Challenges in teaching English to ethnic minority students in a mountainous province = Những thách thức trong việc dạy tiếng Anh cho học sinh dân tộc thiểu số ở

As a result, many ethnic minority students fail to make progress in learning the language and the quality of English language education for ethnic minority students remains unsatisfactor

Department of Post-graduate Studies

DIỆP THỊ HỒNG LIÊN

MA MINOR THESIS

Challenges in teaching English To Ethnic minority students in a mountainous province (Những thách thức trong việc dạy tiếng Anh cho học sinh dân tộc thiểu số

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration ……… i

Acknowledgment ……… ii

Abstract ……… iii

Table of contents ……… iv

Abbreviations vii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study ……… 1

1.2 Aims of the study ……… 2

1.3 Significance of the study ……… 3

1.4 Scope of the study ……… 3

1.5 Methodology ……… 3

1.6 Organization of the study ……… 3

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 An overview on English Language Teaching Methods ……… 5

2.1.1 The Grammar - Translation Method 2.1.1.1 Introduction ……… 5

2.1.1.2 Advantages of the Grammar -Translation Method ……… 6

2.1.1.3 Disadvantages of the Grammar -Translation Method …… 6

2.1.2 The Audio-Lingual Method 2.1.2.1 Introduction ……… 7

2.1.2.2 Advantages of the Audio-Lingual Method ……… 7

2.1.2.3 Disadvantages of the Audio-Lingual Method ……… 7

2.1.3 Communicative Language Teaching 2.1.3.1 Introduction ……… 8

2.1.3.2 Advantages of Communicative Language Teaching …… 9

2.1.3.3 Disadvantages of Communicative Language Teaching … 10

2.2 Common classroom activities associated with Communicative

Language Teaching

2.2.1 Accuracy versus fluency activities ……… ……… …… 11

2.2.2 Mechanical, meaningful, and communicative practice …… 13

2.2.3 Information-gap activities ……… 13

2.2.4 Jig-saw activities ……… 14

2.2.5 Other activity types in CLT ……… 14

2.3 Proficiency in the native language and the second language, and the acquisition of a third language 2.3.1 Definitions ……… 15

2.3.2 The influence of proficiency in the native language and the second language on the acquisition of a third language … 16 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research setting 3.1.1 An overview of the research site ……… 18

3.1.2 Description of the teachers of English ……… 18

3.1.3 The students ……… 19

3.1.4 The materials of teaching and learning ……… 19

3.2 Research questions 20 3.3 Participants 3.3.1 Population ……… 20

3.3.2 Sampling ……… 20

3.3.3 Detailed description of participants ……… 21

3.4 Data Collection Instruments 3.4.1 Interviews ……… 21

3.4.2 Classroom observations ……… 22

3.5 Data Collection Procedure ……… 22

3.6 Data Analysis Procedure ……… 23

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Research question 1 ……… 25

4.2 Research question 2 ……… 29

4.3 Conclusive remarks ……… 32

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary of major findings ……… 33

5.2 Recommendations 5.2.1 Adjusting teaching to learners’ needs ……… 34

5.2.2 Adapting the textbooks ……… 35

5.2.3 Motivating students to learn ……… 35

5.2.4 Having ethnic minority teachers to teach English for their students in their communities ………

36 5.2.5 Improving teaching conditions ……… 36

5.3 Limitations of the study ……… 37

5.4 Suggestions for further study ……… 37

References ……… 38

Appendices

ABBREVIATIONS GTM: Grammar Translation Method

ALM: Audio-Lingual Method

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

L1: the first language

L2: the second language

L3: the third language

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study

The ever-growing need for good communication skills in English has created a huge demand for English teaching around the world The result is that its status in education system and settings is an extraordinary one (Rossner and Bolitho, 1990, p 5) In correspondence to this trend, in Vietnam, the importance of English as a language of international communication has been acknowledged by the Government; English teaching and learning have been given more and more priority English is considered as a compulsory subject in the school curriculum in recognition that “it can contribute to students’ personal, linguistic, social, and cultural development” (Canh, 2004, p.167)

