Những thách thức trong việc dạy sách giáo khoa tiếng anh 6 mới tại 1 trường THCS vùng ngoại ô hà nội một nghiên cứu khảo sát

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIUNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* TRẦN THỊ HẢI YẾN CHALLENGES IN TEACHING NEW TEX

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

TRẦN THỊ HẢI YẾN

CHALLENGES IN TEACHING NEW TEXTBOOK “ENGLISH 6”

AT A SECONDARY SCHOOL IN RURAL AREA IN HANOI: A

SURVEY STUDY(Những thách thức trong việc dạy sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 6 mới tại một

trường THCS ngoại ô Hà Nội- một nghiên cứu khảo sát)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231,01

HANOI – 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

TRẦN THỊ HẢI YẾN

CHALLENGES IN TEACHING NEW TEXTBOOK “ENGLISH 6”

AT A SECONDARY SCHOOL IN RURAL AREA IN HANOI: A

SURVEY STUDY(Những thách thức trong việc dạy sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 6 mới tại một

trường THCS ngoại ô Hà Nội- một nghiên cứu khảo sát)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231,01

Supervisor: Dr Tran Thi Thu Hien

HANOI – 2019

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project reportentitled “ Challenges faced by English teachers in teaching new textbook “English6” at a secondary school in rural area in Hanoi: a survey study” is submitted inpartial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in EnglishLinguistics This is the result of my own work Except where the reference isindicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement inthe text of the thesis

Approved by Signature

Tran Thi Hai Yen

First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my thesis supervisor,

Dr Tran Thi Thu Hien for her appreciated advice, her gradual assistance and heruseful correction, without which I would find it difficult to fulfill my thesis

I am grateful to my colleges at secondary school, who are enthusiastic tohelp me in my data collection process as well as a lot of students who are willing tobecome participants in my research and support me with valuable responses

Finally, I wish to appreciate my close friend, my classmates, my family whowere supportive and helpful to give me necessary advices and stimulation during

my thesis completion

This research emphasizes on examining the challenges encountered byEnglish teachers in teaching the new English textbook for 6th grade learners at asecondary school in rural area of Hanoi, and comes up with essentialrecommendations for the issues For serving as the data sources of this study, threeEnglish teachers and 146 grade-6 students at the school have been surveyed andinterviewed By triangulating data collected from 3 instruments namely interviews,questionnaires and classroom observations, the challenges faced up with by Englishteachers were found out, including the learners’ poor studying habits, learners’ lowlevel of English proficiency, time constraint, inadequacy of school facilities,shortcoming of supplementary teaching materials, immovable classroom setting andlarge class size To get better teaching practice with the new textbook “English 6”,the recommendations were proposed as an inevitable part of the study In otherwords, variety of suggestions for better teaching and using of the new textbook

“English 6” were proposed with regard to the authoritative, the teachers, thelearners, and the textbook designers

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATION vi

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Textbooks 4

1.1.1 Definitions of textbooks 4

1.1.2 Roles of textbooks 4

1.1.3 Advantages and disadvantages of textbooks 5

1.2 Communicative language teaching (CLT) 6

1.2.1 Definitions of CLT 6

1.2.2 Principles of CLT 7

1.2.3 Peculiarities of communicative methodology 8

1.2.4 CLT in Vietnamese teaching context 10

1.3 Review of previous related studies 12

1.3.1 Previous oversea studies 12

1.3.2 Previous studies in Vietnam 13

1.4.Chapter summary 14

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 15

2.1 Setting of the study 15

2.2.1 Students 16

2.2.2 Teachers 17

2.3.Research methods 17

2.4 Data collection instruments and procedures 18

2.4.1 Interviews 18

2.4.2 Questionnaires 19

2.4.3 Classroom observation 20

2.5 Data analysis 20

2.6 Chapter summary 20

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 21

3.1 Challenges faced by teachers in teaching new textbook “English 6” at a secondary school in rural area of Hanoi 21

3.1.1.Challenges related to students 21

3.1.2 Challenges related to teaching skills and language components 22

3.1.4.Other challenges 32

3.1.5 Challenges in teaching the new textbook “English 6” compared with teaching the former textbook “English 6” 34

3.2 Implications 34

3.2.1 For school authorities 35

3.2.2.For teachers 35

3.2.3.For students 38

3.2.4.For textbook designers 38

3.3.Chapter summary 38

PART C: CONCLUSION 39

REFERENCES 41 APPENDICE I APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 VI APPENDIX 3 VII APPENDIX 4 XI

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

MOET: Ministry of Education and Training

CEFR: Common European Framework of Reference NFL: National Foreign Language

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 2.1 The lessons’ focus of the new textbook “English 6” 16

