Adapting english 10 textbook towards promoting learners autonomy and communicative competence in learning grammar

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG CHÂMADAPTING ENGLISH 10 TEXTBOOK TOWARDS PROMOTING LEARNERS’ AUTONOMY AND COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN LEARNING GRAMMAR ĐIỀU CHỈNH SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 10 THEO HƯỚNG P

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG CHÂM

ADAPTING ENGLISH 10 TEXTBOOK TOWARDS PROMOTING

LEARNERS’ AUTONOMY AND COMMUNICATIVE

COMPETENCE IN LEARNING GRAMMAR

(ĐIỀU CHỈNH SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 10 THEO HƯỚNG PHÁT HUY TÍNH TỰ CHỦ VÀ TÍNH GIAO TIẾP TRONG VIỆC HỌC NGỮ PHÁP)

M.A Minor Program Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60.14.10

Cohort: M.A 15

HÀ NỘI – 2010

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG CHÂM M.A Minor Program Thesis

ADAPTING ENGLISH 10 TEXTBOOK TOWARDS

PROMOTING LEARNER’S AUTONOMY AND

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN LEARNING

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

OHP: Over Head Projector

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

MOET: Ministry of Education and Training

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figure 1:

Components and domains of autonomy Table 1:

Grammar presentation in English 10 textbook Table 2:

Students‟ past learning experience Table 3: Students‟

learning styles

Chart 1: Students‟ general judgments of grammar part in the new English 10 textbook

Chart 2: Students‟ opinion of the necessity to learn grammar

Table 4: Students‟ attitude toward learning English

Table 5: Students‟ preference to learn grammar

Table 6: Teachers‟ comments and suggestion for adaptation

Chart 3: Students‟ opinion of their English grammar learning at school

Table 7: Suggested activities for developing learner autonomy

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: Literature review

I.1 Overview of grammar learning and teaching

I.2 Overview of autonomy in language learning

I.3 Overview of learning attitude and learning style

I.4 Overview of textbook adaptation

Chapter II: The study

II.1 Situation analysis

II.1.1 The teaching and learning situation at Tu Da high school 17

II.2 The study

II.3 The findings and discussion

II.3.1 Evaluation of grammar activities in the English 10 textbook 22II.3.1 Learners‟ past learning experience, learning attitudes and learning 27strategies analysis

II.3.2 Needs for adaptation perceived by the students and teachers 32

Chapter III: Application

III.1 Aims and objectives of the adapted activities

37III.2 Principles of textbook adaptation

III.2.1 Techniques of adaptation

III.2.2 Integrating learner autonomy training sessions into the regular

curriculum III.2.2.1 Building blocks of learner autonomyIII.2.2.2 Stages in the process of developing learner autonomy III.3 The proposed adapted material

III.4 Students‟ responses to the adaptation

Part three: Conclusion

1 Conclusion

2 Limitation of the study

3 Suggestions for further study

Appendix

Appendix 1: Student survey questionnaire 1

Appendix 2: Student survey questionnaire 2

Appendix 3: Follow up questions

Appendix 4: A copy of grammar lesson from English 10 textbook

Appendix 5: Sample adapted grammar

lesson Reference

List of abbreviations, tables and figures

373939404243

444445

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

Over the last few decades, together with the rapid development of information technologyand economic growth, English as a Foreign Language has become an indispensable subject

in high school education program in Vietnam However, the effectiveness of Englishteaching and learning in different contexts vary to a great extent due to many factors Ihave decided to put the teaching and learning English at Tu Da High School, where I amnow teaching, under serious consideration for some reasons

Firstly, my school has had moderate teaching and learning results for many years Onaverage, the final English test scores are approximately below 4.2 on the mark 10 scales.There are many factors accounting for this situation One possible reason is limitedexperience as well as moderate capacity of the five young English teachers there Pooreconomical condition also urges many students to spend more time working on the fieldrather than concentrating on studying However, from my point of view, in the context ofwidespread and rapid development of information technology, the fundamental cause is notthe lack of teaching and learning materials but is that students do not know how to findappropriate method for learning In other words, the best solution is to make them becomeautonomous in their learning

Secondly, though up to now there have been non-stop debates on the definition of learnerautonomy, the fact that this concept is used widely indicating its significance in foreignlanguage learning specifically It is mentioned in textbooks and syllabus of Great Britain,France, Hong Kong, Singapore, for instance In Japan, they have built a system ofAutonomous Centers where students can self-access the materials with or withoutteachers‟ guide In Vietnam, this term of learner autonomy has recently been emphasized

In the school year 2008-2009, the Education Minister, Nguyen Thien Nhan, gave out theslogan “Towards a friendly school and autonomous learners” Great improvements inbuilding a friendly school atmosphere can be witnessed nationwide However, how tofoster learner autonomy in specific contexts is a difficult question

Thirdly, while vocabulary is considered as the flesh, grammar is considered as the skeleton

of the body Most formal English tests in Vietnam high schools basically focus on reading

skill and checking grammar and vocabulary knowledge As a matter of fact, many highschool students consider their success in the grammar test as their goal of success inlearning English The need to communicate is therefore underestimated Furthermore,teaching English grammar for grade 10 is the most challenging task for the teachers in myschool My students come from several secondary schools nearby After four years learningEnglish in their former schools, some have a considerable knowledge and skills whileothers hardly knows anything about English.

