A survey on whether english is taught communicatively at ho chi minh city university of industry

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, the literature relevant to the study is reviewed in five sections: 1 the definitions of communication and communicative competence and the c

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

Ho Chi Minh City, April 2007

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This thesis reports the results of the survey on whether General English is taught communicatively at Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry The introductory chapter presents the problem the thesis attempts to solve, the rationale and an overview of the thesis and the background to the thesis

1.1 The problem

As Edge, J (1993:17) puts it “Communication is the goal of language teaching.” and

“Communication is part of the learning process.” Actually since the 1970s language has been seen as a system for the expression of meaning and the aim of language teaching has been viewed as ‘to help learners develop skills for expressing communicative meanings’

Nowadays the need for communication is even more greatly emphasized than ever Being aware of the important role of foreign languages, especially of English, and

of the need for communication; the authorities of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry (HUI) have highly recommended their English-language teachers to help their students, specifically the non-English-majors, be able to communicate in English In the final academic year’s (2005) meeting with the staff, the head of the university blamed the English-language teachers for the bad reputation that most of the non-English-majors graduating from HUI could not use English as a means of communication and that many students lost opportunity to get a good job just because of not being able to answer English questions in job interviews

In addition, the authorities have recently emphasized a reform in teaching and learning They have suggested that learner-centeredness should take the place of teacher-centeredness, which have dominated the educational system in Vietnam for

a very long time That is to say, in classrooms instead of sitting in silence listening

to their teacher’s talking and taking notes, students should work in pairs or in groups to discuss some problems, to learn to express their own ideas, and to be as active as possible To be certain that the reform in teaching and learning has been carried out; the authorities of the university together with the heads of Faculty of

HUI will be criticized if they do not create opportunity for their students to be actively involved in their learning

In general, English-language teachers at HUI have been urged to teach English communicatively so that they can help their students be able to communicate in English However, in spite of those recommendations, most of the non-English-majors at HUI still fail to achieve a satisfactory level of communicative competence What causes such a problem? How are the teachers at HUI teaching English? Have they taught English really communicatively? What hinders the teachers from teaching English communicatively? What should be done to help improve the situation of teaching English to non-English-majors at HUI?

1.2 Rationale and overview of thesis

This study aims at investigating the current methods of teaching General English (GE) at HUI to find out whether or not General English is taught communicatively, how communicatively it is taught, and what difficulties hinder teachers from teaching GE communicatively In addition, it is hoped that the results of this study will provide the basis for making some suggestions and recommendations to help improve the state of teaching GE to non-English majors at HUI

With the above purposes, the thesis was carried out and based on:(1) 64-period class observation with simultaneous records (each period lasts for 45 minutes) to find out the methods or approaches the teachers used in their teaching; and (2) follow-up interviews after the observation with nine teachers and nine students from the observed classes The interviews with teachers were to discover the teachers’ reasons for using some certain methods of teaching and barriers to communicative English teaching at HUI The interviews with students were to find out their attitudes toward the current learning conditions and their preference for English learning

The thesis consists of five chapters:

Chapter one – Introduction – discusses the problem that need to be solved, and the

rationale and the overview of the study as well as provides the background to the

study with the information about the description of the GE course, the setting, the description of teachers and students at HUI

Chapter two – Literature Review – presents a review of the literature relevant to

this study

Chapter three – Methodology – describes the methodology employed in the study

This chapter includes the research questions; the research design including a description of the subjects, instruments and the procedures of data collection

Chapter four – Results and Discussion – discusses and analyzes the research

results from the instruments of class observation and interviews with nine teachers

in charge and nine students from the observed classes

Chapter five – Conclusion and Recommendations – draws conclusions, solutions

to the problems and recommendations of the study

1.3 Background to the study

1.3.1 Description of the GE course at HUI

Every university student whose major is not English has to learn GE in three semesters as three modules divided in the course syllabus

1.3.1.1 The syllabus

This English course is for the university students who do not specialize in English This course is established to provide basic knowledge: vocabulary, grammar and the four skills so as to create the fundamental step for students to study English at later higher levels

The objectives of this course are to provide students with basic knowledge: vocabulary, simple tenses, simple dialogues, short readings, and sentence or paragraph writings

After the course, students can use English to communicate and to make themselves understood in everyday conversations

Every non-English-major has to take a 180-period general English course The main

textbook is Lifelines (Elementary and Pre-intermediate) by Tom Hutchinson

The table below illustrates the GE course at HUI

Table 1.1: Summary of the general English course for university students at HUI

Unit 14 units (Unit 1 - 14) 7 units (Unit 1 - 7) 7 units (Unit 8 - 14) Period 60 periods (4 periods/

unit + 4 review, test)

60 periods (8 periods/

unit + 4 review, test)

60 periods (8 periods/ unit + 4 review, test) Content Grammar:

* Verbs to be, have got,

and can

* There is/there are

* Tenses (the present

simple, the past simple,

the present continuous,

the and present perfect)

* Food and drink

* House and home

conditional

* Comparatives and superlatives

Listening & speaking:

* Telling the time

* Making arrangements

* Life events

* Leaving messages

* Conversations in a clothes shop

* Asking and giving directions

* Meeting visitors Pronunciation:

* Conversations in a restaurant

* Conversations in a hotel (polite requests)

* Making suggestions

* Telephone expressions

* Arranging time

* Small talk Pronunciation:

1.3.1.2 The textbook for GE at HUI

Lifelines (Elementary and Pre-intermediate) is used as the textbook for the

first-year and the second-first-year students at HUI

Lifelines is introduced by its publisher as ‘a clear, comprehensive, yet manageable

language syllabus’ with ‘discovery approach’, ‘motivating texts’, ‘strong skills development’, ‘pronunciation syllabus’, and ‘systematic vocabulary work’ On

Introduction part of Lifelines (teacher’s book) we can see the following description 1.3.1.2.1 Who is Lifelines for?

