Luận văn twelfth graders' perceptions of communicative and non communicative activities in efl classroms in bac ly high school

Structure of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical background of Communicative Language Teaching CLT 1.1.1 Definitions of CLT 1.1.2 Characteristics o

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN THI THU HUONG

TWELFTH GRADERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF COMMUNICATIVE AND NON-COMMUNICATIVE

ACTIVITIES IN EFL CLASSROOMS

IN BAC LY HIGH SCHOOL

(Nhận thức của học sinh lớp 12 về các hoạt động giao tiếp

và phi giao tiếp tại trường Trung học phô thông Bắc Lý)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60.14.10

HANOI - 2011

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN THI THU HUONG

TWELFTH GRADERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF COMMUNICATIVE AND NON-COMMUNICATIVE

ACTIVITIES IN EFL CLASSROOMS

IN BAC LY HIGH SCHOOL

(Nhận thức của học sinh lớp 12 về các hoạt động giao tiếp

và phi giao tiếp tại trường Trung học phô thông Bac Ly)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Dr T6 Thi Thu Huong

HANOI - 2011

1 Rationale of the study

2 Aims and Objectives of the study

3 Research Questions

4 Scope of the study

5 Methods of the study

6 Significance of the study

7 Structure of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Theoretical background of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

1.1.1 Definitions of CLT

1.1.2 Characteristics of communicative language teaching

1.2 Communicative and non-communtcative activities in language teaching

and learning process

1.2.1 Definition of communicative and non-communicative activities

1.2.2 Characteristics of communicative and non-communicative activities

1.2.3 Roles of communicative activitics in language teaching and Icarning

1.2.4 The roles of teachers in communicative activities

1.2.5 Types of communicative activities

1.3 Stuđents' perceptons of comatunicativo and non-comunicaffve

2.4 The Textbook English 12

2.3 Data collection instruments

2.6 Procedures vf data collection

2.7 Procedures of data analysis

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Students’ perceptions of communicative and non-communicative activities

3.1.1 Students’ preference of communicative and non-conmunicative

aclivilies

3.1.2 Students’ opinions of the usefidness of these activities

3.2 Students’ perceived difficulties in practicing communicative activities

3.2.1 Low English proficiency

3.2.2 Traditional learning styles and habits

3.2.3 Little motivation for comunmunicative competence

Second Language Vietnamese Ministry of Education and ‘raining Sccond Language Acquisition

vii

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Table 1; Students’ enjoyment of non-comumunicative activi

‘Table 2: Students’ enjoyment of communicative activities

Table 3: Students’ opinions of the ascfalness of now-communicative activities

Table 4: Students’ opinions of the usefiulness of communicative activities

Chart 1: Students’ difficulties in practicing communicative activities

PART A- THE INTRODUCTION

4 Rationale of the study

The field of second ot foreign language teaching has undergone many paradigmatic shifts and methodological trends over the last few decades We have seen the Audiotingual Method, Cognitive-based Approaches, the Total Physical Response, the Nalusal Approach, Communicative Language Teaching and many others, Within the debate on English

teaching methodology, the study of Vietnamese students’ respanse to CLT, especially

classrnom avlivilics deserves particular allention Do they enjoy activities imvolving communication and real use of language? Do they agree that real language activities emphasizing language content are more effective than non-communicative activities that stress formal conection? Do they believe that such aclivitics arc holpfal to them as Janguage leamers? Do they face with any difficulties in practicing these activities?

