4.3 Teachers’ attitude and teachers’ self-reported reality of using code-
4.3.1 The preference for language of instruction in teaching grammar
“As can be seen from Table 4.2, the information about whether teachers use both first and second language or only English to teach grammar reveals some interesting contrast. The majority of teachers use both Vietnamese and
Figure 4.1. Years of experience
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English as a medium of instruction for teaching Beginners (90.7%). However, the use of Vietnamese seems to be utilized less to teach students at elementary and pre-intermediate levels when more than one-fifth of teachers reported that they use only English to teach grammar for leaners at this level. In contrast to teaching grammar for Beginners, only-English instruction is preferred to teach learners at intermediate and upper-intermediate levels, with only 37.2%
participants are in favour of the implementation of CS. Table 4.2 details the ratio of the preferred language use of teachers’ instruction in three different levels.”
Table 4.2. The preferred language use to teach 3 levels Beginners Elementary and
pre-intermediate
Intermediate and upper-intermediate
N % N % N %
Both languages
39 90.7 34 79.1 16 37.2
Only English
4 9.3 9 20.9 27 62.8
Total 43 100 43 100 43 100
“The relationship between genders and the favorite language choice to teach grammar for these three groups of levels are also taken into account when a chi-square test is used to determine whether the frequencies of male and female’s answers different significantly from each other. The result of teaching grammar for Beginners is presented in Table 4.3. Since 2 cells (50.0%) have expected count less than 5 and it was computed only for a 2x2 crosstabulation table, a Fisher exact test is applied instead of chi-square. As is shown in the table, we cannot reject the null hypothesis that the choice of using language is related to gender as it was not statistically significant using the Fisher exact probability test. The exact probability was .602 which is not significant at .05 level.”
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Chi-Square Tests Value Df
Asymp. Sig.
(2-sided)
Exact Sig.
(2-sided)
Exact Sig.
(1-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square .444a 1 .505
Continuity Correctionb .013 1 .908
Likelihood Ratio .425 1 .514
Fisher's Exact Test .602 .436
N of Valid Cases 43
a. 2 cells (50.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 1.40.
b. Computed only for a 2x2 table
“The correlation between gender and preference of teachers in choosing language for grammar instruction for the second group of level, namely, elementary and pre-intermediate is tabulated in Table 4.4. It goes without saying that one of the expected frequencies is less than 5, which means the chi-square requirements are violated. Alternatively, we move on to the Fisher exact test. It Table 4.3: Genders and preference for language use to teach Beginners
1) Do you use Vietnamese to teach grammar for beginners?
Total
NO YES
What is your gender? Female Count 2 26 28
Expected
Count 2.6 25.4 28.0
% of Total 4.7% 60.5% 65.1%
Male Count 2 13 15
Expected
Count 1.4 13.6 15.0
% of Total 4.7% 30.2% 34.9%
Total Count 4 39 43
Expected
Count 4.0 39.0 43.0
% of Total 9.3% 90.7% 100.0%
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was possible to compare gender of participants with their choice of language use to teach elementary and pre-intermediate learners. As can be seen from the table, a Fisher exact test yielded an exact probability value of .046 which is statistically significant at the .05 level with one degrees of freedom. Thus it can be concluded that there is a significant difference between the observed and expected frequency of males and females in the preference for language use that whether they choose English-only instruction or both languages to teach grammar for this level, X2(1, N=43) = 5.062, p < .05. This value of chi-square is above the critical value of 3.8 required to be significant at the 5% level. Males are more likely than females to prefer English-only instruction and female are more likely to use both Vietnamese and English to teach grammar for elementary and pre-intermediate learners.”
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Table 4.4. Genders and preference for language use to teach elementary and pre-intermediate leaners
6) Do you use Vietnamese to teach grammar for students at
elementary and pre- intermediate levels?
Total
NO YES
What is your gender?
Tick one
Female Count 3 25 28
Expected
Count 5.9 22.1 28.0
% of Total 7.0% 58.1% 65.1%
Male Count 6 9 15
Expected
Count 3.1 11.9 15.0
% of Total 14.0% 20.9% 34.9%
Total Count 9 34 43
Expected
Count 9.0 34.0 43.0
% of Total 20.9% 79.1% 100.0%
Chi-Square Tests
Value Df
Asymp. Sig.
(2-sided)
Exact Sig.
(2-sided)
Exact Sig.
(1-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square 5.062a 1 .024
Continuity Correctionb 3.447 1 .063
Likelihood Ratio 4.862 1 .027
Fisher's Exact Test .046 .034
N of Valid Cases 43
a. 1 cells (25.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 3.14.
b. Computed only for a 2x2 table
“The result of the correlation analysis about gender and preference of teachers in choosing language for grammar instruction for the last group of level, namely, intermediate and upper-intermediate, is also examined in Table 4.5. As is shown in the table, while the percentage of male teachers who favored merely teaching in TL was almost comparable to the percentage of men who favored
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integrating L1 instruction into TL instruction, the number of female teachers who chose ‘English and Vietnamese’ nearly half that of female teachers who preferred monolingual instructions. It is totally possible to employ chi-square to compare related samples of frequencies in this case because there is not a cell with expected count less than 5. However, the difference was not statistically significant, X2(1, N=43) =.882. This value of chi-square is far below the critical value of 3.8 required to be significant at the 5% level. Therefore, we must reject the hypothesis that the choice of language use is related to gender in teaching grammar for intermediate and upper-intermediate learners.”
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Table 4.5. Genders and preference for language use to teach intermediate and upper-intermediate learners.
11) Do you use Vietnamese to teach grammar for Intermediate
and Upper-intermediate levels?
Total
NO YES
What is your gender?
Tick one
Female Count 19 9 28
Expected
Count 17.6 10.4 28.0
% of Total 44.2% 20.9% 65.1%
Male Count 8 7 15
Expected
Count 9.4 5.6 15.0
% of Total 18.6% 16.3% 34.9%
Total Count 27 16 43
Expected
Count 27.0 16.0 43.0
% of Total 62.8% 37.2% 100.0%
Chi-Square Tests Value df
Asymp. Sig.
(2-sided)
Exact Sig.
(2-sided)
Exact Sig.
(1-sided)
Pearson Chi-Square .882a 1 .348
Continuity Correctionb .370 1 .543
Likelihood Ratio .873 1 .350
Fisher's Exact Test .509 .270
N of Valid Cases 43
a. 0 cells (0.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 5.58.
b. Computed only for a 2x2 table
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“Overall, whereas code-switching is preferable in teaching grammar for students from beginners to pre-intermediate, nearly two thirds of participants stated that they use completely English to teach intermediate and upper-intermediate.
Taken together, these results suggest that there is not any relationship between two genders and their choice of language use to teach grammar for beginners, intermediate and upper intermediate learners. However, there is an association between male and female teachers with the preference for language of instruction when teaching elementary and pre-intermediate learners. In comparison to males, females are more likely to use code-switching to teach grammar at this level. In reviewing the literature, no data was found on the association between genders and teachers’ decision of whether CS is employed or not to teach grammar in this specific level. Although the sample is not large enough to make a generalization for all teachers at the language centers, the result somewhat reflects the tendency of choosing language use in this research site.”