The causes of passive learning of the freshmen at Faculty of Foreign Languages Ho Chi Minh City Open University

LIST OF TABLES Page Table 3.1: What the freshmen do when meeting a new Íriend...---- 13 Table 3.2: Frequency of giving opinions in cÏasseS...--e-ceeeeerierrrererreer 15 Table 3.3: The a

VO PHAN KIM NGAN

THE CAUSES OF PASSIVE LEARNING

OF THE FRESHMEN AT FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES -

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

, A paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

of Bachelor of Arts in English

Supervised by: NGUYEN THI XUAN LAN

Ho Chi Minh City

October, 2007

ABSTRACT

When Vietnam integrates into the world, English becomes so important that the jobs related to English are considered as the ideal ones Hoping to get promising future, a great deal of students choose English as their majors However, in fact, there are several ones who are unsuccessful English learners because of their passive learning

So are the freshmen at Faculty of Foreign Languages - Ho Chi Minh City Open

University (FFL — HOU) Their passive learning and their lack of activities while

learning English, which cannot be accepted upon learning such a practical major, are the problems at FFL — HOU Actually, the causes leading to passive learning are related to lots of matters which are subjective as well as objective This thesis studies the causes of passive learning of the freshmen at FFL — HOU Furthermore, there are some recommendations suggested for a better learning of them

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .ccssscssssssccsssscsssseccensensereacsatsnssenssneesouncanssecssveeenssaneennegens ii F10: (a0 iti (ÿ.:002/9)00699) 0/0256 ` iv

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1.2 Significance of the sfudy ‹eeereerreeiiiiiiiiriirierrrierirrriee

1.3 Research questions

1.4 Methodology

1.5 Overview of thesis Chap(€TS cong H001 ren 2

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ìeeerereiierririrrrrere 3

2.1 Situation of learning in Vietnam - 5-55 snnenererdrerirmrrrriee 3 2.2 Reasons affecting Vietnamese students” learning styÏe -. -eeeere+ 4

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Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS eceeirirrrierrerrrrrrie 12

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3.1.1 The quantity of passive Students .sccressecsresvscererecnsssnececatsenscnaneeniets 12

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3.1.2 The causes of passive learning ‹ cà ceằeeeeeeerrerirrrrrrirrirrrrrrerrerie 16

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3.1.2.3 English qblÏHi6§ «ceeeeersirererieieiiiiirriierarrrienirie 17 3.1.2.4 Prepdring Ì@SSOHS .ecccceeeeneeeeeeeererieeriiiiieriiiiaieririrrrrereerirrirrre 20 3.1.2.5 Teachíng sfÏ@ «««ceekeerrerierixrrrrrrririiirriiirirrrrseresre 21

3.2 Close analysis of the study°s major subJeCfS . -.-seerrserrrrrrerrrree 23

3.2.8 The thoughts of most of the teachers’ teaching siVÌe§ «ceeeeeseereeere 33 Chapter 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION 37

Appendix 2: QUESTIONNAIRE SAMPLE IN ENGLISH 45

LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 3.1: What the freshmen do when meeting a new Íriend 13 Table 3.2: Frequency of giving opinions in cÏasseS e-ceeeeerierrrererreer 15

Table 3.3: The amount of people the students are living with -«e+ 16

Table 3.4: The areas where the freshmen had studied before entering HOU 17 Table 3.5: The English abilities ofthe #eshmen at FFL — HOU 18 Table 3.6: The amount of time the freshmen spend in preparing a lesson

At HOME wacccccsccsccsssceesssssccseecsencessesssesssessnsssenecessussaesensssengedsenneassenseseauanaests 20 Table 3.7: The teaching methods applied by most of the teachers in the opinions of

the freshmen .ccscccsecesesssscssseessessscsenssencenseseccnensseansenesensseacseneesaneseeernennse 21 Table 3.8: The freshmen’s thoughts of most of the teachers’ teaching styles 22 Table 3.9: What the 37 subjects do when meeting a new friend - - 23 Table 3.10: The reasons why the 37 students rarely or never raise hands