Lifelines is a three-level general English course at elementary, pre-intermediate, and intermediate level All of the three levels of Lifelines place emphasis on

consolidating and extending the students’ knowledge of vocabulary, and on developing the students’ ability to communicate effectively This is an integrated textbook with thorough treatment of reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills The degree of difficulty increases in the three levels The grammatical points are presented, revised, and developed through a variety of different contexts

1.3.1.2.2 What does a Student’s Book (Pre-intermediate) unit contain?

Each of the 14 main units is based around a theme and has a main structural focus, which is recycled and developed through the unit Each unit contains these sections:

The Grammar section presents and practices a structural area Each section has

these three stages:

Grammar in use

In this stage the students see the grammar point in use in a presentation text or dialogue, usually with pictures

Rules

Here extracts from the text or dialogue are used to exemplify the structure’s form and use Wherever possible, students are asked to use the examples and their previous knowledge to work out the rules for the structure Finally they are referred

to the Grammar Reference section to check and consolidate their knowledge of

the rules

Practice

This stage provides activities in which the students use the structure The exercises are graded from controlled to free, and great emphasis is put on the use of the structure to talk about students’ own lives

Using a variety of authentic and adapted texts, the Reading section aims to develop

the students’ reading skills through a variety of exercise types, and to extent their

vocabulary Some of the Reading sections also contain a Language focus This

presents and practices a smaller area of grammar, and continues grammatical input

beyond the Grammar section

d Listening and speaking

This section deals with everyday spoken language in common situations such as making arrangements, ordering a meal or making suggestions There is a wide

variety of listening tasks Most of the Listening and speaking sections have a feature called Conversation pieces, which presents and practices useful expressions from the dialogues Some also contain a Language focus

e Pronunciation

Each Pronunciation section has two parts The first part deals with the sounds of

English, and includes an introduction to the IPA The second part focuses other aspects of pronunciation, including words and sentence stress, intonation and word linking

f Extension

The Extension section gives practice in a range of skills through exploring a topic

related to the theme of the unit It enables students to practice the grammar and vocabulary of the unit in a number of different skill areas No new grammar is

introduced, but the Extension sections normally focus on a small structural area for revision, or on a vocabulary area The Extension sections provide an additional two

hours of work in each unit, and they can be omitted without the book losing its integrity

Two other important elements in Lifelines are:

Reflecting on Learning

The Reflecting on Learning section provides the opportunity for students to think

about how they learn and also provides some advice on how they can be more effective learners It is placed at the back of the book as an optional item

Writing

The Student’s Book contains a range of different writing activities In addition the Workbook has a fully-developed syllabus for teaching writing skills such as paragraph formation, sentence linking and letter writing Different aspects of writing skills are presented and then practiced through guided and free activities

1.3.2 The physical setting

In HUI learning and teaching activities mostly take place in the classrooms

1.3.2.1 Classrooms:

All of the seating in classrooms is arranged orderly in front of the teacher Many classrooms are air-conditioned Besides a board, all of the classrooms for university students are well-equipped with a computer, a slide projector and an overhead projector Cassette recorders and CD players are kept in the Center of Students

Management and students will go to that center to get either a cassette recorder or a

CD player for their English class There are sufficient cassette recorders and CD

players for all the English classes

1.3.2.2 Class size:

In spite of the effort of the governing body of the university to reduce the size of English classes, the number of students in English-language classes for non-English majors at HUI ranges from 50 to over 80 students And it is the large class sizes that can be one of the barriers to communicative second language teaching and learning

1.3.3 Characteristics of the teachers and students at HUI

1.3.3.1 Students

All of the non-English majors have different levels: some have learnt English for seven years, some for three years, and some have even never learnt English before entering the University A lot of them, including those with seven years of learning English, have been used to learning English with the Grammar-Translation Method They can be good at grammatical structures, can do written exercises accurately but often feel difficult to express their ideas or to communicate in English

1.3.3.2 The teaching staff

The faculty of foreign languages at HUI has quite big staff with 143 teachers: 47 permanent teachers and 96 invited teachers Most of the invited teachers are Bachelors of English Literature; of 47 permanent teachers, there are 16 Masters in TESOL, 2 Masters in Linguistics, 9 MA candidates in TESOL, 6 MA candidates in Linguistics, and 14 Bachelors of English Literature (3 with Graduate Diplomas) At the time this study was carried out there were 102 teachers teaching GE to non-English-majors; among these 102, 17 teachers were teaching GE to university students whose majors were not in English Most of these 17 teachers were Bachelors of English Literature, three teachers were MA candidates in Linguistics, two were MA candidates in TESOL, and one was Master in Linguistics The youngest was 26 with 2.5 years of experience in teaching English and 2 years in

teaching with Lifelines and the oldest was 50 with 24 years of experience in

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the literature relevant to the study is reviewed in five sections: (1) the definitions of communication and communicative competence and the clarification of the use of ‘communicative language teaching’; (2) a summary of

current communicative approaches reviewed from Brown (1994) and Richards &

Rodgers (2001), (3) principles of the Communicative Approach reported by Freeman, D (1986), (4) techniques to teach language areas communicatively suggested by Lee, J F & VanPatten, B (1995), and (5) previous studies relating to communicative language teaching in Vietnam

Larsen-2.1 Communication, communicative competence and communicative language teaching

Before many methods and approaches relating to communicative language teaching are summarized and discussed, it is necessary to explicitly define the two terms:

communication and communicative competence and to clarify the use of the term

“communicative language teaching”

2.1.1 Communication

According to Savignon (1983) communication involves the expression, interpretation, and negotiation of meaning in a given context

In Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics

communication is defined as:

the exchange of ideas, information, etc between two and more persons In an act of

communication there is usually at least one speaker or sender, a message which is transmitted, and a person or persons for whom this message is intended (the receiver)

(Richards, R.C., Platt, J., & Platt, H, 1992:64)

Lee, J F & VanPatten, B (1995) extend the meaning of communication by affirming that the definition of communication as the agreement, interpretation, and negotiation of meaning is “applicable not only to oral language but to written language as well” (Lee, J F & VanPatten, B 1995:215)

