Kết hợp tiếng anh như một ngôn ngữ quốc tế vào trong tài liệu dạy nghe dành cho sinh viên năm nhất chương trình chất lượng cao

The spread of English on a global language has resulted in the emergence of a new paradigm of English language teaching, English as an International Language (EIL), which switches the focus from native models to communicative effectiveness and the equal status of all varieties of English and cultures. This emergence urges scholars, educators and teachers to reconsider the appropriate approach to design syllabus materials. In Vietnam, though the goal of communicative effectiveness in English language teaching (ELT) is acknowledged, EIL syllabus material design remains at the stage of exploring teachers’ and students’ perceptions of EIL. Little attention has been given to measure the extent to which EIL has actually been incorporated in teaching materials. This study aims to explore the perceptions of material developers regarding EIL incorporation in teaching materials and the actual extent of EIL integration in teaching materials within the scale of listening skill of the course 2B, Fasttrack program, Faculty of English Teacher Education. The results show that there exists a mismatch between the material developers’ appreciation of EIL incorporation and their modest practices of incorporating EIL in teaching materials. However, due to various shortcomings, the study asks for more related research regarding the incorporation of EIL to capture a big picture of EIL implementation.

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

INCORPORATING ENGLISH AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE IN TEACHING MATERIALS OF LISTENING SKILL FOR FIRST-YEAR FAST-TRACK STUDENTS

Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Thu Hang, M.A Student: Nguyen Phuong Anh

Course: QH2014.E1

HANOI - 2018

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

KẾT HỢP TIẾNG ANH NHƯ MỘT NGÔN NGỮ QUỐC TẾ VÀO TRONG TÀI LIỆU DẠY NGHE DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM NHẤT CHƯƠNG TRÌNH CHẤT LƯỢNG CAO

Giáo viên hướng dẫn : Ths Nguyễn Thị Thu Hằng Sinh viên : Nguyễn Phương Anh

Khóa : QH2014.E1

HÀ NỘI - 2018

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ACCEPTANCE PAGE

I hereby state that I, Nguyen Phuong Anh, QH2014.E1, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts Honors Program accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s 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

(Signed)

Nguyen Phuong Anh

29/05/2018

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

To be honest, this graduation paper is the first scientific work of one-hundred

percent mine From the start of the thesis till the day of submission, I have met with

thousands of pressures and obstacles that no words could express From finding a supervisor, finding reference materials, making sense of the materials, collecting data just to receive refusal, and then again making sense of the collected materials, I was

always swimming in a sea with no island within sight Luckily, I was not without saviors and delightful moments But for these people, I could not manage to swim through to the submission day So this acknowledgement is a token of my gratitude to those who have supported me for the last six months

Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Ms Thu Hang for her continuous support of my study and her knowledge and experience that

guide me to the end of the graduation paper I would also like to treasure her patience, motivation, and tolerance for my procrastination Furthermore, I would also like to send the deepest thank to Ms Pham Ha for having been my academic advisor for my thesis I could not have imagined where this study could have been destined to without

my supervisor and advisor

Secondly, I deeply appreciate the participants of this study, the Fast-track year classes and their teachers, who have willingly and enthusiastically participated in this study

first-Thirdly, I would like to sincerely thank my soulmate, Minh Duc, who has supported me mentally, physically and academically I have to admit that I benefit a great deal from exchanging my difficulties with him, even though we are different in

research fields

Fourthly, I owe my family members a big thank for their spiritual support in times of hardship and also my cats for entertaining me when I am down Without them,

I would not have managed at all, let alone finish the graduation paper

Fifthly, I thank my friends and classmates who have taken time to listen to my difficulties and helped me when I am in need Thanks for being sleeplessly together during those final days of our university life

Finally, I want to thank myself… for not quitting As my supervisor said, “You should be proud of yourself” I am

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ABSTRACT

The spread of English on a global language has resulted in the emergence of a new paradigm of English language teaching, English as an International Language (EIL), which switches the focus from native models to communicative effectiveness and the

equal status of all varieties of English and cultures This emergence urges scholars, educators and teachers to reconsider the appropriate approach to design syllabus materials In Vietnam, though the goal of communicative effectiveness in English language teaching (ELT) is acknowledged, EIL syllabus material design remains at the stage of exploring teachers‟ and students‟ perceptions of EIL Little attention has been given to measure the extent to which EIL has actually been incorporated in teaching

materials This study aims to explore the perceptions of material developers regarding EIL incorporation in teaching materials and the actual extent of EIL integration in teaching materials within the scale of listening skill of the course 2B*, Fast-track program, Faculty of English Teacher Education The results show that there exists a mismatch between the material developers‟ appreciation of EIL incorporation and their modest practices of incorporating EIL in teaching materials However, due to various

shortcomings, the study asks for more related research regarding the incorporation of

EIL to capture a big picture of EIL implementation

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACCEPTANCE PAGE i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF FIGURES viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background of the study 1

1.2 Statement of research problem and questions 2

1.3 Scope of the study 3

1.4 Significance of the study 3

1.5 Organization 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Key concepts in teaching English as an International Language 5

2.1.1 The spread of English as an International Language 5

2.1.2 English as an International Language and World Englishes 5

2.1.3 Features of English as an International Language 7

2.2 Teaching English as an International Language 10

2.2.1 Changing communicative contexts 10

2.2.2 The need to teach English as an International Language 11

2.3 Teaching materials in English as an International Language 11

2.3.1 Definition of teaching materials 11

2.3.4 Traditional teaching materials 12

2.3.5 Principles of EIL material evaluation 13

2.4 Teaching listening skill in Fast-track program 18

2.4.1 Teaching listening skill in the course 2B* 18

2.4.2 Listening materials in the course 2B* 18

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 21

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3.1 Introduction 21

3.2 Research approaches 21

3.3 Data collection methods 21

3.2 Data collection instruments 23

3.3 Data collection process 24

3.3.1 Participants 24

3.3.2 Data collection procedure 25

3.4 Data analysis 26

3.4.1 Document analysis 26

3.4.2 Interviews 27

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 28

4.1 Findings from interviews 28

4.1.1 Different interpretations of EIL 28

4.1.2 Recognition of the importance of teaching EIL in the globalized context 29 4.1.3 The need to incorporate EIL in teaching listening to first-year students in Fast-track program 30