For the above reasons, I have decided to focus my research on adapting the new English 10textbook in the light of improving learning autonomy and communicativeness in learninggrammar

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study aims at finding the suitable principles of adapting English 10 textbook‟s

to improve students‟ autonomy and communicative competence in learning grammar

The researcher defined the major objectives of the study as follows:

 To investigate the grammar learning situation in the context of using new textbooks at Tu Da high school

 To evaluate the English 10 textbook‟s grammar parts in terms of learner

autonomy and communicative opportunity

 To search for the suitable adapting techniques in the textbook toward improvinglearner‟s autonomy and communicative competence in learning grammar

3 Scope of the study

The study mainly focuses on the adaptation of English 10 textbook grammar to suitthe teaching and learning context of Tu Da High School only It is based on the currentsituation, learners‟ needs and teacher‟s opinions regarding sound literature findings

4 Methods of the study

In order to successfully fulfill the tasks and achieve the objectives of the study,attention should firstly be paid to students‟ learning styles, learning attitudes, preferencetowards learning English grammar and teacher‟s and students‟ needs for adapting thetextbook Data for the research was collected by means of survey questionnaires, informalinterviews and document analysis

To identify the areas of adaptation, frequent talks and discussions with my teachingstaff were carried out after each unit‟s language focus lesson On such occasion they wereasked to give their comments on the suitability of the grammar points in the lesson and togive their suggestion for improvement

To clarify the usefulness of the adaptation, informal interviews with the targetstudents as well as the teachers were also conducted

5 Organization of the study

The study is divided into three parts which are briefly presented as follows:

Part I is the introduction which presents rationale, aims, scope, research method andorganization of the study

Part II is the development of the study, consisting of the three chapters

- Chapter 1 provides the theory of grammar and grammar teaching in the light ofCommunicative Language Teaching Approach, autonomy in language learning, learningattitude, learning style and textbook adaptation

- Chapter 2 presents the methodology of the thesis, focusing on the procedure of adapting the textbook to improve learner communicativeness and learner autonomy as well as constraints and recommendations for carrying out the project

Part III is the conclusion which summarizes the overall study and states its limitations andsuggestions for further research

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter I: Literature review

This chapter begins with a theoretical overview of grammar in the CommunicativeLanguage Teaching Approach Next comes with the overview of autonomy in languageteaching including the origin, definition, significance and ways to promote learnerautonomy The last part introduces the reasons and techniques of textbook adaptation

I.1 Overview of grammar learning and teaching

I.1.1 The importance of grammar in second language learning

Grammar plays an essential part in learning a foreign language as it gives us a means tounderstand that language Firstly, grammar reflects the order of the human thoughts andhelps us to understand the diversity of human culture As for grammar supporters, theacquisition of the grammatical system of a language remains the most important element inlanguage teaching Secondly, teaching grammar helps students understand how thelanguage works as Harmer (1987) points out: „without some understanding of grammar,students would not be able to do anything rather than understand separate items oflanguage for separate functions.‟ (p.2)

I.1.2 Approaches to grammar teaching

In general, there are two major approaches to teach grammar They are: explicit grammar teaching and implicit grammar teaching In the traditional Grammar Translation Method,

grammatical phenomena are assumed to be wholly amenable to explicit presentation andpractice, according to which the teacher states directly right at the beginning of the lessonwhat is learnt then Vice versa, the implicit approach tends to lead the learners to thegrammar point through a series of steps – commonly known as „discovery technique‟.Either of the two approaches has both advantages and disadvantages and suits differenttypes of learners

Freeman (1986:150) points that

“Explicit teaching can speed up the learning of these features / patterns by making them more salient, encouraging students to allocate attention to them by narrowing learners‟ hypothesis space concerning their behavior Explicit knowledge helps students be able to be more accurate in expressing their ideas and thoughts through teacher‟s monitoring what they speak or write If they understand how a grammatical feature functions, they will be more likely to notice it when listening

or reading.”

On the other hand, students seem to be more motivated and involved in learning whengrammar is taught implicitly With the help of the teacher, learners are encouraged todiscover a particular grammar rule, to learn about a grammar point themselves Motivatedstudents can easily and quickly discover the rules themselves, and remember much betterthan the ones who are overwhelmed by grammatical explanations

As seen above, either of the two approaches of teaching grammar is beneficial to someextent It is best to make a combination of the two From the viewpoint of psycholinguistictheory, providing learners with explicit instruction along with standard implicit exposurewould seem to be a no-lose position Fotos, et al (1991) suggests designing conscious-raising tasks in which students work interactively in small groups to solve grammarproblems in the target language The role of the teacher is to help them become aware oflanguage rules whenever possible It is more likely to be useful if the students can beguided towards the reformulations of a rule than if it was explained to them

I.1.3 Grammar teaching in the light of the communicative approach

In a traditional grammar - translation method class, lessons are taught in students‟ mothertongue with little active use of the target language Grammar rules are explained in theirmother tongue and students are expected to learn them by heart and make up sentencesaccording to these rules The teacher is always the controller of students‟ activities in theclass while the students are only passive listeners and do what the teacher tells them to do,which prevents them from producing the target language This means that the lessons aremainly teacher-centered, with teacher‟s detailed explanations and instructions Althoughthe traditional grammar lesson is rather boring, the students seem to produce more correctsentences and score high marks in the final tests However, they have little chance tocommunicate with each other Normally learners speak with difficulty as they are afraid of

making mistakes To be worse, students may feel tense, anxious and frustrated when theycommunicate in the target language In addition, the teachers also feel nervous when theirstudents have difficulty answering their answers, partly because teachers set up too highexpectations or because the teachers‟ questions are too difficult for the students At the end

of the lessons, both learners and teachers may feel exhausted This problem has beenpointed out by Le (2001) According to him, an inexperienced teacher does activities withunclear and complicated instructions or goals about a target grammatical structure He alsopoints out that Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) will help to solve the abovementioned problem

Smith (2001) claims that CLT grammar lessons are often organized based on languagefunctions with cross references to linguistic forms, which is a fresh perspective to grammarteaching The focus is thus altered: on both functions and forms Grammar should betreated through communicative contexts and should be based on discourse, both orally and

in writing In broader terms, through linguistic analysis of language use in a particularsetting, students know how to use language to communicate Celce-Murcia et al (1988)state that discourse analysis offers knowledge underlying the use of language in naturalcontexts to communicate and explore intended meaning, which is one of the principalconcerns of CLT nowadays

According to Nunan (1991), an inadequate knowledge of grammar constraints linguisticcreativity and limits the capacity for communication Many teachers underestimate the role

of grammar in communication and thus unintentionally restrict students‟ creativity insuccessful communication We can see that the communicative approach enables students

to study and practice not only communication skills, but also grammar patterns The role ofstudents also changes; now they become the central in the language classroom During thelesson, students are encouraged and led or guided to explore the meaning, rules and use of

a grammatical items Grammar points, therefore, are not explained explicitly Instead, theyare taught in a living, context-embedded way with its use Students are allowed tocommunicate using the target grammatical items via games and communicative activities.The teachers try to help students in any way to set them involved in the activity right fromthe beginning Students are expected to be responsible for their learning They have chance

to negotiate and cooperate with each other

However, the grammar teaching in Vietnam now follows several methods and differentapproaches A lot of teachers follow traditional structural approaches and others favor thecommunicative one In short, teaching English in the light of CLT now face withconsiderable constraints due to several factors The study below will examine theimplementation of CLT approach under the new English 10 textbook‟ grammar part andgives suggestions for adapting the textbook so as to make it more communicative.

