Challenges in teaching english to ethnic minority students in a mountainous province

As a result, many ethnic minority students fail to make progress inlearning the language and the quality of English language education for ethnic minoritystudents remains unsatisfactory

Department of Post-graduate Studies

DIỆP THỊ HỒNG LIÊN

MA MINOR THESIS

Challenges in teaching English To Ethnic minority students in a mountainous province

(Những thách thức trong việc dạy tiếng Anh cho học sinh dân tộc thiểu số

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration ……… i

Acknowledgment ……… ii

Abstract ……… iii

Table of contents ……… iv

Abbreviations vii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study ……… 1

1.2 Aims of the study ……… 2

1.3 Significance of the study ……… 3

1.4 Scope of the study ……… 3

1.5 Methodology ……… 3

1.6 Organization of the study ………. 3

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 An overview on English Language Teaching Methods ………. 5

2.1.1 The Grammar - Translation Method 2.1.1.1 Introduction ……… 5

2.1.1.2 Advantages of the Grammar -Translation Method ……… 6

2.1.1.3 Disadvantages of the Grammar -Translation Method …… 6

2.1.2 The Audio-Lingual Method 2.1.2.1 Introduction ……… 7

2.1.2.2 Advantages of the Audio-Lingual Method ……… 7

2.1.2.3 Disadvantages of the Audio-Lingual Method ……… 7

2.1.3 Communicative Language Teaching 2.1.3.1 Introduction ……… 8

2.1.3.2 Advantages of Communicative Language Teaching …… 9

2.1.3.3 Disadvantages of Communicative Language Teaching … 10

2.2 Common classroom activities associated with Communicative

Language Teaching

2.2.1 Accuracy versus fluency activities ……… ……… …… 11

2.2.2 Mechanical, meaningful, and communicative practice …… 13

2.2.3 Information-gap activities ……… 13

2.2.4 Jig-saw activities ……… 14

2.2.5 Other activity types in CLT ……… 14

2.3.Proficiency in the native language and the second language, and the acquisition of a third language 2.3.1 Definitions ……… 15

2.3.2 The influence of proficiency in the native language and the 16 second language on the acquisition of a third language … CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 3.1.Research setting 3.1.1 An overview of the research site ……… 18

3.1.2 Description of the teachers of English ……… 18

3.1.3 The students ……… 19

3.1.4 The materials of teaching and learning ……… 19

3.2.Research questions 20 3.3.Participants 3.3.1 Population ……… 20

3.3.2 Sampling ……… 20

3.3.3 Detailed description of participants ……… 21

3.4.Data Collection Instruments 3.4.1 Interviews ……… 21

3.4.2 Classroom observations ……… 22

3.5.Data Collection Procedure ………. 22

3.6.Data Analysis Procedure ……… 23

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1.Research question 1 ……… 25

4.2 Research question 2 ……… 29

4.3 Conclusive remarks ………. 32

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary of major findings ……… 33

5.2 Recommendations 5.2.1 Adjusting teaching to learners’ needs ……… 34

5.2.2 Adapting the textbooks ……… 35

5.2.3 Motivating students to learn ……… 35

5.2.4 Having ethnic minority teachers to teach English for their 36 students in their communities ………

5.2.5 Improving teaching conditions ……… 36

5.3 Limitations of the study ………. 37

5.4 Suggestions for further study ……… 37

References ……… 38

Appendices

Appendix A Interview Protocols for Teachers ……. I

Appendix B Observational protocol ………. III

ABBREVIATIONS GTM: Grammar Translation Method

ALM: Audio-Lingual Method

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

L1: the first language

L2: the second language

L3: the third language

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study

The ever-growing need for good communication skills in English has created a hugedemand for English teaching around the world The result is that its status in education systemand settings is an extraordinary one (Rossner and Bolitho, 1990, p 5) In correspondence tothis trend, in Vietnam, the importance of English as a language of internationalcommunication has been acknowledged by the Government; English teaching and learninghave been given more and more priority English is considered as a compulsory subject in theschool curriculum in recognition that “it can contribute to students’ personal, linguistic, social,and cultural development” (Canh, 2004, p.167)

