Exploring english grammar major students attitudes towards and expectations for teachers classroom activities at bien hoa specialized high school, ha nam

Research have shown that discoveringlearners‟ attitudes, beliefs, needs and expectations is really beneficial for teachers to developappropriate teaching methods and adjust teaching acti

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-TRẦN THỊ THU HIỀN

EXPLORING ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS AND EXPECTATIONS FOR TEACHERS’ CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES AT BIEN HOA SPECIALIZED

HIGH SCHOOL, HA NAM

Nghiên cứu thái độ và kỳ vọng của học sinh chuyên tiếng Anh

về việc giảng dạy của giáo viên tại trường THPT Chuyên Biên Hoà, Hà Nam

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Methodology Code: 60 14 10

HANOI – 2010

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-TRẦN THỊ THU HIỀN

EXPLORING ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS AND EXPECTATIONS FOR TEACHERS’ CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES AT BIEN HOA SPECIALIZED

HIGH SCHOOL, HA NAM

Nghiên cứu thái độ và kỳ vọng của học sinh chuyên tiếng Anh

về việc giảng dạy của giáo viên tại trường THPT Chuyên Biên Hoà, Hà Nam

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: Cao Thúy Hồng, M.AHANOI – 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS vii

PART A INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale……… 1

2 Aims of the study………. 2

3 Research questions………. 2

4 Scope of the study………. 3

5 Methods of the study……… 3

6 Significance of the study……… 3

7 Format of the study………. 3

PART B DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4

I.1 The learner-centered approach……… 4

 Basic Principles………. 4

 Benefits ……… 5

I.2 Foreign language learners’ attitudes ……… 6

 Definition………. 6

 Role of learners’ attitudes………. 6

I.3 Foreign language learners’ expectation……… 8

 Definition……… 8

 Mismatch between teachers’ intentions and learners’ expectations 8

 Balancing the mismatch between teachers’ intentions and learners’ expectations………. 9

I.4 Shape of an English lesson……… 12

 Stages of a language lesson……… 12

 Teacher’s roles in a language lesson……… 14

 Role of teaching content/ materials in a language lesson……… 15

Role of language materials……… ……… 15

Materials development……… 16

 Common teaching activities in a language lesson 17

CHAPTER II THE STUDY 20

II.1 Setting of the study……… 20

Brief introduction of the school……… 20

General situation of English teaching and learning in the school… 20

II.2 Subjects ……… 21

II.3 Instruments……… 21

The survey questionnaire 22

The follow-up interview 23

II.4 Data analysis process……… 23

CHAPTER III DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 23

III.1 The Survey Questionnaire……… 24

III.1.1 Students’ general attitudes towards their language teachers’ roles and work in the classroom 24

III.1.1.1 Students’ general attitudes towards language teachers’ role in their learning 24

III.1.1.2 Students’ general attitudes towards teachers’ work 24

III.1.2 Students’ levels of satisfaction with each of the teaching items carried out by the language teachers 25

III.1.3 English major students’ comments on teaching and learning materials provided by the teachers and their workload in English 27

III.1.4 English major students’ opinions on the frequency and quality of some specific teaching activities 28

III.1.5 English major students’ expectations for future teaching adjustments and improvement. 30

III.2 The follow-up interview……… 32

III.2.1 Reasons for satisfaction ………. 32

III.2.2 Reasons for dissatisfaction……… 32

III.2.3 Students’ other expectations……… 33

CHAPTER IV RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BETTER LANGUAGE TEACHING AT ENGLISH MAJOR CLASSES IN THE SCHOOL 34

IV.1 Recommendations for teaching language skills 35

To improve the teaching of listening skill 35

To improve the teaching of speaking skill 35

IV.2 Recommendations for selecting, editing and developing teaching materials 37 IV.3 Recommendations for applying specific teaching activities 37

PART C CONCLUSION 39

Summary of the study……… 39

Limitations of the research……… 39

Recommendations for further research ……… 40

REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX 1 – Survey Questionnaire I APPENDIX 2 - Interview Questions V APPENDIX 3 – Table 2 VI APPENDIX 4 – Table 3 VII

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Charts

Chart 1 Students’ general attitudes towards language teachers’

role Chart 2 Students’ general attitudes towards teachers’ work

Chart 3 Students’ levels of satisfaction with each of the teaching items

performed by the language teachers

Tables

Table 1 English major students’ comments on teaching and learning

materials provided by the teachers and their workload in EnglishTable 2 English major students’ opinions on the frequency and quality of some

specific teaching activities

Table 3 English major students’ expectations for future teaching

adjustments and improvement

PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Like in every part of the world, the practice of English teaching and learning inVietnam has been more popular than ever before Many language teaching methods andapproaches have been introduced and applied in the teaching and learning process, aiming atbest achieving educational objectives

In the view of modern language teaching and learning approaches, learners are widelyrecognized as a major factor determining the learning success; and learner motivation andautonomy is considered to be essential for successful language learning by most languageteachers, as Gardner argues, a “motivated learner” is regarded as being: (a) eager to learn thelanguage, (b) willing to expend effort on the learning activity, and (c) willing to sustain thelearning activity (Gardner, 1985, p 10) It is, thus, stipulated that teachers make all efforts tomotivate learners and stimulate their autonomy Research have shown that discoveringlearners‟ attitudes, beliefs, needs and expectations is really beneficial for teachers to developappropriate teaching methods and adjust teaching activities, helping to bring about learners‟satisfaction and more engagement in learning

It is also widely known that in order to succeed in English teaching, teachers need to

get and keep learners‟ attention and their positive participation (Davies, 2000, p.12); and

that despite classroom teachers‟ efforts to make sure that their lessons are a success,sometimes things do not work as well as they had planned (Jeremy, 1991) and thenclassroom problems may occur These problems can be student-caused, parent-caused, oradministrator-caused (Jessup, 1971) Teachers are also identified as one of the problem-causing sources since the way they teach and behave has a profound influence on learners‟attitudes which affect their learning either negatively or positively In order to create positivelearning attitude, it is crucial to investigate learners‟ views on what and how teacher do inthe classroom so that appropriate adjustment in the teaching can be carried out to drawlearners‟ highest level of concentration and participation in very lesson

In my specific teaching context, the way we teach English is based on thecombination of some modern language teaching approaches including learner-centered, skill-based and task-based to obtain the objectives of teaching language communicatively Thisrequires my colleagues and me to work hard, design diverse teaching activities in ourteaching process However, despite our efforts, sometimes we realize here and there ourstudents lose interest in our lessons This makes us feel rather discouraged and wonder about

the effectiveness of each activity we use in the classroom Personally, the researcher stronglybelieves that designing learning tasks and teaching activities must be based on teachers‟understanding of the students We must realize what they want to learn and how they want us

to teach Thus, exploring our students‟ evaluation of our teaching, their attitudes andexpectations for what and how we do is really essential to improve the learning and teachingsituation in the school in the next stage