Table 2.2 The teachers’ background information 17

Figure 3.1 Students’ studying habits in English 21

Table 3.1 Lessons ranked according to their levels of difficulty in teaching 22

Table 3.2 Skills ranked according to their degree of difficulty in teaching 23

Figure 3.2.Students’ challenges in studying listening skills 24

Firgure 3.3 Students’ challenges in studying speaking skill 25

Firgure 3.4 Students’ challenges in studying reading skill 26

Figure 3.5 Students’ challenges in studying writing skill 27

Table 3.3 Language components ranked according to their level of difficulty in teaching 28

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

With the purpose of enhancing English communicative competenceeffectively among Vietnamese youth, the National Foreign Language (NFL) projecthas been issued since the year of 2008 To satisfy the objectives set in the NFLproject, the need of reformulating English teaching and learning serves as arequirement As a result, since 2012, the series of English textbooks from grade 3 tograde 12 has been published and piloted in a number of Vietnamese institutions.The new textbook series has been designed after the communicative approach withthe hope of developing communicative competence of the learners This isconsidered a remarkable change from the former textbook series which also workedwith 4 skills but let teachers tend to focus more on grammar Since the series of thenew textbooks has been piloted in several schools in Vietnam, most of teachers whoteach the books in this series held positive attitude on the books’ design, content andthe book approach In addition, English teachers are encouraged to take part intraining courses in new teaching methodology to adapt themselves well with theexpected teaching and learning approach of the new textbooks

Beside the positive features of the new textbooks recognized by most ofEnglish teachers, the new textbook requires the English teachers a lot of effort tocover all its aspects with expected method within the time bound Being a teacherwho has used the new textbook “English 6” in teaching for 2 years, the researcherrealized that English teachers faced a number of challenges in teaching the newtextbook with the expected teaching method For that reason, the study is carried outwith the purpose of revealing the challenges that English teachers face up with inteaching the new English textbooks “English 6” at a secondary school in rural area

of Hanoi, and come up with possible suggestions to solve the stated difficulties

2 Objectives of the study

The interrelated objectives of the study are indentifying the challenges thatteachers have faced up with in teaching new textbook “ English 6” issued by

Education Publishing House co-operating with Pearson Education in the ruralteaching context in Hanoi, and finding out the solutions to overcome the challengesstated in the research

3 Research questions

In order to identify the teaching challenges as well as work out theimplications for the challenges found, it is necessary to solve the answers for thefollowing questions The first question is the main focus of the study

1 What are the challenges faced by English teachers in teaching the newtextbook “ English 6”?

2 What are possible suggestions to overcome the challenges found?

4 Methods of the study

The main purpose of this study is to explore challenges teachers encountered

in using the new “English 6” textbook, and propose the recommendations toovercome the challenges To achieve this purpose, a mixed research method withgreater emphasis on qualitative and quantitative approach was employed

5 Scope of the study

Due to time constraint and the shortcoming of the minor thesis, theresearcher only concentrates on the challenges that teachers coped up with inteaching the new textbook named “English 6” Accordingly, the focus on the othersubject matters including the other new textbooks in the new series with other types

of teachers and learners is out of the scope of the study

6 Significance of the study

Theoretically, due to the fact that the new textbook is designed after thecommunicative approach, this study involves in discovering the challenges inconducting communicative teaching methodology in Vietnamese teaching context

In particular, the finding of this research is supposed to make a significantcontribution to the development of the pedagogical practice of teaching andstudying with the new textbooks in the new series in general, and with the newtextbook “ English 6” in specific

In addition, the study can also be a practical source of reference for teacherswho are teaching English in the same context

7 Design of the thesis

The study consists of 3 parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion

Part A Introduction, presents the general introduction of the study,

consisting of rationale, objetives of the study, research questions, methods, scope,significance and design of the study

Part B Development, consist of three chapters: Literature review,

Methodology, Findings and Discussion

Chapter I Literature review, presents the most important works related to

the textbooks and communicative teaching methodology, including: textbookdefinitions, roles of textbook, merits and demerits of the textbooks, communicativelanguage teaching definitions, communicative teaching principles, perculiarities ofcommunicative languaguage teaching, communicative language teaching inVietnamese pedagogical context

Chapter II Methodology, provides information about research methods,

setting, participants, data collection instruments, data collection procedures, dataanalysis procedure

Chapter III Findings and Discussion, analyses and discusses the data

collected from teacher interviews, survey questionnaires, classroom observations

At the same time, the implications are proposed as an inevitable part of the study

