Applying content based instruction to develop speaking skills for students majoring in tourism at a public university in hanoi

This research aimed to find out how Contentbased instruction was implemented to improve speaking skills for university tourism students and their attitudes toward this CBI method. Data were obtained through the questionnaires and teaching diaries instruments and then analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings indicate that most of the students achieved considerable progress in their speaking while being taught with CBI method in speaking lessons, and their attitudes toward CBI implementation were positive. Besides, the findings and discussion of the research suggested how to implement CBI, Themebased Model with the approach of Stoller and Grabe forward the six Ts method. Six Ts represent themes, texts, topics, threads, tasks, and transitions into teaching students to speak in class and how to ensure that each lesson focus on both Content learning objectives and Language learning objective

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN TÁ NAM APPLYING CONTENT BASED INSTRUCTION TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS FOR STUDENTS MAJORING IN TOURISM AT A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IN HANOI (Áp dụng phương pháp dạy học tích hợp với nội dung để phát triển kỹ nói cho sinh viên chuyên ngành du lịch trường đại học Hà Nội) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 HANOI-2020 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN TÁ NAM APPLYING CONTENT BASED INSTRUCTION TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS FOR STUDENTS MAJORING IN TOURISM AT A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IN HANOI (Áp dụng phương pháp dạy học tích hợp với nội dung để phát triển kỹ nói cho sinh viên chuyên ngành du lịch trường đại học hà nội) M.A MINOR THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01 Supervisor : Dr Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã HANOI-2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS i DECLARATION iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v ABSTRACT vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1.Rationale of the study 1.2.Aims and objectives of the study 1.3.Research questions 1.4.Scope of the study 1.5.Significance of the study 1.6.Organization of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1.Content-based instruction 2.1.1.Definitions of Content-based instruction 2.1.2.Types of Content-based instruction 2.1.2.1.Theme – based Model 2.1.2.2.Sheltered Model 2.1.2.3.Adjunct Model 2.1.3.Benefits and Challenges of Content-based instruction 2.1.3.1.Benefits of Content-based instruction 2.1.3.2.Challenges of Content-based instruction 10 2.1.4.Problems existing in teaching English speaking for tourism students 11 2.1.5 CBI in teaching English speaking for tourism students 13 2.2.Teaching speaking skills: 15 2.2.1.Overview of speaking skills 15 2.2.2.Speaking skills for tour guides 18 2.2.3.Traditional Teaching speaking 19 i 2.2.4.CBI teaching Speaking 20 2.3.Previous studies 20 2.3.1.Previous studies in the world 21 2.3.2.Previous studies in Vietnam 22 2.4.Summary 23 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 25 3.1.Context of the study 25 3.1.1.Setting of the study 25 3.1.2.Participants 27 3.1.3.Materials 27 3.1.3.1.Teaching materials 27 3.1.3.2.Course requirement for students 28 3.1.3.3.Speaking in each lesson 28 3.1.3.4.The relevance of the book 29 3.1.3.5.Classroom procedures for a period of Speaking teaching 30 3.1.4.A model lesson 31 3.2.Research study 32 3.2.1.Research approach 32 3.2.2.Research procedure 32 3.3.Data collection instruments 34 3.3.1.Questionnaire 34 3.3.2.Teaching diaries 35 3.4.Data analysis methods 36 3.5.Summary 36 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 37 4.1.Findings 37 4.1.1 To what extend CBI is implemented to develop speaking skills for students at the Faculty of Tourism at a university 37 4.1.2.Students‘ attitudes toward CBI implementation 41 4.1.3.Students‘ improvement after the course 45 ii 4.2.Discussion 48 4.2.1 Some experience lessons after applying CBI into teaching speaking 48 4.2.2.Previous related finding discussion 49 4.2.3 Students‘ participation 50 4.2.4 Reading materials 51 4.2.5.Suggested changes 52 4.3.Summary 52 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 53 1.Recapitulation 53 2.Concluding remarks 53 3.Limitations 54 4.Recommendations 54 REFERENCES 56 APPENDICES I APPENDIX The questionnaire on applying Content-based instruction to develop speaking skills for students majoring in Tourism I APPENDIX Criteria for teaching diaries III APPENDIX A sample of teaching diary IV APPENDIX A sample lesson plan for the experimental Class VII APPENDIX Extra material for Unit XI APPENDIX Lesson plan number 1: Working in a hotel XII APPENDIX Lesson plan number 2: Water city XIV APPENDIX Lesson plan number 2: Water city XV iii DECLARATION I, Nguyen Ta Nam, hereby certify that the thesis entitled ―Applying content-based instruction to develop speaking skills for students majoring in tourism at a public university in Hanoi.