Nghiên cứu vấn đề nhận thức của giáo viên về việc phát triển ngữ dụng học cho sinh viên lớp 11 trong giờ học nói tại một vài trường thpt tại quảng bình

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES TRAN THI DIEU HUONG TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF DEVELOPING PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE FOR GRADE 11 STUDENTS IN SPEAKING CLASS AT SOME HIGH SCHOOLS IN QUANGBINH MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.14.01.11 SUPERVISOR: Ph.D HOANG TINH BAO HUE, 2017 ii BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ TRẦN THỊ DIỆU HƯƠNG NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHẬN THỨC CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VỀ VIỆC PHÁT TRIỂN NGỮ DỤNG HỌC CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TRONG GIỜ HỌC NÓI TẠI MỘT VÀI TRƯỜNG THPT TẠI QUẢNG BÌNH LUẬN VĂN THẠC SỸ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.14.01.11 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS HOÀNG TỊNH BẢO HUẾ, 2017 iii STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself Date: 09/ 12/ 2017 iv ABSTRACT The present study aims at investigating the importance of developing the pragmatic competence for grade 11 students in speaking class at some high schools in QuangBinh It was carried out in order to collect information about teacher‘s perception of pragmatic competence in speaking class, of its signification and the importance of developing pragmatic competence Results from the data analysis show that there are many advantages and difficulties for teachers when teaching pragmatic competence in speaking class; besides, both teachers and students were aware of the important role of pragmatic competence in communication However, the perception of pragmatic competence was not complete and they found that they mostly could not apply this knowledge in real life communication From the findings of the study, some suggestions are made to improve the quality of teaching and learning, especially teachers‘ perception of developing pragmatic competence for students in speaking class v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor at Hue University of Foreign Languages for his constant help, precious advice, and enlightening guidance, and especially his valuable corrections during the reading of this manuscript I am grateful to all 50 teachers at 15 high schools in QuangBinh province for their useful lectures and instructions, which lay the foundation for this study My sincere thanks are due to the teachers from ESP Department of HUFL who offered me great help and precious advice without which I could not have finished the paper Finally, I owe the completion of this study to my family for their words of encouragement throughout the time I worked on this study vi TABLE OF CONTENTS SUB COVER PAGE ii SUB COVER PAGE (in Vietnamese) iii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP iv ABSTRACT .v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi TABLE OF CONTENTS vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ix LIST OF TABLES x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background and rationale for the study .1 1.2 Research aims .2 1.3 Research questions .3 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Structure of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 The concept of pragmatics 2.1.1 What is pragmatics? 2.1.2 What is pragmatic competence? .6 2.1.3 How can we develop pragmatic competence? Can it be taught? 2.1.4 The adoption of the pragmatic competence in high school in Vietnam 13 2.1.5 Pragmatic competence in speaking classroom 14 2.2 Speech act theory .18 2.2.1 What are speech acts? .18 2.2.2 Speech act classification 19 2.2.3 Why should speech acts be taught? 20 2.3 Speaking skill .21 2.3.1 Definition of speaking skill .21 2.3 Characteristics of speaking skill 22 2.3.3 Importance of spoken language 23 2.3.3.1 Topic of speech event 23 vii 2.3.3.2 Setting of speech events .23 2.3.3.3 Participants involved in speech event 24 2.4 Teaching pragmatics to high school students in Vietnam and raising their awareness of pragmatic competence 25 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 29 3.1 Research participants 29 3.2 Research procedure 30 3.3.Research methodology 32 3.4 Data collection 32 3.4.1 Study the course book .32 3.4.2 Observation .33 3.4.3 Interview 33 3.4.4 Questionnaires 33 3.5 Data analysis 34 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 35 4.1 Findings 35 4.1.1 Information about teachers 35 4.1.2 Information about pragmaticcompetence 38 4.1.3 Post-questionnaire on pragmatics competence .40 4.2 Discussion 42 4.2.1 Teachers‘ perception towards teaching pragmatic competence in speaking class 42 4.2.2 Advantages of including pragmatic knowledge in speaking class 44 4.2.3 Difficulties of teaching pragmatic competence in speaking class .44 4.3 Useful activities to teach pragmatics 45 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS .51 5.1 Summary 51 5.2 Suggestions 51 5.3 Limitation 52 5.4 Further research 52 REFERENCES 53 APPENDIX 57 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as a Foreign Language L1: First Language L2: Second Language ix LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Fifty teacher participants from 15 high schools in Quang Binh 30 Table 4.1: Teacher‘s personal information 35 Table 4.2: Most important skill 36 Table 4.5: Skills in teaching pragmatics 37 Table 4.3: Class size 37 Table 4.4: Pragmatics related knowledge 