Challenges in teaching english for ethnic minority students in gia lai province = những thách thức trong việc dạy tiếng anh cho học sinh dân tộc thiểu số ở tỉnh gia lai

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI HANG CHALLENGES IN TEACHING ENGLISH FOR ETHNIC MINORITY STUDENTS IN GIA LAI PROVINCE Field: Theory and Methodology

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI HANG

CHALLENGES IN TEACHING ENGLISH FOR

ETHNIC MINORITY STUDENTS

IN GIA LAI PROVINCE

Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching

Code: 8140111

Supervisor: Assoc, Prof Dr Nguyen Thi Thu Hien

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that the thesis “Challenges in Teaching English for Ethnic

Minority Students in Gia Lai Province” is my own work

No other person’s work has been used without acknowledgement in the paper

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any universities

Quy Nhon, 2022

Nguyen Thi Hang

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Without the support, encouragement, and contributions from my supervisor, my professors, my school, colleagues, friends and family, the successful completion of this thesis work would not have been possible I take this chance to express my deepest thanks to them for their support

First and foremost, I am grateful to my thesis supervisor, Assoc Prof

Dr Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, for her amazing supervision Her outstanding knowledge and profession inspired me a lot during my academic life at Quy Nhon University I appreciate her experienced guidance and suggestions, great patience in helping me resolve the obstacles during the process I carried out my thesis I am gratefully indebted to her for her very valuable comments

on this thesis

A special thank goes to Gia Lai Department of Education and Training and Chu Van An High School for giving me the chance to attend a MA course

at Quy Nhon University

This study was made achievable by the participation of the enthusiastic teachers at High Schools in Gia Lai, who devoted their time taking part in this research I was also thankful to my colleagues for their support during my study time

I am also grateful to Quy Nhon University, Post-graduate Department, and Foreign Languages Department for the administrative assistance

Last, but not least, I must express my gratitude to my family for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout the course and the study of this thesis

ABSTRACT

This study attempted to investigate the teachers’ challenges in teaching English to ethnic minority students in Gia Lai province from the high school teachers’ perspectives in terms of school environment and curriculum, students and parents as well as the teachers’ knowledge and professsional development The quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to answer the research questions The data were gathered from 53 English from various high schools in Gia Lai province via a questionnaire, including both open-ended questions and close-ended items The study showed the interesting results The teachers are challenged by the crowded classes, time constraints, unequal ability between Kinh and ethnic minority student, and pressure from curriculum, testing and assessment Meanwhile, students’ lack

of interest, concentration and active learning, their frequent use of dialects, parents’ unawareness of the importance of English language, students’ lack of sufficient learning environment are challenges related to students and parents

In addition, challenges concerning the teachers’ knowledge and professsional development are shortage of training, and lack of professional development

A set of recommendations is presented in this paper which can contribute to tackle the challenges

Key words: English Language Teachers, Challenges, School Environment,

Students Community and Parents, The teachers’ knowledge and professsional development, Ethnic Minority Students

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF TABLES vii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims and objectives 2

1.2.1 Aims 2

1.2.2 Objectives 2

1.3 Research Questions 3

1.4 Scope of The Study 3

1.5 Significance of the Study 4

1.6 Organization of the Study 4

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Factors Affecting Second Language Acquisition 5

2.1.1 Age factors 6

2.1.2 Psychological Factors 6

2.1.3 Sociocultural Factors 7

2.1.4 Cross-linguistic Factors 9

2.2 Schooling of Ethnic Minority Students in Vietnam 10

2.2.1 An Overview of Ethnic Minority Groups in Vietnam and in Gia Lai Province 10

2.2.2 Minority School Education in Vietnam 11

2.3 Current Situation of English Teaching in Vietnam 12

2.3.1 English at General Education Level in Vietnam 13

2.3.2 Current Situation of English Teaching in Gia Lai Province 15

2.4 Roles of Teachers and Students in Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language 15

2.4.1 The Roles of Teachers in English Teaching 15

2.4.2 The Roles of Learners in English Learning 17

2.5 Review of Related Empirical Studies 18

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 23

3.1 Research Methods 23

3.2 Participants 23

3.3 Instruments 25

3.4 Data Collection 26

3.5 Data Analysis 27

3.6 Reliability and Validity 28

3.6.1 Scale Reliability Analysis 28

3.6.2 Validity 28

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 30

4.1 Challenges in terms of School Environment and Curriculum 30

4.3 Challenges in terms of Students and Parents 42

4.4 Challenges in terms of the Teachers’ Knowledge and Professsional Development 54

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 63

5.1 Summary of The Study 63

5.2 Implications 65

5.3 Limitations 66

5.4 Suggestions for Further Research 67

REFERENCES 68 APPENDICES

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ELL: English Language Learner

ELT: English Language Teaching

SLA: Second Language Acquisition

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 The Vietnam Education System 14

Table 2.2 The number of periods of ELT for each level of education 14

Table 3.1 Participants’ background characteristics 24

Table 3.2 Reliability Statistics of the questionnaire 28

Table 4.1 Challenges in terms of school environment and curriculum 31

Table 4.2 The detail description of in-class equipment 32

Table 4.3 The detail description of weak emotional and psychological support from the school board 34