Table 3.11: The amount of people the 37 studenfs are living with - 26 Table 3.12: The location of the 37 freshmen’s high schools ¬ 27 Table 3.13: The English abilities of the 37 subjects at FFL - HOU 28 Table 3.14: The quantity of time the 37 freshmen spend preparing lessons

Table 3.15: The teaching methods applied by most of the teachers according to the

kim oi TT

Table 3.16: The subjects’ thoughts of most of their teachers’ teaching styles

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LIST OF FIGURES

Page

FEigure 3.1: What the feshmen do when meeting a new fiend - 14

Figure 3.2: The English abilities of the freshmenn cssccseteesrererirere 19 Figure 3.3: The English abilities of the 37 subjecfs e.eeeereerrrrrrrrre 29 Figure 3.4: The quantity of time the 37 subjects spend preparing lessons at

Figure 3.5: The 37 subjects’ thoughts of most of their teachers’ teaching style 34

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Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

Freshmen are the newcomers and they are not accustomed to the ways of studying in university; therefore, they usually get troubles in leaming The freshmen at FFL — HOU are not exceptions In fact, the passive learning has exerted influences on them since they were in high school Also, the causes of the students’ passive learning are not only related to their personality but to other issues

1.2 Significance of the study

In order to help the freshmen at FFL — HOU learn better in the later years, this thesis

studies the causes leading to the passive learning of them and then gives them some recommendations In addition, the later researchers may consider this thesis as the basis to do research on the issues relevant to this topic

1.3 Research questions

During the process of researching, there are some questions which are needed to be

answered: “Are the freshmen at FFL — HOU passive by nature?”, “How do they study?”, and “How do the usual teaching methods applied in the classes at FFL — HOU affect the freshmen?” All of the answers the thesis finds out are concentrated

to identify: “What are the causes leading to passive learning of the freshmen at FFL

— HOU?”

1.4 Methodology

Needed information has been collected from books, websites, articles and the former studies In addition, the data collection was carried out by questionnaire, the practical approach This questionnaire was designed to survey the situations of 100 students at from 18 to 22 years old, who have just finished the first year at FFL — HOU; however, the number of copies which are collected is only 79 Besides, the survey was carried out on September 28, 2007, in five classes at FFL — HOU, which

are AVO6A2, AV06B1, AV06B2, AV06B3, and AV06B4 In order to facilitate the

Vietnamese students, the questionnaire was translated into Vietnamese instead of English

1.5 Overview of thesis chapters

The thesis includes four chapters in total First, chapter one consists of the

introduction of the whole thesis and the methodology which tells how, when and where this research, which is needed to answer the questions above, was carried out Second, chapter two provides a critical review and analysis of the literature relevant

to the topic Next, chapter three comprises the findings and the analysis of the data which were surveyed And the final chapter is the recommendations and conclusion

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Situation of learning in Vietnam

Comparing to the students in other countries, Vietnamese students are still passive (Pham Duc Trong, 2006, p 137) Mezger (1992) finds that they leam all information given without selection Also, he adds that reproductive rote learning is dominant, and memorization and imitation are expected In the opinion of Nguyen Thuc Hai (2006, p 82), university students are “writing workers” who write down absorbedly the whole content which is explained or written down on the blackboard Then, their notebooks become manuals when they take examination Actually, the students play the role of listeners and the recipients of written notes in class (Mezger, 1992) In particular, Nguyen Canh Toan (2002, p 12) states that the lack of practical activities makes Vietnamese students’ learning ineffective Le Due Ngoc (2005, p 26) demonstrates some facts as follows:

+ Students remember 20% of information upon listening only

+ The rate is 30% when they look or read only

+ If they combine listening with reading of looking, they will remember 50% of

the information

+ The students will remember 80% of the information in case of discussion

+If they speak while doing, they will remember 90% of the information

As a teacher, Tran Thanh Hiep (2003, cited in Truong Hieu, 2003) told he had to

repeat the lesson ideas many times in a Vietnamese class because he was afraid that his students would forget them Moreover, he had to take notes of each important idea in textbook to help them leam easily Therefore, most of the students are

dependent on their teacher (Tran Thanh Hiep, 2003, cited in Truong Hieu, 2003) Besides, that the students discuss through the teacher’s suggestion displays their passiveness Even after he gives a hint, they still keep silent instead of debating

heatedly, which reduces the class quality (Pham Duc Trong, 2006, p 137)