For all the above mentioned reasons, the writer upheld a strong desire to conduct asurvey research on English major students‟ attitudes towards and expectations for teachers‟classroom activities

2 Aims of the study

- to examine the school‟s English major students‟ attitudes towards their language teachers‟ classroom activities

- to investigate the students‟ needs, interests and expectations for improvement in English teaching in these classes

- to suggest necessary changes that the teachers should make in their teaching process

to improve the English teaching and learning situation

3 Research questions

The study is carried out to find out the answers to the two main research questions:

1 What are students‟ attitudes towards the teachers‟ way of teaching?

2 What and how do the students expect their teachers to change in their way of teaching in the future?

It is clear that the former helps to learn about students‟ evaluation and reflection ofwhat and how the teachers do in the classrooms whereas the later helps to look overstudents‟ needs and expectations for teachers‟ future actions To work out the answer to thefirst major question, a number of minor questions need answers as well They are: (1) Whatare the students‟ general attitudes towards teachers‟ roles and work in the classroom? (2)What in the teachers‟ job do the students feel satisfied with? Why? (3) What in the teachers‟job do the students feel dissatisfied with? Why? (4) How do the students remark uponteaching and learning materials provided by the teachers and their workload in English? (5)What are the students‟ opinions on the frequency and quality of some specific teachingactivities conducted by teachers in every lesson?

4 Scope of the study

Teaching activities can be various and indefinite However, only activities thatteachers normally conduct and perform in English lessons are taken into account in thestudy Besides, only English major students of three grades 10, 11 and 12 in the school areunder investigation In addition, this study only concentrates on exploring their attitudestowards and expectations for what and how the teachers do in the classroom

5 Methods of the study

During the process of collecting and analyzing the data for the research, bothquantitative and qualitative methods were employed Specifically, the data were collectedvia means of a written survey questionnaire –typical of quantitative method; and a groupinterview - typical of qualitative method

6 Significance of the study

It is expected that the findings in the study will help the teachers in the school see thestrong points and weak points of their work Information of the students‟ expectations mayalso be of great help to the teachers in considering developing appropriate teaching methods,adopting eligible techniques and adapting suitable activities so as to improve the teachingand learning situation All in all, the study is hoped to be greatly significant in improving theEnglish learning and teaching situation in the school

7 Format of the study

The study is organized into three parts

The first part, Introduction, provides all the information about the rationale, aims,

scope, significance and format of the study Research questions and methodology are alsoidentified in this part

The second part, Development, consists of four chapters The first chapter,

Theoretical Background, reviews relevant literatures In the next chapter, The study, the

setting, subjects, instruments and data analysis process of the study is presented The third

chapter is devoted to a detailed description of Data analysis and discussion And the last chapter, namely Recommendations for better language teaching at English major classes in

the school, puts forward some recommendations for better teaching at English major classes

of the school

The last part, Conclusion, presents not only a summary but also some limitations of

the research and gives some suggestions for further study

PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Identifying and carrying out necessary teaching adjustments by the way ofinvestigating students‟ attitudes and expectations partially shows learner-centeredness in the

teaching and learning process Thus, relevant literature regarding the learner-centered

approach and learners’ attitudes and expectations in foreign language learning will be

reviewed in this chapter Some issues concerning teaching activities in foreign languagelessons are also discussed in the chapter

I.1 The learner-centered approach

A lot of changes in education have taken place as a result of changes in educationalobjectives to meet the new demands of the current time and bring about better learning andteaching outcomes One of the observable changes in education is the shift in focus fromteachers to learners in the teaching and learning process

Although “learner-centeredness” is not a new concept in the world, it has beenpopularly developed and widely applied in education and especially in language teachingand learning for only several decades

In Vietnam, learner-centered teaching has been recently encouraged and promotedfor a number of years The approach has been asserted and confirmed as a big and essentialrenovation in education since 1986, at the 6th congress of Communist Party of Vietnam

Basic Principles

In terms of principle, the learner-centered approach emphasizes the central role oflearners in all classroom activities It is stated that learning is totally determined by learners.According to Campbell (1992, pp.5-6), the main principle of learner-based teaching is that

“all class activities can be done using information that the learners themselves bring toclass” In his view, students bring a lot with them to the classroom They all have ideas,opinions, experiences and areas of expertise All of this is important to them What they needfrom the English classroom is the language to express all this, and there by themselves Thisviewpoint is shared and backed up by many scholars Holliday (1994, p.167) adds that theexperience and knowledge students bring to the classroom is of great value to the learningprocess and must be capitalized and built upon

Learner-based teaching focuses on encouraging learners to express their ideas freelyand “all of the activities, even grammar practice, are based on “here and now” of thelearners” (Campbell, 1992, p.8) Thus, it can be said that every activity in learner-centered

teaching aims at narrowing the traditional gap between teachers and learners The teachingand learning are taking place on both sides because teacher can be an active participant (inthe group) while learners can teach themselves with teachers‟ help/supporting andmonitoring.

It is true that in the process of teaching and learning, students cannot be treated as

“an empty vessel which teachers can arbitrarily fill with new knowledge or behavior”(Holliday, 1994, p.167) Teachers do not teach language to students but only create andfacilitate favorable conditions for students to revise and boost their background knowledgeand experience upon which knew knowledge is constructed and acquired and, as aconsequence, their language competence is developed Mortimer (1998) sees teaching as ahumble, helping art The teacher does not produce knowledge or stuff ideas into an empty,passive mind It is the learner, not the teacher, who is the active producer of knowledge andideas However, this does not mean that teacher has no role in classroom Of course,competent students can teach themselves but the process of learning is made more certainand less painful when they have teachers‟ help The teacher shows the student how todiscern, evaluate, judge, and recognize the truth He does not impose a fixed content of ideasand doctrines that the student must learn by rote He teaches the student how to learn andthink for himself He encourages rather than suppresses a critical and intelligent response.Thus, teaching is also regarded as cooperative arts in which the teacher gives and thestudents receive aid and guidance

Nguyen Bang and Nguyen Ba Ngoc (2002, p.40) put forward a number of

learner-centered instructions including: techniques that focus or account for learners’ needs, styles

and aims; techniques that give some control to learners (group work, strategy training for example); syllabus that include the consultation and input of learners and that do not presuppose objectives in advance; techniques that enhance a learners’ sense of competence and self-worth; and techniques that allow for learner creativity and innovation.