I.2 Overview of autonomy in language learning.

I 2 1 The origin of autonomy

The origin of „autonomy‟ goes back to the Greek word „autonomous‟ which was initiallyapplied to territory or city-states Resembling the Latin-based equivalence „self-regulation‟, autonomy refers to the condition of being self-ruled, or capable of regulatingone‟s own thoughts, learning and actions (Oxford, 2003)

Finch (2001) from Hong Kong Polytechnic University made a careful investigation into thehistory of this theory In the late 1960s, many industrially advanced Western countriesdefined social progress in term of improvement in “the quality of life”, giving rise tovarious kinds of social awareness, from ecology to the status of women, the rights ofpatients and education In second language learning, this humanistic trend resulted invarious socio-linguistic disciplines which all shared a pragmatic vision of language as “atool for communication”_ the rationale for the “Communicative Approach” to languagelearning and teaching Another outcome was the “deschooling education” movement of the1970s Later on, in the 18th century, the concept of individual autonomy was central toEuropean liberal-democratic and liberal-humanist thought A number of learner-centeredapproaches emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, all of which include autonomy andindependence of learning among their aims: the learned-centered curriculum (Nunan1988), the negotiated syllabus, learner training (Dickinson 1992), learning-strategy training(Oxford, 1990), the project-based syllabus (Legutke & Thomas 1991), experiential andcollobarative learning (Nunan 1992) and learner-based teaching These can be seen asgrowing from early work on learner autonomy, which was developed in the 1980s Sincethe Second World War, the need to adapt to the rapid changes in technology,communications and employment has lead to great changes in educational philosophy,language-learning theory, and political belief Therefore learning to learn is now more

important than knowledge Autonomy has thus become a popular focus of foreign languageteaching, supported by a general educational concern to help students become moreindependent in how they think, learn and behave.

I.2.2 Definition of learner autonomy in second language learning.

Oxford (2003) notices that controversy exists even in the most elementary terminology oflearner autonomy Dickinson (1987) views autonomy as a learning condition while Holec(1983, p.3) interprets it as learners‟ ability and attitude of responsibility and „self-directed‟

is referred to as the learning situation or mode Little (1991) shares the same point of viewwith Holec (1983) He supposes that autonomy is recognition of the rights of learnerswithin the educational system “Learner autonomy is a capacity for detachment, criticalreflection, decision making, and independent action” (Little, 1991, p.4)

Benson (1996, p.27) in his article discusses the four dimensions of autonomy: individual,

political, social and psychology Individual autonomy stresses individual learning styles

and preferences In this form of autonomy individual choices take precedence over

collaborative learning In contrast, social autonomy recognizes that learning takes place

through interaction and collaboration, as well as through individual reflection and

experimentation A psychological view of capacities of the learner focuses on the

importance of the psychological or „internal‟ capacities of the learner, such as cognitiveand learning styles, motivation, attitudes, aptitude and so on There is a focus on thelearners‟ responsibility for their own success and failures in learning In contrast, apolitical view of autonomy has, as its prime goal, a political end, and the learning process

is shaped by this

Littlewood (1996) divides autonomy into three spheres, namely autonomy as a

communicator (the ability to use the language creatively and to use appropriate strategies

for communicating meanings in specific situations), autonomy as a learner (the ability to

engage in independent work and to use appropriate strategies, both inside and outside the

classroom) and autonomy as a person (the ability to express personal meanings and to

create personal learning contexts) Though these concepts are new by their name, they are

all based on a belief in a developed self (self-conscious, rational being able to make

independent decisions), and an emphasis on freedom from external constraints

Since the abilities to communicate and learn independently are major factors in

enabling a person to make choices in life, they also contribute to each learners'

autonomy as an individual (Littlewood 1996, p.429)

The components and domains of autonomy in foreign language learning by Littlewood

(1996) is illustrated in the below figure, pointing out that there are different levels of

autonomy in each domain Nunan (1996) and Dickinson (1987) also acknowledge degrees

of autonomy, depending on the personality of the learners, their goals, the philosophy ofthe institution and the cultural context

Confidence

Skills

To make and carry out choices in

Figure 1: Components and domains of autonomy (Littlewood 1996, p.430)

To sum up, there have existed different ways of understanding what learner autonomy is up

to now However, it must be agreed upon that linguists worldwide have tried their best tofulfill the definition and they seem to reach to an almost final common one So far, it can

be concluded that an autonomous learner is the one who can regulate his own thoughts,learning and actions Besides, he must be capable of engaging in independent work, usingappropriate learning strategies and to create personal learning contexts, both inside andoutside the classroom Finally, he is supposed to be able to express personal meanings inboth learning and in real life So as to achieve these goal, learners should be given thechances to interact, collaborate, reflect and experiment him through first in specificlearning tasks and then in life in general As an instructor, we should take intoconsideration the psychological or internal capacities of the learner such as cognitive andlearning styles, individual preference, motivation, attitudes and aptitude, and so on

I.2.3 The importance of learner autonomy in second language learning

Autonomy can be seen as the fundamental factor for the success of a language learner as anold saying goes: “you can bring the horse to water, but you cannot make him drink.” Inlanguage teaching, teachers can provide all the necessary circumstances and input, butlearning can only happen if learners are willing to contribute”

“… in order to master another language, you need to be personally involved You need

to play with the language to develop a feeling of how it works The language must, insome sense, become a part of you rather than an external mechanical system that youmanipulate according to a set of instruction” (Scharle & Szabo 2005, p.2)

Scharle & Szabo (2005) supposes learners must be responsible for their study outcome

