(Luận văn thạc sĩ) the role of mother tongue in teaching english to the first year students at thai nguyen university of education

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERISTY – HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDY FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES  ĐỖ THỊ NGỌC PHƯƠNG THE ROLE OF MOTHER TONGUE IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION VAI TRÒ CỦA TIẾNG MẸ ĐẺ TRONG VIỆC GIẢNG DẠY TIẾNG ANH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM THÁI NGUYÊN M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR: Dr DƯƠNG THI NỤ HANOI - 2012 TABLE OF CONTENT Part 1: Introduction Rationale Aim of the research .2 Scope of the research Significance of the study .2 Organization of the thesis .2 Part 2: Development Chapter 1: Literature Review 1.1 Second language use and learning .4 1.2 Language choice 1.2.1 Mother tongue or second language? 1.2.2 Factors in language choice 1.3 L1 use in the classroom .8 1.4 L1 transfer - linguistic theory of the role of the first language 10 1.5 Grammar -translation Teaching versus Communicative Language Teaching 11 1.6 The Monolingual Approach versus the Bilingual Approach 13 Summary 15 Chapter 2: Methodology 2.1 Subjects of the study 16 2.2 Data collection instrument 16 2.3 Data analysis .17 Summary 18 Chapter 3: The Result of the Study 3.1 The situation of English Teaching and the Learning at Thai Nguyen University of Education 19 iv 3.2 Results of the survey questionnaire 21 3.3 Results of teachers' interview 28 3.4 Results of classroom observation 32 Summary 35 Chapter 4: Discussion and Implications 4.1 Discussion 36 4.2 Implications in teaching 37 Part 3: Conclusion Conclusions 40 Limitations and suggestions for further research 41 References Appendices v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L1: First language L2: Second language EFL: English as Foreign Language CLT: Communicative Language Teaching LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Tables Table 1: Reasons for the learning of English Table 2: The use of mother tongue in second language class Table 3: Situations for the teachers to speak in the first language Table 4: Situations for the students to speak in the first language Table 5: Reasons for using mother tongue in the English class Table 6: Percentage of mother tongue - speaking time to be used by the teachers and students Table 7: Teachers' years of experience Table 8: Teachers' opinion about the situations in which mother tongue should be used Table 9:Teachers' opinion about the percentage of time per a lesson for the mother tongue to be used in the language class Table 10: Results of classroom observation on the purposes of using mother tongue Table 11:The percentage of mother tongue - speaking time used by used by the teachers and the students in the class observation Charts Chart 1: Students' years of learning English Chart 2: Frequency of using mother tongue in class Chart 3: Aspects of second language to be taught in mother tongue Chart 4: The importance of mother tongue in the English class PART INTRODUCTION Rationale In the history of language teaching, while many methods have been created in order to help learners study a second language (L2) People have started questioning whether using mother tongue in English classes is useful or not The attitude towards this problem has changed dramatically over centuries and has been the subject of much debate and controversy It is known that there must be different teaching and learning methods for different learners of different levels The way the teachers use to teach the beginners cannot be the same with the teaching method for the advanced learners However, many teachers and curriculum designers think that creating communicative environment for learners is the best choice It is true that in most language classes, the teachers always create opportunities to help the students practice and get familiar with the target language as much as possible The communicative environment here may be in the middle of the lecture when the teacher is lecturing or communicating with their students in English It will be quite easy for the higher levels but to the beginners who have a limited range of vocabulary or grammar rules of the target language, whether this method is useful is a problem The modern teaching methods focus on the practice and use of the target language as much as possible, which will help the learners get familiar with the language they learn as well as motivate them in the study It is important to note that at the beginning level, the learners not have enough vocabulary and structures to understand and catch up with the lesson in English The questions are whether the first language plays an important part in teaching the second language and how they are applied in teaching Being aware of those problems, the researcher would, therefore, like to conduct this research to explore the impact of the mother tongue on the learning and teaching of a second language with some hope that both the learners and teachers can find an easier and more effective teaching and learning method Typically, the questions to be answered in this study are as follows: What are