Part C Conclusion , presents the major findings, limitations of the study

and ends up with ideas for further studies

References and indexes serve as the last components of the thesis

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Textbooks

1.1.1 Definitions of textbooks

Textbooks play an essential role in teaching and learning language Therehave been a number of definitions of textbooks Firstly, according to Sheldon(1987: 1-10), textbooks were mentioned as a published written version forimproving both learners’ linguistic and communicative abilities Besides, Harris andHodges (1995: 124) stated that textbooks were paperbacks used in colleges for

aiding students with their studying in a specific branch After that, it was claimed byByrd (2001: 415-427) that textbooks were considered as the main source forteaching and learning procedure, which served as the centralized desicion –makingagents prescribed by Ministry of Education Further, it was also defined clearly inLongman dictionary that textbooks were books containing series of lessonsfrequently used for the specific subject

Above all, it can be concluded from the definitions mentioned above thattextbooks serve as the main document that assisted the studying of the learners in aparticular academic domain In Vietnam, textbooks are regarded as the majorcoursebooks that teachers and students followed in their teaching and studying atschool They are promulgated by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET)and irreplacable without the permission of MOET

1.1.2 Roles of textbooks

A number of researchers have claimed that there was a great amount ofnecessity that textbooks brought about First, according to Hutchinson and Torres(1994: 315-328), text books could serve as supporting teaching tools for teachersand as the instruments of modification and alteration Also, learners need text books

to guide them towards the hard process of learning Besides, McGrath (2002: 8-10)mentioned that textbooks provide teachers and learners with a structure of teachingand learning, methodological support, opportunities for revision and preparation

Gelfman, et al (2004) provided a basic outline for the intermediary role ofthe textbooks, including: (i) instructing learners in forming the new knowledge, (ii)making a balance between the detail and precision of the information, (iii) including

a systematic knowledge,(iv) suggesting new ideas, (v)supporting learners withdimensional information

To sum up, the textbooks serve as important source for both teachers andlearners in their teaching and studying process Textbooks provide teachers withspecialized help, including preparation, modification and review activities Forlearners, textbooks accompany them with instruction in forming and evaluatingknowledge systematically This study also affirms that textbook plays a crucial role

in processing the studying of learners as well as backing up the teaching procedureeffectively

1.1.3 Advantages and disadvantages of textbooks

The value of using textbooks is apparently undeniable The subsequentexplanations were obviously made for the importance of using textbooks inteaching Firstly, according to Ur (1996: 184), the advantages of textbooks werementioned as followed: (i) textbooks role as a visible map for teaching and learningprocess, which ensured that the teachers and learners were going on right track; (ii)textbooks serve as syllabi in which the language content was scientificallyorganized and calculated, (iii) textbooks encompass ready-made texts and tasks inappropriate levels for saving teaching time and effort; (iv) textbooks are ataffordable price for users; (v) teachers could make use of textbooks as an insurance

of knowledge on every occasion that they were undecided or whensover they wereinexperienced teachers; (vi) for learners, textbooks could be exploited as anelemntary source for their self-studying in which they were provided with availabledrills for reevaluation and constructing original ideas

According to Richard (2001: 2), the disadvantages of textbooks wereincluded as followed: (i) textbooks comprise inauthentic language; (ii) the subjectmatters encompassed in the textbooks could be biased for eluding debated issues;

(iii) textbooks are incompatible with learners’ needs; (iv) the exploitation oftextbooks could contribute to teachers’ tendency of de-skilling themselves; (v) thecost of textbooks could be expensive for several learners

All in one, the benefits of using textbooks were various, including thecapacity of giving lessons to learners methodically, and offering essential assistancefor novice teachers Besides , there are drawbacks that could be seen in usingtextbook for teaching and studying, which include the mismatch of the textbooksand learners’ needs, the matter of controversial topics, inauthentic inputs, teachers’skills or the textbooks’cost

1.2 Communicative language teaching (CLT)

1.2.1 Definitions of CLT

There have been a number of theorists who have claimed the definitions ofCLT According to Richard (1974: 2), CLT could be understood as a system ofprinciples about the goals of language teaching, the method learners learned alanguage , the kinds of classroom activities that best facilitate learning, and the roles

of teachers and learners in the classroom CLT begins a movement away fromconventional lessons formats where the focus is on fluency of variety of grammaritems which are recyled through controlled activities toward the employment of co-operative work and project work Teachers are assumed to be the facilitator andmonitor of the students’ learning process Learners now have to promote theiractiveness to take part in cooperative rather than individualistic approach tolearning

