Vietnamese teachers’ viewpoints on their use of Vietnamese in English language classrooms for young learners in May School English Center

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ THỊ THU TRANG VIETNAMESE TEACHERS’ VIEWPOINTS ON THEIR USE OF VIETNAMESE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOMS FOR YOUNG LEARNERS IN MAY SCHOOL ENGLISH CENTER Quan điểm giáo viên Việt Nam việc sử dụng tiếng Việt họ lớp học Tiếng Anh cho trẻ em Trung Tâm Ngoại Ngữ Tháng Năm M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI, 2016 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ THỊ THU TRANG VIETNAMESE TEACHERS’ VIEWPOINTS ON THEIR USE OF VIETNAMESE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOMS FOR YOUNG LEARNERS IN MAY SCHOOL ENGLISH CENTER Quan điểm giáo viên Việt Nam việc sử dụng tiếng Việt họ lớp học Tiếng Anh cho trẻ em Trung Tâm Ngoại Ngữ Tháng Năm M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Nguyễn Xuân Thơm HANOI, 2016 DECLARATION I declare that this thesis submitted for the Master of Art degree at the University of Languages and International Studies is a presentation of my own research and has not been previously submitted at any other universities for any degrees Wherever contributions of other researchers are involved, every effort is made to indicate this clearly, with due reference to the literature, and acknowledgement o collaborative research and discussion The work was done under the guidance of Associated Professor Nguyen Xuan Thom, at the University of Languages and International Studies Hanoi, 2016 Vũ Thị Thu Trang i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT At the completion of this thesis, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my lecturer and my supervisor, Mr Nguyen Xuan Thom for his valuable support and instructions without which it would have been really difficult for me to handle the task I would like to acknowledge my debt to my colleagues in May School English Center for their effective cooperation in collecting data for completing this study Their enthusiastic participation was indispensable to my research Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my family for all the support I received to finish this thesis ii ABSTRACT The use of the mother tongue has been argued for ages in English language teaching and the argument over whether students‟ native language should be included or excluded in English language classrooms has been a controversial issue Conducted in the context of Vietnam, the study is an attempt to address the use of Vietnamese as mother tongue in English language classrooms in a prestigious English center for young learners in Hanoi (May School) It focuses on the viewpoints of Vietnamese teachers in May School on their use of Vietnamese as mother tongue in their English language classrooms as well as the amount and situations in which it is employed The findings and discussion are based on the analysis of the data collected from group interview of five female teachers and ten one-hour classroom observations The current study supports the judicious use of Vietnamese in some situations such as giving instructions, responding to students‟ Vietnamese The results also highlight that the use of Vietnamese is significantly different in classrooms in May School but the average amount of its use is quite limited iii LIST OF ABRREVIATIONS ALM: Audio-Lingual Method CLT: Communicative Language Teaching EFL: English as a Foreign Language ELT: English Language Teaching FL: Foreign language GMT: Grammar Translation Method L1: First Language L2: Second Language TL: Target Language iv LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Chart 1: The amount of Vietnamese used in observed classes Table 1: Participating teachers‟ profile Table 2: Information of observed classes Table 3: The occasions of teachers‟ use of Vietnamese in Starters classes Table 4: The occasions of teachers‟ use of Vietnamese in Movers classes Table 5: The occasions of teachers‟ use of Vietnamese in Flyers classes v TABLE OF CONTENT Declaration i Acknowledgement ii Abstract iii List of abrreviations iv List of charts and tables v Table of content vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims and objectives of the study 2.1 Aims of the study 2.2 Objectives of the study Research questions Scope of the study Methods of the study Significance of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 A brief history of language teaching method focusing on mother tongue use in English classroom 1.2 Arguments about the use of mother tongue in EFL classroom 1.2.1 Arguments against using mother tongue in EFL classroom 1.2.2 Arguments in favor of using mother tongue in EFL classrooms .8 1.3 Studies focusing on teachers‟ L1 use in EFL classrooms 10 1.3.1 Teachers‟ viewpoints .10 1.3.2 Amount of mother tongue use 12 1.3.3 Situations of mother tongue use .13 vi CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY .15 2.1 Setting and participants .15 2.2.1 Setting 15 2.1.1.1 General information about May School 15 2.1.1.2 Students and