An investigation into phuong dong university teachers beliefs about teaching communicative activities in speaking lessons

M INISTRY OF EDUCATION AN D TRAINING HANOI UNIVERSITY DUONG TH I THIEN HA AN INVESTIGATION INTO PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY TEACHERS’ BELIEFS ABOUT TEACHING COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES IN SPEAKING LESSONS SU B M IT T E D IN PA R T IA L FU L F IL L M E N T O F TH E R E Q U IR E M E N T S F O R TH E D EG R EE O F M A ST E R IN T E SO L SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN TH A I HA, M.Ed AA^TRUHGTâiti ig g v THỜNfiTINĨHƯVIỆN ^ FDBTC 크 Г Н Г Hanoi- May, 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Ill ABSTRACT IV LIST OF TABLES V CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 1 1 T h e o r etic al 1 Practical c o n s id e r a t io n c o n s id e r a t io n 1.2 AIMS OF THE THESIS 1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 1.5 OUTLINE OF THE THESIS CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 BELIEFS AND TEACHERS" BELIEFS 2.2 A REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES ON TEACHERS" BELIEFS 2 B eliefs a n d prior l a n g u a g e le a r ning experiences 2 B eliefs a n d te a c h e r e d u c a tio n 12 2 BmEFS AND CLASSROOM PRACTICES 15 2.3 METHODS FOR EXAMINING TEACHERS BELIEFS .18 2.4 COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES 21 TYPES o f c o m m u n ic a t iv e Principles T eachers ' a c tiv itie s 22 o f im p l e m e n t in g th e c o m m u n ic a t iv e a c t iv it ie s role in c o m m u n ic a t iv e ac tiv itie s CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 34 3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 34 3.2 THE DEVELOPMENT OF VIGNETTES (APPENDIX ) 34 3.3 SUBJECTS OF STUDY 36 3.4 PROCEDURE 36 CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 37 D a t a A nalysis 37 1 T eachers ' reac tio n t o th e fo ur sets o f d e c is io n s P ractical a r g u m e n t s related t o V ig n ette Practical a r g u m e n t s r e la te d t o V ig n ette 41 4 PRACTICAL ARGUMENTS RELATED TO VIGNETTE 4 P ractical a r g u m e n t s Se u h n it ia t e d related t o V ignette practical a r g u m e n t s 47 4.2 SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION 47 4.3 RECOMMENDATIONS 52 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 54 REFERENCES 56 APPENDIXES 62 APPENDIX 1: A VIGNETTE-BASED INSTRUMENT FOR ELICITING TEACHERS BELIEFS ABOUT COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES 62 APPENDIX : 69 BACK GROUND QUESTIONNAIRE .69 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I acknowledge with profound gratitude a great many people who have had constant beliefs in me before and during my research M y gratitude is specially expressed to Ms Nguyen Thai Ha for being my thesis supervisor I thank her for her endeavor in helping me to shape my ideas and realize my aims I am so grateful for her constant and invaluable support and comments on the topic, methodology, and the logical flow o f the study I also depend on her patient editing in an effort to help me write better I have also been privileged to have her sharing with me the materials on the area o f teachers’ beliefs and communicative activities during the course o f my thesis writing, more meaningful, her telling me how to make use o f those materials Her advice and support has mentally encouraged me to accomplish my thesis M y very particular thanks go to all the lectures at Foreign Language Department in Phuong Dong University for being w illin g to participate in my study, for their cooperation during the process o f data collection Finally, I also owe my husband, my respected parents and my younger brothers and sisters a debt o f gratitude for their spiritual support and stimulation whenever I got stressed during my thesis writing ABSTRACT Research on teaching has, during the past two decades, increasingly focused on beliefs that underline teachers’ classroom practices rather than on their behaviors The teachers’ beliefs have been proved，in those studies, to “ strongly affect the materials and activities the teachers choose for the classroom， ’ (Borg, 2001) The aims o f this study were to investigate the beliefs o f English teachers in Phuong Dong University about teaching communicative activities in speaking lessons and the extent to which such beliefs influence their actual classroom practices This idea was based on the premise that communicative language teaching (CLT) approach brings a theoretical but not a practical innovation to those teachers’ teaching Two research questions have been made (1) what are the teachers5 beliefs about teaching communicative activities and (2) how those beliefs influence the teachers teaching practices In an effort to find out the answers to the research questions, Vignettes have been designed to collect the data The respondents are 19 teachers who were responsible for teaching speaking and listening for English Department in Phuong Dong University The results o f the present study show that, in their speaking lessons, the teachers’ teaching communicative activities bases on their beliefs about those activities In other words, there is consistence between the teachers9 beliefs about teaching communicative activities and their teaching practices Moreover, there exist teacher’s pre-existing beliefs, which have much influence on the teachers’ ways o f applying communicative activities in their teaching practices The most important finding is that, the teachers themselves hold conflicting beliefs about teaching communicative