2.1.2 Communicative competence

In his argument as a contrast to Chomsky’s linguistic competence, Hymes, D.H (1971) suggests the four dimensions that a person need cover to achieve communicative competence:

1 Whether (and to what degree) something is formally possible;

2 Whether (and to what degree) something is feasible in virtue of the means of

implementation available;

3 Whether (and to what degree) something is appropriate (adequate, happy,

successful) in relation to a context in which it is used and evaluated;

4 Whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done, actually performed,

and what is doing entails

(cited in Brumfit, C.J & Johnson, K 1979:19) Similarly Savignon (1983) agrees that

communicative competence consists of four underlying competences: grammatical

competence (knowledge of structure and form of language), discourse competence

(knowledge of the rules of cohesion and coherence across sentences and utterances),

sociolinguistic competence (knowledge of the rules of interaction: turn taking, appropriate

use of first names, appropriate formulae for apologizing, appropriate greetings), and

strategic competence (knowing how to make the most of the language that you have,

especially when it is “deficient”) (cited in Brumfit, C.J & Johnson, K 1979:149)

In conclusion, communicative competence is the ability not only to apply the grammatical rules of a language in order to form grammatically correct sentences but also to know when and where to use these sentences and to whom (Richards et

al 1992:65)

2.1.3 Communicative language teaching

The term ‘communicative language teaching’ (not in capitals), used throughout this study, refers to a general way to teach language communicatively rather than to Communicative Language Teaching (in capitals and abbreviated as CLT), another name of the Communicative Approach Therefore, to help avoid misunderstanding, when the study mentions the approach Communicative Language Teaching, only

2.2 A summary of current communicative approaches

Since the mid – nineteenth century language teaching theoreticians and methodologists have somewhat been aware of the need for communication through language However, the methods and approaches of those days had a lot of limitations and could not fulfill the learner’s need for real communication as they claimed because, as Krashen and Terell (1983) put it

These methods were built not around actual theories of language acquisition, but theories

of something else; for example the structure of language (cited in Richards & Rodgers 2001:179 )

Because of the above reason and because of the scope of the study, only current communicative approaches are reviewed in this section including (1) the Communicative Approach, (2) the Natural Approach, (3) Cooperative Language Learning, (4) Content-Based Instruction, (5) Task-Based Language Teaching, and (6) the post-methods era

2.2.1 Communicative Approach

The origins of the Communicative Approach (CA) are to be found in the changes in the British language teaching tradition dating from the late 1960s This approach appeared at a time when language teaching in many parts of the world was ready for

a paradigm shift and has placed its influence on many other language teaching approaches and methods For the sake of simplicity and directness, Brown (1994) offers the following four interconnected characteristics as a definition of the CA:

1 Classrooms goals are focuses on all of the components of communicative competence and not restricted to grammatical or linguistic competence

2 Language techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic, authentic, functional use of language for meaningful purposes Organizational language forms are not the central focus but rather aspects of language that enable the learner to accomplish those purposes

3 Fluency and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlying communicative techniques At times fluency may have to take on more importance than accuracy in order to keep learners meaningfully engaged in

4 In the communicative classroom, students ultimately have to use the language, productively and receptively, in unrehearsed contexts

(Brown 1994:245) Moreover, as Harmer (1998:32) says the CA was a radical departure from the PPP-type lessons (PPP stands for Presentation, Practice, and Production) Actually, the

CA usually follows the following procedures: new teaching points are introduced with dialogues, followed by controlled practice of the main grammatical patterns The teaching points are then contextualized through situational practice This serves

as an introduction to a freer practice activity, such as a role play or improvisation Teaching points are introduced in dialogue form, grammatical items are isolated for controlled practice, and then freer activities are provided Pair and group work are suggested to encourage students to use and practice functions and forms

However, Richards & Rodgers (2001) recommend: “How to implement the CA principles at the level of classroom procedures remains central to discussions of the CA.” (2001:172) That is to say, the CA classroom procedures are seeking a wide variety of improvement in order to achieve the goal of language teaching as developing communicative competence

In addition to the CA, there are other approaches which somewhat can be considered as direct descendants of this approach Nevertheless, as Richards & Rodgers (2001) put it “these proposals address different aspects of the processes of teaching and learning.”

2.2.2 The Natural Approach

The Natural Approach was outlined in 1977by Tracy Terrell, a teacher of Spanish in California, and supported by Kreshen According to Richards & Rodgers (2001)

In the Natural Approach there is an emphasis on exposure, or input, rather than practice;

optimizing emotional preparedness for learning; a prolong period of attention to what the language learners hear before they try to produce language; and a willingness to use written and other materials as a source of comprehensible input (2001:179)

One of the features that makes the Natural Approach different from the CA is that it has little theoretical base at the level of language theory When describing about the

view language as a vehicle for communicating meanings and messages As a result, these two authors affirm that the role of vocabulary far outweighs that of grammar (Richards & Rodgers 2001:180)

In the classroom learners are expected to be as relaxed as possible and to delay their production until they gain sufficient input and can interact with confidence As Brown (1994) puts it

The Natural Approach was aimed at the goal of basic interpersonal communication skills, that is, everyday language situations The initial tasks of the teacher was to provide comprehensible input, that is, spoken language that is understandable to the learner, or just

a little beyond the learner’s level Learners did not need to say anything during this “silent period” until they felt ready to do so The teacher was the source of the learner’s input and the creator of an interesting and stimulating variety of classroom activities – commands, games, skits, and small-group work (1994:99)

In general, there is a combination of many methods and approaches in the Natural Approach, such as total Physical Response, Direct Method, and the Communicative Approach; and it is usually hard to find the philosophy underlying the techniques in

a typical classroom In fact,

“What characterizes the Natural Approach is the use of familiar techniques within the framework of a method that focuses on providing comprehensible input and a classroom environment that cues comprehension of input, minimizes learner anxiety, and maximizes learner self-confidence.” Richards & Rodgers (2001:186)

2.2.3 Cooperative Language Learning

Cooperative Language Learning (CLL) is part of a more general instructional approach also known as Collaborative Learning (CL) Cooperative Learning is an approach to teaching that makes maximum use of cooperative activities involving pairs and small groups of learners in the classroom

