Novice teachers’ beliefs and practices of using L1 in EFL classrooms: A case study at English division I, FELTE, ULIS

ABSTRACT The present study was a case study which examined novice teachers’ beliefs and practices of using L1 in EFL classrooms at English Division I, FELTE, ULIS.. Over the past few yea

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Major: Theory & Methodology in Teaching English Major code: 60140111

HANOI - 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Major: Theory & Methodology in Teaching English Major code: 60140111

Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Thu Hà (Ph.D.)

HANOI - 2014

ACCEPTANCE

I hereby state that I: Phạm Thị Anh Phương, 08.1.E1, being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Signature

Phạm Thị Anh Phương

September 29th, 2014

Second, I would love to send my heartfelt thanks to the five novice teachers and their first-year students at English Division I, FELTE, ULIS for their enthusiastic help and participation in the conduct of my research Without their help, I would not have been able to complete this thesis

Furthermore, I would like to give my sincere thanks to the lecturers of Faculty

of Post-graduate Studies for the valuable lessons on all the aspects of language learning and teaching as well as the process of academic writing and research conducting, thanks to which I could overcome all the difficulties when working on the study

Last but not least, I also owe a great debt of gratitude to my beloved family and friends, who have constantly encouraged me during the time I conducted this research

ABSTRACT The present study was a case study which examined novice teachers’ beliefs and practices of using L1 in EFL classrooms at English Division I, FELTE, ULIS To gain

a vivid understanding of this issue, the research was conducted with five experience novice teachers of the faculty and ten first-year mainstream classes in which these teachers were assigned to deliver English lessons For the data collection, a combination of questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and audio-recordings was employed The results supported the judicious use of Vietnamese

two-year-in some situations and suggested that L1 should be used flexibly accordtwo-year-ing to students’ levels and lessons’ contents Besides, some teaching implications for novice teachers’ more effective use of L1 were also discussed

TABLE OF CONTENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, AND ABBREVIATIONS vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Statement of the problem and rationale for the study 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 3

4 Significance of the study 3

5 Design of the study 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Key concepts 5

1.1.1 Novice teachers 5

1.1.1.1 Definition of novice teachers 5

1.1.1.2 Characteristics of novice teachers 6

1.1.2 Teachers’ beliefs 7

1.1.2.1 Definition of teachers’ beliefs 7

1.1.2.2 Factors affecting teachers’ beliefs 8

1.1.2.3 Relationship between teachers’ beliefs and practices in language teaching 9

1.1.3 L1 use in EFL classroom 10

1.1.3.1 Arguments against L1 use in EFL classroom 10

1.1.3.2 Arguments for L1 use in EFL classroom 11

1.2 Related studies 14

1.2.1 Review of related studies worldwide 14

1.2.2 Review of related studies in Vietnam 15

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 18

2.1 Selection of subjects 18

2.1.1 Participants 18

2.1.1.1 Novice teachers 18

2.1.1.2 First-year mainstream students 18

2.1.2 Sampling methods 19

2.2 Research design 20

2.2.1 Questionnaires 20

2.2.2 Observations 21

2.2.3 Interviews 22

2.3 Procedures of data collection 22

2.4 Procedures of data analysis 23

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 25

3.1 Findings 25

3.1.1 Research question 1: What are novice teachers’ beliefs of using L1 in EFL classrooms? 25

3.1.2 Research question 2: How did novice teachers employ L1 in EFL classrooms? 27

3.1.3 Research question 3: To what extent was this practice effective in facilitating first-year students’ English learning at FELTE, ULIS as perceived by the students? 30

3.2 Pedagogical implications and recommendations 32

PART C: CONCLUSION 34

1 Summary of findings 34

2 Limitations of the study 35

3 Suggestions for further studies 35

REFERENCES 36

APPENDICES IAPPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRES FOR STUDENTS IAPPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW SCHEDULES FOR TEACHERS IVAPPENDIX 3: TRANSCRIPTIONS OF THE RECORDINGS VAPPENDIX 4: TRANSCRIPTIONS OF THE INTERVIEWS XLIII

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, AND

ABBREVIATIONS List of tables

Table 1 Mean score for the effectiveness of the teachers’ L1 use in their EFL classrooms as perceived by the students

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Statement of the problem and rationale for the study

Since the rise of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in 1970s, the use of students’ mother tongue in EFL classrooms has become a controversial issue through a large body of research worldwide It is noted that the idea of whether L1 should be included or excluded in English language learning and teaching has divided opinions

On the one hand, it is believed that teaching English monolingually will help learners develop their language learning and truly appreciate the target language exchanges without relying on their L1 (Weschler, 1997; Cook, 2001; Bouangeune, 2009) According to Ellis (1984), several authors even assert that L1 has no essential role to play in EFL teaching and that too much L1 use might deprive learners of valuable input in L2 On the other hand, advocates of L1 use in EFL classrooms dispute that students’ native language has a positive contribution to English learning and teaching if it is used at appropriate times and for appropriate reasons (Cameron, 2001; Tang, 2002; Nation, 2003; Sharma, 2006) However, the question of how many times and in which situations are considered appropriate for using L1 in EFL classrooms still needs researching Recently, several teaching methods and trends supporting the use of L1 as a helpful teaching and learning tool have widely emerged (Al-Nofaie, 2010) Numerous researchers and teachers have started to re-evaluate the role of L1 in EFL classrooms and think of ways to find the answer to this question Among them, teachers’ beliefs and practices of using L1 in EFL classrooms seems to

be a focal concern

In Vietnam, although CLT has been adopted for a long time, it has gained limited outcomes owing to the dominance of the Grammar Translation Method (GTM), especially in high schools where teachers often make use of L1 to transfer their knowledge to students This matter leads to the fact that the majority of Vietnamese

high school students find it difficult to understand an English lesson without the help of teachers’ use of Vietnamese when they come to a foreign language specializing university Thus, even in this L2 favoring environment, teachers still need to employ L1 as an essential tool to facilitate the English teaching and learning Specifically, from the researcher’s observation, this practice also exists in the context of English Division

I, FELTE, ULIS Nevertheless, little attention has been given to teachers’ exploitation

of L1 and its effectiveness in EFL classrooms as perceived by both teachers and their first-year students In fact, teachers with more teaching experience seem to be more aware of utilizing L1 in their EFL classrooms than those new and young do