“You, the language learner, are the most important factor in the language learning process.Success or failure will, in the end, be determined by what you yourself contribute.‟ (p.6)Furthermore, if motivation is the key to success for a learner of a foreign language,autonomy itself implies motivation “If learners are proactively committed to theirlearning, the problem of motivation is by definition solved; although they may not alwaysfeel entirely positive about all aspects of their learning, autonomous learners havedeveloped the reflective and attitudinal resources to overcome temporary motivationalsetbacks” (Little, 1991, p.4) In other words, if successfully fostering learner autonomy inthe classroom, teachers will have the students who are self-motivated According to Little(1991), although autonomous learners may not always feel entirely positive about allaspects of their learning, they have developed the reflective and attitudinal resources toovercome temporary motivational setbacks

I.2.2.4 How to develop learner autonomy

Similar to ways of defining learner autonomy, various methods of developing learnerautonomy have been suggested basing on the stand on which linguists view autonomy

In the 1970s, most language teaching methodology was teacher-centered, the mostcommon activities were translating a passage, memorizing a rule, or repeating a dialogue.Then the value of learner autonomy was discovered in the form of allowing learners to dothings like initiating oral production, problem solving in groups, pair work practicing, and

so on It is not until recently that the three interrelated concepts of “autonomy, awareness

and action” have played an increasing significant role in learner‟s development,particularly with greater pedagogical emphasis on learner-centered language teaching(Wenden, 2002) The availability of the “self-help” manuals in almost every field of life,including language teaching and learning encouraged learners to “take charge” of their ownlearning, and to chart their own “pathways to success” (Brown, 1989) Studies on thecourses which help learner aware of their learning process showed that learners can indeedbenefit from these awareness-raising activities (Brown, 2007) Last but not least is theaction step as “awareness without action will be relatively useless” (Brown, 2007) Afterlearners have been aware of their own learning style, strengths and weaknesses, they cantake on appropriate strategy (Brown, 2007, pp 131-132)

From cultural perspective, Pennycook (1997) warns that autonomy is not a universe good

as it depends on each culture values But he claims that the goals as language educators is

an attempt to teach language in a way that opens up culturally alternatives for our students,that allow them to become authors of at least part of their world Schmenk (2005) statesthat learners for a non-Western cultures should be critically aware of specific culturalbackdrops

Allwright (1990), from the viewpoint of psychology, claims that autonomy concerns the

attitude of willingness to take responsibility, the necessary ability, and concrete action.

Meanwhile, Pennycook (1997) supposes autonomy takes in more perspectives such as:

technical perspective (focus on the physical situation), psychological perspective (focus on

characteristics of learners), sociocultural perspectives (focus on mediated learning) and

political-critical perspective (focus on ideology, access, and power structures).

Dickinson‟s (1987, p.11) definition of autonomy also illustrates the technical perspective:

“the situation in which the learner is totally responsible for the decisions concerned withhis/her learning and the implementation of these decisions In full autonomy there is noinvolvement of a teacher or an institution […] [nor] specially prepared materials.” McCarthy also proposes designing a summer language course by building a self-access centre,project work and explicit training in learning strategies Meanwhile, Little (1991) interpretsthat learner autonomy is “a holistic view of the learner that requires us to engage with thecognitive, metacognitive, affective and social dimension of language learning and to worryabout how they interact with one another”

As for Smith (2003), an appropriate methodology needs not to be referred from a priorgeneralization Autonomy itself is not a new method or that its promotion does not entailparticular procedures or technology, either But it can be developed by teachers for theirown teaching contexts He recommends two versions of pedagogy for learner autonomybasing on his own teaching experience with students in a Japanese university for seven

years The „weak‟ version follows a product-oriented approach, which tend to view

autonomy as a capacity students currently lack and they need to be prepared to Therationale may tend to come from research into beliefs regarding „good language learners‟

The „strong‟ version, on the other hand, adopts on an experiential and process-oriented

approach, which based firmly on students‟ own experiences and insights as the teacher hasassumed that students are, to greater or lesser degrees already autonomous

In her own context, Foseka (2003) suggests introducing language in a way that can satisfylearners‟ current needs Mastering the target language, going abroad or talking with nativespeakers is out of their reach in a poor country so she suggests using song to improvelearners‟ autonomy Islam and Mares (cited in Tomlinson, 2007, pp.89-90) further add thatlearners should be given a chance to discover the target language rules and conventionsthemselves and reading and listening tasks should be selected to cater for learner‟spreference, not just to check comprehension either with or without teacher‟s guidance.All things considered, lack of autonomy is the fundamental cause for loss of successamong my students It can be inferred that the most suitable pedagogy in my own teachingcontext then is a product-oriented approach, which sees autonomy is what they need to beprepared for The procedure is divided into several stages such as raising awareness andtaking action In the former phase, students are taught to be aware of their learning styles,strengths and weaknesses so as to take appropriate strategy I am with Little‟s (1991) andPennycook‟s (1997) opinions that we should take a holistic view of the learner whenconsidering learner autonomy Autonomy among learners is supported comprehensively bytechnical, psychological, sociocultural factors and so on Besides objective factors such aslearning preference, learning styles and motivation, a self-access centre with abundantreference books at hand, English club, play no less important role With regard to grammarteaching materials, the contents and activities should be selected to cater for learner‟spreference and they should be given a chance to discover the target language rules andconvention themselves Last but not least, grammar learning should be fun and realistic,

that is, the students are to be given chance to interact meaningfully and learning must berelated to their daily life.