According to Kumaravadivelu (1991, p 107) “the more we know about the Jeamer's personal approaches and personal concepts, the better and more productive our intcractions will be.” We as teachers should be aware of our students’ perceptions and beliefs about language learning in order to facilitate desired learning outcomes in the classroom As suggested by Bada and Okan (2000), there is # need for closer cooperation

‘between students and teachers It is important to remember that leamers already critically evaluate what they do (Breen, 1989), Teachers can use different strategies to build leamers choices info their lessons Teachers and students can have a dialogue ant negotials alicmalives, which would definite

ead to mors learner involventant and could, therefore, Jead to mote positive attitudes towards language leaming As teachers, at every single moment, we should observe our students’ reactions and consider their attitudes and preferences ia order te promote a more inclusive efimals thal will enhance learning, In order to depen our understanding of how students react to communicative and non- communicative activities, Barkhuisen (1998:86) has called for “teachers to discover their leamers' foclings and beliefs about their language lcaming cxpeticnecs and consequently

to review and possibly change their teaching process”,

Moreover, Vietnamese high school syllabi now keep promoting CL’ in an attempt

to enable the sludents to usc the largol language for communicative purposes instead of mastering its grammatical res and shuctures, Vietnamese twelfth graders in upper secondary school had five-year experience studying English “comnmmicatively” as English

is among the compulsory subjects at secondary schools Liowever, the fact is that after those ycars of Icarning English, nol many pupils have a clcar cul puxpose of lemning

English in their mind and they are likely passively motivated to leam English basing on the textbooks and teachers’ method of delivery Consequently, most of pupils find themselves urable to use English for day-to-day cornmunication aller having passed the English national examination as a requirement for the General Education Diploma

in brief, all of the reasons mentioned above have inspired the present study on:

“Twelfth graders’ perceptions of communicative end non-communicative activities in

EFL classrooms in Bac Ly high school” as the title for the thesis in the hope that [ can contribute a small part in helping my students and my colleagues fo improve their learning and leaching English

2, Aims and objectives of the study

With the above-presented rationales, the specific aims and objectives of the study are the followings, Firstly, the study canics ont an investigation into twelfth grade

students’ perceptions of communicative and non-communicative activities in terms of

preference amd usefulness Secondly throngh the investigation the research will find oul the difficulties the students encounter in practicing communicative activities, Thirdly, the study will provide possible solutions to these difficulties, thereby improving the quality of English language education in the context of an urban high school

4 Scope of the study

Due to time constraint, the study limits itself to the mvestigation on twelfth graders” perceptions of non-connmunicative and communicative avliviliss in FT classroom in the context of an whan high school, Bac Ly high school, Therefore, subjects of the study were

teachers of Linglish and students in the twelfth form at Bac Ly high school in [la Nam

ope of the slurly, the following

- Students’ preference of communicative and non-communicative activities (Research question 1)

- Students’ opinigns of the usefulness of communicative and non-communicalive activities (Research question 1)

- Students’ difficulties in participating in communicative activities (Research question 2)

- Implications and recommendations for overcoming these difficultes (Research

question 3)

5 Methods of study

In this study, a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods were utilized, A questionnaire survey was conducted on a sample of students to find answers to research questions 1 and 2 Furthermore, in order to address the limitations of the questionnaire in exploring students” perceptions, and to find out their constraints and possible solutions (research questions 3}, studenl, semi-structured interviews and teacher group discussions were conducted following the analysis of the questionnaire data Questionnaire data were analyzed quantitatively for descriptive statistics while the interview and discussion data were processed qualilalively following an “interpretive model” (Tlatch 2002) for recommended solutions The answers lo three arch questions provided # picture of students’ perceptions of communicative and non-communicative activities as well as their

difficutties in doing communicative activities in LI'L classrooms and possible solutions

6 Significance of the study

English is used more and more to communicative throughout the world, MOET have provided a sctics of new textbooks in order to develop students’ communicative competence It is said that the textbooks are more useful than the older version, but most of students hardly communicate in English after graduating ftom high schools and that lonchers and authors should adapl and ravise those books in such a circumstanos, the findings will hopefully aid teachers in their chaice of elassroom activities and in deciding

how learning activities should be arranged and implemented in the classroom while waiting for MORT to make some changes in these books