Ministry of Education and Training in Vietnam (2006) has stated that the objective oflanguage teaching is teaching learners to communicate fluently, appropriately andspontaneously in the cultural context of the target language To meet the demand of learners ofEnglish, teachers of English in Vietnam have been trying to catch up with the world’s latestframeworks of English Language Teaching as well as to find out the most suitable andeffective method of teaching English with the hope of providing learners with a means ofcommunication, namely English which is vital for them to be successful in their job and tofulfill their social demands in the time of globalization

In Hoa Binh mountainous province, where the author has been working for over fifteenyears, English is a compulsory subject in the curriculum and it is considered as one of themajor subjects for the high school final examination English is taught with the purpose to givestudents some basic knowledge of English in order to communicate and use it as a key toscience and technology However, there still exist many difficulties facing teachers in teachingEnglish to students, especially those from ethnic minorities It can be observed that ethnicminority students’ scores are very low in English Less than 5 per cent earn good marks, even

in the national graduation exams (Hoa Binh Department of Education and Training, 2008;2009) Furthermore, according to one high school teacher of English, the majority of ethnicminority students can understand forty per cent of teachers’ lectures in Vietnamese In someremote areas, lower level students understand less than 20 per cent of what teachers say in

Vietnamese (“Minority Students Need”, 2008) Ethnic minority students mainly use theirmother tongues – Muong, Thai, Hmong, Tay and other languages - to communicate insidetheir families and small communities From first grade onward, at school and in public places,ethnic minority students have to struggle with Vietnamese to study and communicate withother people This is why not many can understand lectures, even at high school, because they

do not thoroughly comprehend Vietnamese - and very few teachers can explain things to them

in their native languages (“Ethnic Schools Lack”, 2007) Thus, studying English language inaddition to Vietnamese language might be very challenging for ethnic minority students

Furthermore, other problems are compounded by poor living conditions, furnished classrooms, scarce access to supporting materials and facilities, limited access to thetarget language, etc As a result, many ethnic minority students fail to make progress inlearning the language and the quality of English language education for ethnic minoritystudents remains unsatisfactory for communicative purposes All of these problems mightmake teachers feel frustrated in teaching English to ethnic minority students, and indeveloping students' communicative competence in English

poorly-The point is that if we leave this problem unsolved, there will be a likelihood ofloading teachers of English with teaching to ethnic minority students of limited proficiency inEnglish language, and pushing students into being fed up with learning English This fact hasgiven the author an impetus to do the research on challenges in teaching English to ethnicminority high school students in Hoa Binh province with the hope to find out the solutions tothese problems and to make a small contribution to improve the quality of teaching English toethnic minority students in a mountainous province

1 2 Aims of the study

The study aims at investigating the areas of challenges in teaching English to ethnicminority high school students in Hoa Binh mountainous province Also, it is expected thatsome solutions to overcome challenges encountered will be suggested To be more specific, inrealizing this study, the objectives are:

 To investigate the areas of challenges that the teachers have encountered when

teaching English to ethnic minority students

 To offer some solutions with the hope of helping English language teachers in HoaBinh province overcome those difficulties, improve the quality of their teaching, which later helpsimprove ethnic minority students’ language learning quality.

1.3 Significance of the study

The study is hoped to be beneficial to both teachers and ethnic minority students inmountainous high schools First, findings of the study could be shared among teachers ofEnglish to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the coming years Next, it mighthighlight the rationale for professional development programs for high school teachers ofEnglish in mountainous areas in Vietnam Finally, the findings could be used as a data base forfurther study

1.4 Scope of the study

This study, as stated earlier, addresses challenges that teachers of English have facedwhen teaching English to ethnic minority high school students in Hoa Binh province Inaddition, the study is to find out the possible solutions which help teachers of English improvethe quality of their teaching To keep the study in manageable size, the study has beendelimited only to English language teachers of Hoa Binh Ethnic Minority Boarding HighSchool and two high schools in the remote districts

1.6 Organization of the study

This study consists of five parts: Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Results & Discussion, and Conclusion

 Chapter one Introduction - presents the rationale, aims, significance, scope,

methodology, and organization of the study

 Chapter two.Literature Review - provides a theoretical basis for the study.

