Tìm hiểu về tác động của tiếng mẹ đẻ đối với việc học tiếng Anh của sinh viên dân tộc Thái tại trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* CẦM THỊ KIỀU ANH AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

CẦM THỊ KIỀU ANH

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE MOTHER TONGUE (L1) ON THE ENGLISH ACQUISITION OF THAI STUDENTS

AT THAI NGUYEN MEDICAL COLLEGE

Tìm hiểu về tác động của tiếng mẹ đẻ đối với việc học tiếng Anh của sinh viên dân tộc Thái tại trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Hanoi - 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

CẦM THỊ KIỀU ANH

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE MOTHER

TONGUE (L1) ON THE ENGLISH ACQUISITION OF THAI STUDENTS

AT THAI NGUYEN MEDICAL COLLEGE

Tìm hiểu về tác động của tiếng mẹ đẻ đối với việc học tiếng Anh

của sinh viên dân tộc Thái tại trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: NGUYỄN HUY KỶ, PhD

Hanoi - 2014

i

DECLARATION

I, hereby certify that the thesis entitled „An exploratory study on the influence of the mother tongue (L1) on the English acquisition of Thai students at Thai Nguyen Medical College‟ is the result of my own research in the fulfilment of the requirement for

the Degree of Master of Arts of the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

Hanoi, 2014

Researcher

Cam Thi Kieu Anh

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would particularly like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr NGUYẾN HUY KỶ for his precious advice, remarkable, suggestions, kind guidance and careful correction

Next, I would like to acknowledge all my teachers at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, especially those who are working at the Faculty of Post - Graduate Studies for their interesting lectures which enable me to gain a great deal of theoretical knowledge and practical experience

I am also indebted to all the students and teachers at Thai Nguyen Medical College for their cooperation and participation in this study

Last but not least, my heart-felt gratitude goes to my family for their encouragement and support during the process of study

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ABSTRACT

English language teaching in a non-native environment has experienced a variety of obstacles, one of which is the interference of English learners‟ mother tongue The impediment is doubled when English is taught in a multi-lingual environment like Vietnam, and this fact forces Vietnamese instructors of English to seek ways of teaching their cohort of minority students effectively In an attempt to improve of English language teaching in Vietnam, this thesis investigates the possible impacts of Vietnamese Thai on the English written production of Thai students at Thai Nguyen Medical College, with a detailed contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese Thai which English teachers can use in their practice The study employed a written production questionnaire, which has been widely accepted as a tool for data collection in an interlanguage study The results suggest that Thai non-English major students heavily rely on their mother tongue in their English writing Several suggestions for minimising the influences of Thai learners‟ mother tongue on their English production are provided

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

1 L1= Mother tongue or first language

2 L2= Foreign language or second language

v

LIST OF TABLES

Table1.1 English and Thai types of verbs 6

Table 1.2 English and Thai types of words following a verb 7

Table 1.3 English and Thai use of adjectives and adverbs 7

Table1.4 Formation of tenses in English and Thai 8

Table1.5 Subject-verb relation in English and Thai 9

Table1.6 Negation in English and Thai 9

Table1.7 English and Thai nouns 11

Table1.8 English and Thai articles 12

Table1.9 English and Thai word order 14

Table 1.10 Comparison of errors and mistakes 16

Table1.11 Dušková’s L1-transferred error classification 18

Table1.12 Keshavarz’s L1-transferred error taxonomy 18

Table1.13 Possible L1 interference of the Thai learners of English 19

Table 3.1 Summary of the total number of errors 25

Table 3.2 Errors in verbs 26

Table 3.3 Errors in nouns 29

Table 3.4 Errors in articles 30

Table 3.5 Errors in prepositions 32

Table 3.6 Errors in word order 35

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF TABLES v

PART A - INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Significance of the study 3

6 Research methods 3

7 Thesis structure 3

PART B - DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 The Thai people and language in Vietnam 5

1.1.1 The Thai people 5

1.1.2 The Thai language 5

1.2 A contrastive analysis of Thai and English 6

1.2.1 Verbs 6

1.2.2 Nouns 10

1.2.3 Articles 12

1.2.4 Prepositions 13

1.2.5 Word order 13

1.3 Distinction of errors and mistakes 15

1.3.1 Errors 15

1.3.2 Mistakes 16

1.3.3 Distinction of errors and mistakes 16

1.4 Language transfer and L1 transfer in L2 acquisition 17

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1.5 Possible errors committed by Thai students in their learning of English 18