Ministry of Education and Training in Vietnam (2006) has stated that the objective of language teaching is teaching learners to communicate fluently, appropriately and spontaneously in the cultural context of the target language To meet the demand of learners of English, teachers of English in Vietnam have been trying to catch up with the world’s latest frameworks of English Language Teaching as well as to find out the most suitable and effective method of teaching English with the hope of providing learners with a means of communication, namely English which is vital for them to be successful in their job and to fulfill their social demands in the time of globalization

In Hoa Binh mountainous province, where the author has been working for over fifteen years, English is a compulsory subject in the curriculum and it is considered as one of the major subjects for the high school final examination English is taught with the purpose to give students some basic knowledge of English in order to communicate and use it as a key to science and technology However, there still exist many difficulties facing teachers in teaching English to students, especially those from ethnic minorities It can be observed that ethnic minority students’ scores are very low in English Less than 5 per cent earn good marks, even

in the national graduation exams (Hoa Binh Department of Education and Training, 2008; 2009) Furthermore, according to one high school teacher of English, the majority of ethnic minority students can understand forty per cent of teachers’ lectures in Vietnamese In some remote areas, lower level students understand less than 20 per cent of what teachers say in

Vietnamese (“Minority Students Need”, 2008) Ethnic minority students mainly use their mother tongues – Muong, Thai, Hmong, Tay and other languages - to communicate inside their families and small communities From first grade onward, at school and in public places, ethnic minority students have to struggle with Vietnamese to study and communicate with other people This is why not many can understand lectures, even at high school, because they

do not thoroughly comprehend Vietnamese - and very few teachers can explain things to them

in their native languages (“Ethnic Schools Lack”, 2007) Thus, studying English language in addition to Vietnamese language might be very challenging for ethnic minority students

Furthermore, other problems are compounded by poor living conditions, furnished classrooms, scarce access to supporting materials and facilities, limited access to the target language, etc As a result, many ethnic minority students fail to make progress in learning the language and the quality of English language education for ethnic minority students remains unsatisfactory for communicative purposes All of these problems might make teachers feel frustrated in teaching English to ethnic minority students, and in developing students' communicative competence in English

poorly-The point is that if we leave this problem unsolved, there will be a likelihood of loading teachers of English with teaching to ethnic minority students of limited proficiency in English language, and pushing students into being fed up with learning English This fact has given the author an impetus to do the research on challenges in teaching English to ethnic minority high school students in Hoa Binh province with the hope to find out the solutions to these problems and to make a small contribution to improve the quality of teaching English to ethnic minority students in a mountainous province

1 2 Aims of the study

The study aims at investigating the areas of challenges in teaching English to ethnic minority high school students in Hoa Binh mountainous province Also, it is expected that some solutions to overcome challenges encountered will be suggested To be more specific, in realizing this study, the objectives are:

 To investigate the areas of challenges that the teachers have encountered when teaching English to ethnic minority students

 To offer some solutions with the hope of helping English language teachers in Hoa Binh province overcome those difficulties, improve the quality of their teaching, which

later helps improve ethnic minority students’ language learning quality

1.3 Significance of the study

The study is hoped to be beneficial to both teachers and ethnic minority students in mountainous high schools First, findings of the study could be shared among teachers of English to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the coming years Next, it might highlight the rationale for professional development programs for high school teachers of English in mountainous areas in Vietnam Finally, the findings could be used as a data base for further study

1.4 Scope of the study

This study, as stated earlier, addresses challenges that teachers of English have faced when teaching English to ethnic minority high school students in Hoa Binh province In addition, the study is to find out the possible solutions which help teachers of English improve the quality of their teaching To keep the study in manageable size, the study has been delimited only to English language teachers of Hoa Binh Ethnic Minority Boarding High School and two high schools in the remote districts

1.6 Organization of the study

This study consists of five parts: Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Results & Discussion, and Conclusion

 Chapter one Introduction - presents the rationale, aims, significance, scope, methodology, and organization of the study

 Chapter two Literature Review - provides a theoretical basis for the study

 Chapter three. Methodology - includes an overview of the approach used in conducting the study It also provides a thorough description of the data collection procedure as well as the analytical procedure

