Luận văn high school english teachers difficulties in the application of the new set of english textbooks and some teacher trainers suggestions

HIGH-SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS’ DIFFICULTIES IN THE APPLICATION OF THE NEW SET OF ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS AND SOME TEACHER TRAINERS’ SUGGESTIONS Nguyễn Thị Thuỳ Trang" Abstract: In Vietnam, co

HIGH-SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS’ DIFFICULTIES IN THE APPLICATION OF THE NEW SET OF ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS AND SOME TEACHER TRAINERS’ SUGGESTIONS

Nguyễn Thị Thuỳ Trang"

Abstract: In Vietnam, comprehensive education reforms, and the project entitled “Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the National Education System, Period 2008-2020" have drawn

much attention to teacher training More considerably, much concern has been paid to three pilot English curricula for Vietnamese schools, Several challenges may arise for English teachers who directly work with the new set of textbooks in their application of the pilot textbooks in varlous provinces with quite distinguished economic, social and cultural featines, Addressing teachers’ concerns in order to help then in their real teaching practice is of great significance However, literature review ceveals litte research on teachers’ real difficulties and corresponding suggestions, Given that context this case study aims at shedding light on two major research questions: high-school English teachers’ perceptions of challenges in teaching with the new set

of English textbooks in their province; and possible solutions proposed by teacher trainers and textbook authors Six main difficulties of the high-school teachers using the books and several practical solutions to handie the issues have been uncovered thraugh qualitative data collection and analysis method with both teachers — users of the baoks and textbook authors — teacher

trainers working within the framework of Project 2020 Not only does the research aim to inform

teacher trainers of their trainees’ need but it also provides high schools teachers with some

difficulties their colleges face and corresponding suggestions

Kay works: New English textbooks in Vietnam, teacher training, professional development, Project 2020, challenges for English teachers,

Tóm tắt: Trong bối cảnh hiện nay, đổi mới giáo dục toàn diện và sâu sắc cùng với Đề án Ngoại ngữ Quốc gia 2030 đã đem tới nhiều thay đôi cho tình hình đạy và học ngoại ngữ ä

Việt Nam Việc đưa vào thí điểm bộ súch giáo khoa tiếng Anh mới tại 3 cấp học theo để án

đã thụ hút sự chú ý của toàn xã hội, đặc biệt là giáo viên tiếng Anh, những người trực tiếp sử dụng bộ sách, Đặc biệt, những thay đổi này đặt ra nhụ cầu cấp thiết về bôi dưỡng giáo viên tiếng Anh để giúp họ phát triển chuyên môn đúng hướng, đáp ứng được nhụ câu của thời đại mới Câu hỏi đặt ra là liệu bộ sách mới với hướng tiếp cân mới và hệ thông chủ điểm phong phù, mỡi lạ liệu có gây ra khó khăn gi cho giáo viên tiếng Anh trong qua trình giảng dạy khi Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữt- Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội, Email nitưang vn gmafLcom,,

được đem ra thí điểm trên phạm ví rộng với các vùng miễn khúc nhau, đa dang về tất cả các

đặc điểm kinh tế, vấn hoá, xã hội Cho dén nay, van chưa có nhiều nghiên cứu chuyên sâu về

các khó khăn chính của giáo viên khí sử đụng bộ sách cũng như những lời giải thích hoặc để

xuất giải pháp tương ứng từ cái nhịn của những chuyên gia trực tiếp tham gia viết sách Bởi

vậy, nghiên cứu này tập trung làm sáng tô hai câu hài cụ thể: những khó khan của giáo viên

cấp ba tại tỉnh lẻ khi sử dụng bộ sách giáo khoa tiếng Anh mới; và để xuất giải pháp tương

ứng của chuyên gia đã tham gia viết bộ sách Nghiên cứu được tiến hành chủ yếu bằng

phương pháp phông vấn chuyên sâu Đối tượng lử năm giáo viên tiếng Anh cấp 3 dã từng

day bộ sách thí điểm tại một tỉnh miễn Bắc Việt Nam và hai tốc giả tham gia viết bộ sách Kết

quà nghiên cứu cho thấy sâu khó khan chính của giáo viên đồng thới nghiên cứu cũng đưa

xa những lý giải cùng đề xuất cụ thể, thiết thực cho từng vấn đề được niêu ra

Tử khớa: Sách giáo khoa thí điểm, khó khăn của giáo viên, đề ân 2020, bồi dưỡng giáo viên,

phát triển chuyên môn

1 RATIONALE

Professional development is always of great importance in the career path of any

language teacher In the context of education reform, teacher training is becoming

more and more urgent, According to Decision 1400/QD-TTg on the approval of the national project entitled “Teaching and leaming a foreign language in the national

education system, Period 2008-2020", three pilot English curricula for Vietnamese

schools were designed and promulgated by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and

