Trang 1 HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES --- VO THI LE HANG TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKI
Introduction
Rationale of the research
In today’s global world, English is spoken in many countries Seidlhofer (2011) emphasizes that English is a unique language that has spread worldwide and describes the use of the English language “as a global means of intercommunity communication” (p 20) Some researchers have previously asserted that English is the most common language used and taught in Vietnam due to transactional trade, tourism and globalization (Quoc et al., 2021; Sundkvist & Nguyen, 2020) In the Vietnamese context, the Ministry of Education and
Training promulgated the general education English language curriculum which was issued with the Circular No 32/2018/TT-BGDDT dated 26 December 2018 In the general curriculum, English was introduced as a compulsory subject for students from grades 3 to 12
As an instrumental subject in school, English not only allows students to develop their communicative competence but also contributes to the development of general competences (MOET, 2018) However, learning English is a complex process as it requires not only mastering grammar structures and vocabulary but also developing communication skills and an awareness of another culture In Vietnam, as the country is in the process of deepening into international integration, the main aim of English language teaching is to develop learners’ ability to efficiently express what they mean in the target language and to use the language appropriately to a given social context Therefore, teaching the four English language skills of reading, speaking, listening, and writing is of vital importance to help students acquire communicative competence Among these skills, speaking is considered as a challenging skill for teachers and students to acquire expected results in the process of teaching and learning
Speaking is considered as the active use of language to convey meaning so that other people can make sense of them (Cameron, 2001) As a result, English speaking proficiency has become a top priority for many L2 learners in various contexts (Burns, 2017) In the context of Vietnam, speaking skill plays an important role in English language teaching as the country is in the process of international economic integration A high proficiency of spoken English, therefore, becomes not only an academic goal but also one of the crucial keys to access advanced science and technology Nevertheless, numerous foreign language students still have difficulties in speaking in English (Sundkvist & Nguyen, 2020) One of the sources of difficulties that students have when speaking in English is lack of vocabulary (Trinh & Pham, 2021) Other sources of difficulties can be in terms of grammar, background knowledge, developing critical thinking or the lack of confidence and the anxiety which are usually raised because of several factors, such as nothing to say, inhibition, low or uneven participation and the use of mother tongue (Ur, 2000)
In Vietnam, there has been a shift in language teaching practices towards a communicative language teaching approach over the past few decades However, the fact that students are not able to logically express their views in English due to the limitations in curriculum design, cultural backgrounds, and teaching and learning processes is widely noticed Considering students’ problems, a great deal of interest in the use of project-based learning (PBL) has been increased in Vietnam teaching context (Nguyen, 2011; Pham, 2018; Tran & Tran, 2020) as PBL is a learner-centered learning approach in which students work collaboratively in groups that involve interaction and cooperation among them The aim of PBL is to promote students’ lifelong learning by cultivating a passion for learning and equipping students with the skills and mindset needed for lifelong curiosity beyond the classroom As a result, students’ motivation and enthusiasm, their problem-solving skill, negotiation skill, research skills, sense of collaborations, and language awareness are becoming increasingly evident (Nguyen, 2011)
Regarded as a bridge between using English in class and using English in authentic situations outside the class, PBL contributes to the increase of students’ L2 oral performance (Wahyudin, 2017) First, the process which leads to the end-product of project work gives students a chance to develop their confidence and independence (Fried-Booth, 2002) In this process, students demonstrate increased self-esteem, and positive attitudes toward learning Besides, this process can help to increase learner autonomy, especially when they are actively engaged in project planning (Skehan, 1998) Since students are involved in purposeful communication to complete authentic activities with real-world relevance and utility, they have the opportunity to use the target language in a relatively natural context and participate in meaningful activities which require authentic language use (Levine, 2004) The authentic activities can give students the opportunity to examine the task from different perspectives, enhance collaboration and reflection, and allow the diversity of the outcome
Owing to the above-mentioned benefits of PBL, this research is inspired by my keenness in teaching speaking and my concern about how PBL is perceived and applied in the process of teaching speaking in high school contexts Therefore, I have decided to do a study entitled “Teachers’ perceptions and practices of project-based learning in teaching speaking skill at some high schools in Quang Binh province.”
Research objectives
This study aims to investigate EFL high school teachers’ perceptions towards the implementation of PBL in teaching speaking skill as well as explore their practices of using PBL in teaching speaking skill.
Research questions
To achieve the above aims, the present study seeks the answers to the three research questions:
1 What perceptions do EFL teachers at some high schools in Quang Binh province hold about PBL?
2 What are the teachers’ practices of using PBL in teaching speaking skill?
3 What challenges do the teachers face when using PBL in teaching speaking skill?
Significance of the research
This study is expected to make several contributions Firstly, this study contributes to an understanding of what EFL teachers think about PBL in teaching speaking skill and how EFL teachers use PBL in their actual practices Such information will help EFL teachers to self-regulate their practices in order to create optimal learning conditions to develop students’ speaking skill In addition, the outcomes of the study may serve as a foundation on which suitable methods can be initiated to engage students in speaking activities Finally, this study is expected to contribute to the body of literature in the field of English teaching and learning in general and it is also believed to partially contribute to the premise of other studies on PBL in the current EFL teaching context in Quang Binh province.