Although the study is intended to investigate students’ perceptions of non- communicative and communicative activities in FL classrooms in an urban high school, which is nol researched adequately in the context of Ha Nantebased high schools, the outcome of the study can contribute significantly to our understanding of the issue in high schools with a similar context As such, this study will serve as a reference material not only for lonchers of English in Bac Ly bigh schoot but also for toachors elsewhere wha wish to continually improve the quality of teaching and learning English

7 Structure of the Thesis

This paper is divided into three main parts;

Part A is the INTRODUCTION, In this part, the rationales of the study, the aims, research questions, the scope of the study, methods of the study and also its design are prescnted,

Part B is the DEVELOPMENT which includes 4 chapters

Chapter 1, Literature Review, deals with a theoretical background about the definitions of CLT and its characteristics, definitions, characteristics, roles, types of communicative and non-commnicative activities in the process of learning and teaching; the roles of the teacher in communivative and non-cormnumticative types of cormmnumticative

acliviti

and previous sludizs on studonis’ poreeptions about classroom activities Chapter IL, Research Methodology, describes the situation where the study was conducted and the informants involved in the study If includes the teachers of inglish, the students, and the textbook The data cotlcetion instruments, procedures of data collection and data analysis were also presented in this chapter

Chapter IIL, Results and Discussion, presents and discusses the results finding out the students’ perceptions of communicative and non-communicative activities and their difficulties in participating in communicative activities

Chapter IV, Implications and Kecommendations, presents some pedagogical implications of the study and suggestions for overcoming difficultics im practicing communicative activities in the way, which helps students develop their communicative competence in Bac Ly high school

Part C is the ONCLUXSION which summanizes the main polnts of the study limitations

and suggests (or further rescarch

REFERENCES and APPENDICES are presented in the last pages of the study

PART B DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER &: LITERATURE REVIEW

‘This chapter reviews the literate on Communicative Language ‘leaching (CL), and previous studics on studenls’ perecptions of nom-conmunicalive and communicative activities First, it presents definitions and the main characteristics of CLT that is tollowed

by a discussion of con-communicative and communicative activities in language teaching and leaming process Finally, it presenls previous studies on sludents’ perceptions of ron

communicative and communicative activities

1.1 Theoretical background of Communicative Language Yeaching (CL)

According to Lightbown & Spada (1999:172)

‘CLT is based on the prenise that

successfid lunguage learning involves not only a knowledge of the structsres and forms of

the language, but also the functions and purposes that a language serves in different

communicative settings This approach ta teaching emphasizes the communication of

meaning over the practice and manipulation of grammatical forms (emphasis added}.”

‘This defimtion as it can reflect the nature as well as the target of CLi' CLI focuses not only on forms but also on meaning When CLI is successfully applied, students feel very

confident in different communicative contexts

According to Richards and Rodgers (2001) CLT which is generally regarded as an

approach to language teaching means little more than an integration of grammatical and

functional (caching As such, CLT refleels a cerlain model or rescurch paradigin, or a

theory (Celce- Murcia 2001), It is based on the theary that the primary function of Janguage use is communication Its primary goal is for leamers to develop communicative

competence (Hymes 1971), or simply put, communicative ability Communicative

competence is also defined as the ability to interpret and enact appropriate social

behaviors, and it requires the active involvement of the leamer in the production of the

target language (Celce-Murcia et al 1995) Sich a notion encompasses a wide range of

abilities: the knowledge of grammar and vocabulary (or the linguistic compete

ability to say the appropriate thing in a certain social situation (the sociolinguistic competence); the ability to start, enter, contribute to, and end a conversation, and the ability lo do this in a consistent and coherenL manner (discourse competence); the abilily to communicate effectively and repair problems caused by communication breakdowns (strategic competence)

Although the above authors prosent different aspects of CLT, there is

overwhelming agreement that CLT is directly connected to developing communicative competence ‘Ihe authors conctr that CLT has as its primary objective to help students develop communicative competence in the target language

1.1.2 Characteristics of communicative language teaching

According to Littlewood (1981:1), one of the most characteristic features of CLT is

that it plays systcmatic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language

