an evaluation of communication strategy instructions

4.3 Teachers’ perceptions of CSIs in learning and teaching and teachers’ opinions about the significance of CSIs ...29 4.3.1 Teachers’ perceptions of CSIs in learning and teaching ...29

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CAN THO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

B.A Thesis

Duong Thi Phi Oanh Code: 7032464

B.Ed class NN0352A3

Can Tho, June 2007

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu

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C ONTENTS

Contents i

Acknowledgements iii

Abstract .iv

List of Tables of Figures v

Chapter 1 Introduction .1

1.1 Rationale .1

1.2 Research aims 2

1.3 Organization of the thesis 2

Chapter 2 Literature Review 3

2.1 Communicative competence 3

2.2 Strategic competence 5

2.2.1 Definition 5

2.2.2 Strategic competence – an important component of communicative competence 7

2.3 Communication strategies and the significance of Communication Strategy Instructions (CSIs) .7

2.3.1 Definition 8

2.3.2 Taxonomy 8

2.3.3 The significance of communication strategy instructions .10

Chapter 3 Research Methodology 15

3.1 Research question 15

3.2 Research design .15

3.3 Participants 16

3.3.1 Teachers 16

3.3.2 Students 17

3.3.3 Observers 17

3.4 Materials .17

3.5 Instruments 18

3.5.1 Textbook evaluation criteria 19

3.5.2 Classroom Observation Sheet 19

3.5.3 Questionnaires for teachers .20

3.5.4 Questionnaire for students 21

3.6 Procedure .22

3.6.1 Evaluating the textbook 23

3.6.2 Observing the seven GE 4 classes 23

3.6.3 Administering questionnaires for teachers and students 23

Chapter 4 Results .25

4.1 The manifestation of CSIs from unit 30 to 40 in Reward Elementary (Greenall and Pye, 1997) 25

4.1.1 The mean scores of the evaluation of the student’s book and workbook 25

4.1.2 The mean scores of the evaluation of the teacher’s book 26

4.2 The instructions of communication strategies in the classroom .27

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4.3 Teachers’ perceptions of CSIs in learning and teaching and teachers’

opinions about the significance of CSIs .29

4.3.1 Teachers’ perceptions of CSIs in learning and teaching 29

4.3.2 Teachers’ opinions about the significance of CSIs 30

4.4 Students’ frequency of communication strategy use 31

Chapter 5 Discussions, Limitations, and Suggestions for Further Research 34

5.1 Discussions .34

5.1.1 Theoretical findings 34

5.1.2 The empirical research into the inclusion of CSIs in the curriculum of GE 35

5.1.3 Pedagogical implications 37

5.2 Limitations and Suggestions for further research 38

Bibliography 39

Appendices 41

Appendix 1 Textbook Evaluation Criteria 41

Appendix 2 Observation sheet 43

Appendix 3 Questionnaire for teachers 44

Appendix 4 Questionnaire for students 46

Appendix 5 Bảng câu hỏi cho sinh viên 48

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A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

During the time I conducted the thesis, I have got the help and support from many people from

whom I would like to sincerely thank and acknowledge

First, I would like to express the deepest gratitude to my supervisors Mr Trinh Quoc Lap and Mrs Duong Thi Phi Oanh, for their valuable insights, comments, and suggestions Without their guidance, my thesis would hardly have been completed I am solely responsible for any remaining errors in the thesis

Second, many special thanks are sincerely sent to the seven instructors and students of the classes that I observed I also want to express my appreciation to the instructors that helped

me to evaluate the textbook and the instructors who gave me helpful suggestions when piloting the instruments Their generous willingness in participating in the study was the invaluable help for me My special thanks also go to Ms Bui Lan Chi, Ms Phuong Hoang Yen, Mr Nguyen Viet Tien, teachers of the English Department, CTU, for their utmost help at the beginning of my thesis

Third, I am very grateful to my friends Nguyen Thi Hong Uyen, Le Ngoc Thu Trung,

Le Nhu Ngoc Ha, and Vo Minh Nha who spent their precious time observing the classes with

me, and suggested me many interesting materials related to the research

I also want to thank many others for being always by my side and giving me timely support Many thanks are also owed to my family for giving me the best conditions to study and complete the thesis

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A BSTRACT

The study investigates whether and if yes, to which degree communication strategy instructions (henceforth CSIs) are included in the curriculum of General English 4 at Cantho University (CTU) The research samples are 7 teachers and 226 students of 7 General English

