An investigation into roles and tasks of teachers and learners in general english classes at hochiminh city open university

MINISTRY OF EDUCAnON AND TRAININGVIETNAM NA nONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH CITYHOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES A D HUMANITIES NGUYEN THl HoAr MINH AN INVESTIGATION INTO ROLE

MINISTRY OF EDUCAnON AND TRAININGVIETNAM NA nONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH CITY

HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES A D HUMANITIES

NGUYEN THl HoAr MINH

AN INVESTIGATION INTO ROLES AND TASKS

OF TEACHERS AND LEARNERS IN GENERAL ENGLISH CLASSES

AT HOCHIMINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS IN TESOL

SUBMITED IN PARTIAL FULFILME T

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOT THE DEGREE OF

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:

AN INVESTIGATION INTO ROLES AND TASKS

OF TEACHERS AND LEARNERS IN GENERAL ENGLISH CLASSES

AT HOCHIMINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSTY

in terms of the statement of Requirements for Theses

in Master's Programmesissued by the Higher Degree Committee

HoChiMinh City, November 2004

NGUYEN THJ HoAI MINH

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, NGUYEN THl HoAI MINH, being thecandidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept therequirements of the University relating to the retention and use ofMaster's Theses deposited in the Library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of mythesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes ofstudy and research, in accordance with the normal conditionsestablish by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses

HoChiMinh City November 2004

NGUYEN THJ HoAI MINH

I, the author of the this thesis, would like to express my deepest gratitude to:

Dr NguySn Tie'n Hung, my thesis supervisor, Chair of the Department ofEnglish Linguistics of the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature, HCMCUniversity of Social Sciences and Humanities

Dr Le Thi Thanh, Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages of HCMC OpenUniversity

Mr Le Van Khue, M.A., Director of the English Centre of the Open University

and institutional encouragement for improving methodology This suggested thatteaching and learning GE at HOU was taking a backward step in comparison withour new understanding about language acquisition In order to explain for theirfavored teaching styles, GE teachers pointed out quite a lot of objective constrainsthat prevented them from making innovation in teaching and had good reasons tokeep their teaching practice from changing Their rationales ranged from learningenvironment to the students' level as well as their reluctance to apply new methods.From students' perspective, although they did not feel very interested in theircurrent GE learning at university, they found it obligatory to come to class asEnglish was a compulsory subject Furthermore, they believed traditional tasks werenecessary to pass examination, so they were perfectly content to be fed withknowledge rather than to work independently.

In an attempt to contribute a systematic look about roles and tasks to generalinstitutional process of improving teaching and learning, the author of this thesiswished to offer a depiction of the problems teachers, students, and the institutionhad to face More importantly, recommendations were suggested based on thisperception Moreover, during the time this study was done, especially in theframework of the conversations with the participants, the writer expected that theissue did foster them a more profound understanding on the importance of new rolesfor teachers and learners

This thesis is entitled "An investigation into roles and tasks between teachersand learners in General English classes at Ho Chi Minh City Open University." Thethesis aimed to describe the reality of teaching and learning GE which led to acritical look at the effectiveness of typical roles and tasks that teachers and studentsperform in GE class at HOD From one side of the issue, a focus of the study wasthe search for the understanding of various factors affecting teachers' rationales forthe roles they adopted in the classroom From the other side, students' attitudes andmotivation toward their English learning at university were learned to clarify theappropriateness and effectiveness of the curriculum in general and the roles andtasks of teachers and learners in particular In the light of this understanding, the

writer looked to the necessity of roles shifting of teachers and students at GE leveland the effectiveness of tasks given by teachers in the classroom

The study was carried out as following: (1) a series of class observations atHOD in order to figure out the most popular roles and tasks in GE classes at HOU;(2) a questionnaire asking students about their perception and attitudes to thelearning style in GE classes; and (3) interviews with teachers who are in charge ofthe chosen observed classes in order to search for their explanation for what theyprefer to carry out in the classroom

What has been learnt from the analysis of data reveals that almost allteachers still stuck to their traditional teaching-centered model with 57.7% of classtime spending on teacher's talk (transmitting knowledge and providing answers)and 22.7% on tasks focusing on grammar in spite of a very communicative textbook

and institutional encouragement for improving methodology This suggested thatteaching and learning GE at HOU was taking a backward step in comparison withour new understanding about language acquisition In order to explain for theirfavored teaching styles, GE teachers pointed out quite a lot of objective constrainsthat prevented them from making innovation in teaching and had good reasons tokeep their teaching practice from changing Their rationales ranged from learningenvironment to the students' level as well as their reluctance to apply new methods.From students' perspective, although they did not feel very interested in theircurrent GE learning at university, they found it obligatory to come to class asEnglish was a compulsory subject Furthermore, they believed traditional tasks werenecessary to pass examination, so they were perfectly content to be fed withknowledge rather than to work independently.

