A study of teachers’ use of English in classrooms at Vietnam University of Commerce

This paper focuses on the quantitative study of teachers’ use of English in the language school at the University of Commerce. The results show that lecture time of teachers dominates speaking time of students.

1 INTRODUCTION

In the era of communicative language

teaching, teacher talk plays an important role in

English classrooms Teacher talk is generally

recognized as a valuable source of language

input for the learner This is particularly true in

Vietnam where the teacher’s role is traditionally

the centre of the class Moreover, many aspects

of teacher talk such as elicitation, and explanation

can significantly affect the quantity and quality

of student interaction in the lesson However,

Vietnamese teachers are believed to be dominating

English classes with much teacher talking time

while students, as a consequence, are deprived

of opportunities of practicing speaking English

Moreover, the use of English in teacher talk

determines the success of EFL classes to some

TRẦN LAN HƯƠNG *

* Đại học Thương mại, ✉ tranlanhuong17@gmail.com

Ngày nhận bài: 22/01/2018; ngày sửa chữa: 09/02/2018; ngày duyệt đăng: 20/4/2018

NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TIẾNG ANH CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN TRONG GIẢNG DẠY

TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC THƯƠNG MẠI

TÓM TẮT

Bài báo tập trung vào nghiên cứu định lượng việc giảng viên sử dụng tiếng Anh trong lớp học ngôn ngữ tại Đại học Thương mại Kết quả cho thấy, thời gian nói và giảng bài của giảng viên

so với thời gian nói và phát biểu của sinh viên có sự chênh lệch tương đối lớn Nói cách khác, sinh viên chưa thực sự đóng vai trò trung tâm trong lớp học mà vẫn phụ thuộc rất nhiều vào việc truyền thụ kiến thức của giảng viên Nói về việc sử dụng tiếng Anh trong giảng dạy, tần suất sử dụng tiếng Anh của giảng viên so với tiếng Việt tương đối cao, đáp ứng được yêu cầu tối đa hóa

sử dụng tiếng Anh và hạn chế tiếng mẹ đẻ trong lớp học ngôn ngữ

Từ khóa: giảng viên, giảng dạy, tiếng Anh, tiếng mẹ đẻ

extent because English teacher talk is sometimes regarded as a register, with its own pedagogical and interactive properties English teacher talk can be used to instruct language knowledge, communicate and organize classroom activities Teacher’s use of English can greatly promote the communicativeness of the EFL classes as long as teacher talk is communicative, too The importance

of teacher talk is not only apparent in the whole class organization but also in the processes of students’ acquisition of the target language

Although there have been many studies on the use of English as a foreign language in teacher verbal behavior in EFL classroom, analyses of the use of English in teacher talk in the context

of Vietnam in general and Hanoi universities in particular remain necessary

2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

In second language acquisition research, it is

the ‘linguistic environment’ that serves as the stage

for second language acquisition This environment

– the speakers of the target language and their

speech to the second language (L2) learners-

provides linguistic input in the form of listening

opportunities embedded in social and academic

situations In order to acquire the language,

learners must come to understand the language

in these situations This accessibility is made

possible in part through accommodations made by

native speakers to make language comprehension

possible and in part through strategies the learner

enacts to make the speech comprehensible

The principle of “Teaching English through

English” is highly influential in English language

teaching Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1982),

emphasize that a new language is acquired through

exposure The availability of a desirable language

environment is of “paramount importance to

success in learning a new language” (p.13)

Teaching English through English “is defined

as speaking and using English as often as you

possibly can, for example, when organizing

teaching activities or chatting to students socially”

(Willis, 1981) It means establishing English as

the main language of communication between

students and instructors

Cummins and Swain (1986) warn that if the

mother tongue is used together with the second

language (L2), students will tend to avoid the one

which they feel uneasy about and it will be harmful

to L2 learning Cook (2000), when elaborating the

importance of “exposure,” further argues that the

role of English, in a language class is not only a

medium of instruction, but teaching content as

well The interaction language between teachers

and students is exactly the objective of English

language teaching Therefore, teachers should

stick to the L2 all the time so as to maximize

students’ exposure to the target language

Willis (1981) emphasizes the teacher’s role in

maintaining English as the language of instruction and communication in a language teacher’s course book that includes phrase lists for non-native teachers

However, the question of how to make target language instruction understandable to L2 learners, especially low-level ones is a thorn in language teachers’ flesh Input adjustments, therefore, are often made in teacher talk to boost comprehension Krashen (1982) claimed that ‘comprehensible input’ was a necessary condition for language learning Krashen claims that comprehension is necessary in order for input to become ‘intake’… This ability to understand new language, Krashen maintained, is made possible by speech adjustments made to learners, in addition to the learner’s use of shared knowledge of the context (Larsen-Freeman and Long, 1991) The need to use extra-linguistic information is also emphasized

