000099543 AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE APPLICATION OF COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT) IN ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASS FOR ENGLISH MAJORS AT HUNGYEN UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY. NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC ỨNG DỤNG GIẢNG DẠY NGÔN NGỮ GIAO TIẾP (CLT) TRONG L

000099543 AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE APPLICATION OF COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT) IN ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASS FOR ENGLISH MAJORS AT HUNGYEN UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY. NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC ỨNG DỤNG GIẢNG DẠY NGÔN NGỮ GIAO TIẾP (CLT) TRONG LỚP HỌC TIẾNG ANH DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN NGÀNH ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC GIÁO DỤC VÀ CÔNG NGHỆ HUNGYÊN.

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI ANH HONG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE APPLICATION OF

COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT) IN ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASS FOR ENGLISH MAJORS AT HUNGYEN UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY.

SUBM ITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILM ENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I, Nguyen Thi Anh Hong confirm that the works presented in this research - “An investigation into the application o f communicative language teaching (CLT) in English speaking class for English majors at Hung Yen University” has been performed and interpreted solely by myself Also, I confirm that this work is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree o f

M aster o f Art and has not been submitted elsewhere in any other form for the fulfilment o f any other degree or qualification

I would like to extend my sincerest thanks and appreciation to those patient souls who helped

me accomplish this study I would first like to recognize Mr Nguyen Tien Dung, my dissertation supervisor and advisor, for his guidance, background knowledge, patience and editing skills in the completion o f this document

I especially appreciate Ms Binh’s encouragement to pursue this extremely important and interesting topic I have wholeheartedly enjoyed the challenge o f examining and researching a controversial topic that could greatly affect Vietnamese public education instead o f just performing a common educational study

A special thank is also extended to my colleagues for the information they have provided about the English teaching at Hung Yen University o f Education and Technology The documents, contact information, and advice provided by these individuals proved invaluable

in my research Appreciation is also expressed to Mr Minh for his technical assistance in obtaining research material

Finally, I want to thank my family, especially my mother who always understands and supports me most I thank her for sharing with me all kinds o f feelings and her tremendous encouragements

In general, the study pointed out several significant problems that the teacher has to consider and deal with being large class size, lack o f instructional equipment, insufficiency o f CLT knowledge and their poor English proficiency Regarding the first problem, large class size is

a result o f the fact that the university cannot immediately build up new classrooms or extend the current class size, the problems backfire teachers Secondly, lack o f instructional equipment, which seems to be a problem o f the university rather than teachers, could only be solved radically by proper financial investment from the university or related parties Additionally, the teacher also complained that their CLT knowledge was inefficient, which somehow prevented them from playing well their moderator & facilitator role in their classroom Finally, they also admitted that poor English speaking skill made them feel unconfident in leading communicative activities Regarding students, their low English proficiency and failure in playing active role (students’ inactive learning behavior) in group assignment somehow discouraged teacher to implement CLT method in class

Besides, the thesis also proposed optimal solutions in accordance with the identified problems; as dealing with large-class size, the university was recommended to rearrange the classroom desk concerning the large number o f students Furthermore, by increasing interactive activities, both learning and teaching might be less dependent on instructional equipment; instead, verbal communication would also help create a bond among students and teachers In addition, to solve the teachers’ insufficiency o f CLT knowledge, more CLT training courses, seminars, and workshops should be organized more frequently Regarding teachers’ English non proficiency issue, there is no better way than - the teacher should consider themselves as students, forming groups to learn, share and practice English skills together Finally, the report also advised the students to do more individual researches on

CLT in order to be aware o f what CLT is Only by understanding the methodology can the students be able to adapt and take full advantage o f CLT to reinforce their English competence.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1.1 Background to the study

Language is instrumental to human development In education, the group-four: listening, speaking, reading and writing are the vital skills that every student must master to reach higher education (Sherwyn et.al., 2000) However, as the main communicative and fastest medium to deliver and exchange information, speaking skills are becoming more important learning subject in a language class Also, the spoken language is the most important part o f social communication, its significant contribution to conveying syllabus content and learning outcomes somehow facilitates the teaching and learning process

According to Riitta et al (2009), speaking is a highly complicated and dynamic skill that requires the simultaneous combination o f human cognition, social culture and physical operations to perform it rapidly in real-time communication Due to its complexity, teaching speaking is not only ‘doing’ teaching the student to ‘doing’ speaking activities, but also teaching them the speaking knowledge, skills and strategies Despite the fact that the concept sounds theoretical, it is still significantly important to teach explicitly speaking skills both theoretically and practically

M ost teachers in the language classroom tend to appreciate and encourage their students to practice English everywhere and anytime possible The typical teaching scenario, in many English language classrooms, is when a teacher attempts at implementing as many speaking activities as possible to encourage his/her students speaking English Plenty o f homework and lessons are designed and guided those could be debates, presentations, descriptions activities, required students to perform discussion in-group or narrate their stories, etc After finishing the activities, the students might be required to present her/his learning outcomes Besides, the lessons for other skills as listening, reading and writing would be set in other learning time (Jennifer & Brian, 2012) This teaching style could produce natural learning enhancement by using ‘daily speaking’ that always appears to be effective, might help the students to experience different speaking styles as well as to encourage them to practice English speaking every day Nonetheless, a number o f limitations o f this teaching method should be taken into consideration; firstly, the students would have limited knowledge or even little understanding

on the speaking features; secondly, they would not pay their attention to developing their speaking knowledge, skills and strategy

O ver recent decades, many language teaching methods have been researched and introduced with the aim to improve the quality o f both teaching and learning process However, the most effective and widely-accepted method is Communicative language teaching (CLT), also known as communicative teaching approach In fact, the CLT is becoming more and more popular in almost language classes over the world As the ultimate objective o f language teaching is to strengthen the students’ communicative competence in social contexts, CLT presents to be the only method that emphasizes on the mutual relationship between language and communication (Larsen-Freeman, 2000) Additionally, Richards (2006) also confirmed that CLT is an excited and effective treatment for language education Even the CLT is considered as a phenomenon, a useful teaching approach that should be implemented

N onetheless, it is worth to mention here because o f high requirements o f CLT methods needed to fit with the English as a foreign language classes (EFL), many educators criticize the feasibility, the appropriateness and effectiveness o f CLT adoption in Asian EFL contexts (Savignon & Wang, 2003; Ellis, 1996; Li, 1998; Rao, 2002) In specific, the theories and practices o f CLT have faced various challenges in many EFL contexts (Anderson, 1993; Ellis, 1996; Li, 1998; Liao, 2000; Takanashi, 2004; Yu, 2001); for example, teacher attitudes, teacher abilities and cultural gaps, etc Additionally, a number o f researchers even concluded that there is no chance to apply CLT in EFL class due to several constraints as economic constraints, administrative constraints, cultural constraints, the student population, and teachers’ academic ability; those are current problems o f Vietnamese education

Despite the fact that the adoption o f CLT methodology in Vietnamese EFL class seems to be

a big challenge, many universities and teachers insist on employing this method in order to facilitate both English teaching and learning process As one o f a well-known university in Vietnamese Northern area, Hung Yen University inspires their teacher to improve their teaching ability by managing to apply CLT in English speaking class The good news is the majority o f teachers, who are aware o f CLT, support the idea and are willing to apply it in their class; while the rest showing positive attitudes towards a new methodology yet hesitate

to execute it Even though the university has organized many workshops and training course

to introduce and train CLT methods to the teachers, a large number o f teachers still keep their traditional methods with “Question and Answer”, “Presentation by topic” instead o f

“discussion” and “conversation” In other words, inactive communication happens more often

in class rather than Mechanical/Meaningful/Communicative activities (e.g Jigsaw, accuracy activities, and information gap activities, etc.) Hence, it is necessary to understand this

phenomenon, to identify the barriers that prevent the teachers from effectively applying CLT

in their speaking class, and what we should do to facilitate the application

1.2 Aims o f the study

This research investigates how CLT is applied in the speaking class for English major at Hung Yen University; thus, it is necessary to understand the teachers’ perception o f CLT first, and then compare what they believed with what they performed in practice In fact, the gap between perceived theory and actual practice could be the crucial determinant for the outcomes o f CLT application After that, the study focuses on seeking for and addressing possible difficulties, issues that both teachers and students have to cope with in a CLT class

In the final stages, all obtained issues will be discussed in groups o f teachers and students in order to generate optimal ideas and appropriate solutions In brief, the objectives o f the research are to find answers for the following questions:

1 W hat roles do the teachers and students play in the English speaking class using CLT at Hung Yen University o f Education and Technology?

