Good english teaching practices as perceived in teaching contests in hai duong province vietnam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN HẢI NGUYÊN “GOOD ENGLISH TEACHING PRACTICES” AS PERCEIVED IN TEACHING CONTESTS IN HAI DUONG PROVINCE, VIETNAM “Dạy giỏi Tiếng Anh” nhìn nhận từ thi giảng tỉnh Hải Dương, Việt Nam MA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Language Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01 HANOI, 2019 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN HẢI NGUYÊN “GOOD ENGLISH TEACHING PRACTICES” AS PERCEIVED IN TEACHING CONTESTS IN HAI DUONG PROVINCE, VIETNAM “Dạy giỏi Tiếng Anh” nhìn nhận từ thi giảng tỉnh Hải Dương, Việt Nam MA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Language Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01 Supervisor : Dr Vũ Hải Hà HANOI, 2019 DECLARATION I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “Good English teaching practices as perceived in teaching contests in Hai Duong Province, Vietnam” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of English teaching methodology at the University of Languages and International Studies, Viet Nam National University This thesis has not been previously submitted for any other degrees The work was done under the guidance of Doctor Vu Hai Ha, at the University of Languages and International Studies Hanoi, January 2019 Nguyễn Hải Nguyên i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Vu Hai Ha for his careful supervision, great support and encouragement during the whole process of research I myself would not have accomplished this paper without his expert, specific instruction and criticism I am also grateful to my colleagues at nearly 40 high schools in Hai Duong province, especially Nguyen Binh Khiem High School, Tu Ky High School, Thanh Ha High School, Gia Loc High School and Pha Lai High School, for their enthusiastic participation and feedback in the stage of data collection Finally, my special thanks go to my family who gave me time and encouragement to overcome all difficulties along the course of research and complete this study ii ABSTRACT The following paper involves discovering how “good English language teaching practices” are perceived in the provincial teaching contests in Hai Duong province which is somehow a form of teachers‟ assessment, and exploring the correspondences, if any, between these perceptions and those described in the ETCF, which is acting as a guidance for teachers‟ training and development Within the scope of this study, 18 examiners and 55 examinees who are teachers of high schools in Hai Duong province and have participated in the teaching contests agreed to voice their opinions on “good English teaching practices” The data was collected from questionnaires, follow-up interviews and document observation Then the perceptions of “good English teaching practices” shown in the teaching contests were compared with those characterized in the content of ETCF with a view to investigating the connection between practice and theory Consequently, the examinees and the assessment criteria including documents and the examiners‟ evaluation bear considerable similarities regarding the characteristics of effective English language teaching, namely Culture Teaching, Communicative Approach, Assessment, Technology and Teaching materials, etc The findings also added to the existing framework of Brown (2009), which serves as the backbone of the study, in terms of outside classroom factors such as Lesson Planning, Teachers‟ professionalism, Contribution to language teaching and Students‟ Learning Outcomes and Development Besides, the teaching contests show noticeable agreement with the ETCF on what characterize “good English teaching practices” However, ETCF covers broader and more comprehensive concepts while the teaching contests deals with more detailed ones Interestingly, it is suggested from the teaching contests that the utilization of different ways to grab students‟ attention in class and development of students‟ autonomy in learning play an important role in achieving good English teaching practices, which is not mentioned in any competency in the ETCF At the end of the day, it is also implied that training programs and theoretical guidelines have a significant impact on teachers‟ beliefs about effective English teaching and on their teaching practices iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ETCF: English Teacher Competency Framework SLTE: second language teacher education FL: foreign language L2: second language iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF TABLES v CHAPTER – INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study 1.2 Research objectives 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Research scope 1.5 Significance of the study CHAPTER – LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Theoretical background 2.1.1 Perspectives on teaching 2.1.2 English language teacher education 2.1.3 English language teacher assessment 2.1.4 Perceptions of good English language teaching 2.2 Case study background 12 2.2.1 English language teacher education in Vietnam 12 2.2.2 English language teacher assessment in Vietnam and the English Teacher Competency Framework (ETCF) 14 2.2.3 EFL teaching and Teaching contest in Hai Duong Province 18 2.3 Research gaps 20 CHAPTER – METHODOLOGY 21 3.1 Research paradigm research design 21 3.1.1 Research paradigm 21 3.1.2 Research design 22 3.2 Data collection 22 3.2.1 Research setting 22 3.2.2 Research participants 23 3.2.3 Instruments 25 3.2.4 Data collection procedure 31 v 