In an attempt to contribute a systematic look about roles and tasks to generalinstitutional process of improving teaching and learning, the author of this thesiswished to offer a depiction of the problems teachers, students, and the institutionhad to face More importantly, recommendations were suggested based on thisperception Moreover, during the time this study was done, especially in theframework of the conversations with the participants, the writer expected that theissue did foster them a more profound understanding on the importance of new rolesfor teachers and learners

TABLE OF CONTENTS

2.1.2.1 Job-related side of teacher and learner roles 8

2.3 Roles and tasks in English classes at Vietnamese universities 23

4.2.1 Students' motivation for English learning 474.2.2 Students' attitude toward English learning activities 50

Ho Chi Minh City Open University

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Scope of the study

This research aims at investigating roles and tasks of teachers and learnersand the factors that affect teachers' rationale for what they choose to carry out in theclassroom The study takes place at HOD with its finding based on the writer'sobservational time in GE classes, the focus of which is observing teacher andlearner roles through the types of tasks teachers assign to students Then, the mostcrucial part of the study is conversations with teachers in charge of those classes toseek for their explanations It is further enriched by the data from a questionnairefor students of GE at this university

1.2 Aim of the study

There is one question that guides this study:

What are factors that affect teachers' decisions on roles and tasks betweenthem and their students in GE classes at HOD?

and two subquestions are also addressed:

(1) What is the dominating roles and tasks that are ususally used in GE

make use of a specific task for their class This enables the writer to figure out thevarious factors that affect teachers' rationale for the roles they play and the rolesthey want their students to play in order to facilitate the process of learning In thisresearch, the role is generally defined as "the ways in which instructors and studentsview their job in the classroom", and the tasks as all the assignments given tostudents to create activities during the lessons (Lee & Vanpatten, 1995) The study,furthermore, examines students' attitude and perception toward their Englishlearning style at the university in order to find out how far teachers' rationale isappropriate to students' expectation.

1.3 Rationale for the study

"We often encourage, or should, our students to become "active learners," taking responsibility for what, how, and why they learn English But do we apply the same standard to ourselves as teachers? That is, are we "active learners" of the craft and profession of teaching? Are we seeking opportunities

to grow and develop in our classrooms?"

(Baurain, 2003:2)

Teachers are to enable the most important purpose of the classroom: toprovide and create conditions for learning to take place (Thomas, 1997) Given theimportance of teaching quality for improving student achievement, this study puts afocus on the roles of teachers and learners of GE at HOD through the types of tasksused in the classroom General English is of great importance since it forms afoundation, which could be either good or bad habits of learning a foreign language,for students to go further in their academic study Additionally, the real learninghappens after class, and thus the students must know how to learn on their own

(Nunan, 1998) These are good reasons for teachers to be better teachers - moresensitive to the demands of their learners and better equipped to manage thelearning process In return, learners can become better learners - to be moreefficient at their tasks and also better able to participate in learning activities Thetotal classroom process, with appropriate roles and tasks, can become better suited

to the promotion of learning

Teaching and learning during class time include a range of different rolesthat the teacher adopts and a range of corresponding roles that the student performs(Wajnryb, 1992) Is it an unchangeable belief that being the authority figure is thebest role for the teacher in Asian teaching and learning context? Although most ofVietnamese teachers show great interest in new methodologies, they continue usingtraditional methods in the classroom (Le, 2001) When expatriate teachers ofEnglish come to Vietnam with Western teaching practices, they usually experience

"horror stories" of lessons gone awry, and an amalgam of ideas for educationalreform, classroom management, and professional development (Bock, 2000).Therefore, although teachers can influence leamer's thinking and attitude towardthe subject, how to transplant new learning habits for communicative needs in theclassroom has been a nerve-racking problem for all teachers of English inVietnamese teaching and learning context

In reality, quite a lot of teachers feel guilty about not being communicativewhile a lot of others refuse to accept CLT as a methodology in vogue in non-western contexts (Swan, 1998) The point that means most, after all, is whateverroles the teacher adopts must facilitate learning An investigation into roles and

students' needs encourages a closer look in effective teaching and learning at HOU,

as well as in institutional attempts to amend the courses

1.4 General background of the study

GE courses at HOU provides students with 300 periods of class time, aiming

at consolidating fundamental grammar and improving students' performancecompetence, especially listening and speaking skills, which enable students to studyESP following the GE courses The coursebooks include the main books New Interchange One & Two by Richards (CUP, 1990) and the supplementary

conversation-based listening bookListening in the Real World by the staff with the