Sometimes, as Nguyen Thuc Hai (2006) states, the teacher asks the students to

answer his questions, which are not difficult and answerable; however, there is a few

of students raising their hands As a result, the learning atmosphere is affected The students are pressurized into giving opinions while their teacher is bored with one- way work Of course, as Pham Duc Trong (2006, p 137) notices, passive learning creates passive “scholars” who cannot study without help Meanwhile, the university students’ task is studying by themselves (Pham Duc Trong, 2006, p.137)

2.2 The elements affecting Vietnamese students’ learning style

be busy, so they often circulate knowledge passively In fact, in some practical classes, the teacher explains theory only, which cannot be accepted in university (Nguyen Thuc Hai, 2006, p 83) During the class, the teacher does not stimulate students’ thinking and update the information about life and society (Dang Pham Van Phuong, 2005, cited in Nhu Lich — Thien Di, 2006, p 136) His usual activity is reading the information in textbooks loudly and explaining cursorily, and the students write down mechanically (Dang Pham Van Phuong, 2005, cited in Nhu

Lich — Thien Di, 2006, p 136) In addition, Ton That Nguyen Thiem (2006, p 46)

found that the teacher chooses an “optimum” method which is circulating available knowledge Therefore, it is sure that what he explains is not wrong at all because it is

in textbooks Due to the teacher’s right explanation, the students’ discussion is

unnecessary (Ton That Nguyen Thiem, 2006, p 46) In other words, the teacher

speech dominates the classroom (Chaudron, 1988, p 54) Thus, the leaming atmosphere becomes static Furthermore, Freire (1970, chap 2) realized that:

Narration (with the teacher as narrator) leads the students to memorize mechanically the narrated content Worse yet, it turns them into “containers, ” into

“receptacles” to be “filled” by the teacher The more completely she fills the receptacles, the better a teacher she is The more meekly the receptacles permit

themselves to be filled, the better the students they are

According to Le Thi Hoai Giang (2006, p 136), the reading-writing method is used constantly in some classes, especially in the fundamental ones Moreover, she noticed that the teacher’s imposition may influence the students’ psychology They are afraid of being wrong; therefore, they do not want to raise their hands in order to give opinions (Le Thi Hoai Giang, 2006, p 136)

Also, Pham Phu (2005, p 47) pointed out most of the teachers use the illustrative explanation It founds on the intelligent activity called “Inference”, which means the process from general to specific In reality, the teacher explains, then his students write down to imitate It is the traditional teaching style which is used frequently to citculate available knowledge because it is obvious and easy to understand and apply, and the teacher may circulate a large amount of knowledge in a limited period However, this style makes the students passive and does not stimulate their creativity

Besides, Freire (1970, chap 2) brings the concept called “banking”, in which the

students are allowed to extend only as far as what they receive, file, and store The

banking concept of education means that “the teacher issues communiqués and

makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat instead of

communicating.” (Freire, 1970, chap 2) He also found banking education maintains and even stimulates the contradiction between the teacher and students through the following attitudes:

(a) The teacher teaches and the students are taught;

(b) The teacher knows everything and the students know nothing,

(c) The teacher thinks and the students are thought about;

(d) The teacher talks and the students listen — meekly;

(e) The teacher disciplines and the students are disciplined;

() The teacher chooses and enforces his choice, and the students comply;

(g) The teacher acts and the students have the illusion of acting through the action

role imposed on them, the more they tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited on them

2.2.2 Culture

“The culture we belong to as individuals will affect not only the way we think, but also our attitude to information, and our access to that information” (McLaren, 1998) Therefore, culture is important to comprehend the actions and behavior of any population in general and Vietnamese in particular, with “their strong loyalty to the family and their acquiescence to a subtle hierarchical social order in their dealings with one another” (Ellis, 1995) It is considered noble to become a teacher because teachers are highly respected in Vietnamese society (Phan Le Ha, 2001, p 298) According to Phuoc (1975, cited in Ellis, 1995), the nature of Vietnamese teaching and leaming style originates in the Confucian tradition by which the students paid reverence to Confucius, then to their school-masters, who were Confucius’s representatives Sharing the same thought with Phuoc, McLaren (1998) stated that the teacher is considered wise, authority figures whose word has great weight Thus, in Vietnam, as Ellis (1995) shows, the respected authors’ thoughts or observations are always in the students’ minds Nguyen (1988, cited in Ellis, 1995) realized that their thoughts, if any, had been stilled and had no room in their lives This is the reason why Vietnamese students “find it easy to imitate, but difficult to

do creative works” (Nguyen, 1988, cited in Ellis, 1995)

