The application of communicative language teaching in teaching english speaking to non english major students at hanoi university of industry

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES - - NGUYỄN THỊ HOA THE APPLICATION OF COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING TO NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY ÁP DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP THỰC HÀNH GIAO TIẾP TRONG DẠY NĨI TIẾNG ANH CHO SINH VIÊN KHƠNG CHUN TIẾNG ANH CỦA TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60.14.10 HA NOI – 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES - - NGUYỄN THỊ HOA THE APPLICATION OF COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN TEACHING ENGLISH SPEAKING TO NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY ÁP DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP THỰC HÀNH GIAO TIẾP TRONG DẠY NÓI TIẾNG ANH CHO SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH CỦA TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60.14.10 Supervisor: Nguyễn Huyề n Minh, M.A HA NOI – 2013 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching SLL: Second Language Learning HaUI: Hanoi University of Industry SLA: Second Language Acquisition EFL: English as Foreign Language iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………1 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY………………………………………………1 THE SCOPE, OBJECTIVE, RESEARCH QUESTIONS, METHOD AND OUTLINE OF THE STUDY………………………………………………………1 2.1 The scope of the study…………………………………………………… 2.2 Objectives of the study……………………………………………… 2.3 Research questions…………………………………………………………1 2.4 Method of the study……………………………………………………… 2.5 Outline of the study……………………………………………………… PART B: DEVELOPMENT………………………………………………………… CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………………… APPROACHES OF LANGUAGE TEACHING ……………………………… 1.1 The Grammar-Translation method……………………………………… 1.1.1 Overview……………………………………………………………… 1.1.2 Advantages of the method………………………………………………4 1.1.3 Disadvantages of the method………………………………………… 1.2 The Audio-lingual method………………………………………………….5 1.2.1 Overview……………………………………………………………… 1.2.2 Advantages of the method………………………………………… 1.2.3 Disadvantages of the method……………………………………… .5 COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING…………………………… .5 2.1 Definition of CLT………………………………………………………… 2.2 Characteristics of CLT………………………………………………… .7 2.3 Conditions of applying CLT……………………………………………… 2.3.1 Authentic materials………………………………………………… 2.3.2 Teachers …………………………………………………………… 2.4 Communicative competence……………………………………………… 2.4.1 Overview……………………………………………………………… 2.4.2 The five components of communicative competence………………….8 USING CLT IN TEACHING SPEAKING…………………………………… 10 3.1 The nature of communication…………………………………………… 10 3.2 Oral communication practice…………………………………………… 10 3.3 Oral communicative activities…………………………………………….11 v CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY……………………………………………………14 I BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY…………………………………………… 14 Description of English course in HaUI………………………………………… 14 Description of the physical setting………………………………………………14 Description of objectives of the English course…………………………………15 Description of time allocation of the course…………………………………… 15 II SUBJECTS……………………………………………………………………….15 Description of teachers in HaUI………………………………………………….15 Description of students in HaUI………………………………………………….16 III RESEARCH TOOLS…………………………………………………………… 17 Class observation…………………………………………………………………17 Questionnaire…………………………………………………………………… 18 2.1 Questionnaire for teachers……………………………………………… 18 2.2 Questionnaires for students……………………………………………….19 Data analysis…………………………………………………………………… 20 CHAPTER III: DATA PRESENTATION & ANALYSIS………………………… 21 I CLASS OBSERVATION……………………………………………………… 21 II QUESTIONNAIRE………………………………………………………………23 Questionnaire for the teachers……………………………………………………23 Questionnaire for the student…………………………………………………… 27 CHAPTER IV: RESULT DISCUSSION………………………………………….31 vi I DIFFICULTIES ………………………………………………………………….31 Difficulties from teachers…………………………………………………….31 Difficulties from students…………………………………………………….32 II SOLUTIONS…………………………………………………………………… 34 Solutions for teachers…………………………………………………………34 Solutions for students…………………………………………………………35 PART C: CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………… 39 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………….43 APPENDICES vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Justification of the Study Nowadays, English is widely taught in Vietnam in almost all educational institutions, at every level Moreover, English teaching programs are available on radio, television and internet English learners and teachers also raise their awareness of the importance of English to the country’s development and integration However, for some time, English teaching has been strongly influenced by the traditional methods According to that, teachers and students used to concentrate on grammatical items This means that learners might be structurally competent but communicatively incompetent As a result, they have encountered a lot of problems with English in real life such as: understanding and using intonation or addressing in different situations Therefore, speaking skills play a much more important role in modern English than ever before