Điều tra về quan điểm của giáo viên và sinh viên tiếng Anh đối với việc dạy và học các loại tiếng Anh trên thế giới tại Trường Đại học Hồng Đức

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ HƯƠNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO ATTITUDES OF TEACHERS AND STUDE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

LÊ THỊ HƯƠNG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO ATTITUDES OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS OF ENGLISH

TOWARDS TEACHING AND LEARNING WORLD ENGLISHES AT HONG

DUC UNIVERSITY (Điều tra về quan điểm của giáo viên và sinh viên

tiếng Anh đối với việc dạy và học các loại tiếng Anh trên thế giới tại Trường Đại học Hồng Đức)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology

Code: 60 14 10

DUC UNIVERSITY (Điều tra về quan điểm của giáo viên và sinh viên

tiếng Anh đối với việc dạy và học các loại tiếng Anh trên thế giới tại Trường Đại học Hồng Đức)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology

Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: Dr Lê Văn Canh

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

EIL: English as an international language

ELT: English language teaching

EFL: English as a foreign language

FLF: Foreign Languages Faculty

HDU: Hong Duc University

IE: International English

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 (first six items):

Students and teachers‟ attitudes towards “Standard English” 21

Table 1 (last seven items): Students and teachers‟ attitudes towards the concept of “World Englishes” 23

Table 2: Students' attitudes towards learning native or non-native English 25

Table 3: Teachers‟ views on teaching World Englishes 28

Table 4: Reasons teachers choose to teach World Englishes 31

Table 5: Reasons teachers avoid teaching World Englishes 32

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP………

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………

ABSTRACT………

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS………

LIST OF TABLES………

TABLE OF CONTENTS………

PART A: INTRODUCTION………

1 Rationale of the study………

2 Aims and objectives of the study………

3 Scope of the study………

4 Significance of the study………

5 Research Questions………

6 Methods of the study………

7 Design of the study………

PART B: DEVELOPMENT………

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW………

1.1 Learning Attitudes………

1.1.1 Definitions of attitudes………

1.1.2 The role of attitudes in language learning………

1.2 Views on Standard English………

1.2.1 Standard English is not a language………

1.2.2 Standard English is not an accent………

1.2.3 Standard English is not a style………

1.2.4 So what is it then?

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1.3 World Englishes………

1.3.1 What is World Englishes?

1.3.2 Attitudes towards teaching and learning World Englishes………

1.3.2.1 To teach Standard English or World Englishes………

1.3.2.2 Current attitudes and perspectives on teaching and learning World Englishes………

1.4 Summary………

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY………

2.1 Background to the study………

2.1.1 Introduction of the Hong Duc University………

2.1.2 The teachers………

2.1.3 The English major students………

2.2 The survey instrument………

2.2.1 Questionnaire………

2.2.2 Interviews………

2.3 Procedures………

2.3.1 Piloting the questionnaire………

2.3.2 Distribution of the questionnaire………

2.3.3 Selecting participants for the interview………

2.3.4 The participants………

2.3.5 Data collection and analysis………

2.4 Summary………

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS…

3.1 Data analysis………

3.2 Findings and discussions………

3.2.1 Students and teacher‟s attitudes towards the so-called “Standard English”………

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3.2.2 Students and teacher‟s attitudes towards the concept of “World

Englishes”………

3.2.3 Student‟s attitudes towards learning “non-standard” varieties of English………

3.2.4 Teachers‟ negative views on teaching “non-standard” varieties of English in the classroom………

3.2.5 Reasons teachers choose to teach World Englishes………

3.2.6 Reasons teachers avoid teaching World Englishes………

PART C: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS………

1 Summary of major findings………

2 Suggestions of the study for World Englishes teaching………

2.1 Interaction with EIL users………

2.2 Assessment focusing in communicative effectiveness………

2.3 Teaching materials representing EIL users………

2.4 Improving teachers‟ knowledge and understanding of different non-standard varieties of English………

2.5 Teacher education………

3 Conclusion………

4 Limitations of the study………

5 Suggestions for further research………

REFERENCES………

APPENDICES………

Appendix 1: Student questionnaire………

Appendix 2: Teacher questionnaire………

Appendix 3: Interview questions………

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

The world is presently witnessing a rapid increase in the use of English as a language of wider communication More and more countries are making English their lingua franca to communicate with the rest of the world - not only with native English-speaking countries, but also with non-native English-speaking countries in international settings It is high time for Vietnamese teachers of English to change their attitudes toward so-called “standard English.” In Vietnam, only English broadcast on the BBC (British Broadcasting Company), VOA (Voice of America), or ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company) - in other words, only English used by speakers in Kachru‟s Inner Circle countries - is considered to be “standard English.”