According to Richards & Rodgers (2001) CLL is viewed as a learner-centered approach which offers advantages over teacher-fronted classroom methods In language teaching its goals are:

— to provide opportunities for naturalistic second language acquisition through the use of interactive pair and group activities

— to provide teachers with a methodology to enable them to achieve this goal and one that can be applied in a variety of curriculum settings

— to enable focused attention to particular lexical items, language structures, and communicative functions through the use of interactive tasks

— to provide opportunities for learners to develop successful learning and communication strategies

— to enhance learner motivation and reduce learner stress and to create a positive affective classroom climate

(Richards & Rodgers 2001:193)

In the classroom the teacher has to create a highly structured and well-organized learning environment in the classroom, setting goals, planning and structuring tasks, establishing the physical arrangement of the classroom, assigning students to groups and roles, and selecting materials and time (Johnson et al 1994 cited in Richards & Rodgers 2001) Meanwhile, learners must work collaboratively in groups They have to learn teamwork skills and be active in their learning They are taught to plan, monitor, and evaluate their own learning In other words, in the classroom teachers are considered as facilitators of learning and learners as directors of their own learning

2.2.4 Content-Based Instruction

According to Richards & Rodgers (2001) Content-Based Instruction (CBI) refers to

an approach to second language teaching in which teaching is organized around the content or information that students will acquire, rather than around a linguistic or other type of syllabus

CBI is ground on the following two central principles:

1 People learn a second language more successfully when they use the language as a means of acquiring information, rather than as an end in itself

2 CBI better reflects learners’ needs for learning a second language

CBI has many advantages which are observed by Brinton at el., (1989):

In a content-based approach, the activities of the language class are specific to the subject being taught, and are geared to stimulate students to think and learn through the target

four traditional language skills For example, it employs authentic reading materials which require students not only understand the information but to interpret and evaluate it as well

It provides a forum in which students can respond orally to reading and lecture materials It recognizes that academic writing follows from listening, and reading, and thus requires students to synthesize facts and ideas from multiple sources as preparation for writing In this approach, students are exposed to study skills and learn a variety of language skills which prepare then for a range of academic tasks they will encounter (cited in Richards & Rodgers 2001:220)

Apart from the advantages, this approach receives many critics as well Firstly language teachers may encounter difficulties in teaching a content subject because they have been trained to teach language as a skill rather than to teach a subject matter through language Secondly team-teaching proposals involving language teachers and subject-matters are often considered unwieldy and likely

to reduce the efficiency of both

2.2.5 Task-Based Language Teaching

Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) refers to an approach based on the use of tasks as the core unit of planning and instruction in language teaching

The key assumptions of TBLT are summarized by Feez (1998) as:

— The focus is on process rather on product

— Basic elements are purposeful activities and tasks that emphasize communication and meaning

— Learners learn language by interacting communicatively and purposefully while engaged in the activities and tasks

— Activities and tasks can be either: those that learners might need to achieve

in real life; or those that have a pedagogical purpose specific to the classroom

— Activities and tasks of a task-based syllabus are sequenced according to difficulty

— The difficulty of a task depends on a range of factors including the previous experience of the learner, the complexity of the task, the language required to undertake the task, and the degree of support available

In the classroom many tasks will be done in pairs or small groups Before doing task activities, learners should do some pretask preparation activities such as restating, paraphrasing, using paralinguistic signals Class activities have to be designed so that students have the opportunity to notice how language is used in communication Teachers have to select, adapt, and/or create the tasks themselves

so that these tasks can be not only a means of facilitating learning but suitable to learners’ needs, interests, and language skill level as well Besides, many tasks will require learners to create and interpret messages for which they lack full linguistic resources and prior experience A lot of skills are employed for practice including guessing from linguistic and contextual clues, asking for clarification, and consulting with other learners Instructional materials play an important role in TBLT because it is dependent on a sufficient supply of appropriate classroom tasks, some of which may require considerable time, ingenuity, and resources to develop

A wide variety of realia including newspapers, television, and internet can also be used as a resource for TBLT

2.2.6 The Post-Methods Era

In the last hundred years a lot of methods and approaches have appeared and been promoted with the purpose of improving the process of language, especially second language, teaching and learning However, as Richards & Rodgers (2001) claim:

In trying to apply approaches or methods, teachers sometimes ignore what is the starting point in language program design, namely, a careful consideration of the context in which teaching and learning occurs, including the cultural context constituted by the teachers and learners in their classrooms (2001:248)

In addition, many methods and approaches fall short of research basis and are often based on the assumption that the processes of second language learning are fully understood As a result, the principles and techniques of these methods and approaches usually cannot reflect the real principles of second language acquisition (Richards & Rodgers 2001:149)

Moreover, as mentioned in section 2.1.1 the CA, considered as the most plausible basis for language teaching today, is seeking better ways to implement its principles

very general principles that can be applied and interpreted in a variety of ways” (Richards & Rodgers 2001:244)

Therefore, as Richards & Rodgers (2001) recommend:

Teaches and teachers in training need to be able to use approaches and methods flexibly and creatively based on their own judgment and experience In the process, they should be encouraged to transform and adapt the methods they use to make them their own (2001:250)

2.3 Principles of the Communicative Approach

The previous section serves as a summary of current communicative approaches which have influenced today’s second language teaching and learning This section presents ten principles of the CA

1 What is the goal of teachers who use the CA?

The goal is to have one’s students become communicatively competent To do this students need knowledge of the linguistic forms, meanings, and functions They need to know that many different forms can be used to perform a function and also that a single form can often serve a variety of functions

2 What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?

The teacher is a facilitator of his students’ learning who establishes situations to promote communication He also acts as an advisor and a co-communicator

Students are communicators They are actively engaged in negotiating meaning – in trying to make themselves understood – even when their knowledge of the target language is incomplete They learn to communicate by communicating They are seen as more responsible managers of their own learning

