(Luận văn thạc sĩ) applicability of tasked based language teaching to the teaching context in thai hoa upper secondary school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FALCUTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ MINH QUÝ APPLICABILITY OF TASK – BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING TO THE TEACHING CONTEXT IN THAI HOA UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL (KHẢ NĂNG ÁP DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC NGÔN NGỮ DỰA VÀO NHIỆM VỤ TRONG BỐI CẢNH TRƯỜNG THPT THÁI HÒA) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Hanoi, 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FALCUTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ MINH QUÝ APPLICABILITY OF TASK – BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING TO THE TEACHING CONTEXT IN THAI HOA UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL (KHẢ NĂNG ÁP DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC NGÔN NGỮ DỰA VÀO NHIỆM VỤ TRONG BỐI CẢNH TRƯỜNG THPT THÁI HÒA) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Supervisor: Nguyễn Việt Hùng, MA Hanoi , 2013 i CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I certificate that the minor thesis entitled “Applicability of task-based language teaching to the teaching context in Thai Hoa secondary school” is submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts is the result of my own work This minor thesis or any part of this one has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other university or institution Hanoi, 28th June, 2013 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I am most grateful to my supervisor, Mr Nguyen Viet Hung MA for his continual support, encouragement, guidance and ideas Without his tireless support, this thesis could not have been completed Secondly, I would like to express my great gratitude to all the teachers and students at Thai Hoa secondary school for their participation and cooperation during the data collection process Thirdly, it is my pleasure to acknowledge my friends, especially Bui Van Hau, , from whom I have received a lot of help, support and encouragement Finally, my sincere thanks go to my family whose support has been of great significance to the success of my thesis iii ABSTRACT Recently task-based language teaching (TBLT) evolving from communicative language instruction has drawn the attention of many researchers towards itself To date, there have not had many studies on applicability of TBLT in a particular context This study has intended to explore the attitudes of students‟ towards TBLT It also seeks the understanding of teachers‟ of TBLT A sample of five teachers and three hundred students participated in this study A questionnaire was used to examine students‟ attitudes towards the friendliness of theoretical issues of TBLT Then, interviews and observations are employed to find out how teachers understand and implement task-based language learning in their classroom The data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively The results of the study showed that while students in general had positive attitudes towards TBLT, teachers lacked conceptualizations of TBLT and their teaching practice did not match TBLT model Therefore, these findings led to the conclusion that it is impossible to apply TBLT to the teaching context in THSS successfully Finally, suggestions were made in order to solve those problems mentioned above: teachers should attend seminars on ELT; they should train themselves through books and articles; there should have had competitions for both teachers and students to enhance teaching and learning English iv LIST OF APPENDICES A QUESTIONNAIRES FOR STUDENTS B INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS C OBSERVATION SHEETS D QUANTITATIVE STATISTICAL DATA E INTERVIEW DATA v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Tables Table Willis and Skehan‟s views of principles of TBLT Table Ellis and Nunan‟s views of principles of TBLT Table Teachers‟ background information Table Students‟ background information Table Summary of Statistical Models Table Unreliable Items that need being left out the analysis Table Correlation between domains in the whole questionnaire Table Reliability of each domain in the questionnaire Table Factor Analysis of domains in the Questionnaire Table 10 Factor Analysis of Students‟ attitudes towards TBLT Table 11 Descriptive statistics of domains and the whole questionnaire Table 12 Frequency and Percentage of Students‟ Attitude towards domains and TBLT Table 13 Descriptive statistics of Items with unconfirmative answers Table 14 Descriptive statistics of Items with highly confirmative answers Table 15 Descriptive statistics of each item/question in Attitude towards Principles of Teaching domain Table 16 Descriptive statistics of the items in Attitude towards Features of Teaching Table 17 Descriptive statistics of the items in Attitude towards Stages of Teaching Table 18 Descriptive statistics of the items in Attitude towards Techniques of Teaching Table 19 Summary of Mean difference of domains between groups according to age Table 20 Table 21 Table 22 Table 23 Table 24 Table 25 Summary of T-Test Values of Mean difference of domains between groups according to age Summary of Mean difference of domains between groups according to sex Summary of T-Test Values of Mean difference of domains between groups according to sex Mean difference in Attitude towards Task-Based Language Teaching according to Economic condition Multi linear regression analysis of Attitude towards Task-Based Language Teaching Coefficients of multi linear regression analysis of Attitude towards Task- vi Based Language Teaching Table 26 Table 27 Model Summary of multi linear regression analysis of Attitude towards Stages of Teaching ANOVA table of multivariable linear regression analysis of Attitude towards Stages of Teaching Table 28 Teachers‟ conceptualizations of TBLT Table 29 Pros and Cons of Task-based language teaching Table 30 Factors affecting the TBLT implementation Table 31 Summary of teachers‟ classroom practice Table 32 Summary of the results in the questionnaire, semi-structured interview, and classroom observation FIGURES Figure TBL Framework by Willis Figure Attitude towards Task - Based Language Teaching vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS THSS Thai Hoa Secondary School TBL Task-Based Learning TBLT Task-Based Language Teaching MOET Ministry of Education and Training CLT Communicative Language Teaching TEFL Teaching English as Foreign Language FL Foreign Language L2 Second Language DT Definition of Task ET Examples of Task TBLTM Task - Based Language Teaching Model TGTBLT Teaching Grammar in Task – Based Language Teaching TBLT vs OTM Task – Based Language Teaching versus Other Teaching Methods T Teachers S Students LC F LE Local Culture Facilities Local Economy viii TABLE OF CONTENT CANDIDATE’S STATEMENTS…………………………………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………… ii ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………… iii TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………… iv LIST OF APPENDICES……………………………………………………… vii LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………………… viii LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………… ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ………………………………………………… x PART A INTRODUCTION………………………………………………… 1.1 Rationale…………………………………………………………………… 1.2 Aim and objectives of the study…………………………………………… 1.3 Research questions………………………………………………………… 1.4 Scope of the study………………………………………………………… 1.5 Significance of the study…………………………………………………… 1.6 Method of the study……………………………………………………… 1.7 Design of the study………………………………………………………… PART B DEVELOPMENT…………………………………………………… Chapter LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………… 1.1 Theoretical background of TBLT………………………………………… 1.1.1 The learning theory………………………………………………… 1.1.2 Input and learning interactionist theory…………………………… 1.1.3 Communicative language teaching………………………………… 1.1.4 Research on communicative tasks………………………………… Task-based language teaching……………………………………………… 1.2.1 Definition of a task………………………………………………… 1.2.2 Task types………………………………………………………… 11 1.2.3 Teacher‟s roles in TBLT…………………………………………… 12 1.2.4 Some problems in implementing TBLT in Asian context………… 14 Theoretical framework …………………………………………………… 16 1.2 1.3 ... perceptions of task -based language learning? 1.4 Scope of the study In order to find out the applicability of TBLT in the teaching context of Thai Hoa secondary school, the study is only focused the. .. entitled ? ?Applicability of task -based language teaching to the teaching context in Thai Hoa secondary school? ?? is submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts is the. .. perception of TBLT in Thai Hoa Secondary school 1.2 Aim and Objectives of the study The main aim of the study is to find out how applicable task -based language learning (TBLL) is in the teaching context