‖ is submitted for the partial fulfillment of the Degree of Master of Arts at the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi I also declare that this thesis is the result of my research and efforts and it has not been submitted for any other purposes Hanoi, 2020 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my heartfelt thank and my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dr Vu Thi Thanh Nha for her enlightening guidance, precious suggestions, and invaluable encouragement during my fulfillment of this minor thesis My sincere thanks go to all of the lecturers and the staff of the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies at the University of Languages and International Studies for their valuable lectures on which my minor thesis was laid the foundation I truly wish to thank all the students of class QTLH D2019 at a public university who have actively participated in the research I am deeply grateful to my family for their great support and to many of my friends for their notable assistance v ABSTRACT This research aimed to find out how Content-based instruction was implemented to improve speaking skills for university tourism students and their attitudes toward this CBI method Data were obtained through the questionnaires and teaching diaries instruments and then analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively The findings indicate that most of the students achieved considerable progress in their speaking while being taught with CBI method in speaking lessons, and their attitudes toward CBI implementation were positive Besides, the findings and discussion of the research suggested how to implement CBI Theme-based Model into teaching students to speak in class and how to ensure that each lesson focus on both Content learning objectives and Language learning objectives Keywords: Content-based instruction, Speaking, Vietnamese tourism, vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CBI: Content-based Instruction CBLP: Content-based Lesson Plans ESP: English for Specific Purposes LSP: Language for Specific Purposes vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figure 1: Students‘ roadmap to learning English in the Faculty of Culture and Tourism 26 Figure Classroom procedures of speaking teaching to students learning English in the faculty of Culture and Tourism 30 Figure 3: Dialectic Action Research Spiral Mills (2003, pp.18-19) 33 Figure 4: The objectives that the teacher wants students to have after the lessons 38 Figure 5: Topics of lessons are necessary for students‘ career in the future 39 Figure 6: Students‘ favorite activities in speaking lessons 39 Figure 7: Teacher‘s emphasis is on subject content 41 Figure 8: Suitability of CBI implementation for students majoring in tourism 42 Figure 9: Students‘ teaching method preference 42 Figure 10: Topics of lessons are necessary for students‘ career in the future 43 Figure 11: Students‘ speaking anxiety 44 Figure 12: Students‘ interest in learning English 44 Figure 14: Students‘ confidence after the course 46 Figure 15: Students‘ presentation skills after the course 47 Figure 16: Students who can talk about tourism-related topics 47 Figure 17: Students‘ improvement in tourism-related vocabulary 48 viii APPENDIX A SAMPLE OF TEACHING DIARY 1st teaching diary Unit 1: Speaking topic – All in a day’s work (hospitality) 12th August 2019 Period: 06 Time: 12:30-13:20 Lesson procedures In this lesson, I followed stages of the speaking lesson including warmup- Input- Think- Pair- Share In the warm-up stage, I asked the students to look at the pictures in the book and making a prediction about the topic of the text first to motivate them to get involved in the lesson and introduce them to the topic of the lesson The students seemed to be very interested in this task More students stopped talking to pay attention to the lesson Next, I asked the students to brainstorm the advantages and disadvantages of working in the hotel After that, I divided the class into sides, to talk about what they are for In the input stage, I asked the students to read the article and then answer the question of why the title of the article is ―Not always hospitality‖ After reading the text, most students can answer that question and they also gained more knowledge about the advantages and disadvantages of working in a hotel In this stage, I also let students the listening part: ―daily duties‖ In this part, students could understand what are SOs? What are COs? And what the housekeepers usually if they have an SOs In the Think and Pair stages, I intended to ask the students to discuss in groups of -4 students to relate themselves with the text However, the students are asked to try to remember the content of the text and share it with other members of the group IV Students’ participation At the beginning of the lesson, many students seemed to be shy and not ready for any activities But after I gave them some suggestions so that they can be more eager to the topic of the lesson because they are students of Tourism and culture faculty, so that they have some certain knowledge about the topic Therefore they have more things to speak and to share After that, they concentrate on the lesson more Students are mostly interested in the part talking about the advantages and disadvantages of working in a hotel They can share a lot of things which they know Most students work in a group quite well, although there are some students who are quite shy There are a lot of students who volunteer to stand up and speak out about what they have discussed with their team members Reading materials (Providing more content) ―Hospitality‖ seemed to be a very familiar topic for students because they have had some experiences and background knowledge related to the topic Some students were excited to talk about the information they can get from the article One student volunteers to talk about the responsibilities of the hotel manager, and so on … According