 Chapter four Results and Discussion - reports the findings of the study and discusses the prominent aspects

 Chapter five Conclusion – presents the conclusions of major findings, recommendations, limitations for the study, and suggestions for further studies

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 An overview on Language Teaching Methods

In the discussion of the history of language teaching methods, it can be understandable that a teaching method which may be effective at one point of time in history may still be ineffective at the other point This dynamic character of the language teaching goals makes the history of foreign language teaching ever-changing, ever- adapting Moreover, one method is replaced by another it does not mean that the former is worse than the latter and will be thrown into the wastebasket of history It only means that the replaced method fails to correspond to a certain need at a certain time in history As a result, the history of foreign language teaching methods is not the history of replacement of one method by another Rather, it would be the history of adding one new method to the treasury of existing methods A number of methods have been evolved for the teaching of English and also other foreign languages in the recent past; however, in Vietnam three methods which enjoy significant use and dominate the language teaching are the Grammar – Translation, the Audio-lingual method, and the Communicative Language Teaching These methods are now discussed in this thesis as follows

2.1.1 The Grammar – Translation Method

2.1.1.1 Introduction

Grammar – Translation Method (GMT) was in fact first known in the United States as the Prussian Method (A book by B.Sears, an American classics teacher, published in 1845 was entitled The Ciceronian or the Prussian Method of Teaching the Elements of the Latin Language [Kelly 1969] The Grammar Translation method embraced a wide range of approaches but, broadly speaking, it viewed foreign language study as a “mental discipline” (Richards & Rodgers, 1996) The Grammar Translation Method focused on grammatical analysis and translation It theorized that students acquire a foreign language by learning and explaining grammar rules

According to Prator and Celce-Murcia (1979, p.3), the key features of the Grammar Translation Method were that:

1 Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target language

2 Mush vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words

3 Long elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar are given

4 Grammar provides the rules for putting words together, and instruction often focuses

on the form and inflection of words

5 Reading of difficult classical texts is begun early

6 Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in grammatical analysis

7 Little or no attention is given to pronunciation

2.1.1.2 Advantages of the Grammar – Translation Method

The strengths of GMT are as follows:

1 This method can be argued as the easiest method for the teacher to teach since it does require neither a high level of proficiency nor an imaginative approach to techniques;

2 The atmosphere of the classroom seems stress-free because the mother tongue is used all the time;

3 The teaching of grammar rules and translation puts the learner into a problem solving process;

4 Other advantages as noted by Stevick (1991) are freedom from limitation of one’s own local and contemporary culture” … “direct contact with the words and ideas of great thinkers ” (pp 32-36)

2.1.1.3 Disadvantages of the Grammar – Translation Method

This method, however, has certain disadvantages According to Richard and Rogers (1986, p 3), the Grammar – Translation Method obviously focuses on the form rather than the use of the target language Students who are in this way do not have a chance to practice their speaking and listening Students who learn rules of grammar and vocabulary without much feeling of progress in the mastery of the target language can lead to the lack of motivation in learning a language for their having little opportunity to express themselves through it The method creates frustration for students, for whom foreign language learning is a tedious experience for memorization of new words and grammatical rules, while it makes few demands on teachers (Richard and Rogers, 1986, p 4)

2.1.2 The Audio-Lingual Method

2.1.2.1.Introduction

The Audio-Lingual Method was widely adopted for teaching foreign languages in North American colleges and universities I provided the methodological foundation for materials for the teaching of foreign languages in the United States and Canada (Richards & Rodgers, 1996) This English teaching method puts listening and speaking in the first place It uses sentence pattern as the base of teaching and try to avoid mother tongue in class Attention

is paid to the need for practice rather than explanation about the language because the ability

to use the language as a means of communication is the ultimate aim The scientific base of this method can be summarized in the following ‘five slogans’ (cited in Diller, 1978, p 10)