38 Table 4.6: Activities in teaching pragmatics .39 Table 4.7: Word choice depending on different factors 39 Table 4.8: Teaching ―Making requests‖ 40 Table 4.9: Teaching pragmatics 40 Table 4.10: Reaction to learning pragmatics 41 Table 4.11: Reaction to teaching pragmatics 42 x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background and rationale for the study In the old days in Vietnam, English was not paid much attention to at school when students often learnt a lot of grammar, vocabulary and mainly practiced reading and writing skills Students were not used to practicing speaking skill and listening skill, or using appropriate utterances in the right contexts However, Vietnam has recently been developing and integrating into the world; so English and has become an important means of communication Together with the improvement of communicative skills, pragmatics competence - speaking in context has been paid more attention to Teachers and students are expected to know how to use English in daily communication tactfully At school, due to time limitation, teachers can hardly coverall the knowledge in textbooks, they, therefore, often teach the main points only, for example, vocabulary or main structures in the lesson Many teachers fail to teach structure usage in suitable contexts, i e pragmatics competence, which results in distorting students‘ communication naturally and authentically Take the conversation between one adult and one child, for example They are greeting one another - Adult: Hi, Nam How are you? - Child: Hi Uncle I'm fine, thank you And you? The child violates the politeness in this speech act Why does this situation happen? It is because teachers not teach students how to greet people differently depending on their age for the sake of politeness The child said "Hi‖ because in class, teachers use drills of greetings and teaches him to use ―hi‖ to greet people but forget to mention the age of the interlocutors Thus we can see that the structure taught in context is extremely important In other words, teachers‘ awareness and way to teach students pragmatics is extremely pragmatic norms of the target language oral expression teachers try to develop the students pragmatic competence 2-Interpretation or production activities are activities that come after the presentation of English language pragmatic norms It arranges opportunities for the students to practice the pragmatic norms The other type of speaking activities that teachers may use is the speaking activities that provides opportunities to students to use the pragmatic norms in simulation for the native social situations Generally, the speaking activities that teacher should use in order to develop the students‘ pragmatic competency must be taken from everyday language The use of authentic language samples that present the pragmatic norms of the target language and providing opportunities to apply that information can develop the students‘ pragmatic competence Information Gaps activities It includes the participation of more than one student The part of information that one student knows can be different from the other student‘ part of information The combination of these parts forms the whole information Those activities include describing pictures, completing and telling story Oral expression teachers may use this type of speaking activities in order to urge the students‘ interaction in the classroom This type of activities can attract the students‘ interests since it is presenting new information especially, if the topic discussed is interesting for the students Surveys activities It involves the students‘ participation in carrying out a questionnaire about a specific topic It requires the participation of more than one student; furthermore, it involves the students‘ movements inside the classroom Teachers may use this type of speaking activities that urges the students to interact in classrooms It is a unique activity since it requires the students‘ movements inside the classroom in order to communicate with each other 47 Discussion/ Report activities It involves the students‘ discussion about a specific topic It also requires the participation of more than one student since they are going to exchange their points of views about the topic It is one of the most used speaking activities that oral expression teachers use when teaching English language The teacher introduces the topic then urges the students to interact with each other by exchanging their point of view Work in pairs/ groups activities Work in pairs/groups creates direct interaction among members to exchange, help and work together to complete the assignment It includes two students (pairs) or more students (groups) who work on a topic together Teacher gives a topic and gives learners more speaking time It works in many forms such as acting out the dialogue, answers and questions, making a conversation, thinking of some topics related to the lesson Teacher also changes the pace of the lesson and allows them to mix with everyone in the groups After that, teacher instructs them how to lead and be led by someone rather than the teacher Especially, teacher allows students to monitor the class by moving around the class and listening to the language they are producing Play game activities There are many interesting games to attract students + Roll the ball: This can be used to practice any language that requires a question/answer pattern They can roll the ball to each other and have to say the appropriate sentence as they roll the ball E.g 'Hello.' 