4.1.4 The perceptions of incorporating EIL in teaching materials 31

4.2 Findings from document analysis 33

4.2.1 Evaluation of the sources of the teaching materials 33

4.2.2 Overview of the EIL integration in teaching materials of listening skill 35

4.2.3 Material evaluation by specific principles 38

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 46

5.1 Summary of major findings 46

5.1.1 The perceptions of integrating EIL in teaching materials 46

5.1.2 The extent of EIL inclusion in the teaching materials of listening skill 47

5.2 Implications 48

5.3 Limitations of the study 49

5.4 Suggestions for further studies 49

REFERENCES 50

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APPENDIX 1: LIST OF 2B* COURSE MATERIALS 55

APPENDIX 2: CHECKLIST FOR EVALUATING EIL TEACHING MATERIALS 56

APPENDIX 3: DOCUMENT ANALYSIS RECORD 58

APPENDIX 4: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 60

APPENDIX 5: SAMPLE OF INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT 61

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ABBREVIATIONS

EIL English as an International Language

ELT English language teaching

ESL English as a Second language

FELTE Faculty of English Language Teacher Education

ELF English as lingua franca

EGL English as global language

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Kachru‟s three circle of World Englishes (Kachru, 1992)

Figure 3.2 Summary of data collection procedure

Figure 4.3 Material evaluation by EIL material evaluation principles

Figure 4.4 The level of EIL integration by sub-criteria

Figure 4.5 The correlation between the teaching contents and the

incorporated varieties of English

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Summary of sources of data

Table 4.1 The total number of collected documents and the distribution by

type of listening activity Table 4.2 The EIL integration in different types of materials

Table 4.6 One example of local culture in the teaching materials

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study

The imperialism, colonization as well as globalization have resulted in the spread of English as a means for international communication with a tremendous scope Nowadays, English becomes the official language of 88 countries, including 60 sovereign and 28 non-sovereign states (British Council, 2014) and the most common second language in the world (McKay, 2012) In different parts of the world, English is used as the language of communication, of international diplomacy, in international working environment, of research and publishing and for information sharing (McKay, 2012) In language education, English is the most widely taught foreign language (McKay, 2012)

Because of the geographical spread of English, the number of English speakers from countries where English is not mother tongue outnumbers the number of native speakers by three to one (Seidlhofer, 2011, cited in Garcia, 2013) Hence, English is no longer the language of native speakers (NS), but its ownership has now been reclaimed

“to the people who speak it” (Norton, 1997, p 427) Indeed, following the widespread use of English, English takes on the characteristics of people who speak it Non-native speakers of English (NNS) adapt English both structurally and pragmatically (Widdowson, 2003) to fit with the local use of English

The spread of English and the reclaimed ownership of English have led scholars, educators, teachers, and students to the question of what pedagogical approach to adopt The traditional English language teaching (ELT) approach has been

in favor of native speakers‟ models as it is believed that this would allow them to communicate with NS (McKay 2002) Nonetheless, in the time when English is widely promoted in every educational system, especially in countries which English is acquired as a foreign language, it is important to understand communication is not restricted between native and non-native speakers only, but “include native-to-non-native and non-native-to non-native interaction” (Truong, 2004, p 4) In the same light, speakers of English as a foreign language (EFL) are often exposed to English speakers

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from English-speaking and non-English-speaking countries It means that pedagogical approaches should be compatible with the learners‟ needs for communication (Matsuda, 2003) The implications for English language teaching lies in the needs to

adopt an approach to teach English and design syllabus materials that is both

context-sensitive and suit the local needs Following such implications, English as an International Language (EIL) has emerged as a new paradigm of ELT, which various

scholars have based on to develop syllabus materials

1.2 Statement of research problem and questions

Much to the current status of World Englishes “as a legitimate alternative to the traditional English as a Second Language (ESL)” (Matsuda, 2003, p.719) and the needs

to acquire different varieties of English, EIL is still in the center of debate in the countries where English is learned as a second and a foreign language In those countries, the traditional ELT approach has been embracing British and American English as the model for curriculum and material development, while EIL has a modest attention in ELT In the context of Vietnam, incorporating EIL in language teaching are under constraints because of two reasons Firstly, the practices of teaching and learning English remain under the influence of Inner-circle countries (Do, 2012) Secondly, there are challenges regarding teachers‟ capacity, assessment, environment for practice and limited materials (Phan, 2017)

However, in the Faculty of English Teacher Education (FELTE) of University

of Languages and International Studies (ULIS), the integration of EIL in teaching English has been seriously considered and implemented According to Do (2012), “The non-native approach to language teaching has been formed within a segment of

teaching staff and it is battling against the traditional native approach Much improvement in teaching materials and methods has been made towards involving more Englishes.” (p.82) It means that even though EIL has started to receive attention from teachers and educators in the university, the implementation of EIL is still in its

infancy and it encounters plentiful challenges

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Within the context of EIL inclusion in teaching practices, the previous studies have been conducted and they have contributed to examining the changing status of English (Doan, 2014), teachers‟ and students‟ beliefs about EIL methodology (Do, 2012) and their perceptions of and attitudes towards EIL (Phan, 2016) Given the EIL paradigm shift, nonetheless, few studies address the extent to which or the way in which EIL has actually been integrated into teaching materials Acknowledging this gap, the research is designed to seek answers to the following questions:

1 What do the material developers of listening skill for first-year fast-track students at Faculty of English Language Teacher Education perceive of integrating English as an International Language in teaching materials?

