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LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: Frequency of elicitation teaching Figure 2: Shortcomings of elicitation teaching Figure 3: Frequency of using elicitation techniques Figure 4: Degree

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-*** -

CHU THỊ HUYỀN MI

TEACHERS’ USE OF ELICITATION TECHNIQUES TO

UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY,

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÁC THỦ THUẬT GỢI MỞ CỦA GIÁO VIÊN ĐỂ DẠY

KĨ NĂNG NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC

CÔNG NGHỆ, ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

HANOI, 2012

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-*** -

CHU THỊ HUYỀN MI

TEACHERS’ USE OF ELICITATION TECHNIQUES TO

UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY,

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÁC THỦ THUẬT GỢI MỞ CỦA GIÁO VIÊN ĐỂ DẠY

KĨ NĂNG NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC

CÔNG NGHỆ, ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: Nguyễn Minh Tuấn, M.A

HANOI, 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Candidate‟s statement i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of figures and tables vi

Chapter 1: Introduction 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims and objectives 3

1.3 Scope of the study 3

1.4 Significance of the study 3

1.5 Overview of the rest of the paper 4

Chapter 2: Literature review 5

2 1 Key concepts and relevant knowledge 5

2.1.1 Communicative Language Teaching 5

2.1.2 Elicitation 6

2.1.2.1 Definition of elicitation 6

2.1.2.2 Types of elicitation 6

2.1.2.3 Advantages of elicitation techniques 9

2.1.2.4 Disadvantages of elicitation techniques 11

2.1.2.5 Considerations 11

2.2 Related studies 12

Chapter 3: Methodology 15

3.1 Research settings and participants 15

3.1.1 Research settings 15

3.1.2 Participants 16

3.2 Research Instruments 17

3.2.1 Teacher and Student Questionnaire 18

3.2.2 Teacher interview 19

3.2.3 Classroom observation 19

3.3 Data collection procedure 19

3.3.1 Preparation 19

3.3.2 Implementation 20

3.4 Data analysis procedure 20

Chapter 4: RESULTS 21

4.1 Data analysis and discussion 21

Research question 1 21

Research question 2 26

Research question 3 30

4.2 Implications 34

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION 36

5.1 Summary of findings 36

5.2 Contributions of the research 37

5.3 Limitations of the research 37

5.4 Suggestions for future research 37

References 39 Appendices I

Appendix 1 I Appendix IX Appendix 3 X

Appendix 4 XIII

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1: Frequency of elicitation teaching

Figure 2: Shortcomings of elicitation teaching

Figure 3: Frequency of using elicitation techniques

Figure 4: Degree of students‟ confidence to talk

Figure 5: Activation of students‟ background knowledge

Figure 6: Increasing students‟ talk time

Figure 7: Students‟ embarrassment to listen to their peers‟ talk

Figure 8: Students‟ memorization of the lesson

Table 1: Categorization of selected students

Table 2: Benefits of elicitation teaching

Table 3: Teachers‟ elicitation manners

For the last few years, communicative language teaching (CLT) has remarkably emerged as an innovative teaching approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages throughout the world According to Nunan (1991), CLT features interaction as

both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language This emphasis involves that

students are required to construct a habit of enthusiastically participating in classroom exchanges and real communication to enhance their speaking skill The new learning strategy can only be enabled when there is a shift between teachers‟ and students‟ roles Learner-centered learning has reigned in modern classrooms where students are given

more autonomy while teachers take the roles of controllers, assessors, organizers, prompters, participants and so forth (Harmer, 2001) who facilitate students‟ participation

in a variety of interactive activities In an attempt to reverse that dominant status between the two parties, elicitation teaching has been spread into English classrooms on an international scale

On the way of educational integration, the communicative approach has been adapted to Vietnam‟s national curriculums of almost every academic level, ranging from elementary, middle, secondary to post-secondary levels Although the interest in and development of communicative-style teaching developed statistically worldwide, the adoption in Vietnam has been obstructed by the inherent dominance of grammar-translation approach It is commonly seen that Vietnamese students are typically passive and shy in language classrooms while teachers tend to embrace the role of "expert" who would impart his or her knowledge or "expertise" to unknowing students, who in turn

would be assessed by evaluation instruments intended to measure the amount of transferred "expertise" (Rudder, 2000) Similarly, while elicitation has been considered an essential tool to teach speaking skill in modern classrooms worldwide, the use of it in Vietnam has turned out not to be as effective as expected Therefore, the present study saw

a need to learn about teachers‟ perception of elicitation teaching and their actual employment to better understand the matter

In addition, the issue of using elicitation techniques in teaching speaking skill has not been extensively studied in Vietnam The three studies that should be highlighted so

far are Pham (2006) which is using elicitation to teach vocabulary to 11 th form students in