Training (MORT, 200%) Following this is the introduction af the new set of English textbooks in Vietnamese schools The textbooks as a whole have received many

positive comments from both experts and the socicty However, when being piloted

in various areas and provinces throughout the country, with very dissimilar social,

cultural and economic contexts, many challenges might emerge for teachers who teach

wilh the new textbooks By 2017, though the textbooks having been piloted in several

pravinces, there has been little detailed investigation of the challenges encountered

by high-school teachers who directly work with the new textbooks in their own

classes More importantly, a search of the literature revealed that few studies have

been carried out to investigate the textbaok authors’ perspectives on possible solutions

to users’ challenges when implementing the textbooks in the classroom contexts, This research seeks to answer the aforementioned issues through five cases of high-school

English teachers who have had first-hand experience with the new texthoaks and twa

teacher trainers at University of Languages and International Studies who are also two authors of the textbooks It is expected that the research could help answering high- school teachers’ questions regarding teaching with the new textbooks and develop

their profession in an appropriate orientation, meeting the requirements of the new

textbooks in particular and the education reform in general

2 KEY CONCEPTS

As a theoretical framework for the whole research, this part will discuss some theoretical aspects relating to professional development, teacher training, and textbooks

2.1, Professional development

Certainly, there are several definitions of professional development The term professional development in education can be defined as either “a formal process such as a conference, seminar, or workshop; collaborative learning among members afa work team; ara course ata callege or university” or an informal process such as “discussions among work colleagues, independent reading and research, observations of a colleague’s work, or other learning from a peer” (Mizell, 2010)

In a more detailed explanation, the term professional development refers to

activities that are a significant part of school and local educational agency strategies

to provide cdueators with the knowledge and skills necessary to cmpower students

to be successful in a well-rounded education and to meet the challenging academic standards In other words, the utmost purpose of professional development is to

enhance learning efficiency for both educators and students (Mizell, 2010)

Professional development activities should be “sustained (not stand-alone, one day, or short-term workshops), intensive, collaborative, job-embedded, data-driven, and classroom-focused” This may include activities thal “allow personalized plans for each educator to address the educator’s specific needs identified in observation

or other feedback” (“Definition of Professional Development,” n.d.)

2.2, Teacher training

The second concept to be reviewed is teacher training According to Csapé, et

al., 2009, the major goal of teacher training is to enhance “educational skills that are

compatible with education policies and to enable teachers tn deliver these policies”

There are two main types of teacher training, namely pre-service teacher

training and in-service teacher training On the one hand, pre-service teacher training

programmes are defined as recognized and organized, private and public education programmes which are designed to train future teachers to officially work in the profession at a particular level of education Finishing the courses, learners will

obtain a government recognized teaching qualification (I’re-service teacher training, n.d.) On the other hand, in-service teacher training is the pracess by which teachers

get involved in “further education or training to refresh or upgrade their professional knowledge, skills and practices in the course of their employment” (Glossary, n.d.)

2.3, Texthooks

It ia critical to review this concept before moving on as textbooks have long been considered a pivotal component of any language program Sheldon (1988) asserted

that the textbook is “the visible heart of any ELT (English Language Teaching) program’ Richard also commented that textbooks might even become the major and “perhaps only source of language input” that learners are provided with, and

“the basis for language practice that occurs both inside and outside the classroom” in

an English as a forcign language (EFL) context (as cited in Nguyen, 2015)

Several advantages of textbooks have been pointed out First, textbooks help to standardize instructions and assessments Second, Cunningswurth (1955) claims that

they “provide the syllabus for a program, thus supporting novice teachers, training them in methodology and saving their time and effort for more worthwhile pursuits

than material production”

However, researchers have also stated some disadvantages of textbooks

According to Allwright, one of the biggest concerns is that they are usually “implicitly prescriplive” and thus might control the methods, processes, and procedures of

classroom practice and ‘deskill’ teachers (as cited in Nguyen, 2015) Richards raises

another concern: as textbooks are usually “written for global markets, they might not suit all classrooms and might require adaptation to better meet students’ true needs”