At Hong Duc University (HDU), English-major students are always taught English in some standard textbooks followed TOEFL or IELTS format from the first year until they graduate So students and teachers believe that “standard English” can become very useful to help them communicate effectively in foreign companies but most people do not conduct business in that way I often hear my former graduate students, who are now working for Japanese, Korean or Taiwanese companies in Vietnam, complain that it is difficult for them to understand Japanese English, that is, the variety of English spoken by speakers of Japanese Or they will say that their

“standard English” has deteriorated because of Taiwanese or Korean supervisors who speak their own varieties of English

World Englishes is quite a new term for many teachers and students of English at Hong Duc University But there is a fact that both teachers and students wanted to know and understand more on the so-called “World Englishes” in order to help their students prepare well for future job at companies which are not managed by native

English speakers This inspires the researcher to conduct the study entitled “An

investigation into attitudes of teachers and students of English towards teaching and learning World Englishes at Hong Duc University” with hope of understanding more

about not only the teachers and st udents‟ attitudes towards teaching and learning World Englishes but also the overall problems faced by them in teaching and learning the incorporating World Englishes as an international language

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study aims at investigating the attitudes of teachers and students at Hong Duc University towards teaching and learning World Englishes In order to achieve this aim, the study attempts to:

- Investigate teachers and students‟ attitudes towards Standard English and World Englishes

- Find out the similarities and differences in opinions between teachers and students towards learning and teaching World Englishes

- Find out the possible problems faced by the teachers and students in incorporating World Englishes in teaching English as an international language

3 Scope of the study

Currently, World Englishes is one of the discussing matters for scholars all over the world Many opinions are given to present the advantages and disadvantages of introducing World Englishes to students of English World Englishes is a new term and can cause misunderstanding for participants to fulfill the survey questionnaire The participants must have a minimum understanding on native and non-native English Within the scope of a minor thesis, this study attempts to investigate the attitudes of students and teachers of English at Hong Duc University towards teaching and learning World Englishes therefore the most suitable participants should be from the 2nd year students who have just got used to with these terms and teachers of English in Foreign Languages Department at Hong Duc University

4 Significance of the study

How to help students of English have enough knowledge and experience to meet the increasing requirements of today society is a big question to almost teachers World Englishes can become an efficient instrument to solve that question Firstly, this study will be of considerable interest to both language teachers and students who concerns on teaching and learning World Englishes Secondly, the study provides an useful background on the theory and perspectives related to World Englishes for those who want to develop more on the topic Last but not least, this study hopes to provide teachers and students of English an analysis on attitudes towards teaching and learning World Englishes at Hong Duc University in order to decide whether to teach or learn World Englishes or not

5 Research Questions

In an attempt to investigate teachers and students of English‟s perceptions of World Englishes, the present study examined three related domains including teachers‟ and students‟ understanding of World Englishes concept, their attitudes towards

“Standard English”, and their attitudes to teaching and learning “non-standard” varieties of English in the classroom In light of the goal of the study, the following research questions were posed:

1 How do teachers and students understand the concept of “World Englishes”?

2 What are teachers and students‟ attitudes towards the so-called “Standard English”?

3 What are their attitudes to teaching and learning “non-standard” varieties of English?

6 Methods of the study

In order to fulfill the task mentioned above, this study employs both qualitative and quantitative methods The quantitative method is used to collect data through survey questionnaire; the aim is to explore students‟ understanding on Standard English and World Englishes as well as their views on learning native and non-native English The teachers also become the participants to be asked about their

understanding towards World Englishes and their views on teaching or avoiding teaching World Englishes The qualitative method is used to gather information through informal interviews and discussions with teachers of English in the Foreign