Many English teachers share the same opinion of communicative language teaching as one of the most effective approaches in making students speak The Scope, Objectives, Research questions, Method, Outline of the Study 2.1 The Scope of the Study The study focuses on applying CLT in teaching speaking to non-English major students in Hanoi University of Industry 2.2 Objectives of the Study The main purpose of my study is to research on difficulties if any experienced by teachers in teaching speaking with CLT From that, some recommendations can be made to deal with these difficulties 2.3 Research questions The researcher needs to find answers for the two following questions: - How the teachers of HaUI apply CLT in teaching Speaking? - Which difficulties both teachers and students encounter in the process of implementing CLT? 2.4 Methods of the Study Firstly, classroom observations are carried out to check whether teachers apply CLT in teaching speaking or not Secondly, questionnaires are given to teachers to collect more information on difficulties that they face 2.5 Outline of the Study The thesis consists of three main parts as following: Part A is the introduction, which mentions the rationales, the focus, the objectives, the methods and the design of the study Part B consists of four chapters: Chapter I presents two main issues The first is an overview of some methods used to teach foreign language The second one is about communicative language teaching in terms of the definition, characteristics, condition in applying CLT, communicative competence and using CLT in teaching speaking Chapter II mentions methodology in terms of the background, the subject and research tools Questionnaires are distributed to both teachers and students Besides, the class observation also helps to investigate applying CLT in teaching speaking to non-English major students Chapter III deals with the data of the study basing on the questionnaires and the class observation Chapter IV discusses the result drawing from the previous chapter In this chapter, the researcher talks about difficulty as well as solutions to overcome problem in the process of adopting CLT in teaching speaking Part C is ended with a summary, which summarizes all the issues in the research PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW APPROACHES OF LANGUAGE TEACHING 1.1 The Grammar-Translation method 1.1.1 Overview This method is also called “traditional method” It was used for the purpose of helping students read and appreciate foreign language literature This method has some characteristic such as: - Reading and writing are the major focus - Vocabulary is taught through bilingual word lists, dictionary and memorization - Grammar is taught deductively - Accuracy is emphasized 1.1.2 Advantage of the method This method is easy to apply because it requires few resources It seems to be suitable for the classes with a lot of students 1.1.3 Disadvantage of the method This method concerns itself primary with the written language of classical literature and ignore authentic spoken communication and social variation of language According to River (1981: 31), “there is much stress on knowing rules and exceptions” and “little stress is laid on accurate pronunciation and information; communication is neglect” 1.2 The Audio-lingual Method 1.2.1 Overview concept for students Therefore, teachers should be flexible to manage the class because it takes time for the students to get use to this role, this concept Thirdly, students’ resistance in participating in class activities needs teachers’ consideration Teachers needs to be aware of this issue and take steps to lower them so that students are gradually confident in joining class activities Obviously, teacher is a vital factor in the class The teachers should stimulate the students to volunteer to speak, and the passive students need the teachers’ attention They have to be appointed to speak The easy questions should be given to the bad ones to assure their keeping face Praise from teachers should be given at the right time Negative comments from teachers, which de-motivate students and influence the students’ participation in the classroom, need to be avoided For example, instead of saying “Wrong”, “Nonsense”, teachers should say positive praise such as “Try another time”, “Thank you, what about others?” Last but not at least, students’ anxiety in public speaking is also a problem To lower it gradually, I think teachers should consider these remedies to manage group work well Teachers ask students to form groups for discussions To avoid the good students’ dominance in group work, teachers should ask students to change their group leader from this student to another so that all students in a group realize their responsibility for the task progress Also, the information gap in group work should be paid attention to so that each member has opportunities to exchange information Apart from those, to reduce the students’ use of Vietnamese during group work, teachers should move around the class, observe, and give them help if necessary Teachers should pay more attention to correct students’ errors because this stage either helps students learn effectively or de-motivates them and make them lose face in front of the class In students’ error correction, the task of the teachers is “to value