1 Language is speech, not writing;

2 A language is a set of habits;

3 Teach the language, not about the language;

4 A language is what its native speakers say not what some one thinks they ought to say;

5 Languages are different

2.1.2.2 Advantages of the Audio-Lingual Method

In the Audio - Lingualism, teaching was organized in favor of the mechanistic aspects

of language use, thus, making the process of learning less challenging intellectually and, as a result, accessible to majority of people (Rivers, 1981, p.46) The successful point of this method is to develop students’ listening comprehension and fluency in speaking in the target language Students are encouraged by the sense of being able to use what they have learnt in the early days of their study In addition, the study is reinforced by repetition, so the students have good repetition and this suitable for learners of different abilities

2.1.2.3 Disadvantages of the Audio-Lingual Method

However, there still remain some problems The theoretical base held by Lingualism was found to be ill-founded both in terms of language theory and learning theory Theoretically, “language is not a habit structure Ordinary linguistic behaviors characteristically involve innovation, formation of new sentences and patterns in accordance

Audio-with rules of great abstractness and intricacy” (Chomsky, 1966, p.153) Accordingly, to know

a language means to be able to comprehend and produce sentences and utterances never heard

or produced before Practically, the products of Audio-Lingualism were found to be trained parrots’, by which she meant that they were unable to function communicatively in real world situations In addition, the atmosphere of the Audio-Lingual classroom was found

‘well-to be ‘tedious’ and ‘boring’ (Rivers, 1981, p.47), because of ‘well-too much memorization, drilling and repetition

2.1.3 Communicative Language Teaching

2.1.3.1 Introduction

The origins of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are to be found in the changes in the British language teaching tradition dating from the late 1960s (Richards & Rodgers, 1996) It is an outcome of more attention to learners’ effective and appropriate use

of language learnt It is pointed out by Brindley (1986) that “the 1970’s and 1980’s could be regarded as the era of Communicative Language Teaching” (p.11) Communicative Language Teaching also marks the beginning of a major innovation within language teaching because of its superior principles which are widely accepted nowadays

There is a variety of definitions about CLT; each of them developed her/his own ideas regarding CLT Communicative Language Teaching, to some people, means the combination

of structural teaching and functional teaching into a communicative competence oriented form

of teaching Littlewood (1981) states “one of the most characteristic features of Communicative Language Teaching is that it pays systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language” (p.1) To others, Communicative Language Teaching may mean the use of procedures that develop the four language skills through working in pairs or groups in problem-solving tasks According to Brindley (1986),

Language is not a static system It is created through interaction; language learning does not consist merely of internalizing a list of structural items It is a process of learning how to negotiate meaning in a particular socio-cultural context Consideration of meaning rather than form will therefore determine program content; language learning will more effective if they centered around the needs and interests of the learners; language learning materials should, similarly, be related to learners’ needs and interests and present learners with the opportunity

for genuine communication; effective communication is more than structures accuracy particularly at the beginning stages of language learning Errors are a manifestation of the fact that learning is taking place (p.12)

In a similar manner, Nunan (1989) acknowledges that

Communicative Language Teaching views language as a system for the expression of meaning Activities involve oral communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which

is meaningful to the learners Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives The learner’s role is as a negotiator and integrator The teacher’s role is as a facilitator of the communication process Materials promote communicative language use; they are task-based and authentic (p.194)

It is thought that the definition contains aspects that are common to many other definitions The definitions above, as with any definitions of the language teaching method (Penny Cook, 1989), represents a particular view of understanding and explaining language acquisition It is socially constructed and must be seen as a product of social, cultural, economic, and political forces

William (1995) summarizes the CLT classroom as one in which there is an emphasis

on the use of authentic language and unpredictable input Negotiation of meaning between students and teachers should be essential in the implementation of tasks with resulting comprehensible input Risk talking which leads to successful communication is also very important In his viewpoint, William emphasizes the lack of focus on the direct instruction of language rules and error correction

2.1.3.2 Advantages of Communicative Language Teaching

The advantages of Communicative Language Teaching may be summarized as follows:

1 CLT is more likely to produce the four skills of competence;

2 Learners of CLT are offered the opportunities to use the language for their own purpose, to take part in communication;

3 CLT is more motivating; therefore, students are likely to put more effort into learning (Stevick (1980), Blaire (1982), Hutchinson (1987), and others);

4 As CLT intends to teach what is relevant and necessary only, it is less wasteful of time and effort than approaches which attempt to teach the whole language (Allright (1979), Breen and Candlin (1987) and others)