Research scope
The main focus of this study is on using PBL in teaching speaking skill at some high schools in Quang Binh province Specifically, this study investigates teachers’ perceptions of PBL in teaching speaking, and explores teachers’ practices of using PBL in class Due to the limited time frame of the thesis, this study only concentrates on the twenty-five teachers from seven high schools located in the city and other rural and mountainous districts in Quang Binh province, including Hung Vuong, Nguyen Trai, Le Quy Don, Vo Nguyen Giap, Phan Boi Chau, Tran Phu and Quang Ninh.
Organization of the research
This thesis consists of five chapters as follows:
This chapter presents the rationale of the research in which the background and the reasons for the study are mentioned The aims of the study, research questions, scope of the study, the significance and the organization of the study are also included
This chapter focuses on the concepts and definitions of key terms related to the study as well as review of previous studies
This chapter describes the research context, the participants, the methods to collect and analyse the data collected, data collection procedures, and data analysis procedures
This chapter analyzes the data from the questionnaires, interviews, and class observations The discussion of the findings is included as well
This chapter presents a summary of the research findings that lead to some pedagogical implications for the practice of English teaching as well as the limitations of the study and recommendations for further research on using PBL in English classes.
Literature Review
Introduction
This chapter focuses on the theoretical background of the study First, the chapter introduces the definitions and explains the importance of speaking skill as well as provides the factors affecting students’ speaking performance and principles in teaching speaking skill Then, the concepts of PBL, including definitions, characteristics, types of PBL are discussed in detail Next, the chapter clarifies the procedure of implementing PBL in teaching speaking and teachers’ roles in PBL The benefits and challenges of PBL in teaching speaking are also discussed Finally, a comprehensive review of previous studies related to PBL is presented.
Teaching speaking skill
Researchers in language teaching and learning have proposed different ways of defining speaking Brown (1994) considers speaking as an interactive activity of creating meaning that entails the process of producing, receiving and processing It means that speaking plays an important role in communicating between speakers and listeners as through speaking speakers can expose their thoughts and help listeners to make sense of what they say Similarly, Nunan (2003) defines speaking as the ability to use oral language to communicate with other people to convey ideas, intentions, thoughts, and feelings in a way that makes the message delivered and well understood by the listener This definition and Brown’s both take into account the real procedure of speaking – the speaker encodes the message appropriately and the listener decodes the message To be more specific, Burns
(1998) suggests that speaking is the way that speakers represent their thoughts by using their voice, pronunciation, and intonation, together with accurate lexical resources and grammatical structures In fact, the above-mentioned definitions provide a deep insight into the nature of speaking It can be concluded that speaking requires speakers not only to be able to produce specific points of language, such as vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation but also know how to structure the discourse for listeners to understand
2.2.2 The importance of English speaking skill
There is an urgent need to master English speaking skill because of the strengthening position of English in international communication (Nazara, 2011) It is undoubtedly that being proficient in each language skill is necessary in order to be an effective communicator, and the ability to speak English well provides the speakers with several specific advantages, such as pursuing higher studies in foreign countries, getting better job opportunities, and communicating effectively with people around the world (Rao, 2019) Therefore, the mastery of English speaking skill is viewed as a necessity for most EFL learners (Richards, 2008)
2.2.3 Factors affecting English speaking skill
Researchers have pointed out that students’ speaking performance can be affected by various factors, including performance conditions, affective factors, topical knowledge, listening ability, and feedback during speaking activities (Nation & Newton, 2009; Nguyen & Tran, 2015)
- Performance conditions: Performance conditions, including planning time, time pressure, the standard of performance, and the amount of support can have an influence on learners’ speaking performance (Nation & Newton, 2009) Specifically, giving learners more planning time before implementing the task helps them produce more fluent and sophisticated language (Patanasorn, 2010) Regarding time pressure, it is considered as the urgency of completing the speaking tasks and time pressure could increase the difficulty for speaking performance (Thornbury, 2005) The amount of support from the teacher and peers also affects learners’ performance as it is less difficult for learners to prepare and present a topic with other students than doing it by themselves (Thornbury, 2005)
- Affective factors: According to Dửrnyei and Ryan (2015), the significant influence on the learner’s language learning process is their affective side A variety of affective variables has been confirmed to be related to success in second language acquisition, which are motivation, self-confidence and anxiety (Krashen, 1982) Motivation is important to achieve proficiency in a foreign language When it comes to learning a new language, integrative motivation is needed for learners to communicate, while instrumental motivation shapes how the learners positively view the target language (Spada & Lightbown, 2008) Besides, there is a significant correlation between the students’ self-esteem and oral performance (Kalanzadeh et al., 2013) The different levels of self-esteem correlate positively with performance of oral production In terms of anxiety, Guo and Wang (2013) say that whereas moderate anxiety is more likely to help students stay focused on learning, too much anxiety can affect learners’ speaking performance and lead to poor performance through worry and self-doubt Moreover, anxiety is a significant factor directly reducing students’ desire for participation, which leads to decreased motivation, negative attitudes and hardships in language performance (Guo & Wang, 2013)
- Listening ability: According to Doff (1998), a successful conversation happens when interlocutors understand what is said to them; therefore, students have to develop their listening skill if they want to improve their speaking skill It is also specified that during the interaction, if one person cannot understand what is stated, he/she will not be able to respond effectively (Nguyen & Tran, 2015) In a word, speaking has a close relationship with listening and listening ability plays a critical role in the development and enhancement of speaking skill (Shumin, 2002)