4 classes at CTU, 8 textbook evaluators, who are teachers of the English Department at CTU, and 2 senior English major students, who participated in the study as classroom observers The four instruments of the study consist of Textbook evaluation criteria, Classroom observation sheet, Questionnaire for teachers, and Questionnaire for students The results indicate that (1) CSIs are not clearly manifested in the textbook, (2) although the teachers, in general, were aware of the significance of CSIs and supported CSIs, the implementation of CSIs of the teachers in the classroom practice was rather limited and (3) the students just had an average frequency of communication strategy use From the results of the study, I put forward some recommendations to implement more CSIs in the classroom practice

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L ISTS OF T ABLES AND F IGURES

Table/Figure Page

Table 3.1: Information about the observed Teachers and General English 4 classes 16

Table 3.2: Items in sections of questionnaire for teachers 20

Table 3.3: Items in sections of questionnaire for students 21

Table 4.1: The mean scores of the evaluation of the student’s book and workbook collected from 8 evaluators 26

Table 4.2: The mean scores of the evaluation of the teacher’s book collected from 3 evaluators 27

Table 4.3: Types of CSs and the approaches to CSIs in the classroom 27

Table 4.4: Descriptive Statistics of Teacher’s perceptions of CSIs 29

Table 4.5: Teachers’ opinions about the significance of CSIs 30

Table 4.6: Descriptive Statistics of Students’ frequency of communication strategy use 31

Table 4.7: The mean score for the frequency of each communication strategy use 32

Figure 2.1: The taxonomy of communication strategies (Tarone, 1983) 10

Figure 4.1: The mean of teachers’ perceptions of CSIs .30

Figure 4.2: The mean of students’ frequency of communication strategy use 32

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CHAPTER 1

Effective strategies used to overcome communication difficulties are extremely important for second

language (L2) learners (Faucette, 2001) Accordingly, the instructions on how to deal with such communication

difficulties may somehow benefit L2 learners Since the early 1980’s, many studies have been conducted on the

instructions of communication strategies, the means which L2 learners resort to in order to express an intended

meaning The results of these studies generally advocate the teaching of communication strategies (e.g., Dörnyei

1995; Dörnyei & Thurrell, 1991, 1994; Tarone, 1983) Therefore, it is necessary to examine the inclusion of

communication strategy instructions in the curriculum of L2 learners

1.1 Rationale

According to some of the instructors who are teaching General English at Cantho

University, non-major English students usually have limited language resource and therefore,

have difficulties communicating in English When they are asked to speak in English, many of

them find it difficult to express their ideas and usually just keep silent

For English major students, with the textbooks Interaction and Mosaic (Mcgraw-Hill,

1997) they have learned some techniques to get over communicative failures such as

paraphrasing, appealing for help from the teacher These techniques belong to

communication strategies which are defined as “a systematic technique employed by a speaker

to express his meaning when faced with some difficulty” (Corder, 1983) According to

Rababah (2001), communication strategies help language learners cope with communication

problems they encounter and can help them succeed in communication Some communication

strategies are presented in the textbook of English major students (Interactions and Mosaic)

and these students are instructed to use communication strategies to get over communication

problems, how about non-major students? Whether communication strategies are instructed

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for non-major students in their General English classes in order to help them tackle difficulties

in communication? To find the answer for this question, a research on the inclusion of CSIs in

the curriculum of non-major students at Cantho University was conducted

1.2 Research aims

The study was done in order to find out whether CSIs are included in General English

curriculum at CTU If CSIs are included, the study will aim to investigate the degree to which

they are included in the curriculum From the obtained results, some pedagogical implications

for English teachers as well as curriculum developers of General English at CTU will be

suggested

1.3 Organization of the thesis

The report of the study in this thesis consists of five chapters: Introduction, Literature

review, Research methodology, Research results, and Discussions, Limitations and

Suggestions for further research In chapter 1, research rationale, research aims and the

structure of the research are introduced In chapter 2, I will summarize some studies relevant

to the research More specifically, the definitions of communicative competence, strategic

competence and communication strategies will be presented, followed by the discussion about

the significance of CSIs In chapter 3, I will present the methodology of the research by

describing the research design, the participants, the materials, the research instruments, and the

procedure of conducting the research In chapter 4, the results of the study will be reported In

chapter 5, I will present the discussions withdrawn from the analyzed data, the limitations of

