Using dialogues to teach vocabulary for the second-year non-English major students at Hanoi University of Industry

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ---  --- VŨ THU TRANG USING DIALOGUES TO TEACH VOCABULARY FOR

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

-  -

VŨ THU TRANG

USING DIALOGUES TO TEACH VOCABULARY FOR THE SECOND-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

SỬ DỤNG ĐOẠN HỘI THOẠI ĐỂ DẠY TỪ VỰNG CHO SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH NĂM THỨ HAI CỦA TRƯỜNG

ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60 14 10

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

-  -

VŨ THU TRANG

USING DIALOGUES TO TEACH VOCABULARY FOR THE SECOND-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

SỬ DỤNG ĐOẠN HỘI THOẠI ĐỂ DẠY TỪ VỰNG CHO SINH VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH NĂM THỨ HAI CỦA TRƯỜNG

ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60 14 10

Supervisor : CẤN THỊ CHANG DUYÊN, MA

Hanoi – 2013

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.2 Context and vocabulary teaching & learning 5

CHAPTER II: ENGLISH TEACHING AND LEARNING CONTEXT

AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

26

2.4 Remarks on dialogues in the course book 28

3.1 Rationale for the use of an action research 29

CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS 36

4.1 The result of the pre-test and post-test 36

4.2.1 Students‟ opinions of the effect of using dialogues to learn vocabulary 37 4.2.2 Preference of activities and exercises related to dialogue 37

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 RATIONALE

Hammer (1991) states “If language structure makes up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and flesh” It is clearly seen from this statement that vocabulary is central to language and is of great significance in language learning In the past, the importance of vocabulary teaching and learning was generally neglected for a long time, yet in recent years, the nature of vocabulary and its role in learning and teaching has been an increasingly interesting topic of discussion for researches, teachers, curriculum designers, theorists and others involved in second language learning Accordingly, numerous research studies related to this topic have been carried out It comes to a conclusion based on the research findings that “Through research the scholars are finding that lexical problems frequently interfere with communication; communication breaks down when people do not use the right words " (Allen 1983) This highlights the significance of vocabulary in classroom teaching, for without vocabulary it is hardly possible to communicate

When teaching the second-year students at Hanoi University of Industry, the writer finds out that vocabulary learning is a big problem to the students For young learners, perhaps it is less difficult to learn vocabulary items for the first time than to consolidate and remember them We often hear young learners complain that they keep learning and forgetting When English language young learners are acquiring new vocabulary, they need concrete methods to collect, store, and retrieve words for retention and future use Therefore, it is necessary to find out effective methods to help young learners retain new words in long-term memory According to Oxford and Crookall (1988), learning words in context is an effective vocabulary learning strategy and a main approach to improve vocabulary knowledge This has urged the researcher to carry out this action research

2 AIMS OF THE STUDY

The study is aimed at:

 Examining the feasibility of using dialogues to teach vocabulary for the

second-year non-English major students in Hanoi University of Industry

 Measuring the effectiveness of this vocabulary teaching technique on students‟

vocabulary acquisition

Hopefully, based on the results of the study, the research aims to offer English teachers some suggestions for the better use of dialogues in their classes

3 RESEARCH QUESTION

The research was to seek answers to the following question:

1 What is the students’ attitude toward learning vocabulary through dialogues?

2 “To what extent does using dialogues to teach vocabulary affect students’ vocabulary acquisition?”

4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

To obtain the aims mentioned above, an action research is chosen for the study In this action research, pre-test and post-test are designed and used as data collection instruments The pre-test was exploited to gain the overview about student‟s vocabulary level before the study The post-test was administered to the students after four weeks in which dialogues were applied to help students learn vocabulary to measure the impact or effectiveness of this technique on students‟ vocabulary acquisition Collected scores were then processed and analyzed by T-test Paired Sample In addition, a group interview was conducts to get more in-depth data

5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

It is impossible to cover every aspect of language theory and practice in this study Therefore, the study focuses on using dialogues to teach vocabulary for the second-year non-English major students in Hanoi University of Industry

6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The results of this action research will help the author to improve her approaches

to vocabulary teaching Those results can also be helpful to other teachers in the university or in other universities which have the same problems (vocabulary teaching & learning) with the university where this research was conducted