Hanoi, Tran (2007) which is eliciting techniques to teach speaking skill to grade-10 students in Hanoi Foreign Languages Specializing School (HFLSS) and Nguyen (2011)

the exploitation of eliciting techniques by fourth-year students in their teaching practicum

at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University

Despite their thorough investigation into the same issue, there is still room for the current study to bridge To be more specific, the two first researchers worked on the issue of applying elicitation techniques to teach high school students whose learning behaviors and goals are remarkably different from university students‟ The most recent one worked on the use of eliciting techniques by student-teachers among students who major in English, which is totally different from the context of this study In addition, Pham (2006)‟s study zoomed into the context of vocabulary teaching, thereby excluding other language components and skills With a desire to both fill these gaps to a certain extent and follow a different research implementation approach, the present researcher investigated the employment of elicitation in teaching speaking skill to first year non-English-major students In sum, filling the gaps made by the two earlier studies is another impetus for the researcher to conduct the present one

Lastly, the subject of the current study is really worth taking into consideration In the status of newcomers to university, first-year students had notable difficulties in adapting to a new academic environment and getting accustomed to new learning strategies Also, as English is not their major, these obstacles tend to affect them much worse If those problems are not completely solved, they may leave long-term bad effects

on students‟ academic achievements Meanwhile, for the past few years, University of Engineering and Technology (UET) has tremendously enforced a number of policies to

enhance the quality of graduates, one of which is the fulfillment of English proficiency standard as a prerequisite for graduation Therefore, an investigation into teachers‟ current employment of elicitation in teaching English speaking skill to this population plays a more significant role than ever

1.2 Aims and objectives

In doing the research, the author attempted to address three main aspects Firstly, the study investigated how teachers conceived about elicitation in teaching speaking skill

In addition to the concepts, their actual employment was also closely looked at Last but not least was students‟ evaluation on the effects of elicitation teaching on their performance These objectives were accomplished by answering the following questions:

1 What is teachers‟ concept of elicitation in teaching English speaking skill to first-year students of UET, VNU, Hanoi?

2 How do they employ elicitation in teaching English speaking skill to first-year students of UET, VNU, Hanoi?

3 What effects does the employment have on students?

1.3 Scope of the study

First and foremost, the research focused on teachers‟ application of elicitation

techniques in speaking lessons only in order to foster students‟ talk Therefore, application

into other kinds of lessons and the outcomes of the teaching on other linguistic skills are not taken into consideration

Also, as stated in the earlier part, the research targeted at freshmen of UET, VNU only, which excluded those from other academic levels and institutions

1.4 Significance of the study

It should be noted that the research was a great attempt to approach an issue which

is no longer new but still needs more profound research Therefore, once finished, it can bring various benefits to involved parties namely students, teachers, educational administrators and researchers of the relevant fields

Firstly, students and teachers of UET, VNU, Hanoi are those who directly benefit from the information the research provides Teachers will have a comprehensive look at the situation of their own application of elicitation teaching to increase students‟ talk, realize obstacles that they themselves and their colleagues have encountered and work out

solutions to amend their teaching practice Students are likely to be well aware of their rights and responsibilities to raise voice in class Also, they will be offered more speaking chance during lessons

Educational administrators may be provided with a close and comprehensive view into the current situation before implementing necessary amendments in terms of curriculum, facility provision and other policies

Researchers of the relevant fields can also refer to the present work for literature review

In general, students, teachers, educational administrators and researchers are those who are likely to benefit from the study in different ways

1.5 Overview of the rest of the paper

The rest of the paper consists of four following chapters

Chapter 2 provides background theories underlying the issue including definition

of key concepts and relevant knowledge in accordance with a review of related studies of the same field

Chapter 3 presents the methodology of the research including features of participants, research setting, research instruments, data collection and data analysis procedure

Chapter 4 reports and discusses findings which answer the four research questions

It also offers recommendations to relevant parties so as to accomplish a higher effectiveness of elicitation teaching

Chapter 5 summarizes major findings, highlights contributions of the research, puts forward practical suggestions for future research as well as addresses noted limitations of the study

In conclusion, the initial chapter has presented basic understanding of the research including rationales for doing the research, objectives, scope, significance and overview of the rest of the paper

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter means to review background theories related to the issue including definitions of key concepts and relevant knowledge Several related studies of the same field are also brought to discussion

2.1 Key concepts and relevant knowledge

Elicitation teaching is a typical execution of communicative teaching approach and has been extensively employed by teachers who are committed to Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) This fact shows a tight relationship between CLT and elicitation teaching Therefore, before digging deeper into the major concept, it is significant to review the theory of the underlying approach

2.1.1 Communicative Language Teaching

CLT has emerged as by far the most popular teaching approach defaulted in almost every English language classroom worldwide Kumaravadivelu (1993: 12) affirmed the influential power of CLT that “CLT which started in the early 1970s has become the driving force that shapes the planning, implementation and evaluation of English language

teaching programs (ELT) in most parts of the world” Richard (2005: 6) also gave a full

account of what language teachers mean by “communicative”:

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) can be understood as a set of principles about the goals of language teaching, how learners learn the language, the kinds of classroom activities that best facilitate learning, and the roles of teachers and students in the classroom

CLT includes a complete code of laws that should be strictly complied with in order to develop learners‟ communicative competence as the ultimate goal, which collides with what Harmer (2001: 86) believes: “CLT features learning sequences which aim to improve the students‟ ability to communicate” In addition, Rudder (2000) claimed that

“the essence is language for communication and self-expression” It can be inferred from these views that teaching students how to use the language and to communicate in a language is considered to be at least as important as learning the language itself To maximize learning potential in a communicative classroom, teachers are instructed to make use of various tools which help to create genuine communication, one of which is the use

of elicitation techniques

2.1.2 Elicitation

2.1.2.1 Definition of elicitation

The majority of CLT teachers tend to mention elicitation as their familiar teaching practice but the explanations of this term vary broadly This diversity may stem from a fact that elicitation hardly gets any specific clarifications in academic literature The nature of it can be roughly understood via the word “elicit” which means “draw facts, responses, answers, etc from somebody, sometimes with difficulty” (Oxford Advanced Dictionary, 2008)

Elicitation techniques are widely used in numerous sciences In English language classrooms, teachers are supposed to master these elicitation techniques to draw out answers or responses from students As defined by Darn and Cetin (2009), “elicitation is a technique by which the teacher gets the learners to give information rather than giving it to them” The definition in Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics

„Techniques or procedures which a teacher uses to get learners to actively produce speech

or writing' suggests that there may be wide applications of elicitation into the field of language teaching The current research is to adopt the former definition as it directly demonstrates the nature of English teaching procedure in the light of CLT Regarding elicitation techniques, they can be considered effective tools that teachers should benefit from to accelerate their students‟ speaking capacity in class

2.1.2.2 Types of elicitation

Teachers are given five main kinds of tools to elicit students‟ talk and thereby making their classrooms genuinely communicative as follows An earlier research of the same field (Chu, 2009) made a detailed account of eliciting tools used in CLT classes

2.1.2.2.1 Making questions

Asking questions is the leading technique employed to elicit student-talk or, to be more specific, ideas and opinions from students Questioning offers a number of benefits.According to Darn, (2008), asking questions is a natural feature of communication, but also one of the most important tools which teachers have at their disposal Questioning is crucial to the way teachers manage the class, engage students with content, encourage participation and increase understanding Also, according to the writer, while questioning can be an effective tool, there is both an art and science to asking questions Some of the rules teachers should take into account are to consider the quantity of questions to raise in appropriate time and place to keep teacher talking time to the minimum while maximizing

students‟ contributions and what questions to ask students The latter is shared by Doff (1988:23) as: “The focus of eliciting techniques is what questions to ask to elicit the expected target language”

Regarding question types, scholars had numerous different ways of classification

Grammatically, Doff (1988:23-24) gave quite a basic categorization including: Yes/no

question, Or question and Wh-question Firstly, Yes/no question helps teachers to see

whether students understand any point related to the lesson and keep them focused By

being asked to select one option among some available ones in Or question, students are made to think carefully for the right answer Wh-questions, or questions beginning with

what, who, where, when, which, etc., can be asked to obtain specific information These kinds of questions tremendously exploit students‟ existing knowledge or check their comprehension of the new knowledge Henceforth, wh-questions are by far most favored

to elicit student-talk in class time

Darn (2008) also made a thorough review on types of questions As discovered, there have been a number of typologies and taxonomies of questions Socratic questioning forms the basis of eliciting (Ur, 1996: 53) Meanwhile, Darn (2008) found out that Bloom‟s taxonomy identifies six types of questions by which thinking skills may be developed and tested In the context of language teaching and learning, Bloom himself maintained that "The major purpose in constructing a taxonomy of educational objectives

is to facilitate communication…” According to the author, classroom questions can fall into two main types:

 Display questions: these questions help elicit learners‟ prior knowledge

and to check their comprehension of the knowledge that has been taught Display questions often focus on the form or meaning of language structures and items, the answers of which are already known by teachers

 Referential questions These questions are used to foster students‟ skills of

providing further information, giving an opinion, explaining or clarifying They often focus on content rather than language, require „follow-up‟ or „probe‟ questions, and the answer is not necessarily known by the teacher

(cited in Chu, 2009: 11-13)

Mehan (1979) proposed four major types of elicitations or questions (the two terms are interchangeable by many scholars) including choice, product, process and metaprocess The first one seeks for learners‟ agreement or disagreement with the teacher‟s statement or choose a yes/no response The second type asks them to provide a factual response such as

a name, a place, etc while the third asks for students‟ opinions or interpretation The last one is the most challenging when it requires students‟ formulation of grounds for their reasoning or an explanation for the procedure by which they arrived at the answers