5 In the long term, it should equip the learners with appropriate skills for tackling the language in a real world, since CLT is based on a close approximation to such used ( Maley (1986) Murphy (1991) and others)

In the communicative approach, formulating and developing students’ communicative skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) are considered as the ultimate goal of language teaching and learning process Other language items such as vocabulary pronunciation and grammar rules are given to students as the means, the conditions to promote the development of communicative skills

Communicative language teaching makes use of real-life situations that necessitate communication In other words, the goal of communicative language approaches is to create a realistic context of language acquisition in the classroom The teachers prepare a situation that learners are likely to encounter in real life The focus of this method is on functional language usage and the ability to learners to express their own ideas, feelings, attitudes, desires and needs Students usually work in small groups on communication activities, during which they receive practice in negotiating meaning Pair and group work creates enough confidence for even weak students to join in class discussions Working in groups to achieve their goals gives learners a supportive relationship while striving for the target language competence

2.1.3.3 Disadvantages of Communicative Language Teaching

CLT, however, also has a number of potential disadvantages:

1 It makes greater demands upon the professional training and linguistic and professional competence of teachers (Andrews (1983), Richard and Nunan (1991), Stern (1992) and others)

2 It may perplex students used to other approaches at least in the initial stages (James (1983), Berns (1990) and others)

3 It is more difficult to evaluate than the other approaches referred to (Williams (1983), Porter (1983) and others)

4 Because it appears to go against traditional practice, it tends to meet to meet with opposition especially from older teachers and learners (Robinson (1983), Hien (1991) and others)

2.2 Common classroom activities associated with Communicative Language Teaching

The current textbooks based on two popular approaches in pedagogics and in Language Teaching Methodology: learner-centered approach and communicative approach, in which task-based teaching is the main method of teaching in the whole textbook The task-based teaching represents a particular realization of Communicative Language Teaching (Nunan, 2001)

In discussing language teaching approaches, Richards and Rodgers (1986) considered not only the methods, techniques, and procedures used by teachers, their theories and beliefs about language, teaching and learning; and their views of teachers’ and learner’s roles, but also their attitudes toward classroom practices Accordingly, teaching approaches showed remarkable similarity as did teacher expressions of their attitudes toward classroom activities

So in this paper the researcher would like to briefly review the common classroom activities associated with CLT

2.2.1 Accuracy versus fluency activities

One of the goals of CLT is to develop fluency in language use Fluency is natural language use occurring when a speaker engages in meaningful interaction and maintains comprehensible and ongoing communication despite limitations in his or her communicative competence Fluency is developed by creating classroom activities in which students must negotiate meaning, use communication strategies, correct misunderstandings and work to avoid communication breakdowns

Fluency practice can be contrasted with accuracy practice, which focuses on creating correct examples of language use Differences between activities that focus on fluency and those that focus on accuracy can be summarized as follows:

* Activities focusing on fluency

• Reflect natural use of language

• Focus on achieving communication

• Require meaningful use of language

• Require the use of communication strategies

• Produce language that may not be predictable

• Seek to link language use to context

* Activities focusing on accuracy

• Reflect classroom use of language

• Focus on the formation of correct examples of language

• Practice language out of context

• Practice small samples of language

• Do not require meaningful communication

• Choice of language is controlled

Teachers were recommended to use a balance of fluency activities and accuracy and to use accuracy activities to support fluency activities Accuracy work could either come before

or after fluency work For example, based on students’ performance on a fluency task, the teacher could assign accuracy work to deal with grammatical or pronunciation problems the teacher observed while students were carrying out the task An issue that arises with fluency work, however, is whether fluency work develops fluency at the expense of accuracy In doing fluency tasks, the focus is on getting meanings across using any available communicative resources This often involves a heavy dependence on vocabulary and communication strategies and there is little motivation to use accurate grammar or pronunciation Fluency work thus requires extra attention on the part of the teacher in terms of preparing students for a fluency task, or follow up activities that provide feedback on language use

While dialogs, grammar, and pronunciation drills did not usually disappear from textbooks and classroom materials at this time, they now appeared as part of a sequence of activities that moved back and forth between accuracy activities and fluency activities