Table 4.4 The detail description of crowded classes 35

Table 4.5 The detail description of the unequal ability between Kinh and ethnic minority students 36

Table 4.6 The detail description of the time constraint 37

Table 4.7 The detail description of the negligence of English language teachers’ suggestions 38

Table 4.8 The detail description of knowledgeable and helpful colleagues 39

Table 4.9 The detail description of the pressure from curriculum demands 40 Table 4.10 The detail description of the pressure of the exams on teaching contents 41

Table 4.11 Challenges in terms of students and parents 43

Table 4.12 The detail description of students’ interest in learning English 44

Table 4.13 The detail description of students’ comprehensive ability 45

Table 4.14 The detail description of students’ perspective about learning English 46

Table 4.15 The detail description of students’ concentration in class 47

Table 4.16 The detail description of students’ assignment completion 48

Table 4.17 The detail description of monority students’ interaction 49

Table 4.18 The detail description of parents’ attitudes towards teachers 50Table 4.19 The detail description of parents’ perceptions of the

importance of English 51Table 4.20 The detail description of parents’ cooperation with teachers 52Table 4.21 The detail description of supportive environment for learning

English 53Table 4.22 Challenges in terms of the teachers’ knowledge and

professsional development 54Table 4.23 The detail description of teachers’ preparation about material

and knowledge 55Table 4.24 The detail description of teachers’ knowledge about students’

cultural and linguistic backgrounds 56Table 4.25 The detail description of teachers’ participation in training

courses on teaching ethnic minority students.” 57Table 4.26 The detail description of teachers’ exchange with students

about their difficulties 58Table 4.27 The detail description of no workshops related to English

language teaching and learning for ethnic minority students 59Table 4.28 The detail description of teachers’ eagerness to teach.” 60

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

Learning a foreign language is considered one of the most difficult learning topics that face people who are interested in learning a foreign language Teaching English in a foreign environment is difficult and needs time Teaching English in a multilingual context is an enormous challenge for the English teachers due to linguistic diversity in the classrooms This stress has been an issue for long time and it has been documented by some of researchers over years of research

Some studies revealed the challenges in the English classroom (F Khan, 2021; M Khan, 2016; Mumary Songbatumis, 2017; Yulia, 2013) They found that a number of challenges emerged, partly coming from students, partly from teachers, and partly from the school’s facility Khan (2021) and Yulia (2013) found that student’s low motivation is considered among the most serious problems Van (2010) and Kizildag (2009) concluded that classroom constraints are the problems Other studies showed that multilingual classrooms are always among the most challenging features for the English language teachers and students (A Kizildag, 2009; Rasheed, S., Zeeshan, M., & Zaidi, 2017) The results of Rasheed (2017) showed that teaching English language in a multilingual context is an enormous challenge for the English teachers due to linguistics diversity in the classrooms Kizildag (2009) stated that poor institutional, the instructional and socio-cultural economic problems are the challenges in teaching English

In Vietnam, this issue has been taken into consideration for years Some researchers conducted the studies in the minorities context (Bui, T K

T, 2014; Huong, V V, 2019; Vo, T V 2017) In the North of Vietnam, Huong, V V (2019) asserted that teaching English for ethnic minority students in remote Northwest area of Vietnam has always been a huge challenge for educators and teachers In the South, Vo, T V (2017) explored that socio-cultural and ecological factors influencing the acquisition of English of Khmer students in Vietnam In Highland, especially in Gia Lai, there is no study conducted

Gia Lai is the second largest province in Vietnam and a highland province located in the Central Highlands region Most minority students are Jrai and Bana who have to learn to speak Kinh language as a second language and English as a foreign language at the same time Therefore, in the process

of learning new language, they find it difficult to learn English

Although many researches have been conducted in this area in many places, the issue still lacks of concentration in the Central Highland of Vietnam or more specifically, Gia Lai It can be seen that it is necessary to have a study conducted to fill this gap To investigate the challenges in

teaching English to ethnic minority students, the study entitled Challenges in

Teaching English for Ethnic Minority Students in Gia Lai Province has

been chosen as the topic of the study

1.2 Aims and objectives

1.2.1 Aims

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the teachers’ challenges

in teaching English to ethnic minority students in Gia Lai province from the

high school teachers’ perspectives

1.2.2 Objectives

To investigate the challenges in teaching English for ethnic minority

from the high school teachers’ perspectives, the specific objectives of this study are:

- To find out the teaching challenges caused by school environment and curriculum

- To identify the teaching challenges caused by students and parents

- To examine the challenges caused by the teachers’ knowledge and professsional development

1.3 Research Questions

Based on the foregoing discussion, this study seeks to answer the following research questions:

1 What are the challenges caused by school environment and curriculum?

2 What are the challenges caused by students and parents?

3 What are the challenges caused by the teachers’ knowledge and professsional development?

1.4 Scope of The Study

Due to the limited time, ability and research conditions, the study was just conducted in a sample of 53 teachers who are teaching at schools in Gia Lai province where ethnic minority students are attending The researcher did not analyze all aspects causing challenges to the teachers but only focusing on three dimensions mentioned above through the descriptive study with two main instruments including the close-ended and open-ended questionnaire Therefore, the study’s generalization should be limited and the results may not be representative of a larger same of all teachers in Vietnam