2 To what extent is English as an International Language incorporated in the teaching materials of listening skill for first-year fast-track students at Faculty of English Language Teacher Education?

1.3 Scope of the study

Incorporating EIL in teaching English into educational system has gained numerous space in the discussions among scholars all over the world and it necessitates

a comprehensive study to accommodate the matter However, within the limit of a graduation thesis, it is impossible to conduct the research universally Hence, the scope

of the research is only teaching materials of listening skill for first-year fast-track program, FELTE, ULIS Specifically, the study is conducted on the scope of in-class syllabus materials including listening materials and handouts of the course 2B*, with a particular focus on listening skill Selected materials for research are chosen due to its compatibility with the purpose of the study, which is to examine the integration of EIL

in teaching materials of listening skill Particularly, they are the materials used to teach

Topic-based listening, Vocabulary, and Pronunciation

1.4 Significance of the study

The research will make significant contributions to the practices of EIL pedagogy in different ways Firstly, together with previous studies on EIL pedagogies, this study is bound to reinforce the rationale for incorporating EIL in teaching materials

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corresponding learners‟ needs, which is currently earning a moderate status in Vietnam The way in which EIL is integrated into teaching materials of listening skill serves as a reference for universities and institutions in Vietnam to design their own

EIL courses Secondly, it will create research gaps for further investigation on this matter Thirdly, when the research has been finished, it will probably reveal the shortcomings in terms of material development in the subject In this way, the drawbacks are recognized, which allows room for proper adjustments from the course developers and material developers Finally, the research especially benefits students at ULIS The study will help to raise the awareness of learning EIL for international communication among FELTE students As students at FELTE are English-majored students, whose future career involves frequent exposure to both native and non-native English speakers, it is important that they are aware of different varieties of English and multiculturalism for communication effectiveness

1.5 Organization

The study is divided into five chapters The first chapter aims to introduce the

statement of the research problem and the research questions in general The second chapter reviews the theoretical framework related to the spread of English that necessitates the need to teaching EIL, the distinctions of EIL and WE, and principles

for evaluating teaching materials in the light of EIL This chapter also gives a general account of the scope of the study, which is the course 2B* and the materials used to

teach listening skill In the third chapter, the methodology which the study follows to generate the results is described in details The methods for researching involves the

integration of qualitative and quantitative approaches, with the instruments of structured interviews and document analysis Based on the third chapter, the findings are analyzed and thoroughly discussed in the fourth chapter The final chapter summarizes the themes arisen from the findings as well as drawing out the possible pedagogical implications The chapter ends with a highlight of the limitations of the study and suggestions for further research

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Key concepts in teaching English as an International Language

2.1.1 The spread of English as an International Language

There is one common assumption that the status of „international‟ that a language gains is based on the number of native speakers If this is the case, then there raises a question of why Mandarin (1,197 million native speakers) or Spanish (406 million native speakers) cannot be called an international language (McKay & Brown, 2016) whereas English (350 million native speakers) is called an international language The answer is manifested in two factors: the geographical distribution of that language and the spread of a language by the native speakers of other first languages (McKay, 2002) Even though Mandarin and Spanish have far more native speakers than English, English is actually spoken by far more second language users (approximately 1150 million) (Statisia, 2017) Furthermore, as mentioned in Chapter 1,

88 sovereign and non-sovereign states recognize English as an official language Based

on these facts, indeed, English can be considered an international language and it has achieved “an unprecedented scope” (Alptekin, 2005, p.1) that no other languages can

be a match to

To achieve such tremendous scope, the original English has undergone milestones to reach its current global status nowadays First, as a result of technological advances, English has been brought to the world and emerged as the most widely spoken languages in all fields (Crystal 1997, cited in Marlina, 2014) such as science, technology, media, and education Second, English has attained its global scope thanks

to the special role that an increasing number of countries entitle to it (Crystal, 1997) This special role is not only acknowledged in the native countries but also in countries where it is used as a second or foreign language

2.1.2 English as an International Language and World Englishes

English as an International Language

The term “English as an International Language” is defined inconsistently by various scholars According to Marlina (2018, p.20), EIL is variously defined as “the

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functions or uses of English in international contexts” (Mastuda & Friedrich, 2010), “a variety of English” by Tomlinson (2003) and (Winddowson, 1997) and a newly emerged “paradigms or perspectives” in ELT (McKay, 2002; Sharifian, 2009)

Within the scope of this study, the definition of EIL is drawn from the third standpoint According to Marlina (2018), as a paradigm or perspective, EIL embraces

the recognition of international functions of English and its use in a wide range of areas

by speakers of diverse cultural backgrounds However, Sharifian (2009) also notes a possible misunderstanding related to EIL, that is the use of the word “English” together with an adjective probably implies a particular variety such as Singaporean English or Malaysian English Because of the confusion caused by the word „international‟, it is

essential to bear in mind that there exists no single variety of English that serve the purposes of international communication This means that instead of focusing on one

particular variety, it should be the pluricentricity of English that EIL paradigm emphasizes In the international communicative contexts, speakers of diverse language backgrounds are able to employ a variety or varieties of English that they are most familiar with and use various communicative strategies in making meaning, negotiating meaning and communicating (Marlina, 2018) Through the lends of EIL paradigm, researchers, scholars and educators can

 revisit and reconsider their ways of conceptualizing English;

 reassess their analytical tools and the approaches they adopt in the Sociolinguistics of English and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) disciplines; and

 revise their pedagogical strategies for English language education in the light of the tremendous changes that English has undergone as a result of its global expansion in recent decades (Marlina, 2018, p 21)