2 W hat are the possible problems faced by the students and teachers in applying CLT approach?

3 How can the teachers handle the possible problems in their CLT application in the English speaking skill?

1.3 Scope o f the study

With respect to the overarching aim o f the study - the investigation into the application o f CLT in English Speaking Class for English Major at Hung Yen University, the target audience o f the project who are both English teachers and students in the university, are direct parties driving the CLT application

The study involved the 1st and 2nd year English major students in English speaking class in the 2014-2015 academic year In the meantime, the teachers o f CLT classes were interviewed with equal division in genders

In addition, in Hung Yen University, English courses are divided into two types, namely the General English (GE) and the Professional English (PE) referring to English for a specific field/industry as English for accounting, for business and for education, etc Due to the complexity o f CLT application, the university applies CLT in their General English only The study, therefore, focuses on the General English with elementary and pre-intermediate classes

1.4 Overview o f the study

To arrange the content in a comprehensive structure, and for the readers to track the content more easily, the research is presented in 5 main chapters

Chapter 1 gives the audience a brief view into the study by presenting the basic information

as the research background, the aims o f the study, the scope and the overview o f the study as well

Chapter 2 presents and scrutinizes all the relevant theories that used to be a foundation to

invent various CLT theoretical framework, including CLT definition, communicative competence, characteristics and principles o f CLT, communicative activities and the roles o f teachers and learners; from that to research more on CLT theory concerning English-speaking class At the end o f this chapter, all applications o f CLT in EFL context will be presented and analyzed meticulously

Chapter 3 proposes and designs proper research methodology to approach and obtain needed

information through specifying the research objectives, research approaches, target audience, implementation plan, as well as limitation o f the study

Chapter 4 presents and discusses the findings generated from the study.

Chapter 5 draws out the conclusion and recommends feasible solutions in accordance with

the results and analysis in the previous chapter

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Before researching anything, it is necessary to understand it first, this chapter is to summarize and review all relevant concepts and theories that is a foundation to design appropriate research methodologies in the next chapters The flows o f this chapter are:

1 General Communicative Language Teaching

2 Teachers’ roles and learners’ roles

3 Proper application o f CLT into English Class

4 Communicative Language Teaching in regards to speaking class

5 Previous studies

2.1 General Communicative Language Teaching

Over recent decades, there are many languages teaching methods invented with aiming to improve the quality o f both teaching and learning process However, the most effective and widely accepted method is Communicative language teaching (CLT), also known as communicative teaching approach In fact, the CLT is becoming more and more popular method in almost language classes over the world As the ultimate objective o f language teaching is to strengthen the students’ communicative competence in social contexts, CLT presents to be the only method that emphasizes on the mutual relationship between language and communication (Larsen-Freeman, 2000) Additionally, Richards (2006) also confirmed that CLT is an excited and effective treatment for language education To understand more about CLT, the first thing need to do is exploring the CLT’s definition

2.1.1 Definition o f Communicative Language Teaching

Although there is no specific definition for Communicative language teaching, some researchers as Richards and Rodgers (2002), McGroarty (1984) and Markee (2001) described the CLT as a theory that defines language as a communicative mean to improve the learners’ communicative competence More specifically, the communicative competence is a core o f CLT, which means how people know what they should communicate and how they could communicate properly in a specific context with specific participants In another view, Ellis (2008) stated that the CLT could be defined as the interactive and flexible teaching methods and approaches that might facilitate the cooperation and participation between teachers and learners in a language class Besides, Ellis (2008) clarified that CLT has two type o f versions,

“w eak’ and ‘strong’ one The weak version supports for the theory that the components of competence are fix and predictable, hence CLT methods and approaches could be designed to

make intervention in students’ learning process in a systematic way In simple words, this version focus more on using activities to teach learners to use language (learning to use English) in a predicted context for a particular purpose such as: “giving instruction’, ‘making orders’, etc Whereas, the strong version appreciated the ideas o f how to use language flexibly and effectively in whatever context, thus the teachers would focus on creating opportunities for learners to get familiar with language and to use language creatively in actual communication; or simply summarized by Howatt (1984), it is ‘using English to learn it’.

2.1.2 Characteristic of Com m unicative Language Teaching

Despite the fact that the Communicative Language Teaching concept is still be ambiguous and be a controversial topic, there are several typical characteristics o f CLT are summarized and confirmed by many educators as Johnson (1982), Brumfit & Johnson (1979), Finocchiaro

following:

1 The first characteristic o f Communicative Language Teaching is all o f their method and activities are used to teach systematic and structural language More specifically, the teachers would focus on explaining meaning o f the communicative messages that they delivered along with clarifying how each communicative activities might develop the learners’ specific communication instead o f teaching them how to adjust the language structure

2 The second characteristic is CLT highly stressing on the importance o f fluency and accuracy in communication In which, the fluency combining with standard language would produce the high effectiveness in social communication context, while the accuracy is required for clear-cut and unambiguous communication (business or bargaining context) (Finocchiaro and Brumfit, 1983)

3 All o f the communicative activities (games, simulation, groups information gaps, jigsaw activities) and syllabus content designed for CLT must use the ‘real-world’ information to teach the student practical and social-accepted language It is like a principle for Communicative Language teaching to help learner to strengthen their improvisation and communicative reflex

4 According to Thompson (1996), in communication, the grammar is one o f decisive factors for the flow o f a conversation The conversation could be disturbed, stopped or even furthered to w rong direction due to misunderstanding o f participant, which caused by wrong gram m ar usage Therefore, the grammars needs teaching carefully to improve the learners’ communicative accuracy

5 The four skills in language education, as the 4 main communicative mediums includes

o f reading, writing, speaking and listening must be taught and developed equally All the skills always going together; moreover, the spoken and written language needs involvement o f at least 2 participants to be communicated

6 Group works is indispensable part o f CLT, it might help students to exchange their language knowledge, communicative understanding and communicative style With different tasks assigned in group works, the learners might learn how to communicate

in different roles, different situation and how to communicate effectively with other people to solve the problems

7 CLT supports for the idea that learning from mistake is one o f a best learning methods, thus the error in learning process is accepted Even teachers in CLT class are recommended to be very careful in adjusting or correcting learners’ error when they are talking or verbally communicating with other classmates Actually, the errors might result from the learner’s limitation o f language knowledge, or their efforts in performing fluent speaking, and it should be tolerated (Larsen-Freeman 1986)

8 As the importance o f the fluency and accuracy in verbal communication, it is necessary for teacher to assess their students’ performance based on these factors Moreover, mastering written grammar and vocabulary is not necessary for a people to become good communicator; hence the teacher should be more creative and flexible in evaluating their students’ communication ability In other words, the more innovative and qualitative assessment method should be developed in CLT classes

9 The main language is used in a language class must be the target language, and using

o f the native language should be restricted as minimist as possible It requires excellent ability o f teachers in using the properly target language in different context (Celce-Murcia, 1991) However, the teacher could use native language to give instruction for home works and tests to avoid misunderstanding o f the learners

2.1.3 Principle for Communicative language activities

There are many communicative activities could be applied in CLT, nevertheless, they should

be mainly created for group tasks The group discussion and group activities are the most beneficial part o f CLT Taking part in and complete the group activities, the student could develop their communication skills by learning and exchanging linguistic knowledge with class mates, and also might be able to remove their hesitation in social communication and presentation in public

Moreover, it is a must for teacher to update the real-world data for the class’s syllabus content and communicative activities As the main objectives o f Communicative language teaching is

help learner to communicate effectively in the real world and to gain social-acceptance on their communicative language, all the task and activities should be designed and built based

on real life case It is recommended by Widdowson (1987), that to guarantee for authenticity

o f the teaching information, the teacher must build and update their reference source as regularly as possible and even thinks how to create their own sources