activities that cause the hesitation to apply them in their teaching practices Those conflicting beliefs are likely to result from the limitation in their understanding about those activities Besides pointing to the need for further studies, the study brings out recommendations for teachers themselves，for the teacher educators，and teaching workshop organizers in professionally developing LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Teachers’ reaction to the four sets o f decisions Table 2: Practical arguments related to the Vignette Table 3: Practical arguments related to the Vignette Table 4: Practical arguments related to the Vignette Table 5: Practical arguments related to the Vignette V CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION This chapter starts with some practical and theoretical considerations that initiate the interest in the topic to be studied The aims o f the study and the research questions are also presented It states the significance o f the study and concluded with the outline o f the thesis 1.1 Background to the study 1.1.1 Theoretical consideration Until the 1970s, researchers on teaching primarily focused on developing the teaching materials and methodologies to improve teachers9 teaching behaviors However, the educational innovation resulted from those studies often failed because they did not match teachers’ ideas about what “ works” in practices (cf Ghaith & Yaghi， 1997) That means，those studies were usually the descriptions o f what a teacher had to in order to implement the new teaching materials and methodologies successfully or the researchers prescribed teachers9 behavior (Rosenshine & Steven, 1986) It was because o f the regular failures o f the educational innovation that “ the main stream educational research in the last 25years has recognized the impact o f teacher cognition on teachers9 professional lives and this has generated a substantial body o f research” (Borg, 2003:81) Consequently, research on teaching has increasingly focused on cognition that underline teachers’ classroom practice rather than on their behaviors (Calderhead， 1995, Woods, 1996， Carter, 1990) This was considered as paradigm shift in studies on teaching A truth recognized by a number o f authors in this “ main stream ， ，is that teachers1 cognitions, although in many cases are unconsciously held, have an effect on their classroom behaviors, influence what students actually learn, and are a potential determinant o f teachers* teaching style ( Bennet， 1976; Clark and Peterson’ 1986; Bums, 1990; Nunan, 1990; and Stem and Keislar, 1977) Teachers’ cognitions were commonly defined as “ the set o f tacit beliefs and values about what constitutes effective foreign language teaching and learning” and “ formed through out the teacher’ s experiences as learner” (El-Okda, 2005:1) It follows, then, that the teachers9 tacit beliefs about teaching and learning might constitute the main component o f the knowledge base o f their teaching practices This resulted in a fact that, when a new approach was introduced, it would be in competition with well-established theories o f language teaching and learning, which were the product o f previous teaching and learning experiences, prejudices, and beliefs (Freeman and Richards, 1993) Unless these tacit beliefs are uncovered, teachers would continue to teach in the same way as they were taught This would prevent them from seeing other viable alternative route inside the classroom The investigation o f teachers' tacit beliefs, therefore, can help teachers identify their difficulties when implementing curricular innovations in the classroom (Dingwall, 1985) which may enhance their professional teaching status, can help the educational researchers establish appropriate supports that are needed in in-service teacher development (Breen, 1991)，and may help the teachers’ educators make their teachers9 training courses more effective 1.1.2 Practical consideration It is popularly known that, communicative language teaching (C LT)，w ith the goal o f teaching learners to use language for meaningful communication, “ has served as a major source o f influence on language teaching practice around the world” (Richard, 2006: 2) W ith its goal, communicative language teaching is concerned w ith all the skills and their use in a natural integrated manner, the emphasis o f this teaching approach, however, is particularly on communication and on ways o f promoting speaking skill (Sheils， 1993) Influenced by the above teaching innovation (C LT )，teachers o f English in Foreign Language Department in Phuong Dong University have an ambition to reach the goal o f developing the students9 communicative competence, specifically through speaking and listening lessons This means, those teachers have to commit themselves to a communicative procedure in their teaching (see 2.5) not traditional ones This w ill be very useful for them to form positive beliefs about their teaching career For the in - service teachers, the study is a very good chance for them to have a closer look at their beliefs system which actually guides their teaching practices This can help them to have lucid decision whether or not to maintain their beliefs The present study has made great efforts in eliciting and describing the teachers’ beliefs about teaching communicative activities Beyond its scope, the thesis， hopefully, w ill shed some light into the beliefs system o f the teachers teaching communicative activities and that it w ill spur further studies in this area An example can be an investigation