 Chapter three Methodology - includes an overview of the approach used in

conducting the study It also provides a thorough description of the data collection procedure as well

as the analytical procedure

 Chapter four Results and Discussion - reports the findings of the study and discusses

the prominent aspects

 Chapter five Conclusion – presents the conclusions of major findings,

recommendations, limitations for the study, and suggestions for further studies

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 An overview on Language Teaching Methods

In the discussion of the history of language teaching methods, it can be understandablethat a teaching method which may be effective at one point of time in history may still beineffective at the other point This dynamic character of the language teaching goals makes thehistory of foreign language teaching ever-changing, ever- adapting Moreover, one method isreplaced by another it does not mean that the former is worse than the latter and will be throwninto the wastebasket of history It only means that the replaced method fails to correspond to acertain need at a certain time in history As a result, the history of foreign language teachingmethods is not the history of replacement of one method by another Rather, it would be thehistory of adding one new method to the treasury of existing methods A number of methodshave been evolved for the teaching of English and also other foreign languages in the recentpast; however, in Vietnam three methods which enjoy significant use and dominate thelanguage teaching are the Grammar – Translation, the Audio-lingual method, and theCommunicative Language Teaching These methods are now discussed in this thesis asfollows

2.1.1 The Grammar – Translation Method

2.1.1.1 Introduction

Grammar – Translation Method (GMT) was in fact first known in the United States asthe Prussian Method (A book by B.Sears, an American classics teacher, published in 1845 wasentitled The Ciceronian or the Prussian Method of Teaching the Elements of the LatinLanguage [Kelly 1969] The Grammar Translation method embraced a wide range ofapproaches but, broadly speaking, it viewed foreign language study as a “mental discipline”(Richards & Rodgers, 1996) The Grammar Translation Method focused on grammaticalanalysis and translation It theorized that students acquire a foreign language by learning andexplaining grammar rules

According to Prator and Celce-Murcia (1979, p.3), the key features of the GrammarTranslation Method were that:

1 Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target language

2 Mush vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words.

3 Long elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar are given

4 Grammar provides the rules for putting words together, and instruction often focuses

on the form and inflection of words

5 Reading of difficult classical texts is begun early

6 Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in grammatical analysis

7 Little or no attention is given to pronunciation

2.1.1.2 Advantages of the Grammar – Translation Method

The strengths of GMT are as follows:

1 This method can be argued as the easiest method for the teacher to teach since it does require neither a high level of proficiency nor an imaginative approach to techniques;

2 The atmosphere of the classroom seems stress-free because the mother tongue is used all the time;

3 The teaching of grammar rules and translation puts the learner into a problem solving process;

4 Other advantages as noted by Stevick (1991) are freedom from limitation of one’sown local and contemporary culture” … “direct contact with the words and ideas of great thinkers ”.(pp 32-36)

2.1.1.3 Disadvantages of the Grammar – Translation Method

This method, however, has certain disadvantages According to Richard and Rogers(1986, p 3), the Grammar – Translation Method obviously focuses on the form rather than theuse of the target language Students who are in this way do not have a chance to practice theirspeaking and listening Students who learn rules of grammar and vocabulary without muchfeeling of progress in the mastery of the target language can lead to the lack of motivation inlearning a language for their having little opportunity to express themselves through it Themethod creates frustration for students, for whom foreign language learning is a tediousexperience for memorization of new words and grammatical rules, while it makes fewdemands on teachers (Richard and Rogers, 1986, p 4)

2.1.2 The Audio-Lingual Method

2.1.2.1.Introduction

The Audio-Lingual Method was widely adopted for teaching foreign languages inNorth American colleges and universities I provided the methodological foundation formaterials for the teaching of foreign languages in the United States and Canada (Richards &Rodgers, 1996) This English teaching method puts listening and speaking in the first place Ituses sentence pattern as the base of teaching and try to avoid mother tongue in class Attention

is paid to the need for practice rather than explanation about the language because the ability

to use the language as a means of communication is the ultimate aim The scientific base ofthis method can be summarized in the following ‘five slogans’ (cited in Diller, 1978, p 10)