the study and some suggestions for further research

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CHAPTER 2

In learning an L2, besides phonological, lexical, and grammatical knowledge, it is necessary for learners

to know the ways how to communicate with others using the target language As a result, language teachers and

curriculum developers worldwide have implemented communication-oriented teaching syllabi to seek for more

effective ways to enhance students’ communicative competence In this chapter, I present (1) the definition and

the components of communicative competence, (2) strategic competence - one important component of

communicative competence, and (3) communication strategies (henceforth CSs) and the significance of

communication strategy instructions (CSIs) in language teaching and learning

2.1 Communicative competence

Recently, the ultimate goal of language learning, put in any context of teaching and

learning English as a foreign language, has been attributed to the ability to communicate

competently, not to use the language as accurately as native speakers do Therefore, in the past

decades, linguists and language teaching experts have paid much attention to Communicative

Competence, which is regarded as the knowledge enabling someone to use a language

effectively and their actual ability to use this knowledge for communication (Johnson &

Johnson, 2001) It has become widely accepted that communicative competence should be the

goal of language education, central to good classroom practice (Savignon 1998) According to

Canale and Swain's (1980) and later Canale's (1983), there are four different components that

make up communicative competence: grammatical competence, discourse competence,

sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence

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1 Grammatical competence As defined by Canale and Swain (ibid.), grammatical

competence is the knowledge of linguistic rules, including the four areas of grammar: syntax -

the sentence patterns of language, phonology - the system of sound patterns, morphology - the

formation of words, and semantics - the understanding of word’s meanings Grammatical

competence, therefore, asks such questions as: What words should we use? How do we put

them into phrases and sentences?

2 Discourse competence Canale and Swain (ibid.) regarded discourse competence as

the knowledge of how to use a language cohesively and coherently Discourse competence,

consequently, asks such question as: What pronouns or grammatical connectors should we use

to connect ideas or put sentences together?

3 Socio-linguistic competence According to Canale and Swain (ibid.), socio-linguistic

competence is knowing how to use and respond to language appropriately, given the setting,

the topic, and the relationships among the people communicating In other words,

social-linguistic competence asks: Which words and phrases fit a certain setting and topic? How can

we express a specific attitude (courtesy, authority, friendliness, respect)? How do we know

what attitude another person is expressing?

I have just presented the definition, the four components of communicative competence,

and the descriptions of its three first components The other component - strategic competence

- will be discussed in detail in the following part - 2.2 Strategic competence

2.2 Strategic competence

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2.2.1 Definition

Dörnyei and Thurrell (1991) defined strategic competence as the ability of the learners

in successfully understanding their communicative partners’ meaning, especially when

problems occur in the process of communication while Tarone and Yule (as cited in Ghaleb,

2001) believed that strategic competence includes the ability to select the effective means to

perform a communicative act when encountering communication failures Hence, combining

these two definitions, it can be assumed that strategic competence refers to the learners’ skill

in (1) transmitting the message successfully and comprehensively to the listeners and (2)

understanding the information received This viewpoint of strategic competence is in line with

that of Canale and Swain (ibid.) who asserted that strategic competence is the learners’

attempt to “overcome difficulties when communication breakdowns occur” To Canale and

Swain (ibid.), these communication breakdowns could stem from either the learners’ limited

linguistic knowledge such as the lack of structures and vocabulary or the learners’

performance variables (fatigue, nervousness) In addition, Canale and Swain (ibid.) also stated

the components of strategic competence, comprising both verbal and non-verbal

communication strategies The concept of CSs will be discussed in more details in section 2.3-

Communication strategies and the significance of Communication Strategy Instructions

2.2.2 Strategic competence – an important component of communicative competence

In the article “Strategic Competence and Language Teaching” (2001), Rababah

claimed that teachers of English have been focusing on the three first components of

communicative competence but have paid little or even no attention to strategic competence

since they believe that once grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence and

discourse competence are developed, language learners will be able to communicate

effectively in the real world However, Rababah stressed the importance of strategic

competence as a necessary part of communicative competence Along with Rababah (ibid.),

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many other linguists also emphasized the major role of strategic competence in successful

communication

Similar to Rababah (ibid.), Tarone (1983) and Savignon (1987) also vigorously

supported the important role of strategic competence in communicative competence To these

two linguists, every component of communicative competence, including strategic

competence, is extremely important in the foreign language classroom More specifically,

regardless of experience and level of proficiency, “one never knows all a language”

(Savignon, 1987) Therefore, it is obvious that the learners’ ability to cope with linguistic

limitation is extremely important Due to the importance of strategic component, Mariani

(1994) strongly affirmed that “strategic competence provides many advantages for learners; as

a consequence, strategic competence should be a significant component of an EFL1 syllabus.”