Benefits

It can be said that this approach is really beneficial and effective if fully applied to anyteaching and learning process As Turdor (1993) points out, in language teaching andlearning this approach brings about a number of advantages as follows:

-The teaching aims may be suitably set if the learners can participate in building thesubject syllabus based on their own experiences

-The study will be more effective if the teaching method is suitable to learning method ofthe learners‟ interest.

-The learners will be more effective if the learners feel involved in building theirsyllabus

According to Lewis & Hill (1992, p.9), “students are more likely to enjoy the subject,and to succeed at it, if they are involved in the learning process and, as far as possible, have achance to influence what happens, and how it happens”

Undoubtedly, with this approach, learners will become more dynamic, more activeand more self-confident since they are given more room for involvement in lessons This, inScharle‟s (2000, p.5) opinion, helps to foster learners‟ autonomy or, in other words,learners‟ sense of responsibility, which is crucial to learning and teaching success

I.2 Foreign language learners’ attitudes

Definition

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, attitude is defined as a hypothetical

construct that represents an individual's degree of like or dislike for an item Attitudes aregenerally positive or negative views of a person, place, thing, or event- this is often referred

to as the attitude object In other words, attitudes are usually understood as a disposition ortendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain thing (idea, object, person,situation) They encompass, or are closely related to, our opinions and beliefs and are basedupon our experiences Thus, it can be inferred that in education students‟ attitudes towards ateacher and his/her job may mean their levels of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with what andhow the teacher does in the teaching process

Since attitudes often relate in some way to interaction with others, they represent animportant link between cognitive and social psychology Unlike personality, attitudes areexpected to change as a function of experience Attitudes can be changed through persuasionand we should understand attitude change as a response to communication As far asinstruction is concerned, a great deal of learning involves acquiring or changing attitudes

Role of learners’ attitudes

In language instruction, students‟ attitudes toward learning the language are regarded

as “an important predictor of success” since “students who consider the learning of English

as a positive and rewarding experience are less likely to suffer from foreign languageanxiety” ( Tsiplakides & Keramida, 2010) Besides, a teacher is widely acknowledged as one

of the most important components of language training and instruction since his/her

decisions can be influential on the learning/teaching contents or materials, methods ofteaching/learning as well as on his/her students‟ learning outcomes Therefore, students‟attitudes towards their teachers, an attitude object, need taking into consideration byeducators and trainers.

Attitude can alter every aspect of a person's life, including their education Studentattitudes on learning determine their ability and willingness to learn As discussed inBloom's Taxonomy theory, a learning attitude is developed over time and past learningexperiences affect future learning experiences During their learning process, students maydevelop either positive or negative attitudes towards their language learning and theirlanguage teacher, which certainly affects their language learning in either a good way or abad way Undeniably, positive learning attitudes make students want to learn, be receptiveand participate in the learning process to ultimately experience satisfaction from learningwhereas negative attitudes towards language learning can reduce learners' motivation andharm language learning Negative attitudes can discourage creativity and participation as part

of the learning process If negative attitudes are not altered, a student is unlikely to continuehis education beyond what is required Changing students' negative attitudes towardslearning is a process that involves determining the factors driving the attitude and using thisinformation to bring about change

Some factors that influence students‟ attitudes toward their foreign language learning

are identified by Tsiplakides & Keramida (2010): a) teacher-student relationships, b) the

general classroom atmosphere, and c) the use of authentic teaching materials and activities.

These authors also suggest a number of principles to foster positive attitudes in ESL/EFL

classes: (1) Developing Teacher-student Relationships; (2) Fostering a Positive

Psychological Classroom Atmosphere; (3) Creating an Attractive Physical Classroom Environment; (4) Supplementing the Teaching Material with Authentic Texts and Tasks

In short, student attitudes on learning, good or bad, affect their outlook towardlearning throughout life Their attitudes towards learning affect not only their amount ofeducation but their desire for education Those who respond with enthusiasm towardslearning are primarily successful learners Those responding negatively to education hadexperienced only basic (required) learning and did not desire further study Once educatorsuncover student attitudes on learning, the challenge is using this information to shape apositive attitude

I.3 Foreign language learners’ expectation

Definition

In the case of uncertainty, expectation is what is considered the most likely to

happen An expectation, which is a belief that is centered on the future, may or may not berealistic An expectation may results in diverse psychological states A less advantageousresult gives rise to the emotion of disappointment If something happens that is not at allexpected it is a surprise An expectation about the behavior or performance of anotherperson, expressed to that person, may have the nature of a strong request, or an order.(Wikipedia….)

Similarly, we can infer that students’ expectations in foreign language learning may

be referred to as their desires or needs of what and how they would like to learn in thecoming time In other words, it means students expect teachers to carry out changes inteaching content and teaching styles so as to match their learning preferences and bring aboutthe highest degrees of satisfaction in their learning

Mismatch between teachers’ intentions and learners’ expectations

Undeniably, most teachers always try their best and do every thing to make effectiveteaching Teaching can be said to be an intentional activity which is undertaken with thepurpose of bringing about learning A lot of teachers‟ time and effort are devoted to lessonplanning, task designing, and applying appropriate teaching methods and techniques with thehope to draw students‟ attention, get them involved in the lesson so as to have the bestlearning outcomes However, at times things do not go on as well as expected Both teachersand students feel quite disappointed and dissatisfied with each other The main cause of thisproblem is probably a certain result of the mismatch between teachers‟ intentions andlearners‟ expectations

So far, many researches have shown that there is a gap between teachers‟ intentions andlearners‟ expectations, which has an effect of seriously limiting the learning outcomes.Kumaravadivelu (1991) found that “the learner‟ perception of what was going on frequentlyfailed to match the teacher‟s intention” (cited in Harmer 1991, p.395) In fact, there is always anexistence of this gap What a teacher teaches, in many cases, does not mean what the studentslike and want to learn; and “what may feel appropriate from teacher‟s point of view may notseem so appropriate for students” (Harmer, 1991, p.396) As a result, despite all effort andintention teachers make in designing each of particular learning tasks, students do not perform aswell as teachers have expected This causes problems to not only teachers but

students as well For teachers‟ part, they may feel quite disappointed and discouraged sinceall their effort comes to nothing, their students have no progress in learning, and they cannotmotivate students to learn effectively In addition, sometimes they may even have to sufferfrom negative behaviors of some students who are not interested in learning For students‟part, they lose interest in learning when they find what teacher does do not live up to theirexpectation For instance, teachers just impose and ask them to learn all the learning contentwhich is too tedious or too challenging instead of teaching what they really like and want tolearn Besides, they may feel fed up with the way teachers frequently perform in everylesson Teaching techniques and strategies teachers use are not effective and suitable forstudents‟ learning styles.