1 Language is speech, not writing;

2 A language is a set of habits;

3 Teach the language, not about the language;

4 A language is what its native speakers say not what some one thinks they ought tosay;

5 Languages are different

2.1.2.2 Advantages of the Audio-Lingual Method

In the Audio - Lingualism, teaching was organized in favor of the mechanistic aspects

of language use, thus, making the process of learning less challenging intellectually and, as aresult, accessible to majority of people (Rivers, 1981, p.46) The successful point of thismethod is to develop students’ listening comprehension and fluency in speaking in the targetlanguage Students are encouraged by the sense of being able to use what they have learnt inthe early days of their study In addition, the study is reinforced by repetition, so the studentshave good repetition and this suitable for learners of different abilities

2.1.2.3 Disadvantages of the Audio-Lingual Method

However, there still remain some problems The theoretical base held by Lingualism was found to be ill-founded both in terms of language theory and learning theory.Theoretically, “language is not a habit structure Ordinary linguistic behaviorscharacteristically involve innovation, formation of new sentences and patterns in accordance

Audio-with rules of great abstractness and intricacy” (Chomsky, 1966, p.153) Accordingly, to know

a language means to be able to comprehend and produce sentences and utterances never heard

or produced before Practically, the products of Audio-Lingualism were found to be trained parrots’, by which she meant that they were unable to function communicatively inreal world situations In addition, the atmosphere of the Audio-Lingual classroom was found

‘well-to be ‘tedious’ and ‘boring’ (Rivers, 1981, p.47), because of ‘well-too much memorization, drillingand repetition

2.1.3 Communicative Language Teaching

2.1.3.1 Introduction

The origins of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are to be found in thechanges in the British language teaching tradition dating from the late 1960s (Richards &Rodgers, 1996) It is an outcome of more attention to learners’ effective and appropriate use oflanguage learnt It is pointed out by Brindley (1986) that “the 1970’s and 1980’s could beregarded as the era of Communicative Language Teaching” (p.11) Communicative LanguageTeaching also marks the beginning of a major innovation within language teaching because ofits superior principles which are widely accepted nowadays

There is a variety of definitions about CLT; each of them developed her/his own ideasregarding CLT Communicative Language Teaching, to some people, means the combination

of structural teaching and functional teaching into a communicative competence oriented form

of teaching Littlewood (1981) states “one of the most characteristic features ofCommunicative Language Teaching is that it pays systematic attention to functional as well asstructural aspects of language” (p.1) To others, Communicative Language Teaching maymean the use of procedures that develop the four language skills through working in pairs orgroups in problem-solving tasks According to Brindley (1986),

Language is not a static system It is created through interaction; language learning does not consist merely of internalizing a list of structural items It is a process of learning how to negotiate meaning in a particular socio-cultural context Consideration of meaning rather than form will therefore determine program content; language learning will more effective if they centered around the needs and interests of the learners; language learning materials should, similarly, be related to learners’ needs and interests and present learners with the opportunity

for genuine communication; effective communication is more than structures accuracy particularly at the beginning stages of language learning Errors are a manifestation of the fact that learning is taking place (p.12).

In a similar manner, Nunan (1989) acknowledges that

Communicative Language Teaching views language as a system for the expression of meaning Activities involve oral communication, carrying out meaning tasks and using language, which

is meaningful to the learners Objectives reflect the needs of the learners; they include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives The learner’s role is as a negotiator and integrator The teacher’s role is as a facilitator of the communication process Materials promote communicative language use; they are task-based and authentic (p.194).

It is thought that the definition contains aspects that are common to many otherdefinitions The definitions above, as with any definitions of the language teaching method(Penny Cook, 1989), represents a particular view of understanding and explaining languageacquisition It is socially constructed and must be seen as a product of social, cultural,economic, and political forces

William (1995) summarizes the CLT classroom as one in which there is an emphasis

on the use of authentic language and unpredictable input Negotiation of meaning betweenstudents and teachers should be essential in the implementation of tasks with resultingcomprehensible input Risk talking which leads to successful communication is also veryimportant In his viewpoint, William emphasizes the lack of focus on the direct instruction oflanguage rules and error correction

2.1.3.2 Advantages of Communicative Language Teaching

The advantages of Communicative Language Teaching may be summarized as follows:

1 CLT is more likely to produce the four skills of competence;

2 Learners of CLT are offered the opportunities to use the language for their own

purpose, to take part in communication;

3 CLT is more motivating; therefore, students are likely to put more effort into learning (Stevick (1980), Blaire (1982), Hutchinson (1987), and others);

