A survey on urban high school teacher's and students' attitudes towards communicative language teaching = Khảo sát thái độ của giáo viên và học sinh trung học n20150227

However, many second or foreign language syllabi keep promoting Communicative language Teaching CLT in an attempt to enable the students to use the target language for communicative purp

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims 2

1.3 Objectives 2

1.4 Research questions 3

1.5 Scope 3

1.6 Research methodology 3

1.7 Significance of the study 4

1.8 Structure of the thesis 4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1.1 The main characteristics of the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)…… …6

1.2 Definition of communicative language teaching (CLT)……… 10

1.3 Defining communicative competence……… 12

1.4 Techniques for CLT……… 13

1.5 Benefits of CLT……….14

1.6 Challenges of CLT …….……… 15

1.7 Some misconceptions about CLT ……… 16

1.8 Roles of Teachers in CLT ……….18

1.9 Teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards CLT……… 19

1.10 Summary……….22

CHAPTER II: STUDY……… 23

2.1 The context of the study ……… ….23

2.2 Participants……… 24

2.3 Instruments for Data Collection ……… ….24

2.4 Data Analysis ……….26

2.5 Findings……… 27

2.6 Teachers‟ Attitudes and Classroom Practices ……… 45

CHAPTER III: DISCUSSION……….49

3.1 Teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards CLT……….49

3.2 The influence of teachers‟ attitudes on their classroom teaching……… 50

PART III: THE CONCLUSION……… 51

1 Summary…… ………51

2 Implications for Teacher Education……….51

3 Limitations of the study………52

4 Suggestions for Further Studies ……… … 52

REFERENCES……… ……53 APPENDICES

PART I- THE INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

The field of second or foreign language teaching has undergone many paradigmatic shifts and methodological trends over the last few decades We have seen the Audiolingual Method, Cognitive-based Approaches, the Total Physical Response (TPR), the Natural Approach, and many others (for a detailed description of these methods and approaches, see Richards and Rodgers 2001) All these methods and approaches have come and gone, and now it is recognized that there is no one single best method that meets the goals and needs of all learners and programs Thus, scholars, methodologists and researchers are now talking about the post-method area (Richards and Rodgers 2001)

However, many second or foreign language syllabi keep promoting Communicative language Teaching (CLT) in an attempt to enable the students to use the target language for communicative purposes instead of mastering its grammatical rules and structures CLT

is, in fact, rooted in a range of language and language learning theories and is motivated by Research findings in second language acquisition (SLA) as well as cognitive and educational psychology It is true that CLT is the goal of many recent curricula innovations

in several countries where English is taught as a Foreign Language (EFL), including Viet Nam Unfortunately, it is documented in the literature that CLT has remained rhetorical rather than a reality in many language classrooms One of the reasons for this is that teachers seem to be resistant to those top-down changes, and continue teaching with the so-called „traditional‟ methods, which emphasize more on the teaching of grammar This necessitates the research on teachers‟ attitudes towards the introduction of CLT as an educational innovation It has been well reported in the literature that teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards language teaching and learning affect their teaching and learning behaviors It is this influence that accounts for the gap between theory and practice in second/foreign language education As a result, in order to narrow the gap between theory and practice, attempts have been made to explore teachers‟ and students‟

attitudes to language learning and teaching Understanding of these stakeholders‟ attitudes will help to device measures to change their attitudes for the improvement of language teaching and learning

The case study reported in this paper is aimed to explore the attitudes of teachers and students about CLT in the context of the high school in an urban area In order to achieve this aim, I interviewed and observed a number of teachers and students in urban high schools in Hai Phong about CLT The purpose of this exploration is to gain an understanding of teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards CLT as well as how CLT was implemented in the classroom I believe that such an understanding would be useful to curriculum designers, administrators and teacher educators to find more effective ways to make CLT a reality in the classroom by helping teachers and students to change their attitudes if this is necessary

2 Aims

The study sets out to investigate urban high school teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards CLT and why they hold such attitudes towards CLT Also, the study attempts to identify the gap between teachers‟ attitudes and their students‟ attitudes towards English language teaching and learning The findings of this study will inform teacher educators and educational administrators of more effective ways to change teachers‟ and students‟ approaches to English language teaching and learning, thereby improving the quality of English language education in the context of an urban high school

(c) the gap, if any, between teachers‟ attitudes and students‟ attitudes towards CLT

4 Research Questions

4.1 What attitudes towards communicative language teaching do teachers and students hold?

In seeking the answer to the above general research question

a What attitudes towards CLT do urban teachers in Hai Phong-based high schools hold?

b What attitudes towards CLT do urban students in Hai Phong-based high schools hold?

c Is there a gap between teachers‟ attitudes and students‟ attitudes towards CLT?

4.2 To what extent do their attitudes influence their teaching and learning behaviors

in the classroom?

5 Scope

The study limits itself to the investigation of teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards communicative language teaching in the context of five urban high schools in Hai Phong to understand how such attitudes influence the way they teach and the way they learn as well

as whether there is a gap between teachers‟ attitudes and students‟ attitudes

6 Research Methodology

In order to achieve the above aims and objectives, a mixed method will be employed to collect the data for the study Specifically, a questionnaire will be administered to both teachers and students in some high schools in Hai Phong first As Canh and Barnard (2009a) argue that “at best, eliciting teachers‟ attitudes through a questionnaire is barely scratching the surface of much deeper cognitive processes, but one which – it may be argued – is a necessary first step towards a more fully exploring cognitive processing (p

250) In this study, in order to address the limitations of the questionnaire in exploring teachers‟ attitudes, as pointed above, and in order to find out the convergence/divergence between teachers‟ attitudes and classroom teaching, classroom observations were conducted following the analysis of the questionnaire data

