(LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ) Exploring English grammar major students'' attitudes towards and expectations for teachers'' classroom activities at Bien Hoa Specialized High school, Ha Nam

Research have shown that discovering learners‟ attitudes, beliefs, needs and expectations is really beneficial for teachers to develop appropriate teaching methods and adjust teaching ac

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

- -

TRẦN THỊ THU HIỀN

EXPLORING ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS AND EXPECTATIONS FOR TEACHERS’ CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES AT BIEN HOA SPECIALIZED

HIGH SCHOOL, HA NAM

Nghiên cứu thái độ và kỳ vọng của học sinh chuyên tiếng Anh

về việc giảng dạy của giáo viên tại trường THPT Chuyên Biên Hoà, Hà Nam

M.A Minor Thesis

DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

- -

TRẦN THỊ THU HIỀN

EXPLORING ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS AND EXPECTATIONS FOR TEACHERS’ CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES AT BIEN HOA SPECIALIZED

HIGH SCHOOL, HA NAM

Nghiên cứu thái độ và kỳ vọng của học sinh chuyên tiếng Anh

về việc giảng dạy của giáo viên tại trường THPT Chuyên Biên Hoà, Hà Nam

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Methodology

Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: Cao Thúy Hồng, M.A HANOI – 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

DECLARATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

i ii iii iv vii PART A INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale………

2 Aims of the study………

3 Research questions………

4 Scope of the study………

5 Methods of the study………

6 Significance of the study………

7 Format of the study………

1 2 2 3 3 3 3 PART B DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4

I.1 The learner-centered approach………

 Basic Principles………

 Benefits ………

4 4 5 I.2 Foreign language learners’ attitudes ………

 Definition………

 Role of learners’ attitudes………

6 6 6 I.3 Foreign language learners’ expectation………

 Definition………

 Mismatch between teachers’ intentions and learners’ expectations

 Balancing the mismatch between teachers’ intentions and learners’ expectations………

8 8 8 9 I.4 Shape of an English lesson………

 Stages of a language lesson………

 Teacher’s roles in a language lesson………

 Role of teaching content/ materials in a language lesson………

12

12

14

15

Role of language materials……… ………

Materials development………

 Common teaching activities in a language lesson

15 16 17 CHAPTER II THE STUDY 20

II.1 Setting of the study………

Brief introduction of the school………

General situation of English teaching and learning in the school…

20 20 20 II.2 Subjects ……… 21

II.3 Instruments………

The survey questionnaire

The follow-up interview

21 22 23 II.4 Data analysis process……… 23

CHAPTER III DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 23

III.1 The Survey Questionnaire………

III.1.1 Students’ general attitudes towards their language teachers’ roles and work in the classroom

III.1.1.1 Students’ general attitudes towards language teachers’ role in their learning

24 24

24 III.1.1.2 Students’ general attitudes towards teachers’ work 24

III.1.2 Students’ levels of satisfaction with each of the teaching items carried out by the language teachers 25

III.1.3 English major students’ comments on teaching and learning materials

provided by the teachers and their workload in English 27

III.1.4 English major students’ opinions on the frequency and quality of some specific teaching activities 28

III.1.5 English major students’ expectations for future teaching adjustments and improvement 30

III.2 The follow-up interview………

III.2.1 Reasons for satisfaction ………

III.2.2 Reasons for dissatisfaction………

III.2.3 Students’ other expectations………

32 32 32 33 CHAPTER IV RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BETTER LANGUAGE TEACHING AT ENGLISH MAJOR CLASSES IN THE SCHOOL 34

IV.1 Recommendations for teaching language skills

To improve the teaching of listening skill

To improve the teaching of speaking skill

35 35 35 IV.2 Recommendations for selecting, editing and developing teaching materials 37 IV.3 Recommendations for applying specific teaching activities 37

PART C CONCLUSION

Summary of the study………

Limitations of the research………

Recommendations for further research ………

39 39 39 40 REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX 1 – Survey Questionnaire I APPENDIX 2 - Interview Questions V APPENDIX 3 – Table 2 VI APPENDIX 4 – Table 3 VII

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Charts

Chart 1 Students’ general attitudes towards language teachers’ role

Chart 2 Students’ general attitudes towards teachers’ work

Chart 3 Students’ levels of satisfaction with each of the teaching items

performed by the language teachers

PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Like in every part of the world, the practice of English teaching and learning in Vietnam has been more popular than ever before Many language teaching methods and approaches have been introduced and applied in the teaching and learning process, aiming at best achieving educational objectives

In the view of modern language teaching and learning approaches, learners are widely recognized as a major factor determining the learning success; and learner motivation and autonomy is considered to be essential for successful language learning by most language teachers, as Gardner argues, a “motivated learner” is regarded as being: (a) eager to learn the language, (b) willing to expend effort on the learning activity, and (c) willing to sustain the learning activity (Gardner, 1985, p 10) It is, thus, stipulated that teachers make all efforts to motivate learners and stimulate their autonomy Research have shown that discovering learners‟ attitudes, beliefs, needs and expectations is really beneficial for teachers to develop appropriate teaching methods and adjust teaching activities, helping to bring about learners‟ satisfaction and more engagement in learning

It is also widely known that in order to succeed in English teaching, teachers need to

get and keep learners‟ attention and their positive participation (Davies, 2000, p.12); and that

despite classroom teachers‟ efforts to make sure that their lessons are a success, sometimes things do not work as well as they had planned (Jeremy, 1991) and then classroom problems may occur These problems can be student-caused, parent-caused, or administrator-caused (Jessup, 1971) Teachers are also identified as one of the problem- causing sources since the way they teach and behave has a profound influence on learners‟ attitudes which affect their learning either negatively or positively In order to create positive learning attitude, it is crucial to investigate learners‟ views on what and how teacher do in the classroom so that appropriate adjustment in the teaching can be carried out to draw learners‟ highest level of concentration and participation in very lesson