Languages Falcuty (FLF) of Hong Duc University

7 Design of the study

The study consists of three main parts:

Part A: Introduction presents rationale; aims and objectives; scope; significance;

research questions; methods; and design of the study

Part B: Development constitutes three chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature review - offers the reviews of literature related to studies on

learning attitudes, Standard English and World Englishes

Chapter 2: Methodology - deals with the actual procedures of the study: study design,

subject of the study, data collection instruments as well as data collection analyzing process

Chapter 3: Data Analysis, Findings and Discussions - focuses on presenting,

analyzing and discussing the results obtained from the study

Part C: Conclusion and Suggestions - summarizes some major findings, makes

conclusion for the thesis, provides suggestions for a possibly applicable teaching approach to World Englishes, limitations of the study, and suggestions for further research

There are many definitions of the term Among them, Gardner (1985:91-93) claims that attitude is an evaluative creation to some referent or attitude objects, inferred on the basic of individual‟s beliefs or opinions about the referent In addition

to that, in Gibb‟s opinion (1988), attitude is generally defined as a state of mind, which

is influenced by feelings, experiences of the world and belief More clearly, Hallorah (1967) states that attitude represents an individual like or dislike towards an item Attitudes are positive, negative or neutral views of an “attitude object”, i.e a person, situation or event People can also be “ambivalent”, meaning that they simultaneously possess a positive and a negative bias towards the attitudes in question

The above definitions show people‟s attitudes towards certain referent object, a behavioral intentions component and a cognitive component involving belief about the object In language learning, we can see students‟ attitudes in their feelings and belief about the way of acting towards the lessons, learning style, teachers and the course

books

1.1.2 The role of attitudes in language learning

Attitudes and learning always go side by side Garder and Lamper (1972) both agree that “success in mastering a foreign language would depend not only on

intellectual capacity and language aptitude, but on one‟s attitudes towards representatives of that language as well.”

It has been proved that those with less positive attitudes towards second language learning drop out of further language study, while those who continue have more favorable attitudes Students may become bored and inattentive in class, do badly

on tests and get discouraged from the course if they keep negative attitudes in learning

In one of their studies, Gardner and Smythe (1976) found that the dropouts in study demonstrated less positive attitude and lower motivation than students who continued with their language study the next year

Besides, Lightbrown and Spada (1999) state that attitude is fundamental to the success or failure that we experience in learning Depending on the learners‟ attitudes, language learning can be a source of enrichment or a source of resentment Agreeing with the role of attitudes, Brown (1994) says that language learners benefit from positive attitudes while negative attitudes may lead to unsuccessful attainment of proficiency Moreover, Gardener (1985: 41) emphasizes that favorable attitudes would

be expected to result in better performance than negative attitudes If learners hold positive learning attitudes, they will be willing to participate in it, and they themselves find motivation and inspiration in learning

To summarize, it would be better to quote Marzano et all‟s (1994) emphasizing the importance of positive attitudes in learning that “without positive attitudes and perceptions or holding negative attitudes towards the learning students have little chance of learning proficiently, if at all”

1.2 Views on Standard English

1.2.1 Standard English is not a language

Standard English is often referred to as "the standard language" It is clear, however, that Standard English is not "a language" in any meaningful sense of this term Standard English, whatever it is, is less than a language, since it is only one

variety of English among many Standard English may be the most important variety of English, in all sorts of ways: it is the variety of English normally used in writing, especially printing; it is the variety associated with the education system in all the English-speaking countries of the world, and is therefore the variety spoken by those who are often referred to as "educated people"; and it is the variety taught to non-native learners But most native speakers of English in the world are native speakers of some nonstandard variety of the language, and English, like other Ausbau languages (see Kloss, 1967), can be described (Chambers and Trudgill, 1997) as consisting of an autonomous standardised variety together with all the nonstandard varieties which are

heteronomous with respect to it Standard English is thus not the English language but

