The current situation of english language teaching to the 10 form students at dong hy secondary school a case study

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LUÂN THỊ PHƯƠNG HẢO THE CURRENT SITUATION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING TO THE 10-FORM STUDENTS AT DONG HY SECONDARY SCHOOL: A CASE STUDY Nghiên cứu thực trạng dạy tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 10 Trường THPT Đồng Hỷ: Nghiên cứu trường hợp điển hình M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 SUPERVISOR: Prof Dr HOÀNG VĂN VÂN HA NOI - 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LUÂN THỊ PHƯƠNG HẢO THE CURRENT SITUATION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING TO THE 10-FORM STUDENTS AT DONG HY SECONDARY SCHOOL: A CASE STUDY Nghiên cứu thực trạng dạy tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 10 Trường THPT Đồng Hỷ: Nghiên cứu trường hợp điển hình M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 HA NOI - 2010 Table of contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TABLES PART A: INTRODUCTION I Rationale II Aims of the study II Scope of the study IV Methods of the study V Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Communicative activities 1.1.1 Definition of a communicative activity 1.1.2 Characteristics of a good communicative activity 1.2 Communicative language teaching 1.2.1 Brief history of CLT 1.2.2 CLT definition 1.2.3 The principles of CLT 1.2.4 The characteristics of CLT 1.2.5 Conditions related to CLT 10 1.3 Advantages of using CLT 12 1.4 Problems of applying CLT 12 1.5 Previous studies related to CLT 13 Chapter 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.1 Background of the study 15 2.1.1 Description of the students 15 2.1.2 Description of the teachers 15 2.1.3 Setting of the study 18 2.2 Research methodology 16 2.2.1 Subjects 16 2.2.2 The classroom observation 16 2.2.3 The instruments 17 2.3 Presentation of statistical results 17 2.3.1 Results of questionnaires 17 2.3.2 Results of the class observations 28 Chapter 3: Findings and recommendation 33 3.1 Findings 33 3.1.1 Difficulties from students 33 3.1.2 Difficulties from teachers 34 3.1.3 Difficulties from the testing 34 3.1.4 Difficulties from environment 35 3.2 Recommendations 35 3.2.1 For the students 35 3.2.2 For the teachers 37 3.2.3 Reform of the testing 37 3.2.4 Improving the environment 38 PART C: CONCLUSION Summary of the study 39 Limitations and suggestions study of the study 39 FREFERENCES APPENDICES List of abbreviations CLT : Communicative Language Teaching ELT : English Language Teaching DH : Dong Hy List of tables Table 1: Teachers’ ages 17 Table 2: Teachers’ years of teaching English 18 Table 3: Teachers’ CLT training background 18 Table 4: Teachers’ opinions about method 19 Table 5: Teachers’ information about the enrichment of knowledge on CLT .19 Table 6: Teachers’ information about perception on CLT 20 Table 7: Teachers’ point of view about CLT 20 Table 8: Teachers’ understanding about CLT 22 Table 9: The frequency of activities used in the classroom 24 Table 10: Teachers’ error correction 25 Table 11: The frequency of change the position of students’ seat, tables and benches for the lesson situations 25 Table 12: Teachers’ opinions about the currently- used textbook 26 Table 13: Teachers’ difficulties in their teaching 27 Table 14: Teachers’ self-assessment of their application of CLT 28 Table 15: Classroom observation (teacher 1) 29 Table 16: Classroom observation (teacher 2) 30 Table 17: Classroom observation (teacher 3) 31 Part A: Introduction I Retionale of the stuty It can‟t be denied that today English is the most widely used means of communication around the world English is important in almost all sectors, including education, business, industry, and science About fifteen years ago, English is compulsory given in our secondary school curriculum and widely taught in our colleges and universities Many different methodologies have been used by English language teaching in our country; such as, the grammar translation, the direct method however our students still find it hard to communicate in real life situation So speaking skill, as a production and interaction skill, is especially paid attention to Many years ago, teaching language and especially teaching English in Vietnam experienced many difficulties and we could see this clearly in the secondary school The curriculum is not unified Tests are not suitable to teaching so it makes learners despondent in studying Teachers are not adequately trained Students lack motive learning Books are not communication-based Learners not have many chances to use language to communicate with each other although they remember a lot of words, structures and understand grammar well Teachers mainly teach vocabulary and grammar, etc However in 2006, the New English textbook for grade 10 (English 10) has been used to teach next to English 6, English 7, English and English instead of the old textbooks English 10 is compiled based on “Themes” and follows two current approaches the learnercentered approach and communicative language teaching (CLT) English 10 contains sixteen teaching units Each teaching unit consists of five 45-minute periods with four skills: reading, speaking, listening, and writing skill, and a language focus lesson In the units, teachers teach learners to use language fluently in communication stead of presenting the exact