I.3 Overview of learning styles and learning attitude

It can be inferred that CLT approach considers a successful ESL learner as a successfulcommunicator in that language With the viewpoint of taking the learner as the centre ofthe teaching and learning process, the teacher‟s initial and utmost important job is to keep

a thorough understanding of the learner‟s factors such as learning attitude and learningstyles The next coming part serves to clarify the above concepts

I.3.1 Learners‟ attitude

Hallorah (1967) defines attitude as an individual‟s like or dislike for an item Attitudetherefore is classified into positive, neutral and negative views of an object Gibb and Fazio(1988) give out more detailed definitions According to Gibb (1988) , attitude is generally

a state of mind, which is influenced by feelings, experiences of the world and beliefs Fazio(1988) states that attitude comprises three components namely affective, cognitive andbehavioral The affective component can be easily assessed by monitoring physiologicalsigns such as heart rate whereas the behavioral aspects may be observed directly Thecognitive side is generally measured by interviews, survey and other reporting methods

As for Hovland (1973) attitude in language learning changes responsively according to thelearner‟s satisfaction in communication One will normally keep positive attitudes if thecommunication is successful and interesting Otherwise, negative attitude will be formed ifthe communication is unsuccessful and unattractive The success of communicationdepends on several factors such as the communicator‟s interest in the topic, frequentchange of topics or the maximum use of language use in every task Hollorah (1967, pp.60-61) shares the same point of view with Hovland He states that people always adopt,relinquish and modify attitudes to fit the ever-changing needs and interests Simpleeducation can‟t change attitudes Acceptance of new attitude depends on who presents theknowledge, how it is presented, how the person is perceived, the credibility of thecommunicator, and the condition by which knowledge is received Sherif (1975, p.15) andHollorah (1976, pp 60-61) further find out that attitude change also depend on thelearner‟s personality characteristics such as susceptibility to persuasion, intelligence,

readiness to accept change, and so on In 1968, McGure develops steps to change anattitude begging with attention, comprehension, retention, yielding then action Thus hesupposes attitude can be changed by a number of sources including other people, media,family and other subject.

In studying a foreign language in particular and other subjects in general, students maybecome bored and inattentive in class, do badly on tests and get discouraged from thecourses or even drop out of school if the students keep poor attitudes in learning Attitudeand learning go hand in hand Garber and Lamber (1972) all agree that “success inmastering a foreign language would depend on not only intellectual capacity and languageaptitude, but on one‟s attitudes towards representatives of that language as well.” In fact,attitude plays an important role in students‟ learning If they maintain a positive attitude,they will carry out their learning to the best of their ability and vice versa Students‟attitudes have an effect on their behavior, learning style and learning results Lightbrownand Spada (1999) state that attitude is fundamental to the success or failure that weexperience in learning Depending on the learners‟ attitudes, learning language can be asource of enrichment or resentment Likewise, Brown (1994) says that language learnersbenefit from positive attitude while negative attitude may lead to unsuccessful attainment

of proficiency

I.3.2 Learning styles

Students‟ learning style is one of the factors we should take into consideration to see theparticular approach by which students try to learn Major factors conditioning waysstudents think and study are the educational system, the socio-cultural background andpersonality variables In Reid‟s opinion (1987, p.100), learning styles are modeled as

„strong habits rather than intractable biological attributes‟ He classifies learning stylesinto categories namely, visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile, group and individual learning

as follows:

 Visual learners learn alone with books, remember and understand information

and instruction if they read them

 Auditory learners prefer to listen to lectures or audio tapes, and remember

information by reading aloud or by moving lips as they read

 Kinesthetic learners remember information and learn well when involved

physically in classroom activities such as role-playing or taking part in communicative games

 Tactile learners can learn and remember information better if they wrote notes or

instructions when they work on experiments in a laboratory and build model

 Group learners learn more easily when they work with another learner or more

They understand and remember information through interaction and class work

 Individual learners remember and understand better if they work alone.

(Reid, 1987)

I.4 Overview of textbook adaptation

I.4.1 Reasons for adapting textbook

Although most classroom teachers will not be involved in the production of textbooks, allteachers have the responsibility for textbook evaluation, selection and adaptation Despitethe great effort that textbook writers make to meet the needs of the intended users,textbooks are subjective to adaptation when they are actually used in the classroom

Mc Donough claims that the purpose of adaptation is to personalize, to individualize,localize or modernize the classroom materials so that they are more appropriate for specificlearners Islam and Mares (2007) add further objectives such as to add real choice, cater forall sensory learner styles, provide for more learner autonomy, encourage higher-levelcognitive skills, make the language input more accessible and encouraging (Islam &Mares, 2007, cited in Tomlinson, 2007, p.89)

I.4.2 Techniques for adapting textbook

Textbook adaptation can be done at three levels The first level is macro adaptation, which

is ideally done before the language program begins After comparing what is covered in atextbook and what is required by the syllabus or examination, the teacher may find thatcertain areas or even whole units of the book can be omitted, and certain contents need to

be supplemented Macro adaptation is very important because it helps the teacher to avoidwaste of time for both the teacher and the students as well It also helps the teacher to see

in advance what he or she needs to supplement so that he or she can keep an eye onmaterials that could be used The second level of adaptation is adapting a unit This could

be reordering the activities, combining activities, omitting activities, rewriting or

supplementing exercise material, etc Unit adaptation helps to make the classroom teachingmore smooth and cohesive It also helps the teacher to better fulfill the aims of a unit Thethird level is adaptation of specific activities in a unit Occasionally an activity is regarded

as valuable, but it is not well-designed or it is not feasible in particular class If the teacherdoes not want to give up the activity, he or she needs to adapt it

In the context of teaching the English textbook at high school in Vietnam, the teachershave to comply strictly with the teaching curriculum suggested by the Ministry ofEducation Furthermore the new textbook has been evaluated to be generally suitable forhigh school pupils in the whole country Therefore, the textbook adaptation is usuallycarried out with specific activities within a unit

The most common ways of textbook adaptation are normally suggested as follow:

 Omission: the teacher leaves out things deemed inappropriate, offensive,

unproductive, etc for a particular group

 Addition: where there seems to be inadequate coverage, teachers may decide to

add to textbooks, either in the form of texts or exercise material

 Reduction: where the teacher shortens an activity to give it less weight or

emphasis

 Extension: where an activity is lengthened in order to give it as additional

dimension (For example, a vocabulary activity is extended to draw attention to some syntacticpatterning.)

 Rewriting/modification: teacher may occasionally decide to rewrite material,

especially exercise material, to make it more appropriate, more “communicative”,

more demanding, more accessible to their students, etc

 Replacement: text or exercise material which is considered inadequate, for

whatever reason, may be replaced by more suitable material This is often from other resourcematerials

 Re-ordering: teachers may decide that the order in which the textbooks are

presented is not suitable for their students They can then decide to plot a different coursethrough the textbooks from the one the writer has laid down

 Branching: teachers may decide to add options to the existing activity or to

suggest alternative pathways through the activities (For example, an experiential route or ananalytical route.)