As a consequence of their losing interest, “their incentive to maintain their level ofconcentration is lessened, and if that happens, they are more likely to become disconnectedwith what is going on That is when problem behavior often manifests itself” (Harmer,1991,p.154) Then, no positive collaboration and harmonious working between teachers andlearners in classroom can be found; both teachers and students have sufferings; teaching andlearning objectives cannot be achieved

In Willing‟s (1988, p.1) opinion, “accommodating learning style and strategypreferences in the classroom can result in improved learner satisfaction and attainment”(cited in Nunan 1991, p.167) Thus, the gap between teachers‟ intention and learners‟

expectations really needs narrowing According to Kumaravadivelu (1991, p.98), “the

narrower the gap between teacher intention and learner interpretation is, the greater are the chances of achieving desired learning outcomes It is thus important that we understand potential sources contributing to the mismatch between teacher intention and learner interpretation” He also points out “ learning outcome is the result of a fairly unpredictable interaction between the learner, the task, and the task situation From the teacher's perspective, then, achievement of success depends largely on the degree to which teacher intention and learner interpretation of a given task converge”

Balancing the mismatch between teachers’ intentions and learners’ expectations

Like any classroom problems, problem of the mismatch between teachers‟ intentionand learners‟ expectations is not impossible to be tackled as long as teachers are a little moresensitive, flexible, enthusiastic in teaching, and more considerate towards their students

Tarone & Yule(1989, p.9) suggest “decisions about how to present the 'best' learningexperience for a group of students inevitably depends on the individual teacher's ability to

work out what those students appear to need, while also remaining aware of what theyexpect to happen in the learning situation" Holliday(1994) also argues that “the choice ofcontent can depend on many things, from the needs, interests, expectations and experiences

of the students, to the requirements of other parties who hold stakes in what happens in theclassroom” (bubble 20, p.169, cited in Holliday 1994) Talking about the basic principles inteaching, Lewis & Hill (1992, p.9) argue that “ at any point during the lesson, the teachers‟pre-arranged plan and the students‟ needs are in conflict, it is the students‟ needs whichshould have priority”

It is clear that the mismatch between teachers‟ intentions and learners‟ expectation is

a common conflict between teachers and students When this conflict exists, it is requiredthat teachers make some sacrifice for students Adjustment in teaching should be carried out

to make sure that students feel satisfied since once their needs and expectations are met, thecontent and the way teachers teach match with their learning styles and preferences to a greatextent As Jessup (1971, p.151) points out, so as to create students‟ positive attitudes forlearning, an effective teacher recognizes that the selection of material taught and the teachingtechniques employed are contingent upon the ability and interest levels of his students

In general, scholars and educationalists approve that it is necessary that teachersalways take students into consideration as an initial step in designing, preparing any teachingactivities or learning tasks for students Students‟ experience, learning styles, attitudes,needs, beliefs and expectations really matter and should be carefully investigated beforeselecting appropriate teaching materials and pedagogical methods Scharle (2000, p.16)discusses “It‟s important to know what experience your students have had and as aconsequence what expectations they may have of you as a teacher” since “you may put touse what you have learnt about the expectations and previous experience of your studentsand choose activities in which their attention would not be too much occupied by the novelty

of the task” In his view, information on students‟ existing attitudes to learning and to theforeign language is the starting point for developing responsible attitudes towards learning.Therefore, it is really essential that “the attitudes and personalities of students have to

be taken into consideration when selecting techniques for a lesson” (Dangerfield,

1985) Holliday (1994, pp.161-163) also emphasizes the importance of understandingstudents as one part of finding appropriate methodology In his terms, an appropriatemethodology, which must by nature be culture-sensitive, therefore has two majorcomponents: a teaching methodology and a process of learning about the classroom because

learning about the classroom is an essential aspect of finding out how to teach Achievingappropriate methodology depends on learning what happens between people in theclassroom The process of learning what happens between people in a particular classroomshould be largely in the hands of the teacher, just as the act of teaching is in the hands of theteacher (pp.161-162) Therefore, in his view, when there is likely to be conflict betweenteacher and student agendas, learning about the classroom is regarded as an action researchwhich helps not only to develop appropriate methodologies but also to solve classroomproblems (p.163).

There are several ways for teachers to gain understanding of students According toScharle (2000), information about students‟ opinions on teaching and learning style can becollected through interviews or discussions In addition, interview activity can be modified,converted into questionnaires Teachers are also suggested to occasionally invite students towrite compositions expressing their ideas, judgements and comments on current teachingand learning situation in their classroom As suggested by Lewis & Hill (1992), teachersshould occasionally invite students to judge their teachers or teaching, ask them which waysthey prefer to be taught and which way they do not like as one way of knowing howsuccessful their lessons are These scholars also argue it is a good idea to “discuss withstudents about their expectations of what they expect to happen in the classroom, (it alsohelps) to discuss what students expect to enjoy, and not enjoy right at the beginning of anew course” (Lewis & Hill, 1992)

As stated by Lewis & Hill(1992, pp.50-51), consulting students is very beneficial tothe general atmosphere of the classrooms, and sometimes reveals concrete ways in whichclasses can be made more enjoyable or more effective for the students as long as teacherstake their comments seriously If their comments are taken seriously students soon realizethat they can usefully influence their own lessons and have a sense of taking active part inmaking decisions about their learning Encouraged to assess teachers and provideinformation about their attitudes, learning styles or expectations, students certainly feel thatthey are important in the learning process, and that the teacher is interested in them both aslanguage learners and as people Scharle (2000, p.8) also discusses “by sharing relevantinformation with students, teachers express respect and a willingness to regard learners aspartners in working towards the common aim of learning a foreign language” This, as aresult, certainly makes students become more autonomous and are “more likely to enjoy thesubject, and to succeed at it, if they are involved in the learning process and, as far as

possible, have a chance to influence what happens, and how it happens” (Lewis & Hill,1992,p.10).

