Exploring the Use of Teacher’s Questioning and Students’ Interaction in Speaking Classes at Tran Hung Dao High School

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** PHẠM THANH XUÂN MỪNG EXPLORING THE USE OF TEACHER’S QUESTIONING AND STUDENTS’ INTERACTION IN SPEAKING CLASSES AT TRAN HUNG DAO HIGH SCHOOL (NGHIÊN CỨU TÌM HIỂU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÂU HỎI CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ TƯƠNG TÁC CỦA HỌC SINH TRONG GIỜ DẠY NÓI TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT TRẦN HƯNG ĐẠO) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi – 2015 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** PHẠM THANH XUÂN MỪNG EXPLORING THE USE OF TEACHER’S QUESTIONING AND STUDENTS’ INTERACTION IN SPEAKING CLASSES AT TRAN HUNG DAO HIGH SCHOOL (NGHIÊN CỨU TÌM HIỂU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÂU HỎI CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ TƯƠNG TÁC CỦA HỌC SINH TRONG GIỜ DẠY NÓI TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT TRẦN HƯNG ĐẠO) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã Hanoi – 2015 DECLARATION I hereby declare that the minor thesis entitled “Exploring the Use of Teacher’s Questioning and Students' Interaction in Speaking classes at Tran Hung Dao High School” is the result of my own work and effort in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of PostGraduate Studies, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University The material in this research has not been submitted to any other university or institution wholly and partially Phạm Thanh Xuân Mừng i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would, first of all, like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Vu Thi Thanh Nha for her valuable suggestions, enthusiasm, academic guidance, encouragement and precious advice on the thesis I would like to show my sincere thanks to all my lecturers at the Postgraduate Studies Department, University of Language and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable lectures, which laid the foundation for this study My thanks also go to the teachers and students at Tran Hung Dao High School where my study was carried out Last but not least, my heartfelt thanks go to my family for their support and encouragement throughout my study in Nam Dinh ii ABSTRACT This study was conducted with teachers and 132 students of grade 10 at Tran Hung Dao High School with the data collected from the class observations in the classroom settings The study focused on finding out the types of questions the teachers used in English speaking lessons and exploring students' interaction to the teachers' questions The findings of the study showed that the three teachers used three main types of questions, namely display questions, referential questions and yes/no questions in which the display questions were most frequently asked, followed by yes/no questions and referential questions were rarely asked Regarding the purposes of questions, display questions were mainly asked with diagnostic and instructional functions Yes/no questions aimed to function as diagnostic and motivational tools The purpose of referential questions was to motivate students by asking information about students themselves Also, the findings indicated that most of the students‟ responses were very brief, with one to three words and many questions were not answered Longer responses up to nine words could be found in a few instances However, these longer responses accounted for a small percentage Besides, the use of referential questions in the investigated lessons did not seem to be successful and effective The findings revealed that there were not many longer responses when referential questions were asked Next, the way that the teacher asked the students to explain their answers resulted in longer responses However, most of the teachers did not focus on follow-up questions or the ways of giving feedback In brief, the teachers at THD High School were not skillful in using their questioning and need training more in applying this technique in speaking Therefore, this thesis proposes some useful implications to the teachers who want to have more effective questioning in order to promote interaction in their classroom It is also hoped that the results of the thesis will provide useful information and lessons for those who want to research at the schools with similar teaching conditions iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching F: Feedback L2: Second Language No: Number No of Qs: Number of Questions No of Rs: Number of Responses S: Student Ss: Students T: Teacher THD: Tran Hung Dao Y/N Question: Yes/No Question iv LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1: The summary of the class observation data 20 Table 2: Examples of different types of teacher questions 22 Table 3: Types of questions asked by the three teachers 24 Table 4: The length of students’ responses for different types 28 of questions asked by the three teachers v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF TABLES v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study 1.2 Significance of the study 1.3 Aims, objectives of the study and research questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Method of the research Organization of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Interaction in class 2.1.1.What is classroom interaction? 