(Islam & Marie, 2007)

I.5 Summary

This chapter presents an overview of the theories related to learner autonomy in learningand textbook adaptation The grammar parts in the new English 10 textbook are adaptedwith an aim to increase learner autonomy and provide more communicative opportunitiesfor learners The specific techniques and actual procedures and results are discussed in thenext chapter

Chapter II: The study

II.1 Situation analysis

II.1.1 The teaching and learning situation at Tu Da high school

English is one compulsory subject and is taught in three or four forty-five minute‟s periodsper week All students enter high schools with four year‟s prior experience studyingEnglish in lower secondary school However, most of them do not have a clear cut purpose

in learning English and they are likely to be passive in learning English

The class size is generally from 40 to 45 students in each classroom which is poorlyequipped with blackboard and long desks for four students This makes the teacher difficult

to apply technology and to organize group work Most of the time in grammar lessons isspent presenting, explaining grammar principles Learners take note, memorize, acquireknowledge passively and have little chance for developing language skills From theresearcher‟s observation, due to time limit, teachers only exploit language data presented

in the textbook Learners listen to the teacher and repeat passively and mechanically.Teachers test learners‟ understanding by asking them to translate into or explain inVietnamese In short, English teaching at Tu Da high school for a long time has notachieved its target for a long time for several reasons Teachers typically provide learnerswith a large a mount of academic knowledge and make light of language practice whilelearners take notes and acquire language passively Thus, it unfavorably affects the quality

of teaching and learning English In addition, the lack of reference resources from school‟slibrary is another problem which deprives learners the opportunity for independentlearning The classrooms are too large, noisy and uncomfortable Modern teachingfacilities like OHPs, whiteboards or language laboratories and computers are sometimesavailable, but rarely in operation

These shortcomings directly affect the effectiveness and quality of English teaching in myschool context Thus it poses the need to innovate teaching and learning methods

II.1.2 Teaching and learning method

Teaching methodology

For many teachers, any alternation to the lessons in the textbooks is considered „insecure‟

or „risky‟ The difficulties for change may result from teacher‟s limited and evenmisleading knowledge about the new methods and techniques Due to time constraints, theshort-time workshops (lasting one day to a week) organized by the MOET have notprovided the teachers with thorough understanding of the communicative method Despitethe fact that they are aware of some values in communicative methodology, they hesitate toincorporate these new methods into their own classrooms

As shown from the literature review, students can learn effectively when they take part inactively in the communication with the target language rather than only passively acceptingwhat the teachers say Brown (1991) reveals that a language learner can, and must, takecontrol of his/her own language learning and assume responsibility for his/her success orfailure However, for fear of being unable to control the chaotic, noisy students as well as

of the challenge to the structure teacher-learner relationship, the most common method isquestioning and answering Teacher reads the question and calls one individual to answer,instead of assigning pair or group learning activities Teacher-learner is the usual model ofinteraction This teaching methodology fails to create a favorable learning atmosphere thatallows the learners to communicate freely Due to the teachers‟ hesitation to change theirhabits, language classes in Tu Da high school remain lecture-oriented or teacher-centered,with the focus on grammatical items and translation

Learning method

From my own observation, most pupils in my school still stick to the traditional passivelearning method What the students attempt to do is to attend class, listen to the teacher‟sexplanation, take notes and memorize everything The concept of learner autonomy orlearner independence seems to be very new Consequently, many students obtain goodexam grades as a result of their knowledge of language structures but fail to communicateeffectively in real life

Being located in the countryside, almost all pupils come from rural villages nearby Themoderate economic situation hinders them from receiving modern teaching and learningfacilities such as computer, the online internet, reference books or even the new textbooks

They have to buy old textbooks and almost all the exercises are already done To be worse,some students often copy the answer key from “Để học tốt Tiếng Anh 10”, or copy the keyfrom other class members as they are fear of the teachers.

II.1.3 Constraints in teaching communicative grammar

Testing and evaluation

According to the information given by the teachers, most of them find it hard to designappropriate exercises for large and multi-level classes so it was not easy to meet thecommunicative needs of every student Moreover, the rigid requirement of the curriculumwith fixed timing forces them to discard teaching communicative grammar and limit theirinnovation as well As long as a majority of high school pupils are still heavily influenced

by the testing pressure and the Listening and Speaking skills are not tested formally, a lot

of students only focus on learning grammar rules and vocabulary They do not have anactual and obvious communicative need which results in little efficiency when thecommunicative approach is applied to teaching grammar

Language environment

Real-life environment is also an obstacle to teaching communicative grammar In thecountryside areas, English only arises in the classrooms Furthermore, it is just one amongmore than ten subjects in the class‟s curriculum Thus, it can be concluded that the students

do not have much chances to practice English outside class As Ellis (1996) states thatwithout the reinforcement of an English-speaking environment, motivation becomes aproduct of teacher‟s initiatives The teacher is expected to be the sole provider ofexperience in the target language Lacks of exposure to the target language and the exam-stricken custom to some extent have hindered student‟s motivation Intrinsic motivation insome cases is replaced by the fear of failure in exams In many high schools, failure inexams is supposed to be an academic incompetence and a face-losing misfortune Teacherare assumed to be responsible for the low pass rate of their students‟ performances inpublic examinations so a teacher‟s utmost mission is to make sure that their studentsachieve high pass rates in the exams

Classroom conditions

As Pennycoook (1997) points outs, autonomy takes in more perspectives rather than the

inner factors of the learner Therefore it is necessary to count on technical, psychological,

sociocultural and political-critical factors The following parts discuss the effects of

technical perspectives on improving learner autonomy and learners‟ communicatingopportunities

The biggest challenge that greatly affects the quality of teaching and learning is theteaching and learning environment The classroom is poorly equipped with heterogeneousclass, noise and chaos are unavoidable There are too many students in one class andteachers fail to create tasks that can engage all students Whatever method is taken, thereare always students who are unmotivated This is really a big problem for English teachers

to organize pair work or group work activities

Large class and inconveniently furnished classroom is another obstacle to carry outcommunicative activities Class size in general is from 40 to 45 students Many teachersprefer the traditional way of teaching, in which there exists one-way classroom interaction

is safer for fear of losing control and making noise Usually, three or four students sit onone bench in the same desk, which lead to the immobility for any planned communicativeactivities