1.5 Significance of the Study

By doing this study, the researcher hopes that the findings can contribute precious values and recommendations for both teachers and students in teaching and learning journey in the same contexts Moreover, the research aims to serve as a beneficial resource in providing information for the English language teachers to be aware of the reasons of ineffective learning and teaching Also, the findings could be used as a data base for further study

1.6 Organization of the Study

The thesis will be presented in five chapters: Introduction, Literature Review, Research Method, Results, and Discussion and Conclusion

Chapter 1 shows the rationale, the aims, the significance and the organization

of the study

Chapter 2 establishes the theory foundation for the whole thesis It provides a

theoretical basis for the study

Chapter 3 describes the method that the study is conducted It provides the

questions and hypotheses Next, it describes the research design and the participants of the study Then, it mentions the research instruments and the materials used for data analysis Lastly, this chapter will end with the procedure to conduct the study and the methods of data analysis

Chapter 4 presents and analyzes all the collected data to find out the answers

to the research questions

Chapter 5 gives the researcher’s discussion based on the research findings It

also offers some recommendation for pedagogical purposes In addition, this part shows all the major points raised in the thesis Furthermore, it will indicate the limitation and some suggestions for further studies

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides a thorough review of theoretical and practical background on challenges in teaching English to ethnic minority students that serve as a basic for the current study Firstly, factors affecting second language acquisition are discussed This is followed by the schooling of ethnic minority students in Vietnam and in Gia Lai province Next, the current situation of English teaching in Vietnam and in Gia Lao is mentioned Besides, roles of teachers and students in teaching and learning English as a Foreign Language are pointed out Finally, it gives an overview of previous studies that involved language teaching challenges facing the teachers in teaching English This review is done with the purpose of providing a theoretical foundation for an investigation into challenges in teaching ethnic minority students

2.1 Factors Affecting Second Language Acquisition

This research mainly bases on the theoretical framework of Brown, H

D., which is the book named Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (Brown, 2007) First issued in 1980, this book is about both learning and teaching The author asserted that learning a second language is a long and complex undertaking He added that language is not a set of easy steps that can be programmed in a quick-do-it-yourself kit So much is at stake that courses in foreign languages are often inadequate training grounds, in and of themselves, for the successful learning of a second language

If we take a look at second language learners, we will find that some students learn a new language more quickly and easily than others However, even though practice and hard work are mostly welcome in second language

acquisition, there are other crucial factors influencing success that are largely beyond the control of the learner

2.1.1 Age factors

Age is the first crucial factor that contributes to second language acquisition This factor has been a juicy topic for many scholars (Brown, 2007; Moyer, 2004; Singleton & Lengyel, 1995) Collier (1988) claimed that successful language acquisition depends on the learner’s age (Harley, B., & Wang (1997) followed and cited a theory of Lennerberg (1967) that there is a certain period in acquisition of a second language In this period, which is identified critical period hypothesis in language acquisition, Lenneberg (1967) theorized that the acquisition of language is an innate process determined by biological factors which limit the critical period for acquisition

of a language from roughly two years of age to puberty Lenneberg (1967) believed that after lateralization, which is a process by which the two sides of the brain develop specialized functions, the brain loses plasticity and lateralization of the language function is normally completed by puberty, making post-adolescent language acquisition difficult Children’s practice and imitation is a very meaningful activities that is contextualized and purposeful (Brown, 2007) According to him, adults have developed even greater concentration, so they have greater ability for rote learning, but this usually use for short term memory or for somewhat artificial purposes

2.1.2 Psychological Factors

Understanding how human beings feel, respond, believe and value is an exceedingly important aspect of SLA (Brown, 2007) Some psychological factors in human behavior and how they relate to language acquisitions are taken into consideration

Firstly, self-esteem is probably the most pervasive aspect of any human

behavior It is claimed that no successful cognitive or affective activity can be carried out without some degree of self-esteem, self-confidence, knowledge

of yourself, and self-efficacy – belief in your own capabilities to successfully perform that activity

Secondly, willingness to communicate is also an important factor in

acquiring a new language Many learners are afraid of speaking a new language because they hesitate making mistakes Nevertheless, in his point of view, children learning their first language and adults learning a second language can really make progress only by their mistakes

Thirdly, it is claimed that risk taking is an important characteristic of

successful learning of a second language Learners have to be able to gamble

a bit, to take the risk of being wrong

Moreover, anxiety plays a major affective role in SLA It is attributed

that some people are predictably and generally anxious about learning State anxiety is experienced in relation to some particular event or act

Besides, motivation is a powerful factor attributing to the success of

SLA Learning a foreign language requires intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from the learners Those who learn for their own self-perceived needs and goals are intrinsically motivated, and those who pursue a goal only receive an external reward from someone else are extrinsically motivated

Identifying the issues of psychological factors can help the teacher consider how to design of classroom technique and add dimension of factors

in teaching process

2.1.3 Sociocultural Factors

Culture is a way of life, our continent, and our collective identity (Brown, 2007) He thought that it might also be defined as the ideas, customs,

skills, arts and tools that characterize a given group of people in a given period of time Cultures establishes for each person a context of cognitive and affective behavior, a template for personal and social existence It is apparent that culture becomes highly important in the learning of a second language

