The impact of teacher-generated materials on English language teaching for the 7th grade students in Tran Phu junior High School, Hai Phong

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES *** NGUYỄN THỊ VÂN MAI The impact of teacher-generated materials on English language teaching for the 7th grade students in Tran Phu junior High School, Hai Phong (Nghiên cứu tác động tài liệu dạy học giáo viên tự thiết trình ) dạy tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp trường THCS Trần Phú, Hải Phòng M.A Thesis Linguistics Code : 60 14 10 HANOI - 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v Page PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationales Objectives of the study Research questions Methods of the study Scope and significance of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical background related to 1.1.1 Definitions of teacher-generated materials 1.1.2 Types of teacher-generated materials 1.1.3 The role of teacher-generated materials in English language teaching 1.1.4 How teacher-generated materials have been used in English language teaching 1.2 The reasons teachers of English may choose to design their own materials 1.2.1 The advantages of teacher-generated materials 7 1.2.1.1 Save money 1.2.1.2 Recycle 1.2.1.3 Student focused 1.2.1.4 Match materials to curriculum 1.2.1.5 Differentiate instruction 1.2.1.6 Add in-depth information 1.2.2 The disadvantages of teacher-generated materials 10 1.2.2.1 Organization 10 1.2.2.2 Quality 10 1.2.2.3 Time 11 1.3 Factors to consider when designing materials 11 1.3.1 Learners 11 1.3.2 The curriculum and the context 12 1.3.3 The resources and the facilities 13 1.3.4 Personal confidence and competence 14 1.3.5 Copyright compliance 14 1.3.6 Time 15 Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY 16 2.1 Subjects and the context of the study 16 2.1.1 The subjects 16 2.1.2 The context 16 2.2 Data collection instruments 19 Chapter 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 21 3.1 Findings from the questionnaire 21 3.1.1 Students’ interest in English language learning 22 3.1.2 Students’ expectation of English language learning in their class 23 3.1.3 The frequency of the use of teacher-generated materials in English 24 lessons 3.1.4 The impacts of teacher-generated materials on English language 24 teaching and learning 3.2 Findings from the interview with teachers 3.2.1 The purposes of the English language teachers when using their own 27 27 materials 3.2.2 Ways of applying teacher-generated materials to daily lessons 28 3.2.3 Effectiveness of applying teacher-generated materials to daily lessons 28 3.3 Discussion of the findings 29 Chapter 4: SOME GUIDELINES FOR DESIGNING EFFECTIVE 30 MATERIALS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING 4.1 Teacher-generated materials should be contextualized 30 4.2 Teacher-generated materials should stimulate interaction and be 31 generative in terms of language 4.3 Teacher-generated materials should encourage learners to develop 32 learning skills and strategies 4.4 Teacher-generated materials should allow for a focus on form as well as 33 function 4.5 Teacher-generated materials should offer opportunities for integrated 33 language use 4.6 Teacher-generated materials should be authentic 34 4.7 Teacher-generated materials should link to each other to develop a 35 progression of skills, understandings and language items 4.8 Teacher-generated materials should be attractive 35 4.9 Teacher-generated material should have appropriate instructions 36 4.10 Teacher-generated materials should be flexible 36 PART C: CONCLUSION 38 Conclusion 38 Limitations of the study 38 Suggestion for further study 39 Bibliography 40 APPENDICES I Appendix 1: Questionnaire (for students) I Appendix 2: Interview (for teachers) V Appendix 3: Summary of the interviews VI PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationales Over the years, English Language Teaching (ELT) has become more and more necessary in Vietnam supplying learners (Ls) with an effective tool to integrate to the world Worker with high English proficiency are extremely required in many fields such as politics, science, technology, economics, and tourism etc Students (Ss) who become fluent in English can have the opportunity to contribute to the development of their country Therefore, there is a great need to learn English both in formal institutions and in community courses Nowadays, researchers claim that ELT in junior high schools contains a lot of challenges, for example: large class, unequal qualifications among teachers (Ts), unequal levels among Ss, lack of effective supplementary materials This fact was described by Joanna Baker and Heather Westrup: “Many teachers have few resources, perhaps only a blackboard and a few books The school may not have technical resources such as tape recorders, radios, television sets, video players or computers” (2002:3) In Hai Phong, at Tran Phu Junior High School (JHS), day by day, Ts and Ss have to cope with all these challenges at once which has unfavorable influence on English language teaching and learning Within them, lack of effective supplementary materials is the hottest problem, has limited the result of English language learning (ELL) and the quality of ELT Designing supplementary materials is easier said than done especially in a JHS In theory, there has not been any research on this field with JHS teaching and learning situation In teaching practice, Ts of English have not paid serious attention to designing supplementary materials as well as to using them in the right way All the reasons above have driven the researcher to the study thesis, named “The Impact of Teacher-generated Materials on English Language Teaching for the th grade Students in Tran Phu Junior High School, Hai Phong” 2 Objectives of the study The study aims to fulfill two objectives as follows: (1) to investigate the impacts of teacher-generated materials on ELT for the 7th grade Ss in Tran Phu JHS, Hai Phong (2) to suggest some guidelines for designing effective materials for ELT Research questions The study is carried out to find the answers to the following research questions: (1) What value is teacher-generated materials to the ELT for the 7th grade students in Tran Phu JHS, Hai Phong? (2) How can Ts of English in JHS design effective materials for ELT? Methods of the study In order to reach the goals mentioned above, the study is implemented in the most common procedure with the use of both quantitative and qualitative methods as follows: - Reading relating books and articles from various sources (university library, Internet, private library…) to collect useful information for the study - Consulting the supervisor and lectures of the Postgraduate Department and discussing with colleagues to get guidance and insightful ideas in the field of the research - Administering a questionnaire to 107 the 7th grade Ss at Tran Phu JHS, Hai Phong - Interviewing Ts of English (at different level of ability and at different age) at Tran Phu JHS, Hai Phong - Analyzing and interpreting data and responses Scope and