English classes in May School 15 2.2.2 Participants .16 2.3 Data collection instruments .17 2.3.1 Group interview 17 2.3.2 Classroom observation 18 2.4 Data collection procedure 19 2.5 Data analysis procedure 20 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 21 3.1 Data analysis 21 3.1.1 Group interview analysis .21 3.1.1.1 Teachers‟ general viewpoints 21 3.1.1.2 Amount of Vietnamese use .22 3.1.1.3 Situations of Vietnamese use 23 3.1.1.4 Summary 25 3.1.2 Classroom observation analysis .26 3.1.2.1 Amount of Vietnamese use .26 3.1.2.2 Situations of Vietnamese use 27 3.1.2.3 Summary 35 3.2 Findings and discussion 35 PART C: CONCLUSION .38 Summary of major findings 38 Concluding remarks 39 Recommendations 39 Limitations 40 Suggestions for further studies 41 vii REFERENCES 42 APPENDIX I APPENDIX II viii atmosphere of all these classes was very comfortable and relaxing despite the fact that teacher did lots of jokes in English In short, Vietnamese was not regularly employed in Movers level In this group, the amount of L1 use did not vary greatly but giving explanation for grammar rules and abstract vocabulary, giving instruction, encourage students and responding to their mother tongue were occasions in which teachers preferred employing Vietnamese Flyers level Occasions of teachers’ Vietnamese use Class name (Pseudonyms) FB1 Giving instructions Managing the class FB2 Explaining difficult/ abstract terms Explaining structures/ grammar Giving tips Sum Table 5: The occasions of teachers’ use of Vietnamese in Flyers classes Both FB1 and FB2 have learnt English in May School for more than three years They are in the same age of 12 and using the same course book which is Kid‟s Box As figured in the table, Vietnamese is not preferred in Flyers level and its distribution is very different between two observed classes In FB1, as can be seen from the table, Vietnamese is used once to give instruction for the activity of pronunciation In that lesson, students practiced how to pronounce –ed which they had been introduced in their Movers B class At first, the instruction was given in English that students had to write down in a piece of paper the past simple and past participle forms of the given verbs It was likely that many students did not understand the terms; so they got confused of what to 33 Only when the teacher took a verb as an example and explaining the task in mother tongue did the students recognize what they needed to write Also, teacher employed her mother tongue one more time to give some tips to help students differentiate when –ed in the verbs should be pronounced as /t/, /d/ or /id/ As the other case, she started in L2 but turned into Vietnamese when noticing the confusing faces of students Understanding the tips of last-sound violation, students became really excited to practicing their pronunciation with the fingers on their throats The last occasion in which the teacher preferred Vietnamese to English was when she needed to maintain the class discipline The class was extremely noisy; two teams were arguing fiercely with each other to decide who won in the round After several English commands of the teacher, all students sat quietly on their chairs She spoke softly in Vietnamese to give them some criticisms, and to decide who the winner in the round was Then, English came back until the lesson ended Unlike the pronunciation and speaking lesson in FB1, in FB2‟s grammar lesson, Vietnamese was used once to explain grammar rules and once to correct students‟ mistakes It was observed that some students had the habit of using “was/were” in any past simple sentences To correct students‟ mistake, the teacher asked students about the rules of past simple with ordinary verbs, then let them correct themselves She explained one more time in Vietnamese, comparing past simple with present simple The teacher did not use mother tongue any more until there was one new word “archaeology” in the exercise for the students Without the need of trying English, she elicited the meaning of the word by giving examples in Vietnamese and let her students to guess the meaning themselves To sum up, the use of Vietnamese is not preferred in Flyers classes and the situations in which teachers employed it depended on the types of the lesson In two observed lessons, it was used five times in total including giving instruction, 34 handling discipline of the class and giving tips in FB1, explaining grammar rules and to explaining new words in FB2 3.1.2.3 Summary In conclusion, the preference of using Vietnamese varied significantly among ten observed classes from Starters level to Flyers level in terms of amount and occasion The average amount of L1 use is 1.8 minutes accounting for 9.1 percent of teacher talking time It was most frequently used to give instructions and respond to students‟ mother tongue in Starters level, to give explanation for grammar rules and abstract vocabulary in Movers level and Flyers level 3.2 Findings and discussion The study aims at the examination of English teachers‟ attitudes and their implementation