At the same time, the teachers are under pressure to cover the allocated syllabus in the timeallowed This time factor urges them to prefer a deductive approach rather than aninductive approach because it is more straightforward In short, it is quite true to say thatthose external factors such as classroom time, size and facilities partly create someconstraints on the choice of which approach to teach and learn grammar

English 10 is welcomed by the majority of teachers as acknowledging the advantages ofthe new textbook over the old ones in terms of learners‟ communicative competence Thecommunicative, student-centered methodology underlying the new textbook has changedthe classroom atmosphere, making the learning process more motivating, meaningful Thenew textbook is sure to contribute significantly to the improvement of English languageteaching and learning in my school in particular However, some teachers found itchallenging to use the new textbook as it took them more time and energy to prepare thelesson while the classroom conditions were not good enough for the implementation of thenew method Time and money consumption are may be the other significant factors thathinders teachers from taking innovating lesson plans Instead, many teachers may find it

much more convenient and more secure to stick to the traditional method of teaching orthey just take up the ready made lesson plan from the teacher‟s book activities.

In addition, the difficulties that the teachers face with result from the shortage of referenceresources, teaching aids and facilities like pictures, flash cards, language laboratories orinternet lane This deprives learners the opportunity for independent learning and greatlydemotivated learners Therefore, the quality of teaching and learning did not bring aboutthe expected results

II.2 The study

II.2.1 Participants

The study was carried out with the participation of five teachers of English at Tu Da highschool, all of whom have been teaching English for more than five years, and forty onestudents of class 10A4 to whom the researcher taught English in the school year 2009-

2010 Most students come from the poor rural areas nearby All of them had studiedEnglish at their secondary school with limited outcome The five teachers are generallyyoung They are in the 25 to 35 age range

II.2.2 Data collection instrument

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p.59), various ways can be used for collecting

data such as questionnaires, interviews, observation, etc They also point out „It is

obviously necessary to obtain answers to the questions from a variety of sources and then try to negotiate a satisfactory compromise‟ (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987)

This study used questionnaires as the main tool for investigation Two surveyquestionnaires were delivered to forty one students of class 10A4 Regular discussions withthe teaching staff and informal interviews also helped the researcher to gain furtherinformation for data analysis In addition, daily classroom observation was also noteddown carefully in the teacher‟s journal to see the steady changes in students‟ attitudes andbehaviors

Two sets of questionnaires were given to the students

- Questionnaire 1: (see Appendix 1) asks for students‟ evaluation and opinion of the

grammar parts in the new English 10 textbook and their suggestion for improvement It is divided into three sections

- Section I finds out students attitude and ideas towards their grammar learning.

- Section II concerns with students‟ judgment of the grammar presentation in the

- Section III aims at finding out students‟ method of learning grammar

- Section IV asks is designed to ask students how they would like their teacher to teach grammar

- Questionnaire 2: (see Appendix 2) is divided into four sections

Section I aims at finding out the learners‟ past learning

experience Section II asks for learners‟ attitudes towards learning

English Section III tries to group learners‟ learning styles

Section IV looks for students‟ opinion of the way they would like to be taughtgrammar

So as to help students feel at ease in expressing their responses, the questionnaires werewritten in both English and Vietnamese

- Informal interviews and regular discussion

Beside the two questionnaires, the data needed for the study has also been gathered bymeans of interviews and discussion with the target students and teachers to gain morevalidity of information Informal interviews were conducted several times when theresearcher had difficulty in analyzing data and information from the survey questionnaires.Both teachers and students‟ responses in the informal interviews would surely help theresearcher clarify and confirm information for the study

The interviews and discussions had to be conducted briefly either during the five-minutebreak at school or at the end of a school day The researcher intended to use her mothertongue so that the interviewers could feel comfortable to express their opinions A lot ofinformation was exchanged, noted down and finally summed up

II.3 Findings and discussion

II.3.1 Evaluation of grammar activities in the English 10 textbook

Textbook evaluation was carried out with two questions in mind:

1 Does the grammar part in the new English 10 textbook fit the authors‟ objectives?

2 Dose the new English 10 textbook help to develop learner autonomy and

communicative competence?

To find the answer for the first questions, the researcher compared the general objectives

of the textbook‟s authors with its actual presentation Also, after each grammar lesson, shehad a discussion with her colleague to ask if they had any difficulty in teaching and invitedthem to give comments and suggestions for adapting that part

General objectives of new English 10 textbook:

1 To enable the students to develop their communicative skills in the target language including listening, speaking, reading and writing skills

2 To formulate and develop a fundamental, systematic and psychologicallyappropriate knowledge of English for learners so that they can use English as a means ofcommunication at the basic level

3 To equip students with a scholastic knowledge of linguistics and of the targetculture and literature; enriching learners‟ general understanding and positive attitudes towardslanguage, people and cultures of some English speaking countries, thus enrich the learners‟knowledge and their pride of their own culture and language

(MOET, 2009, p.5-6)

Approach for syllabus design

The English curriculum at high school in Vietnam follows the communicative approach with specific orientations as follow:

1 Communicative skills are the objectives of the whole teaching and learning process; language knowledge is a means to formulate and develop those skills

2 Learners are considered as the active, autonomous and creative subjects of the teaching and learning process Teacher is the organizer and the guider

3 The teaching and learning contents are theme-based presented, communicative, fundamental, accurate and up to date …

(MOET, 2009, p.5-6)

It can be inferred that grammar points in the new English textbook are oriented to be taughtand learned in the light of CLT approach However, the textbook examination anddiscussion with my teaching staff show that the new English 10 textbook seems to fail toachieve its objectives Only one, among 16 grammar lessons is illustrated with a singlepicture Three units lack examples to show students how to do the exercises; six lessons donot present the new grammar points in realistic situations Furthermore, the textbookmerely gives written exercises for the students to practice the new grammar points Only a

half involves oral activities and it dose not give teachers a clear instruction of when andwhere to use pair work and group work Most teachers confided that group work and pairwoks were used just for learners to check their answers with their partners or to take turn toread a dialogue Very few role play activities, about 18.75 %, are included, too Threegrammar lessons are not relevant to the other parts of the unit either.