Those taxonomies of questions, especially the one by Doff (1998) and the other by Mehan (1979) share some common features The difference may result from their different angles of views and focuses However, all of them agree on the fact that questions are used for the main purpose of checking students‟ comprehension of the new knowledge and provoke their prior knowledge

2.1.2.2.3 Using games or activities

Chu (2009: 15) emphasized that this tool is strongly advocated by many ELT experts Traditionally, there used to be a common conception that all learning should be serious and solemn in nature This is a mere misconception as it is possible to learn a language and enjoy oneself at the same time (Lee, 1995: 35) Wright, Betteridge and Buckby (1984:1) believed that “language learning is hard work Effort is required at every moment and must be maintained over a long period of time Games help and encourage many learners to sustain their interest and work” Therefore, it is clearly seen

that good games can be used during a burdensome lesson Games help teachers to create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful If games are well-chosen and appropriately used, they can give students a break and simultaneously create chances for them to practice new skills in a highly amusing and motivating way (Ersoz, 2000) In order

to fully obtain these benefits, one thing teachers should take into consideration is that

“whenever a game is to be conducted, the number of students, proficiency level, cultural context, timing, learning topic, and the classroom settings are factors that should be taken into account (Nguyen and Khuat, 2003)

2.1.2.2.4 Using texts and dialogues

According to Darn and Cetin (2006), eliciting ideas and background information also requires input which may come from a teacher's anecdote or story, a text, pictures, or a video, and involves the sharing of knowledge between teacher and learners Doff (1988:168) suggested that “teacher may also consider using texts and dialogues to guide students to respond to the language use and context of use presented in those texts and dialogues” They play the role of providing students with illustrative language samples based on which students can produce ones of their own Particularly, authentic texts and dialogues, when introduced into language classrooms, can bridge the gap between classroom knowledge and “a student‟s capacities to participate in real world events” (Wilkins, 1976: 79, as cited in To and Nguyen, 2008) As texts and dialogues function as standard samples for students to imitate, they require a careful selection of materials subject to the syllabus, students‟ learning styles, interests, tastes and other factors

2.1.2.2.5 Using non-verbal language

This tool is quite handy as it requires little prior preparation from teachers It includes numerous forms like miming, gestures, facial expression, body language, etc which are used mainly to elicit new vocabulary or structure (Doff, 1988) This technique partly provokes students‟ curiosity and uttering of expected language items

2.1.2.3 Advantages of elicitation techniques

As highlighted earlier, elicitation teaching helps develop a leaner-center learning atmosphere Therefore, learners are those who get the most benefits and teachers are not excluded

The first and foremost advantage of elicitation teaching is to increase students‟ speaking time and reducing teachers‟ unnecessary speaking These two benefits can be

acquired from the fact that students are made to give responses to their teachers‟ questions and other sources of input An appropriate use of elicitation techniques at the production stage, for example, can eliminate the chance that “the lesson is dominated by the teacher-

he or she is using English to introduce new materials” (Doff, 1988: 159).

In addition, eliciting involves the class by focusing students‟ attention and making them think Teachers can activate students‟ minds more by asking questions, by pushing them to think and encouraging them to contribute; they will be more engrossed in the lesson In so doing, students‟ motivation is also ignited and maintained throughout the lesson

Next, on the premises that the teaching of new knowledge is often based on what the learners already know (Darn & Cetin, 2006), elicitation encourages students to draw on what they already know or partly know (Doff, 1988: 161) Before introducing new knowledge, teachers tend to remind students of the old one or ask them about personal experience By attempting to answer teachers‟ questions, students have opportunities to scan their background knowledge system, checking what they have or partly have already

in their minds

One minor advantage of using elicitation techniques is that students can learn or be exposed to useful incidental language during elicitation That is the language which is not explicitly taught but students still pick up during their interaction in classrooms As a result, what students can learn is far beyond the primary objectives of the lesson

Obviously, elicitation directly and mainly benefits students However, in the meantime, teachers are at a great advantage First, “elicitation can be used by teachers for presenting new language as well as reviewing what was taught earlier” (Doff, 1988:161) Moreover, as a diagnostic tool, eliciting gives teachers a chance to see what students know and what they do not and hence to adapt their presentation to the level of the class Therefore, it is clearly seen that elicitation plays the role as testing tools that teachers can use to measure the level of the class

Eliciting is a powerful diagnostic tool, providing key information about what the learners know or don't know, and therefore a starting point for lesson planning Eliciting also encourages teachers to be flexible and to move on rather than dwell on information which is already known

( cited in Darn & Cetin, 2006)

In short, eliciting is beneficial to both students and teachers

2.1.2.4 Disadvantages of elicitation techniques

While eliciting clearly contributes to students‟ involvement and teachers‟ evaluation of their performance, it does not always produce the desired or expected results for the following reasons