Furthermore, Nunan (1991: 279) offers five features to characterize CLI’

1 An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the targel language,

2 The introduction of authentic texts into the leaming situation,

3 ‘The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on languages but also

on the learning process itself

‘taught in their class and as it is used outside the classroom, From what Nunan states about the prominent features of CLI, we can see that any teaching practice that the students develop their communicative competence in an authentic context is acceptable and beneficial form of struction, Thus, in the classroom, CLT often takes the form of pair and group work requiting negotiation and cooperation between leamers, communicative

activities in which students practice and develop language functions and encourage learners to develop their confidence

These characteristics will be the principles for teachers to choose appropriate techniques as well as activities in class to improve the students’ communicative competence All leaning activilies should bs selected according to how well hey engage the students in meaningful and authentic language use rather than only mechanical practice

of language patterns to achieve accuracy in language forms

1.2 Communicative and non-communicative activities in language teaching and

Jearning process

4.2.1 Definition of communicative activities and nen-communtcative activities

The goal of language teaching has undergone remarkable changes in recent years Recently, CLT has become predaminant with the goal of learning, a language for the sake

of being bale to use it for communication in real life Along this line, in the languags classrooms, both teachers and stadents try their best te controt over the language that students use by organizing it into manageable portions to be developed though communicative and non-commumicative activities, Ther, the question “what are communicative and non-communivative activities?” should be taken into consideration,

Harmer (1991:50) defines: “Communicative activities are those which exhibit the

characteristics al the communicative end of the continuum, Students are somehow involved

in activities thal give tham both the desire lo communicaic and a purpose thal involves them in a varied use of the language Such activities are vital in the classroom since here the students can do their best to use the language as individuals, arriving at a degree of Janguags aulonorny”

‘Non-communicative activities are defined by Snider (2005) as classroom activities that do not require the kind of unpredictable exchanges communicative activities produce, inchiding activities that require the learner to comprchend the stimmalus without focusing on

meaning and drills Nunan (1987) typifies non-communicative activities in terms of

grammatical focus, error correction, the extensive use of drill and controlled practice, and inicraction which are psoudo-communicative, rather than genuincly communicative Littlewood (1981) attempt to reconcile non-vomummnicative and communicative activities

by suggesting that such things as drills, question-and-answer practice and controlled

practice have a valid place in the language class as pre-communicative activities which provide learners with the necessary prerequisite skills for more communicative language

work

1.2.2 Characteristics of communicative and non-communicative activities

Communicative activities are designed to encourage the purposeful and meaningful

interaction between students in a language lesson It is, therefore, important for teachers to

be fully aware of their characteristics so that they can use them effectively

According to Mulling, Sylvia S (1997), activities which are truly communicative

meet almost all of the five following criteria

> The information transfer principle, whereby some information must be transferred from a sender to a receiver

> The information gap principle, which requires that the receiver does not already possess the information he or she receives

> The jigsaw principle, whereby students begin with different pieces of

information and finish with the same information

> The task dependency principle, which requires to create whenever students practice at the levels of controlled and semi-controlled communication before they are ready to perform the activity at the level of free communication

> The correction for content principle, which argues that during communication

the students’ language production should be judged on its communicative efficacy in relation to a specific task

In addition to that, Harmer (1981) lists six distinctive characteristics of communicative activities when they are contrasted with non-communicative ones They

are presented in the following way:

3 Form not content

4, One language item

5, Teacher intervention

6 Materials control

Non-communicative activities Communicative activities

1 No desire to communicate 1 A desire to communicate

2 No communicative purpose 2 A communicative purpose

3 Content not form,

4 Variety of language

5 No teacher intervention

6, No materials control

These characteristics can apply at one end of a contimumn, At the other end of the continuum lie non-communicative activities ‘There will be no desire to communicate, nor

will students have @ communicalive purpose, Where sludunts ars involved in Tepetition or substitution drills, for example, they will be motivated not by a desire to achieve a communicative objective, but by the need to attain accuracy, The emphasis will be on the