Over the past few years, more and more Vietnamese researchers, including Kieu (2010) and Nguyen (2011), have studied on the issue of teachers’ beliefs and practices

of employing L1 in their EFL classrooms and reach an agreement that judicious L1 use

is supported by both language teachers and students due to the fact that it facilitates the foreign language learning and teaching However, the subjects of these studies are mostly experienced teachers Meanwhile, there have not been any studies focusing on those of university novice teachers who are new and have little experience in teaching

All of the above-mentioned reasons, henceforth, have offered the researcher an

interest in conducting a study on “Novice teachers’ beliefs and practices of using L1

in EFL classrooms: A case study at English Division I, FELTE, ULIS” with a view

to filling the pointed gap in the research field as well as facilitating further studies into the same topic

2 Aims and objectives of the study

First, the research paper aimed at exploring novice teachers’ beliefs and practices of using L1 in teaching English for first-year students at FELTE, ULIS Then,

a deeper investigation into the effectiveness of this practice as perceived by the students was carried out Finally, teaching implications for novice teachers’ use of L1

in EFL classrooms were also drawn out from these findings with a view to helping them be more aware of its effectiveness in each specific context

In brief, these objectives could be summarized into three research questions as follows:

1 What are novice teachers’ beliefs of using L1 in EFL classrooms?

2 How did novice teachers employ L1 in EFL classrooms?

3 To what extent was this practice effective in facilitating first-year students’ English learning at FELTE, ULIS as perceived by the students?

3 Scope of the study

This study specifically aimed at investigating the use of L1 among novice teachers at English Division I, FELTE, ULIS during the second year of their teaching career for the fact that these teachers were in the middle of their three year mentoring program; therefore, they have witnessed the effectiveness of their own L1 use in EFL classrooms for two years, and still have one more year to adjust their practices before becoming real professional teachers, which would have certain effects on their lifelong career afterwards Hence, the target participants of the study were particularly five two-year-experience teachers at English Division I, FELTE, ULIS Moreover, regarding the feasibility and scope of such a small scale study, the researcher only expected to measure the amount of L1 used by the novice teachers and did not plan to analyze the discourse

4 Significance of the study

This research is expected to be of benefits for novice teachers, first-year students at FELTE, ULIS, as well as other researchers who are interested in the same field Since the study investigated novice teachers’ beliefs and practices of using L1 in EFL classrooms, the teaching implications drawn out from the study are hoped to help novice teachers be aware of using L1 more effectively in their teaching This, as a result, would reduce the stress of first-year students when they first enter an L2

favoring environment so that they could understand and enjoy the lessons to the fullest Last but not least, regarding researchers who share the same interest in the topic, they could also rely on this study to find reliable and helpful information to develop their related studies in the future

5 Design of the study

There are three main parts in the study: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion

The introduction states the problem and the rationale of the study, together with the aims, objectives, the scope, the significance, and the design of the whole paper Above all, it is in this chapter that three research questions are identified to work as clear guidelines for the entire research

The development consists of three chapters Chapter one provides the theoretical background of the study, including a detailed elaboration of the three key concepts, namely “novice teachers”, “teachers’ beliefs”, and “L1 use in EFL classrooms” as well

as a brief review of the related studies worldwide and in Vietnam Chapter two sheds light on the methodology applied in the study by discussing in detail the participants, the instruments and the procedure of data collection and analysis Chapter three presents, analyzes, and discusses the findings found out from the data collected according to the three research questions at the beginning of the thesis

The conclusion gives the summary of the main issues discussed in the paper, the limitations of the research and some suggestions for further studies

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Key concepts

1.1.1 Novice teachers

1.1.1.1 Definition of novice teachers

The notion of “novice”, according to Hornby (2010), is defined as “a person who is new and has little experience in a skill, job or situation” With regard to teaching profession, this definition, however, is too broad since the two terms “new” and “little experience” are not specific enough for all scholars to reach a consensus on how new a teacher is and how much experience he has to be classified as a novice teacher As a result, there have been a number of different interpretations in the literature of what novice teachers actually are Specifically, in his study, Ozturk (2008) defines novice teachers as newly graduate ones who are “in the transition period from studentship to teaching occupation” (p 9) Sharing the same viewpoint, Gatbonton (2008) broadens the term as those with “little or no classroom experience”, including student teachers or teachers with less than two years of teaching experience Putting emphasis on the characteristics of novice teachers, Kim & Roth (2011) suggest a more detailed definition as teachers with no more than 5 years of teaching experience who

“have difficulties dealing with their tasks at work” (p 4)

It is noted that the amount of teaching experience used to define novice teachers

is not fixed; rather, it is a suggested range from 0-5 years Nevertheless, for the purposes of this study, the term “novice teachers” is understood as newly graduate teachers with less than 3 years of teaching experience who are trying to survive through the three-year-mentoring program and whose teaching tends to establish basic

classroom routines (Sherin & Drake, 2000) before they become the real professional teachers

1.1.1.2 Characteristics of novice teachers

Various attempts have been made to identify the characteristics of novice teachers by comparing the cognitive processes of expert and novice teachers in terms

of their planning, thinking and decision making in different phases of teaching, namely preactive, interactive, and postactive phases However, as Clark and Peterson (1986) have pointed out, the distinction in teachers’ thinking between the preactive and the postactive phases is not as marked as that between the preactive and interactive phases, only the first two phases when teachers are planning the lesson, evaluating and selecting teaching methods and materials, as well as the time when they are interacting with students in the classroom are analyzed

Specifically, in the preactive phase, there are four main characteristics of novice teachers’ thinking identified in the literature Firstly, novice teachers’ planning is often guided by rules and models without concerning about the context, which makes it problematic for them to implement their plans in the real classroom with a variety of contextual elements affecting the general direction of the lesson Secondly, although novice teachers spend much time planning than expert teachers do, their lesson plans are not as efficient as those of the experts because they do not have enough hands-on experience of the real teaching to make any amendments to their plans Thirdly, since novice teachers often consider context as “something external and ignored” (Tsui,

2003, p.30), they are less flexible in planning and not ready to make changes to their plans accordingly Finally, unlike expert teachers who possess a rich and integrated knowledge base of the curriculum, students, teaching methods and strategies as well as some external contexts such as classroom setting and expectations of the principal and parents, etc., novice teachers are quite new to these factors, therefore, their planning thoughts are simple and normally separate from some of the mentioned elements