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 20

2.1 Research setting 20

2.1.1 An overview of the research site 20

2.1.2 The students 20

2.1.3 Learning materials 21

2.2 Participants 21

2.3 Data collection instrument 22

2.4 Data collection procedure 22

2.5 Data analysis procedure 22

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 24

3.1 Data analysis and discussion 24

3.1.1 Identification of interlingual errors 24

3.1.2 Description and discussion of identified errors 24

3.2 Major findings 35

PART C - CONCLUSION 37

1 Recapitulation 37

2 Conclusions 37

3 Pedagogical implications 38

4 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 39

4.1 Limitations 39

4.2 Suggestions for further study 40

REFERENCES 41 APPENDICES I

1

PART A - INTRODUCTION

This part presents the rationale, the aims of the study, the research questions and the methods used to achieve the research objectives The scope, significance and the organization of the study are also stated

1 Rationale

Today, English becomes an important and influential language worldwide, with over 300 million native speakers and between 400 and 800 million non-native users (Manivanan, 2006) It is considered as a tool for international communication and world-wide data sharing English proficiency is of significance for individuals since it enables them to update their knowledge and share their practices and experiences or seek help from other people around the world in case obstacles arise at study and work English, thus, can

“contribute to students‟ personal, linguistic, social, and cultural development” (Canh Le,

2004, p.167)

Apparently, everybody would like to learn English; however, not so many people can study English well (Tam Nguyen, 2011) since L2 learning depends on various factors Perhaps, of all the difficulties shared by Vietnamese learners of English, e.g lack of supportive learning environment, lack of infrastructure and facilities, etc., minority students have suffered distinctive obstacles in their learning of English, one of which is teachers‟ low English proficiency and low proficiency of the Thai language, which cause difficulties in explaining new grammar terms and language areas to the Thai students Additionally, students‟ knowledge gaps resulting from their lower levels of learning and learning both Vietnamese and English simultaneously cause lots of difficulties for Thai learners of English

Actually, the above hindrances could be solved if finance is granted and teachers‟ qualification is improved, but there exist impediments–the linguistic differences between L1 and L2-cannot be alleviated even with a complete disappearance of the above obstacles This claim is strongly supported by L2 researchers who found that L2 learners heavily rely

on their L1 in their L2 learning (Dechert, 1983; Ellis, 1997) Specifically, George (1972) found that one-third of the deviant sentences from L2 learners could be attributed to language transfer In other words, the L1 interference, which causes interlingual errors,

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rooted from the differences of the two languages A distant relation between the L1 and L2 could cause negative transfersinto language learners‟ L2 acquisition, which hampers language learners‟ intelligibility Research suggests that negative transfers from L1 into L2 does happen to Vietnamese learners of English, whose L1 is very similar to Thai (Hao Cao, 2000; Dat Huu, Doi Tran, & Lan Đao, 1998; Huyen Nguyen et al., 2004) The above discussion suggests that the interference of Thai learners‟ L1 into their English learning is definitely existent

There might be a variety of aspects which are different between the two languages, but Saporta (1966) argues that the grammar of the learners‟ L1 plays a crucial role on their discovery of a new language Supporting this view, Corder (1969) argues that learning a new language is a simpler task, where language learners only need to find out if the systems of the new language are the same or different from those of the language they know, and if different, what their nature is Owing to the great importance of L1 grammar into L2 learning, this research aims to investigate the relationship of Vietnamese Thai and English and its possible effects on Thai learners of English with respect to grammatical aspects only

2 Aims of the study

In an attempt to improve the quality of teaching English to the Thai students at Thai Nguyen Medical College, this study aims:

1 To investigate how the Thai students‟ L1 might affect their learning of English

2 To implement a contrastive analysis to figure out the similarities and differences

between the Thai grammar and its English counterpart

3 To offer suggestions for overcoming negative linguistic transfers that the Thai

learners of English may encounter in their learning of English

3 Research questions

The present research aims to answer the following three questions:

1 What are the most common differences between the Thai and English grammar at the word and sentence level?

4 Scope of the study

Due to the nature of a minor study, the scope of the present study is limited to a small number of students at Thai Nguyen Medical College, and its very focus is on the impacts of Thai learners‟ L1 on their English written production at the word and sentence level only