‘form of the language, not the content, the teacher will intervene too ensure accuracy and the materials uscd will often bc designed to concentrate ona particular item of language

In summary, it is of great importance to distinguish the characteristics of these two

‘kinds so Uta teachers amd students of a language can make the best use of communicative and non-comimunicative activities in the process of leaming and teaching, In addition, Janguage leaming can then be judged not according to whether it is communicative, but according to the balance of activities thal sludents are involved

1.2.3 The roles of communicative and non-communicative activitics in language

teaching and learning

Commumicative activitiss are considered as tho most useful forms of forcigr language practice in the classroom Thanks to them, learners are provided with many opportunities to practice the language they have leamt in a communicative way According

to Littlewood (1981), communicative activitics are indispensable in the process of Janguage teaching and Jeaming for the following roles Firstly, communicative activities provide “whole-task practice” With such advantage, language teachers should design various avlivilics in order ta suil the learncrs® level of ability Secondly, communicative

activities provide motivation The leamer’s ultimate objective is to participate in

communication with others ‘They will be motivated to learn if they can see how their

‘between learners and teachers

‘The role of non-communicative activities is to give the leamers fluent control over

linguistic forms, so that the fower-level pro will be capable of unfolding automatically in response to higher-level decisions based on meanings, Although the activities may emphasize the links between forms and meanings, the main criterion for

success is whether the learner produces ueceptable language On other words, they provide Jeamers with a fuent command of the linguistic system, without actually requiting them to use this system for communicative purposes Accordingly, the learners’ purpose is to produce language which is acceptable rather than to communicate meanings effectively

In short, with thesc most important roles, communicative and non-commmunicative activities contribute a crucial part to the success of language teaching and learning Moreover, they develop a basic of language structures ancl a patlern of language interaction within the classroom, which is as close as possible to that used by competent performers in normal life ‘Therefore, students feel comfortable and confident, feel free to take risks and have suflicient opportunities to speak

1.2.4 The roles of teachers in communicative and non-conununicative activities

Littlewood (1981) states three roles of teachers in communicative activities Firstly,

lenchers function as provids

of advice and necessary language items in case students find themselves unable to cope with the situation, Secondly, the teacher plays the role of observer, While learners are performing, the teacher can monitor their strengths and weaknesses Teachers can also cncourage students to gct over their difficultics by secking other ways to express their ideas ‘Thirdly, sometimes the teacher can exercise an immediate influence over the language used

Through ‘non-cormmunicative activities, the icacher isolates specific clernenls af Knowledge or skill that compose communicative ability, and provides the leamers with

1.2.5 Types of communicative ac

ies According to Celce-Murcia (1991) “there are as many activities and materials

available as there are ercative teach:

3”; therefore, communicative activities can be applied

in the teaching of any skill, at any level, and because of the large variety of classroom activities and exercise types, description of typical classroom procedures used in a lesson

‘basing on CLT principles is not feasible, There is one framework which receives the most agrcement of the majority of practitioncrs is thc methodological framework on communicative activities given by Littlewood (L981:85) depicted in the following figure

Pre-communicalive activities Structural aclivilies

‘Quasi-communicative activities Cormmmicative activities: Y Functional communication activitics

Social interaction activities The provormmmicalive aclivilics wa preparatory steps towards commuunicative activities in which the teachers should analyze all the communicative abilities and let the students practice them one by one The aim is for leamers to practice using language they will need when actually communicating The pr2-communicative activities are sub-divided info structural activities and quasi-communicative activities ‘The first type mainly concerns structural activities ‘These are much like the grammar exercises in which the teacher shows the students how lo use graumatical rules in their communication which includes pronunciation, vocabulary and structure practice by using audio-visual ways of teaching,

asking students to do substitution exercises repetition exercises, ets ‘The second type is