In my specific teaching context, the way we teach English is based on the combination of some modern language teaching approaches including learner-centered, skill-based and task-based to obtain the objectives of teaching language communicatively This requires my colleagues and me to work hard, design diverse teaching activities in our teaching process However, despite our efforts, sometimes we realize here and there our students lose interest in our lessons This makes us feel rather discouraged and wonder about

the effectiveness of each activity we use in the classroom Personally, the researcher strongly believes that designing learning tasks and teaching activities must be based on teachers‟ understanding of the students We must realize what they want to learn and how they want

us to teach Thus, exploring our students‟ evaluation of our teaching, their attitudes and expectations for what and how we do is really essential to improve the learning and teaching situation in the school in the next stage

For all the above mentioned reasons, the writer upheld a strong desire to conduct a survey research on English major students‟ attitudes towards and expectations for teachers‟ classroom activities

2 Aims of the study

- to examine the school‟s English major students‟ attitudes towards their language teachers‟ classroom activities

- to investigate the students‟ needs, interests and expectations for improvement in English teaching in these classes

- to suggest necessary changes that the teachers should make in their teaching process

to improve the English teaching and learning situation

3 Research questions

The study is carried out to find out the answers to the two main research questions:

1 What are students‟ attitudes towards the teachers‟ way of teaching?

2 What and how do the students expect their teachers to change in their way of teaching in the future?

It is clear that the former helps to learn about students‟ evaluation and reflection of what and how the teachers do in the classrooms whereas the later helps to look over students‟ needs and expectations for teachers‟ future actions To work out the answer to the first major question, a number of minor questions need answers as well They are: (1) What are the students‟ general attitudes towards teachers‟ roles and work in the classroom? (2) What in the teachers‟ job do the students feel satisfied with? Why? (3) What in the teachers‟ job do the students feel dissatisfied with? Why? (4) How do the students remark upon teaching and learning materials provided by the teachers and their workload in English? (5) What are the students‟ opinions on the frequency and quality of some specific teaching activities conducted by teachers in every lesson?

4 Scope of the study

Teaching activities can be various and indefinite However, only activities that teachers normally conduct and perform in English lessons are taken into account in the study Besides, only English major students of three grades 10, 11 and 12 in the school are under investigation In addition, this study only concentrates on exploring their attitudes

towards and expectations for what and how the teachers do in the classroom

5 Methods of the study

During the process of collecting and analyzing the data for the research, both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed Specifically, the data were collected via means of a written survey questionnaire –typical of quantitative method; and a group interview - typical of qualitative method

6 Significance of the study

It is expected that the findings in the study will help the teachers in the school see the strong points and weak points of their work Information of the students‟ expectations may also be of great help to the teachers in considering developing appropriate teaching methods, adopting eligible techniques and adapting suitable activities so as to improve the teaching and learning situation All in all, the study is hoped to be greatly significant in improving the English learning and teaching situation in the school

7 Format of the study

The study is organized into three parts

The first part, Introduction, provides all the information about the rationale, aims,

scope, significance and format of the study Research questions and methodology are also identified in this part

The second part, Development, consists of four chapters The first chapter, Theoretical Background, reviews relevant literatures In the next chapter, The study, the

setting, subjects, instruments and data analysis process of the study is presented The third

chapter is devoted to a detailed description of Data analysis and discussion And the last chapter, namely Recommendations for better language teaching at English major classes in the school, puts forward some recommendations for better teaching at English major classes

of the school

The last part, Conclusion, presents not only a summary but also some limitations of

the research and gives some suggestions for further study

PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Identifying and carrying out necessary teaching adjustments by the way of investigating students‟ attitudes and expectations partially shows learner-centeredness in the

teaching and learning process Thus, relevant literature regarding the learner-centered approach and learners’ attitudes and expectations in foreign language learning will be

reviewed in this chapter Some issues concerning teaching activities in foreign language lessons are also discussed in the chapter

I.1 The learner-centered approach

A lot of changes in education have taken place as a result of changes in educational objectives to meet the new demands of the current time and bring about better learning and teaching outcomes One of the observable changes in education is the shift in focus from teachers to learners in the teaching and learning process

Although “learner-centeredness” is not a new concept in the world, it has been popularly developed and widely applied in education and especially in language teaching and learning for only several decades

In Vietnam, learner-centered teaching has been recently encouraged and promoted for a number of years The approach has been asserted and confirmed as a big and essential renovation in education since 1986, at the 6th congress of Communist Party of Vietnam

Basic Principles

In terms of principle, the learner-centered approach emphasizes the central role of learners in all classroom activities It is stated that learning is totally determined by learners According to Campbell (1992, pp.5-6), the main principle of learner-based teaching is that

“all class activities can be done using information that the learners themselves bring to class” In his view, students bring a lot with them to the classroom They all have ideas, opinions, experiences and areas of expertise All of this is important to them What they need from the English classroom is the language to express all this, and there by themselves This viewpoint is shared and backed up by many scholars Holliday (1994, p.167) adds that the experience and knowledge students bring to the classroom is of great value to the learning process and must be capitalized and built upon

Learner-based teaching focuses on encouraging learners to express their ideas freely and “all of the activities, even grammar practice, are based on “here and now” of the learners” (Campbell, 1992, p.8) Thus, it can be said that every activity in learner-centered

teaching aims at narrowing the traditional gap between teachers and learners The teaching and learning are taking place on both sides because teacher can be an active participant (in the group) while learners can teach themselves with teachers‟ help/supporting and monitoring