World Englishes

Besides EIL, there are also other terminologies that are often considered

synonymous with EIL such as World Englishes (WE), English as a lingua franca

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(ELF) and English as a global language (EGL) However, it is essential to realize the

characteristics of each of these terms to avoid confusion

Firstly, the term „World Englishes‟ embodies a multitude of definitions which are inconsistently used by scholars According to Marlina (2018), World Englishes are commonly interpreted in three ways: (1) a reference to all varieties of Englishes, (2)

„new Englishes‟ in such countries which were previously colonized and then made English their additional language and (3) the Kachruvian pluricentric approach with three concentric circles, which would be later explained in this chapter According to

Marlina (2018), in a broader sense, „World Englishes‟ (with the capitalized „W‟) is understood as the third interpretation This broad use of World Englishes is equated with EIL because they both centre on the idea of recognizing the legitimacy of different varieties of English Meanwhile, the term „world Englishes‟ (with no capitalized „w‟) is distinguished as either all varieties of English or the „new Englishes‟ (Marlina, 2018) With the aim of the study, which is to discover the integration of EIL

in teaching materials, both of the terms „World Englishes‟ and „world Englishes‟ are used, yet bearing in mind such distinctions

Secondly, ELF is used to name the language spoken by speakers from various

linguistic and cultural backgrounds, whose English is not their first language (Seidlhofer 2005) By ELF, speakers from the countries with English as mother tongue should be excluded from the circle Hence, ELF is not an alternative to EIL or WE Instead, ELF will be used to refer to the shared code among speakers of English as a

second language or a foreign language

Thirdly, the term EGL does suggest the establishment of English on the global scale (Crystal 2003) Therefore, in this research, EGL is used to draw attention to the global status of English

2.1.3 Features of English as an International Language

2.1.3.1 Kachru‟s circle of World Englishes

Following the spread of English internationally, Kachru (1990) classifies English into three concentric circles according to how it is acquired and how it

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operates In this model, Inner Circle represents countries that use English as their mother tongue, typically the U.K, the U.S, Australia and so on The language used by people from Inner Circle countries is regarded as Standard English or “norms” (Kachru, 1992, p.5) Outer Circle includes countries which were the previous colonies

of Inner- Circle countries such as Singapore, India, the Philippines and Kenya In those countries, English gains an official status and is additionally spoken beside their own languages The final category is Expanding Circle with such countries as Brazil, China, Japan and Vietnam In the Expanding-circle countries, English is taught as a compulsory subject and regarded as “the most popular foreign language” (Phan, 2016, p.40) Figure 2.1 shows Kachru‟s model together with the number of speakers within each circle

Since it was first proposed, Kachru‟s model has been widely accepted and considered the most renowned model in the field, firstly for the awareness and appreciation of the existence of varieties of English that it raised (Rajadurai, 2005) and, secondly for the usefulness of this framework as a tool of WE research (Phan, 2016) However, the concentric circles met with criticisms from scholars worldwide On one hand, McKay and Brown (2016) contend that Kachru‟s categorization oversimplifies the current state of English use because there are bound to be changes in the status of English use in different parts of the world (Graddol, 1997; Jekins, 2009) Even Kacrhu (1985, as cited in Rajadurai, 2005) himself noticed the grey areas between the circles which cause confusion in defining the status of English in some countries such as South African and Jamaica On the other hand, the location of native countries in the centre and inner position seems to create a conflicting connotation that English from native countries serves as the core, the correctness and the model for acquiring the language (Graddol, 1997) This somehow results in linguistic imperialism of English from Inner-Circle countries and marginalism of other varieties of English

Despite such criticisms, the concentric circle continues to be used by scholars on EIL or World Englishes for research on a global scale (Marlina, 2018) Therefore, the

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categorization will be used as a theoretical framework for this research, yet bearing in

mind the changing state of contemporary English use nowadays

Figure 2.1: Kachru‟s three circles of World Englishes (Kachru, 1992)

2.1.3.2 Characteristics of world Englishes

In such contexts where English is additionally used along the first language like

in Outer- and Expanding- Circle countries, there appear influences of mother tongue on the use of English (McKay & Brown, 2016) This happens because despite the official status of English in a country, it is impossible to assume that all the citizens in that country can speak English fluently They need to develop “a kind of patterns people

find easier to handle” (Honna, 2000, p 12) Such changes in language use create

different varieties of English or Englishes, which own “their own structural norms,

their own characteristic features and even their communicative styles” (Romaine, 1992,

p 254)

At linguistic level, some notable changes in the language use are found in

“pronunciation”, “grammar” and “lexical innovation” (McKay & Brown, 2016, p 7)

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For examples, in terms of pronunciation, Indian speakers of English often replace the

sounds /θ/ and / ð/ with /t/ and /d/ (Jekins, 2006), so that thought sounds like dot

Regarding grammar, Singaporean speakers of English have the tendency to not mark

nouns for plural (Jekins, 2006) According to McKay and Brown (2016, p 9), “Lexical innovation” is “the coining of new words” and the borrowing of locally spoken

languages For instance, Thai people use the word tuktuk to talk about their own vehicle; while Singapore English borrow the word barang-barang for stuff from Malaysian (McKay & Brown, 2016, p 9)

2.2 Teaching English as an International Language

2.2.1 Changing communicative contexts

Due to globalization and the advancement of communication technology such as the internet and social networking sites, the chance of communicating with English speakers from different cultures indeed increases as one may no longer need to travel across borders to communicate (Marlina, 2018) This means that the communicative contexts are no longer as simple as NNS to NS as traditionally assumed, but they can also involve the interactions between NNSs of multicultures Besides, as mentioned before, approximately 1,150 million people are considered EFL speakers, while there are only 350 million native speakers (Statista, 2017) Based on these figures, apparently, English learners nowadays have more chance to communicate with NNS than NS