7 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

The research includes three main parts: Part A, Part B and Part C

Part A: Introduction presents the rationale, the aims of the study, the research question, the method of the study, the scope of the study, the significance of the study and the design of the study

Part B: Development consists of four chapters:

 Chapter 1: literature review

 Chapter 2: English teaching and learning context at Hanoi University of Industry

 Chapter 3: methodology

 Chapter 4: data analysis and discussion

Part C: Conclusion provides summary of major findings, implication, as well as presents limitation and suggestion for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Teaching vocabulary in context

1.1 Definition of context

Context is an important concept Therefore, there have been many different definitions about context

The word “context” comes from Latin words “co”, which means “together” and

“text”, which means words, sentences Thus we can define that “context is the circumstance in which the word is used” In other words, it is the relationship between a

word and other words around it

In the light of linguistics, David Nunan (1993:7) points out in his book that “context refers to the situation giving rise to the discourse and within which the discourse is

embedded”

Another as noted by Nguyen Hoa (2000: 39), “context seems to be the minimal

stretch of language that helps to understand what is written and spoken”

In the light of human communication, Hymes (1974) views contexts as a limiter of the range of possible interpretations, and, on the other hand, a supporter of the intended interpretation Context can be seen as information and in turn, information is that which reduces uncertainly

In this study, context is defined as a particular linguistic environment where

a particular word is used and interpreted semantically and pragmatically In other words,

in linguistics, context carries tremendous importance in disambiguation of meanings as well as in understanding the actual meaning of words Consequently, if learners cannot contextualize new words, the words are of little value and if meaning is not

appropriately As a result, using context to teach vocabulary is considered as one of effective vocabulary teaching technique

1.2 Context and vocabulary teaching & learning

Learning vocabulary is an important factor in fluent second language (L2) speech Researchers have tried to find effective ways of teaching L2 vocabulary to L2 learners Different methods like glosses, mnemonic devices, and morphological and syntactic analyses are some examples of the attempts of second language teaching researchers

to find practical ways of teaching L2 vocabulary (Min, 2008) From among all the proposed methods, contextualization has received special attention Webb (2007) points

to the fact that different aspects of a word like its semantic relationships, syntagmatic and paradigmatic associations, and even its collocational behavior can be learned through context

It is believed that context can have a positive effect on vocabulary acquisition of L2 learners Researchers like Engelbert and Theuerkauf (1999) refer to the positive effect

of context on vocabulary learning reported in the literature Corrigan (2007) too claims that seeing vocabulary items in the context provides learners with information about the characteristic features of that word and the linguistic context in which that specific word occurs Gardner (2007) argues that many words in English have multiple meanings which are context-dependent When one tries to teach those words isolated from context, they lose their meanings and become vague

In the work namely “The book of Learning and Forgetting”, Frank Smith asserts

“Teaching one word at a time out of context is the worst way of teaching vocabulary, with rapid forgetting almost guaranteed.” In his opinion, people assimilate new words from context the first time they read them, “provided that gist of the material being read

is both interesting and comprehensible Within five more encounters, the word and its conventional meaning are usually firmly established in the mind of the reader.”

One principle of effective vocabulary learning is to provide multiple exposures to

a word‟s meaning This is gre at improvement in vocabulary when students encounter vocabulary words often (National Reading Panel 2000) As stated by Stahl(2005), students probably have to see a word more than once to put it firmly in their long-term memories In other words, it is essential that vocabulary instruction provide students with opportunities to encounter words repeatedly and in more than one context Teaching vocabulary in context is probably the most useful technique, because it gets students to work out the meaning of words for themselves

Kruse (1979) made some suggestions for teaching vocabulary in context:

1 Word elements such as prefixes, suffixes and roots: recognizing component parts of words, words families is of great value because it is one of the most significant vocabulary skills the students may need It also decreases the number of new words they will encounter and increases their control of the English lexicon

2 Pictures, diagrams, charts: students may relate the illustration with the item that is difficult to understand

3 Clues of definition: students must be taught to notice many types of useful definition clues like parenthesis or footnotes, synonyms and antonyms