It is true that in the process of teaching and learning, students cannot be treated as

“an empty vessel which teachers can arbitrarily fill with new knowledge or behavior” (Holliday, 1994, p.167) Teachers do not teach language to students but only create and facilitate favorable conditions for students to revise and boost their background knowledge and experience upon which knew knowledge is constructed and acquired and, as a consequence, their language competence is developed Mortimer (1998) sees teaching as a humble, helping art The teacher does not produce knowledge or stuff ideas into an empty, passive mind It is the learner, not the teacher, who is the active producer of knowledge and ideas However, this does not mean that teacher has no role in classroom Of course, competent students can teach themselves but the process of learning is made more certain and less painful when they have teachers‟ help The teacher shows the student how to discern, evaluate, judge, and recognize the truth He does not impose a fixed content of ideas and doctrines that the student must learn by rote He teaches the student how to learn and think for himself He encourages rather than suppresses a critical and intelligent response Thus, teaching is also regarded as cooperative arts in which the teacher gives and the students receive aid and guidance

Nguyen Bang and Nguyen Ba Ngoc (2002, p.40) put forward a number of

learner-centered instructions including: techniques that focus or account for learners’ needs, styles and aims; techniques that give some control to learners (group work, strategy training for example); syllabus that include the consultation and input of learners and that do not presuppose objectives in advance; techniques that enhance a learners’ sense of competence and self-worth; and techniques that allow for learner creativity and innovation

Benefits

It can be said that this approach is really beneficial and effective if fully applied to any teaching and learning process As Turdor (1993) points out, in language teaching and

learning this approach brings about a number of advantages as follows:

-The teaching aims may be suitably set if the learners can participate in building the subject syllabus based on their own experiences

-The study will be more effective if the teaching method is suitable to learning method of the learners‟ interest

-The learners will be more effective if the learners feel involved in building their syllabus

According to Lewis & Hill (1992, p.9), “students are more likely to enjoy the subject, and to succeed at it, if they are involved in the learning process and, as far as possible, have a chance to influence what happens, and how it happens”

Undoubtedly, with this approach, learners will become more dynamic, more active and more self-confident since they are given more room for involvement in lessons This, in Scharle‟s (2000, p.5) opinion, helps to foster learners‟ autonomy or, in other words, learners‟ sense of responsibility, which is crucial to learning and teaching success

I.2 Foreign language learners’ attitudes

Definition

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, attitude is defined as a hypothetical

construct that represents an individual's degree of like or dislike for an item Attitudes are generally positive or negative views of a person, place, thing, or event- this is often referred

to as the attitude object In other words, attitudes are usually understood as a disposition or tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain thing (idea, object, person, situation) They encompass, or are closely related to, our opinions and beliefs and are based upon our experiences Thus, it can be inferred that in education students‟ attitudes towards a teacher and his/her job may mean their levels of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with what and how the teacher does in the teaching process

Since attitudes often relate in some way to interaction with others, they represent an important link between cognitive and social psychology Unlike personality, attitudes are expected to change as a function of experience Attitudes can be changed through persuasion and we should understand attitude change as a response to communication As far as instruction is concerned, a great deal of learning involves acquiring or changing attitudes

Role of learners’ attitudes

In language instruction, students‟ attitudes toward learning the language are regarded

as “an important predictor of success” since “students who consider the learning of English

as a positive and rewarding experience are less likely to suffer from foreign language anxiety” ( Tsiplakides & Keramida, 2010) Besides, a teacher is widely acknowledged as one of the most important components of language training and instruction since his/her

decisions can be influential on the learning/teaching contents or materials, methods of teaching/learning as well as on his/her students‟ learning outcomes Therefore, students‟ attitudes towards their teachers, an attitude object, need taking into consideration by educators and trainers

Attitude can alter every aspect of a person's life, including their education Student attitudes on learning determine their ability and willingness to learn As discussed in Bloom's Taxonomy theory, a learning attitude is developed over time and past learning experiences affect future learning experiences During their learning process, students may develop either positive or negative attitudes towards their language learning and their language teacher, which certainly affects their language learning in either a good way or a bad way Undeniably, positive learning attitudes make students want to learn, be receptive and participate in the learning process to ultimately experience satisfaction from learning whereas negative attitudes towards language learning can reduce learners' motivation and harm language learning Negative attitudes can discourage creativity and participation as part

of the learning process If negative attitudes are not altered, a student is unlikely to continue his education beyond what is required Changing students' negative attitudes towards learning is a process that involves determining the factors driving the attitude and using this information to bring about change

Some factors that influence students‟ attitudes toward their foreign language learning

are identified by Tsiplakides & Keramida (2010): a) teacher-student relationships, b) the general classroom atmosphere, and c) the use of authentic teaching materials and activities

These authors also suggest a number of principles to foster positive attitudes in ESL/EFL

classes: (1) Developing Teacher-student Relationships; (2) Fostering a Positive Psychological Classroom Atmosphere; (3) Creating an Attractive Physical Classroom Environment; (4) Supplementing the Teaching Material with Authentic Texts and Tasks.

In short, student attitudes on learning, good or bad, affect their outlook toward learning throughout life Their attitudes towards learning affect not only their amount of education but their desire for education Those who respond with enthusiasm towards learning are primarily successful learners Those responding negatively to education had experienced only basic (required) learning and did not desire further study Once educators uncover student attitudes on learning, the challenge is using this information to shape a positive attitude

I.3 Foreign language learners’ expectation

Definition

In the case of uncertainty, expectation is what is considered the most likely to

happen An expectation, which is a belief that is centered on the future, may or may not be realistic An expectation may results in diverse psychological states A less advantageous result gives rise to the emotion of disappointment If something happens that is not at all expected it is a surprise An expectation about the behavior or performance of another person, expressed to that person, may have the nature of a strong request, or an order (Wikipedia….)