(as cited in Nguyen, 2015)

In the current context of Vietnam with the National Foreign Language 2020 Project, English curriculum design and textbook development for Vietnamese schools have a

“legal and academic status” (Hoang, 2016) The implementation of the Vietnamese Prime Minister’ s Decision 1400/GD-TTg on the approval of the national project entitled “Teaching and learning a foreign language in the national education system,

Teriad 2008-2020“ has led to three pilot English curricula for Vietnamese schools They

are Chương trình tiếng Anh thí điền Tiểu học (Pilot English Curriculum for Vietnamese Trimary Schools), Chương trình giáo đục phổ thông môn tiếng Anh thí điểm cấp Trung học

co sé (Pilot English Curriculum for Vietnamese Lawer Secondary Schools, and Chirong trình giáo dục phổ thông min tiếng Anh tú điển cấp Trung học phổ thông (Pilot English Curriculum for Vietnamese Upper Secondary Schools), Since late 2010, Vietnam

Educational Publishing House (VEPH) in collaboration with two world-leading

publishers — MacMillan Education and Pearson Education have taken charge of the task of organizing the development and production of the len-year English lextbook scrics for Vietnamese Schools (from grade 3 to grade 12) (Hoang, 2016).

3 RESEARCH AIMS AND METHODOLOGY

Not only does the thesis aim at shedding light on the challenges facing high-

schoo! teachers in the implementation of the new set of English textbooks in high

schools, but il also seeks for Leacher trainers’ explanations and suggestions for lhose

issues More specifically, my research will loak inta the follawing twa questions:

Research question 1: Whai are the challenges facing high-school teachers in the implementation of the new set of English textbooks in high schools?

Research question 2: What are possible explanations and suggestions for high-school teachers fo deal with the challenges in teaching English with the new set of English textbooks?

In order to have in-depth insights into the topic, case study was chosen as the

major research method Five English teachers (Teachers A, B, C, D, E) in different high-schools in a Northern Province in Vietnam and two teacher trainers (Trainers A,

B) who directly participated in writing and editing the new set of English textbooks

were chosen as the cases for this study The reason was that the Education and

Training Department of this province was the first department to introduce the teacher training course on using the new set of English textbooks in 2017 Below is a summary table of their personal information:

Table 1; Teachers’ information

[Age inthe 30s | inthe30s inthe20s | inthe20s | inthe 20s

Teaching experience 1? years 14years 7 years 7 years 3 years

Experience with tha new| 2years | AboutZysas 3years 2ysars Tyears set of English textbooks

Working institution Nguyễn Trãi | Hồng Quang _ Nguyễn Trải | Hồng Quang | Nguyễn Trãi

High-School| High-school_ High-5ehel | High-school | Hish-5chool

Table 2: Trainers’ intarmation

Experience with the new set of English textbooks Book author Book author

The method used was semi-structured interview, which involves conducting intensive individual interviews with the selected respondents to explore their perspectives on the research topic

A set of questions related to the two research questions was designed to be answered by the group of teachers and authors [or the first interview round with

teachers — users of the hooks, | adapted interview questions from a study entitled

“Textbook evaluation: The case of English textbooks currently in use in Vietnam's

upper- secondary schools” by Nguyen (2007) (See appendix 1) Findings from interview round | were then used to make interview questions for textbook authors

in round 2 (See appendix 2) Additionally, further questions were asked during

interviews to clarify and/or further expand certain issues

In 2017, the interviews were conducted either face-to-face ar via telephone before

and during the researcher’s business trip to this province to train high school English

teachers to use the new sct of textbooks under Project 2020 The data were then

coded according to themes and analyzed in details After having a list of teacher’s

teaching challenges, the teacher trainers were interviewed as for possible solutions

to the challenges

4 RESULTS & DISCUSSIONS

In order to answer the two research questions, thorough content analysis of the interviews zwas carvied out What follows is not only an account of the answers to those questions but also the researcher's discussions