Questionnaire data were analyzed quantitatively by means of descriptive statistics while the observational data were processed qualitatively Quantitative data were used to answer the research question 1 whereas observational data helped to answer the research question

2, which was to illuminate the influence of attitudes on behaviors The answers to both research questions provided a picture of teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards CLT as well as how those attitudes were reflected in their classroom behaviors

7 Significance of the study

Although the study is intended to investigate teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards communicative language teaching, which is not researched adequately in the context of Hai Phong-based high schools Although the survey was conducted in just five urban high schools, and no generalization is intended, the outcome of the study can contribute significantly to our understanding of the issue in high schools with a similar context

8 Structure of the Thesis

Part I, the Introduction, introduces the rationale, the aims and objectives, the scope, and

the research methods of the study

Part II, the Development, which is composed of three chapters:

Chapter I, the Literature Review, reviews the main characteristics of the

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), the role of teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes in language teaching pedagogy, and the previous studies published both internationally and domestically on teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards different aspects of English language teaching and learning in general and towards CLT in particular

Chapter II, the Study, presents the context of the study including the participant

profiles, the instruments of data collection and the rationale of employing those

instruments, how the instruments are developed, the procedures of data collection and analysis as well as the findings

Chapter III, the Discussion, discusses the findings with reference to the literature

review

Part III, the conclusion, summarizes the result of the study, the pedagogical implications, the limitations of the study as well as the suggestions for further study

PART II- DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews the literature on CLT and teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards CLT First, it presents the main characteristics of the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), which is followed by a discussion of the role of teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes in language teaching pedagogy Then it reviews the previous studies published both internationally and domestically on teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards different aspects of English language teaching and learning in general and towards CLT in particular This literature reviews establishes the theoretical framework for the discussion

of the findings of the present study

1.1 The main characteristics of the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

The origin of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) dates back in late 1960s Until then Situational Language Teaching represented the major British Approach to teaching English as a foreign language, while Audiolingualism was dominant in America In Situational Language Teaching, language was taught by practising basic structures in meaningful situation-based activities But just as the linguistic theory underlying Audiolingualism was rejected in United States in the mid-1960s, British applied linguists began to call into question the theoretical assumption underlying Situational Language teaching (Richards and Rodgers 1991:64)

American linguist Noam Chomsky (1957) criticises that the current standard structural theories of language are incapable of accounting for the fundamental characteristics of language, i.e the creativity and uniqueness of individual sentences Then, British applied linguists emphasised another fundamental dimension of language that was inadequately addressed in current approaches to language teaching at that time, i.e., the functional and

communicative potential of language They saw the need to focus on communicative

proficiency rather than on mere mastery of structures

Although the movement began as a largely British innovation, focusing on alternative conceptions of a syllabus, since the mid-1970s the scope of CLT has expanded This expansion led to the view that CLT was an approach rather than a method, which aims to make communicative competence the goal of language teaching, develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills and to acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication (Richards and Rodgers 1986:66)

Another impetus for the rise of CLT from changing educational realities in Europe With the increasing interdependence of European countries came the need for greater efforts to teach adults the major languages of the European Common Market and the Council of Europe, a regional organization for cultural and educational cooperation Education was

one of the Council of Europe's major areas of activity It sponsored international

conferences on language teaching, published monographs and books about language teaching The need to articulate and develop alternative methods of language teaching was considered a high priority

In 1971 a group of experts began to investigate the possibility of developing language courses on a unit-credit system, a system in which learning tasks are broken down into

"portions or units, each of which corresponds to a component of a learner's needs and is systematically related to all the other portions" (van Ek and Alexander 1980: 6) The group used studies of the needs of European language learners, and in particular a preliminary document prepared by a British linguist, Wilkins (1972), which proposed a functional or communicative definition of language that could serve as a basis for developing commu-nicative syllabuses for language teaching Wilkins's contribution was an analysis of the communicative meanings that a language learner needs to understand and express Rather than describe the core of language through traditional concepts of grammar and vocabulary, Wilkins attempts to demonstrate the systems of meanings that lay behind the communicative uses of language

According to Littlewood (1981) one of the most characteristics features of communicative language teaching is that it pays systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language, combining these into a more fully communicative view” Put another way, CLT is an approach that aims to make communicative competence the goal of language teaching and develop procedures for the teaching of the four languages skills that acknowledge the independence of language and communication The aim of communicative language teaching, according to Richards and Rodgers (2001), is the acquisition of communicative competence via student engagement in meaningful use of language at discourse level To achieve this, the teacher facilitates communicative activities by managing the classroom environment, providing resources and acting as communicator “Classroom activities are often designed to focus on completing tasks that are mediated through language and involve negotiation of information and information sharing (Richards and Rodgers, 2001, p 165) According to Bygate, Skehan and Swain (2004 cited in Canh & Barnard, 2009 b, p 21), language is best learned through meaningful and communicative interaction between learners engaged in purposeful tasks Such tasks provide both the input and the output processing, and the motivation, needed for language acquisition

According to Richards and Rodgers (1986), “at the level of language theory, Communicative Language Teaching has a rich, if somewhat eclectic, theoretical base Some of the characteristics of this communicative view of language follow: language is a system of the expression of meaning The primary function of language is for interaction and communication The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative use The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, bur categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse (Richards and Rodgers 1986:71)

In a CLT approach, the teacher functions as a facilitator or guide, supporting learners as they try out new language and giving feedback on errors as a necessary step in the language learning process (Nunan, 1991) Using an integrated skills approach, many CLT activities are done in pairs or small groups, so learners have opportunities to use the target

language in a variety of roles and contexts that aim to approximate authentic situations to develop learners‟ situationally appropriate use of the L2 (Richards & Rodgers, 2001)

