A survey on whether english is taught communicatively at ho chi minh city university of industry

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES 0{0 A SURVEY ON WHETHER ENGLISH IS TAUGHT COMMUNICATIVELY AT HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS (TESOL) Submitted by Phan Thị Hiền Supervisor NGUYỄN HOÀNG LINH, MA Ho Chi Minh City, April 2007 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This thesis reports the results of the survey on whether General English is taught communicatively at Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry The introductory chapter presents the problem the thesis attempts to solve, the rationale and an overview of the thesis and the background to the thesis 1.1 The problem As Edge, J (1993:17) puts it “Communication is the goal of language teaching.” and “Communication is part of the learning process.” Actually since the 1970s language has been seen as a system for the expression of meaning and the aim of language teaching has been viewed as ‘to help learners develop skills for expressing communicative meanings’ Nowadays the need for communication is even more greatly emphasized than ever Being aware of the important role of foreign languages, especially of English, and of the need for communication; the authorities of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry (HUI) have highly recommended their English-language teachers to help their students, specifically the non-English-majors, be able to communicate in English In the final academic year’s (2005) meeting with the staff, the head of the university blamed the English-language teachers for the bad reputation that most of the non-English-majors graduating from HUI could not use English as a means of communication and that many students lost opportunity to get a good job just because of not being able to answer English questions in job interviews In addition, the authorities have recently emphasized a reform in teaching and learning They have suggested that learner-centeredness should take the place of teacher-centeredness, which have dominated the educational system in Vietnam for a very long time That is to say, in classrooms instead of sitting in silence listening to their teacher’s talking and taking notes, students should work in pairs or in groups to discuss some problems, to learn to express their own ideas, and to be as active as possible To be certain that the reform in teaching and learning has been carried out; the authorities of the university together with the heads of Faculty of Foreign Languages have continuously taken turns to observe classes Teachers at HUI will be criticized if they not create opportunity for their students to be actively involved in their learning In general, English-language teachers at HUI have been urged to teach English communicatively so that they can help their students be able to communicate in English However, in spite of those recommendations, most of the non-Englishmajors at HUI still fail to achieve a satisfactory level of communicative competence What causes such a problem? How are the teachers at HUI teaching English? Have they taught English really communicatively? What hinders the teachers from teaching English communicatively? What should be done to help improve the situation of teaching English to non-English-majors at HUI? 1.2 Rationale and overview of thesis This study aims at investigating the current methods of teaching General English (GE) at HUI to find out whether or not General English is taught communicatively, how communicatively it is taught, and what difficulties hinder teachers from teaching GE communicatively In addition, it is hoped that the results of this study will provide the basis for making some suggestions and recommendations to help improve the state of teaching GE to non-English majors at HUI With the above purposes, the thesis was carried out and based on:(1) 64-period class observation with simultaneous records (each period lasts for 45 minutes) to find out the methods or approaches the teachers used in their teaching; and (2) follow-up interviews after the observation with nine teachers and nine students from the observed classes The interviews with teachers were to discover the teachers’ reasons for using some certain methods of teaching and barriers to communicative English teaching at HUI The interviews with students were to find out their attitudes toward the current learning conditions and their preference for English learning The thesis consists of five chapters: Chapter one – Introduction – discusses the problem that need to be solved, and the rationale and the overview of the study as well as provides the background to the study with the information about the description of the GE course, the setting, the description of teachers and students at HUI Chapter two – Literature Review – presents a review of the literature relevant to this study Chapter three – Methodology – describes the methodology employed in the study This chapter includes the research questions; the research design including a description of the subjects, instruments and the procedures of data collection Chapter four – Results and Discussion – discusses and analyzes the research results from the instruments of class observation and interviews with nine teachers in charge and nine students from the observed classes Chapter five – Conclusion and Recommendations – draws conclusions, solutions to the problems and recommendations of the study 1.3 Background to the study 1.3.1 Description of the GE course at HUI Every university student whose major is not English has to learn GE in three semesters as three modules divided in the course syllabus 1.3.1.1 The syllabus This English course is for the university students who not specialize in English This course is established to provide basic knowledge: vocabulary, grammar and the four skills so as to create the fundamental step for students to study English at later higher levels The objectives of this course are to provide students with basic knowledge: vocabulary, simple tenses, simple dialogues, short readings, and sentence or paragraph writings After the course, students can use English to communicate and to make themselves understood in everyday conversations Every non-English-major has to take a 180-period general English course The main textbook is Lifelines (Elementary and Pre-intermediate) by Tom Hutchinson The table below illustrates the GE course at HUI Table 1.1: Summary of the general English course for university students at HUI Text Semester I Semester II Semester III Lifelines Elementary Lifelines Lifelines Pre-intermediate Pre-intermediate units (Unit - 7) units (Unit - 14) book Unit 14 units (Unit - 14) Period 60 periods (4 periods/ 60 periods (8 periods/ 60 periods (8 periods/ unit + review, test) Content Grammar: unit + review, test) unit + review, test) Grammar: Grammar: * Verbs to be, have got, * Tenses (the present * The Past Perfect and can simple, the * There is/there are continuous, * Tenses (the present simple, present Tense the past * the simple, the past simple, continuous, and * Comparatives * will and And past Uncountables the * going to the present continuous, present perfect) the and present perfect) Countables * would and second first conditional and conditional * The passive superlatives * Comparatives and * have to/can; past * going to superlatives and future * Classroom language Vocabulary: Vocabulary: * People and jobs * Collocations * Food and drink * Family * Physical appearance * Crime * Food and drink * Money * Gerunds, activities * House and home * Country adjectives * The media * Travel * Clothes * The natural world * Clothes * Places and buildings * Time expressions * The world * Listening & speaking: homonyms Vocabulary: Homophones and * Adjectives nouns and * Personal information Listening & speaking: Listening * Meeting people * Telling the time speaking: * My family * * Food and drink arrangements restaurant * Daily activities * Life events * Conversations in a Making * Conversations in a * Conversations in a * Leaving messages clothes & hotel (polite requests) * Conversations in a * Making suggestions clothes shop * Telephone Pronunciation: * Asking and giving expressions * The IPA; Word stress directions * Arranging time * Vowel sounds * Meeting visitors * Small talk * -es, -ed, -ing endings Pronunciation: Pronunciation: * Reduced vowels * The IPA * Silent letters * Consonant sounds, * Voiced and voiceless * Sentence stress * Voiced and voiceless sounds * Making suggestions sounds * -ed ending * Emphatic stress * Question intonation * Consonant clusters * Word stress with two * List intonation syllables * Word linking * Sentence stress * Reduced vowels * Word stress with three syllable * Auxiliary verbs: strong and weak forms 1.3.1.2 The textbook for GE at HUI Lifelines (Elementary and Pre-intermediate) is used as the textbook for the firstyear and the second-year students at HUI Lifelines is introduced by its publisher as ‘a clear, comprehensive, yet manageable language syllabus’ with ‘discovery approach’, ‘motivating texts’, ‘strong skills development’, ‘pronunciation syllabus’, and ‘systematic vocabulary work’ On Introduction part of Lifelines (teacher’s book) we can see the following description 1.3.1.2.1 Who is Lifelines for? Lifelines is a three-level general English course at elementary, pre-intermediate, and intermediate level All of the three levels of Lifelines place emphasis on consolidating and extending the students’ knowledge of vocabulary, and on developing the students’ ability to communicate effectively This is an integrated textbook with thorough treatment of reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills The degree of difficulty increases in the three levels The grammatical points are presented, revised, and developed through a variety