What makes a lesson effective an investigation into classroom activities

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Instructional methodology is considered one of the most important aspects of education, and is believed to be one of the major factors which influence the positive achievements of teaching and learning (Pham Van Dong, 1999) Teachers are encouraged to introduce changes in the way English is taught to make classes more motivating and successful One way of doing this is to encourage students to participate more in the learning process In recent years, the University of Economics has paid more attention to improving the quality of education and teaching methods Thus, teachers at UE in general and teachers of English in particular are obliged to find out better teaching methods In order to contribute to the improvement of teaching methods, this thesis presents an investigation into classroom activities, which are believed to be one of the most important factors that make a lesson effective By “effectiveness” I mean that lessons should be dynamic, involving the learners in varied activities and interaction Learners should be active, not just listen and repeat However, as Davies and Pearse (2000) observe “Getting and keeping learners’ attention and their positive participation may be one of teachers’ greatest challenges” It is generally agreed among researchers and experienced teachers that effective teaching involves the use of many different classroom activities A teacher who did nothing but lecture for an entire period, who only engaged students in prolonged seatwork, or who did nothing but expose students to attention gaining devices would have difficulty achieving unit outcomes This is not to say that some classes from time to time should not emphasize a single activity, but the majority of classes must offer some variety in the activities with which instructional stimuli are presented (Gary D.Borich, 1988:302) Baker and Westrup (2000: 6) suggest that using activities from a variety of teaching methods helps students learn better This is because using different approaches, activities and materials makes learning more interesting and give all students an opportunity to make progress 1.1 Background to the problem English is one of the most important international languages It is also one of the main languages of business as it gives access to information in such areas as business, finance and other related areas However, at Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics the rate of students’ participation in large classes has been problematic and worth considering in recent years Some students claim that the English lessons are not interesting Most teachers of English at the university wonder what makes students’ levels of motivation in attending the English class different and why the numbers of students attending the English classes differ from class to class Are the students at our university instrumentally motivated enough? What role does English class play at our university? These are questions that need to be addressed Although English is not the economics students’ major subject, it is an instrumental subject for the students in many respects Students are required to pass English tests before taking graduation exams In addition, without adequate competence of English they will have difficulty finding a good job after graduation It is, therefore, reasonable to assume that all the students possess a certain degree of instrumental motivation and a positive attitude towards the English subject Thus, it could be said that their absence from class does not result from their lack of instrumental motivation Secondly, considering the English curriculum for students at the university, the contents of lessons are relatively suited to students’ professional majors For example, students majoring in Monetary Affairs use “ Banking Transaction” as their required textbook, whereas those specializing in accounting have “ The Language of Accounting” as the main materials for their English for specific purposes (ESP) course Only the syllabus using Enterprise One and Enterprise Two are not up-to-date This shows that the syllabus of the courses has provided the students with a stock of language relevant to their professional study Again, the above assumptions show that the low rate of students’ participation in class does not result from their lack of instrumental motivation or irrelevant syllabuses Personally, one of the main challenges of a large class is a wide range of mixed abilities Students have different language levels; as a result, weaker students may stop learning because they not understand The strong students sometimes dominate by gaining most of the teacher’ s attention and by giving all the answers Sometimes the stronger ones stop learning because they find the work too easy and get bored Therefore, it is a big challenge to the teacher of a large class to help the weaker students and to keep the stronger students motivated so that all students succeed 1.2 Aim of the study From my own observation, the rate of students’ participation varied from class to class, especially for third- year students The size of each large class was about 100 students Therefore, it is usually split into two small classes when they have English lessons, and different teachers teach these classes At the beginning of the course the number of students is approximately the same for all classes, but after one or two lessons some classes get more students than the others It is quite surprising that the number of students attending a class which is taught by a well - qualified and experienced teacher is smaller Thus, it is quite worthwhile to consider this matter if an optional methodology is to be sought to promote English learning at UE The thesis aims to seek empirical evidence to explain the reasons why under the same circumstances some lessons are effective and the others are not Within the scope of this thesis, only classroom activities were investigated Specifically, the study was conducted