3 What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?

The most obvious characteristic of the CA is that almost everything that is done is done with a communicative intent Activities that are truly communicative have three features: information gap, choice, and feedback

Another characteristic of the CA is the use of authentic materials It is considered desirable to give students an opportunity to develop strategies for understanding language as it is actually used by native speakers

Communicative activities are often carried out by students in small groups

4 What is the nature of teacher interaction? What is the nature of student interaction?

student-The teacher is the initiator of the activities, but he does not always himself interact with the students Sometimes he is a co-communicator, but more often he establishes situations that prompt communication between and among the students Students interact a great deal with one another They do this in various configurations: pairs, triads, small groups, and whole group

5 How are the feelings of the students dealt with?

One of the basic assumptions of the CA is that students will be more motivated to study a foreign language since they will feel they are learning to do something useful with the language they study

Also teachers give students an opportunity to express their individuality by having them share their ideas and opinions on a regular basis

Student security is enhanced by the many opportunities for cooperative interactions with their fellow students and the teacher

6 How is language viewed? How is culture viewed?

Language is for communication Linguistic competence is just one part of communicative competence Another aspect of communicative competence is knowledge of the functions language is used for

The learner needs knowledge of forms and meanings and functions However, he must also use this knowledge and take into consideration the social situation in order to convey his intended meaning appropriately

Culture is the everyday lifestyle of people who use the language natively

7 What areas of language are emphasized? What language skills are emphasized? Language functions are emphasized over forms

Students work on all four skills from the beginning Just as oral communication is seen to take place through negotiation between speaker and listener, so too is meaning thought to be derived from the written word through an interaction between the reader and the writer

8 What is the role of the students’ native language?

The students’ native language has no particular role in the CA The target language should be used as a vehicle for communication, not just an object to be studied

9 How is evaluation accomplished?

A teacher evaluates not only his students’ accuracy, but also their fluency

A teacher can informally evaluate his students’ performance in his role as an advisor or co-communicator For more formal evaluation, a teacher is likely to use a communicative test

10 How does the teacher respond to student errors?

Errors of form are tolerated and are seen as a natural outcome of the development of communication skills Students can have limited linguistic knowledge and still be successful communicators

2.4 Techniques to teach language areas communicatively

This section aims at describing how to teach different language areas

communicatively

2.4.1 Grammar

Usually grammar is considered as an area where communicative activities are hardly carried out However, Lee, J F & VanPatten, B (1995) affirm that there is a way to incorporate explicit grammar instruction into classes without sacrificing either communication or learner-centered activities In addition, they recommend that in a given lesson, learners can and should be moved from input-based activities

to output-based activities that focus on grammar

2.4.1.1 Structured input activities

Grammar instruction does not necessary mean explanation + drill + other kinds of output practice, as generally happens in traditional language classes To make grammar teaching communicative Lee & VanPatten (1995) propose grammar instruction as structured input A structured input activity has two key characteristics:

• The activity requires that the learner attend to the grammatical item in the input sentences while focused on meaning

• Learners are asked not to produce the grammatical item, only to process it

in the input

In other words, structured input activities while focusing learners on attending to grammatical forms need to be comprehensible and meaning-bearing, and it is important that learners should not be made to produce the new language during the input

In addition to the above characteristics, the following guidelines help make up the construction of structured input activities:

• The first guideline Present one thing at a time means that all forms and all

functions should not be presented at once

• The second guideline Keep meaning in focus says that good grammar activities

are those that require learners to focus on form and meaning at the same time

• The third guideline Move from sentences to connected discourse implies that

when grammar is taught via structured input activities, it is important to begin with sentences first because short and isolated sentences give learners processing time, whereas in longer stretches of speech, grammatical form can get lost if the demands to process meaning overwhelm the learner

• The fourth guideline Use both written and oral input indicates that in activities,

the learner should be provided opportunities to hear and see the input

• The fifth guideline Have the learner do something with the input recommends

that instructors should provide learners with opportunity to be actively engaged

in attending to the input to encourage the processing of grammar

• The last guideline Keep the learner’s processing strategies in mind means that

learners should focus attention during processing on the relevant grammatical items and not on other elements of the sentence

2.4.1.2 Structured output activities

Like input activities, structured output activities also have two major characteristics:

• They involve the exchange of previously unknown information

• They require learners to access a particular form or structure in order to

Moreover, in Lee and VanPattern’s sense structured output activities share most of the same guidelines for construction that was developed for structured input activities The obvious exception is that the guidelines refer to production, not input These guidelines are listed as follows:

• The first guideline Present one thing at a time once again refers to focusing on

only one form and one function of a particular grammatical device or structure With structured output, the focus is on one form and/or one function at a time

• Moreover, the second guideline Keep meaning in focus recommends that output

activities should require learners to attend to meaning while producing grammatical forms

• The guideline Sentence-level output should precede discourse-level output points

to the importance of allowing learners to access forms and structure at the sentence level before proceeding to connected sentences

• The guideline Use both written and oral output suggests involving learners in

both writing and speaking output activities

• The guideline Others must respond to the content of the output indicates that the

output created by the learners is purposeful: because it contains a message, someone in some way must respond to the content of the message

• The final guideline The learner must have some knowledge of the form or structure simply means that structured output activities flow from previous work

They are not starting points but part of a continuum of work with a particular grammatical feature

2.4.2 Vocabulary

Apart from linguistic form and structure there is a need to present input and output

of lexical items through communicative activities

2.4.2.1 Input and Vocabulary

Instead of a list of vocabulary with equivalents of first language words, teachers should present and make their learners practice vocabulary in a context of comprehensible, meaning-bearing input There is a wide variety of techniques helping teachers develop comprehensible, meaning-bearing input activities Indeed

teachers can combine the use of visuals (drawings, photographs, cartoons) and the use of topics (description of students, daily activities, and physical states); or they can explore the use of learners and classrooms, total physical response method,

and/or input-oriented quizzes

2.4.2.2 Vocabulary and Output

While learners can acquire vocabulary easily and accurately via meaning bearing and comprehensible input activities, they need to use newly learned vocabulary in a productive manner via lexical output activities