significance of the study It is said that teacher-generated materials may impact on the efficiency of teaching and learning of all grades in JHS In this thesis, however, the researcher not have an ambition to take them all into consideration but only make an investigation in a small scale into the teacher-generated materials applied by the Ts of English at Tran Phu Junior High School for the 7th grade Ss and to give some guidelines for a better design and usage of them to satisfy the Ss in their learning The study is conducted with 107 the th Ss and Ts of English at Tran Phu Junior High School, Hai Phong The research is carried out with the hope that Ts of English in particular and language teacher in general may be fully aware of the role of teacher-generated materials to freshen the lessons and to meet the Ss‟ demand in ELT Moreover, findings of the study are thought to be favorable in some way to the researcher and other Ts of English to design effective supplementary materials that help Ts take advantages of teacher-generated materials and meet their Ss‟ needs Design of the study Part A – Introduction: provides rationales, aims of the study, research questions, scope and significance of the study and design of the study Part B – Development: consists of three main parts Chapter 1: Literature review on theoretical background of teacher-generated materials, the reasons for Ts of English may choose to design their own materials, the factors to consider when designing materials Chapter 2: Methodology introduces subjects and context of the study, data collection instruments Chapter 3: Data analysis and discussion Chapter 4: Some guidelines for designing effective materials for ELT Part C – Conclusion: presents conclusion, implications for teaching, limitation and suggestions for further studies PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical background of teacher-generated materials 1.1.1 Definitions of teacher-generated materials In Cambridge Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (third edition), the verb “generate” is defined as “to create” while Webster‟s New Dictionary (1997) defines it as “to produce” In this thesis, the term “teacher-generated materials” is used for a particular type of materials which are found, selected, evaluated and produced by Ts to use in their own teaching context 1.1.2 Types of teacher-generated materials In this thesis, teacher-generated materials “include anything which can be used to facilitate the learning of a language They can be linguistic, visual, auditory or kinaesthetic, and they can be presented in print, through live performance or display, or on cassette, CD-ROM, DVD or the internet” (Tomlinson, 2001:66) They can be instructional, experiential, elicitative or exploratory, in that they can inform Ls about the language, they can provide experience of the language in use, they can stimulate language use or they can help Ls to make discoveries about the language for themselves Designing and using resources to generate materials can be time consuming Joanna Baker and Heather Westrup (2002:157) brought out easily found resources as the relief for busy Ts 1.1.3 The role of teacher-generated materials in ELT Nowadays, Ts are faced up with many challenges There are Ss of all types and each one of them expects something from the teacher Keeping this in mind, Ts ought to see the need for material design and material elaboration in order to meet such expectations Nunan (1988) reports that a survey of several hundred teachers in a large-scale English as Second Language (ESL) progamme for adult migrants (Eltis and Low, 1985) found that 73 percent of the Ts “regularly used materials produced by themselves” and 50 percent claimed not to use commercially-produced materials at all (Nunan, 1988:98) We might infer that the 50 percent were so unhappy with commercially-available materials that they felt driven to prepare their own and that the other 27 percent who regularly designed their own materials felt that it was desirable to supplement the commercial material they were using Similarly, Block (1991) claims that teacher-prepared materials are likely to be more upto-date and more relevant to Ss‟ needs and interests than equivalent course book materials For example, in order to provide a context for Ss to practice talking about what they did the previous weekend, he suggests that a teacher might record his or her colleagues taking about what they did Such a recording, he notes, also has the attraction that, like other specially prepared materials, it has a “personal touch” that Ss recognize and appreciate Though Ls may still have a preference for a book over handouts, the increasing availability of computer packages which enable Ts to design professional-looking materials and the possibility in more technologically developed settings of incorporating materials from the Internet can make teacher-generated materials an attractive (at least occasional) supplement to the course books In general, teacher-generated materials play a necessary role in ELT, however, the question of how to use them effectively is still in conflict and will be discussed later in this study 1.1.4 How teacher-generated materials have been used in ELT Using teacher-generated materials in English as Foreign Language (EFL) classroom has involved a large number of Ts in ELT, which has discussed in recent years Not everyone would agree that Ts should design their own materials Block (1991), who is in no doubt that they should, prefaces his arguments for what he calls DIY (do-ityourself) materials design by reviewing the papers by Allwright (1981) and O‟Neill (1982) discusses in Chapter Despite their contrasting positions on course books, both Allwright and O‟Neill seem to agree that classroom Ts are not best equipped to write materials Allwright puts this explicitly: “the expertise required of materials writers is importantly different from that required of classroom teachers” (p.6) Johnson (1972:1) implies a similar view: “Teachers choose and use instructional materials because they can not (and ought not) prepare all the materials they need” Behind this view seems to lie the assumption that materials are best prepared by professionals (i.e knowledgeable and experiences writers) and by publishing houses which can ensure a high level of production (Sheldon, 1988) Maybe because of this unsympathetic view, Ts, especially in junior high schools, tends to be afraid to design their own materials despite the need of ... the impacts of teacher-generated materials on ELT for the 7th grade Ss in Tran Phu JHS, Hai Phong (2) to suggest some guidelines for designing effective materials for ELT Research questions The. .. in English 24 lessons 3.1.4 The impacts of teacher-generated materials on English language 24 teaching and learning 3.2 Findings from the interview with teachers 3.2.1 The purposes of the English. .. Materials on English Language Teaching for the th grade Students in Tran Phu Junior High School, Hai Phong? ?? 2 Objectives of the study The study aims to fulfill two objectives as follows: (1) to investigate