into finding out the most important beliefs, in other word, the central beliefs o f the teachers about teaching communicative activities Since it is popularly understood that some beliefs are more important than others to individuals, and the more important the belief is the more difficult it is to change (Rockeach, 1968: 3) It is also understood that i f a central belief is changed, other beliefs within the person beliefs system are effected (Rockeach, 1968: 3) In addition, we can see that some o f the teachers’ beliefs about teaching communicative activities in this study are positive, the others are negative However, the study has not got any clear evidence to show the reason why some beliefs are positive while the others are negative and whether the positive beliefs are more important than the negative ones or vice versa Very importantly, the investigations into central beliefs may help shorten and simplify the process o f changing teachers9 beliefs 55 REFERENCES A l marza, G (1996) Student foreign language teachers’ growth In D Freeman & J c Richards (eds.), Teacher Learning in Language Teaching (pp 50—78) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Bailey, K м , et al (1996) The language learners’ autobiography: examining the “ apprenticeship o f observation” In D Freeman & J c Richards (Eds.), Teacher Learning 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foreign language teaching1in Phillipson et a l (Eds.) 1991 Foreign/Second Language Pedagogy Research Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters Widdowson， H.G., 1996 Authenticity and autonomy in ELT E LT Journal 50, 67-68 Wineburg, S s (1987) The self fulfillm ent o f the self-fulfilling prophecy Educational Researcher, 16 (9), 28-37 Wood, D 1996 leacher cognition in language teaching: beliefs，decision making, and classroom practices Cambridge : Cambridge University Press Woods, D (1991) Teachers’ interpretations o f second language teaching curricula RELC Jo u rn a l 22’ 1—19 61 APPENDIXES Appendix 1: A vignette-based instrument for eliciting teacher’s beliefs about communicative activities Dear teachers, This is not a test You need not write your name The following are cases relating to communicative activities and teaching communicative activities Facing with specific situations in the speaking lessons, the teacher in each case has made certain decisions A teacher decision usually has various reasons I f you think the teacher decision is right, check (V ) the reasons you think constitute reasonable arguments for making it I f you think it is wrong, check the reasons that constitute a reasonable argument for this You can add more reasons that you believe justify or falsify the decision in each case I This year, a colleague o f yours is in charge o f teaching listening and speaking for the 1st year English major students She feels worried because she finds that all the lessons in the text book start with discussion questions or discussion situations but not the structures or sentence patterns She thinks that the students might not know how to make correct sentences for their discussions without structures or sentence patterns So, she decides to teach the students structures and sentence patterns relating to the lesson before the discussions Do you th in k her decision is rig h t o r wrong? Tick the appropriate box R ight 「 Wrong ᄀ F ՜ * I f you th in k that her decision is rig h t’ circle the appropriate reason(s) fo r this: By mastering the rule o f grammar, students become fillly capable o f communicating with others A primary emphasis on form in the early stages o f second language learning w ill，in the long run, leads to higher levels o f linguistic performance and knowledge than that o f the emphasis on meaning 62 Other reasons? Please specify * I f you think her decision is wrong, circle the appropriate reason fo r this Experience has shown that primarily grammar-based approaches to second language teaching not guarantee that learners develop high levels o f accuracy and linguistic knowledge Making correct sentences does not guarantee the students9 success in their communication Students are not always given structures or sentence patterns to communicate in their real life An almost exclusive focus on accuracy and practice o f particular grammatical form does not mean that learners w ill be able to use the forms correctly outside the classroom settings It is better to develop “ flu e n cy， ，before “ accuracy” Teaching structures and sentence patterns wastes students9 speaking time 10 Other reasons? Please specify 63 II A colleague o f yours usually starts her speaking lesson by providing her students necessary grammatical structures She expects that the students need to use those structures to talk about the topic o f the lesson During the students’ practice o f the grammatical structures, the teacher decides to react to the meaning o f the students9 responses Because she believes that, giving feed back on meaning3 o f students’ responses can help the students to improve their communicative ability (For example, the student produces the utterance: uWhere you went last n ig h t? ， ， The teacher may respond: “ I went to the cinema” This tells the student that his utterance has been understood as he intended.) Do you think her decision is rig h t o r wrong? Tick the appropriate box R ight Wrong * I f you think that her decision is rig h t, circle the appropriate reason fo r this: 11 An utterance may be successful according to communicative criteria even though it is formally incorrect Likewise, an utterance