English for children evaluation of curriculum development at vietnam usa society english training service center

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES - VŨ AN NHƯ ENGLISH FOR CHILDREN: EVALUATION OF CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT AT VIETNAM-USA SOCIETY ENGLISH TRAINING SERVICE CENTER A thesis in TESOL Code number: 5.07.02 SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF TESOL Supervisor: ĐOÀN HUỆ DUNG, Ph D HO CHI MINH CITY - 2005 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: ENGLISH FOR CHILDREN: EVALUATION OF CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT AT VIETNAM-USA SOCIETY ENGLISH TRAINING SERVICE CENTER in terms of the statement of Requirements for Theses in Master’s Programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee Ho Chi Minh City, October 17, 2005 VUÕ AN NHÖ i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, VŨ AN NHƯ, being the candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (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 University library should be accessible for the 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, October 17, 2005 VUÕ AN NHÖ ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis was on its first step in late 2003 but it has not been finished until two years later A lot of difficulties and problems have occurred during that time, among which the uncooperative attitudes of the institution under evaluation and the worrying deterioration in health of several members in my family and of myself during the year 2004 have been the most discouragement In that gloomy picture of my family’s future, the sympathetic understanding, patience and generosity together with the constructive and valuable suggestions of my supervisor, Dr Đoàn Huệ Dung, have been a great help and motivation for me to continue working on the last steps to finish my thesis For that reason, I would like to let her know that I owe her a great debt of gratitude I also owe a great deal to all my teachers for their helpful instruction during the course In addition, I would like to express my thanks to the teachers, the students and students’ parents at Vietnam-USA Society English Training Service Center who had allowed themselves to be interviewed and agreed to be a part of the questionnaires Similar thanks must go to all of my friends and classmates who have given me a lot of encouragement to overcome the difficulties mentioned above Finally, I wish to send many thanks to my family, especially my mother and father for the eternal love, the continual practical as well as moral support and the special care and patience they have offered to me iii ABSTRACT With the rapid development of English schools and English teaching programs for children as it is in Vietnam nowadays, there is a constant necessity for all concerned to investigate the effectiveness of those programs This study aims to evaluate the Superkids program for teaching English to children of to 12 years of age at Vietnam-USA Society English Training Service Center (VUS-ETSC) Results were obtained through questionnaires sent to 100 students from Movers classes and to 15 teachers including 10 Vietnamese teachers and foreign teachers at VUS-ETSC Together with the questionnaires, interviews were conducted with 30 parents of 30 students from the Movers classes and with the 15 teachers above to provide further details about the program evaluation The researcher’s experience as a teacher of the Superkids program as well as the students’ test results and the reenrollment rate also made valuable contributions towards giving a closer investigation of the program The findings from the survey were to point out that the Superkids program is generally a successful one in helping Vietnamese children at the elementary level to develop both their language competence and performance With interesting methods of teaching, good students’ progress and useful instructional materials, the language program can be seen as one more convincing evidence added to the argument for teaching foreign languages to learners at an early age A balanced activities approach together with the improvement of the current co-teaching system and other related matters are recommended to apply in the classroom so that better achievements can be obtained iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CUP : Cambridge University Press ESOL : English for Speakers of Other Languages L1 : First Language L2 : Second Language OUP : Oxford University Press SLA : Second Language Acquisition VUS-ETSC : Vietnam-USA Society English Training Service Center ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii ABSTRACT .iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ix INTRODUCTION 0.1 THE PROBLEM 0.2 THE AIM OF THE THESIS .2 0.3 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE THESIS 0.4 METHODOLOGY 0.5 OVERVIEW OF THE THESIS CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 1.1 DESCRIPTION OF VUS-ETSC’S SUPERKIDS PROGRAM 1.2 SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THE COURSE .8 1.3 SUMMARY .13 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 14 2.1 EVALUATION OF A LANGUAGE PROGRAM OR CURRICULUM 14 2.1.1 What is a language program? .14 2.1.2 Why we evaluate a language program or curriculum? 15 2.1.3 How we evaluate a language program? 17 2.1.4 The role and evaluation of instructional materials .19 2.1.4.1 The role of instructional materials 19 2.1.4.2 Criteria for textbook evaluation 20 2.2 LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODS 21 2.2.1 Comparisons between children and adults in language learning .21 2.2.1.1.Why should we teach a foreign language to young children? 