4 Inference clues from discourse: students can benefit from example clues, summary clues and experience clues to infer the meaning from the context

5 General aids: this includes the function of the word such as noun, adjective, etc

1.3 Guessing or inferencing strategy

“Guessing from contexts is the most important vocabulary learning technique and time spent practicing it is well justified It provides access to thousands of words”

(Nation, 1990:130)

Guessing unknown words from context is an important vocabulary strategy which

is studied and encouraged most widely so language learners must know how to guess unknown words successfully Guessing meaning of unknown words from context mostly refers to inferring the meaning of a word from surrounding words in a written text In this study, these terms are used interchangeably

As said by McCarthy (1990:125), “inferring involves creating a schema for the unknown word(s), based on world knowledge and previous experience, both of the world and texts In other words, inferring means drawing conclusion as to word meaning by following certain rational steps in the face of the evidence available.”

For example, consider the word “give” in different contexts (Anderson & Nagy, 1991):

 John gave Mary a kiss

 John gave Frank five dollars

 The doctor gave the children an injection

 The orchestra gave a stunning performance

All of these involve some kind of transmitting with a giver and a recipient and something tangible or intangible But the act giving is radically different in these cases Each meaning of the verb “give” can be grasped through guessing strategy

It is vital to understand when teaching learners to make contextual guesswork that they will not be able to guess successfully until they know about 95-98% of the other words in the text Therefore, it is wise not to start teaching this strategy too early in the learning process, because the learners will not know enough other words to guess successfully Teacher can help students to discover unknown-word meaning with specific techniques and practice in contextual guesswork Teacher can make use of the following general strategies for guessing meaning from context:

1 Attempt to infer the meaning of the unknown word from the general context preceding the word

2 Attempt to infer the meaning of the unfamiliar word from the general context that follows the word

3 Attempt to infer the meaning of the unknown word by looking at the word parts

4 Attempt to define the word

5 Attempt to infer the meaning of the unknown word by looking for specific cues in the surrounding context

6 Attempt to construct a coherent definition, using internal and external cues,

as well as the general ideas expressed by the passage and general world knowledge

7 Check definition to see if meaning is appropriate for each appearance of the word in the context

(Sternberg et al., 1983:140)

1.4 Contextual clues

The use of context clues plays a vital role in language acquisition Actually most

of students‟ vocabulary acquisition may be attributable to using context clues Context clues are “the clearly stated or implied words or phrases which help to comprehend unfamiliar words in context because they can activate the corresponding context to clarify the contextual meanings of the words concerned” (Sun & Zhou, 2005, p.49)

Context clues are divided into quite a few types depending on various criteria and individuals In this study, the author will introduce six major types of contextual clues It includes the following types:

 Definition/Explanation Clues

 Restatement/Synonym Clues

 Contrast/Antonym Clues

 Examples/ Illustrations Clues

 Inference/General Context Clues

 Punctuation

The first type is definition or explanation clues The author uses definition to suggest the word meaning in the text The meaning follows the word immediately or signal words such as “is, means, called, and refers to, because” or appears between

commas, parentheses, or dashes For instance: Marsha is insatiable; she can eat all day

and never feel full Here, the second part of the sentence (“she can eat all day and never feel full”) is used to explain the first part of the sentence (“Marsha is insatiable”) We can conclude, then, that “insatiable” means “incapable of being full” or “incapable of being satisfied.”

For the second type, a word's or phrase's meaning is explained immediately following its use with the use of a synonym or restated in easier language For example:

"Lou was sent to the haberdashery to find a new suit He needed to wear one for his

uncle‟s wedding.” Because the sentence says that Lou would find a suit at the haberdashery, then it must be a place where clothes for men are sold

Contrast or Antonym Clues is the third type Sometimes an unfamiliar word may

be used in contrast to a familiar word or group of words You can infer the meaning of the unfamiliar word by giving it the opposite meaning of the familiar word In this type,

you can find signal words for contrasts: but, on the other hand, in contrast to, however, although, unlike For example: Unlike Robin, who is full of life, Rachel is lackluster The

opposite of “full of life” is “empty of life.” The word “lackluster” is used to contrast Robin and Rachel We can conclude, then, that the word “lackluster” means “lacking liveliness.”