Further, Nunan (1989: 194) emphasised that CLT embraces a series ofmeaningful expressions for meaning, which also emcompasses activities forstrengthening oral communication In term of objective, CLT developes not onlylearners’ linguistic but also communicative competence Teachers takeresponsibilities as the facilitators of the learning process; the learners roles asnegotiators, and integrators Resources which are supplied in communicativeteaching are authentic and task-based

Brown (2007: 44) defined CLT as an approach to methodology of languageteaching that focuses on authenticity, communication, student-centered studying,task based activities, and communicative transaction for the real world withmeaningful functions

In summary, CLT focuses on meaningful tasks that create thecommunication opportunities through collaborative works Further, according toCLT approach, teacher’s role and students’ role have been transformed significantlycompared with the traditional teaching method In particular, teachers and studentsinteract considerately in teaching and learning process; learners actively participate

in their studying activities; teachers are facilitators, supporters, inspirers in theirstudents’ learning process

1.2.2 Principles of CLT

There were a numbers of theorists who have made an effort to work out theprinciples of CLT For circumstances, Nunan (1991: 279-295) stated 5 principles ofCLT consisting of: (i) the weight of interactive activities, (ii) the significance ofauthentic materials, (iii) the individual learning progress, (iv) the personalexperience reflection, (v) the practice of the target language in the social context Xiaoqing (1996: 14-24) included 5 principles of CLT, which were: (i)produce interactive activities and present the information gap, (ii) provide briefexplanation and diverse drills, (iii) focus on both accurateness and smoothness, (iv)stimulate the use of English and use of mother tongue when necessary, (v) promoteintegration of all four skills with varying stresses on specific skills of differentstages

Doughty and Long (2003:89) defined a series of principles which can beused as a guideline for applying CLT, which included: (i): using tasks assystematics principles, (ii) learning by doing, (iii) input needs to be diverse, (iv)input needs to be significant, apprehensible and particular; (v) enforcingcoordinated learning; (vi) emphasizing on form; (vii) producing error correctivefeedback; (viii) accepting affective factors of learning

In conclusion, CLT encompasses of a variety of principles which in generalfocus on the collaborative learning, the meaningfulness of the inputs, the integration

of skills, the significance of target language environment, and personal studyingprogress

1.2.3 Peculiarities of communicative methodology

The practice of four language skills including: listening, speaking, readingand writing plays an important role in developing learners’ communicativeproficiency With respect to that, it was mentioned by Richards and Rodgers (1991:66) that CLT aims at : (a) making communicative competene the target of languageteaching ; (b) developing procedures for teaching of four language skills includingproductive skills ( speaking and writing) as well as receptive skills ( listening andreading) that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication

In addition, according to Semistraitis (2003: 7-10), the peculiarities of theCommunicative Approach were characterized by promotion of learners’communicative ability through a wide range of language skills and communicativeassessment system

1.2.2.1 Developing reading skills

Reading is a cognitive form of perception through printed word It is anindividual work First, in every circumstance, teachers have to explicit the reasonfor reading for learners, and learners need a sense of interest in the reading text.Second, reading must be purposeful when the students use their cognitive ability toanalyze the reading questions, solve the question logically base on what they read.Finally, because reading enriches the vocabulary, teachers must associate what isread with the students’ personal experience and personal emotional impressions Itcan be a topic for discussions in the class

1.2.3.2 Developing listening skills

Oral forms of language communication are listening comprehension andconversation That was the reason why listening and speaking sort should be taughtinterchangeably, and one skill should be the base for developing the others For

teaching effective listening, it is teachers’ determination to direct students tocomprehend the gist of particular listening texts despite its kinds of text or speed ofrecordings

1.2.3.3 Developing speaking skills

It is vital that teachers make the freedom of the frame of communicativeabilities clear to the students In another words, it is necessary to stimulate students

to act together to the highest degree in class regardless to their failure or success.For obtaining this goal, first and foremost, the interactive activities should bereinforced The basic spoken communication including imitating, retelling shouldcome first, and go along with more challenging tasks as soon as students graspsignificant amount of lexicon and sentence structures Specifically, the grammaticalrules, by any means, should not impede comprehension as well as transmittance ofthe conversation In another word, forms are used in their grammatical correctness;nevertheless, it is advisable to prioritize the smoothness of the speech

1.2.3.4 Developing writing skills

In developing writing skill for learners, teachers are suggested to take intoaccount the significance of writing For circumstance, firstly, writing is an evidentthat represents the learners’ personal advancement, though it might be not alwaysreflects the existent condition Moreover, writing develops learners’ logical thinkingwhich its concentration is on the major viewpoints Last but not least, writing iseffective to learners whose dominant studying manner was writing