English native professors' counsel According to authors of the textbooks, theunderlying philosophy of the course is that learning a second or foreign language ismore rewarding, meaningful and effective when the language is used for authenticcommunication (Richards, 1990) The unit structure and organization of the bookare to serve for this purpose(see Appendix 1) Thus, the teacher's role is not only to

present and model new learning items, but also to be a facilitator during pair work,group work and role play activities Correspondingly, the learner's is to participateactively and creatively in learning, using both the materials they study and theirown knowledge and language resources

In reality, GE teachers and students at HOU find it hard to adopt those rolesassumed by the coursebook Another problem is that students' low scores in finalexaminations challenge all effort of the program designers and teachers at thisuniversity Although the fact that students at HOU are far from perfect comparingwith those of other universities is widely known, teachers must take an important

responsibility for their students' good or bad perfonnance in the classroom Therole of the teacher thus is of great importance to make learning happen.

Furthennore, according to a recent HOU's resolution, time allocation forEnglish as a compulsory subject will be half decreased in the school year 2003-

2004 Thus, it is imperative for teachers and learners to get accustomed to modemapproach to teaching and learning The writer finds it necessary to understand thereality of teaching and learning in which the factor of teacher and learner roles plays

an important part This study looks to the necessity of roles shifting of teachers andstudents so as to make lessons more profitable and enjoyable The understandingabout roles and tasks is considered as a mutual exchange of pedagogy, in which alot of factors about teachers, learners, contexts, and cultural values ought to beinvestigated

1.5 Overview of the study

The study will be divided into five chapters Apart from chapter one - theintroduction of the study, other chapters will be organized as follows:

Chapter two reviews the literature relevant to the topic investigated and

a brief summary of findings and studies already published

Chapter three presents the methodologyemployed in the study

Chapter four reports the results of the sudy and presents discussions ofthe findings

Chapter five is for conclusions of the study and the summary of thefindings, and suggested recommendations for the improvement of theteaching and learning quality.

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

Teaching and learning entails roles and tasks Both teachers and learners playout their roles in the classroom, but what determines these roles? How do these

roles reflect in the learning tasks? By roles, we mean "the way in which instructors

and students view their jobs in the classroom" (James F Lee and Bill Vanpatten,1995:3) So what do instructors do and why do they do it? Likewise, why dostudents do what they do? Are they both conscious of how their roles affect theeffectiveness of their teaching and learning process? This chapter consists of thepresentation of relevant literature to the topics and brief summaries of findings andstudies known to the writer, which forms a theoretical base for the later discussion

2.1 Teaching and learning as social activities

2.1.1 The nature of roles

Referring to social roles, Wright (1987) points out that roles are defined, at asuperficial level, by the work people do We commonly find someone identified bytheir occupation and/or name, such as The Queen, The Prime Minister, or Dr PremMisra, Consultant Psychologist, etc., which assume a particular set ofresponsibilities known by most of people More importantly, however, Wright statesthat roles are defined mainly by the kind of interpersonal relationships they imply.Thus, there is more to a role than just doing a job Let us take an example,the role of an aircraft pilot are not only the performance of taking off, landing,cruising, and turning, it also involves his relationship and communication with the

crew for the purpose of flying the plane smoothly; moreover, passengers expect him

to be mature and make no mistakes when he is "in role"

Furthermore, Richards and Lockhart (1994), refening to the complexity ofrole relationships, identify the temporary characteristic of social roles For example,within an office, a group of colleagues may have hierarchical roles, whereas in asocial situation outside the office context, the same colleagues may interact on equalterms These role relationships are bound in a specific cultural background By andlarge, through literature body, most researchers have reached a consensus on thethree following main characteristics of social roles:

- The work done and job-related activities.

The relationship and communication they have with each other.

Beliefs and attitudes.

2.1.2 Teacher and learner roles

Regarding teaching and learning as social activities, while it might beassumed that the roles of the teacher and learner are primarily occupational roles,predetermined by the nature of schools and of teaching, teachers and learnersinterpret their roles in different ways depending on the kinds of schools in whichthey work, the teaching methods, their individual personalities, and their culturalbackgrounds

2.1.2.1 Job-related side of teacher and learner role

There are many aspects of teaching and learning involving different kinds ofwork and different levels of responsibility As a minimum part of their role, teachersare expected to have adequate knowledge of their subject matter, and to know

something about how a language is learned Also, they are expected to be able todevise appropriate teaching skills in different kinds of tasks in the light of theseconsiderations Accordingly, learners are expected, as a minimum part of their role,

to develop skills of listening to teacher's exposition and understanding the subjectmatter as being interested in being learners (Cortis, 1977)