with the hope to find out if a variety of activities would improve students’ motivation in English lessons at UE and as a result of being motivated, such adverse circumstances may be overcome It is hoped that the findings of the research will make contributions to the improvement of teaching English at UE That means making the lesson effective and giving all students an opportunity to make progress The research attempts to investigate the students’ motivation, the common classroom activities and activities expected 1.3 Structure of the thesis The thesis is structured in five chapters Chapter one provides the background to the research as well as the context of language teaching at the University of Economics Chapter two reviews the relevant literature It discusses the theories of motivation, teaching and learning styles, types of language learning activities, principle of planning a sequence of activities and the ways to change the features of the activity to create many different variations to suit different circumstances Chapter three gives a detailed description of the methodology employed in this study Chapter four presents and discusses the results of the study Chapter five concludes the study It also presents the implications of the study and makes some recommendations for pedagogical practices Suggestions for further study are made in this chapter CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW The aim of this chapter is to review the relevant literature: (1) motivation in language learning, (2) types of classroom activities and (3) ways of providing a wide variety of activities 2.1 Business English teaching and communicative approach 2.1.1 Business English teaching A clear understanding of Business English teaching helps teachers choose appropriate teaching methods for English classes at UE Business English is an area of ESP; therefore, teaching Business English is also an area of teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Ellis and Johnson (1996: 3) point out “… Business English differs from other varieties of ESP in that it is often a mix of specific content (relating to a particular job area or industry), and general content (relating to general ability to communicate more effectively, albeit in business situations” Hutchinson and Waters (1987:18) indicate, “ ESP is not a matter of teaching ‘specialized varieties’ of English… The differences should not be allowed to obscure the far larger area of common ground that underlies all English use … though the content of learning may vary, there is no reason to support that the processes of learning should be any different for the ESP learner than for the general English learner There is, in other words, no such thing as an ESP methodology, merely methodologies that have been applied in ESP classroom … ” They state that ESP is not a particular kind of language or methodology, nor does it consist of a particular type of teaching material It is an approach to language teaching, which is based on learners’ needs Thus, the ESP teacher should not become a teacher of the subject matter, but rather interested students of the subject matter and that knowledge of the fundamental principles of the subject was quite enough to make a good ESP teacher The differences between Business English teaching and General English teaching are summarized by Ellis and Johnson (1996:12) as follows: Business English General English Many learning tasks and There may be a broader range of activities will be the same as on a techniques in use in the general general English course, English classroom Many especially for teaching structures, activities are designed to make vocabulary, and social English learning more ‘fun’, and variety Role- plays are common to both of its own sake is important to although the situations and maintain interest and motivation language will differ Business in the absence of specific needs English also borrows ideas from management training – e.g problem solving, decisionmaking, and team building tasks 2.1.2 Communicative language teaching According to Harmer (1998:32) Communicative Language Teaching was a radical departure from the PPP (Presentation, practice and Production) It has two main strands: The first is that language is not just bits of grammar It also involves language functions such as inviting, making an appointment, suggesting etc., which students should learn how to use Students also should be aware of the need for appropriateness when talking and writing in terms of the kind of language they use such as formal, informal, technical, etc The second strand developed from the idea thatỡƠ ứ ặậ bjbjU U kÿ 7| 7| wÇ L ÿÿ 10 ÿÿ should be provided in order to challenge both weak and good students - For comprehension activities: the findings of the study show that these activities are most common in the classroom However, some teachers usually use only the exercises designed in the textbook Exercises can be more interesting and more innovative if the teachers change some features of the activities instead of following exactly the same as the textbook Beside letting students work in pairs and in groups in oral questions part, sometimes teachers ask students to make questions themselves - For more materials, teachers should give a range of extra-class work, from a minimum that all students must to challenging tasks for the better students in class Teachers add materials that they know is relevant to the particular needs and interests of their students and get students to bring to class materials they are interested in Generally, students are interested in discussing latest news, for example, hostage taking in Moscow Theater by Chechen Gunmen, terrible fire at ITC, etc - For more feedback activities, in large class teachers may not collect written work from all of their students at the same time; spread it out in some systematic ways both to lighten your load and to give students the benefit of a speedy return of their work In addition, teachers can get students to mark their own small class tests, or to exchange with