In the fourth type, the author tries to using examples or illustrations show what a word means The author may give one example or many “Such as,” “including,”

“consists of,” “for example,” or colons, commas, semicolons, and dashes can also signal clues for this type For instance: In college, you can choose courses from a broad range of

academic disciplines, such as history, economics, mathematics, and psychology Besides the primary meaning of the word “discipline”, in this sentence this word also has a

secondary meaning The word is followed by several examples: history, economics, mathematics, and psychology We can conclude, then, that each of these subjects is an example of a discipline and that the word “discipline” means “a branch of instruction or learning.”

Sometimes a word or phrase is not immediately clarified within the same sentence Relationships, which are not directly apparent, are inferred or implied The reader must look for clues within, before, and after the sentence in which the word is used It is Inference or General Context Clues For example: While exploring the ancient pyramids

in Egypt, the scientist discovered the mummy of a king buried in a sarcophagus with

elaborate designs Look at the details: Sarcophagus is a noun because the noun determiner “a” comes before it It‟s probably a thing since a king was buried in it and because it has elaborate designs on it Now, it was found in the ancient pyramids in Egypt with a mummy in it That means it‟s old We can make a inference that a sarcophagus must be a coffin used in ancient times for burying the dead

The last type is punctuation Readers can also use clues of punctuation and type style to infer meaning, such as quotation marks (showing the word has a special meaning), dashes, parentheses or brackets (enclosing a definition), and italics (showing the word will be defined) For example:

 Brackets: A tornado (a violent storm of twisting wind) struck Edmonton and caused a lot of damage

 Commas: A tornado, a violent storm of twisting wind, struck Edmonton and caused a lot of damage

 Dashes: A tornado – a violent storm of twisting wind – struck Edmonton and caused a lot of damage

1.5 Advantages and disadvantages of context in vocabulary teaching and learning

Teaching and learning vocabulary in context is the most important of all sources The real value of context lies in its authenticity, the benefits of which are of three different sorts As it is suggested by Monsell (1985), first of all, assessing the meaning of

a word in context obliges students to develop strategies like anticipating and inferring, which become highly beneficial as learning progresses because they instill an attitude of self-reliance that is the distinctive feature of proficiency Secondly, systematically meeting new vocabulary items in context emphasizes the fact that the words are actually used in discourse for purposes of communication Lastly, all the factors mentioned above can be said to contribute to a learner‟s L2 autonomy and to facilitate the transfer of knowledge that accompanies it Moreover, they underline the fact that the mental presentation of a word‟s meaning improves together with successive encounters in different contexts Thus, it may be subjected to modification because new and finer semantic distinctions are added

However, this strategy also has following disadvantages In the first place, the strategy is complex and often difficult to carry out successfully, because, the learners need to know about 95% of the words in the text, (Liu, & Nation, 1985, Nation,

1990, cited in Hunt & Beglar, 1998) This puts lower proficiency students with less vocabulary at a distinct disadvantage Next, since a word may have several meanings, the use of context clues will prove effective only when a general meaning of a word is adequate When the surrounding words are not familiar, when the definite meaning is required, or when the word in question is a key word, using context clues might not be a good idea Finally, incorrect inferences lead to a real misinterpretation, which has a bad influence on students‟ vocabulary acquisition If students remember wrong meaning at

scratch, they will have a serious problem using it later and they need more time to refresh their mind & digest new word meaning

As a result, for the teacher who teaches vocabulary using this approach, it is important to consider the difficulty level of the text , the students‟ vocabulary level as well as the students‟ own background knowledge

2 Dialogues as a context for teaching vocabulary

In common sense, „Dialogue‟ is defined as a process of conversation between two

or more persons for exchanging opinions or ideas

As stated by Alexander Baid, “A dialogue is basically a stimulus/respond situation involving the reception and the production of the spoken form of the language.” This definition focuses on the processes in a dialogue

Ron Forseth sees dialogue from the methodological point of view as a written conversation between two or more people or it can be a transcription of a real conversation by a teacher in order to teach a language point (1997:105)

2.2 Types of dialogue

According to Rivers (1981), there are two broad categories of dialogues: demonstration dialogues and conversation-facilitation dialogue

grammar-2.2.1 Grammar-demonstration dialogue

This is the kind of dialogue which is designed to demonstrate grammatical rules, and examples of rules in use They provide contextualized examples from which students will deduce generalizations about a particular grammatical structure

For example: this dialogue focused on presenting the Near Future Tense in English

Bill: Where are you going this evening?