Jacob and Farrell (2012) designed some qualitative criteria for CLT approaches such as:

1 Learner-centered approach: The learners has their own characteristic and learning style, so they should have right to select their desired learning content and process

2 The social nature o f learning: a communicative and cooperative environment is a key component o f a successful CLT approach

3 Curricular integration: The teacher should encourage their students to practice communicative language in real communications outside o f classroom

4 Meaning focus: The meaning o f language must be taught carefully and accurately, as

it is one o f vital parts o f communication

5 Diversity: The teachers should be more flexible and creative in teaching because each learners has their own strengths, shortcomings and needs o f learning language Therefore, to effectively teach the learners, the teachers learning method has to varies

on these factors

6 Thinking skills: The teacher should support for their learners’ critical and creative thinking, it might help student to generate their confidence and creativeness in using language

7 Alternative evaluation: More creative qualitative evaluation forms needs developing to accurately assess the students’ ability

8 Teachers as communicational partner: The teachers should play a role as supporter and partner o f students in class communicative activities

2.2 Teacher roles and learner roles

According to Savignon (1971), Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) theory heavily relies upon proper educational setting, which requires a reasonable arrangement o f several variables - experience and knowledge o f teachers, students’ needs and attitudes, and classroom In other words, the classroom in CLT is considered as a social context for communicative language to perform and the teacher and students are key players, thus the role

o f teachers and players is a crucial for Communicative Language Teaching performance

The CLT class focus on creating a student-centred environment rather than teacher-centred environment, thus it requires the role o f teachers to shift to class-supporter instead o f class- dominator like in the past This theory is supported by Lopez (1984) and Nunan (1989), they

stated that every students has their own needs, interests and cognitive styles, hence the teacher

is demanded to be more flexible and more creative in using teaching methods and techniques

to produce effective teaching performance

2.2.1 Teacher roles

From another point o f view, which is developed by Hymes (1972), the ultimate goal o f the CLT is to improve and enhance the learners’ ‘communicative competence’ covering their linguistic knowledge and ability This theory also supports for the opinion o f considering language as a communicative language tools, thus it is affected and even disciplined

theoretical factors - grammatical, strategical elements (Canale and Swain, 1980) In other words, the communicative approaches need involvement o f both cultural and theoretical factors to facilitate the practical understanding and application o f linguistic forms; following this direction, Hymes (1972) introduced several communicative competences as below:

1 Linguistic or grammatical competence

2 Sociolinguistic or pragmatic competence

to be the expert o f using language; in which, he/she must play a model role who able toaccurately use grammatical and linguistic rules, also be able to perform and communicatethese rules in both theoretically and practically to their student The challenges here is thegrammatical and linguistic rules normally presented in academic, complicated and wordyformat, thus the students often find hard to learn and understand these theories; this thing led

to the laziness and hesitation o f the student in applying grammatical rules in practice asconsequently Therefore, the teachers should comprehend the theories o f language grammar

so that they could interpret and simplify those theories to teach their student in a more directanl practical way (Diana, 2012) However, the teachers must be very patient in educating andcoTecting the grammatical errors o f their students since the mistake is an unavoidable part o flearning process It is also recommended by Larsen-Freeman (1986) that the CLT teachersshould be very careful in fixing the students’ errors during their learning activities (both in

w rting or verbally communicating activities), since the unreasonable correcting and adjusting

could either negatively or positively affect to the students’ learning attitudes & creativity In simple words, the tolerance o f the teachers for common errors that resulted from the students’ limitation o f linguistic knowledge is highly appreciated because the mistake somehow is necessary for learning; it even might help student to remember and comprehend the use of language grammar more quickly However, these mistakes should be limited by teachers; in specific, the teacher should implement reasonable intervention to prevent the mistakes from becoming the students’ habitual behavior that might cause difficulties for the students’ further development.

In CLT, ‘the theories must go along with the practices’ is one o f the CLT’s objectives to improve the students’ practical communicative ability, from that to help the student gaining social acceptance Hence, it is clarified by Erton (1997) that the Sociolinguistic or pragmatic competence appeared as the core o f CLT teaching process, in specific, the Sociolinguistic

interaction with the external world; that could be their family, social values, religious norms, environmental conditions, or even economic and political situation Whereas, the pragmatic competence demands the teachers to associate the syllabus content and the class activities to the realistic and occasional context, for instance: the communicative language using in asking street direction, the language using in dinner/parties, or the language for other everyday communicative settings and situations By more simple explanation, the sociolinguistic and pragmatic competence stress on the functional needs o f people in communication is socializing and expressing themselves as human beings This competence significantly contributes to the forming o f a CLT principle In more details, the teacher should respect the

‘authenticity’ o f the data and they should apply ‘real world’ data in designing CLT activities and syllabus contents In other words, the teacher need to frequently update their teaching programs and actively do plan and diversify their own classroom communicative activities by using the “real world” information; those to help student developing their practical and socially- accepted communicative language (Clarke and Silberstein 1977) More specifically, the teachers should play roles as researcher and leaner to understand and utilize the external environmental data & information to enrich their teaching programs/activities, it is a necessary action to improve the sociolinguistic and pragmatic competence o f their students Regarding to the ‘discourse competence’, in order to create a completely meaningful conversation/discourse, the learner needs to have capability o f structuring their language in coherent and cohesive form by using correct grammar and fluent communication That is a reason for the establishment o f discourse analysis teaching approach, developed by Gill (2000), which emphasizes on analyzing the different aspect o f the discourse such as: sentence,

propositions, speech acts, tums-taking In brief, this teaching approach enables the learner to learn various interactional patterns in different social contexts, from that also helps learner to gain the insightful view into linguistic application To successfully do discourse analysis approaches, the teacher is expected to be a detailed- oriented and careful analyst; every task and works done by student must be reviewed and commented in details with high focus on each components o f the discourses Besides, the specific consultation and instruction which is made by teachers to the learners’ grammatical use - sentence, propositions, or verbal language application - speech acts, tums-over, tums-taking is demanded to be very specific with high supportive comments, might takes much time and efforts o f the teacher By doing this way, the teacher could explain the meaning o f lessons for their learners as well as to clarify the benefits o f the classroom activities & tasks, from that to inspire the leaner to make self-progression and self-improvement for their language learning (Finocchiaro & Brumfit, 1983).

Concerning strategic competence, a human creative and critical ability is appreciated and encouraged in context o f communicative interaction Douglas (2000) also supported this idea;

he stated that the strategic competence is a cooperation o f the internal characteristic o f learners (formed by their own social perception, background information and knowledge, etc.) and the environmental and situational characteristic (culture, religion, and social status, etc.)

To strengthen the strategic competence o f the learner, the teacher is suggested to be a good facilitator and the moderator in teaching process; they should inspire and support the learner

to do their own self-criticizing, self-considering, self-observing and self-assessing on the external environment then making appropriate communicative reaction It is a very important process for the learner to build up their own communicative style and strategy, which is a fundamental part for the further development o f their language learning (Farrell 1998)

Finocchiaro and Brumfit (1983) stated that fluency and accuracy the important principles in doing verbal communication They also emphasize on the importance o f fluency by presenting the most effective formulation for verbal communication is fluency plus the acceptable language Furthermore, Hedge (2000) even put fluency into the list o f communicative competences o f a successful English speaker Although the development o f

‘fluency’ is mostly based on the students’ learning efforts, teachers could considerably influence on their improvement process Firstly, the teacher is required to understand the essence of the fluency, which is actually a combination o f speakers’ self-confidence, sense o f comfort and self-control, allows the speaker to less concern on pragmatic competence Secondly, the teachers might improve the learners’ fluency by applying the various communicative class activities such as role playing, story-telling, information gap and other

simulation games, those need the flexible changing o f students’ roles, and require the teachers’ roles to change accordingly For example: in simulation activities, the teachers sometime is asked to be a player to support their students’ performance, or in some group discussion activities, the teachers even has to be communicational partner o f student, meanwhile also be a manager or supervisor to control and direct the class activity.