Similarly, we can infer that students’ expectations in foreign language learning may

be referred to as their desires or needs of what and how they would like to learn in the coming time In other words, it means students expect teachers to carry out changes in teaching content and teaching styles so as to match their learning preferences and bring about the highest degrees of satisfaction in their learning

Mismatch between teachers’ intentions and learners’ expectations

Undeniably, most teachers always try their best and do every thing to make effective teaching Teaching can be said to be an intentional activity which is undertaken with the purpose of bringing about learning A lot of teachers‟ time and effort are devoted to lesson planning, task designing, and applying appropriate teaching methods and techniques with the hope to draw students‟ attention, get them involved in the lesson so as to have the best learning outcomes However, at times things do not go on as well as expected Both teachers and students feel quite disappointed and dissatisfied with each other The main cause of this problem is probably a certain result of the mismatch between teachers‟ intentions and learners‟ expectations

So far, many researches have shown that there is a gap between teachers‟ intentions and learners‟ expectations, which has an effect of seriously limiting the learning outcomes Kumaravadivelu (1991) found that “the learner‟ perception of what was going on frequently failed to match the teacher‟s intention” (cited in Harmer 1991, p.395) In fact, there is always

an existence of this gap What a teacher teaches, in many cases, does not mean what the students like and want to learn; and “what may feel appropriate from teacher‟s point of view may not seem so appropriate for students” (Harmer, 1991, p.396) As a result, despite all effort and intention teachers make in designing each of particular learning tasks, students do not perform as well as teachers have expected This causes problems to not only teachers but

students as well For teachers‟ part, they may feel quite disappointed and discouraged since all their effort comes to nothing, their students have no progress in learning, and they cannot motivate students to learn effectively In addition, sometimes they may even have to suffer from negative behaviors of some students who are not interested in learning For students‟ part, they lose interest in learning when they find what teacher does do not live up to their expectation For instance, teachers just impose and ask them to learn all the learning content which is too tedious or too challenging instead of teaching what they really like and want to learn Besides, they may feel fed up with the way teachers frequently perform in every lesson Teaching techniques and strategies teachers use are not effective and suitable for students‟ learning styles

As a consequence of their losing interest, “their incentive to maintain their level of concentration is lessened, and if that happens, they are more likely to become disconnected with what is going on That is when problem behavior often manifests itself” (Harmer,1991, p.154) Then, no positive collaboration and harmonious working between teachers and learners in classroom can be found; both teachers and students have sufferings; teaching and learning objectives cannot be achieved

In Willing‟s (1988, p.1) opinion, “accommodating learning style and strategy preferences in the classroom can result in improved learner satisfaction and attainment” (cited in Nunan 1991, p.167) Thus, the gap between teachers‟ intention and learners‟

expectations really needs narrowing According to Kumaravadivelu (1991, p.98), “the narrower the gap between teacher intention and learner interpretation is, the greater are the chances of achieving desired learning outcomes It is thus important that we understand potential sources contributing to the mismatch between teacher intention and learner interpretation” He also points out “ learning outcome is the result of a fairly unpredictable interaction between the learner, the task, and the task situation From the teacher's perspective, then, achievement of success depends largely on the degree to which teacher intention and learner interpretation of a given task converge”

Balancing the mismatch between teachers’ intentions and learners’ expectations

Like any classroom problems, problem of the mismatch between teachers‟ intention and learners‟ expectations is not impossible to be tackled as long as teachers are a little more sensitive, flexible, enthusiastic in teaching, and more considerate towards their students

Tarone & Yule(1989, p.9) suggest “decisions about how to present the 'best' learning experience for a group of students inevitably depends on the individual teacher's ability to

work out what those students appear to need, while also remaining aware of what they expect to happen in the learning situation" Holliday(1994) also argues that “the choice of content can depend on many things, from the needs, interests, expectations and experiences

of the students, to the requirements of other parties who hold stakes in what happens in the classroom” (bubble 20, p.169, cited in Holliday 1994) Talking about the basic principles

in teaching, Lewis & Hill (1992, p.9) argue that “ at any point during the lesson, the teachers‟ pre-arranged plan and the students‟ needs are in conflict, it is the students‟ needs which should have priority”

It is clear that the mismatch between teachers‟ intentions and learners‟ expectation is

a common conflict between teachers and students When this conflict exists, it is required that teachers make some sacrifice for students Adjustment in teaching should be carried out

to make sure that students feel satisfied since once their needs and expectations are met, the content and the way teachers teach match with their learning styles and preferences to a great extent As Jessup (1971, p.151) points out, so as to create students‟ positive attitudes for learning, an effective teacher recognizes that the selection of material taught and the teaching techniques employed are contingent upon the ability and interest levels of his students

In general, scholars and educationalists approve that it is necessary that teachers always take students into consideration as an initial step in designing, preparing any teaching activities or learning tasks for students Students‟ experience, learning styles, attitudes, needs, beliefs and expectations really matter and should be carefully investigated before selecting appropriate teaching materials and pedagogical methods Scharle (2000, p.16) discusses “It‟s important to know what experience your students have had and as a consequence what expectations they may have of you as a teacher” since “you may put to use what you have learnt about the expectations and previous experience of your students and choose activities in which their attention would not be too much occupied by the novelty

of the task” In his view, information on students‟ existing attitudes to learning and to the foreign language is the starting point for developing responsible attitudes towards learning Therefore, it is really essential that “the attitudes and personalities of students have to

be taken into consideration when selecting techniques for a lesson” (Dangerfield,