'Hello.' 'What‘s your name?' etc More importantly, the sentences their practice should be fairly short + Guessing game: One student simply acts out some activity (e.g.cooking) and the other students guess what that student is doing The student who guesses correctly acts out another activity 48 + Noughts and Crosses: This is a good game for a revision or for a reader's discussion Divide the class into two groups Draw a grid of nine squares on the board and write a number on each square (from to 9) Prepare nine questions and set one question for each number The groups call out the numbers and if they answer the question correctly, they get the point The goal of the game is to make a line (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) + What‘s your secret? Game: This game is a pair work activity that truly involves the whole class In this game, which is a play on investigative journalist, each student writes a secret down on a piece of paper, things like: ―I play the clarinet.‖ or ―I have a twin.‖ The papers are placed in a hat and each student draws one: that‘s where the game begins + It‘s your turn: Teach a Class! Game: This game is a fun activity for advanced students In this activity, you assign each pair a grammar, vocabulary or culture point that they‘ll have to teach to the class The pair works together to prepare activities and lesson plans and teaches the point to the class Interview and report activities In this activity, students can interview friends in class or groups They can give some questions Their friends will answer They will write the information in the paper After that, they report to the class In addition to these activities, ―learning by teaching‖ is the best activity to teach pragmatics Firstly, the teacher assigns the task for the students to prepare Secondly, the teacher organizes the student‘s warm-up activity The teachers will observe the whole class The teacher manages groups/ pairs, students must study hard-working, exchange information and ask some questions about the unit Furthermore, the teacher controls classroom, students give lectures on the content of the unit Besides, teachers may offer some questions to check students‘ understanding Finally, the teacher summarizes the lessons‘ content The teacher organizes students to practical exercises and apply to their life.It is teachers‘ 49 guidance that helps students think how speech acts among everyday situations functions as a suitable method for developing pragmatic competence In short, teaching pragmatics is very important and necessary Each activity has different benefits and disadvantages Therefore, teachers should have the knowledge to apply and teach more effectively 50 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS 5.1 Summary This study aims at teachers‘ perception of developing pragmatic competence for Grade 11 students in Speaking class at some high schools in QuangBinh The analysis shows that students cannot use the language effectively in different social situations However, teachers know the importance of teaching pragmatic competence Pragmatic competence helps students develop their ability to use the language differently in different social situations Finally, teachers appreciate the speaking activities that give students opportunities to practice the pragmatic instruction in different social situations The results also report that teachers perceive the use of the explicit pragmatic competence and the use of different speaking activities Teachers know how to raise students‘ awareness and to develop students‘ pragmatic competence In short, teachers need to be pragmatically competent because it has been proved that one with advanced grammatical development does not necessarily have corresponding levels of pragmatic development (Bardovi & Dornyei, 1997) 5.2 Suggestions As shown in the Appendix, teachers have given some solutions and I completely agree with them Firstly, teachers should provide students with vocabulary and grammar to construct the language base Secondly, teachers should also stimulate students to study and practice speaking Next, teachers need to consider the pragmatic aspects of English language in teaching speaking skill In other words, focusing on the pragmatic aspects of the language rather than the linguistics one is needed 51 Besides, it is necessary to identify teacher and students‘ difficulties Teachers should identify the speaking difficulties towards the pragmatic competence either in using the language itself, or using the language speaking rules, or even both of them Then, they should provide English language pragmatic competence instruction to the students in order to raise their awareness to the pragmatic norms of the English language Pragmatic competence instructions would be helpful for developing student‘s pragmatic competence because students can speak better when they follow teachers‘ instructions Finally, teachers ought to use different speaking activities so as to facilitate pragmatics class 5.3 Limitation This study was carried out on a small scale of classes at some high schools in QuangBinh within limited time of implementation Also, the issues relating to students and teachers' roles has not been studied 5.4 Further research Due to the requirements and research facilities, the study is confined to teachers‘ perception of boosting students‘ pragmatic competence in Speaking class to Grade 11 at some high schools