Jane: I am going out with my family We are going to the cinema

Bill: What are you going to see?

Jane: “Gone with the wind” My cousin‟s going with us He and his wife are going

to meet us there

2.2.2 Conversation-facilitation dialogue

This type of dialogue provides learners with useful expressions and constructions for daily conversation That helps much in creating communicative skills for learners For example: many useful expressions in telephoning presented in the following dialogue

(New Headway Pre-intermediate, Unit 10, page 85)

For example:

 A: Have you seen Ann?

 B: Yes (Falling intonation indicates „I have answered your question and do not intend to add anything else‟)

Or:

 A: E.g Have you seen Ann lately?

 B: Yes… (Rising intonation indicates „I want to continue the conversation, I am curious‟)

2.3.1.2 Lexical features

In dialogue, it is common that we use a great deal of contraction instead of long form For example, “isn‟t”, “don‟t” “can‟t” and so on Furthermore, in some informal situation, utterances are shortened by the ellipsis of some parts in utterances but the listeners still understand the message of the dialogue What‟s more, there are many

hesitating markers such as “oh”, “uhm”… in the spoken language, especially in dialogues These elements make the dialogue more natural

For example:

2.3.1.3 Syntactic features

Unlike the written language, the spoken one is not highly structured and organised and sometimes ungrammatical because of some features mentioned above However, it doesn‟t make any difference for both speakers and learners because what they focus is whether the message is understandable or not

2.3.1.4 Objective features and situational features

In order to choose an appropriate style of language, before joining a conversation, people should take in consideration the following factors such as: whom they communicate with, in what situation the conversation takes place as well as the aims of conversation For example:

 A dialogue between two people who

meet for the first time

A: Excuse me! Could you tell me the time,

2.3.1.5 Psychological features

There are many factors which affect the success of a dialogue such as age, occupation, culture, speakers‟ and learners‟ background knowledge and especially psychological factor Psychological features refer to the interest of the participant to his/her partner and to the topic of the conversation This factor has a great influence in the success of speaking activity

2.3.2 Methodological features

A lot of educators and researchers state that using context in general and dialogue

in particular to teach vocabulary is considered as one of effective vocabulary teaching technique In dialogue, words, phrases, useful expressions are presented in a meaningful context, which helps students much in learning how to use them correctly and creates a firm link between language and situation Moreover, teaching and learning through dialogue not only helps teachers to attract students‟ attention easier but also gives students lots of opportunities for practice and speaking which are more preferable than doing grammatical exercises or reading and writing tasks

2.4 Stages of teaching dialogues

2.4.1 Presentation Stage

Purposes

The presentation stage aims to give students the opportunities to explore the model dialogue So as to reach this aim, students should understand new words, expression, grammatical items as well as pronunciation, stress and intonation

Teacher‟s role

In this stage, the teacher works as a guide and an informant With the first role, the teacher guides students to access to the dialogue by setting the scene for the dialogue,

Thanks to such help, students can discover the dialogue themselves With the second role, the teacher is the person who introduces new knowledge to students such as new words, new expressions, new grammatical structures or pronunciation

At this stage, there are some principles the teacher should keep in their mind as follow:

 Meaning, i.e relate the word to an appropriate object or context

 Usage, i.e knowledge of its collocations, metaphors and idioms, as well as style and register (the appropriate level of formality),to be aware of any connotations and associations the word might have

 Word formation, i.e ability to spell and pronounce the word correctly, to know any derivations (acceptable prefixes and suffixes),

 Grammar, i.e to use it in the appropriate grammatical form

(Harmer, 1993) Techniques

The following techniques for presentation stage are widely used for dialogue teaching They consist of visual techniques and verbal ones