When it comes to the interactive phase, it seems that novice teachers are less efficient and selective in processing information in the classroom than expert teachers

do In their study, Sabers et al (1991) found out that expert teachers were able to make sense of the complex information that “puzzled” novice teachers For example, when asked to comment on the classroom events and the teacher’s instructional practices, while beginning teachers only gave detailed but descriptive comments, expert teachers often assigned meaning to the events that they saw and made evaluative judgments about them (Sabers et al., 1991, p 73) Furthermore, due to the lack of experience, novice teachers are also not as good as their expert colleagues in responding to students’ needs and classroom situations that require decision making on the spot In fact, expert teachers’ representation and analysis of problems are usually deeper and they are more likely to offer solutions that are guided by principles (Tsui, 2003)

All things considered, beginning teachers often have difficulties in their first years of teaching mainly due to the lack of practical experience and the understanding

of the context affecting the teaching and learning process

1.1.2 Teachers’ beliefs

1.1.2.1 Definition of teachers’ beliefs

‘Belief’ is a commonly seen concept that has been discussed through a large body of research in various fields worldwide such as anthropology, philosophy, sociology, and many other disciplines According to Fishbein and Ajzen, (1975), belief

is a representation of the information someone holds about an object or a “person’s understanding of himself and his environment” (p 131) Sharing the same viewpoint but setting belief as a system of ideas, Pajares (1992) considers it as “personal guide by helping individuals define and understand the world and themselves” (p.74)

When it comes to the field of education and language teaching, much attention has been paid to the term “teachers’ beliefs” by a number of scholars, including Borg (2001); Basturkmen, Loewen, and Ellis (2004); Mohamed (2006); Zheng (2009) and

Kuzborska (2011) According to Basturkmen, Loewen, & Ellis (2004), teachers’ beliefs are “statements teachers made about their ideas, thoughts, and knowledge that are expressed as evaluations of what ‘should be done’, ‘should be the case’, and ‘is preferable’” (p 244) This definition is then understood by Mohamed (2006) as “a complex, inter-related system of often tacitly held theories, values and assumptions that the teacher deems to be true, and which serve as cognitive filters that interpret new experiences and guide the teacher’s thoughts and behaviors” Whether a belief is held consciously or unconsciously, it is always accepted as true by the individual, and is

“imbued with emotive commitment” (Borg 2001, p.186), serving further as a guide to thoughts and behaviors In other words, it is teachers’ beliefs that influence their own knowledge acquisition and interpretation (Nespor, 1987), teachers' implementation of the curriculum (Fang, 1996), as well as their underline planning, decision making, and teaching behaviors in the classroom (Zheng, 2009)

As this study focuses on exploring teachers’ beliefs and their practices of using L1 in their EFL classrooms, the researcher adopts definition of teachers’ beliefs following Mohamed’s position for its reliability and consistency

1.1.2.2 Factors affecting teachers’ beliefs

In order to better understand why teachers behave in the ways they do, a number

of factors that shape teachers’ beliefs have been presented in different studies

According to Zeichner & Gore (1990), teachers’ education can strongly influence their teaching beliefs Sharing the same viewpoint, Johnson (1994) adds that teachers’ beliefs are formed as a result of not only their education but also their own experience, namely personal experience, experience with schooling and instruction, and experience with formal knowledge (Richardson, 1996) As explained by Mohamed (2006), teachers usually base on their previous experiences of language learning and teaching to evaluate whether a teaching method or technique is “useful, applicable or effective” (p 234) In addition to teachers’ learning and teaching experiences, Richards

& Lockhart (1996) propose a more vivid group of factors, including teachers’ experience as language learners, their experience of what works best, established practice, personality factors, educational-based or research-based principles, and principles derived from an approach or method, which have been agreed and backed up

by various authors such as Graves (2000) and Mohamed (2006) What is more, other elements also worth taking into consideration can consist of teachers’ ongoing professional development, student expectations, syllabus requirements and available teaching materials (Graves, 2000; Mohamed, 2006)

So far, certain factors affecting teachers’ beliefs have been discussed Among them, teachers’ learning and teaching experience during their ongoing professional development seem to be the most significant elements that shape their beliefs about language teaching, whose implementations, in turn, may influence the classroom practices of the teachers themselves

1.1.2.3 Relationship between teachers’ beliefs and practices in language teaching

Over the past few decades, a large body of research on teacher education has gained remarkable achievement in studying the complex relationship between teachers’ beliefs and their practices, acknowledging the interactive relationship between them Although these studies have reached a consensus that “language teachers’ classroom practices are shaped by a wide range of interacting and often conflicting factors” (Borg, 2003, p 91), they also agree that teachers’ beliefs have a significant impact on their ways of teaching in the real classrooms (Fang, 1996; Richardson, 1996; Zheng, 2009; Sang et al., 2012) According to Clark and Peterson (1986), teachers’ behaviors are “substantially influenced and even determined by teachers’ thought processes” (p 255) as they represent the teachers’ knowledge and assumptions through their planning and practices For example, if a teacher thinks that L2 learning largely involves acquiring vocabulary, he will probably focus on teaching vocabulary (Horwitz, 1988)

If, for another example, a teacher believe that the role of learners in an EFL classroom

is to listen and speak only when being asked to answer questions, it might be likely that the amount of students’ talking time in class is little (Zheng, 2009)

It is true, as mentioned above, that teachers hold different conceptual orientations towards teaching, which will then lead to the differences in their teaching behaviors In other words, teachers’ beliefs present a window to study the teachers’ decision-making, and therefore, understanding them is a better approach to realizing how they typically teach in their real language classroom (Richard & Lockhart, 1996) 1.1.3 L1 use in EFL classroom

1.1.3.1 Arguments against L1 use in EFL classroom

The monolingual approach has long been supported in the field of English Language Teaching (Philipson, 1992; Macaro, 2001) as well as in other contexts (Turnbull, 2001; McMillan et al., 2009) Numerous scholars who object to using L1 in EFL teaching mainly justify that it hinders L2 learning In fact, the proponents of this approach suggest more than one reason for their attitude, which has been summarized

by Cook (2001) into the three following fundamental principles:

1 The learning of an L2 should model the learning of an L1

2 Successful learning involves the separation and distinction of L1 and L2

3 Students should be shown the importance of the L2 through its continual use The first reason that supporters for monolingual approach raise is the exposure

to the target language (Krashen & Terrell, 1983; Turnbull, 2001) According to Krashen and Terrell (1983), learners acquire L2 following the same path they acquire L1, therefore, the students’ mother tongue should not be used in the classroom in order

to maximize the exposure of the target language Moreover, as pointed out by Turnbull (2001) and Deller & Rinvolucri (2002), using L1 in EFL classrooms might have negative impact on learners’ L2 acquisition since it reduces not only their exposure to the target language but also their opportunities for using it Besides, Auerbach (1993) and Ellis (2005) also indicate that the more L2 exposure students receive, the faster

they learn “as they hear and use English, they will internalize it and begin to think in English" (Auerbach, 1993, p.14)

Another common argument against L1 use is that it interferes in the process of L2 learning through negative transfer (Marton, 1988) As defined by Dulay, Burt & Krashen (1982, cited in Al-Harbi, 2010, p 145), interference is “the automatic transfer, due to habit, of the surface structure of the first language onto the surface of the target language" However, when L1 transfer is used, errors might occur due to the differences existing between the two languages, which make interference a major source of difficulty in the target language learning (Richards, 1971; Cook, 2001) Hence, to avoid that, the separation and distinction of L1 and L2 should be made and L1 use should be banned as it makes students believe that word for word translation is

a useful technique; consequently, they will work towards transferring meaning in learning the foreign language (Harbord, 1992)

Finally, opponents of L1 use also point out that if the teachers minimize the use

of the target language in the classroom, learners will be confused about whether the foreign language they are learning could be an effective means of communication (Littlewood, 1992, p 45) Therefore, students should be shown the role of L2 by using

it continually in classroom simulations of real-life situations (McDonald, 1993) Indeed, it is only through the actual L2 use that students acknowledge its worth Specifically, Ellis (1985) justifies that EFL teachers, who are considered by Turnbull (2001) as the sole linguistic models and main sources of the foreign language input in their EFL classrooms, should use the target language for both language related and classroom management functions in order to avoid depriving the learners of “valuable input in the L2” during the process of helping them achieve L2 competence

1.1.3.2 Arguments for L1 use in EFL classroom

The Monolingual Approach has been criticized to be impractical by numerous researchers, teachers, and learners who believe that limited L1 use is a very natural and

useful tool in EFL classrooms According to Auerbach (1993), "when the native language is used, practitioners, researchers, and learners consistently report positive results" (p 18) As shown by Schweers (1999); Macaro (2001); Deller and Rinvolucri (2002); Nation (2003); Butzkamm (2003) and Willis and Willis (2007), the mother tongue can play a supportive and facilitating role in the EFL classroom as a valuable linguistic resource, and therefore, it should not be totally avoided but used in a suitable way instead In other words, the principle of teaching English should be "use English where possible and L1 where necessary" (Atkinson, 1993) Specifically, with a view to countering what have been supported by Monolingual Approach proponents, advocates

of Bilingual Approach have proposed a number of benefits of L1 use in EFL classrooms to serve as the main reasons for their argument, which could be classified into the following three: to maintain a comfortable classroom atmosphere, to promote the students’ comprehension and to use the class-time efficiently

First and foremost, L1 could help create a relaxing atmosphere in the classroom (Polio and Duff, 1994) In his research, Burden (2000) uses Monolingual Approach for his classes and realizes that he begins to feel “remote” from the students as individuals since there is little natural conversational interaction in English or Japanese (p 5) What is more, he also finds out that when L1 is used, students seem to have a sense of security, which activates their personal experience and allows them to express themselves more freely The learner is then willing to experiment and take risks with English (Burden, 2000) In attempt to summarize the principles and advantages of using L1, Butzkamm (2003) also states that a friendly EFL atmosphere is best achieved through selective use of L1 which saves learners from a feeling of frustration they might have within their L2 learning in order to be stress-free Particularly, when teachers use L1 to clarify something in a lesson that students cannot understand, the barrier and pressure between students and teachers following the Monolingual Approach could be lessened or eliminated (Miles, 2004)

Secondly, L1 use in EFL classrooms can help facilitate students’ comprehension According to Auerbach (1993), the bilingual policy is both effective and necessary for adult EFL learners since the use of L1 had a positive effect in lowering students’ anxiety levels and other influential obstacles, which can help them understand the target language more easily Similarly, in his study, Krashen (1987) states that exposure to comprehensible input is vital for L2 learners to acquire the foreign language successfully If the students cannot understand what has been mentioned, they will find it difficult to keep it in their mind or complete a task He also points out that qualified bilingual education provides students with knowledge and literacy in their mother tongue, which indirectly but strongly facilitate them to gain English proficiency (Krashen, 1987) Thus, Cook (2001) disputes that in EFL teaching, learners should have in their minds as many L1-L2 connections as possible As L2 learners naturally associate what they are learning with their L1, trying to eliminate this process will only result in negative consequences (Harbord, 1992, p 351)

Finally, using students’ mother tongue helps teachers save a lot of time that can

be used for more productive activities As justified by Atkinson (1987), L1 is a useful technique for exploiting class time to check students’ comprehension, give instructions, enhance cooperation among learners as well as improving presentation and reinforcement For example, instead of going through long explanations in the target language, it would sometimes be simpler and more effective to translate a vocabulary item or an explanation of a grammar point in the students’ mother tongue (Sharma, 2006) What is more, according to Harbord (1992), L1 can also help keep and develop the flow of communication in the classroom However, it is suggested that teachers and learners should prepare guidelines for situations in which L1 can be used in the class with a view to avoiding the overuse of the mother tongue (Willis and Willis, 2007)

All things considered, it seems that the arguments for L1 use in EFL classrooms outweigh those presented by the Monolingual Approach proponents since the L1

opponents have not provided strong evidence for avoiding learners’ mother tongue, nor have clear reasons for banning it (Macaro, 2001) As a result, Bilingual Approach with appropriate L1 use begins to be a focal concern in this welcomed situation Nevertheless, the question of how much L1 is considered appropriate still needs further researching in order to reach a consensus among scholars worldwide

1.2 Related studies

1.2.1 Review of related studies worldwide

Teachers’ beliefs and practices of using of L1 in EFL classrooms have been discussed through a large body of research studies in the field of language learning and teaching worldwide On the question of should learners’ mother tongue be employed in

an English lesson, there arises another question of in which situations and to what extent this practice might be possible and effective if it is applied in EFL classrooms, which, more importantly, seems to be a focal concern of the literature in this field