In addition, Richards and Lackhart (1994) stated that in a CLT class room, the teacher’s roles might varies flexibility from manager, planner, motivator to group organizer to support their students’ learning Besides, to respond to students’ language need, the teacher has to apply text-based, task-based and other methods, it might require them to play a role as counsellor and process manager Additionally, it is also mentioned in the research conducted by Atkins et.al (1996) the researcher might affect positively to the students’ understanding by using proper questions, encouraging their student to actively ask and answer question, and facilitating the participation o f students in class activities

2.2.2 Learner roles

For the students’ role in Communicative Language Teaching classes, Atkins et al (1996) defined that the students in a communicative language classroom are the people whose objective is learning itself; and they are the active learner in learning process As the group activities could be considered as a crucial CLT’s principle, they normally happen in the class, and also demand for the active involvement o f the learners However, Johnson et.al (1995) believed that the group activities naturally do not happen in the cooperative way, they thought that grouping the students and ask them to work together would not always produce a better

cooperative learning environment in order to assist the group work to become team work, in which the students is aware o f and all agree to cooperate together to pursuit o f their team ’s common goals To facilitate the creation o f cooperative learning environment, there are some preconditions must be aware o f and committed by the students, proposed by (Johnson and Johnson 1994) in the followings:

1 Positive interdependence;

4 Teaching interpersonal and small group skills/teamwork skills

5 And group processing

The positive interdependence means that students should work together to complete theircommon learning goals, while taking care o f each other’s learning More specifically, in theclassroom task, everyone must cooperate together to finish the team task, however, also need

to support each members to complete their task; the harmonious cooperation might help to maximize the learning result and increase the learning effectiveness (Johnson et.al., 1995) The commitment in a team should be made with respect to the team s’ achievement In other words, the best slogan applied for the team is ‘sink or swim together’, which implies that the failure o f the team is the loss o f each members; or the team members has two options, one is coordinate to other to bring team ’s performance forward and another is to refuse teamwork then receiving failure Another benefit o f this precondition is to help the students to be aware

o f the importance and necessity o f the coordination and teamwork in-group works, more specific, it is impossible for a team or individual to gain success without effort and contribution o f each team member

The next condition is ‘individual accountability’, introduced by Johnson and Johnson (1989), which means that the student should share their work together and also contribute to the group work; and each students have to take responsibility to do their task as well as possible instead

o f being dependent on other team m em bers’ support Normally, in CLT class, to ensure for the individual accountability, the teacher divide the group task or assignment into different parts and assign them to different members in a team, however, these parts connected together and could not be completed without communicative interaction among the team members, for instance: teacher could assign a team to make analysis on an academic theory, then ask the team to present their result with involvement o f all members in the team presentation, which consists o f each individual’s presentation; the teacher could also randomly call on team member to present his/her team ’s paper By doing this way, the teacher could make accurate evaluation on both o f each individual and team ’s performance (Olsen et.al, 1992)

Another condition is ‘promotive interaction’, which supports the theory that every student has

to be an interactive member o f their team and should always be willing to promote interactive atmosphere in class learning (Johnson and Johnson 1989) The CLT needs the student to perform ‘promotive interaction’ and ‘positive independence’ at the same time, it means the students must not only complete their task, but also do help and assist the other members to complete their task by sharing resource, exchanging information, exchanging feedbacks on task work, teamwork performance & behavior, and making constructive argument on the other team m em ber’s result It help the team to improve and enhance their working performance Additionally, each team members also has responsibility to inspire and advocate the active efforts and contribution o f other team members into the team works (e.g the team must support and respect the idea o f each team member to help the team completing group task) On the other hand, each team m em ber’s behavior could influence on not only the other members’ behavior but also to the team s’ behavior, thus the cooperative and inspirational behavior is what should be seen in the group work (Gillies, 2007)

In the class context, the ‘teamwork skills’ is considered a crucial factor for the successful implementation o f CLT activities; the better team work skills the student has, the more probability o f successfully applying the CLT activities in class is The first ‘team work skill’ need the student to know and learn is ‘trustworthiness’, the team members should trust each other and express their trustworthiness by doing straight-forward and transparent communication, accepting and supporting each other and performing supportive and cooperative discussion (Johnson and Johnson 2003) Nevertheless, these thing could be easily

to be done by some individual, yet might become the matter for other team members since these team member are not familiar with the ‘teamwork skills’ The teacher should understand the fact that, with some students, the cooperative learning environment is very new and they need teaching the necessary ‘teamwork skills’ The student roles in this situation is carefully absorbing and practicing the social and interpersonal skills taught by teacher during participating in group works As emphasized by (Cowei et al 1994), the friendliness, openness and explicit communication is required for the student to play their role well in the group works It is no matter what the role a member doing in the group is, it could be doer, supporter or leader, the important thing here is how the student could perform his/her interactive and supportive behavior to facilitate his/her team ’s performance

Finally, ‘group processing’ means the students has to play a specific roles in a group, they might be able to define who is the helpful or unhelpful member in group, and how to work effectively together to complete the group task by using face-to-face communication skill It encourages the students to think on both the metacognitive and cognitive level to find the solutions for their groups’ difficulties and to improve the behavior o f team members (Johnson and Johnson 1989) The main objectives o f ‘group processing’ is to help student to connect the theory with the practice, to review their cooperative and interactive skills by doing peer/cross assessment or exchanging feedbacks on the performance and behavior o f each team members during the group works It somehow helps the team to maintain their internal working relationships and facilitate the group’s working performance To smoothly doing

‘group processing’, the student must comply with the regulation set by their team in general and the teacher in particular; the teacher might help each group to conduct their own evaluation process within the team, however instruct and correct for the wrongdoings and the unconstructive discussion Moreover, they also need to help the students to identify and analyze their problems in working as a team and recommend appropriate solutions In response to the assistance o f the teacher, the students should listen and learn the teachers’ instruction; they could consider the instruction as some helpful reference and develop their own solution Nevertheless, the students and the team should present their solution to the teacher and ask for consultation and feedback before implementing it In applying the solution

to deal with the team ’s problem, the teachers should observe and guide the student to run group with ‘team work skills’; and both o f teacher and student should know that more important than the result, the matter is how the ‘group processing’ is processed (Johnson and Johnson 1989) In other words, the team problems could not be fixed, but a must is the ‘group processing’ must be implemented in cooperative environment, where students intentionally apply their learnt ‘team work skill’ with aiming to build and improve their team ’s performance.

In overall, CLT class demands a highly cooperative and interactive roles o f both teachers and students, every teaching and learning methods or activities are about how to increase the interaction among students & students and teachers & students Moreover, the various teaching & learning methods requires the appropriate variation o f teachers and students’ roles;

it is the necessary for teachers and students to comprehend their role in order to build a supportive and effective learning environment

2.3 How to applied Communicative language teaching in class

2.3.1 Methodologies

The most popular methods o f applying Communicative language in class are content-based and cask-based According to Grabe & Stoller (1997), the content-based teaching method is focus on using content as a core for any communicative exercise and activities in class with purpose o f developing learners’ communicative competence More specifically, the method does emphasize on theory and use the written form exercise - vocabulary, grammar exercise, and Jialog form to teach the learner In contrast, the task-based teaching methods concentrates

on teaching learner by employing series practical exercise and classroom activities This method would help the learners to develop their practical communication skills by interacting and communicating with other members in class instead o f learning individually and theoretically (Seedhouse, 1999)

2.3.2 Factors affecting the application o f CLT

Although most researchers agree on CLT as the most appropriate and salient language teaching in EFL, still the implementation o f communicative language teaching as a foreign language faces many challenges In regarding this see (Anderson, 1993; Bhatia, 2003; Cheng, 2002; Dam and Gabrielsen, 1988; Ellis, 1998; Li, 1998; Liao, 2000; LoCastro, 1996; Nunan, 1993; Sato and Kleinsasser, 1999; Savignon, 2002, 2003; Takanashi, 2004; Yano,2003 and

Yu, 2001) The origins o f these challenges are multiple and include the teacher, the students,

the educational system, and communicative language teaching itself (Li, 1998) Dam and Gabrielsen (1988) found that the need for teachers to redefine their roles contributed more in the implementation o f task-based approaches than did resistance from learners.