The mos! remarkable consideration should be taken lo communicative activities These Kinds of activities require leamers to integrate his knowledge and skills of the pre-

communicative activities into full activities of commmunteative meanings Littlewood

(1981) divides communicative activities inte fimetional communication avlivitics and social interaction activities, For the functional communication activities, the main purpose

is that leamers should use the language they know in order to get meaning across as effectively as possible Success is measured primarily according to whether they cope with communicative demands of the immediate situation, Some examples of thesc astivitics arc

questions and answers, interviews based on a text, information-gap activities, role-play,

etc

In addition, the social interaction activities place emphasis on social as well as

functional aspects of communication Learners must not only aim to convey meanings

effectively but also pay grealer altention to the social contexts in which the interactions

‘There is no clear dividing in reality between these different categories and subcategories: they present differences of emphasis and orientation rather than distinct divisions Similarly, it wonld be arbitrary if we tied lo specify how Touch attention must

be paid to conmmunicative function before an activity can be called functional communicative, or how significant social meaning must become before it falls into the

14

social inleraction subcategory In any case, in the last resort these distinctions depend on the varying orientations af individual learners

1.3, Students’ perceptions of non-comnmumicative and communicative activities

Lindsay & Norman (1999) stale thal perceplion is the process by which organisms interpret and organize sensation to produce a meaningful experience of the world In practice, sensation and perception are virtually impossible to separate, because they are parl of one continous process Thus, perception in humans deseribas the process whereby sensory stimulation is translated into organized experience

‘The results fiom previous studies on learners’ views about classroom activities fave suggested that the dominant trend among learners is a preference for traditional activities like pronunciation practice, euror correction, and teacher's instruction In some studies, the learners enjoyed communicative activities but were reluctant to abandon traditional activities Nevertheless, in a study by Green (1993) leamers express a prefercnee for communicative activities More positive results can be found in Spratt’s (1999) study at Hong Kong University who reported that students in this study generally vated communicative activities higher than learners in ofher sludies of the kind and thal teachers in the studies underestimated the learners’ preferences for the communicative activities (p.143)

Barkhuisen (1998) surveyed perceptions of around 600 students in a high school in

South Africa abont the cnjoymont and uscfulness of 15 classroom activitios and again

xeported leamers’ resistance to participating in communicative-type activities and their

preference for more ‘traditional’ classroom work (p.95) ‘The two communicative activities

‘class discussion’ and ‘class debates’ whieh wars acknowledged to bring enjoyment ware, however, ranked low in their usefiulness, Oksana (2006), in her study of the perceptions of

fonnd that students from both Australia and

university students about classroom acti

‘Ulaaine greatly valued the traditional activities like doing grammar cxerciscs and having their errors corrected At the same time, they also favored communicative activities such as discussing various topics and making dialogs

Unlil now, fw studics about sturlents’ perceptions of classroom activitics,

oven teachers’ perceptions, have been eartied out in Vietnam In a recent study of Vietnamese jeamers by ‘[omlinson & Dat (2004), 69.7% of the student respondents said that they

enjoyed group work but claimed that some factors like ‘linguistic limitations’ ,

‘performance anxiety’, and “dl

inhibited them from taking active roles in class and student-centred activities (p 208: 211) Lewis and McCook (2002) and Phan Le Ha (2004) asking teachers fiom Vietnam about their leaching practice im university and secondary classrooms found that bath

were highly valued in Vietnamese

room atmosphere thal docstl stimulate discussion”

communicative activities and traditional acti

classrooms

In genoral, previous studics on loarners’ parceptions of classroamn activilics showed that non-commnicative activities were preferred by students, especially those at lower Jevels, appreciated more ‘traditional’ activities In some research, the students at higher Proficiency level snjoyed cormmmicative activities, bul the reasons oflen accounted for enjoyableness rather than usefulness