Furthermore, Phan Ke Binh (2005) expressed that the students have to respect their teacher because they get knowledge and become good people primarily thanks to him This is an oriental tradition which contributes to our country’s development (Tran Dinh Tuan and Doan Thu Hang, 2005, p 234) In the opinion of Tran Dinh

Tuan and Doan Thu Hang, the teacher is considered as a “candle” or a “boatman”

role imposed on them, the more they tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited on them

2.2.2 Culture

“The culture we belong to as individuals will affect not only the way we think, but also our attitude to information, and our access to that information” (McLaren, 1998) Therefore, culture is important to comprehend the actions and behavior of any population in general and Vietnamese in particular, with “their strong loyalty to the family and their acquiescence to a subtle hierarchical social order in their dealings with one another” (Ellis, 1995) It is considered noble to become a teacher because teachers are highly respected in Vietnamese society (Phan Le Ha, 2001, p 298) According to Phuoc (1975, cited in Ellis, 1995), the nature of Vietnamese teaching and learning style originates in the Confucian tradition by which the students paid reverence to Confucius, then to their school-masters, who were Confucius’s representatives Sharing the same thought with Phuoc, McLaren (1998) stated that the teacher is considered wise, authority figures whose word has great weight Thus, in Vietnam, as Ellis (1995) shows, the respected authors’ thoughts or observations are always in the students’ minds Nguyen (1988, cited in Ellis, 1995) realized that their thoughts, if any, had been stilled and had no room in their lives This is the reason why Vietnamese students “find it easy to imitate, but difficult to

do creative works” (Nguyen, 1988, cited in Ellis, 1995)

Furthermore, Phan Ke Binh (2005) expressed that the students have to respect their

teacher because they get knowledge and become good people primarily thanks to him This is an oriental tradition which contributes to our country’s development (Tran Dinh Tuan and Doan Thu Hang, 2005, p 234) In the opinion of Tran Dinh Tuan and Doan Thu Hang, the teacher is considered as a “candle” or a “boatman”

who trains his students to become moral, educated and polite citizens of the country

He must be respected so much and is considered as a parent; therefore, the students should not contradict him publicly According to Phan Le Ha (2001, p 298), Vietnamese people are imbrued with “respect for father’s moral instructions, mother’s love and sacrifice, and teacher’s knowledge, education and training,” which contributes to the close and responsible relationship between teachers and students Moreover, by tradition, Vietnamese do not reveal any of their problems to one another because such a revelation is regarded as a sign of weakness (Ellis, 1995) Meanwhile, Vietnamese culture, the culture marked more by collectivism, sets great store on the concept of saving face (Huu Ngoc) It is important to save

one’s own face, but also to save another’s (Ellis, 1995) Hence, the students should

not give their own opinions to save the teacher’s face, even when they are aware that

he is not right (Phuoc, 1975, cited in Ellis, 1995) Actually, students are not expected

to challenge or question their teacher (Mezger, 1992) Although they may not be satisfied with the knowledge given by the teacher, they have to perform as expected

at school No matter how the explanation is, the teacher’s effort should be

appreciated (Tran Dinh Tuan and Doan Thu Hang, 2005, p 234)

In addition, like other Orientals, Vietnamese students are reactive They belong to the group of listening or reactive cultures, “the members of which rarely initiate action or discussion, preferring first to listen to and establish the other’s position, then react to it and formulate their own” (R.D Lewis, 1999) According to Lewis (1999), the people in this culture, the best listeners of the world, listen before they leap They do not let their mind wander and rarely interrupt when a person is speaking Then they do not reply as soon as the speech is finished, which shows _ Tespect to the speaker If they begin their reply, the reactive people do not voice any strong opinion immediately Instead, they ask the questions on what the speaker said

to clarify his intent Rarely do Vietnamese use a direct approach in the communication because it is regarded as blunt and rude (Ellis, 1995) To summarize,

