4.2.1 Cognition in terms of speaking elements
In terms of speaking elements, the participant would like to teach speech acts the most because she thought that “real-life communicative situations should be brought into the classroom because speaking is not just academic or asking common questions in textbooks” (I). She also loved to teach social norms of appropriateness and informal language because she thought they would be necessary for her students’ future work or study. These findings showed her belief in the importance of real-life communication and preparation for students’ future lives. The next section will describe the speaking elements found in her classroom practices.
4.2.2 Classroom practices in terms of speaking elements
Two speaking elements in the participant’s observed lessons were fixed phrases and speech act. In the first observed lesson, she taught the students the phrase “a standing ovation” while one student was talking about his favorite performer on talent shows:
T: Did he get … uh something you should know, right? <writes “a standing ovation” on the board> <talks to the whole class> A standing ovation means everybody all stand up and applause <claps her hands>
his performance. OK. A standing ovation. <translates to Vietnamese> Đó là nguyên cái khán đài đứng lên hết để vỗ tay cho chương trình. <asks S>
Did he get that?
S: Yes. (O1)
She also taught the phrase “give it a try” when one student was talking about his ability:
T: Why not trying tennis, boy?
S: Em thấy cái đó nó khó. I think it’s difficult.
T: more difficult. Why don’t you give it a try?
S: because you have to run a lot. Phải chạy nhiều hơn là chơi badminton đó cô. There’s more running in tennis than in badminton.
T: All right. OK. Yah, because the ball goes faster, right? You have to run a lot. Yah. OK. <stands up> So, we have the phrase “give it a try” <writes it on the board>. OK. Why don’t you give it a try? Why don’t you try it?
try to play it? Người bản xứ nói “give it a try”. Thử chơi đi, chơi thử đi.
Native English speakers say “give it a try” which means “try it”. OK. Cool,
boy!
(O2) In the stimulated recall interview, the teacher said that she had taught the students new phrases “to help them develop their ideas and conversations in detail”
(SR). This showed her concentration on oral fluency.
The speech act that she taught to the students was offering and responding to compliments. She taught them some expressions for offering compliments (e.g.
Nice haircut! Cool glasses! What a great painting! You can … really well!) and responses to compliments (Thanks! Thank you! That’s nice of you to say!). In summary, the teacher taught two speaking elements including fixed phrases and speech act (giving and responding to compliments). The rationale behind teaching fixed phrases revealed her belief in helping students develop oral fluency. The following section will describe the relationship between the participant’s cognition and classroom practices related to speaking elements.
4.2.3 The relationship between the teacher’s cognition and classroom practices in terms of speaking elements
The table on the next page presented the participant’s cognition and classroom practices related to the second theme of the study, i.e. speaking elements.
The items were in order of frequency (from the most frequent to the least frequent).
Theme Cognition Classroom practices
2. Speaking elements
1. speech acts 1. fixed phrases 2. social norms of
appropriateness
2. speech act
3. informal language 4. fixed phrases 5. conversation structures
6. vague language 7. conversational strategies
Table 4.2 The relationship between the teacher’s cognition and classroom practices in terms of speaking elements (Note: 1-7: most frequent to least frequent)
The table above showed that the participant’s cognition was consistent with her classroom practices in terms of speaking elements. She used some speaking elements stated in the semi-structured interview including fixed phrases and speech act. Although she had thought she should teach a lot of speaking elements, there were not many of them found in her classroom practices. In the next section, the discussion of the participant’s cognition and classroom practices related to speaking elements will be presented.
4.2.4 Discussion of the teacher’s cognition and classroom practices in terms of speaking elements
The findings showed the participant’s belief in the importance of real-life communication and oral fluency in English speaking instruction. This explained why she thought she should teach her students a lot of speaking elements. However, there were only a limited number of these in her class, which was consistent with the findings of Yue’e and Yunzhang (2011) and Zan (2013). There were only two
speaking elements found in those two studies including speech organization and spoken English vocabulary. This showed that spoken English elements were still not the focus of oral English instruction. Zan (2013) found a reason for this, i.e.
teachers primarily learned written grammar and therefore lacked knowledge of spoken grammar. In this study, the teacher did not teach many speaking elements probably because question-and-answer activities were used for most of the time. In these less fluency-focused activities, speaking elements such as social norms of appropriateness, conversational strategies, and conversational structures could hardly be presented; therefore, the teacher only taught the students some fixed phrases.
In the stimulated recall interview, she explained that she had taught fixed phrases to help her students “develop their ideas and conversations in detail” (SR).
This showed her belief that fixed phrases would help her students develop their oral fluency. The speech act, i.e. giving and responding to compliments, was taught because it was included in the textbook. Therefore, it could be seen that her classroom practices related to speaking elements were influenced by her wish to focus on fluency and one contextual factor (i.e. the textbook). The next section will present the participant’s cognition and classroom practices related to the third theme of the study, i.e. teacher roles.