- Topical knowledge: Topical knowledge refers to the speakers’ knowledge of relevant topical information (Nguyen & Tran, 2015) According to Hanifa (2018), students’ topical knowledge has influences on students’ speaking performance as EFL students are likely to face problems in generating ideas if they are required to talk about unfamiliar topics Kasbi and Shirvan (2017) figure out that lack of topical knowledge is also a cause of students’ speaking anxiety This makes students speak very little, or not at all because students could not think of anything to say, and become unwilling to participate in the speaking activities It means that learners tend to keep silent when the topic chosen by the teacher is not familiar to them
- Feedback during speaking activities: The correction process which occurs between teachers and learners may have positive or negative influence on the language learning process The ways that the teachers react to students’ performance will depend on the stages of the lesson, the activities, the types of mistakes students make and the particular student who is making that mistake If students are corrected all the time, they may find it very demotivating and become afraid to speak In a word, it is suggested that the teachers should make corrections to the students’ mistakes positively with encouragement (Baker & Westrup, 2003)
Overall, it is necessary that the teachers identify factors affecting students’ speaking performance to help students get over their encountered difficulties in their learning process and to design speaking lessons and actvitities which help students develop better control over their learning processes and reinforce greater confidence in solving speaking tasks
2.2.4 Principles in teaching speaking skill
As the main way of communicating and forming relationships with people, speaking is widely believed to be the most important of the four language skills because the process of speaking reveals any errors which are made by the learners (Khamkhien, 2010) Therefore, teaching speaking skill which is defined as helping language learners master specific sets of interactional and communication skills (Hinkel, 2017) is very necessary To help students communicate in the target language, the English teachers should be aware of designing speaking activities that base on the underlying principles in teaching speaking Brown (2001, pp 275-276) suggests some principles of teaching speaking as follows:
- Use techniques that cover the spectrum of learner needs, from language-based focus on accuracy to message-based focus on interaction, meaning and fluency It means that the teachers should make sure that the tasks or the activities designed have a linguistic objective and provide students with an opportunity to perceive and use the target language
- Provide intrinsically motivating techniques It is necessary for teachers to figure out students’ goals and interests as well as their need for knowledge Besides, the teachers should tell students the reason why they ask students to do certain activities
- Encourage the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts Designing tasks which are authentic and meaningful can take time and energy, but this can be done with the help of a storehouse of teacher resource material
- Provide appropriate feedback and corrections It is of great importance to provide students with the kinds of corrective feedback in appropriate time
- Capitalize on the natural link between speaking and listening As there are many interactive techniques involving both speaking skill and listening skill at the same time, teachers should take opportunities to integrate these two skills
Project-based learning (PBL)
Researchers have suggested different ways of defining PBL According to Markham et al (2003), PBL is a teaching method that involves students in learning knowledge and skills through an extended inquiry process structured around sophisticated, authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks Similarly, Bell (2010) claims that PBL is an innovative method of learning that allows students to drive their own learning through inquiry, as well as work collaboratively to research and create projects that reflect their knowledge In addition to being considered as a teaching and learning method, PBL is also defined as an instructional model in which students encounter real-world issues and problems that they search out significance, make up their mind to address them and then collaborate together on creating problem solutions (Bender, 2012) What's more, PBL provides opportunities for students to build qualities, as well as deeply learn conventional academic content and understand how it applies to the real world (Larmer et al., 2015) Sharing the same viewpoint, Cooper and Murphy (2016) emphasize the role of PBL in refining students’ language skills through the completion of projects both in and outside of the classroom In short, PBL is known as the new approach in language teaching and learning which encourages students to use their knowledge and skills to solve real-life problems
In spite of the fact that each researcher has approached project work from a different perspective, Stoller (2002, p 110) suggests that project work share the following features:
First, project work focuses on content learning rather than specific language targets It means that real-world subject matter and topics of interest to students can become central to projects In fact, the content of the project is often linked to curricular syllabus, or an extension or enhancement of a unit in the textbook
Second, project work is student-centered Though the teacher plays a major role in offering support and guidance throughout the process, it is the students who define, choose and carry out their projects In addition, during the project implementation, students can play a role in negotiating the theme, final outcomes, the planning process, and group duties Students also participate in gathering, processing, displaying the product and reflecting on what they have learnt during the project
Third, project work is cooperative rather than competitive With project work, students can work on their own, in small groups, or as a class to complete a project and share resources, ideas, and expertise along the way
Next, project work leads to the authentic integration of skills and processing of information from various sources which mirror real-life contexts When doing project work, students gather, process and display information by reading various sources of information, summarising, analysing data, and presenting the results Additionally, when students share their final product with their classmates, they are involved in authentic tasks of presenting the findings
Moreover, project work culminates in an end product The end product of project work is an oral presentation, a poster session, a bulletin-board display, a report, or a stage performance These products can be shared with others, giving the project a real purpose The project work has a process orientation and product orientation as well, and it also provides students with opportunities to focus on fluency and accuracy at different project-work stages