In attempt to find the answer for this question, Schweers (1999) carries out a study on the topic “Using L1 in the L2 classroom” in his Puerto Rican university and reveals that all of the surveyed teachers and 88.7% of their students support the use of L1 (i.e Spanish) in their English classes Specifically, as perceived by the students, 87% say that L1 should be used to explain complex terms and two-thirds feel that their mother tongue guides them to keep track of their study To conclude, Schweers (1999) shows his favor of using L1 to promote classroom atmosphere, activate students’ personal experiences and help them feel free to express themselves

Conducting a similar research in the context of China, Tang (2002) points out that limited and judicious use of L1 does not reduce L2 learners’ exposure to the target language Instead, it supports and facilitates the foreign language learning and teaching process In comparison with the results drawn from Schweers’, Tang (2002) reveals that the majority of teachers in both studies are in favor of using L1 in their L2 classrooms, which also receives positive responses from students in both contexts

Having the same interest in the topic of L1 use in EFL classrooms, Al-Nofaie (2010), in his paper, finds out that the use of L1 is unavoidable However, since teachers are aware of the drawbacks of using too much mother tongue in the language classroom, their L1 use mostly depends on their students’ specific needs Particularly, they are in favor of utilizing it to explain grammar points, teach new vocabulary and deliver instructions for exam to students of low levels However, they do not prefer showing students the differences between the two languages, which opposes to the suggestions of some earlier studies

More recently, in order to explore teachers' attitudes towards using Arabic in the primary English classrooms in Palestine, Salah (2012) realizes that his result is similar

to those of Schweers' (1999), Tang's (2002) and AL-Nofaie's (2010) which show that the use of students’ mother tongue is unavoidable and teachers are in favor of occasional use of L1 for particular reasons Among them, “translating abstract words”

is the most common one (Salah, 2012, p 424) On the other hand, the result also reveals that excessive L1 use in L2 classroom will reduce students’ exposure to English

to learn the target language better, which supports the belief of some Monolingual Approach proponents mentioned above Regarding years of teaching experience as a factor that might influence teachers’ L1 use in their English classes, it seems that novice teachers use less L1 than those experienced ones Besides, other factors such as students’ proficiency levels, grades, teaching and learning materials, and the age of the students, etc are also considered affecting teachers’ practices

1.2.2 Review of related studies in Vietnam

Since CLT approach has become more and more popular in Vietnam, the topic around the use of L1 in EFL classrooms has been concerned by numerous Vietnamese scholars for the last few years

Conducting a study on “Use of Vietnamese in English Language Teaching in Vietnam: Attitudes of Vietnamese University Teachers” with twelve teachers from

three universities in Ho Chi Minh City, Kieu (2010) finds out that although Vietnamese

is preferred in some EFL classroom situations such as: explaining grammar items, clarifying vocabulary, and checking students’ comprehension, etc., its use is different

in each class basing on each specific classroom context What is more, as emphasized

by most of the surveyed teachers, the amount of L1 use should be limited in order to avoid its overuse because it could “deprive the learners of valuable input in the L2” (Ellis, 1985) This finding appears to be in line with those of the related studies worldwide reviewed in the previous part

Carrying out a similar research on “attitudes toward L1 using in EFL classrooms” but setting a different context in which both teachers and students at Ba Vi high school, Hanoi are chosen as participants, Nguyen (2011) reveals that L1 use also gains supports from most of the respondents in her study This is because they find Vietnamese effective in helping students understand what they are learning as well as promoting a comfortable learning atmosphere in the classroom Nevertheless, similar

to Kieu’s (2010), this study also suggests that the amount of Vietnamese and English should be reasonably adjusted with a view to maximizing the students’ exposure to the target language and minimizing the overuse of L1 in L2 classrooms Particularly, as justified by the participants, there are three main situations in which Vietnamese could

be employed, including clarifying difficult grammar structures, explaining vocabulary, and making clear abstract ideas

It is undeniable that these two studies’ results have a significant contribution to the issue However, the main subjects of both papers are teachers who have more than three years of teaching experience Meanwhile, there have not been any studies focusing on novice teachers who are in the middle of their three-year-mentoring program This apparently offers a gap for the researcher to conduct a study in a more comprehensive way with different participants – two-year-experience novice teachers

at English Division I, FELTE, ULIS as they are in the process of forming their teaching beliefs for their life-long career

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Selection of subjects

2.1.1 Participants

2.1.1.1 Novice teachers

The first group of participants of this study consisted of 5 two-year-experience teachers who were assigned to teach at different first-year groups at English Division I, FELTE, ULIS The reason for choosing these participants was that these teachers were

in the middle of their three-year-mentoring program; therefore, they have witnessed their L1 employment in their own EFL classrooms for two years to see how it affects

or facilitates the language learning and teaching process, and still have one more year

to adjust their practices before becoming real professional teachers, which would have certain effects on their lifelong career afterwards Besides, these novice teachers were also the researcher’s old classmates, which made it easier for her to develop and maintain good rapport with them This was very important because when the participants knew the researcher, they were more likely to be open, thus providing valid and reliable information for the study (Glesne & Peshkin, 1992)

2.1.1.2 First-year mainstream students

Although this study mainly focused on novice teachers’ beliefs and practices of using L1 in EFL classrooms, first-year mainstream students still played a very important role as they were the direct beneficiaries, observers and evaluators of the effectiveness of these teachers’ L1 use Particularly, they were freshmen in ten different groups in which five chosen novice teachers delivered their lessons These participants were supposed to be around 19 years old and their English competence was at level B1 – Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) At the end of the first academic year 2013-2014, they were expected to achieve CEFR level B1+ or B2

What is more, first year mainstream students were chosen because they had just entered the university for one semester and some of them still found it difficult to familiarize themselves with the university learning environment This was due to the fact that when they were at high schools, their English teachers often made use of L1 to transfer knowledge to them, therefore, they could hardly understand an English lesson without the help of teachers’ use of Vietnamese when they come to a foreign language specializing university Thus, in this case, the effective use of L1 seemed to be an essential tool to facilitate the English teaching and learning