1.2.3.5 Testing

Testing is an integrated part of the learning process Henceforth, testing must

be completed in terms of communication Testing is necessary to cover full aspects

of language: listening comprehension, reading comprehension, writing abilities,speaking abilities

Above all, the perculiarities of CLT supposed that language skills must bepromoted with the purpose of enhancing learners’ communicative ability.Additionally, the testing system should be in communicative form for matching

with the communicative requirements In this study, the researcher also investigatedthoughtfully the teaching of skills in the new textbook for the reason that thisprovided one of the most essential evidence for CLT implication in Vietnameseteaching context

1.2.4 CLT in Vietnamese teaching context

According to Greg (2000: 24), CLT is not familiar practice in Vietnam untilthe educational reform of teaching and learning English Since CLT wasimplemented in Vietnamese teaching context, several constraints have arisen, whichhindered English teachers in teaching English after communicative approach Anumber of studies have been conducted to discover the difficulties of implementingCLT in Vietnamese teaching environment

The study of Greg (2000: 25, 26) inserted that the difficulties in applyingCLT in Vietnamese teaching contexts derived from the students, teachers andeducational system Regard to difficulties started from students, they are said to belack of incentive for communicative competence; make resistance to class presence,have low English aptitude, use mother tongue during collaborative work; thechallenges related to teachers constitute of feeling of inadequacy, absence oftraining in CLT, failure to access communicative competence; in term ofeducational system, the problem of lack of conductive facilities, sizable and mixed-level classes act under CLT constraints

According to Le Van Canh (2001:36), 3 obstacles that impede the CLTapplication are: (i) the challenge in establishing a realistic second languagesituation; (ii) the conventional language testing system; (iii) the class capacity andteaching schedule It was mentioned that the students have no real-lifecommunication requisites in the target language; testing system which focuses onmemorization of language rules causes tension for students Besides, class sizeranging from 45 to 53 students with the long rows of fixed desks causedinconvenience for any classroom interaction In addition, the teaching timetable of3-5 hours per week was said to be few

The article of Hoang Van Van (2018: 16) mentioned 6 difficulties that hinder

teachers in teaching, which encompass of the following factors: (i) Englishteachers’ proficiency; (ii) the classroom constraints, (iii) materials constraints; (iv)the teaching time limitation; (v) the misapplication of CLT in practical classroom;(vi) the discrepancy between the teaching and testing requirement in English It wasmentioned that most of the English teachers at middle school, in particular, weredisqualified; classes are populous together with poor –equipped libraries; materialsfor teaching and serviceable rooms for learning English are not available in most ofschools; the teaching time was few which allowed 2-3 hours a week; conductingCLT by Vietnamese English is unable since the focus of the examinations were onpassing the end-of school and university entrance; the teaching and testing types didnot match properly since the focus of the test was on lexical-grammaticalknowledge, regardless of communicative competence

Above all, the researchers have showed that in trying to use CLT in teachingEnglish in Vietnam, English teachers have run into many problems The resultimplied that the challenges in using CLT in teaching English as foreign languageare associated with both institute and impartial factors, which included limitedteachers and students’ aptitude, the substandard institute’s furnishing, large classcapacity, time bound and discrepancy of teaching and language assessment system

In this study, the stated factors were considered thoughtfully for the reason that theymight be the challenges that teachers of English encounter in their teaching process

1.2.5 Definitions of “Challenges”

According to Cambridge dictionary, challenge was defined as the

circumstance that needs great mental or physical effort so as to be completedsuccessfully and therefore evaluate a person’s capacity Besides, it was stated in theMerriam-Webster dictionary that challenge was the act or process of inventing ortesting physiological activity by exposure to a specific substance Further, inCollin dictionary, it was mentioned that A challenge is something newand difficult which demands great effort and determination

All above, Challenge in the context of this study constitutes the problems that

teachers are encountering while teaching the new textbook “English 6”, whichaffect their teaching negatively

1.3 Review of previous related studies

1.3.1 Previous oversea studies

In this part, the researcher presents the studies conducted with the purpose

of investigating the use of the textbooks by teachers, and exploring the challengesthey might come up with in using the books They are the studies by El-Helou(2010), Srakang & Anchalee (2014), Andreas (2017)

The study of El-Helou (2010) investigated the difficulties facing Englishteachers in teaching literature in English with Palestine grade twelve textbookwhich has been prescribed by the Ministry of Education, and suggestedrecommendations for overcoming the difficulties The basic instrument used in thestudy included questionnaires The finding of the study was that the challenges inteaching Literature in English comprised of learners’ weakness in English skills, thelearners’ ignorance of language skills, absence of essential teaching appliances, thelearners’ disregard of literature, the learners’ inability in analyzing the text, and thehard exam The suggestion for the stated issues was the support from thesupervisors for teachers with training courses