In the same light, in Vietnam, according to Doan (2014), under the influx of foreign nationals (Do, 2006), English comes into use with greater degrees than ever before (Le, 2006; Ton & Pham, 2010) English is chosen as compulsory subjects in most universities and schools (Le, 2006) Recently, it has been made the instructional medium for certain contents at tertiary level (Doan, 2014) Furthermore, Vietnamese students‟ goal of learning English is not only to complete a compulsory subject but also

to obtain effective cross-cultural communication (Truong, 2004) This necessitates rethinking the conceptualization of the traditional teaching approach that embraces only NS norms

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2.2.2 The need to teach English as an International Language

Indeed, drawing upon the changing contexts of communication around the world, many scholars (Matsuda, 2012; McKay & Brown, 2016) have been urged to revise the current approach for ELT, particularly in terms of both pedagogies and material development The traditional NS model, which, within the scope of this research, are British and American English, has been widely utilized in Outer- and Expanding- Circle because the ideal environment to learn English is considered English-speaking countries (Quirk, 1990) Hence, native-like competence becomes the goals for English learners However, many EIL scholars (Canagarajah, 1999; McKay, 2002) oppose this view due to the political misleading as well as its inadequate preparation for students to communicate across the border Indeed, Nunn and Sivasubramaniam (2011) have pointed out that international communication can be effectively demonstrated when learners develop not only linguistic skills but also sensitivity to different communicative contexts This aligns with the EIL paradigm in that it appreciates the learnable ability to cope with unpredictable multicultural differences and the ability to adapt to various communities (Nunn, 2007a, 2007b) To that end, it is important that ELT methodologies and materials need to change to be matched with learners‟ needs, which is context-sensitive

2.3 Teaching materials in English as an International Language

2.3.1 Definition of teaching materials

Since the research focuses on listening materials used to teach first-year students

of Fast-track program, this section seeks to explore the type of teaching materials and listening materials which are normally employed in language teaching class

On one hand, according to Brown (1995), teaching materials or “syllabus materials” (Marlina, 2018, p 56) are defined as “any systematic description of the techniques and exercises to be used in classroom teaching” and include not only

“lesson plans” but also “books, packets of audio-visual aids, games, or any other myriad types of activities that go on in the language classroom” (p 139) The ideal procedure of material development should involve the evaluation and selection of

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existing materials, or the adaption or creation of new materials to serve a group of learners Importantly, material design should correspond with the overall language curriculum, learners‟ needs, and goals and objectives

On the other hand, in a listening lesson, students benefit from listening to different sources of materials According to Kadagidze (2006), listening materials can

be classified into recorded materials and live materials Recorded materials are the audio recordings or audio-visuals used for classroom activities and live materials include teacher‟s talk and friends‟ talk Each of these types exhibits certain advantages and disadvantages On one hand, as stated by Kadagidze (2006), recorded materials allow room for varieties of English sounds, voices and accents to be presented to learners At the same time, students can follow the interactions of different speakers and their conversation However, the drawback is clear that there exists no interaction between listeners and speakers for learners to negotiate for meaning Kadagidxe (2006) also noted the advantages of live listening in controlling the content for listening input and interactions

Within the scope of a graduation thesis, only the materials that are used for class teaching and learning (handouts, recordings and audios-visuals) are to be examined in the study Furthermore, because of the difficulties in collecting live materials, only recorded ones are included in the discussion of integrating EIL in teaching materials of listening skill

in-2.3.4 Traditional teaching materials

When discussing ELT methodologies in the context of EIL, it is essential to examine various aspects such as teaching methodology, instructional variety and model, curriculum and teaching materials, language testing and teacher-education program In a language classroom, teaching materials hold a significant role to both teachers and students Matsuda (2012) points out three significant reasons to research teaching materials First, teaching materials provide a source of input for learners Due

to the limited access to the target language outside classroom, teaching materials provide language knowledge by means of textbooks or audios, along with teachers‟

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input Second, apart from distributing knowledge, teaching materials also assist to

build up learners‟ perceptions of the world For examples, Sach Tieng Anh 8

(Vietnamese English textbook for grade 8) (Hoang, et al., 2015) provides lessons on

Peoples of Vietnam and cultures of different parts of Vietnam, and reflect upon the diversity of Vietnamese cultures Third, in today‟s borderless world, teaching materials are a comprehensive source of input in terms of both language knowledge and culture for teachers to refer to and prepare students for borderless communicative contexts For this reason, teaching materials become the focus of the literature

The traditional ELT teaching materials specifically designed for classroom use often embrace the varieties of Inner-circle countries, most dominantly the UK and the

US (Matsuda, 2012) According to Matsuda (2012), the varieties of English, though legitimately recognized by scholars, educators and teachers, are hardly presented in ELT textbooks Furthermore, a great deal of contents follow the varieties of British and American English as well as their cultures (Matsuda, 2002, as cited in Matsuda, 2006) Additionally, the representations of English users are frequently described as NS rather than NNS, while NNS are often associated with learners of English The frequency of NNS appearance in teaching materials is also much lower than that of NS (Matsuda,

2012) As a result, the lack of representations beyond Inner-Circle countries poses a deficit and restricted vision of real communicative contexts on ESL learners As the interactions among non-native speakers are quite limited in the current ELT teaching materials, learners face inadequate learning opportunities and, hence, the risk of disruptive communication, which would otherwise be addressed with EIL inclusion

2.3.5 Principles of EIL material evaluation

In order to remediate the lack of EIL in the traditional ELT, altering teaching

models is not enough Various scholars have proposed that syllabus materials need to profoundly deal with knowledge, awareness, attitudes, and linguistic skills in international communicative contexts (Marlina & Giri, 2013; Matsuda 2012; McKay,

2002, 2012) On one hand, Matsuda (2012) postulates five criteria which teachers can base on when it comes to evaluating EIL materials They are:

#3 Does it represent a variety of speakers?