All in all, it can be concluded that strategic competence constitutes an important aspect

of communicative competence As Canale and Swain (ibid.) stated, strategic competence

comprises communication strategies Correspondingly, it is necessary to find out what

communication strategies are and what benefits the instructions of these strategies provide for

language learners

2.3 Communication strategies (CSs) and the significance of Communication Strategy

Instructions (CSIs)

2.3.1 Definition

Different linguists defined the phrase “communication strategies” differently (Tarone,

1983; Fearch and Kasper, 1983; Brown, 1987) The following definitions are attempted to

provide an insightful look into the nature of communication strategies

Tarone (1983) defined the phrase “communication strategies” as:

1 English as a Foreign Language

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“a systematic attempt by the learners to express or decode meaning in the target language, in

situations where the appropriate systematic target language rules have not been found (p.5)”

Fearch and Kasper (1983), on the other hand used the word “plan” instead of “attempt”

as Tarone to define CSs because they assumed that the execution of a “plan” would lead to

verbal behavior which is expected to satisfy learners’ communication goal They defined the

term “communication strategies” in the following way:

“Communication strategies are potentially conscious plans for solving what to an individual

presents itself as a problem in reaching a particular communicative goal (p.36).”

Later, Brown (1987) defined the phrase as follows:

“the conscious employment by verbal or non-verbal mechanisms for communicating an idea

when precise linguistic forms are for some reason not available to the learner at the point in

communication (p 180).”

Although the phrase “communication strategies” was defined differently, it is evident

that the two principal defining criteria for CSs, as suggested by Fearch and Kasper (1983) and

Brown (1987) are “problematicality” and “consciousness” In other words, the aforementioned

definitions seem to support the claim that communication strategies are consciously employed

by L2 learners to achieve communication goals when the learners face communication

problems due to linguistic shortcomings

2.3.2 Taxonomy

The taxonomy of CSs is various since new taxonomies are developed by linguists and

researchers from time to time In this study, the taxonomy of Tarone (1977) and further

elaborated by Tarone (1983:62-63) is presented since it is brief, standard and “is considered

the basis of all proposed taxonomies” (Rababah, ibid.) According to Tarone, CSs can be

divided into three main groups: paraphrase, borrowing/conscious transfer, and avoidance

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1 Paraphrase Paraphrase is used to express the same ideas in a different way in the

target language According to the taxonomy of Tarone (1983), paraphrase is divided into

three parts First, approximation means that the learner uses a single target language

vocabulary item or structure, which he/she knows is not correct, but shares enough semantic

features with the targeted item For instance, the learner might use the word “spoon” in place

of the word “fork” Second, word coinage is the creation of a new word, which is used to

communicate a desired concept For example, the learner might say “typer” instead of

“typist” Lastly, circumlocution is used by learners to describe the characteristics or elements

of the objects or action instead of using the appropriate target language item or structure For

example, the learner might say “become water” if he/she does not know the word “melt”

2 Borrowing/Conscious transfer To Tarone (1983), this group comprises learners’

using their native language, miming or asking for help from the interlocutors to express their

thoughts It is categorized into four aspects The first aspect is literal translation, which is

used to translate word for word from the native language For example, a Vietnamese learner

might translate the intended phrase “go under the rain” as “walk in the rain” to express his

meaning The second aspect of borrowing/conscious transfer is language switch, which

means that learners insert words from other languages when expressing their ideas without

bothering to translate For example, learners might use the word “cravate”- a French word

when they do not know the word “tie” in English The third aspect of this group is appeal for

assistance, which means that learners ask for the correct term from their communicative

partners instead of solving problems by themselves For instance, learners can use the

following phrases to ask for repetitions from the speakers: I beg you pardon, Could you say

that again?, Do you mean ? The last aspect of borrowing/conscious transfer is mime,

which is used to express ideas through body language or gestures For example, learners

might repeatedly curl and uncurl their fingers to indicate “come here”