4 As CLT intends to teach what is relevant and necessary only, it is less wasteful of timeand effort than approaches which attempt to teach the whole language (Allright (1979), Breen andCandlin (1987) and others)

5 In the long term, it should equip the learners with appropriate skills for tackling thelanguage in a real world, since CLT is based on a close approximation to such used

( Maley (1986) Murphy (1991) and others)

In the communicative approach, formulating and developing students’ communicativeskills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) are considered as the ultimate goal oflanguage teaching and learning process Other language items such as vocabularypronunciation and grammar rules are given to students as the means, the conditions to promotethe development of communicative skills

Communicative language teaching makes use of real-life situations that necessitatecommunication In other words, the goal of communicative language approaches is to create arealistic context of language acquisition in the classroom The teachers prepare a situation thatlearners are likely to encounter in real life The focus of this method is on functional languageusage and the ability to learners to express their own ideas, feelings, attitudes, desires andneeds Students usually work in small groups on communication activities, during which theyreceive practice in negotiating meaning Pair and group work creates enough confidence foreven weak students to join in class discussions Working in groups to achieve their goals giveslearners a supportive relationship while striving for the target language competence

2.1.3.3 Disadvantages of Communicative Language Teaching

CLT, however, also has a number of potential disadvantages:

1 It makes greater demands upon the professional training and linguistic andprofessional competence of teachers (Andrews (1983), Richard and Nunan (1991), Stern (1992) andothers)

2 It may perplex students used to other approaches at least in the initial stages (James (1983), Berns (1990) and others)

3 It is more difficult to evaluate than the other approaches referred to (Williams (1983), Porter (1983) and others)

4 Because it appears to go against traditional practice, it tends to meet to meet withopposition especially from older teachers and learners (Robinson (1983), Hien (1991) and others)

2.2 Common classroom activities associated with Communicative Language Teaching

The current textbooks based on two popular approaches in pedagogics and in LanguageTeaching Methodology: learner-centered approach and communicative approach, in whichtask-based teaching is the main method of teaching in the whole textbook The task-basedteaching represents a particular realization of Communicative Language Teaching (Nunan,2001)

In discussing language teaching approaches, Richards and Rodgers (1986) considerednot only the methods, techniques, and procedures used by teachers, their theories and beliefsabout language, teaching and learning; and their views of teachers’ and learner’s roles, butalso their attitudes toward classroom practices Accordingly, teaching approaches showedremarkable similarity as did teacher expressions of their attitudes toward classroom activities

So in this paper the researcher would like to briefly review the common classroom activitiesassociated with CLT

2.2.1 Accuracy versus fluency activities

One of the goals of CLT is to develop fluency in language use Fluency is naturallanguage use occurring when a speaker engages in meaningful interaction and maintainscomprehensible and ongoing communication despite limitations in his or her communicativecompetence Fluency is developed by creating classroom activities in which students mustnegotiate meaning, use communication strategies, correct misunderstandings and work toavoid communication breakdowns

Fluency practice can be contrasted with accuracy practice, which focuses on creatingcorrect examples of language use Differences between activities that focus on fluency andthose that focus on accuracy can be summarized as follows:

* Activities focusing on fluency

• Reflect natural use of language

• Focus on achieving communication

• Require meaningful use of language

• Require the use of communication strategies

• Produce language that may not be predictable

• Seek to link language use to context

* Activities focusing on accuracy

• Reflect classroom use of language

• Focus on the formation of correct examples of language

• Practice language out of context

• Practice small samples of language

• Do not require meaningful communication

• Choice of language is controlled

Teachers were recommended to use a balance of fluency activities and accuracy and touse accuracy activities to support fluency activities Accuracy work could either come before

or after fluency work For example, based on students’ performance on a fluency task, theteacher could assign accuracy work to deal with grammatical or pronunciation problems theteacher observed while students were carrying out the task An issue that arises with fluencywork, however, is whether fluency work develops fluency at the expense of accuracy In doingfluency tasks, the focus is on getting meanings across using any available communicativeresources This often involves a heavy dependence on vocabulary and communicationstrategies and there is little motivation to use accurate grammar or pronunciation Fluencywork thus requires extra attention on the part of the teacher in terms of preparing students for afluency task, or follow up activities that provide feedback on language use