simply one variety of it

1.2.2 Standard English is not an accent

There is one thing about Standard English on which most linguists, or at least British linguists, do appear to be agreed, and that is that Standard English has nothing

to do with pronunciation From a British perspective, we have to acknowledge that there is in Britain a high status and widely described accent known as Received Pronunciation (RP) which is sociolinguistically unusual when seen from a global perspective in that it is not associated with any geographical area, being instead a purely social accent associated with speakers in all parts of the country, or at least in England, from upper-class and upper-middle-class backgrounds It is widely agreed, though, that while all RP speakers also speak Standard English, the reverse is not the case Perhaps 9%-12% of the population of Britain (see Trudgill and Cheshire, 1989) speaks Standard English with some form of regional accent It is true that in most cases Standard English speakers do not have "broad" local accents i.e accents with large numbers of regional features which are phonologically and phonetically very distant from RP, but it is clear that in principle we can say that, while RP is in a sense, standardised, it is a standardised accent of English and not Standard English itself This

point becomes even clearer from an international perspective Standard English speakers can be found in all English-speaking countries, and it goes without saying that they speak this variety with different non-RP accents depending on whether they came from Scotland or the USA or New Zealand or wherever

1.2.3 Standard English is not a style

There is, however and unfortunately, considerable confusion in the minds of many concerning the relationship between Standard English and the vocabulary

associated with formal varieties of the English language We characterise styles (see Trudgill, 1992) as varieties of language viewed from the point of view of formality

Styles are varieties of language which can be ranged on a continuum ranging from very formal to very informal Formal styles are employed in social situations which are formal, and informal styles are employed in social situations which are informal - which is not to say, however, that speakers are "sociolinguistic automata" (Giles, 1973) who respond blindly to the particular degree of formality of a particular social situation On the contrary, speakers are able to influence and change the degree of formality of a social situation by manipulation of stylistic choice

All the languages of the world would appear to demonstrate some degree of stylistic differentiation in this sense, reflecting the wide range of social relationships and social situations found, to a greater or lesser extent, in all human societies I believe, with Labov (1972) that there is no such thing as a single-style speaker, although it is obviously also the case that the repertoire of styles available to individual speakers will be a reflection of their social experiences and, in many cases, also their education It is of course important here to distinguish between individual speakers of languages and those languages themselves, but it is clear that languages too may differ similarly in the range of styles available to their speakers In many areas of the world, switching from informal to formal situations also involves switching from one language to another In such cases, it is probable that neither of the two languages

involved will have the full range of styles available to speakers in monolingual situations

1.2.4 So what is it then?

If Standard English is not therefore a language, an accent or a style, then of course we are obliged to say what it actually is The answer is, as at least most British sociolinguists are agreed, that Standard English is a dialect As we saw above, Standard English is simply one variety of English among many It is a sub-variety of English

Sub-varieties of languages are usually referred to as dialects, and languages are often described as consisting of dialects As a named dialect, like Cockney, or Scouse, or

Yorkshire, it is entirely normal that we should spell the name of the Standard English dialect with capital letters

Standard English is however of course an unusual dialect in a number of ways

It is for example by far the most important dialect in the English-speaking world from a social, intellectual and cultural point of view; and it does not have an associated accent

It is also of interest that dialects of English, as of other languages, are generally simultaneously both geographical and social dialects which combine to form both geographical and social dialect continua First, the distinction between Standard English and other dialects is not arbitrary or a matter of slicing up a continuum at some point of our own choice, although as we have seen there are some difficulties This is inherent in the nature of standardisation itself There is really no continuum linking Standard English to other dialects because the codification that forms a crucial part of the standardisation process results in a situation where, in most cases, a feature is either standard or it is not Secondly, unlike other dialects, Standard English is a purely social dialect Because of its unusual history and its extreme sociological importance, it is no longer a geographical dialect, even if we can tell that its origins were originally in the southeast of England It is true that, in the English-speaking world as a whole, it comes

in a number of different forms, so that we can talk, if we wish to for some particular

purpose, of Scottish Standard English, or American Standard English, or English Standard English (Bizarrely, the British National Curriculuim document suggests that American and Australian English are not Standard English!) And even in England we can note that there is a small amount of geographical variation at least in spoken Standard English, such as the different tendencies in different parts of the country to

employ contractions such as He‟s not as opposed to he hasn‟t But the most salient

sociolinguistic characteristic of Standard English is that it is a social dialect