1.4, Summary

In this chapter, the rescarcher tricd to provide a tnicf description of the theorctical knowledge relating to the study, inchaded are CLIT and its characteristics, Most of the linguistics agree thal CIT is directly cormected to developing communicative competence and its characterisios will be the principles for teachers to choose appropriate techniques

as well as activities in class to improve the studenfs’ communicative competence ‘his

amentioned in order to point out teacher’s importance in organizing classroom activities

Moreover, types of communicative activities are grouped according to the classification of Littlewood (1981) Other previous studies on students’ perceptions about classroom activities which have suggested that the dominant trend among learners is a preference for

non-commmunicative activities

In this study, the combination of Harmer’s (1981) six distinclive characteristics and Littlewood’s (1981) classification of classroom activities is used as the methodological Bamework for data analysis Hammer's (1981) six distinctive characteristics of

16

communicative and non-commumicative activities are used as criteria to distinguish these

two kinds of avtivitics, In addition, Litlewood’s (1981) classification of classroom activities is taken as a gauge for communicative classroom procedures, which is the

continuum of pre-communicative and communicative activities Furthermore, the term

“non-communicative activities” of Tiarmer’s (1981) is considered as “jre-commuricative activities” in Littlewood’s (1981)

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the wrilzr provides some information about ¥

settings for the study The following section describes in details how the data for the research were collected and analyzed to answer the three questions set for this research,

2 What are students’ perceived difficulties in practicing communicative activities?

3 What are the possible solutions to these difficulties?

2.1 Research Approach

‘As this research aims to tind out twelfth graders’ perceptions of communicative and non-communicative activities and their perceived difficulties in practicing communicative activities, it employed mixed methods for data collection and analysis Data collceted by means of questionnaire, scmi-structared intervicw and group discussions were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively Questionnaize data were analyzed quantitatively for descriptive statistics while the inlerview and discussion data were processed qualitatively Within the scope of this study, such a combination of both research paradigms was believed to gain more in-clepth data

‘The researcher chose questionaire because it is one of the most popular instruments Teis quits casy lo propare and it can be used wilh a large tumber of subjects

‘What is more, the information collected is not very difficult to tabulate and to analyze (Brown, 1995) It helped “seek facts ar canses of social phenomena without regard to the subjective states of the individuals” (Numan, 1989:4), Morcover, thanks to the large number of participants in the study, that was, 200 twelfth grade students, the information acquired was believed to be relatively “reliable and generalisable” (Nunan, 1989-4) Following arc interviews with students and group discussions among teachers in order to address the limitations of the questionnaire in exploring students’ perceptions, as pointed above, and to find out if there is a mismatch between teachers and students’ views of

classroom activilies

2.2, Research setting

18

"The study was carried out in Bac Ly high school, [Ja Nam during the second term

of the school year 2010 — 2011 The school, which is Ioealed in remote arca in Ly Nha District of Ha Nam province, consists of sixty five teachers and twenty - nine classes with

amore than 1,200 students in the school year There are ten 12" grade classes in Bac Ly Tigh School in the school year 2010 — 2011 Because of living in remole area, the students

here often lack of proper learning materials when they were at primary and secondary schools Most their entrance marks were very low; their knowledge is really at the medium level Teachars have to work harder than thoir colleaguas al othar upper sceandary schools

in the province to help their students study effectively, because their students are struggling

to catch up with general knowledge of most subjects English here is one of the compulsory subjects The studonis sluẩy EngBish in order to pass the examinations and some students like leaming English to use it in the future

2.3, Subjects

2.3.1 Selection of subjects:

‘As stated in Cohen et al (2007:92), “the quality of a piece of research stands or falls hy the suitability of the sampling strategy that has been adopled”, it is of great importance to decide on the key factors of sampling before conducting any kind of data collection ‘The very first factor fo be considered was the sample size As Bechhofer and Paterson (2000) stated “in order to find out characteristics of that whole population, it was nol necessary to measure the whole population bat a relatively small one fsamplo]", the

researcher chose to deliver questionnaires to 200 out of 430 students and interview 15 students and 8 teachers of Lnglish ‘This number of subjects guaranteed the Tepresentativencss of the whole population The scoơnd factor ta be taken zecount of was

the sampling strategy Random Sampling was found to be the most suitable one for the situation of the study The key characteristic of this strategy is the equal and independent chance of being sclected of cach member of the population (Cohen ct al., 2007, p.100)