students, prize their attempt to communicate, and then provide optimal feedback for the system to evolve in successive stages until students are communicating more clearly” (Brown, 1994) There are some suggestions for teachers on error correction in class: 37 - Collect errors made by the students and involve the whole class as much as possible in the correction process - Spend less time correcting what is only problem for one student and more time on problems common to the whole group - Help students understand why they are wrong by indicating that an error has been made (by gestures), showing the students where the error is and what kind of error it is (wrong tense, wrong-stressed word…), get him/ her try again if he/she can get it right - Do not interrupt students before he finishes his utterance because he will find it disconcerting or frustrating - Try not to repeat the errors, even in mocking, astonished way 38 PART C: CONCLUSION Conclusions of the study On the progress to regional and global integration, Vietnam in general and HaUI in particular certainly need more people with good English abilities to participate into the world This trend gives rise to the need to reconsider some traditional values that have become out-of-date and unsuitable to the new social contexts Needless to say, we should adapt what comes from outsides but is thought to be suitable for our needs and our settings, and then create something of our own One of these changes is to reform in the educational system in general and in the area of language education in particular But educational innovation involves many factors that may influence it at different stages and at different levels For practical reason, traditional English language teaching is no longer useful in the new social situations and CLT should be implemented in the educational system to meet the demand of the social contexts However, it should be applied with a close and careful consideration of the cultural values of Vietnam Teachers should have balance between the traditional and modern methods because they face many difficulties in applying CLT This study set out to investigate the reality of using CLT in teaching speaking to nonEnglish major students in HaUI Based on the instrumentation such as classroom observation and questionnaire, this research has discovered the significant findings with a help to improving the English teaching in HaUI The findings are divided into two groups: problems and solutions The difficulties caused by the teachers are the misconceptions about CLT in terms of grammar and teaching speaking, deficiency in Strategic and Sociolinguistic Competence, little time and expertise for the development of communicative materials The constraints from students, which the teachers perceived, are lack of motivation for communicative competence, resistance to participating in class, using Vietnamese during group work and low English proficiency 39 The recommendations for these difficulties are categorized into recommendation for the students, for the teachers Firstly, for the students, the students’ attitude toward English needs to change Teachers can make a change in students’ attitude by enhancing students’ motivation To overcome the students’ lack of motivation in learning English especially in speaking, teachers should create interesting topics, design exercises suitable for students’ level, create the English speaking environment so that students are motivated to learn Besides, teachers should pay special attention to giving complements and correct students’ error at the right time Teachers should also reduce the students’ anxiety in public speaking by forming group work with both good and bad students, changing group leader alternatively so that every student can have a chance to speak to their peers Forming group and changing group leaders can also solve the problem of students’ low English proficiency To monitor the class and to avoid students’ using Vietnamese during pairs or group work, teachers should move around the class, observe, and give them help if necessary Secondly, to overcome the teachers’ difficulties in the application of CLT, there should have cooperation between teachers and administrator in which teachers are the most important elements Administrator should give teachers more opportunities to expose to CLT by attending short-term courses or seminars about CLT Besides, the teachers themselves should self-study to gain more knowledge so that they are confident enough to conduct communicative classes They should also learn to overcome the lack of teaching aids by taking advantage of genuine situations, designing games, using songs, being flexible in managing group work in class So, constrains from the teachers can be dealt with when the solutions recommended are considered carefully Moreover, administrators’ support is very important in the success or failure of implementing CLT They should manage to purchase authentic materials, teaching aids, and re-equip classroom with sound system, light, board, overhead projector, etc They should also be flexible in designing the syllabus, encourage teachers to research work, organize CLT courses and seminars so that teachers have chances to improve knowledge and applying 40 CLT effectively In addition to above mentioned, administrators should encourage teachers to the