A study conducted by Sato and Kleinsasser (1999) highlighted the in consistency between teachers’ perceptions o f communicative language teaching and their actual in-class behavior Anderson (1993) stated that in addition to both teacher and learner resistance, the difficulties

o f implementing a meaning-based program include teachers’ lack o f communicative competence in English, the lack o f adequate teacher preparation generally, and the multiple and excessive demands placed upon teachers Besides, Nunan (1993) also reported that a mismatch between the teaching preferences o f the teacher and the learning preferences o f learners may be a source o f difficulty In addition to the above mentioned factors, situational factors such as large class size, classroom physical context, instructional materials, activities and task types, students learning modes, learning styles, the school head’s management style, etc have also influence on CLT practice Similar challenges are also reported from a number

o f countries when teachers have been asked to implement CLT in EFL class, where classes are often large and resources are limited (e.g Carless, 2004 in Hong Kong: Hiep (2007 in Vietenam; Hu, 2005 in China; Jeon, 2009 and Li, 1998 in Korea In addition to this see Surveys o f a range o f East Asian countries in Butler 2011; Ho and Wong, 2004; Littliewood, 2007)

These challenges include:

resulting fear that they may lose control;

tongue (or only minimal English) rather than trying to stretch their English competence;

limited experience o f communicating in English

through a syllabus rather than the less observable holistic learning that occurs in communication;

a facilitator o f learning and supporter o f autonomy;

• The negative ‘w ashback’ effect o f public examination (in our context government examination too) based on pencil-and-paper tests which focus on discrete items and do not prioritize communication Resistance from students and parents, who fear that important examination result, may suffer as a result o f the new approach.

2.3.3 Communicative language teaching activities

The Communicative language teaching activities could be separated in two sets, the first is

‘functional communication activities’ and the second is ‘and ‘social interaction activities’ (Richard 2006) In which, the ‘functional communication activities’ covers all the tasks that

m ight requires students to do the specific functional activities such as: describing pictures, drawing map from verbal instruction, story-telling, information gaps activities, etc Whereas, the ‘social interaction activities’ consists o f the interactive activities as: group discussion, role-playing, simulations, playing games, debates, etc The several types o f CLT activities should be mentioned here, are mentioned below:

2.3.3.1 Fluency practice

As introduced by Peter and Darrel (2004), the fluency practice implies that the activities could help to improve the speaking speed rate, the improvisation and the spontaneity o f the learners

in verbal communication Some the fluency activities’ requirements are: it must allow student

to use their natural language in a meaningful way, the student must apply communicative strategies in conversations, the activities should encourage students to create new language and help them link language they learn to real situation

2.3.3.2 Accuracy practices

Unlike fluency practice, the accuracy practice includes the activities that focus on the

accuracy o f language use and must define the level o f the class room use o f language, to build the correct example o f using language and to customize the choice o f language

2.3.3.3 Mechanical, Meaningful and Communicative activities

Other activities are widely-applied in many language classroom in the world, developed by Richards (2006) are the Mechanical, Meaningful and Communicative activities In which, the Mechanical activities are designed to teach the students to know how to use the language in communication without understanding o f their meaning Secondly, the meaningful activities help to improve the ability o f learner to select appropriate language and comprehend the use

o f language in various contexts For instance: instead o f give “filling appropriate preposition

in the blank” exercise, the teacher could give the student a diagram o f kitchen, in which many kitchen items are placed on different location Then the students would be given a piece o f paper which has name o f a kitchen item; the student then has to immediately and verbally

describe the location o f this item in the whole class Finally, the communicative activities

emphasizes on applying communicative language in normal & predictable contexts, such as: learning language to use in restaurant, learning language that’s normally used to give street direction, etc

Information gap activities:

These activities requires learner to get the information that they want or they lack by communicating with other members in the class It might make the student to understand the importance o f effectively using language to question, and to probe for information they need

2.3.3.4 Jigsaw activities

It is another form o f information gap activities, however, the objective o f Jigsaw activities is

to complete the information which has been divided into many pieces before The learners must find people who has the information they need, then has to describe in details what they want Normally, there will be an interval set for completing these activities, so the learner must be very active in communication and must do their best to communicate as effective and

as quick as possible to finish the task

2.3.3.5 Story-telling

In this activities, the students need to tell a story that might be imagined by them or a real case that they heard or witnesses themselves In fact, this activity might help learner to develop their creativeness and imagination and also help to improve their ability o f presenting the ideas and building a basic narrative structure including o f introduction, body and ending/conclusion

2.3.3.6 Other CLT activities are using:

The first is task-completion activities normally includes games, map-reading, puzzles and the task requires learner to use their language to complete the tasks The following is Information- gathering activities - the learner in these activities are required to do interviewing or doing communicative research activities to collect the needed information The third is Information transfer activities - It help learner to get familiar with different form and version o f data

presentation, the learner might be asked to paraphrase a paragraph or to describe a data chart, etc Next is Opinion-sharing activities - as its’ name, these activities focusing on discussing and sharing, in which the learners need to express and share verbally their opinions, beliefs or personal assessment on a specific subject And the final is Reasoning-gap activities, which requires students to make new information by referring on the given information.

2.4 Communicative Language Teaching with the speaking class

Language is the fundament for human development, in education, the group-four: listening, speaking, reading and writing are the vital skills that every students must master to reach higher education (Sherwyn et.al., 2000) However as the main communicative and fastest medium to deliver and exchange information, the language education classrooms is now focus more on teaching speaking skill Beside that fact that spoken language is the most important part o f social communication, its’ significantly contribution to conveying syllabus content and learning outcomes somehow facilitates the teaching and learning process The problem here is some o f young and inexperienced teacher might confuse ‘doing’ teaching with ‘teaching’ speaking; that might limit the development o f students’ speaking skill With respect to the addressed problem, the essay would be used to discuss about teaching speaking, introduce & analyze communicative teaching language (CTL) and recommend appropriate CLT methodologies to facilitate teaching o f speaking

2.4.1 Teaching Speaking

According to Riitta et.al (2009), speaking is a highly complicated and dynamic skill that requires the simultaneous combination o f human cognition, social culture and physical operations to perform it rapidly in real-time communication Due to its’ complexity, teaching speaking is not only ‘doing’ teaching the student to ‘doing’ speaking activities, but also teaching them the speaking knowledge, skills and strategies Despite the fact that the concept sounds theoretical, it still be significantly important to teach explicitly speaking skill both theoretically and practically

Most o f teacher in language classroom always appreciate and encourage their student topractice English everywhere in every time The typical teaching scenario could be seen inmany English language classroom is a teacher would plan many practical activities for his/herstudent to speak English; plenty o f homework and lesson are set and guided by instructionalobjectives such as - debates, presentations, descriptions as what the student must deliver, inwhich they might do discuss in group or narrate their stories, etc After finishing the activities,the student then could be asked to present her/his learning outcomes Besides, the lessons forother skills as listening, reading and writing could be filled in other learning times (Jennifer &

Brian, 2012) This way/method o f teaching could support for natural learning through ‘daily speaking’ and be sound very effective; it might help the student to experience different speaking styles and encourage them to practice English speaking everyday Nonetheless, there are some limitations o f this teaching method should be taken into consideration; the first is the student would have limited knowledge or even not have understanding on the speaking features; the second comes following as a result is they would not put their attention on developing their speaking knowledge, skills and strategy In more simple words, the ‘natural learning on daily speaking’ method might help student to form their speaking classical conditioning in communication, yet offering no opportunities and method to refine it (Pasty and Nina, 2004)

Goh & Bums (2012) introduced the components o f second language speaking competences and also explained in detail how each o f them work and affect to each other

Source: (Goh & Burns, 2012)

The diagram above shows the model o f second language speaking competence developed by Goh & Bumes (2012) consist of: core speaking skills, knowledge o f language & discourse, and communication and discourse strategies To develop the fluency and accuracy in speaking second language, the speaker must comprehend and strengthen their ability o f using the discussed components

Since the first step o f learning anything is understanding it first, to learn speaking skill, the first component required is gaining knowledge o f Language and discourse It means the student should understand and master the language’s pronunciation (e.g the speaker must be able to pronounce every words o f the target language in clear and intelligible way), comprehend the vocabulary and grammar (e.g knowing a spoken structures, and grammatical features), and know how to organize a different type o f speech (e.g knowing how to build a presentation) The ultimate goal of this component is to help speaker gaining social acceptance when speaking the target language (Goh & Bums, 2012)

The second components is Core Speaking Skills, it focus more on developing the fluency o fthe speech by improving speech rate, stressing, pausing and formulaic language Moreover,

this component also requires the speakers to build their negotiation skill and monitoring skills as: how to give feedback, how to repair communication breakdown, how to react and support the previous utterances Furthermore, how to manage the speech is also what speakers need to learn in this component consists o f how to initiate/open the topics, how to do turn-taking or close conversation, etc.