To obtain positive cooperation and the most trustworthy information from students, it

is required that teachers be quite sincere, friendly, open and kind-hearted to students duringthe process of getting information “Explain to your students that you would like to learnabout their attitudes towards learning the foreign language, and you would like them to fill in

a questionnaire as honesty as they can” (Scharle, 2000, pp.18-20) More importantly,teachers must tactfully show that students‟ comments are important and appreciated bymaking appropriate pedagogical adaptation as soon as possible right after each consultationand discussion with students

In short, to work out the solution to the conflict between teachers‟ intentions andlearners‟ expectations as well as any other classroom conflicts and problems, teachers shouldlearn about learners, consult them, carry out appropriate teaching adjustments and makesome necessary sacrifice for them This sacrifice shows teachers‟ respect for students and isseen as an act of following the main principle of learner-centered teaching Moreimportantly, to my mind, teachers must always be decisive, effective and fair in all lessons.(Harmer, 1991, p.154) points out that students are very sensitive, if they see teachers asunprepared and uncertain about what to do in the lessons, they are far more likely to loseinterest and be disruptive; chances of successful learning are then not guaranteed

I.4 Shape of an English lesson

Stages of a language lesson

In order to be professionally successful any language teachers must surely have goodunderstanding of the language and how to teach it It is widely known that the use oflanguage involves two aspects: form and meaning which are relevant to the very two mainlinguistic concepts- “formal” and “functional” normally used by linguists Then languageteaching always consists of the teaching of language components including grammar,vocabulary, pronunciation and the teaching language skills -reading, listening, writing andspeaking This has been strongly consolidated and emphasized in many titles which are quitefamous and familiar to teachers and even to language students at teacher training colleges or

universities A course in language teaching: practice and theory (Ur.1996); An introduction

to English language teaching (Haycraft, 1978); or Language teaching methodology: a textbook for teachers (Nunan, 1991) are some very popular books, which give readers

careful guidance on what and how to teach English language In his The practice of English

language teaching, Harmer (1991, pp.195-196) states that language teaching involves not

only forms but also meanings, and he elaborately features what and how teachers should do

in teaching different aspects of language

As can be inferred from the above section, language teachers can divide theirteaching work into teaching different language items in different lessons It is recommendedthat language skills, grammar, or vocabulary can be taught and learnt either separately or inintegration However, to help students obtain effective learning, it is essential for teachers tocarry out appropriate teaching procedure for each lesson

In Vietnam, language teachers have been all carefully trained how to teach each skill

as well as grammar, phonetics and vocabulary It is clear that teaching reading or listening isquite different from teaching speaking, teaching writing or teaching grammar; so amongtheir various teaching methods, techniques and strategies teachers must flexibly choose anduse appropriate ones in teaching different lessons However, the procedure for teaching eachlearning item often seems to follow one general pattern of some certain teaching phases

As Ur (1996) points out, after introducing, giving presentation and explanation of

what students learn and have to do in the lesson, teachers move to another step that is

controlling students‟ practice, and then the final step - testing how students learn the lesson.

Recently, teachers have been well trained to conduct the teaching process of any lesson

through the model of PPP, which stands for Presentation, Practice, Production

/Performance The PPP procedure is described, demonstrated and discussed thoroughly by

Harmer (1991, p.64), Byrne (1986, p.3), Lewis (1993, p.190), Spratt & Read (1985, pp.5-17)and many other scholars Above all the controversial opinions about this teaching procedure,there is a general view among these scholars that is “PPP is extremely useful in a focus-on-forms lesson, especially at lower levels, but irrelevant in a skills lesson, where focus on formmay occur as a result of something students hear or read”(Harmer, 1991, p.67) Then, onemodified/alternative version of this procedure is widely introduced and applied for teachingskill lessons In this new procedure, the teaching and learning process of any lessons goes on

through three stages: Pre/Before, While/Through and Post/After, in each of which, diverse

teaching and learning activities and tasks are performed, serving specific purposes and allcontributing to perfect lessons Elaborate instructions on how to carry out each teachingstage are presented in the publications of our Ministry of Education and Training (2006,2007) All English language teachers in Vietnam have been being asked to help studentswork on every lesson and task with this three-stage procedure

Teacher’s roles in a language lesson

Undoubtedly, teachers and learners are the two principal and indispensable parts ofany teaching and learning process It is the interaction between teachers and learners thatenables the process of teaching and learning to take place In practice, many learners canteach themselves without the help from teachers, but general view of conventional educationconfines that a real education does not exist if there is an absence of one of these two parts.Thus, both teachers and learners have certain roles and significance to ensure an effectiveeducation Due to the scope of the study, only teachers‟ roles in language teaching are underreview in this section, aiming at clarifying common and principal classroom activities oftenconducted by teachers in every language lessons

Language teachers‟ roles have been so far discussed again and again in a great deal

of literature Approaches and methods in language teaching (Richards & Rogers, 1986) is

one very popular title which has a clear section on teacher roles within each approach or

method analyzed Roles of teachers and learners (Wright, 1987) is also a famous title Harmer‟s The practice of English language teaching (1991) has been a favorite, which

provides a comprehensive and general overview of this topic in which various roles of ateacher like a controller, a prompter, a participant, a resource, and a tutor are distinctlydemonstrated (p.108) Besides, Harmer (1991) also sees a teacher as teaching aid in the waythey help students both hear and understand language by miming, gesturing, being languagemodel or provider of comprehensible input (pp.116-117) In his opinion, one of the teachers‟principal responsibilities is “to foster a good relationship with the group in front of us(teachers) so that they work together cooperatively in a spirit of friendliness and harmoniouscreativity.” He adds that in order to work well with different roles, above all teachers shouldcreate successful „rapport‟-the relationship that students have with the teachers and viceversa, which is of great help to bring about “a positive, enjoyable and respectful relationshipbetween teacher and students, and between the students themselves”(p.113) Thus, it isnecessary that teachers recognize students, listen to students, respect students and beingeven-handed

Discussing this issue, Cranmer (1985, pp 1-3) also points out a number of roles alanguage teacher can play These roles include a motivator, an informant, a conductor, adiagnoser, or a corrector He does not forget to remind teachers to seek to encourage studentswhile they take over these roles since, in his opinion, “this encouragement involves allaspects of the teacher‟s role-a sympathetic attitude, not demanding beyond the students‟

capabilities, not overcorrecting, praising what has been well done” (Cranmer, 1985, p 3).Specific roles of a teacher in different phases of teaching process are also summarized byRead (1985, p.17) While supposed to work as an informant in the presentation phase, ateacher is regarded as conductor and corrector in practice phase and monitor, adviser,mistake-hearer, or consultant in production phase of the teaching procedure.