#4 Whose cultures are represented?

#5 Is it appropriate for the local context? (pp 172-77)

On the other hand, Marlina (2018) singles out four key principles of evaluating, choosing and developing EIL teaching materials They are:

#1 EIL syllabus materials should provide students with exposure to varieties of

English;

#2 EIL syllabus materials should include representation of a variety of multilingual speakers of world Englishes and of interaction among them;

#3 EIL syllabus materials should include representation of and exposure to

different culture values; and

#4 EIL syllabus materials should provide students with opportunities to develop

skills to communicate across differences (p.25)

The two authors basically agree on the perspectives of EIL material evaluation However, while the former principles (Matsuda, 2012) are appropriate for material selection and development, the latter (Marlina, 2018) appears to be a more suitable framework for material evaluation Therefore, it is adopted as the framework for evaluating EIL materials in this study, yet revised and complemented by Matsuda‟s criteria (2012) Specific details regarding the EIL material evaluation framework are presented below

Principle 1: EIL syllabus materials should provide students with exposure to varieties of English

Because of the unavoidable contact with various linguistic varieties in communication, teaching materials need to expose learners with different versions of

if teaching materials only include one single variety of English, students are likely to favor one English and discard or think of others as wrongful

However, incorporating random varieties of English in teaching materials is not

a recommended choice in material development The incorporated varieties of English should also be taken into careful consideration On one hand, the varieties of English employed in materials should be “locally relevant” (Marlina, 2008, p.28) This means that the varieties employed should match with the context of Vietnam, which is for cross-cultural communication Furthermore, the varieties used in teaching materials should follow the goal of the curriculum and the needs of students (Matsuda, 2012)

Within the scope of this research, the varieties of English should serve the goal of preparing students to “listen and speak about different aspects of encounters on campus

as well as in daily lives” (Fast-track Program, 2018)

One the other hand, the exposure to different varieties of English is emphasized throughout the principle it is important to realize that mastering all the varieties is an unrealistic and unnecessary aim for ESL learners (Matsuda, 2012) However, this can

be remediated by using ready-made materials including varieties of English, supplying the lesson with authentic materials or providing a lesson focus on Englishes (Matsuda, 2012)

Principle 2: EIL syllabus materials should include representation of a variety of multilingual speakers of world Englishes and of interaction among them

Concerning the second principle, in the context of international communication, where there may be multilingual speakers of English, teaching materials should involve

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examples of speakers from Inner-, Outer- and Expanding- Circle (Matsuda, 2012) This

is supported by Marlina (2018), claiming that teaching materials should place students

in a more realistic communicative environment, which is not limited to only British,

American or other English-speaking countries

Additionally, Matsuda (2012) proposes that the representations of speakers in teaching materials should possess similarities to learners themselves to encourage the ownership of English as well as connect English language and its learners Nonetheless, both scholars also note that the portrayal of such speakers should also be comprehensive in the way that is not affected by native norms For example, non-native speakers should not only be described as learners of English and native speakers should not only be portrayed as having BBC English or General English accents

Principle 3: EIL syllabus materials should include representation of and exposure

to different culture values

It has been observed that language and culture are two inextricable aspects in language teaching (Jiang, 2000; Hinkel, 1999) However, to define culture is such a daunting task as the concepts of culture are much broader than just norms, values, beliefs and practices One popular definition involves the division of culture as big „C‟ Culture and small „c‟ culture (Chastain, 1988) The big „C‟ Culture refers to the economic, social, and political history, art of an ethnic group or a country, whereas, the small „c‟ concerns everyday lifestyle and culture In the context of globalization, speakers of different parts of the world not only communicate in English but also exchange the norms, values, beliefs and practices of the culture (Marlina, 2018) This necessitates the needs to prepare teaching materials, which fosters multiculturalism Marlina (2018) also postulates that the teaching materials should “reflect zero tolerance for parochialism and monocultural chauvinism” (p.29) This means that in teaching materials, there is a call to encompass cultural diversity For this reason, upon evaluating the teaching materials, identifying whose cultures are embedded in the teaching materials is placed in the foreground

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Marlina (2018) suggests that the sources of cultural content for teaching materials should be “international target culture”, “culture(s) of their future interlocutors” and “source culture” (p.29), which is shared by Matsuda (2012) and Brown (2012) Concerning the first mentioned culture, “global culture”, as coined by Mastuda (2012), refers to a mixture of native and non-native cultural aspects that go

beyond national boundaries and present in the whole global society Such topics that

earn great popularity in ELT, for example, environmental issue and technological development, can continue to serve as a source of content to teach to ESL learners

Secondly, cultures of their future interlocutors are also considered a recommended source of content in teaching materials However, identifying who are the future interlocutors is no easy task because they are often unknown and diverse (Marlina, 2018) Therefore, understanding the infeasibility of teaching all cultures would be essential for all teachers (Matsuda, 2012) To this end, what teachers or material developers should do is to “strategically diversify the content to include countries and regions from various parts of the world in the teaching materials” (p.117)

Finally, embedding local culture in teaching materials should be considered as learners also need to convey their own culture to other speakers in the process of exchanging words with people outside their countries Above all, such cultures to teach

to ESL learner should not be limited to conventions or stereotypes such as „Pho‟ for Vietnam or „kung fu‟ for China (Marlina, 2018)

Principle 4: EIL syllabus materials should provide students with opportunities to develop skills to communicate across differences

Teaching materials should equip students with strategies to negotiate across the differences because the awareness of varieties of English, as well as their legitimacy, does not necessarily ensure successful communication (Marlina, 2018) Therefore, ESL learners should be provided with opportunities to develop the ability to properly react

to differences According to Firth (1996) and Higgins (2003), cited in Marlina (2018, p 30), such strategies are