the impacts of mother tongue on the teaching and learning of English? What are the degree and situations for the use of mother tongue in the teaching and learning of English ? Objectives of the study From the rationale above, the aims of the study were set out in order to specify the research as follows:  Identifying the role of mother tongue in the teaching and learning of English at Thai Nguyen University of Education  Investigating the students' attitudes towards the use of mother tongue in teaching and learning of English  Suggesting the suitable degree and situations for using mother tongue among the 1st year students at Thai Nguyen University of Education Scope of the research The research is confined to language use in classroom, especially the use of mother tongue in teaching English However, due to the time constraint, the study only concentrates on the impact of mother tongue, namely Vietnamese and how to use it to teach English for the first year non-English major students at Thai Nguyen University 4.Significance of the study This study is significant for several reasons Firstly, it provides an overview of the use the mother tongue in teaching the second language in general and in teaching English in particular Secondly, the author hopes this study can help the teachers to find a suitable method to teach English as well as change their stereotype on the use of mother tongue Finally, this study also provides some suggestions on how to use the first language in an appropriate way to avoid its negative effects on the students' learning Organization of the thesis The graduation paper consists of three parts Part 1, Introduction, introduces the rationale, the scope and the ms of the study Part 2, Development, consists of four chapters: Chapter provides the theoretical basis which supports the study, including some mother-tongue – related discussions Chapter presents the issues of methodology including the subjects of the study, data collection instruments and the procedures of data collection Chapter presents the results of a survey conducted for the investigation of the use of the mother tongue in teaching English in classrooms at Thai Nguyen University by means of analyzing the students‟ responses to questionnaires and interviews with the teachers as well as classroom observations Following the results of chapters and is chapter 4, which gives some discussion for the results and the implications in the teaching and learning English Part of the thesis, Conclusion, includes the summary of the main findings conclusions, limitations of the study, and suggestions for further study of the study, PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter deals with different points of views on the first language and its use in teaching and learning a second language Besides, some teaching methods and some kinds of language classes in which the mother tongue can be used are also mentioned It is strongly believed that those different opinions about the use of the mother tongue in class will make some contributions to this research 1.1 Second language use and learning The use and practice of the second language is not that easy to most learners when the L2 is rarely used in their society It is generally accepted that that learning a language without frequent use and practice is not effective As Lightbown and Spada (1993) ever noted, the second language learners also have to "pass through sequence of development" Fortunately, it is the fact that the learners have a little opportunity to use the second language (L2) outside the classroom Therefore, it is important to maximize the use of L2 in the language classroom through different activities in class However, it should be remembered that not all students have the same levels and competence in using the target language Lightbown and Spada (1993) enlightened that even in the same classroom setting, there were still be some students that progress more rapidly in learning a new language It will be impractical if the same amount and level of the language are used for different types of learners For the low - level learners, the requirement of the use and practice of the target language should be suitable and should not be too difficult As being mentioned in the introduction section, there should be different ways of using the language in class for learners with different levels of English It is known that advanced learners are good at listening and interacting with difficult words and phrases in class without the explanation or help of the teacher The elementary level learners require a much simpler way of using a foreign language in teaching In many situations in which the learners share the same first language, there is a tendency that the tasks which should be done in L2 (e.g conversation preparation, discussion, preparation for writing.) can be done in L1 Many teachers may disapprove of the use of the first language in the language classroom However, according to Paul Nation (2003) there are some reasons for the use of the first language Firstly, it is easier and more communicatively effective to use L1 because some of the learners not have enough knowledge of the language they are learning to express