Using english as the medium of instruction in english classes for the first year non english majored students – a case study at a university

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIESFACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO USING ENGLISH AS THE MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION IN

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO

USING ENGLISH AS THE MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION

IN ENGLISH CLASSES FOR THE FIRST-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS – A CASE STUDY AT A UNIVERSITY

(Sử dụng tiếng Anh làm phương tiện ngôn ngữ dạy học trong lớp tiếng Anh

cho sinh viên không chuyên Anh năm thứ nhất – Nghiên cứu trường hợp tại một trường Đại học)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Major: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

HANOI - 2018

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO

USING ENGLISH AS THE MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION

IN ENGLISH CLASSES FOR THE FIRST-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS – A CASE STUDY AT A UNIVERSITY

(Sử dụng tiếng Anh làm phương tiện ngôn ngữ dạy học trong lớp tiếng Anh

cho sinh viên không chuyên Anh năm thứ nhất – Nghiên cứu trường hợp tại một trường Đại học)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Major: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Dr Nguyễn Thị Mai Hương

Nguyễn Thị Mai Hương

HANOI - 2018

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

Signature

Nguyễn Thị Phương Thảo

Hanoi, ……….20…

i

an indispensable factor in the fulfillment of this research.

I was also obliged to the teachers at the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies ofUniversity of Languages and International studies for their precious lessons Theyprovided me with understandings and skills relating to English language teaching,which supported much for the completion of this study particularly and my careergenerally

Furthermore, I sincerely appreciate the cooperation of the teacher- andstudent-participants I would like to thank Teacher A and Teacher B for theirwillingness to let me observe their EFL classes and enthusiastic participation in myinterviews I am also thankful to 93 students of the two A2 classes for agreeing toparticipate in the survey They are the ones who directly influenced the results of thisstudy

Last but not least, I am also indebted to my beloved family, who hasconstantly supported me since I started participating in the Master programme, and

my friends, who have always encouraged me and gave me valuable suggestions

teachers’ and students’ perceptions of using English as the medium of instruction, aswell as to look for possible factors hindering the use of English to teach English Theparticipants were 93 first-year non-English majored students from a university andtheir English teachers The methods adopted were both quantitative and qualitativeapproaches Questionnaires, interviews and observations were employed totriangulate the information from various aspects, hence ensure the validity and thereliability of the research The results showed that teachers and students were aware

of the necessity of using English in EFL classes, however, in fact, teachers used bothEnglish and Vietnamese The combination of two languages was caused due tovarious hindering factors relating mainly to both teachers and students Basing onthese major findings, a number of suggestions for better use of English as medium ofinstruction in EFL classes were indicated Therefore, the paper would be a goodreference for researchers, teachers and students to have a closer look on the issue aswell as to improve their performances in EFL classes

Key words: medium of instruction, EFL classes, non-English majored students

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF TABLESTable 2.1 Classification of the items in the questionnaire

Table 2.3 Classification of items in observation checklist

Table 3.1 Advantages of using English as medium of instruction

perceived by students

Table 3.2 Disadvantages of using English as medium of instruction

perceived by students

Table 3.3 Hindering factors relating to teachers

Table 3.4 Hindering factors relating to students

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.2 Data from questionnaire analysis procedure

Figure 2.3 Data from interview and observation analysis procedure

Figure 3.1 Medium of instruction students preferred

Figure 3.2 Medium of instruction teachers used perceived by students

Figure 3.3 Contexts in which students wanted English to be used

Figure 3.4 The effectiveness of using English as medium of

instruction perceived by students

Figure 3.5 Reasons for students’ learning English

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study 1

2 Aims and research questions 3

3 Significance of the study 3

5 Methods of the study 4

6 Organization of the thesis 5

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1.1 Second Language Acquisition 6

1.1.1 The Input Hypothesis 6

1.1.2 The Output Hypothesis 7

1.1.3 The Interaction Hypothesis 8

1.2 Medium of instruction 8

1.2.1 Definition 8

1.2.2 Different viewpoints on medium of instruction in EFL classes 9

1.2.3 Classification of teacher’s language in class 12

1.2.4 Using English as medium of instruction effectively 13

1.2.5 Factors affecting the use of English as the medium of instruction 17

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 19

2.1 Design of the study 19

2.1.1 Case study 19

2.1.2 Mixed method 19

2.2 Participants 20

2.2.1 Sampling method 20

2.2.2 Student-participants 21

2.2.3 Teacher-participants 22

2.3 Data collection instruments 22

2.3.1 Questionnaire 22

2.3.2 Semi-structured interview 25

2.3.3 Observation 27

2.4 Data collection procedure 28

2.5 Data analysis methods 29

2.5.1 Quantitative Analysis Strategy 30

2.5.2 Qualitative Analysis Strategy 30

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 32

3.1 The perceptions of teachers and students of using English as medium of instruction in English classes 32

3.1.1 Results from questionnaire 32

3.1.2 Results from interview 37

3.1.3 Results from observation 39

3.1.4 Discussion 41

3.2 Factors hindering the use of English as medium of instruction in English classes for the first-year non-English majored students 44

3.2.1 Results from questionnaire 44

3.2.2 Results from interview 46

3.2.3 Results from observation 48

3.2.4 Discussion 52

3.3 Implications and suggestions 56

3.3.1 Controlling teacher talk time 56

3.3.2 Maximizing English teacher talk and focusing on grading the language 57

3.3.3 Improving students’ autonomy and motivation 58

PART C: CONCLUSION 60

1 Summary of findings 60

2 Limitations 61

3 Suggestions for further research 62

REFERENCES 63 APPENDICES I APPENDIX A: QUESTIONNAIRE I APPENDIX B: GUIDED QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEW V APPENDIX C: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION CHECKLIST VII

PART A: INTRODUCTION

In this part, some brief information about the paper is provided Five main points presented are (1) statement of the problem and rationale of the study, (2) aims and objectives of the study, (3) significance of the study, (4) scope of the study, (5) method of the study and (6) organization of the thesis.