He attempted to highlight some of the important aspects of the relationship between learning a second language and learning the cultural context of the second language Some of them are attitudes, second culture acquisition, social distance, language policy, and culture in the language classroom presented below

Attitudes can lead to positive or negative look in learning process

Attitudes, like all aspects of the development of cognition and affect in human beings, develop in childhood and are the result of parents’ and peers’ attitudes, of interacting people or affective factors in the human experience

In Brown’s perspectives, learning a second language implies some degree of learning a second culture, so it is important to understand what we

mean by the process of culture learning Second culture acquisition is

significant because culture learning creates shared meaning between cultural representatives It penetrates deeply into one’s patterns of thinking, feeling and acting Hence, it is essential to explore the target language culture to understand the culturally derived values, attitudes and outlooks of other people to avoid cultural shock in communication

Social distance depicts the dissimilarities between two cultures It is

hypothesized by Schumann cited in Brown’s book (2007, p 198) that the greater the social distance between two cultures, the greater the difficulty the learner will have in learning the second language

It is mentioned in his work that language policies influence second

language acquisition The language education involves by some political

entity (e.g., a ministry of education, a state board of education) to offer education in a designated language He added that linguistic diversity, ethnicity, race, power, status, politics, and economics restrict language rights and tendencies in society

2.1.4 Cross-linguistic Factors

In the middle of twentieth century, the study of two languages in contrast – one of the most popular branches of applied linguistics was blossomed The stockpile of comparative and contrastive data on pairs of languages which is known as Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH), claimed that the principal barrier to second language acquisition is the interference of the L1 system to L2 system

It is stressed that the learner language influence affects the second

language acquisition The learners may consciously test hypotheses about the target language from a number of possible resources of knowledge These may be the native language, limited knowledge of the native language itself, knowledge about life, people and things around them to produce language This may lead to errors that reflect the competence of the learner

Variation in learner language exists in language classrooms This can

cause the challenges in SLS process The problem is that the learners can change the way they use target language in different context According to Tarone (1988) cited in Brown’s work (2007, p 288), four categories of variation are linguistic context, psychological processing factors, language function

Lastly, context of learning is mentioned as an important factor causing

the errors in second language acquisition According to Brown, context refers

to the classroom with its teacher, its materials, and facilities that serve the education activities In classroom context, the teacher or the textbook can lead

the learner to make faulty hypotheses about the language Students may make errors because of misleading explanation from the teacher, faulty presentation from a structure or word in textbook, or even because of a pattern that was memorized in a drill but improperly contextualized (2007, p 266)

2.2 Schooling of Ethnic Minority Students in Vietnam

2.2.1 An Overview of Ethnic Minority Groups in Vietnam and in Gia Lai Province

Vietnam is a multiethnic country with 54 ethnic groups The Vietnamese term for minority ethnic groups is “người thiểu số” and “dân tộc

ít người” (minority people) Each group has their own language, culture and lifestyle EM groups, especially those with small populations, mostly live in the mountainous and highlands areas with very limited access to modern infrastructure, health care and education

The results of the survey to collect information on the socio-economic status of 53 ethnic minorities in 2019 (UNFPA, 2009) show that on a national scale, there are 5,468 communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, accounting for 49.0% of the total number of communes in the country Ethnic minority communes are mainly distributed in rural areas (87.3%) (UNFPA, 2019) The population of Kinh ethnic group is about 82 million people, accounting for 85.3% Among 53 ethnic minorities, 6 ethnic groups have a population of over 1 million people: Tay, Thai, Muong, Mong, Khmer, Nung (in which the Tay has the largest population with 1.85 million people); 11 ethnic groups have a population of less than 5 thousand people, of which Ơ

Đu is the ethnic group with the lowest population (428 people) The main living areas of ethnic minorities are the Northern Midlands and Mountains and the Central Highlands (UNFPA, 2019) Although there is a significant difference in population, ethnic groups still consider each other as brothers

and sisters, respect, love and care for each other, work together to build and defend the country, both in favorable and bad times

Gia Lai is home to many ethnic minorities According to the results announced by the Central Population and Housing Census Steering Committee on April 1, 2019, there are 34 ethnic groups in Gia Lai province (including 33 ethnic minorities) The proportion of ethnic minorities accounts for 46.23% of the province's population (of which Jrai ethnic group ranks first with 30.36%; followed by Bana with 12.5% and other ethnic groups accounted for 3.3%)

The importance of equality among groups in Vietnam is recognized in the 1992 Constitution of Viet Nam and covers many areas of national policies and programs However, although they have favorable conditions, ethnic minorities often remain vulnerable and disadvantaged when compared to the Kinh majority with poor living conditions and difficulties in gaining access to health care services as well as educational and training opportunities (UNFPA, 2009)

2.2.2 Minority School Education in Vietnam

Education and training development has been identified by our Party as a top national policy and an important basis for the implementation of the policy

of equality, solidarity, respect and mutual help for mutual development among ethnic groups Because of the large gaps in economy and education between minority groups and Kinh people, the Vietnamese government set up various preferential policies to help them develop their economy and education because there are considerable gaps in education levels, as well as professional and technical qualifications among ethnic groups and Kinh people