Finally, project work is potentially motivating, stimulating, empowering, and challenging It usually results in raising student confidence, self-esteem, and autonomy as well as promoting students’ language skills, content learning, and cognitive abilities
Project work can be classified into different types Henry (1994, as cited in Stoller,
2002) categorizes projects into three types based on the degree to which the teacher and students decide on the nature and sequencing of project-related activities The projects are considered as structured ones if the teacher determines and organizes the topic, materials, and presentation The projects defined largely by students are unstructured projects The projects defined and organized by both the teacher and students are semi-structured projects
Meanwhile, based on data collection techniques and sources of information, Legutke and Thomas (1991) classifies projects into three types Text projects deal with texts rather than people The projects which involve communication with individuals using letters, faxes, phone calls, or electronic mail are correspondence projects The last one is encounter projects which involve face-to-face contact with individuals outside the classroom
In terms of the ways that information is reported, Stoller (2002) suggests three types of projects The first type is production projects, including making bulletin-board displays, videos, radio programs, poster sessions, written reports, photo essays, letters, handbooks, brochures, and so forth The second one is performance projects which are staged debates, oral presentations, theatrical performances, food fairs, or fashion shows The last one is organizational projects involving the planning and forming of a conversation table or conversation-partner program
In summary, the suitable types of projects for a given context depend on a variety of factors, such as curricular objectives, course expectations, student’ proficiency levels, students’ interests, time constraints, and the availability of materials (Stoller, 2002)
Specifically, the present study focuses on Stoller (2002)’s classification to investigate the implementation of PBL in teaching speaking skill
2.3.4 Implementing PBL in teaching speaking skill
Researchers have proposed different steps to implement a project in teaching English (Alan & Stoller, 2005; Bell, 2010; Fried-Booth, 2002; Papandreou,1994) However, this study only focuses on ten steps to implement PBL in teaching speaking proposed by Alan and Stoller (2005, pp 12–13) as follows:
Step 1: Students and teacher agree on a theme for the project
The students and teacher reach an agreement on a project theme The teacher introduces the essentials of the project The teacher should also help students develop some sense of ownership toward the project by giving students the chance to finetune the project
Step 2: Students and teacher determine the final outcome of the project
In this stage, the students and teacher decide on the final outcome of the project Also, they should negotiate the most appropriate audience for their projects
Step 3: Students and teacher structure the project
The students and teacher work on project details in order to guide students from the starting activity to the completion of the project Students think about their roles, responsibilities, and collaborative work groups After working out a deadline for the completion of the project, students arrange the timing for gathering and compiling information, and presenting their final project
Step 4: Teacher prepares students for the demands of information gathering
The teacher provides students with the language, skill, and strategy demands which are associated with information gathering Besides, the teacher prepares instructional activities for each of the information-gathering tasks as the teacher is aware of students’ ability
Previous studies
In order to explore the new approaches in the English teaching and learning process, researchers have recently conducted various studies on the use of PBL in different teaching contexts
Concerning teachers’ awareness of PBL, Hidayat et al (2021) conducted a case study which aimed to examine the English teachers’ perception towards teaching speaking using PBL The researcher employed the questionnaire, the interviews and focus group discussion as the research instruments in collecting the data from three high school teachers The results indicated that the participants believed that PBL enabled them to accomplish their teaching speaking more effectively as this method motivated students and improved students’ interest and enthusiasm in learning The findings also showed that teachers perceived PBL as a useful method in teaching speaking to EFL students
In addition, previous studies have looked at teachers’ implementation of PBL in teaching speaking skill and teachers’ challenges when using this method in their teaching For instance, Kusumawati (2019) explored the teaching of speaking skill using PBL in Indonesia The classroom action research design was employed to know the process of teaching and learning of speaking using PBL The research participants were 20 tenth grade students of SMK Dian, Indonesia To collect data for this study, documentation of related lesson plan and syllabus, observation, and a questionnaire were used The findings revealed the four stages in the PBL process, which were speculation, designing the project activities, conducting the project activities, and evaluation It was also indicated that the implementations of PBL had some positive effects on the students’ achievement Another finding showed that limited time and students’ low engagement in the lesson were the problems that the teacher had during the teaching process with PBL
In an investigation on how PBL activities as a teaching strategy influence students’ oral communicative competence, Bakar et al (2019) carried out an intervention which comprised 12-week lessons using PBL teaching strategy and centred on eight PBL activities The participants of this study were 44 diploma students enrolled in a Communicative English course The data from pre-tests and post-tests, as well as the questionnaire revealed a significant improvement in the learners’ oral communicative competence and a high perception of PBL by the learners More specifically, the findings showed that PBL was not only perceived to be suitable and enjoyable by the learners, but was also found to be effective for these learners who were low proficient in English
Also focusing on the effects of PBL on students’ speaking skill, another study was carried out by Anuyahong (2015) to investigate the use of PBL to enhance students’ English speaking ability and students’ satisfaction with this type of approach The data collection tools used in this experiment included lesson plans, a project evaluation form, an English speaking test, a student’s self-assessment form and a satisfaction questionnaire The results indicated that there was a significant improvement in the students' achievement Moreover, the students’ satisfaction towards studying PBL to enhance their English speaking ability after the first project, second project and third project was at high and the highest level respectively
