know the structure form and uses better after reading and listening to the sentences using that structure? Why you think you will not know the structure form and uses better after reading and listening to the sentences using that structure? Why think that producing the structure makes you remember the rules better? (follow-up question) What are the drawbacks of reading and listening something that uses the structure before producing the structure? 10 Why you not understand the input while reading and listening? (follow-up question) 118 APPENDIX FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEW MATRIX What you feel when producing the new structure right after the teacher explains the rules as before? Nervous Challenged Frightened Easy (60%) (55%) (28%) (17%) Easier to Less produce worried (44%) (75%) What you feel when producing the new structure after rules explanation, reading and listening to sentences using the structure? Confident (55%) Why are you nervous when you have to output practice right after learning? (follow-up questions) Fear of Friends laugh at making mistakes Difficult to remember the new rule Why are you more confident when you produce the new structure after reading and listening to Remember the rules Know how to use the sentences using new structure? (follow-up (61%) structures (66%) question) Do you believe that you will know the structure Know Not know form and uses better after reading and listening better better to the sentences using that structure? (50%) (45%) Why you think you will know the structure Remember the form form and uses better after reading and listening better after exposing to the sentences using that structure? (67%) Why you think you will not know the Listening is listening to the sentences using that structure? boring (63%) Know the use of the form (55%) the meaning when they read and listen Why think that producing the structure makes question) know (5%) Difficult to get Reading and structure form and uses better after reading and you remember the rules better? (follow-up Don’t Easily get distracted (88%) Remember better when More familiar with the saying it out structure when they use 119 What are the drawbacks of reading and listening Cannot get the meaning Cannot concentrate on something that uses the structure before when reading and reading and listening a producing the structure? listening (61%) lot (39%) 10 Why you not understand the input while reading and listening? (follow-up question) Cannot recognize the Deprivation of vocabulary (66%) word when listening (39%)