1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study

In 1986, Vietnam adopted a socialist-oriented market economy under the Statemanagement Since then, the economics relations between Vietnam and othercountries in the region and in the world have rapidly expanded, which was officiallymarked with the participation of Vietnam in Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN) in 1995 and the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007 As a result ofthis international integration, English is required as a means of communication, andthe importance of English teaching and learning in Vietnam has rapidly grown andexpanded Since the early 1990s, due to the acknowledgement that communication isthe key in language use, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has quicklybecome popular in Vietnam (Kieu, 2012) In accordance with the popularity of CLT

in the country, the use of English in English teaching is widely supported

The issue of encouraging EFL teachers to use target language in classrooms isnot brand new but has been raised for a long time by different researchers For Ellisand Wells (1980), if learners do not have opportunities to expose to the targetlanguage, they cannot acquire it The reason is that acquiring a target language issimilar to the first language acquisition, which is a slow and laborious process Knop(1995) also shares the same viewpoint about using English to teach English.According to him, for EFL learners, it is very important to experience realcommunicative environments in which they will learn how to express their ownopinions and viewpoints, and to develop their oral fluency and accuracy Heconsiders travelling abroad and immersion experiences two of many factors greatlyaffect the language acquisition process In fact, travelling or living abroad seems to

be impossible for almost students, and foreign language classrooms become the mainenvironment in which students learn to communicate in the language.

In spite of the need for oral communication skills and the requirement for CLT

in Vietnam, most teachers continue to apply grammar-translation methods in Englishclasses, in which the emphasis still remains on grammar rather than oncommunicative competence (Le, 2011), and the use of Vietnamese in the process ofteaching is still common These have led to a controversial opinion amongVietnamese teachers, whether English or Vietnamese should be used as medium ofinstruction in EFL classes

There have been prior research on using English as the medium of instruction

in EFL classes “The effectiveness of using English as the sole medium of instruction

in English classes: student responses and improved English proficiency” of Wong(2009) and “English Only’ Language Instruction to Japanese University Students inLow-Level Speaking & Listening Classes” of Lee (2013) are typical ones It wasrevealed that students had great interest in English as the medium of instruction.Moreover, thanks to the use of English as the sole medium of instruction, theirEnglish proficiency had been improved Unlike these prior research, which exploredthe issue of using English as medium of instruction in EFL classes basing onstudents’ viewpoint, this study investigated both teachers’ and students’ perceptions

In Vietnam, a considerable number of previous research have been conducted on theissue of instruction language in English classes, such as Do (2010) and Phung (2010).Nevertheless, they mostly evaluated the use of mother tongue, Vietnamese In thisstudy, the use of target language – English – to teach English, was investigated

Particularly, this study provides an insight into the English teaching andlearning practices at a university which is located in a small rural town in Vietnam.The geographical location was supposed to prevent its students from being exposed

to real English commutative environments, and EFL classes were considered playing

a vital role in teaching and learning English successfully Additionally,

there has not had any research studying the use of English to teach English at thisuniversity Last but not least, in the case of the first-year non-English majoredstudents, who just entered university and many of whom had relatively lowproficiency in English, the researcher wondered whether English instructions work orput too much pressure on them Those reasons encouraged the researcher to conduct aresearch to find out the situation of applying English as the medium of instruction toteach English for the first-year non-English majored students at a university inVietnam.

2 Aims and research questions

The proposed research aims to find out the teachers’ and students’ perceptions

of using English as the medium of instruction in EFL classes It also looks forpossible factors hindering the process of using English to teach and learn English.Basing on such findings, some implications to apply English as the medium ofinstruction effectively were suggested

To achieve these aims, the current research answers the following questions:

(1) What are the students’ and teachers’ perceptions of using English as the medium of instruction in EFL classes?

(2) What factors hinder the use of English as the medium of instruction in EFL classes for the first year non-English majored students?

The results of this study will hopefully contribute to the insights into effectiveapproaches of using instruction language, especially English instruction, whenteaching first year non-English majored students As a result, the first-year non-English majored students at the investigated university in particular and other EFLlearners in general might have a better environment to learn and practice English

3 Significance of the study

With this study, the researcher expected to gain insights into students’ andteachers’ perceptions of using English as medium of instruction in English classes forthe first-year non-English majored students At the same time, the major factors

that hindered the procedure of using English to teach English were also addressed.From that, some suggestions for improvement were also indicated Once completed,the research would serve as references for EFL teachers and learners who wish toimprove the use of English as medium of instruction in English classes The findingsmight also be a primary resource for further research on related issues.

4 Scope of the study

Medium of instruction might be understood in various ways It could refer toContent and Language Integrated Learning, teaching English as a foreign languagethrough English, English for Specific Purposes, or even English for AcademicPurposes Moreover, the term medium of instruction covers the language choice ofeither mother tongue or second language To be able to have in-depth understanding

of the research problem, this research focused on only second language used byteachers in language class, which means English medium of instruction used byteachers to teach English as a foreign language

Moreover, the participants of the study were restricted to the first-year English majored students at a certain university in Vietnam and the teachers whowere in charge of teaching English for them The first-year students were required tomake acquaintance with the university environment, particularly the languagecurriculum which required them to do all of the four linguistic skills – listening,speaking, reading, and writing The use of English as medium of instruction to teachthem was expected to support their learning but might met a number of hinderingfactors It was also worth emphasizing that participants of the study were 93 first-yearnon-English majored students This number was hopefully well-represented because

non-it counted for more than two fifths of the population

5 Methods of the study

The research was designed as a case study, which provided an insight into aparticular issue – the use of English as the medium of instruction in EFL classes, aswell as gained a deeper understanding of the issue applied on particular subjects – thefirst-year non-English majored students at a university in Vietnam In this case

study, the researcher adopted both quantitative and qualitative approaches Asquantitative procedures required instrument-based questions, survey design was used.