Besides, researchers conducted studies on the use of specific types of PBL activities in teaching speaking skill Specifically, Sirisrimangkorn (2021) targeted her research toward the effects of PBL using presentation on EFL undergraduate learners’ speaking skills and learners’ opinions on the use of PBL using presentation The data collection tools in this study included speaking tests, PBL instructions, questionnaires, and interviews The findings revealed that students had significantly improved in their speaking skills after the PBL implementation Moreover, the students expressed positive opinions towards PBL using presentation as it was perceived to have helped them improve their speaking skills by their presentation tasks, scaffolding activities, and practice of integrative skills However, time constraint was a major challenge in the study
Regarding the use of PBL in the Vietnamese context, Tran and Tran (2020) explored EFL high school students’ attitudes towards PBL when PBL was implemented with the new English textbooks at Bui Thi Xuan High School in Vietnam A questionnaire and semi- structured interviews were utilized to collect the data for this study The findings of the study showed that the participants expressed agreement that they enhanced their self-regulated language learning, their speaking competence, and their 21st century skills by means of PBL The findings also indicated that EFL high school students expressed positive attitudes (i.e cognition, affection, and behavior) toward PBL Nevertheless, as the participants were only at Bui Thi Xuan High School, it does not provide a complete picture of PBL among a large population
Additionally, Nguyen et al (2022) investigated the application of PBL to improve English speaking skills of remote learners at tertiary education The questionnaire and semi- structured interview data showed that most remote learners had problems with speaking sub- skills, inadequate environments for speaking practice, communication, and interaction Also, PBL was found as a unique method that enabled learners to solve their existing problems, and improved their speaking skills, and all learners expressed their positive attitudes towards PBL applied in their learning process Meanwhile, Nguyen and Nguyen (2019) focused their research on exploring the difficulties the EFL teachers encountered when implementing PBL in reality The study employed a descriptive approach, specifically combining both quantitative and qualitative data collected through a questionnaire and interviews The findings of this study indicated that the teachers faced major challenges in time management, adaptation of project activities, student support, and project assessment
Overall, the previous studies reviewed above have examined how PBL is used in teaching speaking, how it affects students’ speaking skill, what challenges teachers face when using PBL in their English lessons, and perceptions towards this approach However, few studies have provided an insight into the teachers’ perceptions and practices of PBL in teaching speaking skill, especially among EFL high school teachers Particularly, to the best of the researcher’ knowledge, no study has been done to investigate what high school teachers perceive about PBL in teaching speaking skill, and how it is applied in the high school classroom in the current context of English teaching and learning in Quang Binh province This lack of exploratory research becomes central to my work and serves as its motivation and rationale This research, therefore, aims to fill the gap of research by exploring the perceptions and practices of high school teachers in Quang Binh province on PBL in teaching speaking skill.
Summary
This chapter has provided theoretical and empirical backgrounds to the research issue and pointed out existing gaps in the literature regarding teachers’ perceptions and practices of PBL in teaching speaking skill.
Methodology
Introduction
This chapter presents the methodology and the procedure of implementing the research Accordingly, the issues include research context, research design, instruments for data collection, data collection procedure, and data analysis of the study The reliability and validity in relation to the study are also discussed Lastly, the ethical considerations of this study are clarified.
Research context
In the school year of 2022-2023, the general education English language curriculum was applied at high school level in Vietnam The new curriculum emphasizes that communicative competences are the targets of the teaching process and linguistic knowledge is a means to formulate and develop communicative competences through listening, speaking, reading and writing (MOET, 2018) Specifically, upon the successful completion of the upper secondary English curriculum, students will be able to use English as a communication tool to meet basic and practical communication needs on familiar topics related to school, recreational activities, career, etc (MOET, 2018)
This research was conducted in Quang Binh province in which the provincial secondary education system consists of 33 upper secondary schools In this school year, the series of textbooks Global Success were used for grade 10 students in all high schools in Quang Binh province and the new English textbooks were used for grade 11 and 12 students
To achieve the targets of the general education English language curriculum which is developing students’ communicative competences through active and creative learning activities (MOET, 2018), PBL is regarded as an efficient approach to be applied in teaching speaking skill.
Research design
In order to answer the research questions, this study took mixed methods research design involving qualitative and quantitative approaches as the main research approach The reason why the mixed methods research is used for the present study is that the mixed methods approach enables the researcher to combine qualitative and quantitative research strengths and reduce the weaknesses of both approaches (Dửrnyei, 2007) Despite the opportunity for in-depth investigation of a research problem provided by qualitative research, it is frequently criticized for being too context-specific and inadequate for applying the research results to a larger population (Nguyen, 2017) In contrast, while quantitative research allows the researcher to generalize the research findings by examining a large number of participants through the collection of numeric data, it is criticized for simplifying the subject matter and failing to obtain in-depth contextual information about research participants
(Nguyen, 2017) In other words, as quantitative and qualitative approaches are complementary, the combination of these two approaches allows the researcher to obtain reliable data in terms of quality and quantity
In the present study, the use of mixed methods research meets the demands of the data collection Specically, teachers’ opinions could be quantified by obtaining the data through the questionnaire In addition, classroom observations and semi-structured interviews were employed to investigate individual variables to collect in-depth data and find more insights about teachers’ perceptions and practices of PBL in teaching speaking skill.