language about grammar, vocabulary This new trend has opened more chances for students to improve their spoken language Students have chances to listen to both native and non-native English speakers from the tapes, CDs accompanied with the book In order to having a look at situation realistically about the usefulness and application of the new method - Communicative language teaching (CLT) in English language teaching at the secondary school through three school years In this study, as a teacher of the school, I would like to investigate the current teaching situation of the 10 th form students at Dong Hy Secondary School II Aims of the study The study is aimed at finding out the English language teaching and learning at Dong Hy Secondary School in Thai Nguyen It is expected that the study will be referred to testimony necessity in improving those facts To be more specific of purposes in this study are: - To investigate the current situation of English language teaching at Dong Hy Secondary School by focusing on studying the following conditions: the teachers with their perceptions of CLT and their CLT practical application, the examination, the new English text book, the students and the teaching and learning environment - To find out difficulties that the teachers of English at Dong Hy Secondary School experience when applying CLT - To offer some suggestions on how to improve the quality of teaching English when using CLT BI Scope of the study The study focuses on the investigation of teaching English at Dong Hy Secondary School in Thai Nguyen when applying CLT approach As set in the aims of the study, I limited to focus on studying the following contents: the teachers with their perceptions of CLT and their CLT practical application, the examination, the new English textbook, the students and the teaching and learning environment Due to the limit of time and within the scope of an M.A minor thesis, only grade 10 students and six teachers at Dong Hy Secondary Schools in Thai Nguyen are chosen as the participants of the study IV Methods of the study In order to complete this thesis, the quantitative method was used to collect the needed data from the participants - The questionaire was for six teachers at Dong Hy Secondary School - The class observations were conducted Three classrooms were chosen at random for observation (with no attempt to select the best or the most experienced teachers as well as the best or the weakest students) All comments, remarks, recommendations, and conclusions given in this study were based on the data analysis V Design of the study The thesis consists of three parts Part A - Introduction- Presents the rationale, the aim, scope, methods, and design of the study Part B - Development- consists of three chapters Chapter one-Literature Review- Deals with the theories related to the study: Communicative activities, Communicative language teaching, Advantages of using CLT in teaching foreign language, Problems of the application of CLT in teaching English as a foreign language, Previous studies relating to CLT application , Conditions related to CLT application Chapter two-Research methodologies- Presents the methodology performed in the study It provides information about the participants, the instrumentation Data collection and findings are also presented in this chapter Chapter three-Findings and recommendations Discusses the data of the study and propose recommendations for applying CLT in teaching English to grade10 students at DH secondary school Part C: Conclusion- Summarizes all the key issues as well as the limitations of the study and suggestions for further study Part b: Development CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter briefly covers the concepts related to the study: communicative activities, communicative language teaching, advantages of using CLT in teaching foreign language, problems of the application of CLT in teaching English as a foreign language, previous studies relating to CLT application, conditions related to CLT application 1.1 Communicative activities The aim of a CA in class is to get learners to use the language they are learning to interact in realistic and meaningful ways, usually involving exchanging of information Thus, in order to organize and improve CA the following should be taken into consideration 1.1.1 Definition of a communicative activity According to Harmer (1991), communicative activities are the ones which involve learning through using language for a communicative purpose They are the activities in which learners use the linguistic repertoire they have learnt in order to communicate specific meanings for specific purposes Sharing the same definition, Scrivener (1994) claimed that communicative activities are classroom activities designed to get learners to speak and listen to one another In other words, whatever activity the students are involved in, if it is to be genuinely communicative and if it is really promoting language use, the students should have a desire to communicate If they not want to be involved in communication then that communication will probably not be effective The students should have some kind of communicative purpose That is to say, they should use language in some way to achieve an objective Then their attention should be centered on the content of what is being said or written not the language form that is being used 35 Besides, other solutions