their ideas Secondly, that the teacher‟s frequent use of L2 in class may be incomprehensible for shy and low-level learners, thus they become inactive in discussions 1.2 Language choice 1.2.1 Mother tongue or second language? Basically, the mother tongue is learnt first and the second language is learnt after a period of time in human beings' life A child often learns a language naturally However, those who learn a second language later in their life are often influenced by many other factors outside the classroom One of those is the prior knowledge of the language which they have learnt In other words, it is widely believed that someone who has a good knowledge of their prior language can learn another language more easily Or, as we can say, the way babies learn a language (mother tongue) is natural but the way that school children or adults who have different or developed cognitive, mental and conceptual capacities pick up their a language is not as natural as babies It is generally argued that what a person has learnt from their previous language will have great influence on their current target language Therefore, when we talk about second language teaching we should take into account the knowledge and skills of their first language that the learners bring into their target language It is what we call the switching or transform from L1 to L2 In the past, most methods in L2 teaching pedagogy dictated that L1 should be minimized or prohibited in the classroom However, in the real practice of English language teaching, it proves that this attitude is not totally effective Lynn Cameron (2001) stated the gap between that theory and practice According to the researcher, those approaches seem to "ignore the possibility that certain use of a common mother tongue might also contribute to It is now generally believed that language transfer, or cross-linguistic influence, does occur and cannot be avoided in the teaching English as a foreign language Using the first language can have both positive and negative effects on the study of a second language Raising learners‟ consciousness before teaching can be valuable It is necessary that the teachers should point out the differences between the target language and students' mother tongue and show how harmful it is if the students not know how and when to use both the languages properly Once the students understand this, translation, or, in other words, the use of the mother tongue, can be useful and effective The students can use the mother tongue with carefulness and avoid negative effects which may arise in their study This suggestion should be done before or during the teaching and learning process  Grammar comprehension Explaining the meaning of a grammatical item is an important part of the language course and it can be conducted in both English and the mother tongue because explanation in English is sometimes too complicated For example, in teaching the formation of English plural nouns, when examples are given for the students to find out the rule of the formation, it is necessary to let the students speak out the rule in their language The teacher, then, should summarize the rule in simple English so that the students can understand and make some further explanation in the first language An important note is that the mother tongue should be used only in difficult situations which cannot be done in the target language  Checking understanding Maximizing the opportunity to practice English is necessary However, in some situations, for example, checking understanding while the students not have enough competence to communicate in English, it is not suggested to force them to it in the target language To check the students' understanding about the requirement of the activities or the lesson, the mother tongue is really useful The teacher can ask a simple question in English, then allow the students to repeat the requirement in their first language The important thing is maximizing the use of English and minimizing the use of the mother tongue in the practice 40 Besides those situations, the teachers can also employ their mother tongue to correct the wrong pronunciation, explain the meanings of some abstract words and expressions, explain some parts in the listening or reading activities that can be ambiguous In this way, the time can be saved to carry out other class activities Of course, the teachers should always bear it in mind that the mother tongue should only be used when necessary and they should try their best to create an English setting for the students so that the students can have more exposure to English although class time is limited 41 PART CONCLUSION Conclusion In the previous parts, much consideration has been put in the issues of using mother tongue in the language class and its impact in the teaching land learning second language Based on that discussion, some conclusions can be drawn out as follows: Firstly, the role of the mother tongue in teaching and learning English has been denied for many years Although it is the fact that the mother tongue can have both negative and positive effects, it still brings many benefits to both the teachers and students in the teaching and learning