Participants
The participants in this investigation were 25 teachers of English from seven high schools in Quang Binh province: Hung Vuong, Nguyen Trai, Le Quy Don, Vo Nguyen Giap, Phan Boi Chau, Tran Phu and Quang Ninh One of the schools was in Dong Hoi city and the others were in other rural and mountainous districts, including Bo Trach, Tuyen Hoa and Quang Ninh These participants were chosen because they were teachers from different areas with different teaching conditions and their students’ level of proficiency were also different These would help the researcher have a more diverse and accurate view on teachers’ perceptions and practices of PBL in teaching speaking skill The participants’ teaching experience ranged from 3 to 29 years and their ages were from 26 to over 50 The participants’ background information is presented in Table 3.1
Teaching experience Less than 5 years 2 8
The participants were invited to answer the questionnaire Next, among the teachers who were voluntary to be observed, three of them were chosen for class observations These three teachers were selected because they were from three high school in rural areas and in the city and they were from three different age groups These would provide a more multidimensional viewpoints on the research issue The list of class observations can be seen in Table 3.2 In the next stage, three observed teachers and three other teachers from the surveyed participants were invited to participate in the interview These six participants were chosen from various age groups and teaching experience The list of interviews can be seen in Table 3.3
Participants’ description for class observations
1 40-49 Vo Nguyen Giap Unit 8: Our world heritage sites
2 30-39 Nguyen Trai Unit 10: Ecotourism 10 th
3 Below 30 Hung Vuong Unit 10: Healthy lifestyle and longevity
Interviewee code Interviewee’s age group Interviewee’s school Teaching area
Data collection methods
To find the answers to the three research questions, the researcher employed three instruments namely questionnaire, interview, and class observation Table 3.4 summarize information about data collection methods
Summary of data collection methods
1 What perceptions do EFL teachers at some high schools in Quang Binh province hold about
2 What are the teachers’ practices of using PBL in teaching speaking skill?
Questionnaire, Interviews, and Class observations
3 What challenges do the teachers face when using PBL in teaching speaking skill?
The questionnaire was employed for the participants in the present research for the following reasons Firstly, with the limited time frame, the questionnaire provides researchers the chance to collect a large amount of information in a short amount of time (Dửrnyei, 2007) Thus, using questionnaires in data collection is efficient in terms of saving the researcher’s time, effort, and financial expenses (Nguyen, 2017) Besides, questionnaires are considered to provide a general freedom from bias on the part of an interviewer and the sense of anonymity to respondents (Dửrnyei, 2007) Additionally, the researcher can use some statistical analysis softwares to analyze data collected through questionnaires and get the results quickly
Owing to the above-mentioned advantages, in the current study, the questionnaire was designed and delivered to the participants to collect information about teachers’ perceptions and practices of PBL in teaching speaking The questionnaire consisted of semi-closed multiple choice items and five-point Likert scale items for the reasons of efficiency and convenience in coding and statistical analysis The first section intended to collect the respondents’ demographics This section composed of questions asking for the participants’ background information related to their name, gender, age, and experience of teaching
English The second section aimed to gain an insight into the participants’ perceptions and practices of PBL in teaching speaking skill This section consisted of 46 items All the items were categorized into three main clusters The first one included 20 five-point Likert scale items with the aim to obtain data about the teachers’ perceptions towards the use of PBL in teaching speaking skill The second cluster comprised three semi-closed multiple choice items and 15 five-point Likert scale items with the aim to explore teachers’ practices of using PBL in teaching speaking skill The last one included eight five-point Likert scale items to elicit the challenges faced by the teachers when using PBL in teaching speaking skill The questionnaire was in English and Vietnamese to maximize understanding and enhance the accuracy of teachers’ responses Specifically, the questionnaire in this study consisted of 46 items as follows:
Items categorized in the questionnaire
A Teachers’ perceptions of PBL in teaching speaking skill 1-20
B Teachers’ practices of PBL in teaching speaking skill 21-38
C The challenges teachers face when using PBL in teaching speaking skill 39-46
In the current study, class observations were employed to shed light on the actual teaching of the participants One of the core strengths of class observation is that it allows the researcher to obtain direct evidence of the participants’ behaviour, and enables the collection of a large amount of descriptive data (Bryman, 2012) Also, if observation is carried out in a natural environment, it can represent a first-hand picture of events, which allows the researcher to obtain contextual factors (Zohrabi, 2013) In addition, the researcher can combine observations with questionnaires and interviews to collect relatively objective first- hand information (Johnson & Turner, 2003) Therefore, observation has been used widely in research on language teachers’ classroom teaching
Class observation was employed in the current study to capture teachers’ teaching practices and their implementation of PBL in reality By observing the class, the researcher gathered information about teachers’ arrangement of the class, teachers’ steps of implementing PBL, and the obstabcles teachers face when using PBL Besides, class observation allowed the researcher to understand the context in which PBL was implemented, students’ interaction and engagement in the classroom
For the current study, the researcher took the role of a non-participant in observation and collected classroom happenings that demonstrated teachers’ practices of using PBL in teaching speaking skill In other words, the researcher only observed the classes and recorded the class activities without any involvement This is an appropriate type of observation because the observer’s involvement may affect how things naturally happen in the class and reduce the reliability of the data collected Specifically, class observations were conducted with three participants who taught English at three high schools in Quang Binh province, in an attempt to investigate how teachers used PBL in teaching speaking skill in their classes Because of limited technical aids and to secure certain privacy of teachers and students, the researcher combined two instruments for class observations The researcher mostly used checklists (Appendix 4) and took notes of major classrooom events In addition, the reseacher recorded audio of students’ presentations With audio recording, the focus is on the audio content, allowing better concentration on the teachers’ instructions, students’ interactions and engagement