1985) Holliday (1994, pp.161-163) also emphasizes the importance of understanding students as one part of finding appropriate methodology In his terms, an appropriate methodology, which must by nature be culture-sensitive, therefore has two major components: a teaching methodology and a process of learning about the classroom because

learning about the classroom is an essential aspect of finding out how to teach Achieving appropriate methodology depends on learning what happens between people in the classroom The process of learning what happens between people in a particular classroom should be largely in the hands of the teacher, just as the act of teaching is in the hands of the teacher (pp.161-162) Therefore, in his view, when there is likely to be conflict between teacher and student agendas, learning about the classroom is regarded as an action research which helps not only to develop appropriate methodologies but also to solve classroom problems (p.163)

There are several ways for teachers to gain understanding of students According to Scharle (2000), information about students‟ opinions on teaching and learning style can be collected through interviews or discussions In addition, interview activity can be modified, converted into questionnaires Teachers are also suggested to occasionally invite students to write compositions expressing their ideas, judgements and comments on current teaching and learning situation in their classroom As suggested by Lewis & Hill (1992), teachers should occasionally invite students to judge their teachers or teaching, ask them which ways they prefer to be taught and which way they do not like as one way of knowing how successful their lessons are These scholars also argue it is a good idea to “discuss with students about their expectations of what they expect to happen in the classroom, (it also helps) to discuss what students expect to enjoy, and not enjoy right at the beginning of a new course” (Lewis & Hill, 1992)

As stated by Lewis & Hill(1992, pp.50-51), consulting students is very beneficial to the general atmosphere of the classrooms, and sometimes reveals concrete ways in which classes can be made more enjoyable or more effective for the students as long as teachers take their comments seriously If their comments are taken seriously students soon realize that they can usefully influence their own lessons and have a sense of taking active part in making decisions about their learning Encouraged to assess teachers and provide information about their attitudes, learning styles or expectations, students certainly feel that they are important in the learning process, and that the teacher is interested in them both as language learners and as people Scharle (2000, p.8) also discusses “by sharing relevant information with students, teachers express respect and a willingness to regard learners as partners in working towards the common aim of learning a foreign language” This, as a result, certainly makes students become more autonomous and are “more likely to enjoy the subject, and to succeed at it, if they are involved in the learning process and, as far as

possible, have a chance to influence what happens, and how it happens” (Lewis & Hill,1992, p.10)

To obtain positive cooperation and the most trustworthy information from students, it

is required that teachers be quite sincere, friendly, open and kind-hearted to students during the process of getting information “Explain to your students that you would like to learn about their attitudes towards learning the foreign language, and you would like them to fill in

a questionnaire as honesty as they can” (Scharle, 2000, pp.18-20) More importantly, teachers must tactfully show that students‟ comments are important and appreciated by making appropriate pedagogical adaptation as soon as possible right after each consultation and discussion with students

In short, to work out the solution to the conflict between teachers‟ intentions and learners‟ expectations as well as any other classroom conflicts and problems, teachers should learn about learners, consult them, carry out appropriate teaching adjustments and make some necessary sacrifice for them This sacrifice shows teachers‟ respect for students and is seen as an act of following the main principle of learner-centered teaching More importantly, to my mind, teachers must always be decisive, effective and fair in all lessons (Harmer, 1991, p.154) points out that students are very sensitive, if they see teachers as unprepared and uncertain about what to do in the lessons, they are far more likely to lose interest and be disruptive; chances of successful learning are then not guaranteed

I.4 Shape of an English lesson

Stages of a language lesson

In order to be professionally successful any language teachers must surely have good understanding of the language and how to teach it It is widely known that the use of language involves two aspects: form and meaning which are relevant to the very two main linguistic concepts- “formal” and “functional” normally used by linguists Then language teaching always consists of the teaching of language components including grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and the teaching language skills -reading, listening, writing and speaking This has been strongly consolidated and emphasized in many titles which are quite famous and familiar to teachers and even to language students at teacher training colleges or

universities A course in language teaching: practice and theory (Ur.1996); An introduction

to English language teaching (Haycraft, 1978); or Language teaching methodology: a textbook for teachers (Nunan, 1991) are some very popular books, which give readers

careful guidance on what and how to teach English language In his The practice of English

language teaching, Harmer (1991, pp.195-196) states that language teaching involves not

only forms but also meanings, and he elaborately features what and how teachers should do

in teaching different aspects of language

As can be inferred from the above section, language teachers can divide their teaching work into teaching different language items in different lessons It is recommended that language skills, grammar, or vocabulary can be taught and learnt either separately or in integration However, to help students obtain effective learning, it is essential for teachers to carry out appropriate teaching procedure for each lesson

In Vietnam, language teachers have been all carefully trained how to teach each skill

as well as grammar, phonetics and vocabulary It is clear that teaching reading or listening is quite different from teaching speaking, teaching writing or teaching grammar; so among their various teaching methods, techniques and strategies teachers must flexibly choose and use appropriate ones in teaching different lessons However, the procedure for teaching each learning item often seems to follow one general pattern of some certain teaching phases

As Ur (1996) points out, after introducing, giving presentation and explanation of

what students learn and have to do in the lesson, teachers move to another step that is

controlling students‟ practice, and then the final step - testing how students learn the lesson

Recently, teachers have been well trained to conduct the teaching process of any lesson

through the model of PPP, which stands for Presentation, Practice, Production /Performance The PPP procedure is described, demonstrated and discussed thoroughly by