research or case-study on their TEFL situations such as the context of teaching, learners’ motivation, learning styles, learning strategies so that they can find out suitable methods in their own contexts In summary, according to the difficulties and recommendations, it can be concluded that there should have contribution of many factors including the administrators, teachers and students Among which, teachers are central to long-lasting changes which can affect the success or failure of that renovation The administrators should give the teachers chances to promote knowledge as well as facilities to make use of them In addition to that, it behooves the teachers to make effort to adapt themselves to use CLT The prerequisites for success in the implementation of CLT, which demand from the teachers, are of good communicative competence, creativity and enthusiasm Limitations of the Study Although the researcher has make effort toward conducting this thesis, there undoubtedly exist some limitations This is understandable and probably inevitable Firstly, the number of the subjects is small which may influence the implications of the thesis to some extent The results of the thesis would be more convincible if the number of the subjects is larger However, it is confirmed that the thesis will bring benefits to HaUI Secondly, the classroom observation sheet was designed to evaluate a model CLT class of English Although the researcher tried to adapt it to match her purpose, she would not avoid the subjectivity Suggestions for further research This research focuses on the applying CLT in improving the speaking skills of nonEnglish major students There are some suggestions for further research to be conducted with a view to gaining more benefits for teaching English in HaUI in terms of application of CLT 41 - There should be research on material design to match the local context - Research should be conducted to affirm what difficulties teachers meet in applying CLT in teaching other skills: listening, reading, and writing - Research should be produced on the usefulness of CLT in attaining its educational goals - Further research should be carried out to discover better ways to introduce students to the new concepts of CLT and this way of learning These three suggestions should be accomplished in the light of enhancing the English teaching in HaUI 42 REFERENCES Bachman, L.F (1990) Fundamental consideration on Language Testing Oxford: Oxford University Press Bock, G (2000) Difficulties in Implementing Communicative Theory in Viet Nam Teacher’s Edition, 2, 24-28 Brindley, G (1986) Some Current Issues in Second Language Teaching Prospect, Vol No April 1986 Brumfit, C.J and J T Roberts, 1983 An Introduction to Language and Language Teaching with comprehensive Glossary of Items London: Batsford Academic and Education Ltd Deckert, G (1987) The communicative Approach: Helping Student Adjust English Teaching Forum, 25 (3), 17-20 Harmer, J (1991) The Practice of English Language Teaching Longman Hedge, T (2000) Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom Oxford University Press Hymes, D.H (1971) On Communicative Competence In Pride & Holme (eds) and Brumfit, C.J & Johnson, K (eds) 1979 Hymes, D.H (1972) In Richards J.C., & Rodgers, T.S (1986) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Jack, C.R (2006) Communicative Language Teaching Today Cambridge University Press Larsen-Freeman, D (1986) Techniques and Principles on Language Teaching Oxford University Press 43 Li, D (1998) “It’s always more difficult than you plan and imagine” Teachers’ Perceived Difficulties in Introducing the Communicative Approach in South Korea TESOL Quarterly, 32, 677-698 Littlewood, W (1981) Communicative Language Teaching Cambridge University Press Littlewood, W (1992) Teaching Oral Communication: A Methodological Framework Biddles Ltd, Guildford Munby, J (1978) Communicative Syllabus Design Cambridge University Press Nunan, D (1990) Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom Sydney: Macquarie University Press Pattison, P (1987) Developing Communication Skills Cambridge University Press Pennycook, A (1989) The Concept of Method, Interested knowledge, and the Politics of Language Teaching TESOL Quaterly Richards, J.C and Rodgers, T.S (1986) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Cambridge University Press Rivers, W (1964) The Psychologist and the Foreign Language Teacher University of Chicago Press River, W (1981) Teaching Foreign Language Skills University of Chicago Press Sauvignon, S.J (1983) Communicative Competence: Theory and Classroom Practice Reading Addition – Wesley Publishing Company Stern, H.H (1983) Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press Wilkins, D.A (1976) Notional Syllabus Oxford: Oxford University Press 44 APPENDIX CLASS OBSERVATION SHEET (Adapted from Jack, 2006) Name of the observed:……………………………………………… Class:………………………………………………………………… Observer’s name: ……………………………… Date:……………… I Teacher’s role N Teacher acts as a facilitator Teacher acts as a monitor I Student’s role Students become comfortable with listening to their peers in group work or pair work tasks Students are communicators II Methodology Using authentic materials to make real communication the focus of language learning Provide opportunities for learners to experiment and try out what they