Although moving from isolated words to words can be considered as reasonable during structured output activities, it is inadvisable to use a series of unconnected activities when working with vocabulary and to divorce the process of acquiring vocabulary from the learners’ own world Instead, the activities can form a series of connected pieces that build toward something: the learning of vocabulary has a purpose

It is clear that learners need opportunities to use vocabulary to communicate information Only in this way can they work on those processes responsible for the development of fluency and accuracy in second language speech

2.4.3 Listening

In everyday life both native speakers and second language speakers engage in a variety of communicative situations during which they listen There are two types of

listening situations: collaborative and noncollaborative Collaborative situations are

those in which both speaker and listener work together to negotiate meaning Noncollaborative situations are those in which the listener does not participate in the construction of discourse and is merely an observant listener

Listening situations can also be categorized according to two sets of features: the presence or absence of collaboration and the presence or absence of accompanying visual stimuli

2.4.3.1 Listening in the Second Language Classroom

Classroom Discussion

Although the classroom may not be an ideal place for the development of all listening skills and strategic responses, it is the place where such skills and

responses can begin to develop To maximize class time for the development of

listening, teachers should:

• use second language to conduct business such as making announcements, describing what will be on a test, and assigning homework

• allow learners to nominate topics and structure the discourse

• be a participatory listener themselves When learners attend to express themselves, instructors need to respond as a listener, not an instructor

• encourage phone calls in the second language

• provide some good listening gambits to learners for signaling nonunderstanding, confirmation, and so forth

In addition to discussions and conversations, the classroom can also provide opportunities for learners to engage in academic listening when teachers deliver lectures and presentations

Listening in the Language Laboratory

Laboratory listening means that learners can either sit in a laboratory booth to complete the exercises or stay at home practice their listening with a personal tape machine

Similar to what listeners do in real life, the language laboratory listening should provide useful opportunities for learners to take and transform information Here are some possibilities for purposeful listening:

1 listen to a radio broadcast, lecture, monologue, story, or some other oral text and prepare: a written summary, an oral summary, an outline, or some combination of the three activities

2 listen to a conversation/dialogue and then report it as a narrative

3 listen to a set of directions (instructions) and then perform a task

2.4.4 Reading

The purpose for providing reading instruction is to build bridges between the reader and the information contained in the text The framework presented in this section guides learners’ interactions with a text in order to maximize their comprehension There are three essential phases to the instructional framework: Preparation (pre-reading), Guided Interaction (during reading), and Assimilation (post-reading)

2.4.4.1 Preparation

The initial phase of the instructional framework is to activate learners’ background knowledge and direct it toward the information in the passage In other words,

schemata must be activated and must be appropriate to the passage being read The

knowledge to be activated to help readers comprehend the information depends on the text and what it says, as well as on the readers and what they know In order to activate readers’ knowledge, teachers can utilize some techniques like

brainstorming, world knowledge, pretest/posttest, and scanning for specific information

2.4.4.2 Guided Interaction

If activating appropriate schema can be thought of as building a bridge between a

reader and a text, then guided interaction is making a plan for crossing the bridge –

and then crossing it Second language readers, who tend to read word for word when left to their own devices, need to be directed in how to read in another language The instructor’s function is to provide that direction The Guided

Interaction phase of the lesson framework can be viewed as the readers’ exploration

of the content

The Guided Interaction phase of the reading lesson consists of two types of tasks,

namely, management strategies and comprehension checks Management strategies

suggest to the readers ways in which to divide a passage, to break it into sensible parts Comprehension checks during the Guided Interaction phase of the lesson allow readers to monitor their comprehension in an ongoing way rather than read from start to finish only to find they did not understand

Although traditional comprehension questions usually limit readers’ interaction with a text, answering questions as a comprehension check is highly recommended But the questions need to be designed in the way to guide readers into the text and not simply encourage them to search for matching wording

2.4.4.3 Assimilation

The purpose of the Assimilation phase is to encourage second language readers to learn from what they have read To accomplish this goal, there is a need to present tasks and activities that are study-skills oriented: ways to organize information in order to learn that information Moreover, after gaining information from a text, readers should be required to relate it personally and more meaningfully and they need apply the content to themselves, to their experiences, to the world as they know it as well

2.4.5 Speaking as Oral communication

2.4.5.1 Classroom Communication as Information Exchange

This section focuses on how to create classroom activities that allow for communication within the context of the language classroom Lee, J F & VanPattern, B (1995) called these activities “information-based” tasks or

“information-exchange” tasks These activities require learners to obtain information from each other that is then put to use in some way The following figure shows what is involved in developing activities that foster communication in the classroom

Identify the topic or sub-topic to be addressed

↓ ↑ Design an appropriate immediate purpose

↓ ↑ Identify the information source(s)

Figure 2.1: The Construction of Information-Exchange Tasks (Lee, J F & VanPattern, B 1995:157)

Identifying the Topic

Information-exchange tasks are generally parts of some larger information unit or are relevant to current events surrounding the learners Identifying a topic or sub-topic for a task is best achieved when a concrete question can be asked

Designing an Appropriate Purpose

Once a topic or sub-topic is selected and a question is developed, an appropriate immediate purpose needs to be designed The immediate purpose can take the form

of a task that learners must complete

Learners will not only get and exchange information – they will do something with

it What they do with the information is the true purpose of the task

Identifying Information Sources

The nature of the topic will indicate what the information source should be There is

no need to limit information exchanges to personal information or information generated from personal experiences Therefore, in addition to the learners’ experiences the knowledge beyond their own personal experience also needs to be exploited for information-exchange activities A reading or listening text is another source to be exploited for classroom communication

2.4.5.2 Strategic Competence

Whereas information-exchange tasks certainly encourage the expression and interpretation of meaning, they do not necessarily encourage the kind of negotiation important in developing the strategic competence

After reviewing Tarone’s (1984) lists of communication strategies contributing to strategic competence, Lee, J F & VanPattern, B conclude that four activities need

to be utilized in language classrooms including mime, paraphrase, information-gap,

and group decision activities

Mime Activities

Mime is quite simply acting a word or thought or using a gesture to support what one is saying