Over the years, the policies of the Party and State has supported and invested in developing many areas, especially the introduction of Resolution

No 29-NQ/TW, dated November 4, 2013 of the Central Committee (term XII) on fundamental and comprehensive renovation of Education and Training, once again affirm and emphasize the need to pay attention to investment and further develop the quality of education in ethnic minority and mountainous areas Policies to support children of poor families in ethnic minority, remote and remote areas, and allowances have created favorable conditions for many children of ethnic minorities to study and contribute to increase the percentage of children going to school

Currently, the educational development policy system for ethnic minorities and mountainous areas has been issued quite adequately for groups

of students, teachers, and education administrators in all aspects Thanks to the special care from the nation with a system of specific policies, the development of education in ethnic minority and mountainous areas has gained significant results

2.3 Current Situation of English Teaching in Vietnam

To meet the demand of the global development and the impact of English

as an international language, the Vietnamese Prime Minister issued the Decision 1400/QĐ-TTg (MOET, 2014) on approving the National Plan

"Teaching and Learning foreign languages in the National Education System for the period 2008 - 2020” which addressed the goals:

“To comprehensively renovate foreign language teaching and learning

in the National Education System, implement new foreign language teaching and learning programs at all educational levels and training levels, aiming to achieve a remarkable progress in the field of foreign language teaching and learning by 2015 … By 2020, the majority of young Vietnamese people who graduate from secondary schools, colleges and universities will have sufficient foreign language ability to

use them independently and confidently in communication, study and work in an integrated, multilingual and multicultural environment; regard foreign languages as a strength of the Vietnamese people, help to boost industrialization and modernization of the country.”

This decision, although, has a great impact on ELL and ELT activities which make it difficult to maintain the existing and admittedly low standards

in its teaching and use (Van, 2010), but it invisibly put huge pressure on the EFL teachers who are directly influenced by the challenges encountered in teaching process

2.3.1 English at General Education Level in Vietnam

School Education System in Vietnam consists of three levels: school (for the children from 3 to 5 years old), primary education (from grade

pre-1 to 5 for the children at the age of 6 to pre-1pre-1); secondary education which are lower secondary level (from grade 6 to 9 for the children at the age of 11 to 14), and upper secondary or high school level (from grade 10 to 12 for the children at the age of 15 to 17)

In the National Plan for English teaching, Vietnam is implementing the 10-year educational program, starting from grade 3, and compulsory foreign language subjects at all levels From 2010 to 2011, teaching foreign languages according to the new program for about 20% of 3rd grade students and gradually expanding the scale to reach about 70% in the 2015 - 2016 academic year; reaching 100% in 2018 – 2019 Currently, English is a compulsory subject in all schools at both lower and upper secondary education Students have to take English for the required subject in the national examination for the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE)

Table 2.1 The Vietnam Education System (Van, 2010) Level of education Grade/ Year (from- to) Age (from- to)

Pre-school Nursery 3-4 Optional

Kindergarten 4-5

Primary education 1-5 6-10 Compulsory education

Secondary education Lower secondary

a year, making the total of 315 period (MOET, 2018).It can be summarized in the table below

Table 2.2 The number of periods of ELT for each level of education

(MOET, 2018, p 51,52)

Primary

(4 periods/ week)

Lower secondary (3 periods/ week)

Upper secondary (3 periods/ week)

Total periods

In terms of curriculum, the curriculum is set by the government and all public schools have to follow it There are 10 series of English textbook They are used depending on the conditions of the schools and the decision from the authorities of the areas

Despite great efforts and support towards improving the quality of ELT

in Vietnam, there have many remarkable challenges in ELL and teaching methodology, teaching materials curriculum and the competence of Vietnamese EFL teachers (Phan, 2017)

2.3.2 Current Situation of English Teaching in Gia Lai Province

Basically, the current situation of English teaching in Gia Lai follows the instructions of the Minister of Education and Training But due to the special conditions of the area, the teaching English process still has many obstacles that the teachers have to encounter Teaching English in schools in Gia Lai can be considered as teaching in multilingual environment because nearly half

of students in a normal class speak two languages which are Kinh language and their mother tongues

Gia Lai is a province where nearly 50 percent of the population is Jrai and Ba Na ethnic minority groups English teaching activities in Gia Lai province in recent years have achieved positive results However, schools in extremely difficult socio-economic areas in Gia Lai province still have limitations and inadequacies because their students are ethnic minorities In Gia Lai, a number of local languages are spoken such as Jrai, Bana, Ede and Dao This multiculturalism may pose many challenges especially for the English teacher teaching at schools located in the area

2.4 Roles of Teachers and Students in Teaching and Learning English as

a Foreign Language

2.4.1 The Roles of Teachers in English Teaching

Goodwyn (1997) defined that teaching is an intelligent and purposeful activity intended to promote learning, focused on and relating to the learners themselves, adopting the best means to achieve that end and engaging the motivation of the learners to maximize their learning