Table 1 shows the thorough examination of the grammar presentation.

Table 1: Textbook presentation

(Note: x indicates No,  indicates Yes)

Grammar presentation New grammar points are Are the

is presented with … practiced via…. grammar

Grammar presentation New grammar points are Are the

is presented with … practiced via…. grammar

CONSERVATION

- will: making offer

x   x  x x x 

II.3.2 Learners‟ past learning experience, learning attitudes, learning strategies and learning experience

Undoubtedly, it is very necessary to understand the students‟ learning styles because it will help teacher design activities for all of them so that they can learn effectively

Table 2: Students‟ past learning experience (number / percentage)

YES NO DON’T

KNOW

Did your last language teacher always explain every point 35 2 1

92% 5.2% 2.6% for you?

Did you have to guess the meanings/ rules yourself? 7 26 5

18.4% 68.4% 13.2%

Did you last teacher usually stand at the front of the class 28 6 4

73.7% 15.8% 10.5% when she was teaching?

Did your last teacher speak English most of the time in a 11 26 1

28.9% 68.4% 2.6% lesson?

Did you ever have to speak/ write about yourself in the 24 14 0

63.2% 36.8% 0% English lesson or as homework?

Did you get extra task or bad mark if you did not do your 30 7 1

78.9% 18.4% 2.6% homework?

Did you ever have to correct/ mark the work of another 30 8 0

78.9% 21% 0% pupil?

Did your teacher ever ask for your opinion about what to do 23 11 4

60.5% 28.9% 10.5%

in the lesson or how you would like to learn?

Did you often use other materials in the lesson (or not only 22 16 0

57.8% 42.1% 0% the textbook)?

Students‟ past learning experience shows that their teachers used to teach them grammar in ahighly teacher-centered model 92% students say that their last language teacher alwaysexplained every point for them and students did not have to guess the meanings and rulesthemselves Teacher often stood at the front of the class when she was talking and the teacherdid not speak English most of the time in the lesson, either (68.4%)

To look on the brighter side, many students had the experience of writing/ speaking aboutthemselves in the English lesson or as homework Three quarters of students have ever

say that their teachers were rather strict in checking their homework It can be assumed thattheir past English teachers did their job in the right way However, not many students reallymade an effort in learning For example, half students did not often use other materials in thelesson.

Students learning styles

A questionnaire about learning styles was also given to the students Participants were asked

to tick the items that show the activities they often do in learning

Table 3: Students’ learning styles

Number Percentage a,

In class, I like to play by games 28 73.6 %

In class and at home, I like to learn by pictures, films, video and

28 73.6 %cassette

I like to learn the foreign language by talking in pairs 23 60.5 %

I like to go out with the class to practice English 19 50 % b,

At home, I like to learn English by doing the exercise book 14 36.8 %

I like to study English by myself (alone) 7 18.4 %

I like the teacher to give use problems to work on 23 60.5 %

I like to learn by reading newspapers 11 28.9 % c,

I like to learn by watching, listening to native speakers 17 44.7 %

I like to learn by talking to my friends in English 10 26.3 %

I like to watch TV in English 20 52.6 %

I like to learn by English words by hearing them 20 52.6 %

In class, I like to learn by conversations 21 55.2 % d,

I like the teacher to explain everything to us 32 84.2 %

I want to write everything on my notebook 16 42.1 %

I like to have my own notebook 23 60.5 %

I like to have everything in my own textbook 20 52.6 %

In English class, I like to learn by reading 20 52.6 %

I like to learn new words by seeing them 22 57.9 %

( Adopted Cambridge University Press 2000)

Each group of sentences corresponds to a learning style, as follows: a) Concrete b) Analyticalc) Communicative d) Authority oriented (Scharle & Szabo, 2000, p.19)

The survey result shows that most students are characterized by a mixture of two or three

styles, with a dominant one among them Therefore, it is essential that the textbooks be able

to cater various learning styles

Learner attitude: In order to find the answer to the second question, a questionnaire on

learners‟ learning styles, learning preference was conducted Forty one questionnaires were

distributed and thirty eight were turned back While 100% learners think that grammar is

necessary for them to learn English, 44.7% find it stressful and only 18.5 % find it enjoyable

when learning English grammar at their school Some think it is useful for them to learn

English while others suppose it is not very important at all Many students would like the

English grammar learning to be more enjoyable by using competitive games or songs

Do you think gramamr is necessary for you to How do you find your English gramamr learning

Boring ; 13,1 18,5

Yes

21,1 No

th e

Char t

2: Students’ opinion of their English grammar learning at school

The research was conducted since the first lessons of the school year 2009-2010 After

deciding the areas of focus, the first step to develop learners‟ autonomy is to analyze

learners‟ attitudes, learning needs and learning strategies

I enjoy learning English ……… very much / not much / not at all

(34.2%) (63.3%) (2.5%) This year term I expect to do… very well / not badly / poorly

Table 4: Students’ attitude toward learning English

(The above number indicates the number of students and the lower indicates the corresponding percentage)

In general the students in class 10A4 keep a neutral view of English learning 63.3% studentsclaim that they do not enjoy learning English very much But the same number of studentskeeps a positive expectation of the English study result this school year However, a majoritythink learning English is a waste of time In general, the class keeps a good relationship witheach other, no one says they do not like the friends in their class at all This is advantageousfor teacher to carry out group or team work

While the same few number of students would like to live in a country where English isspoken, a large number of students express their willingness to visit or to have a friend from

an English speaking country Furthermore, up to 78.9% claim that they like to learn Englishvery much because it is necessary for their future This shows that the students keep bothintrinsic and extrinsic motivation of learning English but the last two opinions entails theirneed for communicating in English and the need to use English in real life

Learning preferences

Question: How would you like your English teacher to teach you grammar?

Responses very but not it at all

(using pictures, playing games, telling stories, ect.) (84.2%) (13%) (2.6%)