process According to the result of this study, the students consider first language as a means to help them study the target language easily To those who have a low-level of English, the use of the mother tongue is of great importance To the teachers, the mother tongue can help to solve many issues that English cannot Secondly, although both teachers and students agree with the role of the target language in the teaching and learning process, there are some certain occasions in which mother tongue can the work better Explaining some difficult grammar points, explaining the meaning of some difficult words and concepts are the most suitable situations for the use of mother tongue All the teachers and students emphasize that it is recommended not to overuse it in teaching or it will bring a lot of harm According to the result, both the teachers and the students suggest an approximate amount of 20-30% of time per period to be spent on the mother tongue spoken by the teachers in first-year classes while the students themselves prefer a little bigger amount of time of 30% - 40% for them to get a better understanding of the lesson and to feel more comfortable in difficult language situation Thirdly, the students of Thai Nguyen University of Education have various levels of English To the first - year students whose communicative skills are not good enough for them to learn and understand the whole lesson in English, the use of the 42 mother tongue in class is really helpful According to the observation, there are many cases in which the teachers have to use the mother tongue in order to achieve the goal of the lesson Limitations and suggestions for further research Due to the limitation of time and unfavorable conditions, our study was only implemented in a small scale Furthermore, we had no chance to study its impact on the students of other levels of English Also, this matter is practical to the first-year classes Therefore, it is suggested that other study on the impact of mother tongue onto the teaching and learning of second language should be carried out in a larger scale with a longer span of time Moreover, it is better to study its practical capability in other language and at other levels, for example, the students of third year or final year 43 REFERENCE Atkinson, D (1987) The mother tongue in the classroom: a neglected resource? ELT Journal, 41(4), 241-247 OUP Baker, C (2006) Foundations of Bilingual Education And Bilingualism Multilingual Matters: USA Brown, H.D (1994) Teaching Principles: An interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, 2nd edition Longman Cameron, L (2001) Teaching Languages to Young Learners CUP: Cambridge Cook, G (2000) Language Play and Language Learning OUP: Oxford Ellis, R (1997) Second Language Acquisition OUP: Oxford Griffee, D., T (2012) An Introduction to Second Language Research Method: Design and Data TESL-EJ Publication: America Hamers, J F, & Blanc, M H, (2000) Bilinguality and Bilingualism CUP: Cambridge Krashen, S D (1981) Second language acquisition and second language learning Pergamon Press 10 Krashen, S D (1982) Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition Pergamon Press 11 Lewis, M.& Hill, J (1985) Practical Techniques for Language Teaching Heinle ELT 12 Lightbown, P., & Spada, N (1993) How Languages are Learned OUP: Oxford 13 McMillan, B & Turnbull, M (2009) Teachers‟ Use of the First Language in French Immersion: Revisiting a Core Principle In Turnbull, M & O‟Cain, J.D (ed.) First Language Use in Second and Foreign Language Learning (pp 1534) MPG Books Group: Britain 14 Nation, P (2003) The role of the first language in foreign language learning Asian EFL Journal 15 Phillipson, R (1992) Linguistic Imperialism OUP: China 44 16 Richard, J C (1990) The Language Teaching Matrix CUP: Cambridge 17 Richards, R.C & Rodgers, T.S (2001) Approaches and Methods in language teaching, 2nd edition CUP: Cambridge 45 APPRENDICES Phiếu điều tra dành cho sinh viên năm thứ Vai trò tiếng mẹ đẻ việc giảng dạy tiếng Anh Dưới điều tra việc sử dụng tiếng mẹ đẻ lợi ích việc học tập giảng dạy tiếng Anh cho sinh viên năm thứ Phiếu điều tra bao gồm số câu hỏi liên quan đến vấn đề điều tra mà hi vọng bạn trả lời cách thành thật Câu trả lời cho câu hỏi dùng cho mục đích nghiên cứu Trước trả lời câu hỏi điều tra, xin vui lịng hay điền vài thơng tin sau: Bạn học khoa nào? Bạn học tiếng Anh rồi? Tại bạn học tiếng Anh? _ Giới tính: _ Tuổi: _ Hãy trả lời câu hỏi sau: Tiếng mẹ đẻ có nên sử dụng việc giảng dạy tiếng Anh khơng?  Có  Khơng Theo bạn bạn muốn giáo viên sử dụng tiếng mẹ đẻ lớp học?  nhiều  chút   khơng Hày giải thích câu trả lời bạn: _ _ _ Tiếng mẹ đẻ nên sử dụng học:  nói  ngữ pháp  viết  nghe  từ vựng  đọc  khơng sử dụng Hày giải thích câu trả lời bạn _ II _ _ 4.Theo bạn giáo viên nên sử dụng tiếng mẹ đẻ trường hợp sau (bạn chọn đáp án)  giải thich nghĩa từ vựng khó  giải thích vài chủ điểm ngữ pháp khó  đưa lời dẫn  đưa phản hổi, nhận xét cho sinh viên  giải thích cách sử dụng vài cụm từ khái niệm  kích thích sinh viên lớp học (ví dụ kể vài câu chuyện cười )  Giải thích vài phần đọc hay nghe khó sinh viên  Kiểm tra xem sinh viên có hiểu khơng  khơng nên sử dụng Các trường hợp khác mà bạn gợi ý: _ _ _ Theo bạn sinh viên năm thứ nên sử dụng tiếng mẹ đẻ khi:  làm việc theo cặp theo nhóm  Khi u cầu giáo viên giải thích phần học mà bạn không hiểu  đưa ý kiến Các trường hợp khác mà bạn gợi ý: _ _ _ Tại bạn lại nghĩ việc sử dụng tiếng mẹ đẻ cần thiết cho việc học tập giảng dạy tiếng Anh?  