Harmer (1991, p.64), Byrne (1986, p.3), Lewis (1993, p.190), Spratt & Read (1985, pp.5-17) and many other scholars Above all the controversial opinions about this teaching procedure, there is a general view among these scholars that is “PPP is extremely useful in a focus-on-forms lesson, especially at lower levels, but irrelevant in a skills lesson, where focus on form may occur as a result of something students hear or read”(Harmer, 1991, p.67) Then, one modified/alternative version of this procedure is widely introduced and applied for teaching skill lessons In this new procedure, the teaching and learning process of any lessons goes on

through three stages: Pre/Before, While/Through and Post/After, in each of which, diverse

teaching and learning activities and tasks are performed, serving specific purposes and all contributing to perfect lessons Elaborate instructions on how to carry out each teaching stage are presented in the publications of our Ministry of Education and Training (2006, 2007) All English language teachers in Vietnam have been being asked to help students work on every lesson and task with this three-stage procedure

Teacher’s roles in a language lesson

Undoubtedly, teachers and learners are the two principal and indispensable parts of any teaching and learning process It is the interaction between teachers and learners that enables the process of teaching and learning to take place In practice, many learners can teach themselves without the help from teachers, but general view of conventional education confines that a real education does not exist if there is an absence of one of these two parts Thus, both teachers and learners have certain roles and significance to ensure an effective education Due to the scope of the study, only teachers‟ roles in language teaching are under review in this section, aiming at clarifying common and principal classroom activities often conducted by teachers in every language lessons

Language teachers‟ roles have been so far discussed again and again in a great deal

of literature Approaches and methods in language teaching (Richards & Rogers, 1986) is

one very popular title which has a clear section on teacher roles within each approach or

method analyzed Roles of teachers and learners (Wright, 1987) is also a famous title Harmer‟s The practice of English language teaching (1991) has been a favorite, which

provides a comprehensive and general overview of this topic in which various roles of a teacher like a controller, a prompter, a participant, a resource, and a tutor are distinctly demonstrated (p.108) Besides, Harmer (1991) also sees a teacher as teaching aid in the way they help students both hear and understand language by miming, gesturing, being language model or provider of comprehensible input (pp.116-117) In his opinion, one of the teachers‟ principal responsibilities is “to foster a good relationship with the group in front of us (teachers) so that they work together cooperatively in a spirit of friendliness and harmonious creativity.” He adds that in order to work well with different roles, above all teachers should create successful „rapport‟-the relationship that students have with the teachers and vice versa, which is of great help to bring about “a positive, enjoyable and respectful relationship between teacher and students, and between the students themselves”(p.113) Thus, it is necessary that teachers recognize students, listen to students, respect students and being even-handed

Discussing this issue, Cranmer (1985, pp 1-3) also points out a number of roles a language teacher can play These roles include a motivator, an informant, a conductor, a diagnoser, or a corrector He does not forget to remind teachers to seek to encourage students while they take over these roles since, in his opinion, “this encouragement involves all aspects of the teacher‟s role-a sympathetic attitude, not demanding beyond the students‟

capabilities, not overcorrecting, praising what has been well done” (Cranmer, 1985, p 3) Specific roles of a teacher in different phases of teaching process are also summarized by Read (1985, p.17) While supposed to work as an informant in the presentation phase, a teacher is regarded as conductor and corrector in practice phase and monitor, adviser, mistake-hearer, or consultant in production phase of the teaching procedure

It is clear that a language teacher‟s roles can be rather diverse and complicated Personally, the researcher is quite in favor of the way these roles are classified on

http://www.thefreelibrary.com According to this way, teachers normally have task-related roles when acting as organizer, instructor, controller, facilitator, counselor, participant,

expert/resource, or evaluator in the classroom Besides, they may assume some interpersonal

roles when functioning as creators of conditions conducive to learning, or as students‟ friends or socializing agents Last but not least, teachers can play special roles of motivators and even learners in the class Undeniably, to fulfill these roles teachers must always endeavor to work hard, and above all they must be very sensitive, flexible, and creative and

competent in their work

Role of teaching content/ materials in a language lesson

 Role of language materials

Materials in language teaching are quite varied, including textbooks, video and audio tapes, computer softwares, visual aids… which all contribute to the process of language instruction

According to Kitao (1997), materials are one of the five key components (including students, a teacher, materials, teaching methods, and evaluation) of language instruction since they can influence the content and procedures of teaching and learning In his opinion, experienced teachers can teach English without a textbook but it is not easy to do it all the time In practice, both teachers and students usually rely heavily on textbooks because of the fact that textbooks can not only “make it possible for students to review and prepare their lessons” and “allow for adaptation and improvization.” (O‟neill, 1990) but also be treated as

“resource books for ideas and activities for instruction/learning” and “give teachers rationales for what they do” (Allright, 1990)

It is true that, as Kitao(1997) discusses, textbooks determine the components and methods of learning They control the content, methods and procedures of learning Students learn what is presented in the textbook, and the way the textbook presents material is the way students learn it Therefore, in many cases, “materials are the center of instruction and

one of the most important influences on what goes on in the classroom” (Kitao, 1997) Thus,

it can be said that materials take on a very important role in language classes, and it is important for all language teachers to select a good textbook

 Materials development

Important as they are, textbooks are sometimes too inflexible to be used directly as instructional materials (Allright, 1990) This viewpoint of Allright (1990) is backed up by

Lynch (http://www.elsbase.com/articles/creating-materials.asp) who points out some

reasons for teachers to adapt existing or available materials The reasons consist of unsuitable material level (not suitable for learners‟ need), being too difficult or too easy, too long or too short, extensive use of grammar or structure In her opinion, it is necessary that teachers explore relevancy of the existing materials to find out how to adapt the materials for specific use or modify materials to students‟ learning styles In addition, the movement of the learner-centeredness since the end of 1970s has also stressed the role of the learners as the center of language learning, which means that materials, as well as teaching methods and evaluation, should all be designed for learners and their needs “It is teachers‟ responsibility

to cheek to see whether all the elements of the learning process are working well for learners and to adapt them if they are not.” (Kitao, 1997)