“Therefore, random sampling provides “a degree of generalizability” (Cohen et al., 2000, 99) which substantially contributed to the precise findings of the study,

2.3.1 Studeuts

suitable time for the study

2.3.3 Teachers:

There are eight teachers of English at Bac Ly high school Their ages range between twenty-five and fifty years old Most of them have at least 3 year experience of caching English in high school and responsible for their teaching All of tham have gol the University Bachelor of Art’s Degree in English As rural teachers, they have few opportunities to upgrade their teaching and do not have a lot of teaching facilities and materials to help their work Despite all these disadvantages, they are helpful, friendly and dedicated teachers They all have a grcat desirc to acquire knowledge of how to teach English well and are always willing to help their students tackle with difficutties in learning

2.4 The Textbook English 12

Tigh school teachers have been using the texthaok - English 12 for three years

textbook and they consisl of Iwo kinds of practicing activilics: non-communicative and communicative activities, Although the new textbook 1s claimed to be more communicative, maze interesting, and more motivating to the students than the old one, it provides more non-communicative activities than communicative oncs as Nguyen Thi

‘Thuy Minh (2007) says, “Ihe limitations lie in the predominance of mechanical practice and a corresponding inadequacy of communicative practice” ‘there are often three tasks in one lesson, however, two-thirds of tasks ara usually non-commuicative activities which ask students to listen and answer questions, choose the correct answers, fill in the blank with right words, decide ‘I'mme/ False statement choose the best answer, etc ‘The other,

of teaching methods in ctass

Parl B was composed of 20 items asking about communicative (10 items) and non- communicative (10 items) activities These questions related to student-student and student-teacher interactions, grammar activities, grammar instructions, teachers’ error corrections and students’ obedience to the teacher Hems involving communicative activities included student-to-student interaction with little or no monitoring of student output by the teacher (items 9, 12 and 16), student-teacher interaction with the teacher monitoring and sometimes responding to student output (items 9 and 13), role play (item 10), classroom discussion {items 6 and 20) and the use of songs in the classroom (items 3 and 18) Singing and listening to songs were included in the communicative group because such activities Lend Lo focus on the meaning rather than the grammatical form of what is being sung or liskoned lo, and because singing and listening to songs are teat uso of

Janguage Non-communicative items emphasizing formal correctness included

promunciation practics (item 1): practice exercise and workbook type dnl (items 4 and 19); audio-lingual styte substitution drills (items 7 and 8); dictionary work on a list of

words before reading a sélection containing the words (item 17); explicit grammar

instruction conducted entirely in English (item 15), explicit grammar instruction conducted

in Vietnamese with cxamplcs in English (item 14), teacher correction of crrors in the

students’ journals (item 11); and students’ obedience to the teacher (items 2)

Part C invited students to choose their difficulties in communicative activities in

their classes,

2.5.2 Semi-structured Interviews

2.5.3 Group Discussions

Group discussions were organized among eight teachers of English to help the researcher find out if there was a significant difference between students” preferences and instractors’ perceptions of those prefercnecs in language Icaming and students’ difiicultics

im practicing these communicative activities In this group discussion, the researcher raised some questions aboul their perceptions of sludsnts’ preferences, evaluation of usefilness of classroom activities and perceived difficulties their students may face in practicing, communicative activities In addition, the group also discussed some recommendations of how to overcome these difficulties Alt the discussions were audio taped and [ranscribed verbatim

2.6 Procedures of data collection:

students returned the qu

fiormairc, Information from the questionnaire was thơn summarized and presented in the form of statistic information (tables and charts) for