of different contexts 1.3.1.2.2 What does a Student’s Book (Pre-intermediate) unit contain? Each of the 14 main units is based around a theme and has a main structural focus, which is recycled and developed through the unit Each unit contains these sections: ¾ Grammar ¾ Vocabulary ¾ Reading ¾ Listening and speaking ¾ Pronunciation ¾ Extension a Grammar The Grammar section presents and practices a structural area Each section has these three stages: Grammar in use In this stage the students see the grammar point in use in a presentation text or dialogue, usually with pictures Rules Here extracts from the text or dialogue are used to exemplify the structure’s form and use Wherever possible, students are asked to use the examples and their previous knowledge to work out the rules for the structure Finally they are referred to the Grammar Reference section to check and consolidate their knowledge of the rules Practice This stage provides activities in which the students use the structure The exercises are graded from controlled to free, and great emphasis is put on the use of the structure to talk about students’ own lives b Vocabulary This section focuses on a vocabulary area, such as food or describing physical appearance, or on a more general aspect of vocabulary, such as noun formation The Vocabulary section is placed next to either the Reading or the Listening and speaking section It draws its focus from these sections, and aims to practice some of the vocabulary that students will need when working on them c Reading Using a variety of authentic and adapted texts, the Reading section aims to develop the students’ reading skills through a variety of exercise types, and to extent their vocabulary Some of the Reading sections also contain a Language focus This presents and practices a smaller area of grammar, and continues grammatical input beyond the Grammar section d Listening and speaking This section deals with everyday spoken language in common situations such as making arrangements, ordering a meal or making suggestions There is a wide variety of listening tasks Most of the Listening and speaking sections have a feature called Conversation pieces, which presents and practices useful expressions from the dialogues Some also contain a Language focus e Pronunciation Each Pronunciation section has two parts The first part deals with the sounds of English, and includes an introduction to the IPA The second part focuses other aspects of pronunciation, including words and sentence stress, intonation and word linking f Extension The Extension section gives practice in a range of skills through exploring a topic related to the theme of the unit It enables students to practice the grammar and vocabulary of the unit in a number of different skill areas No new grammar is introduced, but the Extension sections normally focus on a small structural area for revision, or on a vocabulary area The Extension sections provide an additional two hours of work in each unit, and they can be omitted without the book losing its integrity Two other important elements in Lifelines are: Reflecting on Learning The Reflecting on Learning section provides the opportunity for students to think about how they learn and also provides some advice on how they can be more effective learners It is placed at the back of the book as an optional item Writing The Student’s Book contains a range of different writing activities In addition the Workbook has a fully-developed syllabus for teaching writing skills such as paragraph formation, sentence linking and letter writing Different aspects of writing skills are presented and then practiced through guided and free activities 1.3.2 The physical setting In HUI learning and teaching activities mostly take place in the classrooms 1.3.2.1 Classrooms: All of the seating in classrooms is arranged orderly in front of the teacher Many classrooms are air-conditioned Besides a board, all of the classrooms for university students are well-equipped with a computer, a slide projector and an overhead projector Cassette recorders and CD players are kept in the Center of Students Management and students will go to that center to get either a cassette recorder or a CD player for their English class There are sufficient cassette recorders and CD players for all the English classes 1.3.2.2 Class size: In spite of the effort of the governing body of the university to reduce the size of English classes, the number of students in English-language classes for non-English majors at HUI ranges from 50 to over 80 students And it is the large class sizes that can be one of the barriers to communicative second language teaching and learning 1.3.3 Characteristics of the teachers and students at HUI 1.3.3.1 Students All of the non-English majors have different levels: some have learnt English for seven years, some for three years, and some have even never learnt English before entering the