To summarise, CLT is characterised as:

 an emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target

language;

 the introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation;

 the provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also

on the learning process itself;

 an enhancement of the learner‟s own personal experiences as important

contributing elements to classroom learning;

 an attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outside

the classroom (Brown 1994a :78)

Thus, as an approach to second/foreign language teaching, CLT emphasizes the learners‟ communicative competence in the target language (Brown, 2001; Canale & Swain, 1980; Hymes, 1972; Richards & Rodgers, 1986)

Howatt (1984) makes a distinction between a "strong" and a "weak" version of Communicative Language Teaching Howatt distinguishes the two versions as follows:

There is, in a sense, a 'strong' version of the communicative approach and a 'weak' version The weak version which has become more or less standard practice in the last ten years, stresses the importance of providing learners with opportunities to use their English for communicative purposes and, characteristically, attempts to integrate such activities into a wider program

of language teaching The 'strong' version of communicative teaching, on the other hand, advances the claim that language is acquired through com-munication, so that it is not merely a question of activating an existing but inert knowledge of the language, but of stimulating the development of the language system itself If the former could be described as 'learning to use' English, the latter entails 'using English to learn it.' (p.279)

In the weak version, activities that promote communication are incorporated into a wider language program that allows for the pre-selection of target language forms and functions

In contrast, learners‟ use of the target language drives learning in the strong version of CLT, and creates opportunities for incidental „noticing‟ of formal features in the target language (Richards, 2006) CLT is a “learner-centered and experience-based view of teaching” (Richards & Rodgers, 1986, p 69), which promotes learner independence and requires classroom cultures with more equal relationships between teachers and learners than those in many EFL contexts (Canh, 1999; Chowdhury, 2003; Stapleton, 1995)

Communicative language teaching is so popular that “no self- respecting teacher, materials designer, or applied linguist would think of teaching English as anything else.” (Harmer 1982: 164)

1.2 Definition of communicative language teaching (CLT)

Despite the widespread advocacy of CLT, there is a lack of agreement about what communicative is According to Harmer (1982: 165): “In the teaching and learning and methodology of a foreign language, it is only activities within the syllabus and methodology that can be classed as communicative” Clark and Hamilton (1984: 5) further elaborate Harmer‟s (1982) view that:

Some people have thought that communication and the communicative approach should now replace all the other things we have traditionally done

in the classroom This is not our view What we aim to do is to add the communicative dimension to help other things that have proved successful

in classroom language learning

Thus, CLT is generally regarded as an approach to language teaching (Richards and Rodgers 2001) As such, CLT reflects a certain model or research paradigm, or a theory (Celce- Murcia 2001) It is based on the theory that the primary function of language use is communication Its primary goal is for learners to develop communicative competence (Hymes 1971), or simply put, communicative ability In other words, its goal is to make use of real-life situations that necessitate communication

CLT is not a method per se, either That is to say, it is not a method in the sense by which content, a syllabus, and teaching routines are clearly identified (see Richards and Rodgers 2001) CLT has left its doors wide open for a great variety of methods and techniques There is no single text or authority on it, nor any single model that is universally accepted

as authoritative (Richards and Rodgers 2001) By and large, it uses materials and utilizes methods that are appropriate to a given context of learning CLT has spawned various movements such as proficiency-based or standard-based instruction While the early days

of CLT were concerned with finding best designs and practices, the proficiency-based movement contributed to the field of language teaching by putting forward a set of proficiency guidelines (Omaggio - Hadley 2001) In this sense, the proficiency-based movement focused on measuring what learners can do in functional terms By providing evaluative descriptions, that is, by specifying what students should know and how they should be able to use language within a variety of contexts and to various degrees of accuracy at different stages, it provided a set of broadly stated goals and thus a sense of direction for curriculum designers The standard-based movement attempted to further streamline descriptions of what students should know and be able to do after completing a particular grade level or curriculum to meet national standards in foreign language education from kindergarten to university In this way, both movements positively influenced and strengthened the development and implementation of communicative oriented teaching practices As far as theories of learning and effective strategies in teaching are concerned, CLT does not adhere to one particular theory or method It draws its theories about learning and teaching from a wide range of areas such as cognitive science, educational psychology, and second language acquisition (SLA) In this way, it embraces and reconciles many different approaches and points of view about language learning and teaching, which allows it to meet a wide range of proficiency-oriented goals and also accommodate different learner needs and preferences Despite the lack of universally accepted models, from early on, there has been some degree of consensus regarding the qualities required to justify the label “CLT,” which Wesche and Skehan (2002) describe as:

• Activities that require frequent interaction among learners or with other interlocutors to exchange information and solve problems

• Use of authentic (non-pedagogic) texts and communication activities linked to world” contexts, often emphasizing links across written and spoken modes and channels

“real-• Approaches that are learner centered in that they take into account learners‟ backgrounds, language needs, and goals and generally allow learners some creativity and role in instructional decisions (p 208) With no one particular method or theory that underlies their practical and theoretical foundation, CLT methodologies are best described as a set of macro-strategies (Kumaravadivelu 1994) or methodological principles (Doughty and Long 2003)

Since the core concept of CLT is communicative competence, this concept is discussed in Section 1.3 below

1.3 Defining communicative competence

The communicative approach in language teaching starts from a theory of language as communication The goal of language teaching is to develop what Hymes (1972) referred

to as "communicative competence." Hymes coined this term in order to contrast a

communicative view of language and Chomsky's (1965) theory of competence Chomsky held that linguistic theory is concerned primarily with an ideal speaker-listener in a completely homogeneous speech community, who knows its language perfectly and is unaffected by such grammatically irrelevant conditions as memory limitation, distractions, shifts of attention and interest, and errors (random or characteristic) in applying his knowledge of the language in actual performance (Chomsky 1965: 3)