On the other hand, as qualitative procedures involved open-ended questions,interview and observation design were utilized Therefore, the study is a mixeddesign with the application of three types of data collection methods, observation oflanguage classroom, questionnaire and interview

6 Organization of the thesis

The results are presented into a thesis and overall conclude three main parts

Part A: Introduction: deals with the rationale, aims, significance, scope, and

structure of the research

Part B: Development: consists of three chapters.

Chapter 1: Literature Review: provides the definitions of key concepts and the

theoretical framework which creates the base of the research

Chapter 2: Methodology: describes the selection of subjects, research

instruments, data collection and data analysis procedure

Chapter 3: Results and discussions: presents, analyzes and discusses the

findings obtained from the data collection procedure

Part C: Conclusion: summarizes the main points discussed in the research,

briefly mentions some limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter summarizes the theoretical framework which described the most important issues in the theories relating to the research It consists of two main sections The first section presents general content of second language acquisition, which explains much for the choice of instructional language in EFL classes The second one focused on the direct issue of this research – medium of instruction, which are different viewpoints on using medium of instruction, classification of teacher’s language in classroom, how to use medium of instruction effectively, and some factors affecting the use of English as medium of instruction.

1.1 Second Language Acquisition

Krashen (1985) defined Second Language Acquisition as the process by which

an L2 student learns the language To be more specific, the subject of SecondLanguage Acquisition theories is “the developing knowledge and use of a language

by children and adults who already know at least one other language” (Spada &Lightbown, cited in Liu, 2015) It is obvious that the application of English as themedium of instruction in EFL classes has a close relation with the theories of SecondLanguage Acquisition The three most typical ones are the Input Hypothesis, theOutput Hypothesis and the Interaction Hypothesis

1.1.1 The Input Hypothesis

One of the most relevant Second Language Acquisition theories to the use ofEnglish as medium of instruction in EFL classes is Krashen’s Comprehensible Inputhypothesis According to Krashen (1985), there are two modes of L2 development,subconscious language acquisition and conscious language learning He states thatlearners improve their language ability not by learning but by acquiring language,which means generally not consciously aware of the rules but have a feel for thecorrectness For Krashen, input plays a critical role in language development becausehumans acquire language in only one way – by understanding messages, or

by receiving comprehensible input It is explained in the structure “i+1”, in whichlearner’s current linguistic level is “i”, and “1” stands for the items learners intend tolearn Acquisition occurs, which means learners move from “i” - their current level,

to “i+1” - the next level provided that they understand language contained in “i+1”with the help of context, knowledge of the world, and previous acquired linguisticcompetence Long (1983) also shares the same viewpoint with Krashen He firmlyconfirms three arguments to support for the important role of comprehensible input,which are:

(1) Access to comprehensible input is a characteristic of all cases of successful acquisition.

(2) Greater quantities of comprehensible input seem to result in better

acquisition.

(3) Lack of access to comprehensible input results in little or no acquisition.

In other words, the use of L2 should be maximized in the classroom; however,this L2 input must be comprehensible, which means not too easy and not too difficultfor the learners

1.1.2 The Output Hypothesis

The Input Hypothesis has been criticized for the argument that input may play

a vital role but it is not a sufficient condition for second language acquisition Thisargument is raised by Swain (1985) In Swain’s Output Hypothesis, she emphasizesthe importance of output, which is the language produced by students, in secondlanguage acquisition Being pushed to produce language provides learners with theopportunity to test their hypothesis about the language It is possible for them to tryout means of expression, even modify the output, and then see if it works After that,when feedback is given, they may notice their problems or gaps in the targetlanguage This awareness could encourage the learners to fill in their holes oflanguage skills, correct their errors, and develop their target language level As can beseen that during this procedure, feedback has a critical function Swain believes thatlearners can improve the accuracy of output if they receive proper

feedback from their teachers In short, for the Output Hypothesis, although teacher’slanguage is important during the process of language learning, teachers should alsomanage to push their students to produce output, provide them with opportunities topractice the target language and then give them feedback.

1.1.3 The Interaction Hypothesis

Long (1996) proposes his Interaction Hypothesis as an extension of Krashen’sInput Hypothesis Both researchers emphasize comprehensible target language input,however, the major difference is that Krashen focuses on one-way input while Longacknowledges the importance of two-way communication in target language Long(1996) states that when a language learner interacts with a native speaker or anothernon-native speaker of a higher level, a naturalistic SLA environment is created.Through input and interaction, language learners have opportunities to noticedifferences between their own formulations of target language and the language oftheir partners, and then become aware of gaps in their target language knowledge.Moreover, they also learn from negotiation of meaning in which the linguistic inputthey receive is modified during the conversation and they are pushed to modify theiroutput accordingly As can be seen that conversation is not only a medium ofpractice, but also the means by which learning takes place According to Xiao-yan(2006), classroom interaction is mainly happened with the model of teachers’ initiate– students’ respond – teachers’ feedback, which means that teachers often initiateinteraction by asking questions and then guide students to participate in negotiation ofmeaning during the conversation

1.2 Medium of instruction

1.2.1 Definition

British Council (1998) defines that medium of instruction is the language used

by the teacher to teach a language or an educational content It may or may not be theofficial language and the issue of which language should be used is controversial Incase of teaching a language, the use of target language increases

the opportunities the learners expose to it and communicate in it, and therefore, todevelop their control of it.