In practice, adapting/developing textbooks and teaching materials is always carried out as a part of the teaching job of any enthusiastic teachers Many of them even choose to construct their own teaching materials despite the availability of commercially produced ones

In developing materials, basic understandings of developing materials and instructional materials‟ characteristics is of great help for the teachers So as to develop teaching materials, teachers should first evaluate the materials, and then adapt them or write

a new kind of materials for the students According to Lynch (year), the job of evaluating materials often involves learning about principles for evaluating materials, doing analysis of teaching materials, studying criteria for selecting materials, and acknowledging the importance of using authentic materials Adapting materials requires not only reasons for adaptation but also techniques for adaptation including adding, deleting, modifying, simplifying and reordering Concerning this issue, Howard & Major (2004, p 104) summarizes some main tasks often done by language teachers The tasks include the

following: (1) - Add activities to those already suggested; (2)- Leave out activities that do not meet your learners’ needs; (3) - Replace or adapt activities or materials with:

supplementary materials from other commercial texts; authentic materials (newspapers, radio reports, films, etc); teacher-created supplementary materials; and (4) - Change the organizational structure of the activities, for example, pairs, small groups or whole class

Regarding constructing teaching materials, a number of guidelines for designing effective English teaching materials are also put forwards in great detail by these authors In

their opinion, English language teaching materials should, in brief, (1) be contextualized, (2) stimulate interaction and be generative in terms of language, (3) encourage learners to develop learning skills and strategies, (4) allow for a focus on form as well as function, (5) offer opportunities for integrated language use, (6) be authentic, (7) link to each other to develop a progression of skills, understandings and language items, (8) be attractive, (9) have appropriate instructions, (10) be flexible (Howard & Major, 2004, pp 104-107)

Nunan (1988) also suggests that materials should have following characteristics: be authentic as they reflect the outside world the socio-cultural context within which they will

be used / build up student’s learning autonomy by forming in them consciousness and awareness of learning process/ be designed to be used in different ways / cater for all students’ levels of proficiency/ be suggestive rather than definitive

Generally, materials are of great importance in most English teaching/learning programs and materials development is necessary in language instruction In their teaching process, competent and enthusiastic teachers never stop practicing the job of developing/adapting materials in order to have the most effective teaching and learning results

Common teaching activities in a language lesson

As we all know, the way of learning and teaching is now quite different from some years ago Teaching and learning is no longer a process of language transmission, in which teachers, regarded as “a source of information” (Rixon, 1981), pour knowledge to students while students passively receive what is taught and introduced by their teachers Modern teachers are required to play the roles of facilitators, controllers, supervisors and assessors and many other roles while the students actively and collaboratively acquire and reconstruct their knowledge and skills through pair work and group work This requires that all teachers

of English incessantly make all their attempts and efforts to find out suitable teaching methods and techniques to apply in each language lesson to activate their students in every learning activity

Understanding of language and language teaching as well as the roles and tasks of a language teacher certainly helps teachers make right decisions about their teaching activities, getting success in their job During the lessons, various teaching activities each of which serves different roles taking part in making effective learning and teaching in the classroom are conducted by teachers Talking about the roles of classroom activities, Holliday (1994, p.189) states: “classroom activities must not only provide opportunities for learning but also provide opportunities for the teacher to observe and learn about the culture of the students, the culture of the classroom, student progress In other words, they should thus be designed with the transaction and formative evaluation roles in mind”

Personally, the researcher thinks of teaching activities as any of the teachers‟ action resulting in learning outcomes They can be very diverse from getting to know about students, planning lesson, or preparing teaching aids to any action teachers perform during or even after the lessons Thus, teaching activities can be done outside or inside the classroom However, as stated earlier, this paper only concentrates on investigating teaching activities that are normally carried out in the classroom

Supposed to be a special art, teaching in general and teaching activities in particular requires various skills, teaching techniques and strategies from teachers in the classroom Any competent teachers should know how and when to skillfully employ various techniques and strategies in all stages of their teaching process to fulfill their tasks Since appropriate use of such techniques and strategies can have the effect of motivating and engaging students

in learning effectively

Since, as presented in the previous section, teaching procedure is divided into different stages and different lessons are assigned with different learning items and different teaching objectives, teaching activities must be various to be applied appropriately to each stage of each lesson Generally, teachers‟ classroom activities all aim at helping students develop language skills (both macro-skills and micro-skills), enhancing their use of the language including vocabulary and grammatical structures Besides, as suggested and directed by Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training in training courses for teachers

of English, common classroom activities conducted by teachers in all lessons can be specified as follows: giving brief instructions and explanations which are easy to follow and understand; organizing and conducting pair work/ group work /individual work; conducting classroom discussion; helping students brainstorm or teaching/introducing in advance new key words/structures which will be found in the reading/listening texts; taking part in

students‟ discussion; giving appropriate aids/prompts while students do learning tasks; organizing language games, using visual aids, worksheets or word cards, etc.; assigning tasks to students; helping students to consolidate the lessons; giving comments/feedbacks regularly and appropriately to students‟ performance; correcting students‟ mistakes; testing and marking students‟ performance; applying rewards and punishment policy, etc

Undoubtedly, language teachers‟ work can be rather hard and complicated It is imperative that teachers be really competent, dynamic, creative, flexible, and above all they must be very enthusiastic and hardworking to do well with those classroom activities, fulfilling their different roles and duties in every lesson