In 2014, Srakang et al explored the use of English textbooks, includingdifficulties teachers encountered in using them The major instruments used in thestudy consist of questionnaires, classroom observations, se-mi structured interviews.The problems in teaching with the textbook showed in the study were attributed tothe mismatch of the learners’ language proficiency and the level of language input

in the textbook Further, the textbook did not familiarize their learners withexamination-type questions Besides, sizeable classes were other significantproblem in using the textbook

The study of Andreas (2017) discovered the use of the digital textbookamong teachers The instruments used in the study included the interviews withteachers, the Hybrid model which the researcher collected data from wide range ofsources (representatives, conferences, colleagues) The result showed in the studywas that the teachers, despite being willing to use the digital textbook, they werelack of knowledge of using them The suggestion for the issues was providing moretraining courses for the teachers

1.3.2 Previous studies in Vietnam

In Vietnam, the topic of textbook has received the attention of a number ofresearchers Some most recent studies which are presented in this part are thestudies by An Thuy Linh (2007), Dinh Thi Minh Huong (2007), and Bui Thi Thu

Ha (2010)

The study of An Thuy Linh (2007) expored the use of the new textbookEnglish 9 among the English teachers in some schools in Hanoi By usingquestionnaires, interviews and classroom observations as major data collectioninstruments, it was presumed that the challenges teachers faced were mainly inteaching listening, speaking and grammar in the new textbook The reason was thatthe classrooms were cramped, the teaching time was inadequate, and the grammar issometimes irrelevant to the topics

In 2007, Dinh Thi Minh Huong concerned with investigating the potency anddownside of using new textbook English 10 among English teachers in Hanamprovince The instruments used in this study were survey questionnaires, classroomobservations and interviews for the teachers Above all, the author decideded thatteachers encountered some difficulties related to the classroom conditions whichcaused teachers troubles in using the recent textbook with the supposed method The study of Bui Thi Thu Ha (2010) dealt with the challenges facing teachersand learners in working with the textbook English 8 The researcher has exploitedquestionaires, interviews and class observations as the major study instruments Theresult of the study showed that the difficulties involved in inferior classroom conditionsand facilities, class extent, time allowance, and constraints on applying CLT

In summary, both the oversea and Vietnamese studies have identified anumber of problems that hindered English teachers’ use of the textbook Thedifficulties primarily originated from teachers’ proficiency, students’ languagecompetence, school infrastructure, class capacity, teaching time bound In thisstudy, the researcher also tries to explore the difficulties that hinder the teachers ofEnglish in their teaching procedure with the new textbook

1.4.Chapter summary

In this chapter, the theoretical background and previous studies related to thethesis topic are presented They are the basis for the researcher to design theinterview questions, the questionnaires, and classroom observation task to find outchallenges faced by English teachers at the secondary school was conducted

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 Setting of the study

The study is conducted at a secondary school founded in 2006 in a rural area

of Hanoi The school has 15 classes There are 4 classes of grade 6 and each classhas approximately 40 students The classes are not well equipped with just ablackboard and 2-seated desks Modern teaching facilities such as projectors,interactive boards or even speakers, cassettes are not available

For teaching English in this school, the new textbook “English 6” has beengiven into use since 2016 English is considered a compulsory subject with one hourand twenty five minutes for schooling every week The time running for one lesson

in an individual unit lasts for 45 minutes All the teachers of English at this schoolare Vietnamese

Before the new textbook “English 6”, the book “Tiếng Anh 6” published byVietnam Education Publishing House has been used authioritatively as Englishtextbook for grade- 6 students at secondary schools in Vietnam This is a structural-approach textbook which contains a chain of tasks for students to practice with thevocabulary and grammar in each unit The book contains 16 units at diverse topics:

Greetings, At school, At home, Big or small, Things I do, Places, Your house, Out and About, The body, Staying healthy, What do you eat, Sports and past time, Activities and seasons, Making plans, Countries, Man and the environment

Since 2013 , the new textbook “English 6”, compiled by Vietnam EducationPublishing House co-operating with Pearson Publishing House has been taught in anumber of secondary schools in Vietnam as the new English textbook This is thefirst book of the four-level English language textbook for Vietnamese students ofmiddle schools studying English as a foreign language The themes included in the

new textbook “English 6” are: Our communities, Our heritage, Our world, Vision

of the future In contrast to the former English textbook, the newly introduced

textbook is a communicative-approach document which centers in developing

learners’ English communicative competence through practice of four skills:speaking, listening, reading and writing, the concentration on cultural speciality,the evaluation of learners’ soft skills Further, the book takes learners as thecenteres of the learning process It is expected that grade-6 students’ Englishcompetence will be equal to level of A2.1 according to CEFR ( Common EuropeanFramework of Reference ) after they complete program English 6