According to Dearden (2014), English medium of instruction is considered asthe use of English language to teach academic subjects in countries where the firstlanguage of the majority of the population is not English From the language teachingliterature, he asserts that the use of English instructions brings learners benefits toacquire the second language; however, there exists limitations in some cases

As can be seen that these definitions have similar points The term “medium

of instruction” shares certain features with “teacher talk”, which is defined inLongman dictionary of Language teaching and applied language (2002) as the variety

of language used by teachers when they are in the process of teaching Besides, itshould be noted medium of instruction is a pedagogic discourse which is oftenmodified and has a well-defined structure (Coulhard, 1977, cited in Susana, 2002)

Dearden (2014) also adds that English medium of instruction is a new andnon-fixed concept that is used in some countries and not in others It can be confusedwith many other terms like CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), EFL(teaching English as a Foreign Language through English), ESP (English for SpecificPurposes) and EAP (English for Academic Purposes) Due to the limit of this currentstudy, English medium of instruction is understood as the English language whichteacher uses in EFL classes to serve pedagogic purposes (Wong, 2009; Lee, 2013)

1.2.2 Different viewpoints on medium of instruction in EFL classes

There are different viewpoints on which medium of instruction should beutilized in EFL classes The debate over whether EFL classroom should include orexclude students’ native language has been a contentious issue for a long time Boththe ones who approve using mother tongue (L1) and the others who support using

target language (L2) as medium of instruction have their own reasons andexplanation.

1.2.2.1 Using first language as medium of instruction

The approach of using first language as medium of instruction in EFL classescan be traced back to the idea of the early linguistic and scientific theorist Sweet(p.193, 1964) that language instruction must “begin with a knowledge of one’s ownlanguage” and “the first preparation for the study of a foreign language is theacquisition of a thorough knowledge of the peculiarities of one’s own language”.Palmer (1956) also sees the potential of using native language in learning anotherlanguage He considers the use of L1 as harmless ad in many cases positivelypotential Since then, a number of researchers has supported for the use of firstlanguage (L1) in foreign language class due to its different advantages, such as multi-functions, time-saving, confusing-lowering and relationship-facilitating

A number of studies have documented the important functions of L1instruction In a foreign language class, L1 can be used to explain grammar, explainactivities and give out background information (Mitchell, cited in Miles, 2004), elicitlanguage, check comprehension and give instructions (Atkinson, cited in Miles,2004)

Particularly, Harbord (1992) emphasizes that the use of L1 can help teacherssave time Skinner (cited in Turnbull & Dailey-O’Cain, 2009) supports for thisargument by explaining that some L1 can facilitate connections between the targetlanguage and prior knowledge and ideas already developed in L1 Therefore, the use

of L1 is especially necessary in teaching and learning contexts where the cognitiveload of many tasks is heavy and students’ target language skills are limited

Last but not least, lowering students’ confusion, facilitating teacher andstudent relationship (Harbord, 1992) and helping learners cooperating with each other(Atkinson, cited in Miles, 2004) are also argued It is due to the fact that L1 isfamiliar with students and taking part in a classroom with L1 gives them a sense of

security, allow them to express themselves in ways they may not in L2-only setting,experience higher levels of motivation for learning L2, and develop a greater sense ofcomfort participating in pair, group as well as whole-class activities.

1.2.2.2 Using second language as medium of instruction

During the time, various researchers have supported for using target language

as medium of instruction in foreign language classes, which is generally called usingEnglish as the medium of instruction in EFL classroom due to the limitation of thecurrent study To explain for this approach, many reasons such as enriching the input,creating favorable environment for the output, and increasing students’ motivationhave been raised

First of all, the use of English as the medium of instruction helps enrich theinput In language learning, input is defined as the language data which learners areexposed to It plays a vital role in forming language proficiency because languagelearning is a slow and laborious process, the more exposure the learners receive, themore and the faster they will learn (Ellis & Wells, 1980) Thanks to the use ofEnglish medium of instruction, “the academic dimension of language becomes part ofthe students’ language learning experience” In other words, the use of Englishmedium of instruction in EFL classes should be maximized

Moreover, using English as the medium of instruction in EFL classes provideslearners with a favorable environment to make output Output is the languageproduced by learners, a necessary requirement for successful language learning Inthe classroom, if teacher uses the target language, there will be a lot of situationsoffering students chances not only to hear but also to use phrases that are useful in thereal world, teachers’ L2 encourages students’ L2 and language in the classroom willcome to “resemble ordinary academic interaction more and more” (Hughes, 2007,p.32), and “the communicative potential is closer to real interaction than is oftenassumed” (Hughes, 1981, p.6) As a result, English medium of instruction usageallows the meaningful situational use of language

Last but not least, with the use of English medium of instruction in EFLclasses, students’ motivation can increase MacDonald (cited in Turnbull & Dailey-O’Cain, 2009) supports for this argument by explaining that students can see howknowledge of the second language will be immediately useful to them Similarly, assaid by Varshney (cited in Jones, 2010, p.9), without continuous target languageinput, students tend to lose confidence in using that language, which leads to “loseinterest in or are discouraged from participating in future second languageendeavors”.

To conclude, applying English as the medium of instruction benefits thesecond language acquisition of learners and many researchers agree to maximize it inEFL classes Rolin-Ianziti & Varshney (2008) even confirms that L2 should be used

in all instructions to eliminate teachers’ overuse of L1 and students’ dependence onL1

1.2.3 Classification of teacher’s language in class

Apart from the categorization basing on the language position (first, second, orforeign language), teacher’s language in class has also been classified in another wayfollowing the standard of language function or the contexts in which language isused This categorization has been accepted and documented by a range ofresearchers

Evans (2000) lists out a wide variation of the teacher’s language use forpurposes: teaching the whole class, giving instructions to the students, answeringstudents’ questions in front of the whole class, managing the classroom, discussingideas with the whole class, and talking to individual students about their work Thisdivision seems to be unequal, managing classroom is general while the otherfunctions are specific

According to Kaneko (1992, cited in Zulfah, Rasyid, Rahman & Rahman,2015), teacher’s language use is divided into three categories basing on its functions:language used for core goals, framework goals and social goals

Firstly, language used for core goals means being used for explicit pedagogicpurpose of the lesson It is similar to the instructional talk defined by Zulfah, Rasyid,Rahman & Rahman (2015), the teacher’s language relates to transfer of teachingmaterials like giving lecture, giving explanation, giving correction, asking andanswering question Weddel (2008) adds more with giving instruction, makingtransition between activities, giving feedback after a task and checking students’understanding.