2.1.2 The role of classroom interaction in L2 acquisition 2.1.3 Interaction Patterns 2.2 Teacher‟s questioning in interaction 2.2.1 Definition of questions 2.2.2 Functions of teachers‟ questions 2.2.3 Types of questions 10 2.2.4 Effects of teacher questions 13 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 15 3.1 The setting of the study 15 3.1.1 An overview of the research site 15 3.1.2 English teachers in Tran Hung Dao High School 15 3.1.3 The syllabus of teaching and learning English 10 in Tran Hung Dao High School 16 3.2 Methods of the study 17 vi 3.2.1 The participants of the study 17 3.2.2 Data collection instruments 19 3.2.3 Procedures 21 3.2.4 Methods of Data analysis 21 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 23 4.1 Findings 23 4.1.1 Types of questions the teachers asked frequently in the investigated lessons 24 4.1.2 Effects of the types of questions teachers asked on the students‟ interaction 27 4.2 Discussion 33 4.2.1 Types of questions the teachers asked frequently in the whole class teaching portion of the lessons 33 4.2.2 Effects of the types of questions teachers asked on the students‟ interaction 34 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 38 5.1 Conclusion 38 5.2 Implications 39 5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 41 REFERENCES 43 APPENDIX : OBSERVATION SHEET I vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study English has been seen as the most important foreign language in Vietnam since the 6th National Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party in 1986 initiated an overall economic reform known as “Doi moi” Young people realize the need of learning English for a plenty of reasons such as getting jobs in foreign companies, studying abroad, and travelling Nevertheless, according to Van (2006), the quality of teaching and learning foreign languages at both general and tertiary levels in Vietnam is still very low, which is far from meeting the present country‟s demand of socio-economic development “Though the aims of the curriculum at secondary school are to train the four skills and students‟ required language proficiency is upperintermediate level However, their real level is just somewhere between elementary and lower-intermediate Many school leavers cannot read simple texts in English nor communicate with English speaking people in some most common cases Actually the real focus of teaching and learning English in both lower secondary and secondary schools is completing English grammar and vocabulary exercises, in order to pass the final exams (even the entrance exams of many universities and colleges in Vietnam) which mainly consist of grammar and vocabulary tasks only” (Tien, 2013, p.66) This situation is true in my teaching context at Tran Hung Dao High School in Nam Dinh Our students learn English to pass the compulsory exams, so they practise doing exercises relating to the tests such as grammar, vocabulary, reading skills and pronunciation Although teaching methodology has changed from translation method to communicative method, students not focus on speaking and listening skills For them, these skills will be practiced later when they have entered university The consequence is that students cannot communicate despite the fact that they have been learning English for many years This way of students‟ thinking has an influence on teaching and learning speaking in class As a teacher, I Observation Sheet Date: 29/4/2015 Course book: English 10 Observer: Pham Thanh Xuan Mung Unit: 14-Speaking Class: 10 A Number of students: 43 Observee: Teacher A Topic of the lesson: The world Cup Stage Exchange Question types Warm up Exchange : After the teacher asked students to work in pairs to list words relating to the World cup, Teacher was calling students to go to the board to write words T: How many words have you got? Who can write more than 10? Raise your hands (SS raised their hands and went to the board to write words) Teacher was checking the result of the game T: What does “tournament” mean? Ss:( quiet) T: Vòng đấu loại T:What does “ runner-up” mean in Vietnamese? S: Người thứ T: The second rank VI Length of response (Number of words) Referential question Display question F Display question Task Task Task Teacher was asking students about pictures in the book T: Look at the pictures What you know about these football teams There are pictures What teams are there? The first picture? S1: England T: Very good The second picture? S2: French T: Oh, very good Who are the famous players in the French team? S3: Zidan T: And the next? S4: Italy T: Italian football team Who is the famous player? Ss: (quiet) T: And the last one? S5: German The teacher calls on students to read out the model Then she required students to base on the model and choose examples in the table in the text book and practise them in pairs No questions relating to content of Task were asked by the teacher The teacher asked students to Task as required in the textbook No questions were employed in Task by the teacher VII Display question F+ Display question F Display question Display question F+ Display question Display question Observation Sheet Date: 29/4/2015 Course book: English 10 Observer: Pham Thanh Xuan Mung Unit: 14-Speaking Stage Task Task Class: 10 B Number of students: 45 Observee: Teacher B Topic of the lesson: The world Cup Exchange Question types Exchange : Teacher was asking about the football teams in the pictures T: Who can tell me which football team in picture 1? S1: England T: England , so you can say English football team Picture 2? Uyen, please S2: French T: French? Do you agree with her? Number S3: French T: Why you know that? Say a footballer familiar with you S3: Zidan T: What about picture 3? S3: Italy T: What is your favourite football team? S3: Chelsea T: What about picture 4? S3: German Display question F Display question Y/N question Referential question Display question Referential question Display question Teacher was guiding students to