University A lot of them, including those with seven years of learning English, have been used to learning English with the Grammar-Translation Method They can be good at grammatical structures, can written exercises accurately but often feel difficult to express their ideas or to communicate in English 1.3.3.2 The teaching staff The faculty of foreign languages at HUI has quite big staff with 143 teachers: 47 permanent teachers and 96 invited teachers Most of the invited teachers are Bachelors of English Literature; of 47 permanent teachers, there are 16 Masters in TESOL, Masters in Linguistics, MA candidates in TESOL, MA candidates in Linguistics, and 14 Bachelors of English Literature (3 with Graduate Diplomas) At the time this study was carried out there were 102 teachers teaching GE to nonEnglish-majors; among these 102, 17 teachers were teaching GE to university students whose majors were not in English Most of these 17 teachers were Bachelors of English Literature, three teachers were MA candidates in Linguistics, two were MA candidates in TESOL, and one was Master in Linguistics The youngest was 26 with 2.5 years of experience in teaching English and years in teaching with Lifelines and the oldest was 50 with 24 years of experience in teaching English and years in teaching with Lifelines 112 113 114 115 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that this thesis entitled “A Survey on Whether English Is Taught Communicative at Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry” is my own work This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any institution Ho Chi Minh City, April 22, 2007 Phan Thi Hien i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to acknowledge my supervisor, Mr Nguyễn Hoàng Linh, for his invaluable instructions, comments, and constant encouragement during the lengthy period of the researching and writing of this thesis My special thanks must also go to all my teachers for their helpful instructions during the course I sincerely wish to express my great gratitude to the teachers and students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry who have voluntarily agreed to participate in the study Last, but not least, I remain deeply indebted to my family for their love and encouragement ii ABSTRACT Nowadays communication is usually seen as the goal for second language learning Within the orbit of this trend, English-language teachers at HoChiMinh City University of Industry are also required to make their teaching, especially General English teaching, communicative However, most of the non-English majors at this university are still far from reaching a satisfactory level of communicative competence, which is certainly originated from the process of English teaching and learning at the university This thesis aims at uncovering the current state of General English teaching and learning at Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, finding out barriers to communicative language teaching, and suggesting a way in which communicative language teaching can be effectively carried out The thesis was done through the following steps (1) eighteen sessions of class observation were made in nine classes – each class was observed twice – to discover whether General English is taught communicatively at Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and (2) interviews with nine teachers in charge and nine students randomly selected from the nine observed classes to figure out barriers to communicative language teaching at this university The results showed that (1) although communicative activities did occur in some classes, General English was mainly not really communicative and (2) in addition to two subjective problems – teacher’s false beliefs about students and lack of training in communicative language teaching – most of the difficulties are relevant to objective factors consisting of student’s low English proficiency, student’s characteristics against communicative language teaching, large class sizes, lack of class time, multi-level classes, and multiple-choice tests In an attempt to make communicative language teaching happen, the thesis provides some solutions to the barriers and puts forward some suggestions for communicative English teaching iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Certificate of originality i Acknowledgement ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of tables viii List of figures x Abbreviations xi Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 THE PROBLEM 1.2 RATIONALE AND OVERVIEW OF THESIS 1.3 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 1.3.1 Description of the GE course at HUI 1.3.1.1 The syllabus 1.3.1.2 The textbook for GE at HUI 1.3.2 The physical setting 1.3.2.1 Classrooms 1.3.2.2 Class size 1.3.3 Characteristics of the teachers and students at HUI 1.3.3.1 Students 1.3.3.2 The teaching staff Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 