other students for marking in order to get immediate feedback 174 - For strategy activities: in recent years language teaching methodology has seen a dramatic increase in attention to strategic investment that learners can make in their own learning process The more teachers’ classroom activity can model the behavior exhibited by successful language learners, the better and more efficient the students will be, especially in developing their own autonomy as learners In addition to training our students good study habits, teachers should help students apply new technology to learning Instead of asking students to look up the meaning of the new word in a dictionary, they may ask them to look them up on computer in order to save time Students nowadays may want some work on communicating in English via the Internet; it is a good idea to consult with learners about their interesting topics on Internet and to bring them to class - Stevens (1983:10) indicates if the atmosphere of the classroom is non-threatening, and their attempts to speak are met with encouragement and understanding, children will produce communicative language, even if it is replete with grammatical errors He suggests an activity-center program in which the subject matter is presented using a thematic approach and where students are involved in hands on experiences instead of teacher-center program in which the curriculum is predetermined and all students are expected to cover basically the same material - As discussed in the background study, the majority of teachers of English are lacking in business knowledge It results in teachers feeling inconfident to let students have some freedom to choose 175 what they want to study since they are afraid they cannot control the course of activities It is suggested that teachers of English for Specific Purposes should improve their knowledge in special aspects - For affective activities: In order to create a relaxed atmosphere for learning, it is a good idea to have one or two ‘reserve’ activities if the class atmosphere is so onerous For example: Finding all the things considered perishable or nonperishable goods (unit 5- supply) or goods or services (unit 1economic activity) with a certain letter of the alphabet; or like the program ‘A Wonderful Hat’ on VTV3 channel Which good consisting six letters is considered a typical perishable? (Banana) An English song (teachers can sing if it is one of teachers ‘ talents, if not we can use a cassette player) Playing a language game (teachers can look for some of the ideas in Business Communication Games, Lloyd and Prerier 1996; Vocabulary Games And Activities For Teachers, Jones 1993 or Techniques for Classroom Interaction, Longman 1987) Asking the students to solve a puzzle (it will be very interesting if the puzzle consists the words belonging to the unit you are teaching) - For assessment activities: continuous assessment is a way of monitoring the progress of students during the year It helps 176 teachers and students to identity their strengths and weaknesses as they learn and to improve those areas before the end-of-term test or the exam If teachers wait for an end-of-term test, it may be too late to help our students We can continuous assessment by recording: Which students usually find the lesson the most challenging; What parts of each lesson appear to be more of a challenge to most of the class; Which specific areas of language students find most challenging We can make continuous assessment a part of a supportive learning atmosphere and teachers will learn a lot from it Based on this activity, teachers and learners can determine how much students have learned However, it costs a lot of time to prepare and correct students’ mistakes From my experience, it can be said that in addition to collaboration with our colleagues to share work, we can get students to mark their own small class test, or to exchange with other students for markings And when they confuse whether it is wrong or right they let us know - For application activities: Most language lessons at UE focus mainly on the presentation and practice of new language At the end of the lessons, students should be able to speak or write the new language fairly well without making many mistakes So it is time for the teacher to give students different activities, which allow them to use the new language they have learned in a freer situation In the presentation and practice activities, the teacher 177 normally uses prepared sentences or texts, which contain the grammatical structure When we start the application activities, it is a good idea to change the context of the presentation and the practice activities and to use application activities based on students’ own lives (ideas, needs, feelings, and experiences) Application activities that are related to the lives of students allow them to express their own opinions and ideas on a text or items from the course book These kinds of activities are motivating and interesting In my opinion, the most effective way that an English teacher encourages students to learn is practical application In the activities, each student has something to do, so he is ready to take part The most important thing is participation because it provides circumstances for active learning For example, after reading Unit one- Economic Activity (see appendix D) students were asked to talk about Economic Activity in Ho Chi Minh city - For memorization activities: as discussed above these activities are most boring Therefore, in order to help students memorize the language they study, teachers should not ask students to learn by heart a list of the new words or a the conversation but should design tasks that help students memorize 178 5.3 Recommendations for further research The limitations of the thesis is small size of the sample population; 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Why/why not? Which activities often take place in classroom? Evaluate the activities Is the lesson is varied or not? Which activities you expect to take place in classroom? 189