While dialogs, grammar, and pronunciation drills did not usually disappear fromtextbooks and classroom materials at this time, they now appeared as part of a sequence ofactivities that moved back and forth between accuracy activities and fluency activities

And the dynamics of classrooms also changed Instead of a predominance of fronted teaching, teachers were encouraged to make greater use of small-group work Pair andgroup activities gave learners greater opportunities to use the language and to develop fluency

teacher-2.2.2 Mechanical, meaningful, and communicative practice

Another useful distinction that some advocates of CLT proposed was the distinctionbetween three different kinds of practice – mechanical, meaningful, and communicative

Mechanical practice refers to a controlled practice activity which students can

successfully carry out without necessarily understanding the language they are using.Examples of this kind of activity would be repetition drills and substitution drills designed topractice use of particular grammatical or other items

Meaningful practice refers to an activity where language control is still provided but

where students are required to make meaningful choices when carrying out practice Forexample, in order to practice the use of prepositions to describe locations of places, studentsmight be given a street map with various buildings identified in different locations They are

also given a list of prepositions such as across from, on the corner of, near, on, next to They

then have to answer questions such as “Where is the book shop? Where is the café?”, etc The

practice is now meaningful because they have to respond according to the location of places on

the map

Communicative practice refers to activities where practice in using language within a

real communicative context is the focus, where real information is exchanged, and where thelanguage used is not totally predictable For example students might have to draw a map oftheir neighborhood and answer questions about the location of different places in theirneighborhood, such as the nearest bus stop, the nearest café, etc

2.2.3 Information-gap activities

According to Richards (2005), “an important aspect of communication in CLT is thenotion of information gap” (p.17) This refers to the fact that in real communication peoplenormally communicate in order to get information they do not possess An information gapactivity focuses on two aspects: attention to information (but not to language form) and thenecessity of communicative interaction to reach the objective In other words, as Scrivener(1994) further explains, the aim of an information gap activity is to “get learners to use thelanguage they are learning to interact in realistic and meaningful ways, usually involvingexchanges of information” (p.62) In so doing they will draw available vocabulary, grammar,

and communication strategies to complete a task.

2.2.4 Jig-saw activities

These are also based on the information-gap principle Typically the class is dividedinto groups and each group has part of the information needed to complete an activity Theclass must fit the pieces together to complete the whole In so doing they must use theirlanguage resources to communicate meaningfully and so take part in meaningfulcommunication practice

2.2.5 Other activity types in CLT

Many other activity types have been used in CLT, among which are the followings:

Task-completion activities: puzzles, games, map-reading and other kinds of classroom

tasks in which the focus was on using one’s language resources to complete a task

Information gathering activities: student conducted surveys, interviews and searches

in which students were required to use their linguistic resources to collect information

Opinion-sharing activities: activities where students compare values, opinions, beliefs,

such as a ranking task in which students list six qualities in order of importance which theymight consider in choosing a date or spouse

Information-transfer activities: these require learners to take information that is

presented in one form, and represent it in a different form For example they may readinstructions on how to get from A to B, and then draw a map showing the sequence, or theymay read information about a subject and then represent it as a graph

Reasoning gap-activities: these involve deriving some new information from given

information through the process of inference, practical reasoning etc For example, workingout a teacher’s timetable on the basis of given class timetables

Role-plays: activities in which students are assigned roles and improvise a scene or

exchange based on given information or clues

* Emphasis on pair work and group work

Most of the activities discussed above reflect an important aspect of classroom tasks inCLT namely that they are designed to be carried out in pairs or small groups Throughcompleting activities in this way, it is argued, learners will obtain several benefits:

• they can learn from hearing the language used by other members of the group

• they will produce a greater amount of language than they would use in fronted activities

teacher-• their motivational level is likely to increase

• they will have the chance to develop fluency

Teaching and classroom materials today consequently make use of a wide variety of smallgroup activities

* The push for authenticity

Since the language classroom is intended as a preparation for survival in the real worldand since real communication is a defining characteristic of CLT, an issue which soonemerged was the relationship between classroom activities and real life Some argued thatclassroom activities should as far as possible mirror the real world and use real world or