Nó giúp tơi hiểu học  Nó giúp tơi biết cách sử dụng từ vựng khó tiếng Anh  Nó giúp tơi hiểu yêu càu giáo viên hoạt đọng III  Nó giúp tơi cảm thấy thoải mái căng thảng Các trường hợp khác mà bạn gợi ý: _ _ _ Bạn có nghĩ việc sử dụng tiếng mẹ đẻ lớp học tiếng Anh giúp bạn học ngơn ngữ tốt không ?  không  chút  bình thường  nhiều Bao nhiêu phần trăm thời gian tiết học mà bạn nghĩ tiếng mẹ nên sử dụng giảng dạy tiếng Anh (chọn đáp án nhất) : a Bởi giáo viên  5%  10 %  20 %  30%  50 %  60 %  70 %  không  40% b Bởi sinh viên  5%  10 %  20 %  30%  50 %  60 %  70 %  không Xin chân thành cảm ơn giúp đỡ bạn ! IV  40% Questionnaire for the 1st -year students The role of mother tongue in teaching English Below is an inventory to see your attitudes towards the use of mother tongue in English classroom and its benefits in the learning of English There are a number of statements and questions that we would like you to answer sincerely The answers will be used for research purposes only Before doing the survey, we would like you to give some basic information as follows Which department are you studying in? How long have you been learning English? Why you learn English? _ Gender _ Age: Now please give your ideas about the following questions Should mother tongue be used in English classroom?  Yes  No How much you like your teacher to use your mother tongue in class:  a lot  a little  sometimes  no Give your explanation: _ _ _ It's better to use mother tongue when learning:  speaking  writing  listening  grammar  vocabulary  none of them  reading Give your explanation: _ _ _ When you think the teacher should use mother tongue in English classroom?  explaining the meanings of some difficult words V  explaining some complex grammar rules  giving instructions  giving feedbacks  explaining the use of some phrases or concepts  motivating students in class (telling some jokes )  Explaining some parts of the reading or listening that are too difficult to the students  Checking understanding  never being used Others: _ _ When you think students should be allowed to use mother tongue in class?  when working in pairs or groups  when asking the teachers to explain some parts of the lessons that you don't understand  giving opinion Others: _ _ Why you think using mother tongue is necessary in English classroom ?  it helps me to understand the lesson better  It helps me to know how to use some difficult words and phrases better  It helps me to understand the teacher's requirement of each activity  It helps me to feel more comfortable and less stressed Others: _ _ Do you think the use of mother tongue in English classroom can help you learn this VI language well?  no  a little  normal  a lot What percentage of time you think mother tongue should be used in class? (Choose only one) a by the teacher:  5%  10 % 40%  50 %  60 % b by the students:  5%  10 % 40%  50 %  60 %  20 %  30%  70 %  none  20 %  30%  70 %  none Thank you for your co-operation! VII   Interview questions for the Teachers Interviewee: Date: _ Years of teaching experience: Below are some questions related to the use of mother tongue in general and Vietnamese in particular Please, answer them sincerely In what way you think the English native teachers are better than the teachers of the first language when teaching English to the first-year students? When you allow your students to speak in Vietnamese? Do you think using Vietnamese is necessary to teach English to the 1st-year students? Why? How often you use Vietnamese to teach English to the first-year students? Is it effective? What benefits you and your first years students gain from using Vietnamese in an English class? When and how should mother tongue be used to teach English to the 1st-year students? How much time you think Vietnamese should be used to teach English to the 1st-year students? VIII Classroom observation sheet Class: _ Time: _ Date: Items Teacher's activities Giving instructions Explaining new words or phrases Explaining difficult grammar points Checking understanding Giving feedbacks Motivating students in class IX Student's response Explaining complex ideas and concepts Others Percentage of time out of teacher's talking time in using mother tongue to teach English: _ Percentage of time out of students' talking time in using mother tongue in English class: _ X ... Identifying the role of mother tongue in the teaching and learning of English at Thai Nguyen University of Education  Investigating the students' attitudes towards the use of mother tongue in teaching. .. that the mother tongue can bring to the English lesson as a teaching aid in the classroom It is quite obvious that the use of the mother tongue in class would facilitate the learning and teaching. .. is natural to bring the rule of their first language into the target language in the process of learning Therefore, the content of the mother tongue is very easy to influence the use of the foreign