The teacher in the traditional way of teaching appeared as the main agent of the educational and vocational activities in school In such type of teaching, the teacher is the agent of the activities in the class The teacher appears in the role of the provider of information The roles of the teachers have been varied through the years Teachers are becoming more and more flexible or willing to adapt to children’s changes so that they will be able to learn effectively Teachers are now required to be more than just teaching Teaching differs from the old "show-and-tell" practices as much as modern medical techniques differ from practices such as applying leeches and bloodletting (Lanier, 1997) Many potential roles for a language teacher have been suggested by several researchers According to Lanier, teachers no longer see their primary role as being the king or queen of the classroom They have found that they accomplish more if they adopt the role of educational guides, facilitators, and co-learners (Lanier, 1997) Archana and Kumbakona (2017) mentioned in their article several roles of teacher Firstly, teachers are considered as learners, which means that they continuously learn new things provided that the changing generation Then, teachers are as an assessor Their task is to give continuous feedback to students as they will be benefitted from a correct assessment Lastly, teacher’s role is regarded as an evaluator They do justice to evaluate students’ mistakes and evaluation should be focused on students’ competence rather than the weaknesses

In the light of methodology, the roles of teacher are more flexible and complex Littlewood (2011) defined the role of the language teacher broadly

as the “facilitator of learning” in the context of Communicative Language

Teaching (CLT) instead of the rather narrow concept of the “teacher as instructor” Hamer (2007) agreed some terms for the roles that teachers play

in the classroom: controller, organizer, assessor, prompter, participant, resource, tutor and observer In Grammar Translation Method, the role of the teacher is very authoritative The focus of teaching is to develop learners’ ability to read, to write, and to translate (Benati, 2020) According to Direct Method, the teacher is described as an instructor Language teachers should demonstrate the use of target language and should not explain or translate (Benati, 2020) With Audio-Lingual Method, language instructors play the role of the leaders and are responsible for providing a good language model

2.4.2 The Roles of Learners in English Learning

The roles of learners in language learning have been a popular area of investigation in SLA Their traditional roles are mostly known as the hearer, the imitator and learn passively in classroom Peter (2008) stated in his work that students should be actively involved in the learning process and intrinsically motivated He added students should be actively involved in the learning process and intrinsically motivated

Firstly, the learners have to be good at self-studying Learners with high aptitude, especially in grammatical sensitivity, tend to benefit more from implicit instruction as well as from a communication-oriented learning environment (Vatz et all., 2013) Higher working memory capacity is generally advantageous in learning a L2 Secondly, they should be a planner Students work harder when teachers give them a role in determining the form and content of their schooling to help them create their own learning plans and deciding the ways in which they will demonstrate that they have, in fact, learned what they agreed to teach (Lanier, 1997) Moreover, they are also active participants Students should come to school prepared to participate

Full engagement maximizes opportunity for learning and sets the tone for the classroom This includes but is not limited to, asking and answering questions, completing in-class assignments, and consistently aligning behavior to classroom norms With experiential leaners, they are asked to set their own goals for learning and task accomplishment while traditional classroom are usually set by the instructor prior to the first class meeting (Pataniczek & Johansen, 1983)

Over the last few years, methods prescribe what approach the learners should take and what roles the learners should adopt in the classroom In Direct Method, the learners are the partners and the interactors They are given opportunities to interact with other learners (Benati, 2020) With Total Physical Response Method which does not require the verbal response quickly, students become performers who are responsible for demonstrate an understanding of teacher’s commands by performing the actions alone (Benati, 2020) The CLT focuses on the developing of communicative competence, so learners are considered as the communicator Hence, the language instructor creates the opportunity and the conditions in the classroom for the learners to interact in a communicative way (Miller, 2000)

The roles of teacher are various basing on the conditions and the age and the learning aims of the learners Teaching aids are essential to motivate student towards learning and to capture the English content knowledge easily (Milon, 2016) Thus, teacher needs to adopt roles that match the students’ situation and condition

2.5 Review of Related Empirical Studies

Teachers usually face many challenges which can have a direct effect on the teaching and learning process (Al-Amarat, 2011) Teaching English in any context has some potential challenges Teachers

usually face many challenges which can have a direct effect on the teaching and learning process In the field of SLA, a number of studies have sought to help language learners and teachers see the problems that they encounter

Desiring to investigating the teaching challenges, some researches done

in various countries in high school context were conducted to find the answers for teaching problems (Yulia, 2013; Yassin, 2016; Songbatumis, 2017; Valizadeh, 2021) A number of challenges emerged from these researchers’ findings Songbatumis (2017) and Valizadeh (2021) had the same findings on facilities and environment issues They found that crowded classes, inadequate resources and facilities were complained by many teachers Another challenge was recorded by Khan (2021), Songbamutis (2017), and Yulia (2013) that student’s low motivation is considered among the most serious problems Students are challenged by their lack of vocabulary mastery, low concentration, lack of discipline, boredom, and speaking problem However, the finding of Yassin (2016) showed that the academic level of ELLs was affected by their cultural backgrounds and their first language In terms of challenges coming from the teachers, it has been claimed by Songbamutis (2017) that teachers’ challenges are shortage of teachers’ training, language proficiency issue, limited mastery of teaching methods, unfamiliarity to information technology, and lack of professional development This finding is similar to Valizadeh’s (2021) conclusion The majority of the teachers maintained that they need many training programs, such as workshops on using specific aids for teaching English language Contrary to the other studies, Valizadeh (2017) also took the curriculum into consideration He concluded that he majority of the Turkish teachers of English complained that pressure from curriculum demands inhibits creative and innovative language teaching Moreover, some teachers complained that

the curriculum lacks sufficient attention to Turkish EFL learners' oral communication skills