in QuangBinh The followings are suggested for further study: Teachers' roles in organizing teaching pragmatic competence 52 REFERENCES Andersen, E (1990) Acquiring Communicative Competence: knowledge of register variation In Scarcella, R et al (eds) Developing Communicative Competence in a Second Language Newbury House Publishers Austin, J L (1962) How to things with Words OUP Bachman, L (1990) Fundamental considerations in language testing Oxford: Oxford University Press Bardovi-Harlig, K & Mahan-Taylor, R (2003) Teaching Pragmatics Washingto, DC: US Department of State Bardovi-Harlig, K., Hartford, B A S., Mahan-Taylor, R., Morgan, M J., & Reynolds, D W (1991) Developing pragmatic awareness: Closing the conversation ELT Journal, 45(1), 4-15 Belz, J A (2007) The role of computer mediation in the instruction and development of L2 pragmatic competence Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 27, 45-75 Bialystok, E (1993) Symbolic representation and attentional control in pragmatic competence In Kasper, G., & Blum-Kulka, S (Eds.) Interlanguage Pragmatics (pp 43-57) Oxford: Oxford University Press Brown, H D (2007) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching 5th ed NY: Pearson Longman Brown, P., & Levinson, S C (1987) Politeness: Some universals in language usage Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Canale, M (1983).From communicative competence to communicative language pedagogy.In Richards, J & Schmidt, R (ed.) Language and Communication (pp.2-27) London: Longman Group Ltd Canale, M (1988).The measurement of communicative competence Annual review of applied linguistics, 8, 67-84 53 Canale, M & Swain, M (1980) Theoretical bases of communicative approach to second language teaching and testing Applied linguistics 1:1-47 Chomsky, N (1980) Rules and representations New York: Columbia University Press Cohen, A D (2008) Teaching and assessing L2 pragmatics: What can we expect from learners?.Language Teaching, 41(2), 213-235 Crystal, D (1997) A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics 4th edition Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Crystal, D (1985) A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics (2 ed) Oxford: Blackwell Eslami-Rasekh & Fatahi (2004) The effect of explicit metapragmatic instruction on the speech act awareness of advanced EFL students TEFL-JS, (4) Fulcher, Glenn (2003) Testing Second Language Speaking Edinburgh gate: Pearson Education Grice, H P (1975) Logic and conversation In P Cole & J Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics 3: Speech acts (pp 41-58) New York: Academic Press Harmer, J (1998) How to teach English (3rd ed) Edinburgh Gate: Longman Ishihara, N (2010d) Theories of language acquisition and the teaching of pragmatics In N Ishihara & A D Cohen (Eds.), Teaching and learning pragmatics: Where language and culture meet (pp 99-122) Harlow, England: Pearson Education Limited Krashen, S.D (1985) The input hypothesis: issues and implications London: Longman Kasper, G (1997a) Can pragmatic competence be taught? (NetWork #6) [HTML document] Honolulu: University of Hawaii, Second Language Teaching &Curriculum Center Retrieved from the Web: http://www.nflrc.hawaii.edu/NetWorks/NW06/ 54 World Wide Kasper, G (1997b) ‗The role of pragmatics in language teaching education In K Bardovi-Harlig and B Hartford (eds.) Beyond Methods: Components of Second Language Teacher Education New York: McGraw-Hill Kasper, G., & Rose, K R (2001).Pragmatics in language teaching.In K R Rose & G Kasper (Eds.).Pragmatics in language teaching (pp 1-9) New York: Cambridge University Press Kasper, G., & Rose, K (2002) Pragmatic Development in a Second Language Blackwell Publishing, Inc Leech, G (1983) Principles of pragmatics London and New York: Longman Lo Castro, V (2006) An Introduction to Pragmatics.Oxford University Press Oxford Luoma, S (2004) Assessing speaking Edinburgh building: Cambridge University Press Nguyen, M.T (2011) Learning to communicate in a globalized word: To what extent school textbooks facilitate the development of intercultural pragmatic competence? RELC Journal, 17-30 Nguyen, T.T.M., Pham, T.H and Pham, M.T (2012).The relative effects of explicit and implicit form-focused instruction on the development of L2 pragmatic competence.Development of L2 pragmatic competence, 416-434 O'Keeffe, A., Clancy, B., &Adolphs, S (2011) Introducing pragmatics in use New York: Routledge Rasekh, Z., Rasekh, A &Fatahi, A (2004).The Effect of Explicit Metapragmatic Instruction on the Speech Act Awareness of Advanced EFL Students.Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language.Electronic Journal Vol 8, n Rose, K.R (1997) Pragmatics in the Classroom: Theoretical Concerns and Practical Possibilities In L Bouton (Ed.) Pragmatics and Language Learning.Volume 8.University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 55 Rose, K (1999) Teachers and students learning about requests in Hong Kong.In Hinkel, E (Ed.) Culture in second language teaching and learning (pp.167-180) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Rose, K R (2005) On the effects of instruction in second language pragmatics System, 33(3), 385-399 Scarcella, R (1990) Teaching language minority students in the multicultural classroom Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall1 Regents Schmidt, R (1990) The role of consciousness in second language learning.Applied Linguistics, 11, 17-46 Schmidt, R (1993) Consciousness, learning, and interlanguage pragmatics.In G Kasper & S Blum-Kulka (Eds.), Interlanguage pragmatics (pp 21-42) New York: Oxford University Press Stalnaker, R.C (1972) Pragmatics Dordrecht: Reidel Thomas, J (1983) Cross-cultural pragmatic failure Applied Linguistics, 4, 91-112 Thornbury, S (2005) How to Teach Speaking England: Pearson Educational Limited Trương, Thị Quỳnh Trang, (2016) An investigation into EFL teacher students’ perceptions of developing pragmatic competence for EFL learners at Hue University of Foreign Languages Unpublished master thesis Hue University Vasquez, C., &Sharpless, D (2009) The role of pragmatics in the master's TESOL curriculum: Findings from a nationwide survey TESOL Quarterly, 43(1), 528 Vellenga, H (2004) Learning Pragmatics from ESL & EFL Textbooks: how likely?.Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language.Vol 8, n Yule, G (1996) Pragmatics Oxford: Oxford University Press 56 APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE (For EFL teachers) This questionnaire aims to explore the issue of Teachers‘ perception of Introducing Pragmatic Competence in speaking class to grade 11 students at some high schools in QuangBinh All the data collected in this questionnaire will be used for the SOLE purpose of the research The researcher assures that all information collected will be confidential and I won‘t use your real name in my thesis and my publication, with the hope that you will answer these questions accurately and honestly Your assistance in completing all the following items is appreciated Thank you very much for your enthusiastic assistance Please provide your personal information Name (optional): Gender:  Male Age:  Female Your degree/ certificates/ experiences for EFL methodology  BA  MA Other (please specify) Numbers of years teaching English: Please circle to your answers Your additional ideas are appreciated since they contribute qualitatively to our study Part I Information about you Have you ever been to any English-speaking country? A Yes B No If yes, did you use English then? A Yes B No 57 Do you feel comfortable when you use English to communicate with foreigners? A Yes B No Do you use your English in the English class at school? A Yes B No How you feel when you have to speak English in teaching most of the time? ……………………………………………………………………………………… Do you use English much? In what occasions? A Yes B No ………………………………………………………………………………… Do you listen to music or watch films in English? A Yes B No What you often to improve your English? ………………………………………………………………………………… For you, which skill is the most important? A Listening skill B Speaking skill C Reading skill D Writing skill 10 How many students you often have in a class? A Less than 30 students B About 40 students C More than 40 students Part II Information about Pragmatic Competence 11 Do you know what Pragmatics is? If yes, explain A Yes B No Definition (Please write your answers here) 12 Do you know what a Pragmatic competence is? If yes, explain A Yes B No Definition (Please write your answers here) 58 13 Do you know what a Speech Act is? If yes, explain A Yes B No Definition (Please write your answers here) 14 Which skills you use in teaching Pragmatics? A Listening B Speaking C Reading D Writing 15 Which activities you use in teaching Pragmatics in speaking class? A Role-play B Interview C Report Other answers (Please write your answers here) 16 Will your choice for words in a conversation differ depending on age of the interlocutors? A Yes B No C No idea 17 Will your choice for words in a conversation be affected by your social status? A Yes B No C No idea 18 Will your choice for words in a conversation be affected by the level of instruction? A Yes B No C No idea 19 What will influence your choice for words in a conversation? ………………………………………………………………………………… 20 On teaching ―Making requests‖, how you teach students? A Work in pair B Interview C Role-play ………………………………………………………………………………… 21 According to you, should teachers teach pragmatics in this lesson or not? Why? Why not? ………………………………………………………………………………… 59 22 How you teach ―expressing agreements and disagreements‖ to help develop pragmatic competence? ………………………………………………………………………………… Part III Post-questionnaire on Pragmatic Competence 23 Is teaching Pragmatics important to students? Why? Why not? A Yes B No Answers (Please write your answers here) ………………………………………………………………………………… 24 For you, what is the goal of teaching pragmatics in speaking? Answers (Please write your answers here) ………………………………………………………………………………… 25 What advantages you have when teaching Pragmatics in speaking class? Answers (Please write your answers here) ………………………………………………………………………………… 26 What difficulties you have when teaching Pragmatics in speaking class? Answers (Please write your answers here) ………………………………………………………………………………… 27 Can you give some solutions to the problem? Answers (Please write your answers here) ………………………………………………………………………………… 28 How students feel when learning Pragmatics in speaking class? A Comfortable B Bored C Interested Answers (Please write your answers here) ………………………………………………………………………………… 60 29 How you feel when teaching Pragmatics in speaking class? A Comfortable B Bored C Interested Answers (Please write your answers here) ………………………………………………………………………………… 30 Which activities help students learn better to raise their awareness of pragmatic competence in learning English? Answers (Please write your answers here) ………………………………………………………………………………… Thank you for your cooperation!  61