3.3 Data analysis 32 3.4 Methodological limitations 32 CHAPTER – FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 34 4.1 Analysis of research question 34 4.1.1 Questionnaire result 34 4.1.2 Interview result 38 4.1.3 Document observation 42 4.1.4 Summary of findings and data source 43 4.2 Analysis of research question 44 4.2.1 Questionnaire result 44 4.2.2 Interview results 46 4.2.3 Summary of findings and data sources 49 4.3 Analysis of research question 50 4.3.1 Similarities 50 4.3.2 Differences 52 4.4 Discussion 53 CHAPTER – CONCLUSION 56 5.1 Research summary 56 5.2 Practical implications 56 5.3 Research limitations and future research 57 REFERENCES 59 APPENDIX 1: ILLUSTRATION OF THE MAIN CONTEMPORARY MODELS OF LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION I APPENDIX 2: EXAMPLES OF ETCF ASSESSMENT TOOLS III APPENDIX 3: EFFECTIVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING QUESTIONNAIRE (FOR THE JUDGES) XXIII APPENDIX 4: EFFECTIVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING QUESTIONNAIRE (FOR THE CONTESTANTS) XXXI APPENDIX 5: FOLLOW-UP INTERVIEWS (TRANSCRIPT) XXXVI APPENDIX 6: ADDITIONAL INTERVIEWS ABOUT ROUND (EXPERIENCEBASED INTIVATIVE PAPER) AND ROUND (THE COMPETENCY TEST) OF THE TEACHING CONTESTS XLII vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Five models of teaching Table 2: Some main contemporary models of language teacher education Table 3: Some competency frameworks/ models for English language teachers Table 4: Domains and Competencies in ETCF 16 Table 5: Category of effective language teaching in the questionnaire 27 Table 6: Data collection procedure 31 Table 7: Questionnaire revisions 32 Table 8: Result of aspect of Grammar Teaching (Examiners) 34 Table 9: Result of aspect of Error Correction (Examiners) 35 Table 10: Result of aspect of Target Language Use (Examiners) 35 Table 11: Result of aspect of Culture (Examiners) 36 Table 12: Result of aspect of Computer-based technology (Examiners) 36 Table 13: Result of aspect of Communicative Language Teaching Strategies (Examiners) 37 Table 14: Result of aspect of Assessment (Examiners) 38 Table 15: Result of document observation (good language teaching practices) 42 Table 16: Research question - Summary of findings 43 Table 17: Descriptive result of the examinees' beliefs 44 Table 18: Identical opinions in both examiners' and examinees' perceptions of good English language teaching 46 Table 19: Research question - Summary of findings 49 vii CHAPTER – INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study Starting from the time of economic reforms, Vietnam has adopted the open-door policy to involve in international business and attract foreign investments, so the interaction with other nations is unavoidable As a result, in order to increase capabilities of the country to grow in nowadays environment, it is necessary for Vietnamese to improve their second language ability as an essential communicative tool (Hamano, 2008) Vietnamese children have been encouraged to learn English from the age of since national education system has covered English in its teaching content for all primary schools (Pham, 1998) Nevertheless, the effectiveness of teaching and learning English at these schools is very low The students have learned this language rigidly, so they cannot use it in reality at all (Hamano, 2008) This is the point where old methods of teaching show certain limitations These teaching processes which only concentrate on linguistic accuracy and are controlled by the teacher in class restrict students‟ opportunities to practice and apply English structure in a flexible way Hence, after a long time of learning and doing many boring grammar exercises, the students can only remember the meaning of individual words and formula of grammar structure, but they cannot apply these things to comprehend the content of the whole sentences in different contexts nor compound meaningful sentences to express themselves It is even worse when they have to speak out in English While speaking is considered one of the most significant skill of effective communication (Hamano, 2008), the lack of confidence, slow reflex and poor pronunciation has made it very difficult for Vietnamese students to open their mouth fluently Hence, the necessary to find new teaching methods has been proposed with the effort to improve the effectiveness of English learning process Therefore, the issue of quality in teaching foreign languages has become a matter of concern In 2008, the Prime Minister approved the Decision 1400 about “Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the National Education System, Period 2008-2020”, most frequently referred to as the National Foreign Languages 2020 Project (Department of Education and Training - Hai Duong Province, 2014) Since then, there have been many changes in teaching and learning foreign languages in general, and teaching and learning English in particular with the central focus on English teachers‟ ... entitled ? ?Good English teaching practices as perceived in teaching contests in Hai Duong Province, Vietnam? ?? is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of English teaching methodology... and assessment in Vietnam in general and in Hai Duong in particular The context regarding the provincial teaching contests in Hai Duong province is also discussed in detail Finally, the gaps in. .. following paper involves discovering how ? ?good English language teaching practices? ?? are perceived in the provincial teaching contests in Hai Duong province which is somehow a form of teachers‟ assessment,