R D Lewis (1999) showed the manner of reactive people:

+ listen carefully

+ establish understanding of the other’s intent

+ allow a period of silence in order to evaluate

+ query further

+ react in a constructive manner

+ maintain a certain amount of inscrutability

+ imitate the other’s strengths or products

There is a situation that a few of students raise their hands to give opinions in class

Nhu Lich — Thien Di (2006, p 134-135) collected the reasons why there are a few of

students’ hands raised as follows:

+ The students are too lazy They are looking forward to listening to their teacher’s explanation in order to write down instead of preparing the lesson at

home Thus, they do not know how to answer the teacher's questions

+ They are afraid that the classmates will laugh at and sometimes the teacher will

deduct their marks if their answers are wrong

+ Most of the students do not want to raise hands in case of nobody else does it

because they are afraid of being considered to “upstage” their classmates

The questions are too hard for the students to answer

The students are not interested in the subject; therefore, they write the lesson

only

+ Some students chat with their friends while the teacher is explaining, so they do

not understand the questions

+ Sometimes, the questions are so easy that the students are not interested in answering them

The class atmosphere is not dynamic enough to make the students excited

They are afraid that in case that the answer is right, the teacher will ask more questions they cannot answer

+ The students are not confident and afraid of speaking in front of a crowd

Methods of learning in university are studying actively, reading through the teacher’s suggestion, analyzing, discovering, doubting, criticizing, objecting, arguing, etc In addition, all of these activities must have done by the students themselves (Nguyen Ngoc, 2005) In fact, students are still lazy to read (Ha Anh, 2007) As Huynh Thi Hong Hanh (2007) points out, they read passively because they just read when the teacher asks them to give a lecture or to write an essay, or

10

when they are encouraged to read an interesting book In other words, the students read something because they are forced or inspired to Actually, they have not had the habit of reading actively which means reading because of their demands or interests (Huynh Thi Hong Hanh, 2007)

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Chapter 3 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

The data were collected from the students who have just finished the first year in university In fact, there were 100 copies distributed to them, however, the number

of copies which were gathered is only 79 Because all of the students who were surveyed are Vietnamese, the questionnaire was designed in Vietnamese so as to facilitate them After the freshmen in five classes at FFL - HOU were surveyed on

September 28, 2007, the results are produced as follows:

The number of

after his or her greeting

Just looking at him or her

and smiling because I do

not know how to

communicate

Having nothing to say

even when he or she talks

Figure 3.1

a: Greeting him or her actively

b: Speaking to this person after his or her greeting

e: Just looking at him or her and smiling because I do not know how to

he or she greets them first The reason is that they do not know the way of communicating Besides, the 8 remaining respondents (10.13%) will look at the new

friend and smile because they are afraid of communicating with the person they have

never met before Actually, the viewpoints of these 29 students (36.71%) match the

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personality of Orientals who are shy of getting in touch with strangers Fortunately, none of them is too passive to have no word even when the new friend greets first 3.1.1.2 Passive in classes

The result of question 2 shows the amount of passive students in classes:

do it The passive students in classes, who rarely or never give opinions or raise their

hands, occupy a rate of 46.83%, equal to the number of 37 ones

There are many reasons making the students passive, excluding the reason involved

in their nature, which is mentioned above

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3.1.2 The causes of passive learning

The number of

Percent (%) respondents

Table 3.3: The amount of people the students are living with

Most of the students (40 ones — 50.63%) are living with more than 4 people 38 more ones (48.1%) live in the families with 3 or 4 members And the rest (1 student —

1.27%) live with 2 relatives This means the surveyed students do not live alone;

therefore, there is someone they can talk to at home As a result, their communicating skills are not bad, which may make them confident so that they can speak in front of their classmates

3.1.2.2 Location

It is said that we can judge a person by the place he lives or studies, which is the reason why there is the fifth question that shows the following result:

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