It is clear that a language teacher‟s roles can be rather diverse and complicated.Personally, the researcher is quite in favor of the way these roles are classified on

http://www.thefreelibrary.com According to this way, teachers normally have task-relatedroles when acting as organizer, instructor, controller, facilitator, counselor, participant,

expert/resource, or evaluator in the classroom Besides, they may assume some interpersonal

roles when functioning as creators of conditions conducive to learning, or as students‟friends or socializing agents Last but not least, teachers can play special roles of motivatorsand even learners in the class Undeniably, to fulfill these roles teachers must alwaysendeavor to work hard, and above all they must be very sensitive, flexible, and creative andcompetent in their work

Role of teaching content/ materials in a language lesson

 Role of language materials

Materials in language teaching are quite varied, including textbooks, video and audiotapes, computer softwares, visual aids… which all contribute to the process of languageinstruction

According to Kitao (1997), materials are one of the five key components (includingstudents, a teacher, materials, teaching methods, and evaluation) of language instructionsince they can influence the content and procedures of teaching and learning In his opinion,experienced teachers can teach English without a textbook but it is not easy to do it all thetime In practice, both teachers and students usually rely heavily on textbooks because of thefact that textbooks can not only “make it possible for students to review and prepare theirlessons” and “allow for adaptation and improvization.” (O‟neill, 1990) but also be treated as

“resource books for ideas and activities for instruction/learning” and “give teachersrationales for what they do” (Allright, 1990)

It is true that, as Kitao(1997) discusses, textbooks determine the components andmethods of learning They control the content, methods and procedures of learning Studentslearn what is presented in the textbook, and the way the textbook presents material is theway students learn it Therefore, in many cases, “materials are the center of instruction and

one of the most important influences on what goes on in the classroom” (Kitao, 1997) Thus,

it can be said that materials take on a very important role in language classes, and it isimportant for all language teachers to select a good textbook

 Materials development

Important as they are, textbooks are sometimes too inflexible to be used directly asinstructional materials (Allright, 1990) This viewpoint of Allright (1990) is backed up by

Lynch (http://www.elsbase.com/articles/creating-materials.asp) who points out some

reasons for teachers to adapt existing or available materials The reasons consist ofunsuitable material level (not suitable for learners‟ need), being too difficult or too easy, toolong or too short, extensive use of grammar or structure In her opinion, it is necessary thatteachers explore relevancy of the existing materials to find out how to adapt the materials forspecific use or modify materials to students‟ learning styles In addition, the movement ofthe learner-centeredness since the end of 1970s has also stressed the role of the learners asthe center of language learning, which means that materials, as well as teaching methods andevaluation, should all be designed for learners and their needs “It is teachers‟ responsibility

to cheek to see whether all the elements of the learning process are working well for learnersand to adapt them if they are not.” (Kitao, 1997)

In practice, adapting/developing textbooks and teaching materials is always carriedout as a part of the teaching job of any enthusiastic teachers Many of them even choose toconstruct their own teaching materials despite the availability of commercially producedones

In developing materials, basic understandings of developing materials andinstructional materials‟ characteristics is of great help for the teachers So as to developteaching materials, teachers should first evaluate the materials, and then adapt them or write

a new kind of materials for the students According to Lynch (year), the job of evaluatingmaterials often involves learning about principles for evaluating materials, doing analysis ofteaching materials, studying criteria for selecting materials, and acknowledging theimportance of using authentic materials Adapting materials requires not only reasons foradaptation but also techniques for adaptation including adding, deleting, modifying,simplifying and reordering Concerning this issue, Howard & Major (2004, p 104)summarizes some main tasks often done by language teachers The tasks include the

following: (1) - Add activities to those already suggested; (2)- Leave out activities that do

not meet your learners’ needs; (3) - Replace or adapt activities or materials with:

supplementary materials from other commercial texts; authentic materials (newspapers, radio reports, films, etc); teacher-created supplementary materials; and (4) - Change the organizational structure of the activities, for example, pairs, small groups or whole class.

Regarding constructing teaching materials, a number of guidelines for designingeffective English teaching materials are also put forwards in great detail by these authors In

their opinion, English language teaching materials should, in brief, (1) be contextualized, (2)

stimulate interaction and be generative in terms of language, (3) encourage learners to develop learning skills and strategies, (4) allow for a focus on form as well as function, (5) offer opportunities for integrated language use, (6) be authentic, (7) link to each other to develop a progression of skills, understandings and language items, (8) be attractive, (9) have appropriate instructions, (10) be flexible (Howard & Major, 2004, pp 104-107)

Nunan (1988) also suggests that materials should have following characteristics: be

authentic as they reflect the outside world the socio-cultural context within which they will

be used / build up student’s learning autonomy by forming in them consciousness and awareness of learning process/ be designed to be used in different ways / cater for all students’ levels of proficiency/ be suggestive rather than definitive.

Generally, materials are of great importance in most English teaching/learningprograms and materials development is necessary in language instruction In their teachingprocess, competent and enthusiastic teachers never stop practicing the job ofdeveloping/adapting materials in order to have the most effective teaching and learningresults

Common teaching activities in a language lesson

As we all know, the way of learning and teaching is now quite different from someyears ago Teaching and learning is no longer a process of language transmission, in whichteachers, regarded as “a source of information” (Rixon, 1981), pour knowledge to studentswhile students passively receive what is taught and introduced by their teachers Modernteachers are required to play the roles of facilitators, controllers, supervisors and assessorsand many other roles while the students actively and collaboratively acquire and reconstructtheir knowledge and skills through pair work and group work This requires that all teachers

of English incessantly make all their attempts and efforts to find out suitable teachingmethods and techniques to apply in each language lesson to activate their students in everylearning activity

Understanding of language and language teaching as well as the roles and tasks of alanguage teacher certainly helps teachers make right decisions about their teaching activities,getting success in their job During the lessons, various teaching activities each of whichserves different roles taking part in making effective learning and teaching in the classroomare conducted by teachers Talking about the roles of classroom activities, Holliday (1994,p.189) states: “classroom activities must not only provide opportunities for learning but alsoprovide opportunities for the teacher to observe and learn about the culture of the students,the culture of the classroom, student progress In other words, they should thus be designedwith the transaction and formative evaluation roles in mind”.