Besides, language used for framework goals is the one which support fororganization requirements in classroom Zulfah, Rasyid, Rahman & Rahman (2015)call this category of teacher’s language with another name, management talk.According to them, this type of language relates to control and discipline in theclassroom Checking attendance, giving announcement and dismissing the class arementioned as typical examples

Thirdly, language used for social goals can be understood as the languageteacher uses for private information such as greetings, personal experience talk(Kaneko (1992, cited in Zulfah, Rasyid, Rahman & Rahman, 2015), warm-up chat(Weddel, 2008), giving advice, making humor (Zulfah, Rasyid, Rahman & Rahman,2015) As evaluated by these researchers, this classification has little relation to thepedagogic purpose of the lesson, therefore, it would be out of the research problem ofthis study

In short, this study would investigate the English language which teacher uses

in EFL classes for core goals – instructional talk, and framework goals – managementtalk, for example checking attendance, giving lecture, giving instruction, givingcorrection, giving feedback, giving explanation, giving announcement, asking andanswering question, and dismissing the class

1.2.4 Using English as medium of instruction effectively

Using English as the medium of instruction in EFL classes provides manyadvantages for the teaching and learning process However, it is not easy to applyEnglish medium of instruction to teach first-year non-English majored students

because there may exist different hindering factors To be successful in the process,teachers should be well aware of how much they should talk, how the languageshould be, as well as equip themselves necessary techniques.

1.2.4.1 Teacher talk time

The amount of teacher talks, which is called teacher talk time, hasconsiderable influences on learners’ L2 acquisition Darn (2008) lists out various badeffects caused by the over-use of teacher talk such as limiting the amount of studenttalk time, leading to students’ loss of concentration and enthusiasm, and restrictingstudent autonomy This issue has been mentioned by many other former researchers

It is asserted by Xiao-Yan (2006) that if the classroom is dominated by teacher talk,students will have few opportunities to talk, discuss, and then be restricted fromdeveloping their language proficiency Paul (2003) also confirms that the greateramount of teacher talk, the less time students get to practice L2 in a classroom andtherefore, the less effectiveness of the lesson Allwright (1982) claims good languageteachers to be able to provide students with opportunities to work in the classroomrather than work too much themselves For him, the teachers who talk too much in theclassroom weren’t teaching effectively As a result, a number of researchers call onminimizing teacher talk time while maximizing student talk time

Darn (2008) and Davies (2011) suggests a useful guideline for the amount ofteacher talk is “a limit of 30% of a lesson, and no more than 10 minutes at one time.”

To be able to reduce teacher talk time, he encourages teachers to give students morepair work or group work instead of teacher-led activities Even when some activitiesneed to be done individually, they can be checked in pairs Students should also beasked to give feedback on their tasks among themselves before receiving feedbackfrom teachers Moreover, teachers do not need to present clear examples andexplanations all the times, but use elicitation, body language, mime, gestures or facialexpressions Last but not least, silence is advised to be tolerated because it isconsidered as students’ processing time Being patient to wait for

students’ response is sometimes better than unnecessary talking Particularly,according to Darn (2008), there exists some forms of teacher talk which would makethe 30% of a lesson beneficial They are questioning, which demands students tobrainstorm to respond, holds students’ attention and involvement; naturalconversation, which helps introduce functional and everyday language in a morememorable way than lessons; personalized presentation, in which teachers talk aboutreal issues to interest students in the content; and story or joke telling, which may beused to stimulate students’ interest during the lesson.

1.2.4.2 Grading language

One of the most major theories related to the idea of graded language should

be Krashen’s Comprehensible Input (1985) The theory highly concerns about theinput which needs being slightly beyond the level which learners are currently at.This is a vital condition for language acquisition, learners’ subconscious procedure toachieve language It should be noted that Krashen was not the first researcher whopointed out this issue Another earlier theory closely related to Krashen’s isVgotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development Vgotsky (1986) makes no cleardistinction between learning and acquisition; nevertheless, he asserts children grasplanguage concepts quite naturally He adds more that learning can take place if thematerial is something just slightly higher than learners’ current ability On the onehand it's crucial for learners' development that they are able to interact with moreknowledgeable others, but on the other hand they will be pulled along if the presentedmaterial is too difficult

The following issue is that in which ways input of target language can bemade comprehensible to learners According to Chaudron (1988), teacher talk issimplified in various ways – syntactically, phonologically and semantically Indetails, a number of features of teacher speech might be modified such as:

(1) Pauses between utterances, which may be evidence of the speaker planning more, are possibly more frequent and longer.

(2) Overall rate of speech appears to be slower.

(3) Pronunciation tends to be clearer and exaggerated Pitch range is higher and wider More stresses are used and rhythm is obvious and clear Contracted form of language is less used For example, teachers use more “He will” instead of “He’ll” in pronunciation.

(4) Vocabulary use is more basic Teachers carefully select the words they use according to the students’ proficiency and level.

(5) Degree of subordination is lower.

(6) More declaratives and statements are used than questions.

(7) Teachers may self-repeat more frequently.

1.2.4.3 Some useful techniques

The following techniques are raised basing on the guideline by Ur (1996) Firstly, teachers should have a thorough preparation before giving Englishinstruction in class According to Ur (p.16), teachers’ explanations “are often not asclear to their students as they are to themselves” For this reason, preparation is worthnoticing and this calls for a need of thinking about the words to use, the illustration toprovide for every complicated instruction

Secondly, instructions need to be brief and clear Instructions should bebroken down into small separate steps to help students understand them completely,especially when there is a lot of information in instructions and teachers wantstudents to understand every word Modifying language, using simple words,sentence structures, common expressions and slow speech will be helpful

In addition, there is a need for repetition when giving English instructions.Presenting the information more than once provides students with a second chance tounderstand thoroughly what they have to do since “learners’ attention wandersoccasionally.” Teachers can represent the instructions in different modes, eitherrestating or writing it up

Lastly, getting feedback from students after giving instructions is veryimportant Merely asking the students if they understand the instructions is notenough Students may say that they do even if in fact they do not Instead,

requesting students either to paraphrase the instructions or do illustrations of theirown is a better choice for checking instructions According to Rosenshine (2012),these checks support the process of moving new learning into long-term memory andlet teachers know if students are developing misconceptions as well.