When the study was conducted, these students were pursuing two out of three different courses at FELTE, ULIS, namely English for social purposes 2 (English 2A), English for academic purposes 2 (English 2B - Academic), and English for business purposes 2 (English 2B – 721), corresponding with their majors Specifically, whereas students majoring in English teacher education and English translation and interpreting were required to study English 2A and English 2B – Academic in order to practice language skills with the exploration of both social and academic themes, students of double-major (consisting of a Foreign Language major and major in Business Administration, Finance and Banking, or International Business) or double-degree (including the degree of Bachelor in English and the degree of Bachelor in International Business, Finance and Banking, or Business Administration) programs had to take both English 2B – Academic and English 2B – 721 courses with a view to enhancing their English language competence within academic and business contexts 2.1.2 Sampling methods

As the setting of this paper was in English Division I, FELTE, ULIS, all of the five two-year-experience novice teachers of the Division were invited to take part in the study in order to provide more valid and reliable data for the research Indeed, they were the main participants for the interviews and observations which were all recorded for further analysis

Regarding the first-year students, the researcher randomly chose ten classes in which five novice teachers delivered their lessons of different contents during the second semester of the academic year 2013-2014 Each two classes were asked to evaluate the effectiveness of L1 use of a specific novice teacher who was currently teaching them by completing the questionnaires, which brought objective quality assessment for the research

In order to obtain a sufficient collection of both reliable and valid data for the study, a combined data collection process utilizing questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and observations was fully employed

2.2.1 Questionnaires

For the “unprecedented efficiency in terms of the researcher's time, the researcher's effort, and financial resources” (Hoang & Nguyen, 2006, p 10), a set of survey questionnaire (see Appendix 1) was utilized for first-year students in ten chosen classes as one instrument to collect data for research questions 2 and 3 in this study

Regarding the content, the questionnaire began with a brief overview of the research title, the purpose of conducting the questionnaire and a desire for cooperation from respondents in order to get sincere opinions and objective assessment Then, general information about the groups and skills that each novice teacher was assigned

to teach was required The main questions were arranged in the next section

When it comes to the questionnaire’s format, nine questions fell into two types: close-ended questions with multiple choice and rating scales, and open-ended questions

to get more information As for the close-ended questions, beside six multiple choice questions related to the necessity and frequency of teachers’ L1 use in class as well as students’ preference and their assessment of the benefits of teachers’ L1 use in general, questions number 8 and 9 were designed in the form of Likert-scale questions which were “effective for gathering respondents’ views, opinions about various language-related issues” (Brown, 2001, p.41) The researcher made use of two types of scale: one ranged on the basic frequency (i.e always – usually – seldom – hardly ever – never), and the other varied on the level of effectiveness (i.e totally effective – mostly effective – neutral – mostly ineffective – totally ineffective) Each level was given a number from 1 to 5 for the participants to choose the one that best described their opinions Question 5 was designed as an open-ended question so that students could freely provide a variety of answers which expressed their own ideas

In terms of language, Vietnamese was employed to avoid misunderstandings 2.2.2 Observations

Since the topic of this paper was related to a practical educational issue, classroom observation was used as an effective tool to make the study “more accessible and practical” (Hoang & Nguyen, 2006, p 55) In fact, within the allotted time, only five observation schemes were taken in five out of ten chosen classes to serve as critical description of the teachers’ practices of using L1 in their EFL classrooms With the presence of the researcher, the number of turns the novice teachers used L1 for each kind of purposes as well as the comments for each purpose were noted down

However, with a view to assuring a collection of valuable data without affecting the natural atmosphere in the classrooms, the researcher took full advantages of audio-recording as it could provide rich data for the study and also helped her easily keep track of the teachers’ talk Thus, recording was employed to identify the total amount

of teachers’ L1 use and its purposes Teachers’ use of L1 in their spoken discourses recorded was also transcribed to serve as the main findings for the second question

in order to collect reliable data for research question 2, the latter included three questions, all of which focused on novice teachers’ practices in particular situations

In the interviews, although specific questions were determined beforehand, elaborations in the questions and answers were still made Moreover, so as to create a comfortable and friendly atmosphere for respondents, the interviews were carried out

in an informal and relaxing manner As the interviewees were all English teachers who were competent in English, only English was used during the interviews Besides, to guarantee the preciseness of the data collected, the researcher asked for respondents’ permission to have the interviews recorded, which was accepted by all of them

2.3 Procedures of data collection

The procedure of data collection consisted of three main steps as follows:

Step 1:

The first step was the preparation for the data collection process including a set

of questionnaire for first-year students and a set of interview schedules for novice teachers Having done with designing questionnaire and interview questions, the researcher piloted them with five first-year students and one teacher respectively Thanks to their constructive comments, wording, content and question options were checked and revised carefully For example, questions number 8 and 9 in the

questionnaire were transferred from multiple choice questions to Likert scale so that students could find it easier to assess the L1 use of their novice teachers Besides, course outlines and teaching schedules of the novice teachers were also asked so that the researcher could arrange the time for observations and recording the lessons

Step 2:

At the teachers’ consent, 15 lessons were recorded, and among them, 5 were observed with the researcher’s presence with a view to detecting any further problems related to the teachers’ use of L1 in their real classrooms After that, 300 questionnaires were delivered to first-year students in ten chosen classes at FELTE, ULIS in person, and then 272 were returned In order to gain students’ serious participation, a brief introduction about the researcher and the study were made before delivering the questionnaires Moreover, instructions were given clearly to assist respondents in understanding correctly the requirements of the questions in the questionnaires The researcher was also available to answer any questions arising in the process

Step 3:

Following the collection of these questionnaires, the results from questionnaires, recordings and classroom observations were quickly synthesized to detect any unexpected outcomes that could be further exploited in the interviews Afterwards, five semi-structured interviews using revised open-ended questions were conducted with five selected novice teachers mentioned above Besides, to make it easier for the analysis and quoting afterwards, all interviews were recorded with the permission of the interviewees and then transcribed for further examination Noticeably, just important points were written down to give clues to the research questions

2.4 Procedures of data analysis

Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyze the collected data To start with, the data from the observations were examined and the recordings were transcribed to give more precise description of the novice teachers’ real practices

in terms of both the amount of L1 use and the purposes for using it by measuring the actual number of times they spoke Vietnamese in comparison with their total speaking turns in each lesson It is noted that a teacher’s speaking turn begins when she starts speaking, and finishes when she gives the right to speak to her students (Jones, 2008) What is more, in this study, when the teachers mix codes, i.e use both L1 and L2 in one speaking turn, that turn is still considered one L1 turn Specifically, the amount of novice teachers’ L1 use in each lesson was calculated by the following formula:

X.100%

X + Y where: X is the number of speaking turns that a teacher employed L1 in a lesson; and Y

is the number of speaking turns that a teacher employed L2 in a lesson

However, it should be noted that the sound of two out of fifteen recordings collected were not clear enough for the researcher to transcribe the teachers’ talk, therefore, only thirteen recordings were analyzed These data were then summarized into charts and graphs according to the percentage calculated for further analysis later

In terms of students’ questionnaires and teachers’ interviews, all responses were synthesized and classified to answer the three research questions Any striking differences as well as extra answers in the questionnaires were summarized and presented in the form of quotations to provide insights into the issue Besides, important data from the interviews were also cited for illustration if necessary

Regarding the third research question, the gathered data from the questionnaires were shown with each situation given according to five-point scales gradually

descending from always to never and from totally effective to totally ineffective The

score for each opinion was also ranked from one to five respectively Subsequently, the responses of participants were calculated and transferred into numerical form, which indicated the average rating of the participants The results were then tabulated for

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Findings

3.1.1 Research question 1: What are novice teachers’ beliefs of using L1 in EFL classrooms?

The question of whether Vietnamese should be used in English classes has divided opinions among the five novice teachers participating in the research According to the interviews, only one out of five teachers showed negative attitude towards L1 use due to the fact that students’ exposure to the target language should be maximized in class as they do not have any other “English-speaking environment” outside the classroom (Appendix 4, line 9-10) This view was also supported by 21.32% of the surveyed students in ten chosen first-year classes who justified their L2 preference by saying that it provides a professional and effective English speaking and learning environment, which helps students broaden their vocabulary, improve their listening comprehension and build up their quick responses to the target language by thinking in English instead of Vietnamese What is more, most of these students admitted that they often considered their teachers as the models for them to practice speaking skill by familiarize themselves with the correct pronunciation, grammar structures, and expressions used by the teachers in specific situations Therefore, teachers’ use of L1 in class may indirectly discourage students from speaking English and it is not necessary for them to explain in Vietnamese some words and structures that are not too difficult to understand On the other hand, 80% of the informants agreed that L1 could be utilized in L2 classrooms for several reasons As explained by Novice teacher 2, “it helps facilitate both teaching and learning English” (Appendix 4, line 46) More specifically, L1 could be used to explain unfamiliar and abstract terms, deliver instructions, or whenever students find it difficult to understand the L2 lesson

At this point, the positive attitude of the novice teachers in the current study towards L1 use met with the findings in the literature worldwide presented by numerous scholars such as Tang (2002), Al-Nofaie (2010), Kieu (2010), Salah (2012) that L1 should be employed as a means of aiding students’ comprehension

Regarding the factors affecting teachers’ use of L1 in EFL classrooms, there arose a consensus among all the interviewees that students’ level was one of the most significant influences Particularly, with lower level classes, teachers had to exploit their mother tongue more often in order to help their students understand what were being taught Besides, as pointed out by three out of five novice teachers, the content of the lesson could affect the teachers’ use of L1 as well Two-fifths of the respondents recognized the influence of teachers’ L2 competency on their L1 use whereas only one interviewee mentioned that teachers might use Vietnamese to save time in class

When it comes to the teachers’ perception of the appropriate amount of Vietnamese use in English classes, most of the interviewees seemed to support the idea

of minimizing their mother tongue as much as possible However, they also emphasized that the proper L1 use should depends on specific situations in particular classes of different English proficiency levels As claimed by the novice teacher who was opposed to the use of L1 in EFL classrooms, it would be ideal if no Vietnamese was spoken and teachers’ L2 use would be better for students’ benefits in all language skills In contrast, other informants believed that to some extent, teachers’ use of L1 might be valuable for students in some situations, mostly in reading and writing skills when some complex grammar points and terms were difficult to be explained in English Nevertheless, as for listening and speaking skills, “teachers should act as a model for speaking and also a resource for listening with their use of English, not Vietnamese” (Appendix 4, line 178-180)

Overall, most of the novice teachers interviewed in the study believed that using L1 in EFL classrooms was unavoidable but teachers should try to limit the use of their

mother tongue in order to familiarize students with using and understanding L2 during the lesson, which would be of great significance to their L2 competency

3.1.2 Research question 2: How did novice teachers employ L1 in EFL classrooms?

Based on the findings from observations and recordings, the actual amount of L1 employment of novice teachers could be summarized in the Figure 1 as follows

As can be seen apparently from the chart above, all of the novice teachers used L1 in their EFL classrooms However, the percentage of L1 employment varied among the teachers While teacher 4 used L1 the least in both of her recorded lessons with no more than 3%, the amount of Vietnamese spoken by other teachers ranged from nearly 3% (lesson 1 of teacher 2) to more than 30% (lesson 2 of teacher 3) and seemed to be diverse in different lessons It was noted that the teacher who was opposed to the use of L1 in her EFL classrooms also employed mother tongue in all of her recorded lessons with the amount of L1 use ranging from more than 10% to approximately 20% To explain for this mismatch, she stated that:

I still have to use L1 because when they have trouble with their expressions I have to explain; and of course, they will understand better if I use L1 However, it is not an advantageous strategy because my students will never learn how to think in English but translating from their L1 or learning by heart the English expressions I teach them (Appendix 4, line 34-38)

More specifically, as clarified by all novice teachers in this study, their choices

of using Vietnamese depended on the students’ levels in each class as well as the content of each lesson Therefore, the amount of L1 use could not be fixed but it was flexible instead Take the case of novice teacher 3 as an example, the amount of L1 use

in her first recorded lesson accounted for just under 15%, then substantially doubled in her second lesson with 31.88% This could be explained by the fact that the students’ levels in two classes were not similar and the contents of two lessons were different as well Particularly, while the first recorded lesson took place in a mainstream class of students majoring in English teacher education, the second one was delivered to a double-degree class of students coming from University of Economics and Business who were not English-specialized learners Hence, the students’ level of the latter was often considered lower than that of the former What is more, although both lessons focused on writing skill, the contents were not the same Whereas the first lesson was about compare and contrast writing, the second one concentrated on how to write a film review in various ways Even though each person could assess the level of difficulty of each lesson differently, basing on the audio-recording of the first lesson and the classroom observation of the second lesson, the researcher found out that the latter seemed to be more difficult for students as it contained more new words, complex ideas and structures than the former did Therefore, the extensive amount of L1 use by the novice teacher 3 in her second recorded lesson could be understandable