5 Significance of the study

As discussed previously, foreign language learners often heavily rely on L1 in their L2 learning; and the greater the differences between L1 and L2, the more errors foreign language learners could make in their L2 production In other words, language learners‟ L1 could be a major resource of their L2 errors It is, thus, of great significance to carry out an investigation to figure out students‟ possible L1 transfer into their L2 learning process This could be the strength to inform language teachers of the language areas that their students could encounter difficulties in the process of learning and teaching so that they could have appropriate adjustments to their lesson plans and seek strategies to help their students overcome such negative transfers

6 Research methods

This study employed a qualitative approach, and data were collected via a written production questionnaire which was designed to examine whether the Thai students at Thai Nguyen Medical College suffered from L1 transferred in their learning of English

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a Chapter 1: Literature Review

The chapter provides an overview of the Thai people, the Thai language and a contrastive analysis of English and Thai, which serves as a theoretical basis for the whole study

b Chapter 2: Methodology

The chapter includes an overview of the approach used in conducting the study

It also provides a thorough description of the data collection procedure and the analytical procedure

c Chapter 3: Result and Discussion

The chapter reports the findings of the study and discusses the prominent aspects to answer the research questions stated in the previous chapter

 Part C - Conclusion

This part states the conclusions of the major findings, recommendations, limitations

of this research, and suggestions for further studies

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PART B - DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter establishes the theoretical background for the study It first provides an overview of the Thai and their language then presents a contrastive analysis of English and Thai, the definition of ‘errors’ and ‘mistakes’ and their distinction followed a prediction of the errors likely committed by Thai learners of English

1.1 The Thai people and language in Vietnam

1.1.1 The Thai people

The Thai people originated from China (Wyatt, 2003) and emigrated to Vietnam between the 7th and 13th century (Quang Mai, 2004) The history and the language of the Vietnamese Thai people have a common origin with the Thai group in South China, Laos, Thailand and Burma The number of the Vietnamese Thai people is more than one million, and they mainly populate the South West of the Red River Other groups belonging to this language family include the Giay, Lu, San Chay, Tu Di and Bo Y

Vietnamese Thai communicate with each other in their own language but they also consider Vietnamese as a second and necessary language that they need to acquire Although tourism and modern life have been introduced to Thai people from the 1990s, Thai people have maintained their traditional culture, customs and their own language as well Moreover, they also know how to use their language advantages in cultural exchange, tourism and foreign trade to ensure a better life for themselves and the maintenance of their culture The Thai have their own Sanskirt-style writing system, so they have many ancient written works on their history, traditions, customary laws, and literature

1.1.2 The Thai language

The Thai speak Thai that belongs to the original Thai-Kadai language system In this group, there are the Thai language (Thailand), the Lao language (Laos), the Shan language in Myanmar and the Choang language in the southern China In Vietnam, the languages of eight ethnic minorities (Bo Y, Giay, Lao, Lu, Nung, San Chay, Tay and Thai) are classified in the Thai language family

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Vietnamese Thai is placed into the community sector of the Tay-Thai language family, including many branches, and each of which is divided into several groups, with different names depending on the locality However, the most obvious and common of all

is the division of the Thai people with two branches: the Black Thai and White Thai (Tay Don and Tay Dam) In fact, Vietnamese Thai, Laos and Thailand people have a common origin and speak Thai-Kadai languages

The original language of the Thai people has always been preserved and handed down from generation to generation Vietnamese Thai children are taught in their native language, and they will be learning Vietnamese at their school age The Vietnamese Thai people are one of a few Vietnamese ethnic minorities who had their own writing system

1.2 A contrastive analysis of Thai and English

It is easily recognised that two languages often contain a great number of similarities and differences at different level and in various areas This section only outlines major similarities and differences between Thai and English with respect to their verbs, nouns, articles, prepositions and word order

1.2.1 Verbs

Thai and English originate from different language families, but their verbs share a number of similarities, especially the types of verbs that the two languages possess These similarities between the two languages are summarised in the following table:

Table1.1 English and Thai types of verbs

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adverb

(T1): (Po thảu coi khay quãm tỗ)

(E2): He speaks very fast

Table1.4 Formation of tenses in English and Thai Notion

(T2):

(Bườn cón, mẵn XỰ khảng thồng nưng lẹo)

(E3): She WILL come here next month.(simple future)

(Pững xính cu khỏi ỉn phại chu mự)