In another context of rural area, Milon (2016) and Khan (2021) shared the same findings most of the rural schools’ students are weak in English due

to lack of skilled and trained teachers, proper teacher training, using proper teaching methods and materials, limited contact hours, class size, inadequate knowledge on pedagogy This is called instructional instructional challenges under Kizidag’s (2009) perspective Nevertheless, Kizidag (2009) pointed out some other challenges deriving from busy curriculum, unrealistic learning goals and lack of flexibility He also added that Institutional challenges constitute problems caused by lack of prior organization and lack of support

by either the school management or the Ministry of National Education Instructional challenges are the problems that hinder teachers in providing effective learning environments Socio-economic challenges come from the lack of parental understanding about the importance of learning a foreign language, which was found in the studies of Milon (2016) and Khan (2021) Most of students have lesser support from parents which demotivate them to learn English language

In multilingual classrooms, many researchers conducted the studies to figure out what problems the teachers have to cope with in teaching process Shumaila and his companions (2017) carried out a study in a multi-linguistic and multi-ethnic province of Pakistan where the habitants speak a number of local languages In Vietnam, Vo, T V (2017) explored socio-cultural and ecological factors influencing the acquisition of English of Khmer students in Vietnam Nguyen, T B H (2015) investigated the challenges in learning English vocabulary of ethnic minority grade 10 students in Muong Bi high school The findings of the study revealed a number of challenges According

to them, teaching English language in a multilingual context is an enormous challenge for the English teachers due to linguistics diversity in the classrooms They all stated that weak linguistic background of the learners is challenge in the classrooms Shumaila (2017) and Vo, T V (2017) agreed that the respondents reported that they have limited time to cover the syllabus and curriculum and the difficult even increases when the class is multilingual The teacher participants indicated that they are under pressure to cover the curriculum in teaching English and recognize how this limits their attention to student learning In addition, they agreed to the point that they have not attended a single training or refresher course although they have been teaching at their schools for many years Besides, it is recognized that the official minority group home culture is entirely absent from the textbook This idea is in alignment with Nguyen, T B H’s (2015) finding The research came to the conclusion that due to the lack of background knowledge ethnic minority students at the school face too many difficulties in acquiring English vocabulary

To sum up, in this chapter, firstly, the schooling of ethnic minority students in Vietnam was clarified Secondly, the current situation of English teaching in Vietnam was discussed Next, the factors affecting second language acquisition basing on the theory of Brown (2007) were mentioned as the framework of the study Moreover, roles of teachers and students in teaching and learning English as a Foreign Language were gone over Finally, the previous studies related to the study have been reviewed The mentioned information reveals that many studies on the challenges in teaching and learning English were carried out However, up to now, there has been no study on the challenges in teaching English for ethnic minority students in Gia Lai, a province in Central Highland of Vietnam Therefore, this gap is

necessary to be filled since it can contribute to the learning and teaching English for ethnic minority in the area This study aims at investigating the challenges facing the teachers in teaching ethnic minority students, so some challenges adopted from previous studies were taken as the criteria to do this research, which are challenges coming from the school environment, the students and parents, and the teacher’ skills

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the researcher discusses a detailed method used to collect the required data in order to answer the 3 research questions which including 5 main sections The first section presents the research method of the study The second section shows information about participants of the research The third one explains the instruments used The fourth part provides the procedure of the data collection The fifth section reviews the process of data analysis The last part shows the reliability and validity of the data These sections are further explained in detail as below

3.1 Research Methods

This study is a mixed methods approach The quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to answer the research questions The quantitative data was gathered by distributing a survey whereas the qualitative data was collected by using open-ended questions to investigate the challenges in teaching English to ethnic minority students in Gia Lai province from the teachers’ perspectives

3.2 Participants

53 teachers from various high schools who are teaching ethnic minority students at high schools in Gia Lai province voluntarily participated in the study The participants answered the questionnaire individually and were not interfered by any external impacts Table 3.1 provides a summary of participants’ background characteristics The summary is based on the work

of (Valizadeh, 2021), but it was adjusted some characteristics to meet the demand of the study

Table 3.1 Participants’ background characteristics (Valizadeh, 2021)

More than 10 years 32 73.6

Periods a week Less than 17 22 41.5

3.3 Instruments

This section describes the data collection instruments that were used in the study This study employed a mixed method research design of qualitative and quantitative approach in order to find the answers for the three research questions The qualitative and quantitative data was collected by using a close-ended questionnaire and four open-ended questions The questionnaire incorporated the adapted items which have been developed by Valizadeh (2021) combines with the factors mentioned by Brown (2007) to have the suitable questionnaire for the survey The adaptation of the work done by Valizadeh (2021) was chosen because the three dimensions used in this study are suitable for the current study