Paraphrase Activities

Paraphrase is a more complex type of strategy, Tarone (cited in Lee, J F &

VanPattern, B 1995) lists at least three subtypes The first is approximation, using a

word or term when one doesn’t know the specific term Another type of paraphrase

is word coinage, a process of making up a new word to communicate a concept The third type of paraphrase is circumlocution This strategy involves describing the properties of an object or an action or “talking around” a concept

Information-gap Activities

Another type of activity that promotes the development of strategic competence is

the information-gap task The gap refers to information that one person possesses

but others do not Gaps, therefore, create the absolute need to communicate as well

as the need to cooperate

Group Decision Activities

Other kinds of negotiative activity that encourage learners to collaborate include solving a problem, reaching a consensus, or otherwise making some sort of decision

In such an activity learners may have to talk about things for which they don’t have vocabulary or terms; besides, they have to negotiate, express and defend their viewpoints in groups and then in the class as a whole

2.4.6 Writing as Written Communication

The definition of communication as the expression, interpretation, and negotiation

of meaning is applicable not only to oral language but to written language as well People express themselves in writing as well as speaking Dvorak (1986)

distinguishes between Transcription and Composing in the process of writing:

Writing that focuses primarily on the conventions of language form, i.e., grammatical or

lexical structure, will be termed transcription The term composition will refer to the

skills involved in effectively developing and communicating an idea or making a point

(cited in Lee, J F & VanPatten, B.1995:214) Lee, J F & VanPatten, B propose an approach to second language writing termed

as thoughtful processes

Composing-Oriented Activities

In the approach considered as ‘thoughtful processes’, writing activities must help determine writers’ conceptualization of the rhetorical problem and engage higher-level planning and reviewing processes Lee & VanPatten used the following series

of activities to describe the cognitive processes that engage and lead second language writers toward writing a composition

1 Generating content

2 Selecting an audience and purpose

3 Planning and organizing

be incorporated into beginning language classes.” (1995:225)

2.5 Previous studies relating to communicative language teaching in Vietnam

This section summarizes and discusses previous findings about English-language teaching ad learning in Vietnam in recent years

In his action research about difficulties in implementing the CA in Vietnam, Greg Bock (2000) finds out three main difficulties:

1 from the students

• lack of motivation for communicative competence

• resistance to class participation

• using Vietnamese during groupwork

• low English proficiency

2 from the educational system

• lack of conductive facilities

• large class sizes

• multi-level classes

• feelings of inadequacy

• lack of training in the CA

• the ability to assess communicative competence

Finally, he questions whether or not the CA should be implemented in Vietnam and suggests “Vietnam should produce its own research on the usefulness of the CA in attaining its educational goals.” (p.28) However, there is a limitation in his research since all of the subjects are Westerners, who cannot be considered good representative of English-language teachers in Vietnam

One of Vietnamese researchers in the field is Tran Thi My Dung, investigating ways to apply the CA to teaching English at her college – the College of Technical Teachers’ Training Specifically, her study is interested in the relevant aspects: the teachers’ perception of communicative language teaching, the students’ needs and attitudes towards learning English, and the quality of the English course at her university With three instruments – class observation, interviews, and experimental teaching, she discovers that the method of English-language teaching

at her college is “not really CA, not Audiolingual Method or not Translation Method, i.e it is very patchy.” (p.56) Although there are many difficulties caused by the students, the educational system, and the teachers; the researcher strongly believes that the CA together with some adaptation and improvement can be applied in her own college as well as in most Vietnamese classrooms To make this happen, besides the way to perform framework for communicative classroom tasks, she suggests that the work force there has to be equipped with more practical knowledge of communicative language teaching, the ESP syllabus should be added some more materials as ‘software’ to create students’ integrative motivation

Grammar-From other perspective, with the hope to find out what makes a lesson effective, Tran Thi Phi (2002) points out “most three common activities employed at the University of Economics were presentation activities, comprehension activities, and feedback activities from the teacher.” (p.67) All of these activities reflect the fact that English-language students at this university hardly had chance to produce

language; that is to say, they were usually taught about the language but not how to use the language In order to help improve the circumstances for English lessons at her university, she recommends that teachers should collaborate to provide a variety of activities

Similar to the above researchers, Nguyen Thi Hoai Minh (2004), in her investigation into roles and tasks of teachers and learners at Ho Chi Minh City Open University, reveals that one of the biggest barriers against improving the quality of General English teaching and learning in her university is teachers and students’ conservative attitude toward communicative tasks (p.72) In spite of many objective difficulties such as conducive facilities and students’ level of proficiency, the writer affirms that it is the teacher that can help to improve the quality of English-language teaching and learning; as she recommends: “teachers can always have great influence on their students’ attitude toward the subject.” (p.72)

To sum up, in spite of different instruments and circumstances, all of the above researches show that English-language teaching in Vietnam up to now is not really communicative and therefore hardly help to fulfill its goal as communication

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research questions

This study was designed to survey the methods and/or approaches of teaching GE to non-English majored-university-students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry (HUI)

One question guides this study:

Is General English being taught communicatively?