1 Visual techniques

Real object

When the teacher uses real objects to present new words especially concrete nouns, students are directed towards the image of the word and memorize them more quickly

For example: to present the word “a watch” (New Headway Pre-intermediate, Unit

1, page 12), the teacher can pick up a watch, point at it and say “This is a watch.” Of course, students know at once what a watch is

Pictures and drawing

Pictures here include flashcards, photographs, blackboard drawings, wall charts, pictures from the textbook, magazine and newspaper

For instance: to show the meaning of the word “plane”, the teacher tells students

to open the book New Headway Pre-intermediate at page 33 and look at the picture

and then ask them “what is this?” Thanks to the picture, students can easily answer the question

Besides, the teacher can use simple blackboard drawings to convey word meaning like this:

To sum up, if pictures and drawings are well exploited, they will convey the meaning of words vividly and clearly an as well as attract students‟ attention

Body language (Gestures, mime, actions, facial expressions)

They are supplements to convey word meaning This way is enjoyable and colourful so the new words will be kept in students‟ long-term memory This technique is

especially effective for teaching verbs and adjectives showing moods

For example: to teach the phrases “sit down” and “stand up” (unit 11, page 92), the teacher can do these actions in front of the class The meaning of two phrases will be introduced easily Or some words expressing emotion like “sad” or “happy” can be taught

by facial expression

However, when using these techniques, the teacher should notice that action, mine, gestures performed by him/her must be clear and reasonable so as to avoid misunderstanding of the meaning of words

Using definitions, examples, synonyms and antonyms

In some situations, definition may be the best choice for introducing new words For example: the word “nanny” ( New Headway Pre-intermediate, Unit 8, page 67) can

be conveyed to students by giving definition: a nanny is a person who looks after a child

Besides that, the teacher should make full use of the synonyms to introduce the meaning of the new word because “words are best taught in groups of similar meaning.” (Lewis M & Hill J, 1985:101) Or another choice for teacher is that “a word can often be easily defined if the students know its opposite” (Hay Craft, 1978:46) For example: to introduce the meaning of the word “fast” (Unit 2, page 16), the teacher can use the known word “slow” (Unit 2, page 12) as its antonym

Last but not least, vocabulary can sometimes be classified into groups with a superordinate such as animals (dog, cat ), furniture (desk, chair ) and so forth With such superordinate words, giving examples to illustrate their meaning is of great use

Pre-2.4.2 Practice Stage

Purpose

In the process of language learning, practice is an indispensable part because “practice makes perfect.” This saying means that the more learners practice, the better they become Therefore, at this stage the teacher must create opportunity for the students to drill what they have learnt at the presentation stage Only by drilling, can the students use the words correctly and make them theirs Thus main aims of this stage are:

 To help students memorize the form of words

 To help students get the right pronunciation

 To enable students to use words, phrases or expressions in contexts

Teacher‟s role

This stage consists of two parts: controlled practice and guided practice In the controlled practice, the teacher acts as a conductor who conducts what students should do and the language style they are expected to produce In the guided practice, students are given more freedom The teacher is only the person who suggests situations, sometimes corrects their mistakes Students are freer to make utterance but the topic and situations are given by the teacher

their friends And then the teacher may probably tell each student practice pronounce individually This step is very important since when repeating in chorus the teacher cannot find out who pronounces wrongly, meanwhile not all students can do correctly As

a result, repeating individually helps the teacher correct students‟ mistakes immediately

Substitution Drills

This activity can be done orally in pairs Students make some changes in sentences

by using different words in the same structures This technique helps students to consolidate and memorize words they have learnt

Sample 1: (New Headway Pre-intermediate, Unit 5)

A: Good morning

B: Good morning Can I have a coffee,

please?

A: Here you are Anything else?

B: No thanks How much is that?