For Chomsky, the focus of linguistic theory was to characterize the abstract abilities speakers possess that enable them to produce grammatically correct sentences in a language Hymes held that such a view of linguistic theory was sterile, that linguistic theory needed to be seen as part of a more general theory incorporating communication and culture Hymes's theory of communicative competence was a definition of what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community

In Hymes's view, a person who acquires communicative competence acquires both knowledge and ability for language use with respect to: whether (and to what degree) something is formally possible; whether (and to what degree) something is feasible in

virtue of the means of implementation available; whether (and to what degree) something

is appropriate (adequate, happy, successful) in relation to a context in which it is used and evaluated; whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done, actually performed, and what it‟s doing entails

This theory of what knowing a language entails offers a much more comprehensive view than Chomsky's view of competence, which deals primarily with abstract grammatical knowledge

Another linguistic theory of communication favoured in CLT is Halliday's functional account of language use "Linguistics is concerned with the description of speech acts

or texts, since only through the study of language in use are all the functions of language, and therefore all components of meaning, brought into focus" (Halliday 1970: 145) In a number of influential books and papers, Halliday has elaborated a powerful theory of the functions of language, which complements Hymes's view of communicative competence for many writers on CLT (e.g., Brumfit and Johnson 1979; Savignon 1983) He described (1975: 11-17) seven basic functions that language performs for children learning their first language: the instrumental function: using language to get things; the regulatory function: using language to control the behaviour of others; the interactional function: using language to create interaction with others; the personal function: using language to express personal feelings and meanings; the heuristic function: using language to learn and to discover; the imaginative function: using language to create a world of the imagination; the representational function: using language to communicate information

Thus, communicative competence is defined as the ability to interpret and enact

appropriate social behaviors, and it requires the active involvement of the learner in the production of the target language (Canale and Swain 1980; Celce-Murcia et al 1995; Hymes 1972) Such a notion encompasses a wide range of abilities: the knowledge of grammar and vocabulary (or the linguistic competence); the ability to say the appropriate thing in a certain social situation (the sociolinguistic competence); the ability to start, enter, contribute to, and end a conversation, and the ability to do this in a consistent and coherent manner (discourse competence); the ability to communicate effectively and repair problems caused by communication breakdowns (strategic competence)

1.4 Techniques for CLT

Since meaningful communication is considered to be the goal of English language teaching, teachers are advised to organize classroom activities in such a way that students can interact with each other as much as possible Such interaction can be achieved through pair work, group work, or information-gap activities There are plenty of techniques for CLT Here are some of them: role play, interviews, information gap, games, language

exchange, surveys, pair work/group work

Pair-work: Independent work by pairs of students working simultaneously on a task or a

practice activity Often an extension of ordinary controlled practice or drilling, with more opportunity for students to talk, hence higher students talking time

Group- work: Independent worked carried out simultaneously by groups of three or more

students on a task or tasks

Information gap: The principle that two or more students engaged in a practice activity do

not share exactly the same information If the task is correctly set, the students must pool their information and are thus forced to communicate through English The information gap is therefore an important element in many communicative practice tasks

Role-play: A communicative activity in which students talk to each other in different

character roles

1.5 Benefits of CLT

According to Littlewood (1981), CLT enables learners to understand and to express functional and social meanings With CLT teachers can adapt traditional techniques for controlled practice in order to help learners to relate language forms to their potential functional and/ or social meanings The learner can be placed in situations where he must use language as an instrument for satisfying immediate communicate needs, and where the criterion for success is functional effective needs, and where the criterion for success is functional effectiveness rather than structural accuracy The learner can also be helped to use language as an instrument for social interaction, for example through role-playing

activities, in which emphasis is on both the communicative effectiveness and the social acceptability of the language used A communicative approach opens up a wider perspective on language In particular, it makes us consider language not only in terms of its structures (grammar and vocabulary), but also in terms of the communicative functions that it performs In other words, we begin to look not only at language forms, but also at what people do with these forms when they want to communicate with each other For example, “Why don‟t you close the door?” might be used for a number of communicative purposes, such as asking a question, making a suggestion or issuing an order A communicative approach opens up a wider perspective on language learning In particular,

it makes us more strongly aware that it is not enough to teach learners how to manipulate the structures of the foreign language They must also develop strategies for relating these structures to their communicative functions in real situations and real time Therefore provide learners with ample opportunities to use the language themselves for communicative purposes Teachers are ultimately concerned with developing the learners‟ ability to take part in the process of communicating through language, rather than with their perfect mastery of individual structures

1.6 Challenges of CLT

Although the above benefits of CLT are widely recognized at least at the theoretical level, CLT is not a panacea to language teaching There are numerous challenges to making communicative language teaching happen Researchers have identified common challenges that teachers face when endeavouring to implement CLT in a range of Asian countries, including Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, Japan, China, and South Korea (Canh, 1999; Chowdhury, 2003; Li, 1998; Nishino, 2008; Stapleton, 1995; Wu & Fang, 2002) Reports

of challenges frequently refer to differences between what a CLT approach requires and the transmission-style educational practices of many of these countries (Biggs, 1996; Butler, 2005; Campbell & Zhao, 1993) Learners‟ traditional passivity in many Asian cultures, and their reservations about the need for communicative competence, are frequently reported to underpin students‟ unwillingness to do small-group and pair activities, which are central to a communicative approach (Hu, 2002; Hui, 1997; Insull, 2001; Sun & Cheng, 2000) The wash-back effect of examinations is another widely

reported constraint on the implementation of CLT in EFL contexts, with many researchers and teachers questioning the need to teach communicative competence in situations where the main purpose for learning English is for competitive national examinations that primarily test grammatical knowledge and reading comprehension (Li, 1998; Reed, 2002;