21 2.2.1.2 Disadvantages of children learning a foreign language .25 2.2.2 Humanistic education and experiential learning 27 2.2.3 Some characteristics of young children .29 2.2.3.1 A balanced activities approach 31 2.2.3.2 Learning through games 33 2.2.4 Team teaching 34 2.2.4.1 The benefits of team teaching 34 v 2.2.4.2 The problems of team teaching 35 2.3 SUMMARY .36 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 37 3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS .37 3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN .38 3.2.1 Subjects of the study 38 3.2.1.1 Students 38 3.2.1.2 Teachers 38 3.2.1.3 Parents 39 3.2.2 Instruments 39 3.2.2.1 Questionnaires for students 40 3.2.2.2 Questionnaires for teachers 41 3.2.2.3 The interviews 41 3.3 SUMMARY .42 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 43 4.1 DATA ANALYSIS 43 4.1.1 Students’ evaluation of the MOVERS course 43 4.1.1.1 Evaluation of the teaching method 44 4.1.1.2 Evaluation of the students’ progress 46 4.1.1.3 Evaluation of the material used .47 4.1.1.4 Students’ responses of their difficulties .48 4.1.2 Teachers’ evaluation of the Movers course 48 4.1.2.1 Evaluation on students’ achievement 48 4.1.2.2 Evaluation on material used 50 4.1.2.3 Evaluation on teaching method 51 4.1.2.4 Evaluation on teaching facilities 52 4.1.3 Interview with 15 teachers at VUS-ETSC 53 4.1.3.1 Interview about students’ achievement 53 4.1.3.2 Interview about the co-teaching system .54 4.1.4 Interview with thirty parents of MOVERS students .56 4.1.5 Students’ test results 57 4.1.5.1 The test results of MOVERS classes at VUS-ETSC 57 4.1.5.2 The results of the Cambridge Young Learners English Test .60 4.2 FINDINGS .61 4.2.1 Strong points 61 4.2.2 Weaknesses 62 4.3 SUMMARY .63 CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 64 5.1 IMPLICATIONS .64 5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS 68 5.2.1 Some suggestions for teaching techniques and procedures 70 vi 5.2.1.1 Pronunciation 70 5.2.1.2 Vocabulary 71 5.2.1.3 Grouping the students for language practice 73 5.2.1.4 Team teaching 73 5.2.2 The lesson plan 84 5.3 SUMMARY .89 CONCLUSION .90 LIST OF REFERENCES 92 APPENDICES 95 APPENDIX A 96 APPENDIX B 100 APPENDIX C 104 APPENDIX D .106 APPENDIX E 114 vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Page Table 4.1: Students’ enjoyment of the MOVERS course 44 Table 4.2: Students’ evaluation of the teaching methods .45 Table 4.3: Students’ evaluation of the teachers’ instructions .45 Table 4.4: Teachers’ enjoyment of the current co-teaching system at VUS-ETSC .52 Table 4.5: Test Results of VIIM 1A1 58 Table 4.6: Test Results of VIIM 1A2 59 Table 4.7: Test Results of VIIM 1A3 60 Table 4.8: Test Results of VIIM 1A4 60 Figure 4.1: Students’ evaluation of their progress through the course 47 Figure 4.2: Students’ progress through the MOVERS course according to teachers’ opinions 50 viii CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS In the classroom, the most important people are the students: teachers should set aside personal difficulties and make teaching their number one priority Changes on the institution’s part: the VUS should clearly formulate its ideas on the ideal role of the co-teachers and communicate these ideas to all teachers involved In order for the teachers to try their best in doing their job, there should be some motivators like good payment and opportunities to develop their teaching career raised by VUS-ETSC It is also the job of the school to have teachers with similar personality to work together to resolve the problem of personality conflict between teachers Workshops on language teaching should be held more regularly to help teachers to be well informed with the latest changes and developments in their job Furthermore, the school should try to employ only well qualified teachers, especially the nonVietnamese teachers, to improve its quality in English training Class size: there should be a limited number of students in each class For children classes, the ideal number would be from to 12 students in a classroom to maintain effective teaching and learning activities Larger classes mean more work for the teacher, but also less attention for individual students and fewer opportunities for each student to interact Some suggestions on team teaching practice Team teaching is a very useful technique in the language classroom Two teachers can bring the dialogues and conversations to life by acting as models Likewise, practice exercises can be clearly demonstrated by teachers Team teachers can lead different halves of the class in two-group practice or team 75 CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS games They can also give more individualized attention to students when circulating around the class for small-group practice and pair work The teaching assistant, being the native speaker of the L1, should not interpret every word spoken by their L2 co-teacher If they so, students will soon get lazy in trying to understand the spoken language they are studying The teaching assistants should also help their co-teachers in disciplining students, marking their Workbooks and when being asked There should be some time of briefing before each session either on the phone, by email, or by meeting each other before and after class Ideally, both teachers will take an active part, to a greater or lesser extent, in all aspects of the teaching and not fall into a rigid pattern of acting or teaching only within ‘teacher 1’ s domain’ and ‘teacher 2’ s domain’ Discussion between two teachers It has been found that there is a golden rule in team teaching, that is: Never take anything for granted; explicitly discuss everything Clear communication on the part of both members of the teaching team is essential to the success of the relationship and the realisation of their teaching objectives First, talking things through at every stage will help them define their individual roles within the team This is essential in developing a better understanding of one another’s teaching philosophy along with the personal and cultural factors that have shaped it and affect its practical applications Honest discussion also clears up any potential misunderstandings before they have the chance to hamper the flow