The final components, Component strategies, means building cognitive strategies to deal with the insufficiency o f the speakers’ language knowledge The strategies emphasize on using circumlocution, gesture, word creation, approximation or avoidance to compensate the limitation o f the speakers in terms o f language knowledge There are two typical strategies are widely-use as metacognitive and interactive strategies, noted by Charmot (2009) O f which, metacognitive strategies focus on planning the speaking gesture, words, sentence before speaking anything Whereas, the interactive strategies require speakers to repeat, rephrase, summarize the words o f other people or using check comprehension techniques to lengthen the conversation

The model indicate the shortcomings and limitations o f the ‘learning on daily speaking’ method Teaching speaking covers not only practicing or doing speaking, but also the structural and systematical speaking knowledge, skills and strategies It’s necessary for the student to be aware o f the learning speaking components and know how their mutual relations

to facilitate their learning process More importantly, the teachers’ instructions are highly necessary for improvement o f the students’ speaking skills in specific language aspects as pronunciation, developing communication strategies or using appropriate gesture to support speaking, etc

2.4.2 Communicative competence

Savignon (1971) defined communicative language teaching as goals and processes in classroom learning, which is built on the theoretical concept -“communicative competence”, basically means expression, interpretation and negotiation o f meaning From another point o f view, Richards and Rodgers (2001) believe that the communicative language is actually an approach to language teaching; which is developed from the theory that the main functional benefit o f language is communication, thus the ultimate goal o f the learner is building and developing their communicative competence or ability In other words, the communicative competence is a concept that covers the wide range o f communicative abilities such as the knowledge o f grammar and vocabulary in terms o f linguistic competence, the ability o f saying specific things in social communication in terms o f sociolinguistic competence Additionally, the ability to initiate, open, contribute to or close a conversation by a consistent or coherent manner in terms o f discourse competence And finally, the ability to perform an effective

communication with limitation o f language knowledge in terms o f strategic competence The communicative language teaching is not a single teaching methods or methodologies, it is actually open to use variety o f appropriate methods with aiming o f producing the best learning context for the learners The well-known practices o f Communicative Language teaching are proficiency-based movement and standard-based movement In which, the proficiency-based movement is actually proficiency guidelines to describe, evaluate and instruct the improvement o f leaners’ competence in language (Omaggio, 1993) More specifically, it help students to identify what they should know and how they should use language in different context by performing a certain level o f language accuracy Whereas, the standard-based movement cover the followings: the standards that indicate what student should know and should do, help to monitor the students’ performance by using assessments

o f their achievement and to guide the student to meet national standards in second language education By this way, the two movements are strengthening and making positively impacts

on teaching practices In fact, the communicative language teaching theories could be applied

in many educational areas; from cognitive science, educational psychology to the second langaage acquisition; it is actually quite flexible and by employing variety o f approaches and methodologies, it could be customized to facilitate the learning and teaching process

H am er (2001) developed some criteria to qualify the label ‘CLT’ such as:

with conversational partner with purpose o f exchanging information or solving problems

needs taking into account

appropriate communication activities,

teach learner the link between channels

In fa;t, the Communicative language is considered as the macro-strategies or methodological principles as there is no particular method or theory could be used as fundament for their practcal and theoretical foundation

According to Brown (1994), the communicative language teaching is mostly based on the nature o f language and language learning and teaching; till now its’ approaches still be a vagu; concept On the other hand, Savignon (1991) argues that the Communicative language coulc be seen as an approach Whereas, Brumfit & Johnson (1979) believes that there are

strong version and weak version o f the communicative approaches, in which the communicative activities built based on existing educational programs is the weak one and the strong version support for the fact that language is learned on real communication Even though there are plenty o f way to interpret and apply Communicative Language teaching in practice, many educators - Johnson (1982), Finocchiaro & Brumfit (1983), Larsen-Freeman (1986), and Richards & Rodgers (1986) share the same idea o f setting the CLT’s main characteristics as the followings:

One o f the most important characteristic o f Communicative language teaching is it focus

on systematic and structural language In which, the student should be taught to know the meaning o f message they create or the benefit o f the tasks they finished rather than how to correct the language structure For example: the grammatical structure and rules should be categorized by its’ function and by different speaking contexts

In communicative techniques, fluency and accuracy is the complementary principles Nonetheless, the fluency might be more important than accuracy as the combination o f fluency and acceptable language presents to be effective method in social communication (Finocchiaro and Brumfit, 1983) However, the importance o f accuracy is indispensable in terms o f transparent, unambiguous and straight-forward communication

Effectively using language in practice is one o f the primary goals o f the learners, hence the language classroom must create the real-life situation to help learners develop their effective and pragmatic speaking skill The activities are recommended are dramas, games, projects or simulation, etc which could help the learner to develop and improve their improvisation, not just theoretical practice or repetition

The grammar is very important in language, the breakdown in communication could be resulted from poor knowledge o f grammar or weak use o f grammar Thompson (1996) asserted that the grammar is the vital part o f language development, the grammar must be taught in both traditional and innovative ways to develop the learners’ communicative ability

Beside verbal communication, reading and writing skills must also be developed as written language is the best way to develop ability to use grammar Moreover, CLT also define speaking and writing skills as the main communicative mediums, which covers written and spoken language, and also need involvement of at least 2 people (writer and reader, or speaker with listener)

CLT is also highly recommended for group works, which is a perfect way to help students learn from each other In this way, they can take the information in need from the others, exchange and learn different communication style In addition, flexible using of group work

methodologies also support learner to negotiate meanings and learn how to use language in problem-solving situation (Savigone, 2002).

2.5 Previous studies

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) originated in England in a Second Language (ESL) environment In the early 1960s, the notion o f second language teaching were changing, and the old theoretical assumptions behind them also be reviewed as a result In brief, Richards and Rodgers (1986) believe that the roots o f CLT is to be found in the changes

o f situational language teaching approaches, which influenced the British language teaching tradition till the late 1960s In further development o f this matter, many educators and linguistics supported the priority in language teaching on communicative proficiency instead

o f mastering grammatical structures They felt that students were not being aware o f the relationship between cultures and language studies (Richards and Rodgers 1986; Savignon

1987, 1991; Galloway 1993) To deal with this issues, many CLT methods are developed based on theories such as behaviourism, structuralism, constructivism and universal grammar There is the fact that the CLT method, is currently being widely used in English as Second Language (ESL) classrooms worldwide; in addition, many linguists and educators consider CLT as powerful theoretical model and a useful approach to language teaching in ELT (Barnaby and Sun ,1989) and (Ellis, 1996) Nevertheless, since the variety o f cultural context

in over the world, the adoption o f CLT are facing to many challenges (Li, 1998; Wang & Savignon, 2003; Mustafa, 2001; Razmjoo, 2006; Ozsevik, 2010) Without exception, proper implementation o f CLT in Viet Nam educational context are causing difficulties to both o f foreign and language teachers, those are detailed in the research study conducted by educators such as Pham Hoa Hiep (2007); Dao Danh Nam (2010); Pham Thanh Nhan (2005); Ho Thi Mai Lan (2003); and Khoa Anh Viet (2008) To build a solid foundation for the research project launching, some studies on CLT application in EFL context would be discussed