The roles of teacher and learner, primarily, reflect the institutional factors.Richards and Lockhart (1994) point out that different settings create particular rolesfor teachers and learners based on the institutional administrative structure Veryoften, we identify "traditional" schools of strict hierarchy and fixed curriculum withthose of flexible teacher roles and courses In a traditional school, the role of a

teacher is reflected in the following account of how teachers function

" The regular teachers do most of the teaching and more or less have to do whatever they are asked to do Teaching schedules are issued, but there is little monitoring of what teachers actually teach or how they teach it The students, too, have very little choice over the courses they study " (cited by Richards and Lockhart, 1994:98)

Other schools function very differently, as it IS seen In this account of ateacher's role in a private language institute

" A number of us (teachers) have to serve as coordinators, but these roles rotate and everyone must do it in turn Likewise, there are no fixed curriculum or courses which students must follow Instead, counselors work with the students when they come into the program and we develop courses which are tailor-made for the students' needs " (cited by Richards and Lockhart, 1994:99)

From the two descriptions above, we find that the role of a teacher in the

When a teacher is allowed to make his/her own decisions about teaching process,s/he is no longer a knowledge-transmitter, but a needs analyst, a curriculum andmaterials developer, a counselor, a mentor, a researcher, etc In this way, teacherscan learn more about their role in the classroom and about their students'expectations of their role, and thus they have evidence to avoid misunderstandingwhen teachers and learners have different expectations of their roles.

2.1.2.2 Role relationships

Teaching and learning are essentially social activities, implying rolerelationships between teacher and leamer, learner and learner These relationshipsare established, maintained and evaluated through different patterns of interactions.This assumption obviously associates with cultural frameworks In fact, ateacher has to play many roles to fulfill his/her job Brown (1994) figures out a lot

of possibilities that a teacher can be in the classroom: authority figure, leader,knower, director, manager, counselor, guide, and even such roles as friend,confidante, and parent, etc He affirms that some of these roles will be moreprominent than others depending on the country the teacher is in, on the institution

in which the teacher is teaching, on the type of course, and on the makeup of thestudents

There have been researchers studying the influence of culture and culturallydetermined constructs on aspects of teaching, learning and interactions in theclassroom Scollon (1999), taking China as a representative of Asian countries,makes comparison on Western and Chinese teaching and learning styles by tracingthe cultural assumptions tacitly affecting the learning process and relationships in

classroom to philosophical precepts originating from teaching of Socrates andConfucius She asserts that these precepts have come to permeate teacher's andstudent's interactions through routine class tasks She argues that the Socraticmethod of education emphasizes the art of rhetoric as a search for knowledge andeducation In her view, this approach differs considerably from the Confucian

educational philosophy, in which "the primary goal is to gain wisdom and act inaccordance with the moral code that the teacher communicates to the students."(p.l 0) For that reason, the relationships between teacher and leaner, learner andle"rner in a Chinese class does not necessarily share the same characteristics withthose in a Western class This leads to the difference concerning to teacher andlearner roles A typical Western-style teacher is considered a "midwife who helpsgive birth to a truth that lies within, whereas a Chinese teacher should be amessenger who transmits the wisdom of the ancients." (p.19) Therefore, one majorconsideration in the effectiveness of playing roles and developing styles is theculture expectation in which teaching and learning take place

Also, Richards and Lockhart (1994) affirm that teaching is embedded within

a set of cultural bound assumptions about teachers, teaching, and learners Theseassumptions reflect what the teacher's responsibility is believed to be, how learning

is understood, and how students expected to interact in the classroom Theseassumptions also form a foundation for our expectations of role behaviors.Therefore, in some cultures, teaching is viewed as teacher-controlled and directedprocess In that way, teachers are expected to be an expert of knowledge, a father,

and a disciplinarian while accordingly, learners are expected to follow what the

focus more on individual learner responsibility, and teachers are encouraged tofacilitate independent learning.

2.1.2.3 Beliefs and attitudes

The teacher and leamer's role sets imply beliefs and attitudes which deeplyinfluence teaching/learning process This again has much to do with culturaldimensions of roles Richards (1996) focuses on the nature of teaching and roles ofteachers by observing and having conversations with teachers of different cultures.According to the results, teachers' maxims are varied from culture to culture andsharply reflects cultural factors, belief systems, experience, and training, and theunderstanding of which maxims teachers give priority to He classifies a lot ofexamples to demonstrate that teachers possess rationale orientations towardteaching as well as personal beliefs about what constitutes good teaching and theselead them to try to create specific conditions in their classrooms These conditionsreflect the teacher's view of the role of the teacher and of the learners

From a similar perspective, Wright (1987) assumes that what teachers knowand believe, as well as their attitudes toward their job importantly shape what theyactually do in the class He classifies four groups of beliefs and attitudes asfollowing:

1 cultural and social beliefs and attitudes about how to behave in socialgroups

2 beliefs about the role of knowledge in teaching and learning

3 beliefs about nature of learning

4 beliefs about nature of knowledge

According to Wright, beliefs and attitudes are considered to be almost stable,but they cannot be observed totally in a short time Also, teachers' beliefs andattitudes are shaped by cultural values A research by Barnes (1969, 1976) hasidentified two basic types of teachers according to their beliefs and teaching styles:transmission teachers and interpretation teachers These are not absolutelyopposites, but are tendencies towards one extreme or the other.