of a lesson and ensure that they are taking equal 76 CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS responsibility for staying on course towards their established objectives These meetings will help ensure that they are both feeling comfortable and productive within the team The second benefit of discussion is to get an agreement between two teachers about lesson planning and task division There needs to be a division of specific work that each teacher has to in the classroom The teacher with a better skill can be assigned the tasks that require much of the performance of that skill while the other teacher should undertake the tasks suitable to his or her ability to perform For example, if a teacher is good at drawing or singing, he or she should not take on the job of telling stories, which is not his or her strength Similarly, a teacher who has very beautiful handwriting but not very clear voice projection and articulation should be given the task of writing on board, not one of explaining or dictating in front of a big class So, they need to work together to analyse their individual strengths and abilities and determine how these can be used within their team context Discussion, thus can help both teachers to work out how they complement each another and how they can facilitate improving their partner’s skills in various areas like pacing, giving instructions, teacher-student interaction etc Teachers’ performance in the classroom Eye contact and signalling Maintaining eye contact with each other is critical in the team teaching classroom When there are two teachers in the classroom at the same time, if there is not any eye contact, it will be difficult for them to exchange ideas and perform their task successfully They will often need to signal each other for 77 CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS transitions to new activities, communicate when to bring activities to a close or modify an activity Good and frequent eye contact will help them know when it is time for the performance of their task and when it is suitable to interrupt to give further explanations or help They should try to keep an eye on each other at least every few minutes There are often times when Teacher A can ‘signal’ Teacher B using eye contact about a situation happening near Teacher A This is particularly useful for classroom management, but is also helpful in pacing and for assisting students who may have questions or need help In language classrooms where some translation is performed, maintaining eye contact with their partner is a good way to ensure smooth transitions between L1 and L2 instructions Circulating in the classroom One of the benefits of having two teachers in the classroom is that they can increase the teacher’ s physical proximity to a greater number of students and thus, hopefully, keep a greater number of students more actively engaged in the lesson more of the time It may be necessary for them both to stand at the front to address the class for various activities, but this limits the benefits of team teaching’ s increased teacher-student proximity It should not be the main classroom position they adopt in their teaching During student-centred activities, it is best for both teachers to circulate at a 180-degree angle to one another For example, if teacher A is at the front, teacher B is at the back; if teacher A is on the left side of the class, teacher B is on the right side This minimizes the amount of time it takes for a teacher to address a student concern and maximizes the supervision provided by the 78 CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS teachers It is important to watch where the other teacher is in the classroom and to try to complement their presence Individual Roles The Vietnamese teaching assistants should be encouraged, as often as possible, to make a concerted effort to use the target language in the classroom that in turn provides students with a role model who has successfully learned the target language It is best to avoid having one teacher addressing the class, while the other stands idly by In the table below, Rebecca Benoit and Bridget Haugh (2001) have provided examples of how both teachers can be intensively involved in team teaching Both teachers should interchange the roles of ‘leader and supporter’ throughout the lesson to ensure equality and responsibility Teacher A (leader) Teacher B (supporter) Circulates amongst students keeping them Explaining an activity ‘on-task’, answers student queries (make eye contact with Teacher B, ask (Maintain eye contact with Teacher A Teacher B if they have anything to while evaluating their instructions and add to the instructions) thinking of something they may have unclear or omitted that can be restated or added) 79 CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Writes the instructions given by Teacher A on board for visual Giving students instructions reinforcement, or, circulates amongst students to evaluate understanding of instructions Echoes Teacher A while circulating Leading choral pronunciation while which gives students in all areas of the circulating in the class class a chance to ‘hear’ the teacher well Evaluating student presentations (While making note of grades, Administers the activity (calling signalling Teacher B when you have students, ensuring that students are completed your evaluation so they can listening attentively.) cue the next students) Calls on a student to answer a Notes which student responded for question evaluation and participating grading Echoing There are two ways to employ ‘echoing’: L1 to L2, or L2 repetition Echoing is useful during choral pronunciation to provide students with an alternative form of pronunciation, in addition to making it easier for students in another part of the class to hear more easily (as the supporting teacher is located at another part of the classroom) Echoing is also useful where some translation from L1 to L2 is required for