Wu & Fang, 2002) Teachers in a number of EFL countries also report challenges developing and assessing their students‟ communicative skills in English, due to their own lack of communicative competence, large classes, and the lack of effective and efficient oral testing tools (Canagarajah, 1999; Dash, 2002; Hasegawa, 2003; Kim, 2003; Reed, 2002)

Further challenges are reported to derive from a lack of institutional support for communicative approaches, and from evaluating teachers according to their students' examination pass rates, with the latter in particular seen as disadvantaging teachers who implement CLT and discouraging others from trying it (Canh, 1999; Hui, 1997) Lack of support is also described in terms of insufficient resourcing, and classroom conditions that make it more challenging to implement interactive activities (Deckert, 2004; Hu, 2002; Hui, 1997; Larsen-Freeman, 1999; Pham, 2005; Sun & Cheng, 2000)

In addition to cultural and contextual constraints, researchers note that challenges associated with implementing communicative strategies can also result from teachers‟ lack

of understanding of CLT (Li, 1998; Sun & Cheng, 2000; Wu & Fang, 2002) Other researchers, including Kumaravadivelu (1993) and Canh (1999), suggest that this problem may stem from teacher training programs that do not provide sufficient grounding in second language acquisition theories, or the necessary skills and practical experience that teachers need in order to confidently and competently implement communicative approaches According to Evdokia Karavas-Doukas (2010:188): “Why does this disparity between prescribed theory and actual classroom practice exist? An answer for this question can be found in the curriculum innovation literature, where teacher attitudes are seen to play a crucial role in determining the implementation of an approach What decision-makers often seem to forget is that teachers are not atheoretical beings.” Another challenges of CLT is the language teacher- teacher‟s perceptions of what they do and why they do it, holds promised for understanding the frequently noted discrepancies between theoretical understanding of second/foreign language acquisition and classroom practice (Evdokia Karavas-Doukas 2010:188)

1.7 Some misconceptions about CLT

According to Thompson (1996) communicative language teaching is accepted by many linguists and language teachers as an effective approach and is hailed as the dominant theoretical model in ELT, no matter what teaching situation may be Attempts have been made to pay attention to CLT and to identify its characteristic features (Richards and Rodgers, 1986) Harmer (1991) shows that teacher education and the principles of CLT are largely treated as clearly understood and accepted However, many teachers are not clear about CLT In general, CLT puts stress on communication with the language In classrooms, CLT is strongly involved in special activities, e.g pair work, group discussion, role play and so on However, certain misconceptions about CLT still exist Thompson

(1996) summarizes the following four misconceptions that are frequently voiced

One of these misconceptions is about grammar Some applied linguists have argued strongly that CLT de-emphasizes the role of grammar and the explicit teaching of grammar One line of argument is that grammar teaching is impossible for the knowledge used in a language by a speaker is too complex (Prabhu 1987) Another line is that grammar teaching is unnecessary as knowledge is a kind that can‟t be passed on with rules, but can only be acquired unconsciously through exposure to the comprehensible input of the target language (Krashen 1988) Perhaps the view that the teaching of grammar is unnecessary in CLT because grammar is too complex to teach is over-simplistic (Thompson, 1996) In fact CLT never downplays the role of grammar and grammar teaching This is evidenced in the construct of communicative competence, which is discussed in Section 1.3 above Some linguists and teachers always stress that grammar is necessary for communication Evidently, grammatical competence is one of the components of communicative competence The question is grammar should not be taught

in the traditional manner but through communicative tasks (Nunan 1987, Ellis, 1992) In CLT, the focus is on the learners discovering grammar not on teachers covering or talking about grammar (Thompson, 1996) According to Ellis (1992), while looking explicitly at grammar may not lead immediately to learning, it will facilitate learning at a later stage when the learner is ready (in some way that is not yet understood) to internalize the new information about the language

Another misconception, according to Thompson (1996) is the view that a focus on communicate activities means teaching only speaking For many teachers and students, the main purpose of learning a foreign language is to speak the language So they put the stress

on speaking and listening skills This misconception leads to the view that teacher talking time (TTT) is to be reduced in order for the student talking time (STT) to be maximized In addition, there is a complaint that CLT often ignores written language

In fact CLT expects that teachers organize different activities according to students‟ variety

of language learning needs at different stage of learning English In class students can not only speak English, think in English and also read and write English Learners talk at most

of time under the condition that teachers give them guidance about the language knowledge If students have no idea of the new knowledge, they won‟t be able to put them

in words Students will learn more effectively if they participate in communicative activities actively about what they are learning

Pair work or group work is also misunderstood It is misbelieved that CLT is synonymous with pair work or group work, or pair work means role-play (Thompson, 1996)

In fact role play is only one of many useful techniques for teachers to employ in developing students‟ communicative competence and one way to practice meaningful language in an authentic context However, pair work and group work are more flexible and useful techniques than role play Role play especially at very simple level, such as conversation between a doctor and a patient; a teacher and a student or a customer and shopkeeper, may not be used as much as pair work or group work Through pair work and group work, students can work together and help each other to solve a problem, analyze a passage, prepare a presentation, make up a story, design a questionnaire and do exercises They can also learn knowledge and skills from each other, which will lead them to greater success by undertaking tasks