should be applied to enhance the students‟ motivation The teachers should design realistic situations to enhance the students‟ motivation Hence, to increase the students‟ limited motivation, the teachers should invest more time and energy to search for the pictures or documents to illustrate the lesson, to make the lesson more attractive Another solution to increase the students‟ motivation in learning English is to affect the students‟ psychological aspect Some effective ways that the teachers can apply in their classroom to enhance the learners‟ motivation They include: the teachers call the learners by names; the teachers appreciate highly the students’ opinion; tangible instructions and objectives are used in the class; praise and encouragement are produced appropriately to the learners To increase the students‟ motivation, the teacher must firstly make effort to understand the learners since the more the teachers understand them, the easier his/ her teaching will be The students‟ low English proficiency cannot be improved immediately The teachers should try their best to make the lesson easier for the students to understand They should turn the difficult exercises into easier by finding the way to express the meanings or structures so that the students can understand easily They should design more tasks and activities that are suitable for the students‟ proficiency level Finally the students‟ passive learning style also causes the difficulty for the application for the application of CLT The teachers should also praise the students when they give the right answers or have good ideas The teachers should appoint the weak students to speak or answer the easy questions or give them the simple tasks The teachers should praise the students at the right time and avoid criticizing them before the class when they give the wrong answers because this will make them lose their face and become more passive and influence negatively the students‟ participation in class These are some suggestions for teachers on error correction in class: Collect errors made by the students and involve the whole class as much as possible in correction process Help students understand why they are wrong by indicating that an error has been made, showing the students where the errors are and what kind of errors they are, getting students try again if they can get them right Spend less time correcting what is only problem for one student and more time on problems common to whole group 36 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 3.2.2 For the teachers The solution for this problem lies in the teachers themselves and the educational administrator and the government The problem that the teachers are well-equipped with the knowledge of CLT can change unless the teachers want to change themselves It is necessary that educational administrators should organize more workshops or seminars on CLT The training courses or workshops will help motivate the teachers to apply what they have conceived there into their classroom Beside the administrators‟ support, teachers should have effort to self study to gain knowledge Self study will be a good solution for increasing the teachers‟ knowledge They can achieve knowledge from different sources as: books, magazines, internet, radio At present, the teachers‟ salary is low It does not ensure the teachers‟ life They have to work on their extra–time to earn more money, thus when the government increases their salary, the teachers will invest all their time and energy in teaching profession 3.2.3 Reform of the current English testing system To facilitate innovations in teaching methodologies, there must be some macrochanges, the most significant of which is to reform the testing system In the near future, it can be foreseen that the grammar–based English examination in the educational system remains unchanged So a solution that seems feasible is to change the traditional test The traditional test can be changed to be more criterion–referenced to test grammar, vocabulary, and reading skills more communicatively 3.3.4 Improving the teaching and learning environment The large mixed ability classes also hinder the teachers from applying CLT There are only ideal classes for adopting CLT in the far future when the government invests much more time and money in constructing educational facilities 37 In addition, the heterogeneous class is a constraint for the teachers to adopt CLT One solution for this problem is that the teachers should divide the students into groups which include both good and bad students and design tasks suitable for the students‟ level from easy to difficult This solution helps develop the co-operation among the students “Designing tasks suitable for the students‟ level” is considered an effective solution for the heterogeneous classes 38 Part c: Conclusion Summary of the study So far the study has gone through all the necessary stages In the part A, „Introduction‟ is mentioned: rationable, aims, methods, scope and design of the study Part B consists of Chapters one, two, and three Chapter one reviews some theoretical backgrounds relating to the study, namely „communicative activities, communicative language teaching, advantages of using CLT in teaching foreign language, problems of the application of CLT in teaching English as a foreign language, previous studies relating to CLT application, conditions related to CLT application‟ In chapter two, an overview of the reality of teaching English with CLT approach to grade 10 students at DH secondary school is presented from questionnaires for six teachers and three class observations Chapter three reveals some findings and those findings include difficulties faced with teachers and students in applying CLT approach Another very important part of this chapter is „recommendations‟ which can help overcome major difficulties as well as improve the quality of applying CLT more successfully Part C is the last in which the framework and mainideas of the study are summarized Apart from this, some limitations and suggestions for further study are also presented Limitations and suggestions for further study Although the researcher has made efforts toward carry out this study, due to the limitation of time, lack of resources and the researcher‟s ability, draw backs are unavoidable Firstly, not all the teachers at DH secondary school involved in the survey questionnaire, so the findings may, to some extent, not be generalized 39 Secondly, the researcher only used questionnaires and observations as the main instrument for data collection In order to have obtained results more reliable, the researcher should apply other instruments for data collection Hence, in the near future, the researcher would like to conduct the same but with a larger scale and that can overcome the above weaknesses of this study References Books Bock, G (2000) Difficulties in Implementing Communicative Theory in Viet Nam Teacher;s Edition.VUN Canh, L V (2004) Understanding Foreign Language Teaching Methodology, VNU Publishing House Freeman, D.L (1986) Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching Oxford University Press Harmer, J (1991) The Practice of English Language Teaching London: Longman Harmer, J (1998) How to Teach English New York: Addison Wesley Longman Limited Li, D (1998) “It is Always More Difficult Than You Plan and Imagine” Teachers’ Perceived Difficulties in Introducing the Communicative Approach in South Korea TESOL Quarterly Littlewood, W (1981) Communicative Language Teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Littlewood, W (1990), Communicative Language Teaching An Introduction Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Littlewood, W (1992) Teaching Oral Communication A Methodological Framework Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Littlewood, W (1998) Foreign and Second Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Nunan, D.(1991) Language Teaching Methodology UK: Prentice-Hall International Nunan, D.(1999) Second LanguageTteaching and Learning Boston Mass Scrivener, J (1994) Learning Teaching: A Guide Book for English Teachers Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann English Language Teaching Sheils, J (1993) Communication in the Modern Language Classroom London: Council of Europe Press Van, H V (2006) Đổi Ph-ơng pháp dạy tiÕng Anh ë THPT ViÖt Nam.Nha Xuat ban Giao duc .Theses Le Thi Hong Duyen, ( 2007) A Study on Teaching Techniques for Helping Students at some High Schools in Hai Phong City to Overcome Difficulties in Learning Oral Skills in The New Set of English Textbooks,M.A Thesis, CFL-VUH Tran Hien Lan , ( 2007) A Study on How to Teach Speaking Communicatively to Grade 10 Students at Tran Phu High School, M.A Thesis, CFL- VUH Pham Thi Thuan, ( 2005 ) An Investigation into the Reality of Teaching and Learning English in an Upper-Secondary School in a Remote Mountainous Area of VietNam, M.A Thesis, CFL- VUH Websites: The advantages of communicative language teaching approach Issuer: From Asia.Tesol Views http:// www.asiatesol.org/resources/print.asp Essential Principles of the Communicative Approach Communicative Lesson arehttp:// www American.edu/tesol/CA%20Characteristics.pdf Appendices Appendix Questionnaire for teachers This questionnaire is conducted with a view to finding outg the current situation of teaching English with CLT approach of the 10 th form students at DH secondary school.Your completion of this questionnaire is highly appreciated The data collected are used in the research paper only, not for other purposes Please complete the following questions You may put a tick in any boxes or circle the choices that are the most suitable for you What is your age? years old How long have you been teaching English? for .years Have you ever been trained in CLT? What approach you think most suitable for your teaching situation at present? The Direct Method The Grammar- Translation Method (GTM) Communicative Language Teaching The Audio- Lingual Method Combination of GTM and CLT How often you read books or attend seminars, workshops to enrich your knowledge of CLT? Often Sometimes Seldom Never Do you think that you understand the principles, characteristics of CLT? Yes No Not sure In your opinions, CLT: Always emphasizes fluency over accuracy is learner-centered Does not teach Grammar s’ final goal is students’ communicative competence is used only for eaching speaking and listening skills Focuses on meaningful tasks rather than on language itself You find that: Key concepts, principles and characteristics Grammatical correctness is the most important criterion by which language performance should be judged Group work activities are essential in providing opportunities for co- operative relationship to emerge and in promoting genuine interaction among students For students to become