A: One pound fifty, please

Information Gap

An information gap activity is an activity where the learners are missing the information they need to talk to each other to find the missing information (Son, 2009) This activity involves transferring information assigned from one student to the other student Therefore, the application of this technique will capable of facilitating communication in authentic and fun ways The students actively work together and share opinion with his/her partner, help each other during the communication process, creatively produce their own utterances

Sample 3: (New Headway Pre-intermediate, Unit 6, page 47)

2.4.3 Production Stage

Purpose

According to Nelson T (1985): “The important aim of the production stage is that

of giving motivation, of giving students pleasure of success, of achieving goals in a foreign language.” Accordingly, learners have opportunities to use the new language in freer and more creative way in this stage The Production Stage is the most important stage of communicative language teaching Successful Production is a clear indication that the language learners have made the transition from "students" of the key language to

"users" of the language

Teacher‟s role

Production is seen as the culmination of the language learning process, whereby the learners have started to become independent users of the language rather than students of the language The teacher's role here is to somehow facilitate a realistic situation or activity where the students instinctively feel the need to actively apply the language they have been practicing The teacher does not correct or become involved unless students directly appeal to him/her to do so

Techniques

The techniques mostly used in this stage are pair works and group works due to these activities provides the students with an environment within which they can communicate easily and freely and within they can work together independently and productively These techniques are:

 Word-games such as crossword puzzle, riddle, odd man out, Kim‟s game & so on

 Dialogues, dramas and role plays, for example, students play the parts of a hotel receptionist and a guest, acting out a problem

 Topic discussion, debates, problem-solving

 Information-gap exercises

 Giving map directions: students have to give and follow directions on a map to see where they end up

CHAPTER II: ENGLISH TEACHING AND LEARNING CONTEXT AT HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

Teacher‟s role, learners‟ background, their needs, learning environment and material play an important role in learner‟s success or failure in learning a foreign language In this chapter, the author would like to give a brief overview on learners and their background at Hanoi University of Industry Further, the materials and facilities for language teaching are also assessed

2.1 Students and their background

English is a main and compulsory subject in the training program of this university The subject includes six periods a week from the first year program to third year The aims of this subject is that after three years, students will have general knowledge of grammar and structure, an active vocabulary of different topics which help them feel confident in daily communication

The majorities of students are aged from eighteen to twenty-one and they come from the North provinces such as Hai Duong, Thai Binh, Bac Ninh, Phu Tho, ect Most

of them are from rural areas where their communication skill in English is limited It is the fact that teaching and learning conditions at different schools over the country differ greatly, so students entering the university have mixed level of English Most of them have learnt English for six years (from secondary school to high school) Yet, their English knowledge especially vocabulary is still poor Most of them are not interested in learning English because their level of knowledge is low, and foreign language seems to

be too difficult for them to learn well Moreover, they are not students of English, and they do not devote themselves to learning English The fact is that many of them study English reluctantly in order to meet the teacher‟s requirements or to pass the examination, which is regarded as the biggest problem which students face up to The other problem is that there is no language environment for students to practice English because their classmates and roommates do not like speaking English and they do not have chances to

meet and talk to English native speakers During class time activities, the teacher talks to much while students are passive in participating in the activities Besides that, class is too large to teach language: each class includes from 40 to 55 students with mixed-levels, different motivation and expectations of learning English The above are the reasons why

it is difficult for teachers to apply suitable method for all of these students

2.2 Teachers and teaching methods

This university has approximately 100 teachers of English including full-time and part-time All of these teachers are graduated from universities of language with the English major

For most of the teachers, the common method of teaching is traditional centred In classes, explanation, translation and sentence making up activities are the main class activities Through call observation and discussion, it is obvious that most of the teachers are deeply influenced by grammar-translation method Therefore, their lessons focus on grammatical structures and translation and they don‟t focus on vocabulary teaching For these teachers, teaching vocabulary involves in writing new words on the board, giving translation, getting the class to repeat the word in chorus, ask students to read words aloud As a matter of fact, there are no language vocabulary activities for vocabulary teaching and learning That is the main reason why the learners usually feel bored in vocabulary learning

teacher-2.3 Material and facilities

The facilities used for teaching and learning foreign language are not invested Worse than that, the university does not still have a language lab for students to learn English and only have radios for students to practice listening Moreover, overhead projectors are newly equipped in each classroom but most of them cannot work well Besides, the library cannot provide other preference materials such as books or magazines except the main course books Such poor teaching and learning conditions