1.8 Roles of Teachers in CLT

CLT expects teachers to play the roles as „facilitator‟, and „guide‟ to the language learning process rather than transmitter of knowledge and authority (Karavas-Doukas, 1996) Breen

and Candlin (1980) describe the two main roles of teachers: as facilitators of the communication process between all participants in the classroom and/or between these participants and the various activities and texts, and as an independent participant within the learning-teaching group The latter role is closely related to the objectives of the first role and arises from it These roles imply a set of secondary roles for the teacher; first, as

an organizer of resources and as a resource himself, second as a guide within the classroom procedures and activities A third role for the teacher is that of researcher and learner, with much to contribute in terms of appropriate knowledge and abilities, actual and observed experience of the nature of learning and organizational capacities (p 99) Other roles assumed for teachers are needs analyst, counselor, and group process manager Thus, teachers in communicative classrooms will find themselves talking less and listening more– becoming active facilitators of their students‟ learning (Larsen-Freeman, 1986) The teacher sets up the exercise, but because the students‟ performance is the goal, the teacher must step back and observe, sometimes acting as referee or monitor A classroom during a communicative activity is far from quiet, however The students do most of the speaking, and frequently the scene of a classroom during a communicative exercise is active, with students leaving their seats to complete a task

Medgyes (1986) argues that CLT demands too much on teachers, more so than translation approaches and lessons tend to be less predictable; teachers have to interact with students in as 'natural' a way as possible; they have to be skilful with wider range of management than in the traditional teacher-centred classroom There are a lot unpredictable in class which is an encouragement and also a challenge for them

grammar-1.9 Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards CLT

1.9.1 Attitudes

According to Baker (1992, p 10), attitude is a hypothetical construct utilized to expound the orientation and persistence of human behavior Attitude can be used to predict behavior but it is hidden and potential and cannot be measured directly Therefore, attitude is a relatively constant system of evaluative processes towards an object based on what individuals have learned in previous settings Even though attitudes are relatively constant

in individuals, attitudes have been learned Since they are learned, they must be changed

by further learning It is strongly likely that attitudes towards an object are not openly manifested but still measurable (Lemon, 1973, p 75, cited in Setiyadi, 1999, p.41)

Canh and Barnard (2009a) define attitudes as “the surface expression of underlying values, beliefs, and knowledge” (p 250) Brown (1981) uses the term “attitudes” to refer to the set

of beliefs that the learner holds towards the members of the target language group and also towards his own culture The equation of „attitudes‟ with a set of beliefs is also accepted by Canh and Barnard (2009a) This view of „attitude‟ is adopted in the present study

Attitude has the following characteristics:

 it is cognitive (i.e is capable of being thought about) and affective (i.e has feelings and emotions attached to it;

 it is dimensional rather than bipolar, i.e., it varies in degree of favorability/ unfavorability;

 it predisposes a person to act in a certain way, i.e., it influences action;

 it is learnt, not inherited or genetically endowed;

 it tends to persist but they can be modified be experience

(Baker, 1988)

Because of these characteristics, teachers‟ attitudes play an important role in shaping their classroom behavior Some scholars have noted that teachers‟ attitudes have been neglected in second language classroom research (Grotjahn, 1991; Kleinsasser & Savignon, 1991; Nunan, 1991) The issue of teachers‟ attitudes remains under-researched

in the context of Vietnamese high schools, and this study is an attempt to occupy this research gap

1.9.2 Why Investigate Teachers’ and Students’ Attitudes?

As mentioned earlier, students and teacher‟s attitudes play an important role in learning and teaching the second/foreign language Understanding of their attitudes towards

language and language learning helps to gain insights into what they do in the classroom and why they do it As Kleinsasser and Savignon (1991) have argued

In our quest for the improvement of language teaching, we have overlooked the language teacher Exploration … of teachers‟ perceptions of what they

do and why they do it, holds promise for understanding the frequently noted discrepancies between theoretical understanding of second/foreign language acquisition and classroom practice (p 299)

Karavas-Doukas (1996) makes a similar comment that

When introducing a new approach in the classroom it may be necessary for the teacher to revise, refine, or change attitudes which may not be compatible with the principles of that approach (p 188)

Karavas-Doukas (1996) used the questionnaire, which was also used for the present study,

to explore the attitudes of 101 Greek secondary school teachers to CLT Fourteen of them were observed The results showed that there was discrepancy between teachers expressed attitudes and their classroom practices These Greek teachers supported CLT in their responses to the questionnaire, but what they did in the classroom did not align their attitudes Christ and Makarani (2009) surveyed 31 Indian teachers‟ attitudes towards communicative language teaching and how they implemented CLT in their teaching English in two schools in India Their two-phased embedded mixed methods study indicated that the teachers, generally, had positive attitudes about policy-mandated CLT practices and that they understood the common properties and approaches of CLT However, challenges pertaining to implementation were identified and these challenges include: classroom size, available resources, and the verbal English proficiency of teachers and students In Bangladesh, Karim (2004) investigated 36 EFL teachers‟ perceptions, attitudes, and expectations regarding CLT in post secondary education in Bangladesh Results showed that teachers‟ perceptions of communicative activities and CLT approach corresponded with their reported classroom practices There were positive indications that these teachers were aware of the basic principles of CLT and they practiced major communicative activities in the classroom However, there were some discrepancies between their attitudes and practices due to contextual factors such as lack of resources, traditional exams, unequipped and large classes, and lack of support from administration

Savignon and Wang (2006) investigated Taiwanese EFL students‟ attitudes and perceptions regarding communicative language teaching and found a mismatch between learner needs and preferences and their reported experience of classroom instruction Interest in communicative language teaching particularly among those learners who began learning English at an early age, offerred support for curriculum changes They concluded that careful exploration of the concordance of classroom practice with the attitudes and perceptions of learners was seen to be crucial in determining the success of curricular changes Sato and Kleinsasser (2009) studied how Japanese teachers defined and implemented CLT in their classrooms As it revealed from this study that teachers‟ views and actions dealt little with the academic literature pertaining to CLT or their education in learning about CLT Instead, teachers resorted to their personal ideas and experiences