effective communicators in the foreign language, the teachers' feedback must be focused on the appropriateness and not the linguistic form of the students' responses The learner- centered approach to language teaching encourages responsibility and self- discipline and allows each student to develop his/ her full potential Group work allows students to explore problems for themselves and thus have some measures of control over their own learning It is therefore an invaluable means of organizing classroom experiences The teacher should correct all the grammatical errors student make If errors are ignored, this will result in imperfect learning It is impossible in a large class of students to organize your teaching so as to suit the needs of all Group work activities take too long to organize and waste a lot of valuable teaching time The communicative approach to language teaching produces fluent but inaccurate learners By mastering the rules of grammar, students become fully capable of communicating with another The role of the teacher in the language classroom is to impart knowledge through activities such as explanation, writing and example Tasks and activities should be negotiated and adapted to suit the students' needs rather than imposed on them Group work activities have little use since it is very difficult for the teacher to monitor the students' performance and prevent them from using their mother tongue A textbook alone is not able to cater for all the needs and interests of the students The teacher must supplement the textbook with other Which of the following activities are used and how often they are used when you teach a lesson in your class: Activities Reading some passages aloud Writing vocabulary on the board and students copy down Making sentences with new words Explaining grammar rules or new structures Translating Doing role- plays/ Dramatizing the conversation Playing games/ singing English songs Discussing in pairs or group works Peer correction Substitution drills Practicing dialogues Doing grammar exercises Practicing pronunciation Describing pictures 10 When your students make errors, you often: Correct errors for all students Ignore students’errors Correct as soon as your students make errors Correct yourself all errors of your students Ask students to correct errors for each other Collect students’errors and correct them later Mark students’ errors then students correct themselves 11 Have you ever changed the position of the students or tables and benches for suitable lesson situation? Often Sometimes Seldom Never 12 You think that in the current textbook: Yes There should be more communicative activities The number of communicative activities should be reduced Communicative activities are relevant to your students' background knowledge There is not enough time to cover all the activities, content, tasks, exercises in the textbook The topics are interesting The topics deal with current issues The exercises/ tasks are a little bit long and difficult The exercises / tasks are properly designed for CLT There is not enough time to develop other CLT materials in the English classes There should be more authentic materials There are enough audio/ visual aids to use with the unit No 13 What are your difficulties when applying CLT in teaching the students with the new English textbook? Passive learning styles Students' low level of English proficiency Limited motivation in learning Lack of authentic teaching materials Lack of facilities No money for authentic material Badly designed classrooms Heterogeneous- level classes Too crowded classes The amount of the English periods per week is not enough to adopt CLT The grammar- based examinations not justify using CLT It takes you a lot of time to prepare your lesson plan You not understand CLT well The low salary Others th 14 Rate the degree of success in applying CLT to your teaching the 10 form students at your school Very successful Successful OK Not successful If not successful, why _ Thank you for your co- operation Appendix Lesson observation sheet School : Class : Date of observation: Name of the observed: * The role of the teacher Instruction/ Questions: Use of equipment: Use of authentic materials: Create genuine, realistic situation: Error correction: Amount of the teachers' talking time: Classroom atmosphere: * Communicative task/ activities Meaningful, relevant and suitable tasks Related to lesson objectives Organization, facilitation of pair and group work: Number of students participating: Amount of student practice time: * Accuracy/ fluency of teacher Grammatical accuracy and fluency Pronunciation and intonation Amount: * Key of the class observations: Assuming that every lesson can be improved, this lesson expressed: The scale: (1-5) - less focused (2- 10) (86- 100) (70-85) (55-69) (0-54) NA A ... the 10 th form students at Dong Hy Secondary School II Aims of the study The study is aimed at finding out the English language teaching and learning at Dong Hy Secondary School in Thai Nguyen... study are all the teachers who are teaching English to the students? ?? grade 10 at DH secondary school All of the teachers have taught English for at least years and at most for 15 years, so they have... in English language teaching at the secondary school through three school years In this study, as a teacher of the school, I would like to investigate the current teaching situation of the 10