The new textbook consists of 12 units; each unit subsists of 7 lessons Thetime allotted for teaching each lesson lasts for 45 minutes The following tablepresents the focus of each lesson within one unit included in the new textbook

“English 6”

Table 2.1 The lessons’ focus of the new textbook “English 6”

Lesson 1 Getting started The setting of the unit topic followed by related-topic

vocabularies and grammar practice

Lesson 2 A closer look 1 Vocabulary and Pronunciation

Lesson 3 A closer look 2 Grammar points of the unit

Lesson 4 Communication Essential cultural knowledge about Vietnam and

countries around the world

Lesson 5 Skills 1 Reading and Speaking skill

Lesson 6 Skills 2 Listening and Writing skill

Lesson 7 Looking back

teaching and learning English were “Tieng Anh 3,4,5” published by Education

Publishing House In other words, students had 3-year experience in studyingEnglish before engaging in studying curriculum with the new English text book inthe middle school Conjointly, augmenting materials for studying English at

primary school were not varied Likewise, parents did not pay considerable care fortheir children’s studying English at this age

2.2.2 Teachers

The study was operated with the involvement of 2 female and 1 maleteachers of English in the intended school All of them are experienced teacherswho had approximately twenty years teaching English in secondary school Theyhave taught the new textbook “English 6” for 2 years

Table 2.2 The teachers’ background information

- Certificate ofEnglish languageteaching

methodology

-Certificate of ITapplication inEnglish teaching-Certificate ofEnglish languageteaching

methodology

-Certificate of ITapplication inEnglish teaching-Certificate ofEnglish languageteaching

methodology

2.3.Research methods

The objectives of this study are to investigate the challenges that faced byEnglish teachers in teaching the new textbook “English 6”, as well as proposepossible suggestions to overcome the mentioned challenges The researcheremployed both the quantitative and qualitative methods in this study It is believedthat a combination of varied methods to collect data will provide more reliable andvalid result for the study

Survey research is a commonly used method of collecting information about apopulation of interest The benefit of using survey research is that it is inexpensive,flexible, extensive Data collection is much simpler with surveys, which tend to use

easy tool to read data sources that can be compiled and analyzed There are manydifferent types of surveys Questionnaire is one form of survey method In thisresearch, the data was collected through questionnaires since it was useful incollecting data from a large number of population

While the data collected from the questionnaire was analyzed quantitatively,the data obtained from the interviews and classroom observations were analyzedqualitatively The researcher displays the quantitative data in forms of charts Thequalitative data obtained from the interviews and classroom observations wasthoughtfully analyzed and integrated by the researcher

2.4 Data collection instruments and procedures

This study is conducted at a secondary school which consisted of 3 Englishteachers and 146 students in 4 classes of grade 6 For that reason, the interviewswith English teachers were conducted to obtain the data on the challenges faced bythem in teaching the new textbook “English 6’ In order to interpret thoughtfully theresults obtained from the teachers’ interviews, the questionnaires for students wereemployed to investigate their habits of studying English as well as their difficulties

in studying skills in the new textbook Further, classroom observations wereemployed as an additional data collection instrument for investigating thechallenged faced by teachers in teaching different lessons in the new textbook.Finally, all the data were analyzed later on statistical and descriptive basis

2.4.1 Interviews

In order to explore the confrontations faced by English teachers in teachingthe updated textbook “English 6”, a list of interview questions for three teacherswas designed by the researcher determinedly The semi-structured interviews withthe teachers were carried out to gather data on the teacher’s assumptions onchallenges withstanding them in teaching new textbook, and work out thesuggestions for conquering the challenges The interview questions were designed

by the researcher herself at week 4 of the school year, and conducted at week 5 ofthe school year There were 8 interview questions for the teachers In details,

question 1 -7 aims at finding out challenges related to their teaching of the newtextbook such as their learners, the skills taught, the language components, teachingprocedure , and the school infrastructure, etc The last question of the interviewasked for the teachers’ recommendation for better teaching and using of the newtextbook All of the interviews were carried out in Vietnamese, so that theinterviewees could explicit their opinions more precisely and specifically The

responses were taken note under the permission of the interviewees

2.4.2 Questionnaires

The survey questionnaires were designed based on the results obtained fromthe teachers’ interviews with the purpose of verifying and triangulating the datacollected Since the new textbook “English 6” is the main document used forstudying English among grade-6 students and the teacher has to work directly withstudents and the new textbook itself; for that reason, the questionnaire for studentswas designed in order to discover the students’ English studying habits and theirdifficulties in dealing with studying skills in the new textbook “English 6” Thedifficulties obtained from the questionnaire for students reveals the challenges inteaching the new textbook “English 6” faced by English teachers Without thequestionnaires for students, the study is deprived from essential source whichdiscloses the challenges faced by English teachers in teaching the new textbook