To sum up, English is utilized as medium of instruction effectively whenteachers have a good preparation; instructions are short, precise and simple; theinformation is repeated in different ways; and students’ understanding is regularlychecked after the information is given

1.2.5 Factors affecting the use of English as the medium of instruction

Even though English is encouraged to be used as the medium of instruction asmuch as possible, there is a fact that several factors may influence its effectiveness.These factors may exist in students, teachers as well as resources

For students, their low English proficiency and passive learning style mayprevent teachers from using English medium of instruction effectively Because of thelow English proficiency, students cannot understand what their teacher talks Knop(1995) wonders how one can expect the first-year students to understand and use thelanguage when they cannot understand the interactions and the materials in the targetlanguage Coyne, Kami’enui & Carnine (2010) shares the same idea by saying thatstudents may fail to understand what teacher is talking about, and may becomefrustrated when they have an idea but cannot adequately express their thoughts inEnglish As a result, students’ learning motivation and concentration decreases duringclass time Besides, in some cases, students with passive learning style, who are “notwilling to make efforts to hear and use target language during activities orinteractions, simply tune out during class sessions” (Knop, 1995)

For teachers, they may lack understanding about their students, teaching skills,and English proficiency as well According to the results from the research of Flores(cited in Weddel, 2008), English medium of instruction usage is not effective whenteachers use very complicated language that distract or confuse learners Weddel(2008) emphasizes that teacher talk needs to be authentic, meaningful,

engaging, and appropriate for learners Therefore, teachers should be aware of theirstudents’ English capacity to decide the difficult level of the language used Inaddition, their teaching skills need to be good enough to simplify the language,enable students follow as well as make students motivated during class time Last butnot least, for Lam Hoang & Filipi (2016) teachers also need to be proficient in theircommand of English; however, not all of the graduating English teachers in Vietnamare capable of using English fluently and accurately in their teaching In other words,lack of understanding about students, lack of English proficiency as well as teachingskills many hinder teachers from using English as the medium of instructioneffectively.

Apart from factors relating to students and teachers, there would be anotherfactor which is rather objective, resources In the view of Vu & Burns (2014),resources mean both physical and material facilities Shortage of inadequate supplies

of reference materials, teaching equipment and Internet access may cause furtherobstacles for teaching and learning with the application of English as medium ofinstruction

Generally, during the process of applying English as the medium ofinstruction to teach English for the first-year non-English majored students, affectingfactors can be found in students and teachers themselves, as well as in teachingresources They may be the students’ English proficiency and learning style Theymay also be the extent to which teachers understand their students and teachers’teaching skills Last but not least, they may be the problems relating to teachingresources as well

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the methods employed to carry out the study, which are presented in five main parts: (1) design of the study, (2) selection of participants, (3) research instruments, (4) data collection procedure, and (5) data analysis procedure.

2.1 Design of the study

2.1.1 Case study

A case study is a study of “the particularity and complexity of a single case,coming to understand its activity within important circumstances” (Skate, cited inBassey, 2009, p.27) Sturman (cited in Bassey, 2009) adds more details about theboundaries of the case, which may be an individual, a group or a phenomenon Due

to such boundaries, case studies allow researchers to have insights into certain aspects

of the cases in their particular contexts, which is rarely possible in other groupresearch (Markey & Gass, 2005) This may be the reason why case studies have beenused in a wide range of second language research studies However, there exists aproblem of generalization within this type of research while single case or cases arenot easily generalizable It asks for the researcher’s extreme caution to sample,analyze and draw conclusions

For this study, the investigation will be taken place on the issue of usingEnglish as the medium of instruction in EFL classes Moreover, the participants will

be only bounded to a number of the first-year non-English majored students at acertain university in Vietnam and their teachers of English This instance studied can

be generalized to the situation of other first-year non-English majored students andother EFL teachers at this university, as well as the situation of the first-year non-English majored students and EFL teachers at other universities in Vietnam

2.1.2 Mixed method

Mixed methods research represents research that involves collecting,analyzing, and interpreting quantitative and qualitative data in a single study or in a

series of studies that investigate the same underlying phenomenon (Leech &Onwuegbuzie, 2008), which is reasonable for this case The researcher applied bothquantitative and qualitative approaches As quantitative procedures require thecollection and analysis of data in numeric forms (Blaxter, Highes & Tight, 1996),close response questionnaires were used On the other hand, as qualitative proceduresinvolved collecting and analyzing information chiefly non-numeric with open-endedquestions, interview and observation were utilized.

Three types of data collection method, which are questionnaire, interview andobservation were applied with the purpose of triangulation As defined by John (1992,

p 90), triangulation is the attempt to reach “the same meaning by at least threedifferent independent approaches” Mackey & Gass (2005, p.181) shared the sameviewpoint by saying that it is the application of “multiple, independent methods ofobtaining data in a single investigation” to get the same research findings All of themagreed on the advantages of triangulation which is seeking convergent results,reducing observer or interviewer bias and enhancing the validity and reliability of theinformation

2.2 Participants

2.2.1 Sampling method

Simple two-stage clustering was utilized As explained by Creswell (2009), in

a clustering procedure, after sampling groups, the researcher obtains names ofindividuals within groups or clusters, and then sample within the clusters Ahmed(2009) elaborates more on simple two-stage clustering method that after selecting theclusters, the researchers sampled the clusters in the second stage, usually by simplerandom sampling In this study, after the researchers obtained the list of first-yearnon-English classes with the name of their in-charge teachers, students from twoclasses with two different teachers were chosen as the samples of the study by simplerandom sampling method

Simple random sampling method were applied so that each class remaining inthe population had the same probability of being selected for the sample, which

guarantees that the sample selection is taken place in an unbiased way The clusteringmethod also helped the researchers reach one of the goals of the study, which is tomake conclusions pertaining to the population obtained from a sampling group’sresults Due to the representativeness of a sample in cluster sampling, it wasreasonable to make generalizations from the results of the sample back to thepopulation.