The survey was divided into three sections The first section provided a demographic information part about the participants’ gender, ethnic minority group teaching, age, years of teaching, periods a week at school The second section incorporated 3 close-ended dimensions to investigate the EFL teachers’ perceptions of their challenges in teaching including the school environment and curriculum with 9 items, the students and parents with 10 items, and the teachers’ knowledge and professsional development with 6 items The third section includes 4 open-ended questions about challenges in teaching Ethnic Minority Students at their schools in terms of the teaching environment and curriculum, the students and parents,

and the teachers’ knowledge and professsional development Additionally, the

questionnaire and open-ended questions are both in English and Vietnamese

in order to prevent misunderstanding from the part of the participants

The purpose of the questionnaire in this study is to obtain the informants’ background information and to investigate the challenges facing teachers of English while they teach their Ethnic Minority Students in terms

of school environment and curriculum, students and parents as well as the teachers’ knowledge and professsional development The quantitative data were obtained via close-ended questions with response on Likert-scale format The participants were asked to identify each statement that related to their teaching challenges on a five-point scale from, (1) strongly disagree; (2) disagree; (3) unsure; (4) agree; to (5) strongly agree Whereas the qualitative data were conducted through open-ended questions to explore teachers’ ideas about their challenges and solutions to these challenges

3.4 Data Collection

The instrument of the current research was selected from previous studies (Valizadeh, 2021) and adapted with minor adjustments to fit in the purpose of the current research and the specific educational context The survey items and questions were translated into Vietnamese, which was the respondents’ first language in order to enhance the understanding of the questionnaire and gain the most genuine responses from the participants The questionnaires were converted into online forms using Google Form

To begin with, a pilot study was conducted with three high school teachers to validate the questionnaire items and check the existence of any ambiguous survey items Therefore, the participants were required to complete the online questionnaire, then leave their comments on the wording, clarity and comprehensibility of the items

In the formal study, the link of online questionnaires, an instruction to respond and a consent form was sent to the target participants via Zalo of groups of high school teachers in Gia Lai province Their participation was voluntary and solicited via online Google Form through the link https://forms.gle/biEzVS6bXWU9Fq6z7 They were informed that by completing and returning the questionnaire, they had consented to participate

in the study They responded to the questionnaire anonymously by clicking on the suitable categories: (1) strongly disagree; (2) disagree; (3) unsure; (4) agree; to (5) strongly agree It took them 15 to 20 minutes to complete the form 53 teachers completed and submitted the questionnaire The quantitative data was analyzed by calculating Means (M), and standard deviations (SD), frequency, and percentages in details if necessary

In order to support the findings obtained from quantitative data via questionnaire, the open-ended questions were conducted at the same time The participants were expected to comment on what challenges they encountered while teaching English for ethnic minority students 25 out of 53 teachers gave their comments on 4 open-ended questions The participants were coded from T1 to T25 to serve as the data for description These answers are analyzed with the results of the questionnaire in order to have the overall conclusion for the research questions The researcher guaranteed that their responses would be treated confidentially They also were notified that the data collected is only used for research purposes They were told that they would get no benefits from the study and that they could withdraw at any time without any prior permission

3.5 Data Analysis

In terms of processing the data, the quantitative analysis was employed

to find out the statistical result of the questionnaire The Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 26 was taken advantage to quantitatively analyze the questionnaire because its purpose was to statistic and measure the mean and the frequency of each variable analyzed Descriptive statistics was used to investigate the challenges caused by the mean score of each construct and each item in each construct The mean values were interpreted as follows (Srakang & Jansem, 1998):

3.6 Reliability and Validity

3.6.1 Scale Reliability Analysis

As described above, the researcher used the questionnaire and ended questions to collect the data for the research With the help of Statistical Package for Social Science (IBM SPSS; Version 26) program, Scale Tests were run to check the reliability of the questionnaire Table 3.2 displays the result of the Scale Reliability Statistics of the questionnaire

open-Table 3.2 Reliability Statistics of the questionnaire

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

It can be seen that the reliability of the questionnaire was acceptable

(α=0.735) Accordingly, this questionnaire was reliable enough to be used as

instruments in this research

3.6.2 Validity

In terms of validity, the questionnaire and open-ended questions adapted from Valizadeh (2021) in combination with the factors mentioned by Brown (2007) are used, so the quality of the data is quite valid

To sum up, this chapter includes major methods and necessary steps providing a basis for the collection and analysis of the data for the study

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

In this chapter, the findings are shown in both quantitative and qualitative data analysis from the questionnaire and the open-ended questions

so as to answer the research questions This chapter includes 3 sections The first one describes challenges in terms of school environment and curriculum Next, the challenges coming from students and parents are clarified Then, the third part of this chapter reveals the challenges regarding the teachers’ knowledge and professsional development The descriptive statistics were calculated by SPSS package (version 26) to examine the participants towards their challenges in teaching English for ethnic minority students

4.1 Challenges in terms of School Environment and Curriculum

As an attempt to answer the first question “What are the challenges

caused by school environment and curriculum?”, this section presents the

results from the questionnaire which includes 9 items about school environment and curriculum The questionnaire was in the form of a five-point Likert scale, ranging from one “strongly disagree” to five “strongly agree” Hence, the higher the mean score obtained, the more agreement with the statement the participants had

The table below shows the teachers’ views about challenges coming from school environment and curriculum