10 2.1 Communication, communicative competence and communicative language teaching 2.1.1 Communication 10 2.1.2 Communicative competence 11 2.1.3 Communicative language teaching 11 2.2 A summary of current communicative approaches 12 2.2.1 Communicative Approach 12 iv 2.2.2 The Natural Approach 13 2.2.3 Cooperative Language Learning 14 2.2.4 Content-Based Instruction 15 2.2.5 Task-Based Language Teaching 16 2.2.6 The Post-Methods Era 17 2.3 Principles of the CA 18 2.4 Techniques to teach Language Areas communicatively 20 2.4.1 Grammar 20 2.4.2 Vocabulary 22 2.4.3 Listening 23 2.4.4 Reading 24 2.4.5 Speaking as Oral communication 26 2.4.6 Writing as Written Communication 28 2.5 Previous studies relating to communicative language teaching in Vietnam 28 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 32 3.1 Research questions 32 3.2 Research design 32 3.2.1 Subjects 32 3.2.1.1 The teacher 32 3.2.1.1 The student 33 3.2.2 Instruments 34 3.2.2.1 Class observation 34 3.2.2.1.1 Description of the checklist 36 3.2.2.1.2 Description of observed classes 43 3.2.2.2 The follow-up interviews 47 3.2.3Data collection procedures 50 Chapter 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 52 4.1 Results of class observation 52 4.1.1 Grammar teaching 52 v 4.1.2 Vocabulary teaching 54 4.1.3 Skills teaching 56 4.1.4 Use of pair work and group work 58 4.1.5 Teacher’s response to errors of forms 59 4.1.6 Language for instruction 61 4.2 Results of interviews with teachers 63 4.2.1 Grammar teaching 63 4.2.2 Vocabulary teaching 64 4.2.3 Skills teaching 66 4.2.4 Role of pair work and group work 67 4.2.5 Teacher’s response to errors of forms 68 4.2.6 Role of translation and language for instruction 68 4.3 Results of interviews with students 70 4.3.1 Grammar practice 70 4.3.2 Language production 71 4.3.3 Time for different language areas 71 4.3.4 Common and favorite activities 72 4.3.5 Pair work and group work 73 4.3.6 Teachers’ response to errors 74 4.3.7 Role of translation and language for instruction 74 4.3.8 Suggestions on improvement 75 4.4 Discussion 77 4.4.1 Current situation of GE teaching at HUI 77 4.4.2 Barriers to communicative language teaching at HUI 78 4.4.2.1 The student 79 4.2.2.2 The teacher 81 4.2.2.3 The institutional system 83 Chapter 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 88 5.1 Conclusion 88 5.2 Recommendations 90 vi 5.2.1 Solutions to the problems 90 5.2.2 Suggestions on making GE teaching communicative 93 5.2.2.1 Communicative grammar teaching 93 5.2.2.2 Communicative vocabulary teaching 95 5.2.2.3 Communicative skills teaching 96 5.3 Limitations of the study and recommendations for further research 97 5.4 Summary 98 BIBLIOGRAPHY 99 Appendix Observation checklist 102 Appendix Questions for the interviews with teachers 103 Appendix Questions for the interviews with students 104 Appendix Sample multiple choice test 105 Appendix Questionnaire for identifying needs 109 Appendix A copy of unit from the textbook Lifelines 111 vii LIST OF TABLES Chapter Table 1.1: Summary of the general English course for university students at HUI Chapter Table 3.1: Summary of sample teachers’ characteristics 32 Table 3.2: Summary of sample students’ characteristics 33 Table 3.3: Observation checklist 37 Chapter Table 4.1: Grammar teaching 52 Table 4.2: Tasks for grammar practice 53 Table 4.3: Vocabulary teaching 54 Table 4.4: Skills teaching 56 Table 4.5: Tasks for skills practice 57 Table 4.6: Use of pair work and group work 59 Table 4.7: Teacher’s response to errors of forms 60 Table 4.8: Language for instruction 61 Table 4.9: Grammar teaching 63 Table 4.10: Types of grammar practice 63 Table 4.11: Vocabulary teaching 65 Table 4.12: Vocabulary practice 65 Table 4.13: Skills teaching 66 Table 4.14: Role of pair work and group work 67 Table 4.15: Teacher’s response to errors of forms 68 Table 4.16: Role of translation and language for instruction 69 Table 4.17: Grammar practice 70 Table 4.18: Language production 71 Table 4.19: Time for different language areas 71 Table 4.20: Common and favorite activities 72 Table 4.21: Pair work and group work 73 Table 4.22: Teachers’ response to errors 73 viii Table 4.23: Role of translation and language for instruction 75 Table 4.24: Suggestions on improvement 75 Table 4.25: Barriers to communicative language teaching 79 ix LIST OF FIGURES Chapter Figure 2.1: The Construction of Information-Exchange Tasks 26 Chapter Figure 4.1: Tasks for grammar practice 53 Figure 4.2: Vocabulary teaching 54 Figure 4.3: Skills teaching 56 Figure 4.4: Use of pair work and group work 59 x ABBREVIATIONS HUI Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry GE General English TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages UK United Kingdom HCMC Ho Chi Minh City MA Master of Arts CA Communicative Approach CLL Cooperative Language Learning CL Collaborative Learning CBI Content-Based Instruction TBLT Task-Based Language Teaching xi