1.3 World Englishes

1.3.1 What is World Englishes?

The term „World Englishes‟ needs attention in the light of this thesis, because it

is also widely used by many academics The journal „World Englishes‟ which deals with this field has been published since 1981 and has been popular ever since The following description about the journal is given: „World Englishes is committed to the study of global varieties of English in their distinctive cultural, sociological and educational contexts It is integrative in its scope and includes theoretical and applied studies on language, literature and English teaching, with emphasis on cross-cultural perspectives and identities‟ The journal is edited

by Kachru and Smith Channing Burt (2005)

mentions several opinions on the conceptualization

of IE in his article „What is International

English?‟ He starts with mentioning the work of

Kachru (1997) In 1997

Kachru developed a model that explains the spread

and use of English internationally, which he calls

the Concentric Circles He claims that the Inner

Circle is center or origin of the traditional cultural

and linguistic bases of English (this includes the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia, and

New Zealand) Next is the Outer Circle, which contains countries where institutionalized, non-L1 varieties of English are used (for example Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Zambia) Most of the countries in the Outer Circle are former colonies of the Inner Circle Finally, he mentions the Expanding Circle „where performance varieties with no official status and of restricted use are spoken in English

as a Foreign Language context‟ (Burt, 2005, p 2)

This model does not only prove that there are different ways to look upon the use and spread of English, it

also points out clearly that

there are clearly different

levels of English Germany,

for example, is a country that

obviously belongs to the

English should be expected

to be a lot different from

those who live in the Inner Circle L2 stands for ‟Language two‟, meaning the second language of a person English is a L2 or even L3 for many people all over the world Kachru argues that the term World English is a better way of describing the global use

of English than International English The argument he uses is that the word

„international‟ implies that there is an international variety of English that has been codified, accepted and taught around the world, which, according to him, is far from reality Another reason for opposing the word international is that it is often used inaccurately, and according to Kachru it often refers solely to „America, Britain and Australia‟ (Kachru, 1997, p 70)

What does “World Englishes” mean?

The Expanding Circle

China, Egypt, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Russia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Caribbean Islands (EFL)

The Outer Circle

Bangladesh, India Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Zambia (ESL)

The Inner Circle

USA UK Canada Australia New Zealand

Krachu’s Three Concentric Circles

According to Erling (2004, p 60) the term World English is the oldest term, dating back from 1920‟s This might be one of the reasons, along the reasons mentioned above by Kachru, why this is the most accepted term among academics The use of the term World English implies not only awareness of the multiple varieties of English in the world, but also the fact that all varieties of English, both native and non native, „belong equally to all who use them and merit serious and consistent study both individually and collectively‟ (McArthur, 1998, p 61)

When defining these terms and when providing different views on these terms,

it is important to keep in mind why so much attention had been paid to this Of course, from a (socio-) linguistic point of view, it is important to outline the development, shifts, and changes of a language There are however interesting practical purposes when it comes to education and business life as well Ayo Bamgbose (2001) argues in her article „World Englishes and Globalization‟ that finding out how World English is developing and how it can be taught best in non-native countries is a duty to the academic world She stresses the fact that the level of English is dramatically decreasing in third world countries (Bamgbose, 2001, p 357), and that something should be done to turn the tide again

1.3.2 Attitudes towards teaching and learning World Englishes

1.3.2.1 To teach Standard English or World Englishes?

Since teaching local varieties of English (such as Singlish) may be just as problematic as teaching inner circle Standard English, English language teachers may find themselves in a quandary as to what type of English to emphasize to their students

We recognize that many English language teachers may not have the luxury of deciding what variety to emphasize and teach to their students because this may already be mandated by Ministries of Education, school boards, and/or school directors Nevertheless, we suggest that teachers can inform their practices about the

different varieties of English that exist and consider a balanced approach to teaching English Such an approach would include three key considerations:

1 Teachers need to carefully consider their teaching context (McKay 2002)

2 After choosing their target of instruction based on that context, teachers should value their learners‟ current English usage (El-Sayed 1991)

3 Teachers need to prepare learners for future international English encounters by exposing them to other varieties of English (Matsuda 2003) and by teaching them strategic competence when interacting with speakers who speak other varieties of English

1.3.2.2 Current attitudes and perspectives on teaching and learning World Englishes

as a Lingua France

In any context of language learning and teaching, the issue of what to learn or to teach is bound to rise In the case of ELT, the debate in recent decades has been about which English to aim for For a majority of ELT experts in the Inner Circle as well as

in some members of Outer and Expanding Circle the competing standards are still British or American English Other members of the Outer Circle, however, have started challenging the exocentric norms and rethinking the questions of standards The observations relevant to the debate are the following Contrary to the myth that people

in China or India or Japan or Nigeria learn English to interact with users of English from the Inner Circle, English is basically used by people of Outer and Expanding Circle interacting with each other within or outside their respective Circle

B Krachu (1997b) suggests that there are enough resources for imaginative use

in the teaching and learning of World Englishes For instance, Hannam University and Open Cyber University of Korea have introduced and are developing the Internet as a resource for teaching WEs to Korean learners of English (Jung & Min, 2002; Shim, 2002) Both sets of teachers are collecting materials from the websites of all the three

Circles of English and preparing appropriate units for language teaching based on these materials

Dictionary-making has woken up to the usefulness of documenting the immense impact of language contact on the lexicon of English, and there are several attempts at incorporating items from different regional Englishes into the mainstream dictionaries

of Inner Circle varieties (Encarta World English Dictionary, 1999, had consultants for

East Africa, Hong Kong, Hawaii, Malaysia-Singapore, South Africa, U.K.Black

English, and U.S African American English; the Macquarie Dictionary, 1997, has

lexical items from Southeast Asian Englishes, for example, Malaysia, Singapore, and The Philippines)

There is, however, a great deal of work to be done before all those involved in ELT worldwide feel comfortable with the paradigm shift that teaching and learning WEs signals Applied linguistics and ELT professionals have yet to take a principled stand and prepare themselves to incorporate the world Englishes perspective into their academic practices These then will have an effect on the education policymakers, the educational authorities will then be able to adopt an appropriate stance toward the teaching and learning of English

1.4 Summary

In this chapter, I tried to provide a brief description of the theoretical knowledge relating to the study Included is learning attitudes and its important role in teaching and learning English This chapter also included views on Standard English from a new angle, the term “World Englishes”, debates and attitudes around teaching and learning

it

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 Background to the study

2.1.1 Introduction of the Hong Duc University (HDU)

Hong Duc University was established by the Decision No 797/ TTg issued by

basis of three separate colleges of Thanh Hoa Province namely: The Teacher Training College, the Economics & Technology College and the Medical College Nowadays, it

is a public, multi-discipline, and multi-branch institution in Vietnam Higher Education System which focuses in training scientific and technological cadres up to a four-year degree standard to meet the socio-economic development requirements of the Province and the neighboring provinces

2.1.3 The English major students

There are eight semesters for university students and six for college ones As a first year students, they are provided with lot of materials to develop their language skills so they can have a basic understanding on the so-called Standard English But the

researcher aimed to investigate the attitudes of students from the second year after they have experienced language proficiency for at least one year On average, English major

However, the majority of them are female because of the characteristics of the social specialties at this university Most students come from different parts in the North of the country, mainly from Thanh Hoa province and are trained to become a teacher of English in the future

2.2 The Survey Instrument

2.2.1 Questionnaire

The survey questionnaire was chosen as the main instrument for data collection Survey questionnaire is a simple and familiar instrument of appreciating attitudes of participants Also, it is easy to administer and less time-consuming than other instruments The questionnaire was design to evaluating attitudes through Likert-scale items using a five-point scale ranging from 'strongly disagree' to 'strongly agree' which are a useful and effective means of determining opinions and attitudes (Turner, 1993)