1.10 Summary

This chapter reviews the literature on CLT as well as on teachers‟ attitudes towards CLT

As reported in the literature, CLT, despite its many theoretical benefits to language learners, is a challenge to teachers who are more familiar with traditional grammar-based approaches to language teaching It is likely that the challenges imposed on teachers make them resistant to the implementation of CLT in their classroom though they may have positive attitudes to or are aware of the principles of CLT The chapter also shows the importance of teachers‟ attitudes in determining the successful implementation of innovatory ideas and in understanding teachers‟ classroom behaviors The next chapter presents the study

CHAPTER II: THE STUDY

This chapter presents the context of the study including the participants, the instruments of data collection and the rationale of employing those instruments, how the instruments were

developed, the procedures of data collection and analysis as well as the findings

2.1 The context of the study

Administratively, Hai Phong city consists of 7 districts In 2010, there are 9 high schools located in these districts with 326 classes, and a student population of 15.236 students of 15-17 years of age All these students are taught English by 85 teachers for 3 periods a week

With the introduction of new textbook series to high schools, the communicative approach has been introduced to teachers of English All the textbooks for the three grades, 10, 11,

12, share a common format For each grade, there are 16 units, and each unit is divided into five parts: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Language Focus Each part is prescribed to be taught within one class period

The textbooks are accompanied by the teacher‟s guide, the student‟s book and the tapes The goal behind this new textbook series is to develop the students‟ ability to use English for communicative purposes This ability is measured by the tests and examinations, the most influential ones being the achievement tests administered after each semester, and the graduation examination administered at the end of Grade 12 Despite the promotion of communicative language teaching, these tests and examinations emphasize linguistic competence including grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, reading comprehension, and sentence writing The only testing approach used is objective with test-items being designed in the multiple-choice format

cassette-This survey was conducted in five high schools (out of 9) in the urban area of Hai Phong city with the participation of 50 teachers and 500 students The information of these participants is presented in subsequent sections

2.2 Participants

Participants in this study, as mentioned above, are 50 English language teachers and 500 students teaching and studying in all three grades, 10, 11, and 12, in five urban high schools in Hai Phong city (1 school per district) Most of the teachers are female with their age ranging from 23 to 55 This gender imbalance is due to the fact that almost 100 per cent high school teachers of English in these high schools were female A convenience method of sampling was adopted for this study This means that these participants were selected according to their willingness to participate, rather than being randomized Therefore, they may not represent the whole population in terms of their attitudes towards communicative language teaching This is one of the limitations of the present study, which is acknowledged in the final chapter of the thesis

2.3 Instruments for Data Collection

2.3.1 Questionnaires

Two instruments were used to collect the data, i.e., a survey questionnaire (24 questions for both teachers and students) and classroom observation The main purpose is to find out the differences between the teacher‟s questionnaire responses and their teaching in the classroom

The questionnaire is an instrument of data collection which “enables the researcher to collect data in field settings, and the data themselves are more amendable to quantification” (Nunan, 1992, p 143) It also helps the researcher to survey a large number

of respondents in a short time The questionnaire used in this study was adopted from Karavas-Doukas (1996) Karavas-Doukas developed this questionnaire to investigate the attitudes of Greek EFL teachers in public secondary schools The questionnaire, which was

of a 5-Likert scale type, consisted of 24 items, covering the main aspects of communicative

learner-centered approach such as group work, error correction, the place and importance

of grammar, the needs of students, and the role of the teacher and learner (see Appendix I)

I decided to use this questionnaire because the questionnaire was originally developed to survey Greek teachers‟ attitudes towards CLT, the main focus of this study It covered all the main areas of CLT as mentioned above Most importantly, the questionnaire has been validated by the split-half method (Karavas-Doukas,1996) The split half-method is described by Karavas-Doukas (1996) as follows:

[The scale is divided] into two matched halves and correlating the scrores of each half … The 24 statements were divided into two parts [and the responses to these two parts] were correlated The corrected split-half Karavas-Doukas (1996) reliability was coefficient was rw=0.81 (p 191) However, before the questionnaire was administered, it was translated into Vietnamese This is to make sure that the subjects understand the questionnaire accurately and they feel comfortable in responding the questionnaire items The translation was done by the researcher herself and was checked and approved by the supervisor Another change was that instead of the five scales in the original questionnaire, I decided to use just three scales (agree, uncertain, and disagree) This reduction of scales was to make data analysis easier while the reliability was maintained, and to save respondents‟ time choosing between two seemingly similar options such as „agree‟ and „strongly agree‟, „disagree‟ and „strongly disagree‟

The same questionnaire was administered to both the teachers and the students from the five high schools in the urban area of Hai Phong city

2.3.2 Observations

Observation is an important method because people do not always do what they say they

do (Jashakkori & Teddlie (2003) Qualitative observation is exploratory and open-ended The approach to observation in this study is non-participant This means that the researcher did not participate in the activity or event, but took extensive notes of what occurred in the classroom for later analysis

After the questionnaires were returned, teachers who had completed the questionnaire were selected to be observed The selection was, again, based on teachers‟ willingness Out of

50 teachers, who returned the questionnaire, 10 teachers from 5 high schools, or two teachers from each school, were observed Each teacher was observed twice teaching different parts (i.e language skills) of the textbook The aim of the observation was to find out the consistence/ inconsistence between teachers‟ reported attitudes towards CLT and their actual teaching in the classroom All observations were not video-tapes simply because teachers did not like being video-taped So I took extensive field-notes which captured the important classroom events and interactions as comprehensively as possible

