(Luận văn thạc sĩ) english used in instructions in reading lessons by vietnamese teachers – a case study at faculty of english language teacher education, ULIS, VNU

VIENAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION PHAN THI TOAN ENGLISH USED IN INSTRUCTIONS IN READING LESSONS BY VIETNAMESE TEACHERS – A CASE STUDY AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION, ULIS, VNU Tiếng Anh sử dụng giáo viên người Việt hướng dẫn sinh viên học kĩ đọc – Một “nghiên cứu trường hợp” Khoa Sư Phạm Tiếng Anh, trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ, Đại học Quốc Gia Hà Nội MA THESIS Major: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Program: HÀ NỘI – 2014 i VIENAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION PHAN THỊ TOÁN ENGLISH USED IN INSTRUCTIONS IN READING LESSONS BY VIETNAMESE TEACHERS – A CASE STUDY AT FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION, ULIS, VNU Tiếng Anh sử dụng giáo viên người Việt hướng dẫn sinh viên học kĩ đọc – Một “nghiên cứu trường hợp” Khoa Sư Phạm Tiếng Anh, trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ, Đại học Quốc Gia Hà Nội MA THESIS Major: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Program: Supervisor: Ms Nguyễn Thị Minh Tâm (PhD) HÀ NỘI – 2014 i ACCEPTANCE I hereby state that I : Phan Thị Toán, English K21D, being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (English Teaching Methodology), accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature September 15th, 2014 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This paper would not have been completed without the support of many people, to all of whom I am profoundly indebted First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Nguyen Thi Minh Tam, PhD for her precious support and insightful comments, which have always been the decisive factors in the completion of this paper Second, I would like to send my heartfelt thanks to the teachers and the students of two first-year reading classes at Division I, FELTE, who allowed me to administer the observations and interviews and who have enthusiastically helped me to carry out the study with ease Last but not least, I am truly grateful to my family and my friends for their continual encouragement and support during the time I conducted the research ii ABSTRACT This study investigates the support of teacher instructions in academic reading lessons in two first-year classes at Department I, FELTE, ULIS, VNU A multiple case study design and the qualitative approach were applied to take an in-depth investigation into the problem Five observations with a recorder and two observation schemes, one of which based on the theory by Fairclough and the other is based on the theory of effective instructions, were conducted in each class to discover the way the teachers guided the students with the reading exercises Moreover, the teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the instruction giving were measured by their responses in the interviews after the observation process The data collected were coded and then decoded and analyzed under each research question It was found out from the study that simple English words and structures were used in almost all the instructions Moreover, both the teachers and the students were satisfied with the explicitness of the instructions However, it is recommended that teacher instruction should still be improved More referential questions should be used to catch the students’ attention and motivate them to think More explanation and checking, including understanding checking and result checking, should be conducted to make sure the effectiveness of the instructions The teachers need to pay more attention to the guidance about how to deal with the questions and the language in the reading texts, as well iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACCEPTANCE i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS ix PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Statement and rationale of the research Aims of the study Research questions Scope of the study Methods of the study Significance of the study An overview of the rest of the paper PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 1.1 Instruction 1.1.1 Definition of instruction 1.1.2 The role of teachers’ instructions 1.1.3 Some techniques of instruction giving 1.1.4 Principles of effective instructions 1.1.5 Comprehension instruction in reading lessons 1.2 Teachers’ language use in instructions in the view of Discourse Analysis 1.2.1 Classroom Discourse iv 1.2.2 1.3 Classroom Discourse Analysis 10 Review of the previous studies 12 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 15 2.1 Research approach and Research design 15 2.1.1 Qualitative approach 15 2.1.2 Multiple-case study design 15 2.2 Context of the study 16 2.3 Participant selection 16 2.3.1 Sampling method 16 2.3.2 Participants 17 2.4 Data collection methods and procedures 18 2.4.1 Classroom Observation 18 2.4.1.1 Purpose 18 2.4.1.2 Structure 19 2.4.1.3 Procedure 20 2.4.1.4 Coding scheme 20 2.4.2 Interviews 20 2.4.2.1 Purpose 20 2.4.2.2 Structure 21 2.4.2.3 Procedure 21 2.4.2.4 Coding scheme 21 2.4.3 Data collection procedure 22 2.4.3.1 Phase 22 2.4.3.2 Phase 2: 22 v 2.5 Data analysis method and procedure 22 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 23 3.1 Findings 23 3.1.1 3.1.1.1 Vocabulary 23 3.1.1.2 Grammar 24 3.1.1.3 Cohesion 25 3.1.1.4 Structure of text 25 3.1.1.5 Discourse as discursive practice 26 3.1.2 3.2 Answer to research question 1: 23 Answer to research question 2: 27 3.1.2.1 Instruction effectiveness in the teachers’ perception 28 3.1.2.2 Instruction effectiveness in the students’ perception 30 3.1.2.3 Instruction effectiveness under the theory of an effective instruction 32 Implications for teaching 33 3.2.1 The patterns of English used 33 3.2.1.1 Vocabulary and grammar 33 3.2.1.2 Cohesion and structure 34 3.2.1.3 Discursive practice 35 3.2.2 Techniques of instruction giving 35 3.2.2.1 Content of instructions 35 3.2.2.2 Instruction giving time 36 3.2.2.3 Understanding checking 36 PART C: CONCLUSION 37 Recapitulation 37 vi 1.1 Major findings 37 1.1.1 Research question 37 1.1.2 Research question 2: 37 1.2 Pedagogical implications 37 Contributions of the study 38 Limitations of the study 38 Suggestions for further studies 39 REFERENCES 40 APPENDIX 1A – OBSERVATIONS IN G1 I Observation scheme I Observation scheme XII APPENDIX 1B – OBSERVATIONS IN G2 XVIII Observation scheme XVIII Observation scheme XXIX APPENDIX 2A – INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE TEACHERS XXXV Vietnamese version XXXV English version XXXVI APPENDIX 2B – INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE STUDENTS XXXVII Vietnamese version XXXVII English version XXXIX APPENDIX 3A – INTERVIEW T1 XL Vietnamese version XL English version XLIII APPENDIX 3B – INTERVIEW T2 XLVI vii Vietnamese version XLVI English version XLIX APPENDIX 4A – INTERVIEW G1 LII Vietnamese version LII English version LVI APPENDIX 4B – INTERVIEW G2 LIX Vietnamese version LIX English version LXIV APPENDIX 4C – THE TEST USED IN INTERVIEWS WITH STUDENTS LXIX APPENDIX 5A – SAMPLE OF T1’S INSTRUCTIONS CI APPENDIX 5B – SAMPLE OF T2’S INSTRUCTIONS CIII APPENDIX – SAMPLE OF READING TEXTS USED IN CLASSROOMS CV viii XCIX C APPENDIX 5A – SAMPLE OF T1’S INSTRUCTIONS Day: April 10th, 2014 Observation T1: Today we will work with section four of the test Do you remember what is it about? G1: Multiple choices T1: Yes, multiple choices, multiple choices And the content of the text? How is it different from section 3? G1: More challenging T1: Yes, more challenging Remember that the content of the text in section is more challenging And how many minutes will you have for the questions? G1: 13 minutes T1: Yes, 13 minutes but I recommend you to read it in 12 minutes, 12 minutes only Can you tell me the techniques to multiple choice questions? G1: The same to section T1: Yes, it’s the same to section 3, remember that And the necessary strategies here are scanning and underscanning paraphrasing You have known that the words in the questions are never the same as those in the text so the necessary skills are scanning and underscanning OK? Do you remember how we, what strategies to this? As I said, at this stage, whether you underline the key words, it’s up to you I don’t need you to underline the key words And after that, you read through the questions If you don’t know exactly the strategies for this kind of exercises, it would be very hard Now, you read all the paragraphs and then you read the questions to find the information? OK, you read the questions first, right? And then you come to each paragraph to see what questions with information is exactly in paragraph A, you it first And with the questions you are not very sure, you leave them later OK? And to avoid missing the information, often when you read paragraph A, you may need to underline the main ideas so that you can remember or make some comparison later After you handle with paragraph A, you read paragraph B and see what questions can be answered with its information OK? And with questions you still don’t know the CI answers, you will read all the parts again There may not be many such questions Now you will have 14 minutes for the first exercise CII APPENDIX 5B – SAMPLE OF T2’S INSTRUCTIONS Day: April, 9th, 2014 Observation T2: So in this week, we focus on part of the test So as you know, in part you’ll have to answer 10 multiple choice questions, OK? Multiple choice questions Each question has options, A, B, C, D and what you have to is to choose the most appropriate one according to the text You should spend 13 minutes on this task And also, this task not only requires the general understanding of the text but you also need to understand details, and even implications, implications of the writer So actually, there’s not much difference between part and part 4, the strategies are the same Now, so first, in part 4, 13 minutes, what are you going to first? You read the questions? G2: Read through the questions and underline key words T2: You read through the questions and underline key words And then? G2: Skim T2: Skim the text? Right? Skim and scan, right? Skim first and then, scan So actually, I had told all of you that you don’t need to read the questions first Actually you don’t need to read the questions first because before you read the text, reading the questions may be a waste of time You don’t know where you should look at in the text, OK? So with the text, I’d like you, first of all, skim it first, skim the text first, don’t read the questions So I advice you to skim the text first, don’t jump to the questions It makes no sense, OK? It makes no sense So it’s different from part Do you remember part 2? Fill in the gaps, in part 2, you have to fill in the gaps So actually in part 2, you are adviced to read the questions first OK, you are adviced to read the questions first And after that you read the text to know which part of the text you should read That’s in part But in part and part 4, I advice you to skim the text first, don’t worry about the questions while you’re skimming OK? Just read the text first, skim the text first, to get, to what? CIII G2: General idea T2: Yes, to understand the overall picture, or overall ideas, the main ideas, OK, what is it about and also the structure or the organization of the text So later when you read the questions, you may remember Ah, to answer this question, I remember that it’s in the first paragraph, it’s in the second paragraph, OK? So this time, it would save you time OK? So don’t just read the questions first I don’t need you to read the questions first Now, so now, OK, one more thing, when you read the questions, you underline the key words? Do you? Is it necessary to underline the key words? G2: It depends T2: Ah ha, it’s up to you, OK? It’s up to you I don’t make you underline the key words in this part because actually there are students who are more confident when they underline the key words But there are students who have no difference as they read the questions without underlining the key words So it’s up to you, your learning style, OK? And it’s up to you, your level of confidence If you feel that you don’t need to underline the key words, you don’t have to, OK? So I don’t make you underline the key words but at this stage you are adviced to underline the key words Now, 13 minutes, skim it first, skimming will take you minute only, minute maximum CIV APPENDIX – SAMPLE OF READING TEXTS USED IN CLASSROOMS CV CVI CVII CVIII CIX CX CXI CXII CXIII ...VIENAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION PHAN THỊ TOÁN ENGLISH USED IN INSTRUCTIONS IN READING LESSONS BY. .. especially in Vietnamese education This real situation has inspired the researcher to choose the tittle ? ?English used in instructions in reading lessons by Vietnamese teachers – A case study at Faculty. .. CIII APPENDIX – SAMPLE OF READING TEXTS USED IN CLASSROOMS CV viii LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS FELTE Faculty of English Language Teacher Education ULIS University of Languages and International Studies