A three-page questionnaire for English major students composed of 24 type items was divided into three sections The first section contained demographic questions in order to gain information about students The second section (items 1-13) dealt with the basic concept of Standard English and World Englishes The third section (items 14-24) related to students‟ view on native and non-native English

items and two open-ended items, was divided into four sections The first section contained demographic questions in order to gain demographic information about teachers The second section (items 1-13) dealt with the basic concept of Standard English and World Englishes in order to review teachers‟ practical understandings of World Englishes The third section (items 14-23) related to teachers‟ view on teaching

World Englishes Finally, in the fourth section, teachers were asked to rate their own reasons for choosing or avoiding teaching World Englishes

2.2 2 Interviews

The interview questions were structured to get better insights into the research questions and to discuss further information about the items raised in the questionnaire for teachers to clarify more on the reasons for teachers to choose Standard English or World Englishes to teach so that the study would be more sufficient and valid The interview was carried out in English in the form of an informal conversation between the researcher and 20 teachers of English at FLF Each interview lasted about 10 minutes The questions in the interview were based on the questions in the questionnaire for teachers, but were extended to get more through understanding of the matter The data collected from the interview was recorded, transcribed for the purposes of the study

2.3 Procedures

Most questionnaire items of the questionnaire were structured to explore students and teachers‟ attitudes towards World Englishes The researcher did not design all questionnaire items but modified most of them from other researchers because there are many similar and useful items which can suit the researcher‟s purpose

2.3.1 Piloting the questionnaire

random sample of thirty students and ten teachers at the FLF, HDU Thirty students at the FLF were selected randomly from the total of 186 students who are from the second years and more Ten teachers at the FLF were selected randomly from the total

of twenty-five teachers who are teaching English for English major students

The reason for selecting representatives of the different levels was to ensure that the samples selected for the study represented the whole population The constructive

feedback from these thirty students and ten teachers was taken into consideration in rewording items, adding new ones, modifying ambiguous wordings, and deleting the items that were irrelevant to the purpose of the study Additionally, grammatical mistakes were corrected, instructions and directions were modified, and terms and concepts were modified so that they were clear to the participants For this reason, the pilot study proved to be very beneficial

2.3.2 Distribution of the questionnaire

teachers and students in their class and was collected by the researcher at the end of the

2.3.3 Selecting participants for the interview

After analyzing the data gathered from the questionnaires, 20 teachers were chosen for the interviews The following criteria were considered while choosing the participants for the interview: Whether the participants had taught World Englishes in 2012-2013 academic year, in previous years, or had not taught it at all; which kind of English they choose to teach their students The aim of the interview was to get in-depth answers to second and third research questions:

2 What are teachers and students‟ attitudes towards the so-called “Standard English”?

3 What are their attitudes to teaching and learning “non-standard” varieties of English?

A total of five interview questions were prepared for the teachers to answer The interviews were carried out in English

2.3.4 The participants

The study was carried out with 186 students of English from the second year at FLF, HDU belonging to 2 big groups: university students and college students and 20 teachers of English 165 of students are females and 21 are males, 15 of teachers are females and 5 are males

2.3.5 Data Collection and Analysis

Two different methods were used for data collection First, while visiting 5 classes of major English students, the researcher contacted 186 students from the second year of studying, explained the pedagogical goal of the survey, and asked them

to answer the questionnaire A total of 186 students completed the survey giving a response rate of 100% Next, written questionnaires were mailed to 20 teachers of English All of them were returned, giving a response rate of 100%

Quantitatively, the data analysis process consisted of two methodologies, type and open-ended item analysis The number of participants corresponds for each scale (strongly disagree, disagree, undecided, agree, and strongly agree) was converted into percentage in order to be easy in comparing and evaluating data Open-ended items, which were constructed to capture the reasons teachers choose, or avoid, teaching English in their classrooms, were first categorized and then coded by the researcher in terms of the teachers‟ responding rates

Likert-Qualitatively, the interviews were taped and transcribed by the researcher The transcript data were first categorized according to the sections in the interview: kinds of people that students contact after they graduate; kind of English that they are teaching; kind of English in the future The responses for questions under each section were compared among the twenty interviewees‟ transcriptions Responses that reveal common patterns and issues were highlighted