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3 Avoidance Avoidance means that learners bypass using certain words or grammar

structures Avoidance, according to Tarone (1983), is divided into two main parts The first

part, topic avoidance, means that the learner simply tries not to talk about concepts for which

the target language item or structure is not known For example, a learner may ignore

religious discussions if he/she is not sure of a topic or if it requires him/her to use a more

extensive, advanced vocabulary The leaner can then switch to another topic that he/she is

more interested in by using phrases such as: by the way, talking about The second part of

avoidance is message abandonment, which means that learners are unable to continue and

stop in mid-utterance when talking about a certain concept For example: It is a person er

who is responsible for a house, for the block of house I don’t know

The taxonomy by Tarone (1983) can be summarized by the figure in the following page

COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES

Appeal for assistance Mime

Topic avoidance

Message abandonment Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu

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Figure 2.1 The taxonomy of communication strategies (Tarone, 1983)

As mentioned in 2.2.1 Definition of strategic competence, Canale and Swain (ibid.)

emphasized that both verbal and non-verbal CSs constitute strategic competence - a crucial

component of communicative competence Thereby, it can be assumed that CSs provide L2

learners a lot of benefits and contribute to learners’ ability to communicate competently As a

result, the instructions of CSs should be fostered in the classroom context The following part

will discuss what benefits the instructions of CSs can provide language learners

2.3.3 The significance of communication strategy instructions (CSIs)

The instructions of CSs can benefit language learners in four main ways: (1) help

learners solve communication problems and achieve their communication goals, (2) facilitate

language learning, (3) maintain conversations, and (4) enhance learners’ strategic competence

and communicative competence These benefits of CSIs will be more specifically presented in

the following section

Firstly, CSIs can help language learners solve communication problems and achieve

their communication goals (Rababah, 2001) Rababah emphasized that the use of CSs does not

mean language learners fail to communicate in English On the other hand, the use of CSs can

be an efficient way to compensate for the lack of linguistic knowledge and help language

learners overcome problems in communication due to performance variables such as fatigue,

nervousness or insufficient competence When faced with such communication difficulties,

learners may try to avoid particular language items, paraphrase when they do not have the

appropriate form, ask for help from the speakers/listeners, or even use gestures to

communicate the intended meanings, etc Thus, Rababah (ibid.) recommended that CSIs

should be paid more attention in the classroom context Rababah’s viewpoint on the

importance of CSIs is in agreement with that of Tarone (1983) Tarone asserted that not only

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students’ skill in conveying information successfully is important, students’ abilities to use

CSs when the process of conveying information encounters a problem is important as well

For this reason, Tarone claimed that in the first place, communicative classroom materials and

exercises should concentrate more on student's CSs and in the second place, “teachers can

encourage students to use these strategies by providing both opportunities for practice and

actual instruction in their use.”

Secondly, according to Oxford (as cited in Faucette, 2001) CSIs will lead to learning

When language learners are directly instructed on CSs, they are more likely to use these

strategies to elicit unknown language items from the interlocutor Therefore, learners can

receive more input during communication process and this input helps them widen their

knowledge and motivates them to communicate more confidently For instance, when talking

to someone, one learner might say “a machine that cleans the floor” to imply the “vacuum

cleaner” His/her communicative partner will easily understand him/her and probably say: you

mean a “vacuum cleaner”? In this case, it is clear that the learner can learn a new word from

his/her communicative partner and next time, if he/she wants to say “vacuum cleaner”, he/she

does not have to resort to any CSs to say the right word Indeed, different studies on the

training of CSs have significantly supported the fact that CSIs can facilitate language learning

(Rababah, 2001; Faucette, 2001) Accordingly, Oxford (as cited in Faucette, 2001) believed

that teachers should directly teach CSsin order to help learners become more aware of how to

use such strategies for more effective communication and therefore, enhance their language

learning process

Besides helping language learners solve communications problems and facilitating

language learning, CSIs can also help learners maintain their conversations Larsen-Freeman

and Long (1991) regarded CSs as a vital tool to maintain conversation, especially for less

proficient learners When learners are able to maintain the conversations, they can benefit

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from receiving more additional modified input On the other hand, if learners easily give up

expressing their ideas due to inadequate linguistic resource without resorting to any CSs, their

conversational ability is unlikely to be developed By using CSs, communication channel will

remain open and learners can stay longer in the conversation As a consequence, it seems

necessary to introduce the instruction on CSs as recommended by Faucette:

“Teaching recommended communication strategies empowers students to participate in communication

by helping them to not give up in the conversation We as teachers have a responsibility to provide our

students with tools to communicate ”

Furthermore, according to Færch & Kasper (1986), Tarone & Yule (1989); Chen (1990),

Dörnyei & Thurrell (1991), CSIs are significant because they can develop learners’ strategic

competence and communicative competence To these researchers, the language teacher’s first

task is to train learners for better communication, not for perfection The appropriate use of

CSs will compensate for errors that learners may make in their interaction As CSs constitute

strategic competence (Canale and Swain, ibid.), when learners are able to use CSs fluently and

effectively to compensate for their linguistic knowledge, their strategic competence must be

developed What is more, since strategic competence has been stressed as an important

component of the communicative competence, the improvement of strategic competence could

result in the improvement in learners’ communicative competence (S Q Chen, 1990 and

Dörnyei, 1995) In particular, Chen conducted an empirical study on CSs in interlanguage

production by Chinese EFL learners to test whether CSIs can help learners enhance their

communicative competence From the results of the study, Chen stated that learners’ strategic,

and therefore, communicative competence could probably be enhanced through

communication strategy training The improvement of communicative competence through

CSIs was later affirmed in another study of Dörnyei (1995) From his study, Dörnyei indicated

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that CSIs are beneficial for second language learners in three different ways: raise awareness

of CSs, provide training in how to use these strategies properly in L2, and provide

opportunities for communication strategy practice which can help learners develop second

language communicative competence (Dörnyei, 1995, pp 62-64) Thus, Dörnyei emphasized

that learners’ use of CSs should be developed through focused instruction

In brief, from this review of the literature on CSIs, it becomes clear that

communication strategy training provides language learners many positive impacts, especially

on their language learning process Since second language learners are more likely to face

communication problems due to their lack of language resource needed to communicate their

intended goal, many researchers strongly recommend the introduction of CSIs in a language

teaching curriculum (Dörnyei and Thurrell, 1991; Dörnyei, 1995; Corder, 1983) Thus, in

situations where language curriculum and course content are to be designed for non-native

speaking background learners, the instructions of CSs should be focused However, according

to Dörnyei and Thurrell (1991), practicing teachers are usually unaware of the significance of

CSIs, and “hardly any activities have been developed to include strategy training in actual

language teaching.” Moreover, Tarone and Yule (as cited in Rababah, 2001) found that “there

are few, if any, materials available at present which teach learners how to use communication

strategies” To examine whether curriculum designers and teachers have recently paid more

attention to CSIs, it is; therefore, necessary to investigate the inclusion of CSIs in the

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showed that CSIs can benefit language learners in different ways and the instructions of communication

strategies should be included in the L2 classroom curriculum accordingly In this chapter, I will present the

methodology of the research, which comprises (1) the research question, (2) the research design, (3) the

participants, (4) the materials, (5) the research instruments, and (6) the procedure of the research

3.1 Research question:

Regarding the significance of CSIs in promoting learners’ communicative competence,

this investigation mainly addresses the following research question:

“Are CSIs included in the General English (GE) 4 curriculum at CTU, and if yes, to

which degree CSIs are included in the curriculum?”

3.2 Research design

The study followed a descriptive design According to Herbert and Elana (1989)

descriptive research is used to establish the existence of phenomena by explicitly describing

them In the present study, the inclusion of CSIs in GE curriculum at CTU is investigated The

independent variable in this study is the inclusion of CSIs in GE curriculum at CTU and

learners’ communicative competence is the dependent variable

3.3 Participants

3.3.1 Teachers

Seven teachers of the English Department at CTU who were teaching GE 4 at CTU

participated in the research I henceforth refer them as Teacher 1, Teacher 2, Teacher 3,

Teacher 4, Teacher 5, Teacher 6, and Teacher 7 Five out of the teachers obtain an M.A

degree in language teaching and the other two hold a B.A degree in language teaching

Teacher 3 and Teacher 4 have been teaching English for two and three years respectively

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while the other teachers have more than eight-year experience teaching English Table 1

summarizes information about the seven teachers and the observed GE 4 classes they taught

Table 3.1 Information about the observed Teachers and General English 4 classes

Teacher Gender Teaching experience

(years)

Degree teacher holds Class Number of

students

Besides, eight other teachers of the English Department at CTU, who have experience

teaching GE 4 course and have certain knowledge of CSs, were invited to help the researcher

evaluate CSIs presented in the textbook These teachers are addressed as Evaluator 1 to