with regard to the use of Vietnamese as mother tongue in EFL teaching in May School English center in Hanoi Findings demonstrate that although all the teachers did not deny benefits from the use of Vietnamese while conducting their classes, they expressed the agreement with the need of maximizing students‟ exposure to English Also, all participants used Vietnamese in their classes, though to different degree and for different purposes In addition, the lowest frequencies of mother tongue use were found among high level group (i.e Movers and Flyers), whereas the highest frequencies were found among low level class (i.e Starters) Generally, the higher level the class was, the less Vietnamese was needed However, it is also concluded that sometimes to look at the level of the class through its name is not enough; teachers should care about the time they have learnt English as well It is found that the present study is similar to studies by Schweers (1999), Tang (2002), Kang (2008), Kim & Petraki (2009), AL-Nofaie (2010) and Timor (2012) All these studies including the present one showed that teachers preferred using L1 sometimes and for specific reasons However, in the context of Vietnam, the viewpoints of participants to teachers‟ use of L1 in this study are less positive 35 than those in the studies conducted in public high schools by Tran Ngoc Thuong (2010) and Nguyen Thi Nhu Quynh (2011) Different age of learners and different context may be the reasons for the dissimilarity in teachers‟ viewpoints between these two and the present study With regard to Vietnamese proportion, in comparison with similar studies conducted in non-Vietnamese contexts, this study bears some similarities with the one by Rabbidge & Chappell (2014) investigating mother tongue use in EFL classroom in South Korea In their study, teachers stated that they used about 50 to 80 percents of English in every lesson but from their classroom observations, the average amount of English used for the observations was actually 92% Similarly, teachers in May School used about only nine percents of Vietnamese in average while the stated number was about 20 percents and even more In terms of situations to use L1 in English classroom for young learners, the results of this study also have been partially reported by Phung Thi Hien (2012) who identified that the TL is the main medium of instruction in the classroom for young learners in an English center, while Vietnamese was used occasionally when teachers found L2 failed to work Apart from giving instructions, teachers used L1 most frequently to respond to students‟ mother tongue in Starters level, to joke with students, to give explanation for grammar rules and abstract vocabulary in Movers level and Flyers level The resemblance of an English center context may lead the similar results in this present study and the one by Phung Thi Hien (2012) Moreover, students‟ age was not a deciding feature in teachers‟ language choice in any of the observed classes as teachers thought It could be concluded that regardless of the students‟ age, in Starters level, the longer they have learnt English in May School, the less Vietnamese was used in their classes But when they achieved a certain degree of proficiency of English in Movers classes and up, whether they are one or two years older than each other, Vietnamese was rarely used 36 By drawing a connection between teachers‟ viewpoints and their practice, it is observed that there is not a perfect match between what they thought and what they performed in class The difference between teacher perceptions and actuality of langue choice in the present study runs contrary to other studies in which teachers have often underestimated the use of L1 (Levine, 2003, Edstrom, 2006) with the teachers here underestimating their use of English 37 PART C: CONCLUSION Summary of major findings The study was conducted with the aim of examining the non-native teachers‟ use of Vietnamese in EFL classrooms in May School English Center in Hanoi To obtain the data, two instruments were employed including teacher group interview and classroom observation The main findings are as follow Not totally refusing but not preferring Vietnamese Vietnamese teachers in May School have neutral perspectives towards Vietnamese use in their English classrooms although they admitted its benefits and necessity They not totally refuse using Vietnamese but they try to use as much English as possible They consider mother tongue an alternative tool to help students get the best lesson when L2 fails In their opinions, English should be the chief mean of teaching and communicating in class while Vietnamese should be employed only when L2 failed Little use of Vietnamese in all classes Vietnamese was used by teachers in all English classrooms in May School although there was great variation in the amount of Vietnamese use among different groups of students‟ level In the group interview, teachers revealed that their estimated Vietnamese use was about 20 percents to 30 percents However, in ten observed