student comprehension Echoing can be done at varying speeds (natural speed or slow speed) The ‘supporting’ teacher is 80 CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS often in a good position to determine what speed and amount of echoing students may require Transitions, Timing and Pacing To keep the pace of the class going smoothly, teachers should always keep an eye on each other, and the clock Having two teachers in the class can be a real advantage with time keeping While Teacher A leads an activity or gives instructions, Teacher B watches the clock and makes sure that the lesson proceeds in a timely fashion It is useful to develop a subtle system of signalling each other (hand-signals, eye contact, and verbal cues) to make transitions between activities smooth Explicit discussion of what is to be done next in the classroom is extremely disruptive to the flow of the lesson and gives off the impression that they are ill prepared to teach the class Ideally, both teachers will share in giving directions, taking the initiative to move on to the next activity, and in adapting or curtailing an activity that is not working They should remember to have mutually agreed upon back-up or extra activities, so that they will be able to work together in guiding the class from an unsuccessful activity to the back-up plan Classroom Management Each teacher has a different threshold of tolerance for student misbehaviour Before the students become disruptive, they will both need to establish a set 81 CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS of guidelines and agree on what type of behaviour is not acceptable in their class, and consequences for students who disrupt the class Without a common consensus as team teachers on what is permissible and what is unacceptable, they will invariably find themselves in disagreement and have potentially inconsistent reactions by teachers to student misbehaviour in the class To prevent this before it occurs, they should sit down together and make a list of what constitutes unacceptable classroom behaviour by students (a list of class rules) Next, they will need to determine what consequences they can implement should these rules be broken Lastly, they will have to develop a ‘warning’ procedure that teachers will give to students (for example, three ‘warnings’ lead to one ‘consequence’) They will have to check what types of consequences are acceptable with other department members It is particularly important in discussing the implementation of consequences for the team teachers to so in complete agreement and support of each other in front of students Some students may attempt the ‘divide and conquer’ strategy, making requests of the teacher who is perceived as ‘softer’ than the other The gender of teachers will most likely also play a factor here, particularly if students view the male teacher as an ‘enforcer’, while the female teacher is perceived as the ‘softer’ of the team teaching pair Both genders must emit confidence and enforce consequences where necessary There are also considerable cultural differences in classroom management between the foreign teachers and the teaching assistants that require explicit discussion Many teachers find themselves in the frustrating position of being 82 CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS the sole ‘enforcer’ in the classroom simply because the two teachers have not discussed what kind of behaviour is unacceptable Modelling Clear, careful modelling is essential to demonstrate to students the procedure for certain activities The more complicated the activity and the language involved, the more essential it becomes to prepare students before they begin Good modelling saves time later and helps students get the most out of an activity linguistically, since they will not be wasting energy in confusion about what they should be doing Finally, and most importantly, modelling enables teachers to explain a structure or an activity, and the students to carry out the activity, using only English Modelling Sentence Patterns New question-and-answer patterns can be modeled in several ways Teachers can act as people or with the co-teachers When modelling, teachers use realia whenever possible along with appropriate gestures Modelling Practice Activities To model a practice activity, teachers can walk the students through the activity, move them into position, and say what they are supposed to say For example, if the students are supposed to mingle and ask questions, teachers can walk several students around the room, guiding them by the shoulders By 83 CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS following this physical approach, students can learn even a very complex activity Modelling Conversations As teachers practice new dialogues, they model how the dialogue should be read They take a part of one speaker and have the co-teachers take a part of the second Teachers encourage students to look at each other as they speak, which will help their conversations become more realistic 5.2.2 The lesson plan Aim: the lesson plan will focus on teaching vocabulary about family members in Unit of Let’s Go (Let’s Learn part) Objective: students are supposed to be able to use the family words in simple situation of communication Levels of students: they are all beginners in English learning, from the age of to 12 Time of class instruction: hour (time allotted for teaching the whole Unit is hours) Materials needed: puppets, Teacher Cards 53-60, Student Cards 53-60, tape (or CD) player, cassette (or CD) Method used to teach this class is the Balanced Activities Approach The lesson plan has a variety of activities including listening, singing songs, playing games, speaking, writing, etc which is done either as class work, team work, group work or pair work Students may choose to have some 84 CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS activity to come before or after the other ones and they may add those activities