2.2.2 Student-participants

The research was conducted on the first-year non-English majored students at

a certain university If the students’ results for the university entrance exam includedthe English marks, these marks would be used to place them into different categories

If not, before being accepted into English classes, they were required to take aplacement test with the form similar to the university entrance test The mark range tocategorize students of both situations was the same, including the ones who were notallowed to be in any classes (mark under 5), the ones who got to level 1 classes (markfrom 5 to 7), and the ones who got to level 2 classes (mark above 7) Due to the factthat the study investigated the application of English as medium of instruction, anissue which demanded students to have a reasonably proper linguistic knowledge andskills, it would pay attention to the category of level 2 only In details, students fromtwo classes participated in the research In the first class, there were 53 students,however, only 49 of them agreed to participate In the second class, all of 44 studentsgave their consent to the research Therefore, the total number of student participantswas 93 This number was evaluated as appropriate among the population of 230

In their first year, students in both classes learned with the core textbook “Lifeelementary” published by National Geographic learning and Cengage learning.Integrated skills design require students to not only revise grammar and vocabularybut also learn systematically about the four skills: reading, writing, speaking andlistening All of the participants were expected to be at the level of A2 aftercompleting all required English courses They had learnt English during high

school years as a compulsory subject, however, this goal seemed to be not as easilyachieved as expected In fact, the university entrance exam did not contain the parts

of speaking and listening, and students were affected by traditional teachingapproach, they did not pay much attention to practice linguistic skills, especiallyspeaking and listening Facing to the problem, the suggestion of using English as themedium of instruction are supposed to help them improve and develop their Englishproficiency although it may cause a certain number of difficulties In general, it isworth conducting the research among these samples

2.2.3 Teacher-participants

After the two classes had been selected, two teachers taking charge of teachingEnglish to the classes, namely Teacher A and Teacher B, were invited to take part inthis study It should be noted that each teacher was in charge of one class,respectively named class A and class B Having worked with the first-year non-English majored students at the university for about two years and the studentparticipants for more than two months, they had an insightful grasp of the students’language competence Moreover, they used instructions to teach English to thestudent-participants, so they could give their own reflection and feedback on usingEnglish as the medium of instruction, share some convenience as well as difficultiesthey had got, and then suggest some solutions to use English instruction effectivelybasing on their experiences

2.3 Data collection instruments

2.3.1 Questionnaire

Justification

As defined by Brown (2001), questionnaires are “any written instruments thatpresent respondents with a series of questions or statements to which they werereacted either by writing out their answers or selecting from among existinganswers” However, it should be emphasized that a questionnaire was neither a sort ofofficial form nor a set of questions which had been casually jotted down withoutmuch thought It is an important instrument of research, a tool for data collection

with the typical function of measurement Its detailed specification of measurementaims must be related to the aims of the overall research plan and objectives(Oppenheim, 1992).

For this study, questionnaires were used to get data from 93 first-year English majored students at the university This method was chosen because of itssuitability and convenience As Mackey & Gass (2005, p.92), questionnaire is “one

non-of the most common methods non-of collecting data on attitudes and opinions from alarge group of participants” and it helps researcher gather participants’ report aboutthemselves For this study, thanks to questionnaire, the researcher could collect thestudents’ perception of using English as the medium of instruction, the advantagesand disadvantages they had when their teacher talked English in classes Thanks tothis method, fairly straightforward information from the samples could be collected.Moreover, the samples of the research were students from two separate classes;therefore, the researcher could easily distribute as well as collect the questionnaires in

a short time

In addtion to such advantages, using questionnaires as a strategy to elicitinformation contained some limitations According to Yount (2006), when using thequestionnaire, the researchers could not measure the motivation level of the subjectswhen they filled out the form For example, the subjects’ mental state: were theybusy, overworked, concentrated or contemplative? It was not good because subjects’motivation had certain effects on the questionnaire’s result He also mentioned theloss of control There was no control over the order in which the questions wereanswered Particularly, there was no control over leaving the answer blank.Sometimes students might not be willing to answer the questions, so they left it blank,which could cause “missing data” Because all of those disadvantages had beenaware, the researchers tried to reduce them by giving careful explanation in advanceabout why the information was being collected and how the results would bebeneficial to the participants

Questionnaire design

After the first draft of the questionnaire had been completed, 5 students, whowere first-year non-English majored students at the university, but not the research’ssamples, were chosen to pilot it The results from the pilot process helped theresearchers refine the questionnaire

Because the samples were 93 first-year non-English majored students at theuniversity, who were not specialized at English, it would be possible for them tomisunderstand the meaning or feel discouraged if the questionnaire was in English

As a result, the questionnaire was designed in Vietnamese The researchers used bothclosed questions and open-ended questions The close questions allowed analyzingthe data conveniently And the open-ended questions gave respondents the freedom

to express their own ideas and gave researchers the opportunity to collect a variety ofinformation

Thanks to the questionnaire, the researcher could explore students’ perception

on using English as medium of instruction in EFL classes as well as find out somefactors relating to student participants which affected the use of English as medium ofinstruction to teach them English Last but not least, as being students who directlytook part in the EFL classes, participant students were also able to raise somesuggestions and implications to improve the use of English as medium of instruction

Students’ perception of using English as medium of 2,3,4,5,6,8instruction in EFL classes

Factors affecting the use of English as medium of 1, 7instruction in EFL classes

Table 2.1: Classification of the items in the questionnaire

2.3.2 Semi-structured interview

Justification

Unlike structured interview in which researchers usually ask an identical set ofquestions of all respondents, researchers in semi-structured one use a written list ofquestions as a guide (Mackey & Gass, 2005) On the same topic, according to Case(1990), semi-structured interview is the interview conducted with a fairly openframework which contains more general questions in comparison with structureddesign and those questions are often made during the interview Eric (1995) sharedthe same viewpoint by noting that semi-structured interview got a general structurebeforehand because detailed structure would be worked out during the procedure.Generally speaking, a semi-structured interview is flexible with no formalizedquestions