Despite his strong approval of the use of this technique in classrooms, Doff (1988: 161) still had to admit that eliciting takes more time than straightforward presentation of new knowledge The first reason is that, sometimes, trying to elicit a word or explanation can take ten times as long as just explaining it This problem then may negatively affect class time budget The burden is much greater when they have to manage a large-sized class within a given amount of time Another reason is that a replacement of straightforward presentation with elicitation means teachers‟ spending more time and effort preparing essential materials, structuring their lesson and delivering it in a way that students can raise more voice, become more active and responsive in class The conflict between the limitation of time and the acquisition of desired quality somehow discourages teacher from attempting to use elicitation for their students‟

In likelihood, there are cases where students are too passive or not cooperative enough to respond to teachers As such, early elicitation may be greeted with stony silence and teachers‟ attempt for elicitation at this beginning stage may end in failure

With respect to questioning which is the leading technique of elicitation, teachers should pay attention to some of the following points, as reviewed by Chu (2009)

Firstly, “teachers should vary his/her questioning technique according to the difficulty of the question” (Doff, 1988:166) They are advised to go from easy questions

concerning most common knowledge to more difficult and expertise ones as well as types

of questions to be used Moreover, to involve the whole class, difficult questions should be targeted to competent students while easy ones are spared for the weaker side of the class

In a mixed-level class, teachers can enable learners to elicit from each other

The second rule worth considering is that after delivering each question, teachers should leave time for students to digest or to think of the answer However, it is not advised by Darn & Cetin (2009) to “pull teeth” or wait for “prolonged answers”

Next is teachers‟ response after students give their answer A minor gesture or quick comments can be delivered to show teachers‟ acknowledgement which turns out to

be a very significant source of encouragement to their learners

Lastly, “the teacher should elicit onto the blackboard” to make it easier for students

to follow and get maximum attention from them (Doff, 1988: 167)

2.2 Related studies

As stressed previously, eliciting technique is a powerful tool frequently employed

in the process of teaching English, especially under communicative approach Therefore, there is no question why the issue has been brought into research field by some scholars, both overseas and domestic involved

One of the pioneering studies on the application of eliciting techniques into English

lessons is “Eliciting spontaneous speech in bilingual students: Methods and techniques” by

Cornejo, Ricardo and Najar (1983) In this research, the three researchers first presented an overview of studies using traditional techniques to elicit language from students before recommending the use of interviews as a way to elicit students‟ talk Some other innovative techniques were put forward to foster students‟ spontaneous conversations, both with their teachers and students While the study could provide significant background theory and practical recommendations, it still had two perceivable limitations Since it was conducted outside Vietnam, the scope of the study did not reach Vietnamese language teaching and learning context Also, the subjects of the study were bilingual students whose culture, education and other conditions were totally different from Vietnamese EFL students‟ The gap that no specifications for Vietnamese students were made can be partly bridged by domestic researchers

In another research named “Maximizing learning potential in the communicative classroom” by Kumaravadivelu (1993), elicitation teaching was also brought into

examination to see what effects it bore on learning potential in CLT classes The observational study conducted in two contrastive episodes came to a conclusion that the appropriate use of elicitation techniques contributes to making English classes genuinely communicative and maximizing learning potential Generally speaking, the findings of this research were extremely significant in strengthening the faith in the effectiveness of elicitation teaching However, the study was conducted on a small scale, which may weaken the generalizability of the results

As CLT became the most prevailing approach implemented in almost every secondary school in Vietnam, there have been several researches on the field The first one

upper-is “Using elicitation techniques to teach Vocabulary to 11 th

form students in Hanoi” by

Pham (2006) On shedding light on the issue, the author attempted to investigate three aspects: the situation of teaching vocabulary to 11th form students in Hanoi, the application

of elicitation techniques to teach vocabulary to these subjects and pedagogical recommendations to make a better use of elicitation techniques in teaching vocabulary Given that his effort in conducting this study was praiseworthy and the findings had a significant contribution to the field, there were still some limitations that should be addressed Firstly, the study centered around the teaching vocabulary Although this was one of three core teaching components where the employment of elicitation techniques could be considered a must in modern EFL classrooms, the results of a thorough investigation into this field only could not represent that of the others namely grammar, pronunciation and four macro skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing Secondly, the classroom settings where the survey of this research was conducted were not yet introduced the new textbook which still followed the old teaching methods

One year later, another research on elicitation was carried out by Tran (2007)

named “eliciting technique to teach speaking skill to grade-10 students in HFLSS”

Firstly, she investigated the real situation of teachers‟ using eliciting techniques to teach grade-10 students in HFLSS in Hanoi Then, outstanding advantages of this practice could

be drawn out Hindrances to the employment process of this technique were diagnosed for timely and necessary pedagogical adjustments Notably, the author gave a close look at the speaking skill as the focus One perceivable limitation is that the subjects of the study were students from FLSS only, which could hardly be generalized into a wider population of other institutions across the city and country