“authentic sources” as the basis for classroom learning Clark and Silbertstein (1977) thusargued

Classroom activities should parallel the ‘real world’ as closely as possible Since language is a tool of communication, methods and materials should concentrate on the message and not the medium The purposes of reading should be the same in class as they are in real life (p.51)

2.3 Proficiency in the native language and the second language and the acquisition of a third language

2.3.1 Definitions

Language acquisition is one of the most impressive and fascinating aspects of human

development In website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/languageacquisition on June 20, 2010,

language acquisition is defined as “the process by which humans acquire the capacity toperceive, produce and use words to understand and communicate This capacity involves thepicking up of diverse capacities including syntax, phonetics, and an extensive vocabulary.This language might be vocal as with speech or manual as in sign” Language acquisitionusually refers to first language acquisition, which studies infants' acquisition of their nativelanguage, rather than second language acquisition that deals with acquisition (in both childrenand adults) of additional languages

With regard to second language acquisition, it is portrayed as the process by whichpeople learn languages in addition to their native language The term "second language",

"target language", or "L2" are used to refer to any language learned after the native language,which is also called "mother tongue", "first language", "L1", or "source language" Secondlanguage acquisition also includes third language acquisition (L3)

2.3.2 Influence of proficiency in the native language and the second language on the

acquisition of a third language

Although English is taught in Vietnamese high schools as a foreign language, forethnic minority students, learning English is similar to learning a third language This isbecause these ethnic minority students have to learn Vietnamese in addition to theirindigenous or native language This study was conducted in the Ethnic Minority BoardingHigh School and two high schools in remote districts of the mountainous province, where themajority of the students belong to ethnic minority groups Thus, what follows is a brief review

of the literature on the influence of learners’ first and second languages on the acquisition of athird language

The influence of proficiency in L1 and L2 on the acquisition of a third language hasinterested researchers for a few decades, but knowledge about those influences remainslimited Cummings (2000) stated that according to ‘interdependence hypothesis’, there is apositive and significant relationship between students’ first language development, speciallytheir development of literacy skills, and their second language development A similarrelationship might be expected to hold good in the case of multilingual acquisition, so thatdifferent degrees of proficiency in the first and second languages would affect the acquisition

of the third language

In addition, recent psycholinguistic research on third language acquisition has madeclear that the acquisition of an L3 shares many characteristics with the acquisition of an L2 but

it also presents differences Accordingly, the educational aspects of teaching English as an L3differ from those of teaching English as an L2 Third language acquisition is more complexphenomenon than second language acquisition because, apart from all individual and socialfactors that affect the latter, the process and product of acquiring a second language can

themselves potentially influence the acquisition of a third language The educational aspects ofthe acquisition of English as a third language differ those of English as a second language, andhave more implications regarding the optimal age for introduction of the different languagesand the desired level of proficiency in each.

However, several studies on L3 acquisition have convincingly shown a qualitativedifference between the acquisition of a true L2 and the subsequent acquisition of an L3 Somestudies even indicate that L2 takes on a stronger role than L1 in the initial state of L3 syntax(e.g Bardel & Falk, 2007; Rothman & Cabrelli Amaro, forthcoming) An explanation putforward by e.g Williams & Hammarberg (1998) and Bardel & Falk (2007) as to why the L2takes on a stronger role than the L1 is that of the L2 status factor According to Falk & Bardel,the L2 status factor is an outcome of the higher degree of similarity between L2 and L3 thanbetween L1 and L3, regarding age of onset, outcome, learning situation, metalinguisticknowledge, learning strategies and degree of awareness in the language learning process

Also, the acquisitional setting may vary from predominantly informal acquisition, as isthe case for instance in bilingual environments, to more formal settings, such as foreignlanguage learning in the classroom On the one hand, it can be assumed that L3 learners,especially those who have learnt the L2 in a formal setting, are aware of the language learningprocess, and have acquired metalinguistic experiences and learning strategies to facilitateforeign language learning

Therefore, for students from ethnic minority groups, studying one more language,English – the third language, via Vietnamese – the second language might be very challenging.This is because of the fact that when learning English, they comprehend English lessons bylistening, switching into their native languages - and then translating or changing intoVietnamese and then English again Limited literacy or Vietnamese language skills can limitthe acquisition of the third language As a result, it is observed that a large number of thesestudents are almost illiterate in English despite many years’ learning the language