The information from the questionnaires was displayed in form of tables while the information from the interview was showed in quotations

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS

 Student and teacher‟s attitudes towards the concept of “World Englishes”

 Student‟s attitudes towards learning “non-standard” varieties of English

 Teacher‟s view towards teaching “non-standard” varieties of English

 Reasons that teachers choose, or avoid, teaching “non-standard” varieties of English

3.2 Findings and discussions

In this part, the collected data will be analyzed, presented and discussed to answer the research questions that the researcher has proposed

3.2.1 Student and teacher’s attitudes towards the so-called “Standard English”

First of all, the author would like to explore the teacher and students‟ general attitudes towards “Standard English” as an easy concept to be defined and understood

by both teachers and students

Table 1 presents a percentage comparison of teacher and student responses to each of the first six items on the concept and relevant matters of “Standard English” For the convenience of comparison, the five-point scale responses were merged into a three-point simplified scale (strongly disagree & disagree, undecided, agree and strongly agree)

Table 1 (First six items)

Students and teachers’ attitudes towards “Standard English”

Questionnaire Items Strongly disagree Undecided Strongly agree

/Disagree (%) (%) /Agree (%)

1 Standard English is native varieties: S 5.0 9.0 86.0 traditional varieties of British, American, T 0.0 15.0 85.0 and Australian English

2 Standard English is the language that S 16.0 15.0 69.0 was taken from BBC, VOA T 20.0 0.0 80.0

3 There is no Standard English S 77.0 1.0 22.0

6 When learning English, we must S 47.0 15.0 38.0 imitate the culture, philosophy or T 30.0 10.0 60.0 lifestyle of native English-speaking countries

Note: S = student, T = teacher

In response to item 1, which asked for the concept of “Standard English”, the vast majority of respondents agree that „Standard English” is native varieties mainly from Britain, America or Australia (students (160 = 86%) and teachers (17 = 85%)), a primary (9%, 15% respectively) is not certain in dealing with the definition This implies that most FLF students and teachers generally agree with the definition of Standard English which emphasizes at native varieties from native English speaking countries For them, the so-called Standard English is formed from those countries and diffused to other countries In response to item 2 which refers to the resources releasing Standard English such as VOA or BBC, most of students (69%) and teachers (80%) think that the most reliable resource of Standard English comes from the main broadcasting system of native English speaking countries while only a small number of them (16% and 20%) do not think so The author as a teacher of English at FLF also see that textbook which is used to teach students in class are chiefly published by

famous publishers such as Oxford, Longman or famous writers from native English speaking countries This, in return, has a close connection with the first item In their thought, Standard English should come from the Inner Circle (Krachu‟s Three

Concentric Circles) However, the term Standard English suggests that we all share a

similar understanding of exactly what this means, yet it is not easy to define One reason for this is that there is no world-recognized governing body that dictates what

should and should not be included in such a standard (Thomas S C Farrell and Sonia

Martin.) One more interesting item was given to test their response towards Standard English is that there is no Standard English Item 3 shows that only 22% of students and 30% of teachers are in favor of this idea while a large number of them (77% and 70% respectively) object to this The author thinks that the percentage of respondents for this item will probably be 100% disagree But the result shows that there still exists one third of respondents who agree with the idea of “there is no Standard English” This again implies that Standard English in a certain extent is fading its unique position As the third millennium begins, new factors are converging to influence Standard English: US work environments are becoming more richly intercultural, newcomers to the United States are increasing their fluency in English and international business is using English increasingly as a global language of business (Jeanette Gilsdorf, 2002.)

Item 4, 5 and 6 go through the aim for learning English as well as the attitudes towards studying the culture of native speakers For item 4 “People need to learn English as it is the international language”, 75% is the number of students who find it right and 100% is for teachers Both see the important role of English in the today world Some students find it difficult to decide and only 4% of them do not agree with the statement Another function of English is mentioned to explore whether learners care for the technology and civilization of native English speaking countries 90% for both is an impressing result because it reveals that Standard English must come with