4.1 Research question 1; Challenges facing high-school teachers in the implementation of the new set

of English textbooks

The following part gives the answer to the first research question about challenges

high-school teachers in small provinces had to face when teaching with the new set

of English textbooks Responses of the five cases were analyzed by themes

Challenge 1 A wide range of difficult and unfamiliar topics or text genres

Inall cases, the informants reported that though the topics of the new textbooks were

very varied and up-to-date, some of the themes seemed to be very unfamiliar and even

strange especially for students in small provinces, nol o mention students in remote and mountainous areas The lack of background knowledge on the topics often made ithard

for students to understand, not to mention speaking or writing about the topic

There was a strong agreement among the teachers that in their writing lessons,

the diversity in themes and writing genres caused a lot of difficultics not only for

students but also for teachers As students only had one or two lessons for each

writing genre, they did not have enough time and practice to build up sufficient

skills to deal with a specific writing type Teacher A claimed that as her students

mostly lived in the countryside, they often found it hard to understand such medern and unfamiliar writing genres like blogs

"thí view was echoed by informant E who raised another issue related to diversified topics in his speaking lessons According ta him, the questions in pre and post reading or listening lessons were quite broad Students usually found it hard to give answers in those cases as a result of the lack of either background knowledge

or orientation of the speaking To some students, the concept of new terms such

as “artificial intelligence” in the textbooks was totally new to them This partly explained their reluctance to share their ideas in speaking lessons

Challenge 2: Inadequate time and program allocation

The second issue that most teachers were concerned about was inadequate

time and program allocation “Language” lessons were said to be quite long as they consisted of 3 components namely vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar

Teacher B, C, D, E all asserted that they often ran out of time when delivering this

lesson While only teacher A, who teaches gifted students said that she could manage

most “Language” lessons within the time constraint Besides, some teachers found

“Gelling starled” lessons relatively short for a forly-five-minule lesson In addition,

in their perspectives, “Writing” lessons were also hard to be completed within 45

ninutes Their students needed more time to practice this skill

Challenge 3: Lack of references for teachers

Another reported hindrance was lack of teachers’ references As one interviewee

put it: “The teachers’ books seem not to be very helpful as most of the time, they just provide keys for the exercises without many extra activities, games and suggested

detailed instructions for the lessons.” Gther teachers shared the same concern and

added that it would be better if teachers were equipped with extra ready-made

activities and materials for the lessons

Challenge 4: Mismatch between learning and testing

The fourth concern expressed by most interviewees was the mismatch between learning and tesling According lo the participants, one of their biggest concerns was that the design of the new textbooks and government policies both prt emphasis

on communicative skills of the learners while test design remained focusing on grammar, vocabulary and other language items

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, the new curriculum will

adopt the communicative approach to language teaching asits guiding principles and specifies that communication skills be the goal of the teaching and learning process;

linguistic knowledge be the means by which communication skills are formed and

developed Also, textbook writing, management of teaching and learning, testing,

assessment and evaluation follow the curriculum guidelines Yet, participants reported that there had not been such consistency in testing and learning Tn their

own schools, there had not been official tests to evaluate students’ speaking and

writing competence One participant commented that the National High School

Lxaminations in recent years was a notable example of the mismatch as the exam

only tested students’ vocabulary, grammar and reading skills This was the main

reason leading to students’ low motivation in speaking, listening and writing lessons

They also argued thal the feasibility of such lest was also low as they required a lol

of preparation and a large number of qualified raters

Challenge 5: Mixed-level classes

Concerns were expressed about classes with mixed-level students It was suggested that in “Language” lessons, some of their students already knew all the language items, meanwhile, some knew a little beforehand, and same did not know much, This was challenging for teachers because, in these mixed level classes, some particular groups might get bored if the exercises were too easy for them meanwhile others might still find the exercises difficult to do and understand

This view was echoed by Teacher A, C, D who commented that in their listening lessons, there were high-level groups who can understand the audios, thus doing the task quite well On the other hand, there were groups who could hardly listen

to the content, not to mention answering follow-up questions regarding the topics Mixed-level classes posed a significant challenge for even experienced teachers like

Teacher A

Challenge 6: Students’ low mativation

Last but not least, several interviewees mentioned students’ low motivation for learning especially listening, speaking and writing skills, In all cases, the informants reporicd that if English was nol the subject that students were going totake exams, the motivation to learn would drop dramatically Even when English was a compulsory subject to take exams, the exams didn’t cover such skills as listening, speaking and writing, so students hardly felt motivated in those lessons Again, this raised the question about the mismatch between learning and testing

4.2, Research question 2: Possible explanations and suggestions for high-school teachers to deal with

‘the challenges in teaching English with the new set of English textbooks

The in-depth interviews with two teacher trainers who directly participated in writing and editing the new set of textbooks have revealed several explanations and

possible solutions te the above-mentioned issucs.