2.4 Data Analysis

Responses to the questionnaire were first coded into five categories as suggested by Karavas-Doukas (1996) These categories include

1 Teachers‟ attitudes towards group/pair work (4 statements)

2 Teachers‟ attitudes towards error correction ( 4 statements)

3 Teachers‟ attitudes towards the role of learners in the learning process (6 statements)

4 Teachers‟ attitudes towards the role of the teacher in the classroom (4 statements)

5 Teachers‟ attitudes towards grammar (6 statements)

The same categories were used to analyze the students‟ responses to the questionnaire The result of the students‟ questionnaires was then compared with that of the teachers‟ questionnaire so as to identify the „matches‟ and „mismatches‟ between teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards communicative activities as promoted by CLT advocates Following the analysis of the questionnaire data, the researcher conducted classroom observations The purpose of observations was to find out how teachers‟ attitudes affected their classroom teaching Observational data were, again, coded in terms of the five categories mentioned above in an attempt to find out the connection between teachers‟ attitudes and their actual teaching The following section presents the findings of the study

2.5 Findings

2.5.1 Teachers’ Attitudes towards CLT

Teachers’ attitudes towards group/ pair work

There are four statements in the questionnaire (2, 9, 13 and 22) that explore teachers‟ attitudes towards group work in the classroom Statements 2 and 9 are the positive attitudes towards group work while statements 13 and 22 are the negative

2 Group work activities are essential in

providing opportunities for cooperative

relationships to emerge and in promoting

genuine interaction among students

9 Group work allows students to explore

problems for themselves and thus have some

measures of control over their own

learning It is therefore an invaluable

means of organizing classroom experiences

13 Group work activities take too long to

organize and waste a lot of valuable

teaching time

22 Group work activities have little use

since it is very difficult for the teacher to

monitor the students‟ performance and

prevent them from using their mother

tongue

Table 2.1 Teachers’ attitudes towards group work

As can be seen in Table 2.1, all teachers (100%) agreed with positive statements 2 and 9 that group/ pair work activities were the good way to emerge and promote students to interact with each other, to explore their problem by themselves and then they could control their learning by themselves This is compared with 7.15% and 23.1% teachers agreed with negative statements 13 and 22 respectively that work/ pair activities wasted a lot of time and teachers could not control the students‟ performance; nor could they prevent the students from using their mother tongue However, 85.7% and 61.5% teachers felt uncertain with negative statements 13 and 22 respectively

Teachers’ attitudes towards error correction

There are four statements in the questionnaire (6, 10, 14 and 15) that explore teachers‟ attitudes towards quality and quantity of error correction Statements 6 and 14 are the

positive attitudes towards error correction while statements 10 and 15 are the negative

6 For students to become effective

communicators in the foreign language,

the teachers‟ feedback must be focused

on the appropriateness and not the

linguistic form of the students‟ responses

10 The teacher should correct all the

grammatical errors students make If

errors are ignored, this will result in

imperfect learning

14 Since errors are a normal part of

learning much correction is wasteful of

time

15 The communicative approach to

language teaching produces fluent but

inaccurate learners

Table 2.2 Teachers’ attitudes towards error correction

Data from the questionnaire showed that teachers were divided regarding their attitudes to the students‟ errors For example, while 42.9% of them agreed that cultural and social appropriateness was more important than linguistic accuracy, the same number felt uncertain about this, while 14.2% disagreed

Because of this positive attitude to learners‟ errors, less than one-third of them (28.6%) agreed that all learners‟ errors should be corrected while more than half of them did not think that way However, only 15.4% of the teachers agreed that errors were a normal part

of the learning process and they did not believe in the value of correcting linguistic errors This is compared with 42.9% of them who thought linguistic accuracy was less important than linguistic appropriateness, and 84.6% of the teachers who disagreed that error correction were a waste of time Particularly, as many as 61.6% of the teachers were unsure whether CLT focused more on fluency than on accuracy or not whereas only one-third of them believed that CLT overemphasized fluency at the expense of accuracy

Teachers’ attitudes towards the role of learners in the learning process

Six statements in the questionnaire (4, 5, 8, 20, 21 and 24) were designed to explore teachers‟ attitudes towards the role of learners in the learning process Statements 8, 20 and

24 are the positive attitudes while statements 4, 5 and 21 are the negative

4 Since the learner comes to the language

classroom with little or no knowledge of the

language, he/ she is in no position to

suggest what the content of the lesson

should be or what activities are useful for

him/ her

5 Training learners to take responsibility

for their own learning is futile since

learners are not used to such an approach

language teaching encourages

responsibility and self-discipline and allows

each student to develop his/ her full

potential

20 Tasks and activities should be

negotiated and adapted to suit to the

students‟ needs rather than imposed them

21 Students do their best when taught as a

whole class by the teacher Small group

work may occasionally be useful to vary the

routine, but it can never replaced sound

formal instruction by a competent teacher

24 A textbook alone is not able to care for

all the needs and interest of the students

The teacher must supplement the textbook

with other materials and tasks so as to

satisfy the widely differing needs of the

students

Table 2.3 Teachers’ attitudes towards the role of learners

As can be seen in Table 2.3, teachers differed in their opinions regarding their attitudes to

the role of learners in the learning process again All teachers (100%) agreed that “The learner-centred approach to language teaching encourages responsibility and self- discipline and allows each student to develop his/ her full potential” 92.3% teachers agreed that “Tasks and activities should be negotiated and adapted to suit to the students‟ needs rather than imposed them” In contrast, 92.3% agreed that “Students do their best when taught as a whole class by the teacher Small group work may occasionally be useful

to vary the routine, but it can never replaced sound formal instruction by a competent teacher”