The use of the target language for instruction: From simpler notions like ‘teaching English

through English’ (J Willis et al, 1981), through

teaching ‘sheltered content’ courses in the

target language (Briton et al, 1989) to full-scale

immersion programmes ( Genesee 1984) proves to

be extremely necessary in non-English speaking countries such as Vietnamese context Unlike countries where English is the second language, Vietnamese contexts do not provide opportunities for the target language exposure outside the classrooms Hence, teacher talk provides the main contact with the target language In many Asian countries including China, and Korea, it is suggested that English is the medium for communication and teaching in the classrooms and the use of mother tongue should be kept to the minimum However, the use of English is recommended

by some scholars to be considered in a particular context In Vietnam, like other non-English speaking countries, according to Sandra Lee McKay in her book “Principles and Practices for Teaching English as an International Language” (edited with L Alsagoff, G Hu & W Renandya,

2012, Routledge), there are some factors that

should be taken into consideration before

implement the principle “teaching English through

English”: (1) Students’ Proficiency Level; (2)

Teachers’ Proficiency in English; (3) Grammatical

Rules; (4) Accuracy versus fluency; (5) Lexical

development

In general then it seems reasonable to consider

the many variables that can influence English

learning before requiring all teachers to teach

English through English

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The data for this study collected through the

use of two main instruments: Questionnaires and

Observation

Selection of subjects:

The groups of teachers are 3 Vietnamese

females teachers aged from 28 to 50 Most of them

are regarded as experienced teachers with at least

4 years teaching All of them have got Master

Qualification in teaching English

150 first-year-students from the faculty

of English in Hanoi University of Commerce

responded to the questionnaires All are Vietnamese

aged from 18 to 20 Their levels varying from lower

intermediate to pre-intermediate are proven by the

fact that they have studied English for at least 3

years at high school The average size of their

class varies from 30 to 45 students “The Business

- Pre-Intermediate” is used as their textbook

Observation:

Observations were conducted firstly to provide

a general overview of the EFL teaching situation

in University of Commerce Three observations

focused mainly on the use of English in teacher talk

there Observation sheet was adapted as partially

cited according to Holland and Shortall, in 2001

and Lightbrown and Spada in 1999 Observations

were made in February and March, 2017:

- The first observation was conducted on

February 24th, 2017 in a speaking lesson

- The second observation was conducted on March 17th, 2017 in a writing lesson

- The third observation was conducted on March 17th, 2017 in a listening lesson

Questionnaires:

In relation with data collected from observations, data from questionnaires were processed to provide a better understanding of the use of English in teacher talk

There were two questionnaires: one for 150 students and the other for 3 teachers Both of them are written in Vietnamese to make sure that the participants fully understand all the question items Each questionnaire consists of three parts: Part 1/Part 4: Participants’ perception of the amount of teacher talking time and the use of English in teacher talk in EFL classrooms

Part 2: Participants’ perception of some aspects

of English teacher talk such as: speech rate, lexical and grammatical simplification, pronunciation, and extra linguistic behaviors

Part 3: Participants’ idea of what are obstacles

to the use of English in teacher talk in these EFL classrooms

4 RESULT 4.1 Teacher talking time

Results from 3 observations illustrated in Table 1 show that the amount of teacher talking time for questions, instructions, explanation, elicitation, answering questions, and repetition or clarification occupied more than 60% of the total class time, especially Teacher 1’s talk accounted for up to 66% Obviously, this shows that teachers dominated the classes with their talk, which left students few opportunities of speaking practice Results from questionnaires for students and teachers lead to the same conclusion Most of the students (46%) believed that their teachers talked between 60-80% Teachers themselves gave the same percentage of their talking time in EFL classes

Table 1: Teacher Talking Time

Total TTT (min)/a period (45 min)

% of total TTT

Teacher 1 30/45 66%

Teacher 2 28/45 62%

Teacher 3 28/45 62%

4.2 The use of English in teacher talk

As can be seen from Table 2, three teachers

used the target language as a medium to teach

English with a different quantity Their English

talking time was about 60% The results from

questionnaires show that the majority of students

(40%) thought that English teacher talk reached

60-80%, but a comparatively high number of students

(31%) agreed that their teachers talked 40-60%

of total talking time in English In fact, teachers

themselves admitted that they spoke English

less than 60% of the total talking time A teacher

shared her experience that she could not speak

more English than 60% during her teacher talk for

the sake of a smooth lesson These figures reveal

the medium quantity of English use in teacher talk

The limited use of English means an excessive use

of Vietnamese, which may deprive students from

maximum exposures to the target language This

also causes the limited use of English between

students once the teacher fails to form the habit of

using English as much as possible in the classroom

as well as set an example for them at the same time

Table 2: The use of English in TT

English % of English

Teacher 1 18/30 60%

Teacher 2 17/28 61%

Teacher 3 18/32 60%

4.3 Features of English teacher talk

As can be seen from the Figure 1 and 2, both the

number of students and teachers who agreed that

lexical simplification as well as slow speech rate exited in English teacher talk made up majority Also, most teachers and students expressed their neutral point of view on the statement that teachers had a master of native-like pronunciation In fact, that the rest of the teachers and students showed their disagreement is reasonable because the capacity of native-like pronunciation is hardly possible for non-native adult speakers no matter how good their command of English can be Concerning the extra linguistic behaviors, most of the students (61%) thought that their teachers use non-verbal language effectively to go with their teacher talk