Task T: Look at the example and the table Do you know the Y/N question runner-up? Do you know Y/N question the winner? The winner is the first rank and the runner VIII Length of response (Number of words) up is the second rank She wrote down the questions of the example on the board Where was….held? Which teams played in the final match? Which team became the champion? What was the score? T What does “the final match” mean? S: Trận đấu cuối T:Do you know “ champion”? Ss: Yes T:Do you know “ score”? Ss: Tỷ số T: Held is past participle The infinitive form? Ss: Hold After the pair presented in front of the class The teacher was checking Ss’ attention T: What you think of their performance? Better of worse than the first pair? S1: Better T: I agree with you Some girls in the back Can you hear clearly? S2: Yes T: What are they talking about? S2: the sixteenth World Cup T: Where was it held? S2: in France T: Who was the winner? S2: French IX Display question Y/N question Y/N question Display question Referential question Y/N question Display question Display question Display question Task T explained the new words in the requirement of Task T: Do you know “ take turns”? Ss: (quiet) T:”Turn”(n): lượt Take turn to verb: làm T wrote on the board” defeat” T: What does this mean? S: Đánh bại T wrote on the board “ A defeated B by to 2.” T: Why I circle “by”? What I mean? S: (quiet) T: “By” is not only used in the passive voice but also used to talk about the score of a match T called on student to speak about the sixth World Cup After her presentation, the teacher encouraged others to ask the presenter some questions T: Are there any questions? S1: Where was the sixth World Cup held? Presenter: in Sweden S2: Which team became the champion? Presenter: Brazil S2: Which team became the runner-up? T: very good question Presenter: Sweden X Y/N question Display question Display question Display question Y/N question Observation Sheet Date: 12/5/2015 Course book: English 10 Observer: Pham Thanh Xuan Mung Unit: 16-Speaking Stage Warm up Class: 10 B Number of students: 45 Observee: Teacher B Topic of the lesson: Historical Places Exchange Question types Teacher wrote the word “mausoleum” on the board and asked about it T: Where is the tress? Ss: The third syllable T: Yes The third syllable Do you understand Ho Chi Minh mausoleum? Ss: Yes T: Have you ever been to Ho Chi Minh mausoleum? S1: Yes T: When did you last visit Ho Chi Minh mausoleum? S1: Last vacation T: Your last vacation T pointed to another student T: Have you ever been to Ho Chi Minh mausoleum? S2: Yes T: Tell me something about it I have never been to Ho Chi Minh mausoleum I am eager to visit it Where is it? Is it in Nam DInh? S2: It is in Ha noi T: How many floors are there? S2: T: No I don‟t think so Thank you, sit down, please XI Length of response (Number of words) Display question F+ Y/N question Y/N question Referential question F Y/N question Display question Y/N question Display question F Task Teacher read the requirement of task and explained some words T: Do you know” take turns”? Ss: (quiet) T: Ghi Teacher read the information about Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and checked Ss’ understanding about it T: How long did it take to build this construction? Ss: years T: Do you understand “important meetings”? Ss: Yes T: Do you know “lying”? Ss: (quiet) T: Lie: nằm T: How many floors are there? Ss: T: Yes, floors T: Do you know “except”? Ss: (quiet) T: Trừ T: Do you know “maintenance”? Ss: (quiet) T: Duy trì, bảo dưỡng T: Do you know “photography”? Ss: Yes T: Where is the tress? Ss: (quiet) T: The second syllable Teacher read the example and explained some words and phrases T: Do you know “situated”? Ss: (quiet) T: It is located/ situated in…: nằm T: Where is Tran Hung Dao high school? S: It is situated in Tran Thái XII Y/N question Display question Y/N question Y/N question Display question F Y/N question Y/N question Y/N question Display question Y/N question Display question Task Tong street T: Do you know “constructions”? Y/N question Ss: Cơng trình T: Cơng trình việc xây dựng cơng trình Teacher went around the class and helped the students S: Cách đặt câu hỏi công dụng tầng T: Thank you for your question What is the use of each floor?/ What is the first floor used for? Any questions? S: Cách hỏi ngày thăm lăng bác T: On what day can we visit the mausoleum? S: Cách hỏi thời gian thăm lăng bác T: what time can we visit the mausoleum in summer? Teacher called on the first pair to ask and answer in front of the class T: Who asks? S: (raised her hand) Teacher let a student go back to her seat and kept a student stay in front of the class She encouraged other students to ask her more questions S1: What are there on the second floor? Presenter: There is a bed where the late president is lying T: Another question? S2: Who takes care of the late president? Presenter: people Teacher leaded in Task T: Have you ever been to Hue Y/N question imperial city? S1: No XIII T: Have you ever been to Hue imperial city? S2: No T: I am eager to visit Hue, but I haven‟t got any chance Who has ever been to Hue imperial city? Teacher checked Ss’ understanding about information of Hue imperial city and helped students with some new words and phrases T: Do you know “to be listed”? Ss: (quiet) T: Được liệt kê vào T: Do you know “Herritage”? S: Di sản T: How long did it take to build this construction? Ss: 27 years T: Yes, 27 years T: Citade What does this mean? S: Thành trì T: Where is the tress? Ss: The first syllable T: Imperial What does this mean? Ss: Thuộc hoàng gia T: Yes Thuộc hoàng gia And the stress? Ss: The second syllable T: Do you know “admission fee”? Ss: Vé vào cửa T: Yes, vé vào cửa