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 interpersonal strategies such as repair, rephrase, clarify, gesture, change topic,

seek consensus, and provide mutual support; and

 attitudinal resources such as patience, tolerance and humility to negotiate

differences

Based on these four above-mentioned principles, educators and scholars can develop EIL teaching materials that suit the local contexts and language needs

2.4 Teaching listening skill in Fast-track program

2.4.1 Teaching listening skill in the course 2B*

As mentioned in the previous part, teaching materials should conform to the overall curriculum Therefore, it is important to grasp an overview of how listening skill is taught to first-year Fast-track students at FELTE

In the Fast-track program of FELTE, ULIS, reading, writing, listening and speaking skills are the four focuses of the language knowledge section for first-year students Among these, listening skill is taught in Lesson A of the subject named 2B*, aside from speaking skill, which is Lesson B While there appear to be 15 lessons of

listening according to the Course guide, the actual number of lessons in which language knowledge is taught is 12 lessons This is because the first listening lesson is for an introduction to the course, one listening lesson in the middle of the course is for self-study and the last listening lesson is CLC Day, which is to showcase students‟ products throughout the semester

According to the Course Guide, the course adopts competence-based,

content-based and theme-content-based, task-content-based and the learner-centered and learning-by-doing approaches to develop both listening and speaking skills of students Regarding the course objectives, by the end of the course, students are supposed to obtain certain

competences such as linguistic, sociolinguistic, pragmatic, and strategic competences

2.4.2 Listening materials in the course 2B*

The teaching materials of subject 2B* consists of core materials and

supplementary materials Among them, one source of core materials is Compiled materials for English 2B*, which is prepared by four teachers of Fast-track program

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The other is adapted from Exam Essentials by Osborne (2009), which serves the

purpose of exam preparation As a result, all of the teaching materials in this course are designed mostly in the form of handouts and audio-visuals In every listening lesson, a set of handouts and recordings is either distributed or sent to students as materials for

both teaching and learning

During the course of 15 weeks, students experience different listening activities such as Theme-based listening, Vocabulary building, B2+ listening preparation, Pronunciation and News sharing, which also appear as a sequence in each listening-focused lesson Specifically, among these activities, News sharing follows learning-by-doing approach As specified by the Course guide, students are entitled to collect a piece of news as long as they are under the themes, prepare facilitation at home and

conduct productive learning activities under teachers‟ guides Thus, there are no especially published teaching materials for these activities The second activity is Vocabulary in which the students acquire theme-related lexical items through handouts The third activity, Theme-based listening, involves students in the listening for specific topics which are prepared by the teachers Last, B2+ listening preparation

is the exam-oriented activity to equip students with necessary listening strategies and

practices to sit their final exams As this activity is mainly drawn on a standardized test, Vietnamese Standardized Test of English Proficiency (VSTEP), with reference to Test of English as Foreign Language (TOEFL), the exploration of this material would involve the careful examination of testing and assessment of the whole curriculum, which is far from the focus of this study Thus, a discussion of B2+ listening preparation will be excluded from the study

2.5 Chapter summary

Overall, this chapter reviews related literatures on the topics of EIL incorporation in

teaching materials Firstly, the chapter deals with the key concepts in EIL, particularly the spread of EIL on a global scale, the definitions of EIL and World Englishes and the features of Englishes, which serve as the foundations to develop the theoretical framework for material evaluation The chapter moves on to clarify the changing

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communicative contexts in Vietnam that raise the need to teach EIL and incorporate EIL in teaching materials The next section specifies the focus of the study by presenting the definitions of teaching materials and the theoretical framework for evaluating EIL incorporation in teaching materials The final section depicts an overview of the scope of this study, which are teaching materials of listening skill in Fast-track program, FELTE, ULIS

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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction

This chapter starts with an introduction to the research approach applied in this study, which is then followed by a detailed description of the methods for data collection that clarifies the pros and cons of as well as reasons for employing each data collection methods The procedures of data collection and the description of the materials are also introduced in the section on the data collection process Finally, the approaches used to analyze the data are explained in details in the final section

3.2 Research approaches

As clearly stated in Chapter One, the aim of this study is to explore the material developers‟ perceptions of EIL inclusion in teaching materials as well as the extent of EIL integration in the teaching materials of listening skill Given the nature of this research, both quantitative and qualitative approaches were adopted to obtain a detailed understanding of the research problems A quantitative research approach was used to figure out the extent to which EIL was integrated into listening materials Meanwhile, a qualitative approach, which included interviews, was employed to triangulate what was actually behind the integration of EIL in teaching materials and also discover the perception of material developers about EIL The researcher employed the combination

of two research instruments, namely document analysis and interviews to gain a multifaceted view towards the research problems Further explanations on the combination of multiple research methods will be presented in the next section

3.3 Data collection methods

Document analysis was employed as the primary method of data collection Document analysis is a form of qualitative research in which documents are interpreted

by the researcher to give voice and meaning around an assessment topic (Bowen, 2009) Document analysis is conducted to gain background information and broad coverage of data (Bowen, 2009) Within the scope of this study, document analysis was conducted on the course guide and teaching materials of listening skills to first-year students in the second semester to discover the extent to which EIL was integrated into

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listening materials and the correlation between the EIL integration and the curriculum

To put forward an exact calculation of the extent of EIL integration, all the collected materials were examined This is believed to be a manageable number for both collection and analysis