The negation in English is also far different from that in Thai English uses

auxiliaries plus the word ‘not’ to form a negative form while the negation in Thai is formed

by adding a negative words like (báu’, ‘hễ’) (which are equivalent of „not‟ in

English) in front of a verb:

Table1.6 Negation in English and Thai

Morphological marks for plurals

Agreement with pre-modifiers

Classifiers in front of nouns

Note: ‘+’ means ‘existent’; ‘-’ means ‘nonexistent’

The most striking point to notice is that English nouns are divided into „countable nouns‟ (e.g., book, pen, umbrella, and computer) and „uncountable nouns‟ or „mass nouns’ (e.g., water, milk, salt, and rice)‟ By contrast, Thai has no such classification This

distinction results in many other differences between English and Thai nouns Normally, morphological marks are added to English singular nouns to establish their plural form or change into a different form to show plural, while that of the Thai language is created by adding the words like (‘pững’) in front of the single form For example:

pặp xừ nưng pững pặp xừ

an old book old books

pặp xừ cáu nưng pững pặp xừ cáu

one child children

đếch nọi nưng pững đếch nọi

Indefinite „a/an‟ Definite „the‟

Note: ‘+’ means ‘existent’; ‘-’ means ‘nonexistent’

Thai has an equivalent translation of English indefinite articles „a/an‟, but it does

not always satisfy the characteristics of its English counterparts: (1) to indicate a specific person/thing that is unfamiliar to the addressee or is first-mentioned and (2) to indicate a whole class of entities (Jacobs, 1995) They are added before a noun The Thai counterparts of English indefinite articles („nưng/điều‟) can be used for both

specific and generic cases, but they are added after a noun

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(E): A buffalo is the property of the whole family

As regards the definite article ‘the’ of English, it appears that there is not an

equivalent translation in the Thai language Instead, it is omitted in Thai

Example 1:

(T):

(Mững àu pặp xừ nẳng Ma-ry lẹo hễ?)

(E): Did you get the book from Mary?

Example 2:

(T):

(Khảng đàng hưỡn nặn mẵn xự pì cài chí đảy tã xi xìa)

(E): The house that he bought last year need to be repainted

1.2.4 Prepositions

Similar to English, Thai also has a category of word which is similar to English prepositions This category can be considered to be the Thai equivalents of English prepositions, but a preposition in the their L1 may be equivalent to a variety of English prepositions, e.g ‘cuồng’-‘in, inside’, ‘nọk’ - ‘out, outside, out of‟, and

‘càng’- ‘among, between, within, among, between, in the middle of, in the midst of’

As a result, in the mind of the Thai learners of English, many different English prepositions can be used when their English production requires a preposition They might confusion over their selection of an appropriate preposition for their sentences The simple example below presents this point:

(T):

(Khỏi/ cù vạy pặp xư nẳng tễnh khảng pãn kẽm táng

(E): He put the book on, upon,

above, over,

on top of, atop

the table by,

(E1): Ms Linh is my teacher of English

(E2): My teacher of English is Ms Linh

(À Linh lỏ à xãy quãm Anh khòng khỏi / cù)

(T2):

(À xãy quãm Anh khòng khỏi / cù lỏ à Linh)

Despite those similarities, English and Thai have many differences The most striking variance between the two languages is the possible position of the elements of a noun phrase An English adjective precede the noun which it modifies, whereas Thai possesses a reverse word order, stated as follows:

Table1.9 English and Thai word order

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the beginning, middle or end of the sentence whereas those of Thai only take at the end of the sentence Similarly, both Thai and English adverbials of time, direction and frequency, and purpose share their position in a sentence Let‟s look at the examples below:

(E1a): John does his homework carefully

(E3): She goes to school in a hurry

adv of direction adv of manner

(T3): (Mẵn pày họt trưỡng phạo phũ)

Adv of direction adv of manner

1.3 Distinction of errors and mistakes

1.3.1 Errors

In English language teaching, numerous definitions have been given to the notion

of „error‟ Corder (1973) defined an error as a breach of the code, and they deviate from what is regarded as the norm In the words of James (1998), a language error is an unsuccessful bit of language Similarly, an error is “the flawed side of the learner speech or writing, they are parts of conversation or composition that deviates from selected norms”

(Dulay, Burt, & Krashen, 1982, p.138)

In short, an error is a piece of language produced by a non-native speaker of a foreign language, which can cause failures or unintelligibility in communication