Most recently, Nguyen (2011) worked on “the exploitation of eliciting techniques

by fourth-year students in their teaching practicum at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University” (ULIS, VNU) The author looked into

how eliciting techniques were used by student-teachers in teaching English to first-year students at English Division 1, Faculty of Teacher Education, ULIS, VNU The study was

a praiseworthy attempt to evaluate the frequency of using eliciting techniques, the effectiveness, difficulties and solutions to enhance the effects of elicitation teaching However, the different teaching context in Nguyen (2011) made the present researcher decide to do further work on the same issue

These listed gaps intensify the significance of the current study which targets at elicitation techniques teachers use to teach speaking skill to non-major university students

To sum up, in this chapter, the researcher has briefly defined important terms and reviewed relevant background theories The employment of elicitation techniques demonstrates teachers‟ attempt in implementing communicative approach with a view to increasing students‟ talk in class As elicitation teaching has both benefits and drawbacks, teachers need to take several principles into consideration when practicing it Supported and developed from formerly conducted studies of the same field, the current one examined the application of elicitation in a different approach and context

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter is to elaborate the methodology of the research including research settings, participants, data collection instruments and analysis together with data analysis procedure

3.1 Research settings and participants

3.1.1 Research settings

Syllabus

In the first academic year, students are to reach levels A1 and A2 (according to Common European Framework of Reference, now referred to as CEFR) in two initial semesters The number of credit hours each week is 6 which is halved into two class contacts In the light of Communicative Approach aiming to develop students‟ communicative competence alongside with linguistic ability, textbooks applied to levels

A1 and A2 are New English File Elementary and Pre-intermediate respectively, by Clive

Oxenden, Christina Latham-Konig and Paul Seligson Moreover, students can self-study with the workbooks of this series and other recommended material sources Pronunciation

section is particularly intensified with the utilization of Pronunciation in use Elementary

by Jonathan Marks

With regard to testing and evaluation, there are two mid-term tests and one final exam The former consists of one written and one oral test scheduled in Week 9 and 13 respectively The latter is conducted at the end of every semester in the integrative form but with the absence of the oral skill The grade proportion for these three tests is 25% - 15% - 50%, with the other 10% devoted to the checking of students‟ attendance and participation

Students

Firstly, one of the most important features of students of UET, VNU is that they major in technical sciences Hence, English is not always their strength Students‟ English proficiency ranges widely, depending on their living and high school education background Students are supposed to achieve level B1 of CEFR by the time they graduate The number of first-year students each year is approximately 400 who are equally divided into 15 classes, i.e about 25 to 30 per class Last but not least, UET students had been placed into appropriate classes corresponding to their English

proficiency until academic year 2010-2011 when the credit program began to take effects

At present, students of different levels are randomly put into one class

Teachers

There are 14 teachers in the Department of English On average, each teacher is in charge of two class contacts in two different classes The majority of teachers are quite young, aged from 24 to 34 The number of teaching years ranges from 2 to 12 Although their working experience seems limited, 80% of them achieved Master Degree and the rest are to complete Master courses shortly In addition, they regularly attend training workshops as well as actively participating in annual scientific research activity

Question 3 The total number was approximately 80, which constituted nearly one fifth of

the entire population

The selection of students taking part in the survey primarily complied with the

principle of random sampling This sampling method is useful if the researcher wishes to

be able to make generalization, because it seeks representativeness of the wider population (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2000: 100) Every student has chance to be

selected The selection of one may not eliminate the likelihood of the others Therefore, this sampling method could ensure high diversity and, thus, validity for the study On

applying the mentioned theory, the researcher did hand-pick four out of given 15 classes

In these four chosen classes, the researcher selected 20 students from each to approach

However, to intensify the representativeness of the study, another method namely

stratified sampling was also employed to choose these 20 students properly The

researcher divided the whole population of each class into sub-groups, each of which

“contains subjects with similar characteristics” (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2000:

101) Their A1 scores are the only criterion for different categories which serve the later selection

Score range Number of students selected

Table 1: Categorization of selected students

Students from different groups may demonstrate different viewpoints on the same issue Due to several external obstacles, the researcher could penetrate into only two classes but tried her best to choose students of highest diversity as a compensation

Teachers:

Because teachers are the target of this research, they underwent a careful selection procedure for both the questionnaire and interview session 10 out of 14 teachers of the Department were invited to share their opinion and experience on the investigated issue within the questionnaire It needs to note that eight out of this 10 were intentionally taken from four earlier-selected classes, which might be useful for the comparison between their own responses and their students‟ evaluation From those 10 teachers, six of them were invited to the interview session

3.2 Research Instruments

As a survey research, it fully employed all three fundamental tools namely questionnaire, semi-structured interview and classroom observation The combination of these three instruments was believed to generate valid and reliable data