In order to enhance the quality of inquiry, the research employed interviews as the second data collection method Interviews serve two purposes Firstly, interviews help to gain an in-depth understanding of the perceptions of material developers of listening skills of the course 2B* regarding EIL in answer to the first research question Because of the small number of participants, interviews prove to be an efficient data

collection method rather than questionnaires Secondly, interviews were used to obtain further explanations for document analysis In response to the second research question, even though the document analysis proves to be an effective tool in providing

an overview of the EIL incorporation, the understanding gained from it stays at the observational level (Schutz, 1967) More information and perspectives still need clarifying from the participants regarding the way in which the EIL integration has been implemented and the reasons behind such integration Interviews with material developers of listening skills emerged as an effective tool to explore such perspectives

Concerning the types of interviews, within this study, semi-structured interviews were applied to foster a relaxed atmosphere for discussing the matters around the research topics Furthermore, both open-ended and close-ended questions were employed to encourage and sustain the answer from the interviewees For example, to investigate the material developers‟ perception of integrating multiple varieties of English in teaching materials, the close-ended question of “Do you think that teaching materials should strictly follow one certain variety of English or incorporate different varieties of English?” was asked to obtain the material developers‟ perspectives This was closely followed by the open-ended question of “In what way have the teaching

materials of the course 2B* provided exposure to different varieties of English?” for

the material developers to reflect on their practices of EIL integration in the course 2B* Overall, with properly formulated interview questions, detailed accounts of

Table 3.1: Summary of sources of data

Data collection methods Source of data

Document analysis All teaching materials of listening

skills of the course 2B*

Interviews Two material developers of listening

skills of the course 2B*

3.2 Data collection instruments

Corresponding to two research methods, three data collection instruments were devised to gather broad data from the above-mentioned source of data

Firstly, to collect data regarding how much EIL is instilled in the listening materials, a checklist for evaluating teaching materials was designed based on the principles for evaluating, selecting and developing EIL materials (Marlina, 2018) as complemented by Matuda (2012) (Appedendix 2) The checklist provided the full

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criteria for evaluating current listening materials of the subjects 2B*, which can be applicable for in-class teaching materials (handouts, recordings and audio-visuals) and supplementary materials if available The raw data were then recorded in a document analysis record (Appendix 3) for calculation

Secondly, the interview questions were formulated to serve two purposes, first

in response to the first research questions, and second to triangulate the findings of document analysis Therefore, the interview questions consisted of two parts The first part included the questions used to discover the material developers‟ perceptions of EIL and teaching EIL This would also be used as grounds for explaining the integration of EIL in teaching materials In the second part, the interview questions were designed to gain the material developers‟ perspectives about specific aspects of EIL material development These questions were based on (1) the principles of EIL material selection, evaluation and development (Marlina, 2018) and (2) the results that need clarifications from document analysis

To further clarify the ideas that participants shared and also to ensure the correctness of interview interpretation, two follow-up interviews were conducted with material developers The follow-up interviews proceeded as the transcripts of previous interviews were sent to participants so that they could review on their answers After that, participants were invited to either clarify or add more comments or confirm the

interpretations on the points which need clearer and more details

3.3 Data collection process

3.3.1 Participants

Within the scope of this research, the criteria for selection was the material developers of the course 2B*, particularly the material developers of the teaching materials of listening skill Even though the teaching materials of the course 2B* were developed by four teachers of Fast-track Division, only three of them were involved in designing the syllabus materials for listening skill Therefore, the three material developers of listening materials were invited to participate in the individual interviews

to contribute to the discussion of EIL and EIL integration in teaching materials

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Prior to commencing the study, three invitation emails with the detailed description of the study as well as ethical clearance in research were sent to participants to seek for consent The contacts of the participants were gathered from the pamphlet of the course 2B* As the participants responded to the interview invitations with one declination and two approvals, initial information of the material developers

in relation to the course development was gathered to serve as reference for formulating interview questions

Such information included the stage of developing the course 2B* and the basic information of the material developers Specifically, the material development of listening skill was divided into three parts: Topic-based listening and Pronunciation, Vocabulary, and B2+ listening preparation Furthermore, regarding the basic information of participants, among the two material developers that approve of participating in this study, one of them is the chief material developer and is responsible for designing Topic-based listening and Pronunciation materials and part of B2+ listening preparation, while the materials of Vocabulary and part of B2+ listening preparation are developed by the other material developer As it emerged from the gathering of initial information, the third material developer who gave declination on the interview is actually responsible for part of B2+ listening preparation and speaking lessons, which is not the focus of this study Therefore, the exclusion of this participant does not hinder the findings of the study

3.3.2 Data collection procedure

In the first phase of document analysis, the course guide and all the course materials in subject 2B* were collected from both the students of Fast-track program and material developers of listening materials for analysis The course guide was first investigated to give the researcher the overview of the whole subject, especially the underlying principles of teaching employed to design the course and materials Then to obtain detailed analysis, the total number of 35 sets of teaching materials, including in-class handouts and audio recordings, were collected to examine the inclusion of EIL

according to the mentioned principles Due to the privacy policy of Fast-track Division,

Figure 3.2: Summary of data collection procedure

3.4 Data analysis

3.4.1 Document analysis

Document analysis employs the process of document analysis as proposed by Bowen (2009) Firstly, skimming was conducted to gain an overview of the materials Then each material was carefully examined for the appearance of the principles in the checklist Each material was examined twice to ensure rater‟s reliability and minimize the biases The initial analysis of each material was summarized in order to compare

Document Observation

Step 1: Designing a

checklist for document

analysis, from week 1

Step 2: Collecting the

pamphlet of the course

Step 3: Collecting

teaching materials week

by week

Step 4: Analysing the

pamphlet and teaching

materials week by week

Step 5: Summarizing

results at week 14

Interviews for perceptions

Step 1: Designing the

interview questions, from week 7

Step 2: Piloting the

interviews

Step 3: Conducting

interviews

Step 4: Analyzing the

preliminary results from the interviews

Follow-up interviews

Step 1: Designing the

interview questions, from week 13

Step 2: Piloting the