classes, the average amount of Vietnamese was 1.8 minutes, accounting for only 9.1 percents of teacher talking time The highest percentage of Vietnamese ultimate was 27 in a Starters class and the lowest was nearly two percents in a Movers class In Starters group, the amount of Vietnamese used by teachers was inversely proportional to the time students have spent in May School, but among Movers and Flyers classes the number did not vary significantly because teachers did not prefer L1 in their higher level classes 38 Using Vietnamese in different situations for different levels of students In the interview, teachers believed that they used Vietnamese mostly to explain grammar and abstract terms, to give instructions, to elicit, and to create relationship with students In fact, it was most frequently used to give instructions and respond to students‟ mother tongue in Starters level, to joke with students, to give explanation for grammar rules and abstract vocabulary in Movers and Flyers level Concluding remarks Joining the debate surrounding the use of L1 in L2 teaching, this study highlights that teachers‟ use of Vietnamese (L1) is unavoidable when teachers and learners share the same L1 despite the fact that teachers always try to minimize its use in the EFL classroom for young learners It also appears that the proportion of Vietnamese should be considered depending on the reality of each class so that it can be used as an efficient tool of English teaching in several situations such as giving instructions, creating relationship and explains grammatical rules and abstract vocabulary The outcome of the current study also proves that appropriate use of L1 and L2 is a good way to enhance students‟ comprehension and to maintain their interest and motivation in learning Recommendations From the findings of the study, some recommendations can be made on the use of Vietnamese as mother tongue in EFL classrooms to teachers in English Center for young learners a) Vietnamese is a useful tool for teachers in English classroom in May School and teachers should avoid overusing or totally excluding it Teachers also need to adjust their Vietnamese use in different situations depending on 39 students‟ English proficiency to get the best results and circumvent counter effects b) It could be implied that learning English in such a communicative learning environment is very essential to children to learn L2 naturally with the patience of their teachers and parents Also, an English-only lesson is not too difficult if teachers keep firmly to L2 use and gradually increase the amount of English day by day The same results could be gained in state schools if they can meet the conditions of small class size, suitable curriculum system and native teachers c) When teaching young learners in May School and other language centers, teachers should acknowledge the system that their students are in and their English background Look at the class name and infer their levels are not enough for teachers to have a deep understanding about the class and to get appropriate classroom language choice d) In the process of teacher training in universities, colleges as well as English centers, the issue of classroom language should be discussed in details and need much practice so that novice teachers can employ L1 in suitable situations with reasonable amount Limitations While the study went smoothly with lots of effort made for it, there is always room for improvement First, it involves the limited samples of only five teachers interviewed and ten classes observed Moreover, teachers‟ different English proficiency, teaching style and characteristics might be the factors influencing their language choice in class which the results of this study could not indicate In the process of observing classes, the presence of the researcher and the type of lesson may also affect the amount of Vietnamese used by the teachers Therefore, generalization of the findings should be cautioned 40 Suggestions for further studies On the basis of the main findings and limitations, the following suggestions are made for further research Longitudinal research and/or action research should be conducted to collect in-depth data and investigate the changes in the amount and situations of L1 used by teachers along with the changes of students‟ proficiency Besides, further studies may measure how much students can understand when being taught without the help of Vietnamese most of the time and investigate teachers‟ perspective towards the results There is a need to conduct experimental studies in order to evaluate the actual role of Vietnamese in EFL classrooms, which is likely to make an important contribution to the development of a systematic way of using Vietnamese to the end 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(Prompts: 10 %, 20 %, etc.) I APPENDIX CLASSROOM OBSERVATION Teacher: …………………… Class: ……………………… Time in May School: …………… Level: ……………………… Age of students: ………………… Lesson: ……………………… English Time (seconds) Vietnamese II Time (seconds) Situation/ Purpose