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1.3.2 Mistakes

Like the notion of „error‟, a mistake is also defined in lots of different ways In the words of Corder (1967), mistakes are defined as adventitious, random errors in performance due to memory lapses, physical states, etc., of which the speaker may be immediately aware Similarly, a mistake is an inconsistent deviation that is sometimes the learner „gets it right‟ but sometimes wrong (Norrish, 1983) According to Richards et al (1984), a mistake is an inappropriate use of a piece of language made by a learner when writing or speaking and which is caused by lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or some other aspect of performance

To sum up, a mistake is a linguistic failure, which might occur in a particular situation but may not appear in another one, and language learners could overcome them if attention is paid

1.3.3 Distinction of errors and mistakes

Both errors and mistakes can be seen as linguistic failures, but linguists and scholars reach agreement that they are different in many aspects Their differences are illustrated in the table below:

Table 1.10 Comparison of errors and mistakes

Frequency - Consistently (Norrish, 1983;

Worth, 1987)

- Inconsistently or repeatedly (Norrish, 1983; Worth, 1987)

State - Systematic (Corder, 1967;

Norrish, 1983; Worth, 1987)

- Adventitious and random (Corder, 1967; Norrish, 1983; Worth, 1987) Significance

to language

learning

- Significant (Corder, 1967) - Not significant (Corder, 1967)

It can be concluded a mistake refers to the failures to use the language system correctly caused by some factors such as carelessness, memory lapses, and physical

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condition while error refers to the failure to use the system correctly caused by the lack of the learners‟ competence, ignorance of appropriate rules of the target language

1.4 Language transfer and L1 transfer in L2 acquisition

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary CD-ROM (8th Edition) by

Paragon Software Group (2010), the word „transfer’ means: to move from one place to

another, to move sth/sb from one place to another…

As a linguistic concept, in the view of Selinker (1972), interference means transfer, which happens in language learning situations when L2 learners use the L1 rules and structures because of the belief that this will help them to learn L2 better In the words of (Dulay & Burt, 1977), language transfer could become automatic if language learners use their L1 structures and rules in the target language regularly, and it results from the learner‟s assumption of language equivalence In fact, there are not two languages that are identical regarding structures, lexicons, and systems; therefore, the students‟ prediction of equivalence guides to the cause of error and mistake production in their L2 production (Nooshin, Behjat, & Rostampour, 2014; Beebe, 1988; Seligar, 1988; Ellis, 1997; Dechert, 1983)

Behaviorists argue that language transfer implies transferring the skill of learning procedure from one language to another, and it can be positive or negative Gass and Selinker (2008) claims that language learners tend to transfer the meaning, structures and culture of their L1 to L2 and its culture L1 transfer into L2 acquisition with respect to grammatical aspects has been of interests of a large number of language researchers It is generally accepted that there are at least some effects of L1 on the learning of the L2 grammar (White, 1985; Vainikka & Young-Scholten, 1996) Besides, Camacho‟s findings (1999) suggest that L2 learners also use their L1 word order in their L2 writing More recently, Franceschina (2001) points out that writers use L1 structures during L2 writing, mainly in the form of translating from L1 to L2 Fujieda (2006) suggest that a lot of errors and mistakes occur in syntactic level because of learners‟ limited linguistic knowledge of and their L1 interferences into L2 writing

In the present study, the L1-based error classification used by L Dušková (1969) and the L1-transferred error taxonomy suggested by M H Keshavarz (2012) is adapted to

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assist the process of diagnosing the participants‟ English writings As the present research focuses on English as L2 writing, just morphological-syntactic errors will selected and studied

Table 1.11 Dušková‟s L1-transferred error classification

Table1.12 Keshavarz‟s L1-transferred error taxonomy

No Type of errors

9 Wrong use of prepositions

1.5 Possible errors committed by Thai students in their learning of English

The prediction of the Thai students‟ possible errors in their English production is implemented using the classification of cross-linguistic similarity relations suggested by Ringbom (2006): there are three different types of cross-linguistic similarity relations, each

of which has different impacts on L2 learning

 A similarity relation, where the learner is able to establish a one-to-one relationship

with another unit, usually in the L1

 A difference relation, where the learner can perceive both similarity and difference

In the other words, there exists some category in language learners‟ L1 and the target language, but there are certain differences between them

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 A zero relation, where the learner cannot relate the TL aspect to previous linguistic

knowledge This is a situation confusing the learner, who will have considerable time-consuming organisational problems at the beginning