And the dynamics of classrooms also changed Instead of a predominance of fronted teaching, teachers were encouraged to make greater use of small-group work Pair and group activities gave learners greater opportunities to use the language and to develop fluency

teacher-2.2.2 Mechanical, meaningful, and communicative practice

Another useful distinction that some advocates of CLT proposed was the distinction between three different kinds of practice – mechanical, meaningful, and communicative

Mechanical practice refers to a controlled practice activity which students can

successfully carry out without necessarily understanding the language they are using Examples of this kind of activity would be repetition drills and substitution drills designed to practice use of particular grammatical or other items

Meaningful practice refers to an activity where language control is still provided but

where students are required to make meaningful choices when carrying out practice For example, in order to practice the use of prepositions to describe locations of places, students might be given a street map with various buildings identified in different locations They are

also given a list of prepositions such as across from, on the corner of, near, on, next to They

then have to answer questions such as “Where is the book shop? Where is the café?”, etc The

practice is now meaningful because they have to respond according to the location of places

on the map

Communicative practice refers to activities where practice in using language within a

real communicative context is the focus, where real information is exchanged, and where the language used is not totally predictable For example students might have to draw a map of their neighborhood and answer questions about the location of different places in their neighborhood, such as the nearest bus stop, the nearest café, etc

2.2.3 Information-gap activities

According to Richards (2005), “an important aspect of communication in CLT is the notion of information gap” (p.17) This refers to the fact that in real communication people normally communicate in order to get information they do not possess An information gap activity focuses on two aspects: attention to information (but not to language form) and the necessity of communicative interaction to reach the objective In other words, as Scrivener (1994) further explains, the aim of an information gap activity is to “get learners to use the language they are learning to interact in realistic and meaningful ways, usually involving exchanges of information” (p.62) In so doing they will draw available vocabulary, grammar,

and communication strategies to complete a task

2.2.4 Jig-saw activities

These are also based on the information-gap principle Typically the class is divided into groups and each group has part of the information needed to complete an activity The class must fit the pieces together to complete the whole In so doing they must use their language resources to communicate meaningfully and so take part in meaningful communication practice

2.2.5 Other activity types in CLT

Many other activity types have been used in CLT, among which are the followings:

Task-completion activities: puzzles, games, map-reading and other kinds of classroom

tasks in which the focus was on using one’s language resources to complete a task

Information gathering activities: student conducted surveys, interviews and searches

in which students were required to use their linguistic resources to collect information

Opinion-sharing activities: activities where students compare values, opinions, beliefs,

such as a ranking task in which students list six qualities in order of importance which they might consider in choosing a date or spouse

Information-transfer activities: these require learners to take information that is

presented in one form, and represent it in a different form For example they may read instructions on how to get from A to B, and then draw a map showing the sequence, or they may read information about a subject and then represent it as a graph

Reasoning gap-activities: these involve deriving some new information from given

information through the process of inference, practical reasoning etc For example, working out a teacher’s timetable on the basis of given class timetables

Role-plays: activities in which students are assigned roles and improvise a scene or

exchange based on given information or clues

* Emphasis on pair work and group work

Most of the activities discussed above reflect an important aspect of classroom tasks in CLT namely that they are designed to be carried out in pairs or small groups Through completing activities in this way, it is argued, learners will obtain several benefits:

• they can learn from hearing the language used by other members of the group

• they will produce a greater amount of language than they would use in fronted activities

teacher-• their motivational level is likely to increase

• they will have the chance to develop fluency

Teaching and classroom materials today consequently make use of a wide variety of small group activities

* The push for authenticity

Since the language classroom is intended as a preparation for survival in the real world and since real communication is a defining characteristic of CLT, an issue which soon emerged was the relationship between classroom activities and real life Some argued that classroom activities should as far as possible mirror the real world and use real world or

“authentic sources” as the basis for classroom learning Clark and Silbertstein (1977) thus argued

Classroom activities should parallel the ‘real world’ as closely as possible Since language is a tool of communication, methods and materials should concentrate on the message and not the medium The purposes of reading should be the same in class as they are in real life (p.51)