3.2.1 Teacher and Student Questionnaire

The first data collection method, the questionnaires, was delivered to both teachers and students This tool was popularly used in almost every primary research According to Wilson and Mc Lean (1994), questionnaire was highly regarded for its

outstanding merits including providing structured, numerical data, being able to be administered without the presence of the researcher, and often straightforward to be analyzed (cited by Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2000: 245) Also, from reality, the

researcher found it time- and effort- saving to conduct questionnaire survey among a

relatively large number of UET freshmen and teachers These advantages are already recognized by Milne (1999) when he stated:

Questionnaires come in many different forms from factual to opinion based, from tick boxes to free text responses Whatever their form, questionnaires are often viewed as quick and easy to do

In this research context, both teacher and student question included two main sections: the first sought respondents‟ personal information which was collected and presented earlier in 3.1.1 and the second was the main content The teacher questionnaire was to deliberately find the answers to the two first research questions: teachers‟ concept

of elicitation in teaching English speaking skill and their actual employment Meanwhile, the student question was targeted to the effects of that employment on students In order

to get sincere opinions and objective assessment, the questionnaire was carefully designed: it began with a brief statement of the research title, the purpose of conducting questionnaire survey and a desire for cooperation from respondents The researcher also affirmed the confidentiality of the shared information In the main part, questions were mostly in two main types namely multiple choice and table grading Open-ended questions were minimized to avoid fatigue effect, especially for first year students As for the language, to make it easy for students to understand, the questionnaire for students was translated into Vietnamese and did not consist of too specialized terms whereas the teacher questionnaire was still kept in the original version of English language

In general, the questionnaire was carefully designed in terms of both appearance and content for the highest return rates as well as the usefulness of the responses

no-less-(2000: 268), interview is a common research tool used to collect data, as in surveys or experimental situations In the current research, semi-structured interview was employed

to probe for details

Six semi-structured interviews were face-to-face interaction between the

researcher and selected teachers Like questionnaires, every interview was started with a session of sharing personal information To avoid possible misunderstanding and confusion, the interviews were done in Vietnamese Under the interviewees‟ permission, the responses were noted and tape-recorded so as not to miss any important details At times, unclear points were further explained, which partly enriched the quantity and quality of collected data

Before the date of observation, a checklist was drafted to orientate the observation Due to several external obstacles, the researcher was admitted into only two

lessons: One was File 1D in Group 2 and the other was File 3 Practical English in Group 10 The lessons were also filmed so that the analysis work became more favorable

and accurate

In conclusion, the combination of the three most common tools namely questionnaire, interview and classroom observation brought to the researcher a rich amount of valid and reliable data, the analysis of which would be presented in the next chapter

3.3 Data collection procedure

The data collection procedure can be divided into two main stages including the preparation and actual implementation

3.3.1 Preparation

First of all, a research design was constructed with a selection of participants, consideration of data collection instruments and data analysis methods Not long later, first drafts of questionnaires and interview schedules were written up After that, the

piloting of the questionnaire survey was carried out over a small group of students within the targeted population After the piloting session, important amendments were made to have better editions of questionnaire With a consideration of research objectives and the nature of observed lessons, the researcher constructed the classroom observation framework The last preparatory step was to send written consents to the interviewees and arrange the interview dates

could not be determined by the researcher herself but on permission

Step 3: Teacher interview was done right after the observed classes were finished

It was the suitable time for the interviewer to clarify any points that she found ambiguous

or worth asking about the observed lessons as well as about the questionnaires

3.4 Data analysis procedure

Based on questionnaire results, the researcher began to classify, synthesize and report data To make the analysis comprehensible, answers to every question in the form

of words were transferred into charts first, followed by a detailed explanation structured interviews were transcribed, analyzed and integrated into the presentation of questionnaire results so that readers could have a deeper understanding of the situations

Semi-Regarding classroom observation, the researcher made a thorough analysis on the observation details videoed from the two lessons The results then were double-checked with those of questionnaires and interviews

To sum up, the research did involve a considerable number of 80 freshmen and 10 teachers of English from UET, VNU in questionnaire survey, interview and classroom observation The results, after that, were synthesized, analyzed as well as reported in the most reader-friendly way and would be clearly presented in the next chapter

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS

This chapter is where the answers to the three research questions can be found Apart from a thorough analysis of the data collected from the collection instruments, it also presents significant pedagogical implications for relevant parties of the research

4.1 Data analysis and discussion

Research question 1: What is teachers’ concept of elicitation in teaching English speaking skill to first-year students of UET, VNU?