Transmission teacher believes that:

there are distinctive disciplines such as science and foreign languages;there are very distinct boundaries between these disciplines;

the disciplines have 'content' or 'things to learn';

there are appropriate standards of performance in each discipline;

learners' performance can be evaluated according to the standards laiddown by the discipline;

the teacher's main task is to evaluate and correct learners' performance;learners should find it difficult to gain access to the discipline because ofthe standards the teachers lay down

Interpretation teacher believes that:

knowledgeisthe abilitytoorganize thought, to interpret facts, and to act on them;learners are intrinsically interested and naturally inclined to explore theirworlds;

the teacher's main task is to set up dialogues in which learners reorganizetheir existing state of knowledge;

learners already know a great deal and also have the ability to extend ancrefashion that knowledge.

(Adapted from Barnes 1976 by Wright, 1997)

A transmission teacher wants to impose and maintain disciplines:considering it as the basis of good management A teacher of this type will rewardcontributions from the learners that he approves within the boundary of the set ojdiscipline In reverse, learners have to conform to it or fail The teacher embodiesthe subject and he is the protector of the body of knowledge he is teaching Results

in examinations are the criterion of this type of teacher's success

An interpretation teacher, on the other hand, prefers to disperse responsibilityfor learning among the learners Learners can make judgment for the learningagenda and the best way to go about it Comparing with a transmission teacher, aninterpretation teacher's position is weaker in terms of amount of control he exertsover the learners Understanding is the criterion of the teacher's success

A teacher's teaching style is then strongly influenced by such beliefs andattitudes which usually relate to a particular social and cultural bound Additionally,most teachers teach the way they were taught or the way they learned ( Hsueh-YuCheng & Banya, 1998) Thus, in a typical Asian formal teaching and learningsetting where the target language is learned as a foreign language and linguisticaccuracy is the major concern, teachers find themselves best to be a transmissionteachers However, as a matter of fact that the need to improve communicativecompetence has been increasing besides the need for structure of language itselfteachers are becoming more aware of the emphasis on the individual learner In thepast, the question most frequently asked was "Which is the best teaching

methodology?" Now teachers of any culture had rather ask "How can my students

best learn the language?" The focus has shifted from the teacher to the learner

(Lopez, 1994) Evidently, if the teacher is to be aware of the difference of needsamong learners, he must have more than a passing knowledge and must be able tocreate a positive class environment for his learners to learn One teachingmethodology will not be the most appropriate for all students, and thus teachers take

a much larger responsibility for they should be familiar with a much wider range ofmaterials, exercises, and activities than before Furthermore, teachers are expected

to be able to manipulate much more information in several areas of knowledge andapply them to a practical situation While roles of the learner is given moreimportance, the teacher is still the person to guide learners and facilitate learning

2.2 Traditional vs Modern roles and tasks

As mentioned above, teacher and learner roles greatly vary according to theculture the teacher and learner are living in In this part, the author makes a focus onthe kinds of roles embedded in tasks in the view of traditional and modem methods

It is crucial to understand the effective use of tasks because the amount of timestudents spend actively engaged on learning tasks is directly related to learning(Richards, 1990) As the types of learning tasks and practice activities set forlearners can reveal the degree of teacher influence over learning as well as thedegree of control learners have over the content of learning (Richards & Rodgers,1992), the concept of tasks has been central to studies of effective teaching andlearning

2.2.1 When roles dictate tasks

In traditional language classrooms, learners are taught chiefly about language

and its rules This puts the teacher in a much simpler world when his/her job is toprovide the students what they need to know following the textbook Theeffectiveness of teaching is evaluated on how far the student knows the material In

the classroom, the student learns facts about language rather than how to use itcommunicatively to express their ideas The teacher's role is to provide thatknowledge by transmitting it to the student, largely through lockstep, teacher-fronted modes oflearning (Richards & Rodgers, 1992) the tasks, accordingly, tend

to be mechanical so that they can help the student memorize the structures of thetarget language Tarone and Yule (1989) remark that although many languageteachers of traditional type are sensitive to other factors that influence students'learning at individual level, relatively little attention seems to have been paid toconsiderations of the whole process oflearning from the leamer's point of view.Just like the titan Atlas in Greek mythology, who supported the heaven onhis shoulders, following this transmission-oriented model of teaching, the teacherassumes full responsibility for all that goes on The teacher dictates all actions,interactions, as well as all explanations Finkel and Monk (1983) describe the role

of the teacher for this model as following:

"(The instructor) assume that their principal task is one of improving the ways

in which they express their expertise: clear and precise explanations can always

be sharpened; penetrating questions can always be made more penetrating." (p.86)

In exchange, the learner supplies nothing to learning process but an imitation

of performance they witness from the teacher It is not difficult to figure out suchclassrooms are organized: there is only one-way interaction between the teacher andhislher learners, and alI other interactions are directed by the teacher Then learnersform a group of isolated individuals who have no more in common than their one-to-one relationship As the result, the instructor, as experiencing this teacher-centredmodel may become an expert in their field while lacking the power to make thingshappen for their learners

According to this model, the instructor is primarily a knowledge transmitter

and vice visa, students adopt the roles ofreceptive vessels into which the knowledge

is poured (Lee & Van Patten, 1995) There always exists a lack of feasibleconditions for interactions to foster the process of acquisition The tasks that areoften associated with these roles are those of lecturing and note taking Othersecondary roles may be enacted in this traditional classroom as the partial list belowshows:

Secondary Roles in a Transmission-Oriented class

Instructorlecturerleadertutorwardendisciplinarian

Leamernote takerfollowertuteepnsonerdiscipline(According to Lee & Van Patten, 1995:4)

Some other kinds of tasks are to serve as means of checking consolidatingthe knowledge of the target language or those that give teachers high degree onwhich they can control the content of learning The problem is that teacher canprovide all the necessary circumstances and input, but learning can only happen iflearners are willing to contribute What happens when students score poorly as agroup on an exam? In reality, quite a lot of students who merely want to pass exam

tend to choose the class with an expert of test-training However, is it fair for them

to blame the instructor personally for their ill performance? It is certain that mostteachers will not feel easy for this responsibility For one reason, while learning isthe goal of teaching, it is not necessarily the mirror of teaching as students havetheir own beliefs, attitudes, motivation and decision which influence learningprocess (Richards, 1994) For another reason, students should take it for granted that

it is their responsibility to learn the language, and that the instructor' role is to help

them properly approach theirrea/learning.

The saying goes: you can bring the horse to water, but you cannot make himdrink The students' passive presence will not suffice, just as the horse wouldremain thirsty if he stood still by the river waiting for his thirst to go away Thisevokes the new consideration on teacher and learner roles - effective teachers mustknow how to foster learner responsibility, give them more control over theirlearning by encouraging them to take an active part in making decision about theirlearning Again, we find the importance of incorporating learning tasks which canget learner involved in the activity of learning rather than those which merely

emphasize rote learning Though performing such tasks, learners are enabled toidentify their own learning style which will be useful for their further study

2.2.2 When tasks dictate roles

Developing learner responsibility entails deviation from traditional teacherroles as well Teaching-centered model is less possible to enable learners to makeprogress in communicative skills Based on what we have learned about languageacquisition and on changes in instructional materials, roles other than authoritativetransmitter, expert, and parents have become available to instructors They do notjust assign some structures of accuracy language, then drill the students byrepetition and reinforcement, correct their mistakes and tightly control the wholeclass as well as all language production The new trend of language teachingapproach, usually known as Communicative era, is incorporating tasks designed toencourage language communication development The major roles that an instructor

required to assume are those of resource person and architect Lee and Van Patten

(1995) clearly show that "In order for an instructor to be a resource person, theremust be a fundamental change in conversational dynamic of the classroom asarchitects, instructors provide activities and tasks that allow for a distribution ofteaching functions between instructors and students."(p 12-3) Let us compare andcontrast the roles of the teacher and learner assumed in the following examples oftasks:

Activity A: What food is it?

Look over the food chart, getting a sense of serving size, weight, and caloriesfor various food listed Your instructor will read a description twice Listencarefully and then identify the food being described

Model: (you hear) A cup of this dairy product contains one hundred

twenty-five calories

(you say) Yogurt

Activity B: What food is it?

Look over the food chart, getting a sense of serving size, weight, and caloriesfor various food listed Your instructor will read a description twice Listencarefully and then identify the food being described

Model: (you hear) A cup of this dairy product contains one hundred

twenty-five calories

(you say) Yogurt

If you cannot identify the item, then you should ask any or all of thefollowing questions, depending on what you did not understand

What quantity did you say?

How many calories, please?

What was the food group?

(Source: Lee& Van Patten 1995:13 - 4)Activity A presents a simple traditional task that the instructor and thestudent use in the classroom In this activity, it is the instructor who takes

responsibility for teaching and learning Supposing that there were some students

who did not understand the utterance for the first time, the instructor wouldautomatically repeat it until s/he felt safe In the real life, however, someone who

gives information does not actually take responsibility for comprehension of thelistener Considering the nature of responsibility, if the students know that theinstructor will repeat each item verbatim, they will not pay as much attention as

they are expected to Instead, if they find the utterance difficult to understand at thefirst time, they will yield and wait until the instructor explains it Consequently,they are made a passive, receptive vessels.