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter includes a justification for the approach the author used in conducting theresearch It also provides a thorough description of how the author collected the necessary data

as well as the analytical procedure to draw conclusions based on the collected information Inthe first section the author gives detailed description of the research setting where the studywas conducted In the next sections, the author puts forward an explanation of the author’sunderstanding of the methods used in this research and their advantages

3.1 Research setting

3.1.1 An overview of the research site

Hoa Binh is a mountainous province in the northwest of Vietnam, where over 80 % ofthe population belongs to ethnic minority groups, and where there have been many difficulties

in life as well as in educational development, especially in the development of teaching aforeign language like English Not much attention is paid to English learning though it isamong the compulsory subjects in the national final examinations The infrastructure is poorlyequipped with no specific rooms for learning English There is no empty space in theclassroom except for the aisle where the teachers can move to and fro Besides, some schoolseven lack teaching facilities like tape recorders or CD players, let alone reference books

3.1.2 Description of the teachers of English

In Hoa Binh province, there are 250 teachers of English currently working Their agesrange from 24 to 55 Their experience in teaching English varies from 4 to 32 years

In terms of teachers’ qualification, most high school teachers graduated from ForeignLanguage Teachers' Training Universities These teachers are qualified for the job Some ofthem attended in - service courses, others used to be teachers of Russian To some extent, someteachers are unqualified in terms of their proficiency in English and professional English Anumber of teachers have troubles in pronouncing English sounds and expressing themselves inthe target language

With regard to teaching methods, as teachers of English in many other provinces inVietnam, teachers of English in Hoa Binh province are now more communication-oriented.However, some get used to speech dominated education by a teacher-centered, book-centered,

Grammar Translation Method and an emphasis on rote memory Others even do not have athorough grasp of the content of the curriculum and the new textbook; it results in confusion inteaching methods In terms of using teaching facilities, some teachers are poorly equippedwith audiovisual teaching aids (tapes, videos, etc … ) In fact, it is difficult to break teachers’habit of not using audiovisual aids, thus they can not bring into play the teaching facilitieseven their schools equip language teachers with cassettes and language laboratory.

3.1.3 The students

The study was conducted at three high schools in a mountainous province wheremajority of students belong to different ethnic minorities from Thai, Muong, Mong, Dao, andTay groups Teaching English for ethnic minority students in the remote mountainous area haslong been a controversial issue Many ethnic minority students’ English level is low andVietnamese language skills are limited Besides, there is lack of proper teaching and learningmaterials at primary and secondary schools For them, English is simply an obligatory subject;they learn it mainly for marks, the only goal is to pass the tests The time, the input andexposure to the language are limited to the classroom Therefore, they seem to be passive inlearning Students listen to their teachers and repeat passively and give a mechanical response.They are likely to become demotivated to English learning, depending much on the textbookand teachers’ method of delivery Language activities like role plays, problem-solving tasks,

or information gap activities, therefore, seem strange to their culture of learning Even, whenthey fail to understand something, they are not daring enough to ask for clarification in public.Therefore, “the English learning environment is described as a cultural island where theteacher is expected to be the sole provider of experience in the target language" (Canh, 1999,p.74)

3.1.4 The materials of teaching and learning

In terms of the materials of teaching and learning, the textbooks currently used to teach

English are Tieng Anh 10, Tieng Anh 11, Tieng Anh 12 published by Ministry of Education

and Training The teaching content of English textbooks follows the theme-based approachand is developed on six broad themes The six themes are subdivided into 16 topicscorresponding with 16 units and a “Test yourself” after every 3 units All units have the same

structure, starting with the theme of the unit, following four lessons focused on language skillsand ending with language focus Language skills are developed in parallel with thedevelopment of such language knowledge as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation.

With strengths, the textbooks are expected to contribute better quality of Englishlearning in Vietnam high schools In terms of curriculum development, the introduction of thenew textbook can be new fresh air blowing into the teaching and learning situation atsecondary schools in Vietnam However, to a large number of ethnic minority students, theEnglish textbooks are very difficult Very often the amount of new vocabulary in one unit wastoo much for students In addition, many topics in their English textbooks were strange to theirdaily lives and background