to my observation, the article does not provide enough information about the hospitality industry The students need to know more about this because it is what the students need to have for their careers in the future Content checking Before ending the lesson, the students were asked some questions about some specific information in the text The students were also keen on the previewing task and eager to stand up to answer the questions However, not all students can speak out what they want to express what they know in their mother tongue V Suggested changing In the next lesson, I should spend more time on the last step, giving students more time to summarize what they have learned in the lesson and ask them to talk more about the knowledge content related to their major of tourism and hospitality VI APPENDIX A SAMPLE LESSON PLAN FOR THE EXPERIMENTAL CLASS Unit 1: All in a day’s work Period 1: Reading skills I Level: 33 students - Pre-intermediate level of English II Time Allowance: 50‘ III Objectives: Communicative goal: To talk about the advantages and disadvantages of working in a hotel Linguistic goal: To identify the vocabulary related to working in a hotel Content goal: To know the duties of receptionists, duty manager, doorman, and housekeeper .Teaching Aids: student book, projector, black board, etc IV Stages Procedures: Aims Teacher’s activities Students’ activities Warm-up To motivate Task 1: Previewing the text Discuss (5ms) the students Ask the students the question: partner to learn the Which industry is the industry answer lesson and to of people who deal with introduce the people? topic of the lesson After calling some students to stand up to answer, the teacher gives out the correct answer and ask students What you know about the hospitality industry? VII with a and the questions pre To activate speaking ( students‘ 10 ms) Task 2: Look at the picture Look at the picture and Ask students to look at the share with their partners background pictures and give them a few knowledge minutes to think about the advantages and disadvantages of working in a hotel before comparing their answers with their partners and then with the rest of the class Possible advantages: meet lots of people; it is interesting; lots of different jobs Possible disadvantages: hours are long and unsociable; usually work at weekends; guests may be difficult While Help Task 3: Reading material Read the text and what speaking ( students get Tell students to read the text in the teacher required developing more order to find the advantages content) knowledge and disadvantages of working ( 10 ms) about their in a hotel and then to compare major them with their own ideas from exercise Ask them whether they think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages Advantages: fast-growing industry; exciting VIII career, job satisfaction variety of jobs; paid sick leave and holidays; free food Some free holidays; free or cheap accommodation Students read the text again and answer the Disadvantages: hard work, questions, try to especially peak season; hours remember the topic‘s are long; seven-day week Task 4: expand vocabulary (Ex3 P6) Now students need to read in more detail and may need help with some vocabulary When they have found the answers, ask students to self-check-in pairs first Housekeeper; management; administration jobs, e.g accountant, marketing; concierge; porter Because it is not an easy job and the hours can be very long They are responsible for the rooms, food and beverage service, registration, and general management Each job involves dealing IX vocabulary with people Exciting, hard, and different Post Providing speaking more content content and practise concentrating 14 ms about Deliver students the extra skills so that they can hospitality material handout remember the content to Task 5: remember extra Students work in groups Divide the class into teams: present it in front of the one for the duties of class receptionists and one for duties of the hotel manager Each team has munites to read and remember, and then each team send presenter to go to the board and talk about it without reading in minutes After that teacher give comment or feedback ( 2ms) Wrap-up To check Task Writing feedback 5ms how many Students will have minutes leaving the class all percentages to write down feedback and of content Students it and before students have to hand in what they can learn/ remember those feedbacks can students about the lesson remember after the lesson V Homework (1m) Make a video to present the duties of the duty manager in a small hotel X APPENDIX EXTRA MATERIAL FOR UNIT Collected and edited: Nguyen Ta Nam MAIN DUTIES OF RECEPTIONIST https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/hotel-receptionist Day-to-day tasks In this role you could be:  dealing with bookings  completing procedures when guests arrive and leave  choosing rooms and handing out keys  preparing bills and taking payments  taking and passing on messages to guests  dealing with special requests from guests (like booking theatre tickets or storing valuable items)  answering questions  dealing with complaints or problems MAIN DUTIES OF HOTEL MANAGER https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/hotel-manager Day-to-day tasks Your day-to-day tasks may include:  setting budgets and forecasting income  deciding business targets and marketing  fire safety and building security  licensing regulations as they relate to the hotel  overseeing larger corporate bookings and events  managing staffing and resources  