It was suitable for a small number of participants, so semi-structured interviewwas conducted with two teacher-participants at different times The researchers wereable to discover the teacher participants’ perception on the issue of using English asthe medium of instructions in EFL classes, which factors might affect the application

of English as medium of instruction for the first year non-English majored students,and useful suggestions raised as the role of EFL teachers

This type of interview allowed for focused, conversational, two-waycommunication (Case, 1990) Greater flexibility and more extensive responses wasallowed because the researcher could change the order of the questions as well as askquestions back, ask further related questions to get more information from theinterviewees The researchers – the interviewers – remained the ones who decided thedirections of the interview but with more freedom and activeness Similarly, theinterviewees were considerably free to choose what to talk about, how much to sayand how to express it It helped the researchers to understand thoroughly the answersprovided by interviewees (Harrell & Bradley, 2009)

Nevertheless, interview method possibly had certain drawbacks It mightinvolve memory loss from both interviewer and interviewee Participants’ attitude

and emotion could also impact what they said (Mackey & Gass, 2005) Therefore, the

researcher tried to make the interviewee comfortable by conducting the interview in afamiliar place - in the classroom after class hour, and encourage open-ended

discussion during the interviews The two interviews were all recorded from thebeginning to the end, which had been expected to be useful for the researchers indeciding the trustworthiness of the answers

Interview question design

The instruments were constructed based on the research questions Firstly, theresearchers found the indicators of each question and then made question(s) for eachindicator Each indicator may have one or more questions

What are the teachers’ See if - Preferable MOI 2,3,4,6,8perceptions of using English - The cases in which teacher

English as medium of should be should apply English as MOI

instruction (MOI) in used as - The advantages and

EFL classes for the MOI disadvantages of using English as

first year non-English perceived MOI

majored students? by - The effectiveness of using

teachers English as MOI

What factors hinder Consider - Students’ English proficiency, 1,5,7the use of English as both motivation and learning styles

MOI in EFL classes personal - Teachers’ linguistic knowledge,

for the first year non- and teaching skills and background

English majored outside knowledge

students? factors - The suitability of syllabus,

textbook and required materials

- Other factors

Implications and Strategies - By help from teachers 9suggestions to - By students themselves

improvethe use ofEnglish

Observation was considered helpful as providing the researcher with “theopportunity to collect large amounts of rich data on the participants’ behaviors andactions within a particular context” (Mackey & Gass, 2005, p.175) In other words,this method allowed the researcher to collect data at the place and time differentevents and activities were occurring, directly see what participants did rather thanrelying on what they said they did It provided a chance to learn things thatparticipants might be unwilling to mention in questionnaires or to discuss ininterviews The collected data was helpful for the researcher to double check theresults from the questionnaires and semi-structured interviews

Apart from the suitability of observation method for the research, theresearcher cared for the “observer’s paradox” (Labov, cited in Mackey & Gass,2005) It means that the presence of observer might influence the performance ofthose being observed To minimize this threat, the researcher decided to sit down atthe end of the class not to distract the participants Additionally, with twoobservations per class, the participants were expected to get accustomed to theobserver’s presence and the researcher was also able to compare and contrast the datacollected from the two.

Observation feature design

Medium of instruction in use English or VietnameseFactual situation of using When teachers use English as MOIEnglish as MOI The way teachers check students’ understanding

The way teachers explain when students do notunderstand

Reactions of studentsTeacher talk timeGrading language

Table 2.3: Classification of items in observation checklist

2.4 Data collection procedure

Inteview andPreparation Agree access Observation questionnaire

Figure 2.1: Procedure of data collection

The procedure of collecting data consisted of four main steps listed as follows

28

Step 1: Preparation

The researcher designed questionnaires, interview questions and observationchecklists based on the research questions Firstly, indicators for each researchquestion were found, and then detailed questions in each instrument for eachindicator were created

Step 2: Agree access to the respondents

The researcher contacted with the teachers and students beforehand to get theirconsent and make appointments Audio-recording must have been allowed by bothteachers and students as well Basing on the available time of teachers and timetable

of the classes, schedule was organized suitably

Step 3: Data collection with interview and questionnaire

According to the appointment, the researcher interviewed the teachers Duringthe interviews, note-taking and audio-recording was used Questionnaires for studentswere also distributed and collected Instructions to the ways of completing thequestionnaire were carefully given before the process Questionnaire distribution andinterview were taken place one week before observation

Step 4: Data collection with observation

Basing on the general results received from the interview and questionnaireprocedure, observation checklist was revised in some points Then the researcherspent time observing classes with the support of observation checklist, note-takingand audio-recording

2.5 Data analysis methods

Questionnaires, interview notes and recordings, and observation checklists andrecordings were used for analysis as the primary source of data In this stage, twoanalysis methods, quantitative and qualitative methods were applied to make sense ofthe findings

2.5.1 Quantitative Analysis Strategy

Prepare data Report statistics Visualize data

Figure 2.2: Data from questionnaire analysis procedure

Step 1: Prepare the data

Some essential elements needed checking included the completeness of thecollected questionnaires, the consistence of each questions as well as the givenanswers, and the understandability as well as the validity of the answers

Step 2: Report the statistics

The information obtained from questionnaires was expressed in numericalform In details, the researcher listed out, counted and grouped the number of similarresponses The statistics were reported by frequency distribution and measures ofcentral tendency

Step 3: Visualize collected data

The data were converted into charts and graphs to be logical and followed

easy-2.5.2 Qualitative Analysis Strategy

Step 2: Code/ Conceptualize

After that, the data supposed to be relevant and supportive were selected andcoded/ conceptualized The aim of this step was to link specific quotes to analytic