Personally, the researcher thinks of teaching activities as any of the teachers‟ actionresulting in learning outcomes They can be very diverse from getting to know aboutstudents, planning lesson, or preparing teaching aids to any action teachers perform during oreven after the lessons Thus, teaching activities can be done outside or inside the classroom.However, as stated earlier, this paper only concentrates on investigating teaching activitiesthat are normally carried out in the classroom

Supposed to be a special art, teaching in general and teaching activities in particularrequires various skills, teaching techniques and strategies from teachers in the classroom.Any competent teachers should know how and when to skillfully employ various techniquesand strategies in all stages of their teaching process to fulfill their tasks Since appropriateuse of such techniques and strategies can have the effect of motivating and engaging students

in learning effectively

Since, as presented in the previous section, teaching procedure is divided intodifferent stages and different lessons are assigned with different learning items and differentteaching objectives, teaching activities must be various to be applied appropriately to eachstage of each lesson Generally, teachers‟ classroom activities all aim at helping studentsdevelop language skills (both macro-skills and micro-skills), enhancing their use of thelanguage including vocabulary and grammatical structures Besides, as suggested anddirected by Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training in training courses for teachers

of English, common classroom activities conducted by teachers in all lessons can bespecified as follows: giving brief instructions and explanations which are easy to follow andunderstand; organizing and conducting pair work/ group work /individual work; conductingclassroom discussion; helping students brainstorm or teaching/introducing in advance newkey words/structures which will be found in the reading/listening texts; taking part in

students‟ discussion; giving appropriate aids/prompts while students do learning tasks;organizing language games, using visual aids, worksheets or word cards, etc.; assigningtasks to students; helping students to consolidate the lessons; giving comments/feedbacksregularly and appropriately to students‟ performance; correcting students‟ mistakes; testingand marking students‟ performance; applying rewards and punishment policy, etc.

Undoubtedly, language teachers‟ work can be rather hard and complicated It isimperative that teachers be really competent, dynamic, creative, flexible, and above all theymust be very enthusiastic and hardworking to do well with those classroom activities,fulfilling their different roles and duties in every lesson

CHAPTER II THE STUDY

In this chapter, setting for the study is presented; subjects, scope, and instruments ofthe study are described Then, data collection and analysis process will be demonstrated

II.1 Setting of the study

Brief introduction of the school

The study was conducted at Bien Hoa Specialized School, which is the onlyspecialized one in Hanam province It is a small school set up in 1959 and often consists of

30 classes specialized in different subjects: mathematics, informatics, physics, chemistry,biology, literature, history, geography, English and Russian The class size is rather small(with no more than 35 students in each class), which is seen as a fairly convenient conditionfor good teaching and learning The main duty of the school is to train and foster talents forthe province and the country Despite not being well-equipped, the school is always regarded

as the best one in the province in terms of student and teacher quality and learning andteaching achievements

Each year, many good students from almost every lower secondary schools of theprovince have to take a serious entrance examination in order to be admitted to one of theschool‟s classes There are 10 classes majoring in 10 different subjects in each grade (10, 11,and 12) for them to choose as long as they can perform their learning competence in themajored subjects in the entrance examinations Every year, most students of the school going

in for different provincial and national examinations for gifted students always get goodresults The school is always proud of having about 90 percent of its students passinguniversity entrance examinations each year In English, most of the students of three Englishmajored classes are always successful in examinations for gifted students held in theprovince, and over the last five years our gifted students of English have got good results atnational examinations Especially, 100% of those taking part in this kind of examinations inthe years 2007, 2008 and 2009 achieved awards; and seven out of eight students going in forthis year‟s examination (2010) were awarded

The school has more than 90 teachers About half of them have been recruited fromgraduated students with excellent learning scores for some recent years, so they are all wellqualified The rest are of medium and old ages and have good teaching experiences

General situation of English teaching and learning in the school

The number of teachers of English is 8 They are in charge of teaching English at 24non-English majored classes and only 6 of them annually take part in teaching English to 3

English major classes in the school They are all willing and enthusiastic towards their job.However, they have a number of difficulties in working with English major students forsome reasons Firstly, coming from different rural areas of the province most English majorstudents are too reserved in their manner and accustomed to passive learning and do not havegood financial conditions which enable them to afford extra English materials such as book,tapes or disks to improve their study They are, therefore, quite dependent on the teachers interms of what to learn Secondly, syllabuses for three English specialized classes are the text

books Advance English 10, 11, 12 which are not really appropriate to the students since they

are of little help and not demanding enough to the students while they need more advancedEnglish materials Except for speaking and writing tasks, which are useful to students‟writing and speaking skills, tasks on receptive skills and language focus are too easy forthem Reading or listening texts are of no help in improving reading/ listening skills apartfrom providing students with general knowledge Besides, the number of lessons in thesetextbooks is too small compared with the amount of students‟ school time for English(which is normally 11 periods per week-5 in the morning and 6 in the afternoon) So far,there has been no formal syllabus for these classes The teachers, therefore, frequently have

to select, edit, and design all the teaching materials by themselves

II.2 Subjects

A total of 100 students of three English major classes from three different grades atBien Hoa Specialized High School participated in the study (32 of 10th form, 33 of 11th formand 35 of 12th form) Ranging in age from 16 to 18, all the subjects were excellent and goodstudents coming from different secondary schools in the province and had to take part in avery strict entrance examination to be accepted to these classes Therefore, they were allquick at learning and most of them usually had achievements in many important Englishexaminations for gifted students When the survey was conducted - at the beginning of thesecond semester, all these participants had been frequently working with the school‟steachers of English formally for at least 10 months Thus, they must have been quite familiarwith the teaching activities the teachers use Hopefully, this would be a favorable conditionallowing the informants to give the most reliable opinions, honest evaluation and information

in the survey

II.3 Instruments

As pointed out by Scharle (2000) and Wallace (2001), questionnaire is a popular andeffective means of collecting data because it has a number of advantages Firstly, it does not

take researchers much time to collect a great amount of data via means of questionnaires.Secondly, while doing survey questionnaires informants may feel free to give the mosthonest answers without any hesitancy Besides, the questionnaire can consist of both closeand open-ended questions so that the informants have chances to express their opinionsindividually In addition, it is rather easy for the researchers to summarize, analyze andreport the data because all the answers are given to the same questions.