Evaluator 8 Evaluator 1, Evaluator 2, Evaluator 3, Evaluator 4 have taught GE 4 course for

three semesters while the other four Evaluators have 2-semester experience teaching GE 4

course The seven teachers and eight evaluators participated in the study according to my

invitation and their availability and willingness

3.3.2 Students

The participants consisted of 226 non-major2 students of the seven GE 4 classes at

CTU These classes, as illustrated in the above table, are referred to as class I to class VII The

students’ majors include finance, hydraulic engineering, biology education, construction

engineering, geography education, land management, mechanics, accounting, and economics

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The GE 4 course3 for non-major students lasts fifteen weeks and there are 2 class meetings per

week, with 90 minutes for each class meeting The students of GE 4 course, to some extent,

share a similar degree of English proficiency

3.3.3 Observers

Two senior English-major students, addressed as Observer 1 and Observer 2 were also

involved in the study as the observers of the seven GE 4 classes The observers are students of

Bachelor of English Education and are well aware of communication strategies

3.4 Materials

The main teaching and learning material for the GE program is the Reward series

(Greenall and Pye, 1997, 1998) Four levels of GE program cover forty units of the Reward

Elementary (Greenall and Pye, 1997), with ten units for each level The first ten units of

Reward Pre-intermediate level (Greenall and Pye, 1998) are materials for GE 5 program

Students of GE 4 course learn from unit 30 to unit 40 of the Reward Elementary (Greenall and

Pye, 1997)

3.5 Instruments

To find the answer for the research question, four instruments were employed (1)

Textbook evaluation criteria, (2) Classroom observation sheet, (3) Questionnaire for teachers,

and (4) Questionnaire for students

3.5.1 Textbook evaluation criteria

In order to see whether CSIs are manifested in the textbook of GE 4 course (Reward

Elementary, from unit 30 to 40), the criteria to evaluate the manifestation of CSIs in the

textbook of GE 4 were designed

3 At the beginning of the academic year, non-English majors of CTU take a placement test of English that aims to

assign GE classes to them At CTU, there are five GE classes Students’ scores in the placement test are used to

determine the GE classes of the students Students who score from 0 to 5.5 are placed in GE 1 classes The upper

four levels of GE classes correspond to four ranges of students’ scores: GE 2 (6.0 – 7.0), GE 3 (7.5 – 8.5), GE 4

(9.0 – 9.5), and GE 5 (10)

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The textbook evaluation criteria are in the form of checklist in which the criteria to

evaluate the manifestation of CSIs in the textbook were categorized according to the nine

separate CSs as stated by Tarone (ibid.) The criteria were divided into two separate parts:

¾ The criteria to evaluate the manifestation of CSIs in the student’s book and workbook

This part comprises four criteria: introducing the name of the strategy, providing a list of

expressions of the strategy, presenting the benefits of CSs, and providing

tasks/activities/exercises to use the strategy for real communication, and

¾ The criteria to evaluate the manifestation of CSIs in the teacher’s book This part

includes two criteria: stating the aims for CSIs and providing suggestions for teaching CSs

The evaluators would give their judgments for the manifestation of CSIs provided in

Reward Elementary (unit 30-40) according to the four-point scale (0-3) rating system The

scale used to rate the degree to which the stated criterion is present or absent in the textbook

starts at 0, which means there is very little or no evidence of CSIs The scale expands to the

rates of 1; 2; 3, representing the partially evident, mostly evident, and fully evident

manifestation of CSIs respectively (See Appendix 1)

Piloting the textbook evaluation criteria The textbook evaluation criteria were

distributed to two teachers of the English Department at CTU, who used to teach GE 4 course

and have knowledge of CSs Both teachers were willing to evaluate the textbook and gave

helpful suggestions for the revision of the textbook evaluation criteria For example, in the

first version, CSs were not referred to as Strategy 1 to Strategy 9, but were addressed as the

names stated by Tarone (ibid.) such as “approximation” for Strategy 1, “word coinage” for

Strategy 2 The two teachers suggested that the strategy might be addressed with a different

name by other linguists, hence stating the names of each strategy could confuse the evaluators

Consequently, the old version was revised according to the recommendations of the teachers

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Then the evaluators would use the new version of the textbook evaluating criteria to rate the

degree to which CSIs are manifested in the textbook

3.5.2 Classroom Structured Observation Sheet

The aim of classroom observation is to find out whether the seven teachers instruct any