2.3 Proficiency in the native language and the second language and the acquisition of a third language

2.3.1 Definitions

Language acquisition is one of the most impressive and fascinating aspects of human

development In website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/languageacquisition on June 20, 2010,

language acquisition is defined as “the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive, produce and use words to understand and communicate This capacity involves the picking up of diverse capacities including syntax, phonetics, and an extensive vocabulary This language might be vocal as with speech or manual as in sign” Language acquisition usually refers to first language acquisition, which studies infants' acquisition of their native language, rather than second language acquisition that deals with acquisition (in both children and adults) of additional languages

With regard to second language acquisition, it is portrayed as the process by which people learn languages in addition to their native language The term "second language",

"target language", or "L2" are used to refer to any language learned after the native language, which is also called "mother tongue", "first language", "L1", or "source language" Second language acquisition also includes third language acquisition (L3)

2.3.2 Influence of proficiency in the native language and the second language on the

acquisition of a third language

Although English is taught in Vietnamese high schools as a foreign language, for ethnic minority students, learning English is similar to learning a third language This is because these ethnic minority students have to learn Vietnamese in addition to their indigenous or native language This study was conducted in the Ethnic Minority Boarding High School andtwo high schools in remote districts of the mountainous province,where the majority of the students belong to ethnic minority groups Thus, what follows is a brief review

of the literature on the influence of learners’ first and second languages on the acquisition of a third language

The influence of proficiency in L1 and L2 on the acquisition of a third language has interested researchers for a few decades, but knowledge about those influences remains limited Cummings (2000) stated that according to ‘interdependence hypothesis’, there is a positive and significant relationship between students’ first language development, specially their development of literacy skills, and their second language development A similar relationship might be expected to hold good in the case of multilingual acquisition, so that different degrees of proficiency in the first and second languages would affect the acquisition

of the third language

In addition, recent psycholinguistic research on third language acquisition has made clear that the acquisition of an L3 shares many characteristics with the acquisition of an L2 but

it also presents differences Accordingly, the educational aspects of teaching English as an L3 differ from those of teaching English as an L2 Third language acquisition is more complex phenomenon than second language acquisition because, apart from all individual and social factors that affect the latter, the process and product of acquiring a second language can

themselves potentially influence the acquisition of a third language The educational aspects of the acquisition of English as a third language differ those of English as a second language, and have more implications regarding the optimal age for introduction of the different languages and the desired level of proficiency in each

However, several studies on L3 acquisition have convincingly shown a qualitative difference between the acquisition of a true L2 and the subsequent acquisition of an L3 Some studies even indicate that L2 takes on a stronger role than L1 in the initial state of L3 syntax (e.g Bardel & Falk, 2007; Rothman & Cabrelli Amaro, forthcoming) An explanation put forward by e.g Williams & Hammarberg (1998) and Bardel & Falk (2007) as to why the L2 takes on a stronger role than the L1 is that of the L2 status factor According to Falk & Bardel, the L2 status factor is an outcome of the higher degree of similarity between L2 and L3 than between L1 and L3, regarding age of onset, outcome, learning situation, metalinguistic knowledge, learning strategies and degree of awareness in the language learning process

Also, the acquisitional setting may vary from predominantly informal acquisition, as is the case for instance in bilingual environments, to more formal settings, such as foreign language learning in the classroom On the one hand, it can be assumed that L3 learners, especially those who have learnt the L2 in a formal setting, are aware of the language learning process, and have acquired metalinguistic experiences and learning strategies to facilitate foreign language learning

Therefore, for students from ethnic minority groups, studying one more language, English – the third language, via Vietnamese – the second language might be very challenging This is because of the fact that when learning English, they comprehend English lessons by listening, switching into their native languages - and then translating or changing into Vietnamese and then English again Limited literacy or Vietnamese language skills can limit the acquisition of the third language As a result, it is observed that a large number of these students are almost illiterate in English despite many years’ learning the language

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter includes a justification for the approach the author used in conducting the research It also provides a thorough description of how the author collected the necessary data

as well as the analytical procedure to draw conclusions based on the collected information In the first section the author gives detailed description of the research setting where the study was conducted In the next sections, the author puts forward an explanation of the author’s understanding of the methods used in this research and their advantages