Questionnaires can be used to collect information from a large number of participants; however, it is insufficient when investigating teachers’ insights Thus, interviews will be used to collect data for the present research because it is a research tool which enables the researchers to gain insights into people’s perceptions that cannot be inferred from the questionnaire According to Cresswell (2012), using interviews in social science research brings some benefits Firstly, a well-planned interview can provide a rich set of data in naturalistic settings In addition, interviews are considered to be the method with which the highest response rates can be achieved Moreover, the face-to-face interaction between a researcher and a participant ensures and increases the participant’s motivation to take part in the research For the present study, a semi-structured interview format was employed to complement the questionnaire results as it allows the researcher to develop understanding with the participants and thus to obtain richer data (Anderson & Burns, 1989) Besides, semi- structured interview is linked to the expectation that the respondents’ viewpoints are more to be expressed than they would be in a non face-to-face questionnaire (Flick, 1998)
Furthermore, with semi-structured interviews, the researcher is still provided with a list of core probing issues that will guide them through the interview process (Cohen et al., 2018)
The interview questions in this study were designed according to different themes following the key research issues The interview questions were mainly based on the questionnaire but to expand the data and gain further information Thus, the interview questions included three main clusters with nine questions in total The first cluster included questions 1, 2, and 3, which aimed to examine how teachers perceived PBL in terms of definitions, teachers’ attitude towards the importance of using PBL in teaching speaking skill, as well as teachers’ perceived benefits of PBL in teaching speaking skill The second cluster consisted of questions 4, 5, 6, and 7, which aimed to investigate teachers’ in-class practices of
PBL in teaching speaking skill, including the steps and frequency of implementing PBL as well as PBL activities in teaching speaking skill The last cluster obtained the data about the main challenges facing the teachers when using PBL in teaching speaking skill Besides, the question in this cluster also elicited teachers’ responses in terms of suggestions for better use of PBL in teaching speaking skill
In order to carry out the process effectively, the researcher contacted the participants and developed a separate interview schedule for each participant prior to the interview
Interviews were conducted with individual teachers face to face and were audio-recorded for later data analysis with their prior permission Each interview lasted from 12 to 20 minutes The interviews were in Vietnamese to make sure that the participants could express exactly what they perceived about the mentioned issues.
Research procedure
The questionnaire and interview questions do not come out in perfect shape on the very first attempt (Oppenheim,1992) Therefore, the questionnaire and interview questions of the current study underwent a piloting process to identify areas for improvement in the design The pilot questionnaire was sent to five teachers of English from five different high schools in Quang Binh province After receiving feedback from the pilot respondents, the questionnaire was revised and shortened in terms of the number of questions, vocabulary and concept choice as well as the structure of the questionnaire Besides, piloting was also conducted with interview questions to enhance the quality of the interview questions, ensuring that, as far as possible, their meanings were clear and straightforward to the participants The interview was conducted in Vietnamese with three teachers at three different high schools to collect comments about the interview questions Modifications were made to the initial interview questions regarding the types of questions and the number of questions asked in each interview
For the data collection procedure, the data for the present study were collected following a Sequential Explanatory Design First, the questionnaire was distributed to 25 teachers of English at seven high schools in Quang Binh province The responses from the questionnaires were stored and analyzed to provide statistical data for the findings and discussion There were also three classroom observations in three separate classes at three high schools in Quang Binh province, including Nguyen Trai, Vo Nguyen Giap, and Hung Vuong high schools After data from the questionnaire and class observations were collected, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 6 teachers from Hung Vuong, Nguyen Trai, Vo Nguyen Giap, Tran Phu, and Le Quy Don high schools.
Data analysis
The data collected in this study required both quantitative and qualitative data analyses For the quantitative data, the questionnaire results were analysed with the use of the SPSS program Descriptive Statistics Test, Multiple Response Frequencies and One-sample T Test were used to measure, compare and summarise teachers’ perceptions and practices of PBL in teaching speaking skill The results were illustrated using tables to facilitate visible demonstrations and were discussed with those from the interview and class observation data Qualitative data collected from the interviews and class observations were analyzed using thematic analysis which is a method of “identifying, analysing, and reporting patterns within data” (Braun & Clark, 2006, p 6) To be specific, the thematic analysis procedure proposed by Braun and Clark (2006) was used to analyze the interview and observation data The researcher read through each data set and the segments that relate to the main research issues were highlighted Next, relevant segments were initially coded Besides, the data were compared across different data sets to identify common themes These themes were then reviewed, refined, and renamed Finally, the data were presented in terms of how the participants perceived and used PBL in teaching speaking skill as well as challenges facing the teachers when using this method To retain the interviewees’ intended messages and to save time, the transcripts of the interviews were analyzed in Vietnamese for emerging themes and only selected extracts quoted in the findings and discussion chapter were translated into English.