organizing building maintenance  dealing with customer complaints and comments  in charge of health and safety, including environmental health XI APPENDIX LESSON PLAN NUMBER 1: WORKING IN A HOTEL Communicative goal: To talk about the advantages and disadvantages of working in a hotel Linguistic goal: To identify the vocabulary related to working in a hotel Content goal: know the duties of receptionists, duty manager, doorman, and housekeeper Warm-up activity: - What you think about working in a hotel? - Do you know which industry is called the industry of people deal with people? - When talking about working in a hotel what are the words or things come first to your mind? Development: Advantages of working in a hotel Disadvantages of working in a hotel -can meet idols/ famous people ( - the working time is not fixed ( celebrity) working on shifts, both days and - can work inside the hotel with air nights) conditioning - have to smile all day even you are -wearing nice uniform very tired -get tips from guests - may have some impolite guests Students read an article about ―hospitable‖ and then they answered some questions about it XII Questions: Why is the hospitality industry not always hospital? What responsibilities does a hotel manager have in a small hotel? Find three adjectives that describe a career in hospitality industry? XIII APPENDIX LESSON PLAN NUMBER 2: WATER CITY Communicative goal: To talk about hotels in Venice and what students think about their star ratings are Linguistic goal: To identify the vocabulary related to hotel star ratings, facilities, and services in these hotels Content goal: students can remember and make a speech about Venice What the hotel star ratings are Warm-up activity: - What you know about water cities? - What are the most important facilities for you when staying in a hotel? Development: Students read the hotel descriptions and match them to their star ratings What are the best hotels in your city? What makes them special? XIV APPENDIX COURSE SCHEDULE (9 WEEKS) Periods 6-10 Date 12/8/2019 Topics All in Objectives a -Professional skills: completing hotel day‘s work registration forms ( - Language focus: present simple and hospitality) adverbs of frequency -Vocabulary: hotel jobs, work duties, countries, and nationalities - Communicative goal: To talk about the advantages and disadvantages of working in a hotel - Content goal: know the duties of receptionists, duty manager, doorman, and housekeeper 6-10 19/8/2019 Fly-drive -Professional skills: dealing holiday telephone inquiries and bookings with -Language focus: present continuous for future arrangements -Vocabulary: car-hire expressions Communicative goal: practise making conversation when being on phone with customers - Content goal: know the procedures of taking note on the booking form when being on the phone XV 6-10 26/8/2019 Table for -Professional two skills: dealing with customer complaints -Language focus: count and uncount nouns; some, any; much, many, a lot - Vocabulary: describing food - Communicative goal: To be able to communicate with guests when serving in a restaurant, taking orders from guests - Content goal: know the duties of a waiter or waitress 6-10 09/9/2019 City tours -Professional skills: dealing with public -Language focus: Past simple, Whquestions; Preposition of place -Vocabulary: places of interest, prepositional phrases - Communicative goal: To be able to make a presentation about some destinations in Hanoi - Content goal: have good knowledge of some destinations in Hanoi to be able to be a professional tour guide 6-10 16/9/2019 Water cities -Professional skills: describing hotels and facilities, dealing with new words -Language focus: Comparatives and Superlatives - Vocabulary: Adjectives of description, accommodation, and hotel facilities XVI - Communicative goal: To be able to make a presentation about Venice- the city of water - Content goal: have good knowledge about Venice and Italy 6-10 23/9/2019 Service and -Professional skills: writing a letter of safety apology -Language focus: Modal Verbs, giving advice - Vocabulary: negative adjectives - Communicative goal: To be able to give advice to tourists about services and safety - Content goal: have good knowledge about keeping the tourists safe and give them helpful advice 6-10 30/9/2019 Winter holidays -Professional skills: selling optional extras, giving directions, replying to emails -Language focus: giving instructions, the passive -Vocabulary: ski equipment, entertainment - Communicative goal: To be able to give instructions and directions to tourists and know how to sell optional extras - Content goal: have good knowledge about optional extras 6-10 7/10/2019 Presentation Check students‘ communicative XVII 6-10 for 30% abilities, making presentation skills, mark and presentation content 15/10/2019 Revision for Help students have a revision about all the final test the topics with the main and important content that they need to memorize XVIII ... ? ?Applying Content- Base Instruction to develop speaking skills for students majoring in Tourism at a public university in Hanoi. ‖ to find out good ways to help the students improve their speaking. ..VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN TÁ NAM APPLYING CONTENT BASED INSTRUCTION TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILLS FOR. .. is applied in teaching speaking for students majoring in Tourism and how students? ?? attitudes are toward it After that, there will have some suggestions about how to approach content- based instruction