“English 6”

The questionnaires for students were written in Vietnamese in the mostadvisable way for them to comprehend the questions The questionnaires wereconstructed with 2 main parts with 12 questions The first part (from question 1 toquestion 7) were to investigate students’ studying habits; the other one (fromquestion 8 to question 12) were to explore the problems that students face up with inlearning language skills in the new textbook English 6 The researcherimplemented the survey for students with the population of 146 grade-6 learnerswho used the new textbook English 6 for one year They were distributed at week 7

of the school year

2.4.3 Classroom observation

The researcher attended all English lessons: Getting started, A closer look 1,

A closer look 2, Communication, Skills 1, Skills 2, Looking back and Project, and

then noted down reflections on the issues that teachers and learners faced up with ineach lesson Each classroom observation lasted for 45 minutes Two teachersparticipated in teaching the lessons because the other was not responsible forteaching English 6 in recent school year The classroom observations were carriedout at different weeks, including week 5,6,7 of the school year The descriptionswere saved to serve the purpose of analyzing later

2.5 Data analysis

To avoid discrepancy or possible bias, the data obtained from thequestionnaires and the interviews was organized and analyzed by the researcherunassisted The result from the teacher interviews and classroom observation wasanalysed, integrated, and categorized into varied groups The data from studentquestionnaires was analyzed statistically, and illustrated in form of charts for bettercomprehension Above all, three sources of data including interview, questionnairesand classroom observation were evaluated triangulately with the purpose ofclarifying the challenges coped up with by teachers of English in teaching the newtextbook “English 6”

2.6 Chapter summary

This chapter reviewed the setting of the study, the research methods, theresearch instruments, and data collecting procedure as well as data analysisprocedure The research methods are considered as the guidelines for theresearcher to follow in order to find out the answer for the research questionsraised in the first chapter

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Challenges faced by teachers in teaching new textbook “English 6” at a secondary school in rural area of Hanoi

3.1.1.Challenges related to students

Question 1 in the interview aims at investigating challenges encountered byteachers arisen from their learners According to the results from the teachers’interviews, all three teachers informed that one of the biggest obstacles that theyhad to overcome in teaching the new textbook “English 6” originated in students’competence in rural area This was caused by both subjective and objective reasons.Objectivelly, in suburb of Hanoi, most of the students had limited chance to access

to study opportunities outside classrooms such as taking part in an English club,learning English with foreigners or having Internet connection available most of thetime More than that, their parents spent unconsiderable care for their studying athome Subjectivelly, most of students had poor habits of studying English outsideclassrooms

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 11110.472222 3333 4444 5555 6666

0.44

0.23

0.46

Figure 3.1 Students’ studying habits in English

The above chart showed the result obtained from the students’questionnaires It can be easily seen from the chart, a relatively small number of

students had a good studying habit in English In detail, just nearly haft of thestudents (46.7%) responded that they owned an Internet- connected computer athome; the similar number of students (46%) joined in an extra English class; and anaverage number of students (44%) had the custom of watching films, videos, orreading stories in English at home As we can see, nearly one third of learners(31%) recieved assitance in studying English from their parents Further, 27% and23% of the students used reference books in studying English and e-book orwebsites to learn English respectively- the figures which were slightly low.

The result gained from the classroom observations supported that almoststudents did not have the habit of speaking and discusing in target language Inanother words, due to the fact that they were not exposed frequently to an Englishsurrounding as well as because of their poor habits of learning English, the use ofEnglish among students in class is attributed to be at low level

3.1.2 Challenges related to teaching skills and language components

Question 2,3,4 of the interview revealed the challenges that English teacherscoped up with in teaching skills and language components in the new textbook

“English 6” Being asked to rank the lessons from the most difficult to the leastdifficult in teaching with the new textbook, the result was recorded as following

Table 3.1 Lessons ranked according to their levels of difficulty in teaching

Ran k

7 Looking back and Project

In the interview, Communication ranked the most challenging lesson to teach

by two third of the teacher In another word, two in three teachers informed that half

of the communication lessons end up without achieving the objectives of the lessons