 Teachers’ concept of elicitation in teaching speaking

The questionnaire survey was initiated by the question of “how often do you teach speaking skill by getting students to provide information rather than giving it to them?”which is supposed to yield dual answers Firstly, it checks whether teachers are

aware of elicitation that they ever use in teaching speaking, and secondly, if yes, the frequency of teachers‟ actual using elicitation in teaching speaking Rather than directly revealing the name of this way of teaching, the research gave the equivalent definition to prevent biased answers

Figure 1: Frequency of elicitation teaching

As can be seen from the pie chart, “usually” constitutes the largest proportion of 70% followed by a relatively smaller percentage of 20% which goes for “often” Only 10% of the respondents ticked at “sometimes” whereas “rarely” and “never” were both

totally ignored These numbers reflected a high chance where elicitation teaching was utilized in teaching speaking to first year students at UET, VNU The finding had no conflict with Teacher 1‟s opinion:

Teacher 1 when interviewed affirmed her frequent use of elicitation in teaching

speaking as: “As an English teacher of new generation where CLT is widely advocated and exercised, I strictly follow teaching methods of this approach I try to give students

more chance to talk rather talk myself for most of the time As far as I am concerned, the method that we‟re talking about is called “elicitation” in ELT.”

Nguyen‟s (2011) also found out that elicitation is frequently used in English

classrooms, no matter whether they are taught by teachers or would-be teachers

Two important conclusions can be made from the first question Firstly, teachers are well aware of the technique that they use in teaching speaking, i.e elicitation, to their first-year students The data can also reveal that they put this teaching way into use with high frequency

 Teachers’ concept of benefits of elicitation in teaching speaking skill

1 (%)

Point

2 (%)

Point 3(%)

Point

4 (%)

3 Increasing students’ talking

time/Decreasing teachers’ talking time

4 Activating students’ background

knowledge

6 Exposing students to incidental useful

language

Table 2: Benefits of elicitation teaching

Teachers‟ responses about the effects of elicitation in teaching speaking skill was not sparsely distributed throughout the 1-5 scale but gathered in three highest levels No teachers added any other effects to the list provided by the researcher

It is striking from the chart that elicitation was effectively mostly because it was

said to help increase students’ talking time and reduce teachers’ talking time This

aspect was acknowledged by 100% respondents Standing at the 2nd position was

“Activating students’ background knowledge” with 60% choosing Point 5 and 40% choosing Point 4 Elicitation was also considered extremely useful in “checking students’ understanding of the focus issues” and “measuring students’ levels” when

there were 50% of the teachers choosing Point 4 and the other half choosing Point 5 Clearly, in these four aspects, no respondents ticked Point 3 or lower Points However, a

percentage of up to 40% choosing that category made “keeping students’ motivated”

stand at the 5th rank The effects “exposing students to incidental useful language” and

“having students learn how to guess” attracted only 20% of the respondents for Point 4

but up to 80% for Point 3

It can be inferred from the figures that elicitation was agreed by teachers to have a number of positive effects on students‟ speaking skill Teacher 5‟s answers affirmed that:

“The most important impact of elicitation teaching is to create more chance for students to talk rather than sitting around to be passively imparted the input by the teachers like what they used to do For teachers, using elicitation is particularly good to get closer to their students, see how good or bad they are at English, etc.”

Besides those effects, T8 added: “I strongly advocate the use of elicitation in teaching speaking because it‟s a handy tool for me to see whether my students pay attention to what I‟m teaching or to what extent I can make myself understood by them”

The observation of Group 2 revealed some similar results During the lesson File 1D “The Devil‟s Dictionary”, the teacher elicited the theory of relative pronouns and relative clauses because she assumed that students may have learnt them all once at high school In this way, the teacher involved students in contributing to the construction of the theory instead of presenting them all to students However, as far as the observer could see, the teacher could hardly speak less than expected since asking many questions

to elicit correct answers from students was as exhausting as saying them directly Sometimes, the teacher did not give complete answers but let them guess the missing parts The classroom atmosphere was quite exciting at that time

The findings about teachers‟ concepts about the effects of elicitation in teaching speaking skill came as no surprise to the researcher as those benefits have been widely

acknowledged by a number of authors worldwide (Refer to 1.2.3)

Such an evaluation and observation reached an agreement that elicitation was considered a highly effective tool in teaching speaking skill to UET freshmen

 Teachers’ concept of the shortcomings of elicitation teaching

Although elicitation was asserted to bring a number of benefits to both teachers and students surveyed, the employment of that method had significant disadvantages Generally, all the shortcomings in discussion were of medium degree since neither

“never” nor “usually” constituted a high percentage out of the entire respondents No

teachers added any other shortcomings to the list provided by the researcher

0 10

Figure 2: Shortcomings of elicitation teaching

1 Is time-consuming 4 Tends to be hard for teachers to

approach shy students

2 Causes more teachers‟ speaking time 5 Tends to be easily abused by

teachers

3 Causes particular students to dominate

speaking

The chart clearly showed that the category “elicitation is time-consuming” was

the most outstanding disadvantage of elicitation teaching with up to 90% and 10% selecting “often” and “usually” respectively Standing at the second position was a

common belief that this way of teaching “often” (50%) or sometimes (50%) “causes