On the other hand, Activity B, for the sake of communication, gives thestudents some tools (questions) to negotiate meaning when they are trying tounderstand what the instructor reads This activity requires the students to beresponsible for their lack of comprehension Hence, while activity A needs theteacher to assume the work that is not theirs, the student will take on that burden inactivity B Then, the instructor becomes a resource person, relieving from the role

of an authoritative figure S/he has the information and is willing to supply it whenasked so that s/he does not repeat every item as in activity A Carrying out activity

B, the students can negotiate meaning for themselves - they can initiate part of theinteraction

Itis necessary to compare another pair of tasks to have better understandingabout communicative tasks:

Activity C: Changing roles

Contrast the traditional roles men and women played in the family structurewith their contemporary ones In what ways have their roles in the family changed?Activity D: Changing roles

Step I: With a classmate, made a list of the actions, attitudes, or qualities thatcharacterize the traditional role played by men in the family structure

Step 2: Compare your list with those prepared by the rest of the class Do you all

r

Step 3: Make a list of actions, attitudes, or qualities that characterize the traditionalrole played by women in the family structure.

Step 4: Compare your list with those prepared by the rest of the class Do you allhave the same ideas? Do you wish to modify your list?

Step 5: Now, contrast the traditional roles men and women played in the familystructure with their contemporary ones In what ways have their roles in the family

changed?

(Source: Lee& Van Patten 1995:15)Activity C is an open-ended discussion question, particularly popular intraditional classes It is not designed for students to learn about the topic; it issimply a speaking exercise with the purpose of getting students to talk in the secondlanguage, displaying what they know by using some set of grammar andvocabulary The instructor has to control the language production after the question

is posed, gathering pieces of opinion from several students and keeping thediscussion to go on

Activity D, in contrast, acknowledges a discussion by a multilayeredcommunicative event, that is, an interaction requiring various steps and tasks Thisversion allows avoiding some shortcoming of the first by attempting to involvemore students in the discussion For this, the instructor plays the role of architect -designs and plans the layout of the activity but not responsible for its final product.S/he has to make decisions about how to structure the interaction so that s/he canrelinquish the authority-figure during the class time Then the students takeresponsibility for final product - they become builders or coworkers, who put eachstep of the activity together

The type of tasks that can dictate roles aims to create a real purpose forlanguage use and provides a natural context for language study While formalinstruction is rarely a sufficient condition for learning a language, thecommunicative tasks provide students with a lot of exposure or many opportunities

to use and experiment with the language (Willis, 1996) Such tasks should beincorporated into learning as the central focus in a supportive methodologicalframework These tasks allow teachers to exert a large measure control over thelanguage produced by students Therefore, to make teaching and learning moreeffective, teachers should be aware of the necessity of their changing role Whenteachers' roles change, so do those of students When roles depend on tasks, theinstructor no longer assumes the responsibility for all that happens in the classroom.Students begin to share some of the teaching functions that instructors ordinarilyassume for themselves and that students typically concede to them

2.3 Roles and tasks in English classes at Vietnamese universities

To the writer's knowledge, until now there have been a few published studieswith empirical data about teacher and learner roles in action From a broaderperspective, Pham Dinh Anh Thy (2000) investigates the role of management thataffects the process of teaching and learning GE in an attempt to understand the loweffectiveness of teaching and learning in her University of Medicine and Pharmacy.The prominent problems she uncovered were: (1) the lack of ability in arrangingclasses, which led to the situation of so many different levels in the same class; (2)the mismatch between textbook selection and students' capacity did not facilitate

problems appear fairly typical of foreign language teaching and learning context inVietnamese universities With such little facilitation, teachers usually meet plenty ofdifficulties in teaching and managing the classroom Therefore, the traditionaltransmission roles are preferred by almost all teachers Rodgers (2000) stresses that

if classrooms have maintained their familiar organization for a thousand years, whythen teaches should alter their methodology and practice a new role Let us examineteaching and learning traditions of Vietnamese people to have a better depiction forteacher and learner roles

Among very few researches on the teacher and learner roles in Vietnameseteaching and learning context known by the writer, Sullivan (1996), doing aqualitative research on Vietnamese university-level classrooms, recognizes theunderlying values and cultural practices that influence the types of teaching ofVietnamese teachers' classes she observed She finds out that the teacher-studentrelationship which is considered life-long brings with it an expectation ofcooperation and coordination in class, as well as hierarchy in relationship One ofher findings is that Vietnamese students consider their teacher as the father who is

"the person responsible for the behaviors of family members, and is to be obeyed"(p 34) , so the teacher takes the role of "father/mother" in class and is responsiblefor his/her students' learning

The saying, "You cannot do anything successfully in life unless you have ateacher of your own," reflects attitudes and beliefs about teaching and learning inVietnam Teachers are considered indispensable in the learning process, to the pointwhere they may be "overtly concerned with students and colleagues' expectations,and worried about a loss of control and a loss of respect if they attempt to make

alternations to what they are doing" (Pham Hoa Hiep, 2000:23) The word "tolearn" here in Vietnamese has no other meaning than "to imitate." Students areexpected to be obedient; likewise, challenging teachers is usually consideredimpolite.