Two subquestions are also addressed:

1 How is General English being taught at HUI?

2 If not communicatively, what are the barriers to communicative English teaching at HUI?

3.2 Research design

3.2.1 Subjects

The study was conducted in about 4 months from early March 2006 to early July

2006 at HUI The subjects for the class observations were nine English-language

teachers who were teaching GE with the textbook Lifelines to non-English majors at

HUI and all the students in the observed classes The subjects for the interviews were the above nine teachers and nine students from the observed classes

3.2.1.1 The teacher

Stratified random sampling (suggested by Brown, J D., 2001) was employed in

selecting the nine teachers The subjects were grouped and selected according to their educational qualification, which might be a variable in the analysis Among these nine teachers, there was 1 MA candidate in TESOL, 2 MA candidates in Linguistics, and 6 bachelors of Arts in English Linguistics and Literature – two of these 6 teachers had Graduate Diplomas The youngest teacher was 26 years old

with 2.5 years of experience in teaching GE and 1.5 years teaching with Lifelines,

the oldest was 50 with 19 years of teaching general English and 5 years teaching

with Lifelines Since the majority of the teachers in Faculty of Foreign Languages at

HUI are female, the predominant gender of the surveyed group was female: 6 females (66.67%) and 3 males (33.33%)

The table below shows the characteristics of the sample teachers

Table 3.1: Summary of sample teachers’ characteristics

The staff’s qualification and experience

Experience in teaching English: Max = 19

To make the data sufficiently objective, it was necessary to gain a perspective on English-language teaching and learning from learners Thus, nine students were randomly chosen from the nine observed classes (one student from one class) for interviews

The table below shows the characteristics of the sample students

Table 3.2: Summary of sample students’ characteristics

In order to find out how English-language teachers are teaching GE to majored university students, and whether or not they teach English communicatively, class observation was carried out Specifically, the observation aims at answering the first subquestion:

non-English-• How is General English being taught at HUI?

The observation was carried out for 2.5 months – from early March to mid May – with different regular classes The non-English-majors in these classes were all first-year university students in their second semester (2005-2006) Nine classes were chosen together with the nine teachers in charge

To make the data comparable and to help the researcher have opportunity to view a variety of activities each teacher utilized in his/her class, the same teacher was observed twice teaching different language areas including grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing There were 18 observations made in total Each observation lasted for 3 or 4 periods according to the timetable of each class; and the total time for class observation was

64 periods corresponding to 2880 minutes – 45 minutes per period

In order to obtain sufficient and accurate data for the study, an observation checklist (see Appendix 1) was designed and an audio recording was made for class observation Specifically, the checklist was constructed for the purpose of gathering data on how GE was taught at HUI The checklist was generally based on Larsen-Freeman’s (1986) principles and Lee and VanPatten’s (1995) guidelines for

communicative language teaching which were reviewed in 2.3 and 2.4(chapter 2)

The checklist was divided into two separate sections: non-communicative language teaching and communicative language teaching Each section consisted of four parts

The first part aims at finding out whether and to what extent grammar was taught communicatively

The second part was made to measure how much communicative vocabulary teaching at HUI was

The third part was employed to gather data on whether and to what extent skills were taught communicatively

The last part comprised three smaller parts Specifically, this part was constructed for the purpose of discovering (1) whether teacher-fronted activities or pair/group work activities were likely to happen more often; (2) how teachers usually

responded to students’ errors of form; and (3) what language – the target language

or the mother tongue – were employed the most for instruction

For the sake of clarification, it is essential to describe the items employed in the checklist

3.2.2.1.1 Description of the observation checklist

Table 3.3: Observation checklist

Traditional grammar instruction according to the

sequence: explanation + drill + output practice Grammar instruction as structured input activities

Teaching vocabulary with Vietnamese equivalents

Teaching isolated words

Teaching vocabulary via comprehensible input

Vocabulary Learners produce new words in isolated sentences Learners use new vocabulary to communicate information

Negotiation and interaction between the listener and the speaker Learners listen to answer questions

Learners listen to do something with the language Negotiation and interaction between the reader and the writer Learners read to answer questions

Learners read to get information and do something with it Translation is encouraged

Learners perform memorized

Learners perform contextualized

Learners perform cued dialogues How many?

Teacher-fronted activities How many?

Other charact

1 Grammar

Traditional grammar instruction

According to Lee and VanPatten (1995:91-93), in traditional grammar classes learners get an explanation and are then led through output practices, which require learners to produce the language All of the exercises for grammatical practice should be sequenced in a particular way: mechanical drill → meaningful drill → communicative drill

Mechanical drills are those during which the students need not attend to meaning and for which there is only one correct response One of the exercises for this type

is the substitute of nonsense words

In terms of communicative language teaching, mechanical practice is of dubious value (Lee and VanPatten, 1995:120)

Meaningful drills are those in which learners must attend to the meaning of both the stimulus and their own answer in order to complete the meaningful drill successfully Yet there is only one right answer, and the answer is already known to the participants For example, the teacher asks the question: “Where is the fan?” while pointing at the fan Thus, the only possible to the question is: “It is on the ceiling.”

Although in principle there is meaning involved in meaningful drills, how meaningful these drills really are is still questionable

Communicative drills require attention to meaning, and the information contained in the learner’s answer is new and unknown to the person asking the question In short, there is some kind of exchange of unknown information in communicative drills However, in practice learners usually concentrate more on being accurate with the grammar than on exchanging information

For example, in the following communicative drill the two learners must use the

structure used to to ask and answer about what their childhood Yet, learners may

very well perform this activity by simply “going through the motions” because each sentence is disconnected from the others

Activity 1: Make about 5 yes-no questions to ask your friend what he/she used to do

in his/her childhood

Model: A: Did you use to swim in a river?

B: No, I didn’t./Yes, I did

A: Did you make lots of friends?

Grammar instruction as processing instruction

According to Lee and VanPatten (1995:102) the goal of processing instruction is to get learners to attend to grammatical data in the input and to process it

A structured input activity, in addition to six guidelines reviewed in 2.4.1.1, has the

following key characteristics:

¾ The activity requires that the learner attend to the grammatical item in the input sentences while focused on meaning

¾ Learners are asked not to produce the grammatical item, only to process it in the input

For example, in the following structured-input activity learners are required to focus attention on third-person present tense

Activity 2: How Well Do You Know Your Instructor? Select the phrase that best

completes each statement about your instructor Afterward, your instructor will tell you if you are correct or not

• As soon as he gets home, my instructor…

A reads the mail B has a cocktail C plays with his children

• When it’s time for dinner, he…

A prepares the meal B helps with the meal C waits for the meal

A structured output activity refers to production In addition to six guidelines

reviewed in 2.4.1.2, a structured output activity has two major characteristics

• They involve the exchange of previously unknown information

• They require learners to access a particular form or structure in order to express meaning

For example, we can change activity 1 in communicative drills a bit to make it