2.5.1 CLT in foreign countries

There is a study investigating into the perception o f South Korean secondary school Englishteachers towards the difficulties they faced in applying CLT into practice The research wasdivided into 2 phases, the first is a short survey with 18 instructors as target audience, and thesecond is semi-focus group discussion with 10 o f them The research outcomes found out fourdifferent kind o f difficulties that prevent teacher from effectively implementing CLT,including o f : resistances from the teacher, problems from the students, the issues in currenteducational system and the shsortcomings o f CLT In which, some problems belongs toteachers’ poor performance in English speaking, their insufficiency in strategic and

sociolinguistic competence, their poor CLT knowledge, and their misunderstanding o f CLT real concept Whilst, regarding to the students’ side, CLT were discouraged by the students’ poor English speaking skill, their uncooperative attitude in doing group assignment, and their infrequent class participation Educational system, on the other hand, showed several shortcomings that lowered effectiveness o f CLT methodology, such as large class size, grammar-oriented exercise, shortage o f facilities, etc Finally, CLT itself needs several improvements to adapt with Korean educational context such as: lack o f appropriate interactive activities, shortage o f tracking and assessment instruments that fit with Korean culture By analyzing the identified problems, Li finally concluded that the educational system o f EFL countries as South Korea need improving in terms o f fundamental teaching approach, syllabus and infrastructure in order to have better adoption o f CLT Moreover, it is compulsory for EFL countries to build up their own linguistic research department with aiming to develop and invent more practical CLT theories and approaches that fit well with their culture However, due to lack o f realistic observations, L i’s study could not define the discrepancy between teachers’ plan & expectation and their realistic performance that need verifying in further studies (Li, 1998).

In 1999, Sato and Kleinsasser (1999) launched a research project to examine the potential issues that teachers, who is applying CLT in teaching Japanese in Australia might face to The research’s findings proved the fact that the teachers’ realistic performance in class was inconsistent with their perception o f CLT In fact, the teacher focus on using grammar-based activities instead o f interactive ones in real classes because they did not have enough time to prepare authentic teaching materials In addition, the teachers teaching styles seems to be put

in box, stuck with their teaching experience; that lead to their wrong implementation o f CLT

To recap, Sato and Kleinsasser (1999) commented that those teachers are being back to their traditional teaching style because they do not understand the core o f CLT

In contrast, in their research on Taiwanese EFL learners’ attitudes and perceptions o f CLT with respect to classroom practices identified as primarily meaning-based and form-focused, Wang and Savignon (2003) pointed out that the learner is lacking o f their own learning objectives, they had ambiguous need in studying that affect negatively to their learning performance In fact, the study targeted to 174 first year students in Taipei universities, who had different elementary and secondary school backgrounds, consisted o f 105 female and 69 male They were all questioned about their actual experiences with CLT in secondary school

as well as their attitudes and beliefs towards English language learning The result showed that they experienced grammar-based instruction rather than meaning-based throughout elementary to secondary schools Noticeably, this kind o f education made them feel

uncomfortable because they think that the communicative activities would facilitate their learning performance much faster than grammar-based exercise.

Furthermore, Liu (2005) in his study on problems o f CLT implementation in Taiwan, revealed that the current exam-oriented system o f the country was totally unsuitable with CLT method; the English language teachers focus on orienting their students to National College Entrance Exam, thus rely more on grammar-based teaching method The practical skill as verbal communication skill seems to be ignored that resulted to the students’ poor English speaking

& listening skill when entering into university

In a different studies on high school and university teachers’ attitudes towards CLT, Razmijoo (2006), based on the data obtained from 100 teachers, found out that the teacher believe in the effectiveness o f CLT In reality, they tend to be willing to use CLT method in teaching their students because they think CLT is a more practical and interesting method that could enhance the relationship between teachers and students

In Turkish, Ozsevik (2010) studies over 61 primary and secondary English teachers to explore how they are implementing CLT Similar to the research study o f Li (1998), Ozsevik’s report showed the Turkish teachers’ optimistic attitude towards CLT method, they were aware o f four kind o f barriers (e.g the teacher, the students, the educational system, and CLT itself) that could prevent them from successful application o f CLT into enhancing English learning and teaching in Turkey Nonetheless, they still believe that they could overcome these barriers

by insisting on learning and applying CLT into their English classroom

2.5.2 CLT application in Vietnam

It is found out from the studies o f Ellis (1994), one o f the main issue o f Viet Nam educational system is the teacher is insisting on applying traditional teaching methods Even some teachers who knew about the strength o f CLT, had no environment to apply this method into practice Interactive and communicative method seems to be unfam iliar with a traditional education system in Viet Nam In reality, Vietnamese teacher still concentrating paper- learning, on grammar translation rather than verbal communication Finally, Ellis confirmed that the CLT in its original form, if not being adjusted, could not be applied effectively in Viet Nam Also he admitted that due to his shortage o f Vietnamese culture, he could not recommend an optimal CLT approach that fit with Viet Nam education system

Khoa Anh Viet (2008) in his paper, discussed on the CLT position in English language teaching along with difficulties to adopt it in EFL context, also identified the problems o f

Vietnamese teacher in applying CLT in their English classes These problems were the teachers’ ambiguous understanding o f C LT’s essence, for example: the teachers in English faculty o f Vietnam National University and Ha Noi - College o f Foreign Languages, did not comprehend CLT; they ju st knew about CLT at a very basic level that is CLT emphasizing on increasing speaking time for students in university Additionally, the teachers’ traditional perception o f learners’ and instructors’ roles in the class is also a big problem; in their perception, teacher in class is a dominator and leader In their class, the students were required to study in compliance with I-R-E model, which stands for I: Teacher initiates; R: Students respond; E: Teacher evaluates), is completely based on the teacher-centered approach Though many training programs o f CLT were organized for Vietnamese teachers, the quality o f class seems to be at medium level After participating in these classes, the teachers just gained some theoretical knowledge o f CLT that they could read by themselves from related materials; what they need is exchange o f real experience o f utilizing CLT in class

to motivate students, to encourage them studying and to help their English skill improving comprehensively At the end o f his paper, Khoa Anh Viet also mentioned that the current low level o f salary appeared as one o f the main factor influencing on the teachers’ teaching purpose and their teaching behavior as well Indeed, low salary forced the teacher to work extra-job to earn more money for living that affected negatively to their teaching performance; in specific, they do not have enough time to do research to prepare lesson plan properly These findings seems to be very valuable but still be bias due to Viet’s teaching experience

It is worth here to review the investigation into the reality o f CLT application at Xuan Mai high school conducted by Dao Danh Nam (2010) In this study, Nam clarified the gap between teachers’ perception and their realistic execution in the school that somehow limited the effectiveness o f CLT Besides, there are many negative factors disturbing the teachers’ utilization o f CLT in their classroom, for instance: poor English proficiency o f the student, IRE teaching & learning model, students’ low motivation, lack o f teaching instruments, desire

o f the students’ parents, the pressure o f grammar-based examination and large-class size, etc

Meanwhile, Pham Thanh Nhan with his study in 2005 in Ha Noi Industrial College, realized that the decisive factors affecting adoption o f CLT in the university mainly came from the teachers, students and administration there In the importance o f orders, the influencing factors could be arranged as education background o f teachers, the students’ learning objective, the teachers’ willingness o f using CLT, and the administrator’s supports to CLT (provide environment for CLT application) Furthermore, high-time-consumption, teachers’ insufficiency o f real teaching experience, students’ poor English proficiency and large-class

sized and the cumbersome examination system also presented to be barriers prevent teachers from effectively implementing CLT Therefore, Nhan recommended that a macro restructure

o f VietNam current educational system m ight be a radical treatment to the current resistances

o f CLT application in not only Ha Noi Industrial College but also in over the country

