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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ THỊ THU TRANG VIETNAMESE TEACHERS’ VIEWPOINTS ON THEIR USE OF VIETNAMESE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOMS FOR YOUNG LEARNERS IN MAY SCHOOL ENGLISH CENTER Quan điểm giáo viên Việt Nam việc sử dụng tiếng Việt họ lớp học Tiếng Anh cho trẻ em Trung Tâm Ngoại Ngữ Tháng Năm MA MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI, 2015 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ THỊ THU TRANG VIETNAMESE TEACHERS’ VIEWPOINTS ON THEIR USE OF VIETNAMESE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOMS FOR YOUNG LEARNERS IN MAY SCHOOL ENGLISH CENTER Quan điểm giáo viên Việt Nam việc sử dụng tiếng Việt họ lớp học Tiếng Anh cho trẻ em Trung Tâm Ngoại Ngữ Tháng Năm MA MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Nguyen Xuan Thom HANOI, 2015 DECLARATION I declare that this thesis submitted for the Master of Art degree at the University of Languages and International Studies is a presentation of my own research and has not been previously submitted at any other universities for any degrees Wherever contributions of other researchers are involved, every effort is made to indicate this clearly, with due reference to the literature, and acknowledgement o collaborative research and discussion The work was done under the guidance of Associated Professor Nguyen Xuan Thom, at the University of Languages and International Studies Hanoi, November 2015 Vu Thi Thu Trang ACKNOWLEDGEMENT At the completion of this thesis, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my lecturer and my supervisor, Mr Nguyen Xuan Thom for his valuable support and instructions without which it would have been really difficult for me to handle the task I would like to acknowledge my debt to my colleagues in May School English Center for their effective cooperation in collecting data for completing this study Their enthusiastic participation was indispensable to my research Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my family for all the support I received to finish this thesis ABSTRACT The use of the mother tongue has been argued for ages in English language teaching and the argument over whether students’ native language should be included or excluded in English language classrooms has been a controversial issue Conducted in the context of Vietnam, the study is an attempt to address the use of Vietnamese as mother tongue in English language classrooms in a prestigious English center for young learners in Hanoi (May School) It focuses on the viewpoints of Vietnamese teachers in May School on their use of Vietnamese as mother tongue in their English language classrooms as well as the amount and situations in which it is employed The findings and discussion are based on the analysis of the data collected from group interview of five female teachers and ten one-hour classroom observations The current study supports the judicious use of Vietnamese in some situations such as giving instructions, responding to students’ Vietnamese The results also highlight that the use of Vietnamese is significantly different in classrooms in May School but the average amount of its use is quite limited LIST OF ABRREVIATIONS ALM: Audio-Lingual Method CLT: Communicative Language Teaching EFL: English as a Foreign Language ELT: English Language Teaching FL: Foreign language GMT: Grammar Translation Method L1: First Language L2: Second Language TL: Target Language LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Chart 1: The amount of Vietnamese used in observed classes Table 1: Participating teachers’ profile Table 2: Information of observed classes Table 3: The occasions of teachers’ use of Vietnamese in Starters classes Table 4: The occasions of teachers’ use of Vietnamese in Movers classes Table 5: The occasions of teachers’ use of Vietnamese in Flyers classes TABLE OF CONTENT PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale In the process of teaching and learning a foreign language, the use of mother tongue is a controversy topic for many years, especially when Communicative Language Teaching becomes popular In global scale, many studies were conducted to investigate the use of mother tongue in English classrooms such as Schweers (1999) at the University of Puerto Rico, Tang (2002) at a university in Beijing, Duff and Polio (2009) at University of California, Al-Nofaie (2010) in Saudi public schools In Vietnam, a few researchers also investigated the attitude of teachers and students towards the use of Vietnamese in English classroom at universities and high schools However, it is rather difficult to find studies in which the subject of using Vietnamese in teaching English for young learners is focused There still exist huge gaps on the reality of Vietnamese use in English classroom for children Working as a teacher of English in May School English Center (from now mentioned as May School) for young learners in Hanoi, the researcher found that Vietnamese teachers in this center have different language choices for their lessons Therefore, this study focuses on their viewpoints on as well as their practice of Vietnamese use in English classrooms Aims and objectives of the study 2.1 Aims of the study As the title suggests, the overarching aim of this thesis is to study Vietnamese teachers’ use of their mother tongue in English classrooms in the context of an English center in Hanoi, in order to guide English teachers in their use of L1 in L2 classrooms 2.2 Objectives of the study To achieve the above aim, the following objectives are set for exploration: a examining the attitudes of teachers toward Vietnamese use in English classrooms in May School; b identifying the average percentage of Vietnamese used in different levels in the center in comparison with the number given by teachers there; and c defining the situations in which Vietnamese is preferred by teachers in English as second language (EFL) classroom Research questions To make the task manageable, the above objectives are translated into the following research questions: 1) How much Vietnamese is used by Vietnamese teachers in English classrooms in May School? 2) In which situations is Vietnamese preferred by Vietnamese teachers in May School? 3) What are Vietnamese teachers’ viewpoints on their use of Vietnamese as mother tongue in English classrooms? Scope of the study In fact, the first language (L1) (i.e Vietnamese) can be used by both teachers and learners in second language (L2) classrooms However, within the framework of this minor thesis, the study only focuses on Vietnamese teachers’ use of the mother tongue in English classes for children Specifically, the main objective of the study is investigating the perspectives of teachers toward their L1 use, the amount of L1 use as well as the situations for L1 use in English classrooms in May School Methods of the study The study adopted qualitative and quantitative method for data collection and data analysis Five teachers teaching different levels of students were investigated so as to compare and contrast their use of mother tongue in their EFL classes Two 10 ... (English) ranged from 28% to 76% Kim & Elder (2005) examined the discourse of seven native-speaker secondary-school teachers of Japanese, Korean, German and French in New Zealand and found a range... that the teachers’ own estimate of 68% use of L1 may give a more reliable picture of their day-to-day practice These and other studies support the conclusion reached by Macaro (1997) (as cited... including his own detailed investigations of TL and L1 use by secondary-school teachers in the United Kingdom, that exclusive or near-exclusive use of the TL ‘is rarely encountered in any learning context