Based on the above classification of the possible L1 transfer into L2 learning and a contrastive analysis of Thai and English, a prediction of Thai students in their process of learning English is illustrated in the table below:

Table1.13 Possible L1 interference of the Thai learners of English

Category

Relationship based on Ringbom’s classification

Likelihood

of making errors

Verbs

a transitive and in/intransitive similarity -

b types of word after verbs difference +

c morphological marks for tenses difference +

e use of Aux to form negation difference +

Nouns

a countable and mass noun zero +

b morphological marks for plurals difference +

c agreement with pre-modifiers zero +

Preposition

c miscellaneous prepositions difference +

* In fact, there is a minor difference between the two languages

Note: ‘+’ means that the Thai students are likely to make errors in the category, and

‘-’means NOT

Dušková (1969) argues that contrastive analysis predicts learning problems not only in areas where the source and the target language differ, but also in the case of linguistic features unknown in the sources language The above table suggests that the Thai learners of English could encounter a large number of difficulties when they learn English since there are many differences between English and their L1 As a result, it could be predicted that the Thai learners‟ productions of English could contain many different types

of errors

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides information about the overall settings of the study and the methodological aspects of the study It starts with an overview of the research site, the students at Thai Nguyen Medical College and their learning materials Then it gives basic information about the participants and clarifies the data collection and the data analysis procedure of the study

2.1 Research setting

2.1.1 An overview of the research site

Located in a mountainous area, Thai Nguyen Medical College suffers lots of disadvantages to its mission to produce qualified human resources for the region despite its endless efforts The learning environment is complicated since the college has students of various ethnic backgrounds

As regards of English teachers‟ qualification, most graduated from local universities ages ago, and their working in a remote region does not allow them to update their knowledge of English language teaching and learning

Methodologically, since communicative language teaching method has intensively applied the tertiary level, which is in fact required by Vietnamese Ministry of Training and Education (An Nguyen, 2011) Consequently, teachers of English at Thai Nguyen Medical College are now more communication-oriented However, lack of learning materials and teaching facilities, together with large class size, seriously impede the application of this teaching method in the context of the college Accordingly, their teaching method more or less reflects the traditional teaching methodology, and their teaching becomes teacher-centered, book-centered and grammar-oriented, with a focus on rote memorisation of knowledge

2.1.2 The students

The students at Thai Nguyen Medical College have a diversification of ethnic backgrounds, one of which is the Vietnamese Thai Researchers indicate that a large number of ethnic minorities have quite a low level of Vietnamese English proficiency (Hoa Tran, 2010) This is certainly the case for their English proficiency since there are lots of

21

hindrances to their learning of English such as lack of learning materials, teaching facilities, knowledge gaps resulting from their lower level of schooling and lack of a supportive learning environment The biggest difficulty is, however, the Thai learners‟ attitudes towards English learning For most of them, English is simply an obligatory subject which they must study and overcome it to full the requirements of their diploma or degree

The Thai learners of English are expected to receive knowledge from their instructors rather than actively express their opinions, ask questions, engage debates, question teachers or challenge their statements, and initiate communication (Thanh Pham

& Gillies, 2010) As a result, the Thai learners of English are quite passive in their learning process and hardly participate in learning activities actively This, in turn, causes difficulties in the implementation of communicative teaching approach in the process of teaching, which employ lots of co-operative learning activities like role plays, problem-solving tasks, or information gap activities

2.1.3 Learning materials

At Thai Nguyen Medical College, LifeLines Elementary (Hutchinson, 1999), LifeLines Pre-Intermediate (Hutchinson, 1997) and LifeLines Intermediate (Hutchinson, 1999) are used by its teachers of English The textbooks‟ level of difficulty is appropriate

to non-English major learners since it starts with quite a basic knowledge of English Besides, the books cover various topics which enable the students to communicate successfully upon their finish of the program Learning a language means the learning of its native speakers‟ culture, and the series of Lifelines by Hutchinson satisfy this characteristic of language teaching According to Nga Tran & Hoan Le (2012), the stories and extracts used in Lifelines textbooks carry the cultural values which are necessary for cultural teaching in the process of language teaching

2.2 Participants

72 Thai students at Thai Nguyen Medical College were selected from the 12 different classes to participate in this study for the first time, and all the participants were freshman at the time of study There were 43 females and 29 males; their age ranges from

19 to 21 All the participants have studied English at their lower level of schooling For