Reliability and validity
The validity of a study addresses the extent to which results are consistent over time and an accurate representation of the total population under study and the reliability of a study refers to how replicable the results are, that is, whether the same results will be obtained by another researcher using the same methods (Creswell, 2009) In the present study, different methods were used to ensure the reliability and validity of the research methodology
Firstly, piloting was conducted with the questionnaire and interview questions to enhance the quality of the questionnaire and interview questions Data from the pilot of the questionnaire was used to measure its reliability coefficient The results are presented in Table 3.6
Reliability statistics of piloting questionnaire
According to Nunnally and Burnstein (1994), if the Cronbach’s Alpha is higher than 0.7, it can be concluded that the scales achieve reliability The results in Table 3.6 show that the Cronbach’s Alpha is 891 (number of cases = 5, number of items = 43) which indicates that the items have relatively high internal consistency Besides, the reliability statistics of data collected from the main questionnaire of the study was also analyzed
Reliability statistics of main questionnaire
As shown in Table 3.7, the Cronbach’s Alpha of the main questionnaire is 897, suggesting that the items in the main questionnaire have acceptable value and show good internal consistency
Furthermore, to ensure the validity of observation data, the study was contextualised in intact classes in their normally scheduled classrooms The researcher also had chances to meet the teachers and the classes several times before conducting observations to make students get used to the researcher’s presence in the classrooms When the researcher was in the classroom for observing, the researcher sat quietly at the corner of the class and the researcher made sure the teachers and students knew that the researcher would not assess the students nor the teachers Therefore, the teachers and students were relaxed and natural in their behavior For confusing respondents, the researcher paraphrased and got confirmed by them that misunderstanding was not seen in the respondents
Additionally, data triangulation was an important factor that strengthened the research design Data triangulation means corroborating evidence from different individuals, types of data, or methods of data collection in descriptions and themes to enhance the accuracy of the findings (Creswell, 2012) In the present study, data collected from the questionnaire were further supported and clarified by class observation and interview data Similarly, interview data provided useful insight and descriptions to participants’ practices as well as questionnaire data.
Ethical considerations
In compliance with ethical considerations in educational research, all the participants were introduced to the research clearly so that they knew about the research and they had a chance to ask questions about the research Besides, the researcher also emphasized that the aim of data collection was for the sake of the research and that confidentiality and anonymity would be ensured and the participants could withdraw from the research if they wanted.
Summary
This chapter has provided detailed descriptions of the research methodology for the present study In this chapter, reseach design, research setting and participants, data collection tools, research procedure, data analysis, research validity and reliability as well as ethical considerations were presented.
Findings and Discussion
Introduction
This chapter presents the results from the questionnaire, the interviews, and the class observations The quantitative and qualitative data of the current study are discussed in detail with reference to the literature to find the answers to the research questions.
Teachers’ perceptions of using PBL in teaching speaking skill
This section provided the findings to the first research question: What perceptions do EFL teachers at some high schools in Quang Binh province hold about PBL?
Cluster 1 with 20 close-ended items were delivered to the participants to measure their perceptions of PBL in teaching speaking skill The result of reliability coefficient is presented in Table 4.1
Mean Min Max Cronbach’s Alpha N of Items
As shown in Table 4.1, Cronbach’s Alpha = 899 suggests that the questionnaire obtains the result with high reliability and accuracy The mean score of the questionnaire (M 4.106) is significantly higher than the average point (M= 3.0) The maximum figure is 4.400 and the minimum figure is 3.720 These figures support the conclusion that most of the participants tended to agree on the items investigated in this category
4.2.1 Teachers’ perceptions towards the necessity of PBL in teaching speaking skills
Statement 1 investigated the teachers’ perceptions towards the necessity of PBL in teaching speaking skill Table 4.2 presents the results of the Descriptive Statistics Test
Teachers’ perceptions towards the necessity of PBL in teaching speaking skill
1 PBL is necessary in teaching speaking skill 25 2 5 4.04 889
It can be seen that the mean score of statement 1 on the teachers’ perceptions of PBL in teaching speaking skill is remarkable (M= 4.04) Specifically, the mean score indicates that most of the teachers at some high schools in Quang Binh province fully recognized that using PBL in teaching speaking skill is necessary and useful In addition, the standard deviation (SD= 889) which is less than 1 means that the participants’ responses in the questionnaire do not differ much from each other
4.2.2 Teachers’ perceptions towards the definitions of PBL
Statements 2, 3, and 4 were designed to explore the teachers’ perceptions towards the definitions of PBL The results of the Descriptive Statistics Test are shown in Table 4.3
Teachers’ perceptions towards the definitions of PBL
Statements Min Max Mean SD
2 PBL is a teaching method which engages students in learning knowledge and skills through authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks
3 PBL is an instructional approach that contextualizes learning by presenting learners with problems to solve or products to develop
4 PBL is a method of learning that allows students to drive their own learning through inquiry, as well as work
2.00 5.00 4.04 790 collaboratively to research and create projects that reflect their knowledge
According to the information in Table 4.3, the mean scores of the three statements range from 4.04 to 4.20 Statement 3 gets the highest mean score of all (M= 4.20) It is clear from Table 4.3 that the SD for statement 3 is relatively low (SD= 764