For all the above mentioned reasons, a questionnaire is used as the main instrument

of the research Besides, to obtain more in-depth data, especially to gain more understanding

of the reasons for the students‟ satisfaction/dissatisfaction with teachers‟ work as well astheir expectations, a follow-up interview was also conducted

The questionnaire

Copies of the questionnaire were delivered to 100 students All theinstructions/information and questions in the questionnaire were presented in Vietnamese tomake sure that all the respondents can easily and completely understand them before givinganswers So as to give respondents more freedom and encouragement to express theirspecific thoughts about each item presented in the questionnaire, both close and open-endedquestions were used

Content of the survey questionnaire is constructed based on the literature review ofteachers‟ roles and their common teaching activities for all lessons conventionally conducted

by language teachers in the classroom (see the previous chapter) Moreover, throughpersonal observation of her colleagues‟ teaching practice the researcher realizes that all theteaching activities mentioned in the questionnaire are very typical and popular for languageteachers in their process of teaching Questions, each of which is assigned with differentpurposes to get answers to each research question, are the put into two sections The firstsection, consisting of five questions, focuses on examining students‟ attitudes towards andevaluation of teachers‟ classroom activities Among these five questions, three first onesconcentrate on exploring students‟ general attitudes towards and evaluation of teachers‟roles and their work in the classroom Also, reasons of their satisfaction/dissatisfaction areinvestigated through the use of open-ended questions given at the end of question 3 The nextquestion aims at getting students‟ comments on teaching and learning materials provided bythe teachers and their workload in English; and lastly question 5 is for understandingstudents‟ opinions/comments on the frequency and quality of some specific teachingactivities conducted by the teachers in every lesson The second section, including

only one question constructed based on the combination of both close and open-endedforms, investigates the students‟ expectations for future teaching adjustments andimprovement made by the teachers.

So as to avoid students getting bored and not taking their answers seriously, theresearcher was present at these classes, giving careful explanations and instructions andobserving the respondents as they filled in the survey questionnaire

The follow-up interview

Interviewees were twenty students randomly chosen from the respondents at theseclasses They were invited to take part in the structured interview which was also carried out

in Vietnamese to guarantee the truthfulness and consistence of the information incase therespondents were not confident enough to answer in English or got confused inunderstanding the questions The interview was audio-taped, transcribed, and translated intoEnglish for later use in the research The full translated transcript of the interview ispresented in Appendix 2 Interview questions aimed at encouraging students to point outstrong points and weak points in teachers‟ work, talk about the reasons for their satisfaction/dissatisfaction, and clarify their wishes for teaching improvement in the future

II.4 Data analysis process

The data collected from two different sources were categorized into the followingparts: (1) English major students‟ general attitudes towards teachers‟ roles and work in theclassroom; (2) Students‟ levels of satisfaction with each of the teaching items carried out bythe language teachers; (3) English major students‟ comments on teaching and learningmaterials provided by the teachers and their workload in English; (4) English majorstudents‟ opinions on the frequency and quality of some specific teaching activities; (5)English major students‟ reasons for their satisfaction/dissatisfaction attitudes towardslanguage teaching activities at their classes; (6) English major students‟ expectations forfuture teaching adjustments and improvement

The above division was simply the answers to the research questions stated in the firstpart of the study The data were presented in the forms of charts and tables or by quoting therelevant responses from the participants The data were analyzed both descriptively andinterpretively

CHAPTER III DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents data analysis both descriptively and interpretively as well as

discussion of the findings Data analysis and discussion is divided into two parts: the first

one is the results of the questionnaire and the second one is those from the interview and

from some open-ended questions in the questionnaire

III.1 The Survey Questionnaire

III.1.1 Students’ general attitudes towards their language teachers’ roles and

work in the classroom

III.1.1.1 Students’ general attitudes towards language teachers’ role in their

As can be seen from chart 1, the teachers‟ roles are highly appreciated by most

students Ninety-five percent of the participants found their teachers important and even very

important to their learning process However, there are several ones (5% of them) who

regard teachers‟ roles as less important or even not important at all to their learning These

students may be either so competent and proficient enough in English that they can teach

themselves and do not need to depend much on the teachers in learning English or unable to

get any learning progress in spite of their teachers‟ help If the later possibility is the real

case, it is imperative that the teachers work out appropriate solutions to the problem to make

sure that all the students in their class can make progress in English learning

III.1.1.2 Students’ general attitudes towards teachers’ work

Chart 2 shows students' levels of satisfaction with language teaching quality at their

classes Although, as revealed in the first chart, most students see the important roles of the

teachers to their learning, only three of them (also equivalent to 3%) feel quite satisfied

whereas approximately half of them (46%) feel dissatisfied with the teaching quality at their

classes Fortunately, none of the respondents feel quite disappointed at the quality of English

teaching The rest accounting for a little more than half of the respondents feel satisfied

Perhaps, the fairly high percentage of dissatisfaction attitude among the informants implies

some limitations or problems in the job of language teaching in the school Thus, underlying

causes of these problems must be uncovered and measures of action to tackle the problems

must be taken

Open-ended questions in the survey questionnaire and in the interview are of great

help to the researcher in getting an insight into the problems, and finding out the reasons for

the students‟ satisfaction or dissatisfaction in English learning

Chart 2 Students' general attitudes towards teachers' work

0%

Quite satisfied Satisfied

Quite dissatisfied

III.1.2 Students’ levels of satisfaction with each of the teaching items carried

out by the language teachers

As can be seen from the bar chart, students have different levels of satisfaction at

different categories of English teaching performed by the language teachers Generally,

almost all the respondents are satisfied with the teaching of reading, writing and especially

grammar and vocabulary at their classes However, they express their high levels of

dissatisfaction with the way the teachers deal with listening and speaking skills

The highest percentage of satisfaction can be found in grammar and vocabulary

teaching category, where only 2% of the respondents express their dissatisfaction

Understandably, it is widely known that it seem to be often easier to instruct and acquire

grammar and vocabulary than four basic language skills because both students and teachers

are familiar with the learning and teaching of grammar and vocabulary In addition, learning

and teaching grammar and vocabulary cater for basic requirements of almost every English

test Thus, this learning item is always put more emphasis during the teaching and learning

process, which as a result often bring about students‟ good scores and high satisfaction The

research findings also show high percentages of students‟ satisfaction attitudes in teachers‟

writing and reading teaching which account for 92% and 85% respectively Again, this

situation is understandable Since reading and writing are frequently tested in every

provincial and national examination, both teachers and students pay much attention to

teaching and learning these skills Hence, the learning outcomes are certainly good and both

teachers and students feel pleased

Chart 3 Students' levels of satisfaction with each of the teaching items performed by the language teachers

Reading skill Listening skill Speaking skill Writing skill Grammar&Vocabulary

Very satisfied Satisfied Not satisfied Very dissatisfied

Contrary to three above mentioned categories, categories of listening and speaking

teaching are reported to be almost totally taken up by dissatisfaction attitudes of respectively

96% and 100% of the informants These high levels of dissatisfaction, perhaps, derive from

the students‟ low progress in the two communicative skills, for which there are a number of

underlying causes: Firstly, speaking and listening are commonly perceived by most teachers

and students as the most difficult skills for not only teachers to teach but also for students to

practice well Secondly, teaching and learning of these skills at the school meets some

obstacles Most of the students are rather reserved and passive in practicing English