According to Mack and Lewis (2003), despite exposure to outside influencesduring and after the period of colonization, the belief in the indispensable role ofteachers, and in students' unquestioning acceptance of information presented bythem, remains at the core of the Vietnamese education system even at tertiary level.Briefly, they point out two aspects of the teacher's role: the teaching grammar andthe correction of learners' errors

Mack and Lewis's observation shows that in a typical GE class, "of all theinformation transmitted by teachers to learners, information about language (orexplicit grammar teaching) is one of the most values." (p 32) During the timeLewis was teaching English in Vietnam, she used to receive comments from herstudents' parents, such as "My child isn't learning grammar rules in your class",reflecting Vietnamese attitudes toward the learning of grammar Mack remindedherself to the time when she was studying her undergraduate study in Vietnam:

"The style of teaching I was exposed to as a language learner at high school and university was very formal and teacher-centered, with programme content being prescriptive and inflexible, the focus being on grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation Based on this experience I used to believe that grammar was language, with vocabulary thrown in to provide the raw material for structure "

(p.32)

Another role of a language teacher in Vietnam, and one that grows from theemphasis on grammar, is to notice and draw attention to all students' languageerrors (which are defined as resulting from a lack of knowledge - Nunan, 1991).Being a teacher of English at the Technical Teachers' Training College and TheFoundation College at HCMC from 1991 to 1996, Mack experienced the teacher'sstatus as following:

" it was both our (Mack and her colleagues) task and duty to pass our knowledge directly to our students Errors were corrected immediately and never passed over; being seen as the fault of lazy or incompetent students Technical accuracy, not communication, was the focus of the learning environment." (p 33)

As the matter of fact, it is a common belief that teacher's teachingcompetences are the most important factor leading to successful learning Teachers

of language must be an expert of their field and possess fluency and skills intransmitting information The information provided by the teacher, for the mostpart, will be the truth for his/her learners Thus, the language classroom is the placewhere learners receive systematic instruction in grammar, vocabulary andpronunciation of the language, and is provided with opportunities for practicing thenew features of the language as these are introduced

From a leamer's viewpoint, by describing his own experience of learningtwo foreign languages, Pham Hoa Hiep (2000) complicates the issue of teachingforeign languages, showing the importance of context, and learning styles Heemphasizes, through his own experience of learning English, that Vietnamesestudents can learn more with the teacher who applies "old" or traditional method ofteaching, rather than with those who incorporate totally new teaching styles He

reasons that almost all Vietnamese students are accustomed to the traditional roleand expectation, and it is hard for them to find an appropriate motivation to copewith new method of teaching, new roles of teacher and leamer, new learningatmosphere, and new goals or target for learning On the other hand, reflecting onhis feeling when learning French with a teacher who did exactly what acommunicative language instructor should do, he wrote:

'" never looked up, for fear that she would pay attention to me When she moved closer to me I was dying and hoping she would move on to the next person Mme Thuy (the teacher) would be disappointed to know that despite her great effort to make us speak French in class, I could never utter a single French whenever' encountered French-speaking tourists." (p.22)

The reflection is, to some extent, worth for all teachers to take intoconsideration Vietnamese teaching and learning traditions have been stronglyinfluenced by Confucian philosophy Teachers have a very high status in societyand disperse absolute power in the class Learners are expected to look up to theirteacher as an authority Therefore, as Vietnam joins the world of internationalbusiness with the strong need and desire for English skills, although teachers feelwanting to learn the new and best methods of teaching, there have been lots ofobstacles for them to apply these methods in the class Underlying values of theVietnamese Confucian society conflict with those that are represented by CLT.Confucianism emphasizes dependency and nurture rather than independence; itemphasizes hierarchy rather than equality; and there is more of an emphasis onmutual obligation of members of a group than on individualism (Sullivan, 2000).Coping with those barriers, sooner or later, teachers should be motivated to engage

encouraging fact is that in the Vietnamese context teachers have always had greatinfluence on students' thinking and attitudes if they know how to make it right.Thus, to transplant a new learning habits, the teacher plays a very essential role inengaging new language tasks which encourage more participation from learners Ateacher will become a better teacher when he knows how to make real learninghappen.