Explanations and solutions to challenge 1:

As for the first issue, the diversity and unfamiliarity in themes, the trainers interviewed suggested several explanations and measures

In terms of explanations, first, the trainers claimed that this set of new English

textbooks was written for national markets They might not suit all classroums and

might be in need of adaptation to better meet particular students’ true needs Second,

they all agreed that in an education reform, textbooks were sure to be updated in terms of both approach and themes in order to catch up with the fast prowing pace

of life It was easy to understand why the new set of textbooks contained some very modern and siale-of-lhe-art themes that might be welcomed in big cilies yel seem unfamiliar to students in the countryside or remote areas

{n terms of solutions, trainer A commented: “For an education reform to succeed,

teachers should be the first ones whoneed to understand the significance of updating

teaching topics and background knowledge Only after teachers have understood

this point can thcy explain and encourage their students to learn new themes and help them keep up with the pace of madern life.” Sharing this opinion, Irainer 5

emphasized: “The point here is that teachers themselves should be the role-model

in updating their background knowledge about the new themes If their students

actually have little or no ideas about of topic, it is recommended to provide them with input and background information related to the topics even in Vietnamese so that they can read the materials beforehand.” Additionally, if students questioned the diversity and writing genres in the new textbooks, teachers should explain that those

gentes were varied but actually, they could be divided into two main types: writing

according to forms and paragraph writing The first type was often guided writing

and students were provided with several model writings and input to produce quite

similar products

Explanations and solutions to challenge 2:

In terms of the second challenge, inadequate time and program allocation, the trainers also gave several suggestions to tackle the issue According lo teacher trainer A, “teachers should be flexible with the textbooks” It is advisable to consider textbuoks as “a friend” instead of a prescription What is meant by this is that depending on specific groups of sludenis, teachers should decide which paris of the textbooks students can prepare at home and which ones nced to be focused on in class Forexample, in “Language” lessons which were often said to be very long, most

of the time, vocabulary exercises can be assigned for atadents tn prepare at home and then checked in dass Meanwhile, teachers should make usc of in-class time to help

students practice pronunciation part and other communicative activities Of course,

this depends on the level of particular groups of students By setting priorities for

each lesson, teachers would find it easier t manage their in-class time and activities

Explanations and solutions to challenge 3:

To address the third issue, lack of references for teachers, the trainers suggested

that more official teacher training courses should be organized to assist teachers in

dealing with the new set of textbooks, Teacher trainers should give several reference books, websites and other learning or teaching resources for teachers to refer to Additionally, a package of ready-made and applicable classroom activities would be

of great help for the teachers More importantly, teachers needed to equip themselves with appropriate and up-to-date teaching methods and skills to successfully exploit available teaching resources

Explanations and solutions to challenge 4:

In response to the fourth challenge, the mismatch between learning and

testing, which reduced students and teachers’ motivation in listening, speaking

and writing classes, both trainers said that it was of great necessity that teachers

need to understand the importance of learning all four skills: listening, speaking, reading an writing when it came to leaming a foreign language As learning English was not just for testing and receiving marks, yet more importantly, for future use

And in order to use a language, students need not only grammar, vocabulary,

and reading skills but also other listening, speaking and writing ones Only after

teachers have understood this can they explain to their students and motivate

them Second, as an insider of the National Foreign Language 2020 Project, trainer

A claimed that there were indeed some mock graduation English examinations

with all four skills for students finishing each education level in some pilat regions The lesling systems were being developed to test students’ four skills and meet the

goals of the whole project

Explanations and solutions to challenge 5:

To address issue five, mixed-level classes, two trainers suggested one major

solution which is applying tiered tasks to make course book reading and listening

materials more flexible Teachers can apply differentiated instruction strategies as a

Tneans to reach all learners and assist each student's learning style, One very useful strategy to apply differentiated instruction is called tiered assignments or fiered

tasks, They were called tiered tasks because they compare the tasks to “tiers of a

wedding cake” The tier on top of the cake is the smallest one, which gives little roam

for mistakes and the most support because the other layers are the supporting pillars