Ho Thi Mai Lan (2003), in her efforts o f seeking for solutions to use CLT to improve the learning performance in speaking class o f non-English m ajor students at Kon Turn Teacher’s Training College, also clarified the challenging factors o f CLT implementation Although the sample size o f her study was quite small - only 9 teachers, she employed 2 research methodology (survey and classroom observation) to increase the quality o f data In the survey, she designed a questionnaire to investigate the teachers’ perception o f CLT, in addition, to obtain their sharing on the difficulties they had to cope with in applying CLT in English speaking class After that, the classroom observation was executed to check if there is any differences between what teacher think and what they really do Finally, another questionnaire was handed to the teachers to obtain their ideas and solutions to solve the identified difficulties The findings o f L an’s study were quite similar to what were explored in the previous studies, challenging factors also were students’ poor English communicative skill, their low motivation, abuse o f Vietnamese in group work, passive learning style, teachers’ misconception o f CLT, insufficient time to prepare learning materials, etc However, Lan proposed several solutions to overcome these challenges, for instance: short-term CLT training courses for the teachers, set up a library o f interactive activities to enhance the students’ learning performance

It is worth to mention here the research on "the reality o f the application o f CLT at Thanh Do University” conducted by Hieu (2013) By employing classroom and semi-structured

interview, Hieu (2013) implemented his investigation on 21 English teachers to find out the gap between the teachers’ perceptions o f CLT and actual teachings methods applied in their classes The report findings reflected the truth o f effective application o f CLT at Thanh Do University; however, there still be the teachers’ misunderstanding o f CLT, problems in educational systems (e.g large-class size, grammar-based examination, shortage o f teaching instruments, etc.) and the student-related difficulties (e.g students’ poor English proficiency, and their lack o f motivation for communicative competence, etc.) appeared in CLT class The identified challenges raised the need o f organizing more CLT training courses for the teachers; meanwhile the teachers were recom m ended to provide more communicative activities in classes to solve the student-related issues

Additionally, Son (2013) launched a descriptive survey to investigate "English Language teachers' self-reported beliefs in C LT and their self-reported teaching practices at the National Economics University (NEU) ” with aiming o f clarifying the discrepancy between the

teachers’ belief in CLT and their practices In this study, nearly all English Language teachers

at NEU were recruited as the target respondents; besides, by utilizing descriptive and correlation statistics, the study highlighted that NEU hold positive views into CLT, yet this fact did not present in their self-reported classroom teaching practices Furthermore, the study also mentioned influencing factors that determined classroom teaching practices o f CLT; those warned all related parties in Viet Nam educational systems as educators, researchers, administrators to think carefully before launching any English programs across the country

In conclusion, since this research aims to investigate the application o f CLT at Hung Yen University, it is necessary to review the key literature and to learn from the previous study in order to build up a firm theoretical base to launch the study Hence, this literature review chapter was written to introduce and discuss on different aspects o f CLT (e.g definition, characteristics, principles, communicative activities, teacher roles and learner roles) with respects to works o f well-known educators and linguists In addition, with the findings collected from the related studies, the researcher could achieve further understanding on realistic adoption o f CLT in EFL in both foreign countries and Viet Nam; from that to facilitate implementation stage o f this research

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY3.1 Research objectives

This study conducted to serve for the following objectives:

• To explore the roles o f the teachers and students in the English speaking class using CLT at Hung Yen University o f Education and Technology

CLT approach

application in the English speaking lessons

3.2 Research Philosophy & Research Approach

Theoretically, the belief that everything in the world has its own nature that could be collected, categorized and anatomized to explore its nature, is research philosophy According

to Brannic and Roche (1997), research philosophy could also be explained by using research paradigm, which comprises ideas, understanding, perception about research and the ways to conduct a study They also believe that the structure o f a research contains three parts - Epistemology, Ontology, and Methodology In which, the Epistemology focuses on the origin

o f a subject, or a phenomenon, in simple words, seeks the answer for the question ‘How to know what you know ?’ (BonJour, 2002) While, Ontology concentrates on chasing the nature

o f a phenomenon/a subject by proposing related hypothesis and proving them Research methodology refers to various research techniques that helps the researcher approach and investigate different situations

The research was divided into three phases; the first phase would employ qualitative research methodology (focus group discussion) to investigate the application o f Hung Yen University’s English teachers in their speaking classes This phase is an indispensable part since all researches are often activated by understanding the current situation o f the target object first

In this phase, the researcher focuses on exploring and understanding implementation o f CLT

at English speaking classes in Hung Yen University In essence, it seems that the research objectives become more explorative rather than descriptive, the study would concentrate on understanding teachers and students’ perception on CLT methodology and generating ideas to improve the application o f CLT in the speaking classes, thus focus group discussion is proposed Specifically, focus group discussion as qualitative research techniques would be applied so that the researcher might be able to stand on the shoes o f both teachers and students

to clarify the quality o f CLT speaking classes at Hung Yen University After that, in the final

phase, quantitative research methodology is recommended; a designed short questionnaire and face-to-face interview with teachers would be applied in a medium sample size (n=20) to examine the perceptions, attitudes and specific measurements, and their willingness to keep applying CLT The sampling method would be quota sampling, in which the detailed criteria for respondents would be set at the beginning then the respondents were going to be chosen accordingly.

3.2.1 Target Audience

The selected location for the study is Hung Yen University of Education and Technology situated in Hung Yen Province, a Northern Province considered as a Vietnam cultural center; which provides the researcher m ore possibilities o f approaching Vietnamese typical features

3.2.3 Focus Group discussion

Focus group discussion is a qualitative technique that requires the involvement o f an interviewer (moderator) and a group o f people to discuss and share ideas on a specific topic (Gloria & Katherine, 2014)

In this research, 4 focus groups o f 6-respondents would be assigned two different roles in the class, being teachers versus students with 2-hour-long interviews

Special requirements:

Education and Technology in Hung Yen

province

and Pre-intermediate level (equal division in

each groups)

+ They have to pursue the English major

courses at Hung Yen University o f

Education and Technology in the 2014-

2015 academic year

learning with CLT applied in their

English speaking classes

Special requirements:

of Education and Technology in Hung Yen province

They are in charge o f English speaking skill teaching at Hung Yen University o f Education and Technology in the 2014-2015 academic year

4 All the targeted respondents are applying CLT in their English speaking classes

Sample table:

Utilize the network and circle o f friend in Ha Noi to approach the potential respondent Since the target custom er is the student and teachers o f Hung Yen University who are quite easy­going and approachable, the chain-referral technique is proposed for the recruitment process

By doing this way, the process is going to start by initial connection with several students and teachers in the university then by direct & indirect recommendations, their classmates and colleagues are going to be recruited; the chain-referral recruitment technique would help to save time and ensure for the respondent quality (Gloria & Katherine, 2014)

Total (Chai

to approach and recruit the target respondents In addition, the standard procedure should be followed step by step in order to ensure the smooth operation o f the Field work stages

o The respondents are provided with necessary information including the objectives o f the study and asked for willingness to participate before being screened

o The respondents must accept to fill in the screen with their signature, agree to all o f the requirement o f the studies (this step could be removed if there’s any inconvenience from the respondents’ side)

conducting interview

■ Step 4: The research assistant then has to make direct contact with every respondent

to double-check the accuracy o f the collected information on the screen

■ Step 3: The moderator then sends interview appointment to the qualified respondents via postal method or email, the respondents’ confirmation would then once again be rechecked through the phone line one day beforehand

changes from the other respondents’ side

Data Collection and Analysis Method:

According to Newby (2010), data analysis o f qualitative research is a complicated process that arises from the range and variety o f the data and epistemological position adopted by the researchers In this study, both o f qualitative and quantitative analysis would involve in organizing, accounting for and explaining the data; in short, the analysis makes sense o f data

in terms of the participants’ definitions o f the situation, noting patterns, themes, categories and regularities

o Excel input frame: all the information collected in the interview would be

typed and recorded into an Excel input frame by an assistant Furthermore, to ensure the quality o f the data collected, the moderator would also use pens and clip board to note down the key information during the interviews then these two sources o f raw data would be cross-checked and supplemented to each other to eliminate any incorrect or subjective information

o Observation: The body language o f respondents in the interview would be

observed and captured by moderator during the interviews by using pen & note This data then was analyzed with the aim o f defining level o f truth and level o f importance o f the information collected

o The data that were collected from interviewing the teachers and students was recorded and transcribed before being identified and put into categories There are three data analysis procedures with the interviews: categorizing, coding and analysing the content In the first step, transcripts were read and re-read to start