may be formally correct but fail to convey the intended meaning 12 Such feedback encourages students much and makes them more confident in their later communication 13 The motivation o f the students is often stifled by an insistence on correctness in the earliest stages o f second language learning 14 As the ultimate aim o f the speaking lesson is to improve the students， communication skills, the focus o f the teacher’s feedback must be on how successful, how effective the students’ communication has been Focus on meaning means getting a message across 64 15 Other reasons? Please specify * I f you think her decision is wrongy circle the appropriate reason fo r this 16 The students may not notice their errors 17 Errors may lead to the failure in the students9 later communication 18 Learners’ errors should be corrected as soon as they are made in order to prevent the formation o f bad habits 19 Other reasons? Please specify III When teaching listening and speaking, a colleague o f yours see that almost all o f the activities in the text book are organized in group work or pair work She is not satisfied with that as，in her opinion, group work and pair work activities take much time to organize and waste a lot o f valuable teaching time She is also afraid that, her students may make wrong sentences during their group discussions So, she decides to not to group her students to these activities Instead, she raises the discussing questions and situations and, then monitors the activities by eliciting the answer as the whole class or from some o f the students Do you think her decision is rig h t o r wrong? Tick the appropriate box R ight Wrong 65 * I f you think that her decision is rig h t，circle the appropriate reason fo r this: 20 Group work activities have little use since it is very d ifficult for the teacher to monitor the students’ performances 21 It is not easy for the teacher to prevent her students from using their mother tongue in group work activities 22 Other reasons? Please specify * I f you think her decision is wrong, circle the appropriate reason fo r this 23 Group work allows students to explore problems for themselves and thus have some measure o f control over their own learning 24 Group work activities are essential in providing opportunities for cooperative relationships to emerge and in promoting genuine interaction among students 25 The students produce not only a greater quantity but also greater variety of speech in group work than in teacher-center activities 26 In group work activities, there are many more opportunities when the students take the initiative to speak spontaneously 27 Errors are a natural and valuable part o f language learning process 28 Monitoring the group work means you are teaching 29 Other reasons? Please specify 66 IV In a listening and speaking lesson, a college o f yours usually teaches her students to fu lfill such functions as asking the ways, arranging the meetings, booking the flights, etc Those fonctions are presented through the listening passages which are the sample situational dialogues4 She expects that after listening and practicing those situational dialogues the students can use the above ftinctions to communicate She is really happy with the material as she believes that, those sample dialogues are comprehensible to the students and this helps the students to use the language easily Do you think her decision is rig h t o r wrong? Tick the appropriate box R ight Wrong * I f you think that her decision is rig h t, circle the appropriate reason fo r this: 30 Speaking with simple language can reinforce the students’ fluency 31 Simple language encourages students to speak 32 Comprehensible input makes the students feels confident to learn the language 33 Other reasons? Please specify Sample situational dialogues are the material specially written for language classrooms in which almost of the conversations are performed fluently without hesitation or background noises The language used in those dialogues is usually simple 67 * I f you think her decision is wrong, c ircle the appropriate reason f o r this 34 No language used in classroom is “ real” 35 What she decided is to make the students practice language but not to communicate 36 Other reasons? Please specify 68 Appendix 2: Back ground questionnaire How long have you been a teacher o f English? Have you ever attended any teaching methodology workshops/ programs? (An M A in TESOL course is also an example o f a teaching methodology program) Yes □ No □ I f yes, list all the workshops/programs and the length o f them Where are you teaching? (Name the place where you spent most o f your teaching time E.g a university, a high/junior school, an English language training center) Who you teach? (Name the type o f students you frequently teach E.g English major students, English non-major students, high school pupils， children, adults?) 69 ...M INISTRY OF EDUCATION AN D TRAINING HANOI UNIVERSITY DUONG TH I THIEN HA AN INVESTIGATION INTO PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY TEACHERS? ?? BELIEFS ABOUT TEACHING COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES IN SPEAKING LESSONS. .. teaching communicative activities in speaking lessons Specifically, it has the following objectives: • investigating the university teachers? ?? beliefs about teaching communicative activities in. .. to find out the university teachers? ?? beliefs about teaching communicative activities in speaking lessons This meant that the study has follow ing objectives: • investigating the university teachers? ??