XIV Y/N question Y/N question Y/N question Display question F Display question Display question Display question F+ Display question Y/N question F Observation sheet Date: 24/4/2015 Class: 10 C Course book: English 10 Number of students: 44 Observer: Pham Thanh Xuan Mung Observee: Teacher C Unit: 13-Speaking Topic of the lesson: Films and Cinema Stage Warmup Task Exchange Question types Teacher was leading in the new lesson T: What kinds of films you know? S1: Silent films T: Silent ? What kinds of films you know? The other? Spoken films, silent films, anything else? S2: Cartoon T: Cartoon S3: Detective T: Good Go on Hieu S4: War film T: War film Go on Linh S5: Active T: Action, not active Go on S6: Love story film T: Love story film Go on, anything else? S: Horror T: There are many kinds of films you see Các em muốn biết cảm nhận vể phim vào Teacher was guiding the Task T: Answer my question Who wants to make up a new dialogue with me, please? Who can? Chính, please T: What kinds of films you watch in your free time? S: Cartoon T: How much you like it? XV Length of response (Number of words) Referential question F F F F F F Referential question Referential question Task S: Very much T: Thank you Sit down T: Can you make a new dialogue like us? Who can? Who can? ( Then, teacher called on pairs of volunteers and pairs of nonvolunteers to make up similar dialogues) After the teacher let students read vocabulary in minutes She was helping them with new words T: Have you got any questions about vocabulary? S: Terrifying T: Terrifying: sợ hãi S: Thriller T: Thriller: giật gân Teacher was analyzing the model T: Study the model in the book Look at the model How many people take part in the dialogue? Ss: T: Yes, there are people Pay attention to the answer of the third person He uses the phrase “agree with” to show agreement We can add adverb “quite” or “absolutely” before “ agree” to raise the certainty Teacher was modeling a dialogue with two other students T: Listen to me Who wants to make up a new dialogue with me? Who, please Hiếu and Chính Listen to us T: What you think of cartoon films? S1: I find them very funny T: go on S2: I agree with you I find them XVI Y/N question F F Display question Referential question TASK very interesting T: sit down Right or wrong? We should base on the model in your textbook; therefore the third person does not agree with the opinion of the second person Ok, again What you think of cartoon films? S1: I find them boring S2: I don‟t agree with you I find them good fun Teacher was analyzing the model T: Look at Task Who can tell me the difference between the dialogue of Task and that of Task 3? Who can? Chính S: The question is about kinds of films T: Yes The question of preferences for films is used Teacher was reading and writing the model on the board A: Which you prefer: war films or detective films? B: It‟s difficult to say I suppose I prefer detective films to war ones While the students were making their dialogue, teacher expanded their dialogue by adding her question S1: which you prefer: love story films or cartoon films? S2: It‟s difficult to say I suppose I prefer cartoon films to love story ones T: Why? S2: Because cartoons are very good fun and interesting T: Good Anything else? S2: love story films are boring XVII Display question F Referential question F Task Teacher was analyzing Task T: Look at Task Talk about the film you have seen How many questions are there in Task Ss: T: Work individually and use the suggestions to tell about the films XVIII Display question Observation sheet Date: 12/5/2015 Class: 10 C Course book: English 10 Number of students: 44 Observer: Pham Thanh Xuan Mung Observee: Teacher C Unit: 16-Speaking Topic of the lesson: Historical Places Stage Warm-up Task Exchange Question types Teacher was leading in the new lesson T: Look at the picture in the book Name the picture in your book S: Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum T: President Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Have you ever been there? S1: No, I haven‟t T: Hoa, please S2: Yes T: Do you know about it? Ss: ( quiet) Teacher was guiding the studetns to Task T: Where is President Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum situated/ located? Short answer Who can? You, please ( Teacher was reading and writing on the board) S1: In Ba Dinh district T: Go on The second question Who can? S2: When did the construction start? ( Teacher wrote on the board) T: Answer? S3: in 1973 T: Go on One ask, one answer S4: When did it finish? T: When did it finish? Answer? S5: in August 1975 T: The same information with XIX Length of response (Number of words) Y/N question Y/N question Display question Task different question Who can? S6: When did it complete? T: The information about floor Make up a question S7: How many floors are there? S8: There are floors T: What is the first floor used for? S9: It is used for important meetings T Right or wrong? Go on The next information S10: When can we visit Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum? T: We can use” What time” instead of “ when” S11: What time can we visit Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum? S12: From 7:30-10:30 T: Go on Base on “ except”, how can we make questions? S13: How many days in a week can we visit? S14: days T: Go on The last information, Huyen, please S15: When is it closed for maintenance? S16: From September 5- December 10 T: Answer my question Can we take photos inside? Ss: No, we can‟t The teacher explained some new words and the requirements of Task Then she asked the students to as the requirements No questions were made in Task by the teacher XX Display question Display question Y/N question