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

63 30

106

70 67

91

27 61

Agree Neutral Disagree

Figure 1: Students’ perception of some features of English teacher talk

A: Slow speech rate B: Native-like pronunciation C: Lexical simplification D: Effective Extra linguistic behaviors

Figure 2: Teachers’ perception of some features of English teacher talk

4.4 Categories and frequencies of TT in English and Vietnamese

Data for categories and frequencies of English/Vietnamese TT types were collected mainly through questionnaires for students and teachers The questionnaires were distributed to 150 students and 3 teachers on March 24th, 2017 after first three speaking lessons of the first year’s second term in the university These three speaking lessons were designed at least 60% for students’ speaking and teachers were just instructors to help students fulfill their tasks On the same day, questionnaires were collected

In general, each teacher speech type in English appeared to enjoy high frequency Such teacher talk types as questions, instructions, explanation, elicitation, answering questions, and repetition or clarification

were considered as usually performed in English Especially, the frequency of error correction, procedural

talk and compliments in English were thought to be higher by about half of the subjects (see Table 3) Interactional and other teacher speech types enjoyed lower frequency

Vietnamese teacher talk types were believed to occur less frequently than English corresponding ones

Most of teacher speech types were sometimes performed in Vietnamese.

Table 3: Frequency of teacher talk in English

Frequency

Teacher

speech type never arely sometimes usually always

2 Instructions Questions 1 7 24 51 17

3 Explanations 0 4 16 49 31

4 Elicitation 0 10 28 42 20

5 Error correction or negotiation 1 2 12 30 55

6 Answering questions 0 2 21 39 38

7 Repetition or clarification 1 7 24 45 23

8 Interaction 5 10 36 30 19

5 CONCLUSION

The amount of teacher talk in the classrooms under the investigation is still large with teacher talking time that occupies more than 60% of the total class time This is a consequence of traditional teaching style which has a deep root in Vietnamese education system Excessive teacher talk means minimum

of student talking time Students, thus, are deprived of opportunities to raise their voice in the class Moreover, there is a limitation to the use of English in teacher talk due to some obstacles such as: students’ incapability of understanding, teachers’ limited proficiency, time pressure, heavy syllabus pressure, and testing-oriented teaching Thus, though English has been claimed to be the medium of teaching, the average use of English is less than 60% of total teacher talking time Some teachers also admitted that

they could not speak English more than 50% for

the sake of students’ understanding This may

deprive of students of maximum exposure to the

target language and leads to students’ hesitation

to speak English once teachers themselves fail to

form a habit of speaking this language as much as

possible in classrooms

Secondly, some features such as lexical

and grammatical simplification as well as slow

speech rate can be found in English teacher

talk Concerning the pronunciation, Vietnamese

teachers of English hardly reach the standard of

native-like pronunciation Regarding the extra

linguistic information, it seems that English

teachers do make use of non-verbal language

but not very effectively as noted by teachers

themselves

Finally, each teacher speech type in English

appears to enjoy high frequency in general The

most common teacher speech types are instruction,

questions, and explanation are performed in

English with high quantity./

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Language Acquisition: One Person with Two

Languages’ Aronoff & Rees-Miller, Blackwell

Handbook of Linguistics, Blackwell Publishing.

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Bilingualism in education: aspects of theory,

research, and practice, London: Longman

Publishing

3 Dulay, H., M Burt and S.Krashen (1982),

Language two, Oxford, England, Oxford

University Press

4 Edwards, C et al (1998), Language

Teaching Methodology, Centre for English

Language Studies: Birmingham University

5 Ellis, R (1994), The Study of Second

Language Acquisition, Shanghai: Shanghai

Foreign Language Education Press

6 Holland, R and T Shortall (2000),

Classroom Research and Research Methods,

Centre for English Language Studies, Birmingham University

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An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research, London & New York: Longmans.

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Ritchie & T K Bhatia (Eds.), Handbook of language

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A STUDY OF TEACHERS’ USE OF ENGLISH IN CLASSROOMS

AT VIETNAM UNIVERSITY

OF COMMERCE

TRAN LAN HUONG Abstract: This paper focuses on the

quantitative study of teachers’ use of English

in the language school at the University of Commerce The results show that lecture time of teachers dominates speaking time

of students In other words, students do not really play a central role in the classroom but rely heavily on the knowledge transfer of the teacher With reference to the use of English in teaching, the frequency of Vietnamese teachers

of English use compared to Vietnamese is relatively high, meeting the requirement to maximize the use of English and limit mother tongue in the language classroom

Keywords: teacher talk, English, mother

tongue Received: 22/01/2018; Revised: 09/2/2018; Accepted for publication: 20/4/2018