CHAPTER II THE STUDY

In this chapter, setting for the study is presented; subjects, scope, and instruments of the study are described Then, data collection and analysis process will be demonstrated

II.1 Setting of the study

Brief introduction of the school

The study was conducted at Bien Hoa Specialized School, which is the only specialized one in Hanam province It is a small school set up in 1959 and often consists of

30 classes specialized in different subjects: mathematics, informatics, physics, chemistry, biology, literature, history, geography, English and Russian The class size is rather small (with no more than 35 students in each class), which is seen as a fairly convenient condition for good teaching and learning The main duty of the school is to train and foster talents for the province and the country Despite not being well-equipped, the school is always regarded

as the best one in the province in terms of student and teacher quality and learning and teaching achievements

Each year, many good students from almost every lower secondary schools of the province have to take a serious entrance examination in order to be admitted to one of the school‟s classes There are 10 classes majoring in 10 different subjects in each grade (10, 11, and 12) for them to choose as long as they can perform their learning competence in the majored subjects in the entrance examinations Every year, most students of the school going

in for different provincial and national examinations for gifted students always get good results The school is always proud of having about 90 percent of its students passing university entrance examinations each year In English, most of the students of three English majored classes are always successful in examinations for gifted students held in the province, and over the last five years our gifted students of English have got good results at national examinations Especially, 100% of those taking part in this kind of examinations in the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 achieved awards; and seven out of eight students going in for this year‟s examination (2010) were awarded

The school has more than 90 teachers About half of them have been recruited from graduated students with excellent learning scores for some recent years, so they are all well qualified The rest are of medium and old ages and have good teaching experiences

General situation of English teaching and learning in the school

The number of teachers of English is 8 They are in charge of teaching English at 24 non-English majored classes and only 6 of them annually take part in teaching English to 3

English major classes in the school They are all willing and enthusiastic towards their job However, they have a number of difficulties in working with English major students for some reasons Firstly, coming from different rural areas of the province most English major students are too reserved in their manner and accustomed to passive learning and do not have good financial conditions which enable them to afford extra English materials such as book, tapes or disks to improve their study They are, therefore, quite dependent on the teachers in terms of what to learn Secondly, syllabuses for three English specialized classes are the text

books Advance English 10, 11, 12 which are not really appropriate to the students since they

are of little help and not demanding enough to the students while they need more advanced English materials Except for speaking and writing tasks, which are useful to students‟ writing and speaking skills, tasks on receptive skills and language focus are too easy for them Reading or listening texts are of no help in improving reading/ listening skills apart from providing students with general knowledge Besides, the number of lessons in these textbooks is too small compared with the amount of students‟ school time for English (which

is normally 11 periods per week-5 in the morning and 6 in the afternoon) So far, there has been no formal syllabus for these classes The teachers, therefore, frequently have to select, edit, and design all the teaching materials by themselves

II.2 Subjects

A total of 100 students of three English major classes from three different grades at Bien Hoa Specialized High School participated in the study (32 of 10th form, 33 of 11th form and 35 of 12th form) Ranging in age from 16 to 18, all the subjects were excellent and good students coming from different secondary schools in the province and had to take part in a very strict entrance examination to be accepted to these classes Therefore, they were all quick at learning and most of them usually had achievements in many important English examinations for gifted students When the survey was conducted - at the beginning of the second semester, all these participants had been frequently working with the school‟s teachers of English formally for at least 10 months Thus, they must have been quite familiar with the teaching activities the teachers use Hopefully, this would be a favorable condition allowing the informants to give the most reliable opinions, honest evaluation and information in the survey

II.3 Instruments

As pointed out by Scharle (2000) and Wallace (2001), questionnaire is a popular and effective means of collecting data because it has a number of advantages Firstly, it does not

take researchers much time to collect a great amount of data via means of questionnaires Secondly, while doing survey questionnaires informants may feel free to give the most honest answers without any hesitancy Besides, the questionnaire can consist of both close and open-ended questions so that the informants have chances to express their opinions individually In addition, it is rather easy for the researchers to summarize, analyze and report the data because all the answers are given to the same questions

For all the above mentioned reasons, a questionnaire is used as the main instrument

of the research Besides, to obtain more in-depth data, especially to gain more understanding

of the reasons for the students‟ satisfaction/dissatisfaction with teachers‟ work as well as their expectations, a follow-up interview was also conducted

The questionnaire

Copies of the questionnaire were delivered to 100 students All the instructions/information and questions in the questionnaire were presented in Vietnamese to make sure that all the respondents can easily and completely understand them before giving answers So as to give respondents more freedom and encouragement to express their specific thoughts about each item presented in the questionnaire, both close and open-ended questions were used

Content of the survey questionnaire is constructed based on the literature review of teachers‟ roles and their common teaching activities for all lessons conventionally conducted

by language teachers in the classroom (see the previous chapter) Moreover, through personal observation of her colleagues‟ teaching practice the researcher realizes that all the teaching activities mentioned in the questionnaire are very typical and popular for language teachers in their process of teaching Questions, each of which is assigned with different purposes to get answers to each research question, are the put into two sections The first section, consisting of five questions, focuses on examining students‟ attitudes towards and evaluation of teachers‟ classroom activities Among these five questions, three first ones concentrate on exploring students‟ general attitudes towards and evaluation of teachers‟ roles and their work in the classroom Also, reasons of their satisfaction/dissatisfaction are investigated through the use of open-ended questions given at the end of question 3 The next question aims at getting students‟ comments on teaching and learning materials provided by the teachers and their workload in English; and lastly question 5 is for understanding students‟ opinions/comments on the frequency and quality of some specific teaching activities conducted by the teachers in every lesson The second section, including