know Be tolerant of learners’ errors as they indicate that the learner is building up his or her communicative competence Provide opportunities for learners to develop both accuracy and fluency I NA Link the different skills such as speaking, reading, and listening together, since they usually occur so in the real world Let students induce or discover grammar rules III Classroom activities Students practice information gap in pairs 10 The class is divided into groups and practice jigsaw activity 11 Students are assigned roles and improvise a scene or exchange based on given information or clues 12 Students use their language resources to complete a task such as puzzles, games, and map-reading 13 Students are required to take information that is presented in one form, and represent it in a different form Notes: A: Applicable NA: not applicable II APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE (Adapted from Li, 1998) The questionnaire aims at surveying the reality of teaching speaking to non-English major students through applying Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in HaUI Your completion of this questionnaire is highly appreciated The data collected are used in the research paper only, not for any other purpose Please complete the following questions as You may tick more than one choice How long have you taught English? year(s) Where have you studied CLT? □ In university methodology course □ In English teaching conferences □ In English teaching journals □ Others ……………………… In your viewpoint, CLT: □ Emphasize on fluency more than accuracy □ Give students opportunities to communicate with others □ Use authentic materials □ Do not teach grammar □ Others…………………………… Which difficulties have you experienced when applying CLT in teaching speaking to non-English major students □ Lack of authentic teaching materials □ Lack of students’ motivation to develop speaking skill □ Students’ low English level □ Students’ passive styles □ No money for materials or equipment III □ Poor teaching conditions □ Large class size □ Others……………………………… What you when your students lack motivation to speak? □ Give interesting topics □ Encourage them by marks □ Use communicative games □ Help them brainstorm □ Others…………………… What you to overcome lack of authentic teaching materials? □ Design some □ Take advantage of the course book □ It is enough for students to finish the course book □ Others………………………………… What should you to prevent your students from using Vietnamese in group work or pair work? □ Move around to observe them □ Remind them to use English □ Encourage them to speak English □ Help them when necessary □ Others……………………… What you with students’ low English level? □ Design exercises suitablen for them □ Encourage them by mark IV □ Help them when necessary □ Others……………………… Do you think that students’ passive learning style have a bad influence on your applying CLT? □ Strongly agree □ Agree □ Disagree □ Strongly disagree □ Not sure 10 Why you sometimes ignore pragmatic elements in the lesson? □ You are not sure about it □ You not want to make students confused □ Time is limited □ You think it is not necessary □ Others…………………………………………… Thank you for your cooperation! V APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE The questionnaire aims at surveying the reality and the attitude of HaUI students to English speaking through applying Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) The data collected are used in the research paper only, not for any other purpose Please complete the following questions as appropriate You may tick more than one choice How long did you study English before entering this university? □ Three years □ Seven years □ Others………… How often you speak English with foreigners? □ Often □ Sometimes □ Never Are you a member of any English club? □ Yes □ No Do you attend any extra English courses in any English centre? □ Yes □ No How you feel when you learn English? □ Excited □ Normal □ Bored □ Others………… Which benefits you think English brings you? □ It brings no benefits It is just a compulsory subject VI □ It helps me to get good marks in exams □ It provides words to read books and listen to music □ It provides vocabularies to understand professional fields Which language you want your teacher to use in class? □ In English □ In Vietnamese □ In English and then translate into Vietnamese Which skill you think is the most difficult? □ Listening □ Speaking □ Reading □ Writing How you think about periods of your English course? □ Enough □ Few □ Many 10 How you think about English learning condition in your university? □ Proper course book □ Enough time for self-study □ Easy-to-understand teaching method □ Others………………… Thank you for your cooperation! VII ... Outline of the Study 2.1 The Scope of the Study The study focuses on applying CLT in teaching speaking to non -English major students in Hanoi University of Industry 2.2 Objectives of the Study The. .. observation also helps to investigate applying CLT in teaching speaking to non -English major students Chapter III deals with the data of the study basing on the questionnaires and the class observation... teachers to find out the difficulties in implementing CLT in teaching English The hindrances in the result of his survey fall into four categories: by the teachers, by the students, by the educational