As far as the situations and purposes of using L1 are concerned, all novice teachers admitted that they often employed their mother tongue to explain complex terms or topics in order to facilitate students’ comprehension whenever they had difficulties understanding those issues in English Moreover, novice teacher 4 also added one situation in which she used L1 to “deliver the lessons more quickly” when she had little time left (Appendix 4, line 143-144) Regarding the students’ observation mentioned in the questionnaires, the most common situation in which their teachers

tended to use L1 was to explain difficult concepts or issues This result was in line with the above-mentioned one as perceived by the novice teachers Besides, the surveyed students also pointed out two more situations when teachers usually employed L1, including chatting with students and managing classroom, i.e checking students’ attention or reminding students of their study

With regard to the researcher’s observation and recording analysis, similar results were also verified However, whereas explaining difficult concepts or issues seemed to be the most common purpose among the first three novice teachers with an average use of 5.625 times per each 50-minute lesson, teacher 4 only used Vietnamese

to give translation for some new vocabulary with no more than 3 speaking turns in a lesson, and teacher 5 mostly use L1 to check students’ understanding with approximately 4.67 turns It was notable that when elaborating complicated terms or ideas, teachers not only translated the issues but also gave examples and detailed explanations for them For instance, in attempt to clarify the term “telegraph” to students, after translating it into Vietnamese, novice teacher 2 in her second recorded lesson also mentioned the use of Morse code to explain how telegraph worked:

Telegraph? Do you know what it means in Vietnamese? It means “điện tín” Điện tín là

gì nhở?

Yeah, that’s right It’s the use of Morse code Ngày xưa ý, họ dùng cái máy điện tín để

họ ghi lại những kí hiệu Morse code Em xem các phim ngày xưa ý, đúng rồi, Pearl Harbor Họ dùng cái máy đấy để nhận tín hiệu từ nơi nào nó chuyển đến Rồi sau đó mình sẽ có một cái mẩu giấy đúng không? Và máy nó sẽ ghi lại các cái dấu dots and dashes và sau đó họ sẽ dùng những cái kí hiệu đó để chuyển thành thông tin chữ cái sau đúng không? So that’s Morse code (Appendix 3, turn 105-106)

Generally speaking, these techniques were all employed by the teachers to make sure that students fully understand the lesson delivered Indeed, since novice teachers were all aware of the disadvantages of L1 overuse, they always tried to limit its use and only employed it at the points of students’ needs More specifically, as observed by the students in ten classes where these novice teachers were currently teaching, the

majority of the students who completed the questionnaires agreed that their teachers only used Vietnamese at times in class

3.1.3 Research question 3: To what extent was this practice effective in facilitating first-year students’ English learning at FELTE, ULIS as perceived by the students?

With the aim of finding the answer to this research question, first-year students

in ten chosen classes were required to evaluate the effectiveness of their teachers’ L1 use for each purpose basing on the scale from 1 to 5 which indicated their agreement to

the given statements from totally effective, mostly effective, neutral, mostly ineffective

to totally ineffective respectively Particularly, their opinions of each statement could

be illustrated with specific mean score in Table 1 below

Table 1 Mean score for the effectiveness of the teachers’ L1 use in their EFL classrooms

as perceived by the students

mean score

To give translation for new vocabulary 1.73 1.92 1.81 2.05 1.90 1.88

To explain complex grammar structures 1.68 1.76 1.62 2.05 1.57 1.74

To explain difficult concepts or ideas 1.62 1.64 1.62 1.86 1.81 1.71

To deliver instructions 1.87 2.39 2.06 2.05 2.05 2.08

To check students’ comprehension 2.21 2.66 2.21 2.48 2.43 2.40

To give comments and feedback on

students’ performance 2.14 2.27 2.24 2.38 2.29 2.26

To chat with students 1.84 1.89 1.92 1.52 2.19 1.87

To manage the classroom 1.93 1.91 1.95 1.67 2.29 1.95

As can be seen from Table 1, students’ assessment of their teachers’ L1 use ranged from 1.52 – 2.66, which could be inferred that all situations in which five novice teachers utilized L1 were considered effective by the freshmen participating in

the study Specifically, the purpose of explaining difficult concepts or ideas was mainly evaluated the most valuable way of employing L1 by all novice teachers with the means ranging from 1.62 to 1.86 In the second and third place were the purposes of explaining complex grammar structures and giving translation for new vocabulary with the average mean score of 1.74 and 1.88 respectively It was noted that teachers’ L1 use in chatting with students and managing the classroom were also favored by the students with the average score of no more than 2

On the other hand, the use of L1 in delivering instructions, checking students’ comprehension, as well as giving comments and feedback on students’ performance seemed to be not highly appreciated by the learners As pointed out in the questionnaires completed by these assessors, some of the teachers’ instructions or questions for checking students’ comprehension were not complex enough to be explained in Vietnamese For example, in order to ask students to match the four suggestions for releasing from stress in the first column with their corresponding results in the second column, then write a complete sentence for the first suggestion using the given structure, the novice teacher 1 in her 85th speaking turn of the third recorded lesson said that:

Bài tập số 2 là một số các gợi ý họ đưa ra để thoát khỏi cái tình trạng bị stress Cô muốn các em dùng các cụm từ, ví dụ, talk to friends, feel more relaxed, tức là các ví dụ

từ số 1 đến số 4 sẽ có các results là từ a đến d, understand? Thứ nhất là nối cho cô cái suggestion nào đi với cái result nào và sau đó viết cho cô một câu hoàn chỉnh về cái suggestion số 1, talk to friends, sử dụng cái cấu trúc ở phía dưới Understand? Be quick (Appendix 3, turn 85)

Another example was the case of novice teacher 5 who often translated her questions for checking students’ comprehension into Vietnamese right after saying it in English:

And one more, you tend to use the word “due to” When do we use this? Khi nào thì mình dùng cái cụm từ này ạ?

To indicate what? Để chỉ cái gì ạ?Nguyên nhân kết quả đúng không ạ? Tuy nhiên cái này nó chỉ dùng cho cái gì thôi ạ? Positive or negative? (Appendix 3, turn 11-12)