CSs in the classes Also, in the case that CSs are instructed in the classroom, the observers will

also take notes the types of CSs and the approaches to CSIs of the teachers in the classes

The observation sheet is also in the form of checklist In this observation sheet, nine

CSs were categorized into three main groups: paraphrase, borrowing, and avoidance (as

suggested by Tarone, ibid.) Three principal approaches to CSIs, which is adapted from

Dörnyei (1995), consist of (1) teaching directly by presenting the name, the examples and the

importance of the strategy, (2) providing models for the use, and (3) providing opportunities

(tasks, activities) in strategy use

In addition, the information about the teacher’s name, the observed classes, the title of

the lessons, the date and period of the observation and the observer’s name were also included

in the observation sheet (See APPENDIX 2)

Piloting the observation sheet After observing three GE 4 classes with Observer 1 and

Observer 2, I added one more detail in the observation sheet In order to find out the

approaches to CSIs of the teachers are based on the instructions in the textbook or on teacher’s

self-designed materials, one multiple choice question was designed To respond to this

question, the observers would put a tick in the appropriate box

3.5.3 Questionnaires for teachers

Questionnaire for teachers was designed to examine the degree to which the teachers

agree or disagree to teach CSs in their classes Another aim is to find out teachers’ opinions

about the significance of CSIs The questionnaire for teacher, thereby, was developed in two

parts

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The first part includes sixteen items relating to teachers’ perceptions of CSIs in

teaching and learning The sixteen items in the questionnaire represent the three main groups

of CSs as classified by Tarone (ibid.): (1) paraphrase, (2) borrowing/conscious transfer, and

(3) avoidance Table 3.2 presents the items with the aims corresponding to each item or group

of items

Table 3.2 Items in sections of questionnaire for teachers

1, 8 Teaching approximation

3, 7, 10 Teaching word coinage

1

5, 12 Teaching circumlocution

2 Teaching literal translation

4, 9 Teaching language switch

14 Teaching appeal for help

2

6, 11, 13 Teaching mime

15 Teaching topic avoidance

3

16 Teaching message abandonment

The response for this part of the questionnaire was designed in the form of a four-point

scale checklist The scales range from 1-indicating “strongly disagree”, 2-indicating

“disagree”, 3- indicating “agree” to 4-indicating “strongly agree”

The second part of the questionnaire comprises only one open ended question which

focuses on teacher’s opinions about of the significance of CSIs In this question, teachers

would choose one among the four options about the significance of CSIs, including A very

important, B important, C rather important, and D not important at all Then teachers would

state in detail the reasons for their choice (see APPENDIX 3)

3.5.4 Questionnaire for students

Questionnaire for students was designed in order to investigate students’ perceptions of

their frequency of communication strategy use The sixteen items related to the students’

frequency of communication strategy use were designed Table 3.3 will display the items with

the aim underlying each item or a group of items

Table 3.3 Items in sections of questionnaire for students

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1, 8 Using approximation

3, 7, 10 Using word coinage

1

5, 12 Using circumlocution

2 Using literal translation

4, 9 Using language switch

14 Using appeal for help

2

6, 11, 13 Using mime

15 Using topic avoidance

3

16 Using message abandonment

The questionnaire for students was designed in the form of a five-point scale checklist

response The scales expand from 1-representing “never” to 5-representing “always” In

between, we have scales 2, 3, 4 which correspond to the increasing frequency of

communication strategy use

The questionnaire for student was translated into Vietnamese because it was supposed

to be easier for the students to respond to (See APPENDIX 5 for the Vietnamese version)

During the development of the questionnaire for teachers, I piloted the first version of

the questionnaire with two teachers who were teaching General English 4 classes The two

teachers gave me helpful suggestions for the questionnaire revision For instance, originally,

there was no example in item 2 and item 9 The teachers then suggested adding some more

examples so that the readers could understand the items more easily and respond more

precisely The questionnaire was then revised on the basis of their recommendations before

being delivered to the teachers of the seven observed classes

As for questionnaire for students, 72 students who were following General English 4

Course participated in the pilot The pilot persuaded me to eliminate two items, which read

“When I can’t think of a word/phrase during a conversation in English, I translate the word

or phrase they want to say literally” and “When I don’t understand what other speakers mean,

I ask for help from the speakers (e.g What does “X” mean ?).” because these two items are

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