3.1 Research setting

3.1.1 An overview of the research site

Hoa Binh is a mountainous province in the northwest of Vietnam, where over 80 % of the population belongs to ethnic minority groups, and where there have been many difficulties

in life as well as in educational development, especially in the development of teaching a foreign language like English Not much attention is paid to English learning though it is among the compulsory subjects in the national final examinations The infrastructure is poorly equipped with no specific rooms for learning English There is no empty space in the classroom except for the aisle where the teachers can move to and fro Besides, some schools even lack teaching facilities like tape recorders or CD players, let alone reference books

3.1.2 Description of the teachers of English

In Hoa Binh province, there are 250 teachers of English currently working Their ages range from 24 to 55 Their experience in teaching English varies from 4 to 32 years

In terms of teachers’ qualification, most high school teachers graduated from Foreign Language Teachers' Training Universities These teachers are qualified for the job Some of them attended in - service courses, others used to be teachers of Russian To some extent, some teachers are unqualified in terms of their proficiency in English and professional English

A number of teachers have troubles in pronouncing English sounds and expressing themselves

in the target language

With regard to teaching methods, as teachers of English in many other provinces in Vietnam, teachers of English in Hoa Binh province are now more communication-oriented However, some get used to speech dominated education by a teacher-centered, book-centered,

Grammar Translation Method and an emphasis on rote memory Others even do not have a thorough grasp of the content of the curriculum and the new textbook; it results in confusion in teaching methods In terms of using teaching facilities, some teachers are poorly equipped with audiovisual teaching aids (tapes, videos, etc … ) In fact, it is difficult to break teachers’ habit of not using audiovisual aids, thus they can not bring into play the teaching facilities even their schools equip language teachers with cassettes and language laboratory

3.1.3 The students

The study was conducted at three high schools in a mountainous province where majority of students belong to different ethnic minorities from Thai, Muong, Mong, Dao, and Tay groups Teaching English for ethnic minority students in the remote mountainous area has long been a controversial issue Many ethnic minority students’ English level is low and Vietnamese language skills are limited Besides, there is lack of proper teaching and learning materials at primary and secondary schools For them, English is simply an obligatory subject; they learn it mainly for marks, the only goal is to pass the tests The time, the input and exposure to the language are limited to the classroom Therefore, they seem to be passive in learning Students listen to their teachers and repeat passively and give a mechanical response They are likely to become demotivated to English learning, depending much on the textbook and teachers’ method of delivery Language activities like role plays, problem-solving tasks,

or information gap activities, therefore, seem strange to their culture of learning Even, when they fail to understand something, they are not daring enough to ask for clarification in public Therefore, “the English learning environment is described as a cultural island where the teacher is expected to be the sole provider of experience in the target language" (Canh, 1999, p.74)

3.1.4 The materials of teaching and learning

In terms of the materials of teaching and learning, the textbooks currently used to teach

English are Tieng Anh 10, Tieng Anh 11, Tieng Anh 12 published by Ministry of Education

and Training The teaching content of English textbooks follows the theme-based approach and is developed on six broad themes The six themes are subdivided into 16 topics corresponding with 16 units and a “Test yourself” after every 3 units.All units have the same

structure, starting with the theme of the unit, following four lessons focused on language skills and ending with language focus Language skills are developed in parallel with the development of such language knowledge as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation

With strengths, the textbooks are expected to contribute better quality of English learning in Vietnam high schools In terms of curriculum development, the introduction of the new textbook can be new fresh air blowing into the teaching and learning situation at secondary schools in Vietnam However, to a large number of ethnic minority students, the English textbooks are very difficult Very often the amount of new vocabulary in one unit was too much for students In addition, many topics in their English textbooks were strange to their daily lives and background

The researcher used a combination of convenience and snowball sampling in this study

As a cadre working for Hoa Binh Department of Education and Training, it might be easier for the researcher to make contacts with the department heads and teachers of high schools in the province The researcher first contacted the department heads via telephone and invited them to recommend teachers who might be interested in the study and requested their