they like to join in and leave out those that they not like with the permission of the teacher I Ice breaking activity: role play with a song (5 minutes) Six students as volunteers come to the front of the class to be assigned roles At this moment, the students have not learned the family words yet They only listen to the teacher and try to remember their roles as ‘mother’, ‘sister’, etc Four students will take the roles of ‘father, mother, sister, brother’; the other two students take the roles of two friends: one belongs to this family and introduces her or his family to the other The teacher will then play ‘The Family Song’ and use gesture to model the action of introduction, greeting and hand shaking with the volunteers In the next turn, the teacher plays the cassette or CD again and it’s time for the six volunteers to play their roles while practicing the song In the third time, they the action once more but this time the whole class will sing with them There may be another group of volunteers to come to the front and replay all the actions above After this warm-up activity, students may feel a bit more eager to start the lesson II Introduction of new vocabulary: 10 minutes Teacher uses Picture Cards to model the new words Teacher will say the words aloud first, students then repeat twice 85 CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS A student may come as a volunteer to act the role of the teacher: s/he shows the picture cards and has the class say the words after her or him Teacher holds up one picture card after the other and asks: "Who’s s/he?"; the whole class calls out the words Then the teacher goes around the classroom and asks each student, the students respond individually The teacher places Teacher Cards 57 and 58 on the chalk rail and uses the puppets to model the question and answer Puppet A: Who’ s she? (indicating Teacher Card 57) Puppet B: She’ s my grandmother Puppet A: Who’ s he? Puppet B: He’ s my grandfather Etc The puppets point to or otherwise indicate the pictures as they speak The students repeat three times in chorus after each question and answer Role play: students stand up, one asks: "Who’ s s/he?" and one gives the answer based on the picture cards given by teacher Team work: the class is divided into two teams Team A : "Who’ s s/he?", team B: "S/he’ s my … " according to the picture cards shown by the teacher Teams then reverse roles 86 CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The students open their books, listen to the teacher’s questions and give answers to describe the two pictures on page 30 Ex: How many students are there in the first picture? Who are they? What is the boy doing? Whose picture is it? etc III Listening: 10 minutes A Listen to the patterns Students listen to the tape or CD once Students listen and point to the pictures on page 30 Students listen and repeat Practice: the teacher says the questions and the students read aloud the answers B Listen to the vocabulary With books opened, students listen and point to the pictures on page 31 With books closed, students listen to the vocabulary, look at the picture cards shown by the teacher and repeat the word that matches the card shown If the word and the card shown not match, they simply say: ‘No, teacher.’ A student as volunteer may come and show the picture cards one by one to the whole class The teacher then says the words aloud and has the class repeat 87 CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS IV Games: 10 minutes The class is divided into two teams, each team has a volunteer The teacher places the picture cards in different areas of the classroom The teacher then says: "Who’ s s/he? S/he’ s my …." The two volunteers will run to find the corresponding cards The first one to bring it to the teacher and repeat the sentence: "S/he’ s my …" wins a point for his or her team This game may be played in two or more rounds if there is time The teacher draws a nine-square (each square is numbered) grid on the board Students are divided into two teams again and each team will have two volunteers for each turn The two volunteers of each team has to come to the front, use the picture cards to practice the ask-and-answer pattern above If they it correctly, they can place an ‘X’ or ‘O’ on the grid in the location of their choice which they can indicate by stating the number The first team to earn three "X’ s" or "O’ s" in a row on the grid wins V Workbook and Exercises: 10 minutes Students the written exercises from page 28 to page 31 in the Workbook The teacher will correct them in class if there is enough time Students may practice their writing and speaking skills by writing down the words and drawing pictures of the members in their own family or they may bring the photos of their family and practice introducing the people in the pictures to their friends in pairs or in small groups 88 CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS VI Song: minutes Six volunteers come to the front of the class and practice ‘The Family Song’ again: they sing and act simultaneously The class will sing with them Another song: students can choose any other song they like and sing VII More games: minutes Concentration: Students work in pairs or groups of four, each pair or group use a double set of Student Cards 53-60 Students, one at a time, turn over two cards and try to identify each family member in one sentence Ex: "She’s my grandmother and he’s my father." Students must find matching pairs If the cards match, the student keeps them and gets a point Mine: See Appendix E 5.3 SUMMARY The chapter has presented some implications as well as recommendations to apply the balanced activities approach together with team teaching in teaching English to children With the suggestions given in this chapter, the English teaching and learning situations for children in Vietnam will be hopefully improved considerably and students can have the optimum conditions for effective English learning 89